English Literature

Source: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/wpw/thirties/thirties%20bluemel.html#_edn7 For original visit the like above Mulk Raj Anand's Passage through Bloomsbury Kristin Bluemel In the midst of Gandhi's satyagraha (nonviolent noncooperation) campaigns of the 1930s, Britain tried to impose a series of 'reforms' on its rebellious Indian colony in a last-ditch attempt to preserve the borders of its

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/26th-june-1936/30/fiction From Journal The Spectator The Spectator, June 25, 1936, page No 30 Review of Coolie By Peter Burra The Fourth Pig. By Naomi Mitebiaon. (Constable. 7s. 641.) The Coolie. By Mulk Raj Anand. (Lai-rence and Wishart. 7s. ad.) Tug-Boat. By Roger Vercel. Translated by W. B. Wells. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d.) Return of a Heroine

Source:http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000806/spectrum/books.htm The Tribune The war novel by Mulk Raj Anand Write view by Randeep Wadehra Across the Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand. Vision Books, New Delhi. Pages 264. Rs 495. WORLD War I was fought from 1914 to 1918, in which Great Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, the United States and other allies defeated

SOURCE: HTTP://NEWLEFTREVIEW.ORG/I/84/HANS-MAGNUS-ENZENSBERGER-A-CRITIQUE-OF-POLITICAL-ECOLOGYIt is copied from NEW LEFT REVIEW Journal A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECOLOGYBY: HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER As a scientific discipline, ecology is almost exactly a hundred years old. The concept emerged for the first time in 1868 when the German biologist, Ernst Haeckel, in his Natural History of Creation,

Source: http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2916/stories/20120824291604500.htm Volume 29 - Issue 16 :: Aug. 11-24, 2012INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINEfrom the publishers of THE HINDU ESSAYSocialists and writers A.G. NOORANI Sajjad Zaheer was among those who formed the Progressive Writers� Association in Lucknow in 1936. COURTESY: SAHMAT Those who attended the formation

Source: http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=60&issue=105 "Copy" from the Journal International Socialism For original, kindly visit the Journal webpage by Talat Ahmed The Indian novelist Mulk Raj Anand passed away at the grand old age of 98 last September [2004]. He was arguably the greatest exponent of Indian writing in English, whose literary output was infused with a political

Heart of Darkness is based upon Conrad�s own experiences in life. This novel is a record of Conrad�s own experiences in the course of his visit to the Congo in 1890.  As a boy, Conrad dreamed of travel and adventure. He was only nine years old when, looking at a map of Africa� of the time, he said to himself: �When I grow up, I shall go there.� In Heart of Darkness, the fictitious character, Marlow also tells his friends on the deck of a steamboat that, in his boyhood, he had been greatly attracted by the African country known as the Congo, and that the river Congo flowing through that country had exercised a particular fascination upon him. In order to go to the Congo, Conrad had to take the help of an aunt who was by vocation a writer of novels. Through her influence, Conrad obtained a job with a trading company as the captain of a steamboat which was to take an exploring expedition led by Alexandre Delcommune to a place called Katanga in the Congo. Conrad felt very pleased with the

Joseph Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility, and social justice in his novel Heart of Darkness. This novel has all the trappings of the conventional adventure tale � mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack. Yet, despite Conrad�s great story telling, he has also been viewed as a racist by some of his critics. Achebe, Singh, and Sarwan, although their criticisms differ, are a few to name. The Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has claimed that Heart of Darkness is an �offensive and deplorable book� that �set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe�s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest.� Achebe says that Conrad does not provide enough of an outside frame of reference to enable the novel to be read as ironic or critical of imperialism. Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and theref

The phrase �Heart of Darkness� has two meanings. Literally, the title refers to the dark continent of Africa known as the Congo. �Heart of Darkness� is an appropriate title for the novel because Marlow describes his experiences of the interior region of the continent which was known as Congo. The events at the beginning and at the close of the novel occur outside Congo but the major and the most significant events of the story take place in the Congo and on the river Congo. The savages really belong to the heart of darkness. There are other features of the novel too, justifying the title �Heart of Darkness�. One such feature is the description of the wild scenery of the thick, impenetrable jungle, and the suggestive picture of the natives not fully visible to the white men sailing over the river Congo. At one point in the novel Marlow says that sailing up the river Congo was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world. He then refers to the great silence of the impenetr

The complexity with profundity of most of the modern writers leads them to fill their wirings with greater significance than we find on the surface. Symbolism means a deeper meaning in what has been written than meets the eye. �Heart of Darkness� is replete with symbols. Every person and everything means more than what we find on a superficial view. The novel is based on the facts of history as well as on the facts of Conrad's own life; but Conrad has tried to convey the evasive and elusive truth underlying both the historical facts and his personal experiences. Almost every character in �Heart of Darkness� has some symbolic significance. The central figure Mr. Kurtz, firstly, symbolizes the greed and the commercial and corrupt mentality of the western countries. Secondly, he symbolizes the white man�s love for power. Power corrupts man and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thirdly, the change, which comes over him during his stay among the savages, symbolizes the influence of ba

Self restraint is certainly one of the themes of the novel �Heart of Darkness�. Self-restraint is only a subsidiary or secondary theme. This theme has been handled by Conrad very skillfully, and almost subtly, so that it does not project itself on our attention or undermine the other themes. The white men who have gone to the Congo for trade show no self-restraint but unlimited greed. They are all there to collect ivory; and ivory has begun to dominate their thoughts. Ivory has become their obsession. The manager has begun to feel jealous of Mr. Kurtz because Mr. Kurtz collects more ivory than all the other agents put together. The desire of these men for ivory knows no bounds. Then, all these men seek power and authority; and they show no self-restraint in this aim. The most striking example of greed and self-aggrandizement is to be found in Mr. Kurtz who knows no self-restraint at all. Mr. Kurtz becomes the embodiment of the passion for ivory and for power. Many times he was heard sa

�Heart of Darkness� abounds in several themes. It has the theme of self-restraint, of the working of the subconscious mind, of the exploration, of barbarism and primitivism and the theme of imperialism. Conrad's handling of white imperialism was influenced by his own visit to Congo and his rendering of Marlow�s conscious and sub-conscious thoughts was also based upon his own reactions to what he himself witnessed in Congo. The keynote of the theme of imperialism is struck at the very outset of Marlow�s narration of the ancient Roman conquest of Britain. Their conquest was �robbery with violence� and murder on a large scale. Marlow says that conquest can be excused only if the conquerors perform some constructive work in the conquered country. The white man certainly has a duty to whom he subdues and if he fails in this duty, his government of the backward countries cannot be justified. Power corrupts man and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The white man had failed to perform hi

�Heart of Darkness� has a multiplicity of themes interwoven closely and produces a unified pattern. The theme of isolation and its consequences constitute a theme in this book, though a minor one. Marlow and Mr. Kurtz illustrate this theme, dominate the novel and have symbolic roles. Both these men stand for much more than the individuals which they certainly are.  Marlow strikes us from the very start as a lonely figure. Although he is a member of a small group of people sitting on the deck of the streamer called the �Nellie�. He is, at the very outset, differentiated from the others. He sits cross-legged in the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes without a lotus-flower. Then he begins his story, and nowhere in his narration does he appear to be feeing perfectly at home among other people. He seems to have the temperament of a man who would like to stay away from others, though he would certainly like to observe others and to mediate upon his observations. When Marlow goes

The novel �Heart of Darkness� clearly shows the influence of psychology and psychiatry which were emerging as developed sciences in Conrad�s time. �Heart of Darkness� gives us vivid descriptions of Marlow�s outward experiences in the Congo and of the thoughts and ideas which crossed the mind during his stay in Congo.  Marlow appears not only as a man of action but also as a thinker who reflects upon everything that he observes. He is a meditative man who always keeps examining his own thoughts arising in his mind. Thus the book is to be treated as Marlow�s exploration of his conscious and sub-conscious mind. The phrase �Heart of Darkness� means the interior of the Congo and also the inmost depths of the human mind. The novel gives us the internals and the externals. The externals are the scenes, incidents and the persons with whom Marlow meets while the internals are Marlow own thoughts which rise in his sub-conscious. In the beginning, Marlow is described sitting in the pose of a Budd

Irony is the very soul of Jane Austen�s novels and �Pride and Prejudice� is steeped in irony of theme, situation, character and narration. Irony is the contrast between appearance and reality. As one examines �Pride and Prejudice�, one is struck with the fact of the ironic significance that pride leads to prejudice and prejudice invites pride and both have their corresponding virtues bound up within them. Each has its virtues and each has its defects. They are contradictory and the supreme irony is that intricacy, which is much deeper, carries with it grave dangers unknown to simplicity. This type of thematic irony runs through all of Jane Austen�s novel. In �Pride and Prejudice� there is much irony of situation too, which provides a twist to the story. Mr. Darcy remarks about Elizabeth that: �tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me�� We relish the ironical flavour of this statement much later when we reflect that the woman who was not handsome enough to dance with was really goo

Pride and Prejudice was first written in 1797 under the title �First Impressions�. It was later revised and published under the title�Pride and Prejudice� in 1813. In the novel, first impressions do play an important part: Elizabeth is misled in her judgment and estimation of both Darcy and Wickham. Her regard and sympathy for Wickham and her hostility and prejudice against Darcy are due to the first impressions. But when we study the novel deeply andseriously we can easily see that the title �Pride and Prejudice� is more apt and more befitting to it. The first impressions which the character gets of each other take up only the first few chapters. The novel is more about the pride of Darcy and the prejudice of Elizabeth and the change of attitude in Darcy and Elizabeth�s correction of her first impression. At the apparent level, we see that Darcy embodies pride � he is possessed by family pride. As Wickham tells Elizabeth that he has a �filial pride�, in his �father and brotherly pride

Though, marriage is the end of Jane Austen�s novel, yet it evolves more than the conclusion of a simple love story. There is a depth, variety and seriousness in Jane�s treatment of these topics. Marriage was an important social concern in Jane Austen�s time and she was fully aware of the disadvantages of remaining single. In a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, she wrote: "Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor - which is a very strong argument in favour of matrimony." The only option for unmarried woman in Jane Austen�s time was to care for someone else�s children as Jane Austen herself did; as there were no outlets for women. The novels of Jane Austen�s � especially �Pride and Prejudice� � dramatize the economic inequality of women, showing how women had to marry undesirable mates in order to gain some financial security. The theme of love and marriage is one of the major themes in �Pride and Prejudice�. Through five marriages, Jane Austen defines good and b

Jane Austen is not a proclaimed moralist. Unlike Fielding, her aim is not to propagate the morality. She believes in art for the sake of art. She is the pioneer of the novels. Therefore, her plots are well-knit. Her main interest lies in irony and there is a hidden significance of morality as we come across her moral vision in her novels through irony. Jane Austen is in a favour of social prosperity than individual. She upholds the organic unity of society. She stresses that the duty of human beings owe to others, to society and maintains that individual desires have to be sub-ordinate to the large scale. Lydia-Wickham elopement is passionate and irresponsible. It shows that how society�s harmony is disrupted and how others lives are ruined by the selfish act of the individual. On the other hand the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Bingley bring happiness and stability to everyone, not simply to themselves. She discusses individuals �short comings�. Even the hero and heroine h