Global Modernism’s Networks: Mulk Raj Anand, Sajjad Zaheer, and a Case for Negative Ties

Abstract:Since at least the 1990s, network theory has proven central to the Anglo-American expansion of modernist studies, especially in theories of global modernism. By examining the British modernist scholarship on Mulk Raj Anand, this essay claims that modernist studies’ use of networks often assumes that ties between writers or texts are neutral or positive. This essay argues via the work of Anand’s compatriot Sajjad Zaheer, whose novella A Night in London was recently translated into English, that often-overlooked negative ties are integral to the literary history of Indian modernism and to the future practice of weak global modernism.