The empire strikes back: Die Postkoloniale Indische Literatur von Aussen Nach Innen

The article, which is divided into five sections, the Indian-born author of German language attempts to illustrate/illuminate the particular hurdles to determining this subject as a genre. The works discussed by male and female authors vary tremndously one from another both in theme and in style. Among them are novels and stories in traditional narrative style by Naipaul, Ghosh, Lahiri… primarily grouped by major themes of immigration. At the same time that authors such as Rushdie, Roy, Tharoor... have been endeavoring to expand the vocabulary and conventions of the English language and to further modern narrative technique. Not only is the complex Indian subcontinent and its positive and negative realities portrayed and redefined, but as a parallel occurrence, rave stories and pop novels are being written by Rushdie and Kureishi. One must note here that English is not the mother tongue of any of these writers. The English language is used as an instrument of literary and artistic expression. This essay also expounds on examples of how “Indian Writing in English” differentiates itself clearly from “The Indian Romanticism” of European literature. The postcolonial writers point an admonishing finger to the wounds of India and they ruthlessly mock the inhumane regimes of Mrs. Thatcher and of Mr. Bush. One segment is devoted to the bizarre portrayal of love, gender and sex relations that makes the reading of the books in question vexing.

A matter of fundamentals : sound and silence in the radio drama of Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett was arguably one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Known for his stage plays, including the renowned En attendant Godot (1948), Beckett’s contribution to the field of radio drama is often overlooked. His corpus of radio dramas included some of the most innovativeradio works of the post-World War II period. For Beckett, radio drama was not exclusively verbocentric, for he always maintained that his work was “a matter of fundamental sounds (no joke intended) made as fully as possible” (Frost 362). His (radio) drama aesthetics defined a strict hierarchy of sound whereby the dramatist balances sound effects, music and the characters’ dialogue – and the use of silence. In this essay, I examine the juxtaposition of sound and silence in Samuel Beckett’s most influential radio dramas: All That Fall, Embers, Words and Music and Cascando. In the end, this essay will show that the sounds and silence employed in Beckett’s radio dramatic works were inextricably linked, which added to the overall meaning of his dramas.

Terrorism, cosmopolitanism and globalization: Joseph O'Neill's Netherland and Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

This paper examines two “9/11 novels,” Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland (2008) and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007). Written by writers of different backgrounds but with similarly cosmopolitan career paths, both novels attempt to achieve a transnational perspective on the climate of fear created by the 9/11 attacks. Both novels unveil a history of violence which links colonial legacy and new imperial formations resulting from neoliberal capitalism, ultimately highlighting difficulties in forging an encompassing cosmopolitan perspective at a time of international insecurity.