How does a writer discuss her creative process and her views on a writer's role in society? How
do her comments on writing relate to her works? The Hindi writer Krishna Sobti (1925-2019) is
known primarily as a novelist. However she also extensively wrote about her views on the
creative process the figure of the writer historical writing and the position of writers
within the public sphere. This study is the first to examine in detail the relationship between
Sobti's views on poetics as exposed in her non-fictional texts and her own literary practice.
The writer's self-representation is analysed through her use of metaphors to explain her
creative process. Sobti's construction of the figure of the writer is then put in parallel with
her idiosyncratic use of language as a representation of the heterogeneous voices of her
characters and with her conception of literature as a space where time and memory can be held.
At the same time by delving into Sobti's position in thedebate around women's writing
(especially through the creation of a male double the failed writer Hashmat) and into her
views on literature and politics this book also reflects on the literary debates of the
post-Independence Hindi literary sphere.
