Shakespeare in Bengal
As one of the earliest regions to have been exposed to colonial education and Shakespeare, Bengal has a long history of engagement with the Shakespeare. The “Shakespeare in Bengal” archive focuses on contemporary Bengali negotiations with Shakespeare, particularly the rich corpus of performances, both on stage and film, as well as the pedagogic traditions and critical engagements with the Shakespearean canon from the nineteenth century onwards. The project started in 2011, under UGC CAS (Phase II), at the Department of English, Jadavpur University, and since then we have managed to build a substantial archive, with the help of School of Cultural Texts and Records. We have collected and digitized material from institutions and libraries scattered across Calcutta and Bengal. Our work has been internationally recognized and the Folger Shakespeare Library has approached the Department to propose hosting some of this material on Miranda, the digital platform of their “Global Shakespeares” project.
Performances
Reviews, videos and ephemera of the performances of Shakespeare works in Bengal.Ephemera
Video
Translations & adaptations
An annotated and critical list of Shakespeare translations and adaptations generated in Bengal, mostly in Bengali, would be prepared. A list of previous publications in this field is under preparation and several texts are being located.
Pedagogy
This part of the project will look at written testimonies, syllabi, question papers, and oral narratives of students and teachers of Shakespearean texts in order to construct a history of Shakespeare teaching in Bengal from the 19th century onwards.We have aimed to document three different but connected fields of Shakespearean presence in Bengali culture: performances, translations and adaptations, and pedagogy. This website makes our archive available online for the benefit of students and researchers.
Aparna Sen on Arshinagar, Shakespeare in Bengal Project
Arshinagar is an Bengali drama film directed by Aparna Sen, based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The film features Dev and Rittika Sen in lead roles. The film marks the first colloboration between the lead actors and also the between the lead actors and director.
