BRIEFLY DISCUSS DD KOSAMBI AND SK DAS MODELS OF RESEARCH UPHELD BY AIJAZ AHMAD IN HIS ESSAY "INDIAN LITERATURE: NOTES TOWARDS THE CATEGORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE"

AIJAZ AHMAD

Aijaz Ahmad’s essay “Indian Literature: notes towards the category of Indian literature” looks into the complications associated with the category of Indian literature by making references to D.D Kosambi and S.K Das. He argues on the cultural and literary identity of Indian literature and sees it as a source of multiple languages. Indian literature is not a distinct unity but a sum of various specific regional literatures created over a period of time.

Ahmad begins the essay by talking about the problems in constructing a category such as Indian literature; he makes a reference to Kosambi                                                                                                                      “the outstanding characteristic of a backward bourgeoisie, the desire to profit without labor or grasp of technique, is reflected in the superficial research.”                                                                                                               .                                                                                                    [Pg 373]                  Kosambi criticizes superficial research in India, it lacks efficacy which can produce a better understanding of Indian literature. Ahmad calls this statement ironic because the texts published in metropolitan countries display this characteristic of backward bourgeoisie. If Indian researchers are unable to define Indian literature then first world researchers are also unable to define and categorize third world literature. Ahmad then counters Kosambi by listing the reasons for poor classification of Indian literature.

The reasons Ahmad lists are that there is no institutional support, the institutions are very limited and the research is done by individual scholars who dig up archives. The mediating language is English but it is not a fitting mediating language. English is unable to do justice to the ambience, totality or experience of the native. European tradition can be traced with the help of unified language, universities and libraries but Indian literature tradition can’t be traced since the texts are looked in isolated ways. Ahmad ends the essay by mentioning Kosambi once again. He praises Kosambi saying that                                                                    “he was able to produce is a single sweep of narrative of the empirical facts of ancient India and theoretical position, the very organic principle of narrativization from which narrative was to be assembled”                                                                                                                                         .                                                                                                          [Pg-408]                   Ahmad praises Kosambi’s link between political purpose and study. Ahmad says that when we engage in Indian literature then the insufficiencies are empirical and theoretical both and to achieve clarity in literature more writing should be done and rewriting should be minimized.

Kosambi’s analysis and understanding of Sanskrit literature was informed by his commitment to a social and political ideology rooted in Marxism. In his view, literature like science should be understood as a function of the age in which it is produced. He tells us’ the great poet in a class society must not only express the position and aspirations of an important class, but must also transcend the class barriers, whether implicitly or explicitly and to be sure his most provocative statements on Sanskrit language and literature were about its class character statements he made in the context of the works of both Bhartihari and vidyakara. The use of historical materialism in reading literature and analyzing it from the class perspective is also seen in Kosambi’s study of the working class in the Amarakosha. Kosambi links bhakti doctrine enunciated in the Gita with the rise of feudalism and asserts that to hold a feudal society and state together the best religion is one which emphasizes the role of bhakti, personal faith even though the object of devotion may have clearly visible flaws.

Indian literature is not one or many but rather a whole where many sub systems interact and S.K Das has taken a systematic view of Indian literature which involves taking India literature together age by age and then viewing them comparatively. Das adopts a methodologically pragmatic where he works through development of a chronological history of literature. In this there are authors birth dates, translations, text composition, publication and classification in genres. Through Das’ method it is known that Indian literature is neither a unity nor is it a total differential. For Das Indian literature is something which expresses the Indian nation. Arnab chakladar says ‘Das disavows the nationalist vision of one literature through written in many languages but his own formulation remains, finally, within a nationalist framework’ [Pg 4]. Indian literature is complex; it’s related to geographical areas as well as with history. Ahmad does not speak of geographical proximity like Das. Ahmad is more concerned with the problems in defining the category of Indian literature however Das is concentrating on finding ways to construct such a category. Ahmad is conscious of the difficulty of separating a unified conception of Indian literature from Indian nationalism.

Ahmad mainly provides us with three reasons for the under development of Indian literature, first, Indian literature doesn’t mean combining other languages, India has been a polyglot and multilingual society, the language is not particular to itself and one writer doesn’t write in only one language. Second is the problem of high brahmanical texuality. The texts we give emphasis to are texts coming from brahmanical point of view. Third is canonization, certain texts are privileged over others. Our sense of text is based on the dominant version of that text; plurality of text is not given importance since we are aware of only the dominant idea.

Ahmad is a Marxist and he shuns the post-colonial situation adopted by Edward Said, for Ahmad Marxism is an effect of orientalism, Ahmad wants to re claim post colonialism and literature plays an important role in it. Homogenizing of third world literature is problematic. By categorizing Indian literature under third world literature deproduces them because then they are seen as a representation only of nationalism; because of homogenizing of Indian literature under third world literature, Ahmad proposes the difficulties faced by scholars in constructing a category of Indian literature. He makes references to Kosambi and Das to explore and explain his idea of problematization of the construction of category of Indian literature.

WORKS CITED

Ahmad Aijaz. ‘Indian Literature; Notes towards the definition of a category’, “Literary Theory: An Anthology, ed. A.N Dwivedi. Doaba publications, (2014).[Pg- 373-408].

Chaklader Arnab. ‘Language, Nation and the question of “Indian Literature” ’. Postcolonial Text, volume 6, no. 4 (2011). [Pg- 4]

Submitted by-

Deepali yadav, 297

          

Pokémon: A Marxist analysis

Pokémon advocates socialism and attempts to overthrow capitalism through the idea of communism. This essay provides a Marxist criticism of Japanese cartoon series “Pokémon” focusing on the analysis of class relation and to look upon the struggle between the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie and proletariat.

Pokémon’s original name is pocket monsters; it was created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995. At that time the economic situation of Japan was not very good as a massive earthquake had hit the country. Tajiri being a middle class man himself had his sympathies with his class which allowed him to make the protagonist of the series Ash Ketchum a middle class boy. This essay focuses on major characters Ash, Misty, Brock and minor characters Gary, Team rocket and the three sensational sisters. The humans have to catch wild creatures named Pokémon’s to move up in the society. The goal is to “catch em all” and the humans have to catch more and mighty Pokémon’s to achieve the ultimate goal of being a Pokémon master.

In his book ‘The communist manifesto’ Karl Marx outlines the structures he sees as controlling society in a capitalist system. He calls the upper class bourgeoisie or superstructure that control the proletariats or working class through coercion and force. Marx talks about proletariats constantly getting mistreated by bourgeoisie employers. Peter Barry in begging theory states that                                                                    “Aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society based on the common ownership of production, distribution and exchange”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   .                                                 [Barry P 150]                                                                                                                                                                                                           It is based on the belief that those who control the society both culturally and materially and the dominant class can also dictate what everyone else has access to in terms of art, media and products available for consumption.                                                                                                                                                                                              Marxist sees literature “not as works created in accordance with timeless artistic criteria but as products of the economic and ideological determinants specific to the era”                                                                                                            .                                                                                                           [Abrams P 149]

There are three classes in the text; bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie and proletariat. Brock, Gary and the three sensational sisters belong to the bourgeoisie class. Brock is dissatisfied with being a gym leader and goes to search for more. Gary is a Pokémon trainer but because his uncle is a Pokémon professor he has it easy. Ash and Misty belong to the petty bourgeoisie who are constantly trying to move up the social ladder by honing their Pokémon skills. These characters are looked down by the bourgeoisie class. Ash is often physically and verbally mocked by Gary and Misty is separated from the sensational sisters because she lacks beauty. The Pokémon’s are representative of the proletariat or the labor class. They respond to the bourgeoisie command. They don’t rebel and feel intense guilt for failing their masters. The viewers like the dutiful and subservient Pokémon’s instead of the wild ones.

Pokémon’s get captured; they work for their masters by fighting battles. When the trainers wins he gets batches and titles but the Pokémon only gets more battles to win and more training to do. Pokémon’s are laborers and according to Marx laborers should be in control of their labor but the labor Pokémon’s do make profit for their trainers and this is exploitation. So can Pokémon training be called capitalistic production? No, because they are not actually getting paid. They get food and shelter but no money. Pokémon’s are kept inside a poke ball like a prisoner. The poke ball could be hideous place that’s why the wild Pokémon’s refuse to go in it in the first place. The Pokémon’s are kept in the balls and they only come out when they are needed by their masters. Pokémon’s lifestyle doesn’t improve because they are not in control of their labor.

The goal of the bourgeoisie is to “catch em all” and the goal of the proletariat is to fulfill the goal of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie looks down upon petty bourgeoisie, they constantly boost of their superiority, the gym leader and trainers see the petty bourgeoisie as incapable of accomplishing anything. The Pokémon’s are exploited by every class because their means of production is not in their hands. This gives rise to class conflict; battles are constantly fought to raise the social status. Pokémon trainers indulge in violence and physically abuse Pokémon’s. The different social classes interact only in terms of Pokémon battles and the journey they undertake to achieve the final goal of becoming the Pokémon master. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production, petty bourgeoisie aims to own it and the proletariat does nothing but gets exploited. All characters employ their time toward the achievement of their goal.

In Pokémon world that master is superior who owns more Pokémon’s. There is hierarchy in the Pokémon’s as well, the one which fights better is moved up. The social status or class is determined by the Pokémon skills of the trainer. The only economic force we can see is through team rocket. Team rocket is the villain and representative of capitalism in the series. They wish to sell Pokémon for profit but they are defeated every time which is a example of communism since the goal if communism is to eliminate greed and discrimination, to aware people with reality and the series has Misty as the female protagonist to show that sex or ethnicity is not a hindrance. There are jobs but nobody actually gets paid, the only way we hear of money is through gambling and capitalist team rocket. There is also no central authority in the series, there is police and gym leaders who serve as ambassadors and law keepers but no dominant authoritative body is visible. The individuals are supposed to be responsible themselves which is precisely the point of communism.

Marx believed that capitalism can only exploit until the proletariat seize control of means of production and that’s when Mewtwo comes into picture. Mewtwo was created by team rocket for profit but this Pokémon is the most powerful Pokémon ever and he turns rebellious. He decided to put his labor towards the goal he sets. Mewtwo gains the means of production and destroys team rocket, this shows capitalism leads to its own end.

Tajiri’s Pokémon is a cartoon series which represents the economic position of his time where the lower class is trying to use the means of production to level up their status and the bourgeoisie maintains its position by showing their superiority, downgrading petty bourgeoisie and exploiting proletariat. The series provides an optimistic approach by proceeding towards communism and overthrowing capitalism.

Works cited

Abrams, M.H. “Marxist criticism” A glossary of literary text. 7^th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace college publishers 1999. 147-153

Barry Peter, “Beginning theory” An introduction to literary and cultural theory. 3^rd ed. Manchester University press 2009. P 150

Written by-

Deepali Yadav

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

  

SUMMARY OF Tradition and the Individual Talent by T.S Eliot

Tradition and the Individual Talent: T.S Eliot

Tradition' word is used in English literature in its adjective form "traditional" or "too traditional". The word appears in phrase of censure. It also reassures and refers to archaeology.  

                                                                      1                                                                                                           Every nation, race has its own critical mind, it is ignorant of its limitations and works forward only to its geniuses'. By seeing French works we say they are more critical than Englishmen.

·          Criticism is inevitable. Criticism is articulating what passes our mind or what we feel while reading a book. When we differentiate one poet from another we look those aspects which don’t resemble any other poet and in this process we find poets' individuality and his essence of man.

·         We look to find something that can be isolated from predecessors so we can enjoy it. However a poet who employs dead poets or ancestors work in his work something creates best and most individual parts. Basically he is saying that by using traditional work a poet can create very good work for himself.

·         If by tradition, writers will hand down the work of precious generations then tradition should be opposed. Tradition cannot be inherited; it can only be achieved through great labor. Tradition has - historical sense. If a poet has historical sense then he is compelled to write not just with his generation in mind but he has in mind literature starting from Homer. Historical sense is sense of timeless and temporal togetherness and these two make a poet traditional.

·         A poet's appreciation is related to the appreciation of dead poets. A poet has no meaning alone, he can’t be valued alone. A poet will be compared and contrasted with the dead poets. The present is directed by the past. The poet also knows that he will be judged by the standards of the past, judged in the sense of comparison, both past and present works will be measured by each other. The new is not valuable because it fits; but work fits because it’s valuable.

The past is not a lump and a poet can’t perform himself on basis of works or time periods. To form himself the poet should have three things.

1.       Can’t be admitted

2.       Experiences of youth

3.       Pleasure and highly desirable subject.

                                                      

·         Art never improves, material of art doesn't change but the mind of country changes which affects all writings

·         This change in mind of country affects all writers from Homer to Shakespeare and so on. This is not from anyone's point of view but it's a difference of past and present. Present is conscious of past, it’s aware of past. The dead writers are what we now know; our knowledge is vast because of them.

·         Much learning deadens poetic sensibility. Know ledge should not be confined to a useful shape for examination or socializing. Knowledge can be acquired from anywhere. It is important for poets to process consciousness should be developed throughout his career.

·         Poet can progress through self- sacrifice and extinction of personality. Depersonalization is related to tradition and science.

                                                                                     2 

·         Criticism and appreciation is on poetry not poet. Poetry should be related to other poems and authors. Impersonal theory is seeing poetry in relation of poem to its author. A mature poet finely perfects medium in which he can express his feelings to be free. Poet and man are different the mind of poet is like platinum, it remains unchanged and neural even after death reactions. If artist is perfect, the man inside is more separated, the mind creates and digests the passions.

·         Emotions and feelings are transforming catalyst the work of art depends on how the person sees it. The experience could be formed out of one emotion or out of several. Great poetry can be made without any emotions as well, by using feelings.

·         Can’to xv inferno- expresses emotions and gives image representing feelings. Poet's mind stores numberless feelings, images and phrases which remain with him until a new compound can be formed with their help.

·         The greatest poetry becomes great because of artistic process or pressure under which all intense emotions and feelings are combined.

·         Ulysses can’to 26 is wholly dependent upon an emotion. Poetry involves a combination or fusion of elements. Ode to Keats contains a number of feelings only for sake of attractiveness.

·         Eliot wants to attack the point related to metaphysical theory of unity of soul. Poet has a medium through which he can combine impressions and experiences in unexpected ways. Impressions and experiences are important for man can be absent from poetry and impressions and experiences which are present in poetry could not be less important for the man.    FOR EG- negative and positive emotions are combined, attraction towards beauty and fascination with ugliness. A balance of contrasted emotions leads to dramatic situation. The dominant tone is of those feelings which have a connection to the emotion present in the poem.

·         The emotions are those which provoked important and particular events in poet's life. His personal emotion may be crude or flat but emotions in his poetry will be complex.

·         Eccentricity in poetry is to seek new emotions which are new for the human to express.

·         Poet's work is not to find new emotions but use old ones to express feelings which are not in those emotions.

·         Bad poet is unconscious when he should be conscious and conscious when he should be unconscious. Both errors make him personal. Poetry is an escape from emotion; it's an escape from personality.

                                                                        3

·         Essay proposes to halt at front of metaphysics and confine itself to practical conclusions applied by responsible person interested in poetry.

·         Interest should be shifted from poet to poetry. Technical excellence is appreciated by less people. Few people know when there is expression of significant emotion (emotion which has life and not history of poet) . Poet has to be impersonal to achieve the art of emotion. Poet should be conscious of the living present and present moments of past. 

 Deepali Yadav

 Student at Kamala Nehru College (DU)

(deepaliyadav2896@gmail.com)

SUMMARY OF Ngugi Wa Thiong’o -From decolonizing the mind From the language of African literature

Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

From decolonizing the mind

From the language of African literature

IV

LANGUAGE

Language is carrier of culture and a means of communication.

Speech

Written signs

Language of real life

 

REAL LIFE (communication in production)

Human community starts by division of labor for example roles of man and women in a household.

There is Co-operation between hunters, sole gatherers of fruits and sole workers in metals. Language was developed to carry out certain processes and relation. Three types of labor process is

1-  Household                

2-  Hunters, Gatherers

3-  Factories. All these process lead to means of production, production is co-operation, language, communication and expression of relation between humans.

SPEECH

It imitates language of real life; it helps in communication between human being in the production of their means of life. language as a signal of verbal signposts.

WRITTEN SIGNS

It imitates the spoken language. It’s a much later historical development, it’s a representation of sound and symbols. Mostly written and spoken are same , the interaction with other being is done either in speech or in words, it is representation of sound with visual symbol.

·       Communication between human beings is also the basis and process of evolving culture. When we do a certain kind of thing repeatedly and repeat certain action they form like moves, rhythm, habit, experience and knowledge become the base for next generation and their actions, value gets accumulated to these and they become self-evident truths governing their conception of morality, ugly and beautiful, generous and mean in internal and external relation. (in the house and outside in society). This becomes a way of life giving rise to culture and history. Culture embodies their moral, ethical and aesthetic views through which they see the world and their place in it. Value gives people identity and their place in human race and all this culture, value and history; everything happens because of language.

Language as culture

·       Culture is a product of history and culture represents history, it represents history by presenting images of nature and nurture.

·       Image forming agent in mind of child. Forming conception of ourselves, society and learning to react to the struggles with nature. Nature which produce them.

·       Language as culture mediates between  i) me and my own self

                                                                         ii) My own self and other self

                                                                         Iii) Me and nature

Culture transmits or imparts those images which are specific to a language. Language represents the struggle against nature and between human beings.

·       Languages as communication and as culture are products of each other. Communication creates culture which is a means of communication. Language carries culture and culture carries values by which we identify ourselves. Language forms our relations to nature and other beings, it joins us to communities and forms a specific relationship to the world.

                                                           

V

·       Colonialism controlled people’s wealth through military conquest and political dictatorship. More than wealth colonizers targeted the mental universe, they took control through culture and how people perceive themselves and their relationship to the world. Economic and political control can only be done by mental control.

·       Mental control :

 i) Destruction or devaluing people’s culture, art, dance, literature and education

               ii) Elevation of the colonizers’ language and dominating the language of the colonized.

               If we take language as communication, the African child is taught everything in a foreign language; this foreign language can never imitate or reflect the real life. The language appears external;    the African child can’t relate to it, learning has become a cerebral activity and not an emotional experience. The native language would help the child apprehend things differently.

The native language prevailed in spoken form but the written area and spoken area at school were taken up by the foreign language. There was little or no connection between his school and his immediate environment at home. This result in colonial alienation – the child is disassociated with the sensibility of natural and child is disassociated with the sensibility of natural and social environment (family and home). The child was exposed to a culture external to his own, and he was made to look at himself through an outer glass. In “Catching them young “by Bob Dixen, it’s written that the aim of colonizers was to colonize young minds.

·       The colonizers made the child look at the culture and language in certain way and find his certain position in it. They gave him images of world so he could see his position and because these images come from the world of literature of colonizers. What was worse was the child got to know how his native language and culture represented by colonizers as low, corporal punishment, stupidity, and barbarianism. He saw this in works of western intellectual such as Hume and Jefferson

·       The representation of Africa in literature gave origins to misconception and fear of Africa. Negative image were internalized which affected their cultural and political choices. No Malawian was to teach in schools of Malawi as they were not good enough to teach English and will lower the standards. Achebe’s gratitude to English in 1964- he thanks ancestors for learning this language as it now helps boost their creative imagination.

VI 

·       After the Makerere conference, the African wrote many texts in European languages. This literature was by the petty bourgeoisie born out of colonial school and university. They also got a rise in politics and economic dominance.

·       There were people who were trying to explain Africa to the world. Africa had a past, a culture of dignity and human complexity. Literature gave the petty bourgeoisie a cohesive tradition and references. Literature gave them confidence and they now had a past with which they confronted the Europe and gave sharp critique of European bourgeoisie civilization. They wrote that Africa had something new to give to the world.

THE NEW LITERATURE

·       It was inspired by political awakening; its base was peasantry, their proverb, fables, stories, wise saying, riddle etc. it was very optimistic. But as imperialism grew and economic links got strengthened, this literature grew critical, bitter, cynical and disillusioned. This literature was detailed and had a vision; it talked of how post-independence there was no hope.

·       Who was the audience? Bourgeoisie or petty bourgeoisie in power? Was it the military?

·       The audience was the peasantry or the working class, who was the most affected by twist and turns of politics. The literature was a little changed to suit the audience. The literature was a little changed to suit the audience. The form was simpler, tone was direct and the call was for direct action.

·       Instead of seeing Africa as one undifferentiated mass of historically wronged blackness, the literature focused on class analysis and neo-colonial societies. But the search could be conducted in the language of colonizers and this was their weakness. Petty bourgeoisie does not have a determined economic position and so it takes the part of the main class and so it gets sympathy and so it takes the part of the main class and so it gets sympathy and is swept in revolutionary movements. This class is also silenced and ordered on by those in power. This class is in between imperialist bourgeoisie, the neo-colonial society and the working class.

Petty bourgeoisie

Peasantry

Imperialist bourgeoisie

This lack of identity was reflected in the kind of literature this class produced

 

·       In politics and literature it spoke of its identity crisis and defined its identity as that of a whole society. Their literature was called ‘African literature’; like Africa didn’t have a literature before this. It pretended to be at the throne of African literature. The Africans used English in an African way but they could identify it as English still.

·       In process of literature there was created an English speaking peasantry. The real history was negated; the English speaking working class existed in novels and fiction. The real working class was torn between worlds of petty bourgeoisie. Because of the peasantry the African language still exists otherwise if it was left to petty bourgeoisie African language would have stopped existing.

Deepali Yadav

 Student at Kamala Nehru College (DU)

Contact me @ deepaliyadav2896@gmail.com

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