1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782716803321

Autore

Kanaganayakam C (Chelvanayakam), <1952->

Titolo

Counterrealism and Indo-Anglian fiction [[electronic resource] /] / Chelva Kanaganayakam

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Waterloo, Ont., : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2002

ISBN

1-280-92557-4

9786610925575

0-88920-749-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (224 p.)

Disciplina

823/.91409954

Soggetti

Indic fiction (English) - 20th century - History and criticism

Indic literature (English) - 20th century - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references: p. 199-208.

Nota di contenuto

Counterrealism as alternative literary history -- The fabulator of Malgudi: R.K. Narayan -- H. Hatterr and sauce anglaise: G.V. Desani -- Slipper dragging and the silent piano: Anita Desai -- The art of enchantment: Zulfikar Ghose -- Fashioning new fables: Suniti Namjoshi -- Fabulating the real: Salmon Rushdie -- Midnight's grandchildren.

Sommario/riassunto

What do R.K. Narayan, G.V. Desani, Anita Desai, Zulfikar Ghose, Suniti Namjoshi, and Salman Rushdie have in common? They represent Indian writing in English over five decades. Vilified by many cultural nationalists for not writing in native languages, they nonetheless present a critique of the historical and cultural conditions that promoted and sustained writing in English. They also have in common a counterrealist aesthetic that asks its own social, political, and textual questions.  This book is about the need to look at the tradition of Indian writing in English from the perspective of counterrealism. The departure from the conventions of mimetic writing not only challenges the limits of realism but also enables Indo-Anglian authors to access formative areas of colonial experience.  Kanaganayakam analyzes the fiction of writers who work in this vibrant Indo-Anglian tradition and demonstrates patterns of continuity and change during the last five decades. Each chapter draws attention to what is distinctive about the



artifice in each author while pointing to the features that connect them. The book concludes with a study of contemporary writing and its commitment to non-mimetic forms.