As I write this introduction to our general issue (41.2), my thoughts are with our readers, authors, peer reviewers, book reviewers, librarians, and others in the global academic community. In the last several weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives. Many of us are under lockdown/physical and social distancing, learning to teach online, and striving to make teaching, learning, and scholarship relevant and meaningful to our students and colleagues. As every country confronts the crisis, we also see how the pandemic exacerbates social inequalities in nations and disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. Images in the news of displaced migrant workers, of healthcare workers bravely fighting the disease at great risk to themselves, of body bags piled up in hospital corridors haunt us. Narratives of bravery, of struggle, of pain as well as stories of resilience, community support, and grassroots activism circulate in the news and via social media. At this moment, most of us are in survival mode as we struggle with economic, social, medical, and psychological consequences of this current time. As the South Asian Review community across the globe contends with this historic moment, we, at the journal, hold you in our thoughts and wish you strength, courage, and good health.
This general issue has five articles and launches a new section called “Provocations.” The five articles in this issue do have some common threads that connect them. Sharmita Lahiri and Sarbani Banerjee write about Bengali women authors. Banerjee explores Sunanda Sikdar’s memoir Dayamoyeer Katha in which several generations of women resist the role of bhadramahila. Lahiri’s essay examines three Bengali women writers from different historical periods and how their works examine the subalternity and agency of women in Bengal. Muthukumar Manickam and Vinod Balakrishnan analyze Easterine Kire’s novel Wormwood and its exploration of secessionism and forcible inclusion of the Nagas by the nation state. They argue that Kire’s novel offers a critique of Agamben’s “overestimation of law as the constituting element of biopolitics.” Sheetal Majithia challenges readings of Manil Suri’s Death of Vishnu as a novel about Orientalist spiritualism and argues that Vishnu’s cinephilia in the novel “reveals blind spots regarding subaltern postcolonial urban citizenship and secular modernity while suggesting popular cinema as a site of subalterneity.” Sovan Chakraborty and Nagendra Kumar write about Amit Chaudhuri’s A Strange and Sublime Address. They propose a reading of the novel as a critique of urban modernity.
This issue also debuts a new section called “Provocations” where a distinguished scholar curates a series of short essays on an urgent question in South Asian studies. S.Shankar– literary critic, novelist, and translator–curates this section on the question of the vernacular in South Asian literature. Our contributors, who offer distinctively different perspectives on the topic, are Nirmal Selvamony, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Francesca Orsini, and Charu Gupta. We expect to publish “Provocations” at least once a year and to have the whole section available open access for a few months when first published. I am grateful to Dr. Shankar for having undertaken this project for the journal and for working with me to imagine this new venture for the journal.
As always, this journal’s publication depends on the hard work of my colleagues on the editorial team—Robin Field, Pallavi Rastogi, John Hawley, and Maryse Jayasuriya. Additionally, the support of Rebecca Guest and the Taylor & Francis production team is invaluable. I also thank Seattle University’s College of Arts & Sciences and Dean David Powers for their support of my work as Editor.
Once again, we extend our best wishes to you all for continued well-being in these difficult times.