Aparna Dharwadker

Books

• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. A Poetics of Modernity. Oxford University Press, 2020. Print.

  Winner of the prestigious Joe A. Callaway Prize for the Best Book in Drama and Theatre (2020); Honorable Mention, Outstanding Book Award, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)

  A Poetics of Modernity is a scholarly edition of theoretically significant writing on theatre by modern Indian theatre practitioners, in English and in English translation from nine other languages. The selections are drawn from book-length works, essays, lectures, prefatory materials, letters, autobiographies, interviews, and memoirs by playwrights, directors, actors, designers, activists, and policy-makers. A significant proportion of the primary materials included in the volume have been translated into English for the first time, creating an archive of theory and criticism that has not been available earlier to scholars, teachers, students, or general readers interested in modern Indian theatre.

  A comprehensive Introduction to the selection brings new precision to the concept of “modernity” in Indian theatre by defining it in relation to historically unprecedented processes and conditions that first emerged around the mid-nineteenth century, and have continued into the early-twenty first century. The primary materials are arranged chronologically, and each entry includes a headnote on the author and work as well as annotations and explanatory notes.

  Read more Document
• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. Collected Plays of Girish Karnad Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2020. Print.

  The troubled reign of a fourteenth-century sultan of Delhi helps dramatize
  the crisis of secular nationhood in post-Independence India. A twelfthcentury
  folktale about ‘transposed heads’ offers a path-breaking model for
  a quintessentially ‘Indian’ theatre in postcolonial times. The folktale about
  a woman with a snake lover explores gender relations within marriage.
  Individual human sexuality meets the historical debate on violence in Indian
  culture. The plays in this volume span roughly the first half of the career of
  Girish Karnad, one of India’s pre-eminent playwrights.

  The three-volume set of Karnad’s Collected Plays brings together English
  versions of his important works. Each volume contains an extensive
  introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor
  of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin,
  Madison. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of
  Karnad’s work over six decades and position it in the larger context of
  modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad’s place as author
  and translator in a multilingual performance culture and the relation of his
  playwriting to his work in the popular media.

  Each of these volumes serves as a collector’s item, making Karnad’s works
  accessible to theatre lovers worldwide.

  Read more Document
• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. Collected Plays of Girish Karnad Vol. 2. Oxford University Press, 2020. Print.

  A violent history of the anti-caste movement in twelfth-century Karnataka. A myth from the Mahabharata depicted as a narrative of passion, betrayal, and parricide. The inner world of a man whose public life was a continual war against British colonialism. A reflection on the opposition between the spiritual and the erotic. The confrontation between a writer and her electronic image. The plays and monologues in this volume span the latter half of the career of Girish Karnad, one of India’s pre-eminent contemporary playwrights.

  The three-volume set of Karnad’s Collected Plays brings together English versions of his s important works. Each volume contains an extensive introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of Karnad’s work over six decades and position it in the larger context of modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad’s place as author and translator in a multilingual performance culture, the relation of his playwriting to his work in the popular media, and his and his larger-than-life presence as an engaged intellectual in the Indian public sphere.

  Each of these volumes serves as a collector’s item, making Karnad’s works accessible to theatre lovers worldwide.

  Read more Document
• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. Collected Plays of Girish Karnad Vol. 3. N.p., 2020. Print.

  The tale of a mythic king’s aggression against his offspring, and his desperation to escape the curse of old age laid upon him in the prime of life. The anxieties that torment a middle-class family as their daughter awaits the arrival of the ‘suitable boy’ from abroad whom she has never met. The morphing of the city of Bangalore, whose founding myth celebrates its human ambience, into India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ where strangers are thrown together, get entangled, and are violently pulled apart. This volume contains the very first play, as well as the two most recent works, by Girish Karnad, one of India’s pre-eminent contemporary playwrights.

  The three-volume set of Karnad’s Collected Plays brings together English versions of his important works. Each volume contains an extensive introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of Karnad’s work over six decades and position it in the larger context of modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad’s place as author and translator in a multilingual performance culture, the relation of his playwriting to his work in the popular media, and his and his larger-than-life presence as an engaged intellectual in the Indian public sphere.

  Each of these volumes serves as a collector’s item, making Karnad’s works accessible to theatre lovers worldwide.

  Read more Document
• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. One Day in the Season of Rain. Penguin Classics, 2015. Print.

  In a remote village in the foothills of the Himalayas, a gifted but
  unknown poet named Kalidas has nurtured an unconventional
  romance with his youthful muse, Mallika. When the royal palace
  at Ujjayini offers him the position of court poet, Kalidas hesitates,
  but Mallika persuades him to leave for the distant city so that his
  talent may find recognition. Convinced that he will send for her,
  she waits.

  He returns years later, a broken man trying to
  reconnect with his past, only to discover that time has passed him
  by. Titled Ashadh ka ek din in the original Hindi, Mohan Rakesh’s
  play is a poignant story of love, separation, and abandonment,
  and a modernist reimagining of the life of India’s greatest classical
  poet. The new English translation by Aparna Dharwadker and
  Vinay Dharwadker was authorized by the author’s estate, and
  contains a full editorial apparatus aimed at readers, teachers,
  dramaturgs, and theatre directors.

  Flyer for One Day in the Season of Rain.
  Poster for performance of One Day in the Season of Rain.

  Read more Document Document
• 

  Dharwadker, Aparna. Theatres of Independence: Drama, Theory, and Urban Performance in India Since 1947. University of Iowa and Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.

  Winner of the prestigious Joe A. Callaway Prize for the Best Book in Drama and Theatre (2005); Finalist, George Freedley Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association (2006).

  Theatres of Independence is a comprehensive study of drama, theatre, and urban performance in post-independence India. Combining theatre history with theoretical analysis and literary interpretation, Aparna Dharwadker examines the unprecedented conditions for writing and performance that the experience of new nationhood created in a dozen major Indian languages. The book also offers detailed discussions of the major plays, playwrights, directors, dramatic genres, and theories of drama that have made the contemporary Indian stage a vital part of postcolonial and world theatre. Theatres of Independence will be of interest to students and scholars of modern drama, comparative theatre, theatre history, and the new national and postcolonial literatures.

  Read more