tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181127362011-07-28T23:15:30.297-07:00Indian Writing in EnglishA discussion of Indian Writing in English (IWE) in all its aspects, with a view to creating some structure and organization in this body of writing.Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.comBlogger81100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1133757093638546452005-12-04T20:28:00.000-08:002005-12-04T20:31:33.656-08:00Who's the most authentic of them all? - IIIt's perfectly all right to write about people who are not the norm in the society they are placed. One of the thumbrules of good fiction writing is to make interesting things happen to interesting people. Usually, in the effort to make a character interesting, he also becomes unusual (though the real skill of the writer comes out when he makes the usual interesting).But, but...With the growing Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1133497052629049952005-12-01T20:15:00.000-08:002005-12-01T20:17:32.736-08:00Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most authentic of them all?Authenticity, we have seen, is the first weapon that comes to hand when one body of writers attacks another. Whether it is regional writers vituperating IWE writers, or native IWE writers criticising the NRI ones, the frontal line of attack is on their authenticity.It's time to take the bull by the horns. What exactly is this authenticity which results in such a hullabaloo?Authenticity is about Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1132546888177196262005-11-20T20:19:00.000-08:002005-11-20T20:21:28.190-08:00The native verus the NRI writerSeen against the body of regional writers, we considered the body of IWE writers as a unified whole. Peering closer into the latter, we find there exists the boundary between the native writer (meaning IWE writer based in India) and the NRI one (meaning the Non-Resident Indian IWE writer). The divide is yet another facet of the all-pervading issue of authenticity.What the regional writer wields Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1131631156122607772005-11-10T05:58:00.000-08:002005-11-10T06:05:43.786-08:00Regional literature versus IWEIn the last couple of posts, we saw authenticity (call it realism or genuineness if you will) as a millstone that IWE has to carry around its neck wherever it goes. We also touched upon a few topics with authenticity at the heart of the issue : regional or vernacular writing v/s IWE (the topic of the current discussion), Indian IWE v/s NRI IWE writer, and what is authenticity actually.It looks Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1131423323750180562005-11-07T20:12:00.000-08:002005-11-07T20:18:42.896-08:00Dream within a dream - IICarrying on with the discussion on whether IWE makes sense.The English language in India carries with it a connotation of elitism, as opposed to native languages which are seen as being down to earth, belonging to the people proper. Or as opposed to French literature in France, or English in America, which are the native languages in those nations. Perhaps French spoken in the Czar's court in Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1130687046313106372005-10-30T07:50:00.000-08:002005-11-07T20:22:37.553-08:00IWE: Dream within a dream?Does IWE make sense? Why this doubt that questions the very foundation of the whole edifice? Nobody asks such a question of British or American literature, or for that matter even Tamil literature. Then why single out IWE?One fault line runs through the foundation of IWE, but is absent among other literatures. (Perhaps it exists in other colonial literatures, especially of the sub-continent. I Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1130055964494624302005-10-24T01:30:00.000-07:002005-10-24T23:23:18.776-07:00What is IWECramming a definition from a textbook of which you don't understand half the terms is one thing, and coming up with your own definition is another.The objective here is to come up with some criteria, or a set of rules with minimal haziness, to judge what is IWE and what is not. This definitiveness is needed to avoid applying this term haphazardly and inconsistently to all and sundry. More Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18112736.post-1129885698098493102005-10-21T01:30:00.000-07:002005-10-24T22:35:39.526-07:00What this blog is aboutOn this blog we will talk of this pheonomenon called Indian Writing in English (IWE). A blog, more or less unstructured and limitless, is probably the correct medium to discuss this topic in all its aspects.What exactly or generally is IWE; the writers that form the body of IWE; whether IWE makes sense or not (people writing in a language not native to them about people who do not speak that Paritosh Uttamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04978545477120380264noreply@blogger.com2