R.K. Narayan: Critical Essays

R.K. Narayan: Critical Essays by Sarbani Putatunda

Book Summary:

Today, Indian Writing in English or Indo-Anglian Writing has certainly come of age, with the novel having a pride of place and names such as Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Kiran Desai and Aravind Adiga prominently figuring in the list. But the credit for placing Indo-Anglian writing on a high pedestal should go to earlier writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao. Among these, R.K. Narayan is the most celebrated novelist.

Audience of the Book :

This book Useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Table of Contents:

Preface

• List of Contributors

Part I: OVERVIEW

1. Introduction

2. A General Survey of Indian English Writings in English

3. R.K. Narayan and Graham Greene

Part II: THE ART OF NARAYAN

4. The Art of R.K. Narayan

5. Narratology and R.K. Narayan’s Short Stories

6. Narayan’s Art of Characterization

7. Hybridity and Humour: A Post-colonial Reading of Malgudi Days

Part III: THE CULTURAL MILIEU OF MALGUDI

8. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in the Fiction of R.K. Narayan

9. Narayan’s Concept of Malgudi

10. Fractures, Heterotopologies and the In-between Spaces of Malgudi(s)

11. The Cultural Milieu of Malgudi: The Marital Life of the Malgudians—The Dark Room and The English Teacher

12. The Cultural Milieu of Malgudi: The Theme of Renunciation—The Bachelor of Arts, The Guide and Waiting for Mahatma

13. Swami and Friends: The Odyssey of an Indian School Child

Part IV: NARAYAN’S FEMINISM

14. Narayan’s Women: A Tale of Marital Bliss?

15. Are Narayan’s Women Truly Emancipated?

16. Caught at the Crossroads of Traditions and Modernity: A Study of Narayan’s Savitri and Rosie

17. A Romantic Betrayal: Rosie’s Case

Part V: MYTHS AND SYMBOLS IN NARAYAN

18. Use of Myth in the Novels of R.K. Narayan

19. Symbolic Connotations in R.K. Narayan’s Novels

Index