An introduction to key concepts of Western Aesthetics: 19th June 2010, Saturday for MA Previous.
Notes by: Sneha Sharon Mammen
The conception of the term 'west' in itself would be quite interesting. A class of twenty interpret it variously. 'West' as in the direction, evaluating in comparison to the other three directions (the East, North and South) which in turn could be qualified as the result of so many adventurous expeditions by navigators and explorers or may be Europe-the western front that is the term in the sense of geography. From this realm we could take it entirely to another shift altogether - the cultural, in terms of the western outlook/worldview, their perspective, open mindedness. Not to forget either the analysis in terms of economic, materialist standards which then makes the 'west' necessarily the first world nation keeping in mind their pace of economic growth, resources and urbanization.
However, this sort of an analysis is just a product of various interpretations that man can think of. 'West' to a particular individual would not be 'west' for another. In the definitive mapping of the globe, there is no particular 'west' for say, an Alaska. Therefore, we could gather so much as that, words are not so innocent. They carry within themselves loaded interpretations. Also, once an individual frames a word, the discourse too gets framed much to an extent that we start evaluating concepts keeping in mind the various binaries.
Also, a particular use of concept narrows down our range of evaluation. For example, if one talks of India, his level of analysis can only be grouped in terms of nations on the whole. Similarly, talking of Aryans would mean talking with respect to races. As also, 'Latin-American' further narrows and limits the scope of comparisons.
Precisely one cannot use words like 'globe', a 'planet', the 'earth' if he chooses to believe the world is flat. 'World' becomes the only selective usage in this case. Can we at this level say that to 'understand' something, we do not necessarily have to 'know' the larger picture.
As aforementioned, its quite common to talk in terms of binaries. The East is east just because it is not west or the fact that the term 'teacher' qualifies only because the term 'student' affirms such qualification and justifies it. Similarly, homosexuality is talked of because there exists in the picture heterosexuality. Therefore the simultaneous birth of conceptions. Apart from such framing which will in turn quite obviously facilitate re-framing, cultural imaginations are something which make different discourses possible.
The term 'aesthetics' brings to mind notions of balance, beauty, harmony, appeal, sensitivity, creativity,perceptions, judgement or even understanding. However, debating upon the origins and understanding of the term 'aesthetic' in itself, few would believe that it is a definitely dated concept.
'Aesthetic' comes from the Greek word 'aisthetikos' which means sensitive. This Greek term has been traced to have its origin further back in time, history and language in an imaginary language called the Proto Indo-European language or the PIE where it is understood as 'aisthemisthos' meaning to perceive. ( The commonalities between Greek, Latin and Sanskrit is thought of as coming down to us from a common parent of these languages, which is referred to as PIE.)
Immanuel Kant, a lesser pronounced name but the pioneer of the coined term 'aesthetics'. Aesthetics, as mentioned earlier could have emerged and is characterized as follows. One, it could have been a historical necessity and two, it has a definite philosophic pre-history.
Pinto, Anil. Class Lecture, Introduction to Western Aesthetics, Christ University. Bangalore, India.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
I MA English Students expectations
1. Allow contributions in your blog (Sure)
(Notes by Vandana)
2. No assignment to be more than 20 pages (Sure)
3. Not more than one essay at a time to read (Sure)
4. Background to be provided on the essays/ topic discussed in class (Sure)
5. Give exam oriented questions and what is expected from students in the exams (Provided it is asked for after the completion of every unit)
6. Allow opinions to be shared before/ after lecture (Sure)
7. Connect essays discussed to literary theory (if any) (Sure)
8. Discussions to be held outside classroom (once in a while) (Left to the students to decide the venue with due reasons, why not the online space as well?)
9. Group Teaching- Mr. Pinto and Ms. Shobana together for more perspectives and variety in approaches. (Sure) (Notes by Vandana)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
V Semester Literary theory class notes 2
11 June 2010
Continuation...
A study of anything in a university converts it into a discipline. The institution prescribes a set of writers and thinkers as the authentic thinkers and writers. There is first choice of names then the choice of texts and then the choice of methods.
After the choice of names there are only a select texts of that name that are prescribed. For example the most studied work of Marx is “capitol”, although there are many other works of his which might even be better which are not being studied.
John Donne was never a favourite until T.S. Eliot started writing. Eliot was a philosopher who wrote a powerful essay called, “metaphysical poets”. Eliot in his works put Shakespeare first then Donne then himself and then other writers. He completely ruled out Wordsworth from his choice of writers.
F.R Leavis was in the department of English at Cambridge. He drew two categories: one was the Great tradition, the other minor tradition.
All the writers that Eliot referred to were the Great traditions and others which he considered ‘small’, such as Emily Dickinson and Bronte sisters came under minor traditions.
Also since the past hundred years the English taught in India is the one prescribed by him and has yet not been challenged!
Now the problem that occurred was that the names that he considered small were actually great. For example in Shakespear’s time Christopher Marlow was equally famous.
Coming to methods, disciplines usually use the existing methods. For which they went to philosophy.
Hermeneutic is a school of philosophy which is the theory of interpretation. It was interpretation of primarily The Bible. They tried to read and understand what God said and what God meant when he said those words.
So the theory suggested that Author, like God, has produced something and, to put it in Mr. Pinto’s words, “you waste your lifetime trying to understand what he meant.”
This was also an effort of secularizing the method.
So the question asked constantly is, “What did the author perhaps mean when he wrote?”
And examinations are exactly a test of whether the screwing in of this question has been successful or not. It is a training to think in a particular way and to stop any creativity or thought process.
The next question is,
“How do I know what the author meant?”
Therefore to know what he/she really meant, their biographies were studied.
Was Shakespeare gay?
Start reading about his life
Start reading the text more closely
Make connections!
Then came the formalist approach. Form referring to and paying more attention to structure and discouraging history. Seeking an interpretation which has all its evidences in the text itself.
This was introduced by I.A. Richards who was the first H.O.D. of English in Cambridge at the age of 24 years!
He gave the same poem to two different classes say A and B. But with different names. To class A he gave the poem saying it is by someone called John, and to class B he gave the same poem informing that its by someone called Joan.
Now class A had very positive views of the poems appreciating its style and structure and so on. Whereas class B considered the poem not worthy of praise and discarded it as a poem with nothing to appreciate.
This experiment proved that the readers had connected the names to the sex of the poet and were hence biased.
Therefore Richard suggested that knowing the history of a writer can make you biased, which is why one must concentrate only on the text.
Both these methods continued to be dominant till 1950’s. After which comes “Structuralism” and changes literature and the way it is studied. Mr. Pinto is happy that it happened and promises to explain it in the next class.
V Semester Literary theory class notes 1
07 JUNE 2010
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY THEORY
People have been writing for many years, writings also referring to what cave men did on walls of their caves.
Anything that records human thought on a surface is writing, which also includes paintings. One example of pictorial writing is the Chinese script.
Till 19th century there was a separate category of writers. Before which there was nothing called ‘Literature’.
It was only in the 20th century that it became a discipline. And because it became a discipline it had to form boundaries and rules. It has to be defined under a category.
The need for English Literature was felt after the First World War. Primarily because of nationalist reasons, which had become a major concept. And hence things like passports and visas came into existence. Boundaries became more rigid than ever. And yet nations exist only in imagination.
People and government became strongly conscious of their identity.
This lead to the birth of Literature.
Till now throughout England only German writings and philosophies were studied in universities. Therefore it was impossible to generate hate towards Germany and a sense of nationalism and patriotism when the majority population loves and appreciates the works of German men.
For these reasons German works were displaced by English Literature. Hence Literature evolved on the death bed of philosophy. Literature borrows its tools from theology and philosophy.
However in the selection of texts there was a clear bias for the aristocracy and their writings. All the prescribed texts were from the higher class of the society. All the great ideas were a part of a marketing strategy.
Now some texts were treated as special and some not special. The one’s treated as special were prescribed and appreciated. However what made them special had no logic to it.
Pinto, Anil. Class lecture. Introduction to Literary Theory. Christ University. Bangalore, India. 07 June 2010.
Friday, June 11, 2010
American Literature Expectations of II year JPEng class
Following are the expectation from the American Literature paper that the students of II Year JPEng voiced. I have given my replies in the brackets. Thanks Sammitha Sreevatsa for noting them down and emailing.
- Opportunities for oral presentation based CIA (Time constraint may not allow)
-interactive sessions (Yes)
-detailed explanation (Considering that a BA is a higher education programme I intend to lecture around specific concerns pertaining to American literature in the Indian/Bangalore context. Hence, apart from necessary explanation which is crucial to understand the text, I may not go beyond. However, I am open to clarifying any doubt. )
-made simple (Sure)
-less theoretical (yes. The concerns will be located in the texts)
-space for self exploration (Sure. All for it.)
-Should be able us to relate to what's contemporary (Absolutely)
-Background/ contextual explanation (Sure)
-Plays given as much importance as poetry and stories (Ok)
-variety in approaches (Not suer as of now. Let's see how it unfolds)
-providing reference sources (sure, you can also collaborate)
-to be told whats expected from us exam point of view. (Sure)
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Useful resource to learn from Ivy league colleges
Here is the link to this site where a lot of top notch Ivy league college lectures on various topics are put up. This might help like a certificate course or can help you in supplementing your subject lectures. There are some interesting online courses too.
http://academicearth.org
http://academicearth.org
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
32ND ALL-INDIA CONFERENCE OF LINGUISTS 21-23 December 2010
32ND ALL-INDIA CONFERENCE OF LINGUISTS
21-23 December 2010 at Lucknow
Contact: 32aicl at gmail.com
For more details visit the site: http://sites.google.com/site/
http://www.h-net.org/announce/
Prithviraj Thakur
Assistant Professor of English,
G.S. Science, Arts and Commerce College,
Khamgaon.
Phone: (91) (09881721193)
National Conference on Methods, Materials and Techniques of Teaching English Language 24 - 25June 2010
National Conference on Methods, Materials and Techniques of Teaching English Language: Call for Papers
Dates: 24 - 25June 2010
Organized by the Department of English, Jagarlamudi Kuppuswamy-Choudary College, Guntur - 522 006, Andhra Pradesh, India
As the theme of seminar is intended to address many issues bearing on language teaching and learning, papers related to different areas of language teaching and learning are also invited. Original and well-documented papers may be sent to the following address along with the registration fee of 250/-: Dr V. Pala Prasada Rao, 2-12-165; Stambalagaruvu (Po); Guntur; Pin Code: 522006.
Dr V Pala Prasada Rao <prasadarao.jkccollege at gmail.
Dates: 24 - 25June 2010
Organized by the Department of English, Jagarlamudi Kuppuswamy-Choudary College, Guntur - 522 006, Andhra Pradesh, India
As the theme of seminar is intended to address many issues bearing on language teaching and learning, papers related to different areas of language teaching and learning are also invited. Original and well-documented papers may be sent to the following address along with the registration fee of 250/-: Dr V. Pala Prasada Rao, 2-12-165; Stambalagaruvu (Po); Guntur; Pin Code: 522006.
Dr V Pala Prasada Rao <prasadarao.jkccollege at gmail.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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