Department of English

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The Department of English Aligarh Muslim University organized an International Webinar on “From the Modern Breakthrough to the Beginnings of Modernism: Reflections on Nordic History” on 16th April 2021. The invited speaker in the Webinar was Professor Stefan Helgesson from the Department of English,  Stockholm University, Sweden. The webinar was attended by a number of students, research scholars and faculty members.

Prof. Helgesson was welcomed by Prof. Mohammad Rizwan Khan, Chairperson, Department of English. In his opening remarks, Prof. Khan told that the Department of English underwent a major syllabus revision in 2019. The new syllabi comprises British literature, American literature and other English literatures in BA programme and the MA programme takes care of all varied literary cultures, traditions, trends, theories and critical postulations with a coverage from the beginning till the latest year of the 21st century. He informed that as a result of this new syllabi, students have got the opportunity to make choices and study the literatures of their liking. Scandinavian Literature is one such option in a pool. Since Scandinavian Literature is a unique concept in English literature studies across the world, therefore, the teachers Prof. Jawed and Prof. Vibha have initiated this Webinar to make the students connect with the Nordic and Scandinavian world. 

Prof. Helgesson appreciated the efforts that the Department has put into the designing of rich new syllabi. He then went on to deliver an engaging lecture covering all the aspects of literary tradition of the Nordic region that forms the foundation of the modern literature studies. Prof. Helgesson gave the introduction on Nordic geographical history, illustrating interesting map-images of the Nordic region. He gave a glimpse into the cultural background of the region. The lecture comprised interesting insights into the works and contribution of Ibsen, Strindberg, Lagarkvist, Georg Brandes, Martinson, Johnson, Andersen, Moa Martinson among others in the shaping of the Nordic modernities.  Prof. Helgesson also shared translated excerpts of some of the very poignant poems which left the audience amazed. 

The lecture was followed by an interaction where teachers and students asked questions and shared observations about the lecture. Prof. Rizwan Khan remarked that such lectures are instrumental in making the students formulate a better understanding of the regions and cultures about which the literature is being studied in their programmes. Prof. Seemin Hasan underlined the fact that the translated poetry shared by Prof. Helgesson echoes the present situation of the world steeped into the pandemic. Prof. Vibha Sharma observed that constant revision in syllabi stands vindicated by the fresh perspective supplied by Prof. Helgesson wherein the word “Nordic” is more inclusive than “Scandinavian” for the paper’s title. Dr. Sunij Sharma discussed with Prof. Helgesson the influence of Nordic literature on the Swedish cinema including the works of Ingmar Bergman. Mr. Hammad (MA IV Sem) asked a question about the different styles of imageries used by the Swedish and Norwegian writers. Mr. Tahir (MA IV Sem) and other students too also put an interesting questions to the speaker. Dr. Kishwar Zafir , Dr. Saquib Abrar, Dr. Darakhshan Zafar, Ms. Rabeya, Dr. Zainab Sarwat (Department of English), Dr. Sundar Singh (D.I.E.T Firozabad), Dr. Fatema Sultana (Dhaka University Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh), Dr. Khursheed Alam (Bridge Course, AMU) and various other teachers were also present along with several students to make the webinar a success.

The webinar came to an end with a vote of thanks from Prof. Jawed S. Ahmed.

GENERAL ENGLISH COURSE BOOK: BUILD YOUR LANGUAGE published by CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS