Lecture notes drop box and creative corner of Dr Aswathy Aravindakshan
Reading Time: 2 minutes Thomas Gray‘s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is one of the most famous poems in English. Based on translation statistics, it is a first-rate masterpiece. It has been translated into over 140 languages. Though the poem is only 128 lines long, Gray worked at it for nine years to perfect it. The…
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Reading Time: 3 minutesCommonwealth literature is a blanket term for the ‘literatures’ of post-colonial nations. It mainly includes literature from regions once colonised by Britain, such as Africa, Asia, North America, and the Caribbean. Even though post-colonial writers write in English, writers from Britain do not fall under this category. Ironically, the language of Britain is central to…
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Reading Time: 2 minutesBelow is a brief biography of D. Vinayachandran, a Malayalam poet whose works uniquely blend modernism with traditional folklore and the melody of nature. WORKS CITED “Malayalam poet Vinayachandran passes away”. Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 4 July 2013. “Poet D. Vinayachandran condoled”. The Hindu. Retrieved 4 July 2013. “One with nature in…
Reading Time: 6 minutes INTRODUCTION WORKS CITED Lalitambika Antharjanam, Agnisakshi, Thrissur: Current Books, 1980. Antharjanam, Lalithambika. Agnisakshi. Translated by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Oxford University Press, 2015. Agnisakshi: Lalitambika Antharjanam’s Critique of Individualism Antharjanam, Lalithambika. Agnisakshi. Translated by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan, Oxford University Press, 2015. Chandran, Mini. “The Fire Within: A Feminist Reading of Agnisakshi.” Indian…
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Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction Born on March 30, 1909, Lalithambika Antharjanam emerged as a significant figure in Malayalam literature and the social reform movements of the early 20th century. Hailing from a traditional Namboodiri household in Kottavattom, Kerala, Lalithambika’s life unfolded against a patriarchal and caste-ridden society. Despite the societal norms that confined Namboodiri women to a…
Reading Time: 4 minutes The poem “Ambalamani” by B. Sugathakumari was translated into English as “Temple Bell” by P. P. Raveendran. Through the poem, the poet reflects on decay and desolation in a world full of noise. The poem “Temple Bell” is set against the backdrop of a deserted temple, where a broken bronze bell sways in the…
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Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Language of African Literature is an excerpt from Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) by Ngugi, which urges African writers to write in their native languages rather than in English.The above expression is the crux of the essay. The essay begins by describing a conference of African writers who used English as a…
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Reading Time: 2 minutes WORKS CITED Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Cambridge University Press, 2000. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Heinemann, 1986. Williams, Patrick. Ngugi wa Thiong’o: Contemporary World Writers. Manchester University Press, 1999. Dr Aswathy AravindakshanDr Aswathy Aravindakshan is a teacher, bilingual…
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Reading Time: 2 minutes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, born on September 15, 1977, in Enugu, Nigeria, grew up in a nurturing academic environment with her parents deeply involved in the University of Nigeria. Her father was a professor of statistics, and her mother was the university’s first female registrar. Her family lived on the university campus, in a house…
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