Department of English

Goutam explores the possibility of non-acquisitive forms of imperialist literary expression. His dissertation project, “Owning Renunciation: Studies in Early Modern Non-Possession”, focusing on the 17th century, enquires into the literary mechanisms by which non-possession — a cultivated indifference to material goods — is allied to imperialist thought. To this end, he reads a range of early modern English texts, across literature, ethnographies, and confessional material, to excavate a counter-intuitive relationship between non-possession and empire. He also works on 20th-century adaptations of Shakespeare in the Telugu language. He translates from Telugu, and his translations have appeared in Asymptote and Denver Quarterly. His academic work is forthcoming in or under revision for Borrowers and Lenders: A Journal of Shakespeare and Adaptation, and The Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies.