Author: Rana Nayar
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Rana Nayar
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 482
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788126033973
Description
This book is a ‘one-stop shop’ that showcases the life, times and works of one of the most significant living novelists in Punjabi today. A prominent trendsetter in Punjabi fiction, Gurdial Singh has put the dispossessed and the marginalized at the centre of his fictionscape.
He belongs to that rare breed of Indian writers who continue to show critical engagement with contemporary social reality, and invariably portray this reality with a touch of authenticity, ideological commitment and passionate intensity. His writing betrays a definite penchant for critical realism, and carries an imprint, not necessarily the burden, of the classical tradition of writing.
Along with a fair sampling of Gurdial Sing’s fiction, both long and short, this Reader includes his non-fictional, autobiographical and journalistic writings, too. Here Gurdial Singh speaks in his own voice in several of his works and, of course, in a series of personal interviews.
Others (especially, scholars and critics of Punjab literature) also speak about him and his work in an easy-to-understand, engaging style that strikes an instant chord in the heart of a lay reader. This Reader provides a critical context and framework within which the texts of Gurdial Singh could easily be located and read.
An engaging account of the man and the influences that shaped his genius over the years, Gurdial Singh : A Reader is an insightful compendium, and, of course – the first-ever attempt of this kind – to bring the raw flavour and primal passion of his writing into English, mainly for the benefit of non-Punjabi readers, both in India and abroad.
Contents
Prologue
Section I – (Author : Life & Times)
1. A Biographical Sketch
2. Gurdial Singh : A Storyteller Extraordinaire
Section II – (Author : Face to Face)
3. With Rana Nayar
4. With Shiv Shankari
5. With Vinod Shahi
6. With Dr Arsoo
Section III – (Sampling Short Fiction)
7. A House with Two Rooms
8. A Kareer Branch
9. A Season of No Return
10. Ambo
11. The Watch Isn’t Working Anymore
Section IV – (Extracts from Novels)
12. Marhi Da Deeva (1964)
13. Unhoye (1966)
14. Kuwela (1968)
15. Rete Di Ik Muthi (1969)
16. Adh Chanini Raat (1972)
17. Aathan-Uggan (1974)
18. Anhe Ghore Da Daan (1976)
19. Poh Phutale Toh Pehalan (1982)
20. Parsa (1990)
21. Aahan (2008)
Section V – (Non-Fiction & Other Writings)
(a) Non-Fiction
22. Nyan Mattian (1999)
23. Extracts from Autobiography Part – I
24. Doojee Dehi (2001)
25. Extracts from Autobiography Part – II
26. Lekhak Da Anubhav Te Sirjan Parkriya (1995)
27. Writer’s Experience and Creative Process
28. Lenin Te Hitler De Desh ‘Ch’ (1995)
29. Moscow
(b) Journalistic Writing
30. Post 1857 : Renaissance of Punjabi Language and Culture
31. Sufism, Guru Nanak and Heroism : Hallmarks of Punjabi Literature
32. The Unchanging Plight of Punjabi Women
Section IV – (Critical Reception of Gurdial Singh)
33. Gurdial Singh : An Introduction by Amrik Singh
34. Experiential Versus classical Aesthetics by Jasbir Jain
35. Gurdial Singh : Novelist of the Marginalized by T. R. Vinod
36. Reality, Representation, Katha & Gurdial Singh’s Fiction by Gurpal Sandhu
37. Paradigms of Critical Response and Gurdial Singh’s Novels by Sutinder Singh Noor
38. Gurdial Singh : Marhi Da Deeva by Joginder S. Rahi
39. Gurdial Singh’s Unhoye : A Classic of Punjabi Fiction by Sant Singh Sekhon
40. Alms in the Name of a blind horse : A Tragedy of Common Man by T. R. Vinod
41. Addh Chanini Raat : A Regional Novel by Darshan Singh Maini
42. The Novel as a Site of Cultural Memory : Gurdial Singh’s Parsa by Rana Nayar
43. Gurdial Singh’s Aahan : A Critique of Caste-Conflicts and Class-Structures by Vinod Shahi
Epilogue
Bibliography