Chutzpah, Chutnification and the Coming of Age of Indian Anglophone Literature

Abstract

In a discursive space decussated by strong currents of postcolonialism, writing in English becomes for the anglophone Indian a deliberate strategy for undermining the universalist claims of Eng Lit. Going through the stages—adopt, adapt and adept—posited by Elaine Showalter and Peter Barry for gynocritics and postcolonial criticism respectively, anglophone writing comes of age in the hands of writers of Indian or of Indian origin who appropriated the dominant discourse to ‘write back to the centre’ through stylistic innovations. This paper attempts to map the timeline of its evolution and to explore the key features that mark Indian Anglophone Writing as having shaken off all but one colonial vestiges to achieving an expression entirely authentic.