Guest lecture – Dr. Goutam Karmakar: "The Journey of Indian Poetry in English: A Brief Overview"

The DFG Center for Advanced Studies “Russian-Language Poetry in Transition” (FOR 2603) cordially invites you to a live lecture by Dr. Goutam Karmakar, entitled “The Journey of Indian Poetry in English: A Brief Overview”. The lecture will be held in English and will be streamed live via Zoom. Please register by e-mail with our coordinator Katja Baharova (baharova@uni-trier.de) no later than July 6, 2020, to receive the access data.

About the lecture:

Since the beginning of the 19th century, poetry in India has also been written in English, still under
the influence of the British colonial power, until the subcontinent eventually became independent. A
largely self-reliant English-language poetry developed from 1948 onwards, dominated by a small
group of renowned poets (Nissim Ezekiel, Keki Daruwalla, Kamala Das et al.), whose poems were
canonized in 1976 in the influential anthology “Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets”. Even today,
their lasting impact indirectly contributes to a conflict with a second and third generation of Indian
English-speaking poets, which Goutam Karmakar will also analyse in his lecture.

Dr. Goutam Karmakar teaches and conducts research as Assistant Professor of English at Barabazar
Bikram Tudu Memorial College, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, West Bengal, India. He has edited
several volumes on contemporary English-language poetry in India and has written numerous essays
and interviews on the subject.