Fwd: CIA III- Book Research: Blog Update

கோல்டன் வளையல்கள்- சிறுகதைகள்

(Pon Valayal- Golden Bangle)- (Siri Kathegal-Short Stories)

ஆசிரியர்(Author)- Purasu Balakrishnan (1914 – 1998)

The play of Hamartia (அவல நிலை உண்டு பண்ணும் குறை) and Hubris(துடுக்கான கர்வம்) in Pon Valayal (a collection of short stories)

Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian Languages, a family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent. It is also classified as being part of a Tamil Language family, which alongside Tamil proper, also includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups^]such as the Irula and Yerukula languages. The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam. Until about the 19th century, Malayalam was a dialect of Tamil. It is interesting to note here that in two of the stories, the narrators happen to be placed in Trivandrum (Kerala).

Although much is not known about the author, he also wrote The Big Bang and Brahma's Day.

The age old understanding of the Hubris and Hamartia

The stories have a similar trend, the hero is in the process of achievement (Hubris), he meets a woman or the cause for his Hamartia and then he falls (tragedy). However, there is no experience of Catharsis (from the Greek κάθαρσις katharsis meaning "purification" or "cleansing") (ஆழ்ந்த உணர்ச்சி தூய்மை )-as seen in the series on Aristotelianism.

This book is a compilation of 7 short stories. Each story has a different narrator; however the narrators have not been named. The narrator here, being the hero for each story. The use of metaphors though rare is present in comparing the water flowing down one's back as pearls of sweat. The tamil vocabulary used is of the Old Tamil, and some of the stories are written in Brahmin Tamil.

Catharsis

Aristotle offered a different and quite original theory of the audience's response to tragic literature.They long to experience emotions and take pleasure in tragedy because it satisfies their apetite for emotional indulgence. Accordingly to Aristotle, tragedy represents characters experiencing intense sorrow, which is seen in the short stories of this book and it encourages the audience (here the readers) to feel the same feelings as the characters (i.e. to sympathise or to feel with them).

However, Plato believes that people should not engage in highly emotional and self indulgent behaviour and thus considers tragic drama an especially harmful literary genre. Aristotle strenuously disagrees calling the pleasure we take in tragedy and 'aesthetic'.

Although Aristotle does not go so far as to posit a 'pure' aesthetic sphere completely cut off from the social world, he does suggest that we should analyze and evaluate literature primarily in Aesthetic terms. Accordingly to him, the literary critic will experience the same pleasure and aesthetic appreciation when he/she reads a tragedy as he does when seeing it being performed. This critic will attend only to the content, technique and form of artwork; The Aristotelian critic, then, examines literature on its own terms rather than as a public or political mode of discourse.

In this book, I have analysed on how successful the author has been in portraying the Catharsis of the hero in every story. Also, how this book has fallen in Aristotle's category of a literary text as mentioned in Poetics. However, in reading many of the stories keeping in view the understanding of a literaray text as per Aristotle and Plato, one does wonder it deriving mere aesthetic pleasure from the literary text, is all the reader must derive or expect.

Story 1- To Call of Music

 Ratnambal is the reason for the narrator throwing away his music skills as a flute player away. What happens to the musician's Guru here?

Giving up on his disciple because of the love affair, he is left to himself to make best of his music career. When he was at the heights of achievement in his career as a musician, the hubris came upon him, when he falls ill with pneumonia. However, Ratnambal who promised to marry him does not return even on his recovery (after 6 months) refuses to marry him. Yet, the story end with the musician being alone and not understanding why she wouldn't love him anymore. Towards the end, he is left unloved seeking sympathy and feeling like an orphan.

Metaphor used- Ratnambhal's letter being the last thunderbolt he received.

Story-2 Munniyan

Initially the story begins with the old gardener looking at his grandson and being happy (Hubris). Much of his happiness is because of the only family he has left-his grandson. But when the Landlord's children come to play with the grandson Munniyan, things change. The Landlady refuses Munniyan the permission to come around the children and accuses him of theft (Hamartia). Eventually his grandson dies (tragedy), leaving the old gardener sad and alone.

Class Stratification has been well displayed.

Metaphors used for Dhanam's display of grief and anger.

Story 3- Unhappy Marriage

Here the Narrator is getting ready to marry, again. He is marrying his wife's sister this time. Although, he is happy and at bliss at the wedding (Hubris), the persuasion that goes around the older ladies to make the girl sing a song at the wedding stirs up dissention in his heart (Hamartia). Though one of the young girls begin to sing the song 'Sugarcane Garden', he is momentarily happy and enjoying the song. However, once the women begin criticizing the song being sung, he is disturbed. He looks at the 14 year old girl he is going to marry and suddenly questions the whole idea of the marriage (tragedy, here can also be interpreted as the Catharsis that he experiences).

Story 4- Golden Bangles

Here the narrator beings in Myth, the story of Kannagi and Kovalan. Kannagi a legendary Tamil woman, is the central character of the Tamil epic Silapathikaram (100-300 CE). The story relates how Kannagi took revenge on the early Pandyan King of Madurai, for a mistaken death penalty imposed on her husband Kovalan, by cursing the city with Disaster.

When the wife is handing over her Golden bangles to the narrator for him to sell it for help their financial issues, he is reminded of an incident that took place between the both of them, but it still pains him. Memory, he says knows it's power and looks for an opportunity and the state of mind.It kindles your memory but picking out only what is required and leaves the rest out.

He reminisces over the memory where they were fighting over a toy and he broke her bangle and went on the break another bangle, making her cry – "Mystery of the memory", as he retold the story, "Love started blowing like a storm" between them. She forgives him, but he realises at the end of the story that they are still in a financial crisis and he needs to use the bangle.

Metaphors used- Memory is like a vapour.

Story 5- Mother's love

Pankajam is suffering from high fever, no matter what the parents have tried, it has not helped her fever come down. But when the stray 12 year old boy comes by and sings to her from the window, it is like the lifeless wind is awakening her. The narrator claims, " It is what humans cannot understand that this Earth is formed by a song". He uses metaphors throughtout the story saying the strength of the boy's song is filling the room, while the parents of Pankajam are busy arguing in the background. Yet, the narrator knows that the thoughts os her heart are unknown and it seems that she is focussing only on the song and her face begins to glow. The mother realises, it is what she has been waiting for days to see, because of Pankajam's fever. She offers the boy some food, even before he leaves he sings a song over her and leaves, yet the Mother does not understand the thoughts of her daughter's heart.

Metaphors- The hot sun is compared to the child's fever.

Story 6- A Beautiful Girl's grace

Kalyani here being the hero of the story and not as previously seen the narrator. Kalyani here was a happy child with her playmates (Hubris) but when she is 18 years old, she dies of typhoid (tragedy). However, one of the playmates who happens to be the narrator's younger brother goes on to become an international artist at the age of 16. He travels to Paris and his paintings are much admired and acclaimed. His most famous painting brings him back to Chennai- the painting of  an Angel (Messenger of the Skies-Yakshin). He called her the cloud carrying love but only later did everybody realise that the memories of Kalyani still stayed with him and reflected in his paintings.

Story 7-One Day's happenings

The narrator was having a good married life, which the usual small arguments that were overlooked from time to time. Just when the narrator was appreciating the beauty of his marriage (Hubris), the wife begins to complain. This time she is persistent and stubborn and refuses to compromise over a desired sari. When the husband agrees to buy it for her, she argues back that she had to initiate for him to buy her the sari, he is in a state of dilemma, where he does not know what to say next and therefore the wife decides to leaves the house over this argument(Hamartia).

In each of the stories we see that the narrator has invoked in us a sense of pity for the hero or lead character of the story, causing us to fall when he/she falls.He has been successful in the structuring of the catharsis causing the reader to respond to the tragedy, he has artistically 'tamed the horrible'.

In conclusion, we could say that although Plato inaugurated an approach to literary criticism that is now very much in vogue: the examination of literary texts in their cultural, socio-political context. Aristotle has offered a completely different conception of literary texts, as can be seen in analysing the text of study here- Literature, he claims should be judged by artistic criteria rather than in moral or ideological terms. Aristotle separated literary texts from their socio-political context and analysed them in aesthetic and formalistic terms.

Could we say by these arguments that Aristotle rescued literature by writing a dry philosophical treatise?  As opposed to Plato who attacks literary texts while having produced some of the most complex pieces of literature ever written.

Criticisms

·         Bertolt Brecht (German playwright)

Brecht criticizes the aesthetic tradition initiated by Aristotle for its preference for dramatic narratives that please but do not instruct or provide real learning about the sourse of human suffering. Brecht attacks Aristotelian catharsis and a kind of 'opium for the masses' arguing that empathising with characters prevents the readers for critically viewing and questioning the social causes of human suffering.

·         Cynthia A. Freeland (Author and Chairman of Department of Philosophy-University of Houston)

Feminist Re-readings which are quite different from Aristotelian focus on individual error as a source of misfortune in them. By focussing on social context rather than individual error, we can look beyond the surface of representations of women that feminists find objectionable and can show that these play/ stories/ readings actually contain critical feminist social commentary. Using the methodology of feminist re-reading therefore we are able to reveal what tragedy can offer for feminism.

·         Trevor Pateman (Author and specialist collector and dealer for Russia and related areas.)

A well-constructed tragedy shows individuals better than ourselves, but not so different that we cannot identify with them in the unmerited afflictions which overcome them. We experience sympathetic pity for their suffering, and a kind of terror arising from the thought or recognition that such suffering could befall us (`there but for Fortune'). The experience of pity and fear is the catharsis affected by the play. Catharsis is not pure emotional release, still less discharge of pathological emotions though this is how the concept tended to be understood in the nineteenth century (for example, by Nietzsche). Rather it is, according to Stephen Halliwell, `a powerful emotional experience which not only gives our natural feelings of pity and fear full play, but does so in a way which conduces to their rightful functioning as part of our understanding of, and response to, events in the human world'.

Key Works:

Balakrishnan , Purasu. Pon Valayal. Chennai: Kalaymagal Kariyalayam, 1970. Print.

Srinivasan, S. New Centur'ys Compact Dictionary(English-English-Tamil). 6th Ed. Chennai: New Century Book House, 2012. Print.

Ford, A., The Origins of Criticism: Literary Culture and Poetic Theory in Classical Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002)

Goldhill, S., 'Literary History without Literature: Reading and Practices in the Ancient World', Substance, 88 (1999).

Written by:

Esther Priyanka Sundar

(1324129)

I M.A.

Christ University.

 

class notes 1324149

Shwetha Vipin

1324149

Class notes

24.02.2014

                

     In her essay ‘This Sex which is Not One’, Luce Irigaray explicitly exposes the construction of female body which is quite often not much talked about. She deconstructs   female sexuality conceptualised by the patriarchy according to masculine norms.

     Since ancient times, sexuality has been defined based on the presence of phallis. Woman was portrayed as the imperfect man. Female body was considered deformed due to its absence of phallis. This lack of the penis created envy in women called the penis envy. It was believed that a woman shows love and servitude towards her father/husband in order to satisfy her penis envy. Her desire for the penis is also achieved by giving birth to a boy child.

     Irigaray talks about autoeroticism in women. A woman’s genitials consist of two lips that are constantly in contact with each other. So, unlike a man she doesn’t need an instrument (hand) to derive pleasure. The lips are disturbed by the brutal violation of the penis into the “hole” and are thus seen as an assertion of man’s dominance over women. Thus a woman is not one but two for her genitials are formed of two lips in continuous contact.

     Next she talks about the Western sexuality that is dictated by males and is based on erections. She condemns this sexual imaginary as she feels that a woman is a mere prop for man’s fantasies. The desire of force entry into the vagina is due to two reasons. One is to seek the mystery of the womb and the other to make blood flow again in order to establish the lost maternal connection. The pleasure she derives in the penetration makes her dependant over man leaving her in a state of being submissive. By submitting to the desire of the man her identity is being negated. She according to Irigaray is negated to none.  Irigaray states that maternity fills the gap of the repressed female sexuality.

    In this essay Irigaray constructs a female imaginary and questions the notion on the ambiguity revolving around female sexuality since the time of Greeks. The essay gives an implicit and explicit understanding of the female body, sexuality and desires. Since time immemorial body and sexuality were understood always in a man’s perspective so in this essay she deviates from the male perspective and looks at the body from a female’s point of view.

CIA-3 N Caleb Kath(1324104)

 

Viewing Myth and the concept of Death of an Author, in the Legend of Mehoviû and Morûsa (Angami-Naga Folktale).

 

Storytelling and folktale has been an integral part of Naga society. Traditionally it has been passed down by word of Mouth from one generation to next. However, only in the recent past; these oral narratives have been rendered into written form. In the Literature form Nagaland as storytelling will never cease to exist.

 Folktale gives a glimpse of moral, values, and ancient lifestyles of each community, culture; race etc .It is universal as it exists among all people of all ages. `These tales which exist in the memory of people cannot easily be recognizable and categorised. Students of the folktale are primarily concerned with the origin and dissemination of tales as well as the folktale as an art. As an art form it concerns the conditions of folktale telling such as by the kind of people that tell tales, circumstances of the telling, the reception of the audience, the way they are handed down, and the stylistic effects of this oral art’ (Shipley 1993:124-5). 

 These folktales deal with a variety of themes: The Legend of Mehoviû and Morûsa (Angami-Naga Folktale) intricately knit the nuances of ancient practices of some of the community of Nagaland.

             Morûsa was a native of Kidima village. He was handsome and wealthy. Above all, he was a great warrior. Such qualities made him popular not only in his village, but he was known by young and old even in the neighbouring villages. He was unmarried. However, there was no girl in his village who could measure up to his expectations of a wife of a great warrior like Morûsa. So his female relatives began to gather news of young eligible, nubile girls in the neighbouring villages and learn that there’s an exceptional girl called Mehouviû in another village.

Now Mehouviû and Morûsa were oblivious of each other’s appearance. But she has heard of him. In fact, she had had dreams that she was eating and drinking at Morûsa’s place. After some time, the household of Morûsa sent representatives to Mehouviû’s place and attained the consent of her parents to give her hand in marriage. A date was fixed, whereupon Mehouviû would go to Morûsa’s village. This information about the specific date was given to the bridegroom’s household. Now he does not know Mehouviû nor to which village does she belong. Morûsa decides that the day before his betrothed reaches his place; he will go for head-hunting so that he will serve his village to the ceremonial feast of rûprie. He wants his bride to see with her own eyes the prestige and honour that he enjoys as a warrior in his society.

However, Morûsa was at lost as to where he would go hunting because his village had made friendly pacts with its neighbouring villages. But due to ill-luck, that day, he could not find warriors with whom he could combat and whose head he could take home. So he was compelled to turn his steps towards villages in search of casualties. In this way, he entered a village, but all he could find was only little children whom he didn’t want to kill. Then he saw a girl alone in her house doing household works. So he entered into her house, killed her and severed her head. Triumphantly, he carries the head home, and in the evening, he invited his entire village for the ceremonial feast. The people gather around his front yard feasting and anticipating the coming of Morûsa’s bride. Time passed but Morûsa’s bride did not turn up. Soon the terrible news came that Mehouviû had been killed and beheaded by a warrior when she was alone in her house that day. It so happened that since she was going to be married, Mehouviû had stayed home that day so that she could sort out her belongings and finish the necessary household chores before leaving her parents home for her husband’s village. It was in this condition that Morûsa found her and beheaded her. The truth then dawned; the warrior was none other than Morûsa himself who had gone and killed his own wife-to-be and had borne the head home. Morûsa realized to his anguish that he had no other to blame for this tragedy but himself.

                                  

According to Barthes, myth is a form of signification.  What Barthes terms as "myth" is in fact the manner in which a culture signifies and grants meaning to the world around it.  For Barthes every cultural product has meaning, and this meaning is conditioned by ideology, i.e. myth, and therefore any cultural product can be the subject of mythological analysis and review. To Barthes myth, as a form of speech, is not limited to lingual signs; visual, musical etc. can also take part in a myth because they convey secondary meanings that surpass their referential denotation. The first level of signification is the denotation one –Morusa entering the neighbouring village and accidently beheading Mehouviu his wife to be. But the second level of signification denotes- vanity and pride as the tragic flaw which brought about the downfall of the protagonist. It conveys the universal moral lesson that pride goes before a fall. The above folktale reflects the glory and as well as the tragic consequences of head-hunting practice by this community in the olden days. It also reflects the Aristotelian concept of ‘hamartia’ in a tragedy.

 In` Death of an Author ‘Roland Barthes is of the opinion that an author's words are never his own. His work is inspired by a muse. In a way he is just a mediator who merges ideas and language together presents it before the readers. This is where the concept of, ` Death of an Author ‘emerges. In the case of the folktale the author is death his narration is not his own but of the practices that intertwine the community, and it is these juxtaposition of tradition that give birth to folktale. And therefore every narrator is an Author and every listener is a reader. The legend remains but the author disappears.

 

Reference:

1)      Kuolie, Kevizonou. The Legend of Mehoviû and Morûsa (Angami-Naga Folktale). Journal of Literature, Culture and Media Studies. 2009. 213-14. Print.

2)      Barthe Roland. Death of an Author.

3)      Barthe roland .Myth today.

4) Joseph, Shipley. ". Dictionary of World Literary Terms.." (1993): n.pag. Web. 24 Feb 2014. <www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2009&issid=24&id...>.

Re: Regarding Blog

Creative Writers and Daydreaming- Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud has spoken about daydreaming and its relation with creative writing in this essay. He draws the connection of daydreaming with creativity. He compares a child with creative writers, who distance themselves from reality, and indulge in dreaming, emotions, and play with them. According to Freud, a child creates a world of his own, and arranges the world in a way that pleases him, and likes to link his world with the reality, but not seriousness. Similarly, a creative writer creates his own world of fantasy, and preserves a relation between his fantasy world and reality through language. Many works of these writers become exciting, as the unreality of the writer’s imaginative world becomes a source of pleasure for the hearers and spectators at the performance of a writer’s work. He says that a writer should not be confused with an author, since an author writes about the ready-made ideas, but a writer is someone who is writes about his fantasies and ideas, which are his own creations, and are not duplicate.

Freud discusses how, when a child grows up of playing with his imaginations seriously, these memories and experiences take place as humor, and with this humor, he can throw off the heavy burden of his life. As people grow up, they stop playing, and forget about the pleasure that they derive from playing, But Freud thought that a human cannot forget something from where he had induced pleasure, but instead exchange it with something else which gives them more pleasure. When a child stops playing and linking his imaginations with reality, he starts fantasizing. Freud believes that this fact has been overlooked, and is not appreciated by us.

Freud writes that it a child’s play is observable, but a man’s fantasies are deeply hidden from others. A child does not play his personal games in front of other adults, similarly, an adult rather confesses his misdeeds than his fantasies, but he doesnot realize that this kind of behaviour common in all other people. He distinguishes a child from adult by the way they conceal or reveal their fantasies. A child wants to become an adult, and want to live the life of an adult. But they do not let the adults know about it. On the other hand, the adults like to have fantasies, even if it is considered to be childish. Thus, an adult is always ashamed of his fantasies and dreams.

Freud distinguishes fantasies of a man and a woman. A woman’s fantasies are more erotic and their ambitions are driven by their desires. On the other hand, a man’s desire are driven by ego and ambitions. A man is always asked to suppress his excess self-regard and a woman is asked to have minimum erotic desires to find a place in the society.

Freud further speaks about dreams in day and night. He says that the daydreams are the fantasies that a man weaves, whereas the dreams at night are the wishes that the man is ashamed of. These dreams are also the repressed wishes which are pushed towards our unconsciousness.

Notes prepared by Krishna Bora on 7 February 2014.

 Freud, Sigmund. Creative Writers and Daydreaming. Critical Essay. Print

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 5:16 PM, KRISHNA BORA 1324134 <krishna.bora@eng.christuniversity.in> wrote:

Introduction to Feminism

Feminism as a movement seeks justice and emancipation of women and eradication of all kinds of sexism. Resistance to male domination has been seen throughout history but feminism as a political movement questioning male authority can be traced back to the 19th century Europe. It soon spread through Europe and to United States with women demanding representation in social, political and economic matters—a position that patriarchal history had denied them.

Women in medieval literature were often defined by their domestic roles as 

mothers and wives. They were considered subordinate to men and their literary 

representation was most often derogatory. Medieval fabliaux (an obscene comic tale in verse) represented women as nagging and unfaithful wives. An example of such representation can be found in Wife of Bath’s tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. 

A slight shift from this base representation can be found in courtly love poems 

during the Renaissance where woman becomes a distant object of desire. It must however be remembered that the courtly love poems were the luxury of the elite and most of these were written to please the patrons—the kings and queens.

The modern feminist though builds from the Kantian philosophy. Kant argued 

that the experience of a world is possible only through mental structures. The world we experience is not ‘out there’; it is something we perceive. Thus human experience becomes subjective. This thought immediately changed women’s position in society from natural or metaphysical to circumstantial.

While the undercurrents of dissonance were felt throughout ages, women started 

working as a group only in the second half of the 19th gained grounds important feminist writers spoke and wrote for the cause of women more vociferously, drawing from various theories and philosophies. Simone de Beauvoir for 

instance incorporated the existentialist philosophy in feminist theory. Sartre existentialist philosophy argues that ‘existence precedes essence’ this became the central argument in Beauvoir’s major work The Second Sex, where she states ‘one is not born a woman but becomes one’.

(Class notes prepared on 10th and 11th February by Mansi Joshi)

References:

Vijayganesh A and Pinto, Anil. Christ Univesrity. Bangalore. 10, 11 January 2014. Lecture.

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Critical Essay. Print

Fwd: CIA 3

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SUPRITHA BALU 1324151 <supritha.balu@eng.christuniversity.in>
Date: Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 7:39 AM
Subject: CIA 3
To: Anil J Pinto <anil.pinto@christuniversity.in>

CIA 3 Koushambi Dixit

1

Koushambi Dixit

1324133

MENG 2

MEL 232

Anil Pinto

CIA 3

28 January 2014

Analysing Gulzar's Story "Khauf" from the book "Ravi Paar"

Author's Introduction

Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1934), known popularly by his pen name Gulzar, is an Indian poet, lyricist and director. He primarily writes in Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) and Punjabi; besides several dialects of Hindi such as Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Haryanvi and Marwari.

Gulzar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2004 for his contribution to the arts and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002. He has won a number of National Film Awards and 20 Filmfare Awards. At the 81st Academy Awards, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Jai Ho" (shared with A.R.Rahman), for the film Slumdog Millionaire. On 31 January 2010, the same song won him a Grammy Award in the category of Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Gulzar's poetry is partly published in three compilations: Chand Pukhraaj Ka, Raat Pashminey Ki and Pandrah Paanch Pachattar (15-05-75). His short stories are published in Raavi-paar (also known as Dustkhat in Pakistan) and Dhuan (smoke).

 

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As a lyricist, Gulzar is best known for his association with the music directors Rahul Dev Burman, A. R. Rahman and Vishal Bhardwaj. He has also worked with other leading Bollywood music directors including Sachin Dev Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Shankar Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Madan Mohan, Rajesh Roshan, Anu Malik, and Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. Along with lyrics, he has also contributed in many films as script, story and dialogue writer. Films directed by him have also won numerous awards and have been critically acclaimed. He also had worked on small screen by creating series Mirza Ghalib and Tahreer Munshi Premchand ki among others. He wrote lyrics for several Doordarshan serials including Hello Zindagi, Potli Baba ki and Jungle Book.

About the Book

Raavi Paar-Across River Ravi

Raavi Paar is a collection of short stories that touch your soul like a breeze and leave an impression on your heart like footprints on sand.

'Gulzar' was the only reason I picked up this book.

Simple style and easy-to-comprehend language are the highlights of Gulzar's stories. There is a strong local flavour in his writing and the themes are strongly rooted in Punjabi culture and history. However, the spirit and emotions that are conveyed are universal.

Fear, love, friendship, loneliness, etc that are inseparable parts of human consciousness are portrayed through his characters, who are easily identifiable and real. There is no sense of the fantastic or un-real but the situations are so life-like and the human reactions so humane that

 

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the un-real element creeps in uninhibitedly.

Gulzar, the poet, makes his presence felt all the time. There is an easy flow and rhythm to the stories and they are inter-linked not by a character or theme but with the very fact that the crux of all the stories is the human mind. Instead of directly unveiling the political or social truths behind the dramas of life, Gulzar takes the readers en route human sub-conscious mind and the truth then revealed is not limited to one single person. It becomes universal and all encompassing.

For those who enjoy the earthy touch, the lyrical mysticism and the elusive surreal element of Gulzar's movies will definitely like the short stories in Raavi Paar, especially the title story, which narrates an interesting episode from the author's life. Except for this story none of the others are autobiographical. Enriching and enticing, this book would make a good two-hour reading.

SUMMARY OF EACH STORY

A man gets thrown off a moving train by a man who is afraid that he will be killed by the other. 

A yesteryear starlet dies of a heart attack after she realizes she mistakenly unburdened her heart to a property broker.

The last wish of a Muslim man to be cremated after death leaves an entire qasbah in flames.

 

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A poor woman is at edge thinking Maharaj is after her izzat. Maharaj's old father does not figure in her worries till the end.

A poor farmer thinks of saving land from the zamidars. He tries, but in the end gauges his courage, or lack of it, to be of a level somewhere in between that of communists and dacoits.

A subject asks his writer what did all his well-written stories change when the subject still finds himself the same.

A dead baby gets breastfed while a living one mistakenly gets thrown off a train and into a river.

A man spends years observing the night skies seeking the star of Galib's fate.

Her son too is cruel to her, just like her husband and all the other men in her life.

In a biographical story, a family mistakenly claims Gulzar as its own, a child they lost in Partition.

A woman remembering her youth, its unhappy love story, treats her young daughter just the way her mother treated her, cruelly.

Michelangelo finds the face of Jesus in old Judas.

Bimal Roy plans a movie on man's quest for amrit - immortality - and dies of cancer after smoking his last cigarette.

A man who braved people crying over his fate all the time commits suicide on the day of his marriage because he couldn't handle people laughing at him.

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A man meets a ghost who admires Krishnamurti.

A woman's marriage turns out to be a process for acquiring cheap labour.

A little girl's heart is broken by Dilip Kumar.  

A midget adopts the baby of a dead woman of 'dubious reputation'.

A boy boards a train running away from his wrinkly old daadi only to realize how much he loved her.

A woman leaves her husband and then learns to love him.

A village idiot is missed only after he is made to disappear.

A pre-historic boy discovers fire and creates mythologies.

A patriarchal tree and life around it get destroyed during partition, and so it happens to a country and its way of life.

A man is cruel to his childhood sweetheart.

Animals finally wage a war against man, just when man wages a war to protect wildlife.

   THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

According to many theorists and critiques, the main theme of the entire book, roams around the partition of India and Pakistan. Gulzar says:

 

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. ज़मीं भी उसकी,ज़मी की नेमतें उसकी,

ये सब उसी का है,घर भी,ये घर के बंदे भी,

खुदा से कहिये,कभी वो भी अपने घर आयें!"

Translation:

This entire earth belongs to the lord almighty. We are his children and everything , which belong to us , are his gifts. There is no such thing as limitation or boundaries in earth. These are just created by human beings and have no place in almighty's creation. Someday, the divine judgement will take place and that day, every boundary will be removed.

 

 

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Roland Barthes says in "Death of the Author":

The power of the author in reading and analyzing writing, and the power of the reader or listener and the option to more or less ignore the work's background and focus more on the work itself. When critically viewing writing, "the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions" (Barthes 383) takes the spotlight; the author is forced to take sole responsibility of the failure or success of the work.

With this viewpoint the creator's work is a direct passage to the creator himself (or herself), which seems to take away from the text itself. The information not said within the work dictates the work. Research must be done on the era of the writer, the socio-political stance of the writer, the context in which the work was written, etc. All of those elements culminate into the limitation and constriction of interpreting the text as nothing but itself.

This point ultimately leads to Barthes main point: the reader holds more responsibility to the text than the author. The complexity of different connotations and experiences that come from the author into the text are flattened when it arrives to the reader. The reader comes empty handed and is completely impersonalized with the text. It is as if a sculpture, a three dimensional work, is photographed, reduced to two dimensions. So much information is condensed and made inaccessible to the viewer. Barthes makes the point that the origin of a work may lie with the author, but its destination is with the reader.

On the other hand, Foucault's viewpoint on Author in "What is an author?" can be sighted in the following stories too. Foucault begins by introducing the idea of an author as an individualisation within a field such as literature or philosophy. As the notion of an author quite obviously arose within literature originally, work on authorship focuses heavily on

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literature, and this is something that also features in work on genre. Because of this, it often means that it is harder to apply the theories to film.

However, Foucault believes that when studying theories of genre and other similar concepts, it becomes clear that they are of inferior quality, and not as useful as studying work through the lense of authorship. It could be argued that authorship lets us define meaning more clearly, because if we accept the author as the solitary producer of meaning within a work, perhaps we can define and understand the piece more completely.

Foucault presents an interesting idea that could oppose this, suggesting that the writing of or creation of a piece of work is almost a sacrifice, a voluntary disappearance into your creation, the 'death of the author'. He criticises a theory that attempts to support this idea, arguing that while it intends to displace the author, it in fact does the opposite, upholding it and suppressing the real reasons for an author's literary 'death'. This theory proposes we study a piece not through, or to understand, the work's relationship with the author, but through analysing the work's form and content. The issue with this theory is that, as Foucault reminds us, that to consider a piece of writing a 'work', we have to first have an author, otherwise would not every piece of writing be a work, and worthy of analysis? He then interestingly points out that even if we do consider someone an author, we can surely not believe that everything they wrote in their lives constitutes a 'work'. This evidently means that when studying a work in the way the theory proposes, you must be aware of the context of the author, and Foucault states that it is inadequate to claim we should study the work and disregard the author. In these theories, however, surrounding the 'death of an author', he draws our attention to the importance of studying the space left behind, and the possibilities

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this presents, for example, the 'birth' of the audience, and the recognition of them as fundamental to finding significance within a work.

"KHAUFF" OF INDIA PAKISTAN PARTITION

The partition of the country shook the not only states and regions but, also the heart, faith and trust of lakh's of Hindus, Muslim and Sikh's. Khauff is about one such riot which takes place on the small town of the Punjab's border. How people suffered and how the innocent's were slaughtered without an ounce of mercy. It takes you to the time when blood drained in sewer lines like normal garbage, when trains and buses from the border were laided with dead corpses and when every heart feared the outcome of such devilry. Gulzar has efficiently 'killed' himself in the following story and has created the new minds of the reader. Truly, "Death of an author" can be seen in it. On the other hand, Foucault cannot be ignored again.

Foucault also raises the issues surrounding an author's name, but although he explores these and the difficulties that arise, he does not fully resolve the issues, as he himself admits. The issues lie in what the name signifies, and Foucault explains that an author's name is, like all other names, a description of the person, without just one signification but of endless meanings, resulting in it being unable to be turned into a singular reference. However, the issues raised by an author's name are more complex that that of an 'ordinary name', they function as a representation of the author's body of work. An author's name, as Foucault puts it, has a role, performing a 'classificatory function'. This name, in a manner similar to genre, creates the ability to group together a number of works and 'define them, differentiate them from, and contrast them to others.' Foucault's well-expressed summary of the function a

 

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name has, can help us understand the idea of an author having a persona or being a symbol, rather than an ordinary individual.

Conclusion

Serious, poignant in some; funny and ironic in others - Gulzar s stories bring out his sincerity and sensitivity he is identified with. Refreshingly simple in presentation, each one of them paints a clear picture in the minds of the reader - as vivid as a scene from one of his films.

COURTESY'S

Wikipedia

Amazon.in

Sikh Community website

Jaipur Literary Fest Magazine

Rupa publications

Flipkart (for the picture)

CIA 3 1324155

Najeeb Nayazi

1324155

MEL 232

Contemporary Critical Theory

Anil Pinto

17th February 2014

Deconstructing The Nature Loving Romantics: Through Allama Iqbal Poetry

Romanticism was a movement that began in the 1800’s and flourished during the mid 19th century. The quintessential romantic emphasised on the imagination and emotions. Another aspect of the Romantics was the apparent connection with nature in their works - they are known to glorify the beauty of nature. Some of the popular romantics are William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Allama Iqbal was an Urdu poet who can be placed in this category, with his popularity confining largely to Pakistan and the Urdu culture. The poet often uses elements of nature as his subjects, and he converses with them, or they converse among themselves, usually teaching some moral - be it about beauty, truth or life. But do the romantics really “love” nature? While on one hand it is very apparent that Iqbal glorifies nature, if one takes into account his manner of glorification, it points to another direction. This short research paper will attempt to deconstruct some of Iqbal’s poetry, especially cases where there are references to nature, to indicate that it isn’t nature that is glorified, but instead generic element or object characteristics.

Intro to the poet: Allama Iqbal

Iqbal is one of the most well known Urdu poets, and is usually associated with words like “great”, “remarkable” and “musical” (KC Kanda, Introduction). Students of Urdu even today are taught from childhood to begin the day by reciting a “prayer”, Iqbal’s poem - Bachche Ki Dua (Child’s Prayer). With poems written in both Urdu and Persian, he is spoken in the same breath as to another great Urdu poet - Mirza Ghalib, at times to the extent that some, like Abdul Qadir in his introduction to Bang-e-dara, believe him to be a reincarnation of Ghalib. Iqbal went to England in 1905, and remained in Europe for about three years. Its the time during which the Romantic era was coming to its end, being replaced by movements like Realism. Its perhaps from here that he developed a style similar to the Romantics - especially his constant themes of nature - reflected particularly in his poem Ek Sham (One Evening). In the poem there are apparent references or use of nature - moon, trees, birds etc. These references are found not only here, but in many of his poems; like Himalaya, Phool (Flower), Bazm-e-Anjum (The Assembly of Stars), Chaand (The Moon), Aftaab (The Sun) and so on.

Deconstructing Iqbal

Deconstruction is a post-structuralist theory initiated by Derrida. It involves de-centering of a main idea which otherwise stabilizes a system. For the romantics, the central ideas are imagination, emotions and nature. This paper will attempt to deconstruct a few lines from the book “Allama Iqbal” which consists of selected poems of Iqbal by K.C Kanda.

The poem Himala (The Himalaya) is about the Himalayas, a mountain range in Asia that separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. Iqbal venerates this huge mountain range in this poem. Consider the first two lines (translation in brackets):

Ai Himala! Ai faseel-e-kishwar-e-Hindustan!

Choomta hai teri peshaani ko jhuk kar aasmaan.

(O Himalaya, Hindustan’s great defensive wall,

The sky bends to kiss your brow, salutes your stature tall.)

He calls The Himalayas as India’s “great defensive wall”. The mountain range is honoured and thought highly of, but it is done so by comparing it to a great wall - what could easily be a human construction, or simply a large structure. If the focus here is shifted from The Himalayas to its comparison, one could see that a “wall” is being equated to a mountain range that has the planets biggest of peaks. In other words, walls are being venerated.

Similarly, he says that the sky “salutes” the mountains. While the poet indicates that the mountains are so high and mighty that even the magnificent sky salutes it, it also suggests that the action of salutation - which is nothing but a human gesture - is that of the highest order. There are also other lines where human gestures or actions are given tributes to. Consider the following lines:

Haaey kya fart-e-tarab mein jhoomta jaata hai abr,

Feel-e-be zanjeer ki soorat ura jaata hai abr.

(Mark, how it sways and swings, the cloud on your mountain peaks,

As if an elephant just unbound, rolls on with flying feet.)

Here he says the clouds “sways and swings”, like an elephant that “rolls” on its feet. On one hand the movement of clouds on the mountain peaks are admired, it is in fact the actions of swinging, swaying and rolling that is celebrated.

There are instances where human body garments are appreciated. In the poem Bazm-e-Anjum (The Assembly of Stars), the poet writes:

Pahna diya shafaq ne sone ka saara zewar,

Qudrat ne apne gahne chaandi ke sab utaare.

(Nature cast off her silver in which she lay enclothed.

The horizon decked her up again in ornaments of gold.)

Stars are objects of nature that are often beautified and admired by poets and novelists alike. And here the poets compares them to that of “silvers of a cloth” and “ornaments of gold”. The stars are being equated with materials of that of clothes and ornaments, which are nothing but synthetic and unnatural creations. Similarly, from the following lines, it can be seen that certain ranks of women are adulated:

Mehmal mein khamshi ke lailaa-e-zulmat aai,

Chamke aroos-e-shab ke moti woh pyaare pyaare.

(Seated in the lap of silence, the queen of dark arrived,

The sky rolled out its pearls to greet the bride of night.)

Here the stars are praised by labelling them the “queen of dark” and “bride of night”, but it is in fact the ranks or stature of queens or brides that are venerated.

Light is another aspect of nature that is revered, and is often taken as the symbol of life. In the poem Jugnu (The Firefly), the poet writes:

Chote se chaand mein hai zulmat bhi roshni bhi,

Nikla kabhi gahan se, aaya kabhi gahan mein.

(The little moon has them both - darkness and light,

Now eclipsed, now exposed, flashing, fading all the while.)

Isolating the last line, here its not the light that is glorified, but the act of it fading and flashing - the appearance and disappearance that is admired.

In the same poem, the poet talks of the air, water and waves:

Saya diya shajar ko, parwaaz di hawa ko,

Pani ko di rawani, maujon ko be kali di.

(The air is given the power to fly, the trees induced with shade,

Water is given the might to flow, restless are the waves.)

While it appears as if he admires the “flying” air, “flowing” water and “restlessness” of waves, it is the “power” of flight and “might” of the flow that is the base of the admiration, not air and water. Centering on these words, it is apparent that these qualities of nature is what the poet is seeking for, and directing his admiration against.

Conclusion

From the few examples above, it can be seen that Iqbal doesn’t particularly “glorify nature”. He may be a keen observer of it, but what he in fact regards highly are the characteristics or elements that have otherwise been used often: massive wall like structures, the respecting gesture of the salute, the rhythmic motions of swaying and/or swinging and rolling, the stature of queens and brides, the smooth actions of flying and/or flowing and so on. He seems to be able to relate to nature, he often finds himself in it. The result is a tribute to the human consciousness through nature.

References:

Kanda, KC. Allama Iqbal. Print.

Saylor , ed.

"http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ENGL203-Subunit-3.3.1-Romanticism-and-Nature-FINAL1.pdf." . Saylor Foundation. Web. 20 Feb 2014.

"What is the connection between Romanticism and Nature?." . WiseGeek. Web. 20 Feb 2014.

<http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-connection-between-romanticism-and-nature.htm>.