Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper: Thomas Hardy as a Novelist

Sem-4,

M.A. -2

Roll No: 1,

Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept. of. English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles as a Wessex novel and Used of Local Color

   Hardy’s revival of an old name ‘Wessex’ was the old name for a territory in the south west of England, covering the present countries of Berkshire, wilts, Somerset, Horapshire, Dorest and Devon. Hardy revived this name for the region of which he himself a native, having been born in a village near Dorchester. He made this region the setting of almost all his novels which for this reason have come to be known as the Wessex novels and which belongs o the category of what is called “Regional Fiction.” His novels contained dense fate tragedy consciousness influenced by the fate concept in ancient Greek tragedy. He considered that there was a kind of mysterious force in the universe which stood above all and controlled out fate. This was the accurate comprehension of the cultural mentality of the people in Wessex which made the novels more authentic and more touching. Facing the tragic stories of the people living in Wessex hardy tried to give philosophic explanation to their predicaments and tragedies. This sort of setting is called a local color of the area of region such beautiful local color called “Wessex”  is painted by Thomas hardy in his novels if we read a wide range of his novels, the Wessex will emerge in front of our mind’s eye so beautiful, so vivid! Rudyard and Kipling’s India also shares the same local color R.K. Narayan beautifully portrays the imaginary village of “Malgudi” – set somewhere in south India in his novels. The representation of the local shad or color continues emerging in the writings of several writers. After the civil war many American writers concerned with the local color focuses mainly on the particularity of the area. It is basically about the comic or sentimental representation of the surface distinctiveness of a region it does not represent the deep, complex, and the generalized characteristics and problems of the region. 

    In Tees of the D’ Urberviilages, as in his other novels, hardy firmly establishes the imaginative reality of Wessex. The opening chapters pertain to Tess’s life in the village of Merlot which lay amid the north eastern undulation of the beautiful vale of black moor. The landscape changes when Tess goes to Talbothays situated in the valley of the great dairies Tess’s next place of work is the village of flint comb –ash situated on the irregular chalk table or plateau which stretched between the valley of her birth and the valley of her love here the air was dry and cold. There were few trees or none the soil was stubborn. The onset of the winter here is described by hardy as if he were a painter showing us the seasons in all its moods. Then one day peculiar quality invaded the air of this open country. There came moisture which was not of rain and a cold which was not of forest.” In this novel hardy narrated the short and Misfortunate life of rural women. Tess tragedy involved in many factors. At first it was the tragedy of society. Tess lived in the Victorian period when the capitalism began to erode the rural life and spoil the social atmosphere despite her intelligence beauty diligence and kindness Tess was destined to suffer all kinds of oppression and insult. It was the fate tragedy her tragedy was made up of a series of coincidence and accidence. She was covered in a shapeless not like a little bird and was pushed to words edge of tragedy. All these coincidence and accidence was the incarnation of the fate therefore her tragedy was also caused by the fate Tess’s tragedy embodies  hardy’s own tragic consciousness which ran throughout his novels character and environment and made these works reveal the sense of human tragedy. Tess of the D’Urbervilles was also infiltrated with pronounced local color which was another important feature of the novel of character and environment.

   The Seasonal Setting are carefully chosen they reflect a perception which any city dweller can understand that sunlight is beautiful and conducive to happiness and harmony and that bleak winter winds and dark skies suggest misery and discomfort. The novel is so structured that events take place in seasons which are artistically appropriate. At the most beautiful productive season of the year nature appears to be striving for perfection everything tends towards wholeness. Human beings are frequently shown to be integral to parts of the natural scene. The maturing love of Tess and angel is in accord with the fullness of the season Tess’s pure womanly form is enriched and enhanced by the abundance and richness of nature around her. She is a part of nature we must realize that the environment does not take on active part in the fate of the people of Wessex certain seasons and natural events did or hinder the progress of man in an impartial through predictable way. The “Pathetic Fallacy” is due to hardy’s structuring the coincidence of season and event combined with subjective impression of the characters. We next come to the belief and superstitions of the people of Wessex. Early in the novel we are told about the superstitious mind of Joan durbeyfild she has consulted the fortunes teller and come to the conclusion that Tess would get married to some fine gentleman through her school, education, retains much of her mother’s superstiousness. Hardy also makes specific reference to the problems the agricultural community of the time was facing. It is the powerful representation of the local color in the novels. The Wessex in hardy’s novels has become immortal in the history of literature.

Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper: Mass Communication and Media Studies.

Sem-4,

M.A. -2

Roll No: 1,

Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept.of. English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

                                    Bhavnagar.

Role and Impact of Mass Media

Ø What are The Mass Media?

     In Communication Studies today however the term ‘Mass Media” has come to be a useful collective phrase through the distinction among the various media ‘Mass’ suggests that modern media are ‘Experienced’ not by individual and groups but as part of the ‘Mass’ and as ‘Mass’ culture: as generally interpreted the ‘Mass’ Media are the press, cinema, radio, T.V., books, Magazines and Pamphlets also. They are so termed because their reach extends to vast masses of the population living in wide and extensive area of a country. The organ of mass media is technological means of transmitting messages to large numbers of people. They are very expensive media. They must need be run by institutions like the government or well financed private commercial bodies. They require a group of people to organize and administer to produce, distribute and constantly maintain in working order, yet another feature of the mass media is that they are founded on the ideas of mass production and Mass distribution the marks of an industrialized society.

Ø Development of Mass Media:

  Western mass communication scholars have identified a development progression cycle called as the EPS means Elite, Popular, Specialization. This cycle holds that all Media Develop in three stages:

·       Elite:

Media appeals to the affluent. Affluent considered as the leasers of cultural and social trends.

·       Popular:

 When the notion breaks through the barriers of literacy and poverty, it enters the popular stage and reaches the Mass culture.

·       Specialization:

 Here there is ‘De-Massification’ of the Mass Media due to information explosion and advancement in the communication technology. Media is consumed by highly fragmented segments of population each with his own interest and cultural activities e.g. Cartoon channels, sports channels, news. Films.

Ø Role and Impact of Mass Media:

              Let’s see how the Mass Media like radio, news papers, and T.V. play the role of acting as a bridge between the Government and the people. Media played a vital role in our life. There are media for people to choose and access the information such as T.V., Radio, and Internet. Media have a full capacity to set a social subject for mass audience to think and talk about. India is considered a role model for a large number of developing and as the largest democracy countries. We have state and central government and the people.

For Example:    The government decides the price of petrol and diesel will either be increased or decreased that decision needs to be conveyed to the people this is done by the media not only inform the people about it but also explain the effect of that decision taken by the government for the people.

                    The Mass Media play an important role in communicating this change by giving the necessary information, and sometimes skills, the media can help bring about this change. You may ask how media can impart skills. A mass media like T.V. can demonstrate and show how thing work. We would have seen on T.V. how a certain dish is cooked using modern kitchen equipment. Mass media have the world smaller and closer speed of media has resulted in bringing people across the world closer.

For Example:  When you watch a cricket match between India and another country in England, Australia or New Zeeland, live on T.V. we feel we are part of the crowd in that stadium. Events, happy or sad, happening any where can be seen live. Sometimes we feel that the whole world is shrinking and becoming a village. Wherever we go to any part of the world, we see the same products such as soft drinks, T.V, Washing Machine, Refrigerator etc. and the same type of advertisement, similarly, the World Wide Web and internet have brought people and countries much closer.

                     Mass Media is a tremendous source of information for individual as well as society mass media can help in change using mass media, people attitudes and habits can be changed. Example like: all of us have mistaken or wrong notion about various diseases. Like Leprosy or HIV/ AIDS. Many of us think that by touching people suffering from these diseases we would be infected. You might have watched T.V. programmed or read messages which tell us that by touching HIV patient we don’t get infected. That sense media make people aware about.

         Mass Media promotes distribution of goods mass media are used by the consumers industries to inform people about various products and services through advertising. Without ads, the public will not know about various products and services which are available in the market as well as their prices. Thus Mass Media help the industries and consumers. We make our buying decisions based on what we saw on T.V., Newspaper, or Magazines. These are the effect of mass media on teenagers they buy. What they see on T.V. the media has imposed them. There are some positive and negative influences in young people a negative influence Example like:  A Negative influence on teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity movie stars, the excessive images of violence and exposure to thousand of junk food ads the problem with this is that it can become traumatic especially in our Children as we see it more and more our kids that are starting to grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing. The internet and T.V. channels have violence in the media influenced the youth of this generation to kill? The Media may give idea and the internet may provide instruction on how to kill? And the positive effects like media provide news and information required by the people media can educate the public. Media helps a democracy function effective. They inform the public about government policies and programmed and how these programmed can be useful to them. This helps the people voice their feelings and helps the government to make necessary changes in their policies or programmes.

   Thus the Media make one side it is useful for society like media function to inform, to educate, to entertain and other side it is mar (destroyed) the society through wrong programmes and Information.

Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper: The African Literature.

Sem-4,

M.A. -2

Roll No: 1,

Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept.of. English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

Bhavnagar.

General Introduction of ‘Waiting for the Barbarian’.

J.M.Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarian is the Meditative and Melancholy tale of an aging colonial magistrate’s futile struggle against the stupidity, brutality and racism of a government which he has served complacently all of his life. The unnamed magistrate is reluctant to take any action which would disrupt the pleasant and secure course of his life; he wishes to serve out his days “On this lazy frontier, waiting to retire”, spending his time engaged in “hunting and hawking and placid concupiscence”. Waiting for Barbarians is an allegory that much is plain from the generic terms used to describe places, people and events. It is a story meant to tell a different hidden story. It is as much about modern day warfare and scare tactics. The title ‘waiting for Barbarian’ is taken from a line from Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. The narrator calls himself an old man and spends almost all of his leisure time thinking of sex with girls. The difference between reading a novel such as Waiting for Barbarians as art and as propaganda is that art emphasis the universal. It is about human experience, the individual experience or the societal experience propaganda is about a specific issue with specific view point, specific agenda, about a particular society. Waiting for Barbarians is about two main things: Complacency and Pain. It is a story pain, physical pain, and how its influence can drive and determines an entire society. Physical pain torture or threat of torture plays a large role in barbarians. Coetzee’s shows how at the same time man can be so afraid of physical pain as to trump any conviction or idea but also willing some times eagerly to dole out the some pain on others. The “Empire” in Barbarians is an established power in order to achieve some vague perhaps impossible objective. The Magistrate on Barbarians is a figure aroused from his complacency by a needling conscience that finally drives him to resistance against the very organization he embodies. The nameless character, referred to only by his title is a cog in the well- old machine of power he begins as a rather non- sympathetic character and through his transformation becomes a powerful alley for justice and doing what is right, but as usual with those who try to do what is right in a difficult situation, he comes to ruin. His physical bodies abused and destroyed he is shamed and outcast laughing stock, but what the Magistrate retains is conviction, is a sense of displacement, a sense that he doesn't belong to or in the empire and does not want to be part of its ways. He wants to live “Outside History”. He wants to be inhuman because only humans are capable of the kinds of horrors against other humans that make us call them monsters.

          Freud explains the term Unconscious as a system which “Comprises” the repressed contents which have been denied access to the Preconscious - Conscious system by Oppression of Repression.” The ancient writings are not accessible to his conscious like wise his unconscious.  All through the novel the reader traces the unconscious of Magistrate via his dreams and his relation with barbarian girl. Magistrate tries to traces the different and tortured body of the barbarian girl both in his dreams and in his washing ritual. Through her body and through her ancient script he found, he actually traces himself and his own desire, fear, and repressed feeling. For Instance: Magistrate’s attraction to the girl’s body can be the articulation of his repressed Castration anxiety while for Freud “The Body that is the source of Fetishism is the Mother’s Body, a Canny and Archaic”. Like wise the uncanny body of the mother which is the former home of the subject but at the same time somewhere alien, the girl’s disfigure body is also uncanny but attractive. The foot washing ritual of the magistrates can be considered as a fetishistic act which is the outcome of his castration anxiety. “The Fetish object is also a Mark of Mourning for the lost Object”. That’s why, the washing process like a ritual with symbolize the mourning for the girl’s lost beauty normality and subjectivity.

              One of Colonel Joll’s tortures at techniques has important representation about the victimization of woman in the society. As a tortured to humiliate the Magistrate and to break the power he has. Colonel Joll equates him with a woman by hanging him in a tree with woman clothes and showing him struggling in front of his town. Women in the society which are left behind with non subjectivity and treated as the object of pleasure and desire in a world addressing to men, and also feminist film critic say that in society “Women is deprived of a gaze, deprived of the subjectivity and repeatedly transformed in to the object of masculine with the woman by hanging him half necked in front of crowed, Magistrate is represented as a the object of colonel joll’s Scopophiliac pleasure which symbolically empower colonel’s masculinity and therefore both his subjectivity and authority. The hanging of magistrate can also be regarded as symbolic castration. When the magistrate is the represented to the crowed as a passive and silenced position while hanging on the tree, he is eliminated from the law of father and order to complete silence. Since he is belonging to the domain of the other like the female he has no subjectivity and authority and more. How Magistrate is silence by colonel joll who represents the empire, the authority and the realm of man is narrated in the following way in the novel;

          “I try to call out something word of blind fear, a shriek, but the rope is now so tight that I am strangled, speechless. I am swinging loose. The breeze lifts my smock and plays with my necked body. I am relaxed, floating, in a woman clothes.”

          The Magistrate in the novel indicates several times that he does not understand the gestures nuances of the Barbarian girl in the same way he never able to discovered her body. The rope around the magistrate signifies the pressure on the woman in the society. Through the hanging scene of the Magistrate Coetzee actually criticizes the inevitable suffering and death of Woman in the Man’s world. The ambiguous uncertainty of the danger, “Waiting” for the Danger also has different connotations. In this scene head analyses the connotation of waiting and says, “Joll needs the Barbarian to arrive for his mission and empire’s function to be validate. For the Magistrate, however the barbarians have already arrived in the form of empire’s militia: he has been waiting for empire’s Barbarity to manifest itself so that he can begin the process of disentangling himself from its ideology of power and justice”. The Magistrate does not want the natives to get too close to “Civilization” because it will destroy their own culture and human potential. He is able to see the direct Cause/ Effect relationship of the colony of the barbarians and most important the negative impact of the imposed “civilization” of the empire. The magistrate sympathy towards the natives manifests it self another way, as well as, for he eventually falls in love with captured a native girl. Though this relationship, the magistrate begins to realize that the barbarian qualities attributed to the natives were created by the empire to justify their invasion of the alien culture. In order to be barbarian, the invading empire had to name them so. It is this inside in to the relation for imperialism that ultimately leads to the Magistrate’s imprisonment.

          The Book also touches environmental aspect of our time and could also be included in a body of literature called Eco criticism. By the end of the novel, the people of town face possible starvation as their crops have been flooded, ostensibly by the Barbarians, and army is retreating to the capital in despair: though the book is a study of personal power, it is also an examination of the limits of imperial power, and the struggle against the ruthless forces of time and nature, which act in opposition Civilization and Culture.

Name:  Ankita Vadher.

Paper No: New Literature

Sem-4,

M.A. -2

Roll No: 1,

Year: 2012-13.

Submitted To,

Dr. Dillip Barad,

Dept.of. English,

M.K. Bhavnagar University,

                                 Bhavnagar

Various Themes of ‘The White Tiger.’

   “The White Tiger” is the debut novel by Indian author Arvind Adiga the novel provides a darkly comic view of modern day life in India through the narration of its protagonist Blaram Halwai. It created two different India in one: “an India of Light and an India of Darkness.” It is the India of darkness which is focused by the novelist articulating the voice of silent majority trying to dismantle the discrimination between the “Big Bellies and the Small Bellies” and created a society based on the principles of equality and justice. Balram halwai the protagonist is a typical voice of under class metaphorically described as “Rooster Coop” and struggling to set free from age old slavery and exploitation. The story also exposes the poor rich divide that surrounds India in the backdrop of economic prosperity in the wake of the IT revolution the novel written in the epistolary form and it is a seven part letter to the Chinese premier, wen Jiabao from Balram alias Ashok Sharma, self styles thinking man and an entrepreneur. Novel deals with the unhappy division of social classes in to the haves and haves nots. The cultural domination of the first world and the main theme of the novel is the contrast between India’s rise is the contrast between India’s rise as a modern global economy and its working class people who live in crushing poverty. Other themes touched on include the corruption in to Indian society and politics, religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims the experience of returning to India after living in America, globalization and the rivalry between India and china etc. such Themes are:

vLightness and Darkness

     Adiga created two different India’s in one “an India of light and an India of darkness.” It is extreme poverty which creates darkness in the life of the rural as well as urban people and it perpetuates the sufferings of the underclass. The world of darkness abounds with social taboos rigid cast distinction, superstitions cast and culture conflict. Man is known and recognized by his cast the old driver of stork asked Balram: “What Cast are you?” similar question is asked by stork: Halwai”…. What cast is that, top or bottom?” from the very beginning Balram attempts to navigate from his home town in “The Darkness” to become a member of urban society and light then becomes a multifaceted symbol of time (the future) wealth and location (Bangalore) darkness represents the past, poverty, rural India and loyalty to family and master while light represents present in Bangalore with Balram Halwai.

vThe Indian Family

     In an interview with the guardian Adiga emphasizes the importance of family in Indian society if you are rude to your mother in India, it’s a crime as a bad as stealing world be here.” He explains for Balram to abandon his family then is perhaps his greatest crime. “This is a shameful and dislocating thing for an Indian to do”, Adiga remarks of his protagonist. The family of Balram is poor but very traditional. Men and woman sleep in different corners of their house and al members of the family adore and carry for the water buffalo, which is fed by the woman still before they make the male for their husbands every member of the family works Hard for the well being of their relatives. Balram also understands the severity of his actions. Fear for his family is the largest obstacle he must overcame to carry out Mr. Ashok’s murder in the days before he has vision imagining a buffalo in the street blaming him for the deaths of his family. Even after he becomes a businessman in Bangalore he goes to temple to pray for their spirits.

vThe Cast system

     The White Tiger is the discussion of India cast system. The cast system in India is a social  system that divides the Indian is a social system that divides the Indian population in to higher and lower social classes the cast system still remain in rural India and it’s disappearing in urban India. The cast one belongs in determines his or her occupation. Now there are only two castes in India the haves and haves nots. Balram was born in to the Halwai cast meaning ‘Sweet Maker’ and was the son of a rickshaw puller not a sweet maker, because some one with power stole his destiny of being a sweet maker from him. Adiga brings awareness to the corrupt India cast system by Balram. He is the conscience of underclass their anger frustration protest and revenge, ready to adopt a new moral code of conduct to succeed in life. Murder of Ashok by Balram is the reaction of deep rooted frustration of underclass experiencing the polarities between the upper class and lower class. Balram educated the Chinese premier throughout his letters about the corruption and immoral ways of India’s caste system and its economic gap. Although it may seem that Balram’s position in society will forever remain the same he manages to go from a sweet shop worker to a personal driver for a rich man and finally to an owner of a small business. Entrepreneurial success. And modern city culture has deep rooted impact on our life Balram’s quest to becoming on entrepreneur shows the oppression of the lower cast system and the superiority of the upper caste Balram shows the country of India in which a person high on the cast system can bribe people such as police officer with money to cover up murders and sabotage political opponents by rigging votes and money. He also shows the side of India in which those who are born in to poverty and low castes may forever remain there and so will their children. The novel portrays India’s as very negative towards the lower social caste Balram refer to it as “Darkness.” This novel is showing how our economic system today creates socioeconomic gaps that create a big division in society.

vGlobalization

      The White Tiger place in the modern day world where increased technology has led to world globalization and India is no exception. In the past decade India has had one of the fastest booming economies specifically Americanization in India has played its role in the plot, since it provides an outlet for Balram to alter his caste. According Balram is successful due to fact that international companies outsource their information media and products for production in India. Balram claims that outsourcing is the key to future economic success as international businesses profit quite well in India, especially if they are in the technology field. Globalization has assisted in the creation of an American atmosphere in India. Ashok justifies this move by explaining today it’s the modernist suburb of Delhi. American express, Microsoft, all the big American companies have offices there the main road is full of shopping malls each malls has a cinema inside! So if Pinky madam missed America, this was the best place to bring her.”Ashok is even convinced India is surpassing the USA; “there are so many more things I could do than in new York now. “The way things are changing in India now, this place is going to be like America in ten years.” Balram is noticing the rapid growth as well. From the beginning of his story he knows that in order to rise above is caste he should become an entrepreneur. Although his taxi service is not an international business. Balram plans to keep up with the pace of globalization and change his trade when need be. “I am always a man who sees “Tomorrow “when other sees “Today.”

vIndividualism

      Balram is very different from those back in his home Environment he is referred to as ‘The White Tiger’ Balram is told that he is like a White Tiger. ‘The White Tiger’ have their owe cages a White Tiger symbolizes power and in East Asian cultures and also a symbol for freedom and individuality. Balram is seen as different from those he grew up with he is the one who get of the “Darkness” and found his way in to the “light.” Thus these are the major themes of The White Tiger.