English Literature

A Fine Balance: A Review in Hindi A Fine Balance एक उल्लेखनीय लेखक रोहिंटन मिस्त्री का एक शानदार उपन्यास है। इस उपन्यास का विषय भारतीय भूमि है। इसकी सेटिंग भारत के 1970 के दशक के मध्य की है। इसकी सीमा विशाल है। यह मानवता के सामाजिक और राजनीतिक दमन की कहानी है। दमन की इस कहानी को उल्लेखनीय मार्मिकता और ईमानदारी के साथ प्रस्तुत किया गया है। A Fine Balance में भारत का चित्रण है। यह भारत, इसके लोगों, जलवायु, शहरों, जातियों, वर्गों और क्षेत्रीय पहचानों से संबंधित है। यह भारत की विविध और जटिल वास्तविकताओं को प्रकट करता है। इसमें उपन्यासकार भारतीय राजनीति के अपराधीकरण पर अपना ध्यान केंद्रित करता है। यहां उन्होंने आपातकाल के दौरान भारतीय राजनीतिक परिदृश्य को खूबसूरती से प्रस्तुत किया है। यह विशेष रूप से आपातकालीन अवधि के दौरान राजनीतिक हस्तक्षेप के कारण चार प्रमुख पात्रों की पीड़ाओं के बारे में है। A Fine Balance 1975 के भारत की कहानी है। यह इंदिरा के आपातकाल के दौरान एक अनाम शहर के चार भारतीयों की कहानी कहती है। ये चार लोग हैं: दीना दलाल, ईश्वर, ओम प्रकाश और मानेक। दीना एक पारसी विधवा ह...

Family Matters: A Review Family Matters is a popular novel by Rohinton Mistry. It is based on Bombay life. It is set in the 1990s. The picture of Bombay after Babri Masjid demolition has been taken to portray in this novel. The plot of Family Matters is very interesting. It is the story of the personal struggles of a Parsi family that live in Mumbai, India. Through the lives of this family the novelist tries to explore the larger issues that Parsi people face. The entire novel revolves round the character of Nariman Vakeel. He is the protagonist of the novel. He has been presented as an elderly father. He is 79 years old. He suffers from Parkinson’s disease. The story of this novel deals with the problems concerning the caring of Nariman Vakeel in two branches of his family. Nariman had a deep love for a non-Parsi woman named Lucy. His family forbade him to marry outside his religion. His parents compel him to break his long lasting affair with Lucy. Under the pressure of h...

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON LITERATURE Globalization has had a huge impact on thinking across the humanities, redefining the understanding of fields such as communication, culture, politics, and literature. The impact of globalization on culture and literature is quite significant.  The discipline of literary studies is undergoing dramatic transformation. The term ‘Globalization’ is tentatively defined as the interconnectedness. Modern technologies such as satellite communications and World Wide Web have made drastic changes in dissemination of various forms of literature and quite relevantly information explosion has played a central role in distribution of social and cultural packages all around the globe.   People can even read novels, poetry, short stories, songs, and plays online now. A person in India can read Dostoevsky or Chekhov in his own language and vice-versa - a Russian student can look up Indian authors on the internet. With globalization, it i...

Feminism has played a significant role in the contemporary literary criticism. It strongly advocates in favour of women. It deals with their problem of existence. It emphasizes on the equality of sexes and revolts against the discrimination against them. In the 1960s and 1970s feminism was primarily Western but since 1980s we find a large number of non-western writers getting seriously engaged in feminist debates. This has become an incessant support for the improvement and empowerment of women. The feminists criticize a second and other place of women in society. They believe that the patriarchal system of society has been the root cause of women’s suffering. As a polemical movement its primary concern in literary criticism was to explore and combat the stereotype representation of women in literature. This marks an significant connection between literary criticism and feminism as a social movement. Feminist movement creates self awareness in women. This self awareness helps to improv...

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, born in Richmond, Virginia, on 22 nd April 1873, published her first novel, The Descendant, in 1897, when she was 24 years old. With this novel Glasgow began a literary career encompassing 19 novels, a collection of poems, one of stories, and a book of literary criticism. A popular writer, Glasgow was on the best seller lists five times. In 1942 she received the Pulitzer Prize for her last published novel, In This Our Life. She established herself as one of the America’s most talented and influential writers. On the day after Glasgow died an editorial tribute in the Richmond Times Dispatch opened by stating, “The greatest woman Virginia has produced is dead.” Ellen Glasgow produced ten major novels of enduring literary merit- The Voice of the People (1900), The Deliverance (1904), Virginia (1913), Life and Gabriella (1916), Barren Ground (1925), The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), The Sheltered Life (1932) , The Vein of Iron (193...

Bundela Kings were generous patrons of literature. This is why the royal palaces harboured several noted poets. In the medieval ages, Orchha, a Bundela kingdom in the central part of northern India, emerged as a center of vernacular poetry in Brajbhasha. It enjoyed a rich tradition in the fields of literature and poetry. In the court of Vir Singh Dev, King of Orchha, there were many great literary persons. Among them the most famous was Keshavdas. Who does not know him? Keshavdas, the court poet of Raja Vir Singh Dev of Orchha, was born in Orchha in a Sanadhya Brahmin family. His father Kashinath and the elder brother Balabhadra Mishra were both Sanskrit scholars. Initially he was in the court of Indrajit Singh, the brother of the Bundela ruler Ram Singh. When Vir Singh Dev Bundela came to power, Keshavdas joined his court. His most famous disciple, Rai Parveen, was equally well known for her ravishing looks as well as her lyrical voice. Her enchanting beauty and her sharp repartees d...

The post - independence Indian English fiction has seen quite a large crop of new and interesting writers. Their works are firmly based on social realism. Writers like Bhavani Bhattacharya, Manohar Malgonkar and Khushwant Singh appeared on the scene in the fifties of the last century. Quite a number of women novelists also emerged. Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai are notable among them. This development has continued ever since and one can discover many new voices. The most striking among them is Kiran Desai, the third recipient of Man Booker Prize after Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy.  Kiran is a true achiever in the real sense of the term. Born in India in 1971, she shifted her base to England at the age of 14 before moving to the USA. She was educated in India, England and the US. Her mother, Anita Desai is a noted writer. Therefore, to enter the field of writing was very easy for her. Her first novel appeared as Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard ...

For many decades English has been taught in our schools and colleges. It occupies the position of a second language in the school curriculum and for higher education. Now English language teaching has gained the status of a new discipline. Teaching English to the Indian students is the biggest challenge. This is so because of the large population of the country, bleak economic conditions, the cultural and social diversities and insufficient men and material. One of the main reasons for the poor standard of English is the lack of a clear-cut policy. There have been frequent changes in the policy of the government towards the teaching and learning of English. The educationists and politicians differ on the role and status of English in India.  The majority of our students struggle a lot to acquire the language. Most of the Indian students are exposed to their mother tongues. They do not get adequate opportunities either to listen to or speak in English. They listen to English only in...

Last decade of the twentieth century marked the beginning of two eras in India-Computer Era and Mobile Era. Both computer and mobile have become part and parcel of our life. Like all other electronic equipments, Mobile was invented to make our life simpler. But what really happening is it is making life more complicated.  The most important effect of mobile in today’s world is attack on our privacy. For the first time in the history of civilization, humans have lost their privacy. It has started to become a fun for people to capture other person’s private videos and upload them on internet. But, those who take that pictures and videos, they should remember one thing that he same can happen even to their mothers, sisters, wives or daughters.  Let me add one more side effect of mobile. We can see people going to temples, churches and mosques for praying. Everyone wants some peace of mind. But even inside the holy place, a few won’t switch off phone. Even in prayers, half of thei...

The holy books of the Hindus explain that all the inhabitants of the earth emerged from the primordial sea. It means the earliest life forms appeared in water and the same is the source of all life. The entire universe is largely composed of water and that’s why it can’t exist without it. Leonardo da Vinci is of the view that ‘Water is the driving force in nature.’ According to Thoreau ‘Life in us is like the water in a river.’  Water has always fascinated humankind. As a result, it plays a very prominent and recurrent role in literature. It gives constant fuel to the fires of imagination. According to Githa Hariharan, ‘Water, the fountainhead of civilization as of life, flows through human expression through the ages.’ Given the importance of water to life, it is not surprising that as a potent symbol it flows through literature.  Water is often used to symbolize various things in literature. The use of it as a symbol clearly has no set rules. Authors use it in different ways...

Water is an intrinsic part of most spiritual beliefs and religious traditions. Its uses and symbolism in religion are many and varied; its spiritual and healing properties are seen in rites and rituals; and its representations are as numerous as they are  diverse. These different religious and cultural aspects of water reflect the vast array of civilizations that have made water the central element in their practices. The act of providing drinking water is seen by many cultures and religions to be one of the most charitable human acts.  Water is considered a purifier in most religions. Major faiths that incorporate ritual washing (ablution) include Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. Immersion of a person in water is a central sacrament of Christianity. It is called baptism. It is also a part of the practice of other religions, including Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. In addition, a ritual bath in pure water is performed for the dead in many religions including Islam and Judaism...

Rohinton Mistry has emerged as a formidable writer on world literary scene. It is he who has enjoyed acclaim from critics both at home and abroad. Many put him on a par with Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Joyce, Thomas Hardy and Chekhov.  Nandini Bhautoo- Dewnarain says, ‘Rohinton Mistry is a writer with great honesty of imagination. He does not attempt to follow fades and fashions. His writing suggests sensitivity to the beauty and the fragmentations, the failings and the cruelties of his world. Much of Mistry’s fiction works with the humanistic premise that the universal lies in the ordinary. This is the trajectory he has chalked out for himself in the course of his brief but meteoric literary career’.  Mistry transcends the boundary of his geography when he writes. He is cited almost everywhere as a Canadian writer but Canada hardly finds expression in his writing. He draws his major source of material from the observed life in Ind...

INDIAN DIASPORA: A BRIEF STUDY In the Indian context, emigration has been a continuous process. It has been taking place for centuries. Indian emigration during the 19th and early 20th centuries was unprecedented. Broadly three distinct patterns of Indian emigration are identifiable during the colonial period: (a) Indentured labour emigration; (b) Kangani and maistry labour emigration, and; (c) Free or Passage emigration. New plantations, industrial and commercial ventures in European colonies created the need for large supplies of labourer. To fulfil the demand for cheap labour the colonial authorities introduced indentured system in India in 1834. Under this system some 1.5 million persons from various parts of the country migrated. Indenture was a signed contract to work for a given employer for five years. During this period the emigrant was entitled to receive a basic pay, accommodation, food rations and medical facilities. At the end of five years, the emigrant was fr...

Diaspora: The Subject of Ongoing Debate The concept of diaspora has elicited unprecedented interest among academicians and has provoked divergent responses worldwide. How to define diaspora has been the subject of ongoing debate. Safran maintains that diaspora is that segment of people living outside homeland. Docker defines diaspora as “a sense of belonging to more than one history, to more than one time and place, to more than one past and future.”1 Scholars like Brah, Gilroy, Stuart Hall and Phil Cohen are divided in their opinions on the issue of diaspora. Clearly, a working definition of diaspora is in order. Etymologically, the term ‘diaspora’ is derived from the Greek word ‘dia’ and ‘speiro’. ‘Dia’ means ‘through’ and ‘speiro’ means to ‘scatter’. The literal meaning of diaspora is ‘scattering’ or ‘dispersion’. The word ‘diaspora’ has often been used to describe the original dispersion of the Jews in the 6th century B.C. or to refer particularly to the Jews living outside...