Budhiditya's Assignments 2016-2018: 2017

Kapil Kapoor represents his ideas about the international language English in India. In our country, English plays a role of second language. Let’s see his views about it.

Abstract

In abstract, Kapil Kapoor says that we have to understand the role and goal of English as a foreign language and we have to choose teaching theories and practices otherwise no any methodology and technology would be helpful in changing the views successfully.

What do we mean by ‘second language’?

We can understand it in two ways:

· After one or more Indian languages, which are important and essential, there come English as a ‘second language’.

· In school, after the primary stage, second language is introduced.

Historical perspective of English

To know the effect of English as a second language, we should understand its historical perspective. English has become centre language, so we can say it is a symbol of linguistic centralism. Other languages can be seen as a linguistic regionalism. After freedom from Britain, the main two questions aroused-

· The status of English,

· Relationship of English

Those who knew English demanded English, to achieve this, conceptual structure developed and it has three parts:

1. modernization,

2. mythology,

3. language policy

Both modernization and internationalism became same and the implication of English made other Indian languages ‘traditional’ means anti-modern and backward. The second question aroused was the relationship of English with other Indian languages. To define the relationship, ‘language-planning’ came out. It gave new mythology.Other languages became regional languages. Even Hindi became regional language and it was used in official language and many states made it a regional language. No any other language can be seen with English, so it became the language of national integration, a ‘pan-Indian’ language and it helped in promoting.

English as a ‘window’

Because of the role of English, Kapoor says that it is the ‘window’ because-

1) It is a language of knowledge especially in the reference of science and technology,

2) It is a language of modern thinking,

3) It is the language of reason,

4) It is a link language,

5) It is the language of the world,

6) It is the lingua-franca.

Indian languages are ‘the walls’ and English is the window and it gives the light of modernization.

Language-planning

To know the importance of ‘language-planning’, Kapil Kapoor has given the example of the report of the Education Commission of 1964-66. It says, “most complicated problem that the country has faced since independence and one that has resisted a solution. It goes on to add that on account of educational, cultural and political reasons.”

It shows that this problem was since independence and it is the most complicated problem.

Three-language formula

In 1956, Central Advisory Board on Education proposed the three-language formula. This idea was adopted at the chief minister’s conference in 1961 with a modification. The chief aim for formula was to make English an integral part of school. It creates negative effect, too. The students who really want to learn another language, they would certainly learn English now. It made Hindi less important than English. The students have a choice now to choose between Hindi and English. Three-language formula has affected even our classical language-Sanskrit. Sanskrit is now on its decline. What a tragedy!!!!! It is the language of God and it is being destroyed. The political purpose is cleared in Macaulay’s 1813 report in which he has said,

“No Bengali who undergoes this education has any respect left for anything Hindu.”

A student should be allowed to choose any second or third language.

Failure in teaching English

The teaching of English has got failure to some extent. Many committees or education commissions tried to solve this problem by taking information about the weightage, teacher-training, methodology, teaching theories etc…Kapoor has given the significant example of the meeting of ELT experts that they gather like Egyptologists meet every year when the Nile has reeded after floods. Inappropriateness of accepting English as a second language may be the cause of failure. The ELT experts have given the definition of English in the reference with the specific functions of English and the educational planners have defined English by comparing it with Hindi. Hindi is more effective in reference to English. (Nargis)

English as a library language

The Education Commission, 1964-66 has said about teaching that in higher education, English will be as a library language and it should be taught from std.5 though we know that for many students who come from the rural areas, can’t begin their study before class 7!!!!

What are the first language, L2 and L3?

The first language is used in the school level as a medium of instruction and a medium to express and for communication and it is generally the mother-tongue or the regional language.

The second language (L2) comes after the first language. It is used to make the speaker able to speak for wider participation. It is generally the state official language or national language.

The third language (L3) comes after the second language. It helps to prepare the learner for all-India mobility. The aim to introduce third language is to make the learners be able to make the learners express correctly in that language.

Problems of English as a second language

The second language helps people to keep their personal relations with others, it helps in business, in their socio-cultural activities and in the identity with a large group. In India, we study a foreign language as a second language, as an Indian language. So, we don’t get necessary competence. U.G.C. sponsored many seminars, tests but all seem to do nothing. English as a second language creates problems. It can be solved by removing English as a second language and make it a third or optional language.

The major problems are the use of language drill, use of simple text, not sufficient reading, and role of grammar etc…A second language is generally considered as a language of repeating not for thinking!!! Any teacher can’t teach limited language. If he wanted to teach one sentence, he will have to teach grammar, vocabulary, sentence pattern. There are some conceptual problems, too. For example, the standard of English is falling.

We have failed to make-up our mind to one appropriate language theory. The west gave up grammar-centered language teaching and adopted behavioural models. Direct method, Audio-visual techniques help in language teaching but these all are costly and now even mother-tongue is taught with the help of these things. India was first grammar centered. Grammar and mathematics are principal instruments to sharpen the mind and now the west has also discovered that the grammar is a cognitive and primary to understand the language properly.

'Method’ and ‘methodology’ are the most important in the west. It is believed that if we have right method, we can achieve our goal. ‘Technology’ is used in methods. Audio-cassettes, language laboratory, television, radio, computer-use of internet all are used in the technical method and these all have made the teaching expensive. The tradition of teaching with the black-board and text book is being lost.

Conclusion-

Thus, we can see Kapil Kapoor in his essay ‘Teaching English as a ‘second language’ in India’ has cleared the concept of English as a second language, he has mentioned the problems in teaching English as a second language, what is the function of English in India, what are L1, L2, L3, the use of technique in teaching English all are explained in this essay. This essay helps us to understand the advantages and disadvantages of English as a second language. (Choudhary)

Choudhary, Divya. Blog. 31 October 2016. <http://divyachoudhary19.blogspot.in/2016/10/teaching-english-as-second-language-in.html>.

Nargis, Saiyad. Blog. 23 November 2011. <http://saiyadnargis142011.blogspot.in/2011/11/ec304-elt.html>.

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Assignment on Orientalism

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Name: Budhiditya Shankar Das

Course: M.A (English)

Topic: Orientalism

Semester: 03

Roll No. : 07

Paper No.: 11

Paper Name: The Post-Colonial Literature

Email Id : budhiditya900@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,

Smt. S.B.Gardi

Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Orientalism

About Author

Edward said was born in 1935, 1 November and died in 25 September. He was a Palestinian American literary theorist and advocate for palestailian rights. He was university professor of English and comparative literature of Columbus University and abounding figure in post colonialism Robert frisk desired him as the Palestinians. (Hetalba)

He was best known for his books “ Orientalism” which was published in 1978.said were an influential cultural critic and author. The book orientation placed him as an international author. the book presented the idea of author that how western study the eastern culture said contended that orients scholarship was continue to inextricalsly tied to the imperialist societies that produced it making much of the work inherently politicized, servile to power and there for suspect sad’s oriental’s and following works proved influential in literature theory and criticism and continue to influence in several other fields in humanities. Said come to discuss and vigorously debate the issue of orients with scholars in the field of history and area studies. Many of them disagreed with his thesis including most famously beanery Lewis said tries to point out that how western looks towards the east. In his most famous book orients, said claim a “subtle and persistent content prejudice against arbor people and their culture” (Hetalba)

Orientalism

Orientalism Edward said is a canonical text of cultural studies in which he has challenged the concept of oriental’s or the difference between east and west, as he puts it he says that with the start of European colonization the European come in contact with the lesser developed countries of the east. They found their civilization and culture them exotic, and established the science of orientalism, or the people from these exotic civilizations. The main thing for the European visitor was a European representation of the orient and it’s had a privileged communal significance for the journalist and his French readers. American will not feel quite the same about the orient, which for them is much more likely to be associated very differently with the east, china and Japan mainly. Unlike the Americans, the French and British less so the German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians and have had a long tradition of what I shall be calling orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the experience. The orient is not only adjustment to Europe, it is also the place of Europe‘s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilization and language, its cultural constant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the other. (Choudhary)

Edward said argues that the Europeans divided the world into parts. The east and the west or the occident and the orient or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was totally an artificial boundary, and it was laid on the basis of the concept of them and us or their and ours. The Europeans used orientalism to define themselves. Some particular attributes, and whether the Orientals weren’t the occident’s were the Europeans defined themselves as the superior race compared to the Orientals and the justified their colonization by this concept. They said that it was their duty towards the ward to civilize the uncivilized ward. The main problem, however, arose when the European started generalizing the attributes they associated with Orientals, and started parting these artificial characteristics associated with Orientals in their western world through their scientific reports, literary work and other media sources. WHAT HAPPENED WAS THAT IT CREATED ACERTAIN IMAGE ABOUT THE ORIENTAS IN THEIR European mind and doing that infused bias in the European attitude toward the Orientals. This prejudice was also found in the orientalists and all their scientific research and reports were under the influence of this. The generalized attributes associated with the Orientals can be seen even today. For example, the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people and Islam is seen as religion of the terrorist. Edward said explains how the science of orientalism developed and how the Orientals started considering the Orientals as non human beings. The Orientals divided the world in to parts by using the concept of ours and theirs. An imaginary geographical line was down between what was ours and what was theirs. The orients were regarded as uncivilized people and the western said that since they were the refined race it was their duty to civilize people those people and in order to achieve their goal, they had to colonize and rule the orients. They said that the orients themselves were incapable of running their own government. The Europeans also through that they had the right to represent the Orientals in the west all by themselves. In doing so, shaped the Orientals the way they perceived them or in other wards they were reinitializing the orient. Various teams have been sent to the east were oriental is silently observed to the Orientals by living with them and everything the west .This resulted in the generalization whatever was seen by the projected to the civilized world of the west. This resulted in the generalization whatever was seen by the oriental action of an individual.

The most important use of oriental ism to the European was that they defined themselves by defining the Orientals. FOR EXA qualities such as lazy irrational uncivilized crudeness were related to the Orientals and automatically the Europeans become active retinal civilized sophisticated. Thus in order to achieve this goal. It was very necessary for the orientalists to generalize the culture of the orients.

Then Edward said goes on to talk about two other scholars’ massing and Gibb. Through massing on bit liberal with orientalist and often tried to protect their right, there was still inherited biased found in him his work, with the changing world situation especially after world war orientalism took a more liberal stance toward s most of its subjects but Islamic orientalism did not enjoy this status .There were constant attacks to show Islam as religion.

Edward said concludes his book by saying that the orientalist should not make generalization or they should include the write perspective too, but creating a boundary at the first place is something which should be not alone.

Conclusion:

Orientalism by Edward W. Said is a critique of the study of the Orient and its ideas. Said examines the historical, cultural, and political views of the East that are held by the West, and examines how they developed and where they came from. He basically traces the various views and perceptions back to the colonial period of British and European domination in the Middle East. During this period, the United States was not yet a world power and didn't enter into anything in the East yet. The views and perceptions that came into being were basically the result of the British and French. The British had colonies in the East at this time; the French did not but were trying to acquire some.

Choudhary, Divya. Blog. 31 October 2016. <http://divyachoudhary19.blogspot.in/2016/10/orientalism.html>.

Hetalba, Gohil. Blog. 24 November 2011. <http://gohilhetalba052011.blogspot.in/2011/11/orientalism.html>.

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Assignment on The Scarlet Letter as the story of Sin, Crime and Punishment

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Name: Budhiditya Shankar Das

Course: M.A (English)

Topic: The Scarlet Letter as the story of Sin, Crime and Punishment

Semester: 03

Roll No. : 07

Paper No.: 10

Paper Name: The American Literature

Email Id : budhiditya900@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,

Smt. S.B.Gardi

Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

THE SCARLET LETTER AS THE STORY OF SIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

In the second coming, it is said "To be without sin, shame and regret is to be more than human." In the Bible, it has been written "Thou salt not commit adultery." It is god's seventh instruction and those who violate it are sinners.

The Scarlet Letter takes us to the early days of Puritan society. This book has derived its title from the custom which was strictly practiced by the Puritan settles. Whenever a woman was caught in adultery, she had to wear the letter 'A' embroidered in Scarlet color on her dress. Scarlet color symbolises blood, death, child birth and life. The scarlet letter is a book which deals with the values of the sin of adultery in the lives of three people most affected by it. These three people are Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. The couple of forbidden lovers and the wounded husband. It is an outrage of one individual against another and against the social code of ethics. This story is a story of sin too. That is why Hester and Dimmesdale who have committed adultery cannot be forgiven. The novel begins with a scene where a young woman. Hester Prynne is standing at the scaffold in the summer morning in the summer morning in the market place in Boston. She has committed adultery and stands in disgrace and tries to hide the scarlet letter 'A' on her bosom by holding her child close. Hawthorne defines Hester Prynne as "The woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and lavish hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a glow, and a face which besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of appearance, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes." People see Hester as a morally despoiled woman and expressed hatred. The chief minister and Dimmesdale urge her to confess the name of her lover who should be sharing her but Hester remains silent. Seeing his wife on the scaffold, he decides to conceal his identity and quickly puts his finger to his lips to warm Hester against the betraying the slightest sign of recognition. When Hester is taken back to the prison, a doctor visits her which turns out to be his husband Chillingworth. He tries many a times to know the name of Hester's lover but does not get successful and gets frustrated. Hester and Dimmesdale then plan to go to other place and decide to leave on election arrive. When the sermon gets over, people walk out of the church and Dimmesdale walks in. He asserts his guilt and shows everyone 'A' engraved on his chest and then dies. As Chillingworth couldn't take revenge, he dies of frustration. Here we can say that Dimmesdale is a greater sinner than Hester. He tries to conceal his crime from the public. He goes against the purity of his profession his conscience allows him no rest and he gets troubled constantly by his soul. He adds hypocrisy to his sin. He can't sit or study peacefully. He becomes restless and can't sleep peacefully. He remains awaked at night, writes sermons, and keeps fast. 'A man must be true confessor' is a puritan belief. He goes deeper and deeper into the pit of sin. The secret of his sin burns within him, which prompts him to confess yet he is afraid to reveal himself for what he is. Chillingworth is a greater offender. He was absent from Hester's life for seven years. In this case, we can say that a person needs love and so Hester fell in love with Dimmesdale. He is a person who is devoted to cold science. The way in which he broods over revenge and marks down highs victim and drives him steadily to self-destruction is made very creditable when he learns of Hester's shame, he dewiest his very identity and pursues revenge. 'Sinful father feels more pain than sinful mother.' Whenever we talk about sin, we talk about punishment. God also gave punishment to his children Adam and Eve. By giving birth to the child, she crossed broke the moral order of the society according to the puritan society. Though Dimmesdale loved Hester, he could not cross the Puritan culture moral order of the society. They both are self conscious. Hester is the first sinner. Other people become happy when Hester is punished as they have conditional mind and they do not feel her feelings.

'Sinful mother is happier than a sinful father.' When Dimmesdale comes to meet Hester in secret place or you have to accept us in daylight in front of everyone." The forest is shown as dark forest. She is tempered there and so she goes there. For people, it is a punishment to go in the dark, deep forest. Hester goes with the child and when she comes out, she is not the same Hester. It is due to the dark forest, she could change the sign A'. Hester returns. She has to. Her sin lies in New England. Hester chooses to return to New England to live the moral life: "But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne, here in New England than in that unfamiliar region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here her regret and here was yet to be her penitence." Pearl constantly reminds her mother Hester about her sin or crime which was done in past. When they are living in the forest, Pearl tells Hester: "Mother, the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. It will not feel from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet." She can be said a born misfit of the infantile world. The shadow of parent's sin can be seen forcing over the child of Hester.

CONCLUSION: -

The Scarlet Letter is a tragic story of sin, crime and Punishment which can be learnt by the actions of all the characters, the crime they committed and the situations they face. The act of adultery is certain a crime against the individual. Same way, it is also a crime against society as it involves the violation of the moral code formulated and honoured by the society. Hawthorne has given the concept of sin and evil which is a puritan heritage. Sin and crime was the endless theme in this novel and the consequences of guilt as primarily psychological in nature. Hester's charm is shown by a sense of guilt. The story shows the concept of sin, crime and Punishment through Hester's life and Dimmesdale's inner guilt. (Choudhary)

Choudhary, Divya. Blog. 12 November 2016. <http://divyachoudhary19.blogspot.in/2016/11/scarlet-letter-is-as-story-of-sin-crime.html>.

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Assignment on Use of Mythical Technique in The Waste Land

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Name: Budhiditya Shankar Das

Course: M.A (English)

Topic: Use of Mythical Technique in The Waste Land

Semester: 03

Roll No. : 07

Paper No.: 09

Paper Name: The Modern Literature

Email Id : budhiditya900@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,

Smt. S.B.Gardi

Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Use of Mythical technique in the Waste Land

Introduction: T.S.Eliot was born in 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri. His first work was “The love song of J.Alfred Prufrock” in 1915. He wrote the poem “The Waste Land” while recovering from the exhaustion. From 1911 to 1914 he returned back to Harvard where he expanded his knowledge by reading Indian philosophy and studying Sanskrit. In 1919, Eliot published poems which contained “Gerontion”.In 1922 his poetic work comes out in shape of “The Waste Land” a complex examination of disillusionment. This work was immediately spread like a virus in all literary corners and it is frequently considered as the most influential work in 20th century. He founded what would become an influential literary journal called ‘Criterion’ (1922-1939).His major works are “Ash Wednesday” (1930), “Four Quartets”(1943),”Use of Criticism”(1933), “After strange Gods”(1934) and received Nobel Prize in literature in 1948. (Wikipedia)

T.S.Eliot ‘The Waste Land’ is an important achievement in the history of English poetry and one of the most talked poems of the 20th century by Thomas Stern Eliot. This poem is very long one including four hundred forty lines which is divided into five parts. They are given below:

(1) The Burial of the Dead

(2) A Game of chess

(3) The fire sermon

(4) Death by water

(5) What the Thunder said

What is a Myth?

“A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events”. (Dictionary)

An exaggerated or idealized conception of a person or thing: ‘the book is a scholarly study of the Churchill myth’. (Dictionary)

A fictitious or imaginary person or thing: ‘nobody had ever heard of Simon’s mysterious friend – Anna said he was a myth’. (Dictionary)

There are many myths which can be observed in this poem. T.S Eliot’s The waste land is an important land mark in the history of English poetry and one of the most talked poems of the same Age. Here T.S Eliot described the mythical background in his poem. This mythical technique can be elaborated as given below.

· The Grail Legend

· The King Fisher

· Myth of Tiresias

The Grail Legend:

The Myth about this vessel was that at have acquired medicinal and miraculous properties so the result is that it became an object for purity or one kind of devotion and worship. The lance used to pierce the sides of Christ and kept with it. But a time the original Grail was mysteriously disappeared and many of the bold Knights staked their lives and them searching for this vessel. It was generally believed that the grail was sometimes could be found in the sky as the floating saucer but it could only see by those, Knights who were virginal beauty. (Rabhadiya)

Myth of Tiresias:

Here in this poem this myth often comes up to the end of this poem. Tiresias is represented as a bi-sexual in The Waste Land as he was blind but he has the gift of prophecy and immortality. Many stories are same like Tiresias story. According to one story this wise Theban soothsayer in his youth once saw the goddess Athena naked in a pond and goddess struck him blind but his mother was a friend of hers so she bestowed upon him. According to Eliot, Tiresias comes out as the central figure through this poem, what Tiresias sees is the substance of the whole poem. The importance of Tiresias is complex and varied but it is connected with history with the story of King Oedipus, Thebes the classical legend of a waste land. Let’s see the story of King Oedipus in the context of Tiresias and see how it is connected with waste and as a myth. (Choudhary)

King Fisher:

According to this myth King Fisher was the prince named King Fisher. It was one of the regions where Grail worship had been anciently vogue, and a temple Known as Chapel Perilous, still stood there, broken and dilapidated, as a mournful memorial of what once was, but later had ceased to be. It was said that the lost Grail was hidden in this chapel. At that time the king himself had become a physical wreck, maimed and impotent, as a result. It was whispered, of a sin committed by his soldiery in outraging the chastity of a group of nuns attached to the Grail chapel. The impotency of the Fisher King was reflected sympathetically in the land of which he was the head and ruler. It had become dry and barren, the haunt and home of want and famine. The King, however, was waiting with hope, despite his illness, that one day the Knight of the pure soul would visit his star-crossed kingdom, march to the Chapel Perilous, answer questions and solve riddles.

So, here Eliot shows the Fisher King as symbolic of humanity robbed of its sexuality potency in the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of urban existence. (Choudhary)

There are other symbols like:

Ø Drought

Ø Animals

Ø Landscape

Ø Thunder

Ø Religion etc.

So, here this poem The Waste Land is symbolically very rich poem. We rarely find such a variety of symbols except in T.S.Eliot’s Wasteland. Living beings, animal or insect have been the important symbol. (Choudhary)

King Oedipus and his Waste land:

Tiresias serves, in the first place to complicate the mythical frame of the poem and in the second place to universalize. Oedipus unwittingly kills his father and marries with his mother and thus call down upon his supposedly innocent head the curse of the gods in form of virulent plague, epidemic an destructive which neither king nor commoners fails to regard as a punishment for some dark and hidden crime. Tiresias, the blind prophet is summoned and when compelled by the king tells the shocking truth that he, the king himself, is the plague spot. Such is the conspiracy of circumstances that the king is slowly but irresistibly, driven to the realization of this horrible truth. Nothing remains for the king but the duty of expiation, self mutilation, self-exile, self-abasement and a prolonged penance which eventually result in spiritual calm and inner illumination. (Rabhadiya)

Tiresias is represented as a bi-sexual in The Waste Land as he was blind but he has the gift of prophecy and immortality. Many stories are same like Tiresias story. According to one story this wise Theban soothsayer in his youth once saw the goddess Athena naked in a pond and goddess struck him blind but his mother was a friend of hers so she bestowed upon him. According to another story, Tiresias saw two snakes copulating them with his stick and the snakes in wrath transformed him into women. Later on, he was questioned by love and juno as to whether Man is more passionate or woman. He declared that woman is more passionate. At this Juno was angry and stuck him blind but Zesus or Love compensated him by conferring upon the twin gifts of prophecy and immortality. (Rabhadiya)

Choudhary, Divya. Blog. 26 October 2016. <http://divyachoudhary19.blogspot.in/2016/10/use-of-mythical-technique-in-waste-land.html>.

Dictionary. <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/myth>.

Rabhadiya, Vinod. Blog. 15 October 2014. <http://vjrabhadiya.blogspot.in/2014/10/myths-in-waste-land-introduction-t.html>.

Wikipedia. 1 September 2016. <https://www.biography.com/people/ts-eliot-9286072>.

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Monday 3 April 2017

Presentation on African American Writers

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Cultural Studies from Budhiditya Das
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Presentation on Theory of Rasa

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Rasa theory presentation from Budhiditya Das
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Presentation on Child Labour in Oliver Twist

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Oliver twist from Budhiditya Das
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Presentation on Comparison between the theme of Marriage in Sense and Sensibility and Middle March

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Romantic literature ppt from Budhiditya Das
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Sunday 26 March 2017

Assignment on Cultural Studies and its Four Goals

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Name: Budhiditya Shankar Das

Course: M.A (English)

Topic: Cultural Studies and its Four Goals

Semester: 02

Roll No. : 07

Paper No.: 08(c)

Paper Name: The Cultural Studies

Email Id : budhiditya900@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,

Smt. S.B.Gardi

Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Cultural Studies and its Four Goals

“CULTURAL STUDIES”

The word “culture” itself it so difficult to pin down, “cultural studies” is hard to define. As we also the case in chapter 8 with Elaine Showalter’s “cultural” model of feminine difference.”Cultural studies “is not so much a discrete approach at all, but rather a set of practices. As Patrick Brantinger has pointed out, cultural studies in not ‘a tightly coherent, unified movement with a fixed agenda”. But a loosely coherent group of tendencies, issues, and question.” Before knowing about Cultural Studies, we should know what culture is. Culture is a anthropology, encompassing the range of human phenomena that cannot be directly attributed to genetic inheritance. The term culture in American anthropology had two meanings-

1 The evolved to classify and represent experiences with symbols and to act imaginatively and creatively.

2 The distinct ways that people live, differently, classified and represent their experiences and acted creatively.

Culture is central to the way we view, experience and engage with all aspects of our lives and the world around us. Even our definitions are shaped by the historical, political, social and cultural contexts in which we live. Culture is the mode of generating meanings and ideas. This mode of negotiation under which meanings are generated by power relations. Culture is a social phenomenon which tends to regularate the mindset and behavior of people which is set on ancient rules and regularities and experiences. Culture is the identity of particular society and it is the mirror of the society. Culture in a simple way can be said as a particular way of life. Tradition, customs, rules and regulations, norms, artifacts (signs), religions, communities, material things, journey of 'Man' from caves to present day civilization are also culture.

Opposite of nature is culture. Nature is outside and the moment Man enters, it becomes culture. Whatever which is not nature is culture. All the activities that are done between people on the piece of land and with the other people, culture is the entire range of activities that all the people of the society do. Culture deals with identity. For example, Mahatma Gandhi is the icon of India.

Nature is something which is outside the control of human beings and culture is the introduction of what humans do and think. Culture is the great help out of our present difficulties; Culture beings the pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which has been thought and said in the world: and through his knowledge, turning of stream of fresh and free thoughts upon our stock notions and habits, which we follow but mechanically. When the things are done by elite group, it is called Culture and when the same things are done by minority group, it s called sub-culture. Elite culture controls meanings because it controls the terms of the debate. Non-elite views on life and art are rejected as 'Tasteless', 'useless' or 'even stupid' by the elite. Culture is one of the two or three terms to define. It is an umbrella term. Literature is one of its disciplines. It cannot be understood by one discipline. We are multi-disciplinary. Every discipline studies culture but in a different way.

Four Goals of Cultural Studies-

1) Cultural studies transcends the confines of a particular discipline such as literary criticism or history. Cultural studies involves scrutinizing the cultural phenomenon of a text- for example, Italian Opera, a Latinotelenovela, the architectural styles of prisons, body piercing- and drawing conclusions about the changes in textual phenomena over time. Cultural studies is not necessarily about literature in the traditional sense or even about "art". Intellectual works are not limited by their own "borders" as single texts, historical problems or even disciplines, and the critic's own personal connections to what is being analysed may also be described. Henry Giroux and others write in their Dalhousie Review manifesto that cultural studies practitioner are "resisting intellectuals", who see what they do as "an emancipatory project" because it erodes the traditional disciplinary divisions in most institutions of higher education. But this kind of criticism, like feminism, is an engaged rather than a detached activity.

2) Cultural studies is politically engaged. Cultural critics see themselves as "oppositional", not only within their own disciplines but to many of the power structures of the society at large. They question inequalities within power structures and seek to discover models for restructuring relationships among dominant and "minority" or "subaltern" discourses. Because meaning and individual subjectivity are culturally constructed, thus they can be reconstructed. Such a notion, taken to a philosophical extreme, denies the autonomy of the individual, whether an actual person or a character in literature, a rebuttal of the traditional humanistic "Great Man" or "Great Book" theory, and a relocation of aesthetics and culture from the ideal realms of test and sensibility into the arena of a whole society's everyday life as it is constructed.

3) Cultural studies denies the separation of "high" and "low" or elite or popular culture. Being a "cultured" person means acquainted with "highbrow" art and intellectual pursuits. Cultural critics work to transfer the term to include mass structure, whether popular, folk, or urban. Following theorists Jean Baudrillard and Andreas Huygens, cultural critics argue that after World War 2 the distinctions among, high, low and mass culture collapsed, and they cite other theorists such as Pierre Bordeaux or Dick Hebdige on how "good taste" often only reflects prevailing social, economic, and political power bases. Drawing upon the ideas of French historian Michel de Certeau, cultural critics examine "the practice of everyday life", studying literature as an anthropologist would, as a phenomenon of culture, including a culture's economy. Rather than determining which are the "best" works produced, cultural critics describe what is produced and how various productions relate to one another. They aim to reveal the political, economic reasons why a certain cultural product is more valued at certain times than others. "The Birth of Captain Jack Sparrow: An Analysis" and " Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)" are some famous works and movies.

4) Cultural studies analyses not only the cultural work, but also means of production. Marxist critics have long recognized the importance of such para literary questions as these: who supports a given artist? A well known analysis of literary production is Janice Radway's Study of the American romance novel and its readers, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature, which demonstrates the textual effects of the publishing industry's decisions about books that will minimize its financial risks. Reading in America, edited by Cathy N. Davidson, which includes essay on literacy and gender in Colonial New England; urban magazine audiences in Eighteenth Century New York city; the impact upon reading of technical innovations as cheaper eyeglasses, electric lights, and trains; the Book-of -the-Month Club; and how writers and texts go through fluctuations of popularity and canonicity. These studies help us recognise that literature does not occur in a space separate from other concerns of our lives.

Cultural studies thus joins subjectivity that is, culture in relation to individual lives- with engagement, a direct approach to attacking social ills. Though cultural studies practitioners deny "humanism" or "the humanities" as universal categories, they strive for what they might call "social reason" which often (closely) resembles the goals and values of humanistic and democratic ideals.

Year 2050, the United States will be what demographers call a "majority-minority" population; that is, the present numerical majority of "white", "Caucasian", and "Anglo"- Americans will be the minority, particularly with the dramatically increasing numbers of Latina /o residents, mostly Mexican Americans. As Gerald Graff and James Phelan observe, "It is a common prediction that the culture of the next century will put a premium on people's ability to deal productively with conflict and cultural difference. Learning by controversy is sound training for citizenship in that future".

The next class where Western culture is portrayed as hopelessly compromised by racism, sexism and homophobia: professors can acknowledge these differences and encourage students to construct a conversation for themselves as "the most exciting part of (their) education".

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Assignment on Poetic Process and the process of Depersonalization by T.S.Eliot

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Name: Budhiditya Shankar Das

Course: M.A (English)

Topic: Poetic Process and the process of Depersonalization by T.S.Eliot

Semester: 02

Roll No. : 07

Paper No.: 07

Paper Name: Literary Theory & Criticism: The 20^th Western & Indian Poetics-2

Email Id : budhiditya900@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad,

Smt. S.B.Gardi

Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Poetic Process and the process of Depersonalization by T.S.Eliot

The vast accumulations of knowledge—or at least of

information—deposited by the nineteenth century have

been responsible for an equally vast ignorance.

—TS Eliot

Tradition and Individual Talent:-

Thomas Stearns Eliot was an American-born English poet, playwright, and literary critic, arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. His most famous work is “The Waste Land.” On one level this highly complex poem describes cultural and spiritual crisis.

"The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is, that the poet has, not a 'personality' to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways." (From 'Tradition and the Individual Talent,' 1920)

T.S Eliot’s works:-

Poetry

Plays

Nonfiction:-

“Tradition and Individual Talent (1920)”

The sacred wood: Essays on poetry and criticism

A choice of Kipling’s verse ( 1941)

The Frontiers of criticism (1956)

Eliot is most often known for his poetry, he also contributed to the field of literary theory. In this dual role, he acted as poet- critic, comparable to Sir Philip Sidney and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “Tradition and Individual Talent” is one of the more well known works that Elion produced in his critic capacity. It formulates Eliot’s influential conception of the relationship between the poet and the literary tradition which precedes him.

T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and Individual Talent” was published in 1919 in The Egoist- the Times Literary supplement. Later, the essay was published in “The Sacred Wood: Essays on poetry and criticism in 1920. This essay is described by David Lodge as the English of the twentieth century. The essay is divided into three main sections:-

The first gives us Eliot’s concept of tradition

The Second exemplifies his theory of depersonalization and poetry.

The third part he concludes the debate by saying that the poet’s sense of poetry are complementary things.

Eliot asserts that the word “tradition’’ is not a very favorable term with the English, who generally utilize the same as a term of censure. The English do not possess an orientation towards Criticism as the French do; they praise a poet for those aspects of the work that are individualistic.

For Eliot, tradition has a three-fold significance.

Firstly, tradition can not be inherited, and involves a great deal of labor and erudition.

Secondly, it involves the historical sense which involves apperception not only of the pastness of the past, but also of its present.

Thirdly, the Historical sense enables a writer to write not only with his own generation in mind, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature from Homer down to the literature of his own country farms a continuous literary tradition.

Eliot presents his conception of tradition and the definition of the poet and poetry in relation to it. He wishes to correct for the fact that, as he perceives it, "in English writing we seldom speak of tradition, though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence." Eliot posits that, though the English tradition generally upholds the belief that art progresses through change - a separation from tradition, literary advancements are instead recognized only when they conform to the tradition. Eliot, a Classicist, felt that the true incorporation of tradition into literature was unrecognized, that tradition, a word that "seldom... appears except in a phrase of censure," was actually a thus-far unrealized element of literary criticism. Eliot says that the Englishmen have a tendency to insist, when they praise a poet, upon those aspects of his work in which he least resembles anyone else. In these aspects of his work they try to find out what is individual, what is the peculiar essence of that man. They try to find out the difference of the poet with his contemporaries and predecessors. They try to find out something that can be separated in order to be enjoyed.

But if we study the poet without bias or prejudice, we shall often find that not the best, but the most individual of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality forcefully and vigorously. According to Eliot tradition and individual talent are not separate entity. They are inseparable and hence go together.

Historical Sense/ “the historical sense involves a perception not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence”

According to Eliot, knowledge of tradition plays vital role in the development of personal talent, He writes: ‘Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. It involves the historical sense.’

This means sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of past, but of its presence. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a write traditional and it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporanity. For Eliot, the term "tradition" is imbued with a special and complex character. It represents a "simultaneous order," by which Eliot means a historical timelessness – a fusion of past and present – and, at the same time, a sense of present temporality. Eliot challenges our common perception that a poet’s greatness and individuality lies in his departure from his predecessors. Rather, Eliot argues that "the most individual parts of his (the poet) work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously." Eliot claims that this "historical sense," that is, not only a resemblance to traditional works, but an awareness and understanding of their relation to his poetry.

Eliot gives importance to the interdependence of past and the present. He finds not contradictory but supplementary elements in the co- relationship of the past and the present. He expresses his views as follows:-

“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artist. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead. Mean this as a principle of aesthetic, that he merely historical criticism. The necessity that he shall conform, that he shall cohere, is not one-sided; what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so the relation, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity between the old and the new. Whoever has approved this idea of order, of the form of European, of English literature, will not find it preposterous that the past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and responsibilities.”

Eliot’s theory of poetic process and the process of depersonalization:-

Eliot starts the second part of his essay with: “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.”

The artist or the poet adopts the process of depersonalization, which is “a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self – sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality”. There still remains this process of depersonalization and its relation to sense of tradition. The mature poet is viewed as a medium, through which tradition is channelled and elaborated. He compares the poet to a catalyst in a chemical reaction, in which the reactants are feelings, and emotions that are synthesized to create an artistic image that captures and relays these same feelings and emotions. While the mind of the poet is necessary for the production, it emerges unaffected by the process. The artist stores feelings and emotions and properly unites them into a specific combination, which is the artistic product. What lend greatness to a work of art is not the feelings and emotions themselves, but the nature of the artistic process by which they are synthesized. The artist is responsible for creating "the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place." And, it is the intensity of fusion that renders art great. In this view, Eliot rejects the theory that art expresses metaphysical unity in the soul of the poet. The poet is a depersonalized vessel, a mere medium.

Analogy of chemical reaction and poetic process-

“The analogy was that of that catalyst, when the two gases oxygen and sulphur dioxide, are mixed in the presence of a filament of platinum, they form sulphurous acid. This combination takes place only if the platinum is present; nevertheless the newly formed acid contains no trace of platinum, and the platinum itself is apparently unaffected; has remained inert, neutral, and unchanged. The mind of the poet is the shred of platinum. It may partly or exclusively operate upon the experience of the man himself; but the more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates; the more perfectly will the mind digest and transmute the passions which are material.”

Eliot explains his theory of depersonalization more elaborately. He elaborates his idea by saying that the emotion and experiences in the art are different than the emotion and experiences of the artist He writes:-

“If you compare several representative passages of the greatest poetry, you see how completely any semi ethical criterion of “sublimity” misses the mark. For it is not the “greatness” the intensity, of the emotions, the components, but the intensity of the artist process, the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place that counts” He further writes:-

“The poet has, not a ‘personality’ to express, but a particular medium which is only a medium and not a personality in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways. In impressions and experiences which are important for the man may take no place in the poetry and those which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the man, the personality.”

“Emotion recollected in tranquility” is an inexact formula for it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor with without distortion of meaning, tranquility.”

It is not in his personal emotions, the emotions provoked by particular events in any way remarkable or interesting. His particular emotion or may be simple, or crude, or flat. The emotion in his poetry will be a very complex thing of the emotion of people. Who have very complex or unusual emotions in eccentricity in poetry is to seek for new human emotions to express: and in this search for novelty in the wrong place it discovers the perverse. The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, to express feelings which are not in actual emotion at all. And emotion which he has never experienced will serve his turn as well as those familiar to him. Consequently, we must believe that “emotion” recollected in tranquility is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection; not without distortion of meaning, tranquility. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration, of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not ‘recollected’ and they finally unite in an atmosphere which is ‘tranquil’ only in that it is a passive attending upon the event of course this is a great deal in the writing of poetry, which must be conscious and deliberate.

The third part he concludes the debate by saying that the poet’s sense of tradition and the impersonality of poetry are complementary things.

In the last section of this essay; Eliot says that poet’s sense of tradition and the impersonality of poetry are complementary things. He writes “To divert interest from the poet to the poetry is a laudable aim: for it would conclude to a juster estimation of actual poetry, good and bad.” Finally he ends his essay with: “very few know when ether is expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet. The emotion of art is impersonal and the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done and he is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless he is conscious, not of what is dead, but of what is already living.”

Conclusion:-

To conclude, Harold Bloom presents a conception of tradition that differs from that Eliot. Whereas Eliot believes that the great poet is faithful to his predecessors and evolves in a concordant manner, Bloom according to his theory of ‘anxiety of influence envisions the strong poet to engage in a much more aggressive and tumultuous rebellion against tradition.
In 1964, his last year, Eliot published in a reprint of the use of poetry and the use of criticism, a series of lectures he gave at Harvard university in 1932 and 1933, a new preface in which he called “Tradition and the Individual talent” the most juvenile of his essays.

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