The Fiction of South Asians in North America and the Caribbean
The Fiction of South Asians in North America and the Caribbean

Author: Mitali P. Wong

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780786482245

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This study establishes connections between the themes and methodologies of writers within the South Asian diaspora in the New World, and serves both serious analysts as well as beginning readers of South Asian fiction. It is an impartial study that analyzes the stylistic excellence of South Asian fiction and the clearly emergent motifs of the writers, recognizing the value of the interplay of cultural differences and the need for resolution of those differences. The book begins with a discussion of the works of Indo-Caribbean novelists Samuel Selvon and V.S. Naipaul, author of A House for Mr. Biswas and The Enigma of Arrival, thereby establishing parallels between the immigration patterns of the South Asian diaspora who first emigrated to the Caribbean long before significant numbers of South Asians came to the United States. Next, the fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Heat and Dust), the non-fictional narratives of Ved Mehta (Face to Face), and the satire and social criticism of Bharati Mukherjee (Wife) and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Sister of My Heart) are discussed. New literary voices such as those of Bapsi Sidhwa (An American Brat), Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, whose characters, plots and themes deal with universal human experiences, Akhil Sharma, Manil Suri and Samrat Upadhyay are studied for the new directions and new methods they offer. A sub-genre of young adult fiction is discovered in the novels of Dhan Gopal Mukerji, such as in his Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, and more recently in the works of Mitali Perkins and Indi Rana. Recent expatriate novelists from South Asia such as Anita Desai, Amitav Chosh, Vikram Chandra and the American editions of Vikram Seth's novels are appraised together with contemporary Indo-Canadian novelists and Indo-Caribbean novelists resident in Canada.

Diaspora Poetics and Homing in South Asian Women's Writing
Diaspora Poetics and Homing in South Asian Women's Writing

Author: Shilpa Daithota Bhat

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2018-03-14

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1498577636

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This anthology of essays, deliberates chiefly on the notion of locating home through the lens of the mythical idea of Trishanku, implying in-between space and homing, in diaspora women’s narratives, associated with the South Asian region. The idea of in-between space has been used differently in various cultures but gesture prominently on the connotation of ‘hanging’ between worlds. Historically, imperialism and the indentured/ ‘grimit’ system, triggered dispersal of labourers to the various colonies of the British. Of course, this was not the only cause of international migratory processes. The partition of India and Pakistan led to large scale migration. There was Punjabi migration to Canada. Several Indians, particularly the Gujaratis travelled to Africa for business reasons. South Indians travelled to the Gulf for employment. There were migrations to East Asian countries under the kangani system. Again, these were not the only reasons. The process of demographic movement from South Asia, has been complex due to innumerable push-pull factors. The subsequent generations of migrants included the twice, thrice (and likewise) displaced members of the diaspora. Racial denigration and Orientalist perceptions plagued their lives. They belonged to various ethnicities and races, inhabited marginalized spaces and strived to acculturate in the host society. Complete cultural assimilation was not possible, creating layered and hyphenated identities. These intricate social processes resulted in amalgamation and cross-pollination of cultures, inter-racial relationships and hybridization in all terrains of culture—language, music, fashion, cuisine and so on. Situated in this matrix was the notion of Home—a special personal space which an individual could feel as belonging to, very strongly. Nostalgia, loss of home, culture shock and interracial encounters problematized this discernment of belongingness and home. These multifarious themes have been captured by women writers from the South Asian region and this book looks at the various aspects related to negotiating home in their narratives.

Literary Pluralities
Literary Pluralities

Author: Christl Verduyn

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 1998-12-16

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781551112039

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Literary Pluralities is a collection of essays on the connections between literature and society in Canada, focusing on the topics of race, ethnicity, language, and cultures. The essays explore a nexus of related issues, including the dynamics between race, ethnicity, class, gender and generation; Canadian multiculturalism, and its meaning within Aboriginal and Quebec communities; the politics of language; the new field of life writing; and international dimensions of the debates. Together, they present a valuable picture of Canadian and Quebecois cultural and literary criticism at the century’s end. Contributors include: Himani Bannerji, George Elliott Clarke, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Hiromi Goto, Sneja Gunew, Jean Jonaissant, Smaro Kamboureli, Eva Karpinski, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Myrna Kostash, Lucie Lequin, Nadine Ltaif, Arun Mukherjee, Enoch Padolsky, Nourbese Philip, Joseph Pivato, Armand G. Ruffo, Tamara Palmer Seiler, Drew Hayden Taylor, Aritha van Herk, Maïr Verthuy, and Christl Verduyn. This is a co-publication of Broadview Press and the Journal of Canadian Studies.

The English Language Poetry of South Asians
The English Language Poetry of South Asians

Author: Mitali Pati Wong

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-01-24

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 0786436220

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In this study, ten independent critical essays and a coda explore the English-language poetry of South Asians in terms of time, place, themes and poetic methodologies. The transnational perspective taken establishes connections between colonial and postcolonial South Asian poetry in English as well as the poetry of the old and new diaspora and the Subcontinent. The poetry analysis covers the relevance of historical allusions as well as underlying concerns of gender, ethnicity and class. Comparisons are offered between poets of different places and time periods, yielding numerous sociopolitical paradigms that surface in the poetry.

Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature
Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature

Author: Joy Mahabir

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1136233490

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This book is the first collection on Indo-Caribbean women's writing and the first work to offer a sustained analysis of the literature from a range of theoretical and critical perspectives, such as ecocriticism, feminist, queer, post-colonial and Caribbean cultural theories. The essays not only lay the framework of an emerging and growing field, but also critically situate internationally acclaimed writers such as Shani Mootoo, Lakshmi Persaud and Ramabai Espinet within this emerging tradition. Indo-Caribbean women writers provide a fresh new perspective in Caribbean literature, be it in their unique representations of plantation history, anti-colonial movements, diasporic identities, feminisms, ethnicity and race, or contemporary Caribbean societies and culture. The book offers a theoretical reading of the poetics, politics and cultural traditions that inform Indo-Caribbean women's writing, arguing that while women writers work with and through postcolonial and Caribbean cultural theories, they also respond to a distinctive set of influences and realities specific to their positioning within the Indo-Caribbean community and the wider national, regional and global imaginary. Contributors visit the overlap between national and transnational engagements in Indo-Caribbean women's literature, considering the writers' response to local or nationally specific contexts, and the writers' response to the diasporic and transnational modalities of Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean communities.

The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature
The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature

Author: Cynthia Conchita Sugars

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 993

ISBN-13: 0199941866

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The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature provides a broad-ranging introduction to some of the key critical fields, genres, and periods in Canadian literary studies. The essays in this volume, written by prominent theorists in the field, reflect the plurality of critical perspectives, regional and historical specializations, and theoretical positions that constitute the field of Canadian literary criticism across a range of genres and historical periods. The volume provides a dynamic introduction to current areas of critical interest, including (1) attention to the links between the literary and the public sphere, encompassing such topics as neoliberalism, trauma and memory, citizenship, material culture, literary prizes, disability studies, literature and history, digital cultures, globalization studies, and environmentalism or ecocriticism; (2) interest in Indigenous literatures and settler-Indigenous relations; (3) attention to multiple diasporic and postcolonial contexts within Canada; (4) interest in the institutionalization of Canadian literature as a discipline; (5) a turn towards book history and literary history, with a renewed interest in early Canadian literature; (6) a growing interest in articulating the affective character of the "literary" - including an interest in affect theory, mourning, melancholy, haunting, memory, and autobiography. The book represents a diverse array of interests -- from the revival of early Canadian writing, to the continued interest in Indigenous, regional, and diasporic traditions, to more recent discussions of globalization, market forces, and neoliberalism. It includes a distinct section dedicated to Indigenous literatures and traditions, as well as a section that reflects on the discipline of Canadian literature as a whole.

A History of Canadian Literature
A History of Canadian Literature

Author: William H. New

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 9780773525979

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"New offers an unconventionally structured overview of Canadian literature, from Native American mythologies to contemporary texts." Publishers Weekly A History of Canadian Literature looks at the work of writers and the social and cultural contexts that helped shape their preoccupations and direct their choice of literary form. W.H. New explains how – from early records of oral tales to the writing strategies of the early twenty-first century – writer, reader, literature, and society are interrelated. New discusses both Aboriginal and European mythologies, looking at pre-Contact narratives and also at the way Contact experience altered hierarchies of literary value. He then considers representations of the "real," whether in documentary, fantasy, or satire; historical romance and the social construction of Nature and State; and ironic subversions of power, the politics of cultural form, and the relevance of the media to a representation of community standard and individual voice. New suggests some ways in which writers of the later twentieth century codified such issues as history, gender, ethnicity, and literary technique itself. In this second edition, he adds a lengthy chapter that considers how writers at the turn of the twenty-first century have reimagined their society and their roles within it, and an expanded chronology and bibliography. Some of these writers have spoken from and about various social margins (dealing with issues of race, status, ethnicity, and sexuality), some have sought emotional understanding through strategies of history and memory, some have addressed environmental concerns, and some have reconstructed the world by writing across genres and across different media. All genres are represented, with examples chosen primarily, but not exclusively, from anglophone and francophone texts. A chronology, plates, and a series of tables supplement the commentary.

Canadian Immigration and South Asian Immigrants
Canadian Immigration and South Asian Immigrants

Author: Abdur Rahim

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2014-09-19

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1499058721

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South Asian immigrants have made a significant contribution to the Canadian mosaic. However, their trials and tribulations and their successes and failures constitute a story that remains untold. To know of their arrivals, their struggles to beat the odds, as well as their successes, is to read a story of hard work, of tireless effort to make it of the commitment to belong, and of ultimate success. This process not only re-shaped them from who they were to who they are now, but also re-shaped Canada that we know today. Their influence can be felt in the arts and sciences, the humanities and in politics, community works and in social services. This book is an attempt to understand the what and how of that unfolding process, and also to know the real concerns about the conditions of Canadas ethnic minority population, South Asian Canadians and their children in particular.