World Literature and the Question of Genre in Colonial India: Poetry, Drama and Print Culture 1790-1890

Contents: Introduction: The Archives against Theory: Language, Literature and Genre. Part I: Literature Remade. 1. Romanticism in India and Gifts for the Coloniser. 2. From Literary Commons to Literary Canons. Part II: Colonial Literary Culture. 3. A Foundational Melodrama for India: Shakuntala and Surrogation. 4. Incorporating 'Love': From Sanskrit Kavya to Marathi Drama. 5. Heterogeneous Worlds: The Farce against Drama. Conclusion: Theory after the Archives?

World Literature and the Question of Genre in Colonial India describes the way Marathi literary culture, entrenched in performative modes of production and reception, saw the germination of a robust, script-centric dramatic culture owing to colonial networks of literary exchange and the newfound, wide availability of print technology. ­The author demonstrates the upheaval that literary culture underwent as a new class of literati emerged: anthologists, critics, theatre makers, publishers and translators. ­These people participated in global conversations that left their mark on theory in the early twentieth century. Reading through archives and ephemera, Kedar Arun Kulkarni illustrates how literary cultures in colonised locales converged with and participated fully in key defining moments of world literature, but also diverged from them to create, simultaneously, a unique literary modernity.