Hari Kunzru, Transmission

Alan Robinson (University of St Gallen)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2004

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Like its predecessor,

The Impressionist

(2002), Hari Kunzru’s second novel,

Transmission

(2004), is an intellectual comedy which raises philosophical and sociological questions about the construction or simulation of what we take to be reality and about the nature of the self. The extent to which the self is socially constructed is explored in

The Impressionist

in the context of the Indian caste system and of English imperialist discourses, whereas in

Transmission

it is through the messages transmitted by the globalised media networks of the World Wide Web, mass culture, and the “Total Brand Mutability” (Kunzru, 2005, 20) of consumer fashion and marketing. Kunzru focuses on three representative characters – Arjun Mehta, Leela Zahir (“India’s dreamgirl”), and Guy Swift, the…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1389 words

Citation: Robinson, Alan. "Transmission". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20089, accessed 24 April 2024.]

Save this article