Cultural Influence on Writings of Indian Writers: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Stephen Greenblatt's ‘Cultural Poetics’, Bhaktin's ‘Cultural Prosaic'and Raymond Williams’‘cultural materialism’ became enormously popular only when people started recognising culture as an important source of art and literature. In the works of Indian writers, influence of culture, tradition and national heritage can be easily traced. Be it A K Ramanujan, Keki N Daruwalla, Nissim Ezekiel, Mulkraj Anand, R K Narayan or Indian diasporic writers such as Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai and many more, the major themes are indigenous culture, Indian ethos, religions, society, festivals, rituals, cultural hybridity, alienation, nostalgia, cross cultural clashes. These writers are known for the depiction of typical Indian atmosphere. Some writers, who used English to express their feelings, emphasised on social evils existing in the country. This paper attempts to do comparative study of some Indian poets whose writings revolved around Indian culture and ethos.