Contents: Foreword. 1. Of many Indias: alternative nationhoods in contemporary Indian poetry. 2. Signing in different scripts: literatures in independent India. 3. That third space: interrogating the diasporic paradigm. 4. Historicizing Sarojini Naidu. 5. Saratchandra Chatterjee and the dynamics of reception. 6. Strategies of subversion: Sramana elements in Sarala Dasa’s Mahabharata. 7. Another life, another poetics: Bhakti: the first movements. 8. Autobiography today. 9. Orientalism and after. 10. Translation as writing: text, translation, authenticity: towards an Indian perspective.

"Authors, Texts, Issues by the author of the highly acclaimed Indian Literature: Positions and propositions brings together ten essays concerning major aspects of Indian literature. The essays in the first part examine some of the specific anxieties of contemporary Indian poetry in the context of nation and region, the democratizing and modernizing forces and processes in post-independence Indian literature, and the concept of the diaspora in the context of Indian writing. The essays in the second part look at some specific authors from fresh perspectives: Sarojini Naidu is re-evaluated as an Indian poet sharing the bhasha traditions; Saratchandra Chatterjee is looked at from the point of view of his reception in different languages, and Sarala Dasa’s Mahabharata is examined for its subaltern elements. The third part looks at the social dynamics and poetics of Bhakti, the state of autobiography as a genre, the theoretical status of the concept of Orientalism today, and the activity of translation from an Indian perspective. The book is essential reading for academics dealing with Indian literature, students, researchers and readers broadly interested in the issues of Indian literature and culture." (jacket)