Call for better study of Asian literary texts

Gachibowli: Prof Rebecca Ruth Gould said that euro-centric theorisations limit the scopes of understanding real meanings of texts in the Asian literatures or any non-European literary works at Biennial International Conference of Comparative Literature Association of India (CLAI) in Hyderabad on Monday. The conference was jointly organised 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 the scholars of comparative literature at the conference, 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 addressing on the theme of 'Studying South Asian Narratives through Pluralist and Dialogic Frames'. She was guest of honour for the inaugural session.

CLAI president Prof EV 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 significance of framing a question in post truth era and recommended thinking over the questions of aesthetic and epistemological decent. While presenting the organisational report, Prof Chandra Mohan, General Secretary of CLAI, mentioned that CLAI had done wonder in the field of publication and also got 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 selection of the theme and spoke about pluralism within the university and beyond.

The inaugural session was held in CPDUMT Auditorium.