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Showing posts with the label General English 2

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Message in a Bottle by Anita Baviskar

Taken from: Contested Grounds Essays on Nature, Culture, and Power Edited by Amita Baviskar Insightful analysis of the significance of natural resources in contemporary life Empirically rich research on the politics of the environment Eminent contributors include David Gilmartin, David Ludden, Michael Thompson, Lyla Mehta among others About the essay:  beauty of the area and humanity's impact on it floating junk brought in by the tide element of hope - children taught environmental awareness (by Sunita Rao) and how to make the most of all the garbage the island receives Things like shampoo, aftershave, styrofoam chair, clothes basket - also, lobsters, coconuts and fish - come from the sea These are useful, or made useful - however the "stream of manufactured objects" they (ships using Bombay-Penang  trade route) leave behind is also a great inconvenience bottles of water, juice cartons, beer bottles, cans as common on the beach as sea-shells nobody knows ab...

Question Paper Pattern

SECTION A - 6x5 7 questions - answer 6; question on Riders to the Sea is compulsory SECTION B - 3x10 4 questions - answer 3; question on The Pianist is compulsory SECTION C - 4x10 Prepositions Email Precis-writing Conversational Strategies

A Corpse in the Well by Shankarrao Kharat

http://www.arvindguptatoys. com/arvindgupta/well-english. pdf http://www.ijells.com/wp- content/uploads/2012/04/April- Issue-IJELLS.pdf http://literarism.blogspot.in/ 2013/11/dalit-literature.html http://ccrss.org/dalitautobio. htm These links should help if you want to read up on A Corpse in the Well by yourself; I will post notes soon. And here they are: Page 136: About the Author and the Extract: "The above extract serves to emphasize the difference in power that exists in villages, and how the Mahars , or Dalits, who loyally served their village, were not respected and treated the way they deserved. The unfair manner in which they are bossed around, and the bravery and sense of duty exhibited by Anna , serve to highlight a broken system and ideology." Possible question: Describe the theme of injustice that runs through the story. Answer: dangerous duty, "father was crushed flat by (it)" near-fatal experience in this situation, duty was to guard ...

Diameter of the Bomb by Yehuda Amichai

how a localized tragedy affects the whole world speaker appears to have lost faith in God pain and time - ideas intentionally placed together contrast of death and youth pain of separation through death physical description pain is eternal no peace even after death physical to metaphysical grief then becomes immeasurable tangible to intangible Concentric circles progression from 30 cm, 7 m, two hospitals and one graveyard, 100 km, across the sea, whole world, "circle with no end and no God"

Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge

Guys here's the text for  Riders to the Sea I'll post notes on it once we discuss in class. Cheers!

First-Person Narrative

http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/fiction/pov.html http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-effect-does-use-first-person-pov-bring-story-280953 http://classroom.synonym.com/analysis-effects-first-person-narrative-point-1783.html This might help with tomorrow :P

Rain by Ravi Shastry

Themes: Man up Ideal = docile, submissive, polite (in formative years) but counterproductive as an independent adult Be kind, sensitive, Romantic etc but still get your work done exploring and analyzing gender roles Have an opinion Transformation: From a weakling to a man who does what needs to be done, by himself Role of Boy: (Pothuraju) Spark, inspiration Role of Grandfather: keeps saying "you can't do it" until, in the end, he does do it, and then he's like "I knew he could do it", i.e. " Sabaas " Purushottam means ideal man, but he was not lacked resolve, and decision-making ability

The Pianist by Roman Polanski

Key words/ phrases: holocaust narrative relocation to the ghetto survival dominating living W.R.T. VISUAL NARRATIVE minimum dialogue - relies on visuals Click here to read synopsis Richard Schickel of TIME Magazine lauds the film, saying, “We admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies.” The Pianist is NOT a cookie-cutter tear-jerking holocaust film. It is silencing, shocking, horrifying, quiet, truthful, hopeful, objective and riveting and will permanently alter your notions of people of the Holocaust. This film is an ode to pure chance, as is explained by the tagline of the film, “Music was his passion; Survival was his masterpiece” which fits Wladyslaw Szpilman’s life story perfectly. Just as in a symphony a number of separate runs contribute to a harmony, numerous truly fortunate and random series of events led to his continued survival. Szpilman is not a conventional hero. He is not a knight in shining armor to a...

The Rat by Ashoka Mitran

Themes: Poverty Frustration about poverty Hunger (seen through all the detailing about vadais ) embarrassment * guilt about buying perfectly good human food for a rat * what goes around comes around - Ganesan knows the rat will return - "not the gutter this time... off to the maidan... at least a week..." (page 113) * you miss the inconveniences too, when they're gone * author playing with brevity and conciseness of form while portraying complexity of character * poverty and one's inability to do much about it

Song of the Last Meeting by Anna Akhmatova

QUICK REVISION Themes: fate destiny no control over circumstances finality time everything ends grief end of a relationship trinity Tone Progression: numbness clumsiness, shakiness desperation closure indifference Use of Nature: cold autumn (separation, death) darkness (no hope) * feminist, war, random Soviet perspectives * reference to real-life situation  CONTEXT: (She met a young poet, Nikolay Gumilev , on Christmas Eve 1903, who encouraged her to write and pursued her intensely, making numerous marriage proposals from 1905. At 17 years old, in his journal Sirius, she published her first poem which could be translated asOn his hand are many shiny rings, (1907) signing it "Anna G." She soon became known in St Petersburg's artistic circles, regularly giving public readings. That year, she wrote unenthusiastically to a friend, “He has loved me for three years now, and I believe that it is my fate to be his wife. Whe...

Casabianca by Ayyappa Panicker

QUICK REVISION: Casabianca - Ayyappa Panicker Themes:  challenging established ideas because impractical questioning blind obedience rational thinking and logic filial piety is overrated self-glorification (by father) outdated ideals, morals, standards (esp. those of respect toward elders) necessity for scientific temper * through the poem, our perceptions about the father and the son evolve and become more tangible and less open to interpretation * twist in storyline, attitude * responsibility toward future generations to encourage wiser ideals * press in the poem - criticized for sensationalizing and being purveyors of gossip - emphasis on 'human element' (p.s. this is a euphemism) rather than cold hard facts Literary devices: satire irony subversion  intertextuality Ayyappa Panicker is challenging a celebrated poem which symbolizes filial piety and obedience He does this using inter-textuality - referring to one text while writing another (here, Feli...

Syllabus: EST 231, ENG 231, AEN 231

Hi guys! Since I am a dweeb who studies in the vacations, and thought you would also benefit from a headstart on the hell they're going to throw our way this semester, here is the syllabus: BRIT LIT: http://www.christuniversity.in/uploadimages/English%20Studies%20syllabus%202013-14(1).pdf And expect notes (topic by topic, not chapter by chapter) the day they are taught, henceforth. Bibliography of Required Reading (EST 231) Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 8th Ed. New York: Wardworth, 2005. Print. Corcoran, Neil. The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry. Cambridge: CUP, 2007.Print. (on flipkart this costs you Rs. 2,555) Davis, Alex, and Lee M Jenkins. The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Poetry. Cambridge: CUP, 2007.Print. > We already know the syllabus for Additional and General English, but here are the links nonetheless: GENERAL ENGLISH: http://www.christuniversity.in/uploadimages/First%20Year%20English%20syllabus%20fo...