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Rushdie:
Postmodernism and History
--
M Madhusudhana Rao
This paper has two parts: the first part briefly discusses
the idea of `history' in `postmodernism'; and the second
part discusses Rushdie's idea of historicity (but not
history) in his fiction—in particular, Midnight's
Children. The concept of history originated from
Aristotle's distinction of history, philosophy and poetry,
(as history being particular and philosophy being general
and poetry combining both the general and the particular),
Sidney's definition that historians deal with a particular
`truth', whereas poetry deals with both particular and
universal truths, to Hegel's concept of history being
a dialectical process of progress of `Spirit' (GEIST),
to the postmodernist concept of history being `finite'
and `hyperreal', there is a growth in the attitude to
history.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
V
S Naipaul: Helical Journey of an Author and Man
-- Savita Pathak
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul is well-known not
only among connoisseurs of English literature world
over, but also among millions of laymen. He has always
remained an enigma. He is known to be an extrovert on
most matters. Yet, there is never a consensus among
critics and reviewers over his statements made directly
or through his writings. Not only are his words interpreted
variously, but his Nobel Prize for Literature for 2001
too was interpreted in many ways. To understand Naipaul
and his writings, it is necessary to understand his
past. Naipaul's continuing and never-ending journey
in exile is actually a desperate response to the fate
that has befallen him. Naipaul has not inherited the
legacy of traditional/classical scholarship. His ancestors
were taken from a remote village of Gorakhpur district
as indentured plantation workers to a small Caribbean
island of Trinidad.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
1857:
A Literary-Historical Perspective
--
Rattan Lal Hangloo
The year 1857 is an historically eventful year not only
in the history of India but also for all those nations
which have carried on anti-colonial struggles to achieve
their independence. In India, the year 1857 marked the
beginning of the first war of Indian independence. The
available material on this phenomenon is enormous. The
contemporary colonial official documentation which constitutes
the major source of information reveals that it was
purely a military rebellion limited to a few groups
of people in a couple of places. The British government
and the colonial historians have not acknowledged the
truth about 1857 because they wanted to perpetuate British
colonial rule and their governance in India. The Indian
historiography on 1857 is vast and the difference of
opinion among scholars is wide-ranging.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Heavy-Duty
Verbs in Operation in Indian English
--
Jayaprakash A Shinde
The expression `heavy-duty verbs in operation', in fact,
refers to `heavy-duty' verbs which are also operation-words
like `make', `put', `take', `keep', `let', `give', `get',
`go', `come' and `do'. The verbs selected for study—`do',
`get', `give', `make' and `take'—are frequently
used and are some of the most complex verbs in the English
language, as they often do not have any specific meaning
of their own; generally, they derive their meaning from
the nouns or adjectives that follows them. They are
widely used in phrasal and idiomatic expressions in
collocation with particles. To provide a definitive
description of Indian English collocations of these
verbs, the entire one-million word Kolhapur Corpus of
Indian English was used as source material. Instances
of Indian English data were referred first to the sense
definitions given in the corpus-based COBUILD dictionary.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Tongue Untied: A
Comparative Study of Eritrean and Indian Women Poets
-- Pretti Kumar
India has strong traditions of poetry. Poetry served
as an important nonviolent tool of nationalism during
the Indian freedom movement. The Indian women poets
show how poetry can be born out of a sincere emotional
response to social reality. They react to inhuman brutality
in the personal space as well as at national level.
Their angry outburst is as much local as universal.
It could well be a scene in Bosnia. Though power changed
hands, the quality of life in Eritrea and especially
that of the women did not improve. Their future became
their present. The Eritrean struggle was evolutionary
and assimilative; it took into itself its entire people,
religions and individuals. But for the Eritrean women
it was war on too many fronts; every step was a tough
test they had to get through.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Orhan
Pamuk: An Icon of Istanbul
--
T Jeevan Kumar
Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate in Literature for 2006,
stands out as a Turkish literary Titan, whose novels
project him as a builder of a bridge between the East
and the West. As a critic rightly observes, "Pamuk's
books echo the basic polarities of Istanbul:
the tension between East and West, the pull of an Islamic
past and the lure of modern European manners and materialism".
Even the Nobel Citation aptly says, "In the quest
for the melancholic soul of his native city, Pamuk has
discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing
of cultures". Pamuk shot to fame with his novels
that explore the complex identity through its rich imperial
past. His first novel Darkness and Light (modified
version of Cevdet Bey and His Sons), explores
with great intimacy, a dynastic saga of a bourgeoisie
family living in Nisantasi, a town in the district of
Istanbul where Pamuk grew up.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Pragmatism
and Holism as Influences on Franklin's The Autobiography
--
José
Carlos Redondo Olmedilla
The
autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is one of the
most famous books, though the author recorded only the
first part of his long life. It reveals an extraordinary
and unusual human being—the hero, the implicit
legend, the narrator and the writer. But why different
Franklins cohabit in the work and how is this cohabitation
possible? The author of this paper thinks that the answer
to this question could possibly lie in holism and pragmatism
as Franklin's key approaches to reality. To substantiate
his contention, the author first introduces holism and
pragmatism as ideologies favored by the environment
and context of colonial America. Clear examples and
manifestations of these ideologies and ideological motifs
are collected from Franklin's The Autobiography
and presented.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Class
Struggle in Lillian Hellman's Days to Come
-- T
Nagamani
The 1930s has been considered as a great period of revolution
and resurgence in the literary world. The economic depression,
the industrial explosion resulting in the growing unrest
among workers and the birth of trade unionism, the rise
of nationalist movements in colonial countries under
imperialistic governments and the exploitation of various
kinds resulting in capitalistic societies—these
were some of the economic, social and political conditions
that affected the literary world bringing about a remarkable
change in the attitude of the writers towards life and
literature. It would take a strong mind and will to
create a play that could combine social statement with
entertaining drama. Lillian Hellman, acclaimed as one
of America's most distinguished playwrights, emerged
as a bright star in the cloudy horizons of the Great
Depression of the 1930s.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved. | 
