B.A. English Third Year Core Paper No.7 INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION COIMBATORE – 641 046 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr (Syllabus) Core Paper – VII INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH DRAMA: Detailed:- Chitra – Rabindranath Tagore Non-deatiled:- Tughlaq – Girish Karnad POETRY: Detail: • Electra - Sri Aurobindo • Stone Goddess – Sri Aurobindo • River - A.K.Ramanujam • My Grandmother’s house - Kamala Das Non-Detail: • Lotus – Toru Dutt • Indian Weavers – Sarojini Naidu • Breezy April – Rabindranath Tagore • In a night of train – Jayanta Mahapatra • Indian Women – Shiv K Kumar FICTION: Cry the Peacock – Anita Desai English Teacher - R.K. Narayan PROSE: Indian Speakers – Parvathi Vasudevan (Macmillan) 2 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr CONTENTS Page No. POETRY 6 Lotus 8 Electron 14 The Stone Goddes 18 Indian Weavers 22 Breezy April 26 River 30 My Grandmother’s House 37 In a night of rain 41 Indian Women 45 LITERARY FORMS 51 INDIAN WRITERS, THEIR POSITIONS IN 52 THE LITERARY HISTORY OF INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH DRAMA 56 What is Drama 57 Chitra 58 Tughlaq 63 FICTION What is Fiction? 77 Cry, the Peacock 79 English Teacher 90 3 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr POETRY 4 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr 5 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr POETRY One of the most popular definitions remains that made by William Wordsworth in the introduction to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1802: 'Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity'. A type of literature in which ideas and feelings are expressed in compact, imaginative, and often musical language. Poetry in general seems to have sprung from two causes, each of them lying deep in our nature. First, the instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and other animals being that he is the most imitative of living creatures, and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated. We have evidence of this in the facts of experience. Objects which in themselves we view with pain, we delight to contemplate when reproduced with minute fidelity: such as the forms of the most ignoble animals and of dead bodies. The cause of this again is, that to learn gives the liveliest pleasure, not only to philosophers but to men in general; whose capacity, however, of learning is more limited. Thus the reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah, that is he.' For if you happen not to have seen the original, the pleasure will be due not to the imitation as such, but to the execution, the colouring, or some such other cause. THE ERA OF INDIAN RENAISSANCE: In the sphere of Indo-Anglian poetry, the era of Renaissance may also be termed “the age of Dutts” because of the two sisters- Aru Dutt and Toru Dutt and the renouned intellectual Romesh Chandra Dutt dominated the poetical scene of this period. Toru Dutt had a different order of intellect and exhibited great ability and originality in bringing Indo-Anglian poetry on a high level of poetic excellence. She had remarkable command over English as none of her predecessors had. She could successfully use English language to express varied human emotions. In her finest work THE ANCIENT BALLADS AND LEGENDS OF HINDUSTAN,she glorified the cultural heritage of India and imparted Vedic solemnity and simplicity to her poetry. Toru Dutt was a promising and talented poetic artist among nineteenth century Indo-Anglian poets. She has no parallel and a few peers in narrative and descriptive verse. THE ERA OF POLITICAL AWAKENING or GANDHIAN ERA: The poetry of this period is suffused with intense patriotism and poetical awareness. The stalwarts of twentieth century Pre-Independence Indo-Anglian poetry—Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Sri Aurobindo and H.N. Chattopadhyaya—belong to this period. Since Tagore, Naidu and Aurobindo are dominant poets of this period, we call this period as the Age of Tagore, Naidu and Aurobindo. 6 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr SAROJINI NAIDU: Sarojini Naidu, the nightingale of India, occupies a unique place in Indo-Anglian poetry. Her early poetry is mostly imitative of English poets-Shelley,Keats and the pre- Raphaelites. It was artificial and stilted. Her poems seal the aroma of the Indian atmosphere. She has given poetic and picturesque expression to the India of temples, wandering pilgrims and singers, palanquin bearers, grinders and weavers. Sarojini Naidu is a lyric poet par excellence in Indo-Anglian poetry. Due to her flawless poetic art, three of her poems “The Soul’s Prayer”, “To a Buddha Seated on a Lotus” and “In Salutation to External Peace.” Have been included in THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH MYSTICAL VERSE. THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE or THE MODERN ERA: The body of Indo-Anglian poetry has certainly been greater in this period than in any preceding epoch. The poetry of this period ranges from personal emotion and lyricism to complex linguistic experiments, dry intellectual tone, pungent satire and nursery rhyme. In the poetry of this epoch the poets desire to discover a new idiom. The poets do not slavishly imitate English and American poets in respect of style, diction and technique. Their main aim is to make poetry modern. The modern Indo-Anglian poets—Dom Moraes, Nissim Ezekiel, P.Lal, Kamala Das, K.N.Daruwalla and A.k.Ramanujam—form a distinctive group. KAMALA DAS: Kamala Das is the pioneer who gave clear frank and straight-forward expression to feminine sensibility in all its varied manifestations. In ths respect,she enjoys a high place in Indian English poetry. Her poetry is confessional and autobiographical. An analysis of her poetry will enable us to understand her poetic art and the main themes of her poetry. Her poetic output is very slender and consists only three volumes- SUMMER IN CALCUTTA, THE DESCENDANTS and THE OLD PLAYHOUSE AND OTHER POEMS. Her poetry is characterized by frankness, clarity and openness. 7 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr THE LOTUS - Toru Dutt WHAT IS INDO-ANGLIAN POETRY? The term Indo-Anglian poetry implies poetry written in English by Indian poets. The origin and development of such poetry flows along with the introduction of English in India. Toru Dutt was a promising and talented poetic artist among the nineteenth century Indo-Anglian poets. Love came to Flora asking for a flower That would of flowers be undisputed queen, The lily and the rose, long long had been Rivals for that high honour. Bards of power Had sung their claims. "The rose can never tower Like the pale lily with her Juno mien" - "But is the lily lovelier?" Thus between Flower fractions rang the strife in Psyche's bower. "Give me a flower delicious as the rose And stately as the lily in her pride"- "But of what colour?"- "Rose red," Love first chose, Then prayed, - "No, lily-white, - or both provide"; And Flora gave the lotus, "rose red" dyed And "lily white," queenliest flower that blows 8 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr ABOUT THE POET: Toru Dutt, the “inheritor of unfulfilled renown”, is one of the most talented poetesses in Indo-Anglian literature. As an interpreter of Indian thought and scene, Toru Dutt is the precursor of Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Aurobindo and Sarojini Naidu (The Nightingale of India). Toru Dutt rises up as a great poet if natures through her poems like- “THE LOTUS”, “BAUGMAREE”, “NEAR HASTINGS” and “OUR CASURINA TREE.” Through such nature poems, she unveils her sharp power of observation and sensitiveness to colour. Though Toru Dutt does not possess the metrical excellence and felicity of diction compared to Sarojini Naidu, she enjoys a privileged place in the arena of flawless spontaneity and lucidity in expression. THE LOTUS: “The Lotus” is a studded sonnet. It reveals Toru’s keen sensitiveness to nature and colour. We come across many instances where we fight for “positions” which may be bubbly too. This poem can be viewed in a perspective that one should notice and bear with both the positive qualities and negative qualities. But when the positive qualities are weighed and intertwined, we get an admirable quality. This poem can be considered as one with a moral. It educates us. Though superficially, we get to know that the poet has highlighted the birth of a flower named Lotus, there is a wide area for contemplation. Toru Dutt has personified the flowers and has given tnem the humanistic nature of quarelling. SUMMARY: Once Love went to Flora (the Goddess of Spring and Florescence) and asked for a flower which be a challenging queen among flowers. The lily and rose had been rivals for long particularly for this cause. Poets have sung about the “delicious rose” and the “stately lily”. One half of the flower population claimed that the rose can never “tower” as the lily. (The lily plant and lily flower usually stands upright). While the rest emerged claiming that the lily cannot be so “delicious” as the rose appears (the rose captures the attention of 9 B.A.English – Indian Writing in English 3rd yr every individual through her colour. This hits the usage of delicious). The harmony was lost again. Finally, Love decided and requested Flora to give a flower that was DELICIOUS as the rose and STATELY as the lily. Flora gave the birth to a LOTUS which was a mix of both red and white.