This Book Analyses Some Of The Arguments Of Major Postcolonial Thinkers Such As Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak And Homi K. Bhabha. It Discusses The Possibility Of Postcolonial Readings Of Literary Texts And Presents The Novels Shashi Deshpande In A Postcolonial Framework.

Since ancient time's Patriarchal hegemony on socio-cultural institutions has established the general notion about woman as a shadow figure to a male concierge, be he a father, a husband or a son. It was also a granted notion that reader, writer and even critic of all literature can only be male because this notion assumes the exclusion of female voice from the institution of literary expression- shunning her as an inferior sex. The purpose of all Patriarchal conspiracy is to retain power and possessive right over womenfolk. To make women believe that there is such a thing as essence of femaleness called femininity serves the purpose of Patriarchy. This speaks of the Male-chauvinistic conspiracy and prudish notion of the male-dominance in the world for exploitation of womenfolk.

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.

The Present Book Is A Thorough Critical Analysis Of Shashi Deshpande S Works And Has Been Prepared Keeping In Mind The Requirements Of Students In Indian Universities And Colleges. While Choosing The Critical Essays, The Broad-Based Study On The Author Has Been Given Due Significance In This Volume. This Book May Also Provide A Useful Insight To The Foreign Readers As The Essays Are Written By The Indian Experts Who Understand And Live Within The Socio-Cultural Context Of India. However, The Feelings As Portrayed By The Novelist Is Universal, Placed In The Situation, The Same Would Be The Predicament Whether Male Or Female As The Writer Universalizes Certain Basic Emotions Irrespective Of National Character. It Is Fervently Hoped That This Book Would Stimulate Further Research Into The Domain Of Indian Women Writers Works To Focus Certain Aspects Hitherto Unexplored.

Shashi Deshpande is one of the most fascinating writers in the genre of Indian English writing to have addressed problems and issues related to women and society, breaking the traditional image of a woman as a daughter, wife or mother, exploring the inner psychological conflicts of a woman and making her women characters emerge as self-dependent individuals with a space of one’s own. Through her bunch of wonderful novels Shashi Deshpande aims to highlight that everyone in this society should be treated as equals, as human beings; there should not be any compartmentalization on the basis of gender. Women should be given equal opportunity and weightage at par with men. This is possible only when women are independent in truest sense and they hold self-reliance and self-esteem. As a writer of human beings in general and women in particular, Shashi Deshpande has wonderfully considered all these aspects in her writings with her ingenious narrative skill and creative spirit. This book has attempted to explore the journey of Deshpande’s protagonists in quest of an exclusive identity, which has the essence of individuality and self-confidence and which make them stand apart from the stereotypical tags given by traditional patriarchal society. Amidst hindrances and oppressions of various kinds how Deshpande’s women characters come out of their shell to carve a niche for themselves by utilizing their potential and willpower has formed the crux of the book. Comprehensive and analytical in nature, the present book would prove an asset to students of English literature.

This book is a comparative and developmental study of the expression of feminist concerns in the novels of Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai, and Shashi Deshpande, among the best known and most prolific Indian novelists writing in English, who have been self-consciously engaged with women's issues during the postcolonial era.

The essays in South Asia and Its Others: Reading the "Exotic" reveal fresh perspectives on the notion of exoticism in South Asia, and also challenge and extend existing scholarship in the broader discourse of what constitutes South Asia. Significantly, the anthology considers how the phenomenon of "exoticization" may be interpreted as a strategic methodology utilized by writers of South Asian descent to examine critically both the post-colonialist ramifications of casteism, religious intolerance, and gender violence across differing cultural contexts within the region, and how current perceptions of "native" and "diasporic" South Asian subjects problematize ideologies of authenticity across Western-Eastern divides. The papers in this collection show how authors of South Asian ethnicity construct their own version of an "exotic" South Asia globally and the colonialist discourse of "exocitism" is employed as a discursive tool that uncovers the ambiguity that continues to mark the marginality of identities even today.

This book is the first of its kind to examine the theories of nation and national identity in both the West (according to the theories of Benedict Anderson and Salman Rushdie) and in the East (in the light of the works of Jawaharlal Nehru) as they apply to the novels of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai. The second part of the twentieth century witnessed a new interface between fiction and history called “New History”. It brought into its purview the hitherto marginalized sections of society like slaves, peasants, workers, women, and children. Whereas the subalterns in The Inheritance of Loss are disempowered by the brunt of globalisation and neo-colonialism, the subalterns in The God of Small Things face the ire of the deep-seated divisions based on caste and gender bias in a postcolonial society. In addition, this book also deals with contemporary social issues like individual identity in a multicultural world where cultures and nature converge into myriad ways of living. It will be of immense benefit to MA and MPhil students all over India, as well as to PhD scholars and teachers of English literature both in India and abroad.

This book offers a fresh appraisal of the identity and involvement of the subalterns in Mark, arguing that the presence of the subalterns in Mark is a possible hermeneutical tool for re-reading the Bible in a postcolonial context like India. Part I paves the way for a creative discussion on Mark and its interpreters in the rest of the study by looking at the issue of the spread of Christianity and missionary attempts at biblical interpretations that did not take the life of the natives into account. Many insights from the postcolonial situation can be found in the contextual interpretations such as liberation, feminist, postcolonial feminist and subaltern. Part II considers colonial rule in Palestine and examines some Markan texts showing the potential role of the subalterns. It is argued that due to colonial rule, the native people suffered in terms of their identity, religion and culture. There was conflict between Galilee and Jerusalem mainly on religious issues and the victims of domination were the poor peasants and the artisans in Galilee. A dialogue and interaction with the Markan milieu was possible in the research and so the marginal and subaltern groups were effectively understood by exegeting Mark 10:17-31, 7:24-30 and 5:1-20 and showing the postcolonial issues such as the poor and their representation, gender, race, hybridity, class, nationalism, and purity respectively. The subalterns were mainly associated with movements of resistance in Palestine. The Markan proclamation of solidarity with those subalterns is significant. The general conclusion presents the implications of this interpretation for a hermeneutical paradigm for a postcolonial context.

The book is a collection of 22 research papers/articles on the theme of gender from Indian English Writings. It is a critical study of the works of Shashi Deshpande, Anita Desai, Nayantara Sahgal, Krishna Sobti, Khushwant Singh, Bharati Mukherjee, Indira Goswami, Rama Mehta, Arundhati Roy, Kamala Das, Nissim Ezekiel, A. K. Ramanujan, Manju Kapur and Shobha De. The roots of gender discrimination stem from the patriarchal hegemony of our society. All forms of oppression, suppression, subjugation and exploitation of women have been projected through the analytical lenses by the erudite research-scholars and experts from the texts of Indian Writings in English.