Patterns of Convergence and Divergence

The present work attempts a Comparative Study of the literary works of Charles Dickens and a South Indian writer of the 19th century Chilakamarti Lakshminarasimham. This study is more in the manner of literary and cultural criticism. The two writers being compared represent two different hemispheres – the West and the East. Thus, in terms of their positionality – geographical, political, social, cultural and linguistic, there is hardly anything in common between the two writers to offer a base for a comparativist exploration. However, when one reads these two novelists, one is struck by large areas of commonality in their cognitive and emotive responses to life around them. The present work identifies patterns of commonality as well as divergence in the works of these two authors. In connecting writers across linguistic barriers, one discovers that cultures do not operate in isolation. It is interesting and also challenging to read culturally different texts and discover how a meaningful polyphony emerges from such an exercise.