A collection of essays written during different periods on a variety of writers, texts and based on more than one critical approach, this book attempts to show how a critical introspective exercise results in intellectually stimulating and academically challenging papers. These essays cover a wide range of topics from Indian Writing in English, American Literature and British Literature and also on general areas of interest such as reading novels. Writers who are discussed in this volume are Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, R.K. Narayan, Kamala Markandaya, and Khushwant Singh from contemporary Indian writers in English and regional writers such as Kalki and T. Janakiraman from Modern Tamil Literature. Rushdie’s ‘love-hate’ relationship with India is discussed in one essay, while his controversial portrayal of modern Indian leaders and matinee-idols in his novel The Moor’s Last Sigh is analysed from a post modern perspective in a companion piece. Shashi Tharoor is revealed as a distinguished predecessor of Rushdie in his The Great Indian Novel. John Steinbeck, the Nobel-prize winning American novelist is the subject of a few essays that perceptively analyse certain remarkable aspects of his fiction, especially the Indian influence on his thinking and writing. Among Steinbeck’s novels discussed are The Grapes of Wrath, To a God Unknown, The Cannery Row Novels, viz., Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday.
There are no reviews yet.