A TOUR OF HISTORY THROUGH VISUAL NARRATIVES AND WRITTEN ACCOUNTS

Navya Denis

              History is a weave of moments, remains of a time behind gathered together to speak of the making of the present. It can be traced through multiple parallel narratives in various mediums and forms. It is represented through different pairs of eyes at every point, we can often see myriad views on the same subject projected through similar or diverse mediums. The stories of history therefore from single narratives of experiences are often incomplete. Visual narratives play a seminal role in such a discovery of history. They portray the perspectives of the respective artists or creators of the narratives, who in turn project a subjective view of their own. Therefore, all narratives are extremely layered, they are sieved through visible, rather obvious layers of interpretations as well as extremely subjective personal world views. Mark Twain, once rightly said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Accordingly, seemingly same or repetitive histories, for example, consecutive colonisations of a country is seen to differ in its essence and results. Obvious changes are observed along with specialised adaptations to the current regime. Impressions of such transitions are left on the minds of the people and therefore on the various narratives of history. A closed-reading of such narratives helps us to point out the sharp turns, the violent and absolute alterations in the course of being a colonised space. Visual narratives hold the best depictions of these, maps showing demarcations of territory tracing the expansion and even abridgement of power. Similarly, paintings and sculptures of the time act as markers of time and sensibilities particular to a time, even photographs from more recent history contributes to this understanding of the past. Further, reading these along the written and oral narratives will result in a more wholesome understanding.
The combined reading of historical writings and documents along with visual narratives gives us not only the intended meanings but also the inherent, unsaid emotions, which therefore implies the political and social spheres of the time. Such a combined reading facilitates a multifaceted and wider understanding of history. The objective quality of the proposed version of history is enhanced when we use visual narratives as it reduces room for imagination, it offers a more packed image for our study. Maps, paintings, sculptures and architecture of a time act as the connecting links, a sort of continuation that takes us into the next phase of history, almost as if to avoid blank spaces in between. It also provides an overlap of seams that joins history together thus darkening the shadow lines, blends together hues to produce a close-to-truth depiction. The basic instinct behind museums and heritage sites is not different. They make use of the exploratory quality of visual narratives and puts up a logical narrative to depict history, focusing on events that are said to be key to a time.
We will look at Kochi through its making, the ingenious blend of currents from times behind. It is often said that this city in Kerala holds almost a cosmopolitan spread of people and cultures. It contains obvious traces of its antiquity and holds it with pride. In Kochi, we do not require to visit a museum to see the impressions of another time. It is seen in the architecture, statues, paintings, milestones in memory of war and so on. The memories of multiple imperium are seen to be overlapping with each other, giving us a vision of the consecutive succession of colonial powers.
Cochin Saga, by Sir Robert Bristow is one of the important sources of historiography of Kerala. The author was a British harbour engineer, best known for his contributions to the development of the port of Kochi in India. Cochin Saga (1959) tells the history of Kochi as four parts, of which part one is of relevance to our examination. Politically, it shows how the alternating accessions to supremacy by European nations displaces previous powers in their influence abroad and also affects the fortunes of those countries with whom the previous powers had formerly traded.
Sir Robert Bristow has selected the history of the port of Cochin, where he spent the last twenty-one years of his Government service to trace the development of Cochin as an important mark on the trade map. Cochin is the centre of Malabar and South Indian commerce, but originally, and within the same area of the sheltered lagoons or backwaters which characterize the coastline of Kerala, lay the port of Muziris- the first and chief emporium of India, according to ancient writers.
For many centuries up to and during the British Raj, the city of Kochi was the seat of the eponymous princely state. It traces its history back many centuries, when it was the centre of Indian spice trade for hundreds of years, and was known to the Yavanas (Greeks and Romans), Jews, Arabs and Chinese since ancient times. The city earned a significant position on the world trading map after the Muziris port at Kodungallur (Cranganore) was destroyed by massive flooding of the river Periyar in 1341. After the destruction of the first and chief emporium of India, according to ancient writers, Kochi emerged as an important centre of commerce in the trade map. Now, this port city also played a seminal role in the colonisation of the region making it one of the most sought after colonies owing to its riches and produce.
Till the 14th century, there wasn’t any trace of Kochi in the travelogues of many historians and travellers like Ptolemy, Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta, which makes it clear that Kochi was nothing more than a little village then. The earliest documented references to Kochi as a port occur in the books written by the Chinese voyager Ma Huan, during his visit to Kochi in the 15th century as part of the treasure fleet of Admiral Zheng He. There are also references in accounts written by the Italian traveller Niccolo Da Conti, who visited Kochi in 1440.

European  commercial, economic and political interests found their way to different countries of the East,  subordinating  their  institutions,  ideas,  economies,  cultures,  political systems  and  practices,  in  short,  the  whole  way  of  life  of  the  peoples  to  the needs of each individual maritime power(22)

says Dr. T.K. Raveendran in his book History of South India.
This process of modern colonisation began with the coming of the Portuguese, making it the scene of the first European settlement in India. The presence of the Portuguese in Kochi and the history of that phase of colonisation is featured across this city. Traces are strewn across varied spheres of living- religion, music, architecture, art forms and so on. Latinisation  of  Christianity  and  the  conversion of  the  entire  populations  were  the  twin  aims  of  the  Portuguese  besides  the promotion of commerce.  Visual narratives that clearly depict this presence are found in many places in Kochi especially in the Santa Cruz Basilica, where the architecture and paintings are predominantly indicative of these influences.  The columns are decorated with frescoes and murals, including seven large canvas paintings on the passion and death on the Cross. Worthy of special note is the painting of the Last Supper, modelled on the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci, and the beautiful stained glass windows which add to the artistic grandeur of the place. The paintings that adorn the ceiling depict scenes from the Via Crucis of Christ.
Similarly, St. Francis CSI Church, in Fort Kochi (a.k.a. Fort Cochin), originally built in 1503, is the oldest European church in India and has great historical significance as a mute witness to the European colonial struggle in the subcontinent. The Portuguese explorer  Vasco da Gama died in Kochi in 1524 when he was on his third visit to India and his body was originally buried in this church, but his remains were moved to Lisbon in 1539.           Fort Immanuel, situated at Fort Kochi is a bastion of the Portuguese in Kochi. It was a symbol of the strategic alliance between the Maharajah of Kochi and the Monarch of Portugal, after whom it was named. Built in 1503, the fort was reinforced in 1538. By 1806 the Dutch, and later the British, had destroyed most of the fort walls and its bastions. Today, remains of this once imposing structure can be seen along the beach.
Further, The  arrival  of  the  Dutch  in  India  in  1602  turned  the  tide  against  the Portuguese. The  Dutch  came  into  cordial  relations  with  the  local  rulers  of  Kerala  with  the  aim  of  strengthening  their  trade relations with Kerala and reducing the influence of Portuguese in the local politics of the land. The  Dutch,  when  compared  with  the  Portuguese,  made  very  little  contribution  to  Indian  life.  Their primary aim was to promote trade to their best advantage.
The Mattanchery Palace was built and gifted by the Portuguese as a present to the king of Cochin around 1555. The Dutch carried out some extensions and renovations in the palace in 1663, and thereafter it was popularly called the Dutch Palace. Today, it is a portrait gallery of the Cochin Rajas and notable for some of the best mythological murals in India, which are in the best traditions of Hindu temple art. The palace was built by the Portuguese to appease the king after they plundered a temple nearby. The palace is a quadrangular structure built in Nalukettu style, the traditional Kerala style of architecture, with a courtyard in the middle. Certain elements of architecture, as for example the nature of its arches and the proportion of its chambers are indicative of European influence in basic Nalukettu style.
One of the oldest existing Dutch palaces outside Holland is Bolghatty Palace, a quaint mansion, built in 1744 by the Dutch traders, was later extended and gardens were landscaped around it. The building was then the Governor’s palace for the commander of Dutch Malabar, and later in 1909 was leased to the British. It served as the home of the British Governors, being the seat of the British Resident of Cochin during the British Raj.
Chavittu Nadakam is a highly colourful Latin Christian classical art form originated in Gothuruth, Cochin. It is noted for its attractive make-up of characters, their elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the rhythmic playback music and complementary percussion. This art form highly resembles European Opera. Chavittu Nadakam is believed to be originated during the 16th century AD, the era of colonisation in Kochi. The most sensual blend of cultural influences can be seen in this Latin Christian dance-drama.  Historical incidents like the life and adventure of heroes like Charlemagne; stories of Alexander and so on were the themes of Chavittu Nadakam during the time of its origin. Moreover, the costumes used are clearly showcasing the local perception of the foreign from stories and what they saw. This is clearly a connecting visual narrative between two cultures.
Further, Sir Robert Bristow proceeds to talk about the British influence in Kochi, especially on the economic front. They took over other structures left by their predecessors and considered trade as their prime territory. The reign of three colonial rules have brought tremendous changes in the mood of the city right from the Portuguese invasion in the year 1500 followed by Dutch invasion in 1662 and the British dynasty that followed. A hundred years before the English East India Company had been conceived, English merchants had sought a direct route to the Far East. An important icon of British domination is the Aspinwall House. The property was originally the business premises of Aspinwall & Company Ltd. established in 1867 by English trader John.H. Aspinwall. Under the guidance of Aspinwall the Company traded in coconut oil, pepper, timber, lemon grass oil, ginger, turmeric, spices, and hides and later in coir, coffee, tea and rubber. The important monuments that calls out for attention during this era is the Cochin Port and also Willingdon Island. In an attempt to save a good 580 miles of navigation towards Bombay, the port of Cochin was made the port of call.   Built under the guidance of Sir Robert Bristow the port influenced the destiny of the city to a great extent. Willingdon Island, the first man-made island in the world was formed using the sand dredged out for the port. Bristow emphasises on the point that ‘The history of civilization is written largely in the history of its ports’.
Cochin Saga, which is a great book for the historiography of Kerala, however holds elements of Anglocentric superiority complexes. Written by a British deputy in a colony, the book has many descriptions of the yet to be civilised and appropriated by the English forces. Bristow makes comments on the life and ways of the local people in his accounts. A sense of the Orient and the features attached to it as presumed and therefore perceived by the Occident are quite evident in his writing. If not prescriptive in his attitude towards the natives, his position is clearly of an outsider, clearly depicted by the shift in his tone while speaking of anything that is indigenous to the colony. For example, in the following extract, Bristow describes a marketplace, known as ‘pandikashala’ where the majority of business exchanges took place:

British  Kochi and Mattanchery were the crowded fringes of the harbour water-front: a few rows of houses or business premises, and, behind these, leagues of coconut groves sheltering tiny habitations of hard earth or bamboo and leaf, each set in a small compound with an open tank for its brackish surface water, the beach nearby for its sanitary convenience. Children not to be counted, naked and happy, played with each other, or with a dog, or a fowl, staring round-eyed at passing strangers. Child-mothers, baby on hip, carrying water or food, were ubiquitous; wrinkled and grizzled grandmothers sat at the doors of the huts, silent but seeing. Such was Cochin. (Bristow 55)

CONCLUSION

Cochin Saga is indeed a great record of history, but takes a colonial attitude in its descriptions. Though we cannot say that Bristow’s work is an absolutely belittling or oppressive text, yet it contains traces of the flawed viewpoints of a coloniser’s gaze. The above extract tells us the way in which an English highly placed official on deputation to a colony would typically look at Cochin.

Bibliography

Bristow, Robert Charles. “Introduction.” Cochin Saga; a History of Foreign Government and Business Adventures in Kerala, South India, by Arabs, Romans, Venetians, Dutch, and British, Together with the Personal Narrative of the Last Adventurer and an Epilogue. Second ed. Ernakulam: Paico Pub. House, 1967. 55+. Print.

Chapter. British Colonization in Kerala (n.d.): n. pag. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/22485/13/13_chapter3.pdf. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.

Chopra, Pran Nath., T.K Ravindran, and Nainar Subrahmanian. History of South India. New Delhi: Chand, 1979. Print.

Contextualising the contemporariness of the classical text of Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Macbeth

Venkatraman Ravindra

            The Tragedy of Macbeth, has lived for four centuries and a decade since its birth. I don’t think that I’d be going too far if I said, that it will continue living, for another four (or more). Though too stretched the time might seem, given the rate of change humankind is going, but it’s no exaggeration really. As the amount of four hundred years is only infinitesimal in the fraction of our entire existence on this planet (and when I say our, I mean humankind’s).

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s darkest, murkiest, and goriest of plays, also the shortest and my most favourite of the ones of which I’ve read.

I suppose we would not still be interested in Shakespeare at all if his characters all seemed unrecognisably strange and alien to us. After all, Harold Bloom has famously claimed in Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human (1998) that Shakespeare invented humanity as we understand it, and he would surely never have been able to make such an assertion if it were not at least partly true that we can recognise Shakespeare’s characters as being like ourselves. [1]

High Middle-Age was the time when Macbeth, the Red King, ruled Scotland. Elizabethan was the age, when the play was dramatized from Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577) of Macbeth, but contemporary it is, in most, if not in all ways. And subtly modern is the nature of the whole play and if it were to be retold, today, and if there was a writer as gifted (talented), then I see no reason why the play would be changed in any way or written any different (other than the archaic language of course).

What’s ironic is that ‘Macbeth’ means ‘the son of life’, but what he does is take lives. And the cause for him to commit murder you ask? Well, it’s power of course. Power is the supreme motivator to cause such dreadful deeds. Power is also a pre-dominant and powerful theme that runs throughout the play. Shrewd Macbeth is with a shrew for a wife, who is not only a ‘companion’ just bound by the definition of the word, but also a partner in crime, his (not so) better half.  Seeming to outdo, outwit, outfox, outstrip, outmatch and outsmart all others than himself (and the Lady), in his blind passion for power, Macbeth, takes the immoral road, which by a series of fatalistic and deterministic events, led by the three witches, to the throne, and ultimately to his doom.

I’ll try to explain the contemporariness of the play with the word ‘Macbethism’, which I’ll define and apply for all the three methods, and also which I’ll elaborate. The threefold isomorphisms between the play and the modern world (id est, the political, psychological and the supernatural similarities).

Macbethism (n.)

1. A doctrine of sovereignty attained by consciously refusing to accept the principles of morality, or in simple terms, the immoral road taken to gain power.
2. A frenzied, sleepless delirium accompanied by wild and frightening hallucinations. (corybantism).
3. The quality of being attributed to power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces.

Now that the word is defined, we come on agreeable terms, and now that we know many a people who fall under (any one of) this threefold philosophy of Macbethism. And when I say fall, yes, I mean fall, as in the fall of Rome, or perhaps the fall of Lucifer, or better still, the fall of man. Macbethism continues and continues to continue, either till, (as I mentioned in the abstract) our evolution, or our extinction.

On Political Isomorphisms

                                                                   Fair is foul and foul is fair.  [2]

Everything’s fair in the game of politics. Fair, as long as you’re on the winning side of the table. And vice-versa for foul.

From Napoleon Bonaparte to Napoleon of the Animal Farm, power has corrupted everyone alike, be it in a piece of fiction, or otherwise (real). It gets hold of our very nature of being human and turns us into something we’re not. Something dangerous. Danger to ourselves and to the others around us. The greatest of the political leaders we’ve come across in history, the people to have tasted the best flavours of the fruits, power had to offer, are examples of the drasticity of how powerful, power itself can be. The many matricides, patricides, sororicides, filicides, fratricides, avunculicides, perricides and mariticides that have happened in history, to gain power, are scenes seen too often a time. Power is one of the main aspects which defines Macbeth. It shows us how the search for power and the paths taken to attain it are often morally questionable, and oftener end up in insatiateness and unhappiness.

Politically, Macbeth is the story of a brave general, who heeds to a trio of some unreliable strangers (strange are the witches) who will prophesise of him gaining the highest power, the crown, though an irresistible temptation he has, his moral foundations will hold him back from doing an undoable deed and he’ll have his doubts. But Lady Macbeth is persuasive

Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely?
…Art thou afeared
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire
…When you durst do it, then you were a man;  [3]

         These are the lines she tells her husband, questioning his manliness, wanting the power of the throne, as she has already made up her mind to murder Duncan, disregarding or not bothering about the means to attain that power.

The play has sprung an innumerable number of movies, TV shows, poems and other works of literature. It wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the timelessness of the play. Retelling the story of Macbeth has never been too old. The many great examples of retellings and adaptations of the play, inspired by, similar to, or completely alike, Macbeth, with the political ramifications in modern account (from rising to power to the eventual and inevitable doom), include-

The House of Cards trilogy, the British political thriller television drama serial, which includes House of Cards, To Play the King, and The Final Cut, containing four episodes each, and which aired from 1990-1995, is the story of the antihero, Francis Urquhart, a fictional Chief Whip of the Conservative Party. The plot follows his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The story of House of Cards is adapted from a novel written by Michael Dobbs, a former Chief of Staff at Conservative Party headquarters. Political elements of Macbeth are quite evident in the series.

House of Cards (2013-Present), an American political drama television series. The series deals primarily with themes of ruthless pragmatism, manipulation and power. House of Cards is the story of Francis Underwood (whose character is in many ways similar to Macbeth), a Democrat from South Carolina’s 5th congressional district and House majority whip who, after being passed over for appointment as Secretary of State, initiates an elaborate plan to get himself into a position of greater power (which being the position of the president of the United States), aided by his wife, Claire Underwood (who’s pretty much like Lady Macbeth).

Maqbool is a 2003 Indian crime drama film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, The film is based on William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and with Mumbai underworld as its backdrop. Maqbool is the right-hand man of Jahangir Khan (alias Abba Ji), a powerful underworld don. Maqbool is grateful and feels a close connection and personal indebtedness to Abba Ji. The movie gains pace with two corrupt police-men predicting that Maqbool would soon take over the reins of the Mumbai Underworld from Abba Ji. These two thus play a role akin to the three witches in the original play. [4]

Scotland, PA (2001). The tragedy is reworked into a dark comedy set in 1975, centered on “Duncan’s Cafe”, a fast-food restaurant in the small town of Scotland, Pennsylvania. The character of Macbeth is presented as “Joe ‘Mac’ McBeth”, Lady Macbeth as “Pat McBeth”, Duncan as cafe owner “Norm Duncan”, Macduff as “Lieutenant Ernie McDuff”, and Banquo as fry cook “Anthony ‘Banko’ Banconi”. The Three Witches are presented as a trio of bohemians. [5]

To me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.  [6]

       These are the lines of Banquo, right after hearing the three witches prophesising that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor, and that shalt be King hereafter! Quite certainly apparent that he too was seeking a kind of solace in wanting to know of the future, he desired to know on his own future (of power), from the imperfect speakers.

Here are some names of hungry-for-power real people who are quite similar to Macbeth by means of attainment of that power and by the means of ruthless murders and genocides. The lust for power is startlingly, starkly and grimly evident in these “humans”.

 

 

• Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal

• Kim Il-Sung

• De facto leader Kim Jong Il (N. Korea)

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un

• Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin

• The Führer Adolph Hitler

• Ugandan dictator Idi Amin

• Libyan potentate Muammar al-Qaddafi

• Iranian subverter Ruhollah Khomeini

• Napoleon Bonaparte

• Fidel Castro of Cuba

• Che Guevara (Cuban Revolutionary)

• Robert Mugabe, Ruler of Zimbabwe

• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

• Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

• Foday Sankoh, Leader and founder of the RUF, Sierra Leone

• Benito Mussolini

• Yahya Khan, Pakistan

• Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban

• Jonas Savimbi, Angolan political and military leader

• Tōjō Hideki, Japan

• Haji Muhammad Suharto, Indonesia

• Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq

• Jean Kambanda, Rwandan dictator

• Mao Ze Dong

• Leopold II of Belgium

 

• Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator

The list goes on and on… There are more Macbeths in reality than one can imagine. Macbethism is more prominent today than it ever was. But instead, there are adaptions and amendments to it, without the element of murder, in other subtler, illegal and immoral means all the same.

On Psychological Isomorphisms

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand?  [7]

The psychological disorders of the characters in the play elicits feelings in its readers and adds the interesting element to the play. As I feel we can relate to those feelings the characters are undergoing. Some moments in the play, is a play on our psyche, evoking thoughts on why a character would do or think that, or what we, ourselves would do, if in that situation.

The emotions and the personality itself of the characters of the play metamorphosizes drastically as the play is a short one, and it brings the thrilling shift in the minds of the readers as well.

In Macbeth (1606) Shakespeare took two different stories from Holinshed’s chronicle of Scotland (Donwald’s murder of King Duff and the career of Macbeth) and worked this somewhat primitive material into a profound dramatic presentation of progress of evil within a human personality. The tragedy is given power and scope by the poetic expansion of meaning through imagery as well as by the persuasive and moving projection of character. [8]

Conscious actions by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, yield unconscious results. Their consciously thought out and executed murder of Duncan and later Banquo, results in them acquiring the fated psychological disorders. If Lady Macbeth, today, were to be examined by a psychiatrist, she would probably be diagnosed as a victim of manic-depressive psychosis, bipolar disorder, with post-traumatic stress disorder, and in the end, the gnawing guilt drives her insane, leading to her somnambulism and clinical depression. When she cannot take the guilt no more, she ultimately commits suicide.

She should have died hereafter; [9]

This is the reaction of Macbeth after hearing the death of his wife which suggests his perfunctoriness. Delusions of grandeur, megalomania, paranoia schizophrenia, whose symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations; and immortality and invincibility complex are some of the disorders that can be diagnosed with Macbeth. The second definition of Macbethism is applicable to both of them here.

Some of the famous people who had the similar mental illnesses as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Ludwig van Beethoven experienced bipolar disorder, so did Winston Churchill and Vincent van Gogh. Stephen Fry and Carrie fisher also have it. Diana, the princesses of Wales, experienced bouts of depression. Ernest Hemingway suffered from suicidal depression. John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner, had schizophrenia. Heath Ledger battled insomnia, drug abuse and depression. Issac Newton’s main symptoms were melancholia, or depression, with a desire to withdraw from contact with even good friends, apathy, insomnia, loss of appetite, a period of persecution when he suffered the delusion that his friends were turning against him, and possible loss of memory and amnesia. [10]

Hell! What is hell to one like me

Who pleasures never knew;

By friends consigned to misery,

By hope deserted too?  [11]

Macbeth can be a reminder of the dire effects on the psyche of a person and can lead to a whole lot of psychological disorders, or reactions that is a consequence of unscrupulous causes or actions.

On Supernatural Isomorphisms

 

A title so feared,

Cursed is the same

Then curse be endeared,

For Macbeth is the name.

The reality of witchcraft or enchantment, which, though not strictly the same, are confounded in this play, has in all ages and countries been credited by the common people, and in most, by the learned themselves. These phantoms have indeed appeared more frequently in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shown that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world. [12]

The quality of being attributed to power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces, the supernatural element in the play, is the modern equivalent to superstitions. And superstition can be defined as an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear.

By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes. [13]

          The use of the supernatural element in the play, increases the suspense of the readers, and after the decisions of Macbeth, taken by constantly relying on the prophecies of the three witches. Not unlike Macbeth believing in prophecies, the modern world too believes in pseudoscience, horoscopes, astrology and all sorts of other superstitious nonsensical disbeliefs.

The Forer effect (also called the Barnum effect after P. T. Barnum’s observation that “we’ve got something for everyone”) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, graphology, religion, aura reading and some types of personality tests. [14]

Though not as explicit the witches prophesise the fate of Macbeth, or anything close, the Barnum effect is the closest thing that can hoodwink you to fatalism and determinism today. Many books too, such as The Secret of Rhonda Byrne, based on the superstitious law of attraction, can mislead people into believing the absurd and make them something they’re not. Here are some of the statements that are vague and general enough to most people, from Bertram’s test, the demonstration of psychologist Bertram R Forer his Effect.

• You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
• You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
• You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.
• While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
• Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
• At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
• You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
• You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof.
• You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
• At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
• Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
• Security is one of your major goals in life.

Belief in the paranormal

There is evidence that having prior belief in the paranormal correlates with greater influence of the effect.  Subjects who, for example, believe in the accuracy of horoscopes have a greater tendency to believe that the vague generalities of the response apply specifically to them. This suggests that individuals who do not believe in astrology are possibly influenced less by the effect. [15]

I conclude by saying that all the three of the comparisons I made between the play and some of the aspects of the modern world, it can be agreeable that Macbeth is a sublime play of human character and cannot be agreeable that it isn’t contemporary.

 

Notes

 

Beginning Shakespeare (page 20)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1.1.10)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1.7.35-49)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maqbool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland,_PA
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1.3.57-61)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2.1.33)
A Critical History of English Literature volume two (page 280)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (5.5.16)
http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/62/3/289.full
The lines are from the poem “The Suicide’s Soliloquy.”  Abraham Lincoln is assumed to be the author of the poem published on August 25, 1838. And also believed he suffered from depression.
From Johnson’s Shakespeare (1765) [Shakespeare: Macbeth, casebook series].
The Tragedy of Macbeth (4.1.45)
& 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect

Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. Edited by- Wilks, Robert. Macbeth. Singapore, Pansing Distribution Pte Ltd, ISBN: 981 3030 038, 2006.
Hopkins, Lisa. Beginning Shakespeare. Chennai, Manchester University Press,                   ISBN: 0-7190-6423-6, 2007.
Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. London, Secker & Warburg ISBN: 0-436-12105-0, 1994.
Wain, John. Shakespeare: Macbeth, A Casebook. Hong Kong, Macmillan Press Ltd, ISBN: 0-333-53356-9, 1994.
Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Mumbai, Wilco Publishing House, ISBN: 978-81-8252-462-0, 2013.
Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: Macbeth. New York, Bloom’s Literary Criticism, ISBN: 978-0-7910-9594-2, 2013

 

 

WINGS OF ENCHANTMENT

Navya Dennis

Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it…
–Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Living to Tell the Tale

        Magical Realism is one of the most enchanting genres of literature; the union of two supposedly conflicting areas of magic and realism. It portrays magical or unreal elements as an organic part of an otherwise realistic or mundane environment. The term ‘magical realism’ first appeared in 1955. The term Magischer Realismus, translated as magic realism, was first used by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925. He used it to refer to a painterly style also known as Neue Sachlichkeit (the New Objectivity).
Characterised by unique features, magical realist texts carry the reader away to another universe within the realms of its nexus of reality. They form a borderline between what actually exists and what does not, which in turn entertains the reader. The term “magical realism”, as opposed to magic realism, first emerged in the 1955 essay Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction by critic Angel Flores to refer to writing that combines aspects of magic realism and marvellous realism. The features of this genre forms a subjective interplay displaying ambivalent emotions within the readers’ minds.  It brings fables, folk tales, and myths into contemporary social relevance. Fantasy traits given to characters, such as levitation, telepathy, and telekinesis, help to encompass modern political realities that can be phantasmagorical. The existence of fantasy elements in the real world provides the basis for magical realism. Writers do not invent new worlds but reveal the magic in this world, as was done by Gabriel García Márquez who wrote the seminal work of the style, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It holds an authorial reticence where the narrator is indifferent, a characteristic enhanced by the absence of an explanation for fantastic events. The story proceeds with “logical precision” as if nothing extraordinary had taken place. A complex system of layering is another important feature of the kind. It can also be viewed as a political critique as magic realism’s ‘alternative world’ works to correct the reality of established viewpoints (like realism, naturalism, modernism).
This article will examine two works of magical realism which have invited critical acclaim. Their similarities and differences emerge from their diversity in origin. The short story Death Constant Beyond Love is one of the numerous short stories by the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The second text under examination is the 2013 Malayalam film Amen, whose maker Lijo Jose Pellissery was highly inspired by Marquez’s imagination.
The name of the story Death Constant Beyond Love is a take on a famous sonnet written by the Spanish poet Quevedo called Love Constant Beyond Death. By naming his short story Death Constant Beyond Love, Marquez is rejecting the idea that love conquers all and is instead asserting that it is actually death that rules our lives. The names used in the story itself suggests the presence of magical realism. We open with an “illusory” village-Rosal del Virrey, a town so dreary and sordid that “even its name was a kind of joke, because the only rose in that village was being worn by Senator Onesimo Sanchez himself”(Marquez). The Senator’s rose is illusory as well; it hints of growth and promise and love and beauty, but he brings only props and shills that suggest his campaign promises are as empty and illusory as the desert town. He carries lust, not love in his heart, and his body carries impending death, not the bloom of youth. Laura Farina (her name meaning wheat or cereal or grain–like Demeter, goddess of grain to the Ancient Greeks, Ceres to the Romans) sustains and survives. She represents grace and life and nature with her soft, young body and her “woods-animal armpit” which the dying Senator tries to take refuge in. Like the trickster being tricked in a folk tale, her father bests the Senator by locking Laura in a chastity belt and therefore, what appears to be an easy seduction is not. The simple, earthy folks of the village and the simple reality of poverty and death eventually win out over the Senator’s meaningless pomp and puffery. The penultimate irony of the story (death itself provides the ultimate irony to a life built on pretence and a notion that position equals power) is the scandal that chases the Senator to the grave:

“Six months and eleven days later he would die in that same position, debased and repudiated because of the public scandal with Laura Farina and weeping with rage at dying without her.” (Marquez)

       The setting of Death Constant Beyond Love suggests the Latin American political situation which Marquez mocks; the empty promises made during elections which are never realised. It also points towards the scandalous state that exists in the realm of politics, especially bribery in various forms. The declined conditions of the village indicate the constant manipulation which continues, irrespective of the ruler or party.
The film Amen, the second text under examination, begins with the historic mysterious storytelling about the popular legend devoted to the Saint Geevarghese of Kumaramkari. The Saint had made an appearance before Tipu Sultan, when Tipu and his military were trying to gain control over the church during his invasion. Further, it speaks about social fragmentation in a manner that echoed expertise and close observation. The podium of the movie is the church controlled Syrian Christian village and its innocent people. The autocratic church makes them believe that all the people of the village should continue their life under the shadow of church driven orthodoxy. Two other lines of struggle run parallel to this; the love story of Solomon and Sosanna who belong to varied social stratus and the struggle of the dying Geevarghese Band to maintain itself, is the other plane of struggle. The coming of a young priest, Father Vincent Vattoly, shakes the existing ideas of normalcy and breaks the village away from the orthodoxy that plagued it to destructive measures. His thoughts, perception and vision of society and life, and the understanding of the Bible is entirely different from others. His heart is solely driven by the peace and love. He also maintained a friendly relation with Michelle, the French woman and thus became a rebel in the diseased social system. Moreover, the film ends with the revelation that Fr. Vincent Vattoly who brought reformation to the village and revived its musical tradition was actually St. Geevarghese(George), himself. The image of Esthappan and his angels is another element that contributes to the magical realism effect. Moreover, the two angels who are shown to be dancing with Fr. Vincent Vattoly deconstruct all notions of the image of an angel derived from ancient scriptures. This film is indeed a commendable manifestation of magical realism along with others like Life of Pi, Leela etc. which question existing norms and hard core realities of human fallacies.
The examination of the two texts mentioned above, are connected primarily by their common magical realism backgrounds. They are further entwined by the similar sensibilities of people who live a hemisphere apart. Both take pride in their innumerable legends and supernatural tales born out of wild imagination, strong beliefs, huge families and a culture that propagates family values. Perhaps it also has to do with the strong Christian culture and its rituals in our state. Finally, like most other magical realist texts in the world, Amen is also a figment of a writer who is highly influenced by the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Lijo Jose Pellissery is recorded to have said in an interview, “Definitely, Gabo’s works have influenced my thoughts and works – the magic realism, the larger than life characters, fantasy and imaginary spaces. I did use a Marquezian landscape for Amen.”

Works Cited

2011. Marsh. “”Death Constant Beyond Love” (Marquez).” EN 208 (World Lit II) – Fall 2011. N.p., 11 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.

Harpham,Geoffrey Galt. “Magical Realism”. A Glossary of Literary Terms. By M.H.Abrahams.11th ed.Fort Worth:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College,1993.288.Print.

Morris, Ryan. “Literary Analysis.” Latin American Literature by Ryan Morris. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2016.

Murali Margarassery. “Amen: Magical Realism Stands in Opposition to the Syrian Christian Orthodox Social Arrangement.” Tag Archives: Magical Realism in Malayalam Cinema. Word, 04 May 2013. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.

Zamora, Lois Parkinson and Wendy B. Faris. Ed. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Durham: Duke UP, 1995.

Texts versus images in storytelling

Rajeshwari N

Motivation behind writing this paper:

I distinctly recall this one particular evening when I discovered a dusty, tattered copy of a large, hard-bound fairy tale book, amongst piles of magazines and other books at my grandfather’s place. The disappointment which I felt upon reading the story of ‘Cinderella’ from that book is one emotion which I can still relate to. Unlike the Disney picture book version which I had diligently consumed with all my meals, this story was bloody and was also quite complicated. Moreover, back then my eight year old mind did not know what to make of Prince Charming in that story, because he required blood soaked stalking’s, each time, to make him realize that he was not with his ‘chosen one’!

Upon recalling this incident year’s later numerous questions continue to puzzle me. One of the foremost questions was how despite having read this narrative of Cinderella, I was still deeply attached to the pictorial and colourful version manufactured by Disney. What constituted the basis of this attachment? Another pondering question (which is allied to the former) is how do young children receive these stories? Do pictures and colourful methods of articulation aid comprehension among young children?

As an attempt to answer the above mentioned questions, this paper places its primary focus on the usage of books as a medium of storytelling, and attempts to present a comparison between the effects of narrative (or text based) story books to picture books, in fostering learning and comprehension skills among children. The paper makes use of solely secondary research materials; and through these sources a comparison between the two methods of storytelling is drawn. However, the paper holds the view that illustrations prevails textual content in aiding comprehension skills among children during their elementary school years, and this much of the research material referred to in this paper support this view.

 

Text versus images in storytelling:

The word ‘story’ can be defined in numerous ways. However, most often this word is comprehended as an account of imaginary or real events, narrated either for entertainment or as a medium of instruction. It is often narrated with the objective to impart themes which revolve around certain values, or to inculcate awareness on a particular cultural practice or a significant event in history.  Stories are often narrated using different mediums and it encompasses oral methods of storytelling (a practice common among several indigenous cultures), written narratives i.e. texts (such as in novels and short-stories) and the usage of sounds and images (such as in films and games).

Reading habits are viewed as an integral part in inculcating literacy among children. Most stories or works of fiction written for children are pedagogic in nature as they cater to inculcating certain moral values. Stories written by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and other writers, whose writing is categorised under the genre of ‘children’s literature’, often based their stories on adventures and the importance of being good-natured and honest. Enid Blyton’s ‘Amelia Jane’ series has a didactic tone as it instructs its child readers to not be troublesome through the usage of a notorious protagonist named Amelia Jane. Similarly, her ‘Noddy’ series revolve around the themes of honesty and righteousness by focussing on the adventures of the protagonist named Noddy. Her novel titled ‘Billy Bob tales’ centres around the intimate bond shared between siblings. Likewise, Roald Dahl’s most popular novel ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ also revolves around themes which emphasize on the importance of being honest and truthful.

Most of the books stated above caters to children who fall under the age group ranging between six to twelve years of age, and basic reading skills in English is a prerequisite in order to comprehend the textual content in these books. The storyline in most of these stories follow the Freytag’s pyramid structure of storytelling, which comprises of the following five acts- exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement. However, how does reading aid a child’s development? Moreover, how do children comprehend the textual content and interpret the message conveyed in these books?

In the paper titled ‘The effects of storytelling and story reading on the oral language complexity and story comprehension of young children’, it is stated that ‘story reading’ benefits children with language acquisition and literacy, and that children acquire vocabulary growth and many other skills through this process. (Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer and Lowrance, 158) The paper also states that when a story is read the primary reference for interpretation is the text and that it helps foster creativity and imagination. (Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer and Lowrance, 158)

Reading might seem like a simplistic activity to most adults. Nevertheless, most people seldom acknowledge the fact that a lot of skills are involved in trying to acquire meaning from print. In their paper titled ‘Understanding and Supporting comprehension development in the elementary and the middle grades’, Marjorie Y Lipson and J. David Cooper state that the primary purpose of reading is to comprehend the meaning of what is written in the text, and that comprehension is a complex process which requires ‘intentional cognitive effort on the part of the reader’. (Lipson and Cooper, 1) Moreover, in their paper they state that one of the most intriguing aspects of comprehension is that it varies from person to person and that this trait is common among both adults and children. (Lipson and Cooper, 1) By referring to various sources, they state that prior knowledge and experience play a crucial role in how a child interprets the textual content in a book and that a good reading program at the kindergarten level in schools can foster the comprehension and learning skills in elementary school children. (Lipson and Cooper, 5) Moreover, Lipson and Cooper emphasize on the role played by verbal fluency in enabling children decode the meaning of the text. (Lipson and Cooper, 6)

However, most studies, including the one conducted by Lipson and Cooper, argue that picture books are a more efficient tool in fostering learning and comprehension skills among elementary school children.  The pictorial method of story-telling dates back to the early cave paintings. The concept of using picture books as a medium to narrate a story can be dated back to over 130 years ago when artist and illustrator Ralph Caldecott elevated the picture as a story telling device than using it as a mere illustration of a text. (‘A brief history of children’s picture books and the art of storytelling’)  Picture books primarily use pictures mainly drawings to narrate the story and contain minimum or little text. It is stated that back in the 1950’s due to a peculiar cultural shift the line separating the author and artist started to blur, and that a set of designers set out to write and illustrate picture books as a means to enhance visual thinking. . (‘A brief history of children’s picture books and the art of storytelling’)

So, how do picture books serve as a storytelling medium to enhance the learning and comprehension skills among elementary school children?  The paper titled ‘Illustrations, texts and the child reader: What are picture books in children’s storybooks for?’ by Zhihui Fang, examines the significance of illustrations to the child reader. Fang writes that the visual content in picture books helps establish settings, defines and attributes certain overt traits to characters, and enables in developing the plot/story-line. Countering the views of several critics, who claim that the illustrations in picture books serve as a distraction to the child reader (as it would hinder their language acquisition) Fang states that the contribution of pictures to a child’s overall literate behaviour seems to be far greater than its potential dangers. (Fang, 137) Fang writes that illustrations serve as tools which would entice the child reader to interact with the text and that it would enable them to derive hidden objects or meanings from the story. In contrast to the stories narrated through words, stories in picture books often contain a jumpy rhythm to it. (Fang, 137) Fang gives the example of the illustrations used in Keith Beker’s story titled ‘Who’s the beast’, wherein young readers are motivated to search and identify the beast, by following the illustrations.

Moreover, Fang argues by stating that pictures aid children’s creativity. She states that pictures enable children to make connections with real life situations and help them construct meaning in the process. Alongside fostering a child’s aesthetic appreciation for art, Fang writes that illustrations serve as mental scaffolds for the child reader, thus enhancing their understanding of the linguistic text. Through her paper, Fang emphasizes on the need to incorporate illustration in text books as it would enable in enhancing the better understanding of the text. Mirroring Fang’s view, in the paper titled ‘The importance of reading picture books to children’, Nobuo Mastaka states that visuals accompanied by an audio, enhance the verbal acquisition and comprehension skills in a child reader.

 

In Conclusion:

In my opinion, illustrations/images aid a better understanding of the text and are thus better received among child readers. Furthermore, even among adults several studies have proven that majority of the people tend to remember events and details through images than through words, and that a human being’s ‘iconic memory’ (ability to recall images) is stronger than his/her ‘echoic memory’ (ability to recall information provided by an aural medium).  Therefore, it would not be incorrect to assume that images influences one’s reading and comprehension. This can be best observed in mediums wherein images and texts co-exist such as newspapers, graphic novels etc, wherein images play a definitive role in guiding ones understanding of the textual content.

The merit of the image over the text to aid comprehension could thus be regarded as one of the many reasons behind the popularity of Disney’s version of popular fairy-tales over the textual versions that preceded it.

 

Articles and websites cited:

‘Analysing a story’s plot: Freytag’s Pyramid’ http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/fiction/freytag.html

‘A brief history of children’s picture books and the art of storytelling’ www.brainpickings.org/2012/02/24/childrens-picturebooks

Isbell, R., Sobol, J., Lindauer, L. et al. ‘The effects of storytelling and story reading on the oral language complexity and story comprehension of young children’. Early Childhood Education Journal, 32, 3 (2004) Pg. no.158.

Lipson Y, Marjorie, J David, Cooper ‘Understanding and Supporting comprehension development in the elementary and the middle grades’. Houghton Mufflin Reading, Pg. Nos. 1-6.

Zhihui, Fang. ‘Illustrations, texts and the child reader: What are picture books in children’s storybooks for?’ Reading Horizons, 37, 2 (1996) Pg. no. 137.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Animal Horror: The Influence of the World Wars upon Tolkien’s Fiction, his Heroes and his Ideas of the Heroic Legend

By Tara Saldanha

Abstract

In this paper I will explore J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy to study the effect of the war on fantasy writing. This study will help enrich our understanding of the consciousness of the early 20^th century, with regards to the upheaval that war brought. I will also examine the conception of the hero evident in this piece of writing. An enquiry into whether this work can be considered an adequate alternative to Arthurian legend with regard to its incorporation of the post- War consciousness and the alternative conception of the hero will be the last point of interest. I will use The Lord of the Rings trilogy in order to explore this theme. I will also refer to other works by Tolkien, in order to illustrate the three broad areas of study.

Keywords:  War, Hero, Heroic Legend, Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

*

J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world of Middle-Earth and its histories developed primarily out of a desire to situate language at the center of a particular tale. However Tolkein was quick to reinforce that though the histories and events of his stories were fictional, the place that they were played out in is ‘middel-erd, an ancient name for… the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world.’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 257). Thus it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that elements of early 20^th century life especially the Great War and changing notions of heroism, humanity and evil made its way into his work. In the course of this eclectic creation it is possible that Tolkein developed a new legendary tradition, one based on new motivations and fears about the present.

Most evident to all but the most casual reader is the over whelming presence of a sense of foreboding in The Lord of the Rings (referring here and throughout, unless otherwise stated, to all three books) from the very beginning. As soon as Frodo leaves the Shire the Nazgul are after him. This all pervasive fear and evil is a result of the totalitarian power that Sauron, also known as the Dark Lord wields. As his power builds he is able to set his minions in motion to track down the One Ring, now in Frodo’s possession. Frodo must destroy the Ring so that Sauron cannot gain possession of it and make his dominion complete. Totalitarian governments and hegemonic powers had begun to rise in the early 20^th CY and by 1949 when the last installment of the trilogy had been completed the world had witnessed the horrors of Fascism.  Tolkein reiterates in his letter to M. Waldman that evil power in his works manifests itself in the ‘desire for Power’ of the ‘sub-creator’ (or human beings). The desire for power was in order to claim dominion over the rest of creation (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168). Tolkein goes on to elaborate that this desire for total domination is carried out through certain external creations designed to bend and break individual will. Interestingly Tolkein refers to this in the same letter as ‘the Machine’. In The Lord of the Rings these instruments of domination include malignant weapons forged in the depths of the earth by the Uruk-hai.  The Uruk-hai themselves were made in the mockery of elves by the Evil one as a sort of mutant super soldier. (Tolkein 486). Tolkein describes ‘oliphaunts’- lumbering, tank-like beasts that could lay waste to everything in their path being used in various battles. The screams of the Ringwraiths are described as ‘a rending screech, shivering, rising swiftly to a piercing pitch beyond the range of hearing’ reminiscent of the sound of falling shells during wartime. (Tolkein 706) In a letter to his son, Tolkein remarks how during the ‘first war of the Machines’ the soldiers were left maimed or dead and the only one thing triumphant was the Machines (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 124).

It is hard not to constantly see how war affected The Lord of the Rings besides the obvious presence of weaponry. Tolkein referred to war as an ‘animal horror’ to his son in one of his letters (Garth). The book talks of the siege and battle at Helm’s Deep and the war of the Pelennor fields. The fall of Gandalf, who Tolkien described as a guardian angel figure in his Letters, in the mines of Moria could signify the crumbling nature of faith and religion during the 20^th century (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). The coming together of the Elves and the dwarfs against the common evil despite their mutual animosity is reflective of rival Allied powers collaborating during the two World Wars. Tolkein himself lost several close friends in the fighting. The Dead Marches with their floating corpses and eerie lights are said to be a tribute to the fallen soldiers (Beyond the Movie:The Lord of the Rings). In the telling of the history of the Ents, tree-like rational creatures, and the destruction of their home and loss of the Ent-wives, Tolkein touches upon the destruction of the environment because of warfare and exploitation of natural resources.

During the Second Age of Middle- Earth Tolkein speaks of how the ‘destruction of the…visible incarnation of evil’ was carried out (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 175). However in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, both set during the third age, evil is unseen, pervasive, occupying the very hearts and minds of the various characters rather than a physical external presence. This raises the question of who then is the enemy in war, probably a question that Tolkein wanted to raise considering the seemingly wholesale loss of humanity during the World Wars.

On the whole it seems to be that the zeitgeist of the early 20^th century, especially with regard to warfare and atrocities ensuing from it did indeed influence plot and characterization of The Lord of the Rings in very significant ways. The entire history of Middle Earth emerges as a result of fights for power and domination. The high tales of the early ages are usually written from an elvish standpoint, but War of the Ring and the events that surround it are written from the point of view of a hobbit, as he himself said in one of his letters (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168). Thus even though Tolkein was adamant that his story was not autobiographical, it seems to depict war as men like him had seen it.

Tolkein’s two most popular works, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, are both journeys in which the characters must battle with a quest. The players in each of these are a varied bunch. However Tolkein’s heroes are not the archer elves or the dwarfs, skilled in the making and wielding of weapons. Rather Tolkein himself referred to the hobbits as his heroes. In this paper I am not going to attempt which individual may be considered a hero, merely the new expectations of a hero and how these changed possibly due to the world wars. Also, though Tolkien’s heroes are mainly male in keeping with the 20^th century model of the hero, I will not be doing an examination of the gender angle to the hero question. Suffice to say that while strong independent female characters do exist, there are only three shown in active roles- their presence is scarce throughout the novel.

Tolkein chooses the otherwise neglected as his hero. From the very beginning the Ring chose Bilbo and was then passed onto Frodo, both hobbits. The hobbits are fairly parochial creatures, sticking to the Shire, never venturing beyond what they know. Tolkein makes them small, diminutive creatures precisely ‘to exhibit the pettiness of man…’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). Perhaps Tolkein viewed the ongoing political struggles as petty political games being drawn out into battles from which no one would really gain. His hobbit heroes personify this small-minded, selfishness of humans.  But the hobbits also provide a model for what humans ought to be. In the same letter to M. Waldman Tolkein goes on to describe hobbits thus, “ They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being more in touch with ‘nature’… and abnormally, for humans, free from ambition or greed of wealth” (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 176). Tolkein strikes down the hero as needing to be a super soldier, with advanced weaponry, and uphold the hero who is in contact with the world around him and able to overcome selfish desires for power.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo constantly struggles with the temptation to wear the Ring and so claim supernatural powers, but in the end he is able to defeat his enemy and destroy the source of power. Gollum and to an extent Boromir are presented as foils to Frodo’s character. Boromir represents the fallen hero who gives into to hubris, tries to trick Frodo and gain the ring for himself, but then realizes his mistake and seemingly sacrifices himself to save his friends. Gollum on the other hand is so consumed by desire for the Ring that his very appearance has changed. Unlike Frodo though, he is consumed by his lust for power and dies with the Ring.  Jane Chance states that ‘the hero must realize that he can become a monster’ (Chance 162). She goes on to say that it not merely external threats that besiege Tolkien’s heroes but great emphasis is placed on internal threats as well, as mentioned above.

Tolkein however upholds loyalty as the primary trait of the hero. He often claimed that Samwise Gamgee was his true hero. He saw him as the ordinary soldier, a gardener’s son, thrust into a great game. For Tolkein, Sam represents all the loyal ‘privates and batmen’ that went to war (Carpenter 89). Here again we see Tolkein upholding not the commanders of armies and generals as heroes but rather the ordinary foot soldier.

Tolkein states in his letter to Waldman that he had a ‘basic passion…for heroic legend’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 167). He commented most particularly on how the Arthurian legends were connected with the land but not with the language of Britain. As a linguist Tolkien’s passion was language and he wanted to create a world that incorporated not only his made-up languages but also one which could be called a wholly English legend, spatially as well as linguistically. Thus the landscape of Middle-Earth as well as its population bears a resemblance to Britain and it is redolent of a Celtic heritage (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 168).

According to Mark Hall, Tolkein makes use of Arthurian elements ‘infused with new meaning and purpose’ (Hall 2). I will explore what exactly this purpose was especially with regard to the political climate in which Tolkein was writing.

In the legends surrounding Arthur, his rising to the status of hero seems to be predestined. Once the sword is pulled from the stone he has no choice but to accept his mantle as the new king. On the other hand both Frodo and his predecessor Bilbo are allowed to choose to embark on their respective quests. Though it is repeatedly stated that the Ring chose them, Gandalf allows them both the choice of remaining in the Shire and ignoring their ‘calling’. The conception of the hero in the new legend that Tolkein wishes to propagate is then not one who is sent or chosen but rather one who chooses and through battling with exterior and internal adversaries emerges heroic.

Arthurian legend is rife with magic, wielded by the good and evil alike. In his letters, Tolkein makes it clear that his conception of magic is power that is appropriated- not inherent- in order to dominate. The most telling difference is between Merlin’s and Gandalf’s approach to magic and power. While Merlin in all versions of the legend embraces power, Gandalf realizes the dangers of appropriating power and rejects all external sources of it (Riga 38).  This change in the approach to magic, such a key component of most legend can be seen as a result of a realization of how power had been used and corrupted during the 20^th century.

Tolkein does however retain some of the tropes of heroic legend. For instance the Knights of the Round Table are paralleled by the Fellowship of the Ring both in equality and loyalty as well as ambition and betrayal.  Arthur and Tolkien’s Aragorn are both unknown heirs brought up in secret away from their kingdoms. However, while Arthur regains his throne as a young man merely by pulling a sword from a stone, Aragorn’s reclamation of his throne involves a long, arduous journey. After several years of wandering, a mature and capable man, he fights and wins back his right to govern. Tolkein borrows the element of the broken sword as carrying much meaning and power, the re-firing of both Excalibur and Narsil symbolizing a resurgence of good against evil.  In Tolkien’s heroic legend Galadriel is an elvish queen, the most powerful in all of Middle- Earth. But unlike Arthur’s Queen Annoure she is not a seductress but a ruler in her own right. Mark Hall comments also in how while Merlin is represented as being seduced by women and their magic, Gandalf respects and pays obeisance to powerful women like Galadriel instead of fearing them (Hall 5). Also Tolkein presents his heroes as ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They celebrate birthday parties and engage in friendly competition. Also the love represented in Tolkien’s works is not that of chivalric legends where fair princesses marry gallant knights. Here we see that the immortal elvish Arwen agrees to marry the mortal Aragorn even before he has won back his throne. Tolkein makes special mention of how the Hobbit heroes go back and begin ordinary lives in The Shire, marrying, raising families and tending to the their gardens.

Tolkein thus instated a new type of hero. As he wrote to M. Waldman ‘…without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless’ (Tolkein, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein 177). Reflecting the sentiments of war poets like Sassoon and Owen as well as his contemporaries like Auden, Tolkein used his new heroic legends in order to establish the ordinary soldier as the more believable hero.

This can be seen as an attempt to illicit a sense of loyalty to Britain and is supported by a statement made by Tolkein; as seen earlier, he wanted to write a purely British legend. Legends and folklore go a long way in securing a sense of legitimacy of power and overall loyalty to the country. The Arthurian legend that Arthur will return when England is in danger supports this statement. In The Lord of The Rings, when Frodo nears the wastes of Mordor he chances upon a trail of flowers that seem to form a crown on the broken statue of a former king (702). This is interesting because it ties in with Tolkien’s use of a British landscape and aesthetic in his works. In collaboration with this particular instance, it seems to be implied that nature itself gives it’s assent to a particular rule. When viewed in terms of the political struggle for power in the 20^th century, we can see how affinity with nature can be used to solidify a certain national rhetoric.

From a post colonial perspective Tolkien’s work seems imperialist. He makes repeated statements about ‘the darkness of the East’ (Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings 703). Mordor, Sauron’s seat of power is itself in the east of Middle-Earth.  On the other hand, the Grey Havens, a sort of Elven haven, redolent with culture, art, spirituality and posterity can be reached by going into the West. Tolkein was writing at a time of colonial struggle when Britain was losing control over its colonies having already lost its largest and most lucrative, India, by the time the book was finished. Therefore it is not farfetched to say that a sense of racial superiority pervades his new British legend.

In conclusion, The Lord of the Rings states that all the evil and wild men of the south had fallen under Sauron’s power. Tolkien seems here to be commenting on how the blame for the horrors of the war must be pinned on all of humanity but with emphasis on the ordinary as having potential to be heroic. These new heroes situated within a heroic tradition that upholds national identity and the everyday are evidence of the effects of the 20^th century consciousness on the works of J.R.R. Tolkein.

 

References

“Beyond the Movie:The Lord of the Rings.” 1996. National Geographic. Web. 13 Dec 2015.

Brown, Terrence Neal. “Review: Tolkein and the Great War:The Threshold og Middle-Earth by John Garth.” Religion and Literature 38.4 (Winter 2006): 115-117. Web. 13 December 2015.

Bruckner, D.J.R. “Concerning Hobbits and Phillip Marlowe.” The new York Tmes on the Web 15 Nov 1981: n.p. Web. 9 Feb 2016.

Carpenter, Humphrey. Tolkein: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. Print.

Chance, Jane. Tolkein’s Art: A Mythology for England. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001. PDF File.

Garth, John. “Battle of the Somme:The ‘Animal Horror’ that Inspired J.R.R. Tolkein.” The Telegraph 4 Oct 2013: n.p. Web. 12 Dec 2015.

Hall, Mark R. “Gandalf & Merlin, Aragorn & Arthus: Tolkein’s Transmogrification of the Arthurian Tradition & its Use as a Palimpsest for The Lord of the Rings.” Inklings Forever 8 (2012): 1-10. PDF File.

Riga, Frank P. “Gandalf & Merlin: J. R.R.’s Adoption and Transformation of a Literary Tradition.” Mythlore 27.1/2 (2008): 38. Print.

Tempest, Deborah. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Penguin Books Ltd., 2006. PDF File.

Tolkein, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein. Ed. Humphrey Carpenter. London: George Allen & Unwin, n.d. PDF File.

—. The Hobbit. London: HarperCollins, 1995. Kindle File

—. The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.

 

The Native American Woman in Children’s Films: A Case Study of Disney Animation

Minal Sukumar

          A race of people still fighting for equality and justice are the scattered and diminished Native Americans. People in countries across the world have built ideas and notions about Native Americans based on narrow yet popular representations provided to them right from childhood. Children internalize discriminatory stereotypes based on race and gender through various media and this is especially true of Disney movies. In several children’s movies made by Disney, there are gender, race and class stereotypes, encouraging children to form ideas and opinions based on these notions. In the case of female Native American characters, Disney films have long been facilitating an acute ‘double oppression’ by strengthening and promulgating gender and race stereotypes around them. The aim of this paper is to explore these stereotypes surrounding the Native American woman as seen in children’s movies made by Walt Disney Pictures, with a focus on the films ‘Peter Pan’ and Pocahontas’.

In the 1920s, American animators and film makers Walt and Roy Disney set up the Disney Brothers Studio in Hollywood, California. Now in the 21^st century, ‘Disney’ is a name known and loved in all corners of the world and even succeeded in creating the most popular theme park so that the fantasy may come to life. The Walt Disney Company has become a part of homes across the world and has dominated the mass media and entertainment industries, especially those targeted at children, for close to a century. Walt Disney’s first character ‘Mickey Mouse’ was created in the year 1928 and still remains an extremely popular character in the television and film industry for children while standing for all things Disney even today. With such a universal fan following, Disney films often sneak under the radar when it comes to stereotypes and discrimination in art. The reach this great company has is incomparable and thus so much more significant in the battle against discrimination at the root level. In a study on the effect of cartoons on children, Khaled Habib and Tarek Soliman note that children are always seeking new experiences making television and film the most educative tool available (Habib, Soliman 250). Ideas about the world are formed and established in the mind of a child through these mediums and this is reflected in their lifestyle and behaviour right from a young age (Habib, Soliman 254).

In 1953, Disney made the popular film ‘Peter Pan’, based on a story and character by J.M. Barrie. The plot follows the adventures of English children Wendy Darling and her brothers as they meet Peter Pan and travel to the magical Neverland, where they can stay young forever. The movie has been adapted and remade several times, the 2015 ‘Pan’ being the most recent. In the original story and in almost all adaptations, ‘Neverland’ is inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the ‘Picaninnies’. J.M Barrie attempted to create the Native American for ‘eyes of children’ thus making them seem like a realistic caricature (Laskow N.A.). Though this caused little controversy when it was written, the stereotypes of ‘the savage’ and the ‘uneducated’, especially as portrayed by Disney, has been met with great protest recently (Laskow N.A). While the Picaninnies are all presented in a harsh and discriminatory light, the Chief’s daughter, Tiger Lily acts as a complete foil to the British character, Wendy Darling. She speaks in broken English which is humorous at best and is portrayed as a rather flirtatious female character. When Captain Hook kidnaps Tiger Lily, the Picaninnies think the Lost Boys have her and do little about it other than making empty, violent threats. The completely helpless Tiger Lily is almost drowned at the hands of Captain Hook before she is rescued by Peter Pan.

The colonial connotations of the ‘exotic’ and ‘helpless’ Native American woman needing the British man to come save her from trouble are strong (Laskow N.A). The strength and courage of the Native American woman has been discounted in history and in this movie as well. Later on, Tiger Lily flirts and kisses Peter, immediately establishing the ‘sensual and exotic’ (Laskow, N.A) foreign woman with loose morals and principles. Throughout the story, she is devoted to Peter Pan as much as he is devoted to Wendy Darling (Laskow N.A) but can never be the epitome of perfection that is the British woman and thus is always sidelined as a minor and insignificant character, a mere plot twist, which is an unfortunate parallel to the reality of the Native American woman.

More than forty years after ‘Peter Pan’ was first made by Disney, they released the movie ‘Pocahontas’ in 1995. The story is based on the historic figure of Amonute (nicknamed Pocahontas), the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe in the Jamestown colony. In a popular legend, it is said Pocahontas laid her head down on the head of English soldier and explorer John Smith just as he was about to be executed by her father (Rountree 58). The same is portrayed in Disney’s animated movie ‘Pocahontas’, however that is where the similarity between fantasy and reality ends. Though Pocahontas did succeed in bridging the gap between her tribe and the English settlers, as shown in the movie, this peace she fought for did not last long. Records show that the Powhatan tribe ended their ties with the British once the violence against the Native Americans increased. Pocahontas went on to marry a man from her tribe and as he was not a Chief or a man of much political importance, it appears she married for love (Rountree 102). Her happiness was apparently short-lived though, as she was later kidnapped and taken to England where she was forced to adopt the practices of the English woman and convert to Christianity. She changed her name to Rebecca when in 1615 she married Englishman John Rolfe (Pewewardy N.A). Along with her husband and their son, she became the face of the campaign launched in England to revive support for the Virginia Colony (Pewewardy N.A). She died in Kent, United Kingdom and was buried there (Pewewardy N.A) leagues away from her homeland.

The Disney movie and later published picture book for children, ends at the juncture of peace between the Native Americans and the British settlers, achieved through the love shared between Pocahontas and John Smith. However, no records show that there was any sort of romantic relationship between the two. Disney has romanticized a historic tale of friendship gone wrong that is an example of the psychological and physical devastation caused by the colonisation of America. The company took one legend of Pocahontas’ history and built an entirely false life around her. The movie only showcases the Native American woman as a character in history who would do anything for the love of the white man (Pewewardy N.A). Pocahontas’ bravery and honour are diminished in the face of a fabricated romance and the rest of her story is swept under the rug. Though Disney did make a sequel to the popular movie, ‘Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World’ is even more of a fabricated myth than the first movie. The only two elements of reality present are Pocahontas’ journey to England and the character of John Rolfe.

In the movie, John Smith is arrested after being framed by Governor Ratcliffe who wants to wage war against the Powhatan tribe in Jamestown. In an attempt to save his life, another sailor John Rolfe travels to the colony and brings Pocahontas back as a witness to save Smith’s life. There follows a series of events including a ball where Pocahontas has to prove to the King and Queen that she can be ‘civilized’, and ends with John Rolfe agreeing to go back with her to her homeland. The movie rewrites the history of Pocahontas completely and her struggles as a Native American woman are dismissed. Nothing of her kidnapping, forced conversion or internalization of ‘inferiority’ is present in the Disney story. Both movies are made to be a romantic narrative, enjoyable for children around the world to watch and internalize. The Native American woman is put in the position of the ‘other’, as seen when Pocahontas arrives in England in her tribal wear and is greeted with disdain. She is romanticised, sexualised and stereotyped in a child-friendly manner so that the very essence of her existence is warped and distorted. Disney took a true story that represents the injustice faced by an entire race and erased the Native American voice entirely thus writing over the truth of Native American history in one fell blockbuster swoop.

Upon study of the two Disney animated movies discussed above, it is clear that the Native American woman is marginalized and stereotyped even today. Both characters of Tiger Lily and Pocahontas are introduced to the audience as foreign women of colour, easily dependent on the ‘white saviour’. The portrayal of the Native Americans in Walt Disney Pictures promulgates surviving discriminatory notions of the colonies even long after colonisation has come to an end and the portrayal of the Native American women takes this a step forward by serving to firmly establish in the mind of a child false race and gender connotations together.

 

Works Cited

Habib, Khaled, and Tarek Soliman. “Cartoons’ Effect in Changing Childrens Mental Response and Behaviour.” Open Journal of Social Sciences 3 (2015): 248-64. Scientific Reasearch Publishing. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.

 

Laskow, Sarah. “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe.” Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 02 Dec. 2014. Web. 05 Sept. 2016.

 

Pan. Dir. Joe Wright. Prod. Greg Berlanti. Screenplay by Jason Fuchs. Perf. Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2015. Television.

 

Peter Pan. Dir. Clyde Geronimi. Prod. Walt Disney. Perf. Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont. By J.M Barrie. Walt Disney Pictures, 1953. DVD.

 

Pewewardy, Cornel. “The Pocahontas Paradox: A Cautionary Tale for Educators.” Journal of Navajo Education (1997): n. pag. University of Kansas. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.

 

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. Dir. Tom Ellery. Prod. Walt Disney Perf. Irene Bedard, Billy Zane. Walt Disney Pictures, 1998. DVD.

 

Pocahontas. Dir. Mike Gabriel. Prod. Walt Disney. Perf. Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson. Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. DVD.

 

Roundtree, H. Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. PDF.

Censored Voices in a Dystopian World

Blessy Thomas

A dystopian world often portrays a world so bleak that it instills fear in the reader’s mind about the direction in which we are headed. It is a commentary on the society and its ways, and the eventual crumble of the society as we know it. The characters are often dehumanized and disconnected, and thrive in complete normalcy as though the world around them is perfectly normal. This method is perhaps used to represent the austere future that lay ahead of us. Dystopian fiction often depicts environmental disasters and tyrannical governments and catastrophic disasters that threaten the normal functioning of the society

One such book representing a problem that should be worrying, even in the present society is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It portrays a world where books and reading them are forbidden, and the firemen in the futuristic American society are ordered to burn all books. The protagonist, Guy Montag, a fireman, after witnessing a gruesome suicide by a woman in an attempt to save her books from being burnt, steals a book and begins reading it.

Fahrenheit 451 is a take on modern day problems such as censorship by the government and the dissenting of ideas. The government depicted in the book employs a strong hold on the content of ideas that is made available to the public. The robotic dog that keeps check on homes for books could be a symbolism for cyber space spying. There is no real sense of freedom in our worlds anymore, and we’re constantly watched and censored for our actions. We live in a democracy where freedom of speech and expression are constitutional rights, and yet, people are publicly bullied and censored for speaking their mind.

In an interview, Bradbury stated that through the book he wanted to highlight the effect of television and other short span media has on our thoughts and attention span. Everything around us today is condensed to its more core form, limiting experience and knowledge. News appears in bullet points, books are adapted to movies and technology reduces time in doing almost everything. People are now much less interested in world events than ever before. Bradbury called out current media as being “shallow” and “frivolous”; in the book too, the Montag household has a “parlor wall”, a gigantic wall sized TV with mindless shows to keep the public occupied, rather than dealing with important issues. When Guy Montag tries to engage his wife and her friend in conversations about the upcoming war and deaths, they seemed completely uninterested. There is a rapid dumping down of culture that has happened through technology in both the real as well as the dystopian world.

Bradbury portrays a kind of control and hold that the powerful have over the citizens because they are unaware and uneducated. He explores ideas of personal freedom and individuality, and how they can be formed only through the accumulation of knowledge. Our society is formed through the circulation of ideas and the free forum to express them, but hindrances in the way of censorship, claims of political dissent and other methods of exercising control ensure that we have no individuality and free thought. We as a society are consumed by our media—be it the internet and all the accessibility it provides on television. Media, especially the internet gently pushes us into a lull and provides us with a false sense of security that we in reality, do not have. Our thoughts are handed out to us, information is readily projected, there is no actual need for a human to think.

Characters like Guy Montag and the fire chief, Beatty, portray people incapable of their own thoughts. They simply follow what is told to them without any questions. The lack of a proper education renders them incapable of asking questions. On the other hand, Clarisse, a school kid read in secret, that Montag befriended seems to have a more open view about the world. Defenders of free knowledge and education paid the price of being capable of thoughts by giving their lives up.

Dystopian fiction talks mostly about ideologies. It is a comment on insidious institutional agendas and the loss of humanity and morality. The dominant discourse in these novels, like in Fahrenheit 451, is the ideologies of society. Although slightly exaggerated, dystopian fiction comments on societies, and makes us take a hard look at where we are headed.

 

A Sound Being.

Nayanika .P.

Eyes closed I sit silently,
The irreverent buzzing of voices
Drift about me.
Different tones, Different pitches,
Softly and loudly,
I seek amongst them
For a semblance of harmony.

My ears tune into a distinct sound.
Suddenly rising above the mindless chatter
Distant and detached it seems to be bound
To an eerie voice;
Once whole but now
In tatters.

I noticed her then, in an obscure corner,
Might have been there forever.
Never to be heard or seen,
A relic link between
The sides of a mirror.

Her long withered nails
The threads of different sounds,
Mapped about in confused geometry.
And once she had all the notes
She consumed all to create her own,
Unearthly pitch.

Listen.

The voices of the dead reverberates
All around.

 

 

Inside the mind of a “Rap God”

By Vinaya Grace Mary

Initially coined by the philosopher and psychologist, William James, the stream of consciousness technique was defined as the natural flow of thought, even though some of the segments of cognition were not connected. In literature, it follows a similar tangent; the writing ploy mimics the flow of thought. The philosophers Rene Descartes and John Locke emphasised the importance of rationality as what sets human beings apart from animals. With the advent of psychoanalysis, though, psychotherapists like Freud and Jung brought into question the reliability of the mind that produces the rational thought.
The most significant feature of texts that use this narrative form, in comparison with ones that use other techniques, is that they focus mainly on the character rather than the plot. It involves the mental attention paid to the world, and has no need to be rational; in fact, it is, more often than not, emotionally driven. It is generally verbalised only to the reader or the intended audience, but not to the other characters in the text. All the audience comprehends about the object or the situation is through the consciousness of the character, which is formed around the experience of the character with regard to that object or situation. The speech might be coherent with reference to grammar and syntax, however, the thought that forms the speech, may not be rational. Some musicians write songs with the help of this technique – Bob Dylan, Father Misty John, Courtney Barnett and Eminem, to name a few. It is noteworthy that although Bob Dylan and Eminem originate from very diverse backgrounds and specialise in different genres of music, they have often been compared in terms of their use of extensive vocabulary.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III, more popularly known as Eminem, is a multiple Grammy-winning rapper and is known for his verbal energy and lyrical genius. He is one of the few performers who composes songs that follow the technique of stream of consciousness. To get a better understanding of this, his single, “Rap God” can be looked at in detail. The song entered the Guinness Book of World Records as a hit single containing the most number of words – 1560; at one point in the song, he raps 97 words in 15 seconds. It was also nominated for the Grammy Awards in 2015.

Like in most texts that use this technique of writing, Eminem does not structure the song around a plot, rather, it acts as a window into his mind for a period of time. In an interview, he in fact stated that his songs were reflective of his stance in life at that particular time. The author unapologetically rants without much of narrative or a care for the individuals that he accuses and abuses. In “Rap God”, like in some of his other songs, he takes on the persona of his alter ego, Slim Shady. This is similar to James Joyce, the pioneer in the technique of the stream of consciousness, who in his novel, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, created an alter ego, Stephen Dedalus onto whom Joyce projected all of his cognition and emotion.
Although at the inception, Slim Shady is the main audience, later the intended audience is generalised to a broader spectrum of people. The author’s use of foul language and inappropriate references works as an automatic screening technique, by way of which he only addresses his desired audience – mostly adolescents. With the use of Slim Shady, Eminem is – in a way – able to distance himself from Eminem, the person. In the song, “Rap God”, he uses seemingly homophobic words and phrases like “faggot”, “gay looking boy”, but in an interview, he states that as an individual Eminem is not against the LGBTQ community and that the perspectives of the alter egos he creates are different.
As the name of the song suggests, the overall aim is to prove and maintain that he is the world’s best rapper – he says it over and over again in the song and also demonstrates it by rapping six and a half words per second for 15 seconds. In this incredibly verbose song, the writer makes references to various people and seemingly irrelevant events that coincide with events in his own life. He talks about the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal to denote the time period within which his career kicked off. He references different rappers like Tupac, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, as his influences, all the while maintaining that he, however, is the Rap God. The sentence in the chorus, “Now who thinks their arms are long enough to slap box?” originates from James Weldon Johnson’s poem “The Prodigal Son” – “Young man, young man, your arm’s too short to box with God”. When looked at with reference to the fact that the author is a self-proclaimed deity, the seemingly nonsensical line seems to make sense. He uses absurd words like “flippity”, “dippity”, “hippity”, “yackety” etc., to signify his “lyrical acrobat stunts”. He also makes comic book references, likening himself to the fictional character, Odin, the father of the hammer-wielding god of thunder, Thor. After this, he delves into a television series about the zombie apocalypse called The Walking Dead, comparing himself to a floating zombie.
Interestingly, the concept of time is not followed too strictly; Slim Shady is able to move through the past, present and future quite seamlessly. “And I just bought a new ray gun from the future just to come and shoot you.” He also seems to struggle between the Id and the Superego – “But in my head, there’s something. I can feel the tugging and the struggling. Angels fight with devils…” This again shows the author’s focus on the workings of the protagonist’s head rather than the external situational. There are references made to Satan as a way of imposing his stance as a God through the creation of binaries – “I’m drunk, so Satan take the wheel” “Don’t mistake him for Satan”.
This text can be said to have used a particular technique of stream of consciousness, namely the indirect interior monologue – Eminem’s innermost thoughts are brought to the forefront through the persona of Slim Shady and the presence of a mediator is felt at the very beginning of the song. Moreover, the techniques of stream of consciousness also allows for the space within which the artist has the freedom to express and vent.

Images vs Text in Storytelling: Re-telling History

By Tara Saldanha

The act of re-telling history is already fraught with subjectivity. This paper seeks to explore how images and texts (here and throughout, the written word) explore historical periods and personalities in depicted in fiction, using varying and similar methods. First I will examine the characteristic points of the comic method of storytelling. I will then use these to make a comparative study of Art Spiegelman’s Maus against Brecht’s “The Burning of the Books” and Yala Korwin’s “The Boy with His Hands Up” to examine how they treat the theme of the Holocaust. I will also look at the portrayal of the Roman Empire in general and Cleopatra in particular in a relative study of Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix and Cleopatra alongside Plutarch’s Cleopatra from Makers of Rome and Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra.

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As McCloud vividly explains in his work Understanding Comics, the comic form is able to use images that are recognizably real to the human eye to depict certain ideals or views. The undermining of this ability has led to comics been seen as inferior to ‘great’ works of art- indeed it is not considered a work of art at all. However the communicative power of the comic medium has been exploited by artists over the years and the role of comics as a possible medium for serious issues is gaining ground.

Comics consist of simple drawings and are therefore not seen as meaningful at least to the adult world. However Mc Cloud states that it is this apparent drawback of comics that is its strengthening feature. Comics strip the world they depict down to its essence and through this ‘amplification through simplification’ the reader is able to identify with the characters (McCloud, 30). However this identification is more than the mere identification that occurs in prose, here the reader sees the characters as universal. All prose requires some amount of description in order to create a mental picture so necessary in the process of signification. But in comics the simplistic portrayal means that readers don’t just identify with the character, rather they occupy the body of the character. This simplified character is sometimes placed against a truer to life background, for example the view of the city of Alexandria (Goscinny & Uderzo, 11). Thus the reader is able to take part and get emotionally involved in the action and the ideals the writer wanted to communicate.  Spiegelman depicts the Jews as mice in his graphic novel Maus. By avoiding stereotypical representation of Jews he allows the reader to become emotionally invested in the horrors that engulfed the Vladek and his family. He contrasts this with realistic portrayals of mice as well family photos, while the ‘beauty of ideals’ is accessed through his simplified drawings (McCloud).

Objects that the author wants to give especial attention too are however more realistically portrayed. Spiegelman draws attention to the squalid conditions of the bunkers by adding drawings of actual mice and Goscinny and Uderzo mock Caesar’s grandeur by giving him more detailed features.

The transmission of meaning is different for images as compared to text. Images can be polysemous. And text is often used in conjunction with images in comics to supplement, parallel or pin point the meanings given by the image. Comics are able to depict stereotypes, which gives it the ability to communicate information about characters and situations without lengthy paragraphs of detailed description. Goscinny and Uderzo make continuous references to Cleopatra’s ‘pretty’ nose in their work thereby establishing the stereotype of Cleopatra as a beautiful, sensuous woman. Speigelman also uses animals to depict metaphorical meanings for different nationalities. He also states his reasons for using mice and Mickey Mouse in the book. (164). Thus as McCloud elucidates the meanings got from images are easier to decipher and rely on universal knowledge, whereas written text takes time and specific knowledge to understand. When reading Brecht or Korwin’s poems we are not at once able to understand the horrors of the Holocaust as we are from even a glance through Maus. For that we would need to wade through metaphor and imagery and other poetic devices. While these might be desirable traits in poetry and prose it doesn’t allow universal access to meaning.

Comics have the ability to communicate without verbosity but their expanse is limited due to practical reasons of printing and publishing. However by using the ability of ‘closure’ comic artists can rely on readers to fill in the gaps of meaning in the story (McCloud). This means that though graphic novels and comics might lack expanse they do not necessarily lack depth.

The very crafting of the images in comic form can lead to an ‘emotional or sensual response’ on the part of the reader (McCloud, chapter 3). Maus uses a comic within a comic in a seemingly Expressionist form. This depicts the emotional state of the protagonist through its form which resembles Edvard Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’. (Spiegelman, 103). Also Anja’s depressive state filters into her physical appearance as well-the lines that depict her are thin and drooping, and dark lines run under her eyes (Spiegelman, 36). The author’s helplessness in the face of his fame is shown as him regressing to the body of a child in the face of his publicists (202).

Spiegelman in his autobiographical work Maus switches between his father’s narration of the story and their actual conversation in ‘real time’ frequently. However the visual medium allows the readers to immediately recognize these shifts. Unlike text, the image finds no need to use much text to indicate change in time or place. Perspective is something that images portray well too. What devices could prose use to adequately describe the view through the cross hairs of a gun on the front line as Speigelman does through images? (Spiegelman, 50). The medium of comics allows for historical events and places, like the gas chambers at Auschwitz and the secret entrances to bunkers, to be portrayed as they actually are in first person. In text these distinctive historical details would be left to the visualizing power of the reader.

Spiegelman is also able to depict disguise, showing Vladek with a ‘Polish pig mask’, supposedly hiding his identity as a Jew. The rules of the comic’s world are dictated by the author and though the reader can see through the disguise the characters in the graphic novel supposedly can’t. (Spiegelman, 66). The medium of the image allows its user other freedoms as well. Spiegelman depicts how the hanging of the Jews haunted Vladek by showing the bodies in repeated frames (86,239). He is also able to use text to indicate objects in the frames, helping to build up the realistic quality of the background for instance Mala’s ‘X-word’ puzzles. Vladek and Anja’s future fate at the hands of the Germans is alluded to in the swastika shaped road they walk down after leaving Srodula (127). He is also able to depict movement by showing the characters in the car without explicitly stating that they are travelling. The image allows for use of irony too as is seen from the presence of a picture of a cat in the home the ‘rodent’ shrinks office (203). However this form does not allow for much probing into the mind of the characters as this would result in lengthy text. Only those inner thoughts which can be portrayed through artistic devices are available to the readers.
Brecht focuses on the same period in history in his poem ‘The Burning of the Books’. However he is able to explore the mind of the indignant writer whose books are considered subversive enough to be burnt. He focuses his poem on one aspect only of the Holocaust i.e. the literary purge and the attack on Jewish intellectualism. By drawing attention to this one aspect of the Holocaust the poet does not extinguish the racial purging that occurs, rather it lingers in the subtext of the poem. The poet uses irony and violent imagery to depict resistance to Nazism.

In an interesting mix of image and text, Yala Korwin bases her telling of the horrors of the Holocaust “The Little Boy with His Hands Up” on an actual photograph. Korwin from the title itself focuses the viewers’ attention on a two particular individuals in the photo. She brings out certain aspects of the image that would otherwise go unstressed, for instance the simile ‘palms…like two white doves’ emphasizes the innocence of the boy in contrast to the SS officers behind him. The poetic medium allows her to ask questions about the possible future of the child and the thoughts that could be running through his mother’s mind. The poem thus perpetuates and widens the meanings that can be derived from this image for belated viewers. This is an illustration of how the image and text can work in conjunction to retell history.

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Cleopatra is portrayed by Plutarch as being playful and intellectual, seductive and persevering (296). Goscinny and Uderzo however focus on her perseverant side but depict her as childish, throwing fits and furniture when Caesar snubs her (5). The lines of her body too are shown as soft and childlike in contrast to Caesar’s sharp, chiseled face and white hair. Shakespeare is depicting a slightly older Cleopatra and uses sexual innuendos to communicate her relationship with Mark Anthony.

Goscinny and Uderzo effectively use the comic medium to satirize the might of the Roman Empire. In Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra the Roman’s are seen to have authority, their armies commanding respect. Shakespeare shows Anthony and his soldiers as being hung up on honour and glory. However with their title Asterix and Cleopatra itself Goscinny and Uderzo show up the Roman Empire and glory. The Roman soldiers are shown turning green with fear at seeing Asterix and Obelix and the roman officers are depicted as rotund and bumbling fools. Their incompetence is the basis of several twists in the plots of the comics.

With regard to specifically image related devices, Goscinny and Uderzo show that the parts of the story that take place in Alexandria is dubbed in English so that their non-Egyptian speaking audience can understand it (6). This is an authenticity that Shakespeare’s play is unable to communicate as the switch is difficult to depict on the stage. There are some aspects of the atmosphere like Cleopatra’s barge that all three depict with fair consistency, except of course that Plutarch (293) and Shakespeare (Act II, Scene 2) must rely on a wordy paragraph while Goscinny and Uderzo use a single frame (46). With regard to the portrayal of grandeur though, the words used in the text descriptions of the barge give us an idea of the extravagance and detailed beauty of the barge which the single image merely satirizes. The speech of the Egyptian labourers is shown as hieroglyphics. It doesn’t really matter that the reader doesn’t understand it as it indicates in a single frame that Asterix and Obelix are in a foreign land. Shakespeare doesn’t capture the essence of Rome and Egypt in the context of clothing. Due to paucity of stage instruction in this regard most stagings of his Roman plays had actors dressed in Grecian dress. The use of imagery allows the Asterix comics a comparatively more accurate portrayal of Gaulish, Roman and Egyptian dress.

The other ways in which Goscinny and Uderzo exploit the particular freedoms accorded by the comic medium are given below. The thoughts of Obelix’s pet Dogmatix, i.e. his eagerness for a bone, is shown through a pile of bones in a speech bubble (26). In prose communicating a dog’s exact thoughts would mean that the writer would either have to rely on human assumptions of animal behavior or resort to talking animals. But here the artists are able to depict the true image of a waiting, hungry dog without resorting to imaginative devices. The writers of the comics also use large fonted onomatopoeic words as part of the image to depict sound and movement especially during fight scenes. Use of generic comic devices like a hash of symbols to indicate swearing takes place in this work of Goscinny and Uderzo.

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There are other points that are important to understanding the retelling of history in the image and textual form. Given in this paper are several differences between the two mediums and their relative effectiveness in storytelling. This does not mean however that one medium is to be considered superior to the other. Rather they must both now be acknowledged for their unique abilities to retell history.

Works Cited
1. Brecht, Bertolt. “The Burning of the Books.” Poems 1913-1956. Routledge, 1987. Print.
2. Goscinny, Rene, and Albert Uderzo. Asterix and Cleopatra. 17. Impression. ed. London: Hodder Dargaud, 1986. Print.
3. Kilvert, Ian. Makers of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch. Penguin, 1965. Print.
4. Korwin, Yala. “The Little Boy with His Hands up.” To Tell the Story-Poems of the Holocaust. Holocaust Publications, 1987. Print.
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