English Literature

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