South Asian Life-Histories
The Centre of South Asian Studies at SOAS (London) has recently launched a new research project on 'South Asian Life-Histories'.The multidisciplinary, collaborative project is co-ordinated by Stuart Blackburn (Chair, Centre of South Asian Studies) and David Arnold (Professor of History). Over a period of six years, the project will involve a series of major international conferences as well as one-day workshops held at different research centres in England.By Stuart Blackburn
The Project has three broad goals, the first of which is to identify, document and analyse the various representations of South Asian life-histories. The obvious literary forms -- biography, autobiography, and hagiography -- will be studied, in both written and oral forms, as well as oral life-histories in the form of biographical patterns in legends and folktales, plus oral histories. Visual representations of personal lives, such as sculpture, painting, scrolls, and films, will also be included, as will other traditional methods of recording, predicting anddefining personal lives, such as genealogies, horoscopes, and life-cycle rituals.
In analysing this wide variety of representations, the Project will ask a series of questions: What elements constitute the genre of 'life-history'? How is life-history distinguished from other literary and historical modes of expression? Is 'truth-value' a central distinction? What 'authority' separates life-histories from other more 'fictive' genres? And how is that authority established and perceived?
The second goal of the Project is to investigate the significance of these various life-histories in South Asian society. In this respect, the Project seeks to challenge the paradigm of 'collectivity' that has historically dominated the study of South Asia. Collective identities (caste, religion, and kinship) have been 'written into' most scholarship on the region from its Indological beginnings and have rarely been subjected to critical debate. The research supported by this Project will challenge this assumption of collectivity by investigating the role of individual lives in South Asia.
Third, the Project will study life-histories at different social levels and from a wide spectrum of groups, rather than just well-known texts written by famous men. Histories of women's lives are important here, as well as life-histories of refugees, migrants and others who fall beyond the normal boundaries of writing about the 'self'. The Project will study life-histories not only in South Asia but also in the diaspora.
The first event of the Project is a one-day workshop in November 1998 at SOAS, at which Professor Partha Chatterjee from Calcutta will be a specially invited participant
If you wish to participate, or for more information about the project, please contact:
Dr Stuart Blackburn (sb12@soas.ac.uk)
Professor David Arnold (da2@soas.ac.uk) or
Barbara Lazoi (bl1@soas.ac.uk)
Centre of South Asian Studies, SOAS
Thornhaugh St.
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom.