This paper will explore modern Punjabi literature as a simultaneously creative and cultural historical practice through the example of experimentation in Punjabi theatre from BC, Canada. The speaker's own theatrical engagements--a 2014 production related to the centenary of the Komagata Maru Incident (when more than 350 would be immigrants to Canada from British India were turned away from Vancouver) and a new project exploring a traditional Punjabi narrative, the Qissa Puran Bhagat--will be presented for discussion and placed in context, both in the history of Punjabi language cultural production in BC and the history of Punjabi theatre more broadly.

Anne Murphy is Associate Professor & Chair, Punjabi Language, Literature and Sikh Studies in the Department of Asian Studies at University of British Columbia