Ways of Seeking: Collaborative Distortions in Bento's Sketchbook and the Making of a Travel Graphic Novel

Abiral Kumar, University of Potsdam

This paper attempts to revisit Bento’s sketchbook as a collaborative work across space and time undertaken between several individuals to recover a work lost to the world. Berger’s call to see his sketchbook as one that belonged to Spinoza, or as he was fondly called, Bento, is at once, an attempt to approach the philosopher in a colloquial manner, while also painting the seriousness of his philosophy. The artwork does not appear in the form of illustration reflective of the extracts from Spinoza’s work, but stands for itself, as an equal as well as a refractive engagement with Spinoza’s philosophical inquiries from the 18th century. By this act of merging the two timelines together into one cohesive picture of the world, a new text emerges into the world. The collaboration does not limit itself to two individuals, Spinoza and Berger, but includes others from Berger’s social sphere. My paper seeks to understand this collaborative gesture through certain questions: What picture of the real sketchbook do we obtain from this reading of the book? Is the insistence upon real, and the lost, of any value in this discussion? I will illustrate these questions with other examples of lost texts from the world, such as the Hamzanama and through instances of my travels across north India in search of an oral narrative topology, the tilism.

Abiral Kumar is a Ph.D. as a fellow at the RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms. He completed masters and MPhil. Degree (with distinction) in English Literature from the Department of English, University of Delhi. He taught Postcolonial literature and theory at St. Stephen's College. His academic and creative work has appeared in several journals and magazines including TBLM, and Hindavi Bela. His graphic narratives, based on the 16th c. Hamzanama tradition, Fragrance of Time and Perchance to Dream have been awarded by the Barzinji Foundation, USA.