Introduction

This introductory chapter is neoliberalization both an examination of contemporary fiction work from South Asia as well as a critique of Foucauldian and neoconservative theories of neoliberalism. It begins by offering the observation that allegorization is built into the very being of literary works and is illustrative of literature's relationship to society. This chapter argues that contemporary South Asian fiction is an allegory of neoliberalism not merely because it narrativizes the emergence of the neoliberal subject but also because it depicts the subject's struggle against the neoliberal world conditioned by money relations; commoditization; systemic production of “surplus population”; and class, caste, ethnic, gender, and racial antipathy. The introduction also offers close readings of Samrat Upadhyay's short story “The Good Shopkeeper” and Amitav Ghosh's three novels referred to as the Ibis Trilogy to explain why Michel Foucault's concept “homo œconomicus” is an inadequate framework for understanding literary representation of neoliberalism.