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Thursday, March 01, 2012

Myth Today--Discussion Board

Dear III BA English Honours Cultural Studies course participants, you may post your questions and comments on Barthes' "Myth Today" in the comments section below.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers


The Department of English of Shri Shankaracharya Mahavidyalaya Sector-6 Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) is organizing a Two-day UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues (FIETI 2012). This seminar offers a common platform for English professionals to come together for a fruitful interaction on the future of woman in society,which is at the heart of a radical movement striving to create a brave new world for woman.

Date: 4 - 5 March 2012

Please send in your abstract in about 150-200 words on or before 20 February 2012 and full length papers in about 1500-2000 words on 4 March 2012 as per latest MLA style sheet to be published in the proceedings after the seminar to fieti2012@gmail.com. TA for attending the seminar will be given to suitable candidates only.

For further information please contact:
Dr. Rahul Mene
HoD English and Convener
09893215097

Friday, February 17, 2012

Walter Benjamin- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction- Section 9


Walter Benjamin- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)
Discussion on section 9 

Shift from painting to photography, theatre to movies. Photography isnt just an extension of painting: Aura is lost in this process, and we think certain dynamics are inherent to these mediums, but not necessarily so, and these dynamics maybe inherent to milieu in which it worked out instead. Medium has something inherent to it and when you move from it, something changes to it.

Eg: Digital Classroom course by Pinto and CSCS- studied how education has changed and is changing with introduction of technology.
Eg: Tagore tried to remove 4 walls of classroom but still there was only 1 knower. Now with tech, its no more about 1 to many but from many to many.
Eg: Blackboard evolution: from writing on sand, to slate, to blackboard, to OHP/ computer/ white board... and sometimes all at the same time. And on computer itself you can keep shifting screens from wikipedia, to youtube, etc. Eg: with online couses (like Pinto‘s Masters course or my certificate course), people can chat on other things other than the course and no one will know, due to multiple windows.

So what is role of teacher now?

So, what is the thing that if you remove, the whole thing will collapse. Eg: if you breathe pure oxygen, you wont survive, but if u remove oxygen from the mixture then you will die!

So in education, teacher is most important- you can have a building without students and it will still be an educational institution.

So teacher is a function. Teacher has to certify, they can fail or pass students. No office staff can do this, you can have them arrested.

But can computer decide pass fail? Eg: with multiple choice exams.

So yes, then teacher function is gone.

New model coming in education, where it doesn’t matter if u went to school/ college or not, or where you went to study, as long as you complete your national exam. Eg: in computers and medicine

All poets and philosophers, until Renaissance, were warriors- Plato’s uncle had to give him bail. With Romantic age, they could be full time poets.

Section 10



Benjamin moves to spaces, other objects, and the mechanical representations of the same (painting to photo, etc). So if photography takes the place of representing image, cinema takes job of represrntaing moving image. Not that the former disappears, but something happens to the former. So painting goes abstract. In India, painting was never (?) representative of reality, except with Ravi Vama. In Europe, it was achieved with Rembrandt. With Monet, began communicating emptions, expressions, etc. With camera, painting goes abstract- eg: Cubism, Dali- because now camera will do it for you.

Similar with cinema and theatre. In theatre after cinema, there now arose a specialised role of the director, who gave his interpretation of the text, which neednt be the authorial interpretation of the text. Playrights no more direct their plays. Eg: Karnad wont direct his plays, he doesnt want to impose their views on their work. 

Thus now, a critic is born. Point is no more about what the author said, but what the critic said. 


Thursday, January 26, 2012

III BA English Honours HEN652 Cultural Studies CIA 3

CIA3 criteria.
10 Marks: Structure of research paper - Abstract (about 150 words), introduction, locating research question in the existing body of knowledge, exploring the research problem using the cultural site given (e.g. Jaipur literary festival is a context), conclusion, works cited (MLA style), in-text citation. + Sharing of paper with all (2 marks)
10 marks: logical development of the research problem, rigor of the exploration of research question. logical flow of conclusions based on the exploration and analysis. 

Other guidelines
Last date for sharing the complete paper with the course instructor and coursemates: 10 Feb 2012 (IST 24 Hrs)
Length of the paper: 5-7 pages, including works cited section. 
The paper needs to be shared with all the coursemates. 
The should be either in google doc format. Please avoid uploading the word document. 
Please use times new Roman, 12 font with double line space, including between paragraphs. Indent the first line of new paragraphs. 
Please write your name and register number at the left hand top corner of the first page.
File name: HEN652+_+Title of the paper+_+ your name. 
Please do comment on other's papers once they are shared. 

(PS: Please be nice and kind to me in the next class, as always :-))

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Call for Papers: National Seminar on Fiction and Film - An Interdisciplinary Approach


Dates: 14, 15 and 16 March 2012

Organized by Department of English, Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram

In association with the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy

Fiction has inspired films right from the birth of the latter. This has grown into a kind of symbiotic relationship. Cinema, being a pan art, has almost all ingredients of drama such as characters, plot and spectacle. But it is quintessentially a narrative medium. The process of trans-creation from a book into a film, from its printed page into screen, is rather complex. The film maker utilizes a different language - the language of film - to create the story anew. Just as in any translation much variation may occur in this trans-creation as well. What is lost and what is gained could be the result of the peculiarity of the new language adopted. But it could also be a compulsive play of the hegemonic tastes of cinema. It would be interesting to analyse the dynamics behind the manifestation of such hegemony on screen.

The proposed seminar will give an interdisciplinary approach to the difficult aspects of the process evolved in turning a literary text into a film and its importance as a pedagogical tool.

Call for papers

Papers on the theme of the conference are invited. 

For more details, please contact the conveners Ms Krishna Prabha (9495625859) or Ms Neeta Sasidharan (9446177160) at engdeptgcw AT gmail.com

Monday, January 09, 2012

National Seminar on Indian Women Writers in English

The Department of English, St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangalore, Karnataka, is organizing a One Day National Seminar on Indian Women Writers in English on February 18, 2012.

The lead speakers are: Dr Meena Kandasamy, Poet and Writer
                                     Dr Meena Pillai, Institute of English, Kerala University

Last date for submission of abstracts-1st February, 2012.
Date of Intimation- 7, Feb, 2012
Registration fees:  Rs 200/-
Accommodation could be arranged on sharing basis @ Rs 200 per day on advance payment.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago citation styles

EasyBib: Free Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago citation styles: "Enter website address or keywords to cite."

'via Blog this'

Call for Papers: UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on Indian Poetry in English


The Faculty of English and Foreign Languages is organizing a UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on "Indian Poetry in English" on 1st and 2nd February (Thursday and Friday) 2012 at Gandhigram Rural University, Gandhigram, Tamilnadu. More than 250 teachers, researchers and students from all over the country are expected to participate in the Seminar and present papers.

Peer-reviewed and selected papers will be published in Gandhigram Literary Review.

To submit your proposals and register, please log on to
www.ruraluniv.ac.in

For more details, please send a mail to:  gripoetryseminar@gmail.com

Prof A Joseph Dorairaj
Dean, Faculty of English and Foreign Languages
Gandhigram Rural University
Gandhigram 624302, TN
Email: josephdorairaj AT gmail.com