7.5.10

THE CONCEPT OF ANTI-HERO IN THE NOVELS OF UPAMANYU CHATTERJEE

R.P. Singh


pp.: 160, Price Rs. 225

ISBN 978-81-7977-370-3




The novels of Upamanyu Chatterjee are a very significant addition to the corpus of realistic fiction owing to their undeniable relevance for the youth of India. They are concerned with the hazardous pitfalls that come in the wake of unthinking march toward the mirage of uprooted careerism in search of individualistic happiness. He has chosen two worlds—the world of Indian bureaucrats and that of family relationships—to explore the prevailing conditions of Indian urban society. In his exploration the realistic gaze travels both outward and inward as he is concerned as much with the milieu as the mind.
The present study of Chatterjee’s novels tries to explore his concept of such young Indian personality as finds it impossible to be noble and positively purposeful in its outlook and action. To say the obvious, this personality is antiheroic because it lacks the attributes traditionally associated with heroic characters.
An exploratory attempt has been made to find out the hall-marks of the antiheroic urban Indian personality as illustrated in Chatterjee’s novels, and locate those hall-marks in the frame of influences generated by the socio-cultural condition.


Dr. R.P. SINGH did his M.A. in English from Patna University. His area of academic interest is Indian English Fiction. Some of his articles have been published in reputed journals like The Quest, Indian Book Chronicle, and in the Communication column of Seminar. His one article on the role of mother tongue in the acquisition of English was published in the anthology ‘Studies in ELT, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics which was brought out by the Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi. At present, he is Assistant Professor in the English Department of Govt. Nehru PG College, Dongargarh, Dist. Rajnandgaon ( Chhattisgarh).


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