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Indian Writing in English: Structure of Consciousness, Literary History and Critical Theory

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• K. D. Verma  

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T he Indian Imagination is an interdisciplinary study in the humanities and a critical discourse on patterns of consciousness. Essentially a work in twentieth-century literature, this book focuses on literary developments in English both in the colonial and postcolonial periods of Indian history. Six divergent writers—Aurobindo Ghose (Sri Aurobindo), Mulk Raj Anand, Balachandra Rajan, Nissim Ezekiel, Anita Desai and Arun Joshi—are studied as representations of a consciousness that emerged from a confrontation between tradition and modernity and from a deep sense of tradition during the colonial and postcolonial periods. British India is a historical configuration of the European fantasy of colonialism and imperialism, the fantasy that was finally dissolved in the first half of this century but only to be reinstituted by another fantasy or dream, of the restructuring of sociohistorical reality of an independent India, a sovereign nation-state. Aurobindo and Mulk Raj Anand are active participants in the representation of these two sides, the colonial India and the postcolonial India. And so is Balachandra Rajan, the well-known Miltonist. Nissim Ezekiel, Anita Desai and Arun Joshi are youthful voices of new India.

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Refer to some of the assumptions in Fredric Jameson, “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism,” Social Text 15 (1986): 65–88.

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Also see Aijaz Ahmed, ‘Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and ‘National Allegory,’ (1987), Marxist Literary Theory , ed. Terry Eagleton and Drew Milne (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996) 375–98.

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K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Indian Writing in English , 5th ed. (New Delhi: Sterling, 1990).

See Marilyn Butler’s commentary on the consolidation of the British Empire in her “Plotting the Revolution: The Political Narratives of Romantic Poetry and Criticism,” Romantic Revolutions ed. Kenneth R. Johnston et al. (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990) 134–35.

See Laurence Binyon, “Introductory Memoir,” Songs of Love and Death by Manmohan Ghose, ed. Laurence Binyon, 3rd ed. (Calcutta: U of Calcutta, 1968) 1–15.

See Bloom’s essays “Introduction” and “Clinamen or Poetic Misprision,” in The Anxiety of Influence:A Theory of Poetry (New York: Oxford UP, 1973) 5–16, 19–45.

G. H. Langley, Sri Aurobindo: Indian Poet, Philosopher and Mystic (London: David Marlowe, 1949) 19.

See Meenakshi Mukherjee’s discussion in chapter 2 of The Twice Born Fiction:Themes and Techniques of the Indian Novel in English 2 nd ed. (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1974).

In V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas introd. Ian Buruma (London: Penguin, 1992), the historical containment of the Hanuman House and the oppositional issue of Mr Biswas’s homelessness are significant aspects of coloniality.

Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (London: Chatto, 1956) appeared in the United States as Mano Majra .

See Fredric Jameson’s discussion in his The Seeds of Time (New York: Columbia UP, 1994) 150–51.

E. M. Forster, preface to Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand (London: Penguin, 1940) v, vi–vii.

K. Nagarajan cited in Dorothy M. Spencer, Indian Fiction in English (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1960) 36–37.

For Anand’s treatment of the Gandhi-Ambedkar controversy see Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold: Conversion, Modernity, and Belief (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998) 220.

Also see Teresa Hubel’s “Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Untouchable,” Whose India? The Independence Struggle in British and Indian Fiction and History (Durham: Duke UP, 1996) 147–178.

H. M. Williams, Indo-Anglican Literature 1800–1970:A Survey (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1976) 69.

Murray Krieger, “From Theory to Thematics: the Ideological Underside of Recent Theory,” Deconstruction: A Critique , ed. Rajnath (London: Macmil-lan, 1989) 30.

See Northrop Fye, The Critical Path: An Essay on the Social Context of Liter-ary Criticism (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1971).

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See Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Sym-bolic Act (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1981) 68–74.

See Jacques Barzun, Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage , rev. 2nd ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1958).

Cited by Brook Thomas in the epigraph to his essay “Preserving and Keep-ing Order by Killing Time in Heart of Darkness,” Heart of Darkness: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism ed. Ross C. Murfin (New York: St. Mar-tin’s, 1989) 237.

See Georg Lukics, The Historical Novel trans. Hannah and Stanley Mitchell, preface by Irving Howe (Boston: Beacon, 1963) 171ff.

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Also see Homi K. Bhabha, ’The Location of Culture (Lon-don: Routledge, 1994).

J. Jorge Klor de Alva, “The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Ex-perience: A Reconsideration of Volonialism,” Postcolonialism; and ‘Mes-tizaje,’ After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements , ed. Gyan Prakash (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1995) 245.

Marilyn Buder’s term used by her in “Repossessing the Past: the Case for an Open Literary History,” Rethinking Historicism: Critical Readings in Ro-mantic History ed. Marjorie Levinson et al. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989) 66.

See Helen Tiffin’s discussion of postcolonialism, postmodernism and post-structuralism in “Post-Colonialism, Post-Modernism and the Rehabilita-tion of Post-Colonial History”; and Stephen Selmon and Helen Tiffin, introduction, After Europe: Critical Theory and Post-Colonial Writing eds. Stephen Selmon and Helen Tiffin (Sydney: Dangaroo, 1989) –xxiii

For a philosophical perspective on postmodernism see Fredric Jameson’s fore-word to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984) vi–xxi.

Of course, McGann refers to Frantz Fanon’s famous study The Wretched of the Earth , trans. Constance Farrington, preface by Jean-Paul Sartre (New York: Grove, 1963).

See Ramkrishna Mukherjee, “Introductory,” The Rise and Fall of the East India Company: A Sociological Appraisal (London: Monthly, 1974) xiii.

John Clive, series editor’s preface, James Mill’s The History of British India introd. William Thomas (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1975) viii.

Eric Stokes, The English Utilitarians and India (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963) 54.

See Edward Said’s discussion of universalism in the context of impealism in his Culture and Imperialism (New York: Knopf, 1993) 276ff.

Alfred Cobban, Edmund Burke and the Revolt Against the Eighteenth Century (London: Allen, 1962) 106.

See, for example S. N. Mukherjee, Sir William Jones: A Study in Eighteenth-Century British Attitudes to India , 2nd ed. (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1987);

P. H. Salus, preface to Sir William Jones: A Reader , ed. Satya S. Pachori (Delhi: Oxford, 1993) 3–11.

See Edward Said’s Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978) 328.

Edward W Said, The World, the Text, and the Critic (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1983) 28.

Ronald Inden, Imagining India (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990) 104.

Northrop Frye, Feaul Symmetry (Boston: Beacon, 1967) 173.

See Stuart Curran, Shelley’s Annus Mirabilis: The Maturing of an Epic Vision (San Marino: Huntington, 1975) 213, 225–27.

See, for example Gauri Viswanathan’s “Beyond Orientalism: Syncretism and the Politics of Knowledge,” Stanford Humanities Review 5.1 (1995): 19–34.

William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” pl. 27, The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake , rev. ed. DavidV. Erdman (New York: Doubleday, 1988).

See John Barrell, The Infection of Thomas De Quincey: A Psychopathology of Imperialism (New Haven: Yale UP, 1991) 6–7;

Nigel Leask, British Romantic Writers and the East: Anxieties of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992) 5–6.

Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism , 1830–1914 (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990) 106–07.

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty : Annotated Text, Sources and Background, Criticism, ed. David Spitz (New York: Norton, 1975) 11.

Cited in Robert J. C. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (London: Routledge, 1995) 55.

Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy , ed. J. Dover Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1966) 70.

Cited in Shlomo Avineri, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969) 170.

For divergent critical interpretations of E. M. Forster see Lisa Lowe, Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991).

See Rana Kabbani’s discussion in his Europe’s Myths of Orient (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986) 129–33.

See Henri Peyre’s introduction, The Failures of Criticism , 2nd ed. (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1967) 1–25.

Richard Ellmann, The Identity of Yeats (New York: Oxford UP, 1964) viii.

Coleridge cited in Alan Liu, Wordsworth: The Sense of History (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989) 27.

See Meena Alexander, “Shelley’s India: Territory and Text, Some Problems of Decolonization,” Shelley: Poet and Legislator of the World , eds. Betty T. Bennett and Stuart Curran (Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1996) 169–78.

See Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues , ed. Sarah Harasym (New York: Routledge, 1990) 158.

cited in R. Sitaramiah, “The State of Literary Criticism,” Writing in India: The Seventh P. E. N. All India Writers’ Conference, Lucknow 1964 (Proceedings) , ed. Nissim Ezekiel (Bombay: P. E. N., 1965) 200.

Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism (New York: Macmillan, 1917) 32.

Mulk Raj Anand, Is There A Contemporary Indian Civilisation? (London: Asia, 1963) 178.

See J. M. Blaut’s conceptualization of diffusionism or Eurocentric diffu-sionism in The Colonizer’s Model of the World: Geographical Dffusionism and Eurocentric History (New York: Guilford, 1993).

Cited in Ruth Aproberts, “Nineteenth-Century Culture Wars” (a review article on theYale edition of Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy), Amer-ican Scholar 64 (1995): 146.

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Verma, K.D. (2000). Indian Writing in English: Structure of Consciousness, Literary History and Critical Theory. In: The Indian Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-61823-1_1

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21 A Historical Study of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English

Ananya Bhattacharjee

The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India. Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century. The three most important sources that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English are the educational reforms by British government, the efforts of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm. The Charter Act of 1813 and the 1835 English Education Act of William Bentinck gave way towards an attempt to change and improve the conditions of the servants of the East India Company. The approval of the Charter Act by the English government made England responsible for educational upliftment of the natives. English became the medium of education in India and English literature was established as a disciplinary subject in the educational institutes in India after the English Education Act was initiated by Thomas Babington Macaulay on Indian education.

The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old. The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793. English has become the primary or secondary language as the means of communication for a large number of the people if India in present times. The reason behind such a scenario is due to the fact that the British Empire had set up its colony in India for almost

200 years. This might have been a solid ground for the origin and constant flourishing of Indian English literature. The establishment of the East India Company in India was the most influential factor towards the evolution of English language and literature in India. Dr. A.N. Pathak says,

During 1835 to 1855 English education had widely spread in the country and the number of people showing interest in the discipline went on rapidly increasing. Reading culture was in vogue and it is said that in 1834 some 5, 32,000 English books sold in India, the number of books sold in native Indian languages was quite less than this. The craze for English books was generated mostly among the Indians who were educated in English and demand came more from them than the Englishmen in India. People in urban areas started following Western manners and customs and tried to adapt themselves to the current English trends of life. The introduction of railways in India happened in 1853 and in 1854 the first telegraph line was established and a modern postal system was started. Distance gradually narrowed down and eventually there was a common medium of communication among people. Various modern European scientific techniques came to be used in India. Along with the mechanical advancement, there was a kind of renaissance in modern Indian literature which began with the initiative taken by Raja Ram Mohan Roy who acted as a linking factor between India and England. He was the master of many languages that includes Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic besides Bengali. After travelling around the country and even abroad, Raja Ram Mohan Roy was associated with two British officials called Woodford and Digby when he was working for some business in Calcutta. While he was serving in the districts under these two officials, their relation turned out to be more than being official. With Digby’s help, Ram Mohan Roy gained his mastery over the English language. He finally left the company service and returned to Calcutta in 1814. Ram Mohan Roy then started the Atmiya Sabha and devoted himself completely towards the development Calcutta society by instilling new spirits in the minds of the people there. This period is regarded as an age of awakening in Bengal in the various fields of philosophy, literature, economics, science and politics. The relation between the western influence under colonialism, the advent of print and standardised high literature and an awakening of the Indian thought has been shown in many narratives of modern India. For long Bengal has been regarded by historians as the forerunner of modernity in the subcontinent. Two prominent features of the Renaissance in Calcutta were: the formation of associations, societies and organizations; and emergence of innumerable newspapers and magazines. Another important aspect of the Bengal Renaissance movement was the formation of reform movements in both religious and socio-cultural fields. Western ideals and principles influenced this Renaissance movement in Bengal considerably. Thoughts about nationalism and independent ruling derived from the west were disseminated by the educated Bengali elite to all the masses through the various organisations, movements, and magazines.

Invigorated with western education, Bengali intellectuals are supposed to have brought a western style ‘Renaissance’ in contemporary thought and the liberal arts.

English education influenced Indian social, cultural, religious and literary traditions to a great extent and there was an awakening among the people who transformed their traditional ways and culture. Such awakening, which many call as ‘renaissance’, shaped literature totally in a different light. There was a regeneration of Indian literatures which stepped into a new venture through adapting new literary techniques, forms and genres from the west. The introduction of prose style and its further development in literature influenced Indian writers to adopt modern creative forms of writing such as poetry, novel, drama and short story. Great works have been done in Indian English literature notably in poetry, fiction, philosophy and criticism. However, the Novel as a literary form served best to provide an artistic shared experience of the relationship between society and human beings. The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s. When this creative form of art first arrived in the country along with the British, it was quite new to the Indian literature. According to Samaresh C. Sanyal, “During the late Nineteenth century it was absorbed into the Bengal literary tradition, while this century, and has witnessed a continuous output of novels in English. The strength and maturity of much Indian writing in English as recorded in the Indo-Anglian novels are beyond dispute. K.R.S. Iyengar in Indian Writing in English opines, Novels have been, and are being published in a dozen Indian languages, and also in English; and the reciprocal influence between the novels in English and the novel in the regional languages has been rather more intimate and purposive than such influence in the fields of poetry or drama. And this has, of course, been facilitated by the comparative ease with which a novel can be translated from one to another of the many languages current in the country.

Indian English Fiction is believed to have emerged during the early years of the twentieth century. Most of the early practitioners of Indian English Literature were mostly British and this is not quite surprising since India was perhaps not in a condition under British domination to produce excellence in native English language and literature. Although there were many Indian exponents who arrived some time later but the history of Indian English literature belonged solely to the elite British section of the society. The works of George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and Jim Corbett had offered the preliminary push towards growth of Indian English Writings that was later developed by other British writers. The contribution made by Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt, Raja Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi among others consolidated the historical maturity of English literature in India. They represented the natives and served as the pre-Independent spokesperson in delineating the vision of life then.

The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. The popular novels by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) include Kopalkunda, Durgeshnandini, Krishankanta’s Will, The Two Rings and Rajmohan’s Wife. Most of his novels are based on themes of social life which he delineated with realism. His historical novels representing ideas of patriotism and revolution provided an impetus to many other Indian English novelists. R.C. Dutt (1848-1909) wrote six novels in Bengali; four were historical novels called Banga Bijeta (Conqueror of Bengal), Madhavi Kanan (Bracelet of Flowers), Rajput Jiban Sandhya (Evening of Rajput Life) and Maharashtra Prabhat (Dawn of Maharashtra). The first two novels deal with the conquest of Bengal by the emperor Akbar. The third novel tells the heroic stories of Rana Pratap Singh and the fourth one depicts Shivaji’s leadership and the rise of Maratha rule. All of these four novels were published in 1879. Dutt also wrote two social novels; Samaj (1885) and Sangsar (1893). The first one is based on the theme of widow remarriage and the second one deal with the issue of inter-caste marriage. Most of his novels introduced the theme of social reformation. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is a major presence when one thinks of Bengal and its culture; a paramount figure in Indian English literature. A collection of poems, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), secured for him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He excelled in various genres of art and culture and became renowned as a poet, dramatist, novelist, composer, actor, singer, editor of the Bengali literary journal (Sadhana). He wrote eight novels and four novellas among them Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, Chare Adhyay and Noukadubi. Some of his famous novels that were rendered into English include The Wreck (1921), Gora (1923) and Home and the World (1919). Many of his works are the inspiration for filmmakers. Some hundred films have been made, out of which more than half in Bengali, are based on Tagore’s works, making him one of the most adapted writers of all time.

The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage. S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness. The various momentous events of the Gandhian era like the boycott of the Simon Commission, the boycott of foreign goods, the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, Civil Disobedience Movement, Dandi March, Quit India Movement and many others forms of Gandhian movement are represented in many of the novels written during this period of the freedom struggle. Many writers of this period were influenced by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi who voiced against the injustice done towards the under-privileged, the marginalized and the suppressed. According to Amarnath Prasad the works dealing with the theme of either Gandhi or the contemporary freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), D.F. Karaka’s We never Die (1944), Amir Ali’s Conflict (1947), Venu Chitali’s In Transit (1950), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).

Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004) was one of the most prolific writers of the period who is best known as a social realist and a humanist. His vision of a humanist and a reformist is seen in his novel named Untouchable (1935) which gave him immense popularity. His other humanistic novels Coolie (1936), Two Leaves And A Bud (1937), The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1941), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) and The Big Heart in 1945. Anand has also written seven collections of short stories – The Child and other Stories (1934), The Barber’s Trade Union and other Stories (1944), The Tractor and the Corn Goddess and other Stories (1947), Reflections on the Golden Bed and other Stories (1953), The Power of Darkness and other stories (1959), Lajwanti and other stories (1966) and Between Tears and Laughter (1973). His other works include Indian fairy Tales (1961), The Old woman and the Cow (1960). It was followed by The Road (1963) and The Death of Hero (1964). Seven Summers, Morning Face, The Confession of A Lover and The Bubble are his autobiographical novels.

R.K. Narayan is considered as one of the pioneers of regional novel in India. His based many of his novels on the fictional place called Malgudi which he created in his imagination. Some of his autobiographical works include Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1936) and The English Teacher. The novels placed on the locale of Malgudi are The Dark Room (1938), Mr. Sampath (1952), The Financial Expert (1955), The Guide (1958), Waiting for the Mahatma, The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1977), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) and The World of Nagraj (1990). Narayan’s novels display his comic vision of life where his characters show a journey towards experience from innocence and they continue their journey until they are contended with wisdom. The language that Narayan adopts in his works is simple and lucid but his command over the language is remarkable. The Times Literary Supplement comments on Narayan’s style,

His humour is woven into the texture of his prose. It never erupts in a detachable epigram or joke. He did his best to inject the spirit and tempo of Tamilian idiom into English speech in a natural and unaffected manner. In spite of the raciness and simplicity Narayan’s style is rich in evocativeness and suggestiveness.

Raja Rao was the famous novelist of the Gandhian era whose works show an acute consciousness of the forces that came into existence by the Gandhian movement. His works include Kanthapura (1938), The Cow of the Barricades (1947), The Serpent and the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comrade Kirillov (1976) and The Policeman and The Rose (1978). He was much influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy and this is evident in his two works namely Kanthapura and The Cow of the Barricades where the Mahatma never appears physically but his indomitable presence is felt everywhere. He won the Sahitya Academy Award for The Serpent and the Rope. He was also honoured with the Padma Bhushan for his literary achievements. His works show a perfect blend of eastern and western sensibility. As far as narration is concerned he was a lot inspired by James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Valmiki and Ved Vyas.

One of the most important post-independent writers includes Bhabani Bhattacharya who contributed many novels; most of them were driven with a social purpose. His works include So Many Hungers (1947), Music for Mohini (1952), He Who rides a Tiger (1954), A Goddess Named Gold (1960), Shadow From Ladakh (1967) and A Dream In Hawaii (1975). He has also written a number of short stories of psychological interest. He was the winner of the Sahitya Academy Award in 1967 for his novel, Shadow From Ladakh. He could easily grasp the social scenario of his times and documented them in his novels.

A renowned writer of the post-independent era, Khushwant Singh, is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1974. He was the editor of Yojana (1951-1953), The Illustrated Weekly of India (1969-1979), The National Herald (1978-1979), New Delhi (1979-1980), and The Hindustan Times (1980-1983). He has written four novels Train to Pakistan (1956), I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale (1959), Delhi (1989) and The Company Of Women (2000). He has also published two collection of short stories called The Mark of Vishnu (1950) and A Bribe for the Sahib (1967). He received the Grove Press Award for Train to Pakistan. In this novel he gives a horrifying picture of the brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India. The novel was set in a fictional place called Maono-Majria located in the India-Pakistan border. I Shall Not Hear The Nightingale is set in the pre-independence times and deals with a Sikh family. Delhi and The Company of Women describes a world obsessed with sex and lust.

Manohar Malgonkar has been a notable writer who worked in the Indian Army during the Second World War and was eventually appointed to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His experiences of army life were recorded in his debut novel Distant Drums (1960). His others books include Combat Of Shadows (1962), The Princes (1963), A Bend in the Ganges (1964), Spy in Amber (1971), The Devil’s Wind (1972) and Shalimar (1978). His novels have a wide range of thematic variety. They depict life of princes, experiences of military life, political upheaval during the partition of the country, the Sepoy Mutiny and many others. Besides novels he has written two collections of short stories named A Tost in Warm Wine and Bombay Beware.

Chaman Nahal is the other prominent writer of the post-independent era who has written books like My True Faces (1973), Azadi (1975), Into Another Dawn (1977), The English Queen (1979), The Crown and the Loincloth (1981) and also a collection of short stories titled The Weird Dance (1965). My True Faces deals with the theme of broken marriage; Into Another Dawn highlights the encounter between East and West, Azadi depicts the partition of India and the age of Gandhi is shown in The Crown and the Loincloth. Chaman Nahal’s skill as a gifted craftsman is seen in The English Queen which is famous for its technical excellence.

During the nineteen seventies a new class of elite Indian English authors emerged and became globally acclaimed. One of such writers is Salman Rushdie, a novelist of global fame and also one of the most controversial writers in Indian English Fiction. He is famous for creating historical fantasy, combining both magic and realism. Most of his works deal with history and politics and to mention here one can talk about Grimivs (1975) which exposes the ‘politics’ of western powers. His Midnight Children (1981) is an extravagant representation of the mingling of an individual’s life and a nation’s history. He received the Booker of Bookers for this novel which deals with the important political happenings of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shame (1983) highlights the creation of Pakistan after 1947 and exposes the attempts towards dictatorship with the help of caricature. His Satanic Verses (1988) is regarded as a controversial text as it hurt the sentiments of the Islam followers. It has been banned in many countries including India. His other works include Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), In Good Faith (1990), Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism (1981-1991), East-West (1994), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Fury (2001), Step Across This Line: Collected Non- Fiction (2002) and Shalimar The Clown (2005).

Another eminent writer of this period, Amitav Ghosh has been quite successful in contributing a lot towards Indian English Literature. He worked as a print journalist in The Indian Express during the Emergency and had a first-hand experience of socio-political condition of the contemporary times. His first work is titled The Circle of Reason (1982) where he depicts an individual, who being suspected as a terrorist, flees from unknown village in Calcutta to Bombay and further journeys around the Persian Gulf to North Africa. The Shadow Lines (1986) deals with a family that lives in Kolkata and Dhaka and also unfolds their connection with a British family that lives in London. The novel procured him Sahitya Academy Award. His third novel, In An Antique Land (1993) chronicles an anthropological and historical survey coloured with ample imagination. The Calcutta Chromosome (1995) is written in the genre of science fiction and was quite popular due to the innovative attempt made in its creation. Ghosh won Arthur C. Clarke Award for it, a prestigious award given by Britain for Science.

The women novelists of Indian English literature have marked a distinctive form of writing which is especially shaped by their feminine sensibility. The early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and some others. Kamala Markandaya was a prolific writer who dealt with social and political concerns. Her works include Nectar in a Sieve (1954), A Silence of Desire (1960), A Handful of Rice (1966), The Coffer Dams (1969), Two Virgins and The Golden Honey.

Ruth P. Jhabvala is a unique writer of Indian English novels. She brings to light the follies and foibles of her characters in the most humorous way. She has written To Whom She Will (1955), The Nature of Passion (1956), Esmond in India (1958), The Householder (1960), Get Ready for Battle (1962), A Backward Place (1965), A New Dominion (1972), Heat and Dust (1975) and My Nine Lives: Chapters on a Possible Past (2004). She has also written several collections of short stories like An Experience of India (1967), Like Bird, Like Fishes (1963) and A Stronger Climate (1963).

Nayantara Sehgal is one of the other remarkable novelists of the times. She mostly focuses her attention towards the political situation and its influence upon human lives. She also highlights the degeneration of human values and the rampant corruption of political upheaval in her novel A Time To Be Happy (1957). She is also the author of The Time of Morning (1965), Storm in Chandigarh (1969), The Day in Shadow (1971), A New Situation in New Delhi (1977) and Rich Like Us (1985).

Anita Desai, in her novels, mostly probes into the psychological lives of her characters. Trauma of the past, mental anguish, struggle with one’s own self are some of the aspects she is concerned with in her novels. She has written Cry, the Peacock (1963), Voices in the City (1963), Bye-Bye Blackbird (1971), Where Shall We Go This Summer (1975), Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), The Village by the Sea (1982) and The Zigzag way (2004).

Shashi Deshpande is one of the most celebrated women novelists. Her novel The Dark Holds No Terror (1980) depicts the struggle of a woman named Sarita who tries to break the strictures of society and rebels against familial authority. Her other novel Roots and Shadows (1983) received the Thirumati Rangmal Award. That Long Silence (1988) deals with the search for one’s identity and it won The Sahitya Academy Award. Her other novels include The Binding Vine (1992), The Match Of Time (1999), Small Remedies (2000) and Moving On (2004).

Arundhati Roy is famous for her novel, The God Of Small Things which is about a family living in Ayemenem, a town in the state of Kerala during post-independence times. The novel received good reviews from major publications such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Toronto Star. Her other works include a television serial called The Banyan Tree and a documentary DAM/AGE: A Film With Arundhati Roy (2002). She also wrote a book named We Are One: A Celebration of the Tribal Peoples published in 2009. Besides these she contributed several essays on contemporary politics and culture. She has been working for political activism since a long time and is a strong opponent of India’s rapid industrial development that includes Sardar Sarovar Project and India’s nuclear weapon policies which found expression in The End Of Imagination which she wrote in 1998.

Shobha De mostly deals with the theme of marginalisation of women in India and voices the idea of women empowerment through her novels. She shows her concern towards women who struggle to renounce patriarchal hegemony, domestic life and marital relationship to forge an identity for them. She is the author of Socialite Evenings (1989), Starry Nights (1991), Sisters (1992), Strange Obsession (1992), Sultry Boys (1994) and Snapshots (1995).

In the recent times Indian English Fiction has developed a new trend in writing both in its theme and the technique. A new group of writers belonging to the elite class has taken the forefront with their innovative and challenging approach towards creative writing. Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim. The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.

Story-board

History of the Origin and Evolution of Indian Fiction in English

The Beginnings

• The origin and development of Indian Writing in English took place during the consolidation of British rule in India.
• Various opinions are found regarding the first text that was written in Indian English and many critics hold the view that history of Indian English Writing could be traced back to at least the early 19th century.
• One most important source that fostered the beginnings of Indian Writing in English is the educational reforms by British government.
• Another is the effort of the missionaries and the response of the upper-class Indians who accepted English literature and language in India with great enthusiasm.
• The history of Indian literature in English is generally believed to be one and half centuries old.
• The Travels of Dean Mahomet is regarded as the first book to be written in English by an Indian in 1793.
• The novel as a genre of literature was almost absent in India until the 1900s.

Writers of the pre-Independence era

• The pre-independence Indian English fiction has been shaped by the contributions made by the pioneers of Bengali literature namely Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, R.C. Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore.

The Independence Phase

• The period of the freedom struggle and the influence of Gandhi were responsible for the growth and development of novel in its early stage.
• S.Jogendra Singh’s Nasrin (1915), The Love of Kusuma (1910) by Balkrishna, Sorabji Cornelia’s Love and Life behind the Purdah and Sun Babies (1910) and Between the Twilight (1908) are some of the famous novels based on the theme of national awakening and political consciousness.
• Some other memorable works dealing with the theme of freedom struggle are Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938), K.S. Venkatramani’s Kandan the Patriot (1932), K.A. Abbas’s Inquailab (1955), R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma (1956), Nayantara Sehgal’s A Time to be Happy (1955) and K.Nagarajan’s Chronicles of Kedaram (1961).

The post-Independence Period

• Bhabani Bhattacharya, Khushwant Singh, Manohar Malgonkar, Chaman Nahal, Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie and many other popular writers of the post-Independence era dealt with the idea of brutality and inhumanity seen during the partition of India.
• Many novelists highlighted the fragmentary nature of the modern world and the crisis of identity.

The Women Novelists

• Some of the early women novelists include Raj Laxmi Devi, Cornelia Sorabji, Iqbalunnisa Hussain and many others.
• The later novelists who gained immense popularity are namely Kamala Markandaya, Ruth P. Jhabvala, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De and some others.

The Contemporary Novelists

• Novelists such as Pankaj Misra, Chetan Bhagat, Jhumpa Lihiri, Dominique Lepierre, William Dalrymple have received international acclaim in present times.
• The evolution of disciplines in critical literary studies such as feminist, diasporic, postmodern, postcolonial, dalit literature have given a new outlook and perspective of studying Indian English Fiction writing.

• Iyengar, K. R. Srinivasa, Indian Writing In English, Indiana University: Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd, 2012
• McCutchion, David, Indian Writing in English, Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1969
• Naik, M.K., A History of Indian English Literature, the University of Michigan: Sahitya Akademi Publications, 1982
• Piciucco, Pier Paolo (ed.), A Companion to Indian Fiction in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2004
• Ramamurti, K.S., Rise of the Indian Novel in English, Pennsylvania State University: Oriental University Press, 1987
• Singh, Ram Sewak and Singh, Charu Sheel, Spectrum History of Indian Literature in English, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 1997
• https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8126903104
• www.jstor.org/stable/4087326

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The Making of Indian English Literature

DOI link for The Making of Indian English Literature

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The Making of Indian English Literature brings together seventeen well-researched essays of Subhendu Mund with a long introduction by the author historicising the development of the Indian writing in English while exploring its identity among the many appellations tagged to it. The volume demonstrates, contrary to popular perceptions, that before the official introduction of English education in India, Indians had already tried their hands in nearly all forms of literature: poetry, fiction, drama, essay, bio­graphy, autobiography, book review, literary criticism and travel writing. Besides translation activities, Indians had also started editing and publish­ing periodicals in English before 1835.

Through archival research the author brings to discussion a number of unknown and less discussed texts which contributed to the development of the genre. The work includes exclusive essays on such early poets and writers as Kylas Chunder Dutt, Shoshee Chunder Dutt, Toru Dutt, Mirza Moorad Alee Beg, Krupabai Satthianadhan, Swami Vivekananda, H. Dutt, and Sita Chatterjee; and historiographical studies on the various aspects of the genre. The author also examines the strategies used by the early writers to indianise the western language and the form of the novel. The present volume also demonstrates how from the very beginning Indian writing in English had a subtle nationalist agenda and created a space for protest literature.

The Making of Indian English Literature will prove an invaluable addition to the studies in Indian writing in English as a source of reference and motivation for further research.

Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter chapter 1 | 27  pages, introduction, chapter chapter 2 | 15  pages, kylas chunder dutt: the first writer of indian english fiction, chapter chapter 3 | 14  pages, locating the nation: narrating the nation, re-writing history, chapter chapter 4 | 12  pages, colonial dilemma: a study of cultural collision and assimilation in the early indian english fiction, chapter chapter 5 | 11  pages, resistance and reasoning: shoshee chunder dutt's narration of the ‘sepoy mutiny’, chapter chapter 6 | 11  pages, towards the horizon: a study of the early indian english novelist's use of language, chapter chapter 7 | 11  pages, problem of form in the early indian novel in english, chapter chapter 8 | 12  pages, towards a synthesis: the theme of reform in the early indian novel in english, chapter chapter 9 | 24  pages, emergence of biography and autobiography in the indian english literature, chapter chapter 10 | 18  pages, lost in 'a strange light': an enquiry into toru dutt's legacy, chapter chapter 11 | 14  pages, krupabai satthianadhan: the portrait of an indian lady 1, chapter chapter 12 | 21  pages, the mystic as kavyadarshi: swami vivekananda's engagement with literature, chapter chapter 13 | 13  pages, the new woman and colonial modernism: sita chatterjee's the knight errant as an exploration of identity, chapter chapter 14 | 11  pages, between the commonwealth and the postcolonial: a study of nationness and identity in the early indian english fiction, chapter chapter 15 | 17  pages, the strange case of suresh biswas: interrogating the myth of colonial masculinity, chapter chapter 16 | 13  pages, the enigma of hybridity: mirza moorad alee beg, 1 the author of lalun the beragun, chapter chapter 17 | 21  pages, an indigenous perception of 'myth' and 'mysticism': a study in the early indian english poetry, chapter chapter 18 | 9  pages, politics of self-assertion: a study in the early indian fiction in english translation.

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FEMINISM IN INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE: AN ANALYSIS

People belonging to literature have always been an important part of the society and Indian women are not an exception. The Indian literature landscape has never been shaped equally by both genders, with the male perspective dominating. However, women India broke all the barriers and left their mark on Indian literature. The women in India have made notable contribution to literature, and their contribution is well appreciated in all literary circles. Traditionally, the work of Indian Women Writers has been undervalued due to patriarchal assumptions about the superior worth of male. The work of the women writers has not been given its due importance in the past, most probably due to male chauvinism. In the past, the basic subject matter of women writers was the feelings of a woman while she is confined in the walls of a house, while the main authors used to write on vibrant themes. So the work of male authors was able to collect more praise from the readers.

Related Papers

Dr. Mohan Educational & Publication Trust

Moorthi Sukumar

Literary artists down the ages struggled to represent the contemporary problems encountered by women. The status of women has become a topic for artists for the last few centuries. It paved for the movement called feminism. Women writers from all over the world focus on the issues related to the growth and development of women in society. They are the initiator who raised the question of male dominance. Though human nature is the same, the issues faced by women vary from one country to another. Creative writers take these issues in the works.

Journal published at MIJRD - Multidisciplinary International Journal of Research and Development ISSN: 2583-0406 (Online) Link on sites; https://www.mijrd.com/papers/feminism-connotation-indian-literature

Srija Chakraborty

The feminist literary movement that has been advocated as feminist movement on the parlance of political, social and economic rights, which explains how women can enjoy the power equally with that of men is the question of derived basic social legal rights and the patriarchal order that to be the remaining into a social construct, with the fact that it gets spoken about the masculinity that is desired and enacted whereas in Indian literature, feminism commonly conceived the overtop conception of subtly handling the restricted circumstances. With the advancement of such a strong word accepted in India, setting outside it gives the political and social scenario to have perhaps a massive work that is to be accomplished in Indian literature. The Western education significantly, came up with the advent of the colonialism during the assurance of British Empire, the reformist movement and also the world institutional promotion that the freedom movement began with the postindependence India where education to one was merely not commenced to emerge them as an educated inculcation rather the invent individuality of the aroused interest and today's contemporary Indian English Novelist, and seen having a masses of the theme of feminism and the readers are actually getting them into the education society where womanhood politics along with the gendered complexity being exponential to the connotation of Indian Literature of Feminism.

SMART M O V E S J O U R N A L IJELLH

Abstract Women and literature are closely related to each other because it requires a lot of artistic creativity to be good at literature and women are too good when it comes to artistic creativity. Women novelists from India are the one to add a new dimension to the English literature of India. Obviously, the current Indian English literature is due to the effort of many prolific writers. At the time, when novels were not so popular in the world of literature, women writers in India used to create lyrics for songs, write short stories, and small plays too. Profound literary personalities believe that women writers were the one who supported the old tradition of narrating tales in India. In between the 19th century, more women became English writers, and as the time went on, women writers were able to inculcate the emotions of ladies in their writings. This had a great impact on the language patterns of Indian literature. Women writers introduced new styles in Indian writing, and such novels have become very popular among the Indian readers these days

International Journal of Novel Research and Development

Dr. Shaily. V . Asthana

The nineteen nineties has been the most significant decade for the Indian novels in English as it brought about a number of important changes in literary discourses. From time to time, various scholars and eminent critics of evaluate and interpret the major works of the major writers of this decade such as Anita Desai, Kamala Markandeya, Nayantara Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande, Arundhanthi Roy, Githa Hariharan, Manju Kapur and many other significant names. However, it is clear that Indian feminist movement was meticulously carved by the Indian women novelists as they were highly conscious of the women's liberation movement. By and large they have portrayed women and their stories with consciousness of the injustice being meted out to women by society. These novels have a feminist undercurrent, having woman as the central character. These women mostly rebel against the existing social set up and discard the idea of being submissive, suffering and sacrificing. The present paper aims to depict the different representations of women that Indian-English women novelists have depicted in their novels. In India, the concept of independence, the pursuit of character, protest and the spirit of resistance have always remained alien concepts when they have been used for women. However, these Indian women novelists innately understood the worries and presented women as someone who fights against the cover-up and abuse of a male-dominated society. The novels of these women novelists express cruelty, pain, and hopelessness they experienced themselves living in a patriarchal culture. Thus, it can be said that their work has shaped the experience of women in Indian English fiction and beyond.

Editorial Department

Indian women writers in English have made the most significant contribution in the field of the English novel. Indian novel has grown considerably in bulk variety, and maturity. The development of Indian novel follows certain definite patterns, and it is not difficult to trace its gradual progression from the imitative stage to the realistic to the Psychological to the experimental stage. In the growth and development of Indian English novel, the 1980s occupy a unique position. During this period, some very promising women novelists published their first works. Some old masters also came out with works, which show that their creative powers have been intact all along. It is during the eighties that Indian women novelists earned unheard of honours and distinctions not only in India but also in abroad. The works by these Indian women novelists, like third generation women novelists, speak eloquently about their originality and unprecedented inventiveness. Indian English literature is now a reality, which cannot be ignored. During the recent decades, it has attracted a widespread interest both in India and abroad. What began as a "hot-house plant" has now attained a luxuriant growth, branching off in several directions. The Indian women writers have made the most remarkable contribution to the sphere of fiction, which as Mulk Raj Anand says, has "come to stay as part of world literature." An idea of the true potential of this form of literature in India can be had by comparing the early novels by Indians with the recent arrivals in the same field of literary creation. However, Indian writing in English in the Contemporary literary Scenario enjoys equal status with the literatures of the other Countries. Especially Indian women writers have made their voice heard around the World in the Abstract: Feminist writings were of crucial interest to the Post-colonial discourse for two major reasons. First, both patriarchy and imperialism could be seen to exert different forms of domination over those subordinate to them. Because of this, it was important for the experiences of women under the patriarchal influence to come out to the forefront and expose the undue cruelty be held on them by men. It was necessary for the women to oppose this male dominance over them. We observe that women continued to define the borders of the community, class and race. They tried to exert feminism through their works. Though the Indian women writers try to depict the women as strong and focused in their vision to succeed in lives, they were, however, ablest to succeed in their lives only in the space allotted to them by the men. However, the Feminist writers tried to stamp their authority in a male dominated environment as best as it is possible to them. It was a very difficult path, as the women had to break through years of male dominance, taboos and beliefs that had heavily impregnated the society. In addition, critics argued that colonialism operated very differently for women and for men. This was so because women were subjected to both general discrimination as colonial subjects and specific discrimination as women addressed as 'double colonization.

THE LITERARY VISION

Dr.Ganganand Singh

Woman is said to be the most beautiful creation of God on this planet. She is herself the origin of life and ultimate creator. She is the foundation of family who embraces everyone with her unconditional love and care as a grandmother, mother, daughter, sister and wife. She forms nearly half of the total population and thus has always been a centre of study and discussion in Indian literature. The Indian writers have continuously tried to present the complicated world of women from different perspectives and points of view. They have responsibly taken up the various issues and problems of women, their anxiety, pain and suffering. These writers have expressed their views and concerns through their work. Woman's condition and position in Indian society have undergone many changes from ancient times to the present. This article is an attempt to critically assess the depiction of woman in Indian literature since ancient times.

The International Journal for Research and Development in Environmental Education

GARRET RAJA

The paper, "Woman in Twenty-First Century Indian Fictions: A Radical Feminist Study of Select Novels", attempts to have a Critique on the representation of women in Indian Fictions of Twenty-First Century women writers. The research focuses on the women characters of various twenty-first century fictions as the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age. The study also features an analysis of select IndianEnglish novels with feminist perspective. The researchers have divided the twenty-firstcentury Indian fiction into three phases based on the representation of women. The issues of womanhood and patriarchal dominance are negotiated, not through real incidents, but through the fictional representation of the real world. Literature is taken as a faithful mirror which represents the issues in the society. The three phases are associated with Raymond Williams' concept of 'residual,emergent and dominant culture. The role of women in the society as victim is discussed and the recent victimhood is also negotiated by the researchers. The three represented phases and their issues are categorized as 'victimization by family', 'victimization by institutions' and eventually, 'victimization by society'.

isara solutions

International Res Jour Managt Socio Human

Feminism in India is a set of movements in defining establishing and the finding equal political, economic and social rights and opportunities for women in India. It is the position of women's rights within the society of India life there feminist counter parts all over the world feminist in India seek gender equality the right to work for equal wages the right to equal access to health and education and equal political rights Indian feminist also have out against culture specific issues within India's Patriarchal society search as inheritance laws Indian women start writing in English extremely late which is one and fifty year old.British old India for 200 year India and England had dealt with each other in trade military and political affairs from chronicled point of view Indian English literature has gone through a few stages for example indo-anglian, Idno English, Indian writing in English and as of late Indian English writing as a result it has lost a good deal of interest for Indian women author.The works of various women writing get not only was category of readers, but also receive a vast critical acclaim.

Psychology and Education Journal

Shriya Goyal

From pre-Independence period to the contemporary times, women’s voice is gradually being heard and gaining momentum. It is hoped as well as expected that women would soon become a prominent voice making a mark in the society. Their point of view along with their decision making authority will have a definite and constructive impact on the society. This can be inferred from the literature by various Indian women writers such as Pandita Ramabai, Ismat Chughtai, Kamala Das and Shashi Deshpande. As we move from one decade to another entering the 21st century, we observe how women have been able to break the cocoon of domesticity, marking their presence in various socio-political spheres which have been usually dominated by men. Women have sought their space for expression and voicing opinion through literature. Depicting the oppression and discrimination faced in the patriarchal setup of Indian society, the women writers have pointed at the need for equality in practice as well as repre...

Anne-Christine Keienburg

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Digital Commons @ USF > College of Arts and Sciences > English > Theses and Dissertations

English Theses and Dissertations

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The Karoo , The Veld , and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head , Elana D. Karshmer

"The weak are meat, and the strong do eat"; Representations of the Slaughterhouse in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature , Stephanie Lance

Language of Carnival: How Language and the Carnivalesque Challenge Hegemony , Yulia O. Nekrashevich

Queer Authority in Old and Middle English Literature , Elan J. Pavlinich

Because My Garmin Told Me To: A New Materialist Study of Agency and Wearable Technology , Michael Repici

No One Wants to Read What You Write: A Contextualized Analysis of Service Course Assignments , Tanya P. Zarlengo

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Beauty and the Beasts: Making Places with Literary Animals of Florida , Haili A. Alcorn

The Medievalizing Process: Religious Medievalism in Romantic and Victorian Literature , Timothy M. Curran

Seeing Trauma: The Known and the Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature , Alisa M. DeBorde

Analysis of User Interfaces in the Sharing Economy , Taylor B. Johnson

Border-Crossing Travels Across Literary Worlds: My Shamanic Conscientization , Scott Neumeister

The Spectacle of The Bomb: Rhetorical Analysis of Risk of The Nevada Test Site in Technical Communication, Popular Press, and Pop Culture , Tiffany Wilgar

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Traveling Women and Consuming Place in Eighteenth-Century Travel Letters and Journals , Cassie Patricia Childs

“The Nations of the Field and Wood”: The Uncertain Ontology of Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , J. Kevin Jordan

Modern Mythologies: The Epic Imagination in Contemporary Indian Literature , Sucheta Kanjilal

Science in the Sun: How Science is Performed as a Spatial Practice , Natalie Kass

Body as Text: Physiognomy on the Early English Stage , Curtis Le Van

Tensions Between Democracy and Expertise in the Florida Keys , Elizabeth A. Loyer

Institutional Review Boards and Writing Studies Research: A Justice-Oriented Study , Johanna Phelps-Hillen

The Spirit of Friendship: Girlfriends in Contemporary African American Literature , Tangela La'Chelle Serls

Aphra Behn on the Contemporary Stage: Behn's Feminist Legacy and Woman-Directed Revivals of The Rover , Nicole Elizabeth Stodard

(Age)ncy in Composition Studies , Alaina Tackitt

Constructing Health Narratives: Patient Feedback in Online Communities , Katie Lynn Walkup

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Rupturing the World of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Suspension of the 2011 IAAF Regulations on Hyperandrogenism , Ella Browning

Shaping Climate Citizenship: The Ethics of Inclusion in Climate Change Communication and Policy , Lauren E. Cagle

Drop, Cover, and Hold On: Analyzing FEMA's Risk Communication through Visual Rhetoric , Samantha Jo Cosgrove

Material Expertise: Applying Object-oriented Rhetoric in Marine Policy , Zachary Parke Dixon

The Non-Identical Anglophone Bildungsroman : From the Categorical to the De-Centering Literary Subject in the Black Atlantic , Jarad Heath Fennell

Instattack: Instagram and Visual Ad Hominem Political Arguments , Sophia Evangeline Gourgiotis

Hospitable Climates: Representations of the West Indies in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , Marisa Carmen Iglesias

Chosen Champions: Medieval and Early Modern Heroes as Postcolonial Reactions to Tensions between England and Europe , Jessica Trant Labossiere

Science, Policy, and Decision Making: A Case Study of Deliberative Rhetoric and Policymaking for Coastal Adaptation in Southeast Florida , Karen Patricia Langbehn

A New Materialist Approach to Visual Rhetoric in PhotoShopBattles , Jonathan Paul Ray

Tracing the Material: Spaces and Objects in British and Irish Modernist Novels , Mary Allison Wise

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Representations of Gatsby: Ninety Years of Retrospective , Christine Anne Auger

Robust, Low Power, Discrete Gate Sizing , Anthony Joseph Casagrande

Wrestling with Angels: Postsecular Contemporary American Poetry , Paul T. Corrigan

#networkedglobe: Making the Connection between Social Media and Intercultural Technical Communication , Laura Anne Ewing

Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange , Sarah Beth Hopton

'She Shall Not Be Moved': Black Women's Spiritual Practice in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Paradise, and Home , Rondrea Danielle Mathis

Relational Agency, Networked Technology, and the Social Media Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing , Megan M. Mcintyre

Now, We Hear Through a Voice Darkly: New Media and Narratology in Cinematic Art , James Anthony Ricci

Navigating Collective Activity Systems: An Approach Towards Rhetorical Inquiry , Katherine Jesse Royce

Women's Narratives of Confinement: Domestic Chores as Threads of Resistance and Healing , Jacqueline Marie Smith

Domestic Spaces in Transition: Modern Representations of Dwelling in the Texts of Elizabeth Bowen , Shannon Tivnan

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Paradise Always Already Lost: Myth, Memory, and Matter in English Literature , Elizabeth Stuart Angello

Overcoming the 5th-Century BCE Epistemological Tragedy: A Productive Reading of Protagoras of Abdera , Ryan Alan Blank

Acts of Rebellion: The Rhetoric of Rogue Cinema , Adam Breckenridge

Material and Textual Spaces in the Poetry of Montagu, Leapor, Barbauld, and Robinson , Jessica Lauren Cook

Decolonizing Shakespeare: Race, Gender, and Colonialism in Three Adaptations of Three Plays by William Shakespeare , Angela Eward-Mangione

Risk of Compliance: Tracing Safety and Efficacy in Mef-Lariam's Licensure , Julie Marie Gerdes

Beyond Performance: Rhetoric, Collective Memory, and the Motive of Imprinting Identity , Brenda M. Grau

Subversive Beauty - Victorian Bodies of Expression , Lisa Michelle Hoffman-Reyes

Integrating Reading and Writing For Florida's ESOL Program , George Douglas Mcarthur

Responsibility and Responsiveness in the Novels of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley , Katherine Marie McGee

Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison's Fiction , Jessica Mckee

The "Defective" Generation: Disability in Modernist Literature , Deborah Susan Mcleod

Science Fiction/Fantasy and the Representation of Ethnic Futurity , Joy Ann Sanchez-Taylor

Hermes, Technical Communicator of the Gods: The Theory, Design, and Creation of a Persuasive Game for Technical Communication , Eric Walsh

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Rhetorical Spirits: Spirituality as Rhetorical Device in New Age Womanist of Color Texts , Ronisha Witlee Browdy

Disciplinarity, Crisis, and Opportunity in Technical Communication , Jason Robert Carabelli

The Terror of Possibility: A Re-evaluation and Reconception of the Sublime Aesthetic , Kurt Fawver

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