Description
Book SynopsisAmerican Literary Studies in Postmillennial India: Critical Perspectives is a collection of critical essays on Contemporary American Literature. This book is a classic and unique collection of critical essays on various topics such as Americanness, American Dream, Transcendentalism, Counterculture, Gay culture, Post Communism, Race, Class, Gender in American Literature, African American literature, Jewish American literature, and comparative study between Indian and American Literature. The essays cut across the various genres of poetry, theatre, fiction and short stories. This book is the first of its kind, as all the collection of essays have been written by eminent professors across India, Full Bright Fellows, and serious research scholars of high repute who have contributed remarkably to American Studies both in India and across the globe.
Trade ReviewWritten by eminent scholars on diverse issues covering various genres of modern American literature, this anthology promises to be a useful handbook for college students in the Indian subcontinent.
-- Gurumurthy Neelakantan, professor of English & Rahul and Namita Gautam Chair, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
The book is an invaluable compendium of insightful essays by eminent Indian scholars, revealing their postmillennial understanding of American letters, produced through various literary epochs and genres, dealing with global themes like race, gender, class, gay culture, AIDS, philosophy, and spirituality. The appeal of the book lies in its being an example of cultural and intellectual exchange between America and India along literary pathways.
-- Paritosh Chandra Dugar, Former Professor of English and Principal, Government Postgraduate College
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part One: A Conversation on American and Indian Literature
Chapter One: Inspiration from the Banks of the Indus River: A Conversation with Nibir K. Ghosh, Robin Lindley
Part Two: American Poetry
Chapter Two: Invoking the Goddesses Within: Women’s Writing and Negotiations with Americanness, Sweta Antony
Chapter Three: Exploring ‘the only real elysium’* through Transcendental Voyages by Thoreau and Tagore, Nishamani Kar
Chapter Four: Seasons as Motifs in Louis Gluck Poetry, A. Karunaker and S. Shiv Shankar
Part Three: American Theatre
Chapter Five: Rape and Religion in the Psycho Traumatic Spaces of Adrienne Kennedy’s Protagonists, Sarada Thallam
Chapter Six: The Politics of AIDS and the Liberatory Millenarian Vision in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Arnab Ray
Part Four: American Fiction
Chapter Seven: Black Lives Matter: Relocating the select writings of Henry David Thoreau and Mark Twain, Mahjabeen Neshat Anjum
Chapter Eight: Problem of Human Education in Invisible Man: A Gambit of Soft-slavery, Dharamdas M. Shende
Chapter Nine: The Politics of Colour: White Opacity and Toni Morrison, Shruti Das
Chapter Ten: Liberation in “n*****r work” and Common Arts: An Eco-Womanistic study of The Color Purple, Kotti Sree Ramesh and D. Jyothirmai
Chapter Eleven: Mc Murphy and Chief Bromden as Forerunners of Counter Culture—A Study of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, B. Gopal Rao and M. Sangeetha Rao
Chapter Twelve: Masks and Disguises: A Carnivalesque Study of Philip Roth’s Sabbath’s Theatre, Rama N. H. Alapati
Part Five: American Short Stories
Chapter Thirteen: Monstrous Discourses: Female Body Image and Gothic Subjectivity in Short Stories by Alice Walker, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Joyce Carol Oates, Srirupa Chatterjee and Nilanjana Ghosal
About the Contributors
