A symposium on “Canon and Beyond: literary Studies Today” was organised by the Department of English language and literature, Central University of Odisha (CUO), Koraput at its Sunabeda campus.
VC Prof Sachidananda Mohanty inaugurated the programme and delivered the inaugural address. Prof E Raja Rao from Berhampur University and Prof Ajit Kumar Mukherjee, Director, School of languages, KIIT University attended the programme as the chief guest and the guest of honor. Condolences were expressed for Prof Shiv K Kumar, a profound poet, novelist, critic and travel writer, who died on March 1.
Prof Mohanty stressed on the centrality and the unique ability of poets to recreate things, referring to Eliot’s “Tradition and Individual Talent.” He also emphasized on leslie Fiedler’s book ‘What was literatureIJ’ Focusing on eclectic sources, he asserted the importance of new studies in reinvigorating the emancipator possibilities. He motivated the students to read the well researched and published literature to be updated about the literary studies.
He advised to create an intellectual climate in the university.
Prof Mukharjee highlighted the renaissance and underscored the vitality of Shakespeare in reviving the structure of sonnets, and breaking away from the canons of drama of his age. He advised the
students to read famous authors of English literature like George Eliot, Barret Browning, DH lawrence and leo Tolstoy to understand the various ages of the literary world. He also cited the work of Arundhati Roy in her novel ‘The God of Small Things’ to motivate the students to maintain simplicity and creativity in their writing.
Professor Rao talked about the New Negro concept of the First Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, with due focus on the successful fruition of Afro-American literature. He also discussed the various novels like Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, Alice Walker’s novel Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon at length, thereby stressing on the thematic change of canons from time to time.
Sanjeet Kumar Das, Head-in-Charge, Department of English language and literature, delivered the welcome address and Amaresh Achary, lecturer in English, Department of English of language and literature, gave vote of thanks. Students and teachers were presents in large numbers.