Writing on the Wall: Essays on Culture and Politics

Through critical discussions of Marxist theatre in Bengal, the anti-racist ad feminist poetry of Dionne Brand in Canada, the revolutionary poetry of Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua, a recent popular trend in Bengali fiction, and the films of Russian Andrei Tarkovsky, these essays provide acute, dispassionate insignts into politically committed cutural activity. What is a true people's theatre (as opposed to a middle-class version of one)? How is Marxism reconciled with Christianity in Nicaraguan revolutionary politics? What has been the role and status of women actors in India? How does the mind comprehend history, in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, and why do they unsettle the Western sensibility? These are some of the questions addressed in this well-argued, informative, and engaging book.