Studies in World Classics

Contents: Author\'s Note. I. Asian Classics: 1. Valmiki\'s The Ramayana: as a grand narrative of Indian culture. 2. Vyas\'s Mahabharata as a meditation in Indian Literature. 3. Kalidas\'s Shakuntala as a classic Sanskrit Play. 4. Bhasa\'s Svapnavasavadatta: as a comedy. 5. Premchand\'s Godan: a social document. 6. The epic of Gilgamesh. 7. Tolstoy\'s Anna Karenina: a note. 8. Leo Tolstoy\'s Resurrection as a social saga. 9. Alexander Solzhenitsyan\'s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as a protest novel. II. African classics: 10. Chinua\'s Achebe\'s Things Fall Apart as a colonial saga. 11. Wole Soyinka\'s Kongi\'s Harvest. 12. Gabriel Okara\'s The Voice: a novel about social awakening. III. European classics: 13. Beowalf: as an old English epic. 14. Homer\'s Odyssey: as a portrayal of man\'s quest for identity. 15. Virgil\'s Aeneid: as a great Roman epic. 16. Sophocles\' Oedipus Tyrannus as a great tragedy. 17. Aeschylus\'s Agamemnon: a study. 18. Euripides\'s Hyppolytus: a study in human passions. 19. Luis Cameon\'s The Lusiads: a portrayal of Portuguese\'s Exploits in the East. 20. Albert Camus\'s The Outsider: as a portrayal of metaphysical rebellion. 21. Albert Camus\'s The Plague as an allegory. 22. The absurdity of Josef K\'s Trial in Franz Kafka\'s The Trial. 23. Eugene Ionesco\'s Rhinoceros as a critique of totalitarianism. 24. Luigi Pirandello\'s Six Characters in Search of an Author: as an intellectual comedy. 25. Bertolt Brecht\'s The Caucasian Chalk Circle: as a parable play. 26. Hermann Hesse\'s Siddhartha: a study. 27. Gustave Flaubert\'s Madame Bovary. IV. American classics: 28. Benjamin Franklin\'s Autobiography. 29. H.D. Thoreau\'s Walden: A way of life. 30. Nathaniel Hawthorne\'s The Scarlet Letter: A chronicle of Puritan life. V. Latin American classics: 31. Gabriel Garcia Marquez\'s One Hundred Years of Solitude as a "Total Novel". 32. Isabella Allende\'s Eva Luna as a cultural narrative.

"The present research work Studies in World Classics is like an anthology on seminal works in classical literature. Here one can find articles on great works of Asia (The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, Shakuntala, Godan, Swapnavasavadatta, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and the works of Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyan), Africa (the works of Achebe, Soyinka and Okara), Europe (Homer\'s Epics, the Greek tragedies, Beowulf, Aeneid, and the works of Camus, Kafka, Ionesco, Pirandello, Hesse, and Flaubert), America (Frakling\'s Autobiography, Walden and Scarlet Letter), and Latin America (the works of Marquez and Allende). The study is quite fruitful for the readers and researchers alike." (jacket)