South Asian Atlantic Literature, 1970-2010

This book is a sustained attempt to chart and interpret a wide range of recent South Asian diasporic writing from Britain and America in specifically transatlantic terms. This body of literature has grown substantially since the 1970s, receiving not only critical acclaim but also widespread popular interest, and its favoured themes have also found expression in cinematic works. Yet scholars have largely overlooked the transatlantic development of South Asian writing over the past three decades. Maxey's book fill this gap in transatlantic studies by offering fresh readings of canonical writers and texts, while bringing to light lesser-known authors and ideas. Tracing a literary lineage for works from different genres, it identifies key trends in recent South Asian American and British Asian literature by considering the favoured formal and aesthetic modes of major writers and by relating their work to different historical developments, sexual politics, the marketplace and issues of literary value. The book thus engages with longer-established debates as well as intervening in new ways in Atlantic Studies and in such fields as postcolonial literary studies and Asian American cultural studies. Key Features: * A book-length study of recent South Asian diasporic literature in transatlantic terms * Examines a wide range of canonical and under-researched writers * Investigates key themes, the majority of which remain under-explored * Identifies major formal and aesthetic trends and positions works within their wider intellectual and commercial context