"The fictional discourse of Indian women writers has traditionally focused on the tensions and constraints experienced within familial and domestic spaces. In the last two decades of the twentieth century. The liberalization of the Indian economy, coupled with the rise to prominence of Indian English authors globally, has served as an impetus to writers to explore new genres and themes. In this scenario, the literary output of Indian women writers has been vast and varied. White several critics have commented on the subversive elements present beneath the apparently conventional surface of Indian English novels by women writers, critiques of contemporary women's writing have been rare. The papers collected in this book are an attempt to redress this situation.

The papers in this anthology range from reinterpretations of mythic paradigms in contemporary fiction to investigations of these novels as ethnography. There are studies on the impact of communal tensions on contemporary novels by women writers, the interrogation of British/colonial representations of India, the culture of violence against women prevalent in twenty-first century India, perspectives on the alienation experienced by the single, young female protagonist as a consequence of life in a globalized India, the power struggles of patriarchal authority as they operate in society, insights into the father-son relationship from a woman writer's perspective, the formation of regional identities, the contrary compulsions of motherhood and personal creativity, the autoethnographic features in Dalit writing, and the crossing of cultural borders by women from diverse cultural backgrounds in India, as they seek to express their sexuality, an aspect of female identity that is problematic in almost all cultures.

It is hoped that this anthology will be a useful guide to fresh scholars who have been hesitant to undertake research into these writers due to the inaccessibility of critical insights. The sixteen original papers collected here contain many ideas of interest to discerning readers, and provide useful guidelines for future research." 
                                                                                            [from Blurb]