Kirjahaku

This book interrogates and historicises eighteenth-century British women writers’ responses to India through the novel and travel writing to bring out the polyvalent space arising out of their complex negotiation with the colonial discourse. Though British women enjoyed their privileged racial status as the utilisers of colonial riches, they articulated their voice of dissent when they faced the politics of subordination in their own society and identified them with the marginalised status of the colonised Indians. This brings out the complicity and critique of the colonial discourse of British women writers and foregrounds their ambivalent responses to the colonial project. This book provides detailed textual analysis of the works of Phebe Gibbes, Elizabeth Hamilton, Lady Morgan, Jemima Kindersley and Eliza Fay through critical insights from the idea of the Enlightenment, postcolonial theory and feminist thought. It also foregrounds new perspectives to colonial discourse vis-à-vis the representation of India by locating the dialogic strain within the British narratives about India.

This book interrogates and historicises eighteenth-century British women writers’ responses to India through the novel and travel writing to bring out the polyvalent space arising out of their complex negotiation with the colonial discourse. Though British women enjoyed their privileged racial status as the utilisers of colonial riches, they articulated their voice of dissent when they faced the politics of subordination in their own society and identified them with the marginalised status of the colonised Indians. This brings out the complicity and critique of the colonial discourse of British women writers and foregrounds their ambivalent responses to the colonial project. This book provides detailed textual analysis of the works of Phebe Gibbes, Elizabeth Hamilton, Lady Morgan, Jemima Kindersley and Eliza Fay through critical insights from the idea of the Enlightenment, postcolonial theory and feminist thought. It also foregrounds new perspectives to colonial discourse vis-à-vis the representation of India by locating the dialogic strain within the British narratives about India.

These plays do not convey much, nor do they seek to demonstrate in the traditional sense. They are not "well-made plays" in the strict sense of the term. In one, a meeting that seeks to solve the issues of day-to-day affairs of a residential society sees supernatural beings joining in, but their serio-comic inclusion deepens the complexity further. In yet another, a nondescript man suddenly becomes the center of attention, hitherto neglected and confined to the fringes of human civilization. In the third, the Devil himself gives an altogether new, albeit mock conception of hell and heaven and becomes one with the mundane and the brazen. Whatever be the 'vision' of the dramatist, these plays with three different, yet recognizable backgrounds just give an image of what may happen. The dividing line between reality and illusion is blurred and nothing seems to be impossible. Using a somewhat magic-realist mode, they show the seemingly bizarre, commonplace.

From the tale of betrayal and infidelity that unfolded in ancient Egypt during the time of the pyramids, to that of an account of how a homely cat meets a rude fate, from the daily, taxing routine of a suburban commuter to that of a ghostly but tragic tale of a farmer during the British Raj, these stories have something for everyone. Combining the transcendental with the mundane, using a medley of techniques, they capture the essence of life and manners. They are the best while on a long journey or for arm chair reading.

In an irate world full of confusions and its miasma, the spring finally comes. It has to. But Nature responds not in the way it should. The screams of the world and the dilapidation of the human spirit mar with the first buds that sprout. There are ""muffled cries"" here and there. As if an unnecessary foliage spoils the flowers of life as weeds do. Thus, the fulcrum of perfectibility is burnt to ashes. This time, the spring is not amiable but ""violent."" A Violent Spring & Other Poems captures this silent malady inherent in existence, in whatever we do. Gaps continue to sprout in the way history is narrated; lovers, perfectly content with themselves ultimately find this tranquility illusory, a sub-tropical storm shows that nothing will be the same again, no matter what we do. If the limiting factor is human nature and the uncertain world wherein we eke out a routine, then springs will continue to be violent, regeneration will be short-lived and Banquo will eternally return, failing not this feast of life and death. Arnab Chatterjee's poems weave the most delicate of images, to bring out the complex interplay that is always on between time and words. Words, flowing on ceaselessly, to paint in verse the passing of time, through seasonal motions of the vernal to the stormy to the autumnal, and yet the words themselves being all too self-conscious about the possible inadequacy in doing the same efficaciously, mark the fundamental quest that Arnab takes his readers on. Prof. Saugata Bhaduri School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi