UGC Seminar scheduled and Call for Papers Announced

UGC Seminar scheduled and Call for Papers Announced

UGC Sponsored National Seminar on “Dissonant Voices: Cultural Studies and

New Literatures” organized by the Department of English is scheduled on 30 & 31 January 2014.

OBJECTIVES

The seminar aims at introducing the plurality of discourses that invests cultural studies an anti-disciplinary status and the disjuncture in the theoretical formulations on its application in the analysis of new literatures for the benefit of students, researchers and teachers of humanities. It shall showcase the diversity of perspectives on cultural studies and analyze the problematic in addressing new literatures as a distinctive category.   It shall offer a platform for meaningful discussions and deliberations on cultural studies, new literatures and discourses of power.

THRUST AREAS

·         Cultural studies and theoretical foundations

·         New Literatures and the literary canon

·         Patterns and politics of representation in discourses of power  

·         Application of Cultural Theory on New Literatures

·         National literatures and cultural discourses

·         New literatures in translation

·         Other related areas

·          

IMPORTANT DATES

·         Last date for submission of abstracts (soft copy)       : 07 January 2014

·         Last date for submission of full paper (soft copy)      : 18 January 2014.

Authentic and unpublished papers will be published as a book with ISBN.

FORMAT FOR PAPERS

·         Title: Bold; Times New Roman, Paper size: A4, Font: 12, Double spaced.

·         Abstract: 200 words

·         Paper: 2000-2500 words

·         References should be as per the 7^th edition of MLA Handbook.

·         All texts cited should be listed in the Works Cited section at the end of the paper with proper bibliographic details. Also add ‘print’ for printed sources and website URL for e-citations.

Please E-mail your abstracts and papers to gcmengdpt@gmail.com or drdenny@gcmdy.org

FOR FURTHER DETAILS AND COMMUNICATION:

Seminar convener:    Dr. Denny Joseph

Asst. Professor and Head

Mobile: 09656346799.

Joint conveners:          Mr. Shibu K J, Asst. Professor. Ph: 9746826188

                                    Mr. Thomas V. L, Asst. Professor. Ph: 9447955360

My Last Duchess: Robert Browning

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fr Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
``Fr Pandolf'' by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fr Pandolf chanced to say ``Her mantle laps
``Over my lady's wrist too much,'' or ``Paint
``Must never hope to reproduce the faint
``Half-flush that dies along her throat:'' such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart---how shall I say?---too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace---all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men,---good! but thanked
Somehow---I know not how---as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech---(which I have not)---to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, ``Just this
``Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
``Or there exceed the mark''---and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
---E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower by Wordsworth

THREE years she grew in sun and shower,

          Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower

          On earth was never sown;

          This Child I to myself will take;

          She shall be mine, and I will make

          A Lady of my own.

          "Myself will to my darling be

          Both law and impulse: and with me

          The Girl, in rock and plain,

          In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,                    10

          Shall feel an overseeing power

          To kindle or restrain.

          "She shall be sportive as the fawn

          That wild with glee across the lawn,

          Or up the mountain springs;

          And her's shall be the breathing balm,

          And her's the silence and the calm

          Of mute insensate things.

          "The floating clouds their state shall lend

          To her; for her the willow bend;                            20

          Nor shall she fail to see

          Even in the motions of the Storm

          Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form

          By silent sympathy.

          "The stars of midnight shall be dear

          To her; and she shall lean her ear

          In many a secret place

          Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

          And beauty born of murmuring sound

          Shall pass into her face.                                   30

          "And vital feelings of delight

          Shall rear her form to stately height,

          Her virgin bosom swell;

          Such thoughts to Lucy I will give

          While she and I together live

          Here in this happy dell."

          Thus Nature spake--The work was done--

          How soon my Lucy's race was run!

          She died, and left to me

          This heath, this calm, and quiet scene;                     40

          The memory of what has been,

          And never more will be.

                                                              1799.

Know Then Thyself by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan 
The proper study of Mankind is Man. 
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state 
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the Skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne

As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
'The breath goes now,' and some say, 'No:'

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refin'd,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begun. 

John Donne

Let me not to the marriage of true minds- sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark 
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle's compass come: 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales : Prologue

Here bygynneth the Book  of the tales of Caunterbury

Here begins the Book of the Tales of Canterbury

1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote 2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, 3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour 4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth 6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth 7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne 8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne, 9: And smale foweles maken melodye, 10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye 11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages); 12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, 13: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, 14: To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; 15: And specially from every shires ende 16: Of engelond to caunterbury they wende, 17: The hooly blisful martir for to seke, 18: That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower; When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath, Quickened again, in every holt and heath, The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun Into the Ram one half his course has run, And many little birds make melody That sleep through all the night with open eye (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)- Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, To distant shrines well known in sundry lands. And specially from every shire's end Of England they to Canterbury wend, The holy blessed martyr there to seek Who helped them when they lay so ill and weal

Basic Camera Shots

The given video illustrates the basic camera shots and their terminology as used in film discourses.

Camera angles and shots- Film studies

The following video is helpful to understand camera angles and shots. 

First recorded sound playing to the first moving picture and the first film ever made.

Here is the first recorded sound (1860) playing to the first moving picture (1878) and the first film ever made (1888) in history. It offers a glimpse of what was yet to come and bears testimony to the advancements visual media has achieved now.

Translation Challenge

Here is  an example for what is usually called 'double entendre' in Malayalam language. Can you suggest any similar expression in English?

Post you suggestions in the comment box.

A Dream of Surreal Science : Sri Aurobindo

One dreamed and saw a gland write Hamlet, drink
At the Mermaid, capture immortality;
A committee of hormones on the Aegean’s brink
Composed the Iliad and the Odyssey.

A thyroid, meditating almost nude
Under the Bo-tree, saw the eternal Light
And, rising from its mighty solitude,
Spoke of the Wheel and eightfold Path all right.

A brain by a disordered stomach driven
Thundered through Europe, conquered, ruled and fell;
From St. Helena went, perhaps, to Heaven.
Thus wagged on the surreal world, until

A scientist played with atoms and blew out
The universe before God had time to shout.

Ask your questions related to this poem in the comment box and initiate a discussion