Now in English! "Balika Badhu": a Bengali Anthology

What began as Monish Ranjan Chatterjee’s project to translate ‘The Adolescent Bride’ (‘Balika Badhu’) by Bimal Kar, later became an anthology of Bengali short stories. Balika Badhu: A representative anthology of Bengali short stories spans just over 300 pages. But while it is very cohesive, it is not quite representative. Chatterjee says so much in the introduction. Although all the pieces are well paced and the writers well known in the West Bengal, no woman writer was included. This is an imperfection that the translator points out almost immediately, but regardless, this anthology is certainly worth reading.

How To Prepare For Your First Oral Exam

For many exam season is approaching rapidly, and I know for many language students, this includes oral examinations. Mock conversations, meant to be spontaneous and fluid, are often intimidating and anxiety-producing. Here are six tips to help you prepare for your exam.

Offbeat Bollywood: 5 Indian Films Americans Should See

Beyond extravagant sets, elaborate costumes, and upbeat dance sequences, there’s another Bollywood almost unknown in the US (movie buffs may be excluded). These five films diverge from the plot lines Americans expect, and reveal a whole new side of India.

Thoughts for the Post-Colonial Reader

“The close relationship between colonization and translation has come under scrutiny; we can now perceive the extent to which translation was for centuries a one-way process, with texts being translated into European languages for European consumption, rather than as part of a reciprocal process of exchange.” – from Post-colonial Translation by Susan Basset & Harish Trivedi

Post-Colonialism has long since wedged itself into the cultural limelight, notably in the realm of pop culture and cultural appropriation. Translation and foreign literature has not escaped its purview, and while many readers may shirk away for one reason or another – to political, too liberal – it’s an important factor to think about. For, to some degree, colonialism has chosen and reinforced what we read.

However, now foreign novels are not translated into English nearly enough, meaning that we know less about the world and its peoples than we did before. While novels, movies, advertisements are translated out of English and into a multitude of other languages; the international novel market in the United States is still relatively small. The US has largely monopolized its culture through exporting it.

So what can we understand that’s useful for us readers about the translation and post-colonialism?