Descrizione del progetto
Il cosmopolitismo letterario post-bellico dell’Oceano Indiano
Per l’intera regione dell’Oceano Indiano, il periodo intercorso tra la decolonizzazione del secondo dopoguerra negli anni Cinquanta e negli anni Settanta è stato caratterizzato da forti cambiamenti politici, culturali ed economici. Cosa sappiamo a proposito del cosmopolitismo intellettuale e letterario indiano nell’Oceano Indiano durante questo periodo? Per rispondere a questa domanda, il progetto IATIO, finanziato dall’UE, si baserà sul concetto di «immaginari arcipelagici» applicando una metodologia interdisciplinare che vede la combinazione di strumenti e spunti da studi storici, critici letterari e culturali. Il progetto si avvarrà di riviste e stampa popolare nonché di opere di narrativa e di casi di studio selezionati di siti materiali di incontri cosmopoliti dell’Oceano Indiano. L’obiettivo è quello di analizzare il rinnovato contributo della teoria arcipelagica e degli approcci geocritici.
Obiettivo
The project IATIO mobilises the concept of ‘archipelagic imaginaries’ to examine Indian intellectual and literary cosmopolitanism in the Indian Ocean during the 1950s-1970s. The research shifts focus from teleological readings of Indian Ocean history and territorial perspective on postcolonial Indian culture, to a renewed investment in archipelagic theory and geocritical approaches. The temporal framework of the project ranges from around the time of the post-World War II decolonisation to the late 1970s, a period of far-reaching political, cultural and economic change for the entire Indian Ocean region. The project aims to advance a non-territorial epistemological framework for theorising postcolonial India through an investigation of the conceptual, imaginative and material Indian Ocean geographies inhabited by Indian intellectuals, writers and other cosmopolitan voices. It will do so by employing an interdisciplinary methodology that combines tools and insights from history, literary criticism and cultural studies, to engage in close reading of intellectual journals and the popular press, works of fiction, and selected case studies of material Indian Ocean sites of cosmopolitan encounters. The fellowship will be based at two leading academic institutions, King’s College London (UK) and the University of the Witwatersrand (ZA), and will take the researcher to further Asian and African countries for archival research. It will enhance the profile and the innovative potential of the researcher, strengthening his competence in interdisciplinary methods in the humanities and social sciences through personalised training, and providing the opportunity to develop a solid and internationally competitive track record. The project will also create a substantial institutional link between KCL and Wits, with KCL emerging as a UK hub in the global academic Indian Ocean studies network.
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
WC2R 2LS London
Regno Unito