1. Translating Matricide: Orestes and Parashuram.
- Author
-
BHATTACHARJEE, TUHIN
- Subjects
LITERATURE translations ,PARRICIDE in literature ,ORESTES (Greek mythology) ,CULTURAL identity in literature ,PARASURAMA (Hindu deity) ,WOMEN'S sexual behavior - Abstract
This paper examines an unexpected encounter, and the conversation that unfolds, between Orestes, the ancient Greek prince, and Parashuram, the ancient Indian sage. This dialogue, found in Sisir Kumar Das' Bengali collection Aloukik Sanglap (Unearthly Dialogues, 2011) contains a series of speculative conversations, in modern Bengali, between ancient Greek and ancient Hindu characters, forming a fascinating triangulation of cultures. But how does such a conversation become possible? What does such an impossible translation bring to light? This paper will analyze the dialogue titled Dui Matrighati ("Two matricides"), referring to Orestes' and Parashuram's crime of murdering their own mothers. Drawing on the works of thinkers like Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Emanuela Bianchi, and Iris Young, I will consider how ancient Greek and Hindu thinking about the maternalfeminine (fails to) translate into each other. I shall read this dialogue in the context of ancient representations of the mother, the law of the father in psychoanalysis, and the possibility of unpredictable friendships grounded on the untranslatable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022