Description

This presentation explores how Amitav Ghosh mobilizes the unstable Hindu myth of the River Ganga into the vexed, subversive battlefield of Post-Imperial identity. Julie argues that in his invocation of the vexed history of the divine feminine Ganga, Ghosh suggests an alternative vision of the feminine, which lends itself to being read against contemporary Western feminist theorists such as Luce Irigaray. The myth of the Ganga, in turn, is inextricably yoked to the phallocentric creation myths of the ascetic-erotic male deity Siva. In her study, Julie will chart out how the current paradigm shift in realising an Indian postcolonial identity, post- Independence, is inextricably linked to how woman as water acts as a subversive element against political hegemony by patriarchy, and how the contentious and hybrid representation of the divine feminine, as discursive continuum through the diversity of voices, morphs into a voice or image of resistance.

Julie Mehta teaches the Chancellor-endowed course Asian Cultures and Literatures in Canada in the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Toronto, and is an independent scholar of Cultural and Religious Studies. A CGS-SSHRC scholar through her doctoral programme, and a Dr David Chu Asia Pacific Studies scholar, Julie is soon to submit her dissertation. She was a literary and arts reviewer of World literatures and cultures, while she worked in India, Singapore, Australia and Thailand (1990-2003). Julie is also the author of three books: Dance Of Life: The Mythology, History, and Politics of Cambodian Culture (2001), co-author with her partner, historian Harish Mehta of the best-selling biography of the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen: Strongman of Cambodia (1999), is author of A Walk Through Bangkoks Marketplaces (2002), a contributing author in Ramayana Revisited (Oxford University Press, New York: 2004) and the founder of the Cosmic Flute Foundation, an organisation that promotes cross-cultural understanding across borders through the arts.