Shashi Deshpande

This book places the writer’s works in the context of the complexities in the construction of Indian women by examining the specific historical conditions that represented them; a literary theory of Indian women writers and Deshpande’s interviews and articles. Amrita Bhalla reads Deshpande’s works by going beyond the parameters of labels and descriptions and offers for the first time a critical insight into the way Indian women have been represented in recent Indian history and in contemporary India. This study springs from her belief that it is essential to locate and place Indian literary works in the context of the Indian society of which Deshpande writes. Deshpande, a writer who refuses to ‘explain’ or ‘present’ India has written widely on Indian writing in English, the dilemma of being a woman writer, and the myth and reality of Indian women.