A Critical Study of Commonwealth Fiction

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Wole Soyinka: the secular humanist. 3. Bessie heads concern for common man. 4. Kole omotosos fiction a fusion of socio political reappraisal of Africa. 5. Michael Ondaatje and the colonial reality. 6. Robert kroetsch and post modernism. 7. Contemporary Canadian literature and the era of fiction. 8. The book of secrets and the jade peony. 9. V.S. Naipaul: a bend in the river and other novels. 10. Postcolonial literature. 11. The indelible problem: Mulk Raj Anand and the plight of untouchability. 12. Fred D aguiars the longest memory. 13. Salman Rushdie: a post modern representative. 14. Raj Kamal Jhas art of reality. 15. Amitabh Ghosh revisiting history. 16. Shashi Deshpande: potrayal of human condition and individual conflict. Bibliography.

"A Critical Study of Commonwealth Fiction continues to retain a separate identity in the twenty first century even though some of its creators do not favour the term any longer. Our identity stems from our history English was a historical accident that gave an overwhelming majority of the Commonwealth countries the first opportunity for creative expression. English is now the chief marker of identity for Commonwealth fiction which owes its current high visibility in the international arena to English. In this light, stimulating answers may be found to the questions concerning the relevance of Commonwealth as a literary category the common characteristics of the literatures produced in the former British colonies and the role of academia in keeping alive the idea of Commonwealth literature.

In this anthology we analyse some important works of fiction originating from the former British colonies besides dealing with major topics in the current postcolonial debate and put Commonwealth fiction itself into perspective. The book will be highly useful to the students teachers and researchers of English literature particularly those studying Commonwealth fiction." (jacket)