Synopses & Reviews
A major interpretation of recent South Asian diasporic writing and cinema in specifically transatlantic termsRuth Maxey provides readings of canonical and less well-known South Asian American and British Asian texts and key cinematic works. She explores the formal and thematic tendencies of the works, relating them to gender politics, the marketplace, and issues of literary value and historical change. While engaging with established debates, Maxey also intervenes in new ways in transatlantic, postcolonial literary, and Asian American cultural studies.
Key features
* Looks at writers including Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee, Mohsin Hamid, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, and Nadeem Aslam
* Explores films such as Mischief Night, Mississippi Masala, A Love Supreme, and Praying with Anger
* Sources used include articles from mainstream American, Asian and British newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hindu, New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian
* Engages with critics including Susan Koshy, Sukhdev Sandhu, Rajini Srikanth, and James Procter
* The book is organised around the four key themes of: home and nation, travel and return, racial mixing, and food and eating.
Synopsis
Tracing a literary lineage for works from different genres, it identifies key trends in recent South Asian American and British Asian literature by considering the favoured formal and aesthetic modes of major writers and by relating their work to different historical developments, sexual politics, the marketplace and issues of literary value.
Synopsis
This book is a sustained attempt to chart and interpret a wide range of recent South Asian diasporic writing from Britain and America in specifically transatlantic terms. This body of literature has grown substantially since the 1970s, receiving not only critical acclaim but also widespread popular interest, and its favoured themes have also found expression in cinematic works. Yet scholars have largely overlooked the transatlantic development of South Asian writing over the past three decades. Maxey's book fill this gap in transatlantic studies by offering fresh readings of canonical writers and texts, while bringing to light lesser-known authors and ideas. Tracing a literary lineage for works from different genres, it identifies key trends in recent South Asian American and British Asian literature by considering the favoured formal and aesthetic modes of major writers and by relating their work to different historical developments, sexual politics, the marketplace and issues of literary value. The book thus engages with longer-established debates as well as intervening in new ways in Atlantic Studies and in such fields as postcolonial literary studies and Asian American cultural studies.Key Features: * A book-length study of recent South Asian diasporic literature in transatlantic terms* Examines a wide range of canonical and under-researched writers* Investigates key themes, the majority of which remain under-explored* Identifies major formal and aesthetic trends and positions works within their wider intellectual and commercial contex
About the Author
Ruth Maxey is a Lecturer in Modern American Literature in the School of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. She has published articles on postcolonial literature, Edwardian writing, and contemporary British and American fiction. Her work has appeared in
Textual Practice,
Journal of Commonwealth Literature,
Kenyon Review,
MELUS,
Journal of the Short Story in English,
Orbis Litterarum and
South Asian Review. She also contributed a chapter on Monica Ali to Neil Murphy and Wai-chew Sim (eds.),
British Asian Fiction: Framing the Contemporary (Cambria Press, 2008).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Framing South Asian Writing in America and Britain, 1970-2010
1. Home and Nation in South Asian Atlantic Literature
2. Close Encounters with Ancestral Space: Travel and Return in Transatlantic South Asian Writing
3. Brave New Worlds? Miscegenation in South Asian Atlantic Literature
4. 'Mangoes and Coconuts and Grandmothers': Food in Transatlantic South Asian Writing
Conclusion: The Future of South Asian Atlantic Literature
Bibliography
Index