A violent history of the anti-caste movement in twelfth-century Karnataka. A myth from the Mahabharata depicted as a narrative of passion, betrayal, and parricide. The inner world of a man whose public life was a continual war against British colonialism. A reflection on the opposition between the spiritual and the erotic. The confrontation between a writer and her electronic image. The plays and monologues in this volume span the latter half of the career of Girish Karnad, one of India’s pre-eminent contemporary playwrights.
The three-volume set of Karnad’s Collected Plays brings together English versions of his s important works. Each volume contains an extensive introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of Karnad’s work over six decades and position it in the larger context of modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad’s place as author and translator in a multilingual performance culture, the relation of his playwriting to his work in the popular media, and his and his larger-than-life presence as an engaged intellectual in the Indian public sphere.
Each of these volumes serves as a collector’s item, making Karnad’s works accessible to theatre lovers worldwide.
