Victor BAPTISTE

PhD student
ED 427

Biographie

After studying for two years in ‘Classe Préparatoire Littéraire’, I obtained, in 2019, a bachelor degree in South-Asian Studies and Sanskrit at the University Paris 3 La Sorbonne Nouvelle. I then successfully applied to a master’s degree in Asian Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études which I completed in 2021. During the first year of this master’s degree (2019-2020) I wrote a thesis intitled « La langue avadhī dans Madhumālatī, poème narratif composé par Mīr Sayyid Mañjhan Rājgīrī au XVIe siècle » (‘The Avadhī Language in Madhumālatī, a Narrative Poem Composed by Mīr Sayyid Mañjhan Rājgīrī in the 16th Century’) under the direction of Pr. Nalini Balbir.
I wrote, the next year, a second thesis intitled « Poésie avadhī et littérature persane : la place de Padmāvat de Malik Muhammad Jāysī dans le champ littéraire indo-persan » (‘Persian Poetry and Persian Literature: the place of Padmāvat by Malik Muhammad Jāysi in the Indo-Persian Literary Field’). In parallel, I obtained, in 2020, a bachelor degree in Persian language and culture at the INALCO, in Paris. I am now starting my PhD at the École Pratique des Hautes Études under the direction of Pr. Nalini Balbir and Pr. Thibaut d’Hubert of the University of Chicago. The title of my dissertation is: « Aspects poétiques et mystiques de la traduction dans la culture indo-persane : l’œuvre littéraire d’Āqil Khān ‘Rāzī’ » (‘Poetical and Mystical Aspects of Translation in the Indo-Persian Culture: the Literary Accomplishments of ‘Āqil Khān ‘Rāzī’).
 

Fields of research and research project

This PhD dissertation studies the literary and mystical works of an Indo-Persian poet named ‘Āqil Khān ‘Rāzī’ (1614-1696) and focuses upon two Persian translations, written by ‘Āqil Khān in 1655 and 1658, of two narrative poems composed in the Avadhī language (spoken in Avadh, a region of North India) during the 16th century: Madhumālatī and Padmāvat. This dissertation is mainly concerned with Philological Sciences but also deals with Poetics, Translation studies and Islamic Mysticism. This work attempts to define the nature of literary communications and exchanges between the Persian cultural sphere and the vernacular sphere in South Asia during the apogee of the Mughal Empire, in the 17th century.
 

Hal & Academia profiles