Saswati Saha | SIKKIM UNIVERSITY (original) (raw)
I am Dr Saswati Saha, presently working as an Assistant Professor of English, Sikkim University, India. I completed my PhD from Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta on “English Literary Travelogues in Bengali: A Study of Social Reformation, Translation and Assimilation.” I had been the ICSSR fellow prior to the joining of this job. I have done my graduation and post-graduation in English from Jadavpur University, India. I have also completed my M.Phil degree from CSSSC on “Translating Primers: the Politics of Knowledge-making in Nineteenth-Century Bengal” from Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. I have presented my research works at many national and international conferences and have published papers in national and international journals. I have been awarded scholarship by the Institute of Collaborative Research in Humanities of Queen’s University Belfast to attend the Institute of Irish Studies International Summer School, 2014, American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Travel Grant to attend the ACLA Annual Meeting 2018, Charles Wallace India Trust Research Grant for short term research in UK in 2019, IATIS Solidarity & Scientific Excellence Bursary by the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies in 2021. I have been elected as the steering committee member of the International Comparative Literature Association Translation Committee in 2023.
Supervisors: Prof. Rosinka Chaudhuri
Address: Sikkim University, 6th Mile, Samdur, P.O Tadong, Gangtok
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Papers by Saswati Saha
Spring Magazine, 2017
Abstract: The present paper is an attempt of looking at trends of modernism that developed outsi... more Abstract:
The present paper is an attempt of looking at trends of modernism that developed outside Europe in the Latin American nations. Europe has always been regarded as the centre which organizes and controls modernity and Modernism. This paper takes into consideration Rubén Darío’s concept of Modernismo and tries to show how trends of modernity and Modernism can also be located in regions outside the periphery of the continent of Europe. The paper concentrates on how the small Latin American countries were struggling hard after independence to break away from the neo-colonial cultural control of the former colonizers and were looking forward to a newer kind of creative impulse based on the ideas of thematic innovations, flowery language, exquisite meter, brevity of expression, emphasis on form and structure, and harmonious rhyme scheme. Darío experimented with the form and content of poetry in the 1980s and 90s and emphasized on pristine beauty much influenced by the Classical Greece, Parnassiansim and French Symbolism. Darío was looking outwards, away from the Spanish cultural influence to bring about this revolution in the Hispanic literature. But Darío’s Modernismo is not the only kind of modernist approach noticed in the Latin America. This paper also brings out the major criticism faced by Darío from his contemporary poet Enrique González Martínez, who rejects the ‘superficial’ beauty in Darío’s works and brings into context a much wiser inward looking approach to solve the conundrums of everyday existence in Latin America. The paper will specially focus on Darío’s image of the swan and Martinez’s contrasting figure of the owl to bring out the contrast between Darío’s Modernismo and González Martínez’s Indigenismo.
Keywords: Modernismo, Darío, Modernity, Latin America, Modernista
When English education was introduced in colonial Indian through Macaulay's Minute of 1835, it wa... more When English education was introduced in colonial Indian through Macaulay's Minute of 1835, it was an attempt of disempowering the colonized people who did not have access to the ruler's language and had the underlying tension of silently wiping out many vernaculars and rendering them meaningless. But the change in the government's policy post 1854 brought the vernacular back as a medium of instruction but it was just the medium of conveyance as the message conveyed included European thoughts and philosophy. Hence English text-books began to be translated into Bengali Primers. Translation got incorporated into the colonial pedagogy which determined the production, circulation and reception of textbooks. This paper will be a study of the agency of the indigenous intellectuals in the politics of knowledge-making through translation in nineteenth-century Bengal vis-a-vis Iswarchandra Vidyasagar's Primers and will attempt to show how the cultural interaction happening through the practice of translation helped in shaping nationalist ideas among the indigenous population whose encounter with modernity was mediated by the desire of acquiring those characteristics that could possibly have enabled the West to reach the pinnacle of success. Discussing in details the methodology adopted by Vidyasagar in his translations from English to Bengali, the article tries to go beyond the discussions based on equivalence in translation studies and seeks to find out how the "wisdom from the west" affected the consciousness of Vidyasagar as a reader who as a translator makes conscious choices of the texts to be translated that can create desired impact on the national and cultural life of the then Bengal and then as a translator-writer effectively deploys his skill of translation as a tool for consolidating the nationalist sentiments among his fellow countrymen.
Translation by Saswati Saha
Spring Magazine, 2017
Abstract: The present paper is an attempt of looking at trends of modernism that developed outsi... more Abstract:
The present paper is an attempt of looking at trends of modernism that developed outside Europe in the Latin American nations. Europe has always been regarded as the centre which organizes and controls modernity and Modernism. This paper takes into consideration Rubén Darío’s concept of Modernismo and tries to show how trends of modernity and Modernism can also be located in regions outside the periphery of the continent of Europe. The paper concentrates on how the small Latin American countries were struggling hard after independence to break away from the neo-colonial cultural control of the former colonizers and were looking forward to a newer kind of creative impulse based on the ideas of thematic innovations, flowery language, exquisite meter, brevity of expression, emphasis on form and structure, and harmonious rhyme scheme. Darío experimented with the form and content of poetry in the 1980s and 90s and emphasized on pristine beauty much influenced by the Classical Greece, Parnassiansim and French Symbolism. Darío was looking outwards, away from the Spanish cultural influence to bring about this revolution in the Hispanic literature. But Darío’s Modernismo is not the only kind of modernist approach noticed in the Latin America. This paper also brings out the major criticism faced by Darío from his contemporary poet Enrique González Martínez, who rejects the ‘superficial’ beauty in Darío’s works and brings into context a much wiser inward looking approach to solve the conundrums of everyday existence in Latin America. The paper will specially focus on Darío’s image of the swan and Martinez’s contrasting figure of the owl to bring out the contrast between Darío’s Modernismo and González Martínez’s Indigenismo.
Keywords: Modernismo, Darío, Modernity, Latin America, Modernista
When English education was introduced in colonial Indian through Macaulay's Minute of 1835, it wa... more When English education was introduced in colonial Indian through Macaulay's Minute of 1835, it was an attempt of disempowering the colonized people who did not have access to the ruler's language and had the underlying tension of silently wiping out many vernaculars and rendering them meaningless. But the change in the government's policy post 1854 brought the vernacular back as a medium of instruction but it was just the medium of conveyance as the message conveyed included European thoughts and philosophy. Hence English text-books began to be translated into Bengali Primers. Translation got incorporated into the colonial pedagogy which determined the production, circulation and reception of textbooks. This paper will be a study of the agency of the indigenous intellectuals in the politics of knowledge-making through translation in nineteenth-century Bengal vis-a-vis Iswarchandra Vidyasagar's Primers and will attempt to show how the cultural interaction happening through the practice of translation helped in shaping nationalist ideas among the indigenous population whose encounter with modernity was mediated by the desire of acquiring those characteristics that could possibly have enabled the West to reach the pinnacle of success. Discussing in details the methodology adopted by Vidyasagar in his translations from English to Bengali, the article tries to go beyond the discussions based on equivalence in translation studies and seeks to find out how the "wisdom from the west" affected the consciousness of Vidyasagar as a reader who as a translator makes conscious choices of the texts to be translated that can create desired impact on the national and cultural life of the then Bengal and then as a translator-writer effectively deploys his skill of translation as a tool for consolidating the nationalist sentiments among his fellow countrymen.