Hamlet by Shakespeare When I read Hamlet or when it was taught to us, I was not moved by any overwhelming feeling. But when I watched the celluloid version (Hamlet played by Lawrence Olivier) I was overwhelmed by the ringing resonance of Shakespeare’s diction and by the powerful presence of a noble human being fitted…
If you have not read it, please read Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose: the explosive mystery staggered in a metaphysical plot which is again an esoteric mix of history, philosophy, theology, religion and all that belongs to the medieval and unknown is gasping and breathtaking. The detection unleashed by the inquisitor William is…
A feeling of mystery, excitement and remoteness away from everyday life is one of the descriptions for the word Romantic. The Romantic imagination is the vision of the poet to see the world from an entirely different perspective: The faculty which has been blunted by the coldness of reason is sought to be recaptured by…
The President of the Immortals has finally ended his game with Tess: Where could one find such poignant lines if not in Hardy. It is not hard to see that Hardy’s heart goes all out to his protagonist heroine. But what is the inner core? What is it that Hardy has so beautifully and historically(In…
There is no great difference in reading a novel whether you read it as a general reader or as a student of Literature as long as you are reading it and enjoying the experience. But once you read it consciously, in the sense of reading from a literary point of view, then the reading part…
This is an assignment I wrote for my PGDES classes in EFLU. Some of the points appear to be still relevant. It is interesting to note how the various schools of literary criticism have dealt with the problem of intention. Impressionistic Criticism or Romantic criticism, a practice which appreciated the author’s fidelity to his experience,…
Is there something called perfection about anything? When the world around is constantly evolving and Language and Literature which are the mirror to this world are forever dynamic, perfection is a distant dream. Rather assuming such a state is itself a fallacy. A real student will rather apply to the task with sincerity and dedication.
There can be no exact classification because the genres seem to merge or converge at times. Taking Shakespeare as a starting point one could say we have Tragedy; Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear: Comedy; Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s dream, As you like it and others, Tragi-comedy, The Tempest, History; Richard the second, Roman…
Confessions of a Economic Hitman, The World is Flat, A brief history of Time, The Tao of Physics, Life on the Mississippi, Living to tell the tale, My experiments with truth, The last Moghul, Hampi The forgotten empire, Orientalism, Seven years in Tibet, The naked Nagas, Biography of Napoleon, Walden, Waste Land, The autobiography of…
When somebody has studied English Literature at the Graduation level, it could mean he or she has a certain interest in the study of English. We see many people talking about communication skills in English which will put you on the highway to success, but really; Is proficient communication possible without the study of the Literature of that language? A student of Literature is expected to have a reasonable awareness of the writers, genres , the literary trends, the different ages and the movements in the growth and development of English Literature. Some of the books which helped me acquire a better understanding of the