Oxford University Press

“If I could I would cut off my lovers’ heads” : Eunice De Souza’s Nine Indian Women Poets
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“If I could I would cut off my lovers’ heads” : Eunice De Souza’s Nine Indian Women Poets

ByJohn Rufo

“Anthologists invariably make enemies,” Eunice De Souza notes in her introduction to Nine Indian Women Poets. This anthology is unlike most anthologies, as De Souza takes up her editorial role to rally against universality, mapmaking, and flattery. De Souza isn’t seeking to make enemies, but she realizes that all choices for anthologies suggest other choices:…

How to Write Indian Literature

ByJohn Rufo

If you’re studying a nation’s literature, it’s best to know that nation’s language. English literature finds definition in its mother tongue, despite the linguistic leap from Shakespeare to Zadie Smith. American literature, whose myriad dialects are called upon by Walt Whitman, John Ashbery, and Nikki Giovanni, rests comfortably in its native discourse. Langston Hughes states…