Fiction of Nationality in An Era of Transnationalism

Focusing on the representation of South Asian life in the works of four Anglophone writers: V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Anita Desai, Nyla Ali Khan presents a critical dialogue between these works and contemporary history.Exploring the intertwined topics of nationalism, transnationalism and fundamentalism, she addresses the disrupting and disorientating consequences of dislocation with questions such as:* Does a dislocation enable the regeneration of cultural forces?* Does transnationalism enable a reconstruction respectful of cultural differences?* Does transnationalism allow subjects to engage in reflexive, self-critical distancing from their own cultural discourses?* Do the cosmopolitan political and cultural ideologies of Naipaul, Rushdie, Ghosh and Desai challenge ethnocentric cultural assumptions?Examining these questions in the context of the geographical and cultural dislocation of the era; the reaction to Rushdie'¬"s novel, the Indo-Pak war of 1971 and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in India, Khan also discusses:* how complexities bred by practices and identities can reinforce politicization of identity in fundamentalism, xenophobia and espousal of tradition* the local constraints and social moorings affecting transnational writers* the historical and religious forces involved in forging a national identity.Khan, Nyla Ali is the author of 'Fiction of Nationality in An Era of Transnationalism ', published 0015 under ISBN 9780415975216 and ISBN 0415975212.