English is being written and read today by more people outside England than inside. This applies no less to the women writers in English across the globe who have made their unmistakable mark in English literature[s], especially in the last century. The present volume,—the second in the new projected series of Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, Studies in Women Writers in English—bears evidence to this phenomenon as the critics address women writers in English in various parts of the globe rather than concentrating on canonised mainstream authors and texts, and thus mainstream writers figure only referentially, in the margin of these critical texts, as it were. Again, understandably Indian writers take over a chunk of the space. However, the essays included in this volume cover authors from America, Canada and India, and also some general theoretical discourse regarding feminism and marginal literature.
The authors discussed in this volume are Christina Rossetti of England, Emily Dickinson, Harper Lee, Lorraine Hansberry and Sylvia Plath of America, Margaret Atwood and Beatrice Culleton of Canada, and Kamala Markandaya, Kamala Das, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai, Githa Hariharan of India. Apart from this a wide spectrum of Indian writers have been referred to and treated in the general articles on feminist theory and practice, especially in India today, and yesterday.
The sixteen essays of the volume will be found interesting as well as useful by students, teachers and scholars and will also be enjoyed by the general readers.
Mohit K.Ray, a full Professor since 1982, is one of the seniormost Professors in the country. He has published three books and a large number of research papers in scholarly journals in India and abroad, which reflect his wide range of scholarship including Criticism, Comparative Literature, New Literatures, Canonical Literature, Comparative Poetics and Translation Studies.
Professor Ray has attended and chaired sessions as an invited participant in many international Conferences, Seminars, and Colloquia held in different parts of the globe—England, France, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Estonia, America, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. Professor Ray has studied several languages including Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic, French, German, etc. He has edited several anthologies of critical studies, and edits three research journals.
Professor Ray is a distinguished member of many international bodies including Association Internationale de Litterature Comparee, Paris, and Association Internationale des Critiques Litteraires, Paris.
Rama Kundu is a full Professor of English. She has been teaching in the Postgraduate Department of English, Burdwan University, West Bengal, since 1976. She is the author of three books: Vision and Design in Hardy’s Fiction, Wrestling With God: Studies in English Devotional Poetry, and a Bengali book Anandamath O Sampradaikta on Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. She has also edited an anthology of research papers on Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World, a collection of essays on Thomas Hardy, and a volume of critical studies on Indian Writing in English, in addition to translating a volume of poems into English—On the Revolving Stage. She has written a large number of research papers (106) published in scholarly journals and anthologies in India and abroad. Professor Kundu has participated and chaired sessions in a large number of National and International Seminars and Conferences including six stints in Europe.
