Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Note on Transliteration and Translation xv
5. Introduction
6. Intro 1
7. The Central Outsider 4
8. Cold War Vernaculars 6
9. The Stakes of Literary Form 11
10. Hindi Literature 15
11. Structure of the Book 22
12. Chapter One A Stream of Pure Sanskrit Curses
13. Introduction 27
14. What Is a Long Poem? 29
15. The Well 35
16. The Brahmin Demon 39
17. The Brahmarakshas 46
18. Conclusion 63
19. Chapter Two Realism, Romanticism, and the Lower Middle Class
20. Introduction 67
21. The (Lower) Middle Class in Postindependence Hindi Literature 71
22. A Writer’s Diary 76
23. The Third Moment of Expression 83
24. Realism as Underground 89
25. Chapter Three Muktibodh’s Prose Fiction and the Question of the Real
26. Introduction 97
27. Poetry and Prose 101
28. Distorted Fable 106
29. Anecdotes of Imprisonment 112
30. The Nehruvian Paranoid Mood 117
31. Through the Window 124
32. Chapter Four The Long Poem between Genre and Form
33. Introduction 127
34. The Magical World of an Extended Poem 129
35. The World of Beauty and the World of the Novel 133
36. The Multiple Pasts of Free Verse 140
37. Muktachanda between Marathi and Hindi 145
38. The Formal Structure of the Long Poem 151
39. Allegory Itself 157
40. Conclusion 166
41. Conclusion The Afterlives of Muktibodh
42. Introduction 169
43. Alienation or Existentialism 172
44. Ratlam and Bhopal 181
45. The Idea of Muktibodh 192
46. Appendix Full Translations of “Brahmarākṣas” (The Brahmin Demon) and “Aṃdhere meṃ” (In the Dark)
47. Brahmarakshas 197
48. In the Dark 203
49. Notes 241
50. Works Cited 273
51. Index 291