Literary
Research and Critical Strategies
30-03-2015
Lecture
delivered at SRM University – Plenary Session
Lecture notes
Dr. S. Sridevi
We need to understand
our past. We need to understand the various voices across the world. We need to
look at various cultural, political and religious documents from a critical
perspective. The study of humanities is a necessity. Nationalism, chauvinism and religiosity have to be analyzed. Individual
and institutional practice of reading of close, careful, critical reading is
necessary. We need to know why the text is written, from whom it was written,
what religious and moral or political purposes motivated it, as well as its
historical circumstances. Then we can move on to the issues of its style, its
language, its structure and its deployment of rhetorical and literary
techniques.
Theory is devoted to
examining the principles behind the practice. Theory is a systematic
explanation of a practice or a situation of a practice in broader framework.
Theory brings to light the motives behind our practice. It shows the connection
of practice to ideology, power structures, our own unconscious, our political
and religious attitudes, our economic structures. Theory shows us that practice
is not something natural, but a specific historic construct. Literary criticism
helps us locate the sources of our identity. It helps us renew our connections
with some of the deepest resources of our present and future sustenance.
Modern literary
criticism and theory derives its terminology from philosophy. We have to
understand Western thought and locate it in history. We have to situate
philosophic thoughts in their philosophical systems that are born out of
society. Many scholars distrust the jargon of philosophy. They are not familiar
with the philosophical systems. These philosophical systems have been
responsible for the world as we have inherited. Rationalism, pragmatism,
empiricism and liberalism of Western philosophy have constructed our world.
Locke, Kant, Hegel, Derrida, Foucault, and Kristeva have contributed to
concepts of equality, mutual respect, valuing multiculturalism, respecting
various religions etc. Romanticism, Symbolism, Marxism, Freudianism and
Existentialism have shaped man’s thought. We carry our religious, social,
cultural beliefs along with global trends of thought and have become more
multicultural than ever.
Christianity / Judaism / Islam -----------
faith
Romanticism ------------- respect
for creativity
Marxism -------------- equality
for economic opportunities
Freud -------------- everyone
is good. No evil around. Psychology approached life from a scientific
perspective.
The history of literary
criticism is in the history of thought in a broad range of spheres –
philosophical, religious, social, economic and psychological. We have to locate
these theories in a historical context from which they are born. The lines of
origins will help us understand the significance of dry theories. We have to find
how philosophy has descended. Most of the time we depend upon interpretations
of philosophy to understand philosophy. We need to aim at close textual
analysis.
Greek term – Kritics ------ judge
Poetic creation itself
is a judgment on society.
Uzhudundu vazhvare vazhvar.
Matrellam
thozhundu pin selbavar.
Karka kasadara Katrapin nirka
adharku thaga.
The creative act itself
is a critical act – involving not just inspiration but some kind of
self-assessment, reflection and judgment.
Rhapsody / Harikatha / kathakaalatshepam were forms that required
interpretation. A performance is self-conscious and informed by critical judgment.
Schools of rhetoric were the natural development.
Concept of mimesis.
beauty and truth
organic beauty of a literary work
social, political, moral functions of literature
nature and status of language
(Bama wrote her autobiography in her native
dialect.)
impact of lit. performance on arts
The definition of figures of speech as metaphor,
metonymy, symbol
The notion of a cannon
development of genres like epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric,
poetry, song
Thillai
moovayiram per arangetram – Kamba Ramayanam
‘Sangam’ itself
refers to a convocation of Tamil poets and literary critics to whom poetics
were submitted for their approval or otherwise.
Purananuru
has to be politically understood with Buddhism
in the background. Manimegalai and Silappadhikaram reflect the dominant ideology of
Buddhism. Tamil literature and grammar had the system of commentators.
Saathanaar was
a Buddhist poet.
Sangams were societies
of poets – organized bodies which acted as literary censors of every new poem –
accepted some as correctly composed.
Sanga chheyul. Saandror chehhyul.
Nakkeerar finds
fault with Irayanaar’s
poetry who is supposed to have been God himself.
Tholkaappiyam had many
commentators. Ilampooranar, Nacchinarkiniyar
Mudal Sangam
– 549 members
beginning with Agathiyar
Idai Sangam –
59
members
Tholkaapiyar belonged to this era
Kadai Sangam
– 49
members
Enmanaar
Pulavar – they say
Northrope Frye
emphasizes the need to develop lit. crit. as a science. Tholkaapiyar speaks of Thinai, Thurai,
Mudal Porul, Uriporul, Karupporul.
8 Meippadugal – that describe the nature of similes and
their types. Tradition is valued. Words against the tradition have to be
avoided. Thus the critic becomes the literary anthropologist helping the
readers identify the literary category to which a literary work belongs.
The Tamil commentators
explained and interpreted classical works without questioning the traditions.
Parimelazhagar
Nacchinarkiniyar
Vaishnavaite
commentators like Aalavandar, Manavala Munivar
wrote commentaries on Naalaayira Divyaprabandam in manipravala
nadai – interlaced with Sanskrit words.
Saminadha
Ayyar
excelled in textual criticism and edited old Tamil texts. He brought parallel
passages from other texts.
Again till 19th
c. our lit. crit. did not delve into questioning the assumptions held by the
classics.
Tamilnadu was
influenced by western literary criticism.
Thi. K. Chidambara Mudaliyar,
Dandapaani Desikar, S. Vaiyaapuri Pillai
Schools and colleges
used the commentaries in the classroom.
T. P. Meenakshi Sundaram
Tamil academicians
continue to value tradition. The reaction of many literary scholars against
modern literary and cultural theory is often underlained by a distrust of
philosophy, of technical jargon, and a lack of familiarity with the great
philosophical systems.
As we are in the
western University system, we need to understand the ideologies that have built
the contemporary critical culture. Why?
Our research uses the
scientific model. Why?
Philosophy = Meipporul
epporul
yaryar vaai ketpinum
apporul
meipporul kaanbadarivu.
Philosophy has helped
every aspect of human civilization.
Far
flashing beams of light
-
WilliamJames.
Take for example –
these concepts
democracy – Socrates – Know Thyself. Be aware of your limitations.
equality
Human rights
Information comes through
Senses ---------- Emerson, Einstein
Information comes through rational
thinking ----------- Socrates
Plato
Thiruvalluvar
Philosophy claims
objectivity.
But it is created by
human beings.
And human beings are subjective.
Look at Plato who
banishes myth. His student Aristotle launches realism. Consolidates Plato’s
ideas.
Nietzsche questions
these views. He argues myths are essential for humanity. It is eco-friendly.
Thomas Kuhn would call
this as Paradigm Shift - We change our
views of society.
Once upon a time we
burnt depressed women who went mad as witches. We burnt widows. Now rules have
changed.
Philosophy aims at
neutrality. Research cannot be one sided. It has to study both sides of any
argument and present it in the thesis. M. Phil. is Master of Philosophy – a
person who has mastered the art of studying both sides of any hypothesis. Ph.
D. is Doctor of Philosophy – a person who is a real expert in presenting a
thorough representation of any theme, studying all that has been written about
that field. The framework has to be scientific.
What is this science?
We have to make
theories about life, nature, and in our case, books. We have to arrive at
principles of life.
Principles of nature – Science
Principles of human thought that are represented in
literary works – Literary Criticism.
In normal life, half
our time is used up for creating theories about the life around us. Forming
opinions and arguing we are right is our practice. In research too we have to
form opinions of books. But we don’t stop with that. We collect the opinions of
others too. These opinions can be found anywhere – in the newspapers, films,
Television talk shows, serials, Political meetings, blogs, websites, books etc.
Some of these opinions are similar to our opinion. Some opinions might be
different. Both have to be recorded. We have to analyze both opinions.
A scholarly opinion is
different from an ordinary opinion. Young students will argue for the hero and
against the villain. A mature reader knows the writer has created a certain
type of person belonging to a particular caste, class, colour, region,
nationality as the hero and another type as the villain.
Take the example of
Karate Kid, for example. It shows careful geopolitical construction. We have to
deconstruct it to understand its structure.
Derrida was a French
Jewish philosopher who identified the binary nature of human thought. Every
child is taught antonyms. The age-old analytical method itself is binary. It
uses compare and contrast method. If one student is called as brilliant, the
meaning does not stop with that. The sentence has to be re-understood. Brick by
brick we have to remove it to understand its construction.
What is the criterion
for brilliance? Is it communication skills? Is it memory power? Is it
analytical skills? Is it innovative thinking? Is it problem solving ability? Is
it leadership and teamwork? Is it language ability? Each teacher might have his
/ her criterion or criteria to judge the ability of others.
When we deconstruct the
sentence, we understand the criteria involved. Also, it brings yet another
level of meaning – Others are not so brilliant. So this second meaning is
unintended. It has escaped the control of the teacher.
Similarly, a book might
have thousands of sentences that can be deconstructed and new meanings will
arrive. These meanings will explain the society that created the book or the
movie.
For example, Rajam
Krishnan’s Kurinji
Then translated as Why the Kurinji Blooms constructs the
character of Rangan as a negative character. Rajam Krishnan carefully builds
scenes where this motherless boy is insulted by his family members. He does not
receive any love from the family members and that has made him a boy without
family values. It is he who supports modernization and hurts the tribal
culture. If we deconstruct the characterization and study how it is built, we
realize Rajam Krishnan uses the binary opposition of mother’s love vs. family. She
has projected motherhood. Similarly, City vs. Village. Many films use the
binary opposition of city / village, English / No-English, rich / Poor,
educated / uneducated etc. Writers have to construct stories.
The fundamental
framework for creative writing reflects / represents human thought. Derrida
captured it well: light-darkness, heaven-hell. Our religions conceived heaven
as golden and hells as black that has now become one of the strong reasons for
racism.
Good vs. Evil is the
universal framework for literature, films and Television stories. Even
non-fiction and reality shows have this frame. Because that is the way we
think. This knowledge of us is fundamental to understand others and what others
speak and write. When we consider others as bad, or evil, then meanings will
escape from our words – negative. Sartre called this as “Hell is the other.”
All literary works have this problem. That’s why Roland Barthes said “the
author is dead”. At one level, the author cannot control his meaning, just like
in normal life. Secondly in a film the novel becomes a script and later the
movie is practically made by the technicians – editors of various types,
computer engineers and so on.
This arc of criticism
is generally referred to as post-structuralism. We must also remember the
contributions of Foucault. His discourse analysis studied not only what is said,
but also what is unsaid. How are women presented by male writers? Do women
critics represent men without saying many thing? A researcher has to
concentrate upon the issues that have not been represented by the writer.
So, how are we locating
literature? We have started looking at literature as representation of life –
Aristotelian model – realism. Today New Historicism talks about locating
literature as a cultural product that is influenced by other cultural products.
For example, Harry Potter influenced a whole lot of other similar books. Anyone
researching on these books after 200 years will have to understand
postmodernism, archaeology etc. which initiated a study into myths, magic and
other areas that were rejected as superstition.
In other words, a new
historic study will reveal how themes build in creative work. A writer is
caught in his tradition, T. S. Eliot says. In the early 20th century,
A. G. Grierson published a collection of poems – Metaphysical Poets. T. S. Eliot wrote a brief preface to the book.
In the preface, T. S. Eliot wrote a simple theory that is actually new historic
in style.
He studied Elizabethan
poetry and attempted to locate Metaphysical poets in the framework. He found
out he could not do so. So he created a new theory – disassociation of
sensibility – to describe Donne’s poems. When all the poets wrote about senses
or love, Donne mocked love. He represented practical, popular versions. He told
his lady not to cry, as each tear would bring down one year in the man’s life.
He used conceits – we have given the phrase – linking two totally different
images – a brilliant fusing. Donne dis-associated himself with love.
Later, New Criticism
came up in America, Formalism came up in Russia, Structuralism came up in
France – all these critical philosophies were based on the study of language.
20th century has come under the impact of language studies. This is
the result of European colonialism. During 19th century Europe found
out Indian languages. Germany was leading in language research. The German
Universities started Philology departments to study Asian languages. Indo-European
language tree was formalized and drawn. Aryan supremacy was theorized and
believed. It later developed into Nazism and brought about the millions of
Jews’ death – as Jews belonged to Semitic race. The Germans called themselves Teutonic
and framed themselves as Aryan race – Noble race – Terminologies given by
Professors.
German Philology
departments were familiar with Thirukkural, Tholkappiyar etc. Max Mueller, a German Scholar translated almost all Sanskrit
texts into English and German languages with a team of scholars. The founder of
post-structural thought which brought up a whole lot of critical practices
like, post-colonialism, feminism, cultural studies, cultural materialism,
post-colonialism, new historicism etc. was a Philology Professor. The world had
a paradigm shift after colonialism. Language became a sign of a people. It
became a sign of ethnicity, identity.
Today’s most popular
research practice is to locate a writer in his identity – identity politics is
the agenda behind Edward Said’s model post-colonialism. How does Rudyard
Kipling, an English writer represent India? All post-colonial research
practices are built upon ethnic practices that are based on language. When
India was created in the Nation / State model, language was used to demarcate
states. Our states are now following the European model of division. Holy Roman
Empire became nations of particular languages. Modern Europe is ‘linguistic’ in
origin. So language studies created an impact in all aspects of life. In
literature, academics began using language to study its aspects. What are the
linguistic strategies to write poetry? What are the language techniques that
have been used to create a literary work? Formalism studies rhymes, syllables
and word syntax. Roman Jacobson found out Shakespeare used end rhymes. We can
study every lyric written by Kannadasan who wrote Atthikkai
aalangai ithhikkai.
Ferdinand de Saussure
was the Harvard University Professor who taught Sanskrit. He studied Indian
linguistics and taught it. After his death, his students published his notes – A General Course on Linguistics – the
study of signs. Every word is a sign. It
signifies a meaning. French Structuralists and post-structuralists used the
linguistic model – a sign can be arbitrary. Every language is a sign system. An
object can have hundreds of signs or words. Every language will have a
different word for the same object. If we develop, every book will symbolize
one meaning. But it might have many other perspectives.
Meanwhile, the World
War II took place and Hitler and Mussolini killed, tortured millions of people.
Philosophers began questioning the power of religion and literature to tame the
evil of mankind. They realized the need to respect other civilizations, other
people, other cultures. The violence Europe unleashed in Asia, America and
Australia now was exhibited in Europe itself. Philosophy took up the role of
teaching mankind. Philosophers started analyzing the importance for
self-criticism. The Frankfurt School was established to study human nature. The
books written by these philosophers are referred to as Critical Theory. Adorno
and Horkeimer are important names. There is a parallel growth – Post
structuralism and Post modernism or Critical Theory.
To put it simply we
have gone back to the age of Thiruvalluvar,
Socrates, and Plato - To be aware of our limitations, our selves. Commerce has
taken the SWOC model. Today a researcher has to be aware of the Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges of the writers he is researching on. A
mere appreciation of the book is not research.
Epporul Yaaryaarvai ketpinum
Apporul meipporul kaanbadarivu.
The researcher is a
philosopher trying to find out the underlying principles of the work, the
historical background of the work, the other works of the period, the political
era in which the books are written and the ideologies it contains.
Areas
for Research
Language
What are the mental
blocks of our students learning English? Socio-economic background and English
language learning
Has Tamil always
resisted pan-Indian languages?
What is the archaeology
of Tamil language?
Literature
What is the archaeology
of colonialism in India?
First
German in India – Heinrich Roth (1620 – 1668)
1652
Important German Indology
Lutheran
Missionary Ziegenbalg – 1706 – Tamilnadu
Danish
East India Trading Company
German
Orientalism / German University System
New chairs for Oriental languages
Important Classical Philology and Sanskrit
Important Paradigm Shift Why?
Theology
----------- Oriental languages
Kant
– 1788 – Critique of Practical Reason
Accepts
and retains the concept of God or eternal life.
Philosophy
geared towards comparative linguistic studies.
Philhellenic
trend
Schlegel
– comparative linguistics.
Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and German
Historical
critical method of philology
What
is our role in the development of Formalism, Structuralism and Post
Structuralism?
How much was Immanuel
Kant influenced by Indian philosophy?
What are the segments
taken from Tholkappium for
Linguistics?
The concept of identity
has dominated research all over the world? What is its impact?
.........................................................................................................
I thank Dr. Cauveri, a great scholar, for supporting me.
