R.K. Narayan’s reputation as one of the founding figures of Indian writing in English is re-examined in this comprehensive study of his fiction. Arguing against views that have seen Narayan as a chronicler of authentic "Indianness," John Thieme locates his fiction in terms of specific South Indian contexts, cultural geography, and non-Indian intertexts. Thieme draws on recent thinking about the ways places are constructed to demonstrate that Malgudi is always a fractured and transitional site--an interface between older conceptions and contemporary views that stress the inescapability of change in the face of modernity. Offering fresh insights into the influences that went into the making of Narayan’s fiction, this is the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide to his novels to date.

About the Author(s)

John Thieme

Professor John Thieme teaches at the University of East Anglia

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements * Series Editor’s Foreword * Chronology * Contexts and Intertexts * Early Novels * From Mr. Sampath to Waiting for the Mahatma * From The Guide to The Painter of Signs * Late Novels * Critical Overview and Conclusion * Notes * Glossary * Select Bibliography