This book attempts to clarify the concept of classification, first within the larger framework of aesthetic classification, and then with reference to literary theories. Taking into account the traditional Indian and Western models of literary classification as well as the different ways in which the models have been challenged, the study formulates a four-fold scheme of “literary contracts”. Deriving insights from Wittgenstein, Austin, the Structuralists and the Post-structuralists, it incorporates a discussion of the overlaps and interweaving of the different literary contracts.

Milind Malshe is Professor of English in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Bombay. He has published extensively in English and Marathi on Critical Theory, Semiotics, Aesthetics and Linguistics. He has also translated into marathi classics such as Rules and Representation by Noam Chomsky and Principles of Art by R D Collingwood.

His Book in Marathi on Modern Linguistics has won the Maharashtra Government State Award. He was selected by the British Council to participate in the Cambridge Seminar, 1994.