INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH: LITERATURE, LANGUAGE & SKILLS
Volume 9 Issue 1, April 2020 ISSN 2278-0742, www.ijells.com
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Editor’s Note
Dear Readers & Contributors, Welcome to the April 2020 issue of IJELLS. We commence the ninth year of publishing. We have published a total of 33 regular issues (including this) and 9 special issues. We have worked very hard in these unprecedented times to compile and launch this issue. We have encouraged some young writers and welcomed some experienced ones too. The range of articles will be interesting to read. Browse through the issue and share with us your comments and observations at editor.ijells@gmail.com Spend some time here and also share it with your peers! Happy Reading and Sharing!
Dr. Mrudula Lakkaraju Founding & Chief Editor
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Founding & Chief Editor Dr. Mrudula Lakkaraju, Department of English, Osmania University is trained from EFLU and a Doctorate from Osmania University. She prefers the designation of a trainer and a writer. She has presented several academic articles to international and national seminars, conferences, journals, and magazines. Casual and creative writing is also her forte. She is a prolific reader and writer. Her areas of interest are Post colonial Literature, Gender Studies, Film Studies, English Language Teaching, Contemporary Literature and Communication Skills.
Board of Editors
Dr. Thirunavukkarasu Karunakaran English Language Teaching Centre, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Dr. Isam M Shihada Al Aqsa University, Gaza strip
Dr. Ravi Bhushan Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana
Dr. G. Venkata Ramana, BVRIT, Narsapur
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Contents Editor’s Note............................................................................................................................................................02 Editorial Board .......................................................................................................................................................03 Contents....................................................................................................................................................................04
English Literature Crying in the Wilderness: The Social Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps around the Fire Anita Konwar.............................................................................................................................................................05 Under the Wing of an Alcoholic Father: A Study of Childhood Domestic Abuse in Bernice L McFadden’s The Warmest December Fardos Bakjaji..............................................................................................................................................................10 Archetypes of Blyton Himanjali Gollapinni...................................................................................................................................................15 Nadifa Mohamed’s The Orchard of Lost Souls: Somalia from a Feminist Viewpoint James Joseph & Sr Celine E........................................................................................................................................23 Trajectories of Arab Spring: The politics of Persecution in Benyamin’s Twin novels Al Arabian Novel Factory and Jasmine days. Jishnu Prasad..............................................................................................................................................................32 Social Conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali’s Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw) Mahendra Kumar Budhathoki....................................................................................................................................37 The Ordeal of Anjali in going Local to Global: A Study of Bharti Mukherjee’s Miss New India Mamta Bisht................................................................................................................................................................47 Symbolism in T S Eliot’s “Game of Chess” Samuel Mundru...........................................................................................................................................................54 Maithili Women: Sole Precursor of Mithila Art Santosh Kumar Singh.................................................................................................................................................60 Resonance of Female’s Struggle in Mayor of Casterbridge Shobhana Singh...........................................................................................................................................................70 Human Emotion and its Allusion to Nature in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children Updesh Singh...............................................................................................................................................................78
English Language Teaching Learning a Second Language is a Battle of Heart-Role of Motivation Ameena Kidwai...........................................................................................................................................................87 The Language of Advertising: A Critical Study Pinali Vadher...............................................................................................................................................................98
English and Communication Skills Documenting Success Stories: Style of Reporting Meena Malik..............................................................................................................................................................106 Author Profiles……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………..113
Image Courtesy: https://www.goodfon.com/wallpaper/close-up-freestocks-flora-growth-nature-petals-flora-priroda.html #badl7wm
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English Literature Crying in the Wilderness: The Social Issues in Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps around the Fire Anita Konwar
Abstract:
Literature is the mirror of society. It can be a powerful medium to represent the voice of the oppressed. In spite of the rapid progress in the 21st century at national level, the attitude of society towards the weaker sections has not changed and their cry for equal rights becomes a cry in the wilderness. The ‗hijras‘ do not find a space in the mainstream society and they are marginalized and neglected. At the national level, sincere effort to represent the voice of the ‗hijra‘ is seen in playwrights like Mahesh Dattani. Mahesh Dattani, one of the exponents of modern Indian drama, is a renowned playwright and an active theatre practitioner. This paper aims at analyzing the social issues in Dattani‘s Seven Steps around the Fire. The play has raised many questions regarding the rights and social status of the ‗hijra‘ community. The methodology applied in the paper is analytical method. In Seven Steps around the Fire, Dattani has focused on the marginalized ‗hijra‘ community who do not find a place in the writings of other playwrights.
Key Words: Oppressed, Wilderness, Marginalized, Hijra, Rights
Introduction:
It is not always a story that Dattani wants to tell his audiences across the world. It is sometimes a cause, a point of view, a sense of contemporaneity and a social message that he tries to convey through his plays. The various plays that he has written deal with some issues prevalent in the society and expose it most honestly and candidly. Dattani makes an abundant use of Indian mythology, rituals and traditions and contemporary problems, India is beset with but he elevates these themes to a higher level, touching the human chords that emanate love, happiness, sexual fulfillment and problem of identity.
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Objective & Methodology: This paper aims at analyzing the social issues in Dattani‘s Seven Steps around the Fire. The play has raised many questions regarding the rights and social status of the ‗hijra‘ community. The methodology applied in the paper is analytical method. In Seven Steps around the Fire, Dattani has dealt with the subaltern issue. He has focused on the marginalized ‗hijra‘ community who do not find a place in the writings of other playwrights. The ‗hijra‘ community can be compared with the subalterns and it has to be examined how the suppressed and rebellious voice of the subaltern has been highlighted in the play.
Analysis: Seven Steps around the Fire dwells on the theme of ‗hijras‘ and their identity-crisis. Society has denied them the rights and opportunities to live like a normal human being. Postcolonial writer, Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak in her essay ―Can the Subaltern Speak?‖ adapts the notion of the subaltern, meaning the oppressed class in order to theorize the condition of the native within colonialism and the woman in postcolonial state. Spivak argues that the structure of colonialism prevents any speaking. This structure is doubly strengthened in the case of the native woman, who is silenced through both patriarchy and colonialism. The concept of ‗Subaltern‘ can be applied to the ‗hijras‘. Like the subaltern subject, the ‗hijras‘ are oppressed class and they are also silenced in the dominant regimes of society. They have been deprived of their rights both by Nature and society. The mainstream society would never allow the ‗hijras‘ to be a part of social ceremonies. Uma Rao, the sociology scholar, becomes the mouthpiece of the playwright, who fights to establish the identity of a eunuch, Kamala, during her research on the class and gender-related violence and crime, its justice in the nemesis of the play. The play is about the marriage of a beautiful hijra Kamla to a son of a wealthy government minister named Subbu. This shocking revelation culminated into the murder of Kamla. The society accepts a hijra for gracing the ceremonies of marriage and births but would not allow them to partake of such ceremonies. The author has ironically portrayed this aspect which would not have been given any heed, for any matter related to them is of no importance to anyone. The heart rendering story about a hijra that she is murdered simply because she had fallen in love with Subbu a young man having a status of importance in society, fills us with horror and sense of injustice.
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In the very beginning of the play we see how the hijras are treated like non-living things; they are given the pronoun ‗it/its‘ by characters like Munswamy who has a strong grudge against them. On the other hand Uma, the protagonist always behaves sisterly with them and uses the words ‗she/her‘ for them. In another important conversation between Uma and Champa, the readers/ spectators find how being absolutely hated and neglected, the hijras generally develop a sense of frustration and isolation and that they are not the bonafide members of society. Their inner yearning for being the members of society is seen in laconic speech of Champa: ―Champa: Please excuse me, madam. I did not know that… You see us also as society, no?‖(Seven Steps Around the Fire, p.23).The play expresses the identity-crisis of the hijras and their heart-felt longing for being treated as a social being in an indifferent society where people like the government minister seldom feel a qualm of conscience in getting a hijra burnt to death.
It is seen that the voice of the hijras are suppressed. Their cry for a position in society becomes a cry in the wilderness as society has a biased attitude towards them. They have been deprived of their natural rights to live as human beings. From time immemorial, the problems faced by them are the same. They have been exploited and marginalized. The death of a ‗hijra‘ is a trifle matter for society. As the crime was committed by a powerful person, the law cannot punish him. This is the irony as law becomes a pawn in the hands of power games. Uma Rao, the protagonist, is doing her research on the origin and contemporary status of the hijra community. Her genuine search for truth bears fruit by her sheer effort and will. Yet she is not powerful enough, in spite of being the daughter-in-law of a deputy commissioner and the wife of a superintendent of police, to bring this truth to light: Kamla, a beautiful hijra, is murdered on a minister‘s orders and Subbu, Kamla‘s lover and the minister‘s son commits suicide. Both the incidents are hushed up and the real culprit remains omnipotent and beyond reach. At the end of the play, Dattani exposes the dark aspects of the law-makers through the voice-over of Uma:
Anarkali, Champa and all the hijra people knew who was behind the killing of Kamla. They have no voice. The case was hushed up and was not even reported in the newspapers. (Seven Steps Around the Fire, p.42).
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Like Uma, everyone in society becomes a silent spectator to the injustices meted out to the hijras. Though the secret was revealed, they did not get justice. Dattani has beautifully treated this sensitive issue that most writers dared not to do.
Traditional norms of society always encourage people to find fault with women whenever there is a problem of barrenness. Everyone raises his/her finger at the woman as if there cannot be any problem with the male. In such case, compassionate feeling and sympathetic understanding on the part of the husband can help the woman to overcome the affliction. But lack of understanding on the part of the husband aggravates the situation and his role as the silent spectator shows his oneness with the biased attitude of society. In the play we observe how the police officer refuses to subject himself to any medical examination to rule out the barrenness of his wife due to his impotency. This bias of squarely blaming the woman for her barren state is another societal phenomenon that Dattani exposes.
Conclusion:
After analyzing the play, it is seen that Dattani has raised some very pertinent issues regarding the social position of the hijras. Since the play does not end on a positive note, it compels the readers to think over the injustices meted out to the hijras. The question arises in the mind of the readers whether the hijras can speak or not. It is seen that though they want to speak, they are forced to remain mute under circumstantial compulsion. They are the weaker sections of society, being deprived of a space of their own. It is ironical that Uma, the central female character who stands in favour of the hijras becomes helpless in the power game and could not do anything to give them justice. Uma herself is a victim of the traditional patriarchal society. She does not dare to protest openly. Uma and the ‗hijras‘ become identical as we see that they lose their voices in the power politics of society.
Works Cited:
Dattani, Mahesh. Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penguin 2000.
---. ‗‗Contemporary Indian Theatre and Its Relevance.‘‘ Journal of Indian Writing in English. Vol. 30, No. 1, Jan 2002.
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Dhawan, R.K., and Tanu Pant, eds. The Plays of Mahesh Dattani: A Critical Response. New Delhi: Prestige
Books, 2005.
Iyengar, K.R. Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English. New Delhi: Sterling, 1985.
Naik, M.K. Dimension of Indian English Literature. New Delhi: Sterling, 1984.
Nayar, Pramod K. Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: from Structuralism to Ecocriticism. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley, 2010.
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Under the Wing of an Alcoholic Father: A Study of Childhood Domestic Abuse in Bernice L McFadden’s The Warmest December Fardos Bakjaji
Abstract
This paper seeks to tackle the issue of domestic abuse in the Afro-American society through shedding the light upon the story of Kenzie, the protagonist of Bernice L. McFadden‘s The Warmest December. It also deals with the topic of alcoholism and how parents‘ addiction could turn children‘s life into hell. McFadden attempts to depict the traumatizing aftermaths of alcoholism legacy that indisputably pass to children through a cycle of violent actions.
Keywords: Domestic Abuse, Alcoholism, traumatizing aftermaths, violence.
Have you ever thought of asking what if the wing under which you seek love and solace is itself the source of your pain? What if the lap to which you run pursuing protection and security turns to be the source of fear and terror? Is undeniable that the hardest and most difficult experience one may go through is to be exposed to violence in a home that is supposed to be a safe haven and shelter. This paper examines domestic abuse in the AfricanAmerican society as represented by Bernice L. McFadden‘s second novel The Warmest December. Domestic abuse or violence has been one of the most dominant issues identified in all types of families and societies regardless of racial, gender or age boundaries. Since domestic abuse takes place at home and since women and children are the most vulnerable categories in the society, they become targets of victimization and violence, however, this study aims to concentrate mainly on child abuse. Usually children seek support and love from their parents or caregivers but they seek protection before anything else. Kara Walker in her God Help the Child review states that:
As children we have gentle, wordless expectations that the big people in our lives will endeavor to keep us from harm, or, at the very least, not harm us. It‘s the sacrosanct social contract: that adults will feed, clothe and protect us, that they will keep our bodies alive long enough for us to devise adult survival strategies of our own.
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Nevertheless, many children are subject to abuse within their own environment and by their own parents. People sometimes incorrectly link abuse with physical injuries or beatings only not taking into account that abuse could be physical, emotional, psychological, sexual and even verbal. Hence it is important to define what violence is and how children perceive it. Betsy McAlister Groves in her book Children Who See Too Much defines a violent event as:
[A]n action initiated by a human being that makes a child feel threatened, unsafe, or that results in harm to another person […]traumatic events initiated by humans carry more psychological risks than do natural disasters. The fact that humans carry out the violence seems to add an extra element of terror for children. (18)
Many novelists cover the topic of domestic abuse and violence in their writings and undoubtedly Toni Morrison has been the leading figure among all not to mention Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Bernice L. McFadden, and many other African-American writers. These authors offer true tales of their ancestors and their lives and thus autobiographical hints are to form part and parcel component in many of their books. Domestic child abuse and that driven by slavery and its traumatic experience form the core of Morrison‘s works. Both Morrison and McFadden share the same tendency towards weaving stories on black females and trace their horrifying childhood memories. Morrison‘s first novel The Bluest Eye is one of the best examples of various form of violence. It tells the story of Pecola, ―the brokenwinged bird that can‘t fly‖, a girl that is abused sexually, emotionally, psychologically, and physically to the extent that she is driven to insanity after the all she witnesses in her home and community.
But why most African-American writers deal with violence in their literary works? It is known that the entire African American experience is based on abuse and violence where black people endured all types of racism, victimization, oppression, and marginalization. On the other hand, Blacks who had been abused by their white masters attempted to figure out an outlet for their subjugated wrath thus they turn to be violent towards their women and children. This is what Cathy Spatz Widom conceptualizes as ―violence begets violence‖ which means that violence generates violence and that vicious and brutal cycle will eventually make the victims into future victimizers and the offenders future aggressors.
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Many causes have been listed behind domestic abuse but alcoholism depicted in The Warmest December is to be considered one of the main causes of abuse and a logical explanation of Hy-Lo‘s mood swings. Life with alcoholic fathers is described as mere hell because ―They are unpredictable, undependable, and embarrassing […]. They are often angry and sometimes verbally or physically abusive.‖ Children especially female children who have prolonged exposure to traumatic events would ―tend to suffer from a broad range of psychosocial adjustment difficulties, including the inability to establish close relationships, sexual dysfunction, eating and substance abuse disorders, self-destructive thoughts and behavior, and posttraumatic stress disorder.‖ (70)
Published in 2001 and highly praised by various critics, The Warmest December approaches the topic of domestic abuse incredibly painfully. Bernice L. McFadden, a contemporary African-American novelist, portrays a house in which a child will not find puppies to play with but rather belts to be whipped with. Reading the novel, the reader will be absolutely certain that the novel is written by someone that has experienced alcoholism and domestic abuse due to the vivid depiction of the suffering. In one of her interviews, McFadden reveals that the novel contains many autobiographical elements and that by writing it she wanted to share her own story to inspire little girls to overcome their traumatic childhood. Kenzie-the narrator and the main character around her the novel‘s events revolve- is a black woman in her thirties whose mechanism to repress her past memories is to drink alcohol. The novel shifts between the bitterness memories of the past and the dull and gloomy moments of the present.
Sitting beside his bed and looking to his dying body, Kenzie sinks into her memories dominated by Hy-Lo‘s punishments (his name suggests his capriciousness); memories shaped by burning a cigarette into her little palm, broke her ribs and causing the death of her brother. His physical abuse was inseparable from verbal abuse; she recalled his words with her heart aching to the memory of her dead brother ―son was not a term I‘d ever heard him use. Meathead, stupid, idiot, those were his pet names for Malcolm‖ (The Warmest December, 168). She recollected her visits to the liquor store to buy bottles for him and how ―the aroma of alcohol covered me like a wool blanket‖ (130) and how he was the reason for her mother‘s addiction came to her. She remembered how many times she witnessed Hy-Lo beating her mother while she was capable of hearing only ―the sound of my breath and the beating of my
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heart‖ (123).Kenzie recalled how she was beseeching her mother to allow her to stay at her grandmother‘s house in an attempt to escape her father‘s abuse. She eagerly desired to run away but could not. Cathy Spatz Widom emphasizes this point by stating that ―many runaway children are not running toward something, but rather are running away from something-a home life in which they were subject to abuse.‖ Kenzie‘s school admission was her lifejacket and her first step towards getting rid of Hy-Lo. During holidays, she refused to visit her family and preferred to stay with her friends and their families as if standing ―close enough to feel a part of something joyous[…]But as much as I tried to avoid who I was and what I had come from, it still managed to find me and remind me‖ (18,207). Throughout the incidents of the novel, McFadden graphically illustrates how powerless the child is in the grip of an appallingly abusive parent.
As a grown woman, Kenzie started drinking in order to forget her miserable situation and to mitigate the pain of her lingering memory. She also developed a fear towards men and was hesitant to have a relationship with one of her colleagues because ―he was a man too, and HyLo‘s actions had blemished his record and the record of most men I would come into contact with for many years‖ (162). In her early years, Kenzie hated her father; even wishing him to die but as a grown woman, she tried very hard to forgive him not even knowing the reason why she is visiting him during his last days in the hospital. However, towards the end of the novel, Kenzie comes to get rid of her hatred after meeting the nurse who tells her that her father is a victim just like her. Kenzie is shocked to know that her father was himself a subject of his mother‘s abuse:
She told me of the abuse Hy-Lo and his brothers had suffered. The times Gwenyth beat them across the bottoms of their feet and then had them stand barefoot in the snow, or barefoot in the summer on the black tarmac of the street, as punishment for some childish misdemeanor or failing grade. Hy-Lo‘s story started out bad, curdled and soured in the middle, and ended up worse.(219) Kenzie finally is portrayed as a woman who is now able to think of herself as a ―veteran[s] of some long-ago battle now able to laugh.‖(173)
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This paper is an attempt to highlight the topic of domestic violence caused by an alcoholic father, its unsightly scars, and post-traumatic disorder. Bernice L. McFadden is a rare talent who has a growing interest in depicting the sufferings of African-American women. What characterizes McFadden‘s writings and works is the redemptive voice and the skill in getting the readers to know the characters and their scars so intimately-and watch them strive to heal so McFaddenly.
Works Cited
Groves, Betsy McAlister. Children who See Too Much: Lessons from the Child Witness to Violence Project. Beacon Press Books, 2002.
McFadden, Bernice L. The Warmest December. Akashic Books, 2001.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Plume Book, 1994.
Rosenthal, Sarah Simms. The Unavailable Father: Seven Ways Women can Understand, Heal, and Cope with a Broken Father-Daughter Relationship. Jossey-Bass, 2010.
Walker, Kara. Review of God Help the Child, by Toni Morrison. The New York Times. April 13, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/books/review/toni-morrisons-godhelp-the-child.html.
Widom, Cathy Spatz. ―The Cycle of Violence.‖ Science, vol. 244, no. 4901, 1989, pp. 160–166. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1702789.Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.
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Archetypes of Blyton Himanjali Gollapinni
Abstract:
This article intends to perceive literary texts from the lenses of a popular form of literary criticism known as the archetypal theory of literary criticism. Webster‘s dictionary defines archetypes as the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies. For further understanding of the concept of an archetype let‘s take certain familiar terms for example, such as a hero, a quest, a wish granting tree, the image of the endless sea, the rising sun and so on, the above terms all sound strangely familiar and seem to be embedded into our subconscious mind, they are also frequently found in literary texts and folktales across cultures and continents, for example literary texts such as Homer‘s ―Iliad‖ and ―Beowulf‖ were both composed simultaneously around the eighth century across two different regions of the world, and yet contain similar symbols and patterns, such as the journey of the hero, the quest myth, a fatal tragedy and so on, these repeating patterns of symbols myths and images are termed as archetypes. Critiquing a literary text based upon the presence of these repeating symbols, patterns and images is what forms the basis of archetypal criticism. This form of criticism was popularized by the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye in his popular essay titled ―Archetypes of Literature‖. This article intends to throw light upon the archetypal form of literary criticism taking Northrop Frye‘s article titled archetypes of literature as the main concept. This article will also view the works of the famous children‘s author Enid Blyton in the light of Frye‘s theory of archetypal criticism. Key words: Archetype, Quest Myth, Author‘s Mythology,
Every human society possesses a mythology which is inherited, transmitted, and diversified by literature. - Northrop Frye Enid Mary Blyton, the celebrated children‘s author was born on August 11th 1897, in East Dulwich, London to a cutlery salesman Thomas Carey Blyton and his wife Theresa May. At the age of ten Blyton attended St Christopher‘s school for girls where she also went on to become the ‗head girl‘. When she was fourteen years old she won her first award for poetry
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and encouraged by this success she began to send in her articles and stories to various magazines across the state. She finally had her first published poem ―Have You?‖ which appeared in Nash Magazine in 1917. Her first book is a collection of verses titled Child Whispers appeared in 1922 and this twenty four pages long work was followed by Real Fairies in 1923 which also contained poems, Responsive Singing Games in 1923, The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies in 1924, Songs of Gladness in 1924, The Zoo Book in 1924 and other works. Blyton‘s prolific output mainly involves escapist children‘s fantasy where children are in a world of their own. She has written over seven hundred books and ten thousand short stories where her famous book Noddy Goes to Toyland was also adapted as a television show and claimed worldwide success.
Enid Blyton is known to have written and published over seven hundred books and sold over six hundred million copies, with her books being translated into ninety languages. Another striking point about her literary works is that she wrote in a wide range of genres, right from fairy tales to stories about animals, nature to circus themed novels and so on. This makes it easier for readers to identify patterns in her writing which literature terms as ‗archetypes‘. Applying Frye‘s critical theory of Archetypes to Blyton‘s works, will show us how archetypes have evolved over the ages and how each writer uses his/her own private mythology to evolve from the pre existing archetypes and create new ones on the way. This article will closely look at certain selected works of Blyton such as The Famous Five series, The Secret Seven series amongst her adventure series. This is an attempt to draw a parallel between the Archetypes mentioned by Frye and the evolved ones used by Blyton in her works. This article also analyses her texts such as The O’Sullivan Twins, The Enchanted Wood series and The Adventures of the Six Cousins. These texts cover major patterns and symbols that Blyton uses in most of her works. Extracts from the above mentioned literary works have also been cited as examples in explanation to the various archetypes under discussion used by Blyton in her works.
Northrop Frye was one of the most influential Canadian literary critic and literary theorist of the twentieth century. Inspired by his research on the works of William Blake, Frye went on to question the dichotomy that exists in the critical analysis of a literary text, namely the centrifugal and centripetal approaches of looking at a text. He wanted there to be a single
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method of literary criticism along with wanting to establish literary criticism as a science, almost as if he wanted to train a reader‘s mind while they analyse a literary text. His research was based on total coherence of critical theories, according to Frye there must be only one method of analyzing a text which takes into account all the various critical aspects present in the literary text. In his popular essay titled as ―Archetypes of Literature‖, Frye talks about archetypal symbols present in literature. In literature an archetype can be defined as a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature. An archetype, also known as a universal symbol may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a setting. Frye wanted to establish an archetypal form of literary criticism where a text is analyzed based on the literary archetypes it contains. He mentions in his article, archetypes of genres as well as of images. This search for archetypes in literature brings us into close contact with the myths, folktales and rituals of several cultures across the globe. According to Frye every author has a private mythology unique to himself or herself which appears in their works and is transmitted to an entire reading audience. He mentions in his essay;
We say that every poet has his own peculiar formation of images. But when so many poets use so many of the same images, surely there are much bigger critical problems involved than biographical ones‖ ( -Archetypes of Literature ) Hence based upon Frye‘s concept of using archetypes as the basis of critiquing a literary text it would be interesting to analyse certain popular archetypes by taking a particular author under discussion. The author under discussion belonged to the twentieth century and has written under the pen name of Mary Pollock, she was in many ways underrated for her writings and fell into a considerable number of controversies. She was criticized for many of her works and was strangely accused of employing an army of ghost writers as she produced such a large body of works in such a short span of time. In spite of all this Enid Mary Blyton was dearly loved by children, Blyton unknowingly created a literary kingdom where children were free to take their own decisions and adult figures were never really given too much thought. She was recorded quoting in an interview;
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I‘m not really much interested in talking to adults, although I suppose practically every mother in the kingdom knows my name and my books, it‘s their children I love. (Interview)
On closely analyzing her works it can be noted that her works consist of certain recurring literary symbols and images which went on to became her signature style of writing and in Frye‘s language her private mythology as an author. Some of the most popular symbols and images from her works are worth discussing.
Archetypes are of various kinds and each author incorporates a mixture of different types of archetypes in their writings. For the purpose of this article we will be broadly classifying archetypes into situational and symbolic archetypes. Starting with situational archetypes under which the most important type being the quest myth. The Quest Myth: The quest myth on further research appears almost in every genre and is seen across cultures, starting from ancient Greek literature its modified form has been passed down through the ages but its essence still remains the same. The actual concept of the ‗quest myth‘ involves the protagonist undertaking a physical, spiritual, mental or emotional journey and emerging victorious towards the end. Quests serve as a symbol for the search of the ultimate truth and are often considered to be life changing. In Blyton‘s works however the ‗quest myth‘ has been modified for young readers as embarking upon adventures. In her most popular novel the Famous Five series, the five young protagonists solve a number of mysteries and in the process make new friends and learn from their experiences, this involves victorious endings where the protagonists have new experiences with life and situations and they ultimately save the day. One of the best examples of emotional and personal growth of the protagonists can be seen in her boarding school series called The Twins at Saint Clare’s, when the O‘Sullivan twins undergo the emotional turmoil of shifting to a new school and are determined not to like the new one, one of the twins called Patricia says ―We‘ll both hate it, and what‘s more, I‘m jolly well going to turn up my nose at everything there!‖ , when they do finally enter into the school they encounter a whole new world where they grow as human beings amongst the other children, towards the end they emerge as strong confident young girls with sound characters.
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The Sea: Symbolic archetypes contain more than one meaning, the textual meaning and the interpretative meaning that the readers visualize after reading the text. Blyton uses a number of symbolic archetypes the major one being the sea.
The sea as an archetype can again be traced back to the ancient times when Greek writers used the sea as an important symbol in their storyline. The sea as a symbol on one hand represents life in itself due to its unpredictable nature which just like real life can change anytime. On the other hand it serves as a symbol of mysteriousness and darkness and instills a sense of fear in the reader. In Blyton‘s popular famous five series the sea is almost always the centre of all action but it‘s also portrayed in a joyful and playful light. When Julian, Anne and Dick visit their cousin Georgina at Kirrin Bay, they find out about the beautiful Kirrin Island in the middle of the sea and they cannot wait to explore the place. It‘s the holidays as usual and the cousins go for a swim in the sea, laze around enjoying ‗ice lollies‘ on the beach, marvel at Georgina‘s excellent rowing skills when she cleverly avoids the rocks jutting out from the sea on the way to Kirrin Island. In another sequel to the Famous Five series, the sea turns into a trap for the five protagonists when Georgina‘s father a clever scientist turns the island into a laboratory for his scientific experiments not realizing that there are goons after his research waiting to blow up the whole island if not given the secrets of the outcomes of his research.
The sea for Enid Blyton, is an unexplored territory and the children imbibe the qualities of courage, planning and initiative in the various discoveries around this. The sea is what surrounds the structured society in which the children live. Since structured doesn‘t leave room for learning, they explore the nature and sea, the unstructured, and hence, hold the promise of new experiences and learning. Nature : Blyton‘s father inculcated a love for nature in his daughter by passing on the knowledge he had of natural history and the surrounding wildlife. When the Blyton family moved to a bigger house on ―Clockhouse Road‖ in England after her father‘s increased fortune, Blyton recollects memories of the house where she recounts the house having a spacious garden, a
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small patch of which was allotted by her father to young Enid to grow her own flowers. In her autobiography ―The Story of My Life‖ she writes;
I had patches of gay candytuft, spires of graceful brilliant clarkia, dancing poppies of all colours, sweet smelling mignonette and many hardy nasturtiums that climbed high over the wall, thick with orange flowers. That was my first garden.(- The Story of My Life )
Primroses, tulips, snowdrops, daisies, willow trees, oak trees, sparrows and robins are a constant in Blyton‘s novels, her love for nature and her efforts at passing on her love and knowledge to young readers is evident in her writings, and the protagonists in her novel represent her idea of being closer to nature. She goes the extra mile to develop a love for nature within children when she redefines the concept of ―the woods‖ by attributing the woods with a cozy and inviting nature where the characters in her novels find either shelter or a new friend each time.
In her adventure series titled Well Done Secret Seven, the seven young protagonists tired of the hot summer decide to shift their meeting place from the hot garden shed and go in search of a new place to hold their regular meetings when they suddenly decide to build their very own tree house. They venture into the woods in search of a suitable tree to do so when they come across a huge oak tree with broad flat branches fit enough to be converted into a tree house, one of the characters called Jack is seen exclaiming ―Its fine! There are about six branches here, all on the same level, and there‘s a hole in the trunk too. It would make a fine cupboard.‖ The concept of having a garden outside every home is another striking symbol in her works where the protagonist always come across an enchanted creature or encounter a whole new magical world at the bottom of their gardens this also reflects her childhood memories and personal experiences with nature.
Enchanted Creatures: It‘s a funny tree. It may grow acorns and oak leaves for a little way and then suddenly you notice that it‘s growing plums. Then another day it may grow apples
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or pears. You just never know. But it‘s all very exciting. (The Magic Faraway Tree) Mythical and enchanted creatures are Blyton‘s forte. They appear to be almost real with individual personalities and in Blyton‘s world are visible only to children. These characters are extremely well written and thoughtfully crafted. The paragraph above is an extract from her award winning novel titled The Magic Faraway Tree where the three siblings Joe, Beth and Frannie come across an enchanted wood where they discover the ancient faraway tree that goes up to the clouds and has a new exciting land at the very top which keeps changing every now and then. Not only does the tree grow a different fruit at every elevation but it also houses a number of enchanted creatures. The most interesting ones being the tiny fairy silky who gets her name from her mop of golden hair which falls across her face like golden mist, the funny Mr Saucepan Man who always has kettles and saucepans hanging off his body and Dame Washalot who always poured her dirty laundry water down the tree. Apparently she derives the idea of the faraway tree from Norse mythology, according to Wikipedia, ―Yggdrasil‖ is an immense mythical tree that plays a central role in Norse cosmology where it connects the nine worlds. It‘s an immense Ash tree that is centre to the cosmos and considered very holy. The Gods go to Yggdrasil daily to hold assemblies. The branches extend far into the heavens and the tree is supported by three roots that extend far away into other locations. Creatures live within Yggdrasil including the dragon and the stags, it‘s interesting to note how she adapts and incorporates these deep concepts into simple stories for children.
Family: The last important symbol would be Blyton‘s family centred stories, she always asserts the importance of a stable family in the lives of her protagonists and almost all of her protagonists are either siblings or cousins and uphold strong family values. She also educates while entertaining through her stories, her novels contain a strong sense of morals and always encourage young readers to be truthful and honest. The best example of a strong family bond would be her novel titled ―Adventures of the Six Cousins‖ where the country kids take in their newly arrived cousins from the city into Mistletoe Farm since the city kids have had their house burned down in an unfortunate fire accident. Their journey together as a family
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and their growth separately as individuals is worth a read. She also mentions in an article published in ―The Author‖ that amongst all the stories written for children, her favorites were the ones with a family at the centre. Conclusion: Blyton‘s archetypes fall under Frye‘s comic vision of the archetypes of the human world, the animal world and the vegetable world. Frye mentions that in the comic vision the human world is a community who represents the wish fulfillment of the reader and consists of archetypes of order, friendship and love. In the comic vision of the animal world Frye mentions domesticated animals usually a flock of sheep, or gentler birds like doves. The vegetative world on the other hand represents gardens, grove or parks or even a tree of life and delicate flowers like lotuses and roses as the comic vision of archetypes. Frye also mentions archetypes as expanding from an unseen centre in space and he stresses that all the literary texts that mention his specified set of archetypes come under magnificent literature while those that don‘t are not considered as important by Frye. Although classifying a text based upon the availability of a particular set of archetypes may not do justice to every text but Frye‘s concept of archetypes gives a new dimension to literary criticism.
Works cited:
Blyton, Enid. Five on Kirrin Island Again. London: Hodder Children's, 2004. Print.
-. The Adventures of the Six Cousins. London: Award, 2005. Print.
-. The Folk of the Faraway Tree. London: Dean, 2019. Print.
-. The Twins at St Clare's. N.p.: Egmont Limited, 2008. Print. First.
-. Well Done, Secret Seven. London: Hodder Children's, 2004. Print.
Dua,Shyam . The Luminous Life of Enid Blyton. Delhi: Tiny Tot, 2006. Print.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Toronto: U of Toronto, 2006. Print.
"Northrop Frye." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2020. Web. 02 Mar. 2020.
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Nadifa Mohamed’s The Orchard of Lost Souls: Somalia from a Feminist Viewpoint James Joseph & Sr Celine E
Abstract:
A land once rich in resources is turned into a wasteland; people lived in peace and harmony fight for survival; men who supported the family are either taken to the police station or recruited to the police force or are involved in the rebel movement. Thus the responsibility of running the family rests in the hands of women. Somalia after the conflicts in the1980s has lost its rich culture. Now the nation struggles for survival. Nadifa Mohamed, a forced expeller from Somalia in her childhood, returns to Somalia in her imagination to see the land from the perspectives of three women characters of her novel The Orchard of Lost Souls. The presentation of war and the civil conflicts by male authors or even by some female authors may focus on the visible casualties of bloodshed, bombing and the destruction of the building, nature and other living organisms. The history of Somalia is seen from the point of view of three women. The struggles of the women in a war torn land is narrated in The Orchard of Lost Souls. This paper tries to see the narration of hardships of the women in the aftermath of civil war in Somalia by the Somalia-born Nadifa Mohamed.
Key words: Army, Civil War, Harlots, Refugee Camp
Nadifa Mohamed, in The Orchard of Lost Souls, gives emphasis to the experiences of women characters rather than those of men. In order to focus on the experiences of women, she has given expression to the lives of women rather than that of men; a very few male characters appear in the novel. The role of the male characters is limited to imparting pain and torture in the female characters. Instead of concentrating on the general catastrophe of a war torn land, the author narrates the normal lives of ordinary citizens; their struggles for meeting the daily needs are more emphasized. Nadifa Mohamed sees the land of Somalia after the war with its struggles for survival.
The narration concentrates on three women in three stages of life: a widow in her late 50s, a police officer in her 30s and an orphaned girl in her tender age of ten. All the three of them
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have their own worries and problems in life. In Part Two of the novel there are three sections, and each of the sections speaks separately about these three women characters. In Part One of the novel we see these women coming together in a particular situation and in Part Three of the novel also we see them together. In the first part we see the old lady Kawsar trying to protect the child Deqo while being beaten up by the Guddi and as a result Kawsar is taken to the police station being accused of causing public nuisance. The army woman Filsan hands over Kawsar to the police station and later on taken to the jail. At the end of the novel we see them as members of a family. Each one gains an identity with the help of the other. Unlike many other writers Nadifa Mohamed did not want to show to the world the devastating condition of war with its heavy bombing and gunfire. She rather concentrated on representing the normal activities of women in a troubled area. By this narration she wants to show the structural violence inherent in the military rule. Showing the struggles for existence Nadifa also gives hope to their life. Each one gets an identity by the mutual support and joined effort. This way of presentation by the author may be a solution for uniting the frustrated women in general. Without the support and guidance of any male characters women characters themselves find a way of survival.
In societies that will later witness open violence, there is often a prior increase in militarization and the number of weapons flowing into the locality. Militarization presumes a close relation between political and military elites, and sometimes the regime may actually be a military dictatorship. In certain contexts, men, and sometimes women, are subjected to compulsory military service for a period of time. When men are taken to the camps or military service women take the onus of running the family. The situation is narrated by Nadifa: ―Women are running their families because the streets have been emptied of men; those not working abroad are in prison or have been grabbed off the street and conscripted into the army‖ (Mohamed 149). The police force increases in size, reach, and armed capability. Most of the towns are under curfew. ―The regime doesn‘t just want to black out the city but to silence it‖ (150). In the guise of national security and secrecy, censorship laws curtail the freedom of expression and movement. A militarized society is necessarily undemocratic (Cockburn 31) and opens the way for social unrest and public violence.
When the whole region jubilates over the arrival of the Military- Governor of the North Western region General Haaruun, Kawsar is contemptuous of the celebration. The whole
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villagers were made to wake up early to receive the General. She could not tolerate the huge crowd making noises and the big drum beats. Adding to her perturbed mind she saw a poor little girl being beaten by one of the troupe members. She shouted at them and told them to stop that. Now for that shouting Kawsar was taken to the police station. The child ran from the scene and found a way for escape. Kawsar had her antipathy to the regime, because her only child Hodan had been taken to the police station from the school along with other students. When Hodan reached back home, Kawsar noticed ―small bruises on her thighs, four on each leg the size and shape of grapes; she replaced the sheets and squeezed her into her arms, hoping against hope that what she feared hadn‘t happened‖ (Mohamed 176). Hodan was very docile and her ―magnanimity was perceived as weakness, as bloodlessness by adults and children alike. She was cowardly, ‗not right‘, they said‖ (181). One day Hodan left the home and did not return for ninety-two days. After two weeks ―she took a can of gasoline and a box of matches into the bathroom and set herself on fire‖ (185). Now Kawsar lives alone in her house surrounded by a fruitful orchard which she cherishes with utmost care.
The recent global phenomenon that poses a threat to the indigenous people is the uncontrollable invasion of refugees. Refugee camps have become conflict zones. Jennifer Hyndman in ―Refugee Camps as Conflict Zones: The Politics of Gender‖ gives a picture of the refugee camps functioning in Africa. Most of the refugee camps are governed by UN agencies and are funded by external economies of international agencies. Based on the treaties of international relations the government has to sanction such camps. The refugees and local population are always in conflict in matters of sharing resources, issues of unfair treatment and political instability. In Kenya‘s Northeast Province, where a history of systematic political and economic marginalization includes banditry and sexual assault, widespread insecurity has increased with the temporary settlement of more than 125,000 mainly Somali refugees. Women and girls who leave the camps in search of firewood or any other fuel with which to cook are at risk of being attacked (Hyndman 193). Given the considerable size of the camps, with a total of more than one hundred thousand residents, and the semi arid environment in which they are situated, it is not unusual for women to cover up to 30 kilometers (round trip) to get wood. The types of food items provided by donor countries make firewood an essential commodity. Whereas the indigenous economy of most refugees prior to their displacement revolved around livestock (including a diet of meat and milk), the camp rations generally consist of wheat flour, sorghum, corn, corn-soy blend, or
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occasionally rice as the staple food item. All of these require wood and water to prepare, both of which are in limited supply. Collecting both wood and water is the duty of women according to the gender division of labor among the Somali refugees. Women and girls are thus vulnerable to attacks by so-called bandits when they leave the camps (198). The conflict at home may force a woman to flee her house and finally reach the refugee camp where she may emerge as a leader and decision maker—say, as a health professional. Often male refugee elders will include one or two women on various committees that meet with humanitarian organizations, not because the women contribute to the conversation, but because the male elders know that the institutional culture of organizations with which they must work requires it. Even if she becomes part of the decision making body her life in the camp is equally troublesome and filled with hardships. Conflict and displacement often destabilize social relations, and it is possible that this person could be at risk (200). Sexual coercion, torture, and rape are relatively common occurrences in conflict zones. Though refugee camps are recognized places of asylum for people fleeing persecution, they can also be unstable environments where residents are susceptible to sexual and physical violence. The arrival and temporary settlement of thousands of refugees has exacerbated widespread insecurity in Kenya, where a history of systematic economic marginalization includes banditry. The presence of the new population has created new tension and given rise to more insecurity by theft and other criminal activities. After nightfall, unarmed households— especially those known to be headed by women—have been the easy targets of bandits from within the camp itself (204). The stigma related to rape within Somali culture is severe. A system of blood money, referred as diya, is often invoked when accepted codes of behaviour among Somalis are violated, as in the case of rape. The family of a raped woman might seek compensation from the family of the culprit in the form of cash or other assets, such as livestock. Many of the Somalis affected would prefer to settle these matters out of public purview, through more discreet agreements of compensation, usually between the men in the families affected by the woman‘s rape (206).
The life of Deqo is narrated in the first of the three sections of Part Two of the novel. She is a ten year old refugee girl who was taken to the cell by the army along with the protestors. The cell is a refuge for the prostitutes and the destitute. Deqo hears from the inmates of the cell that her mother left her in the camp soon after the delivery. There after she was cared by the nurses of the Red Cross and the nurses gave the name Deqo to the child. She knew nothing
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more about her parents or about the family name or the clan or community. It was discussed in the cell that the child was the daughter of a whore, a term she never understood at that tender age. She was called Deqo wareego meaning ‗wandering Deqo‘ (Mohamed 69). But she sometimes introduced herself as Deqo Red Cross, as she was delivered in the clinic of the Red Cross. She was somehow trying to associate herself with some other people - trying to have an identity for herself. In the refugee camp, which ‗housed fifty two orphans and strays‘ (71), she had a friend called Anab Hirsi Mattan and she called Deqo as Deqo Wareego Hirsi Mattan; ―they were new-found sisters, thrown together like leaves in a storm‖ (71).
Deqo, the child who escaped from the hands of the beating soldiers gets a consoling stay in the company of a few harlots. The names of the whores are so strange: Karl Marx, Stalin and China. Asked about the name, Karl Marx says: ―Because I have shared and shared and shared until there is nothing left to give.‖ The other two names are also explained by her: ―Stalin is named after Jaalle Stalin of the Russians for her brutality and China is a favourite of the coolies‖ (90). Living with them and doing the washing and cleaning, Deqo learned the type of customers approaching each woman:
The younger, smartly dressed men go to Nasra, the middle aged husbands hiding their faces behind sunglasses to Stalin, the drunks and gangster types to China, and the humble workers to Karl Marx. Nasra complains that there are only one or two customers willing to brave the curfew most nights and they are China‘s type rather than hers. Once upon a time they had journalists, and businessmen with dollars in their pockets, she said, rather than hawkers, drunkards and criminals. (Mohamed 104)
The poverty of the country is reflected in their field of work as well. The life and feelings of a sex worker is well explained in the words of Nasra, who became so close to Deqo. Who would have said my life would come to this? I‘m clever, you know. I‘m not a drunk like China or illiterate like Karl Marx. I could have been someone. Once you do this it‘s like you can never get out, never be anything else. I go outside and people look at me as if I‘m a ghost walking around in the daytime.
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…and I feel as if I have nothing left out there. Why am I even telling you this? … I don‘t feel like a real person. I have no family, no friends, no husband, no children. Every day I open my eyes and wonder why I should bother getting up, or eating, or earning another shilling. No one would miss me, in fact my mother would be happy to hear that I have died, she would clap her hands and say that her shame has been lifted. (Mohamed 105)
In the company of these women Deqo gets full support and nourishments. But she was also considered as the next victim to embrace their profession. The moment she realizes that she too will become like one of her protectors, and when there is such an attempt by Mustafa, one of the acquaintances of these women, she runs away from there. Moving in the crowd Deqo notices three dead bodies being brought in a truck. ―Around each of their necks is a board with ‗NFM‘ written on it in red ink. The soldiers seated around the bodies look like hunters posing with the wild animals they have caught…‖ (118). Deqo feels a sense insecurity both inside and outside. But finally she makes a family in the Ethiopian refugee camp. Referring to Kawsar and Filsan, Deqo tells the officer that my grandmother and mother are waiting outside (336). Thus the orphan child Deqo compensates the loss of a family which she did not enjoy although her life.
Filsan, the army lady is very strict in all what she is assigned with. She is very careful in discharging her duties. She never wants to negotiate with her General Haaruun either. Once there was an attempt from the General to assault her; she feels the incident as an experience faced by many women. Filsan‘s face burns hot, bringing tears to her eyes. She rushes away before they roll down, back to her corner as the lamps and chandeliers are lit across the room. She straightens her back and stands tall. Even in her uniform they see nothing more than breasts and a hole. He knows who her father is but still parades her like a prostitute. (Mohamed 36)
The higher officials use their power and position to torture and misbehave with the subordinates. In the military field this kind of harassment is so common because the low ranking officials have to obey the higher officials in order to continue in the service or to
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avoid punishments. On another occasion Filsan was offered a lift in the car by the General. On the way the General misbehaved with her. She resisted the attempt and hit on the chest of the General. As a result she was left half way in a deserted land. She was mentally broken when she had to face such situation.
Filsan is very dutiful and stubborn in her attitudes. She was brought up by her father, who was in the army and she feels proud of having become an army officer herself. She uses her father‘s name to get an identity in the army, though her father was suspended and he is at home. Even though she uses her father‘s identity while she was assaulted by the General, the reply she receives was ―You think your father doesn‘t do this to girls he meets?‖ (Mohamed 38)
It is a common tendency among the human beings to repay the tortures and bad experiences they have received. It is in line with that Filsan Adan Ali interrogates Kawsar in connection with the trouble she created during the parade in the stadium. When Kawsar gives very bold unexpected answers Filsan unleashes all the physical tortures on the old lady leaving her hipbone broken. Filsan‘s pent up frustrations and vengeance towards the general finds a vent in these activities. It can also be an act for appeasing the authority or may be an act done out of fear of the authority. Whatever is the reason we see the acts of violence penetrating from one mind to the other; the wounded mind wounds the other mind to feel the healing within. At a later stage Filsan runs away from the military camp and reaches Kawsar‘s house with a remorseful mind. She helps Kawsar to flee to a safer place by pulling her wheelbarrow.
In an economically exhausted country, price hike is a major problem adding up to the already existing struggles of the citizens. Nurto, the assistant of Kawsar during her bedridden stage, was suspected of telling lies when she said that a kilogram of tomato had cost hundred and fifty shillings. Kawsar thought the girl was lying because ―one month ago a bag of tomatoes cost eighty shillings‖ (Mohamed 142). Annoyed by the questioning, Nurto said; ―Believe what you like. I was lucky to even buy the rice before it was sold out. People were fighting over the last few bags, punching and kicking each other. God above knows that I am telling the truth‖ (142). The situation was such that people didn‘t get enough to eat. The government reduced the subsidy or even took away the subsidy for certain essential commodities to avail
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loan from other nations. Corruption was also at play in the nation. The need for money turns the mind into bribe and corruption. The food items given freely in the refugee camp were not properly utilized and on the contrary they were sold out in the market by the government officials. Nadifa narrates the situation:
The shops are bare as the subsidized rice and flour have disappeared to allow the government to obtain more foreign loans; instead of home-grown maize and sorghum, sacks of USAID donations smuggled in from the refugee camps are on sale in the market at ridiculous prices. (Mohamed 150) The systemic violence of the established system, as explained by Slavoj Žižek in Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, prevails in every society. The people in authority have to use force to enforce law and order in the society. As a part of the enforcement system, even for the silliest reasons people are tortured, taken captive, or put into prisons. The agents who enact this forced order have no concern for the perpetrators or the trespassers. The gender, age and health of the infringers and the reasons for the infringement are never considered while enforcing law on them. This kind of violence becomes an approved violence and no one feels questioning such happenings. In such cases the victims‘ claims are ignored because a greater cause is given importance. Thus in order to protect the system, a few others have to suffer; their rights have to be sacrificed; they have to undergo suffering and torture. This reality is presented in The Orchard of Lost Souls. The protestors of the refugee camp are taken to the police station. Among them the majority are women – the loose women in the society - and the orphan children, both girls and boys. Their needs are not addressed; the causes of their pathetic plight are never interrogated. No one wants to know why a woman chooses the profession of prostitution. It has become part of the social system without being labeled as unjust and violent. Even in cases of prostitution the title of ‗a person of loose morals‘ is given to woman only. Again, no one wants to know why there is unrest among the inhabitants of the refugee camp. In the midst of war and turmoil, people are forced to flee the country. At the end of the novel, Kawsar, Filsan and Deqo find shelter in the refugee camp in the Ethiopian wilderness. Though Kawsar had a good house to live in, the situation was so bad that there weren‘t any one to help her. The army had wrecked havoc in the neighbourhood and all her friends fled from the country.
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Nadifa has not given any importance to the lives of men in the novel. Her concern was to show the lives of women in troubles. Many of the historical narrations usually high light the lives of the people in general or a particular society, clan or community. Here Nadifa has no such concerns of showing the fall of a culture or a clan. Women as such are the victims of the social evil of civil war; they have their own problems of existence. While highlighting the destruction caused by war and conflicts, usually the representation given to the problems of women is negligible. Thus it is usually his-story that is written rather than her-story. Nadifa Mohamed did not want to follow that line and through this novel she really showed her-story of Somalia. She takes all the credit in narrating the unheard stories of women through this novel. Reference
Cockburn, Cynthia. ―The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace‖. Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. Eds. Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman. London: University of California Press, 2004. 24-44.
Emerson, R. Dobash and Russell P. Dobash. Women, Violence and Social Change. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Hyndman, Jennifer. ―Refugee Camps as Conflict Zones: The Politics of Gender‖. Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones. Eds. Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman. London: University of California Press, 2004. 193-212.
Mohamed, Nadifa. The Orchard of Lost Souls. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. Print.
Žižek, Slavoj. Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. New York: Picador, 2008. Print.
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Trajectories of Arab Spring: The politics of Persecution in Benyamin’s Twin novels Al Arabian Novel Factory and Jasmine days. Jishnu Prasad Abstract This paper attempts to find the ways in which the authoritarian regimes oppress its citizens. In the backdrop of Arab spring these novels portrays the rise and fall of a popular uprising in an unnamed Arab country. The paper also analyzes how manipulative is the regime when it comes to safeguard its power structure and how religion, gender and other sectarian divisions play a major role in oppressing the citizens.
Keywords: Trajectory, Politics, Oppression, Religion, Gender, Regime
The term Arab (Arabic) for the most part alludes to those persons who communicate in Arabic as their native tongue. There are 22 nations holding membership in the Arab League and to be more than 300 million individuals living in the Arab world. The Arab World and the Middle East is constantly utilized as in a stirred up structure and is befuddling. The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia, Turkey and Egypt. The idea of the Middle East as a geographical entity was put forward by the British in the colonial era. It additionally incorporates the Non- Arab nations, for example, Israel, Iran and Turkey. Their essential dialects are Hebrew, Farsi and Turkish respectively. Most of the nations in Middle East and North Africa were the colonies of Britain and France. They got freedom after World War II. In those days people demanded freedom from foreign rulers and now the citizens in these countries are protesting against their rulers. Arabs are also the largest ethnic group in the world. Three significant world religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam found its origin within the Middle East region. World‘s antiquated human advancements like Egyptian civilization and Mesopotamian also flourished in this region. Arab Spring The Arab Spring was a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests, riots and civil wars in the Arab world that started in 2010 in Tunisia with the Jasmine Revolution. Tunisian revolution got its name from the national flower of the country. The triggering force of the
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Tunisian revolution was the life sacrifice by Mohammad Buazizi. He was an educated 26year-old man from the Sisi Bouzid, central Tunisia. He was unemployed and to support his family he started to sell vegetables in the streets. He had no license and the corrupt police officers asked him for bribe but he had no money left. The officials appropriated his possessions and when he fights they mortify him and one woman police officer spits on his face. He went to the mayor to enlist a grievance but no one gives any importance to his words. Dejected and humiliated he set himself ablaze before the municipal office on 17th December 2010. Somebody took the video and uploaded it on you tube. It was later shared to Face book and it ignited the minds of the common people and they fled to the avenues demanding the removal of the corrupt regime. After 28 days on January 14, 2011, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali left the country. The movement then spread to almost every nation in the Middle East and North Africa, forcing four authoritative leaders out of their power. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen are those four nations. In Syria, Basher Al-Assad tried to protect his regime with the assistance of Russia amid civil wars.
Every one of these nations usurped for their privileges. The regimes were so much corrupt and never cared for the ordinary people. High unemployment, poverty and political repression were common in these states. Protest in Bahrain was crushed down by the Peninsular Shield Force. People in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco have been given concessions and silenced. Benyamin One of the most celebrated contemporary Malayalam author most famous for his magnum opus Aadujeevitham (Goat Days). Jasmine Days originally written in Malayalam in the name Mullapoo Niramulla pakalukal grabbed the first JCB prize of rupees 25 lakhs is the biggest literary prize money literature in India. Shahnaz Habib is the translator. Al Arabian Novel Factory is the second book from the novel duo. As an expatriate Indian, he worked in Bahrain for almost 21 years. The unnamed city where the revolution happens is Bahrain itself. His first-hand experience and intimacy with the city are visible in the narrative. Bahrain got independence from Britain in 1971. In 1981 the country joined the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It is a Shia populated country (70%). But the ruling Al Khalifa family belongs to the Sunni minority in the country.
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The Politics of Persecution Throughout the work, the writer exploits the intentions behind the regime to create the ‗other‘ in society. They manipulate the sectarian differences in the state and create a rift in the protest. His majesty uses divine right theory to protect his authority. ―He often declares that Allah appointed him the ruler of his people and so it was not necessary to ask for the people‘s will‖ (104). Many superstitions about His Majesty are prevalent in the city. ―Even bullets cannot penetrate him‖ (105). The protest which started against His Majesty as a common need of ordinary people, but later it changed into Shia protest to overthrow the Sunni regime.
Through Ali, the novelist shed light upon the lives of Shias. They are considered as the second class citizens who are devoid of any rights which the first-class citizens the Sunni enjoy. They claim that the Shias came from Iran and they don‘t have any right in this land. They also accuse that the second class citizens practice many non-Islamic rituals. They don‘t even have a passport and are not allowed to leave the country. Many jobs are denied to these people. Faisal a second class citizen, who participated in the protest, was shot by a rubber bullet on his shoulder. If he went for treatment in any hospital or tried to remove the bullet the police would arrest him. So he had no option other than bear the pain and keeps the bullet within his body. Through the making of the second class citizens and exploiting the ethnic and sectarian divide the regime deliberately partition the residents and annihilate the probability of unity.
The cooli soldiers in the city are migrants from other countries. These soldiers are not meant to defend the state from any outside enemies but against their people. ―Which country is His Majesty defending himself from? His own country. The rented soldiers are here to defeat his people‖ (91). Most of the soldiers are forced to work under so much pressure and tensions. They are part of the regime so the people don‘t like them. They have no weapons to defend themselves. As part of the duty, they have to stay days in some remote villages where common people curse and spit on them, even hit them with poles. His majesty uses these people as a stress relief mechanism for his citizens. The anger of the ordinary people will be directed towards, these expatriates instead of His Majesty.
Social Medias like Face book, Twitter and YouTube helped the revolution. But the regime cut down the internet and through government-aided channels they propagate the viewpoints of
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the state. In the Taya ghar, the womenfolk are denied the right to use Face book. It is considered evil. They say it is ―the train to hell‖. But the men have the authority to use FB and enjoy the ride to ―hell‖. In such a case, the ladies making counterfeit ids observe cautiously what is going on there. Once in a while, His Majesty invites his trusted generals and commanders for a big banquet. While everyone was eating he would say ―There is a traitor among you and I have poisoned his food‖. He will look for the change in the faces and he will persecute the one whom he had any suspicion without any solid proof. His Majesty who is a pedophiliac uses his power to hide the killings of many children. The women who were in charge of his health care reveal that ―Do you know what my job was? Reconstructive work on the vaginas and anuses of boys and girls who had been subjected to his outlandish sexual assaults‖ (263).He is a pervert and does all the sexual wrongs to the children and women. The bodies of such victims are buried in the desert. Those who survived are sent home with an envelope of money and a single bullet. The bullet is an open threat. Those who fail to hide the secrets of His Majesty should have to shoot themselves otherwise he will destroy the entire family.
A Spring without Fragrance a book written by Sameera Parveen contains some descriptions about the event took place during the protest. The CIDs in the country hunt down those people who are related to this book. Many are arrested, interrogated and humiliated in the search of the book. Even the copies sent for the proofreading is destroyed. Their rationale to destroy such books is intriguing. ―If a book contains a falsehood, we have to assume it is satanic. It is the duty of everyone who loves truth to destroy such a book‖(231). The CID office is the most hated office in the country many people lost their lives in that office. It is the master brain behind the missing cases in the country. They do all the physical and mental torture on everyone they find suspicious. This we know is a common practice every authoritative regime follows and sometimes they even issued fatwas as a life threat. From Salman Rushdie to D.H. Lawrence, V.S Naipaul to Taslima Nasreen has undergone this trauma.
A young girl Ayat who wrote a poem against His Majesty during the protest was arrested and persecuted in such a way that she lost her memory and failed to write any poetry when she was finally come out from imprisonment. She concluded that poetry was a disease. ―I guess they have fixed the poetry disease forever‖
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(91). Yasin a friend of Sameera was released only after wiping out every memory related to her novel. The police forceful give him medicines and he was kept in a mental asylum. The regime erases each memory identified with disobedience. They even boycott the coin which shows the Squares of Pearls, where the unrest began. Human rights activists are captured and experience each conceivable torment one can hold up under. The state-supported bomb blast occurred in the city boulevards much of the time. At that time they proliferate that the nonconformists are behind the turmoil. Like Jeremy Bentham‘s panoptic surveillance the citizens are in the fear of being watched by the authorities. The sate promotes fear in the citizens through various means to oppress the quest for democratic governance. They need submissive slaves not citizens with equal rights in a democratic society. Jasmine days is dedicated ‗to those who are defeated, in life and revolution‘. So it is not always that important to be victorious in every revolution but we should stand up for democratic rights and should show our dissent against the authoritative inhuman ways of the government. Bibliography
Abrams, M. H, Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Delhi: Cengage Learning India, 2012.
Adamson, Peter. Philosophy In The Islamic World. OUP, United Kingdom,2016
Agarwal, Rajeev. ―Arab Spring and Democracy: Possibility or an Elusive idea‖. Indian Foreign Journal, Vol. 8, 2013, pp 372-386.
Benyamin. Al Arabian Novel Factory. Trans. Shahnaz Habib, Juggermart Books, 2019.
Benyamin. Jasmine Days. Trans. Shahnaz Habib, Juggernart Books, 2018, pp 1-264.
Danahar, Paul. The New Middle East. Bloomsburry, UK, 2015.
Dietl, Gulshan. ―The Spring has had a Contagious Effect Much Beyond‖. Indian Foreign Journal, Vol. 8, 2013, pp 129-133.
Kurlantzick, Joshua. State Capitalism: How The Return of Statism is Transforming The World, OUP USA,2016
Surendran, C.P. ―Jasmine Days: Spoilt by a Preponderance of Politics‖. The Hindu, 14 Sept. 2018.
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Social Conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali’s Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw) Mahendra Kumar Budhathoki Abstract Conflict is a key element in the story, and without it, the plot of a story is almost impossible to move ahead. Social issues cause conflict in literature. Here, this paper tries to expose the social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s story Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw). This story typically represents the Nepali rural society. There is a conflict between a husband Chame and a wife Gauthali in the story. This research paper tries to analyze what the social factors inflame the quarrel of poor couples. The researcher has used a descriptive qualitative method and used conflict theory to analyze the story. The major findings are manifest and crisis conflict in the story. There is conflict between an individual Chame and an individual Gauthali, conflict between an individual Chame and an animal buffalo, conflict between an individual Chame and social beliefs, etc. Mainali has given such conflicts to make aware of individuals, especially couples, that quarrel between a husband and a wife is a fire of straw. Couples should not break up their relationship due to such quarrel. Key-words: Conflict, Latent, Manifest, Social Belief, Paralko Aago Introduction Literature can generally be a study on the bases of linguistic, aesthetic and social aspects. This study focuses on social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw) based on sociological perspective. Sociology talks about human behaviors and their relationships with others in the real society. Sociologists seek sociological causes in every human behavior and events happened in the real society. Literature is a creative art that reflects society. Literature cannot be aloof from the real human society. As in the real society, literature has expressions of human behaviors, feelings, attitudes, intentions that are products of the certain social values and principles. Literature represents ―human activity and experiences‖ (Widdowson 2) of the real society. A society has their structures and functions. People have their various activities and those activities directly or indirectly affect or influence others in the real society. In the same way, a novel or story has different types of characters; they are socially connected. They do different activities and behaviors that are
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guided by their social cultural values and principles. The various values and guided principles make clashes among them.
The clash becomes a key component to develop the plot of the story. There are certain processes of socialization in the society. In the process of socialization, characters or people have different social values, status, power, access to resources, religion, nationality, identity, attitudes and perceptions; they do accordingly. Their different manners and behaviors make people understand differently; those different understandings affect human behavior, attitude, perception and their relationships with others. It can be a root cause for conflict. A story or novel has an imagined society in which characters do various activities, show different attitudes and behaviors; that create conflicts and different events happen in the plot. In these events, there must be social causes. Human behaviors and activities are socially constructed. A conflict is a consequence of social acts. Events ―take place under specific social circumstances and rules‖ (Mishra 6). People or characters show the socially patterned behaviors and activities within the socially organized institutions, such as families, communities, workplaces. ―It is a particular kind of societies- societies in particular historical and structural circumstances - that invent witchcraft and witches and burn them at stake‖ (7). Conflict means a clash or debate between two or more opposite thoughts, attitudes or interests socially patterned and constructed. There are generally two types of conflicts: internal and external. Internal conflict refers to the conflict that is within an individual; it can be said as individual vs. self. A character may fight with his/ her own belief, interest, desire, morality, and s/he should solve the problem alone. External conflict refers to the conflict of an individual with the others. Characters may struggle with the issues connected with others. There are five types of external conflicts: individual vs. individual, individual vs. society, individual vs. nature, individual vs. technology, and individual vs. supernatural and fate. There may be more than one conflict in a literary text. It is necessary to recognize the types of conflicts, its causes and effects in the story. The main purpose of the study is to seek and analyze the conflicts and their sociological causes in the story. Statement of the Problem Fiction is the reflection of the real society. The society has different social inequalities concerning gender, caste, class, occupation, age, generations that are attached with power, money, education, tradition, self-respect and prestige. These inequalities cause conflicts in
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the society; so do in the stories. In the stories, there are crisis and conflicts that cause the events move forward; there are also some factors causing the conflicts happened in the story. In Paralko Aago, quarrel between husband and wife provokes me to talk about the conflict. I, as a researcher, am interested to explain the kinds of social conflicts and their causes in the story Paralko Aago. Research Questions This article has the following research questions: 1.
What are the social conflicts happened in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago?
2.
What are the factors that cause the social conflicts in it?
Objective of the Study The objectives of this research paper are 1.
To find out the social conflicts happened in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago,
2.
To explain the factors those cause the social conflicts in this text.
Delimitation of the Study This article is only limited to the analysis of social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago. It discusses the kinds and causes of social conflicts happened in the text. This analysis is done from the sociological perspective based on the conflict theory. It discussed only social conflicts, but not physical conflicts. Significance of the Study
This paper will be useful for the English literature students who are interested to the sociological study on literature. This research paper will be a sound reference for other researchers. It can be a sample paper for novice researchers to carry out research articles. Review of the Literature Conflict occurs in a situation in which there are opposing ideas, opinions, interests, feeling or wishes, and people or characters cannot treat them equally and fairly at the same time. They have difficulty to choose one. Conflict refers to a situation in which people, groups or countries are in a disagreement with events and issues like cultures, classes, genders, love,
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politics, ethnicity, distribution of resources and powers. ―The clash of values and interests, the tension between what is and what some groups feels ought to be, the conflict between vested interests and new strata and groups demanding their share of power, wealth and status, have been productive of vitality‖ (Coser 197-98). There is antagonistic relationship between or among the characters in literature.
Social theory talks about the social behavior based on the empirical evidences in the real society. Sociology discusses the social relations in the real world. Literature like story, novel is the representation of the real society. ―Literary discourse is part of a general social discourse‖ (Hughes 3). There are characters, their social relations among them, nature, etc. in the story. ―Social conflict theory sees society as an area iniquity that generate conflicts and changes‖ (Macionis 14). In the society, culture, class, gender, caste, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, etc. determine social differentiation and social stratification, which cause the social inequalities. Such inequalities cause social conflicts. ―Human beings are sociable but are also capable of opposing one another and struggling with one another. […] Conflict is what happens when the interests of individuals or of groups are antagonistic and they are in conflict for status or power‖ (Wieviorka 3). A sense of lacking resources to a person or group produces conflict. ―Most social conflict is based on the unequal distribution of scarce resources. Weber identified those resources for us as class, status and power‖ (Coser 216). There are ―some functions of conflict within social system, more specifically with its relation to institutional rigidities, technical progress and productivity‖ (Coser 197). There may be changes in social structural relations, its value system and institutions through conflicts. There are many types of conflicts found in the real society. Francis Abraham classifies conflicts into two types: ―endogenous and exogenous‖ (cited in George 19). Endogenous conflicts refer to the conflicts of individuals with society, authority, value, distribution of resources. Exogenous conflicts refer to the conflicts of perception, ideology, cultural invasion and wars. Santon classifies conflicts into two: ‗internal and external conflicts‘ (cited in Arifuddin 7). Internal conflict refers to individual‘s conflict with self. External conflicts are the conflicts between person and person, person and society, person and nature, person and technology, person and the supernatural or God, and person and fate.
Frank Pfetsch
categorizes conflicts into five types: latent conflict, manifested conflict, crisis, severe crisis, and war; among these, latent and manifest conflicts are non-violent conflict, and crisis, severe
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crisis, and war are violent conflict (cited in Axt, Milososki and Schwarz 5). HIIK classified conflicts into five intensity stages: latent, manifest, crisis, severe crisis and war. A conflict has generally three phases – initial, middle and final. Eric Brahm in ―Conflict Stages‖ describes seven phases of conflict dynamic: latent, emergence, escalation, (hurting) stalemate, de-escalation/negotiation, settlement and post-conflict peace building. The general factors that cause conflicts in the society are class, gender, culture, age (generations), identity, social position and roles, land, religion, ideology, different ideas, interests and values, scarce resources, politics, business, etc. Conflict is the key component that makes story interesting to readers. Conflicts in novels are influenced by ―the social and historical contexts in which we live‖ (Hughes 1).There may be one or more than one conflict in a story. There may be variety in the presentation of conflicts and their solutions in literature; it depends on how the story is told. Arifuddin in his thesis ―An Analysis of Social Conflict in Rick Riordon‘s Novel The Red Pyramid‖ analyzed various kinds of social conflicts and their causes. Hikmah in his thesis ―Social Conflicts in Owen Matthews‘ Stalin’s Children‖ discussed social conflicts between individuals, groups, causes of conflicts. These two theses are analyzed from the sociological literature approach. There were no studies on Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago from the sociological literature approach. This study is the analysis of social conflict in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago from the sociological viewpoint. Research Methodology This study has used qualitative descriptive method. This article was based on the primary source Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago and the secondary sources books and articles related to conflict theory. Note-taking was used as a tool for data collection from the story. In the procedure of data collection, the conflicts happened in the text were identified and then analyzed their causes. Here, conflict theory was used as the tool of data analysis to find out social conflicts in the story. This paper was based on the critical textual analysis.
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Exposition of the Social Conflict in Paralko Aago
Paralko Aago (The Blaze in The Straw) by Guru Prasad Mainali is a popular story in Nepali Literature. This story typically represents a poor farmer of a village in Nepal. It tries to show the types of conflicts happened in the lives of rural farmers and the causes of conflict. In the story Paralko Aago, there is a conflict between a farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. They quarrel one day and Gauthali goes to her maita, parents‘ home. Chame lives alone a few days but he realizes the necessity of his life-partner to run his life smoothly. He also goes to his inlaws‘ home to return her. The major message of this story is that a quarrel between a husband and his wife is a fire of straw i.e. short-lived blazing fire. It blazes quickly and does not exist long time.
There is a violent conflict between a farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. Chame used force to beat her wife Gauthali. There is also a conflict of patriarchal belief. Gauthali was very mukhali, sharp-tongued, foul-mouthed and impertinent. Chame thought that his wife should follow him without questions but Gauthali speaks her opinion to him. Patriarchal society believes a wife should follow her husband silently without query. However, in this story a wife Gauthali spoke what she thought right. She did not tolerate a bit injustice. A male, like her husband, does not like her sayings because they counter the belief of male, and thinks that her sayings are rude, impertinent, insolent and quarrelsome. If so, Chame was violent, murderous because he used to attack physically his wife Gauthali time again.
There is a conflict of interest, longing and responsibility. There was a marriage ceremony in the village, and Gauthali had desire to watch and enjoy the wedding. Therefore, she has gone there. Her absence at home was a surprise for Chame. He returned hungrily home from the field where he has ploughed whole day. He thought that she should perform her responsibility at home, but he found his wife returning from the marriage ceremony leaving everything in disorder at home. He got fiercely angry with Gauthali. There was no fire in fireplace and water in a gagree i.e. a water-pot. Gauthali hurriedly went to pandhero (a common watering place or spring) for water. He sat with fierce rage on the pindhi (raised platform around the house) when she came back from pandhero. He rebuked her- you widow, you blink your eyes with janti (people accompanying groom to bride‘s place attendees of wedding procession) and now impersonated here; then he kicked her. Chame again dragged her by catching her
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chultho (a braid of hair) in courtyard of the house, and he threatened her- go where you like, do not stay at my home. When he has first kicked her, she tolerated because she realized her mistake. Later on, she thought dragging her was too much and she cursed him- your hands infected by leprosy, you butcher, pauper. He kicked her again and she cried. He took himself as a superior person at patriarchal home and her as a helper. A conflict of patriarchal social structure caused this domestic violence. Chame said, ‗do not stay at my home‘, this means, where is Gauthali‘s house. Where does she belong- husband‘s house or her parents‘ house? Is she homeless? It happens due to social cultural practices. There is also a conflict between genders- a male Chame and a female Gauthali. Females are dominated in patriarchal society; here is also Chame dominated his wife Gauthali.
There is another issue of conflict- haves and have-nots. They including Chame were the farmers who did not have enough food to eat in the mornings and evenings if they did not plough and work every day in the field. Gauthali wished to enjoy the marriage ceremony but no one was at home to work. If Chame and Gauthali were rich, they would go together to enjoy the ceremony and did not worry about the ordinary things like water, cooking food, caring buffalo, etc. at home. Next day, Gauthali went to her parents‘ home. The economic condition caused the conflict between Chame and Gauthali in the story. This is the conflict between a person Chame and the next Gauthali.
Here is a conflict between a person and an animal. After yoking the field, Chame returned at home in the evening, and he was hungry. He did not find Gauthali at home. His buffalo was hungry and cried. When he went to draw milk from an udder of buffalo, it kicked him. Hungry buffalo did not give milk to Chame. He furiously bit buffalo with a stick and buffalo galloped to Kokale‘s maize field. It destroyed all the plants of maize. Chame tried to catch the buffalo but could not catch. It fled away. Here is the conflict of a person Chame and buffalo. Buffalo was hungry, how was it ready to milk to Chame. Kokale and his wife became fire and cursed Chame because his buffalo treaded upon the plants of maize. Their crop were their food. Kokale slapped two times on the cheeks of Chame but Chame did not respond anything.
Then next few days he struggled alone at home. When he was carrying water on his back from pandhero, Juthe Damai‘s wife teased him- ―Oh! How unsuitable a man carries water on
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his back‖. Here is also a debate of the partition of work between male and female. In a traditional patriarchal society, carrying water from pandhero is the work of a female but not of male. Such kinds of practices cause conflict in a family. Juthe Damai‘s wife suggested Chame to go and bring Gauthali back and a man‘s life cannot run alone. It was not good to be hostile with own wife. But Chame said, ―If she comes with her knowledge, here is her home; I will go for her if I become Pode‖. Here is a conflict between an individual and the self. Chame is an individual and his ego is his self. He felt inferior to go and got her from in-laws‘ house. His ego was not ready to bend in front of his wife Gauthali. He compared himself with Pode i.e. a low-caste Newar in caste system society. It means Chame‘s caste status was higher than Pode. There is a conflict for survival. Chame thought if he killed his buffalo, moneylender would catch him. Unless he managed the kitchen, he had to live hungrily. It would be better to live as jogi (hermit) than this wretched life. He again thought even a jogi must visit others‘ door to collect food, and if he fell sick, no one would give him water. Here is a debate of ordinary earthly life and life of hermit. Chame thought, ―Life of hermit seems better when we suffer little at the moment of trouble.‖ He thought a lot and decided to go to get Gauthali. On the way to his in-laws‘ house, he saw his wife Gauthali was carrying a load of grass, and got angry because she sang there and his buffalo was hungry at home. Again, a conflict arises in the mind of Chame- what will his parents-in-laws tell him? At in-laws‘ home, no one talked about sending Gauthali with Chame. After dinner, he slept alone in porch. Even his wife Gauthali did not come to talk with him. He regretted about the quarrel with her. Next day Chame asked her father-in-law to send Gauthali. Her father complained about Chame‘s sayings about her parents as a poor person. Gauthali also rejected to go back with him at first. Later, Chame returned home with his wife Gauthali. The story ends with Juthe Damai‘s wife‘s a proverb- ‗a quarrel between a man and a wife is just a fire in the straw‘- ―That is, it blazes up fiercely, but quickly dies down‖ (Hutt 9). Not all conflict may exist long last; some conflict may not for destruction. Here the conflict of a husband Chame and a wife Gauthali results in love increment. Conclusion Conflict is a major component in the story. Conflicts move the plot ahead. There is a chain of events in the story; events happen because of some causes. The social factors like economic,
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cultural, social beliefs, etc. influence the causes in the story. Paralko Aago by Guru Prasad Mainali is a famous short story of Nepali literature. He depicts a quarrel between a village farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. She was a hot-tempered but clean in heart that Chame could not understand. At last, he realized his weakness. This is a story of village poor couple who had difficult to maintain their duty and entertainment in life. It was also difficult to join their hands to mouth if they did not work every day. There was a conflict between Gauthali, who went to see a wedding in her village, and Chame, who returned at home after ploughing the field. This is a conflict between an individual and an individual. Mainali has given this quarrel to show the conflict usually happened in Nepali rural society. The writer‘s purpose of presenting other conflicts such as conflict between Chame and buffalo, Kokale and Chame, Chame as an individual and self, Chame as an individual and social cultural value, etc. is to transform the pride of Chame. At last as Juthe‘s wife says, Chame realized a quarrel between a husband and a wife is a fire in the straw.
Works-Cited
Arifuddin. ―An Analysis of Social Conflict in Rick Riordon‘s Novel The Red Pyramid‖. A Thesis. English and Literature Department, Alauddin State Islamic University of Makassar, 2014. Web.
Axt, Heinz-Jurgen, Antonio Milososki and Oliver Schwarz. Conflict – A Literature Review. Duisburg: University of Duisburg-Essen, 2006. Web.
Brahm, Eric. ―Conflict Stages‖. Beyond Intractability. Guy Burgess/Heidi Burgess (eds.). Boulder, 2003. www.beyondintractability.org/m/conflictstages.jsp.
Coser, Lewis A. ―The Functional Consequences of Conflict‖. Theory Cumulation and Schools of Thought. 2010. Web.
Coser, Lewis A. ―Social Conflict and the Theory of Social Change‖. The British Journal of Sociology.vol. 8.3 London: The London School of Economics and Political Science, Sep., 1957. pp. 197-207. Web.
George, Geom Mathew. ―The Importance of Social Conflict Theory in the Context of Social Inequalities‖. (2016). Web.
HIIK. (ed.). ―Conflict Barometer 2005, Crisis, Wars, Coups D‘etat, Negotiations, Mediations, Peace Settlements‖, Heidelberg, 2005. www.rzuser.uniheidelberg.de/lscheith/CoBa05.pdf.
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Hikmah, Djuwita Lailatul. ―Social Conflicts in Owen Matthews‘ Stalin’s Children‖. A Thesis. English Language and Letters Department, Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University, Malang, 2016. Web.
Hutt, Michael J. Modern Literary Nepali: An Introductory Reader. Oxford University P, 2016.
Macionis, John J. Sociology. Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Wieviorka, Michael. ―Social Conflict‖ Sociopedia.isa, 2010. Web.
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The Ordeal of Anjali in going Local to Global: A Study of Bharti Mukherjee’s Miss New India Mamta Bisht Abstract: The paper aims to bring forth the different facets of globalization as depicted by Bharti Mukherjee in her latest novel Miss New India. Bharti Mukherjee was a writer of Indian Diaspora and it is interesting to perceive the global India through her point of view. This work, having a female protagonist, has been skillfully weaved into a story that represents the society and culture of the high tech city of India post liberalization. The progress in India‘s economy and social standards has changed a lot many things in India. The everyday experiences, demands of time, personal hopes, ambitions and the challenges in this New India have changed too. In Miss New India, Mukherjee penetrates into the complexities of the lives of the young girls, who come from small towns to these urban areas to live free and independent lives. In the background of struggle for new subjectivity, Bharti Mukherjee explores the impact of globalization on cities as well as small towns expressed in terms of hopes for a better life in the urban cities, complexity of high tech society and disillusionment caused by the dark realities.
Keywords: Urban-Rural, Disillusionment, Globalization, Liberalization, Local-Global
Ever since the Indian government opted for economic liberalization in 1991, there has been a landmark shift in the social, economical and political condition of India. The liberal policies and foreign capital coming to India have created the job market for the Indian youth. Most of the countries have come on liberal terms for the betterment of their economies; consequently the faded territories have constructed a global world and are further creating global citizens. The world has gone under a kind of metamorphosis and India is no exception. The exchange of world views and ideas has resulted in a major changeover of the lifestyle and living standards of people. This had far reaching impacts on all spheres of life globally. India has also made a leap towards modernization. With the emergence of globalization, our deep rooted orthodox traditions and customs have also loosened up their clasps. India has a rich cultural background which is popular throughout the world. Globalization has not only helped in the westernization of India, but conversely Indian culture has also extended its
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impact worldwide. Globalization has become the new identity for India and its people in the new millennium. The fast developing cities and overall urbanization across India are the outcome of globalization. The day-today experiences, demands of time, personal hopes, ambitions and even the challenges in this Post liberalized India have changed. As the life of Indians have changed so did the representation of this new life in literature. The contemporary Indian novels are distinctively different in themes from the novels of the pre – liberalization era. The new Indian novels mark a vivid change of trend from the earlier ones in the ways as it does not simply render the stories of family saga and the flamboyant cultural India. These new novels depict India in the contemporary terms of globalization. Like the themes of their novels many of these authors also possess global identities. Even after having transnational identities, many diasporic Indian authors still hold on to their roots in India, although they claim themselves expats, but at least their novels fabricate around Indian characters and themes. Bharti Mukherjee was one such writer and this research paper focuses on her latest novel. Her novels range widely across time and space dealing especially with the consequences emerging out of cultural conflict of the East with West in the alien land. Her last novel Miss New India is entirely set within India yet the western cultural effects have played a vital role in developing the themes as the major part of the story is in the backdrop of the metropolis city Bangalore. The narrative creates a new orientation of identity, dealing with the life in the fast pacing city of growing India. In the prologue of the novel, Mukherjee talks about transnational concept , it is not always about immigrant Indians rather India has also become home for many emigrants i.e. some of rich westerns like the Aussies, the Canadians, the Germans, the Finns or like the American expat, Anjali‘s teacher-cum-friend. The prologue illustrates the transnational identities centered in India. Apparently, this has become the scenario of Global India.
The novel is centered on Anjali Bose who is not just representing a single girl from a small town but is a prototype of all growing and aspiring girls from small towns of India. She is valorised for her boldness to explore her life and decide for herself which is still not considered a women‘s privilege in rural India. Anjali Bose; a B.Com student having overtly features of Bengali beauty, with her talent of good grades and American English accent lives in Gauripur, a small town of India, a different face of a globalizing nation. The conceptualized global status of India is essentially the image of the urban part of India. The major part of India is still slithering with same old customary living and orthodox beliefs. It
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becomes challenging for the youth of the under-developed parts of India to catch up with their blinding desires to live a better life in this crucial time of globalization. The nondeveloped part still does not notice the variety of opportunities provided by the global India. These youngsters are living in the crux of globalization and their traditional upbringing which makes it more complicated for them to decide the right direction for their future. The youngsters under the light of their western education find these big cities a big escape from their stagnant lives. In her narrative Bharti Mukherjee has exhibited the same kind of escape in the runaway of Anjali from her small town life to a big city. As the narrative speaks her heart, ―She wanted something exciting, life-changing, to save her from the tedium of Gauripur‖ (11). The happening life of the big cities is always a dream for them as the small town lives are slow paced and restraining. The opulence of big cities appears liberating from the shackles of old traditions and customs with which the young generation do not confirm. Though, Anjali‘s migration to Bangalore is eventual and marked with extreme circumstances of her life but she had also wished to escape from her small-town life. Her American accent, pleasing personality and her teacher cum friend Mr. Champion‘s trust (also the cash) are the pillars on which she is going to build her new exciting life in the big city Bangalore.
The novel chiefly focuses on the lives of the youth in the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore. The very beginning of Anjali‘s life in Bangalore starts early in the morning and she reaches for her first experience in Barista filled with English-speaking young people from transnational workplaces. She gets elated with the idea of being a part of a metropolitan city life, ―It was exciting to just be part of such a flow, even for one morning, and to be carried along like a twig in the flood. She had been accepted, no questions asked, even if she didn‘t understand most of what she‘d been hearing‖ (92). Anjali finds herself motivated for a better life among those dynamic people of the city.
English has become the pass for the entry into the global world. Without English one becomes unworthy of this modern time from the career point of view, Mukherjee also enunciates the requirement of a neutralized or de-indianized English in the global job market. She even highlights the importance of this language in the life of young girls in marriage market, as Anjali in the novel also gets the permission to attend the English classes from her American teacher just to add a quality in her marriage bio-data to attract good alliances for marriage. Mukherjee also critiques the call-center‘s rule that workers use a neutralized
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English (an enhanced one if not exactly American), in which most linguistic traces of their Indian origins are scrubbed away, including the common Indian way of blurring between the / w / and / v / sounds in speech like the way Parvati, the owner of the training institute instructs her students for the correct way of producing these sounds. Apart from enhancing the accent, such popular training institutes keep tailor- made solutions for Mother –tongue influence problems. Linguist Claire Cowie has discussed how call-centers teach their workers ―accent neutralization‖; before employees begin working, they take pronunciation classes and are given phonetics handbooks that ―refer to the ‗elimination of regional influence‘ and encourage trainees to become more comprehensible to native speakers of English by ‗improving pronunciation‘‖ (321). Although Cowie finds that defining a ‗neutral accent‘ is difficult, as companies hold different views on what precisely constitutes a neutral sound, the ideal is usually that it not sound entirely American, despite containing strong characteristics of the American accent (Cowie 324). However, it should not sound British either, and definitely not Indian (323). In Miss New India, Parvati also emphasizes on enhanced neutralized English, she says, ―That doesn‘t mean you have to imitate American Television accent- it just means they expect you to communicate without any complication‖ (229). So, English speaking skills become mandatory in the modern India for achieving higher goals in life. Those who back off from this skill they back off from the race of growth like the other students who dropout the enhancement course at CCI (the training institute) owing to their uneasiness to this enhanced English.
One of the purposes as well as the results of globalization appears to be the cultural homogenization. The global youth are so much convinced with the western culture that they feel more comfortable and confident in the western avatar be it clothes, language and even the names. This version of the youth is also found in Anjali, the protagonist of the novel when she turns into Angie. She feels a new kind of driving force in her western name, an identity which pushes her to take on the world and forget her cultural restrictions. Her first interaction with the people from call center background reveals that it is not only her but a whole class of youth who have westernized names. It does not matter to her that it is by choice or a forced identity. In fact she finds this name change concept quite magical, in her words, ―My God, how a simple name change changes everything‖ (92). In the call- center everyone is given an American identity to work with. Let alone speaking in American English with an American identity, they are required to have a good hand at American culture
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that is why the students at CCI are trained to learn about American culture. As a part of the training they are made to learn about the different brand names, watch American T.V. shows and learn about the locality and maps of that distant country. As Raka Shome has noted of real-life call-center workers, not only does the worker assume an American-sounding name, but he or she must also assume the guise of an authentic American and perform this identity with callers (115). The call-center‘s power to rename its Indian recruits is the kind of authority they have gained over the Indian young generation in lieu of globalization. This concept of identity change has lessened the value of a name among the youth but Anjali had her most dreadful experience when her identity was taken up by Husseina Siraj.
Globalization has varied effects on the lives of the Indians, with growing urban mindset a grossly compromising attitude is seen to be seeping in the human behaviour. One dimension of this development process which is totally ignored in the recent years is that of wearing down of ethics in our society. As a result of excessive emphasis on acquisition of maximum materialistic benefits, many cherished values of life are getting fast eroded. Contentment, cooperation, self-restraint all such values are getting eroded in the highly materialistic paradigm of development. These structural changes that are taking place around us with immense speed and complexity is making this valueless life very acceptable as if it is also an indispensible part of globalization. The people of urban area have become quite ambivalent to these compromises with values as the part of modernization unlike the people of rural area who still seem holding on the roots of moral values. Many characters of Miss New India set the example of the same. The protagonist herself stole expensive toiletries of her Bhagot housemates, and even admits that she would not have done such thing in Gauripur. This states the consumerist attitude that has come into her after coming in the big city. Anjali receives all the costly items of Hussiena Siraj in exchange of her dirty jeans and t-shirts, her discontented self wished to have all the expensive things by her side. Tooky another housemate keeps many boyfriends at a time; she manipulates them for her benefits. Relationship in such a time of globalization seems more for the requirement of body than for the soul. The biggest missing value which has been lost by our global generation is trust. At a point Mr. Peter Champion also complains about this very problem in this modern time and states, ―And for me this is the most worrisome aspect of India-the disappearance of trust. I look at modern Bangalore, and at Delhi and Mumbai, and wonder, what are we creating?‖(159). It was Anjali‘s trust in Hussiena Siraj that leads her to the darkest reality of
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her life where she starts wishing for her own death. Anjali was shattered to pieces and went into depression after the shock of her prison adventure. She regretted for all her ambitions and found herself distanced from her innocent hopes that she had, when she lived in Gauripur.
The call centre boom in India has made people rate the quality of others by their English. All other talents look useless if ones English skills are not up to the mark. In the taken story Anjali‘s teacher sees the same talent in his favourite student as her chance for a good career and directs her to the big city life. The dream he sowed in her for a better life in the big city was to be achieved through a call centre job. The story does mention other talents of Anjali; her top grades, being good in sports, her good features but the teacher could only confirm with her American accent and ushered her to the call centre world. But later on, her training by the most professional people of this call centre support producing system did not find her appropriate for the job. With the advancement of liberalization in Indian policies, call-centre industry flourished in India rapidly. This industry created lakhs of jobs for the youngsters with good spoken English. Even the college dropouts received huge paychecks at a very early age, which attracted other youngsters from small towns. Anyone with good English perceives himself fit for the BPO sector. There started a blind following of such trend but Mukherjee in her narrative emphasizes that everyone is not cut out for this outsourcing job. The protagonist Anjali fails her test for taking calls and is declined the entry in that sector, but her trainer Parvati finds some other talent in her. When Anjali tries to protest her rejection by saying that she can change, Parvati rejects that idea, in her words, ―Don‘t even try. I have an investment in you. Just not this one‖ (240). It is true that it is hard to find proper guidance in this rushing time. People should introspect on their talents and pursue their career accordingly or else they would end up in a stressed life. The blind race for getting good salaried jobs in call-center, is suppressing other talents in the Indian youth. The investment largely came from multinational companies and the country‘s progress largely due to them. Similarly the recession in such parent countries would dearly affect the job market of our country. Mukherjee through her character Peter Champion blurts out her weariness on the countries dependent prosperity as he states, ―We‘re tied to American prosperity. If America goes under, we‘ll drown‖ (161). Through these words, Mukherjee is trying to alarm that it is high time for Indians to have their own grounds to hold on so India doesn‘t go down in the storms of other nations. Shehzem Nadeem in her seminal work puts forth her provocative argument that ―just as the
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status of the colonial mimic men was dependent upon the structures of British colonialism, today the social position of [outsourcing] workers [in India] is contingent upon the continued patronage of Western corporations‖ (58). The dependence for capital on these western countries is leading to the same old structure of slavery in a sophisticated manner. Conclusion Thus the fictional work of Bharti Mukherjee‘s Miss New India reflects the changing urban as well as rural realities in globalizing India. Even though Bharti Mukherjee lives far away from India still she is well versed with the changing status of India. She subtly portrays the fast growing cities and urban zones along with all the global factors, experience, dreams, and attitudes of today's youth. Bharti Mukherjee very comfortably depicts women empowerment through characters like Anjali Bose, Parvati, Indrani and Tooky as one of the positive effects of globalization, at the same time the effects of this blindly followed modernization that has consumerism, alienating families and vanishing values among the urban Indians as some of the negative offshoots could not escape her piercing observation. She also wants the youngsters to be aware of their talents and to just not run after the charm of utopian transnational workplaces which many a times lead to disillusionment among the youth. She very well targets at the challenges faced by the Indian youth on the two contrary faces of India in this era of post-liberalization. References:
Cowie, Claire. ―The accents of outsourcing: the meanings of ‗neutral‘ in the Indian callcentre industry.‖ World Englishes 26.3 (2007): 316-30. Print.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Miss New India. New Delhi: Rupa Publication India, 2012. Print.
Nadeem, Shehzad. Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing Is Changing The Way Indians Understand Themselves. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2011. Print.
Shome, Raka. ―Thinking through the Diaspora: Call centers, India, and a new politics of hybridity.‖ International Journal of Cultural Studies 9.1 (2006): 105-12. Print.
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Symbolism in T S Eliot’s “Game of Chess” Samuel Mundru Abstract Everything matters in poetry right from a coma to an exclamatory mark, format to figurative language, phrases to words, scenes to small objects. This article focuses on these small objects used in the elaborate description of the unnamed lady described in the second section the poem Wasteland titled ―Game of Chess‖, Authored by four times nominee to the noble prize, a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary critic Thomas Stearns Eliot. Along with allusions and anthropological pieces of evidence, there is also an extensive use of Symbolism in the poem Wasteland. Harvard union library, and writings of Valarie Eliot hold the evidence that T.S Eliot was greatly influenced by Arthur Symons's ―The Symbolist Movement in Literature‖ which introduced him to the literary style of combining "ironic elegance and psychological nuance" popularized by Jules Laforgue, the unique style of describing a personality with the help of objects that he/she uses or are present around them. Game of Chess is the best example of this kind of narration. When it comes to the question of interpreting Game of chess, it is common for critics to talk about allusions and attributing the unnamed lady to Eliot's first wife Vivienne, ignoring the significance of the objects in the poem. The main aim of this article is to analyze the roles of these objects namely the Glass, the Door, the seven branched lamp stand, the carved dolphin, which are all a part of the subtle elegance of the poem and have double-layered meaning to describe the psychological condition of the characters in the Game of Chess. Keywords: Symbolism, Eliot, Game of chess, Objects, Wasteland Symbols are to express something which would otherwise be inexpressible. F. Clarke Fraser
The provenance of Symbolism takes us back to Parnassianism, a French literary movement in reaction to romanticism sparked by author Théophile Gautier and Arthur Schopenhauer. Parnassianism is very much similar to Neoclassicism with its rigid rules and conventions. The pioneers of Symbolism, like Stephen Mallarme, Paul Verlaine, who were against naturalism and realism in literature, refused to accept the clarity and objectivity of Parnassianism by allowing free verse and retaining the Parnassianism love for wordplay and musical qualities
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of the poetry, they started a new literary theory, Jean Moreas, entitled it as Symbolism in Figaro 18th September 1886.
Symbolism is a creative way of approaching art by erasing the thin line between the internal and external world of the writer and the reader which gives more freedom to them to express their thoughts. Critics say that the interpretation of Symbolism mostly depends on a readers' thought process for example red colour might not symbolize ‗Love‘ for everyone and white colour might not reflect peace for everyone universally. Using universal symbols with highly personalized metaphors to express the deepest thoughts of the author to the reader, who might be analysing the text is an entirely different thinking process, and is a challenge in symbolism. T.S Eliot came across this challenge in the Harvard union library, which made this budding author in the university order another three volumes on Symbolism to get a complete understanding of the theory of Symbolism, which showed a marked transformation in Eliot's poetry.
The earliest works of Eliot as the "tale of the whale" and the "man who was a king" while he was preparing for Harvard entrance in Smith Academy shows Eliot's gift for irony and parody. When Eliot aspires to settle in England in order to pursue his interest in literature, his father was not supportive. When Eliot was finally successful and wanted to share his success with his father, he was no more. Eliot's marriage with Vivienne was an obligation in order to stay in England and pursue his interest in literature. His job in Lloyds bank was merely a necessity to maintain his financial stability. When reality dawned upon Eliot and the monotony of everyday life felt as thou it was a race, the actual reason for staying in England was forgotten and he went through a nervous breakdown and advised to take three months off work. He travelled to Margate, then Lausanne for sick leave, where he got time and space to ponder on his true passion "literature.‖ And symbolism helped to give a form to the fragments of poem he is writing since a decade, while returning Eliot handed over the manuscript to Ezra Pound, Pound, in his letter to John Quinn, says, "Eliot returned from Switzerland with a damn good poem." This later turned out to be Wasteland
Wasteland is a collection of fragments written for nearly ten years. This long poem consists of five sections, namely ‗The Burial of the Dead‘, ‗The Game Of Chess‘, ‗The Fire Sermon‘, ‗Death By Water‘, ‗What The Thunder Said‘, and Epigraph.
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This article focuses on the first part of ‗Game of Chess‘ that is the second section poem Wasteland, which narrates a story of a rich woman waiting for her husband in her room, and her room is very elegantly described, right from a chair she sat on to the elaborately carved ceiling of the room. Surprisingly there is no line in the whole section of the poem that explains the mental situation or the background of the lady in the poem, except for the conversation between her and her husband, who finally arrives in the last few lines, there is no other explanation that portrays their unhappy marriage. This narration of the poem indicates the objects described elegantly are Symbols, which hold doubled layered meanings; few of the objects have marked their importance with allusions of classics, Another few became a part of our discussion, because of Ezra pound‘s editorial work when Eliot handed over the manuscript to Pound to edit the document consists of thousand lines and eight sections; Pound delete chunks of the poem for example he deleted the whole shipwreck scene and made it a poem of just four hundred and thirty-three lines consisting of five sections. However, he did not even attempt to avoid a single object in the Game of Chess that describes the lady, this Indicates that even the objects like ―door‖, ―glass‖, ―seven-branched candelabra‖, ―the carved dolphin‖ which does not hold any allusions have something to say through Symbolism. This article is an attempt to decode those symbols. Analysis where the Glass Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines From which a golden Cupidon peeped out (Another hid his eyes behind his wing)‖ (Wasteland 79-81) The use of word ―Glass‖ rather than mirror and the lines in the brackets, symbolize that the lady in the poem has nothing in the room to examine herself, if there was a mirror she would have admired herself or she would have put her hair strands straight or straightened her dress, As she was waiting for her husband to come back. However, the Glass in the poem is to look through not to a mirror to look into. Even the lines in the brackets propose an idea portraying a cupid hiding his eyes behind his wing, the idea of a cupid hiding eyes behind his wings belongs to book of the bible, Isaiah chapter six," the lines being ―With two wings they
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covered their faces.‖ Continuing the biblical reference god also talks about people in the same chapter the lines being
Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.‖
The above lines are pertinent to the state of the lady in the poem who has Glass a transparent object to examine herself rather than mirror a reflecting object, indicates the emptiness of her life, if the mirror not used to look into, it does not make a difference of having a glass or having a mirror, according to Eliot a mirror can be personified as life in itself the modern-day generation that Eliot talks about is only thinking about the future they do not reflect upon their past action or life in itself this causes the reflecting mirror to change into solid glass which does not reflect back
Doubled the flames of seven-branched candelabra Reflecting light upon the table as The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it, : : Burned green and orange... In which sad light a carvéd dolphin swam. (Wasteland 82-96)
Light from the seven-branched lamp stand is a well known Jewish symbol for hope, We observe two different forms of light (symbolizing hope) one being the jewels and the other being the dolphin swimming. According to the above line when the light from the candelabra falls on her jewels the room brightens up this indicates that although there is an emptiness prevailing in her life which is reflected by the presence of the Glass, she still has hope that something will change when her husband arrives. in the next few lines, Eliot talks about dolphin shaped curves in the fire place which signifies that the burning fire is in lukewarm state and almost about to be put off these lines indicate the loss of hope. This fluctuation in her emotions reflect her inconsistency of thought which is common for the 21st century
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generation or the modern era where life is so fast paced and world is extremely competitive which lead to relationship being strained and deterioration of mental health.
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. (Wasteland 132)
After the arrival of her husband, the couple have a bland conversation, in which she forces her husband to tell her what they are going to do next. In response the husband replies with above lines "wait for a knock upon the door." As Eliot was profoundly religious and the bible has a significant influence on many of his writings, undoubtedly we can dram a reference from scripture book of revelations chapter three, where Jesus the symbol of life, the symbol of salvation knocks the door to grant salvation to whoever opens it, the husband means the spiritual knock upon the door of their hearts, as they were going through troubled times which has being depicted in the line 115 which say that their home has became a ―rats alley‖ as they were seeing but unable to perceive depicted by the presence of ―Glass‖, as they are is inconsistency in their emotions and thoughts depicted by the light from ―seven branched lamp stand‖ the husband wants that ―knock‖ which can set right all the chaos, the main idea of poem wasteland is need for spiritual awakening, towards the end of poem Eliot suggest spiritual awakening as one of the methods to save the modern age from chaos, the rich couple in the game of chess are also somewhere seeking this spiritual awakening in themselves and waiting for that ―knock up on the door‖.
Conclusion
As quoted in the beginning, "Symbols are to express something which would otherwise be inexpressible." without symbols, it is difficult to draw the beginning and endpoints of "Game of Chess‖ due to its complex structure of juxtaposing objects in describing the characters present in the poem such as, the Glass, the door, the seven-branched candelabra which are the usual set up of any lavish room. However, with the application of symbolism, these objects turn out to be narrators of the central theme of the poem wasteland. the Glass asks us to reflect upon the past and make the present better; the seven-branched lamp stand portrays the inconsistency of modern generation decisions and thoughts and shows the importance of constant thought and action, The Door establishes the need of spiritual awakening like this
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although Game of Chess is part of the poem Wasteland it summarizes the whole idea of the poem from "April is the cruelest month" to ‗shantih shantih shantih‘.
Works Cited
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Symbolism." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 May 2013. Web.
Eliot, T. S., and Valerie Eliot. The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. London: Faber and Faber, 1986. Print.
Jain, Manju. A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
McAloon, Jonathan. "TS Eliot's The Waste Land Remains One of the Finest Reflections on Mental Illness Ever Written." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 13 Feb. 2018.Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/13/ts-eliot-the-waste-landmental-illness>
Metmuseum.org. N.p., n.d. Web. <https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symb/hd_symb.htm>
Schwary, Robert L. Broken Images: A Study on Wasteland. N.p.: Union, 1988. Print.
"The Waste Land and Other Poems." Google Books. Google, n.d. Web.
"The Waste Land." Representative Poetry Online. N.p., n.d. Web. < https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/waste-land>
"Parnassianism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2020. Web. 29 Apr. 2020.
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Maithili Women: Sole Precursor of Mithila Art Santosh Kumar Singh
Abstract This article brings out Maithili women‘s assertiveness while creating their folk art. Basically, creating art provides them both space and time to liberate and meditate them away from worldly affairs. This phenomenon proves boon for all the Maithils as it begets tapestry of artistic life; a kind of inherent thread that connects people of all sorts in the geography. For this, religion, ritual and patriarchy of the region play interwoven role to create female centric activities in the realm of works of art. Plus it embarks an ethnic art exclusively heralded by the female folks of Mithila. While doing so, female folks do not only get economic benefit but also empowered themselves spiritually. In the entire world, only Maithili folk art exhibits women as its originator neither only the males perform such tasks to express their cultural nuances. Key Words: Maithili Art, Folk Art, Women‘s Assertion, Female Centric Activities
Introduction
Maithili women bring nature and culture at the artistic space to express their own world view. In the course of expression, they take help of nature as surrogate mother and traditionally acclaimed culture as discourse to lead society in the prescribed modality. Moreover, the approved modality is based on Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata where the role of men and women are balanced by the virtues set by mythological characters Ram, Sita, Krishna, Yudhisthir, Arjun, Dropati. More often than not, Maithili society strives for this age old tradition, but changing ethos of time abridges gap between the set modality and the contemporary change in life style.
Discussion/Analysis
In Mithila art, women as progenitor, fill the gap generated in the society. To achieve the end, they exploit agrarian social structure, flora and fauna, co-living beings and their own
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feminine sentiments; as symbols and decorative elements to attract the attention of people to give life to their creations. Furthermore, while creating different art forms, women meditate keeping their body pure without eating anything and paying full attention to their deities since their creations become a kind of offering to God. In this way, women pass through rituals for the execution of arts as reverential tribute to their communal deities.
Mithila art is an integral part of the lives of Maithili women along with ritual, ceremonial, and artistic need. Ritual performance of folk art has inspired them to be devotional to both supernatural and patriarchal powers. Rituals determine a particular category of art form in Mithila. According to Walter Benjamin, ―[…] the unique value of the authentic work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original value‖ (200). It is this ritual mode of art that maintains its sublime and cult value. For its unique identity of the ancestors, women devote themselves to express all the delicate nuances of life. The circumstance of devotion ultimately leads them to meditate for artistic creation. Painting is a form of meditation, a prayer to invoke ―the good will of the god whom they are painting‖ (LaDuke 2). Although their initial drawing is so simple and naïve in expression, the overall functions of art possess empowering capacity to lead them towards more successful life. More often than not, it is significant for the whole gender ontology of Maithili women, for it provides an open platform for their belief, value, morality, struggle, in the form of ritual.
Traditionally, Mithila art has ceremonial nature where women have been playing very active role to accomplish all the skills for eligible housewife. Also, they have been celebrating their life despite the fact that their life is devoted to others. As Campoli notes; ―The women remember the sad fate of the revered Princess Sita who emerged only to be swallowed up by the depths of the earth, and still commemorate her wedding day‖ (19). But a single place where women are entirely free to reign themselves is art. Besides, art as ―reflexive – an iconic tradition of women‘s understanding of selfhood in patriarchal society‖ (Brown 717). Politically, women are marginalized even in traditional ritual ―marginal rites are generally performed by women‖ (Jain 169). Devaki Jain further adds that in almost all 90 per cent of rituals ―the artist is a woman but tantric diagram is drawn by Brahmin priests i.e. the instruments of metaphysical influence‖ (171). So far ceremonial significance of Mithila art is considered, without it, all the ritual work of Mithila is incomplete, inauspicious, and obsolete.
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Along with ritual and ceremonial importance of Mithila art, it generates evolutionary sentiment further modified with modernization and globalization in the world. Above discussed two media of Mithila art are of primitive type and still practiced at cultural rote. But the third category has evolved with changing ethos of time and has shifted from mud to paper. This shift basically marks the development of new era in the development of Maithili women. Art on paper revolutionized women for industrial development; hence, women empowered themselves through their own cultural art. Economic development thus ―became a part of cultural development, and handicraft production and sale a cultural expression‖ (Jain 205). Of course, the modern techniques of production radically increased to satisfy consumer based society. Undoubtedly, this economic, social and cultural empowerment of women has hampered ritual and ceremonial cult of art as well as evolved them from Mithila art to Mithila painting. Thus, Maithili women shift their role from souvenirs to creator of professionally engaged subjects in the art industry.
Mithila art traditionally got confined in domestic activities where women used to handle all the household works. And even-now women are the sole proprietor of this work which is in the realm of decoration also called beautifying objects. Along with beautification, age old religious beliefs have developed parallel in the society, advocating household activities solely in the domain of women. Although Mithila art reflects mutual harmony between male and female to develop various cultural aspects in general and Mithila art tradition in particular, there is imbalance in daily life; yet, Mithila art balances all aspects of conjugal life as women find free space to paint their emotion, feeling, attitude, belief, value, and desire. ―The ability to earn an income within the given social frame-work has clearly enhanced women‘s status‖ (Jain 186). These acts are gender symbols where both sexes define each other in the decision making process. Hence, under the influence of art ―the walls expand, the roof rises, and home becomes a temple‖ (Ingersoll 5). On top of it, religion fosters via Mithila art portraying feminine quality in its expression through epical events, social institutions, and ritual practices.
Mithila culture is highly religious where Hindu epics are taken as the model of life, society, and customs practiced in daily happenings. Moreover, religion determines the way of Maithili life. In addition, Mithila art uses religion based cultural symbols for communal expression. For instance, Swastik, Ohmkar, Deepshikha, Kamal, Kalash, andSankha symbolize peace,
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liberation, longevity, wisdom, initiation, and intellect respectively. Even the great Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata narrate female as the sole cause of major epical events. The same events are depicted in art to sustain unique life on the Earth. As Campoli mentions; ―The Maithili women remember the sad fate of the revered Princess Sita who emerged only to be swallowed up by the depths of the earth, and still commemorate her wedding day‖ (19). This paradoxical remark equally celebrates Maithili women‘s life through this ancient folk art. It does not mean that men are not represented in it; rather, their struggle, devotion to work, and affinity to family members is eye - catching portrait within Mithila painting. In addition, male struggles for the female cause are largely demonstrated through various designs of art. Consequently, art creates an atmosphere in which the proprieties, the amenities, and the virtues unconsciously grow. ―The rain does not lecture the seed. The light does not make rules for the vine and flower‖ (Ingersoll 6). Hence, Mithila art echoes the symmetrical picture of both the sexes in its resultant products.
Not only through the epical events but also the social institution like marriage, portrays the equal exhibition of both the wheels of conjugal cart. More often than not, the participation of women throughout the ceremony is higher in comparison to men. Women are also more engaged in all performances of marriage ceremony than men despite the equal share of social gathering from both the male and female side. However, ―social status is a compound of caste, wealth and ethnic purity, and the extent of the seclusion of women‖ (Jain 168). Despite the fact that, Mithila art depicts women as active volunteers in Maithili culture. Thus, women transfer art and skills related to it from one generation to another for proper maintenance of all its aspects to regulate culture with uniformity in all the time.
Besides epical and social events, Mithila art also absorbs ritual ceremonies to imprint its delicate feminine quality. Ritual ceremonies once again are the by-products of household activities: it finds itself captured in the hands of women. Besides, ―Maithili women usually draw art on certain ceremonial and ritualistic occasions‖ (Rakesh 71). Since women are the sole authority in conducting domestic rituals, they exploit nature and its mute glory to express and communicate themselves with gods, cohabitants and nature in the social setting where they live. (Fig.4). Moreover, ―art unconsciously evolved from the female folk of the region
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and whole cultural life of Mithila is depicted in it‖ (Pandey 190). For Maithili women, nature is a perennial source of inspiration: they depict nature and animals in their arts because nature for them is a surrogate of Feminine divine and animals. So, Rakesh mentions; ―women play a great role in the development of Mithila Art‖ (Maithili Sanskriti 215). Thus, art provides a window into Maithil women's understandings of their society and the sacred, cultural subjectivities, moral frameworks, and projects of self-construction.
Art is the sublime object that reflects inner truth of culture and society. Despite the perfect ideals contemporary Maithili society fails to adopt the art message fully; rather, male dominates female in daily life, for men are sole authority in decision making as well as delegation of power. In this regard, Lipton writes:
The artist is, in psycho- sexual terms, always male, the model female. He makes, surveys, imagines; she poses, reposes, inspires. The symbolic apparatus is male mastery and power versus female passivity and resignation. Other ways to frame this binarism are: man is authority, woman is other; man desires, woman satisfies; man sees, woman is seen. He is active, she is passive; he is visible, she invisible. (82)
Besides, the art depicts power in the hands of Goddess where Goddess performs all the power exercising rites to kill evils of the society. This mismatch of art and practice has somewhere proved as the stopping boulder of continuous development of society. For the equal distribution of power, women should have their own institutions. Therefore, Jain justifies:
Art institutions can improve the position of women and have greater power over their income and give them self-confidence, an understanding of collective strength, and access to power over their earnings as well as their social behavior. (205-6)
But the traditional social and family organization stands as rock in the progressive path of women artists. ―The family structures and the strength of traditional relationships within the structures have raised some doubts about whether the artists can be organized as women‖
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(Jain 206). In spite of the traditional convention, art is seen as green signal to foster women as equal participants in the progress of the society.
Mithila art portrays the whole picture of Maithili society. It represents how Maithil people live their life, their social harmony, religious tolerance, gender equality, ecological awareness, unique identity, agricultural life, culture, history and public urge for the sublime beauty of art. Moreover, ―vernacular art bears directly upon geography since it represents both culture and place‖ (Karan and Mather 488). In addition to social, religious and ecological scenario, it vividly captures the daily rituals, activities of both male and female, common aspiration of people along with their faith and belief system. High castes Maithili women portray religious events; however, Dalit women portray the daily life of people. Likewise, women in general portray the restless longing for their husbands. For that reason, sex is not allowed to lose the quality of subtlety and refinement in Mithila art. Hence, ―the recurring subject matter is woman restless with longing for her lover‖ (Karan and Mather 495-6). On the one hand, men go to foreign land for earning. On the other, women suffer their separation.
At last in all the circumstances, it is women who suffer and mostly for the men cause. Occasionally, they free themselves from these bonds while celebrating festivals and drawing art. Women express themselves emotionally, ritually and culturally while making art. Additionally, the festival demonstrates ―the ways Maithil women create a communicative space among themselves that permits articulations of their gendered perspectives on social and sacred worlds‖(Davis 3). Moreover, Maithili society and people have been depicted in an integrated form in Mithila art which easily conveys the whole picture of the community.
On top of it, Maithili women also perform superstitious rituals and portray them in their art too. ―Superstition is also a part of culture‖ (Pravat 85). ―With the help of such nuances, they are able to balance between a cultural imperative for personal innovation and submission to the constraints of traditional style‖ (Roe 42). Besides, it also emits separate visionary notion of adjoined materials. In this way, Mithila art maintains dual existence of same codes used within a system, whole and part having distinguished meaningful existence. Likewise, society gains longevity and communal harmony out of equal participation of all kinds of people.
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Social inclusion of all castes and creeds, male and female, children, adult, old, rich and poor, as well as skilled and layman sustains people together for collective organizations. However, poor Dalit is deprived of social, economic and political inclusion in Mithila society. But, ―the spirited work of some Harijan folk painters has displayed a rejection of their inferior social status, and promises a commitment to the revolutionary ideals of their deities‖ (Jain 207). In this way, the art of the Dalit women has compensated all the historical loss suffered before. Now, they challenge the high caste art with their own innovative attempts. The Harijan (low castes) women's art is more earthly than that of the Brahman. ―Secular figures of cows, elephants, goats, and children are depicted in imaginative proportions‖ (Chavda 27). The homogeneity in their art symbolizes the importance of inclusion as the demand of time. Furthermore, ―Dalit artist etches vivid symbols of strength and power using vibrant colors, bold contours and the novel themes producing an electrifying effect‖ (Jain 209). Hence, the changing ethos of time ultimately generates a democratic society like their inclusive art.
However, collective participation of people together in society leads to fix system and maintain discipline among individuals so that it can emulate desired outcome. The disciplinary notions largely adopted from religious epics are constantly used in daily life. And the same lively scenes of day to day activities are drawn in art form to provide permanency of what Maithili society performs on the whole. Caste system has delimited the individual freedom where the act of speaking is political. However, women get deprived of freedom, equality, and power in comparison to their male counterparts. Therefore, Desai mentions; ―we always speak from a specific historical and social location in relation to others, which is mediated by unequal power relations (117). Hence, mutual help is demanding for the social welfare. Therefore, In addition to common participation of each group, it also encourages for equal participation from both the sex: male and female. But women do all the rituals to balance their life in comparison to men. ―Ritualized activity is the stuff of life for Maithil women generally and high caste Maithil women in particular‖ (qtd. in Davis 30). Baumgarten further reports that this is quite evident in the case of Maithil women (and especially high caste women), "who organize the time and place of their household and everyday lives by paying attention to supernatural beings, deities and forces" (qtd. in Davis 8). Hence, ritual is the only place where women express themselves. Another practical aspect of religious tradition in Mithila art is the frequent portrayal of regular
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occurring Maithili festivals. These festivals are the symbols of liberation from struggle for existence: all these festivals provide break from the continuous work. Festival is ―the central part of human culture & behavior‖ (Jha, Aangan 46). Festivals invite ritual occasions where women liberate their feelings in an artistic way. As a whole, this period of break generates enthusiasm among people to restart their work in a fresh way. However, the Hindu festivals broadly advocate that women are for the men‘s purpose. Therefore, Davis writes; ―directly and indirectly, state-sponsored Hinduism treats Nepali women as legal and social dependents, sexual threats to patriliny, and (spiritually) polluting/polluted entities‖ (4). Traditional social attitude of people reserves women to participate in all the activities of the society. Davis adds; ―Ideally, it entails the social, verbal, and spatial/visual isolation of in-married women from non-household males and from males senior in kinship status to the husbands of those women‖ (4). In this way, festivals remind us that to read male-female relations under patriarchal social formations as a dichotomy between the empowered and the disempowered ignores the porous boundaries between the two in which negotiations and tradeoffs create a symbiotic reliance. The submissive constructed behavior of women since their childhood completely blocks their emotional development.
Due to their paralyzed emotional advancement, women never complain but weep during suffering. Hence, their subjectivities become victim of patriarchal norms. During festivals, it is women who sacrifice and pray for their husbands, brothers and fathers. In fact, the terminations of festivals are devoted to men where women always remain secondary. Therefore, Davis remarks; ―termination of the festival is effected by male intervention, the desires, values, and standpoints of women and girls ultimately remain framed by patrilineality‖ (31). Maithili society is so structured that women have to live between their husband and natal male members to save themselves from possible misfortune in their life. It indexes ―the structural dilemma of married women who are emotionally and practically positioned between allegiances to and dependencies on their natal and married families‖ (Davis 23). Yet, art has solely become the hope for them which can liberate them financially.
The economic independence of women certainly leads them to liberate themselves from traditional mindset. With the help of art, women can express themselves biologically, socially and culturally shaping others and vice versa. In this regard, Baumgarten mentions; ―It is the
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faithful attitude and truly consistent practice of the woman protagonist which helps her go through all kinds of torture but to come out in the end either unharmed or altered, refined or rehabilitated‖ (qtd. in Davis 6). Similarly, art in its highest forms increases passion, gives tone and color and zest to life of women for freedom, equality and progress.
Conclusion
Folk art of Mithila creates space and time for the local ladies to express their emotional outlet to balance the patriarchal pressure on them. However, these passages become possible due to frequent occurring festivals when the women get chance to draw on their walls and floors. Religious rituals further help them to consolidate with spiritual symbols that make them meditative with their work of art forgetting the earthly nuances. This passionate phenomena create a kind of aura for them to liberate at least for some time from the worldly imbalances in their life. This activity proves boon for Maithili as women provide them with beautiful arts and has always been pioneer of it.
Works Cited
Brown, Carolyn Henning. "Contested Meanings: Tantra and the Poetics of Mithila Art." American Ethnologist 23.4 (1996): 717-737.
Campoli, Alessandra. Ritual Art of the Kingdom of Mithila. Kathmandu: Vajra Publication, 2008.
Chavda, Jagdish J. "The Narrative Paintings of India's Jitwarpuri Women." Woman's Art 11.1 (1990): 26-8.
Davis, Coralynn. "Listen, Rama's Wife!" Maithili Women's Perspectives and Practices in the Festival of Sama Cakeva. n.p. 2005.
Ingersoll, Robert G. "Art and Morality." North American Review (1888): n.p.
Jain, Devaki. Women's Quest for Power. Ghaziabad: Vikas Publishing House, 1980.
Jha, Namonarayan. "Mithila, Chhathi Parva Ya Suryopasana." Aangan2 (2010): 42-7.
Karan and Mather, Pradyumna P. and Cotton Mather. "Art and Geography: Patterns in the Himalaya." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 66.4 (1976): 487515.
LaDuke, Betty. "Traditional Women Artists in Borneo, Indonesia and India." Woman's
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Art Journal 2.1 (1981): 17-20.
Pandey, Ramniwas. "An Introduction to the History and Art Traditions of Mithila." Readings in Maithili Language, Literature and Culture. Ed.Yogendra P. Yadava. Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy, 1999. 181-96.
Pravat, Bishnu. "Sanskriti and Rastriyata." PRAGYA 102 (2008-9): 83-7.
Rakesh, Ram Dayal. Art and Culture of Nepal. New Delhi: Nirala, 1991.
Roe, Peter G. "Art and Residence among the Shipibo Indians of Peru: A Study in Microacculturation." American Anthropologist 82.1 (1980): 42-71.
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Resonance of Female’s Struggle in The Mayor of Casterbridge Shobhana Singh Abstract
The Mayor of Casterbridge interrupts a custom that has typically assigned that role to a man. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy boons to the Victorian society that in how difficult situations women faced in the patriarchal society. Hardy firmly pointed out that the only way for a woman to achieve deliverance and contentment in the outmoded world was to be independent. Of all the women in The Mayor of Casterbridge, only Elizabeth Jane meet the requirement of being an independent woman: which was challenging for the male based society of the time combined with her unique upbringing with independent education, the continual pursuit of knowledge and persistent fighting spirit for happy life.
Keywords: society, ritual, remarriage, feminism, custom.
Elizabeth-Jane was the child of Michael Henchard and Susan, when Henchard sold his wife at Weydon-Priors. She took Elizabeth-Jane with her and immigrated to Canada with Newson. The child died three months after the sale. She is a part of the tragic irony of the story, and of Henchard‘s nemesis, that his affection for the second Elizabeth-Jane is rooted in the assumption that she was his daughter. He did not discover that she was Newson‘s daughter until after Susan‘s death. On her first appearance she appeared as a well-formed young woman of eighteen, completely possessed of that ephemeral precious essence, youth, which is itself beauty, irrespective of complexion or contour. She was almost look-alike of her mother, Susan A glance was sufficient to inform the eye that this was Susan Henchard‘s grown-up daughter. While life‘s middle summer had set its hardening mark on the mother‘s face, her former spring-like specialities were transferred so dexterously by Time to the second figure, her child, that the absence of certain facts within her mother‘s knowledge from the girl‘s mind would have seemed for the moment, to one reflecting on those facts, to be a curious imperfection in Nature‘s powers of continuity.(MC- 24-25)
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She was devoted to mother and showed a strong respectable-complex. Accustomed to hard work, she did not hesitate to serve at the Three Mariners, where she felt her mother could ill afford to stay. She had learnt from experience and anxiety not to be light-hearted. She was reasonable in everything and especially in her dress and appearance when she enjoyed relative affluence, after her mother‘s remarriage to Henchard. She possessed natural insight but lacked accomplishments, which she tried to gain by discipline study, only to earn Henchard‘s illtempered disapproval after he had discovered that she was Newson‘s daughter. Before her death, Susan had done her simple best to bring Elizabeth and Farfrae together, but Henchard‘s jealousy and folly were such that he forbade their meeting. Though Henchard had informed her that she was his daughter before he learnt the truth, and chose not to undeceive her, he treated her with such intolerance and disapproval after learning that she had humiliated herself by serving at the Three mariners that she chose to live with the lady Lucetta, who had come to live at High-Place hall. He had relented appropriately, however, to allow Farfrae to renew his courtship, but the girl knew intuitively how swift the course of love was between Lucetta and Farfrae.
The subtle-souled girl asking herself why she was born, why sitting in a room, and blinking at the candle; why things around her had taken the shape they wore in preference to every other possible shape. Why they stared at her so helplessly, as if waiting for the touch of some wand that should release them from terrestrial constraint; what that chaos called consciousness, which spun in her at this moment like a top, tended to, and began in. Her eyes fell together; she was awake, yet she was asleep. (MC-132)
When she knew that she had lost Farfrae to Lucetta, she left high-Place hall and considered how she could earn an independent living. It was her stuff to look after Henchard in his humiliation, to warn Farfrae of his threats, and to try to spare Lucetta the sight of the skimmington-ride. After Lucetta‘s death, she and her stepfather lived together for a period, and Henchard‘s affection for her grew until he could not bear to part with her. It was this that had prompted him to tell Newson his daughter was dead, and reawakened his jealous possessiveness when he discovered that Farfrae was courting her again. Newson‘s return completely unmanned him, and he left Casterbridge. Elizabeth and Farfrae were married, and Henchard returned in the hope of forgiveness, but Elizabeth reprimanded him for having kept her from her father for five years. When she discovered his wedding-present, with the
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goldfinch starved in the cage in the garden where Henchard had left it, her heart softened and she could not rest until she had found him and reached reconciliation. It was too late. Hardy writes: All was over at last, even her regrets for having misunderstood him on his last visit, for not having searched him out sooner, though these were deep and sharp for a good while. From this time forward Elizabeth-Jane found herself in a latitude of calm weather, kindly and grateful in itself, and doubly so after the Capharnaum in which some of her preceding years had been spent. As the lively and sparkling emotions of her early married life cohered into an equable serenity (MC-367)
Accustomed to hard work, she did not hesitate to serve at the Three Mariners, where she felt her mother could ill afford to stay. She had learnt from experience and anxiety not to be lighthearted. She was reasonable in everything and especially in her dress and appearance when she enjoyed relative affluence, after her mother‘s remarriage to Henchard. Her condition echoes Catherine Belsey‘s, findings, Femininity is the criterion which Cixous uses to define the ‗otherness‘ and femininity is not gendered in anatomy. On the contrary, it is situated in language and culture. The difficulty, then, is not with individual men or women but with patriarchy. It is patriarchy that imposes male privilege. (10)
She possessed natural insight but lacked accomplishments, which she tried to gain by discipline study, only to earn Henchard‘s ill-tempered disapproval after he had discovered that she was Newson‘s daughter. Before her death, Susan had done her simple best to bring Elizabeth and Farfrae together, but Henchard‘s jealousy and folly were such that he forbade their meeting.
Though Henchard had informed her that she was his daughter before he learnt the truth, and chose not to undeceive her, he treated her with such impatience and disapproval after learning that she had demeaned herself by serving at the three mariners that she chose to live with the lady Lucetta, who had come to live at High-Place hall. He had relented sufficiently, however, to allow Farfrae to renew his courtship, but the ‗subtle-souled‘ girl knew intuitively how swift
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was the course of love between Lucetta and Farfrae. She endured stoically, isolated in her suffering, just as Henchard was at this time. ‗
She had learnt the lesson of renunciation, and was as familiar with the wreck of each day‘s wishes as with the diurnal setting of the sun. (MC-197)
When she knew that she had lost Farfrae to Lucetta, she left high-Place hall and considered how she could earn an independent living. It was her stuff to look after Henchard in his humiliation, to warn Farfrae of his threats, and to try to spare Lucetta the sight of the skimmington-ride. After Lucetta‘s death, she and her stepfather lived together for a period, and Henchard‘s affection for her grew until he could not bear to part with her. It was this that had prompted him to tell Newson his daughter was dead, and reawakened his jealous possessiveness when he discovered that Farfrae was courting her again. Newson‘s return completely unmanned him, and he left Casterbridge. Elizabeth and Farfrae were married, and Henchard returned in the hope of forgiveness, but Elizabeth reprimanded him for having kept her from her father for five years. When she discovered his wedding-present, with the goldfinch starved in the cage in the garden where Henchard had left it, her heart softened and she could not rest until she had found him and reached reconciliation. Elizabeth-Jane is somewhat insecure about her own beauty and intelligence. Although she is admired by nearly everyone in town for her beauty, she feels that she is not smart enough to be the object of their admiration. She is happy with her new condition and shows a love of fine clothes that enhance her beauty, but still feels inadequate.
Thus she lived on, a dumb, deep-feeling, great-eyed creature, construed by not a single contiguous being; quenching with patient fortitude her incipient interest in Farfrae, because it seemed to be one-sided, unmaidenly, and unwise. True, that for reasons best known to herself, she had, since Farfrae‘s dismissal, shifted her quarters from the back room affording a view of the yard (which she had occupied with such zest) to a front chamber overlooking the street; but as for the young man, whenever he passed the house he seldom or never turned his head.(MC-148)
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She was, or became, a little philosopher, learning to accept life‘s habit of substituting for the deeply-desired the not-desired-so-much. Her secret lies perhaps in her possession of a sense of humour: she is able to note with amusement that when Lucetta had pricked her finger they were as deeply concerned as if she were dying; when she herself had been seriously sick or in danger they uttered a conventional word of sympathy at the news, and forgot all about it immediately. Nietzsche believed that the feminine power submits to the will and desire of the masculine. Nietzsche restores the image of the cat to define the feminine trait, he says, Woman‘s great art is lie; her highest concern is mere appearance and beauty…..Woman has much reason for shame; so much pedantry, superficiality, petty licentiousness and immodest lies concealed in woman. (qtd Burgard 1) . To her stepfather, she is kind and caring, she used to change herself to meet his requirement, but failed to satisfy him when he knew her true identity, and she was brave to revolt against Henchard when she got the chance. Mike Featherstone writes: ―While cultural integration processes are taking place on a global level, the situation is becoming increasingly pluralistic. (Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity, p.13) The first fight happened when she was going to leave Henchard‘s house to live with Lucetta, Henchard asked her to stay, but to his disappointment, she refused for her liberty, she did not want to stay in the awkward and unbearable situation at the sacrifice of her own freedom.
She is brought up in poverty and has passed through vicissitudes of fortune ordinarily difficult to endure. She loses her father first, and her mother soon afterwards. Henchard‘s affection is as moodily withdrawn as earlier it was lavished upon her. In Farfrae‘s marriage with Lucetta she loses not only her lover, but also the only home she then had under Lucetta‘s roof. All these events and the absolute loneliness of this quasi-orphan girl are more heart-breaking in the objective sense than those which Henchard suffered. Yet, while Henchard is broken she lives with firm strength. positively helps and consoles her better-placed friends—Henchard, Lucetta, Farfrae—in their troubles.
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Susan When the narrative began, she is Susan Henchard, the wife of ‗the man of character‘. She lived with her sullen, frustrated, irritable and ambitious husband, Michael Henchard, the hay-trusser, until, the worst day of her life, under intoxication; he auctioned her at WeydonPriors Fair. Her endurance had been overtaxed, and she welcomed release from him, and accompanied her purchaser, the sailor Newson, to Canada with her baby daughter ElizabethJane, who soon afterwards died. Her simplicity was such that she assumed she was Newson‘s legal wife. A daughter was born to them, and also christened Elizabeth-Jane. They came to England and settled at Falmouth. Here Susan began to realise that her marriage had no legal sanction and her husband had been drowned to death. Then Susan with her eighteen-year-old daughter left Falmouth to find her husband Henchard. She found him Mayor of Casterbridge. By this time Susan was weak in health and spirits, but instinctively she sought to secure her daughter‘s future. When Henchard married her, her main aim was to ensure Elizabeth‘s future, and, in her simple-minded way, she endeavoured to bring her and Farfrae together.
Susan and her daughter return eighteen years later to find information about Michael. What is noteworthy is that the passage of time has affected both people and events. Susan is described as looking older, having time's "hardening mark" on her face, and the woman has gone from being old to being ancient. The fair at Weydon Priors has also changed because the growth of urban areas has caused rural fairs to decline in size and reputation. Hardy does not make clear why Susan is looking for Michael, and so the reader is left to assume that she is hoping to preestablish a connection for financial reasons. This is especially hinted at when the Furmity woman remarks that all legitimate business has dwindled – only the "sly" business has flourished in the area.
Hardy portrays his women characters in the perception of a new form of family that inspires success, possession and affordability making family and emotions secondary in front of these things. The novel shows dehumanization of the male world at the beginning of unfamiliar values based on analysing things and not surrendering in the rural world of England. In the male dominated society economic success did affect the relationship between man and woman. Antagonistic Capitalism forces man to consider woman as product and this product is thrown away when it fails to deliver any efficacy to them. In fact, the novel analyses
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suppression of women, their subordination to the patriarchal ideology and denial of selfrespect to them. Hardy through Michael Henchard attacks bitterly the tendency of male society to transform woman into a commodity. Dumping loving values of love, affection and care, the society creates a successful business personality who does not identify any other relationships than business. Hardy, though not a 'feminist' in the political sense of the term, shows defeat of patriarchal society's materialistic concept of success to the feminine values of love, affection, pity, and care. Through Henchard's tragic destiny Hardy shows the triumph of feminine values and when Henchard surrenders to love and affection giving up his patriarchal attitude it is too late and he dies like the caged goldfinch starved of affection and love. For the spectators the money represents the stamp of legality upon the auction of Susan, and money transforms the hypothetical incident into reality in the spectators' mind. Richard Carpenter says, The ending of The Mayor of Casterbridge is reminiscent also of the death of Lear, a parallelism which has been noticed‘. The society thinks women merely as a position symbol. Like the domestic articles women are meant to improve the stature and condition of a home. Hardy has shown clearly this condition of women through Susan who holds neither beauty nor money to attract a successful businessman like Henchard.
Hardy presents Susan as powerless typical Victorian mother whose brief presence in the novel is marked by silent suffering and humiliation. because society does not pay attention to the sufferings of a woman. Susan as a traditional Victorian mother is shown with the essence of sacrifice and self-renunciation. The Victorian concept of motherhood implies that a woman should not live for self development but for self- sacrifice. She can only justify her presence in her family by dedicating herself to her husband and her daughter. Through self effacement, duty and sacrifice she discovers her identity as a powerless mother.
Works cited:
Hardy Thomas. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Noida: Maple Classics,2017. Print
Belsey, Catherine and Jane Moore. ―Introduction: The Story So Far:‖ in The Feminist Reader. Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary Criticism. Catherine Belsey and Jane Moore. Ed. London: Blackwell Publisher, 1989. Print
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Burgard, Peter J. ―Introduction to Nietzsche and the Feminine.‖ in Nietzsche and the Feminine. Ed. Peter J, Burgard. USA: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Print
Featherstone, Mike. Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity. London: Sage. 1995 Print
Carpenter, Richard. Thomas Hardy. London: The Mac. Press. Ltd, 1976. Print
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Human Emotion and its Allusion to Nature in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children Updesh Singh
Abstract:
Salman Rushdie involves a pre-prominent rank among contemporary writers. His place corresponded with an especially significant moment in Indian literary history as almost one hundred years of colonialism, the British control of the South Asian subcontinent was reaching at end. He is all around profoundly commended as the most famous author who has fundamentally centered on the internal universe of both male and female characters in his books. His humanistic method helps the reader‘s attention towards the improvement of women characters and their struggle for securing a personality in the unfriendly society. Separation is the central reason because of unfulfilled love, dissatisfaction, rootlessness, thwarted expectation, selling out and so forth. Regardless of their dedication and genuineness the characters are purposefully maintained a strategic distance in the general public. Despite the fact that there is a continuous human emotion, nature and culture to portray certain parts of the human condition and expose in the conscious of the characters. It may be regarded inescapable in light of the fact that mankind is likewise part of nature. One of these viewpoints happens during serious circumstances like wartime. Human emotion assumes an essential role by offering the characters a state of tranquility where they can reconcile from their injury and reproduce their self. This research paper additionally means to accommodate the contention emerging from the different goals of both ecocriticism and post-colonialism over their exploration with the human emotions.
Keynotes: Emotions, Humanistic, Contemporary, Dissatisfaction, Colonialism, Exploration, Ecocriticism
Salman Rushdie occupies a place of pride among the Anglo Indian writers whose literary career extends to nearly four decades. He has a strange capacity for depicting human emotion and its allusion to nature. He is marked realist and has a profound emotional and sensitive apprehension of the Indian society ramifications. He was an exceptional creative artist of the
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common people, poor, orphan, refugee children and miserable condition of Hindu and Muslim together during partition. Midnight’s Children is a novel of the double trial, confession, polemical and emotional, an astute collection of history, memoirs, political moral story and dream. The mysterious quality of imagination is superimposed on a universe of history and realities. Dream is delivered with the birth of the protagonist Saleem Sinai and his imaginary Midnight’s Children’s Club. Their exercises and their reality are acknowledged in the atmosphere of imagination and reality. Rushdie utilizes the epic and mythic structure. His use of this structure unexpectedly turns into a ―procedure of freedom‖. This additionally turns into a comic. It is a moral story of the historical backdrop of modern India. This novel narratives through the supernatural existences of 1001 children born within the nation‘s first hour of freedom from Great Britain on 14 August 1947. It is the second novel of Rushdie. It is an epic that traverses six decades and very nearly three generations of pre- and postcolonial twentieth century history of India. It is an epic as in it attempts to depict, or contain Indian whose accounts are too incalculable to be in any way contained. Throughout the book, the storyteller alludes to stories creating out of different stories in an endless cycle. In this novel, the storyteller Salim Sinai says:
I paradoxically took my first tentative steps towards that involvement with mighty events and public lives from which I would never again be free… never (that is)… until the widow (Indira Gandhi, late Prime Minister of India)… There begins another story (432).
It is prevalently called human emotion which holds the view that we have come to know the phase of fatigue and mystery. It is showed in its mentality that the ideas of the truth, be it custom, history, self and so forth, are developed and they are consequently challenged. The thought of freedom struggle has been challenged in some of the novels of 1980s. Consequently this part is entitled freedom movement as a dead theme. The identity and human emotion play an especially crucial role over the span of the novel. The novelist portrayed the protagonist, Saleem Sinai, to recover his way of life as he experienced the significant social and authentic snapshots of India. Saleem admits to his need to mean something by expressing:
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I must work fast, faster than Scheherazade, if I am to end up meaning- yes, meaning- something. I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity. Midnight’s Children is as an authentic novel. Saleem admits his servitude with history from the earliest starting point of his account as he was born at night of India‘s autonomy from British rules. However, his bond has mystical pragmatist components as he is one of thousand and one children who have different skills and powers. Saleem was one of the children who can assemble them telepathically to talk about the situation of the infant country. He recounts to his story to Padma, the assistance in his ―Chutney factory‖, very nearly passing at his thirties, and his endeavors to claim his personality must be performed by methods for history as he compares his story close by the historical backdrop of India as ―I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country (9)‖. Be that as it may, as Michael Reder in ―Rewriting History and Identity: The Reinvention of Myth, Epic, and Allegory in Salman Rushdie‘s Midnight’s Children pays attention there is not one history of India. Salman Rushdie makes his own history through the story of Saleem Sinai.
The story starts at a point over thirty years after the synchronous births of Saleem and independent India. Saleem was anticipating a premature death in a pickle factory where he worked. Saleem was rashly matured, weak, and ravaged by a personal story that parallels as his country so he recounted to his life story to Padma, an uneducated working young lady who adores and cares for him. Saleem began by relating thirty two years of family ancestry going before his own appearance into the world.
In the first event of the novel, Dr. Adam Aziz got a full perspective on the group of Nazeem Ghani and her face. The expulsion of covering her face with a black cloth between the couple prompted the fulfillment of marriage. This settled in the social foundation so far as that is concerned Hindu custom approached that sort of training in comparable conditions. The training laid a solid sociological base for the development of family. That was a well knit social unit on which the general public in it‘s completely subsisted till 20th century. Adam Aziz tried to have a full perspective on Nazeen Ghani. His wish was satisfied at last to marry. The love between them discovered fulfillment as wedding knot. The main connection was recommended through his life story of any of his companions. The second was the incident of
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huge occasions throughout Saleem‘s life. Both coincided with the authentic occasions of national importance.
Ahmed Sinai just fixed himself to marry with Alia, adjusts his perspective thoughts and favour for Mumtaz to Alia. The Aziz couple additionally expanded the assent and Ahmed and Mumtaz, having changed her name as Amina, they married and moved to Delhi. The circumstance, in Delhi, turned out to be so troublesome for Ahmed to proceed with the business that he acknowledged the proposal of Dr. Narlikar, who was a companion of Ahmed in Bombay, and moved to Bombay thinking to switch over to the land business.
The experience of Aadam Aziz seemed to describe to a similar trajectory, by chance, since, after he spent a year as a student in Germany he adopted some of the mental structures of the European West. When he returned home, he attempted to retrace his previous perception of it, ―his childhood‘s springs in Paradise (6)‖, but he was unable to do so. Aadam Aziz‘s decision to accept his newly created and not very well culturally- determined self was marked by blood and tears, so India found a new place for itself in the world in which it had no choice but to enter. Saleem‘s description underlined that situation as being one of the causes for the troubles of new-born India of acquiring a sense of unitary and stable national self which did not seem to apply to it. Saleem recorded a fragment from Nehru‘s discourse at the moment of India‘s birth as an Indian Renaissance: ―A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.... We end today a period of ill-fortune (7)‖.
He purchased a flat in the Methold Estate of the withdrawing Colonial William Methold who seduced Vinita, the wife of Wee Willie Winkie who was a road singer. At that point Vanita and Amina were pregnant and both give birth to the children simultaneously. True to form, they were brought to the Narlikar Emergency Hospital at night on 14, August 1947 and the children for both were conceived precisely at 12 pm when the Freedom for the nation was likewise declared. Both children were exchanged by the attendant Mary Pierera for the purpose of satisfying the progressive ferocity Joseph D‘Costa whom she loved. In this way the child destined to the Sinai‘s went to Wee Willie Winkie as Shiva developing in the road as an orphan and the child born to Vanita went to the Sinai‘s Saleem Sinai growing in the rich family in the Methold Estate. The narrative of the original finishes here roughly:
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A Charming Pose of Baby Saleem Sinai, who was born last night at the exact moment of our Nation‘s independence- the happy Child of that glorious Hour! (5)
The absolute number of children conceived to birth at midnight, for example at the hour of Saleem‘s birth and Shiva were 1001, and every one of these children were enriched with one extraordinary ability each, as a gift for being born at the same time, that of Indian Freedom. To specify a few, Saleem had the intensity of entering the psyches of others at his wish, Shiva had the most remarkable and powerful knees with which he could thump down anyone, Parvati enchanting power to make anyone vanish and show up at her wills and Picture Singh was fit for restraining any kind of snake, including cobra. Saleem was regarded the foremost among the Midnight’s Children. Despite the fact that Shiva was also born simultaneously as Saleem, the last was more favored than the previous for his family status and along these lines Saleem was praised as a purposeful anecdote of India. In the expressions of Josna E. Rege, Saleem was picturised as:
Confidently identifying Saleem's life with the of India itself, the letter links the unlimited potential of the newborn infant both with that of the nascent state (4)
Dr. Narlikar propelled Ahmed to attempt his hands in the matter of solid tetra pods in association with him in 50:50 proportions in the benefit. Although Ahmed gains an immense pay yet he was arrived into high temp water as the government requested to freeze his advantages which influenced him so much that he took to drink day and night and turned into a casualty of skin ailment causing his entire body turned white. At that point, Amina went into the horse race and made a great deal of fortune in it. She also received phone calls from her previous husband, Nadir Khan and their relationship was resuscitated covertly by and by. Saleem, however, found it by his outstanding expertise and skills.
Meanwhile, Alia relocated to Pakistan where she grasped cloister. Emerald was married to Major Zulfikar and they likewise migrated to Pakistan. Hanif turned into a film director and producer, and married Pia who had a high reputation in the film profession as an actress and singer. Getting tired of business motion pictures, Hanif switched over to workmanship films for which he had been setting up a content on the narrative of pickle factory. Mustafa became
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into a government employee in India and wedded Sonia who was a half Irani. They were down in Delhi in the house by name ―Saleem‘s fly‖ sister was born and she was called Brass Monkey by Saleem. The account of Midnight’s Children is woven around the subject of Freedom. This suspicion might be adjusted in the primary page of the novel only. Padma, to whom Saleem portrayed the story, carried with the duty of raising Aadam Sinai. In spite of the fact that Padma realized that Saleem was significant for her so she offered him to wed her in any event for the wellbeing of his own health because there was a need of somebody to take care of him during the snapshot of breaking down. Saleem had a good time with her by the stunt of skirting the real issue.
I was born in the city of Bombay...once upon a time. No, that won't do, there's no getting away from the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar's Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. And the time? The time matters, too. Well then: at night. No, it‘s important to be more... On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. (9) Ahmed Sinai‘s wife Amina was depicted to be gambling in the horse race. The social issues, for example, destitution, casteism and unemployment were not contained in the free India. Then again, they were exposed to be multiplying. The status of irony was found in depicting the shortage of the fundamental enhancement like, water as the novel sarcastically states as: ―the water shortage had reached the point where milkmen could no longer find clean water with which to adulterate the milk (22)‖. Furthermore, regarding the condition of untouchability, the end of observation appeared as:
Brahmins began to feel uneasy at permitting even their thoughts to touch the thoughts of untouchables; while, among the low-born, the pressures of poverty and communism were becoming evident.. (23). In Pakistan, the Sinai‘s stay with Amina‘s old maid sister Alia who was as yet feeding her retribution on her sister for she married Ahmed who was really her fiancé. Ahmed began another trade in ―towels manufacture‖ under the name of ―Amina Brand‖. Brass Monkey turned into a so popular singer that she was regarded as ―Pakistan‘s Angel‖ and ―Bulbul-of-
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the-Faith‖. Her voice was filled with fervent patriotism to such an extent that her melody made a significant love for his nation among the people. She, presently under the pseudo name Jamila Singer, was experienced passionate feelings for three persons. They were Mutasim, the child of a Nawab, Zafar, her own cousin, and Saleem Sinai, her sibling separately. She was delineated to have controlled herself from achieving adolescence so as to escape from wedding Mutasim. Consequently, the first two gave up their efforts to woo her. Be that as it might, Saleem alone forgot her till the end despite the fact that his advances towards her were dismissed and censured by her.
Saleem experienced the procedure of purification of his own thoughts. It implied that he lost the intensity of memory to the degree of not having the option to recollect his own name. He was called Buddha right now. Yet, he was enriched with the influence of ―Sniffing‖ as a result of which he was taken a crack at the undertaking to follow Muj-ur-Rehman, and the endeavor of succeeded. He, at that point, was led into the timberland called ―Sundarbans‖ by an accident where he, alongside the other three Shaheed Dar, Ayooba Baloch, and Farooq Rashid, experienced a particular encounter of being engaged in adoration making with the ladies who showed up as powerful creatures. Somehow, they left away from the forest. Saleem was distinguished in the march completed by the military soldiers by Parvati, the witch who was a partner of Saleem, it might be said to recover his lost memory by calling him by his real name. As he was regarded as the pioneer of the midnight‘s children, Parvati and Picture Singh were brought to India by them through the enchantment of Parvati in her magic bucket.
Shiva was a close confidential to Mrs. Indira Gandhi. As he was truly likewise solid, he took the benefits from the political status and cuckolds however many men as could reasonably be expected. Numerous ladies were, among the high class, demonstrated to convey his embryo. Parvati likewise turned into a survivor of Shiva‘s energy and thusly got pregnant. The incongruity was that the ladies were abandoned by Shiva when they became pregnant. Parvati developed an impossible to miss disorder after she was relinquished by Shiva.
Picture Singh felt that marriage was the main solution for Parvati to defeat from her infection. Along these lines he convinced Saleem to wed Parvati. Parvati brought forth a child around the same time on which Emergency was announced by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and died in
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childbirth. Saleem was captured and mutilated alongside the remaining midnight children under the family arranging program by the administration. Saleem started to deteriorate as his body developed and cracked all over and he developed more slender consistently. Uma Parameswaran remarked for the view of Saleem as he follows, ―the metaphor, by extension, applies to India‘s strength and creativity, just as the cracks that Saleem claims to have are symbolic of the many cracks in the edifice of national unity (8)‖. The story of Midnight’s Children is the human feeling and the idea of opportunity in Modern India. The story depends upon the contemporary state of India as well as on the time of opportunity battle under the initiative of Mahatma Gandhi. The story covers the historical backdrop of India from the hour of opportunity battle to the crisis, in order to feature the disappointment of opportunity. Accordingly Midnight’s Children rises as a novel of contemporary legislative issues as well as a novel of opportunity. Consequently an investigation is attempted to watch the delineation of opportunity battle and its effect.
Except for writers like G.V. Desani, Raja Rao and Sudhin Ghose, Indian writing in English was excessively worried about experimentation. Midnight’s Children differs from this prior fiction in that the majority of the typical guidelines related with the more established type of fiction are broken: the unities of time and place and character are, best case scenario, unsteady: the account vacillates uncertainly among first and third person; ordinary human emotion and its allusion of fictional realism are subverted, normal law becomes unnatural or otherworldly despite the fact that the novel is not in any direct sense of religious and spiritual. Midnight’s Children offers an unsure anecdotal option in contrast to the untruths that structure the legend of the decision Nehru Indira Gandhi. It checks a significant radical take off from what has been composed by Indian authors in English about human emotion of the nature. Rushdie‘s selective representation of events and happenings in India in Midnight’s Children was governed by his special understanding of the post-1947 developments in the country. In the case of Pakistan, his selection of details was governed by his understanding of what Pakistan meant to him. Rushdie is a real genius in inventing this mode of narration. In this narration, myth is the medium that provides a decent dialogue and human emotion between the individual and history. His ingenuity and experimental ability shine forth on
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every page of the text every inch. The text is a treatise. It is a treatise of contemporary history.
Work Cited:
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children. London: Vintage, 1981. Print.
Flanagan, Kathleen. The Fragmented Self in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Common Wealth Novel in English, Vol. 5, No.l, Spring, 1992. Print.
E. Rege, Josna. Vicitm into Protagonist? Midnight's Children and Post-Rushdie National Narratives of the Eighties. A Book of Readings, (Ed.), Meenakshi Mukherjee. New Delhi: Pencraft International, 2003. Print.
Parmeswaram, Uma. The Perforated Sheet, Essays on Salman Rushdie‘s Art. New Delhi: East West Press. 1988. Press.
http://www.researchgate.net>3329. History in Salman Rushdie‘s Midnight‘s Children.
http://www.sodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in> rushdie‘s midnight‘s children.
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English Language Teaching Learning a Second Language is a Battle of Heart-Role of Motivation Ameena Kidwai Abstract: Motivating learners to study and use the language is one of the main challenges faced by teachers, specifically in non-English medium education system where opportunities to use English are few. Learners‘ enthusiasm may diminish over time, partly because learning English involves a lot of hard work, partly because English doesn‘t seem relevant to their lives, and partly because they rarely get an opportunity to apply their skills in real life. Motivation ―provides the primary impetuous to initiate learning the second language and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process‖ (Dörnyei, 1998). It is, however, a very complex construct and not easy to understand.
The paper presenter as an instructor for English language in a college in Saudi Arabia proposes to explore the factors influencing second language learner motivation and also the specific approaches for generating motivation in an English language classroom. The paper also aims to discuss how motivation can become an effective tool in teaching and learning English as a second language grounded upon the previous researches on the topic.
Key Words: Motivating learners, non-English medium, education system, generating motivation, English language classroom, researches, English as a second language.
For many learners, their primary motivation is what researchers call extrinsic motivation, that is, motivation based on a reward that comes from outside, for example, the desire to get a good grade or a good job. Such rewards, though motivating, may also be problematic. For example, learners who wish to do well on a test may study only what they need to in order to successfully clear it, and after that, may lose interest in learning. Many researchers have stressed the importance of intrinsic motivation, in other words, motivation derived from learning new things, a sense of accomplishment, or the desire to pursue one‘s own interests. In fact, many researchers suggest that intrinsic motivation is a more powerful driving force than extrinsic motivation (Brown, 2001). One reason intrinsic reward tends to be especially
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effective is that, coming from within the learner, they are always there to drive one‘s study— they are not years away, and they don‘t disappear when the test ends.
Motivation is known to play an important role in the achievement levels of learners when it comes to language learning, both in and outside classrooms. According to Dörnyei & Ushioda (2011) it consists of ―such factors as the attached value of a task, the rate of success expected by learners, whether learners believe they are competent enough to succeed, and what they think to be the reason for their success or failure at the task‖. It has always been acknowledged that motivating the learners to learn the target language is not a simple task. Students have frequently been found to get demotivated on facing obstacles. However, it is possible through certain strategies to help learners adopt more positive attitudes towards language learning.
Theories of motivation, among many other things, are also expected to offer insights to those who wish to motivate others. Motivation is important especially in second language or foreign language contexts. It has been observed that ―low L2 learning motivation in secondary schools and concomitant low engagement in classroom activities represent a significant problem‖ (Dörnyei, 2001).
Students have been seen to complain that second language study is tedious and boring affair (Chambers, 1999). That teachers bear no responsibility for this is hard to imagine. Much has been written about motivation and language achievement along with the many models that have been proposed to explain the relationship (eg., Clément, 1980; Gardner, 1985; MacIntyre, Clément & Noels, 1998). The different models claim that motivation is important in learning a language, for example, Gardner (2007) stresses on the need to consider the roots of motivation from the point of view of both the educational and cultural context. The reason being that language, unlike other subjects, takes on elements of another culture (i.e. pronunciations, vocabulary, language structure, etc.), something that other subjects don't. Therefore, it is important that the educationally and culturally relevant variables are considered while attempting to understand second language learning.
Different thinkers and educators have proposed ways to develop motivation. Among these Dörnyei and Csizér (1998) offer ten commandments for teachers and it might be worth our
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while to list them as: ―language learners: teachers should set a personal behavior example, make sure that the class atmosphere is relaxed and pleasant, present task properly to the learners, have good teacher–student relationships, work on increasing learners‘ self– confidence, ensure that the language class is interesting to the students, promote as much as possible learners‘ autonomy, personalize the learning process, increase learners‘ goals, and make sure that learners are familiar with the target language culture‖. Williams and Burden's (1997) study too offer insights for helping the teachers. Yet many others claim and show how classroom dynamics and learning environment are important for motivating students and getting their achievement levels to go up (Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels, 1994; Gardner, 1985; Gardner, 2007). What is crucial is the fact that what happens in the classrooms can have a serious impact on the motivation and attitudes of the learners. Over time the motivation levels may decrease for many of the students as was found in a study by Gardner, Masgoret, Tennant, & Mihic (2004) for the university students learning French. Similar results were obtained Gardner and Bernaus (2004) with high school students in Spain learning English as a foreign language.
To supplement their findings Bernaus and Gardner (2008) tried to directly study the relationship between students' motivation, language achievement and teachers' didactic strategies used in the EFL class in Spain. They found out that the most powerful motivational strategies were the following: ―audio–visual resources and new technologies, group work, satisfying the students‘ needs and interests, student participation in class, good grades and fulfilment of students‘ success expectations, and praises and rewards‖. These and many more researches indicate that the teachers should use those strategies which help motivate the learners and increase their interest and attention.
Another study, quite remarkable in its approach, is by Guillautaux and Dörnyei (2008) which examines the connection between the teachers‘ motivational teaching practice and the language learning motivation of their classes. The study looked at 27 teachers and more than 1300 learners in ESOL classrooms in South Korea. The investigators developed a classroom observation tool, the motivation orientation of language teaching (MOLT), and measured students' motivation through a questionnaire. They used MOLT to assess the teachers‘ use of motivational strategies, along with a ‗post-doc‘ rating scale filled in by the observer. The
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results showed a clear relationship between the motivational teaching practices of teachers and the levels of language learning motivation in their classrooms.
Enthusiasm seems to be another factor that impacts learners' motivation considerably as it is contagious and boosting. It has been found that ―if students recognize their teacher‘s enthusiasm to the task, they, too, will be enthusiastic‖ (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009). Classroom environment too is important for motivational levels of the class. A safe classroom environment assures the learners and encourages them to participate without any fear of embarrassment or sarcasm. They do not feel inhibited by the pressures of making errors or sounding mundane. Safe classroom tends to develop a sense of community and promote ―a palpable sense of belonging‖ (White, 1991).
We know from the above studies how important motivation is in language learning. It is for this reason that Ramage (1990) urges teachers to try to build high levels of motivation among learners so that they ―positively and actively engage in their learning until they reach their common target in L2 learning‖. Without sufficient motivation, successful language learning cannot be achieved (Csizer & Dornyei, 2005; Sugita & Takeuchi, 2010). Factors behind Motivation Motivation plays a substantial role in the rate and success of second language learners. Bradford (2007) in his research into the motivational orientation of Indonesians points out that the pragmatic use of English is highly valued, specifically as it relates to economic gain. The motivations effective for most Indonesian English Language Learners involve the ability to communicate in the workplace, the possibility to advance to a higher social position, and the opportunity to pursue higher levels of education. The Arab context is no different, with both Indonesia and Arab being Asian, countries with similar learner aspirations.
Socio–economic Background
For these learners, the main motivation behind learning English is attaining social prestige. The paper presenter found through interaction with the learners that they viewed English as a ticket to professional success, leading to overall upward mobility in all social and economic aspects. Therefore, the need among every strata of society in general, and these second language learners in particular is to gain proficiency in the English language.
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Higher Education
English is the primary language of instruction in the higher education system today. All the esteemed colleges use English as their medium of instruction. This is another motivating factor for English language learners as they are very well aware of the fact that careers in the field of science, technology, business and commerce require a strong command over English. Intriguingly, in addition to the tertiary education system, the competitive examination scenario also reflects the predominance of English. Most of the admissions–tests and job– related tests have an entire section dedicated to testing the candidates‘ English language ability. They assess the applicant‘s expression, reading comprehension skills, language accuracy as well as vocabulary. According to the presenter‘s observation, this further motivates the second language learners to learn English.
Employability
English, being the language of international business and education, has become a vital factor in deciding one‘s employability quotient all around the world. It is observed that need for employability plays even more strongly in the minds of learners who have studied in Arabic medium as their chances of landing a well–paying job are slimmer due to lack of English language proficiency. Therefore, English for them becomes a passport to landing a prestigious job and this motivates them to opt for English as a major in college. Approaches for Generating Motivation in Learners Although teachers do not create motivation in students, they do create environments that either foster or hinder students‘ motivation for learning (Daniels, 2010). As cited in Guilloteaux and Dornyei (2008), Dornyei (2001) proposed four basic ways that teachers engage students in learning. First, they create a basic motivational context in the class atmosphere and by creating a rapport with the students. Second, teachers use motivational strategies to generate internal motivations and positive attitudes towards learning. Third, teacher use motivational strategies in situation–specific tasks to maintain and protect motivation. Finally, by giving praise and effective feedback, teachers push students to reflect on their own achievement in a way that that promotes long–term motivation (Guilloteaux & Dornyei, 2008).
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Role of Teaching Methodology in Motivation One of the main arguments put forward in support of Task–based language teaching includes that it is intrinsically motivating as it provides many opportunities for learners to use the language that they know without penalizing them for inevitable failures in accuracy (Willis & Willis, 2007).
Ellis (2003) too suggests that the task–based approach brings a variety of benefits to learners, of which one of the most important is motivation. Motivation is therefore likely to be seen as the key to all learning. Once students are motivated, they can complete the given tasks or desired goals (Brophy, 2005).
Through group discussions with the college learners of third year it was found that almost eighty percent of them agreed that now they were more confident of interacting with their peers even outside the classroom since they were accustomed to doing that in their language classes all the time. The learners, in the group discussion, said that interacting with one of their language teachers who doesn't speak Arabic, boosts their confidence level immensely and makes them feel that they could sustain a conversation with just about anyone in real– life. Role of Materials in Motivation Many writers have asserted that authentic materials motivate learners because they are intrinsically more interesting or stimulating than non– authentic materials, for example exercises course books. Advocates of this view include Allwright (1979); Freeman and Holden (1986); Little and Singleton (1991), who refer to this as the ‗classic argument‘; and Little, Devitt, and Singleton (1989), who add that authentic texts bring learners closer to the target language culture, making learning more enjoyable and therefore, more motivating.
When the learners were asked to reflect on the changes, they had observed in themselves after being in an English language course, they pointed out a change in their media habits. Most of them agreed that they had now started to read English news items, watch English films and documentaries and read English story books/novels etc. They also shared that this was because they had been exposed to these mediums in their English language classroom.
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This instilled in them the habit of reading English regularly, in addition to developing their pronunciation, vocabulary and comprehension skill. Role of the Teacher in Learner Motivation Research into motivation in second language acquisition in recent years has focused on the factors which affect second language (L2) learners‘ motivation (e.g., Csizer & Dörnyei, 2005; Dörnyei & Clement, 2001; Dörnyei & Otto, 1998; Oxford & Shearin, 1994). The researchers concluded that teachers are one of the most determining factors of L2 learners‘ motivation (Dörnyei, 1994; Tanaka, 2005).
To a question in the group discussion regarding whether teachers motivated them to participate, most of the learners answered in the affirmative. One learner shared that the teachers told the class that they were free to make mistakes, as making mistakes was a step towards learning. Thus, they were free to speak during the activities and no more afraid of failures. Another learner said that the teachers‘ approval, applaud and constant praise made her believe that even she was worth something, with the other learners readily nodding in agreement.
The teachers, most of the learners stated, were one main source to get them looking forward to the lectures. They put them at ease to ask numerous questions, welcomed their outlook, and most importantly encouraged them in their endeavours. Students mentioned that when they participated in class discussions, they realized that even their opinions mattered, which pumped them to go further. Basically, they said that most of the teachers always seemed to know what was required and wanted for students.
Additionally, the presenter in her class observations found that teachers have to constantly encourage ‗inactive‘ learners who tended to be mere passive observers. This would sometimes wake them up and push them to be a part of the class discussions, at other times of course it had no major effect on their participation level. The studies mentioned above show how important motivation is in language learning. It is for this reason that Ramage (1990) urges teachers to try to build high levels of motivation among learners so that they ―positively and actively engage in their learning until they reach their common target in L2 learning‖.
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Without sufficient motivation, successful language learning cannot be achieved (Csizer & Dornyei, 2005; Sugita & Takeuchi, 2010). Teacher Motivation In addition to considering the motivation of L2 learners, the research tells us that current motivation studies recognize the ―interactive relationship between teacher and student motivation‖ (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2010). Nearly all the learners pointed out that the lectures where the teachers are enthusiastic and involved with learners, they tend to participate and learn better.
A major motivating factor was found to be the relaxed, un-intimidating learning environment where learners felt at ease to freely speak their mind and share their thoughts with the peer group and teacher. Therefore, a friendly class atmosphere is a key factor that intrinsically motivates learners. Additionally, the teachers inculcated a discipline of respecting everyone‘s opinions in class, which in turn encouraged a democratic class environment. Another factor successful in motivating learners was encouraging real life English language usage by way of relevant home tasks, role plays, interactions and interviews in class with real people from the outside world, and the use of realia too to an extent. On the other hand, limited lesson duration of an hour and a half posed a constraint and often students are unable to get a chance to speak. This in the long run demotivated them at times to participate in class discussions. Maximizing inter–student interaction proves effective in promoting cooperative learning and this interaction gives the ESL students a chance to practice English in a less threatening setting. Effective teachers use hands–on and project–based activities to engage students in learning through exploration. Hands–on activities generally include scaffolding components, and project–based activities often incorporate the students‘ own interests and cultural backgrounds. Teachers should make students feel a sense of accomplishment, even in small, everyday activities. Celebrating milestones is an effective way of doing this. It leads to a sense of achievement, which gives rise to long–term intrinsic motivation among language learners.
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To make these students come out of their anxiety of using English language, they must be encouraged to watch English movies, talk shows, news, documentaries etc. This will expose them to authentic language use in real–life, develop their understanding of humour in the second language, expand their knowledge of idiomatic usage, and thus eventually boost self– confidence. They will be able to include themselves in the mainstream global community through language acquisition, thus leading to better self– image.
It is time teachers stopped complaining about teaching challenges and took action. There is a strong need to impart positive attitude in teachers and to motivate them to continue professional development. Teachers are agents of change and carriers of new methodology, and therefore time–to–time training for their capacity building is of utmost importance to achieve positive results in the classroom. Teachers‘ increased motivation and interest reflects in students‘ language achievement. It is also recommended that teachers be provided with relevant, up–to–date materials. This ensures quality of instruction and saves time so teachers can focus on their professional practice rather than spend most of their time planning lessons. To sum up it can be stated that motivated learners are every teacher‘s dream — they are willing to work hard, add their own goals to those of the classroom, focus their attention on the tasks at hand, persevere through challenges, do not need continuous encouragement, and may even stimulate others in the classroom, promoting collaborative learning. However, we all know that the motivation behind learners‘ learning varies widely, ebbs and flows over the course of the year (or even during a single classroom activity), and stems from various sources, internal to the learner, external, or both. Tapping into motivation is crucial for language teachers because they know that motivation is one of the key factors driving language learning success. Motivation is one of the characteristics of the Language learning and teaching and it is a helpful facilitator in the Language Learning process. The process of acquiring the second/foreign language is really a battle of hearts and can be effective when both the learner and the teacher are involved in the process and derive accomplishment out of it. This is the only way to keep the motivation and interest levels high. When this is achieved all the problems of teaching and learning get resolved and better results are attained. References Allwright, R. (1979). ‘Language learning through communication practice’.
Bradford, A. (2007). Motivational orientation in under–researched EFL contexts: Findings from Indonesia.RELCJournal38(3)302–323.
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Brophy. (2005). Motivating students to learn(2nded.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bernaus, M. & Gardner, R. (2008). Teacher motivation strategies, student perceptions, student motivation, and English achievement. The Modern Language Journal, 92(3), 387–401.
Brown, H.D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd Ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Clément, R. (1980). Ethnicity, contact and communicative competence in a second language. In H. Giles, W. P. Robinson, & P. M. Smith (Eds.), Language: Social psychological perspectives (pp. 147–177). Oxford: Pergamon.
Csizér, K. & Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The internal structure of language learning motivation and its relationship with language choice and learning effort. In The Modern Language Journal, 89(1): 19–36.
Daniels, E. (2010). Creating Motivating Learning Environment: What We Can Learn from Researchers and Students. English Journal, 100(1), 25–29.
Dörnyei, Z. (1998). Demotivation in foreign language learning. Paper presented at the TESOL ‘98 Congress, Seattle. WA, March.
Dornyei, Z. (2001). New themes and approaches in second language motivation research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 21, 4359.
Dörnyei, Z., Clément, R. (2001). Motivational characteristics of learning different target languages: Results of a nationwide survey. In Z. Dörnyei & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Motivation and second language acquisition. Honolulu, HI: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center, University of Hawaii.
Dörnyei, Z., & Csizer, K. (1998). Ten Commandments for motivating language learners: Results of an empirical study. Language Teaching Research 2 (3), 203–229.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. Modern Language Journal, 78 (3), 273–284.
Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2010). Teaching and researching: Motivation. New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.
Ellis, R. (2003). Task–based language learning and teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
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Freeman, D. and S. Holden. (1986). ‘Authentic listening materials. In S. Holden (Ed.) Techniques of Teaching. London: Modern English Publications.
Gardner, R.C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitude and motivation. London, England: Edward Arnold.
Gardner RC. (2007). Motivation and Second Language Acquisition. Porta Linguarum, 8, 9–20.
Guillauteaux, M. J. & Dörnyei, Z. (2008). Motivating Language Learners: A Classroom
Oriented Investigation of the Effects of Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation. Tesol Quarterly, 42, (1): 55–77.
Little, D., Devitt, S. and Singleton, D. (1989). Learning Foreign Languages from Authentic Texts: Theory and Practice. Dublin: Authentic.
Little, D. & Singleton, D. (1991). Authentic texts, pedagogical grammar and language awareness in foreign language learning. In C. James and P. Garret (eds.). Language Awareness in the Classroom. London: Longman.
MacIntyre, P. D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. Modern Language Journal, 82, 545–562.
Ramage, K. (1990). Motivational factors and persistence in foreign language study. Language Learning, 40, 189–219.
Sugita, M., & O. Takeuchi. (2010). What can teacher do to motivate their students? A classroom research on motivational strategy use in Japanese EFL context. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 4(1), 21–35.
Tanaka, 2005). Tanaka, T. (2005). Teacher influence on learner motivation. Osaka Female
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White, L. (1991). Adverb placement in second language acquisition: Some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom. Second language research, 7(2), 133– 161.
Williams, M., & Burden, R. (1997). Psychology for language teachers. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Willis, D. & J. Willis. (2007). Doing Task–based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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The Language of Advertising: A Critical Study Pinali Vadher
Abstract:
Advertising is a form of communication, an art, used to influence or persuade individuals to purchase a product or a service of a particular brand. Language plays vital part in any form of communication. It is the language that plays a major role in advertising. In the journal Nature, Pullum and Scholz (2001) points out, ―at every level language has a level of creativity that allows it to be ever-expanding, ever-changing. Even the idea that there is a stock of words which constitute the English language cannot be upheld, because it is always possible to invent new words and new names in particular. Thus, here is my new invention: I call it X is strategy in everyday English which advertisers can take advantage of when they state ―Introducing all new Y‖.
The researcher has done Discourse Analysis of 50 fairness commercials targeted to both men and women in India. The use of English, bilingualism or code-switching, the persuasive element of the language, the concept of fair skin in India, the psyche of the audience and convince them to buy the product, are the issues explored by the researcher in the paper.
Key Terms: Advertisements/Commercials, Language, Discourse Analysis, Communication
It is impossible to imagine human world without advertisements. The moment our day begins with sipping a cup of coffee, we are purposelessly pushed into the world of advertisements on television, radio, internet, mobiles, newspaper, etc. While walking on the street, in a traffic jam, in shopping malls, at bus stations, railway stations, airports, seeing stickers on apples in supermarkets, at all these places and various other places we come across various kinds of advertisements every now and then. Each and everything that we use in our day in and day out target us with a message ranging from hi-fi electronic items up to small scale grocery products that we use in our home. We never realize how smartly these ads/commercials penetrate deeply into our mind. Thereby, shape our attitudes, beliefs, perspectives. Thus, change our lifestyle and become an integral part of our life.
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In the world of trade and commerce, advertising is a form of communication, an art, used to influence or persuade individuals to purchase a product or a service of a particular brand. No communication is complete without language. Language is a vital part in any form of communication. Language holds powerful influence over our thoughts and behaviour. And, since, advertising is a form of communication; language plays a major role in the inception of its meaning. To put it simply, advertising can be seen as a language of its own, meaning, advertising English is very different from other styles or varieties of English that is used by mature speakers and readers. This is because advertising plays abundantly with words at liberty; it uses words or language in its own way on the basis of its requirements. It breaks, coins, and moulds the words elastically in the attempt of creativity at its own terms and conditions without bothering about the rules of structure and meaning. In the journal Nature, Pullum and Scholz (2001) point out that,
At every level language has a level of creativity that allows it to be everexpanding, ever-changing. Even the idea that there is a stock of words which constitute the English Language cannot be upheld, because it is always possible to invent new words and new names in particular. Thus, here is my invention: I call it X is strategy in everyday English which advertisers can take advantage of when they state ―Introducing all new Y‖. (p.367)
English language is well known for its extensive vocabulary and its growing use in media world (music, movies and ads). When it comes to ads, it includes more word-play or wordmagic in order to create desirability for the product in the mind of the audience. The language also serves many purposes of the advertiser or the brand. In this context, the researcher will try to explain the role of language in the propagation of the stereotype and the concept of fairness with the help of the ads that have been analysed. For instance, look at the following logos of the fairness skin creams.
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According to the norms of English, these words are not written in correct English and therefore might be considered as un-English because of the use of lower case letter ―e‖ in the former word (garnier) and ―z‖ in the later (menz). When we write about possession it is /s/ not /z/, so in English it will be men‘s rather than menz. Advertisers, sometimes, make use of phonetic script in the names of the product. At the same time, the word-play is done deliberately by the advertisers as it is one of the attention-seeking devices employed by the advertisers towards their target audience. Adhering to the rules of syntax is not important for the advertisers than the coining of the message in a fashionable language which will in turn forcefully strike and appeal to the mind of the audience. And here comes, the persuasive element of the language. The demarcation line when the information becomes persuasion is very difficult to identify in these ads/commercials. The propagation of the concept of the fairness and strengthening of the stereotype is very subtly done in a persuasive manner. For example, the following analyses of the text of L‘oreal commercial of fairness cream for women endorsed by Sonam Kapoor with the help of AIDA (A=attention, I=interest, D=desire, A=action) formula will explain this better.
Ad: L‘oreal White Perfect Endorser: Sonam Kapoor (SK)
Attention (A) Interest (I) Desire (D) Action (A)
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S.K.: What could be more precious than a pearl? A skin care cream that gives you flawless complexion like one. New White Perfect Day cream from L‘Oreal Paris like a pearl it is one of a kind. VO: Micro pearls instantly brighten the skin, the melano-block reduces dark spots, and UV filters protects skin from further darkening. S.K.: My skin looks radiant, perfect. Go get that perfect skin. After all you are one in the million. VO: New white perfect from L‘Oreal Paris. S.K.: Because You worth it.
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On reading the text one can find that the beginning of the ad tries to catch the attention of the audience by the question about pearl. Then, gradually, once the attention is sought, the VO (voice over) informs the audience about the product. And, by the time the VO tries to hold the interest of the viewers, i.e. in the third part of the ad, the endorser takes over. She tries to create a desire about the product into the mind of the audience by speaking about her ―radiant‖, ―perfect skin‖. Thus, the commercial creators try to draw their attention and consciousness towards ―The Skin‖, especially, ―the facial skin‖. As if, they are awakening their audience from a trance and knocking at their cognitive door in an evocative manner. Finally, inspiring, telling, or ordering the audience to take an action- to use the product (get that perfect skin) by giving them a feeling or a sense of importance and uniqueness by saying, ―you are one in the million, because you worth it‖, as if, this product has been made specially and exclusively for ―you‖. Endorsers who are celebrities from the entertainment industry as well as experts lay stress mostly on the words like ―skin‖, ―fairer‖, ―fairer instantly‖, ―face‖, ―long-lasting fairness‖, ―anti-dark spots, anti-wrinkles, anti-dullness, anti-tanning‖ in antiaging and fairness skin creams commercials.
In this way, advertisers and endorsers try to convey or build up their message into the mind of the audience that serves their dual aim. Firstly, communicating their ideas and thoughts and secondly, persuading audience to buy and use the product. It is not only the message and the endorsers that help in this process of propagation of the concept of fair skin as the epitome of beauty and status. But each and every part of advertisement or commercial is targeted towards the same aim. For instance, slogans in ads and names of the product are also composed in such a manner that it echoes the stereotype. Let us look at few slogans and the product names of the famous fairness skin creams brands which have been analysed:
Name of the Brand Garnier L‘Oreal white perfect Olay Nivea visage Pond‘s Lacto-calamine Recova
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Slogan ―Take care‖ - friendly, warm, and affectionate slogan ―you worth it‖ - makes you feel special ―love the skin you‘re in‖- imp. To skin ―get fair, stay fair‖- use/stress on fair ―mere white or pinkish white you choose‖- again emphasis on white and you ―discover skinsurance with lacto-calamine‖ - again stress on Skin ―the science of beautiful skin‖ - stress on beautiful skin.
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Product Names
The German brand has derived its name from the Latin word ―Nivius‖ meaning ―Snow White‖.
The brand has been named after the French chemist ―Alfred Garnier‖ who first invented hair tonic made up of plant extract and milk. The brand has derived its name as a spin over the word ―lanolin‖ invented by Graham Wulff as a gift or sign of love towards his wife. The word ―lanolin‖ means ―oil that comes from sheep‘s wool and is used to make skin creams‖. Therefore, the brand name is a compound word of an exocentric type The brand name is a noun which means ―a thick soft clear substance that is used on skin to heal or protect it, or as a lubricant to stop surfaces from sticking together‖.
Certain names of the national brands directly support the concept of fairness such as, ―Fair & Lovely‖, ―Fair & Handsome‖, ―Fairever‖, ―Fair one‖, ―Fair glow‖, ―Nomarks‖ and ―Everyuth‖. All these brand names are compound words in English. In short, product names are made by either compounding or blending. The purpose is to make the word simple, easy to comprehend, remember and utter. At the same time, manufacturing company or media people while choosing or naming the product take utmost care that there should be symbolic connection between the name of the product and the emotive urge of the audience or consumer. Therefore, blends are highly preferred in commercials. They are hybrid words. The only difference between compounds and blends is that the only part of each individual word is used in the formation of the new word. Blends are very popular in advertising. Even blends are seen in fairness skin cream commercials. For example,
Skinsurance= skin + insurance
Lactocalamine = lactose + calamine
Revitalift = re-vital + lift
Vitalift = vital + lift
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In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety in conversation. People who are multilingual use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner with the syntax and phonology of each variety. In a country like India which is multilingual, code-switching is extensively used in advertising targeted towards bilingual as well as multilingual consumers. Almost all brands use this language technique to convey their message and persuade their target audience in fraction of seconds. Codeswitching works rapidly and instantly because of its potential for national appeal and ability to cut across people belonging to different class, culture and religion. It is one of the ways of coining the message in a more catchy and creative manner. The following text is the example of the use of code-switching in fairness skin creams commercials in India.
Ad: Vaseline men Brand endorser: Shahid Kapoor
Text: Shahid Kapoor: ―aam aadmi, the average indian male, saal mein 30 ghante brush karne main bitata hai, 76 ghante baal banana mein per bhul jate hai sabse important, unk achahera.‖ ―mein average nahi hu, mein bitata hu daily ek minute, Vaseline men lagake‖ Dhup se chahera na sirf savla nahi hota usme paach tarah ke daag dhabe bhi aa saketeh ai, Vaseline men main he vitamin B3 aur triple sunscreen jo chahere ko fair kare aur ghataye paach tarah ke daag dhabe. Humesha prepared rehna ho toh chahre ko dejiye daily ek minute. ―Vaseline men‖ Be prepared. (Author’s translation in the following paragraph)
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On studying the above text of the ad of Vaseline men, one can come to know the deliberate use of English words to emphasis the concept within the message. The actual message is that the average Indian male must give importance to his face and use this cream daily. But this message when coined with Hindi becomes more lengthy and colloquial. The text in Hindi in the above seems to suggest that mostly all Indian males spend their precious time in unproductive activities of routine like brushing teeth and combing hair. With the help of Hinglish, the entire message becomes extremely evocative with strong arguments put forward by the advertiser. The use of Hindi by the advertiser in the text very clearly indicates who the target audience is. The ad directly appeals the audience to use the product. Thus, one can say that code-switching serves the purpose of simplicity in expression or language, effective and easy comprehension which increases retention of the message in order to make successful communication with the most common audience. Hence, advertising English is a highly homogenous variety of English in which connotation of a word is more important rather than the actual meaning of the word.
To conclude, one can say that advertising or commercial language plays informational, expressive, directive, and aesthetic role depending on the function of commercials or advertisements. Commercial creators use simple words or language to win the heart of their audience/consumers by their exact, effective expression and the kind of proximity they build up through these words. With the help of celebrity endorsements/testimonials, gender appeal, the commercial creators create and propagate the stereotype fabricated in the language that helps to build up a pleasant picture in the mind of their audience where they feel ―we‘re different and unique‖. This feeling works at subliminal level which turns the audience into the consumer. The language of commercials, especially, fairness commercials give birth to the feeling which in turn becomes ―need‖ and ―craze‖ where the audience or the consumer gets trapped into the bold lies of the commercial, and is unable to figure out the demarcating line between truth and falsehood which are carefully constructed by the deliberate use of fashionable words and emotive language. The audience cum consumer fails to realise that these commercials are the bedrock for racism. Colour of the skin is the gift of the God and no cosmetic technology can change it. It is the inner beauty- beauty of virtues, personality, nature and character that matters not the beauty or colour of the skin which fades with the passage of time. It is impossible to escape the magic of advertisements/ commercials as we are living in the world of information and communication technology, where we need
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information at every second. But one can be conscious while internalizing the information which is communicated. No matter what kind of words, content, language is used in the commercial, all of them serve the purpose of attracting audience/consumer, conveying information, urging them to buy their products. That is what all ads/commercials are for, and that is also the function advertising language performs. In his famous book entitled Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshal McLuhan remarks, ―the historians and archaeologists will one day discover that the ads of our time are the richest and the most faithful daily reflections that any society ever made of its entire range if activities.‖ (p.232) (Images Courtesy: Google Images)
References:
Cook, Guy. The Discourse of Advertising. Routledge, 2001.
Goddard, Angela. The Language of Advertising: Intertext. Routledge, 2002.
McLuhan, Marshal. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Routledge, 1994.
Potter, J. Media Literacy. Sage Publications, 2005.
Tellis, G. Effective Advertising: Understanding When, How, and Why Advertising Works. Sage Publications, 2004.
Geoffrey Pullum, Barbara C. Scholz. ―More Than Words.‖ Nature 413 ( 2001): 367. 6th September 2017.
Masci, Janet. ―Decoding Advertisements by Judigh Williamson.‖ 01 June 1982. http://www.jam.sagepub.com/. 07 September 2017.
Roy,
Saberi.
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http://www.ezinearticles.com/expert/Saberi_Roy. 14 September 2017.
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English and Communication Skills Documenting Success Stories: Style of Reporting Meena Malik Abstract Strong and effective communication has a great role in translating research to reality. Every scientific endeavour/project in terms of technology or field application has a story to tell. In Institutions of higher learning, the science communication is mostly perceived as shortcuts, bullet points, technical terms, and formulaic expressions. To move from information to knowledge, from empirical facts to rationale interpretation of facts, we need language to express. For creating impact of the new knowledge in science, we need to lay emphasis on the art of scientific communication, in general and documenting success stories, in particular. These success stories have to be clear, simple and well planned to have direct impact on the lives of the people. Strong and effective communication in the form of success stories helps bridge the gap between new developments and the stakeholders and makes innovations accessible to the target group that traditionally remains excluded from the process of science. The art of documenting success stories is one of the important professional skills for every science and extension professional. Success story, if it is to be effective and efficient, must be designed for the needs and the understanding of targeted end-user or group of users. It should be carefully planned and documented keeping the reader in mind. The success stories impact individuals, families, organizations, start-ups, local governments and economy at large. Key Words: Science documentation, Science communication, Success stories, style Communicating science through success stories is as important to the scientific process as designing, conducting and analyzing the experiment itself. Any research, irrespective of its spectacular results, is not complete till the results are published and translated into reality. In fact, the foundation of science is based on the premise that original research knowledge and innovations must reach the end-user. Every scientific endeavour/project in terms of technology or field application has a story to tell.
The Success story is an important marketing tool for any project/program that is noteworthy and significant. The program completed or in its earlier stage of development may have
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important accomplishments to depict in the form of a success story. These stories are usually directed
towards
prospective
end-users
who
seriously
consider
using
that
project/technology/product for their organization. The success stories may be about an innovation, emergency response or outstanding effort. They provide the end-user with reallife solutions and help them to set expectations in terms of required inputs/outputs, results, outcome, implementation time, budget etc. They could even be written in series describing significant but different changes occurring over the years or after the program‘s completion after due assessment of its long-term impact. Whatever the case may be, the story should portray a picture as to how the project has made a difference in the lives of the people. In other words, the success stories impact individuals, families, organizations, start-ups, local governments and economy at large. Relevance and Significance of Success Stories Documenting Success Stories enables scientists to reach out to broad and diverse categories of stakeholders. It helps build up a broad base to their scientific endeavours and encourages more informed decision-making at all levels. Strong and effective communication in the form of success stories helps bridge the gap between new developments and the stakeholders and makes innovations accessible to the target group that traditionally remains excluded from the process of science. Thus, it can help make science more credible, visible and inclusive. Besides educating the stakeholders, documentation of a success story enhances visibility and publicizes early successes, and serves as an important tool for self-evaluation and accountability. More than a list of successful events or activities, it describes a positive change and shows how that change benefits the people. A success story acts as a catalyst and creates a difference in people‘s lives. The Art of Documenting Success Stories The art of documenting success stories is one of the important core professional skills for every science and extension professional. The stories should be specific and should narrate specific challenges, actors, solutions, and outcomes. They should describe one compelling event or an interesting series of events. Stories can be of different types. The story illustrates the benefits of the ―systems approach‖ in bringing about tangible outcomes and positive change. It should be written in one‘s own words conveying the facts, figures and implications of the research, one‘s passion and enthusiasm.
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It does not matter so much what we say. It matters a lot how we say it. Success story, if it is to be effective and efficient, must be designed for the needs and the understanding of a specific reader or group of readers. Their needs, interests, or concerns may differ and may vary from audience to audience. One must have adequate knowledge of the educational and professional background of the readers. We need to have an idea of what the reader expects from the story and his level of understanding.
A good success story writer needs to be authentic and need to use authentic language. He/she needs to emphasize on what is to be told instead of looking for elegant formulation. The success story needs to be interspersed with high-resolution images and logos. Low resolution images will be perceived as unprofessional by readers. What Goes into a Success Story: SRRE Typically, for extension purpose, a success story is primarily an exercise in organization. Each story should, in proper order, describe Situation, Response, Results and Evidence (SRRE).
SRRE pattern is an effective way to proceed to answer these four questions Situation: What prompted the program? Response: How did Extension respond? (inputs and outputs) Results: Who benefited? What resulted? (outcomes) Evidence: What’s the evidence? (evaluation)
Situation: The opening should make the case for why Extension stepped in. It should clearly describe an important issue or concern - why we should care. It shows that issue or need is appropriate for Extension response. Response: This section describes Extension‘s response. i.e. its
role and contribution
including inputs (staff, funding, volunteers, research, expertise) and outputs. Outputs include activities (teaching, facilitation, product development) and people reached (number of people and demographics). It also describes partnerships and external funding sources. Results: This section uses quantitative and qualitative data to describe important outcomes (changes and benefits) achieved as a result of Extension‘s response. Outcomes include
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changes in knowledge, skills, motivation, behavior, decision making, practices, policies, social action, social, economic and environmental conditions. It describes outcomes in terms of value or meaning. It tells about the beneficiaries and links story to research, if appropriate. It also states future plans based on results.
Evidence: This section describes briefly as to how the program was evaluated to attain the reported evidence. It also includes the data collection method (pre-or post-test surveys, interviews, testimonials), sample (number and how selected), response rate and the date of data collection. It may also include customer quotes collected during the project.
Typically, a good success story depends on credible information. Administrators, program leaders, communications specialists, Extension agencies and Extension staff periodically review success stories on the Planning and Reporting System.
Some Important Language Points and Skills
The ability to produce a clear, concise and professionally presented success story is a skill that one is required to develop to be successful both at the Research/Academic institutions and Extension Organisations. A clear, concise and well written story saves a lot of time of the users, be it researchers, students, teachers, managers or the clients. In other words, the value of accuracy and precision is not only important for researchers in scientific education and research but also for professionals in all sorts of work situations.
Successful communication depends upon the correct use of language and a good style of writing. One may learn the correct use of language, but has to cultivate a good style of writing. The former concerns grammar, usage, spelling, capitalization and punctuation, the latter concerns the organization of ideas through proper choice of words, arrangement of words into sentences and grouping of sentences into paragraphs. The use of abbreviations, the approach to the reader, use of idioms, use of visual aids, the format and layout of the report are all aspects of style.
It‘s one thing to have a good story to tell. It‘s another to write it
so that people will want to read it. Following are some of the some of the language skills that make a success story effective:
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Choice of words: The primary objective of scientific communication is to transmit information briefly, clearly and efficiently. This can be achieved only through simple, direct and plain style. The first step towards a simple and clear style is to use simple language. One must choose a short word rather than a long word, a plain and familiar word rather than a fancy or unusual word and a concrete word rather than an abstract word.
Conciseness: Conciseness describes writing that is direct and to the point. Writing that is not concise is wordy. Wordy and indirect writing irritates the readers. In contrast, concise writing appeals to readers because it is direct. Hence, all efforts should be made to eliminate from the writing every word that does not contribute to the meaning or clarity of the message. Conciseness makes the writing clear and effective.
Use Active Voice: Avoid using passive voice and be clear about who is doing the action in every sentence. As the passive voice is sometimes vague and less economical than the active voice, good writers tend to avoid it except when it is genuinely useful. The passive voice may be preferable, for example, when the real doer of an action is either unknown or, in the context of a discussion, relatively unimportant.
Discreet Use of Jargons: Jargon is specialized vocabulary of a particular group- words that an outsider unfamiliar with this field would not understand. Jargon encompasses all technical terms. Such terminology is useful and often necessary in technical communication restricted to people working on the same or similar subjects. Technical terms become jargon only when carelessly used for wider audience. The Jargon of any given field is often the most efficient means of communication within that field. It becomes offensive when handy English equivalents are available or people outside the field are expected to understand, what is said. In other words, using jargons unnecessarily is pretentious, showy, and artificial. The Verb ‘Be’: The verb ‗be‘ is often a cause of stylistic problems. Eight basic forms of verb ‗be‘ are: am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been. Avoid verb ‗be‘ followed by adjectives or nouns that can be turned into strong, economical verbs.
Appropriate Use of Coordination and Subordination: A common failing of technical writers is the expression of ideas of unequal importance in constructions that seem to give equal
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weight. Appropriate use of coordination and subordination should be made by carefully examining which ideas are important and which are minor, reworking them into simple, compound and complex sentences. Meaning can be grasped more quickly and more easily if subordinate ideas are indicated and put in subordinating constructions. A sentence should express the main thought in a principal clause. Less important thoughts should be expressed in subordinate clauses. Length of the sentence should be kept as short as far as possible by using not more than one or two subordinating conjunctions or relative pronouns in a sentence. There is a greater risk of grammatical error in longer sentences. Overall Style Reminders Choose simple words. Style should not be verbose. Keep messages simple and concise. Use active voice. Jargon should be avoided. Limit use of acronyms. If you use acronyms, spell them out on first mention. Reads like story. Give compelling and significant facts. Write in paragraph style in complete sentences. Keep paragraphs short – no more than 5-6 sentences. Keep story to not more than two pages. Avoid broad, sweeping statements. Include direct quotes if they strengthen the story. Conclusion Success stories create a link between scientific endeavours and stakeholders in order to make them more relevant to society, and encourage more informed decision-making at all levels. To help make science more credible, visible and inclusive, we need to lay emphasis on imparting skills in communicating science in the form of success stories. The success story has to be authentic, clear, simple and well ordered communication to transmit the significant achievements. It has a specific purpose and a specific audience. It should be carefully planned and prepared keeping the reader in mind. It is the art of making the subject intelligible to others, which requires invaluable mental discipline and in turn enhances clear thinking.
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References
Bryson Judy C. and Eley Nicole, ―Guidance: Success Stories‖ Africare Food Security Review, No. 4, September 2007.
Council of Science Editors. Scientific style and format: The CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers, 6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press; 1994.
Leggett, G., Mead, C. D., Charvat, W. and Beal, R. S. (1982) Handbook for Writers. 8th ed. Prentice- Hall, USA, 1982.
Malik, Meena ―English for Empowering Science and Engineering Graduates‖, International Journal of English Literature, Language & Skills (IJELLS) 8(4): 132-38, 2020.
Malik, Meena and Malik Ravinder, The Art of Technical Reporting and Writing, NDRI Publication No 93/2013, p. 1-117.
Malik, Meena ―The Art of Scientific Writing: From Information Processing to Knowledge Sharing‖, 21st Century Learners: Learning Styles and Strategies: Proceedings of 8th International and 44th ELTAI Conference from July 18-20, 2013 at SRM University, Chennai, pp. 256-258.
Plain Language: Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public www.plainlanguage.gov.
Sewak, S. N. and Batra, R. K.
Scientific and Technical Writing: A Practical
Approach. 3rd ed., Kala Sanchar, Ludhiana, 2008.
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Author Profiles Dr Anita Konwar is an Assistant Professor in the department of English, Sonari College, Charaideo, Assam. Dr. Konwar achieved her degrees of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in English from Dibrugarh University, Assam. She has contributed research papers and articles in different academic and research journals at state, national and international level. Her research interests include Women Studies, Indian English Fiction, Commonwealth Literature & North-East India Studies. Fardos Bakjaji is a Syrian PhD scholar studying in Osmania University, department of English. She got her Master degree from Gujarat University and now she is working on AfroAmerican literature under the supervision of Dr. A. Sreedevi. Himanjali Gollapinni is currently pursuing her masters in English as a final year student from Osmania University. She has completed her bachelor's in biotechnology from Saint Francis College in Hyderabad. Her areas of interest include Literary Criticism and Theory and Shakespearian Drama. James Joseph is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of English, at St. Mary‘s College, Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad. He is pursuing his research in Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam under the guidance of Dr. Sr. Celine E. Dr Sr Celine E. is the Director of St. Teresa‘s College (Autonomous), Ernakulam. She has also been a Research Guide in the college for eleven years Jishnu Prasad is a research scholar at Mahatma Gandhi university, St. Teresa's college, Ernakulam. His research interests are primarily in areas of cultural studies with emphasis on Arab culture and revolution. He worked as Guest lecturer at Devaswom Board College, Thalayolaparambu for 3 years. Dr Mahendra Kumar Budhathoki works as an English Lecturer at Campus of International Languages, T.U., Exhibition Road, Kathmandu. He did M.A. (English), M.Ed. (English Education), L.L.B. (Law) and Ph.D. (English). He is a life-member of NELTA. He has published many research articles related to literary criticism, literature and language in different journals. Mamta Bisht is presently working as an Assistant Professor at Department of English, L.S.M.G.P.G College Pithoragarh. She has done her Masters from Kumaun University and is pursuing her Ph.D in English from there. She has a few research papers to her credit in international journals and has also presented papers in national and international seminars.
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Samuel Mundru is a final year student from Osmania University pursuing a master's in English and has qualified UGC NET in December 2019. He has completed his bachelor's in English literature in 2018 from Wesley degree college, Hyderabad. His areas of interest include Rhetoric in Literature and Critical Analysis of Poems. Dr Santosh Kumar Singh works as a Lecturer at Khowpa College in Bhaktapur, Nepal. He specializes in Social Semiotics &Mithila Painting. Shobhana Singh is pursuing Ph.D from Jiwaji University, Gwalior, (M.P). Updesh Singh is an Assistant Professor of English at Amtunna Bano Mahila Degree College, Gursahaiganj Kannauj U.P. He is pursuing M.Phil from Singhania University Rajasthan. Dr Ameena Kidwai is an Assistant Professor at Taibah University, KSA. In her doctoral research she has explored methodologies to make teaching and learning of English more meaningful through innovative practices. She has been associated with RELO, American Embassy, and Cambridge India. Pinali Vadher is an Ex-Ad hoc Assistant Professor, who worked at the Department of English &CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujarat. Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. from the after mentioned Department and the University. Her areas of interests include ELT, Critical Thinking, Communication Studies, Film Studies, Media Studies, English Literature and Translation Studies. Dr Meena Malik is a Professor in English at NDRI Deemed University, Karnal. A graduate with Honours in English, she obtained M.A., M. Phil and Doctorate in English from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (KUK). Her area of specialization is ‗Feminist Issues‘. She teaches ―Communication Skills‖ and ‗Technical Writing‘ to Undergraduate and Postgraduate students at NDRI Deemed University, Karnal. She has authored a book entitled, Graham Greene: A Feminist Reading and a Manual on The Art of Technical Reporting and Writing.
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