Indian English Literature Review

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Many scholars like Paranjape, David McCutchion, and Herbert McArthur have always depreciated the canonical status of the Indian English fiction on the basis of its reliance on the western form, its inability to speak to the large Indian masses, and its failure to be desi in its outlook. Paranjape’s arguments have often proved the Indian English fiction a mediocre to English fiction. In his work Towards a Poetics of the Indian English Novel (2000) Makarand Paranjape asserts (anti-)colonial ancestry of Indian English fiction but for him, it can rarely function in an anti-imperialistic mode. He claims that it isclear that English can never become one of our bhasa literatures despite the wishful pleas of several of its supporters; he adds that…show more content…
Salman Rushdie, the hero of the post-1980s, has shown a new direction to the writers. This has also authenticated the change in the post-1980s Indian English fiction by legitimising the chutnification of language. The writers of the last three decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century have carried structural and narrative innovations highlighted by Rushdie further. With the pace of time, the post-1980s Indian English fiction has accelerated numerous changes in form and content of the novel form. With experiments in form and content, the post-1980s Indian English fiction has assumed international stature and has attracted a readership globally. With the versatile expansion of the post-1980s Indian English Fiction, the older hierarchy of language has lost its importance - it rejoices the fusion of languages, culture, and races. The post-1980s Indian English writers have formed interesting plots using myths, history, and politics. The post-1980s Indian English fiction is not simply a story of India, but a strong evidence of changing the literary culture in India. The strength of the post-1980s Indian English fiction lies in the excavation of memories, hidden past, myths, and political history of India in the contemporary novels in a fantastic magic-realist way. This chapter highlights the major trends in the post-1980s Indian English fiction. It also distinguishes how the thematic novelty of these novels has given a shape to different sub-canons--postcolonial, feminist, diasporic, and of dalit--in the field of Indian English

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