AD's English Literature

“ Contradictions if well understood and managed can spark off the fires of invention. Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.” Chinua Achebe  (1930 - 2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, and essayist. Anthills of the Savannah                                                                                                                         ...

A writer of such prodigious and prolix nature as William Shakespeare , his primary concern was to get hold of a story that could be shaped to the needs of the theatre. For, he was essentially a man of the theatre with a practical sense and eye always on what would please the palates of his audience.   And Shakespeare’s plays, as has already been mentioned, were meant to be enacted and not for closet reading. So, the story came first with him. William Shakespeare ’s for all this popularity and universality was not an original story – writer but an original story – teller only. Shakespeare was a unique creator; but not an inventor of stories. He never took the trouble of inventing his plots. He drew upon, for the materials of his plays, such stories as had already been invented or recorded, provided only that they were suitable to his particular purpose, and were well – known or popular. Where from did William Shakespeare get so many stories for so many of his plays? It is here th...

The main ‘sources’ of William Shakespeare ’s plays were the classics, the Italian Novella, English history, and the well – known   romances of Europe. To know the sources, is not to detract from the glory and greatness of the dramatists.

I. Introduction A. Overview of the Translation Method The Translation Method is an approach to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) that involves the direct translation of words, phrases, and sentences from the learner's native language (L1) to English (L2) and vice versa. This method has been used historically in language teaching and is still employed in various settings worldwide, including in India. B. Relevance of the Translation Method in the Indian Context In the Indian context, the Translation Method holds significance due to the diverse linguistic landscape of the country. India is a multilingual nation with over 22 officially recognized languages and hundreds of regional languages and dialects. English, being one of the official languages, plays a crucial role in education, business, and communication. The Translation Method becomes relevant in India for the following reasons: Image by  AkshayaPatra Foundation   from  Pixabay Bridging Language Barriers: ...

"Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war."- John Milton  (1608 - 1674)   Letters of State...Together with Several of his Poems ,  "To Oliver Cromwell" “Progress” by St. John Greer Ervine is a successful specimen of a one act play . It has not only a unity of theme (the abolition of war) the unities of time; place and action are also meticulously maintained. Thematically, “Progress”     is written against the background of the First World War in which thousands were butchered and many more became disabled for life. It left many mothers    childless and incredible number of widows and orphans. This insensible devastation has created diverse reactions in social thinking, and “Progress” by the Irish playwright St. John Greer Ervine is just the product of one of the strongest of these sentiments, namely the anti-war feeling of the post war modern age .  Through the basic conflict between two ideas- the point of view of ...

"What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things." Alexander Pope  (1688 - 1744) English poet. The Rape of the Lock   The occasion of the poem Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock was the quarrel between two aristocratic Roman Catholic families. Lord petre, in a moment of youthful frolic had cut off a lock of hair from Miss Arabella’s Fermor’s head which caused a violent quarrel. The gentle satire was written to reconcile quarreling families. Thus The Rape of the Lock was dedicated to Miss Arabelle Fermors belonging to a distinguished Catholic family. It was dedicated to her as it was to reconcile her family with that of Lord Petre who had cut off a lock hair from the lady’s head which caused a violent quarrel.

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers (UGC NET ENGLISH OBJECTIVES) Confessional Poetry -- A middle generation of 20th-century American poets emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, most of them born in the second decade of the century. Many achieved fame, including Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman, Theodore Roethke, Karl Shapiro, and Delmore Schwartz. Several came to be known as confessional poets because of their use of modernist techniques to explore their own psychology and their lives. These techniques included irony, collage, verbal finish (careful attention to word choice for the effects of sound or rhythm as well as for meaning), and wide-ranging allusion.   Science Fiction -- Science Fiction, genre of fiction set in some imaginary time or place. In its original usage in the 1920s, science fiction referred to stories that appeared in cheap, so-called pulp ma...

A Hegelian in philosophy and a follower of the aesthetic traditions of Coleridge and Hazlitt than  both A.C. Bradley was of course more scientific and methodical critic. Bradley was intensely subjective possessing candid , lively and inspired imagination trained for the type of criticism after his heart. Bradley applied the basic principle of Hegelian dialectics (conflict of forces) to Shakespeare’s tragedies and traced in them the struggle between the forces of good and evil. He was, it should be remembered, the first Shakespearean critic to investigate the nature of Tragedy with an approach that was basically interpretive. His Shakespearean criticism broadly consists of Shakespearean Tragedy where he interprets four major or principal tragedies of Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear and his lectures on Antony and Cleopatra and The Rejection of Falstaff included in his Oxford Lectures on Poetry . What was the nature or substance of Shakespearean Tragedy , ...