Description
Book SynopsisIn Muslim Indian Women Writing in English: Class Privilege, Gender Disadvantage, Minority Status, Dr. Elizabeth Jackson conducts a study of the literary fiction of the four best-known Muslim Indian women writing in English during the postcolonial period: Attia Hosain (19131998), Zeenuth Futehally (19041992), Shama Futehally (no relation, 19522004), and Samina Ali (b. 1969). As elite Muslim women in India, the literary vision of these authors is influenced by their paradoxical position of class privilege, gender disadvantage, and minority status. Accordingly, there are recurring thematic concerns central to the fiction of all four writers, each of which forms a chapter in the book: Religion and Communal Identity, Marriage and Sexuality, Gender and Social Class, and Responding to Patriarchy. The first chapter, Form and Narrative Strategy, provides an initial framework by examining the literary techniques of each writer.
Much has been written about literature in Eng
Trade Review
“Muslim Indian Women Writing in English is an eagerly awaited and timely intervention into the relatively neglected area of Indian Anglophone writing by Muslim women writers. In her searching monograph, Elizabeth Jackson provides a comparative and developmental study of Indian Muslim women’s fiction produced in the postcolonial era. She interrogates such pressing issues as gender and patriarchy, social class, and religious identity, as well as exploring aesthetic concerns regarding narrative strategies and form. Jackson highlights the authors’ conflicting yet constitutive positionality stemming from their privileged class position, subordinate gender identity, and religious minority status. Her incisive, well-written book should be required reading for students and scholars of Indian writing in English, feminism, and Muslim studies.” —Claire Chambers, co-editor of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements – Introduction – Form and Narrative Strategy – Religion and Communal Identity – Marriage and Sexuality – Gender and Social Class – Responding to Patriarchy – Conclusion – Index.
