Travelling Texts

Shantanu Majee (Dr.), Associate Professor in the Department of English at Techno India University, West Bengal, received his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century Studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has published his research extensively and has contributed to Digital Humanities through his engagement as Project Fellow in the collaborative project between the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University and the British Library, United Kingdom, on ‘Digitization of South Asian Archival Resources’, funded by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), Mumbai. He has received the artVarta Publishing Grant 2021, offered by Akar Prakar Art Gallery, New Delhi to curate a Virtual Exhibition of River Songs Sung by Women in the Hindustani Tradition, entitled ‘Song of the River: Curating Music, Memory and Modernity’. He has also published a module entitled ‘UVC in India: Case Study of JUDE’ for Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom initiative and has been working on BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press at the One More Voice project. He is currently editing a special issue on ‘Archiving Sound: A Study in Listening’ and contributes to a MOOC project on Modern Indian Writing in English Translation.K. Subramanyam (Dr.) is an early career academician from Indore, currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies from Pondicherry Central University in 2018. His research interests lie in Drug Literature, Nineteenth Century Studies, Francophone Literatures, Gothic Studies, Psychedelic Studies, Nineteenth Century Literature and Anthropocene, Translation Studies. He has recently published with Vernon Press on Anne Bronte Anthology entitled ‘A Vain Talent? The Question of Female Artistry in the Life and Work of Anne Bronte’ and Jadavpur University Essays and Studies (JUES).

“This book is a timely contribution to the study of translation into the languages of the Indian subcontinent. The broad range of languages, cultures and text types discussed here paint a fascinating picture of the important role of translations in literary history.”Susan Bassnett FRSL, FILProfessor of Comparative Literature, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow, UKProfessor Emerita of Comparative Literature, University of Warwick, UKPresident, British Comparative Literature Association“This book is a rich array of essays focussing upon an extremely important question- which things form us and make us who we are. By tracing our textual genealogies across cultures, the book shows us that origins are a myth and that translation is not only a linguistic act; but one that encapsulates being from elsewhere and going somewhere. The essays are rigorous and rich and the languages and subjects in this book varied. I recommend this book to all scholars of literary and translation studies.”Rita KothariProfessor (English)Co-Director, Centre for Translation StudiesAshoka University, India“This book provides detailed insights into the colonial and postcolonial history of translation and reception of European literature in South Asian languages. While the main focus is on Bengali and Assamese, it also includes many glimpses into Nepali, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Santali material. More than twenty contributors cover media ranging from comics and periodicals to books and Youtube videos, and look into the cultural dynamics translation either unleashed or was itself a result of.”Hans HarderProfessor of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany“This is a fascinating, rich and wide collection of essays about translated texts that covers a wide gamut thematically, geographically and chronologically. It covers classical and popular literature, and in keeping with contemporary times also includes YouTube. There is also a focus on Adivasi, feminist and queer texts adding to the richness of the material. And some of the essays also bring the reader to the centre stage.”Anchita GhatakAward-winning Translator and Independent Development Professional

• Introduction, 1 - Compilation of Dictionaries for Translation: Pursuits in Jaffna, Sri Lanka in the Nineteenth Century, 2 - Chasing Spectres: The Adventures of Vikram and Betal from Burton to Chandamama, 3 - Modernizing Nepal’s Education and Literary Systems through Euro-centric Translation: Special Focus on Nineteenth-Century European Literary Works in Nepali, 4 - Transcultural Translation: Exploring Linguistic and Cultural Hegemonies in Nineteenth Century translation of the Bible into Santali, 5 - Colonial Modernity and the Politics of Translation in 19th Century Assam: Exploring European Embodiments in Assamese Literary Movements, 6 - Romanising Colonial Assam: A Case Study of Transliteration, 7 - Traduttore, traditore: Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland in Assamese, 8 - Unsteady Texts and the Technologies of Translation: Jules Verne’s Curious Travels in Assam(ese), 9 - The Historian as Translator: Rajwade’s Contribution to Translation in the Nineteenth Century Maharashtra, 10 - Shakespeare in Telugu in the Nineteenth Century, 11 - Vocabularies of Desire”: Tracing the Queer Subject in Ram Swaroop Dubey’s Hindi Translation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, 12 - Narratives of Victorian Style Cooking: a Study of Hindi Subtitles of Popular YouTube Series The Victorian Way, 13 - Importing Texts and Purifying Popular Taste: Tracking the Translation Projects of the Calcutta School-Book Society and Vernacular Literature Society in Nineteenth Century Bengal, 14 - Sambhu Mitra’s Adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House travels to Bangladesh, 15 - European Wonder, Suspense and Thrills in the World of Bangla Children’s Literature, 16 - Transcultural Translation and Aesthetic Discourses: Twentieth-Century Bengali Poets’ Interpretation of Romantic and Victorian Poetry, 17 - Politics and Aesthetics of Translating Thomas Hardy into Bangla, 18 - Feminist Politics and Gendered Translation: Nineteenth Century European Women Writers Translated into Bengali, 19 - The Return of Dracula: Studying the Popular as Praxis in Bengali Popular Adaptations of Stoker’s Novel, 20 - Reading Robinson Crusoe in Bengal: Textual Transmission, Translation, and Authorship, 21 - An Improving World? Locating Samuel Smiles in 19th century Bengal