Experimental Writing within the Postcolonial Framework

This thesis studies how the Indian writer in English “by experimenting with traditional narrative forms” and “by choosing modes that are unconformable to the European episteme” indulges in counterrealistic writing that defies traditional national, linguistic or generic classifications. Through the three phases of “figuration,” “configuration” and “reconfiguration,” the research aims at studying the counterrealistic artifice in the works of diasporic authors – Salman Rushdie and Suniti Namjoshi – as well as the non-diasporic fiction of Namita Gokhale who writes in English, and Tamil writing in English translation in the works of R. Krishnamurthy (Kalki) and C.S. Lakshmi (Ambai). The intermingling of ancient Eastern and Western figurations of myths, fables, legends and folklore, the dual configuration of Eastern and Western world views and the postmodern recycling of old narratives to suit the changing times reveal how postcolonial writers renew the spirit of the culture, revitalise language, renew literature and reconfigure inherited configurations by reframing other frames of reference.