Conference 2000
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Fin-de-Siècle: The Twentieth Century in Retrospect
The seminar will attempt to look back on the past century, on the epoch spanning the period between the end of the last century, which was first named fin-de-siècle, and the end of the present century. It will focus on the questions, ideas, discourses, movements that emerged in this epoch and the dramatic changes that took place in art, literature, the media, literary theory, philosophy, science, history, politics. It will look more specifically at how texts responded to the changes wrought by the scientific, technological and social revolutions on forms of human coexistence and interaction, the new conceptualisation of the relationship between language and reality, the transformation of the city, the questioning and redefining of the subject, and the challenges posed by a globalising world order.
The seminar will attempt through this retrospective to engage with varying viewpoints regarding the 20th century, with on the one hand Francis Fukuyama's cynically triumphant idea of the 'end of history' and on the other hand a reading against the grain of dominant discourses that looks at the conflicts and contradictions that moved human beings in struggles against exploitation and tyranny, against imperialism, colonialism and fascism, with their victories and defeats, with their apocalyptic visions and their persistent hopes for a better world.
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PROGRAM
Wednesday, 2 February 2000, Room 22, Arts Faculty, University of Delhi
10.15 am |
Opening Remarks |
A.V. Parasnis, Shaswati Mazumdar |
10.45 am |
Elmar Schenkel |
Dematerialization: H.G. Wells' Anticipations of the Twentieth Century |
11.30 am |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
11.45 am |
Namwar Singh |
Cultural Nationalism and the Emergence of Literary Fascism |
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Chair: A.V. Parasnis |
12.45 am |
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LUNCH BREAK |
1.45 pm |
Dirk Wiemann |
The Non/Sense Of An Ending: Satire 'So Late In The Century' |
2.30 pm |
Xavier Person |
Michel Houllebecq's Elementary Particles. of a century, end of a civilization, end of an aesthetics |
3.15 pm |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
3.30 pm |
Selma de Vieira Velho |
Fin-de-Siècle: The Flow of Time in the Works of Almada Negreiros |
4.15 pm |
Ebrahim Eidiallo/ Nicola Samson |
Multicultural Challenges for a Fin-de-Siècle |
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Chair: H.S. Gill |
Thursday, 3 February 2000, TAGORE HALL, University of Delhi
10.15 am |
Dominique de Gasquet |
Interculturality and Interdisciplinarity. Cross Currents in "Fin-de-XX-Siècle" Comparative Literature |
11.00 am |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
11.15 am |
Margit Köves |
Ten years that did not shake the world: Hungarian Literature in the Nineties |
12.00 |
Rajendra Dengle |
Arthur Schnitzler and Fin-de-Siècle. A close look at Traumnovelle |
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Chair: Javed Malik |
12.45 am |
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LUNCH BREAK |
1.45 pm |
Franson Manjali |
Vicissitudes of Linguistic Studies in the Twentieth Century |
2.30 pm |
Kathleen Kerr |
Modernity's Plural People, Doubled People and the Fate of the University |
3.15 pm |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
3.30 pm |
Michael Schmidt |
Musical Fusion in the Age of Media |
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Chair: Anil Bhatti |
Friday, 4 February 2000, TAGORE HALL, University of Delhi
10.15 am |
Nita Kumar |
Black Arts Movement:
Historicity and Aspects of
Continuing Relevance
to African American Literary Theory |
11.00 am |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
11.15 am |
Rekha Kamath |
Literature and the Students' Movement |
12.00 |
Susnigdha De |
Interplay of Societal and Literary Values
in José Saramago |
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Chair: J.P.S. Uberoi |
12.45 am |
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LUNCH BREAK |
1.45 pm |
Narayani Gupta |
From Garden-Cities to Concrete Jungles:
Towns and Town Planning in The Last 100 Years |
2.30 pm |
Vijay Varma |
The Twentieth Century
and the Fall of Scientific Determinism |
3.15 pm |
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TEA/COFFEE BREAK |
3.30 pm |
Aijaz Ahmad |
The Unfinished Century:
On Pasts and Prologue |
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Chair: Sumit Sarkar |
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