Murli Das Melwani: Themes in Indian English Short Stories: History and Critical Surveys. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2009. Page 207. Price: Rs. 175 / - , ISBN - 978-81-7977-323-9.
As Murli Das Melwani stated in the preface, the purpose of this book is to draw attention to the types of English Hindu short stories by critically investigating the historical developments from 1835 to the present. He divided the seven sections into sections, depicting the characteristic themes of each author. However, as the author said in the preface, "The scope of this book is limited to stories collected and published in book form." This book does not include unclear short stories, retelling stories, fairy tales, and long short stories. Nor does it include translated short stories.
In the "Introduction", Melwani traces the development of short stories from Kathasaritsagar to Raja Rao, but does not rule out its development as a Western form. He considers early practitioners such as ETW Hoffman, NV Gogol, Merimee, Balzac, Gautier, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, O&#Henry; and HG Wells in the West and Sudhin Ghosh, RK Narayan, Raja Rao And others in India.
The first part is called "The Beginnings: 1835-1935' including authors such as Pallab Sengupta, Soshee Chunder Dutt, Cornelia Sorabjee, SB Banerjea, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, AS Panchpakesa Ayyar, CT Ramabhai, etc. These early Indian English writers were Indian The trio of English novels paved the way. Few Mulk Raj Anand, RKNarayan and Raja Rao were discussed separately in the second part of the book. The first flowering: 1935-1945' Melwani includes Manjeri S. Isvaran, Other writers such as Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Ela Sen and Louis Gracious, enriched the nationalist movement of this period through writing.
The third part deals with several famous writers of the 1950s, such as Attia Hossain, Khushwant Singh, GD Khosla, and other figures who reflected human roles and economic development in India's post-independence period.
The fourth quarter, the second flowering: 1960-1970' dealing with some famous writers such as RP Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond, Bhabani Bhattacharya, they are less ethical but more ironic and contradictory in dealing with the subject.
The fifth section is appropriately named "flowering." Because it covers too many short story writers such as Padma Hejmadi, Keki N. Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Hamdi Bey, Kamala Das, Arun Joshi, Manohar Malgaonkar and others who thrived in the 1970s and 1980s.
They deal with various themes, such as changing the lifestyle of the town Indians, the human mind, metaphor, politics, and the military.
The following chapters, Section VI and an extended spring' consider contemporary writers such as Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Githa Hariharan, Anita Nair, Uma Parameswaran, Meher Pestonji, and others considering mystery, fantasy, immigration, People with themes such as homosexuality, tradition and modernity.
The last section ' The Prospect' provides detailed information about the history of the publishing house. It also mentions neglected female publishers such as Kali, Katha, Stree, Tara, Tulika, Yoda, Karadi, Zubaan, Women Unlimited and Biblio. It also talks about the English future of Indian short stories. This section reflects India's lack of literary awards and mentions positive developments such as the Vodaphone Crossword Book Award, the Indiaplaza Gold Book Award, and the Reader's Choice Award to promote the writing and reading of short stories.
An important feature of this book is that it contains details about little-known writers and famous writers. Key surveys usually only cover well-known names.
The bibliography is of great help to researchers because it provided detailed information about the short story collection as early as 1908.
However, on a negative side, this book does not include references to some famous contemporary writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Farrukh Dhondy, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Rohinton Mistry, etc. Even if they are motivated, their discussion will be strengthened. The author may have familiarize the reader with the little-known names that most books tend to ignore. However, it is an important publication that is useful to every researcher and Indian English writing student.
[in collaboration with Sudeshna Pandey, M. Phil Research Fellow]
Orignal From: Indian English Short Story - a survey
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