Sayantan Lahiri, who is presently working as an IoE Research Intern and an alumnus of the Department of English at University of Hyderabad, recently presented a paper at Simon Fraser University, Canada in the Online Conference titled “Progression, Regression, and Transgression in Gothic World Literature & Film: New Approaches to the Ethics of Difference A Gothic-Without-Borders Conference” which was held virtually between September 29th and October 2nd, 2023. The conference was hosted by the Department of World Languages and Literatures (WLL) at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Vancouver, Canada; coordinated by the SFU Center for Educational Excellence (CEE), and co-sponsored by the International Gothic Association (IGA), the largest international community of Gothic Studies scholars in the world.
Sayantan’s paper was titled “It was (not) meant to be: The Ageing Gothic in Gulmohar (2023)” which tried to formulate an Indian Ageing Gothic, a Gothic of a widow woman in her late seventies and her struggled relationship with her aged son, who poses a challenge for her to find her voice and her unrequited Queer relationship with another woman in a patriarchal domestic space-the titular villa in the film. The paper was part of the panel “21st Century Gothic Filmmaking: Post-Colonial Counterreactions” which was chaired by Gina Whisker, the eminent Gothic Studies scholar and the author of the book Contemporary Women’s Gothic Fiction: Carnival, Hauntings and Vampire Kisses (2016).
The conference hosted more than 70 presenters around the globe, with keynote speeches by eminent Gothic Studies scholars Katarzyna Ancuta, Xavier Aldana Reyes, Mark Deggan and others. Sayantan’s paper was cordially accepted by the global audience present there which was indicated by the long QnA session which continued long after the presentation was over. The audience were especially interested in the representation(s) of uncanny motherhood, the politics of such representations and the overall state of Gothic vis-a-vis Horror cinema in India.
Sayantan Lahiri is currently working as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) funded Research Intern at the University of Hyderabad, India. The research project focuses on establishing decolonial Indian Research Methodologies (IRM) from Sanskrit Texts. After finishing his M.A. in English Literature (gold medalist) from the same university, he wishes to pursue research in the areas of Postcolonial Gothic, Indian Writing in English, Posthumanism, Race and Cultural Studies.