Rewriting India

Description

Emerging from the idealistic vision of nationalistic writers in the 1930s, Indian writing in English has evolved through several distinct phases. Bruce King traces this process of evolution by examining the influence of the modern Indian poets of the 1960s and 1970s on the prose writers of a recent generation. The author takes the reader on a journey into the literary worlds of eight Indian writers in English—Arun Kolatkar, K.N. Daruwalla, Amit Chaudhuri, Pankaj Mishra, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Tabish Khair, Susan Visvanathan, and Jeet Thayil—who epitomize the thematic shifts Indian literature has undergone since Independence. King emphasizes the importance of place, personal experience, and social contexts to these and many prominent writers as well as recent Indian writing. Responding to those who regard the literatures of the former colonies and dominions as continuing to write back against the British Empire, he explores how these modern Indian writers map the complexities and contradictions of a dynamic nation.