Contemporary English Literature (Hardbound - 2020)

The book expresses contemporary consciousness in different genres of English literature from multi-functional perspective. The Nowhere Man brings to the fore the relationship of the orients and the occidents and exposes the problem of transculturation with its diasporic concerns. The Inheritance of Loss in its multi-textured form reflects the experiences of an illegal immigrant. Jhumpa Lahiri in her works appears as an articulate commentator of the maladies of women immigrants. For them, settlement in the new social environment in a foreign country with all its comforts and glamours proves to be a poor substitute for the loss of native moorings. The Impressionist thematises the idea that identity as a concept cannot be basic and invariable. The World According to Hsu refers to the identity reformulations in this age of diasporas and advocates that one’s biological identity may not be the only identity because erosions and accretions are bound to come with the act of emigration. Imtiaz Dharker with her various cultural experiences of Pakistan, India and Britain takes a pluralistic approach in her poems in presenting an image of a disintegrating world. Contemporary theories like Postmodernism, which are allied to present literature, contribute to better understanding of our present social and psychic conditions.

The book will be highly useful to the students and teachers of English literature and researchers in this field.

R.P. Pradhan is a gold medallist in M.A. (English) from the University of Allahabad. He got his D. Phil. degree on Saul Bellow from the same university. At present, he is a senior lecturer in the Department of English, V.S.S.D. College, Kanpur. His two books—The Woman in the Novels of Saul Bellow and Studies in the Romantic Poets—have received an overwhelming response from the readers. He has contributed several research papers on different literary subjects in journals of great repute. He has been guiding research scholars working on various aspects of English literature. His area of interest includes contemporary fiction mainly Afro-American, Canadian and Anglo-Indian fiction.