Special issue: India and South Africa: comparisons, confluences, contrasts

The articles in this special issue come out of papers delivered at a conference called ‘India and South Africa: comparisons, confluences, contrasts’, organised by Javed Majeed and held at King’s College London in October 2012. The aim of the conference was to deepen the interdisciplinary nature of literary studies (especially in its comparative literary dimensions) and Indian Ocean studies by building links between these two areas. Contributions: Introduction: India and South Africa: comparisons, confluences, contrasts (Javed Majeed, Isabel Hofmeyr); Gandhi, Carpenter, Schreiner and the crisis of modern civilisation at the turn of the 20th century (John Hilton); Gandhi and Socrates (Phiroze Vasunia); Dil maange more: cultural contexts of Hinglish in contemporary India (Francesca Orsini); ‘A state of affairs which is essentially indefinite’: the linguistic survey of India (1894-1927) (Javed Majeed); Performing history and constructing ‘culture’: Ronnie Govender’s 1949 and the romanticism of historical memory (Neilesh Bose). [ASC Leiden abstract]