A Comparative Study of R. K. Narayan and Arundhati Roy: Linguistic and Literary Aspects

A Comparative Study of R. K. Narayan and Arundhati Roy: Linguistic and Literary Aspects
Author: N. Prasanna Lakshmi
Publisher: Prowess Publishing
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1545753504

Broadly speaking, Indian English (IE) is that variety of English used by a large number of educated Indians as a second language. Kachru (1983) used the term ‘Indian English’ for the variety of English used generally in the South Asian countries. David Crystal (2003) observes that in India the numbers of English speakers outrank the combined number of speakers in USA and UK. A considerable body of creative writing is also produced in English and is increasing steadily. Writers like Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and Raja Rao, and Arundhati Roy, have become part of India’s literary tradition and they may continue to hold their status in world literature too. The use of Indian English in different domains in interaction with other regional languages has resulted in its development and recognition as a distinct variety in its own right. It is an attempt to study the styles of two of the prominent writers of Indian English, namely R.K. Narayan and Arundhati Roy by examining the different linguistic and literary aspects as reflected in their selected fictions—R.K. Narayan’s “Swami and Friends” (SF) and “The Guide” (TG) and Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things” (GST). An examination of selected fictions of the two writers of this study has shown that stylistic analysis can be a rich field of enquiry in Indian English. Studies of the present kind can be used as a source material for applied linguistics. They can be extended for a comparative study of stylistic traits of Indian writers and non-Indian writers. The study suggests the possibility of further research in comparative stylistic studies in Indian English fiction, on the one hand, and American, British, or Australian fiction, on the other. Our comparison of the two writers, one of the colonial period and the other belonging to the post-colonial period, suggests that a more extensive stylistic study of Indian writing in English is called for to understand the changing phases of English in the socio-cultural ethos of the Indian society. The book is organized as follows: Chapter-I is an introduction to Indian English, its importance and the objective of the research. Chapter-II deals with review of literature on Indian English as well as stylistic studies in Indian English fiction. Chapter-III is concerned with a brief introduction to the texts chosen for study. Chapter-IV discusses the methodology adopted in the study. Chapter-V deals with the results of the study and makes a comparison between the two authors’ styles. Chapter-VI consists of a summary of the research and concludes with suggestions regarding further research needs.

Indian Popular Fiction

Indian Popular Fiction
Author: Prem Kumari Srivastava
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2021-11-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000482820

The scholarly essays in this book open up experimental and novel spaces and genres beyond the traditional and the literary world of Indian Popular Fiction as it existed towards the end of the last millennium. They respond to the possibilities opened up by the technology-driven and internet-savvy reading and writing world of today. Contemporaneous and bold, most of the essays resonate with the racy and fast-paced milieu and social media space inhabited by today's youth. Combative in its drift, this book makes possible an attempt to disband hierarchies and dismantle categories that have engulfed the expansive landscape of Indian Popular Fiction for too long. It facilitates discussion on graphic novels, microfiction, popular-entertainment and political satire on television and celluloid, social media-driven romances existing in the domain of the 'real' rather than that of 'fantasy' and mythological readings against the backdrop of gender and politics. Aimed at facilitating further research by scholars and enthusiasts of Indian Popular Fiction, this book is also an ode to the current trends generated by social and internet media cosmos. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Writer's Nightmare

Writer's Nightmare
Author: R K Narayan
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2000-10-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 8184750765

The pick of thirty years of essays from R.K. Narayan, India's greatest English language novelist. R.K. Narayan is perhaps better known as a novelist, but his essays are as delightful and enchanting as his stories and novels. Introducing this selection of essays, Narayan writes, 'I have always been drawn to the personal essay in which you see something of the author himself apart from the theme...the scope for such a composition is unlimited—the mood may be sombre, hilarious or satirical and the theme may range from what the author notices from his window to what he sees in his waste-paper basket to a world cataclysm.' A Writer's Nightmare is the marvellous result of Narayan's liking for the personal essay. In the book, he tackles subjects such as weddings, mathematics, coffee, umbrellas, teachers, newspapers, architecture, monkeys, the caste system, lovers—all sorts of topics, simple and not so simple, which reveal the very essence of India.

The Emerald Route

The Emerald Route
Author: R. K. Narayan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 184
Release: 1999
Genre: Karnataka (India)
ISBN: 9780140289183

&Lsquo;The Term Occurred To Me When We Started Out On A Tour Of Karnataka, From Mysore, Through Hunsur And Hassan, And Returning To Mysore Nearly One Week Later, Having Continuously Journeyed Up And Down The Ghats, The Konkan Coast And Coorg, And Never Seeing A Dry Patch Anywhere. Green Of Several Shades We Saw, Mountainsides Lightly Coated With Verdure And Fern, The Dark Foliage Of Trees Rising Hundreds Of Feet From The Valley, Light Green, Dark Green, Pale Green, Evergreen, And Every Kind Of Green Shade, Were Offered For Our Delectation All Through Our Circular Tour Of Approximately A Thousand Kilometres.&Rsquo; The Emerald Route Is R.K. Narayan&Rsquo;S Account Of His Travels Across His Homeland Of Karnataka, From Belur And Halebid To Gulbarga And Hampi, From The Hilly Prospects Of Mangalore To The Gold Mines Of Kolar, From The Legendary Battlefield Of Seringapanam&Mdash;Home Of Tippu Sultan&Mdash;To The Rock Formations Of Bellary&Mdash;Supposed To Be Gigantic Pellets Thrown By Bhima At Bakasura. As He Makes His Way Through The Shopping Complexes Of Bangalore And The Elephant Khedda At Karapur, Samples The Local Delicacies Like Nanjangud Bananas And Avaraikalu Beans And Enjoys The Sunsets And Mallige (Jasmine) At Mysore, The Master Storyteller Tells Us About The History And Mythology That Make Karnataka The Fascinating State It Is. Published In Paperback For The First Time, This Previously Unavailable Volume From India&Rsquo;S Greatest Living Writer Will Be A Delight To Every Fan Of R.K. Narayan. &Nbsp;

City of Victory

City of Victory
Author: Ratnakar Sadasyula
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2016-02-10
Genre: Hampʣi (India)
ISBN: 9781523946631

"In the year 1336 AD, two brothers Harihara and Bukka Raya, founded a kingdom on the banks of the Tungabhadra River at a place called Hampi. Over the next 3 centuries, it would grow to become one of the mightiest empires in the world, the Vijayanagara Empire. An empire dazzling in it's achievements, in it's riches, in it's arts. From it's founding, to it's fall after the Battle of Tallikota to the heights it achieved under Sri Krishna Deva Raya, City of Victory aims to recreate the splendor and glory of one of the most magnificent empires ever."--Amazon.

Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher

Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher
Author: R. K. Narayan
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Total Pages: 650
Release: 2009-06-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307498131

R. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. The four novels collected here, all written during British rule, bring colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism. Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British. The Bachelor of Arts is a poignant coming-of-age novel about a young man flush with first love, but whose freedom to pursue it is hindered by the fixed ideas of his traditional Hindu family. In The Dark Room, Narayan’s portrait of aggrieved domesticity, the docile and obedient Savitri, like many Malgudi women, is torn between submitting to her husband’s humiliations and trying to escape them. The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan’s most autobiographical novel, searches for meaning when the death of his young wife deprives him of his greatest source of happiness. These pioneering novels, luminous in their detail and refreshingly free of artifice, are a gift to twentieth-century literature.