MDU ROHTAK

Dr. Suchitra Deswal, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Sciences & Humanities attended and presented a paper in Two Day National Conference on Contemporary Literature: An Overview held on 7-8 April 2014 at Department of English and Foreign Languages, M.D.U. Rohtak. The title of the paper was Mahesh Dattani’s Plays: Social Concerns in New Perspectives.

The Conference focused on analysis of Contemporary Indian English Writing in various forms—novel, short story, drama, poetry. It presented a critical review of the range and magnitude of contemporary literature. The thrust areas of the Conference were Diasporic Writers and Their Discontents, Contemporary Novel, Mutations of History in the Post-Independence Novel, Women Writers in Our Time–Their Feminist Concerns, The Rise of Dalit Literature, New Theatre, Social/Political Concerns in Contemporary Drama, Contemporary Poetry, Contemporary Prose and New Directions in Contemporary Short Story.

The Conference was cleaved into five parts—Inaugural Session, Plenary Session, Interaction with Writers Session, Parallel Session and Valedictory Session. Inaugural Session witnessed the glittering presence of luminaries from various fields. Er. H.S. Chahal, Vice-Chancellor, M.D.U., Rohtak presided over the conference as patron. The Chief Guest Padamshree Kaki N. Daruwalla delivered the Key note address. Prof. Bhim S. Dahiya, Former Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra took the chair as Advisor of the Conference.

A special session Interaction with Writers chaired by Prof. Bhim S. Dahiya was the highlight of the conference where in the delegates were face to face with some practicing writers. Four Plenary Sessions were conducted in two days, which were chaired by dignitaries from different Universities across the country—Prof. Anand Prakash (Delhi Univ.), Prof. Akshaya Kumar (Punjab Univ.), Prof. Pankaj K. Singh (Himachal Pradesh Univ.) and Prof. Tejinder Kaur (Punjabi Univ). The Plenary Sessions had enlightening talks by the Resource Persons on different aspects of Contemporary Literature. Twenty parallel sessions were conducted during the seminar, 150 delegates presented papers on wide-ranging facets of contemporary literature. The Valedictory Address was delivered by Prof. Abhai Maurya, former Vice-Chancellor, English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad.

Glimpses of the Conference: