Ideology aesthetics and market a critical study of selected Indian popular campus novels

Abstract

The present study undertakes a critical analysis of four Indian popular campus novels: Chetan Bhagat s Five Point Someone (2004), Abhijit Bhaduri s Mediocre But Arrogant (2005), Amitabha Bagchi s Above Average (2007) and Soma Das Sumthing of a Mocktale (2007). The project attempts to critically examine several characteristics of Indian popular campus fiction under three broad areas Ideology, Aesthetics and Market. It highlights how the changing ideological orientations of contemporary capitalism have been operating behind the mechanisation of the market-oriented and profit-seeking attitude of popular art forms. These ideological deliberations are preconceived as theoretical foundations of changing aesthetic appeal and bring about a paradigm shift in the ways literature is being written and perceived in the present scenario. The study explores how the texts relating to the genre not only started depicting a concrete picture of academia but also served as a niche to understand the role of ideological potency in transforming the social, political, cultural, educational and even personal milieus; and how these texts came out as a blend of all these aspects which have been produced by using particular methodologies and strategies. Due to the unique approach of the writers towards the country s youth and the propagation of dreams, fears, anxieties, etc. of young people in India, this kind of commercial fiction has massively succeeded in the Indian marketplace. The study also aims at deciphering an estimate of the magnitude of the production and circulation of popular fiction in India and highlights the strategies that popular writers have pursued to achieve the desired readership. The analysis also surfaces reasons why popular texts have come into the limelight and endure great prominence these days by deriving apparent references from the selected texts. newline