Core English Language English Language Through Literature-Ii

B.A.(Prog.)/B.Com(Prog.) Semester-III/IV English CORE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THROUGH LITERATURE-II SLM-1 (Unit 1-5) SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING University of Delhi Department of English Undergraduate Course CORE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THROUGH LITERATURE-II SLM-1 (Unit 1-5) Contents Page No. Unit 1 : Understanding Life Narratives-II Dr. Seema Suri 01-23 Unit 2 : Exploring Poetry P.K. Satapathy 24-36 Unit 3 : Beyond the Land of Hattamala : Badal Sarkar Nalini Prabhakar 37-49 Unit 4 : Exploring Fiction–Novella Dr. Neeta Gupta 50-78 Unit 5 : Writing Your Own Academic Essay/Paper Deb Dulal Halder 79-93 for the Classroom SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING UNIVERSITY OF DELHI 5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007 Unit 1 Understanding Life Narratives Dr. Seema Suri 1. Introduction What is a life narrative? A life narrative is a general term used to describe the stories people tell about their lives or those of others. It could be in the form of a biography, an autobiography, a chronicle, or even an article about a specific event. It could also be in a digital format like a blog. People write life narratives for a variety of reasons; to share their experiences or lessons learned over a lifetime; to express their pain or loneliness, in an effort to help others going through similar struggles; record their memories of important historical events or document their journey towards fame and success. The range of reasons is diverse and so is the manner in which the narratives are constructed. However, a person’s life narrative is not like a Wikipedia page; with details of birth, education, marriage and other important facts and events in logical order. It would include inner feelings, memories of traumatic experiences, observations about the world and human existence; one’s own or those of the people one is writing about. In this section of the study-material the following readings from your course will be discussed; i) Kamala Das, ‘The Park Street Home.’ My Story. Kottayam: DC Books, 1977. ii) Mayank Austen Soofi. ‘I had come too far.’ Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District. Delhi: Penguin Book, 2012. iii) Kishalay Bhattacharjee, ‘Back to Where I Never Belonged.’ First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Writing from India (4). Delhi: Penguin Books, 2005. iv) Walter Isaacson. ‘4. Atari and India: Zen and the Art of Game Design.’ Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Objectives After going through this Study-Material you should be able to – identify the different types of narratives you have read; – differentiate between the different styles of writing; and – write short accounts of your personal experiences. Each of the following four sections comprise a brief introduction, background, glossary and critical commentary. 1 2. Kamala Das, ‘My Story’ 2.1 About the author Kamala Das (1934–2009) was a famous Indian poet and novelist who wrote in both English and Malayalam, her mother tongue. While writing in Malayalam, she used the pen name Madhavikutty. She was born in Thrissur, Kerala into a fairly privileged family. Her mother, Nalapat Balamani Amma was a well-known Malayali poet who had published around 20 collections of poems; and her father V.M. Nair was a senior executive in an automobile company and editor of the journal Mathrubhumi. Kamala Das has written three collections of poems in English; Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendants (1967), and The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973). In addition, she has written collections of short stories, two novels, and numerous essays as a syndicated columnist. Overall, she has published 25 books and collections of poetry. However, it is her autobiography My Story (1976) that remains her most well-known work. Kamala Das was honoured with the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award (English) in 1984 and nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year. On 1 February, 2018, Google honoured her with a doodle. My Story was originally published in serialized form in the Malayalam weekly Malayanadu and as a book, Ente Katha in 1973. Kamala Das’ autobiography caused a sensation when it first started appearing. Her honest and undiluted depiction of her loneliness in her marriage, her adulterous affairs and her literary career appealed to readers, though many were shocked. There are many accounts about how her own father tried to stop the publication of Ente Katha. In My Story, Kamala Das traces her life from her childhood in Calcutta and Malabar; to her marriage to a much older banker Madhav Das when she was just fifteen years old, and motherhood at sixteen; her loneliness while her husband remained busy with his work and her dissatisfaction with her marriage, though her husband encouraged her to write. In her autobiography, she questions the traditional roles thrust upon women in patriarchal society, writing openly about her relationships with other men. Kamala Das influenced an entire generation of women writers in Kerala but her honesty in depicting her physical desires remains unmatched. It is no wonder that My Story remains the best-selling autobiography written by an Indian woman. 2.2 Study Guide: ‘The House on Park Street’ ‘The Park Street Home’ is the second chapter of Kamala Das’s autobiography. Park Street was a famous, posh locality in Calcutta in pre-independence India. Her father was a senior executive at the Wolford Transport Company, selling luxury cars to princes and their relatives. The family lived above the repair yard of the transport company. In this chapter she describes her early life in Calcutta, where she and her brother went to a British school. Neglected by their parents, the sister and brother find ways to keep themselves occupied. 2 The chapter begins with a description of her parents’ wedding. Like many educated middle-class people, her father was deeply influenced by Gandhiji’s ideals of simplicity and nationalism. Kamala Das’ mother belonged to an upper-class family of landlords without much money, and when she got married her husband did not permit her to wear any gold jewellery or expensive clothes. She was asked to wear only khadi and that too only white or off-white. Read this passage carefully and note the honesty with which she comments on their relationship; My mother did not fall in love with my father. They were dissimilar and horribly mismatched. (p. 4) The author, even as a young child, sensed that her parents’ marriage was an ‘illusion of domestic harmony’ and that too because her mother remained timid. It requires immense courage to write so openly about the shortcomings of the people closest to you, especially your parents. In another part of her autobiography, Kamala Das writes about her own marriage; ‘As a marriage, in the conventional sense, mine was a flop.’ (p. 187) In the first chapter, Kamala Das talks about her mother who was ‘vague and indifferent’ towards her children, spending her time lying on her bed, writing poems, while her father was busy selling Rolls Royces and Bentleys. Even as a young child, the author could sense the lack of appreciation in her parents’ eyes. Without any irony she writes; We must have disappointed our parents a great deal. They did not tell us so, but in every gesture, and in every word it was evident. (p. 5) She somehow thinks that the parents are indifferent towards them because both she and her brother were ordinary looking and had dark skin. Children in unhappy marriages often blame themselves for the problems between their parents. It must have been painful for her to look at herself this way. There’s no doubt her childhood was lonely; she describes their drawing room as one where visitors rarely came. At the same time this loneliness nurtured her ability to reflect and observe. In an interview, Kamala Das once said, “If I had been a loved person, I wouldn’t have become a writer . .” The six-year old Kamala has a special bond with her elder brother and the two children spend their time playing around the house, which was above the repair yard of the motor company for which their father worked. Pay attention to the description of their house; We lived on the top-floor of the repair-yard of the motor car company. One had to climb thirty-six steps to reach our flat. Midway there was to the right an opening which led on to the servants’ quarters where night and day a faucet leaked noisily, sadly. There was a stench of urine which made one pause precisely on that step of the staircase wondering where it came from. In the space of a few lines, the author describes sounds and smells; adds irrelevant and unimportant details like the number of steps, and uses a metaphor as well, ‘sadly’. All these 3 together create a certain mood or atmosphere. Almost all good writers use this technique to create an authentic picture. Discouraged by the parents’ emotional distance, Kamala and her brother try to stay away from them. They spend their time chatting with the gardener, the scavenger or the cook. Otherwise the children look for excitement in little things; like standing at the window and dangling rubber toys from a thread to surprise passers-by. However, they do find a friend in Mr. Menon, the store manager in the office downstairs, who is like a father figure. He is the only person who listens to them and talks to them. The author remembers his warmth and attention; We had only one good friend, just one good friend who liked to touch our hands and talk to us about life in general.

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