The Fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: The Politics of Passion

255 Pages·1989·24.402 MB·English

by  Laurie Sucher (auth.)

THE FICTION OF RUTH PRA WER JHABV ALA
The Fiction of Ruth
PralVer Jhabvala
The Politics of Passion
Laurie Sucher
Pal grave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-20241-6 ISBN 978-1-349-20239-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20239-3
© Laurie Sucher 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1989
ISBN 978-0-312-02336-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sucher, Laurie, 1942-
The fiction of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: the politics of passion 1
Laurie Sucher.
p. cm.
Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D.)-SUNY at Stony Brook.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-02336-2: $29.95 (est.)
1. Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927- -Criticism and interpretation.
I. Title.
PR9499.3.J5Z886 1989
823--dc19 88-32678
CIP
To the memory of my parents
Augusta and Irving Sucher
Contents
Acknowledgements x
PART ONE QUEST
1 Introduction: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and her Fiction 3
Overview 13
The Later Novels and Short Stories 18
2 Dangerous Quest 22
Being Known 22
Unsuitable Attachments 27
PART TWO TO THE ASHRAM
3 Gurus: Short Stories 39
'An Experience of India' 40
'A Spiritual Call' 44
4 Gurus: A New Dominion or Travelers 48
Dominion: the Political Context 48
Britons in the New Dominion: Raymond and Lee 50
Names 54
Ashrams 56
'Gothic' Aspects 61
PART THREE THE DEMON-LOVER
5 'The Housewife' 69
vii
viii Contents
6 'Desecration' 77
Knowing and Being Known 81
The 'Unknown Woman' 92
7 Demon-Lovers and Holy Mothers: Heat and Dust 98
'Going Too Far' 103
Parallel Structures 107
Olivia and the Anglo-Indians 109
Motifs: Graveyards, Husbands, Pianos, Hijra 115
Nature Imagery 121
The 'New' Story: Holy Mothers 124
Wives and Widows in Satipur 127
Disregarding Pollution Taboos 131
Anti-Romantic Lovers 133
Literary Allusion: A Passage to India 134
'Harry' and E. M. Forster 136
PART FOUR BACK IN THE WEST
8 Difficult Adjustments: Three Stories 143
Homosexual Men, Heterosexual Women 143
'A Birthday in London' 149
'Commensurate Happiness' 157
'Grandmother' and Other Old Women 161
9 In Search of Love and Beauty 168
The Gothic Way and the Greek Way: Three
Generations of Searchers 168
New York as a Setting 169
Critical Response 176
Contents ix
The Pantheon of In Search of Love and Beauty 177
'The Point' 184
Two Houses 187
Natasha's Answer 192
10 The International 'Trick': Three Continents 200
Some Preparatory Stories 201
Three Continents 205
Victims of Global Disinheritance 216
'Expiation': Other Victims 221
Notes 228
Selected Bibliography 238
Index 247
Acknowledgements
My thanks go to Professor Susan Squiers, English Department,
SUNY at Stony Brook, where this study was first conceived as
a doctoral thesis; to Arun Aurora of the Foreign Languages
Department, Chicago Public Library; to 'Andrea', who like Ruth
Jhabvala is a refugee from state terror, this time in Guatemala, and
who took good care of my children while I worked; and finally, to
my husband, Michael Gaster.
x
Part One
Quest