Amrita Sen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Amrita Sen
England's Asian Renaissance
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing, 2022
The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation, 2019
Global Shakespeares
There was a time when articles about Shakespeare were published around the globe, but few knew wh... more There was a time when articles about Shakespeare were published around the globe, but few knew where to find them all. Shakespeare studies thrived in non-Anglophone countries in the Global South: articles appeared in regional journals, institutional bulletins, and society newsletters, each of which might have a publication run of only a few dozen copies. This chapter traces the move from regionalized Shakespeare publication to truly global publication. It considers how online publishing (including open journal systems and open-access publishing), institutional repositories, and digital bibliography make research from around the Globe findable. This chapter examines how the World Shakespeare Bibliography participates in global Shakespeare studies by making multilingual criticism, editions, and performances searchable.
" (viii). This accounts for the juxtaposition of overtly postcolonial readings with essays which ... more " (viii). This accounts for the juxtaposition of overtly postcolonial readings with essays which apparently have little to do with empire. The editors triumphantly pronounce that "[t]he very interaction of speakers from so many countries lent a cosmopolitan dimension to the discourse; clearly, by contextualizing Shakespeare within so many cultures, they were extending rather than confining the range of his work" (viii). Such "cosmopolitan" overtures raise obvious questions while classifying the collection. Can Shakespeare without English be included within the realm of postcolonial studies? Or does the very exploration and expansion celebrated by the editors render it beyond the scope of postcolonial criticism? Not surprisingly, the editors see their collection as a response to Dennis Kennedy's pioneering edition on non-Anglophone receptions of the bard, entitled Foreign Shakespeare (1993). Kennedy in his introductory essay identified his edition as one of the first sustained investigations of Shakespeare performances outside the Anglo-American theater. It is easy to understand why Shakespeare without English would be eager to inscribe itself 243
South Asian Review, 2012
This essay examines how one seventeenth-century native wife, the unnamed daughter of Mubarak Shah... more This essay examines how one seventeenth-century native wife, the unnamed daughter of Mubarak Shah, one of Akbar's courtiers, entered the archives of the East India Company. Married to two different English factors, William Hawkins and Gabriel Towerson, she became a new investigative category for the Company directors in London as well as for the new English ambassador to Jahangir's court, Sir Thomas Roe. The debates surrounding Mubarak Shah's daughter provide an important insight into the East India Company's emergent discourse on race and profit. Simultaneously, the debates open up conflicting attitudes toward the taking of native spouses: their advantages and liabilities to Company merchants.
Abstract:The East India Company, one of the earliest joint-stock enterprises, helped revolutioniz... more Abstract:The East India Company, one of the earliest joint-stock enterprises, helped revolutionize English economic structures. Although recent years have seen a surge of interest in its early history, the native traders and translators who formed the front lines of the East India Company's operations—acquainting the English merchants with mercantile and social systems in Mughal India—often escape scholarly attention. Turning to Company court minutes, the letters of Sir Thomas Roe, and other public as well as private records, this paper explores the circuits of knowledge that were established between the English merchants and their Indian associates. As local informants, they aided in the Western construction of an Indian imaginary that often went beyond older epistemic stereotypes of Asians. Simultaneously, the Company became responsible for the well-being of these Indians. The complex relationships between Indian brokers, translators, and the Company suggest how gossip, trade,...
This essay examines the gendered and colonial implications of the Amboyna Massacre of 1623 and it... more This essay examines the gendered and colonial implications of the Amboyna Massacre of 1623 and it was played out in John Dryden's reconstruction of it almost fifty years later in his play Amboyna (1673). Written and performed during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dryden's play allows us to access the complex political rivalries that marked the Indian Ocean World during the early modern period. The English East India Company (EIC) and the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) were engaged in what we would recognize as the Spice Race - the struggle to control the lucrative spice producing regions in the Indian Ocean. Dryden dramatizes this race and its accompanying violence by resorting to well entrenched gendered tropes that accompanied colonial strategies.
Shakespeare Quarterly, 2018
Shakespeare Quarterly, 2016
viewers’ emotions to the plight of a good man, Brutus, who takes a courageous stand against power... more viewers’ emotions to the plight of a good man, Brutus, who takes a courageous stand against powerful forces. Our attention is drawn to Brutus’s decision not to kill Antony when he has the chance (before Antony turns the crowd against Brutus). Had Brutus put aside his principles for this, the republic, as depicted in Shakespeare’s play, might well have been saved. There hangs over Julius Caesar, in a way that draws pity and fear to the side of Brutus (the anti-monarchist), the paradox that has remained unresolved since Heraclitus pondered the monstrousness of the nomos: that the force that constitutes a legal regime—and remains at its crux— is always extralegal, outside the law. In short, it can be argued, contrary to Nussbaum, that Julius Caesar draws viewers’ emotions toward identifying sympathetically with an anti-monarchist. Furthermore, beyond the plot, the paradox just described draws viewers into active critical participation with the play. This is a viewer experience that strengthens potentials for republican virtù—and thus might be a problem for aspiring monarchs and tyrants, who require passive, unquestioning followers. It is perhaps no accident that this collection of essays, entitled Shakespeare and the Law, written by academics and judges with superlative institutional pedigrees— the introduction to which states the editors’ “eager[ness] to be as inclusive as possible in our disciplinary and professional reach” (6)—informs us several pages in, without explaining why, that a “‘critical legal studies’” approach “is not represented, except indirectly, in the present collection” (6).
Genre, 2015
While considering the many economic and personal relationships forged in the Indian Ocean during ... more While considering the many economic and personal relationships forged in the Indian Ocean during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the friendships and collaborations among European women and their counterparts in Mughal India often remain neglected. In reality these women traveled back and forth between continents, often alongside their husbands, and created new avenues of cultural dialogue and commercial exchange. In particular this essay will examine the interactions of three women: the Armenian Christian maiden later identified as Mariam Khan, who was chosen by the Mughal emperor Jahangir to become the wife of Captain William Hawkins of the East India Company, and two English women, Frances Steele and Mrs. Hudson. Soon after her husband's death on the voyage to England in 1613, Mariam married another East India Company employee, Captain Gabriel Towerson. After a few years in London, she set sail for India in 1617, this time accompanied by Steele and Hudson. Together they formed personal bonds of friendship that also had significant economic and cultural implications, as the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe discovered. Unlike company merchants, the English women were able to access the zenana quarters of Mughal India, and their acquaintance with Mariam possibly made it easier for them to build vital relationships with daughters and wives of Mughal officials. In so doing they secured privileges for themselves and their husbands, often countering the direct interests of the East India Company.
Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 2017
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Vishal Bharadwaj sets Maqbool (Kaleidoscope Productions, 2004), his adaptation of William Shakesp... more Vishal Bharadwaj sets Maqbool (Kaleidoscope Productions, 2004), his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, against the backdrop of Mumbai's underworld. Maqbool deftly blends the basic plot structure of Shakespeare's play with the increasingly popular genre of Bollywood gangland films. Bharadwaj's adaptation traces the rise and betrayal of Miya Maqbool (Macbeth), whose love interest, Nimmi, combines the ferocity of Lady Macbeth with the desperation and marginalization characteristic of female leads in Bollywood thrillers. Bharadwaj's film belongs to a long tradition of Shakespeare adaptations in India, both on stage and the silver screen. Echoes of Shakespearean dialogues in Bharadwaj's film co-exist with staple Bollywood song and dance sequences, creating a heady postcolonial mix. Maqbool, director Vishal Bharadwaj's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, opens with two corrupt cops, Purohit (Naseeruddin Shah) and Pandit (Om Puri), holed up inside...
England's Asian Renaissance
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing, 2022
The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation, 2019
Global Shakespeares
There was a time when articles about Shakespeare were published around the globe, but few knew wh... more There was a time when articles about Shakespeare were published around the globe, but few knew where to find them all. Shakespeare studies thrived in non-Anglophone countries in the Global South: articles appeared in regional journals, institutional bulletins, and society newsletters, each of which might have a publication run of only a few dozen copies. This chapter traces the move from regionalized Shakespeare publication to truly global publication. It considers how online publishing (including open journal systems and open-access publishing), institutional repositories, and digital bibliography make research from around the Globe findable. This chapter examines how the World Shakespeare Bibliography participates in global Shakespeare studies by making multilingual criticism, editions, and performances searchable.
" (viii). This accounts for the juxtaposition of overtly postcolonial readings with essays which ... more " (viii). This accounts for the juxtaposition of overtly postcolonial readings with essays which apparently have little to do with empire. The editors triumphantly pronounce that "[t]he very interaction of speakers from so many countries lent a cosmopolitan dimension to the discourse; clearly, by contextualizing Shakespeare within so many cultures, they were extending rather than confining the range of his work" (viii). Such "cosmopolitan" overtures raise obvious questions while classifying the collection. Can Shakespeare without English be included within the realm of postcolonial studies? Or does the very exploration and expansion celebrated by the editors render it beyond the scope of postcolonial criticism? Not surprisingly, the editors see their collection as a response to Dennis Kennedy's pioneering edition on non-Anglophone receptions of the bard, entitled Foreign Shakespeare (1993). Kennedy in his introductory essay identified his edition as one of the first sustained investigations of Shakespeare performances outside the Anglo-American theater. It is easy to understand why Shakespeare without English would be eager to inscribe itself 243
South Asian Review, 2012
This essay examines how one seventeenth-century native wife, the unnamed daughter of Mubarak Shah... more This essay examines how one seventeenth-century native wife, the unnamed daughter of Mubarak Shah, one of Akbar's courtiers, entered the archives of the East India Company. Married to two different English factors, William Hawkins and Gabriel Towerson, she became a new investigative category for the Company directors in London as well as for the new English ambassador to Jahangir's court, Sir Thomas Roe. The debates surrounding Mubarak Shah's daughter provide an important insight into the East India Company's emergent discourse on race and profit. Simultaneously, the debates open up conflicting attitudes toward the taking of native spouses: their advantages and liabilities to Company merchants.
Abstract:The East India Company, one of the earliest joint-stock enterprises, helped revolutioniz... more Abstract:The East India Company, one of the earliest joint-stock enterprises, helped revolutionize English economic structures. Although recent years have seen a surge of interest in its early history, the native traders and translators who formed the front lines of the East India Company's operations—acquainting the English merchants with mercantile and social systems in Mughal India—often escape scholarly attention. Turning to Company court minutes, the letters of Sir Thomas Roe, and other public as well as private records, this paper explores the circuits of knowledge that were established between the English merchants and their Indian associates. As local informants, they aided in the Western construction of an Indian imaginary that often went beyond older epistemic stereotypes of Asians. Simultaneously, the Company became responsible for the well-being of these Indians. The complex relationships between Indian brokers, translators, and the Company suggest how gossip, trade,...
This essay examines the gendered and colonial implications of the Amboyna Massacre of 1623 and it... more This essay examines the gendered and colonial implications of the Amboyna Massacre of 1623 and it was played out in John Dryden's reconstruction of it almost fifty years later in his play Amboyna (1673). Written and performed during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dryden's play allows us to access the complex political rivalries that marked the Indian Ocean World during the early modern period. The English East India Company (EIC) and the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) were engaged in what we would recognize as the Spice Race - the struggle to control the lucrative spice producing regions in the Indian Ocean. Dryden dramatizes this race and its accompanying violence by resorting to well entrenched gendered tropes that accompanied colonial strategies.
Shakespeare Quarterly, 2018
Shakespeare Quarterly, 2016
viewers’ emotions to the plight of a good man, Brutus, who takes a courageous stand against power... more viewers’ emotions to the plight of a good man, Brutus, who takes a courageous stand against powerful forces. Our attention is drawn to Brutus’s decision not to kill Antony when he has the chance (before Antony turns the crowd against Brutus). Had Brutus put aside his principles for this, the republic, as depicted in Shakespeare’s play, might well have been saved. There hangs over Julius Caesar, in a way that draws pity and fear to the side of Brutus (the anti-monarchist), the paradox that has remained unresolved since Heraclitus pondered the monstrousness of the nomos: that the force that constitutes a legal regime—and remains at its crux— is always extralegal, outside the law. In short, it can be argued, contrary to Nussbaum, that Julius Caesar draws viewers’ emotions toward identifying sympathetically with an anti-monarchist. Furthermore, beyond the plot, the paradox just described draws viewers into active critical participation with the play. This is a viewer experience that strengthens potentials for republican virtù—and thus might be a problem for aspiring monarchs and tyrants, who require passive, unquestioning followers. It is perhaps no accident that this collection of essays, entitled Shakespeare and the Law, written by academics and judges with superlative institutional pedigrees— the introduction to which states the editors’ “eager[ness] to be as inclusive as possible in our disciplinary and professional reach” (6)—informs us several pages in, without explaining why, that a “‘critical legal studies’” approach “is not represented, except indirectly, in the present collection” (6).
Genre, 2015
While considering the many economic and personal relationships forged in the Indian Ocean during ... more While considering the many economic and personal relationships forged in the Indian Ocean during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the friendships and collaborations among European women and their counterparts in Mughal India often remain neglected. In reality these women traveled back and forth between continents, often alongside their husbands, and created new avenues of cultural dialogue and commercial exchange. In particular this essay will examine the interactions of three women: the Armenian Christian maiden later identified as Mariam Khan, who was chosen by the Mughal emperor Jahangir to become the wife of Captain William Hawkins of the East India Company, and two English women, Frances Steele and Mrs. Hudson. Soon after her husband's death on the voyage to England in 1613, Mariam married another East India Company employee, Captain Gabriel Towerson. After a few years in London, she set sail for India in 1617, this time accompanied by Steele and Hudson. Together they formed personal bonds of friendship that also had significant economic and cultural implications, as the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe discovered. Unlike company merchants, the English women were able to access the zenana quarters of Mughal India, and their acquaintance with Mariam possibly made it easier for them to build vital relationships with daughters and wives of Mughal officials. In so doing they secured privileges for themselves and their husbands, often countering the direct interests of the East India Company.
Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 2017
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Vishal Bharadwaj sets Maqbool (Kaleidoscope Productions, 2004), his adaptation of William Shakesp... more Vishal Bharadwaj sets Maqbool (Kaleidoscope Productions, 2004), his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, against the backdrop of Mumbai's underworld. Maqbool deftly blends the basic plot structure of Shakespeare's play with the increasingly popular genre of Bollywood gangland films. Bharadwaj's adaptation traces the rise and betrayal of Miya Maqbool (Macbeth), whose love interest, Nimmi, combines the ferocity of Lady Macbeth with the desperation and marginalization characteristic of female leads in Bollywood thrillers. Bharadwaj's film belongs to a long tradition of Shakespeare adaptations in India, both on stage and the silver screen. Echoes of Shakespearean dialogues in Bharadwaj's film co-exist with staple Bollywood song and dance sequences, creating a heady postcolonial mix. Maqbool, director Vishal Bharadwaj's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, opens with two corrupt cops, Purohit (Naseeruddin Shah) and Pandit (Om Puri), holed up inside...
Digital Shakespeares from the Global South re-directs current conversations on digital appropriat... more Digital Shakespeares from the Global South re-directs current conversations on digital appropriations of Shakespeare away from its Anglo-American bias. The individual essays examine digital Shakespeares from South Africa, India, and Latin America, addressing questions of accessibility and the digital divide. This book will be of interest to students and academics working on Shakespeare, adaptation studies, digital humanities, and media studies.
Routledge UK, 2020
co-edited with J. Caitlin Finlayson (Associate Professor of English Literature at the University ... more co-edited with J. Caitlin Finlayson (Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Michigan-Dearborn)
Alternative Histories of the East India Company, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 17.3 ... more Alternative Histories of the East India Company, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, 17.3 (Summer 2017).
Editors' Introduction, Julia Schleck & Amrita Sen
1. Writing East India Company History after the Cultural Turn: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Seventeenth-Century EIC and VOC,
Guido van Meersbergen
2. Searching for the Indian in the English East India Company Archives: the case of Jadow the broker and early seventeenth-century Anglo-Mughal trade, Amrita Sen
3. The linguistic world of the early English East India Company: A study of the English factory in Japan, 1613–1623, Samuli Kaislaniemi
4. The Marital Problems of the East India Company, Julia Schleck
5. Response-- Seeing (and Not Seeing) like a Company-State:
Hybridity, Heterotopia, Historiography, Philip J. Stern
6. Afterword-- The local and global East India Company, Jyotsna Singh
7. Review-- Hybridity and (un)Knowing the Early East India Company:
Review of Hybrid Knowledge and the Early East India Company by Anna Winterbottom, Souvik Mukherjee