Indian Writing in English: Critical Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract This research paper is a brief review of Indian writing in English. It explains the difference between three important genres ‘Indo-Anglian Literature’, ‘Anglo-Indian Literature’, and ‘Indo-English Literature’. It also clarifies the term ‘Transcreation’ with examples. It elaborates the importance of English language and how it became a passage for intellectual intercourse between East and West. It also analyzes different forms of literature and their respective growth in India. It studies first of all ‘Poetry’ the oldest form of literature, which is traced back to almost the beginning of the nineteenth century. The paper also compares Rabindranath Tagore with contemporary significant poets and proves his genius among all the others. The poetry written in English before independence and after independence is taken into consideration. This research paper also unfolds the initiation and development of English ‘Novel’, and discloses the impact of European and American models on Indian English novelists. It also clarifies the influence of Bankim Chandra Chatterjeeon on the great writer like Tagore. It studies the third and one of the most important genres of literature that is ‘Drama’. It reviews Aristotle’s treatise ‘Poetics’ and Indian dramatic tradition perpetuated in ‘Natyashstra’. The comparison is made between drama, poetry and novel and a number of important dramatists are discussed with their respective dramas here.