Global versus Glocal Dimensions of the Post-1981 Indian English Novel

Abstract

In the context of endless theoretical debates on the benefices and drawbacks of cultural globalisation and the emergence of a global culture, the present article analyses different aspects of the rise of the Indian Novel written in English (INE). It focuses on various strategies of cultural legitimation and global recognition INE has found in its various stages of evolution and on the recent fictional formulae it has adopted, in order to see the extent to which the “global” paradigm can be applied to this type of writing. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that INE, though usually associated to the idea of “global novel” – on account of its hybrid status as a “born translated” postcolonial text, its global circulation, international recognition, impressive sales figures and extraordinary success – traverses a moment of relative crisis. Currently considered a complex literary phenomenon in possession of a recognized protean character and a successful formula of integration on globalised cultural markets, INE seems to escape close categorisations, to defy paradigms and to promote its own formula of glocalism. 

In order to meet this challenge, the article reviews some of the most important theoretical approaches to globalisation and glocalisation in relation to cultural productions, to the significant impact these have on the new economic and cultural reconfigurations of the contemporary world and to the clash between local and diasporic cultural identities. It also provides a short history of the evolution of the INE and of the current critical debates that divide the Indian literary stage on the issue of global versus local literatures in relation to such concepts as authenticity, cultural essentialism, cosmopolitanism and regionalism.