Bombs and Bomb Makers: Realism, The Association of Small Bombs, and the Post-9/11 Novel

Bombs and Bomb Makers: Realism, The Association of Small Bombs, and the Post-9/11 Novel

The essay argues that The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan is ultimately a realist novel in which the central protagonist is a bomb. Adapting and adopting Lukács's theories of realism and totality, the essay provides a close and deep reading of the form of the novel. It shows how the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in the novel 2021-06, Vol.53 (1), p.20-35
Main Author: Ray, Sangeeta
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Bombings
Criticism and interpretation
Fiction
India
Interiority
Literary criticism
Literary theory
Mahajan, Karan
Melodramas
Middle class
Military aircraft
Novelists
Novels
Plot (Narrative)
Postcolonialism
Realism
Realism in literature
Social aspects
Suicide bombings
Terrorism
United States
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Summary:The essay argues that The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan is ultimately a realist novel in which the central protagonist is a bomb. Adapting and adopting Lukács's theories of realism and totality, the essay provides a close and deep reading of the form of the novel. It shows how the novel eschews the characteristic features of the post-9/11 anglophone global novel by turning away from the epochal event and the US to portray the landscape of northern India, the lives of peripatetic "terrorists" fighting for an independent Kashmir, and the unraveling of the lives of those caught in the aftermath of a small bomb explosion in Delhi in 1996.
ISSN:0039-3827
1934-1512
1934-1512