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Gurumurthy Neelakantan
PhD (IIT Kanpur)
Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Interest
My research interests largely lie in the intersections of literary modernism and postmodernism. I have written extensively on the fiction of Saul Bellow and Philip Roth examining how religion, and sexuality inform their works. Besides this, I'm also interested in studying how classics, be they in the Western or Eastern traditions, continue to exercise the contemporary cultural and literary imagination.
Specialization
Twentieth and Twenty-First Century American Literature.
Education
PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 1989Thesis Title:The Waste Land and Beyond: An Approach to Saul Bellow's Worldview.Thesis Supervisor:Prof. Raj Kumar Gupta
M.A., Madras Christian College, 1983
B.A., Loyola College, Madras, 1981
Teaching Area
Modern British and American Fiction
Modernist Literature
World Literature
Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Post-War American Literature
Methodology of Literary Research
English Language Teaching
Professional Communication
Selected Publications
Textualizing the Self: Adultery, Blatant Fictions, and Jewishness in Philip Roth's Deception." Ed. Jay L. Halio, Shofar, 19. 1 (Fall 2000): 40- 47. Reprinted in Turning up the Flame: Philip Roth's Later Novels, eds. Jay L. Halio and Ben Siegel. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005, 58-67.
Beast in Chicago: Saul Bellow's Apocalypse in The Dean's December. International Fiction Review, 30 (Spring 2003): 67- 76.
Monster in Newark: Philip Roth's Apocalypse in American Pastoral. Special Issue on Philip Roth in Studies in American Jewish Literature 23 (2004): 55-66.
Philip Roth's Nostalgia for the Yiddishkayt and the New Deal Idealisms in The Plot Against America." Philip Roth Studies Vol. 4.2 (Fall 2008): 125- 136.
Philip Roth's Heroic Ideal in Indignation and Nemesis. Philip Roth: Critical Insights. Ed. Aimee Pozorski. Massachusetts: Salem Press, 2013. 200-19.
Fiction as Faith: Philip Roth's Testament in Exit Ghost. Philip Roth Studies 10.2 (Fall 2014): 31-45.
Awards & Fellowships
International Association of University Professors of English, Switzerland.
Consulting Editor. Philip Roth Studies. Purdue University Press.
Rahul and Namita Gautam Chair at IIT Kanpur.
Distinguished Teacher Award conferred by Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (2013).