Launch of LITERARY POSTERS Section

Hello Friends 

I am launching a LITERARY POSTERS section on my blog LITERARY JEWELS. In case interested in acquiring the poster kindly drop a line at: 

theliteraryjewels@gmail.com 

for the price quote, which will be decided according to the size that you select, the presentation that you want (like related to the lamination etc.) and the postal charges.

There is another option of getting the poster online. A high quality image will be sent on nominal charges and you can get it framed it on your own.

Looking forward to hearing from you...more posters will be added soon!

DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011

For the first time award was given at the Jaipur Literature Festival, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. In January 2011, this US $ 50,000 award was conferred upon H.M. Naqvi for his novel ‘Home Boy’, published by Harper Collins India. The Chairperson of the Jury, Nilanjana S. Roy declared that while finalizing the shortlist when all the members of the jury argued about the merits of all the contenders they rediscovered the joys of reading. She said, “As we finalised our shortlist, the criteria that was uppermost in our minds was DSC’s mandate to look for the best and the most interesting examples of the contemporary novel set in, or about, South Asia.”

The following novels were shortlisted for the prize:
• Amit Chaudhuri’s The Immortals (Picador India)
• Tania James’ ‘Atlas of Unknowns (Pocket Books)
• Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s ‘The Story of a Widow (Picador India)
• Manju Kapur’s ‘The Immigrant’ (Faber & Faber)
• Neel Mukherjee’s ‘A Life Apart’ (Constable & Robinson)
• H.M. Naqvi’s ‘Home Boy’ (Harper Collins India)

Apart from those mentioned above the other novels included in the longlist in the previous round were:
• Upamanyu Chatterjee’s ‘Way to Go’ (Penguin)
• Chandrahas Choudhury’s ‘Arzee the Dwarf’ (Harper Collins)
• Ru Freeman’s ‘A Disobedient Girl’ (Penguin/Viking)
• Anjum Hassan’s ‘Neti Neti’ (IndiaInk/Roli Books)
• Daniyal Mueenuddin’s ‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’ (Bloomsbury)
• Salma’s ‘The Hour Past Midnight’ (Zubaan, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom)
• Sankar’s ‘The Middleman’ (Penguin, translated by Arunava Sinha)
• Ali Sethi’s ‘The Wish Maker’ (Penguin)
• Jaspreet Singh’s ‘Chef’ (Bloomsbury)
• Aatish Taseer’s ‘The Temple Goers’ (Penguin/Viking)

The University Wits

The term University Wits is applied to a group of scholars, who wrote in the closing years of sixteenth century. They arrived in London from Oxford and Cambridge University and significantly influenced the development of Elizabethan literature. The group included – John Lyly, George Peele, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Lodge, Thomas Nashe and Thomas Kyd (he was also a part although he had studied at the Merchant Taylor’s School – an excellent place in itself).
At the time when the University Wits entered the scenario of the English drama, one of the prevailing traditions was the imitation of ancient Roman drama, for example, ‘Gorboduc’ and ‘Ralph Roister Doister’. The native tradition at that time was devoid of the artistic excellence of classical Greek and Roman drama. The special quality of the University Wits was that although they too looked up to the classical drama and had also woven the general pattern of the drama into their creations, yet they did not imitate it blindly. They gave to the English stage a kind of romantic drama, which became a source of inspiration for Shakespeare later on.

John Lyly (1554-1606) is the most famous for his prose romance ‘Euphues’. In all he wrote eight plays. In his plays he used a mixture of prose and poetry – symbolic of the coming together of the worlds of reality and romance.

Robert Greene (1558-92)) – The most interesting of the five plays written by Greene is ‘The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’. The other plays penned by him are:
(i) The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Aragon
(ii) A Looking Glass for London and England (written jointly with Lodge)
(iii) The History of Orlondo Furioso
(iv) The Scottish History of James, the Fourth

George Peele (1558-97)) – The following are the five plays penned by Peele:
(i) The Arraignment of Paris (a pastoral play)
(ii) The Battle of Alcazar (a romantic tragedy)
(iii) The Famous Chronicle of King Edward, the First (a chronicle play)
(iv) The Love of King David and Fair Bathsheba ( a kind of mystery play with a Biblical theme)
(v) The Old Wives’ Tale (a romantic satire on the current dramatic verse)
The variety that can be observed from the plays (belonging to different categories of dramas) we certainly say that Peele was a versatile writer.

Thomas Kyd (1557-97) – His only play ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ for which he used the Senecan model of a revenge tragedy. Some characteristic features of a revenge tragedy – murders, bloodshed, dreadful incidents, ghosts etc. – were all present in ‘The Spanish Tragedy’. But at the same time the drama was a departure from the Senecan tradition. Most of the action is reported in Senecan tragedy whereas it takes place on stage in Kyd’s drama. Even otherwise Kyd’s tragic hero was a departure from the prevailing tradition – he did not belong to the royal class rather he was an ordinary being. By introducing the quality of introspection in his hero he set up a precedent for Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Christopher Marlowe (1564-93) – Marlowe has been called to be the most talented among the Wits. He wrote:
(i) Tamburlaine, the Great
(ii) Doctor Faustus
(iii) The Jew of Malta
(iv) Edward, the Second
(v) Parts of ‘The Massacre at Paris’ and ‘Dido Queen of Carthage’
Marlowe took the subject matter to a higher level – he used ambition as the theme instead of the revenge theme of Seneca. He showed the presence of a certain flaw in his hero – on the lives of the idea of a tragic hero of Aristotle. His effective use of the blank verse as the medium added another feather to his cap.

Among the lesser known University Wits were Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) and Thomas Lodge (1558-1625). According to the critics they have not contributed much to the growth of English literature.

Poetry as Criticism of Life - Matthew Arnold

In his essay, ‘The Study of Poetry’ Matthew Arnold has presented poetry as a criticism of life. In the beginning of his essay he states: “In poetry as criticism of life, under conditions fixed for such criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty, the spirit of our race will find, as time goes by and as other helps fail, its consolation and stay.” Thus, according to him poetry is governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
Poetic truth is a characteristic quality of the matter and substance of poetry. It means a sound representation of life. In other words, it is a true depiction of life without any attempt to falsify the facts. Poetic beauty is contained in the manner and style. It is marked by excellence of diction and flow of verse. While talking of Chaucer, Arnold mentions fluidity of diction and verse. Poetic beauty springs from right words in the right order.
Poetic truth and poetic beauty are inter-related and cannot be separated from one another.” The superior character of truth and seriousness in the matter and substance of best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its manner and style”, says Arnold. If a poem is lacking in the qualities of poetic truth and high seriousness, it cannot possess the excellence of diction and movement, and vice-versa.
In his estimate of Burns and Wordsworth, Arnold points out that another characteristic of great poetry is application of ideas to criticism of life. The greatness of Wordsworth lies in his powerful application of the subject of ideas to man, nature and human life. Ideas according to Arnold are moral ideas.
Another quality attributed to great poetry by Arnold is that of ‘high seriousness’. Although he does not fully explain the term, we gather quite a lot of information from his statement. Aristotle was of the view that poetry is superior to History due to the former’s qualities of higher truth and higher seriousness. What we judge from Arnold’s essay is that high-seriousness is concerned with the sad reality. This quality is possessed by poetry which deals with the tragic aspects of life. Even the examples given by Arnold from Dante, Shakespeare and Milton’s poetry illustrate this view. For instance, dying Hamlet’s request to Horatio:

“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story…”

While quoting Milton, Arnold mentions the loss of Proserpine, the loss “…which const Ceres all that pain/ to seek her through the world.”
Regarding the concept of criticism of life, it needs to be understood what Arnold meant by the phrase – “criticism of life”. It does not mean carping at or unnecessarily finding faults with life. The suggestion itself is unsound that it means a criticism of society and its follies. Criticism of life means a healthy interpretation of life. It means an evaluation, sympathetic sharing in and feeling for. The theory of poetry given Arnold has been challenged on many accounts. Arnold does not consider Burns a great poet because in his poetry Burns presents an ugly life. Arnold was of the view that a poet has the advantage of portraying a beautiful life in his poetry. Eliot attacked this opinion. He believed that the poet has not the advantage of describing a beautiful life but has rather an advantage of having the capacity to look beneath both ugliness and beauty. It is the power to look beyond boredom, horror and glory.
While teaching of the concept of poetic beauty, Arnold mentions excellence of diction but does not explain what it is. As regards the flow in verse or the fluidity in movement, Arnold probably does not realize that the use of coarseness is sometimes intentional to create a specific effect. Smoothness need not be the only one; harshness and ruggedness are equally great qualities, when used to create special effects.
Matthew Arnold does not fully explain the term ‘high seriousness’. It should also be remembered here that seriousness should not at all be considered synonymous with solemnity. The serious and humorous can exist together.
Another view put forward by Arnold that has been under the shadow of criticism is that of ‘ideas’. We might very well like to believe that what Arnold wants to say is that an author, while interpreting life for us, might also use a moral idea to convey a moral lesson. But what Arnold believes is that there is a pre-conceived idea on which the poet bases his evaluation.
Eliot also criticizes Arnold on the latter’s occupation with only great poetry. Adhering to this principle, we might end up dealing with only a small part of the total poetry.
Matthew Arnold talks of deriving pleasure from poetry. But according to critics he is actually biased towards morality – a fact that is evident from his view that poetry would replace religion. “More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us”, he writes.
Apart from all the negative criticism directed against Arnold we cannot deny that he has very beautifully related literature to life. As Douglas Bush rightly points out that literature is not an end in itself for Arnold. It only adds to the beauty of life and answers the question ‘How to live?’ Arnold is such a person, who does not live to read, but reads to live.

The Elizabethan Sonnet

The sonnet, a poem of fourteen lines was originally invented in the thirteenth century Italy. It probably originated with Dante, who wrote a number of sonnets to his beloved named Beatrice. But the genre of sonnets flourished under Petrarch (1304 - 74) a generation later. The introduction of sonnets in England is credited to Wyatt and Surrey. Their sonnets were published in Tottel’s Miscellany. While Wyatt followed the Petrarchan model for seventeen out of his thirty-two sonnets, Surrey invented a style of his own that was later adopted by the Elizabethan sonneteers especially Shakespeare.
Although a large number of poets tried their hands at the writing of sonnets ye they are a few names that rise above the run of the mill crowd. The prominent names are those of Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare.
Edmund Spenser(1552-1599) can be considered as a pioneer in this field in English as ti was he who first appeared with his collection of eighty-eight sonnets in the form of Amoretti (1595). He followed the rhyme scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. In the words of Andrew Sanders, “The sonnets substantially readjust the Petrarchan model by seeing the mistress as an unattainable image of perfection, but as a creature reflection and sometimes clouding the glory of her Divine Creator.”

Sir Philip Sidney(1554-86) – His most important word was his sonnet sequence ‘Astrophel and Stella’ (a collection of one hundred and eight sonnets and eleven songs). The poems are addressed to Penelope Devereux about the intensity of the poet’s feelings for the lady, who later broke off with him to marry Lord Rich. These sonnets owe much to Petrarch and Ronsard in tone and style. G.H. Mair is of the view that Sidney’s sonnets “mark and epoch” as “they are the first direct expression in English literature of an intimate and personal experience struck off in the white heat of passion...they never lose the one merit above all others of lyric poetry, the merit of sincerity.”

William Shakespeare(1564-1616) - Shakespearean sonnets, one hundred and fifty-four in number were first published in 1609. Out of these the first one hundred and twenty six are addressed to a young and handsome man, who has been said to be the Earl of Southampton. A few have maintained that he might have been William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke. Twenty-six sonnets are addressed to a dark lady. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow the rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. It was the same that was first used by Surrey. The typical characteristic of Shakespeare is the final couplet. Shakespeare was completely impersonal in his dramatic works but in his sonnets as Wordsworth puts it he “unlocks his heart”.

Role of Supernatural in Literature

Writers have from time to time experimented with different themes to weave an altogether new web in their literary works. The presence of a supernatural element has been one of the favourites with many authors.
When Shakespeare made the ghost of Hamlet’s father appear before him in his drama ‘Hamlet’, it was merely that he had used what the Elizabethans already believed. Some of them thought that the ghosts were hallucinations but there were others who believed that the spirit made its journey back to the Earth in order to accomplish some incomplete task. Then there were a section of people who believed that it was by the permission of God that the spirit came to Earth to give a message. But this was only one side – God’s divine spirit; it could be an evil spirit or an independent spirit with a motive to create chaos in society.
Hamlet too in the play doesn’t believe the ghost at first instance. He takes pains to prove what the ghost told him about his father’s murder. This illustrates the Elizabethan dilemma – whether a ghost is an agent of God or that of Lucifer.
Then there were the three witches of ‘Macbeth’. But in contrast to the supernatural in Hamlet (that wants to fulfill the incomplete task through his son), the witches in ‘Macbeth’ instigate Macbeth to commit the heinous crime of murdering King Duncan for becoming the King. Lady
Macbeth has been called the fourth witch because she too coaxes him for this.
When we talk of supernatural we should not forget to discuss the Romantic School of Poetry. While Wordsworth made the natural appear supernatural, Coleridge made the supernatural look natural. The use of ‘Albatross’ in his famous poem ‘The Rime of Ancient Mariner’ stands
witness to it.Literature is so vast that it cannot be summed up in one post, this was just a small part of it.

Toadstone in Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'

Shakespeare in 'As You Like It' talked about toadstones in the following lines:

Sweet the uses of adversity.
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Even in earlier literature toadstones have been mentioned and many myths have been woven around them. They find a mention in literature as early as the Roman writer Pliny the Elder. It is a stone that was worn as a charm and believed to have been formed in the body of a toad.

The Divine Music

The blaring of horns, the ear shattering noise of the loudspeakers, the deafening of the generators is a part and parcel of the general humdrum of life. These artificial noises have overpowered the sensitive sounds, which could have otherwise fallen upon our 'soft-conched' ears and provided solace to our distressed nerves. Getting up early in morning, and visiting a grove of trees is a heavenly experience. And what could be better than having one or two haunts for birds in your own garden. We have a hibiscus tree in our garden which serves as a safe haven for birds. One simply feels as if transported to another world when listening to the incessant chirping of the sparrows in the mornings. The hibiscus suddenly seems to be all the more full of life.

I am reminded of the poem 'This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, addressed to Charles Lamb. In it he writes sitting under the lime tree:

...I watch'd
Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov'd to see
The shadow of the leaf and stem above
Dappling its sunshine ! And that walnut-tree
Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps
Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue
Through the late twilight : and though now the bat
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters,
Yet still the solitary humble-bee
Sings in the bean-flower!

The poet mentions, apart from the sights of Nature, the sound as low as that of a humble-bee.

John Keats in his phenomenal 'Ode to Autumn' describes the sounds of the season of Autumn. The Autumn season, which is otherwise associated with death and decay, comes to life with vivid imagery and the sounds of the 'wailful choir the small gnats', bleating of lambs, song of hedge-cricket, swallows twittering in the skies.

There are countless examples of Nature's music in poetry. What we need to have is a discerning ear. We are at this juncture that we have to act fast to save Earth, to save ourselves. Let each one of us plant a tree, may be even in your own garden. Let us make this earth a better place to live in, a place that produces the divine music and not the mechanical sounds.