Tradition and Terrain : Aesthetic Continuities

Contents: 1. Towards an aesthetic of wonder. 2. Paul Brunton: In search of the Himalayas of the mind. 3. Tradition and terrain. 4. Anantha Murthy\'s Samskara: post-colonial experience. 5. The aesthetics of Sri Aurobindo. 6. Beyonding the phenomenal. 7. The future poetry: a critique. 8. The Ecopoetics of Ted Hughes. 9. Invisible bodies: Andal, bhakti, and the language of poetic discourse. 10. Ecological wisdom and alternative discourse(s). 11. Towards an environmental aesthetics. 12. Truth and significance. 13. Schooling or de-schooling?

"Tradition and Terrain is an attempt to map out the emergence of an aesthetic awareness in terms of the land, region and creative consciousness. The essays trace the presence of adbhuta rasa as an the aesthetic of wonder, formulate a critique of ceremony, and reach beyond the phenomenal into the innermost possibilities of ecological wisdom and alternative discourses, even while reconstructing a poetics of bhakti in the context of Indian tradition. Although written variously in diverse contexts and situations these essays evidence the manifold concerns of the Indian creative/critical psyche. As a cultural past is resuscitated through individual texts as well as collective efforts through different genres and categories, what emerges still continues to share a relevance and positive edge while remaining imaginatively powerful and creatively fertile. This book is bound to be of interest both to the casual reader and the academic scholars." (jacket)