Tiffin makes a comparative study of the use of colonial motifs in The Cat and Shakespeare and The Double Hook. In her comments on Rao’s book, she says that both the title and the concerns of the novel points at a political purpose is jumbled up with a philosophical theme. Further in the course of her article, she asks whether the book can be called a postcolonial text. Because it displays that “the community, its beliefs and rituals are in no sense disrupted by the history of British colonialism nor its continuing presence in India”. (Tiffin: 205) Riemenschneider disagrees with the point raised by her, and writes that the presence of British Bubo (a disease) and the ration shops cannot be side-lined while talking about the postcoloniality.
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The overall tone of the critical discourse on Rao’s novels follows the track prevalent in the 1980s. The first and final critical response of the period comes from West, focusing on a single novel, is by an Italian critic Claudio Gorlier (1998). He reads the novel with postmodern context. Unlike Jennifer Kelly, Gorlier is less interested in irony. He is, in fact, strikes up at a connection between Rao’s ‘seeming recourse to undecidability’ (Gorlier: 8) and European ideas about ‘open work’, ‘petit recit’, and ‘post-modern sublime’ (Gorlier: 9) following the path Jean-Francois Lyotard has suggested. Riemenschneider praises the attempt and …show more content…
Chandrika’s article which provides a feminist reading of the text. In her reading, Shantha plays an important part. Accordingly, Shantha is seen as ‘asserting her supremacy in wisdom, knowledge, love and stubbornness’ (Chandrika: 84) because she is able to look after herself, and it is she who finds and selects Ramakrishna Pai as her man. Besides, Chandrika points out that the cat (the mother symbol) is called chakki in Malayalam, derived from Sanskrit word shakti. In Shakti doctrine, Prakriti is held superior to Purusha, yet “Rao makes Govindan Nair, the Purusha, a superior being while Prakriti, Shantha, is placed on an obviously lower scale”. (Chandrika: 83) Thus, she finds objection against Raja Rao’s quiver male adjustment of a Hindu religio-philosophical
The overall tone of the critical discourse on Rao’s novels follows the track prevalent in the 1980s. The first and final critical response of the period comes from West, focusing on a single novel, is by an Italian critic Claudio Gorlier (1998). He reads the novel with postmodern context. Unlike Jennifer Kelly, Gorlier is less interested in irony. He is, in fact, strikes up at a connection between Rao’s ‘seeming recourse to undecidability’ (Gorlier: 8) and European ideas about ‘open work’, ‘petit recit’, and ‘post-modern sublime’ (Gorlier: 9) following the path Jean-Francois Lyotard has suggested. Riemenschneider praises the attempt and …show more content…
Chandrika’s article which provides a feminist reading of the text. In her reading, Shantha plays an important part. Accordingly, Shantha is seen as ‘asserting her supremacy in wisdom, knowledge, love and stubbornness’ (Chandrika: 84) because she is able to look after herself, and it is she who finds and selects Ramakrishna Pai as her man. Besides, Chandrika points out that the cat (the mother symbol) is called chakki in Malayalam, derived from Sanskrit word shakti. In Shakti doctrine, Prakriti is held superior to Purusha, yet “Rao makes Govindan Nair, the Purusha, a superior being while Prakriti, Shantha, is placed on an obviously lower scale”. (Chandrika: 83) Thus, she finds objection against Raja Rao’s quiver male adjustment of a Hindu religio-philosophical