Contents: Preface. Acknowledgement. Contributors. I. Africa: I. Fiction: 1. Nadine Gordimer's My Son's story: a post-colonial discourse/G.J. Sathiaseelan. II. Short story: 2. A Mosaic of gender, race and community: African women's writing/Ketaki Goswami. III. Drama: 3. The conflict between nationalism and imperialism in Ngugi Wa Thiang'o and Micere Githae Mugo's The Trial of Dedan Kimathi/Basavaraj Naikar. 4. Against apartheid: a study of Athol Fugard's statement plays/S. Usha Kalyani. II. Bangladesh: I. Fiction: 5. Assertion of the self: from acquiescence to revelation: an analysis of Taslima Nasrin's French Lover/T.S. Ramesh. III. India: I. Poetry: 6. Tamil Sangam poetics and its relevance to the study of commonwealth literature/K.C. Chellappan. 7. A conflux of characters in Shiv K Kumar's Thus Spake the Buddha/D.C. Chambial. 8. The achievement of Nissim Ezekiel/K. Balachandran. 9. Jai Nimbkar's temporary answers: a unified world of transience/A.P. Dani. II. Fiction: 10. The colonial encounter: a critical response to Basavaraj Naikar's The Sun Behind the Cloud/S. John Peter Joseph. 11. Social purpose in Mulk Raj Anand's untouchable/R. Baskaran. 12. Gandhian theme in Raja Rao's Kanthapura/Jayashree Satish. III. Autobiography: 13. A woman's effort against disempowerment and suppression: Kamala Das's My story/Tanushree Nayak. IV. Drama: 14. Caste as Curse: a new--historicist reading of Girish Karnad's Tale Danda and Vijay Tendulkar's Kanyadaan/S. Ravindranathan. 15. Brechtian impact on Girish Karnad/T. Marx. 16. Gender discrimination and feminism in Vijay Tendulkar's Silence! The Court is in Session/Thenmozhi. 17. Vijay Tendulkar's silence! The Court is in session: a play of Plight and Plunder /Amar Nath Prasad. 18. Strains of mystic thought in Tagore's Mukta-dhara/G. Natanam. IV. New Zealand: I. Fiction: 19. From 'The other side of the Doorway': Ihimaera 'Re-writing' mansfield/Rama Kundu. V. Nigeria: I. Short story: 20. Images of contemporary Nigeria's moral and spiritual Malaise in the short stories of Ben Okri, Adewale Maja-Pearce and Okey Chigbo/P. Manickam. VI. The West Indies: I. Poetry: 21. A critique on the poetry of Derek Walcott/Lily Arul Sharmila.
"Critical Essays on Commonwealth Literature (A Festschrift to Shri C.V. Seshadri, Prof. of English, Annamalai University) is a humble attempt to present Indian responses to commonwealth poetry, fiction, short story, drama and autobiography. The 21 contributors (working in various universities in India), have made this book precious by way of their fruitful research and findings.
The twenty one critical essays throw more light on the different aspects of commonwealth literature in a lucid and appreciable style, which can be really useful to the students, researchers, and teachers of commonwealth literature." (jacket)
