Sandten, Cecile, Indrani Karmakar, and Oliver von Knebel Doeberitz (Eds.), Contemporary Indian English Literature: Contexts - Authors - Genres - Model Analyses. (Narr Studienbücher Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft). Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2023. Christoph Singer With Contemporary Indian English Literature, Cecile Sandten, Indrani Karmakar, and the late Oliver von Knebel Doeberitz offer a timely and highly readable introduction to Indian literature in English from the 1980s to the present. Aimed at “students studying Indian and English literature” (19), this anthology encompasses narrative, drama, and poetry, including works by both established and lesser-known authors. Any introduction to Indian literature in English faces the challenge of translating the diversity of texts and contexts into a book that does justice to the complexities at hand while still giving enough of an overview to be a helpful starting point for students. This volume does so effectively: first, the corpus is concise, spanning roughly the last 40 years and subdivided into two parts: the 1980s to the 2000s and the 2000s to the present. Both parts feature six chapters each. Second, the chapters provide close readings and historical contextualization of the selected authors, while also including short introductions to themes and contexts, such as the question of “Writing in English,” “The Short Story in India,” “Indian Poetry in English,” or concepts like “Diaspora, Hybridity, Interand Transculturality.” Third, the chapters include suggestions for further reading and ‘information boxes.’ The latter provide brief explanations of key terms and concepts, such as Indian epics, historical events (e.g., the Indian Mutiny of 1857), vocabulary (e.g., ayah and funtoosh), concepts (e.g., women’s writing), or terminology (e.g., palimpsest). Finally, each chapter concludes with study questions. The anthology’s introduction by Indrani Karmakar and Cecile Sandten provides a comprehensive overview of the central developments in Indian literature in English leading up to the text corpus addressed later in the book. At the same time, the authors outline the complexities of such an undertaking. They make it clear that the term “Indian English Literature” itself “comprises three aspects: a possible or supposed Indianness, a specific form (here the modernist novel), and the use of a non-Indian language” (13). All of these aspects are then addressed throughout the chapters that follow. AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Band 49 · Heft 2 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2024-0029 Reviews 262 Part I of this book encompasses, as mentioned, the 1980s to the 2000s, beginning with David Walther’s chapter on “Salman Rushdie - East, West.” Not only does this chapter introduce Rushdie’s oeuvre and its context within Indian and global literatures, but Walther also addresses postcolonial themes that can be exemplified in Rushdie’s writing, ranging from (national) identity to migration and the diaspora. The chapter’s analysis focuses on Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981). In the second chapter, Indrani Karmakar introduces “Writing Women in India” with a focus on “Critical Perspectives on Shashi Deshpande’s Selected Fictions.” Karmakar uses Deshpande’s writing to discuss the ‘new Indian woman,’ with particular focus on The Binding Vine (1993) and Small Remedies (2000). She explores “subjectivity, motherhood, and intergenerational relationships” (62). This chapter concludes with an analysis of how these concepts are communicated through Deshpande’s unique combination of social realism with modernist narrative choices, thereby contrasting tradition and modernity. Monika Fludernik’s chapter examines novels by Amit Chaudhuri, which contrast with the works of authors like Salman Rushdie or Arundhati Roy by adhering neither to the tenets of postmodernism nor magic realism. After considering Chaudhuri’s literary modernism in A Strange and Sublime Address (1991), A New World (2001), and Friend of My Youth (2017), Fludernik concludes with an intriguing discussion on how postcolonial these texts really are, arguing that “the ‘postcolonial’ element is entirely missing in Chaudhuri” (97). In Chapter 5, Ellen Dengel-Janic explores how Indian women writers use the genre of the short story not only to innovate this time-honoured form but also to challenge hegemonic gender norms by focusing on representations of the female body. After providing an overview of the genre in India, Dengel- Janic illustrates the reciprocal connection between subverted literary traditions and female agency by analysing these themes in Githa Hariharan’s “The Remains of the Feast” (1994) and Binapani Mohanty’s short story “Lata” (1986). The final two chapters of Part One focus on drama and poetry, respectively. Maitryee Misra introduces two “Condition-of-India” plays published in 1993: Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions and Poile Sengupta’s Mangalam. After introducing Indian drama in English, this chapter outlines how the playwrights employ dramatic techniques, from a “play-within-a-play” and diary entries to a Greek chorus, to address India’s social problems and issues such as “anger, aggression, abuse, discrimination, identity crisis, gender inequality, and fundamentalism” (140). Cecile Sandten focuses on themes of belonging, home, and migration in the works of two women poets. This chapter introduces theoretical concepts such as diaspora and hybridity, as well as interand transculturality, and then applies these to Sujata Bhatt’s and Imtiaz Dharker’s poetic works. The chapter is particularly fascinating in its exploration of the global/ local dimensions in the writings of these poets, which is further emphasized by intertextual references, including German-speaking writers like Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. Part II of the book begins with Asis De’s discussion of Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace (2000). She illustrates how this historical novel represents themes Rezensionen 263 such as the “migration of the subaltern, the expansion and decline of empires and families, […] the rise of the plantation economy in Southeast Asia and the role of Indian indentured laborers” (179), among others. This variety of topics is grounded in detailed close readings of select excerpts from the novel. Oliver von Knebel Doeberitz’s chapter, “The Darkness and Beyond: Post- Millennial Trends in Anglophone Indian Fiction,” focusses on India after the turn of the millennium. He reads novels that critically scrutinize an increasingly globalized and neoliberal India, as well as the representation of India on the global stage. Von Knebel Doeberitz identifies a “growing dissatisfaction with social and economic developments in India among writers,” (202) which contrasts with the officially sanctioned nationalist narratives. To highlight these developments, the chapter examines three novels: Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008), Manu Joseph’s Serious Men (2010), and Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani (2006). Anna M. Horatschek’s subsequent chapter similarly focuses on contemporary nation-building. She examines Anuradha Roy’s treatment of gender, sexuality, religion, and politics across all five of Roy’s novels. Horatschek specifically explores four themes in these works: Indian feminisms, nation-building, identitarian histories, and global contexts, offering an intersectional reading of these political concerns and the potential alternatives presented in Roy’s oeuvre.Miriam Nandi’s chapter discusses the representation of the ‘refugee crisis’ in South Asian novels in English. She explores the narrative and aesthetic strategies in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2016), Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019), and Aravind Adiga’s Amnesty (2020), focusing on how these novels address forced migration and border crossings “in a world in which peace and prosperity are limited to a small elite” (249). Nandi highlights not only the novels’ deep engagement with ethical questions but also raises, in the chapter’s conclusion, whether the fact that the authors themselves are not refugees could be considered problematic. Hannah Pardey’s chapter also examines the concept of a “New India.” She analyses Aravind Adiga’s novel Amnesty (2020) and Pankaj Mishra’s Run and Hide (2022), exploring them through the lens of socio-economic change. The chapter is particularly concerned with the aesthetic and formal features these novels employ to represent these concerns. Pardey introduces a concept she calls “liminal realism.” (273) This mode of representation, she argues, does not follow modernist aesthetics that are typical of earlier forms of social realism in Indian English writing. Ariane de Waal’s discussion of “Big Other and Big Brother: State Violence, Surveillance, and Censorship in Contemporary Indian English Drama,” concludes the book. The chapter, as the title indicates, is particularly concerned with the uses and abuses of state power in Abhishek Majumdar’s play The Djinns of Eidgah (2002) and Annie Zaidi’s dystopian Untitled 1 (2018), following an introduction to contemporary Indian drama in English. Like the previous chapters by Nandi and Pardey, de Waal highlights how these dramatic texts “point to the potential of storytelling to build alternative communities” (316). Reviews 264 Contemporary Indian English Literature is a very valuable introduction to a complex and varied topic and manages to be both accessible and insightful. On the one hand, this volume serves as an effective entry point for beginners and students. On the other hand, by including several chapters on lesser-known authors, there is much to discover for readers who are already familiar with the topic. Like most introductions, the editors face the challenge of having too much to cover, but not enough space to do so. Consequently, the chapters sometimes touch on discussions that would have benefited from further exploration. However, the authors provide enough contextualization, suggested readings, and study questions to allow readers to further explore the respective topics. The editors deliver what they set out to do: they offer a well-structured introduction to contemporary Indian literature in English. While intended for students, Contemporary Indian English Literature will also prove to be a valuable resource for teachers at schools and universities who plan to work on one or more of the key texts introduced in the book. Christoph Singer University of Innsbruck