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Emerson
and Iqbal: Dismantling Boundaries of the East and the West
-- Nusrat Jan
Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
are creative writers as well as thinkers dealing in their
writings with fundamental issues surrounding the human condition.
Despite their religious and cultural differences, these eminent
poet-philosophers evidence similar propensities in the course
of their individual journeys of inquiry. Through a comparative
study of Emerson's essays and Iqbal's poetry as well as his
philosophical work The Reconstruction of Religious Thought
in Islam, this paper explores some of these similarities.
The assumption on which such a comparative approach is based
is that human nature is essentially similar all over the world
and partakes of similar quests and experiences. This paper
attempts to show that temporal and spatial boundaries do not
restrain the literary imagination; the give-and-take across
cultures is a continuous, sometimes conscious, at other times
unconscious, activity of the poetic imagination. Emerson,
a Western mind borrowed from the East, and Iqbal, an Eastern
one, drew on the best of the Western tradition. As creative
writers, they defy insularity and advocate reciprocity between
cultures. The paper tries to argue the relevance of such an
attitude in today's world which is shrinking at a rapid pace
by adopting a critical perspective which sees creative works
as products of cross-culturality and syncreticity. A universal
consciousness is dawning in the world slowly but surely and
this needs to be strengthened.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Quest for the Absolute: To a God Unknown and The
Serpent and the Rope
-- R
Swaminathan
This
article is a comparative study of the theme of Self-Realization
in the novels To a God Unknown (1933) by John Steinbeck
and The Serpent and the Rope (1960) by Raja Rao, in
the light of the four stages or Ashramas of life and
the four objects of life or Purusharthas as enunciated
in the Hindu philosophy. The paper discusses how the protagonists,
Joseph Wayne of To a God Unknown and Ramaswamy of The
Serpent and the Rope attain Self-Realization. Both the
protagonists realize the oneness of all beings and from the
beginning their words and deeds embody this advaita
principle. Joseph sacrifices his life not to perpetuate himself
but to perpetuate life on earth by bringing down the life-giving
water, the water of life. Likewise, Ramaswamy by fulfilling
his familial and social commitments reaches his ultimate goal
of reunion with the Great Soul through Jnana Yoga.
Both of them identify their individual souls with the Supreme
Soul in their own unique ways, within the ambit of their domestic
and social environments. The protagonists are clearly portrayed
as reaching the peak of Self-Realization with a neat framework
of the ascending stages. This comparative analysis reveals
that the novelists, Steinbeck and Raja Rao, though divided
by locale, culture and religion, converge at a point at which
both of them are influenced by the Indian advaitic
philosophy. Besides their own textual references in their
respective novels, the theme of man's reunion with the Absolute
runs through both the novels quite conspicuously.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Mimesis of Maya and the Maya of Mimesis:
Hamlet as an Exploration of Reality
-- A Raghu
This
paper attempts to explain the magnet-like quality of Hamlet,
the ability of the play to attract almost endless critical
attention. The contention of this paper is that one of the
basic issues explored by Hamlet is the nature of reality
and that this is largely what makes the play what it is. It
theorizes that the play represents several levels of reality—the
Ghost, the characters in the play, the "mad" characters—all
operate within the layers of reality. It argues that Hamlet
establishes the fundamental principle that all these forms
of reality carry within themselves a core of unreality. There
are several passages in this play that establish this perspective.
The play demolishes the concept of a unified, monolithic reality,
which is shared by all, and instead presents the spectator/reader
with a number of levels of reality of varying solidity. Bringing
in the ancient Indian term maya and the ancient Greek
term mimesis, the paper also discusses the concepts
of representation and reality with reference to the play and
attempts to demonstrate that Hamlet blurs the borderline
that separates reality and representation. It would be mistaken,
the paper holds, to confine Hamlet within the rubric
of nihilism. The exploration of reality that is Hamlet
does not suggest that everything is nothing but that everything
is something and also that that something is, ultimately,
nothing.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
`I
am Envious of Writers who are in India': Kiran
Desai, the Man Booker Prize and Indian Diasporic Writing
--Somdatta
Mandal
Publishers,
critics, and the writers themselves, acknowledge the seminal
influence of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981)
in the post-independence era in triggering off the boom in
Indian writing in English. Its impact was also decisive in
making The New York Times dub the young crop of Indian
English novelists as "Rushdie's Children". Though
the status of all these writers is not the same, most of them
happen to be diasporic Indians residing outside the nation-state
of India, and many of them have been awarded literary prizes
and astronomical sums as advance. Looking at the recently
awarded Man Booker Prize to Kiran Desai (something that eluded
her illustrious mother), this article focuses on the politics
behind the prizes and how Kiran was hailed by The New Yorker
way back in 1997 as one of India's leading novelists, when
she was just writing her first novel, Hullabaloo in the
Guava Orchard. It also includes a discussion on diasporic
writers through a witty essay written by Desai herself. Further
it deals with the status of Kiran Desai as an Indian diasporic
writer and discusses in detail the reaction of the writer
herself as well as the critics in assessing the novel The
Inheritance of Loss. A bio-bibliographical introduction
of the writer is given in order to show how the diasporic
and transcontinental nature of Kiran Desai's extended family
members recur in the novel. The article concludes with the
view that with just two very different books behind her, it
is difficult or may be too early to gauge where Kiran Desai
is heading.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Matrix of Indianness and the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel
-- Nibir K Ghosh
In
an extremely perceptive review of V S Naipaul's An Area
of Darkness, Nissim Ezekiel had clearly demonstrated that
his own vision of India was not one that appealed to the West,
but the India to which he truly belonged. Confronting Naipaul's
"condemnatory judgements," Ezekiel acknowledges
without hesitation the existence of "all the darkness
Mr Naipaul has discovered" but emphatically states: "India
is simply my environment. A man can do something for and in
his environment by being fully what he is, by not withdrawing
from it. I have not withdrawn from India...I believe in anger,
compassion and contempt...They are not without value. I believe
in acceptance that incorporates all three, makes use of them.
I am incurably critical and skeptical. That is what I am in
relation to India also." Taking cue from Ezekiel's essay,
the author describes the grounds of his own fascination for
both the man and the poet and goes on to explore and examine
how Nissim Ezekiel strives, in both life and poetry, for "a
human balance humanly acquired" to unite poetry and living,
his avocation and vocation that reflect his living awareness
of India as his only home. Ezekiel's Indian sensibility through
which he has learnt to recognize and resolve the dilemma of
double consciousness could serve as a precedent for creative
writers, critics and academics who find it difficult to overcome
the anxiety of colonial influence in projecting an authentic
image for India.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Attia
Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column: A Muslim Point
of View of the Partition
-- N
S Gundur
The
present article examines Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken
Column as a Partition narrative. It is observed that the
novel is an outstanding presentation of the crisis of partition.
It is unique among Indian English novels on partition as it
is not only the first woman writer's response but also the
first Muslim writer's response towards the holocaust. Being
much closer to another bildungsroman— Ice-Candy-Man
by Bapsi Sidwa, a Pakistani writer, Attia's novel offers the
Muslim point of view of the Partition, whereas the former
is an account of an outsider's view—Parsi perception
of the tragedy. The novel captures the poignant political
event very artistically with elegant style.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Bernard
Shaw and Feminism
-- E Nageswara
Rao
Bernard
Shaw was a feminist long before the term became familiar.
In his plays and prefaces, he exposes the iniquities suffered
by women; his women characters do not conform to the Victorian
notions of femininity. He was the first to present the New
Woman on the British stage. His portrayal of three great historical
figures, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc and Catherine II, shatters
their romantic image. Cleopatra masters statecraft; Joan defies
the well-entrenched feudal system and the Church; Catherine
who dominated 18th century Europe, appears human
with her frailties. The de-romanticized New Woman appears
in Shaw's nonage novels as early as 1880. Marian Lind in The
Irrational Knot anticipates Henrik Ibsen's Nora Helmar
by six years. She yearns to be "a wife and not a fragile
ornament kept in a glass case." She even uses the word
`doll', while referring to her position in her husband's home.
Candida, Ann Whitefield and Eliza Doolittle are a few examples
to show Shaw's concern for women. Shaw accords woman the nobler
role of the life force which, in his view, would eventually
produce a superior race. He says that he had always assumed
that `a woman is exactly like a man.'
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Ground of Our Being: A Study of Eroded Scapes in Terry Tempest
Williams' Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
-- Vidya Sarveswaran
The
concept of wilderness—ideating nature in a state untarnished
by civilization, is the eminent construct of nature available
to modern environmentalism. The hermeneutics of wilderness
embedded in literature, often explores the tenuous spaces
between human beings and nature. Wilderness in a sense, reminds
us of what it means to be vulnerably human. Terry Tempest
Williams belongs to this American literary tradition, which
explores Nature as the fountainhead of all experience. An
author, environmentalist and activist, Williams published
her novel Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
in 1991. In her novel, Williams weaves a poignant memoir of
seven years—her mother's battle with ovarian cancer and
the synchronous flooding of the `Refuge', a natural comfort
zone for Williams since childhood. A narrative of terrible
loss, "Refuge" records life that spirals earthwards
from a once vibrant and cherished plane. In a profoundly symbolic
memoir, Williams struggles to mediate her relationship with
Nature, her mother's terminal illness and the lacerations
of her own psyche. This paper explores the understanding of
these lost scapes—landscape, bodyscape and mindscape—in
the context of eco-critical thought, with these three significant
positions situated as striations in Nature's larger design.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Library as a Labyrinth: The Levels of Abstraction in Umberto
Eco's The Name of the Rose
-- Mitchelle Mary Norbert
The
metaphor of `library' is an epistemological conceit, which
focuses primarily on the image of the librarian and explores
its representation vis-a-vis a perceived stereotype. Much
of the critical analysis of the library as an institution
of fear centers on Umberto Eco's library in The Name of
the Rose. It is a detective story, a mystery, set in 14th
century European monastery, and its setting is a labyrinth
of secret chambers, imposing doors, and booby traps. In The
Name of the Rose it is like a crypt, a prison, or an institution
of fear, partly because of the genre of the work. In The
Name of the Rose, the greatest value is assigned to books.
The mission of the abbey—preservation of knowledge versus
search for knowledge—also addresses one of the major
intellectual debates of librarianship—the role of the
library as a producer of knowledge and truth. By semiotizing
it across genres and historical settings, The Name of the
Rose appears remarkably attuned to the debates that are
of vital importance to librarianship today. The sign of the
library in The Name of the Rose is a sign of cultural
subversion and difference rather than conformity, order, and
discipline. Umberto Eco is apparently fascinated with mazes.
The medieval library is a labyrinth designed to confuse any
imprudent violator of the secrets of knowledge. It was also
a punishment for those who, without being initiated, dare
to pass the limit set for common men. Eco seems to be implying
that modern humanity seeks to become all-powerful, all-knowing,
and in doing so steps out of the allowed limits, thus incurring
punishment. The present paper examines whether our post-modern
society is subject to deceit or will it ever resolve the dichotomies
between truth and falsehood, assurance and doubt, trust and
deception.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Seshendra
Sarma: `Stream of Multiple Consciousness'
-- S S Prabhakar Rao
Seshendra
Sarma, who passed away recently, was a distinguished Telugu
poet. He started his career as a translator and a romantic
poet. Later, he exhibited his social concern for the plight
of the common man in works like My Country, My People
and Guerilla. The distinguishing feature of his poetry,
however, is his fresh and vibrant imagery. The author pays
a personal homage to the late poet, who has left a gaping
void in Modern Telugu poetry.
©
2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
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