South Asian Atlantic Literature, 1970-2010

Ruth Maxey

Nov 2011 · Edinburgh University Press

About this ebook

A major interpretation of recent South Asian diasporic writing and cinema in specifically transatlantic terms Ruth Maxey provides readings of canonical and less well-known South Asian American and British Asian texts and key cinematic works. She explores the formal and thematic tendencies of the works, relating them to gender politics, the marketplace, and issues of literary value and historical change. While engaging with established debates, Maxey also intervenes in new ways in transatlantic, postcolonial literary, and Asian American cultural studies. Key features * Looks at writers including Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee, Mohsin Hamid, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, and Nadeem Aslam * Explores films such as Mischief Night, Mississippi Masala, A Love Supreme, and Praying with Anger * Sources used include articles from mainstream American, Asian and British newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hindu, New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian * Engages with critics including Susan Koshy, Sukhdev Sandhu, Rajini Srikanth, and James Procter * The book is organised around the four key themes of: home & nation, travel & return, racial mixing, and food & eating.

About the author

Ruth Maxey is a Lecturer in Modern American Literature in the School of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. She has published articles on postcolonial literature, Edwardian writing, and contemporary British and American fiction. Her work has appeared in Textual Practice, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Kenyon Review, MELUS, Journal of the Short Story in English, Orbis Litterarum and South Asian Review. She also contributed a chapter on Monica Ali to Neil Murphy and Wai-chew Sim (eds.), British Asian Fiction: Framing the Contemporary (Cambria Press, 2008).