Creating Theory: Writers on Writing
Edited by  Jasbir Jain
 
The present volume of essays by creative writers is a representative collection of twentieth century voices as it brings together the experiences, responses, conflicts and creative strategies of a range of writers born between 1905 and 1947, men and women, traditional and modern, brought up in varying circumstances, writing in different languages, exposed to colonialism and residual colonialism, writers who have worked out their conflicts creatively and have questioned western normative structures. In their search for a sense of identity and for a form which reflects Indian reality, they address concerns of narratology, dramaturgy, linguistic structures, orality, and the socio-cultural conflicts. As these writers redefine tradition and work out alternatives, their common concerns become evident. Their views on the connections between the past and the present, between socio-cultural realities and literature, between creative writing and literary theory not only provide a critical tradition but also explain the ‘postcolonial’ project. They provide the ‘context’ for the interpretation and critiquing of contemporary Indian literature.
Jasbir Jain, formerly Professor of English, University of Rajasthan, is currently K.K. Birla Fellow of Comparative Literature engaged in research on Contextualizing Modernism : The Novel in India. Published extensively in the discipline of cultural studies, she is the editor of an ongoing series on Writers of the Indian Diaspora.

Contributers : Mulk Raj Anand • R.K. Narayan • Raja Rao • K.S. Duggal • Nissim Ezekiel • Nayantara Sahgal • Nirmal Verma • K. Ayyappa Paniker • U.R. Anantha Murthy • Shamsur Rahman Faruqi • K.N. Daruwalla • Bhalchandra Nemade • Girish Karnad • Shashi Deshpande • Salman Rushdie.
 
ISBN 81-85753-31-8           2008           256 pp           Rs.600 (hb)
 
 
In Creating Theory, Professor Jasbir Jain attempts to combat the “onslaught of Western theorising on Indian situations” . . . After going through the book one feels that the editor has succeeded in what she set out to do.
The Hindu