UNBOUND – 2000 YEARS OF INDIAN WOMENS WRITING (PB)

Profound, exhilarating,
haunting, angry and meditative, Unbound is a collection that will shatter
stereotypes about women?s writing in India. Unbound is a collection of some
of the most significant writing by Indian women over the past two thousand
years. Divided into eleven sections, it encompasses writing on various
aspects of life: spirituality, love, marriage, children, food, work, social
and individual identity, battles, myths and fables, travel, and death. While
many of the pieces are commentaries on the struggle that women undergo to
overcome obstacles?social and political?all of them showcase the remarkable
creative ability of their creators. The term ?women?s writing? has often been
used to limit and stereotype the work of women writers. But it also has a
larger and more constructive meaning, and that is the sense in which it has
been used to inform and describe the context of the book. As Annie Zaidi
explains in her introduction: ?Women bring to their writing the truth of
their bodies, and an enquiry into the different ways in which gender inequity
shapes human experience.? Selected from hundreds of novels, memoirs, essays,
short story collections and volumes of poetry that were either written in
English or that have been translated into English, the pieces in this
collection include the most distinctive and powerful voices from every era.
There are verses from the Therigatha, written by Buddhist nuns (circa 300
BCE), and writing by poet-saints like Andal, Avvaiyar, Lal Ded, Mirabai;
modern classics by writers like Ajeet Cour, Amrita Pritam, Arundhati Roy,
Attia Hosian, Bama, Bulbul Sharma, Irawati Karve, Ismat Chughtai, Kamala Das,
Krishna Sobti, Mahasweta Devi, Manju Kapur, Mannu Bhandari, Mrinal Pande,
Nayantara Sahgal, Pinki Virani, Qurratulain Hyder, Rashid Jahan, Romila
Thapar, Sarojini Naidu, Saudamini Devi, Shivani; and powerful new voices from
our time like Arundhathi Subramaniam, Nilanjana Roy, Nivedita Menon.
Profound, exhilarating, haunting, angry and meditative, Unbound is a
collection that will shatter stereotypes about women?s writing in India.
Features: ? Extracts included range across genres, languages and over 2,000
years. ? Includes writing in English as well as from many Indian languages
that have been translated into English. ? Arranged thematically, this
collection showcases the creative diversity that exists in women?s writing. ?
Provides an broad and comprehensive introduction to women?s writing in India.