Commonwealth literature continues to retain a separate identity in the twenty-first century, even though some of its creators do not favour the term any longer. Our identity stems from our history. English was a historical accident that gave an overwhelming majority of the Commonwealth countries the first opportunity for creative expression. English is now the chief marker of identity for Commonwealth fiction, which owes its current high visibility in the international arena to English. In this light, stimulating answers may be found to the questions concerning the relevance of "Commonwealth" as a literary category, the common characteristics of the literatures produced in the former British colonies, and the role of academia in keeping alive the idea of Commonwealth literature.
In this anthology, scholars from at least three continents analyse some important works of fiction originating from the former British colonies, deal with major topics in the current postcolonial debate, and put Commonwealth fiction itself into perspective.
RAJESHWAR MITTAPALLI is Associate Professor of English at Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, India. His published works of criticism include The Novels of Wole Soyinka and Indian Women Novelists and Psychoanalysis. So far he has edited 16 anthologies of literary essays. They include Post-modernism and English Literature, Indian Fiction in English, Studies in Indian Writing in English, Volume 1 & 2, V.S. Naipaul: Fiction and Travel Writing, Modern American Literature and IT Revolution, Globalization and the Teaching of English.
Dr. Mittapalli currently edits, with Alessandro Monti, The Atlantic Literary Review published from New Delhi. Earlier he was the Associate Editor of Kakatiya Journal of English Studies for several years.
He has published 32 articles on Indian, African and American fiction and ELT in such reputed journals as New Quest, ARTSresearch, Indian Literature, The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Commonwealth Quarterly, The Commonwealth Review and Revaluations.
ALESSANDRO MONTI is Full Professor of English, Department of Oriental Studies, University of Turin, Torino, Italy. He has published a number of essays on Indian literature and Indian English as well as Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells and Virginia Woolf in journals and anthologies. He has authored a critical monograph Durga Marga on contemporary Indian fiction in English and a book The Time after Cowdust which deals with mythical identities in colonial and postcolonial India. He has translated Raja Rao's Kanthapura and On Ganga Ghat into Italian and edited Kipling's The Jungle Books. For Atlantic he edited, with Rajeshwar Mittapalli, an anthology entitled, Post-Independence Indian English Fiction.
