Contents: Preface. Contributors. 1. Narrative strategies and the invisible in Neelum Saran Gour's Sikandar Chowk Park: reconstructing identities and (Inter-) religious confrontation/Ludmila Volha. 2. From the Sandal trees to facing the mirror: a herstorical over-view of same-sex love in India/Ana Garcia-Arroyo. 3. Literature still matters! the namesake: woman reads woman/Prem Srivastava. 4. The celebration of acculturation in Monica Ali's Brick Lane/Leela Kanal. 5. A socio-cultural feminist critique of inside the Haveli within the frame of the marginal/Vaishali Naik. 6. Reason and rebellion in feminism: Shashi Deshpande and Bharati Mukherjee/supriya Sahsrabuddhe. 7. Dimensionality of history and politics in Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candy man/P.D. Nimsarkar. 8. Shashi Deshpande's the binding vine: an ecocritical perspective/Amol Padwad. 9. Mistress of her choice-conflict and resolution in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's arranged marriage/Malti Panga. 10. Rendenzvous with Manju Kapur. 11. Changing faces of women in Manju Kapur's home/Nutan Chotai. 12. Writing on the wall: a critique of Namita Gokhale's Shakuntala/Madhavi Moharil. 13. Enigma of cultural interface: a study of diasporic experiences in Jhumpa Lahiri's the Namesake/Jyoti Patil. 14. Githa Hariharan's the thousand faces of night: a silent quest for identity/Shirish More. 15. Marriage as misalliance: a reading of Anita Nair's mistress/Sujata Chakravorty. 16. Reclamation of inheritance: Biju's homecoming in Kiran Desai's the inheritance of loss/Narendra Khandait. 17. Such a long journey: the quest for identity in Gita Mehta's Raj/Renu Dalela and Alka Zade. 18. De-Analysis of marital relationships/Priya Wanjari. 19. Resolution of Akhila's Dilemma in ladies coupe/Varsha Karmarkar. 20. Evolution of 'New' female identity in Namita Gokhale/Vandana Bhagdikar. 21. Mother-daughter relationships in fasting, feasting and difficult daughters/Usha Kurjekar. 22. On structures of dyadic mother-daughter relationships (An analysis of Kamila Shamsie's broken verses)/Vandana Pathak and Urmila Dabir. 23. Echoes of realism in Manju Kapur's difficult daughters/Shubha Mishra. Index.
"Contemporary Fiction: An Anthology of Female Writers focuses only on one particular genre of literature-fiction. It analyzes various issues related with socio-cultural dimensions of patriarchy, religious confrontation and identity, sexual diversity, transculturalism, immigrant and diasporic sensibilities, socio-psycho-political-historical representations, economic ramifications and globalization, eco-critical perspective, and female quest for identity.
The highlight of the anthology is Manju Kapur's long and exhaustive interview. It would provide a new sense of direction to research scholars and would be of great interest to all literature lovers, students and teachers alike.
The papers in the anthology can serve as reference points to all those who are interested in an indepth study of contemporary female fiction writers underlining the space they have created for themselves and reveal various aspects, nuances, and shades of women writing's in English." (jacket)
