Rethinking Indian English Literature
Edited by  U.M. Nanavati and Prafulla C. Kar

This volume of essays examines some of the important issues in Indian English literature emerging both from its search for a new sense of identity and its affiliation to a global perspective in the wake of postcolonialism. The essays comprising this volume address topics such as nation and nationalism, hybridization and assimilation, problems of exile and migration, the question of location and boundaries and the place of Indian English literature in the changing canon of English Studies. By focusing on the shifting paradigms of Indian English literature as a part of the subtle transformation of the global configurations of English, the volume attempts to place the genre of this writing within a broad range of issues stemming from the peculiar and problematic role of English as a creative medium deployed in various ways in the countries which were once a part of the British Empire. For illustrative diagnostic purposes some important writers like Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Attia Hosain, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy are included in this volume. But the overall focus of this volume is not on the individual writers or texts and their close readings, but on conceptual and ideological formations of the genre of Indian English literature and the way it has entered the canon of English Studies in India both in its contestatory and collaborative modes.


U.M. Nanavati is a Reader in the Department of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He was the recipient of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellowship to visit Canada to work on a project on postcolonial Canadian novel. His research interests include Indian Literature and Aesthetics, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory.

Prafulla C. Kar is currently the Chair, Department of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has published on American Literature, Indian Writing in English, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. He is one of the convenors of Forum on Contemporary Theory and an editor of the Journal of Contemporary Thought.


Contributors : Jasbir Jain, Jon Mee, Makarand Paranjape, K.C. Baral, E.V.Ramakrishnan, Shormistha Panja, Neelam Srivastava, Susha Shastri, Asma Rasheed, Rani Dharker and Sarla Palkar.
 
 
ISBN 81-85753-37-7           2000           157 pp           Rs.300 (hb)
 
 

Reveals not only Libraries would benefit from having this book on their shelves. It indicates that just as Indian English fiction is going through a big boom in the recent years, criticism is not lagging far behind.
The Book Review