Derrida and Deconstruction

Thinking activity: Derrida and Deconstruction

1 Difficulty of Defining the Theory of Deconstruction

There are challenges in defining the theory of deconstruction, because Derrida himself who is its originator has 

never given an authoritative definition of it. For Jing Zhai, the problem is that deconstruction actively criticizes 

the very language needed to explain it. Language structure is itself a target for deconstruction to argue against. 

This shuts down the possibility of defining deconstruction with language. On the other hand, deconstruction 

refuses an essence, because in Derrida‟s understanding, there is nothing that could be said to be essential to 

deconstruction in its differential relations with other words. Instead, deconstruction must be understood in 

context, and consequently cannot be defined unilaterally.

Moreover, Derrida does not consider deconstruction as a movement in the sense that it cannot be abstracted 

from some specific applications. Neither is it a method, for it is not a set of procedures or techniques to be 

applied to objects, not a tool that you can apply to something from the outside. In deconstruction, “we do not 

start from a given method or set of procedures; that is, deconstruction is not method driven research, even 

though no research can be non-methodological or non-theoretical because our intuitions are informed by 

theories and interpretative schemas.” Deconstruction is not also an act produced and controlled by a subject; 

nor is it an operation that is set to work on a text or an institution. Deconstruction is not also an entity, a thing; 

nor is it univocal or unitary, but „it deconstructs itself‟ wherever something takes place.

2. Derrida’s Definition of Deconstruction

Deconstruction is not to be confused with „deconstructionism,‟ which “is the constructive attempt to talk about 

God from within the context of our secular relativistic postmodern culture and in a non-theological form.”

Initiated by Derrida, deconstruction was inspired by what Heidegger calls the “destruction” of the philosophy‟s 

tradition. Derrida sought to apply deconstruction to textual reading in place of Heidegger's „destruction‟, which 

was referring “to a process of exploring the categories and concepts that tradition has imposed on a word, and 

the history behind them.” In Derrida‟s view, deconstruction is neither a philosophy, nor a doctrine, nor a 

method, nor a discipline, but “only what happens if it happens”

Derrida‟s deconstruction is also founded in the opinion that people usually express their thoughts in terms of 

binary oppositions, with the claim that each term of a binary opposition always affects the other. And this arises 

from the theory of language according to which 

…the meaning of a term is determined by its position within the linguistic system, and not by any fixed 

property of „meaning‟ that is indissociably bound to it. A „meaning‟ is an effect produced by the 

interrelationships among the terms of a language. Consequently, neither concept in an opposition of 

contrast has an identity that is entirely independent of its „opposite‟.

3 Other Definitions

Generally speaking, deconstruction is a critique of the Western philosophical tradition, and is seen as a response 

and reaction against some important 20th century philosophical movements, among which the structuralism of 

Ferdinand de Saussure. Derrida himself frequently asserts that deconstruction is not a method, but an activity of 

reading and interpreting literary texts. It is a mode of doing analysis of texts; it shakes up a “text in a way that 

provokes questions about the borders, the frontiers, the edges, or the limits that have been drawn to mark out its 

place in the history of concepts.” In this sense, deconstruction is a philosophical theoretical analysis, a critical 

outlook concerned with the relationship between text and meaning. It is a mode of criticism and analytical 

inquiry that denotes “the pursuing of the meaning of a text to the point of exposing the supposed contradictions 

and internal oppositions upon which it is founded.”

Deconstruction is a kind of philosophical framework 

concerned with „reading between the lines‟; it offers an account of what is going on in a text

Heidegger’s Theory of Destruction

For Heidegger, “destruction” means the transformation of philosophy by focusing on the reality of Being. This 

implies the transformation of philosophy by re-tracing its history. However, “this destruction does not relate 

itself towards the past; its criticism is aimed at 'today' and at the prevalent way of treating the history of 

ontology, whether it is headed towards doxography, towards intellectual history, or towards a history of 

problems.”62 To Heidegger, therefore, “destruction is just as far from having the negative sense of shaking off 

the ontological tradition. We must, on the contrary, stake out the positive possibilities of that tradition, and this 

always means keeping it within limits.”

63 That is, “to fix its boundaries.” And this destruction of the history of 

philosophy is based on the transformation of the language and meaning of philosophy by focusing on the reality 

of “Being.” It is not about destroying or liquidating, but dismantling or putting to one side the merely historical 

assertions about the history of philosophy.64 So, destruction consists in 

…putting aside or dismantling merely historical assertions of the history of philosophy and 

metaphysics. To destroy the traditional content of ancient ontology means to overcome metaphysics by 

moving beyond philosophy as realism and idealism, which are primarily epistemological, into 

philosophy as ontology, which involves a primordial grasp of philosophy as the disclosure or 

unconcealing of Being

Examples

Example of the deconstruction is the poem : A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.

                                                                                             - by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) 

These is the poem that How we go threw the three stages of deconstruction reading. First stage is the verbal stage, it may be similar to close reading strategy of the new critics.

Dylan says that, 

                                     'After the first death, there is no other'

This statement contradicts and refutes itself. If something is called the first is automatically means there is a second is follows the second or third and fourth. So the phrase the first death clearly implies there will be others. 

Internal contradiction of these kind will be one way to unravel the meaning of the text. Again the entire form is built upon binary opposite, no like we have binary opposes like, 

      

                                                            Male Vs Female

                                                            Day Vs Night

                                                            Light Vs Dark

So normally in such a binary opposite one term will be privileged or we call it violent hierarchy. One is dominating over other. However in this poem it seems to be darkness. 

                                                                        Humbling darkness,

                                         Tells with silence the last light breaking.

So here it seems to be darkness rather than light you see which is seen as engending life making bird beast and flower fathering and all humbling darkness. So this paradox reflects the way the world of this poem is simultaneously a recognizable version of the word. We live in and an inversion of that word.  

So untravelling or identifying such a binary opposes in the bond contradictions and paradoxical elements. It can be one way of the verbal analysis. 

The next stage and the deconstructive process is the textual one. In at this stage the  critic is looking for shift or breaks in the continued continuity of the bond. So here in the case of the bond a refusal to moan there are major timeshifts and changes in view point not a smooth chronological progression. 

So the last night breaks the sea finally becomes still the cycle. Which produces bird beast and flower comes to an end as over humbling darkness doesn't. So this is the passing of geological time is in the first stanza. We can see this but the third stanza is centered on the present the actual death of the child is mentioned in the poem. 

The majesty and burning of the child's death, 

                                                      Unmourning water

                                                      Of the riding Themes 

This is the way In which the time shift in the bomb.

In the linguistic stage that is the last stage of the deconstructive reading process. Here it involves looking for moments in the poem and the adequacy of language itself the medium of communication is called into question. 

Such moments occur when for example there is implicit or explicit reference to the unreliability or untrusted trustworthiness of the language. 

So here we come to the real deconstructive process or reading it may involve for instance saying that something is unstable or saying that is impossible to try and describe something and then doing. 

So here the entire points is centered on that if you look at the title a refusal to mourn the death so the point says that I refuse to move on the death again he says I shall not murder the mankind of going with the grave. Now blaspheme down the station of the breed with any further elegy of innocence and youth. 

References :- 

R. Gnanasekaran, “An Introduction to Derrida, Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism,” International 

Journal of English Literature and Culture 3 (7) (July 2015): 212.

2) Cf. Juliana Neuenschwander, et al., “Law, Institutions, and Interpretation in Jacques Derrida,” Revista 

Direito GV 13, no. 2 (May-August 2017): 587.

3) Cf. Jing Zhai, “Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction,” Not Even Past (blog), October 7, 2015, 

https://notevenpast.org/jacques-derrida-and-deconstruction/

4) Thomassen, “Deconstruction as Method in Political Theory,” 43.

5) Jacques Derrida, Points . . . Interviews, 1974–1994, trans. Peggy Kamuf (Stanford: Stanford 

University Press, 1995), 112.

6) American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research 

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Future of Postcolonial Studies : Globalization and Environmentalism

 Future of postcolonial studies

Hello Friends!

                         Today I'm going to write about Thinking Activity of  Future of Postcolonial Studies : Globalization and Environmentalism given by our Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir. So let's see...

About Ania Loomba 

                            Ania Loomba is an Indian literary scholar. She is the author of Colonialism/Postcolonialism and works as a literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Famous Work  of Ania Loomba

• Postcolonial Studies and Beyond. Permanent Black. New Delhi 2006 - Published together with Suvir Kaul, Matti Bunzl, Antoinette Burton and Jed Esty.

• Colonialism / Postcolonialism. 1998

• Postcolonial Shakespeares. 1998

• Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism. Oxford 2002

• Loomba, Ania: "Remembering Said." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. No. 23, Numbers 1 & 2, 2003, (MUSE) 

What is Colonialism ?

Colonialism is the practice of establishing territorial dominion over a colony by an outside political power characterized by exploitation, expansion, and maintenance of that territory. The indigenous people suffer in the hands of the colonizer where they are subjected to hard labor and restriction in trading.

What is Post Colonialism ?

Post-colonialism or postcolonial studies is the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands.

1) Conclusion : Globalization and the Future of Post Colonial studies. 

The article started with Anti-colonialism-British Raj-English language these are all related to Western Religion, Western Culture, Western Literature. It is began from 1998-2005. Article also started with the 9/11 attack in the America that is terror Attack (11th september, 2001). Two couple Buildings attached by terrorist and they hyjeck the plane.

We can also seen that 3rd attack in Pentagon at 09:37 AM and Cold War between USSR -USA. 

Post colonial study is the very violent events like this is also a part of the phenomenon we think of as globalisation.In this article Anina Loomba has also mentioned important critics of Globalisation and some are in favoured of globalisation.

• Michel Hardt & Antonio Negri : 'Empire'

Michel Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire argues that the contemporary global order has produced a new form of sovereignty which should be called 'Empire' but which is best understood in contrast to European empires:

In contrast to imperialism, Empire establishes no territorial center of power and does not rely boundaries or barriers. It is a decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule that progressively incorporates the entire global realm within its open, expanding frontiers. Empire manages hybrid identities, flexible hierarchies, and plural exchanges through modulating networks of command. The Distinct national colors of the imperial map of the world have merged and blended in the imperial global rainbow. (Hardt and Negri 2000:Xiii-Xiii)

Hardt and Negri do not identify the United States as this new power, although they do argue that 'Empire is born through the global expansion of the internal US  constitutional project', a project which sought to include and incorporate minorities into the mainstream rather than simply expel or exclude them (182). 

• Arjun Appaduraj - " Modernity at Large" 

In Arjun Appadurai's Modernity at Large, catalogues of 'multiple locations' and new of communication, new foods, new clothes and new patterns of consumption are offered as evidence for both the newness and the benefits of globalisation. 

• Simon Gikandi - "Globalization and the claim of Post colonialist". 

Simon Gikandi astutely observes that despite the fact that globalisation is so often seen to have made redundant the terms of postcolonial critique, the radical newness of globalisation is in fact asserted by appropriating the key terms of postcolonial studies such as 'hybridity' and 'difference', terms which were shunned by earlier generation of social scientists. As he also points out, 'it is premature to argue that the images and narratives that denote the new global culture are connected to a global structure or that they are disconnected from earlier or older forms of identity. In other words, there is no reason to suppose that the global flaw in images has a bomological connection to transformation in social or cultural relationships'. (Gikandi 2001: 632; emphasis added)

• Etienne Balibar - Racism and Nationalism

For Balibar, the new racial ideologies are not less rigid simply because they invoke culture instead of nature; rather, we see today that 'culture can also function like a nature' and can be equally pernicious (Balibar 1991a: 22).

• Samuel Huntington - Clash of Civilization

Samuel Huntington's rhetoric of the 'Clash of Civilizations' and medieval anti-Semitism and Islamophobia (Lambert 2004). Early modern views modern views of Muslims and Jews are also important in reminding us that 'culture' and 'biology' have in fact never been neatly separable categories, and that strategies of inclusion and exclusion have always worked hand in hand. 

Thus it is no accident that it is Muslims who are regarded as barbaric and given to acts of violence and Asians who are seen as diligent but attached to their own rules of business and family, both modes of being which are seen as differently incommensurate with the Western world. 

• P.Sainath - "And Then There was The Market" 

P.Sainath observes, far from fostering ideological openness, has resulted in its own fundamentalism, which then catalyses others in reaction : 

Market fundamentalism destroys more human lives than any other simply because it cuts across all national, cultural, geographic, religious and other boundaries. It's as much at home in Moscow as in Mumbai or Minnesota. A South Africa - whose advances in the early 1990s thrilled the world-moved swiftly from apartheid to neo-libral-ism. It sits as easily in Hindu, Islamic or Christian societies. And it contributes angry, despairing recruits to the armies of all religious fundamentalism. Based on the premise that the market is the solution to all the problems of the human race, it is, too, a very religious fundamentalism. It has its own Gospel: The Gospel of St.  Growth, of St. choice...

Argument between Indian Research Group

The great range of actual measures carried on under the label of glob- alization .. were not those of integration and development. Rather they were the processes of imposition, disintegration, underdevelop- ement and appropriation. They were of continued extraction of debt servicing payments of the third world; depression of the prices of raw materials exported by the same countries; removal of tariff protection for their vulnerable productive sectors; removal of restraints on for- eign direct investment, allowing giant foreign corporations to grab larger sectors of the third world's economies; removal of restraints on the entry and exit of massive flows of speculative international capital, allowing their movements to dictate economic life; reduction of State spending on productive activity, development and welfare; privatization of activities, assets and natural resources, sharp increases in the cost of essential services and goods such as electricity, fuel, health care, education, transport, and food (accompanied by the harsher depression of women's consumption within each family's declining consumption); withdrawal of subsidized credit earlier directed to starved sectors; dismantling of workers' security of employment; reduction of the share of wages in the social product; suppression of domestic industry in the third world and closures of manufacturing firms on a massive scale; ruination of independent small industries; ruination of the handicrafts/handloom sector; replacement of subsis- tence crops with cash crops; destruction of food security. 

(Research Unit for Political Economy, 2003: n.p.)

Examples :- 

1) Maggi Controversy

This we can see as a dark side or down side of the globalization. Because directly it has create an impact on Nestle Company.

If you want to know that why it is banned india?Click here

2) Tiger movie 

Dying of artificial milk. This is what was happening in the 90’s in Pakistan, where formula was proposed in bad faith as the more modern and healthier alternative to breast milk. Tigers, the movie by the director Danis Tanovic (Oscar in 2002 for No Man’s Land), tells the real story of the former Nestlé salesman Syed Aamir Raza, who denounced the multinational’s criminal marketing policies, paying the price in terms of professional and personal consequences. The “Tigers” were those expert salesmen that were trained to convince people to stop breast feeding because it was described as an archaic and obsolete practice, in favour of artificial milk, which was strongly incentivised to doctors through samples, dinners, travels, and other benefits offered by the company.

3) PEPSI Company 

Reluctant Fundamentalism the conflict between market fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism in the aftermath of 9/11

Sonali cable - conflict between a girl who runs local tv/internet cable service vs giant company 'Shining' which started providing broadband.

Ghayal Once Again Again - the conflict of younsters who witnessed Murder of RTI activist against multi-business owner Bansal (represents Ambanis)

Madaari - The conflict between common man (father whose child died in bridge crash) and nexus between construction company and politicians. 

Rang De Basanti - A nexus between politician and businessman vs young college boys (one them has to murder his own father who was corrupt businessman before murdering the politician)

2. CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES. 

The article starts with the practitioner of Postcolonial studies like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,

"No longer have a Postcolonial perspective.I think Postcolonial is the day before yesterday".(Spivak:2013: 2)

🟦Vandana Shiva: Environmental Activist

She exposed the connection between colonialism and the destruction of environmental according to her culture is very women- friendly.

According to Ramachandra Guha and Jaun Martinez-Alier,

In india the Narmada Bachao Aandolan led widespread protests against a project,funded by multinational as well as indigenous capital.And it's just not damage only ecology but the displacement of thousands of tribal peoples all across the Narmada Valley.

🟦 Arundhati Roy

She reminds us that tribal people in central India have a history of resistance that predates Mao by centuries.

In that Luxemburg's ideas remain important today for two reasons.

1.She alert us to the deep historical connection between trade and colonialism.

2.She reminds us that accumulation is a constant process rather than a past event.

#Globalisation is a spectacular display of the energy of capital as it moves across the world in seach of new markets and new raw materials,goodand labour,while there is certainly a redefinition of older colonial and neo-colonial boundaries through this process, the newer divisions build on former patterns of dispossession. Because it is an ongoing process, David Harvey suggests that we redefine ‘primitive accu­mulation’ as ‘accumulation by dispossession’ (2005: 144).

 🟦 According to Harvey,

All the features of primitive accumulation that Marx mentions have remained powerfully present with capitalism’s historical geography until now. Displacement of peasant populations and the formation of a landless proletariat has accelerated in countries such as Mexico and India in the last three decades, many formerly common property resources, such as water, have been privatised (often at World Bank insistence) … alternative (indigenous and even, in the case of the United States, petty commodity) forms of production and consumption have been suppressed. Nationalised industries have been privatised. Family farming has been taken over by agribusiness. And slavery has not disappeared (particularly in the sex trade).

(Harvey 2005: 145–46)

Chakrabarty conceds that,

Climate change, refracted through global capital, will no doubt accentuate the logic of inequality that runs through the rule of capital; some people will no doubt gain temporarily at the expense of others. But the whole crisis cannot be reduced to a story of capitalism. Unlike in the crises of capitalism, there are no lifeboats here for the rich and the privileged (witness the drought in Australia or recent fires in the wealthy neighborhoods of California).

(Chakrabarty 2009: 221)

He also insist that we will have to abandon our previous conceptions of human freedom that entitled thinking about the injustice, oppression, inequality,or even uniformity foisted on them by other human or human made system.

🟦Ian Baucon observes that a 'new universaliam: the universalism of species thinking' is being proposed here.

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

Examples 

Sardar Sarovar Dam,Narmada river 

💠Dhruv Bhatt's Tatvamasi

The novel remain totally aloof from the agitation in the villages and around Narmada Dam by school activities.

Dhruv  Bhatt belongs to Bhat those witers who may not be considered as the historians,the interpreter of contemporary culture and the prophets of their people.such writers do not concern themselves with social themes.

We can say that his concern is more spiritual in his writing and completely forgot about social realism.

💠Film:Sherni 

This movie discusses how one tiger is stuck between that place where industrial development was grown up. The story goes like this tiger became the talk of town and politicians use this for upcoming elections. One forest officer called Vidhya tries to save a tiger and send them to a zoo and one professor helped her and at the climax of the movie we found that at the middle there is a mill. Tiger is not able to across it and that’s why she stuck.  

 Film:Avatar

💠Film:Planet of the Apes

💠Aarey Forest Controversy:

💠Lakshadweep

💠Anti Goonda Regulation

💠Kerala to restrict use of groundwater by 

💠Char Dham Road Project                     

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Midnight's Children

Midnight's Children Novel & Movie Adaption

Hello friends !

                        Today i'm going to write about the novel "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie and the movie adaption "Midnight's Children" directed by Deepa Mehta and also narrated by Salman Rushdie. This task given by our professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir.

1) Narrative Technique :-

                    It is remarkable that what many consider as Salman Rushdie’s landmark work in fiction, Midnight’s Children, was first adapted to film only in 2012, 31 years after its publication. It was also the first of his works to be filmed. This is noteworthy given the novel’s cinematic self-awareness and the writer’s overt interest in acting and cinema, which he has reiterated over the years.2 Besides publishing, Rushdie has had a long career in the creative economy  in the 1960s as a television script writer in Karachi after acting in the Cambridge Footlights Revue; in the 1970s as a freelance copywriter in advertising agencies and as an actor on the London fringe; and in later years as a script writer and performer of cameo roles in films. 

Cinema, as a subject matter and a distinctive artistic language, resurfaces time and again in the pages of Rushdie’s essays, short stories, novels, and other writings. As many critics have pointed out, the writer’s emotional connection to cinema has translated into cinema itself being put to work as a mediating device in his oeuvre, with his characters often making sense of themselves and the world and coming to terms with their own place in it through cinema.

                          Midnight's Children is the story of Saleem Sinai, and how by virtue of being born at the very same moment of his country's independence at the midnight of August 15th, 1947 he is "handcuffed to history." Saleem and 420 other children are bound by magical powers which bind them to each other, but ultimately to their country. Rushdie explores the emergence of not only modern day India, but also of Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

When Midnight’s Children was published it brought Rushdie extensive literary approval, and has later come to be understood as an example of the

                                                “theoretical preoccupations of 

                                                  postcolonial studies - not only 

                                             manifesting high postmodernism’s 

                                                        aesthetic difficulty, 

                                            experimentation, and play but also

                                                verifying the poststructuralist 

                                                    emphasis on writing and 

                                                               textuality.”

Rushdie’s novel is in Kortenaar’s work discussed from different angles, subjects such as hybridity and magic realism are treated. However, through Kortenaar’s chapter, The Allegory of History, national allegory in the novel is a fundamental topic. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms allegory is a story with a second distinct meaning, the principal technique of allegory is personification whereby abstract qualities are given a human shape. It involves a continuous parallel between different levels of meaning in a text. 

However, in the novel the preceding chapters to Tick Tock are told in retrospect and Saleem’s abundance of stories make it difficult, not only for the reader, but also for the naïve narratee Padma, to follow his jumps in time and space, as well as his many other digressions. After journeys that have brought Saleem to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Delhi, he retires when he has rediscovered his ayah Mary Pereira in his childhood city, Bombay. She now owns a pickle factory and is able to provide him with whatever he needs, and he has the time and opportunity to pickle his memory and write down the story of his life. The setting in the pickle factory where Saleem recounts his stories are said to be a parallel to the frame story of Arabian Nights. This isevidently an intertextual element used to make suspense both in Arabian Nights, also famous as One Thousand and One Nights, and in Midnight’s Children. But in the film the character of Padma is missing, so the responsibility to understand the situation comes over the watchers.  So we can see some threats in the film.

  2) Characters :-

                          These are the main characters. Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai, Shriya Saran as Parvati, Siddharth Narayan as Shiva, Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child), Anupam Kher as Ghani, Shabana Azmi as Naseem, Neha Mahajan as Young Naseem, Seema Biswas as Mary, Charles Dance as William Methwold, Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie, Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz, Soha Ali Khan as Jamila, Rahul Bose as Zulfikar, Anita Majumdar as Emerald, Shahana Goswami as Amina, Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa, Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh, Shikha Talsania as Alia, Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan, Sarita Choudhury as Indira Gandhi, Vinay Pathak as Hardy, Kapila Jayawardena as Governor, Ranvir Shorey as Laurel, Suresh Menon as Field Marshal, G.R Perera as Astrologer. 

In the opening scenes we can observe differences in the way the versions address the audience: the novel’s narrator uses the first person to provide, in a deferred and roundabout way, his story; in the film, there is also direct speech, but the narrative proceeds much more unswervingly. The other two versions do not construct a rapport with the audience in such a straightforward way by direct address. In movie, the audience is shown both the historical background on screen and the event of the twin births on stage. Only after these opening scenes does the narrator step in, either as a voiceover or as a character onstage. 

The novel and the film thus seem to initially create a more personal rapport with their constructed audiences. It is significant in this respect that the character of Padma, the novel’s original immediate addressee and audience  the person who listens to and comments on Saleem’s narrative, and the second main character in the novel, after the protagonist is included in the first two adaptations, but in the film she is supplanted by Rushdie’s voiceover.

  3) Themes and Symbols :-

                The third point is the themes and symbols. The film adapted it very well. Rushdie steered the project of adapting Midnight’s Children into film from the outset, exercising an even tighter creative control than in the earlier adaptations, co-authoring the script and acting as executive producer. Another instance of this greater creative control is the use of his own voice to narrate the film, although the choice itself is attributed to Mehta’s insistence. If we talk about the various themes of the novel we can see this major themes :

• Truth and Storytelling
• British Colonialism and Postcolonialism
• Sex and Gender
• Identity and Nationality
• Fragments and Partitioning
• Religion

        And if we talk about the symbols which are used in the novel we can see,

  Symbols

There are very interesting symbol is given in entire novel is considered as allegory of India. So some children are born at midnight and than India is also born at midnight. Saleem Senai who is protagonist and who is born at midnight with whom India’s story also described. Ups and down everything happening we see how India is narrated. Allegory of India is connected with some character so. What we see is history narrated in fictional way. History is narrated is fictionalized or Nation is narrated in fictional way  with imagine world. Whatever happened in novel has actually happened in  India but, it is interpreted in a different way. The events are happened, it’s real events happened in India. Salman Rushdie’s Way of looking , it may be not fair and He says that when we read meta narrative of past we also have to believe.

•    Interesting Symbols in Film

   

 1. Spitoon.

               Normally spittoon is used for spit  but here it used as memory of something but the memory itself become an amnesia. Stroke of it over Saleem become the reason his lost of memory. Amnesia and Memory become debatable point. What we remember, how we remember, what is made to forgotten is very interestingly happening through out literature also.

 2. Magic Realism   

                      Magic Realism is something which is part of people’s life  and that is become  unique style of writing in literature. This style came not from western Writers, who believe in pure realism. They believe that Novel should be written with realism . Canon of literature is when we look at novel it says that it should be reality otherwise it is known as romance.

Magic realism  is part of plot and style of movie. It shows lived experience of people of third world country under colonizers. In movie Parvati who knows magic called by people as witch. Because they think magic is craft of illusion. Parvati used to believe in her magic. She has one disappear box also which she used to save Saleem and her child. There is every time absurdity in marriage. Science and superstition has simultaneously shown in the movie. 

 3.Nose

 

                        Fantastic Elements like  Different sense of smell, children who born on that same night can meet through this sense and only who can call them who is born exact at 12.00 pm of night, others can only participate and in this  Nose is symbolically presented here India’s nose- culture, heritage, history with flight. Father not believe in all that and operation of nose closed the door of that meetings for forever. 

  4. Hybridity

                        Everything not told with cause and effect but, Real world is selling in fantastic world. Blurring reality and magic with so many turns took shape of whole movie. With the end of movie our sense is broken about Saleem’s  blood that he is son of Mumtaz, but in reality he is the son of Mathwood and Vanita; with that ultimate search of self ‘who am I? Truth of oneself? This is ironically presented to literature toward deep question. Another notion of love that Love is not born, it’s made. We can connect it with mythically represent of Yashoda. Mixture of everything is important in Hinduism; idea of  panch mahabhut and panch tatv.

   5. Marxist Voice 

                        Character of Joseph and Marry, speaks very loud of representation or satirical voice of Marxist. Rich-Poor and Independence only for rich people like foolish belief and it resulted into big confusion about someone’s identity. 

   6.Dark and Light

                        One of the British image of India as snack Charmer and apart from that another scene of Pokhran Nuclear test, shows science and blind faith goes together. Duality of India Dark and Light too. Symbolical presence of emergency by Indira Gandhi and worse condition of helpless people.    

 

    4) The texture of the novel :-

                            Midnight’s Children moves at more grandiose levels. The grand destiny of the great Nation is reflected in that of Midnight children, the children born at the midnight hour of August 15th, 1947. The chief protagonist Saleem Sinai finds himself “mysteriously handcuffed to history”. The texture of this novel is allusive, complex and inclusive dense with symbolic, even emblematic overtones.

Multiple identities and shifting shapes of people, things and institutions are vividly depicted epitomized at the stage where the two most important characters Saleem and Shiva become indistinguishable. Even national frontiers and nationalities get blurred. Xenophobic pride like dark mist is cover over realities. It is the composite picture of India where all distinctions of races, communities, classes, regions and religions become non-existent, one qualifying and affecting other.

Rushdie burlesques historical names giving comic slighting effect to high-flying idealism, thus bringing the focus on the mud and froth of real existence. He also gives touches of genial satire on superstitious practices in the belief of astrology and other esoteric devices. At the age of nine Saleem discovers his extraordinary telepathic powers enabling him to read the mind of people around him. At ten he begins communicating with 581 children who are the survivors from 1001 children born at the Great Midnight.

  5) Aesthetic experience :-

                    Independence, Partition, Emergency, the bloodbath and injustice in their wake, and the human vicissitudes in this span ‘pre-1947 to the 1970s’ totalling these grinders of history—Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, the screenplay and original book written by Salman Rushdie, is a staggering story to film.

Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood

 Postcolonial Studies and Bollywood

Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and co-written by Rensil D'Silva. The film follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian revolutionary movement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them. to fight against the corruption of their own government. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Atul Kulkarni, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor and British actress Alice Patten. 

Postcolonial study in the movie 

The story is about British documentary filmmaker who is determine to make film on Indian freedom fighters based on a diary entries by her grandfather, former officer in Indian Imperial police.

When we look at this film as postcolonial way we find some interesting things. In the movie when British female protagonist She came on Indian airport at that time how Indian people gathered to meet her with excitement, so it’s shows the impact of white person on our mind.

When outsider sees the act of bribe it’s illegal for them but in India, it become normal for us. This scene very well shown in movie and how Sue react on it, camera also focused well.

Sue : इन लोगो ने जान दी थी आज़ादी के लिए तुम्हारे देश कि. 

This dialogue represent that these Indian characters not know anything or they don’t focus on their own country, she came and she try to awaken them for freedom and patriotism.

When Daljit and Pande fight at that time Sue try to patch up them so if we look at  Postcolonial theory it said that why white people required for patch up?why we Indian aren't able to do that?

Sue : अपनी ट्रेडिशन का सम्मान करना ही चाहिए.

The other thing is when Sue speaks Hindi, DJ is shocked, because he thinks that white people can not speak and understand Hindi. This is a single story in our mind also. We think the white people can not speak our language. 

                                                Lagaan

On the independence day of India, 15th August 2018 after flag-hoisting at university ground we have planned to watch “Lagaan – once upon a time in India” movie at our department. This movie was released in 2001. It is a sports-drama film, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, produced by Aamir Khan and Mansoor Khan, written by Gowariker and Abbas Tyrewala. The setting of movie is British India. Patriotism is in the core of movie. The film has some hidden messages also. Here I’m interpreting film as per my understanding.

1) Patriotism

The main theme of this movie is patriotism. The setting is India under British rule, so the passion for “our land” will be there. In this movie farmers have to pay yearly lagaan (tax) to the king and king to the British rule, but from last two years they are suffering from draught and the arrogant British captain Russell has doubled the tax because king has denied to eat meat. After that captain Russell challenged the people of village to beat them in cricket match and three years tax will be erased. Now they all are doing hard work to beat British team. This shows their passion for their land and their rights. Ram Singh, Lakha, and Arjan who are working for British people they also left their work and shows their passion for freedom from tax.

2) Love Triangle

At very shallow level if we look this film is also same like other Bollywood film which has love theme as importantly as other main theme. Here in this film also Gauri who is living in village who loves Bhuvan. Both are living in same village. Bhuvan also loves Gauri. One other person  who also lives in same village Lakha loves Gauri. Elizabeth, sister of Russell also fall in love with Bhuvan. So we can find heartbroken Elizabeth and jealous Lakha.

3) Religion

Religion is also in the center of the movie. The temple of Lord Krishna is situated at height, which signifies their faith and place of religion. Before starting any work they pray to god for their victory. The king also staunchly believes in religion and because of that he denies to eat meat to captain Russell. Villagers are suffering from draught for last two years then they believe that if they will pray to god, god will send rain. When Bhuvan accepts the challenge of cricket match no villager was ready to play but when first time Bhuvan hits the ball and ball hits the bell of temple than they found this as omen. In between the movie whenever they find themselves in difficult situation they all gather and pray to god. By doing all these things film maker wants to show the power of religion and prayer.

4) Archetypes

This movie is same like other movies also follows some archetypes. The first archetype is “Draught”. When movie starts, the scene of draught comes which signifies sorrow and hopelessness in life of villagers.

Then “Temple” is another archetype in this movie. Temple is symbol of goodness, positivity, hope and happiness. Which we can see in movie that whenever villagers are in temple they are happy or they have hope of something positive and good.

Third is “Rain”. Rain is symbol of happiness. In this movie also when villagers see the dark clouds they start celebrating. At the end also when they won the match rain comes and again everyone are happy.

Then “Hero” or “Central character” is also an archetype here. As Hero will be savior same happens here. Bhuvan is central character in this movie, so he saved all villagers from three years tax, at last moment he also make team won the match. He is the one who is first to solve every problem.

5) Leadership 

Bhuvan has got great leadership qualities. He is the first one to accept the challenge when other people are seeing this as harmful he is seeing this challenge as an opportunity. At beginning no one is with him but he knows how to built the team. He also knows everyone’s ability and he use that abilities effectively. Only building team will not going to help he also make all team members work together and for whole team and not for an individual. When it comes to team he don’t think about other things he include untouchable in his team when other members are denying to play with untouchable, and he also make them all to understand. He takes action when it is necessary, he hit six at the last ball of the match and make his team win the match. These all are great leadership qualities which Bhuvan describes.

8) Subalterns

Here we can apply subaltern theory and we also can find hierarchy here. In this movie India is under control of British rule so first subaltern is India, and at first place come king. Here king is also under the control of British rule and he can’t do anything against them. Then under the king comes villagers. They are helpless front of king, they have to obey the decision of king. Then comes the women of village, as they are controlled by male. They live life like do what is said to do. At last comes untouchables. They meant to live away from all other villagers. In this movie we have one character named Kachara, who is untouchable. He is so afraid of other people he constantly under fear of not touching anyone and not to make any mistake.

9) Post-colonialism

The only thing represents post-colonialism in this movie is game of cricket. We accepts to play cricket because we want freedom from tax but now in free India why this game is more famous than any other game. It clearly shows that how still British people ruling our mind. This is the reason why cricket is more played and watched than our national game.

Thank You...

SR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

SR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 Hello Friends!

                         Today I'm going to write about the task about SR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie given by our Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (/ˌtʃɪmɑːˈmɑːndə əŋˈɡoʊzi ;[note 1] born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction. She was described in The Times Literary Supplement as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [which] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature", particularly in her second home, the United States.

Adichie, a feminist, has written the novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Americanah (2013), the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), and the book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists (2014). Her most recent books are Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017)and Notes on Grief (2021). In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.

1) Did the first talk help you in understanding of postcolonialism?

Here She also talked about that It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" Ted Talk, in July 2009, explores the negative influences that a “single story” can have and identifies the root of these stories. Adichie argues that single stories often originate from simple misunderstandings or one’s lack of knowledge of others, but that these stories can also have a malicious intent to suppress other groups of people due to prejudice (Adichie). People, especially in their childhood, are “impressionable and vulnerable” when it comes to single stories (Adichie 01:43). Adichie asserts that media and literature available to the public often only tell one story, which causes people to generalize and make assumptions about groups of people.

Adichie shares two primary examples to discuss why generalizations are made. Reflecting on her everyday life, she recalls a time where her college roommate had a “default position” of “well-meaning pity” towards her due to the misconception that everyone from Africa comes from a poor, struggling background (04:49). Adichie also clearly faults herself for also being influenced by the “single story” epidemic, showing that she made the same mistake as many others. Due to the strong media coverage on Mexican immigration she “had bought into the single story”, automatically associating all Mexicans with immigration (Adichie 08:53). These anecdotes emphasize how stereotypes are formed due to incomplete information, but one story should not define a group of people.

2.Are the argument in second talk convincing?

Adichie's TED Talk argues that "feminist" isn't a bad word and that everyone should be feminist. She begins with a brief anecdote about her friend Okoloma, with whom she grew up. Okoloma was a great thinker and enjoyed debating Adichie about anything and everything. One day, during a heated debate, he called Adichie a "feminist." She didn't know what the word meant at the time, but understood that it wasn't a compliment. In fact, Okoloma was criticizing her. She never forgot this incident.

Adichie then focuses on the wage gap and the gendered nature of economic power. In Nigeria, for instance, it's assumed that any woman with money has gotten that money from a man.

Adichie concludes by saying that people do a great disservice to both men and women by teaching them to adhere to strict gender roles.

3.What did you like about the third talk?

We are living in the world of 21st century. Post-modern era in which people are highly sophisticated and love to do Showoff and also putting down their moral values. So, Chimamanda said that telling lies is telling lies to yourself. Making betrayal with self. To get peace, to live happily, to sleep calmly say truth to self as well people also. For that one should be courageous enough to resist and to protest. She said…

"Whenever you wake-up

That is your morning, what matters is you wake up.

So, It is very interesting to know about Chimamanda African author with voice of Marginalized people. Presenting very new and fresh thought about feminism and importance of truth in post-truth era.

Thank You...