Mahasweta Devi : Critical Perspectives

This anthology of critical essays examines the defining features of the vast and highly provocative oeuvre of Mahasweta Devi. The ‘Introduction’ maps out the historical/political/cultural milieu in which Mahasweta Devi’s work, reflecting an ardent and abiding concern for the marginalised in India, is inextricably located. Of the rest of the book the first part looks at Mahasweta Devi, the person. It carries the author’s conversation with Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak (globally acclaimed critic), Naveen Kishore (publisher of most of her works) and Nandini Sen (editor of this volume), as also a succinct essay by G. N. Devy based on his personal encounters and association with this towering Indian author. The second part includes critical essays on a fairly wide range of the author’s works such as “Draupadi”, “Stanadayini”, Rudali, Mother of 1084, After Kurukshetra, to name a few. The final segment revaluates Mahasweta Devi’s works in performance examining the cinematic rendering of Rudali and the theatre performances of some of her works by Usha Ganguli and the Budhan group. The volume as a whole aims at a comprehensive understanding of one of India’s tallest litterateurs for whom writing continues to be synonymous with her committed activism.