The talk will be a reading of Qurratulain Hyder’s engagement with Neoclassicism, colonial and nationalist archaeology in her two Urdu novels Akhir-i-Shab ke Humsafar and Ag ka Darya. Hyder substantially rewrote these novels in her own English translations Fireflies in the Mist and River of Fire, framed through a discussion of translation and the term she uses to describe River of Fire: transcreation. This talk will explore how her translations worked to produce a genealogy of these divisions and placed them within a global racial matrix.

Sadia Abbas is associate professor of postcolonial studies at Rutgers University-Newark and former director of the Center for European Studies at Rutgers-New Brunswick. She is the author of At Freedom’s Limit: Islam and the Postcolonial Predicament (winner of the MLA first book award), the novel The Empty Room, shortlisted for the DSC prize for South Asian Literature, and co-editor of Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities, which was listed as one the best art books of 2021 by the New York Times. She has also written essays and opinion pieces for Dawn (the Pakistani daily), Naya Daur, OpenDemocracy, and TANK magazine. She is co-founder of "Ideas and Futures," a multi-media, interdisciplinary e-journal of culture and politics and Executive Director of "Ideas and Futures: A Collaborative for Just and Vibrant Societies."

Made possible with the generous support of the Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.