Fiction of development a study of displacement disaster and dispossession in selected indian novels

Abstract

This thesis attempts to explore how contemporary Indian novel (post-2000) responds, both thematically and stylistically, to the conundrums of development and ecological crisis by specifically focusing on themes of displacement, disaster, and dispossession in three novels namely Amitav Ghosh s The Hungry Tide (2004), Indra Sinha s Animal s People (2007), and Sarah Joseph s Gift in Green (2012). Ever since its origin in 19th century Europe, the modern idea of development has always been an ideologically contingent and contentious issue resulting in massive social disruptions and dispossessions. In the present, the relentless pursuit of economic growth has resulted in an unprecedented crisis of climate change. The present thesis is an attempt to map how the selected novels engage with these quandaries of development at the level of discursivity and form. How does the genre of novel adapt itself to articulate these predicaments of development? What kind of novelistic discourse or counter discourse of development is produced by these novels, and what are its political, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions? Displacement, disaster, and dispossession, overlapping with each other, are inexorable marks in the contemporary development story. How in the chosen novels do these situations serve as important tropes to engage with the question of third-world development on the one hand and contemporary environmental crisis on the other? These are some of the core research questions which I have focused on in this thesis. This thesis holds special significance in the sense that it studies various aspects of the novelistic engagement with the most complex and pressing issues of the contemporary world such as development and ecology, and enhances our understanding of the novelistic critique of the mainstream ideology of development in a postcolonial country like India. newline