Mubashir Karim

Mubashir Karim

Mubashir Karim was born in Srinagar, Kashmir and completed his Masters in English from the University of Kashmir. He went on to pursue his M.Phil and PhD from Jamia University. Mubashir is currently working as an assistant professor in the Higher Education Department, Jammu & Kashmir. His work has been published in the Transnational Literature Journal, Café Dissensus and Muse India, among many others. He is a regular blogger at http://poiesismubashirkarim.blogspot.com/
Tending a Bonsai or How to Read a Translated Text without Knowing the Original — by Mubashir Karim

Tending a Bonsai or How to Read a Translated Text without Knowing the Original — by Mubashir Karim

In this commentary on two translations of Alejandro Zambra’s novel “Bonsai”, Mubashir Karim performs an exercise in “literary appreciation” that functions equally well as a concise comparative study of the two translations—one by Megan McDowell and the other by Carolina de Robertis. As the commentary progresses, the linguistic expression of the original novel (in Spanish) permeates into the style of writing employed by professor Karim in his deep engagement with the two translations into English by McDowell and de Robertis.

Writing all the way from Kashmir about the two translations of a celebrated novel by a Chilean writer and poet, Mubashir Karim’s commentary directly or indirectly prompts a comparison with Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali’s poem “I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror” as a second instance where Kashmir salutes Chile and Latin America by extension—perhaps because there is a similitude to be found in the experience of multiple histories by multiple subjects whose contemporaneity converges in the study and appreciation of the literary craft, linguistic barriers notwithstanding (“no obstante”).

Given the references to explicit uses of language in the novella, reader discretion is advised.

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The Animal Touch — by Mubashir Karim

The Animal Touch — by Mubashir Karim

While evaluating the writings of various philosophers and theorists like Jacques Derrida and Donna Haraway, Mubashir Karim presents an extensive paper that considers the central role that animals play in celebrated works of literature and film. From Chekhov’s “Misery,” Gholam-Hossein Sa’edi’s “The Cow,” Maile Meloy’s “Travis B.” among others, to film adaptations by Dariush Mehrjui and Kelly Reichardt, the Kashmiri academic traces the connections between stories and films where animals find a prominent place. The resulting study weaves multiple theoretical, critical and philosophical formulations by leading thinkers on the subject of animals. Karim brings in his own observations and interpretations to present a world of fiction and film where animals humanize humans further or retrieve their humanity by entering their plane of existence to create greater depth within it.

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Verses of Dissent and Discontent — Three Poems by Mubashir Karim

Verses of Dissent and Discontent — Three Poems by Mubashir Karim

Mubashir Karim presents three poems of dissent and discontent placed within the long trajectory of resistance poetry that marks contemporary poetic expression in Kashmir. The three poems are linked by the themes of discontent and disillusionment and fueled by a cynicism, sarcasm and an apprehension that have become customary to Kashmiris trapped between hopelessness and grief, with no clear future in sight. However, beyond such undertones, there is the subtle echo of hope lingering somewhere in these verses for the current times.

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