Thinking Activity on Wide Saragossa Sea

This Blog-post is a response to a thinking activity on the Wide Saragossa Sea given by our professor Madam Yesha Bhatt. 

What is a Post-Colonial Study?

According to M.H.Abrahms, studies: 

The critical analysis of the history, culture, literature, and modes of discourse that are specific to the former colonies of England, Spain, France, and other European imperial powers. These studies have focused especially on the Third World countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean islands, and South America. Some scholars, however, extend the scope of such analyses also to the discourse and cultural productions of countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, which achieved independence much earlier than the Third World countries. Postcolonial studies sometimes also encompass aspects of British literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, viewed through a perspective that reveals the ways in which the social and economic life represented in that literature was tacitly underwritten by colonial exploitation.

There are three ways to study postcolonialism, 

1. Cultural 

2. Political 

3. Economical Legacy 

The postcolonial study also studies female perspectives parallel with all discourses. In Wide Saragossa Sea, Jean Rhys mentions female discourse with a postcolonial aspect.

About the Novel: 

The novel serves as a feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847). In this responded novel, Rhys presents the harsh reality behind the character of Bertha who is known as Antoinette (Bertha’s much more elegant real name). Rhys portrays her character as a heavily symbolic 'madwoman in the attic. Also explores Victorian paternalism, sexualized racism, and the complex social and political history of the West Indies.

Postcolonialism: Postcolonial response to Jane Eyre:

From looking at the character of Annette and her husband Mr.Mason, we find that he dismisses everything that Annette said, this is what might Rhys gives the preview of Mr.Rochester and Antoinette's marriage life also. Describing the story from the past of Antoinette's mother itself proves the strong response to Jane Eyre as a postcolonial aspect, especially with feminist perspactive. 

Another event about the burning castle. This burning castle was also used by Bronte in her novel Jane Eyre. In response to burning the home of Rochester at the very end of the novel, perhaps Rhyn used this burning of the house at the start of the novel in a certain way. But the change is that both humans are different. In Rhys's novel, the black people burn the home and in Jane Eyre Antoinette herself burns the attic. So by using the fire but with different peoples, Rhys very systematically gives the response to Jane Eyre. 

The wide Sargasso Sea psychologically vindicates Antoinette and Annette, demonstrating their intelligence, powerful emotions, personal seriousness and correct instincts. But these traits are not enough to save them. Rochester exploits Antoinette financially, uses her physically, manipulates her emotionally, betrays her sexually, tortures her psychologically and incarcerates her bodily until she commits violent suicide. He enjoys the sympathetic ministrations of his devoted servant-wife Jane Eyre for the rest of his life. (This Paragraph conducted from this Article)

Introducing ICT Committee 2021-23

ICT is the ground of various digital gadgets which provides many facilities for learning literature and language. ICT helps to improve the knowledge about digitization in literature and language.

ICT comes with various changes in education.(Traditional form to modern form) From chalk and board to laptops and glass boards, the era changed with the digitalization of learning literature and language through digital tools. The students get engaged with all the learning tools. Technology is a vast area of day-to-day updates. 

I Divya Sheta and Nilay Rathod, both leaders of the ICT Committee 2021-23 at the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University. To Introduce freshers about the committee, this presentation was prepared.CLICK HERE TO SEE

Thinking Activity on Derrida and Deconstruction

This Blog-post is a response to the thinking activity on 'Derrida and Deconstruction' given by our professor Dr.Dilip Barad Sir. To know about the task, CLICK HERE.

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a philosopher who was best known for his theory on Deconstruction which he analyzed in many texts. He is considered the major figure associated with Post-Structuralism and Post-Modern philosophy. 

Deconstruction:

The major concern of the  Poststructuralist is to introduce the text within the text without breaking the foundation of any Structure. This theory is applied in many disciplines such areas of the humanities and social sciences, philosophy, literature, law, psychoanalysis, architecture, anthropology, theology, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, political theory, historiography, and film theory.

By Clicking this Gif, you can get more deeply information about Deconstruction. 

In Deconstruction, it is required to search for the 'absence' between the lines. But it is very difficult to read the absence of space in any Structure without breaking it and within the language. This theory leads the process of unfolding the hidden meaning which again an endless process. But it might concentrate on the process of finding the untold truth and it's again the question comes that is it real truth or not? Perhaps beyond the truth or meaning but what is truth? Well, Derrida slap on the thinking of what is privileged by giving the concept of Binary Opposition. Furthermore, Deconstruction is the reading of decentring by the centrality then subverting the structure or meaning. Claude Levi-Straus favors speech over writing and Derrida called this bias "Logocentricism" along with Transcendental signified and Metaphysics of Presence. Ultimately, it is all about What we see and How we see the narration. 

Deconstruction of an Ad:

The title of this ad is 'An All Out Ad Stand By Mom’s Tough Parenting Decisions. As the ad starts with night dinner where all family members are sitting at the dining table and two women serve the dinner. One child has stolen 10 rupees from her mother's purse without any permission and she got angry with him. Along with his refuging to eat, other women lead his side and taunt his mother even his husband also. 

Decentralising the Title:

While looking at the title, it seems like a fight with itself. Stand by her itself shows the weakness of women. If we decentralised the narration and rethink the title it seems that women can not fight alone. Women can fight but with the help of Others. Women can only step ahead with the support of Others or we can say, Men.

Binary opposition:

I tried to read the binary opposition between men and women. Without knowing what actually did the child, his father also spoke roughly to her mother, 'He has taken my money, not your father's.' It's showing the opposition between men and women. Does it show hierarchy upon women's independence? Perhaps yes, because she is a housewife and by support for this statement given by her husband, shows her superiority over the women. Another dialogue comes from the head of the family who supports the woman whatever she did with her child, "And if I were his mother, I would not feed him for two whole days!" Is it showing real concern from the elder of the family?  It might seem again the men-centric thing, that men can do anything rather than what women can do. And that's why Derrida said, 

"Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique"

Another thing comes, (it might destroy my application which I gave above) that there are other women who also spoke roughly with other women. Dialogues like, 

"Why did you scold the poor child so badly, for something so inconsequential"

 "He didn't take it from the neighbor." 

"What to do, she comes from an uncultured family." 

So using the word uncultured by a woman for the woman is very problematic. It senses there if women can not value other women, how can they expect from men? Is there is need that they try to fill from men? It might be true.

Using this type of dialogue, the advertisement seems against parenting, because as we see the father who spoke very roughly with her (mother) among the child, it seems overparenting and also some dialogues by other family members. Among the children, they speak against one. Thus how this advertisement might be fighting within the subject. However, the women's own stand is not shown because of the patriarchal structure and its technique of narration, and that's why women become on the periphery of the structure of patriarchy.  

 

Thinking Activity on Short stories by R. K. Narayan

This Blog-post is a response to a thinking activity task on the Short story," An Astrologer's Day" by R. K. Narayan, given by our professor madam, Ms.Yesha Bhatt. To know more about this task, CLICK HERE.

• Indian English Literature (IEL) Pre-Independence :

Indian English Literature is also referred to as Indian Writing in English. It is the literature that is written in the English language by numerous Indian languages (native or co-native)writers. The early history began with the works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio and Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, and Raja Rao. The period Pre-Independence literature was written before the independence of India.

• About R.K.Narayan:

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami is well known for his short form name, R.K.Narayan in the field of literature. He was born on October 10, 1906, in Madras [Chennai], India, and died in Madras on May 13, 2001.  In his long career, he published fourteen novels, over two hundred short stories, a memoir, two travel books, innumerable essays, and two plays. His first novel was Swami and Friends (1935). His last published work was Grandmother's Tale (1992), which in many ways reinforced the concerns and motifs of his writing in his long career—themes like exile and return, education (in the widest sense of the term), woman and her status in the society, myths and the ancient Indian past, tradition and modernity, Malgudi and its culture, appearance and reality, the family and so on. (Click here to know more.)

• About the Short Story:

'An Astrologer's Day' is a short story originally published in Hindi Language and it is published in the English language, in 1947. The story is about the life of one Astrologer and his deeds. It is very difficult to convey the message to the viewers about the central theme of the story in this Gener of Short Story. The story is about one Astrologer and his life. His past and present keep us in thematic concern. 

At first reading "An Astrologer's Day" appears to be a somewhat uncomplicated story, rather amusing in the O. Henry-like twist, administering a mild shock of surprise to the reader at the end. But Narayan's is an art that conceals art. The deceptive simplicity of the story really hides a multiplicity of ironies. First, as pointed out by the narrator himself, the astrologer is a charlatan with neither the requisite expertise nor the proper training; he just gets by on the strength of common sense, keen observation, and shrewd guesswork. It is ironic that the false prediction of a fake astrologer should radically change the lives of two men for the better. This might even raise for the perceptive reader the eternal question of "Action" and the "Fruit of Action"—an ethical question raised in the Indian religious classic The Gita. In many other respects the entire situation is ironical: the astrologer is himself the subject of the client's query, and it is his own future he is asked to predict. Never perhaps is prediction so easy for the astrologer and so certain to come true; the astrologer is at first extremely reluctant to advise the client once he recognizes him and is actually forced by the man to do his job. Had he really declined to predict he would not have had a great weight lifted from his mind, nor would he have been able to ensure a life of peace for himself. Furthermore, in this game of one-upmanship each has won in his own way: the astrologer has obviously won by getting rid permanently of an old foe, but the client too has gained a little victory—he had promised a rupee to the astrologer but has actually fobbed him off with only twelve and a half annas; nevertheless, basking in the satisfaction of having saved about a quarter rupee, the poor client is left blissfully unaware of the great opportunity he has missed.

Like most of Narayan's works "An Astrologer's Day" is a story neatly structured, with its action briskly moving toward the snap, surprise ending. The opening, with its rather long description of the astrologer's personal appearance and the setting in which he operates, may at first appear to be a little too leisurely for a short story. But with its skillful use of color and small details it recaptures evocatively the small-town scene. Thus the astrologer, with his forehead "resplendent with sacred ash and vermilion," his dark whiskers, and the saffron-colored turban around his head, presents a colorful figure. Telling details like the place being lit up by "hissing gaslights," "naked flares stuck up on poles," and "old cycle lamps," create the proper atmosphere for the astrologer's dark predictions.

The story is written in a direct and lucid style, almost Spartan in its unadorned simplicity. Narayan uses no similes and no metaphors. His sentences are mostly short, and his diction unpretentious, with Indian words like "jutka," "jaggery," and "pyol" providing the proper local color to a story that is essentially Indian in every way. —M.K. Naik (Encyclopedia)

• Historical Context of An Astrologer’s Day:

Britain, as a method of culling the strength and will of the Indian population, catalyzed Hindu caste philosophy into the legally-binding system it is today. As instituted by the British rulers in the 19th century, Indian citizens are assigned a social caste (or class) from birth, depending on lineage and family ties. Higher castes are afforded more economic and educational opportunities, better support from the government, and greater freedom. Low castes are oppressed and devalued, with far fewer opportunities for success or advancement in life. Although British colonial rule was thrown off when India declared independence in 1947, and discrimination (particularly violence) based on caste was outlawed in 1989, the caste system remains a dominant social force to this day. “An Astrologer’s Day” was published in 1947, a significant and tumultuous year for India: already reeling from World War II and the Bengali famine that killed millions, India also began its existence as an independent nation. The Indian subcontinent was partitioned between the Hindu and Muslim populations so that each could have their own self-governing states, creating modern-day India and Pakistan. This process of division, known as Partition, grew extremely violent, resulting in the deaths and displacement of millions. (From Litchart)

We are supposed to give the answers to the questions given us as a Post-Viewing task: 

1. How faithful is the movie to the original short story?

The text takes readers more time to read rather than of watching a movie. But to get the concern of the text, one should read it. Because my personal experience says that during reading we do not get what actual meaning or concern, but if we have an interest in the particular text, it forces us to re-read the text and it gives us another sense of reading words and language. How to read or What you read is covert in What you understand. However, a movie or film or short film takes short time to understand. Here I put the starting lines and some screenshots which I have taken during re-watching the film. 

"PUNCTUALLY at midday, he opened his bag and spread out his

professional equipment, which consisted of a dozen cowrie shells, a square

piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, a notebook, and a bundle of

palmyra writing."

"He had a working analysis of mankind's troubles : marriage, money, and

the tangles of human ties. Long practice had sharpened his perception. Within

five minutes he understood what was wrong. He charged three pies per question,

never opened his mouth till the other had spoken for at least ten minutes, which

provided him enough stuff for a dozen answers and advice."

These lines might be missed in the short film. Somewhere it is present, but not fruitfully. Another thing is Astrologer's looking description, his eyes and his clothes and all things he keeps with him during his fack job is not described through the camera in very short of time. The projection of the Unnamed narrator is not there in the film. 

It was nearly midnight when the astrologer reached home. His wife was

waiting for him at the door and demanded an explanation. He flung the coins at

her and said: " Count them. One man gave all that."

In these lines, the writer mentioned that his wife waiting for her husband at the door but in the film, there is no kind of door where his wife was waiting there. The door is missing there and perhaps it might show the concern that his what he did in past, there is always the door of his deed and its results which are waiting for him.

 2. After watching the movie, have your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?

It is much confusing while he recognized the men who he tried to kill. But later on, it is easy to get through flashbacks. 

3. Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?

At the end of the movie, in the last scene while Astrologer talked to his wife about his past and felt guilty about what he did to that man,Guru Nayak. Here we do not directly introduce that what is the relationship between that man and the astrologer. But at last, we come to know from their conversation. And it gives aesthetic delight and not also. Because the very last shot of his face covered on the screen is showing he does not feel too much guilt that he should feel.   

Flipped Learning task on 'Derrida and Deconstruction'

This Blog-post is a response to Flipped Learning task on 'Derrida and Deconstruction' given by our professor Dr.Dilip Barad Sir. To know this task, CLICK HERE.

• Flipped Learning:

We studied from school to college. Usually, teachers are asked to find the solution and come up with answers in the next day. This is the traditional way to solve the questions. However, it flipped in modern education. Students are supposed to find questions and will come up with particular questions and teachers will solve them as a live method in the class. We saw the given videos and we had specific questions and we typed in our Google Classroom. We will discuss or solve it the next day. The main aim of this learning process is to maximum questions from the students which also developed the process of asking questions in students.

• About Poststructural theory :

Around 1960, structuralism term firstly used by French thinkers. Structuralism contains text and a particular structure. While other thinkers came up with their new theories which might apply to the author him/herself. Poststructuralists came up with a new insight to see the literature and gave the method of looking more at the particular structures. It is not about to destroyed and breaking the structure, but it is what we can see beyond the surface and the horizon between the text and structure.

• Derrida and Deconstruction:.

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a philosopher who was best known for his theory on Deconstruction which he analyzed in many texts. He is considered the major figure associated with Post-Structuralism and Post-Modern philosophy. 

Video 1. 

Why it is difficult to define Deconstruction?

Is Deconstruction a negative term?

How does deconstruction happen on its own?

As Dr.Sachin Ketkar elaborates on the term, Deconstruction is not a destructive activity, but an inquiry into the foundation causes of intellectual. However, Derrida himself refuses to define Deconstruction. Speaker also elaborates that it is not a negative operation. Derrida wants to transform the way people think. The entire structure of Western Philosophy or thought has to be transformed and he also wants to emphasize and takes this from Heidegger's project. Which he wants to translate from German to French. 

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) was a German philosopher whose work is perhaps most readily associated with phenomenology and existentialism, although his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification. His ideas have exerted a seminal influence on the development of contemporary European philosophy. (From Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

• Question from this Video:

Is it possible to translate any original text to another language without deconstructing it? 

Video 2. 

The influence of Heidegger to Derrida

Derridian rethinking on the foundation of Western philosophy.

The Speaker starts with Derrida's acknowledgment of three famous philosophers, Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche in his very famous essay "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" it was his lecture presented at Johns Hopkins University which later on published in 1967 as chapter ten of "Writing and Difference".

He mentioned that very important theme which Derrida continues in his own philosophy. Relations in their philosophy which connect Derrida to Heidegger in that the term 'destruction' in German is translated as 'Deconstruction' in French. Heidegger transformed Western thinking and in the same way, Derrida continues this dismantling and transforming Western philosophy. They both want to rethink the very foundation of Western philosophy. The language of Philosophy is another thing that connects them. Heidegger later points out that, it is a language that speaks, not man, the meaning is a product of language. Man is decentered from the language and language displaces man from the center. Like Heidegger, Derrida wants to reinvent the language. The whole question of writing is neglected.  Language is 'Speak' than 'Writing' - Derrida called it "Phonocentricism."

Question from this Video:

'The whole question of writing is neglected.' please elaborate. 

Video 3. 

What Derrida Decounstruts the idea of arbitrariness?

Metaphysics of presence.

The Speaker starts by mentioning Ferdinand de Saussure(1857-1913) who elaborates in his book 'Course in General Linguistics' that, the relation between word and meaning is not natural, it's a conventional one. The speaker gave one easy example of the word Sister. The word Sister has no natural relationship with the person but it's just a convention that connects the word sister with the person. Word can be used to talk about anything but what connects a word with its meaning or as a signal with its meaning is the convention and the convention is always Social. Derrida points out that the meaning of the word is nothing but the other word. 

Heidegger pointed out in Metaphysics of Presence that when we consider being of something we often connect with its presence. Heidegger is saying that we seem to connect presence and as proof of its existence as more of its being. Then Derrida says that Western philosophy is again built on the different binary positions. Like this Yin-yang Circle.

Question from this Video:

Why Saussure said that."There is no positive element in language, but only a negative one."

Video 4.

Derridian concept of 'DifferAnce'

Infinite play of meaning

DifferAnce - to differ & to defer the meaning 

The Speaker starts by giving one practical example of finding the meaning with the help of a dictionary. We just find the word, for example, interest and we go to the word there are more words which we might find for the exact meaning of what we want. Ultimately this is a never-ending process and if the end is, it might be our illusion that we got the meaning. 

Saussurean sign is equal to signifier which signifies something but Derridian signifies the free play of signifiers, signifying nothing. 

Derrida combines two terms 'to differ' and 'to defer' because in French one word is used to imply both. It is a pun it means to differ it also means to differentiate and postpone only one word is used to signify both postpone and differentiate. Another thing is that we can pronounce it the same way but we can not spell both the same.  

Phonocentricism is the tendency in western philosophy to privilege Speech over Writing. Speech is considered present. Writing is almost a practice of absence while speaking is a practice of presence. 

Question from this Video:

What do we get the final meaning as Myth or Transcendental Signified? Or both? 

Why does Derrida consider writing as Primary and speaking as Secondary? Though, he focuses on speech and its privileged over writing.

Thinking Activity on Cultural Study

This Blog-post is a response to a thinking activity on 'Cultural Study' given by our professor Dr.Dilip Barad Sir. To know more about this task, CLICK HERE. 

Cultural Studies is interdisciplinary fieldwork to study the current field with tradition or the routine of looking at a particular field. The study of any field should be covered by different disciplines. This inter-connection converts the exact meaning of 'Cultural Study.' As an academic field, it originated in the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies(UK) and through famous critics like Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, later Stuart Hall, Tony Bennett, and others. They define that, Cultural Studies is a discipline between disciplines.  

In short, Cultural Studies is a composition of Marxism, race, feminism, anthropology, gender studies, film theory, urban studies, popular culture, public policies, and postcolonial studies, which led to the social and cultural force that either create community or causes division and alienation. This can be considered as Umbrella Term. (From:Sejalvaghela Slidshare)

•  Power in Cultural Studies: 

In Cultural Studies, Eric Lui mentioned that Power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do. In a democracy, it is believed that Power is in the people. However, in Authoritarian rule, the rule over the democracy will be in the Power. These all relations are defined by Power Dynamics. It focuses on Civic Arena which means, "to getting a community to make the choices and to take the action that you want"

• Importance of Media Studies in digital culture:

As Noam Chomsky mentioned in "Manufacturing Consent- The Political Economy of the Mass Media" behind every decision, investment, and production first it looks that who is in a position of making decisions. It argues that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion", using the propaganda model of communication.

Media serves the audience and viewers that is exactly from them who is in a power. A good viewer or observer might learn how to analyze and marginalised the source. It is the same as in 'Post-truth' which directly connects with emotions and it comes from the power dynamics and use of those power positions. 

• Who can be considered a 'Truly Educated Person'?

As Noam Chomsky mentioned,

To be truly educated means to be resourceful, to be able to “formulate serious questions” and “question standard doctrine, if that’s appropriate”…. It means to “find your own way.

As he said, truly educated people might follow their own roots in researching by their own findings. And one should deal with counter-questioning rather than believing what was said. This might the real truth of 'Post-truth.'