Bharati Mukherjee
Encyclopedia
Bharati Mukherjee is an award-winning India
n-born American writer. She is currently a professor
in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley
.
), West Bengal
, India
. She later travelled with her parents to Europe
after Independence, only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the Loreto School
. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta
in 1959 as a student of Loreto College
, and subsequently earned her M.A. from the University of Baroda
in 1961. She next travelled to the United States
to study at the University of Iowa
. She received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop
in 1963 and her Ph.D. in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature.
After more than a decade living in Montreal
and Toronto
in Canada
, Mukherjee and her husband, Clark Blaise
returned to the United States. She wrote of the decision in "An Invisible Woman," published in a 1981 issue of Saturday Night
. Mukherjee and Blaise co-authored Days and Nights in Calcutta
(1977). They also wrote the 1987 work, The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy (Air India Flight 182
).
, Skidmore College
, Queens College, and City University of New York
before joining Berkeley.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n-born American writer. She is currently a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Background
Of Bengali origin, Mukherjee was born in Calcutta (now called KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
), West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. She later travelled with her parents to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
after Independence, only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the Loreto School
Loreto School, Kolkata
The Loreto Schools are a group of all-girl Roman Catholic schools throughout the world associated with the Sisters of Loreto and run by Loreto Educational Society , which in India run 17 schools and 2 colleges. They originated in Ireland in the 1850s so as to combat the growing Protestant...
. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
in 1959 as a student of Loreto College
Loreto College, Kolkata
Loreto College, Kolkata is a well-respected Catholic college that imparts liberal arts and sciences education for female students. It is located in Kolkata, India. It is affiliated to the University of Calcutta...
, and subsequently earned her M.A. from the University of Baroda
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda
The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, commonly referred as M. S. University , is a university in the city of Vadodara, in Gujarat state, India...
in 1961. She next travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to study at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. She received her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
in 1963 and her Ph.D. in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature.
After more than a decade living in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Mukherjee and her husband, Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise, OC is a Canadian author.Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of...
returned to the United States. She wrote of the decision in "An Invisible Woman," published in a 1981 issue of Saturday Night
Saturday Night (magazine)
Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
. Mukherjee and Blaise co-authored Days and Nights in Calcutta
Days and Nights in Calcutta
Days and Nights in Calcutta is a work of non-fiction by Bharati Mukherjee and her husband Clark Blaise. It was first published by Doubleday in 1977....
(1977). They also wrote the 1987 work, The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy (Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On 23 June 1985, the airplane operating on the route a Boeing 747-237B named after Emperor Kanishka was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of , and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.A...
).
Career
In addition to writing numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, Mukherjee taught at McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, Skidmore College
Skidmore College
Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....
, Queens College, and City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
before joining Berkeley.
- The Tiger's DaughterThe Tiger's DaughterThe Tiger's Daughter is the first novel by noted Indian-born American author Bharati Mukherjee.-Plot summary:The story revolves around Tara who was raised in Calcutta, educated at Vassar College in New York and is married to an American man...
(19711971 in literatureThe year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles wins the UK's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.-New books:*Hiroshi Aramata - Teito Monogatari...
) - WifeWife (novel)-Plot summary:This is the story of Dimple Dasgupta who has an arranged marriage to Amit Basu, an engineer. They move to the United States and experience culture shock and loneliness...
(19751975 in literatureThe year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...
) - JasmineJasmine (novel)Jasmine is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the present about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times.-Synopsis:...
(19891989 in literatureThe year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.-Literature:...
) - The Holder of the WorldThe Holder of the WorldThe Holder of the World, is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee. It is a retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, placing the story in two centuries...
(19931993 in literatureThe year 1993 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Professor Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times....
) - Leave It to Me (19971997 in literatureThe year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...
) - Desirable DaughtersDesirable DaughtersDesirable Daughters is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee. The sequel to this novel is The Tree Bride .-Book information:Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee...
(20022002 in literatureThe year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...
) - The Tree BrideThe Tree BrideThe Tree Bride, is a historical novel by Bharati Mukherjee. It is the sequel to Desirable Daughters.-Plot introduction:The quiet brahmin girl from Bengal becomes a passionate resister of foreign rule, against the British Raj...
(20042004 in literatureThe year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....
)
Short story collections
- DarknessDarkness (short stories)-Contents:-Book information:* Hardcover – ISBN* Paperback – ISBN 0-449-22099-0, published by Fawcett Crest-External links:* ....
(19851985 in literatureThe year 1985 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Isaac Asimov - Robots and Empire*Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale*Jean M. Auel - The Mammoth Hunters*Iain Banks - Walking on Glass...
) - The Middleman and Other StoriesThe Middleman and Other StoriesThe Middleman and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories by Bharati Mukherjee. Stories from this volume are frequently anthologized, particularly Orbiting, A Wife's Story, and The Middleman...
(19881988 in literatureThe year 1988 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Margaret Atwood - Cat's Eye*J.G. Ballard - Memories of the Space Age*Iain M...
) - A Father
Non-fiction
- The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy (19871987 in literatureThe year 1987 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Wolfe was paid $5 million for the film rights to his novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the most ever earned by an author, at the time.-Fiction:...
, with Clark Blaise) - Political Culture and Leadership in India (19911991 in literatureThe year 1991 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Coupland publishes the novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularizing the term Generation X as the name of the generation....
) - Regionalism in Indian Perspective (19921992 in literatureThe year 1992 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Ben Aaronovitch - Transit*Julia Álvarez - How the García Girls Lost Their Accents*Paul Auster - Leviathan*Iain Banks - The Crow Road...
)
Further reading
- Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. "Bharati Mukherjee." In Literature: The Human Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006: 1581-1582.
- Alter, Stephen and Wimal Dissanayake (ed.). "Nostalgia by Bharati Mukherjee." The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories. New Delhi, Middlesex, New York: Penguin Books, 1991: 28-40.
- Kerns-Rustomji, Roshni. "Bharati Mukherjee." In The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 5th edition, Vol. E. Paul Lauter and Richard Yarborough (eds.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006: 2693-2694.
- New, W. H., ed. "Bharati Mukerjee." In Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002: 763-764.
- Selvadurai, Shyam (ed.). "Bharati Mukherjee:The Management of Grief." Story-Wallah: A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005:91-108.
External links
Biographies
Interviews
- PBS Interview with Bill Moyers
- Jouvert Interview
- Beatrice Interview 1997
- Powells Interview (April 2002)
- A conversation with Bharati Mukherjee (February 2003)