English and the Indian Short Story

The short story has emerged as a significant genre in Indo-English literature as well as in the literatures in other Indian languages. While the short story has existed in Indian literatures for centuries, modern writing has been influenced in many ways by English. The essays in this volume seek to explore the genre of the short story in India and its relationship with English language and literature.Various aspects of the problem are explored: the impact of colonialism on the Indian short story; the way English has shaped short story writing in India; why, how and in what contexts English words are used; feminist perspectives in the works of writes such as Ambai and Mahasweta Devi; the Indian diaspora; the teaching of the short story to Indian students and so on. Drawing from papers presented at a national seminar, English and the Indian Short Story, held in 1994 at the department of English, university of Hyderabad, this book is a welcome addition to the body of material on literature in India.