‘Interesting to see how many people have suffered from the brunt of storytelling’: Amit Chaudhuri

Peter D McDonald, Professor of English and Related Literatures at the University of Oxford and author of various books including Artefacts of Writing (OUP) and, most recently, The Double Life of Books (Edinburgh), was in conversation with the novelist, critic, and musician Amit Chaudhuri about Against Storytelling, a collection of essays by various writers edited by Chaudhuri. Against Storytelling is part of a new series of books (whose general editor is Chaudhuri) titled Literary Activism. The series is published by Westland Books in partnership with the Centre for the Creative and the Critical, Ashoka University. Excerpts from the conversation:

Peter D McDonald: The first thing I noticed as someone who has been reading your work for years – and it would come as no surprise to anyone familiar with your work – is that you personally, as a writer, are against storytelling. So it’s no surprise that you wanted to organise a symposium under that theme. One example I have here, right from the beginning in 1991, is A Strange and Sublime Address. At one point, the narrating voice, thinking about the character Sandeep, observes:

“But why did these houses – for instance, that one with the tall, ornate iron gates and a watchman dozing on a stool ... or this small, shabby house...

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