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Angelie Multani

About

Angelie Multani

Born: 17 June, 1970

Place of Birth: Bombay, India

Nationality: Indian

Occupation: Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Field: Literature, Performance Studies

Early Life and Education

Angelie Multani was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1970. She is the daughter of Indu and

Baloo Multani, and had one older brother, Sanjay Multani. Her early schooling was at Villa

Theresa High School, and she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Literature from St. Xavier’s

College, Bombay, after spending a year abroad as an Exchange Student. She came to Delhi in

1991 for an MA at the Centre of Linguistics and English at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

While at JNU, she was a founding member of the Gender Studies Forum and was part of the

movement to establish the Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment or

GSCASH, the very first committee in the country for complaints against sexual harassment on

the campus.

After completing her Ph.D., in the politics of production of English language theatre in the

1990s, Dr Multani taught as a non-permanent faculty member at JNU and the University of

Delhi. She joined IIT Delhi in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2003, and

has been there since.

Research Contributions

Angelie Multani’s work on the plays of Mahesh Dattani and the English Language theatre of the

1990s was pioneering. Her essays and critical editions on Dattani’s plays are amongst the

foundational texts in the study of the field. She has also worked extensively on other aspects of

modern Indian theatre, from the plays of Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar to the performances

of Shakespeare in India.

Multani’s focus on gender, sexuality and the politics of the English language in India inform her

unique contribution to the study of contemporary literature and culture. Her position in

postcolonial India situates her firmly and shapes the nature of her research and teaching. An

enthusiastic teacher, she loves her time in the classroom and finds it hard to separate her

teaching interests from her research interests. She has consequently supervised PhD works on

fantasy literature, contemporary fiction and science fiction poetry.

Motivated by her abiding interest in social justice and gender issues, she was part of the

nascent Initiative for Gender Equity and Sensitisation forum (IGES) in IIT Delhi, and is now the

first Dean of Diversity & Inclusion at the institute, the very first position of its kind and level

amongst higher education institutions in India. She has also served as Associate Dean for

Student Welfare and as Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Delhi.

Select Publications

Books; Sole Author:

‘Centring the Margins: Critical essays on the plays of Mahesh Dattani”

Pencraft International, New Delhi, 2018.

Books Edited:

Angelie Multani

'Final Solutions - Text and Criticism' . Pencraft International. New Delhi. 2009.

Critical Essays on the work of Mahesh Dattani . Pencraft International. New Delhi. 2007.

Penguin Study Edition of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Penguin India. 2005.

Co-edited:

With Arjun Ghosh, Albeena Shakeel, Swati Pal and Nandini Saha, From Canon to Covid:

Transforming English Literary Studies in India. Essays in Honour of GJV Prasad, Routledge, 2023.

with Dr Kamayini Bhatnagar, Child/hood and Trauma: No Child’s Play. Routledge India, 2019.

Chapters In Books:

1.‘Just Like a Woman:” female impersonation, gender construction and role playing in

Begum Barve. In ‘Women in Asian Performance: Aesthetics and Politics. Ed Arya

Madhavan. Routledge Oxon and NY. 2017.

2. ‘Appropriating Shakespeare on campus: An Indian perspective.’ In Shakespeare on the

University Stage Ed. Andrew James Hartley. Cambridge University Press. UK. 2015.

3.Making the Modern Self: Self-Fashioning and Identity Formation in Indian Writing in

English. ‘Comparitivism, Identity, Communication. Eds. Emilia Parpala and Rimona

Afana. Universtaria Craiova. 2013.

4.‘Staged Realities: Texts vis-à-vis Performances’ in ‘The Plays of Mahesh Dattani’ ed. Tutun

Mukherjee. Pencraft International. New Delhi. 2012.

5.‘The Absurd in Modern European Drama’. In ‘Modern European Drama: From Ibsen to

Beckett. Ed. Swati Pal. Pencraft International. New Delhi. 2012.

6.with Vandana Saxena, 'Plotting Hogwarts: Situating the School Ideologically and Cult

urally in ‘Literature for Our Times: Postcolonial Studies in the Twenty-First Century. Eds.

Bill Ashcroft, Ranjini Mendis, Julie McGonegal and Arun Mukherjee, Rodopi, Amsterdam,

New York. 2012.

7. 'Forgiveness is the only Final Solution in ebook: Forgiveness: probing the Boundaries,

edited by Geoffrey Karabin and Karolina Wigura, Inter-Disciplinary Press, Oxford. 2010.

ISBN 978-1-84888-018-4.

8. From Black and White to Colour - the changing representation of the white man in

mainstream Hindi cinema' reprinted in longer version in Perspectives on Comparative

Literature and Culture in the Age of Globalisation, ed. Suagato Bhaduri and Amar Basu,

Anthem Press India, 2010.

9. 'From Black and White to Colour - the changing representation of the white man in

mainstream Hindi cinema' Selected and Refereed Seminar Proceedings of the IACLALS

Inter- National Seminar, Varanasi, January 2007. published as an anthology ' 1857 and

After - Literary representations, eds. RN rai, Anita Singh & Archana Kumar, Pencraft

International, New Delhi 2009.

10. 'Interrogating the post-colonial - a reading of plays by Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar and

Mahesh Dattani. in Modern Indian drama: Issues and Interventions. ed. Lakshmi

Subramanyam. Srishti. New Delhi. 2008.

11. Games People Play - A Reading of Waiting for Godot. Penguin Study Edition. Ed. GJV

Prasad. Penguin Books. New Delhi. 2006.

12. ‘A Metro-sexual Love story’ in Vikram Seth: An Anthology of Recent Criticism, Ed. GJV

Prasad. Pencraft International: New Delhi. 2004.

13. ‘Jimmy Porter ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai, or the ‘Motiveless’ Anger of Mr Jimmy Porter’ in

The Lost Temper: Critical Essays on Look back in Anger. Ed/ GJV Prasad. Macmillan.

2004.

14. ‘The Page and the Stage: The Representation of Women in two plays by Mahesh Dattani

in Signifying the Self: Women and Literature. EDs. Malashri Lal, Shormishtha Panja and

Sumanyu Satpathy. Macmillan. 2004.

15. ‘Lines and their Shadows: A Reading of Gender Roles in Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow

Lines’. [Ed.] Dr Arvind Choudhary, Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines – Critical Essays,

Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. 2002.

16. ‘“Off-Centre” : The Displacement of Women Characters in Ghashiram Kotwal and Tara’,

[Ed.] Lakshmi Subramanyam, Muffled Voices: Women in Modern Indian Theatre, Shakti

Books, New Delhi. 2002.

17. With V. K. Karthika, ‘Performance and Reception: Moliere in New Delhi’, [Ed.] Pronoti

Sinha, Twentieth Century European Drama, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, 1997.

In Journals

1. ‘Queer Citizens in the City’. In Synergies Inde, SYNERGIES INDE, March 2022, No 10,

2021, City and Gender, Postcolonial Perspectives, coedited by Vijaya Rao and Vidya

Vencatasen.

2. Telling the whole story: The role of the Bhagvata in Karnad’s Hayavadana. MZU Journal of

Literature and Cultural Studies (An Annual Refereed Journal) ISSN 2348-118. March

2015.

3. From the Zoo to the Jungle: A Reading of Mulk Raj Anand’s The Untouchable and

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger in US-China Foreign Language, Vol 10, No. 3 March 2012.

David Publishing Co. U.S.A.

4. 'More Indian, Less English? Contemporary Indian Theatre in English. Muse India, No. 29.

Jan-Feb 2010.

http://www.museindia.com/showfocus18.asp?id=1499. The Literary E-journal. ISSN: 0975-

1815

5. Twenty Years of Dattani. Muse India No 23, Jan-Feb 2009.

http://www.museindia.com/showfocus12.asp?id=1135 . ISSN: 0975-1815

6. ‘Inner and Outer Space in the Plays of Mahesh Dattani. JSL – Journal of the School of

Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Special Issue on Theatre/Performance,

Jawaharlal Nehru University. Autumn 2006.

7. A Conversation with Mahesh Dattani interview published in JSL – Journal of the School of

Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Autumn 2005.

8. Entry on Mahesh Dattani for the Indian section of the

Routledge Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Literatures in English (1994). Second Editio

n, [Eds] Prof. C.D. Narasimhaiah & Dr. Shyamala A. Narayan, Routledge. 2005.

9. Final Solutions? JSL JSL – Journal of the School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies.

On Mahesh Dattani’s Dance Like a Man- The Politics of Production & Performance’, in Seagull

Theatre Quarterly, Issue 11, September 1996.