In stereotype: South Asia in the global literary imaginary
- New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2016.
- xiv, 320p.; hbk; 24cm.
Includes notes, bibliography and Index.
In Stereotype confronts the importance of cultural stereotypes in shaping the ethics and reach of global literature. Mrinalini Chakravorty focuses on the seductive force and explanatory power of stereotypes in multiple South Asian contexts, whether depicting hunger, crowdedness, filth, slums, death, migrant flight, terror, or outsourcing. She argues that such commonplaces are crucial to defining cultural identity in contemporary literature and shows how the stereotype's ambivalent nature exposes the crises of liberal development in South Asia.