Rethinking Modernity
Edited by Santosh Gupta, Prafulla C. Kar and
Parul Dave Mukherji

 

This volume, dedicated to the theme of “rethinking modernity” of the Jaipur Conference (2003) of the Forum on Contemporary Theory, looks back on the Western project of modernity and its transformation through ages from multidisciplinary perspectives. As an identity-marker of the West, the idea of modernity continues to excite and provoke literary scholars, philosophers, political theorists, social critics and art historians in strangely ambivalent ways. The volume addresses modernity’s multi-faceted configurations: in literary and visual representations; in political culture and practice; in philosophical reflections; in sociological thinking; and in technological revolution. Its linkage with colonial processes has given it a distinctive character in the third world context. The volume is a timely reflection on this dominant western paradigm, which has influenced thinking all over the world in diverse ways. It provides useful material for research scholars and students of such disciplines as literature, history, philosophy, politics, art history and social thought.
 
Santosh Gupta bis Professor of English, University of Rajasthan Jaipur, where she was the Head of the Department during 2001-2004. She has edited Contemporary Indian Literature: Positions and Expositions (Jaipur: Rawat, 2001). She has published papers on postcolonial theory, women’s writing and Indian literature in research journals in India.

Prafulla C. Kar is one of the founder editors of the Journal of Contemporary Thought, Baroda. He was until recently Professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He was also Deputy Director of the American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad during 1982-86. He was a Fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory at Dartmouth College, USA in 1986. Besides editing several scholarly books, he has published papers on American literature, critical theory and new literatures in English.

Parul Dave Mukherji is an Associate Professor of Art History & Aesthetics at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. She has published a critical edition of the Citrasutra of the Visnudharmottara Purana (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2001). She is an editor of Towards a New Art History: Studies in Indian Art (New Delhi: D K Printworld, 2003). She has published articles on historiography of art history and the dialectics of nationalism and naturalism in Indian Art.
 
Contributors : R.A. Martin Jay, Fred Dallmayr, Madan M. Sarma, S.Shankar, R.Radhakrishnan, Gaurav Desai, Jaspal Kaur, Sudha Rai, Rajalakshmi N.K., K.Nirupa Rani, Alka Patel, Dilip K.Das, Pramod K.Nayar, Liza Das, William D.Pederson, Mandakini V. Jha and Nagesh Rao.
 
ISBN 81-85753-68-7           2005           256 pp           Rs.495 (hb)