Towards a Poetics of the Indian English Novel

This monograph is devoted to what might be described as the poetics of the Indian English novel. Its aim is to propose both a typology and a method of evalution so as to provide a reasonably good idea of what to expect from an Indian English novel.

Its central arguments is that the Indian English novel is best understood and evaluated by its placement in a broader civilizational perspective. From such a perspective it is clear that the primary purpose of narrative art, considered the fifth Veda in the Natyashastra, is to expound and uphold Dharma, but to do so in a manner which is both pleasing and popular. The success or failure of the Indian English novelist can be measured by the extent he or she manages to do this. The book also proposes two inter-related sets of theoretical triads to classify Indian English novels. These novels are imperial sub-imperial or subaltern in their content, and social anti-social or formalistic in their stylistic orientations. Their increasing verbal sophistication is recent years often arises out of their inability to engage directly with Indian realities.

By examine how the Indian English novel evolved and development in the last 150 years, this book seeks to identify and interpret its main types, and to spell out its relation to the broader cultural issues such as languages, class, caste, gender and political affiliation. At the end a variety of texts and authors are considered in an attempt to identify the greatest of the Indian English novelists.

About the Author

Madarand Paranjape is Professor, Centre for Linguistic and English Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A Poet critic novelist and include Decolonization and Development: Hindi Svaraj Revisioned and the Penguin Sri Aurobindo Reader.

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