The Exquisite Corpse: Aesthetics of the Dead in Akhtaruzzaman Ilyas’s Khwabnama
Stanford Global Studies Division
615 Crothers Way, Stanford, CA 94305
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Over the course of Akhtaruzzaman Elias’ 1996 novel, Khwabnama (The Chronicle of Dreams) as one is treated to several roving apparitions, almost invariably those who died violent deaths, it occurs that the point of the ghostly dead is not direct involvement in human lives but simply making an appearance. Guest speaker Naveeda Khan, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at John Hopkins University, would go even further in saying that the thick descriptions of the moments of death and the resurfacing of the dead as ghosts or ghostly elements don’t have a behind of them, they don’t stand for anything other than for themselves and it is their appearance with which we have still to contend if we are to understand what they are doing in the novel, along with the marshes, birds, fishes and the wind. It is precisely when the dead appear that we can inquire into their appearance to ask what sense do they make in themselves, what is the ontology intrinsic to them? Towards this end, in this paper Khan attempts to focus on the descriptions of the deaths of specific characters and their re-appearance as the dead to draw out how, rather than what, they are presenting. In this process of skewing our apperception of the novel, we stand to see how the novel may not aspire to absolute truth or historical significance, but rather be attempting to show the struggle over sense-making in our times.
Register to attend the event here. This is Center for South Asia's annual lecture and will take place in-person only. Registration is required and may be capped once at capacity.
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About the Speaker
Naveeda Khan is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at John Hopkins University. She received her BA in History from Vassar College, her MA in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research and her PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. She has also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dhaka and Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Travelers and Immigrants Aid of Chicago (TIA) and The Field Museum of Natural History. Learn more.
About the Moderator
Anna Bigelow is Associate Professor of Religious Studies specializing in Islamic Studies and the religions of South Asia and the Middle East, and Director for the Center for South Asia at Stanford University. Her work focuses on Muslim devotional life, especially sacred spaces and ritual practice. Current research concerns the circulation of devotional objects at Sufi shrines in India and Turkey.
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This event is part of Stanford Global Studies’ Oceanic Imaginaries, a new, multi-year initiative that adopts the world’s oceans as an analytical framework for advancing cross-regional, interdisciplinary research on timely global topics.