The Book : This volume of critical essays on Indian Literature cobers a wide range of genres like novel, short story and poetry and of languages like Hindi, English, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada and Malayalam besides English. Informed by a deeo 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. The Author's radical democratic attitude to literature is evidenced by his jusicious is evidenced by his judicious acceptance of the diversity of Indian Literature and his sympathetic understanding of avant-gardist and subalyern trends. His perceptions are fresh, position well-argued. Writen in a lucid jargon-free style, these insightfuleassays, including the brief editorial reflections he wrote for the journal Indian Literature, make an indispensable and fascinating reading

The Author : K.Satchidanandan (b.1946), eminent Malayaam poet and bilingual critic, is currently Secretary of the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters), New Delhi.He has authored 18 collections of poetry and 16 works of literary and social theory and criticism in Malayalam.His works in English include Summer Rain, How to Go to the Tao Temple (translations of his own poetry), Gestures (anthology of poetry from South Asia,edited), Signatures(anthology of 100 Indian poets,edited),and Under the Wild Skies (anthology of short stories from Malayalam,edited). A pioneer of modern Indian poetry and literary criticism,Professor Satchidanandan has won several awards and honours including Kerala Sathitya Akademi awards for prose and poetry, Shrikant Verma Fellowship for poetry translation (Madhya Pradesh), Ulloor award, P. Kunhiraman Nair award, Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad (Calcutta) award for poetry,Oman Cultural Centre award for total literary contribution and Senior Fellowship from the Department of Culture, Government of India. He has represented India in several national and international festivals of poetry and seminars including the Festivals of India in USSR and China,the Paris Biennale and Sarajevo Poetry Days. He has also lectured and read his works in several countries including USA and Sweden.