Jasmine on a String: A Survey of Women Writing English Fiction in India

Women novelists in India who 'use' English to write fiction are, increasingly, gaining international recognition for their work. Unfortunately, there is no extensive literary history of such writers, as there is of feminist writers in the West. Existing resources are largely either outdated or limited in scope and range. Exploring the works of Flora Annie Steel, Rumer Godden, Krupabai Sattianadhan, Toru Dutt, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Nayantara Sahgal, Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, and Anita Nair, this book will cast new light on their technique of writing, selection of subject matter, and focus of interest. How did each writer differ from the other? What was their area of interest? How did their fiction change as the decades rolled by? What did they tell the reader about what it was like to live in the India they knew? Ambitious and informative, this literary survey will prove rewarding for students and scholars of Indian literature, English literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies.