Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing

The fifteen essays of the volume Gentle Round the Curves are a selection of my numerous publications on the English literature of India, which were written over a period of half a century. They demonstrate the increasing knowledge of a literature whose development thematically spans from the realistically described anti-colonial resistance of the thirties and forties of the 20th century to the now also formally and stylistically diverse manifestations of contemporary writing, such as 'magic realism', 'diasporan', 'feminist' and 'fantasy writing'. At the same time, these essays reflect the controversial discourse about the 'Indian quality' of texts written in a foreign language, which has not yet been concluded.

The essays deal with individual authors as well as Indian literary criticism, the first appearance of feminist short stories and modern English poetry, the view of writers beyond the borders of India as well as diasporal literature, the role of nature and landscape and their earliest pictorial representation from a foreign point of view, and texts that can be assigned to 'fantasy literature'. An introduction by the Indian colleague Professor Harish Trivedi, a bibliography and a rather nostalgic poem about the author and 'his' country conclude Gentle Round the Curves, whose title alludes not only to carefully circumventing the winding routes in the Himalayas, but also to approaching a foreign literature and culture cautiously as an 'outsider'.