Themes of Gun Island

  Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -4 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-207

Paper Code:-22414

Paper Name:-Contemporary Literature in English

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:-Themes of “Gun Island” 

Introduction 

Gun Island describes the quest of Deen, a scholar and collector of rare books, who returns from New York, his city of domicile, to the Sunderbans in West Bengal to unravel the mystery and legend of a seventeenth-century merchant, Bonduki Sada-gar, translated “The Gun Merchant,” and his persecution by Manasa Devi, mythical goddess of snakes. Now let's see the themes in detail. 

Themes in Gun Island 

1] The Theme of Etymology / Etymological Mystery in the Novel / Etymological Concern in the Novel (Title of the novel):- 

If we look at the themes of the novel "Gun Island" we find the etymological concern in the novel. The words which are used have different meanings in the novel. At first glance, we might think of the usual meaning of those words, but Amitav Ghosh used the term etymology. The question that arises first in our mind is, what is etymology? According to Merriman Webster dictionary the definition of 'Etymology' : 

The history of a linguistic form (such as a word) is shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language.

It means going into the origin of words. If we look at the novel Ghosh used many etymological words. As Soumya Bhattacharya said 

“At the heart of the story of Gun Island, there lies an etymological mystery, a derivation that points to the deep and inextricable intermeshing of cultures and civilizations over the ages. This is why etymology fascinates me: like sailors, words, too, are travelers, and tracing their journeys is like describing voyages of adventures.” (Bhattacharya, Soumya) 

We can see the use of such words that go into the origin of those words. Let's see some examples. 

Gun Island

When we read the title we thought there may be a reference to 'Gun' in the novel. But no, there is no direct reference to guns in the novel. As Somak Ghoshal observed, The novel opens with a subject that he describes as one of his “obsessions": etymology. In the beginning, is a word and that word is “bundook". Used to mean “gun" in many languages. (Ghoshal, Somak) 

If we see in the novel there is an 'Island within Island…' 

There is one foundry where armaments, including bullets, were cast. And the word used for foundry in Venetian dialect is "getto". The word "ghetto" is derived from "getto" and it is connected with Jews. 

The other vocabulary for Venice is linked to three apparently unrelated things - hazelnuts, bullets, and guns! The shape of hazelnuts is similar to that of bullets which are, in turn, indispensable for guns! Venice in the Arabic language is "Banadiq" - the ancestor of the German and Swedish "Venedig". In Arabic "Banadiq" became "al-Bunduqeyya". So this gun is referred to as Venice, not gun! So the ultimate meaning of the title is - a merchant who visited Venice and who found a ghetto-foundry. 

Bhut - Ghost 

In part one of the novel in one of the chapters named Brooklyn, there is a conversation between Dinanath Datta and Tipu through email. Tipu asked Deen, ``What is the meaning of "Bhuta"? Does it mean "ghost" or something else? Deen explains that in Bangla boot/bhuta means according to the Sanskrit root "bhu" means "to be" or "to manifest". So "bhuta" simply means "a being" or "an existing presence". This word "bhuta" also refers to the past, in the sense of "a past state of being". Like we use "bhuta-kala" or "times past". So this "bhuta" is not a "ghost" but it is a "memory". So it can be with you in the form of memory. 

Possession 

There is reference to the word possession in the novel. Possession is when someone is taken over by a demon. And the demon is nothing but it's just a metaphor for greed, an imaginary thing. So possession is not like someone's soul comes into our body and all things ! It's our greed that we have taken over that greed. 

When Cinta and Deen talk about possession, Deen said he has symptoms like possession. At that time Cinta explained that possession became when a person loses "will" and "freedom". Further she said it is a kind of awakening, you are waking up to things that you had never imagined or sensed before. In other words we can say possession is consciousness of things. 

Land of Palm Sugar Candy

The Bengali word for this is "taal-misrir-desh". Desh = country, taal= kind of palm tree that produces a sugar syrup, Bengali word for sugar candy is misri. Cinta said that Arabic word "Misr" is used for Egypt. So this place is referred to Egypt. 

Land of Kerchieves 

Cinta asked for the Bengali translation of this word. Deen told her it was called Rumaali-desh. In Bengali Rumaal is a handkerchief. Chinta said it is about Rumelia, and this Rumeli-Hisari is located in Turkey. 

Island of Chains

The Bengali word for this is "shikol-dwip". And this is a reference to Sikelia and that is now Sicily. So the Island of Chains is used for Sicily. As  

This is how we can see the words and it's meanings. We can't easily understand the meaning of those words, which Ghosh used in the novel. 

2] Theme of Historification of Myth & Mythification of History (Myth & History) :- 

Gun Island describes the quest of Deen, a scholar and collector of rare books, who returns from New York, his city of domicile, to the Sunderbans in West Bengal to unravel the mystery and legend of a seventeenth-century merchant, Bonduki Sadagar, translated “The Gun Merchant,” and his persecution by Manasa Devi, mythical goddess of snakes. This myth is not myth but history, that Ghosh described in the novel. As we see the historical locations which are mentioned are correct. So here we see myth is real history that is alive with us. 

The several questions that we can ask here to understand the theme are,

Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth ? 

Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture ? 

Are they just entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over ? 

We can answer these questions in the context of Gun Island, like this… 

Yes, a sort of truth that Ghosh want to prove here about climate change and human trafficking. He wants to say that myths do have reality.

We can say that this myth is not about any particular culture, but it is about all cultures. We find references to Kolkata, Los Angeles, Venice, Egypt, Turkey etc. So it's not only for one particular culture. 

The story that Nilima Bose told to Dinanath Datta is not a children's story. So it's not for entertainment, but to see the reality and to take these problems seriously. 

If we want to study mythology, we find some box of tools to study mythology,

1. Functionalism

The founder of functionalism is Bronisław Kasper Malinowski. It studies about what is the function of myth in society. If we look into the novel, the function of myth is trying to tell us that going to another country is not allowed in our tradition. Against that going out is not wrong and harmful. So Ghosh uses this myth as an example and proves his point. Merchant suffered a lot while traveling but he was saved also. 

2. Structuralism

The founder of structuralism was Claed Levi-Strass. It studies how the story is told to people. Amitav Ghosh used a very mysterious way of telling the story. The merchant was not happy but after becoming a devotee he became very rich. People might think there may be divine power and all kinds of stuff. But very interestingly Ghosh told a story of myth. 

3. Psychoanalysis

The founder of the study of mind and psychology was Sigmand Freud. He studied psychological analysis. If we had a dream, that is because of our desire for that thing or we have fear, that fulfils in our dream. So we see the thing that constantly becomes the cause of fear of serpent. Or serpent may represent sexual energy; energy to have new life. So if we see in the novel we find that anything that deriving Deen is to know more about Piya. He is looking for a life partner, a new life. At the end of the novel also Piya said Deen to stay there, to live there. So this connection we see in this analysis. 

4. Myth and Ritual

The pioneers of myth and ritual were Emil Durkheim and Jane Harrison. If people do anything connectivity different kind of tempo they get. But what is troublesome is walking alone ! So if you want to establish a thing you have to arrange a ritual around it. Myths also have stories, so it is easy to establish the thing. What ritual can we see in the novel ? The ritual of pilgrimage "Jatra" can be found here. Deen goes to the pilgrimage and the same path he has visited like a merchant. We find the same events also happening during the journey. 

According to Roland Barthes,

"Myth converts history into nature, and the task of the mythographer is to rediscover the element of history (truth-fact-past) that motivates the myth, to elicit what is specific to a given time and place, asking what interests are served by the naturalization of particular convictions and values."

Myth is doing something that is not natural. Naturalization of something is the opening fact behind the myths. Things are opened with facts. These facts convince us so we can't deny it. What does Ghosh want to prove or naturalize ? 

If we connect it with the novel Gun Island, we find that Ghosh naturalize the problem of climate change and human trafficking. To tell the reality about climate change Ghosh used a myth, that is what he wanted to naturalize it. 

Historification was a term Brecht used to define the technique of deliberately setting the action of a play in the past in order to draw parallels with contemporary events. 

The contemporary problems that people are facing today are climate change and human trafficking that we have to take it seriously. We have seen in the novel about human migration. We see the body organ transplantation is quite terrifying. The people who are migrating are demonised. In reality, these are serious problems before they go beyond control.  

'Historification' enabled spectators to view the events of the play with emotional detachment and garner a thinking response. 

If we talk about what kind of response we are getting in the novel; emotional one or rational one. We can say that we receive both kind responses. Cinta is a kind of believer in magical realism. But she is a historian so she also gives facts to prove her points. But in a way she is a kind of believer in some divine power. The other female character Piya strongly believes in scientific reasons. She thinks rationally and gives rational clarifications. As JR Ramakrishna observed,

Ghosh weaves the myth of the Gun Merchant into contemporary weather-related realities such as the Los Angeles wildfires, the unusual travels of dolphins and spiders, and the sinking buildings of Venice, to create a pacy, absurdist, and ultimately hopeful tale of our times. (Ramakrishnan, JR)

In brief the novel tries to tell us that we have to think seriously about climate change and migration. 

3] Theme of Climate Change :- 

If we want to understand the theme of climate change in Gun Island, we have to see first the another novel of Amitav Ghosh "The Great Derangement". Because this book asks the question, What is the role of literature in the context of climate change ? Why aren't authors talking about it in their works ? And how can they talk with the help of literature ? It argued that not enough contemporary novels were addressing climate change as a central issue of our time. 

So Gun Island is a kind of example or explanation of those questions. With the help of literature we can understand serious problems like climate change and migration. We see many incidents in the novel that are talking about climate change. Animals and various species are changing their places because of pollution and human disturbance. Deen said while talking with Cinta, 

‘You know – temperatures are rising around the world because of global warming. This means that the habitats of various kinds of animals are also changing. The brown recluse spider is extending its range into places where it wasn’t found before – like this part of Italy.’ (p.214 Gun Island) 

If we read in the novel we find 'Corpus' (list of words) in the novel that connects or describes climate change. For example,

Flood, cyclone, storm, calamities, drought, weather alert, wildfire, tsunami, apocalypse, volcano, temperature, reforestation, femine, earthquake, plague, smoke, air quality, tornado, global warming, greenhouse, carbon dioxide, coal, tufaan, wind, water, catastrophe, hailstorm, fossil fuels etc. 

Humans see benefits and are not much aware about climate change. That is why the seasons have changed. As Piya said in the novel, because of climate change animals are migrating, and finding a better place. But there is also the same problem. So in this way we can study the theme of climate change in Gun Island. 

4] Theme of Migration - Human Trafficking / Theme of Illegal Migration and Refugee Crisis :- 

Amitav Ghosh talking about the problem and the reality of humans. People are selfish who think about themselves, not about others. There are many reasons behind migration. It may be because of political issues, religious problems or it can be climate also. JR Ramakrishna rightly said that, 

This journey sets off a chain of others and brings in Piya, an American scientist monitoring dolphins in the Sundarbans; Tipu, a slippery, ever-hustling young man who schools Deen; the earnest Rafi who goes from the Sundarbans to Venice via a convoluted, dangerous route taken by migrants today, and Cinta, the glamorous Italian academic, whose faith and insight glimmer through the book. (Ramakrishnan, JR)

If we see the reasons of migration in the novel, we find four main reasons: 

Calamities :- Lubna Khala and her family members migrated because of the flood. Everything was destroyed in her village. So they have to migrate to other place. Many other people are also migrating because of drought, cyclone, flood etc. 

Communal violence :- Bilal was a kind of person who helped his friend's family. He and Kabir are friends. Kabir's land was grabbed by his uncle. 

Poverty :- Tipu and Rafi migrate because of poverty. Rafi hasn't enough money to pay the loan. 

Socio-Economic Condition :- There is a character of Palash whose financial condition was good, he is not facing any violence nor calamities. But he has a kind of fantasy or dream to go Finland and for that he is migrating. But then he was not able to make his dream true. 

Deen, who was working in New York, has a reason for migration. He gives a reason that there is a sort of restlessness that drives people to migrate. He read many books so he dreamed of going abroad. Tipu listened to some voices and sometimes he was suffering from seizures. To discover or we can say to forget it he migrates. 

Conclusion

So these are the major themes of this novel. In short Ghosh want to tell us that climate change and human trafficking are serious problems, we have to think seriously about it. It is hard to understand the words because you have to go deep in the origin of the word. By using these words Ghosh makes the novel complex. Here we can see that Ghosh gives importance to Bengali Language. And it is an interesting way to describe the story. 

Works Cited 

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. London: J. Cape, 1972.  

Bhattacharya, Soumya. “Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh: A Gripping Parable for Our Times.” Hindustan Times, 8 June 2019, https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/gun-island-by-amitav-ghosh-a-gripping-parable-for-our-times/story-Zygav4yLecQZb9xCO1KW1N.html.  

“Etymology.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology. Accessed 18 Mar. 2022. 

Ghoshal, Somak. “Amitav Ghosh on Myth, Magic and His New Novel, 'Gun Island'.” Mint, 15 June 2019, https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/amitav-ghosh-and-the-sea-of-stories-1560505247731.html.  

Ghosh, Amitav. Gun Island. Penguin Random House India, 2019. Book. 2 January 2022.  

Ramakrishnan, JR. “'Gun Island' Is a Surreal Novel about Climate Change and Migration.” Electric Literature, 10 Sept. 2019, https://electricliterature.com/gun-island-is-a-magical-realism-novel-about-climate-change-and-migration

Words :-2805 

Article

  Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -4 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-208

Paper Code:-22415

Paper Name:- Comparative Literature & Translation Studies

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Comparative Literature in India: An Overview of its History.

Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta

Abstract:-

The essay provides an overview of Comparative Literature in India, focusing primarily on the department at Jadavpur University, where it began, and to a lesser extent the department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies at the University of Delhi, where it later had a new start in its engagement with Indian literatures. The department at Jadavpur was founded on the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore's World Literature address and by a modern poet-translator. While there were early attempts to decolonize and an overall desire to enhance and foster creativity, there were also subtle efforts to decolonize and an overall attempt to promote and nurture creativity. Indian literature, as well as literature from the South, began to gain significance over time.

In comparative literary studies, paradigms of techniques evolved from impact and analogue studies to cross-cultural literary interactions, with a focus on reception and transformation. In recent years, Comparative Literature has taken on new directions, focusing on recovering new regions of non-hierarchical literary interactions and connecting with many sectors of culture and knowledge, particularly those relating to excluded spaces.

Keywords: Decolonizing process, creativity, cross-cultural literary relations, interdisciplinarity.

The Beginnings:-

Rabindranath Tagore coined the phrase 'VishvaSahitya,' and with it, the field of comparative literature was born. Buddhadev Bose, one of the most important figures in modern Bengali poetry, did not entirely subscribe to Tagore's ideal. Baudelaire was translated by Buddhadev. Sudhindranath Dutta, recognised for his Mallarmé translations and erudition in both the Indian and Western contexts, will teach at the Comparative Literature department. Three of the department's initial five students went on to become well-known poets, and the fourth became an excellent critic of Bengali poetry. Naresh Guha, a poet, succeeded Buddhadeva Bose as Chairperson of the Department, where he remained for the next two decades.VishvaSahitya,' and with it, the field of comparative literature was born. Buddhadev Bose, one of the most important figures in modern Bengali poetry, did not entirely subscribe to Tagore's ideal. Baudelaire was translated by Buddhadev. Sudhindranath Dutta, recognised for his Mallarmé translations and erudition in both the Indian and Western contexts, will teach at the Comparative Literature department.

 Three of the department's initial five students went on to become well-known poets, and the fourth became an excellent critic of Bengali poetry. Naresh Guha, a poet, succeeded Buddhadeva Bose as Chairperson of the Department, where he remained for the next two decades.In an interview given to us in his last years, he emphasized the role of the department in fostering an intensely creative environment. This part of the article is about the beginning od comparative literature in India. 

Indian Literature as Comparative Literature:-

Comparatists working on Indian literature had to consider the interaction between the mainstream and the popular, the elite and the marginalised, and to some extent foreground intermedial perspectives as different forms coexisted in a composite manner, especially during earlier periods when textual and performative traditions coexisted. 

The department is continuing to develop teaching materials on various aspects of Indian literature from a comparative perspective, beginning with language origins, manuscript cultures, performative traditions, painting, sculpture, and architecture, the history of print culture, and modernity questions. The teaching used in the department stressed the fact that Comparative Literature studies had to be interdisciplinary by necessity.

Several researchers in the department looked for continuities and interventions in the tradition that would lead to pluralist epistemologies in the study of Indian literature and culture after T.S. Satyanath developed the theory of a script-centric, body-centric, and phonocentric study of texts in the mediaeval period.

Centres of Comparative Literature Studies:-

In 1986, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Surat launched a new full-fledged Comparative Literature department, with an emphasis on Indian literature in Western India. Dravidian University, Kuppam, established a department of Dravidian Comparative Literature and Philosophy in 1999. 

The Visvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics in Orissa has taken comparative poetics, a core field of comparative literature studies and dissertations, particularly in the South, as a central area of research.

During this time, two national Comparative Literature associations were formed, one in Jadavpur called the Indian Comparative Literature Association and the other in Delhi called the Comparative Indian Literature Association.

In 1992, the two organisations combined, forming the Comparative Literature Association of India, which now has over a thousand members. In the early years of the Association, a great number of creative authors, as well as academics and researchers, attended its conferences, each expanding the other's field of vision.

Reconfiguration of areas of comparison:-

Along with Indian literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude was included in the syllabus, along with a few other Latin American classics, before African literatures were added.

In terms of the other Area Studies components, the department now has Centres for African, Latin American, and Canadian Studies, which do research and present annual seminars.

Some, including the present author, believe that the Area Studies programmes resulted in a division of scarce resources and diverted attention away from some of the key challenges in comparative literature studies in India, such as the systematic amalgamation of data related to the Indian context and its analysis from comparative perspectives, and possibly the mapping of intercultural relations with other cultures.

Burns and Wordsworth were well-liked, and their romanticism was thought to be characterised by inner strength and tranquillity. The romantic poet's much-discussed 'angst' was perceived unfavourably. The love of 'health' and ' serenity' dates back to the classical period and appears to be a significant value in the tradition.

While Shelley and Byron were criticised for introducing softness and emotion to Bengali poetry, they were also praised for standing up for human rights and liberty in contrast to Kipling's imperialist poetry. The paradoxical tensions commonly found in the reception of romanticism in Bengal were explained by the connection between contemporary political requirements and literary values.It's worth noting that as the independence movement gained traction, Shelley, the rebel poet, began to receive a warm reception. 

In another context, the question of whether Shakespeare was imposed on Indian literature rose to prominence, and comparatists demonstrated, as did Sisir Kumar Das, that there were different Shakespeares. Shakespeare's texts may have been imposed in the classroom, but the playwright's reception at the theatre was rich and varied.

From reception studies, the focus shifted to cross-cultural reception, where reciprocity and cross-cultural exchange were investigated. One attempt, for example, was to examine the Romantic Movement from a broader perspective, attempting to untangle its multiple layers as it moved between countries, particularly between Europe and India. The birth of the Romantic movement was aided by the translation of some Sanskrit texts into German, and Romanticism returned to India in various forms in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The next major area of study was reception studies, both vertically and horizontally - one looked at components of ancient and mediaeval literature in modern writings, as well as inter and intraliterary relationships, emphasising impact and responses. While studying Vedic, Upanishadic, Buddhist, and Jaina elements in modern texts, one also looked at clusters of Buddha, Mahavira, and Nanak sermons, qissas and katha ballads across the country, early novels in various Indian literatures, and the impact of Eastern literature and thought on Western literature and vice versa.

With the introduction of the semester system, the division was abandoned in favour of more general courses such as Cross-cultural Literary Transactions, in which Rudyard Kipling's Kim and Rabindranath Tagore's Gora were studied, or Literary Transactions, in which the tradition of Reason and Rationalism in European and Indian literatures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was studied more closely.

The department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Saurashtra University in Rajkot took up the theme of the Indian Renaissance and translated several Indian authors into English, studied early travelogues from Western India to England, and in general published collections of nineteenth-century theoretical discourse.

The department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Saurashtra University in Rajkot took up the theme of the Indian Renaissance and translated several Indian authors into English, studied early travelogues from Western India to England, and in general published collections of nineteenth-century theoretical discourse.

The grant went to Dibrugarh University's Department of Assamese, which released a variety of volumes on translations, collections of rare texts, and documentation of folk forms.

Jadavpur University's Comparative Literature department also obtained funding to conduct study in four areas: East-West Literary Relations, Indian Literature, Translation Studies, and Third World Literature. In Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, the department had an ardent translator who translated works from numerous so-called "third-world countries."

Oral traditions across the country had their own knowledge systems that could provide valuable and sustainable alternatives to contemporary urban modes of life and living, as well as reveal certain cultural dynamics and value systems that were constantly replenishing mainstream expressive traditions. The Centre for Advanced Studies' second priority was the connection between Indian and neighbouring countries' literatures.

The first preliminary research in this area revealed connections that suggested a continuous series of interactions between and among Asian cultures and communities since ancient times, as well as the urgent need for more work in this area in order to engage in meaningful dialogue with one another in the Asian context and to uncover different pathways of creative communications. Efforts in this direction resulted in an International Conference on South-South Dialogues, which drew a large number of Asian and European attendees. An anthology of critical essays on the socio-cultural and literary exchanges between India and Southeast Asia has been released.

One of the projects in the inter-Asian series was a study of travelogues from Bengal to Asian countries, which resulted in the publication of an annotated bibliography that may serve as a starting point for the study of inter-literary linkages. The picture of Burma in Bengali and Oriya literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the subject of a second study. Travel journals and diaries were compiled, as well as newspaper articles from historic publications, literary excerpts, and photos of Burmese people in the Indian press.

Conclusion:-

It's worth noting at this point that in the twenty-first century, Comparative Literature in the United States collaborated with two other related fields of study: Translation Studies and Cultural Studies. Different topics of interliterary studies are covered by translation studies. Translation histories can be used to identify literary relationships, while examination of translation actions can reveal key characteristics of both the source and target literary and cultural systems. In terms of Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature has always been interested in several facets of the subject, the most prominent of which being literature and its relationship to various arts. Cultural Studies may also play a role in a variety of multidisciplinary courses offered by the discipline.

For example, a course at Delhi University looks at representations of human habitat systems and ecology in literature, looks for concepts and terms for such settlements, and looks at archaeological evidence and accounts of travellers from Greece, China, Persia, and Portugal to show the differences that exist at different levels of perception and ideological positions.

It is clear that Comparative Literature in the country now has a variety of goals and visions that are aligned with local and global historical demands. The discipline, like the humanities and literary studies, is concerned with concerns that would contribute to the enhancement of civilizational gestures, as well as factors that are divisive and constantly limit the number of people who participate in them.

It is doing so by identifying new non-hierarchical links and lines of connectedness, a process Kumkum Sangari referred to as "co-construction" in a recent paper, a process rooted in "subtle and complicated histories of translation, circulation, and extraction." And comparatists operate with the understanding that much work remains to be done, and that one of the key tasks of Comparative Literature today, the development of literary histories, in terms of literary relations among neighbouring regions and bigger wholes, has yet to begin. However, the core goal of some of the discipline's early builders, to cultivate and develop creativity, remains a subterranean force in all of its endeavours.

Work Cited :-

Dasgupta, Subha Chakraborty. "Comparative Literature in India: 

An Overview of its History." Comparative Literature & World Literature Spring 2016.

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The Mechanics of Writing

  Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -4 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-209

Paper Code:-22416

Paper Name:-Research Methodology

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Write a detailed note on The Mechanics of Writing

Introduction:-

Writing skills are an important part of communication which allows us to communicate with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than face-to-face or any other communication. The good thing is that writing skills can be learned as well as any other skills. When we write a Research Paper at times the Mechanics of Writing is very important. Mechanics of Writing like spelling, punctuation, Italics, Name of Person, Numbers, Quotations, etc.. Let's discuss of Mechanics of Writing. 

 

What are the mechanics of writing?

It refers to the parts of speech and how they combine together to form sentences. Mechanics refers to the rules of the written language, such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. An understanding of both grammar and mechanics is required to clearly communicate your ideas in a paper. 

Mechanics, in theory, include matters such as usage and spelling, as well as hyphenation and the use of italics. Essentially, mechanics refers to a set of conventions--how to abbreviate and when to capitalize, for example." 

Spelling:-

Spelling, including hyphenation, must be consistent, except in quotations: quoted material must be reproduced exactly as it appears in the original.

Word division:-

 

Avoid dividing words at the end of a line. Where divisions are unavoidable, practice in [North America] is to divide words according to pronunciation (“rep-re-sent”), whereas the British divide according to word derivation (“re-pre-sent”). Other languages have their own rules for dividing words: French, for instance, usually divides on a vowel (“ho-me-rique”; in English, “Ho-mer-ic”). If in doubt, consult a dictionary.

. Punctuation:-

 The primary purpose of punctuation is to ensure the clarity and readability of your writing. Although there are many required uses, punctuation is, to some extent, a matter of personal preference. But, while certain practices are optional, consistency is mandatory. Writers must guard against adopting different styles in parallel situations. The remarks below stress the conventions that pertain especially to research papers. More comprehensive discussions of punctuation can be found in standard handbooks of composition ….

 General remarks. 

The primary purpose of punctuation is to ensure the clarity and readability of your writing. Although there are many required uses, punctuation is, to some extent, a matter of personal preference. But, while certain practices are optional, consistency is mandatory. Writers must guard against adopting different styles in parallel situations. The remarks below stress the conventions that pertain especially to research papers. More comprehensive discussions of punctuation can be found in standard handbooks of composition

Apostrophes:-

Apostrophes indicate contractions (rarely acceptable in scholarly writing) and possessives. General practice is to form the possessive of monosyllabic proper names ending in a sibilant sound (s, z, sh, zh, ch, j) by adding an apostrophe and another s (Keats’s poems, Marx’s theories) except, by convention, for names in classical literature (Mars’ wrath). In words of more than one syllable ending in a sibilant, only the apostrophe is added (Hopkins’ poems, Cervantes’ novelas) except for names ending in a sibilant and a final e (Horace’s odes). Note that the possessive of a name ending with a silent s is formed by adding an apostrophe and another s (Camus’s novels).

 Colons:-  

Colons are used to indicate that what follows will be an example, explanation, or elaboration of what has just been said. They are commonly used to introduce quotations (see §§ 14b, 14c, and 14f). For their use in documentation and bibliography, Always skip one space after a colon.

Commas:-

Commas are usually required between items in a series (blood, sweat, and tears), between coordinate adjectives (an absorbing, frightening account), before coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses, around parenthetical elements, and after fairly long phrases or clauses preceding the main clause of a sentence. They are also conventional in dates (January 1, 1980), names (W. K. Wimsatt, Jr., and Walter J. Ong, S.J.), and addresses (Brooklyn, New York). A comma and a dash are never used together in modern English usage. If the context requires a comma (as it does here), the comma follows a closing parenthesis, but a comma never precedes an opening parenthesis. 

 Dashes:- 

dash is typed … with no space before or after. Some writers tend to overuse [em] dashes, substituting them loosely for other marks of punctuation. The [em] dash, however, has only a few legitimate uses: around parenthetical elements that require a number of internal commas, and before a summarizing appositive. example,

Many twentieth-century American writers—Faulkner, Capote, Styron, and Williams, to name only a few—come from the South.

Hyphens:-

Hyphens are used to form some types of compound words, particularly compound adjectives that precede the word(s) they modify (a mind-boggling experience, a well-established policy, a first-rate study). Hyphens also join prefixes to capitalized words (post-Renaissance) and link pairs of coequal nouns (poet-priest, teacher-scholar). Many other compounds, however, are written as one word (wordplay, storytelling) or as two (social security tax, a happily married man). Consult a standard dictionary or writing manual for guidance in determining which compounds require hyphenation. [En dashes rather than hyphens should be] used to connect numbers indicating a range.

Semicolons:-

Semicolons are used to separate items in a series when some of the items require internal commas. They are used between independent clauses that are not joined by a coordinating conjunction, and they may be used before the coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence if one of the independent clauses requires some internal commas. For the use of semicolons in documentation and bibliography.

Slashes:-

Slashes are used to separate lines of poetry and elements of dates to enclose phonemic transcription, and occasionally to separate alternative words.

Square brackets []:-

Square brackets [] are used for an unavoidable parenthesis within a parenthesis, to enclose interpolations in a quotation or in incomplete data, and to enclose phonetic transcription.

Italics:-

Italics …. Avoid frequent use of italics … for emphasis. Phrases, words, or letters cited as linguistic examples and foreign words used in English text are [italicized]. The numerous exceptions to this last rule include quotations entirely in another language, titles of articles in another language (placed within quotation marks), proper names, and foreign words anglicized through frequent usage. Since [North] American English rapidly naturalizes words, use a dictionary and your own knowledge of current usage to determine which originally foreign expressions still require italics. Much, of course, depends on the audience. Foreign words, abbreviations, and phrases commonly. In discussions of the arts, such words or expressions as the following are also.

Quotation marks:-

Quotation marks is enclosed in double quotation marks words to which attention is being directed (e.g., words purposely misused or used in a special sense, words referred to as words, and parenthetical English translations of words or phrases from another language). Note, however, that words used as examples in linguistic studies are [italicized] and not enclosed in double quotation marks. Use single quotation marks for definitions or translations that appear without intervening punctuation (e.g., ainsi ‘thus’). For the use of quotation marks with titles, and, for use of single and double quotation marks in quoted material. 

 Number:-

 Numbers that cannot be spelled out in one or two words may be written as numerals (one, thirty-six, ninety-nine, one hundred, two thousand, three million; but 2½, 101, 137, and 1,275). Numbers compared or contrasted should be in the same style (5 out of 125, 2½ to 3 years old or two-and-a-half to three years old). In technical or statistical discussions involving their frequent use or in notes, where many space-saving devices are legitimate, all numbers may be written as numerals. Common practice is to put a comma between the third and fourth digits from the right, the sixth and seventh, and so on.

Exceptions to this practice include page and line numbers of four or more digits, addresses, and year numbers. The comma is added in year numbers if a fifth digit is used, for example, In 20,000 B.C.

Roman numerals. Use capital Roman numerals for … books and parts of a work, volumes, acts of a play, or individuals in a series. Examples like Book I of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. 

Names of Persons:-

 Since there are exceptions to almost any rule, good judgment based on knowledge of common usage is essential in dealing with persons’ names.

 Titles:-

 Formal titles (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Dr., Professor, etc.) are usually omitted in references to persons, living or dead. By convention, titles are associated with, or used for, certain names—for instance, the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is referred to as Surrey, not Howard. By custom, however, some titled persons are not referred to by their titles: Benjamin Disraeli, the first earl of Beaconsfield, is commonly called Disraeli. A few women are traditionally known by their married names (Mme de Staël). Otherwise, women’s names are treated the same as men’s (Dickinson, Stein, Plath, not Miss Dickinson, Miss Stein, Miss Plath).

Authors’ names:-

It is common and acceptable to use simplified names of famous authors (Vergil for Publius Vergilius Maro, Dante for Dante Alighieri). Many authors are referred to by pseudonyms, which should be treated as ordinary names. examples like George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). In a few cases, however, surnames and pen names are virtually inseparable from initials (O. Henry, not Henry).

Work Citation:-

Armstrong , Keir. “Mechanics of Writing .” https://doi.org/https://carleton.ca/keirarmstrong/learning-resources/essay-guidelines/mechanics-of-writing/. 

Gibaldi, Joseph. “The Mechanics of Writing .” MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Modern Language Association of America, New York, 2009, pp. 63–112. 

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The African Literature

 Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-12

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -4 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-206

Paper Code:-22413

Paper Name:-The African Literature 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- How does the structure of the play A Dance of the Forests Soyinka trace the past to the present to forecast a dystopian future? Explain.

About Author

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style, but his serious intent and his belief in the evils inherent in the exercise of power were usually evident in his work as well.

A member of the Yoruba people, Soyinka attended Government College and University College in Ibadan before graduating in 1958 with a degree in English from the University of Leeds in England. Upon his return to Nigeria, he founded an acting company and wrote his first important play, A Dance of the Forests (produced in 1960; published in 1963), for the Nigerian independence celebrations. The play satirizes the fledgling nation by stripping it of romantic legend and by showing that the present is no more a golden age than was the past.

About Play 

A Dance of the Forests was written for the independence celebrations of Nigeria in 1960. As a mythopoeist, Soyinka feels committed to putting the rich, usable African past into perspective as the source of an ongoing process of continuity and growth. He dedicates himself to enlightening the hearts of his readers, whether African or not, by exploring into the world of African mythology, especially, the myth of Ogun. The play significantly reveals, for the fust time, the playwright's political inclinations, the anxiety he had about life in general and the hture of his nation in particular. The play emphasises the need to restore the African cultural identity as a major element of social development. Nigeria, like Kenya, and any other colonized countries, is a creation of British imperialism.

Dystopian/Utopian Vision in ‘A Dance of the Forests 

This is the most recognized play of Wole Soyinka. The play was performed on the celebration of independence of Nigeria – 1960. The play was published in 1963.  This iconoclastic work that irritated many of the elite in Soyinka's native Nigeria demands freedom from European imperialism. We see a portrayal of post-colonial Nigerian politics aimless and corrupt. Derek Wright points to the difficulty and elusiveness of the play when he states that it is "the most uncentered of works, there is no discernible main character or plot line, and critics have been at a loss to say what kind of play it is or if it is a play at all and not a pageant, carnival or festival"

The framework of a play is a significant factor in determining the playwright's aesthetic vision. But the structure which refer here is not the conventional dramatic structure of exposition, complication, climax, anti-climax, and denouement that is the paraphernalia of plays in general; but the plot structure that is distinctive to individual plays or artistic visions. Booker identifies this distinctive plot structure, especially as it pertains to dystopian/utopian artistic vision, when he avers that 

"Utopia and dystopia are very much part of the same project in that both describe an other world, spatially and/or temporally removed from that of the author and/or intended readership" (Phillips, Richard)

While a utopian past and dystopian present is often enacted as a narrative gesture that concomitantly leads to a futurity that is utopian (Paul F. Starrs and John B. Wright 98), the reverse is the case in this play. 

Soyinka's A Dance of the Forests is the hopeless past with the fruitless present to project a bleak future.(Azumurana)

Based on this negative reconstruction of the African past, which is antithetical to its glorification in the works of négritude writers, Soyinka insists, to borrow the words of that there is no "lost way of life and a lost course of pursuits" (Wiegman). This is so because in a work that searches for a utopian future, the past must be reconstructed in such a way that the living seek to recapture the past in the future.

But as Anyokwu observes "Soyinka" in this play "dramatizes man's proclivity to selectively 'edit' his past, turn a blind eye to the warts and welts of his ignoble past and choose to highlight the halcyon days instead" (Anyokwu)

The play is metaphorical commentary of the socio-political situation in Nigeria. If we see the structure of the play, Soyinka traces the past to the present to forecast a dystopian future. 

Utopian past ➡ Dystopian present ➡ Utopian future 

It means Soyinka wants to tell that, the past of Nigeria was utopian, where their people are living without any disturbance but the present is dystopian. Where people became selfish. They are killing people like Demoke. So Soyinka asked a question here: how will the future become utopian ? This expectation has not become true here. 

Past and the present as the failure of the future 

The plot of this play is one in which there is a “gathering of the tribes” in a festivity in which the living asks their gods to invite some of their illustrious ancestors. These illustrious ancestors are supposed to be reminders of a magnificent past. But instead of legendary ancestors,Forest Father/Head—the supreme divinity of the play, sends the living “two spirits of the restless dead” . It is this action of Forest Father that sets in motion the conflict of the play between the dead and the living, and between humans and the gods. But beyond these conflicts is the new world envisaged by Soyinka: a world in which, to borrow the words of Miller, all that is presently separated are united (Miller).

Aroni wants to reveal the sins of all people who have done wrong with dead women and dead men in past life. They did sins in their present life also. If their past and present is like this, how can they build a good future ? This question Soyinka tries to unfold. As Wiegman sees the apocalyptic or dystopic as a work "which writes the present as the failure of the future" and this is what obtains in A Dance of the Forests in which Soyinka stretches Wiegman's explanation/or observation by writing the past and the present as the failure of the future. This is evident, as already noted, from the past and present violent actions of Soyinka's major characters. This is a play therefore in which the past and the present conflate in a metonymic reenactment of violence and bloodshed. Soyinka traces the history of a hopeless past, and compares it with a defective present to forecast a bleak future. In the prologue to the play, Aroni (Lieutenant to Forest Father) states:

Even this might have passed unnoticed by Oro if Demoke had left araba's height undiminished. But Demoke is a victim of giddiness and cannot gain araba's heights. He would shorten the tree, but apprentice to him is one OREMOLE, a follower of Oro who fought against this sacrilege to his god. And Oremole won support with his mockery of the carver who was tied to earth. The apprentice began to work above his master's head; Demoke reached a hand and plucked him down. (Soyinka- A Dance of the Forests)

It is also significant that the Dead Man and Dead Woman have come not to celebrate with the living, but to judge them. As what they have done in past and in the present also they are not giving them justice. Even nobody takes the case of a dead man. They repeatedly implore "Will you take my case?" (Soyinka), which is also the opening statement of the play, is an indication that they have come to right the wrongs against them in their previous existence, eight centuries ago. As Miller rightly observes, 

"dystopias [are] motivated out of a utopian pessimism in that they force us to confront the dystopian elements... so that we can work through them and begin again" (Miller). 

In this sense, Dead Woman's observation that nothing has changed after eight centuries is in itself a call for a new beginning that would guarantee a promising future. What happened to them in the past is happening in the present also. The king and the members of courtship done wrong with dead man and dead woman. In the present at the end nothing has happened and they didn't get justice. We can say that the past is gone, the present is here, but the future is yet to come. By painting a dystopian past and present, and forecasting a gloomy future, Soyinka warns that the mistakes of the past and the present should be avoided for a better future. 

Despite the dystopian images that populate Soyinka’s play, he still hints at the regeneration of the human world. For instance, the plot which is in itself dystopian,still has a utopian element implicated in it.

Conclusion 

To wind up we can find that, it may be claimed that Soyinka's aesthetic rumination within the utopian literary genre is that the past should not be constructed in such a way that it is glorified and romanticised as a projection of a happy future. The past and present, according to Soyinka, must be criticised in order for the future to be hopeful. In the novel the author said that the past of the country was not glorified and the present is not hopeful. As may already be deduced, he criticises the past and present, and foresees a dystopian future in order to direct action that will prevent it from becoming a reality. As a result, Soyinka's apocalyptic terrain is inextricably linked to his utopian vision. longing for a better future. 

Works Cited

Anyokwu , Christopher. “HOPE EGHAGHA AS POET: SATIRE, SELF AND SOCIETY .” SKASE Journal of Literary Studies, vol. 4, 20 Dec. 2012. 

Azumurana, Solomon Omatsola. “Wole Soyinka’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision in a Dance of the Forests.” Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, vol. 51, no. 2, 2017, pp. 71–81., https://doi.org/10.4314/tvl.v51i2.6. 

Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, SF-TH Inc, 1998, pp. 336–60, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240705.

Phillips, Richard. “Dystopian Space in Colonial Representations and Interventions: Sierra Leone as ‘the White Man's Grave.’” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 84, no. 3-4, 2002, pp. 189–200., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0435-3684.2002.00123.x.  

Soyinka, Wole. A Dance of the Forests: A Play. Oxford University Press, 1976. 

Starrs, Paul F., and John B. Wright. “Utopia, Dystopia, and Sublime Apocalypse in Montana's Church Universal and Triumphant.” Geographical Review, vol. 95, no. 1, 2005, pp. 97–121., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2005.tb00193.x. 

Wiegman, Robyn. “Feminism’s Apocalyptic Futures.” New Literary History, vol. 31, no. 4, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 805–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20057637. 

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