ON THE ROAD: WRITING TRAVEL AND TRAVELLERS

6-8 November 2008
CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY IN ENGLISH
JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY
K.P. Basu Memorial Hall, Engineering Science Building
& Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall, Undergraduate Arts Building
(Registration and all plenary sessions in K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)


6 November 2008

10 -10.30 Registration
10.30-11 Welcome address
11-11.45 Session 1 (Plenary: K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Stephen Muecke (Transforming Cultures Centre, University of Technology, Sydney), Travel Writing: Postcolonial Writing Strategies
Chair: Sukanta Chaudhuri
11.45-12 Tea
12-1:15 Session 2 (Plenary: K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Graham Shaw (British Library), The 'Other' Gazes Back
Supriya Chaudhuri (Jadavpur University), India Recognita: The Travels of Niccolo de' Conti
Chair: Sarbani Chaudhuri
1.15-2.15 Lunch
2.15-3.20 Session 3 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Andrew Elliott (Kyoto University) Shooting and Survival of the Fittest in Henry Craven's Saint John's Notes and Sketches from the Wild Coasts of Nipon
Dhrubajyoti Sarkar (Vidyasagar College, Nabadwip) A Jetsetter's Pilgrimage: Pico Iyer's Four Seasons in Kyoto
Chair: Abhijit Mukherjee
2.15-3.20 Session 4 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Paromita Chakraborti (Jadavpur University), Madness and Mobility in the Early Modern Age
Sonia Sahoo (Jadavpur University), ‘Walking-Morts and Upright Men’: Reading Harman’s Caveat as Anti-Travel Literature 
Chair: Shantanu Biswas
3.20-3.40 Coffee
4-5.15 Session 5 (K.P Basu Memorial Hall)
Ahona Panda (Jadavpur University), A Journey to Africa: Exploring colonial identity in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Chander Pahar
Bimbabati Sen and Suchismita Basu (Jadavpur University), Deshe Bideshe: The Musafir Syed Mujtaba Ali
Diganta Bhattacharya (Jadavpur University), Project Cook
Chair: Prodosh Bhattacharya
4-5.45 Session 6 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Trina Nilina Banerjee (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta), Journeys of No Return: Exile and Travel in the Films of Ritwik Ghatak
Akshya Saxena and Vebhuti (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Unpacking 'Metro'-geneites: The Delhi Metro and the Daily Commuter
Avishek Ray (Jadavpur University), The Aporia in Representation and the Economy of Romanticization: Dichotomy in Vagabondage as Shown in Some Popular Films
Parichay Patra (Jadavpur University), Defining the Nation: Travelling through Nation
Chair: Madhuja Mukherjee

7 November 2008

10.30-11.40 Session 7 (Plenary: K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Sacchidananda Mohanty (University of Hyderabad), Travel, Hybridity and Counter-Memory: William Dalrymple's In Xanadu: A Quest
Radhika Seshan (Pune University), Of Fabled Lands and Fabulous Wealth: Travel Accounts from the 14th-18th Centuries
Chair: Malabika Sarkar
1140-12 Tea
12-1.15 Session 8 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Sukanya Dasgupta (Loreto College, Calcutta), An 'Englishman' in Seventeenth Century Russia: Guy Miege and the Writings of Identity
Rafat Ali (Jadavpur University), Crusade, Commerce and Co-existence with the Saracens in The Book of John Mandeville.
Chair: Supriya Chaudhuri
Session 9 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Jeanine Diego Medina (Instituto De Estudios Críticos, Mexico City), Mysteries of Faith and the System
Nilanjana Deb (Jadavpur University), ‘Land as Shrine, Lakes as Scripture’: Travel as Spiritual Quest in Books and Visions in Ojibwe Country
Chair: TBA
1.15-2.15 Lunch
2.15-4 Session 10 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Arun Gupto (Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu), Tirtha Package and Trekking Baggage: Journey into Natural Spaces through Maoist Checkposts
Nandana Dutta (Gauhati University), Nineteenth Century Travel Culture and Ideas of Modernity: John Butler's Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam
- Arnab Dasgupta and Vaibhav Parel (University of Delhi), Expanding the Frontier: Travel Writing and Knowledge Generation in Early-Colonial Assam
- Chair: Samantak Das
Session 11 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Louise Harrington (School of Oriental and African Studies, London), Travelling without Moving: The Existence of Place in The Shadow Lines and A Golden Age
Samrat Sengupta (University of Kalyani), Until They Think Warm Days Will Never Cease: How Journey Supplants Diaspora in Sea of Poppies
Dhrubajyoti Banerjee (New Alipore College, Kolkata), Travelling Through a ‘World Which is Intrinsically Displaced’: Ghosh’s In an Antique Land
Chair: Shanta Datta
4-4.15 Tea
4.15-5.30 Session 12 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Sneha Kar-Chaudhuri (Jadavpur University) ‘Our History is Truly Broken’: Slave-ocracy and Caryl Phillips's Travel Text The Atlantic Sound
Ramit Samaddar (Jadavpur University), In an Antique Land: Amelia Edwards's A Thousand Miles up the Nile
Ayushman Chakraborty (Jadavpur University), Oriental Annuals: Travel, Culture and Politics
Chair: Sobha Chattopadhyay
4.15-5.30 Session 13 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Abhishek Sarkar (Jadavpur University), Kemp's Nine Days' Wonder: Travelling Performance, Performing Travel
Subhadeep Paul (Jadavpur University), Not Tired Of Tyres: The Culture of Uncertainty and the Uncertainty Of Culture(s) In ‘Che’ Guevera’s The Motorcycle Diaries
Uttaran Dasgupta (Jadavpur University), Escape from ‘Civilization’: Travelling Through The Americas With Guevara And Kerouac
Chair: Rimi B. Chatterjee

8 November 2008

10.30-11.40 Session 14 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Catherine Watson (Travel Writer and Independent Scholar), ‘A Tale Told by a Stranger’: Examining the Bond Between Writer and Audience In Contemporary American Travel Writing
Alexis Tadie (University of Paris VII-Denis Diderot), Is a Theory of Travel Writing Possible?
Chair: Stephen Muecke
1140-12 Tea
12-1.15
Session 15 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Vishnupriya Sengupta (Independent Scholar), Out of Africa: V.S. Naipaul's Journeys Without Maps
Sreemati Mukherjee (Basanti Devi College, Calcutta), The Aesthetics of Otherness in V.S. Naipaul's India: A Million Mutinies Now
Chair: Nilanjana Deb
Session 16 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Sudev Pratim Basu (Visva-Bharati University), ‘The Unholy Entente’: Race and White Hunting in British India
Sumita Banerjee (Loreto College, Calcutta), Hearing the Earth Speak: On the Green Trails of Women Wanderers
Chair: Sheila Lahiri-Choudhury
1.15-2.15 Lunch
2.15-4 Session 18 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Amrit Sen (Visva-Bharati University), The Travels of a Scientist: Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray and his Life and Experiences of a Bengali Chemist (1932)
Sipra Mukherjee (Bhairab Ganguly College, Calcutta), The Road Back: the 'Preaching' Tours of Rev. Lal Behari Day
Arpa Ghosh (Vivekananda College for Women, Calcutta), Sharatchandra and Kalkut (Samaresh Basu): Travel as a Mode of Fashioning Bengali Identity
Chair: Abhijit Gupta
Session 19 (Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall)
Sreenath Muraleedharan K (University of Hyderabad), Vartam?mapustakam
Abir Lal Mitra (Jadavpur University, Kolkata), A Precolonial Encounter with the Church of the East in India: The Topographia Christiana of Cosmas Indicopleustes
Nilanjan Das (Jadavpur University, Kolkata), Two Senses of ‘Tirtha’
Chair: Amlan Dasgupta
4- 4.15 : Tea
4.15-5.15 Session 20 (K.P. Basu Memorial Hall)
Wes Williams (St Edmund Hall, Oxford), Companions and Others: Cross-Cultural Connections in Early Modern Pilgrimage
Jayati Gupta (Presidency College, Calcutta), Aesthetics and Religiosity in Pilgrimage Texts
Chair: Sajni Mukherjee
5.15-5.30 VALEDICTORY