INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
on
100 years of The Waste Land, Ulysses and Jacob’s Room
February 25-26, 2023
(Hybrid Mode)
Organized by
Department of English
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
Conference Committee
Organizing Secretary
Prof. Raashid Nehal
Prof. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui
Dr. Md. Sajidul Islam
Chairperson, Department of English
Dr. Kishwar Zafir (Convener)
Dr. Adiba Faiyaz
Dr. Muhammad Asif
Ms. Alisha Ibkar
International Conference
on
100 years of The Waste Land, Ulysses and Jacob’s Room
CONCEPT NOTE
“The early twentieth century marks a significant moment in the history of
the English novel, its status and future becoming a matter of constant
literary debate as both writers and reviewers questioned how the form and
subject-matter of modern fiction should respond to the shape and
experience of modern life.”
-Deborah Parsons, Theorists of the Modernist Novel
The twentieth century will forever be etched in human mind for the devastation and trauma
caused by the two World Wars. It was, however, the First World War which split the world into
two – the world of the past rendered incapacitated to express the modern condition, and the
contemporary world becoming a barren field, a ‘tabula rasa’ on which new things were to be
written. The post-war period also brought with it, rapid expansion in technological
advancements helping create an environment conducive to a society ready to devour literary
texts. Modernism in literature responded to the situation with radical experimentation in both
themes and techniques. The established modes and conventions of literary texts got replaced by
multi-voiced and multi- perspectival montage, fragmentary viewpoints, and diverse tones.
It was T.S. Eliot who first recommended James Joyce’s Ulysses to Virginia Woolf for he
believed that “the book would be a landmark …as it had destroyed the whole of 19th century”
(The Diary of Virginia Woolf, 203). On Eliot’s recommendation, the Woolfs had considered
publishing Ulysses through their Hogarth Press, but later refused owing to its length and
suspecting prosecution for obscenity. Joyce’s experimental approach is still considered to have a
significant influence on Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Even though these three were well aware of
each other’s literary merit, their works reflected their individual selves.
James Joyce’s Ulysses, first conceived as a short story in Dubliners, then as a sequel to A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a modernist tale, drawing heavily from Homer’s
Odyssey. It covers the events of a single day from three different points of view. The text has
multiple entry points with numerous historical and cultural references and allusions. The
stylistic innovations of the text rendered through multi-voiced narration, textual self-
consciousness, mythic framework and thematic concerns of life in the modern metropolis make
it highly experimental and labyrinthine in its construction.
T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, born in the same chaotic time, appears to be a response to the
dilemma of witnessing the end of a great tradition and addressing problems related to the anxiety
of existence. In trying to communicate the futility, meaninglessness, desperation, desolation and
disillusionment of modern life, Eliot uses historical and literary allusions to create a continuous
parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity. The poem illustrates one of Eliot’s critical
concepts, the “objective correlative” which he has mentioned in his essay, “Hamlet and his
Problems” (The Sacred Wood, 1920). The assemblage of fragments and heaps of broken images
from the past in a sort of mosaic renders the poem its thematic unity with recurring images and
symbols of sterility and mechanical existence.
Jacob’s Room, one of Virginia Woolf’s finest examples of dramatization of character, is a
modern tale of loss, failure and postwar trauma. Through Jacob’s Room, Woolf raises pertinent
questions on gender, class and subjectivity of the age. Woolf’s text can be read as a self-
conscious elegy which focuses on absence, and mourns the dread of the Great War.
The three texts, from the time of their publication, have been characterized as complex and
intricate and are considered befitting subjects of literary studies. The Conference aims to study
these three canonical writings by bringing them even closer. In India, in Indian literature and
languages, Eliot, Joyce and Woolf found a new set of admirers from the very beginning. The
powerful influence of Eliot on Bengali writers became manifest in the early 30s (A. Bose, 1965).
Modern Urdu poets like Wazir Agha, Ziya Jalandhari seem to be inspired by both Eliot and
Pound. Krishnanand Joshi in The West Looks at India (1969) prepares a long list of words from
different Indian languages that Joyce makes use of in Finnegans Wake. Also, Mulk Raj Anand’s
Untouchable can be read as a classic instance of having borrowed the modernist tendencies
from Woolf and Joyce in writing this ‘one-day novel’. Modern Hindi poets like Muktibodh
have also pointed out the influence of Eliot’s modernism in Hindi poetry. Similarly, Woolf has
an unacknowledged presence in Ismat Chugtai’s work, but is a proclaimed inspiration for writers
like Qurratulain Hyder and Anita Desai.
The Conference will, therefore, provide an inclusive, interdisciplinary space to explore the
various dimensions these three canonical texts have carried over the years in various Indian
languages, literature and other art forms. To celebrate the event and address these wide range of
issues, the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, is organizing a two-day
international conference with a hope to bring Eliot, Joyce and Woolf to India, 100 years after
the publication of these works in context, through a confluence of scholars from various
departments such as English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Fine Arts, Linguistics and others, on a
single platform. The Conference will be conducted in the hybrid mode following COVID
protocols as per the government directives.
Conference themes/ sub-themes: We invite scholars and researchers to send their abstracts
not exceeding 300 words to [email protected] along with a short bio-
note not exceeding 100 words by the 31st of December 2022. Potential topics include, but are
by no means limited to:
● Influence of Eliot, Joyce and Woolf on Indian languages and literature
● Eliot, Joyce and Woolf in other Indian art forms
● Reception of Eliot, Joyce and Woolf in Indian universities
● T.S. Eliot and eastern spirituality
● Woolf’s feminism and feminism’s Woolf
● Reflections on Time and Space in early modern texts
● Modernism or modernisms
● Realism, realist and the modernist
● Self-reflection and life escape in early modern writings
● The city in modern literature
● Philosophy, prophecy, and contemporary theories
● Linguistic and aesthetic experimentation in the early twentieth century
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of abstract: December 31, 2022
Notification of acceptance: January 10, 2023
Registration opens: January 15, 2023
Submission of full paper: February 10, 2023
Registration/Participation Fees:
Category Amount
Faculty Rs. 2500/- INR (without accommodation)
Rs. 3000/- INR (with accommodation)
Research Scholars Rs. 1000/- INR (without accommodation)
Rs. 2000/- INR (with accommodation)
Faculty (Foreign Nationals) $ 30/- (USD)
UG/PG Students/ Research Scholars Rs. 300/- INR
(Non-presenters/Attendees)
Faculty (Non-Presenter Attendees) Rs. 350/- INR
Note:
● Once the abstract has been accepted, a Google form will be sent for registration
and the mode of payment will also be duly notified.
● Select papers will be considered for publication after the conference.
● Non-presenters/Attendees will be given certificate of participation after fulfilling
the registration formalities.
● Abstracts and bio-notes of the author(s) should be mailed as a single MS- Word
attachment, with font size: 12 Times New Roman, line spacing 1.5.
● For questions or queries, please write to: [email protected]
About Aligarh Muslim University/ The Department of English: Aligarh Muslim
University (accredited by NAAC with A+ grade) was founded in the year 1877 as MAO
College by one of the architects of Modern India, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The University has
now expanded into 13 Faculties with over 330 departments of studies. Among universities in
India, AMU ranked fourth in India Today Ranking, 2021.
The Aligarh Muslim University draws students from all corners of the country, as well as
foreign countries, especially Africa, West Asia and Southeast Asia. The University has the
Maulana Azad library as its central library, which is one of the largest university libraries in
the world, famous for its invaluable collection of manuscripts, rare books and artifacts. It
currently holds around 14 lakh volumes of books and periodicals.
The Department of English, AMU, offers courses at the undergraduate, postgraduate and at
the level of research. The Department engages in teaching both English and English
Language Teaching (ELT). It has an ongoing UGC SAP DRS Phase-II project on Translation
Studies. It has, also, already conducted four GIAN courses in the current academic session
itself.
The Department of English has a highly specialized Multimedia Language Lab for Literature
and ELT students, and is consistently engaged in hosting colloquiums, symposiums,
conferences, seminars and talks by academicians from all over the world.
The Department has 43 faculty members teaching both in the Department as well as the
Women's College of the University. Their teaching and research engage a diverse range of
areas such as Shakespeare Studies, Modern Classics, World Literature, and Digital
Humanities to name a few.
The Aligarh Muslim University is situated at a distance of 120 kms from Delhi. It is very
well connected by rail and road. The University is about 2 kms from the Aligarh Railway
Junction. The nearest airport is Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, which is
about three and a half hours by road. Aligarh is well connected by the GT Road as well as
The Yamuna Expressway.
