Utopia And The Village In South Asian Literatures

Utopia and the Village in South Asian Literatures provides a searching exploration of twentieth-century literatures of the Indian subcontinent by refocusing attention on works that engage with the village and the rural as a trope. Mohan breathes new life into Michel Foucault's notion of heterotopia and continues a conversation with thinkers of utopia about the need for recuperating the utopian potential in postcolonial writings.

The book provides provocative readings of some of the most important works of the 20th century in India and Sri Lanka (in English as well as in translation) and, in its conceptual sweep, presents a novel way of theorizing the intersecting but also distinct literary histories of India and Sri Lanka. Authors examined for their unique visions of the rural include Mohandas Gandhi, Leonard Woolf, Martin Wickramasinghe, O.

V. Vijayan, Amitav Ghosh, and Michael Ondaatje. For both the novice and the scholar, this is a book that will truly define the horizons for understanding South Asian literatures and cultures, and their broader significance within postcolonial scholarship. Review: 'Leaving aside the valuable and informative notions contained in it, the relevance of this volume stems not simply from the fact that much economic, social and cultural life in South Asia takes place in rural villages, where most of the population still lives, but from the fact that, far from being anachronistic elements destined to be swept away from 'progress' and 'modernity', rural villages have played a multifaceted role in shaping our perception of political scenarios, economic progress and cultural development.' - Gerardo Serra, PhD student, Department of Economic History, London School of Economics, UK