Introduction: Written and Unwritten Literary Geographies
(2025)
Book Chapter
Marzagora, S., & Orsini, F. (2025). Introduction: Written and Unwritten Literary Geographies. In S. Marzagora, & F. Orsini (Eds.), Oral Literary Worlds (pp. 5-46). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0405.00
All Outputs (38)
Fluid Texts (2025)
Book Chapter
Orsini, F. (2025). Fluid Texts. In S. Marzagora, & F. Orsini (Eds.), Oral Literary Worlds (pp. 145-168). Open Book Publishers. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0405.04A “model of world literature that does not include orality is comparable to an act of self-amputation: it entails the excision of a huge field of human cultural endeavour”, argues Liz Gunner. As “verbal art, it belongs to a universal practice of maki... Read More about Fluid Texts.
Yogi Insignia in Mughal Painting and Avadhi Romances (2023)
Book Chapter
Mallinson, J. (2023). Yogi Insignia in Mughal Painting and Avadhi Romances. In F. Orsini (Ed.), Objects, Images, Stories: Simon Digby’s historical method. Oxford University Press.
Daryaganj’s Parallel Book History (2022)
Thesis
Dhingra, K. (2022). Daryaganj’s Parallel Book History [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037803Daryaganj Sunday Patri Kitab Bazaar is a local weekly informal market for used books that has been thriving on the streets of Old Delhi every Sunday for the past five decades, before it was closed by the Delhi Municipal Corporation and moved to a dif... Read More about Daryaganj’s Parallel Book History.
Travel Inside and Outside: Maghribi Resistance as a Literary Force (2022)
Thesis
Blalack, J. S. (2022). Travel Inside and Outside: Maghribi Resistance as a Literary Force [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037659
Against the 'Great Tradition': Marginalization and resistance in Ethiopian novels in Afan Oromo and Amharic (2022)
Thesis
Roba, A. K. (2022). Against the 'Great Tradition': Marginalization and resistance in Ethiopian novels in Afan Oromo and Amharic [PhD thesis, SOAS, University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037396This thesis ‘reads together’ (Laachir) four novels written in two widely-spoken Ethiopian languages, Afan Oromo and Amharic—Yoomi Laataa? [When Shall It Be?] (2010) by Isayas Hordofa and Gurraacha Abbayaa [The Black Man from Abbaya] (1996) by Dhaba W... Read More about Against the 'Great Tradition': Marginalization and resistance in Ethiopian novels in Afan Oromo and Amharic.
An Archaeology of Screenwriting in Indian Cinema, 1930s-1950s (2022)
Thesis
Sengupta, R. (2022). An Archaeology of Screenwriting in Indian Cinema, 1930s-1950s [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00036594The Euro-American scholarship on screenwriting has produced elaborate histories of the development of the screenplay form with reference to extensive archival collections of film scenarios and scripts. On the other hand, the archival absence of early... Read More about An Archaeology of Screenwriting in Indian Cinema, 1930s-1950s.
‘I do fatafat constipation with goras in tip-top gora English’: Hinglish and English accents and speech in Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2021)
Book Chapter
Dwyer, R., & Ashton, H. (2021). ‘I do fatafat constipation with goras in tip-top gora English’: Hinglish and English accents and speech in Jab Tak Hai Jaan. In F. Orsini, & Ravikant. (Eds.), Hinglish Live: Language mixing across media. Orient Blackswan.
Anticolonial imaginaries in the ‘failed state’: epistemic violence and the representation of the Congo in cultural discourse (2021)
Thesis
Sandhu, H. L. (2021). Anticolonial imaginaries in the ‘failed state’: epistemic violence and the representation of the Congo in cultural discourse [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00037132This research critiques the contemporary representation of the Congo as a ‘failed’ or ‘invisible’ state and argues that this discourse continues in the tradition of epistemic violence fundamental to European colonial history in the Congo and Africa m... Read More about Anticolonial imaginaries in the ‘failed state’: epistemic violence and the representation of the Congo in cultural discourse.
Oudh Punch (1877-1915): Satire and Parody in the Colonial Contact Zone (2021)
Thesis
Sikander, M. (2021). Oudh Punch (1877-1915): Satire and Parody in the Colonial Contact Zone [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00035969This thesis looks at the transcultural life of a British magazine—Punch (1841-2002)—in India. From the rich variety of dozens of Punches that cropped up in late nineteenth-century India, it examines the first period of a late nineteenth-century Urdu... Read More about Oudh Punch (1877-1915): Satire and Parody in the Colonial Contact Zone.
Familiarity and Alterity: Ottoman Istanbul through the Eyes of Three Moroccan Travellers from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries (2021)
Thesis
Kara, A. (2021). Familiarity and Alterity: Ottoman Istanbul through the Eyes of Three Moroccan Travellers from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00035951This thesis analyses and compares the travelogues of three Moroccan travellers to Ottoman Istanbul spanning the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, a key period strategically both in the Mediterranean and in Ottoman-Moroccan relations. Early modern Mo... Read More about Familiarity and Alterity: Ottoman Istanbul through the Eyes of Three Moroccan Travellers from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries.
Multilingual Locals and Textual Circulation Before Colonialism [Special issue of: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. vol. 39, no. 1] (2019)
Book
S. Marzagora, F. Orsini, & K. Laachir. (Eds.). (2019). Multilingual Locals and Textual Circulation Before Colonialism [Special issue of: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. vol. 39, no. 1]. Duke University Press.
Beyond the “Bhai-Bhai” Rhetoric : China-India Literary Relations, 1950-1990 (2019)
Thesis
Jia, Y. (2019). Beyond the “Bhai-Bhai” Rhetoric : China-India Literary Relations, 1950-1990 [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00032203This thesis examines the multi-layered relationship between the literary spheres of the People’s Republic of China (1949-) and the Republic of India (1947-) from the 1950s to the 1980s. Drawing on previously underexplored materials in Chinese, Hindi,... Read More about Beyond the “Bhai-Bhai” Rhetoric : China-India Literary Relations, 1950-1990.
Longing for Salmá and Hind : (Re)producing Arabic Literature in 18th and 19th-Century North India (2019)
Thesis
Leese, S. (2019). Longing for Salmá and Hind : (Re)producing Arabic Literature in 18th and 19th-Century North India [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00032233Arabic writing is an important but neglected aspect of Indian cultural history. Likewise, being on the Arabic “periphery”, India is almost always overlooked in histories of Arabic literature. As a two-pronged intervention to these fields, this thesis... Read More about Longing for Salmá and Hind : (Re)producing Arabic Literature in 18th and 19th-Century North India.
Writing from the margins : Muslim authors in Hindi and "minor literature" (2018)
Thesis
Landau, D. S. (2018). Writing from the margins : Muslim authors in Hindi and "minor literature" [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00030911
The Deeds of Sītā : A Critical Edition and Literary Contextual Analysis of the Sītācarit by Rāmcand Bālak (2018)
Thesis
Plau, A. (2018). The Deeds of Sītā : A Critical Edition and Literary Contextual Analysis of the Sītācarit by Rāmcand Bālak [PhD thesis, SOAS, University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00032792The Sītācarit ('The Deeds of Sītā') is a retelling of the Rāmāyaṇa story written in the
mid-seventeenth century by Rāmcand Bālak. While popular throughout the first
centuries after its composition, the Sītācarit fell into obscurity by the middle of... Read More about The Deeds of Sītā : A Critical Edition and Literary Contextual Analysis of the Sītācarit by Rāmcand Bālak.
Speaking from the Village : Hindi Literary Representations of the Village in the Post-1990 Era (2018)
Thesis
Lai, G. (2018). Speaking from the Village : Hindi Literary Representations of the Village in the Post-1990 Era [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00032243This thesis explores the village and the rural imaginary in contemporary Hindi literary literature in the post-liberalisation era, when contemporary scholarly discourse and public attention have tended to focus on megacities created by the inflow of... Read More about Speaking from the Village : Hindi Literary Representations of the Village in the Post-1990 Era.
Everyday Reading : Commercial Magazines and Book Publishing in Post-Independence India (2018)
Thesis
Mandhwani, A. (2018). Everyday Reading : Commercial Magazines and Book Publishing in Post-Independence India [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00030282
The erotic untranslatable: the modern reception of Sanskrit love poetry in the West and in India (2018)
Thesis
Italia, M. (2018). The erotic untranslatable: the modern reception of Sanskrit love poetry in the West and in India [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00030309
Many Mahabharatas : linking mythic re-tellings in contemporary India (2017)
Thesis
Sharma, C. (2017). Many Mahabharatas : linking mythic re-tellings in contemporary India [PhD thesis, SOAS University of London]. https://doi.org/10.25501/SOAS.00024908