Language and cultural exchange celebrated at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2016

Bhasha: Freeing the Word brings together eminent writers Anita Agnihotri, K. Satchidanandan, Dhruba Jyoti Borah, Sitanshu Yashaschandra and Vivek Shanbhag representing Bangla, Malayalam, Assamese, Gujarati and Kannada respectively, to debate the plurality of perspectives and whether they do in fact constitute many languages and one literature.

Saraswatichandra, the classic Gujarati novel by Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi, of which scholar and translator Tridip Suhrudhas released the first of four volumes in translation, forms the basis of a fascinating conversation about the magnificent scope and enduring relevance of this seminal Gujarati novel.

Paving the way to making the great literary works of India accessible, The Murty Classical Library of India has contributed tremendously within a year of its formation. The impact and outreach of major Indian classical texts which have been translated are explored in sessions on Philip A. Lutgendorf’s seven volume English translation of the Ramcharitmanas, a classic text hailed as “the living sum of Indian culture”.

Internationally, Chasing Lost Time; Translating Proust explores C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s celebrated translation of Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, which exhausted and consumed the translator, leading to his early death at the age of just forty. Scott Moncrieff’s great-great-niece Jean Findlay tells the story of his remarkable life.

Bilingualities explores the astonishing talent of bilingual writers who negotiate different languages and cultures with Yoko Tawada, Cornelia Funke, Abdourahman Waberi and Ira Pande writing and translating across a spectrum of languages such as Japanese, German, French, Flemish, English and Hindi.

Readings: Identities sees R. Raj Rao along with other significant co-panelists Tulsi Badrinath and Shujoy Dutta delve into the gravity of interpreting individuality - pursuing an understanding beyond the lexicon and yet through it. Yoko Tawada and Abdourahman A. Waberi, introduced by Namita Gokhale pursue an understanding of cultures and sensibilities vis-a-vis text in Readings: Lands Without Shadows.

Adivaani: The Indigenous Literature of India brings to fore the debate around the search for identity of the Adivasi literature as it adapts to scripts and confronts the challenges of a changing world

For the first time this year, Jaipur BookMark brings to the publishing and translation market a Global Rights Translation Catalogue with a select list of 8 works on offer for translation from across 6 Indian languages. The catalogue will also be available online on the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival website, and at Teamwork Arts literary events across the globe and will be available for digital, film and publication rights. Jaipur BookMark is well placed to platform the best of Indian writing and to help facilitate the sale and exchange of rights both across Indian languages and internationally.

Namita Gokhale, author and co-Director of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival said, “India and South Asia exist in a constant state of translation and of bilingual and multilingual engagement. The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival has over the years attempted to showcase the rich literary diversity of contemporary writing in the Indian languages. I am delighted that the Jaipur BookMark 2016 focuses on the crucial issue of translation and of creating a body of high quality writing which is accessible in publishing forums across the world”

Sanjoy K. Roy, Director of Teamwork Arts, Producers of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival said, “The exchange of cultures and languages in order to broaden understanding has always been a very important part of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. This year more than ever we are focusing on the many varied cultures and languages of India and the skill of translators in sharing these narratives with the rest of the country and the world.”