"Based on archival research, this book brings together many of the neglected writings of Oriya women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sachidananda Mohanty focuses on a period when women's writings dealt not only with questions of gender and identity but also with cultural, political and ideological issues of their times. Utilizing different forms - short stories, poems, essays, travel writings, novels and letters - these women writers responded honestly both to the world that was in turmoil around them and to the demands of their own inner selves." "This book will be of great value to the general reader as well as to scholars, teachers and students of regional and comparative literature, cultural studies, gender studies and English literature."--BOOK JACKET.