Gandharvi: Life of a Musician, by the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novelist Bani Basu (and translated by English scholar Jayita Sengupta), tells the story of Apala, a gifted singer of Hindustani classical music. She was born into an old, middle-class family of limited means in north Calcutta. To her family, her music meant little, as it did not fit their idea of ‘respectability’. Her husband ‘chose’ her after hearing her sing at a public ...
The book is an anthology of creative and critical responses to the many partitions of India within and across borders. By widening and reframing the question of partition in the subcontinent from one event in 1947 to a larger series of partitions, the book presents a deeper perspective both on the concept of partition in understanding South Asia, and understanding the implications from survivors, victims and others. The imagery of the barbed wire in the title is ...
The present book takes a fresh look at gender and feminist perspectives through the novels of the three women writers across the globe, namely Toni Morrison, Michele Roberts and Anita Desai to formulate a comparative model on the theory of 'Desire.' The psychoanalytical model of research does not offer any homogeneity of points of view, rather a dialogical perspective to suggest refractions of feminist desire. As the book analyses in detail family and community, ...