User:Kangesh/Wignesan

T.Wignesan: he was born in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, Federation of Malay(si)a. For the first twenty-one years, he grew up in Singapore, Port Swettenham, Klang, Sungei Rengam, Kuala Lumpur, Madras and Seremban; then worked and studied (mainly extra-murally) in London, Heidelberg, West Berlin, Madrid and Paris.

Primarily a comparatist in English, Spanish, Tamil, and Malay literatures, and in poietics (the science and philosophy of creation), he has also been a journalist and teacher of English, literatures in English, and South Asian Area Studies.

Education: After only four years of schooling (at Batu Road School and the Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur: 1946 to 1949),he took his school and higher school certificates (Cambridge University: 1951 (SC: Grade One) & 1953 (HSC) and London University: GCE: 4 A-levels [different subjects: English Lit., Greek & Roman History, Geography] & 1 O-level; Tamil, 1955), and read for the Bar (entirely through self-study) at the Inns of Court School of Law, London (1953-56: Certificate of Academic Standing, Bar Standards Board, 2008); he began his doctoral dissertation in epistemology (on the question of certainty in knowledge: three essential chapters stolen by a Nazi) at Heidelberg Universität and Freien Universität in West Berlin (1957-58); then followed courses in Hispanic Studies in Madrid (1968-72): Universidad (Complutense) de Madrid:6 distinctions and 1 good: awarded the Extraordinary Prize (1970-71), and Instituto de la Cultura Hispanica (Hispano-Filippino M.A. Course for teachers: Sept.1971-Feb.72: Distinctions in all 7 subjects, topped the class), and at the Université de Paris-VIII (Equivalence awarded for the Licence degree); Maitrise d’Enseignement d’Espagnol: 1972-73); obtained his higher doctoral degree in aesthetics (poietics) from the Université de Paris-I-Panthéon-Sorbonne (Doctorat d’Etat ès lettres et sciences humaines) in March 1987 (the viva scheduled to take place on June 3, 1983 at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University was postponed sine die due to jury mishap). Distinctions in both the master’s [Très Bien] and doctoral degrees (Très Honorable à l’unanimité). Won the Extraordinary Prize in Hispanic Studies at Madrid University (1971).

Career: Manual worker (cow and goat-herd and railway worker) during the Second World War, and later in London and in Germany. He taught in primary and secondary schools as soon as he finished school: St. Aloysius (Catholic) School (Mantin), Vivekananda English School, & Chung Hwa Middle School in Seremban, Malaya (1951-53) and in a Catholic secondary school in Madrid: Colégio Claret (1968-69). He lectured for the Commonwealth Institute, London, on South and Southeast Asia (1965) and taught courses in English, American, and Commonwealth literatures at the European Division of the University of Maryland (1961-62) and at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (1981-83). Served as Research Fellow (Chargé de Recherches, 1er Cl. Titulaire) with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), from 1973 to 1998. Adjunct-Professor of South Asian Area Studies, American Graduate School of International Relations & Diplomacy (2003-04), Arcadia University in Paris. Also earned a living in between jobs as private tutor, mainly in English, in Malaysia, Germany, Spain (to doctors in teaching hospitals: La Paz, Puerta del Hierro, Ciudad Francisco Franco- Hospital Ayuntamiento, La Concepcion, 1967-72), and France.

Journalist with the Malay Mail (Reporter:1954) & Malayan Times (Special Correspondent:1962), and the Straits Times Press Group of Singapore as Foreign Correspondent: 1964-65). Also served as editor (and representative in London) to Rayirath (Raybooks) Publications, Malaysia (1961-64); editorial-writer with Guidepost, an American weekly in Madrid (1967). Editorial Board of the Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies (Chennai, India); Asian Politics & Policy (Washington-Peking), 2009-2010. Founder-Editor: of The Journal Comparative Poietics (Paris:1989)[bi-lingual: English-French], organ of the SDI-Laboratory of the CNRS (1989 - 1992) ; Founder-Editor of the on-line journal: The Asianists’ Asia (Paris: 2000> ) .

Publications include: Etude comparée des littératures nationales et/ou officielles de la Malaisie et de Singapour depuis 1940. Lille: Université de Charles de Gaulle- Lille-III, 2 Vols., 1988- 2007, 1152p.; Tracks of a Tramp: A first collection of poems-1948-61.Kuala Lumpur-Singapore: Rayirath Publications, 1961; Editor : Bunga Emas : An Anthology of Contemporary Malaysian Literature 1930-63. London : A. Blond & Rayirath (Raybooks),1964, 272p.); Co-Editor: Fire Readings: A Collection of Contemporary Writings from the Shakespeare & Company Fire Benefit Readings. Paris-Boston: Frank Books, 1991, 198p.; Guest Editor: Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies: Millennium Number. Chennai, India: Institute of Asian Studies, 2000, xii-173p.; Memoir: Victorian (pen-in-cheek) Vignettes and Tales (not so tall) of Timmy (the not so very polite) Malaya Hall Cat in London. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, xv-207p.; Novel: The Night Soil Man. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, 193p.; Short Story Collection: mere deaths and the mostly dead. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, 275p.; Literary Criticism: Sporadic Striving amid Echoed Voices, Mirrored Images and Stereotypic Posturing in Malaysian-Singaporean Literatures. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, xix-244p.; Rama and Ravana at the Altar of Hanuman: on Tamils, Tamil Literature and Tamil Culture. Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies, 2007, xii-439p.; Philosophy: Poietics: Disquisitions on the Art of Creation. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, 214p.; Blind Man's Lantern: Poems that lash out, mock and rip into the dark. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2015, Intro. by Eric Mottram, dated July 1958, xxvi-860p.(Full of printer's errors and deliberate ommisions); Ice in My Eyes, Smoke in Yours (a novel of immediate postwar student life in Europe). Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2016, 687p.; BUNGA EMAS and Tracks of a Tramp. rev. é aug. (with an Introduction by Eric Mottram, dated July 1958). Kuala Lumpur: Silverfish Books, 2014, 287p.; The Thiruk-kural, The Secular Yogi in the Temple. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2016; The Tenant in the Body ( A Play in Two Acts). Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2017; Edited Journal: The Asianists’ Asia, Vol. V (Allahabad: Cyberwit.Net), 2008, 185p. Nationality: Stateless Person (since 1969)

Web URL: http://www.authorsden.com/TWignesan3

        http://www.poetrysoup.com/me/t_wignesan

Books: http://www.amazon.com/T.-Wignesan/e/B002V2WHXI

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