Anita Desai’s work represents a unique blending of the Indian and the Western. Her novels catch the bewilderment of the individual psyche confronted with the overbearing socio-cultural environment and the ever-beckoning modern promise of self-gratification and self-fulfilment. In the face of this dual onslaught, her protagonists–male or female-Maya, Sita, Monisha and Amla; Sarah, Nanda and Raka; Bim and Tara; Devan, Baumgartner–are seen poised tantalizingly at different junctures of the philosophic spectrum. Applying sociological, psychoanalytic, structural and other approaches of formal textual analysis, the essays in the present anthology take a fresh look at established works, revealing aspects of study hitherto unexplored, offer critically insightful probes into individual novels and explore the deployment of images, symbols and other poetic devices, besides diverse narrative strategies. It is an indispensable sourcebook for students, researchers and teachers of Indian English and commonwealth literature in general and fiction of Anita Desai in particular. The book also makes an insightful companion for research in sociology and women studies.
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