CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

Literature is one of the fine arts like music and painting. It is

fundamentally, an expression of life through the medium of language.
Literature is composed of books which are of great human interest due
to their subject matter and mode of presentation. In literature form and
pleasure that form gives are of great importance. The writer is provoked
by an urge for self – expression. Literature reflects an interest in the world
of reality as well as the imagination and our love of form and order.
Matthew Arnold defined literature as criticism of life. We can find our distinct
elements in all good literature. They are not intellectual element, an element of
imagination and fancy and an element of composition and style or the
technical element. Literature is purely personal experience; it deals with the
common questions of life, death, destiny and God. It deals with the social world
order and its activities, Nature and Man’s relationship with an external world.
Literature deals with literature and arts themselves.

The study of literature begins with the reading of books which gradually
leads to the familiarity with authors. Every great book has something fresh and
original to say. As Plato says the foundation of all good and lasting work is
entire sincerity to oneself and to the truth of things one perceives in life. The
purpose of studying literature may be pleasure or acquirement of knowledge
and insight or both. In any case the reader’s business is to enter in to the spirit
of the work and to penetrate into the vital forces of the author’s personality.

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 Another importance aspect of literature is style. Literature uses language
in various moulds. A great writer modifies the language to his own purpose
and moulds it according to his own peculiarities. The style of the authors is
the product of his personality ; it is also a record of his artistic, spiritual,
intellectual growth.

Indian English Literature also referred to as Indian Writing in English, is

the body of work by writers in India who write in the English Language and whose
native or co- native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. Its
early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael
Madhusudan Dutt followed by Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, R.K.
Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao contributed to the growth and popularity
of Indian English fiction in the 1930s. It also associated, in some cases, with the
works of members of the Indian Diaspora who subsequently compose works in
English.

It is frequently referred to as Indo- Anglian literature. Although some

Indo- Anglian works may be classified under the genre of postcolonial literature,
the repertoire of Indian English literature encompasses a wide variety of themes
and ideologies, from the late eighteenth century to the present day, and thereby
eludes easy categorization.

A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, normally

written in prose form, and which is typically published as a book.

The entire genre has been seen as having “a continuous and

comprehensive history of about two thousand years’’ , with its origins in

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classical Greece and Rome, in medieval and early modern romance, and in
the traditional of the Renaissance novella. (Since the 18 th century, the term
“novella”, or “novella” in German, has been used in English and other
European language to describe a long short story or a short novel.)

In the 20th century, several Indian writers have distinguished

themselves not only in traditional Indian languages but also in English, a
language inherited from the British. As a result of British colonisation , India
has developed its own unique dialect of English known as Indian English
typically follows British spelling and pronunciation as opposed to American,
and books published in India reflect this phenomenon . India English literature,
however, tends to utilise more internationally recognisable vocabulary then
does colloquial Indian English, in the same way that American English
literature does so as compared to American slang .

India’s only Nobel laureate in literature was the Bengali

writer Rabindranath Tagore , who wrote some of his works originally in
English, and did some of his own English translations from Bengali. India
best selling English- language novelists of all- time are the contemporary
writers like Chetan Bhagat, Manjiri Prabhu , and Ashok Banker.

Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthrone, Herman Melville,

Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term “romance” to describe their
novels.

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 According to Margaret Doody, the novel constitutes “a continuous
and comprehensive history of about two thousand years”, with its origin in the
Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the
Italian renaissance novella. The ancient romance form was revived by
Romanticism, especially the historical romances of Walter Scott, have argued that
novel is a fiction narrative that displays a realistic depiction of the state of a
society, while the romance encompasses any fictitious narrative that emphasizes
marvellous or uncommon incidents.

Works of fiction that include marvellous or uncommon incidents are

also novels, including the lord of the rings, to kill a Mockingbird, and
Frankenstein. “Romances” are works of fiction whose main emphasis is on
marvellous or unusual incidents, and should not be confused with the romance
novel, a type of genre fiction that focuses on romantic love.

Anita Nair born in 26 January 1966 is an Indian novelist who writes her
books in English- language. She was born in Shoranur in Palakkad District of
Kerala. Nair was educated in Chennai (Madras) before returning to Kerala, where
she gained a BA in English language and literature.

Anita Nair has also written few other books, such as Mistress(2003),
Adventures of Nonu, the Skating Squrriel (2006), Living NextDoor to Alise,(2007)
and Magical Indian Myths(2008).

Her sixth novel Idris :keeper of The light (2014) is a historical and
geographical novel about a Somalian trader who visited Malabar in 1659 AD.

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 Arundathi Roy born in 24 November 1961 is an Indian author best
known for her novel. In 1997 Arundathi Roy published her debut novel, The God
of small Things to wide acclaim.

Among her publications were Power Politics (2001), The Algebra of

Infinite Justice (2002),War Talk(2003), Public Power in the Age of Empire (2004),
Filed Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers (2009), Broken Republic:
Three Essays (2011), and Capitalism: A Ghost story (2014).

Sudha Murty born in 19 August 1950 is an Indian Engineering Teacher,

Kannada, Marathi and English author as well as a social worker. Sudha Murthy is a
prolific fiction author in Kannada and English .She has published several books,
mainly through Penguin, that espouse her philosophical views on charity,
hospitality and self- realization through fictional narratives.

Her works are The Mother I Knew, Three Thousands Stitches, The Man
from the Egg, Here, There, Everywhere, The Old Man And His God, Dollar Bahu,
The Serpent’s Revenge, House of Cards, The Magic of Lost.

Kiran Desai born in 3 September 1971 is an Indian Author. Her novel The
In heritance of loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics
Circle Fiction Award.