Ur Ananthamurthy

A dialogue between Chinua Achebe and UR Ananthamurthy

When Chinua Achebe visited the Dept. of English at the University of Mysore to deliver special lectures this dialogue with Prof. UR Ananthamurthy was recorded and published in the Sunday herald on April 12, 1981. A Kannada version of this dialogue is included in a collection of essays of Prof UR Ananthamurthy.

UR Ananthamurthy:Let me begin by asking you about the narrative technique in Things Fall Apart. At one point, the narrator assumes the voice of a devout Christian to criticize the overzealous priest Rev. Smith. And a little later, he is ironic about Christianity when he remarks, "wisdom prevailed in the camp of the faithful and many lives were thus saved. How do you explain these shifts in point of view?

Chinua Achebe:I am not absolutely certain about the identity of the narrator. There are indeed shifts. There is a dominant narrator who may be the voice of the wise elders of the community, but there are other voices as well, intruding here and there.

UR Ananthamurthy:There may still be another, the critical outsider - an educated African - who says that African conquest happened through education, money, religion etc....more    

UR Ananthamurthy in Man Booker Prize shortlist

UR Ananthamurthy is the only Indian to have made it to the final list of the prestigious prize. ...  

Will English continue to rule the Indian tongue?

Many years ago, more than I am willing to recount or reveal, I was returning from a school trip. The bus that had taken us primary school students of an 'English-medium' school pulled over outside the school, next to anxious parents waiting to receive their children. My mother also stood there, arms stretched out, calling out in her tongue/my tongue (Sindhi), "Ach, putta." I remember feeling some heat on my...  

Amitav Ghosh shortlisted for Hindu prize

New Delhi: Seven writers, including Amitav Ghosh, Sunil Gangopadhyay and UR Ananthamurthy, are in the fray for the Hindu Best Fiction Award 2011, the Chennai-based newspaper group has announced. The shortlist for the award was unveiled by journalist Manu Joseph, who won the award last year for his 'Serious Men', at the end of the day-long Hindu Lit for Life festival Sunday evening in the presence of the panel of...