176 pp.
Reviewed By:
Mrs. Madhuri Bite Editor,
The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN: 0976‐8165
Indian Writing in English: Critical Perspectives is compiled of twenty well researched articles on various authors from the canon of Indian Writing in English. These articles contributed by scholars, teachers, academicians and critics of repute, study in depth Indian Writing in English exploring variety of themes and aspects. Indian Writing in English has very recent history to explore hence, the attempt made by the writers to probe national literature of India written in English is worth reading.
Dr. Vishwanath Bite in his insightful article about Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable American, focuses the journey of Gopal, the protagonist, to America. The present article highlights the journey of the Indian boy, into brave new world. It is brave because for Gopal the Americans are too forward and knowledgeable and the world is also new to him as he is from Indian orthodox family. In his scholarly article on Arun Joshi’s The Strange Case of Billy Biswas Dr. Arvind Nawale presents two different faces of woman living in two different sections of Indian society- modern civilized society and age-old primitive society. The article delineates the strange case of the protagonist Billy Biswas and his association with two sorts of women- Meena Chatterjee who represents materialistic modern society and Bilasia who represents primitive society. In her article Mrs. Madhuri Bite examines the thematic observations in Gita Mehta’s Raj. She observes the themes of Raj from postcolonial point of view. Dr. Dipanita Gargava in her article on Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines examines the perspective view of time and events, of lines that bring people together and hold them apart, lines that are clearly visible on one perspective and nonexistent on another. Lines that exist in the memory of one, and therefore in another’s imagination. Dr. Arjun Jadhav and Prashant Mothe in their well researched article attempt to explore the linguistic behaviour of the characters and their interpersonal
relations in the two plays of Girish Karnad against the backdrop of some concepts and theories in pragmatics.
Zeenath Mohamed Kunhi in her article on Arundhati Roy’s scholarly essay Baby Bush Go Home discusses Bush’s monologic principles. In his article Dinesh B. Chaudhary studies Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence and states that women are engaged in the complex and difficult social and psychological problem of defining an authentic self. In their article Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha & Dhritiman Chakraborty argue that Arundhati showcases that rare breed among Indian English writers who has dared to carry forward her fictional issues through the constitution of a radical redressal of socio-political pathologies and they differentiate Arundhati`s fictional outpourings with her non-fictional dynamism. Dr. S. B. Bhambar in his insightful article analyses the three selected novels of Anita Desai, Prakash Deshpande and Paulo Coelho with comparative perspective. The novels represent a height of artistic vision independently achieved by the writers belonging to different cultures: Occidental and Oriental. The similarities in the theme and technique of these novels, obviously, show the universality of vision and unity of human experience in spite of the cultural, racial, national and temperamental differences among the selected writers. Dr. Ramchandra Hegade in his scholarly article on Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan examines the novel as the political novel in the mode of documentary realism.
Krati Sharma in her well researched paper discusses the use of the genre of autobiography by Marathi Women writers especially Laxmi Bai and Durga Khote who, under the influence of reform movements and social activists not only read but also wrote. She further states that the women writers used the genre not only as a tool for self expression but also to crusade the cause of their liberation. Dr. Gunjan Jain in her article explains the theme of women’s freedom with reference to Mulk Raj Anand’s novel The Old Woman and The Cow. She also argues that while stressing the need for the emancipation of women Mulk Raj Anand suggests that women themselves should break the ties that bind them to the hearth and boldly venture out into different activities. In her insightful article Dr. K. K. Sunalini analyses the moral vision in the novels of Shashi Deshpande. She further states that the search of a typical Shashi Deshpande protagonist is usually to work out a satisfactory relationship with the other human beings and to evolve a satisfactory moral ethic in a complex world. Dr. Marie Josephine Aruna
critically evaluates Githa Hariharan’s When Dreams Travel. She analyses that men everywhere are the same while women’s subservient condition under them is also the same across the world and explains that women tend to explore their desire and connect with other women dealing a double existence –one in their official role as slave and the other as women of the harem. Dr. Pradnya V. Ghorpade in her well researched article discusses the self-assertion of women in the works of Mulk Raj Anand. She says that though woman is suppressed in India, Mulk Raj Anand is aware of her dormant capacities which are seen in some of his women characters.
In her article Dr. Vimmie Manoj examines the portrayal of women’s status through symbols and images in the novels of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. She says that Jhabvala uses other symbols and images that are universally relevant, for example the symbol of sky, colour and car- ride and images universally acclaimed, for example the images of relationships, animals, mountains, rains and houses and she also uses these devices to depict women’s status against the backdrop of the clash between the oriental and the occidental, traditional and modern. HCS Chauhan & Lt. (Dr.) Satendra Kumar in their joint article scrupulously examine Shashi Deshpande’s fictional world, she has created in her women protagonists, heroines who do not merely stand for themselves but also for the artistic ideas the author wishes to convey. It is not so much the survival of the female figure that is central to her stories. A clear cut solution to the female conflict is, from the author’s view point, not important for the survival of the protagonist. Their article throws flood of light on her creative sensibility. Dr . Manisha Gahelot studies the emergence and shaping of Indian literary canon taking its background from language issue and the then used terms for the national literature. Her short and scholarly survey is helpful in understanding Indian Writing in English against the cultural encounters. Rukhaya M. K. in her scholarly article examines the sound of silence in the Silence! The Court is in Session. She observes that the court is just a metaphor of the patriarchal society we live in. The monologic verdict is the final decree, that the woman has to abide by. The only thing she has to protest with is her Silence, as that is the only aspect attributed to her. Dr. Vishnu K Sharma and Mahesh Kumar Sharma study language and discourse in The White Tiger. They found the novel fully reveals that Linguistic systems co-evolve with socio-cultural conventions of language use and thus the context of use is as relevant as rule of usage. In reality language is subject to great change and variation. One who aims at studying the phenomenon of language has to take into
account cultural and social factors that are involved in human linguistic behavior. Authors have explored the novel with the tool of language.