The Department of English celebrates the newest book releases by
faculty members Babli Sinha and Andy Mozina.
Drs. Sinha and Mozina will each give a presentation about their work.
Thursday, October 26, 2023 – 4:15p.m. – Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall
Congratulations!
Andy Mozina and Babli Sinha
Babli Sinha’s book, The Bengal Famine and Cultural Production: Signifying Colonial Trauma (Routledge, July 11, 2023) analyses the various modes of representation used by Anglophone authors and artists in response to the Bengal Famine of 1943. Official imperial narratives blamed the famine on natural disaster, war, exploitation by merchants, and incompetent local officials rather than members of the imperial government and have remained dominant in the global public imaginary until recent years. The direct encounter with suffering was and remains insufficient for prompting systemic change or even engagement, and yet, the recognition of trauma is crucial for personal and collective well-being.
It is crucial to the Humanities to recognize the literature and art of the famine era as a cultural counter-discourse to the biopower of empire and to engage these texts as relevant to theories of trauma. The book will be of interest to researchers in the field of South Asian history, the history of the Bengal famine, South Asian Anglophone literature, twentieth century art history, and trauma theory.
Andy Mozina’s book, Tandem, (Tortoise Books, October 24, 2023) is a gripping dark comedy about two lives that intersect in the most awful way possible. Andy Mozina’s exquisite novel details the absurd lengths we go to in order to avoid uncomfortable truths. (And to cover up murder—although that’s such a strong word, isn’t it?) It’s a mesmerizing book about the weight of guilt and the longing for justice—and the crazy things we do for love.
Darrin Doyle, author of The Beast in Aisle 34, writes: “Tandem is captivating and completely original. I read this story of spiraling consequences with a kind of spellbound horror—like watching a literal car crash—unable to look away or stop turning the pages until the very last. Mozina takes a fearless, brutally honest dive into his hero, a kind of everyman who rides the line between noble and sociopathic. Unable to dismiss his full interior conscience and logic, we are instead forced to recognize ourselves there, as his quandary unfurls into a complexly layered moral allegory that tackles timeless ethical questions. Elegantly written, psychologically harrowing, and perversely humorous, this is a ‘Tell-Tale Heart’ for our time.”