Lidia Wojtczak

I am interested in the Sanskrit language and its teaching both in its South Asian contexts over time, and in the West. I specialise in Sanskrit poetry (kāvya), and often work on texts of theory on poetics and aesthetic practices in premodern South Asia.

My main focus has been Sanskrit messenger poetry (dūtakāvya) and I am currently working on editing and translating a set of Sanskrit messenger poems from Kerala in South India, which form a coherent and distinct corpus, significant for both local and translocal practices of Sanskrit composition.

Before coming to the University of Chicago, I spent eight years teaching courses in Sanskrit and Phonology at SOAS, University of London.

Recent Publications:

• “Place, topography and travel: the messenger poem and other genres,” with Shonaleeka Kaul, in: Cambridge History of Indian Literature, eds. F. Orsini & W. Cox., Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming 2024.

• “Building Brahmakṣetra: The Keralan literary landscape in dūtakāvya,” in: Bhūtārthakathane... Sarasvatī. Reading Poetry as a History Book, eds. M. Franceschini, Ch. Livio & L. Wojtczak, Unior Press, Forthcoming 2024.

• “Sanskrit Texts and Contemporary Menstrual Taboos in South Asia,” in: Dignity Without Danger Menstruation in Nepal, eds. S. Parker, M. Subedi & K. Standing, Routledge, 2024.

• “The Winding Ways of Poetry: Ratnaśrījñāna on Daṇḍin’s mārgas”, in: Cracow Indological Studies 22.2, Księgarnia Akademicka, 2020, pp. 1–15. (https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.22.2020.02.01)

• “The Chase from Which Poetry Sprung: The Third Chapter of the Kāvyamīmāṃsā and the Emergence of Kāvya”, in: Journeys and Travellers in Indian Literature and Art. Vol. I Sanskrit and Pali Sources, eds. Danuta Stasik, Anna Trynkowska, Elipsa, 2018, pp. 205-215.