Cold war genres : local and international in Hindi literature / Gregory Goulding.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goulding, Gregory, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hindi literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Hindi literature.

Literary form.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2024]

Summary:

Cold War Genres explores post-independence Hindi literature, framing it within the sociopolitical backdrop of Nehruvian India during the early Cold War. The book underscores the pivotal role of Hindi's claims to be a national language following independence, which fostered a unique moment of literary innovation. Central to its narrative is the work of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, a pivotal figure in modern South Asian literature. Using Muktibodh's poetry, criticism, and fiction as a primary example, the book shows how literary form shapes a response to the internal contradictions of 1950s India, one that must be read in light of both the antinomies of Hindi literature and North India as well as the aesthetic debates and emerging ideas of global space during this time. Cold War Genres therefore functions as a lens to evaluate questions of genre and form shared by a range of literary cultures in the mid-twentieth-century decolonizing world. This book features extensive translations from Muktibodh's poetry and prose, including full translations of two poems "Brahmarākṣas" (The Brahman Demon) and "Aṃdhere meṃ" (In the Dark).

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration and Translation

Introduction

Intro

The Central Outsider

Cold War Vernaculars

The Stakes of Literary Form

Hindi Literature

Structure of the Book

Chapter One A Stream of Pure Sanskrit Curses

What Is a Long Poem?

The Well

The Brahmin Demon

The Brahmarakshas

Conclusion

Chapter Two Realism, Romanticism, and the Lower Middle Class

The (Lower) Middle Class in Postindependence Hindi Literature

A Writer's Diary

The Third Moment of Expression

Realism as Underground

Chapter Three Muktibodh's Prose Fiction and the Question of the Real

Poetry and Prose

Distorted Fable

Anecdotes of Imprisonment

The Nehruvian Paranoid Mood

Through the Window

Chapter Four The Long Poem between Genre and Form

The Magical World of an Extended Poem

The World of Beauty and the World of the Novel

The Multiple Pasts of Free Verse

Muktachanda between Marathi and Hindi

The Formal Structure of the Long Poem

Allegory Itself

Conclusion The Afterlives of Muktibodh

Alienation or Existentialism

Ratlam and Bhopal

The Idea of Muktibodh

Appendix Full Translations of "Brahmarākṣas" (The Brahmin Demon) and "Aṃdhere meṃ" (In the Dark)

Brahmarakshas

In the Dark

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438499604

1438499604

OCLC:

1463062826