Comparative literature

About The Department

In keeping with Rabindranath Thakur’s motto ‘yatravisvam bhavatye ekanidam’, Visva-Bharati established Centre for Comparative Literature in 2013. The Centre has conferred a total of 6 PhD and 12 MPhil degrees since its inception. At present, the Centre offers MA and PhD courses in Comparative Literature. Minor and Multidisciplinary courses in Comparative Literature are also offered at the UG level.

Major thrust areas of the Centre include Rabindranath: Texts, Contexts and Intertexts, Translation Studies, Journey of the Rama Narrative, Bhakti and Sufi Trajectory; Forms of Colonies, with special focus on Latin America, Africa and Canada; Indigenous Studies, Literature and the Other Arts, with special focus on Dance, Film and Theatre.

The strength of this vibrant centre lies in its innovative course design that caters to the demands of both academia and industry. Our students are placed at Amity University, Tashkent, and media houses in Bangladesh. Within India, our students are placed at Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Kandi Raj College, Swami Vivekananda Institute of Science and Technology, Durgapur Institute of Advanced Technology and Management, etc. Students are also employed at school level in Sehwag International School, Stratford Day School, St. Peter’s School, Durgapur, Palsa Junior High School and others. Our students are also in demand in the corporate sector, finding placements in organisations like Amazon, Han Digital, LearningMate, Trainergoesonline, SwitchON Foundation (Environment Conservation Society), Enago (Crimson Interactive), SOS Ideas, and such other companies.

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Upcoming Seminar

Movement Workshop

Of Clay and Dust: International IKS Workshop on Body Movement involving Indian Art Practices like Odissi, Mayurbhanj Chhau, Navarasa, Kalaripayattu, Kutiyattam

Date: TBA

The Centre for Comparative Literature, Bhasha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, is organising an intense and interactive workshop of body movement based on different art practices like Odissi, Mayurbhanj Chhou, Navarasa, Kalaripayattu, exploring and celebrating the possibilities of body and mind. This workshop shall focus on the search of what the body is and how it connects with our daily life practices. By focusing on how we can communicate our mundane bodies with the inner spiritual self (understanding of the importance of breath and its functionality the movements created during the sessions with the students of Centre for Comparative Literature along with other art practitioners) the trainer Monami Nandy shall facilitate the entire process to create a work in progress piece keeping the consciousness, awareness, sensibility of moving body alive. An outdoor space or collaboration with other art spaces will provide a perfect ground to imagine the purpose as a versatile community space.

Touching the way of awareness, focus, balancing from within the body and mind, fitness, and a healthy way to keep the body functional, Monami shall derive methods from her artistic backgrounds and extensive choreography experience, to collaborate with the trained/ untrained bodies to craft a performance inspired by the organic, original dance movements. An important process is how to look at a performance also. This workshop is open to taking references from ‘texts’ to reclaim what is prewritten and looking at it with a comparative lens. This is the relevance of conducting this workshop from a literature department. We had successfully conducted a Symposium on Literature and Dance in the past and this workshop is an extension of that. Through this process, we aim to revive the connection between language and non-verbal expressions that the performance and performers will weave together.

There are two Domain Clubs under CCL: a book club, called Grantha Carca; and a Cine Lovers’ Club, called Chalachitra Carca. All students and staff of Visva-Bharati are welcome to join any of these clubs. Interested persons may contact the CCL Office.

A report on the latest event of the book club is here.