Associate Professor McComas Taylor
Areas of expertise
- Epistemology 220304
- Indian Literature 200520
- Studies In Eastern Religious Traditions 220406
- Language Studies 2003
Research interests
- The construction of truth in the Sanskritic episteme
- The ideas of social division in Sanskrit narrative literature
- Puranic narratives and their empowerment
- Role of Sanskrit texts in contemporary Hindu practice
- Flexible delivery of small-enrolment languages
Biography
McComas Taylor has led the South Asia Progam in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research lies at the intersection of contemporary critical theory and classical Sanskrit narrative literature. His primary focus is on the construction of ‘true’ discourse in the Foucauldian sense in the Sanskritic, Hindu episteme. His initial work in this area was on the narrative fables in the Pañcatantra cycle. The primary output of this was a book, The fall of the Indigo Jackal, published by SUNY Press in 2007. Following that, he turned his attention to textual studies of the mahapuranas in which he explored various authorial strategies aimed at empowering puranic discourse. More recently, he has studied contemporary oral rendition of puranic texts, specifically the Bhagavatapurana, to explore ways in which performative and ritual practices empower discourse.
Publications
- Taylor, M and Ye Shaoyong (translators). 2013. Ji Xianlin: 'My heart is a Mirror' and 'Life in the Cattle Yard'. Asian Literature and Translation 1(1): 1-64.
- Taylor, M. (under review). 'Stories of God: Contemporary performance of Bhagavata-katha'. Book chapter in Acri and Pinkney (eds) Replaying the Past: Performances of Hindu Textual Heritage in India and Bali. (Submitted 1 Feb 2013). Read draft online
- Taylor M. (under review). Puranic masculinities and transgender adventures in the garden of the Goddess. (Submitted to International Journal of Hindu Studies 14 Feb 2013)
- Taylor M. In press. 'Textual strategies, empowerment and 'true' discourse in the Bhagavatapura?a'. DICSEP 5. (accepted 16 Aug 2011)
- Taylor, M. 2011. 'Purnabhadra's Pancatantra: Jaina tales or Brahmanical outsourcing?' International Journal of Jaina Studies 7(1): 1-17.
- Taylor, M. Forthcoming in 2012. 'Empowering the Sacred: How a text creates discourse in a contemporary oral performance of the Bhagavatapurana' In. Orality and Literacy: Composition and Performance: Brill. (accepted 8 February 2011)
- Taylor, M. 2010. Indian idol: Narrating the story of Krishna in Globalising contexts. Report to POSCO TJ Park Foundation