TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN INDIA : FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES

PAPER NO.- 12-A  ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING-1
TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN INDIA : FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES
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PREPARED  BY- URVI DAVE

COURSE- M.A.

SEMESTER- III

ENROLLMENT NO.- 14101009

PAPER NO.- 12-A

PAPER NAME- ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING-1

BATCH YEAR- 2014-16

email ID- dave.urvi71@gmail.com

TOPIC- TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN INDIA : FOCUS ON OBJECTIVES

SUBMITTED TO- SMT. S.B. GARDI

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI                BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

 The term 'second language' is understood in two different ways :-

                               i.            English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primarily more significant;

                             ii.             In school education, the second language is what is introduced after the primary stage and has a pedagogical as well as a functional definition, particularly in the context of the 'three language formula'.

The global objectives of language teaching can be defined as helping children learn a language or languages to perform a variety of functions. These range from the sociable use of language for phatic communication and a network of communicative uses to its use at the highest level of 'catharsis' and 'self- expression'. Underlying these functions are two fundamental functions helping children learn how to ask questions, the most important intellectual ability man has yet developed, and helping children use this language effectively in different social networks. Languages in a multilingual setting from a system-network. Each language in this network has a  function- determined value contrasting to the function determined values of the other languages. A society or a government can assign a new value to anyone of the languages in the system network in terms of its own policy of language planning, but the society or government must realise that this assignment of a new value to a language will produce a chain reaction in the network. The values of the other language in the network are bound to undergo changes.

The notion of link languages or lingua franca has an important significance in a multilingual setting. It encourages wider morality, national integration, and a sense of tolerance. In enriches other languages in contact and gets enriched by them. Effective bilingualism or trilingualism or even multilingualism is a powerful way of enriching  the linguistic repertoire of individuals. These resources offered by plurality of languages can be used for rapid social and economic changes and modernization programmes. Learners are not just passive recipients of socially accepted language patterns. They play an active role in this teaching- learning process. They actively strain, filter and reorganise what they are exposed to their imitations are not photographic reproductions but artistic recreations. The learners are meaning makers. The main objective at every level of teaching should be to help learners how to draw out their latent creativity.

Every learner is born with a built in language learning mechanism. This mechanism gets activated when the learner is exposed to that language. What is essential is to create an atmosphere where learning can take place. Children learn the language they hear around them. Exposure to a rich variety of linguistic material is as important in first language acquisition as in second language learning. The teaching of English as a second language, has often been less successful than it might have been, as a result of the restricted variety of linguistic contexts with which students are provided.

Second language may be used as an auxiliary or associate language, as a slot-filler, performing those functions which are not normally performed by first language. For a vast majority of educated people living in towns and cities, English as a second language functions primarily as an interstate or international link language. Some of them also use it as an international language of knowledge, trade or industry. An important question here is - Is L2 the main or associated medium of instruction at all levels or at medium of instruction at all levels or at a particular level?

The objective of teaching a language or languages is not simply to make the learner the major language skills but to enable the learners to the play their communicative roles effectively and to select languages/ registers/ styles according to the roles they are playing.

"Every social person is a bundle of personae, A bundle of parts, each part having its lines.

The objectives have to be formulated in the light of what we perceive our needs for English to be in a multilingual setting at both the national and individual levels. This is related to the following questions :

1.    What are the roles of Hindi, English, Regional languages, Classical languages, Foreign languages and languages of the minority group in our multilingual settings?

2.    What are the topics and situations that will necessitate the use of English?

3.    What is the kind of English and amount that the learners will need?

At the national level, English must serve as our 'window on the world', as the language in which nearly all contemporary knowledge is accessible. As the language of science and technology, trade and commerce, political science, economics and international relations, English will be important be important for industrial and economic development. It will function as the "language of development". our scientists, technologists, engineers, doctors and economists must be able not only to have access to professional literature in English but also to contribute to it, and to communicate with their counterparts in other countries. The continuation of English seems important if our science and technology, trade and commerce, are to be truly international. English based Indian bilinguals constitute the third largest pool of trained and technical manpower in the world.

English may continue to be the medium of instruction in several faculties at the college level. These students will need a greater proficiency in the skills of listening, writing and speaking than students being taught through other languages. At the individual level, English continues to be ' the language of opportunity' and 'the language of upward social mobility'. Any individual seeking socio economic advancement will find ability in English as asset. English has important functions in communications of diverse types. The skills of communication will continue to be at a premium will and teaching will have to try to impart a certain minimal competence in these skills. The primary aim of teaching English as a second language at the secondary level should be to give the learners an effective mastery of the language, that is to help them acquire.

1.    The ability to read easily, and with understanding, books in English written within a prescribed range of vocabulary and sentence structure, and to read with good understanding easy unsimplified texts on familiar topics fully glossed and annotated in their known language;

2.    The readiness to proceed to a more advanced reading stage, that of  reading unsimplified texts, particularly those bound up with personal studies and interests, with the help of bilingual dictionaries;

3.    The ability to understand a talk in English on a subject of general experience and interest, clearly spoken and restricted in vocabulary and sentence structure to the range of the syllabus;

4.    The ability to carry on comprehensibly a conversation in English on a topic fully the range both of their experience and interests and well within the range of active command postulated by the syllabus.

5.     The ability to write comprehensibly in English and without gross errors on a familiar topic which lends itself to expression within the range of vocabulary and sentence structure that has been taught.

The level of active command to be aimed at should be adequate both for those who wish to pursue higher education at the end of the secondary stage and wish to enter upon a career. The term aims and objectives are used interchangeably. However both have different meaning. The main difference begging aim provide general direction to educational purpose whereas objectives indicates particular achiever to be made in specific time limit.

2 types of objectives : 1) General objective

                                     2) Specific objective

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

The general objectives are long term aims in comparison to the specific objectives. The general objectives are par with the aims and education. Therefore they are meant to be achieved during the schooling period of pupil. As English begins from 1st class and continues to be studied up to 12th class, these general objectives are to be well spread from 1-12 classes of school period. The objectives are decided in advance. They are distinct for each subject and standard. They state what to achieve at the end of the year or course. General objectives are the statement indicating general achievement regarding knowledge comprehension, application skill etc, there can be many specific objectives for one general objective :-

1.    Semantic aspect

2.    Phonetic aspect

3.    Graphic aspect

4.    Phonic aspect

Semantic aspect is related to understand meaning, meaning of words and their relationship with other words which are used in sentence.

Phonetic aspect deals with speech, sound, spellings and pronunciation of words.

Graphic aspect  deals with the written form of a language. It deals with the representation of language and script.

Phonic aspect deals with reading aspect of language development and literary development are also general objectives of it. It can help students to mug up English language but is not helpful in day to day communication.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Besides the above stated general objectives of teaching. English, the teacher should have definite clear cut aims for each lesson in his mind. They are called specific objectives. In other words, these are objectives of teaching the content of lesson to indicate particular achievement to be made within specific time limit. They are short term goals, and can be achieved in the classroom. They are definite, clear, precise, to the point and expressible in the terms of achievements.

They are achievable in day to day learning. They will accord the teaching point of a teacher. It is very necessary for a teacher. It is very necessary for a teacher to specify his objectives of teaching. It helps him to know what he is to do of a particular lessons, why and how. Objective is an intent communicated by statement describing a proposed change in a learner a statement of what the learner is to be like when he has successfully completed a learning experience. It is a description of pattern of behaviour.

CONCLUSION :-  Teachers and learners are the greatest resources available to any society. The main aim of our educational system should be to provide the proper climate and facilities to allow all individuals to realise the full potential of their capabilities and to encourage them to use these capabilities in every appropriate way both for the enrichment of their personal lives and for the benefit of society.

Works Cited

Verma, Shivendra K. "Teaching English as a Second language in India: Focus on objectives." The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages 1 (2001).

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COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE

PAPER NO.- 11 THE POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE
COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE 

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PREPARED  BY- URVI DAVE

COURSE- M.A.

SEMESTER- III

ENROLLMENT NO.- 14101009

PAPER NO.- 11

PAPER NAME- THE POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

BATCH YEAR- 2014-16

email ID- dave.urvi71@gmail.com

TOPIC- COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE

SUBMITTED TO- SMT. S.B. GARDI

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 

MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI                BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

The term "commonwealth" has a long history. It was first used by Oliver Cromwell, after establishing the republican  government in England in 1649. Literally it implied common good or public good; a body-politic in which power is with the people. It came into discuss as a form of government for nearly 300 years, till it was resurrected in the statue of Westminster 1931, when with the creation of the dominions, the British Empire was re-christened as the British commonwealth of Nations. Commonwealth literature concept came into practice in the mid-twentieth century, there are various factors that were responsible for its growth in the nineteenth century. The concept began to evolve in the aftermath of the American war of Independence which had convinced the British statesman that they should formulate a new approach toward the emerging nationalism in the colonies which were destined to become independent states in due course. In order to forestall a violent break-up of the Empire, in the pattern of what happened to its thirteen colonies in America, Britain thought it imperative to follow a path of concessions and reforms, and develop self-governing institutions in the colonies. The distinctive feature of this new grouping was that they all were colonies of settlement, with close ethnic connections with Britain and had adopted the British pattern of political institutions. This institutional framework remained unchanged until independence was granted to India in 1947 and until India decided to stay in the commonwealth after becoming a republic in 1950. With the entry of India, the modern commonwealth acquired a new complexion and character and  demonstrated its potential for evolution and growth. The association became multi-racial; and it was declared as a free association of independent nation where equality of status was fully recognised. The commonwealth is the British Empire in reverse. It is the flowering of independent entities out of the bondage of colonial dependency. The term literally meant "common well being". The commonwealth of nations, also known as the British commonwealth, has manifested a distinctive literary development marked by its cultural and historical diversity. The commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation of 54 nations which were formerly part of the British Empire. The commonwealth aims to provide a framework of common values, facilitating co-operation between its member states in the field of democracy, human rights, rule of law, free trade and peace. In general, commonwealth literature is a vague term which defines English-language works written in the former British colonies or place which had the status of dominions. Also known as New English literature, it is a body of fictional works grouped together because of the underlying cultural history and certain recurrent patterns. As commonwealth comes from a wide variety of regions, they win fame in the Anglo-American world because of their exotic setting and character. In Salman Rushdie's essay "commonwealth Literature does not exist", it is defined as

"A body of writing created in the English Language, by persons who care not themselves white Britons, or Irish, or citizens of the United States of America"

In Australia, New Zealand and Canada on one hand, and in Asia, Africa and the west Indies on the other, the English language - whether as an inherited or an acquired language has been employed as the medium of creative expression in diverse cultural contexts, thereby achieving a texture and resonance not usually found in the purely Anglo-Saxon idiom and usage. While writing in English, the Indians, the Africans and the west Indians are writing in the language of the colonizer, in a language that in a number of way carries with it a distinctly English culture and ethos.

Commonwealth literature can be usefully studied under two different categories-

1)  The literature written in those commonwealth countries where English is practically a native language for example in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

2) The literature written in those countries where English is used as  a second language (or even as a foreign language), for example, in  India, commonwealth countries in Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

 The use of English in literature written in the first group of  countries is radically different from that in  second group. Language is an inseparable part of its matrix culture, and English likewise is an inseparable part of the British culture. In a similar cultural ambience, the use of English in creative writing will not be very different in general terms, of course, apart from certain individual and idiosyncratic variations. But in an entirely different cultural setting, for instance, in India, Sri Lanka, Philippines or Africa. The use of English cannot be widely different Raja Rao's Kanthapura(1938) is, for instance, a specifically Indian experience, and the idiom used to convey it is anything but the traditional English Idiom. R.K Narayan's use of English is beautifully and adequately adopted to communicate a characteristically Indian sensibility. Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God(1964)  has created an absolutely African world and found the right idiom- very differently from any other English- to do so.

Most scholars and working in the area designated ' Commonwealth Literature' have arrived there from initial training and practice in 'English Literature'. An eminent twentieth- century North Atlantic poet and critic could see English literature as an organic part of European literature, 'the several members of which cannot flourish if the same circulate throughout the whole body'. The literatures of those commonwealth countries that can conveniently be regarded as belonging to the third World are either very much concerned with the 'turning world', as in Africa and the Caribbean, or look back to great cultural phenomena unrelated to Europe's renaissance, as n India-despite Raja Rao's interest in the Albihensian heresy in the serpent and the rope. The really interesting literature in English on India begins with Mulk Raj Anand's untouchables and R.K Narayan's Swami and friends in 1935, of Black Africa with Sol plaatje's muhdi in 1930 and Amos Tutuola's  'The Palm- wine Drinkard' in 1952, of the Caribbean with Claude McKay's Home to Harlem in 1928, or alternatively with C.L.R Jame's Minty Alley in 1936. There were earlier writings in verse and prose, but these titles are markers of the rising tide which proclaim that the Third World commonwealth literatures truly begin in the second quarter of the twentieth century, at least a decade after the end of the first  of Europe's two holocausts. The high moral sentences that accompanied Allied gunfire in both of Europe's wars were taken seriously by the subject people of Europe's overseas empires, as was much of the political creed that toppled the Tzar of all the Russians. It would be futile to pretend that most of the writings that constitute the third world literatures in English are not concerned with  political issues, even it often, indirectly, with cultural situations brought about by colonial political history. In the west, literature that is primarily about political concepts, about how political events act upon the lives of ordinary people, tends to be treated with suspicion, or at least reserve, and seems to have to pass be non-propagandist test more stringently than writings on other themes. Literature is art in the use if words. To distinguish between meaning ad technique  is itself to distort, for words both mean and are arranged to mean, and out of the interaction of the magnetic fields of these two modes of meaning as great literature. Yet the distinction is a useful piece of temporary scaffolding. The languages and literatures which feast at the high table of this gathering are those with relatively clearly defined literary traditions- France, Germany, Britain and USA. The pace at which the literatures which make up commonwealth literature have developed puts each of them in a different stage of continuity within these literatures is largely futile. The diversity in the literature is something to celebrate because it adds much to the richness of literature in English, The movement of commonwealth literature from the periphery of English literary studies toward the centre is made the more difficult by the fact that formal teaching of commonwealth is itself peripheral.

Combining the elements of magic and fantasy, the grimmest realism, extravagant farce, multi-mirrored analogy and a potent symbolic the astonishing energy of novel unprecedented in scope, manner and achievement in the hundred and fifty year old tradition of the Indian novel in English. Rushdie must portray reality, and in this endeavour fiction and nonfiction overlap boundaries Salman Rushdie, the writer of the three novels Grimus, Midnight's Children and Shame and a book on Nicaraguan journey The Jaguar Smile, emerged with the publication of Midnight's children in 1981 as a new phenomenon in the genre of fiction. The book was awarded 1981 Booker Mcconnell prize and literary critics compared Rushdie to novelists like Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gunter Grass, John Irving, V.S Naipaul. he has been hailed as a creator of epics. Starting with Grimus, a work in fantasy, Rushdie went on to create the real sub-continent condition in his phenomenal works Midnight's Children and Shame. His investigation of life led him to the uncovering of the true circumstances in India and Pakistan. Individual human personality, the novelist realised, proved meaningless in the present global situation. Be personified India and Pakistan for the true realisation of life in the two countries.

"True great realism depicts man and society as complete entities, instead of showing merely one or the other of their aspects".

In his endeavour towards the adequate presentation of the complete human condition Rushdie adopts non-linear, non-naturalistic forms to meet the challenge of portraying reality. For Rushdie the 60s in Cambridge were euphoric  years. Recalling them be said,

" There was the Vietnam war to protest about, student pioneer to  insist upon, drugs to smoke, flowers to put in your hair, good music to listen to".

Something of the capriciousness of those years spill over in his first novel. Midnight's Children is a memory novel and therefore a semi-fantasy, nonetheless dealing with stark realities:

"Memory's truth, because memory has its own special kind. It selects, eliminates, alters, exaggerates, minimises, glorifies and vilifies also: but in the end it creates its own reality".

The historical perspective enables Rushdie to reminisce backward and forward re imagining himself in the persona of the protagonist through the life cycle and a series of historical moments.

In his essay "commonwealth literature does not exist". Rushdie describes the category ' commonwealth literature' as a  ghetto created by those who practice English literature 'Proper'.

"Every ghetto has its own rules" and "One of the rule one of the ideas on which the edifice rests, is that literature is an expression of nationality". and that culture springs from tradition. He says that

"What we are facing here is the bogy of authenticity...(which) is the respectable child of old- fashioned exoticism. It demands that sources, forms, style, language and symbol all derive from a supposedly homogenous and unbroken tradition".

An exoticized culture must always show its credentials in order to prove itself worthy of 'special attention'. While Western culture seems dynamic, progressive and developed. It is demanded of exoticized cultures to be original, pure, simple and preferably religious. The term postcolonial implies a kind of pre-colonial purity which has become corrupted because it could not resist the colonizers domination. It does not take into account that the process of colonization changes both the coloniser and the colonised and that cultural exchange in heterogeneous and not singular. Racial, cultural, linguistic singularity or purity is only unlikely but also a pathological pursuit. The exact characteristic of commonwealth literature also remains debatable. Recurrent motifs there are misuse of power, exploitation and alienation as well as post colonial society. Apart from the issues of shared characteristics, scholars debate as to which writers to be include in the commonwealth canon. Famous names among commonwealth writers include:

1)  Salman Rushdie

2)  R.K Narayan

3) Nayantara Sehgal

4)  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

5)  Japanese Nobel Kazuo Ishiguro.

Works Cited

R. K. Dhawan, P. V. Dhamija. Recent Commonwealth Literature. Ed. A. K. Shrivastava. Vol. 1. 1989.

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THE SCARLET LETTER AS THE STORY OF SIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

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PREPARED  BY- URVI DAVE

COURSE- M.A.

SEMESTER- III

ENROLMENT NO.- 14101009

PAPER NO.- 10

PAPER NAME- THE AMERICAN LITERATURE

BATCH YEAR- 2014-16

email ID- dave.urvi71@gmail.com

TOPIC- THE SCARLET LETTER AS THE STORY OF SIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

SUBMITTED TO- SMT. S.B. GARDI

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI                BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

THE SCARLET LETTER AS THE STORY OF SIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

In the second coming, it is said "To be without sin, shame and sorrow is to be more than human." In the Bible, it has been written "Thou salt not commit adultery." It is god's seventh commandment and those who violate it are sinners.

 The Scarlet Letter takes us to the early days of Puritan society. This book has derived its title from the custom which was strictly practiced by the Puritan settles. Whenever a woman was caught in adultery, she had to wear the letter 'A' embroidered in Scarlet colour on her dress. Scarlet colour symbolises blood, death, child birth and life. The scarlet letter is a book which deals with the consequences of the sin of adultery in the lives of three people most affected by it. These three people are Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. The pair of illicit lovers and the aggrieved husband. It is an outrage f one individual against another and against the social code of ethics. This story is a story of sin too. That is why Hester and Dimmesdale who have committed adultery cannot be forgiven. The novel begins with a scene where a young woman. Hester Prynne, is standing at the scaffold in the summer morning in the summer morning in the market place in Boston. She has committed adultery and stands in disgrace and tries to hide the scarlet and tries to hide the scarlet letter 'A' on her bosom by holding her child close. Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as "The woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes." People see Hester as a morally degraded woman and expressed hatred. The chief minister and Dimmesdale urge her to confess the name of her lover who should be sharing her but Hester remains silent. Seeing his wife on the scaffold, he decides to conceal his identity and hastily puts his finger to his lips to warm Hester against the betraying the slightest sign of recognition. When Hester is taken back to the prison, a doctor visits her which turns out to be his husband Chillingworth. He tries many a times to know the name of Hester's lover but does not get successful and gets frustrated. Hester and Dimmesdale then plan to go to other place and decide to leave on election arrives. When the sermon gets over, people walk out of the church and Dimmesdale walks in. He proclaims his guilt and shows everyone 'A' imprinted on his chest and then dies. As Chillingworth couldn't take revenge, he dies of frustration. Here we can say that Dimmesdale is a greater sinner than Hester. He tries to conceal his crime from the public. He goes against the purity of his profession his conscience allows him no rest and he gets troubled constantly by his soul. He adds hypocrisy to his sin. he can't sit or study peacefully. He becomes restless and can't sleep peacefully. He remains awake at night, writes sermons, keeps fast. 'A man must be true confessor' is a puritan belief. He goes deeper and deeper into the pit of sin. The secret of is sin burns within him, which prompts him to confess yet he is afraid to reveal himself for what he is. Chillingworth is a more greater sinner. He was absent from Hester's life for seven years. In this case, we can say that a person needs love and so Hester fell in love  with dimmesdale. He is a person who is devoted to cold science. The way in which he broods over revenge and marks down highs victim and drives him steadily to self-destruction is made very creditable when he learns of Hester's shame, he dewiest his very identity and pursues revenge. 'Sinful father feels more pain than sinful mother.' Whenever we talk about sin, we talk about punishment. God also gave punishment to his children Adam and Eve. By giving birth to the child, she crossed broke the moral order of the society according to the puritan society. Though Dimmer dale loved Hester, he could not cross the Puritan culture moral order of the society. They both are self conscious. Hester is the first sinner. Other people become happy when Hester is punished as they have conditional mind and they do not feel her feelings.

'Sinful mother is more happy than a sinful father.' When Dimmesdale comes to meet Hester in secret place or you have to accept us in daylight in front of everyone." The forest is shown as dark forest. She is tempered there and so she goes there. For people, it is a punishment to go in the dark, deep forest. Hester goes with the child and when she comes out, she is not the same Hester. It is due to the dark forest, she could change the sign A'. Hester returns. She has to. Her sin lies in New England. Hester chooses to return to New England to live the ethical life: "But there was a more real life for Hester Prime, here in New England than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. here had been her sin; here her sorrow and here was yet to be her penitence."  Pearl constantly reminds her mother Hester about her sin or crime which was done in past. When they are living in the forest, Pearl tells Hester: "Mother, the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. It will not feel from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet." She can be said a born misfit of the infantile world. The shadow of parent's sin can be seen levering over the child of Hester.

CONCLUSION:- The Scarlet Letter is a tragic story of sin, crime and Punishment which can be learnt by the deeds of all the characters, the crime they committed and the situations they face. The act of adultery is certain a crime against the individual. Same way, it is also a crime against society as it involves the violation of the moral code formulated and honoured by the society. Hawthorne has given the concept of sin and evil which is a puritan heritage. Sin and crime was the constant theme in this novel and the consequences of guilt as primarily psychological in nature. Hester's loveliness is shown by a sense of guilt. The story shows the concept of sin, crime and Punishment through Hester's life and Dimmesdale's inner guilt.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Scarlet Letter." July 2015.

Assignment prepared from class notes

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ART AS A MEANS OF PRESERVATION THROUGH LILY'S PAINTING IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

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PREPARED  BY- URVI DAVE

COURSE- M.A.

SEMESTER- III

ENROLMENT NO.- 14101009

PAPER NO.- 9

PAPER NAME- THE MODERNIST LITERATURE

BATCH YEAR- 2014-16

email ID- dave.urvi71@gmail.com

TOPIC- ART AS A MEANS OF PRESERVATION THROUGH LILY'S PAINTING IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

SUBMITTED TO- SMT. S.B. GARDI      DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI                     BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

Art as a means of preservation through Lily's painting in To The Lighthouse.

Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 Jan 1882-28 Mar 1941) was an English writer and one of  the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During her interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London Literary Society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To The Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928). She is considered a major innovator in the English language. In her works, she experimented with stream of consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. To The Lighthouse (1927) is set on two days and ten year apart. The plot centres on the Ramsay family's anticipation of and reflection upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familiar tensions. One of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative process that best painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon the lives on a nation's' inhabitants in the midst of war and of the people left behind. It also explores the passage of time and how of women are forced by society to allow men to take emotional strength from them. The book is divided into 3 parts- The Window, Time Passes and To The Lighthouse. Lily Briscoe is a young unmarried friend of the Ramsay's. Lily be friends the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. She fears that her work lacks worth. Lily's mission of life is painting. She prefers to remain single and she is totally dedicated to art. Lily believes "A brush is the only ally in this life full of fret and hurry and rough and tumble of our daily existence. Lily's painting symbolises woman's struggle in patriarchal society. Her vision depends on balance and synthesis that how to bring together disparate things in harmony; this mirrors Woolf's writing creed- "The novel is both a critique and a tribute to the enduring power of Mrs. Ramsay."

LILY'S PAINTING

Lily's painting represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily's anxiety over showing it to William Banks. Lily challenges the status by picking up a paintbrush and experiences a pervasive sense of guilt as if committing a heinous crime. William Banks says "Woman cannot Paint or write." This sentence shows male hegemony. Lily is not confident enough in her abilities to showcase this controversial work to a judgemental public. Her personal independence from the negative influences of male hegemony is directly linked to the aesthetic development as an artist. Lily suffers from a moral crisis over her desire to pursue art as a vocation because of gender inequality & male prejudices imposed upon women. Lily's status as middle aged woman, who values artistic achievement over the prospects of marriage becomes increasingly difficult to maintain against the circumscribed expectations of society. Gender crash can also be seen as the ideology permits a submersion of traditional female gender roles through the character of Lily. Lily is represented as an ideal artist of Woolf who mingles masculine rationality with feminine sympathy. Lily Briscoe defines art as something which is able to unify disparate elements into a cohesive whole. "Nothing stays, all changes; but not words, not paint." This is the reality that everything changes but not art (paint). Art is the means of preservation as everything can change but some things remain forever like painting, words, memories, thoughts etc. For example John Keats'  poem Ode on a Grecian Urn is a poem where we can see a urn in which there is a painting of lovers sitting under a tree, bride, foster- child, historian. All these images will be there forever (eternity). These are the preserved things which cannot die. All this is art which is preserved in the museum. Art is perhaps the only hope of surety in a world destined & determined to change: for a while mourning Mrs. Ramsay's death and painting, there was a empty space on the canvas which she was not able to fill. She lacked concentration. She was getting a whole host of hazy notions, she was unable to grasp and tame on her canvas. But when she paints, she lost consciousness of the world around, she loses herself completely in her picture. She fully gets involved in her painting and tries to give her best. Art is immortal as whenever we visit any museum, we see many ancient things like utensils, coins, urn etc. The art on this remains forever. For example, there is a painting of animals or humans, it becomes immortal as they are on it and they will not die. Once any living thing dies, people forget about it after some time, but if anything like picture or painting is kept of it, it remains immortal. If we give example of Rama or Krishna, we have not seen them yet we remember them always pictures, paintings and idols of them. Epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata are written on them and so they are remembered otherwise no one would even remember them. Writing is also an art form but paintings keep people alive in it. Art live forever and frozen in a positive sense. When we talk about Lily's painting, it is so much effective that after death of Mrs. Ramsay, she is remembered by everyone and lily too drams her painting only. Mr. Ramsay is more philosophical in his life but his philosophy is nothing in front of Lily's painting as the painting is of Mrs. Ran say and it is a lively image. Though Mrs. Ramsay is dead but she will be alive forever in Lily's painting. In her painting, firstly she sees mother and children among hedged and house. Afterwards, she saw her picture in flash and put the tree further, to avoid awkward space. Then she called  memories of last ten years, a little spring or leaf pattern on the table cloth. At last she drew a line three in the centre and finished her painting and said " I have had my vision." In the face of an existence that is inherently without order or meaning, Mr and Mrs, Ramsay employ different strategies for making their lives significant. Mr. Ramsay employ different strategies for making  their lives significant. Mr. Ramsay devotes himself to his progression through the course of human thought, while Mrs. Ramsay cultivates memorable experiences  from social interactions. Neither of these strategies, however proves an adequate means of preserving one's experiment. After all, Mr. Ramsay fails to obtain the philosophical understanding he so desperately desires, and Mrs. Ramsay's life, though filled with moments that have the shine and resilience of rubies, ends. Only Lily Briscoe finds a way to presence her experience, and that way is through her art. As Lily begins her portrait of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the novel, Woolf notes the scope of the project; Lily means to order and connect elements  that have no necessary relation in the world- "hedges and houses and mothers and children." By the end of the novel, ten years later, Lily finishes the painting she started, which stands as a moment of clarity wrested from confusion. Her painting represents a struggle against gender connection, represented by Charles Tinsley's statement. Lily's desire to express Mrs. Ramsay's essence as a wife and mother in the painting mimics the impulse among modern women to know and understand intimately the gendered experiences of the women who came before them. Lily's composition attempts to discover and comprehend Mrs. Ramsay's beauty just as Woolf's constitution of Mrs. Ramsay's character reflects her attempts to access and portray her own mother. The painting also represents her dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily's anxiety over showing it to William Bankes. In deciding that completing the painting regardless of what happens to it is the most important thing, Lily makes the choice to establish her own artistic voice. her project mirrors Woolf's writing, which synthesizes the perceptions of her many characters to come a balanced and truthful portrait of the world.

CONCLUSION: Through these points, we can say that art is immortal and it is a means of preservation. Art lives in one or another way and a person becomes immortal through art. Lily proved Charles Tansley wrong through her painting.

Works Cited

Woolf, Virginia. “To The Lighthouse.” September 2015.

Assignment prepared from Class notes

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING - I Paper No 12 A

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