SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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Comparative Literature, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University

Postal address: Litteraturvetenskap, Språk- och Litteraturcentrum (SOL), Box 201, SE- 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Visiting address: Helgonabacken 12
Web page: http://www.sol.lu.se/en/litteraturvetenskap/

Contact person: Associate Professor Claes-Göran Holmberg, phone: +46 (0)46 222 84 89

South Asia related activities

Per-Erik Ljung and Claes-Göran Holmberg.

Since September 2007, the Centre for Languages and Literature runs a 120 ECTS International Master’s Programme titled ”Literature – Culture – Media (more information). Within the programme, Associate Professor Claes-Göran Holmberg and his colleague Associate Professor Per-Erik Ljung, teaches a compulsory thematic course in Literature and Intercultural Understanding, divided into two parts: a) World Literature (7.5 ECTS); and b) Translation, Interpretation and Transformation (7.5 ECTS). Some focus lies on Indian literature, especially during the Spring 2008 when Dr. Soumyajit Samanta from the Dept. of English, North Bengal University in Siliguri, India, spent two weeks at the department giving guest lectures for the Masters programme.
Dr. Samanta’s visit to Lund University became possible through a SASNET guest lecture programme grant awarded in August 2007 (more information).
Besides Lund University, Dr. Samanta (photo to the left) also visited the Dept. of Comparative Literature, School of Humanities, Växjö University, where gave some lectures.
While in Lund, he held a public SASNET lecture on Monday 10 March 2008 at the Lund City Library (Stadsbiblioteket). Dr. Samanta’s lecture wais titled ”From Salman Rushdie to Arundhati Roy – Modern Indian Novels as Analysis of Changing India and as World Literature”. The seminar was organised by SASNET in collaboration with the the Dept. of Comparative Literature, and the Association of Foreign Affairs (UPF). Venue: Atriumgården, Stadsbiblioteket. More information.

Through Dr. Samanta’s visit, the department has initiated a further collaboration with North Bengal University. One project being discussed is to let Indian students read Swedish novels (translated into English) and Swedish students read Indian novels, followed by joint seminars (in India and Sweden) about their interpretations from their respective cultural perspectives.

In December 2009, Dr. Holmberg received a one-year planning grant from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) to develop a collaboration project with Dr. Soumajit Samanta (photo) at North Bengal University. See the full list of South Asia related projects given Swedish Research Links grants 2009.
The project is entitled ”Negotiating Indo-Swedish Cultures and Intercultural Exchange”.
Abstract: The collaboration between Swedish & Indian researchers shall involve an understanding of the confluence as well as the differences of the culture and literature of both countries. Multiple issues of narrativity, gender discourse, ideology, cinema and the performing arts, as well as travel literature will figure in the collaborative enterprise. The Swedish partner will explore the implications of Indian culture & literature in a Swedish environment. The Indian partner shall highlight the implications of Swedish culture & literature in the Indian scenario. There is no collective effort to study Indian-Swedish intercultural connections on a larger scale. The project can enlighten both Swedish & Indian researchers on the nature of borrowings and mutual cultural cooperation between the two countries. Translation studies may open up facets of Nordic culture into the Indian scene and vice versa and situate them in a transparent medium where culture and literature interact. How Nordic & Indic culture cross each other and interact and how such knowledge may be implemented in cultural and ideological movements especially in the postmodern context will be studied.

In early August 2010, Dr. Samanta participated and presented a paper in the 28th International Association for Scandinavian Studies (IASS) Study Conference held at Lund University. The theme for the conference, organised by Per-Erik Ljung and Claes-Göran Holmberg, was ”Translation – Adaption, Interpretation, Transformation”. More infor about the conference.

The collaboration with North Bengal University has been formalised with a grant from the Linnaeus-Palme International Exchange Programme on teachers and students exchange. The project has received funding for the period 2010-11. More information about the South Asia related Linnaeus Palme projects for 2010-11.