On Occasion of the 100 years of The Waste Land, Ulysses and Jacob's Room, Department of English Organises International Conference.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of The Waste Land, Ulysses, and Jacob's Room, the Department of English organized a two-day international conference to celebrate the lollapalooza of modernism.

Day 1 of the event began at 10.30 a.m. on February 25 in the lounge of the Faculty of Arts. The show was hosted by Aisha Ibkar and Adiba Faiyaz, both assistant professors in the department, and featured lectures by M.L. Raina and Dr. Anisur Rehman.

In his address as the program's president, AMU Vice Chancellor Prof. Tariq Mansoor made the following observation: "Literature is a social enterprise that drives change and motivates people to take action. Writers such as Thomas Stearns Eliot, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf have kept the socio-historical and cultural aspects of the time at the core of their moral and social duty and hence survived the test of time." He believed that the conference would convince readers and authors to broaden their awareness and knowledge of current debates.

While welcoming the guest speakers, Prof. Asim Siddiqui, Chairman of the Department of English, stated that the modernist movement was launched in 1922 by James Joyce's Ulysses, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room, but the title was applied later. He emphasized the Department of English's illustrious past, which began with Sir Walter Raleigh's establishment of the department in 1877. Professors Najma Mehmood, K.S. Mishra, Z. Usmani, Asloob Ahmad Ansari, and Masood ul Hasan were specifically cited for their contributions.

Quoting Eric Hobsbawm, the chief guest, Prof Motilal Raina of Punjab University, Chandigarh, held that the starting point of modernism could be considered 1848 and 1849, an epoch in social and political history when the Communist Manifesto was published. He further added that it was the period when the enlightenment of the age of reason existed side by side with the fear.

Day 2 of the event was hosted by Dr Danish Iqbal, prof Muneer k and lectured by Prof Emeritus Dr Amarjit Singh, Ohio University, USA and Khalid Jawed , a renowned fiction writer and professor at Jamia Millia Islamia. Describing high modernism, he discussed J Alfred Pufrock and many other modernists writers.  Khalid Jawed describes Noor min rasheed and also emphasises women poets.

Many paper presentations were also made. Students from different parts of the country participated in this event. 

Report by Md Sidratul Muntaha