The book has extended and widened the implications of the term “New Literatures in English” to include an assessment of New Humanities and other areas which continue to attract the polyphony of marginal voices in the critical arena of literature which is simultaneously local, mofussil, regional, national, transnational, global, glocal and finally, universal.
— Prof. S.Z.H. Abidi
Former Head of the Dept. of English and MEL, University of Lucknow
The anthology Major Voices in New Literatures in English deals with multifarious modes of colonial and postcolonial studies in the light of constantly changing human relations and their identity with harmonizing effect of the polyphony dissolving national, geographical, communal and religious boundaries and disrupting all levels of hierarchy. The book proceeds with the emergence of “New Literatures” as a reaction against British colonization of the Third World territories, evolution of Feminism as a reaction against physical and psychological colonization of women, prominence of multiculturalism (implication of local dialects) as a reaction against linguistic colonization, and Dalit narratives as a protest against internal colonization that resulted in Bakhtin’s polyphony registering significance of all voices and recreating universal ‘glocal’ human identity.
Major Voices in New Literatures in English is a postcolonial offshoot which is replete with the voices of resistance against the First World and counter reaction of the Third World countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, South Africa, etc. to the same. Originating from resistance against colonialism, it comes to recognition of its own identity and finally struggles to assert its genius all around and its worth at the global platform of epistemic market. Thus, the present anthology shows that the New Literatures are an evidence of polyphony (multiple voices) which has succeeded in changing the Western outlook from xenophobia to xenophilia.
Dr. Bishun Kumar shares his academic pursuits of knowledge and thoughts as Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Babu Banarasi Das University, Lucknow with a Doctoral degree on Mulk Raj Anand from University of Lucknow. Besides editing present anthology he has also edited Discursive Passages: An Anthology of Diaspora Criticism (Volume I & II) in collaboration with Dr. Ajay K. Chaubey, Asst. Professor, NIT Uttarakhand published from Yking Books, Jaipur and Mahesh Dattani: Themes, Techniques and Issues in collaboration with Dr. Neha Arora. He is also Assistant Editor of The SPIEL, a Society for the Promotion of Indian English Literature and is a member of many research and academic bodies. He has published many research papers and critical essays of the diverse fields in different reputed international journals and anthologies.
Dr. Neha Arora shares her knowledge as Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer. She has achieved her Doctoral degree on Dalit Literature from University of Lucknow. Besides editing the present volume she has also co-edited Mahesh Dattani: Themes, Techniques and Issues and has published
papers on varied themes, ranging from Dalit Literature to African and to Indian English Literature, in reputed national and international journals. She is also Associate Editor of The Expression: An International Bi-Monthly Multidisciplinary e-Journal and member of Editorial Boards of many academic bodies such as Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies and Alchemist Journal of Humanities.
