Paper short abstract:

The first-person narrative mode, crucial for autobiographical accounts, was absent during the initial period of novel writing in Hindi. It started appearing within this new literary genre only from the first decade of the twentieth century, contributing to the further development of Hindi novel.

Paper long abstract:

The first-person narrative mode, crucial for autobiographical accounts, was completely absent during the initial period of novel writing in Hindi. It started appearing within this new literary genre only from the first decade of the twentieth century in novels like Mādhavī-mādhav vā madan-mohinī ("Madhavi and Madhav, Madan and Mohini") by Kishorilal Goswami or, to a lesser extent, in Ṭheṭh hindī kā ṭhāṭ ("A tale devised in pure Hindi") and Adhkhilā phūl ("Half-blossomed flower") by Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay 'Hariaudh'. The gradual shift in the position of the narrator in relation to the story contributed to the further development of Hindi novel. The paper draws on Hindi novels by both renowned and less known Hindi writers in order to explore the wide spectrum of possibilities provided by the first-person narration.