South Asian authors have written from across the world including Asia, Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and USA. These populations have migrated due to a range of reasons from colonialism to globalization. The diasporic writings from USA and UK remain one of the most widely researched but the musico-literary narrative patterns of the young adult novel remains understudied. A range of style and content was combined with the artistic sensibilities of the Generation X in a post-cold war world. Popular themes of nostalgia and identity associated with the “home country” was repurposed to showcase youth cultures in light of disillusionment, abrupt expressionism and media frenzy of a global world. New fashion styles, aesthetics and modes of expression drove sensibilities of a whole generation to alter this corset of literature. This shift came naturally to authors owing to their feasible geographic location(s). A street-based, colloquial style laden with experience of everyday life was also brought to forefront. The cultural values of diaspora, hence, got assimilated with the alternative artistic practices of the movement. Authors such as Kavita Daswani, Marina Budhos, Sabina Khan and Bali Rai expressed the plurality of identities vis-a-vis rejecting and contradicting present attitudes. The present study, therefore, attempts to map expressions of memory and identity in post-cold war South-Asian diasporic fiction through a close reading of select young adult novels.

Authors:
Vibha, Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, India

About the Presenter(s)
Vibha is currently a doctoral scholar at Birla Institute of Technology and Science- Pilani.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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