St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy & Performing Arts

THEATRE APPRECIATION  WORKSHOP  

 This workshop offers a detailed understanding of the art, craft, and philosophy of the theatre. It covers a range of topics, such as conceptualisation, performance, aesthetics, design, spatial dynamics, scenography and writing practices, among others. At the end of the course, participants  will have an understanding of:

This is an intensive workshop  which aims to expose the participants to diverse range of theatre  and stagecraft aesthetics. 

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

           - Demonstrate understanding of

• Diverse forms of classic and contemporary theatre pieces
• Mis-en-scene and Meaning making
• The vocabulary of theatre
• Collaborative processes such as devised theatre
• The interface of theatre with culture, literature, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, politics and economy
• Contributions of notable playwrights and theatre artists
• Textual, Conceptual and Visual Theatre
• Iconic Plays, Playwrights and Scenographers

A participation certificate will be awarded upon successful completion.

Course Faculty

Omkar Bhatkar

Co-founder and Head, St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts, Mumbai 

Artistic Director, Metamorphosis Theatre Inc

Ramu Ramanathan

Editor of PrintWeek India

Playwright and Director

Course  Fees : Rs 2000/-

The course will be conducted over 3 days 

from 10th to 12th Dec 2021, 

4 PM TO 8 PM  

on Zoom/ those who wish to attend it offline at our centre are welcome. 

RELIGION AND BEYOND... 

Tryst of the Theist, Atheist and everything in between  

This lecture series examine the contingent nature of religious belief systems  and how theism and atheism is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address the ideas of God and its existence with  reference to the writings of : -- Miguel de Unamuno, Dorothy Day, B.R. Ambedkar, Rainer Maria Rilke, Kabir and Friedrich Nietzsche.  It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various diverse disciplines, the major being philosophy, sociology, religion, poetry, history, literature and political science. Each session is organised around key ideas of a thinker revolving around their lived experience. The course will look at the spectrum of belief and non-belief, spiritual and material, acceptance and rejection of god, omnipotence and helplessness of god, , fear of god and even death of god. The course seeks to explore the undefined, unsettled nebulous space between theism and atheism.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Demonstrate understanding of the conflated term 'Religion and Faith'
• Exploring the spectrum of Theism and Atheism and trying to make sense of a world beyond 'ism's 
•  Reconnoitring  the meaning of faith via the lives of these thinkers

 A participation certificate will be awarded upon successful completion. 

Course Faculty

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar

Co-founder and Head, St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts, Mumbai 

 Dr. Amita Valmiki

Head, Department of Philosophy, Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College, Mumbai  

Course  Fees : Rs 2000/-

The course will be conducted over 6 days 

from 14th to 30th Dec 2021 (Every Tuesday and Thursday)

5 PM TO 7 PM  

on Zoom 

3rd May to 7th May 2021
9 am to 11 am IST
On Zoom

WRITE YOUR OWN PLAY : Live Skill Amelioration and Guided Teaching  

Theatre is one of the most visceral forms of storytelling, a living and breathing collaborative art form.  At the heart of all plays is a conflict. Whether you’ve never written anything before, you’re experienced in any form of writing,  or you’re a playwright looking to sharpen your skills,  “Write Your Own Play” offers clear, step-by-step guidance in : characterization, conflict and structure, setting, knots of tension, codes of character, dialogue and formatting.

 About the Resource Person: Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications. He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

The course is part of AWESUMMER 2021 , which opens a range of courses to youth organised by St. Andrew's Educational Foundation

8th May to 12th May 2021 

9 am to 11 am IST

On Zoom    

INTRODUCTION TO SCENOGRAPHY    

- Introduction to Scenography is an art of creating visual stories on stage and screen and a visual language that communicates beyond the text and often the unspoken, unsaid. 

- The basic theoretical backgrounds and the practical use of working tools relevant to the field of scenography (tools)

- Knowledge in terms of the cross pollination of the field and multidisciplinary nature of the field (terminologies and the process)

- The ability to create a visual language (representation & communication)

Developing a sensory language that communicates through colour, design, symbolism, performance, metaphor, etc (concept development) 

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

20th May to 31st May 2021 

(Excluding Sundays)

11 am to 12 noon

On Zoom    

INTRODUCTION TO OPERA 

Through images and videos of live and recorded performances we will explore a brief history of opera and then go on to see how various human emotions are depicted in operatic works. Significant opera composers and their respective backgrounds and styles of composing will be covered throughout the course. All of this will be mostly from an opera singer’s perspective. 

About the Resource Person

Daryl Arambhan, Operatic Tenor

Originally from Mumbai, Daryl trained with various opera coaches and conductors in London while also taking courses in acting. His inspiration remains the enchanting operatic diva Maria Callas. Over the last ten years he has sung lead tenor roles in staged operas including Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Bizet’s Carmen, and has also given recitals and concerts at numerous venues in London. His repertoire includes songs, arias and ballads in English, German, Italian and French with a strong emphasis on the romantic German style. 

In Mumbai he has given concerts at the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation and the Jeff Goldberg (Method Acting) Studio.

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

Talk # 6 : GENDER NARRATIVES IN CINEMA deals with the following themes:

• Reversal of Male Gaze
• Looking at Cinema of Chantal Ackermann
• Key Ideas of Laura Mulvey
• Gender Ambiguities in Cinema
• Looking at Cinema of Rituparno Ghosh 

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

 Talk # 5 : HISTORY OF SEXUALITY deals with the following themes:

• Development of Sexuality in history
• Key Ideas of Michel Foucault
• Locating nor male nor female experiences in history
• Reading of 19th century Hermaphrodite 
• Thoughts of Judith Butler

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

Talk # 4 : INTERPELLATION OF DRAUPADI AND MEDUSA session will deal with the following themes:

• Language, Mythology and Meaning Making II
• Rewriting Draupadi with Mahashweta Devi
• Ideas of Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak
• Stage Adaptation of Draupadi
• The Laugh of Medusa with Hélène Cixous

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

Talk # 3 : GENDERING MYTHOLOGY deals with the following themes:

• Mythology as a way of social construction
• Key ideas of Roland Barthes and Helene Cixous
• Myth of Persephone
• Analysis of Demeter and Persephone with Luce Irigaray
• Rewriting the Feminine with Carolyn Kizer

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

Talk # 2 : Writing with our Bodies

• Spatial Dynamics and Identity
• To explore literature and language that we learn and look at it critically with the possibility of Writing with our bodily experiences.
• Key ideas of Virginia Woolf and Luce Irigaray.

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

 Explorations in Gender is a series of lectures organized by St. Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts that examines the contingent nature of identity factors, such as Sex, Gender and Sexuality and how this matrix is intertwined in the living cultures of the world. The sessions will attempt to address diverse themes in each session. Every session is interactive and participants are allowed to ask questions to the resource person.

It is an unconventional lecture series which borrows its tools of study from various varied disciplines. The major disciplines are philosophy, sociology, literature, media and mass communication, history, psychology and anthropology.

Each session is organized around Key Ideas of a thinker followed by exploration of those ideas in a cultural produce, be it poetry, novel, cinema, mythology or diary.

Talk # 1 : Matrix of Sex, Gender and Sexuality deals with the following themes:

• Biological Determinism and Social Construction of Gender
• Key Ideas of Simone de Beauvoir
• Gender as Performance and Locating Sexuality in relation to Sex and Gender
• Key Ideas of Judith Butler

About the Resource Person

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist with a doctoral thesis dealing in Proxemics and Social Ecology. He is a visiting professor at St. Andrew’s College and Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai. His academic interest comprises of Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Film Theory, Aesthetics along with Visual Communication, Gender Studies, Existentialism and Inter-religious studies. He has contributed research papers/chapters for several national and international journals and book publications.

He is the Co-Founder and Head of ‘St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts’ which aims at bridging art and academics.

Dr. Omkar Bhatkar also runs his own theatre group known as Metamorphosis Theatre Inc. His works largely focus on Poetry in Motion, Existentialist Themes and Contemporary French Plays in Translation. He has written and directed more than twenty plays, several of which have been performed at Art and Theatre Festivals. In collaboration with Alliance Française de Bombay he has directed several Contemporary French Plays in English. He is also a Stage Critic and reviews plays. 

    LIVE INTERACTIVE SHORT TERM 

COURSE

Live Zoom Session

Every Wednesday and Saturday

01st - 18th August 2020

5 PM to 7 PM IST

01st, 05th, 08th, 12th August 2020

5 PM to 7 PM IST

13th - 18th August 2020

2 sessions (one on one session) on 2 different days will be planned mutually. 

 WRITE YOUR OWN PLAY : Live Skill Amelioration and Guided Teaching 

Theatre is one of the most visceral forms of storytelling, a living and breathing collaborative art form.  At the heart of all plays is a conflict. Whether you’ve never written anything before, you’re experienced in any form of writing,  or you’re a playwright looking to sharpen your skills,  “Write Your Own Play” offers clear, step-by-step guidance in : characterization, conflict and structure, setting, knots of tension,codes of character, dialogue and formatting.

SAPP introduces you to an application based course which involves skill enhancement in the field of play writing and well as development of the writing tools. Towards the end of this lecture series, the participants will have  finished writing a play. With proper assistance and guidance, the class will involve a one-to-one session too, which will help the participants to grow and explore more. This guided teaching will involve a group of only 8 participants.

 Open to First 8 Registrations Only 

    LIVE INTERACTIVE SHORT TERM 

COURSE

Live Zoom Session 

 FRIDAY - SATURDAY - SUNDAY 

 3rd, 4th, 5th July 2020 

 10:00 to 12:30 AM IST 

“ THEATRE AND AESTHETICS: 

Exploring the Visual and the Visceral 

with Dr. Omkar Bhatkar”

 SAPP brings you an online interactive lecture series that deals with the Visual language in Theatre. Over the Three Days, the lecture will attempt to discuss the aesthetics of  visual theatre and the blurring boundaries of different art forms. Following Topics will be discussed:  

- Western and Eastern Understanding of Aesthetics

- Textual Imagination to Visual Imagination

- Introduction to Scenography

- Revisiting Dadism

- Meaning Making and Visual Theatre

- Lived Experience and Devised Theatre

- Postmodernist Artists and Performance Art

    LIVE INTERACTIVE SHORT TERM 

COURSE

“EXISTENTIALISM”

This course will introduce its participants to key thinkers and themes in existentialist literature and philosophy.  There is a tendency to think of existentialism as a bygone post Second World War European cultural phenomenon, especially so in the light of post-structuralist interventions.  This course follows Thomas Flynn in arguing that this is a mammoth misconception.  There are entanglements and continuities between existentialists and post-structuralists such as Irigaray, Lyotard, Foucault, Derrida and Butler.  This course examines how existentialism investigates the sustainability of freedom against inflicted rigidities of situations and stereotypes of gender.  It focuses on the writings of twelve thinkers, men and women from diverse European locations;  namely, Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Milan Kundera, Miguel de Unamuno and Edith Stein.  It engages with their work from the Indian context in the 21st century.  This course attempts to demonstrate that their explorations of human freedom, emotions and creativity, in collective and individual modes, reveal that existentialism remains pertinent in contemporary non-European contexts as well.

This course will enable the participant to read philosophical texts with reference to their backgrounds in scholarly debates.  These readings will allow participants to engage in discussions on existentialism and write a scholarly essay.  

🪂

Live Zoom Session 

Every Monday – Wednesday 

From, 10th June, 2020 to 20th July, 2020

5 pm to 7 pm IST

Sessions will be conducted by Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan, Dr. Omkar Bhatkar, Dr. Biraj Mehta-Rathi and Dr. Amita Valmiki

This Registration Link is for Teachers, Scholars, Working Professionals and everyone who is not a UG student.

    LIVE INTERACTIVE SHORT TERM

 COURSE

“EXISTENTIALISM”

This course will introduce its participants to key thinkers and themes in existentialist literature and philosophy.  There is a tendency to think of existentialism as a bygone post Second World War European cultural phenomenon, especially so in the light of post-structuralist interventions.  This course follows Thomas Flynn in arguing that this is a mammoth misconception.  There are entanglements and continuities between existentialists and post-structuralists such as Irigaray, Lyotard, Foucault, Derrida and Butler.  This course examines how existentialism investigates the sustainability of freedom against inflicted rigidities of situations and stereotypes of gender.  It focuses on the writings of twelve thinkers, men and women from diverse European locations;  namely, Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jaspers, Jean Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beauvoir, Milan Kundera, Miguel de Unamuno and Edith Stein.  It engages with their work from the Indian context in the 21st century.  This course attempts to demonstrate that their explorations of human freedom, emotions and creativity, in collective and individual modes, reveal that existentialism remains pertinent in contemporary non-European contexts as well.

This course will enable the participant to read philosophical texts with reference to their backgrounds in scholarly debates.  These readings will allow participants to engage in discussions on existentialism and write a scholarly essay.  

🪂

Live Zoom Session 

Every Monday – Wednesday 

From, 10th June, 2020 to 20th July, 2020

5 pm to 7 pm IST

Sessions will be conducted by Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan, Dr. Omkar Bhatkar, Dr. Biraj Mehta-Rathi and Dr. Amita Valmiki

If you are a  undergraduate student of any  college  or university please register here.

After your registration process and payment is complete you would receive an email from us to attach a scanned copy of your College ID card for verification.

  POROUS BOUNDARIES OF ART/ AESTHETICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES LIVE SHORT TERM COURSE

GENDERING ART : VOL 1

Tuesday, 9th, June 2020

WESTERN PERSPECTIVES HER-STORY 

WITH ART AND ACTIVISM

By Dr. Omkar Bhatkar

Thursday, 11th June 2020  

LAURA MULVEY, MALE GAZE 

AND BOLLYWOOD 

By Prof. Diana Linda

Tuesday, 16th June 2020  

WHY ARE THERE NO 

GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS?

  (REVISITING LINDA NOCHLIN)

By Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan

Thursday, 18th June 2020  

WRITING AS A WOMAN :

LUCE IRIGARAY 

By Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan

Tuesday, 23rd June 2020, 

THE BEGINNING WITH SAPPHO:

THE JOURNEY OF QUEER POETRY

By Dr. Omkar Bhatkar

  Thursday, 25th June 2020

ANTIGONE AND . DRAUPADI:

By Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan

 What is Art? 

The problem lies not so much with some feminists' concept of what femininity is, but rather with their misconception-shared with the public at large-of what art is: with the naive idea that art is the direct, personal expression of individual emotional experience, a translation of personal life into visual terms. Art is almost never that, great art never is. The making of art involves a self-consistent language of form, more or less dependent upon, or free from, given temporally defined conventions, schemata, or systems of notation, which have to be learned or worked out, either through teaching, apprenticeship, or a long period of individual experimentation. The language of art is, more materially, embodied in paint and line on canvas or paper, in stone or clay or plastic or metal it is neither a sob story nor a confidential whisper and therefore Artistic production centred on the topic of gender has always been embattled terrain—exposing an uneven topography of contested categories and hierarchies that intersect along spectrums of “gender,” “race,” “class,” and “sexuality.” 

The overlap between gender and feminism is clear and almost unavoidable, since feminist studies centres “gender” as its primary category of analysis while investigating how it intersects with other identities like sex, sexuality, race, class, and ability. This live course over the span of six themes shall explore the matrix of Art, Gender and Sexuality embedded in the production process of making Art. The course will largely discuss Embodiment of Art in cinema, visual arts, drama and poetry.

25 SEATS ONLY

LECTURE CUM DISCUSSION 

WITH DR. OMKAR BHATKAR

Live Zoom Session On 

Wednesday, 3rd June 2020,

5 PM to 7 PM IST

LIVED MEANINGS:

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

- Deconstructing the idea of 'woman'

- Philosophy of Existence

- Meaning of Literature for Beauvoir

 Simone de Beauvoir was one of the most preeminent French existentialist philosophers and writers. Working alongside other famous existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir produced a rich corpus of writings including works on ethics, feminism, fiction, autobiography, and politics.  this talk by Dr. Omkar Bhatkar shall look more into her Fiction Writing rather than her academic writing. It would deconstruct the idea of 'Woman' and touch upon the existentialist ideas of being and becoming. Her philosophy of existence would be explored through her semi autobiographical writings And conclude with  Beauvoir's understanding of   'Literature'.  

25 SEATS ONLY