Copyright

Ulrich Timme Kragh, Abhishek Jain

Published On

2023-11-14

Page Range

pp. 92–183

Language

  • English

Print Length

92 pages

1. Jane, Come with Me to India

The Narrative Transformation of Janeeyreness in the Indian Reception of Jane Eyre

Chapter of: Prismatic Jane Eyre: Close-Reading a World Novel Across Languages(pp. 92–183)
The essay presents the reception of Jane Eyre on the Indian subcontinent. It examines the Indian motif within Brontë’s novel, surveys seven literary and cinematographic Jane Eyre adaptations in five Indian languages produced between 1914 and 1972, discusses the history of Indian translation practices and presents eighteen Jane Eyre translations into nine Indian languages that appeared between 1953 and 2020, and finally synoptically analyses four passages from two literal translations into Hindi and Kannada and an abridged translation into Gujarati. Throughout, the essay proposes a new approach to narrative analysis based on an Indian dramaturgical model, a new definition of translation and adaptation based on the Indian philosophical notion of transformation, and a new criterion drawn from Indian poetics for distinguishing between the notions of adaptation, abridgement, and translation.

Contributors

Ulrich Timme Kragh

(author)
Visiting Fellow at Apabhramsha Sahitya Academy
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6000-3666

Ulrich Timme Kragh is a scholar of Asian Languages and Cultures, currently researching as a Visiting Fellow at the Apabhramsha Sahitya Academy in Jaipur, India. He has previously taught at Florida State University and the University of Sydney. He has also served as a researcher at Harvard University, Geumgang University, Leiden University, the Australian National University, the University of Copenhagen, and Adam Mickiewicz University. He was the principal investigator of the project ‘Narrative Modes of Historical Discourse in Asia’ funded by the European Research Council. His publications concern medieval Indian philosophy and religion, yogic traditions in Tibet and Pakistan, and theories of history and literature in East Asia, India, and Tibet.

Abhishek Jain

(author)
Bhagwan Mallinath Visiting Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5936-7067

Abhishek Jain is Bhagwan Mallinath Visiting Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He was previously a research fellow of classical and medieval Indian studies at the International Institute for Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Having completed an education in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy in India, he became a doctoral student in the project ‘Narrative Modes of Historical Discourse in Asia’ funded by the European Research Council. He obtained the PhD degree from Adam Mickiewicz University in 2021 with the dissertation ‘Emplotment and Historicity: Narrative Modes of Historical Discourse in the Prabandhakośa’. His research is focused on Indian philosophy, the religion of Jainism, and theories of narrative and history.