Events
- Title: Interpreting a Colonial Scandal: The Deployment of Communication in Eighteenth-Century French India
- Host Department: Institute for the Humanities
- Date: 12/01/2009 - 12/01/2009
- Time: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
- Location: 202 S. Thayer St., Room 2022 Ann Arbor, MI
- Description: Brown Bag Lecture: Featuring our Fellows series
Danna Agmon is a doctoral student in the Program in Anthropology and History. Last year she was the Mary Ives Hunting and David D. Hunting, Sr., Graduate Student Fellow in the Institute.
- Detailed Information:
Early in the Eighteenth century, the French colony of Pondicherry was thrust into a state of turmoil: the Indian city’s most senior native employee, an interpreter and commercial broker in the service of the French trading company, was imprisoned and found guilty of treason and sedition.
The man’s trial, subsequent appeals and the ultimate reversal of his sentence were the occasion for extensive French discussions on the difficulties of communicating effectively in a colony. Tamil interpreters played a central role in these discussions, as both French colonists and their Indian employees charted out the ways in which their interactions could be strategically deployed to deny communication, render comprehension indecipherable, or enhance understanding.Danna Agmon is a doctoral student in the Program in Anthropology and History. Last year she was the Mary Ives Hunting and David D. Hunting, Sr., Graduate Student Fellow in the Institute.
