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CURRENT ISSUE ISSN 2319 – 7684 MIDDLE FLIGHT SSM JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE A National Level Peer-Reviewed Journal SPECIAL VOLUME: The Wonderful Year 1816 – A Bicentenary Appraisal DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH S. S. MAHAVIDYALAYA KESHPUR, PASCHIM MEDINIPUR PIN: 721150, WEST BENGAL, INDIA Vol. 5 November 2016 No.1 MIDDLE FLIGHT JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE A National Level Peer Reviewed Journal Editorial Board: Bill Ashcroft, Australian Professorial Fellow, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW, Sydney Krishna Sen , Professor , University of Calcutta (Retd.) Tirthankar Das Purkayastha, Professor, Vidyasagar University Sankar Prasad Singha, Professor, Vidyasagar University Mahadev Kunderi, Professor, Mysore University Binda Sharma, Associate Professor, C.M.D. College (PG) Satyaki Pal , Associate Professor, R. K. M. Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur (PG) Goutam Buddha Sural , Professor, Bankura University Jaydeep Sarangi, Associate Professor, Jogesh Chandra College Sudhir Nikam, Associate Professor, B. N. N. College (PG) Dinesh Panwar, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi Advisory Board: Jawaharlal Handoo, Professor, Tezpur University (Retd.) & President, Indian Folklore Congress Parbati Charan Chakraborty , Professor, the University of Burdwan (Retd.) B. Parvati, Professor, Andhra University Angshuman Kar, Associate Professor, the University of Burdwan Simi Malhotra, Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia University Shreya Bhattacharji, Associate Professor, Central University of Jharkhand Ujjwal Jana, Assistant Professor, Pondicherry University Subhajit Sengupta, Associate Professor, the University of Burdwan Editor: Debdas Roy [email protected] Co-editor: Pritha Kundu Published: November, 2016 ISSN: 2319 – 7684 Published by : Department of English, S. S. Mahavidyalaya Keshpur, Paschim Medinipur, Pin: 721150 Ph: 03227-250861, Mail: [email protected] © S. S. Mahavidyalaya Price: India: Rs.300.00 Overseas: $ 30 Editorial The objective of a journal, for that matter any meaningful literary endeavour, is as much to look back as to look forward. Looking back is important because it establishes linkages. Exploring continuities should be the life-breath of any advancement of learning. The fifth volume of Middle Flight has focused on a particular year which witnessed the birth of so varied undying literature. Given the long life-span of English literature, a year is but a moment and literature records all but moments, rare and spare. What a milestone is to a traveller from a distant land , years are to the chroniclers of life. The justification behind the commemoration of a particular year or some events around that year or an author is that the occasion sparks some meaningful thoughts and communications. The avowed aim of this special volume on ―The Wonderful year 1816: A Bicentenary Appraisal‖ is to inculcate among the academic community renewed interest in such authors as Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, P.B. and Mary Shelley and Keats. The year 1816 had been significant in their literary careers, and saw the ‗birth‘ of some of their celebrated works. 1816, known as ―the year without a summer‖ throughout Europe (because of a cloudy and stormy weather, crop failures and epidemics that followed the 1815 volcanic eruption of Tambora) inspired not only such dark, gothic masterpieces as ‗The Vampyre‘ and Frankenstein, but also became a great impetus to Romantic landscape painting as well : William J. Turner and John Constable painted some of their ‗apocalyptic‘ works, featuring the smoky and blood-red sky after the explosion, or a dark and gloomy atmosphere looming large over the earth. We have thought of commemorating such magnificent works of pictorial art alongside the literary masterpieces, by choosing Constable‘s Waymouth Bay with Approaching Storm for the cover illustration of this volume. Whether this volume will fulfil the aforesaid objective is a matter of conjecture, but what is unambiguously true is that it provides a platform for getting together some teachers and research scholars who are against ‗erasure‘ of the ‗moments‘ of the past and who believe that the capacity to turn eyes occasionally from the ‗New love‘ (New Literatures, we mean, which has been sweeping away everything else on its way) to the ‗long loved mistress‘ is a healthy sign. Metaphors aside, we were apprehensive as to whether our choice of such a narrowed focus on a specialized area would be approved by the academia. Hopefully, cordial responses from the contributors have dispelled that apprehension. We feel like acknowledging our debt to Dr. Joyjit Ghosh, Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, Vidyasagar University for giving us a chance to publish his invaluable article. The paper contributed by Prof. Satyaranjan Das is a modified version of the paper presented in ―John Keats: Poet-physician, Physician- Poet‖ conference organized by Keats Foundation at London. Special thanks to Prof. Das for preferring our ‗call‘ to the lure of an international journal where he could have easily published his paper. We confess that we couldn‘t resist the temptation of re-publishing Rob Harle‘s wonderful paper on the recent ‗find‘ of a hitherto unpublished political poem by P. B. Shelley. The arrangement of papers, so varied in their scope and insights, has been a matter of serious consideration. In doing so, we have sought to maintain chronology. Considering the absence of Wordsworth (from the present volume), Coleridge claims to be placed at first in terms of seniority; afterwards come Jane Austen, Byron, P.B. Shelley, Polidori, Keats and Mary Shelley. The only paper we have received on Charlotte Brontë (born in 1816), has been placed at last. We admit that some papers included in this volume are differently cited, and two of them do not directly address the year 1816, although they focus on related topics. However, since our honourable reviewers have recommended them, we are pleased to include them as well. The endeavour that goes into the making of this volume would be somewhat fruitful if the papers included here prove to be of any interest to the readers and academicians. Artless thanks to our honourable members on the Advisory and Editorial board, reviewers, colleagues, students and above all to Dr. Dipak Kumar Bhuniya, Principal, Sukumar Sengupta Mahavidyalaya, Keshpur, Paschim Medinipur. Without his generous patronage the journal would not have come out. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance to all concerned with the wellbeing of Middle Flight. November 2, 2016 Editors, Middle Flight Contributors Dr. Joyjit Ghosh is Associate Professor and Head, Dept. of English, Vidyasagar University. Rob Harle, writer, artist and reviewer from Australia. He is on the editorial board of a number of international art and literary journals. Hemant Kumar Golapalli , Assistant professor in English, Vidyasagar University Satyaranjan Das is Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Moyna College. Anindita Bhaumik is Assistant Professor in English, Panskura Banamali College Bisweswar Chakraborty is Assistant Professor in English and OIC, Lalgarh Government College. Arup Ratan Chakraborty is Assistant Professor and Head, Dept. of English, Santal Bidroha Sardha Satabarshiki Mahavidyalaya, Goaltore. Soumen Jena is Assistant Professor of English and Head, Dept. of English , Subarnarekha Mahavidyalaya, Gopiballavpur Pritha Kundu , Asssistant Professor in English, Chandrakona Vidyasagar Mahavidyalaya Prodosh Bhattacharya , formerly guest-lecturer at A. J. C. College and Kaji Najrul University, at present a guest-faculty in the PG department of English, Basanti Devi College, Kolkata. Priyanka Chatterjee , Ph.D. scholar of North Bengal University, and Assistant Professor of the Directorate of Distance Education of the same university. Sanchayita Paul Chakraborty , Doctoral Research Scholar in the Dept. Of English, North Bengal University and Guest-lecturer, Distance Education Centre of Rabindrabharati University at Raigunj Surendranath College Sovan Tripathy, M. Phil. Scholar, Vidyasagar University and Guest-lecturer in the Dept. of English, Panskura Banamali College. Abhirup Mascharak, Doctoral Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Jadavpur University. Sanju Bera, Research aspirant, and Assistant Teacher, Manikpara High School Soumya Sundar Mukherjee , Research aspirant and Assistant Teacher, Joypur ST. SC. and BC. High School Krishanu Maiti, Ph. D. Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Vidyasagar University Soumyadeep Chakraborty , Research Scholar of the University of Burdwan and guest-lecturer in the Dept. of English, Raja N. L. Khan Women‘s College Mir Ahammad Ali , Ph.D. Research Scholar and DRS Project Fellow in the Dept. of English, Vidyasagar University, formerly Research Assistant in a UGC Major Research Project in the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, and also copy-editor of the Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Chanchal De Boxi, Guest Teacher, Sukumar Sengupta Mahavidyalaya and M. Phil. scholar , Dept. of Women Studies, Vidyasagar University Contents Page NO. The Road to Xanadu after 200 years: A Measure of the “Pleasure-dome” 7 ------ Prodosh Bhattacharya Christabel and Intertextual Imagination : From Coleridge to Keats 13 ------- Pritha Kundu The Pride of Colonial Presence and the Prejudiced Hangover: Jane Austen Back in India 19 ---- Sanchayita Paul Chakraborty & Priyanka Chatterjee Heterogeneity, Experiential Specificity and Woman: A Study of