About the BookAbout the Author

This anthology, Dispelling the Silence: Stories from the Commonwealth Countries has been put together with the intention of introducing the undergraduate student to the literature and sociocultural contexts of eight nations that once belonged to the British Commonwealth. The selection has been made on the basis of the literary and aesthetic value of the stories themselves and also on the basis of the literary position occupied by the writers in the context of modern literature. As representative stories by representative writers, the collection has an eminent place in the history of world literatures. It includes the prose fiction of Rabindranath Tagore, Shashi Deshpande, Janet Frame, Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head and Henry Lawson among others. It leads the young reader from familiar to more unfamiliar experiences, from a perception of similarity to an understanding and appreciation of differences, from the sense of diversity to the sense of a deeper unity, all in the context of individual and sociocultural landscape. The exercises that follow each story draw the attention of students to the thematic and technical aspects and also lead them on to additional insights into the creativity of these writers. The anthology would be usable in general English as well as English major courses.

Shanmugiah, S., Controller of Examinations, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. Baskaran, G., Reader in English, VHNSN College, Virudhunagar.