When the East Meets the West: Negotiating Upheavals Physical and Psychological in The Inscrutable Americans

Authors

  • Dr. Nair Anup Chandrasekharan Assistant Professor, Post Graduate Department of English, Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara (Affiliated to the University of Kerala)

Keywords:

Colony, East-West Encounter, Post Independence India

Abstract

“Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet,” said Rudyard Kipling. Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans not just chronicles such a meeting but prophesies happy tidings for the future in form of more such meetings of true minds. The saga of Gopal’s visit to the United States of America is a saga of India, for long caught up in the diffidence typical of a former colony, gradually emerging out of the cocoon and after a lot of uncertain baby steps, step into confident strides in its engagement with the global superpower. The language in which the novel is scripted effortlessly captures Gopal’s predicament in the USA, his coming to terms with it and his growth in awareness of myriad kinds. The novel therefore offers a kaleidoscopic view of the early 1990’s India. With the help of a rib-tickling narrative, Mathur captures the Indian psyche of those times by tracing the roller coaster ride that characterised one year in the life of the country bumpkin –Gopal, in America. The paper thus traces the trajectory of Gopal’s growth and how it mirrors the story of his native land.

Author Biography

Dr. Nair Anup Chandrasekharan, Assistant Professor, Post Graduate Department of English, Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara (Affiliated to the University of Kerala)

Dr. Nair Anup Chandrasekharan is an Assistant Professor and a Research Guide at the Post Graduate Department of English, Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara (Affiliated to the University of Kerala). He has published four books and also several articles in various journals and edited books. He is the coordinator of ASAP (Additional Skill Acquisition Programme) at the College and is the Editor of the College Newsletter. He has served as a Language Expert at the Kerala Legislative Assembly, has offered several invited talks and has been invited to be a Resource Person at myriad academic events. He has participated, presented papers and chaired sessions in many National and International Conferences

References

Mathur, Anurag. The Inscrutable Americans. Rupa & Co., 1991

Nityanandam, Indira. “East goes West: Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans.” Indo English Fiction the Last Decade. Creative Books, 2002.

Sharma Susheel. “Anurag Mathur’s Scrutiny of the Inscrutables.” Indian Fiction of the Nineties, edited by R.S. Phatak. Creative Books, 1997.

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Published

01.04.2019

How to Cite

Chandrasekharan, N. A. (2019). When the East Meets the West: Negotiating Upheavals Physical and Psychological in The Inscrutable Americans. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 10(2), 18–22. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL100204

Issue

Section

Research Articles