The Word in the World is a collection of essays and lectures by H S Shivaprakash, a well-known poet, playwright, and translator. Edited by Kamalakar Bhat, this book brings together Prof Shivaprakash’s interventions in the realm of issues that are entwined with the continuities and discontinuities in the cultural negotiations of India. Distinctively, these are essays on subjects ranging from the nature and significance of medieval works of literature in India to issues arising out of developments in Indian aesthetics. The unfeigned magnitude of this work must be found among students and scholars, who will gain from it a perspective significantly different from the ones available in the prevailing academic discourses, thus indicating a way beyond poststructuralist/postmodernist frameworks.

This is a book that will interest a wide variety of readers with its engaging insights and breadth of reference especially because it is written in a comprehensible style.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

H S Shivaprakash is poet, playwright, translator, and is one among the prominent literary figures in contemporary India. Recognized as a fresh voice in Kannada Literature at a young age, he eventually became an eminent bilingual poet and translator across multiple languages. As a renowned scholarly authority on Kannada Vachana literature, Sufism, Indian Bhakti traditions, and mystic symbolism, his literary prowess lies in reinventing the aesthetic elements in Indian mysticism. His first play titled Mahachaitra was published in 1986, followed by a stage adaption. He has received several accolades for his contributions to Indian Literature and Aesthetics, including the Sahitya Akademi Award. Apart from publishing anthologies of poems in different languages, plays, and books, he is also a prolific translator credited with translating Shakespeare’s plays into Kannada. Presently, he is a Professor at School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU and the Director of the Cultural Centre at Berlin, known as the Tagore Centre.

Kamalakar Bhat is Associate Professor at the Postgraduate Department of English at Ahmednagar College, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. He is a bilingual writer and a translator between Kannada, English, and Marathi. His publications include three collections of poems in Kannada, the first Churuparu Reshime appeared in 2006 and won the Pu Ti Na Award for Best Book. The second, Mugiyada Madhyahna appeared in 2010 and the third, Jagada Jate Matu Kate was published in 2017. He has translated into English the poetry of several contemporary Kannada poets including S Manjunath, Jayant Kaikini, Abdul Rashid, N K Hanumantayya, K Sharifa, Mogalli Ganesh, and H S Anupama. He has also translated the poetry of the iconic Marathi Dalit poet Namdev Dhasal and published a reader on him in Kannada.