Treatment of Time and Mind in Anita Desai’s Select Novels

Abstract

Anita Desai with the use of stream of consciousness technique has focused on the inner activities of psyche and concentrated in the mental thoughts and their continuous flow. Her novels clearly showcase the characters’ psychic and emotional picture with their internal impulses. Desai opens a new dimension of finding psychological reality in the Indian fiction. Memory plays a very important role in Stream of Consciousness technique. It is related with mind and there is a strong link between time and memory as past can only be reminded by memories. There are two sorts of time: physical and psychological time. The use of psychological time is very significant in the consciousness. Through the consciousness, Desai internalizes time that shapes the reality of moment. By prudently presenting the psychological time aligning it with the inner consciousness that is framed in the scope of past, present and future, Desai began a new journey in the history of Indian fiction. Such experimentation in the psychological activities of the characters is exploited in stream of Consciousness novels. This study will focus on the major characters of Cry, the Peacock and Voices in the City, namely, Maya, Monisha, Nirode, Amla. Mental consciousness and its continuous flow are prominent in the characters of Desai’s Stream of Consciousness novels.