Emma Dawson Varughese, author of Reading New India: Post Millennial Indian Fiction in English talks about her new book and its recent launch at the inspiring Jaipur Literature Festival 2013.
As you enter Diggi Palace, your eyes are awash with pink – pink
banners, pink lanterns and swathes of pink cloth moving haplessly in the
January breeze of the pink city, Jaipur. It’s not only the ‘pinkness’ of the
Jaipur Literature Festival which proves mesmerising, the footfall at the
biggest literature festival in Asia is also captivating, with various tents,
rooms, stalls and bookshops, the Jaipur Literature Festival is certainly
something to experience, especially if it involves your book launch…
Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian fiction in English was
inaugurated at the literary festival at Diggi Palace to a Saturday afternoon
audience. As a slice of ‘New India’ itself sat under the canopy of the ‘TATA
Steel Front Lawns’, Namita Gokhale co-director of the festival presented a copy
of Reading New India to the
public, underscoring its importance in the contemporary literary scene
of India.
The idea for Reading New India came as I flew out of Mumbai in stormy
monsoon clouds in 2009. I had, once again been hit by the staggering
development and construction each time I left the airport, be that in Mumbai,
Bangalore, Cochin or Delhi. In tandem, the literary production of Indian
fiction in English was equally staggering and I knew then, that this body of
new writing deserved academic attention. Academics from both the UK and India
have echoed this need, Prof Malashri Lal of the University of Delhi endorsing
the publication, saying that: "it’s the first book to focus on fiction at the
millennium, the crossroad for India’s globalization". There has been particular
interest from universities in Hyderabad, Bangalore and from Rajasthan looking
for a text to complement literary courses and postgraduate interests in contemporary
Indian fiction.
Prof John Thieme of the University of East Anglia writes about Reading New India:
"A compelling introduction to the multitude of fresh voices to be found
in the pages of twenty-first century Indian fiction. Putting its main emphasis
on novels published within India itself, many of them unknown outside the
country, it invites its readers to fasten their seatbelts for a journey into a
land of call centres, reality shows, ‘‘Metro Reads’’, MTV and variant sexual
behaviour."
Much of Reading New India is about young and aspirational, urban
India, the narratives explored in the book suggest that postcolonial narratives
belong to an erstwhile India and that post-millennial fiction in English from
India captures and critiques a post-liberalised India of the noughties and
beyond. Chick Lit, new waves of historical fiction, Crick Lit (my term) and the
graphic novel are all manifest of this post-millennial literary feast and as
the publishing scene in India keeps growing, offering affordable paperback
books of these various and engaging narratives of life in 21st
century India, reading and understanding new India becomes ever more necessary.
Indeed, evidence of ‘new India’ is all
around, malls in the metros push up, flyovers re-sculpt the urban landscape,
cranes hang on the skyline, and as 2013 sees Jaipur’s autorickshaws fitted with
inbuilt satnavs, one thing is for sure – more people will certainly make it to
Diggi Palace in 2014.
E. Dawson
Varughese is an independent scholar in literary and cultural studies. She is an
experienced field researcher of world literature in English and is the author
of Beyond The Postcolonial: World
Englishes Literature (2012). See her work at: www.beyondthepostcolonial.com
Reading New India: Post-Millennial Indian fiction in English is out now, RRP £19.99, available for just £17.99 from www.bloomsbury.com
celebrated best ,memorable and Haryali Teej with real meaning of mathura in india or with us http://latestfestival.com/august-festival/haryali-teej/haryali-teej-celebration/
Hello there! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or vice-versa? My website goes over a lot of the same subjects as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Fantastic blog by the way!
If you aren’t comfortable receiving a cash advance you should just walk away from your idea bluehost hosting coupon information on the exact numbers that are available towards the public are tough to find.
I’ve read some excellent stuff here. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how so much effort you set to create this kind of fantastic informative site.
Hello, Neat post. There’s an issue along with your site in internet explorer, may test this? IE nonetheless is the marketplace chief and a large element of folks will leave out your great writing due to this problem.
Hello would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with? I’m looking to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!
It’s nearly impossible to find well-informed people on this topic, however, you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
I知 not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later. All the best
It is appropriate time to make some plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy. I have learn this publish and if I may just I desire to suggest you few interesting things or tips. Maybe you could write next articles relating to this article. I want to read even more issues approximately it!
I visited multiple websites however the audio feature for audio songs present at this web page is genuinely fabulous.
After I initially left a comment I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on whenever a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there a way you can remove me from that service? Appreciate it!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Jaipur Literature Festival. Regards
Everyone loves what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and exposure! Keep up the awesome works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my personal blogroll.
It’s awesome in favor of me to have a site, which is helpful for my knowledge. thanks admin
I like looking through a post that will make men and women think. Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you penning this article and also the rest of the website is really good.
of course like your web-site however you need to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the reality on the other hand I will definitely come again again.
Thank you for sharing your info. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your next write ups thanks once again.
A person essentially assist to make significantly posts I might state. That is the first time I frequented your website page and so far? I amazed with the research you made to make this actual post incredible. Wonderful task!
Outstanding post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Kudos!
Appreciate the recommendation. Let me try it out.
I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an nervousness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly very often inside case you shield this increase.
Good day I am so happy I found your web site, I really found you by accident, while I was browsing on Yahoo for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a marvelous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the superb work.
My brother recommended I might like this blog. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Incredible story there. What happened after? Thanks!
Appreciate the recommendation. Will try it out.
What’s up, this weekend is nice in favor of me, since this moment i am reading this great educational paragraph here at my house.
Touche. Great arguments. Keep up the amazing work.
My family members every time say that I am killing my time here at net, however I know I am getting experience every day by reading thes nice articles.
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this hike.
I do not drop a great deal of comments, but i did some searching and wound up here Reading New India in the Pink City: Jaipur Literature Festival 2013 – Bloomsbury Literary Studies. And I actually do have 2 questions for you if it’s allright. Could it be simply me or does it appear like some of the responses appear as if they are coming from brain dead individuals? 😛 And, if you are posting at other online sites, I would like to follow anything new you have to post. Would you make a list of the complete urls of all your social pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Greetings! Very useful advice within this post! It’s the little changes that produce the most significant changes. Many thanks for sharing!
great man 😀