Abstract

In this thesis I examine the workings of magic realism in the novels of three Indian novelists writing in English: R. K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, and Arundhati Roy. I start with a review of the literature on magic realism. In Chapter I, I propose to read Narayan as a magic realist writer. His style helps understand the mode as an attitude to reality preexisting the theorization on the mode. In the following two chapters, I contend with the major reservations critics have expressed about the trend. In Chapter II, the focus will be on the issue of escapism which is undermined by the political and social dimension of some of Rushdie's novels. Chapter III deals with the way Roy's work subverts the claim that the mode is necessarily exoticizing as she subverts the exotic potential while continuing to deploy magic realism.