Kirin Narayan Explained

Kirin Narayan (born November 1959) is an Indian-born American anthropologist, folklorist and writer.

Early life, education, and career

Narayan is the daughter of Narayan Ramji Contractor, a civil engineer from Nashik, and Didi Kinzinger, a German-American "artist, decorator, and builder of sustainable housing".Narayan was born in Bombay, attended school in India and came to the United States in 1976.[1]

Narayan received a BA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and went on to post-graduate studies in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving her PhD in 1987. She taught anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.[2] [3] In 1993 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow in the field of anthropology and cultural studies.[4] She is a professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.[5]

Books

In 1989, Narayan published Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching.[6] It received the Victor Turner Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology[7] and was co-winner of the Elsie Clews Prize for Folklore from the American Folklore Society.[5]

In 1994, she published the novel Love, Stars and All That.[8] Reviewing the novel, Indian poet and editor Dom Moraes praised the work, saying:

"This is a novel well received and achieved: it is also intelligent, excellently written, and revelatory of what it is like to be an American born in India. It makes one feel Narayan is that very rare bird, a born writer, and that she may fly far."

Narayan published Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales in 1997.[9] In 2002 a new edition of the first collection of Indian folk tales in English, Mary Frere's Old Deccan Days, was published with an introduction by Narayan.[10] In 2007, she published a memoir My Family and Other Saints.[3] [11] [12] An autobiographical work in which "Gods, gurus and eccentric relatives compete for primacy", The New York Times described the work as an "enchanting memoir". Its title is a reference to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, a childhood inspiration to Narayan.[13]

In her 2012 work Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov,[14] Narayan used Anton Chekhov's Sakhalin Island as inspiration for an exploration of ethnographic writing. James Wood, writing of his 'Books of the Year' in The New Yorker, described it as a "brief and brilliant book" that he read "with huge pleasure".[15] In 2016 Narayan published Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses in the Himalayan Foothills, about women's traditions of singing in the Kangra Valley.[16]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Professor Kirin Narayan. ANU Researchers - Research Services Division. Australian National University. 30 August 2017.
  2. Book: Sharma, Maya . Kirin Narayan . Asian American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook . 257 . Emmanuel Sampath Nelson . 2000 . Bloomsbury Academic . 0313309116 . https://archive.org/details/asianamericannov00nels_0/page/257 .
  3. Book: Sanga, Jaina C . South Asian Novelists in English: An A-to-Z Guide . 186 . 2003 . Bloomsbury Academic . 0313318859.
  4. Web site: Kirin Narayan . John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
  5. Web site: Professor Kirin Narayan . Australian National University.
  6. Reviews of Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels:
    • Champion. Catherine. January–March 1991. 117. L'Homme. 40589866. 163–164. none. 31.
    • Flueckiger. Joyce Burkhalter. Spring 1991. 10.2307/541251. 412. The Journal of American Folklore. 541251. 239–241. none. 104.
    • Zarrilli. Phillip B.. Spring 1991. 10.2307/1124168. 1. Asian Theatre Journal. 1124168. 91–92. none. 8.
    • Gold. Ann Grodzins. August 1991. 3. American Ethnologist. 645615. 621–622. none. 18. 10.1525/ae.1991.18.3.02a00290.
    • Pechilis. Karen. October 1991. 4. The Journal of Religion. 1203997. 616. none. 71. 10.1086/488755.
    • Handelman. Don. 10.2307/1178211. 1. Asian Folklore Studies. 1178211. 262–263. none. 50. 1991.
  7. Web site: SHA Prize Winners . Society for Humanistic Anthropology.
  8. Reviews of Love, Stars and All That:
    • November 1993. Kirkus Reviews. Review.
    • January 1994. 10.17953/amer.20.3.250625417277t57l. 3. Amerasia Journal. 95–118. Book Reviews. 20. Grewal. Indepal. Motooka. Wendy. Lee. Jee Yeun. So. Christine. Srikanth. Rajini. Young. Morris. Yoo. David. Ropp. Steven Masami. Fong. Joe.
    • Ruta. Suzanne. May 1994. 10.2307/4021845. 8. The Women's Review of Books. 4021845. 12. A Time for Stories. 11.
    • News: Moraes. Dom. 31 July 1994. India Today. 95. Coming of Age: A Fine, Funny Debut. https://web.archive.org/web/20140220093309/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-kirin-narayan-love-stars-and-all-that/1/293740.html. 20 February 2014.
    • Muthyala. John. Summer 1998. 10.2307/468021. 2. MELUS. 468021. 205–206. none. 23.
  9. Reviews of Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon:
    • Blackburn. Stuart. February 1998. 10.2307/2659083. 1. The Journal of Asian Studies. 2659083. 257–259. none. 57. 161514624 . free.
    • Goldberg. Christine. May–August 1998. 2. Journal of Folklore Research. 3814754. 157–160. none. 35.
    • Chandola. Anoop. September 1999. 3. American Anthropologist. 683895. 683–684. none. 101. 10.1525/aa.1999.101.3.683.
    • Bailly. Constantina Rhodes. April 2000. 1. International Journal of Hindu Studies. 20106693. 80–81. none. 4.
  10. Review of Old Deccan Days:
    • Haring. Lee. 2. Marvels & Tales. 41388715. 301–303. none. 18. 2004. 10.1353/mat.2004.0036. 162163807.
  11. Book: Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature . 556–57 . 2015 . 978-1438140582. Oh . Seiwoong . Infobase Learning .
  12. Reviews of My Family and Other Saints:
  13. News: Livemint. A family 'we-moir'. 19 September 2008. Sanjukta. Sharma.
  14. Reviews of Alive in the Writing:
    • Staples. James. December 2012. 4. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 23321472. 903–905. none. 18. 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2012.01798_17.x.
      • Fine . Elizabeth . Book review . Journal of Folklore Research . March 2013.
      • Herzfeld . Michael . Book review . American Anthropologist . 115 . 3 . 528–529 . 10.1111/aman.12038_13. August 2013.
  15. Books of the Year . Wood . James . The New Yorker . 17 Dec 2012 .
  16. Reviews of Everyday Creativity:
    • News: Goddesses of song: the women singers of the Western Himalayas. The National (Abu Dhabi). 14 December 2016. James. McNair.
    • Davis . Coralynn V. . Book review . Asian Ethnology . 2017 . 76 . 2 . 418–421 .
    • Krishnan . Shweta . Book review . Anthropological Quarterly . 91 . 1 . 2018 . 421–425 . 10.1353/anq.2018.0016. 149618364 .
    • Dellenbaugh. Ginger. Rahaim. Matthew. April 2018. 10.1386/jivs.3.1.95_5. 1. Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies. 95–100. Reviews. 3.
    • Stirr. Anna. May 2018. 10.1111/1467-9655.12845. 2. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 413–414. none. 24.
    • Manuel. Peter. July 2018. 10.1080/00856401.2018.1489759. 3. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 700–701. none. 41. 149992303.
    • Dalzell. Victoria M.. 10.1353/not.2019.0046. 4. Notes. 677–679. none. 75. 2019. 198046726.

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