1st Edition
Literary Theory and Criticism Recent Writings from South Asia
The book explores key South Asian writings on cultural theory and literary criticism. It discusses the dynamics of textual contents, rhetorical styles, and socio-political issues through an exploration of seminal South Asian scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The volume examines concepts and methods of critical studies. It also discusses colonial and postcolonial discourses on art, religion, nationalism, identity, representation, resistance, and gender in the South Asian context. The essays are accompanied by textual questions and intertextual discussions on rhetorical, creative, and critical aspects of the selected texts. The exercise questions invite the reader to explore the mechanics of reading about and writing on discursive pieces in South Asian studies.
Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, this textbook will be indispensable for students and researchers of South Asian studies, cultural theory, literary criticism, postcolonial studies, literary and language studies, women and gender studies, rhetoric and composition, political sociology, and cultural studies.
Introduction: Theory, Criticism, and Engaging with the Texts
Arun Gupto
Part I: Theory
1. DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern Nation
Homi Bhabha
2. Belatedness as Possibility: Subaltern Histories, Once Again
Dipesh Chakrabarty
3. The Blurring of Distinctions: The Artwork and Religious Icons in Contemporary India
Tapati Guha Thakurta
4. Woman and Freedom
Firdous Azim
5. Hyphenated post-colonial: A Divergent Perspective
Tariq Amin-Khan
6. Grassroots Texts: Ethnographic Ruptures and Transnational Feminist Imaginaries
Piya Chatterjee
Part II: Criticism
7. Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse
Homi Bhabha
8. Epilogue: The Tantra of Contemplative Cultural Critique
Lata Mani
9. Postcolonial Hybridity: Midnight’s Children
Harish Trivedi
10. Fragmenting Nations and Lives: Sunlight on a Broken Column
Vrinda Nabar
11. Puyakante Wijenaike: Spectral Spaces
Minoli Salgado
12. Chokher Bali: The Novel of the New Age
Radha Chakrabarty
Biography
Arun Gupto is Professor of English at the Institute of Advanced Communication, Education, and Research, Pokhara University, Nepal. He is a former faculty member at the Central Department of English, Tribhuwan University. His areas of research are literary theory, postcolonial studies, and South Asian Studies. His recent books include Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley: Grace, Rage, Knowledge (Routledge, 2016). He has also written and directed a series of documentaries on South Asian Art and Culture titled Art of the Lake (2014), Four Gray Walls Four Gray Towers (post-production), and Anger and the Mahatma (post-production).
