1. About the Database

South and Southeast Asian Literature is a constantly growing collection that will bring together 100,000 pages of fiction, short fiction, poems, interviews, and manuscript materials written in English by writers in South and Southeast Asia and their Diasporas.

The collection comprises literature written originally in English by writers who either were born in or identify themselves culturally with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Fiji. Because the South and Southeast Asian Diasporas are so widely cast, the collection also includes the work of writers living or working in Africa, the United Kingdom, North America, and the Caribbean. The collection will focus upon literature written during the late-colonial and postcolonial eras, but it will also include earlier work that is essential to scholarship in this area.

The South and Southeast Asian experience manifests itself in the literature in many ways. Much writing deals with the British empire and its legacy, struggles for independence, the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan and the unprecedented violence accompanying the migration of Hindus and Muslims across the new borders, the Bangladeshi war for independence from Pakistan, the continuing conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil minority, racism and the caste system, ongoing communal violence, the experience of plantation laborers, and life as immigrants in new countries. More generally, the literature interrogates notions of nationalism and transnationalism, identity and language, the individual and the collective, authenticity and hybridism, home and homeland, and the collision of the ancient and the modern.

The collection begins in the mid-nineteenth century, with the work of such writers as Govinda Krishna Chutter and the Dutt family of poets, and continues through the colonial era to the present day. Writers targeted for inclusion include R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Meena Alexander, Tariq Ali, Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Cyril Dabydeen, Amitav Ghosh, Ismith Khan, Michael Ondaatje, Bharati Mukherjee, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Romesh Gunesekera, Indira Ganesan, Arundhati Roy, Samuel Selvon, Bapsi Sidhwa, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Lawrence Chua, Arthur Yap, Kirpal Singh, Monica Ali, Zulfikar Ghose, and dozens more.

In addition to the novels, short stories, and poetry of these writers, we plan to include interviews and manuscript materials. We hope that this content will give students and scholars alike a deeper appreciation of the context and central themes of this important and diverse body of literature.

South and Southeast Asian Literature is part of the Alexander Street Literature package, which enables researchers to explore the rich literary heritage of diverse cultures from across the globe. New content is added on a biweekly basis, and exciting new materials will be highlighted on the home page, so please check the site often!

Isabel Lacerda
Editor

2. Editorial Policy

We consulted many critical works to create this collection, including the following bibliographies and sourcebooks:

• Writers of the Indian Diaspora: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993).
• South Asian Literature in English: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jaina C. Sanga (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004).
• Asian/Pacific Literatures in English: Bibliographies, edited by Robert E. McDowell and Judith H. McDowell (Washington, DC: Three Continents Press, 1978).
• Post-Colonial Literatures in English: Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, 1970-1992, edited by Mark Williams (New York: G.K. Hall and Co., 1996).
• South Asian Diaspora Literature in English, edited by Irene Joshi (Seattle: University of Washington Libraries, 1998), http://www.lib.washington.edu/southasia/guides/diaspora.html.
• Bibliography of Indo-English Literature: A Checklist of Works by Indian Authors in English, 1800-1966, edited by John A. Karkala and Leena Karkala (Bombay: Nirmala Sadanand Publishers, 1974).

3. Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many authors, publishers, and agents who are participating in the creation of this collection. At Alexander Street Press, the following people have been instrumental in the development of the database:

• Pat Carlson
• Niki Dowdell
• Andrea Eastman-Mullins
• Michael Kangal
• Christina Keller
• Stephen Rhind-Tutt
• Maura Walz
• John G. West III
• Will Whalen
• Ning Zhu

4. Subscription and Free Trial Information

South and Southeast Asian Literature is available for one-time purchase of perpetual access, or as an annual subscription. Please contact us at sales@alexanderstreet.com if you wish to begin a subscription or to request a free 30-day trial.

5. How to Contribute Materials or Comments

Our goal is to create a unique archive according to the editorial criteria expressed above. We welcome contributions from organizations and individuals, especially if you have materials that are unpublished or of unique interest. Submitting materials to our editors is easy and without obligation on your part.

• To submit materials for inclusion in South and Southeast Asian Literature, please contact the Editor at editor@astreetpress.com.
• If you are a commercial publisher who would like to discuss licensing materials for inclusion in the database, please contact the Editor at editor@astreetpress.com.
• To report content errors or to suggest improvements, please email us at editor@astreetpress.com. Please include the author, the document, and the page number. Please also include your email address, so that we can let you know the status of your correction.

6. Copyright

All materials in the database are protected under U.S. and International Copyright Law. Fair use under the law permits reproduction of single copies for personal research and private use. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of protected items requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

7. Cataloging Records

MARC records are available for this collection.