Papers on Indian Writing in English is in two volumes—first volume deals with poetry while the second volume is on fiction. This is the first volume of the book consisting of twenty papers, dealing exclusively with Indian Poetry in English right from the date of its origin in the 1830s to the present day. The papers called herein are mostly author-based and text-based. Those which do not attempt a survey of a particular period or form concentrate on a certain author or text. One good point of text-based studies is that they bring out the strengths or weaknesses of a particular text in a notable manner.
The present volume focuses on such illustrious poets of India as Aru Dutt (who has written very little but lasting verses), Toru Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu—all representing the older generation; Nissim Ezekiel, A.K. Ramanujan, R. Parthasarathy, Kamala Das, Monika Varma, Margaret Chatterjee, Syed Amanuddin, K.N. Daruwalla, Shiv K. Kumar, Arun Kolatkar, and Suniti Namjoshi (a lesser known figure)—all symbolising the hopes and aspirations of modern India. There is also a chapter on “Irony as Technique in Some 'New' Indo-English Poets”. An Index has been provided at the end of the volume to guide readers through it. Most of the papers included in this volume have already appeared in different magazines, periodicals and books, but putting them together here in book form enhances their accessibility and demonstrates a sense of commitment on the part of the author to the cause of fast-expanding Indian Writing in English. Nowadays, Indian Writing in English has acquired a certain respectability and popularity both in India and abroad, and hence scholars and researchers in this area will find this book quite useful and rewarding.
A.N. Dwivedi, M.A., Ph.D., retired from the University of Allahabad as a Senior Professor of English. After retirement, he joined the U.P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University at Allahabad as a Senior Consultant in English and then proceeded to the Republic of Yemen on an official assignment as Professor and Chairman, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Education, Taiz University, Taiz. A recipient of State Bursary for four years (1961-65), he was awarded Teachers' Research Grant by the ASRC (Hyderabad) in 1972. He was awarded Ph.D. in 1975 on his dissertation “Indian Thought and Tradition in T.S. Eliot's Poetry”, which was later published in both India and Austria with a Foreword by Prof. Grover Smith of the Duke University, U.S.A.
On his return to India in 2010, Dr. Dwivedi taught English Literature at the University of Allahabad as a Guest Faculty till February 2016. He is a well-known critic and poet in English and has published about a dozen books of literary criticism, three books of translation from Hindi into English, and five books of poetry plus a few poems in English. His articles and papers have appeared in such prestigious journals and periodicals as WLWE (U.S.A.), Explicator (U.S.A.), JSAL (U.S.A.), Reviews Journal (Austria), The Aryan Path, Indian Literature, and The Banasthali Patrika. He is on the board of advisors to The Quest (Ranchi), The Expression (Rae Bareli), The Research Journal of English Studies (Faizabad), and Transnational Literature (Flinders University, Australia). He edits The Journal of Contemporary Literature, U.G.C. approved and peer-reviewed international journal based in Allahabad.
Dr. Dwivedi is listed in the International Who's Who (in “Men of Achievement” and “Register of Intellectuals”) of Cambridge, U.K.; Book of Honor, A.B.I. Inc. of Raleigh, North Caroline, U.S.A.; and in the International Who's Who of Contemporary Achievement of Cambridgeshire, England. He also appears in the biographical directories of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. In January 2011, The International Poets' Academy, Chennai, honoured him with Lifetime Achievement Award.
