Acknowledgments

It gives me immense pleasure to express my deep sense of gratitude and respect to my

Supervisor – Dr. R. B. Sharma who with his vast knowledge, experience in the subject,

ample guidance and co-operation has acted as beacons in the completion of my research.

Having worked under his supervision, I always felt honored. I lack the words to express

my feelings at this time but it is true that Dr. Sharma has sharpened my epistemic vision,

and has gifted many gems of intellect during my research. The life-long-lessons taught by

my supervisor with all possible maxims of politeness have revolutionized my life. His

extremely unobtrusive, tenacious, and strenuous personality has been the most influential.

I want to extend my special thanks to Professor Ranu Uniyal, Head of the

Department of English and MEL. I am deeply grateful to her consideration, motivation,

inspiration, and even for giving me the opportunity to work on my thesis. I am also

obliged to Professor Nishi Pandey, Prof. Nasreen (late), Professor Nazneen Khan,

Professor R.P. Singh, Dr. Shiv Govind Puri, Dr. H.N. Prasad and all the teachers for their

encouragement, help, support and motivation.

I show my gratitude to Dr. Mohammad Tariq (Tariq Faraz) from the depths of my

heart for encouraging, inspiring and loving me in every way that I will never forget in my

life. A sincere gratitude should also go to all my colleagues and friends right from Mr.

Md. Ahmad, Mr. S.H. Abbas, Mr. Sher Haidar , Miss Neetu Sharma, Mr. Udham Singh,

— and all those unknown donors of the books from all over the world.

I am thankful to the Librarian and Staff— Departmental Library; Tagore Library,

University of Lucknow; Librarian ICPUR, Lucknow; Central Library, BHU, Varanasi;

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Central Library AMU, Aligarh; Amiruddaula Public Library, Lucknow; and bookfi.org—

the largest free online library for all their help and open access to the catalogues, books,

journal and magazines. I owe a special sense of gratitude for all their possible support and

assistance— especially to Mr. Ajay Bajpai Saheb, a thorough gentleman for his

extremely humble, helping and generous attitude that he has shown during the course of

my research. Last but not the least, I would like to name my beloved parents Mrs.

Sabeeha Khatoon and Mr. Mufti Mohammad Yaqoob Qasmi and ask for their blessings. I

am especially thankful to all my siblings for their love, support, care, assistance and all

possible help.

Mohd Rashid

Research Scholar, Department of English & MEL

Faculty of Arts, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226007

Place: Lucknow

January 2021