The twice born fiction: themes and techniques of the Indian novel in English

248 Pages·1971·10.013 MB·English

by  Meenakshi Mukherjee

THOMAS J. BATA LIBRARY
TRENT UNIVERSITY

THE TWICE BORN FICTION
To S. M.
who first gave me the idea for this book
The Twice Born Fiction
Themes and Techniques of the
Indian Novel in English
MEENAKSHI MUKHERJEE
HEINEMANN
NEW DELHI * LONDON
HEINEMANN EDUCATIONAL BOOKS LTD.
LONDON * EDINBURGH * MELBOURNE * TORONTO
AUCKLAND * SINGAPORE * JOHANNESBURG
HONGKONG * NAIROBI * IBADAN
© Meenakshi Mukherjee
First Published 1971
Published by Heinemann Educational Books (India) AB/9, Safdarjang Develop¬
ment Area, New Delhi-16. Printed in India by Oxford Printcraft (India)
Private Limited, Scindia House, New Delhi-1
Preface
Indian writing in English is the only form of modern Indian
literature that is accessible to critical examination all over the
country and even abroad. Creative writing in our regional lan¬
guages remains confined to critical discussion in their respective
regions—except perhaps in the case of Hindi, which reaches
beyond regions—and it is difficult to sustain any real exchange
between critics of different literatures in the country. The critic
of Indo-Anglian literature is thus exposed to the larger world of
literary criticism and runs the risk as well as enjoys the challenge
of such exposure.
I have chosen to write on Indian novels in English both because
the Indian novel is my special interest and because the bulk of
Indo-Anglian literature is in the novel form. By designating the
Indo-Anglian novel as ‘twice born’ I have not tried to promote
it to a superior caste. I find it the product of two parent traditions,
and suggest that a recognition of this fact is the first step towards
granting the Indo-Anglian novel its proper place in modern Indian
literature.
A research fellowship from the University Grants Commission
made it possible for me to rest from teaching and begin this work.
Professor S. Nagarajan of the University of Poona helped me to
complete it, through long hours of patient discussion and
invaluable counsel. Nothing that I can say in words will equal
what this study owes to him. While the work was in progress,
my husband Dr. Sujit Mukherjee acted as the sounding board for
most of the ideas contained here and cheerfully suffered this res¬
ponsibility. Finally, when these pages got to the stage of printing,
my daughter Rukmini helped me a great deal in preparing the index.
3rd August 1971 Meenakshi Mukherjee
New Delhi 18219
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/twicebornfictionOOOOmukh