The new ASECS program of online discussions of the books and articles that win our major prizes continues with a program about the winner of the 2020 Srinivas Aravamudan Prize for the best article on an eighteenth-century subject with a transnational, comparative, or cosmopolitan approach. In 2020, the prize was awarded to James Mulholland, associate professor and director of graduate programs at North Carolina State University, for his article “An Indian It-Narrative and the Problem of Circulation: Reconsidering a Useful Concept for Literary Study.” Ramesh Mallipeddi, associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, will host the discussion; Professor Mulholland will also participate.
Examining the overabundant employment of “circulation” as a metaphor and method of interpretation, Mulholland challenges literary scholars to reconsider how uncritical use of the framework of “circulation” reproduces power relations underlying imperial forms of traffic. By deploying the concept of “coagulation” instead, his article demonstrates how such a model would work through an engaging reading of The Adventures of a Rupee and provides a new reading methodology for globalism.
The article appeared in Modern Language Quarterly (2018) 79 (4): 373–396. Duke University Press has generously made it freely available through June 2021. It may be accessed on the journal’s website, here: https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-7103396
The ASECS-sponsored discussion will take place via Zoom on Friday, 5 March at 12 noon EST. All members of ASECS and its regional and affiliate societies, as well as members of ISECS affiliated societies, are welcome to attend. Pre-registration is required; the registration form is at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMudeGpqj0tGNRJtPw1swe0v6WtARqcajqg. Registration closes on Friday, 5 March at 10am EST.
Lisa Berglund
ASECS Executive Director
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