Kirin Narayan (born November 1959) is an Indian-born American anthropologist, folklorist and writer.
Early life, education, and career
Narayan is the daughter of Narayan Ramji Contractor, a civil engineer from Nashik, and Didi Kinzinger, a German-American "artist, decorator, and builder of sustainable housing".[1] Narayan was born in Bombay, attended school in India and came to the United States in 1976.[2]
Narayan received a BA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and went on to post-graduate studies in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving her PhD in 1987. She taught anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[1][3][4] In 1993 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow in the field of anthropology and cultural studies.[5] She is a professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.[6]
Books
In 1989, Narayan published Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching.[7] It received the Victor Turner Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology[8] and was co-winner of the Elsie Clews Prize for Folklore from the American Folklore Society.[6]
In 1994, she published the novel Love, Stars and All That.[9] Reviewing the novel, Indian poet and editor Dom Moraes praised the work, saying:
"This is a novel well received and achieved: it is also intelligent, excellently written, and revelatory of what it is like to be an American born in India. It makes one feel Narayan is that very rare bird, a born writer, and that she may fly far."[10]
Narayan published Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales in 1997.[11] In 2002 a new edition of the first collection of Indian folk tales in English, Mary Frere's Old Deccan Days, was published with an introduction by Narayan.[12] In 2007, she published a memoir My Family and Other Saints.[3][4][13] An autobiographical work in which "Gods, gurus and eccentric relatives compete for primacy", The New York Times described the work as an "enchanting memoir".[14] Its title is a reference to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, a childhood inspiration to Narayan.[15]
In her 2012 work Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov,[16] Narayan used Anton Chekhov's Sakhalin Island as inspiration for an exploration of ethnographic writing. James Wood, writing of his 'Books of the Year' in The New Yorker, described it as a "brief and brilliant book" that he read "with huge pleasure".[17] In 2016 Narayan published Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses in the Himalayan Foothills, about women's traditions of singing in the Kangra Valley.[18]
In 2024, Narayan published Cave of My Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora.[19]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Asian American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook{{#if:Sharma|, Sharma}. Bloomsbury Academic(2000). ISBN 0313309116
- ↑ Professor Kirin Narayan. ANU Researchers - Research Services Division. Australian National University. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 South Asian Novelists in English: An A-to-Z Guide{{#if:Sanga|, Sanga}. Bloomsbury Academic(2003). ISBN 0313318859
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Infobase Learning(2015). ISBN 978-1438140582
- ↑ Kirin Narayan. John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Professor Kirin Narayan. Australian National University.
- ↑ Reviews of Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels:
- none. L'Homme({Template:Date).
- none. The Journal of American Folklore({Template:Date).
- none. Asian Theatre Journal({Template:Date).
- none. American Ethnologist({Template:Date).
- none. The Journal of Religion({Template:Date).
- none. Asian Folklore Studies({Template:Year).
- ↑ SHA Prize Winners. Society for Humanistic Anthropology.
- ↑ Reviews of Love, Stars and All That:
- Review. Kirkus Reviews({Template:Date).
- Book Reviews. Amerasia Journal({Template:Date).
- A Time for Stories. The Women's Review of Books({Template:Date).
- Coming of Age: A Fine, Funny Debut. India Today(31 July 1994).
- none. MELUS({Template:Date).
- ↑ Template:Harvtxt
- ↑ Reviews of Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon:
- none. The Journal of Asian Studies({Template:Date).
- none. Journal of Folklore Research({Template:Date).
- none. American Anthropologist({Template:Date).
- none. International Journal of Hindu Studies({Template:Date).
- ↑ Review of Old Deccan Days:
- none. Marvels & Tales({Template:Year).
- ↑ Reviews of My Family and Other Saints:
- A Groovy Pad Full of Gods and Gurus. The New York Times(December 26, 2007).
- Template:Cite magazine
- none. Contemporary South Asia({Template:Date).
- none. International Journal of Hindu Studies({Template:Date).
- ↑ Template:Harvtxt
- ↑ A family 'we-moir'. Livemint(19 September 2008).
- ↑ Reviews of Alive in the Writing:
- none. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute({Template:Date).
- Alive in the Reading: Nayaran and Chekhov. Nova Southeastern University.
- Book review. Journal of Folklore Research({Template:Date).Template:Dead link
- [{{{url}}} Forgive Yourself, Dear Writer](April 2013).
- Book review. American Anthropologist({Template:Date).
- [{{{url}}} none].
- ↑ Template:Cite magazine
- ↑ Reviews of Everyday Creativity:
- Goddesses of song: the women singers of the Western Himalayas. The National (Abu Dhabi)(14 December 2016).
- Book review. Asian Ethnology({Template:Year).
- Book review. Anthropological Quarterly({Template:Year).
- Reviews. Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies({Template:Date).
- none. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute({Template:Date).
- none. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies({Template:Date).
- none. Notes({Template:Year).
- ↑ Cave of My Ancestors: Vishwakarma and the Artisans of Ellora. University of Chicago Press.
External links
- Template:Google Scholar id
- Photo of Narayan as an infant with her mother, part of a 1960 photo-essay "East-West wife" by Marilyn Silverstone in Coronet magazine