Critical Essays on Indian English Writing (Hardbound - 2013)

Indian English has been universally accepted as a unique style of discourse with its own nuances, giving expression to Indian multiculturalism in the works of writers in India or those abroad. Not only the new Indian writers in the West, expatriates, second and third generation writers, but also the classic authors like A.K. Ramanujan, Nissim Ezekiel, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Bhabani Bhattacharya are being interpreted in the old New Critical mode as well as the current critical styles of multiculturalism, postcoloniality and diaspora. V.S. Naipaul is being interpreted not only as a Caribbean or British author but also a diasporic writer engaged in a quest for the Indianness inherited by him.

The twelve essays in this book deal with the various aspects of Indian English Writing in the light of the current critical trends. The essays, originally published in reputed research journals or critical anthologies over the years, are: “Contemporary Indian English Literary Scene,” “Multiculturalism and Indian (English) Literature,” “Indian English Prose Writing,” “A.K. Ramanujan’s Credo,” “Nissim Ezekiel’s Credo,” “Soul-Stuff and Vital Language: The Poetry of P. Lal,” “Mulk Raj Anand on the Novel,” “Anand’s Vision of War and Death in Across the Black Waters,” “Bhabani Bhattacharya’s A Dream in Hawaii: A Study in Postcolonial Spirituality,” “‘Philosophers and Lovers: Paradox of Experience’ in Shiv K. Kumar’s The Bone’s Prayer,” “Technique in the Short Stories of Tagore,” and “From Darkness to Light: V.S. Naipaul’s Indian Odyssey.” The article on Naipaul has been written especially for this book.

Dr D. Ramakrishna was formerly Professor and Head of the Department of English at Kakatiya University, Warangal, India.

He was at the University of Texas at Austin and the City University of New York in 1992 on Senior Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellowship doing advanced research on the subject of his Ph.D., Edgar Allan Poe’s fiction. He published The Craft of Poe’s Tales (New Delhi, 2000), Perspectives on Poe (New Delhi, 1996), and Explorations in Poe (New Delhi, 1992). Two of the anthologies edited by him, The American Classics Revisited: Recent Studies of American Literature (Hyderabad, 1985) and Indian English Prose: An Anthology (New Delhi, 1980) were prescribed for M.A. (English) at Indian universities. He contributed a chapter “Poe in India” to the book Poe Abroad edited by Lois D. Vines and published by the University of Iowa Press (1999) in the U.S. Also he published thirty-four papers in the Indian and American journals including SPAN, The Emerson Society Quarterly, and The Explicator.

Professor Ramakrishna is currently working on a critical book, Gothic Resonances: Poe in Modern and Postmodern American Fiction, a collection of short stories, The Millennial Vision and Stories and a novel, The Confluence.