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.

Objective corelative

Keerthi Sebastian

Rain.. let me transfer my pain to you.

Fall…Splash…weep

For you’re the object I choose to show

My readers

The depth of my pain.

Fall heavily

Beget landslides and earth-falls

Create floods

Drown the green

Because today,

You’re the symbol that I choose-

To show the gravity of my woe.

HOME

Tasmina Harda

On a hectic Monday evening
Towards the frightful end of September
Just as the clock struck 6
On my desktop computer
I prepared to shut down the system
Relishing the idea of being back home
Just as I lifted my tired body
And mind filled with worries of bills
My boss scurries towards my cubicle
“You have to stay. I messed up.
Help me and pay you extra I will.
Numbers and profits are your forte.Stay.
You have the required motivation and skill.
You will be paid double for your hour
Your expertise will help add to your till”
I was torn between going home to her and duty
The extra coins alluring
I could spend an hour or two working late
But is it worth knowing she would be waiting?
I look down to my desk and say I am sorry. I cant
I have made a promise that I should be keeping
I grab my coat before I change my mind
Blocking the temptation I keep walking
I reach my car and try to convince myself
She is more important than the bills impending
I open the door still immersed in my thoughts
Cant help but smile when I hear her laughing
I knew you wont be late to my tea party daddy
Ok..so you are the superman today and I am the barbie.

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

 

 

Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni by FumiyoKouno

Bhavana Chandra

Japanese graphic novels have gained popularity in recent decades. Manga has created its own world of literature. Brazenly different from classical novels, poetry and the film industry, graphic novels create a space of intensity delivered by both language and illustrations.

FumiyoKouno is a Mangaka by profession. Her most famous work is Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni, roughly translated to ‘Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.’ The novel was published in 2004 and is famous for its artfully intricate weaving of a story succeeding the bombing of Hiroshima near the end of the Second World War.

The manga comprises two stories. ‘Town of Evening Calm’ is the point of view of twenty three year old Minami Hirano, a victim of the devastation of 1945. She is plagued by the experience and has lost most of her family to it. Ten years after the event, she too succumbs to the after effects of being exposed to the bombing. ‘Country of Cherry Blossoms’ is in two parts, both of which are from the perspective of Minami Hirano’s niece, Nanami Ishikawa. Shown as a ten year old and then a twenty seven year old woman, the new protagonist is a second generation survivor. Her brother, Asahi Ishikawa, has had bouts of Asthma attacks which people attribute him to being the son of a Hibakusha victim. Their mother had been ‘caught in the flash’ of the bomb as an infant and passed away years afterward as shown in a tormenting flashback.

The story is applauded for its honest and powerful depiction of lives affected by the atomic bomb. Many read about the facts of the destruction and see the loss as a statistic, but FumiyoKouno has captured the truth of the pain and the reality of the consequences. Her interpretation of the characters stems from her own feelings towards the event and the necessity of having to tell the tale of the people who have still not escaped the damage. The sketches are a clever rendering to show the emotions of the characters and the placement of the scenes. There is a play on light and shading in many panels to show the past’s influence on the present.

The world war was waged to defeat countries, but it also resulted in destroying lives. The manga explores the scars left on the bodies and minds of the survivors and puts forward the tale of Hiroshima, which was known for its yunagi and sakura trees, a place brimming with life and love.

This manga is definitely a recommended read. It has its slices of humour and affection interspersed naturally with the tragedy and healing of people.

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.

A cup of tea/a cup of coffee

Sharvari Shetty

The cool breeze caressed her face, ruffling the curls on her forehead. Lying on the couch with one hand on the forehead, Veena continued to concentrate on the pages. The sip of coffee along with the lines of the book, added to the color on her face… she was surely reading a love story! She moved her fingers to turn to the next page when the phone rang.
“Hello!”
“Veena come to the park, we are all waiting for you. It’s real fun out here!”
“Oh no, Lalitha.  I feel too tired and this book is very interesting. You guys do the walking and talking. I’ll join you tomorrow.
“Fine! enjoy reading.”
She kept the phone down with her eyes moving on the words. Veena was lost in the world of fiction!

She looked up at the clock to check the time, and then ran into the kitchen to make tea. At any moment her husband would be back from the office and a hot cup of tea on arrival was what he loved the most.

As she kept the water for boiling on the stove she heard the children talk outside on the veranda, and there was an unusual noise. She went to the kitchen balcony to see what it was and realized, much to her pleasant surprise, that it was the first rain of the season. She loved the beautiful weather and leaned against the railing. Drop after drop took her from one thought to another. Soon she was walking down the memory lane.

“Look outside the window, it’s raining!”
“Oh yes Kalpi! Finally the monsoon is here!”
“A cup of coffee would be ideal to enjoy this weather, isn’t it Veena?”
“Yes, surely Kalpi, come lets go to a nearby restaurant for coffee.”

Both of them enjoying the weather, walked towards the coffee shop, splashing water on each other.

“Aaahh! What a blissful weather”, exclaimed Veena.

“Yes of course. I am going to miss college days! These lovely moments, our group studies, the gossip, bunking classes, going for movies and the fun during summer holidays”, said Kalpi.

“Ah! Yes Kalpi, our summer holidays! It has always been fun with our gang of girls. Let’s meet every year and relive memories”.

“Every year Veena? Yeah right! Our paths will be different from now on. Responsibilities, commitments, family and what not…”

“Commitment Kalpi? What commitment? Don’t tell me you want to get married soon? Do you?” retorted Veena.

“Who would want to stay single and independent forever Veena. I feel life is easier when you stay at home with your husband and kids around.”

“I disagree Kalpi I would want to be independent and find a job for myself and enjoy being by myself for at least three years. Experiencing life on your own, earning and spending the way you want and do all that you want to do…”

The wind blew hard on her face. Water sprinkled with it and shook Veena from her college memories. She, the one who wanted to be free from responsibilities was a changed person today.

“Veena, where is my tea? What are you doing?” asked Veena’s husband from the drawing room.

“Getting it dear.”

Veena quickly turned off the gas and the water was boiling by now. She worked her hands as fast as she could to make tea. Veena smiled to herself thinking of the turn her life had taken. She could not believe that just a year ago she was in college, planning to be independent and today she was married woman with responsibilities.

As she sat down next to her husband, giving him his cup of tea, she grabbed her own cup of coffee. And once again she was lost in a world that was different from the one she lived in; a world of coffee cups and memories…

 

In the Age of Reason

Anonymous

It was a couple of days ago when my cousin and I, were going to his house. On our way there, we witnessed something so bizarre that it has troubled me ever since. It was the sight of a string of people flocked in a line, not far from his house. It wouldn’t have been such a bizarre sight if the line was leading to a bank or a post office where they’d be either waiting  to deposit their currencies of denominations Rs. 500 and 1000 or get it exchanged. Nor was the line leading to an ATM, a sale at a supermarket, a fair price shop, or even a temple, where people are usually spotted waiting in large queues. Apparently, it lead to a normal looking house, which got me thinking. I asked my cousin what the reason was for people in such a large number to have been waiting in line. “To know their future and fates. It’s the house of an astrologer,” he said. Not an astronomer, mind you! But an astrologer, whose profession is to hoodwink people into believing his cosmic divination’s and false prophecies and horoscopic interpretations, which are nothing but statements of the Barnum Effect.

I found (and still do find) this troubling on many levels. As it is my fundamental duty to develop a scientific temperament according to the Constitution’s Article 51A(h), and also the spirit of inquiry and reform, I can in the following essay, express my opinions which I would like to call subjective facts. It is also in the humanistic intention that is stressed in the same article, that I object this ignorant and ancient pseudo-scientific traditional practice that has conformed our culture into being irrational, superstitious, and backward.
Contemplating on this sole troubling thought, I jot down all things related to such hogwash and hokum pseudosciences that I find both funny and intolerable. I think of the many encounters and experiences I’ve had with false prophesying godmen, or my accumulated trivia over the years from what I’ve read and heard on this subject; or the serious ramifications it has on our culture and future.

The claims are vague. Its fallacious basis, the movement of stars and heavenly bodies (real and imaginary) and its influence on human life. Ridiculous as it is today (for some at least), it wasn’t the same though four or so millennia ago. It was in Babylon where the idea was first conceived in the mind of man, that there could be systems of predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. The priestly men read the heavens and the entrails of animals, foreseeing and foretelling the fates of kings. But it was the ancient Greeks who developed this practice further and ascribed names and behaviours to planets. And thus originated, a number of belief systems that hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events or descriptions of personality in the human world. It is now, the second half of the second millennium in the Common Era. There never was a time before in the history of the world when Pseudosciences like Astrology, Feng Shui, Vastu Shastra, Numerology, and Dowsing, were more prevalent and pervasive than it is at the present time. Many pseudosciences have sprung up in this modern age of reason, having their origins in ancient tracts and works, by claiming to embrace culture and tradition by instilling fear. And helplessness to the unknowable natural order of things, creates such large-scale acceptance of mysticism.

Vastu Shastra is the traditional Hindu system of architecture which in ancient times laid the rules and principles of designs and layouts for temples, houses, gardens, towns. But it has evolved into something completely different today.Vastu has gained traction since the boom of real estate. There nearly isn’t a house or a building that isn’t built to the specifications dictated by Vastu Shastra. There have been instances where walls of the offices in Vidhana Soudha belonging to the members of the state legislature have been demolished just to suit the specifications of Vastu. Most of the buildings that are built today claim that they comply to the guidelines of Vastuas it is a requirement for buyers who believe that the layout of their houses have kitchen in the south-east corner, or a potty pot that faces south, or specifications similar to those.

As a kid, I had always enjoyed a dip in the pool of our apartment. But due to “Vastu” reasons, it was decided by the flat owners’ association that it had to be filled up and covered and leveled with dirt. Just because it was built in the “wrong corner” of the site, the children of the apartment were deprived of one of the happiest of amenities in the apartment.

Another worrisome state of affairs is that of the self-claimed and so addressed “experts” in these fields of pseudosciences propping up on news channels (especially Kannada). Televangelists, spiritual gurus, numerologists, Vastu experts, astrologers, who have so much to say for each and every incident or phenomena. Be it a crow sitting on the Chief Minister’s vehicle, or the phenomena of super-moons and eclipses. Interpreting a new meaning for natural happenings and claiming the causes to be supernatural. This to me is the epitome of ignorance. It does not matter whether the owner of a particular news channel himself believes in the sayings of the channel astrologer (who appears in every debate that covers anything from a communal riot, to aliens that visit the temple of Tirupathi, to the effects of demonetisation of Rs. 500 and 1000,which by the way hadn’t predicted) but due to the reason that every other news channel has one and for the rating points.The same can be said for the horoscope columns in newspapers and magazines.
The length people go, to stick to the advice of their astrologers; from changing names and cars and phone numbers, to wearing “lucky”stones, to sacrificing animals, to marrying banana plants. The list goes on… There are also the practices of voodoo, black magic, tarot, parrot fortune telling, Cowrie Shells (kavade) shastra, palmistry, et cetera. It is even more serious when famous people follow such beliefs and their followers in turn are influenced by them. Changing the spelling of their names in English though their names are words of the Sanskrit language, is enough to realise that it makes no sense whatsoever that it brings fortune or luck by changing it. Ministers, actors, singers like B. S. Yeddyurappa, Ajay Devgn, Sonu Niigaam respectively are examples enough for changing their names. (Sonu Niigaam changed his name back to Nigam). Even Elizabeth had an astrologer adviser, John Dee. Stars do influence our lives, but not the ones that are beyond this planet.

Lack of intellectual attitude is at times scary; and the astrologers, clinging so obstinately to anything which seems to confirm their beliefs,ignore the plethora of inconvenient facts which call their whole belief system into doubt. My advise to all the people who’ve told me things like they’ve experienced “positive vibrations” and “some unexplainable energy”, people who’ve  had other worldly experiences at the time of their waking from sleep, and those who’ve had similar experiences, is this: Science, Logic and Rationality (Common Sense goes without saying).

I had this irresistible urge to shout “Astrology is nonsense” to the people standing in that line, but alas we had already passed it, before that thought hit me. My cousin refused to take me there again. And I was home before I could go there again myself. I sincerely hope that it is written in my stars that I shout those words the next time I’m there.
“The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.” – Thomas Paine

Susanna’s Seven Husbands

Annabel George

When Vishal Bhardwaj had come out with the black comedy 7 Khoon Maaf, which was based on Ruskin Bond’s well-known short story Susanna’s Seven Husbands, I couldn’t wait to get hold of the short story. After a LOT of searching, a few months ago I finally stumbled upon a book which amazingly contained not only the short story but a novella which is an extended version of the original short story and the screenplay of the Hindi movie. Both, the short story and the novella are written by Bond himself. Ruskin Bond expanded the short story into the novella when Bhardwaj saw the probability of a script in the short story and asked Bond to expand it further for film adaptation. The screenplay however, is written by Vishal Bhardwaj and Matthew Robins. I haven’t actually read the screenplay but I did read the novella and the short story and the following is a review pertains to the short story and the novella, purely.

Susanna Anna-Maria Yeats, the protagonist of Ruskin Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands is breathtakingly beautiful. From the very beginning of both, the short story and the novella, Bond establishes that Susanna possesses the kind of handsomeness which is at times hard to put into words.  Even Arun, the narrator whose name isn’t revealed in the short story but in the novella and who is her next door neighbor, was instantly mesmerized by her beauty ever since he first set his eyes on her. But there is a certain kind of darkness and mysteriousness lurking behind this loveliness that is, Susanna Anna-Maria Yeats. After the death of her father, Susanna was left with a mansion and an abundance of riches. Her world consisted of the three-four housekeepers who lived with her. She was someone who I see as constantly looking for someone who would fill her father’s shoes and love her with the same warmth and tenderness, as did her father. That is why you can see her forever looking for a husband. However, none of the marriages lasted because not one of her husband’s gave her the love she was longing for. Each of her husbands died mysterious deaths. My personal conclusion is that she was the one who killed each one of them because she never found what she was looking for, in them. The real reason however, is never been revealed in either the novella or the short story. Arun in a lot of ways, according to me was exactly what Susanna was looking for. In fact, Susanna lay her trust wholly on Arun more than she had on any of her husbands. Arun was the only one she took to the mysterious room (mentioned in the novella) in her mansion which perpetually remained locked. Arun understood her more than anyone else did. Although innumerable people thought Susanna to be bizarre and someone with who one should have minimal interaction with, Arun thought otherwise. According to my personal reading, maybe because Susanna did not want to lose Arun and what they had, he did not make it to her list of prospective husbands. Theirs was a relationship which cannot just be boiled down to friendship purely, but a relationship which was unique and had a different kind of depth which no one really understood.

The short story was something else as compared to the novella, for me. The novella was no doubt more detailed and a much broader version of the short story but it did not have the same kind of impact on me as did the short story. Even after I finished reading the short story and the novella, I was unable to decide whether I liked Susanna or no, whether she is someone who I could sympathize with. But what I do know is that this work by Bond is truly worth the read.

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.