Who is the Father of English literature ?

Geoffrey Chaucer known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first poet to be buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, and astronomer, composing a scientific treatise on the astrolabe for his ten-year-old son Lewis, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales.

Chaucer's work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.Chaucer's first major work, The Book of the Duchess, was an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster (who died in 1369). It is possible that this work was commissioned by her husband John of Gaunt, as he granted Chaucer a £10 annuity on 13 June 1374. This would seem to place the writing of The Book of the Duchess between the years 1369 and 1374. Two other early works by Chaucer were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. Chaucer wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he held the job of customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. It is believed that in the early 1380s he started the work for which he is best known – The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by fictional pilgrims on the road to the cathedral at Canterbury; tales that would help to shape English literature.

The Canterbury Tales contrasts with other literature of the period in the naturalism of its narrative, the variety of stories the pilgrims tell and the varied characters who are engaged in the pilgrimage. Many of the stories narrated by the pilgrims seem to fit their individual characters and social standing, although some of the stories seem ill-fitting to their narrators, perhaps as a result of the incomplete state of the work. Chaucer drew on real life for his cast of pilgrims: the innkeeper shares the name of a contemporary keeper of an inn in Southwark, and real-life identities for the Wife of Bath, the Merchant, the Man of Law and the Student have been suggested. The many jobs that Chaucer held in medieval society—page, soldier, messenger, valet, bureaucrat, foreman and administrator—probably exposed him to many of the types of people he depicted in the Tales. He was able to shape their speech and satirise their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of the same types.

Chaucer's works are sometimes grouped into first a French period, then an Italian period and finally an English period, with Chaucer being influenced by those countries' literatures in turn. Certainly Troilus and Criseyde is a middle period work with its reliance on the forms of Italian poetry, little known in England at the time, but to which Chaucer was probably exposed during his frequent trips abroad on court business. In addition, its use of a classical subject and its elaborate, courtly language sets it apart as one of his most complete and well-formed works. In Troilus and Criseyde Chaucer draws heavily on his source, Boccaccio, and on the late Latin philosopher Boethius. However, it is The Canterbury Tales, wherein he focuses on English subjects, with bawdy jokes and respected figures often being undercut with humour, that has cemented his reputation.

Chaucer also translated such important works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). However, while many scholars maintain that Chaucer did indeed translate part of the text of Roman de la Rose as The Romaunt of the Rose, others claim that this has been effectively disproved. Many of his other works were very loose translations of, or simply based on, works from continental Europe. It is in this role that Chaucer receives some of his earliest critical praise. Eustache Deschamps wrote a ballade on the great translator and called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385 Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower, Chaucer's main poetic rival of the time, also lauded him. This reference was later edited out of Gower's Confessio Amantis and it was suggested by one editor that this was done because of ill feeling between them, but it is likely due simply to stylistic concerns.

One other significant work of Chaucer's is his Treatise on the Astrolabe, possibly for his own son, that describes the form and use of that instrument in detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English language. Although much of the text may have come from other sources, the treatise indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. Another scientific work discovered in 1952, Equatorie of the Planetis, has language and handwriting similar to some considered to be Chaucer's and it continues many of the ideas from the Astrolabe. Furthermore, it contains an example of early European encryption. The attribution of this work to Chaucer is still uncertain.

Narrate how devotion and love are portrayed in Songs of Radha: The Quest by Sarojini Naidu ?

Ans: 

The Quest is about the incomparable love of Radha and Krishna. In the poem Radha is searching for her beloved Krishna. Lord Krishna is the symbol of imperishable love who can provide the shelter of love to everyone. Radha has given the highest rank among the lovers of Krishna. It is not easy to define whether the passion she feels towards Krishna is love or devotion. According to the beliefs, the zenith of devotion is love. Radha searches her beloved Krishna. She asks the wind about him. But she cannot find him. Krishna has the habit of resting in the forest at the noon time. She searches for him in the forest too, but fails to find him out. At the late evening she enquires the grey coloured tide about the dwelling place of her dear

flute player. The waters, the wind and the woods do not give any answer to her questions. None of them know anything about him. She carries her crying face in her arms. She keeps weeping- where her Ghanashyam has gone.

Her search shows the passion in the heart of Radha towards Krishna. In the love for him, she becomes a silly girl who always makes complaints to her lover. Her heart is suddenly awakened like a boat which shook from top to bottom by his hidden laughter. He mocks her with the usual tricks of Krishna and honey bubbled in the chalice of her heart. She always thinks like every other girl and tries to find out some reasons to quarrel with him. Even then she realizes that all the silly thoughts raised in her heart are only because of the love hidden in her. Then he asks her why she is searching for him in the wind, wave and the flowering valley. He says that he belongs to her. She can look into the mirror of her heart to see him.

The Quest is about the love and devotion of Radha towards Lord Krishna. The image of Radha and Krishna is one of the most celebrated one in Indian mythology. We can see the concept of ‘Prakriti’ and ‘Purusha’ in the poem. Here Krishna stands for the concept of Purusha and Radha for Prakriti and this union is considered as the basics of life upon the earth. She uses the image of divine love to portray her concept of love. Hence the love in the poem becomes eternal. She narrates the poem according to the traditional concept of love in India. The poem is the transfer of personal love to the universal love. She brings oneness of the hearts of the idol and the devotee. She believes in the love before which everyone is compelled to surrender.

 In The Quest, the nightingale of India sings about love which is imperishable. She sings about the love of Radha and Krishna, the iconic couple of Indian Myths. She seeks him all over but fails to find him out. As in every love, she finds that her lover is always playing with her, but fails to accept the fact. She shares her complaints to herself. But at the same time she enjoys his teasing. In the end she realizes the fact that he resides in her mind and it is her fault that she could not identify the platonic love hidden in the mind of Krishna towards every woman who adores him. The love described in this poem is platonic in nature which refers to the union of the minds rather than the union of the bodies.

Who is the literature Nobel prize winner on 2017 ?

Kazuo Ishiguro is a Nobel Prize-winning British novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan; his family moved to England in 1960 when he was five. Ishiguro graduated from the University of Kent with a bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy in 1978 and gained his master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980.

Ishiguro is considered one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction authors in the English-speaking world, having received four Man Booker Prize nominations and winning the 1989 award for his novel The Remains of the Day. His 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, was named by Time as the best novel of 2005 and included in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His seventh novel, The Buried Giant, was published in 2015. Growing up in a Japanese family in the UK was crucial to his writing, as he says, enabling him to see things from a different perspective to many of his British peers.

In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded Ishiguro the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

Critically evaluate Plato’s charges against poetry

  PLATO

Plato was the first scholastic philosopher who had given a systematic shape to criticism. He lived in the fourth century B.C. He was the most celebrated disciple of Socrates. By his time the glory of Athenian art and literature began to fade and was taken by philosophy and oratory. The great philosophers of the period discussed a great variety of matters including the value of literature of society and its nature and functions. The fourth century B.C. was an age of critical enquiry and analysis. Plato was not a professed critic of literature and there is no single work that contains his critical observations. His ideas are expressed in several books, chief among them being the “Dialogues” and the “Republic”

PLATO’S VIEW OF ART:

Plato’s view of art is closely related to his theory of ideas. Ideas, he says are the ultimate reality and things are conceived as ideas before they take practical shape as things. The idea of everything is therefore its original pattern, and the thing itself its copy. As copy ever falls short of the original, it is once removed from reality. Art – literature, painting, sculpture- reproduces but things as mere pastime, the first in words, the next in colours and  the last in stone. So it merely copies a copy; it is twice removed from reality. Art takes men away from reality. The productions of art helped neither to mould character nor to promote the well-being of the state-. He was however not aware of its potentialities for good. Rightly pursued, it could inculcate a love for beauty and for whatever is noble in character and life.

PLATO’S ATTACK ON POETRY

In Plato’s opinion, poetry cannot shape the character of the individual not can it promote the well-being of the state. It is a copy of the copy. It is twice removed from reality. He condemns poetry on three grounds.

1. Poetic inspiration

2. The emotional appeal of poetry

3. Its non-moral character. Poetic inspiration

The poet writes not because he has thought long over but because he is inspired. It is

a spontaneous overflow or a sudden outpouring of the soul. No one can rely on such sudden

outpourings. It might have certain profound truth, but it should be suspected to the test of be substitutes to philosophy which is guided by the cool deliberation. Poetry, on the other

hand, is created by the impulse of moment. So it cannot make a better citizen or a Nation. 

The Emotional Appeal of Poetry

Poetry appeals to the emotions and not to the reason. Its pictures of life are therefore misleading. Poetry is the product of inspiration. Hence it cannot be safe guide as reason. Plato illustrates this with reference to the tragic poetry. In tragedy, there is much weeping and wailing. This moves the heart of the spectators. It is harmful in its effect. If we let our own pity grow on watching the grief of others, it will not be easy to restrain it in the case of

our own sufferings. Poetry feeds the passions and let them rule us. Its non-moral character

Poetry lacks concern with morality. It treats both virtue and vice alike. Virtue often comes to grief in literature. Many evil characters are happy and many virtuous men are seen unhappy. It is seen that wickedness is profitable and that honest dealing is harmful to one’s self. Their portraits of Gods and Heroes are also objectionable. Gods are presented as unjust or revengeful or guilty and heroes are full of pride, anger, grief and so on. Such literature corrupted both the citizen and the state.

THE FUNCTIONS OF POETRY:

Plato says that although poetry pleases, mere pleasure is its object. Art cannot be

separated from morals. Truth is the test of poetry. Pleasure ranks low in Plato’s scale of

values. A poet is a good artist in so far as he a good teacher. Poetic truth must be the ideal

forms of justice, goodness and beauty. 

HIS COMMENTS ON DRAMA

Plato’s observation on poetry is equally applicable to drama. But he says a few more things about drama in particular. Its appeal to the Baser Instincts Drama is meant to be staged. Its success depends upon a heterogeneous multitude. In order to please them all, the dramatist often introduces what they like. This is likely to lead to the arousal of baser instincts. It may affect morality. Hence such plays should be banished.

Effects of Impersonation

By constantly impersonating evil characters, the actors imbibe vices. This is harmful

to their natural self. Acting, says Plato is not a healthy exercise. It represses individuality

and leads to the weakness of character, However, Plato admits that if the actors

impersonate virtuous characters, the same qualities are stimulated in them by the force of

habit. These tragedies that represent the best and the noble are to be encouraged.

Tragic and Comic pleasure

Plato tries to answer what constitutes tragic pleasure. But his explanation is not

scientific. He says that human nature is a mixture of all sorts of feelings such as anger envy fear, grief etc.; these feelings are painful by themselves. But they afford pleasure when

indulged in excess. It pleases a man to be angry or to go on weeping, otherwise he would

not do so. In comedy, the pleasure takes the form of laughter when we see a coward

behaving like a brave man, a fool as a wise man, a cheat as an honest person and so on. The

source of laughter is the incongruity between what he is and what he pretends to be. Such a

pleasure is malicious as it arises from the weakness of a fellow man. We derive pleasure

from such a man only if we love him. If he were one whom we hate, he fails to arouse any

laughter but contempt. Plato says: “no character is comic unless he is lovable”.

Observations on Style.

Plato lays down a few principles of good speech. They apply equally to good

writing. The first essential of a speech is a thorough knowledge of the subject matter. The

speaker should also know the art of speaking. The presentation must have an organic unity. i.e. it must have a beginning, middle and an end. The speaker must also have a thorough

knowledge of human psychology. These principles are equally true in the case of written

word.

The Value of Plato’s Criticism

Plato is a discerning critic in both poetry and drama. In his attack on poetry, he

exhibits a thorough insight into their nature, function and method. He insists on truth as the

test of poetry. He says that poetry is twice removed from reality. He disapproves of the

non-moral character of poetry. He makes a distinction between the function of poetry and

that of philosophy. He also derides the emotional appeal of poetry. He makes valuable

observations on the source of comic and tragic pleasure. He was also, perhaps, the first to

see that all art is imitation of mimesis. He divides poetry into the dithyrambic or the purely

lyrical, the purely mimetic or imitative such as drama and the mixed kind such as the epic.

He makes valuable observation on style of good speech and writing.