Christian Lee Novetzke

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Christian Lee Novetzke is an American Indologist and scholar of Religious Studies and South Asian Studies. He is Professor of International Studies and Comparative Religion at the University of Washington, where he holds an endowed professorship from the College of Arts and Sciences. [1] His areas of interest include Indian cultural history and the theorization of religion. As an author, he has also been largely collected by libraries. [2]

Contents

At the University of Washington, Novetzke serves as Director of the Center for Global Studies, as well as Associate Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. [3]

Education and career

Novetzke received a B.A. from Macalester College in 1993 and an M.T.S. in Religious Studies from Harvard University in 1996. In 2003, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Columbia University.

After teaching in the departments of South Asian Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2007, Novetzke joined the University of Washington in 2007. [4] He has developed and taught courses on Hinduism (particularly the Bhakti traditions); theories of religion; Indian culture; and the history and politics of yoga. [5]

Honors and recognition

Novetzke's first book, Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India, was awarded Best First Book in the History of Religions by the American Academy of Religion. [6]

Throughout his career, he has been awarded fellowships and grants by institutions such as Fulbright, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. [7]

Reception for Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation

In 2016, Novetzke, along with co-authors William Elison and Andy Rotman, published a book on the 1977 Bollywood film Amar Akbar Anthony . [8] Though published by the scholarly Harvard University Press, the book, entitled Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation, attracted the attention of the mainstream Indian press, with the authors giving interviews about the book for the Hindu, [9] Mid-Day, [10] and Daily News and Analysis . [11]

In his review of the book in the Hindu, Jai Arjun Singh notes, "Here's a scholarly work about a popular film that also tries to mimic something of the film's controlled lunacy, winking at itself every now and again." [12]

Frontline's C.S. Venkiteswaran calls the work "an eminently readable book that will delight any cineaste for its sheer passion for cinema and for the delightful theoretical dexterity with which it weaves a complex and rich web of information and analysis." [13]

Selected bibliography

Books

Selected articles

Related Research Articles

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Guru Amar Das Third Sikh Guru (1552 to 1574)

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<i>Dnyaneshwari</i>

The Dnyaneshwari, also referred to as Jnanesvari, Jnaneshwari or Bhavartha Deepika is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita written by the Marathi saint and poet Sant Dnyaneshwar in 1290 CE. Dnyaneshwar lived a short life of 22 years, and this commentary is notable to have been composed in his teens. The text is the oldest surviving literary work in the Marathi language, one that inspired major Bhakti movement saint-poets such as Eknath and Tukaram of the Varkari (Vithoba) tradition. The Dnyaneshwari interprets the Bhagavad Gita in the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism. The philosophical depth of the text has been praised for its aesthetic as well as scholarly value.

<i>Amar Akbar Anthony</i> 1977 Indian film directed by Manmohan Desai

Amar Akbar Anthony is a 1977 Indian Hindi-language masala film directed and produced by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan. The film stars Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan opposite their female leads of Shabana Azmi, Neetu Singh and Parveen Babi, with Nirupa Roy, Pran and Jeevan in supporting roles. The plot focuses on three brothers separated in childhood who are adopted by families of different faiths: Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. They grow up to become respectively a police officer, a qawwali singer, and the proprietor of a bootleg tavern in a poor neighborhood.

Marathi literature is the body of literature of Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and written in the Devanagari and Modi script.

Wendy Doniger American Indologist (born 1940)

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva; Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook; The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology; Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts; and The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit. She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has taught there since 1978. She served as president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1998.

The history of Hinduism covers a wide variety of related religious traditions native to the Indian subcontinent. It overlaps or coincides with the development of religion in the Indian subcontinent since the Iron Age, with some of its traditions tracing back to prehistoric religions such as those of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilisation. It has thus been called the "oldest religion" in the world. Scholars regard Hinduism as a synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no single founder. This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between ca. 500–200 BCE and ca. 300 CE, in the period of the Second Urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism, when the Epics and the first Purānas were composed. It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India.

Namdev Hindu Bhakti Saint from the medieval era

Namdev, also transliterated as Nam Dayv, Namdeo, Namadeva, was a Marathi Hindu poet and saint from Narsi, Hingoli, Maharashtra, India within the Varkari tradition of Hinduism. He lived as a devotee of Lord Vitthal (Krishna) of Pandharpur.

Sant Mat was a spiritual movement on the Indian subcontinent during the 13th–17th centuries CE. The name literally means "teachings of sants", i.e. mystic Hindu saints. Through association and seeking truth by following sants and their teachings, a movement was formed. Theologically, the teachings are distinguished by inward, loving devotion by the individual soul (atma) to the Divine Principal God (Parmatma). Socially, its egalitarianism distinguishes it from the caste system, and from Hindus and Muslims. Sant Mat not to be confused with the 19th-century Radha Soami, also known as contemporary "Sant Mat movement".

Mahipati

Mahipati was an 18th century Marathi language hagiographer who wrote biographies of prominent Hindu Vaishnava sants who had lived between the 13th and the 17th centuries in Maharashtra and other regions of India.

Anti-Brahminism or Non-Brahminism is term used in opposition to caste-based hierarchical social order which places Brahmins at its highest position. Initial expressions of Anti-Brahminism emerged from instances of pre-colonial opposition to the caste system in India, ideological influences during the colonial period, and from a colonialist Protestant Christian understanding of religion in the 19th century, which viewed "Brahminism" as a corrupted religion imposed on the Indian population. Reformist Hindus, but also Ambedkar, structured their criticism along similar lines following the 19th century criticism of "Brahminism," opposing the dominant position Brahmins had acquired by the time of British rule in the 19th century.

Abhang

Abhanga is a form of devotional poetry sung in praise of the Hindu god Vitthal, also known as Vithoba. The word "abhang" comes from a for "non-" and bhang for "ending" or "interrupting", in other words, a flawless, continuous process, in this case referring to a poem. By contrast, the devotional songs known as Bhajans focus on the inward journey. Abhangs are more exuberant expressions of the communitarian experience. Abhanga is considered a form of the ovi. Abhangs are sung during pilgrimage to the temples of Pandharpur, by the devotees.

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Sant Gora Kumbhar was a Hindu sant associated with the Bhakti movement and the Varkari sect of Maharashtra, India. He was a potter by trade and devotee of Vithal. Gora Kumbhar, along with other saints, wrote and sung hundreds of Abhangs.

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Eknath Indian Hindu saint, philosopher, and poet (1533–1599)

Sant Eknath, commonly known as Sant (saint) Eknath was an Indian Hindu saint, philosopher and poet. He was a devotee of the Hindu deity Vitthal and is a major figure of the Warkari tradition. Eknath is often viewed as a spiritual successor to the prominent Marathi saints Dnyaneshwar and Namdev.

Narsi (Namdev) is a village in Hingoli taluka of Hingoli district of Indian state of Maharashtra. It is 17 km away from Hingoli. It is known as the birthplace of the Varkari saint and poet Namdev. Earlier village was known as Nurshi (Bamani).

Shimpi is an umbrella term for the Indian caste traditionally involved in the business of clothing and tailoring. Saint Namdev of the Bhakti movement is revered as the patron of the community.

Shakala Shaka ; IAST:Śākala Śākhā), is the oldest shakha of the Rigveda. The Śākala tradition is mainly followed in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The Mahābhāṣya of Patanjali refers to 21 śākhās of the rigveda; however, according to Śaunaka's Caraṇa-vyuha there are five śākhās for the Rigveda, the Śākala, Bāṣkala, Aśvalayana, Śaṅkhāyana, and Māṇḍukāyana of which only the Śākala and Bāṣkala and very few of the Aśvalayana are now extant. The only complete recension of this text known today is of the Śākala School. As far as the Rigveda is concerned only Śākala Śākhā is preserved out of 21 which existed at one time. There is a claim that Śaṅkhāyana Śākhā is still known to a few Vedapathis in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat but this is not certain.

References

  1. ↑ "Professor Christian Lee Novetzke". faculty.washington.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
  2. ↑ "Novetzke, Christian Lee". worldcat.org. Retrieved October 28, 2016.
  3. ↑ "People of the Jackson School of International Studies - University of Washington".
  4. ↑ "Christian Lee Novetzke - CV" (PDF). Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Teaching – Professor Christian Lee Novetzke". faculty.washington.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  6. ↑ "Book Awards | aarweb.org". www.aarweb.org. Archived from the original on 2016-10-29. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  7. ↑ "Christian Lee Novetzke - CV" (PDF). Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Amar Akbar Anthony — William Elison, Christian Lee Novetzke, Andy Rotman".
  9. ↑ Nandgaonkar, Satish (February 6, 2016). "Straight As for secularism". The Hindu. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  10. ↑ Fernandez, Fiona (February 19, 2016). "Why did three scholars from the US write a book on Amar Akbar Anthony?". Mid-Day . Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  11. ↑ Abidi, Shahkar (April 24, 2016). "AAA's message: We can't build a modern India until we move out of communally bounded spaces". Daily News & Analysis. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  12. ↑ Singh, Jai Arjun (March 11, 2016). "The awesome threesome". The Hindu. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  13. ↑ Venkiteswaran, C.S. "Deconstructing a potboiler". Frontline. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
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