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English in Globalized Market
-- Jyoti George
This paper briefly takes within its scope a micro-level approach to the recent ideas on language. The concept of
language cannot be subsumed into a single coherent notion, as it constitutes psychological, biological, social and cultural
complexities. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of such issues involved in this field, conceptual
arguments would have to be drawn from several interrelated areas. Considering the micro-level nature of this work, an
in-depth presentation of all those areas seen as relevant to the overall framework of the study would not be viable. Rather, a
basic introduction is given of a wide gamut of areas seen as essential to the illumination of the processes under review. It
will briefly present the language diversity and the effects of globalization on them. This would provide a backdrop
against which the observations made in this analysis are viewed objectively and judged for their validity.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Midnight's Children and the
World of Imagi-nation
-- Abraham P Abraham
Post-colonial writers like Rushdie use history as a subject for their fiction. Reclaiming history and retaining
certain memories are important for the post-colonial condition. In fact, it is very difficult to draw a line of demarcation
between reality and imagination. In Midnight's
Children, Saleem Sinai, the protagonist, claims he is central to India and
India's history. But the novel is not merely about his story. Saleem's version of hi(story) comes through his own views which
he thinks to be authentic. Rushdie depicts an India that is completely diverse where there is no coherent center. India
is multiple, fluid and complex and can only be imagined through fragmented memories and histories. The open-endedness
of historical `truth' is the central issue of the novel where the reader is taken to see a nation that is partly brought
into existence through a collective fantasy/imagination. This paper tries to explore how Rushdie in his landmark work,
by blending fiction, politics, magic and memory, has taken the reader to a world of imagination where reality appears to
be fiction and vice versa.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Root of Hatred for Patriarchal Dominion in That Long Silence
-- Daxa Thakor
The home has long been considered as the only area of activity for a woman. That is the place where she is supposed
to find satisfaction in the performance of her duties in different roles of daughter, sister, daughter-in-law and mother.
Even today, female child has been brought up with the conventional ideas of a woman's destiny swirling around in the air of
her house. Although parents encourage the education of their daughters, the overall expectation is that it is a daughter's
duty to marry and raise a family. They are always instructed to build up the status of the families they belong to. In the novel That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande, like Kasturi in Difficult Daughters, it can be seen that throughout her stint
of formal education, Jaya is never allowed to forget that `marriage is her destiny'. It is to get well-settled educated
husband, she has to be educated through English medium. They have been taking care of Jaya with a plan to marry her off into
a rich family. Otherwise they had nothing to do with Jaya's feelings, desires or longings. She had been longing for the
true and deep love of her parents but they did not care for it. Her parents' behavior has deeply sown the seed of hatred in
Jaya for the male dominated society and was dominant in her very strongly during her married life.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Social Criticism in Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger
-- Radika Chopra
Aravind Adiga in his Booker Prize winning novel, The White Tiger, deals, in fictional disguise, with the social
structure and relationships, process of social change or the lack of it, and various ills affecting our society. The novel
provides samples of gross malpractices in Indian Democracy and society. It is a social criticism focusing on the poverty and
misery of India, and its religio-socio-political conflicts, presented through humor and irony. The present paper attempts an
in-depth analysis of the social and political resonances in the novel.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Battered by Poverty: Women in Shaukat Osman's Janani and The State Witness
-- Asha S
Shaukat Osman (1917-1998) was one of the most prolific Bangladeshi writers who made his mark as a novelist,
playwright and short story writer. He is one of the few sub-continental novelists who documents the travails and conflicts of
Muslim women exposed to grinding poverty and starvation. This paper focuses on the sufferings and exploitation of the
poor Muslim women portrayed sympathetically by Shaukat Osman in his novels Janani (1958) and The State Witness (1985). Though superstitious, the women in Janani are not orthodox. The novel, as the title suggests, is a celebration of
motherhood. In The State Witness Osman looks beyond the personal and the familial, and trains his guns against the
social, political and religious elements that aid and abet the sexual abuse of women in Bangladesh. With his fictionalization of
the struggles of the poor Muslim woman, Shaukat Osman shows how economic hardships augment a woman's
vulnerability and put her honor, happiness and even life at stake.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
`Homo homini lupus':A Note on Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
-- P Suneetha
Historical novels, though popular in the
19th century, have not received much critical attention. The novels of this
genre attempt to convey the spirit of the past, the manners and social conditions with adequate fidelity to historical facts
and impress the reader with an illusion of reality and willing suspension of disbelief. The historical novel started with
Scott's Tis Sixty Years Since and in the present century Hilary Mantel attempted to revive the genre in A Place of Great Safety, dealing with French Revolution and Wolf Hall, which narrated, with focus on accuracy, the events during the reign
of Henry VIII, the rise of Oliver Cromwell, the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and the destruction of Thomas More. This paper
brings out the predatory nature of man who is really wolf to man. The novelist attempted to look at the historical details
through the eyes of Cromwell and they appear differently. Among the reading public and also the literary critics, the
historical novel has not gained much as an entirely respectable form in the modern times. It was popular during the early 1880s
as the reading public of that period evinced interest in reading about "the long ago and far away" (Orel Harold, 1995).
It has as its setting a period of history that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age
with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact. It also deals with actual historical personages and it may also contain
a mixture of fictional and historical characters.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
A Study of `Game Metaphor' in Golding's Lord of the Flies
-- D David Wilson
Games are means of entertainment and relaxation. Golding's use of games in Lord of the Flies develops the central
theme of the novel that humanity has evil tendency within its nature. Metaphorically all the games have much deeper
meaning than just a game of entertainment. Golding develops this theme from the first chapter of the novel to the climax. In
the beginning, the characters play the games for fun and enjoyment. Even in their fun, a kind of cruelty, inflicting pain
on others and enjoying the agony of the afflicted one was present. The characters of the novel are well suited to the
game and the theme of man's innate evilness, as they are all below 14 years of age. As the boys play the game, they not
only enjoy the fun of the game but also the joy of being savages. They don't require any order or law of guiding force in
their state of savagery. This paper tries to bring out the game metaphor that leads the boys into savagery.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Invisibility of the Translator
in Mist
-- Greeshma Peethambaran
Translation involves the faithful rendering of the source language text into the target language text. It is attending
closely to the language and the meaning of the source language. A faithful translator creates a proper condition of
significant exchange. Thus, translation is very much a creative activity. The present paper focuses on the fact that the success
of translation lies in the translator's invisibility. A piece of translation becomes authentic only when the reader is able
to recognize the author and the meaning of the original text in the translation. However, not all translations are
unsuccessful. Premila's translation of the Malayalam novella Manhu by the legend Vasudevan Nair, is indeed a success in the field
of translation. The triumph of Mist lies in the `invisibility' of the translator. The authenticity of Manhu is re-created in Mist through literal translation, moving from the source to create deeper meaning, semantic re-creation of the source text,
re-creation of music, transliterations and finally by presenting the different cultures presented in the original before
the foreign readers. Set in the chilling atmosphere of Nainital, Manhu revolves around the 31-year old Vimala Devi longing
for her lover to return who deserted her nine years ago. The stillness that one finds in the cold atmosphere outside
becomes symbolic of the stillness in Vimala's life. Like in other novels of Vasudevan Nair here too greater importance is given to
the character's thought and emotions. The novella examines the secret desires and longings of Vimala.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
The Conundrum of Aboriginality in Kevin Gilbert's The Cherry Pickers
-- Edwinsingh Jeyachandra
The systematic destruction of the traditional culture of aborigines in Australia and the acute suffering they were
subjected to have been scarcely portrayed in Australian literature until the 1960s. Kelvin Gilbert attempts to present
their plight in his play, The Cherry
Pickers, which poignantly presents the suffering of the natives, but it also suggests
that the natives adopt a posture of reconciliation. There occurs in due course a process of assimilation, as both the native
and the invader eventually come to understand one another. The natives, this paper shows, become white in
everything except the color of their skin. The play impresses the reader with its irony and ribald humor and the rich slew of
creation, myths, tribal rituals and political oratory.
© 2010 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BOOK REVIEW
Talks and Articles
Author and Publisher: C Subba Rao
Reviewed by S S Prabhakar Rao
© 2010 IUP holds the copyright for this review. All Rights Reserved.
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