Discussion organised on Nobel laureate

Solan, Oct 24

Belletristic, the literary society of the Department of English, Shoolini University, organised an illuminating discussion on the Tanzanian-born writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah, who has been honoured with the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, the most prestigious literary award in the world.

Assistant Professor Dr Purnima Bali began the session with the quotation from his book ‘Paradise’ – “Respect yourself and others will come to respect you”. Further, Dr Sakshi Sundaram gave a brief introduction on the biographical aspects of the said writer.

Dr Navreet Sahi gave an elaborate presentation on his works and the themes attached to them. Samrat Sharma added his views to the session where he talked about the two themes that runs parallel – sense of belonging and longing linked to each other.

Rajesh Williams and Hemant Sharma also remarked on the language of Gurnah and how he had dealt with the African lives during colonialism in his works . Dr Navreet Sahi pointed out that Gurnah himself thinks that if his works have not been written in English then they would not have gotten the appreciation that they are getting now and how he is also disappointed that African works are not getting translated in English.

The session ended with the insightful remarks by Prof Manju Jaidka, Head of English Dept, Shoolini University.