Shadowlines

Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows two families -- one English, one Bengali -- as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.

A powerful and lyrical work by a writer of vision and imagination, Shadow Lines is the story of Jessie Argyle, born in the remote East Kimberley and taken from her Aboriginal family at the age of five, and Edward Smith, a young Englishman escaping the rigid strictures of London. In a society deeply divided on racial lines, Edward and Jessie met, fell in love and, against strong opposition, eventually married. Despite unrelenting surveillance and harassment, the Smith home was a centre for Aboriginal cultural and social life for over thirty years.

The Shadow Lines Is A Highly Innovative, Complex And Celebrated Novel Of Amitav Ghosh. Published In 1988, It Received The Prestigious Sahitya Academy Award In The Following Year. Not Only Literary Critics But Also Some Noted Litterateurs Have Acclaimed It For What It Has Been Able To Achieve As A Work Of Art. Its Focus Is A Fact Of History, The Post-Partition Scenario Of Violence; But Its Overall Form Is A Subtle Interweaving Of Fact, Fiction And Reminiscence.It Is A Novel In Which Amitav Ghosh Has Been Able To Realise His Artistic Conception Through An Art Form, Which Is Cohesive. However, It Remains Somewhat Inaccessible To Some Readers; They Are, Particularly, Mystified By Its Non-Linear Mode. This Volume Of Critical Essays On The Shadow Lines Is Being Presented In The Hope That It Will Enable The Reader To Gain An Insight Into The Meaning And Structure Of The Novel. In The First Part Of The Book, The Contributors Bring Out The Various Aspects/Elements Of The Novel. The Second Part Has Essays, Which Look At The Novel From Some Current Critical Perspectives Feminist, Post-Colonial And Historicist But The Emphasis Of These Essays Is Upon Practice And Not Theory. The Idea Is That The Reader Learns About A Specific Approach By Seeing It Applied To The The Shadow Lines. The Third Part Has A Single But Significant Essay The Shadow Lines In Context Which Relates The Novel To Ghosh S Other Works, Both Fiction And Non-Fiction. Though The Book Is Primarily Addressed To The Student, It Is Hoped That It Will Interest The Common Discernible Reader As Well.

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.

A dystopian novel for the digital age, The Word Exchange offers an inventive, suspenseful, and decidedly original vision of the dangers of technology and of the enduring power of the printed word. In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted “death of print” has become a reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are things of the past, and we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but also have become so intuitive that they hail us cabs before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of a hungry stomach, and even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange. Anana Johnson works with her father, Doug, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL), where Doug is hard at work on the last edition that will ever be printed. Doug is a staunchly anti-Meme, anti-tech intellectual who fondly remembers the days when people used email (everything now is text or videoconference) to communicate—or even actually spoke to one another, for that matter. One evening, Doug disappears from the NADEL offices, leaving a single written clue: ALICE. It’s a code word he devised to signal if he ever fell into harm’s way. And thus begins Anana’s journey down the proverbial rabbit hole . . . Joined by Bart, her bookish NADEL colleague, Anana’s search for Doug will take her into dark basements and subterranean passageways; the stacks and reading rooms of the Mercantile Library; and secret meetings of the underground resistance, the Diachronic Society. As Anana penetrates the mystery of her father’s disappearance and a pandemic of decaying language called “word flu” spreads, The Word Exchange becomes a cautionary tale that is at once a technological thriller and a meditation on the high cultural costs of digital technology.

The Present Volume Includes Critical And Insightful Essays On Native Responses To Contemporary Indian English Novel. Nativism As An Ideology Cannot Be Accepted In Toto In The Indian Context, As There Are Several Paradoxical And Self-Contradictory Factors Operating Within The Indian Social Structure. The Nativist Approach To Indian English Literature Cannot Be An Effective Device To Assess The Genre. To Be Carried Away By The Waves Of The Western Thought Would Also Be Equally Ridiculous. Therefore, To Understand The Not So New Phenomenon Now, Dispassionate And Objective Criteria Has To Be Evolved. The Essays In This Volume Endeavour To Reach Out To The Indian English Novel With As Much Objective Understanding Of The Discipline As Necessary. The Title Of The Book Indicates Native Responses, Not Nativist, Because There Is No Theory Involved, Or Any Permanent Set Of Values To Be Adopted For Evaluating Indian English Novel. Nevertheless, The Essays Included In The Volume Are Meant To Clear The Web Of Misunderstanding Created By Nativism And Cosmopolitanism Together And Find A Way Out To Better Understanding And Appreciation Of Contemporary Indian English Novel.It Is Hoped That The Volume Will Be Of Immense Use To The Common Reader As Well As To The Serious Critics Of Contemporary Indian English Novel.