English Literature

Objective correlative Objective correlative, literary theory first set forth by T.S. Eliot in the essay “ Hamlet and His Problems ” and published in The Sacred Wood (1920). According to the theory, The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an “objectivecorrelative”;  in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts,which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked. The term was originally used in the 19th century by the painter Washington Allston in his lectures on art to suggest the relation between the mind and the external world. This notion was enlarged upon by George Santayana in Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900). Santayana suggested that correlative objects could not only express a poet’s feeling but also evoke it. Critics have argued that Eliot’s idea was influenced, as was much of Eliot’s work, by t

Sublime: A characteristic of nature and art that embodies grandeur and nobility  and evokes in its audience a sense of awe. In literature, the term derives from  the treatise On the Sublime (first century A.D.), traditionally attributed (almost  certainly erroneously) to Longinus, a Greek rhetorician and philosopher. For  “Longinus,” the sublime is the emotional response to a spoken or written utterance of great power, which at first overwhelms and later creates in the reader/ listener a feeling of transcendence . Interest in sublimity in art and literature re-emerged in late 18th-century  England with the publication of Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of  Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757). Burke’s distinction between the awesome  power of the sublime and the more constrained and decorous appeal of the beauti- ful played an infl uential role in the development of English ROMANTICISM. Many  Romantic poets strove to achieve the effects of sublimity by co

Among the most controversial books ever published,  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  first appeared in the United States in January 1885. Of all Mark Twain’s books,  Huckleberry Finn  had the largest success upon its initial release from a sales standpoint. It is frequently looked upon as a work of art and as a cultural artifact, not as simply a novel. It was also rejected as being base and racist, being banned from some libraries in 1885, and continuing to appear on lists of commonly banned books to this day. It was one of the earliest works of American literature to be written in the  vernacular  and was an early example of a text relaying heavily on regionalism. Huckleberry Finn, first introduced to readers as a character in Twain’s  The Adventures of Tom   Sawyer , is the first person narrator. The book contains vivid descriptions of life along the Mississippi River, as society existed several decades before the book’s publication. The adventures begin in St. Petersb

American author Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel  Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly  was published in 1852 after having originally appeared as forty weekly installments in the abolitionist periodical  The National Era  beginning in June of 1851. It was not intended to become a full-length novel, but its huge popularity led a publisher to contact Stowe and convince her to expand it. Though already an active abolitionist, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was the impetus for Stowe to write the novel, which became a symbol of the power of literature in social reform.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin  was the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century and was only outsold by the Bible. The novel became a cultural phenomenon, spawning “Uncle Tom Plays” and giving birth to character tropes “Uncle Tom,” “Topsy,” “Simon Legree,” and others. The novel was banned in many of the Southern states and later in the Confederacy. Its popularity helped spread and strengthen the abolitio

Moby Dick , published by Herman Melville in 1851, is about a captain named Ahab who becomes obsessed with defeating a whale, a whale that has already gotten the best of him.  The story is told by a sailor named Ishmael, and Ismael explains that he goes to sea whenever he feels down. One day, in the port of New Bedford, Ishmael stays at the Spouter Inn.  At the inn, Ishmael encounters a man named Queequeg.  At first, Ishmael is frightened by Queequeg and his tattooed appearance, but soon they become friends. Ishmael then attends a service at the Whaleman’s Chapel where Father Mapple gives a sermon about Jonah and the whale. The next day, Queequeg and Ishmael travel together to Nantucket where they can get on board a whaler.  During the ferry ride to the island, a man makes fun of Queequeg.  Later, this same man falls overboard, and Queequeg is the one who saves his life.We learn more about Queequeg and his religious beliefs when he practices Ramadan and its rituals. As Quee

Billy Budd Posthumously published in London in 1924,  Billy Budd, Sailor  was the final novel written by American writer Herman Melville. Melville began working on the story in 1888, but the work remained unfinished until the time of his death in 1891. The novel was discovered in 1919 by Columbia Professor and Melville biographer Raymond M. Weaver, who edited the novel for publication. Considered a masterpiece by British critics, the novel became an instant classic when it was published in America. Set during the Napoleonic Wars at the end of the eighteenth century, the story follows Billy Budd, a handsome British seaman with a verbal stutter who is falsely accused of staging a mutiny aboard the HMS  Bellipotent . The novel was adapted as a stage play in 1951, the Broadway production of which went on to win the Donaldson Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards for best play. In 1962, the play was adapted as a feature film produced, co-written, directed, and starring Peter Us

Nectar in a Sieve Set in rural India during a phase of urban development, Indian author Kamala Markandaya’s acclaimed novel,  Nectar in a Sieve  (1954), follows Rukmani, an elderly woman who reflects on the various hardships and triumphs of her lifetime. Married at twelve years old to Nathan, a farmhand, Rukmani struggles to find happiness as she toils in the fields, grapples with unthinkable loss, and deals with sweeping changes in her homeland. The title of the novel derives from the 1825 poem “Work Without Hope” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Nectar in a Sieve  has sold more than one million copies. It has been called “very moving” by  Harper’s Magazine , “a novel to retain your heart” by  Milwaukee Journal , and “an elemental book. It has something better than power, the truth of distilled experience” by  New York Herald Tribune . Narrated by Rukmani, an elderly Indian woman, the story begins in rural India. Rukmani is the educated daughter of a village chieftain who has

Henry James’s novel  The Portrait of a Lady  opens at Gardencourt, the country home of Mr. Touchett. Mr. Touchett and his son, Ralph, are having tea with his friend Lord Warburton when Mrs. Touchett returns home from America. She has their niece Isabel Archer with her. Isabel is a young woman recently orphaned. She has two older sisters, who are each married. Mrs. Touchett hopes that Isabel will learn sophistication and find a husband. Before Isabel’s arrival, Lord Warburton assures Mr. Touchett and Ralph that he is disinclined to marry—unless he meets a particularly interesting woman. Warburton meets Isabel, finds her interesting, and falls in love. He invites her to visit him at home, where she meets his two sisters. She likes all three of them—finding Warburton kind and sensitive in addition to being wealthy and well placed, socially. Later, she hears from her friend, Henrietta Stackpole. Henrietta is an American journalist working in Europe. Isabel invites her to visit

Coolie Coolie , by Mulk Raj Anand, was first published in 1936 and helped to establish Anand as one of the foremost Anglophone Indian writers of his day. Like much of his other work, this novel is concerned with the consequences of British Rule in India and with the rigid caste system that structured Indian society. “Coolie” is a term for an unskilled laborer, though it can also be used as a pejorative. Anand’s novel tells the story of Munoo, a young boy from the Kangra Hills in Bilaspur. He is an orphan who lives with his aunt Gujri and uncle Daya Ram ; however, early in the novel they reveal they can no longer support Munoo and insist that he get a job. This is the beginning of a journey that will take Munoo to Bombay and beyond, but it also marks the end of his childhood. With his Uncle, Munoo travels to a nearby town where he finds a job as a servant to a bank clerk, Babu Nathoo Ram. Munoo is mistreated by his master’s wife ( Bibi  Uttam Kaur) but he admires his maste

TYPES OF RESEARCH The basic types of research are as follows: (i) Descriptive vs. Analytical: Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In social science and business research we quite often use the term Ex post facto research for descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for descriptive studies in which the researcher seeks to measure such items as, for example, frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to discover causes even when they cannot control the variables. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research are survey methods of all kinds, including comparati

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the application of scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered as yet. Though each research study has its own specific purpose, we may think of research objectives as falling into a number of following broad groupings: To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (studies with this object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative research studies); To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research studies); To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else (studies with this object in view are known as diagnostic research studies);  To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (such studies are known as

MEANING OF RESEARCH Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. One can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. In fact, research is an art of scientific investigation. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as “ a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge .”   Redman and Mory define research as a “ systematized effort to gain new knowledge .”  Some people consider research as a movement, a movement from the known to the unknown. It is actually a voyage of discovery. We all possess the vital instinct of inquisitiveness for, when the unknown confronts us, we wonder and our inquisitiveness makes us probe and attain full and fuller understanding of the unknown. This inquisitiveness is the mother of all knowledge and the method, which man employs for obtaining the knowledge of whatever the unknown, ca

Ralph Ellison  (1914 – 1994)  Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer.  He was born in Oklahoma.  Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man which won the National Book Award in 1953.  He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964) a collection of political, social and critical essays and Going to the Territory (1986).  A posthumous novel Juneteeth was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left after his death.  He specifically cited reading T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” as a major awakening moment.  His first published story was Hymie’s Bull inspired by his 1933, hoboing on a train with his uncle to get to Tuskegee.  In 1969, he received the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”. Important Works of Ralph Ellison  Invisible Man (1952)  This novel is narrated in the first person by protagonist an unnamed Black Man who considered himself socially invisible.  According to the ‘New York Times’, U.S. president Barrack Obama mod

William Faulkner  (1897 – 1962)  William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and a Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi.  He is primarily known for his novels, short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha Country based on Lafayetle Country Mississippi where he spent most of his life. He got the Nobel Prize in literature in 1949.  Two of his works A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He wrote his first novel Soldier’s Pay and second Mosquitoes.  Faulkner wrote his first novel set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha Country entitled Flags in the Dust drew heavily on the traditions and history of the south and finally published in 1928 as Sartois.  In 1962, he died of a massive heart attack. His most celebrated novels such as The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932) and Absalom! Absalom! (1936). His first story collection These 13 (1931) includes many of his most acclaim

Scott Fitzgerald  (1896-1940)    Francis Scott Fitzgerald was an American novelist and short story writer whose works are paradigmatic writing of the Jazz age (a period in 1920's ending with great depression).  He is considered a member of Lost Generation of 1920's. He finished four novels : This Side of Paradise (1920) The Beautiful and Damned (1922) The Great Gatsby (1925) Tender is the Night (1935)  A Fifth, unfinished novel The Love of the Last Tycoon published posthumously. His bibliography have previously listed the story, sometimes referred to as -"Fitzgerald bibliographies have previously listed the story, sometimes referred to as "The Women in the House", as "unpublished", or as "Lost – mentioned in correspondence, but no surviving transcript or manuscript"."   In ' This side of Paradise ' the hero reflects "I know myself but that is all". About 'Ernest Hemingway' Fitzgerald said - " Th

Ruskin Bond  (1934- )    Ruskin bond is an Indian author of British descent.  The Indian Council of Child Education, has recognized his role in the growth of children’s literature in India. He got Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 1992, for “Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”, his published works in English. It contains 14 stories.  He was awarded Padma Shree Award in the year 1999 and Padma Bhusan in 2014.  Bond said: “The past is always with us, for it feeds the present”.  Bond’s “A Fight of Pigeons” novel set in 1857 about Ruth Labadoor and her family of Hindus and Muslims is adapted into film “Junoon”. Important Works of Ruskin Bond   The Room of the Roof (1956)  The Blue Umbrella (1974)  The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories (1988)  The Best of Ruskin Bond (2000  A Flight of Pigeons (2003)  Out Trees still Grow in Dehra (1991) Out of Darkness (Lyrical Poem).

Arundhati Roy  (1959 –)  Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer who is best known for her novel ‘God of Small Things’ (1997) which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997.  She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes. She was awarded with Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006.  She is labeled as diasporic writer. Important Works    Fictions   1 . The God of Small Things (1997)  It centers around a tragedy that sends a family apart and its lasting effects on the twins who were at the heart of it.  The book explores how the small things affect people’s behavior and their lives.  The story is set in Ayemenem (Kerala).  Fraternal twins Rahel and Esthappen are seven years old in 1969. Ammu is the most important female character. ‘Baba’ is Rahel & Estha’s father who is divorced by Ammu when the children were very young.  The story enters in 1990 as the young women Rahel returns to her village to be re-united with her twin brother Estha

Arvind Adiga  (1974 – )  Arvind Adiga is an Indian-Australian writer and journalist.  His debut novel The White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. He was born in Madras (Chennai).  He is the fourth Indian born author to win Booker Prize after Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai ( V.S Naipaul is also of Indian origin but was not born in India). Adiga’s second book Between the Assassinations (2008) features 12 interlinked short stories.  His second novel and third book “ Last Man in Tower ” was published in UK in 2011. Important Works  1. The White Tigers (2008)  The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. He is praised one day as a rare “white tiger” by a visiting School inspector”.   The novel depicts Balram’s killing his master in Delhi and flees to Bangalore. Ultimately he transcends his sweet maker caste and becomes a successful

 Raja Rao  (1908-2006)      Raja Rao was an Indian Kannada writer of English language novels and short stories whose works are deeply rooted in Hinduism.  The Serpent and the Rope written in 1960, a semi auto-biographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylist and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964.  For the entire body of his work, Rao was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for literature in 1998.  The novel “Kanthapura” (1938) was an account of the impact of Gandhi’s teachings on non-violent resistance against British.   Rao returned to the theme of ‘Gandhism’ in the short story collection “The Cow of the Barricades (1947).   In 1998, he published Gandhi’s biography “Great Indian Way: A life of Mahatma Gandhi”.  The Serpent and the Rope dramatized the relation between Indian and western culture. The Serpent in the title refers to ‘illusion’ and the Rope refers to ‘realty

 Mulkraj Anand  (1905-2004)  Mulk Raj Anand was an Indian writer in English literature notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. He is notable for incorporating Punjabi and Hindustani idioms into English. His first main novel “Untouchable” (1935) was a chilling expose of the day-to-day life of a member of Indian’s untouchable caste.  For introducing Hindi and Punjabi idioms, Anand is regarded as India’s Charles Dickens.  He is one of the pioneers of indo Indo-American fiction together with R. K. Narayan, Ahmed Ali and Raja Rao.  His first prose essay was a response to the suicide of an aunt in his family who had been ex-communicated by his family for sharing a meal with a Muslim woman. The introduction of untouchable is written by E. M. Forster. Forster wrote: “Avoiding rhetoric and circumlocution, it has gone straight to the heart of its subjects and purified it”.  He spent half of his life in London and half in India.  Geo

R.K. Narayan  (1906-2001)    Rasipuram (Name of his Village) Krishnaswami (Name of his father) Iyer Narayan Swami was an Indian writer best known for his works set in the fictional south Indian town of Malgudi.  R.K. Narayan is one of the three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao) and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. The debut novel of R.K.Narayan is Swami and Friends (1935).  Graham Greene was his mentor and friend who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books including semi-autobiographical trilogy of :  Swami and Friends  The Bachelor of Arts The English Teacher  His is well known for The Financial Expert (1951), and Sahita Akademi Award Winner “The Guide” which was adopted for the film.  He is compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for the reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life.  He was awarded with