John Maxwell Coetzee(born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish TimesInternational Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
Introduction of 'Foe'
Foe is a 1986 novel by South African born Nobel laureate J.M Coetzee. Woven around the existing plot of Robinson Crusoe,Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, a castaway who landed on the same island inhabited by "Cruso" and Friday as their adventures were already underway.Like Robinson Crusoe, it is a frame story, unfolded as Barton's narrative while in England attempting to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction. Focused primarily on themes of language and power, the novel was the subject of criticism in South Africa, where it was regarded as politically irrelevant on its release. Coetzee revisited the composition of Robinson Crusoe in 2003 in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
1) How would you differentiate the
character of Cruso and Crusoe?
Both Foe by J.M. Coetzee and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe have many similarities an differences. Robinson is the protagonist and the narrator of the novel.Cruso to be portrayed as a highly unreliable character.Crusoe is individualistic, self-reliant, and adventurous.
Cruso, a parody of Daniel Defoe's character Robinson Crusoe, is first seen living on the island that Susan washes up on. Defoe uses Robinson Crusoe to explore certain issues like race, gender exploration, and independence through his eyes.
While Coetzee uses his piece to update the outlook of the story by throwing some changes into the mix, like a female main character. Defoe left many questions unanswered while Coetzee tries to answer some of them,Susan Barton is a complex character but she helps fill the void of women left from the original text. In Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe’s personality, beliefs, and feelings, as he’s the narrator and main focus of the book. In Foe, Barton gives specific descriptions that we the reader did not receive from Defoe’s novel.
The difference in Foe is that the main character is a woman who goes by the name of Susan Barton. While Crusoe’s name is spelled differently in Foe. It is spelled Cruso as opposed to Crusoe in the original text. Robinson Crusoe is just a man on an island, although Foe does go a little further into detail about him For example Barton goes on to describe Crusoe to us, “The stranger’s eyes were green, his hair burnt to a straw color. I judged he was sixty years of age. He wore…a jerkin, and drawers to below his knees, such as we see watermen wear on the Thames, and a tall cap rising in a cone, all of these made of pelts laced together, the fur outwards, and a stout pair of sandals. In his belt were a short stick and a knife. A mutineer...yet another mutineer”.
2.Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe.
Friday’s character within both the texts is an important role in the plot and is used to explore themes within them.
There is a large difference between the roles of the two Friday’s in the novels. Coetzee’s Friday is the first character that Susan Barton meets when she is stranded on the island. He is quickly transformed from “a dull fellow” to an object of fascination when she discovers his mutilation.
Both Friday’s lack and acquisition of speech in the novels is very important. In Robinson Crusoe Friday is described as a very fast learner and a good student.
Within Robinson Crusoe Friday not only learns English but can discuss theological ideas and theories.
3.Who is Protagonist?
Susan Barton is the protagonist of 'Foe' by J.M Coetzee.
The presence of a female main character, Susan Barton inCoetzee’s Foe critiques Defoe’s original imagination of Robinson Crusoe by showing the marginalized role of women in the seventeenth century. Susan is very much a man’s woman, a sensual woman represented through her sexuality. In his portrayal of Susan, Defoe is critiquing the traditional male attitude towards women.The rational and struggles for power and independence in the society of the Enlightenment where the story is set. She is seen as non-rational, less valuable and as Other of the white, European male due to her gender.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15th, 1977, in Enugu, Nigeria. She grew up in a home that had previously been inhabited by fellow writer Chinua Achebe. Her parents both worked at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; her father was a professor and her mother was a registrar. After spending a year at Nsukka studying medicine, Adichie moved to the United States when she was nineteen in order to continue her education. Rather than continue to pursue medicine, Adichie studied communication, political science, and creative writing.
Adichie is now a novelist; her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, was published in 2003. She has also written several other critically acclaimed novels, short story collections, and non-fiction essays, including the novel Half of a Yellow Sun. Her work has received significant attention and many literary awards. Adichie now splits her time between the United States and Nigeria.
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie started reading books at an early age of four and started writing stories with crayon illustrations at the age of seven.She read mostly American and British children’s books, which created a single story in her mind about books.She believed that books by their nature should have foreign characters in them and the books should deal with subject matters with which the writer should not have a personal relation. But she realised the mistake when she could read books by African writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye.When she read African books, she realized that girls like her with kinky hair and chocolate coloured skin could also be characters in books.
She had a single story about Fide, their house boy. She believed that he and his family had only poverty in life and did not have any other abilities.Once she visited his house and found beautifully patterned baskets of dyed raffia made by his brother. Then she realised that her single story about Fide and his family was wrong.When she was 19, she went to America to continue her university studies. Her American roommate had a single story about Africa. She believed Africa was only a land of beautiful landscape and all Africans were poor and uneducated tribal people. The roommate did not know English was Nigeria’s official language, and she was shocked to hear Adichie’s excellent English.
Adichie’s American professor also had a single story about Africa. He believed that Adichie’s characters were not authentically African. In his single story, African authors’ characters should be uneducated and starving; they should not be educated and rich enough to drive cars. Though Adichie had a happy childhood in a close-knit family, she had also some painful life experiences.Her grandfathers died in refugee camps. Her cousin Polle died due to lack of enough medical care. Her closest friend Okoloma died in a plane crash.
Finally Adichie says in her speech that single stories create stereotypes, and the stereotypes are not untrue, but they are incomplete. They make a single story the only story.
We Should all be feminist
We teach girls that they can have ambition, but not too much to be successful, but not too successful, or they'll threaten men, says author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In this classic talk that started a worldwide conversation about feminism, Adichie asks that we begin to dream about and plan for a different, fairer world of happier men and women who are truer to themselves.
If one had ability and interest than gender doesn't matter. If it is our culture than culture doesn't make people but people make culture and every tradition changes with the passing of time. And for a change we must raise a voice against it and then and we can survive and make our position.Chimamanda gives the definition for feminist which is "A feminist is a man or woman who says, yes there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it and we must do better."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Harvard University
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
was invited at Harvard University in 2018 as guest lecturer .
She shared an anecdote about an English woman who, despite her best intentions, somehow mauled her name in front of an audience, calling her “chimichanga.”
I told this story at a dinner party shortly afterwards and one of the guests seemed very annoyed that I was laughing about it, ‘that was so insulting’ he said ‘that English woman could have tried harder.’ But the truth is she did try very hard, in fact she ended up calling me a fried burrito because she had tried very hard and then ended up with an utterly human mistake. That was the result of anxiety.
So, the point of this story is not to say that you can call me chimichanga.The point is that intent matters, that context matters. Somebody might very well call me chimichanga out of a malicious desire to mock my name and that I would certainly not laugh about, for there is a difference between malice mistake and a mistake.She discussed the outrage and “cancelling” culture, urging the graduates to take note of context and intent.
She also asked that the graduates always speak the truth, valuing it above lies.
Myself, Aamena Rangwala student of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Department of English. We had a movie screening based on play 'Final Solution' in class so, this thinking activity is based on movie screening of play . In this blog I am going to discuss few questions given as task based on ' Final Solution'.
Mahesh Dattani
Mahesh Dattani (born 7 August 1958) is an Indian director, actor, playwright and writer. He wrote such plays as Final Solutions,Dance Like a Man, Bravely Fought the Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Tara Thirty Days in September and The Big Fat City.
He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award. His plays have been directed by eminent directors like Arvind Gaur, Alyque Padamsee and Lillete Dubey.
The Final Solution summary
The play Final Solutions, written by Mahesh K. Dattani discusses the theme of communal riots, hatred and bitterness of Hindus and Muslims against each other.Plot is set in Gujarat. The play is divided into three acts.
Basically, Final Solutions is the story of a Gujarati family that consists of four people – grandmother (Daksha/ Hardika), father (Ramnik), mother (Aruna), and daughter (Smita); and their encounter with two muslim boys.
1)What is the significance of the subtitle "Final Solutions"?
In the play communal riots, is at the peak. It can be seen when we find Hindu mob chasing Javed and Bobby after knowing that they are Muslims.Next, we also come to know other complex stories like love affair of Smita (who is a Hindu) and Bobby, Javed’s story of adopting extremist way, Ramanik’s grabbing of Javed’s land (after burning his shop) etc.
We find that Ramanik blames Javed and his community and vice versa. But deep inside, Ramanik’s conscience does not allow him to live in peace because of the sin which he committed in the past.There is another issue which is discussed in the play. It is the orthodoxy which is inherited among the believers of every religion. They consider people from other commun- ities as untouchables. Aruna’s denying Bobby and Javed from spending night at their home depicts this.
So, throughout the play, we find ample of problems and the playwright has not given any solution. Instead, he has let the audience to decide. Hence, the final solutions are, in real, no solutions to these communal problems.
2)The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?
In movie we can find many symbols used by Mahesh Dattani but which symbols caught my attention are as follows:- Dairy , Frame of singer, Glass of water.
Dairy
The play opens with a kind of flashback scene. In this scene we see and hear a fifteen year-old bride Daksha reading out what she had written in her diary. This flashback goes back to the late 1940. Here we simultaneously see and hear Daksha as she has passed nearly fifty years. In the present she is the grandmother known by the name Hardika. Diary is a record with entries arranged by date reporting on what has been done in the past.Through the diary two generation of time past and time present is heavily compared.
Frame of singer's
We can see that the frame was in her hands which removed from old pitara which shows her passion for singing but was not allowed to sing. She has a good taste for the songs of Shamshad Begum, Noor Jahan etc. She even wanted to become a singer like them but due to the family restrictions, her desires remain unfulfilled.
From this we can notice that female's were not given rights to follow their passion. we can notice patriarchal society.
Glass of water
Aruna was not ready to give glass of water to Javed and Bobby because she is was a religious person. Which shows that she highly believes in communal discrimination.
3) Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?
No ,Ramanik is no liberal thinker. Ramanik offers a job at his cloth-shop because, his father and his grandfather burnt the shop of Zarine’s father to buy it at a reduced price (in the name of communal hatred) and now he repents over his past deeds.
4) Does education make any difference? Comment with the reference to the women characters.
Yes,education makes difference in thinking process. Daksha/Hardika both are same character which in diary represent two generation of time past and time present is heavily compared. She was writing dairy which shows that she was educated while Smita daughter of Ramanik and Aruna was also studying in college . So both the female characters Daksha/ Hardika and Smita was having liberal thoughts and they don't believe in communal discrimination. The difference of uneducated person is seen in the character of Aruna who was wife of Ramanik she was religious person who highly believes in communal discrimination. Education allows us to better understand the world in which we live and open our eyes to look at situations with different perspectives.
R.K. Narayan, in full Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan, original name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, (born October 10, 1906, Madras [now known as Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation writing in English.
Narayan was raised by his grandmother, he completed his education in 1930 and briefly worked as a teacher before deciding to devote himself to writing. His first novel , Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys. That book and much of Narayan’s later works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi. Narayan typically portrays the peculiarities of human relationships and the ironies of Indian daily life, in which modern urban existence clashes with ancient tradition. His style is graceful, marked by genial humour, elegance, and simplicity.
Summary of the story
The short story ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ by R. K. Narayan is a thriller and suspense short story which deals with a single day in the life of an ordinary astrologer who shrewdly tries to dupe people and escape from his guilt. The story not only exposes the fake astrologer but also highlights the gullible and superstitious people who approach him. His day begins like any other day but the day ends with unexpected events. When he is about to wind up his business, he meets a rogue character, Guru Nayak who is a part of the past life of the astrologer. Towards the end, as readers, we receive a shock that Guru Nayak and the astrologer belong to the same native towns. They were once upon a time good friends and had a quarrel one day. The result was that both were into bad company and had a fight. The astrologer tried to kill Guru Nayak by attacking him with a knife and when Guru Nayak fainted, he threw him into a nearby well.
Fortunately, a passerby saved Guru Nayak. The astrologer left his native village forever and became an astrologer. Thus suddenly he confronts his past unexpectedly but smartly tackles the situation.
The surrounding darkness seems to offer a refuge to the astrologer. There is an unexpected twist in the tale with the arrival of Guru Nayak on the scene. Gradually the mystery that is hidden in the darkness is unveiled by his questions. Guru Nayak challenges the astrologer’s knowledge. He refuses to go away without getting a satisfactory answer to his questions.
However, the astrologer who is at his wit’s end now decides to face the situation. He displays accurate knowledge about Guru Nayak’s past and is successful in convincing him. In answering the question of Guru Nayak, the astrologer has not only deceived him but also saved himself from his own fate. The author superbly evokes the atmosphere of suspense and irony in the story. The story reveals how appearances are often deceptive. It shows the witty astrologer’s encounter and escape from his former enemy.
1.How faithful is the movie to the original short story?
Yes, the movie faithful to the original story . All the scenes are correctly placed in the movie even the minor things are added in the movie . Just two scenes are there which are not in the original text . One is the astrologer’s wife at the initial part and his reveal of his crime through the story of money. Likewise, the movie is
quiet faithful to the original story line.
2.After watching the movie, have your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?
The original story is quite faithful to the movie so while watching the moive my perception has not changed but character of Astrologer and Guru Nayak both of them affected me because their was suspense behind being An Astrologer. For the reason he has to leave that place for his family livelihood and this safety. Adaptation movie helped us to understand the storyline and the characters in more significant way.
3.Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If not, can you explain with reasons?
No, I didn't feel any aesthetic delight because the story was moving very smoothly and in a same flow as described in the original story. But at last when the suspense was revealed which was something shocking.
4.Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story?
Yes, screening of movie help you in better understanding of the short story
Because sometimes reading becomes boring and watching becomes delightful. Watching movie which is based on our study material is more helpful in understanding it in more better way.
5.Was there any particular scene or moment in the story that you think was perfect?
Yes,when Guru Nayak met Astrologer and told his story of incident and further more was added by Astrologer because he was the real person behind the problem. And the suspense was revealed about the Astrologer so this scene was perfect in story.
6.If you are director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of the movie based on the short story “An Astrologer’s Day” by R.K.Narayan?
I ,would make change by using proper location. And even suspense which remained suspense in movie if I may be director I may reveal the suspense in my story Guru Nayak would be protagonist rather than 'An Astrologer'.
“All human beings have the potential for same-sex desire or for sexual activity that does not fit a heterosexual framework”.
What is queer studies?
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, intersex people and cultures.
Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities. The term “queer” was originally derogatory, used to stigmatize male and female same-sex love as deviant and unnatural; since the early 1990s, however, it has been adopted by gays and lesbians themselves as a noninvidious term to identify a way of life and an area for scholarly inquiry. See Teresa de Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, 1991; and Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction, 1996.
Queer refers to writings that question the socially accepted heteronormative (straight) identities involving gender and sexuality. The word ‘queer’ has been seen as an attempt to re-appropriate the word from its use in a homophobic manner. Even though the word ‘queer’ has been a word of oppression, it has now become a word of social change to show how the heterosexists are quick to label and judge “the other” and therefore should not be allowed to define the ‘queer’ experience as the true concept of queerness accepts sexual identity as fluid.
Notable Theorist
Michael Foucault
Michel Foucault defined sex, gender, and sexual difference as products derived from society and not natural as they were never giving meaning until society dictated what is normative and therefore socially accepted in the mass populous.
Judith Butler
Judith Butler argued that gender and sexuality are social and performed roles derived from culture and media. She coined the phrase, “gender trouble” to challenge the exaggerated ideals of masculinity and femininity and the perception that only heterosexuality or heteronormativity is or should be the norm.
Example:-
There is even a TV series based on Queer Studies. Queer Eye is an American reality television series, initially released on February 7, 2018, on Netflix. It is a reboot of the Bravo eponymous series, featuring a new "Fab Five": Antoni Porowski, food and wine expert; Tan France, fashion expert; Karamo Brown, culture expert; Bobby Berk, design expert; and Jonathan Van Ness, grooming expert. The award-winning show is known for its strong representation amongst the LGBT community and communities that include people of color.
Feminism Criticism
“ Feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (or artifacts, cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political social and psychological oppression of women”.
What is feminism?
The term “Feminism” originates from the Latin word “Femina” meaning “woman”, thereby referring to the advocacy of women’s rights seeking to remove restrictions that discriminate against women. It essentially relates to the belief that women are equal power holders, and therefore it stands against any form of discrimination or subjugation that women face.
The construct of patriarchal society has deemed women as the inferior gender. In literature feminist theory searches for where the texts perpetuates the power-struggle of patriarchy’s sexists ideal: the belief that women are man’s “other” to which women have been defined by their inadequacy in comparison to men. Even more so feminist theory seeks to discover where the patriarchal ideology that women can only have two identities: Madonna (virgin) or whore is either reinforced or broken.
The 18th Century writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her A Vindication of the Rights of Women(1792), Wollstonecraft rejected the established view that women are naturally weaker or inferior to men.
The unequal nature of gender relations, she proposed, was because the lack of education kept the women in a secondary position. She further proposed that women must be treated as equals because they play a crucial role in society. Women themselves should strive to become ‘companions’ rather than mere wives to their husbands.
In the 20th century novelist Virginia Woolf provided the first critiques antly that we can recognize as marking feminism as we know it today. In works like A Room of One’s Own(1929) and Three Guineas(1938), Woolf explored gender relations. One of the first writers to develop a woman-centric notion of reading and education, she argued that the patriarchal education system and reading practices prevent women readers from reading as women. They are constantly trained to read from the men’s point of view. Woolf also argued that authorship itself is gendered. The language available to the women is patriarchal.
Cotemporary social views of gender owe much to critiques of patriarchy in the words of Simone de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir argued in her most famous work, The Second Sex that men are able to mystify women. This mystification and stereotyping instrumental in creating patriarchy. She argued that women, in turn, accepted this stereotype, and were thus instruments of their own oppression. In fact, women are measured by the standard of men and found ‘inferior’. This is the process of othering where women will always be seen, not as independent or unique but as a flawed version of the male. Men and women are, therefore, constantly engaged in this subject- other relationships where the man is the subject and the woman the other.
Notable Theorist
Kate Millet
Kate Millet argued gender is socially constructed as it is performed, taught and reinforced into the concepts of masculinity and femininity.
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir argued men are considered essential subjects (independent selves with free will), while women are considered contingent beings (dependent beings controlled by circumstances).
Marxist criticism
“Marxist analysis of human events and productions focus on relationships among socioeconomic classes, both within a society and among societies, and it explains all human activities in terms of distribution and dynamics of economic power ”.
What is marxism?
Marxism is the belief that every ill of the world (racism, consumerism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia, feminism, religion, patriotism, etc.) is due to class barriers between the haves and the have nots: the bourgeoisie – those who control the world’s natural, economic, and human resources and the proletariat – the majority of the global population who live in substandard conditions and perform the manual labor. The world is in a state of wealthy vs. poverty, survival of the fittest. Marxism is a political and economic theory and philosophy that analyzes the present (why the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich) and predicts where society is headed and it calls for a revolution in order to create a new society.
Marxist criticism, in its diverse forms, grounds its theory and practice on the economic and cultural theory of Karl Marx (1818–83) and his fellow-thinker Friedrich Engels (1820–95) and especially on the following claims:
The changing mode of its “material production”— that is, of its overall economic organization for producing and distributing material goods.
Changes in the fundamental mode of material production effect changes in the class structure of a society.
Human consciousness is constituted by an ideology.
Notable Theorist
Karl Marx
Karl Marx created this understanding of texts produced by cultures with the focus on how does the text reinforce or resist (or both) the capitalist “material conditions” of the time of its writing or how does the character/s do that within the story promoting a Marxist agenda to the outside reader. Marx tried to expose the elitist forces at work that keep the lower people from igniting a revolution of change for which has yet to happen.
Hello! everyone ,this is blog is made as a part of activity based on 'Machine Translation '.
Introduction of Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now known as Kolkata], India—died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to receive the
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Home and the World
The Home and the World (in the original Bengali, ঘরে বাইরে Ghôre Baire or Ghare Baire, lit. "At home and outside") is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The book illustrates the battle Tagore had with himself, between the ideas of Western culture and revolution against the Western culture.These two ideas are portrayed in two of the main characters, Nikhilesh, who is rational and opposes violence, and Sandip, who will let nothing stand in his way from reaching his goals. These two opposing ideals are very important in understanding the history of the Bengal region and its contemporary problems.
Original writeup
Nature
The physical world and the inner soul constitute nature, the ultimate source of our living. Both living and non-living things include nature, and everyone is interdependent, which helps maintain the ecosystem. Plants, animals, and humans all depend on nature for their survival.
Bangla translation
প্রকৃতি
দৈহিক জগত এবং অভ্যন্তরীণ আত্মা প্রকৃতি গঠন করে, আমাদের জীবনযাত্রার চূড়ান্ত উত্স। জীবিত এবং নির্জীব উভয়ই প্রকৃতিকে অন্তর্ভুক্ত করে এবং প্রত্যেকেই পরস্পর নির্ভরশীল, যা ইকোসিস্টেম বজায় রাখতে সাহায্য করে। গাছপালা, প্রাণী এবং মানুষ সবাই তাদের বেঁচে থাকার জন্য প্রকৃতির উপর নির্ভর করে
Hello, I am Aamena Rangwala from Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji university Bhavnagar.
On auspicious view for of Teacher's Day we are virtually celebrating this day.Click on this link Araby please do watch the above given video and apply for the below given quiz and you will receive your certificate after completion of the quiz. (The video is attached in docs form).
