Professor Garret

 In "The Madman" by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist is a wanderer (Madman) drawn to bustling markets and long, straight roads. He discovers two such markets, Afo and Eke, connected by a mysterious highway. He avoids confrontations and defilement by the market women and sets out on the road to Eke, carrying his belongings and a cudgel for protection. As he nears Eke, he encounters young ladies carrying water-pots in the opposite direction from the market, which surprises him. Feeling thirsty, he leaves the highway to follow a footpath, promising the road that he will bring water back for it.  Meanwhile, in the town of Ogbu, Nwibe is a respected and wealthy man who intends to seek admission into the esteemed ozo society. The ozo men cautiously acknowledge his proposal, advising him to ensure he is fully prepared for the commitment. Nwibe Nwibe wakes up early to tend to his farm before heading to the market in Eke. He plans to enjoy some palm wine with his peers and buy roofing t...

 "Remains of the Feast" is a short story about a woman's relationship with her grandmother in the final days of her life. The narrator describes her grandmother's physical decline and the emotional toll of watching someone she loves suffer. The narrator describes the room of her great-grandmother Rukmini, who recently died at the age of 90. The room still carries the smell of her, but it's not the same overpowering smell that clung to everything during her final days. Rukmini had been in a nursing home for ten days before she died, with a cancerous lump in her neck that spread rapidly throughout her body. The narrator reflects on her relationship with Rukmini, who had survived her only son and daughter-in-law by ten years. Despite being a village-bred woman who signed papers with a thumbprint, she outlived her city-bred and ambitious descendants, which she found slightly hilarious. Rukmini had a sense of humor that was quaint, yet embarrassing at times, and would ...

 The story is set in India and revolves around the lives of domestic servants who work in a wealthy household. One day, the memsahib (lady of the house) receives a call from someone claiming to be a reporter, asking about the behavior of the servants. Suspicious of the call, the memsahib asks Ramu, one of the servants, to keep an eye on the other servants and report anything suspicious. Ramu starts to observe his colleagues and becomes suspicious of Munni, who he believes is not working diligently and is engaging in suspicious activities. Ramu decides to inform the memsahib about Munni's behavior, hoping to protect the other servants and their jobs. The memsahib listens to Ramu's concerns and investigates the situation. She discovers that Munni has been making anonymous calls to the memsahib, spreading rumors about the other servants and their work ethic. The memsahib confronts Munni and gives her a second chance, warning her that any further misconduct will not be tolerated. R...

 The play begins with two intertwined plots. The first plot is about Alec, a native Australian who struggles with his identity as a mixed-race person, and the second plot is about the history of colonization in Australia. The story of colonization begins with the British settlement in Australia, where they meet Yagan's parents and establish a colony near Swan River. Yagan is an aborigine who later becomes friends with Will, a white settler, but is threatened by another officer, Jenkin. As time passes, Will and his wife Alice discover that Yagan has killed two whites for killing his brother, and Yagan escapes from prison. The government offers a reward for anyone who catches Yagan, and he is eventually shot and killed by a young boy who pretends to befriend him. After colonization, interracial marriages between natives and settlers occur, resulting in half-aborigine children struggling to establish a single identity. In the second act, the story focuses on the life of Alec's fat...

Half a Life Half a Life is a novel written by V.S.Naipaul in 2001. The novel revolves around the story of Willie Somerset Chandran, whose father is a Brahmin from the Hindu caste system and his mother a Dalit. Willie's middle name 'Somerset comes from the name of an English writer called Somerset Maugham who had visited Willie's father in a temple once. Willie's has a strained relationship with his father and decides to leave India so as to go and study in London, England. He lives the life of a poor immigrant while in London but later writes a book and manages to publish it. The publishing of his book leads [to Willie receiving a letter from a fan called Ana, wh admires the book and wants to meet Willie. Ana and Willie fall in love and Willie goes back with Ana to her homeland in Africa. The novel ends with Willie leaving his 18-year stay in Africa and going to live with his sister in Berlin. The book was written by the author to explore the life of an immigran...

Ananse Ananse is a trickster spider, which often pranks and even takes human shapes, which is one of the primary characters in West African and Caribbean folklore The poem has been divided into two parts. In the first part, Ananse thinks and memorizes the native culture of his country which once existed but has been lost now In the second part, Ananse weaves and recreates the lost culture by binding past stories, cultures, words, songs of Africa and thus like God, he brings dead African culture to life. In every stanza, Ananse changes its form and presents something different In his poem "Ananse", Kamau Brathwaite has tried to challenge the canons of language set by colonialists He challenges these rules by breaking away from them He believes that the culture which had been destructed by the colonial powers can be regained only by rejecting the rules of language set by colonialists The very title of the poem "Ananse depicts this deviation The correct spelling of...

Postcolonial Reading of “Summer Lightning” Olive Senior is a Caribbean writer who was born in rural Jamaica. In the short story, the author metaphorically expresses her thoughts about the loss of pride in Caribbean culture by the people of Caribbean Island and the hegemonic magnetism towards western culture, which he thinks “Sodomy”. The story, in surface level, presents a narration about boy who lives with her guardians and his experience with a new comer to the house, an old man. A Postcolonial analysis would bring out the intention of the author and provide a different coloring to the story. The Old man represents the colonizers who “had been coming for Years”. The House/ Garden Room represent the “Caribbean Island” and the old man can be analogized with the colonizers of Caribbean Island. The secret room functions as a "Third Space" where the two cultures mingle. The Boy's race is not mentioned in the story, yet he may be assumed as being an african.Afro-...

Note: The title Indian denotes the native Canadian Red Indians. We call them, North American Indians. When the European settlers occupy America, they were driven to extreme north to live in cold places. The earliest settlers of Canada were French and English.  The Aboriginal Canadians can be categorized into three: The First Nations (Predominant aborigines), Inuit (aborigine Canadians especially from Arctic) and Métis (a mixed race – Children of First nations and European settlers). The aboriginal literature has a rich oral tradition. After the colonization they began to write in English, the settlers ‘language. George Ryga also talks about the plight of North American Indians in his play Ecstasy of Rita Joe . The word ‘Indian’ is often misunderstood as settlers from Indian Subcontinent. In the context of Canada, it denotes the aborigines. It can be easily summed up as “In the beginning there was Indian. The Indian was with Canadian and the Canadian was the Indian. That’s ...

                Almost fifty years after independence Parbatpuri had spread itself in all directions. Yet, it still had not been able to climb the elevations on which the members of the civil administration lived. The DC bungalow of Parbatpuri was a legacy of those days when the British had administered the district from residences-cum-offices perched on hillocks nearest the DC bungalow. Beyond him lived the Civil Surgeon and on a slightly lower elevation lived the District Forest Officer. The view from the hillock was marvelous. The DC bungalow was itself creaky but spacious. Every window opened to heart-stopping views of the surrounding landscapes. To the north red river was flowing and Mahatma Gandhi road on the other side attracted everybody in and around. The Parbatpuri market place was a bustling, busy and a crowded area. In those days MG road had been called the Kings Way. MG Road was different from the Kings Way of the twenties and thir...

American Literature - Seminar Topics – II Semester – I M.A 1.        Eco-Centric Reading of “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”.  2.       Symbolism in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”.  3.       Thanatos in “Because I Could not stop for Death”. 4.       Character study of ‘Silas’ from "The Death of the Hired Man". 5.        Representation of New York City in “To Brooklyn Bridge”. 6.        Racism, Double Consciousness, and Resistance in the poems of Langston Hughes. 7.        Idea of Learning from Nature in "The American Scholar". 8.        Ideas of Transcendentalism in "The American Scholar". 9.        Emerson’s Advice to the scholars to become “Man Thinking”. 10.    Influe...

Desmond L Kharmawphlang is a poet and folklorist. He has published books of poetry and collections of theoretical essays on folkloristics pertaining to North East India. He is on the Executive Board of the Belief Narrative Network of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research and is the Vice President of the Indian Folklore Congress. He lives in Shillong, Meghalaya where he is Professor and Head at the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies of the North-Eastern Hill University, where he teaches folkloristics.   In the poem “Last night I dreamed” the poet, folklorist Desmond. L. Kharmawphlang delineates the poetic tradition of North-East literature. The history and evolution of north-east poetic tradition is explained by the poet. As a folklorist, Desmond attempts to give the chronology of events which maketh the evolution possible. The evolution of north-east literature from oral tradition to written is described in an emblematic way which makes the poem in...

Title Significance – Land : Women’s Breath and Speech The title Land: Women’s Breath and Speech is translated from Tamil Title “Nilam: Penkalin Moochum, Peachum”.  The title delineates the crux of the essay. Throughout the essay P.Sivakami talks about the term “Land”. She Interrogates “Can we measure a colossal force by a narrow term ‘Land?” As the main title suggests she talks primarily about the term “Land”. She associates the term with Thinai which includes not only the land but also the living organisms and plants. She negotiates the culture of naming the land based on the plants growing there. Then she traces the history of naming the land and proclaims it was named after the language is spoken by a man and his linage. Term and Naming of Lands After discussing the term and naming of land, she surveys how man possessed the right to hold private property. She traces it back to the beginning of Human civilization when human beings began to appropriate lands. She suggests ...

Palanimuthu Sivakami  (born 1957) is an Indian writer writing in  Tamil . Palanimuthu Sivakami was born in Tamil nadu. Her education took her away from her home and in her acquiring of BA in history and MA she became confident and independent. She went on to serve in the Indian administrative service for about 22 years and now is part of the Indian political scenario.   Dalit women writers are like these diamonds, those who are born and brought up in misery, discrimination and adversity and come out stronger through their books and activism. Their writing gives an in-depth view of their struggle. Women across the world and especially in rural India have met challenges to get themselves educated and for a dalit woman it’s doubly hard. The few women who got themselves educated and wrote came out with work in forms of books which were to a great extent autobiographical, slanting towards feminism and also were considered mainly as a movement of the women to come out of...