The Other Novel

Beautifully written in lucid prose The Other Novel: Protest and Affirmation in Selected Other Novels is an outstanding contribution to comparative literature particularly its aesthetics of the other novel. Avoiding extremes of cultural relativism and aesthetic imperialism or what Edmund Taylor calls “the tyranny of aesthetic universals it convincingly illustrates the necessity of taking both text and context. In its analyses of nine acclaimed novels by internationally known writers it explains how the dynamics of change in developing countries is a “potent force for redirecting history for transforming society.” At the same time it shows that the other novel has its own aesthetics – unique and still consonant with international concepts of art. Dr. CARMINIA YAPTENCO Late Professor of Comparative Literature University of the Philippines