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Saturday, August 07, 2010

Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

Mapping by : Vandana Choradia


Map of Anthony Giddens’ essay- Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

  1. Rethinking nature of modernity in 21st Century in line with society
  • “Nature of modernity must go hand in hand with a reworking of basic premises of sociological analysis.

II. Modernity affecting self and social life

  • Modernity must be understood at an institutional level
  • Self and social life constantly interact

IV. Modern Social life organized by Time and Space

  • Institutional reflexivity
  • Expansion of disembedding mechanisms
  • Transform content and nature of everyday life

V. Modernity as post traditional order; principle of radical doubt

  • Insists Knowledge should have hypotheses
  • Claims that are true
  • Openness to revision

VI. Modernity as a risk culture

  • Reflexive organization of knowledge environments
  • Risk assessment- precision, quantification
  • Although, by its nature is imperfect

VII. Riskiness of certain areas in late modern world

  • High consequence risks
  • Apocalyptic- term High Modernity

VIII. Influences of media, systems on self identity and social relations

  • Systems become autonomous
  • The activities of electronic media is devoid of hyper reality in Baudrillard’s sense

IX. Reflexively organized self-identity

  • Significance of notion of lifestyle and choices- structuring identity
  • Life planning
  • Tradition losing its hold, daily life- dialectical interplay between local and global, paralleled to people negotiating lifestyle choices
  • Capitalistic production and distribution- core components of modernity’s institutions

X. What is lifestyle?

  • Emancipation, access to forms of self-actualization, decisions taken and courses of action followed under conditions of severe material constraint
  • Interconnects with life-planning
  • Misunderstandings of ‘lifestyle’- only pursuits of prosperous/ rich groups and classes

XI. Transformation of Intimacy

  • Interaction between local and global
  • Pure relationship--- trust, reflexively controlled over long term

XII. Search for intimacy

  • Integral to pure relationship
  • Mistake- view contemporary search for intimacy as a negative reaction to the impersonal social universe

XIII. Reskilling

  • Reacquisition of knowledge and skills
  • Situationally variable
  • Contrasts… it is partial, revisable in nature of expert’s knowledge
  • Validates the need for Reskilling- Distrust, scepticism, rejection and withdrawal affects the linking of individual activities and expert systems

XIV. Interaction between self- reflexivity and abstract systems affect psychic processes and bodily development.

  • Body- phenomenon of choices
  • Do not affect only individual
  • Narcissistic cultivation- control the body

XV. Sequestration of experience

  • Influenced by science, technology and expertise
  • Reframe issues of nature, scientific idea that excludes morality- through institutional account, internal referentiality
  • People have direct contact with incidents and relate them to issues of morality

XVI. Shame by institutional repression

  • Situation- Mentions Freud in reference to guilt (killing the father- Oedipus/ Electra complex)
  • Institutional repression- shame over feeling of guilt
  • Brought out through mechanisms of change

XVII. Personal Meaninglessness and existential questioning

  • Life has nothing worthwhile
  • Phenomenon- repression
  • Authenticity- casing self- actualization

XVIII. Counter reaction to Existential questions- Life Politics

  • Repression is incomplete
  • Lifestyle choices- raise moral issues
  • Emancipatory Politics

XIX. Emancipatory politics influencing existential issues

  • Modernity excludes them
  • Emergence of life-political programme


Giddens, Anthony. “Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.” Art

    in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Franscina, Francis and Jonathan Harris. London/New York: Phaidon, 1992. Print

Pinto, Anil. Class lecture. On Modernity and Self Identity.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 4 August 2010. Lecture.

UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Linguistic and Literary Terrain of Translation Salesian College, Sonada - A Report

Seminar dates : 30-31 July 2010

The Seminar had scholars from different kinds of institutions and from different parts of the country. There were two scholars from Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, a Philosopher from Assam University, from Bangalore, and many part of West Bengal.

Since the organisers had tried this diversity and had insisted on the full papers being sent before the seminar, the seminar proved to be a productive one with very serious discussion shaping up during the course of deliberations. The outcome of the deliberations made the seminar very special to me.

What I also liked was the careful scheduling of the papers. There were only six papers each for the day. That is, three in the forenoon session and three in the afternoon. This structure gave sufficient time for scholars to present their views and later engage in a serious discussion, something which is sacrificed in many seminars.

The seminar was clearly not held with the primary focus on building records for NAAC or other such purposes but for creating platform to build research and academics.

Were there new insights? May be. For me the only new insight from the deliberations was the role of typographies in determining the relationship between the translator and writer of the ‘source’ text, which emerged in a discussion I initiated after the presentation of Prof Dipankar Sen. I had not seriously considered this so far in the context of translation studies. Other ‘carry home’ from the seminar were, the distinction being made between Nepali literature in Nepal and Nepali literature in India, the canonical literature
in English vs theory divide as it came across from the interaction with Jamia scholars, introduction to a lot of new sources, new texts and newer kinds of engagement with translations.

I also presented a paper entitled “Reading More Intimately: An Interrogation of Translation Studies through Self-translation” You may find the abstract at the end or the report.

One other part I must appreciate of the seminar was the presence of Nepali writers and translators that was created in each session. After the deliberations of each session, established Nepali translators were asked to respond to the deliberation from Non-Nepali scholars. This was an important step in terms of creating a dialogue between scholarship in translation studies and practice of translation in Nepali. This gesture made the seminar locate itself clearly in the local milieu.

A journey to the place I visited confirmed that Darjeeling clearly remains a neglected territory by governments of West Bengal and India. Hardly any infrastructural needs have been attended to since the time of the British Raj.

Abstract of my Paper
While the poststructural turn has made the study of translation more self-reflexive, it has not made translation studies scholars rethink the fundamental assumptions of translation process, which poststructuralism should have. As a result, many practices in the nature of ‘translation’ have not only got marginalised but have got relegated to absence, within translation studies. One such practice is self-translation. This paper tries to read the process of self-translation closely and thereby raise critical questions on the fundamental assumptions about translation. The paper will conclude by positing self-translation as an important domain for scholarly engagement by drawing attention to its potential to make translation studies more nuanced.

III year BA Optional English: Mid-semester examination Aug 2010 note

Essays for exam
What is literature? – Terry Eagleton
Creative Writers and Daydreaming – Sigmund Freud

Topics
Psychoanalysis
Formalism
Structuralism- Esp. Saussure’s theory of language
Origins of humanist/literary thought– Plato, Aristotle


Question paper pattern
Marks: 5x10=50

Answer any five.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. 

I MA English -Western Aesthetics Mid-semester Exam Aug 2010 note

MEL 132 Western Aesthetics: Twentieth Century Euro-American Art, Culture and Ideas
 Duration: 2 Hrs                                                                             Max. Marks: 50
Note:   
  • All questions are compulsory.
  • The first three questions carry 15 marks each and the last question carries 5 marks.
  • There is no word limit. However, your answers should sufficiently reflect the discussions in the prescribed essays/talk.
  • You are permitted to carry relevant material to the examination hall.
  • Evaluation Criteria: 50% weight for the understanding of the arguments in the essays as reflected in the answers; 20 % for reading beyond the text and the classroom discussion; 20% for structure of the answer – Introduction, body, conclusion, citation; 10% for language, punctuation. 

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln for II year American Literature Course

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address






Wikipedia article

Audio reference link


for II year American Literature Course

Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln for II year American Literature Course

Audio link
Wikipedia article

Works of Terry Eagleton

What is Literature?
Literary Theory: An Introduction

II year JPEng and CEP Questions

II year JPEng and CEP -ites may post their questions here. I will respond to them.

----
Let me attempt answers here for the questions asked in the comments section below.


Reg. Liberty Song 
1. The liberty song which I understand became a very popular (pop) song during the last phase of struggle against England leading to declaration of Independence. The Stamp Act became a breaking point which was capitalized by the leaders asking for independence from England. The argument was, since England was not using the money collected from the American colonies for the welfare of the White residents of America, England had not right to collect it. Stamp Act insisted on collecting money by way of stamp on all legal translations and claims.  The Act helped leaders demanding freedom more popular support from the colonies.

The Liberty Song has that background. It was written about three years after the Stamp Act. However, you will find the concern mentioned above in the poem as well. They do not want to pay, if they cannot be taken care of well.

For more on the Stamp Act click here for the wiki article 
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2. I am not able to understand the second question, hence, apologies. My position is that native american story telling did not become part of any visible, dominant narrative tradition of USA. However, I admit I am subject to correction.
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3. Thomas Paine's work is Propaganda writing
For more on that you may click and refer to the following links
a. From 'On Papers.com' 
b. From 'Dream Essays.com'
c.  From enotes
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4. Links to 'Song of Myself'
a. From 'Sparknotes'
b. From 'Wikipedia'
c. From 'Bookrags'
d. From 'enotes'
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5. Links for 'Purloined Letter' as Dark Romantic
a. From Wiki on Dark Romanticism
b. From Passgen : 'What is Dark Romanticism?'
c. From Associated content
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Hope this will be some use. All the best.

Guest Lecture on Capitalism/ Capital and related concepts

Notes by Sneha Sharon Mammen:
Dated: 3rd August, 2010
The following has been Mr. Dhar's fragment of understanding on Capital/ Capitalism/ Aesthetics/ Culture, which triggered our minds to think on his lines which was in turn the product of his toil to understand Marx for the past twenty two years. It certainly reaped its own benefits as students of Literature, Economics and Law participated in a four hour involved interactive session with the professor.
Mr. Dhar storms the session with the mind boggling general question as to what ‘Capital’ essentially meant. A shift from Hegel to Marx ( according to lay man understanding) interprets capital as something that can be used as an investment and from which an individual can expect returns. The term is also in day to day circulation as in ‘ I don’t have any capital’. These are varying plausibilities of using the term.
Today we understand capital as per newspaper/stock exchange/finance reports. However, no study of Economics is complete without the premier study of Das Capital, Karl Marx’s foundation guide in writing. Marx, who intended to write six volumes could only leave behind, unfortunately three volumes and a forty pages of the unfinished fourth number. However, the ground work for Das Capital was Grundrisse, a German text of six hundred and fifteen pages again by Marx.
As mentioned earlier economics and its study is incomplete without a study of the giants in this sphere, essentially Marx and his predecessors Adam Smith and Ricardo. The six major volumes of Das Capital were supposed to discuss in detail each broad point. Interestingly, forty pages into the fourth volume, Marx finds himself perplexed and arrives at the conclusion that he has essentially got some angle wrong. Therefore, he sets himself to read further into analyzing the entire situation all over again. This breeds thirty thousand copious pages of unpublished analysis on economy and its working( now in the Marx Engels Archive, Amsterdam). It was Rosa Luxemberg who completed the fifth volume.
Mr. Dhar had the lovely chance to scroll through the first four hundred pages of the full collection of the unpublished version and says that much of it was also on the Indian village conditions, twenty five hundred pages on medicine, hundreds of pages to prove Calsulus wrong and so on. This could also mean that quite visibly politics and culture and economics is tied together and are not essentially varied, thoroughly different terms.
What Marx actually stood against was for the piece meal, segmented understanding of the reality of the world.
Volume one of Marx’s Das Capital talks of Commodity and Production. Marx basically went into studying the intrinsic aspect and property of a commodity. Volume two on the other hand studied Distribution as a step two of the entrance of commodity into the market. However, there was no concept of demand and supply discussed therein. The third volume studied Land and Rent and ended with the ‘nasty word’ as Mr Dhar puts it, ‘Class’. The last chapter of volume three is an attempt to describe what class actually was but it was all in vain. Also, surprisingly enugh, only the first volume talked of labour!!
‘ A patient thinker cannot give all the answers and those who have all the answers are not thinkers’ courtesy Mr Dhar, and hence Marx attempted in vain to define ‘class’.
So when a Terry Eagleton and a Jameson were referring to ‘Capital’ and ‘capitalism’ they were indeed talking about the volumes that they had read and do not deal with it with respect to our present day newspaper understanding of the concept.
So our understanding of capital now moves on to understand that it is not only investment or does not yield returns alone but is also a vicious cycle and Money, Value and Price are essentially very different concepts. However, Marx in volume one of his book describes and establishes relation between all the above mentioned concepts. For example, hundreds of pages were spent in understanding what the term ‘value’ actually catered to.
A non-economic background student pops up a very ontological question at this juncture. ‘ Is there a common entity from where these things are derived from?’ and this leaves us with the discussion as to what were the origins of capital, money and value. What is capital generally looked upon as now and what was its primordial form? These were basically free in nature. For a long time even cattle was used as monetary exchanges. Meaning to say that nobody really has the capital, it is all there out in nature and nature has all the resources.
Taking up a pluralist, heterogeneous example:
What could you possibly do with a mango?
1) You either consume it. There is a segment in our life which is involved with consumption based on need. Everything need not essentially be revolving around buying and selling.
2) Mango seed could produce more mangoes in future and the process of consumption can be multiplied. It is therefore a vicious cycle. ( Indian villages are self sustainable and process like this/ also knowledge multiplies in a similar way)
3) You could use the mango as an exchange commodity for an orange.
4) You could also convert the mango into pickle. (Economics gives us a feeling that everything happens in the market but not actually!) The process has to take place to convert the mango into the pickle and the very fact that there is capital in the world is philosophically naïve.
Seed to mango involves labour too.
The initial mango found free in nature plus human/animal labour leads to capital in this case. Without the intervention of nature therefore nothing becomes possible. Marx traps us that way saying that nothing actually happens without labour.
At this juncture can we consider that capitalism did have two bases: the spread of colonialism and the rise of slavery. The British sold the Burmese teak and the skyscrapers of the west is a result of two hundred years of immense plunder, but, the initial mango was found free in nature and it could be sold without having to pay for it. Today, the mad rush that we see is just a run for the free capital that exists be it the Ambani feud or the Iraq war. Thousands of acres of land in Bengal was bought by the Tata’s for a rupee. Does it then become the free mango?!
0 ( free mango) + x ( money from selling) = x( total profit)
Mango + labour = pickle also involves no harm and again you can earn ‘x’ amount. This has been practiced even today by the self employed. The market then comes only at the last juncture.
Now, supposingly you want to employ another person to do the work, here labour in question would be a commodity which is bought and sold and not a capital.
Therefore, 0 + 2 (remuneration to be paid for labour) = 4 ( selling price)
Total gains from transaction would be ( SP- remuneration) = 2.
Essentially we could also say that not everythings begins with capital. We just have natural resources. ( Natural resources + labour= production)
However, capital by itself cannot do anything and nothing can happen without production( Marx refutes this later in volume second). Marx moves on to derive from Adam Smith and Ricardo to say that Capital is impossible without land and labour.
Volume three suggests that capital never pays rent ( Coca Cola/ Tata’s), and therefore it is a critique of Hegel when he says that there is no capital per se. Whatever you have is either free in nature or plunder and that is where the concomitant history of capitalism lies embedded, what went hand in hand with capitalism in Europe was Colonialism. When in 1857, England was undergoing industrialization, India was facing the Sepoy mutiny and nationalism while Africa at this time was in the clutches of slavery where labour was bought for free ( capital may or may not buy labour!) The essential being of the slave was bought as the white master employ his labour on the cotton fields and sell the efforts of bonded labour( what we now understand it as) worldwide.
Ponder: Is it still happening? Consider the fashion industry, the IPL auctions! In India, bonded labour unfortunately goes the caste way
When do we actually buy and sell labour? When you work in an office for a pay, you are actually selling your labour and the employer who recruits you is the buyer of your labour. At this point, Marx needs to be congratulated for a term that he coined, ‘labour power’ and hence it is labour power that is sold by a worker ( the idea of human capital comes here). It is therefore a need based economy. It is the similar case in our domestic households where everything is need based. It is still an economy because there is exchange in the strictest sense.
For Capitalism to work well the game should run fair; there ought to be buying and selling of labour power but it should be necessarily without any coercion which might otherwise be a condition of slavery.
Value and Price are very different from each other. Price could be infinitely cooked up ( palak paneer in a dhaba would cost only Rs 20 while the same thing might cost 500 in Taj chain of hotels). Marx therefore showed that the wage that the labour gets is the value of labour, both intrinsic and generated and sometimes this value is expressed in monetary forms. Slave labour therefore has value but no price. We could say that essentially everything has value but only a few have price tags attached to it.
For example lets say:
Leather ( value 1) + labour ( value 2) + Vx ( x being the work employed by labour on the leather) = shoe (value 3)
There is therefore an exchange,
C’ – C= profits
C’ –C = delta C ( which is capital according to Marx, both static or variable)
Now, C + delta C = C” ; capital can therefore be generated by production. Is capital therefore accumulated labour?
Example, The share market.
Again, production need not always take place, you buy shoes in Lisbon for C, sell it in Singapore for C’.
Capitalism was also born with a single universal language. Meaning to say that a mango should be a mango everywhere else and this is where the concept of brand comes in and interstingly enough, potato an import from Latin America and idli from Indonesia is doing so well in India!
The capitalists in modern cultures is the bourgeois and the working class therefore becomes the proletariat. India has a mixed economy. However, the term is not thoroughly a transparent term. India is a capitalistic+ slave + feudal +need based economy. That is how it is decentralized and therefore not the whole of India can be either capitalistic or agrarian.
It was therefore a ladder progression, where the bottoms of the ladder was pre capital, rural, agricultural and pre modern and with a shift in time period constituting development we moved on to capital, the west, modern, the urban and industrial and at the end of it Capitalism becomes an ideology and not a fact. “ Ideology is seeing yourself in the mirror and believing that it is you although the image that is formed is laterally inverted” and some people actually live this ideology and they are the capitalists- the bourgeois who lives in this illusion. However, collective hallucinations and illusions are part of everyone’s life! The illusion lived during the feudal periods was that the monarch was Godsent.
This is why culture and economy should go along. It was the proletariat who critiqued the ideology. The present interest in Marx is not because of him along but because of other perspectives too. Even the feminist corners of the woman labour question has generated interest.
Workplace – selling labour- consumer becoming the proletariat. There is no final bourgeois in that sense of the word.
Twenty four hundred pages run in from volume one concerning commodity to volume three where Marx talks of class/proletariat/labour. He saw that the commodity (shoe) in the market was sold for Rs 8 and tried finding out the price of leather for the capitalist and it was found that he paid only Rs 2. Another Rs 2 was used in employing labour and therefore the value increment is ( 8- (2+2) ) =4
Which is delta C , that is profits in mainstream economics. Now Marx’s question was, ( 2+2) has value and the Non Performing Appropriator (NPA) has value. V1 +V2 ----) V3 and in this case 4 is the value increment. Value is added because V2 worked on V1 ( Vx) to generate the final product that is V3.
Value + added value = 8- 2= 6
6 – labour charges( 2)= 4 ( surplus value) and this is called exploitation. Who decides where the surplus value goes? It is the producer, the one who generated value in the first place. Aesthetics in cultural studies has been dominated by NPA’s and that is why we have an Oscar Wilde or a Virginia Woolf or the Bronte sisters!
In the quest of allocation of surplus value, there is a power/ political struggle. The social and the cultural are also deciding factors. The producer may even choose to spend the entire surplus in a casino within a day or might even channelise it as social security, hospitals etc. No true appreciation of aesthetics can happen here.
At home, the mother converts the cauliflower into cauliflower curry. Here no price is attached but value is surely generated. The feminists put forth their need for respect and recognition and a share in labour for the services she renders. However, the final product is not a commodity here. Capitalism is a process which engages in buying of labour and means plus products which yields the final commodity.
Historically, some people have lived on other people’s labour, can we all labour together now?
The ethical aesthetic question therefore is HOW TO LIVE? What is it to be cultured? Living out of someone else’s labour is not shared living at all. No amount of cosmopolitanism marks culture and Terry Eagleton says that an oppressive society is not a condition of culture.
Studying the woman question, the labour of a woman cannot be brought under the realm of capitalism if she is doing it for her family, however the curry that she cooks if generated in the market through catering can make her a capitalist and since she is in no contractual bond to either cook or clean the house as labour is in capitalistic economy, the two spheres are thoroughly different.
Lecture by: Anup Kumar Dhar, 3 August, 2010 at Christ University.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Framing Questions - An Approach/ MA Previous

Notes by Shilpi Rana


Asking questions or we can say rather good questions is all the more important even than providing answers.Pinto Sir made us acquainted with the types of consequences of the questions raised.He said that asking questions is the first step to become a "scholar".

To explain the art of preparing questions we took THE GENERAL PROLOGUE of Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES and we were asked to prepare questions on it.Some of the questions raised were as follows :

- How is the fourteenth century society portrayed through the characters in THE CANTERBURY TALES?

- Elaborate on the literary devices in THE CANTERBURY TALES.

- Describe the stratification of the societythrough the analysis of the characters in THE CANTERBURY TALES.

- Are Chaucer's characters his own voice?

- Describe the influence of the church in THE CANTERBURY TALES.

- How is the concept of morality depicted in THE CANTERBURY TALES?

- What are the medieval concepts of literature engaged in THE CANTERBURY TALES?

- Is there more positive characters than negative characters in THE CANTERBURY TALES?

- Discuss the concept of eroticism in THE CANTERBURY TALES.

- How is the corruption of the church portrayed in THE CANTERBURY TALES?

After the above questions we had, we were explained what type of questions should be asked as we being postgraduate students.

CONCLUSION :

- Ask questions which can make a long arguement. The answer of the question asked should not be a short and straight away answer, it should have a good content and should go on for pages. We can add "Discuss" or "Elaborate" or "Elucidate" to the questions.

- We must keep the time frame in mind while asking questions. Do not impose concepts which the time does not permit. Ask questions on the literary concepts used during the time and its impact on the then society.

- Ask questions on the literary techniques on the part of the author. What is the research area of the author and how is the work received by society as a whole, by the readers and as well as by us individually. For eg. In which genre of work does THE CANTERBURY TALES fall into - Is it novel, poem, epic, drama, etc.? The answer would be it is a Frame Narrative(where there are many stories within a story) like the stories of PANCHATANTRA, VIKRAM BETAAL , ARABIAN NIGHTS etc.

- Ask questions making an interplay of the characters in the text.

- Raise questions on the debates appeared in the text itself.

- Ask questions on the author's perspective itself.

These were some of the useful tips on how to frame correct questions even in order to perceive the text well.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Philis Wheatly

Phillis Wheatly (1753-1784)

Phillis Wheatly was a kidnapped African slave child who was sold from the South Market in Boston to a well to do Susanna Wheatly. In her childhood she experienced special, much indulged comfort and only token slavery. She quickly learned Latin, English and the Bible and began writing in 1764. Her poems were based on the themes of morality and piety, along with patriotic American pieces, an epithalamium, and a short racially self conscious poem, “Thoughts on being brought from Africa and America”.

Initially her poems were not published as the subscribers felt that it was part racially motivated. With the prestigious co-operation of Countess of Huntingdon and Susanna Wheatly, her book was published in London in 1773. This was the first volume known to have been published by a black American, man or woman. Her poems have elements of neoclassical poetic norms.

Her poems represent a deeply self conscious art. Her sense of herself as an African and an American makes her in some way a dual provincial in relationship to the eighteen century Anglo-Atlantic cosmopolitan centre. The language of poem is both American (refines English) and African (non refined and broken English) in nature.

Her poems included not only Christian elegies, but also highly original English translations from the Latin of Ovid, biblical paraphrases and poems about nature, imagination and memory. She was highly influenced by the Bible.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

In just eight lines, Wheatley describes her attitude towards her condition of enslavement -- both coming from Africa to America, and the culture that considers her color so negatively. Wheatley begins by crediting her slavery as a positive, because it has brought her to Christianity. She makes a clear distinction between God (frightening and fearful) and Saviour( hope). The word "benighted" means "overtaken by night or darkness" or "being in a state of moral or intellectual darkness." Thus, she makes her skin color and her original state of ignorance of Christian redemption parallel situations.

She credits "mercy" with her voyage -- but also with her education in Christianity. Both were actually at the hands of human beings. In turning both to God, she reminds her audience that there is a force more powerful than they are -- a force that has acted directly in her life. She cleverly distances her reader from those who "view our sable race with scornful eye" -- perhaps thus nudging the reader to a more critical view of slavery or at least a more positive view of those who are slaves. She directly talks about the Europeans treatment to the African community.

"Sable" , refers to a self-description of her color which is very valuable and desirable. This characterization contrasts sharply to the "diabolic die" of the next line, as it means poisonous evil color. In the second-to-last line, the word "Christian" is placed ambiguously. She may either be addressing her last sentence to Christians -- or she may be including Christians in those who "may be refined" and find salvation. She reminds her reader that Negroes may be saved. The implication of her last sentence is also this: the "angelic train" will include both white and black. She believes that everyone is entitled to redemption.

The poem is biblical in nature, and we can say that she criticizes Africa at some point and also she talks about African from an outsider point of view. She distances herself from her pagan land (Africa) as she is now civilized. Although we can say that Wheatly re-defines Christianity, she believes that Africans can be redeemed. There was notion of Africans being referred to ‘cians’, which believed that Africans can never be redeemed of their sins. Thus, at a certain level it can be said that it is ‘anti Christian’ in nature as it defies the norms of the Bible.

Phillis Wheatley takes on the role of one who has the right to command: a teacher, a preacher, even perhaps a master or mistress( saviour).In looking at Wheatley's attitude towards slavery in her poetry, it's also important to note that most of Phillis Wheatley's poems do not refer to her "condition of servitude".

On Imagination

Wheatly personifies Imagination as a woman, a queen. The thyme scheme of the poem is aabbccdd. This poem stands as an ode in praise of Imagination.

“Thy wond’rous acts in beauteous order stand”. He praises beauty and glorifies the creation- creation of poetry. This poem is the form of invocation in order to justify the sacredness of Imagination. Wheatly draws a comparison between ‘Fancy’ and ‘Imagination’. She says that fancy is ordinary in nature which has the capacity to only capture one’s mind. Also ‘fancy’ can be tampered whith, while Imagination is very powerful, it has an element of ‘fascination’ about it. “Such is thy pow’r, nor are thine orders vain”. Also, fancy can’t be remembered while imagination lasts longer and at times is forever itched in our memory.

She raises the level of Imagination to the divine god himself and claims that Imagination has pinions, wings to soar high. “And leave the rolling universe behind”. There is a reference of Galileo’s theory which states that the world is round. “There in one view we grasp the mighty whole”, there is reference to view everything as a whole, there is a sense of holistic view about every minute detail. “Leader of mental train”, thoughts or mind have the ultimate power, the ultimate sovereign ruler about whom we have to bow.

Wheatly urges her soul to rise and contemplate the majesty of God through the vastness and orderliness of his creation. Though God himself is unseen, he is made manifest in the heavens and the earth through such powerful objects as the sun. Wheatley takes the grandeur of the cosmos as proof of God's sublime, divine imagination. The poem is shaped by the pattern of day's light being following by night's darkness and the return of daylight on the following morning. Humans and the vegetative world require the productive light of the day and the restorative darkness of night, so God is not only powerful but also merciful. The poem ends with Reason and Love, personified, asking what most shows forth almighty God. The poet's answer is that everywhere one looks one sees God's infinite love made visible; humans know him through their senses. Reason falters and fails in the face of the Eternal. All that is left is for humans to praise and worship.

I MA Western Aesthetics Coursework Text Maps

'When was Modernism' - Raymond Williams

I MA Western Aesthetics Questions - On the Texts outside the Coursework

Please post your questions in the comment section below. While posting, first, write the name of the essay along with the author'/s' name/s. Below that write two questions on the essay you are engaging. If you have any clarifications to seek, please post them as well.

I MA Western Aesthetics Questions - On the Texts from the Coursework

Please post your questions in the comment section below. While posting first write the name of the essay along with the author'/s' name/s. Below that write two questions on the essay you are engaging. If you have any clarifications to seek, please post them as well.