Dr Bashabi Fraser
T: 0131 455 5002 | E: b.fraser@napier.ac.uk
Background
BA with Honours in English, Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta University
MA in English, Jadavpur University, Calcutta
PhD in English, Calcutta University and Edinburgh University (having won a University Grants’ Commission of India’s Teacher Fellowship)
Research & Publications
Bashabi Fraser specializes in Postcolonial Literature and Theory. Her research and writing reflect her interest in diasporic themes: the intermeshings of culture and identity, of dislocation and relocation, of belonging and otherness, of memory and nostalgia, of third space and hybridity, of conflicts and freedoms and the transnational and transcultural .
Her most recent publication include Scots Beneath the Banyan Tree: Stories from Bengal (Luath Press, December 2010) about Scots who have become iconic figures in the folk memory and From the Ganga to the Tay (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2009), a modern epic poem, which is in the form of a conversation between the two rivers, tracing a shared history, in a concrete poem which meanders across the page, mirroring a river’s flow. The poem is accompanied by symbolic photographs taken by the artist, Kenny Munro and the author. She has also contributed a chapter on the Scottish presence in postcolonial novels in Michael Gardiner, Graeme MacDonald and Niall O'Gallagher (eds), Scottish Literature and Postcolonial Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011).
Her book, Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter (London: Anthem Press, 2006 HB, 2008 rev PB) which she has edited and introduced, searches the colonial and postcolonial developments around the subject of Partition and addresses the ‘gap’ that exists in western discourse on the Bengal border. It is an anthology of short fiction on which she was able to work with a British Academy Research Grant, a British Academy South Asian Studies Grant and a Moray Foundation Grant. The volume has 39 powerful stories by 31 writers from both sides of the Bengal border, which capture the reality of Hindu-Muslim relations in an inter-dependent society before they were ruptured by politically motivated communal violence. The socio-political analysis of events leading to Partition and the emergent questions of nation and narration, are critically explored in two Introductory chapters.
Bashabi is interested in life stories and has published a revised edition of A Meeting of Two Minds: Geddes-Tagore Letters (Edinburgh: Word-Power Books, 2005) which she worked on with a Moray Foundation Research Grant. The book has had two earlier editions entitled, The Geddes-Tagore Correspondence (Edinburgh Review Book Series, 2002, Visva-Bharati Press, 2004). Her poetry collections include Life (Edinburgh: Diehard Publishers, 1997), With Best Wishes from Edinburgh, an Indian edition (Kolkata: Writers’ Workshop, 2001) and Tartan & Turban (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2004).
She has edited poetry anthologies: Edinburgh: An Intimate City, an illustrated anthology of poetry on Edinburgh (with an Introduction by Bashabi, co-editor, Elaine Greig, City of Edinburgh Council, 2000) and Rainbow World: Poems from Many Cultures, commissioned by Hodder (co-editor, Debjani Chatterjee, London, 2003).
Bashabi has written a commissioned shadow puppet play, The Ramayana, for Edinburgh Puppet Lab with a Scottish Arts Council Writer’s Grant (2004). She is also a children’s writer and has written two fantasy stories in prose, which abound in poetry: Topsy Turvy and JUST One Diwali Night (Calcutta: Dasgupta Publishers, 2004). Like her poetry, her children’s writing combine two strong literary traditions, that of English and Bengali. She has also co-edited an oral history book, Peoples of Edinburgh: Our Multicultural City (with Helen Clark and Lorraine Dick, The City of Edinburgh Council, 1996).
Bashabi is now finishing a novel and a book of life stories in verse about the experience of migrants in collaboration with the photographer, Herman Roderigues. She is also working on editing two collections of poetry for adults and children, respectively.
Bashabi has written and published several articles which reflect her research interests in Postcolonial perspectives, Revisionist approaches and the application of Literary Stylistics to Shakespeare, T.S, Eliot, Robert Frost, James Joyce, Ted Hughes and John Wain, Scottish poetry and multicultural voices.
Bashabi has been widely anthologised and been commissioned to write several pieces and has contributed to several magazines, journals and newspapers. She has worked on invitation for the BBC, The British Council nationally and internationally, for Pushkin Prizes in Scotland, The Scottish Book Trust, The Scottish Arts Council, The Poetry Society, London and The Arvon Foundation on various creative writing projects and in writing residencies and workshops.
Bashabi has won the AIO Award for Literary Services in 2009 and is the Finalist for the Women Empowered Award for Art and Culture in Scotland.
Her academic teaching, writing and research focus on postcolonial theory and literature, and Literature of the Modern period.
She is now involved in establishing the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies with Prof Linda Dryden under the auspices of CLAW.
Her current research is on the personal narratives of Scots in India, in the themes of the transnational and transcultural in a diasporic experience.
Experience
Having taught in Calcutta University and Rabindra Bharati University in India where she was a Senior Lecturer and Visiting Lecturer, respectively, Bashabi moved to Britain where she has taught, done research and published at The Open University and Edinburgh University, before she joined Edinburgh Napier University’s Literature Department as a permanent member of staff. Bashabi remains an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at Edinburgh University involved in research and where she continues to teach Postcolonial Literature in inter-disciplinary courses.