Rabindranath Tagore in the 21st Century ― Theoretical Renewals

This critical volume addresses the question of Rabindranath Tagore's relevance for postmodern and postcolonial discourse in the twenty-first century. The volume includes contributions by leading contemporary scholars on Tagore and analyses Tagore's literature, music, theatre, aesthetics, politics and art against contemporary theoretical developments in postcolonial literature and social theory. The authors take up themes as varied as the implications of Tagore’s educational vision for contemporary India; new theoretical interpretations of gender, queer elements, feminism and subalternism in Tagore's literary and social expressions; his language use as a vehicle for a dialogue between positivism, Orientalism and other constructs in the ongoing process of globalization; the nature of the influence of Tagore's music and literature on national and cultural identity formation, particularly in Bengal and Bangladesh; and intersubjectivity and critical modernity in Tagore’s art. This volume opens up a space for Tagore’s critique and his creative innovations in present theoretical engagements.

Debashish Banerji is Professor of Indian Studies and Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Philosophical Research, Los Angeles. He is also Adjunct Faculty in Asian Art History at the Pasadena City College and Research Fellow in Asian and Comparative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco. Banerji is the author ofThe Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore (Sage, 2010) and Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo (DKPW and Nalanda, 2012). As an independent art curator, he has curated a number of exhibitions of Indian and Japanese art in the U.S. and India. His articles on South Asian art history, culture studies and consciousness studies have appeared in various magazines, journals and anthologies. To know more about him, visit http://www.debashishbanerji.com.