An Analysis on Modern Vision and Fictional Works in the Novel of R. K. Narayan: A Critical Study | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

In the fiction of R. K. Narayan, one can find the true representation of Contemporary Indian Life, Traditions and Culture in its vivid and realistic form. The Social realism is extensively and minutely described. Narayan is a pure story teller, an artist who portrays reality in its real rare rhythm. Social customs and reality are vividly described with unbiased objectivity and complete detached observation. Though the critics on Narayan have in the course of their analysis and evaluation of his novels mentioned here and there the psychological element in his works, no full length study has been made to identify emotions in the light of Indian Rasa theory, analyse them and evaluate their artistic effect. This study attempts to supply that lacuna by analyzing four major novels of Narayan from the point of view of the Indian theory of emotion. Applying an age old theory to a modern work in an alien language entails certain modifications to be made to the theory. But as Narayan is a more traditional Indian writer than the others, the theory is by and large found suitable to an analysis of his novels. Without making a violent departure from the norms laid down by the theory, this article aims at looking at some Narayan novels from this point of view.