Sunday 23 April 2017

The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, Lynn White, Jr.

The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis
Lynn White, Jr.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON LYNN WHITE   (Cited from the internet)

Lynn Townsend White Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) was a professor of medieval history at Princeton from 1933 to 1937, and at Stanford from 1937 to 1943. He was president of Mills College, Oakland, from 1943 to 1958 and a professor at University of California, Los Angeles from 1958 until 1987. Lynn White helped to found The Society of History and Technology (SHOT) and was its president from 1960 to 1962. He won the Pfizer Award for "Medieval Technology and Social Change" from the History of Science Society (HSS) and the Leonardo da Vinci medal and Dexter prize from SHOT in 1964 and 1970. He was president of the History of Science Society from 1971 to 1972, of The Medieval Academy of America from 1972-1973, and the American Historical Association in 1973.

Thursday 20 April 2017

Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis Cheryll Glotfelty--Ecocriticism

Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis

Cheryll Glotfelty


Cheryll Glotfelty

An avid reader, nature lover, and concerned planetary citizen, Cheryll Glotfelty was hired by the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1990, as America's first professor of literature and environment.


In 1996, she and Harold Fromm co-edited The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, a critical anthology that helped green the field of literary studies. She is co-founder and past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Glotfelty has offered graduate seminars on ecocriticism and theory; regionalism and bioregionalism; literature of the wild; representing the other--animals in literature; environmental justice literature and theory; and ecofeminism.

Saturday 8 April 2017

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS--Blamiers

The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades PART II--Blamires
M. Phil English, Bharathiar University--Blamiers—
Approaches--Unit III
Summary by Dr. S. Sreekumar


Syllabus for Unit III
The Romantic Age (Blamires, pp 217-380)
The Victorian Age
The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades
The Twentieth Century II: Post-war Developments


THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: POST-WAR DEVELOPMENTS

English literary criticism was strongly influenced by European thoughts and ideas during the post-war period. This gave a cosmopolitan character to studies in literary criticism.

Since the Second World War we see an escalation in the way fashions succeed each other in the field of literary criticism. Moreover in the early years of the century there was always a link between creative writing and critical output. But this relationship totally disappeared at the post-war period.

Before looking at the various theories that flourished during this period, let us look at the contributions of two major critics whom it is difficult to classify as belonging to particular schools.

Friday 7 April 2017

The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades PART II--Blamires

M. Phil English, Bharathiar University--Blamiers—
Approaches--Unit III
Summary by Dr. S. Sreekumar


Syllabus for Unit III
The Romantic Age (Blamires, pp 217-380)
The Victorian Age
The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades
The Twentieth Century II: Post-war Developments


The Twentieth Century: The Early Decades
PART II
[the study  material is in two parts]

Academic Criticism
George Saintsbury,  Herbert Grierson,  A. E. Housman, A.C. Bradley, E. K. Chambers and W.P.Ker

Most of the critics of the early twentieth century were creative writers. None of them except Ford held academic positions or were involved in the teaching of English Literature.
However a group of critics who were mainly teachers of literature dominated the academic arena. Students of literature turned towards them for critical help. The average student was more indebted to them than to James or Yeats, Ford or Eliot. These critics kept alive the tradition of narrative criticism in which writers were historically placed, their works explored and their personalities explored. These critics  were known as academic critics. They are George Saintsbury,  Herbert Grierson,  A. E. Housman, A.C. Bradley, E. K. Chambers and W.P.Ker.

The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades--Blamires--Unit III


M. Phil English, Bharathiar University--Blamiers—
Approaches--Unit III
Summary by Dr. S. Sreekumar


Syllabus for Unit IIIThe Romantic Age (Blamires, pp 217-380)The Victorian AgeThe Twentieth Century I: The Early DecadesThe Twentieth Century II: Post-war Developments


The Twentieth Century I: The Early Decades

PART I
[the study  material is in two parts]

The early twentieth century was a period of extraordinary literary activity in England. The publishing industry was expanded and modernized as there was a huge demand for books. There were various reasons for this:
·        Elementary education became universal
·        The public library system was developed
·        There was reaction against excessive working hours from the trade unions and laborers got vast increase in leisure.

Thursday 6 April 2017

Feminism and Critical Theory-- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Bharathiar University MPhil (English) Study Materials -- PAPER II – APPROACHES TO LITERATURE


Unit V

Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak (Lodge & Wood, pp. 493 -509)



Feminism and Critical Theory
Gayatri  Chakravorty  Spivak
[This is a simplified version of the original]

Dear Scholar, 

In this blogspot, you get another detailed summary of the same essay. but as many students requested a simplified version of the same, I am publishing this summary. This summary will be more useful from the examination point of view. 


Introduction

Gayatri  Chakravorty  Spivak is the translator of Jacques Derrida’s De la Grammatologie (Of Grammatology)  [notes -1].  She introduced deconstructive critical strategies into cultural studies, especially feminism. [notes-2]. Deconstruction underlines the inherent capacity of the language to suggest ‘supplementary’ or excess semantic associations. [notes 3].

Monday 3 April 2017

Psychology and Literature--Carl Gustav Jung

Bharathiar University  

MPhil (English) Study Materials  


PAPER II – APPROACHES TO LITERATURE

Unit IV

C.G.Jung (Lodge, pp 175-227)

Psychology and Literature

Carl Gustav Jung

By S. Sreekumar

Carl Gustav Jung (1875 –1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work has been influential not only in psychiatry but also in anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy and religious studies. Freud wanted him to be his potential heir to carry on his "new science" of psychoanalysis. However, Jung's researches and personal vision were different from Freud’s and a breach took place between the two.