Social Consciousness in the Postcolonial Indian English Fiction

Contents: Preface. Contributors. 1. Social consciousness through postcolonial lenses: a study of Kamala Markandaya\'s novels/Sudhir K. Arora. 2. Caste and the casteless outcaste: a study of subaltern literature/N. Sharda Iyer. 3. Kamala Markandaya\'s The Golden Honeycomb: a colonial history/S. John Peter Joseph. 4. Spiritual syndrome in bonding communal harmony in Naikar\'s Light in the House/Sabita Tripathy. 5. Frantz Fanon, the Indian scenario and some issues of the postcolonial Indian English Fiction/Partha Kumar Mukhopadhyay. 6. Fusion of East-West in Jhabvala\'s A Backward Place/Anshu Bhardwaj. 7. The deplorable state of illegal immigrants in Kiran Desai\'s The Inheritance of Loss/Rajni Singh. 8. Spiritual panacea in Manoj Das\'s The Cyclones/Nanda Kishore Mishra. 9. The patterns of \'Knowing\' in Amitav Ghosh\'s The Calcutta Chromosome/Bishnupada Ray. 10. Nayantara Sahgal\'s Rich Like Us: Question of femininity reviewed/Ketaki Datta. 11. Social consciousness in Amitav Ghosh\'s Fictional work/Santwana Haldar. 12. Silence as affirmation: a study of the heroines of Shashi Deshpande/Anita Myles. 13. Alice\'s Lost Wonderland--a critical reading of Bharti Mukherjee/Neelam Tikkha. 14. Nectar in a Sieve: a veritable document of rural India/Rituparna Datta Roy. 15. Jai Nimbkar\'s Come Rain: Swapping the "Other" with the "Self"/Shirish Chindhade. 16. Indian society and family in Rohiton Mistry\'s Family Matters/Savita Goel. 17. Living But to Die: Saga of widows in Indira Goswami\'s Fictions/N. Sharada Iyer. 18. Sharif Saheb a Symbol of religious and communal harmony: a critical response to Basavaraj Naikar\'s Light in the House/S. John Peter Joseph. 19. Class and caste conflicts in relation to cultural sterility and anti-nationalism: a study in Raja Rao\'s Kanthapura and B.R. Ambedkar\'s Writings/Jayshree Singh. 20. Projection of the famished society and emergence of the enriched soul in Bhabani Bhattacharya\'s "So Many Hungers!"/Piyali Das. 21. Rukmani as an epitome of Indian womanhood: a critical consideration of Kamala Markandaya\'s Nectar in a Sieve/S. John Peter Joseph. 22. Partition narratives and their exploration of identity crisis/Debrati Dutta. 23. Beyond the post-colonial: multicultural communication in Chetan Bhagat\'s One Night@ the Call Center/Samipendra Banerjee. Index.

"Social Consciousness in the Postcolonial Indian English Fiction is an anthology of twenty-three critical articles which set out to explore the social mode of the postcolonial Indian English fiction, representing its myriad shades of discourse and awareness which over the years have turned unto a complex web of insights and realizations. This book, thus, attempts to map out some features of the postcolonial fiction in terms of the interactions between the external reality of the postcolonial India and the novelists\' responses to the changing scenario within the country. The essays dwell on several vital issues from the identity crisis to the national quest for self-image to find out whether the postcolonial image can have any real fulfillment within a framework which is mainly the legacy of the colonial past. The country\'s root tradition, her indigenous culture, women\'s causes and the subaltern situations deserve further probing from all if the nation wants to survive in healthy ways.

The novelists discussed in this anthology are mainly Kamala Markandaya, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Nayantara Sahgal, Amitabh Ghosh, Manoj Das, Kiran Desai, Indira Goswami, Bhasavraj Naikar, Rohinton Mistry, Bharati Mukherjee and Chetan Bhagat.

It is expected that the articles will stimulate the students of literature as well as teachers in framing their own responses to the style and texture of the postcolonial Indian English Fiction which has already carved an identity of its own with a definite voice, vision and style." (jacket)