Prakruti Bhatt's Assignments

Victorian criticism is marked by two major critical fervors, i.e Art for Art's sake and Art for Life's sake . The former considers the aesthetic qualities as the primary parameter for the analysis of a literary work whereas the latter emphasized morality and philosophy for the same. Mathew Arnold's Study of Poetry, published in 1880, served as the Golden Mean  between these two. Not only does the essay delineate the Romantic way of looking at poetry with its 'emotion attached to the idea' but also expostulates concepts like the Touchstone method for the comparative analysis of literary works. For Arnold manner and matter of poetry occupy equal important place. He considers poetry as a 'criticism of life' which constitutes both "poetic truth"  (reason) as well as "poetic beauty"  (emotion). Though modern literary criticism wouldn't agree completely with Arnold's views, his contribution remains notable. In our times, Arnold...

"Cinema, it is said, usually is a fair indicator of a nation's psyche, which may possibly be responsible for its (current) state of being, and which, in turn, may be affected by the turn of historical, political and economic events in a given frame of time."- Partha Chatterjee As far as movies like Lagaan, with the patriotic spirit of the nation as their focus, are concerned the above statement can be easily justified.  Lagaan as a cinematic creation is the reflection of the national psyche which has gone through various struggles to establish its individual identity, especially during the British colonial rule. How is Lagaan different from the usual patriotic Bollywood films, then? The answer lies within the subaltern theory. On one hand the colonialist historiography perfectly represented the European perspectives towards the rest of the world, especially the concepts like the 'white man's burden', and in the process created the categories of the ...

One of the best known works of Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, is known for its intriguing portrayal of the evils of the  modern world such as colonization, economic individualism, slavery, etc. The nature of the protagonist and the situations he is put into and his actions during his solitary confinement on the island, are also central to the various film adaptations of the novel.Though it is  often observed that movies based on literary works don't live up to the expectations of the readers. On the other hand it is also a fact that often movies surpass the popularity of books. As far as Crusoe is concerned, as mentioned earlier, there are various film versions of the novel. The one I'm going to discuss here is the 1997 film of the same title. To read the plot line of the movie click here Since Robinson Crusoe is quite a modern novel, it is easy to capture its plot in the movie. Therefore, the events after Crusoe's shipwreck are common among all the cinematic adaptatio...

A comparative study of Nalini from the Fakeer of Jungheera by Henry Derozio and Binodini from Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore Abstract:   Talking about the freedom of widows, who have been suffering the most since the writers’ times, Tagore and Derozio have dealt with the issue in their own unique ways. On one hand where Derozio’s Nalini, becomes a victim of the tradition of Sati, Tagore’s Binodini becomes a victim of entangled relations, deceit, and marriage politics. Apart from being just complicated love stories, as they appear on first hand reading, these texts deal with complex issues such as inter-caste marriages, the socio religious orthodoxy of Bengal of their time, and above all, the condition of women. Tagore and Derozio (the rebel and the Guru):            Expelled from his post as a professor, for asking the question WHY, Henry Derozio became the in...

Wordsworth and Coleridge on the language of poetry Abstract: 1798 marked the beginning of a new perspective towards literary experience and composition. The Romantic Revival beginning with Wordsworth and Coleridge presented new ideas and perspectives about the nature of poetry and the ways of poetic compositions. From the subject matter to the language everything was new. Two critical works Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1801) and Biographia Literaria (1817) served as manifestos of this literary movement and practice as they not only are a defense against the popular criticisms of this school of poetry, but are also the works with the theories and practice of this movement. And yet distinctions appear within the views of the Romantic poets as well. This paper aims at identifying those distinctions with special reference to both these works and their authors. Lyrical Ballads and the first Preface:   Published anonymously in 1798, Lyrical Ballads, as mentioned earlier, prese...

She Stoops To Conquer (The Mistakes Of A Night) Abstract : First published in 1771 and performed in 1773, Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conquer is considered   till date as the reflection of the Restoration society and also as the playwright’s one of the best plays. The play is also remembered as one of the best examples of Anti-Sentimental Comedy. The shifting morality and its consequences, the various class intrigues, disguise and its necessity, etc are some of the elements, the world of Goldsmith’s play is made of. After reading the sub title of this play, the question which remains is, how far does it appear apt for the play and also how far can the play adhere to its sub title. Are the incidents really the mistakes of a night? Or are they mistakes resultant of the various social evils of the time? These are the questions I have tried to deal with in this paper. Oliver Goldsmith (the Anti-Sentimental playwright ): Born in 1730, Oliver Goldsmith is remembered mainly f...

Rosicrucianism in Dr Faustus- Christopher Marlowe Abstract: Magic and the knowledge of the spiritual realm is something most of us are usually curious about. It is a fact that throughout history there have been people and schools possessing such knowledge are considered to have existed, without any kind of strong proof of that. This obscurity and secretiveness makes people curious to know whether such people and schools actually existed and whether they really possessed such knowledge. The thirst for knowledge, especially necromancy is one of the major themes of Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Interestingly enough, one such secret society was considered to have been existed during Marlowe’s lifetime, namely Rosicrucianism. Hence it is necessary to find out whether there are any associations or influences of Rosicrucianism found in one of his best known works or not and also if we read Dr Faustus as a Rosicrucian text what results would it give us. What is Rosicrucianism? ...