Special Lectures on Early Modern Studies

The Department of English in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of Loreto College organized two special lectures on Early Modern Studies on November 24, 2023. The resource persons were Dr. Amrita Sen, who is Associate Professor and Deputy Director, UGC-HRDC as well as Director, Women’s Studies Research Centre, University of Calcutta, and Dr. Doyeeta Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Jadavpur University.

Dr. Sen, whose lecture was titled “‘Spiced Indian Air’: Re-exploring the East Indies in Shakespeare’s Plays” began her presentation with references to the third voyage of the East India Company and the way in which the image of India was embedded in the imagination of Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries. She connected this with the references to India across the Shakespearean canon.

Dr. Doyeeta Majumdar in her lecture “The Renaissance Sonnet and its Afterlife” traced the evolution of the sonnet as a generic form from Giacomo da Lentini through Cavalcanti and Petrarch to 16th century England. Reiterating that the sonnet form continues to be popular, she traced the ‘afterlife’ of this 13th century form in the works of modern poets like Wendy Cope, Vikram Seth, and Mary Nelson.

The lectures were attended by over 155 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the English Department, members of the English and History faculty, and the IQAC Coordinator. The programme was greatly appreciated by all, especially since it provided the students the opportunity to interact with speakers with a history of rich scholarship in the field of Early Modern literature and culture.