When seeing is not believing: epiphany in Anita Desai's 'Games at Twilight'

Epiphany is central concept in short story criticism. Defined by James Joyce as sudden spiritual manifestation,' idea of epiphany seems to be implicitly accepted by range of critics as one of key elements structuring short story. Mary Pratt, for example, claims that the moment of truth stands as model for short story, way of life stands as model for novel,2 suggesting that revelatory nature of epiphany is somehow supported by short story form and that it serves as principle of composition for writer. This view is qualified by Nadine Gordimer, who argues that a discrete moment of truth is aimed at-not moment of truth, because short story doesn't deal in cumulatives.' Yet we may question whether short story is indeed vehicle of epiphanic moments or if it might instead be instrument for its subversion. Clare Hanson's argument that short story is a form which hugs unknown to itself'4 suggests that answer might lie somewhere between these extremes: short story, while promoting desire for spiritual insight, might at same time work implicitly towards denying possibility of religious certitudes. This subtle negotiation is evident in work of Anita Desai. Her short stories bring into sharp relief difference between epiphany as an underlying structural principle in short story-provided for by what Hanson has called elisions and gaps in short storys-and epiphany as thematic concern. For while stories in Games at Twilight' show common thematic concern with moment of truth or insight, their textual construction works towards questioning value of these insights. Therefore, in order to analyze way