Author Description

This comprehensive study of modern Indian poetry in English, the first of its kind, combines sophisticated literary analysis with sociological argument to assess contemporary Indian literary life and work. The book begins with a history of the most important poets, books, journals, and publishing circles and then moves on to analyze the social basis of Indian English-language poetry, its readership, and the literary marketplace. After discussing the formation of an Indian literary canon and its best-known poems, King examines criteria influencing the judgment of English-language verse in India and introduces the major poets and their thematic concerns. The book also includes chapters on the influence of Nissim Ezekiel, the work of younger poets and women, bilingualism, and experimentalism, and concludes with a detailed chronology.