ROLE OF MEMORY IN SHAPING CHARACTERS IDENTITY IN MAHESH DATTANIS FINAL SOLUTIONS

While writing of contemporary issues Mahesh Dattani constructs a sense of a shared urban cultural identity, which is upper-middle class, professional, English speaking and a cityfied identity. Memory plays a very important part in the plays. Public memory is time and again juxtaposed with personal memory, and it becomes a means to explain and justify the political acts committed for personal interests. This paper looks at how memory, personal as well public, shapes the identities (social, personal and religious) of characters in Mahesh Dattanis Final Solutions. Incidents are important, but only to explain why and how the people populate his plays, acting in ways that they do. The psychological action is of greater relevance than any physical action that takes place in the play. He reveals his characters by placing them in situations where they are forced to analyze themselves in the light of what happened in their lives in the past

DECONSTRUCTING FALSE IDENTITY: EXPLORING GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND ROLE-PLAYING IN THE GIRL WHO TOUCHED THE STARS

Mahesh Dattani, is an avant-garde Indian English dramatist known for his radical and unconventional dramatic themes. His plays are characterized by an extremely sensitive temperament that delves into the intricacies of the human nature and strives to expose the hypocrisy of the urban life and society. This paper discusses his play The Girl Who Touched the Stars as a quest for a lost identity. In doing so, the paper sheds light upon the underlying themes of gender discrimination, misogyny and role-playing that the playwright uses in this play to show how much these evils are rampant even amongst the educated classes of the society. Specifically, the paper explores the deconstruction of identity of the protagonist as employed by the playwright and examines the implications this technique has on the narrative of the play. The interconnection between the role-playing and the inherent theme of gender discrimination is also analyzed in order to see how these elements complement each other. Also, the paper comments on the efficacy of radio drama as a medium for handling a sensitive theme like this

NARRATING THE INDIAN NATION A NONINDIAN PERSPECTIVE: A STUDY OF WILLIAM DALRYMPLE'S THE LAST MUGHAL AND RUDYARD KIPLING'S KIM

This paper deals with tile issue of tile rise of nationalism in Indian context as a result of tile events of 1857. and attempts to study the perspectives of two non-Indian writers interested in Indian nation. namely Rudyard Kipling and William Dalrymple in their novels Kim and The Last Mughal respectively as opposed to tile Indian nationalist perspectives seen and portrayed in later narratives by Indians. The former is a fictional representation of the mutiny of 1857 whereas tile latter is a fictionalized historical account. Published almost a hundred years apart. and coming at different defining moments in India's history. the two novels Kim (/901) and The Last Mughal (2006). both talk of a common set of events. It is one endeavor to see the different dimensions explored by these two writers

Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers by Julie Armstrong

Review of Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers by Julie Armstron

DEATH AND DESPAIR IN THE POETRY OF TORU DUTT

Compared to the short time that she lived Toru Dutt's literary output as a poet was prodigious. Her yearning for the past and her deep sense of many faceted losses are apparent in her poetry. The evocative acceptance of approaching death in one so young presents a picture of a girl mature beyond her years. A study of her poetry reveals her close affinity with the Romantic poets. Referring to various poems of Toru Dutt, the paper studies the role that religion, and her interpretation of religion/s she was exposed to, has to play in this embracing of the inevitability of fate. This paper analyses the reasons for the presence of the elements of death, despair, nostalgia and a yearning for the past and the role that religion plays in her acceptance of the inevitability of death in the poetry of Toru Dutt. Through a critical examination of various poems, the paper tries to uncover the beautiful interplay of memories of past experiences, stories heard long ago and the moments in the present in Dutt's poetry. It traces the journey of the poet from her exposure to death, to a questioning of death, its nature and the forms it might take, to the final acceptance of death as something as inevitable and precious as love

Understanding Rivalry: Staging Jealousy in Karnad’s “Broken Images”

Acclaimed Kannada and English playwright, Girish Karnad’s play Broken Images focuses on human relationships and their intricacies, as well as on the relationship between languages. Outwardly, it addresses the sibling relationship and focuses on its destructive side. However, on a close reading, this monologue unfolds a series of diverse human relationships, viz., the relationship of the two sisters, Manjula and Malini; the husband-wife relationship between Manjula and Pramod; the camaraderie of Pramod and Malini; the friendship between Pramod and Lucy; and the amity between Lucy and Manjula. Besides these personal relationships, the play deals with and explores at length another important relationship, the one between two languages, one regional and one global, the legacy of the erstwhile colonizers. The relationship between Manjula and Malini acts as a metaphor for the mismatch and the hierarchy between regional language writers and Indian English writers on the Indian literary scene. This paper, therefore, examines the aforementioned human relationships in the play to reveal the motives behind the enmity and the causes which lead to sinful actions that remain invisible at all times, and in the process comments upon the relationship between different language writers, as well as what leads to the formation of existing hierarchies. First, the paper investigates the sororal bond between Manjula and Malini; second, it examines the tripartite relationships and how the third party is perceived as a rival in the relationships of Manjula-Lucy-Pramod and Manjula-Malini-Pramod; and finally, it looks at the relationship that exists between the Bhasha writers and Indian English writers, and exposes the enmity in these relationships and its various causes