Kirin Narayan

Kirin Narayan (born November 1959) is an Indian-born American anthropologist, folklorist and writer.

Early life, education, and career

Narayan is the daughter of Narayan Ramji Contractor, a civil engineer from Nashik, and Didi Kinzinger, a German-American "artist, decorator, and builder of sustainable housing".

Narayan was born in Bombay, attended school in India and came to the United States in 1976.{{cite web|title=Professor Kirin Narayan|url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/narayan-k|website=ANU Researchers - Research Services Division|publisher=Australian National University|access-date=30 August 2017}}

Narayan received a BA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and went on to post-graduate studies in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, receiving her PhD in 1987. She taught anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.{{cite book |chapter=Kirin Narayan |title=Asian American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook |page=[https://archive.org/details/asianamericannov00nels_0/page/257 257] |last=Sharma |first=Maya |editor=Emmanuel Sampath Nelson |year=2000 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=0313309116 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/asianamericannov00nels_0/page/257 }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qlpKOzsOc-IC&pg=PA186 |title=South Asian Novelists in English: An A-to-Z Guide |page=186 |last=Sanga |first=Jaina C |year=2003 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=0313318859}} In 1993 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow in the field of anthropology and cultural studies.{{cite web |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/kirin-narayan/ |title=Kirin Narayan |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation}} She is a professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.{{cite web |url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/narayan-k |title=Professor Kirin Narayan |publisher=Australian National University}}

Books

In 1989, Narayan published Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching.Reviews of Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels:

{{cite journal|last=Champion|first=Catherine|date=January–March 1991|issue=117|journal=L'Homme|jstor=40589866|pages=163–164|title=none|volume=31}}
{{cite journal|last=Flueckiger|first=Joyce Burkhalter|date=Spring 1991|doi=10.2307/541251|issue=412|journal=The Journal of American Folklore|jstor=541251|pages=239–241|title=none|volume=104}}
{{cite journal|last=Zarrilli|first=Phillip B.|date=Spring 1991|doi=10.2307/1124168|issue=1|journal=Asian Theatre Journal|jstor=1124168|pages=91–92|title=none|volume=8}}
{{cite journal|last=Gold|first=Ann Grodzins|date=August 1991|issue=3|journal=American Ethnologist|jstor=645615|pages=621–622|title=none|volume=18|doi=10.1525/ae.1991.18.3.02a00290}}
{{cite journal|last=Pechilis|first=Karen|date=October 1991|issue=4|journal=The Journal of Religion|jstor=1203997|page=616|title=none|volume=71|doi=10.1086/488755}}
{{cite journal|last=Handelman|first=Don|doi=10.2307/1178211|issue=1|journal=Asian Folklore Studies|jstor=1178211|pages=262–263|title=none|volume=50|year=1991}} It received the Victor Turner Prize from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology{{cite web |url=http://sha.americananthro.org/sha-prize-winners/ |title=SHA Prize Winners |publisher=Society for Humanistic Anthropology}} and was co-winner of the Elsie Clews Prize for Folklore from the American Folklore Society.

In 1994, she published the novel Love, Stars and All That.Reviews of Love, Stars and All That:

{{cite journal|date=November 1993|journal=Kirkus Reviews|title=Review|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kirin-narayan/love-stars-and-all-that/}}
{{cite journal|date=January 1994|doi=10.17953/amer.20.3.250625417277t57l|issue=3|journal=Amerasia Journal|pages=95–118|title=Book Reviews|volume=20|last1=Grewal|first1=Indepal|last2=Motooka|first2=Wendy|last3=Lee|first3=Jee Yeun|last4=So|first4=Christine|last5=Srikanth|first5=Rajini|last6=Young|first6=Morris|last7=Yoo|first7=David|last8=Ropp|first8=Steven Masami|last9=Fong|first9=Joe}}
{{cite journal|last=Ruta|first=Suzanne|date=May 1994|doi=10.2307/4021845|issue=8|journal=The Women's Review of Books|jstor=4021845|page=12|title=A Time for Stories|volume=11}}
{{cite news|last=Moraes|first=Dom|date=31 July 1994|newspaper=India Today|page=95|title=Coming of Age: A Fine, Funny Debut|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-kirin-narayan-love-stars-and-all-that/1/293740.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220093309/http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-kirin-narayan-love-stars-and-all-that/1/293740.html|archive-date=20 February 2014}}
{{cite journal|last=Muthyala|first=John|date=Summer 1998|doi=10.2307/468021|issue=2|journal=MELUS|jstor=468021|pages=205–206|title=none|volume=23}} Reviewing the novel, Indian poet and editor Dom Moraes praised the work, saying:
"This is a novel well received and achieved: it is also intelligent, excellently written, and revelatory of what it is like to be an American born in India. It makes one feel Narayan is that very rare bird, a born writer, and that she may fly far."{{harvtxt|Moraes|1994}}

Narayan published Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales in 1997.Reviews of Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon:

{{cite journal|last=Blackburn|first=Stuart|date=February 1998|doi=10.2307/2659083|issue=1|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|jstor=2659083|pages=257–259|title=none|volume=57|s2cid=161514624 |doi-access=free}}
{{cite journal|last=Goldberg|first=Christine|date=May–August 1998|issue=2|journal=Journal of Folklore Research|jstor=3814754|pages=157–160|title=none|volume=35}}
{{cite journal|last=Chandola|first=Anoop|date=September 1999|issue=3|journal=American Anthropologist|jstor=683895|pages=683–684|title=none|volume=101|doi=10.1525/aa.1999.101.3.683}}
{{cite journal|last=Bailly|first=Constantina Rhodes|date=April 2000|issue=1|journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies|jstor=20106693|pages=80–81|title=none|volume=4}} In 2002 a new edition of the first collection of Indian folk tales in English, Mary Frere's Old Deccan Days, was published with an introduction by Narayan.Review of Old Deccan Days:
{{cite journal|last=Haring|first=Lee|issue=2|journal=Marvels & Tales|jstor=41388715|pages=301–303|title=none|volume=18|year=2004|doi=10.1353/mat.2004.0036|s2cid=162163807}} In 2007, she published a memoir My Family and Other Saints.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5pbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT556 |title=Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature |pages=556–57 |year=2015 |isbn=978-1438140582|last1=Oh |first1=Seiwoong |publisher=Infobase Learning }}Reviews of My Family and Other Saints:
{{cite news|last=Grimes|first=William|date=December 26, 2007|newspaper=The New York Times|title=A Groovy Pad Full of Gods and Gurus|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/books/26grim.html}}
{{cite magazine|first=Bhaichand|last=Patel|date=10 November 2008|magazine=Outlook|title=An Old Haunt: A tale of turbulent adolescence and life in a bicultural household, we visit '60s Bombay and a mystic's haven|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/an-old-haunt/238887}}
{{cite journal|last=Kuortti|first=Joel|date=August 2009|department=Book reviews|doi=10.1080/09584930903109018|issue=3|journal=Contemporary South Asia|pages=347–348|title=none|volume=17|s2cid=218546357}}
{{cite journal|last=Dhanani|first=Dimple|date=April 2013|issue=1|journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies|jstor=24713569|pages=110–112|title=none|volume=17}} An autobiographical work in which "Gods, gurus and eccentric relatives compete for primacy", The New York Times described the work as an "enchanting memoir".{{harvtxt|Grimes|2007}} Its title is a reference to Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, a childhood inspiration to Narayan.{{cite news|newspaper=Livemint|title=A family 'we-moir'|url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/LoaqKJTknAdbGsS48JMaFL/A-family-8216wemoir8217.html|date=19 September 2008|first=Sanjukta|last=Sharma}}

In her 2012 work Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov,Reviews of Alive in the Writing:

{{cite journal|last=Staples|first=James|date=December 2012|issue=4|journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute|jstor=23321472|pages=903–905|title=none|volume=18|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9655.2012.01798_17.x}}
{{citation|last=Ecke|first=Laurie|issue=42|journal=Qualitative Report|pages=1–3|publisher=Nova Southeastern University|title=Alive in the Reading: Nayaran and Chekhov|url=https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol18/iss42/3|volume=18|year=2013}}
{{cite journal|last=Fine |first=Elizabeth |title=Book review |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |url=http://www.jfr.indiana.edu/review.php?id=1441|date=March 2013}}
{{citation|last=Behar|first=Ruth|date=April 2013|doi=10.1086/669935|issue=2|journal=Current Anthropology|jstor=10.1086/669935|pages=244–245|title=Forgive Yourself, Dear Writer|volume=54|s2cid=142151214}}
{{cite journal|last=Herzfeld |first=Michael |title=Book review |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=115 |number=3 |pages=528–529 |doi=10.1111/aman.12038_13|date=August 2013}}
{{citation|last=Rivera|first=Francisco|doi=10.7202/1038653ar|issue=3|journal=Anthropologie et Sociétés|page=314|title=none|volume=40|year=2016|doi-access=free}} Narayan used Anton Chekhov's Sakhalin Island as inspiration for an exploration of ethnographic writing. James Wood, writing of his 'Books of the Year' in The New Yorker, described it as a "brief and brilliant book" that he read "with huge pleasure".{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/books-of-the-year#ixzz2FPktQirJ | last=Wood |first=James | title = Books of the Year | magazine = The New Yorker | date= 17 Dec 2012 }} In 2016 Narayan published Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses in the Himalayan Foothills, about women's traditions of singing in the Kangra Valley.Reviews of Everyday Creativity:
{{cite news|title=Goddesses of song: the women singers of the Western Himalayas|newspaper=The National (Abu Dhabi)|url=https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/goddesses-of-song-the-women-singers-of-the-western-himalayas-1.176733|date=14 December 2016|first=James|last=McNair}}
{{cite journal|last=Davis |first=Coralynn V. |title=Book review |journal=Asian Ethnology |year=2017 |volume=76 |number=2 |pages=418–421 |url=https://asianethnology.org/downloads/ae/pdf/AsianEthnology-2064.pdf}}
{{cite journal|last=Krishnan |first=Shweta |title=Book review |journal=Anthropological Quarterly |volume=91 |number=1 |year=2018 |pages=421–425 |doi=10.1353/anq.2018.0016|s2cid=149618364 }}
{{cite journal|last1=Dellenbaugh|first1=Ginger|last2=Rahaim|first2=Matthew|date=April 2018|doi=10.1386/jivs.3.1.95_5|issue=1|journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies|pages=95–100|title=Reviews|volume=3}}
{{cite journal|last=Stirr|first=Anna|date=May 2018|doi=10.1111/1467-9655.12845|issue=2|journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute|pages=413–414|title=none|volume=24}}
{{cite journal|last=Manuel|first=Peter|date=July 2018|doi=10.1080/00856401.2018.1489759|issue=3|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|pages=700–701|title=none|volume=41|s2cid=149992303}}
{{cite journal|last=Dalzell|first=Victoria M.|doi=10.1353/not.2019.0046|issue=4|journal=Notes|pages=677–679|title=none|volume=75|year=2019|s2cid=198046726}}

References

External links

{{Google Scholar id|L8fUjGwAAAAJ}}
[https://pro.magnumphotos.com/image/PAR160497.html Photo of Narayan as an infant with her mother], part of a 1960 photo-essay "East-West wife" by Marilyn Silverstone in Coronet magazine

Category:1959 births

Category:Living people

Category:Writers from Mumbai

Category:Sarah Lawrence College alumni

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty

Category:American women writers of Indian descent

Category:American women anthropologists

Category:American novelists of Indian descent

Category:American women novelists

Category:Women writers from Maharashtra

Category:Novelists from Wisconsin