Barnard Senior Kena Chavva's Senior Thesis Explores Shakespeare In Telugu

Upper West Side NY

19 May, 2022

4:15 PM

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By Esha Karam, Columbia Daily Spectator • May 17, 2022, 11:23 PM Kena Chavva, BC '22, a Barnard Scholar of Distinction, is an English major with a particular interest in comparative literature. Her academic interests intersected with her heritage when she started studying Telugu, a language primarily spoken in South India. "I grew up speaking Telugu, but I could never read or write it," Chavva said. "Over COVID I kind of taught myself in part, took some classes that gave me the tools to be literate, and my thesis professor was really encouraging of this interest." Chavva made use of both her newly acquired knowledge of Telugu and her interest in comparative literature when writing her senior thesis. Chavva's work compares the original version of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" to a Telugu translation of the work written in 1960. "When you think of a translation, you kind of think … that something's always lost in language," Chavva said. "But my thesis is basically arguing that the Telugu language translation that I'm using kind of brings out a lot of the really radical, interesting critiques of capitalism that are present in the original Shakespeare text." Because her professors are not proficient in Telugu, Chavva must translate the Telugu translation of Shakespeare back into English for her thesis. "Most people reading my paper do not speak Telugu, which is also interesting, because then you can kind of comment on how I'm translating it, and it makes it very meta-textual," she said. In addition to her participation in the Barnard Scholars of Distinction program, Chavva received the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, a national fellowship for undergraduates who are interested in pursuing a doctorate and have a demonstrated commitment to furthering diversity in higher education. Funding from the two programs allowed her to attend a summer course in Telugu at the University of Texas at Austin and supplement her education with textbooks. "A lot of it was self-directed, but those two programs at Barnard are really important to me because they are what encouraged me to do this," Chavva said. After graduation, Chavva plans to pursue a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania while teaching English at Deerfield Academy. Staff writer Esha Karam can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.