Re-Inscription of National Imaginary or Re-Exoticisation of India: a Study of Aravind Adiga’S the White Tiger

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Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education [JASRAE] (Vol:14/ Issue: 2) DOI: 10.29070/JASRAE
Authors: Shivani Thakar*, Kapil Dev,
Subjects: Multidisciplinary Academic Research

Year: Jan, 2018
Volume: 14 / Issue: 2
Pages: 1580 - 1585 (6)
Publisher: Ignited Minds Journals
Source:
E-ISSN: 2230-7540
DOI:
Published URL: http://ipublisher.in/p/232029
Published On: Jan, 2018

Article Details

Re-Inscription of National Imaginary or Re-Exoticisation of India: A Study of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger | Original Article

Shivani Thakar*, Kapil Dev, in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education | Multidisciplinary Academic Research

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ABSTRACT:

The present paper aims to locate Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger (2008) in the light of two extremely polarised views of literary critics about the manner in which Adiga represents the national imaginary. One group of critics comprising M. A. Chaudhary, P. Deswal, and S. Maji opines that the novel interrogates the paradigms of national imaginary of India and tries to locate a space for the subaltern in the myths of new India. The other group of scholars comprising Akram Pouralifard, L. Want, Ana Cristina Mendes and Megha Anwar interpret the novel as a representation of India as the exotic other of the West in the new world order. This group also attempts to analyse the novel in relation to the politics regarding the portrayal of the subaltern in the new world order. Both views have their subscribers as well as detractors. The paper aims to study the macro factors governing the two polarities by focusing on anxieties and slippages in the internal discourse of the novel, whereby it partakes in the political economy of neo-liberal India.