This blog is an experiment in using blogs in higher education. Most of the experiments done here are the first of their kind at least in India. I wish this trend catches on....
The Blog is dedicated to Anup Dhar and Lawrence Liang whose work has influenced many like me . . . .
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(Scene:It’s 5 minutes to the end of Mr. Pinto’s class and he hasn’t yet arrived; busy with an extended interview-meeting. Just when we were all trudging along outside to enjoy a lazy day at the campus, he’s in our class in a flash. There’s an explosion of energy and in just about 10 minutes, he gives us a mine of information. By all rights we should have been groaning and saying nasty things about him, for first making us wait, and then making us stay those extra 10 minutes. But the palpable energy being exchanged in those ten minutes was, to everyone’s good fortune, mutually relished. Besides, it was obvious we had rescued him from what appeared at that time to be brain atrophy. So who cares about those extra 10 minutes when we were briefly heroes?!?)
‘Adeimantus, you and I are not making up stories at the moment; we are founding a community.’
[379, Republic, Book II]
Whether he had known at that time his impact on the future generations of thinkers or not, there is no disputing that the Greek Philosopher Plato laid the foundations of Western Philosophy. He gave initial formulation to the most basic questions and problems (which will be discussed in the next few postings) of Western thought. Literary critics throughout the ages have returned again and again to the classical themes set down by Plato and it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that history of criticism cannot properly be understood without some of Plato’s key ancient texts, especially since they have exerted such a seminal influence on the discourse of criticism in the ages to come.
A lot of speculation is drawn about the personal details of Plato, only natural considering his popularity. Even his name is being speculated about. Plato or Aristocles, after his grandfather? We know that his birth was roughly around 427/428 B.C and his death, 347/348 B.C. He came from an old Athenian family, said to have played a prominent part in Athenian politics. So it’s interesting that he chose philosophy over politics as his way of curing the ills of society.
An old story says Dionysius sold Plato as a slave and his friends and uncles bought him and set him free. He then became a student of Socrates and later founded the ACADEMY. The Academy was the first school of philosophy and is acknowledged as the first university of the world. At the entrance of the Academy was written:
‘Those who don’t know geometry do not enter this portal.’
This doesn’t just refer to the significant role of mathematics in philosophy and a philosopher’s life but also the importance of abstract thinking required of a philosopher. The little that is known about the Academy is that it was a public gymnasium and that Plato didn’t charge fees for his lessons. It is unlikely that Plato’s school had many of the institutional features of a modern university, so all those who’d like to visualize Plato in his Academy as a sort of Father Vice Chancellor at Christ University, kindly cease thinking along that line of thought.
One known public lecture of Plato’s on ‘The Good’ was said to be a fiasco because the audience came to hear about probably the good life and Plato talked about mathematics.
Plato was the first thinker to demarcate philosophy as a subject, as a distinct way of thinking about, and relating to, a wide range of issues and problems. Philosophy in this sense is still taught and learned in schools and universities today. To put it succinctly, we’re still tackling the questions and problems laid down by Plato in this very 21st Century and that sums up the significance of Plato’s theories in our lives.
[References: Mr. Pinto; A History of Literary Criticism and Theory – M. A. R Habib; PLATO – A Very Short Introduction, Julia Annas]
(Mr. Pinto’s Class Note – 8th July ‘09) (Notes contributed by Panom and Divya)
The 3 reasons for English becoming a subject of study were: to consolidate declining feudal power; Imperialism; Military/ totalitarian purposes.
Before examining the above mentioned areas, let’s address the interesting question of When Did Literature Emerge?
Invention of the printing press (1453) by John (Johannes) Gutenberg coincided with the gradual removal of the monopoly that the clergy held over literacy. This shift in monopoly was made possible largely due to urbanization and industrialization. We saw that the onus on the primary sector (agriculture) was slowly diminishing and secondary sector (Industries) took off. What has to be noted is that this industrialization became possible due to colonization.
With the advent of industrialization, there was a need for more clerks and book keepers etc. who naturally needed to be taught and educated in order to increase their efficiency. Earlier, the tradition of education was mainly a seminary one (Wordsworth, Shelly, Keats etc.) and was limited to the age old institutions of Oxford and Cambridge. With the concept of division of labor and regulated work hours, it allowed for a certain novelty called ‘free time’ which was not seen before. Until then there weren’t any regulated work hours like the 8 hour concept we see in the 20th century. In fact, there was a large percentage of children being employed as workers as well and exploited for their ability to work long hours. (References were made by Mr. Pinto to William Blake’s THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER) In this new found free time people naturally turned to reading. Free grammar schools with scholarships began to appear; a lot many workers pooled their resources and hired teachers to teach their children in evening schools. They started reading and studying Romances (full of wars, heroes, knights etc.)
There became an increasing need to ‘know’ more and learn more, even if they happened to be practical pieces of information such as instances of the happenings around them. They started ‘telling stories’ to know more which gave birth to two things – Journalism; Literature.
The ‘Novel’ took off as it was a way of telling “something new”, like a new story that converted incidents into a narrative. The colonials contributed to this ‘novel’ or storytelling. (Mr. Pinto made references to the chapter ‘Defoe’s England’ in G. M. Trevelyan’s ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY) Defoe himself had perfected the art of the reporter; even his novels such as Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are imaginary ‘reports’ of daily life. For Defoe was one of the first who saw the old world through a pair of sharp modern eyes.
(Note: By the 19th Century, all experiments regarding the novel had already been exhausted – with perhaps the exception of the Stream Of Consciousness which came about in the 20th Century.) (FYI: Observers would notice that the 19th Century wrote and read far more number of novels than the 20th Century ever saw.)
So many forces played a role in what we today call “reading habits or reading culture”. All this and also the theories of evolution (those existing even before Darwin’s conception) created a huge change in social structure which saw the rise and seemingly inevitable decline in feudal power.
Consolidation of this power in the 19th Century was done in the form of literature. It was used as a political tool and also a source. Literature in a sense addresses all structures of society; the working class, the middle class and the elite. This therefore explains its success as a tool. From Eagleton’s essay The Rise of English, we see how Literature was first introduced as a subject of study to mechanical engineers to bring about ‘morality’. Later, it was studied extensively by women at Oxford, perhaps because they were discouraged from studying the sciences. It was a social construct of expectation and opportunity allotting.
Imperialism being the second reason for English becoming a subject of study saw its works being implemented wherever the English went when they had to consolidate their power. “Flag follows the trade” – the classic imperialistic principle. Literature was introduced to the middle classes and texts were carefully selected and doled out, ensuring that the English stamped their power and superiority over the colonies. On retrospect, it seems like such an obvious design. We saw it happen in Africa by the English, French and Germans. We also saw it in Latin countries as well as India by the British.
Military purposes and totalitarian control were the third reason for English becoming a subject of study. Cleary a strategic move and language typically was introduced to consolidate power and subdue confusion. We saw it happen with India as well where Hindi was introduced after independence in an attempt to unify the nation. Similarly, Britain introduced English Literature to do the same.
Up until the 14th Century, the Feudal class possessed utmost power as the population engaged solely in primary sector economic activities such as agriculture, mining and animal husbandry. However, the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s brought about the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial revolution influenced the emergence of English.
The Industrial Revolution, transformed the cities into urban centers, raised the standard of living and exhilarated the emergence of urban spaces. The secondary sector, now, occupied a dominant position. The operation of the manufacturing units required extensive labor. The advent of the manufacturing industry led to the creation of several job opportunities. Besides foremen, clerks, book keepers, store keepers etc., were employed.
Eventually, Industrial capitalization created a clear demarcation between the feudal class and the working class. It made the lives of the working class strenuous and mechanical. The oppressed working class chose to break away from the shackles of the feudal class. Colonization fuelled the rebellion and gave momentum to the Romantics. The Romantics assumed the role of political activists. The writers used Journalism and Literature as the ‘medium of telling’. Journalism sought to reproduce stories in a refreshingly new manner whereas Literature used the ‘novel’ as device to transform society.
Due to this defiance, the Feudal class started losing ultimate power, and hence took recourse in literature. They used Literature as a tool to consolidate their power. Literature was introduced in the Mechanics Institutes to instill moral values into the intellectually deprived working class. In universities, women were excluded from disciplines such as science and other professions. Therefore they had to resort to English.
During this era, imperialism took centre stage. The value system was pushed among the intellectuals. The imperialists used Literature, predominantly tragedies, to consolidate the working class, so that the separate parts of the British Empire that were falling apart could be secured as a single state.
English Literature was then, threatened by German Literature when everyone in England began relishing the contents of the latter. In an effort to contain English Language and English Literature, the totalitarian strategy was adopted. The military took upon itself, the responsibility of preserving and promoting English by reviving national pride among the masses.
Certificate Programme in the Technology and Culture (Digital Classroom)
1. Introduction: Certificate Programme in the Digital Class will be conducted by Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore with the direct participation of Centre for Internet Studies (CIS), Bangalore and Centre for Education Beyond Curriculum (CEDBEC), Christ University, Bangalore and organised by Department of Media Studies, Christ University, Bangalore.
2. Programme Objective: The purpose of this course is to investigate the transformations taking place in the classroom through the process of digitization of the various aspects of classroom pedagogy. Both courses and class readings are downloadable on various formats, teachers commonly use blog and wiki formats as pedagogic devices, students ‘publish’ their assignments and engage in various kinds of peer-learning practices. While several universities and undergraduate colleges have actively adopted such technologies, it is unclear as to how drastic the change is. Is the change no more than conventional content and teaching/assessment strategies moving to new platforms? Or is the change more fundamental than that?
5. Programme Structure:
This course, to be conducted with media students of the Christ University will also see the active participation of faculty from a range of disciplines across the board: education, law, computer science and sociology. It will be conducted over 10 sessions to be divided into five modules which are tentatively listed below:
Module 1: The University and the Class This module, pivoted around Bill Readings’ The University in Ruins (Harvard, 1996), explores the historic transformation of the classroom as the location for the pursuit of ‘excellence’. From its classic Humboldtian origins, to its ‘developmental’ stage – the rise of the mass-classroom, the principle of education for all – to a present space in which it is a gigantic agglomeration of a variety of small experimental spaces – the classroom has changed dramatically. This module will explore the theory of the classroom, and the change taking place in the category of the student, the teacher and the ‘imparting’ of knowledge paradigm. Students will explore key websites which have explored how such paradigms have changed, and report on their findings.
Module 2: The Public Nature of the Classroom Both students and teachers are recognizing that the classroom is a very public space: students ‘publish’ their papers, teachers upload their class lectures and put up blogs that are technically accessible to the public at large. What does the entry of the world outside do to the classroom as a closed space for intellectual work, frank debate and the display of insecurity? This module will work with John Willinsky’s The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press, 2006), sections on ‘Development’, ‘Public’, ‘Politics’ and ‘Rights’.
Module 3: The Digital Native The concept of the ‘digital native’ originates with Marc Prensky’s Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001) to look at a ‘new breed of student entering educational establishments’. The term draws an analogy between how a country's natives, for whom the local religion, language, and folkways are natural and indigenous, separate them from immigrants to a country who often are expected to adapt and assimilate to their newly adopted home. Prensky refers to accents employed by digital immigrants, such as printing documents rather than commenting on screen or printing out emails to save in hard copy form. Digital immigrants are said to have a "thick accent" when operating in the digital world in distinctly pre-digital ways, when, for instance, he might "dial" someone on the telephone to ask if his email was received. How ‘native’ is the digital student today? What happens to the ‘immigrant’, i.e. someone seriously technologically challenged by the heavy reliance on digital ‘insiderism’?
This module will split into an inquiry into the problems faced by the both the class teacher and the student, both of whom may or may not be digital natives. It will include one survey to be conducted about volunteer faculty and volunteer students in Christ University, on the problems and possibilities of digital insiderism. Students will assemble and publish survey results online.
Module 4: Technologies Of L;Earning (1): The Institution And The Institutional Repository This section will be a set of practical sessions on the role and purpose of repositories in academic institutions. Students will actively explore such classic repositories as CSeARCH (http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/CSeARCH.HTM) to see the benefits and problems of repositories. It will end with hands-on experience of a repository, located either at CSCS or at Christ University itself.
Module 5: Technologies of Learning (2): This session will include two key components: • Role of peer learning, or student-teach-student. • Role of examination processes: Are examinations changing? Should they change? This will again be a hands-on experiment, working mainly with hand-held devices, and the role such devices play in the facilitating peer/participatory learning, and in the continuous assessment mechanisms that are replacing end-of-term examinations. We may actually experiment with a new device here, supported by the Nokia Research Centre, Bangalore (to be confirmed).
Duration: Three months. Classes conducted on Saturdays 2-4 pm. Classes begin on 11 July
Contact: Anil Pinto, Dept of Media Studies - ajpinto42 at gmail dot com Programe Fee: Rs 1000 Venue: Room 913, II Floor, Auditorium Block
( The Following is lectures notes by Mr. Pinto - P.S.ENG-III)
Intentional Fallacy was the topic of discussion in Mr. Pinto’s class today. Intentional Fallacy addresses the assumption that the meaning intended by the author, of a literary work, is of primary importance. He said that fallacy was a fault in the argument or something that is not logical. Intentional Fallacy depicts that the writer has the final interpretation. The entire authority of interpretation lies with the author. He supported this with a Marxist example, where he said that the structure had the authority of defining social meaning.
New criticism emerged in the United States of America after the Second World War. Post World War-II lots of “men” sent to fight the war for the government were brought back to the country. In order to engage the soldiers, they were sent to colleges. The classrooms suddenly became huge and it was becoming problematic for the English lecturers especially in keeping the class engaged. To overcome this, the lecturers started handing out photocopies of a poem to the class and told them to interpret it in their own way. Thus it ultimately gave rise to new criticism. Mr. Pinto then presented us with the argument of Marshal Melchan. With the rise in global media Melchan held the view that technology was determined with how one interacts with it. He supported his argument by saying that the modern day journey is towards loneliness and books primarily does it. He said that when we write poems or journals, we do not invent new things instead we write through our limitations, that is the limitation of language. Mr. Pinto said that what we are learning in the classroom is just another means of getting ourselves accustomed to the structure and power that exist within the system of the society. He again switched back to the argument of Marshal Melchan, he said that theatre or cinema was not meant for a single person but rather directed towards a crowd. Marshall also challenged the existing form of knowledge which in time to come this knowledge could become non- responsive.
Intentional Fallacy is also defined as confusion between the poem and its origin. New criticism emphasises its importance within the text. A text has three classifications: Ø Internal Evidence: the evidence is present as the facts of a given work. This includes those things physically present in the work itself.
Ø External Evidence: what is not actually contained in the work itself is external. Statements made privately or published in journals, gazettes about the work, or in conversation, e-mail, etc. External evidence is concerned with the claims about why the artists made the work, lessons external to the fact of the work itself.
Ø Contextual Evidence: assumes what the text eventually meant. Concerns any meaning derived from the specific work’s relationship to other art made by the particular artists. Intentional Fallacy is interconnected with the contextual evidence.
Mr. Pinto positioned us with the argument of the New Historicists. New Historicists believed that: o We will never know what the intention of the author was. o The author himself does not know what he meant through his writing. o Even if the author has the plot, a frame work for the text, he can’t control the direction. New historicist believe that writing precede thought. The fact that writing is born with thoughts and not followed by it, highlights that thought alone cannot exist outside language. He said this saying that even for a ghost to exist ghosts require a body just like thought require language for expression. He ended his lecture saying that Intentional fallacy tries to locate the “gentle hand of the author” which forces us to read the text in a particular way.
Mr Pinto’s Class Note on THE RISE OF ENGLISH, Terry Eagleton.
7th July, 09
One of the important arguments in Eagleton’s ‘The Rise Of English’ is that Literature is a construct.
The obvious questions that arise are who constructs it and why is it done? It is certainly done for social, political and cultural reasons by certain influential forces. A prominent example of such a construct is gender identity. We can see the journey gender identity (heterosexuality, incest love, homosexuality to name a few) has taken place throughout the history of literature and how its suppression becomes a construct of social/political control and influence.
Lets trace this back to the much studied Greek tragedy ‘Oedipus The King’ by Sophocles. On unknowingly obliging a prophecy and killing his own father (Laius) and marrying his own mother (Jocasta), Oedipus, King of Thebes, being a fair and just King decides to go into exile after blinding himself. What can be observed is that there is a control exerted by Greek Literature here to suppress a form of sensuality. Mother – Son.
Interestingly, Judith Butler (Gender Trouble) had raised the question as to why the prophecy existed in the first place. Her archive based research showed that Oedipus’ father, Laius, had been engaging with a young boy, the result of which invited the curse of the Gods and hence the prophecy. Here we observe that the sensuality between man and man is being disapproved, suppressed and controlled by suggesting that sexuality of that kind is punishable by the Gods.
Another important Greek tragedy was of Antigone. Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus. Antigone’s conflict with Creon, Oedipus’ brother, arises when Creon declared that the body of Antigone’s brother may not be given a proper burial as he was suspected to have betrayed Thebes. But Antigone wishes to give her brother a proper burial nevertheless and defying Creon’s orders, buries him. Conclusions drawn were that her incestuous love for her brother resulted in her taking a stand against the King and his orders. Clearly, a covert disapproval of incest sensuality between brother and sister.
All three cases, when studied individually, suggests a taboo against homosexuality and incest through the medium of literature. With the hope of idealizing or supporting heterosexuality? That can be left open to interpretation. There is, however, a certain masculine hegemony being promoted because nowhere does it raise the taboo against female homosexuality (lesbianism). In fact, the subject doesn’t even get addressed in order to be disapproved of. But what is irrefutable is that through a systematic representation and repression of such ideas, ‘illegitimizing’ (for want of a better word) certain kinds of sensualities proves that Literature is indeed a ‘construct’ for socio-political and cultural reasons by powerful social forces.
The following note on 'My Studies Begin' by - Ramabai Ranade is prepared by Maria Thomas, Sriya Bhaskar and Ananya Rao of I year HEP.
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Background to the author:
The Late Smt. Ramabi Ranade - whose birth centenary was celebrated in India on January 25, 1962 - was born on 11th January 1862. Her father had not taught her to read and write. Girls' education was a taboo in those days. As a little girl of 11 years she was married to Shri Madhav Govind Ranade, a pioneer in the social reform movement. He devoted all his apparel time to educate her in face of all the opposition of the woman of the house and helped her to become an ideal wife and a worthy helpmate in social and educational reform work. Ramabai made her entry into public life in the 1870s but it was after Justice Ranade's death in 1901 that she wholly identified herself with the cause of. tried to regenerate their souls. She visited the Lunatic Asylum and attended meetings of its managing committee. She went to see boys in the reformatory school, spoke to them and distributed sweets to them on festive occasions. Ramabai's philanthropic instincts knew no bounds. After his death she chose as her life work one of her husbands activities. Justice Ranade was a reformer and deeply interested in the uplift of Indian womanhood. Ramabi threw herself heart and soil into the Seva Sadan. She concentrated her whole energy upon it. The result is that the Seva Sadan has become an institution without a second of its kind throughout India." The Post and Telegraph Department feels honoured in paying a tribute to this great lady by bringing out a special postage stamp in commemoration of her birth centenary celebrated this year. Ramabai died in 1924
Summary:
This text describes the marital life of Ramabai Ranade who was married to a progressive, “reformist” justice, Mahadev Govind Ranade. Unlike most women at the time, she was encouraged by her husband to read and write and thus learnt both Marathi and English. This extract from her autobiography presents the conflicts that occurred between Ramabai and the other women in the household who, despite being educated in the same fashion, resent Ramabai’s education and often tease her. Ramabai also recounts an instance wherein she resented the decision of the women of the temple to exclude the wives of the reformists and thus left the temple, thinking she had made a good decision. The extract continues with the description of her husband’s dissatisfaction with that particular decision and their first disagreement.
Themes:
The extract deals with several themes –
1.Marital relationships – though unconventional, the relationship does display many concrete trends of regular relationships with the submissive wife who tends to her husband’s every whim. An important element of the marital relationship addressed here is that of the reformist relationship where Western-educated men encouraged their wives to be literate. This new dimension raises questions as to whether the status of women was really improved or not.
2.Women and the patriarchal society – the extract represents Ramabai’s conflicts with the other women of the household and this portrays the role of women in enforcing the patriarchal society. The rifts between women in the household suggests that it is the women who represent the more difficult hurdle in marital life, an aspect which is curious considering the accepted notion of the man being most restrictive.
3.Roles of women in society - there are conventionally elements of female responsibilities here, such as cleaning, cooking and serving, as well as the religious element with reference to the temple and the cunning of the non-reformist women. This theme raises to mind questions of whether the roles of women have changed at present from the fundamental roles established in the past.
Societal setting:
The story ‘My Studies Begin’ by Ramabai Ranade is set in colonial India. The traditions and customs of the people were more rigid than ever. Many men of that period were being educated in the west and they picked up the western ideas of equality and education for women. They were known as the reformists. Like Ramabai’s husband in this story, some men expected their wives to learn how to read and write. The wives had to do this in addition to the daily household work and they had to bear severe opposition from other members in the family.
The common misconception or superstition around that time was that if women were educated, they would be widowed very quickly. Therefore in order to safeguard their husband’s life they would have to remain illiterate. This was prominent along the same time as Sati and child marriage that were some social evils that people were fighting against. Though there were a few changes being brought about, not everyone welcomed these changes. The women married to progressive men had double the work to do in terms of studying and completing all the household chores on time. As joint family systems prevailed at that time, it was not easy for these women to study without facing ridicule from the rest of the family. Some women could not adjust to the constant criticism and refused to study further while some women adopted certain mechanisms to counter the treatment they received in the hands of other members of the family. Some women lashed out and showed their feelings openly to everyone while some women, like Ramabai, remained submissive and unresponsive. In the story, Ramabai feels that this attitude will discourage the other women and they would slowly stop their ridiculing but it was not always so.
Not only the women in the family, but the women in the society openly rejected the wives of reformist men. This we can see in the story when Ramabai and the other reformist women were not allowed to sit with the women but were made to sit with the men in the assembly hall. This was a great insult to the women which Ramabai could not handle. The uneducated women in society did not like that the reformist women discussed matters openly with men and “pretended” to be equal to them. The patriarchal values that were instilled in these women rebelled strongly against ideas like equality and they made life for progressive women very difficult. They were being pulled from both sides and had to satisfy the wishes of their husbands as well as society. Many women like Ramabai Ranade and Pandita Ramabai faced these obstacles bravely and managed popularize education for women all over India.
Further Questions:
1.To what extent have the roles of women changed from those that were established in Ramabai’s times?
According to our discussion, it was established that the roles of women have not changed from the fundamental ones established many years ago. The extract described Ramabai’s roles as cooking, serving food and tending to her husband’s needs and it is understood that even today women still continue with the same household duties. The only change has been the increase in the number of roles women have to juggle as not only must they run the household but some must also work in offices as well.
2.To what extent have the roles of men changed from those that have always been maintained in the past?
Strangely enough, our discussion established that the roles of men have indeed changed as men are now more likely to get involved in the household than they were in Ramabai’s times. Also, we touched upon many instances where the man has taken over the woman’s entire household responsibility and this suggests that there really has been some sort of transformation in the traditional mentality, even though these instances are rare.
3.Would a matriarchal society be more beneficial than our current patriarchal society?
The resulting discussion of this question cemented the fact that a matriarchal society would not be any better than a patriarchal society. Many of the males in our class did not favour patriarchy themselves and everyone agreed that a society where both genders are equal would be most beneficial.
4.Why is there rivalry between women, as displayed in this extract?
The class suggested that it was an ego problem that acted as a barrier between the older women and the younger women of a household, promoting the infamous rivalry between mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. In addition to this, the need to enforce superiority also appeared to be a key reason for the tension.Finally, the class decided that the older women feel that their relationship with the younger woman’s husband is threatened with the presence of this new woman in the household and this results in the conflict.
Terry Eagleton was a student of Raymond Williams, the famous theorist who published the book 'Keywords'. Eagleton does not straight arrive on his argument and state evidence to prove his statement. In stead he examines all the ideas proposed about Literature, all the definitions provided for the same, then gradually unpacks them and finally points out his problems with them. Towards the end he arrives at his own idea and tries to define what Literature is. Mr. Pinto suggested that students take this route of reasoning while writing their research papers so that they do not end up summarizing their own argument in the first paragraph itself and would be exhausted. Descartes also emphasized on the importance of doubt in order to attain knowledge.
Some of the immediate ideas that Eagleton throws in are following: He first examines if Literature is imaginative fiction or just fact. Literature can't be just one of these because it spans from newspapers to philosophical treatises to novels and poems. While newspapers maybe purportedly reporting facts and daily happenings, one may wonder why so many newspapers exist to do the same work. Though the question and its answer cannot be so simple, one can see that readership of different newspapers is dictated by the interesting/informative/humorous nature of reporting which distinguishes each paper. Also, this definition of literature seems to exclude texts that transcend pure writing like manga or comic books.
Then he comes to the formalist argument about literature. Mr Pinto first briefly explained why the fascination with formalism. It is so because formalism tried to break away from the existing norm and resorted to examining the medium itself: language. The Formalist definition: Literature is organized violence committed on ordinary speech. This definition focuses on how for a text to be valued as literature, the importance is to write in a certain way and use a particular register. This can be marked as the linguistic turn in literature. Register in linguistic simply means a variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. Looking at register as a "formality scale" and placing it in context of literature's formalist definition, we can say that when one shifted to using "very formal/printed word" language or "formal/archaic" words that were not used in ordinary conversation, the writing written so could be qualified as literature. Otherwise, as the signifier does not refer to the commonly known signified, for example, "thou unravished bride of quietness" (it is not necessary that the person is talking about the bride or it is not even necessary that the bride should exist). Formalists defy reference to such quasi mystical symbolism and draw attention to material reality. Formalists say that literature (poetry was particularly talked about) is not a vehicle for content/ideas because what is written could have been written by anybody else located in that time under those conditions. Preethi then asked, if this is not contradictory to the formalist argument of rejecting social background and its influence on the author's life and work. Mr Pinto agreed that it was indeed one of the shortcomings of the theory but even so, formalists paid more attention to the forms of writing like satire, allegory etc and explained that it is the nature of the form that makes the content what it becomes in the end.
Talking about estrangement, Eagleton says that if content is removed out of context and its own social reality, like Shakespeare read in today's time, it is estranged. One cannot comprehend it in context of social reality and it results in delayed gratification causing increase in interest. Thus, what is estranged might be sometimes qualified as literature. But this does not hold ground because even when misread/interpreted out of context, work does not cease to make sense completely because of the way people relate in their own ways to it irrespective of their social or chronological frames. So, we can say that literature has no "essence" or inherent common quality/ies across all the texts that are included in literature but rather something to do with the way the reader relates to it makes it literature. Mr. Pinto stated that Literature received its non-pragmatic license and special aura only after Romanticism.
But Literature cannot only be what people think it is because then everything will be literature. So, then literature is something that a particular group relates to for some reason and values it. What could be the possible reasons? Practicality/usefulness is not the reason because otherwise, Mill and Bentham would also be included in literature. The reasons change from time to time based on the values and concerns of that period. For example, Matthew Arnold emphasized on serious literature and Eliot did not regard Wordsworth as worthy of reading and brought in John Donne who until then was never considered. So, we can safely conclude with the help of the last paragraph of his essay that the preferences of people who are in a capacity to decide what constitutes literature are shaped by larger structures and value systems, those of class and other categories. We can also replace the larger preferences which can be classified into categories as ideology(?)
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ACHARYA NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY
Nagarjuna Nagar
Guntur Andhra Pradesh
India – 522 510
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
UNDERSTANDING & INTERROGATING
"FOURTH WORLD LITERATURES"
7-9 SEPTEMBER 2009
Deadline for Abstracts: 10. 08. 2009
The Conference will cover the following areas: Native American Studies, Native Canadian Studies,Aboriginal Australian, Dalit, African & South African Studies. The term 'Fourth World' was coined by George Manuel and M. Posluns in The Fourth World: an Indian Reality (1974). This was further analysed in political terms by Noel Dyck in Indigenous Peoples and the Nation State: 'Fourth World' Politics in Canada, Australia and Norway (1992). The emergence of Native literatures such as Native American, Native Canadian, Aboriginal Australian, Maori New Zealandian and Dalit literature of India demands a scholarly probe into the evolution and consolidation of Fourth World people in socio, economic, political, literary and cultural aspects of life. The objective of the conference is to introduce and espouse Fourth World Identity that would interrogate the discourse of conventional epistemology. .
Abstracts of Papers for presentation focusing on the above areas with inter disciplinary approach exploring diversity, multi culturalism, Inter Culturalism, History, Anthropology, Sociology & Economy of Natives/Aboriginals/Dalits/Africans/South Africans are welcome from colleagues all over the world.
Abstracts should meet the approximate word account of 250-300. Abstracts may be submitted by email to the following address: derrida@rediffmail.com or derrida.derrida@gmail.com.
Registration Fee
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Local Delegates: Rs. 600.
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Non Local Delegates: Rs.800
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Foreign Delegates: Rs. 5000
The Registration fee covers accommodation, Break fast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, Tea/Coffee for three days and the Conference Kit. The registration fee has to be paid through Demand Draft drawn infavour of Dr. Raja Sekhar, director International Conference payable at SBI ( Nagarjuna University Campus Branch No:4793), Nagarjuna Nagar. Guntur.
*** Acharya Nagarjuna University is located in between Vijayawada & Guntur, the two popular cities in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The University is 17 K.M. from Vijayawada and 15 K.M. from Guntur. The nearest local airport is in Vijayawada and the International airport is in Hyderabad. The University is surrounded by world famous tourist places like Undavalli caves, Bhavani Island, Durga temple, Krishna barrage in Vijayawada. The world famous Buddhist site Amaravathi is 30 K.M. from Guntur.
For mailing abstracts and inquiries:
Dr. P. Raja Sekhar,
Director, International Conference
Dept. of English
Acharya Nagarjuna University
Guntur. India. 522510
Mobile : + 91 9704464829 Email : derrida.derrida@gmail.com, derrida@rediffmail.com
How do we ensure objectivity in Research? The Subjectivity/ Objectivity question in Archival Research. A Work is said to be objective, if the existing knowledge on the topic is reiterated, if the new knowledge is expressed in existing modes of academic representation, if the writing does not refer to subjective experience and the writing subject is seen detached, from the work, if citations are given, a work is said to be objective. Interestingly, computer has become a metaphor of objectivity!
Book to read : Derrida, Archival Fever Cultural studies show that Theory is one way of performance. The Concept of Archives Archives do not seem to be part of oriental cultures. The museums are often filled with folklore artifacts and some tribal antiquities. Preserving historical documents have not been taken seriously in India. The very sense of Archive is found in wanting in this region. Looking at this scenario one can say that The project of modernism is only half built in India.
Do's and don’ts of the archives 1. Unlike novel or poem, for a historian the documents are not intended for the eyes. The content is more important for him/her. 2. Read the archival documents lovingly. 3. You formulate the ideas after reading them not while reading. 4. You critique a text of history on the basis of a larger historical perspective, not on the individual stories written there. 5. The literature guys keep reading things neglected by other disciplines and vice versa. E.g. There is an interest in Shakespeare in other disciplines while in English Department it is les 6. Women studies have used the archival studies seriously. ‘My studies begin” the story of Justice Ranade’s wife is one such. 7. Archives are residues of modernity. 8. Museums and archives are the first building blocks of the nation states. Bombay National Musuem has letters from Afganisthan, Burma, Sri Lanka. The museum was the mark of a territory that belonged to the British. A Nation talks of its area, through its museums. If there are no museums no nations???? 9. Archives and museums are also instruments of totalitarianism. It registers, classifies, archives etc.... events and people. The state can do whatever it wants if the unique Identification Number is implemented on all citizens. This could be sometimes dangerous, threatening the citizens (persons) State is the perpetrator of the largest proportion of violence. 10. Who collects the data in the archives? It is important to ask questions like these? What are the ideological purposes that they serve? 11. It is important not to photocopy but transcript. These documents are precious. 12. Time management: organising 13. Read archival material with the clear idea that there is a lot more than what is available. All that we have got of the Greek literature is only 3-4 percent of the total. The great idea of the Greeks is formed from this small percentage. Think how much is lost.
The content is the class note of Jijo K.P. on Anil’s Lectures on Archval Research (Part II) for MA English II Yrs. On 30th June.
