Modernism, existentialism, and the aesthetics of the postcolony / Toral Jatin Gajarawala

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gajarawala, Toral Jatin, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in world literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

South Asian literature--20th century--History and criticism.

South Asian literature.

South Asian literature--21st century--History and criticism.

Modernism (Literature)--South Asia.

Modernism (Literature).

Postcolonialism--South Asia.

Postcolonialism.

Literature--Philosophy.

Literature.

literary theory.

South Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026

Summary:

"How did writers reimagine self and nation in the postcolonial moment? After the brutalities of partition and the triumph of Independence, decolonization in South Asia unfolded in a dramatic sense of disillusion and alienation. In this transnational study, Toral Gajarawala explores the cultural afterlife of decolonization in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and its profound moment of existential reckoning. In new genres and forms, artists registered a growing sense of estrangement from nation and nationalism, and crafted a new aesthetic landscape. This book reconsiders modernism in the subcontinent, charting the unlikely affiliations and aesthetic experiments it generated. Each chapter discusses a distinct artistic experiment- Hindi novels set in snow and ice, and a Pakistani painter's Paris moment; the existential novel of Bengal, and absurdist plays on famine and extinction- in light of key philosophical concepts of the moment: askesis, responsibility, commitment. The result is an illuminating microanalysis of the 1960s that reshapes our understanding of postcolonial aesthetics"-- Cambridge Core

Contents:

Strange light : an existential reckoning in South Asia

Sadequain’s stranger

The exit : Agyeya’s Hindi worlds between engagement and renunciation

Caste, race, and color avant la lettre

Absurdist games

Responsibilities : the novel moment of postcolonial existentialism

The artist’s notebook : Nasreen Mohamedi’s micrographia

Afterword : the aesthetic dimension

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed July 30, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Gajarawala, Toral Jatin Modernism, existentialism, and the aesthetics of the postcolony

ISBN:

9781009697002

1009697005

9781009697040

1009697048

OCLC:

1596676255

Publisher Number:

CIPO000395432

CIPO000397839

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license