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The Indian Imagination: Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English PDF

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The Indian Imagination • The Indian Imagination Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English K. D. Verma Palgrave Macmillan THE INDIAN IMAGINATION Copyright© K. D. Verma, 2000.All rights reserved. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-312-21139-4 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. ISBN 978-1-349-61825-5 ISBN 978-1-349-61823-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-1-61823-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Verma,K.D. The Indian imagination : critical essays on Indian writing in English I K. D. Verma. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Indic literature (English)-20th century History and criticism. 2. India-In literature. I. Tide. PR9489.6.V46 2000 820.9'954'0904-dc21 99-057757 First edition: May, 2000 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 .3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vn Preface ix 1. Indian Writing in English: Structure of Consciousness, Literary History and Critical Theory 1 2. Sri Aurobindo as a Poet: A Reassessment 31 3. The Social and Political Vision of Sri Aurobindo 47 4. Sri Aurobindo as a Critic 61 5. Mulk Raj Anand: A Reappraisal 83 6. Ideological Confrontation and Synthesis in Mulk Raj Anand's Conversations in Bloomsbury 105 7. Balachandra Rajan's The Dark Dancer: A Critical Reading 125 8. Myth and Imagery in Nissim Ezekiel's The Unfinished Man: A Critical Reading 149 9. Humanity Defrauded: Notes toward a Reading of Anita Desai's Baumgartner's Bombay 163 10. Alienation, Identity and Structure in Arun Joshi's The Apprentice 189 11. Metaphysics and Metastructure of Appearance and Reality in Arun Joshi's The Last Labyrinth 203 Notes 211 Index 264 Acknowledgments J ournal of South Asian Literature, Michigan State University, for permission to use the revised versions of the following papers: "Myth and Imagery in Nissim Ezekiel's The Unfinished Man: A Critical Reading," Journal if South Asian Literature 11.3-4 (1976); "Balachandra Raj an's The Dark Dancer: A Critical Reading," Journal if South Asian Literature 22.2 (1987); "Observa tions," Journal of South Asian Literature 24.1 (1989); "Sri Aurobindo as a Poet: A Reassessment," Journal of South Asian Literature 24.1 (1989); and "Ideo logical Confrontation and Synthesis in Mulk Raj Anand's Conversations in Bloomsbury," Journal if South Asian Literature 29.2 (1994). The Toronto South Asian Review to reprint the revised version of"The Social and Political Vi sion of Sri Aurobindo," The Toronto South Asian Review 8.3 (1990). The In ternational Fiction Review, University of New Brunswick, for permission to reprint the revised version of"The Metaphysics and Metastructure of Ap pearance and Reality in Arun Joshi's The Last Labyrinth," The International Fiction Review 21 (1994). Ariel:A Review of International English Literature, the Board of Governors and the University of Calgary for permission to reprint the revised version of "Alienation, Identity and Structure in Arun Joshi's The Apprentice," Ariel 22.1 (1991). South Asian Review for permission to use "Understanding Mulk Raj Anand: An Introduction," South Asian Review 15.12 (1991). Littcrit, University of Kerala, for permission to reprint the augmented version of"Sri Aurobindo as a Critic," Littcrit 22.2 (1996).Anita Desai, the author, and William Heinemann, Publisher, to quote from Baum gartner's Bombay by Anita Desai. Vision Books and the Joshi Foundation for permission to quote from The Apprentice and The Last Labyrinth by Arun Joshi. Mulk Raj Anand and Arnold-Heinemann Publishers for permission to quote from Conversations in Bloomsbury by Mulk Raj Anand. Nissim Ezekiel and Writers Workshop, Calcutta, for permission to quote from The Unfinished Man by Nissim Ezekiel. Simon & Schuster for permission to quote from The Dark Dancer by Balachandra Rajan. Copyright © 1986 by Balachandra Rajan. Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust for permission to quote from Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library Edition if the Collected TM!rks. Preface T he Indian Imagination is a study in the structure of consciousness of the colonized and decolonized imagination in a broad sociohis torical and cultural context. The fundamental conception of con sciousness as liberty, whether one invokes the definition of consciousness ad advanced by Hegel, Nietzsche or Aurobindo, is essentially moral and philosophical. Any authentic inscription oflndia presupposes a direct con frontation with the moral and philosophical incongruities and unresolv abilities of history. Thus the sociohistorical and sociopsychological process of confrontation-and of a possible synthesis-must include, amongst other things, the narcissistic incursions of the imperial imagination, the newly formulated aspirations of the emerging civil societies and the char acteristic representations of the decolonized imagination. If it is significant to invoke Fanon's psychoanalytical presumptions about the colonial situa tion, it must also be equally significant to examine the psychological for mulations of the postcolonial mind. Can Art and Time mediate between various oppositional strands and affect some sort of cathartic symbiosis? In the idealistic imagination of the poet of Savitri, the awakening of Satyavan from the death-state is allegorical of the awakening ofhumanity. Can India aspire to that level of Aurobindo's vision? Amongst the numerous moral and philosophical unresolvabilities that this work has tried to address are the British imperial possession of India, the Indian struggle for independence, the partition of India and the estab lishment of new India as a free nation. Ironically, the independence oflndia was yoked to the partition of the country. But one of the cruelest and in errable barbarities of history-the large-scale massacre of men, women and children-still remains the severest indictment of the neuroses of a civil so ciety. It is not surprising that Mulk Raj Anand's Bakha in Untouchable and Munoo in Coolie are metaphors of universal human oppression and suffer ing. Needless to say that the intellectual debate on the British colonization of India and the dissolution of the imperial governance is not as yet fully concluded. In examining the legacy of the European intellectual thought

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