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Professor Mini Chandran
PhD (University of Kerala)
Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Interest
My primary areas of interest are Classical Sanskrit Aesthetic Theory, Literature and Censorship, Indian Literature in Translation, and Translation Studies.
Office
FB 609,
Department of HSS
IIT Kanpur,
Kanpur 208016
Specialization
Literature and Censorship, Translation Studies, Indian literature and literary theory
Education
PhD, University of Kerala, 1998 Thesis Title: Literary Censorship in the Twentieth Century Thesis Supervisor: Prof. B K Chandrika
M.A., (English Literature), Mar Ivanios College, University of Kerala, 1985
B.A., (English Literature), Government Women's College, University of Kerala, 1983
Selected Publications
Journal Articles"A Gaze Turned Inward: Perspectives from the Orient", Navigating Deep River: New Perspectives on Shusaku Endo’s Final Novel. Eds. Mark W. Dennis and Darren J N. Middleton. New York: SUNY Press, 2020.
Journal Articles"Dancing in a Hall of Mirrors: Translation between Indian Languages", A Multilingual Nation: Translation and Language Dynamic in India. Ed. Rita Kothari. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Journal Articles"Into Bhasha and English: Comparative Study of Bhasha and English Translation in India", Comparative Literature Studies: Vol. 53, No.2, 2016: 359 – 376.
Journal Articles"Writer-Translators of Ethnicity: Translations and Literatures Written in English", European Journal of English Studies: Vol 18 Issue 3, 2014: 263 – 277.
Journal Articles"In the Marketplace: Publication of Translations in Regional Indian Languages", Textual Travels: Theory and Practice of Translation in India. Eds. Mini Chandran and Suchitra Mathur. New Delhi: Routledge, 2014: 92 – 111.
Journal Articles"The Fugitive Reader: Reading the Adhyatmaramayanam through the Ages", South Asian Review: Vol 34: No.2, 2013: 123 – 138.
Journal Articles"The Jester Sets Out",(translation of a chapter of Purusharthakoothu, the oral performative art of Kerala), Indian Literature: Vol LVII No.6, No: 278 Nov/Dec 2013: 145 – 159.
Journal Articles"Reclaiming Lost Territory", Economic & Political Weekly: Vol XLVIII: No. 40, October 5, 2013: 26 – 28.
Journal Articles"The Translator as Ideal Reader: Variant Readings of Anandamath", Translation Studies, the international journal on translation published by Routledge: Volume 4 Number 3 September 2011: 297 - 309
Journal Articles"The Democratization of Censorship: Books and the Indian Public", Economic & Political Weekly: Vol XLV: No.40, October 2 – 8, 2010: 27 – 31.
Journal Articles"The Pilgrim’s Progress: Ayemenem House and the Syrian Christian Church in Kerala". Mother-tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, Non-western Christianity. Ed. Darren J. N. Middleton. Oregon: Pickwick, 2009: 127 – 139.
Journal Articles"Whose English Is It? Translating in a Neocolonial World", Apperceptions: Journal of Visva-Bharati, Santinikentan (special issue on Translation and Related Issues): Vol. IV 2009: 38 – 52.
Journal Articles"Conquest” translation of VKN’s Malayalam short story "Digvijayam", Indian Literature: Vol LII: No.4, July – August 2008: 185 – 188.
Journal Articles"Flood tides of Language and Submerged Communication: Language and its Inadequacy in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide", Inventing Ties and Bonds in English: Diasporic Literary Consciousness. Ed. Binod Mishra and P. J. Paul Dhanasekaran. Delhi: Author’s Press, 2008: 170 – 180.
Journal Articles"Not Lost in Translation: Chemmeen on Alien Shores". Translation Today. Vol 4: Nos. 1 & 2: 2007: 51 – 62.
Journal Articles"Rabbit Hunt", translation of N. S. Madhavan’s Malayalam short story "Muyalvetta", Translation. Translation Studies journal of University of California Santa Barbara: Vol. 2, 2007: 61 – 72.
Journal Articles"Distant Flutter of a Butterfly: The Indian Response to The Last Temptation". Scandalizing Jesus: The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on. Ed. Darren J. N. Middleton. New York: Continuum, 2005: 135 – 144.
Journal Articles"Obscenity and Offence in Ulysses", The Atlantic Literary Review: Jan-June 2004: 18 – 26.
Journal Articles"Fabulation as Narrative in Haroun and the Sea of Stories", Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies (e-Journal of North Carolina State University): Vol 7, Issue1, 2002:<http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v7is1/chand.htm>
Journal Articles"The Panoptic Living Room in Manjula Padmanabhan's Harvest", Journal of Literature and Aesthetics: Vol 7, No:1, January-June 1999: 86 – 89.
Journal Articles"Seclusion on Mount Athos: The Male World of Nikos Kazantzakis", Occasional Papers (A journal of the Panjab University): Vol VI, No.1, 1997-98: 1 – 6.
BooksAn Introduction to Indian Aesthetics: History, Theory and Theoreticians, co-authored with Sreenath V S. New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2021.
BooksThe Writer, the Reader and the State: Literary Censorship in India,, New Delhi: Sage, 2017.
BooksTextual Travels: Theory and Practice of Translation in India, (anthology on translation co-edited with Suchitra Mathur): New Delhi: Routledge, 2014.
Book chapters in MalayalamChasing the Monsoon, Mazhakkalam. Ed. Tom J. Mangad. Kottayam: DC Books, 2005.
Book chapters in MalayalamUnknown Sin and Known Virtue, book chapter in Arundhati Roy: The Work and Perspectives. Calicut: Mulberry Books, 1999.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersWhose Line is it Anyways? The Indian Express: February 5, 2021.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersPublish and Perish, The Indian Express: June 29, 2019.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersCan you Hear Me? The Indian Express: February 19, 2018.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersPolitical Correctness has Morphed into an Undemocratic Censor, The Print: October 1, 2017. https://theprint.in/opinion/political-correctness-censorship/11059/
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersA Different Neighbourliness, The Indian Express: August 29, 2016.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersGive the Devil his Due”, The Financial Chronicle, May 6, 2016
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapers"Lift me as a Wave, a Leaf, a Cloud", The Financial Chronicle, March 3, 2016.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersThe Native Sahib, The Indian Express: January 16, 2016.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersSilence, Exile and Cunning, The Indian Express: October 13, 2015.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersVivartanam, Kalakaumudi weekly: September 2015.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersA More Docile Writing, The Indian Express: June 27, 2012.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersPadanayikayude Karmayogam (The Karmayoga of the Leader), tribute to Lakshmi Sahgal, Kalakaumudi weekly: August 5, 2012
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersRushdie’s Victory, Kalakaumudi weekly: Feb 20, 2009
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersThe Daredevils of Print, The Hindu Literary Review: March 15, 1998.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersThe Saga of Zhivago, Indian Express Sunday edition: November 15, 1992.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersThe Gospel of Saramago, Mathrubhumi weekly: November 8, 1998.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersUnseen chains behind women's writing, Mathrubhumi special issue: 1997.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersFeminism: From the Hunted to the Hunter, cover story of Mathrubhumi weekly: November 28,1993.
Publications in English and Malayalam magazines and newspapersMusic and Censorship, cover story of Mathrubhumi weekly: November 22, 1992.
Translations (Articles)The Best Job in the World, (English to Malayalam), article by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, published in Mathrubhumi weekly: July 27,1997.
Translations (Articles)The Final Salute, (English to Malayalam), story by Saadat Hassan Manto, published in Mathrubhumi weekend edition: 1994.
Translations (Articles)Distant Visions, (Malayalam to English), story by Kakkanadan, in Dakshina, published by the Sahitya Akademi, 1991.
Translations (Books)Autumnal Memories: Life and Times of a Public Intellectual, translation of Joseph Mundassery’s Kozhinja Ilakal from Malayalam to English, Thrissur: Cosmo Books (an imprint of Current Books), 2015.
Translations (Books)Ormakkurippukal, (translation from English to Malayalam), Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal's A Revolutionary Life: Memoirs, Trivandrum: Women's Imprint, 2005.
Translations (Books)Chirikkunna Atmakkal, (translation from English to Malayalam), Geeta Iyer's Laughing Spirits, New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2000.
Book Reviews:R. K. Narayan through an Indian Philosophical Lens: Ranga Rao’s New Book Shines, The Print: December 2, 2017. https://theprint.in/pageturner/afterword/r-k-narayan-indian-philosophical-lens-ranga-raos-new-book-shines/19924/
Book Reviews:Review of Chandrika Balan’s Arya and Other Stories, Indian Literature, Vol. 59, No. 2 (286) (March/April 2015), pp. 179-181.
Book Reviews:Review of Chandrasekhara Kambar’s Sivaratri, Indian Literature, Sep/Oct 2014: 185-187.
Invited talks:“Riti, Guna and Anumana”, as part of the one week workshop on “Soundarya and the Sahridaya: Aesthetic Discourses in India & the West” jointly organized by the Research and Development Cell of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala and Sahapedia: November 27, 2020.
Invited talks:“The Vernacular Cosmopolitan and the Making of a Literary ‘Commons’”, at the Centenary Commemoration Seminar on the establishment of the Department of Modern Indian Languages, organized by University of Calcutta in collaboration with Central Institute of Indian Languages: March 2019.
Invited talks:“English as Bhasha: The Bilingual World of Kamala Das”, at the symposium on Kamala Das and the Bilingual Tradition organized by the Sahitya Akademi and Institute of English, University of Kerala: March 2015.
Invited talks:“Beyond Borders and Differences: Transnational Literary Spaces”, keynote address at the UGC sponsored national seminar on Receding Boundaries: Transnational Spaces, Representation and Nationhood in South Asian Diaspora at Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum: December 2015.
Conference Papers“Out of Home and Hearth: The Santhals of India”, ATINER International conference held in Athens, Greece: May 2018.
Conference Papers“A Bird Tells a Story: Sreemahabharatam kilippattu in Malayalam”, IACLSC International Seminar on Epic Tradition and World Literature: Gandhinagar, April 2018.
Conference Papers“Appropriated and Mainstreamed: Indigenous Narratives from Kerala”, National conference organized by IACLALS and IIT Guwahati, Guwahati: February 2017.
Conference PapersSangam Poetry: Song of the Common Man, International Seminar on “Poetry as Counter-culture”, organized by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla: May 16-18, 2016.
Conference PapersA Centre at the Periphery? Indira Goswami's The Bronze Sword of Thengphakri Tahsildar, at IACLALS Annual Conference on "Margins, Globalization and the Postcolonial", organized by Panjab University, Chandigarh: February 2014.
Conference PapersInvited paper, Local Worlds in a Glocal Language, at "The Indian Worlds of Indian English Literature" organized by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi: March 2013
Conference PapersHis Master's Voice: Colonial Subjectivity and Mimicry in Zachariah's Bhaskara Pattelarum ente Jeevithavum, at The Postcolonial and/in the Indian Languages, organized by IACLALS and University of Lucknow: Lucknow, February 2013
Conference PapersIdeological Mediations of Utopia: Retellings of the Ramayana, at "Media and Utopia: Imagination, History, Technology", the XV International Conference of the Forum on Contemporary Theory held in Allahabad: December 2012
Conference PapersRed Star over Kerala: Translations and the Moulding of a Literature in Kerala, at "Translation and the Postcolonial: Multiple Geographies, Multi-lingual Contexts", an international conference organized by the Leverhulme Network on "Postcolonial Translation: The Case of South Asia" at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: June 8-9, 2011
Conference PapersReading as Resistance: The Spiritual and Political Power of Reading, National Conference on "Comparative Cultural Studies: Towards New Postcolonial Paradigms" organized by IACLALS (Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) and Centre for Comparative Literature, Institute of English, University of Kerala at Thiruvananthapuram: January 2011
Conference PapersReading Across Cultures: How the Daffodils fill an Indian Heart with Pleasure, "Strokes Across Cultures", 15th Triennial International Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies held at Nicosia, Cyprus: June 2010
Conference PapersThe Recognition of the Fisherman: Literary Representations of the Unnamed, XII International Conference of the Forum on Contemporary Theory in Thiruvananthapuram: December 2009
Conference PapersOne Text, Many Discourses: The Strange Case of Anandamath, International Conference on "Translation and Postcolonialities" organized by IACLALS (Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) and Department of English, Karnataka University at Dharwad: February 2009.
Conference PapersNot Lost in Translation: Chemmeen on Alien Shores, National Seminar on Nation and Translation organized by Department of English, Pondicherry University and Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore at Pondicherry University: February 2008.
Conference PapersOf Centres and Peripheries: Cultural Subversion in VKN's Short Stories, National Conference on Postcolonial Discourse in Bhasha Literatures organized by Faculty of Arts, Benares Hindu University in Varanasi: September 2007.
Conference PapersThe Democratization of Censorship: Books and the Indian Public, International Conference on A World Elsewhere: Orality, Manuscript and Print in Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures jointly organized by Rhodes University and Centre for the Book in Cape Town, South Africa: April 2 - 4, 2007.
Conference Papers"What's the Use of Stories that aren't even True?": Politics and the Book, paper on the controversy surrounding The DaVinci Code at New Word Order, the SHARP Asia-Pacific Regional Conference held at Jadavpur University, January 2006.
Conference PapersLocating the White Writer in post-apartheid South Africa, at "Teaching Postcolonial Texts: Theory and Strategy", the Annual Conference of the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies held at Madras, February 2005.
Conference PapersImagi(nation) in Amitav Ghosh's The Shadowlines paper on Amitav Ghosh at the 13th Triennial International Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies held at Hyderabad in August 2004.
Awards & Fellowships
Letters of commendation from Director for excellence in teaching at IIT Kanpur
Keywords
Translation studies, Indian literature, Literary Censorship
Professional Experience
1986-1990: Subeditor, Vanitha women's magazine of the Malayala Manorama newspaper group, Kerala
1994-1996: Lecturer, Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam, Kerala
2001 - 2003: Lecturer of English, Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur
2003 - 2009: Assistant Professor in Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur
2009 onwards: Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur