Colonial Karma: The Problem of Action in the Indian English Novel

by J. Rege

Overview

Colonial Karma tracks the Indian English novel from its colonial origins to the present, each chapter focusing on a particular historical moment. Linking the novel's development with that of Indian cultural nationalism, it argues that nationalism seeks to solve the problem of action for its middle-class subject by redefining the Bhagavad-Gita's concept of karma for political purposes. Two figures serve to exemplify this problem: Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita and Saleem in Midnight's Children . After considering influential early novels in Indian languages, Colonial Karma discusses novels in English by Narayan, Anand, Rao, Anita Desai, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Deshpande and Githa Hariharan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403964007
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/16/2004
Edition description:	2004
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

JOSNA REGE is Associate Professor of English at Dartmouth College, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: 'Figuring' Action in the Indian English Novel Solving the Problem of Action in the Colonial Novel, 1864-1919 Shaping a National Subject of Action, 1920-1947 Colliding Codes: Post-Independence Alienation, 1947-1980 Turning Victim into Protagonist? Midnight's Children and the National Narratives of the Eighties 'Returning' in the Eighties and Nineties: The Promise and Perils of Women's Agency Conclusion: Recast(e)ing Genre in the Twenty-First Century