This is the fourth and final volume in the pioneering series on Perspectives on Ma,or Forms of indian English Literature edited by Professor M.K, Naik, Following the pattern of the earlier three volumes this collection also includes two types of essays-those evaluating the entire corpus of major fictionists and schools and those attempting intensive textual analyses of outstanding novels like Untoucl,ahle, The Guide. The Serpent and the Rope and Midnight's children. The final essay on “The Achievement of Indian Fiction in English" is an attempt to survey the entire field and evaluate the total achievement in this genre. A number of collections of critical essays on Indian fiction in English have appeared during recent years but perhaps none of them. has the range and depth of this volume. The contributors include distinguished scholars such as K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, V.A. Shahane, D.V. K Raghavacharyulu, PremaNandakumar and the editor, M,K. Naik, himself. The carefully selective Bibliography appended to the volume has further enhanced its value as a comprehensive collection of incisivse critical studies covering the entire range of Indian fiction in English. and this series which is now complete easily constitutes a significant landmark in the ongoing scrutiny of Indian English literature.

Indian Writing In English Has Undoubtedly Acquired Its Own Independent Identity; It No More Remains Mere Imitative And Derivative. Its Long Journey From Colonial To Post-Colonial, From Imperial To Democratic And From English To Hinglish Forms A Remarkable Chapter In The History Of World Literature. Tagore Earned The First Recognition And Naipaul Is The Recent Laureate. In Between These Nobel Laureates Came A Number Of Writers Whose Work Earned Worldwide Appreciation.The Present Book Is An Attempt To Present The Different Genres Of Indian Writing In English. It Aims At Tracing Its Distinctive Features, Such As Cultural Alienation, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism Etc. While Nehru Has Furnished The Best English To The Globe, Amitav Ghosh, Shashi Tharoor, Arundhati Roy, Shiv K. Kumar And Dattani Have Stirred The West With Their Great Works. The Works Of These Renowned Literary Figures Have Been Considered Thoroughly And Meticulously In The Present Book.It Is Hoped That While The Student Community Will Find It Easily Accessible, The Teachers Will Also Consider It Exciting Study Material.

Perspectives On Indian English Literature Are Too Vast And Varied To Be Completely Evaluated Between The Covers Of A Single Book. The Present Volume Is A Modest Contribution To Explore This Area Through A Vast Cross-Section Of Scholars And Academicians From Different Universities Of The Country. Apart From Its Critical And Academic Importance, The Present Volume Would Also Help The Students, Teachers, Researchers And Scholars To Know India Through The Broadened Perspectives Profferred Through English Language.

After The Pioneer Works By Scholars Such As Naik, Narasimhaiah And Mukherjee, And The Thirty Years Of Silence Which Followed Their Ground-Breaking Achievements, The Companion Appears On The Scene Striving To Reinvigorate The Tradition Of Panoramic Studies Of Indian Literature In English. In The Intervening Period, Indian Fiction In English Has Become Of Paramount Importance In The Wide Context Of Postcolonial Studies: An Emergent Crop Of Novelists Belonging To The So-Called New Generation Has Colourfully Paved The Way Towards New Artistic Horizons, Re-Interpreting Western-Derived Literary Models With Inventive Approaches. Complementary To Their Role There Is The Articulate Presence Of A Host Of Indian Scholars Who In Recent Years Have Significantly Influenced The Course Of This Analysis And Have Vitally Contributed To Enlarging Its Scope Well Beyond The Original Boundaries Of Studies In Literary Criticism.The Companion, Therefore, Addresses The Exigencies Of Critics, Teachers And Students Alike All Those Who Need To Find Quick Points Of Reference In This Wide Field Of Studies By Relying On A Team Of Authoritative Collaborators And Specialists From All Over The World. Great Care Was Taken Not Only In Selecting Collaborators On The Basis Of Their Specialisation But Also Taking Into Account Their Cultural Background In Relation To The Author They Were To Discuss. The Book In Fact Has Been Organised To Have What Have Been Deemed To Be The Most Representative Authors In Indian Fiction Discussed In An Essay-Long Chapter Each, Structured To Highlight Crucial Points Such As Biographical Details, Novels And Critical Reception. Each Chapter Includes A Final Bibliography Complete With Primary And Secondary Sources, Enabling The Scholar To Have Immediate Orientation On Various Specific Topics. Finally, The Book Has An Innovative Section, With Synopses Of Novels, Planned To Allow Our Readers To Immediately Place The Authors Analysed Within The Panorama Of Indian Fiction In English. The Over 400 Synopses Included Principally Introduce Works Written By The Novelists Discussed At Length In The Previous Chapters But, Along With Them, It Is Also Possible To Find Summaries Of Works By Authors Who, Although Contributing In A Significant Way To The Development Of Forms And Techniques, Do Not Feature In The First Part.

"James Ruppert explores the bicultural nature of Indian writers and discusses strategies they employ in addressing several audiences at once: their tribe, other Indians, and other Americans. Helen Jaskoski analyzes the genre of autoethnography, or Indian historical writing, in an Ottawa writer's account of a smallpox epidemic. Kimberly Blaeser, a Chippewa, writes about how Indian writers reappropriate their history and stories of their land and people. Robert Allen Warrior, an Osage, examines the ideas of the leading Indian philosopher in America, Vine Deloria, Jr., who calls for a return to traditional tribal religions. Robert Berner exposes the incomplete myths and false legends pervading Indian views of American history. Alan Velie discusses the issue of historical objectivity in two Indian historical novels, James Welch's Fools Crow and Gerald Vizenor's The Heirs of Columbus. Kurt M. Peters relates how Laguna Indians retained their culture and identity while living in the boxcars of the Santa Fe Railroad Indian Village at Richmond, California. Juana Maria Rodriguez examines power relations in Gerald Vizenor's narrative of a Dakota Indian accused of murder in 1967, "Thomas White Hawk." Finally, Gerald Vizenor, a Chippewa, discusses Indian conceptions of identity in contemporary America, including simulations he calls "postindian identity."".

Contributed articles on 20th century English fiction.

This book starts with a consideration of a 1997 issue of the New Yorker that celebrated fifty years of Indian independence, and goes on to explore the development of a pattern of performance and performativity in contemporary Indian fiction in English (Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra). Such fiction, which constructs identity through performative acts, is built around a nomadic understanding of the self and implies an evolution of narrative language towards performativity whereby the text itself becomes nomadic. A comparison with theatrical performance (Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and Girish Karnad’s ‘theatre of roots’) serves to support the argument that in both theatre and fiction the concepts of performance and performativity transform classical Indian mythic poetics. In the mythic symbiosis of performance and storytelling in Indian tradition within a cyclical pattern of estrangement from and return to the motherland and/or its traditions, myth becomes a liberating space of consciousness, where rigid categories and boundaries are transcended.