This book offers a new, complex understanding of Indian writing in English by focusing its analysis on both Indo-Pakistani Partition fiction and novels written by women. The author gives a comprehensive outline of Partition novels in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh written in English as well as an overview of the challenges of studying Partition literature, particularly English translations of Partition novels in regional languages. Featured works include Salman Rushdies Midnights Children, Bapsi Sidhwas Ice-Candy-Man, Amitav Ghoshs Shadow Lines, Meena Arora Nayaks About Daddy, and Sujata Sabniss A Twist in Destiny. The book then moves on to a study of novels by women writers such as Githa Hariharan, Kiran Desai, Anita Desai, and Arundhati Roy, exploring their perspectives on sexuality, the body, and the diaspora.

Eiko Ohira is Professor of English and Advisor to the President at Tsuru University in Japan. She is the author of A Study of Wuthering Heights (1993) and has published essays on Rabindranath Tagore's writing in English and Japanese writing in English in the early twentieth century. She received her MA and the Naruse Award from Japan Women's University in Tokyo, Japan, and a Certificate of Special Graduation Course with distinction from Mount Holyoke College in the United States in 1979. She has previously been a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the University of Delhi, India.

Contents: Indian Writing in English (IWE), an Overview: Gender and Politics – What is Indian Writing in English? – The Characteristics and the Issues – Indo-Pakistani Partition Novels: Identity Fallen Apart – The Overall Situation and the Issues – Partition Novels before Midnight’s Children: An Overview – Partition Novels after Midnight’s Children: An Overview – Bapsi Sidhwa’s : Gender and Conspiracy – Amitav Ghosh’s : Enchantment, Fear, and Hostility aroused by Border Lines and the World Beyond – : A Narrative of Narcissist Failure – Meena Arora Nayak’s : The Diaspora and Partition – Azad’s Memoir and Sujata Sabnis’s : The Myth of the Founding of India/Pakistan – Women in Indian Writing in English: Sexuality, the Body, and the Diaspora – The Isolated Female Body: Sita’s Daughters and Anita Desai’s , , among Other Novels – Female Bodies in Revolt: Githa Hariharan’s Representation of the Female Body – The Female Body in Jouissance: Arundhati Roy’s – Representation of the Diaspora: Kiran Desai’s .