English Literature

Situating William Shakespeare within the study of brands, this article examines the process and results of Shakespeare-as-brand, which mediates the supply and demand of Shakespearean products whether about his life, his loves, his texts, his editors, and his readers or consumers. Shakespeare as a commons continues to gather cultural capital because of the iterability of the brand in mass/popular forms and media that now possess the maximum cultural legibility (like the graphic novel or Hollywood romance). This is possible even more in the digital age because the Shakespearean page, stage, and image are all available simultaneously on a screen, making Shakespeare an interactive, global archive.

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The Last and the First

Vol. 44, Issue No. 50, 12 Dec, 2009

Toral Gajarawala

Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger has been criticised for its lack of realism and the caricature of its characters. The novel breaks with realist traditions of representing poverty and backwardness in Indian anglophone literature. Instead it poses a challenge to progressive traditions by framing the main character's revolt in Fanonian terms which challenges both the tradition of leftist movement politics as well as the liberal discourse of rights and privileges. Drawing from the same sources of anger and angst as much of realist literature, Adiga fashions a new voice which is unfamiliar and unsettling in its revolt.

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Remembering Sudesh Vaid

Vol. 37, Issue No. 43, 26 Oct, 2002

Kumkum Sangari, Neeeraj Malik, Svati Joshi, Uma Chakravarti, Urvashi Butalia

Her death last year, from cancer, at the age of 61, was a deep political loss that left a personal void and even ended a life-world for many people. Each of us has our private and collective memories of Sudesh, and sorting through the years of friendship, political sharing, the large memories and the small memories, is not an exercise that can be easily undertaken or ever completed.

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Representation of Slavery in English Literature

Vol. 36, Issue No. 39, 29 Sep, 2001

D N Ghosh

If money-making was regarded as a 'dirty game' by the literary giants of English in the 18th century, why is it that almost all the writers of that and the next century made peace with slavery?