Hyderabad: Eurocentric theorisations limit the scopes of understanding real meanings of texts in the Asian literature or any non-European literary works, observes Prof. Rebecca Ruth Gould at Biennial International Conference of Comparative Literature Association of India (CLAI) in Hyderabad on Monday. The conference is jointly organized by CLAI and Department of English, MANUU.
Speaking on ‘Multilingualism as a Stimulus to Islamic Literary Theory’ in the four-day conference in Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Prof. Gould said that there had been established philosophical frameworks in Asia, especially in the Islamic literary world.
Addressing scholars of comparative literature at the conference on the theme ‘Studying South Asian Narratives through Pluralist and Dialogic Frames’, Nalanda University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunaina Singh advised them to come up with their own theoretical frameworks instead of struggling with Western models. She was guest of honour for the inaugural session.
CLAI president Prof. E.V. Ramakrishnan noted that comparative literature as a discipline was in the process of transformation. He hailed Shamsur Rahman Faruqi for his contribution to Indian poetics and Urdu literature.
He also highlighted the significance of framing a question in post-truth era and recommended thinking over the questions of aesthetic and epistemological decent.
While presenting the organizational report, Prof. Chandra Mohan, General Secretary of CLAI, mentioned that CLAI had done wonder in the field of publication and also got a chair in the USA for Macau.
The inaugural session of the conference was presided over by Dr. Mohammad Aslam Parvaiz, vice chancellor of MANUU. He expressed delight on the selection of the theme and spoke about pluralism within the university and beyond.
The inaugural session was held in CPDUMT Auditorium.