Women and Indian Shakespeares: Exploring Cinema, Translation, Performance

30 October 2019 – 1 November 2019, Queen's University Belfast

Indian Shakespeares is an established field of study, but no international conference has yet centralised the issue of the female in Indian Shakespeares. Recent feminist works include the retelling of King Lear in Sangeeta Datta’s film Life Goes On (2010) or in Preti Taneja’s novel We That Are Young (2017), Romeo and Juliet in Arshinagar (dir. Aparna Sen) or Bornila Chatterjee’s 2016 film adaptation of Titus Andronicus, The Hungry. Indeed, it has been argued that the women in Vishal Bhardwaj’s celebrated hero-centric film trilogy possess transformative agency. Such works have continued to reshape the debate surrounding the role of women.

This conference thus emerges in the context of these retellings and recent historical events in India and worldwide. It aims to explore uncharted territory, bringing together researchers and practitioners to establish the state of current scholarship in this vibrant, underexamined field.

For more information contact indianshakespeares@gmail.com