Nirad C. Chaudhuri, The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian

Delphine Munos (Université de Liège)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.1.03: Indian Writing and Culture: Post-colonial, 1947-present.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1951

Places

India (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

On the first page of the preface to his book The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, Nirad C. Chaudhuri makes the wish that his autobiographical enterprise should bring about a rupture between the first and second stages of his life:

I want a declaration of faith for myself, because after passing the age of fifty I am faced with the compulsion to write off all the years I have lived and begin life anew. […] These recollections of mine are in no sense des mémoires d’outre-tombe. If anyone so chooses he may call them mémoires d’outre-Manche in a figurative sense, in the sense that, retreating before the panzers of the enemy who has seized my past life, I have decided to put between …

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2110 words

Citation: Munos, Delphine. "The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1545, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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