International Conference On 100 Years Of The Wasteland Concludes At AMU

Aligarh, February 28 (TNA) A two-day International Conference on “100 Years of The Wasteland, Ulysses and Jacob's Room” was organized by the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University. Delivering the valedictory address, Prof. Azarmi Dukht Safavi, Founder, Honorary Advisor and Former Director, Institute of Persian Research, congratulated the organizing secretary and Chairman, Department of English, Prof. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui for conceiving and organizing such an inclusive and multidisciplinary seminar.

Prof. Siddiqui in his concluding remarks underlined the possibilities of reading and re-reading a text from endless perspectives, as manifested in the conference. Prof. Samina Khan highlighted the main features of the cultural evening, which she organized along with Prof. Aysha Munira Rasheed, to acquaint the participants with the culture of the place which is a combination of western ethos and eastern values.

In the detailed report of the conference, the convener, Dr. Kishwar Zafir said that the focus of the conference was on modernism and modernity, the two major contesting terms about the highly dynamic 20th century as a way of thought and expression. Around 150 participants from all over the country attended the conference and 23 paper reading sessions in the hybrid mode were organized on a wide range of topics, from Eliot’s modernism to Woolf’s feminism.

The conference had three plenary sessions on different aspects of modernism, both in its temporal and spatial dimensions. The keynote address was delivered by Prof Motilal Raina, Punjab University, Chandigarh, who talked about the modernism of Eliot, Joyce, and Woolf in the context of Europe vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Prof Anisur Rahman, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, in his plenary address discussed the popularity of T.S. Eliot sharing his own experience of dealing with the writer as a student and as a teacher.

He mentioned how these three texts have been talked about since 1922 but it was only in 2023 that Prof Asim Siddiqui undertook the daunting task of organizing the conference on the 100 years of these canonical writings. Prof Amritjit Singh, Ohio State University, Ohio, USA, in his plenary talk highlighted “the Underbelly of Modernism” in the context of the attitude of these highly applauded modernist writers towards neglecting the war poets.