My Presentations of Semester: 3

Paper 09 modernist literature from JaytiThakar94
To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

Paper 10 american literature ppt from JaytiThakar94
To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

Paper 12 elt english language teaching from JaytiThakar94
To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

Paper 11 postcoloniat studies ppt from JaytiThakar94
To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

To Evaluate My Presentation Click Here

Comprehension of Selective Research paper of Unit 1

Name: Miss. Jayati Rudresh-Kumar Thakar 

Roll. No: 30

Year: Batch 2015-1017

M.A. Semester: 3

Paper no. 12 ELT

Unit: 1

Assignment topic: Comprehension of Selective Research paper of Unit 1

Email.Id: jjayti.thakar94@gmail.com

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi                                  Department of English,                              Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,                                        Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

1 Satan and Saraswati: The Double Face of English in India                                

                                             -E. Annamalai

Favourable side of English Language:

English plays a conflicting double role in India in policy and practice, in public platform and private choice and in symbolic allegiance, and instrumental use. After Independence, a pattern of bilingualism has emerged at the executive, legislative, legal and educational domains with English and an Indian language.

When India attained freedom in 1947, the British symbols were replaced but the institutions and instruments were retained.

English had become more and more Indianised grammatically and functionally (Kacharu- 1983) due to its use by a large number of Indians thanks to increased education, commerce and journalism and Indian English was no more foreign.

The constitution for the President in the case of the Union and the Governor with the approval of the President in the case of the States to authorise selectively in the Supreme Court and Parliment on the one hand and High Courts and State Legislatures on the other hand.  Therefore, Hindi and the State official languages were used in some respects in those domains even before the Official Language Act.

The princely State of Hyderabad the Indian language medium along with the English medium. Urdu was the medium in Osmania University in Hyderabad established in 1917. Rabindranath Tagore wrote a letter to the Nizam, ruler of Hyderabad complementing “I have long been waiting for the day when freed from the shackles of a foreign language; our education becomes naturally accessible to all our people. It is the problem for the solution of which we look to our native States.” Osmania University changed to English medium in 1947, when the princely State was accessioned to India, for socio- political reasons.

English was taught as first language in 1980 in 4354 schools, as a second language in 167,569 schools as third language in 61379 schools. As second and third language it was taught in largest number of schools followed by Hindi and Sanskrit. The number of teachers teaching English at the secondary level is about five lakhs.

There is a kind of diglossia with English for writing and Indian language for speaking. It is a common occurrence in the office for an officer to discuss a problem orally with his colleague in the Indian language or native language and record the noting on the file in English. Similarly, the teacher in an English medium class using the English textbook explains the points in the Indian language.

The fact that English is not class neutral and that it has an affluent base is conveniently ignored.

It is ironical that before Independence it was believed that there could be no economic prosperity and development with the English people in power and after the independence the belief is that there could be no economic prosperity and development without the English language in power.

Opponent Arguments for English:

The opponents of English language argue that the presence of English blocks opportunities for the Indian languages to be used in vital domains and thus retards their growth.

The opponents of English point out that dropping of English as medium of education will drastically reduce the brain drain from India to the English speaking developed countries and will thus serve the national interest.

Thus English having a dual face in India. It also becomes icon of fashion and class. It creates privileging state on native speakers who cannot communicate in English language. Thus, the English speakers automatically come on hegemonic state wherein other native speakers feel inferior or submissive among them. This fear of having periphery state is more of within for native Indians and they avoid the places occupied by English speakers.

2 Teaching English as a ‘Second Language’ in India

-      Kapil Kapoor

The term ‘second language’ is understood in two different ways- 1 English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primary and more significantly, 2 in school Education, the second language is what is introduced after the primary stage and has a pedagogical as well as a functional definition, particularly in the context of the ‘three-language formula’.

The significance of English as second language can only be understood in the larger and in the historical perspective. It is to be noted that English in India is a symbol of linguistic centralism whereas the numerous Indian languages are seen to represent linguistic regionalism. From Macaulay to Mulayam Singh, we have seen now in India the movement from one to the other.

This conceptual structure has three parts: modernization, mythology and language policy.

To further buttress this argument, a whole mythology got built up around the role of English in which the central metaphor is the metaphor of the ‘window’: 1English is the language of knowledge (science and technology), 2 English is the language of liberal, modern thinking; 3 English is our ‘Window’ on the world; 4 modern library language; English is the language of reason; 5 English is the link language; 6 English is the lingua- franca.

As we said, the metaphor of the ‘window’ is central in this structure, in which Indian Languages are the ‘walls’, that enclose us in ‘darkness’ and English is the ‘window’ that, lets in the ‘light’ of reason and modernization. We have elsewhere shown the hollowness of each of these claims (K. Kapoor and R.S. Gupta: 1990, Preface).

The second language, i.e. L2 is that language which is introduced compulsorily either at the end of the primary stage or in the beginning of the lower secondary stage after the attainment of sufficient proficiency in the first language by the learner. The main objective of the second language is to enable the speaker for wider participation in society, and the nation leading to secondary socialization. Hence the second language is usually either the state official language or national language.   

3 Teaching of EST (English for Science and Technology) in Indian Conditions

Teaching of EST in India suffers from certain, drawbacks: courses are unrelated to the specific needs of the scientific sub-register; and the teachers are ill-equipped. The needs analysis of students admitted to B.Sc. or B.Tech. points to two major abilities required: reading and comprehension of technical texts and writing of technical English, Spoken English is on a low priority. Technical English is characterized by technical vocabulary, foreign plurals, complex noun phrase, simple present, passive construction and conditional and exemplification; they are linked by using rope, hook and wedge language.

These three aspects of EST teaching, namely, needs analysis, structure of technical English and teaching materials, and expertise are inter- related and each of them must be considered in the context of the other two.

There are few conflicts/limitations for English language in EST.

·       It is icon of style and fashion

·       It established unique culture

·       English is current Need

·       Course design should be such which helps a learner of EST to offer contemporary or up-to-date knowledge

·       L1, L2 conflict- Learner’s first language (L1) interface in second language (L2)

·       Ill- equipped teachers

·       Learner’s need analysis

·       Merely a subject

·       Unawareness of teachers

·       Carelessness of students

·       Students under L1 influence

·       Their financial crises

·       Lack of availability of material in mother tongue and regional language

·       Spoken English is at a low priority

·       Teachers of EST must know scientific vocabulary or preferably from science background

·       Professionalization, privatization for English education (higher fees). Basically it becomes business to make money.

Moreover teachers should know the needs of their target students. They can apply strategies of needs analysis and error analysis. So, they can come across their students’ requirements. Sometimes students don’t know their flaws and obligations. Through, this tactics they can also be aware of that. It’s true that it becomes tough when one need to learn how to unlearn then to relearn. Withal one more thing affects that the attitude towards learning, there can be two possibilities of having different attitudes one is positive and the other is negative.

“Teachers are somewhere root-cause of the problem.”

Above statement represents the idea of problems which are created by inaccurate knowledge as well the               ill-equipment of teachers for the text. Their way of conveying knowledge should be student friendly. To raise interest in students for learning begins with their own interest in that particular subject. Many learners have a usual complain that they were not given the proper knowledge or the proper guidance for English at very primary state so their roots of the language are too weak. Teachers should offer a learning environment where learner can contribute, share and grow.

Simultaneously, learners have fear to communicate in English as a second language where their first language interrupts. Their communicative competence is nil. As well the material should be concise, accurate and genuine.

There are two major abilities needed by the learners:

1.  Reading and comprehension of technical texts written in English.

2.  Writing of technical English.

Structure of Technical English and Teaching Materials

The most obvious characteristic feature of Technical English- T.E., is technical vocabulary. It consists of Greek and Latin elements including affixes, which functions as productive factors for word formation. Each element consistently stands for the concept it represents: photon, photo-chemistry, photosynthesis, photo-meter; tribology, tribometer, tribo- electricity.

Technical language follows the principles of economy and conciseness; it therefore avoids periphrases and rhetorical expression, lying emphasis on directness rather than figurative circumlocution. Semantically, the language is referential and denotative without any emotive overtones.

Moving to higher units, we have to take into account paragraph structure and linking as well as discourse forms. There are following principle links like:

1.   Rope link -

2.   Hook link -

3.   Wedge link –

Thus EST has a direct learning on India’s modernization and progress. Teachers of EST much have good command over English and some acquaintance of science is also required or should be from science background and need to avoid L1/ dialect interface error.

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

  

  

The New Empire within Britain- Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

Name: Miss. Jayati Rudresh-Kumar Thakar 

Roll. No: 30

Year: Batch 2015-1017

M.A. Semester: 3

Paper no. 11 Post-Colonial Studies

Unit: 2

Assignment topic: The New Empire within Britain- Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie

Email.Id: jjayti.thakar94@gmail.com

Submitted to: 

Smt.S.B.Gardi          

Department of English,                              Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

Imaginary Homelands

-by Salman Rushdie

* Nostalgia and Memory

“.....The photographs reminds me that it’s my present that is foreign, and that the past is home, albeit a lost home in a lost city in the mists of lost time.”

It is impossible to re- create the past. There is always remains gap between pasts and you can fill that gap with creating fiction. Exactly ‘The Imaginary Homelands’ is all about through which Rushdie tries to fill up that gap.

The New Empire within Britain

In this essay Rushdie discuss the prime quandary of Britain is racism and the problems of immigrants among whites. How they suffers because of racial issues.

(Here, I as a Salman Rushdie speaks)

“British isn’t South Africa. I am reliably informed of this. Nor is it Nazi Germany. I’ve got that on the best authority as well. You may feel that these two statements are not exactly the most dramatic or revelations.”

“I want to suggest that racism is not a side- issue in contemporary Britain; that it’s not a peripheral minority affair. I believe that Britain is undergoing a critical phase of its post- colonial period, and this crisis is not simply economic or political. It’s a crisis of the whole culture, of the society’s entire sense of itself. And racism is only the most clearly visible part of this crisis, the tip of the kind of iceberg that sinks ship.”

The ‘Racial differences’ is the central focus of Rushdie in this essay. Black or Brown or Colored people suffered a lot when British colonies were established in different Asian countries. Their euro-centric mindsets put other into the periphery; which grounded on the racial differentiations; the way colour holds its place in cultural hierarchy with different terms and conditions or colour of skin decides the place of an individual in society. It also creates complex of inferiority in the mindsets of Negros, where the term ‘Negritude’ takes place. Many renewed post- colonial writers tried to capture this situation in their master pieces- 1 ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon, 2 ‘A Tempest’ by Amie Cesaire.

This was not only happening with colonized people it creates more troublesome situation when they immigrant from their land to Whites’ land.

“Now the people whom I’ve characterised as members of a new colony would probably be described by most of you as ‘immigrants’.  And still the word ‘immigrant’ means ‘black immigrants’;  the myth of ‘swamping’ lingers on; and even British-born blacks and Asians are thought of as people whose real ‘home’ is elsewhere. Immigration is only a problem if you are worried about blacks; that is, if your whole approach to the question is one of racial prejudice.”

 “One last point about the ‘immigrants’, It’s a pretty obvious point, but it keeps getting forgotten. It’s this: they came because they were invited. The Macmillan government embarked on a large- scale advertising campaign to attract them. They were extraordinary advertisements, full of hope and optimism, which made Britain out to be a land of plenty, a golden opportunity not to be missed. And they worked. People travelled here in good faith, believing themselves wanted. This is how the new Empire was imported.”

Immigration never holds the place as a problem, but the racial prejudices and biases are center of all. Naturally, they (whites) never give the higher position in commercial field to Brown or Black even though they are much deserving than their people. Even though the colored people have nationality of Britain, they born into the Britain, they are treated as outsiders on the grounds of where their ancestors belonged to.  Generally the land on which one born is became your homeland; it is one’s natural right, but in Britain it became a gift of government (In 1981, the act of nationality snatches the right of the soil, which they possessed for 900 years).      

“In the streets of the new Empire, black women are abused and black children are beaten up on their way home from school. In the run- down housing estates of the new Empire, black families have their windows broken, they are afraid to go out after dark, and human and animal excrement arrives through their letter-boxes. The police offer threats instead of protection, and the courts offer small hope of redress.” 

“Britain is now two entirely different worlds, and the one you inhabit is determined by the colour of your skin. Now in my experience, very few white people, except for those active in fighting racism, are willing to believe the description of contemporary reality offered by blacks. And black people, faced with what Professor Michael Dummett has called ‘the will not to know- a chosen ignorance, not the ignorance of innocence’, grow increasing suspicious and angry.”

“But, I’ve saved the worst and most insidious stereotype for last. It is the characterisation of black people as a Problem. You talk about the Race Problem, the Immigration Problem, and all sorts of Problems. If you are liberal, you say that black people have problems. If you aren’t, you say they are the problem. But the members of the new colony have only one real problem, and that problem is white people.”

Our fair relation with their people remains in fairytale, because their biases will never die and they whole heartily never accept the people who are not belonging there.

Let me repeat what I said at the beginning: British isn’t Nazi Germany. The British Empire isn’t the Third Reich. But in Germany, after the fall of Hitler, heroic attempts were made by many people to purify German thought and the German language of the pollution of Nazism. Such acts of cleansing are occasionally necessary in every society. But British thought, British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism. It’s still there, breeding lice and vermin, waiting for unscrupulous people to exploit it for their own ends. One of the key concepts of imperialism was the military superiority implied cultural superiority.

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

Selected Poetries by Robert Frost

Name: Miss. Jayati Rudresh-Kumar Thakar 

Roll. No: 30

Year: Batch 2015-1017

M.A. Semester: 3

Paper no. 10 American Literature

Email.Id: jjayti.thakar94@gmail.com

Unit: 4

Assignment topic: Selected Poetries by Robert Frost

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi                                  

Department of English,                              Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,                                        Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

Introduction:

Robert Frost was an American poet and he was born on March 1874 in San Francisco, California. He is extremely viewed for his realistic portrayals of rural life and his knowledge of American idiomatic communication. His work normally employed experiences from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to inspect composite social and ethical themes. Frost’s poems contract with man in relation with the world. Man stands alone and weak as compared towards the massiveness of the universe.

Almost all of Frost’s poems portray the themes of mortal restriction. This world looks messy and dreadful because man’s incomplete abilities cannot grasp its sense. Walls, physical and real, mental and invisible, distinct man from Nature. His personal life was full of grief and loss.  

Selected Poetries by Robert Frost

1     Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’

2     Fire and Ice

3     Home Burial

‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost can be considered as a poem of ‘karma- yoga’ or a person’s sense of duty. No doubt the literal meaning of this poem is simple but, the applied meaning of this poem is significant. Robert Frost himself at a particular stage in life worked as a ‘farmer’ and it has been said that he could not get expected prize of the products; which he had gone to sell in the market. While coming back in a wave of despair the present poem was composed.

The poem opens with the description of woods. The woods are lovely, having enough attraction in it to compile any individual to stop there and sit for a while. The poet knows whose woods they are and the owner lives in the village. He won’t mind if the poet stops there for some time to enjoy the beauty of that place. But, when he makes a pause there, his horse considers it strange, uneven and improper, because that is the darkest evening of the year and the lake is also frozen. The same horse gives a shake to its harness bell to remind the poet that their pause there is uneven. The only other sound except of that bell is the whistling sound because of the blowing of the wind.

The poet is remind it that the woods have got enough beauty- they are lovely, dark and deep, but the poet has got many promises to keep before he sleeps there, he has miles to go on and on.

The implied meaning of this poem is more appealing and convincing. The poet knows whose woods they are but that person is not an individual that owner is good almighty; who watches everything. The presence of horse also demands an interpretation. It is not merely in this poem as an animal, but the inner craving of an individual; which does not allow that person to be in the company of nature. The horse’s reminding to the poet is a sign of how man is occupied with material life, which does not allow man to be with nature.

The last stanza of the poem in which; the poet describes the woods lovely, dark and deep has note of despair in it. The word ‘dark’ suggests poet’s despair of Passimism; because he couldn’t get the expected prize of his agriculture products. The word ‘sleep’ suggests not a common sleep in the last two lines of the poem. It stands for ‘death’ and here this poem becomes a poem of ‘karma-yoga’. A man may come across beautiful sights, places and individuals, but man must not make there the final state. Man should go on and on doing his duties and his deeds or karmas. The day man stops performing his duty and karma, it is the day of his ‘death’, though that person may live biologically or physically. The lesson of the poem is importance of ‘Karma’ in life and ‘duty’ is more important than the ‘beauty’.

2 Fire and Ice

This short poem of Robert Frost interprets, his all thinking about ‘how probably the earth would be destroyed? The Indian oriental myth and the western myth- both suggests that there would be the end of this earth. The Indian oriental myth suggests that the earth would be destroyed because of ‘water’, and the western Christian myth suggests that the earth would be destroyed because of ‘fire’. The present poem shows the poet’s thinking about it.

Some people are of the opinion that the earth would be destroyed because of ‘Fire’; while some of others think that the earth would be destroyed because of Ice- Water.  The poet has made its study about desires of the people. On the basis of that study the poet comes to a conclusion that the earth would be destroyed because of the fire of ‘never ending desires’; but if the same earth is to be destroyed twice, the second time it would be destroyed because of ‘Ice’. The poet here refers to ‘cold- blooded’ or ‘cold hearted hatred’, which allows a person to be very cool on the surface but full of hatred and venom (poison) so for the second time if the earth is destroyed, it would be destroyed because of cold- blooded temperament with which remains covered modern man’s hatred. So, both ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ are equally capable of destroying the earth.

3Home Burial

In this narrative poem, Frost describes a tense conversation between a rural husband and wife whose child has recently died. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband, at the bottom of the stairs, does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about the grief; he does not understand why she is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his apathy towards their dead child. The husband mildly accepts her anger, but the rift between them remains. She leaves the house as he angrily threatens to drag her back for by force.

In terms of form, this poem is a dramatic or pastoral lyric poem, using free- form dialogue rather than strict rhythmic schemes. Frost generally uses five stressed syllables in each line and divides stanza in terms of lines of speech.

The poem describes two tragedies: first, the death of a young child, and second, the death of a marriage. As such, the title “Home Burial,” can be read as a tragic double entendre. Although the death of the child is the catalyst of the couple’s problems, the larger conflict that destroys the marriage is the couple’s inability to communicate with one another. Both characters feel grief at the loss of the child, but neither is able to understand the way that their partner chooses to express their sorrows.

The setting of the poem- a staircase with a door at the bottom and a window at the top- automatically sets up the relationship between the characters. The wife stands top of the stairs, directly in front of the window overlooking the graveyard, while the husband stands at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her. While the couple shares the tragedy of their child’s death, they are in conflicting positions in terms of dealing with their grief.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, each character is isolated from the other at opposite ends of the staircase. In order for the marriage to succeed, each character must travel an equal distance up or down the staircase in order to meet the other.

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

  

“The Birthday Party”, a play without Beginning, Ending though Complete

Name: Miss. Jayati Rudresh-Kumar Thakar

Roll. No: 30

Year: Batch 2015-1017

M.A. Semester: 3

Paper no. 9 Modernist Literature.

Email.Id: jjayti.thakar94@gmail.com

Unit: 4

Assignment topic: “The Birthday Party”, a play without Beginning, Ending though Complete

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi                                  Department of English,                              Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University,                                        Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India

                                                                                 

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

About Pinter:

Harold Pinter was born on 10 October, 1930 in Hackney, a working class neighbourhood in East End. Pinter’s family was originally Portuguese (Jew) whose name was Anglicized from ‘da Pinta’, when they arrived in England. Harold spent his first nine years living in the East End of London. His family undergone with financial insecurities, this is how Pinter has himself described the environment in which he spent his childhood.

Historically, the 1930s were a time of economic depression and this turn, led to political and racial unrest. Obviously, life could not always have been easy for a Jewish boy in London East End, in the 1930s. “I got into quite a few fights down there”, says Pinter, who adds, “There was a good deal of violence there in those days.”

Pinter’s first professional Shakespearean role was broad cast on 9^th of February 1951 by BBC. The play was Henry-8 and in this play Pinter played the role of Abregavenny. Pinter then entered the Central School of Speech and Drama as an acting student. Then during his acting years he began to write not only plays but poetry and fiction, withal short- stories.

His famous works:

One- Act Plays like,

1) The Room (1957)

2) The Dumb Waiter

3) A kind of Alaska (1982)

Three Full-Length Plays like,

1) The Caretaker (1960)

2) The Home Coming (1995)

3) No Man’s Land (1975)

About the play ‘The Birthday Party’

It is true without any doubt that the play, The Birthday Party has tension as a permanent part of its action. It consists of the tension of any hunting story. As well it has an almost conventional structure of having clear-cut beginning, middle and an end.

The Distinction between ‘Story’ and ‘Plot’:

In his lectures on Aspects of the novel, E. M. Foster tells us that one of the characteristics of a story is that, its beginning and end are the arbitrary. This brings into focus Aristotle’s insistence that a plot must have a beginning. The plot is something that the poet makes; but as for the story, it is immaterial whether he makes it or not. And because the poet makes his plot, its beginning is as much of his making as anything else about it.

Aristotle’s famous statement that ‘a tragedy must have a beginning, middle and an end’, is thus related to his whole view of the scope of the poet as a ‘maker’. The beginning and end are matters within the poet’s control, and on his determination of them depends the bounds of the unity which is the essential characteristics of all work of art, and of a plot as distinct from a story.

What’s a Beginning?

There are two points about beginnings; (a) A beginning is that which is not, itself necessarily after anything else.

The emphasis here is on the ‘necessarily’, upon the logic of connection. There is no pretence that in order to define this beginning the poet may not have to refer to matters supposed to have happened earlier in the ‘story’. A present situation involves its cause, and it is a great point of dramatic technique to determine how the knowledge of such antecedents is to be conveyed without weakening the carelessness and novelty of the beginnings, and the essential unity of the development of the initial situation. King Oedipus provides a fine example of solving this problem, as of much else. The play begins with the plague in Thebes, and the need to release the city from the plague by the discovery and punishment of the guilty man. The play’s process is the process of discovery: its end, the punishment. Sophocles makes his starting point the moment of despair in the Thebes and their King’s brave determination to deal with it. The initial situation (the plague, the mourning and the royalty) is given immediately in dramatic terms. Thereafter, each step which Oedipus himself provides the occasion for revealing some part of the antecedent knowledge which is necessary to the process of the discovery. And none of this information is needed for the grasping of the initial situation.

In different periods, and with different dramatists, conventions have differed about the method of ‘exposition’. One will find them discussed in a lively way in Mr. F. L. Lucas’s Hogarth Lecture, Tragedy: the Ghost in Hamlet, Prospero’s long expositions of the past to Caliban and Miranda are among his examples. There is no doubt that many of them are clumsy; the classical French use of the confident seems to us sometimes even clumsier still. The c common Greek practice was to use an expository soliloquy in the prologue spoken by a major character, or a minor character. In connection with this matter of the exposition of events antecedent to the beginning of the play, I must say something about the Greek use of traditional stories. There is famous often –quoted and vulgar passage about this in Dryden’s essay of Dramatic Poesy.

(b) The second point about beginning is the obvious one that a Greek tragedy normally ‘started later’ so to speak, than, say, a Shakespearean Tragedy. Here again Dryden’s lively way of putting it comes aptly to hand:

       “The Ancients... set the audience, as it were, at the post where the race is to be concluded; and saving them the tedious expectation of seeing the poet set out and writes the beginning of the course, you behold him. Not till his in sight of the goal, and just upon you.

The two men referred to by Petey in Act-1, Scene-1 

The opening of ‘The Birthday Party’ introduces Meg and Petey and provides a slight build-up for the entrance of Stanley. Petey also tells Meg about the two men who have approached him on the beach and wanted to know if there was any accommodation available for theme in the boarding house to stay for couple of nights, but when Petey told theme that he did not know wither or not the accommodation available, they promised to come down to the boarding house for the inquiry of the facts.

Meg tells Stanley about the two men and he is frightened, in Act-1, Scene-2

In Act-1, Scene-2, the audience sees the reaction of the news about two men, convey to him by Meg at the breakfast table. He is frightened and unnerved and in this state of panic, he first refuses to believe that the two men exists, and then says that they will not come. Stanley then falls into despondent state, but to recover himself tells Meg that he has been offered job as a pianist on a- round- the- world tour and as if  to retaliate for her story of two men, he frightens Meg by telling her that two men will be coming for her that day with a wheelbarrow in their van. At the climax of this tale, there is the knock on the door, but it is only Lulu, a young girl who is Meg’s next door neighbour.

A Post- Modernist Play

The death of the author in post- modernist times has given rise to corresponding birth of the reader. It is significant, then, that The Birthday Party despite its initial failure, should over the years, how become a commercial success, for this is a play which, more than any other on and English stage, heralded the triumphant emergence- or perhaps renaissance- of the reader- participant who contributes to the meaning of the text, and the belated exit of the passive reader, the reader consumer. Pinter’s plays, one’s labelled ‘Comedies of Menace’, are chiefly comedy of illusion, avoidance, withdrawal, mendacity and guile. Because his language is a language of escapist manoeuvring, which studiously avoids the commitment of a conflict or confrontation, it requires, therefore, a specialise kind of reading, one which is attentive to the mercurial wriggles of the protagonist. The audience must be on the lookout for the unexpected twist, the shameless contradiction, the dazzling deduction.

Abrupt Ending of the play          

The accusation against the play that it has no ending, or rather that is no conclusive ending is needless to defend. As a post- modernist play ‘The Birthday Party’ is quite alright. In this play the ending is seldom conclusive and the beginnings seldom crystal clear as in post- modernist play used to be. The play need the participation of an active reader or audience such as might mentally or visually fill up the blanks. That the play leaves the readers in a state of uncertainty and bewilderment is true to an extent. Certain question definitely remain unanswered; for instance, the play is  silent about the fate of Stanley during the night after the party is over and so also is the text silent as to how and why Stanley suffers a nervous breakdown. The audience also has not been given any clue to the fearful and uncertain state of Goldberg and McCann. There are number of such questions that remain unanswered and continue to haunt the audience and provoke them to think again and again about them.

Reader’s Guesswork is Participation

To answer all the questions, left unanswered by the text, it is necessary that the audience or the reader should fill them up by dint of their own guesswork which is the real participation that a post- modernist play so urgently needs. So the reader can guess that during the night after the party was over Stanley might have win subjected not only to verbal attacks but to physical assaults as well. As regards McCann and Goldberg’s feeling insecure, it is clear that this cannot presumably be due to the plight of Stanley or due to the torture they themselves inflicted on him, but because of Goldberg’s deflowering of Lulu, though the play seems to suggest otherwise. Similarly, there is left unanswered the ambiguity and confusion about Monty. Well, an active reader can presume that Monty might be the big gun in the organization in which Goldberg and McCann are serving.

Although a ‘Complete Play’

Thus, we can dare say that ‘The Birthday Party’ is a complete play, having a beginning, middle and an end, just like those in Greek tragedies. If there remains anything in it, it is because the play belongs the post- modernist time, where bewilderment or inconclusiveness is a characteristic feature and requires reader participation to conjecture, to presume and to guess them.   (Pinter)

Works Cited

Pinter, Harold. "The Birthday Party." R.N.Sharma. The Birthday Party. Narain's Series, n.d. 1, 2, 4, 218, 219, 220, 221.

To Evaluate my Assignment Click Here

Paper no 7 Critique on 'Eliot as a Critic'.

   Name:  Jayti R. Thakar.

Paper No: 7. Literary Theory and Criticism

Topic of Assignment: Critique On 'Eliot as a Critic'.

Roll No: 34.

Submitted to: Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English

M. K. Bhavnagar University

To evaluate my assignment Click Here.

Critique “T.S.Eliot as a critic”.

1) What is Criticism?

“Criticism is the practice of judging the merits and faults of evaluative or corrective exercise can occur in any area of human life.

Another meaning of criticism is the study, evaluation and film and social trends. The goal of ‘Literary Criticism’ is to understand the possible meaning of cultural phenomena and the context in which they take shape.

2) Criticism before Eliot and after Eliot.

3) “Eliot as a Critic”.

Besides being a poet, playwright and publisher, T.S.Eliot shows a disinterested endeavor of critical faculty and intelligence in analyzing a work of art.

Eliot was acknowledging as one of the greatest literary critics of England from the point of view of the bulk and quality of his critical writing.

In honor to Eliot, John Hayward states that,

“I cannot think of a critic who has been more widely read and discussed in his own life-time; and not only in English, but in almost every languages, except Russian”. (Encyclopedia)

For the sake of a systematic discussion, his critical works may be grouped under the following heading:

a)         Theoretical criticism dealing with the principles of literature,

b)         Descriptive and practical criticism dealing with the works of individual artists/writers and evaluation of their achievements and,

c)         Theological study.

4) About “Tradition and Individual Talent”.

‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ has been one of Eliot’s extraordinarily influential critical works. It was first published in 1922 in ‘sacred wood’, and was subsequently included in the ‘selected essay’ (1917-1932).

In this essay, Eliot has primarily dealt with his concepts of,

a)                Historical sense and Tradition.

b)                Interdependence of the past and the present.

c)                 Impersonality in art in general and poetry in particular.

5) What is “Tradition”?

According to the Cambridge

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, ‘Tradition means a belief, principle or way of acting which people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time, or all of their beliefs, etc. in a particular society or group.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes ‘Tradition’ an ‘inherited, established or customary pattern of thought, action as behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom)’.

But, ‘tradition’ according to Eliot means ‘principles’ that are to be followed in order to hone your skills as a writer. But, those principles are not inherit age. They are to be studied upon and to be understood in harmony with all the tradition. Eliot says that, “the literary tradition is the outside authority to which an artist in the present must owe allegiance”.

6) What is ‘Individual talent’?

From the point of view of T.S.Eliot, ‘Individual Talent’ simply means with “Inner voice”. Middleton murry first used this word, “Classicism and Romanticism”. He used this word (inner voice) for romantic poets.

According to murry, romantics have full faith in their inner-voice.

7) Eliot’s views on “Tradition and Individual Talent”.

In his essay of “Tradition and Individual Talent”, he had pointed out that there is an intimate relation between the present and the past in the world of literature.

It involves, in the first place, the historical sense. The entire literature of Europe from Homer down to the present day forms a single literary tradition that individual works of art have their significance. This is so because the past is not dead, but lives on in the present (Original text, para-3).

“No poets, 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 artists.”

“You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.”

Past works of literature form an ideal order is disturbed if ever so slightly, when really new work of art appears. 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” (Original text, para-4). In a peculiar sense he will be aware also that he must inevitably be judged by the standards of the past (Original text, para-5).

“He must be aware that the mind of Europe- the mind of his own country- a mind which he learns in time to be much more important than his own private minds…” (Tradition and individual talent- text, para-6)

In second part Eliot gives theory of “Impersonality” he states,

“Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry” (Original text, part: 2, Para 11).

§  Theory of ‘Depersonalization’ :-

According to Eliot bad poet Is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious and conscious where he ought to be unconscious. Both errors tend to make him ‘personal’. “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotions, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of a personality, but an escape from personality” (Original text, Part: 2, Para 17).

§  “Inner- voice” : An Ironic Treatment:-

From the view point of Eliot, for those who believe in the “Inner-Voice”, criticism is of no value at all, because the function of criticism is to discover some common principles for achieving perfection in art, and those who believe in the “Inner – Voice” do not want any principles, they do not care for perfection in art.

Thus, in this essay, he treats tradition not as legacy but as an invention of anyone who is ready to create his or her literary pantheon, depending on his literary tastes and positions. This means that the development of the writer will depend on his or her ability to build such private spaces for continual negotiation and even struggle with illustrious antecedents (previous), and strong influences.

Through this essay Eliot simply tries to convey that,

“One must refer ‘Tradition’, but       not to imitate.”

Harold Bloom terns the state of struggle as the “Anxiety of Influence.”

8) Overview of “The Anxiety of    Influence” (an alternative approach).

Bloom derides Eliot for suggesting a complex, an elusive relationship between the tradition and the individual, and goes on to develop his own theory of influence.

Through an insightful study of romantic poets, Bloom puts forth his central vision of the relations between tradition and individual artist.

Bloom simply means that,

“One is influenced by his former/predecessors one or the other way.”

According to Bloom, in his book’s argument,

“Poetic history is held to be in distinguishable from poetic influence. Since strong poets make that history by misreading one another, so as to clear imaginative space for themselves”.

From above quote Bloom says that poetic history is quite different from poetic influence as the strong poets who created the history or tradition perhaps from their misreading and disproof. So, in that case individual talent proves much better to create an artistic work.

9) Eliot’s faults:-

As a critic Eliot has his faults too.

10)            He changed the mindset of moderns

Though, he has faults in his criticism, he could change the mindset of modernists.

Of all the western modernists, T.S.Eliot (1888-1965) has been the most pervasively influential through both his poetry and his literary criticism. He was initially influenced by the American new Humanists such as Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer, and his early ideas owed a great deal to their emphasis on tradition, classicism and particularly to Ezra Pound and the imagist movement (A history of literary criticism and theory, M.A.R.Habib, 629).

Generally, Eliot considered himself as a “Classicist in Literature”. Because, it was he who first applied the Aristotelian method of comparison and analysis to the elucidation of works of literature. Although, he known as “Modern Critic” that perhaps because he applied the method of science to the study of literature to be able to see it as it really is. This is what he has to offer to present day. (An introduction to literary criticism, B.Prasad, Page. No 238,239)

   My opinions:-

At the end with the limited knowledge I tried to justify the topic. I arouse at a conclusion that I agree with T.S.Eliot at some extent. But, with his theory of “Depersonalization” I don’t agree. It is somehow very difficult to detach yourself from the work. You cannot be detach or disillusion that literature you are writing or the literature you criticizing, unconsciously there is always a sense of “you” in what you think, write or for that matter criticized.

To evaluate my assignment Click Here.

Work Cited: -
Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Eliot, T.S. Tradition and Individual Talent. 1920.

Habib, M. A. R. “The Poetics of Modernism: Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot. “M. A. R. Habib. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory. New Delhi: Blackwell Publishing, Wiley India Pvt. Ltd., 2005, 2008 by M. A. R. Habib. 629.
Prasad, Brijadish. An Introduction to English Criticism. Delhi: Rashtriya Printers, 1965.