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Thomas de Bruijn

1962 –
Early modern and contemporary South Asian literature

Curriculum vitae

1962born in Leiden
1988MA in Indian languages and literature, Leiden University
1990-1994PhD-researcher, CNWS Center for Non-Western Studies, Leiden University
1996PhD under the supervision of J.C. Heesterman and G.H. Schokker, Leiden University
1998-2001postdoctoral fellow of NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) in the project: Nayi Kahani: new stories and new positions in the literary field of Hindi literature after 1947; affiliated fellow of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden
2001-2011policy officer at the offices of the Board of the University, Leiden University
2004-2005maître de conférences associé at Inalco, Paris
2005Habilitation à diriger des recherches, INALCO, Paris. Title of the document de synthèse: La logique du champ littéraire du hindi moderne et pré-moderne
2011-presentpolicy officer at the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Agency, The Hague

Special activities and positions

  • Co-convener of panels on early modern and modern Indian literature at EASAS conferences in Kopenhagen (1996), Prague (1998), Leiden (2006), Manchester (2008), Bonn (2010) and Lissabon (2012)
  • Member of the Conseil Scientifique, BULAC (Bibliothèque Universitaire des Langues et Civilizations) Paris, 2009-2015

Publications

1991  “De satī van Padmāvatī: inspiratie voor Muḥammad Jāyasī en Albert Roussel.” In: Hanneke van den Muijzenberg and Thomas de Bruijn (red.), Waarom Sanskrit?, honderdvijfentwintig jaar Sanskrit in Nederland, tien lezingen, Leiden (Kern Institute miscellanea 4), pp. 74-85.
1993  “Daar waar geen dag en geen nacht is… : de papegaai in de Padmāvat van Malik Muḥammad Jāyasī.” In: W.L. Idema, Mineke Schipper en P.H. Schrijvers (red.), Mijn naam is haas: dierenverhalen in verschillende culturen, Baarn: AMBO.
1996  The ruby hidden in the dust, a study of the poetics of Malik Muḥammad Jāyasī’s Padmāvat, [s.l.]. – PhD thesis Leiden University; published in 2012 as Ruby in the dust: history and poetry in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi poet Muḥammad Jāyasī, Leiden.
1998  & Marijke Klokke (eds), Southeast Asian Archaeology, proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeology Leyde, 2-6 September 1996. Centre for South-East Asian Studies, University of Hull.
Review of: J. Assayag and G. Tarabout (éds), Alterité et identité, Islam et Christianisme en Inde, Paris (Collection Purusartha 19). IIAS Newsletter 15.
Review of: Theo Damsteegt, Girirāj Kiśor’s Yātrāeṃ: a Hindi novel analysed, Groningen: Egbert Forsten (Gonda Indological Series 6). IIAS Newsletter 15.
Review of: Wout van Bekkum et al., The emergence of semantics in four linguistic traditions, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Greek, Arabic, Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins 1997 (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 82). IIAS Newsletter 16.
1999  “Images of the last day: Jāyasī’s Ākhirī Kalām and Indian Islam.” In: Alan W. Entwistle et al. (eds), Studies in early modern Indo-Aryan languages, literature and culture, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 71-85.
2000  “Visions of the unseen, rhetorical strategies in Sufi and Bhakti poetry.” In: Mariola Offredi (ed.), The Banyan tree: essays on early literature in new Indo-Aryan languages: proceedings of the seventh international conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Venice, 1997, New Delhi, vol. 1, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 69-82.
“Some aspects of the intellectual background of Jāyasī’s Padmāvat.” In: G.H. Schokker et M.K. Gautam (eds), Bhakti in current research 1982-’85, Ghaziabad: Indo-European Publications (Kern Institute Miscellanea 10), pp. 71-85.
“Variations on modernity, the many faces of South Asian literatures.” IIAS Newsletter 21: 7.
“Internet: a virtual public sphere’, ibidem, p.13.
“South Asian literature.” IIAS Newsletter 21, special section edited by Th. de Bruijn, pp. 7-13.
2001  “Nirmal Varma: a Hindi author on the shores of modernity.” IIAS Newsletter 26: 24-25.
“Doors of perception, ‘Webdunia’ – the first Hindi portal on the Internet.” IIAS Newsletter 25: 23.
2002  Review of: Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman (trsls), Mīr Sayyid M anjhan, Madhumalati: an Indian Sufi romance, a new translation, Oxford 2000. IIAS Newsletter 27: 39.
“Positions in the field of medieval Indian culture.” In: Winand M. Callewaert and Dieter Taillieu (eds), Devotional literature in South Asia: current research 1997-2000: proceedings of the eighth international conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Leuven, 23-26 August 2000, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 39-46.
2003  “A thousand and one identities; a meeting with Shauna Sing Baldwin, Shashi Tharoor, and Krishna Baldev Vaid.” IIAS Newsletter 30: 13.
2004  Review of: Ira Sarma, The Laghukatha: a historical and literary analysis of a modern Hindi prose genre, Berlin-NewYork 2003. South Asia Research 24,1: 80-83.
“An Indian writer in troubled times,” interview with Geetanjali Shree. IIAS Newsletter 33: 1-2.
“Impostors in the literary field: aspects of characterization in Nayī Kahānī.” In: Th. Damsteegt (ed.), Heroes and heritage: the protagonist in Indian film and literature: papers of a panel in the 16th European Conference on Modern Asian Studies, Edinburgh, September 2000, Leiden: CNWS Publications, pp. 127-145.
2005  “Many roads that lead to Lanka: the intercultural semantics of Rama’s quest.” Contemporary South Asia 14,1 (special issue: Jacqueline Suthren Hirst et John Zavos (eds), Teaching across South Asian religious traditions): 39-53.
2006  “The worldly ruler and the pir in the poetry of Muhammad Jayasi: superstructures and local traditions.” In: Véronique Bouillier and Claudine Le Blanc (eds), L’usage des héros: traditions narratives et affirmations identitaires dans le monde indien, Paris: EPHE, pp. 349-368.
2009  “Under Indian eyes: characterization and dialogism in modern Hindi fiction.” In: Doris Jedamski (ed.), Chewing over the West: occidental narratives in non-Western readings, Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 183-212.
“A discourse of difference: ‘Syncretism’ as a category in Indian literary history.” In: Hans Harder (ed.), Literature and nationalist ideologies: writing histories of Mmdern Indian languages, Delhi: Social Science Press, pp. 282-304.
2010  “Dialogism in a medieval genre: the case of the Avadhi epics.” In: Francesca Orsini (ed.), Before the divide: Hindi and Urdu literary culture, Delhi: Orient Blackswan, pp. 121-142.
“Lost voices: the creation of images of India through translation.” In: Maya Burger and Nicola Pozza (eds), India in translations through Hindi literature: a plurality of voices, Bern etc: Peter Lang, pp. 77-102.
2012  & Sunny Singh, “Q&A on Sunny Singh’s short story ‘A cup full of jasmine oil.” Orientalia Suecana 60: 83-96.
Ruby in the Dust: history and poetry in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi poet Muḥammad Jāyasī. Leiden: Leiden University Press. – Based on PhD thesis 1996.
2014  & Allison Busch (eds), Culture and circulation: literature in motion in Early Modern India, Leiden: Brill (Brill’s Indological Library 46)
& Allison Busch,  “Introduction.” In: Ibidem, pp. 1-20.
“Shifting semantics in Early Modern North Indian poetry: circulation of culture and meaning.” In: Ibidem, pp. 139-159.