Author: Neluka Silva
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 257
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0761932038
Description
While postcolonial creative writing in English has come of age in South Asia, scholarly examination of this rich body of writing has remained largely confined to the narrow domain of literary criticism.
This unusual and well-written book instead foregrounds issues relating to identity, nationalism and gender in contemporary literary writing. To do so, the author has analysed select works which are located within and grapple with four recent periods which have played a significant role in refashioning the nations in the region: the Emergency in India; the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka; the secession of Bangladesh; and Zia-ul-Haq's regime in Pakistan.
In examining the literary representation of these critical junctures, Neluka Silva draws upon key aspects of postcolonial, nationalist and feminist theory, which have influenced both the understanding of the concerned episodes and the literary productions of the authors selected. By providing an implicit comparative frame of reference, the author succeeds in suggesting ways in which certain choices reinforce or subvert established power relations in the fraught arena of nationalist politics in the four South Asian countries.
With its sophisticated theoretical perspective and providing innovative ways of reading creative writing, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of postcolonial literature, cultural studies, critical theory, gender studies, politics and nationalism.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Critical Moments: Nationalism and Gender in South Asia
CHAPTER ONE
India is Indira: Fictionalising Indira Gandhi’s Politics, the Emergency and Nationalism
CHAPTER TWO
Gendering the Nation: Literary Representations of Contemporary Sri Lankan Politics
CHAPTER THREE
The Politics of Liberation: Resistance and After in Literary Texts of Bangladesh
CHAPTER FOUR
Islam, Politics and Marginal Groups: Representation of Zia-ul-Haq’s Regime in Literature
CONCLUSION
Literary Texts as Empowering Sites for Change
REFERENCES AND SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR