Gender anxiety and contemporary Indian popular fiction

Abstract

In her article "Gender Anxiety and Contemporary Indian Popular Fiction" Elen Turner discusses two examples of Indian "popular literature" which reflect contemporary Indian middleclass anxieties surrounding globalization and social change. The recent proliferation of foreign business process outsourcing companies in India has changed the financial and lifestyle opportunities available to young, urban Indians. While sociological and ethnographic studies have found that workers embrace what they perceive to be westernized lifestyles, the novels under discussion present a more nuanced picture. Chetan Bhagat's One Night at the Call Centre (2005) and Shruti Saxena's Stilettos in the Boardroom (2010) demonstrate that young workers embrace and enjoy the freedom accorded them by working in outsourced companies. The texts also show that a tension exists between individualism and traditional social and familial practices. Show more