South Asian Atlantic Literature, 1970-2010

Tracing a literary lineage for works from different genres, it identifies key trends in recent South Asian American and British Asian literature by considering the favoured formal and aesthetic modes of major writers and by relating their work to different historical developments, sexual politics, the marketplace and issues of literary value.

A major interpretation of recent South Asian diasporic writing and cinema in specifically transatlantic terms

Ruth Maxey provides readings of canonical and less well-known South Asian American and British Asian texts and key cinematic works. She explores the formal and thematic tendencies of the works, relating them to gender politics, the marketplace, and issues of literary value and historical change. While engaging with established debates, Maxey also intervenes in new ways in transatlantic, postcolonial literary, and Asian American cultural studies.

Key features
* Looks at writers including Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee, Mohsin Hamid, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, and Nadeem Aslam
* Explores films such as Mischief Night, Mississippi Masala, A Love Supreme, and Praying with Anger
* Sources used include articles from mainstream American, Asian and British newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hindu, New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian
* Engages with critics including Susan Koshy, Sukhdev Sandhu, Rajini Srikanth, and James Procter
* The book is organised around the four key themes of: home & nation, travel & return, racial mixing, and food & eating.