Cultural Studies - Page 9

Transport, Mobility and Mobile Groups in Bengal: Deconstructing Colonial Myths of Movement and Migration in the Eighteenth Century

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Baijayanti Chatterjee

Assistant Professor of History, Seth Anandram Jaipuria College, Calcutta University.

ORCID: 0000-0003-1176-6557. Email: chatterjeebaijayanti@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 2, April-June, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n2.04

 Abstract

This article sets out to dismiss the European notion of a lazy and static Bengali perennially averse to movement, by looking at transport networks, mobility and mobile groups in eighteenth century Bengal. The article argues that Bengali society was highly mobile, owing to the presence of an efficient system of transport by land and water which sustained movement. The so-called ‘indolence’ of the Bengali and his reluctance for movement was in fact a ‘myth’ created by the Europeans with a vested interest to disparage native society and to justify European domination over Bengal.

 Keywords: Colonial myth-making, transport & mobility, eighteenth-century Bengal

A Medieval Woman Dares to Stand Up: Marie de France’s Criticism of the King and the Court

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Albrecht Classen

University of Arizona, USA. ORCID: 0000-0002-3878-319X. Email:  aclassen@arizona.edu

 Volume 12, Number 2, April-June, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n2.01

 Abstract:

While medievalists have long recognized Marie de France’s extraordinary literary abilities, we have not yet fully identified the extent to which she stood up as a social critic who attacked many social ills within her society, not holding back in her sharp attacks both against the figure of the king and against the powerful nobles of her time. Only if we combine her lais and her fables in our analysis, can we gain a full understanding of the far-reaching discourse about the danger of abuse of power at the hand of the mighty and rich in the high Middle Ages. Although we tend to identify that past era as deeply remote from us, as repressive, simple-minded, and submissive, Marie’s strong criticism of the abuses by the high-ranking contemporaries sheds important light on a world that was not really that far away from us in many different ways, with many intellectuals already extensively aware about social injustice and the danger of tyranny.

Keywords: Marie de France, court criticism, criticism of the king, lais, fables

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