Anita Desai’s work represents a unique blending of the Indian and the Western. Her novels catch the bewilderment of the individual psyche confronted with the overbearing socio-cultural environment and the ever-beckoning modern promise of self-gratification and self-fulfilment. In the face of this dual onslaught, her protagonists—male or female—Maya, Sita, Monisha and Amla; Sarah, Nanda and Raka; Bim and Tara; Devan, Baumgartner—are seen poised tantalizingly at different junctures of the philosophic spectrum.
Applying sociological, psychoanalytic, structural and other approaches of formal textual analysis, the essays in the present anthology take a fresh look at established works, revealing aspects of study hitherto unexplored, offer critically insightful probes into individual novels and explore the deployment of images, symbols and other poetic devices, besides diverse narrative strategies.
It is an indispensable sourcebook for students, researchers and teachers of Indian English and Commonwealth literature in general and fiction of Anita Desai in particular.
The book also makes an insightful companion for research in sociology and women studies.
M.K. Bhatnagar, Professor, Department of English, M.D. University, Rohtak (Haryana), India -had been: a distinguished scholar and a veteran. teacher. He served as Chairman, Department of English, M.D. University, Rohtak and also Chairman, State Inter- University Common Syllabi Committee (English) of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and M.D. University, Rohtak.
Professor Bhatnagar’s publications include, besides a number of research articles in prestigious journals in India and abroad, Political Consciousness in Indian English Writing and The Novels of. Nayantara Sahgal. His areas of interest are: Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, Commonwealth and Indian English Literature and Third World Fiction.
M. Rajeshwar is Associate Professor of. English at Kakatiya University, Warangal (Andhra Pradesh), India. His published works of criticism: include The Novels of Wole Soyinka and Indian’ Women Novelists and Psychoanalysis. He has edited several anthologies of literary essays. Some of them are: Post- modernism and English Literature; Indian Fiction in English; Studies in Indian Writing in English (Volume 1 & 2); Post- Independence Indian English Fiction; Commonwealth Fiction: Twenty-first Century Readings; Modern American. Literature and IT Revolution, and Globalization and the Teaching of English.
He has published a large number of. articles on Indian, African and American . fiction and ELT in reputed journals like New Quest; ARTS Research; Indian Literature; The Journal of Indian Writing in English; Commonwealth Quarterly; The — Commonwealth Review and Revaluations.
Anita Desai has incontrovertibly added a few rich dimensions to the thematic spectrum of Indian English fiction. Her novels are deeply moving stories of individuals on the horns of a socio-cultural and existential dilemma. Her novels also constitute an artistic success formally through deft deployment of images, symbols and other poetic devices. Applying sociological, psychoanalytic, structural and other approaches of close textual analysis, the essays in the present anthology take a fresh look at established works, exploring thematic as well as stylistic dimensions of her novels, hitherto left unexplored. The contributors to the present volume of the anthology, have specially worked out their studies from the chosen perspective for this collection, for which they deserve sincere thanks. A special word of indebtedness to the publisher, Dr. K.R. Gupta a fellow academic, whose immense help and moral support made all the difference.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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