Tuesday 23 April 2019

National Seminar on Books and Reading 2019 @ UoM - A Report

An amazing conclave of excellence it really was! with a delightful rendezvous of bibliophiles of all hues from all over India having gathered together on the occasion of  World Book Day, 23 April 2019.

Writer Imayam speaks
The Department of English, University of Madras, had the pride, the prestige and the privilege of organising a unique and one-of-its-kind National Seminar on “Books and Reading” on 23rd April, 2019, to commemorate the occasion of World Book Day.

The occasion was also meant to be a remembrance of the legendary playwright William Shakespeare [the Bard] on his birthday.

Eminent speakers included Ms. Mini Krishnan (Translations Editor – Oxford University Press, Chennai), Mr. Andrew Collister (Second Secretary and Vice-Consul, Australian Consulate, Chennai), Mr. Imayam (Tamil Writer) and Mr. G. Olivannan (CEO, Emerald Publishers, Chennai).

Inaugurating the seminar, Dr. S. Armstrong, Head of the Department of English, University of Madras, spoke at length on the importance of books and libraries. He made a call to students to go beyond the reach and the confines of the curriculum, and also emphasized on the need to acknowledge the vibrant custodians guardians of our knowledge systems, the librarians!

Dr. S. Armstrong, Inaugurating the Seminar

Dr. Armstrong reviewed the latest book by Australian Aboriginal writer Anita Heiss titled, Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. "To the natives, the contrived curricula in the school system presented to them was grossly unfair and highly misplaced. This is because the native knowledge far surpasses the bookish knowledge given to them through the educational system," he observed.

He also focused on the importance of epistemology to the natives. ‘Epistemology is inbuilt amongst the natives’ he observed, and added that, ‘there’s a school inbuilt in their way of life’ that outclasses any colonial schooling system as such! He also elucidated extensively on the concepts of assimilation and displacement and also highlighted on the plethora of books available on the ‘Growing Up’ series, on the transition between the Aboriginal past and their present, on the ‘sting of humiliation’ and the ‘boot of discrimination’, on the theme of Memory studies, on Anti-stereotyping, on the hardships of living in the bush, on the sense of extended family, and on the theme of survival with respect to Australian Aboriginal literature.

Mr. Roshan Tony being honoured by the Vice-Consul, Australian Consulate

Mr. Roshan Tony, II MA English, Madras Christian College, got a citation and a cash award of Rs. 5000/- from Mr. Andrew Collister (Second Secretary and Vice-Consul, Australian Consulate, Chennai), and a honour-shawl from Dr. S. Armstrong, in appreciation of his passion for books and reading, and for presenting papers in more than five conferences this past year. Dr. Meena Kumari, Dr. Supala Pandiarajan and a host of other professors were there on the dais to honour him on the occasion.

Ms. Mini Krishnan highlighted the importance of translations of Indian regional literature and their place in academia.

Excerpts from her speech –

Dear Book-Friends Dear Prof Armstrong,

Thank you very much for inviting me to participate today. A rare honour for a publisher because I am neither a writer nor a researcher but something in between; with the help of both these categories, I try to shape reading tastes and preferences, catering to emerging trends and supporting what academia engages with.

I am privileged to be on the same platform as Annamalai Imayam one of our greatest living and writers and Andrew Collister Australia’s cultural and political voice in Chennai. It is fitting that these forces appear together on WBD because we are facilitators of an understanding of the world, and we promote the sharing of stories in some sort of universal space which both foregrounds and transcends the personal. In 2014 I anchored a session on marginalized writers from India and Australia at the Bangalore Literature Festival. The visitors from Oz were Dylan Coleman, Jeanine Leane and you know what their primary worry was? That they were losing their languages. There were at least two generations that couldn’t speak their Aboriginal languages and they had set up schools to revive them but more of that later…

For those of us who live by the printed word, really, every day is Book Day but it is fitting that we honour the date of birth of the man who never went to University never specialized in the classics, but who knew how to access them partially through translation and entertain the average person; and this he did with great power and authority if I might be allowed to use Biblical language.

A reference to the Bible naturally brings me to one of the major influences we see in Shakespeare’s language. Translations into English of the Hebrew and Greek Old Testament and New Testaments. John Wycliffe (14th century) and William Tyndale ( 1520)  were widely read in Shakespeare’s lifetime. Did Shakespeare read languages other than English? : he knew Ovid and Plutarch – but did he read the originals or translations? We know he used modern French and Italian works. He read books on law, medicine, folklore, alchemy, astrology, and much much else.

Shakespeare proved that language is a social energy like coal and oil are natural energies. Our capacity for articulation and writing and thinking has set us apart from other species. We not as fast as cheetas or horses. We not as strong as bulls. We are not as adaptable as bacteria but our brains are equipped with the facility to produce and process speech and abstract thought. For at least 80,000 years language has enabled the sharing of ideas. Our relationship with our own language and with other languages builds and archeology of human experience.

I am very glad that the day is going to be filled with students reviewing important books but I cannot understand why no translations of Indian writing have  not found a place in today s deliberations. We have our own literary culture our own literary eco-system and I would have been very happy if 50% of the reviews today had honoured that fact. English the visitor language is very important but it cannot replace your mother tongue. Writers too have their home team and our home team is our nation. Writers reflect the nation back to itself, from the inside.

And this is the central message of my address: the importance of Translation in our lives, not just on WBD. Have you watched a film called Bend it like Beckham? Well, we have done that with English. Here is an excerpt. Tell me if you can hear the rhythm of Tamil behind the English!

The Bus to Aaladi

“Just move up a little,” said the woman from Vadakkiruppu.

“That’s someone’s seat. They’ll come now,” said Priyanka.

“When they come I’ll get up. Now move up.”

“They’ve gone to the shop. Be back now.”

“Is this bus your family property, or what?”

“It’s the government’s.”

“Then what’s the problem? Move up.”

“It’s someone’s seat, they’ll be coming – how many times do I have to tell you? Find another seat.”

“Let them come. You move up. Or move out of the way!” The woman spoke with some force. She was from the cluster of huts to the north of Priyanka’s own village.  . 

Priyanka was sitting in a space meant for two people. A handbag lay on the seat next to the window. When the northerner told her to move, she had at once taken hold of the bar above the seat aheadwith both hands.  Only if she removed her arms could anyone go past her.  The woman tried to push away those arms. It was no use. Priyanka wasn’t loosening her grip even a little.

“You’re going to which place?” demanded the woman.

“Aaladi.” Priyanka was curt.

“All the way to Vadakkiruppu I have to go! Can’t keep on standing so long.  In this whole crowd  it’s only you who’s just four stops from your place, isn’t it? So why can’t you shift a bit and sit over there?” said the woman.

“Is there no other place in the bus?”

“If there was why would I come and hang on you?”

The Vadakkiruppu woman’s angry question fell on deaf ears. Deliberately looking away from her, Priyanka stared out of the bus.

I will close with a word about teaching and mentoring because we are meeting in that environment. You students are fortunate because you have people who can not only guide you in your reading but also discuss your responses to what you have read. Look at the great chance you ve been given : to publicly assess and share your views on milestone works. Reading well is best pursued as an implicit discipline because finally there is no method but yours.

Thank you very much
Mini Krishnan

Mr. Andrew Collister then spoke on the significance of books in understanding cultures and building international relations between countries. Noting how World Book Day is an occasion when society recognizes writers, Mr. Imayam argued that literature serves as an eye to perceive society. To him, a language is a person’s identity, as it carries one’s culture and history along with it. He observed that, if a person’s language is destroyed, the entire culture and history associated with it also gets erased.

About 25 faculty members, research scholars and students from across India presented reviews on books from Australia, India, New Zealand, Canada and Nigeria. They also presented reviews of books from the Language Centre of the London School of Economics. Two students presented papers on The Times Literary Supplement. (Reviews by Presenters will be discussed on a separate post! Keep watching this space!)

The programme ended with a wonderful valedictory address by Mr. G. Olivannan the CEO of Emarald publishers. Mr. Olivannan highlighted how digital Literature was once a threat to book publications. He also stressed on how book sales increased despite the pressures of such changes in medium. He requested writers to record through their writings how to bring about a change in society. He wanted the writers to be the game changers like how it used to be in the past. He also added to say that, we learnt a lot from books, about a society’s culture, their civilization, their language etc. which we have to pass on through books.

[Thank you Prof. Angeline for the snaps, and Prof. Rasheeda for the wonderful write-up on the Valedictory!]

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