Modern Indian Literature in English - Lecture Notes - Indian Literature - Richard Allen, Study notes of Indian Literature

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ENG 7067: Modern Indian Literature in English

Reading List and Preliminary Information

Content: This module will examine Indian writings from the late eighteenth century to the present in relation to various key developments of modern Indian history: the commercial establishment of the East India Company, the institution of a colonial English education system in the 1830s, Raj ideologies of the nineteenth century, Indian nationalist responses to colonialism from 1857 to 1947, post- independence attempts at socio-political and cultural modernization in India, and finally, economic liberalization from the 1990s. We will consider how these developments generated distinctive forms of discourse in literature. Hence imperialist writings, nationalist writings, and writings from post- Independence India will be considered as sequences within a historically unfolding framework of discursive practices relating to the construction of modern India. The list of set texts for this module comprises fiction, autobiography, travel writing, journalism, history, political writing, and poetry among its representative genres. Male and female writers are represented as well as writers domiciled in India, Britain and America. We expect to engage with a variety of media such as newspapers, films, internet, and television, in relation to our discussions of literary texts.

Set Texts: The following texts are recommended for purchase as representing a diverse selection of readings and themes which will be taken up in the module. Apart from these, we will use the library resources and photocopying and to supplement the reading for the module. I have appended a brief descriptive note to each title for some indication of the scope of reading involved. All texts are available through Amazon, www.amazon.co.uk Copies for browsing are available at the McClay library, though if you are taking the course you will be expected to purchase your own in advance.

1. Richard Allen and Harish Trivedi, ed., Literature and Nation: Britain and India: 1800-1990 (Routledge,

2001. £18. A useful collection of Indian writings focused on the themes of nationality and Indo-British relations.

2. V.S. Naipaul, India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990; Minerva, 2000) £7.

Marks a turning-point in the 2001 Nobel prize winner’s trenchant reflections on his ancestral country.

3. Salman Rushdie, Step Across this Line (Vintage, 2003) £8.

Non-fictional writing 1992-2002 by the controversial novelist.

4. Vinay Dharwadker and A.K. Ramanujan, ed. The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry (OUP,

1994. £7.

This work covers both Indian poets writing in English and the much larger field of modern Indian poetry published in the major Indian languages. A critical essay on “Modern Indian Poetry and its Contexts” is a valuable addition to the work. The translations make elegant reading in modern English and the work as a whole will help to contextualize the work of poets writing in English.

5. Amit Chaudhuri, ed. The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature (Picador, 2002) £8.99 (This has been reissued as The Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature , 2004). A wide-ranging anthology, mostly prose, covering mid nineteenth-century to contemporary literature; with substantial inclusions from other Indian languages, particularly Bengali.

Fiction: We will agree fiction titles at the start of the course depending on the interests and prior knowledge of the group. Some well-known fiction writers worth reading in advance include: Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster, J.G. Farrell, R.K. Narayan, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, and Amitav Ghosh.