Tamil Modernity and English Prose: A Cross-Cultural Study

AHRC/CHASE Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship at the Department of English and Creative Writing, Goldsmiths University of London in collaboration with the Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai

Applications are invited for a fully-funded, three-year PhD, jointly supervised at the Department of English and Creative Writing, Goldsmiths University of London, and the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai, India. The research will be carried out under the joint guidance of Dr. Uttara Natarajan at the Department of English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths and A.S. Panneerselvan, a senior journalist at The Hindu and a research affiliate at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai. The PhD programme will commence in January 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter. The successful applicant is expected to spend three months annually at the Roja Muthiah Library. This is an unparalleled opportunity to work at one of India’s finest research libraries, whose extensive holdings in Tamil materials, including non-print media, make it an indispensible resource centre for Tamil studies. The project will be the first sustained investigation of the impact of English literary models on the genesis of modern Tamil prose. Yielding new insights into the complex relations between modernity, colonialism, and nationalism in the Tamil context, it will contribute uniquely to the mutual enriching of two vibrant modern cultures, Tamil and British.