INDIAN LITERATURE: Positions and Propositions
By  K. Satchidanandan

Informed by a deep and firsthand awareness of Indian literary trends and texts as well as of contemporary literary theory, these essays revaluate concepts and movements like Modernism, Dalit literature, Nativism and Feminism and offer close readings of the texts of a number of Indian writers including Premchand, Mirza Ghalib, Mahasweta Devi, Ramakanta Rath, Kamala Das, Chandrasekhara Kambar and Ayyappa Paniker.

 
K. Satchidananadan , former Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters, India), is an internationally recognised poet, critic, translator and editor. He has 22 collections of poetry, 16 collections of translations of poetry, 20 works of literary criticism including two in English, 4 plays and 3 travelogues to his credit. He has received 21 awards at regional, national and international levels, including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award four times, India-Poland Friendship Medal from the Government of Poland and Knighthood of the Order of Merit from the Government of Italy. His collections of poetry have appeared in 16 languages including English, French, Italian and German. He has edited eight journals including Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi’s bimonthly and several anthologies of poetry, short stories and essays in Malayalam, English and Hindi. He has travelled across the world, reading and lecturing, and represented India in several international fairs and festivals including The Sarajevo Poetry Days, Berlin Literary Festival, Frankfurt Book Fair, Leipzig Book Fair, Paris Book Fair, Lahore Book Fair, The Indo-Arab Literary Festival at Abu Dhabi, The Festivals of Culture in the USSR and in China, Writers’ Exchange Programmes in Syria, France, Italy, Sweden and the U.S.A.
 
ISBN 81-85753-25-3           1999           248 pp           Rs.800 (hb)
 
 
The primary impression one gets from reading through these prose works is of an acute critical mind . . . . (which) plots out both a complete historiography of Indian literatures and a forward-looking agenda. . . . often very illuminating, always graceful . . . . a stimulating collection.
World Literature Today, U.S.A.