Indian Literary Criticism in English

Indian Literary Criticism in English

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Author: P K Rajan
Editor(s): P K Rajan
Publisher: Rawat Publications
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 363
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170337488

Description

Indian English literature is barely a century and a half old. During this period it cannot claim to hve developed critical schools or movements with their own distinctive identity. As a mtter of fact, scholarship in the discipline has not yet expended considerable attention on discovering and assembling vlid ciritical statements or documents which lie scattered in many not-so-well-known publications brought out in different places at different times.

Theoretical work in the post-Independence period has been substantial, and as things stgand today, Indian English literature can claim to have developed a body of critical theory which merits serious attention

Theory, it seems, is the defining features of all intellectual life in our contemporary times. In literature, of Course, this is undoubtedly so. One even suspects the danger of creative literature being swamped by critical theory. Frank Kermode, the distinguished English critic, has narrated the instance of a sign he saw on the door of a biology laboratory in Los Angeles a few years ago. It read: " Theories come, theories go; but it's still the sme frog". Amused by this, the ciritic seeks its parallel in literature and comments: " There is a risk that in the less severe disclipline of ciritism the result may turn out to be different; the theories will remain but the frog may disappear.

The term Literary Critism is used in the present anthology to encompass both critical theory and practical critcism. Practical criticism, distinct from critical theory, is a relatively new development in Indian English literature. This book makes a vluable contribution to this ongoing process of inquiry in the filed of Indian literary critism in English,

In the course of preparing this anthology, the editor has come to an increasing realization that critical writing in English by Indians is an exciting area which deserves to be a subject of serious study and painstaking research by the Departments of English in our universities. Many of these Departments at present offer courses in Indian Poetics. Indian Literary Criticism in English cannot compare with the Sanskrit heritage either in quantitative output or qualitative sophistication. But this branch of criticism has acquired an identity of its own over the years and its serious study has a relevance and significance vital to the project of cultural studies that has achieved centrality in our current intellectual transactions. The proposition that is child be accorded a new status in the curriculum has its own ample justification.

This anthology of critical essays attempts to make a comprehensive evaluation of some of the major Indian critics/theorists in English and also focus on some of the issues vital to contemporary Indian literary criticism. Even though much is available as scattered pieces in the field, there ha seldom been an effort to bring together the major writers for close scrutiny in a single volume. Similarly, the efforts to highlight the issues of contemporary criticism with special reference to Indian English have also been scanty.

The present volume shows Indian critical writing in English as an exciting area which deserves to be a subject of serious study and painstaking research by the English Departments in our universities.

Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

CRITICS, TEXTS
Tagore's Criticism: Creation within a Creation
Sri Aurobindo as a Critic
Suggestive Taste of Theory: Rasa and Dhvani in Hiriyanna's Art Experience
Ananda K Coomaraswamy's View of Indian Poetics
Mardhekar's Contribution to Aesthetics and Criticism
K R Srinivasa Iyengar: Critic Extraordinary
P Lal: Pionner Who Baffles
C D Narasimhaiah: Towards a Common Poetic for Modern India
Search for an Integrated Aesthetics
From Statement to Suggestion: The Relevance of Krishna Rayan as a Critic
Toward a New Critical Paradigm: Meenakshi Mukherjee and the Indian English Critical Tradition
Aijaz Ahmad on third World Culture

ISSUES

Marginalizing the Centre - Centring the Periphery: The Reception of Indian Literature in English
Considerations of the Postcolonial in connection with India Culture Criticism in India and the Marxist problematic
Poststructuralism as a Radical Alternative
History and Historiography of Literature in Pre-colonial India
Tradition, Modernity and Post modernity/Region, Nation and Internation: Challenges in Theory
The Historical method and the Indian English Critics
Literary Criticism in the New Millennium
Towards Indian Feminist Literary Criticism
The Scene of Theory in India at the Present Moment: An Emblematic Encounter
Towards an Alternative Aesthetics
The Crumbling Walls of Criticism: Scaling Criticism in the 20th Century
Paradigms in Plurality: Search for a Regenerative Principle in Indian Criticism

Index