Papers & Preprints
Academic papers, conference presentations, and manuscripts in progress. Full abstracts, citation metadata, and BibTeX entries included for reference.
AI and the Art of Storytelling: Exploring the Intersection of Narrative and Artificial Intelligence
Howlader, Rantideb
Proceedings of the International Conference on Stories Matter: (Re)-thinking Narratives, Aesthetics, and Human Values
Banaras Hindu University — December 6–7, 2024
Abstract
This paper investigates how generative AI technologies reshape narrative structures, authorship, and literary imagination. Drawing on narrative theory (Genette, Barthes) and computational creativity research, it examines the tension between algorithmic text generation and human creative agency. Through close reading of AI-generated literary texts alongside traditional narratives, the paper develops a critical framework for evaluating AI authorship against classical models of narrative construction. The analysis reveals that while AI can simulate narrative surface features, it struggles with the deep structural coherence and intentional meaning-making that characterizes human storytelling. The paper concludes by proposing an ethics of collaborative authorship between human and machine, particularly relevant for postcolonial contexts where questions of voice and agency carry additional political weight.
BibTeX Citation
@inproceedings{howlader2024ai,
author = {Howlader, Rantideb},
title = {AI and the Art of Storytelling: Exploring the Intersection of Narrative and Artificial Intelligence},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Stories Matter: (Re)-thinking Narratives, Aesthetics, and Human Values},
year = {2024},
month = {December},
address = {Varanasi, India},
organization = {Banaras Hindu University}
}Voices That Break: A Narrative Analysis of Stammering as Trauma in South Asian Literature and Cinema
Howlader, Rantideb
Independent Research
Banaras Hindu University
Abstract
This manuscript presents a critical examination of how stammering functions as both disability and narrative device in South Asian literary and cinematic traditions. Drawing on trauma theory (Caruth, Herman), disability studies (Davis, Siebers), and narrative theory, this project analyzes texts where dysfluency becomes a mode of storytelling rather than a deficit to be overcome. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines close reading with computational sentiment analysis (fine-tuned BERT models), the study detects affective shifts around disability markers in a comparative framework spanning Bengali, Hindi, and English-language cultural productions. Preliminary findings suggest that stammering characters serve as sites of narrative disruption that expose the normative assumptions embedded in fluent narration itself—creating what I term 'broken chronotopes' that parallel the temporal distortions of traumatic memory.
BibTeX Citation
@unpublished{howlader2025voices,
author = {Howlader, Rantideb},
title = {Voices That Break: A Narrative Analysis of Stammering as Trauma in South Asian Literature and Cinema},
year = {2025},
note = {Manuscript in preparation},
institution = {Banaras Hindu University}
}Research Collaboration
Interested in my research? I'm open to co-authorship opportunities, conference panel proposals, and cross-institutional DH collaborations.