Novels of Anita Desai (Hardcover)  | Released: 2008

Anita Desais work represents a unique blending of the Indian and the western. Her novels catch the bewilderment of the individual psyche confronted with the overbearing socio-cultural environment and the ever-beckoning modern promise of self-gratification and self-fulfilment. In the face of this dual onslaught, her protagonists, male or female Maya, Sita, Monisha and Amla; Sarah, Nanda and Raka; Bim and Tara; Devan, Baumgartner are seen poised rentalizingly at different junctures of the philosophic spectrum. Applying sociological, psychoanalytic, structural and other approaches of formal textual analysis, the essays in the present anthology take a fresh look at established works, revealing aspects of study hitherto unexplored, offer critically insightful probes into individual novels and explore the deployment of images, symbols and other poetic devices, besides diverse narrative strategies. An indispensable source-book for students, researchers and teachers of Indian English and Commonwealth Literature in general and fiction and Anita Desai in particular. An insightful companion for research in sociology and women-studies.Table of Contents: 1. 'Cry the Perturbed Self ' A Note on Anita Desai M.K. Bhatnagar 2. Fate and Fatalism in Anita Desai's Cry, the Peacock Dr. (Mrs.) S.S. Rengachari 3. Superstition and Psyche in Anita Desai's Cry, The Peacock Dr. M. Rajeshwar 4. Treatment of Neurosis in Cry, The Peacock Q.F. Inamdar 5. Anita Desai's Where Shall We Go This Summer? A Psychoanalytical Study Dr. M. Mani Meitei 6. Love-Hate Relationship of Expatriates in Anita Desai's Bye-Bye Blackbird Dr. Sumitra Kukreti 7. The Alienated Self A Study of Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day Dr. S.P. Swain 8. Character and Setting in Anita Desai's In Custody Dr. K. Ratna Shiela Mani 9. Anita Desai's Fire on the Mountain and the Iconography of the Crone Carmen Concilio 10. Raka As a Metaphor for Ruined Childhood in Anita Desai's Fire on the Mountain Dr. B. Brahmananda Chary 11. A Focus on Anita Desai's 'Games at Twilight' B. Vyaghreswarudu 12. Tradition and Deviation A Study of Anita Desai's Novels Dr. S.P. Swain 13. Images of Alienation A Study of Anita Desai's Novels Dr. S.P. Swain 14. Alienation of Women Characters in Anita Desai's Novels Dr. C.V. George 15. Note of Existentialism in the Novels of Anita Desai Dr. S.P. Swain 16. Anita Desai : "A Grain of Sand in an Oyster" Dr. O.J. Thomas 17. The Ironic Presence of Nature in the Novels of Anita Desai Dr. Sandhyarani Dash 18. Time as Narrative Device in the Novels of Anita Desai Ms. Jayita Senguptu 19. Multiple Meanings of Marginality in Anita Desai's Baumgartner's Bombay J. Wilson 20. Victims and Survivors in The 'Sugar-Sticky Web of Family Conflict A Reading of Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting Pamela Oliver 21. Anita Desai's Novels : A Study in Verbal Pattern and Psyche Kunjbala Goel 22. Anita Desai's Prose Style F.A. lnamdar 23. The Concept of 'New Woman' is Anita Desai's "Clear Light of Day" Ramesh Kumar Gupta