Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Mar 30: The English department of Milagres College Kallianpur organized a two-day UGC sponsored national seminar on ‘Postcolonialism’ and ‘Twenty First Century’. The seminar began on Thursday March 30 at the audio-visual room of the college.
English professor R Shashidhar, Mangaluru University in his keynote address said, "Postcolonialism has three kinds of concepts namely archaeology (discourse of knowledge), genealogy (modulation of history for understanding) and a text or deconstruction of history. The concept of ‘Hinduism’ was created by the British through comparisons between Christian and Hindu cultures. Indian postcolonialism is passive and needs to be questioned in order to be activated. On literature alone, many experiments have been conducted in regional languages. Postcolonialism is not restricted to one period alone, but is a continuous process."
Fr Dr Lawrence C D’Souza, secretary, Catholic Education Society of Udupi (CESU) in his presidential address conveyed, "Postcolonialism is continuous with a very hard impact. One must be a lifelong learner. A teacher is always a learner so teachers make use of its benefits first. After that, students acquire knowledge. Keeping alive English literature and holding its interest for a long time is today’s tough challenge."
Fr Dr Prakash Anil Castelino, campus director was present here.
The debate on 'Postcolonialism' explores the experience of imperialism of nearly three centuries that includes colonialism as well as neocolonialism of the late 20th century and the geo-political regions of India, Latin America, Africa, Antarctica and Europe, especially England. This experience is mainly related to external control and economic exploitation of the native people and their land by the colonists. Postcolonial literature focuses on the aesthetic culture with its grounding in historical, social, economic and political reality. At present the reading and writing of literature has entered the neocolonial phase with new expectations, anxieties and alternatives. There is need to understand this transition of literary aspirations in neo-colonialism. The seminar will try to throw more light on the various aspects of postcolonial literature, especially in the context of Twenty-First Century. Greater concentration on Indian writers may help us to percolate the theme of the seminar more effectively.
Paper presentations titled Neocolonialism and its impact, New literary forms of 21st century, Requiem for postmodernism — too early or already done, Literature from the margins, Diaspora, postcolonialsim and literature, Literature of the metropoli s, The poetics of neocolonial literature, Postcolonialism, nation and literature, Politics and literature, Demonetization and neocolonialism have subthemes.
On Thursday March 30 two sessions will be held.
Dr Robert Jose associate professor, Bellary University and Dr Dattatreya M associate professor, Kuvempu University will hold a paper presentation on different topics.
On Friday March 31, professor Chitra Panikkar, department of English, Bangalore University will present a paper on the topic 'Will the Same Old Terms Suffice, Palestinian Experiences in Literature’. Dr N S Gundur, associate professor, Tumkur University will present a topic on ‘Taming Another Beast: literary studies in the age Of hyper reality’.
Dr Vincent Alwa delivered the introductory remarks.
The college principal, Dr Gerald Pinto florally welcomed the guest. Professor Cyril Mathias HOD English department proposed the vote of thanks.
The seminar marked the year's golden jubilee of the college and is the last programme for this academic year.