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Podcast: New Books in Literary Studies
Episode: Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, "The Inhumans and Other Stories: A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction" (MIT Press, 2024)
Description: Kalpavigyanâscience fiction written to excite Bengali speakers about science, as well as to persuade them to evolve beyond the limitations of religion, caste, and classâbecame popular in the early years of the twentieth century. Translated into English for the first time, in The Inhumans and Other Stories (MIT Press, 2024) you'll discover The Inhumans (1935), Hemendrakumar Roy's satirical novella about a lost race of Bengali supermen in Uganda. Also included are Jagadananda Ray's âVoyage to Venusâ (1895), Nanigopal Majumdar's âThe Mystery of the Giantâ (1931), and Manoranjan Bhattacharya's âThe Martian Puranaâ (1931). The stories were selected and translated by Dr. Bohdisattva Chattopadhyay.This intervie...