Interview with Will Self

Authors

  • Arup K Chatterjee Jindal Global Law School

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22356/wic.v5i1.30

Keywords:

London, cities, language, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, Will Self

Abstract

Will Self is a renowned British author, cultural thinker, journalist, broadcaster, and psychogeographer. He has authored ten novels, most recently Shark (2014) and Phone (2017); five collections of shorter fiction, and several volumes of nonfiction, most recently The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker (2012). Self has been translated into over 20 languages. His novel Umbrella (2012) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He has frequently published in many periodicals including the Guardian, Harper's, the New York Times, the New Statesman, and London Review of Books. He is a regular presenter or panelist on BBC television shows and BBC Radio 4. His first book of short fiction, The Quantity Theory of Insanity (1991) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He won the Agha Khan Prize for Fiction for Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys (1998), and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for The Butt (2008).

In 2007, M. Hunter Hayes published Understanding Will Self on the subject of his life and work. Self is Professor of Contemporary Thought at Brunel University, London.

This interview was conducted at the bar of the India Club Restaurant, Strand Continental Hotel, London.

 

Author Biography

  • Arup K Chatterjee, Jindal Global Law School
    Arup K Chatterjee is Assistant Professor of English at the Jindal Global Law School. At the time of this interview, he was a visiting fellow at the Brunel University, London. In 2014, he was a recipient of the Charles Wallace fellowship to United Kingdom. He received his doctorate from the Center for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for his dissertation titled: ‘Hillmaking: Architecture and Literature from the Doon Valley.’ He is the Founder Chief Editor of Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing & Travelling Cultures. He is also the author of the widely reviewed The Purveyors of Destiny: A Cultural Biography of the Indian Railways(Bloomsbury, 2017). He is now engaged in writing a historical novel set in Edwardian India. He is a prolific author and has contributed numerous articles on history, literature, culture and politics, to magazines such as The Conversation, Scroll, The Wire, DailyO and HuffingtonPost, The Caravan, apart from contributing to Coldnoon. He has been or is about to be interviewed in The Missing Slate, Writers in Conversation, SBS Radio Australia, The Quintand BBC India. He is Director of Research and Communications at IndiaHub, where inter alia, he is leading a project pertaining to the Indian Constitution. His interests are in the history of British imperialism, politics and philosophy; British cultural and historical encounters with India; and colonial and postcolonial historiography of India.

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Published

2018-01-28

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2018): February

Section

Interviews

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Arup K Chatterjee

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