This book is a collection of essays by international writer Bapsi Sidhwa gathered for the first time in one edition by Teresa Russo, with a foreword written by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta. Landscapes of Writing: Collected Essays of Bapsi Sidhwa provides a writer’s perspective on issues of South Asian literature, linguistics, poetry, and views of political events and globalization. In the first part of the book, Bapsi Sidhwa discusses her childhood, family life, and how she became a writer. There is also a revised essay detailing how her book Cracking India became a film by Deepa Mehta. The second part of the book focuses on her thoughts concerning war, terrorism, and how to achieve peace. This collection includes two letters, demonstrating her local and nationalistic perspectives to a larger view of an interconnected world.
This book is collection of essays that provide a writer’s perspective on issues of South Asian Literature, linguistics, poetry and views of political events and globalization.
"A collection of essays, by international writer Bapsi Sidhwa, gathered for the first time in one edition by Teresa Russo with a foreword written by Oscar nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta. The essays provide a writer's perspective on issues of South AsianLiterature, linguistics, poetry and views of political events and globalization. In the first part of the collection, Bapsi Sidhwa discusses her childhood, family life, and how she became a writer. There is also a revised essay of how her book, Cracking India, became a film by Deepa Mehta and how as a writer she had a unique experience of seeing the adaptation of her own book into another art form. The second part of the collection focuses on her thoughts concerning war, terrorism, and how to achieve peace. The collection includes two letters, demonstrating her local and nationalistic perspectives to a larger view of an interconnected world. (Excerpt from Introduction)"--
Reviews
Bapsi Sidhwa is a national treasure! Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways Landscapes of Writing is a fascinating collection of essays that offers a plethora of information on Bapsi Sidhwas life, fiction, and her viewpoint on various issuesliterary, social, and political. It is not an exaggeration to say that the present book is a rich treatise on current issueson minorities, patriarchy, and the condition of women in South Asia. This book is a welcome addition to the corpus of fast-growing scholarship on Bapsi Sidhwa and South Asian studies in general. It will be immensely useful to students, teachers, and scholars. R.K. Dhawan, University of Delhi
| Foreword by Deepa Mehta |
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vii | |
| Author's Preface |
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ix | |
| Editor's Preface |
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xi | |
| Acknowledgements |
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xiii | |
| Introduction: Bapsi Sidhwa's Contributions to South Asian Literature |
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v | |
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Part I Life, Memories, and Writings |
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1 | (86) |
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Chapter 1 Why and How I Write |
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3 | (12) |
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Chapter 2 Linguistics: New English Creative Writing (A Pakistani Writer's Perspective) |
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15 | (12) |
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Chapter 3 Lahore: Landscapes of My Writing |
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27 | (10) |
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Chapter 4 Reading and Writing: A Private Addiction |
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37 | (8) |
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Chapter 5 Truth and Fiction |
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45 | (4) |
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Chapter 6 The Television Boycott |
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49 | (6) |
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Chapter 7 Watching My Novel Become Deepa Mehta's Film |
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55 | (6) |
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Chapter 8 Two-Way Culture Shock |
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61 | (4) |
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65 | (4) |
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Chapter 10 Manna of the Angels: Parsi Cuisine |
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69 | (8) |
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Chapter 11 Journey to the Black Mountains |
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77 | (10) |
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Part II Political Thoughts: Essays on World Events |
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87 | (54) |
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Chapter 12 Letter to My Grandson |
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89 | (6) |
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Chapter 13 A Letter to The Hindustan Times: In Defense of Deepa Mehta's Water |
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95 | (4) |
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Chapter 14 A Selective Memory for History |
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99 | (6) |
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Chapter 15 2008 in Retrospect: The Most Momentous Year! |
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105 | (4) |
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Chapter 16 Crusades for the Modem Era |
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109 | (8) |
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Chapter 17 The Minorities and the Muse |
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117 | (10) |
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Chapter 18 Who Are the Taliban? |
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127 | (6) |
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Chapter 19 Threat of War Between India and Pakistan, Still a Reality |
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133 | (4) |
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Chapter 20 Bury the Hatchet for Peace Sake! |
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137 | (4) |
| Appendix A |
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141 | (2) |
| Appendix B |
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143 | (4) |
| Index |
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147 | |
Bapsi Sidhwa is an international novelist, known for her perspective on the partition of the Indian subcontinent as a Parsi woman. The Crow Eaters (1980), Ice Candy Man (1982; published as Cracking India, 1988), The Pakistani Bride (1983), An American Brat (1993), and Water (2006) have been translated into several languages. Born in 1938 in Karachi, Sidhwa grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, and now lives in Houston, Texas. She received a degree from Kinnaird College in Lahore and taught at Mount Holyoke College, Brandeis University, Columbia University, Rice University, and the University of Texas at Houston. Sidhwa was also a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe-Harvard and the recipient of numerous awards, such as the prestigious German prize LiBeraturepreis (1991); the Italian Premio Mondello for her novel Water (2007); and both the lifetime achievement award in Pakistan and the "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" prize by the Carnegie Corporation in 2013.
Teresa Russo is an educator, scholar, and poet. She is the editor of Recognition and Modes of Knowledge: Anagnorisis from Antiquity to Contemporary Theory (2013), examining how recognition theory has played a central role in the arts and humanities throughout history. She has a PhD from the University of Toronto in comparative literature and has taught courses in the arts and humanities at the Catholic University of America, American University, the University of Toronto, and Brock University. Her poetry has appeared in various publications, including The Silenus (Oxford, U.K.) and Verbi Gratia (Washington, D.C.).
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