“We need to remind ourselves that individuals don’t matter; it is the cause that makes sense and needs support. The new Indian quest has begun. It is to be rich, and also to be good” (2012: 10).1 It is with these words that, India’s bestselling author Chetan Bhagat concludes an essay from the collection What Young India Wants. In this proseminar, we will put that claim to the question by looking at both international and domestic examples of post-millennial Indian fiction in English which spotlight the individual and invidual lifestories. Those stories often belong, among others, to women, queer people, representatative of lower classes and castes, and (accidental) political dissidents; they speak of injustice but also of the power of vulnerability and literature as a drive for social change. As part of the course, the students will be introduced to the cultural context of post-liberalisation India and will have a chance to interact with authors and scholars of post-millennial Indian fiction in English both online and in person. Assessment will be based on active partipication and submission of a short review of a selected work from the reading list.
[1] Bhagat, Chetan. 2012. What Young India Wants. New Delhi: Rupa.
- Nauczyciel: Beniamin Kłaniecki