Postmodernism In Indian English Literature Refers To The Works Of Literature After 1980. If Raja Rao S Kanthapura (1938) Marks Modernism, Salman Rushdie S Midnight S Children (1981) And Nissim Ezekiel S Latter-Day Psalms (1982) Mark Postmodernism In Indian English Literature. In This Book, Dr. Bijay Kumar Das Has Analysed Postmodern Indian English Literature Genre-Wise Poetry, Novel, Short Story, Drama And Autobiography. This Is A Critical History Of Indian English Literature In The Postmodern Period, Meant For Students, Researchers As Well As Teachers Who Seek An Introduction To It.
In Recent Years, The Indian English Literature Has Made Conspicuous Progress In All Its Forms, Mainly In Fiction And Poetry. The Present Anthology Aims At Presenting An In-Depth Study Of Nineteen Authors Who Are Both Established As Well As Upcoming Writers: Toru Dutt, Nissim Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, R.C. Shukla, Rajendra Singh, Mulk Raj Anand, Kamala Markandaya, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Shashi Tharoor, Shiv K. Kumar, Shobha De, Intizar Husain And Mahesh Dattani. Although The Present Anthology Contains Articles On Indian English Poetry, Fiction And Drama, But Fiction Enjoys A Prominent Place.Since Most Of The Authors Included In The Present Volume For Discussion Are Prescribed In The English Syllabus In The Various Indian Universities, It Is Hoped That Both The Teachers And Students Will Find The Book Extremely Useful. Even The General Readers Who Are Interested In Literature In English Will Find It Intellectually Stimulating.
After The Pioneer Works By Scholars Such As Naik, Narasimhaiah And Mukherjee, And The Thirty Years Of Silence Which Followed Their Ground-Breaking Achievements, The Companion Appears On The Scene Striving To Reinvigorate The Tradition Of Panoramic Studies Of Indian Literature In English. In The Intervening Period, Indian Fiction In English Has Become Of Paramount Importance In The Wide Context Of Postcolonial Studies: An Emergent Crop Of Novelists Belonging To The So-Called New Generation Has Colourfully Paved The Way Towards New Artistic Horizons, Re-Interpreting Western-Derived Literary Models With Inventive Approaches. Complementary To Their Role There Is The Articulate Presence Of A Host Of Indian Scholars Who In Recent Years Have Significantly Influenced The Course Of This Analysis And Have Vitally Contributed To Enlarging Its Scope Well Beyond The Original Boundaries Of Studies In Literary Criticism.The Companion, Therefore, Addresses The Exigencies Of Critics, Teachers And Students Alike All Those Who Need To Find Quick Points Of Reference In This Wide Field Of Studies By Relying On A Team Of Authoritative Collaborators And Specialists From All Over The World. Great Care Was Taken Not Only In Selecting Collaborators On The Basis Of Their Specialisation But Also Taking Into Account Their Cultural Background In Relation To The Author They Were To Discuss. The Book In Fact Has Been Organised To Have What Have Been Deemed To Be The Most Representative Authors In Indian Fiction Discussed In An Essay-Long Chapter Each, Structured To Highlight Crucial Points Such As Biographical Details, Novels And Critical Reception. Each Chapter Includes A Final Bibliography Complete With Primary And Secondary Sources, Enabling The Scholar To Have Immediate Orientation On Various Specific Topics. Finally, The Book Has An Innovative Section, With Synopses Of Novels, Planned To Allow Our Readers To Immediately Place The Authors Analysed Within The Panorama Of Indian Fiction In English. The Over 400 Synopses Included Principally Introduce Works Written By The Novelists Discussed At Length In The Previous Chapters But, Along With Them, It Is Also Possible To Find Summaries Of Works By Authors Who, Although Contributing In A Significant Way To The Development Of Forms And Techniques, Do Not Feature In The First Part.
The literary canon implies the evaluation or estimation of certain literary texts as the most important during a particular time. The canon is not merely a set of texts; it is a set of standards, evaluative procedures and values. Belonging to a canon confers a guarantee of literary greatness. A canon is formed, by a particular group, to channelize cultural hegemony over others, or, can be constructed, by a governed group, to bring about cultural symmetry. The rise of diverse literatures in English in different parts of the world after the colonial rule of England was the consequence of an urge to articulate a cultural equilibrium or an urge to strike back. The process of canon formation is also a focused and bigoted act, and is always carried out to accomplish certain self-centred objectives. It is commonly accepted that canon formation is executed to accomplish or naturalize certain ideological functions. In the sphere of Indian English literature, Indian English fiction after the end of the 1980s has emerged as a new “canon”. This book looks into the process of literary canon formation in Indian universities, and examines such fiction as an alternative literary canon and as an anti-imperialistic response to the British literary canon. The book ascertains the anti-imperialistic design involved in forming the canon of post-1980 Indian English fiction, examines the gradual emerging trends in such fiction, and discerns the role of language, culture, and native ethos in the formation of a canon. It also differentiates post-1980s Indian English fiction from British fiction, bhasa fiction, and even from pre-1980s Indian English fiction.
The Book Presents A Collection Of Papers That Are Wide Ranging Not Only In The Choice Of Authors Two Of The Big Trio, R.K. Narayan And Raja Rao On The One Hand, And The Recent Ones Like Upamanyu Chatterjee And Manju Kapur On The Other, But Also In The Different Angles From Which These Novelists Have Been Discussed. It Includes A Much Talked About Author Like Arundhati Roy As Well As A Remarkable But Less Discussed Writer Like Ruskin Bond. It Consists Of Feminist Study As Well As Semiotic Study And Postmodern Reading.
This Book Presents A Reasonably Comprehensive Account Of The Development Of The Indian English Novel Since Independence. The Novel During The Colonial Period Has A Different Outlook And Was More Concerned With The Problems Of The Indian People Suffering Under The British Yoke. After Independence The Indian Writers Looked At The Indian Scene From The Postcolonial Point Of View. There Were New Hopes, No Doubt, But The Problems Social, Economic, Religious, Political And Familial That Were Submerged In The Flood Of The National Movement Emerged And Drew Attention Of The Creative Writers. The Partition, The Communal Riots After Partition, The Problem Of Casteism, The Subjugation Of Women, The Poverty Of The Illiterate Masses Became The Focal Points. Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan, Nayantara Sahgal And Kamala Markandaya In The Beginning Wrote Novels Of Social Realism In The Fifties.But After The Sixties, New Trends Emerged. Writers Like Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Bhabani Bhattacharya, G.V. Desani, Chaman Nahal, Manohar Malgonkar And B. Rajan Portrayed The Picture Of The Post-Independence Indian Society. The Stream Of The Early Fifties Now Turned Into A Broad River With New Currents And Cross Currents. The Old Traditional Method Of Novel Writing Gave Way To Modern Techniques.The Indian English Novel Took Further Strides In The Eighties And The Decades That Followed It. Salman Rushdie Can Be Said To Be The Leader Of The New Trend. Shashi Deshpande And Arundhati Roy Followed Suit.This Book Divided Into Six Chapters Surveys And Discusses The Major Trends In The Post- Independence Indian English Novel. The Major Writers Discussed Apart From The Trio, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao And Mulk Raj Anand Are Bhabani Bhattacharya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy And Kamala Markandaya.This Book Will Be Of Immense Help To The Students Of Indian English Fiction And The General Reader.
One Of The Pioneering Works In Literary Historiography, The Book A Short History Of English Literature Combines In A Remarkable Manner The Historical And The Critical Principles That Ought To Govern Any Literary History. On Saintbury S Own Testimony The Book Is Not Meant To Be Bird S Eye Views . It Is, In Fact, A Fine Critical Survey Of The Entire History Of English Literature From Its Beginning To The End Of The Victorian Period.Saintsbury S Copious Scholarship, Fine Clarity Of Thought And Literary Sensibility Have Made The Approach To Each Text Both Microscopic And Telescopic So That While A Text Is Kept Under A Sharp Critical Focus, All The Relevant Contextual Aspects Are Touched Upon To Further Illuminate It. Despite Saintsbury S Englishness, The Book, As A Short But Succinct Account Of The History Of Literature, Is Of Perennial Value. While Any Student Of English Literature Will Find The Book Immensely Useful, Anybody Interested In English Literature Will Find It Eminently Readable And Interesting.
Rapid developments in the fields of trade, market, commerce and telecommunication technologies, together with cultural confrontations at the global level are creating a paradigmatic shift in people's understanding of selfhood and identity. This book makes a serious attempt to trace and map out the making of contemporary post-national identities within the subcontinental cultural production of India and in its English Fiction. One of the structural ventures of this study is that these newer identities, which are basically fragmented, ruptured, hyphenated, and palimpsestic in nature, require new descriptions and new elaborations within the field of creative literature and literary criticism. In order to pursue its research on these lines, the present work contrasts the notion of subjecthood and identity with the earlier phases of Indian cultural imagination as represented in some of the pioneering works of Indian English Fiction that have now attained a canonical status. By analysing some of the predominant concerns that work as leitmotif in most of the Indian English novels, the book brings together and reinterprets some problematic concepts such as history, culture, religion, nation and nationalism and creates a theoretical axis upon which it charts insightful and engaging aspects of selfhood and identity.
A Guide To English Literature Embraces A Wide Spectrum Of Literary Works In The Field Of The English Novel, Drama And Poetry. It Is Meant To Enhance The Enjoyment And Understanding Of English Literature Through The Critical Discussion Of Particular Works Of A Large Number Of Writers Including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Metaphysicals, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Emily Bronte, Hardy, Eliot, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Hemingway And Mulk Raj Anand.
The book highlights postmodern fiction and more so Rushdies fiction, which is concerned with: 1. A preoccupation with viability of systems and representations 2. The decentring of the subject and the inscription of multiple fictive selves 3. Narrative fragmentation, narrative reflexivity, and narratives which double-back on their own presuppositions 4. An open-ended play with formal divides challenging the presuppositions of literary realism 5. Abolition of the cultural divide between high and popular forms of culture, embracing all in a mlange 6. The displacement of the real by simulacra in Baudrillardian sense 7. Incredulity toward the metanarratives as Lyotard puts it
The Book Indian Women Across Generations Brings Forth The Life And Predicament Of Women, Including In Its Narration The Discriminations And Denials To Them In The Past As Well As In The Present In Particular Areas Of Activities. It Attempts To Chronicle The Struggles And Achievements Of The Generations Highlighted Through Their Experiences. The Study Derives Much Of Its Strength And Sophistication From The Basis Of Women S Experiences Of Oppression That They Continued To Experience Daily And Exclusions Of Various Kinds.The Pain, Anger, Helplessness, And Mental Turmoil Of Women Of The Bygone Eras; The Anger, Assertiveness Of The Present Age All Put Together Created New Identity For Women. The Book Provides A Wider Perspective On The Roots Of Women S Lifestyles In General And Interrelated Development Issues Of Women Across Five Generations Over A Period Dating Back To A Century 1900 To 2000 In Particular. The Focus Is To Assess The Forces Which Goaded Women To Act Against The Currents Of Their Times; The Conditions Which Insulated Them From Society S Expectations Giving Them Strength, Energy, And A Sense Of Destiny And Determination To Not To Accept The Conventional, Or Say Pathetic And Submissive Female Roles.Women Have Come A Long Way Since A Century Back Though All Development Are Not Universally Applicable. The Book Interestingly Highlights The Insights And Challenges Of Indian Women Belonging To Different Generations And Different Age Groups.This Book Will Be An Asset For Those Interested In Women Studies And An Illuminating And Provocative Book For All Others Concerned With Women Issues.
The Present Thirteenth Volume Of Studies In Literature In English Contains Seventeen Well-Researched Essays Covering A Wide Range Of Authors And Subjects Across Space And Time. Starting With The Good Old Shakespeare, The Essays Cover A Number Of British Canonical Authors, Including Coleridge, Shelley And Golding. Across The Atlantic Eminent American Authors Like Henry James, Arthur Miller And Saul Bellow Are Given Fresh Look. Rohinton Mistry From Canada, Hermann Hesse, A German Nobel Laureate, And Bertolt Brecht Of Epic Theatre Fame From Germany, V.S. Naipaul, The Nobel Laureate Originally From India, And Pirandello, The Italian Nobel Laureate, Are All Treated With Fine Critical Insight.It Is Hoped That Students, Scholars And General Readers Of English Literature Will Find This Anthology Both Useful And Enjoyable Even More Than The Earlier Volumes Of Studies In Literature In English.
