BODHI International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Science
An Online, Peer Reviewed, Refereed and Quarterly Journal
Vol : 2 Special Issue : 8 March 2018 ISSN : 2456-5571 UGC approved Journal (J. No. 44274)
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BODHI
BODHI International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Science (ISSN: 2456-5571) is online, peer reviewed, Refereed and Quarterly Journal, which is powered & published by Center for Resource, Research and Publication Services, (CRRPS) India. It is committed to bring together academicians, research scholars and students from all over the world who work professionally to upgrade status of academic career and society by their ideas and aims to promote interdisciplinary studies in the fields of humanities, arts and science.
The journal welcomes publications of quality papers on research in humanities, arts, science. agriculture, anthropology, education, geography, advertising, botany, business studies, chemistry, commerce, computer science, communication studies, criminology, cross cultural studies, demography, development studies, geography, library science, methodology, management studies, earth sciences, economics, bioscience, entrepreneurship, fisheries, history, information science & technology, law, life sciences, logistics and performing arts (music, theatre & dance), religious studies, visual arts, women studies, physics, fine art, microbiology, physical education, public administration, philosophy, political sciences, psychology, population studies, social science, sociology, social welfare, linguistics, literature and so on.
Research should be at the core and must be instrumental in generating a major interface with the academic world. It must provide a new theoretical frame work that enable reassessment and refinement of current practices and thinking. This may result in a fundamental discovery and an extension of the knowledge acquired. Research is meant to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the results of previous works, solve new or existing problems, support theorems; or develop new theorems. It empowers the faculty and students for an in-depth approach in research. It has the potential to enhance the consultancy capabilities of the researcher. In short, conceptually and thematically an active attempt to provide these types of common platforms on educational reformations through research has become the main objective of this Journal.
Dr. S. Balakrishnan Publisher and Editor - in - Chief [email protected] www.bodhijournals.com
BODHI INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, ARTS AND SCIENCE (BIJRHAS) An Online, Peer reviewed, Refereed and Quarterly Journal
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Dr. S. Balakrishnan Executive Director, Centre for Resource, Research and Publication Services (CRRPS) Tamil Nadu, India
Vice Editor-in-Chiefs Dr. Manimangai Mani Dr. B. Jeyanthi Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Assistant Professor & HOD of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Anna University, Tirunelveli Region, Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Tamil Nadu, India Selangor, Malaysia Dr. T. Marx Dr. Mamta Brahmbhatt Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Associate Professor of Management, Faculty of Modern Languages and B.K. School of Business Management, Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Selangor, Malaysia
Pradeep D. Waghmare Mr. B.P. Pereira Assistant Professor of History, Visiting Professor of English in Journalism, Ramnarain Ruia College, Madurai Kamaraj University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Editorial / Review Board Dr. Sunil S. Narwade Dr. H.S. Rakesh Professor, Dept. of Economics, Assistant Professor of History, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Davangere University, Karnataka, India University, Aurnagabad, Maharashtra, India Dr. Indira Banerji Dr. V.N. Kendre Assistant Professor of English, Yogoda Satsanga Assistant Professor of Sociology, Mahavidyalaya, Ranchi University, Ranchi, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, Jharkhand, India Maharashtra, India Dr. Punam Pandey Dr. Nana Pradhan Assistant Professor, Dept. of English & Modern Assistant Professor of Physics, European Languages, JR Handicapped Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, University, Chitrakoot, UP, India Maharashtra, India Dr. Harshad Bhosale Dr. Prasenjit Panda Assistant Professor of Political Science, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English & Foreign Kirti College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Languages, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Koni, Chattisgarh, India
Dr. H.M. Kantharaj Dr. Vaishali Pusate Assistant Co-ordinator of Education, Assistant Professor of Zoology, Davangere University, Karnataka, India Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Dr. Vipin Kumar Pandey Associate Professor of English & Other Foreign Dr. P.V. Mahalinge Language, DSM National Rehabilitation Assistant Professor of Hindi, University, Lucknow, UP, India Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Dr. B.V. Dhananjaya Murthy Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dr. Neelkanth Bankar Davangere University, Karnataka, India Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Dr. Vijaykumar Chavan Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Rajeshwar Andhale Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Maharashtra, India Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Dr. Vijay Shankar Sharma Assistant Professor of Special Education, Dr. Anupama Mujumdar DSM National Rehabilitation University, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Lucknow, UP, India Ruparel College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Dr. Sunil Shankadarwar Dr. Parvez Shamim Assistant Professor of Botany, Assistant Professor of Physical Education & Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai, Sports, Government P.G. College, Noida, Maharashtra, India G.B. Nagar, UP, India
Mr. Amit Agnihotri Assistant Professor & Head of Information Technology, JR Handicapped University, Chitrakoot, UP, India
Dr. MANIMANGAI MANI Professor Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
FOREWORD
I take great pleasure in welcoming all of you to this great assembly of scholars and researchers through the International Conference on English Language and Literature which is jointly organised by the Division of English, School of Science and Humanities, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences and Bodhi International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Science. The main aim of this conference is to bring together local and international academics, educators, planners, teachers and professionals to exchange views, insights and opinions on past and current practices in the areas of language, literature and culture. Instead of being confined to the four walls of the university, this conference acts as a forum that brings exposure to the undergraduate, post-graduate students, Research Scholars and Faculties. The participants are able to present their research papers in a world class forum and gain invaluable experiences. Let us engage in discussions of the common trends in our fields of research and find common ground on which we can stand on to appreciate and integrate each other’s findings into our own. It is only through research and practice that we could contribute to the nation and the world at large with the advances and innovations in the field of social sciences and humanities to ensure a balanced growth in the society. Sustaining progress in research for the advancement of the society is a very challenging task. It takes continuous effort and sacrifice to provide new insights on issues pertaining literature, language and culture that would benefit the students and the nation. I would like to congratulate and thank for organising this international conference in Coimbatore. In fact, Bodhi Journal and the English Division from School of Science and Humanities, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences has brought the international world to the door step of this Institute. This conference also acts as platform to begin networking among scholars and researchers from all nooks and corners of India as well as from around the world and to generate sequels of collaborative research and publications which is the primary goal of this conference. By attending this conference, the postgraduate students get an opportunity to publish in an international journal which at the same time fulfills the requirement of the senate for them to graduate. This conference acts as a stepping stone for new researchers and post graduate students to further embark into more international conferences. This conference also provides an access in producing a more contributing and productive future generation which will aid the nation of India to prosper in the international arena ensuring that the nation will be on the same platform with other prosperous countries. I also thank everyone who has contributed for the success of this conference directly or indirectly and pray that the teamwork will continue and grow in the years to come. Thank you.
“Knowledge brightens the path of the Seeker”.
EDITORIAL
We use language as a means of expression, communication and interaction. Teaching and Learning is a process in academia where language is inevitable. Faculty members of any subject would accept that they require a language in the classroom to explain a concept. The study of the English language provides the perfect context for the analysis of literature, and the study of English literature enhances an understanding of the language working in practice. The two disciplines complement each other, and offer a great variety – of subject matter and learning and assessment methods. This special issue comes in two volumes on both language and literature. The first volume consists of 50 articles both in language and literature. The articles touch a area of the researchers’ interest and emerging trends in language and literature. They also explore the new avenues where people find something could be filled in with. The published articles in this volume bridge the gap in the field of language and literature. The articles are highly informative with exhaustive research and outcomes are quite innovative and enlightening. The readers of these articles will have something to store for their life. The editorial team appreciates all the contributors for their research novelty and innovative outcomes. We also appreciate all the readers who invest their time to cherish these ideas into practical steps. Language is to express and literature is to follow and live. We sincerely thank the publishers and the team who put their effort to bring out this special issue. At this Moment we make our Sincere thanks to Management and all faculty fraternity of English Department for this Successful Academic event backed by their wholehearted contributions and supports, which exhorted us at large that are really appreciably commendable.
Chief Editors Dr. D. DAVID WILSON Associate Professor in English Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences Dr. J. SUNDARSINGH Professor & Program Coordinator PG- S&H Karunya Institute of Technology & Sciences Dr. S. BALA KRISHNAN Editor & Publisher, Bodhi Int. Journal Mr. B. P. PEREIRA Founder Director, Speech Point, Madurai
Editorial Board Members Dr. S. JEYACHANDRA Associate Professor in English Dr. M. POONKODI Assistant Professor in English Dr. HELEN UNIUS BACKIAVATHY Assistant Professor in English Dr. R. CORNELI AGNES ROSABELLA Assistant Professor in English Dr. AMUTHA DHANARAJ Assistant Professor in English Dr. D. KAUSALYA Assistant Professor in English Mr. C. MASILAMANI Assistant Professor in English Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences
BODHI INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, ARTS AND SCIENCE An Online, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed and Quarterly Journal with Impact Factor
Vol: 2 Special Issue 8 March 2018 ISSN: 2456-5571
Aim & Objectives CONTENTS
Academic Excellence in research is continued promoting in research support for young Page S.No Title Scholars. Multidisciplinary of research is motivating No. all aspects of encounters across disciplines and 1 Transformational of the Mind in V.S. 1 research fields in an multidisciplinary views, by Naipaul’s The Mimic Men assembling research groups and consequently P.Nivetha projects, supporting publications with this 2 Transculture Identity in Bharati 4 inclination and organizing programmes. Mukherjee’s The Tiger’s Daughter Internationalization of research work is the unit S.Rohinipriya seeks to develop its scholarly profile in research 3 A Postcolonial Overview of Sally 8 through quality of publications. And visibility of Morgan’s My Place research is creating sustainable platforms for G.S.Nandana research and publication, such as series of Books; 4 Twentieth Century Community and 14 motivating dissemination of research results for Ancestral Voice through the Writings of people and society. Toni Morrison and Alice Walker Aashima Rana
Disclaimer 5 Slave Narratives Techniques in Octavia 20 E.Butler’s Kindred Contributors are advised to be strict in M.Prakash academic ethics with respect to acknowledgment 6 Chester Himes’ The Third Generation 22 of the original ideas borrowed from others. The as an Autobiographical and Domestic Publisher & editors will not be held responsible for Novel any such lapse of the contributor regarding R.Sivasankari plagiarism and unwarranted quotations in their 7 Music Across Borders: Situating 24 manuscripts. All submissions should be original and Bhangra in a Global Context must be accompanied by a declaration stating your Rachit Verma research paper as an original work and has not 8 Tom and Huck’s Encounter in the 32 been published anywhere else. It will be the sole Adventures of Tom Sawyer responsibility of the authors for such lapses, if any K.Geethanjali on legal bindings and ethical code of publication. 9 Refugee Crisis in Mohsin Hamid’s Novel 35 Exit West Communication D.Abarnaa Papers should be Mailed to 10 The Emotional Conflict between Reality 38 [email protected] and Imagination in R.K. Narayan’s The English Teacher P.U.Lydia Bennett 11 Vulnerability of the Individuals in the 41 Coating of Religious Orthodoxy: A Study on Sara Aboobacker’s Breaking Ties D.Nishasujatha
12 Understanding America for the Non- 44 28 Marginality: Focus on Bissoondatah’s 97 American Black Novel Casual Brutality A.Kanimozhi A.Kabilath Begum 13 Ecofeminism: An Insight into the Mind of 47 29 Use of Allegory in C.S.Lewis’ The Lion, 100 the Protagonist Sumi in the Select The Witch and the Wardrobe Novel of Shashi Deshpande’s ‘A Matter R.Angelin Priscilla of Time’ 30 Feminism in Shashi Deshpande’s 103 G.Sagayaselvi Shadow Play 14 An Analysis of Female Psyche in Dollar 50 G.Veronical Bahu by Sudha Murthy 31 Does Teacher’s Attitude Affect 106 P.P.Neelayathakshi Language Learning? 15 Analysis of Ancient Promises by 53 A.Delphine Jayashreemisra 32 Narrative Techniques in Nayomi 109 M. Sreelakshmi Munaweera’s Island of a Thousand 16 A Formalist Impression on the Style of 57 Mirrors Jessica Powers’ Poetry R.Pavithra C.Armila Antony 17 Theme of Betrayal in Postman Always 62 Rings Twice and Double Indemnity M.Selvapriya 18 Indian Writing in English -Cultural 66 Ambivalence in Sister of My Heart and Vine of Desire J.Deepa 19 Post-Colonial Literature - Fall of Culture 70 in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” A.Sornalatha 20 Re-Investigating the Paradigm Shift of 72 the Female Protagonist in Asif Currimbhoy’s Sonar Bangla Avishek Bhattacharya 21 Unjust Oppression of the Blacks in Amiri 76 Baraka’s Select Plays B.Suganya 22 Women Rights Violation: A Study of 78 Amitav Ghosh’s Novel Sea of Poppies Sajad Ahmad Bhat 23 A Critical Analysis of Magical Realism in 81 the Novels of Ben Okri and Kiran Desai M.Swathi 24 Importance of the Greatest Epics 84 Mahabharata and Ramayana T.Sowmiya 25 The Structural Analysis of the 88 Panopticon World R.Abitha 26 Semiotic Observations of Language, 90 Advertisements and Human Culture Basappa.Y.Bangari 27 Stress of Adaptation in Anita Desai’s 94 Bye-Bye Blackbird Priyanga Chinnasamy
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TRANSFORMATIONAL OF THE MIND IN V.S. NAIPAUL’S THE MIMIC MEN
P.Nivetha M.Phil. Research Scholar, Research Department of English, Fatima College, Madurai
Abstract This paper aims at presenting the autobiographical elements in the novel The Mimic Men. V.S.Nailpal had his bitter experience in his life. He reflected such things in his work The Mimic Men. Singh is the protagonist considered London as the city of reality and refined manners. But he discerned the ground reality only at the end. He knew his limitations very well as an island politician. This paper has a contemporary relevance. It depicted the theme of identity- crisis. Keywords: Depicted, Relevance, Identity-crisis.
Introduction personality, as well as his roots and cultural V.S.Naipaul was a prolific writer. He was a identity" victim of “Double exile”. His voice echoed in his The native Caribs and Arawaks were totally work named “The Mimic men”. He belonged to destroyed within a century of European Indian heritage. It was denied to him. His invasion. A flourishing slave trade saw the grandfather moved to Trinidad for occupation brutal transportation of Africans to work in the purpose. “Going abroad for earning one’s bread sugar plantation. The slaves were ruthlessly and butter” is a typical Indian style. His isolated from their common language group. grandfather felt like fish out of water. Native Imperial culture hegemony in the colonies was place gives a sense of solace to any person. established and maintained by the related Unfamiliar places give a sense of dislocation activities of cultural denigration and and displacement. There is no perfect of suppression together with the projection of a happiness in an alien places. Naipaul felt there supposedly superior racial and cultural model was “nothing left but flight and denial” Like with language acting as the paradigm. other colonials felt for an Identity-crisis, he too Language becomes the medium of establishing felt the same thing. He left Trinidad for a hierarchical power structure with its hub England. England was reckoned to be the located at the imperial center. perceived center of power. English people were According to Homi k Bhabha "Colonial basically imperialistic. They were authoritative mimicry and hybridization are the devices by nature. They felt big for their boots. He lived through which this ambivalence at the very and studied in England. He married an English centre is exposed" he soon realized that imperial woman, English people were basically culture operated as a closed framework. dominative. He never realished such kind of European culture had to be subverted by the attitude. He had a fluctuating mind. He had no apparently innocuous acts of repetition and heart to live in England. At the same time, he mimicry. Adapting and Adopting the white did not like those people. man's language seemed to be very difficult post The story of West Indian colonization is not - colonial writers tried their best to learn the a pretty one. It has been the site of some of the language. They virtually spoke up for worst atrocities of European expansion. "The themselves. African was colonized" writes Griffiths, but "the According to william walsh; "Naipaul is West Indian was enslaved. In the process of engaged with the stresses and strains we enslavement. West Indian was deprived of his recognize as crucial in our experience now. His writing is nervous and present. This together
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with the mixture in him of creeds, cultures and The Mimic Men is the autobiography of continents with his expatriate career. His being Ralph Ranjeet teripal singh. He was born and able to practice an art in and of totally dissimilar brought up in the isabellan capital. He sees worlds all give him a peculiarly contemporary politics as a stepping stone to the metropolis. quality". Metropolis is the centre of reality, power and In the views of V.S.Naipaul Trinidad was order. Withdrawal of colonial support has only small remote and unimportant and all knew resulted in "Chaos on which order has been that one could not hope to read in books of the imported". He discerned the bitter truth laber. life. In short, there was a gap between the "That in a society like ours, fragmented authentic text and the world of the post colonial. inorganic no link between man and the V.S.Naipaul was not concerned with style for its landscape, a society not held together by own sake. He tried to destroy the rhythms of the common interests, there was no true internal prose. He was concerned with allowing each source of power, and that no power was real thing add to the other. He tried to say exactly which did not come from the outside. Such was and clearly what he meant. He never goes on the controlled chaos we had with such filibustering in his way of speaking. He calls a enthusiasm, brought upon ourselves (TMM spade a spade. In search of his own meaningful 15).Singh has given room for self analysis. He is reality. Naipaul chronicles the binary tensions a political aspirant. He is whiter than white. of metropolis and margin, colonizer and Singh introspects. colonized oppressor and oppressed. He created "We began in bluff. We continued in bluff. the brighter world and bleaker world. He has But there was a difference. We began in presented two kinds of world in a very innocence, believing in the virtue of the smell of impartial manner. Man is basically a bundle of sweat. We continued with knowledge, of contradictions. He feels at ease only in his poverty and power. The colonial politician is an native place. But he feels like fish out of water in easy object of satire". any foreign land. Human mind is rather a His mimicry of the concepts of success only complicated process. Animals are promptitude make his personal failures more glaring. He enough in making any decision. They are active found it very difficult to rise above caste. The as well as reactive. Human beings are basically island politician is not a politician by choice. gregarious. They like to talk with many people. Political awakening soon follows in the They have the sixth sense but they are very poor footsteps of political humiliation. As a minister in decision making. It is applicable to any in the government, Ralph singh leads an politician. It is applicable to any intellectual important delegation to London. In London, he person. It is applicable to any layman. The painfully acknowledges that his career as an writer's homelessness and rootlessness become island politician. It is by no means unusual. It the necessary conditions of his creativity. falls into the pattern. The career of the colonial Naipaul has examined the world of the post politician is short and ends brutally. He says; colonial in many of his novels. The Mimic Men "We lack order above all we lack power and is an overt statement of the post-colonial we do not understand we lack power. We situation. It is an autobiographical account of mistake words and the acclamation of words for the one hand and nihilism on the other. This power, as soon as our bluff is called we are lost work was set in the caribbean island of isabella. (TMM 17).Ralph ranjeet tribal singh, in a state of This place was warm. It was humid and disgrace, and deprived of wife, friends, money compressive. It was a virtual Trinidad for all and status leaves Isabella to search for an practical purpose. Eldorado at the hub of imperial centre. The
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colonial politician faced the crisis in self image ordinary fact. London people are not superior. he moves to London. He consider London as The people of Isabella are not inferior. The hero real world. He needs order and legitimacy. of this work reckoned himself lower. He had “ coming to London, the great city, seeking such a fluctuating temperament. He gave room order, seeking the flowering, the extension of for metamorphosis. He wanted to leapfrog. So myself that ought to have coming a city of such he blew hot and cold in making any decision. miraculous light I had tried to hasten a process His mind is flexible. His mind is yielding to the which had seemed elusive. I had tried to give false ideology. At last, his mind is getting a clear myself a personality”. (TMM 20). cut transformation. The bitter truth dawned in But sadly the sought for personality and his mind. In the beginning, he jumped to identity are not there for him. The reality and conclusion that easily. But later on, he truth pursuit of which he had come to the centre scrutinized that pros and cons of the isabellan are an illusion. Instead the nothingness of the people and the people of England. He knew periphery shifts to the center as Ralph realizes where he stood. He transformed himself as a that for the failed politician. He hailed from the hard - boiled realist only in the end. lower strata of society. He consider himself inferior. References 1. Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men, Penguin Conclusion Books, New Delhi: 1957. He never had a sense of complacency in his 2. Srinivasa Iyengar, K.R. Indian Writing in island. There was nothing to blame the island English Sterling Publishers, New Delhi: people are basically immaculate. But the 1978. protagonist of the work considered himself 3. The Literary Criterion Vol 37, No: 2 Edited inferior. Under the sun, no one is superior. by C.D. Narasimhaiah, Mysore: 2002. (Pg: Under the sun, no one is inferior. There is a 34-35). basic fact behind the concept, of living 4. Puri, G.K. A Dictionary of Quotation for All. “contentment is perpetual feast”. This is a very IIMS Publications, New Delhi: 2000.
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TRANSCULTURE IDENTITY IN BHARATI MUKHERJEE’S THE TIGER’S DAUGHTER
S.Rohinipriya M.Phil. Research Scholar, Research Department of English, Fatima College, Madurai
Abstract Bharathi Mukherjee is a Third World Feminist writer whose preoccupation is to deal with the problems and issues related with the South Asian Women particularly India. Her contemporary feminist writers, she upholds the cause of women, but she differs from them because her basic apprehension is to demarcate the problems of cross cultural conflicts faced by Indian women immigrants. This is apparent by Tara Banerjee in The Tiger’s Daughter, Dimple in Wife, Jyothi in Jasmine. Mukherjee’s heroines are bold an assertive. They have the strong potentiality for adaptability; they live in the compact ground of reality and accept the bitter truth of their live. This paper discusses about the subaltern voices in Bharati Mukherjee’s select works. Keywords: apparent, demarcate, immigrant, adaptability.
Introduction could she ever share Camac Stret thoughts with The Tiger’s Daughter is purely an these ‘pale, dry-skinned girls’. Little things immigrant novel and the protagonist of this pained her. She sensed discrimination if her novel, Tara is actually an imaginative rendering roommate did not share her bottle of mango of Bharati Mukherjee, s personal experience. chutney. She defended her family and her The novel explores Tara’s journey from self- country vehemently whenever she conversed alienation to self-actualization and the ultimate with the foreigners. She prayed to Kali, a acceptance of her transculture identity. Tara, the portrait kept under silk saris in her suitcase, to Bengali Brahmin, daughter of an affluent bless her with strength for not to break down businessman, Bengal Tiger Banerjee’s before the Americans. encounters a double culture shock the first in It is irony that she fell in love with an the alien land, on going abroad to USA for American and had to settle down in New York. higher education and the second, in her own New York was certainly extraordinary but it native soil, on returning from USA to India, as had driven her to despair. When the ambiance the wife of an American writer, David seemed quite oppressive and intolerable, “She Cartwright. The motive for this decision had shaken out all her silk scarves, ironed them remained a secret but the effect was terrifying. and hung them to make the apartment more Tara considers it an unsalvageable mistake. If Indian” she felt herself ‘victim of a love match.’ she had not been a Banerjee’s, the great Her husband being totally western, she could granddaughter of Hari lal Banerjee, or not express the finer nuances of her family conceivably if she had not been trained by the background and life in Calcutta.” David knew good nuns of ST.Blaise’s to remain composed nothing of Calcutta, Camas street, the rows of and lady like in all emergencies, she would gods, the power and the goodness of the Bengal have rushed home to India at the end of her first Tiger”. She could not provide any convincing week. She felt being pushed to the periphery of explanations for his queries bout the tradition her old world. The incredible difference and customs of her homeland. Thus uprooted between the two ways of life filled her with from the native soil and culture, Tara is torn depression and frustration. Her classmates between the feelings of rootlessness and extended a friendly approach, lending her nostalgia and feels quite insecure in the new books, records and hand lotions unasked but land and long for her homeland. Tara distanced herself from them thinking how 4 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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To her great relief, after a span of seven brought only wounds…. She was an embittered years, Tara planned a trip home, to India. She woman, she now thought, old and cynical at believed that this home coming would relieve twenty and quick to take offences.(TTD 25). her scarred psyche and erase the displeasure of Reaching Calcutta, she found everything her life abroad. Disgusted with acquisitive life alien and hostile. Atleast the Bombay airport of America she cherishes an idealistic image of was clean but the squalor and confusion of her native land rich in cultural heritage but her Howah station outraged her : “ coolis knocked visit to India shatters her dreams. She is totally her down, an attendant sneezed on her raincoat disillusioned with the deteriorating and and offered to wipe up the mess with his degenerating social changes of India. She is also dusting rag”. (TTD 27) Two truck full of shocked to realize that her brief stay in USA has relatives had come to welcome her : transformed her outlook on Indian life, Just now “surrounded by the army of relatives, who she discovers that the twenty two years old Tara professed to love her and by vendors ringing has absorbed the alien western culture bells, beggars pulling at sleeves, children unknowingly and it has almost become a coughing on tracks Tara felt completely second self to her. There is a strange fusion of alone”.(TTD 28) The brutal atmosphere of the Americanness and Indianness in the psyche Howrah station turned her mad. Not only the of Tara and this new self is constantly in clash people, even the place horrified her. With riots, with the culture of the native land. busses burning, the striking workers Tara finds in India nothing to her liking; surrounding the ware houses, Calcutta has whatever appealed to her once now appalls her: changed a lot. What confronted her was restive “ seven years earlier on her way to Vassar, she city which forced weak men to fanatical had admired the houses on marine Drive, had defiance or dishonesty. Calcutta was loosing its thought them fashionable, but know their memories in a bonfire of effigies, busses and shabbiness appalled her”. (10) Tara has travel trams, “She longed for Bengal of Satyajit Ray, alone from Bombay to Calcutta. Though her Children running through cool green spaces, relatives advise her to fly, she prefers the train aristocrats despairing in music rooms of empty journey which aggravated her irritability after palaces. It is under the grip of violence, caused years of air planes and Grey hound busses. by different classes of society.”(TTD 29). Tara, ought to have been thrilled with the train Even her school St.Blaise’s had changed and journey as her uncle was working with the the nuns are taking in Marawais by the dozens. Diesel locomotives and she had been trained Everything stinks. She finds it difficult to adjust since childhood to think well of Indian railways. with the changes in the city. what enthused and But now the train journey depressed her. enchanted her before seems bare and Fearing diarrhea, jaundice and polluted water meaningless now. Even the affection, warmth she refused to buy food packet and starved and intimacy towards her friends has herself. At last she ordered for a coke , and then evaporated. Once she had enjoyed the company suddenly panicked at the thought of infection, of her friends and basked in their love. She had returned the bottle simply paying for it. She played with her friends, done home work with indulges in unhappy self – analyses: Nilima, briefly fancied herself in love with For years she had dreamed of this return to pronob, debated with Reena at the British India. She had believed that all hesitations, all Council but now some instinct or intuition told shadowy fears of the time abroad would be her to stay away from her friends; she feared erased quite magically if she could just return their tone, their omissions and their aristocratic home to Calcutta. But so far the return had oneness. This change in her and her obvious
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American attitude to life is sensed by her accused her contemptuously saying “Really relatives and friends. Her friends express their miss Cartwright, I think your years abroad have disapproval of her, saying “These Seven years robbed you of feminine propriety. You now as abroad had eroded all that was fine and well as I do our modest Indian girls would not sensitive in her Bengali nature.” (TTD 55) Such submit to such grace” (TTD 187). This led to rudeness! It’s not like you all Gosh! That’s what some other ugly remark and finally everything happens when Bengali girls go to America (TTD ended up in uproar and furore. 107) you have become too self – centered and Next, to show off Bengal’s industrial European (TTD 107). progress to his daughter Bengal tiger planned a The surfacing American self disables her to trip to Nayapur. Here Tara meets with the partake in the religious rituals of the family. greatest tragedy. The politician and the Tara’s mother, Arati was a saintly woman who industrial magnate Tuntunwala wrecks her spends a great deal of her time in the pooja completely, outraging her modesty. This is the room. “Tara had willfully abandoned her caste fatal blow from which she could never recover. by marrying a foreigner. She no longer a real With this, her disillusionment with an India in Brahmin was constantly in and out of this upheaval is complete and she is determined to scared room, dipping like a crow” (TTD 50). She leave the land. In spite of her parent’s is oblivious of the Hindu rituals too. After pleadings, she is caught in one of the periodic grinding the sandalwood paste she could not flare - up common in Calcutta. In the ensuing remember the next step of the ritual.” It was not commotion and violence Joyonto Roy a simple loss. Tara feared, this forgetting of Chawdhury, a symbol of the old world order is prescribed action; it was a little death, a brutally beaten to death. Pronob Tara’s friend, hardening of the heart, a cracking of axis and who tries to save him, is himself injuried in the centered her inability to sing the bhajan, which process. Twice bombs exploded and the novel she had sung in her childhood reflects the ends inconclusively thus: gradual loss of her cultural heritage. Her Tara, still lot in a car across the street from transplanted self in America has made such the Catelli – Continental , wondered whether common rituals alien to her (TTD 51). she would ever get out of Calcutta, and if she On several occasions Tara reoents for didn’t, whether David would ever know that having come to India without David. She is she loved him fiercely (TTD 211). quite obsessed with his thought “perhaps I was stupid to come without him. ….. Prehaps I was Conclusion too impulsive, confusing my fear of New York A close experiences of both the worlds the with home sickness or perhaps I was going western and the Indian enables Bharati mad” (TTD 56). The recurring memory of her Mukherjee to give an authentic picture of Tara’s husband evidently suggest the second life and emotions. She leads Tara through a developed self in her. It reveals the fact that the series of adventures and misadventures to a alien land has become more of a home to her. final self – realization and reconciliation with Bengal Tiger arranges for a trip, to her Transcultural identity. It is ironical that Tara Darjeeling to entertain Tara, but she gets who survived the racial hardship of the foreign consolation and peace no where. A beauty country meets with the tragic end in her native contest was held there for which the Tara was soil. The greater irony is that Tara an Indian one of the judges. When Antonie Whitehead, finds solace, security and love only in the arms the American lady preferred bathing suit, Tara of her American husband, who represents the approved of it. This enraged the women who host land, USA. Thus her life is a sojourn from
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alienation to integration by which Bharati 2. Mukherjee, Bharati. The Tiger’s Daughter. Mukherjee suggests that breaking away from India: Penguin, 1990. one’s ethnicity, absorbing the new culture is 3. Mukherjee, Bharathi. Wife. India: Penguin, imperative for the immigrants’ survival. 2000. 4. Jensen, Joan M. Passage from India: Asian References Indian Immigrants in North America. New 1. Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. New York: Haven: Yale Up, 1988. Grove, 1989.
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A POSTCOLONIAL OVERVIEW OF SALLY MORGAN’S MY PLACE
G.S.Nandana M.Phil. Research Scholar, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences Edappally, Kochi
Abstract Australian aboriginals, the true owners of Australian land lost their authority over their own land due to European settlement in late 18th century. Aboriginal community who lived in Australia were marginalized due to colonial rule. Nearly two hundred and fifty groups of Australian aboriginals were pushed into margins and had to undergo inhumane treatment from Europeans. As a result, aboriginal population got reduced rapidly. As an aftermath of European invasion Australian community was inflicted with various diseases to which they had no resistance. White community had his on way to fight these diseases as he was aware of it. Various diseases and inhumane treatment from Whiteman hardened the aboriginal burden. In Whiteman’s version of history, aboriginals never got any authentic representation. For them history was yet another source to justify their ways. In the novel My Place Sally Morgan is attempting to destabilize this and to present the readers with authentic version of history by focusing on Whiteman’s ways to aboriginals. The novel My Place being an autobiographical novel traces Morgan’s family history. The plot develops through Daisy’s and Gladdy’s past and present life events. Through this paper a postcolonial reading of the novel My Place is being attempted. Australia had to suffer long lasting aftermaths of colonization. Even though they became independent in the year 1901 the aftermaths persisted for a very long time. Sally Moragan, who was born in Perth in the year 1951, i.e., fifty years after independence too had to suffer the adverse effects of colonization. At one point or the other society pin points Morgan for her aboriginal identity. One could see many such instances in the novel. Hence the autobiographical fiction My Place could be given a postcolonial reading focusing on the issue of dehumanization, lost of sense of belongings, identity crisis, misinterpretation of history, lose of tradition-values and languages. Keywords: Postcolonial Reading, Dehumanization, Lack of sense of belongings, Identity crisis, Distorting history, Aboriginals, White man, Subjugation.
Introduction into Christianity. Foster homes in which Sally Morgan, the half caste novelist from aboriginal and half-caste children stayed was a Australia is tracing her family history through major source of conversion. Aboriginal and half- the novel My Place. Till the age of fifteen Sally caste children were taken away from their Morgan was unaware of her aboriginal lineage. parents claiming that, aboriginals are not Her grandmother Daisy and her mother Gladdy capable of civilizing these children. Hence, these claimed that they are Indians and Sally Morgan children were removed from their parents to believed it. Later, Morgan became suspicious foster homes, claiming that, it is to educate and about their own identity. This quest for identity civilize them. However, in reality they do not led her to their aboriginal lineage. Australia had get a proper treatment in foster homes. Children to undergo intense dehumanizationdue to there were dehumanized and were considered colonization. Before the European invasion, as domestic servants. Instead of providing them there were nearly two-fifty groups of with education they were trained to become aboriginals in Australia. Each had their own domestic helpers. Girls brought in to these language, culture, tradition and practices. foster homes had to suffer physical assaults too. Europeans considered them to be uncivilized, The girls in these foster homes are exploited by pagan and barbaric as they could not whiteman to quench their libido and if ever a completely understand the practices of these child is born, white man would never take their aboriginal groups. Europeans when came in responsibility. association with other religious practices they White society considered both aboriginals called it pagan or barbaric. Europeans and half castes as downtrodden. Due to this considered Christianity to be superior to other societal attitude aboriginal and halfcaste always religion and they tried to convert aboriginals looked down on themselves. As the powerful
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group asserted their supremacy over Library, Beginning Post-colonialism by John aboriginals and halfcates, they became ashamed McLeod is being referred. Apart from that of their own identity and started concealing Edward Said’s, Ngugi wa Thiong'o's and Franz their identity from others. They represented Fanon’s essays are being referred to themselves as citizens belonging to other nation authenticate the concepts brought in this paper. as, these citizens received better treatment when Through this paper, it is attempted to locate compared to that of the natives. Living in the postcolonial aspect in the novel My Place. disguise in ones on land would be the biggest Australia, a country freed from the clutches of curse one could get and aboriginals had to European invasion had to suffer its aftermaths suffer it for decades, even after colonization. for a very long duration. Even when they are Decades and decades later a little change struck free from the colonial rule, natives could never aboriginals too. Now they are letting themselves free themselves from the aftermath of free from the mental subjugation and colonization. Race, culture, tradition, language attempting to accept their aboriginal identity etc. are no longer homogeneous. The and to be proud in their identity. The prime homogeneity that aboriginals had could not be example to validate this is Sally Morgan’s novel retrieved and they could no longer associate My Place. If ever, Morgan was ashamed of her themselves to their ancestors due to their multi- aboriginal identity this beautiful novel would racialand cultural identities. Natives of the not have emerged. country could be no longer called natives due to their mixed identity, culture, religion and Material and Method language. In the novel My Place too one could The primary source used in conducting this see these aspects and hence it could be given a research is Sally Morgan’s autobiographical postcolonial reading. fiction My Place, which was published in the year 1987. The autobiographical fiction My Place Interpretations and Discussions emerged from Sally Morgan’s quest to find her Language as communication and as culture roots, which her grandmother and mother had are then products of each other. Communication hidden from her for fifteen years. Sally Morgan creates culture: culture is a means of had to undergo inhumane experiences due to communication. Language carries culture, and her aboriginal lineage, still she was keen about culture carries, particularly through orature and finding her mother’s and grandmother’s past. literature, the entire body of values by which we Morgan’s mother and grandmother always come to perceive ourselves and our place in the wanted to conceal their true identity from world. How people perceive themselves and society and from their children. It is in this affects how they look at their culture, at their situation Morgan attempted to trace their family places politics and at the social production of history. wealth, at their entire relationship to nature and A postcolonial reading of the text My Place to other beings. Language is thus inseparable is undertaken in developing this paper. How from ourselves as a community of human could one look at My Place in a postcolonial beings with a specific form and character, a aspect is being discussed here. To validate the specific history, a specific relationship to the views presented on post-colonialism books like world. (Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Contemporary Literary Theory, A Demystified Language in African Literature (16)) Approach by Joseph Chandra and K S Antony A person’s connection with his own Samy, Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary language determines his culture, tradition and Theory-published by Penguin Reference affinity to his homeland and his people.
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Language being a supreme factor of a person’s Daisy would never attempt to speak her own life, plays a major role in shaping his identity. language with her brother Arthur. It is the social On the other hand, if a person does not have trauma that forbids them from speaking their access to his language he would never be able to language. Daisy and Arthur never wanted to taste the sweetness of his culture, value and distance themselves from their roots, however, tradition. Most of the colonial countries had to social conditions being problematic they are face this dilemma. Colonization possessed a attempting to adapt to the new social structure great threat to native language. They considered by disguising in a pseudo-identity. Moreover, native languages to be uncivilized and they never attempt to pass on their tradition, promoted English among natives too. In language, values etc. to the newer generations Australia, before colonization there were nearly for the fear of social subjugation. Sally Morgan, two hundred and fifty language speaking till the age of fifteen believed that they were groups. However, due to colonization the Indians. She and her siblings were never aware number became very less. Most of the native of their aboriginal lineage till then. From this languages were washed out and some were at instance it could be concluded that, aboriginal the edge of extinction. In the novel My Place one ancestors never let the newer generation know could see that Daisy (Sally Morgan’s about their aboriginal lineage so as to save them grandmother) never speaks her language other from the white community. than to her brother Arthur. Daisy is depriving Being an aboriginal or half- caste is herself from speaking her own language for the considered as the biggest curse, during the fear of social subjugation and isolation. colonial era. The period of colonization and Colonialism taught aboriginals to be ashamed of decades after decolonization was the era of their own identity, as Whiteman regarded utmost sufferings and dehumanization to aboriginals to be barbaric, wild and uncultured. aboriginals and half-castes. Whiteman deprived Whiteman degraded aboriginals and declared them from their basics rights. Aboriginals could themselves to be superior to aboriginals. As a not even keep their children along with them. result, aboriginals always looked down on Whiteman took away aboriginals and half-caste themselves. They attempted to conceal their children from their parents and place them in identity from their own blood and rest of the foster homes. Few children, who were removed society and presented themselves as Indians to from their parents never got a chance to know escape the trauma that they would have to face their roots. They lived their lives according to due to their aboriginal identity. In the novel My Whiteman’s interest. They spoke Whiteman’s Place we could see that Daisy do not speak her language and they believed in Whiteman’s language, Balgoo, expect to her elder brother religion. These children had to cater to Arthur. When Jack asked Sally Morgan whether Whiteman’s interest. Most of these children she could speak native language, she replied were removed from their parents for Whiteman him that, “No, I replied, ‘but Arthur cold and to provide them education. However, they Daisy can. They wouldn’t teach us (My Place, received training to be domestic helpers than Page 221).” From this instance one could education. From Gladdy’s narration about her conclude two things. Firstly, aboriginals are life in foster home we could validate it. distancing themselves from their own practices We had the same routine every morning at only due the fear of social trauma and secondly, Parkerville. They woke us early by ringing a this instance makes us clear that, a person could bell. They woke us early by ringing the bell. never distance himself from his language The air was always cold and you never felt emotionally. If ever aboriginals could do it, like getting up.
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You made your bed, got dressed and swept Australian aboriginals tried not reveal their down the verandahs….Every morning, the aboriginal lineage to others for the fear of boys got the wood for the stove in the dehumanization. Aboriginal, who lived in sub- kitchen and the older girls cooked the urban region kept their identity hidden from porridge.( My Place, 246) others. In the novel My Place we could see many Aboriginal and half-caste children removed such instances were Daisy and Gladdy hides from their parents, sometimes never got a their aboriginal identity from their children and chance to their near once and dear once again. from rest of the society. There is an episode in Life of Daisy, Albert and Arthur were no the novel, where, Sally Morgan tackles her mom different. They all were removed from their about their identity. From Gladdy’s reply to parents and never got a chance to see their Sally Morgan’s question it is clear that Gladdy parents again in their whole life time. From never wanted to conceal their identity even to Arthur’s narration of his childhood we could her own children. really understand the plight of aboriginals. One day, I tackled Mum about it as she They told my mother and others we'd be washed the dishes. back soon. We wouldn't be gone for long, ‘What do you mean, “Where do we come they said. People were callin’, ‘Bring us from?” ‘ back a shirt, bring us this, bring us that’. ‘I mean, what country. The kids at school They didn’t realise they wouldn’t be want to know what country we come from. seein’us no more. I thought they wanted us They reckon we’re not Aussies. Are we educated so we could help run the station Aussies, Mum?’ someday, I was wrong. Mum was silent. Nan grunted in a cross sort When they came to get me, I clung to my of a way, then got up from the table and mother and tried to sing them. I wanted walked outside. them to die. I was so young, I didn’t know ‘Come on, Mum, what are we?’ how to sing them properly. I cried and ‘What do the kids at school say? cried, calling to my mother, ‘I don’t want to ‘Anything. Italian, Greek, Indian.’ go, I don’t want to go!’. She was my ‘Tell them you’re Indian.’ favorite. I loved her. I called, ‘I want to stop From this instance it is evident that, Daisy with you, I want to stop wit you!’. I never and Gladdy does not want to showcase their saw her again. (My Place, 181- 182) identity to anyone including their children. Whiteman had a special interest on foster They did this so as to save their children from home, as it was the min source of conversion. the demeaning attitude, that they will have to All the aboriginal and half-caste children encounter if their aboriginal identity is revealed. brought there was converted into Christianity In Australia, other nation citizen received better without even asking their or their parent’s social treatment when compared to aboriginals. consent. Arthur is mentioning about this in his HomiBabha’s concept of orientalism could foster home experience. “The first thing they be applied to Australian aboriginals too. did was to christen us. Canon Burton, and Europeans considered natives as ‘orient’. What Sophie McKintosh, I think she was the matron, West is not is regarded as ‘orient’. According to were our godparents. We were christened Europeans they are the civilized once and is Corunna, they didn’t give us our father’s name. superior to all others. Hence, aboriginals were That’s when I got the name Arthur.” (My Place, considered as barbaric, savage and uncultured. 183) In the novel My Place, many instances of othering could be seen. In chapter sixteen we
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could see one such instance between Sally that aboriginal women did not had sufficient Morgan and one of deacons of the church. civilization to raise children born to whit man. One night, one of the deacons of the church Hence, they took away these kids from asked if he could talk to me. I was friendly aboriginal mothers and placed them in foster with his daughter and he seemed to be a homes. In the novel such an instance could be nice man, so I agreed. seen in Bill’s (Gladdy’s husband- a white man) ‘You and Mary are having quite a lot to do and Gladdy’s conversation. with one another, aren’t you?’ he asked. I suppose many people must wonder why ‘I suppose so, but we’re not best friends.’ on earth I didn’t just take the kids and ‘No. I know that, but you see a lot of each leave. Well, I nearly did, on several other at Youth Group and church.’ occasions, but Bill always threatened me. ‘Yeah.’ He said if I left him, he’d make sure the ‘Well, Sally’, he smiled, ‘I want to ask you a children were taken off me. He said, favour of you’. “Nobody will let someone like you bring up ‘Sure, anything.’ kids and you know it. I’m the one that’ll get ‘I’d like you to stop mixing with Mary.’ He custody, I will give them to my parents.’ smiled his charming smile again. I knew what he meant. I always had a ‘Why?’I was genuinely puzzeled’ sinking feeling in my stomach when he said ‘I think you know why.’ that. Aboriginal women weren’t allowed to ‘No, I don’t.” keep children fathered by a white man. He “You’re a bad influence, you must realise was right, I couldn’t take the chance of that.’ Believe it or not, that was one part of losing them, I had to stay and try and cope my character I was unaware of. somehow. They were all I had.(My Place, When Sally Morgan’s aboriginal lineage got 301-302) revealed people started becoming concerned. Aboriginal mothers were not allowed to They never wanted their children to mix up keep her own children. This instance depicts the with aboriginals. When Sally Morgan’s identity plight of aboriginals in white Australia. As was that of an Indian none had a problem in Daisy and Gladdy pretend to be Indians they mixing up. This is how Whiteman other the could keep the children with them instead of natives. Orients were considered as ‘others’ and handing them over to foster homes, after Bill’s Whiteman considered themselves responsible to death. Whiteman labelled aboriginals to be the civilize these orients. These Eurocentric views ‘other’ and regarded them to be inferior brought in by Whitman is not factual or community who didn’t even have the ability to authentic. They asserted these concepts to bring up children born to white man. establish their supremacy over other people and to colonize them. Europeans tend to colonize Findings and Results through both physical and mental subjugation. The novel My Place fall into the genre of Physical subjugation would not have a pertinent autobiographic fiction. However, it is not a mere effect. At one point of time colonized tend free autobiographical fiction, it should rather fall themselves from the physical subjugation. into the category of ‘writing back literature’, However, when they are subjugated mentally, where natives write back to the colonizers to the effect would be long lasting. It is because of object the biased views that white man this Whiteman created the concept of ‘Orient’. presented about them. In white man’s version, it Whiteman considered it as their ‘burden’ to is their ‘burden’ to civilize the aboriginals. The civilized the barbaric orients. They also believed process of colonization itself was teach the
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natives ‘good ways’ claimed the white man. focusing on the postcolonial aspects. They always portrayed themselves to be Postcolonial aspects such as effects of saviors. While glorifying themselves, white man colonialism, misinterpretation of history, distorted history by presenting unfair n biased identity crisis, othering, physical- mental views about aboriginals. As the famous saying subjugation, catering the interest of powerful goes, “until the lion learns to write, every story are focused in this paper. These views are will glorify the hunter.” And now it is time for presented in this paper by bringing out various white man to repay their debts. Colonized instances from the novel, to validate the views learned white man’s language and is using it to presented. present the facts through their words. The novel My Place is one such attempt. Sally Morgan References attempts to present the authentic picture of 1. Attwood, B. (1992). “Portrait of an aboriginal life in Australia, focusing on the Aboriginal as an Artist: Sally Morgan and hardships and trauma that white man subjected the Construction of Aboriginality.” Rev. of them so as to establish a colony in Australia. As My Place by Sally Morgan. Australian a result, the novel My Place could be looked at Historical Studies Vol. 25. No. 99. October, from a postcolonial view focusing on various 302 −318. aspects like identity, trauma, exploitation, 2. Brett, J. (1987). “Breaking the Silence.” Rev. denying their basic rights etc. This paper had of My Place by Sally Morgan. Australian focused on all these major aspects by bringing Book Review August. 9−11. in various instances from the novel My Place. 3. Wright, M. (1988). “Interview with Sally Morgan and Gladys Milroy.” Conclusion Autobiography: The Writer’s Story. Edited Sally Morgan, the half caste novelist from by D.Hammond, M.O’Neill and J.Reid. Australia is tracing her family history through Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press the novel My Place. The plot develops through 10−14. Daisy’s and Gladdy’s past and present life 4. McLeod, John. (2010).” Beginning of Post- events. The autobiographical novel My Place by colonialism.”: Viva Books, New Delhi. Sally Morgan is studied in this paper by
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TWENTIETH CENTURY COMMUNITY AND ANCESTRAL VOICE THROUGH THE WRITINGS OF TONI MORRISON AND ALICE WALKER
Aashima Rana M.Phil. Candidate, University of Delhi
Abstract The ancestors are believed to be those who have died, and who look after their descendants' welfare and help them to know the reason of their being. The ancestors are the benevolent guardians and protectors of the people. Knowing about one’s ancestors gives a sense of belonging to oneself and also a medium / reason through which one learns about the broader history of its community and religion. After the Harlem Renaissance slave narratives became the part of African-American canon, and writers like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou and Rita Dove emerged with literature to trace back the history of slavery. In their writings they looked upon the spiritual lives of their ancestors. Acquiring knowledge and inspiration from their forefathers and foremothers, the writers of the late twentieth century looked back to their ancestors through their own innovative methods, learning from past and enriching it for future generation. Keywords: Ancestors, Community, Foreteller, Memory, Preserver, Women’s Subjugation, Women Writers.
Introduction guardians and protectors of the people. Knowing "Once upon a time there was an old woman. about one’s ancestors gives a sense of belonging Blind but wise." Or was it an old man? A guru, to oneself and also a medium / reason through perhaps. Or a griot soothing restless children. I which one learns about the broader history of its have heard this story, or one exactly like it, in community and religion. Reliance on the ancestor the lore of several cultures.” (Nobel Lecture) is a common feature of most non – Christian Morrison’s Nobel Prize Lecture is regarded ancient societies. The ancestors are communal as an epitome of her thoughts, in which the heads and not necessarily family heads. They dialogue between the blind black old woman pass on the knowledge of the culture, values and and the young people is full of wisdom. tradition from generation to generation. The Morrison chose a woman to narrate the story in knowledge is delivered through myths, her lecture, moreover, an old black woman. She storytelling, songs and legends. depicts the wisdom an elder has regarding her community, culture and tradition. The bird in Material and Methods the lecture symbolizes language – language of "If we stand tall, it is because we stand on the Blacks that is in the hands of the white shoulders of many ancestors." community and will be overtaken by their - Yorba Tribe Proverb culture and language. She devotes her life to The roots of ancestry in Afro-American recover the original power of Black’s language, literature can be traced back to Africa, as they and history through novels, and therefore to were traded in America from Africa as slaves. keep and develop the black’s cultural tradition. The cultural values and traditions are delivered The old blind woman passes on the knowledge to Afro- Americans through oral tradition that is to the children of her community, also to those the medium of stories, songs and myths by the white men who had captured the bird. The old elders of the community who managed to woman represents the ancestor, the knowledge preserve the community history. Similar giver, the elder of the community. knowledge is preserved and transferred orally by The ancestors are believed to be those who their counterparts, African community; have died, and who look after their descendants' references to ancestral figures are found welfare and help them to know the reason of regularly in African literature too. For example, their being. The ancestors are the benevolent some of the African texts like Things Fall Apart
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(1958), Petals of Blood (1977), and Nervous two famous novels are Quicksand (1928) and Conditions (1988). Passing (1929), the most prominent woman This paper is an attempt to look how writer in the forefront of the Harlem Morrison and Walker through their writings act Renaissance was Zora Neale Hurston, whose as an ancestor, preserver of the history to the book Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), talks entire Afro- Americans. Morrison talks about the about the rich tradition of black folk forms. tracing back of her ancestors in her essay Although her book was criticized by male “Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation” and critics, especially by whites as they took it as a she remarks, “It seems to me interesting to celebration of black female selfhood and evaluate Black literature on what the writer does something indigenous ethnicity of the African- with the presence of an ancestor. There is always American culture which was “too black” for an elder there. And these ancestors are not just them to digest. parents, they are sort of timeless people whose After the Harlem Renaissance slave relationships to the characters are benevolent, narratives became the part of African-American instructive and protective, and they provide a canon, and writers like Toni Morrison, Alice certain kind of wisdom.” She embarks the Walker, Maya Angelou and Rita Dove emerged importance of ancestors as they are the medium with literature to trace back the history of who enlightens the community history, who slavery. In their writings they looked upon the preserves the tradition and pass it on to spiritual lives of their ancestors. Acquiring generations further to keep the history of their knowledge and inspiration from their sufferings, the richness of culture. forefathers and foremothers, the writers of the For example, Baby Suggs in Morrison’s late twentieth century looked back to their Beloved (1987) is a source of emotional and ancestors through their own innovative spiritual inspiration for the city’s black residents. methods, learning from past and enriching it for She holds religious gatherings at a place called future generation. the Clearing, where she teaches her followers to Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, the two love their voices, bodies and minds through exemplary African-American women writers of songs and dancing. Baby Suggs continues to be a our times, have explored in great detail how a source of inspiration long after her death – her few demarcations like race, class and gender in memory motivates Denver to leave 124 and find the American society influences the shaping of help. A self proclaimed preacher, Baby Suggs Black female life. They both belong to a group draws upon the beauty of nature to make the of writers in America for whom writing is a community of ex- slavers recognize the beauty in mode of liberation and self expression, which them. also works as a subversive strategy. For The Harlem Renaissance was a movement Morrison, who is a reviser of past tradition, of celebration of intellectual achievements. It understanding of African- American world also involved a revolt against racism that was without learning the history of the United States imposed through laws made by Jim Crow. is an incomplete leaning. Through her writings, Issues of race and violence inspired a literature she describes the major issues prevailing; such of protest, which was the major theme in all the as racism, class exploitation, sexism, spirituality writings of the period. Through the writings and power of oral folk tradition, marking the during the Harlem Renaissance women importance and unique beauty of African- expressed their views regarding race and American literature in true light. In the last two gender stereotype, which were earlier decades, she has published eleven novels and subjugated. Along with Nella Larsen, whose
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an essay collection that has entirely transformed the something that defines what makes a book our view of American history and its literature. "black." And that has nothing to do with Morrison is followed by Alice Walker, who whether the people in the books are black or was inspired by Zora Neale Hurston and not. The open ended quality that is sometimes a decided to explore the lives of black women in problem in the novel form reminds me of the her writings. In an interview with critic Mary uses to which stories are put on the black Helen Washington in 1973, Walker described community. The stories are constantly being the three types of black women characters she retold, constantly being imagined within a felt were missing from much of the literature of framework. And I hook into this like a life- the United States. The first African – American support system, which for me is the thing out of women were those who were exploited both which I come.” physically and emotionally, thus lived narrow Morrison’s narrative voices focus on and confined lives, further leading to madness. narrating the experience of African- American The second were those who were victims of community. She diverts the imagination of psychological violence rather than physical readers from the cultural art towards the truth / violence as they were alienated from their own hidden truth about the community. Morrison culture. The third types are those who, despite includes narrator’s viewpoint along with the their sufferance and oppressions, achieved some voice of the character, but sooner she provides wholeness and creative space for other an alternative. oppressed communities. She has published six In Song of Solomon (1977), Morrison’s use of novels, five volumes of poetry, three essay the African way of oral storytelling bridges the collections, two children’s books and two short gap between the Black community’s folk roots story collections. and their literary tradition. Her novel, which is informed by her mother’s stories, her tribe and Findings and Results her ancestors is an attempt to transform euro- Born Chole Anthony Wofford , in Lorain , centric cultural discourse through the Ohio, has revised the geography of African – acceptance of African heritage. As she reveals American literature association. Morrison is the folkways and legends of her community considered to be the preserver of the tradition which are also present in Western culture and and cultural practices of the black community. the Bible, she portrays Black community With the help of her writings which are deeply cultures which existed but are now subsiding or entrenched in her own Black folk roots and the over layered by the White civilization. Song of community in which she grew up, Morrison Solomon is based on the story she learned from maintains and communicates the cultural values her maternal grandmother, the tale of flying from history, from which people are isolated, Africans. A story continued from generation to rather than with the traditional settings of the generation about flying Africans, who escaped urban North and the rural South. Moreover, she slavery, either by jumping off slave ships or resolves the contradiction of African –American flying back to Africa after they saw the brutal identity that is inherent within every black torture slaves undergo in America. Morrison woman. The complexities of black women due deals extensively with oral history preserved by to marginalization suffered by them as were Afro- Americana and propagated by ancestral always kept on the periphery of the community. figures in the community. This history generally In an interview Morrison said. “I am not goes back to the beginning of slavery in the experimental; I am simply trying to recreate United States of America. something out of an old art form in my books -
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The novel resembles the culture of oral present in the memories of various characters. technique of storytelling in her community, as “All daily stories are in fact, ancient and ancient Pilate – the ancestor figure, preserves the ones current…. There is nothing new under the cultural tradition and history of community and sun.” (The Temple 173) communicates it in the form of a song to Milkman. Through this novel, Morrison Conclusion attempts to recreate and preserve the tradition Both Morrison and Walker try to relocate and culture of the Black community, and their ancestral roots of slavery that were communicates it for future generation. somehow erased due to the great migration. Moreover, she blurs the boundaries between the Morrison’s character Milkman and Walker’s past and present, between the spiritual world character Lissie take back readers to their origin and the real world, therefore, she recreates the – the infamous American South. Theodore 0. world rejected or subsided by the western Mason, Jr. in his essay states, “Morrison is an world. example of the novelist as conservator… The Alice Walker is considered not only as a novelist, then, is not a figure isolated from creative writer, but also an activist who engages history and culture, but rather is someone who herself and readers with war, economic crisis, conserves cultural forms and practices by and racism through her writings. The narrative depicting them in the public act of fiction.” style of Walker creates a lyrical space which (Mason 565) connects the people and their culture resulting Hurston, the first Afro-American woman in something new- a way/ key to the future. black author who wrote her novel Their Eyes The history and reality get connected leaving Were Watching God like a recording of an oral apart the facts. She sketches her characters in a narration. She chose to write in rural Southern way that their stories hold out a perspective that dialect, that represents how slaves inherited is unique in spirituality and all-embracing, and English language. Alice Walker, who was undoubtedly humanist. inspired by Hurston emphasizes the Walker through her novel The Temple of My significance of ancestors in her novels and also Familiar (1989) informs us about the forgotten in her poems. For example: Ancestors to Alice, lives of the slaves and servants who are the Coming Back From Seeing Your People, and When ancestors of America’s black community. Lissie, We Let Spirit Lead Us, the title of the poems itself the protagonist manages to look far beyond the marks the importance of ancestor. Through origin of slaves to human evolution itself these poems Walker remarks that each and without its selfishness and materialistic greed. every place one lives has emotional and Walker creates a linkage to African nation – aesthetic significance, but one cannot replace it Olinka from The Color Purple to The Temple of My with their home, their roots, ancestral home. Familiar, with the help of which she mirrors Moreover, she focuses on the fact that one Africa and the hardships of African slaves. should not run after the materialistic identity, as Walker intermingles the past and present, it is artificially created and will not hold the animal and human, realism and magic realism family together, one’s ancestors to present to paint self and history altogether through nuclear family. One should not feel ashamed to another vision. Walker presents the building of carry its cultural heritage along. the story on the shoulders of women; each Morrison envisages the significance of an subject is communicated through a woman. The ancestor for continuance and perpetuation of issues of race, gender, sexuality are depicted Afro-American imagination in her seminal through various stories and messages that are essay “Rootedness: The Ancestor as
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Foundation”, where she laments the absence of
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15. 15. Visionaryproject. Toni Morrison: Song of 19. Watson, Khalilah Tyri. “Literature as Solomon. Online Video Clip. You Tube. Web. Prophecy: Toni Morrison as Prophetic 11 Mar Writer.” Diss. 2017. 20. Georgia State U, 2009. ScholarWorks @
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SLAVE NARRATIVES TECHNIQUES IN OCTAVIA E. BUTLER’S KINDRED
M.Prakash Ph.D. Scholar English (Part-Time), St.Joseph’s College of Arts & Science for Women, Hosur
Abstract This paper is on Butler’s Kindred, a neatly packaged historical novel which uses scenes of Plantation life and the techniques of the slave narrative to frame the plot. Black and white characters who move through an historically viable setting, one which explores the tangled complexities of interracial mixing during slavery and beyond; linkage through phenomenal psychic energy; an emphasis on blood ties and the responsibilities that result. The bonds of blood in Kindred however are not created by exotic mutation nor genetic engineering. They are the result of plain undisguised lust and the raw exertion of power. Butler’s main characters are always Black women. They struggle with domination, and they struggle to understand their unique powers. Slavery in the United States as imagined in Kindred, a novel in which the protagonist is psychically drawn from the twentieth century back into slavery, as well as the bondage people impose on each other through differential power relationship. Keywords: Historical, slave narrative, slavery, interracial, domination, black.
Introduction and the time which passes while she is absent Kindred is an overtly didactic novel, from her present. Dana’s only clue to the although its artistry is such that one does not mystery surrounding these transfers is the realize how much antebellum history gets blood tie linking her to Rufus; but even the absorbed. Dana Franklin, the heroine, is a Black blood relationship is not, for her, a satisfactory woman, a writer who lives in Los Angeles. explanation for an inexplicable process. California, a woman very much of the present. Once Dana knows Rufus identity and Her family’s roots are in Maryland; a fact made comprehends what his relationship to her will all the more pertinent when Dana finds herself become, she understands her role more traversing time and geography to move precisely. She is to assure the child’s survival between twentieth-century California and until he can father as his mentor and be his ninetieth-century Maryland. The reason she teacher. The task of trying to mold a humane moves is simple Rufus Weylin calls her to him slave holder, in an era where all the accepted whenever he gets into trouble he cannot resolve social norms mitigate against the possibility, alone, be it drowning, or arson, a bad fall, or a falls to her. And an awesome responsibility it is beating. Rufus is a child when he and Dana first considering her circumstances: a modern Black meet. woman periodically surfaces in antebellum He is also white and destined to become her Maryland over approximately a twenty-year great grandfather, several times removed. The span, with no free papers, no owner to vouch agency which moves Dana is never clear. She for her, no way to explain her dress, her speech, never understands how it happens. The why is or her behavior. Her role is to protect a easier. Whenever Rufus fears for his life, his boy/man who is alternately and erratically subconscious mind somehow reaches out to generous and vicious. Immediately, Dana Dana and transfers her to his setting and his recognizes that she is the worst possible time to meet his need. The only way she can guardian for Rufus a black woman to watch return to her era is if she believes a over him in a society that considered Blacks corresponding threat to her own life exists. sub-human and a woman to watch over him in Time is totally disjointed for Dana during these a society that considered women perennial transferences. There is no correlation between children. In that age and in that place, Dana is the time she spends in the past, her own history, simply a strange nigger, a fact the child Rufus
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promptly explains. But because she saves his seen, Butler moves Dana rapidly from life and because he realizes they are linked, witnessing slavery to experiencing it, from even though he does not know the extent of watching, to feeling, to testifying what life was their relationship, Rufus, the child, is Dana’s like for a Black women, even if she were unexpected, if unstable, ally. nominally free. Quite apart from her role as mentor to After the slave is dragged away, Dana goes Rufus stands Dana’s other function. Kindred, far to the assistance of his wife. They talk more than Wild Seed, is an overtly didactic guardedly for Dana cannot explain who she is novel, although its artistry is such that one does or where she comes from; nevertheless, the not realize how much antebellum history gets woman grants her permission to stay. Shortly absorbed. Dana is Butler’s tool for sketching a thereafter, Dana steps outside of the cabin and far less romanticized portrait of plantation life is captured and attacked by one of the patrollers from 1815 through the 1830s. she is both a who had returned alone to rape the slave’s wife. reporter and a responded for she witnesses and He realizes instantly that he has not captured participates in the slave experience disclosed in the wife but determines almost as quickly that slave narratives that its plot structure follows Dana will satisfy his lust. Degradation, the classic patterns with only the requisite brutality, powerlessness, the common place changes to flesh out character, story, and action. violence directed against black men and women Dana’s loss of innocence, her discovery that could be no more sharply delineated. Dana’s she has slave status is as abrupt and brutal as violent struggle to escape the roller returns her the same discoveries recorded by Frederick to her own time. Douglass or Harriet Jocobs in their respective narratives. Tom Weylin is a harsh Conclusion disciplinarian; he beats his slaves, his horses, Kindred incorporates other devices and and his son with the same whip. On her first themes associated with the slave narrative. visit, he almost shoots the strange nigger caught These narratives repeatedly demonstrate that with his son and wife. On her second visit, slavery as a system displayed little regard for having seen Rufus’ scars Dana acquires some of marital status among slaves and no respect for her own. Seeking safety away from the black the sanctity of the family unit unless a master family destined to be-Weylins to seek help from chose to recognize a family bond. Kindred the black family destined to become her illustrates this. The narratives record had forbears. infinitum the harsh punishment meted out to Patrollers and Butler carefully identifies any slave who dared evince a sense of self- them as young whites charged with policing or respect, pride, manhood; but is slave’s spirit maintaining order among slave population would not be broken, it could be sorely tried arrive at the cabin first. Ostensibly, they have and his body could be broken. Kindred come to see whether a slave husband is meeting illustrates this extreme as well. illegally with his free wife. The man is. He has no pass permitting his absence from his owner’s References plantation. For the crime of visiting his family 1. Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston: Beacon, the slave is beaten, then tied to a tree and 1979. Print. whipped savagely while his wife and child 2. Hunter, Jeffrey W, and Polly Vedder. watch helplessly. Dana is our hidden mute Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 121. witness. Yet in order to bring her readers closer USA: The Gale Group, 2000. Print. to the immediacy of the horror we have just
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CHESTER HIMES’ THE THIRD GENERATION AS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AND DOMESTIC NOVEL
R.Sivasankari Ph.D. Scholar (Part-Time), St. Joseph’s College of Arts & Science for Women, Hosur
Abstract This paper is on Chester Himes’ The Third Generation as an autobiographical and domestic novel. It deals about the life of Taylor’s family William and Lillian Taylor and their three sons. Here, Chester Himes has given his own personal life and experiences through these characters. And also, this novel deals with domestic life of Southern blacks after the end of the slavery. Here, Himes has presented his own life through the character, Charles, the third son of William Taylor. Like William Taylor in the novel, Himes’ father also taught at black colleges in the south and their family moved often to many places. Like Charles’ brother William, Himes’ brother also suffered an accident from a chemical experiment. Like Charles, Himes also dropped out of Ohio state University, went to prison for 8 years, suffered from pain due to an accident that left him with life time pain. Like Lillian Taylor, Himes’ mother was also a light skinned woman, who had hatred towards black domestic life. She wants to be like a white, wants to be one among white people. According to Lillian her domestic life should be like white society. This novel is totally an autobiographical and domestic novel. Keywords: Autobiographical, domestic, experiences, southern black, white society.
Introduction William and Charles. And it is concerned with Chester Himes is a novelist, essayist and life of a common black and almost ‘White like’ short story writer. He was born on July 29, 1909, black after the slavery. After the end of slavery, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He attended Ohio all the blacks want to live a life of a white, with State University after high school but dropped equal respect and rights. Even they want to lead out by the end of 1926. He preferred the a luxury life that of a white. They don’t want a company of pimps, gamblers and hustlers. He normal middle class life like them ‘blacks’. pimped for his girlfriend Jean Johnson and Himes has shown this domestic life in his novel. committed crime. His behavior led to his arrest. William Taylor, the head of the family, is a He was sentenced to twenty five years in prison. professor. Though the course of the story , the He started to write in prison. He began to study family moves to Missouri, Mississippi and other human behavior and draw upon his own places. Lillian Taylor who want to led a life of experiences to construct narratives and white, doesn’t like this transformation. She likes characters. In the 1940s, his writings reflected her children to follow disciplines like that of the anger and frustration building up in the whites. She doesn’t want their children go out Black community. He became discouraged as he to play. That may spoil the colour of their skin. encountered racial hostility while in the Many of the problems come from the workplace. His works reflected mostly his own struggle between William Taylor and Lillian is experiences. mentally troubling herself by her position Chester Himes’ The Third Generation is between the black between the black and the mostly an autobiographical one which shows white communities. She thinks that she is white personal details of Himes and his family. And, enough that she shall be allowed to live as a it is also a domestic type novel which shows the white woman. So even, she takes risks like domestic needs of Blacks after the end of going into town and showing herself before slavery. It also shows the frustrations and whites. When their family moves to Mississippi, reactions of the female character of the novel to she blames her husband for many reasons. One lead a domestic life which she wants. is, she and her sons may be darkened by the The story is concerned with an American harsh sun. Second is, her sons would become Negro family, Taylor’s family, William and wild because of rural life. Third is, they may Lillian Taylor and their three sons, Thomas, lose the wealthy domestic life setting of whites. 22 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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“She was afraid it might encourage them to hate also spends eight years in Ohio State white people. She wanted them to grow up to penitentiary. He also gets acquainted with love and respect fine white people as she did” gamblers. Like Himes’ brother who suffered an (10). accident from a chemistry experiment, Charles’ Through the character of Lillian, Himes has brother William also becomes blind in an shown the domestic life of free blacks, their explosion during a science experiment. willingness to lead a life of white, in freedom Everything what Himes has experienced and and equality. The home as their own becomes felt in his life has been shown here through the the main thing which gives them pride in the characters. society. That gives them a feeling that they As the story moves, William Taylor become one among whites. This we can see it in unfortunately loses his job as professor and has Lillian’s mother and Lillian’s mind. “How they to take on work as a waiter. The elder brother had come out of slavery and made a home for Thomas moves to city as per his mother’s wish. themselves, and after great hardship had So he can lead a life of whites in city. William, prospered and educated all seven of their the second son becomes totally blind which lead children” (15). Then education becomes an to the complete breakup of the family and the important one. That, we can see throughout the home. Charles due to his behaviours, he is novel, William Taylor frequently moves to detached from his home. Due to the unfortunate different black colleges which show the condition in the home, William Taylor and importance of education. Lillian Taylor get separated. It is mainly due to Next, Himes has given his personal details Lillian; William Taylor loses his profession, through these characters. Here, William Taylor partly because she hates to return to the moves frequently to different colleges and southern colleges where he is qualified to teach, places to follow his career. Likewise, Himes’ partly, because of the economic condition and father also taught at different black colleges in urbanization of the society. the South, and their family move often. Like Lillian Taylor on the novel, who wants to Conclusion become one among the whites, which may spoil Himes has chosen to write this domestic her and her sons’ complexion, who thinks of novel to show the life of many African leading a white middle class life, who thinks Americans after the end of slavery. This shows herself as light skinned, Himes’ mother was also the angry and disappointments of African a light skinned woman. She feels that she is half Americans in their native country because they – white, but she is unalterably black and hates have risked their life for the democracy country it. So she wants her sons to be good enough to but do not get access to the same at home. And, live among whites. Himes also has shown his own personal Like Lillian’s third son, Charles in the novel, experiences and his family’s through the Himes’ life is also beset of horrible misfortunes. characters. Totally, this novel is an Like Charles who is dropped out of Ohio State autobiographical and domestic novel. University and fell with the companions of gamblers and whores, Himes also is dropped References out of university and becomes acquainted with 1. Himes, Chester. The Third Generation. New gamblers. And like Charles who is met with an York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989. Print. accident, Himes is also met with an accident. He 2. Smith, Sandra Wilson. “Chester Himes’s The never completely recovered from these injuries, Third Generation: A Dystopic Domestic spending the rest of his life in pain. Novel”. Southern Literary Journal, Vol. XLI, Himes spends eight years of a twenty year number 2, spring 2009. prison sentenced of robbery. Likewise, Charles 23 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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MUSIC ACROSS BORDERS: SITUATING BHANGRA IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
Rachit Verma M.Phil. Research Scholar of English, Department of English and Cultural Studies Punjab University, Chandigarh
Abstract If we were to talk about ethnic identities, we would say they are always in a state of flux. Rather than being in a fixed state of existence, they are always shifting, developing and blending. They may retain certain elements of nativity, but are continually exposed to diversification according to the changing social positions including migration; something that is going to be the emphasis of this paper. As Paul Hodkinson argues, the ‘becoming’ which in other words means ‘change’, transpires when one physically travels and interacts with the new cultural influences as well as long-standing negotiations with traversing aspects of identity, such as social class, gender and sexuality. It is rather fascinating how such identities that converse with other identities become ‘hybrid’ as Homi Bhabha would call them. This fluidity of ethnic identities makes the ‘hybrids’ subject to internal difference and external overlap. As a result of this, such multifarious emerging identities give rise to pop culture, which gets disseminated among masses across nations, primarily through media. The Internet has anyway got an extremely overwhelming response from people around the world making globe a really small place in the process. The aim of this paper is therefore, to situate bhangra, a Punjabi folk form of music and dance, in a global context starting from tracing its origins in Punjab and Britain, to its dissemination into the contemporary popular culture. Through this paper, I would attempt to highlight how bhangra has become a cultural product of post-colonialism as well as the Punjabi diaspora; formulating a neo-ethnic and ‘hybrid’ identity of Punjabis living across the borders. Keywords: Bhangra, Punjab, Punjabi, Migration, Race, Indianness, Post-colonialism, Hybridity
Introduction doubt about the fact that bhangra has become a There have been visible developments in part of every Punjabi Briton’s life, regardless of the minority groups of the second and third whether they arrived in the 1960s wave which generation in the case of United Kingdom, established the UK's largest community, in where the youth has felt the need to get close to Birmingham, or in drifts from post-Amin their cultural roots. It is of course a palpable Uganda. As Punjabis also migrated to countries intent of these subgroups to preserve their like Canada, the United States, and Australia, identity in a place that is not ‘native’ to them. bhangra spread to these countries as well, Such ethnic minorities, who are living outside something that I would shed more light on in their country, contribute towards the making of the second half of the paper. The dance and a hybridized culture that is a blend of their roots music folk genre of bhangra has its roots in as well as the experiences they have had in the Punjab where it continues to flourish, especially West. To talk about British Indian youth for in the rural and urban parts of Northern India. instance, the development and consumption of bhangra, a Punjabi folk form of music and dance, Materials and Methods started to entail the fusion of the traditional folk In the rural Punjab, bhangra is traditionally tunes with Western and urban rhythms and performed by men along with women who sequences. It is rather eccentric but true that perform its female counterpart known as gidda, bhangra as a genre got popular ‘outside’ India. accompanied by claps rather than dhol (drums), The ‘hybrid’ nature of bhangra along with an something that is more popular among the array of local variants of hip-hop and other performers of urban India. As mentioned blended cultural forms, serves to demonstrate earlier, it was later transferred to Britain from the densely convoluted ethnic identities of those Punjab, and has become a genre of pop music in who create and consume them. There is no a short time at clearly defined intervals in the 24 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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process of international exodus. For the Sikh became popular as ‘UK bhangra’ in the families lured to Britain in the 1960s by jobs in subsequent years. London or in Birmingham’s fading steel There were other groups from Southall like industry, the traditional songs and dances were Holle Holle and Heera along with Alaap, which a vital succor. These former farmers came from became extremely popular with their music. By plush agrarian valleys in the North West, the 1987, the bhangra beat had got its recognition breadbasket of India, and their music and among the British music press (Baumann 84). It dances related to the crop seasons and is rather interesting to observe that the genesis celebrations centered on the annual harvest of bhangra came as a collaboration of the Punjabi festival, baisakhi celebrated on the 13th April, folk artists who were raised in India but settled which is still an important date on the modern in Britain, and the Punjabi entrepreneurs who urban community's calendar. had come to Britain from east Africa. Their Besides Punjabis who moved from India to intent collectively was to create a distinct British Britain in the 1950s and 60s, there were Indians Asian identity and to tangibly represent the sent by the British colonial authorities to east voice of British Punjabis. This was an interesting African countries like Kenya and Uganda in the way to represent nostalgia that came out of initial years of the same century, who also separation from the ‘motherland’ and the began to move to Britain around the same time simultaneous embracement of the British and in the process escaped becoming culture. As Baumann points out, ‘Africanized’ (Gerd Baumann 83). Incidentally, Aesthetically, the fusion allowed for a new more than half of them were Sikhs, who were style of music that, while using the either carpenters or blacksmiths whom British technologies of mass production and officials had transported to east Africa for distribution, could claim to perpetuate and building of railways and towns. Along with Jats spread a genre deeply rooted in the folk and Sikhs, there were Hindus and Muslims as culture of the Punjab (84). well who migrated to Britain from east Africa. One peculiar association of ‘the bhangra All of them along with the migrants who came scene’ developing in the mid-1980s was the so- from India were lumped together as ‘Asian called ‘daytimer’, a live event that took place immigrants’ (Baumann 83), and were during the school hours attracting enormous considered a problem rather than an asset number of British Punjabi students who used to throughout the 1970s. Their music also couldn’t attend the event, much disappointment to the reach the concerts of Britain, unlike the music of their parents who did not approve of it. The the Caribbean minority, which became popular parents in fact were appalled when the British among the British masses. There were groups press, in a media hype lasting from mid-1987 to performing at the weddings in the 60s and 70s, mid-1988, brought them news of their young however, it was not until 1984 that ‘bhangra ones swapping their school uniforms for beat’ or also known as the ‘Southall Beat’ attractive clothes hidden in school-bags and became popular among the young British flocking to crowded clubs to groove to the Punjabis with coming of the album, Teri Chunni echoing sounds of bhangra. De Sitare curated by the UK based Bhangra In an interview with Sue Steward for The group called Alaap. The aforementioned group, Guardian, Bobby Friction (né Paramdeep formed in 1977 was headed by Channi Singh, Sehdev), a London based DJ recollects who is also known as the godfather of bhangra memories of ‘daytimer’ when he says, in the West. What he created with his music I turned 15 in 1986 and I’d go from school to the first Daytimers, at the Empire, Leicester
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Square, in the afternoons. The girls went original music form with elements of music into McDonalds’ toilets to change and put borrowed from other minority cultures. Or, as on their make-up. There was nothing Nina Asher notes the observations of Bhabha, outside our front doors then for young that they provide the ‘interstitial passage Punjabis and British Asians; it was like between fixed identifications which opens up being Azerbaijani in London today. We had the possibility of a cultural hybridity’ (and this) a chance to go to a nightclub in the West ‘hybrid cultural space…forms contingently, End during the daytime; white and black disjunctively in the inscription of signs of kids couldn't do that. cultural memory and sites of political agency’ The Indian youth of the UK was able to do (199). She points out, something that the whites couldn’t do, and The syncretic forms of music (bhangra in this hence felt a sense of ‘superiority’ after case) draw on histories of oppression and experiencing this ‘inversion’ of cultural marginalization, hold popular appeal for subordination. Then came the 1990s, a time young people in diverse locations, and frame that brought bhangrapop in the popular exemplify the porousness of cultures, even bhangra scene, as a realization that to blend two as they emerge as sites of resistance…British cultures together also meant to dissociate from bhangra, then, serves as a location from both of them. As Anjali Gera Roy asserts, which South Asian youth can represent bhangrapop began with the music of Daler themselves and negotiate new identities, by Mehndi in India, although Gurdas Mann had means of their alliance with other pioneered the process of modernizing bhangra a marginalized populations (198). decade ago (80). As Roy notes, bhangrapop was Themes of marginalization and resistance in only an effort to ‘mimic’ the traditional folk and bhangra became popular with the coming of Western hip-hop. It was also one of the initial Apache Indian (né Steven Kapur), a British attempts by Punjabis based in India to interact Punjabi who was raised in the ghettos of simultaneously with the West and the Punjabi Handsworth of Birmingham along with large diaspora. Bhangrapop was located at a space Black and Asian communities. He became between bhangra and western pop where popular for fusing Punjabi, English and cultural differences were exchanged and Jamaican cultural elements, creating his own ‘blurred copies’ were created (Roy 80). This hybridized sub-genre of bhangra known as the mimicking or naqqal of the western music and bhangra muffin, a hybrid mutant of bhangra and its fusion with the traditional folk music is what reggae/raggamuffin (a music genre that separates the occident from the orient, thus originated in Jamaica). Following are the lyrics creating complex racial identities. of one of his popular songs called ‘Chok There’ Behind the happy faces grooving to the (1993): tunes of the peppy hybrid bhangra, there were Chok there! See me face upon the television. also heart-wrenching stories of partition, Chok there! Hear me voice upon the radio nostalgia, alienation and racism. Although station. British bhangra might have originated Me bring a bran new style upon the island, impulsively out of desire to perform and listen Fe the black a fe white I know a fe the to the music of one’s native land, in effect, it has Indian, contributed to the development of hybrid So each and everyone come follow fashion. cultures and the creation of a neo-ethnicity that Chok there, dip your knee cork out your is crossbred. The more recent styles of bhangra bottom. are clearly hybrid, because they combine the
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Chok there, everyone in a the bhangra called ‘Aaj Mera Jee Karda’ has the setting of a fashion. Delhi wedding, and uses the filmic medium to Another bhanga muffin track by Apache attract the attention of the Punjabi diaspora, Indian, called ‘Come Follow Me’ (1993) goes creating an experience of ‘post memory’ (Kabir) like this: that binds the Punjabi community beyond Chaar, paanch, chhay (four, five, six) borders. Such cross-communication between Come after one, two, three, artists residing in India and abroad, tied with But if you can't understand the words of the common thread of bhangra is what now I am Apache going to explore, moving right away to the You better stick to your Angrayjee (English) contemporary scene of what I call the ‘global Both of these songs produce a hybridized bhangra’. identity, and behind its spunky lyrics lay the deeply rooted stratums of socio-cultural Results and Findings subordination. Through songs like these, It is a fact that, most of the migrant Punjabi Apache makes it clear to the media (read: families in Britain are in constant touch with television and radio) that he has arrived and is their relatives in the villages and cities in the going to offer something ‘bran new’ to them as Indian subcontinent, a situation that affects well as the audiences. In ‘Come Follow Me’, marriages and also activities associated with Apache dismisses the Eurocentric vision of music. Singers and dancers in Britain are in making people of colour invisible by spreading continuous contact with their teachers in the message of crossing borders and being open Punjab, as a result of which many music albums to other cultures. Ananya Jahanara Kabir has have started to produce in Britain, often with discussed how bhangra and post-bhangra genres the advice or collaboration of musicians that are of music help in healing the Punjabi diasporic based in India. Talking about the contemporary identities formulated through trauma by giving crossover bhangra performers that have worked them a sense of nostalgia, homage and hope, for the global market, we have a string of them something prevalent in the bhangra numbers of who have crossed over from India to abroad, many diasporic films including Mira Nair’s and vice versa, including Bombay Rockers, Monsoon Wedding (2001) and Gurinder Bohemia, Bally Sagoo, Jazzy B, Jasmine Sandlas, Chadha’s Bend it Like Beckham (2002). One such Jasmin Walia, Diljit Dosanjh and the very recent bhangra number is ‘Punjabiyan Di Shaan’ from export to the United States, Priyanka Chopra. Bend it Like Beckham, remixed by British Punjabi Chopra’s song ‘Meltdown’ (2015) featuring DJ Bally Sagoo, and crooned by the Jalandhar DMX, the Afro-American rapper, and based Hans Raj Hans. The song starts like this: composed by the American DJ N.A.S.A has Wafadar hai mitti Punjabwali bhangra beats and Punjabi lyrics blended with (Loyal is the soil of the Punjab) Afro-Jazz, although it caters to the American Wafadar hai khoon punjabiyan da market. As a result of it, ‘Meltdown’ has not (Loyal is the blood of the Punjabi). been as successful as it may have been if it had a The song employs an eight-beat rhythm mainstream American artist on its cover. There cycle ubiquitous in Indian folk music, and have been similar attempts by people of the played on the traditional folk drum of the Punjabi diaspora to venture into the global Punjab, the dhol; signature melodic strings; mainstream, but only a handful number of such strong Punjabi inflections; and traditional artists have received recognition. antiphonal punctuations (hoi, aha, and balle The dialogue between the artists of Punjabi balle). Another song from Monsoon Wedding origin living across the world is what can
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significantly be seen in the bhangra compositions Saanu te lagta, Southall toh changi coming out of Bollywood as well. For instance, Jagaah koi nahi hai badiya Vikas Bahl’s Queen (2014) features the folk (there’s no better place to live than Southall) bhangra song ‘London Thumakda’, performed The very premise of this song is born out of by Labh Janua and composed by Amit Trivedi. a dialogue between London and India, where Its lyrics go like this: references to Queen Victoria, Big Ben, Southall, Tu ho gayi one to two Madonna and London are nothing but (you’ve become one from two) hybridization and mixing of the two cultures, (you’re now going to get married) representing both colonial hangover and the Oh kudiye what to do Punjabi diaspora. This conversation between the (oh girl! What are you going to do?) British and Punjabi cultures in the song creates Oh ho gayi munde di a sense of pride for the bride (Kangana Ranaut) (now you belong to your husband) whose groom is based in London. The setting of the song is of the bride’s mehndi ceremony, Tutu rutu rutu ru ! happening just before her wedding and the Patanga wargi mood, besides being ‘Punjabi’ is celebratory. (just like a kite) The very next scene of the film goes on to show Tu awain ud di how the groom has refused to marry the bride, (you’ve started flying) something that is also foreshadowed in the Oh ho gayi munde di peppy bhangra number when we ‘hear’ that the (now you belong to your husband) mannerisms of the gulabi sher (pink groom) are
firangi (foreign) and the bride must do Tutu rutu rutu ru ! everything to keep him safe, suggesting that he Heelan te chaldi, tuk tuk tu kardi may not continue to love her/stay with her (you walk with on heels) because he is vilaayti/firangi (London based in Make up tu kardi yaar the context of the film). A reference to Southall (you now apply make-up) is again a cross-communication with the Punjabi Angrezi padhdi, ghit pit tu kardi diaspora catering to the markets of Britain, (you learn English and quickly talk in it) something that the song was able to successfully Jinve Queen saadi Victoria achieve with its commercial success. During the (you’re now like our very own Queen course of the film, the bride, on a rebellious Victoria) mission to discover herself, goes for her Tu ghanti Big Ben di honeymoon alone , in an attempt to exchange (you’re like the clock on the Big Ben) further ‘conversations’ with the European cities Poora London thumakda of Paris and Amsterdam. (The whole of London dances with you) Similarly, Babbu Maan’s ‘Challa’ from Oh jaddo nachhe pehn di Mohit Suri’s Crook (2010) transforms the Punjabi (oh dear when you dance) folk song into a bhangra number, linking it Poora London thumakda impeccably with the theme of the 2009 racial The whole of london dances with you attacks on Indian students in Australia, an incident on which the film is based as well. The Gulabi sher da, rang hai firangi lyrics of ‘Challa’ go like this: (the pink lion is coloured in foreign colours) Challa India ton aaya , Rakhi tu saambh ke aa (Oh the wanderer has come from India) (keep him safe) Ve jindari nu kam te laaya
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(He has finally started to work) bhangra music. Her unique sound has fused O dil nu khichdi maaya bhangra with traditional hip-hop, something that (His heart longs for name and fame) she personally curates for the American Raat din taxi chalaunda Punjabis. She has worked with many artists (He drives taxi all day and night) both mainstream and in the South Asian Ve motte dollar kamaunda community including M.I.A., Hard Kaur and (He earns huge in dollars) Punjabi MC, and has come up with popular The abovementioned song is a bhangra remixes in the process. In an interview with version of a popular Punjabi folk song that Minna Zhou for The City Pages, DJ Rekha asserts originated in various parts of Punjab, and that cultural appropriation becomes a focuses on the Punjabi youth of Australia. Just significant part at the juncture of Indian and like ‘London Thumakda’, this song is also an American ethnicities, and her responsibility is interaction between India and Australia, only to be sure of what she puts for the creating a diasporic identity that is always on audience, rather than what audiences make of the move. The word challa itself can be what she puts for them. She says, translated into English as a ‘wanderer’, mostly There’s always going to be those people that associated with a man who roves around in think anything that’s not extremely white— order to discover himself, and records his the minute you add a tint on something, it experiences while he is on the move. The becomes exotic. Do people come to the playful version of ‘Challa’ featured in this film parties and sometimes put their hands is again a song that celebrates the arrival of a together and wave and do the snake dance macho Punjabi boy, who has been successfully in front of me? Sure, they do. That’s kind of able to earn in dollars, something that is part and parcel of what you have to deal considered nothing short of an achievement for with as a person presenting art. a native who comes from the rural locales of Despite making the waves with Americans, Punjab. There are various other hybridized DJ Rekha still finds time to work as a DJ in her mutants of ‘Challa’, including a version by monthly Basement Bhangra events and tours Gurdas Mann, A R Rahman’s rendition of the around the country to spread her love of music. song that featured in Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai The Basement Bhangra crowd has however Jaan (2012), and the recent adaptation by the thinned over the years, which DJ Rekha Karachi born American Punjabi rapper, attributes to changing music tastes, attention Bohemia, that came in 2016 itself. The theme of spans and entertainment options. This however most, if not all of these renditions, remains to contributes to the fact that the interests of represent a hybrid identity that interacts with people and their identities are always entitled to India and the globe simultaneously. redefinitions and recontextualization. Musicians Bhangra did flourish in Britain, however, it like DJ Rekha are aware of their role in the also got popular among the American Punjabis transmission of traditional values within the twenty years ago when the British born new reality. They visualize in the spread of American Punjabi, Rekha Malhotra, started the bhangra a conscious answer to a social need to Basement Bhangra parties in New York, identify, to find a means through which the new breaking the stereotypes of race and gender, in generations of the diaspora could assert their the ageist, sexist, and trend driven music being Indians in the West. The meaning of industry of the United States. DJ Rekha, as she bhangra therefore appears as a statement of is famously known as, has been recognized for identity. On the other hand, the dissemination introducing North America to the beats of of bhangra within other communities of the
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Indian diaspora and the presence of a ‘modern something I believe still exists. When we listen bhangra’ back in the Indian sub-continent shows to the British band Coldplay’s ‘Hymn For the how globalization as well as genres of music Weekend’ (2016) and watch its video, we realize undergo transformations and shifts in locations what the Euro-American view of India in the leading to formations of new definitions and contemporary times is like. The aforementioned new identities. song’s video exoticizes Bollywood, where the very Afro-American Beyoncé, comes donned Conclusions with junky jewelry, henna on her hands, and a It is often observed that whenever music chunni (a rectangular two-and-a-half yard of based on the structures belonging to the other fabric worn by Hindu women to cover their cultures is produced, it gives rise to ambiguity, head and upper body) along with Chris Martin, and the final product may be known to some the lead vocalist of Coldplay, humming: and unknown to others. As Laura Leante points And said drink from me, drink from me out, ‘In British bhangra, this ambiguity emerges (Oh-ah-oh-ah) from the deliberate adoption of Western That we shoot across the sky features (such as instruments, forms, riffs and so Symphony on)―“other” compared to the original rural That we shoot across the sky dance “familiar” to the young generations in the Pour on a... new context of the diasporic community in Drink from me, drink from me Britain’ (233). And, although there has been a (Oh-ah-oh-ah) significant growth in the popularity of bhangra That we shoot across the sky because of its travels from Punjab to Britain and Symphony beyond, it has not really made an impact in the (So high, so high) Western mainstream, continuing to become That we shoot across the sky popular mainly among the Punjabi community only (Baumann 92, Leante 229). There were Oh, angel sent from up above occasional hits like ‘Mundeyan toh Bachh ke You know you make my world light up rahin’ (Beware of the Boys) by Punjabi MC, that When I was down, when I was hurt may have been influential in generating an You came to lift me up exotic curiosity among the British press and Life is a drink and love's a drug masses, the social reality indicates that bhangra Oh now I think I must be miles up remains unknown to most of Western audiences When I was a river dried up of non-South Asian origin, even in the You came to rain a flood contemporary mainstream realm. Even back in There is a seductive tone and melody the 90s when bhangra was recorded in Britain, it lingering throughout the song with the equally was produced by a handful number of South sensual lyrics delved deep into intoxication Asians as the British were not ready to produce literally, proving that Anglo-Americans are still bhangra, because it did not fit the Indian clueless about Indians and end up stereotyping stereotype. Textually, the poetry of bhangra was them even after all these years. This is also hugely dissimilar to the British pop, which something that needs to change, as I believe that further made them unwilling to promote and diversity is the need of the hour and global distribute it. entertainment needs artists from across the As Baumann points out that way back in the world no matter how or what they look like. 80s and 90s, the British used to associate Asian Hybrid genres of music like bhangra need to get or Indian music with softness and sensuousness wider recognition, something that’s beyond the
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South Asian community without the creation of 5. Hodkinson, Paul. Media, Culture and Society: racial binaries, in an attempt to embrace the An Introduction. London: SAGE, 2011. Print. contemporary society as multiethnic and 6. Kabir, Ananya Jahanara. “Musical Recall: multicultural. Postmemory and the Punjabi Diaspora.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, no. 24, References 2004, pp. 172–189. Web. 05 Jan. 2016. 1. Asher, Nina. “Apache Indian's Syncretic 7. Leante, Laura. “Shaping Diasporic Sounds: Music and the Re-Presentation of South Identity as Meaning in Bhangra.” The Asian Identities: A Case Study of a Minority World of Music, vol. 46, no. 1, 2004, pp. Artist.” Counterpoints, vol. 96, 1999, pp. 109–132. Web. 01 Jan. 2017. 195–213. Web. 01 Jan. 2017. 8. Queen. Dir. Vikas Bahl. Perf. Kangana 2. Baumann, Gerd. “The Re-Invention of Ranaut and Lisa Haydon. Viacom 18 Bhangra. Social Change and Aesthetic Shifts Motion Pictures, 2014. Film. in a Punjabi Music in Britain.” The World of 9. Roy, Anjali Gera. Bhangra Moves: From Music, vol. 32, no. 2, 1990, pp. 81–98. Web. Ludhiana to London and beyond. Farnham: 01 Jan. 2017. Ashgate, 3. ColdplayVEVO. “Coldplay - Hymn For The 10. 2010. Print. Weekend (Official Video).” YouTube. 11. Steward, Sue. “Bhangra Music Goes YouTube, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 15 Jan. 2017. Global.” The Guardian. Guardian News and 4. Crook, Dir. Mohit Suri. Perf. Emraan Hashmi Media, 14 Oct. 2007. Web. 07 Jan. 2017. and Neha Sharma. Vishesh Films, 2010. 12. Zhou, Minna. “DJ Rekha Talks Bhangra, Film Cultural Appropriation.” Citypages. N.p., 10 July 2015. Web. 07 Jan. 2017.
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TOM AND HUCK’S ENCOUNTER IN THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
K.Geethanjali M.Phil. Research Scholar, Department of English, Gobi Arts and Science College, Gobichettipalayam
Abstract Children literature has no proper history but it introduced in mid nineteenth century. When we think of a children’s story, we probably think of it’s as entertainment rather than as a tool for moral instruction. Children’s literature includes books, poem, and plays meant for children. Even though the genre is defined by its audience, children and adults alike enjoy stories intended for children. Here, I am going to dealing with Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer which gives full adventurous feel to the children those who are reading. Let’s delve back into history and see what we can learn about its purpose. Keywords: Adventure, adults, civilization, humorous.
Introduction “Because of children’s immaturity, some Children’s fiction therefore holds a space in linguistic, emotional, and intellectual limitations literature in general. At the outset, according to are inherent in the genre.” And she adds to this the rule, I try to define or rather indicate the “implying that children’s books are lives from where Children’s literature ends and downgraded versions of adult books.” We have where the adult world starts. Children’s fiction to move further and think of children’s fiction in differs from adult’s literature in the choice of India. A story book is often meant for replacing subjects, complexity level and absence of sexual or enhancing the role of a school text. matters. There are different types of fictions Knowledge through fun is the idea behind which could be placed into different categories this exercise. There are always some for convenience. There are stories, science requirements from the books of children’s fiction, history, fantasy, biographical stories, whether the agenda is clear or hidden. The role fairy tales, folk tales, ghost stories or stories of teachers and parents is very clear since the dealing with the supernatural and so on. The child is a dependent reader. There are chiefly list can be stretched further as the children’s four objectives in story books, pleasure, stories almost present a microcosm of the instruction, building up and attitude and value universe. education. Fictionalization of matter helps Children’s book are generally shorter; they initiation of a child’s mind in an easy manner. tend to favor an active rather than a passive Pictures, graphs and maps help understand the treatment, with dialogue and incident rather details better but it is the skill of storytelling than description and introspection; child that is required essentially. protagonists are the rule; conventions are much The children’s stories are known by the used, the story develops within a clear-cut element of fantasy. The stories of ghosts, moral schematism, which much adult fiction witches, monsters, goblins and fairies have ignores; children’s books tend to be optimistic enriched the imaginative world of children of rather than pessimistic; language is child- all ages. There are stories of old as well as new oriented; plots are of a distinctive order; generations which explore the supernatural and probability is often disregarded, and one could give a sweet thrill to the children. The giants go on endlessly talking of magic and fantasy, and witches of the old folktales do not belong to and simplicity and adventure. the normal world but they occupy a space in the The children’s literature as a separate genre mind of a child and sometimes formulate an is not viewed here. Deeptha Achar quote Butts, allegorical presentation. There is a kind of
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exterior world of justice which helps orphan fringes, but they become friends and both desire children, poor honest man and any harmless freedom from society’s constraints. person tormented by a tyrant. There are magic Tom and Huck as the Classic Adventurers powers, boops and curses that turn the law of Tom Sawyer, is an imaginative young man nature upside down. The people with magic who sometimes allows his imagination and powers are usually ethically sound, only high-spirit to get in the way of telling the truth. sometimes, ‘wicked’. Tom is very adventurous; he never passes up a chance to play pirates, robbers, or soldiers. We About Mark Twain are introduced to Tom, when he is climbing in Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, his window after a long night of cavorting with 1835- April 21, 1910), well known by his pen his friends. Soon after this, Tom meets name Mark Twain, was an American author Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a social outcast who and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels likes to live by his own terms. Tom and Huck Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which become good friends. has been called “the Great American Novel”, As an adventure story, Tom Sawyer is and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He dominated by fast-paced action and daring is extensively quoted. Twain was a friend to exploits. Tom escapes to an island and tries to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European live without adults. He witnesses a murder, royalty. Twain was very popular, and his keen searches for treasure, and gets lost in caves. wit and incisive satire earned praise from critics What makes this novel especially humorous is and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the the way Tom pictures himself as an impossibly “greatest American humorist of his age”, and daring adult adventurer, creating a series of William Faulkner called Twain as “the father of unrealistic roles for himself such as pirate and American literature”. robber. Before Tom Sawyer was written, There was pride in the thought that protagonists were usually models of America, the colossal, had produced a respectability. This novel introduced the idea of superman of humour. The national vanity was the “bad boy” as hero. Tom breaks all the rules, touched when the nations of the world rocked constantly gets into trouble, and compared to and roared with laughter over the comically his half-brother Sid, “the model boy”. primitive barbarisms of the funny man from the When Sid accidentally breaks a sugar bowl, “Wild and Woolly West.” Mark Twain was Tom is in “ecstasies” rejoicing at the thought of lightly accepted the laughter of a world. It Sid getting into trouble. Is Twain advocating would be a mis-statement to affirm that the such behavior? The “model boy” is really a works of Twain were reckoned as falling within sneak and, as so, is representative of a society the charmed circle of “Literature”. that values appearance over substance. Twain Tom Sawyer is wonderfully humorous and reveals Tom’s flaws but does so in a humorous light-hearted. Twain is also well-known for the way. By contrasting his behavior with Sid’s, historical Prince and Pauper, set in 16th century Twain retains our sympathy for Tom. The London. The plot hinges upon the intertwining separation between indoor and outdoor world of two stories as a prince and exchange roles. is made visible through fences. We first meet Twain’s books frequently involve diametrically Tom trying to escape his fence duties so he can opposed protagonists linked together by play outside with his friends. Throughout the circumstance. For example, Tom Sawyer comes novel, the indoors is associated with the from respectable society; Huck Finn lives on its civilized world and is particularly esteemed by
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adults. But for Tom and his friends, houses are, adult world. At the end of the novel, it is Tom as Huck Finn puts it “smothery” inside. tries to convince Huck to remain in society. Huck Finn is raised entirely outside of houses: “He slept on door-steps in fine weather, Conclusion and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have To be conclude, Tom and Huck seeks for to go to school or church, or call any being adventure in their life and want to be free from master, or obey anybody…” To the other village the reality of the life. Children’s literature is boys, he represents all that is desirable in life: more expansive and diverse than at any other “In a word, everything that goes to make life time throughout history. Changes in technology precious, that boy had. So, thought every and even more modern amenities and luxuries harassed, hampered, respectable boy at St. have birthed a greater level of entertainment. Petersburg”. Churches and Schools are We now have children’s literature that presented as symbolic extensions of houses. The encompasses many genres in and of itself, from Sunday school, like the school house, has a historical fiction to fantasy to science fiction. As window that reminds children of the outdoor such, toddlers enjoy pop-up books, pre-teens world they love. The restraint of Sunday have early readers, and teenagers immerse clothes, the high-backed, uncomfortable pews themselves in graphic novels. The Adventures and the obsolete customs of the church all of Tom Sawyer was most famous among combine to make Tom restive and fidgety children; it gives more pleasure to adults as well inside. as children. Frequently in children’s novels, the theme of children versus adults is presented as References primitiveness versus civilization. Adults, who 1. Dr. Depurkar, Sulabha R. “Children’s are aligned with culture and civilization, hope Fiction in India - A Critical Study”, Shree to tame children. Aunt Polly continually tries to Niwas Publication, Jaipur, 2012. Print. civilize the rebellious Tom. This struggle is 2. Dr. Misha, Rasmi, “Great American presented as humorous type to escape the rules Novelists”, Bhasker Publications, Delhi, and restraints of the civilized world by leaving 2010. Print. home for Jackson’s Island. Once there, Tom 3. Twain, Mark. “The Adventures of Tom realizes that he is homesick. As in many Sawyer”, Amar Ujala Publication, New children’s books, he eventually adapts to the Delhi. Print.
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REFUGEE CRISIS IN MOHSIN HAMID’S NOVEL EXIT WEST
D.Abarnaa M.Phil. Scholar, School of English and Foreign Languages The Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed to be University
Abstract Literature acts as one of the powerful media to mirror what is happening in the society and even in the world. Contemporary literature in general is defined as literature written after World War II to current day. The word contemporary means current or living or present. Hence, a work of art in contemporary literature should reflect a society’s social or political perspectives through its characters, settings, and its associations to ongoing events. When we talk of contemporary literature, it dates back to World War II and its horrors like bombs, genocides or holocausts, massacres to the current changes in the world too. Refugee crisis is an increasing humanitarian disaster of present world. Mohsin Hamid’s novel Exit West is completely about the issues of World refugees due to social and political unrest. Refugees are largely placed at the margins of society and are influenced by the majority. Human migration happens for many reasons, an individual can move in search of jobs or to live a better life with good economic opportunities. But in this novel people move out in search of safe place because of chaotic circumstances like civil war, conflict and violence. The present paper tries to find out the reasons behind existing refugee crisis in the present world and their problems for the reason that of race, class, gender differences when they move to different geographical areas. Keywords: Immigrants- who is a Refugee? Push and pull factors- political instability Problems faced by refugee Solutions
Introduction conventional as Saeed. Saeed falls in love with Mohsin Hamid is a Pakistani writer born in Nadia when they met in an evening class on 1971, Lahore. He spent most of his childhood in corporate identity and product branding. Being the United States. At present, he lives in his lovers they used to have some coffee in Chinese homeland Lahore with his family. He is also a restaurants and enjoy hearing songs of a dead, migrant who obtained a dual citizenship of UK. popular American singer. The city in which the He lived in Lahore, London, New York, Greece protagonists are dwelling is unnamed and Italy. Hamid is one of the prominent figures throughout the novel. Probably it may be who are recognized around the world among Lahore, Pakistan. The unnamed city filled with the few writers attributed for revolutionizing refugees is fully comes under the control of contemporary Pakistani literature. Literature is militants. Thus civil war broke out between the the immense area that could be related to militant and government. Saeed lost his mother human life. Exit West is his fourth novel which in the war and later moves out of his homeland deals with the problematic lives of migrants or in search of secured place to safeguard the life displaced peoples who enters other along with Nadia. Saeed’s father refused to geographical areas as refugees. come with them because of his unconditional Nadia and Saeed are the central characters love towards dead wife. But he got a promise in this novel and the story revolves around from Nadia that she should be with his son until them. Saeed is working in an advertising he settles. The setting of the novel often company who is conventional and binds to his changed from place to place because people family. Saeed’s mother is a school teacher and migrate from one place to another. Earlier the his father is a University professor. Nadia is setting is in an unnamed city of Islamic nation working in an insurance company who is an which is already filled with groups and groups independent woman and she is not of refugees. As the civil war broke out people 35 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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left as refugees from their hometown to other lead a better life whereas refugees are a little cities and other nations such as Greece, London, different. Because refugees leave their country New York and encountered different and in order to save their lives from a traumatic difficult situations. Many lives are lost while situation which they have to face every day. crossing border and in mob attacks that often happen. Nadia and Saeed took some jobs in the Push and Pull factors refugee camp. Later they decide to persuade The world of literature reflects social issues individual and separate life to survive on the basis of social, economic, gender according to the situation. Saeed get close to a discrimination, cultural clashes, priest family whose origin is also his homeland. marginalization, class system, color, race, Nadia worked in food cooperative in the camp. gender, politics, caste system, communal riots, Like Saeed and Nadia, many people come and and has recently taken up the issue of go from country to county. There are few migration. Nowadays we hear a lot about the references to migrants (refugees) from, Africa, migration through the media. The most recent Pakistan, Greece, Australia, India (Tamils- heart melting and shocking event was the dead Sinhala). After fifty years of separation from her of three-years-old Kurdish kid named Aylan nativity, Nadia returned to her homeland for Kurdi in Syrian war. Like Aylan many small the first time. Saeed and Nadia accidentally met children, women and families lost their life there, had some coffee and shared few words. while seeking protective place. The topography They see the changed city with few old settings plays main role because the nation surrounded like fired, half demolished building. The city is by water won’t get that much issues when quite different and filled with new young comparing it to the land surrounded nation. The peoples who knew the attacks just as a history sociological unrest and political instability affect from a book. the entire nation. Earnest Ravenstein, an English geographer talks of ‘Laws of migration’. He Immigrants- Who is a Refugee? explained that migration was governed by a Immigrants are peoples who move from ‘push-pull’ factor process. Many theorists say one’s own country to other country in order to that Geography or topography is the deciding live there. One who immigrates is known as part for migration. The amount of migration immigrants. Various reasons, from availability decreases when distance increases. The first and of good employment to natural calamities such foremost cause for migration was better external as tsunami, earthquakes occurring due to the economic opportunities. Conditions which climatic changes draw people to immigrate. drive the people to leave their nation or home According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, and conditions which attract people to a new Refugee is defined as ‘someone who has been secured place is known as push and pull factors forced to leave a country because of war or for respectively. For example, war conflicts, religious or political reasons’. These vigorous bombing, gunshot, mob attack, militant forces reasons are the conditions which drive people to are push factors whereas the helping nations, leave their homelands. Here in this novel, the government, protective asylum, huge land are central characters and other characters leave pull factors for refugees. their parents, homes, job, friends and everything as the situation becomes unsuitable Problems Faced by Refugees to lead a safest life. Mostly immigrants come There are no proper basic needs such as under the category economic migrants. shelter, food, attire, medicine good water, etc. Economic migrants move to other countries to People those who are forced to leave will seek
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support from helping nations. They built house faced by Saeed and Nadia, which caused severe like thing to stay in with available materials. physical damage and three peoples with them Though they are provided with some land it’s were died. There is no adequate food supply as not enough for them as they came in huge well as the medicine in the refugee camp. When numbers. The exact situation of refugees people started to move in enormous numbers without proper shelter is typically depicted as from different geographical areas to the camp, follows in Exit West. they have to face food shortages too. Their Refugees had occupied many of the open health condition becomes poor which might places in the city, pitching tents in the green cause death. belts between roads, erecting lean-tos next to the boundary walls of houses, sleeping Summation rough on pavements and in the margins of Refugees are treated differently and streets. Some seemed to be trying to recreate attacked violently when they move into new the rhythms of a normal life, as though it places because some people afraid that they were completely natural to be residing, a came and settle from different places. Thus they family of four, under a sheet of plastic carry different cultures which could affect their propped up with branches and a few kind. Thus in most nations, they are placed chipped bricks ( Hamid, 23). outer the city. The most welcoming nations are Refugees are also normal humankind who France, Germany, Canada, London and least is put in a situation to escape for lives leaving welcoming nations are Qutar, Saudi Arabia, their homes, families’ friends there. They are in Kuwait etc. The solution to reduce this crisis is a chaotic psyche as the society is in complete human have to give more importance to live. conflict. Saeed, the protagonist lost his mother World leaders have to take some measures for in the military fight. The cruel attack on people it. They left their home land in emergency and by the armed forces is brutal and is narrated took the shortest way to reach asylum not realistically through the protagonist’s father considering of the roughness and hardships in it when he returned after spending some time in like crossing seas, desserts etc. The government his wife’s grave. On his way at distance he can take some serious measures to protect and watched few boys playing football, at first he made the borders more secured for them to recognized it as a goats head, later recognized cross. Being human they all have the basic that it’s not a ball or else but it’s a human rights to enjoy. Even Pope Francis on 14, head.“…barbarians, but then it dawned upon January 2018 in Italy said it is our duty to serve him that this was the head not of goat but of a them with brotherhood and sisterhood. A.J. human being, with hair and a beard…”( Hamid, Muste was a renowned America non-violent 82). He left the place quickly not to take a look activist whose quote was used by Sujata Dutt as at it again. introduction for her book Peace in Dialogue, These above mentioned cruelties are “There is no way to Peace. Peace is the way” (i). happening while the people are caught in the conflict between government and militants. References They also face mob attacks by nativist while 1. Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West.India: Penguin crossing borders and staying in camps. These Random house, 2017. Print. attacks are done by the group which is 2. Hazarika, Sujata Dutta. Peace in Dialogue completely against non natives. In this novel, Universals and Specifics. New Delhi: Akansha the writer also talks of a mob attack which was publishing House, 2008.Print.
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THE EMOTIONAL CONFLICT BETWEEN REALITY AND IMAGINATION IN R.K. NARAYAN’S THE ENGLISH TEACHER
P.U.Lydia Bennett M.Phil. (Research Scholar), The Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul
Abstract Each and everyone is this world are dependent to others, we need someone to stand with us in our ups and downs and this makes our life complete. Marital life adds happiness and gives a tyrant satisfaction. The bond between husband and wife is eternal and here it becomes spiritual. This novel is considered as R.K. Narayan’s autobiographical novel. He tries to convey ‘The hardest of all things for a novelist to communicate is the extra-ordinary ordinariness of human happiness’, and that is spiritual. The spontaneous flow of his feelings will make the readers to think out in another perspective. He tried to bring out an imagination in this materialistic world. The novel discusses the boundaries to human power and Western science indicating that there is no limit for imagination. The power of love makes the couple to live a spiritual life which has no boundaries. The purpose of this paper is to make clear that reality and imagination attracts and attacks our emotions. It’s difficult for an ordinary man to leave the materialistic life and to go in search of spiritual eternity. The conflict between imagination and reality is discussed elaborately. Keywords: Spiritual, Materialistic, Eternal and Conflict.
Introduction to live with him. With their welfare on his ‘Gratitude for an understanding of life and hands, Krishnan learns to be a proper husband death is natural’ which is gained by the main and learns how to take up the responsibilities of character Krishna who works as an English his family. He felt that his life had Teacher. Marital life brings joy, pleasure, comparatively improved as he understood that happiness and sorrows and we should have the there's more meaning to life than to just maturity to balance it. The major portion of the teaching in the college. These changes happened novel recounts the aftermath of Susila’s death in reality whereas it made him a complete man. and the journey takes him from a lifestyle which The family bond is deep and stronger. “Living he found unsatisfactory. The conflict is he could without illusion seemed to be the greatest task not accept the reality where he tries to escape for me…”. from the real world and makes imagination as a Mystic twists occurred after Susila’s powerful weapon to live his life as he wished. death where he is obsessed by her thoughts. The The death of his wife is reality but he tired to be letter from a stranger indicates that Susila has with her in a spiritual way which creates a been in contact with him and she wants to mystic turn. His imagination leads him to think communicate with Krishnan. This news gave that there is always a limit to what can be him happiness and joy where he forgets the achieved through anything that is knowable reality and enters into the world of imagination. and predictable. He detaches himself from The stranger acted as a medium to Susila and reality and enters into the world of imagination. Krishnan which turned him to live in the spiritual world. This happened because of love Imagination vs Reality and Susila became his weakness. His mind The world that we live in is reality, which knows that it is impossible to talk with the we are a part of, is small and thus limited. That death person but the love towards her made is why, in his infinite capacity for potential him to find a way to live together. Mental improvement, man created imagination. Here psyche determines our fate. The supernatural he gets the entire freedom to establish his elements added a fabulous flow. thoughts and emotions. Krishna’s life turns when his wife Susila and their child Leela, come 38 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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“A profound unmitigated loneliness is the on his own after he has improved to talk only truth of life. All else is false. My spiritually. He feels entire satisfaction that he mother has got away from her parents, my could live with Susila’s and enjoy rest of his life sisters from our house, I and my brother in imagination. He gives up his job from a well- away from each other, … , my earliest paid college and starts working in the small friends- where are they? They scatter apart children’s school. Krishna’s love for his wife like the droplets of a water-spray. The law and child transcends everything else in his life. of life.” ( 134) He is thoroughly devoted to them. There is a transfiguration from reality to imagination. Spiritual Eternity as Imagination Krishnan accepts the offer of an attempt to Conflict communicate with the spirit of his departed Acceptance is mandatory! We should know wife through spiritualistic procedures and these to balance the situation and move on with messages are interpreted as attempts on the reality, creating another world is terrible and it spirit’s part to communicate with her sorrow will create psychological issues. The major stricken husband. The entire final part of The conflict is accepting the fact and moving into English Teacher is dedicated to the spirit imagination which could create paranoial conversations and their transformative effect on disorder. Krishnan makes use of the the krishnan’s life. The psychological opportunity and tries to escape from reality. transformation Krishnan undergoes due to the Without that mediator he tries to speak but the conversation with the spirit. Krishnan passes mystic has failed, he tries to communicate with through an extreme state when the spirits tell her daily and imagines that she is physically him that Susila is eager to communicate with present there where he could smell the her husband. A long sorrowful journey of fragnance of jasmine flower. Krishnan prepares Krishnan after Susila’s death comes to an himself mentally that he could live another life unexpected end that he can communicate with with Susila and the imagination level became her spirit throughout his life. With the help of contradictory. Krishnan is in the mode of the mediator whose appearance is literally physically present in reality and mentally abnormal. He forgets the reality and imagines absent because of his imagination. Having this his life with Susila. Krishnan imagined that gets conflict he left his job and started to work in a an opportunity to interact with Susila’s spirit. small school. He created his own world with Innocently he strains himself to get a glimpse of Susila, Leela and head-master. And atlast in his Susila but her physical appearance remains in farewell everyone calls him “an his imagination only. The spiritual fullness of uncompromising idealist” at the function held their love in the richness of its reality. The novel in his honour. But Krishna tells them that he is reveals the spiritual dimension of Narayan’s no idealist; he is going to do what he likes to do; love for Rajam. The spiritual eternity is attained he tries to escape from reality and enters into with Krishnan’s spiritual rebirth with Susila. In spiritual devote life. His time and energies to other words it is known as escapism which the education of small children in the means running away from reality. headmaster’s school at a paltry salary of twenty- Krishna feels satisfaction when he comes to five rupees a month is a kind of foolishness. know that he is happy in the other world and Though he feels that he is succeeded in his life Susila is there to keep an eye over him and the but he is consider to be an looser who does’nt child. She wants him to be happy and relaxed. have the guts to face the society. Krishna is now Gradually he learns to communicate with her calm and relaxed as he has direct communion
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with the spirit of his dead wife at night. He is at unconsciousness. It’s better to live in the world peace with himself at last. of reality rather than the world of imagination. Krishnan who decided to live in an imaginative Summation world ruined his life without knowing the Believing in psychic powers is imagination eccentricity of his destiny. He does not need but facing the world is real. It is unfair to escape money or savings for Leela because Leela’s from reality by having different world called grandmother is there and her savings which imagination. Though he is a teacher he is could be used for her marriage, he just want to emotionally attracted to supernatural believes escape from the reality and enter into the world and he is constrained with her thoughts that of imagination. Susila will be the spirit who leads his life of eternity. The worldly happenings may References strengthen our mind which is considered to be 1. Jung Carl Gustav (1956), Two essays in real but escaping from the reality leads into Analytical Psychology, New York, Meridian psychological disorders. Here Krishnan creates Books. his own illusion of Susila where he could not 2. Narayan R.K., The English Teacher, Chennai, taste the essence of reality. Reality is named as Indian Thought Publications. consciousness and imagination is named as
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VULNERABILITY OF THE INDIVIDUALS IN THE COATING OF RELIGIOUS ORTHODOXY: A STUDY ON SARA ABOOBACKER’S BREAKING TIES
D.Nishasujatha Ph.D. Research Scholar, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore
Abstract As Mark Twain rightly points out, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birth place of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grandmother of tradition.” Indian Literature in English translation has offered significant contribution to the growth of global literature. It captures the cultural patterns of India and is preoccupied with Indian themes, characters, life and manners. It reflects the ideas and ideals that constitute the minds of the Indians. India’s vast literary treasure house consists of tales told through the ages, different from myths and legends. It offers a fertile field for elucidation of the social, economic, religious and political issues in the genres including poetry, fiction, play, prose, short story, etc. The present paper attempts at analyzing the Islamic religious intricacy and its prejudiced approach to women with special reference to Sara Aboobacker’s Breaking Ties. The text promotes feminist politics too. It can also be served as communal agenda. It points finger at the oppressive practices of Muslim patriarchy. Key Words: Religion, Oppression, Subjugation, patriarchy etc.
Introduction Countries, it had been modified as Breaking Ties The Indian English Novels written after than the religion specific and eye catching 1970 powerfully exhibit new social, talaaq. The novel has received the Karnataka psychological and linguistic trends in their Sahitya Akademi Award. narratives. The women writers have taken the The novel Breaking Ties deftly picturises the task of analyzing seriously the age old servitude muslim family with Mahammad Khan as its of women on the basis of gender distinctness. head. He is tyrannical and despotic. In the They have been depicting the sad plight of words of Sara, “He was rude, short-tempered women, how women have been seduced to and obstinate, He had to have his way in marginalization and their protest against the everything. A dictator” (1). The real story merciless laws of patriarchal society. Sara commences when Nadira, Khan’s daughter, is Aboobacker is one such writer who does not fail given Talaaq by Rashid, her loving husband. in her duty as writer to voice forth the The word ‘talaaq’ in Arabic means divorce. It voicelessness. To her credit, Sara has written breaks the marital knot that binds man and novels and short stories. She belongs to the woman and brings them under one roof. The second generation of Muslim writers in scuffle between Rashid and Khan ends in a Kannada Literature and ventures to articulate broken marriage of Nadira. In a fit of rage, the voices of Muslim women in her novels. Rashid consecutively offers ‘talaaq’ thrice and Sara Aboobacker’s pioneering work as a result Nadira is pushed into the whirlwind Chandragiri Theeradalli penned in Kannada is a of mental anguish. Though she remains at her narrative noted for her commitment to social natal home, her thoughts roam around Rashid’s issues. It was to be translated On the Banks of the house. Chandragiri, as the locale of the story is Kiliyuru, Gradually, her child is also abducted by her a small village on the bank of the river husband and she is left alone. At first, Khan Chandragiri. When it was first rendered into cherishes a false hope that Niadira’s bewitching English, Aboobacker suggested the title Talaaq beauty would easily fetch her second husband. because of its thematic relevance. Since the Gloated over the wealth of Salim, an old but English translation reaches the nation-wide rich man, Khan forces Nadira to marry him. To audience, crossing the boundaries of States and win her consent, Salim too exploits so many
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strategies but in vain. Nadira is morally strong In the patriarchal society, a woman’s enough to refute him. Khan becomes absolutely chastity is not at all appreciated whereas her dejected over her refusal. As the concerns body is horribly targeted at. Religion comes to corrode him, his health condition gets no one’s help. Nadira’s plight is heart-rending. deteriorated. If her second husband refuses to give her Finding no other way, Khan sent Khader, a ‘talaaq’, she will be trapped between the devil friend as a messenger to Rashid to remarry and the deep sea. When she knows, “this Nadira. In Islam, a man can remarry the same remarriage demands a difficult ritual” she has woman after a talaaq and so Rashid too to make a compromise with life saying, “That’s consents. But only through Maulvi, it is cleared what that omnipotent God has written on my about the dictum in the Quran that a woman forehead. Who can change it?” Otherwise a cannot remarry her first husband as she wishes. woman has to be a skilled acrobat, bold enough She has to comply with unjust laws. Before her to walk over the rope of danger and she should marriage, she has to marry a ‘stranger’ and to be willing to undergo an unthinkable ordeal for spend a night with him. She becomes eligible to the sake of religion. marry her first husband after her yielding to her Sara Aboobacker, in her bold venture, second husband. When the cruel ritual is questions the religion that fails to provide dictated, Rashid hesitates and Nadira despises freedom for women. She has taken her writing the very notion. Though Rashid is progressive as a powerful medium to unmask the in his ideas, he does not like to share his wife hegemony of the religious orthodoxy that could with somebody and he says, “All these senseless not be questioned. When Sara is attacked by practices should be set on fire, confounded!” fundamentalists, she utters, “I’m content that I (66). Nevertheless, Amina, his mother makes up am giving voice to the women of my his mind to agree. community whose mouths were sealed until Nadira irones her mind to accept the idea of now” (XV). She shows light on the helplessness one day marriage for the sake of her son and her of muslim women especially when they are husband. At the day of wedding, in the name of bound by the moral codes of marriage. She refreshment she goes out of her home and criticizes the code of conduct framed by the shelters herself into the pond in the mosque. religion that offers no reasonable freedom for Unable to abide by the unreasonable, irrational women. Women have to wrench in pain and edicts of religion, she sacrifices her life. When agony. Their position in marital life is always her parents stand helpless, the governing under question. It is marriage and divorce that religion threatens her with its manifold cruel alter the life of Nadira. The unlettered woman hands. A soft, tender, innocent Nadira is a mere like Nadira cannot not carve out a life to herself. a witness and the victim of religious orthodoxy. She cannot have a vision of womanhood by As she is unlettered and diffident, she could not violating current social code. She marries and join Rashid, defying the life-sucking rituals of discovers the joys of intimacy with her husband the religion. Even when Rashid, a man would but she is unable to realize the way to regain her never be able to release her from the iron walls domesticity. She has to understand that she is of traditions, how can an innocent like Nadira? not created for the service and pleasure of man. “Nadira. She was the symbol of many many Apart from wifing, child bearing and women who never once questioned religion, housekeeping, a woman should perceive her never stepped out of the limits drawn, own inner strength with which she can bring a drowning in the whirlpool of religious practices fruitful change in her life. and social customs” (67).
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References Eds. Pratibha Jain and Rajan Mahan. Jaipur: 1. Anand, Sudha Bhandari. “The Feminine Rawat, 1996. Print. Image in Fiction by Women.” 12.10.2011. 5. Viswanatha, Vanamala, trans. Breaking Ties. Web. By Sara Aboobacker. India: Macmillan, 2. Pais, J.Arthur. “Why Should I Spend an 2001. Print. Hour Cooking When I Could Write? ” Rev. 6. Wallia, Rajni. Women and Self: Fictions of of Listening Now. 20 Dec. 2010. Web. Jean Rhys, Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner. 3. Twain, Mark. “Quotes.” 17.02.2012. Web. New Delhi: Books Plus, 2001.Print. 4. Vashishta, Neelima. “Images of Women as Reflected in Sculptures.” Women Images.
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UNDERSTANDING AMERICA FOR THE NON-AMERICAN BLACK
A.Kanimozhi Ph.D. Scholar, PSG College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore
Abstract In America, tribalism is alive and well. There are four kinds – Class, ideology, region and race. First, Class: rich folk and poor folk. Second, Ideology: Liberals and Conservatives. They do not disagree on political issues; each side believes that the other side is evil. Third, Region: the north and the south. The two sides fought a civil war but tough stains from the war remain. Finally, Race. There is a ladder of racial hierarchy in America. The native white American is always on top, specifically white Anglo-Saxon protestant. American black is always on the bottom. The ladder in the middle hierarchy always depends on time and place. There is a tribal African rhyme which proves the bias of race. “If you’re White, You’re all right; If you’re Brown, Stick around. If you’re Black, Get back!” -Unknown. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 15 September, 1977) is a Nigerian writer. In 2008, she was awarded a McArthur Genius Grant. According to the Times Literary Supplement, She is “the most prominent of a procession of critically acclaimed young authors [who] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African Literature. Americanah(2013) is one of the best novels of Ngozi Adichie. It was selected by The New York Times, as one of “The 10 Best Books of 2013”. The theme of the novel is an exploration of a young Nigerian encountering race in modern America. She won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Fiction award. The paper focuses on the theme of race and racism in modern America and the pressure of Immigrant life in America. It also brings out the hierarchy of the different races in America. The paper aims at analyzing the struggles of Non- American Balck in America and how they adopt the culture of America and become Americanah. Keywords: Americanah, racist slur, color blind, white privilege.
Introduction ensure the wholeness of their children. Her Ifemelu and obinze is the protagonist of the friends proudly say, “She’ll come back and be a novel, “Americanah”. They are lovable teenagers serious Americanah”. To Ifemelu, having who love each other. When they about to finish American passport is a kind of privilege. She their schoolings in Nigiria, they want to pursue feels a frisson of expectation and an eagerness to their higher studies in America. Every Nigerian discover America. student has the dream of pursuing higher studies in America. Nigerians are the most Search for self educated immigrant group in America. Ifemelu In America, Ifemelu wants to discover and Obinze are not exception. They do have herself and searches for her identity. The fascinating craze for America. It is the time capitalist country never welcomes her with when Nigeria is under military dictorship. open arms. She realizes that she is no more a While Ifemelu’s request for passport is selected, human but black in America. She startles to Obinze’s request for passport is rejected by the know that the modern America still holds the American embassy without any reason. horror of invisible bias of race and racism. In Ifemelu’s parents are very happy when her Nigeria, she is not Black but in America, she is passport got approved. They think that the Black. The native White Americans consider, schools in America built both character and “RACE IS CLASS”. In America’s public career. The people believe that the latest discourse, Black as a whole are same. In schools, the latest curriculum in America will America, if anyone never wants to be the victim
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of race, they should be either white or rich. In contradicts with the view of professor in her the words of white American, one can participation session. She considers it as the understand the point of view of Americans on victory of black student where she can openly race in following words. contradict with white professor. She watches “Race is totally overtyped these days, black films in her class. It is also a part of academic people need to get over themselves, it is all about study. They also write response paper on those class now, the haves and the have-nots.”(4) films. She shocks to see the students having gun In America, black people should not angry just like having books. She also startles to know about racism otherwise they would not get about the availability of free condoms in school sympathy of their race. Being poor and black, campus. At last, Ifemelu becomes Americanah. she becomes the victim of racism. She is not able Ranyinuds teases her, “You are looking at things to work under her student visa. She applies for with American eyes. But the problem is that you are many different kinds of jobs under different not even a real Americanah”(385). identity. Most of the time, she gets rejected just because she is black. When she is running out of Obama as the President of America money, she takes a job that requires her to In spite of all the struggles of race and degrade herself. Finally, America corrupts her racism, Barack Obama becomes 44th President of with poverty. She feels as if “America had the Unites States from 2009 to 2017. He is the subdued her” (110). first African American to assume the presidency. The journey is not the path of roses. American Curriculum The black people think that it is impossible for The first challenge that befalls before her is black to become the President of America. American accent and the way American to Ifemelu wishes that America would elect a black certain things. Americans never say, “I don’t man as President. She becomes the diehard know” instead they say, “I’m not sure”. When supporter of Obama when she read his book, misfortune befell, they do not say, “sorry” but “Dreams from My Father”. She is absorbed and they ask, “Are you okay?’’. When one say, moved by the man she met in those pages. She “Sorry” to their misfortune, they reply with finds Obama as an intelligent, kind and surprise, “Oh, it’s not your fault”. They overuse unwillingly humane. She strongly believes, “If the word, ‘excited’. For instance, a professor only the man who wrote this book could be the excited about a new book, a student excited president of America”(353). She is started writing about a class, a politician on TV excited about a post supporting Obama in her blog. law. It is altogether too much excitement. She There are people who disagree with the has spoken English all her life and led the idea of Obama as the president of America. The debating society in secondary school. Still she response to her post, one white man writes feels inferior when she could not speak reply in following words. American accent. She begins to practice an “How can a monkey be President? Somebody do American accent. The school in America is easy us a favour and put bullet in this guy. Send him back to her. The assignments are sent to her e-mail. to the African jungle. A black man will never be in The classrooms are air-conditioned. The the White House, dude, it’s called the White House professors are willing to give make-up tests. The for a reason..” (353) lectures demand “the participation’’ of the In Presidential campaign, Obama emphasis students in class. She finds that the class time is issues of rapidly ending the Iraq-war and wasted on obvious words and meaningless reforming the health care system. He boldly words. She feels ultimate happy when she delivers speech on racism too. His speech projects the theme of hope and change. At last, 45 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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the result comes with positive note. Barack white servants do not like to serve black people. Obama becomes the first African American The white cab drivers do not like to have black president in 2009. The balck people consider it neighborhood. The black people are rejected for as the victory of every black people in the loan just because they are black. If there is any country of capitalism. They are extremely very fight between black and white, American police happy that their President is black just like always file a case on black. They never consider them. This is the time when America prove to even though he is victim. In American schools, the world that America become “color-blind’’. the parents do not like the black teachers to teach their children. Still the white people says Racism in America that America became ‘color-blind’. The white “When I born, I Black. have “racist slur”. America has a way of turning When I grow up, I Black. everything into an illness that needs medicine. When I go in sun, I Black. When I scared, I Black. Conclusion When I sick, I Black. In this novel, “Americanah”, one can And when I die, I still Black. understand the white privilege and the racist And you white fella, slur of the white people in America. It is a proof When you born, you Pink. that America did not become the country of When you go in sun, you Red. color blind. America has the influence on every When you cold, you Blue. immigrant and finally turns them into When you scared, you yellow. Americanah. When you sick, you Green. And when you die, you grey… References And you calling me colored?” 1. Ngozi Adichie,Chimamanda. Americanah. -Unknown Clays Ltd, St lves plc. 2013. Print. This is a poem by an African which explains 2. Marimuthu, Gopal.Great Speeches of Great the depth of racism. In modern America, the Men that saved Humanity. J.V.Printers, 2016. native white American has invisible thought of Print race. To them, race is class. The white people 3. http://en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki> Racism have “white privilege” inwardly. In hotel, the in America.
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ECOFEMINISM: AN INSIGHT INTO THE MIND OF THE PROTAGONIST SUMI IN THE SELECT NOVEL OF SHASHI DESHPANDE’S ‘A MATTER OF TIME’
G.Sagayaselvi Research Scholar-Part-Time (Ph.D. English), Sri GVG Visalakshi College for Women, Udumalpet, Coimbatore
Abstract As a branch of ecocriticism, ecofeminisim is gradually growing as a critical tool for the analysis of literature especially women writers. Ecofeminism reflects the use of nature to symbolize women in the patriarchal paradigms. It traces the historicity of women having been identified with nature, emotion, and the realm of the physical, while men having been identified with culture, reason, and the realm of the mental. Culture is defined as that which is human or made by humans. Nature is defined as that which is not human nor made by humans. Shashi Deshpande in her novel ‘A Matter of Time’ embodies the characteristic of feminine qualities in her protagonist in due relation to the ability to survive in the patriarchal society and her sense of power time. Keywords: Ecocriticism, ecofeminism, culture, time, biocide, self -assertion
Introduction fear of women and nature set to stage for Nature is seen as the embodiment of the biocide, must be named as the problem. characteristics that women possess. Women Ecofeminisim bring this experiences, values and possess the feminine qualities of being pious, perspectives of women to the deep ecology moral, pure, gentle, kind, graceful and beautiful movement, it holds the key to a transformation but men are seen to be hard-working, industrial, of culture and it provides humankind with the rational, strong, assertive, and independent. attitudes that are essential if human life is to be This in turn the characteristics of men do not reconciled with the life of ‘Gaia’. seem to be not connected with nature. The domination of women and the Ecofeminism, also called ecological feminism, is domination of nature are also termed as a branch of feminism and analyze the ecofeminisim. It is imperative to note that the connections between women and nature. The logic of domination does not assert. It does not term is coined by French feminist Françoise assert that there are no relevant differences d’Eaubonne in 1974. The vital reasons for among groups that may take some groups ecological devastation arise in the minds and superior or inferior in some relevant respect. hearts of human beings. Human beings are The argument show how elements related to shaped by the language, symbols and rituals. feminine category are conceptualized as inferior The understanding of these cultural dynamics to those related to the masculine. The same logic will affect the depth of our ecological wisdom or justifies the domination of nature. The logic of eco- Sophia. ’Sophia’ is the wisdom of a body framework also connects ‘isms’ of domination and mind joined in sensitive response to and in race, class, gender, aim to dismantle dance with the wisdom of ‘Gaia’, the earth. Both domination in all guises. Ecofeminism adds ‘Sophia’ and ‘Gaia’ are Greek words of feminine both a commitment to the environment and an gender. The earth is traditionally acquainted awareness of the associations made between with images of feminine which gives as a clue to women and nature. Specifically, this philosophy the link between the oppression of the earth and emphasizes the ways both nature and women suppression of women that began in early ages are treated by patriarchal (or male-centered) with the rise of patriarchal religion and culture society. The concept of connecting women with some six or seven thousand years ago. the nature dates back to the times of ancient In a patriarchal society, in which the male classical mythology. Nature is feminized definition of reality is normative and in which because it is seen as possessing the same
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qualities as women at the time when most of the moves from despair to hope, from self-negation romantic writing is produced. to self-assertion. Ecofeminist, or ecological feminists, are The title of Shashi Deshpande’s novel can those feminists who analyze the be the starting point of analysis A Matter of interconnections between the status of women time is symbolic in the novel of the redemptive and the status of non-human nature. At the power of time. Sumi is the protoganist of this heart of this analysis are four central claims: (1) novel. The novel opens with Gopal’s walking the oppression of women and the oppression of out on Sumi. Gopal’s desertion makes her nature are interconnected; (2) these connections experience the trauma of a deserted life and the must be uncovered in order to understand both anguish of an isolated partner. All the agonies the oppression of women and the oppression of of life corner her at the age of forty and make nature; (3) feminist analysis must include her stand alone and helpless along with her ecological insights; and (4) a feminist teenaged daughters Aru, Charu and Seema. perspective must be a part of any proposed Generally, on being deserted, a woman seems to ecological solutions. A closer look at each of be emotionally shattered. But she takes it with these claims would illuminate the concerns of surprising equanimity. We can understand this ecofeminism. if we compare Kalyani’s, Aru’s and Sumi’s visit Women in the present socio cultural set-up to Gopal. The first urges him to rescue his feel deeply frustrated by their restricted and normal life. Aru at first solicits and then decides regimented lives. The lack of privacy, the to take recourse to the law, but Sumi is with physical burden and the drabness of a Gopal, not deliberately but accidentally, and monotonous family life have impeded the free only for a brief while. And even in this short growth of their feminine self. The image of visit they do not talk about Gopal’s desertion. women that we chiefly get in Indian writing in Scenes of the house brings out the nature- English is an ambivalent one. Sometimes she is culture dichotomy. This seems to be a rejection presented as meek, passive ad obedient and in the life of the people living in the house sometimes a defying and rebellious and self called ‘Vishwas’. assertive. ‘Everything grows wild here, nothing is Human experience has chiefly masculine scaled down to a cultivated prettiness. The and hence the cumulative vision the humanity bougainvllaea has become a monster offers us is a biased, titled and distorted one parasite clinging passionately to its with the male voice denied an equal status and neighbour, the akash mallige, cutting deep force. The novels of Shashi Deshpande are a grooves in its trunk, as if intent on realistic and an optimistic portrayal of the strangulating it. (Deshpande, A Matter of Indian middle-class educated women. Time 4). Deshpande successfully presents these women Miserable at the thought of how history as they are engaged in the complex and difficult repeats itself, Kalyani bemoans “my father died social and psychological problem of defining an worrying about me, my mother couldn’t die in authentic self. She delineates them with their peace, she held on to life though she was variegated swings of mood, the ebb and flow of suffering-she suffered terribly- because of me, joy and despair. The tragic predicament of she didn’t want to leave me and go”. Deshpande’s protagonists is the outcome of (Deshpande, A Matter of Time 47).Kalyani male-domination in a patriarchal culture. Their further explains her own misery and agony and silent suffering is socio-psychic in nature. In her she don’t want her daughter to undergo the quest for identity, Deshpande’s protagonist same misery.
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Sumi knows that Gopal believes that recognizes that Gopal’s life always has a marriage is not for everyone and especially not different concept and a different identity. for him. She is at the same time aware of the At the age of forty, Sumi starts her new life. developments taking place in him but she She receives an appointment in a school and desires to ask only one question. wants to go there with Seema, her daughter. She ….if I meet Gopal I will ask him one meets Gopal to inform this, recalls and shares a question, just one, the question no one has memory and departs on the note of laughter. thought of. What is it, Gopal, I will ask him, Sumi senses: that makes a man in this age of acquisition “……the power of time. Time, not as the and possession walk out on his family and destroyer, though, but as the creator”. all that he owns? Because….. it was you (Deshpande, A Matter of Time 122). who said that we are shaped by the age we She relents on the time which is natural to live in, by the society we are part of. How pass away each and every moment and hopes then can you, in this age, a part of this she will manage to overcome. One day is never society, turn your back on everything in exactly the same like another day. Every day is your life? Will you be able to give me an different like every moment differs. Human answer to this? (Deshpande, A Matter of beings are different and their life is always at Time 27). the brink of uncertainty. This takes place with However, she never asks this question to Sumi at the end. Sumi and her father him. Sumi’s life after Gopal’s walking out on unfortunately meet with an accident while Sumi her she takes quick decision and executes them. rides the scooter and die leaving the grief- She first vacates the house and gradually learns stricken teenaged children, Gouda and Kalyani. to drive a scooter, looks for a house so that she Even as she is preparing for a fuller life, it is an need not be a burden on her parents. She also irony of fate that her life is cut off in the prime takes up a job and even tries her hands on to Thus the house “seems to echo the write plays to children. schizophrenic character of its exterior” Gopal is grateful to Sumi for not asking any (Deshpande, A Matter of Time 5). The nature questions and thus saving him of much scene present outside her home reflects the embarrassment. Sumi does not even wish to talk home inside. Had she lived she would have about Gopal’s act of desertion to anyone. Sumi certainly become an economically independent wonders the way even today, the fate of woman woman with a matured outlook towards life. being measured only through their marital Perhaps, through Aru, the novelist looks status. A woman in the society gets respect only hopefully at the younger generation to if she has her husband, irrespective of the penetrate the silence. Inheriting her mother’s number of wives or mistresses he has in his life. pride and dignity, courage and confidence, Aru She thinks of her own parents Kalyani and assures her father that they will be alright at the Shripati, who lives unspoken and live like end of the novel. strangers under the same roof. She also References wonders at a wife so dependent on her husband 1. Deshpande, Shashi. A Matter of Time. New like Sudha, Gopal’s sister and leads a miserable Delhi: Penguin, 1990. Print. life after her husband P.K.’s death. On the 2. Plumwood, Val. “Feminism And The contrary, Sumi revives her creativity. She writes Mastery of Nature” Routledge, 1993. Print. a play “The Gardener’s Son” for the school 3. https://www.religion- children which become a grand success. She online.org/article/ecofeminism-reverence- desires that her daughter’s life should be easy for-life-and-feminist-theological-ethics/ and comfortable. She never wants her life to end 4. http://home.moravian.edu/public/relig/e like that of her mother’s. She identifies her coSpirit/issues/Vol3No2.pdf relation with Gopal in a more matured way and 49 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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AN ANALYSIS OF FEMALE PSYCHE IN DOLLAR BAHU BY SUDHA MURTHY
P.P.Neelayathakshi M.Phil. Scholar, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore
Abstract The story is set in two countries the first half in India and the other half is set in America.The novel explores the Indian sensibility of the protagonist Vinuta. Vinuta’s mother-in-law Gouramma visits his elder son Chandru who is living in America.There she stays with them for a longtime.There she realizes that all that glitters is not gold.one can get rid off poverty using dollars but it is not that powerful to build up the relationship.Sudha Murthy successfully tells the difficulties faced by many Indians living in America.
Introduction private firm, and Girish, a clerk in a bank, and a Sudha Murthy was born on 19 Aug 1950 in daughter, Surabhi. Shamanna believes in Shiggaon in Karnataka. She began her cultural values - while Gouramma is after professional career as a scientist and engineer. accumulating riches.Chandru lives his ‘Dollar She got best teacher award in 1995 from Rotary Dreams’, and enjoys the material comforts that club, Bangalore. She receive a gold medal in her the U.S.A. M.E.degree from the Indian Institute of The story is set in two countries the first half engineers.Murthy’s social work covers in India explored the sensibility of the healthcare, education, empowerment of women protagonist Vinuta. The second part of the story public, hygiene,art, culture. A reading of Sudha is set in America when Vinuta mother-in -law Murthy’s works reveal a deep understanding of Gouramma visits her older son Chandru. Sudha the female psyche particularly that of the Murthy successfully narrates the conditions of educated,urban,middle class women. Indians living in America.Dollar Bahu is the Sudha murthy is undoubtedly an story of Gouramma her Dollar Bahu-Jamuna outstanding Indian English novelist with nine who lives in America and her other simpleton novels ,four technical books, three travelogues, daughter-in-law in Hindi) Vinuta Girish’s wife one collection of short stories,three collection of who lives in India. Gouramma likes her non fiction and two books for children to her daughter-in-law Jamuna until her elder son, credit. Her vision of a library for each school has Chandru returns to India. resulted in the setting up of 50,000 libraries so The story unfolds gently through the far.Dollar Bahu, one among the seventeen other narratives of Chandru, Vinutha, Gouramma and books authored by her, was first written in the narrator herself. Sudha Murthy begins an Kannada as Dollar Sose (Sose being the unexpected twistto the story and is able to Kannada word for daughter-in-law) and later sustain the suspense and the interest of the She herself translated into English.Dollar Bahu reader till the end. It is delightful the way the is a beautiful portrayal of a middle class family twists and turns in the story sound very familiar residing at Jayanagar, Bangalore.Sudha Murty’s as if one has heard of it from a friend or in the Dollar Bahu is a rather interesting though if neighbourhood. Murthy has the knack of overly moralistic novel.She is a prolific writer in creeping upon you unawares with an imagery English as well as in Kannada. that draws you right into the middle of the Shamanna, a teacher, and Gouramma, a scene. home maker, are a middle class and middle When she talks of the protagonist Chandru aged couple. They are blessed with two sons, leaving for America, who felt joy laced with Chandru, an engineer who is employed in a streaks of fear like a new bride who leaves her
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parents home to start a new life with her that the 'Dollar Bahu' is only a pretender and husband; She strikes a right chord in us when had no genuine concern for her.Gouramma she talks of the deep bond developed with realises that Jamuna is money minded. Vinuta Dharwad, the subtle humour in the lines always feels isolated, lonely and depressed. But “Gouramma was stunned by her rudeness"! (87) things take a turn when the mother-in-law visits Gauramma is a greedy little mother of three U.S.A with heavenly expectations; only to find children Chandru, Girish and Surabhi living in that U.S.A is not quite what she had expected a small house in Bangalore with her husband and all said and done, India is where she Shamanna. Chandru the eldest of her son is belongs. settled in America and is married to Jamuna, the Vinuta is everything a Young woman needs only daughter of rich parents. Girish the second, to be.Vinuta is a simple girl without many is a bank clerk and married to Vinuta, a sweet desires.she is doing her second year of B.A. young woman who works hard day and night Degree course in Karnataka college majoring in and never fails to carry out her household Hindustani music. A bright talented girl, She duties and her duties to her mother-in-law. But has won almost every prize in the college. between Jamuna’s Dollars and Vinuta’s selfless Vinuta’s parents have died when she was very devotion, Gauramma always finds her favour Young and that dilapidated house is the only with the Dollar. thing that she owns.Vinuta has a golden voice Vinuta always continues endless .She neither has the interest nor the dedication comparison between herself and into dollar for music. bahu.Jamuna starts losing her health and peace. The restless Yearning of Gouramma to raise And soon Gauramma gets a chance to visit her to a position like the other ladies and boast son Chandru and Jamuna, her Dollar Bahu and about her children settled abroad,to Show off stays with them for a long time in the wealth acquired through dollars. She feels America.There she realizes that all that glitters that Dollar is the gateway that would take her to is not gold, one can get rid off poverty using the destination of everything that she desires. dollars but it is impossible to build up Gouramma pins her hopes on Chandru her relationship with money. favourite Child. The mother-in-law sells two of her gold Jamuna clearly resents her in laws and only bangles to give an expensive present to her Gouramma does not see it being blinded by the ‘Dollar Bahu’, Jamuna. This is the beginning of desire for money. She neither wants to stay the differentiation that Vinuta is set to there even for a Single day ; nor does she want undergo.During Surabhis wedding, Girish and to bond with anybody in the house. She always Vinuta work hard, while Gouramma handles stays in her parent's house. She comes back only money and the account. When Chandru leaves the day before leaving to America. Jamuna does for the U.S.A., the elder daughter-in-law makes not even talk to Vinuta. For that matter, nobody an excuse and goes back to her parents’ in the house seems even to acknowledge her place.Gouramma is very excited to be in the presence these days. U.S.A to her Jamuna’s during delivery of her The story insists the saying," The grass is child. Gouramma makes friends in America and always greener on the other side of the her conversations with them on their fence".Money can remove poverty from one's experiences open her mind to progressive life, but family is much more important. The thinking. story is brought out through contrasts and A baby girl is born, to Jamuna and comparisons the contrasting nature of the two pampered by her grandma, who slowly realises brothers, the contrast nature of the two bahus
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the contrast of the east Verses west, - these have a choice choose a country and accept it oppositions forms the epicentre of the story.The with its advantage and disadvantage and live author has maintained the balance very well happily there. Staying in America and dreaming without upholding or degrading any culture by of an Indian way of life, or living in India and contrasting the two countries and proves the expecting an American way of life both are point that one cannot have the best of both roads to grief. The plot of the story is written worlds and has left it to the reader to ponder. and concludes thus though money is endearing The author through this book has conveyed still at the end it also corrupts the way people that it's good to have money and the things that look at each other and how it can tear a family money can buy and at the same time its good to apart. ensure that one hasn't lost the things that money The novels of Sudha Murthy clearly reveal can't buy.However, the turn of events, during the author’s perception that Indian women and Gouramma one-year stay in America turn out to women in general, though put through many be an eye-opener for her and she gets a new trials, never sulk or lose their determination, but perspective about life and it's meaning. resolve to take the reins of their life into their Dollar Bahu very gracefully teaches one hands and succeed. It would not come by very about how living and earning dollars in easily as Indian women are tied down by a lot America is just as challenging as living and of traditions and superstitions. Women in urban earning rupees in India. It gives one a brief ride India may be said to be more liberated than into the luxurious facilities of America and its their counterparts in rural India. For example advanced education system which is quite a very few women work for a living, unless they boon but simultaneously makes the immigrants are driven to it by dire necessity. Instead the miss the unity and liveliness of Indian focus of interest still is on the choice of a traditions. marriage partner, which will decide her When Gouramma returns from U.S.A. She ultimate social position and exclusively realises that there was pain, misery and determine her happiness and fulfilment in life happiness there, as in any other country. It was or her lack of these. no longer the land of mighty dollar, a magical Sudha Murthy’s attempt to give an honest place.Gouramma used to dream about the portrayal of the characters disappointments and dollar, that magic green currency, which could frustrations that make her novels change her house and fulfil her dreams. comprehendible as a story of our own. It can be Later Gouramma realises that nothing is summed up that Sudha Murthy’s women are absolute in life. America has its own advantages sensitive, docile, intelligent and share the and disadvantages, similarly India has its own. responsibilities of the family. You cannot have the best of both worlds. If you
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ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT PROMISES BY JAYASHREE MISRA
M.Sreelakshmi M.Phil. Research Scholar, Amrita School of Arts and Science, Edappally, Kochi
Abstract India has reached a high position among the other countries. New technologies, new developments have become a boon to the human beings. Comparing to the olden times we come across a new atmosphere with lot of opportunities. Education is the important things which help us for our developments, which plays a crucial role in our day to day life. India gives much importance to education. Many people work hard to create the work for their living. In the beginning, only men writers gained fame by producing works. It was a demerit that women were not sufficiently encouraged even by their own people. But now a days the situation changed and women got the freedom to do whatever they want.
Introduction relation- ship. The lovers separated – Arjun goes Women’s writing has been considered a to England to pursue his higher educations and powerful medium of modernism and feministic Janaki is brought to Alleppey. Several marriage statements. The image of women in fiction has proposals are discussed and finally a match undergone a change during the last four with a Maarar family is fixed. Janaki is terribly decades. Women writers have moved away upset at the turn of events but she agreed with from traditional portrayals of self-sacrificing the decisions of her parents and was married to women towards conflicted female characters Suresh. searching for identity. There are many prolific Janu is one of Indian girls who have grown women writers who gained popularity by up with the notion that marriage is the only goal creating works depicting the realities of to be attained in life the only aim of the married women’s life like Anita Desai, Sudhamurthy, women in our country is to lead a life in the Jumpa Lahiri, and Meena Kandasamy. path compressed by these (Ahalya, Sita, We have to mention a special name here Draupadi, Tara, and Mandodari) sacred and that is JayashreeMisra The two books famous much valued women in Hindu tradition. and bestselling works written of Jayashree – At the time of marriage proposal she is Misra are Ancient Promises and Afterwards. Both given all assurance that she can pursue her the stories are describes about the life of two studies; there is no compulsion either from her women, Maya and Janu. husband or her rather strong willed mother in Ancient promises is a sensitive account of a law to start a family. Inspite of all these girl’s efforts to find her destination in life. The advantages, life does not move smoothly for novel is divided into three parts and eighteen her. Janaki is not whole heartedly accepted by chapters. This is Jayashree’s debut novel and the Maraar family. The reasons are difficult to this story begins with “my marriage ended pin point, the harassment is hardly brutal and it today” (p.3). In this story the protagonist is a is very difficult to gain acceptance. lady named Janaki, keralite brought up in Delhi Janaki herself decides to put her studies in falls in love with a North Indian boy Arjun the back burner and start a family. At the same Mehta. He is a cricketer at the local school. Their time her child Riya is detected with learning love blooms into romance. Events take a drastic disability and she needs a special care and change when her father’s friend sees her on attention than normal children do and this Arjun’s bike when she should have been in her defective baby gives the Maarar family a strong maths tuition class. reason to be dismissive of the mother daughter The parents are against their daughter’s duo. Suresh, Janu’s husband, shows no interest unorthodox behaviour and object to the 53 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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in his daughter Riya. Janu’s sole hope for to go to England to do a course in Special happiness got shattered. Education. She started corresponding with the Suresh is indifferent to the feelings of his British council and Delhi. There she accidently wife. She wants to discuss the matter with him met Arjun where her got old passion is aroused but he never gives her a chance to share her and the couple realises that they still feel deeply feelings with him. She understands that her for each other. She decided to live a new life husband is an escapist. In her in-laws’ house, with Arjun. Janu tells her husband that she Janu becomes a laughing-stock. Her lack of wants to file for divorce to end their miserable proper Malayali knowledge is laughed upon. marriage. She never gets love and affection for which she Suresh tries to persuade her to stay back. longs from them. The loneliness that she Janu takes it as an advantage and reveals her experiences in her new surroundings is further love affair with Arjun. She sticks on to her compounded by the fact that Suresh never decision of going abroad. Suresh tries to pretend seems to notice or respond to his wife’s moods to Janu that he is ready to forget her past and or emotions. forgive her because she is his wife. But Janu is JaishreeMisra opens for the readers a vista not ready to forgive her husband. She is aware of real-life incidents and experiences which at of the tricks played by her husband. She goes to times seems strange than fiction. She takes a Arjun’s house and there she surrender her love liberty to narrate what she finds worth for Arjun. Janu begins to respond to every move narrating, at times concealing facts and creating that her lover makes. some fictional characters. In the novel, Janu’s in- The novelist recollects her own experiences laws suggest her that she should leave the child, which are similar to those of her heroine Janu: to the care of their servants. Suresh leaves for “We met again after ten-year period of silence in trips and tries to avoid the family as much as circumstances not dissimilar to those described possible. In that family Riya seems to be an in the book effectively ending my marriage” undesirable and unwelcomed one. (307). Janu made up her mind to leave for The Maraars never care for Janu and their England. Her husband and her in-laws have mentally retarder granddaughter Riya. Janu created many obstacles to prevent her from feels unhappy at their unkind and merciless going abroad. Her husband’s ego got deflated attitude. Janaki’s love affair with Arjun in her as his wife was leaving him. teens, a forced arranged marriage with Suresh, No one in the Maraar family had gone an unhappy marital life, careless attitude of her through such kind of experience before. The husband, humiliations and insults from her in- Maraars admitted her to an asylum. Suresh laws and mentally challenged girl child Riya played another trick that he refuses to part with weighed down upon Janu. But she endured all Riya. He thinks that Janu cannot live without these things with her overwhelming patience. It her daughter. Her life without Riya is was after much patience and sufferings Janu incomplete. Janu fought for the custody of her mustered her courage to walk out of her home daughter and by magic Suresh reconciles and marriage; but that was only after she has himself for divorce, hands over Riya to her. confused. Janu is not ready to suffer and sacrifice as It is at this point that Janaki casts off her the traditional Indian women do. She wants to differential attitude and becomes openly project her image as an individual, free from all rebellion. She decides to pursue her study kinds of conservative thinking which seeks to further, and for that she is again criticised in her overthrow. She is ready to fight her way against marital home but she is determinant. She wants all odds coming in her way in fulfilling her
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aspirations. Marriage becomes meaningful and and old in the family. In our society women enjoyable when mutual love and respect are don’t have equality, they don’t have freedom, part of the relationship. When Janu tries to love and also they don’t have the respect. Women and establish good relationship with her in- have to fight back, for themselves and for the laws, she is neither accepted nor loved by them. future of all women. To protect herself and her daughter, she starts Women are dislocated and displaced in the revolting against the stuck-up conventions of society and lots of attempts have been made by the Hindu patriarchal society. them to escape from the undesirable In England Janu meets Arjun and they experiences they mostly encounter in the spend almost every weekend together. Her domestic sphere. Most of the women characters studies also progress. On her return Janu’s have experienced various degree of self- mother informs her that Suresh is ready for determination but they are also haunted by the divorce and also is ready to return Riya. past memories and are isolated from the society. Whether Arjun can adjust with Riya or not now The women writers assert that women are not no longer seems important. She would go to merely sex objects or sacrificing people in the England with Riya and admit her to the special family, they are equal to goddesses. school for mentally retarded children like Riya. JaishreeMisra has written a semi – She would give Arjun a chance to accept Riya as autobiographical novel, her first novel, Ancient his daughter. If it works it is fine; if not she can Promises. In her very first novel she consciously take care of her child on her own. This is her sets out to blur the truth and fictionalise the promise to her Riya. It is an ancient promise story because she believes that is the real job of every mother makes to her children. a novelist. The protagonist of this novel bears a Women in the past had been mostly close resemblance with Misra. They both have portrayed as silent victims. Misra’s vision of gone through ups and downs of the life. The feminism takes a different perspective and it novelist has attempted to write a semi – might still be regarded as in any early stage of autobiographical novel where the facts have development. However, her novels still been interestingly mixed with fiction. represent a break from traditional writings. In The condition of women in Indian society Misra’s novels her female characters are not especially in the middle age was so bad and satisfied while they make attempt to make inferior practically. They were considered as the difference of their life. Janaki never lives slaves of men even giving the high position in independently. the scriptures. Theoretically the condition of The novel ends on a happy note. Marriage women was high however practically it was seems to be an obsessive topic with Misra. low. Women were prohibited to take part in Ancient Promises tell us how marriage becomes a many domestic, social as well as external potent weapon in the hands of man in matters. They were forced to live under the controlling woman. Girls get trained in the influence of parents before marriage whereas family so that they may prepare themselves to under the influence of husbands after marriage. safely enter to a married life and remain there They were not allowed to enjoy equally as men. successfully. There has been a lot of improvement in the In our society today, women are status of women in India after the discriminant against pay, jobs, education and independence. Gradually women started to welfare. Most women are financially dependent enjoy equality with men in the society. on a man and cannot carry the burden of Literature played an important role in changing looking after children and caring for the sick the pathetic condition of women in the society.
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Many writers portrayed the sad condition of Family Loyality”. International Journal of women through their novels. JayashreeMisra Arts, Humanities and Management Studies also worked hard for the empowerment of 1.7 (2015):n.pag.web.26 December 2015. women. She depicted the strong women 2. Jain, Devaki.Ed.IndianWomen3.4 (1975): n. characters in her works. pag. Web.26 January 2017. It is a novel which can be prescribed as a 3. Lavender, Catherine, The New Woman, sincere effort of JaishreeMisra which depicts City University of New York, 2012. Print. ups and downs, success and failure in her life as 4. Menon,Kannan, k. “ Herself-Gender and she strives to take the reins of her life into her Early Writings of Malayalee Women” , own hands. The novel holds the reader’s 5. Modern Women and their Husbands: attention and curiosity mounts with every page. A Rejoinder. Ed. J.Devika,Kolkata: Mandira Sen for stree, References 2005. P.44. Primary Source 6. Roy, Anuradha, Patterns of Feminist 1. Misra, Jayashree, Ancient Promises, New Consciousness in Indian Women Writers2.4 Delhi: Penguin, 2000. print (1999): n. pag. Web. 27 January 2017. 7. Singh, Kanwar Dinesh, Feminism and Post- Secondary Source Feminism2.4 (2004): n. pag.web.26 January
1. Bhaskar, Mathew, Talluri. “Jaishree Misra’s 2017 Ancient Promises: A Story of Love and
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A FORMALIST IMPRESSION ON THE STYLE OF JESSICA POWERS’ POETRY
C.Armila Antony Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Linguistics, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract Language is a means, a set of words, through which we express our thoughts and ideas. Literature is the thought which is expressed with the help of language and thus language makes literature. The effect of any text is to a very large extent determined by style; thus it can be said that style is the way in which language is used. Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which primacy of place is assigned to language and it occupies somewhere the middle position between linguistics and literature, while Linguistics is the discipline which studies human language. Poetry is a kind of phenomenology of language- one in which the relation between word and meaning is tighter than it is in everyday speech. The present paper is the stylistic investigation of an American religious poet Jessica Powers’ poem through Formalist Stylistic approach which was put forward by Russian Formalists and later taken up by stylisticians especially Roman Jacobson. Along with that; the similar approach to the poetic function of language expressed by Victor Shklovsky, who introduced the concept of ‘defamiliarization’ as a central aspect of the technique of art, also is being taken as theoretical background of the study. The poem analyzed in the paper is ‘Richer Berry’ from the collection of poems ‘The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers’. Descriptive qualitative method is being followed and the analysis unearths the various stylistic features of the author, who contributed well towards Modern American literature. Keywords: Stylistics, Jessica Powers, Formalist Stylistics, Defamiliarization
Introduction techniques drawn from linguistics to the study At the levels of form and substance the of literary texts. structure of a language can be described very Jessica Powers: (1905-1988) She is a modern delicately in terms of systems and networks of American religious poet who belonged to a systems. Literature is, by definition, written pioneer family, having Scottish and Irish language. It is only in the exceptional type of ancestry from paternal and maternal side, discourse, like poetry, that the composer is settled in Wisconsin valley. She was a Carmelite acutely conscious of style. Poetic language is nun who has been hailed as one of America’s compact; each word is selected with the utmost greatest religious poets. She has graced the care. Poets choose and combine words carefully pages of American literature since 1924, when to enable the reader to see his world in a new her first published poem appeared in American and fresh way. Poetry Magazine. She integrated her particular Stylistics: Stylistics is the study and time and place in history with her religious interpretation of texts with regard to their experience to produce a mystical poetry in a linguistic and tonal style. It, as a conceptual distinctively American landscape. discipline, may attempt to establish principles Formalist Stylistics: It refers to the type of capable of explaining particular choices made stylistic work done from the 1910s to the 1930s by individuals and social groups in their use of by a diverse group of theoreticians known as language. It explores language, enriches our the Russian Formalists and later taken up by ways of thinking about language and offers a stylisticians, especially in Britain and the United substantial purchase on our understanding of States, in the 1960s and early 1970s. The texts. Stylistics is ‘literary’ from the point of overriding interest of the formalist approach view of linguistics, or ‘linguistic’ from the was in poetic form, or ‘literariness’ in Jacobson’s perspective of literary studies. In a nutshell, it is terminology(1960), which led to a focus on the application of theoretical ideas and analytic elements of the literary text which made it ‘literary’ and set it apart from other types of
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text. It attempts to analyze literary texts worked towards the development of the theory objectively. Irrespective of the popularity of the of poetic language which was influential in both author, his political, historical and geographical poetics and stylistics. Their argument was that background and biographical details, stylistics the characteristic poetic function consist in pays its most attention to linguistic patterns foregrounding and estranging language existing in literary texts. meaning consciously and creatively against the Defamiliarization or the literary artist’s background of non-literary language, by creative attempt to violate the code can be devices of deviation, repetition and parallelism. viewed as his attempt to resist linguistic All stylistic analyses of poems are generally stereotypification imposed by social and carried out at five levels like phonological, cultural institutions. It is an approach to the lexical, syntactic, semantic and geographical. An poetic function of language expressed by Victor analysis of the poem through Shklovsky who considers it as a central aspect ‘Defamiliarization’ technique put forward by of the technique of art: “The technique of art is Victor Shklovsky too provides a theoretical to make objects ‘unfamiliar’, to make forms support to the study. difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is Findings & Results an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. The present stylistic analysis tends to be Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an objective because it is based on the linguistic object; the object is not important.” (Shklovsky, patterns present in the poem, such as [1917] phonological, lexical, syntactic, semantic and graphological. Hence these patterns will be Material and Methods analyzed extensively to understand the The poem ‘Richer Berry’ from the collection meaning of the poems and how these patterns of poems ‘The Selected Poetry of Jessica are a reason for the meaning expressed in the Powers’, is the poem chosen as the material for poems. the present study. Close study of the poem has been done by the researcher to get into the Phonological patterns in the poem stylistic features of the author through it. As Assonance, consonance, alliteration and Jessica is known as a religious poet, the said repetition are some of the sound patterns poem is taken for the formalistic stylistic study employed in the poem. These sound patterns as it seems to be related to nature poetic form. can be analyzed in the following ways. Even though few, the earlier research works Assonance is a sound pattern related to the done on her poetry have been referred for the repetition of vowel sounds in words occurring authenticity of the present paper. The present nearby one another. It is the occurrence of paper is a qualitative work and is done in homogenous vowels in adjacent words in a descriptive method. Stylistics, as a flourishing poetic line (Abrams, 2008:9). Vowel sounds are branch of language studies theories from considered to be very melodious to pronounce various disciplines are borrowed to get better and effective in creating musical notes in a results. poem. ‘Now that the bright red berries lend Theoretical Overview color to the June berry tree Russian Formalism and Prague school my need is urgent to befriend ….’ paved the way for the development of stylistics The vowel sounds are repeated in many as an independent discipline. The two schools lines of the poem. Consonance is the repetition
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of a consonant in two or more words in a poem. and /d/, fricatives like /t/, /s/ and /f/, nasal Consonants are known as part of this sound /m/ etc. kicks into the meaning of the poem or pattern when they repeat at the end of two or its theme. The plosives and fricatives usually more words, unlike alliteration, in which the take more efforts of human vocal cords to initial consonants repeat. It is the repetition of produce them and are related to the emotions two or more consonants with changing such as spontaneity, anger, enthusiasm and so overlapping vowels (Abrams. 2008:9). Also the on. final consonants are repeated with different former consonants. Consonance is also known Lexical Patterns in the Poem as end-alliteration or consonantal assonance In metonymy, the whole thing or object is (Wales. 1989:90). indicated through a part associated with it. Line ‘From break of bloom till tide of frost no.10 consists of such an instance as every hand Summer has feasts on every hand….’ refers to the hands of people or the said Same consonant sounds are repeated in pilgrims who are in search of God. The mention some lines of the poem. Alliteration is a sound of a body part is used instead of referring to the pattern where initial consonants of two or more people or pilgrims directly and it is understood words get alliterated in a poetic line. Most by the readers. The fruit, lips, fingers, eyes, etc. music in poetry is the outcome of alliteration. It are also used in such a way in the poem. is a relatively commonly used sound pattern in Exophora is a type of reference, referring to the poetry. Alliterated words are also considered to things, events, stories, persons, place and other be connected to one another. It emphasizes a works of literature or extracts and authors. Here particular idea by repeating the initial in poetry is important to form relation between consonant sounds of two or more words, different things in the poem itself and out of the especially in the same poetic line. poem. In Christian point of view fruit, feast, ‘Now that the bright red berries lend… eyes, cold, hunger etc. have so many ……a delicious dish… interpretations are there mostly in the Biblical From break of bloom till tide of frost sense. Adjectives like red, June, soft, delicious, summer has feasts on every hand….’ harsh etc. provide the readers about the The initial consonants get alliterated at attributes of the fruit and the climate and times in the poem which gives an overall describe them as well. Lexical sets are group of musical effect. Rhyming words are the words semantically related ords that share semantic that occur at the end of lines that rhyme with oneness and contribute to the coherence of the one another. They are the higher level sound poem. The words such as now, June, urgent, patterns like meter and rhythm, because they frost, summer, cold, day etc. share commonness contribute directly to the music or rhythm and of time. Lips, fingers, hand, eyes etc. are related meaning of the poem. to body parts. I, she, birds, etc are related to Almost all the words at the end of lines animate beings. rhyme with one another. ‘lend-befriend, wish-dish, words-birds, frost-cost, hand-demand, eyes- Syntactic Patterns in the Poem merchandise, begins-bins, rich-which, day-away….’ The pauses in speech are represented in writing with the markers such as commas and Phonetic Patterns in the Poem full stops. Each stanza ends with full stop and at The phonological patterns in the poem times commas are also used in the lines inside correlate with the phonetic patterns.The the stanzas. Readers can read the poem frequent occurrence of the plosives such as /b/ properly as there are enough punctuation
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marks. Each stanza is complete in itself, and suffering sometimes carries greater blessing conveys meaning. They can take their own time than its more attractive converse: and grasp whatever they need to. The author Now that the bright red berries lend has surety in what she is saying and gives color to the June berry tree opportunity for the reader to think over it. my need is urgent to befriend denial and austerity. Graphological patterns in the poem She acknowledges the seductive lure of Graphology is the way of putting linguistic luscious ‘fruit’ and ‘delicious’ ‘feasts’, but she elements on the actual pages of a poem. It is asserts her insight that ‘the harsh cold’ will related to the analysis of written aspects of a certainly ‘take all fruit’ ‘save what is stored in literary text. The present poem has got a memory’s bins’. She has got the intuition of the pleasant graphological form. It has an order potentially ‘dulling’ effect of ease and plenty and with four lines in each stanza. The written she makes a clear-eyed choice for rigour: representation and the actual activity of the I shall take hunger first, on which event in the poem go hand in hand. A special the spirit thrives best, anyway. structure has been given to the poem by this Simply looking the poem is about berry and graphological pattern. that familiar thing is being defamiliarized to convey poetic message by the poet. Its natural Semantic patterns in the poem qualities and properties are being attributed to The title itself is a phrase which is life and its experiences. All the whole the poem somewhat different from usual ones; as it is not is a metaphorical one with enough and more rich or the richest. It is said that that the author matter for interpretation. touches the fruit with lips of wish and fingers of soft words; that gives light to the symbolic sense Conclusion the author uses. From that itself the reader gets The present paper of textual and formalist the sense that the berry which is said in the stylistic analysis of the poem accounts for the poem is not an ordinary fruit, but symbolizes positive conclusion of this approach to the something else. The wisdom’s eyes, memory’s bins interpretation of literary texts. This analysis etc. too serve this purpose. The beginning word shows that it is possible to analyze a poem ‘Now’ bears a sense of the present and the without taking into account the socio-political, phrase ‘later day’ in the last stanza, the future. religious or other factors that led to the The only mentioned past is in the second last emergence of a poem. And such kind of close stanza ‘stored’. The phrase ‘shall dull my later day’ reading of a literary text and its textual analysis shows the anticipation of something which may help readers understand the poem objectively. turn negative in future. Metaphor also helps the reader to interpret a literary work without referring to any external Interpretation & Discussion source. Since the analysis is based solely on the The stylistic analysis is an embodiment of linguistic patterns, it sounds more objective. the meaning in the context of the poem. The Similarly it enhances the language knowledge stylistic analysis reveals that the poem is about of the readers. Thus stylistic approach is very the fruit which is common for an American, still useful in the task of improving the readers’ talks something which is related to life too. The linguistics as well as literary competence. structure of the poem shows the action of a human being in life. The figures of speech carry References the meaning of the poem further. In her poem 1. AJAYA KUMAR PANTA (2013) “Style as Powers deals with the spiritual paradox that Meaning: A Stylistic Analysis of W.H. 60 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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Auden’s Poems”, A Ph.D., Thesis, 7. Paul Simpson (2004): “Stylistics- Sambalpur University, Burla. A Resource Book for Students”, Taylor and 2. Dolores R. Leckey (1992) “Winter Music – Francis Group. A Life of Jessica Powers: Poet, Nun, Woman 8. Regina Siegfried and Robert F. Morneau of the 20th Century”, Sheed & Ward. (1999) “The Selected Poetry of Jessica 3. Lesley Jeffries and Dan Mclntyre (2010): Powers”, ICS Publications, Washington DC. “Stylistics”, Cambridge University Press. 9. Stellamarie Bartlette Prozesky (2013): 4. Metkari Hanmant Ashok (2014): “A Stylistic ‘A Small Adjective Attending Light, the Analysis of Some Selected Poems of Arun Archangelic Noun’ Jessica Powers: Kolatkar”, a Ph.D. Thesis, The English and A Modern Metaphysical Poet”, a Ph. D., Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Thesis, Dept of English Studies, University 5. Nina Norgaard, Rocio Montoro,Beatrix of South Africa. Busse(2010): Key Terms in Stylistics, 10. Terry Eagleton (2007): “How to Read a Replika Press Pvt. Ltd.Chennai Poem”, Blackwell Publishing. 6. Omkar N. Koul (1986): “Language, Style and Discourse”, Bahri Publications, Pvt. Ltd.
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THEME OF BETRAYAL IN POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE AND DOUBLE INDEMNITY
M.Selvapriya M.Phil. Scholar, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women
Abstract American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World predominantly for the benefit of readers in the mother country. James Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Cain wrote four articles for Screen Writer magazine in which he proposed the creation of an American Authors' Authority to hold writers' copyrights and represent writers in contract negotiations and court disputes. The Postman Always Rings Twice drew a line in the sand as defiant as any in literature since The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Not unlike that novel, Postman forced an untamed populist voice onto more glorious cultural sensibilities; nothing could be more American. In this novel Double Indemnity James portrays about nature of man, sexuality, death and vice. The foreseeable prospect of death looms over Walter and Phyllis throughout the film. This paper analysis how people should know the real values and cultures. Freedom, liberty, personal space should be given and the relationship between husband and wife should be personal and loyal.
Introduction mother, but his hopes of a career as a singer American writing began with the work of were thwarted .when she told him that his voice English adventurers and colonists in the New was not good enough. The family moved to World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the Chestertown, Maryland. Cain graduated from mother country. Some of these early works Washington College, where his father, James W. reached the level of literature, as in the robust Cain, served as president. Cain had decided to and perhaps ingenuous account of his become a writer. He began working as a adventures by Captain John Smith and the journalist for the Baltimore American and then sober, tendentious journalistic histories of John the Baltimore Sun. Cain was drafted into the Winthrop and William Bradford in New United States Army and spent the final year of England. From the beginning, however, the World War I in France writing for an army literature of New England was also directed to magazine. Cain continued working as a the edification and instruction of the colonists journalist, writing editorials for the New York themselves, intended to direct them in the ways World and a play, a short story, and satirical of the holy. It is the literature of split and a pieces for American Mercury. He briefly served reunited nation. The years immediately after as the managing editor of The New Yorker and World War I brought a highly vocal rebellion later worked mainly on screenplays and novels. against established social, sexual, and artistic Cain wrote four articles for Screen Writer conventions and a dynamic attempt to establish magazine in which he planned the creation of new values. The years instantly after World War an American Authors' Authority to hold writers' I brought a highly vocal rebellion against copyrights and represent writers in contract established social, sexual, and aesthetic discussions and court disputes. Farrell argued conventions and a vigorous attempt to establish that the commercial Hollywood writers would new values. control the market and keep out independents. James Mallahan Cain was an American "This idea is stamped in the crude conceptions author and journalist. Cain was born in an Irish of the artist which Mr. Cain holds, the notion Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland. The that the artist is a kind of idiot who thinks that son of a important educator and an opera he is a God, but who has only the defects and singer, he inherited a love of music from his none of the virtues of a God.” In his reply, Cain
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argued that his opponents understood the issue journalist. The Postman Always Rings Twice incorrectly as freedom against control. It is fear (1934) was a sensation and scandal, of reprisals from publishers, Cain said, that is Frank meets Cora working at a roadside gas the real cause of opposition from well-to-do station and eatery. “Her lips stuck out in a way writers. Although Cain worked dynamically to that made me want to mash them in for her” is promote the Authority, it did not gain his lively first impression. Let’s not be so widespread support, and the plan was superior as to assume that what Frank and Cora redundant. feel isn’t love. It’s the only love that makes sense James Mallahan Cain achieved fame with to them, so incendiary — Cain’s working title his first novel, Postman Always Rings Twice. His for Postman was Bar-B-Que — that once it Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce soon exhausts the language of copulation, all that’s followed, as did successful movie versions of all left is the language of murder. Once Frank and three novels. With his seventeen other novels Cora dispense with her immigrant husband, all and numerous short stories, Cain remains one that’s left is to dispense with each other in an of the most significant writers of the twentieth erotic rage. “Rip me!” Cora cries to Frank, feet century. This reference guide to Cain's oeuvre from the corpse, after Frank begins “to fool with offers a chronology detailing his life as reporter, her blouse, to bust the buttons […] I ripped her. Hollywood scenarist and best-selling author. I shoved my hand in her blouse and jerked. She Entries for his fiction follow, with plot synopses, was wide open, from her throat to her belly.” identification of more than 900 characters, and Even Cain’s fellow renegades were shocked. critical commentaries, many citing works for Raymond Chandler, another ne’er-do-well with further reading. An prologue to Cain's fiction a suicide streak and serious mom issues, fired and a resource for scholars and aficionados, this for drunkenness from his job as a mid-level compendium provides the most thorough executive in the oil business, was finishing his investigation to date of this major American own debut, . Cain had little use for the movies, writer. both those he didn’t write and those he did, the best known of the latter being 1938’s Algiers Two Novels of James M Cain with Hedy Lamarr; even as he detested himself “They threw me off the hay truck about for his earlier failures, he shared with rival noon” — James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Chandler the secret confidence that he was Rings Twice drew a line in the sand as defiant as superior to his own work. “There’s no such any in literature since The Adventures of thing as a good one,” he said of films, to which Huckleberry Finn. Not unlike that novel, Postman Hollywood answered with nearly instant forced an untamed populist voice onto more adaptations of three of his novels, Postman exalted cultural sensibilities; nothing could be coming last, a decade and a half after more American. Cain is a major figure of publication. By then World War II was begun American fiction’s gloom pantheon, the one that and finished, and America was discovering includes not Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and moral confusion in such Hollywood noirs as Steinbeck but Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Out of the Past, Gilda, Detour, Criss Cross, In a and Philip K. Dick, with Faulkner, Miller, and Lonely Place, and the definitive Double Indemnity, Pynchon itinerant the demilitarized zone based on Cain’s second novel. But while the between. The most commercially successful of moral conventions of the late 1940s finally them, Cain was also the most spiritually bleak, allowed for the palpable chemistry of John finding his calling late and fast in the Garfield and Lana Turner as Frank and Cora, Depression’s depths after a fitful career as a the glorious depravity of ‘“Rip me!’ […] I
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shoved my hand in her blouse and jerked’ was we went past it […] then the devil went to bed still a non-starter. with us, and believe you me, kid, he sleeps Noir was to cinema as punk was to rock and pretty good.'” One last time, Frank and Cora roll. European refugees like Fritz Lang, Otto devour each other like before “The devil got his Preminger, Robert Siodmak, and Billy Wilder money’s worth that night” and for that single brought with them a worldview forged of equal moment we get a glimpse of something we parts German Expressionism and Nazi haven’t until then: like a lot of professed barbarity. In these movies, murder was a career nihilists, Cain is a secret moralist after all, and move; double-cross a survival strategy, the bed rot and God are just other names for fate — the an illicit cage. Proudly repellent in its nihilism, postman that rings again at the door of hell, not turning lack of production values into a virtue, leaving till someone answers. noir began where other movies left off, or where they would have left off if they had taken that Theme of Betrayal in Postman always Rings last wrong turn; there was no love, only Twice obsession, which the lovers would choose over This classic novel by James Cain is full of love anyway if they had a choice. A bracing flawed people, violence, lurid sex, bad choices denial of heroism provided noir’s visceral and doomed people. It’s one of the earliest energy, every flicker of redemption more examples of noir and a book that was both powerful for how fleeting it was; in the wake of successful and notorious when it was published the stupefying revelation of the concentration in 1934. Despite its age, The Postman Always camps, and before the altar of atomization, the Rings Twice still holds up and is something that genre was illustrious by violence and depravity any fan of this edgier type of crime fiction in the face of obliteration. Soon the vision should read. The book tells the story of a Frank, became fetishized to the point of cliché — a drifter who takes a job at a diner and falls for wafting cigarette smoke, the glamour of the the greasy owner’s seductive wife, Cora. Their forlorn trumpet, the tango of shadow and light affair, full of lust and overtones of violence, — but the exhilarating depths of Postman leads Frank and Cora down a dangerous path. remained further than the movies were able to Cora, sick of her life and desperate for plummet until the early 1980s when, as Frank something better, convinces Frank that getting and Cora, Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange had rid of her husband is the only route to freedom their way with each other on the kitchen table. It and a better life. Like other works from Cain, said everything about both the times and the the story follows the characters’ path to self- novel that, almost half a century later, the destruction, motivated by base desires. Lust and flammable essence of the latter still eluded the greed lead to murder. Not the elegant murder of former. a hit, but the messy and inefficient work of a For a while in The Postman Always Rings man with no talent for the task, but a Twice, Frank and Cora appear to have gotten determination to finish. Anxiety and fear lead to away with murder. But they can’t get away betrayal. Under suspicion for what they’ve from their own rot: “‘God kissed us on the done, Cora is willing to betray the man she brow,'” she tells him toward the end. “‘He gave plotted with. However, that neat and just us all that two people can ever have. And we ending is not what Cain has in store. Some just weren’t the kind that could have it […] God fancy legal maneuvering keeps Cora out of jail is up there laughing at us.'” To which Frank and allows reconciliation with Frank. answers, “‘well we’re laughing at him too, aren’t we? He put up a red stop sign for us, and
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Theme of Betrayal in Double Indemnity cemetery. “Nobody has ever quite pulled it off In this novel Double Indemnity James the way Cain does, not Hemingway, and not portrays about nature of man, sexuality, death even Raymond Chandler' Tom Wolfe”. and vice. The inevitable prospect of death looms over Walter and Phyllis throughout the film. Conclusion Honeysuckle is a key symbol of the theme of Thus James M Cain The postman always death: after first meeting Phyllis, Walter muses rings twice and Double Indemnity portrays via voice-over, "I never knew honeysuckle could about the Betrayal that in the novel postman smell like murder," and he later notes the always rings twice Cora had an illegal affair honeysuckle smelled "stronger," on the night with Frank planned to murder her husband they carry out the plot. The framing device of Nick. Similarly in the novel Double indemnity Walter's confession, with which the film opens, Phyllis had an illegal affair with Walter Neff clues the viewer into the fact that the affair and these planned to murder Mr.Dietrichson so between the two will lead to at least one that they might claim an insurance amount from murder, and in fact leads to three. That their bank .Con artist plays an important role in these scheme will result in three murders is two novels that defrauding, cheating , betraying foreshadowed by the fact that Phyllis's signal to are portrayed in this novel. People should know Walter is "three honks" on the horn. In the the real values and cultures. Freedom, liberty, extended metaphor about the murder plot personal space should be given and the leading them "straight down the line," Walter relationship between husband and wife should realizes too late that the final destination is the be personal and loyal.
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INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH -CULTURAL AMBIVALENCE IN SISTER OF MY HEART AND VINE OF DESIRE
J.Deepa M.Phil. Scholar, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women
Abstract Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent and in the Republic of India. The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted. Indian English literature, however, tends to utilize more internationally recognizable vocabulary then does colloquial Indian English, in the same way that American English literature does so as compared to American slang. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart is a second novel, this was followed by a sequel novel The Vine of Desire. The story centers on the lives of two Indian girls, Anju and Sudha about their family, friendship, and the bond between sisters. Far from Calcutta, the city of their childhood, and after years of living separate lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their friendship in America. Culture symbolizes both group identity and survival for Indian immigrants. The high priority placed on transplanting their cultural traditions to foreign soil is a deeply rooted belief in the indestructibility of Indian culture-even removed from the home country in which it arose, it must and will have a life of its own.
Introduction Ashok Banker. Recent major writers in English Indian literature refers to the literature are R. K. Narayan, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni produced on the Indian subcontinent and in the and Bharati Mukherjee. Republic. The Republic of India has 22 officially Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian- recognized languages. The earliest works of American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene Indian literature were orally transmitted. McDavid Professor of Writing at the University Sanskrit literature begins with the oral literature of Houston Creative Writing Program.Her short of the Rig Veda a collection of sacred hymns. story collection, Arranged Marriage won an Several Indian writers have distinguished American Book Award, two of her novels The themselves not only in traditional Indian Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart as well languages but also in English, a language as a short story The Word Love were adapted into inherited from the British. As a result of British films. Mistress of Spices was short-listed for the colonization, India has developed its own Orange Prize. Currently, Sister of My Heart, unique dialect of English known as Indian Oleander Girl, Palace of Illusions, and One English. Indian English typically follows British Amazing Thing has all been optioned to be made spelling and pronunciation as opposed to into movies or TV serials. Divakaruni's works American, and books published in India reflect are largely set in India and the United States, this phenomenon. Indian English literature, and often focus on the experiences of South however, tends to utilize more internationally Asian immigrants. She writes for children as recognizable vocabulary then does colloquial well as adults and has published novels in Indian English, in the same way that American multiple genres, including realistic fiction, English literature does so as compared to historical fiction, magical realism, myth and American slang. India’s only Nobel laureate in fantasy. Divakaruni's work has been published literature was the Bengali writer Rabindranath in over 50 magazines; she began her writing Tagore, who wrote some of his work originally career as a poet. Her two latest volumes of in English, and did some of his own English poetry are Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City. translations from Bengali. India's best selling She won several awards for her poems, such as English-language novelists of all-time are the a Gerbode Award a Barbara Deming Memorial contemporary writers like Manjra Prabhu and Award and an Allen Ginsberg Award.
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Divakaruni's first collection of stories childhood, and after years of living separated Arranged Marriage, which won an American lives, Anju and Sudha rekindle their Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, companionship in America. The deep-seated and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, greatly love they feel for each other provides the carry increased her visibility. Her major novels each of them needs. It gives Anju the vigor to include The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, pick up the pieces of her life after a miscarriage, The Vine of desire. Although the greater part of and Sudha the confidence to make a life for her novels are written for adults, she has also herself and her baby daughter, Dayita–without written a young adult fantasy series called The her husband. The women's bond is traumatized Brotherhood of the Conch which, unlike many to the core when they must tackle the deeply of her adult novels, takes place wholly in India passionate feelings that Anju's husband has for and draws on the culture and folklore of that Sudha. Meanwhile, the improbable region. relationships they form with men and women in the world outside the colonist Indian Chitra’s Sister of My Heart and The Vine of community as well as with their families in Desire India profoundly convert them, forcing them to Sister of My Heart is a novel by Chitra question the central assumptions of their lives. Banerjee Divakaruni was followed by a sequel novel The Vine of Desire. The story centers on the Cultural Ambivalance in Sister of My Heart lives of two Indian girls, Anju and Sudha. The and The Vine of Desire girls used their own voices to describe the story Culture is one of the two or three most of their lives. In chapters the reader intimately complicated words in the English language. follows the lives of Sudha and Anju through This is so partly because of its intricate historical childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. development, in several European languages, Although some of the characters immigrate to but mainly because it has now come to be used the United States, most of the story is set in for important concepts in several distinct India. Indian traditions and culture are part of intellectual disciplines and in several distinct the rich environment portrayed in the novel and and incompatible systems of thought According the descriptions of Calcutta are especially to the definition given in the Concise vibrant. Sister of My Heart is a story about Encyclopedia Britannica, culture is an family, friendship, and the bond between integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, sisters. The theme of sister of my heart is and behaviour, culture is both a result of an Tradition and Change. Many of the expectations integral to the human capacity for learning and the Anju and Sudha face as far as education and transmitting knowledge to succeeding marriage are traditional. There are set roles they generations. Culture thus consists of language, must either accept or risk gaining a reputation. ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, Dress, celebrations, and religious beliefs in the institutions, tools, techniques, and works of art, novel are very much a part of Indian culture. By rituals, ceremonies, and symbols. Divakaruni’s the end of the novel, however, there are Sister of My Heart is a prolonged version of her changes. Both Anju and Sudha become more former short story ‘Ultrasound‘in the Arranged independent, as do their three mothers. Marriage. The novel spins around two cousins The Vine of Desire continues the story of Anju and Sudha Chatterjee who are born few Anju and Sudha, the two young women at the hours apart from each other on the same day. midpoint of Divakaruni's bestselling novel Sister Since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju of My Heart. Far from Calcutta, the city of their have been bonded in ways even their mothers
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cannot figure out. Urged into marriages, their rage in turn targets a fight with a valet who lives take sudden opposite turns with Anju in comments over the Indians in the party. India and Sudha in America. But the women The alien land seems to create the need of realized that, despite the distance that has integration and renovation for the immigrants. grown between them, they have only each other But behavioural changes are hardly acceptable to turn to. They grow up in a very traditional in accordance with the new culture. Sudha upper-middle class home consisting exclusively realizes that she cannot go back to the old of women-mothers, aunts and the maid. restricted ways of Indian life. She somehow Although their personalities and ambitions are feels secure for the impersonal customs of in distinction, they are intensely close friends America to start a new life. She thinks standing and soul mates. There is a sharp contrast at the corner of a road; ―I must be emanating between the lives of both Sudha and Anju. On some type of distress signal, because passerby the one hand Sudha spends her whole day in stares at me strangely. If this were India, at least performing household duties while Anju drives half of them would know me. They‘d ask me a freely; performing outdoor works on her own, thousand questions, offer to help, give advice, studies her favourite subject in college. But still may be even escort me back home(VD 178). Not the dissatisfaction in Anju‘s life makes her only Sudha but Anju and Sunil also trace new think, ―It‘s not what I imagined my American paths for them after deciding for a divorce. Anju life would be like (SH 132). Life brings them to begins her self-searching journey keeping the same stage of life when they both become distance with all closed ones. She shares room pregnant. Sudha‘s mother-in-law forces her to with one of her friends from writer‘s club but abort the female child foetus and no reaction of their belonging to different lands could not her husband against it, shatters her. She decides make a comfortable companionship between to keep the child and moves to America, since them. She always wants Sudha close to her to the life as a single mother and a divorcee would share and understand her fully. Anju feels like be easier for her in California. Anju starts tingles in fingertips like pins and needles when collecting money through a job for air ticket of any of her American friends criticizes about the Sudha. This job makes her feel the power of heritage which she loves a lot. Even their economic sovereignty. Due to physical everyday talks are so different that she feels exhaustion and mental stress Anju suffers a lonely among them. She understands that, large miscarriage. Sudha and her daughter Dayita is chunks of her will always be unintelligible to the only hope that would give Anju energy to them: the joint family she grew up in, her forget the loss of her baby. While Anju and arranged marriage, the way she fell in love with Sudha begin to seek ways of fulfilling their her husband, the tension in her household, that dreams of self reliance in America, the new ménage a trio’s Indian style. Chitra Banerjee setting creates major rifts in relationships. Divakaruni‘s literature brings about a fine Chitra in The Vine of Desire highlights the synthesis, a new version of how in the past cultural changes of the characters. Few years decades, the (often stereotypical) after her settlement in America, transforms representations of East (in Western culture) Anju in her usage of peculiar words and have been transformed and adapted to the interests. Her shrinking memories of India make needs of rapidly changing circumstances, both Sudha realize that even their memories are in literature and in everyday life. Thus, it is seen marooned on separate islands. As Sunil, though that Indians even in an alien world are outwardly assimilated could not tolerate Lalit‘s accustomed to the Indian culture despite their intimacy either with Sudha or with Anju. His
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struggle between the old strict tradition and the ambivalence later. To reveal the displacement in challenge proved by their new life. the Anju and Sudha showed culture displacement and ambivalence concepts, Conclusion therefore, the two concepts are included into The cultural problems in this novel are cultural studies. In the analysis, found their dominated by cultural displacement which desires to be free from Indian cultural values happens on Anju and Sudha. Their cooptation, through their dreams and rebellions. displacement is caused by their dissatisfaction It also found their ambivalence attitudes about Indian cultural values. Their through their adaptation with new land. The displacement experience makes them throw conclusion of this analysis is ambivalence away the Indian cultural values and adopts identity of Anju and Sudha, which is affected by American culture, which makes them have the their displacement.
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POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE - FALL OF CULTURE IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S “THINGS FALL APART”
A.Sornalatha M.Phil. English, PG & Research Department, Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women (A) Elayampalyam, Tiruchengode, Namakkal (dt).
Abstract This paper deeply deals with the topic Fall of Culture that comes from the subtitle Post-colonial, which belongs to the theory Cultural Studies. It briefly explains on the cultural and traditional phenomena of Africa, after their independence. Cultural studies deals with ideology, class structure, ethnicity, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, Marxism, and so on. Even after Post-colonialism, Africans struggled for their identity and sense. African Literature and writers dealt their works with the themes such as class discrimination, class structure, race, ethinic culture, and social issues. Chinua Achebe is a poet, professor, novelist and critic. He is a Father of African literature and have got Man Booker International Prize in 2007. His Things Fall Apart (1958) which was his first novel explores deeply on the culture and fall of the protagonist, Okonkwo. Keywords: Post-colonial, culture, ethinicity, class structure.
Introduction IGBO Culture African got independence in 1950’s and Igbo culture are the customs, practices and 1960’s.After post colonialism many of the traditions of the Igbo people of south-eastern african writers has started to contribute many Nigeria. It comprises archaic practices as well as works for african literature with the themes new concepts added into the Igbo culture either such as class structure ,class discrimination by cultural evolution or by outside influence. ,culture ,ideology ,social issues, and ethnicity. Igbo Culture in ‘Things Fall Apart’ Chinua African literature have been flourished in Achebe describes Igbo culture, which 1970’s. Many african writers such as Chinua encompasses polytheistic religion, father-son achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ben okri has been given inheritance, farming traditions, and belief in evil many works based on loss of identity and loss spirits. Every major event that happens has of sense. A.Mazrui told about African literature some kind of significance based on the Igbo in his work The Next Thirty Years he said; culture and whatever related aspect of it is “Africa Produces what it does not consume and being described. consumes what it does not produce”(230). Things Fall Apart Cultural Studies Disintegration of Igbo society is central to Cultural studies was developed during the Things Fall Apart; the idea of collapse, on both period of 1950’s to1970’s through the British an individual and social level, is one of the academics .The cultural studies include novel's central images. This image also gives the Marxism, semiotics, ethnography, feminist book its title. The Christians arrive and bring theory, post structuralism, history, social theory, division to the Igbo. One of their first victims is post colonialism, political theory .A great author Okonkwo's family. The new faith divides father Chinua Achebe says about igbo culture in his from son, and the Christians seek to attack the work Things Fall Apart;“Among the Igbo the art very heart of Igbo belief; such an attack also of conversation is regarded very highly, and attacks the core of Igbo culture, as the tribe's proverbs are the palm oil with which words are religious beliefs are absolutely integral to all eaten ” (102). other aspects of life.
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Not coincidentally, the first converts are the warrior style that he deserved. In a way people who stand to profit from a change in the Okonkwo rejects his own tribe members for social order. They are people who have no title their cowardice and lack of support. in the tribe, and thus have nothing to lose This tragedy is one that is shared by the The immediate subject of Chinua Achebe’s entire tribe, which has ‘fallen apart.’ This thus is novels is the tragic consequence of the a double tragedy, due to the weakness and European encounter with African civilization. mistake of the hero, but also the weakness of the His novels deal with the social and tribe, who despite their power among the local psychological conflicts created by the invasion clans, cannot resist the colonizing effort. Achebe of the white man and his culture into the has used tragedy as a medium in handling this hitherto self-contained world of African society, theme. This involves a particular dramatic and the disarray of the African consciousness ordering of events in which each of the that has followed. situations is linked to another, thus revealing a In Things Fall Apart, the theme is the tragic pattern. Achebe thus succeeds in striking colonization of Africa by the British and the a profoundly sad and ironic note in his novel negative and violent changes this brought about Things Fall Apart. in the lives of the African tribes. Along with Achebe portrays his Igbo culture and colonization was the arrival of the missionaries society that flourished on the pillars of art, whose main aim was to spread the message of music, and poetry. Igbo music is very important Christianity and to convert people to their in Igbo culture-different instrument on different religion. These missionaries eventually establish occasion. Igbo chi There are numbers of god to a strong foothold in the tribe which then allows keep their life a happy and they obey them. a government as well as law court for Kola nut suggest hospitality- offers when priest administering justice to become part of the came. Cowry shell- money used in Africa 25 indoctrination of native peoples to Western bags bride price in engenment. ways. Achebe does not gloss over the cruelty The change missionaries interference into and superstition that prevails in the tribe, and society. Send missionaries To install religion- even shows that it was this element that opened encourages peace beginning stage of the way for the disintegration of the tribe and colonization. change the belief of tribe control their ‘falling apart.’ This theme is best shown in over native more easily. Claim that they have the rise and fall of Okonkwo, who represents noble purpose Because there are so many the best and worst of his culture. Thus, superstition And oracle in that They believe. Okonkwo himself becomes a symbol of the disintegration. Conclusion In a tribal society, the most important factor Okonkwo ‘s tragedy is the greatest example is the unity of the members of the tribe and their of disaster that takes place with the merger of absolute obedience to the ruling of the elders as the east and the west. He can’t bear the yoke of well as the gods and goddesses. This is lost colonization and he hangs himself. Irony of the when some of them accept contrasting values fate he is not given proper burial because brought to them by the missionaries. This leads committing suicide is considered a sin in the to an increasing openness to Western thought Igbo Culture. It is a society that just needed how and religion and allows for the eventual to change with the changing times. In my exploitation and assimilation. Okonkwo is one opinion it was not the Missionaries but the inner of few who resist and he ends up dead at the conflict in the Igbo culture that dug its grave. end of the novel. His refusal is a form of When the roots of a culture that is its people are resistance to conforming to the ways of the fragile, nothing can prevent its fall. white man as well as a rejection of his own culture as he has made a terrible transgression References in committing suicide and will not be buried in
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1. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Red Classic Publication: 2006. Print.
RE-INVESTIGATING THE PARADIGM SHIFT OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST IN ASIF CURRIMBHOY’S SONAR BANGLA
Avishek Bhattacharya Ph.D. Scholar, Department of English, Visva Bharati University
Abstract The patriarchal discourse of war perceives women as passive sufferers. They belong to the private domain of the society instead of the public domain where wars are fought. In the context of the Bangladesh liberation war feminisation of the oppressed East Pakistan functioned as a trope of domination perpetrated by West Pakistan. Being the most vulnerable section of the society women were targeted by the army and the razakars (people of East Pakistan who collaborated with the West Pakistani army). Rape was used as a weapon to curb the spirit of the resisting men folk of East Pakistan who failed to protect their women. It was also used to challenge the notion of purity that surrounds the idea of motherhood. The defilement of women was emblematic of the dishonour of the motherland. Asif Currimbhoy’s Sonar Bangla exploits this notion of motherhood and addresses the lacuna in the representation of women as active participants in the dominant cultural texts concerning the Bangladesh liberation war. This paper will interrogate how through the portrayal of the character of Sumita the playwright has addressed the issue of the women and war in the context of the liberation war of Bangladesh. It will also highlight how her journey in the play becomes one with the journey of the nation itself. Keywords: nation, liberation war, women, motherhood
Introduction Muslims of East Pakistan which eventually took The 1947 partition of India culminated in the shape of a mass revolt called Bhasha Andolon. the emergence of Pakistan etching out masses of The tragic outcome of the revolution due to lands from the eastern and western wings of the military intervention and martyrdom gave the nation. Religious identity became the most eastern wing of Pakistan a sense of solidarity on significant marker in the formation of Pakistan. the basis of linguistic identity. Nation is formed on the basis of a collective The resonance of Bhasha Andolon identity harping on the ideas like history, reverberated in the gradual development of the religion, ethnicity, language. Nation often conception of a nation to be formed on the basis imposes a sense of homogeneity appropriating of linguistic homogeneity. The cultural the heterogeneous elements embedded in its inferiority of the East Pakistan in the eyes of structure and thus puts its integrity into crisis. West Pakistan was rooted in the burden of The token of unification fails to address the shared linguistic and cultural history of the pockets of differences. This is evident in the case Bengali Muslims with that of their Hindu of Pakistan where, by and far religion being the counterparts in West Bengal. The imperial only source of sustenance fell short as an nature of economic exploitation of the apparatus of unification because linguistic and subsequent military regimes of Pakistan, the cultural differences surfaced more prominently discrimination in employment generation reflecting the topographically fragmented fuelled the demand for a separate nation. nature of the eastern and western part of Political negotiations failed to dissolve the Pakistan. As a result, West Pakistan took differences and finally the inhuman treatment recourse to coercive measures in order to of West Pakistan towards the cyclone ravaged uphold the integrity of the nation which East Pakistan forged the demand for a separate resulted into the forcible linguistic and cultural nation and gave rise to the cessationist appropriation. Imposition of Urdu as the state movement which resulted in the creation of language by West Pakistan challenged the Bangladesh. linguistic identity of the Bengali speaking 72 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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Asif Currimbhoy’s Sonar Bangla is a part of liberation movement highlight the war situation the ‘Bengal Trilogy’, the other two being in East Pakistan. In the following acts the war Inquilab and The Refugee. Sonar Bangla weaves situation gets condensed with the introduction the nuanced history of the Babgladesh liberation of the Hindu persecution and extermination, war with a critical approach bringing together exposure of the vicious nexus between the West the significant threads of history in the fabric of Pakistani army their sympathisers namely the the play. The global political backdrop of the razakars , initiation of the manipulative power play tentatively tries to map the aspirations of play orchestrated by the global players and the the international power blocks in the internal depiction of incessant refugee influx populating crisis of Pakistan. The analysis of the refugee specially the eastern part of the Indian crisis aptly unravels the politics behind India’s borderland. The stories of individual struggle, intervention in the liberation war of Bangladesh. suffering, sacrifices and bravery get woven in The role of the international media has helped the macrocosm of war. The absence of women the playwright to probe in to the issue of in the terrain of war politics is a significant issue wartime censorship. This macrocosm of the of concern. Women have generally been society gets symbolically reflected in the represented in the play as protecting mother, microcosmic world of the individual. The sacrificing wife, and dedicated nurse. Amidst engendered politics of warfare is highlighted these generalisations the portrayal of Sumita through the representation of the women. The stands out as a glaring exception whose playwright has sensitively raised the issue of involvement in the war can be explained as an position of women in the patriarchal discourse extension of her motherly concerns. In the play of war. This paper will interrogate how through her journey in search of her daughter runs the portrayal of the character of Sumita the parallel to the journey of her motherland in playwright has addressed the issue of the quest of freedom. women and war in the context of liberation war In Interrogating Motherhood Jasodhara Bagchi of Bangladesh. It will also highlight how her has pointed out that motherhood has been used journey in the play becomes one with the as a ‘... representation of caring, both matronly, journey of the nation itself. as well as the suffering motherhood’. (Bagchi The play opens with a clandestine meeting 68) In the narratives of nation-building middle where the tumultuous political situation of East class Bengali women have predominantly been Pakistan is discussed. It gives a pen picture of represented both as sacrificing figure and a care the imminent war through the words of giver that bore the pain of losing their near and Hussain, Mahmood, Professor Aziz and a dear ones in the war. She also argues that, “The Colonel from East Pakistan. These people come notion of nurturance that is supposed to from all the strands of life who took part in the surround the ideology of motherhood is war manipulating their individual position. The appropriated with greater ease by the air of suspicion that surrounded the Bihari patriarchal foundations of nationhood that is community is unravelled when an unnamed particularly invoked in a situation against an Bihari intrudes in to the meeting. However, his alien ruler.” (Bagchi 66) In case of East Pakistan, initial introduction in the play somehow put the West Pakistan have behaved as imperial power received notion of the Bihari community in to who take recourse to atrocity and thus neglect question. The appearance of Tikka khan as the the fraternal bonds that bind the two wings of army general in the fabric of the play and the Pakistan together. It is evident in the words of brutal murder of the intellectuals including one of the compatriots of Mahmood, “We’ve Professor Aziz suspected to be involved in the had all types of imperialists in the past, but
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none as bad as our people from the western infirmity. Maya’s decision to accompany the old wing.” (Currimbhoy 23) In the patriarchal woman in the utter dismay of her mother, left domain of war politics Sumita has been Sumita alone with the dying child. She introduces as a protective mother who is ready remained locked in the rain vainly attempting to to sacrifice her chastity in the hands of the save the child until she was rescued by Arun Pakistani army in order to save her daughter. and his mother. She took refuge in India with a She reemphasises the ‘notion of nurturance that longing to meet her estranged daughter. She is supposed to surround the ideology of found a glimpse of hope of meeting her motherhood’ when she gives her breast to an daughter when she came to know that Arun ailing orphan child rescued from the deserted was going to join a guerrilla group which would village of Khustia. (Bagchi 66) This notion of try to infiltrate the bordering towns like Jessore. nurturance gets reiterated in the fabric of the Hesitantly, Arun took her to the guerrilla play through Tagore’s song, “My golden training camp not knowing, ‘What use is a Bengal, you are my love!”(Currimbhoy 105) woman’. (currimbhoy 66) However, Sumita’s transformation from a Sumita proves her worth as a gallant nurturing mother figure to a muktijoddha worrier validating Yusuf’s words, ‘A woman’s (liberation warrior) runs counter to the very useful for guerrilla work. The least patriarchal ideology of motherhood. suspect’. (Currimbhoy 66) Currimbhoy has Sumita, a Hindu widow whose husband ingeniously manipulated the history of the was killed by the West Pakistani army becomes Bangladesh liberation war by situating a Hindu a significant character around whom the Bengali woman in the forefront of the guerrilla guerrilla warfare of the muktijoddha revolves. In warfare. Hindus being the minority community the committed silence over the representation of were the first to be targeted by the West Hindu middle class women in the predominant Pakistani army. The elimination of the Hindus cultural texts concerning the liberation war of would help the army to use their property ‘as a 1971, Sumita is a marked exception. Her golden carrot to win over the under-privileged transformation from a docile housewife to a Muslim middle class’. (47) Amidst the air of wanted muktijoddha represents the brutal animosity towards the Hindu community transformation of East Pakistan itself. The non- the portrayal of her character is probably an violent, Gandhian non-cooperation movement attempt to uphold the secular ambience of the in East Pakistan changes its course to direct wartime East Pakistan. In the engendered action and armed resistance in the form of politics of warfare Sumita becomes an guerrilla warfare. Sumita’s involvement in the incarnation of the nation itself where the war can be located in her immediate past. She fervour of secularism ruled during the time of was estranged from her daughter Maya when the liberation war. In her dichotomised they were trudging a weary way in search of a representation she also highlights the safe refuge. Their sojourn in the deserted village vulnerability of women besides gallantry. The of Khustia did not last long because it bore the war time East Pakistan witnessed how women scars of brutal torture engineered by the became the sites of war. Rape was used as a Pakistani army. Rescuing a partially blind old trope in order to execute the ‘feminization of the woman and an orphan child they joined the oppressed country’. (Bagchi 67) In “Gendered refugees heading towards the Indian Embodiments: Mapping the Body-politic of the borderland. Having reached Jessore, the Raped Women and the Nation in Bangladesh” corridor to Indian territory the senile old Nayanika Mookherjee argues,“...the gendered woman refused to walk due to her physical preformativity of rape during collective
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violence ensures that the gendering of women’s again...’. (47) Being disillusioned she leaves bodies as female constitute them as political Arun and his guerrilla front and desperately signs, territories on which the political runs to meet her daughter. programmes that also affect the nation, The liberation of the nation and Sumita’s community and family get inscribed.” reconcilement with Maya get enmeshed (Mookherjee 40) Sumita’s tragic predicament bringing the resolution of the play. Tagore’s reflects how rape was used as a weapon to curb song reverberates in the backdrop, “My golden the spirit of the resistant woman. In the Bengal, you are my love!/ Your heavens and maddening search of her daughter Sumita was your atmosphere/In my heart play the beguiled to end up in the clutch of a liquidator. flute”.(iv.ix) The symbolic representation of the Liquidators were the collaborators of the trajectory of Sumita’s journey captures the Pakistani army who were endowed with the glorified journey of the nation from oppressive task of cleansing. Her defilement is emblematic subjugation to uncompromised liberation. of the thousands of raped women and the rape Sumita upholds the indomitable spirit of the of her motherland itself. However, alike her millions of suffering Bangladeshi women who motherland she revives herself getting over the took the burden of the war through every bruises. She starts her search for her estranged possible act of sacrifices. daughter. The moral duties towards her motherland References and her commitment towards her daughter tear 1. Bagchi, Jasodhara. Interrogating Motherhood. her apart. Arun reminds her of her commitment New Delhi: Sage, 2017. Print as guerrilla warrior. The mother in her which is 2. Currimbhoy, Asif. Sonar Bangla. Kolkata: the embodiment of the universal motherhood is Writers Workshop, 1993. Print at pain to see the frenzied acts of vengeance 3. Mookherjee, Nayanika. “Gendered perpetrated by the jubilant people of the Embodiments: Mapping the Body-politic of liberating nation on the collaborators, the the Raped Women and the Nation in sympathizers, in all the razakars. She can not Bangladesh” Feminist Review 88, War (2008): figure out, ‘Is this what victory means’. (89) She 36-53. Palgrave Macmillan Journals. JSTOR. vainly urges them to ‘...become human once Web. 1June 2015.
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UNJUST OPPRESSION OF THE BLACKS IN AMIRI BARAKA’S SELECT PLAYS
B.Suganya Research Scholar (Part-Time), Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem
Abstract African American literature explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to blacks in the United States, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery and diaspora. Literature, especially the militant genre, has played a key role in critically portraying the obstacles black communities have faced, and their responses to them. The writers attempted to define Black identity and Black humanity in the unjust society of America. A seminal figure in the contemporary black literature, Amiri Baraka is the most controversial, the most militant, the most revolutionary, and the most explosive black playwright. Baraka’s works reflect violence and social tensions of race relations in contemporary America. He uses his writings to explore the experience and anger of the marginalized African American people against racism and for advocating scientific socialism to reverse the political power structure that according to him was necessary to end the age old suffering of his community-the black people. The paper thus analyzes Amir Baraka’s concerns such as racial tension and conflict, and the necessity for social change through revolutionary means. He used drama to teach people, opening their eyes to reality as he saw it.
Introduction oppressions heaped upon his people. His Literature is an imitation of human action writings should be the voice of people who are and often presents a picture of what people subjected to misery, segregation and think, say and do in the society. Literature is not discrimination, because of their Black colour only a reflection of the society but also serves as which is supposed to be unpleasant and ugly a corrective mirror in which members of the according to the so-called White standards of society can look at themselves and find the need beauty. for positive change. There are relations and The present study aims at a social analysis interrelation between men who live in the of the condition of the Blacks in American society. African American literature dealt with society and the direct confrontation of the the social, literary, historical, political and Blacks with prejudices, stereotypes and racial economic conditions of the Black people. mythologies. Amiri Baraka is one of the African American literature exposed the important and effective figures and leaders of sociological, ideological, political and cultural the Black Arts Movement. He was very famous situations created by an unjust oppression, in this movement as a poet, a musician and repression, harshness and marginalization of especially as a playwright. A seminal figure in the Blacks in the States. the contemporary black literature, Amiri Baraka The writers attempted to define Black is the most controversial, the most militant, the identity and Black humanity in the unjust most revolutionary, and the most explosive society of America. They believed that White black playwright. He uses his writings to people were not in any way superior to Black explore the experience and anger of the people. They also believed that only Blacks marginalized African American people against themselves could change their situation in areas racism and for advocating scientific socialism to like social life, art, politics etc. Within the reverse the political power structure that framework of Black Arts Movement, a Black according to him was necessary to end the age artist is expected to create a relationship old suffering of his community-the black between his art and the Black community. In a people. way, he has the responsibility to project, The life of African American had always through his writings, the miseries and been relentlessly unreal and their problems 76 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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remain unsolved. This concept is reflected in his between blacks and whites in contemporary plays. The survival of the Blackman in America America. It is the story of a visit by African is predicated upon his ability to keep his American Walker Vessels, to the home of his thoughts and his true identity hidden. Amiri white ex-wife Grace, and Easley, her white Baraka, a contemporary playwright, poet, husband. The Slave, in which Walker Vessels, essayist, novelist and critic has explored it now already on the Black side, has made his extensively. The following are among his most final decision to become a revolutionary, after salient plays that fall within this category: The having left his White wife, and to fight for his Toilet, Dutchman, and The Slave. In general, people. Baraka points up the black man’s low Baraka’s style, aims, and themes set a violent, status in American society but also stresses that autonomous, and defiant tone for Black drama he is victimized and enslaved by his own hatred of the 1960s. and is thus unable to effect social changes. Set in a high school lavatory in the early Although, our society on a superficial level 1960s, the first production of Baraka’s The Toilet puts great emphasis on diversity inclusion and explored Black life, love, and social order. The equal rights but it is not embedded in the fabrics Toilet presented Ray Foots, the main character, of society. Minorities are still viewed with coming of age while struggling to come to terms hatred and contempt. Baraka thus used drama with being both Black and homosexual. As a to teach people, opening their eyes to reality as piece of Revolutionary theatre, the play also he saw it. He advocated socialism as a viable suggested that before Blacks and whites could solution to the problems in America resulting in come together, they would inevitably come to goodwill and harmony. He strives at a common blows first. The Toilet served as metaphor for the goal – establishing self-awareness and self- current state of American race relations. The confidence in blacks. Toilet is about the lives of black people and about a boy’s inability (because he is the victim) References to explain that he is something stranger than the 1. African American Literature. The Columbia rest, even though the blood and soul of him is Electronic Encyclopedia.2011.Web.10 Sep. theirs. 2011. Baraka, Amiri. Wikipedia, the free Although Baraka has written a number of encyclopedia.July.Web.11 Sep.2011. plays, Dutchman is widely considered his
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WOMEN RIGHTS VIOLATION: A STUDY OF AMITAV GHOSH’S NOVEL SEA OF POPPIES
Sajad Ahmad Bhat Research Scholar, Department of English, DAVV Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Abstract Human rights are the prime concern all over the world, but the more it is focused the more chaos and the muddles are on the way, waiting. In the present study I would deal with the women rights violation presented by the writer. The reality of women rights violation is very complex and diversified, because it is present in every field of life here like social issues, economic issues, domestic violence, cultural issue, caste system etc. The present paper focuses on the degradation and the inhuman treatment of the Women brought about by the Indian society. In this paper I would highlight how Indian women is twicely oppressed first by the male dominated society and then by the traditional norms of the society as shown in the novel. Keywords: women rights violation, Tradition, Societal norms, Patriarchal.
Introduction family paid a big of building of roof of his Amitav Ghosh is one of the prominent husband’s house. Hukum is a working in an writers of Indian English literature. The novel opium factory in Ghazipur. Deeti’s dreams are Sea of Poppies is based on historical events. In shattered on the very first night of her marriage this novel the portrayal of women is realistic when she is inhaled opium by her husband and and women characters are few in comparison to is raped by her brother in law in a state of men characters. In Sea of Poppies Ghosh has unconsciousness Chandan Singh with help of shown the picture of plight of women during her uncle Bhyro Singh. Later while travelling on colonial rule. Ghosh has highlighted women of Ibis she realized that her uncle Bhyro Singh was every section of the society. Deeti is leading also responsible for her misfortune. After that character of the novel, around her whole novel incident she is ignored by her husband then she revolves. The position of women from lower begins to doubt about him. It was too late to class to upper class is not different as presented realize the whole tragedy happened to her and by the Ghosh. Women suffer at the hands of she becomes pregnant. Deeti is called Draupadi male dominating world, where she is used like by her mother-in-law due to that becomes sure an object. Women rights violation is one among that her mother in law knows everything about the main themes of the novel. father of her child. Deeti goes closer to her Deeti the prominent character of the novel mother in law to reveal out the truth from her. is an ordinary village woman. She suffers soon She used to give her opium and one day she after her birth from gender bias in the novel, succeeded in knowing the truth. Her mother in due to the unique colour of her eyes she is law under the influence of opium in state of called “chudaliya, dainiya as if she were a witch: unconsciousness confesses the truth about the but Deeti had only to turn her eyes on them to incident occurred. make them scatter and run off”(5). She is Hukum Singh opium addict husband of married to Hukum Singh without knowing her Deeti is in his death bed, her brother in law will, Hukum served in the same battalion as her tried to assault her physically and in order to brother Kesri Singh of British army. Hukum escape from him she says, “Listen to me: I will Singh is defected of his one leg while he was in burn on my husband’s pyre rather than given British regiment due to which he cannot walk myself to you”.(154) after the death of her properly but this is seen as minor problem in husband she is forced to perform Sati and she is her marriage with him. For her marriage her given opium by her in-laws. She sits on the pyre 78 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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in a state of unconsciousness. While doing this the ship she agrees to marry with one of the her brother in law “To have a sati in the family indentured labour who is much older than her, will make us famous .We’ll build a temple for because she is told that women will be torn you and grow rich on the offerings”. (155) At down in Mauritius as there are few women in the main time she is saved by Kalua, an comparison to men. She is not aware of the untouchable from the burning pyre and jumps hardship in Mauritius and she marries for in the river Ganga. security to lead a peaceful life. Sarju one of the For Deeti her daughter Kabutari becomes oldest women on the ship, a dai midwife in her the hindrance in her way forward. She sends village near Ara, commits a mistake in the her daughter to her brother’s home because she delivery of a Thakur’s son for that she is feels that Kabutari will be safe there. Kabutari punished and expelled from her village to being child becomes the victim of her mother’s Mauritius. Sarju belongs to a lower class of plight. Deeti forgets all about her past and set society and is deprived of company of family. herself on the new journey and marries Kalua as Soon before her death on the ship and Sarju her second husband. She had shed the body of gives Deeti seeds of poppy, bhang and dhatura the old Deeti, with the burden of its karma; she to keep with herself for future use in Mauritius. had paid the price stars had demanded of her, Deeti realizes the importance of seeds received and was free now to create a new destiny as she from Sarju, how important it is to take willed with whom she choose and she knew it something for their future and as an was with Kalua that this life would be lived, agriculturalist seeds are most important in their until another death claimed the body that he life. These seeds are like an asset for them. had torn from the flames. (175) Ratna and Champa are the characters through Women on the board of Ibis like Munniah whom Ghosh has tried to depict life of women presented by Ghosh, as another victim of the who have accompanied their husband when patriarchal system of Indian society. Who their land is confisticated. Both Ratna and becomes pregnant due to illicit relationship Champa are sisters married to a pair of brothers with a man working in opium factory in her whose land was contracted to the opium factory village? She decides to give birth to her child is and then confisticated due to not being able to supported by her parents on the contrary of her pay rent and driving them out to leave their belief that they will expel her. She has to leave village and go to Mauritius in search of fortune. her village because nothing is left for her Dokhanee is the woman who left her in-laws parents and child is dead as they got burnt in house with her husband due to the oppression the fire and she is left alone. On the board of Ibis of her abusive mother in law. She is happy that when her affair with Jodu (Azad) is known to her husband has joined her, but she is unaware the people, a relationship between a Hindu girl of the hardship and inhuman living conditions and a Muslim boy is not acceptable to them. of plantation workers in Mauritius. Through the Jodu is beaten ruthlessly and Munniah is locked character of Malti wife of Neel, it is shown how in a room and Jadu being Muslim is beaten she is a passive sufferer and her condition is not wildly, it is only due to the intervention of Deeti better than Deeti’s. She is handcuffed between she is released. patriarchal laws. Her husband enjoys with his Ghosh through the character of Heeru, has mistress Elokeshi, while she is made to play role depicted the plight of women left by their of mother and wife. Elokeshi betrays Neel as husband due to some disease or inability to give soon as he lost his property. Malti leads her life male heir to the family. Due to the disease of as a silent spectator in the house performing forgetfulness Heeru is left by her husband. On duties and never questioning her husband.
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When her husband was in jail, she meets him dowry, Caste system, molestation, sexual and did not express any sign of disaster which exploitation on the work places etc. the has completely destroyed their life. Her life is preference in the society is given to male heir destroyed by her husband’s mistake and she than girl child and girl Childs are least suffers silently and never complains. Through supported at par with boys. the character of Malti Ghosh has depicted nature of a typical Indian wife who suffers References herself while performing her duties for the 1. Benita, Parry. Problems in Current Theories family good. of Colonial- theories. Oxford Literatury From the above evaluation it is clear women review of 1987. Print. in Indian society is used as an object and no 2. Bhatt, Indira and Indira Nityanandam. more. The characters presented by the novelist (eds.) The fiction of Amitav Ghosh New are evident that women rights are no more Delhi: Creative Books, 2001. Print. reserved in Indian society. They are oppressed 3. Ghosh Amitav. Sea of Poppies. Ravi Dayal, and suppressed at every walk of life from their Penguin Viking, 2008. Print. childhood till the dooms day, they have to 4. Prakasa Rao, V.V. and V. Nandini Rao. suffer. It seems that women are born to suffer, Marriage, The Family and Women in India. to sacrifice and to endure. The freedom they New Delhi: have is only on their breath and the rest is run 5. Heritage Publishers, 1982. by the male dominated society. We find there is 6. Young, Robert J.C. Postcolonialism: A Very a series of violation to the women’s rights like Short Introduction New York: Oxford UP, domestic violence, sexual harassment, huge 2003. Print.
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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MAGICAL REALISM IN THE NOVELS OF BEN OKRI AND KIRAN DESAI
M.Swathi M.Phil. Research Scholar, Vivekanandha College of Arts & Sciences for Women, Elayampalayam, Tiruchengode
Abstract This paper deeply analyses about the genre of literary fiction, that deals with Magical Realism which otherwise known as Fabulism. It briefly explains about various concepts and shows the realistic vision on the real world that reveals magical elements and also comprises myths, fables and allegory. It explores with the mundane science fiction which is a subgenre that focuses on the earth and does not vision on the outer space adventure. It associates with the modern day aspects that deals with hard science fiction. Kiran Desai, an Indian contemporary writer in her work Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1999) has dealt with fiction and magical realism in association with Indian tradition and culture. Whereas, Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and a novelist has set fictional magic realism in his work The Famished Road (1991) with Nigerian tradition, culture and spiritualism. This paper critically compares these two Indian and African literature novels in association with the genre Magical Realism through the Comparative literature. Keywords: literary fiction, genre, myth, allegory, mundane setting, criticism.
Introduction various languages and literary traditions. English literature has been developed Michael Eric Dyson remarks that, during 1,400 years ago. In fifth century, the “The methodologies of examining hip hop earliest forms of English dialect has been are borrowed from sociology, politics, religion, brought by the Anglo-Saxon settlers to Great economics, urban studies, journalism, Britain, which was called as Old English. The communications theory, American studies, late 11th century was the Middle English period, transatlantic studies, black studies, history, the Early Modern English began from 15th musicology, comparative literature, English, century which has become the introduction to linguistics, and other disciplines”(no pg). printing press. Since, the English language started to spread all over the world from 17th Fiction – Magical Realism century. In 20th century, the genre fiction started to flourish and it has been connected to Comparative Literature Postmodernism, in which two concepts are Comparative literature deals with the study known as “Magical realism and of literature and cultural expression crossways Postmodernism”. It includes the novels such as, national, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries. crime, spy historical romance, fantasy, graphic, It is also the study of “literature without and science fiction. Postmodernism fiction is the borders”. It may also execute on the works of inclusion of metafiction, multiplicity, parody, same language which originate from various eclecticism, intertextuality, dissolution of cultures or nations where the language is character, and the erasure of boundaries. It also spoken. It is the field of intercultural and encloses with the themes of Post-colonialism transnational which has been acquainted with explores with magical reasoning and various human aspects, history, anthropology, philosophy. Fiction is a literary genre that sociology, critical theory, translational study, describes the prose form which includes religious, and cultural studies. The researchers imaginary peoples and events. It has been who study this field are known as originated from Late Middle English. Whereas “Comparatists”, who are very proficient in Magical realism is the genre of fantasy fiction 81 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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which comprises of two aspects such as the “To master magical realism, one must make rational vision on reality and acceptance of the real seem unreal but, more importantly, supernatural elements as prosaic reality. make the unreal seem real”(no pg). Alan Moore remarks on Fiction as, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran “Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I Desai, also depicts about the protagonist created a lie. But because you believed it, Sampath Chawla who starts his life with the loss you found something true about yourself” as a post-man and he reaches success as a (no pg). spiritual Baba while he sits under the guava tree. This novel explains about the life of Sampath Ben Okri and Kiran Desai with magical realism and spiritualism through Ben Okri, is a Nigerian poet and a novelist Indian tradition and culture. Sampath’s life who has got Man Booker Prize for his work The changes to spiritualism while he sees the Famished Road (1991). He has been considered as monkeys that speaks and doing mischievous the foremost African authors of post-modern things in the city. Both the novels that comprises and post-colonial traditions. He has been of various literature, tradition and culture, but it compared with Salman Rushdie, contemporary has been compared with the genre magical Indian writer who has been well-known to use realism and fiction. the genre of magical realism in his novel Midnight’s Children. Conclusion Kiran Desai, an Indian contemporary The African literature and Indian literature novelist who is the daughter of famous fictional has been compared with the inclusion of writer Anita Desai, has got Man Booker Prize Postmodernism and Post-colonialism. Both the award for her work The Inheritance of Loss (2006). novels depicts the genre of magical realism and Her first novel was The Hullabaloo in the Guava spiritualism that takes a unique form of Orchard (1998) which has been written in the narrative style of Fiction by both the authors. genre of fantasy fiction and magical realism. These two novels briefly explains about the This work has been received accolades from contemporary situation of the people and also Salman Rushdie and this work won the Betty the various cultures of them, but emerges the Trask award. only theme of science fiction. John Cheever explains that, Comparison of the Novels “Fiction is an art and art is the triumph over The Famished Road by Ben Okri, is the novel chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread that deeply analyses on the African tradition, out around us like a bewildering and culture, and religion realism. The novel explains stupendous dream”(no pg). a unique narrative style that includes spiritual world with the real world. The magical realism References has been portrayed and applied through the 1. Okri, Ben. The Famished Road. Jonathan character of Azaro, a spirit child living in an Cape, United kingdom, 1991. Print Nigerian city. His life that conflicts between 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fa spiritual and real world indulges with love for mished_Road his mother and father that makes him to owe to 3. Desai, Kiran. Hullabaloo in the Guava live in the real world itself. This novel does not Orchard. Faber and Faber Ltd, London, 1998. end and it continues in other two parts that tells Print about the whole life of Azaro with spiritualism. 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hullabal Kevin Ansbro says about magic realism as, oo_in_the_Guava_Orchard
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5. Rushdie, Salman. “Salman Rushdie on 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiran_Desa Gabriel Garcia Marquez: His world was i mine.” The Telegraph. 25 Apr. 2014. Print. 10. https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographie Telegraph Media Group. Web 9 Oct 2017. s/index.cfm/author_number/229/kiran- 6. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book desai s/10787739/Rushdie-on-Gabriel-Gracia- 11. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/ Marquez-His-world-was-mine.html. on-fiction 7. Wechsler, Jeffrey. “Magic Realism: Defining 12. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/ the Indefinite.” Art Journal. Vol. 45, No. 4, magical-realism Winter 1985: 293-298. Print. Web 14 Oct. 13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ 2017 literature 8. https://www.jstor.org/stable/776800 14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar ative_literature
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IMPORTANCE OF THE GREATEST EPICS MAHABHARATA AND RAMAYANA
T.Sowmiya M.Phil. English, PG & Research Department of English Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women, Tiruchengode, Namakkal
Abstract Classical Literature refers back to the terrific masterpieces of the Greek, Roman, and other comparable ancient civilizations. The works of Homer, Ovid, and Sophocles are all examples of classical literature. The term is not simply limited to novels; it can also consist of epic, lyric, tragedy, comedy, pastoral, and other varieties of writing as nicely. Here, the literature is divided into two parts one is Vedic, and the other Sanskrit. Now we can discuss about the Vedic part classical literature. THE MAHABHARATA and THE RAMAYANA are the greatest epics classical work. Epic means “a long narrative poem”. Through this paper should express the importance of two greatest epic works which means, Mahabharata and Ramayana. The two adventures were The RAMAYANA and The MAHABHARATA. The stories were made in the midst of the latter half of the second thousand years and the key portion of the essential thousand years beforehand the Christian era. Keywords: MAHABHARATA, RAMAYANA, and Classic literature, Epic, Vedic and Sanskrit.
Introduction composed The Mahabharata. Not a single where The Vedic composition was broad and on earth is to be seen such an extensive graceful differed. It contained the most perfect religious work as the Mahabharata. It contains one lakh idea of the seers and sages. It was understood ten thousand slokas. handiest by techniques for the found. Mahabharata was seen in those days as a Regardless, it winds up clearly inconceivable for (religious) content of History. As indicated by a normal individuals to understand of the more few experts, the quintessence of various theories momentous rationalities of the Vedas, of the Vedas and Upanishads were exhibited fit Upanishads and Aranyakas, and various others. as a fiddle of fascinating topics, scenes and The diviners comprehended this. Of their stories for the comprehension of the everyday need to hold appreciation to the overall public citizens. As storage facility of learning Vyasa's at huge, they, thus, shaped the two noteworthy Mahabharata has impacted the Indian stories in later conditions. The two epics have thoroughly considered hundreds of years of been THE RAMAYANA and THE time. Man and lady, the old and the youthful, MAHABHARATA. The legends had been the educated and the unskilled, all areas of created all through the latter half of the second individuals of the Indian sub-landmass knew one thousand years and the underlying half of the subject of Mahabharata since time the fundamental thousand years beforehand the immemorial. Christian enlargement. Vyasa's Mahabharata starts with the account of the govern of the rulers of the "Lunar The Mahabharata Dynasty" at Hastinapur. An upright ruler of The Mahabharata and a thought of how to that line named Santanu had a child named approach translating all the intricate subjects, Bhishma, who was ever honest and ever symbolism, occurrences, philosophical ideas of valorous. Lord Santanu had two different predetermination, the vedic perspective, children from his another ruler named dharma and so forth. Incredible and wonderful Satyabati. They were Bichitrabirya and is the place that is known for Bharata. To depict Chitrangada. Consistent with his pledge the deeds of the line of Bharata that Vyasa Bhishma did not acknowledge the position of
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royalty after the passing of his dad and fact that it saw the endless clash amongst remained a single guy forever. The kingdom, in excellence and bad habit, uprightness and this way, was led by Bichitrabirya. wrong-doing, between the equitable and the This lord had two children named uncalled for. Toward the finish of the fight it Dhrutarastra and Pandu. Since the senior was seen that all the Kaurava siblings were Dhrutarastra was visually impaired from his dead alongside the greater part of their introduction to the world, his more youthful supporters. The Pandava side likewise lost sibling Pandu climbed the honored position numerous relations, including Abhimanyu, the after the demise of his dad. Pandu had five child of Arjuna, the best warrior of the fight. children named as Yudhisthir, Bhima, Arjuna, Winning triumph in Kurukshetra fight, the Nakula and Sahadev. They were known as the Pandavas got the entire kingdom and Pandavas. Then again, the hundred children of Yudhisthira moved toward becoming ruler. Be Dhrutarastra were referred to as the Kauravas that as it may, in profound contrition over the as the relatives of the previous lord of the line passing of his friends and relatives and keeping named Kuru. Duryodhan was the first among in mind the end goal to do retribution, the children of Dhrutarastra. Yudhisthira left the position of authority in the After the demise of ruler Pandu his five hands of Parikshita, the child of dead children were given one part of the kingdom to Abhimanyu, and left for the Himalayas with his run the show. Inside a backwoods called four siblings and spouse. Khandava, the Pandava siblings assembled their With this focal topic Vyasa included capital and named it as Indraprastha. This numerous legends, conventions, Puranic scenes, caused envy in the psyche of the Kaurava records of other regal administrations, and also siblings. They hence welcomed the Pandava portrayals of winning socio-religious siblings to play the session of Dice with them frameworks, traditions and conduct, moral with wager over triumph or thrashing. Playing esteems, political conditions, customs of war with trap, the Kauravas vanquished the and tact, and beliefs and convictions of the Pandava lord Yudhisthira over and over. As per general population. The Mahabharata depicted the wager the vanquished siblings consented to the ethics of life for common presence and carry on with the life of outcasts in backwoods additionally of the higher beliefs of the life like for a long time, and from there on to burn honesty and uprightness. At a few spots Vyasa through one more year in camouflage to escape included further methods of insight and identification. otherworldly musings to make mindfulness Toward the finish of their experience for a about man's perfect presence. The Indian long time the Pandava siblings returned and mankind has gotten from the Mahabharata asked the Kauravas their kingdom. In any case, many motivations for a very long time. The the Kaurava ruler Duryodhan declined to give lessons of this incredible epic have empowered back their domain saying that he would not man to defeat the distresses, sufferings, trouble give even a molecule of earth without fight. In and mishaps in their common presence. In the light of this shamefulness a furious fight was whole world writing there is no other work battled between the Pandavas and Kauravas in similar to India's Mahabharata. the field of Kurukshetra. Numerous rulers of India joined either the Kauravas or the The Ramayana Pandavas to participate in the war. Ramayana was crafted by Valmiki. It The field of Kurukshetra was additionally contains 24 thousand slokas and is partitioned depicted as the Dharmakshetra in light of the into ten sections. As indicated by Valmiki
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himself, he needed to convey the pith of the and finally, offering Koshala to Kusha and lessons of the Vedas to the everyday citizens by North Koshala to Lava to run as rulers ; Rama's singing the prudent deeds of Ramachandra. surrender of his mortal body in the waterway Ramayana portrays the life of Rama, the Saraju. This is the substance of the colossal epic eldest child of the lord of Ayodhya, Dasaratha. Ramayana. At the point when the old ruler Dasaratha needed to put Rama, the crown sovereign, on Significance of the Great Epic Mahabharata royal position, Rama chose to go to woods for a and Ramayana long time so as to satisfy his dad's guarantee to India is a place where there is mysticism. his second ruler Kaikeyee to keep her demand The priests and the sages pronounced long back at perfect time and Kaikeyee requested the before the general population of this nation that expulsion of Rama to backwoods so her child genuine bliss of life comprises in renunciation, Bharata could situate on the royal position; love and kindred sentiments. These two demise of lord Dasaratha in extraordinary awesome books – the Ramayana and the distress for Rama's flight; Rama joined by his Mahabharata have been the wellsprings of gave spouse Sita and more youthful sibling motivation to the greater part of the Indians Laxman left to woodland; a stunned Bharata since their synthesis. went to bring Rama back, however on Rama's The Ramayana and The Mahabharata are refusal he conveyed his foot-wear to put on not just stories of valor, but rather they typify royal position and to administer the nation for the socio-religious standards of a huge number the benefit of his senior sibling; takeoff of Rama of individuals of India known as Hindus. Rama from Chitrakuta to Dandakaranya and remain and Krishna are believed to be incarnations of there in a cabin at Panchavati timberland; God and their courses are to the trusting snatching of Sita by the evil spirit lord of Lanka, Hindu's the methods for God. They are Ravana; building a scaffold over ocean, Rama's venerated in sanctuaries and recollect in time of attack of Lanka; save of Sita after demolition of anxiety in national and individual life. The the devils; following fourteen years of recluse flexibility development of India got tremendous return of Rama, Sita and Laxman to Ayodhya; motivation from the Gita. It’s optimal of doing Rama's fatherly organization of his kin; the work with no desire of result hues the measure doubt communicated by a subject about the of numerous Indians. virtuousness of Sita while in Ravana's care; on report of the issue to Rama by a covert Significance of the Epic Mahabharata operative, Rama's request to Laxman to desert The narrative of the Mahabharata is notable Sita in a timberland despite the fact that she was to the huge number of Indians through pregnant; Sita's stay in Valiniki's Tapovan ages. where her two children Kusha and Lava were Everyone knows how the Pandavas were conceived; instructed and prepared by Valmiki-, denied of their honest to goodness assert for the regal children grew up as chivalrous young the position of royalty of Hastinapur. Who men; visit of Valmiki to Ayodhya with Kusha does not know how Draupadi was offended and Lava; Kusha and Lava's sweet tune of in an open court in nearness of Bhima, Valmiki's Ramayana before the collected Dronacharyya and others for no blame of assembling; on requests of all Sita's arrival; so as hers and how Bhima along these lines to demonstrate her immaculateness before all, delivered retribution in the clash of her petition to mother earth to take her back and Kurukshetra? her vanishing when the earth split to ingest her;
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It is additionally not obscure to the general The characters of Sita and Urmila remain population how Krishna took the side of the for perfect womanhood. Pandavas and helped them in winning the The character of Ravana shows us how a colossal skirmish of Kurukshetra. man can destroy himself for his own The character of Karna shows us how to particular indiscretions and unholy desire. ascend to distinction by dint of self-exertion Dussehra is an awesome Hindu celebration and tirelessness looking after manages of and is praised all finished India. The destiny. This character is the token of celebration identifies with Rama's triumph consideration, forfeit and valor. It claims to over Ravana. the deepest love of the hearts of the Indians The Ram Navami is an extraordinary who get grandiose vision include boundless celebration celebrated over a vast piece of wellspring of motivation about how a man North India. ought to be. The Holi celebration however a euphoric Epilogue spring celebration, honors Krishna's In this way the plots and the governmental chivalrous adventures. There are a issues of the Mahabharata are extremely thousand different celebrations which exceptionally retaining, fascinating and identify with Krishna. energizing to entirety up in flame, we may There are a large number of sanctuaries unhesitatingly say that the impacts of the where Lord Krishna is venerated. Ruler Ramayana and the Mahabharata upon the Krishna was one of the focal characters in Indians are huge and these two incredible Mahabharata. stories of India have been shaping the assumptions of the Indian individuals from Significance of the Epic Ramayana time immemorial. Ramayana manage the different parts of man's life – adore, obligation to bosses, bad References form, dedication to guardians, benevolence 1. https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_lit. and so forth. classics.html These characters of Ramayana remain as 2. http://www.fortell.org/content/talk- images of adoration, philanthropy, indian-classical-literature patriotism, matrimonial love, and 3. https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.co submission to guardians, altruism and so m/Classical+Sanskrit+literature forth.
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THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE PANOPTICON WORLD
R.Abitha M.Phil. Scholar, Research Department of English, The American College, Madurai
Abstract Twenty first century is under surveillance and it is not the period to enjoy freedom though it claims to be so. People, who crave to be independent and self reliant, unconsciously confirm to the societal control. Panopticon control insists on people to obey the prevailing rules when they are aware that they are being watched. The present generation has witnessed the increase in monitoring practices in everyday life. Manjula Padmanaban’s play Harvest illustrates the theory of panopticism as put forth by Jeremy Bentham and revelation of last days in The Bible. Keywords: Panopticon, surveillance and democratic control, persuasive technology, eschatology.
Introduction Philosophers consider that “the Panopticon “When these things begin to take place, should be taken not literally but as a metaphor stand up and lift up your heads, because your for surveillance of all types, with emphasis on deliverance is approaching”- Luke: 21:28 power relationships” (Dobson and Fisher 307). The concept of power has been debated Within the walls of a prison, every move of among philosophers for as long as humans have each prisoner is watched by warden who is in been able to record. With the advent of charge of that prison. Similarly in our present computerized surveillance which is also known society the government steps in to control in as ‘dataveillance’ in the current era, there is an every aspect of life in the community. It is like increase in monitoring practices in everyday the big boss watching over the moves of the life. Today, everyone is being monitored at contestants and instructs them to behave home, at work and everywhere. People consider according to the rules prescribed. development as erosion of civil rights and In Manjula Padmanaban’s futuristic play liberties. The new surveillance technology and Harvest reveals the potential of global capital. its implications for the individual and society Om Prakash, a young unemployed Indian man, have developed as a broad field of research. The makes an agreement with a multinational idea of the Panopticon has provided a biotechnology company, Interplanta, to trade metaphorical framework of surveillance. This unspecified parts of his body in return for living also stands as proof of the last days’ prophecy. standards. Om has agreed to give his organs to The Greek neologism ‘Panopticon’ as put the blonde American girl called Ginni, whose forth by British jurist and philosopher is an all- image is shown through the ‘contact module’ seeing individual or institution, which may or installed to allow interactive communication may not be watching a certain person or society between donor and receiver worlds. at any given time. This architectural Panopticon The character ‘Ginni’ represent such is a circular edifice with a tower at the centre authoritative figure and she dictates specifying that ensures constant observation of the inmates what and when they can eat, how they should in the isolated cells of the outer ring, by a conduct their personal hygiene and, to some supervisor in the tower at the centre. The extent, how they can relate to each other. This supervisor remains invisible to the inmates. The deterritorialised power, exercised at a distance concept of the design is to allow a watchman to yet all-invasive in its effects, and precipitates the observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an breakdown of the family as a social unit. Virgil, institution without their being able to tell the ‘real’ (male) receiver disguised as the whether they are being watched or not. digitalized character, Ginni. With this bizarre final twist to the story, the play’s virtual reality 88 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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elements implicate modern communication needed for them to be investigated. Whether it technologies in this process in so far as they is done in the name of prevention or stopping facilitate a traffic in bodies that is material and terrorism, but the fact is ‘nothing is a secret any symbolic, as well as potentially global in its more’. reach. Ephesians 6:12 'For we wrestle not against As we watch the signs of our times grow flesh and blood, but against principalities, increasingly alarming, one can realize now is against powers, against the rulers of the the time to seriously study the prophetic Word darkness of this world, against spiritual of God so to have an understanding of the times wickedness in high places.'Our battle is not and what is coming in the future. This prophecy against the physical things of this world rather course will help us as Jesus said to discern the spiritual. Technology will be used to help signs of the times by understanding the Signs of enforce the mark of the beast. This paper has the Last Days Jesus revealed in Matthew 24 and shown focus on the confirmation of the last connect world events to Scriptural prophecy. days’ prophecy that the entire world come into There is some form of big boss who watch one man control. Technological advancements everyman’s move in this world. There is a are the evidences for it. massive room for government to monitor everything one say or type. An increasing References number of data describe different aspects of our 1. Gilbert, Helen. “Manjula Padmanabhan’s personal activities are being monitored and Harvest: Global Technoscapes and the stored in databases. In India every man is International Trade in Human Body cursed with ‘Aadhar number’. Any Indian Organs.“Contemporary Theatre Review cannot buy or sell, apply for exams, make 16.1(2006):122–29 journey without Aadhar number. Aadhar 2. Padmanabhan, Manjula. Harvest. New number has become mandatory for those who Delhi: Kali for Women, 1997. claim themselves to be Indians. People are 3. Prabhakaran ,Roshni. “ Harvest: A Panoptic identified with numbers. Revelation 13:17 Power Structure”.The Criterion An Confirms the above statement: "And that no International Journal in English ISSN 0976- man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or 8165 Vol. 4, Issue-IV August 2013 the name of the beast, or the number of his name." 4. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pet The more advanced the phones, the more er_Ohrstrom/publication/229031001_Surve information is available for companies to use. It illance_Persuasion_and_Panopticon/links/ is even possible on some phones to trace 00b7d518bbcfcbeb40000000/Surveillance- someone’s movements for the last year. It is Persuasion-and-Panopticon.pdf completely lawful for the government to not 5. https://signsofthelastdays.org/artificial- only monitor your social media posts but also intelligence-machine-identifies-2-billion- your private messages, as they are classed as people-seconds/ external communications so a warrant is not
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SEMIOTIC OBSERVATIONS OF LANGUAGE, ADVERTISEMENTS AND HUMAN CULTURE
Basappa.Y.Bangari Research Scholar, Department of Studies and Research in English, Tumkur University, Tumakuru
Abstract This paper tried to interpret on semiotics and its importance in language communication. It also observes semiotic language and its usage in human society. Advertisements in media are deals with semiotics to impress upon the readers and viewers. Both print and electronic media use language and signs to communicate to the target group. Swedish linguist Ferdinand Saussure’s views on language, role of psychology and about dialects are discussed in the paper. Apart from this other linguists like Noam Chomsky and their views stated here to compare the relative importance of language and signs in communication and advertisements. Electronic devices and applications like Facebook, Twitter, Whats App etc. are made human communication easy where usage of language and signs increasing day by day and it is almost become inevitable in modern life. Keywords: Semiotics, signs, Language, Communication, Advertisements, Human Culture
Introduction watchers as clients through promotions. Semiotics is a technique for examination of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) the Swiss a 'content', talked or composed, verbal or language specialist who composed the treatise nonverbal. It contemplates 'signs' utilized as a on the Proto-Indo-European Vocal System at part of correspondence in all structures. twenty years old, who taught Sanskrit at Paris Semiotics is yet to be set up as a scholarly train for a long time (1881 - 1891) He acquired the and it is its quality. In the 21st century, media progressive thoughts and practices the turns into an essential piece of human culture investigation of dialect which the deficiencies of and in this manner, the methods for human the linguistic, philological, and similar correspondence has been set apart for its speed. philological approach. Saussure explains, Along these lines, it conquered the time and “language is a system. It is an arbitrary system space. The electronic and mechanical of signs. Language is a system of signs that developments have changed the situation of express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a correspondence definitely. For example, the part system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes, of the Post Office turned out to be less symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, imperative in this period of web and satellite etc. But it is the most important of all these world.The different methodologies are being systems.” (1960:16) Saussure introduced the two connected to the methods for correspondence major concepts – “langue and parole. ‘Langue’ and the substance of correspondence. This is an underlying system which is common in period of sight and sound involves access to the speech or utterance. He observes: It is not to be majority as opposed to the classes, through the confused with human speech [language], of advanced methods for correspondence, for which it is only a definite part, though certainly example, print and e-daily papers, satellite TV, an essential one. It is both a social product of the mobiles, and web. faculty of speech and a collection of necessary The social destinations, for example, Twitter conventions that have been adopted by a social and Facebook turned into the methods for social body to permit individuals to exercise that articulation and challenge. Preferences hate, faculty. Taken as a whole, speech is many-sided dissents, fellowship and so on are shared among and heterogeneous; straddling several areas the companions, relatives and people in general simultaneously –physical, physiological, and all in all. The market powers turn perusers and psychological- it belongs both to the individual
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and to society; we cannot put it into any rationale and semiotics. He contends that, category of human facts, for we cannot discover “Logic, in its general sense, is, as I trust I have its unity.” (1960:9) indicated just another name for semiotic, the Further Saussure does not disregard the semi-essential, or formal tenet of signs. By social part of 'signs' in the meantime. He calls depicting the teaching as 'semi fundamental', or dialect homogeneous and discourses formal, I imply that we watch the characters of heterogeneous. 'Parole' is a person's discourse such signs as we probably are aware, and from and has a finish or fractional social such a perception, by a procedure which I won't worthiness.“Neither is the psychological part of question naming Abstraction, we are directed to the circuit wholly responsible: the executive articulations, prominently unsteady, and in this side is missing, for execution is never carried way in one sense in no way, shape or form out by the collectivity. Execution is always important, in the matter of what must be the individual, and the individual is always its characters of all signs utilized by a 'logical' master: I shall call the executive side speaking insight, in other words by a knowledge (parole).” (1960) He names it the combination of equipped for learning by involvement.” meanings and sound images. “Language is (Gathered Papers, Vol.2, Para 227 Quoted by concrete, no less than speaking; and this is a Hawkes in Structuralism and Semiotics p.100) help in our study of it. Linguistic signs, though Williamson Judith, in one of her books basically psychological, are not abstractions. entitled ‘Decoding Advertisements: Ideology Associations which bear the stamp of collective and Meaning in Advertising’ (1995) extends the approval and which added together constitute concept of sign by comparing ‘form’ and language –are realities that have their seat in the ‘content’ to ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’. She brain.” (1960) Saussure says, 'linguistics' i.e. the replaces “the terms ‘signifier’ and ‘signified’ for target investigation of dialect is a piece of ‘form and ‘content’. ‘Form’ and ‘content’ are 'semiotics'. Semiotics is the investigation of separable but ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’ are signs or it is a target investigation of 'signs'. inseparable. They are not separated in ‘time and C. S. Peirce (1839-1914), the American space’. Signifiers are things, while form is rationalist, language specialist, and invisible; signifiers are ideas, while content mathematician has proposed the triadic model implies materiality. Furthermore, while form of the sign. He is known as the originator of and content are usually seen as separable and semiotics and pragmaticism. His papers showed their conceptual unity is one of opposition (form up in the Popular Science Monthly His vs. content), signifier and signified are unpublished works were later distributed by materially inseparable, since they are bound Harvard University Press as Collected Writings together in the sign, which is their totality.” (8 Volumes) in the vicinity of 1931 and 1958. (1995:18) Peirce's thought of 'sign' is found in the second Man is dependably looking for the and fourth volume of his Collected Writings importance of the environment, happenings, (1958). Peirce takes counter view/position of occasions, expressions, social occasions, and power and favours rationale and science for phonetic and non-semantic signs with a specific human improvement. His phenomenological end goal to gain information and attempt to idea unmistakable from Husserl's utilize and apply it by discovering explanations 'unadulterated phenomenology' depends on the for the happenings. An individual is related to pecking order of information of 'firstness', signs. Noam Chomsky concentrates on 'nature 'secondness', and 'thirdness'. In this chain of theory's and contends that a tyke has an inside command, the thirdness involves translation, or organic ability to take in a dialect. A
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youngster takes in the dialect (not formally) but through an absolute code. Traditional semiotics rather through signs, that is the implied likes to assume that the relevant meanings are learning of the dialect i.e. 'ability'. It might be frozen and fixed in the text itself, to be extracted mother's touch or yearning (crying) which and decoded by the analyst by reference to a connects the signs with its awareness. In the coding system that is impersonal and neutral, event that a schoolboy or a young lady is given and universal for users of the code. Social a ten rupee note, he or she knows the estimation semiotics cannot assume that texts produce of the bright bit of paper. He or she knows that exactly the meanings and effects that their it isn't a negligible bit of paper however with its authors hope for: it is precisely the struggles trading one can purchase a pencil, paper, or and their uncertain outcomes that must be chocolate. The esteem is dictated by the social studied at the level of social action, and their establishment of financial aspects/advertise. effects in the production of meaning.” Jonathan Human correspondence is the key idea of Bignell commented on visual signs, “Although examining dialects and verbal and non-verbal language is the most striking form of human signs are utilized for correspondence. The sign production, the whole of our social world capacity to utilize dialect, including kinesis and is pervaded by a message which contains visual proxemics or non-verbal communication and as well as linguistic signs, or which are the endeavours at significance making, are exclusively visual. Gestures, dress codes, traffic consistent. Semantics, one of the levels of signs, advertising images, newspapers, and etymological and semiotic investigation television programs and so on are all kinds of manages the parts of implications and linguistic media which use visual signs.” (Bignell) structure manages the vertical and even Lyon observes the signs in human language relationship. The syntagmatic and paradigmatic and communication. In his opinion,“ ‘Signs’ are relationship of the signs shape a message. The the basic notion of human and animal assertion of 'signifier' and 'connoted' appears to communication. Human communication is be limited and show just denotative importance. mainly determined by verbal or linguistic signs, The post-structuralists see challenges the idea of along with the nonverbal elements such as, restrictedness of significance with the signifier. gestures, facial expressions, and body Roland Barthes breaks the arrangement of a movements. Human language is distinct from balanced relationship of 'signifier' and animal communication because it is distinctive ‘signified'. Chomsky named it “firstness of at the levels of –duality of patterning, creativity, meaning i.e. ‘denotation’. The signified has interchange ability, cultural transmission, associative or connotative meanings which are displacement, specialization, arbitrariness, numberless and dependent on contexts. Any redundancy, discreteness and reflexiveness. piece of literature, like this the thesis, does not Language is a purely human and non- deal with denotative or literal meanings and is instinctive method of communicating ideas, not restricted either to the author, or text or emotions and desires by means of voluntarily reader but depends on the way one looks at the produced symbols.” (Lyon) A content artifact. Meaning is extracted from the text, considered etymologically or literality which which is embedded with signs.” are comprised of signs. Angela Goddard Kress and Hodge, gives his opinion recommended that the commercial regarding this and he observed in Social advertisements ought to be dealt with as Semiotics, “Meaning is always negotiated in the scholarly messages. She watches, semiotic process, never simply imposed “Advertisements, like literary texts, are not inexorably from above by an omnipotent author aimed at a single private reader in the way, for
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example, a personal letter is. On the other hand, 2. C. S. Peirce (1839-1914), Collected Papers, they are certainly not completely aimless, Vol.2, Para 227 Quoted by Hawkes in without a notion of audience. In the end we Structuralism and Semiotics p.100 need to look at the way the text is constructed in 3. Williamson, Judith.(2002), Decoding Ads, order to gather clues about who is the main Ideology and Meaning in Advertising address target.” London: Marian Boyars, 4. Kress, Gunther and Robert Hodge (1979), Conclusion Language and Ideology Routledge and Language consists of sound and signs i.e. Kegan Paul Ltd. symbols. These signs are playing a vital role in 5. Bignell, Jonathan( 1997)Media Semiotics communication. With signs and words Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, P. iv communication put its impact and leaves 6. Lyons, John.( 1981, Rpt.2003) Language and impression during context. Linguistics: An Introduction CUP. P.3 7. Goddard, Angela.(1998), The Language of References Advertising: Written Texts London and 1. Saussure, Ferdinand de.(1960), Course in New York: Routledge, P.30 General Linguistics, translated by Wade Baskin, London: Peter Owen Ltd.
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STRESS OF ADAPTATION IN ANITA DESAI’S BYE-BYE BLACKBIRD
Priyanga Chinnasamy M.Phil. English, The American College, Madurai
Abstract In this era of globalization migration has turned out to be an inevitable aspect for human beings. One who is away from their homeland to another country, naturally their home culture remains with them, and in the settled land, they attempt to create ‘fantasy homelands’ which are ethnically and conventionally alike to their native place. The exile, exodus and migration have been the fate of man which everything are man-made and whatever be the reason, the impact of dislocation on the individual psyche remains complex. The stress of adaptation, frustrations because of exile and alienation has become a universal phenomenon. Keywords: Migration, stress, frustration, alienation, isolation.
Introduction people enjoyed in England. Sarah did not marry Bye-Bye Blackbird, explores the stress in Adit entirely out of love for him but due to adaptation and its difficulties that every fascination for Indian culture, Indian Blackbirds (the immigrants) faces in alien philosophy, classical music and Indian countries. Migration is a process of social spiritualism. change where an individual, alone or Sarah felt ashamed to meet her English accompanied by others, because of one or more friends because Englishmen treat Indians as reasons of economic betterment, political low-born and uncivilized. Sarah finds herself upheaval, education or other purposes, leaves caught in dual-identity loss. Dev painted a one geographical area for prolonged stay or verbal picture of hustling and bustling India to permanent settlement in another geographical Sarah by saying that people in England lead an area. When people migrate from one nation or invisible and silent life is just opposite to the culture to another they carry their knowledge Indians that he would have known everything and expressions of distress with them and or something about his neighbours in a short includes stress, sense of loss, dislocation, time like their taste in music by the song they alienation, isolation which will lead to processes listen, the food they prepare by the smells and of acculturation. Fluctuations of emotions are their family squabbles. Adopted cultural habits obvious for Indians when they confront a remain superfluous and momentary. Adit, the culture-change. It is not an easy process to all-time admirer and lover of England filled separate oneself, emotionally, from one’s roots. with the feelings of nostalgia. He starts longing In Bye-Bye Blackbird the characters Adit Sen his for his mother country India. All the pleasure British wife Sarah, and his friend Dev. There is a and luxuries related to the adopted way of life great deal of argument of hatred for England get dim when they confront the home culture. and expressions of love for England. Adit, One is culturally believes that the ‘other’ is ‘not- comfortably employed in London, marries the-way-I-am’. Dev found it difficult to adjust to Sarah because he found something oriental in the silence and emptiness that prevailed in her attracts him. Dev is an intellectual, self- London which was uncharacteristic of India. conscious and sensitive. Dev could not accept or The houses and blocks of flats, streets and understand how immigrants from India were squares all appeared to him dead. He feels insulted by the British people so stoically. Even alienated in London from both Indians and school boys called the Indians ‘Wogs’. Adit on Englishmen. He found extremely difficult to other hand has taken all this for granted. He adjust and adapt with new surroundings. Dev liked economic freedom and social freedom never wanted to live in a country where he was 94 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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insulted and unwanted and wants to go back to yet he secretly longs for Indian food, music and India as an ‘England returned’ teacher. Dev sees friends. When he knows that his English wife, all Iron (dull & cold) in England, who Sarah is not able to make Indian food, he undergoes a change in mind, surprisingly starts himself enters the kitchen and prepares Indian loving England and he is an example of food and dishes. When a man goes to a new dissimilarity. Sarah tries to adjust and adopt place, he/she has to adapt himself completely to without showing the master-slave complex or the new circumstances. Even tolerance has to racial superiority to Adit. Without asking there. He has to suffer without complaining. Sarah’s wish he decided to move from England The truth is that if a girl marries in her culture, so she surrenders her to the Adit. Sarah who has there will be no problem at all to her. And no choice, she decided to follow Adit to India therefore it becomes very easy for her to adjust will be the relief from the emptiness, stress and and adapt to everything properly. She can dissatisfaction. With hope, Sarah has sacrificed manage her new home and family after her past to gain a new life. Sarah found difficult marriage. But the problem will arise greatly if to live in a circumstance that she considers she does not marry in her own caste and herself not as a person but as roles- Mrs. Sen religion. Parents are more careful about the and Sarah in her homeland. Sarah’s search for marriages of their daughters. “It is found that self, for her lost identity as an individual, the inter-cultural, inter-religious, and inter- symbolizes a woman’s search for self in general. racial marriages caused not only hardships but She marries him with lot of expectation to share also great havoc”. The absorption of another the best, but like an Indian wife accepts her fate. culture is completely impossible because the She leaves her motherland for the sake of her British culture is conscious of its individual Indian husband and motherhood. She is doubly person whereas the Indian is aware of his alienated. Her marriage with Adit alienates her human relationship. The stresses, frustration, from her own culture. She hopes that at least anxiety always cause an emotional imbalance. India she will have only one face – Adit’s wife The cross-cultural marriages, migration will Women play so many different roles like bring the emotional sufferings. As Sarah says daughter, wife and mother in her life but finally good-bye to her English self, here Dev must be she finds herself owning nothing for herself. saying good-bye to his Indian self or it can be a Adit has the mixed feeling of love and hate prayer for rest and light for him and a good bye towards England. Adit’s final decision to leave to his gloomy self. England to live ‘a real life’ without knowing exactly what ‘real life’ meant. Caught between Summation acceptance and rejection, between nationalism It is natural for a man to have confrontation and cosmopolitanism, Dev is tortured with the alien culture of the country one who emotionally and intellectually but he tackles visits, giving birth to problems of interpersonal, those stresses and started loving towards and by implication, socio-cultural adjustment. England. There is bound to be the clash of ideas, This confrontation has been popularly called traditions and social systems where two East-West confrontation which has been very opposing cultures collide and create confusions. precisely and aptly explained by Rudyard The nostalgia for Indian way of life and the Kipling as “The East is east and West is west vastness of landscape arouses a sense of and the twain shall never meet”. The motivation uprootedness in the heart of Adit and he behind modern migration may vary from decides, strangely enough, to leave this alien political or religious persecution to economic soil forever. Though Adit does not love India problem. The Indian mind is equated with
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instinct and emotion and the English mind with 2. Sharma, R.S, Alienation, Accommodation and reason & logic. The sense of dislocation and the Locale in Anita Desai’s Bye-Bye Blackbird. alienation must contribute to the stress on the The Literary Criterion 14.4(1979). Print. individuals and their families. 3. Jacob, Asha Susan, In Their Alien Worlds: Anita Desai’s Bye-Bye Blackbird. New Delhi: References Atlantic publishers & Distributors, 2003. 1. Anita Desai. Bye-Bye Blackbird. New Delhi: Print. Orient paperbacks (A division of vision books Pvt. Ltd.). 2012. Print.
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MARGINALITY: FOCUS ON BISSOONDATAH’S NOVEL CASUAL BRUTALITY
A.Kabilath Begum Ph.D. Scholar (Part-Time), Manonmaniam Sundranar University, Tirunelveli
Abstract In the contemporary world marginality is accepted one among the millions of people. Post-colonial integration develops the marginality. Marginality occurs due to inequality, insecurity, injustice and exploitation in the adopted land. In the third world generation the root cause for the migration is two factors are Education and Financial. The internal journey between the double identity and their experience is shared by the immigrant or Diaspora writers. Canadian writers are world widely focused for their ethnic literature. Canadian multiculturalism policy adopted for the welfare of Canadian immigrants to protect their cultural. Bissoondath an Indo- Carob-Canadian is specified through his writings. His works contribute the voice of the marginalised people through out the world. Recent literary writers encourage to quest for identity of a marginalised. These papers brings out outlook of Marginality through Bissoondath’s novel.
Introduction born on 19th April 1955 at Arima but not lived Aftermath of post- colonial marginality is there. He continued his Schooling in Port Spain. an experience affecting the millions of people. It In 1973 at the age of eighteen he left to Trinidad. is a product of weak social integration by a He settled in Canada where he studied at York group of people. The term marginal means University, receiving a B.A degree in French in limited in significance or stature characterized 1977. After his graduation he taught English by the combination habits of two divergent and French at the Inlingua School of Languages cultures. Traditionally the sociologist used the and Toronto Language Workshop. His uncle term “marginality “to refer to the “in-between” V.S Naipaul is the inspiration for him to become stage for immigrants who left the old culture in writer. He considered himself to be a Canadian the process of assimilation to the adopted writer. He starts his literary career as a short- culture. Marginalization is the process where story writer and written many fictions and non- someone or something is pushed to the edge of fictions. Bissoondath has been nominated for the group and accorded them with lesser number of prizes including the Books in Canada importance. Largely most of the marginalized First Novel Award and the Governor General’s groups occurs if not all constitute minorities- literary Award. He twice won the Hugh religious, ethnic, linguistic or otherwise in MacLennan Prize for fiction of the Quebec different countries, they have sub-cultures in writers Federation. the mainstream culture or religions. Most countries and cultures have empowered groups Materials and Methods at one pole and impoverished at the other end. Neil Bissoondath writings takes readers into The Impoverished people are not free from fear, marginalized social and geographical territories insecurity and injustice. Marginality based upon without ever moving far out side the convention economic, caste, creed, religion or race is a kind of literary realism. His works has been of disability or affliction. The paper goes translated into French and German. His through discussion with Marginality A Focus - ancestors migrated from India to Trinidad, and In Bissondath’s Novels. Trinidad to Canada. He had experienced with migrant experience of cultural dislocation, Bio-Graphy of the Author displacement, uncertainty and adaptation in his A century ago Neil Bissoondath grand writings. Luckily Neil Bissoondath had no such parents left India to Trinidad.Neil Bissoondath incidents he said in an interview. Marginality is
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a condition of “being at the margin that connect imagined. He thought of easy money and need the two worlds”.(1) But his characters he easy net of safety family. The multinational oil created are the mouth piece to articulate sense companies that had fuelled a brief era of of cultural –identity of the immigrants world. proprietary begin to curtail their investments. These paper connects the Marginality with Ironically at last Jan who by now has turned focus of Bissoondath’s novels “Casual Brutality” cynical and apathetic, agrees to move with her The strength of his novels is experienced with husband to Caribbean because as she puts it, Indo- Caribbeans those settled in Canada, the “arson and assassination become norms; two U.K and the U.S . victims of this ‘Casual Brutality of collapse” (467) are Jan and her son Rohan from Raj. Focus of Marginality in the novel. The inner journey towards maturity and “Casual Brutality” –Neil Bissoondath ‘s understanding is bind up with the physical depute novel. In this novel, Bissoondath journey for Third world island, settlers in the narrates as how the protagonist had become metropolitan center of western culture. Raj who marginalized. Marginality causes insecurity. born in Hindu family overcomes tradition to The reason insecurity is inequity. Effect of marry Jan. The smoothness of Canada life inequity due to economical, political and increase his prosperity .It also increase his religious power. The novels is a set in a troubled curiosity to serve his native land. On his return Caribbean Island nation , newly Independent he found the political situation on the island called Casaquemada which is a mixture of the slides quickly into frustrated violence. Raj a politics and history of Guyana, Trinidad, medical doctor and therefore supposed to heal Jamaica and Grenada. the people; his first victim was the unruly and Trinidad is Bissoondath’s native country. unjustified island. Surein his cousin importing Casaquemada which means a “house of burnt guns. His uncle Grappler a senior civil servant down”. Which signifies the symbol of illusion in talking about Payol solutions. His friend the island. The protaganist Raj hails from a Madera has evolve into a sinster hybrid of middle-class Hindu family, brought to island Soldier and police officer executing criminal at from India during the colonial period. He back doors. These inform us how the land was migrated to Canada and became medical politically corrupted .It became the land of student and become a doctor, at that time the violence, fear and despair. Casaquemada economically not stable. He Raj was examining the frozen past at the settled in Canada, he married White race lady time of school going boy. He enjoyed in the Jan. Canada is a multi-cultural society where Garden. The forest area was not tamed to build they can maintain their own culture and roads. The house of Raj and the tradition tradition. But politically the separation of followed by his grandma and his grandpa room groups makes them easy to manipulate for the as prayer room. How grandpa had maintained politics. His dream is to support the island the store. The culture turned off every thing. On which becomes a night mare for him. After few be half of modification the highways tamed the years he became well settled person. Mean forest to construct the roads. The agricultural while Casaquemada become Oil-rich. On lands are turned into buildings and for convince of his friends , that your intelligentsia construction of roads which symbolics of the should owe something to homeland. Though human civilization. The garden and house are Raj loved to live in Canada. After several years some of the metaphor used to travel along with (at the age 35) he return back to Caribbean character. Nature claims the essence of human island. His family was not supportive as he culture destroying its signs. “I passed just inside
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the garden. I hadn’t seen it in years[....] the little to live Guyana , which he loves but in which he plot of land in which he had laboured so long does not wish to live. and so intensely, showed no signs of ever Kayso a lawyer another immigrant known cultivated... clustered with an almost deliberate Raj. He succeed in his Canadian life. But he disorder.”(142) decides to return to Casaquemada in order to In this island the distinction between a do “something for my people”(191).He felt a middle class of brown or light skinned Africans Canada a “good place to live” . He compares and working class Africans. For Indians who Toronto to an operating theatre that is “bright adopted this island during the colonial period and shining and clean-clean”. Kayso, refers to have different disputes in religions, culture and Casaquemada as “home sweet home” (190). caste which become disloyal to Caribbean Later he returned back to Casaquemada and nationalism. Also keeping this in mind Raj‘s become a political activist, yet footlessness and grandfather oppose Independence and his uncle permanent state of 'in- between's' manifests in Grappler supports Independence. Indians were his nostalgia of the Kensington Market. The most frequently accused of disloyalty towards mind map of Kayso located ‘here’ and ‘there’. Caribbean nationalism. Eric Williams in his campaign speeches he described Indo- Findings Trinidadian as “a recalcitrant –minority”. As In the end of the novel Raj standing in the indentured immigrants who were “birds of airport to return back towards Canada. He exits, passage” in the sense that they were brought for that the value he spared is life of wife Jan only for temporary period. The charge remains and son Rohen to his dream for supporting his not only in politics but perhaps more island. Bissoondath’s character always appeared importantly for cricket team Bissoondath as ‘in –between’s’ to move one to other place. describes “the only area in which the term West Even though the novel end with Catharsis, Indian acquired any significance beyond the Bissoondath give hope to his protagonist Raj to geographical”(106). Indians are still suspected locate his identity in Canada. of loyalty to the West Indian system especially when they play against India or Pakistan. Conclusion African- ruled territories that prompted them to Immigrants are marginalised, they are not emigrate in large numbers to form Indo- stable to fix the mind in native and adopted Caribbean in Canada and else where land. Quest for identity in native land but not The cultural identity as Indo- Caribbean having resident there.Though the permanent signify the thirst of living in their own land. So resident in adopted land is impoverished for immigration occurred Raj who succeeds in their identity, and felt insecurity.All the gaining professional qualifications and as a immigrants in the third world generations hold doctor. But some fellow Indo-Caribbean their double identity.Like wise Indo- Caribbean, immigrants where encountered worst. Harban Afro-American and Anglo-Canadian.Either an another Guyanese who live in same building Indian or Caribbean,African orAmerican. a school teacher an illegal immigrant came References Canada for better half. But “I come here 1. (Lee, Jung Young, Marginality: The key to thinking maybe I could find it again... in Multicultural Theology (Minneapolis: classroom...I find a room and security guard Augsburg Fortress Press, 1995). uniform (286). His diasporical fate to live in Canada , which he does not love and he forced
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USE OF ALLEGORY IN C.S.LEWIS’ THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
R.Angelin Priscilla M.Phil. Scholar, Research Department of English, The American College, Madurai
Abstract Allegory is a figure of speech used specifically in literary works. It has a surface meaning and symbolic meaning which the readers can relate to and when it deepens it gives didactic meaning as well. To write an allegorical novel, the writer can write only what he already knows even if it’s an unconscious act. The readers can identify the hidden meaning only when they are exposed to what the writer intends to say or else the readers can enjoy only the surface meaning of the novel. This paper focuses on finding the traces of biblical allegory in the novel The Lion. the Witch and the Wardrobe where Lewis himself says to Lucy Matthews, “a strict allegory is like a puzzle with a solution” and this paper helps to find a solution Keywords: Allegory, biblical, fantasy.
Introduction seen a son of Adam or a daughter of Eve Allegory is a figure of speech in which before” (17). Adam and Eve are our first parents abstract ideas and principles are described in and first human created by God in His own terms of characters and events. It can be image and by His own breath. Genesis-1:27 says employed in literary works with the purpose of “So God created man in his own image, in the teaching or explaining an idea. The objective of image of God created he him; male and female its use is to teach some kind of moral lesson. created he them”. C.S.Lewis is known for his children’s novels Aslan, the Lion the king of all animals in the and Narnia series. It is read by children, novel is compared to the Lion of Judah and youngsters and adults and the first series The Jesus Christ who is king of kings in the holy Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has excerpts Bible is mentioned in Revelation-19:16 says from The Bible which the readers can relate to “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh he and also enjoy the fantasy of Narnia. It is a part has the name written, KING OF KINGS AND of what makes reading a dynamic and LORD OF LORDS”. Aslan created the world of adventurous and the reason why readers re- Narnia with his voice and God created the read books and get a contour effect. world the same way. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis-1:3). "The Allegorical Elements Lion opened his mouth...he was breathing out a In the novel, The Lion, the Witch and the long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the Wardrobe, Lucy could enter into the wardrobe beasts as the wind sways a line of trees". This while the others could not and Jesus says in The image of life-giving breath directly relates to Bible “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be how God created man in Genesis-2:7. It says converted, and become as little children, ye "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven” the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the (Mathhew-18:3). Only after little faith instilled breath of life; and the man became a living soul" by the professor, the other siblings entered into Aslan, the Lion and The White Witch Narnia. We find only the children are able to represent the orientation of good and evil in enter Narnia. From this, it gives us the parallels Narnia. Aslan’s character has distinct parallels between the nature of Narnia and the nature of to Jesus Christ and The White Witch who acts Heaven. Tumnus(Faun) considered Lucy as similar to Satan. Her appearance reveals that daughter of Eve. He also says “I have never she was not a normal human but beyond that 100 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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she makes things with a single drop of liquid in for forty days. Edmund after meeting the White her copper bottle and change people who Witch agrees not to reveal about the White disobeys her into statue. She controls everything Witch to his siblings and so he lied to them and in Narnia, even a tree could obey her and she becomes a traitor. Edmund was forgiven for his has got whole Narnia under her thumb. Aslan betrayal and represents many characteristics of gave life to Narnia which is similar to Jesus who Judas, including the characteristics of betrayal gave His life to the world. “The thief cometh and Aslan’s similarity to Jesus is noticeable in not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I the way he forgives Edmund. Mr. Beaver gives am come that they might have life, and that they beautiful explanation about the origin of the might have it more abundantly” (John-10:10). White Witch as neither human nor an animal. The white witch is described as fair and She is compared to Satan, the devil who is beautiful creation and allegorically the Satan neither human nor animal but rules the world who was once a fallen Angel from heaven was by his evil force or power. When Peter, Susan angelic! and Lucy came to know of the truth that Edmund is tempted by the Turkish delight Edmund was under the control of Witch and given by the White Witch which makes him has become the traitor, they started seeking the commit great sin and fall in to the ditch. The help of Aslan in order to protect themselves and same way in Old Testament Satan tempted Eve Edmund from the Witch. The Bible says only to eat the fruit of knowledge. Edmund fell in to Jesus can control and destroy the authority of this trap because of gluttony one of the seven Satan. When Jesus steps in automatically, the deadly sins. “At first Edmund tries to remember devil has to step out. In the novel, it says “Aslan that it was rude to speak with one’s mouth full, is on the move, the Witch’s magic is weakening” but soon he forgot about this and thought only (117). of trying to shovel down as much Turkish The White Witch gave Turkish delight to Delight as he could, and the more he ate and Edmund in order to fulfill her desire of bringing more he wanted to eat”(43). A verse from Paul his siblings in to Narnia. After achieving that in the New Testament gives mankind a warning she took Edmund in to her custody and denied about gluttony and that says their end is to give him the Turkish delight. Aslan rescued destruction if people treat their belly as Edmund from the witch by sacrificing his own God.(Philippians-3:19) life. The Bible says God always keeps his Edmund betrayed his brother and sisters promises but Devil steps back from his word. (siblings) just for having the enchanted Turkish Edmund betrayed his own siblings but Aslan delight and to rule them. He betrayed them doesn’t curse or doesn’t even say a word against when the white witch offered him prince hood Edmund. He sacrificed His own life in order to if he brought his siblings to her. She says “I rescue him from the Witch. Jesus Christ gave his think I would like to make you the prince life for us to rescue us from the sinful world. someday when you bring the others to visit me” Romans-5:8 say “While we were yet sinners, (45). The same way in New Testament Judas Christ died for us”. Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty silver “Supper that evening was a quiet coins. Matthew 26-15, 16 says: “What will ye meal”(159). Aslan alone knows that he is going give me and I will deliver him unto you betray? to be a prey for the Witch. So he arranges a last And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces supper for his followers and his disciples which of silver. And from that time he sought were seemed to be quite a meal. The same way opportunity to betray Him”. Jesus was also before crucifixion of Jesus, he arranged for a last tempted by Satan in the desert when he fasted supper with his followers. Aslan too had
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followers like Beavers, Tumnus and many prophecy fulfilled. In the end, Aslan leaves the people followed Jesus. Aslan gave himself in the happy crowd with the promise that he will hands of the Witch and subjected to return just as Christ ascended to heaven leaving humiliation. “Let him first be shaved.” (164) his people awaiting his promised return. said the Witch. He was surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking Him, hitting Summation Him, spitting on Him, jeering at Him. This Lewis used children as the main characters imagery is once again remarkably similar to that which establish a connection for young readers. of the gospels. “And the men that held Jesus Lewis wrote in Of Other Worlds as: mocked him, and smote him. And when they “Some people seem to think that I began by had blindfolded him, they struck him on the asking myself how I could say something about face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy that smote thee? (Luke 22:63-65). He offered tale as an instrument, then collected information himself as a sacrifice on the stone table in about child psychology and decided what age Edmund’s stead and Christ died on the cross as group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic payment for the sins of man. Aslan made no Christian truths and hammered out ‘allegories’ noise even when the enemies strained, tugged to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I and pulled the coats so tight that they cut in to couldn’t write in that way. It all began with his flesh and began to drag him towards the images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on stone table. Jesus carried the cross on His back a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t with lots of pain and doesn’t utter any word. anything Christian about them; that element When Aslan died, the country looked dark pushed itself in of its own accord”. Children grey and the seas showed pale. The sky began enjoys the surface meaning but young minds to turn red. After the death of Jesus Christ the and adults could uncover the deeper meaning entire climate has changed. The darkness and get enlightened even though Lewis denied scattered everywhere. Luke 23:45 says “And the about this novel being allegorical. sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst”. Aslan’s resurrection References involves the same kind of biblical allusion. Lucy 1. Lewis C.S.The Lion, the Witch and the and Susan take off Aslan’s muzzle and they Wardrobe. London: Harper Collins leave the stone table where he was executed. In Publishers.1950.Print. the early morning they find the stone table was 2. Literary Devices Editors. ‘Metaphor’ Literary broken and resurrected Aslan standing before Devices.net. 2013. web. them. In the gospel of Luke the women who 3. Brennan, Matt, The Lion, the Witch and the had followed Jesus took the spices they had Allegory: An Analysis of Selected Narnia prepared and went to the tomb and found the Chronicles.1996.web. body of Jesus missing and later they found out 4. The Holy Bible: Authorized King James that Jesus has risen from the death. Finally the Version. Thomas Nelson Publications. heart of the story has distinct parallels to the Nashville. 2003. Print. warrior and resurrection of Jesus Christ and
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FEMINISM IN SHASHI DESHPANDE’S SHADOW PLAY
G.Veronical M.Phil. Scholar, The Gandhigram University, Gandhigram, Dindigul
Abstract Feminism is largely apolitical movement that aims at gaining equality to women in the society and attempts to secure them. Feminist movements have continued to campaign for women’s basic rights from voting, education, working, equal pay, and even to have her own property. ShashiDeshpande who constantly focusing on women empowerment and feminism have provided many altered views of feminism in her novel through her female characters. The present paper focuses on feminism and motherhood in Deshpande’sShadow Play through her female charactersArundati, Kasthuri, Charu. Generally deshpande gives strong character portrayal for her female protagonists. Here we can find such quality particularly in Seema and Aru (Arundati). Though the world is developed and modernized still women have to fight against the evils that are exist in the society. Keywords: Motherhood Iniquity against women Women empowerment Courageous Humanity Equality
Introduction during the funeral of his wife Sumi. After ten ShashiDeshpande is an award winning years back he came to attend his daughter’s Indian novelist. Her works are commonly marriage. Kalyani is the one who takes charge recognized from feminist point of view. Her of her family after losing her husband and notable works are That Long Silence, Small daughter in road accident. Her only wish is to Remediesetc. Both Shadow play and A Matter of give her house to her granddaughters and her Time are sequels.A Matter of Timeis written more younger daughter Premi after her. She also than two decades back in 1996 and Shadow play requests her son in law to be with his family, is written in 2013.The two novels are different especially for his younger daughter Seema. She mainly because of the passage of time. The main taught that Charu will be settling down with concerns too are very different, taking into her husband Hirish in U.S. Aru will be with consideration the fact that the characters, Rohit. Seema will be standing alone after her especially Aru and her sisters, are at a different sister Aru’s marriage. stagein their lives. Meanwhile Gopal went to immerse sumi’s The novel begins with the marriage ashes in the Alakananda, Where he met kasturi celebration of the protagonist Aru(short for and Mr.Rao. Kasturi is a script writer and a Aruntati) the elder daughter of Sumi, who was famous face in television field. Gopal introduce died 10 years back in road accident. Aru has kasturi to Aru and Charu. They rentedtheir two sisters,charu andseema. Aru and Rohit get apartment to Kasturi. Though Kasturi befriend married and settle down into the life of a with Aru, Aru hates her close relationship with working couple in a big city. They rebuilt their her father Gopal. But Seema the second sister of ancestral house with a help of their family and Aru seems to be close with Kasturi. her grandmother Kalyani, who atones for the wrong society deals its women by the act of Social inquity against Women generosity in her death.Gopal is father of Aru Two major acts that takes important place in who has not been with his daughter and wife this novel is bomb blast in the city and the for more than ten years. He met his family second one is gang rape. Aru leads her life as a 103 Bodhi International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches
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successful lawyer in Surekka’s office with her Aru as a passionate feminist, Kasturi as a rather colleagues Nagma and the office girl Tressa. She fierce one. And also, their battle is not has a girl child name Gracy. The story gets its misleading, because it comes out of a strong unexpected shock while Tressa died in the conviction, which in turn comes out of their bomb blast in the main city. Deshpande lives, not any theory. Though Deshpande’s expresses the pain of Ramu(Tressa’s husband) female characters are strongly viewed from and her daughter Gracy after the death of feminist point of view, none of her character in Tressa. Shadow Play directly talks about feminism or The significant fact is that the gang rape of fights for their rights or not even makes others Seema. Deshpande is aware that men are to know their position in society. disappointed by the manner in which the victim and her family members handle sexual violence. Motherhood Deshpande refers to the Delhi rape case, In Shadow Playthe relationship between pointing out that the traumatized woman gave mother and daughter are strong and important detailed evidence before her death. "She did not too. There are number of mother daughter feel she had to hide. But men still view women's relationship in this novel. Shadow play deals body as property. They are like wolves going about the parenthood in a different perspective. about in packs” she says in an interview. Aru is a tool to Despande, through Aru she tries Though the society develops in many ways, to discover the definite nature of women if she women are educated the outlook remains the doesn’t have a child of her own. She feels guilt same. In shadow play, even though, Seema is when Nagma hide her pregnancy to her. The educated and empowered the inequity has done society make a woman think that if a woman to her. But here Deshpande, made her readers to didn’t have a child of her own, she is incapable think in a different perspective. Many of her of being as a woman or she failed to have readers would have thought that Seema as a femininity in her body. In Shadow Play, Though vicitim could not come out from the violence Aru not a type of women who get jealous, if done to her.But in contrast Seemarises even other women get pregnancy, the world make more brave and brighter than earlier. She says her to suspect her own nature when Nagma to her sister that, hide her pregnancy. Onceshe says to Rohit that, “Don’t worry about me, Aru. I don’t want “She tells him she’s afraid she will became you or papa to worry about me’. one of those childless women who Seema has not spoken so much, not for haunt hospitals, looking for newborns a very long time, Now, having said to steal, women who go to children’s parks and what she wanted to say, she stands up, playgrounds to kidnap children…she tells him ready to go.”(Shadow Play)Pgno:292. about Nagma’s pregnancy. She never told me about it. She was afraid I would be hurt, that I Women Empowerment would envy her. And While talking of feminism and women I do, I do Rohit.”(Shadow Play) pg no: 207 empowerment in the novel Shadow play, Aru The emotional, sexual and psychological and Kasturi, and Seema who have arrived at stereotyping of females begins when the doctor feminism through their experiences in life, have says, “She can’t give birth to her baby”. She absorbed the idea of feminism into themselves believes that women are not born mothers. A by nature, they express it through their actions; woman becomes a mother only when she has a they don't need to declare it loudly. They child. By which time she has a personality of her emphasize on duty than rights. She thinks of own, so she is still that person, not just a
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'mother'!. She never believes that a woman, is essential rather than feminism. “A Feminist is when she becomes a mother, gets a crown one who recognizes the equality and knows round her head. She does what nature intends their rights with full humanity of women and her to do nurturing the infant. But otherwise, men”. Therefore women should “Emphasize on she remains her own self. duty than rights”.
Summation References ShashiDeshpande produces something 1. Deshpande, shashi.Shadow Play. Aleph Book different vision about feminism, women Company:india.1996.Print empowerment and motherhood through her 2. archive.indianexpress.com/news/-the- novels. Her characters are not anxious and thought-of-what-it-is-to...-/1181857/ desperate but intellectual and cerebral. Through 3. https://www.telegraphindia.com/1131020 her novel Deshpande intends to say humanism /jsp/7days/17472923.jsp
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DOES TEACHER’S ATTITUDE AFFECT LANGUAGE LEARNING?
A.Delphine M.Phil. Scholar, Research Department of English, The American College, Madurai
Abstract English language occupies a very prominent place in the present world. It is known to be the International Language and is widely used as the official language in many countries. It remains the major medium of communication in the fields of education, trade and commerce, science and technology etc. It helps people from different origins to communicate and mingle comfortably. In a multi lingual and multi cultural country like India, English is considered as the link language. In such cases a common language like English clears the commotion. Though English has become an important need to learn, there are still students who are reluctant to the learning of English language. There might be quite a few reasons behind it, viz. the domination of the mother tongue, fear, lack of motivation, non effective teachers and teaching methodologies et cetera. This paper aims to prove that the teachers’ attitude upon the students is directly proportional to their learning of the language. Keywords: Language learning, motivation, teachers’ attitude, interest, importance of English
Introduction foreign languages. About the status of English Learning English has also become a very as the official language Crystal states, “The role important phenomenon for the purpose of of an official language is today best illustrated communication across the globe. People by English, which now has some kind of special nowadays have greater dreams and vision in status in over seventy countries, such as Ghana, their life. Everyone wishes to travel to different Nigeria, India, Singapore, Vanuatu and et places of the world. English may not be spoken cetera. This is far more than the status achieved in every country but in most of the countries by any other language – though French, English is the official language. English is also German, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic are the dominant business language and necessary among those which have also developed a in the purpose of entering into the busy world considerable official use” (Crystal, 2003). with a decent job. In the entertainment fields Solomon Benny an Indian professor says like music, movies, books the materials are that “English Language Teaching and learning produced in English, and so to access them one has become very complex in India. This is should learn English otherwise a great part of mainly because of the issues, debates and entertainment might be missed in one’s life. discussions about the position of English Even in internet most of the information is in language in India.” English and to gain knowledge from it learning English had always been admired by English has become compulsory. Indians yet the importance of mother tongue, David Crystal, a famous British Linguist has cultural ideologies, mother tongue based mentioned that English is being spoken as the education etc have all been as obstacles to admit mother tongue in nearly six countries and that their admiration towards English. The language alone doesn’t give English the global status. is actually accepted at the surface level but is There are also further more features for a resisted at the cultural and psychological levels. language to gain its global status. According to All such cultural, political ideologies, lack of Crystal, the language should get into the efficient teachers make English language community of the speakers and gain the status teaching a difficult task. of the official language in spite of the presence There are various differences among the of the mother tongue and also when the students who learn English in India and in such language is made the priority in the country’s situations the teacher’s attitude plays a very
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important role in either making the student These friendly gestures will create a positive attracted to the language are repel over the attitude towards the teacher and will language. encourage students in listening to what the teachers say. Discussion Be flexible, but keep eyes on learning goals, A good knowledge in English language has for an example, once when a teacher found a great scope to provide. Learning English that writing essays were hated by a student language and having a good communication and football was the area of interest of that skill will lead to a wide range of opportunities. particular student, the teacher asked the English language will get the students a good student to describe the game. As it was his scope for job all over the world. So it is very interesting topic the student came out important to learn English language. Teacher’s learning to write a descriptive essay on the attitude can tremendously increase motivation game. among the learners and it is an important factor Don’t give up on students, a teacher should that will help to learn English language that never conclude that any student is which is going to give job for many young incapable. Some may pick up the language scholars. quick and some may take time. So the It can be perceived from recent studies that teacher should be a constant source of many students create liking for a subject encouragement and should always be because they like the teacher. Students also positive on students. show good results in those subjects. Research Thus many linguists and language scholars shows that appreciation from the teacher have spoken about the importance of awakens the spirit of learning in the student. It motivation in language learning and have plays a major role in motivating the students. suggested many strategies while teaching to In order to help learners develop their improve motivation among the students. motivation toward learning a foreign language, English as a foreign or second language creates teacher should gain a better understanding of important doubts among students as to why the learner’s perspectives because “students’ should we learn the language, which retards the belief about foreign language learning is found learning process. So as to resolve this and make to play an important role in influencing their the students learn the language better, motivation, attitude, motivational intensity, motivation plays a vital role. To motivate the strategy use, anxiety and language students, teachers’ attitude plays a very achievement”, states a researcher. significant role. Many researchers in language give some Motivation is an integral part in learning. similar strategies for teachers to make the Any work can be achieved only when the students motivated in their learning based on person is motivated to do that, either from teachers’ behaviour. They are, within or from outside. Sufficient amount of To take genuine interest in the students, motivation will help the learners to sustain their that is the teacher can learn the dreams of interest in learning. Motivation is the key for their students and lend ears to them, which learning English successfully and the interest in will make the learners listen to the teacher. learning English is one of the key factors in how Act friendly, the teacher can behave in a well the student learns the foreign language. friendly manner like cracking few jokes, There are a lot of researches done on this topic delivering a smile then and there, and due to the importance of the topic. There are supporting students when they are right. also a lot of suggestions made to the teachers on
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improving the level of motivation of the comfortable among the students so that the students, emphasizing the importance of the student feels free to approach the teacher for positive attitude of the teachers. any academic guidance. Therefore the teachers’ attitude plays a very Summation significant role in language learning. Hence Many researches are being conducted on teachers are expected to be friendly and are how to motivate the students to learn English requested to avoid showing displaced anger. because of its importance in today’s world. The teacher is someone who will definitely Majority of students, who learn English as a influence the students’ thinking, hence the second language, think that motivation plays an teacher is supposed to give authentic important role in English Language Learning. information with a welcoming attitude. Students expect motivation from outside when they lack it from within. Basically many people References have a fear to learn something new, and it is the 1. Allen, Harold B. & Russell N. Campbell. same with the language. Students may have (1972). Teaching English as a Second some fear to learn a foreign language; also there Language. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc. can be a lot of other reasons added to it. 2. Antonysamy, K. S. (2014). Doing Research The teachers’ genuine interest on students in ELT. Chennai: Vijaya Nicole. will definitely give better results in learning. 3. Crystal, David. (2003). English as a Global The teacher should understand the learner Language (2nd eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge differences and should try to involve all the University Press. students during their class. The students are 4. Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies always carried away by the behavior of the in a Language classroom. Cambridge: teachers. Any teacher should make themselves Cambridge University Press.
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NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES IN NAYOMI MUNAWEERA’S ISLAND OF A THOUSAND MIRRORS
R.Pavithra M.Phil. Scholar, PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore
Abstract The ethnic conflict that has submerged the island is often positioned as a significant aspect of most Sri Lankans lives. Many transnational writers tend to focus on the ethnic conflict as well as the aftermath of leaving the homeland. Despite leaving, the homeland and the memories of the island tend to travel with the transnational writers. This paper seeks to discuss the ways in which Nayomi Munaweera’s Islands of a Thousand Mirrors as a story of trauma and how the narratology is focused by the author. In order to understand narrotology’s contribution to semiotics, it is important to grasp the distinction between its three fundamental entities: story, narrative and narration. Narratology looks at the internal mechanisms of narrative, the form taken by a narrated story.
Nayomi Munaweera was born in Sri Lanka unimaginable, and often unspeakable, loss, in 1973. She grew up in Nigeria and immigrated displacement and violence. Island of a Thousand to Los Angeles with her family in the early 80’s. Mirrors is a fictional work depicting the Sri She is the award-winning author of the novels, Lankan Civil War, It focuses on the conflicts Islands of a Thousand Mirrors and What Lies between two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka Between Us. Her debut novel, Island of a from the perspective of two girls who witness Thousand Mirrors, was initially published in the horror —Yasodhara, from a Sinhala family, South Asia in 2013. It was long-listed for the and Saraswathi, from a Tamil family. Man Asia Literary Prize and won the Yasodhara tells the story of her own Sinhala Commonwealth Regional Prize for Asia. It was family, rich in love, with everything they could long listed for the Dublin IMPAC Prize and ask for. Yasodhara’s early years were smooth short listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian sailing. This peace is shattered by the tragedies Literature. It was released in America in 2014 by of war. The turning point in their lives was the St. Martin’s Press. Publisher's Weekly has murder of their uncle by a group of gangster compared Munaweera's work to that of Jumpha while he was trying to save a Tamil youngster. Lahiri and Munaweera's countryman, Michael This incident leads them to move to California Ondatjee. The New York Times has called her in search of a peaceful life. In due course we see novel "luminous". Her themes deal with love, Yasodhara’s loveless arranged marriage breaks hope, migration, exile, and redefining identity. up. Saraswathi is living in the active war zone of Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel attempts Sri Lanka, and hopes to become a teacher. But to transcend a little more than 60 years of her dreams for the future are abruptly stamped history, the violent and strife-torn decades of out when she is arrested by a group of Sinhala post-colonial Sri Lanka through three soldiers and pulled into the very heart of the generations of two families. It does achieve an conflict that she has tried so hard to avoid a idyllic, near-perfect picture of the island, conflict that, eventually, will connect her and beaded together from the childhood nostalgia of Yasodhara in unexpected ways. In fact, the lives generations. Sri Lankan fiction set against the of the two girls, their families, their dreams, country’s devastating ethnic conflict that lasted their innocent perspectives on the brewing for nearly three decades, resulting in chaos around them are almost indistinguishable
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from one another. Yasodhara, like Saraswathi, is narration are: (i) Is the basic narrative mode drawn to books and learning. Both are expected ‘mimetic’ (showing or dramatizing) or ‘diegetic’ to marry well, and both have dreams apart from (telling or relating)? (ii) How is the narrative that expectation. And both watch as their home focalised? (external- ‘say and do’ or internal- falls apart. ‘think and feel’) (iii) Who is telling the story? Yasodhara, on the Sinhala side of the (covert or overt) (iv)How is time handled in the conflict, is afforded with the opportunity to flee story? (analeptic or proleptic) (v) How is the to America with her sister, Lanka. Saraswathi, story packaged? (frame narratives or embedded on the Tamil side, is not as fortunate. narratives), and (vi) How are speech and Munaweera tears these women apart, but in thought represented? (direct or indirect speech). completely different ways. Neither is left By analyzing a novel with above questions unscarred by the war, despite the differing the novel answers first four questions. Firstly, Is paths they take. While Yasodhara is literally the basic narrative mode ‘mimetic’ or ‘diegetic’? torn from her family and place of her birth, ‘Mimetic’ manner are dramatized which is to Saraswathi’s body is torn apart by soldiers, an say they are represented in a scenic way, with a event which divides her from her family. specified setting and making use of dialogues Yasodhara enters a loveless, arranged marriage, which contains direct speech. By contrast, and Saraswathi enters boot camp to become a ‘Diegetic’ narrative is more rapid or Tamil Tiger. As it comes to a close, we see summarizing way its main aim is to give us Saraswathi blown apart and Yasodhara’s sister essential or linking information as efficiently as lost in the blast; it is clear that not one soul is left possible without trying to create the illusion. untouched by the war that ravaged the island. Munaweera uses two modes in tandem moving Narratology, a branch of structuralism deals from mimetic to diegetic, her imagery and the with the study of how narratives make meaning power of description immerse you in Sri Lanka and the basic mechanisms and procedures and you can feel the humidity bead on your involved in the act of story-telling. Apart from skin, hear the crash, roll of the sea, taste of the mere reading and interpretation of the stories, it curries. attempts to study the nature of ‘story’ itself, as a Secondly, How is the narrative focalised? concept and a cultural practice. First of all, it Focalisation means the viewpoint or gives a basic distinction between ‘story’ and perspective, which is to say the point of view ‘plot’. The ‘story’ is the actual sequence of from which the story is told. External events as they happen, whereas the ‘plot’ is focalizations are observable, that is the character those events as they are edited, ordered, say and does. In opposite, internal focalizations packaged and presented in a so called narrative. focus is on what the character thinks and feel. The novel has been anlaysed with reference to Her use of internal focalisation is more evident Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory. in the pregnancy scene, were we can visualize Gerard Genette, one of the most prominent and experience the pain, the cry, and the narratologist in his book Narrative Discourse, pressure faced by the characters. discusses the six particular areas that he focuses Thirdly, Who is telling the story? One kind in the process of telling a story (how it is told). of narrator is not identified at all as a distinct These six basic questions about the act of character and remains just a voice or a tone such
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Vol.2 Special Issue 8 March 2018 ISSN: 2456-5571
narrators may be called as covert. The other narrative can be called as analeptic. Likewise kind of narrator is the kind who is identified as the narrative may flash forward to narrate an a distinct character these narrators witness the event which happens later; such narrative can event they are called overt. Munaweera uses be called as proleptic. And she indicate in a Overt which is further divided as slightly crude way how analepsis( flash back) Heterodiegetic and Homodiegetic, she and prolepsis(flash forward) are often employes homodiegetic were Yasodara and important in establishing and foregrounding Saraswathi are the protaganists of the novel. ‘theme’ in the story. This dual narration presents the two sides of the This book depicts what happens to normal picture maintaining a delicate balance without people in the course of warfare, and how the life ethnic bias, bitterness or resentment and with can be completely derailed by war. Munaweera equal sympathy for the sufferers struggling to writes exquisitely of the island of Sri Lanka. Her come to terms with life, whether they are Sri writings are brimming with vivid imagery and Lankans or Tamils. lyrical in its beauty. The story progress quickly Fourthly, How is time handled in the story? but in minute detail, carrying the reader Narrative often contains reference back and forward into the present day and into the lives forward so that the order of telling does not of the focal characters. Part historical fiction, correspond to the order of happening. part family saga, it is most of all an odd to the Sometimes the story will flash back to relate an Sri Lanka of the past and hopeful wish for the event which happened in the past such country’s future.
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