Literary Theory and Criticism/ Ruminations: Essays Presented to Dr V. N. Dhavale
Edited by  A.P. Dani and V. M. Madge
 
 
This volume, published in honour of Dr V. N. Dhavale, a distinguished scholar and an eminent teacher of English at Fergusson College Pune, succinctly points to the high esteem and deep affection in which this widely knowledgeable scholar-critic is held by his students and peers alike. The essays in this volume centre around the theme of critical theory and practice, a discipline close to the heart of Dr Dhavale. The discourse covers close, in-depth revaluations of the classical formulations by plato and Aristotle, the role of analysis in literary criticism, the rise and persistence of feminism and post-modernism, pedagogy of literary criticism in India, formulation of a common poetics for Indian literature, reader-response theories vis-à-vis Western and Indian Aesthetics, comparative approaches in criticism, new historicism and its future directions, deconstruction and literary theory, and others. The range is comprehensive, the scrutiny is engaging; and the insights are refreshing and perceptive. The book should interest a great deal both the general reader and the specialist in the discipline of literary theory and criticism.
 
A.P. Dani is Reader and Head of the Department of English at Fergusson College, Pune. His doctoral work, which he did under the guidance of Dr V. N. Dhavale, is on the tragicomedies of Dryden. He visited the Canadian Universities under the FIP of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, Delhi in 1988, and has contributed many articles to critical journals in India. Dr. Dani has a wide array of interests ranging from ELT to literatures in English and of late he has developed an interest in recent critical theory.

V.M. Madge is Reader and Head of the Department of English at Waghire College, Saswad (Pune). His book-length publication Academiad (1978) is a mock-heroic poem on our academics. He has also contributed many poems and research articles to various journals and books. In 1991, Dr Madge visited the University of Kent on a British Council scholarship, participated in the Dickens Summer School, and on his return, founded the first Indian branch of Dickens Fellowship, London. His doctoral work on T.S. Eliot and a sequel to it are under publication. Currently, he is engaged in writing a novel and working on several translation projects.

Contributors : P.L. Gadgil, V.N. Dhavale, C.D. Narasimhaiah, V.Y. Kantak, M.K. Naik, M.S. Nagarajan, P.C. Kar, R.A. Malagi, B.N. Kulkarni, Sudhakar Marathe, Rajeev S. Patke, A.P. Dani, Vijaya Guttal, V.M. Madge, Mohit K. Ray, Coomi Vevaina, Kalpana Wandrekar.
 
 
ISBN 81-85753-23-7           1998          212pp           Rs.350 (hb)
 
 

A gift-pack of clear-eyed writing…. the book is the meaningful and eminently purposive white paper on the state of the Indian classroom today
The Hindu