Feminist Criticism

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welcome to my blog I'm going to write about feminist Criticism this task given by Dr. Dilip Barad head of Department of English M.K.Bhavnager University. 

👉 Feminist Criticism 

As a distinctive and concerted approach to literature, feminist criticism was not inaugurated until late in the 1960s. Behind it, however, lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements, and for women’s social and political rights, marked by such books as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and the American Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845). 

Much of feminist literary criticism continues in our time to be interrelated with the movement by political feminists for social, legal, and cultural freedom and equality. An important precursor in feminist criticism was Virginia Woolf, who, in addition to her fiction, wrote A Room of One’s Own (1929) and numerous other essays on women authors and on the cultural, economic, and educational disabilities within what she called a “patriarchal” society, dominated by men, that have hindered or prevented women from realizing their productive and creative possibilities. 

What Feminist critics do?

1. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women. 

2. Revalue women's experience. 

3. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women. 

4. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'. 

Representations of women in Cinema 

Changing times have brought into the limelight several successes directed by women—Gully Boy by Zoya Akhtar, Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Earth, and the popular film English Vinglish by Gauri Shinde, are a few of the many pieces that are slowly bringing in a much-needed change to the industry, through representation of women from all walks of life. 

 👉Pink Movie 

https://youtu.be/AL2TShb6fFs

Pink, starring Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan, was a progressive and empowering film that dealt with the topic of the consent of women.

Regarding the title of the film, Shoojit Sircar, in one of his interviews said that the title is meant to destigmatise ‘pink’ as a feminine colour and the various associations that are made with it. But, during the entire course of the film, not even for once, this association has been substantiated and most people are reading it as, “film about women and 'Women empowerment', hence pink.”

Tapsee Pannu (Meenal) stands out in her role as a determined woman who is not ready to back out and is ready to take up challenges. Kirti Kulkhari’s character of Falak is shown as the most collective of all, who, (and we loved her for this) brought in the importance of consent even when it is a sex worker we are talking about. Andrea Tairang (Andrea) does justice to her role with an impactful presence and enforces the idea of the shallow mindsets of most people who think that women from North-East are an “easy-target.”

👉 Queen Movie 

https://youtu.be/4gtc5P5KZxA 

 Kangana Ranaut with Queen and Vidya Balan with Kahaani are synonymous with strong female leads in movies.

In 2014, the cast and crew of the film ‘Queen’ won both critical acclaim and the masses' hearts. This was a rare occasion in India where a story which doesn’t involve the boy and girl getting together was considered a happy ending by the audience, and everyone was left cheering and applauding the performances and the overall experience of the film. Queen undoubtedly made a strong statement with the central plot of a girl moving on after being left at the altar and finding herself. But even beyond the essence of the film was a multi-layered message of beautifully portrayed feminist ideals. This was, arguably, the most feminist film in Bollywood post the 2000’s and definitely a lesson in Feminism 101, and here’s why.

👉Mission Mangal Movie 

Although great strides have been recently taken to portray relatable women from different walks of life, they are accompanied by certain caveats. Mission Mangal showcased the hard work and dedication of the women scientists of ISRO to make India’s Mars mission successful. Despite having a stellar female cast, the movie was promoted with Akshay Kumar in a lead role, which speaks a lot about the audience’s attitude towards women-centric films. Patriarchy is deeply ingrained in the very roots of Indian society and its mindset, which in turn is reflected in its films. Cinema is mostly seen as a form of escapism and hence caters to the larger male audience. Cinema is business-driven and filmmakers don’t want to stray away from the established stereotypes to give pathbreaking roles to women. It, thus, also falls on the viewers to break this vicious cycle of supply and demand by making progressive movies successful.

In its eighty-year history, Bollywood has seen female leads take on many forms—from the sacrificing mother or a pleading damsel in distress to a woman in charge of her own destiny. The change is slow and much delayed, but the representation of empowered women onscreen is steadily increasing. 

Screening of Short Film : An Astrologer’s Day based on R. K. Narayan 's 'An Astrologer’s Day

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Welcome to my blog. I am going to write about the very interesting short story An Astrologer’s Day by R. K. Narayan and movie adaptation of the short story. How the movie adaptation is helpful to understand short story. This task was given by Vaidehi ma'am. 

R. K. Narayan : An Astrologer’s Day 

R.K. Narayan, in full Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan, original name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, (born October 10, 1906, Madras [Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation Writing in English.

‘An Astrologer’s Day’ by R. K. Narayan is a story deals with a day’s events in the life of a good for nothing fellow turned into an astrologer to earn his bread and butter. A single day brings in his drastic past back before him but being a smart fellow, he finely deals with it.

Important Scenes – The encounter with Guru Nayak, The conversation with wife, The market scene

• The conversation with wife 

I feel happy to know about the end  of the astrologer's mental burden of his life through their conversation.  The astrologer felt guilty for murdering Guru Nayak. Due to the fear, he had even left his village and settled his life in Malgudi. But, he found Guru Nayak alive. He realised that he wasn't the murderer. He even advised him not to return to the south. The astrologer finally got rid of his terrible burden. 

Next I feel a little upset to know about their pitiable economic status. To get twelve and a half annas, the astrologer's wife planned to buy Jaggeru and coconut to prepare sweet for their daughter.  Their daughter was demanding sweets for a long time. This shows the obligation of the family where a single daughters simple wish remained pending for a long time due to the lack of money. 

• The encounter with Guru Nayak 

The meeting with Guru Nayak and the astrologer seems quite ironic. Here, we find Guri Nayak asking astrologer about the culprit who once had stabbed him with a knife on his chest. He doesn't know the culprit himself is the astrologer. Due to the darkness and the astrologer's get up, Guru Nayak is unable to recognize him. The life long burden for the astrologer is the murder of Guru Nayak. He feels quite surprised to find Guru Nayak alive. The information of the culprit to find 

👉How faithful is the movie to the original short story?

The Movie Adaptation of An Astrologer’s Day is very helpful to understand the Shortstory. It portrayed the subject of a story well. But here we can see some changes in the adaptation. The character of the daughter of that astrologer is completely missing in the original short story. It was added by the director in the movie adaptation. If we look at the story, some situations were changed in the movie adaptation. Because movie captures importance scenes movie is short then the story. We watched movie in one sitting and understood the concept of the movie so movie adaptation is helpful to understood concept of the short story.

👉After watching the movie, have your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?

After watching movie we can find that there are many changes was made by director.It portrayed the subject of the story well But here we can see some changes in the adaptation. The character of the daughter of that astrologer is completely missing in the original short story. It was added by the director in the movie adaptation. If we look at the story, some situations were changed in the movie adaptation.

👉Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?

In the story, the astrologer has a great listening power. Listening helps in developing good relations with people. Listening, as differentiated from hearing, is about consciously understanding and applying one’s mind to what is heard. As the story illustrates, being a good listener helps one to fare better in any activity that one takes up. The astrologer isn’t knowledgeable of his work but still manages to convince his customers and make his living, owing to his great listening skills. He establishes a rapport with his clients by just listening to them for a few minutes without uttering a word, while analysing their troubles and simultaneously composing his talk and answers to the clients. This helps him to mask his own shortcomings and succeed in his work, where he would otherwise not have. Hence, great listening power is a strong skillset we all should develop.

Future of Postcolonial Studies: Globalization and Environmentalism

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Welcome to my blog.  Now I'm going to write about the Future of Postcolonial Studies. Globalization and Environmentalism. In which we have to task about read both articles and after that summarize articles and include important Quote and give examples.  For reading Articles You can click here  Future of Postcolonial Studies. Globalization and Environmentalism.

 Q-1 : Summarize both Articles and includes importance quotes from bith articles. 

Ans:

Summary of Article one 'Globalization and The Future of Postcolonial Studies'.

Since the event of 11 September 2001, the attack on WTC TOWERS and  US invasion of Afghanistan and Irag. At the same time these violent event are also  part of the phenomenon. We think of as globalization. Globalization, they argue cannot be analysed using concepts like margins and centers so central to postcolonial studies. Hardt and Negri do not identify the United States ad this new power, although they do argu that 'Empire is born through the global expansion of the internal US constitutional project', a project which to include and incorporate minorities into the mainstream rather than simply expel or exclude them.

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire  : 

"argues that the contemporary global order has produced a new form of sovereignty which should be called 'Empire' but which is best understood in 'contrast' to European empires."

This best defines the new Empire in contrast to European imperialism: 

"In contrast to imperialism, Empire establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely on fixed boundaries or barriers. It is a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressively incorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers."

Susie O'Brien and Imre Szeman believe that characterizing US political and cultural power as a global dominant detracts From a more thorough examination of sites and modalities of power in the global era. The colonized of today are given little place in the book's sprawling thesis about multitudes, biolpolitical control, and the Creation of alternative values. Globalization neo-liberal advocates who argue that the global mobility of capital, industries, workers, goods and consumers dissolves earlier hierarchies and inequities, democratises nations and the relations between nations and creatures new opportunities which percolate down in some from or another to every section of society. 

There is no doubt that globalization has made information and technology more widely available, and has brought economic prosperity to certain new sections of the world. Globalization is just another name for submissions and domination', Nicanord apaza, 46, an unemployed miner.

North Korea and India 's nuclear programmes are developed in defiance of the US, anf challenge the right of few powerful  nations to dictate to the rest of the world, but nuclear proliferation can hardly be seen as progressive in any way.

The resistance to globalization, moreover, often takes very local shape and involves struggles against national authorities, as in the case of Narmada Bachao Andolan in India, which has been protesting the Narmada Valley Development project to build scores of large dams across central India. New imperialism directly implicates education institutions. Nail Ferguson suggests that the US must learn from Britain and send its best and brightest students ftom its leading universities on the imperial mission. Western civilization is the primary source of the world's ills even though it gave us the ideals of democracy, human rights, individual liberty and mutual tolerance. 

The core premise of postcolonial theory is that it is immoral for a scholar to put his knowledge of foreign languages and cultures at the service of American power.

Summary of Article 2 The Future of Postcolonial Studies. 

 The second edition of this book  came out a decade ago, some of the best known practitioners of postcolonial studies, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, claim they 'no longer have a postcolonial perspective. Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez-Alier (1997) point out , is evident in American environmentalism and its obsession with the wilderness. Nixon suggests such 'spatial amnesia' is one reason why postcolonial criticism has been suspicious of  earth-first 'green criticism ' and therefore has not engaged with questions  relating to the environment.  Of late postcolonialists must take a new direction towards the environment, the history and present of indigenous peoples and societies. Premodern histories and cultures ongoing colonization of territories , labour and peoples by global capitalism. 

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak said that postcolonial studies is gone and dead : 

" I know longer have a postcolonial perspective. I think postcolonial is the day before yesterday."

 Vandna Shiva , environmental activist observed in staying Alive : Women ecology and survival in India there is deep connection between colonialism and the deconstruction of  environmental diversity. The growth of capitalism, and now of trans-national corporations, exacerbated the dynamic begun under colonialism which has destroyed sustainable local cultures.

Rob Nixon in Environmentalism and postcolonialism argue that He writes about American environmentalism and its obsession with the wilderness. This wilderness obsession is celebrated at the cost of erasure of history of colonized peoples through myths of  empty lands. They remain amnesiac towards non- America geographies.

The Displacement of indigenous communities and the theft of their land are also defining features of many spaces that have been privileged in postcolonial studies is Nigeria - whose oil-rich homelands were targeted for drilling by multinational companies leading to the displacement of Ogoni people and wide-scale environmental destruction India - 

the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) led widespread protests against the project fundedgby multinational as well as indigenous capital. the protests highlighted not just ecological damage but the displacement of thousands of tribal peoples all across the Narmada valley Central India - plunder of forests by iron and bauxite mining companies - resistance led by Maoist guerrillas.

EXAMPLE : 

Ania Loomba has also discussed some recent scholarship and political movements that show why the colonial past and the globalised present are deeply interconnected.

Tatvamasi is Gujarati book written by author Dhruv Bhatt. This book is become so popular that Gujarati movie Reva has been made from it. The story is based upon parikrama of Narmada river by an NRI Indian.

When the book was written at that time the NBD took a place. Dhruv Bhatt in his novel keeps silent about Narmada Bachao Andolan. It is one kind of escape from contemporary movement. Reva is Movie adaptation of the Novel Tatvamasi.

 

Citation 

Loomba, A. (n.d.). Colonialism/ postcolonialism . http://armytage.net/pdsdata/%5BAnia_Loomba%5D_Colonialism_Postcolonialism_(The_New(Book4You).pdf.

Midnight Children : Film Adaptation

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Welcome to my blog. Now I am going to write about the very interesting Novel Midnight’s Children written by Salman Rushdie and the movie adaptation of Midnight’s Children by Deepa Mehta. After watching movie we have task to write on Narrative technique in film adaptation , characters,How the movie adaptation captured themes and symbols and the texture of the Novel. Let's we discuss on it.

Salman Rushdie's Novels on Film 

Readers of Salman Rushdie’s novels know that he has been a prolific writer over the last few decades. Not only have his books received heaps of international critical acclaim, but they have also been loved by readers across the globe. So here’s where we have to tell you that the title of this article is a bit of a misnomer: only one of Rushdie’s novels has ever been adapted for the silver screen. In all these years, Rushdie’s works simply have not been remade as feature films. And it took more than 30 years for his novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), to reach the cinema. When we learned that Midnight’s Children was to become a film directed by Deepa Mehta, we were excited! But at the same time, we wondered: how might anyone turn a novel so immersed in the magical realism tradition into a work of cinema?

1. Narrative technique (changes made in film adaptation. For e.g. absence of padma,the nati,the listener,the commenter- what is your Interpolations.

Important concepts in Genette's narratology. 

This outline of Genette's narratology derived from Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. This book forms part of his multi-volume work Figures I-III. The examples used in it are mainly drawn from Proust's epic In Search of Lost Time. One criticism which had been used against previous forms of narratology was that they could deal only with simple stories, such as Vladimir Propp's work in Morphology of the Folk Tale. If narratology could cope with Proust, this could no longer be said.

He gave the five point of narratology 1.Order 

 2. Frequency

 3. Duration 

4.mood and 

5. Voice. 

Voice :

Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where. This can be split four ways.

Is the narrator character in the story .

Hetero-diegetic: the narrator is not a character in the story.

Homo-diegetic: the narrator is a character in the story. In the story we can the see that the narrator Saleem himself character in the story.

There are major differences to be sure ,between the novel and film versions of Midnight’s Children. Most notably,many of the magical realism elements disappeared as the book made its way to the screen. In an interview with Indian journalism out let news laundry. Rushdie discusses the ways in which he and deepa mehta dealt with musical realism onscreen. And the characters of padma,Nati and listener are in the novel but not included in the movie. In the novel padma listen the story of Saleem but in the movie padma not included only listener or audience listen the story of Saleem. 

2. Characters (how many included ,how many left out why? What is your Interpolations?

Midnight’s Children was very famous novel written by Salman Rushdie. There are many major and minor characters in the novel. In movie Midnight’s Children directed by Deepa Mehta we can see that there are many character included and many character left out. 

The movie began with Aadam Aziz who is the well-known doctor he treats his patient Naseem. They both married. Their daughter Mumtaz secretly married with Nadir khan. After that she married with Ahmed and her name was changed Anima Sina. They both live in Bombay at the houseof Englishman WilliamMetho. Anima given the borth two child one is Salem and Jasmine. 

The two servants entertain to English Man.

Wee willy winkly is my name to sing for my supper is my theme 

I hope you are comfortable or confortee. Winkly's wife gave the birth one child shiva.

Mary Pereira and her husband included in the movie cause of that Mary play a vital role she interchanges two child Saleem and Shiva. Two babies in her hand two lives in her power she did it for Joe. Her own private revolutionary act love me joe was in Mary's mind and then was it done.

Rich be poor and the poor rich.

Another character is Parvati the Midnight’s Children. She has magical power. She has pregnant by shiva and she married with Saleem. The Uncle zulfi and aunt emerald also included in rhe movie. Some character is left out in the movie for e.g. Padma Saleem told his story to padma but padma was not in the movie. The nati and the listener. 

3. Themes and symbols ( If film adaptation able to capture themes and symbols?

Themes are the fundamental ideas of the novel. In the novel we can see many themes and symbols. Rushdie establishes a strong connection between the history of India and the life of Saleem, his protagonist as if the two were Siamese twins? Right from the moment of his birth, Saleem is described as' being "mysteriously hand-cuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country. For the next three decades, there was no escape." Thus, Rushdie sets the scene for us to believe a strange tale, if true, that Saleem Sinai by being born in Bombay on 15th August 1947 at the stroke of midnight, becomes the first child born in independent India, and that his story is the history of free India.  In the movie adaptation we can see that the many historical elements. 

June 12, 1975 will be remembered as a historic date at 2.15 this afternoon the prime Minister was found guilty of electoral malpractice from a specifically built podium mrs gandhi told the crowd that she was victim of hate camping the world emergency was heard for the first time. 

Symbol : Nose

Saleem Sinai’s large, bulbous nose is a symbol of his power as the leader of the Midnight Children’s Conference, which is comprised of all children born on the moment of India’s independence from British rule. 

His nose makes his power of telepathy possible, and this is how he communicates with the other children of midnight who all have varied powers of their own Saleem inherits his rather large, and perpetually congested, nose from his grandfather, Aadam Aziz, who also uses his nose to sniff out trouble.

 Saleem’s nasal powers begin after an accident in his mother’s washing-chest, in which he sniffs a rogue pajama string up his nose, resulting in a deafening sneeze and the instant arrival of the voices in his head. Saleem’s power of telepathy remains until a sinus surgery clears out his nose “goo.” After his surgery, Saleem is unable to further commune with the other children. Ironically, 

after Saleem’s nasal congestion is gone, he gains the ability to smell emotions, and he spends much time categorizing all the smells he frequently encounters.

4. The texture of the novel (what is the texture of the novel? Well i is the interconnectedness of narrative technique with the theme. It is well captured?

5. What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening?

Yes there many aesthetic experience after watching the movie screening.  The movie is really interesting. It's included many historical elements. And many magical in incidents was interesting. Saleem was first child wgo born 15th August 1947 at midnight. Many children born in Midnight’s so they all have got a magical  power. Saleem has power of telepathy he listened voice voice are speaking inside to his head . He really thinks that archangel  have started to talk with him. After accidents he got a powe to smell everything so it was very interesting.  Saleem has the greatest gift of all he's the only one who can brings all child together. 

Parvati has a magical power. Saleem is in Pakistan he can to pass that without passport or permit returned in Parvati's basket of invisibility to India. So there are many magical seen was very interesting.This magical since awoke our aesthetic feeling. And we also feel pity for Saleem and shiva that how Mary changed two child  one rich become poor and poor became rich.  

The movie adaptation of the Novel Midnight’s Children is vary interesting. In two hours the hole story waz included in the movie. 

Thank you........

Citation :

Barad, D. (1970, January 1). Structuralism and Literary Criticism: Gerard Genette. https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2015/03/structuralism-and-literary-criticism.html?m=1#:~:text=Structuralist%20criticism%20aims%20at%20forming,in%20the%20field%20of%20narrative.

Golden, A. (n.d.). Salman Rushdie's novels on film. Our Blog. https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/salman-rushdies-novels-on-film.

Postcolonial studies and Bollywood

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my academic blog. Now I am going to write about the postcolonial studies in the movie Lagaan and Rangdebasnti. This task given by Dr Dilip Barad head of English Department. 

Postcolonial Studies 

As per Oxford dictionary, A theoretical approach in various disciplines that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonization in former colonies. ‘Post colonialism continues to unite historians and literary scholar’.

Postcolonial studies in the movie Lagaan 

Lagaan is a blockbuster Bollywood film directed by Ashutosh Gavarikar. This movie is about a struggle faced by the people of Champaneer village during colonial rule. The film raised serious issues and questions about the nature of a globalized world since, for many years, globalization has been regarded as a euphemism for western culture domination The film is set in 1893, during the late Victorian period of India's colonial Britishraj. The story revolves around a small village in Central India, whose inhabitants, burdened by high taxes, and several years of drought, find themselves in an extraordinary situation as an arrogant British army officer challenges them to a game of cricket, as a wager to avoid paying the taxes they owe. The narrative spins around this situation as the villagers face the arduous task of learning a game that is alien to them and playing for a result that will change their village's destination. 

There can be5 various postcolonial aspects, few of them are:

Centre/margin:

 in this film the colonizers are portrayed as the centre or the super power and the colonized portrayed as the other. It gives the colonized the perception that they are inferior to the colonizer. England was one of the super powers during colonization in India, and this is very evident in the film. For instance in the movie the antagonist, Captain Russell, is the decision maker and the villagers have no other choice but to follow them. 

 There is a cultural transition that cuts through Gili-danda to cricket.

Hybridity 

here is portrayed here when Elizabeth the sister of the antagonist teaches the Indians how to play the colonizers sport (cricket) and she intern learns the local language to talk to the localities nonetheless there are instances where in she tries on the Indian attire. This is the exchange of culture that takes place. The villagers find a way to turn the most British of customs into an Indian creation and this further introduces the concepts of  mimicry where in the villagers try to create the sports gear just like the Britishers, they try to learn the rules of the game and follow it. There are lingering effects that offer both the chance to beat the colonizers at his own game and the chance to join the colonizers game, playing by his rules. Likewise fervent, frantically almost religious attachment to the game is given by colonialism.

Reverse colonialism,

 the rejection of white feminity is highly apprehensive here. The religious story is added perhaps as an attempt to make sense of relationships that’s about colonialism without use of colonialism. In other words it’s trying to disguise the facts that is about race and colonialism by using religion as an alternate framework. Elizabeth represents the goodness of colonialism and Russell on the other hand represents the evilness of colonialism. The winning of the match at the end, constructs an overall view of decolonization.

Postcoloniqal Studies in the movie Rangdebasnti. 

Rang De Basanti (transl. Paint it saffron) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language Drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra , and co-written by  Rensil D'Silva.

The film follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian Revolutionarymovement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the corruption of their own government. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Aamir khan, Siddhartha, Atul kulkarni, soha  Ali khan Sharman Joshi, kunal kapur, and British actress Alice Patten. The film was shot primarily in New Delhi. 

The film is rich for both colonial as well as post colonial critics to unearth the meanings. Somehow, it seems that the colonial hangover is more powerfully captured than post colonial awareness. When we look at this film as postcolonial way we find some interesting things but for that we have to open our eyes and think critically then and then we observed at micro level. In the movie when British female protagonist She came on Indian airport at that time how Indian people gathered to meet her with excitement, so it’s shows Indian mindset and the impact of white person on our mind. There are two point of views to look this movie Outsider and Insider. When outsider sees the act of bribe it’s illegal for them but in India, it become normal for us. This scene very well shown in movie and how Sue react on it, camera also focused well. 

Thank you..

Citation 

Lexico Dictionaries. (n.d.). POSTCOLONIALISM: Definition of POSTCOLONIALISM by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of POSTCOLONIALISM. Lexico Dictionaries | English. https://www.lexico.com/definition/postcolonialism.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, July 2). Rang De Basanti. Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rang_De_Basanti.

Deconstructive reading of the sonnet 18

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I have amazing experience from learning Ted -Ed platform. I have learned deconstractiv reading of the sonnet 18 lesson created by Dr.Dilip Barad using Ted-Ed's lesson creator video from Dilip Barad. The objective of the lesson is to apply the  deconstractiv reading on a poem. I also appear multiple choices quiz. It was very interesting. Click here and watch deconstractiv reading of sonnet 18 and appear multiple choices quiz through using Ted-Ed platform.

Sonnet 18 . Shall I compare thee to the summer's day.

In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether he should compare the young man to a summer's day, but notes that the young man has qualities that surpass a summer's day. He also notes the qualities of a summer day are subject to change and will eventually diminish. The speaker then states that the young man will live forever in the lines of the poem, as long as it can be read. There is an irony being expressed in this sonnet: it is not the actual young man who will be externalized, but the description of him contained in the poem, and the poem contains scant or no description of the young man, but instead contains vivid and lasting descriptions of a summer day; which the young man is supposed to outlive.

Deconstruction  and Derrida

Deconstruction, form of philosophical and literary analysis, derived mainly from work begun in the 1960 by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, that questions the fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” in Western philosophy through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and literary texts. In the 1970s the term was applied to work by Derrida, Paul de Man, J. Hill's Miller, and Barbara Johnson, among other scholars. In the 1980s it designated more loosely a range of radical theoretical enterprises in diverse areas of the humanities and social sciences, including—in addition to philosophy and literature—law, psychoanalysis, architecture, anthropology, theology, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, political theory, historiography, and film theory. In polemical discussions about intellectual trends of the late 20th-century, deconstruction was sometimes used pejoratively to suggest nihilism and frivolous skepticism. In popular usage the term has come to mean a critical dismantling of tradition and traditional modes of thought

To deconstruct is to take a text apart along the structural “fault lines” created by the ambiguities inherent in one or more of its key concepts or themes in order to reveal the equivocations or contradictions that make the text possible.

Deconstruction Derrida very famously said that language bars within itself the necessity of its own critic. Around this concept is very interesting to read poems and as well as literature to see how criticism of that language happens and in that the meaning is desegregating them. Along with this we know that the Deridian idea  of deconstructive ideas revolves around free play. Let’s call undecidable of meaning. Very famously it revolves around the idea of binary and oppositions at the same time we see very interesting in the play about hegemony and subjectivity. In this poem we can see how this all operates. 

Deconstructive reading of the sonnet : Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day.

This is small poem sonnet written by William Shakespeare and we try to see how this all operates. How we can see language bars  , binary oppression and subjectivity in this poem. 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day 

What is the binary of the poem? What is the binary underplaying in this part? For example compare thee this thee is the beloved. As we know this poem is addressed to a beloved. The speaker is a lover. Beloved is a thee and what is binary against that is a summer’s day. 

When we generalize the beloved what we find that the beloved represents human beings and to do summer’s day represents nature. 

When we are trying to see the language bar itself it is necessary to criticize what we see in the very first line of the poem or subsequent line. 

"Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;"

What we find is that this poem is of a decent nature. Initially people find that it is a nature poem but it is not a nature poem. Nature is its own under privilege site of binary and what the centre is beloved, human beings are represented and nature is replicated on the periphery of this descent. 

"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owl’s,

Nor shall death brag thou wand ‘rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.

 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

When will that happen that the beloved became more central than the summer’s day. Which is a fading away which is changing which trajectory subsequently. When will beloved the human beings hear will have eternity and immortality. When there are lines written on the beauty of the beloved the lines are let us say writing or poem or sonnet. So actually the poem celebrates beloved human beings here by dedicating nature on the periphery. But when we read beloved will achieve immortality or internal beauty only when conditions of that line are written about that when writing happens when poem or sonnet is not that what we find ultimately is that the poem celebrates self. 

When line or writing or poem or  the sonnet is the centre what goes the periphery is that beloved as well as summer’s day they both are on the same side now. 

This poem tries to say this beloved has attributes of nature. This poem also will give a life when this is the key to understanding the poem. Second word of this particular sonnet is poet himself or let us say lover himself. This not celebrating poem, sonnet or lines and writes it’s perhaps celebrating self and it says that if I write then the beloved will become immortal. 

It dramatizes in an interesting way power struggles. And this power struggle obviously goes with implied threats.

Citation

Deconstructive Reading of Sonnet 18. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2020, from https://ed.ted.com/on/r9V6IJiO

Sonnet 18. (2020, April 02). Retrieved July 14, 2020, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_18

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019, December 12). Deconstruction. Retrieved July 14, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/deconstruction