Webinar Held To Discuss Cultural Disposition Of Literature During Pandemic

BAHAWALPUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Dec, 2020 ) :Department of English Literature, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur organized a webinar on the topic of "Literature and Pandemics: Lessons from the Past and Cultural Disposition during COVID-19", to reflect upon the situation of the pandemic, as literature gives a more intimate view to understanding the ways in which past epidemics allow modern readers to deliberate on the fear of death and disease.

The online webinar was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor Engr. Prof. Dr Athar Mahboob. Through a video clip, the panelists and the attendees from around the world were introduced to the Islamia University and the history of Bahawalpur. The Chairman Department of English Literature, Prof. Dr Muhammad Ayub Jajja welcomed the guests and voiced the vitality and eminence of literature in being the true reflective of life for thousands of years, as it captures the instances of grief, hopelessness and at the same time of courage and persistence.

Prof. Dr Jajja in his address also thanked the Vice-Chancellor for his constant support towards the department. Literary Scholars from the United States, United Kingdom and Pakistan contributed to analyzing what literature teaches us about the effect of these deadly manifestations on humanity and the way they shape what it means to be human.

Prof. Dr Amardeep Singh, from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA discussed Mary Shelley's Last Man, a novel about the experience of loss and the psychic cost of isolation. While building a connection between the COVID-19, he probed on the novel, The Scarlet Plague, as it centres the spread of the Red Death, an uncontrollable epidemic that depopulated and nearly destroyed the world. Even though it was published more than a century ago, that The Scarlet Plague feels contemporary, particularly, in the lead character Jack London's opinion, who believes that capitalism led to the rise in population and to overcrowding, and overcrowding led to the plague. Consequently, capitalism is presented as the ultimate cause of the pandemic and thus blamed. Another work that he discussed was Mandel's Station Eleven, starting with roughly the same apocalyptic plague plot as The Scarlet Plague.

However, the substantiality lies in the fact that art and creativity remain important to the survivors. Dr Beci Carver gave a talk on Lockdown Modernism � Foster, Mansfield & Woolf, she briefed on the life in quarantine with her focus on the Lighthouse in Woolf and Mansfield, the talk discussed the way in which quarantine has impacted the individual and societal growth all around the globe, her approach towards the 'quarantine island' mentioned in the Mansfield's work, Prelude, a liminal space cut off from the mainland while still belonging to it became an ideal place to quarantine European travellers who intended to settle in New Zealand and contracted diseases along the way, the layout of which was designed in a way to minimize the spread of infection, all this paints a bleak picture of lockdown, she deliberated that these texts are written in the 20th century become reflective of our present situation.

Moni Mohsin, a British-Pakistani novelist engaged in an interactive conversation with Raheen Fatimah Khan, Lecturer Department of English Literature and moderator of the webinar to emphasize on the consolatory role of literature. She pointed that humans are the stories they tell, and in a time of a pandemic, these stories show how the human race has survived through the crisis and it is the smaller things, that assist the cycle of life to run smoothly and ultimately to build a brighter tomorrow. The webinar focal person, and Chairman Department of English Literature, Prof. Dr Muhammad Ayub Jajja culminated the session by highlighting the prodigious outcome of the webinar with his enlightening remarks, and on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, thanked esteemed speakers, dignitaries and attendees from Pakistani universities and abroad who virtually participated the webinar, and distributed certificates among the students that participated on site. Vice Chancellor of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Engr. Prof. Dr Athar Mahboob appreciated the Department's effort in arranging an international event that addresses the predicaments of age in which we live and the struggles to remake a world whose essential unity has been underscored by one of the greatest pandemics in human history.