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D. Wiemann, Genres of Modernity. Contemporary Indian Novels in English

D. Wiemann, Genres of Modernity. Contemporary Indian Novels in English

Publié le par Sophie Rabau

Dirk WIEMANN, Genres of Modernity. Contemporary Indian Novelsin English.


Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, collection "InternationaleForschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft" n° 120

2008, x-334 p.

  • Isbn 13 (ean):  978-90-420-2493-9


Présentation de l'éditeur

Genres ofModernity maps the conjunctures of critical theory and literary production incontemporary India. The volume situates a sample ofrepresentative novels in the discursive environment of the ongoing criticaldebate on modernity in India, and offers for the first time a rigorous attemptto hold together the stimulating impulses of postcolonial theory, subalternstudies and the boom of Indian fiction in English. In opposition to theentrenched narrative of modernity as a single, universally valid formationoriginating in the West, the theoretical and literary texts under discussionengage in a shared project of refiguring the present as a site of heterogeneousgenres of modernity. The book traces these figurative efforts with particularattention to the treatment of two privileged metonymies of modernity: theissues of time and home in Indian fiction. Combining close readings of literarytexts from Salman Rushdie to Kiran Nagarkar with a wide range of philosophical,sociological and historiographic reflections, Genres of Modernity is ofinterest not only for students of postcolonial literatures but for academics inthe fields of Cultural Studies at large.

Table des matières :

Introduction

EncounteringIndian Novels in English

A ModernityThat Is not One. Situating Indian Writing in English

Meanwhile,in Indian Standard Time. Figuring Time and Nation

Mythologisingthe Quotidian. Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel

Typing theMinutes. Vikram Chandra'sRed Earth and Pouring Rain

ViolentSeparation - ViolentFusion. Kiran Nagarkar'sCuckold

UnimaginedCommunities. Vikram Seth'sA Suitable Boy

TwoVersions of Sans Souci. The Public Life of Domesticity

WritingHome. Into the Interior with Amit Chaudhuri

The AquaticIdeal. The House as Archive in Amitav Ghosh's Writings

Desire andDomestic Friction: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things

StillPostcolonial after All These Years. Instead of a Conclusion

Bibliography

Index