ANITA DESAI’S NOVELS: A CRITICAL STUDY

Abstract

Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and short story writer. She is known for her sensitive portrayal of the inner feelings of her female characters. Many of her novels explore tensions between family members and the alienation of middle-class women. In her later novels, she wrote on varied themes such as German anti-Semitism, the demise of traditions, and Western stereotypical views of India.

          Anita Desai is a critically lauded 20th-century writer, and her novels on the experiences and inner lives of Indian men and women are known for their compassion, eloquence, and lucid prose. Having come of age when India achieved independence in 1947, Desai weaves politics and gender issues into her works. Anita Desai is an internationally acclaimed novelist of Indian writing in English. She has won coveted Sahitya Academy award in 1978 for her novel “Fire on the Mountain”, and the British Guardian Price for “Village by the Sea”. Her novel’s “Clear Light of Day”, “In Custody” and “Fasting”, Fasting were shortlisted for Booker Prize. She has always been a favourite novelist for the reader of psychological novels. Her presentation of socio-cultural aspects is full of realism. I have chosen to work upon because of the superb feminists’ mode and true to life depiction of various happenings in Indian sub-continent.