The Department of English, Sri Kaliswari College, Sivakasi joining hands with iSPELL, Indigenous Society for the Promotion of English Language and Literature organised a Two Day National Conference on “Postmodern Voices & Transdisciplinarity in English Language and Literature” in Hybrid Mode on 19 and 20 October 2022. The conference was applauded for 3 Plenary sessions, 6 concurrent paper presentation sessions both online and offline besides Inaugural and Valedictory sessions.
The inaugural function of the Conference was held on 19th October 2022, Wednesday with invocation. Dr. S. Femina, Convener of the Seminar & Head, Dept. of English welcomed the gathering and gave a brief introduction regarding the scope of the conference. Shri. A. P. Selvarajan Secretary presided over the meeting. Dr. S. Krishnamurthy, Principal and Dr. P. K. Balamurugan, Vice Principal and Dr Kshamata Chaudhary, Associate Professor, English & Director, Research, Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, Rajasthan and Coordinator, iSPELL India felicitated the event.
Dr. S. Manimekalai, Associate Professor of English, Sri Kaliswari College (Autonomous), Sivakasi inaugurated the conference and in her inaugural speech focussed on the evolution of postmodern voices presented in literature and criticism. Following that, Dr. G. A. Ghanshyam, Professor of English, Directorate of Higher Education, Rajpur, Chhattisgarh, and Founder & General Secretary, iSPELL, in his inaugural address presented the theme of the conference in a lucid manner for the understanding of the audience.
Dr. T. Ravichandran, Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur was the Resource Person for Plenary Session-I and delivered a speech on the topic “Demystifying Postmodern Multiplicity: Enigmas or Entanglements?” through virtual mode. He pointed out the issues and challenges in the postmodern theory. He stated that Postmodern, a paradoxical as well as a polysemic concept remains the most elusive phenomenon of literature and cultural studies. Illustrating various postmodern theorists and thinkers like Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard, he defined the characteristic features of postmodernism. Dr. A. S. Poovamma, Vice-Principal & Head, Department of English, Cauvery College, Gonikoppal was the Chair Person of the session.
Dr. J. John Sekar, Associate Professor & Former Head, Research Department of English, The American College, Madurai delivered the keynote address on “Role of Communication in the Postmodern World” in the Plenary Session-II. In his address, he elaborated the subtle distinctions among the jargons like postmodern, postmodernity and postmodernist and differentiated the readerly and writerly texts. Dr. Ashok Sachdeva, Professor of English MJB Government Girls PG College, Indore, MP, and Vice-president, iSPELL India, the Chair of the Session presented concluding remarks of the session.
The second day of the National Conference began with an equally illuminating note on 20 October, 2022. The Keynote Speaker for Plenary Session-III was Dr. Sushma V Murthy, Associate Professor, Department of English and Cultural Studies, Central Campus Christ Deemed to be University, Bangalore. She spoke on the topic “Sub/verses of the Meta: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Gender in Postmodern Literature”. In her keynote address, she focussed on the complications associated with ‘meta-narratives’. Further she surveyed select postmodern literatures as self-reflexive meta-narratives. She raised different indispensable issues and concerns identified with postmodernism and summarised that these postmodern literatures subvert the categories of sex and gender.
The Fourth and Fifth Plenary Sessions were animated with a varied range of topics presented by seventy scholars across the nation with multi-dimensional thematic outreach. Dr. Payel Dutta Chowdhury , Professor and Director, School of Arts, Humanities and Social
Sciences, REVA University Bangalore, and Joint Secretary, iSPELL India and Dr Shalini Yadav, Professor of English, Compucom Institute of Technology and Management, Jaipur, Rajasthan and Dr. A. Ramasubbiah, Assistant Professor, Mannar Thriumalai Naicker College, Madurai chaired the Paper Presentation Sessions. The participants who attended the conference were benefitted from the discussions as most of the papers that were presented touched upon all issues pertained to postmodernism.
At the Valedictory Session of the National Conference, Prof. Anupama Vohra, Professor, Department of English, DDE, University of Jammu, Jammu Region Head, and President, ISPELL India welcomed dignitaries and delegates. Dr. M. R. Chandran, Head & Associate Professor,
Centre for Research in English, Saraswathi Narayanan College, Madurai delivered a valedictory address on “Conceptual Reflection of Postmodern Literature”. In his address, he explicated the stylistic and ideological postmodern literary conventions like fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, parody, dark humour and lack of format. Dr. S. Krishnamurthy, Principal distributed certificates to all the participants. All the participants, invited and registered, were informed that an edited volume would soon be published. Dr. S. Santhi, Assistant Professor of English proposed a vote of thanks.
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