ABSTRACT
Suresh Joshi, the Gujarati writer, was a self-conscious modernist, and much of his writing deals with individual consciousness in traditional society. Where he departs and may even be called ‘subversive’ is in dealing with thoughts that might be termed ‘unclean’ like those governed by taboos. His vocabulary in terms of the emotions he covers goes far beyond what is covered under the rasas, as they are noted in the Natyasastra – those like prohibited sexual desires and physical disgust. But this is also a way of questioning the halo around the notion of the ‘self’ in Hindu thought. The chapter deals with a collection of his stories that are translated by different people, and the writer’s purpose is not always clear. But his concerns could be associated with those of some other writers who were also grappling with tradition like Ananthamurthy and Gopichand who also do not see much to valorise in it. An aspect of importance is that while the viewpoint is masculine – and perhaps akin to its failure as in Mohan Rakesh’s stories – there is a certain objectification of women in his stories attendant to the ineffectuality of the men.
