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Title MEDIATION AND COHESION IN SOUTH ASIAN FICTION: AN ANALYSIS OF TAGORE’S HOME AND THE WORLD AND MUNAWEERA’S ISLAND OF A THOUSAND MIRRORS

Author(s) AROOJ ZUBAIR

Abstract This dissertation is a reading of two South Asian Anglophone novels: Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World (1919) and Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand Mirrors (2012). This project rests on the premise that contemporary South Asian Anglophone fiction depicts a rupture in received categorizations of colonial/postcolonial, east/west, local/translocal. Both the selected texts provide ample amount of space to examine a rejection of binaristic hierarchies and an investigation into the importance of transnational concerns and intermingled South Asian histories. The main argument is based on the assumption that postcolonial theory is reductive and creates hierarchies, distinctions and divisions, thereby exhibiting imperialist nostalgia. Sara Suleri’s argument in her counter-discourse Rhetoric of English India (1992)—where she accuses postcolonial theorists and writers of perpetuating Eurocentric binarism—seems useful. Moreover, both the selected works of fiction also focus on the geographical locale from where they have emerged: they highlight their respective country’s culture, traditions and political unrest, thus foregrounding South Asia. Harish Trivedi’s argument in his essay “South Asian Literature: Reflections in a Confluence” seems to supplant Suleri’s thesis. He debunks the efficacy of postcolonial theory in reading South Asian texts and demands locally produced theoretical framework(s) that would shed the burden of empire and tie their narrative to their geography. The selection of one Bengali and one Sri Lankan novel is also significant; it challenges the recessive position given to these regions in academia and complicates the superiority of India and Indian-English fiction, which due to a problematic generalization, largely represent South Asia.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2022-01-07

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