Adhira Mangalagiri, AB, PhD (UChicago)

Profile

My primary area of expertise lies in modern Chinese literature (early- and mid-twentieth centuries). I specialize secondarily in Hindi and Urdu literatures. My research explores intersections between the Chinese and Indian literary spheres during the modern period. I study China-India literary comparison both in terms of contact (the overlapping paths of texts, people, and objects across the national borders), and in terms of contingency (comparative paradigms that bring Chinese and Indian texts together in the absence of material contact).

Theoretically, I am centrally interested in questions of literary method – as explored in the fields of critical theory, postcolonial theory, and world-literary theory – and particularly in the history/literature and aesthetics/politics dyads. I also work on theorizing the practice and value of literary comparison beyond Euro-centric paradigms and in relation to the China-India literary axis. Conceptually, I am drawn to imaginative geographies beyond the category of the nation, such as the ideas of “Asia,” “Third World,” and “Global South.”

Further information and publications here. 

Teaching

I teach the following undergraduate modules: Understanding Culture: An Introduction to Theory, Comparative Modernisms: The Case of China and India, and Facts and Fictions of Climate Change. I welcome the opportunity to supervise postgraduate research on modern Chinese literature, China-India literary relations, Hindi/Urdu literatures, Cold War literary spheres (of influence), and East/South Asian environmental humanities.

Research

Research Interests:

Modern Chinese literature, Hindi/Urdu literature, Modernism, Critical Theory, World Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Global South Studies

Publications

Book:

States of Disconnect: The China-India Literary Relation in the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/states-of-disconnect/9780231205696

Description and table of contents here.

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

• “The Culture of Cultural Diplomacy: China and India, 1947-1952,” China and Asia 3 (2021): 202-216. https://doi.org/10.1163/2589465X-030205 
• “A Poetics of the Writers' Conference: Literary Relation in the Cold War World,” Comparative Literature Studies 58.3 (2021): 509-531. https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.58.3.0509 
• “Ellipses of Cultural Diplomacy: The 1957 Chinese Literary Sphere in Hindi,” Journal of World Literature 4.4 (2019): 508-529. https://doi.org/10.1163/24056480-00404004 
• “The World Within: Worlding Theory and Language of Method in World Literature,” The Yearbook of Comparative Literature 60 (2017): 299-313. https://doi.org/10.3138/ycl.60.x.299 
  

Peer-reviewed book chapters:

• “Slave of the Colonizer: The Indian Policeman in Colonial Chinese Literature,” Beyond Pan-Asianism: Connecting China and India, 1840-1949. Eds. Tansen Sen and Brian Tsui. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020. 29-66. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/beyond-pan-asianism-9780190129118 

Book reviews:

• Wang Ruliang 王汝良. The Image of India in Chinese Literature (中国文学中的印度形象研究). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2018. Reviewed in Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian Interactions. Vol. 19.1-2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1163/26662523-12340003 

Introductions and Commentaries:

• (co-authored with Tansen Sen) “Introduction: Methods in China-India Studies,” International Journal of Asian Studies 19.2 (2022): 169-185. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591422000122 
• (co-authored with Arunabh Ghosh and Tansen Sen) “China and India in the Age of Decolonization: An Introduction to the Nehru Papers Project, 1947-1964,” China and Asia 3 (2021): 177-182. https://doi.org/10.1163/2589465X-030202 
• “A Donkey’s Wisdom: Can Literature Help Us Respond to the China-India Border Clash?” Economic & Political Weekly. Vol. 55.34 (2020). 17-19. https://www.epw.in/journal/2020/34/commentary/donkeys-wisdom.html