ABSTRACT

The book explores key South Asian writings on cultural theory and literary criticism. It discusses the dynamics of textual contents, rhetorical styles, and socio-political issues through an exploration of seminal South Asian scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The volume examines concepts and methods of critical studies. It also discusses colonial and postcolonial discourses on art, religion, nationalism, identity, representation, resistance, and gender in the South Asian context. The essays are accompanied by textual questions and intertextual discussions on rhetorical, creative, and critical aspects of the selected texts. The exercise questions invite the reader to explore the mechanics of reading about and writing on discursive pieces in South Asian studies.

Comprehensive and interdisciplinary, this textbook will be indispensable for students and researchers of South Asian studies, cultural theory, literary criticism, postcolonial studies, literary and language studies, women and gender studies, rhetoric and composition, political sociology, and cultural studies.

chapter |32 pages

Introduction

Theory, criticism, and engaging with the texts

part 1|136 pages

Theory

chapter 1|34 pages

DissemiNation

Time, narrative, and the margins of the modern nation 1

chapter 2|16 pages

Belatedness as possibility

Subaltern histories, once again

chapter 3|30 pages

The Blurring of Distinctions

The Artwork and the Religious Icon in Contemporary India 1

chapter 4|16 pages

Women and freedom

chapter 5|19 pages

Hyphenated post-colonial

A divergent perspective 1

chapter 6|19 pages

Grassroots texts

Ethnographic ruptures and transnational feminist imaginaries

part 2|88 pages

Criticism

chapter 7|11 pages

Of Mimicry and man

The ambivalence of colonial discourse

chapter 8|7 pages

Epilogue

The tantra of contemplative cultural critique

chapter 9|14 pages

Post-colonial hybridity

Midnight's children

chapter 10|20 pages

Fragmenting nations and lives

Sunlight on a broken column

chapter 11|20 pages

Punyakante Wijenaike

Spectral spaces

chapter 12|14 pages

Chokher Bali

The novel of the new age