Seagull School of Publishing

‘sthaniya sambaad‘ (‘spring in the colony‘), Goldsmiths Tuesday Sept 6th, 2011

This feature film by Arjun Gourisaria and Moinak Biswas is well worth seeing. ‘sthaniya sambaad‘ (‘spring in the colony‘), (105 min. 2009, 35 mm, cinemascope, EST). Q & A with one of the directors. 6.15pm Tuesday Sept 6th, 2011 – Goldsmiths Cinema RHB Small Hall please take a look at  www.springinthecolony.com and also the blog www.sthaniya.wordpress.com for responses to the film. [...]

sthaniya sambaad 19.3.2010 5pm

I am very pleased to announce a special screening of the feature film by Arjun Gourisaria and Moinak Biswas ‘sthaniya sambaad‘ (‘spring in the colony‘), (105 min. 2009, 35 mm, cinemascope, EST). Q & A with one of the directors. 5pm friday 19th March – Goldsmiths Cinema RHB please take a look at  www.springinthecolony.com and also [...]

National Instruments

On the initiative of Moinak Biswas, Film Studies Jadavpur Uni, Kolkata, and with great input from Rosalind Morris, but initially inspired by the Preservation in Globalization workshop convened by Gayatri Spivak and Jorge Otero-Pailos, an interesting redevelopment seems possible. A disused factory site adjacent the Jadavpur campus was toured by our group in early December. A documentation of the [...]

December 2009 in Kolkata

I am lucky enough to have been invited to go to Kolkata in December for a symposium on the “Cultural Politics of Preservation”, organised by Gayatri Spivak. Was asked today what I would present on. Gulp. I have no idea yet. How about this: To work among the masses – co-research, institutionalization or vanguard intervention? [...]

Patrick Swayze Dance with Death

There will be no “Dirty Dancing 3″ it seems. Sad, but at least we can luxuriate in the recollections of knowing that “DD2″ (2004 – where Patch was a dance instructor) will have been the last outing for the Rambo of the ballroom, and the flame will never be dimmed. I am dismayed that he [...]

Kolkata-Melbourne

Reading The Telegraph from Kolkata, I guess we have to see this below as good news – coming from Melbourne to work in the capital of West Bengal, I always thought there was a major similarity between both cities. Not obviously, but it was something to do with the same architects working for the East [...]

Short coins

Some years ago, I wrote a piece about the coins Job Charnok used to buy the three villages that eventually became the city of Kolkata. These were pieces of silver earned from the slave trade, making an interesting if brutal link between the great British adventure of exploitation in India and across the Atlantic. Coins [...]

Sacred Media Cow

From Somnath over on on “Sacred Media Cow” [SACREDMEDIACOW is an independent postgraduate collective on Indian media research and production at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London]: Oh Calcutta Published by Somnath Batabyal February 26th, 2007 in Som’s Blog. Folks, been away from active blogging for a while. [...]

City Requiem

City Requiem, Calcutta: Gender and the Politics of Poverty by Ananya Roy Uni of Minnesota Press. Roy she was paralysed by “Rumour”, but went on to write her book anyway. Some pics too, and discussion of New Communism. “Roy shows how urban developmentalism, in its populist guise, reproduces the relations of masculinist patronage, and, in [...]

Why I love Spivak

Yet another reason anyway… Not only is “Critique of Postcolonial Reason” a great book (for teaching, for method, for insight), but Gayatri is generous and committed, and she liked my rumour book: ‘A case in point would be John Hutnyk’s brilliant book “The Rumour of Calcutta”…’ in Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty “Harlem” Social Text – 81 [...]

The Akha heritage Foundation

“Today, I’d like to present excerpts from athought-provoking book by John Hutnyk, entitled ‘TheRumour of Calcutta: tourism, charity and the povertyof representation’. The book was already published in1996, and some of you may remember that I mailed out asummary at the time when tourism NGOs began to discussas to how to apply the ‘fair trade’ [...]

New internationalist Rumour Notice

The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representation ‘…. John Hutnyk, in his fascinating study of Western interpretations of Calcutta, attempts to excavate the city from under the layers of accreted prejudices. He shows convincingly how, even before the traveller arrives, the reputation of Calcutta has laid down a sediment of ideas [...]

Third World Network

Third World Network excerpts latter parts of The Rumour of Calcutta. From: John Hutnyk – Academic Director, Centre for Cultural Studies Work: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/staff/j-hutnyk.php Blog: http://hutnyk.blogspot.com/ Links: http://tawdrysouvenirs.blogspot.com/ Events: http://whats-on-occasionally.blogspot.com/

Vijay Prashad review of Rumour of Calcutta

In Light of Calcutta by Vijay PrashadThe Kathmandu Post Review of Books30 November, 1997Vol. 2, No. 8 “John Hutnyk’s book does not tell us of the visions of the city among its long-term inhabitants. His book introduces the people who travel to South Asia on a budget, mostly from North America, Europe and Australia. ‘Budget [...]

KWark review of Rumour of Calcutta

Against Mother Theresa John Hutnyk’s Rumour of Calcutta, reviewed byMcKenzie WarkWednesday, 10 September 1997 dead link above, but republished HERE.. From: John Hutnyk – Academic Director, Centre for Cultural Studies Work: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/staff/j-hutnyk.php Blog: http://hutnyk.blogspot.com/ Links: http://tawdrysouvenirs.blogspot.com/ Events: http://whats-on-occasionally.blogspot.com/

THE RUMOUR OF CALCUTTA

THE RUMOUR OF CALCUTTA: TOURISM, CHARITY, AND THE POVERTY OF REPRESENTATION John Hutnyk 1996 Zed books, London. An original study in the politics of representation, this book explores the discursive construction of a ‘city of intensities’. The author analyses representations of Calcutta in a wide variety of discourses: in the gossip and travellor-lore of backpackers [...]