Mulk Raj Anand and Realism

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss Mulk Raj Anand's conception of realism in the light of the larger discussion of the forms of realisms and the thirties literary movement, modernism, postmodernism and postcoloniality. Anand categorically declares that he is a realist, but his realism is poetic realism and not social realism or socialist realism. Anand's conception of poetic realism is essentially based on the human desire and the philosophical bases of his vision of the total dream of man. I have argued that Anand's poetic realism is not based on the “literary photography” or mirror-reportage of reality and that it is a functional literary construct of delving deep into the philosophical, historical, natural and social aspects of reality.