Post-modernism (A Quick View)

Postmodernism (A Quick View)

Postmodernism is often used as a period term by those who recover history. Foucault’s notion of history as ‘a plurality of discourse’ and Lyotard’s concept of ‘language games’ assert postmodernism as a periodising one. Terry Eagleton criticizes postmodernism from Marxist stand point. For Jameson, the definitive, signifying practice of postmodernism is based on ‘pastiche’ (pastiche means the imitation of one style by another but unlike parody it does not contain irony or satire), which bears an echo of Baudrillard’s ‘hyperreality’.

 

Besides pastiche, the key markers of postmodernism for Jameson are a depthlessness that situates meaning on the surfaces of the texts, a weakened sense of historical time, a conflation of high and mass culture, a commodifation of art and a self-referentiality that makes each detail of the present into a symptom of all of postmodernity.

 

“We must regard postmodernism firstly as a mood or style of thought which privileges aesthetic modes over those of logic or reason; secondly as an aesthetic practice with an accompanying body of commentary upon it; and thirdly as a concept designating a cultural epoch which has facilitated the rise to prominence of such theoretical and aesthetic styles and which may or may not constitute a break with previous structures of modernity (Patricia Waugh)

 

Postmodernity can be studied broadly in two ways in relation to culture and in relation to literary criticism. Culturally postmodernism encompasses art and architecture, film and television, dance and music – it heralds a new stage in human history where electronic media has overshadowed print medium.

 

In literature:

The pleasure principle of postmodernism has inevitably led to an endless mixing of genres and media and modes of aesthetic thinking and conceptual art. For example: Film and literature, avant-garde and mass culture, the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the ludicrous, interior monologue and magic realism are often lumped together into a form which reflects the instinct for ‘vita nouva’ (new life) (Vita Nova is a text by Dante published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and verse)

Postmodernism has been studied along with poststructuralism. Postmodernism in literary criticism is closer to deconstruction and cultural criticism. It shares with deconstruction the undecidability of text, and goes along with cultural criticism which erases the boundary between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture. What postmodernist theatre, fiction and poetry have in common the view that literary language has its own reality; not a means of representing reality. The boundary between fiction and non-fiction is blurred. Postmodernism has altered our idea of literature, art and culture by breaking down the boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ ; ‘good’ and ‘bad’; with reference to study of these and done away with literary boundaries.

 

Ihab Hassan, in his book, Paracriticisms (1975) equates postmodernism with anti-eliticism and anti-authoritarianism. Linda Hutcheon in her book, A Poetics of Postmodernism views postmodernist fiction as “historigraphic metafiction” bringing history close to fiction.

 

Postmodernism moves away from traditions through experimentation with new literary devices, forms and style. As a discourse, postmodernism is a cultural phenomenon. No wonder, Patricia Waugh calls ‘the cyborg (A cyborg (/ˈsaɪbɔːrɡ/), a contraction of "cybernetic organism", is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline) is another image of the postmodern sublime”. But like any other ‘Movement’ it remained centre stage for a period and then yielded place to postcolonialism.

 

 

 

 

 

Postmodern Theories

Some Important Postmodern Critical Theories

‘Postmodernism’ and ‘Critical Theory’ are broad rubrics for intellectual movements rather than specific theories. They are essential parts of social semiotic analysis. Post-structuralism and Deconstruction, which were initially intellectual and critical reactions against structuralism of 1960s, paved the way for the rise of post-modernism. Neo-Marxism and Feminism influenced the postmodern critical theory. Postmodernism has made common cause with new critical theories, embracing post-colonialism, feminist, gay and queer theories. The present rubric for post-modern and critical theory is generally called cultural studies.

Postmodernism is a social, political and aesthetic ideology which reflects the cross-currents prevailing in the social moment in which we live today. Post-modernism strengthens the concept of knowledge based society. Knowledge in post-modern societies has a utilitarian character. It is also distributed, stored and arranged differently in post-modern societies as compared to modern ones. It synchronizes with the advent of computer technology in 1960s.The computer technology has radically revolutionized the modes of knowledge production, distribution and consumption in post-modern societies. Knowledge has become digitizable, that is anything that is not digitizable will cease to be knowledge. There is a paradigm shift in the very definition of knowledge. The opposite of knowledge is not ‘ignorance’ but ‘noise'. Anything that is not digitizable is noise and is not recognizable within the system.

Different critics have viewed postmodernism differently. To some it is ingrained in ‘Romanticism’, and to others it is a continuation of modernism but it has been universally acknowledged that postmodernism has changed our notion of art, literature and culture.

Jean Francois Lyotard:

Jean Francois Lyotard’s book, The Postmodern Condition is the master text of postmodernism in which he has rejected the beliefs of the Enlightenment – ideas such as reason and progress which are the basics of modernity. He has used the term, ‘grand narratives’ in this book. In his seminal essay, “Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism?”, Lyotard gives an account of postmodernity which suggests the collapse of ‘grand narratives’ or ‘meta-narratives’ and their replacement with ‘little narratives’ because of the advancement of technologies which altered the  notion of knowledge.

Lyotard further analyses Kantian notion of ‘sublime’ in the same essay. He describes both narrative and non-narrative knowledges as ‘language game’ not because they are frivolous but because they are bound by rules that players agree to follow. Language games are also agonistic – to speak is to fight. Examples of language moves include “prescriptive utterances, such as rules and recommendations, and denotative utterances, such as truth claims”. In post-modernity, knowledge spring from the linguistics and communicative practices of researchers engaged in language games that generate ‘little narratives’ -  (rejecting grand narratives favours mini narratives, stories that explain small practices, local events  rather than large-scale universal or global concepts). Postmodern mini narratives are always situations, provisional, contingent and temporary, making no claim to universality, truth, reason, or stability.

For postmodern society there is  only surface without depth; only signifiers, with no signified. Apart from suggesting the collapse of ‘grand narratives’ and their replacement by ‘little narratives’ and the shifting of emphasis from ‘knowledge to information’, Lyotard also brings a correlation between modernism and postmondernism. He considers postmodern as part of the modern. Postmodernism, then is the critique of grand narratives, the awareness that such narratives serve to mask the contradictions and instabilities that are inherent in any social organization or practices.

 

Jean Baudrillard:

 

Jean Baudrillard, a postmodernist who studies contemporary popular culture, says that commodities – the stuff you buy- are all signifiers. Signifiers are representations (words, pictures, symbols, etc.) that point to something beyond outside of themselves, something which supposedly has a reality of its own, regardless of how it is represented. In the world of mass media which Baudrillard studies, however, there is no signified, no reality, no level of simple existence to which signifiers refer. Rather, he says, there are only signifiers with no signified; there are only pictures of chairs without any real chairs ever being referred to or existing. He calls this separation of signifier from signified a ‘simulacrum’, a representation without an original that it copies. Simulacra (the plural of simulacrum) don’t mirror or reproduce or imitate  or copy reality; they are reality itself, says Baudrillard. Hence to him, identity is thus a product of the signifiers. ‘Selfhood’ for him as for Lacan is thus always already an alienated position, something defined by externals.

His work, Simulation (1983) concerns with what he calls the culture of ‘hyperreality’ – that is models replace and determine the real. For him, “Disneyland becomes America: hyperreality is everyday reality. In the postmodern world of mass media, however, the original largely disappears, and only copies exist. An example of this is music CD; there is no original master version of any music CD but only thousands and thousands of copies, all identical, all equal in value.

Mass-mediated forms of communication in postmodern culture revolve around this idea of simulacra, of imitation and copies with no original. The simulacra forever being projected at viewers by the mass media provide what Baudrillard calls, ‘codes’ and ‘models’. Humans in the postmodern culture occupy passive subject positions within these codes or models.

A simulacrum creates a passive subject who takes the simulation as the only necessary reality; a kid playing a race-car video game who then gets behind the wheel of a ‘real’ car may not be able to tell the difference between the two experiences of ‘driving’. The lack of distinction between game and reality is another feature of postmodern culture.

 

 

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari:

 

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari are the authors of number of difficult works explain postmodern ideas. In Anti-Oedipus they deconstruct and rework Freud’s ideas about the formation of the ‘self’ and the psych and the unconsciousness. In the essay “A Thousand Plateaus” they present the concept of the “rhizome” as a basic structure in the postmodern world. They throw out the model of the ‘tree’ and replace it with a model of fungus, a ‘rhizome’. (arborescence or the model of tree as the predominating model for how knowledge operates in the Enlightenment/ modern western world. In this model a small idea (a seed) takes root and sends up the shoots and this shoot and trunk is supported by the invisible root system; everything that is the tree is traceable back to a single point of origin.) This according to Deleuze and Guattari is how all humanit/ Enlightenment (western thought) has worked, and how all art and literature from the humanist culture has operated.

A rhizome is an organism which consists of interconnected living fibres, but with no central point, no particular origin, no definitive structure, no formative unity. A rhizome does not start from anywhere and end anywhere; at every point in its existence it is the same; a network of individual but indistinguishable threads. A rhizome is much harder to uproot; an example is crabgrass, which continues to survive no matter how much of it you pull up, since no part is the ‘governing’ part of the organism.

Another good example of a rhizomatic structure is ‘internet’, the WWW (World Wide Web). It has no centre; there is no place that starts it, controls it, monitors it, or ends it. Rather the WWW is the interconnection of all the zillions of websites that exist – and which exist only in hyperreality, only in digital form, only as images on a computer screen, and not in any material form. Take away the individual website out and the Web still exists, without any impairment of functioning; take out Yahoo and Google end even Microsoft , the Web will still exist and will still work the same way.

Deleuze and Guattari argue that stories, narratives, literature operate like either a tree structure or a root structure. ‘Tree’ stories have a beginning, middle and an end; they have a linear progression and tell a story about growth, about achievement, about upwardness. Tree narratives, make the statement ‘to be’. Continually talking about what is what becomes, what will be and what was. Rhizome stories, narratives, literature on the other hand, do not have these delimited starting and ending points. They are about a maze of surfaces connections, rather than about depth and height; they make the statement ‘and….. and……and’ rather than ‘to be’ as they show connections between events and people and ideas without necessarily offering any causative explanations or direction for those connections. Rhizomatice narratives offer what Deleuze and Guattari call ‘lines of flight’ and ‘strategies of deterritorialization’ rather than maps of a territory or terrain.

So no ending, no conclusion. The writing just ‘s   t    o   p   s’.

 

Modernism Vs Post-Modernism

Comparative View on Modernism and Postmodernism

Modernism	Postmodernism
Modernism is defined as “a style and movement in art, architecture and literature popular in the middle of the twentieth century in which modern ideas, methods, and materials were used rather than the traditional one”	Postmodernism is defined as “a style and movement in art, architecture, literature, etc. in the late twentieth century that reacts against modern styles, for example, by mixing features from traditional and modern styles.
Modernism is “roughly coterminous with the twentieth century western ideas about art.” It is “the movement in visual arts, music, literature and drama which rejected the old  Victorian standards of how art should be made, consumed and what it should mean. The stalwarts of modernism in literature endeavoured to redefine what poetry and fiction could be and do. T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Proust, Kafka, Mallarme, Rilke, etc, are the doyens of twentieth century modernism in literature	Postmodernism in relation to literary criticism owes its origin to Charles Olson who first used the term in his essays in 1950s. In the 1960s through 1970s critics like Ihab Hassan, Susan Sontag, Leslie Fiedler, Linda Hutcheon and Fredric Jameson have discussed postmodernism in relation to literature and other arts. Post-modernism, a complicated term, emerged as an area of academic study in mid 1980s of the   last century. Its scope is very wide and comprehensive.
Modernity which preceds modernism embraces a set of philosophical, political, social ethical ideas which form the basis for the aesthetic aspect of modernism. Modernity is the condition of being modern. It denotes order, rationality, rationalization and method. It stands for creating order out of chaos.
The following are the characteristics of modernism that are conspicuous from literary point of view: a.      Emphasis on subjectivity and impressions in writing as in the stream of consciousness technique. (Thus, impressionism in art and literature uses subjectivity to convey a truthful sense of reality. ... In addition, the impressionist movement focused on light and movement. It dismisses the still life images of its forebearers and rather depicts everyday life and cityscapes) b.      A departure from the apparent objectivity provided by the omniscient third person narrators, fixed narrative points of view and clear-cut moral positions. c.      Emphasis on fragmented forms, random-seeming   collages of different materials and discontinuous narratives. d.      Blurring of distinction between literary forms. For example, Eliot’s poetry seems more documentary and the prose of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf seems to be more poetic. e.      A rejection of formal aesthetic theories in favour of minimalist designs, spontaneity and discovery in creation. f.       A rejection of the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ or popular culture, both in choice of materials used to produce art and in methods of displaying, distributing and consuming art.	Postmodernism like modernism follows most of these same ideas, rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejecting  rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Post-modern art stands for reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity, ambiguity, simultaneity and an emphasis on the destructured and decentered and dehumanized subject. (pastiche means the imitation of one style by another but unlike parody it does not contain irony or satire)
Though postmodernism seems very much like modernism in many ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude. Modernism tends to present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history, but present that fragmentation as something tragic, something to be lamented and mourned  at loss.	Postmodernism, in contrast, does not lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality or incoherence, but rather celebrates. The world is meaningless. Let’s not pretend that art can make meaning, then let’s just play with nonsense.
Modernity is fundamentally about order: about rationality and rationalization, creating order out of chaos. The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to creating more order and that the more ordered a society is, the better it will function. Thus modern societies rely on continually establishing a binary opposition between ‘order’ and ‘disorder’.	Postmodern theorist Jean-Francois Lyotard equated that stability with the idea of ‘totality’ or a totalized system
Modernism cultivated austerity	Postmodernism is interested in pleasure.

William Wordsworth (1770- 1850) [Romantic Criticism]

Introduction:

William Wordsworth is a distinguished pioneer in the field of Romantic Criticism. Though Wordsworth is not among the best Romantic Critics his criticism has value and significance of its own. He was not a born critic but circumstances made him a critic. He chose the field of criticism in sheer self-defense. He had his share in The Lyrical Ballad for which he contributed nineteen poems and four other were contributed by Coleridge. He published Preface to the Lyrical Ballad in 1802 to defend his poetry from dilettantism. Of course the preface contains his critical views on literature.

Themes of Poetry:

The Preface raised a wall between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Wordsworth deftly worked his way out of the frigid and abstract style of the 18^th century verse. Before expressing his own ideas about the nature of poetry Wordsworth attacks the artifice and restricted forms of the neo-classical eighteenth century poetry. As regards the themes of his poetry, Wordsworth seeks the fundamentals of human life by contemplating its simplest forms. He defends his poetry from the charges of triviality  and false simplicity. The principal object in his poems published in the Lyrical Ballads was to “choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them, throughout , as far as possible in a selection of language really used by men, and at the same time…” Wordsworth thus prefers the life of humble but not ignoble men and women, with their tragic or pathetic fates, their patience and dignity of character, their half conscious but real response to the landscape of which they are a part. In many of his poems such as “Lucy Grey, The Solitary Reaper, Michael,” etc. Coleridge appreciates Wordsworth’s poetic characters for their authentic representation of generic attributes.

Poetic Diction:

Wordsworth changed the very concept of language proper for poetry. He reacted sharply against the abuses of existing poetic diction which was highly pedantic, artificial and full of affections. According to him the language of poetry “is as far as possible, a selection of the language really spoken by men, that this selection whatever it is made with true taste and feeling…” By ‘selection’, he means that “it was to be purified from provincialism’ and from all “rational causes of disgust and dislike”. By language he primarily means ‘vocabulary’. The word selection also means the elimination of local and social peculiarities. Coming to the question of style in his poems, Wordsworth points out that “personification of abstract ideas’ rarely occur in his poems. He utterly rejects them “as an ordinary device to elevate style.” In the matter of metre he appeals to tradition. He justifies the use of metre. The foremost reason is that poetry pleases and this pleasure is enhanced by the use of metre. The use of metre makes poetry more exciting. “There is some danger,’ says Wordsworth “that the excitement may be carried beyond its proper bounds.” At the same time Wordsworth finds no difference between the language of prose and that of metrical composition. He asserts that even in the best poetry, there may be significant passages which may have an order of words similar to that found in a good prose composition.

Definition of poetry and the process of poetic creation:

Defining poetry and process of poetic creation Wordsworth writes “ … poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility, the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that, which was before  the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.” Feelings, he points out are always modified by our thoughts, which are the representatives of all our past feeling. The true poet is able to connect one thought with another and discovers what is really important and worthwhile. The poetic process has four stages such as recollection, contemplation, recrudescence and composition. In some of his poems – Tintern Abbey, Immortality ode, The Solitary Reaper and Daffodils, Wordsworth closely follows his own poetic doctrine of poetic composition.

Who is a poet?:

According to Wordsworth a poet has an important role to play. He has a social function to perform. He does not write merely for the sake of his own pleasure but in order to communicate his feelings and ideas to the public. “He is a man speaking to men”. He is endowed with great imagination. He understands human nature and the nature of human passion. His enthusiasm for life is far greater than that of ordinary man. The poet differs from other people only in degree and not in kind.

Function of Poetry:

Poetry, according to Wordsworth, gives immediate pleasure. He writes, “Poetic pleasure is an acknowledgement of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgement more sincere…” Poetry gives us knowledge of man, nature and human life and that knowledge is a source of pleasure.

Poetry and Science:

The poet considers man and nature as essentially adapted to each other. Man’s mind is the mirror of the fairest and the most interesting objects of nature. Thus, the poets converse with nature. The scientist, who works hard in the search of truth, also finds pleasure in truth. Thus, boththe poet and the man of science endeavour to seek pleasure in the search of knowledge. But the knowledge of truth which the scientist realizes is particular and personal. This truth comes to him slowly and cannot be shared by mankind in general. But the poet sings for the whole of humanity. All human begin to share his joys. Therefore, the truth uttered  by the poet is of universal nature.

Poetry and Religion:

According to Wordsworth there is intimate relationship between religion and poetry. Like religion poetry also provides comfort. Like religion it also consoles and sustains us. The one supplies what the other lacks. Poetry thus caters to man’s moral refinement and happiness. Wordsworth once wrote to Beaumant that “Every great poet is a great teacher.”

Imagination and fancy:

Imagination, according to Wordsworth has a higher import than merely depicting the images that are merely a faithful copy of absent external objects, existing in the mind. Imagination denotes operations of the mind upon objects and processes of creation or of composition. Imagination has the shaping and creating power also. It is also governed by a sublime consciousness of the soul. Fancy, according to Wordsworth is an “aggregative and associative power,” while imagination is a transforming power, the shaping and modifying power, dealing only with what is plastic, pliant and indefinite.

Wordsworth’s Views on Criticism and Critics:

Wordsworth also expresses his views on true and false criticism. He cautions the readers against false criticism. He argues that it is the feeling that matter and not the language. Real poetry embodies noble feelings and it gives enjoyments ‘of power, more lasting and more exquisite in its nature.” He wants his readers to judge his poems by their own feelings and not by any external standards prescribed by critics. Wordsworth points out that readers should read new poems with an open mind, without any prejudice.

In his Essay Supplementary to the Preface, Wordsworth tells about the essential qualifications of a competent critic. A competent critic is one who is not immature and one who not does appreciate in a fit of excitement. He should not be beguiled by his youthful passions and emotions when reading and appreciating a poem. He should not read poetry only to seek an escape from the hard realities of life. He should try to regulate his sensibilities. A good critic should be free from all prejudice in favour of artificial diction. He should be free from prejudices, religious biases and preconceived notions.

Wordsworth Contributions to Criticism:

Wordsworth is primarily a poet and not a critic, but he has given a most comprehensive critical document in the form of the Preface. It is a great literary landmark which give a new direction, consciousness and programme to English Romantic Movement. He is the first critic to turn from the form of poetry to its substance. He is the first critic who builds a theory of poetry, and give an account of the nature of the creative process. Wordsworth’s emphasis is on novelty, experiment, liberty, spontaneity, inspiration, imagination, simplicity and human values, as contrasted with the classical emphasis on authority, tradition and restraint. He is an illustrious romantic critic.

Tragic- Comedy

Introduction:

Tragi-comedy is half tragedy and half comedy which are mingled harmoniously together. It is distinct from tragedy and comedy. There is comic relief in tragedy which intensify tragedy and tragical elements in comedy which intensify the element of comedy. Hence tragic-comedy is different from these two. In fact Tragi-Comedy stands on a different footing altogether. It is a complete tragedy upto a certain point in a play and then complete comedy thereafter. This means the complication sets forth a tragic theme and the denouement turns it into comedy. Some of the examples of this type of play are Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline”, “Winter’s Tale” and “The Tempest”. The structure of the tragic-comedy is also not exactly like a tragedy or a comedy. In tragic-comedy  happiness and woe frequently verging on the improbable. The characters are not always in one single mood. Many undergo a transformation, sometimes natural and sometimes through some outer forces.  The supernatural and pastoral settings are also often used by the playwrights. The general atmosphere is set in a world of fantasy. This gives an alternative name for this type of play, the Dramatic Romance.

Origin and History:

Tragi-comedy was not known to the Greek. The reason is in tragic-comedy, the unity of action is the mixture of both the tragic and the comic. The Latin playwright, Plautus attempted this type in “Amphitruo” and called it “tragic-comoedia”. But it was not the exact tragic-comedy of the English variety. The English form arose in the reign of James I due to Italian and Spanish influences. Therefore as in Italian plays the tragic-comedy contains pastoral elements and as in Spanish plays it contains the romantic intrigue. Beaumont and Fletcher’s “A King and No King” is a tragic-comedy which is the forerunner of Shakespeare’s Dramatic Romances. With various variations the dramatic romances maintained itself on the stage till the closing of the theatres in 1642.

Arguments ‘for and against’ the form:

Tragi-comedy was always opposed by ‘those who judge by principles rather than perception’. Sidney, the Elizabethan critic opposes it for its mingling of tragic and comic elements. Milton condemned in the preface to “Samson Agonistes”.  Addison later called it “one of the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet’s thought.” It shows that these poets wanted to strictly follow the classical rule of ‘Unity of Action”. But they did not explain that this form is unnatural or inartistic. But Dryden esteems it high since it is the invention of English dramatists. Dr. Johnson also appreciates this type saying, “it is not only common but perpetual in the world, may surely be allowed upon the stage, which pretends only to be the mirror of life.” Later writers also encourage this type of play. In Dickens novel we pass from hilarious laughter to the most tearful forms of the pathetic.

Conclusion:

The ultimate aim of all art is to give aesthetic pleasure and in this line tragic-comedy also gives the same effect. Moreover it exactly resembles life, because life is the mixture of both tragic and comic elements. Hence it is very natural like other dramatic types. Above all, some of the greatest masterpieces of English literature were created in this form by Shakespeare and other playwrights.

 

The Soul’s Prayer (Sarojini Naidu)

Introduction: Sarojini Naidu was one of the most gifted immortal artists whose writings catch the attention of the people not only in India but also in abroad. There are greater poets than Sarojini Naidu but her name is at the top due to her original approach as she sees things with a fresh approach and her enchanting poetry that has thrilled several generations. Her poetry is appreciated, for its bird like quality. In this reference in the introduction of her collected poems published many years later under the title The Sceptred Flute. She is called the nightingale of India.

Critical analysis: Broadly speaking, major themes of Sarojini Naidu’s poems are love, nature, folk talk, life and death and finally patriotism. Her poetry reflects her love for her nation and also sings the joys and sorrows of her people. She emphasizes more on joys and sorrows rather than other themes because she considers that joys and sorrows are interrelated to each other and both aspects of a coin. Both are necessary for the completion of life. Life is surrounded by joys and sorrows. Sarojini Naidu has sharp sensibility and deep insight dealing with these aspects of life.

Sarojini Naidu’s “The Soul’s Prayer” has sharp sensibility regarding to life and death. It is observed that the steady growth of her poetic sensibility and imagination which at first found delight in observing a ‘magical wood’ or a ‘wandering firefly’ towards a serene but delightful mood of mysticism can also be seen in The Soul’s Prayer. The poem reveals the poetess’s mystic vision dealing with problems of life and death. The poem is an imaginary conversation between the conscience and the God. The conscience pleads God to reveal the meaning of life and death.

Saojini Naidu’s poetry deals with the problems of life and death as the life is full of pains, sorrows, confusions and problems. With the problems of life and death Naidu prefers to address God who is the maker of this world and creator of life and death. She writes this poem with the voice of a child who is a girl of 13 years old. Child is none but the poetess herself. “The Soul’s Prayer” presents her faith in God and she feels pride to be His innocent child. The child makes a blind prayer to God and pleads with Him to reveal the various metaphysical aspect of life and the nature of existence or the law of life and death. Here the speaker is searching for "the inmost laws of life and death

In this way she thinks that if God tells her the laws and mystery of life and death, she may get ready to bear the bitter experiences of life as joys and sorrows of human life with the greatness of God as she appears saying to, “Give me to drink each joy and pain:” The poetess prays to God to fill everything in the whole world, all life's joys and pain at the most intense levels. Not only she craves for bliss in life, but she is ready to keep abreast of every pang of strife and struggle. The poem has also an autobiographical tone when she desires to experience every types of situation in life. She believes that it is only when she passes through the trials and tribulations of life that her souls would be completely thirst of knowledge. Sarojini Naidu further asks God not to give her gift or grief. The knowledge of the grave is mystic because nobody knows what happens at the grave goes beyond one’s ordinary senses; one can’t experience it while in this body.

 

The Lord answers her prayer. Before this, He has stated that He would not disregard encounter both passionate rapture and despair at the same time but promises her to provide her everything, that her soul will "know all passionate rapture and despair...drink deep of joy and fame...love shall burn thee like a fire, and pain shall cleanse thee like a flame." So the Lord will let her enjoy many intense emotional experiences both good and bad.

In the fifth stanza God promises the child to provide everything for what she prays. She is innocent. She doesn’t know for what she is pleading. God informs her that after having experience of all the love, joys and highs and lows of life , her soul would not be satisfied but it will yearn to be released from the blind prayer and then her soul will beg to learn about peace instead of intensity. It will want to know how to leave the fire and flame behind. As Sarojini Naidu writes:

‘So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.

None never actually needed to learn through pain, and there was never anything to fear. Mystic mystery is a simple secret, nothing more. It’s God’s peace. At last the poet finds solace in the knowledge that Life and Death are merely the two faces of God-His Light and His Shadow. As the lines show:

Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.

Here Sarojini Naidu compares life to a prism through which the color of life, including joy and sorrow are realization of the ultimate knowledge is achieved but death is like a shadow when the knowledge of the various aspects of life ceases. In the concluding stanza God bends from His sevenfold height with care to teach His children the meaning of His grace that where the sun has never shone there is also light, His light:

‘I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.’

Conclusion: Thus the poem concludes with a belief that life and death are interlinked between one another, reflecting each other. So Shadow and Light are just like birth and death, like night and day, like inhaling and exhaling. Similarly joy and pain are also interlinked within being. The answers received by the soul from the divine force reveal the nature of suffering, love, and pain with mystic vision. Sarojini Naidu’s poetry is a torch light guides that one to understand and face various aspects of life.

 

The One-Act Play

Origin:                                                                

The history of one-act play dates far back to the early Mystery and Miracle plays. In fact, several little plays were combined to form a kind of cycle and from this developed the full-length drama. The Interlude of the later 15^th century was also brief. When the Interlude got popularity, the short plays disappeared from the English stage. Then in the form of farce, in once again reappeared in 18^th century. But in 19^th century interlude got more importance. At the late period the standard programme of London theatre consisted of a full-length play preceded by a one-act piece. This one-act piece was called “curtain raiser’.  This was often ignored by people because they concentrated on the main plot. In 20^th century this one-act piece got its real importance because for example, evening entertainments consisted of three one-act plays by a single dramatist.  Sir James Barrie’s “The Will”, “The Twelve Pound Look” and “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals”;

Shaw’s “The Man of Destiny” and “The Dark Lady of the Sonnets” and Noel Coward’s “To-night at Eight-Thirty” got a good welcome in the beginning of the 20^th century. But later this one-act play form slowly disappeared.

Techniques:

The one-act play stands in the same relation to the drama as the short story to the novel. One-play is a single play which has its own form and techniques. In fact, the dramatist needs a special talent to write one-act play because he has to say everything, plot, characterization, incidents, scenery, themes, techniques, music and so on within the single act  of the play. So the dramatist has to follow brevity. Brevity is the soul of one-act play. Brevity in plot, characterization,  and dialogue must be significant from the beginning to the end of the play. So once could not conclude that so short a piece cannot be profound, subtle, or poetic. Like a five-act drama, one-act play also promises full entertainment and moral edification.  Barrie and Shaw are the prominent writers of this kind. Yeats in “Land of Heart’s Desire or Cathleen in Houlihan” showed his real talent of writing one-act play. One-act play mainly focuses on grim or comic themes yet it leaves abiding impression  of nobility and beauty. One-act plays follows Classical rules because it contains only tragedy or comedy. There is no mingling of both the forms in one-act plays. The three unities, unity of place, unity of time, unity of action were naturally followed in one-act plays for the reason that the form itself is small and so automatically demands these unities. 

THE MASQUE

Origin:

Saintsbury defines a Masque as “a dramatic entertainment in which plot, character and even to a great extent dialogue are subordinated on the one hand to spectacular illustration and on the other to musical accompaniment” . It has rich music, elaborate scenic effects and dancing mingled with a fairy tale, myth and allegory. It was of Italian origin.  It was introduced into England in the beginning of the 16^th century. The earliest account of an English Masque occurs in Hall’s “Chronicle” for the year 1512. In this Masque, gentlemen appeared in elaborate costumes with masks on their faces. They danced to the rhythm of the music and then desired the ladies to dance. Some were content and some who did not know the fashion refused it. Finally these gentlemen departed and so did the Queen and all the ladies.

Later Development:

The Masque developed into something like a splendid modern ballet, with the additional attractions of beautiful speeches and songs.  It was perfected in the period of James I. Ben Jonson’s favourite form was Masque.

 Main Features:

·        The characters are deities of classical mythology, nymphs, and personified abstractions like Love, Delight, Harmony and so on.

·        The number of characters must be only six

·        The scenes are very detail such as Olympus, Arcadia and so on.

·        Dances of various types are introduced at appropriate places.

·        The scenery and costume are rich

·        Often a comic interlude (Anti-Masque)  is introduced which is a humorous counterpart to the main plot

·        The Masque is so long and it has only one act

Its Decline:

The Masque was a costly form of entertainment. It was performed as part of the celebrations at a wedding in a great family. For example, the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda in “The Tempest” was celebrated with a Masque. Milton’s “Comus” contains Masque as a part of it. After the death of James I, this art form started declining.  The novelty associated with it disappeared and in addition to the enormous cost made the art decline.  The literary value was not given more importance due to rich costumes and settings. These are the main reasons for the art to disappear.

 

 

 

Characteristics of Romantic Criticism

Freedom from Rules:

Romantic criticism is characterized by freedom from the bondage of rules. It ignored the rules of Aristotle or Horace or of the French. It is remarkably original in its approach towards all the problems connected with poetry and poetic creation. It allowed free play to poetic imagination. Thus Wordsworth defines poetry ”the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” Coleridge assigns a very high place to imagination in poetry. The Romantics’ concern with the essential nature of poetry was further strengthened by their strength in and study of German metaphysics. Romantic criticism is thus, essentially creative and new.

Subjective and Impressionistic Criticism

Neo-classical criticism is objective but the romantic is subjective, expressive and impressionistic whereas the neo-classical critics referred literature to such extraneous standards as social propriety and moral purity. Romantic critics emphasize that works of literature are to be judged on the basis of the impression that they produce and not with reference to any rules.

Changed Conception of Poetic Diction.

During the romantic period the conception of poetic diction also changed. The eighteenth century poetic diction was stale, rigid and conventional. But Wordsworth sought to “imitate and as far as possible to adopt the very language of man.” He also says that the very selection of language liberates a poet from ‘the language of any other man of commonsense.” Coleridge on the other hand remarks that the poet composes poetry under the influence of exalted emotions, therefore, the language that he uses is his own language. He uses metre and rhyme to give exalted effect to his poetry.

Function of Poetry

According to romantic criticism, pleasure rather than instruction is the end of poetry. “If poetry instructs”, says Coleridge, “it does so only through pleasure.” Poetry should transport people. Its appeal should be to the heart and not to the head.

Importance of Imagination

Imagination is main the characteristics of romantic literature and the literary criticism. It is imagination which leads to the production of great work of art. The critic also must primarily be gifted with imagination only then he can appreciate the beauty of work of art.

Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Hazlitt, quince, Edgar Allan Poe, the renowned American poet-critic gave a new direction to literary criticism. It was William Blake who may be called one of the distinguished pioneers of romantic criticism. It was Blake, who raised his voice against “Poetry fettered.”

Look Home - Robert Southwell

Robert Southwell: Robert Southwell (1561-1595) was an English Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order. He was also a poet, hymnodist and clandestine missionary in post-Reformation England. Southwell’s poetry is largely addressed to an English Catholic Community. Southwell convinced many English Catholics and through his poems and writings he reminded them of their opportunity for spiritual growth.

Robert Southwell in “Look Home” also addresses the English Catholic community and explains to them about the miracles done by through the creation of many things such as man and the universe. The poets praise God for His creative genius and the unfathoming power lies in Him.   The poet also brings out the two different states of man; in one state man invented and discovered many things which lie hidden in the universe and in other elated mood, man even gave shape to God and made others to see God through the invented image. Thus man recreated what God has created.

The first stanza of the poem explains the beauty of heaven and also how heaven was created. The poet believes that heaven and hell lie in man’s mind and the existence of heaven and hell is not in space or beyond it.  The poet, then  explains how man had recreated the beautiful heaven in the universe after observing the beautiful things created by God. The poet says that the retired thoughts have their own delight and the eyes which seen the beauty of the universe enjoy happiness. The delighted mind and eyes of man would not remain passive. Therefore, they recreated ‘a place’ on this earth and filled the place with all wonderful, beautiful and flawless things and called it ‘heaven’. In heaven one can find things in “fairest forms and sweetest shapes”. The sight of heaven makes man’s mind and mood to feel happy. Even thinking of heaven itself gives happiness to man: “Most graceful all, yet thought may grace them more.”

The poet, in the second stanza of the poem, observes that of all God’s creations, ‘Man’ is the most wonderful and complicated creation, because man’s brain or mind is far superior than anything on this earth. With the brain or mind’s power man recreated what God had already created. Man even goes further in his venture and he finishes the shape of many which were kept unfinished by God. For example, man has collected all the wonderful things created by God and kept them in one place and called it ‘heaven’. Like this, with his higher skill man had created many better things. The poet also realizes that man’s brain power alone is not enough to recreate many things in this universe, but he also needs to apply his will power with equal force. If man applies his “force of wit” with “equal power of will”, then none has the ability to stop his creativity. In this condition, man’s one thought creates and the other thought finds solutions to the problems: “What thought can think, another thought can mend.”

The poet, in the third stanza of the poem, clarifies the point that man’s soul is more powerful than his brain. The poet talks about the power of man’s soul in this part of the poem. The poet says that man’s soul is more beautiful than his brain, because the soul of man is made of ‘endless skill and might’ of God. When man realizes this ‘might’ of the soul, then in the realized condition his soul searches for the super-soul. When it finds the super-soul, then it sparkles with bliss and finds that his soul shares the nativity with the super-soul. In this transcendental condition man tries to create image of God. Like this the image of God was created by the transcendental soul, incorporating the power of God in it. Man’s soul in its elated condition not only created the image of god but also understood the might, skill, word and will of God and kept them as God’s secret: “His might, his skill, his word and will conspired.”

The last stanza of the poem reiterates the might, skill and will of God and also man’s assigned duty on this earth. Man who is the replica of God’s image, might, and skill, in elated condition recreated so many things on this earth. His transcendental soul was able to create even the image of God. To do these things, man must first of all surrender himself under the feet of God. To afford the special talent of creation, man has to stoop himself before God: “To that he could afford his will was bent.” Not only man’s brain and will power but also his soul’s sublimation in the super-soul was needed for man to recreate what God had created. If man obeys God’s words then he will able to perform what God had order him to do. In this transcendental state man is able to conceive even the hidden secrets of the universe and in this state whatever he produces that are considered as the best of his creations: “He should, he could, he would, he did, the best.”

Thus, the poet in “Look Home” explains the power of God. The poets also understands the fact that how God had made man to recreate things on this earth. The poet advises the readers, especially the English Roman Catholics to surrender their mind, will and soul to God to find heaven or for salvation.