Dimensions Of Indian English Literature

Contributed artices; covers the period 20th century.

Indian Writing In English Has Undoubtedly Acquired Its Own Independent Identity; It No More Remains Mere Imitative And Derivative. Its Long Journey From Colonial To Post-Colonial, From Imperial To Democratic And From English To Hinglish Forms A Remarkable Chapter In The History Of World Literature. Tagore Earned The First Recognition And Naipaul Is The Recent Laureate. In Between These Nobel Laureates Came A Number Of Writers Whose Work Earned Worldwide Appreciation.The Present Book Is An Attempt To Present The Different Genres Of Indian Writing In English. It Aims At Tracing Its Distinctive Features, Such As Cultural Alienation, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism Etc. While Nehru Has Furnished The Best English To The Globe, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Arundhati Roy, Shiv K. Kumar And Dattani Have Stirred The West With Their Great Works. The Works Of These Renowned Literary Figures Have Been Considered Thoroughly And Meticulously In The Present Book.It Is Hoped That While The Student Community Will Find It Easily Accessible, The Teachers Will Also Consider It Exciting Study Material.

This volume provides a critical reading of Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956), Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others (2014) and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (1995) to provide a literary account of three fundamental moments in India’s history: the Partition of 1947, the Naxalbari movement, and Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. These novels provide literary interpretations of the ways in which feelings of fear and insecurity connected with ethno-religious rivalries, as well as with new power shifts in Indian socio-economic structure, gave a significant contribution to the formation of the political landscape in post-colonial India. More specifically, defying any kind of identitarian juxtaposition (be it related to ethnic belonging, religion, sexuality, or social class), the present work reads those three major novels in Indian English fiction to investigate how episodes of violence, in the first three decades after India’s independence from the British Empire, were enacted under the influence of cultural images and “affects” which legitimised different social groups to claim for themselves the right to prevail over others, or even take their lives. The volume starts with a reflection on the spreading of rumours during Partition in Train to Pakistan (1956) and their power to turn friendly communities into sworn enemies. The analysis proceeds then to discuss how the newborn government’s struggle to stifle the Naxalbari movement, as it described in The Lives of Others, was partly sustained by paranoiac feelings projected by the new metropolitan bourgeoisie on the people living in the rural parts of the country. The historical itinerary concludes with an analysis of A Fine Balance’s description of the two main political objectives of the Emergency: the “beautification” of India and the reduction of the country’s population. Both appear to be revealing moments of a predatory character present in the new Indian democratic institutions, transmitted as a kind of bodily contagion.

Perspectives On Indian English Literature Are Too Vast And Varied To Be Completely Evaluated Between The Covers Of A Single Book. The Present Volume Is A Modest Contribution To Explore This Area Through A Vast Cross-Section Of Scholars And Academicians From Different Universities Of The Country. Apart From Its Critical And Academic Importance, The Present Volume Would Also Help The Students, Teachers, Researchers And Scholars To Know India Through The Broadened Perspectives Profferred Through English Language.

Spectrum History Of Indian Literature In English Accomplishes The Task Of Historical Continuity By Linking With The Past The Most Recent Present Of The Writing In English By Indians. The Book Is A Highly Useful Supplement To The Earlier Two Volumes By K.R. Srinivas Iyengar And M.K. Naik. Articles By Jasbir Jain And Sunanda Mongia Are A Spectrum Presen¬Tation Of The Latest Developments In The Field Of Indian Fiction In English In All Its Technical & Thematological Innovations. Satish Aikant'S Article Provides A Serious Backdrop To The Volume By Deliberating Upon The Historicity Of English Studies In India, Their Need, Relevance And Epistemological Repercussions. R.K. Singh'S Article Does Well To Deconstruct The Myth That Good Poetry Is Published Only By The Established Publishers. His Account Of Little Or Less Known Indian Poets In English Is Both Critical And Historically Illuminating. Charu Sheel Singh, Shyam Asnani And Attiya Singh Discuss Indian English Poetry, Criticism, Drama And Fiction Respectively. Meena Sodhi'S Article Is A Good Compilation Of Indian Autobiographies, Mostly In English, Which She Discusses With Good Critical Sense And Perceptive Imagination. A.N. Dwivedi'S Article On Indian English Short Stories Is A Comprehensive And Balanced Piece Which Is Also Rich In Illustrations. The Two Appendices Add To The Value Of The Book By Cherishing Critical Attention On What May Be Called Tradition And Experiment In Indian English Poetry And Fiction. Whereas Satish K. Gupta'S Brief Piece Highlights Homogeneity In The Sensibility Of Aurobindo And Charu Sheel, It Takes Pains And Care To Chalk Out Differences In Mode, Manner And The Whole Presentation Idiom In The Latter'S Poetry From That Of Aurobindo. Krishan Mohan Pandey'S Account Of The Post-Modemist Reaction Against Gandhi In Indian Fiction In English Is Timely. It Reaffirms Faith In An Indian Critic'S Belief In What Tagore Once Said : I Cannot Love A God Who Does Not Give Me Freedom To Deny Him.

Postmodernism In Indian English Literature Refers To The Works Of Literature After 1980. If Raja Rao S Kanthapura (1938) Marks Modernism, Salman Rushdie S Midnight S Children (1981) And Nissim Ezekiel S Latter-Day Psalms (1982) Mark Postmodernism In Indian English Literature. In This Book, Dr. Bijay Kumar Das Has Analysed Postmodern Indian English Literature Genre-Wise Poetry, Novel, Short Story, Drama And Autobiography. This Is A Critical History Of Indian English Literature In The Postmodern Period, Meant For Students, Researchers As Well As Teachers Who Seek An Introduction To It.