Does realism mean simply representing the world as if through a mirror? Or can realism be part of an imaginative project?
This book argues that Indian authors in the mid-20th century used realism as a means of reimagining futurity for India outside of colonial or nationalist discourses. Covering novels in English, Hindi and Bengali from the 1920s and 1930s, the book shows how realism allowed Indian authors to call into question the very premises of representation itself.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Realism in the Colony
Chapter 2 The Contours of the Human
Chapter 3 Experiments with Gandhi
Chapter 4 Staging Realism and the Ambivalence of Nationalism
Chapter 5 Aimless Bildung and the Longing for Form