Society, Representations and Textuality: The Critical Interface brings together papers from various critical perspectives of Humanities and Social Sciences. The work (a) takes stock of the recent developments in critical theory and cultural studies; (b) studies the impact of these developments on the understanding of social reality and the human predicament in India; and (c) brings together scholars from North East India who are engaged in the project of understanding society and communities in their chosen intellectual practice.
The book is the first-ever attempt to establish a dialogic encounter between critical practices in Humanities and Social sciences, hitherto considered to be autonomous in their own disciplinary boundaries. Further, the volume addresses issues of identity and autonomy of a multicultural India, particularly with reference to the interface between hegemonic cultures and politically and culturally persistent smaller communities.
A significant feature of this book is its attempt to theorize and describe the myriad manifestations of the critical interface between society and literary or cultural productions.
Sukalpa Bhattacharjee teaches English at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Her publications include Postcolonial Literatures: Essays on Gender, Theory and Genres (2004) and she has co-edited volumes such as Human Rights and Insurgency: The North-East India (2002) and Ethno Narratives: Identity and Experience in North East India (2006). Her review anthologies have been published in national and international research paper journals in the areas of critical theory, gender studies and multiethnic literatures of the United States. She is currently also working on a translation of partition narratives from the Barak Valley of Assam.
C Joshua Thomas is presently the Deputy Director at the Indian Council of Social Science Research, North Eastern Regional Centre (ICSSR), Shillong. He is known for his pioneering research in diverse fields of social sciences in north-eastern India. His areas of research include issues related to ethnicity, peace process and border trade and displacement. Some of his earlier works include: Dimensions of Displaced People in North East India (2002), Indo-Myanmar Border Trade: Status, Problems and Potentials (2005), Peace in India’s North East: Meaning, Metaphor and Meanings (2006) and India–China: Trade and Strategy for Frontier Developments (2010).
