New Insights Into The Novels Of R K Narayan

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.

Contributed articles on the works of R.K. Narayan, b. 1906.

The book is basically athematic study of R.K. Nrayans novels and a reference to his short stories has been made only in passing. The major themes that emerge from Narayans novels are love and marriage or man woman relationship family relationships under scoring the father son relationship socio cultural and political scene of the country during the last fifty years and the Hindu ethos highlighting renunciations as an ideal of the Hindu way of life. For the first time the major themes of Narayans novels have been clearly worked out and the identity of Malgudi has been convincingly established by the author.

R.K. Narayan And His Social Perspective Deals With The Caste-Ridden Hindu Society Which Narayan Presents In His Novels. His Characters Are Fatalists With Explicit Faith In The Invisible. The Book Presents Their Half¬Hearted Attempts At Self-Assertion. However, Their So-Called Sentimentalism Does Not Bear Fruit And They Fall Back To Their Former Position Accepting Defeat In Life.The Book Brings Out Vividly Narayan S Atti¬Tude To Life, His Firm Grip Of Hindu Ethos Of Which He Is The Product, And His Failure To Come Out Of It, Though The West Wind Has Blown Much Of Its Dust.However Detached He Sounds Himself To The Readers, His True Spirit Finds Vivid Expression In The Book. At Any Rate R.K. Narayan Is A Thoroughly Indian Novelist Par Excellence, And The Aspect Is Hardly To Be Overlooked.

No Treatment Of Modern Criticism Is Possible Without Discussing I.A. Richards, Since In The Most Literal Sense His Influence Combined With That Of T.S. Eliot And F.R. Leavis Served To Create It. As One Of Seminal Thinkers Paving The Way For The Development Of New Criticism, Richards Made A Systematic Attempt To Formulate A Theory Of Poetry In Consonance With The Demands Of Modern Scientific Thought.The Present Book Stems From The Need To Offer An Objective Appraisal Of Richards Thought System In The Context Of The Evolution Of His Ideas In Foundations Of Aesthetics, The Meaning Of Meaning, Principles Of Literary Criticism, Science And Poetry (Later Reissued As Poetries And Sciences) And Practical Criticism. In The Context Of Wide-Spread Misinterpretations And Distortions Of Richards Point Of View, The Author Has Tried Throughout This Inter-Disciplinary Work To Allow Richards To Speak For Himself. While Unfolding The Subtle, Suggestive And Consistent Nature Of Richards Early Writings, The Book Studies His Criticism Of Modern Poets Like T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, G.M. Hopkins, Thomas Hardy And D.H. Lawrence. The Chapter On Practical Criticism Throws Light On Richards Technique Of Evaluating Poems And Teaches The Art Of Appreciating Poetry.

The Book Provides A General Survey Of The Indo-Anglian Fiction And A Detailed Analysis Of The Prominent Political Fictions And The Fiction Of Bhabani Bhattacharya. Showing Bhattacharya S Position And Achievement In The Domain Of Indian Fiction, The Book Studies His Art Of Writing Novels For Political And Social Value.The Book Also Dwells On The Indo-Anglian Fiction Of Varied Themes Social, Political, Nationalistic, Diplomatic, Cultural, Etc., Of Pre-And Post-Independence Periods And Shows The Significant Place Of The Indian Political Novels And Those Of Bhabani Bhattacharya. The Indian Content Of These Political Novels Has Created A Context For The Study Of Bhattacharya S Novels.The Book Also Makes A Critique On Bhattacharya S Six Novels Depicting Contemporary Social, Political, Economic And Religious Realities Of India Before And After Independence. It Also Highlights His Plea For The Social And Moral Function Of Art And For Reality And Truth In Literature And Also His Defending Of The Use Of Contemporary Events As Worthy Subjects For Writing Novels.The Author Presents A Perspective On Bhattacharya As An Innovator And A Free User Of English Language In An Indianised Style. His Authentic Tone And Indianness Are Also Shown Through The Common Theme, Traditional Technique And Typical Indian Language Of His Novels.

The Present Book Is An Addition To The Study Of Arun Joshi S Novels In The Context Of The Theme Of The Crisis Of Identity In The Post-Modern World In The Wake Of Colonial Hangover, Economic Depression, Psychological Split-Up As Well As Existential Angst And Freedom Of Choice. The Major Characters In Joshi S Novels Find Themselves In A Predicament From Which They Find It Difficult To Get Disentangled. The One World Is Dead And The Other Powerless To Be Born. The Worldly Affluence Is Not Enough. The Escape From The Outer World To The Inner Keeps One Engaged. Bred On The Western Literary And Philosophical Obsession In Camus, Sartre, Malamud, And Other American Novelists, Joshi Finds It A Fashionable Craze To Write About The Crisis Of Identity Almost In The Same Vein In Which The Seventeenth Century English Authors Posed To Be Melancholy.