Sanjit Mandal | Tezpur University (original) (raw)
Papers by Sanjit Mandal
Aesthetique Journal for International Literary Enterprise, 2020
Ecocriticism as a field in literary studies means the examination of the relationship between lit... more Ecocriticism as a field in literary studies means the examination of the relationship between literary representation of human life and the environment. It focuses on how the surrounding environment shapes and reshapes the narratives of a region and its inhabitants. Human narrative would be inessential without nature and environment serving in the background.
Twentieth century philosophy has a substantial contribution from the French philosopher Jacques D... more Twentieth century philosophy has a substantial contribution from the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Drawing from the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Kant and Marx etc, Derrida has brought to the modern intellectual tradition a new mode of interpreting the world and its phenomena in different forms. Deconstruction is that name for which Derrida is known all over the world in the field of twentieth century Western philosophy. It's a philosophical discourse which is a part of post-structuralist criticism of the late twentieth century. The basic idea behind deconstruction was to bring forward a critique of Western metaphysical practices where its presence was felt for the first time by Derrida. Its emergence was initiated in his 1966 essay "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" which was presented as a lecture in a seminar at Johns Hopkins University. This paper of Derrida for the first time questioned the dominant structure of meaning in texts or any form of representation. Derrida, for that was motivated by Marx, Heidegger and Nietzsche who believed that no intelligible order exists in reality; it is nothing but human articulation through different forms of institutions where hegemony is always at play. And Derrida through his essay attempts to break that hegemony. He was in fact one of the first modern philosophers to claim that 'there is no natural, ontological, or theological order' (Zuckert 345). That is in a way a political act, because he is dismantling the dominating structure of human civilization which has been in existence under the illusion that there is a natural, ontological, and theological order in everything. Derrida puts forward his argument that whatever the structure there has been, they are the manifestation of authoritative control over society materialized by institution like the Church. It also has power over human society which is made to live under the shackles of religion and thus dominating the human spirit, which is essentially free or rather aspires to be free, so that it can enjoy the liberty of its existence. Derrida's act of deconstructing that structure signifies that he is advocating freedom and liberty for human life and their capability of free and independent interpretation of the world and its representation in various forms like literature, films, music and paintings. Traditionally, all these forms of representations occupy a certain structure of meaning in the human mind and their faculty of reasoning. Underlying that structure, there has always been ideology at work, but it has been invisible for the reader
The field of literary criticism has been moulded by various criticisms like Mimetic criticism, Pr... more The field of literary criticism has been moulded by various criticisms like Mimetic criticism, Pragmatic criticism, Expressive criticism, Historical criticism, biographical criticism, Sociological criticism, Psychological criticism and Archetypal criticism etc. It has a long history and was started by Plato and Aristotle in the ancient Greek. They conceived ideas about the phenomena of the world. And those ideas in course of time turned out to be literary theory and criticism. Theoretical criticism proposes an explicit theory of literature, in the sense of general principles, together with a set of terms, distinctions, and categories, to be applied to identifying and analyzing works of literature, as well as the criteria by which these works and their writers are to be evaluated, as Abrams writes in his Glossary of Literary Terms. Literary criticism is applied to various given texts. Literary theory is devoted to examining the principles behind such practice.
We read for pleasure and from various writings we derive that pleasure. Not just one kind of writ... more We read for pleasure and from various writings we derive that pleasure. Not just one kind of writing can provide us all the enjoyment that readers want to have from the reading exercise. Readers get pleasure from different genres of writing like poetry, prose, fiction, drama and media. Prose is one of the most important areas of writing which is distinguished from poetry in the sense that it is not rhythmic like poetry. The word "prose" first appears in English in the 14th century. It is derived from the Old French prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression prosa oratio (literally, straightforward or direct speech). There are critical debates on the construction of prose. Prose in its simplicity and loosely defined structure is broadly adaptable to spoken dialogue, factual discourse, and to topical and fictional writing.
“To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, ‘first you have to die. Ho j... more “To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, ‘first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won’t cry? How to win the darling’s love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again …’ Just before dawn one winter’s morning, New Year’s Day or thereabouts, two real, full-grown, living men fell from a great height, twenty-nine thousand and two feet, towards the English Channel, without benefit of parachutes or wings, out of a clear sky.”
This paper aims to explore the status of the English language among the people of a rural area. F... more This paper aims to explore the status of the English language among the people of a rural area. Five selected people are interviewed for the research. Three of them are men and two are women. They have their respective views about the language. We can find out what these housewives think about the language. Their point of views will also show if they want to embrace this alien language. These people have some prejudiced ideas about the language. That will come out in course of time. The men on the other hand would say that they have experienced the real position of the English language in the contemporary society. It can be found out what types of demands they have for the language in such rural areas where only handful English teachers are available.
Teachers have a very important role to play in teaching the language. In such rural areas the parents are not well educated enough to teach English language to their children. So they want to find some guides in the form of the teachers in a vernacular medium school. The teachers do great jobs in such situation when the language is alien to the students. They face some tough situations while trying to teach the language. Most of the schools in the rural areas are vernacular medium schools and the second part of this paper will be dealing with the situations of the teachers who call those situations as ‘problems’ or ‘difficulties’. Through this paper we will try to find out the various problems or difficulties that are out there in the vernacular medium schools where teachers try to teach the language to those students who have different mother tongues. It has been a matter of discussion for a very long time how teachers in a vernacular medium school teach the English language to the students. Researchers say that there are various difficulties in learning a second language (L2). In most of the vernacular medium schools the English language is a second language for the students there. Five experienced teachers are interviewed for that purpose. They will share their individual experiences in this paper. Five of them work in five different schools. But still we can find out some common things among them.
These two topics will illustrate the current status of the English language in a country like India where the English language has become very popular and acceptable nowadays. There are reasons behind this. The language remained among the Indians although the owners or the native speakers had already left. This language has now become a world language. Most of the countries across the world are using this language for various relations with the other countries. Though a global language all the people of a particular country are not aware of the fact. Some of them still think about this language as a foreign language and an alien language which is very tough for them. Especially the village students who have problems in learning this language though some of them know the importance of this language now. That can also be found out in Professor W. Christopher Rajasekaran and Professor G. Anburaj who write in their paper “Ways of Teaching English in Rural Areas”, “For the development of rural areas, learning English is very crucial. More and more job opportunities are presented to the applicants who are thorough in English. Hence, learning English can bring about development and technology advancement in the rural areas and also in the development of our country.” This paper will show too what these people think about the English language in the context of their own village.
Drafts by Sanjit Mandal
Modernism and Postmodernism are two trends in the human history which has been shaped differently... more Modernism and Postmodernism are two trends in the human history which has been shaped differently by various changes in the field of art, architecture, literature and philosophy. Both of them brought sea changes to the face of the human civilization. They have their own social and cultural history. These two movements arose in the Western countries during different time periods. The social, economic and cultural changes of the time were the main reasons for naming these two trends. Something new was added to the existing convention of human thought and expression in the field of art and literature in both of them. It is generally said that the two World wars had great impact in moulding these two movements in the human history.
North and South is a masterpiece of the Victorian era published in Charles Dickens’s “Household W... more North and South is a masterpiece of the Victorian era published in Charles Dickens’s “Household Words” from September 1854 through January 1855. A social novel which portrays the lives of the people living in two parts of England- North (The industrial area) and South (The country area). Kurt Keefner in his review to the book published in The Atlashphere magazine calls the book “an industrial novel.” And there is truth in his saying as we know that the industrial Revolution is considered to be very important period of the human history. Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell’s fourth novel shows the growing industrial world of England of the contemporary time when labourers and the industry owners had various conflicts. The authoress, a Victorian in flesh and blood is quite energetic in manifesting those crucial points of the Victorian social structure
Aesthetique Journal for International Literary Enterprise, 2020
Ecocriticism as a field in literary studies means the examination of the relationship between lit... more Ecocriticism as a field in literary studies means the examination of the relationship between literary representation of human life and the environment. It focuses on how the surrounding environment shapes and reshapes the narratives of a region and its inhabitants. Human narrative would be inessential without nature and environment serving in the background.
Twentieth century philosophy has a substantial contribution from the French philosopher Jacques D... more Twentieth century philosophy has a substantial contribution from the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Drawing from the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Kant and Marx etc, Derrida has brought to the modern intellectual tradition a new mode of interpreting the world and its phenomena in different forms. Deconstruction is that name for which Derrida is known all over the world in the field of twentieth century Western philosophy. It's a philosophical discourse which is a part of post-structuralist criticism of the late twentieth century. The basic idea behind deconstruction was to bring forward a critique of Western metaphysical practices where its presence was felt for the first time by Derrida. Its emergence was initiated in his 1966 essay "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" which was presented as a lecture in a seminar at Johns Hopkins University. This paper of Derrida for the first time questioned the dominant structure of meaning in texts or any form of representation. Derrida, for that was motivated by Marx, Heidegger and Nietzsche who believed that no intelligible order exists in reality; it is nothing but human articulation through different forms of institutions where hegemony is always at play. And Derrida through his essay attempts to break that hegemony. He was in fact one of the first modern philosophers to claim that 'there is no natural, ontological, or theological order' (Zuckert 345). That is in a way a political act, because he is dismantling the dominating structure of human civilization which has been in existence under the illusion that there is a natural, ontological, and theological order in everything. Derrida puts forward his argument that whatever the structure there has been, they are the manifestation of authoritative control over society materialized by institution like the Church. It also has power over human society which is made to live under the shackles of religion and thus dominating the human spirit, which is essentially free or rather aspires to be free, so that it can enjoy the liberty of its existence. Derrida's act of deconstructing that structure signifies that he is advocating freedom and liberty for human life and their capability of free and independent interpretation of the world and its representation in various forms like literature, films, music and paintings. Traditionally, all these forms of representations occupy a certain structure of meaning in the human mind and their faculty of reasoning. Underlying that structure, there has always been ideology at work, but it has been invisible for the reader
The field of literary criticism has been moulded by various criticisms like Mimetic criticism, Pr... more The field of literary criticism has been moulded by various criticisms like Mimetic criticism, Pragmatic criticism, Expressive criticism, Historical criticism, biographical criticism, Sociological criticism, Psychological criticism and Archetypal criticism etc. It has a long history and was started by Plato and Aristotle in the ancient Greek. They conceived ideas about the phenomena of the world. And those ideas in course of time turned out to be literary theory and criticism. Theoretical criticism proposes an explicit theory of literature, in the sense of general principles, together with a set of terms, distinctions, and categories, to be applied to identifying and analyzing works of literature, as well as the criteria by which these works and their writers are to be evaluated, as Abrams writes in his Glossary of Literary Terms. Literary criticism is applied to various given texts. Literary theory is devoted to examining the principles behind such practice.
We read for pleasure and from various writings we derive that pleasure. Not just one kind of writ... more We read for pleasure and from various writings we derive that pleasure. Not just one kind of writing can provide us all the enjoyment that readers want to have from the reading exercise. Readers get pleasure from different genres of writing like poetry, prose, fiction, drama and media. Prose is one of the most important areas of writing which is distinguished from poetry in the sense that it is not rhythmic like poetry. The word "prose" first appears in English in the 14th century. It is derived from the Old French prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression prosa oratio (literally, straightforward or direct speech). There are critical debates on the construction of prose. Prose in its simplicity and loosely defined structure is broadly adaptable to spoken dialogue, factual discourse, and to topical and fictional writing.
“To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, ‘first you have to die. Ho j... more “To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, ‘first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won’t cry? How to win the darling’s love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again …’ Just before dawn one winter’s morning, New Year’s Day or thereabouts, two real, full-grown, living men fell from a great height, twenty-nine thousand and two feet, towards the English Channel, without benefit of parachutes or wings, out of a clear sky.”
This paper aims to explore the status of the English language among the people of a rural area. F... more This paper aims to explore the status of the English language among the people of a rural area. Five selected people are interviewed for the research. Three of them are men and two are women. They have their respective views about the language. We can find out what these housewives think about the language. Their point of views will also show if they want to embrace this alien language. These people have some prejudiced ideas about the language. That will come out in course of time. The men on the other hand would say that they have experienced the real position of the English language in the contemporary society. It can be found out what types of demands they have for the language in such rural areas where only handful English teachers are available.
Teachers have a very important role to play in teaching the language. In such rural areas the parents are not well educated enough to teach English language to their children. So they want to find some guides in the form of the teachers in a vernacular medium school. The teachers do great jobs in such situation when the language is alien to the students. They face some tough situations while trying to teach the language. Most of the schools in the rural areas are vernacular medium schools and the second part of this paper will be dealing with the situations of the teachers who call those situations as ‘problems’ or ‘difficulties’. Through this paper we will try to find out the various problems or difficulties that are out there in the vernacular medium schools where teachers try to teach the language to those students who have different mother tongues. It has been a matter of discussion for a very long time how teachers in a vernacular medium school teach the English language to the students. Researchers say that there are various difficulties in learning a second language (L2). In most of the vernacular medium schools the English language is a second language for the students there. Five experienced teachers are interviewed for that purpose. They will share their individual experiences in this paper. Five of them work in five different schools. But still we can find out some common things among them.
These two topics will illustrate the current status of the English language in a country like India where the English language has become very popular and acceptable nowadays. There are reasons behind this. The language remained among the Indians although the owners or the native speakers had already left. This language has now become a world language. Most of the countries across the world are using this language for various relations with the other countries. Though a global language all the people of a particular country are not aware of the fact. Some of them still think about this language as a foreign language and an alien language which is very tough for them. Especially the village students who have problems in learning this language though some of them know the importance of this language now. That can also be found out in Professor W. Christopher Rajasekaran and Professor G. Anburaj who write in their paper “Ways of Teaching English in Rural Areas”, “For the development of rural areas, learning English is very crucial. More and more job opportunities are presented to the applicants who are thorough in English. Hence, learning English can bring about development and technology advancement in the rural areas and also in the development of our country.” This paper will show too what these people think about the English language in the context of their own village.
Modernism and Postmodernism are two trends in the human history which has been shaped differently... more Modernism and Postmodernism are two trends in the human history which has been shaped differently by various changes in the field of art, architecture, literature and philosophy. Both of them brought sea changes to the face of the human civilization. They have their own social and cultural history. These two movements arose in the Western countries during different time periods. The social, economic and cultural changes of the time were the main reasons for naming these two trends. Something new was added to the existing convention of human thought and expression in the field of art and literature in both of them. It is generally said that the two World wars had great impact in moulding these two movements in the human history.
North and South is a masterpiece of the Victorian era published in Charles Dickens’s “Household W... more North and South is a masterpiece of the Victorian era published in Charles Dickens’s “Household Words” from September 1854 through January 1855. A social novel which portrays the lives of the people living in two parts of England- North (The industrial area) and South (The country area). Kurt Keefner in his review to the book published in The Atlashphere magazine calls the book “an industrial novel.” And there is truth in his saying as we know that the industrial Revolution is considered to be very important period of the human history. Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell’s fourth novel shows the growing industrial world of England of the contemporary time when labourers and the industry owners had various conflicts. The authoress, a Victorian in flesh and blood is quite energetic in manifesting those crucial points of the Victorian social structure