Mother, Lover, Śakti: Female protagonists in Rabindranath Tagore‘s novels

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is time and again celebrated for advancing the cause of women in Indian society and promoting the reformist agendas of his days. At the same time he is known for having projected essentialist ideas of archetypical femininity.

In his talk, Prof. Harder looks at Tagore's novels in their entirety, all of which prominently feature female protagonists and portray a range of character profiles and social constellations. Prof. Harder will have Tagore himself guide us through this gallery of female portraits, and highlight both his progressive visions and his blind spots in the process.

Hans Harder has been working as the Professor of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, since 2007. Previously, he studied South Asian Studies at the universities of Hamburg and Heidelberg and completed his PhD and postdoc at Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg. His research and teaching interests include modern South Asian literatures (particularly Bengali), nineteenth and twentieth-century religious movements, colonial and postcolonial intellectual history as well as popular literature and film.