Assignment Sem 2 : Rasa Theory

 

 

 

 

                                               Rasa Theory

Name – Janvi Nakum

 

Paper-  Literary Theory and Criticism and Indian Aesthetics

 

Roll no- 11

 

Enrollment no –4069206420210020

 

Email id – janvinakum360@gmail.com

 

Batch- 2021-2023(M.A. Sem – 2)

 

Submitted to – S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 Indian Aesthetics

 Indian aesthetics is a unique philosophical and spiritual point of view on art, architecture and literature. In Indian aesthetics, a rasa (Sanskrit: रस lit. ‘juice’ or ‘essence’) denotes an essential mental state and is the dominant emotional theme of a work of art or the primary feeling that is evoked in the person that views, reads or hears such a work.

 Although the concept of rasa is fundamental to many forms of Indian art including dance, music, musical theatre, cinema and literature, the treatment, interpretation, usage and actual performance of a particular rasa differs greatly between different styles and schools of abhinaya, and the huge regional differences even within one style.

 The theory of rasa is attributed to Bharata, a sage-priest who may have lived sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century. It was developed by the rhetorician and philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 1000), who applied it to all varieties of theatre and poetry. The principal human feelings, according to Bharata, are delight, laughter, sorrow, anger, energy, fear, disgust, heroism, and astonishment, all of which may be recast in contemplative form as the various rasas: erotic, comic, pathetic, furious, heroic, terrible, odious, marvelous, and quietistic. These rasas comprise the components of aesthetic experience. The power to taste rasa is a reward for merit in some previous existence. The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana’s classic on poetics, the Dhvanyāloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta) which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world.

 

 

School	Thinker	Text	Time
Rasa	Bharat	Natyashastra	Second C. B.C
Dhvani	Ãndandavardhana's	Dhvanyāloka	Sixth C. A. D
Alamkara	Bhamaha	Kavyalamkara	Ninth C. A. D
Vakroti	Kuntaka	Vakroktivijit	Ninth C. A. D
Riti	Vamana	Kavyalamkarasutra	Eleventh C. A.D
Aucitya	Ksemendra	Aucityavicarcarca	Eleventh C. A. D

 What is ‘Rasa’?

Rasa at one time meant ‘water’, ‘juice’ or ‘wine’. At another time it implied ‘essence’. In another context it meant ‘relish’ or ‘savouring’. There was a time when it indicated the primary constituents of medicine. It also meant ‘aesthetic pleasure’ or ‘enjoyment’ a meaning or association of meanings with which we are essentially concerned.

 Rasa Theory Context

Rasa Theory finds its root in the late Vedic period in Atharvaveda (200 BC- 100 BC). But Bharata Muni is regarded the father of Indian Rasa Theory as he gave major statement in his book Natyashastra  which is a Indian Treatise on performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music.

 Bharata, the great rhetorician has tried to explain how this aesthetic pleasure takes place. He has tried to give the theory of ‘rasa’ in one sutra (aphorism). He says:

 विभावानु भाव व्यभिचारी संयोगाद रस निष्पतिः।

 This means that rasa develops from the blending of vihara, anubhava and vyabhichari. It manifests itself when the sthayibhava, the emotion of the reader is correlated with the following three aspects presented in a piece of creative literature (i) excitant (ii) ensuing response and (iii) transitory feelings.

 These three should be combined into one. Many theoreticians have tried to explain the above mentioned aphorism in different way. Bhattlollata, Srisankuka, Bhattanayka and Abhinavagupta are the major commentators who have tried to explain the theory of rasa from their different and individual points of view.

 Characteristics of rasa

It is akhanda, complete and indivisible. It is a blending of all the three elements. One element alone cannot produce it.

It is sva-prakash, self-manifested. It needs no other agency. It is manifested on its own when the above mentioned three elements are finely blended.

It is free from the touch of any other perception. This means that to enjoy it, we must be wholly focused and concentrated.

It is a sheer joy. It is a pure state of consciousness. It is higher than the sensual pleasures that we derive from food, sleep, or intoxicants etc.

It is known as the joy that elevates one to brahmadanda, the joy supreme. It can be compared with the sublime joy or ecstasy that Longinus refers to in his views on ‘The sublime.’

It is beyond ordinary, physical and material, worldly joy. It is a sense of wonder or of surprise. It broadens one’s vision and understanding of life.

The poet through the manifestation of ‘rasa’ makes us partake the various experiences and emotions that we may not have experienced in our individual lives.

It is the spiritual experience that makes man identify with the spirit divine which is one and unfragmented whole. He experiences the feeling of oneness (advaita) through the experience of ‘rasa.’

 Types of Rasa

Before we understand the structure of ‘rasa’ in detail. We must understand the following four terms in some detail. These are as follows:

 Sthayibhava : permanent emotions or feelings.

Vyabhichari bhāva: transitory (fleeting) emotions.

Vibhava : excitant or stimulating determinants.

Anubhava : Consequent or ensuing response.

 Bhavas in Indian Aesthetics

Sthayibhava

These are the permanent or dominant moods.

 Later on, passiveness was added by Abhinavagupta and Ãndandavardhana's.

Sthayibhava are the basis of Rasa and are supreme among all Bhavas which are 49 in number.

Sthayibhava constitute the principal theme of a composition.

They run all emotions like garland and cannot be overpowered by them. Rather the latter feed and strengthen them and help them emerge as Rasa.

Vibhava

They are the situations which are responsible to bring out Sthayibhava. Vaibhav's have two aspects- Alambana and Uddipana. The person in whose mind Sthayibhava run is known as Allambana Vibhava.

 The moonlit, spring, soft breeze, fragrance of flowers are Uddipanana Vhibahavas. In other words, they are stimuli.

 Anubhava

They are their effect seen upon the character after the emotions arise in the actor(s). They make spectators feel or experience Abhinaya by words and gestures.

 Vyabhichribhavas

They are the transitory and temporary mental states.

They strike mind and become the cause of experiencing a permanent mood.

They are 33 in numbers. Some of them are a weakness, depression, anxiety, despair, etc.

They spring out of principal emotion and ultimately merge into it.

 They are like waves and bubbles that appear and disappear as the mighty stream of dominant emotion flows on, smiling and replying and dancing.

The realization of Rasa is the result of the union of Sthayibhava, Vibhava, Anubhav's, and Vyabhichribhavas. Rasa theory draws a clear distinction between real-life experience and art experience- unordinary. In order to realize Rasa that must possess an adequate degree of intellectual and emotional equipment.

 Nine Rasa in Rasa Theory

रतिहासश्च शोकश्च क्रोधोत्साहौ भयं तथा।

जुगुप्सा विस्मयश्चेति स्थायिभावाः प्रकीर्तिताः

 

No	sthayibhava	Rasa
1	Rati	Sringara (Erotic)
2	Hasa	Hasya (Comic)
3	Soka	Karuna (Compassionate)
4	Krodha	Raudra (Wrathful)
5	Utsaha	Veer ( Heroic)
6	Bhaya	Bhayanaka (Terrifying)
7	Jugupsa	Bibhatsa  (Odious)
8	Vismaya	Adbhuta (Marvellous)
9	Nirveda	Santa (Tranqu)

 

 

Rasa	God	Colour
Sringara	Vishnu	Light green
Karuna	Yama	Grey
Haysa	Shiva	White
Veer	Indra	Saffron
Rudra	Shiva	Red
Bhayanaka	Yama	Black
Adbhuta	Brahma	Yellow
Santa	Vishnu	Perpetual white
Bibhatsa	Shiva	Blue

 Rasas in Indian Aesthetics

Sringara Rasa

It is given the highest honor ever since the beginning of Poetics.

Sthayibhava or emotion of this erotic sentiment is Rati or love. Hero and heroine are Alambana Vaibhav's. Swam, youth, solitude, songs of cuckoo are Uddipana Vaibhav's.

Sideglances, twisting of limbs, brows are Anubhav's.

Leaving aside, the fight is Vyabhichribhavas.

Collectively they provide joy Shringara Rasa.

Karuna Rasa

It emerges due to Soka (grief).

It is pleasurable as it has the power to meet the human heart.

A deceased person is Alambana.

Reference to him is Uddipana.

Cursing destiny, stupefaction are the Anubhava.

Disgust, anxiety and uneasiness are Vyabhichribhavas.

Haysa Rasa

It is the comic elements. It happens by showing unseemly dress, ornaments, quarrels, defective limbs etc.

 Rudra Rasa

Anger, rape, abuse, insult, threatening, jealousy etc. ate Alambana Vhibahavas.

Beating, breaking, crushing, cutting are Uddipana Vhibahavas

Red eyes, knitting of eyebrows, biting of lips, determination, energy, restlessness and trembling are Vyabhichari Bhavas.

 Veera Rasa : zeal or utsaha ,Heroism

Bhayanaka Rasa : fear or Bhaya

Adbhuta Rasa : Vismaya, Wonder, Amazement

Santa Rasa  : Nirveda

Originally, there were six rasas but later the number of rasa became eight. In other words, we can say each related to a distinct human emotion like love, pity, fear, heroism, etc. Later the Santam rasa added by Abhinavagupta, but this inclusion was not easy.

 For instance, Shantam rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas. In addition to, the rasa is simultaneously distinct as being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. However, according to the scholar Abhinavagupta, Shanta rasa is like the string of a necklace. Therefore, allowing the jewel of eight rasas to be relished, It is the main thing that gives form to the necklace

Critics, like Bharata Muni himself, Santam rasa cannot be treated as a rasa because its “sthayi bhava” is detachment. However, scholars argue that portraying such a state of cessation or detachment from all worldly desires is not possible on stage.

Reference

 

https://openart.in/general-topics/indian-aesthetics

https://englishsummary.com/rasa-theory/?msclkid=6a2a18f0d00611ec884336195777cf72

https://www.eng-literature.com/2021/05/rasa-theory-of-indian-aesthetics.htm

 

Assignment Sem 2 : The second coming

                                              

                                                               The second coming 

Name – Janvi Nakum

Paper-  The Twentieth Century 

Roll no- 11

Enrollment no –4069206420210020

Email id – janvinakum360@gmail.com

Batch- 2021-2023(M.A. Sem – 2)

Submitted to – S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

About the W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was born in Dublin. His father was a lawyer and a well-known portrait painter. Yeats was educated in London and in Dublin, but he spent his summers in the west of Ireland in the family’s summer house at Connaught. The young Yeats was very much part of the fin de siècle in London; at the same time he was active in societies that attempted an Irish literary revival. His first volume of verse appeared in 1887, but in his earlier period his dramatic production outweighed his poetry both in bulk and in import. Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to become the Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright until the movement was joined by John Synge. His plays usually treat Irish legends; they also reflect his fascination with mysticism and spiritualism. The Countess Cathleen (1892), The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), The King’s Threshold (1904), and Deirdre (1907) are among the best known.

After 1910, Yeats’s dramatic art took a sharp turn toward a highly poetical, static, and esoteric style. His later plays were written for small audiences; they experiment with masks, dance, and music, and were profoundly influenced by the Japanese Noh plays. Although a convinced patriot, Yeats deplored the hatred and the bigotry of the Nationalist movement, and his poetry is full of moving protests against it. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. Yeats is one of the few writers whose greatest works were written after the award of the Nobel Prize. Whereas he received the Prize chiefly for his dramatic works, his significance today rests on his lyric achievement. His poetry, especially the volumes The Wild Swans at Coole (1919), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English. His recurrent themes are the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of life (the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and ceremony contrasting with the hubbub of modern life.

Poem

The Second Coming

About the poem

‘The Second Coming’ was William Butler Yeats’ ode to the era. Rife with Christian imagery, and pulling much inspiration from apocalyptic writing, Yeats’  ‘The Second Coming’ tries to put into words what countless people of the time felt: that it was the end of the world as they knew it and that nothing else would ever be the same again. The First World War had shaken the foundations of knowledge for many, and scarred from the knowledge of the ‘war to end all wars’, they could no longer reconcile themselves with a time before the Great War. This poem is the literary version of that: a lack of ability to think of a time before the war.

"The Second Coming" is one of W.B. Yeats's most famous poems. Written in 1919 soon after the end of World War I, it describes a deeply mysterious and powerful alternative to the Christian idea of the Second Coming—Jesus's prophesied return to the Earth as a savior announcing the Kingdom of Heaven. The poem's first stanza describes a world of chaos, confusion, and pain. The second, longer stanza imagines the speaker receiving a vision of the future, but this vision replaces Jesus's heroic return with what seems to be the arrival of a grotesque beast. With its distinct imagery and vivid description of society's collapse, "The Second Coming" is also one of Yeats's most quoted poems.

The poem is written in a variant on iambic pentameter, in which each line is made up of five iambic feet, but the poem varies and riffs on this form, making its internal structure not entirely obvious. Since its publication, it has been referenced in a multitude of contemporary contexts. The title of Chinua Achebe's book about the West's encroachment on Africa is Things Fall Apart, while Joan Didion's hugely influential 1968 essay on the counterculture was called "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," also a line from Yeats' poem.

 Poem Analysis 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Much has been written on the apocalypse, and many of those writings focus on the harbingers of the event: it is always bloody and massive, a vicious explosion that shakes the world to its foundation. In Yeats’ poem, the apocalypse is a much quieter, more understated, affair. It opens up with the disturbance of nature.

‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer’.

Falcons were used as hunting animals since the medieval era. They are incredibly smart, and dedicated to their trainers, responding immediately to any noise that their handler makes, thus for the falcon to have flown so rapidly out of the reach of the falconer shows us how the delicate balance of the world has been upset. It’s a particularly Shakespearian tactic to reflect evil in the way that nature behaves. In Macbeth, when the villainous Macbeth murders the good king, a lowly porter recognizes that the horses have started to eat each other and that there was a great and thunderous storm. This is the same manipulation of imagery, using the innocent vision of nature to imply a great warping in the fabric of things as they should have been. We see it throughout the first stanza: Yeats’ words take on an edge of doomed and destroyed innocence. The very world as he knew it – here no doubt represented in the immediate world as Yeats knew it, which was Europe – has started to crumble. 

The Great War is still fresh on his mind, and the phrase ‘the centre cannot hold’ can also represent the battles that were fought in France, battles that left the country scarred beyond repair, and struggling in the aftermath of the war. ‘Blood-dimmed tide’, also, can reference the same war, but aside from the historical link, there is again that idea of nature warped by man – blood-dimmed tide, water corrupted by spilled blood, by war, by an encroaching and violent end.

Stanza Two

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming!

Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all around it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

In the second stanza, the Biblical imagery takes over the visions of corrupted nature. From the start, Yeats ties his poem to religion by stating ‘the Second Coming is at hand’, and conjuring up a picture of a creature with a lion’s body and a man’s head, much like the sphynx, and a gaze as ‘blank and pitiless as the sun’. By comparing it to the very nature that Yeats spoke about in the first part of the poem, he brings out the almost infallible quality of this beast: like nature, it feels nothing for the suffering of man. It is and will be when man has turned to ash and dust in its weak.

It is worth noting that Yeats believed that poets were privy to spiritual ‘after images’ of symbols and memories recurring in history, and especially available to souls of a sensitive nature such as poets. Here, the Spiritus Mundi is the soul of the Universe, rattling in the wake of the coming apocalypse, delivering to Yeats the image of the beast that will destroy the world, and him with it. The beast will come, Yeats is assured of this, but not yet; by the end of the poem, the veil has dropped again, the monster is no longer, and Yeats writes that ‘twenty centuries of stony sleep / were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle’, implying that whatever is coming for the world, whatever monster, will be here soon. It is not yet born, but the world is right for it, and waiting for it, and Yeats is certain that the rough beast ‘its hour come round at last’ is only a few years away from wracking the world into a state of complete destruction.

Work Cited

Dalli, Elise. “The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.” Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/william-butler-yeats/the-second-coming/

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1923/yeats/biographical/

Assignment Sem 2 : Robert frost

 

                                       Robert Frost

Name – Janvi Nakum

Paper – American literature 

Roll no- 11

Enrollment no – 4069206420210020

Email id – janvinakum360@gmail.com

Batch-2021-2023 (M.A. Sem – 2 )

Submitted to – S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost, arguably the greatest American poet of the 20th century, was born in San Francisco, California, on March 26, 1874. His father, William Prescott Frost Jr., was from a Lawrence, Massachusetts, family of Republicans, and his mother, Isabelle Moodie Frost, was an immigrant from Scotland. His father was a journalist who dabbled in politics, was rebellious and named his son after the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. William Frost was also an alcoholic and tubercular.

Frost’s father, William Prescott Frost, Jr., was a journalist with ambitions of establishing a career in California, and in 1873 he and his wife moved to San Francisco. Her husband’s untimely death from tuberculosis in 1885 prompted Isabelle Moodie Frost to take her two children, Robert and Jeanie, to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where they were taken in by the children’s paternal grandparents. While their mother taught at a variety of schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Robert and Jeanie grew up in Lawrence, and Robert graduated from high school in 1892. A top student in his class, he shared valedictorian honours with Elinor White, with whom he had already fallen in love.

Robert and Elinor shared a deep interest in poetry, but their continued education sent Robert to Dartmouth College and Elinor to St. Lawrence University. Meanwhile, Robert continued to labour on the poetic career he had begun in a small way during high school; he first achieved professional publication in 1894 when The Independent, a weekly literary journal, printed his poem “My Butterfly: An Elegy.” Impatient with academic routine, Frost left Dartmouth after less than a year. He and Elinor married in 1895 but found life difficult, and the young poet supported them by teaching school and farming, neither with notable success. During the next dozen years, six children were born, two of whom died early, leaving a family of one son and three daughters.

 Frost resumed his college education at Harvard University in 1897 but left after two years’ study there. From 1900 to 1909 the family raised poultry on a farm near Derry, New Hampshire, and for a time Frost also taught at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry. Frost became an enthusiastic botanist and acquired his poetic persona of a New England rural sage during the years he and his family spent at Derry. All this while he was writing poems, but publishing outlets showed little interest in them.

By 1911 Frost was fighting against discouragement. Poetry had always been considered a young person’s game, but Frost, who was nearly 40 years old, had not published a single book of poems and had seen just a handful appear in magazines. In 1911 ownership of the Derry farm passed to Frost. A momentous decision was made: to sell the farm and use the proceeds to make a radical new start in London, where publishers were perceived to be more receptive to new talent. Accordingly, in August 1912 the Frost family sailed across the Atlantic to England. Frost carried with him sheaves of verses he had written but not gotten into print. English publishers in London did indeed prove more receptive to innovative verse, and, through his own vigorous efforts and those of the expatriate American poet Ezra Pound, Frost within a year had published A Boy’s Will (1913). From this first book, such poems as “Storm Fear,” “The Tuft of Flowers,” and “Mowing” became standard anthology pieces.

A Boy’s Will was followed in 1914 by a second collection, North of Boston, that introduced some of the most popular poems in all of Frost’s work, among them “Mending Wall,” “The Death of the Hired Man,” “Home Burial,” and “After Apple-Picking.” In London, Frost’s name was frequently mentioned by those who followed the course of modern literature, and soon American visitors were returning home with news of this unknown poet who was causing a sensation abroad. The Boston poet Amy Lowell traveled to England in 1914, and in the bookstores there she encountered Frost’s work. Taking his books home to America, Lowell then began a campaign to locate an American publisher for them, meanwhile writing her own laudatory review of North of Boston.

Without his being fully aware of it, Frost was on his way to fame. The outbreak of World War I brought the Frosts back to the United States in 1915. By then Amy Lowell’s review had already appeared in The New Republic, and writers and publishers throughout the Northeast were aware that a writer of unusual abilities stood in their midst. The American publishing house of Henry Holt had brought out its edition of North of Boston in 1914. It became a best-seller, and, by the time the Frost family landed in Boston, Holt was adding the American edition of A Boy’s Will. Frost soon found himself besieged by magazines seeking to publish his poems. Never before had an American poet achieved such rapid fame after such a disheartening delay. From this moment his career rose on an ascending curve.

Frost bought a small farm at Franconia, New Hampshire, in 1915, but his income from both poetry and farming proved inadequate to support his family, and so he lectured and taught part-time at Amherst College and at the University of Michigan from 1916 to 1938. Any remaining doubt about his poetic abilities was dispelled by the collection Mountain Interval (1916), which continued the high level established by his first books. His reputation was further enhanced by New Hampshire (1923), which received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. That prize was also awarded to Frost’s Collected Poems (1930) and to the collections A Further Range (1936) and A Witness Tree (1942). His other poetry volumes include West-Running Brook (1928), Steeple Bush (1947), and In the Clearing (1962). Frost served as a poet-in-residence at Harvard (1939–43), Dartmouth (1943–49), and Amherst College (1949–63), and in his old age he gathered honours and awards from every quarter. He was the poetry consultant to the Library of Congress (1958–59; the post was later styled poet laureate consultant in poetry), and his recital of his poem “The Gift Outright” at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 was a memorable occasion .

His Famous poems

 THE GIFT OUTRIGHT

Poetry Collection: A Witness Tree

Published: 1942

ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT

Poetry Collection: West-Running Brook

Published: 1928

 HOME BURIAL

Poetry Collection: North of Boston

Published: 1914

 OUT, OUT

Poetry Collection: Mountain Interval

Published: 1916

 FIRE AND ICE

Poetry Collection: New Hampshire

Published: 1920

 BIRCHES

Poetry Collection: Mountain Interval

Published: 1915

 NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Poetry Collection: New Hampshire

Published: 1923

 MENDING WALL

Poetry Collection: North of Boston

Published: 1914

 STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

Written in a very short time, Frost called this poem, “my best bid for remembrance”. In it, the narrator stops to behold a lovely scene of snow falling in the woods and is tempted to stay longer. However, he ultimately decides to move on as he still has a considerable distance to travel before he can rest .The poem has been interpreted in many ways revolving around the pull the narrator faces between the “lovely” woods and the “promises” he has to keep.

It has been thought to imply several things including being symbolic of the choice between adventure and responsibility. Stopping by the Woods is one of the most popular poems, especially its last four lines, which are among the most often quoted lines in poetry.

 THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Poetry Collection: Mountain Interval

Published: 1916

Robert Frost was close friends with British poet Edward Thomas and the two took many walks together. In Frost’s words, Thomas was “a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn’t go the other“. The Road Not Taken was initially meant to be a gentle mocking of indecision and Frost sent an advanced copy of the poem to Thomas. In the poem, the speaker stands in the woods pondering which of the two roads ahead should he take. Though Frost probably wrote the poem to highlight the human tendency to look back and blame minor decisions in their life, it has since been interpreted by readers as a poem on the benefit of free thinking and not following the crowd. The last lines of the poem are hugely popular and often quoted. The Road Not Taken is not only the most famous poem of Robert Frost but among the most renowned ever written.

Collusion

When Frost died in a Boston hospital on January 29, 1963, two months shy of his 89th birthday, he was the most widely respected man of American letters. Since his death his reputation has not diminished, the mark of a great artist. In 1996 three poets who won the Nobel Prize for literature, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott jointly published an homage to the influence of Frost, whom they feel is one of literature's greatest poets.

Reference 

https://learnodo-newtonic.com/robert-frost-famous-poems

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296560/bio

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Frost

Assignment Sem 2 : Dystopian literature

Dystopia Literature 

Name – Janvi Nakum

Paper – History of English 

Roll no- 11

Enrollment no – 4069206420210020

Email id – janvinakum360@gmail.com

Batch-2021-2023 (M.A. Sem – 2 )

Submitted to – S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

What Is Dystopia?

A utopia is the idea of a perfect society. The Garden of Eden from the Bible is a good example of what a utopia is supposed to be, meaning free from sickness, pain, poverty, etc. A dystopia, on the other hand, is a term used to describe a society that seems perfect on the surface, but wherein there is actually a great amount of injustice and a lack of freedom. Dystopian societies are typically characterized by oppression, fear, and hopelessness, even if the characters do not realize it at first. Additionally, a dystopian novel will often show a rebel rising up against the authority/government in order to return things to how they should be, but their success is not a given in this genre.

One very famous example of dystopian literature is Animal Farm by George Orwell, in which he creates an allegory of the Russian Revolution using animals on a farm. He details how what starts as a utopian idea (communism) eventually devolves and is revealed as a dystopia.

• Characteristics of Dystopia

Books or stories within the genre of dystopian fiction usually share several of the same characteristics:

  An extremely strong governing body with little to no checks or balances. The government in dystopian fiction has complete control and portrays themselves as beloved through the use of extensive propaganda and by silencing any opponents through any means necessary.

  A governing body that controls all religious, political, and economic elements in that society as well as the punishment for not following the rules associated with these elements. Often there is no religion or worship allowed in these societies as that would be a direct challenge to the authority of the government. There are no political parties because that would imply that the ruling party is not fully supported by all citizens. 

         Similarly, the government is in control of all economic policy and information in order to assure all citizens that they are being treated fairly, when in fact there is typically a select few who hoard the resources and leave the rest of society in poverty.

  While the entire society in a dystopia is typically failing or corrupt, there is often a single figurehead who epitomizes the values of that society. This figurehead must appear to be infallible and act swiftly and without mercy in the face of any opposition in order to maintain the image of complete control. This control is often sold to the public as the price of "peace."

  Extreme propaganda that is considered the norm in society, often times so pervasive that citizens do not realize they are being oppressed. This propaganda is designed to make citizens believe that the government is working for them, that they are living in total equality with all other citizens, and that there is no better way to live.

  Individuality being looked at as an aberration and a danger to society. Citizens are taught to shame anyone who does not follow the societal norms and not to associate with people who speak out against the government or any single policy because they are a "danger" to the peace and order of their environment.

  Citizens that are made to put on a "show" of sorts in order to comply with dystopian societal norms. Members of society are praised and given superficial rewards for falling in line and exemplifying the "right" way to live and being role models for others. This encourages overt displays of compliance.

• The Rise of Dystopian Literature

It’s the same appeal as Game of Thrones fan theories: you know that no one’s got it exactly right, but it makes you wonder how much of it might be right. Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, along with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 are widely considered the original holy trinity of the dystopian genre. All three feature protagonists locked within repressive totalitarian societies who try, often in vain, to work against them. These texts set up many of the tropes that would later go on to inform other great books like Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. But why has there been sucha recent spike in the sales and new publications of dystopias? Why does the genre continue to endure?

From Atwood to Bradbury to Suzanne Collins  and Veronica Roth , there seems to be a never-ending stream of new dystopias hitting the market.

On one level, that’s because they can be damn good fun. Who doesn’t love reading about Katniss going to town with a bow and arrow or wildly erratic theories about how technology is going to develop in the future? The teen fiction scene has hugely embraced dystopia and for good reason: alternate futures make the books socially relevant but open to embellishment; grounded in current fears but able to wildly exaggerate them.

In spite of the more fun aspect to some of these novels, one thing that every dystopia shares is a nihilism about the future. This in part seems to be a wider social attitude emerging out of the two World Wars and various other historic, horrific encounters that have since come to pass. For example, Orwell novelized the widespread fears of totalitarian rule in the aftermath of World War Two; Huxley satirised the utopian novels of H. G. Wells  in the early 1930’s. These writers were living in a time where fears of perpetual war and the control of hostile, omnipotent governments were at a breaking point.

There’s a reason we haven’t seen a significant rise in the utopian novel.

We live in dark times; it’s certainly easy for writers to imagine our futures turning out even darker Though, I think the reason the genre has kept going as long as it has is because of just how right the first dystopias turned out to be. In Brave New World, Huxley basically predicted with exact precision the developments of human cloning and hypnopaedia. In 1984: Orwell literally wrote about “telescreens”, which broadcast information as well as act as monitoring devices with microphones. If that isn’t a stellar prediction of the modern computer, I don’t know what is. These works have endured and produced new works consistently, because they are still, and perhaps always will be, culturally relevant. For example, there was a huge spike in the sales of 1984 on Amazon after Trump’s campaign advisor Kellyanne Conway famously coined the phrase “alternative facts” in 2017. Dystopias are often characterized by a distrust in the truth; it’s really a no-brainer why such an absurd and bizarre statement fed back into the sales of a dystopian novel.

While human beings have always lived without a collective trust in systems of power and perhaps even, in human nature, the last 100 years have seen a particular nihilism towards the systems of repression, rebellion and interaction that govern our lives. Dystopian novels continue to be a major driving point of the literary canon because the systems of oppression they theories are based on real concerns, real events, real governments. And they will continue to garner interest because at the heart of every dystopian novel lurks a question in the back of every reader’s mind: this might be fiction… but what if it becomes my reality?

• Examples of Central Themes in Dystopian Literature

Dystopian literature tends to feature common, central themes that allow writers to create alternate realities while imparting deep meaning to their readers. Here are some examples of central themes in dystopian literature:

government control: dystopian works often reflect extremes in terms of governmental rule, from oppressive totalitarianism to violent anarchy.

environmental destruction: dystopian stories are typically set in “apocalyptic” environments that reflect destruction of life and an uninhabitable landscape, usually as a result of war and weaponry technological control: dystopian works often reflect advancements in science and technology that grow out of human control and become domineering and fear-inducing

survival: characters in dystopian literature are often left to their own means of survival due to oppressive or violent societies.

loss of individualism: dystopian literature often emphasizes the needs of society and conformity at the expense of individual freedom and expression

Examples of Famous Dystopian Novels

Many writers use the novel form to create dystopian literature. This allows for detailed development of the setting, characters, plot, and theme so that readers can enjoy the story but also consider the novel’s levels of social commentary. The popularity of dystopian literature reflects a collective human curiosity about the future and progress of society.

Here are some examples of famous dystopian novels:

brave new world

The Giver

1984

Ready Player One

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Parable of the Sower

The Drowned World

The Maze Runner

The City of Ember

Common Examples of Well-Known Dystopian Movies

Many dystopian movies are created as adaptations of dystopian literature, although there are original dystopian scripts that are made into films as well. This genre of filmmaking is popular among audiences due to the artistic and cinematic portrayal of alternate realities as well as thought-provoking content.

Reference 

https://study.com/learn/lesson/dystopian-society-characteristics.html

https://exepose.com/2019/05/03/the-rise-of-dystopian-literature/

https://literarydevices.net/dystopia 

Assignment Sem 2 : Existentialism

 Existentialism

Name – Janvi Nakum

Paper – From world war ii to the End of the century

Roll no- 11

Enrollment no –4069206420210020

Email id – janvinakum360@gmail.com

Batch-2021-2023 (M.A. Sem – 2 )

Submitted to – S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

What is Existentialism?

What is existentialism? Existentialism is simply a school of thought that many subscribe to answer the fundamental questions regarding a particular outlook referred to as the existentialist outlook. There are several philosophers with whom the term is most commonly referenced; however, some philosophers outright reject being associated with the school of thought, while others were so early on the scene that they were unfamiliar with the term.

a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

Existentialism – A Definition

Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature.

In simpler terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.

History of Existentialism 

The philosophical line of thought is usually associated with thinkers from 19th and 20th century Europe such as Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre. They might have had differences, but they all believed in the importance of the human subject and many considered transitional philosophies are too abstract to truly speak on the nature of existence. Kierkegaard is usually named the first existentialist philosopher. He is remembered for proposing that individuals are responsible for giving meaning to life, not religion, or society. Humans must, in his view, live life “authentically” and passionately. 

Existentialism was popularized in the post-WWII years mostly due to Sartre whose writings were incredibly influential. Importantly for Camus, Sartre believed that “existence preceded essence”. This means that the individual should be concerned with their own individuality rather than with labels or roles they’re supposed to play. These categories are the “essence” part of the equation.  It is the life one leads that’s important and their “true essence” not the arbitrary essence that society gives to them.

Existentialism – Impact on Society

Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society when there was a deep sense of despair following the Great Depression and World War II. There was a spirit of optimism in society that was destroyed by World War I and its mid-century calamities. This despair has been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into the 1970s and continues on to this day as a popular way of thinking and reasoning.

An existentialist could either be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an amoral atheist. Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist, and Camus an atheist, are credited for their works and writings about existentialism. Sartre is noted for bringing the most international attention to existentialism in the 20th century.

Each basically agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because of suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power, and control one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is the search and journey for true self and true personal meaning in life.

Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that existentialism finds most objectionable-that is, when someone or society tries to impose or demand that their beliefs, values, or rules be faithfully accepted and obeyed. Existentialists believe this destroys individualism and makes a person become whatever the people in power desire thus they are dehumanized and reduced to being an object. Existentialism then stresses that a person's judgment is the determining factor for what is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious or secular world values.

Characteristics of Existentialism

The characteristics of existentialism emphasize the authenticity of single individuals as to how the world can change; rather than relying on a God, existentialists urge the individual to take responsibility for their place in the world. For instance, the existentialist singular thought or dilemma finds the human experience seemingly pointless, at least at the beginning of one's assessment of the world, resulting from being in an uncaring world. Much existentialist thought came to rise after the famous find by Charles Darwin that humans are merely products of biological evolution. With this, the world grew increasingly materialistic. As a result, the truth of scientific fact came to outweigh religious belief, stripping the world of inherent meaning and humans of their divine right. Suddenly religious thought made way for scientific fact, and philosophers were trying to make amends with this loss of meaning.

Although existential ideas are sometimes far-reaching and contradictory, there are many shared ideas agreed upon by philosophers that labels them as an existentialist. One of such ideas is that humans must now create meaning in the world; this is a contradictory view when viewed from the viewpoint of a God receiving meaning or someone getting meaning from the world. However, the existentialist argues that purpose can be found in one's pursuits, typically through artistic or altruistic means.

An existentialist viewpoint means seeing existence as absurd, something with no evident purpose even though humans persist as if they have one. The existential cure for this apparent meaninglessness lies in looking at and being entirely truthful and authentic with oneself. As a result, the critical eye can embark on a journey of self-realization, allowing the individual to become something like a God of their own.

 Examples of Existentialism in Literature 

 Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 

Slaughterhouse-Five is commonly considered to be Vonnegut’s most famous novel and his masterpiece. It’s secondary title is: The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. It was published in 1969 and fuses science fiction with an anti-war message. The book follows Billy Pilgrim as he comes “unstuck in time” and starts to experience his life out of order. Consider this famous quote from the novel as an example of existentialist thinking: 

Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.

This quote is found in Chapter Four of the novel when Billy is trapped with the Tralfamadorians as a pet in their zoo. This is the answer he receives when he’s asked why they chose him. 

 The Stranger by Albert Camus

Along with the following example, The Stranger is one of the most famous existentialist works of fiction. This is despite the fact that Camus did not consider himself an existentialist. He believed that essence precedes existence meaning the roles or labels that we are born into are at the center of our lives rather than any individual desire. This is in contrast to the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre who say the world the other way around, with “existence” preceding “essence.” Here is an excerpt from The Stranger that demonstrates the type of thinking that’s made the book so famous: 

It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.

This is an incredibly famous quote that comes at the end of the novel when the main character, Meursault is facing his execution for a senseless murder. Camus saw absurdity as essential to the human relationship with the world, in contrast to Sartre and another existentialist who saw it as a property, but not a fundamental one. Camus built his entire philosophical worldview with absurdity at the center. He believed one could not make sense of the world through reason.

 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 

The Metamorphosis is another incredibly famous existentialist novel. It details a horrifying, pointless transformation that Gregor Samsa undergoes. He wakes up one morning as he always does to discover that he’s been transformed into a giant bug, usually depicted as a cockroach. Never does Kafka give a reason for this transformation. Gregor tries to make the best of his situation, thinking rationally in an irrational world but ends up suffering. Here are a few lines from The Metamorphosis: 

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

Gregor dies at the end of the novel, his family has played a part in his death and cast him aside as an inconvenience. This, despite the fact that he’d spent his entire life caring for them. 

 Reference 

https://poemanalysis.com/definition/existentialism

https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm

https://study.com/learn/lesson/existentialism-characteristics-examples-history.html