Dr Tapasya Narang
- School: School of English, Drama and Film
- Mentors: Dr. Lucy Collins (UCD) and Eoin McCarney (National Library of Ireland)
Radical Poetics: A Comparative Study of Small Press Productions from Dublin and Bombay, 1960-1980
Dissident Poetics investigates the phenomena of literary ephemerality and its role in posing resistance to regressive ideologies and social injustices. It proposes to study little magazines from two cities—Dublin and Bombay during the 1960s and 70s—with shared and (sometimes) contrasting cultural politics and identities as urban spaces. It will assess how small press publications respond to socio-historical phenomena, such as the transition to a consumer society, post-independence conflicts and feminist movements, during the twenty year period in the two post-colonial cities.
The project draws from literary studies, historical studies, political sciences as well as media and book histories to conduct an in-depth study of small press publications from a period of major social change in Dublin and Bombay. The ‘little magazines’ produced in the cities during the period — The Dubliner (later The Dublin Magazine), Icarus, The Lace Curtain, The Belle, and The Beau from Dublin and Poetry India, Opinion Literary Quarterly, Bombay Duck, and Dionysius from Bombay— allowed for the revival and development of a radical poetics which emphatically addressed contemporary reality. By visiting these relatively uncensored sites of literary dissemination (little magazines), the project aims to uncover largely overlooked histories of literary production from the practitioners of radical aesthetics, women, working-class writers and ethnic minorities.
Contact details:
Email: (opens in a new window)tapasya.narang@ucd.ie
Twitter: @NarangTapasya