About this episode
This episode explores the complexities of narration, identity, and truth through various academic lenses.
Are you a narr-actor or a spect-actor? Are you best placed to narrate your own story? Why do those things not get talked about? Do narrations create selves? Can one perceive differently than one sees? Are certain narrators to be privileged? Are we all born into a narrative structure? Do spectators change the events? How does one live in a world with competing truths? What if ‘facts’ are absent / silent? How do we cover up and fabulate? Who experiences guilt and anxiety? What comes in between speech and silence? Does history (or power) stutter? Could rituals & folk tales be narratives? Which stories become narratives? Who counts as a human being? Is (historical) truth immaculate? What do history books in Congo talk about? What have sugar / rubber / oil done to the world? Do structures come out of processes? What happens when something false is retold? Who is the narrator of the narrator? How do the spectres speak? Do you listen to the Other? How is global politics done when things are unclear? Are spectators, actors and narrators increasingly mingling around us? So then: where are we? What time is it? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from literary studies &…
People in this episode
Guests: Dr. Aparna Devare, Prof. Saurabh Dube, Dr. Arka Chattopadhyay
Topics covered
- narration
- identity
- truth
- history
- politics
Keywords
- narr-actor
- spect-actor
- narrative structure
- competing truths
- historical truth
- rituals
- folk tales
- global politics
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Congo, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Mexico City
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