The perception and conflict between fantasy and reality: fantasy as a technique in the prominent novels of Anita Desai

Abstract

The fantasy genre is not uniform, but has rather developed distinct varieties over time as authors have innovated on and responded to the traditions established by previous works. Fantasy is a work that evokes a sense of wonder in the reader; that has some relationship with traditional tales, myths and legends: that evokes the belief that is presented as real, not a dream, vision, or possible hallucination and that usually takes place in a secondary world with the inner consistency of reality. This paper focuses on the perception between fantasy and reality in the prominent fiction of Anita Desai. As a genre, fantasy seeks to validate the unconscious world of dreams, to insist not merely on its existence in the human psyche, but on its essential, vital presence.