Abstract
Martin Christof-Fuechsle discusses “Indianness” in the novel Naukar kı̄ kamıı̄z (1979) by Vinod Kumar Shukla. The novel was highly acclaimed by Indian critics. Vishnu Khare, in his preface to the Marathi translation of the novel, praises it as an authentic portrait of lower middle-class life in a small town in Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, he highlights the fact that it does not contain traces of Western models and that there is also no display of “-isms” such as existentialism, structuralism, and so on. Khare emphatically designates it as a thoroughly Indian novel by a thoroughly Indian narrator. Christof-Fuechsle asserts the status of Naukar kı̄ kamı̄z in Hindi literature since independence and proceeds to analyse the cultural context for this enthusiastic review of the novel.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Sources
Shukla, Vinod Kumar. 1994. Naukar kī kamīz. Naī Dillī: Rajkamal Prakashan. (1st edn.: Hapur, Sambhavana Prakasha, 1979).
———. 1999. The Servant’s Shirt. Trans. Satti Khanna. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
On Vinod Kumar Shukla
Khare, Vishnu. 1996. Nimnamadhyavarg kī visaṅgati-gāthā. Kalā Prayojana 4, April–June: 69–72.
Offredi, Mariola. 1998. La poesia di Vinod Kumār Śukl. Milan: Cesviet.
———. 1999. The Hindi Poet Vinod Kumār Śukl. Archiv Orientalni 67: 83–94.
Further References
Bal, M. 1985. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Damsteegt, Theo. 1998. Struggling with Masculinity: Ravindra Kaliya’s’ “Maiṃ”. In Narrative Strategies. Essays on South Asian Literature and Film, eds. Vasudha Dalmia and Theo Damsteegt, 150–164. Leiden: Research School CNWS. (CNWS Publications 66).
Devy, G.N. 1992. After Amnesia: Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism. Bombay: Orient Longman.
Galloway, David D. 1970. The Absurd Hero in American Fiction, Rev. edn. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Hatkanagalekar, M.D. (ed). 1984. [Issue on Nativism]. New Quest 45, May–June.
Hinchliffe, Arnold P. 1969. The Absurd. London: Methuen. (The Critical Idiom 5).
Jaidev. 1993. The Culture of Pastiche. Existential Aestheticism in the Contemporary Hindi Novel. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study. (Monograph 80).
Pandey, Mukteshwar. 1998. Arun Joshi: The Existentialist Element in His Novels. Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation.
Paranjape, Makarand (ed). 1997. Nativism. Essays in Criticism. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Patil, Anand. 1997. A Comparative Study of Nativistic Intertextuality in Indian Fiction. In Nativism. Essays in Criticism, ed. Makarand Paranjape, 177–210. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Rimmon-Kenan, S. [1983] 1991. Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London/New York: Routledge. (1st edn. London: Methuen, 1983).
Satchidanandan, K. (ed). 1994. Literary Criticism: The New Challenges. Indian Literature 160. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Thomson, Philip. 1972. The Grotesque. London: Methuen. (The Critical Idiom 24).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Christof-Fuechsle, M. (2017). Indianness, Absurdism, Existentialism, and the Work of Imagination: Vinod Kumar Shukla’s Naukar kī kamīz . In: Dimitrova, D., de Bruijn, T. (eds) Imagining Indianness. Palgrave Studies in Literary Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41015-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41015-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41014-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41015-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)