ABSTRACT
This essay proposes, first, that rasa-dhvani (aesthetic relish and literary suggestion), from the body of Sanskritic criticism beginning with Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra (ca. 200 BCE – 200 CE) and refined by Ananadavardhana and Abhinavagupta among others, continues to shape “structures of feeling” in contemporary texts. This is despite social, cultural and educational fractures between “modernity” and “tradition” arising out of the colonial encounter and its aftermath. The essay also argues that there are structural and functional affinities between how rasa-dhvani and genre organize narrative elements within texts. Finally, through case studies from Bangla, Marathi and Odia across the genres of horror/weird, crime thrillers and science fiction, the essay proposes a new framework to analyze the unarticulated pleasures of reading genre fiction.
