E-C-202:Indian Writing in English

Name: Nargis I. Saiyad

Paper: E-C-202: Indian Writing in English

Topic: Three Indian Poems

SEM: 2, Part: 1.

Year: 2011/12

Submitted To,

 Dr. Dilip Barad,

Dept.of English,

Bhavnagar University.

 An Introduction

                                                         -Kamala Das

 The poem 'An Introduction' is the masterpiece of famous Indian writer Kamala Das. Let's see the poem in the levels given by P.K.Thakar. They are,

(i) Phonological level

(ii) Meaning level

(iii) Grammar level

(i) Phonological level -

                               The poet has used the device alliteration in the poem by using the words 'those' and 'them', 'week' and 'with', 'brown' and 'born', 'critics' and 'cousin', 'all' and 'alone', 'it' and 'is', 'there' and 'that', 'the' and 'that' etc...

(ii) Meaning level -

                          "I don't know politics but I know the names of those in power, and can repeat them like"

     

                              By writing this, Das begins her poem. She says that she doesn't know politics but knows who are there in politics with power. She says that she can repeat their names like the days of week, names of months. She gives the names of Nehru there.

                          Then she writes very significant line that she speaks three languages. They may be Malayalam- her mother-tongue, Hindi- national language and English- the global language but she dreams only in one language, may be Malayalam.

                                 Sujata Bhatt in her poem 'Search for My Tongue' says that she wants to speak in her mother-tongue but she can't and so, she dreams and in her dream her mother-tongue arises. So, Kamala Das also wants to tell about her wish to speak the language whatever she want to. Then she says that her critics, friends, and visiting cousins all these tell her not to write in English.

                                       Then she talks about the natural way in which the woman's body develops. Here 'I' refers to every woman. She started to wear the costumes of her brother- his trousers, cut her hair short and tried to ignore her womanliness. But her society didn't accept this and advised her to wear saree, be girl, be wife, be cook and even be a quarrel with servants.

                                                      She talks about free life. In loneliness, she drinks at twelve in midnight. She says that she is sinner, saint, she is beloved and also the betrayed.

                                 The equality of love is represented here. Lover's individual personality extinct here and so, she wants to say that all the pain and happiness are shared by both equally and so, she is his life and his life is hers and so, she too call herself 'I'.

                                This remains one Gujarati saying,

                             'Aek sikkani be baaju'

                           (Every coin has two sides) 

          Here, in this poem, first she talks about the dependent woman of dominant society, independent woman of free and interdependent lovers of progressive society where both share the same again.

(iii) Grammar level -

                         The poet has used the devise of repetition by using the words, 'I', 'know', 'of', 'English', 'one', 'alone', 'speak', 'mine', 'Indian' etc... It is written in one stanza. She used the words 'crows', 'lions' from animal world.

            Thus, in the poem, the poet talks about love and sex for woman very frankly and it is her masterpiece and very popular poem.

                           Leaving India

                                                                                                - Rachna Joshi

# Meaning of the poem-

                          In the very first stanza, the poet herself asks a question that why she left India and next to it she also gives the reason that she was very young and full of ideas about studying poetry, travelling and finding true love.

        "Why did I leave India and come to North America."

                  In the second stanza, she says that North America was clean, sanitised and almost sterile. It was orderly and shining.

                        "Sweet, orderly and shining"

                The only order shows the mechanical life of the people. The life full of rules and regulations. It looks like as if the life of people is imprisoned life. After describing it she says,

                 "The crows smaller, more manageable."

                     Though she tells about her views in praising words, she does slander. It is true that small crowd can easily be managed but we/ Indians like to live in a crowd and how crowd can be smaller one? Crowd can be symbolized as a strength and unity of people.

                                  The colours of the trees red and orange refers to the glamour of their life. It is here,

  "The autumnal trees red and orange and the light golden and white."

                           And then she says about the colour light golden. How can golden be light? Golden means glamour here and white means no colour.

             "India is stark, ancient, ugly, magnificent, uplifting or degrading."

                        She in the first line says that India is stark, ancient and ugly. But in the next line, she writes that it is also magnificent, uplifting or degrading. It seems that the poet is backbiting of India if we see the first line but ancient refers to our long-old culture.

                      Then she says that in North America, there were no ruins, no myths and no ghosts. It means in India there are ruins, myths and ghosts. To loose something, we have to have something. It is in India but not in America means America has no precious thing to loose. It is proud to have myth in our India.

                            Then in the last stanza, she says that we may deny history, family and tradition but we wait for civilization that is continues from past years. India has five thousand years old continues civilization and it is just like a doting grand parents.

                    "lie in wait, like a doting grand parent."

                                    It shows that India has tradition so, in the surface level, it looks ugly but it is attractive.

# Structure of the poem -

                                                      The poet has not used any particular rhyming scheme in this poem. The words 'the', 'I', 'no', 'India' are repeatedly used in this poem. So, the device of repetition is used here. She also uses the language of paradox by using the words, like 'stark', 'ugly', 'ancient' and 'degrading' etc... This poem is one of the best example of using paradoxical language.

Search for My Tongue

                                                                       -Sujata Bhatt

# Theme-

                        In this poem, Sujata Bhatt talks about her pain of loosing her mother-tongue because in the foreign, she had to speak foreign language.

# Content-

                             The poet loves her mother-tongue a lot but she can't speak it now because no one in foreign country would understand anything from it.

                          In the very beginning, she asks a question to a foreigner that what you would do if you had two tongues in your mouth and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue.

  "I ask you, what would you do if you had two tongues in your mouth, and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue."

                                                       The concept of culture, cultural discrimination, problems of rootlesness is clearly seen. She shows her sorrow by saying that even if we can think in both languages, we have no freedom to speak in that way. She has suppressed her mother-tongue. She says if this would happen, our mother-tongue would rot and die in our mouth.

                                              She says that I think I can spit it out but the obstacle is the dream. While she dreams, her mother-tongue grows back, grows longer, grows moist, grows strange veins and it grows so much that the foreign language is tied in knots.

                                           She tells that in the dream, her mother-tongue is imagined as a bird. In her mouth, this bird opens. That bird pushes the other tongue aside.

       "Everytime I think I've forgotten, I think I've lost the mother tongue, it blossoms out of mouth."

                                                   Her attachment with her own language in her unconscious mind never let her forget it. And so, at the end in the last line she says,

                         "it blossoms out of mouth"

                                          Through this poem, the poet wants to say that cultural difference creates rootlessness. The feeling of rootlessness makes the person to feel like orphan.

# Structure -   

                            The poem has no any rhyming scheme used here. So, it looks like the thought of anyone. The poet has used the device of alliteration by using the words 'me' and 'mean', 'what' and 'would', 'you' and 'your' etc... The poem, we can say is a conversational poem. This is a small but a significant poem.

   

                         

                           

                    

E-C-201: The Romantic Literature

Name: Nargis I. Saiyad

Paper: E-C-201: The Romantic Literature.

Topic: Themes & Motifs in ‘Frankenstein’

SEM: 2, Part: 1.

Year: 2011/12.

Submitted To,

 Dr. Dilip Barad,

Dept.of English,

Bhavnagar University.

 Themes                    

                                                Themes means the fundamental universal ideas used in a literary work. The themes are like these:

v Dangerous Knowledge-

                                                           Here, Victor wanted to learn the secret of life beyond the limits of human-being and so, the result came out the death of every nearer and dearer of Victor. Robert Walton- Victor’s friend also wanted to know something which breaks the limitation. He attempts to surpass previous human explorations by trying to reach the North Pole. Luckily, he learns the lesson from Victor’s life and finally withdraws his voyage. He comes to know how destructive the thirst for knowledge can be. It reminds one Gujarati saying,

                                           “Ati ni koi gati nai”

v Monstrosity-

                                           The monstrosity is of course very important theme of the novel. Victor creates monster by using chemical and dead body.  He does monstrosity in the whole world.

                                            Even the monster’s creator is one monster because of his monstrous deed. We can say he was the true “monster” inside.

                                                           Some critics even call this novel as monstrous novel because it was the combination of different voices, texts and tenses, also.

v Sublime Nature-

                       

                                                           The influence of Nature on mood is clearly seen throughout the novel. After the deaths of William and Justine, Victor feels guilt because he thinks that he was responsible for their death and he heads to the mountains to lift his spirits. Same like that, after a hellish winter of cold and loneliness, the monster feels lighten as spring arrives. In the end, as Victor chases monster, nature was in the form of the Arctic desert.

v Secrecy -  

                   

                                          In the novel, Victor thinks that science is a mystery to be probed. He keeps the secret of his making a new life from dead body and chemicals. Victor tells about the natural philosopher, Mr. Krempe with whom he meets at Ingolstadt,

              "An uncouth man, but deeply imbued in the secrets of his science."

                               After creating monster, He keeps this secret away from society. The truth of his life becomes immortalized in Walton's letters.

v Texts -

                    

                     'Frankenstein' is full of text like letters, notes, journals, and books fill the novel.

                          We come to know about the story through Walton's letters.

                            In Walton's letters, Victor's story comes, in victor's monster's story fits, in monster's story, the love story of Felix and Safie and references to 'Paradise Lost' comes in it. Monster understands the manner of his creation, as described in Victor's journal. At the end, he leaves notes for Victor when he goes to the northern ice.

 Motifs

                         Motifs are the recurring structures, contrast or other literary devices that can help to develop the text's major theme.

·       Passive Women -

                                             Marry's mother Wollstonecraft was the author of 'A Vindication of the Rights of woman', a feminist tract encouraging women to think and do for themselves but her daughter's novel is striking without strong female characters.

For example,

> Caroline Beaufort - She is a self - sacrificing mother who dies                                                                      taking care of her adopted daughter.

> Justine - She is executed for murder, she has not committed.

> Female monster - Victor first creates female monster then himself destroys him.

> Elizabeth - Elizabeth waits for Victor to marry and in waiting he becomes impatient. But she is also killed by the monster at the end.

                              One can argue that Shelley has intentionally put her characters so passive to exhibit the destructive behaviors of Victor and the monster.

·         Abortion -

                             This motif recurs as both Victor and the monster express their sense of the monster's evilness. When Victor first time sees monster he says,

"When I thought of him, I gnashed my keenly wished to destroy that life which I had so thoughtlessly made."

                        Monster also feels disgust for himself:

"I, the miserable and the lonely, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on."

                        We can see the second time appearance of the motif when Victor destroys his work on a female monster.

                          Frankenstein transcends Gothicism by combining science with the supernatural, or at least the supernatural and 'Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus' can be approached as a treatise on moral development and educational theory. Shelley has used the themes and motifs like these to represent it which are very symbolic.

   

E-C-203:Literary Criticism:Western & Indian Poetics-2

Name: Nargis I. Saiyad

Paper: E-C-203: Literary Criticism

Topic: T.S.Eliot: ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’

SEM: 2, Part: 1.

Year: 2011/12.

Submitted To,

 Dr. Dilip Barad,

Dept.of English,

Bhavnagar University.

 T.S.Eliot: "Tradition and Individual Talent"

The full name of Eliot is Thomas Stearns Eliot. This essay was first published in 1919 in 'The Egoist' then it was published in 'The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism' in 1920/2. David Lodge has celebrated critical essay in the English of the 20th century.

ü Sections of the essay-

                                 The essay is mainly divided into three sections. Through this he has simplified his ideas. The three parts are:

      i.        The concept of tradition,

    ii.        Theory of depersonalization,

   iii.        Complementary thing.

ü Part - I

                                   In the very opening of the essay, Eliot says that the people of England are less critical. They believe that the French people are more critical than us. They tried to find out the individual essence of the man. But as per Eliot's view, no any artist, poet, writer can write without tradition.

  

                                                ''No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation, is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.''

                                                                       - Eliot (956)

                                        So, he says that any work of art is not completely meaningful in its isolation.

                                         ''Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It can not be inherited and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves the historical sense.''

                       He says that it is not easy to know tradition so, we have to do hard work. By historical sense, he says that historical sense is the sense of the timeless as well as the sense of temporal and of both and this sense makes the poet traditional.

                            The historical sense is a sense not only of the pastness of the past but also of its presence. A mature poet is well aware of the history of the past literature of his country.

                    Eliot says that he should not be appreciated in the isolation but he should be seen in relation to the dead poet. The comparison and contrast among the dead makes the present poet tradition.

                         Here, Eliot also talks about the improvement of art. He says that any creative writer should be quite aware that art never improves. The material of art is never quite the same. There may be development, refinement and complication from time to time in a work of art but that is not the improvement. He says that tradition is the process of formation. Eliot's reformulation of the idea of literary tradition has been one of the key critical concepts of the 20th century.

ü Part - II

        The opening line of the second part is very significant. It is,

        "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry."

                          He gives importance to poetry rather than poet. He says that the poetry has nothing connected with its creator. The progress of an artist is a continual self sacrifice, a continual extinction of the personality. So, he defies the process of depersonalization and it's relation with the tradition.

               

                 He gives the example of gas chamber. He says that the mind of the poet is catalyst. To make sulphurous acid, the combination of the gases Oxygen and Sulphur Dioxide is necessary but these two should meet each-other in the presence of a filament of platinum. This happens only if platinum is present but yes, when new acid comes out there is even no trace of platinum remains. The poet's mind is just like this platinum. It is very important in making the acid but there is not any trace of it. Here, the poem is like sulphurous acid and the mind of the poet is just like platinum.

                        He also said that the man who suffers is different from the mind that creates. It is also possible that the poet may have suffer much in his life but in his poetry, no any trace of that feelings ever seen in his poems.

                          Some poets try to find out new human emotion to express, but this search of novelty is wrong. He says that emotions are the same. The business of the poet is to use this ordinary one and express it in the poetry. He says that the bad poet is generally conscious where he ought to be unconscious and he becomes unconscious where he ought to be conscious. This type of error makes him personal.

ü Part - III

                    In this section, he says that tradition and individual talent both are the complementary things.

                        Here, he says that emotion is very significant and it is impersonal. To make any poem the surrender of our self is very important then we can create a poem.

·         Views of others - 

           

                     'Tradition and the Individual Talent ' - then and now by Gareth, Reeves, F.H.Bradly - the historical sense are the examples of the views for this essay.

                      Gareth Reeves writes that the essay was a major contributor to Modernism's rise and hegemony. It suffered spurn and neglect.

                       Maud Ellamann writes in her book 'The Poetics of Impersonality: T.S.Eliot and Ezra Pound'. She is disagreeing with the idea of impersonality and continual self-sacrifice.

                      Edward Lobb in his book 'T.S.Eliot and the Romantic Critical Tradition' says that the idea of dissociation of sensibility is the story of Eden applied to the secular history of literature and such is a literary myth was first put forward by the Romantics.

                      Eliot's views don't meet with the Romantic Poets.

                      Harold Bloom disagrees with Eliot's view of Romantic poetry in 'The Metaphysical Poet'(1921). He criticizes it because of its dissociation of sensibility.

                      Eliot's view stands awkward with feminist, minority theories. Eliot believe poet strong who knows the tradition whereas Harold Bloom goes against tradition.

      'Stronger the past, lesser the influence'

                      We can say this now, a reprint of 'The use of poetry' and 'The use of criticism', which was the series of lectures given at Harvard University in 1932 and 1933 in which he called the essay the most juvenile of his essays.

                      Amanda S. Campbell does not agree with Eliot. For Amanda,

                Poetry => words on paper

                     Joan Baptiste was also not agree with Eliot. For Eliot's essay someone has written,

  'An urn didn't have to be Grecian, if could just be an urn.'

ü Conclusion-

                            

                  In this essay, he gives novel ideas about poet, poetry, personality, emotion, tradition, historical sense etc... He puts poets at the top. His deep criticism in the essay demands a mental exercise, but there are some people, critics who are disagree with him and one man in the internet has written for his essay,

  "Streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent."