Taking together various novelists and short story writers of Urdu and Hindi, Afroz Ashrafi has attempted something new in the realm of critical literature. While giving his own impressions about individual narrative writers, he touches upon various literary movements and trends of Hindi and Urdu in the 20th and 21st century. He judges the efficiency of certain literary theories that cropped up from time to time and judges the related works in their historical perspective too. He also analyses the influence of several Indian, European and American critics and writers on the narrative literature of Hindi and Urdu at many stages of their forward movement. In a way, Afroz Ashrafi?s attempt has a historical dimension which binds Urdu and Hindi fiction together in the background of Indian domestic and social life as a whole. [Followed by detailed reviews of works by Afroz Ashrafi, Vijay Chandra Verma, Ram Naresh Pandey, and Vijay Chandra Verma?s Songs of Experience, as printed in the journal.]
Former Professor & Head, P. G. Dept. Of English, Magadh University. Bodh-Gaya.
