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CSAS Lecture Series | Sarandib, Lanka, Ceylon: Banishment and Belonging

Ronit Ricci, Department of Asian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Friday, September 29, 2017
4:00-5:30 PM
Room 110 Weiser Hall Map
The small, Indian Ocean island known as Sarandib, Lanka, and Ceylon has figured as an important site of banishment in different periods and different literary and religious traditions. This talk takes as its starting point the history of the Sri Lankan Malays, a community descended from 18th century royal exiles from across the Indonesian archipelago, soldiers in colonial armies, servants, convicts, and others sent to Dutch and British Ceylon, to consider if and how earlier traditions of banishment mattered to the Malays’ images of, and sense of belonging to the island. In particular, the talk explores the Islamic tradition that views the island, which the Arabs called Sarandib, as the site of Adam’s Fall from Paradise to earth, and the ways that ancient story helped frame, and give meaning to exile in the colonial period.

Ronit Ricci received her PhD in Comparative Literature from UM in 2006. She is Associate Professor at the department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the School of Culture, History, and Language at the Australian National University. In addition to essays and articles on translation, Javanese and Malay manuscript literatures, and the literary history of the Sri Lankan Malays, her publications include Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia (University of Chicago Press, 2011), the co-edited volume Translation in Asia: Theories, Practices, Histories (with Jan van der Putten, St. Jerome, 2011) and the edited volume Exile in Colonial Asia: Kings, Convicts, Commemoration (University of Hawaii Press, 2016).

This event is cosponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature.
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Asia
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for South Asian Studies, Comparative Literature, International Institute, Asian Languages and Cultures