2013


Rabindranath Tagore

XXV Tagore Festival, 2013

Saturday, December 7, 2013

ThemeTagore: The Rebel from the East


PROGRAM

4:00 pm: Reception
Opening song at 5:00 pm

5:15 -6:15 pm: Keynote Speech,  Professor Kathi Kern, University of Kentucky

Tagore the Feminist
Professor Kern’s talk will focus on the how Rabindranath Tagore’s writings were deployed by American suffragettes to challenge the hegemony of Western gender relations. Specifically, she will discuss Clara Colby, the long-time editor of The Woman’s Tribune, who read Tagore in translation extensively; the play Chitra (based on the character Chitrangada) prompted her to entitle one of her manuscripts ‘Tagore the Feminist.’ Professor Kern will discuss in detail the historical context of Colby’s ‘discovery’ of Tagore, analyzing Colby’s place in a long list of Americans who were influenced by Indian philosophy and literature.Professor Kathi Kern teaches history at the University of Kentucky.  Professor Kern’s research centers on the women’s rights movement in nineteenth-century America and focuses particularly on the ways in which politics, gender, and religion have mixed to create new ideological positions and social change in the United States. She is the author of numerous articles as well as the book, Mrs. Stanton’s Bible (Cornell University Press).  This work was selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 2001.  

6:15 pm: Cultural Program
East Central Illinois Bengali Association

7:15 pm: Performance
Mithya: The Indian Dramatic Society

7:30 pm: Catered Dinner (vegetarian and non-vegetarian)
$15 for adults; $13 for students; $10 for children (6-12 years)

Related Resource
UIUC Library Web site on Tagore: http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=533668&sid=4389346