H-ASIA: CFP Centenary of Indian Cinema: Aesthetics, Economics & Politics, Univ of Otago, Dunedin, NZ, Oct. 3, 2013

Apologies for cross-listings:
From: Frank Conlon [[email protected]]

H-ASIA
April 24, 2013

Call for papers: Centenary of Indian Cinema: Aesthetics, Economics,
and Politics, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ, October 3, 2013

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From: H-Net Announcements <[email protected]>

Centenary of Indian Cinema: Aesthetics, Economics, and Politics
Location: New Zealand
Conference Date: 2013-10-03
Date Submitted: 2013-04-17
Announcement ID: 203111

The year 2013 marks the centenary of Indian cinema. On May 3 1913,
Dadasaheb Phalke screened the first Indian film Raja Harishchandra at
Coronation Theatre in what was then Bombay. Today, Indian cinema is,
undoubtedly, a global transnational cultural industry  in terms of
output and reach, and in terms of the multifaceted relationships to
social, economic, cultural, political, ideological, aesthetic, and
institutional discourses. It is a significant cultural industry that
plays a central role in articulating fundamental modalities of
inscribing subjectivities  gender, sexuality, nationalism, caste,
class, religion, ethnicity  played out within specific historical
moments and fields of power. Further, it should be noted that Indian
cinema is a heterogeneous assemblage that includes, in addition to
mainstream regional Indian cinemas, documentary films, parallel
cinema, short films, digital films, amateur films and those made for
the festival circuit. It has, in that regard, numerous countenances.

Indian cinema is also radically dispersed in terms of contexts of
appearance (airplane screens, computer screens, multiplex halls),
fluidity of movement between different media technologies (online
movie portals, television and DVDs, mobile technology), and the
superfluous integration with other commodity forms (animated films,
game art, IPL, and so on). The dispersal of Indian cinema
specifically, and cinema more generally, also demands that we ask how
do people engage with cinema, how is cinema experienced in the age of
media convergence. In short, Indian cinema is a mobile assemblage that
interacts with or carries out interactions with other media-systems,
popular cultures, bodies, institutions, forms of lives, communities,
and urban and industrial developments.

Additionally, the study of Indian cinema has bourgeoned and opened an
entirely new field of scholarship, challenged the discipline of Film
Studies, set up new courses within University Departments, and
fostered a healthy critical intellectual community. This body of
scholarship has had a tremendous impact, not only in terms of making
visible Indian cinema to academia, but of cultivating a culture of
taking Indian cinema seriously as a significant cultural object for
scrutiny. That said, this body of scholarship must urgently address
the changing media landscape. This is a landscape marked by
convergence, multi-platform delivery and consumption circuits, and
diverse modalities of production. The Indian film industry is now a
multi-billion dollar business and employs thousands of actors and
technicians. Hence its commercial and human resource aspects cannot be
neglected either. This existing body of scholarship must therefore
address questions of how might we study Indian cinema beyond the
domain of representation. Have we exhausted all options? What is the
future of this cinema? Are the theoretical and conceptual approaches
and trajectories that inform this body of scholarship sufficient? What
new theoretical and conceptual engagements must this cinema be
connected to? How do we evaluate the economic impact of this film
industry, both inside India and outside, as increasingly Indian films
are shot in foreign countries, including New Zealand?

At this critical juncture of Indian cinemas history and a rapidly
changing mediascape, it is time, we believe to reflect on and debate
Indian cinema: its pasts, present and future; and its possibilities,
potentialities, and limits. We invite papers on any aspect or topic
relating to Indian cinema. Please send an abstract (250 words) and a
short bio to the following email address ([email protected])
by 1 August 2013.

The keynote addresses will be delivered by Professor Vijay Mishra
(Murdoch University, Australia) & Associate Professor Ranjani Mazumdar
(JNU, India). There will be other specially invited speakers.

The conference will take place at the Dunedin campus of the University
of Otago under the auspices of the New Zealand India Research
Institute, which has just been established as a consortium of seven
New Zealand universities to promote Indian studies in the country.

The conference organizers expect that the paper presenters will seek
funding from their own institutions.

Conveners

Dr. Vijay Devadas, Department of Media, Film & Communication,
University of Otago.

Dr. Sita Venkateswar, College of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Massey University


Vijay Devadas
Department of Media, Film & Communication
University of Otago

Phone: + 643 479 4374
Fax: + 643 479 3932
Email: [email protected]





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