Thinking Activity : Petals of Blood

 Hello Monks...
I am Riddhi Bhatt. After a long time, I am back and wrote a blog. Yes finally our last and semester 4 is begun and that's why one of my favorite activities - thinking Activity is started now. So today I want to talk about "Petals of Blood " by Ngugi Wa Thiong’O. As a part of the syllabus, students of the English Department are learning the paper called "African Literature". So, let’s start friends. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Ngugi Wa Thiong’O :

James Ngugi, often known as Ngg wa Thiong'o, is a Kenyan writer and professor who mostly works in Gikuyu. His works range from literary and social critique to children's literature and include novels, plays, short tales, and essays. Mtiri, a Gikuyu-language periodical, is his creation and he is its editor. His short tale The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright has been translated into over a hundred languages.Ngg was then imprisoned for more than a year. The artist was freed from prison and fled Kenya after being adopted as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He is a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine in the United States. He's also taught at Northwestern University, Yale University, and New York University, among other places. Ngg has long been considered a strong contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was awarded the International Nonino Prize in 2001 and the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2016. The writers Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩand Wanjiku wa Ngũgĩ  are among his children.

Brief Sketch on Petals of Blood :

Ngugi wa Thiong'o wrote Petals of Blood, which was originally published in 1977. The tale follows four individuals — Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega – whose lives are connected as a result of the Mau Mau insurrection in Kenya shortly after independence. Each retreats to the quiet, rural town of Ilmorog to get away from the metropolis. The protagonists struggle with the aftermath of the Mau Mau insurrection as well as a new, fast westernizing Kenya as the narrative proceeds. stories storey primarily explores the skepticism of change following Kenya's independence from colonial authority, wondering to what degree a free Kenya just replicates, and hence perpetuates, the oppression that existed during its colonial rule. Other topics covered include capitalism's problems, politics, and the impacts of westernisation. Education, schools, and the Mau Mau insurrection are also utilized storywesternization to bring the characters together, as they all have a shared heritage.

Live Burial - Wole Soyinka

Hello Monks...
After a long time, I am back and wrote a blog. Yes finally our last and semester 4 is begun and that's why one of my favorite activities - thinking Activity is started now. So today I want to talk about "Live Burial" by Wole Soyinka. As a part of the syllabus, students of the English Department are learning the paper called "African Literature". So, let’s start friends. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Wole Soyinka :

Wole Soyinka (pronounced Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka) is a Nigerian dramatist, writer, poet, and essayist who writes in English. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, making him the first Sub-Saharan African to do so. Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, to a Yoruba family. He began his education at Government College in Ibadan in 1954, then went on to University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England after that. He worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London after studying in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He went on to compose plays that were performed in theatres and on the radio in both nations. He was a key figure in Nigeria's political history and independence struggle from British colonial authority. He seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio in 1965 and broadcast a call for the Western Nigeria Regional Elections to be canceled. During the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, he was arrested by General Yakubu Gowon's federal authority and held in solitary confinement for two years. Soyinka has been a vocal opponent of various Nigerian administrations, particularly the country's several military rulers, as well as other political dictatorships such as Zimbabwe's Mugabe regime. "The oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the color of the foot that wears it," he has written extensively.

Live Burial :

Sixteen paces

By twenty-three. They hold

Siege against humanity

And Truth

Employing time to drill through to

his sanity

Schismatic

Lover of Antigone!

You will?

You will unearth

Corpses of yester-

Year? Expose manure of present birth?

Seal him live

In that same necropolis.

May his ghost mistress

Point the classic

Route to Outsiders' Stygian Mysteries.

Bulletin:

He sleeps well, eats

Well. His doctors note

No damage

Our plastic surgeons tend his public image.

Confession Fiction?

Is truth not essence

Of Art, and fiction Art?

Lest it rust

We kindly borrowed his poetic license.

Galileo

We hoped he'd prove - age

Or genius may recant - our butchers

Tired of waiting

Ordered; take the scapegoat, drop

the sage.

Guara'l The lizard:

Every minute scrapes

A concrete mixer throat.

The cola slime

Flies to blotch the walls in

patterned grime

The ghoul:

Flushed from hanging, sniffles

Snuff, to clear his head of

Sins -- the law

Declared -- that morning's gallows

load were dead of.

The voyeur:

Times his sly patrol

For the hour upon the throne

I think he thrills

To hear the Muse's constipate groan

Article :

• Soyinka's "Live Burial"

Revolution 2020

Hello Monks...
After a long time, I am back and wrote a blog. Yes finally our last and semester 4 is begun and that's why one of my favorite activities - thinking Activity is started now. So today I want to talk about  "Revolution 2020" by Chetan Bhagat. This book is part of our syllabus. This task is assigned by Prof. Dr.Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU). As a part of the syllabus, students of the English Department are learning the paper called Contemporary Literatures in English. So, let’s start friends. But before we start I want to give short information about what kind of things we see here…

Here is the link of the professor's blog CLICK HERE...

First, we discuss Chetan Bhagat and some important things about popular culture. Chetan Bhagat is a journalist and author from India. In 2010, he was included in Time magazine's list of the World's 100 Most Influential People. Bhagat earned a mechanical engineering degree from IIT Delhi and a PGP from IIM Ahmedabad. He began his work as an investment banker, but after a few years, he left to follow his passion for writing. He has eight novels and three non-fiction volumes to his credit. In 2004, he released his debut novel, Five Point Someone. Hello in 2008 (based on One Night At the Call Center), 3 Idiots in 2009 (based on Five Point Someone), Kai Po Che! in 2013 (based on The 3 Mistakes of My Life), 2 States in 2014, and Half Girlfriend in 2017 are five of Chetan Bhagat's novels that have been turned into Bollywood films. Bhagat has also adapted his novels for the films Kai Po Che! and Half Girlfriend, as well as writing screenplays for Bollywood blockbusters like Kick in 2014. At the 59th Filmfare Awards in 2014, Bhagat received the Film fare Award for Best Screenplay for Kai Po Che! He's also frequently involved in Twitter debates. His most recent work, 400 Days, was released on October 8, 2021, and is about a lost kid and forbidden love.

REVOLUTION 2020 :

Chetan Bhagat's novel Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition was published in 2011. Its plot revolves around a love triangle, corruption, and a self-discovery trip. R2020 has addressed the topic of how private coaching institutes abuse prospective engineering students, and how parents risk their entire lifetime's wages on these programs in the hopes that their children would pass engineering examinations and alter the family's fortune. While some people achieve their goals, others fail miserably. The story is inspired by "rampant corruption" in the Indian educational system, according to the author, who chose Varanasi as the setting after visiting the city and feeling "a personal affinity to it." He went on to say "It is one of our oldest cities, and its residents today have modern goals. The contrast, I thought, would be intriguing. The city is also full of personality."

Our task is to ponder upon the questions given by the teacher. Let's discuss it in detail.

1) If you have to write a fan-fiction, how would you move ahead with the ending of this novel or what sort of change you would bring at the end of the novel?

If I am writing as fan-fiction, I'd want to include certain specific characters in the novel, such as Aarti's friends, one another female protagonist, or characters. Why ?.. Because according to the Bechdel test, The Bechdel test is a metric for how well women are represented in literature. It inquires whether a piece contains at least two women conversing about something other than a male. Occasionally, the demand that the two ladies be named is added. The test is named after Alison Bechdel, an American cartoonist who initially published the test in her 1985 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. Bechdel attributed the concept to her friend Liz Wallace and Virginia Woolf's books. Following the test's increased popularity in the 2000s, a number of variations and tests based on it arose. The usual criteria of the Bechdel Test are (1) that at least two women are featured, (2) that these women talk to each other, and (3) that they discuss something other than a man. So in my fan-fiction, I want to add certain things.

2) If you were to adapt this novel for the screen, what sort of changes you would make in the story and characters to make it better than the novel? (For example, keep Five Point Someone and 3 Idiots in your mind)  

If I were to adapt 'Revolution 2020' for the movie, I would make certain adjustments to the narrative as well as the characters. As stated in the title, I'd like to place a greater emphasis on the subject of revolution rather than love. Raghav's character would be more powerful than Gopal's character in the film. My tale will begin with the introduction of the author and Raghav as the CM at the opening of the film. For 'Revolution in Varanasi,' the author would meet Raghav. Aarti's personality may be more powerful and stable. Aarti's character in the novel is weak from a female perspective, but she might be powerful and enthusiastic about her work and politics in the film. Raghav will be the next Chief Minister of India, and he will usher in a "Revolution in India." Gopal also admits his corruption and all the negative things in front of Aarti at the end of the narrative. Gopal, like Raghav, aspires to be a nice guy, and the two male characters will bring a revolution to India.

 3) 'For a feminist reader, Aarti is a sheer disappointing character.' Do you agree with this statement? If yes, what sort of characteristics you would like to see in Aarti. If you disagree with this statement, why? What is it in Aarti that you are satisfied with this character?

TA: Sample Research Paper

Postmodern Historiographic Metafiction in 

Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and Shashi Tharoor’s Riot

ABSTRACT :
This research paper attempts to analyze postmodern historiographic metafiction with references to Shashi Tharoor’s Riot and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Basically, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children is widely considered as postcolonial, postmodern, magical realist literature and is set in the context of actual historical events. On other hand, Shashi Tharoor’s Riot is set in and around a riot in India in 1989– about love, hate, cultural collision, religious fanaticism, the ownership of history, and the impossibility of knowing the truth. Here researcher tries to find postmodern historiographic metafiction in both novels.

KEYWORDS : 
Postmodernism, Historiographic, Self-reflexivity, Metafiction, Riot, Midnight’s Children

INTRODUCTION :
Shashi Tharoor‟s Riot: A Novel and Salman Rushdie"s Midnight’s Children establish them as one of the most prolific chroniclers of the contemporary lives and times of theirs homeland. Riot is the third novel by Shashi Tharoor and was published in 2001. It is a book of great moral, social, religious, and political complexity. Salman Rushdie‟s Midnight’s Children in 1981 began a new era in the realm of Indian English writing.
The purpose of this paper will be to examine that how post-modernism has determined and developed the Indian English novel and certain novelists. Indian writing in English has stamped its greatness by mixing up tradition and modernity in their art. These novels are written in the late 20th century, especially after the second world war are considered postmodern novels. Salman Rushdie is one of the best-known postmodernists in India. Shashi Tharoor is an Indian former international diplomat, politician, writer, and public intellectual he examines some of the most vital issues of our times on a smaller and more intimate canvas this award-winning novel is a gripping tale that encapsulates the problems afflicting present-day India.

Postmodern Historiographic metafiction :
Historiographic metafiction term is used for works of fiction that combine the literary devices of metafiction with historical fiction. This term is coined by Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon in her essay “Beginning to Theorize the Postmodern” in 1987. It incorporates three domains that fiction, history, and theory. According to Hutcheon, in "A Poetics of Postmodernism", works of historiographic metafiction are "those well-known and popular novels which are both intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages" ” (Hutcheon, 2005, p.5). Linda Hutcheon says that this fiction self-reflexive, contradictory, working “within conventions in order to subvert them” and, ‘incorporates all three of these domains: that is, its theoretical self-awareness of history and fiction as human constructs is made the grounds for its rethinking and reworking of the forms and contents of the past” (Hutcheon, 2005, p. 5). 
Fictions that can be labeled as postmodern historiographic metafiction have appeared on the Indian scene both before and after Tharoor’s and Rushdie’s work. For example, Chaman Nahal’s Azadi (1975), Geeta Mehta’s Karma Kola (1979), Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1994), Githa Hariharan’s In Times of Siege (2003), Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss, (2006), and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) all belong to the aforesaid genre.

Postmodern Historiographic Metafiction in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children :
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children in 1981 is considered to be the turning point in the history of Indian English novel writing and the literature after that underwent a radical change in form and content. Then other novelists started adopting the postmodern perspectives in their novels. Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Ruth Prawar Jhabwala, and Amitav Ghosh are the other makers of new patterns in writing novels with post-modern thoughts and emotions in India.
Kalyan Kishor Barman examined contact with Post-modern traits in the novel of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children that Postmodern novels celebrate Diaspora. Like Amitav Ghosh, Salman Rushdie highlights the theme of the diaspora in Midnight’s Children. The story moves from Kashmir to Agra then to Bombay and from Karachi to Dhaka. Sinai family moves from place to place and does not stick to any particular place. Salem however finds that Bombay and India is his only satisfaction. He does not like Karachi and does not find Dhaka as his sweet home. Rushdie successfully blends facts and fiction to create a magical realistic environment. This entire episode is described in a magical realistic manner :

“six new moon came into the room,

six crescent knives held by men dressed in all black ;

with covered faces. Two men held Nadir Khan while the 

other moved towards humming bird”

(Midnight's Children,1981, P. 57)

Kalyan Kishor Barman argues in the paper that Post-modernism celebrates itself in Fragmentation. In Midnight’s Children , Salman Rushdie emphasizes pieces and fragments—both fragmented characters and objects—which symbolize a fragmented India. The perforated sheet serves as a major form of fragmentation, through which Adam is introduced and falls in love with Nassem. This fragmented love is passed down in the family also. Saleem acknowledged that he too is fragmented. Saleem’s life is broken into two parts; that of old India and that of the new. Religiosity in Adam is also fragmented. After hitting his nose while praying, “he resolved never again to kiss the earth for any God or man”(Midnight’s Children,1981, P. 4). The country itself is fragmented into India and Pakistan.
In Midnight’s Children, the desire for singularity or purity—whether of religion or culture—breeds not only intolerance but also violence and repression. these elements are the outcome of post-modernism. Also here researcher found that the narrative has been borrowed from Punchtantra and Kathasritsagar. The battle between Saleem and Shiva reflects the ancient, mythological battle between the creative and destructive forces in the world. The enmity and tension between the two begin at the moment of their simultaneous births. The reference to Shiva, the Hindu god of both destruction and procreation, reflects not only the tension between destruction and creation but also the inextricably bound nature of these two forces. Saleem, as the narrator of Midnight’s Children, is responsible for creating the world. He represents Brahma, the god of creation. What Saleem creates, however, is not life, but a withered story. By delivering Saleem into the hands of the Widow, Shiva is responsible for the destruction of the midnight’s children, and yet, by fathering Aadam and hundreds of other children, he ensures the continuation of their legacy.

Postmodern Historiographic Metafiction in  Shashi Tharoor’s Riot :
Shagufta Parween exploring that The basic features of postmodernist fiction such as experimentation with the formal and thematic content of the novel, self-reflexivity, conscious handling of narrative, fragmentation, discontinuity, subversion of conventional modes of narration, multiple viewpoints, indeterminacy, intertextuality, deferring of closure, mixing of the genres, use of irony and parody, are all present in this novel. In its formal organization, Riot is a novel that deviates from the conventional modes of novel writing and story-telling. Constituting fragments that are apparently disjointed, it is a novel that meticulously engages with the theme of the explosion of religious hatred that roused during the Babri Masjid and Ramjanmabhoomi stir, the communalisation of the public discourse, and the story of love and passion between two persons of conflicting cultures. It is a tale of commitment, devotion, and betrayal, both of the nation and the individual set against a highly charged communal atmosphere in a fictional north Indian town of Zalilgarh. The subplot trenchantly critiques the issue of gender exploitation. The novelistic matrix, thus, incorporates the problematization of race, culture, gender, class as well as the issue of religious dissensions and ideological collisions.
Here researcher found, In Riot, is composed of newspaper accounts, journalistic reports, letters, notebook, and diary entries, telegrams, greeting cards, personal and formal conversations, and interviews. The element of self-referentiality, one of the features of the postmodern novel is most evident in the protagonist’s reference to it. Laxman says that his wish is to write a novel “that doesn’t read like a novel. Novels are too easy-they tell a story, in a linear narrative, from start to finish…” (Riot, 2003, p. 135). His novel would be, “something in which you can turn to any page and read… and they’re all interconnected, but you see the interconnections differently depending on the order in which you read them.” (Riot,1981, P. 36).
Postmodern texts are self-referential. There are many different ways in which authors can create this effect—story-within-a-story, making obvious references to storytelling conventions— but what they have in common is that they draw attention to the methods of writing and reading. Tharoor has discussed the theory of his novel in one of the chapters of the book entitled ‘From Lakshman’s Journal: June 2, 1989’ (135-7) In this chapter, Tharoor talks about the art of writing a novel. Lakshman, the aspiring poet, and writer, is the fictional surrogate of the author here. He writes:

“I’d like to write a novel,” I tell her, “that doesn’t read like a novel. Novels are

too easy – they tell a story, in a linear narrative, from start to finish. They’ve

done that for decades. Centuries, perhaps. I’d do it differently.”

She raises herself on an elbow. “You mean, write an epic?”

“No,” I reply shortly, “someone’s done that already. I’ve read about this chap

who’s just reinvented the Mahabharata as a twentieth-century story – epic

style, oral tradition, narrative digressions, the lot. No, what I mean is, why

can’t I write a novel that reads like – like an encyclopedia?”

“An encyclopedia?” She sounds dubious.

“Well, a short one. What I mean is, something in which you can turn to any

page and read. You pick up chapter 23, and you get one thread of the plot.

Then you go forwards to chapter 37, or backwards to 16, and you get another

thread. And they’re all interconnected, but you see the interconnections

differently depending on the order in which you read them. It’s like each bit

of reading adds to the sum total of the reader’s knowledge, just like an

encyclopedia. But to each new bit of reading he brings the knowledge he’s

acquired up to that point – so that each chapter means more, or less, depending

on how much he’s learned already.” (135-6)

CONCLUSION :
To conclude with its heterogeneity of forms, genres, and multiplicity of voices; its use of irony and parody, lack of narrative closure, discontinuity, fragmentation, it is contesting of authoritative knowledge and ideology, the problematization of the past, concern with politics and history with an ingrained futuristic bent, self-referentiality, intertextuality and acknowledgment of plural truths, the novel ‘Riot’ can be aptly described as a postmodern historiographic metafiction.
In Midnight’s children thus the major incidents and the personal slices of life are brought together as historical facts. Behind historical facts, powerful imagination is used to bring out the post-modern features. an allegorical novel, it is a chronicle of modern India centering on the inextricably linked fates of the two children. The entire novel is based on post-modern elements, the novel ‘Midnight's Children’ can be aptly described as a postmodern historiographic metafiction.

WORK CITED :

• Barman,Kishorkalyan. “Post-modern traits in the novel of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children”International Global Journal for Research Analysis 4.8 (August 2015):53-54.Web.https://www.worldwidejournals.com/global-journal-for-research-analysis-GJRA/recent_issues_pdf/2015/August/August_2015_1438858313__21.pdf
• Hutcheon, Linda . A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory Fiction. (1988). New York: Routledge.
• Mullan,John. “Salman Rushdie on the writing of Midnights Children”Gurdian.26 July 2008
• Parween, Shagufta. “Rethinking History: A Study of Shashi Tharoor’s Riot As a Postmodern Historiographic Metafiction.” International Journal of Innovative Research and Development 3.2 (February 2014): 56-60. Web. www.ijird.com
• Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. New York: Penguin, (1980), Print.
• Tharoor, Shashi. Riot London: Penguin Books, (2001)
  
  

THANK YOU..

Presentation 7 : The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War II to the End of the Century

Hello Monks..
Here is my presentation about Paper 7 - An Artist of the Floating World

PRESENTATIONS

Hello Monks....

Here I've put all my academic presentations which I've submitted to..

Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, 
M.K. Bhavnagar University, 
Gujarat, India.

🔔Semester 1 Presentations :

1. Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods
2. Literature of the Neo-classical Period
3. Literature of the Romantics
4. Literature of the Victorians
5. History of English Literature – From 1350 to 1900

🔔Semester 2 Presentations :

1. The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II 
2. The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War II to the End of the Century
3. The American Literature
4. Literary Theory & Criticism and Indian Aesthetics
5. History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000

🔔Semester 3 Presentations :

1. Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence
2. Indian English Literature – Post -Independence
3. The Postcolonial Studies 
4. Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies
5. Cultural Studies

🔔Semester 4 Presentations :

1. African Literature
2. Contemporary Literature
3. Comparative Literature and Translation Studies
4. Research Methodology

Presentation 15 : Cultural Studies

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 15 - Why are we so scared of robots ?..

Why are we so scared of robots ? from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You...

Presentation 14 : Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 14 - Marxism..

 

Marxism from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Presentation 13 : The Postcolonial Studies

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 13 - Postcolonial Theory & Frantz Fanon..

Postcolonial Theory & Frantz Fanon from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Presentation 12 : Indian English Literature – Post -Independence

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 12 - Quest for female identity in Kamala Das..

Quest for female identity in Kamala Das from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Presentation 11 : Indian English Literature – Pre-Independence

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 11 - Karna : The Subaltern Hero in Dinkar's 'Rashmirathi'..

Karna : The Subaltern Hero in Dinkar's 'Rashmirathi' from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Presentation 10 : History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 10 - Siddhartha by Herman Hesse..

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You..

Presentation 9 : Literary Theory & Criticism and Indian Aesthetics

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 9 - Northrop Frye's "Archetypal Criticism" ..

 

Northrop Frye's "Archetypal Criticism" from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You..

Presentation 8 :The American Literature

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 8 -Hemingway : The Conquest of Panic.. 

Hemingway : The Conquest of Panic from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You..

Presentation 6 : The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to World War II

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 6 - Fairy Tales Traits in "The Great Gatsby"..

Fairy Tales Traits in "The Great Gatsby" from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Presentation 5 : History of English Literature – From 1350 to 1900

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 5 - How to John Ruskin's "Unto the Last" inspired Mahatma Gandhi..

How to John Ruskin's "Unto the Last" inspired Mahatma Gandhi from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You..

Presentation 4 : Literature of the Victorians

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 4 - Education System in Hard Time..

Education System in Hard Time from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You..

Presentation 3 : Literature of the Romantics

Hello Monks..

Here is my presentation about Paper 3 - Marriage View of Jane Austen in Pride & Prejudice 

Marriage View of Jane Austen in Pride & Prejudice from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You...

Presentation 2 : Literature of the Neo-classical Period

Hello Monks..
Here is my presentation about Paper 2 -The Rape of the Lock - A Mock Poem 

The Rape of the Lock - A Mock Poem from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You...

Presentation 1 : Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods

Hello Monks..
Here is my presentation about Paper 1 - Patriarchic society in The Rover..

Patriarchic society in The Rover from Riddhi Bhatt

I've also uploaded a video of my presentation on YouTube. Click here to watch the video...

Thank You....

Wide Sargasso Sea

Hello Monks...
Here I am going to compare Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea and Character  of Antoinette and Jane Eyre  by applying Feminism and postcolonialism.

Introduction of  Wide Sargasso Sea :

Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966 toward the end of Jean Rhys's writing career, was the most successful of Rhys's literary works. The novel was well received when it was first published and has never been out of print. It also continues to draw the interest of academics and literary critics today. The popularity of Wide Sargasso Sea might be based on several factors. The general reader might enjoy this novel for the captivating story of a lonely young woman who is driven to near madness by her need to be loved. Literary theorists, on the other hand, find Rhys's novel rich in the portrayal of the damaging effects of colonization on a conquered people and the debilitating consequences of sexual exploitation of women. Another group of readers, those interested in multiculturalism, might be drawn to Wide Sargasso Sea for the insider's view that Rhys provides of nineteenth-century life and culture on a Caribbean island.

Compare Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea and Character  of Antoinette and Jane Eyre  by applying Feminism and postcolonialism :

    One of the central features of postcolonial theory is that it examines the impact and continuing legacy of the European conquest, colonization and domination of non European people and cultures. It focuses on the power being used by the colonizers to dominate and control the colonized in occupied territories. Among other critical perspectives, postcolonial theory is informed by feminist theory. Feminist theory deals with women’s gender, rights, identity, oppression and their position in society.

    In Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966, Jean Rhys tells the story of Bertha Mason (Antoinette Cosway), Rochester’s West Indian first wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). The daughter of a Welsh father and a Creole Dominican mother, Rhys sought to provide a fictional life for a character that, though of the utmost importance for the development of Brontë’s narrative, exists only peripherically, confined as she is to both madness and seclusion in the attic of Rochester’s mansion.In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys uses the Brontë novel as a pre-text for relocating and reinscribing, to use Bhabha’s terms, Antoinette/Bertha in a story of her own. The narrative is divided into three parts: the first, which covers Antoinette’s childhood and youth up to her marriage to Rochester, is told by the protagonist herself; in the second Rochester describes his arrival in the West Indies, his marriage and the disastrous relationship with Antoinette; the third and final part is again narrated by the protagonist. As Rochester himself remarks about his arranged marriage, 

“I have not bought her, she has bought me, or so she thinks” 

    Developing a fever immediately after his arrival, the illness makes it even more difficult for him to understand the local social behavior, especially that of the former slaves. The natural exuberance of the place renders him sick:

“Too much blue, too much purple, too much green. 
The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the hills too near. And the woman is a stranger” (WSS 59). 

    Antoinette is still more ambivalent, both in racial and in social terms. The daughter of a white father and a Creole mother, she is part of a decaying colonial aristocracy, now threatened by a black majority of freed slaves. The power scheme in West Indian society is, thus, more complex than the opposition colonizer/colonized would allow.

• As Graham Huggan remarks, 

Antoinette’s status as a Creole “is not only a mark of personal/social instability, but also a model for the destabilization of a set of binary constructs (white/black, insider/outsider, and so forth) which provides a spurious rationalization in Wide Sargasso Sea for the selfprivileging practices of colonial power” 

    In fact, as the old plantations begin to decline, much of the English tradition on the islands is eroded, as we can see in the passage where Rochester describes Mr. Mason’s (Antoinette’s stepfather) room. There was a crude bookshelf made of three shingles strung together over the desk and I looked at the books, Byron’s poems, novels by Sir Walter Scott, Confessions of an Opium Eater, some shabby brown volumes, and on the last shelf, Life and Letters of... The rest was eaten away. (WSS 63)

    There are no simple dichotomies for Jean Rhys. In a mimicry of their own oppression,blacks now discriminate against the impoverished whites. The same, but not quite, as Bhabha would say. Even the slave trade is rendered as a multifaceted historical event, rather than a simplistic exploitation of black people by the whites. In fact, the issue of power is problematized in rather complex terms in the novel. Such conflicting subject positions are acted out in the beginning of the novel, when Antoinette’s only childhood friend, the back girl Tia, cheats her into losing the few coins she  had and steals her nice clothes, leaving Antoinette to return home in Tia’s shabby dress, their positions reversed. After a few conflicting incidents, Tia throws a rock at Antoinette, who remarks: 

“We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass” (WSS 38).

The second scene is Antoinette/Bertha’s final dream, in which she has visions of her past life in the West Indies. After a detailed description of the sights, sounds and smells she remembers, she tells us:

"I heard the parrot call as he did when he saw a stranger, Qui est là? Qui est là? and the man who hated me was calling too, Bertha! Bertha! The wind caught my hair and it streamed out like wings. It might bear me up, I thought, if I jumped to those hard stones. But when I looked over the edge I saw the pool at Coulibri. Tia was there. She beckoned to me and when I hesitated, she laughed. I heard her say, You frightened? And I heard the man’s voice, Bertha! Bertha! All this I saw and heard in a fraction of a second. And the sky so red. Someone screamed and I thought, Why did I scream? I called ‘Tia!’ and jumped and woke." (WSS 155)

However we may answer these questions, Rhys’s novel interrogates Jane Eyre, reading it against the grain and bringing to light the cultural conventions on which it is built. Jean Rhys reveal the historicity and the naturalized character of the dominant scripts of Western culture. Antoinette  transgress the limits imposed by conventional narrative and refuse to be contained in the roles assigned to them. Antoinette escapes madness by healing the split between self and other and destroying the colonial house in which she is imprisoned. Antoinette is too colorful, too sensuous, too free. She is a polluting threat to the social order that Rochester stands for. 

References :

• BHABHA, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.
• BRONTË, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Penguin, 1999 [1847].
• HUGGAN, Graham. “A Tale of Two Parrots”. Contemporary Literature, v. 35, n. 4, p. 643-660, 1994. http://www.accessmylibrary.com. Access January 10, 2009.
• RHYS, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Penguin, 1966.

THANK YOU 

Assignment: P-205 (Cultural Studies)

 Hello Beautiful People,

This blog is 205 (Cultural Studies) assignment writing on  assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).

Name Bhatt Riddhiben D.

             riddhi28bhatt@gmail.com

Sem 3

Roll No. 15

PG year 2020-2022

PG Enrollment No. 3069206420200004

Paper Name 205 (Cultural Studies)

Topic Name Four goals of Cultural Studies

Submitted to Smt. S.B.Gardi Department of English

Four Goals of Cultural Studies

CONTENTS :

1. Introduction

2. What is Cultural Studies ?

3. Four Goals of Cultural Studies :

4. Why is Cultural Studies important?

5. Conclusion

6. Work Sited

Introduction :

Cultural studies is a field of theoretically, politically, and empirically engaged cultural analysis that concentrates upon the political dynamics of contemporary culture, its historical foundations, defining traits, conflicts, and contingencies.So here we see that what is meaning of Cultural Studies and four goals of Cultural Studies.

What is Cultural Studies ?

Culture is a anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. The term culture in American anthropology had two meanings-

(I) the evolved to classify and represent experiences with symbols and to act imaginatively and creatively.

(ii) the distinct ways that people live, differently, classified and represent their experiences and acted creatively.

 Culture is central to the way we view, experience and engage with all aspects of our lives and the world around us. Even our definitions are shaped by the historical, political, social and cultural contexts in which we live. Culture is the mode of generating meanings and ideas. This mode of negotiation under which meanings are generated by power relations. Culture is a social phenomena which tends to regularate the mindset and behaviour of people which is set on ancient rules and regularities and experiences. Culture is the identity of particular society and it is the mirror of the society. Culture in a simple way can be said as a particular way of life. Tradition, customs, rules and regulations, norms, artifacts (signs), religions, communities, material things, journey of 'Man' from caves to present day civilization are also culture. opposite of nature is culture. Nature is outside and the moment Man enters, it becomes culture. Whatever which is not nature is culture. All the activities that are done between people on the piece of land and with the other people, culture is the entire range of activities that all the people of the society do. Culture deals with identity. For example, Mahatma Gandhi is the icon of India.

Culural “ Signifying Praises”   a chief concern is to specifying the franicing of the social, economic and political forces and power structure that are said to produce the diverse from Culural phenomena and to endow them with their social “ Meaning” their “ Truth”. The modes of the discourse in which there are discussed and their values and states.   

Nature is something which is outside the control of human beings and culture is the introduction of what humans do and think. Culture is the great help out of our present difficulties; Culture beings the pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which has been thought and said in the world: and through his knowledge, turning of stream of fresh and free thoughts upon our stock notions and habits, which we follow but mechanically. When the things are done by elite group, it is called Culture and when the same things are done by minority group, it s called sub-culture. Elite culture controls meanings because it controls the terms of the debate. Non-elite views on life and art are rejected as 'Tasteless', 'useless' or 'even stupid' by the elite. Culture is one of the two or three terms to define. It is an umbrella term. Literature is one of its discipline. It cannot be understood by one discipline. We are multi-disciplinary. Every discipline studies culture but in a different way.  

Culture   ---->       Cultural Criticism      ----->       Cultural Studies

What are examples of culture?

The following are illustrative examples of traditional culture.

• Norms. Norms are informal, unwritten rules that govern social behaviors.

• Languages.

• Festivals.

• Rituals & Ceremony.

• Holidays.

• Pastimes.

• Food.

• Architecture.

Four Goals of Cultural Studies :

1 ) Cultural studies transcended the confines of particular discipline such as literary criticism.

2) Cultural studies are politically engaged.

3) Cultural studies deny the separation of “high” and “low” or elite and popular culture.

4)  Cultural studies analyze not only the cultural work, but the means of production

1) Cultural studies transcends the confines of particular disciple such as literary criticism or history :

Cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text- for example, Italian Opera, a Latino telenovela, the architectural styles of prisons, body piercing- and drawing conclusions about the changes in textual phenomena over time.Cultural studies transcend the confine of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history. “practiced in such journal as critical inquiry , representations, and boundary 2 , cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text – for example Italian opera, a Latino telenovela, the architectural styles of prisons, body piercing and drawing conclusion about the change in textual phenomena over time.

 Cultural studies are not necessarily about literature in the traditional sense or even about “art”. In their introduction to cultural studies , editors Lawrence grossberg,cary nelson , and Paula trencher emphasize that the intellectual promise of cultural studies lies in the attempts to “ cut across diverse social and political interests and address many of the struggles within the current scene.”

Cultural studies is not necessarily about literature in the traditional sense or even about "art". Intellectual works are not limited by their own "borders" as single texts, historical problems or even disciplines, and the critic's own personal connections to what is being analysed may also be described. Henry Giroux and others write in their Dalhousie Review manifesto that cultural studies practitioner are "resisting intellectuals", who see what they do as "an emancipatory project" because it erodes the traditional disciplinary divisions in most institutions of higher education. But this kind of criticism, like feminism, is an engaged rather than a detached activity.

2) Cultural studies is politically engaged:

Cultural critics see themselves as "oppositional", not only within their own disciplines  but to many of the power structures of the society at large. They question inequalities within power structures and seek to discover models for restructuring relationships among dominant and "minority" or "subaltern" discourses. Because meaning and individual subjectivity are culturally constructed, thus they can be reconstructed. Such a notion, taken to a philosophical extreme, denies the autonomy of the individual, whether an actual person or a character in literature, a rebuttal of the traditional humanistic "Great Man" or "Great Book" theory, and a relocation of aesthetics and culture from the ideal realms of test and sensibility into the arena of a whole society's everyday life as it is constructed.

3) Cultural studies denies the separation of “High” and “ Low “or elite and popular culture:

                           “Cultural studies deny the separation of high and low or elite and popular culture.”    I might hear someone remark at the symphony or art museum: “I came here to get a little culture”.

       Being a “cultured” person used to mean being acquainted with “highbrow” art and intellectual pursuits. But isn’t culture also to be found with a pair of tickets to a rock concert?

       Cultural critic’s today work to transfer the term culture today work to transfer the term culture to include mass culture, whether popular, folk, or urban.  The Following theorists Jean Baudrillard and Andreas huyssen of the cultural critics argue that after world war ii the distinctions among high , low and mass culture collapsed , and they cite other theorists such as Pierre Boundiry and Dick Hedbige on how “good taste” only reflects prevailing social, economic and political power bases. For example , the images of india that were circulated during the colonical rule of the british raj by writes like by Rudyard kipling seem innocent , but reveal an entrenched imperialist argument for white superiority and worldwide domination of other races, especially Asians. But race along was not the issue for the British raj, money was also a deciding factor But drawing also upon the ideas of french historian michel de certeau, cultural critics examine.Rather than determining which are the "best" works produced, cultural critics describe what is produced and how various productions relate to one another. They aim to reveal the political, economic reasons why a certain cultural product is more valued at certain times than others. "The Birth of Captain Jack Sparrow: An Analysis" and " Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)"  are some famous works and movies.

4) Cultural studies analyses not only the cultural work, but also means of production : 

Marxist critics have long recognized the importance of such para literary questions as these: who supports a given artist? A well known analysis of literary production is Janice Radway's Study of the American romance novel and its readers, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature, which demonstrates the textual effects of the publishing industry's decisions about books that will minimize its financial risks. Reading in America, edited by Cathy N. Davidson, which includes essay on literacy and gender in Colonial New England; urban magazine audiences in Eighteenth Century New York city; the impact upon reading of technical innovations as cheaper eyeglasses, electric lights, and trains; the Book-of -the-Month Club; and how writers and texts go through fluctuations of popularity and canonicity. These studies help us recognise that literature does not occur in a space separate from other concerns of our lives.

Cultural studies thus joins subjectivity that is, culture in relation to individual lives- with engagement, a direct approach to attacking social ills. Though cultural studies practitioners deny "humanism" or "the humanities" as universal categories, they strive for what they might call "social reason" which often (closely) resembles the goals and values of humanistic and democratic ideals.Cultural studies analyzes not only the cultural work but also the means of production

Why is Cultural Studies important?

The Cultural Studies major helps you understand the complexity of everyday life and the way that habits, texts, objects and beliefs are socially patterned and laden with values and meaning. It will provide you with a range of tools to analyse how cultural practices and meanings are produced, circulated and exchanged.

Conclusion :

Cultural studies has evolved through the confluence of various disciplines—anthropology, media studies, communication studies, Literary Studies, education, geography, philosophy, sociology, politics, and others.Cultural Studies criticizes the traditional view of the passive consumer, particularly by underlining the different ways people read, receive and interpret cultural texts, or appropriate other kinds of cultural products, or otherwise participate in the production and circulation of meanings.A key concern for cultural studies practitioners is the examination of the forces within and through which socially organized people conduct and participate in the construction of their everyday lives.

Work Cited :

• Edgar, Andrew, and Peter Sedgwick. 2005. Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

• Kershner, R. Brandon. “CONTEXTS OF CULTURAL STUDIES.” European Joyce Studies, vol. 15, Brill, 2003, pp. 9–20, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871140.

• Nayar, Pramod K. An Introduction to Cultural Studies. 2008.

Thank You