1st Edition
Resistance and Identity in Twenty-First Century Literature and Culture Voices of the Marginalized
Resistance and Identity in Twenty-First Century Literature and Culture: Voices of the Marginalized is a compendium of reflections on literary texts, politics of literature and culture. The book proffers ruminations on the pivotal role of constructive and positive resistance to reconstruct identities for meaningful human existence. The disciplinary power and dominance coerce the natural body to resist and yearn for freedom. One can establish unique identity by refusing to conform to pressures of society that deform the natural body. Dominant forces and oppressive structures evoke resistance that can range from 'polite demurral' to 'refusal'. Resistance comes from the 'will' that refuses to be controlled and governed. The 'refusal' of the ordinary illuminates ordinary lives/ bodies. Language and literary texts contain essential truths of such human existence. Words and imaginary worlds in literary works reveal truth and suggest possibilities for reconfiguring the order.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I
1. Jacques Rancière and the "Politics of Literature"
2. Albert Camus's Concept of Resistance
3. Michel de Certeau and Spatial Practices
Part II
4. Arundhati Roy's An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
5. The Branded
6. Resistance in P. Sachidanandan's Govardhan's Travels
7. Women in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide
8. Indra Sinha's Animal's People
Part III
9. Mahasweta Devi's Mother of 1084
10. The Marginalized in Breast Stories
11. Veiled Identities in Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran
12. Transnational Identities in The Namesake
13. "Strangenesses and Selves" in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine
14. Sophocles' Antigone
Part IV
15. The Bog Body in Seamus Heaney’s "Punishment"
16. Environmental Imagination and Culture
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Navleen Multani is an Associate Professor in English, Head, School of Languages, and Director, Public Relations Cell at Jagat Guru Nanak Dev Punjab State Open University (JGND PSOU), Patiala (India). She is a postgraduate in English from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and holds PhD in English Literature and Language from Punjabi University Patiala (Punjab, India). She is Member of the Research Committee and the Academic Council at JGND PSOU. She is Area Editor with Oxford Online Bibliographies: Literary and Critical Theory. She has edited Essays on Classics (2019). She is Program Coordinator MA English and Certificate Course in Effective Business and Social Communication at JGND PSOU. She specializes in theories of resistance and Indian writings. Research articles on contemporary topics written by her have been published in Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature. She teaches language, literature, linguistics and communication skills in various degree programs.
