Pre Thinking Task on Short Stories

          

          Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Q.1   Read the first Gujarati story and listen to the audio recitation of the second story. Observe how the two wordsmiths work wonders through words! (Absolute obsession of alliteration)

        Mansangh short story by Jayant Khatri and Pankor Doshi by Zaverchand Meghani both story are really interesting and the use of language is pure native Gujarati, it is called vulgar or vernacular language. I observed in Mansangh story two wordsmith works as wonder

 એક તો એ અંધારી રાત હતી'.
 નીરસનીજૅન વાતાવરણ
Here story starts with the dark night we can say that author is trying to create fearful soundings for readers. Second story Pankor Doshi also start with night. Words used like “બિહામણી રાત”, “કાળના તમાચા”. Through that words author creates an visual image in readers mind and it effects on reader heart too.


Q.2  List out various adjectives that contribute the most in creating the "pre-established design" or effect that the author intended to create.

        The use of adjective is used very appropriately to create an effect on the readers mind-  

નીરસનીજૅન વાતાવરણ
ખોખરો અવાજ, અંધારી રાત etc. And in the second story author uses adjectives like- સાકડ શેરી, ઘોઘરો અવાજ, ધુમાડીયુ કાળુ ફાનસ etc.
Through the adjectives author tries to creating the pre established design for readers.


Q.3    Which are the phrases you find frightening? How are they placed in the text?

         I feel frightened while reading this phrase –
હૈયા સૂના કરયા, અંતરમાં લાઈ બળવી, નિગૂઢ રૂદન કરવુ and other story phrase – ઢગલો થઈ પડવુ, મરણોત્તરના મુખે, ચરિત્રતાની દાડીએ, બોકાસા પાડવા when I was listening Pankor Doshi story at 12:05 I really felt that kind of horror feeling.


Q.4    Can you find out any other lexical varieties such as figures of speech like simile, metaphor, personification etc? Briefly explain their significance in the story.

        Yes, I found figures of speech like metaphor, personification, exaggeration –

Metaphor – મે જોયુ તો માનસંઘની દષ્ટિ શૂન્ય બની ગ્ઈ,
Simile - આભય ફાટી જાય એવુ હસી
Personify - પૃથ્વી અને આકાશ બંને રડી રહ્યા છે
Alliteration- આસુના દરિયા ની કંઈક ભરતી હતી જાણે!
In the second story –
Exaggeration-
ચાલતુ ગાડુ ઘોડીયા જેવુ બની ગયુ
Simile-
કોઈ ચિતારાએ છાયા ચિત્ર આલયુ હોય તેવુ સ્તબ્ધ ઊભુ હતુ
Assonance -ધન્ય મોલા ધન્ય અલ્લા ધન્ય તારી સાહેબી

        Both stories are related to terrible condition of society, sometimes people don’t know anything but they talked about something which is not real in life, even they don’t think about how it could effect on someones life  and in the second story Pankor Doshi is also untouchable character she suffers a lot but  she doesn't have courage to face any situation. Here again it satires on societies mindset how one woman lost her husband and looses her identity too and for her son's death the ruthless society is responsible. At last she fight against the society and makes a way for her.


Q.5    What is the impact of listening  to the stories on your mind? Which Rasas/emotions erupt in you during and after the reading/listening sessions?

        While reading and listening story at that time I thought such a cruel society is portrait where destroying someone life is easy because in both the story situations are same. In the first story Mondhi suffering after her husband's death and in the second story Pankor Doshi's condition is same after her husband death, but here Pankor Doshi's story is for appropriate for a quote - 'Man can defeated but cannot be destroy'. When I was reading and listening the story I had the feeling of terror, horror and thriller.

Thinking Activity on "The Birthday Party"

          The Birthday Party (1957) is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter, first published in London by Encore Publishing in 1959. It is one of his best-known and most frequently performed plays. In the setting of a rundown seaside boarding house, a little birthday party is turned into a nightmare when two sinister strangers arrive unexpectedly. The play has been classified as a comedy of menace, characterized by Pinteresque elements such as ambiguous identity, confusions of time and place, and dark political symbolism.

   Characters:

• Petey
• Meg
• Stanley
• Lulu
• Goldberg
• McCann

          The Birthday Party is about Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player who lives in a rundown boarding house run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town, "probably on the south coast, not too far from London". Two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, arrive looking for him, supposedly on his birthday, and turn his apparently-innocuous birthday party organized by Meg into a nightmare.

          The Birthday Party has been described by Irving Wardle and later critics as a "comedy of menace" and by Martin Esslin as an example of the Theatre of the Absurd. It includes such features as the fluidity and ambiguity of time, place, and identity and the disintegration of language.

Q.1   Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?

         It is very difficult to know director’s intention behind omitting Lulu’s scene because it does not make any difference if the scenes are omitted. Lulu is a girl who can be impressed very easily and we can see in the movie that she is actively participating with Goldberg. Goldberg is not doing it forcefully or Lulu is not in position where she has to be submissive, she is doing it willingly. The center of the play is Stanley and symbolically Lulu is his inspiration. When Lulu goes near to Goldberg, it is enough to see that how Stanley is left alone now and after this may be there is no need to show the scene of Lulu blaming Goldberg. May be because of this reason director omitted the scene of Lulu.

Q.2   Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? a you able to feel it while reading the text?

        Yes, while watching movie we do feel the effect of menace. The pause between dialogues we can feel while watching, but while reading we don’t take pause and we can’t feel also. The effect of menace come when we watch the expression of actors and by that we also can feel. The pause and silence of Pinter is hard to understand while reading. When we have audio visual effect the menacing effect becomes stronger. But while reading some time it happens that we don’t understand effect and so we can not feel it.


Q.3   Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text?

        Yes, I do feel lurking danger while watching movie. In movie I feel it when Stanley hide in kitchen and then they all are playing blind man’s buff and this danger remain as it is when Goldberg and MacCann take Stanley away. While reading for the first time we feel this when Meg ask to Petey that is it him or not and for some time Petey don’t answer we feel the danger there. Then again when interrogation scene came and at last when they take Stanley away.


Q.4   What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.

        Newspaper is one of the symbol in movie. Newspaper is something which shows us the reality of world. Petey is reading newspaper to Meg at that time he exercising his power over his wife. Meg is the person who mostly live in her goody goody world. She also ask Petey to tell her some good news only. Petey is different person than Meg so while reading newspaper he is trying to have his own separate world from Meg. MacCann is tearing the newspaper, it shows that he is trying to destroy the reality, may be his real self. He is very disturbed by the job which is given to him and by tearing the newspaper he is trying to tear his fear and frustration. At last Petey hides the pieces of newspaper from Meg. To keep Meg in her imaginative and happy world and to hide the reality of Goldberg and MacCann and Stanley.


Q.5   Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera?

        The director of the movie had taken very effective work from camera. During the blind man’s buff scene also it works effectively. MacCann was there in that house because he wants to grab Stanley. When it come to blindfold MacCann the camera was over the head of MacCann and his expression was also savage. It is like he is trying to get his prey. But when it comes to Stanley the camera is on top of the room and room is looking like cage and Stanley is trying to escape. So it is symbolically said that now Stanley is in trap and he can not escape because Goldberg and MacCann will not allow him to do so.


Q.6   "Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?

        Yes, this do happen in movie. Most of the scenes are in drawing room. The space is so narrow and the dialogues are also unpredictable. We can not imagine what is going on in the mind of characters. Every character is on the mercy of each other, weather it is Stanley, Petey, Meg, Goldberg, MacCann, or Lulu. Every characters are living on other. At some point of time every one’s false faces falls down. They became what they really are. So yes this lines do happen in movie.


Q.7   How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like pinteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?

        The movie is really great help to understand its typical characteristics which most of them while reading is hard to get. Like there is two Silence in Pinter’s play which gave better understanding rather than reading. The pause we can feel while watching but while reading it is just like a word. So yes it is better to watch movie of this play then the reading and it also gives deeper understanding of Pinter’s characteristics.


Q.8   With which of the following observations you agree:
o   “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
o    “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin. (Ebert)

        Though I haven’t seen any other version of play but I will go with second observation because by this movie we feel all the effect which Pinter wants to create on audience mind. Director has take good shots from camera and all actors have also did very good job. So I can’t imagine a better film than this one.


Q.9   If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
·   Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?

        This film is great in it self, I don’t feel anything to change, but may be I will add the scene of Lulu because I don’t think Pinter has written it purposelessly. Other than that I don’t think movie needs any further change.

If I have to choose the actors for this movie I will choose…
Stanley – Ranveer Singh
Goldberg – Paresh Rawal
MacCann – Manoj bajpayee
Petey – Anupam Kher
Meg – Kiran Kher
Lulu – Kangana Ranaut

   

Methods of English Language Teaching #ELT #Unit3

          In this unit we learnt different types of method which are very much different from each other. They are as given below:

• The Grammar Translation Method
• The Direct Method
• The Audio Lingual Method
• Total Physical Response
• Suggestopedia
• The Silent Way

1.     Which method appealed you the most from the above given methods? Give Reasons.

        The most appealing method to me is the direct method. In this method non-native learner can easily learn the second language by looking at the picture or expression of a person. In this method handwriting and speech both are improved. One can easily learn English by this method. Reading and self-correcting is being done so I feel that this can work for a beginner. 


2.     Tell something about your favorite method used by your teachers from School till PG. How is their method unique?

        My favorite method up till now is the one in which first teacher use to give the basic and fundamental knowledge of the lesson is going to start so that the base of the student get strong and clear. Once the base is ready teacher can easily explain the lesson by just giving the important points and then the class interaction is conduct in order to make it more firm.


3.     Tell something about the method you didn’t like from School till PG. Give Reasons.

        In some of the methods I didn't liked are just coming in class and simply going through the lesson without any basic information. All students are not same and so all might not be having the clear idea about the topic and teacher has to keep all students in mind and teach. 

Films of Post Colonial studies: Midnight's Children and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Midnight's Children:

          Postcolonial as the word itself shows refers to period after colonialism. Colonialism is refferd to subjugation of weak countries and nations by the strong ones. When subjugation of colonizer by the colonized comes to its end and the colonizer physically leaves, it leaves behind some social, economical and emotional traces, which then become part of the previously colonized society. Postcolonial studies or literature is the literature created after the physical departure of colonizer from the colonized territory.

          Midnight's Children is a 2012 Canadian-British film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. The film was also a nominee for Best Picture and seven other categories at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards, winning two awards.

          Midnight's Children is the story of Saleem Sinai, the narrator, whose birth parallels the emergence of independent India. By the apt use of magical realism, he narrates his life story and relates it to the national history of India. Rushdie uses the magical realist technique to talk about the postcolonial people of India, and different postcolonial issues. Instead of using realist technique, he employs this particular technique to expose and comment on different social and political problems a newly independent country like India has to encounter.

         This piece of art is among the most famous postcolonial social, cultural, political and religious practices that were evident in India. It deals with the life of almost three generation in detail, it is set in the time when India was under British rule till the year after independence so it covers the period from occupation till independence and the following years. It gives a colonial and more particularly the postcolonial picture of India. Magic realism is the narrative style of this novel and also the flash back method.

          The magic realism narrative adds beauty and vigor to the historical events represented in the novel and movie. Many real events are told and discussed here with addition of fantasy. This movie represents different geographical boundaries of India after independence. I feel that the powers they posses represent the quality of the particular areas they belong.

          Rushdie uses religious hybridity in to symbolize the identity crisis of India at the time of independence. The religious uncertanity of the characters is also the religious uncertanity of India. The root of the problem, however, does not start with independence, but instead, trace back to Adam's return from abroad and dismissal of his traditional religion.

         The beginning and the ending frame of the movie is almost same. It begins and ends with Saleem's birthday, fire crackers and ending of 14 August and rising of 15 August our independence day.



The Reluctant Fundamentalist:

          The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012 political thriller drama film based on the 2007 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. It is a post-9/11story about the impact of the Al Qaeda attacks on one Pakistani man and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them.

          The film premiered as the opening film for the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival. The film had a limited release in the United States, India, and in Europe and North America. In Pakistan, the film was released in Urdu with a changed title as Changez on 24 May 2013. The film won "Centenary Award" at the 43rd International Film Festival of India held in Goa.

          

          The plot begins with the kidnapping of Anse Rainier, an American professor at Lahore University. After which an American Journalist Bobby Lincoln, a CIA agent comes to interview the protagonist Changez Khan at small cafe in Lahore. Story start with flash back technique and we see the frame narrative technique was used in the movie. Changez Khan opens up in front of Bobby and tells about his life that how he lived in America in last one decade, and then leaved U.S. As like other he was also enchanted with the American dream. For that he struggles a lot and gets success. He becomes CEO of the company and he enjoy to being CEO. But one event of 9/11 changes his life's story completely in an unbelievable manner.  

          The concept of racism we find in the entire movie. When the American colleague of Changez Khan has been kidnapped, at that time the main suspect was Changez because he was a Muslim tutor.

          When Changez went for interview at that time Jim Mack makes fun on Changez this shows the mindset of the white people towards black people.

                “Looks are deceiving”     

          This dialogues reflects postcolonial aspect of racism. Most of the time people are judged according to their look, but looks deceives people. First when Changez has looks like American people at that time white people have no problem but when he has beard and started appearing like Muslim, it  become problematic. 

          Very first time Changez fills like an outsider in America when American police treated him as terrorist because he has beard like Muslim. In that scene we can see that there is a reflection of Changez on glass and WTC tower is blasting, which suggests the blast of an American dream of Changez. The felling of “Otherness” Changez feels in America. He becomes stranger for America because of his identity as Muslim and Pakistani.

          In this movie we find term like, racism, terrorism and post colonialism. In the movie we find deep impact of racism and colonialism in mind of white people. The same thing we find in the movie New-York also. 

          

Thiong'o, Tharoor and Films on Colonial History

Shashi Tharoor:

• Author: Shashi Tharoor
• Language: English
• Genre: History
• Publication date: March 2007
• Publisher: Aleph (India), C. Hurst & Co. (UK)

          Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India is a book by Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician and diplomat. The book depicts the atrocities and wrongdoings that were committed in the Indian sub-continent during the British Raj. It was published in India under the title: 'An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India'.

          Tharoor made a speech over a 2015 Oxford Union debate on the topic "Does Britain owe reparations to its former colonies?" which went viral over the web. Subsequently, his publisher floted the idea to transform the speech into a book. Whilst he was initially skeptical, he later went to write a 330 page book.

          what did I learn about my country's dark history as a subject of the British Raj? These are just some of the facts that absolutely shocked me... 

• Britain destroyed India's famed textile, shipbuilding and steel industries, reducing India's GDP to 3% by the time they departed India (a sharp contrast to the early 1800s when India's share of the world economy was a whopping 23%). 
• Courtesy the heavy taxation levied upon Indians during the Raj, India was Britain's biggest source of revenue at the end of the 19th century.
• Over 74,000 Indian soldiers died fighting Britain's cause in World War 1; London's Imperial War Museum pays tribute to animals that went to war, but sacrifices by millions of Indians remain untold stories. 
• The British were not interested in educating Indians and left India with a sordid 16% literacy rate. They taught English to a handful of Indians only for the sake of interpretation. 
• The railways built by Britain in India was not for the benefit of Indians but to further their colonial cause and profit from trade. 
• One Briton discovered tea leaves in Assam, and thus spurred India's tea cultivation spree by the British, for the British. British greed for commercial gains resulted in vast forest lands to be razed down, to grow tea, coffee and timber. 
• When General Dyer, the man behind the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, ordered his soldiers to fire every bullet unannounced in the hearts of 15,000 people gathered unarmed to celebrate Baisakhi, the British rewarded him a handsome financial sum and presented him a bejeweled sword! 
• Colonialists like Thomas Pitt looted India; he took off to Britain after resigning from the post of Governor of Madras after acquiring a 400 carat gem. The 'Pitt Diamond' represented the widespread extraction of wealth by the British from India. 
• The British 'Divide and Rule' policy resulted in the Hindu-Muslim strife that eventually culminated into the Partition of India in 1947, creating a new Pakistan that Indians of Muslim faith could call home.
• British barrister Cyril Radcliffe was tasked to partition India and Pakistan within 40 days; the lines he drew across the map dissected families, homes, fields and villages.  
• Nearly 4 million Bengalis died in the Bengal famine of 1943 a.k.a. 'India's Forgotten Holocaust'. Despite this, Winston Churchill diverted food from starving Indians to well taken care of British soldiers in Greece, and blamed Indians for 'breeding like rabbits', going as far as to question 'Why hasn't Gandhi died yet?'

Then and Now: Colonialism, Imperialism and Postcolonialism

Ania Loomba:

          Ania Loomba is Catherine Bryson professor in the field of English at the  Pennsylvanian popular works are:

1. ‘Gender,Race, Renaissance Drama.

2. ‘Dead Woman Tell No Tales:Issues of     

     Female subjectivity’.

3.’Shakespeare, Race and colonialism(2002)

4.’Postcolonial studies and Beyond(2005)

    

          There are some great and influential works of Ania Loomba.

The term colonialism is so much near to the word ‘imperialism’.

          The term according to ‘OED’ it’s comes from the Roman term ‘colonia’ which means ‘farm’or ‘settlement’.It means Roman who settled in other lands but still  their deep craving for their own land.The ‘oxford English Dictionary’ defined  it as-

          “A settlement in a new country… a body of people who settle in a new locality,forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state;the community so formed , consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors,as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up.”

  -Ania Loomba’s colonialism/

   post colonialism (p.7)              

                                                             

          The process of colonialism/post colonialism today just remain for the land.But, it’s became much wider and wider. It’s based on language,land,race, gender ,attitude economy there are all those thing decides that one is ‘superior’ another is ‘Inferior’.And, Ania Loomba talked about the same things here.

Ania  Loomba’s views about colonialism/ post colonialism:

          Colonialism is the physical occupation of territory and post-colonialism deals with The effects of colonization on cultures and societies.In the beginning of the book, on the publication of the  ‘second Edition’ of the book peter Hulme given few lines that-

          “Colonialism/post colonialism is both a crystal-clear to read.”of book beachers who dents radical potential.It’s exactly the sort of book teachers who dents to read.”

-Peter Hulme ,Department of Literature,Film and The university.

Ania Loomba’s colonialism/post colonialism.

          In her book ‘colonialism/post colonialism’.she mainly discussed about how ‘colonialism’ relevant with the person,place or anything.This book ‘colonialism/post colonialism mainly divided in to the three Parts.

In which 1 chapter about colonialism/post colonialism,

 imperialism, Neo-colonialism,post-colonial discourse etc.

2^nd chapter relates with the ‘Identities’ about race, class, colonialism psychoanalysis, sexuality and hybridity.

3^rd chapter about  ‘challenging  colonialism’-Nationalism and Pan-Nationalism, Feminism,Nationalism, and post colonialism, can the subaltern speak?,Post-modernism, and Postcolonial studies.

And,The last chapter about ‘Globalization’ Colonialism/  post colonialism .  So,let see all some views of Ania Loomba.

 

Colonialism/Post colonialism

          As we earlier discussed “colonialism” means first world country power over second, third and fourth  world country.This process known as colonialism/post colonialism.

 Imperialism:

          The ‘OED’ defines ‘imperial’ as ‘pertaining to empire and’imperialism’ as the ‘rule of an emperor, especially when despotic or arbitrary and, this word coined by British prime minister Benjamin in Disraeli in 1870s and Joseph chamberlain supporter of the movement.

Edward Said on 'Orientalism'

• Executive Producer and Director: Sut Jhally
• Producer and Editor: Sanjay Talreja
• Assistant Editor: Jeremy Smith

          Featuring an interview with Edward Said Professor, Columbia University and author of Orientalism.

          Introduced by Sut Jhally University of Massachusetts-Amherst

          In this interview the points are mainly covered are as under:

            1)  Introduction (Montage of entertainment and news images

            2)  The Repertory of Orientalism

            3)  Orientalism and Empire

            4)  American Orientalism

            5)  Orientalism Today - The Demonization of Islam in the News and Popular Culture

            6)  Orientalism in Action - The Media & the Okiahoma City Bomb

            7)  Orientalism and The Palestinian Question       

          Edward Said's 'Orientalism' was published in 1978 and it's mainly based on the ground of assumptions and on the academic field of oriental studies. It is mainly portray East and West with the Western structuring of the orient as other. Said analyses central Western texts in order to account for the way the conception of The East was crystallized. This conception, according to Said, prepared the

ground for the political and cultural occupation of the non-Western regions by the West.

          Said's analysis in Orientalism is on the thought of Michel Foucault and especially his thoughts on the concept of discourse and the knowledge/power equation. Another influence found in Orientalism is the concept of hegemony derived from the philosophy of Antonio Gramsci. Using this terminology Said shows how Orientalism served as a system of representations which served to consolidate the West's authority and supremacy over the East, and not just to reflect or describe it.

          One of the main implications of Said's work is that even and maybe especially scholarly research about the orient is in fact deeply political in being an essential part of the imperialist mechanism of control and exploitation. Said's book became a central text of post colonialism since it seeks to expose the fundamental principles and structures of colonialism embedded within different systems of knowledge and representation.

Israel - Palestinian Issue:

          As a public intellectual, Said was a controversial member of the Palestinian National Council, because he publicly criticized Israel and the Arab countries, especially the political and cultural policies of Muslim regimes who acted against the national interests of their peoples. Said advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state to ensure equal political and human rights for the Palestinians in Israel, including the right of return to the homeland. To begin with the theory of Orientalism itself, Said proposes that throughout the history of colonialism, those coming from the colonial metropolises created discourse frameworks that set up those living in the colonies as systematically inferior individuals who were, in all cases, fictitiously painted as the binary opposites of Western colonialist. Thus, while the colonialists perceived themselves as rational, they painted the dwellers of the colonies as impulsive and irrational. While the colonialists perceived themselves as reasoned and enlightened saviors, the dwellers of the colonies were constructed as heathens.