Krishna Sobtis Views on Literature and the Poetics of Writing

How does a writer discuss her creative process and her views on a writers role in society? How do her comments on writing relate to her works? The Hindi writer Krishna Sobti (1925-2019) is known primarily as a novelist. However, she also extensively wrote about her views on the creative process, the figure of the writer, historical writing, and the position of writers within the public sphere. This study is the first to examine in detail the relationship between Sobtis views on poetics as exposed in her non-fictional texts and her own literary practice. The writers self-representation is analysed through her use of metaphors to explain her creative process. Sobtis construction of the figure of the writer is then put in parallel with her idiosyncratic use of language as a representation of the heterogeneous voices of her characters and with her conception of literature as a space where time and memory can be "held." At the same time, by delving into Sobtis position in the debate around "womens writing" (especially through the creation of a male double, the failed writer Hashmat), and into her views on literature and politics, this book also reflects on the literary debates of the post-Independence Hindi literary sphere.