The rose and the lotus : partnership studies in the works of Raja Rao / Stefano Mercanti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mercanti, Stefano.

Series:

Cross/Cultures 122.

Cross/cultures, 0924-1426 ; 122

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indic fiction (English)--20th century--History and criticism.

Indic fiction (English).

Raja Rao--Criticism and interpretation.

Raja Rao.

India--In literature.

India.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (lvii, 221 pages).

Other Title:

Partnership studies in the works of Raja Rao

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Raja Rao, one of the founding figures of Indian English literature, is re-examined in this comprehensive study of his fiction, which offers a fresh critical investigation into both his short stories and his novels. Powerfully contradicting the long-held perception of Raja Rao as a mere metaphysical writer and the true bard of quintessential Indianness, projected by many critics of the first Commonwealth generation over three decades, Stefano Mercanti posits Rao’s fiction in terms of its dialogic interaction – the ‘partnership’ – between Western and Eastern cultural traditions and demonstrates how it evolves during the course of his oeuvre on both the philosophical and the political level. The title, The Rose and the Lotus , signals the discursive terrain for a multicultural and interwoven evolution among different cultures, and points to the need for valuing relations of reciprocity rather than those of domination. Far from conveying univocal configurations and nationalistic stereotypes, Rao’s idea of India is seen as the epicentre of many echoes and dynamic resonances, both Western and Eastern, through which a distinct blend of Indian and European influences is more clearly unravelled. In this new critical re-appraisal, Mercanti draws on non-binary and inter/multi-disciplinary paradigms, thus signalling the complex transformations and multiple negotiations of a polyglot India caught between the cultural twilight of the modern and the traditional. The study also offers an invaluable linguistic analysis of Rao’s experiment with the English language, supplemented by a detailed glossary.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

The Short Stories

The Painful Search

Reconciling the Self

Conclusion

Glossary

Chronology

Select Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-420-2834-3

OCLC:

653244651

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789042028340 DOI