Anthropology of Texts and Literature

by Prof Saumya Malviya

This course introduces students to an anthropological approach to texts and literature. Various kinds of texts and literary forms are studied by placing them in the network of intentionalities within which they are produced and consumed. More precisely, texts are seen as artefacts, i.e., as being constituted within specific traditions, interacting with and reacting to other texts, and enabled and constrained by certain structures and patterns. Along with learning key concepts such as intertextuality, translation, publics, etc. students are also being exposed to ethnography as a method of anthropological investigation. Rich possibilities of anthropological approach to texts are demonstrated to them by means of examples focusing on the textual or literary form of ethnography, poetry, philosophy, mathematics and the sciences.

Chronicling Intertextuality in Slasher Films

Intertextuality is a feature inherent in every text. A text is a tissue that is woven together by citations, references and echoes from several other texts. A text cannot be viewed in isolation but instead as involved in a continuous discourse with other texts. It is in this context that the presentation discusses how slasher films like Scream and Halloween display these intertextual links. Slasher films form an interesting example to explore how intertextuality can assume different forms and how it can help to better consolidate a genre.