Summary of literary texts and key concepts of literature

  The classic crime fiction's golden era concentrated on the detailed process of untangling the knots of mystery or the act of ratiocination but lacked the art of detailed character delineation. Most of the characters were either stereotypes or caricatures. For instance, the detached and taciturn detective, the parade of suspects, the servants, who are never involved in the crime, or never turn out to be the convict, female characters in a conventionalized role were the characters, the readers were familiar to particularly in the case of the detective novel of that era. According to E.M Forster, characters in a novel are of two types, flat character, and round character. A flat character is a character, which tends to remain in the reader’s mind and leaves a lasting impression. Such characters, also defined as a humorous characters in the seventeenth century, basically stereotype or sometimes caricatures, who are constructed as mere functionaries and not characterized at all, as Fo

  Dharma and Moksha is an essay written by J.A.B Van Buitenen which was published in a journal named, Philosophy East and West, Vol-7, in April-June issue, 1957. (pp33-40)   The essay is an elaborate discussion on the question, ‘what is the distinction between dharma values and moksha values.’ To find the answer to the question, Van Buitenen extensively discusses the historical background in which these two terms dharma and moksha originated. In his first argument, he mentions the concept of after-life and spirituality, ideas which are probably in every religion and culture, associated with the concept of heaven and hell. Other concepts of Brahma and samsara are particularly exclusive to Hinduism and Buddhism. In the ancient Indian religious texts, it is also mentioned that the soul passes its journey from one life to another on the basis of the acts performed in previous lives. He explains the idea of ‘moksha’ in his second argument, where he explains that moksha is basically '

Tracing the Roots of the Detective Fiction: The first instance of the prototype of a detective appeared most probably in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, where the most important classical detective is Oedipus, the protagonist, whose dual roles as an investigator and subsequently as revealed criminal, exemplify the obliterating boundary between morality and immorality, order and anarchy, with which the subsequent detective fiction managed to capture the reader’s interest. Definitely, Oedipus is the precursor to the modern detective as the way he directs the meticulous investigation to unravel the identity of the perpetrator. Similar conjectures can be made about the character of Daniel in the story of Susanna in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, and mythical larcenist Cacus who features in the work of several writers, including Virgil. Another work of a similar trajectory is William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It follows a similar mystery-driven narrative of modern detective fiction. Hamlet initiates

  According to Brooks, Wordsworth’s sonnet, Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, is one of the most successful poems of the poet. The true potential of the poem lies in the paradoxical situation designed by the poet, where the mechanical London is not only considered a marvel of man’s creation but also assimilated as an aspect of nature. The spectacle of mechanical urban life elicits the expression of ‘awed surprise’ from the poet. The beauty of the rising sun, the river, the smokeless air, and other objects of nature have been enhanced by the presence of artificial towers, domes, theatres, and temples. It is also interesting to note that the poet has imparted the organic life of nature to the mechanical and inanimate objects of the city when he writes-‘Dear God! The very houses seem asleep.’ Wordsworth had mastered the art of creating a paradoxical situation in his poems, as he himself mentioned in the second edition of his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, that the purpose of a poet is to

    Cleanth Brooks   (October 16, 1906 - May 10, 1994) was an influential American literary critic, professor, editor of the Southern Review, (in collaboration with Robert Penn Warren). He was one of the skilled and exemplary practitioners of the New Criticism. He is best known for his contributions to  New Criticism  during the 1920s and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher education. His most characteristic book of close readings is, definitely, The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry  (1947).  Modern Poetry and the Tradition  (1939), is another outstanding work that proclaims the centrality of ambiguity and paradox as a way of understanding poetry. His critical works helped to formulate formalist criticism, emphasizing “the interior life of a poem” and propounded the idea of close reading.   ‘The Language of Paradox’, is the first chapter of Cleanth Brooks’  Well-wrought Urn, (1947) starts with the author’s assertion: ‘...the language of p

  The poem, Small Towns and the River by Mamang Dai expresses the poet’s notion about the uncomplicated life   in the “Small Towns” of Arunachal Pradesh. The phrase “The River” refers to the river that flows through Pasighat, the hometown of the poet. The poet starts the poem in a pensive mood asserting the fact that the river always reminds her of death. Her hometown resides amid the serenity of nature surrounded by huge trees. The climate of the place remains almost the same during summer and winter. The dust hovers in the air and the wind resonates through the valley of the mountain. When someone died the other day, the community endured the pain and mourned the loss of a dear one in ‘dreadful silence.’ Life and death form the cycle of human life and death is inevitable. Only the rituals and customs of a community are permanent, like offering a wreath of tuberoses to honour the deceased.  The poet imagines that the river has a soul. In summer, it cuts through the dry chest of th

  About the poet: Mamang Dai(1957-present) is a poet and novelist writing in English from Arunachal Pradesh, India. She belongs to the Adi tribe, of Arunachal Pradesh. Her literary works include romantic poems and short stories along with provincial myths and folktales. She was  honoured with Padma Shri, in 2011.The prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award was conferred on her for her novel, The Black Hill, in 2017.Dai was corresponding with the  Hindustan Times ,  Telegraph  and  The Sentinel  newspapers and later became the President, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working journalists. She is also actively engaged with World Wide Fund for nature in the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspots programme. Bipin Patsani once commented on her graceful, lyrical style of writing in River Poems, that dai writes with ‘rare passion and flow, fresh and full of the essence of tribal myths, mountains and an intense emotional involvement with her land.’ Y.D. Thongchi, the president of Arunachal Pradesh Liter