Indian Brief Story In English – A Survey
Murli Das Melwani: Themes in the Indian Brief Story in English: An Historical and A Crucial Survey. Bareilly: Prakash E-book Depot, 2009. Pages 207. Worth: Rs. one hundred seventy five/-, ISBN-978-81-7977-323-9.
As Murli Das Melwani states in the Preface, the purpose of the e-book is to draw attention to the genre of Indian Brief Stories in English by critically surveying its historical development from 1835 to the present. He delineates the characteristic thematic features of various authors in seven sections divided into several sub-sections. However, as the writer says in the Preface, "The scope of this book is limited to stories collected and revealed in the e-book form." Neither the e-book consists of uncollected revealed brief stories, retold stories, fairytales and long short stories, nor does it include translated short stories.
In the 'Introduction', Melwani traces the development of short story from Kathasaritsagar to Raja Rao without excluding its development as a form in the West. He takes into consideration early practitioners equivalent to E.T.W. Hoffman, N. V. Gogol, Merimee, Balzac, Gautier, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, O'Henry, and H. G. Wells and so forth within the West and Sudhin Ghosh, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao and others in India.
The primary part entitled 'The Beginnings:1835-1935' contains authors equivalent to Pallab Sengupta, Soshee Chunder Dutt, Cornelia Sorabjee, S. B. Banerjea, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, A. S. Panchpakesa Ayyar, C. T. Ramabhai etc. These early Indian writers in English paved the way in which for the great trio of Indian English Fiction, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan, and Raja Rao who are all discussed separately in Section II of the book. In 'The First Flowering: 1935-1945' Melwani includes such other writers as Manjeri S. Isvaran, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Ela Sen, and Louis Gracious who enriched the nationalist movement of the period with their writing.
Section III deals with several celebrated authors of 1950s similar to Attia Hossain, Khushwant Singh, G. D. Khosla, and others who reflected on human characters vis--vis economic development in the early phase of Post-Independence India.
Section IV, 'The Second Flowering: 1960-1970' deals with some well known writers similar to R. P. Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond, Bhabani Bhattacharya who are less moral however extra satirical and paradoxical of their therapy of themes.
Part V is aptly titled as 'The Blossoming' as a result of it covers the plethora of quick story writers resembling Padma Hejmadi, Keki N. Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Hamdi Bey, Kamala Das, Arun Joshi, Manohar Malgaonkar, and others who flourished throughout the Seventies and 1980s.
They deal with a variety of themes similar to changing methods of small city Indian life, human psyche, parables, politics, the military etc.
The next chapter, Section VI 'An Extended Spring' takes into account contemporary writers equivalent to Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Githa Hariharan, Anita Nair, Uma Parameswaran, Meher Pestonji, and others who contemplate on themes equivalent to mystery, fantasy, migration, homosexuality, tradition versus modernity etc.
The final section 'The Prospect' provides details about the history of publishing houses. It additionally mentions the uncared for girls publishers equivalent to Kali, Katha, Stree, Tara, Tulika, Yoda, Karadi, Zubaan, Girls Limitless, and Biblio. It additionally talks about the way forward for Indian Quick Story in English. The part displays on absence of literary prizes in India and mentions optimistic developments equivalent to Vodaphone Crossword Ebook Award, Indiaplaza Golden Ebook Awards, Readerr's Alternative award and many others for selling quick story writing and reading.
One of many important options of the ebook is that it contains details concerning the lesser recognized writers along with well known writers. Crucial surveys typically cowl solely the well-known names.
This post is written by Derek Perez 1. Watch biblio coupon.