India's great novel and the Mahabharata

Shashi Tharoor (India)

Sat, Apr 19, 2008

6 pm

Admission: 5 Euros, concessions 3 Euros, both literature events to this day: 7 Euros, concessions 5 Euros | "3-events-ticket" for 3 readings of your choice 12 Euros, conc. 8 Euros |

Within the framework of AVATAR. ASIA’s NARRATORS. A literature festival about the migration of Asian epics, curated by Ilija Trojanow.
Kombi-Ticket für den 19. April (Girish Karnad + Shashi Tharoor) € 7, ermäßigt € 5

In English and German

Followed by a discussion with Ilija Trojanow

Epics and identities: His much-awarded masterpiece The Great Indian Novel is an irony-laden adaptation of the Mahabharata, which means ‘Great India’. From the colonial age to the present, Shashi Tharoor presents the sages and traitors of Antiquity alongside the protagonists of Modernity. He sums up the epic as follows: ‘If they would only read Mahabharata once, then they would understand that India is not an undeveloped country, but a highly developed country in a state of advanced decline.’ Shashi Tharoor, writer and journalist was born in 1956. He was his country’s candidate for the position of UN General Secretary in 2006.