Critical Essays On R K Narayan S The Guide

The essays in this book have been divided into two sections. The first section examines one of Narayn's major works, The Guide. The essays here discuss the genesis of the novel, narrative structure, use of language, humour and irony in the novel, the characters, and also the post-colonial quality of The Guide. The second section situates The Guide within the larger context of Narayan's life and works, Narayan as a novelist, themes and characters in his novels, Narayan's Malgudi, and Narayan as an Indian English writer. These essays will be essential reading for students who study The Guide, and also Narayan's works as a whole.

This volume of critical essays on R.K. Narayan s novels comprises essays on his early, middle and last period of fiction writing. It contains essays on his Sahitya Akademi Award novel The Guide and Narayan s Malgudi.

Today, Indian Writing in English or Indo-Anglian Writing has certainly come of age, with the novel having a pride of place and names such as Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Kiran Desai and Aravind Adiga prominently figuring in the list. But the credit for placing Indo-Anglian writing on a high pedestal should go to earlier writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao. Among these, R.K. Narayan is the most celebrated novelist. This edited volume deals with several important Malgudi novels of R.K. Narayan, such as Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher and The Guide and short stories, and throws light on various aspects of his creative art. It traces the evolution of all the genres of Indian Writing in English as well as R.K. Narayan the novelist. The book dwells upon R.K. Narayan’s art of characterization with reference to central male characters, use of humour, and the cultural milieu of Malgudi. It also discusses in detail R.K. Narayan’s standpoint regarding the actual social status of Indian women. Finally, the book focuses on R.K. Narayan’s use of myths and symbols and shows how these enable him to convey artistically the implication of the experience that forms the base of the novels. The book is meant for the undergraduate and postgraduate students of English Literature. Besides, all those readers who wish to delve deeper into the works of R.K. Narayan will find the book quite useful.

R.K. Narayan’s reputation as one of the founding figures of Indian writing in English is re-examined in this comprehensive study of his fiction, which offers detailed readings of all his novels. Arguing against views that have seen Narayan as a chronicler of “authentic” Indianness, John Thieme locates his fiction in terms of its specific South Indian contexts and cultural geography and its non-Indian intertexts. The study also considers the effect that Narayan’s writing for overseas publication had on novels such as Swami and Friends, The Guide and The Man-Eater of Malgudi. Narayan’s imaginary small town of Malgudi has often been seen as a metonym for India. Thieme draws on recent thinking about the ways in which place and space are constructed to demonstrate that Malgudi is always a fractured and transitional site, an interface between older conceptions of Indianness and contemporary views that stress the ubiquitousness and inescapability of change in the face of modernity. The study also shows that Malgudi is seen from varying angles of vision and with shifting emphases at different points in Narayan’s career. As well as offering fresh insights into the influences that went into the making of Narayan’s fiction, this is the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide to his novels to have appeared to date. It provides a unique account of his development as a writer.

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan, 1906-2001, Indo-English novelist; contributed articles.

Rogue is reluctantly cast in the role of a holy man in this ironic comedy of East Indian life.

R.K. Narayan S Career As A Novelist And Short Story Writer Spans Almost Eight Decades From Swami And Friends (1935) To Grandmother S Tale (1992) Until His Death On 13 May 2001 At The Ripe Age Of 95. His Distinctive Sense Of Humour, His Trade Mark Irony, His Bemused, Knowing, Overseeing Perspective, His Rootedness In Religion And Family Values And His Inescapable Capturing Of The Essence Of Indian Sensibility All Have Been Looked At From A Refreshingly New Perspective, Hitherto Only Partly Touched Or Left Unexplored And Unattempted. New Insights Into The Guide, The Maneater Of Malgudi, A Tiger For Malgudi, Waiting For The Mahatma, The Dark Room Exploit Freshly-Forged Tools Of Critical Analysis Comparative, Structural, New Historical , Feminist, Bakhtinian, Post-Colonial And Socio-Cultural And Ethical.A Welcome Addition To The Extant Critical Scholarship On R.K. Narayan S Ouevre.A Lucid Discussion Of New Dimensions In Literary Theory Through Well-Argued, Illustrative Analysis Of Popular Texts.A Scholarly Elucidation Of The Sociology Of Hinduism As Reflected In Popular Fiction.An Indispensable Source-Book For Students, Researchers, Teachers, Scholars In Inter-Related Fields Like Literary Criticism, Theory Of Literature, Indian Philosophy, Customs And Thought-Patterns, Besides Social Anthropology And Sociology.