LCIS/CERES Lecture: Dr. Thirthankar Chakraborty

“A Wandering to Find Home”: Samuel Beckett and the Post-Independence Indian Novel

Thirthankar Chakraborty, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi

Erasmushuis, Jos Cretenzaal (LETT 01.52)

This lecture will examine how Samuel Beckett’s preoccupation with “a wandering to find home”, as articulated in Murphy (1938), resonates with the post-Independence Indian novel’s engagement with displacement and belonging. Set against the backdrop of Partition and the emergence of new diasporic identities, works by Raja Rao, G.V. Desani, and Salman Rushdie will be analysed to reveal a multidirectional dialogue with Beckett’s portrayal of a spiritual homelessness and alienation. Rather than tracing a direct line of literary influence, the lecture will aim to identify a shared territory shaped by unreliable narration, verbal exhaustion, and the aesthetic use of silence, demonstrating a persistent and inventive search for home in worlds transformed by uncertainty and loss.

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