Anita Desai tra Oriente e Occidente: l’incontro oltre il canone

Abstract

In a space characterized by linguistic and cultural hybridity, bordering between life and literature, Anita Desai shows how a contact between East and West can exist. As a continuous mixing of different traditions inextricably tied to each other, her writing represents the reaction of the ex-colonized against the tyranny of the British literary canon. By taking possession of the forbidden literature or re-contextualizing the ‘canon’, the writer creates an alternation of eastern and western voices: in Clear Light of Day, for example, Iqbal’s verses in urdu are mixed with Byron’s; Keats and Shelley are related and opposed to Dagh and Hali.

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