Words from India in the West: A Critical Approach to Select Writings by the Diasporic Indian Litterateurs

This edited volume critically assesses different aspects of five literary genres – novels, poetry, short-stories, drama, and non-fictional prose – contributed to by the Indian diasporic writers settled principally in North America and Europe. Films made by or on members of the Indian diaspora have been also checked out. The predominant approach in the anthology is not only a feminist one, although special emphasis is given on assessing the writings by females. The emphasis of the anthology is on: (a) critical analyses of themes, styles, diction, and relevance of the writings; (b) assessment of the research potentialities of these writings; (c) examining how literary theories could be used for explaining and assessing the writings; (d) proper contextualization of the writings; and (e) finding out the historical roots and suggesting the future ‘prospects’ of such writings. The essays included in the book re-read Indian diasporic writings for their appreciable points as well as those which need development. The collection fills in lacuna of critical approaches to Indian diasporic writings presently available in the market. In fact, there is scarcely any book presently available that covers critical approaches to all the five literary genres of Indian diasporic writings.

Dr. Pinaki Roy (born 1980) studied English at Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan, West Bengal, India) and University of North Bengal (Shibmandir, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India). Since 2019, he is Professor of English (and Dean of Students’ Welfare) at the RAIGANJ UNIVERSITY in Raiganj (West Bengal, India). His previous books include THE BROKEN PENS: THE (INDIAN) PARTITION IN LITERATURE AND FILMS (Aadi, 2015), WILFRED OWEN: THE MAN, THE SOLDIER, THE POET (Books Way, 2013), THE SCARLET CRITIQUE: A CRITICAL ANTHOLOGY OF WAR POETRY (Sarup, 2010), and THE MANICHEAN INVESTIGATORS: A POSTCOLONIAL AND CULTURAL REREADING OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES AND BYOMKESH BAKSHI STORIES (Sarup, 2008), and 3 others. His papers have been published by, among other outlets, CLUES, W.L.A., MUSE INDIA, ENGLISH FORUM, VISVA-BHARATI QUARTERLY, and YEARLY SHAKESPEARE.

Dr. Bashabi Fraser, C.B.E. is Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University (Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.) and an internationally-recognised Indian Diasporic Poet.

Neha Arora, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of English of the Central University of Rajasthan (in the district of Ajmer, Rajasthan). Her areas of interest include diasporic writings, Dalit-literature, comparative literature, Indian writings, and subaltern-studies. She has authored Dalit Literature Today (Creative Books, 2015), and has edited/co-edited three critical-anthologies – on New Literature, Mahesh Dattani’s plays, and marginalised literature. She has also contributed several research papers in reputed journals and edited volumes.

Deb Narayan Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., is the Vice-Chancellor of Bankura University, West Bengal, India. In 2001, he gave a course of lectures on ‘Nineteenth-century Representations of Shakespeare in India’ at the University of Vienna, Shakespeare Society of Vienna, and the University of Salzburg.  He also visited the University of Edinburgh and lectured at a seminar organised at Mansfield College, Oxford in 2002, with assistance from British Council. He was awarded the Fulbright Exchange Summer Institute Programme and worked at Northern Illinois University, University of Chicago, and State University of New York. He was, later, awarded Australian Studies Fellowship in 2005 and 2006. He had held visiting research positions at Monash University, University of New South Wales, University of Wollongong, and holds the position of international contributing editor of Journal of American History (J.A.H). Bandyopadhyay has worked on Gerontology as the Project Leader in collaboration with University of Swansea under UKIERI-Funding-Programme, and is an awardee of the Andrew Tannahill Fund, University of Glasgow. His most recent publication includes Transnational Spaces: Australia and India (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

Indrajit Chattopadhyay, Ph.D., is an associate professor of English of Kabi Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, Hooghly, West Bengal, India.  Educated at the Universities of Calcutta and Kalyani, Chattopadhyay has been an academic-counsellor for Post-Graduate course of English Language and Literature of Indira Gandhi National Open University. His most recent publication is Of Woman Born: Changing Interpretations of Womanhood in Shakespearean Comedies (Signorina, 2020). His present areas of interest are diasporic literature, cultural studies, and hunting literature.