Figurative language

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       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 109 Litarary Theories and Criticism and Indian Asthentics. This assignment i am discussed about the Figurative Language.

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -2( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-109

Paper Code:-22402

Paper Name:-Litarary Theories and Criticism and Indian Asthentics

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:-  Figurative Language 

Question:-  introduction of Figurative language 

Introduction 

Practical criticism began in the 1920s with a series of experiments by I.A.Richards on his students to assess poems on their own, on which no information regarding authorship or any other extraneous information was provided. Richards wanted his students to concentrate on the “words on the page”, rather than rely on predetermined or accepted opinions of the text. Such a method would have positive psychological effects on the students because they would respond to the myriad emotions and meanings that would result in an “organised response”. This meant that they would clarify the diverse undercurrents of thoughts in the poem and relate their own emotions with them and arrive at a response that would encompass the thoughts which are in an organised form.

  William Empson, in Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), in connection with this project, developed the under-graduate essays for Richards to study of connotative and complex meanings in poems. His method ushered a novel approach of critical analysis known as “New Criticism”. New Critics emphasised on a close analysis of texts, paying little attention to historical or biographical details of a poem. For F.R. Leavis, the close analysis of a text is a moral activity, in which the critic would employ his sensibility on the literary text and examine its sincerity and moral seriousness. New Criticism would entail concentrating on the form and meaning of particular works, rather than theoretical questions and practice of criticism would not entail social or economic bearings as well as biographical considerations of the author.  

Divided into four parts

• Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment(1929),elaborates Richards’ views on the practice of literary criticism. The first part, titled “Introductory”, is an introduction to his critical practice, where he expounds the three-fold purpose in writing the book. Part two, “Documentation” containsthe thirteen poems for his students’ analyses and Part three, “Analysis” the most significant of the four chapters, where his critical precepts are explained. The eight chapters in this section are:
•  Four Kinds of Meaning
•  Figurative Language
•  Sense and Feeling
•  Poetic Form 
• Irrelevant Associations and Stock Responses 
• Sentimentality and Inhibition
•  Doctrine in Poetry
•  Technical Presuppositions and Critical Preconceptions. 

misreading of poems:

 Part four is titled “Summary and Recommendations” followed by the Appendices A to D. In the introduction, Richards mentions the three objectives in writing the book. First, to introduce a new kind of documentation to those who are interested in the contemporary state of culture for critics, philosophers, teachers, psychologists or those who are just curious onlookers. Second, to provide a new technique for those interested in reading poetry to decide why they should like it or not, and the third to develop better methods of critical analyses that are different from the existing ones. For this purpose, he has given poems to his students without revealing any information about the poets who wrote them. Richards analyses the factors that lead to misreading of poems:

•  1. The difficulty to comprehend the plain sense of a poem is one of the aspects. Many students fail to understand the meaning of a poem; often the feeling, tone and intention of a poem are also misunderstood.
•  2. Likewise, words have a movement or rhythm even when read in silence. Many readers fail to capture the sensuousness and rhythm inherent in poetry. 
•  3. Imagery, especially visual imagery is difficult to interpret. Images that take shape in one mind may be different from others, but these images may not be connected to the images that existed in the poet’s mind. 
•  4. The credible influence of irrelevant mnemonics, which is the private and personal associations, affects reading texts.
•  5. Stock responses based on private judgements intrude when a poem’s opinions and emotions are readily available to the reader’s mind.
•  6. Display of excessive emotions. 
• 7. Inhibitions function as hindrances in understanding poetry. 
•  8. Indoctrination, which is views and beliefs about the world contained in poetry, could become the foundation for confusion or unreliable judgement.
•  9. Technical conjectures can cause difficulty. When something has once been done in a certain manner and if it is done differently that is beyond recognition, it calls for assessing a poem from outside by technical details.
•  10. Lastly, the general critical preconceptions resulting from theories about the nature and value of poetry intervene between the reader and the poem.

 Richards concludes that critical reading of poetry is an arduous task. In this regard he mentions: “The lesson of all criticism is that we have nothing to rely upon in making our choices but ourselves.”This means that the lesson of good poetry, if properly understood, lies , lies in the extent to which ordering of the individual mind takes place. Response to emotion and meaning would result in an “organised response” that would materialise into “psychologism”, which is not concerned with the poem but the responses to it.

Four Kinds of Meaning 

Richards begins the extract by pointing to the difficulty of all reading. The problem of making out the meaning is the starting point in criticism. The answers to ‘what is a meaning?’, ‘What are we doing when we endeavour to make it out?’ are the master keys to all the problems of criticism. The all-important fact for the study of literature or any other mode of communication is that there are several kinds of meaning. Whether we speak, write, listen, read, the ‘Total meaning’ is a blend of several contributory meanings of different types. Language – and pre-eminently language as it is used in poetry has several tasks to perform simultaneously. Four kinds of functions or meanings as enlisted by I.A. Richards are the following: (1) Sense, (2) Feeling, (3) Tone and (4) Intention.

Sense

       ‘We speak to say something and when we listen we expect something to be said. We use words to direct our hearers’ attention upon some state of affairs, to present to them some items for consideration and to excite in them some thoughts about these items’. In short, what we speak to convey to our listeners for their consideration can be called ‘sense’. This is the most important thing in all scientific utterances where verification is possible

Feeling

      The attitude towards what we convey is known as ‘feeling’. In other words, we have bias or accentuation of interest towards what we say. We use language to express these feelings. Similarly, we have these feelings even when we receive. This happens even if the speaker is conscious of it or not. In exceptional cases, say in mathematics, no feeling enters. The speaker’s attitude to the subject is known as ‘feeling’.

 Tone 

       The speaker has an attitude to his listener. ‘He chooses or arranges his words differently as his audience varies, in automatic or deliberate recognition of his relation to them. The tone of his utterance reflects his awareness of this relation, his sense of how he stands towards those he is addressing. Thus ‘tone’ refers to the attitude to the listener

Intention

       Finally apart from what he says (sense), his attitude to what he is talking about (feeling), and his attitude to his listener (tone), there is the speaker’s intention, his aim (conscious or unconscious) - the effect he is endeavouring to promote. The speaker’s purpose modifies his speech. Frequently, the speaker’s intention operates through and satisfies itself in a combination of other functions. ‘It may govern the stress laid upon points in an argument. It controls the ‘plot’ in the larger sense of the word. It has special importance in dramatic and semi-dramatic literature. Thus the influence of his intention upon the language he uses is additional to the other three influences.

     If we survey the uses of language as a whole, the predominance of one function over the other may be found. A man writing a scientific treatise will put the ‘sense’ of what he has to say first. For a writer popularising some of the results and hypotheses of science, the principles governing his language are not so simple; his intention will inevitably interfere with the other functions. In conversation, we get the clearest examples of the shifts of function, i.e. one function being taken over by another.

Conclusion

Richards concludes that the indirect devices for expressing feelings through logical irrelevance and nonsense (through statements not to be taken strictly, literally, or seriously) are not peculiar to poetry.

Comedy of Menace

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       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 110 (A)  History of  English Literature From 1900 to 2000. In this assignment I am discussed about the term Comedy of Menace. 

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -2( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-110(A)

Paper Code:-22403

Paper Name:-History of English Literature From 1900 to 2000

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Comedy of Menace 

Question:- Introduction of Comedy of Menace 

Introduction

The phrase “comedy of menace” as a standalone description inspires both positive and negative feelings. Comedy is used during a dangerous situation to cause audiences to draw judgments about a particular character or communication. The words used are the focus of often powerful stories that create conflicting emotions from its audience. The title “Comedy of Menace” immediately brings contradictions to mind, because comedy is generally something that makes people laugh, and the word "menace" implies something threatening. Quite literally, then, this phrase involves laughing at an ominous situation.

This phrase is part of the title of a British play called The Lunatic View: a Comedy of Menace, by David Campton. Irving Ward, a critic in the 1950s, emphasized the phrase when writing a review of the plays of Harold Pinter. Ward used "comedy of menace" in a review of several of Pinter's works, although at the time he had seen only one, The Birthday Party.

About Harold Pinter 

The phrase "comedy of menace" was used to review many plays by playwright Harold Pinter.

Pinter himself has been quoted as saying he’s never been able to write a happy play, and that a situation can be both true and false. Summarizing his plays as comedy plays might be a misunderstanding; most critics described his characters with negative connotations. By creating humor around a very dramatic or tense situation, audiences are left feeling confused at the end, because of the range of emotions experienced.

Pinter’s comedies of menace have a rather simplistic setting; they might focus on one or two powerful images and usually are set in just one room. A powerful force that isn’t specifically defined to the audience threatens characters in the plays. Audiences focus on the communications between the characters and generate the feeling and gist of the play from the conversations.

Meaning

Comedy = Humor.

Menace = Threatening fear in mind

Characteristics

•      A work of art of a play in which people feels fear or the situation may become so much threatening that people or audience who watches the play may don’t know that what is happening and why it falls under the category of terrific matter.
•  ‘Comedy of Menace’ is much different from sentimental comedy and anti-sentimental comedy. 
• From the very beginning till the end of the drama, there is lots of conversation between the characters
• It suggests that although they are funny, they are also frightening or menacing in a vague and undefined way. Even as they laugh, the audience is unsettled, ill at ease and uncomfortable.
• This play is almost tragic because at the end of the play we are not getting any clue that why it was happening but indirectly 

'The Birthday Party '

Pinter's The Birthday Party is a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Throughout the play, we find that the hint of menace is inflected upon the individual freedom of a person and it juxtaposes the comic element drastically dilutes the comic appeal. Pinter shows his state in the existential view that danger prevails everywhere and life can't escape from it. Pinter thinks that Stanley, the protagonist, might have committed a serious crime and is on the run for escaping the consequence and legal implications of his life. This is precisely comprehended while he almost never leaves his room and becomes furiously apprehensive when Meg informs him that two gentlemen are coming to stay in this boarding house. Stanley soon tactfully tries to conceal his apprehension by mentioning his successful concert and about a favourable job proposal of a pianist. But we can realize his innate apprehension for imminent interrogation or arrest by the two new guests at the boarding house:

" They won't come. Someone's taking the Michael. Forget all about it."

                                                    [Act - I]

In his attempt to percolate his fear upon Meg, Stanley informs her ironically that some people would come to the boarding house in a van along with a wheelbarrow and take away Meg permanently along with them: 

 They're looking for someone. A certain person.

[Act - I]

        

       

   In a mood of topsy-turvy-dom, Pinter often shows an apparent fearful apprehension, but actually gives occasion to amusement. Lulu's arrival and knocking at their boarding's door fulfil the purpose. Similarly, Meg's funny answer to Goldberg's question about Stanley also sustains the suspense of Stanley's immediate arrest. Thus, the dramatist gives a comic relief to his audience.

          When Goldberg continuously refers to the "job" which he has to execute, makes an audience conscious about their unknown job, so as to say, by enhancing menace. Again the conversations between Goldberg and McCann are often comical but the possibility of danger and violence always pervade above the comedy: 

 

Goldberg: But why is it that before you do a job you're all over the place, and when you're doing the job you're as cool as a whistle?

[Act - I]

OR

 Goldberg: You know what I said when this job came up. I mean naturally they approached me to take care of it. And you know who I asked for?

McCann: Who? 

Goldberg: You.

[Act - I]

The interrogation of Stanley by the "two gentlemen" is sometimes funny or comical but have threatening impact both upon Stanley and the audience. Even the birthday party which begins in a light and jovial manner ends with Stanley's attempt to strangle Meg and rape Lulu. Similarly, the birthday party also becomes the excuse of Goldberg's seduction and deflowering Lulu. Again the arrangement of the birthday party acts as a plan to prove Stanley lunatic and takes him away from the boarding:

 Goldberg: ...All is dependent on the attitude of our subject. At all events, McCann, I can assure you that the assignment will be carried out and the mission accomplished with no excessive aggravation to you or myself.

[Act - I]

   

       At the end of the play, audiences are given an unsolved riddle about what has been of Stanley which is of paramount significance in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party - a perfect example of Comedy of Menace. Some critics even believe that it is a superimposition of the European concept of absurd (Martin Esslin has been described the drama as an example of the Theatre of the Absurd) to the English native wit. Here what is true or what is false, is not matter but the ambience which Pinter clarifies as his concept of menace: '...menace and fear do not come from extraordinary sinister people but from you and me; it is all a matter of circumstances.' (Pinter, Harold).

Conclusion

In this play many events like a game, door’s knocking in the darkness, Lulu and Mag’s giggling which sounds like a witch’s laugh. So here we can say that all of these things stand for the menacing effect in this play. Thus it is new genre of writing this play and the writer is consciously takes part in the same ‘Comedy of Menace’.  

Transcendentalism

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       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 108 The American Literature In this assignment I am discussed about Introduction of Transcendentalism.

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -2( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-108

Paper Code:-22401

Paper Name:-The American Literature 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Introduction of Transcendentalism 

 Question:- Introduction of Transcendentalism 

Introduction 

Transcendentalism is a 19th-century school of American theological and philosophical thought that combined respect for nature and self-sufficiency with elements of Unitarianism and German Romanticism. 

The philosophy of transcendentalism arose in the 1830s in the eastern United States as a reaction to intellectualism. Its adherents yearned for intense spiritual experiences and sought to transcend the purely material world of reason and rationality.Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two of the most famous and influential transcendentalists.Some influential transcendentalists, such as Margaret Fuller, were early pioneers of feminism.

Meaning

Transcendentalism describes a very simple idea—all people have knowledge about themselves and the world around that goes beyond what they can see, hear, feel, touch and taste. This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination and not through the senses. A transcendentalist is a person that accepts these ideas not as religion but as a way of understanding life relationship

The Origins of Transcendentalism 

Transcendentalism has its origins in New England of the early 1800s and the birth of Unitarianism. It was born from a debate between “New Light” theologians, who believed that religion should focus on an emotional experience, and “Old Light” opponents, who valued reason in their religious approach.

Characteristics 

Some of the characteristic features of Transcendentalism are as follows:

1).  The Transcendental believed that the power of divine or God can be known through the power of emotion and intuition. They rejected the rational and logical entity of mind to know God and reacted against the ideals of Unitarianism. They relied on intuition for all the answers and believed that knowledge comes from within and intuition resides within an individual. They wanted to go beyond or transcend the limitations of human senses and based their knowledge of spiritual and other knowledge by their emotions and inner voice rather than sensory perception

2)   They championed the idea of individualism and believed in the idea of self-reliance. They thought that individual entity is the spiritual center of the universe where the prime importance of individual presence on society is established to make progression and development. They critique the society and political aspects which destroy human mind and corrupt their souls. Hence, they believed in the independent of every individual and one should listen to their own mind and soul.

3)  The other important philosophy is the philosophy of over soul. It is about the soul’s connection with God where every other souls are connected to God who is the over soul. It means to emphasize that God is omnipresent and is everywhere and hence there are no clear distinction between human soul and nature as the study of nature will help in better understanding the laws of nature which will lead them to understand God and other aspects of soul.

4)  The nature also plays an important role in their philosophy as nature is the scared place of solitude and peace which the English Romantics finds it too. It is through nature one can understand God , self and soul which resides within us. They emphasized that man should spend time on nature and study nature which will enable them to attain spiritual guidance and morality than religious texts as God is omnipresent to them and studying nature will guide them to understand God and its relationship.

5)  They believed in the idea of non-conformity and hence argued to restrain from any social and political doctrines. They clearly wanted to detach themselves from the set principles and conventions led by the society and urges every individual to become self reliant and independent. They believed that these set of principles destroy mankind and one cannot understand God from it and hence one should not conform to such rules and regulations constructed by the society.

6)  They believed in the simplicity of life and sought to restrain from the materialistic and worldly desires. They detached themselves from the urban life and settled in the lap of nature to find solace and calmness instead of the material values which are easily accessible in the urban and city life.

Transcendentalism club

Transcendental Club” over the next four years, featuring a shifting membership that always included Emerson, Ripley, and Hodge.

The only rule the meetings followed was that no one would be allowed to attend if their presence prevented the group from discussing a topic. Emerson’s essay “Nature,” published in 1836, presented Transcendentalist philosophy as it had formed in the club meetings.

This group ceased to meet in 1840, but were involved in the publication The Dial, at first helmed by member and pioneering feminist Margaret Fuller, and later by Emerson, with the mission of addressing Transcendentalist thought and concerns.

Henry David Thoreau got his start in The Dial, reporting on wildlife in Massachusetts. After its demise in 1844, Thoreau moved to Walden Pond where he wrote his most famous work, Walden; or, Life in the Woods.

Conclusion

As the 1850s arrived, Transcendentalism is considered to have lost some of its influence, particularly following the untimely death of Margaret Fuller in an 1850 shipwreck.

Though its members remained active in the public eye—notably Emerson, Thoreau and others in their public opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850—following the failure of Brook Farm, it never again materialized as a cohesive group.

Lucky's Speech

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       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 107 The Twentieth Century Litrature: From World War 2 to  The End of The Century. In this assignment I am discussing Analysis of Lucky's Speech.

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -2( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-107

Paper Code:-22400

Paper Name:-The Twentieth Century Litrature: From World War 2 to The End of The Century

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:-Analysis of Lucky's Speech.

Question:- Analysis of Lucky's Speech 

About Novel

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters, Vladimir  and Estragon , engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives.Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French-language play, En attendant Godot, and is subtitled (in English only) "a tragicomedy in two acts".

Lucky's Thinking Act

In Act I of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, Pozzo, for the amusement of Vladimir and Estragon, commands Lucky to “Think, pig!”, perhaps mocking the traditional phrase, ‘Think big’. So Lucky faces the auditorium and commences his speech. In turn, what the audience is confronted with is the most graphic ritual in the play. Being a fine theatrical writing, Lucky’s speech is such that it justifies the idiom: ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’

Many critics, including Martin Esslin, consider Lucky’s thinking act as a ‘wild schizophrenic word salad’. At the outset this speech appears to be utter gibberish. It has no punctuation and is delivered at a break-neck speed. There is lack of coherence as random allusions and references are made.

Yet, a deeper look at the speech makes it intelligible. There is a method to the madness. It brings about a sense that words have been put together haphazardly to produce a particular structure, and, in turn, meaning. In this way, Lucky’s speech is a reflection of the play itself in concise form as it produces meaning from its formlessness and lack of content. In fact, Beckett himself remarked on this speech: ‘The threads and themes of the play are being gathered together [in this speech].’ He further explains that the theme of this monologue, as that of the play, is ‘to shrink on an impossible earth under an indifferent heaven’.

Section I of Lucky's Speech

To provide some sort of structure to Lucky’s speech, it can be roughly divided into three sections.

The first section indicates an apathetic God who is absent and, therefore, indifferent to the predicament of human beings. In fact, the very existence of God is in doubt. Lucky speaks of a personal God whose authority is arbitrarily derived from anybody, even a ticket puncher (Puncher) or a tramp driver (Wattmann). He is referred to as “quaquaquaqua with white beard”. “Qua” means God as an essential being, but repeated four times, “quaquaquaqua” sounds like a bird’s call. This makes the notion of God as open-ended – God is either an essential being or He is an essential non-sense.

The speech also talks about “divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia”. In modern times, religion has lost its agency to provide relief to humanity. Therefore, God seems least concerned to human plight, unmoved by the sorry condition of humankind and unwilling to communicate any consoling words to ease its pain. Lucky says, “God… loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown”. This Calvinistic notion further accentuates the arbitrariness accorded to God in the modern world. The truth about salvation and damnation depends upon mere chance; “time will tell,” says Lucky. But as the speech progresses, one is left uncertain as to when this time would come for God to save some and condemn others.

Section II of Lucky's Speech

Section two of Lucky’s speech evinces human beings in modern times as those who “shrink and dwindle”. It points out how humans engage in various activities in their efforts to improve themselves, but all in vain. Beckett uses the mouthpiece of Lucky to attack all academies and human sciences (such as anthropometry) that, according to him, are “labours left unfinished” even as they attempt to deal with human concerns. Thus, intellectual efforts of human beings are undigested, a matter of “alimentation and defecation”. In this way, it is a satire on the Enlightenment project that promised progress for the good of humanity, yet failed to deliver as it led to gruesome world wars, causing modern human beings great loss and suffering. Thus, academics, which is considered the foundation of progress, is largely seen as a sterile exercise. Even when human beings try to structure their lives around physical activities, such as sports, they are bereft of any hope of dealing with their present condition.

Beckett further makes reference to empirical philosophers, such as Berkeley and Voltaire, to subvert the notion of rationality in human beings. Berkeley’s philosophy, especially, is interesting to ponder over. He revised Descartes famous saying – ‘I think, therefore I am’ – to ‘To be is to be perceived’. As a bishop and a philosopher, he advocated that the mental substances of human beings are a reflection of God’s infinite mind. The fact that God perceives us makes for our reality. However, this argument is highly problematic in terms of modern development. It is because in modern times God’s absence has to be filled by somebody else to acknowledge human existence. Probably that is why in Act I of Waiting for Godot, Pozzo keeps demanding everyone’s attention before he is to perform any act. As God’s power has abated in the modern world, one’s existence is contingent on others’ perception of oneself, even though this perception is fragmentary.

History is a witness that humans have always wanted to be perceived as rational superior beings. In doing so, they suppress their irrational bestial thoughts. But eventually, these thoughts find an outlet, maybe in the form of gibberish outpouring, as seen in Lucky’s case. Lucky’s speech seems like the ramblings of an overburdened mind. Lucky, as Pozzo admits, is a “mine of information” who seems to have all the answers. But with time, his condition has deteriorated and his mind, in trying to cope with all the information, has collapsed under the mental burden he is carrying, just as he is carrying physical burden. The speech, then, looks like the exposure of man’s fragility, especially of his rationality. Therefore, Berkeley’s philosophy is negated in the speech as it is still grappling with human reality and is, in consequence, impotent. In this way, the speech contains a mix of philosophical ideas to suggest that none of these can help humanity to understand its precarious position in an uncertain universe.

Nevertheless, even as Lucky keeps reiterating that everything happens for “reasons unknown”, yet he repeatedly says, “I resume”. It is clear that even though human efforts are meaningless, yet one must strive to achieve something positive. There are no certainties in life, as this play exhibits, yet, paradoxically, this statement in itself seems fixed. Thus, there is duality in the play just as there is duality and contradictions in modern life.

Section III of Lucky's Speech

Such contradictions finally lead to the ultimate certainty – death. Lucky envisages in the third section of his speech an apocalyptic earth where Nature would have run its course and darkness would prevail. He arouses the imagery of skulls and stones to present the most pessimistic picture of life, even as it is undercut by his constant “I resume”. In the end, the speech turns into incoherent ramblings. This complete breakdown of language suggests its inability to communicate eloquently the various meanings, which may give structure to life.

Post-Modern Interpretation

While it has become difficult to structure modern life, Lucky seems to be structuring his speech by mimicking different attitudes – ‘in voice and gesture he mimics first the parson warning us of hell-fire, then the lucidly obscure lecturer who draws upon an endless line of authorities to make his indeterminate point, then the sportsperson advocating the cult of the body, then the strangely Cockney businessman who advises us to measure the facts, and lastly the prophet and poet foreboding doom’ (J L Styan, The Dark Comedy, 1968). However, this structure too falls short of imparting any meaning to modern life.

Jeffrey Nealon, in “Samuel Beckett and the Post-moderns”, finds this incoherence in Lucky’s speech to be emancipatory. He argues that the speech is a fine example of post-modernist thinking. Post-modernism delights in pastiche of fragments, which Lucky’s speech provides in a brilliant delivery. In Nealon’s opinion, Vladimir and Estragon represent modernist thinkers who try to structure their life by “waiting for Godot” so as to create meaning of their life’s narrative. Beckett, through Lucky’s speech, rips apart such narratives as he deconstructs western thought. He is mocking the notion of universal truths by defying all meta-narratives. For example, he deconstructs metaphysics that talks of “reasons unknown” of which “time will tell”. Beckett suggests that even when time passes, it does not reveal anything substantial. In this way, he is exposing the limits of western thought.

Conclusion

This fresh take on Lucky’s speech also justifies Foucauldian notion of power-knowledge nexus. Well-established rational structures of discourse suppress any agent that challenges their power. This is shown in the play through distressed characters – Pozzo, Vladimir and Estragon – who feel threatened by Lucky’s knife-life words which draw a real picture of modern life. Therefore, they knock-off his hat, which is an act of physical violence, to silence him.

Vakrokti

 Vakrokti

Introduction

Indian poems are based on Sanskrit poetry. Sanskrit poetry developed in all directions , like " Ramayana " and " Mahabharata ". Ramayana is written by "valmiki" as the first poem in Sanskrit.Ramayana is not only hard work of valmiki but also composition of many different things. This way Mahabharata , Slokas , Parvas , Vedas , Upnishadas are also very important in literature. 

In Indian Poetic Bharatmuni , Panini , Kalidas ,Kuntaka , Bhamaha and many other great poets who wrote about the history and about the culture of India. In the sense of poetry means both type of meanings - to be read , to be heard and drama which is to be seen. They all have different names in western poetic

About Author

Kuntaka was an 11th century poetician who has brilliantly anticipated many concepts used in the 20th century criticism.

His theory of Vakrokti is a comprehensive one. It means figurativeness and obliquity of expression. It is a manifestation of the basic obliquity of the poet’s creative process.

Meaning

Vakrokti :- Vakra + Ukti

   Vakra :- Crooked indirect or unique.

   Ukti :- Poetic expression or speech

6 parts of Vakrokti

According to Kuntaka, vakrokti or figurativeness manifests at 6 levels of expression in poetry:

Phonetic,

Lexical,

Grammatical,

Sentential,

Contextual, and

Compositional.

There is a surprising similarity between Kuntaka’s vakrokti and the concept of style as ‘deviation from the norm’ seen in modern stylistics. However it is equally important that while stylistics is concerned with phonological, grammatical and lexical aspects of the language, Kuntaka takes into account larger units of discourse also, such as context and composition itself taken as a whole. This enables him to view the entire gamut of the poetic creation from the point of view of artistic efficacy.

Phonetic figurativeness (Varnavinyasa Vakrata)

encompasses alliteration, rhyme, and all other subtle effects of sound in poetry. Kuntaka recognises onomatopoeic effects. 

Example

• Shakespeare’s ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’.

Lexical figurativeness (padapurvardha Vakrata)

The whole statement is depended on first letter includes stylistic choice in vocabulary, metaphor, power of adjectives and veiled expressions. For example, carefully concealing a Mahapataka—

Example

• “Is he despatche’d”
• તમે મારા દેવાના દિધેલ છો.
• We will proceed no further in this business’
• 
  

Grammatical figurativeness ( pratyaya vakrata)

The whole statement is depended on a letter after any of the letters involves the deft use of suffixes, especially those indicating numbers, person, and case forms. It also includes delineation of inanimate objects as animate and personification of objects—instead of saying ‘tense’—

Example

• ‘make my seated heart knock at my ribs’.

• ગઢને હોકરોતો કાંગરા ય દેશે, ગઢમાં હોંકારો કોણ દેશે  
• Glamis hath murder’d sleep; and therefore Cawdor 
• Shall sleep no more-Macbeth shall sleep no more

Sentential Figurativeness (Vakyavakrata)

it is the permeating presence that enters all other elements. The effect is akin to a painter’s stroke that shines out distinctively from the beauty of the material used. Most of the figures of speech are instances of it.A miraculous or enchanting description of an object  

                            

Example 

•         ‘Out, out, brief candle
•         Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player
•        That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
•        And then is heard no more….”
• मेरे पास माँ है ।

Kuntaka’s theory does not stop with the analysis of sentence as is done in stylistic studies, since techniques like contextual and compositional figurativeness analyse larger segments of the discourse than the sentence.

Contextual figurativeness (Prakarana vakrata)

 One linear meaning of a whole text or any literary art. 

Example 

• Hamlet: To be or not to be 
• Ramayana: Victory of Truth 

Compositional figurativeness ( Prabandha vakrata). 

This includes adaptation of a story from a well-known source with new twists added to it, with a new emotional significance, deletion of unnecessary episodes, the development of even minor incidents into events of far reaching consequences and strikinglness. Kuntaka regards a literary composition as an allegory which conveys some profound moral message and this moral content is also regarded as a compositional figurativeness.

Example

• The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
• Hamlet by Shakespeare
• સૈરન્ધ્રી by Vinod Joshi
• ઉર્મિલા by Umashankar Joshi
• અતિજ્ઞાન by Kant

Conclusion

Kuntaka looks upon the literary piece as a whole from an essentially artistic angle, where the creativity of the poet is at play in fashioning out an artifact. This perspective should suit any work of art, especially literary masterpieces of all-time greats. However, an exploration of a work of art from Kuntaka’s perspective necessitates an understanding of the literary norm, from which the poet effects creative deviation. The literary norm, unlike in modern stylistics encompasses extra-linguistic features like context and composition. Both linguistic and extra linguistic aspects of art are encompassed in a comprehensive aesthetic theory with creativeness as its aesthetic mark.

Time period in Orlando

Hello,

       This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 106 The Twentieth Century Litrature: 1900 to World War 2. In this assignment I am discussing Analyze Woolf's use of time in Orlando. 

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -2( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-106

Paper Code:-22399

Paper Name:- The Twentieth Century Litrature: 1900 to World War 2 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:-Analyze Woolf's use of time in Orlando. 

Question:- Analyze Woolf's use of time in Orlando. What effect does it have on the story?

About Novel

Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies.

Introduction

 

                 Obviously, time perception is one of the clearest motifs of the novel. We are present to the birth of the boy Orlando in the 16th century, and then we are leaving her in her thirties in the first half of the 20th century. We sense that something with the time is different, or wrong. From our personal experience, we know that time is quite a subjective category even though we can measure it very precisely. 

            We know that the time can be really fast-moving if we have fun and enjoy ourselves, and on the contrary, the time can pass very slowly, if at all, when we need to do something boring. Virginia also experienced this, and she noted it a couple of times in her diaries, and she wanted to put this knowledge into her writing.

Time period in Orlando

            The length of Orlando´s life is one of Woolf´s time experiments, and in the course of the novel, it is interesting to follow how she depicts that time is passing.Even though she says in one passage that it is possible to express passing time very simply and briefly, she describes it very impressively and beautifully for us on almost half a page in the book:

            “Here he came then, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. He saw the beech trees turn golden and the young ferns unfurl; he saw the moon sickle and then circular; he saw – but probably the reader can imagine the passage which should follow and how every tree and plant in the neighbourhood is described first green, then golden; how moons rise and suns set; how spring follows winter and autumn summer; how night succeeds day and day night; how there is first a storm and then fine weather; how things remain much as they are for two or three hundred years or so, except for a little dust and a few cobwebs which one old woman can sweep up in half an hour; a conclusion which, one cannot help feeling, might have been reached more quickly by the statement that “Time passed” (here the exact amount could be indicated in brackets) and nothing whatever happened.”

             During the novel, Woolf describes the passing of time so very well that we can perfectly imagine the situation and we can see it in front of us. Even more so, she does not picture only the end of a year, but it is the end of the century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. She describes it not only as the end of one era,but at every end there is a kind of new start, a new chance. She follows the thoughts coming with each strike of the clock: 

           She heard the far-away cry of the night watchman - “Just twelve o´clock on a frosty morning”. No sooner had the words left his lips than the first stroke of midnight sounded. Orlando then for the first time noticed a small cloud gathered behind the dome of St. Paul´s. As the strokes sounded, the cloud increased, and she saw it darken and spread with extraordinary speed. 

             At the same time a light breeze rose and by the time the sixth stroke of midnight had struck the whole of the eastern sky was covered with an irregular moving darkness, though the sky to the west and north stayed clear as ever. Then the cloud spread north. Height upon height above the city was engulfed by it. Only Mayfair, with all its lights shining, burnt more brilliantly than ever by contrast. 

               With the eighth stroke, some hurrying tatters of cloud sprawled over Piccadilly. They seemed to mass themselves and to advance with extraordinary rapidity towards the west end. As the ninth, tenth, and eleventh strokes struck, a huge blackness sprawled over the whole of London. 

             With the twelfth stroke of midnight, the darkness was complete. A turbulent welter of cloud covered the city. All was darkness; all was doubt; all was confusion. The Eighteenth century was over; the Nineteenth century had begun.” 

               The above-mentioned examples were very colourful and captured also the mood of the moment. But sometimes, as a contrast, Woolf merely gave the list of months to show the time passing and it works well enough for the purpose:

             “It was now November. After November, comes December. Then January,February, March, and April. After April comes May. June, July, August follow. Next is September. Then October, and so, behold, here we are back at November againwith a whole year accomplished.”

              In another passage, she discusses the above-mentioned relativity of time. No matter how many minutes have passed, the length of the moment could occur totally differently to each person and these differences in the subjective perception of time cannot be precisely measured as the objective time depicted by hours and minutes.

             Human mind can play with us and with our perception of time:“But Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and  fade with amazing punctuality, has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time. An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the timepiece of the mind by one second.”

            It is argued similarly in the following quotation. She brilliantly demonstrated the relativity of time on the life of Orlando. Some experiences made him/her much older, and some did not. Again, it is very close to our everyday experience. We often say that some incident or tragic event made us way older than we had been before.

             “Some weeks added a century to his age, others no more than three seconds at most. Altogether, the task of estimating the length of human life (of the animals´we presume not to speak) is beyond our capacity, for directly we say that it is ages long, we are reminded that it is briefer than the fall of a rose leaf to the ground.”

            It was difficult even for Orlando to find himself/herself in time, to realize which era does he/she lived in. Since he/she lived for three centuries, outlived several kings and queens, experienced various societies and saw the technological advancement, he/she was a bit confused about it and everything, every society and social order occurred to him/her as a normal situation:“Orlando had inclined herself naturally to the Elizabethan spirit, to the Restoration spirit, to the spirit of the eighteenth century, and had in consequence scarcely been aware of the change from one age to the other.”

           Orlando´s extraordinarily long life is part of the confusion expressed by the biographer in the next quotation. The narrator knows that the length of life can possibly be measured very precisely, it begins with birth and ends with death. But what is between these two definite points can be very different for every person. It depends on each of us how many things we do during our life-time. 

              Someone can be very passive, with no interest in new experiences and activities and, as a consequence, his/her life is almost empty and can be perceived as quite short without any excitement, and the biographer would then have nothing to report and to write about. 

            On the other hand, if someone lives life full of experiences, actively, it may seem to us that he/she lived many lives or an exceptionally long life. It is also the case of Orlando, the story has many historical references to different eras, kings or queens and historical events so it is clear that it takes places in the course of three centuries. But what if there were no such references? 

           Then, I believe, we could say that Orlando had lived a very active and full life with many experiences. So the length of someone´s life is very subjective when measured by experiences and knowledge and not by the clock.

         “The true length of a person´s life, whatever the Dictionary of National Biography may say, is always a matter of dispute.”

           Since Orlando is a biography, we usually listen to the voice of the narrator, of the biographer who clearly sees the limits of his work (as Woolf in her diaries, the narrator often questions the possibilities and limits of a biography as a genre). But sometimes we can also hear the voice of Orlando himself/herself speaking abouttime.

              Orlando does not seem to catch time, to notice the passing time until he/she is in the thirties. And he/she feels that the time flew over him/her before he/she could look around and he/she feels a bit uneasy about that:

              "Time has passed over me,” she thought, trying to collect herself; “this is the oncome of middle age. How strange it is!”

             Time is something of crucial importance for Woolf and that is the reason why she plays with it in her work. In Orlando, she adjusted the genre of biography to her purposes. She wanted to show the differences among various eras, and she also wanted to show the differences between the two sexes. 

            However, the time concept in this novel is very prominent from the beginning for the reader. Usually, if the writer wants to speak about the differences among eras, the author uses a kind of family chronicles as for example, John Galsworthy in his Forsyte Saga, and many others.But Woolf put all into one novel, into one story experienced only by a single person -Orlando.

               She probably wanted to shock the reader, and to make the perception clearer and more precise. Each of us is a different individual and no one perceives the same things in the same way. So if we want to record how people see the society and changes in it in their life-time, it is better to see it through the eyes and from the point of view of the same person.

Conclusion

           In reality, it is not possible to record the thoughts of one person about the things around us in the course of three centuries. But this is exactly what Virginia Woolf did. She recorded these big changes, which took place in the course of such a long time through the viewpoint of one person.