Reader positions determine what Indian English fiction can signify

Evidence

(Given primitive distinctions such as First World-Third World, self-other, and the like, I tend to classify readers by slightly less crude stereotypes. In that spirit, and in the strict interest of decolonizing the imagination, let it be proposed that, for the metropolitan reader or teacher reading or teaching Commonwealth Literature, the limpid local color prose of this style is quite satisfactory. For the rather special Indian readership of Indo-Anglian fiction, this class-distanced hyperreal is also satisfying, perhaps because it conveys a cozy sense of identification at a distance, thus identity in difference. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1963

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s strategic essentialism project: the ‘identity in difference’ irony here parallels the question of whether ironic identity performance can be read collectively vs only by positioned individuals. — connects to: English literature has shaped the very categories of modern Indian thought — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 541; English realist fiction failed to appeal to colonial Indian readers — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 638; European-style national-literature categories distort India’s actual interlingual literary relations — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 1095 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• A novel’s intended reading and its actual reception often diverge sharply #expands (0.82) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 510
• English literature has shaped the very categories of modern Indian thought #qualifies (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 541
• European-style national-literature categories distort India’s actual interlingual literary relations #expands (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1095
• English realist fiction failed to appeal to colonial Indian readers #complicates (0.72) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 638
• The physical format of Orientalist pages shapes how readers apprehend the Orient #complicates (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 723
• Decolonized writers transformed English fiction via imported-colonial language #responds-to (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 288
• Free indirect discourse can lock a novel into one character’s worldview #corroborates (0.70) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 104
• Narrated language shifts place readers inside a polyglot world beyond Anglo-English hegemony #corroborates (0.70) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 421