Women on Women: A Reading of Commonwealth Women Writers

This volume highlights the movement from a shared past under the broad rubric of ‘Commonwealth’, to an individual assertion of separate identities. Although, of the writers included in the volume, some may have adopted Western traditions of the novel, others have moved towards their own regional/local traditions of from and style. There is an unapologetic assertion of ethnic pride, a consciousness of the ‘otherness’ in their literary production at the same time that they appeal to a larger global readership. Although a distinct pattern may not emerge out of the novels discussed, a distinct voice does emerge out of the artistic expression of the writers which is at once assertive and subdued, subtle and belligerent, artistic and propagandist, regional and compolitan, subjective as also preoccupied with the universal concerns of humanity. Of interest also is the way these writers reconstruct the complexities and multiplicities of their lives through the various the literary techniques they employ. The majority of the novelists included in this volume are those whose works have attracted critical attention not merely in their own countries but also internationally. Established writers like Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer, Keri Hulme and Kate Grenville figure side by side with younger upcoming writers like Manju Kapoor, Monica Ali and Chandni Lokuge.