The contemporary world, now a global village, houses people having distinct ethnic, racial, and casteist affiliations. In a seemingly multicultural world, the issues faced by those inhabiting a peripheral space in the erstwhile colonized countries have engaged the attention of the postcolonial scholars and critics. The result is the birth of the so-called New Literatures in English, now a fast-growing vibrant body of literature, and thrust area of postcolonial research activities. The term, ‘New Literatures’, includes the literary productions of those countries confounded with a history of colonialism. The writers belonging to the former British colonies, like parts of Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, islands in the South Pacific, and Sri Lanka have made literary contributions in various genres aimed at challenging the beliefs and value systems of the hegemonic power structures. There also arises an argument in favour of minority groups within the US (African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and other hyphenated groups) to be included in it. Each literary product has its own cultural and geographical specificities.
Given the context, the book seeks to centre those narratives penned by marginalized as well as mainstream writers. Authentic, scholarly and unpublished research papers examine various ways in which different writers look at the local and global social conditions in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Accordingly, issues related to race, violence, religion, communalism, land, environment, sex and gendered identity, nation and state, memory, trauma and prolepsis, cultural plurality and hybridity as well as literary negotiations of colonization and decolonization, migration and diaspora have emerged as central lines of inquiry and research in the papers anthologised in the present book. It seeks to promote research into the literatures and thus ensures a transnational and transcultural dialogue among the global citizens.
Dr. R. Janatha Kumari, Assistant Professor of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Chunkankadai, Tamilnadu (affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University), is an erudite scholar, and has been teaching for two decades.
Dr. Janatha has presented papers at various national and international seminars and conferences, and has published research articles in prestigious journals and books. She has completed a project on South African Literature, and is presently serving as an editor of Biannual International Journal of English, Panorama Literaria. Her areas of interest include, Indian Literature, African American Literature, Subaltern Literature, Film and Media Arts, and Queer Theory (Transgenders). Dr. Janatha has organized two international conferences, and served as a resource person at various seminars and conferences.
Dr. Chitra Thrivikraman Nair, Assistant Professor of English, University College, Trivandrum (affiliated to the University of Kerala), has been teaching English Language and Literature for a decade. Having a brilliant academic record to her credit, Dr. Chitra’s areas of specialization are Indian Writing in English, Literature of the Marginalized Cultures, and Dalit Literary Studies. She has published many research articles in prestigious journals and books.
