Skip to content
ISSN NO. : 0970-4175 (Print)

 

Search

The Book Review, Monthly Review of Important BooksThe Book Review, Monthly Review of Important Books
The Book Review, Monthly Review of Important Books
  • HOME
  • THE BOOK REVIEW
    • ABOUT
    • FOUNDER TRUSTEES
    • THE JOURNAL
  • SUBSCRIPTIONS
    • PRINT & DIGITAL EDITION
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Table of Contents
    • Reviews
  • MEDIA & EVENTS
    • EVENTS
  • CONTACT
  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • HOME
  • THE BOOK REVIEW
    • ABOUT
    • FOUNDER TRUSTEES
    • THE JOURNAL
  • SUBSCRIPTIONS
    • PRINT & DIGITAL EDITION
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • ARCHIVES
    • Table of Contents
    • Reviews
  • MEDIA & EVENTS
    • EVENTS
  • CONTACT
  • ADVERTISEMENT

A Timely Recall

Review Details

Book Name: REVISITING EARLY INDIAN FICTION: READING, WRITING, SOCIETY
Author name: Chief Editor: Himansu S. Mohapatra. Editors: Abani K. Dash and K. C. Mishra
Book Year: 2020
Book Price: 1200.00
Reviewer name: S Deepika
Volume No: 45
Publisher Name: Authors Press, New Delhi
Book Pages: 256

A late bloomer, the Indian novel at the turn of the nineteenth century was a form in transition. As it started to edge away from the dominant themes of romance and domestic bliss, it became both socially engaged and self-conscious. Interestingly, these two divergent trends came to be condensed in the figure of the reader who had begun to appear in many of the novels of the time. That this reader was in most cases a female reader was perhaps the most significant fact. Not only did the woman character in a novel turn out to be more enlightened than the male characters she was pitted against; her initiation into an ‘ife of the mind’ was through reading novels. As scenes of women reading and writing abounded in early Indian fiction, the novel turned into an ideal site where gendered hierarchies were played out, and often questioned, if not transcended.

Coming out of an international conference held at the English Department of Karanjia College in Odisha, the book under review features essays which seek to reframe our understanding of the early Indian novel by viewing it through the lens of precisely those activities which are constitutive of the genre, namely reading and writing. At its heart lies the female reader who is traced across an array of Indian language and Indian English novels, and, who becomes the agency of an irrepressible desire for subjectivity. By taking this figure as a point of departure, the essays in this volume attempt to chart the emancipatory potential of the acts of reading and writing. The essays also give us insights into how the opening up of a literary-critical space within the narrative facilitated the exploration of larger questions of gender, class and caste in Indian society, turning the novel from a stigmatized form to a respectable entity in the process.

Putting the book of twenty-two essays in context, the introduction by Himanshu Mohapatra comments on the parallels between the past and the contemporary moment, when, thanks to a prolonged pandemic-induced shutdown, most of us have gravitated towards reading, reflection and writing. The coming into print of this volume for Mohapatra signals a rare opportunity to reconnect with an earlier time in India’s literary culture ‘when to read and write was a way to transform oneself by pitting oneself against social conventions, thereby gaining a vivid sense of selfhood and self-worth’ (p.19). The Introduction also cues the reader about not reading the essays alphabetically, as presented in the book, but in terms of the thematic grouping under four distinct rubrics.

Please Login or Register to Read Entire Article !

Username:
Password:
Register
Lost your password?

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Space of One’s OwnNextNext post:Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair

Related posts

An Indian in the Land of Yuan Zang
February 4, 2021
A No-Holds Barred Memoir
February 4, 2021
Autobiographical Reflections
February 5, 2021
A Saga of Love, Endurance and Survival
February 5, 2021
A Biographical Overview
February 5, 2021
Tracing Patterns through Various Planes of Interrogation
February 5, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

clear formPost comment

Current Issue
  • The Real and the Immersive March 5, 2021
  • Vulnerable Others in and of Environmental Research March 5, 2021
Search in website

ABOUT US | DISCLAIMER | ADVERTISEMENT

All Right Reserved with The Book Review Literacy Trust | Powered by Digital Empowerment Foundation

FacebookTwitter