Jump to content

Wendy Doniger: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Spdiffy (talk | contribs)
117 edits
→‎Psychoanalysis: other perspectives
Spdiffy (talk | contribs)
117 edits
→‎Reception: this is a review of the Hindus
Line 48: Line 48:
In the ''[[Washington Post]]'', [[Michael Dirda]] wrote:{{quotation|Wendy Doniger's erudite "alternative history" shouldn't be anyone's introduction to Hinduism. But once you've learned the basics about this most spiritual of cultures, don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course from a feisty and exhilarating teacher.<ref>
In the ''[[Washington Post]]'', [[Michael Dirda]] wrote:{{quotation|Wendy Doniger's erudite "alternative history" shouldn't be anyone's introduction to Hinduism. But once you've learned the basics about this most spiritual of cultures, don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course from a feisty and exhilarating teacher.<ref>
Michael Dirda, "Passages From India" ''The Washington Post'' Thursday, March 19, 2009</ref>}}
Michael Dirda, "Passages From India" ''The Washington Post'' Thursday, March 19, 2009</ref>}}

⚫
In October 2009, Indian journalist [[Nilanjana S. Roy]] claimed that what offends Doniger's opponents is that she often knows more about Hindu traditions than Doniger's critics do. Roy also claimed that egg-throwing is itself a foreign idea to India, which should be condemned by Indian religious traditions. Roy also claimed that [[Hindu fundamentalism|Hindu fundamentalists]] are "terrified" by the prospect of multiple version of Hinduism<ref>[http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/writing-about-faith-alternative-histories/373737/] "Writing about faith: Alternative histories" ''[[Business Standard]]'' Nilanjana S. Roy / New Delhi October 20, 2009, 0:46 IST</ref>


====Doniger and Kakar's translation of Vastsyayana's ''Kamasutra''====
====Doniger and Kakar's translation of Vastsyayana's ''Kamasutra''====
Line 67: Line 69:
:The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement called [[Hindutva]] has gained political power in India, where most of the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand."<ref name=wpost>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A334-2004Apr9 "Wrath Over a Hindu God: U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw Threats From Faithful"], by Shankar Vedantam. ''Washington Post'' April 10, 2004.</ref>
:The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement called [[Hindutva]] has gained political power in India, where most of the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand."<ref name=wpost>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A334-2004Apr9 "Wrath Over a Hindu God: U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw Threats From Faithful"], by Shankar Vedantam. ''Washington Post'' April 10, 2004.</ref>
Doniger described the controversy as "being fueled by a [[fanatical]] [[nationalism]] and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at all."<ref name=wpost/> However, [[Arvind Sharma]] downplayed the claims of connection to Hindutva, saying that "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but there also is a Hindu response."<ref name=wpost/>
Doniger described the controversy as "being fueled by a [[fanatical]] [[nationalism]] and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at all."<ref name=wpost/> However, [[Arvind Sharma]] downplayed the claims of connection to Hindutva, saying that "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but there also is a Hindu response."<ref name=wpost/>

⚫
In October 2009, Indian journalist [[Nilanjana S. Roy]] claimed that what offends Doniger's opponents is that she often knows more about Hindu traditions than Doniger's critics do. Roy also claimed that egg-throwing is itself a foreign idea to India, which should be condemned by Indian religious traditions. Roy also claimed that [[Hindu fundamentalism|Hindu fundamentalists]] are "terrified" by the prospect of multiple version of Hinduism<ref>[http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/writing-about-faith-alternative-histories/373737/] "Writing about faith: Alternative histories" ''[[Business Standard]]'' Nilanjana S. Roy / New Delhi October 20, 2009, 0:46 IST</ref>


=== Psychoanalysis ===
=== Psychoanalysis ===

Revision as of 09:37, 24 October 2009

Wendy Doniger
Born1940 (age 83–84)
New York, New York
CitizenshipUnited States United States
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University
Oxford University
Doctoral advisorDaniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr.
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Doctoral studentsDavid Gordon White, Jeffrey Kripal,
David Dean Shulman, Laurie Patton,
among others

Wendy Doniger (O'Flaherty) (born in New York City, November 20 1940) is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought. She has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978. Much of her work is focused on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hinduism through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and identity.

Biography

She first trained as a dancer under George Balanchine and Martha Graham, and then went on to complete two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian Studies. She has since been awarded six honorary doctorates. Doniger received her M.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in June 1963. She next studied in India in 1963-64 with a 12-month Junior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. She received her first Ph.D., in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, from Harvard University in June, 1968. She received a D. Phil. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University in February 1973, for which her dissertation was "The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology."

Doniger has taught at Harvard, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the University of California at Berkeley, and, since 1978, at the University of Chicago, where she is at present the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, in the Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought.

In 1984 she was elected President of the American Academy of Religion, in 1989 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1996 a Member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1997 President of the Association for Asian Studies. She serves on the International Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1986 she was awarded the Radcliffe Medal; in 1992 the Medal of the Collège de France; in June 2000, the PEN Oakland literary award for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, for Splitting the Difference; and in October, 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay prize from the British Academy, for the best book about English literature written by a woman, for The Bedtrick. The Graham School of General Studies of the University of Chicago gave her the award for Excellence in Teaching in Graduate Studies, November 10, 2007, and the American Academy of Religion awarded her the 2008 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Doniger has served on History of Religions editorial board since 1979, and is also a member of International Journal of Hindu Studies Advisory Editorial Board.

Reception

Book reviews

The Hindus: An Alternative History

In the Times Literary Supplement, David Arnold wrote of Doniger's 2009 The Hindus: An Alternative History:

The Hindus is a celebration not just of a personal way of seeing Hinduism, but of the boldness and vitality of a textual tradition threatened by those who claim to be its guardians, and who would make of something as rich as myth something as routine as religion. Hinduism, as Doniger presents it, is fortunate not to have had in its long history a pope-like head to constrain inventiveness and “rule certain narratives unacceptable”. The “great pity” is that there are now, as she sees it, some Hindus “who would set up such a papacy in India, smuggling into Hinduism a Christian idea of orthodoxy”.[1]

In the New York Times, Pankaj Mishra wrote:

This book will no doubt further expose her to the fury of the modern-day Indian heirs of the British imperialists who invented “Hinduism.” Happily, it will also serve as a salutary antidote to the fanatics who perceive — correctly — the fluid existential identities and commodious metaphysic of practiced Indian religions as a threat to their project of a culturally homogenous and militant nation-state.[2]

In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda wrote:

Wendy Doniger's erudite "alternative history" shouldn't be anyone's introduction to Hinduism. But once you've learned the basics about this most spiritual of cultures, don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course from a feisty and exhilarating teacher.[3]

In October 2009, Indian journalist Nilanjana S. Roy claimed that what offends Doniger's opponents is that she often knows more about Hindu traditions than Doniger's critics do. Roy also claimed that egg-throwing is itself a foreign idea to India, which should be condemned by Indian religious traditions. Roy also claimed that Hindu fundamentalists are "terrified" by the prospect of multiple version of Hinduism[4]

Doniger and Kakar's translation of Vastsyayana's Kamasutra

In a review for The Hindu of Doniger and Sudhir Kakar's Oxford World's Classics translation of Vastsyayana's Kamasutra, Kala Krishnan Ramesh wrote:

The translation's readability comes as much from the clarity of the translated text, its original features — analysing how the woman is not always the object in the original text; exploring the genders perspective (women, homosexual, lesbian, persons of the "third nature") and keeping the commentary separate from the text — as from the general tone of light heartedness, oftentimes breaking into the most unexpectedly droll turns of phrase.[5]

Criticism

A BBC article wrote about Wendy Doniger as, "Professor Wendy Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit academics. Referring to her works "ranging from Siva: The Erotic Ascetic to Tales of Sex and Violence", the article wrote that her works have "revolved around the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts."[6][7][8]

Wendy Doniger's article on Hinduism for Microsoft Encarta Encyclopædia was criticized and replaced with an article by Arvind Sharma, a religious scholar at McGill University.[9]

Wendy Doniger has been criticized by some Hindus and academic scholars, including Krishnan Ramaswamy and Antonio T. De Nicolás, for a perceived negative portrayal of Hindus in her writings.[10]

Translations

Michael Witzel, Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University claimed that Wendy Doniger's knowledge of Vedic Sanskrit is severely flawed, which resulted in agitated online discussions between them. When Witzel was publicly challenged to prove this claim, he posted examples of Doniger's translations to a mailing list and called them "UNREALIABLE" [sic] and "idiosyncratic".[11][12] Religious scholar Christopher Framarin University of Calgary also writes that translation of Manusmrti has mistakes.[13] Other mistranslations in Rig Veda have been pointed out by Antonio De Nicholas, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of New York, who questions "What is one footed goat doing in the Rg Veda?"[14]

Protests

During a November 2003 University of London lecture, an an egg was thrown at Doniger, which struck a wall behind her.[15] Rajiv Malhotra wrote an essay "RISA Lila-1: Wendy's Child Syndrone" which criticized Wendy Doniger, and few of the scholars associated with her including Saraha Cladwell, Jeffrey Kripal and Paul Courtright and argued about the misinterpretations of Hinduism.[16] The books of some of these scholars, such as Paul Courtright's Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings and Laine's Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India also caused wide protests in India.[17] Vijay Prashad described these protests against American religious scholarship as stemming from the Hindu right’s “protofascist views.”[18] Shankar Vedantam, writing in the Washington Post, described the more extreme attacks ("tossed eggs to assaults to threats of extradition and prosecution in India") in the following terms:

The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement called Hindutva has gained political power in India, where most of the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand."[19]

Doniger described the controversy as "being fueled by a fanatical nationalism and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at all."[19] However, Arvind Sharma downplayed the claims of connection to Hindutva, saying that "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but there also is a Hindu response."[19]

Psychoanalysis

Wendy Doniger uses Freudian psychoanalysis in the study of Hindu texts and Hindu Mythology and this has been controversial.[20] One of her disputed interpretations is related to Mythology of Shiva, who she refers as "erotic ascetic".[21] Nicholas Kazanas, a European Indologist, referring to Doniger's psychoanalytical works and wrote that Doniger seems to be obsessed with only one meaning, the most sexual imaginable.[22] In the Journal of Indo-European Studies, Kazanas wrote, "[Doniger] seems to see only one function ... of fertility and sexuality, copulation, defloration, castration and the like: even bhakti 'devotion' is described in stark erotic terms including incest and homosexuality (1980:87-99:125-129). Surely, erotic terms could be metaphors for spiritual or mystical experiences as is evidenced in so much literature?".[23][20] Prema Kurien writes that Freudian psychoanalytical approach has been discredited even among Western psychologists, and Doniger has no training in psychoanalysis, and her approach is not reliable.[16]

Works

Interpretive works

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

  • Served as Vedic consultant and co-author, and contributed a chapter ("Part II: The Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plant," pp. 95-147) in Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, by R. Gordon Wasson (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1968). 381 pp.
  • "Asceticism and Eroticism" in The Mythology of Siva (Oxford University Press, 1973). 386 pp.
  • The Ganges (London: Macdonald Educational, 1975).
  • The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology (Berkeley: University of California, 1976). 411 pp.
  • Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). 382 pp.
  • Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984 ). 361 pp.
  • Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). 145 pp.
  • Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes. (New York: Macmillan, 1988). 225 pp.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

  • The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth. The 1996-7 ACLS/AAR Lectures. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998; 200 pp.
  • Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. The 1996 Jordan Lectures. Chicago and London: University of London Press and University of Chicago Press, 1999. 376 pp.
  • Der Mann, der mit seiner eigenen Frau Ehebruch beging. Mit einem Kommentar von Lorraine Daston. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 1999. 150 pp.
  • The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 599 pp. Won the Rose Mary Crawshay prize from the British Academy for the best book about English literature written by a woman, 2002.
  • La Trappola della Giumenta. Trans. Vincenzo Vergiani. Milan: Adelphi Edizione, 2003.
  • The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 272 pp.
  • The Hindus: An Alternative History. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. 789 pp.

Translations

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

  • Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, translated from the Sanskrit. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1975; 357 pp.
  • The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1981).
  • (with David Grene) Antigone (Sophocles). A new translation for the Court Theatre, Chicago, production of February, 1983.
  • Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, in the series Textual Sources for the Study of Religion, edited by John R. Hinnells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). 211 pp.
  • (with David Grene). Oresteia. A New Translation for the Court Theatre Production of 1986. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). 249 pp.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

  • Mythologies. A restructured translation of Yves Bonnefoy's Dictionnaire des Mythologies, prepared under the direction of Wendy Doniger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1991). 2 vols., c. 1,500 pp.
  • The Laws of Manu. A new translation, with Brian K. Smith, of the Manavadharmasastra (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1991).
  • Kamasutra. Abridged by Wendy Doniger. Philadelphia and London: Running Press, 2003.
  • The Lady of the Jewel Necklace and The Lady Who Shows Her Love. Harsha’s Priyadarsika and Ratnavali. Clay Sanskrit Series. New York: New York University Press, JJC Foundation, 2006.

Edited volumes

Under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

  • The Concept of Duty in South Asia. Edited (with J. D. M. Derrett), with an introduction (pp. xiii-xix) and an essay ("The clash between relative and absolute duty: the dharma of demons," pp.96-106) by W. D. O'Flaherty. (London: School of Oriental and African Studies). 240 pp.
  • The Critical Study of Sacred Texts. Edited, with an introduction (pp. ix-xiii). (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, Religious Studies Series, 1979). 290 pp.
  • Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions. Edited, with an introduction (pp. i-xv) and an essay ("Karma and rebirth in the Vedas and Puranas," pp. 1-39). (Berkeley: University of California Press; 1980). 340 pp. Reprinted, Banarsidass, 1999.
  • The Cave of Siva at Elephanta. by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Carmel Berkson, and George Michell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).
  • Religion and Change. Edited by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. History of Religions 25:4 (May, 1986).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

  • Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India. Photographs by Stella Snead; text by Wendy Doniger (pp.3-23) and George Michell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
  • Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. Essays by David Shulman, V. Narayana Rao, A. K. Ramanujan, Friedhelm Hardy, John Cort, Padmanabh Jaini, Laurie Patton, and Wendy Doniger. Edited by Wendy Doniger. (SUNY Press, 1993). 331 pp.
  • Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Ed., with Howard Eilberg-Schwartz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
  • Myth and Method. Ed., with Laurie Patton. Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1996.

References

  1. ^ David Arnold, "Beheading Hindus" Times Literary Supplement July 29, 2009
  2. ^ "Another Incarnation" PANKAJ MISHRA Published: April 24, 2009
  3. ^ Michael Dirda, "Passages From India" The Washington Post Thursday, March 19, 2009
  4. ^ [1] "Writing about faith: Alternative histories" Business Standard Nilanjana S. Roy / New Delhi October 20, 2009, 0:46 IST
  5. ^ KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH, "Reinventing pleasure" The Hindu [2]
  6. ^ BBC's article on Wendy Doniger
  7. ^ Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee, ed. (2007). Invading The Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America. Rupa & Co.,. p. 24.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  8. ^ Demonizing Hindu/Indian image in American academia
  9. ^ Kurien, Prema A. (2007). "Challenging American Pluralism". A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism. Rutgers University Press. pp. 202–203.
  10. ^ Krishnan Ramaswamy; Antonio T. De Nicolás; Aditi Banerjee (2007), Krishnan Ramaswamy (ed.), Invading the sacred: an analysis of Hinduism studies in America, Rupa & Co.
  11. ^ Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee, ed. (2007). Invading The Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America. Rupa & Co.,. p. 66.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  12. ^ Alles, Gregory D. (2007). Religious studies: a global view. Routledge. p. 260.
  13. ^ Framarin, Christopher G. (2009). Desire and Motivation in Indian Philosophy. Taylor & Francis. pp. 76–78.
  14. ^ Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee, ed. (2007). Invading The Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America. Rupa & Co.,. p. 70.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  15. ^ Amy M. Braverman, "The interpretation of gods" The University of Chicago Magazine 97: 2, Dec 2004
  16. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Kurien was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Sharma, Arvind (Spring 2004). "Hindus and Scholars". Religion in the News. 7 (1). Trinity College.
  18. ^ "There’s a fine line, some scholars say, between legitimate Hindu concerns and the right-wing political wave that has recently hit India. ... the current protests derive from more than a Victorian sense of decorum, says Prashad. The issue seeps deeper, he says, stemming from the Hindu right’s “protofascist views.” Recent events demonstrate the lengths to which some nationalists have taken their protests." "The Interpretation of Gods", by Amy Braverman, University of Chicago Magazine: 97:2 (2004)
  19. ^ a b c "Wrath Over a Hindu God: U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw Threats From Faithful", by Shankar Vedantam. Washington Post April 10, 2004.
  20. ^ a b Waugh, Earle H. (2005). "The 'Tradition' of the Academy and its critique". In Steven Engler, Gregory Price Grieve (ed.). Historicizing "tradition" in the study of religion. Vol. 43. Hague, Netherlands: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 262–264. ISBN 9783110188752.
  21. ^ Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, ed. (ABC-CLIO). "Shiva". 2008. Vol. 1. Encyclopedia of love in world religions. p. 572. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ^ Kazanas, Nicholas (Fall & Winter 2001). "Indo-European Deities and the Rgveda". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 29 (3–4): 283. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Kazanas, Nicholas. Indo-European Deities and the Rgveda. Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 29, nos. 3-4 (Fall & Winter 2001), pp. 257-293. Footnote #14 on page 283.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wendy_Doniger&oldid=321729208"