Interview with McComas Taylor
Mar 4, 2020
In this episode of Asian Ethnology Podcast, McComas Taylor,
Associate Professor and Reader in Sanskrit at the Australian
National University, discusses how his research lies at the
intersection of contemporary critical theory and Sanskrit narrative
texts. What makes these texts powerful? What makes them
authoritative? What makes them worth copying out by hand century
after century?
In exploring these questions, he discusses how he applied an
ethnographical approach to working on The
Bhagavatapurana, interviewing audiences and performers and
applying performance theory (published as Seven Days of Nectar:
Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhagavatapurana, Oxford
University Press, 2016). He also talks about teaching Sanskrit as a
living tradition, and teaching the language online.
Publication discussed in this episode
Taylor, McComas. Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhagavatapurana. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Music used with kind permission of the performer, shamisen master Koji Yamaguchi.
Copyright 2020 by Asian Ethnology Podcast