Paper short abstract:

Some representative counter-narrative schemes in Hindi 'experimental' prose epitomize the literary projection of a new identity delineating in the context of modern society. Structural and stylistic devices reflect the authors' critical approach to literature and their own perception of reality.

Paper long abstract:

The paper aims at investigating some representative counter-narrative schemes in 'experimental' prose: time expands becoming a stream of thoughts, as in Prakāśo by Kīrti Chaudharī, where the narration continuously shifts between the stages of waking and sleeping with dreams. In Ākāroṁ ke āspās by Kuṁvar Nārāyaṇ, the logical pattern of perception-thought-language loses its validity, since the protagonist resolves to abandon any external referent to create a world anew resounding in his mental and emotive dimension. Hegemony of action and dialogue collapses, as in Śānti haṁsī thī by Ajñeya, which develops in five minutes of pure meditation. Experimentalism epitomizes the literary projection of a new identity in the context of modern society. The authors, accustomed to insert methodological-aesthetic premises to their own productions from the Saptaka anthologies, keep alert in a constant self-observation during which they consider also the structural and stylistic devices that reflect their own perception of reality. Therefore we can scrutinize how they shape their experimental prose, questioning the relationship between reality and fiction, and making any normative constructions fall in a prevailing nonrepresentational and psychological style.