A. K. Ramanujan

Bio: A. K. Ramanujan is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poetry & Tree (data structure). The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 28 publications receiving 585 citations.

The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan

Abstract: Poet, translator, folklorist, A. K. Ramanujan has been recognized as the world's most profund scholar of South Asian language and culture. This book brings together for the first time thirty essays on literature and culture written by him over a period of four decades. It is the product of the collaborative effort of a number of Ramanujan's colleagues and friends. The four sections - General Essays on Literature and Culture, Essays on Classical Literatures, Essays on Bhakti and Modern Poetry and Essays on Folklore - are each prefaced by a brief critical introduction. The volume also contains notes on each essay included here, as well as a chronology of Ramanujan's books and essays.

Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an Anthology of Reflections

Abstract: This paper is in the form of an anthology of ideas and examples (poems, mostly). They explore what I consider a central presupposition, or preoccupation, of my own and my colleagues' work in Indian texts, hence the large number of quotations from my own and others' translations. Parts and versions of this paper were presented at the Conference on the Directions and Limits of Reflexivity in the Axial Age Civilizations, in Bad Homberg, 1985, and as a Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture in All Soul's College, Oxford University, 1988. I wish to thank my hosts and colleagues in both places.

The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world

Abstract: In this paper, we challenge the universality of three basic assumptions prevalent in organizational decision support and strategy: assumptions of order, of rational choice, and of intent. We describe the Cynefin framework, a sense-making device we have developed to help people make sense of the complexities made visible by the relaxation of these assumptions. The Cynefin framework is derived from several years of action research into the use of narrative and complexity theory in organizational knowledge exchange, decision-making, strategy, and policy-making. The framework is explained, its conceptual underpinnings are outlined, and its use in group sense-making and discourse is described. Finally, the consequences of relaxing the three basic assumptions, using the Cynefin framework as a mechanism, are considered.

Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame

Abstract: One of the first books to shine a light on the broad scope of translation studies, this Routledge Translation Classic is widely regarded as a pillar of the discipline. Authored by one of the most infl uential translation theorists of the twentieth century, Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame shows how rewriting – translation, anthologization, historiography, criticism, editing – infl uences the reception and canonization of works of literature. Firmly placing the production and reception of literature within the wider framework of a culture and its history, Andre Lefevere explores how rewriting manipulates works of literature to ideological and artistic ends, and demonstrates how rewriting a text can give it a new, sometimes subversive, historical or literary status. Ranging across various literatures, including Classical Latin, French, and German, and here reissued with a new foreword by Scott G. Williams, this is a seminal text for all students and specialists in translation studies, literary theory, and comparative and world literature.

The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India

Abstract: List of Maps Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction Culture, Power, (Pre)modernity The Cosmopolitan in Theory and Practice The Vernacular in Theory and Practice Theory, Metatheory, Practice, Metapractice PART 1. THE SANSKRIT COSMOPOLIS Chapter 1. The Language of the Gods Enters the World 1.1 Precosmopolitan Sanskrit: Monopolization and Ritualization 1.2 From Resistance to Appropriation 1.3. Expanding the Prestige Economy of Sanskrit Chapter 2. Literature and the Cosmopolitan Language of Literature 2.1. From Liturgy to Literature 2.2. Literary Language as a Closed Set 2.3. The Final Theory of Literary Language: Bhoja's Poetics Chapter 3. The World Conquest and Regime of the Cosmopolitan Style 3.1. Inscribing Political Will in Sanskrit 3.2. The Semantics of Inscriptional Discourse: The Poetics of Power, Malava, 1141 3.3. The Pragmatics of Inscriptional Discourse: Making History, Kalyana, 1008 Chapter 4. Sanskrit Culture as Courtly Practice 4.1. Grammatical and Political Correctness: The Politics of Grammar 4.2. Grammatical and Political Correctness: Grammar Envy 4.3. Literature and Kingly Virtuosity Chapter 5. The Map of Sanskrit Knowledge and the Discourse on the Ways of Literature 5.1. The Geocultural Matrix of Sanskrit Knowledge 5.2. Poetry Man, Poetics Woman, and the Birth-Space of Literature 5.3. The Ways of Literature: Tradition, Method, and Stylistic Regions Chapter 6. Political Formations and Cultural Ethos 6.1. Production and Reproduction of Epic Space 6.2. Power and Culture in a Cosmos Chapter 7. A European Countercosmopolis 7.1. Latinitas 7.2. Imperium Romanum PART 2. THE VERNACULAR MILLENIUM Chapter 8. Beginnings, Textualization, Superposition 8.1. Literary Newness Enters the World 8.2. From Language to Text 8.3. There Is No Parthenogenesis in Culture Chapter 9. Creating a Regional World: The Case of Kannada 9.1. Vernacularization and Political Inscription 9.2. The Way of the King of Poets and the Places of Poetry 9.3. Localizing the Universal Political: Pampa Bharatam 9.4. A New Philology: From Norm-Bound Practice to Practice-Bound Norm Chapter 10. Vernacular Poetries and Polities in Southern Asia 10.1. The Cosmopolitan Vernacularization of South and Southeast Asia 10.2. Region and Reason 10.3. Vernacular Polities 10.4. Religion and Vernacularization Chapter 11. Europe Vernacularized 11.1. Literacy and Literature 11.2. Vernacular Anxiety 11.3. A New Cultural Politics Chapter 12. Comparative and Connective Vernacularization 12.1. European Particularism and Indian Difference 12.2. A Hard History of the Vernacular Millennium PART 3. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CULTURE AND POWER Chapter 13. Actually Existing Theory and Its Discontents 13.1. Natural Histories of Culture-Power 13.2. Primordialism, Linguism, Ethnicity, and Other Unwarranted Generalizations 13.3. Legitimation, Ideology, and Related Functionalisms Chapter 14. Indigenism and Other Culture-Power Concepts of Modernity 14.1. Civilizationalism, or Indigenism with Too Little History 14.2. Nationalism, or Indigenism with Too Much History Epilogue. From Cosmopolitan-or-Vernacular to Cosmopolitan-and-Vernacular Appendix A A.1 Bhoja's Theory of Literary Language (from the Srngaraprakasa) A. 2 Bhoja's Theory of Ornamentation (from the Sarasvatikanthabharana) A.3 Sripala's Bilpank Prasasti of King Jayasimha Siddharaja A.4 The Origins of Hemacandra's Grammar (from Prabhacandra's Prabhavakacarita) A.5 The Invention of Kavya (from Rjaekhara's Kavyamimamsa) Appendix B B.1 Approximate Dates of Principal Dynasties B.2 Names of Important Peoples and Places with Their Approximate Modern Equivalents or Locations Publication History Bibliography Index

Cultural Diversity in the Morality of Caring: Individually Oriented Versus Duty-Based Interpersonal Moral Codes

Abstract: This article argues that there exists not one universal morality of caring contrasting with the morality of justice but, rather, alternative types of interpersonal moralities that reflect the meaning systems emphasized in different cultural groups. Both the superogatory view of interpersonal morality held by Lawrence Kohlberg and the morality-of-caring framework developed by Carol Gilligan are shown to be culturally bound. Research conducted among American and Hindu Indian populations supports the claim that an individually oriented interpersonal moral code develops among Americans, stressingpersonal freedom of choice, individual responsibility, and a dualistic view of individual motivation. In contrast, a duty-based interpersonal moral code develops among Hindu Indians, stressing broad and socially enforceable interpersonal obligations, the importance of contextual sensitivity, and a monistic view of individual motivation. Issues for future research are iden tified, and implications of these alternative ...

With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India

Abstract: "With Respect to Sex" is an intimate ethnography that offers a provocative account of sexual and social difference in India. The subjects of this study are "hijras" or the "third sex" of India-individuals who occupy a unique, liminal space between male and female, sacred and profane. "Hijras" are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for their ambiguous sexuality. By focusing on the "hijra" community, Gayatri Reddy sheds new light on Indian society and the intricate negotiations of identity across various domains of everyday life. Further, by reframing "hijra" identity through the local economy of respect, this ethnography highlights the complex relationships among local and global, sexual and moral, economies. This book will be regarded as the definitive work on "hijras," one that will be of enormous interest to anthropologists, students of South Asian culture, and specialists in the study of gender and sexuality.