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Revision as of 04:45, 14 February 2014 editFowler&fowler (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers62,984 editsm →The Hindus: removing one sentence not cited to these reviews← Previous edit Revision as of 11:51, 14 February 2014 edit undoFowler&fowler (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, File movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers62,984 edits We don't need a fancy long description of her professorship in the lead (unencyclopedic); neither do self-descriptions cut it. adding cn tags; a cv is neither reliable nor a secondary source. honorary doctorates don't countNext edit →
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'''Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty''' (born November 20, 1940) is an American ] and ] ] of the ] at the ], the ], and the ]. She has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978.<ref name=doniger_cv/> '''Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty''' (born November 20, 1940) is an American ] who has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978.{{cn|date=February 2014}} Much of her work is focused on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hindu theories through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and ].{{cn|date=February 2014}}

Much of her work is focused on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hindu theories through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and ]. She describes herself as "a ]ist, indeed a recovering ]"<ref>Doniger, ''The Hindus'', 35</ref> and "an old-fashioned ]".<ref>Doniger, ''The Bedtrick'', p. xxii.</ref>

==Biography== ==Biography==
Doniger was born in New York City to immigrant non-observant Jewish parents, and raised in ] NY, where her father, Lester L Doniger (1909–1971), ran a publishing business. While in high school, she studied dance under ] and ]. She graduated ''summa cum laude'' in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from ] in 1962, and received her M.A. from ] in June 1963. She then studied in ] in 1963–1964 with a 12-month ]ship from the ]. She gained her first PhD from ] in June 1968, with a dissertation on 'Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of ],' supervised by ]. She obtained her second, a D. Phil. in ] from ], in February 1973, with a dissertation on ‘The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology,’ supervised by ]. She has since been awarded six honorary doctorates.<ref name=doniger_cv/> Doniger was born in New York City to immigrant non-observant Jewish parents, and raised in ] NY, where her father, Lester L Doniger (1909–1971), ran a publishing business.{{cn|date=February 2014}} While in high school, she studied dance under ] and ]. She graduated ''summa cum laude'' in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from ] in 1962, and received her M.A. from ] in June 1963.{{cn|date=February 2014}} She then studied in ] in 1963–1964 with a 12-month ]ship from the ].{{cn|date=February 2014}} She received a PhD from ] in June 1968, with a dissertation on 'Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of ],' supervised by ]. She obtained a D. Phil. in ] from ], in February 1973, with a dissertation on ‘The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology,’ supervised by ].{{cn|date=February 2014}}


Doniger holds the ] Distinguished Service Professor Chair in History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has served on the editorial board of '']'' since 1979, as well as editing a dozen other publications over her lifetime. In 1984 she was elected President of the ], and in 1997 President of the ]. She serves on the International Editorial Board of the '']''.<ref name=doniger_cv/> Doniger holds the ] Distinguished Service Professor Chair in History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has served on the editorial board of '']'' since 1979, as well as editing a dozen other publications over her lifetime.{{cn|date=February 2014}} In 1984 she was elected President of the ], and in 1997 President of the ]. She serves on the International Editorial Board of the '']''.{{cn|date=February 2014}}


In June 2000, she was awarded the ] for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, for ''Splitting the Difference''; and in October 2002, the ] prize from the ], for the best book about English literature written by a woman, for ''The ]''. The American Academy of Religion awarded her the 2008 ] Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.<ref name=doniger_cv/> She was invited to give the 2010 ] President's Lecture at the ], which was entitled, "The ] Made Flesh: Split-Level Symbolism in Hindu Art".<ref></ref> In June 2000, she was awarded the ] for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, for ''Splitting the Difference''; and in October 2002, the ] prize from the ], for the best book about English literature written by a woman, for ''The ]''. The American Academy of Religion awarded her the 2008 ] Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.{{cn|date=February 2014}} She was invited to give the 2010 ] President's Lecture at the ], which was entitled, "The ] Made Flesh: Split-Level Symbolism in Hindu Art".<ref></ref>


==Reception== ==Reception==

Revision as of 11:51, 14 February 2014

Wendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger at Shimer College in 2012
Born (1940-11-20) November 20, 1940 (age 84)
New York City
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materHarvard University
Oxford University
Scientific career
FieldsHistory of Religions,
Hinduism,
Sanskrit literature,
Mythology
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Doctoral advisorDaniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr.
Doctoral studentsOver 100, including:
David Gordon White,
Jeffrey Kripal,
Laurie Patton

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist who has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978. Much of her work is focused on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hindu theories through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and identity.

Biography

Doniger was born in New York City to immigrant non-observant Jewish parents, and raised in Great Neck NY, where her father, Lester L Doniger (1909–1971), ran a publishing business. While in high school, she studied dance under George Balanchine and Martha Graham. She graduated summa cum laude in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Radcliffe College in 1962, and received her M.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in June 1963. She then studied in India in 1963–1964 with a 12-month Junior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. She received a PhD from Harvard University in June 1968, with a dissertation on 'Asceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology of Siva,' supervised by Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr.. She obtained a D. Phil. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University, in February 1973, with a dissertation on ‘The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology,’ supervised by R.C.Zaehner.

Doniger holds the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Chair in History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has served on the editorial board of History of Religions since 1979, as well as editing a dozen other publications over her lifetime. In 1984 she was elected President of the American Academy of Religion, and in 1997 President of the Association for Asian Studies. She serves on the International Editorial Board of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

In June 2000, she was awarded the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, for Splitting the Difference; and in October 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay prize from the British Academy, for the best book about English literature written by a woman, for The Bedtrick. The American Academy of Religion awarded her the 2008 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. She was invited to give the 2010 Art Institute of Chicago President's Lecture at the Chicago Humanities Festival, which was entitled, "The Lingam Made Flesh: Split-Level Symbolism in Hindu Art".

Reception

Since she began writing in the 1960s, Doniger has gained the reputation of being "one of America's major scholars in the humanities". Her books both in Hinduism and other fields have been positively reviewed by Indian scholar Vijaya Nagarajan and American Hindu scholar Lindsey B. Harlan, who noted as part of a positive review that "Doniger's agenda is her desire to rescue the comparative project from the jaws of certain proponents of postmodernism". Of her Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit, Indologist Richard Gombrich wrote: "Intellectually, it is a triumph..." Gombrich called Doniger's Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva "learned and exciting". Doniger's Rigveda, a translation of 108 hymns selected from the canon, was deemed among the most reliable by historian of religion Ioan P. Culianu. She has also been called "one of the most distinguished mythologists of our time" by Sudhir Kakar.

Beginning in the early 2000s, a disagreement arose within the Hindu community over whether Doniger accurately described their traditions. Together with many of her colleagues, she was the subject of a critique by Rajiv Malhotra for using psychoanalytical concepts to interpret non-Western subjects. Christian Lee Novetzke, associate professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, summarizes this controversy as follows: "Wendy Doniger, a premier scholar of Indian religious thought and history expressed through Sanskritic sources, has faced regular criticism from those who consider her work to be disrespectful of Hinduism in general." Professor Novetzke cites Doniger's use of "psychoanalytical theory" as

a kind of lightning rod for the censure that these scholars receive from freelance critics and 'watch-dog' organizations that claim to represent the sentiments of Hindus.

Martha C. Nussbaum, concurring with Novetzke, adds that while the agenda of those in the American Hindu community who criticize Doniger appears similar to that of the Hindu right-wing in India, it is not quite the same since it has "no overt connection to national identity", and that it has created feelings of guilt among American scholars, given the prevailing ethos of ethnic respect, that they might have offended people from another culture. While Doniger has agreed that Indians have ample grounds to reject postcolonial domination, she claims that her works are only a single perspective which does not subordinate Indian self-identity.

The Hindus

Doniger's 2009 trade book The Hindus: An Alternative History has received scant attention in the scholarly literature. Two scholarly reviews by known scholars Krishna Mohan Shrimali, professor of Indian history at the University of Delhi and Ludo Rocher, the W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, though praising Doniger for her textual scholarship, have both criticized Doniger's poor historiography and lack of focus. Writing in the journal Social Scientist Shrimali concludes,

"There are several issues that need more detailed and nuanced analysis rather than straight-jacketed formulations that we read in The Hindus. These concern terminologies and chronologies invoked, perfunctory manner in which class-caste struggles have been referred to — almost casually, complex inter-religious dialogue seen only in the context of Visnu's avataras, and looking at the tantras merely in terms of sex and political power. The work rarely rises above the level of tale telling. On the whole, this is neither a serious work for students of Indian history, nor for those with a critical eye on 'religious history' of India, nor indeed it is the real Alternative History of the 'Hindus'.

In the Journal of the American Oriental Society Locher writes,

"She especially loves to illustrate ancient stories by interjecting comparisons with situations with which the audience is familiar: Doniger commands an unbelievably vast array of comparable material, often, though not always, from American popular culture. Doniger acknowledges that the book was not meant to be as long as it turned out to be, "but it got the bit between its teeth, and ran away from me" (p. 1). Several pages are indeed filled with "good stories" that are only loosely, some very loosely, related to the history of the Hindu religion. Going into detail on the drinking and other vices of the Mughal emperors, even though carefully documented, is a case in point (pp. 539-41). ...When it comes to legal history in the colonial period in particular, there are passages that are bound to raise ... eyebrows. ... the history of Hindu law was more complex than is represented in this volume. Anglo-Hindu law was far more than "the British interpretation of Jones's translation of Manu."

In the popular press, however, the book has received many positive reviews, for example from the Library Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, and The Hindu. According to the Hindustan Times, The Hindus was a No. 1 bestseller in the non-fiction category in India in 2009. In January 2010, the National Book Critics Circle named The Hindus as a finalist for its 2009 book awards. The Hindu American Foundation protested this decision, alleging inaccuracies and bias in the book. In February 2014, in the midst of an increasingly bitter general election campaign and as part of a settlement to a suit brought before an Indian district court, The Hindus was recalled by Penguin India. Doniger's statement in response to the decision said, in part:

They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece— the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book.

Indian scholars such as Partha Chatterjee, Jeet Thayil, and Namwar Singh inveighed against the decision. Arundhati Roy wrote, in an open letter to Penguin Books India, that the move "affects us all".

Works

Doniger has written 16 books, translated (primarily from Sanskrit to English) with commentary nine other volumes, has contributed to many edited texts and has written hundreds of articles in journals, magazines and newspapers. These include New York Times Book Review, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Times, The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, International Herald Tribune, Parabola, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Daedalus, The Nation, and the Journal of Asian Studies.

Interpretive works

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

Translations

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

  • Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, translated from the Sanskrit. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1975; 357 pp.
  • The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1981).
  • (with David Grene) Antigone (Sophocles). A new translation for the Court Theatre, Chicago, production of February 1983.
  • Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, in the series Textual Sources for the Study of Religion, edited by John R. Hinnells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). 211 pp.
  • (with David Grene). Oresteia. A New Translation for the Court Theatre Production of 1986. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). 249 pp.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

Edited volumes

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

  • The Concept of Duty in South Asia. Edited (with J. D. M. Derrett), with an introduction (pp. xiii–xix) and an essay ("The clash between relative and absolute duty: the dharma of demons," pp. 96–106) by W. D. O'Flaherty. (London: School of Oriental and African Studies). 240 pp.
  • The Critical Study of Sacred Texts. Edited, with an introduction (pp. ix–xiii). (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, Religious Studies Series, 1979). 290 pp.
  • Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions. Edited, with an introduction (pp. i–xv) and an essay ("Karma and rebirth in the Vedas and Puranas," pp. 1–39). (Berkeley: University of California Press; 1980). 340 pp. Reprinted, Banarsidass, 1999.
  • Elephanta: The Cave of Siva. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Carmel Berkson, and George Michell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). ISBN 0691040095
  • Religion and Change. Edited by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. History of Religions 25:4 (May 1986).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

See also

Notes

  1. Chicago Humanities Festival | Art Institute of Chicago President's Lecture: Wendy Doniger, The Lingam Made Flesh
  2. Martha Craven Nussbaum, The clash within: democracy, religious violence, and India's future, Harvard University Press, 2007 p.249.
  3. Vijaya Nagarajan, 'Review of The Bedtrick,' in Journal of Religion 84.2 (April 2004).
  4. Lindsey B. Harlan, 'Review of The Implied Spider,', in Church History 68.2 (June 1999)
  5. ^ Richard Gombrich, Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty Religious Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun. 1978), pp. 273–274
  6. Ioan P. Culianu, "Ask Yourselves in Your Own Hearts..." History of Religions, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Feb. 1983), pp. 284–286

    That is why, with the exception of Geldner's German translation, the most reliable modern translations of the Rgveda-W. O'Flaherty's being one of them-are only partial. However, W. O'Flaherty has, in her present translation, a wider scope than other scholars – Louis Renou, for instance, whose Hymnes speculatifs du Veda are a model of accuracy – who prefer to limit their choice to one thematic set of hymns.

  7. Sudhir Kakar, untitled review of Other People's Myths: The Cave of Echoes by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty The Journal of Religion, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Apr. 1990), pp. 293–294 The University of Chicago Press
  8. The interpretation of gods
  9. The axis of neo-colonialism, Malhotra Rajiv, World Affairs, Year : 2007, Volume : 11, Issue: 3, Print ISSN: 0971-8052.
  10. Christian Lee Novetzke, "The Study of Indian Religions in the US Academy", India Review 5.1 (May 2006), 113–114
  11. Martha C. Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), p. 248
  12. "I don't feel I diminish Indian texts by writing about or interpreting them. My books have a right to exist alongside other books." Amy M. Braverman. "The interpretation of gods". University of Chicago Magazine, 97.2 (December 2004).
  13. ^ Rocher 2012, p. 303.
  14. ^ Shrimali 2010, p. 80.
  15. James F. DeRoche, Library Journal, 2009-02-15
  16. David Arnold. "Beheading Hindus And other alternative aspects of Wendy Doniger's history of a mythology", Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 2009
  17. David Dean Shulman, 'A Passion for Hindu Myths,' in New York Review of Books, Nov 19, 2009, pp.51–53.
  18. Pankaj Mishra, "'Another Incarnation',", in New York Times, April 24, 2009
  19. A R Venkatachalapathy, "Understanding Hinduism" The Hindu March 30, 2010
  20. "Top authors this week" Hindustan Times Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, October 15, 2009
  21. "National Book Critics Circle Finalists Are Announced" New York Times January 23, 2010
  22. HAF Urges NBCC Not Honor Doniger's Latest Book, as reprinted in LA Times, New Yorker, Sify
  23. ^ Buncombe, Andrew (February 13, 2014). "Arundhati Roy criticises Penguin for pulping The Hindus: An Alternative History". The Independent. Delhi. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  24. "Penguin to destroy copies of Wendy Doniger's book 'The Hindus'" The Times of India
  25. "Penguin to recall Doniger’s book on Hindus" The Hindu
  26. "How Doniger’s now-recalled ‘The Hindus’ ruffled Hindutva feathers" firstpost.com
  27. "'I Do Not Blame Penguin Books, India'" Outlook (magazine)
  28. "Academics, writers decry Penguin's withdrawal of Doniger's book 'The Hindus'"
  29. Wendy Doniger, Curriculum Vitae.

References

External links

History of Religions Area at University of Chicago Divinity School
Wendy Doniger · Bruce Lincoln · Christian K. Wedemeyer
Awards and achievements
Preceded byAnnette Peach
Lucy Newlyn 		Rose Mary Crawshay Prize
2002
and
Kate Flint 		Succeeded byJane Stabler
Claire Tomalin

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