Literature about India has always been hot – think E.M. Forster, George Orwell, and James Hilton. But now the subcontinent and its immigrant discontents are doing a bit of post-colonial pay-back by producing some of the most provocative writing in the world — and in the language of Mother England to boot.
Rushdie, Naipul, Mishra, Ghosh, Suri, Roy, Lahiri, Seth, Charma, Chandra, Chaudri, Chatterjee, Mistry and the two Desai’s… there have been Bookers, Pulitzers, and best-sellers galore. But critics worry about India being turned into caricature. And perhaps more importantly, they fear that India’s vigorous literature in its ancient languages will be forgotten in the quest for the next big advance from an English-language publishing house.
(Hosted by Judy Swallow)
Guests:
Manil Suri, author of “The Death of Vishnu.”;
Chitra Divakaruni, author of the soon-to-be-published collection of stories, “The Unknown Errors of Our Lives.”;
Pankaj Mishra, one of the great luminaries in Indian letters, critic for the New York review of Books, and author of “The Romantics.”