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Written over the past three deacdes, the stories in this volume provide an insight into often forgotten aspects of human feelings and relationships, weaving a magical web of emotions that is testimony to the unusual deapth and range of Shashi Deshpandes writing. ... Read more

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The concept of feminist literary criticism has been broad and varied from 19th century women authorssuch as George Eliot and Margaret Fuller to cutting-edge theoretical work in women's and gender studies. Feminist criticism, started as part of the international women's liberation movement, studies and advocates the rights of women. Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique", Kate Millet's "Sexual Politics" and Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" contributed to the emergence of the new women's movement. These writers had started a new consciousness-raising movement. In this era Shashi Deshpande has emerged as one of the more sensitive and versatile Indian woman writers with her novels 'The Dark Holds No Terror', 'That LongSilence', 'The Binding Vine' and ?ROOTS AND SHADOWS'. This book attempts an analysis of the female characters in Deshpande's fiction that tries to reconcile thebasic tenets of feminism with contemporary Indian reality. In addition, the book briefly examines the depiction of Deshpande's male characters, for contrast. Italso focuses upon her perception and attitude towards the human condition in general and her contribution as a writer. ... Read more

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In The Ring of Recollection, Nancy Batty challenges the critical orthodoxy that Shashi Deshpande's fiction is transparently realistic and narrowly focused on domestic and women's issues. This study shifts attention towards the labyrinthine structure and modernist style of most of Deshpande's writing. Features hitherto viewed as deviations from her realism, or even as flaws, are re-situated in the light of a gothic poetics that works to uncover a structural trope of transgenerational secrecy, beginning with Deshpande's early detective fiction and extending to her most recent work.Linking a fourth-century Sanskrit play by Kalidasa (Shakuntala) and the psychoanalytic theories of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, Batty offers in-depth reinterpretations of five of Deshpande's major novels, published over a period of twenty years (1980-2000): The Dark Holds No Terrors; That Long Silence; The Binding Vine; A Matter of Time; and Small Remedies. These novels have established Deshpande's critical reputation as a 'woman's' writer whose major concern is to break the "long silence" of Indian women. Batty shifts the ground of analysis by establishing that Deshpande's fictional world encompasses more than just female characters, and that the trope of silence extends not only to her male characters but also to communities, in a society where silence about shameful past events can control the destinies of entire families. Thus we see in her novels characters whose lives are disturbed, haunted, and sometimes even controlled not just by traumatic events but also by transgenerational family secrets to which they often do not have access. Moreover, the breaking of silence - the revelatory opening of family crypts - can have devastating consequences. Restoration of memory may have the power to reorganize the past and change the future, but it rarely possesses the magic required to reunite lovers or to restore wholeness to shattered lives.The Ring of Recollection offers a major reappraisal of one of India's most prolific and respected contemporary writers. ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Shashi Deshpande, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 808 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author