University of Heidelberg

Contact information

Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstraße 2, Building 4400
69115 Heidelberg
Germany

Email:

paranjape@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

Projects

• B1 Satire

Curriculum vitae

born 1986 in Pune, India

Education

since 11.2008: Team member of the project “Gauging Cultural Asymmetries: Asian Satire and the Search for Identity in the Era of Colonialism and Imperialism” (B1) of the Cluster of Excellence at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany, Ph.D. Candidate

2008: M.A. in German Studies; Special Subjects: Translation and Dissertation (Dissertation title: "Behandlung jugendspezifischer Themen in ausgewählten deutschen und Marathi Zeitungen. Eine vergleichende Studie") at University of Pune, India

07.-08.2007: Participation in the International Summer Course for Philology (Internationaler Sommerkurs für Germanistik) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

2006: B.A. in German at Fergusson College Pune, India

Working Experience

09.-10.2008: Worked with Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India

12.2007-09.2008: Research Assistant in the project "Reception of Indian Literature in German Speaking Countries" with Prof.Dr. Neeti Badwe, University of Pune, India

06.2006-08.2008: Feature Sub-Editor at 'Lokmat' Newspapers Pvt. Ltd., India

2005-2008: Teaching German to Secondary School Students

2005: Interpreter at Koenig Equipment India Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India

Conferences (organised and participated in)

01.2008: "Communication over Boundaries - Current Approaches towards Intercultural Understanding", University of Pune, India

11.2007: "Translation as Cultural Praxis", University of Pune, India

2006: Consultant for higher Education in Germany at the DAAD International Education Fair in Pune, India

Ph.D. Project

"Mapping Identities: Middle Class and Colonial Marathi Satire"

Marathi is one of the prominent modern Indian languages of western India. Traces of satire in Marathi literature can be found in the literary works of Marathi writers as early as in 13th and 14th century. There is an abundance of satirical literature during the colonial era, especially in the second half of 19th century and in the early 20th century, in western India. In spite of leaving a notable mark in the Marathi literary oeuvre, satire has been neglected by literary historians and critics. This challenges one to make it a point to give Marathi satire a critical attention in the realm of literature.

Satire for the Marathi intellectuals – a product of colonial encounter themselves – was a powerful literary mode to critique the British colonial regime and also of self-criticism. Marathi satire deals with the questions of colonial government and its politics, ridicules and attacks the anglicized Marathi people and social mimicry, shifting gender identities, traditional ways, attitudes, role models and engages with the problematic of Marathi cultural identity and everyday lives under the overarching presence of colonialism.

My research would focus on the cultural project of formation of Marathi middle class identity and its inextricable linkage with the contemporary discourse on gender relations in modern representative Marathi satirical pieces from the late 19th century till the end of colonial rule.