Contemporary Mythology and the Frame-tale Narrative

Session title: Contemporary Mythology and the Frame-tale Narrative: Rana Dasgupta's Tokyo Cancelled.  Presenter:   Dr. Gretchen Busl, Texas Woman's University.  Date and location: Wednesday,  May 14,  7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Denton South Branch Library.  Series: Professor's Corner: A Literary Discussion Group.  Session description: Tokyo Cancelled is the story of 13 passengers stranded overnight in an airport, who, in the tradition of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, pass the time telling fantastic stories set in cities like Delhi, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, and New York. This 2005 novel  from Indo-Anglian author Rana Dasgupta draws from a number of "archaic" genres such as the fairytale, the folktale, and the frame-tale narrative, but is ultimately a modern text that examines how -- and why -- we continue to tell stories in the 21st century. Dasgupta's novel has been called a "contemporary mythology," one that not only contemplates the disjunction and alienation that comes along with globalization, but one that demonstrates the potential of stories for crossing cultural and geographic boundaries.  Through a discussion of the novel's frame story and two of its characters' stories, "The Billionaire's Sleep" and "The Story on Madison Avenue," participants will consider how Dasgupta mixes timeless, familiar stories and narrative structures with the frenetic and often dislocated reality of the contemporary global landscape in order to demonstrate how the urge to tell stories connects us all. There will be a drawing for a free copy of the novel.  Cost: This program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.  Reading material: The reading made available in advance by the presenter can be found on the calendar page of the Denton Public Library's website.  It consists of one story from the novel.  Click the calendar link from the front page and go to the session date.    The reading material for this session is also available from the series coordinator by e-mail upon request.  Reading in advance is encouraged but not required.  DPL front page:www.dentonlibrary.com.  Coordinator: Fred Kamman, Denton Public Library; Fred.Kamman@cityofdenton.com;  940-349-8752. Producer: Dr. Stephen Souris, Texas Woman's University; SSouris@twu.edu; 940-898-2343.  Location of the South Branch Library: 3228 Teasley, Denton, TX  76210.  The South Branch Library is just south of the Teasley & Lillian Miller intersection. "This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities."