Rosalia Baena, ‘The Condition of Life and Art in Anita Desai’s In Custody’ (pp. 59-68)
Much of the critical work on campus fiction addresses the question of why novelists write about the University. This paper shows how Anita Desai’s In Custody (1984) contributes to the development of the sub-genre of the campus novel by exploring deep human concerns and not merely superficial academic issues, as it delves into the protagonist’s idealistic search and custody of Urdu language and poetry, thus coming to terms with the possibilities of the relationship between life and art. The protagonist, Deven, a mediocre college teacher, undertakes a quest for knowledge and culture, and ultimately, for the academic ideal of authenticity and truth. Deven meets the great chasm between creativity and criticism, between art and life, giving the narrative a strong self-reflexive nature as it comments on the purpose of criticism and the use of literature.
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