Academic literature on the topic 'West Indian literature (English)'

Abstract Creole... English: West Indian Writing as Translation — This paper looks at the use of language(s) in Indo-Caribbean (i.e., West Indian of East Indian descent) writings. West Indian writers are Creole, in every sense of the term: born in (former) British colonies, they have a hybrid culture and a hybrid language. They operate from within a polylectal Creole language-culture continuum which offers them a wide and varied linguistic range (Creole to Standard English) and an extended cultural base ("primitive" oral culture to anglicized written culture). Indo-Caribbean writers, however, have access, not only to the Creole language-culture continuum, but also to the pre-colonial cultural, linguistic and religious traditions of their ancestors who came from India in the 19th century. But if Creole is the mother-tongue of all West Indians, English is the only language they know to read and write. West Indian literature in English constitutes an intricately woven textile of Creole and English : a hybrid writing made possible through the translation of Creole experience into English; oral Creole culture into written English; the Creole language into the English language. In fact, West Indian literature in English can be considered self-translation, for which the presence of the author as the translator gives authority to the hybridized product, a true extract of the West Indian writer and his Caribbean language-culture.

India, along with the contemporary and colonial history of the postcolonial culture, is seen to offer the study's a rich site that has intertextuality and influence. Furthermore, British imperialism is far more pragmatic as compared to several colonial powers. The motivation is not evangelical but economic. Under the emergence of Orientalism”, India was the first Nation to lay literary impact on the West, such an equation was then reversed during colonial intervention. The changes made by the British in the society of India appeared to be at the top. Where few critics of India are only focused on denouncing and acclaiming the effect of West, Indian writers discriminating response gives complex instances of intertextuality amd influence being reception forms. The literary movement has been shaped by values and essential beliefs of traditional attitude, culture, social life and politics of local people. Authority of British along with the Indian subcontinent ruling power halted for more than two hundred years. Furthermore, it turns simple when you need to have an understanding of the English Literature history being related to the English people life. This attitude across the educational, social, and cultural way of living. The movement of the British colony in the given subcontinent has the testimonial impact of the literature on the people social life style. The current paper of research lays the study on the Effect of the Colonial Rule on The English Literature in India in details.

This paper is an attempt to describe briefly the contribution of Indian writers in the literature in English language. Many Indian writers believed that English language is a gateway to western knowledge. Contact with English language and literature was fruitful to the regional languages, as it led to the growth and development of creative literature in these tongues. The use of English led to the Indian Renaissance of the 19th century. In this paper, two novels, Music for Mohini and The Serpent and The Rope, have been discussed to prove that English has acted as a link language among various regional languages, meanwhile, those novels exposed the conflict between two cultures and showed the direct or indirect impact of English language and culture on the Indian traditions and spirit.

India is a rich site for studying intertextuality and influence due to its contemporary and colonial history of postcolonial culture. British imperialism in India was more pragmatic than other colonial powers, being motivated by economics rather than evangelism. During the emergence of Orientalism, India was the first nation to have a literary impact on the West, but this equation was reversed during colonial intervention. While some critics denounce or acclaim the West's effect on India, Indian writers' responses show complex instances of intertextuality and influence in the form of reception. The literary movement in India has been shaped by the traditional attitudes, culture, social life, and politics of the local people. British rule in India lasted for more than two hundred years and its authority halted the ruling power of the Indian subcontinent. The impact of British colonialism on Indian literature and social life is evident. Understanding English literature history is crucial for understanding English people's way of life, including their educational, social, and cultural attitudes. This research paper examines in detail the effect of colonial rule on English literature in India.

[First paragraph]The Art of Kamau Brathwaite. STEWART BROWN (ed.). Bridgend, Wales: Seren/Poetry Wales Press, 1995. 275 pp. (Cloth US$ 50.00, Paper US$ 22.95)Atlantic Passages: History, Community, and Language in the Fiction of Sam Selvon. MARK LOOKER. New York: Peter Lang, 1996. x + 243 pp. (Cloth n.p.)Caliban's Curse: George Lamming and the Revisioning of History. SUPRIYA NAIR. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. viii + 171 pp. (Cloth US$ 34.50)Phyllis Shand Allfrey: A Caribbean Life. LlZABETH PARAVISINI-GEBERT. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996. xii + 335 pp. (Cloth US$ 55.00, Paper US$ 18.95)Of the four books to be considered here, those on Brathwaite, Selvon, and Lamming fit snugly together into a natural category of literature that has to do with the emergence of a Creole or African-centered Caribbean culture, and related issues of race, color, class, history, and nationality. The fourth is a biography of Phyllis Shand Allfrey, a white West Indian, who is of an altogether different race, color, and class than from the other three. Yet the four books are linked together by nationality, for Allfrey and the others are all citizens of one region, the English-speaking West Indies, which, as the Federation of the West Indies between 1958 and 1962, formed a single nation.

A different name than English literature, ‘Anglo-Indian Literature’, was given to the body of literature in English that emerged on account of the British interaction with India unlike the case with their interaction with America or Australia or New Zealand. Even the Indians’ contributions (translations as well as creative pieces in English) were classed under the caption ‘Anglo-Indian’ initially but later a different name, ‘Indo-Anglian’, was conceived for the growing variety and volume of writings in English by the Indians. However, unlike the former the latter has not found a favour with the compilers of English dictionaries. With the passage of time the fine line of demarcation drawn on the basis of subject matter and author’s point of view has disappeared and currently even Anglo-Indians’ writings are classed as ‘Indo-Anglian’. Besides contemplating on various connotations of the term ‘Indo-Anglian’ the article discusses the related issues such as: the etymology of the term, fixing the name of its coiner and the date of its first use. In contrast to the opinions of the historians and critics like K R S Iyengar, G P Sarma, M K Naik, Daniela Rogobete, Sachidananda Mohanty, Dilip Chatterjee and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak it has been brought to light that the term ‘Indo-Anglian’ was first used in 1880 by James Payn to refer to the Indians’ writings in English rather pejoratively. However, Iyengar used it in a positive sense though he himself gave it up soon. The reasons for the wide acceptance of the term, sometimes also for the authors of the sub-continent, by the members of academia all over the world, despite its rejection by Sahitya Akademi (the national body of letters in India), have also been contemplated on. 
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The debate between authors who write in English and those who write in the South Asian vernaculars – or bhashas – is well known in South Asian literary studies. The debate is not only about language, but about a writer’s desired audience and her commitment (or lack thereof) to cosmopolitanism on one hand and nationalism on the other. This paper traces some of the key moments in this debate in order to suggest that in contemporary Indian literature we are witnessing the beginnings of a new relationship between English and the bhashas that requires a complication of the cosmopolitanism/nationalism framework. For one, English is no longer the language of the West but has become an Indian language – such that for the first time in India’s history, literature written in English does not rely on an international readership. But the kinds of English writings we see in Indian literature today reflect a thematic shift as well; for instance, new commercial English writings by authors such as Chetan Bhagat and Anuja Chauhan paradoxically reflect a turn inwards – inventing what I call new literary provincialisms: a move away from the diasporic cosmopolitanism of the 1980s and 1990s, and towards India’s regional cultures – but paradoxically, through rather than despite the use of English. These writings are often set in Tier II cities such as Varanasi and Ahmedabad rather than Mumbai or Kolkata, and represent a world not of cosmopolitan elites but lower middle-class protagonists struggling to learn English. These works represent aspiration as the new sensibility of English literature in India.

Globalization has manifold implications and importance. From Political to financial from trade and commerce to culture and social behaviour. The post globalized world has seen the cultural invasion of America and Europe in various ways. One of the prominent ways of this cultural invasion is the supreme importance of the English language. They have made the English language their medium of cultural dissemination resulting into the supremacy of the occidental culture in oriental countries. Through language culture is spread and through culture their literature, music, food, lifestyle everything is spread and makes room for billion-dollar business. This paper aims at finding the roots of Cultural Hegemony of the west through the teaching of American English in the guise of Global English.

Using archival sources, interviews, and memoirs, this essay documents the surprisingly extensive connections between London's extant modernists and West Indian writers during the 1950s. With the support of Stephen Spender, John Lehmann, T. S. Eliot, and other luminaries, a vibrant group of Caribbean artists quickly established themselves as known literary commodities. Such forms of collaboration between metropolitan intellectuals and their colonial counterparts were structured by shared interests in high culture. London's modernists feared English culture was faced with terminal decline; West Indian writers exploited that fear by insisting that the metropolitan culture industry badly needed an infusion of colonial talent. The brevity and fragility of these bonds, however, led to the emergence of postcolonial literature as a distinct but marginal cultural niche. London's postwar identity as center of global cultural production, I suggest, was intimately connected with the recruitment and assimilation of colonial intellectuals.

Fictional medium is really very useful to know reality of society. Literature and visual art used realistically to depict several methods in which perfect description of feminism is the aim. The novel is depiction of day to day life, custom and the woman is portrayed as the key figure of Indian families and at the same time, she has been projected as the subject of suffering domestic slavery and suppression. Native feminism in India is not as aggressive as feminism in the West. Patriarchy is another name of native feminism reflected in the novels; through self-realization, it is expected that the woman can emerge as a new woman. The social realist writers have been very much interested in recording social changes and the status of women. Industrialization, urbanization and globalization have brought considerable changes in social life and status of women in India. Position of educated women is quite better than illiterate but gender discrimination still persists. To face all hurdles of their life the next generation women very boldly and intelligently achieve their aims to get their identity.