Klappentext

Transgression in the Bengali Avant-Garde wants to introduce the Hungry Generation
movement to a global audience through its poetry, manifestoes and other literary
materials. Emerged from the cities of Patna and Calcutta in the early 1960s, the
Hungry Generation gained international attention after the poets' arrest on charges
of obscenity in 1964. Fiercely provoking the literary establishment, these Bengali
bohemians used poetry and literature as means of cultural radicalism, tackling
subjects like sexuality, perversion, alcohol and drug consumption, masturbation, and
hyper-masculinity to challenge bourgeois morality and respectability. The book sheds
light on a variety of Hungryalist sources and explores the literature of the Hungry
Generation through the filter of 'transgression', showing how this concept unfolded
in the language, aesthetics and culture behind this Bengali avant-garde movement.
Furthermore, the book will delve into the poetry of some iconic representatives of
the Hungry Generation, critically reading their oeuvre in the context of changing
models of sexuality, consumption, and modernization in post-colonial India.