'Professor Vijay Mishra was born in Fiji and educated at the universities of Wellington, Macquarie, Sydney, the ANU and Oxford. He holds doctorates from the ANU and Oxford in two separate disciplines. He is an unusual multidisciplinary scholar, whose works are cited by scholars working in film studies, classical Indian studies, literary and cultural theory, religious studies, as well as English literature (including postcolonial, diaspora and Australian literatures). Some of his essays and books have been foundational, with essays reprinted and sections of books anthologized. Selected reviews of his books given below indicate not only the breadth of his scholarship but also the academic value of individual works. On Dark Side of the Dream, a reviewer wrote, 'This book by Hodge and Mishra is the most sophisticated attempt to date to theorise the relationship between dominant white Australian cultural modes and those of Australian Aboriginal cultures'. (Australian Literary Studies 1992: 328-332). On The Gothic Sublime we read, 'So argues Vijay Mishra in this fine new book - ambitious in its purpose, wide in its range, and fairly fresh and original in its focus - and 'thorough' certainly seems to be the right word, as Mishra brings to his work not only splendid awareness of current theorizing about the sublime, but also that rare ability to move back to more traditional 'aesthetic' sources like Longinus, Boileau, John Dennis and Burke.' (Southern Humanities Review 30 (Fall 1996): 393-396). Reviewing what is, quite possibly, his most difficult book (Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime), David L. Gitomer, a world-class Sanskritist and one of the translators of the Chicago Mahabharata began with the words: 'Though many Indologists have deepened their studies of literature under the influence of western aesthetic theory and postmodern approaches to critical reading, it has fallen to a professor of English to produce the first comprehensive work on South Asian religious poetry that fully cognizes European aesthetic theory.' (Journal of the American Academy of Religion 68.2 (2000): 428-31). On Bollywood Cinema we read, '[His] remarkably insightful reading carries a freshness that will greatly enrich the existing literature on Indian cinema. This book is an invaluable contribution to the existing body of literature on Indian cinema. Though a dense read the author's efforts to delineate critical theory, in order to make the volume accessible to the ordinary reader, are to be appreciated.' (Biblio (Sept/Oct 2002: 18)). On The Literature of the Indian Diaspora: Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary we read: 'This remarkable book, which I venture to say is possibly the best work so far on the literature of the Indian diaspora [Mishra] has made a more lasting and substantial contribution to our shared narratives and pasts than anyone I know in the home country.' (Ariel 40 (2009)). (Source: The Australian Academy of the Humanities website)
