Dr.M.Mazumdar

Structuralism Major Figures:- Ferdinand de Saussure Claude Levi Strauss Roland Barthes Roman Jakobson Jacques Lacan Strauss was an anthropologist.  Sausure's "Course in General Linguistics" (collection of his given class notes in between 1906-1911, by his students) started the theory of Structuralism. This book was originally in French translated by Roy Harris. The theory actually came after Saussure's death. He was a linguist and semiotician (signs of language) and Professor in various univs. Before studying linguistics, he studied Physics and Chemistry. He was also a scholar in Sanskrit language which he studied for 18 months in Berlin. He re-examined language through synchronic and diachronic slides. One's word's meaning depends on another word's meaning. So, structuralism is in the same fashion. To Saussure, we should approach language synchronically. So, synchronic has signifier and Signified together form the Sign and it is arbitrary or random. A ...

1. Why did the lady think she was entitled to walk down the middle of the road? A:- The lady thought she had got liberty to walk down the middle of the road. She thought she was going to walk where she liked. 2. What would be the consequence of the old lady's action? A:- A great confusion of the traffic would be the consequence of the old lady's action. 3. What does the 'rule of the road' mean? A:- The rule of the road means that the liberties of all may be maintained and the liberties of everybody must be reduced. 4. Why should individual liberty be curtailed? A:- Individual liberty should be curtailed because it may affect public liberty. 5. How would a reasonable person react when his actions affect other person's liberty? A:- When a reasonable person's actions affect other person's liberty, he would have submitted to a curtailment of private liberty in order that he might enjoy the social order. 6. Define liberty as perceived by the author. A:- Liberty i...

1. Who was Markus Natten? A:- Markus Natten is a Norwegian poet. This poem describes about childhood which human being goes though. The poet thinks about his passed childhood. It has become like a memory. The poet is surprised to see that it passed away so soon. 2. Give the summary of the poem. A:    The poem   Childhood   is written by Markus Natten. Natten was born in   Norway . The poem describes about childhood which each human being goes through.      The poet thinks about the passed childhood. It has become like a memory. The poet is surprised to see that it passed away so soon. He thinks if his childhood ended at eleven years of age. He is doubtful if childhood got lost from the moment when he started realizing that Hell and Heaven are different from geography. Hell and Heaven are not visible. Where as geography is a visible subject. That was the time when the poet started to gather knowledge about religion and other branches of s...

1. Explain the Chinese and the European views of art. A:- The Chinese paintings are based on the imaginative, inner or spiritual approach whereas the European ones reproduce an actual view of an external or real object. The paintings of Wu Daozi and Metsys illustrate the difference. The Chinese art captures the essence of the inner life whereas the European artist might want you to look at the piece of art through his lens. 2. What is 'outsider art' and 'raw art'? A:- 'Outsider art' refers to those art who have no right to be artists as they have received no formal training yet show talent and artistic insight. 'Art brut' or 'raw art' are the works of art in their raw state as regards cultural and artistic influences. French writer Jean Dubuffet challenged the concept of 'art brut' in the 1940s. Before that, people were disinterested in arts of untutored creative thinkers. 3. Who was the"untutored genius who created a paradise" ...

351. Concept of r hizomic narrative was formulated by Gilles Deleuze  and Felix Guattori.  352. Plato's  allegory of the cave is Republic. 353. In his definition of tragedy, Aristotle uses the phrase, pleasurable accessories  which means Grandeur of Speech. 354. Fredric Jameson wrote National Allegories. To him, post colonial writings are national allegories. 355. Tabish Khair work of literary critisicm is  Babu Fictions. 356. R. K. Narayan is associated with  Toasted English. Here, he compares American English with UK English. It's an essay by Narayan. 357. Chutnification  is associated with  Salman Rushdie. It's Indian way of English. 358. Amitav Ghosh wrote his first novel named The  Circle of Reason. Countdown   shows Ghosh's  visit to the nuclear testing site Pokhran. In an Antique Land is his non fictional work when Ghosh went to Egypt. The Imam and the Indian is his essay collection. Amitav Ghosh is basically also an anthropo...

To George Lukacs, artist should always portray the context. Then only the audience or readers can see the history. It can be argued that  Lukacs anticipated some of the Soviet doctrines. He inaugurated a distinctively Hegelian style of Marxist thought, treating literary works as reflections of an unfolding system. A realist work must reveal the underlying pattern contradictions in a social order. His view is Marxist in its insistence on the material and historical nature of the structure of society. Rejecting the naturalism of the then recent European novel,bhe returns to the old realist view that the novel Reflects Reality not by rendering it's mere surface appearance but by giving us a Truer more complete more vivid and more dynamic reflection of reality. There was actually a fight between  Lukacs school of thought & Brechtian  school of thought. To Brecht there was the alienation of fact. It was like going back to the Russian Formalists. The latter were talkin...

------------------------------------------------- ACCEPT We accept something  "Accept '' is not followed by another verb. I accepted his invitation to have dinner with him (NOT I accepted to have dinner with him) ACCOUNT  You say "We will take your views into account'' (NOT ''We will take your views in account'')Don't say  ACCUSE- Accuse someone of doing something He's been accused of robbery (NOT accused robbery)  Are you accusing me of lying? Phrase- " Stand accused of something'- AFTERNOON We do something  in the afternoon (NOT on the afternoon) We went shopping in the afternoon (NOT on the afternoon) On Monday/Tuesday etc afternoon.  We do something on Monday/Tuesday afternoon. We usually do the shopping on Saturday afternoon.  On the afternoon of something He was born on the afternoon of  July1, 1973. He has gone there on the afternoon of the murder. AGAIN Again(= a second time) usually comes after the object or at the end...

1. Indians are known for their obsessive and compulsive fascination for gold. India is the largest importer and largest consumer of the yellow metal as Indians buy about 25 percent of the world's gold.  In 2008, India imported around 400 tons of it. About 80 percent of the world's gold is fashioned as jewellery.  However,  most of us don't know or don't think about environmental cost of the metal.  For instance,  extracting enough gold to forge a solitary,  no-frills wedding band ultimately translates into roughly 20-30 tons of waste.  At some mines in Nevada (USA), 100 tons or more of earth have been excavated for a single ounce of gold. 1. What are Indians known for?  2. How much gold of the world India buy in 2008? 3. Is India the largest exporter of gold?  4. What percentage and how is world's maximum gold used?  5. Does gold has any impact in causing environment hazard? If so,  how? Explain with example....

301. Macaulay's Minutes of 1835  promoted European literature and science among the natives and stop expenditure on the publication of oriental works and spend funds only on English education. 302. Wood's Despatch emphasized on women's education. 303. In 1823 Lord Amherst was written a letter by Raja Rammohan Roy. 304. Lord Cornwallis asked to make everything as English as possible in India. 305. John Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesie was published in 1668. Crites criticizes ancients' poor presentation of love. Lisidus favours French drama over English drama. Eugenies points out the discrepancies in the applications of the Unities by the Greek classics. Neander defends English invention of tragi-comedy. 306. The Biographia Literaria by S. T. Coleridge was published in 1817. There are 2 types of Imagination mentioned in the book. 307. Esemplastic power of the Imagination is associated with S. T. Coleridge. He was also the first to introduce psychology and philosophy ...