• ISBN13: 9788171569106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: English Literature
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd
• Publisher Imprint: Atlantic
• Publication Date: August 21, 2000
• Pages: 172
• Original Price: INR 595.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 180 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): General

This book is a pioneer study in objective criticism of the novels of Anita Desai. An electro-cardiogram records the vibrations of the heart, stylistics does the same for literary texts. Words are the symbols of the vibrations of a writer’s thought. Modern criticism acknowledges that form and idea in any literary text are inseparable. This study successfully proves that the objective and the subjective merge into one another to make a complete whole. The detailed textual analysis of the beginnings of the eight novels of Anita Desai is both revealing and enjoyable because the findings are objectively based and are in concord with the opinion of other critics on the subject. The chapters on Form and Structure and the Rhetoric of the novels including Fictional Sequencing, Discourse and Discourse Situation, Types of Narration, The Narrative Voice, Tone, Speech and Thought Presentation, and Point of View, are equally penetrating and illuminating. The book has much to offer to professionals and non-professionals alike as it combines sound scientific approach with keen critical and aesthetic judgement in literary art.

Professor Mohini Chakranarayan (b. 1944) graduated from the University of Jabalpur with the honour of winning two gold medals — both at the graduate and the post-graduate levels in 1964 & 1967 respectively. She obtained the Diploma in the Teaching of English from the Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, in 1985. Her Doctoral Thesis (1992) was based on the novels of Anita Desai. A keen scholar and researcher, Professor Chakranarayan has made a significant contribution to the academic world by her spirit of adventure, curiosity and search for new methods of learning and teaching English Language and Literature. This book is a record of her successful experiment in the field of novel-criticism based on stylistic methods. It is her belief that stylistics coupled with keen aesthetic sensibility can add recreatively to the appreciation and enjoyment of literary texts. Dr. Chakranarayan’s creative interest in Women’s issues led her to participate in the First International Conference on Research and Teaching Related to Women, held at Montreal, Canada, in the year 1982. Also being dedicated to the cause of students’ welfare, she again represented India as Group-Leader in the Indo-Canada Youth Exchange Programme under the co-sponsorship of the National Cadet Corps of India and Canada World Youth in 1987-88. Dr. Chakranarayan is currently Professor of English at the Govt. Mahakoshal Autonomous College of Arts & Commerce, formerly, the internationally renowned, Robertson College, Jabalpur, in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India.

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Magic of a Page
• Detailed Textual analysis of the Beginning of the eight Novels
• 3. Form and Structure
• A Study of Four Major Novels
• Cry the Peacock, Voices in the City, Fire on the Mountain and Where shall we go this Summer?
• 4. Rhetoric of the Novels
• Anita Desai Fictional Sequencing, Discourse and Discourse Situation, Types of Narration, The Narrative Voice, Tone, Speech and Thought Presentation, Point of View
• 5. Conclusion
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index