What is a Curriculum Vitae , What are the components? For Second semester Calicut University students (Writing for Academics and Professional Success)

 Curriculum Vitae (commonly known as its short form CV) is a Latin term that means “the course of one’s life”. It is a summary of one's academic and work history. A well designed CV can decide an individual’s future to successfully obtain a desirable position.

 

CV, bio-data and resume

While a CV, bio- data and resume are roughly equivalent documents, there are important differences in its usage and content. Biodata, the short form of biographical data emphasis on personal particulars like date of birth, sex, nationality, marital status and so on. It has a specific format whereas Resume is an advertising tool for selling oneself as the most qualified candidate. It is typically used in business and there is no specific format for a resume. The most basic difference between CV and resume is in its length. A CV is used primarily when applying for fellowships and grants.

Components of a CV

A CV will have the following sections:

Personal Details: It is important that the reader can spot , at a glance, not only your name but also precisely how to get in contact with you. Your CV should be headed with your name – boldly and clearly before any other details. Then you can add your address, phone number, email address, date of birth, sex, marital status, religion, aadhar number etc. 

Professional Profile: Professional profile is a brief statement at the very beginning of a CV which conveys the reader an overall impression of your key personal and professional characteristics. This part includes your academic or personal experiences and your abilities which are crucial for the job.

Objectives: The task of the objective section is to explain your preferred career direction and details on what you hope to achieve from your future career. While writing an objective Statement you should write down the types of positions, types of organizations or settings, and specific skills you want to use or develop in your next job.

Educations and Qualifications: This part includes, Descriptions of your qualifications.

    The dates you received your qualifications                                                                                                   What grades/class/marks/ you achieved                                                                                                       The names of the institutions                                                                                                                       Special certifications, licenses, additional vocational trainings etc

Career History/work experience
Start with your present or most recent job and work all the way back to your very first job. In this part you need to specify;

The dates you worked for each organization                                                                                            Your job title or function                                                                                                                            The name of the organization you worked for, along with location                                                            A compelling description of what your role entailed.

Key Skills: A Key Skill section is a summary of the main skills and abilities you are offering to a prospective employer. You can include your communication skills, interpersonal skills, administrative skills, organizational skills, presentation skills etc.

Achievements: In this section you can highlight your personal, professional and academic achievements.

Interests and Activities: You can simply summarize your interests and extracurricular activities in this section such as sports, acting, dancing, painting and creative writing etc.

References: The referees listed should be willing to confirm your claims. They can be your teachers, supervisors, former boss, even neighbours (if they are professionals connected with the job you are applying for).

How to write a cover letter ? For Second semester Calicut University students (Writing for Academics and Professional Success)

 Sample cover letter  for the post of an assistant professor

Name:

Address:

Email ID:

Date:

Sir,

It gives me great pleasure to apply for the post of an Assistant Professor in English language and literature at Christ College Irinjalakkuda and begin my academic career. I have an abiding, passionate and almost obsessive interest in English language in general and Literature in particular.

I have gained Ph.D in Calicut University and cleared National eligibility test with JRF in 2018. While pursuing research I also worked as a guest faculty in the department of English, Calicut University. Beyond my academic excellence, I am an effective communicator; I can explain any complicated theories, terms and concepts in a comprehensible manner.

I would be happy to attend the interview at any time.

I am deeply indebted for your kindness and attention in considering me for this position. I hope that as we move forward through the hiring process, I will be given an opportunity to demonstrate my value as a faculty.

I would be honoured to have a place at your reputed institution.

Yours Sincerely

Name

 

Structuralist criticism

Structuralist criticism was emerged in the 1960s, is a study of language that focuses not on the communicative function of language, but on examining the conditions that allow language and meaning to derive. Structuralist criticism examines how the elements of language are organised in order to produce the effect it has.

The principles of structuralism can be traced to work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), who pointed out that language was not a random collection of words, but one that contained a structured system of relationships. Saussure conveyed that a word was a linguistic sign and has two interrelated sides to it- the signifier and the signified. The signifier refers to the sound image or the word (for example the word 'dog'); the signified is the concept which is being referred by the signifier (that is, the actual dog itself). The relationship between the signifier and the signified is very  arbitrary (the letters that form the written word 'dog' or the sounds that constitute the spoken word 'dog' have no real connection to the living animal they represent), but they work together to create meaning. But the meaning of signifier can only be understood in relation to other signifiers (we know what 'spoon' signifies something, because we can differentiate it from a 'fork' or a 'knife'). Signs are often understood in terms of binary opposites such as light in contrast to dark, strong in contrast to weak, realist in contrast to romantic and capitalist in contrast to socialist. Thus we see that there exists a vast and complex system of interrelated signs which derive their meaning based on their differences and relation to one another. Language consists of artificial constructs,  a system of structures that mediates between us and external reality.

Discovering the system of structures that create meaning in literature was the main focus of the structuralist school of criticism. Structuralist critics try to examine how these artificial constructs work. They do not try to interpret the meaning of an individual work or judge it. They are more interested in language and grammar, and focus on the narrative structures. They preferred the word ‘text’ to ‘work’ to emphasize their point that all literature was subject to a set of cords rather than being a unique product of author's mind. They also questioned the belief that the text was a representation of reality as they believed that all signification was arbitrary.


The most important figures connected with this school of thought are Claude Levi Strauss, Lucien Goldmann, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser and Jonathan Culler.

sons and lovers by d.h lawrence; summary and analysis - part 1

Chapter 1

The novel opens with a brief historical survey of the coalfield and the building of the miners’ houses called 'the Bottoms'.

There, lives Walter Morel and Gertrude with their two children. Mr. Morel is a miner, and Mrs. Morel is carrying with their third child. Their son William is seven and very much excited to go to the fair. He runs off, and his mother joins him later with his younger sister, Annie. William always would like to stay close with his mother. He buys Gertrude a pair of flowered eggcups.

Follows a retrospective narration from Mrs Morel's girlhood as the daughter of an engineer and her meeting with her future husband and the first few months of their married life. Gertrude first met Walter Morel on the occasion of Christmas party. she was enormously fascinated by his wavy black hair, full beard, and hearty laugh. Gertrude was vulnerable, mild and graceful along with religious and intellectual bend of mind. Like her father she was Puritan in nature with an interest in religion and philosophy. On the contrary Walter was quite antithetical: non-intellectual, unrestrained and sensuous. He is very much fond of dancing.

Eventually, they get married, but she soon realized that he was incapable of understanding the heart of her. Seven months after their marriage, she was shocked to discover that her husband had not even paid their furniture bills with his pay and that the house they lived in was actually owned by Walter's mother. Disillusionment follows as Mrs Morel discovers the lies he has told her about his financial position. The first child, William, is born, and conflict between the mother and father reaches a climax in Mr Morel's cutting off of the boy's curls. Mr Morel, who had become a teetotaller on marrying, reverts to his old drinking habits. The quarrel between him and the pregnant Mrs Morel, which ends with her being locked out of the house for several hours. Consequently, Gertrude lost her paradise after marrying Walter Morel. The beginning of a deep seated bond between mother and son is discernible here, just like a movement from son to a lover. This special kind of intensive bond was described by the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, as an Oedipus complex, a term that was based on Sophoclean character Oedipus, who by mistake kills his father and then marries his mother. The love between Mrs. Morel and William is one of two oedipal relationships that shape this story. Yet another connection is the famous Shakespearean drama Hamlet features the same character Gertrude, she too notorious for her Oedipus affiliation.

Chapter 2

Mrs Morel's third child, Paul, is born. The Congregational minister, Mr Heaton was the only solace for her from all the distresses. Later, he becomes Paul's godfather. Mrs. Morel and William turn to hate Walter for his bad temperament.

Mr. Morel returns home drunk one night and flings a drawer at Mrs Morel, which catches her on the forehead and draws blood; she almost falls but maintains her balance to protect the baby in her arms. Mr Morel retreats more and more from family life, taking refuge in the public house. In a culminating episode he threatens to leave home, wrapping his things up in a large bundle. This is how he asserts his masculinity most vigorously. This particular chapter also features some deadlock passion between son and their mother.

Chapter 3

Morel falls ill for several weeks. Mrs.Morel nurses him back to health. But as he recovers his wife becomes less close to him. A fourth child, Arthur, is born. Mrs Morel's feelings become increasingly focused on William. Paul is 17 months old when the little Arthur is born. William is the "top of the class" and "the smartest lad in the school," but when he is 11 he gets into a fight with another boy and rips his collar off. The boy's mother complains to Mrs. Morel, but William justifies that the collar was already torn. When Mr. Morel hears about the incident he tries to hit his son, but Mrs. Morel intently interferes.

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William gets into  a new job in an office in Nottingham when he was 19, earning 30 shillings a week. His parents are both proud of him. At this time Annie is studying to be a teacher, Paul is learning French and German from Mr. Heaton, and Arthur is in school.

William's departure for London creates mixed feelings in Mrs.Morel. She is at once grateful to see him succeed and move up in the world. But she is also suffering the separation of her beloved son.

Chapter 4

Paul now becomes the centre of attention. He maintains a compact bond to his mother as "his soul seemed always attentive to her". Paul recollects his father's ongoing bullying and drinking. When Morel once hit his wife on the face, his brother William wanted to fight it out with his father, but his mother forbade it. Paul's early recollections are primarily filled with hatred of his father. His father drinks after work, arriving home drunk and creates many troubles frequently.

 Paul is marked by his mild and delicate nature, he suffers from bronchitis. Thus, she was afraid of his future. But, still he admires the brave way she deals with it. When he is ill he calls for her, and he loves to sleep with his mother and feel her warmth as he lay against her. On Fridays it is his duty to collect his father's earnings at the office and then bring them to him at the bar. The men at the office mock at his delicate voice and quiet manner, and Paul is overwhelmed, declaring to his mother that he doesn't want to go and fetch the money any more. William returns home for Christmas, Mrs. Morel is busy baking cakes, tarts, and pies, anxiously awaiting his arrival. He arrives with relatively lavish gifts for everyone and lots of fancy sweets.

Chapter 5

Mr. Morel gets injured seriously down the ground. His leg is badly smashed, but after a week in critical condition he starts to heal. Paul needs to find a job, but his main interests are reading and painting. In contrast to Paul's mild and sensitive nature, William has meanwhile become a stylish gentleman in London. He meets an elegant young lady at a dance and is quite attracted to her. Her name is Louisa Lily Western, but William calls her Gypsy instead of Lily. He sends his mother a picture of her. But, she expresses her dislike. Paul begins working at Jordan's Surgical Appliance Factory. He is to fetch letters for copying and report to Mr. Pappleworth. His oedipal feelings for his mother goes on to manifest themselves in his dream of sharing a cottage with her. While Paul dreams of his mother, William has broken the maternal bonds and fallen in love with Lily.

Chapter 6

The youngest son, Arthur wins a scholarship to the Grammar School. He keeps some striking similitude with his father. Meanwhile, he brings his fiancée home for Christmas she behaves in a fashion of queenly superiority to his family and treats Annie and Paul as her servants. The story of Paul and his mother continues with their first visit to Willey Farm; and new characters- Mrs Leivers, Edgar, Maurice, and, above all, Miriam- are introduced. William falls ill. His mother goes to London to nurse him, but he dies of pneumonia. A telegram is sent summoning Mr Morel. The young man's body is brought home, and the coffin is placed in the Morels' front room. Mrs Morel is entirely preoccupied with the death of William, and not until Paul also becomes seriously ill does she wake to the realisation that she is in danger of losing her second son as well. But she now gives him her undivided attention, and over a seven-week period she devotedly nurses him back to health.

Education helps to liberate Arthur and Annie from the tyranny of living with their father. In contrast, when Lily visits, Mrs. Morel offers her a book, and it is obvious that Lily does not know how to read. Lily's lack of education makes William start to hate her.

Class distinctions become apparent when William brings Lily to visit. Lily sees the Morels as "the working class" and treats them with disdain and the younger children as her servants.

Flowers are recurrent symbols throughout the novel. When Paul meets Miriam, he comments on the white and pink flowers in her garden. Like the flowers, Miriam is white, pure and innocent. The colourful flowers represent their love in contrast to the white flowers that indicate innocence. Paul gathers daisies and fixes them in Lily's hair during one of her visits.

ugc net Paper 2- December 2004: part 1

1. In Langlands‘ Piers the Plowman, Piers appears finally as :

(A) Charity (B) The Holy Trinity (C) Jesus (D) The Good Samaritan

Answer: C

“Piers Plowman,” a Middle English poem by William Langland, is a quest that occurs within dream visions that satirize secular and religious figures corrupted by greed. The poem is divided into sections called passus, Latin for step (passus is singular and passi is plural) and means a stage, or the stages, of a journey. It  contains the first known reference to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales.

 2. It is decided that each Canterbury pilgrim would tell in all :

(A) One story (B) Two stories (C) Three stories (D) Four stories

Answer: D

The Canterbury Tales begins with the introduction of each of the pilgrims making their journey to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. These pilgrims include a Knight, his son the Squire, the Knight's Yeoman, a Prioress, a Second Nun, a Monk, a Friar, a Merchant, a Clerk, a Man of Law, a Franklin, a Weaver, a Dyer, a Carpenter, a Tapestry-Maker, a Haberdasher, a Cook, a Shipman, a Physician, a Parson, a Miller, a Manciple, a Reeve, a Summoner, a Pardoner, the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself. Congregating at the Tabard Inn, the pilgrims decide to tell stories to pass their time on the way to Canterbury. The Host of the Tabard Inn sets the rules for the tales. Each of the pilgrims will tell two stories on the way to Canterbury, and two stories on the return trip. The Host will decide whose tale is best for meaningfulness and for fun. They decide to draw lots to see who will tell the first tale, and the Knight receives the honor.

 3. Venus and Adonis is a long narrative poem by :

 (A) Shakespeare (B) Marlowe (C) Drayton (D) Sydney

Answer: A

During his lifetime Shakespeare’s fame as a poet equalled and perhaps outstripped his fame as a playwright. His most popular poem was Venus and Adonis. It was reprinted nine times in his lifetime, and there are more surviving contemporary references to Venus and Adonis than to any of Shakespeare’s plays. The poem was most likely written in 1592, when London’s theaters were closed due to an outbreak of plague, and it was first published in 1593. Venus and Adonis was published with a dedication to the Earl of Southampton in which Shakespeare promised to follow up this light-hearted and erotic poem with a “graver labor.” This almost certainly refers to The Rape of Lucrece, which was published a year later, in 1594, and which was also dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. The Rape of Lucrece was almost as popular as the earlier poem, going through at least six editions in Shakespeare’s lifetime. The poem is a “graver labor” than Venus and Adonis because it is neither humorous nor erotic, and it tackles troubling moral and political themes. However, like Venus and Adonis, Lucrece is also interested in the uncontrollable power of desire. Both poems were written in iambic pentameter.

Venus and Adonis retells an ancient Mediterranean myth about a beautiful boy, Adonis, who has no interest in love or sex and spends all his time hunting instead. Venus, the goddess of sexual love, falls in love with Adonis at first sight, and spends most of the poem trying to seduce him, or at least to prevent him from leaving. At the end of the poem, Adonis is killed by a boar while hunting, and Venus transforms his body into a flower to remember him. Venus and Adonis is primarily an erotic poem that focuses on the uncontrollable power of sexual desire. Venus plays the role of aggressive seducer, which in Elizabethan England was reserved for male lovers. Adonis only speaks a fraction of the poem’s lines, and when he does speak, he tries to convince Venus he’s too young to love her, and is only interested in hunting: “‘I know not love,’ quoth he, ‘nor will not know it, / Unless it be a boar, and then I chase it.’” Venus seems to not care about Adonis’s indifference, and because she is a goddess, she has the physical capacity to restrain him easily. The effect is comic, but Venus’s aggressive sexuality challenges conventional Elizabethan ideas about gender.

The Rape of Lucrece retells a story from Roman history that was well-known in Shakespeare’s England. Many authors had composed versions of this story before Shakespeare, including the Roman writers Ovid and Livy, and the medieval English poets Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. Shakespeare was probably familiar with all these versions. In the poem, Lucrece is the wife of the Roman nobleman Collatine. After Collatine boasts about his wife’s beauty and faithfulness in front of another Roman noble, the king’s son, Tarquin, travels to Lucrece’s house and rapes her. Afterward Lucrece sends her family a message telling them what happened, but not naming her attacker. Collatine returns home, where Lucrece tells him who raped her, then commits suicide.

 4. The total number of poems in Shakespeare‘s Sonnets is :

(A) 123 (B) 142 (C) 104 (D) 154

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Answer: D

 5. Which of the following plays has a Machiavellean hero ?

(A) Tamburlaine Part I (B) Dr. Faustus (C) Jew of Malta (D) Edward II

Answer: C

A Machiavellian hero is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, no matter the cost. He seems to lack a moral code or a true moral compass.

Here are some examples of Machiavellian heroes:

Jack from Lord of the Flies: Though not the protagonist, he certainly puts up a fierce battle for the role and has some Machiavellian tendencies. Jack wants to be leader of this deserted group of school boys, no matter the cost. He even resorts to murder more than once.

Henry VIII (real life history): Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and the rule of Henry VIII certainly seems to indicate that he had some Machiavellian personality traits. He beheaded two wives, had other marriages annulled, and beheaded some of his (former) closest friends when they failed to achieve the goals he had in mind. He was certainly considered a hero early in his rule, being described as attractive and accomplished. By the end of his life, he was a tyrant to deal with.

Shakespeare's Richard III - briefly put, he orders the murders of family members in order to obtain the crown.

Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost-as Milton portrays him, the beautiful angel Satan is willing to risk all, over and over again, in order to grasp ultimate power and revenge.

Khaled Hosseini's Amir in The Kite Runner--this is a more modern version of a Machiavellian hero, but in the first section of the novel, Amir cowardly betrays his friend and then frames him so that his father can focus solely on him. Amir does change as the novel progresses and loses his selfish tendencies, but his willingness to sacrifice anything or anyone to obtain his father's approval is shocking and results in long-term repercussions for him and others.

Napoleon from Orwell's Animal Farm or the "real" Josef Stalin--both use others (such as Snowball or Trotsky) until their use is expended and then annihilate them. 

 6. Which of the following is written by Samuel Butler ?

(A) Religio Laici (B) David Simple  (C) Hudibras (D) Journal of the Plague Year

Answer: C

Samuel Butler (17th-century poet, author of Hudibras)

Hudibras  is a satire in three parts, each containing three cantos, written by Samuel Butler (1613-80 Its narrative form is that of a mock romance, derived from Don Quixote, in which a grotesque Presbyterian knight, Sir Hudibras, and his sectarian squire Ralpho set out on horseback and encounter a bear-baiting mob who, after a comic skirmish, imprison them in the stocks. In the second part a widow, whom Hudibras hopes to marry for the sake of her jointure, agrees to release them on condition that the knight undergoes a whipping for her sake. They visit Sidrophel, a charlatan posing as an astrologer, whom Hudibras assaults

and leaves for dead. In Part III Hudibras returns to the widow and claims that he has fulfilled his promise to whip himself, but is interrupted by a gang which he mistakes for Sidrophel's supernatural agents. They cudgel him and force him to confess to his iniquities. He consults a lawyer, who advises him to write love letters to the widow in order to inveigle her in her replies. The second canto of Part III has no connection with the rest of the poem but consists of an account of political events between the death of Cromwell and the restoration of Charles II and a dialogue between two politicians, one of them modelled on Shaftesbury.

The loose narrative framework of the poem allows Butler ample opportunity to digress; in fact the digressions form the substance of the poem. Hudibras is the most learnedly

allusive poem in English but Butler treats all erudition with contempt. His most powerful satirical weapon is his style, the deliberately cumbersome octosyllabic metre and comic rhymes of which render absurd every subject to which they are applied.

 7. Which of the following poems did Milton write in Octosyllabic Couplets ?

(A) IL Penseroso (B) On His Blindness” (C) On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” (D) Lycidas

Answer: A

 8. Which of the following plays is not written by Congreve ?

 (A) The way of the World (B) The Old Bachelor (C) Love for Love (D) The Relapse

Answer: D

William Congreve (1670 –1729) was an English playwright and poet. His works include plays, opera, and other various works of literature.

·  The Old Bachelor (1693)  ·  The Double Dealer (1694)  ·  Love for Love (1695)  

 ·  The Mourning Bride (1697)  ·  The Way of the World (1700)

Two of his most popular and well-known plays are Love for Love in 1695, and The Way of the World in 1700, for which he is most famous. Congreve came at the end of the period of Restoration literature as the population appeared to rebel against the earlier strictures of the Puritan revolution. As tastes changed again, Congreve fell silent.

 9. Dryden‘s All For Love is an adaptation of :

 (A) Philaster (B) Romeo and Juliet (C) Antony and Cleopatra (D) Edward II

Answer: C

All for Love; or, the World Well Lost, is a 1677 heroic drama by John Dryden which is now his best-known and most performed play. It is a tragedy written in blank verse and is an attempt on Dryden's part to reinvigorate serious drama. It is an acknowledged imitation of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopata, and focuses on the last hours of the lives of its hero and heroine.

 10. Which of the following books proposes a political theory ?

(A) Principia (B) Leviathan (C) Anatomy of Melancholy (D) Liberty of Prophesying

Answer: B

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could be avoided only by strong, undivided government.

beautiful lines from literature- 1

Spring come to you at the farthest. In the very end of harvest - The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Happiness is but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain- The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

If I am destined to be happy with you here—how short is the longest Life—I wish to believe in immortality—I wish to live with you for ever - From the Letters of John Keats

 

No light is found, but rather darkness visible- Paradise lost by John Milton

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter- Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

A man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face- Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought- To a Skylark by P.B Shelley

Courage was mine, and I had mystery, Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery: To miss the march of this retreating world. Into vain citadels that are not walled - Strange Meeting by Wilfred Owen

The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age of prudence. can never retract. by this, and only this, we have existed- The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Edward Albee (1928-2016)

Edward Albee has written and directed some of the greatest plays of modern American drama. He won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for ‘Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?’(1962) and went on to win three Pulitzer prizes, for ‘A Delicate Balance’ (1966), ‘Seascape’ (1975) and ‘Three tall Women (1994).

In his early plays such as The zoo Story (1958) and The American dream (1961), Albee experimented with the Theatre of the absurd. The zoo Story is a one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in New York City's Central Park. Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. In fact “nothing happens” except conversation until the violent ending. The play was designed to shock audiences out of complacency and bring them face to face with the painful facts of life. The appearance on the American stage of this tragically alienated character, Jerry, with his powerful rhetoric, had a similar effect to that of John Osborne’s Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger (1956) on the British stage. Albee was hailed as the new voice of contemporary American life and the leader of a new theatrical movement.

The American Dream (1961) exemplifies Albee’s trademark of a middle class American family living on illusion and dominated by an overbearing woman. It’s a dark and grotesque comedy, on the one hand it resembles Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, having a domestic setting; on the other it resembles Ionesco’s Bald Soprano in its depiction of highly exaggerated characters.

Albee’s first full length play Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is unquestionably his best and holds a place beside the best of Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller in the history of American drama. It portrays the venomous marriage of one of the most memorable couples of western literature George and Martha. The couple treat each other, and their guests, to a night of heavy drinking, accompanied by dangerous and psychologically twisted verbal games. By the end of the night a shocking truth emerges- having blamed each other for their adult son leaving home, it emerges that the son is a figment of their combined fantasy, which they have maintained for 21 years as a defense against fear, alienation and the disappointment of life. The play is superbly constructed in its intellectual dialogue and violent emotional outbursts. Albee’s message is that living under illusions become destructive to any relationship. The title is unconnected with Virginia Woolf, but is borrowed from the children’s song ‘Who is afraid of the big bad wolf?, which symbolises the fears and insecurities of modern life.

 A Delicate Balance (1966) dealt with issues similar to those explored in Who is afraid of the big bad wolf?, but in a more moderate manner. The two plays are linked in the way they recognise that social norms, family rituals and even devious behaviour are defense mechanisms against an existential fear that cannot be named. A delicate Balance is about a married couple, Tobias and Agnes, who unexpectedly have to give refuge to some friends whose presence disrupts the precarious peace and civility. The result is a display of antisocial, hysterical, aggressive and altogether grotesque behaviour by the family members. The line between sanity and insanity becomes very thin. The premise of the first part of the play has an affinity with The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill- it is better to live in illusion than to suffer a disrupting influence.

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With Seascape (1974), a charming and entertaining fantasy, Albee produced a liveliness and lightness that had been absent from his plays for over a decade. A middle aged couple, Nancy and Charlie, meet Sarah and Leslie, two amphibians who are about to evolve. The amphibians are very much like humans, with middle class human values and friction in their marriage. The creatures have doubts about evolving when they realise that human emotions can be painful. The evolution is a metaphor for the uncertainty about what to do when one stage of human life comes to an end. The play ends with Nancy and Charlie promising to help the amphibians with their quest to become human.

During 1970s and 80, his production slowed down and his plays were not commercially successful. Later, in 1994 Albee recaptured the verve of his earlier plays with Three Tall Women (1994), which was indeed a success. The plot consist of a haughty, bitter old woman lies dying, attended by two other women and visited by a young man. The play is about forgiveness, reconciliation and fate, presented through Albee’s black sense of humour.

The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (2002), a witty and hilarious but disturbing play, his most controversial one. Martin, a successful architect, living harmoniously with his wife Stevie and their homosexual son, falls in love with Sylvia, a Goat, and when his bizarre secret comes out, the whole family structure is destroyed. What starts as a drawing room comedy turns into a tragedy of marital infidelity with a shocking different. There is also a hint of incest between the father and the son. The play’s concern is to test our limits of tolerance by transgressing taboos.

Albee’s work largely exhibits the influence of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. He depicts humankind’s inability to communicate and the human need for integration involvement with others.    

Patrick White (1912-1990)

Australian Poet, Novelist, Essayist and Playwright, was born in England. The first Australian writer to achieve The Nobel Prize for literature in 1973.    Notable Novels

• Happy Valley (1939)
• The Living and The Dead (1941)
• The Aunt's Story (1948)
• The Tree of Man (1955)
• Voss (1957)
• Riders in The Chariot (1961)
• The Solid Mandala (1966)
• The Eye of The Storm (1973)
• A Fringe of Leaves (1976)
• The Twyborn Affair (1979)

David Marr was his biographer. 

  His most recognized Novel was Voss. It tells the story of a doomed attempt of Johann Voss to cross the Australian continent. Narrating the mystic and spiritual communion that ties him to Laura Trevelyan, who at home in Sydney suffers with him and released from fever at the moment of his death.      

The Novel is based on the life of a nineteenth century German(Prussian) explorer and Naturalist Ludwid Leichhardt, who faded away on the occasion of his expedition into the Australian outback.

  The Eye of The Storm and A Fringe of Leaves created a powerful and bold female characters. The Eye of The Storm unfolds the life of Elizabeth Hunter, the powerful matriarch, who maintains her boldness until her last breath.   "Dorothy was breathless with resentment for what she herself could no more than half-remember, had perhaps only half discovered - on the banks of the Seine? in dreams? as part of that greatest of all obsessions, childhood? and how could Elizabeth Hunter have got possession of anything so secret? Only Mother was capable of slicing in half what amounted to psyche, then expecting the rightful owner to share".  - The Eye of the Storm, Chapter Eight      While  A Fringe of Leaves revolves around the journey of Mrs.Ellen Roxburg with her much older husband Austin. It captures the real life of Aboriginal people in Australia   "... she fell back upon the dust, amongst intimations of the nightmare which threatened to re-shape itself around her. Her trembling only gradually subsided as she lay fingering the ring threaded into her fringe of leaves..."  P.223 

The Twyborn Affair in some respect echoes Virginia Woolf''s Orlando. with its gender switching protagonist. The author portrays the transition of a soul through the different identities Eudoxia, Eddie, and Eadith, two of them are incognito as female.   Patrick White dedicated the novel Happy Valley to the Artist Roy De Maistre.  

 

The Living and The Dead represents the life after second world war.features mother Catherine, son Elyot and daughter Eden. they were leading a desperate life under a single roof. A claustrophobic ambiance permeates in the novel.    

The Aunt's Story recounts the experiences of Theodora Goodman, a lonely middle aged woman. who travels to France after the death of her mother and then to America where she experiences a mental breakdown and an epiphanic revelation.   White himself expressed a personal fondness for it. he says : "It is the one i have most affection for. and I always find it irritating that only 6 Australians seem to have liked it."   "The sun was still a manageable ball above the ringing hills as Lou went outside. She walked through this stiff landscape, carrying her cold and awkward hands. She thought about the cardboard aunt, Aunt Theodora Goodman, who was both a kindness and a darkness. Lou touched the sundial, on which the time had remained frozen. She was afraid, and sad, because there was some great intolerable pressure from which it is not possible to escape. Lou looked back over her shoulder, and ran."   -   The Aunt's Story.   One of the great opening lines : "But old Mrs.Goodman did die at last" ‘Lou’ was Theodora’s soulmate.

The Tree of Man captures the domestic life featuring the lives of the Parker family and their changing fortunes over many decades. It is steeped in Australian folklore and cultural myth, and is recognized as the author's attempt to infuse the peculiar and unique way of life in the remote Australian bush with some sense of the cultural traditions and ideologies.    White wrote, in an attempt to explain the novel, "I felt the life was, on the surface, so dreary, ugly, monotonous, there must be a poetry hidden in it to give it a purpose, and so I set out to discover that secret core, and The Tree of Man emerged."   The title comes from A.E Housman's Poetry Cycle A Shropshire Lad.    The novel is one of three by White included in "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". The others are Voss and The Living and The Dead.

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

List of works in chronological order

· Things Fall Apart (1958)

· No Longer at Ease (1960)

· Arrow of God (1964)

· A Man of the People (1966)

· Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

He is regarded as the founding father of modern African literature. His novels are noted for the effects of western customs and values on traditional African society. While his mother tongue was Igbo, Achebe was educated in English and his literary language is standard English blended with Igbo vocabulary, proverbs, images and speech patterns. He has defended the use of in the production of African Fiction.

Achebe’s debut novel Things Fall Apart (1958) (title is taken from the poem The Second Coming), a central text of postcolonial literature, is set in the 1890s when missionaries and colonial government imposed themselves on Igbo society. His aim in writing the novel was to ‘write back’ to novels such as Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson (1939) to present an insider’s view on his country and its people which he felt had been misrepresented.

The story depicts the life of Okonkwo, the ambitious and powerful leader of an Igbo community, who relies on his physical strength and courage. He is respected by his fellow villagers. When he accidentally kills a clansman he is banished from the village for seven years. The ultimate causes of his downfall are his blindness to circumstances and influence of the missionary church. He tries to fight colonialism single-handedly. Achebe took the title from a line from the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B Yeats: ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’.

No Longer at Ease (1960)is set in Nigeria in the late 1950s; most of the action occurs in the capital city of Lagos. At the beginning of the novel Obi Okonkwo a member of the Igbo ethnic group,  is on trial for accepting a bribe. The focus of the novel then shifts back in time. He leaves his home in south-eastern Nigeria to follow his dream of going to school in Britain. Thereafter, he works in Nigeria’s civil service, a colonial institution, and is forced to reflect on the fraught relationship between the Western world and the many African cultures that it hassystematically subjugated. The novel details the course of events that led to Obi accepting a bribe. The work’s title is a reference to the poem “The Journey of the Magi” by British modernist writer T.S. Eliot, in which the speaker laments, “We returned to our places, these kingdoms, / But no longer at ease here.”. The novel is the second work in what is sometimes referred to as the "African trilogy," following Things Fall Apart and preceding Arrow of God.

Arrow of God (1964) shares similar settings and themes. The novel focuses on Ezeulu, who is the High Priest of Ulu, who confronts colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s. Ulu is the most important deity in the town of Umuaro, and he brought together six warring villages to create a strong community that shares core values but preserves local village traditions. Because Ezeulu is half deity and half man, he struggles to discern what is human will and what is divine will. This conflict grows more pertinent as new challenges, in the form of British authority and Christian religion, question the hierarchies and beliefs upon which the community was built. The phrase Arrow of God is drawn from an igbo proverb in which a person or sometimes an event is said to represent the will of God.

A Man of the People (1966) is a first-person account of Odili, a school teacher in a fictional country closely resembling post-colonial Nigeria. Odili receives an invitation from his former teacher, Chief Nanga, who is now the powerful but corrupt Minister of Culture. As Minister, Nanga's job is to protect the traditions of his country especially when he is known as "A Man of the People". Instead, his position is used to increase his personal wealth and power that proves particularly alluring to Odili's girlfriend. Odili takes a stand against the government, not for ideological reasons but because Nanga has seduced his girlfriend. The novel reflects Achebe’s deep personal disappointment with what Nigeria has become since independence.

In his famous essay ‘An image of Africa: racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’ is a condemnation of imperial exploitation, it also exhibits racist attitudes.

Wole Soyinka said: ‘Achebe never hesitates to lay blame for the woes of the African continent squarely where it belongs’.

What is a ballad?

A ballad may be defined as a song that narrates a story. The term ‘Ballad’ is derived from the Latin ‘Ballare’, which means to dance. It has been in existence thousands of years ago when people had still not learnt to read and write. They were song sung by wandering minstrels (singers)  to the accompaniment of musical instrument.

Features:

• A ballad often narrates stories of love, adventure, war, and bravery. The theme may be tragic or comic. Often, there is a touch of supernatural. Basic emotions such as love, hatred and pity are the prominent themes.
• Deals with a single episode. The story is unraveled through both dialogue and action.
• The poetic diction is noted for its simplicity. As the poet wished to be understood easily by all his listeners.
• The ballad often begins abruptly. Sometimes an unknown person asks a question, the answer forms the rest of the ballad.

e.g.  O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

        Alone and palely loitering?...
        O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
        So haggard and so woe-begone? …

• A characteristic feature of a ballad is repetition, usually in the form of anaphora/refrain- the lines are repeated at intervals in a poem.

Popular ballads:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats

The Walrus and the Carpenter  by Lewis Carroll

Preface to the lyrical ballads by William Wordsworth: summary

"Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge"

The first edition of the 'Lyrical Ballads' was obviously an experimental attempt. Wordsworth was happy to note that it proved to be popular and accessible beyond his expectations. His friends had wanted him to write a preface to the poems as it were of a different kind. They also expected to explain his aims and objectives in the preface. However, Wordsworth was unwilling to write a preface primarily for two reasons: he was little anxious about the responses of the readers to such an elaborate explanatory note. He thought that the readers might look coldly on his arguments. Furthermore, the space offered by a normal preface was too short for an adequate defense of a theory of a new kind of poetry.

But his poems were so inventive, imaginative and innovative from the works popular at that time. So, the preface became necessary in order to create a new flavor among the readers. The public was accustomed to the inane phraseology and gaudy language (extravagantly ornamental and showy) of Alexander Pope and John Dryden. The readers would find something original and unconventional in the poems of Wordsworth; this new wave required an explanation.

His chief aim in writing the poems has been to choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate them in a selection of the language really used by men. At the same time there would be a coloring of imagination thrown over ordinary events. So, that would be presented to the mind in an unusual aspects. 

He had chosen humble and rustic life for a number of reasons. 

• in it the essential passions of human heart found a free, unstrained, plain and powerful expression. 
•  in rustic life the feelings are simpler, hence are more easily understood and more durable. 
•  in the humble condition the passions of men are closely connected with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.

Wordsworth used the language of these rustic and humble people, after having purified it of its roughness and other defects. The rustic people live in constant communication with the best objects of nature, from which is derived the best part of language. Their natural surroundings and narrow circle of social intercourse prevent them from acquiring social vanity. The simple language in which they convey their feelings, is more permanent and philosophical than the artificial diction used by the poets of the time. Wordsworth's poems differ from those of his contemporaries because his poems have a worthy purpose - that of enlightening the readers and purifying their affections.

“poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquillity” However, worthy and noble poems are produced only when the poet has thought long and deep on the subject matter. Wordsworth considers a poet as a man of more than usual organic sensibility, but also one who has “thought long and deeply”, the poet’s feelings are modified by his thoughts which represent all our past feelings; he becomes capable of connecting on thought with another, in this manner he is able to discover what is really important and worthwhile.

whenever he composes poems, he selects only noble themes and lofty sentiments in a worthy manner. Such poems will have a desirable impact on the readers’ sensibility too. Wordsworth implies that if a poet is always given to noble thoughts and worthy ideas he will never fail to compose poems of a moral and noble note.

In “Lyrical Ballads” Wordsworth adopts the simple language of common men. He has avoided the use of the artificial and hackneyed (conventional) devices of poetic diction used by his early contemporaries. He rarely used personification of abstract ideas, figures of speech, antithesis and similar devices. He tried to look at firmly at his subject and used a language which fitted the ideas to be expressed.

Wordsworth maintained and practiced in “Lyrical Ballads” his theory that there is hardly any difference between the language of prose and that of poetry. Even in the best poetry there are passages which have an order of words, which is similar to that found in good prose compositions. The only difference is in the metre, as he puts in the essay “there neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and the metrical composition”. So, the only difference is that poetry uses metre. Otherwise, the “same human blood circulates through the veins of both. They are relate with each other in their nature, function and appeal”.

Wordsworth is of the opinion that poetry is distinguished by its use of a selection of the language really used by men. Such a selection is made with true taste and feeling so that the language of poetry would be free from the roughness and vulgarity of ordinary life. The addition of metre to it becomes a further source of pleasure. He holds the view that metre and rhyme are not indispensable to poetry. There can exist genuine poetry even without metre. Metre is merely superadded. There is no need for artificial devices and foreign splendor. It is the passion and emotion that matters. A judicial choice of subject would lead to appropriate emotion.

Wordsworth observes that the poet is basically a man speaking to men. He is a person who writes not for his own pleasure but primarily to express his own thoughts and emotions to his readers. He is a person endowed with a more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness than ordinary people. He has a greater knowledge of human beings. He has a greater degree of imagination and so he can feel or react emotionally to events and incidents which he has not directly experienced.

Having a more comprehensive soul, the poet can share the emotional experiences of others. He can identify himself emotionally with others and he can express the feelings and sentiments of others. He has greater amount of zeal and enthusiasm for life than ordinary people. He rejoices in the spirit of life, in the activities of mankind and in Nature at large and takes pleasure in communicating his own joy in life to others. Moreover he has greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels.

Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle’s concept that poetry is the most philosophic of all writing. The object of poetry is truth, no individual and local, but general and operative. Poetic truth is much higher than the truth of history or philosophy. In fact, poetry is more philosophical than philosophy itself. While history deals merely with particular facts and philosophy, with abstract truths, poetry alone deals both with the particular and the universal. Poetry aims at universal truths and also illustrates them through particular instances and illustrations. It is the mirror of human life and nature. Poetry is guided by sole consideration, namely, that of imparting pleasure to the readers while giving a faithful picture of nature and reality. 

Poetry, says Wordsworth is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquillity. This definition of poetry gives us an idea of Wordsworth’s poetics. This definition highlights the spontaneity and emotionalism of poetry. He says: “Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all sciences”. This definition explains how poetry blends passions and knowledge. According to Wordsworth, poetic truth is superior to scientific truth, for it is based on universal facts of life and hence can be appreciated by all. While the scientist makes only a surface study, the poet probes into the inner reality and arrives at the soul of things. As he is a man of fine sensibility, the truth which he discovers is brimming with his personal emotions. These emotions are recollected in serenity.

Wordsworth affixes an Appendix to his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads to express his views on Poetic diction. In poetic diction Wordsworth could not agree with the poetic grounds of neoclassicism. He wanted poetry to be a medium for expressing the feelings and aspiration of common man in common language. Wordsworth wrote Lyrical Ballads to justify his theory and to see if he could produce pleasure by writing in the language of common man. He says in the preface that his poems were a kind of experimental attempt to know how far the language of conversation among the middle class and lower class in the society was suited for poetry. And also he stated that his object was to choose incidents and situations from common life and describe them in a language used by men.

The whole wave of Wordsworthian writings, both poetic and critical, was towards the simplification of life. He also makes a fresh supplication to the readers to read his poems with an open mind.