Resistance and its Discontents in South Asian Women’s Fiction

Resistance and its discontents in South Asian women's fiction examines the literary representation of a fascinating range of resistances enacted in response to various forms of oppression, and addresses the expectations, contradictions, anxieties and even inaction that resistance can generate, particularly for women.

This book is an examination of how English-language fiction by women writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has grappled with the idea and practice of resistance. A valuable, original and timely contribution to the field of South Asian literary and cultural studies, this book extends and complicates existing debates about the meanings of resistance. It brings to the fore not only the emancipatory potential of resistance, but also the contradictions that it can encompass as well as the anxieties that it can generate, particularly for women. Focusing on novels and short fiction, the book explores fiction by Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie, Tahmima Anam, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manju Kapur and Ru Freeman, amongst others.