Nit Naval Subhash Chandra Yadav

Social argument meets the problem of form

The inspected pages juxtapose historical and social reference material with discussion of literary structure. A passage invoking Saussure considers how a linguistic system and its use relate; another discussion connects characters, relationships and a larger social arrangement. The closing material includes correspondence, giving the critical encounter a documentary dimension rather than presenting judgement as wholly detached from exchange.

This combination is most persuasive when social interpretation sharpens attention to the organisation of a story. Its risk is that a general model of society can arrive before the text has had room to complicate it. A reader should follow the movement from a quoted or described feature to the conclusion drawn about it. The present assessment concerns those visually inspected passages; it does not claim a complete survey of Yadav's writing or of every judgement in the volume.