"Disinheritance" : identity constructions in the prose works and archives of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Abstract

Focused on the theme of “disinheritance”, this is the first full monograph-length study of the novels, short stories and essays by the Jewish refugee transnational writer, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. This research offers new analytical pathways to scrutinise her prose work through privileged access to her bequeathed literary archive at the British Library. The thesis addresses how her creative life’s chronology, and itinerant history, connects to the ways she engages with ideas about dislocation, and diasporic identity, in her prose. The study draws on other UK archival source materials, from her publishers, John Murray and Allen & Unwin, from Blackwood’s Magazine and the London Magazine, The Arts Council, Booker Prize and BBC Written archive papers. It surveys her writing career, between 1955-2013, across countries where she resided: Britain (1939-1951), India (1951-1975) and the USA (1975-2013) and compares the global attention her work received. It applies the methodology of textual genetic criticism to analyse the drafts of her stories as they progress, to decipher their logical order and development, a window into the writer’s craft, and to her autonomy. This research also traces her critical reception, analyses how reviewers and publishers constructed her identity inaccurately, and argues for her alignment with Indian feminist writers, within the wider tradition of Indian writing in English. The study offers new insights into how she deployed the short story form to explore past trauma, and suggests that the complexity of her roots and routes, and screenwriting career acclaim, have contributed to her being overlooked in literary studies. It argues that Jhabvala developed a plausible, convincing, aesthetic realism, in her fiction, by adapting to various literary milieux (UK/India/USA) and creatively negotiated her identity from what she termed “disinheritance”. The research makes an original contribution to literary studies’ engagement with writers’ archives, a fast-evolving field of critical inquiry.