Satabarshe Sombhu Mitra UGC Sponsored National Seminar on the Life and Work of Sombhu Mitra Organised by The Bengali and the English Departments of Chandraketugarh Sahidullah Smriti Mahavidyalaya In Collaboration With The Bengali Department of Amdanga Jugalkishore Mahavidyalaya From 22-8-2015 to 23-8-2015 At ‘Uttaran’, B.D.O Office, Deganga Block Debalaya (Berachampa) 743424
Call for Paper
It is indeed difficult to overstate the influence of Sombhu Mitra on both the modern Bengali group theatre and the commercial theatres alike. If Nabannna, which came out in 1948 broke new grounds in many ways, Char Adhyay {1951) followed by Raktakarabi (1954), Bisarjan (1961) and Raja (1964) showed the way in which a Tagore play, hitherto widely denounced as unstageable because of its abstractions, can be performed with success on stage without making any substantial departure from the source. While through Tagore’s plays, he was trying to find an expression of the complete man in all contexts of history, Mitra’s Dashachakra (1952) and Putul Khela (1958), adaptations of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People and Doll’s House, being specimens of the earliest such adaptations for the modern stage, clearly contributed among other playwrights to resist any tendency of cultural insularity of the Bengali stage, though suiting the themes for the dominantly middle class Bengali audience. His translation of Sophocles for the first time for the Bengali stage created new interest in classical drama and set the stage for many such future adaptations. Mitra was always aware of the potentialities of the indigenous forms of drama and Chand Boniker Pala (1978), which was written at a later phase of his life and was meant more for audio presentation than for the stage, takes up a well known story from a Mangalkavya and treats it with a subliminal intertextual link with the Orpheus theme to lend it with themes and motifs at once contemporaneous and eternal for all ages and all times. His film Jagte Raho (1956) evinces his consciousness of the potential of the new wave of cinema. It is with this exploration through time and space as its focus that the present seminar would be held on the birth centenary day of Sombhu Mitra to commemorate the contribution of this great mind in different streams of creative expression. Papers are wanted from teachers, scholars, independent researchers and students. We encourage dramaturgical, theoretical, analytical, and critical perspectives on the different aspects of the life and times of the thespian, on his works, both the canonical and the neglected, with a view of furthering scholarship both about Mitra and his impact on the Bengali and Indian theatre. Papers could deal with the following sub themes:
Life and Times of Sombhu Mitra
Sombhu Mitra and the Theatre Movement in India
Sombhu Mitra and Bohurupee
Adaptations by Mitra from other’s Plays
Translations of Sombhu Mitra
Sombhu Mitra as a Dramatist
Sombhu Mitra and Films
Sombhu Mitra, the Actor
Recitations of Sombhu Mitra
Sombhu Mitra’s Adaptations of Rabindranath Tagore
Sombhu Mitra and the Greek Theatre
Relevance of Sombhu Mitra in Today’s Theatre Movements
Any paper proposal on other related areas is also welcome. Please mail your 200-word abstract for a 15 minutes presentation, at least three keywords and a one-paragraph biographical note to [email protected] by 15 August, 2015. Power point presentations are also welcome. Any queries regarding the seminar may be mailed to the same email address.
GUIDELINES FOR PAPER PRESENTERS
Language –Bengali/ English
Word Limit (Abstract) – 150-200
Word Limit (Full length Paper) – 2500 - 3000
Reference – MLA Style (7th Edition) Font - New Times Roman
Font size - 12
Line Space – 1.5
Please submit one Hard copy of the paper after presenting it at the seminar on A4 Size Paper. Please mention your institutional affiliation and e-mail address in 12 size normal at the end of the paper. Author’s name should be given in bold 12 font size, just below the title. The organizers hope to publish selected papers in an ISBN book.
Registration is entirely free.
For any enquiry please feel free to call
Prof. Supriya Datta 9477103391 & Dr Saurabh Bhattacharyya 9433373371 (Orgainising Secretaries)