English Literature And Theory

Poem: Hunting Horns by Guillame Apollinaire

2011-12-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

Hunting Horns by Guillame Apollinaire:

Our past is as noble and as tragic
As the mask of a tyrant
No tale of danger or of magic
Nothing so insignificant
Describes the pathos of our love

And Thomas de Quincy drinking his
Sweet and chaste and poisoned glass
Dreaming went to see his Ann
Let us since all passes pass
I shall look back only too often

Memories are hunting horns
Whose sound dies along the wind

A Poem by Par Lagerkvist

2011-12-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a poem by Par Lagerkvist that I felt like sharing. The nobel prize laureate in 1951, Lagerkvist wrote some of the most tender, humble and penetrating poetry that I have had the good fortune to read. Here is a short poem from his poetry collection "Aftonland". I hope that my translation does justice to the original.

You Milky Way over the soul's loneliness,
you eternal longing.
Burn, burn long after me,
long after that I will not be,
I that never got to climb your bridge.
Burn for the people that will come wandering some time through spaces,
who will wander safely over the abyss on a bridge of stars.

Features of Elizabethan Poetry

2011-12-14T01:19:00.000-08:00

Mainly, Elizabethan poetry was dominated by the spirit of romance and of the spirit of dramatic action. In style it often exhibits romantic luxuriance, which sometimes takes the form of elaborate affectations of which the favorite 'conceit' is only the most apparent.

Elizabethan poetry was in part a period of experimentation, when the proper material and limits of literary forms were being determined, oftentimes by means of false starts and grandiose failures. In particular, many efforts were made to give prolonged poetical treatment to many subjects essentially prosaic, for example to systems of theological or scientific thought, or to the geography of all England.

It continued to be largely influenced by the literature of Italy, and to a less degree by those of France and Spain.

The literary spirit was all-pervasive, and the authors were men (not yet women) of almost every class, from distinguished courtiers, like Ralegh and Sidney, to the company of hack writers, who starved in garrets and hung about the outskirts of the bustling taverns.

Critical Appreciation - "Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold)"

2011-12-08T02:21:00.000-08:00

"Dover Beach" is one of the representative poem of Arnold. He tries to show the lack of faith and certitude in a world which is materially expanding wide. It begins with an objective description of the ebb and flow of the wave in the sea. He recalls Sophocles who used to hear same kind of song tuned into human misery. He comes to the present and says that human misery due to lack of faith has not decreased but increased many-fold.

In the past, the sea of faith had encircled the earth and there was no melancholy, no sadness and no misery. But there is no more sea of faith now. Therefore, the world has become more like dream world and their is neither love nor joy, nor light, nor certitude etc. Everywhere there is confusion, struggles and fights among each other. Man is like a soldier fighting with an unknown enemy in the darkness, without any purpose of fighting. The only compensation in such a situation is "love". So he request his lover to be true to one another.

The poem can be divided into two parts. On the first part he talks of the resounding of waves on the pebbled beach. It is just the background which later leads to real consequence. In the later part he expresses his deep feeling about the real situation in the world that is changing rapidly with the growth of science and technology. The world has changed to be strangely unreal. It has many varieties in it, it has become more beautiful and fresher but it lacks all positive virtues like love, faith, peace, certitude etc.

To The Moon (P.B. Shelly)

2011-12-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

"To The Moon" is very short and interesting poem. It is a one sentenced poem that describes the moon in detail. The moon is the symbol of mother Goddess and it is believed that she imparts the peace and prosperity to the people of the world. But the poet evaluates the moon from different angles. He finds the moon joyless that does not find anything constant on the earth. The moon has her own course and she is always in motion. She is alone in the sky amongst the stars which are not the moons. The moon is changing like the joyless eyes that finds no constant object. Everything in this universe is inconstant and is separate entity. Everyone, though among friends, is alone and wandering here and there and of course is in quest of constancy.

The moon is personified in the poem. He finds that the moon is not energetic but pale due to weariness of climbing up the heaven and looking down the earth continuously. The journey of the moon is endless and it is certain that it is a repetitive journey and there is no progress or forward movement. On the other hand the moon has the pang of being changed continuously. The moon is alone in the sky because the stars are of low origin, nobility and birth. Nothing equals to the moon on the sky. She is noble and elegantly born but she is also not perfect. She is in quest of constancy.

So, presenting the problem of the moon, the poet is telling us that nothing is constant and perfect in itself but is always in process of becoming something different.

Literal Comprehension Of If Not Higher (I.L Peretz)

2011-12-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

During the penitential prayers, the Rabbi, a religious mentor, disappears from the public sight. All the Jews guess that he might have gone up in the heaven. When he is noticed with the other gurus during the holy prayers, he seems very busy with the arrangements for good care and food for all those attending prayers.

Once, during the holy prayers, one of the Litvaks laughs away the existing opinions on the cause of the Rabbi missing away in public and declares that the Rabbi is not be able to ascend the heaven before his death.
One day, as being very curious about the Rabbi's whereabouts, the Litvak tries to track down the places where Rabbi stays on the Friday morning. The Litvak walk quietly into the Rabbi's room and hides himself under the bed. The Litvak passes the night sleepless and keeps awake till the next morning. As soon as it is morning, he hears the Rabbi complaining for an hour about the Israelite's sorrows and miseries. Kept unseen from the notice of the Rabbi, the Litvak sees the latter leaving the house with an axe held in hand and leading to jungle.

There, the Rabbi is seen cutting down a tree and making a bundle of the logs. With the bundle of wood, the Rabbi moves into the house of a sick old woman of the Jewish race and tries to persuade her to buy logs. As the poor lady denies to buy the logs for having no money with her, the Rabbi assures her of God's help and urges her to buy the wood on credit. When the woman agrees to follow his words, the Rabbi senses out her actual situation and does the job himself in the shabby and ill-furnished room of the woman. The Litvak is deeply impressed by the Rabbi's commitment to help out the poor woman and decide to be his true follower. After all the Litvak declares that it is not other but the Rabbi, himself, who deserves to attain a secure place if not higher than the heaven.

The Different Kinds Of Poetry

2011-11-29T05:28:00.000-08:00

Pastoral: This kind of poetry deals with anything that concerns the life of shepherds, herdsmen, and husbandmen. Such poems are usually in the form of a dialogue or a monologue. e.g Spenser's Shepherd's Calender (A.D. 1552-1599)

Descriptive: This kind of poetry describes the seasons of the year, scenes of historical interest, cities, places, countries, etc., and gives expression to the thoughts suggested by the various scenes and objects as they arise. Descriptive poetry doesn't usually narrate events. If narrative is sometimes introduced, this is done by way of episode or for the sake of variety. e.g.Goldsmith's Traveler and Deserted Village(1563-1631)

Narrative: In this(as the name implies) narrative is the chief aim, and the description is merely subsidiary. Poems of this character may be roughly classified under three headings.
- Epic or Heroic: dealing with one great complex action, in lofty style, and in fullness of detail. e.g. Paradise Lost by Milton(1608-1674)
- Romance, Legend or Tale: a lighter and shorter kind of narrative poetry than the Epic. e.g. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner ( 1772-1834)
- Ballads: This is the lightest and shortest form of narrative poetry. It deals with short anecdotes, local legends, etc., and tells them in the simplest language and in a light metre. e.g. Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads(1770-1850)

Reflective: Poems of this character may be roughly classified into two headings.
- Longer Poem: e.g Young's Night Thoughts(1684-1765)
- Elegiac poems: always of a serious, and frequently of a plaintive character. e.g Shelly's Adonais(1792-1822)

Dramatic: the poetry of the stage. Under the head of dramatic we must include poems which have been written in form of drama, but were not intended to be acted. e.g. Shakespeare's Plays, subdivided into Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories(1564-1616)

Lyrical: Short poems written in a rapid and irregular metre, fit to be sung or recited. Such poems are often called odes. They are of much higher order than "ballads," and may be either descriptive or narrative. E.g. Gray's The Bard

Didactic: Instructions given in verse. e.g. Somerville's Chace (1692-1742)

Satire: Censures the faults of individual or communities. The style may be jocose or serious. Butler's Hubidras(1612-1680)

Subject Reader Response Theory

2011-11-26T05:20:00.000-08:00

This theory argues that there is no literary text beyond the meanings created by the reader's interpretation. To put in other words, the text which the critic analyzes is not the literary work but the written response of the readers. To understand how there is no literary text beyond the meanings created by readers' interpretations; we need to understand the concept of David Bleich and how he defines the literary text. Like many other reader- response critics, he differentiates between real objects and symbolic objects.

Real objects are physical objects such as tables, chairs, cars, books and the like.

The experience created when someone reads the printed passage of the text like language itself is symbolic object as it occurs not in physical world but in the conceptual world(in the mind of readers). This is why Bleich calls reading - the feelings, associations, and memories that occur as we react subjectively to the printed words on the page i.e. symbolization. Our perception and reading experience create a symbolic world in our mind as we read, so, when we interpret the meaning of the text, we are actually interpreting the meaning of our symbolization. If we are interpreting the meaning of our own conceptual experience, it is an act of interpretation of re-symbolization. Re-symbolization occurs when our experience of the text produces in us a desire for explanation. Our evaluation of the text's quality is also an act of re-symbolization. Actually, we don't like or dislike a text; rather we like or dislike our symbolization of it. Hence, the text we talk about is not really a text on the page: it is the text in our mind.

Feminist Reading of "The Great Gatsby"

2011-11-25T05:38:00.000-08:00

The novel shares Tom's views of patriarchal gender roles. He comments that women should confirm to the patriarchal gender roles for the stability of patriarchal family. In the novel, Tom seems to be the agent of male in patriarchal society who is quite hypocritical (saying one thing and doing another in nature). He maintains that these days people have forgotten by sneering the institution of family by involving in intermarriage (marriage between blacks and whites) but he keeps an extra-marital affair with Mrs. Wilson in the novel. In fact, he himself has contaminated the sacredness of marriage and the family. Similarly, Gatsby is of the opinion that daisy was his formal lover, and now she has been married to Tom, but today he has accumulated wealth and property so he can get his love back. His thinking shows the fact that in patriarchal society women are regarded as objects to be sold and bought rather than one to be respected.

The novel also shows the true picture of America in 1920s (After War Period. Before the war, women did not have any freedom. They had to remain within the prescribed limit of male ideals but now they are quite free and are seen smoking and drinking like men. The society in the past would see it with doubtful eyes to those women involved in smoking and drinking, as they were regarded as exclusively male habits but in the novel women have openly challenged it. Main female characters in the novel like Daisy, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson directly challenging their traditional roles as "kitchen creature". They all prefer the excitement of night life than the more traditional enjoyments of home and children. There is only one child among them, Daisy's daughter Pammy. Pammy is well-looked after by a nurse and affectionately treated by her mother. Daisy's life does not revolve exclusively around her maternal roles. All three women Daisy, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson have openly challenged patriarchal sexual taboo: Jordan engages in pre-marital sex, and Daisy and Myrtle are engaged in extra-marital affair. These three women's clothing and hairstyle are pretty modern unlike their mothers and grandmothers in the past and are equally guided by freedom seeking tendency. The patriarchal concept that women should behave modestly in public by avoiding liquor, cigarettes and immodest dancing is openly challenged by them in the novel. Hence this novel is full of the instances of the domination of females by males and the opposition of traditional male idealogy by the women.

Figurative Language

2011-11-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

There are four types of Figurative Language. They are:

1. Image:
Image is a word or words that refer to an object perceived by the senses such as color, shape, sound, taste, smell, texture, etc. When it is seen by the eye(usually) it is called an image.
e.g. Red flag is an image of anger.

There is always a literal and emotive meaning behind an image.
e.g. Cloud(image): It's literal meaning illustrates that it is a cloudy day whereas it's emotive meaning expresses that sadness is approaching.

2. Symbol:
Where image comes repeatedly in a text it becomes a symbol. Just like image, even symbols have literal and emotive meaning.
e.g. Spring and Autumn: Literal Meaning- Seasons
Emotive Meaning- Spring reflects birth or rebirth.
Autumn reflects process of dying.
Symbol is similar to abstract idea it stands for. Sometimes symbol can be private. In such case only author understands what symbol he/she is using. However, Symbol should match with theme. While analyzing a text we should see if the formal elements enhance the theme no matter even if its a private symbol. Authorial intention is not a concern in this matter.

3. Metaphor:
Unlike image and symbol, metaphor only has figurative meaning. Metaphor is direct comparison between two dissimilar objects.
e.g. My love is a rose.
Literal meaning: I am deeply is love with a flower.
Emotive/ Figurative Meaning: My love share some qualities with rose.

4. Simile:
Simile is a comparison of two dissimilar objects using words such as "like"and "as"
e.g. My love is as beautiful as a rose.
My brother is like a gem

Note: Simile is rather softer than metaphor because in metaphor comparison is direct whereas in simile, the comparison is done by using words like "like" and "as".

Summary of "The Use Of Force (William Carlos Williams)"

2011-11-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

There was no patient to doctor except Olson, who had asked him to visit his sick daughter to treat her. When he reached the patient's house, the sick child's mother welcomed him to the kitchen where the sick child was on the lap of her father. The father tried to get up to greet the doctor, who let him sit down comfortably. The doctor took of his overcoat and looked around. The parents looked at him distrustfully.

The sick child looked at the doctor with her eyes wide open to show her protest but did not move at all. She was an attractive and strong child. Now she was breathing rapidly. The doctor knew that she had high fever for three days. There were many sick persons around. The doctor asked if she had a sore throat. The parents replied together that she had not. There were many students suffering from diphtheria in her school. He called her to open her mouth to inspect her but she did not obey him. The mother assured that he would not hurt her. The doctor however, did not like the mother's expression. The sick child nearly clawed the doctor's eyes. His glasses dropped to the kitchen floor, Mathilda's parents were ashamed. They spoke the words of apology. The mother shook the sick child by her arm. The doctor now broke in. He said that he was to examine her throat anyway. Therefore, either the child had to open her mouth or he would have to open it for her.

She did not move at all. She began to breathe faster. Then the fight began. The doctor said that if the parents took the responsibility, he would not examine her throat. The father then tried his best to open her mouth but could not do it. The doctor told her to put her in his lap and hold her wrists. Then the child began to scream. She said that they were killing her. The doctor grasped the child's head with his left hand and pressed the instrument between her teeth. He tried his best to examine the throat but he could not. The child broke his instrument instead. The doctor then asked for some kind of spoon to open her mouth, which was already bleeding. Her tongue was cut so she shrieked hysterically. The doctor was also furious. He could have torn the child apart. but he had social duty to perform. He had to protect that child. Therefore, he finally used his force to examine the throat. He discovered that she had a sore throat for three days and struggling hard to keep her secret. Now she was truly furious and began to attack. She had only been defensive before. She tried to get off her father's lap and fly at the doctor while her eyes were full of tears of defeat.

Creativity In Language

2011-11-20T05:14:00.000-08:00

Recent experiments with chimpanzees suggests that certain animals cannot only learn individual symbols(in this case manual rather than vocal signs), but can also learn to combine them in ways reminiscent of sentences like Give me key. However, as far as we know, they cannot do certain things that all human beings can- they do not appear to be able to learn sign language without specific instruction, they cannot, on the basis of small number of elements and relations between them, create an infinite number of messages.

When linguists speak of the"creativity" of human language they are usually referring to these two characteristics. Anyone who knows a language is able, without specific instruction, to produce and understand utterances which have been heard before but which are possible within the system. You are using this ability wight now to read this blog, and you rely on it nearly every time you talk. Certainly, language does not include some fixed routines like greetings, farewells, and a wide variety of other relatively fixed utterances which function in society as gestures of group solidarity somewhat like mutual grooming of monkeys. But obviously human beings are not limited to such routines. The number of sentences possible in a human language is infinite in principle, for there is no limit on how long a sentence can be.

The creativity of language consists in this fact: The number of rules and elements in the system is finite, while the number and length of utterances the system can produce is infinite. In this respect, linguistic systems are somewhat like the number system. Given any number, one can always construct a larger number by addition or multiplication. In practice we are limited, of course, by space, time, memory, interest and many different factors, so that no actual sentence will ever be infinitely long. But what is important is that system has this potential.

Symbols In Language

2011-11-17T05:03:00.000-08:00

We know that language is symbolic. What exactly does it mean? First of all, it means that language involves sign. In language, the signs are sequences of sound, though these can be transferred to visual signs, as in writing or the gestural sign language of the deaf. According to one theory,the relationship between and object, whether real or imaginary, and the sign which stands for it can be of three types. If two are associated by a physical resemblance, like an object or photograph of it, the sign is called an icon. If the relation is one of the physical proximity, as between smoke and fire, thunder and lightening, spots and measles, then the sign(smoke, thunder, spots) is called an index. If the relationship is one of convention, that is, one has to be learned as part of the culture, like the relationship between black armband and mourning, then the sign is called a symbol.

No one knows how the symbolic linguistic code of humans came into being. Some have argued that the origin of language lies in onomatopoeia, that the people began talking by creating iconic signs to imitate the sounds heard around them in nature. This theory, sometimes called the bow-bow theory, is unlikely to be right, because language in fact makes very little use of iconic words.(Bow-wow itself is conventional. In French, dogs bark with oua-oua, pronounced "wa-wa.") Another theory is that language was originally indexical, arising out of cries of fear, pleasure, and so forth. This theory leaves signs came to be. We do not know that at this point in our biological history our ability to use symbols and learn language is genetically built in, an innate capacity of the human brain. But we know practically nothing about language over ten millennium ago, and very little indeed about language over five millennium ago. That is a tiny fraction of the biological history of man, and until we know far more about the neurophysiological aspects of language, we can only speculate about the origins of signs as symbols.

Literal Comprehension Of "The Library Card (Richard Wright)"

2011-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Richard Wright was only nineteen years old. One day in the bank lobby while he was standing beside a desk, he saw a White man was badly criticized in a magazine. He was called a "fool". Wright wondered why this White man, H.L Mencken, was badly scorned by another white man. Curiosity drove him to read about Mencken and his writings. According to him, Negroes were allowed to use only the parks and playgrounds, but never a public library.

As a matter of fact, an idea led him to take help from Mr. Falk, an Irish Catholic, often condemned for being his less biased about the Blacks. When he contacted, Mr.Falk advised the speaker to keep his aim secret from other Whites. Thus he secured a card. He wrote a note and made false signature. He went to the library. He overcame the librarian's suspicion. She gave him two books which inspired him to read further other books. He kept on reading one after another. Every book developed his thinking power about the life of the Negroes in the land of the White, He was immensely in agony. He say prejudices prevalent against the Negroes in the North America. He was able to tolerate the hunger but the vice against the black people was intolerable.

Since the number of the Negroes was too thin in the South, he thought that it was not possible to organize Blacks ti struggle against the Whites. Open fighting would be equal to committing a suicide. He believed that in no ground educated Negro could be less competent than any White for his black color. Ultimately he decided he would live there and write against injustice, inhumanity, cruelty, prejudices, apartheid and much other social discrimination.

Intrepretation Of "The Good Example" by Riva Palacio

2011-11-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

Text's Name: The Good Example
Author: Riva Palacio

The message of the author is justified by the title, itself. The setting of the story is pure nature and the details of environment effectively reflects the taste of Don possessed with a virtues of good teacher. All that Don holds is expected in every teacher if dedicated to his hob. His nature becomes so hospitable that even the students and the pets follow a the parrot does in the story. For his noble qualities and full commitment to his regular duties, Don was quoted far and wide in the village. In the villager's eye, Don Lucas was a true follower of the course of action, who cares nothing as the return from the students from his efforts to teach them. So, Don was quoted as a good model of teaching community and as veritable martyr.

Don as a good example of teaching cared for the student's needs as he did for his own. So he encouraged Perico, the parrot to share with his regular refreshment. Similarly, the parrot should be appreciated for acquiring the good qualities of good company or of all those around. Even babbling with Don Lucas as a friend and listening to the pupils singing in chorus at the school, the parrot learned alphabets, words syllables exactly as pronounced by the school children. The tale shows that a teacher is a best source for the pupils to learn the best about the good principles and conduct of life. This is shown in the industry by passion of the parrot for imitating and paving the path of Don to teach his neighbours as taught to himself to chant Ba, Da, ...Ge, Je, etc even in far distance from the master.

Despite all these, the story is tilted towards throwing a satire on education system based on memory that of Mexico in the 19th century. The writer is much convinced if the learning process is as such then the school can be opened and run by the other creatures as well. To exemplify the very statement, he has intentionally brought about the case of Perico pet tamed by Don Lucas. To mug up something is terrible monotonous and boring. Repetition of something to set in our mind indeed kills our creative power and intuition. education is not something we should gain out of memorizing. Rather it should be assimilated and implemented into our practical affairs by understanding. It is a satire in the sense that education system of Mexico in 19th century was not inclined towards encouraging students towards comprehension and promoting their creative aspect. Rather it was forcible and tiring process which the writer did not prefer. That is why he attacked it in a mild and literary way.

Literary Comprehension of Yudhisthira's Wisdom

2011-11-06T01:55:00.000-07:00

One dry day, the Pandava brothers walked off miles from their shed in search of a deer. After walking miles, every of the five brothers grew tired and too thirsty. But there was no trace of water near by. Shahadeva, the youngest brother, went away for water on the command of the eldest brother, but Shahadeva did not return on expected time. Yudhisthira sent Nakula to bring report of cause of Shahadeva's delay to return with water. But he too did not come back sooner as expected. Neither did Bhima and Arjun respectively, as they left the eldest brother on his will to fetch out the two brothers already delayed to return. Finding none of his brothers as back as yet, Yudhisthira grew impatient and moved-off tracking their footsteps. After walking away some distance, he reached a lake by an open, green field. But suddenly while discovering four of his younger brother's lying all cold, either as unconscious or dead near the lake, he was shock-stricken.

As Yudhisthira did not know what to do with, he simply began to sob bitterly for long on the bank later, for being much thirstier, as he dragged himself to the edge of the water with head down for a drink, he happened to hear Yaksha's voice warning him to drink water only after showing his full ability to answer the question, Yushisthira said even the earth is not more respectful than the mother for an individual. Again, one should give up his self pride to be respected by the following beings. Further he added that only the person who loses desires can really be rich. Similarly having all his questions answered correctly Yaksha got satisfied with Yudhisthira and as a reward he wanted to restore the life of any one of Yudhisthira's brothers. Instantly Yudhisthira wished to have Nakula's life back. Yaksha was greatly surprised and asked him the reason for his unexpected wish to have Nakula's life restored instead of his own brothers. He justified the cause saying it would be morally unjust for Nakula and Shahadeva were the brothers from Madri's line. So if their lives were not restored, her lineage would come to end. Hence Yaksha was very pleased. As the conversation was going on in between, there appeared Yama, Yaksha's own heavenly brother who declared that sonce he had come down to help the Pandavas, he would restore the lives of all four younger brothers. More over, Yama assured them of his full protection during the rest of his exile.

Theory of Time - Plato

2011-10-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

The view of "Plato" is called "Theory Of Time". It includes

True Knowledge
Immortal Soul
Ideal-state
Myth of cave(allegory)

True Knowledge

Plato believed that everything we see around us in world is changeable. So, we can never gain true knowledge from something that changes constantly rather we can only have knowledge of things that can be understood with our reason.

Immortal Soul

Reality is divided into two reasons
World of senses
World of ideas
The world of ideas can provide true knowledge because here we use our reason. And based on this idea, Plato has claimed a man to be a duel creature having a body that is related with senses and an immortal where the reasons lie.

Myth of Cave(Allegory)

Through myth of cave Plato refers to the journey of philosopher from darkness to light(knowledge). This myth leads to the idea of ideal state or (Utopian State) as elaborated by Plato in "The Republic".

Ideal State

The ideal state of Plato is clearly defined in his work "The Republic" which is somewhat like old Hindu caste system where everyone is prescribed certain role and function to be performed in the society for the development of whole community like rulers and warriors are not allowed to have family life or private property in Plato's ideal state, rearing children should be responsibility of the state and so on.

It is worth noting that in Plato's ideal state, women could govern just as effectively as men. Since rulers govern by virtue of their reasons and women has exactly the same power of reasoning if they had provided similar traing. Plato, therefore had positive view of women considering the time he lived in.

Literary Language And Organic Unity

2011-10-21T01:36:00.000-07:00

Literary Language is such language which is used by any literary text. It is different from scientific language and everyday language. Scientific Language depends upon denotation(direct meaning) and it doesn't try to be beautiful.

e.g: "father" denote "male parent(dad)",

On the other hand, literary language depends upon connotation, implication, association, suggestion and indirect meaning. It tries to bring out aesthetic beauty through words.

e.g: "father"connotation is authority, power, protection, responsibility.

Everyday language is expressive, connotative which have practical use but Literary Language chooses specific words and arranges it in an order to bring complexity(aesthetic beauty) and thus to create aesthetic experience and world of it's own. The form of literary language consists of specific word choice and arrangement to create aesthetic expression which cannot be separated from the content and meaning (theme) of the text.

Organic Unity is the form and meaning of literary work which is developed together. When a text has an organic unity all the formal elements work together to generate theme/meaning of the whole work. In organic Unity of a work all parts do job together to make an inseparable whole. It is criteria by which New Critics judge the quality of a literary work because when text has an organic unity then all it's general elements work together to bring out its theme or meaning of the work. Organic Unity brings "complexity" that a literary work must have along with "order " that human being seek. Complexity is produced by four linguistic devices- Paradox, Irony, Ambiguity, and Tension.

New Criticism

2011-10-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

New criticism subjugated literary studies from 1940s to 1960s. Before the birth of New Criticism, Pre-Critical theory was the major tool to examine a literary work. At that time aesthetic beauty and biographical-historical background were considered important to interpret a text which was not enough but as New Criticism emerged text was considered as important factor to be criticized. Previously writer were given more priority but in New Criticism text bore significance.

Some characteristics of New Criticism are:

It governed literary study from 1940 to 1960.
It is not practiced any longer.
It provides a framework for how to handle the text. It teaches about the tools and how to apply it.It is universal to every text.
New Criticism is still important as it provides theoretical framework. It tells us about the devices, metaphor, irony, ambiguity.
It helps us understand other theories that emerged as a reaction against New Criticism (Structuralism, Deconstruction, etc)
New Criticism focused on "text". It searches the evidences in the text through reading.

Definition of text according to New Criticism

In New Criticism, a literary work, text is timeless as it is written only once and can never be changed.
Literary text is autonomous(self-sufficient). When text is written, we can not add or reduce the text after completing it.
Literary text is verbal because when science technology hadn't developed printing system, literature was taken as verbal object.
New Criticism focused mainly on the complex meaning(aesthetic beauty) which is generated from formal elements. Words placed out in a specific order gives out a complex meaning.
New Criticism also focused on poetry. It believes we can't use paraphrasing/translation to establish meaning of the text. To understand a poetry stanza we paraphrase or summarize it but it cannot generate the true meaning of the poem. The complete meaning of the poem can only be explained when we use the formal elements that could generate the actual and true meaning of any text or poem.

John Milton

2011-10-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

John Milton is ranked very high in the history of English literature. He was man of having pure life. He is the second great poet after Shakespeare. He was a great learned man. He was also a heavy reader. Due to his heavy study, he his eye sight completely. To prove this, one of his note books contains pieces of writing taken from 80 famous writers- Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, etc. At the same time, he was studying music.

Milton's work are basically divided into three parts. Firstly, he wrote his short poems such as L'Allegro (the happy man), IL Penseroso (the thoughtful man). They are his political autobiography and other beautiful poems are Comus, Arcades, Lycidas(long pastoral elegy on death of a college friend).
Secondly, he wrote mainly prose. Milton's prose works are bascically concerned with church's affairs, divorce and freedom. So they are not so interesting. Areopagitica is one such prose works of Milton. It is a speech for liberty of unlicensed printing (page 55). It deals with Milton's sincere belief in the importance of freedom of writing and the speech.

Lastly he wrote great poems: Paradise Lost, an epic in 12 books on the fall of man. It is great book of his life. It can be compared with almost all great epics of the classical and post classical. It contains hundreds of remarkable thoughts put into musical verse. Paradise Lost covers the whole universe including heaven and hell.

His another poem is Paradise Regained. It is a miniature epic in four books on the redemption(freedom) through Christ and his Samson Agonistes is a tragedy on the Greek model on the biblical episode. It describes Sampson's soul. In this way John Milton contributed too much in the field of literature. He is unique and great literary figure. He completely dedicated his life to encrich English literature by producing great works.