Asijit Datta, Ph.D., is currently working as Assistant Professor of English at The Heritage College, under Calcutta University. He has previously taught at Presidency University, Vidyasagar University, Ramakrishna Mission, Narendrapur, and Bethune College. He completed his Masters in English from Presidency College in 2009, and received his PhD from the Dept. of Film Studies, Jadavpur University in 2017. His thesis attempted to locate the vanishing subjects in Ingmar Bergman and Samuel Beckett. He has published several academic papers on Beckett, Disability studies and Film criticism in reputed books, and national and international journals. As theatre director and scriptwriter, he has received critical acclaim and multiple awards.
Publications:
Asijit Datta. ‘Dialogue on Posthuman Life, Death and COVID-19’ (conversation between Dr Francesca Ferrando and Dr Asijit Datta) published in the Journal of Posthumanism
Asijit Datta. ‘Disappearance and Afterness: Vanishing Postself and Posthuman in Beckett and DeLillo’ published in JUES XXXII (Jadavpur University Essays and Studies)
Asijit Datta.‘DIS)ABLING BODY AND CONSCIOUSNESS: TECHNOLOGICAL AFTERNESS AND AFTER-HUMANS IN REALIVE AND UPGRADE’ in “Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada”
Asijit Datta. ‘Impossibilities of Screening the Vanishing Minds and Selves in Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable’ Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd’hui, Volume 29, Special Issue: Endlessness of Ending: Samuel Beckett and Extensions of the Mind / Samuel Beckett et les extensions de l’esprit, 2017.
Areas of Interest:
Asijit Datta’s current research interests pertain to Posthumanism, Beckett Studies, Modern European Theatre, World Cinema, and Psychoanalysis.
Statement of Interest:
I think the Indian Posthuman Network initiative will be a bridge between the posthumanist theories in the West and the East. Moreover, it is high time we try reading the Puranas and Vedas with the posthumanist thoughts of inclusivity and interrelationality. Through a series of online interviews with posthuman exponents like Prof Claire Colebrook, Dr Francesca Ferrando and others, I have realized the absolute necessity to challenge the widespread anthropocentric claims and the need to reimagine a world without the presence of humans. The pandemic condition should especially be relevant to open up discussions regarding unethical exchanges between human and nonhuman animals. Posthumanism and its allied forms are perhaps the only potential instruments available to us. Moreover, the pages of Indian mythology are elaborate accounts of symbiotic relationships between different kinds of organisms.