The Art of English - Assignment Example

?EMA: ASSIGNMENT “Choose an everyday text and a text that would be considered literary in the canonical sense of the word. By applying close textual analysis to each, using at least two appropriate analytical methods, show how the three main strands of the module can interweave to show the similarities and differences between the texts and the degree of creativity that is evident in each”. ART OF ENGLISH Cognitive and analytical ability is one of the major traits of human beings. Either any literary work or any creative work always tries to convey something. Be it a sculptor, drawing, painting, literary work, news, blogs or even advertisement. In the past, communication used to take place via conventional means such as poetry, novels, short stories, performing or fine arts, sculptors, signs etc. In modern days lots of smart options are available for communication purpose. The creator wants to convey his ideas to the audience. Sometimes the ideas are abstract and subjective. The message in literary work many times contains lot of ambiguity and so the readers or the audience try to find out the meaning as per their comprehension. The poet, painter, artist writer are the people, who always try to live in their own world and generally their creative work does not aim at awakening people, or informing them. Of course some exceptional cases are there. While analysing the work of an artist, one can observe the degree of creativeness and literariness. The creativity can be found both in textual analyses of poetic form as well as in the interactional functions. “The Art of English: Literary Creativity,” creativity is defined as the skill level of the writer in areas such as “sounds, words, phrases, and overall linguistic form” (Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006) Literariness is associated with different kinds of literature like poetry, short stories, novels etc. These are of course the conventional forms of literature. The modern forms consist of pamphlets, websites, blogs, print media advertising etc. According to the textbook entitled “The Art of English: Everyday Creativity,” in order to perform a complete textual analysis, a linguistic analysis, interactional analysis, and ethnographic analysis are needed (Maybin &Swann, 2006, p.429). Linguistic analysis looks at the individual language elements such as metaphors, word usage, repetition, parallelism, etc., (Maybin &Swann, 2006, p.429). The textual analysis of any work consists of some major elements: Analysis of the Rhetorical Context Analysis of Textual features The place of the text in a new context Analysis of the rhetorical context: The poem I chose for this discussion is “Lady of Shallot,” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This is one of the most appreciated works within the literary world. Alfred Tennyson was born on 6th August 1809 and he was a poet laureate in United Kingdom during the reign of the Queen. He is regarded as one of the most popular poets in English literature. He was also considered as the major representative of Victorian Age. Basically the poem is a piece of literature so the target audience to whom he wants to communicate his ideas through the poem is the specific audience. The poem is not written for everyone, but for the people of literary circle. Analysis of the textual features: Apparently looking it seems to be a tragic story of a lady who had been living in solitude and she had been incarcerated in a castle of “four gray walls and gray towers.” The gray colour itself is associated with the gloomy and sad mood. It represents the gloominess of the lady’s life. One can analyse the poem from different perspectives. There is no limit for imaginations while reading and analysing the poem. The readers come to know richness of the poetry in its conceptual implications. The love and freedom of Lady of Shallot resulted into her own destruction. The poem is a journey of a lady from tranquillity to turmoil, sustainability to decay. It is the tragedy of a lady, who initiates a triumphal move to engagement with life. The phenomenon which is called life did exist until she did not leave the castle, but when she abandoned it, she had to embrace the death. The pinnacle of creativity of this poem is measured by several possible meanings. It appeals to the reader in different ways. In terms of linguistic, the poem consists of deviations. Deviation is defined as being when words, phrases, and grammatical structures draw attention themselves (Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006, p.70). In the poem the word Camelot and its position in almost every stanza draws the attention of the readers. The word is used in the poem as a refrain in the fifth line of almost every stanza. It works as a catchy phrase. Same is with the word Shallot which comes at the end line of every stanza and which rhymes with Camelot. Tennyson has divided this poem into five different parts. They are like small acts of the poem and each of the parts focuses on the different part of the plot. The other important thing is the stanzas of the poem and there are total nineteen stanzas in the entire poem. If we look at the stanzas, we notice that their number increases in every part of the poem. For example in first and second part there are four stanzas, part three consists of five stanzas where as part four has six stanzas. So part four is the longest part with maximum stanzas. The rhyming pattern also is very remarkable and noticeable. All of the stanzas are similar as far as rhyming pattern is concerned. It is a a a a b c c c b in every stanza. “Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot” is an example of a much more pervasively metrically ambiguous text (which became more ambiguous in the 1842 revised version of 1833 original publication.” (Nigel Fabb 2002 pg.115) Lines in the poem as a whole are different in length from five to nine syllables. Among them seven and eight syllable lines are most common. The lines with odd numbers of syllables are metrically most ambiguous whereas five and seven syllable lines begin and end with stresses. Tennyson’s son Hallam quoted about his father that “the new-born love for something, for someone in the wide world for which she had been so long excluded, takes her out of the region of shadows into that of realities.” The poem can best be studied through the cognitive and socio-cultural approaches as well as interactional and ethnographic analysis. The poem was the magnum opus of Victorian era. It embodies the Victorian stereotype womanhood. The theme of the poem is a woman, a cursed woman. It reflects typical gender biased attitude of the contemporary society. In those days the life of a woman was limited to the household and typical works which were assigned exclusively to the women. The woman was not allowed to see the world directly, to express or indulge in love and sexual relationship. She had to suppress her feelings. The curse does not allow her to engage in the society and to live her life freely. The Lady of Shallot had been cursed by someone. She didn’t know who had given her the curse. But she had a lot of constraints on her own life. The castle was her life and if she left the castle, her death was inevitable. Lancelot, the handsome knight at arms is her lover and she is longing for the love. With the glimpse of Lancelot, she suddenly feels that she is fed up of the constrained life like a prisoner. She had a deep love for a man whom she loves. But death takes her away from the man after she comes out of the castle. Tennyson has written Lady of Shallot with highly dramatic narration. In every line the reader strongly feel the changing condition of the lady. In that sense Lady of Shallot can be called as an objective relative, in which the situation of the protagonist and the sequence of events are depicted in a certain way, that it evokes the emotions of the readers. It is a story with the sequence of incidents, right from the solitude dwelling of the lady of Shallot to her departure from the castle which led her to her tragic end. The motivation of Lady of Shallot is mysterious and complex. We may assume that Tennyson got the motivation for writing this tragic poem from the contemporary society. Rather this poem is an amazing depiction of the situation of Victorian women. I personally think that this poem is an attempt of the poet to inform the readers about the contemporary society. It means that the real world is depicted with the allusion of melancholy fantasy. It is a commentary on the abstract confinement of a woman in a male dominated society. Place of the Text in a new context: The work can be correlated with the modern values. For comparing it with the modern values, another piece of creative work I have taken for discussion is a touching and thought-provoking advertisement exclusively made with a view to enlighten the people. There are remarkable differences in yesterday’s poetry of Tennyson and modern public advertisement, though they do have some common connections. Some ideas in both of these creative works resemble each other in many ways. Both the poem Lady of Shallot and the advertisement want to communicate certain things with their readers or viewers. Earlier is trying to convey the message through deep emotions, lofty diction and world of fantasy. (which of course has a strong connection with the socio-cognitive traits) The aims of both of them are different. The advertisement basically makes the people think about the brutal activity practised in so called modern and cultured world. The message has sent to the audience with minimum use of diction and maximum use of loud colours and visuals. The action of the advertisement is to think about the social recklessness and to make the people aware of the seriousness of the activities of killing female foetus. Basically a poem is something which can be felt or interpreted or shared with someone. Of course it is a way to communicate the thoughts of the poet to its readers. But again the thoughts and ideas are subjective and the message is indirect unlike the advertisement. In advertisement, there is no question of ambiguity. It conveys a direct and unambiguous message to the viewers. The major characteristic of print advertisement is that they convey the message to the audience with minimum use of words and maximum use of visuals, which I think is a very difficult and challenging task. There we find the multimodal approach of the advertisement which is hardly seen in literary work such as poetry. Multimodal Approach according to the text “The Art of English: Everyday Creativity,” is “the contribution of other modes as well as verbal texts, and the relationships between modes, to creative effects” (Maybin &Swann, 2006, p.429). In the advertisement we are discussing, the mode is textual (verbal) as well as visual. There are no visuals available for the poetry. The chosen advertisement can be categorized as a Public Service Advertisement. This type of advertisements is used as an effective communication to convey a socially relevant message about an important matter and social causes. The advertisement here reflects one of the major social issues prevalent in India. It is a common practice of denying girl child as Indian psyche is dominated by patriarchal approach and every family wants boy to carry forward their family. The Indian culture has always been family oriented. Family has been given more importance than an individual. The girl after her marriage adopts her husband’s surname and the family tree breaks if there is no boy in the family. The parents have to spend an exorbitant amount in her marriage as a dowry which is again a very stigmatic practice in India. So the girl child is undesirable and boy child is always welcomed. It has resulted into the brutal killing of the female foetus. The illegal sonography is done and if the foetus is a girl, she is killed in the womb of her mother and she is aborted. Sometimes some girls are brutally murdered soon after their birth by crushing with stones. The situation has become alarming in some part of the country and the number of females is decreasing day by day. According to the 2001 census the ratio of females per thousand males is 933. (census India 2001) The situation has even been worse in 2011 census where the ratio has dropped down to 914. This is an alarming situation and not good for a healthy society. It is a challenge before the Indian Government to balance this number. The tag line in the advertisement is very different. The sentence is completed with words and visuals. The tag line “Female Foeticide killing is one of the crime.” Here the word killing is not mentioned directly. Instead of that the visual of actual killing of the girl in the hands of a male is shown. The male hand is literally squeezing the female foetus and the drops of blood are spilling. The word Crime is written in blood red colour so that the intensity of the crime should be revealed. The grammatical construction is wrong as it should have been crimes instead of crime. But here the grammar is not important, the message is important. By saying crime the author probably wants to focus on this specific crime. The advertisement argues that the real killer of the girl is the patriarch society. The hand in which she has been held does not look like a female hand, but it looks masculine. So the basic argument is that the girls have been victimized in male dominated society. They have not been given their basic right of living the life and connecting with the world. The hand can be the symbol of the womb of a mother. Its shape resembles the womb. It means that the sometimes the womb itself is not the safe place for female foetus. It kills the foetus and the only mistake is that the foetus is a girl. The words chosen for print advertisement need to be apt and selected. The words just support the visuals, which are more important. It is the image or visuals that catch the attention of the people. With the presence of few words, the advertisement has to be effective and should leave its impact deeply on people’s mind. The text used in the advertisement has a special purpose and that is to make the people aware about one of the horrified social situations and its impact in future. An optimum level of creativity is essential for making an effective print advertisement. It is because all of us know that the world of advertisement has been oversaturated. People today live in the world of advertisement and they are encountered by loads of advertisement at every moment of their day. In such case, the main question is why should people see your advertisement, and the answer is just because it looks something different and catchy. For making it catchy and different it needs to have some fresh ideas and uniqueness. In the advertisement the primary focus is on the fragile, tiny female foetus which is held tightly in a mighty hand. The clear message is how the innocent infants are molested and killed by the people. The image of the helpless tiny foetus plays directly into societal stereotypes of the molested females. The text is not creative itself but the way it is presented is very creative. It has become creative just because it is written in two colours on a loud background of black colour and secondly because the text is paired with the picture. It has attained the desired impact of the advertisement. If the visuals are separated and watched independently, it will not create the expected effect. For example, if we see the independent picture of the foetus, or hand or even the drops of blood, it will not convey the proper message. All pictures are inadequate without the presence of each other. The limitations are inevitable in stylistic elements when we compare them with the multimodal piece like print advertisement. There is no textual analysis in the advertisement still the advertisement is more powerful and can reach to all the people irrespective of education, intellectuality, age and gender. It is in real sense the medium of mass communication. Poetry or stylistic work on the other hand, remains restricted to a certain class of people. If we take into consideration the impact of both creative works, we have to keep in mind the major things such as the time, author, ethnographic, and geographical background. Both of these works belong to different culture, location and era. For example the poet Lady of Shallot shall be analysed by taking into consideration the period in which Tennyson lived in and what kind of society in which he was living. The analysis then requires additional knowledge and research. Sometimes it becomes hard to find out sufficient information of the society and culture and it affects the analysis. For example, Tennyson belongs to Victorian era. He must have the myriad of sides of a person’s day today life in that era. It is very difficult to find out which or how much aspects affected his piece of work. It is also difficult to identify the exact frame of mind of Alfred Lord Tennyson. So the analysis on such kind of work would probably be based on mere assumptions. Apparently looking, both of these two pieces of works are totally different from each other. One is a classic poem and another is the day today life advertisement. One belongs to the period of a couple of decades back and another belongs to the modern era. As mentioned above thought these texts are different from each other, the similarity lies in the purpose of communicating something, or sharing certain ideas to the audience. The print media, while sharing the ideas or sending a certain message, does not present a challenge to anything in the modern world. It is just revealing the social facts and making the people think thoroughly. It just aims at making the people aware of the serious social problem. The concept such as multiple meaning is not at all there in the advertisement. It is a straightforward message with a heart touching way. On the contrary in Tennyson’s poem Lady of Shallot does not present a single idea. Here I would like to mention one major point that the two pieces are totally from different categories of literariness. Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot is best suitable in the category of classic literature where the poets and authors tended to utilize high degree of technique, skill, and creativity. In the advertisement the flashiness is very important factor to grab the attention of the audience. I would also like to elaborate the relevancy of both of these works apart from having different style, era and category. The major protagonists or the focuses of these two works are an imprisoned lady and a female foetus. The authors thus throw the light on the womanhood in both of the works. Lady of Shallot is confined in castle and she is helpless due to the curse. In the advertisement the foetus means confined human being in the womb of its mother. The castle or the womb, both are initially very peaceful and safe for the women. She is cursed and her curse is her female gender. Both of these characters have been denied to get connected with the outside world. The lady has been prohibited by unknown power and the foetus is prohibited by the mighty masculine society. Both are the victims of social values and social norms. Both of them are longing for the life in the world. Both of them have experienced the same journey that is from tranquillity to turmoil, from life to death, from sustainability to decay. The allusion of blood is there in both of these pieces of work. In Lady of Shallot the blood imagery is used in the line “Till her blood was frozen slowly,” In the advertisement also the blood drop of the foetus is shown. It expresses the height of their suffering before they met death. Both of these pieces of work have creativity and credibility. Though advertisement is supposed to be best way to approach to the huge mass, it cannot be forgotten that the stylistic or inherency approach is the foundation on which the other approaches have rested. Without words, word patterns, phrases, the purpose of communication cannot be solved. Having total difference in the style and category, we cannot conclude that one piece of work is stronger and another is weaker. Certain effect lies in both of the works. The appropriate combination of these two would make the analysis complete. APPENDIX 1 : Lady of Shallot a poem accompanied by the picture of Lady of Shallot. The Lady of Shalott Alfred Lord Tennyson Part I On either side the river lie Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And thro' the field the road runs by To many-tower'd Camelot; And up and down the people go, Gazing where the lilies blow Round an island there below, The island of Shalott. Willows whiten, aspens quiver, Little breezes dusk and shiver Thro' the wave that runs for ever By the island in the river Flowing down to Camelot. Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott. By the margin, willow veil'd, Slide the heavy barges trail'd By slow horses; and unhail'd The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd Skimming down to Camelot: But who hath seen her wave her hand? Or at the casement seen her stand? Or is she known in all the land, The Lady of Shalott? Only reapers, reaping early In among the bearded barley, Hear a song that echoes cheerly From the river winding clearly, Down to tower'd Camelot: And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers " 'Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott." Part II There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colours gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott. And moving thro' a mirror clear That hangs before her all the year, Shadows of the world appear. There she sees the highway near Winding down to Camelot: There the river eddy whirls, And there the surly village-churls, And the red cloaks of market girls, Pass onward from Shalott. Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, An abbot on an ambling pad, Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad, Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad, Goes by to tower'd Camelot; And sometimes thro' the mirror blue The knights come riding two and two: She hath no loyal knight and true, The Lady of Shalott. But in her web she still delights To weave the mirror's magic sights, For often thro' the silent nights A funeral, with plumes and lights And music, went to Camelot: Or when the moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed: "I am half sick of shadows," said The Lady of Shalott. Part III A bow-shot from her bower-eaves, He rode between the barley-sheaves, The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves, And flamed upon the brazen greaves Of bold Sir Lancelot. A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd To a lady in his shield, That sparkled on the yellow field, Beside remote Shalott. The gemmy bridle glitter'd free, Like to some branch of stars we see Hung in the golden Galaxy. The bridle bells rang merrily As he rode down to Camelot: And from his blazon'd baldric slung A mighty silver bugle hung, And as he rode his armour rung, Beside remote Shalott. All in the blue unclouded weather Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather, The helmet and the helmet-feather Burn'd like one burning flame together, As he rode down to Camelot. As often thro' the purple night, Below the starry clusters bright, Some bearded meteor, trailing light, Moves over still Shalott. His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd; On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode; From underneath his helmet flow'd His coal-black curls as on he rode, As he rode down to Camelot. From the bank and from the river He flash'd into the crystal mirror, "Tirra lirra," by the river Sang Sir Lancelot. She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces thro' the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott. Part IV In the stormy east-wind straining, The pale yellow woods were waning, The broad stream in his banks complaining, Heavily the low sky raining Over tower'd Camelot; Down she came and found a boat Beneath a willow left afloat, And round about the prow she wrote The Lady of Shalott. And down the river's dim expanse Like some bold seer in a trance, Seeing all his own mischance-- With a glassy countenance Did she look to Camelot. And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott. Lying, robed in snowy white That loosely flew to left and right-- The leaves upon her falling light-- Thro' the noises of the night She floated down to Camelot: And as the boat-head wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her singing her last song, The Lady of Shalott. Heard a carol, mournful, holy, Chanted loudly, chanted lowly, Till her blood was frozen slowly, And her eyes were darken'd wholly, Turn'd to tower'd Camelot. For ere she reach'd upon the tide The first house by the water-side, Singing in her song she died, The Lady of Shalott. Under tower and balcony, By garden-wall and gallery, A gleaming shape she floated by, Dead-pale between the houses high, Silent into Camelot. Out upon the wharfs they came, Knight and burgher, lord and dame, And round the prow they read her name, The Lady of Shalott. Who is this? and what is here? And in the lighted palace near Died the sound of royal cheer; And they cross'd themselves for fear, All the knights at Camelot: But Lancelot mused a little space; He said, "She has a lovely face; God in his mercy lend her grace, The Lady of Shalott." The Lady of Shalott Alfred Lord Tennyson APPENDIX 2 – ADVERTISEMENT FEMALE FOETICIDE & A PICTURE OF LADY OF SHALLOT Killing of Female Foetus Lady of Shallot Reference List: 1. Goodman & O’Halloran, 2006 “Art of English: Litarary Creativity,” p. 70 2. Sharon Goodman & Kieran O’Halloran, 2006, “Art of English: Litarary Creativity,” 3. Jenet Maybin & Joan Swann, 2006, “Art of English : Everyday Creativity, Published by Pulgrave Macmillan, p.429 4. Nigel Fabb 2002, “Language and Literary Structure: A Linguistic Analysis of form in verse and narrative,” Published by Cambridge University Press p.115 5. http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/fsex.aspx 6. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-31/news/29365989_1_ratio-males-girl-child 7. Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Lady of Shallot” 8. The picture of killing of female foeticide is taken from the website: http://www.mindfiesta.com/female-feticide Read More