The Other Nepal : Alterity in Nepali Literature and Culture

This book revisits a rich yet little-known field of Nepali literature. It offers a nuanced picture of the complexities of Nepali society, focusing on caste, gender and ethnicity as sites of othering. It includes chapters by a global collective of scholars specializing in Himalayan Studies, South Asian Studies, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory.

This book revisits a rich but overlooked field of Nepali literature and culture. Compared to the extensive research available on Nepal's South Asian neighbors, there is a notable scarcity of published scholarship devoted to Nepali literature and society. This book addresses the gap by offering groundbreaking scholarship by a global collective of researchers specializing in Himalayan Studies, South Asian Studies, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. It offers a nuanced and complex picture of Nepali society and history, focusing on caste, geography, gender, sexuality and ethnicity as sites of discrimination, exclusion and othering. It exposes orientalist discourses which portray Nepal as a Himalayan Shangri La and it critiques neoliberal narratives which focus on Nepal's dismal developmental indices. Switching gears by exploring a diverse body of canonical and contemporary multi-genre literary works, the book presents an alternative picture of Nepal from the perspective of those silenced by nationalism, patriarchy and casteism.