The Indian English Novel - Nation, History, and Narration

Sep 20, 2026

The Indian English Novel - Nation, History, and Narration examines how Priyamvada Gopal reads Indian English fiction through nation-building, historical consciousness, and narrative form. Framing postcolonial literary study, it traces key genres and writers, linking literary movements to international theory and local politics. Using novels across periods—from early historical writing to Gandhi-era mythmaking, Partition narratives, and later epic and city-centered works—each chapter analyzes how texts formally engage imperial and anti-imperial legacies and shape cultural debates.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages232

Reading Time5 h 57 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Introduction: Ideas of India

Making English India

Ethnography, Gender, and Nation

‘Mahatma-Magic’: Gandhi and Literary India

Writing Partition

Midnight’s Legacies: Two Epic Novels of Nation

Bombay and the Novel

The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures aim to oVer stimulating and accessible introductions to deWnitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying Weld of postcolonial literary studies in English. Under the general editorship of Professor Elleke Boehmer, the Studies in each case elucidate and explicate the informing contexts of postcolonial texts, and plot the historical and cultural co-ordinates of writers and of the leading movements, institutions, and cultural debates situated within those contexts. Individual volumes reXect in particular on the shaping eVect both of international theory and of local politics on postcolonial traditions often viewed as uniformly cross-cultural, and also on the inXuence of postcolonial writing on the protocols of international theory. Throughout, the focus is on how texts formally engage with the legacies of imperial and anti-imperial history. OXFOR D STUDIES IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURES The Indian Novel in English Priyamvada Gopal Australian Literature Graham Huggan Pacific Islands Writing Michelle Keown West African Literatures Stephanie Newell Postcolonial Poetry in English Rajeev S. Patke OXFORD STUDIES IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURESIN ENGLISH General Editor: Elleke Boehmer THE INDIAN ENGLISH NOVEL Nation, History, and Narration Priyamvada Gopal 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York \# Priyamvada Gopal 2009 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–954437–0 (Pbk. ) 978–0–19–954438–7 (Hbk. ) 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With gratitude to: Elleke Boehmer, for helpful suggestions and great generosity; the editors at OUP for letting me try their patience; Meenakshi Mukherjee, for paving the way through her scholarship; the University of Cambridge and Churchill College for a term’s leave; Chris Warnes for collegiality and picking up the slack; Michael Perfect for research assistance; Benita Parry for getting on my case; Anny King for spaghetti and company; my family and friends for their love and support; my barista friends for caVeine and good cheer; Hailey O’Harrow and Sam Dean for troubleshooting; Susan Daruvala and Sundeep Dougal for invaluable references; Sylvie JaVrey for excellent copy editing; and Wnally, my remarkable students on whom these chapters

FAQs

What is the book’s central focus on Indian English fiction?

It focuses on how Indian English novels construct and negotiate nationhood, history, and narrative strategies, linking texts to postcolonial cultural debates and imperial legacies.

Which major themes are covered across the chapters?

Themes include writing nation and history, ethnography and gender, Gandhi-related mythmaking, Partition witnessing, and later epic and city-centered narratives.

How does the book connect literary texts to broader historical and theoretical contexts?

Each section explains the contexts of postcolonial writing, showing how international theory and local politics shape the formal engagement of novels with imperial and anti-imperial histories.

Sep 20, 2026

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