In the introduction to his collection of essays

Clearing a Space, Reflections on India, Literature and Culture

(2008), Amit Chaudhuri takes issue with the tendency – particularly in postcolonial studies – to categorise the Indian writer or define them as a nationally representative figure. “To say I am ‘a product of’”, he argues, is to ignore the multiple cultural and imaginative influences that inform a writer’s literary sensibility: “it’s to simplify what’s essentially a somewhat idiosyncratic imaginative and critical project – a continual and shifting self-positioning – into a story about contexts and origins” (13).

The varied trajectory of Chaudhuri’s career defies any such simplification. He is a novelist whose fiction has been awarded prestigious prizes,

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Citation: Bird, Emma . "Amit Chaudhuri". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12031, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12031 Amit Chaudhuri 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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