Professor Garret

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...

Literature as a Mirror Introduction (Literature as a Mirror) Literature is a mirror of society. Literature indeed reflects the society, its good values and its ills . In its corrective function, literature also mirrors the ills of the society with a view to making the society realize its mistakes and make amends . It also projects the virtues or good values in the society for people to emulate. Literature, as an imitation of human action, often presents a picture of what people think, say and do in the society. It is important to negotiate whether Literature represents gloomy side of life than pleasant side of it. The essay focuses on how the mirror reflects darker side of society than its binary opposition, brighter side of society. Representation of Reality vs Fiction Realism refers to any attempt to portray life accurate. Realism in literature chronicles the lives of ordinary people--farmers, shop keepers, waitresses, construction workers. Realism literature is a reacti...