Raja Rao is one of the triumvirate of the pioneering Indian novelists in English. His contribution to the growth of the English novel in India is enormous. Each of his novels is a trendsetter. Kanthapura, for instance, demonstrates how the English language can be used to tell a typically Indian story without violating the native speech rhythms, and his The Serpent and The Rope gave a new direction to the Indian novel in English by philosophizing it. His range and vision transcend all barriers. He used the fictional medium to portray his patriotic and philosophical concerns in a masterly way.
In this volume, an attempt has been made to assess Raja Rao’s novels and short stories in terms of his philosophy, vision, style, themes and techniques. It is hoped that Raja Rao scholars across the globe will find the book useful.
Rajeshwar Mittapalli is Professor of English, Kakatiya University, Warangal, Telangana, India. His published works of criticism include The Novels of Wole Soyinka, Indian Women Novelists and Psychoanalysis and Regional Literatures in Translation. He edited The Atlantic Literary Review for six years, apart from co-editing with European and Indian scholars 25 anthologies of critical essays on a variety of literary subjects and ELT. They include: Modern Criticism, Indian Women’s Short Fiction, Postcolonial Theory and Literature, Postcolonial Indian Fiction in English and Masculinity, Salman Rushdie: New Critical Insights (2 vols.), V.S. Naipaul: Fiction and Travel Writing and The Male Empire under the Female Gaze: The British Raj and the Memsahib (Cambria Press, New York). His more than 75 articles, published in India, USA, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, South Africa, Germany, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand and elsewhere in the world, have been frequently anthologized.
Pier Paolo Piciucco is a Lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages in the University of Turin, where he regularly teaches courses on English Literature. Over the years, he has focused his attention mainly on postcolonial and postmodern literature. His monograph, The Two Souls, is a theory on Black South African Theatre about the negotiations which gave rise to a totally marginalized form of art under the Apartheid regime. He has also edited 7 books on Indian literature—notably among them, A Companion to Indian Fiction in English for Atlantic Books, a panoramic study on the major Indian English novelists—and is the author of more than 30 articles.
