Saturday 6 April 2013

Description of Supernatural Elements in Coleridge’s Poem

Name               :       Thakar Aneri R.
Roll No.           :       01
Semester        :       02
M.A. Part         :       1
Paper No.        :       5 Romantic literature
Topic Name    :       Description of Supernatural Elements in
                                 Coleridge’s Poem


Description of Supernatural Elements in Coleridge’s Poem

S.T.Coleridge is the greatest English poet of supernatural. Imagination is controlled by thought and study. He has employed refined, suggestive and psychological methods of mystery and horror in the poem. Supernatural is often used interchangeable with preternatural or paranormal.It refers to conscious magical religious or unknown forces that cannot ordinarily perceived except through their effect. Unlike natural forces, these putative supernatural forces can’t be shown to exist by the scientific method. Supernatural claims assert phenomena beyond the relam of current scientific understanding which are often in direct conflict with current scientific theory.

Coleridge was consider to be a note worth poet of 18th century.Coleridge‘s poetic career is a very short one. Yet he has given very remarkable poems. In 1796 he published his first volume of poems on various subjects Coleridge’s best works are mainly of two

1- Supernatural poems

2- Samuel Taylor Coleridge conversational poems

(1) Supernatural poems:-Like ‘Kubla khan’, ‘The Rime of Ancient mariner’ and ‘christable’. These timeless poems are excellent example of romantic imagination.

(2)Conversational poems:-Like “A frost at midnight and Dejection –“an ode” reveals reflective side of his disposition

 Coleridge as a poet of Supernatural

Coleridge’s most outstanding contribution to romantic to romantic poetry is his treatment of the supernatural. When Coleridge and words worth wrote the “Lyrical Ballads”, Coleridge took the supernatural as his field and undertook to naturalize it. At hand is no any finer dreamer in English verse than Coleridge. His high Supernatural imagination is controlled by thought and study. Coleridge is co-founder of Romantic Movement with words worth .so, as words worth is a nature poet, Coleridge is known for his supernaturalism

Let’s discuss Coleridge as a poet of supernatural by his poems like “Kubla Khan” and “The Rim of Ancient marine”

Supernatural elements in “Kubla khan” 

Kubla Khan is the product of sheer fancy. It is a dream poem, a poem of pure magic. It is one of Coleridge’s three master pieces of supernatural poetry. The atmosphere of supernatural mystery is created in Kubla Khan mint by the description of the pleasure dome and the surrounding in which it stood

Kubla Khan is a product of pure fury, a work of sheer imagination. And is therefore a wholly Romantic composition. A reader with a rational or a neo-classical spirit would perhaps fail to find any meaning. Or logic or thought in this poem but to a romantic reader, the poem is a source of intense pleasure and wonder. Kubla Khan is delightful blend of imagination, emotion mystery sensuousness, romantic description, sweet melody and exquisite diction.

Kubla Khan is a poem of pure magic. It is one of Coleridge‘s three master pieces of supernatural poetry, and the other two are “Christabel” and “The Rim of Ancient mariner”. Through the use of vivid imagery Coleridge reproduces a paradise like vision of the landscape and kingdom created by Kubla Khan.

The atmosphere of supernatural mystery is created in Kubla Khan mainly by a description of the pleasure dome and the surrounding in which it stood. “For instance, the river Alpha flowing through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea.” The immeasurable abysses and the sunless sea stir in our mind the feeling of mystery and even fear.

Then comes the deep romantic gorge which lay across a wood of cedar trees. The manner in which the water intermittently gushed forth from the spring, throwing up huge place of rock were breathing in fast, thick plants is staggering to the readers imagination. The atmosphere of mystery and fear is emphasized when another reference is made to the sunless sea or the lifeless ocean in to which the water of alpha falls with a loud roar. The whole of this description is awe-inspiring if not horrifying.

It should be noted that suggestiveness is a very important ingredient of Coleridge’s supernaturalism. Nor should we forget the closing lines which contain a picture of natural and the supernatural. A poet’s inspiration is of the well-known and natural facts of human life but there is something supernatural about the way in which this poetic inspiration and the creative power of a poet are depicted! 

“And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His fleshing eyes, his floating hair!
weave a circle round him thrice and
Close eyes with holy dread for him on
Honey – drew hath fed and drunk the
Milk of paradise”.
Every line here emphasizes the atmosphere of mystery and fear which is the key note of the poem. And yet the whole desiccation is psychologically accurate because when the poet is in the state of frenzy is really a magician: touches of realism indeed, have been added, even to the description of the chasm and mighty fountain. The two similes-rebounding hails and the chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s fail-are drawn from actual life and are the most realistic. Even in the mid of his far of, divorced from life description, Coleridge does not forget that his real purpose was to make the supernatural and to bring about that “willing suspension of disbelief which constitutes poetic faith.”

Kubla Khan is triumph of supernaturalism. It transforms the world of everyday life in to world of enchantment. Indeed, this poem ranks as a master piece of supernaturalism. In the poem the images which had been deposited the unconscious mind of Coleridge from his reading about subteraneam rivers, pleasures; places and others marvelous things, emerged to his conscious mind and were exposed immediately and spontaneously in words. The caverns measureless to man, the romantic chasm the intermittent burst of water from the fountain, the sunless sea, they all create a world of wonder and enchantment. The atmosphere of strangeness and mystery has effetely and skillful been created in the poem.

Indeed, this poem ranks as a master piece of supernaturalism and is one of the three poems which brought the name of Coleridge to the forefront of the greatest English poets.

Kubla Khan is his master piece of poem of supernaturalism the description of a Dom “pleasure Dom” and how he take a support to this Dom to create his own Dom. the description of his Dom is very beautiful and it create its magical effect on reader.

The greatness of S.T. Coleridge’s the Ancient mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has been made believed and convincible. There are a number of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situation in the poem. The fascinating power in mariner’s gaze. The sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship the specter –woman and her mate, the coming back to life to the dead crew, the sudden sinking of the ship, the polar spirits talking to each other-all these and others supernatural incidents are scattered in the poem. With these supernatural elements the poet has artistically inter woven convincing pictures of nature like the sun shining brightly at the outset, the mist and snow surrounding the ship, the freezing cold of the artic region, slimy creatures creeping upon the sea, the moon going up the sky with a star or two beside it, the water snakes moving in the water in a variety of colors. The natural and supernatural the real and fantastic, the possible ad the impossible have been so skillfully and artistically mingled that the whole strikes us as quite convincing and credible.

The setting of the poem is natural, known to all. With a view to giving his stories an air of Plausibility, Coleridge gives accurate. Description of his nature. In the am every phase of landscape, seascape and cloudscape is touched upon. The bright sun, the “Kirk” or church the hill the light house, the cheerful on lookers at the harbor the wedding guest the marriage ceremony, the sun storm blast in the sea the mist and snow of the arctic region and many other natural elements are there in the setting of the story. All these phenomena have been made very convincing.

In this natural setting are set the supernatural incidents. A terrible storm hit and forced the ship south wards. The “storm blast” was “tyrannous and strong” and struck the ship with over taking wings”. Then the sailors reached a clam patch of sea that was “wondrous cold” full of snow and “glistering green iceberg” as tall as the ship’s mast.

The Ancient mariner is a tale of a curse which the narrator, the mariner himself and his companions by killing an Albatross without reason. Coleridge’s power of handling the supernatural is like the pure music of his verse. The moral of the poem is one of all embracing love. This poem is full of moral teachings for human beings. Humphrey house expresses his agreements with three great critics, DR.Tillyard, DR.Bowra and Robert Penn warren that the poem has a very serious moral and spiritual on human life. The moral of the poem’s story is that one should love all God’s creatures. Coleridge is regarded as the greatest poet of the supernatural in English literature and the ancient mariner is regarded as a master piece of supernatural poetry. His supernatural is controlled by thought and study. cazamian says, “the very center of Coleridge art lies in his faculty of evoking the mystery of things, and making it actual, widespread, and obsessing, even better than words worth, he knows how to handle that species of the supernatural whose essence is entirely psychological…….. The supernatural element in the ancient mariner is a hallucination, the outcome of the remorse by the most sober of method.”

 His skill in dealing with the supernatural in this poem is two-fold: first, he has fully achieved his aim of making the supernatural appear to be natural; and, second, he has employed suggestive, psychological, and refined methods of producing the feelings of mystery and horror in the poem, not crude and sensational like that of the writers before him, i.e. Horace, Walpole Mrs. Radcliffe, and Monk Lewis. The greatness of the Ancient mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has been made believable and convincing. There are, no doubt a number of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situation in the poem, such as: the mesmeric power in the mariner’s gaze. The sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship ,the specter woman and her mate, the coming back to life of the dead crew, the seraph-band making signals to the land, the sudden sinking of the ship, and the polar spirit commenting on or influencing the course of events. But the supernatural phenomena that the whole looks real. The sun shining brightly at the outset the mist and snow the freezing cold of the Polar Regions, the floating ice bergs floating in the water, the torrid fierceness of stagnant water. The slimy things crawling on the sea, the moon going up the scythe roaring wind, the rainfall-such are the natural phenomena in the poem. The realistic effect is enhanced by a description of the state of mind of the ancient mariner: that is how he tried to pray but he could not, how lonely he felt on a wide sea how he wanted to die but in vain, how he suffered mental and spirituals anguish. 

This psychological study of the mariner adds to the realistic effect because we are made to feel that any man would suffer in the same way under similar circumstances. Again, the details of the ship’s voyage have such a diary-like air that we accept them as a faithful recording of facts, there is too, the logic of cause and effect in the poem. The punishment and torture have a convincing cause behind them. The realistic effect achieved by Coleridge. The poem is one his great achievement which makes the poem not only convincing and exciting but also in some sense a criticism of life. There are a large number of situations and episodes in the ancient mariner, which fill us either with a sense of mystery or a feeling of horror or with both. The first situation that strikes terror in the heart of the mariner (and the reader also) is the appearance of the skeleton-ship. When this skeleton-ship is sighted in the distance, the sailors feel happy to think that they will now get water to quench their burning thirst. But in a few moments they discover the reality of this ship. 

The description of the ship with its “ribs” and its “gossamer-like sails” fill us with terror. It is a strange mystery that the ship should sail on the sea without wind and without a tide, while the mariner’s ship stands still “like a painted shop upon a painted ocean”. Obviously it is a supernatural force, which drives the ship and the crew also consists of supernatural characters. The feeling of terror is heightened when a reference is made to the crew of this ship. The crew consists of death and life-in-death. But Coleridge creates the sense of horror in this poem not by describing a direct and crude description but by employing suggestive and psychological methods. For instance, he does not describe the physical features of the specter woman and her death mate or other external phenomena at length, but he simply portrays the effect of those external things on the mariner’s mind. The appearance of life-in-death is described in the following three lines: her lips were red, her looks were free, her looks were yellow as gold: her skin was as white as leprosy (lines-190-92)these three lines are followed by these two: the night-mare life-in-death was she, who thick man’s blood with cold Coleridge, after giving us only three lines of description, conveys the horror by saying that the sight of her would have the effect of freezing a man’s blood. In other words, he leaves it to us to imagine for our-selves the horrible appearance of life-in-death that personifies the unspeakable torture of a man who can’t die. Coleridge merely offers a few suggestions to be developed by the reader himself. The effect of the skeleton-ship with death and life-in-death on board again conveyed to us by the following two lines
“Fear in my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seemed to sip!" 

That is, instead of giving us a detailed description of the whole horrible sight, Coleridge refers to the effect of that horrible sight upon the mind of the mariner and says that fear sipped his life-blood. Another situation that produces horror in the poem is the death of the two hundred sailors who dropped down one by one, and each of them looked at the ancient mariner.

Conclusion:-

Here we saw Coleridge’s power of language, description of the different elements like nature, supernatural, horror and the high priest of romanticism.

salient feature of the Victorian age

Name               :       Thakar Aneri R.
Roll No.           :       01
Semester        :       02
M.A. Part         :       1
Paper No.        :       6 Victorian literature
Topic Name    :       salient feature of the Victorian age

  • Salient features of the Victorian age.


Introduction


The modern period of progress and unrest when Victoria become queen in 1837, English literature seemed to have entered upon a period of lean years, in marked contrast with the poetic fruitfulness of the romantic age which we have just studied. Coleridge, Shelley, Keats Byron and scot had passed away and it seemed as if there were no writers in England to fill their place. Words worth had written in 1835.
“Like clouds that rake the mountain summits or waves that own no Curbing hand, How fast has brother followed brother, from sunshine to the sunless land I”

In these lines is reflected the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early nineteenth century who remembered the glory that had passed away from the earth. But the leanness of their first year is more apparent than real. Keats and Shelley were dead, it is true but already there had appeared three disciples of these poets who were destined to be far more widely read then were their masters Tennyson had been publishing poetry since 1827 his first poems appearing almost simultaneously with the list work of Byron Shelley and Keats. Moreover even as romanticism seemed passing away, a group of great prose writers – Dickens, Thackerdy, Carlyle and Ruskin – had already begum to proclaim the literary glory of a new age which now seems to rank only just below the Elizabethan and the romantic periods.
The salient features of the age are mentioned here.

1. Democracy : Amid the multitude of social and political forces of this great age, four things stemd out clearly. First the long struggle of the Anglo-Saxons for personal liberty is definitely settled and democracy becomes the established order of the day. The king who appeared in an age of popular weakness and ignorance, and the peers who came with the Normans in triumph are both stripped of their power and left as figure-heads of a past civilization. The last vestige of personal government and the divine right of rulers disappears; the house of commons becomes the ruling power in England; and a series of new reforms bills rapidly extend the people choose for themselves the men who shall represent them.

2. Social Unrest : Second because it is an age of democracy, it is an age of popular education, of religious tolerance, of growing brotherhood, and of profound social unrest. The slaves had been freed in 1833 but in the middle of the century England a work to the fact that slaves are not necessarily negroes, stolen in Africa to be sold like cattle in the market place, but that multitudes of men, women, and little children in the mines and factories were victims of a more terrible industrial and social slavery. To free this competitive method, has been the growing purpose of the Victorian age until the present day.

3. The ideal of Peace : Third, because it is an age of democracy and education, it is an age of comparative peace. England begins to think less of the pomp and false glitter of fighting and more of its moral evils, as the nation realizes that it is the common people who bear the burden and the sorrow and the poverty of war, while the privilege classes reap most of the financial and political rewards. Moreover, with the growth of trade and of friendly foreign relations, it becomes evident that the social equality for which England was contending at home belongs to the whole race of men that brother hood is universal, not insular that a question of justice is never settled by fighting and that war is generally unmitigated horror and bar barusm. Tennyson, who came of age when the great reform bill occupied attention, expresses the ideas of the liberals of his day who proposed to spread the gospel of peace. Till the war drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furled in the parliament of man the federation of the world.

4. Arts and sciences : Fourth, the Victorian age is especially remarkable because of its rapid progress in all the arts and sciences and in mechanical inventions. A glance at any record of the industrial achievements of the nineteenth century will show how vast the are and it is unnecessary to repeat here the list of the inventions, from spinning looms to steamboats, and from matches to electric lights. All these material things, as well as the growth of education have their influence upon the life of a people and it is inevitable that they should react upon its prose and poetry thought as yet we are too much absorbed in our sciences and machines to determine accurately their influence upon literature. When these new things shall by long use have become familiar as country roads or have been replaced by newer and better things, then they also will have their associations and memories and a poem on the rail roads may be as suggestive as words worth’s sonnet on Westminster bridge and the busy, practical working men who today throng our stress and factories may seem to a future and greater age as quaint and poetical as to us seem the slow toilers of the middle ages.

5. An era of peace : The few colonial wars that broke out during the Victorian approach did not seriously disturb the national life. There was one continental war that directly affected Britain the Crimean war and one that affected her indirectly though strongly the Franco german struggle yet neither of these caused any profound changes. In America the great civil struggle left scars that were soon to be obliterated by the wise statesmanship of her rulers. The whole age may be not unfairly described as one of peaceful activity. In the earlier stages the lessening surges of the French revolution were still felt but by the middle of the century they had almost completely died down, and other hopes and ideals largely specific were gradually taking their place.

6. Material Developments : It was an age alive with new activity. There was a revolution in commercial enterprise, due to the great increase of available markets and as a result of this an immense advance in the use of mechanical devices. The new commercial energy was reflected in the great exhibition of 1851. Which was greeted as the inauguration of a new era of prosperity on the other side of this picture of commercial expansion we see the appalling social conditions of the new industrial cities, the squalid slums and the exploitation of cheap labor (often of children), the painful flight by the enlightened few to introduce social legislation and the slow extension of the franchise. The evils of the industrial revolution were vividly painted by such writers as dickens and Mrs. Gaskell and they called forth the missionary efforts of men like Kingsley.

7. Intellectual developments : There can be little doubt that in many cases material wealth produced a hardness of temper and an impatience of projects and ideas that brought no return in hard case yet it is to the credit of this age that intellectual activities were so numerous. There was quite a revolution in scientific thought following upon the works of Darwin and his school, and an immense outburst of social and political throrizing which was represented in this country by the writings of men like Herbert Spencer and john Stuart mill. In addition, popular education became a practical thing. This in its turn produced a new hunger for intellectual food and resulted in a great increase in the production of the press and of other more durable species of literature.

Literary features of the age:


The sixty years commonly included under the name of the Victorian age present many dissimilar features. Yet in several respects we can safely generalize.

1. Its morality : Nearly all observers of the Victorian age are struck by its extreme deference to the conventions. To a later age these seem ludicrous. It was thought indecorous for a man to smoke in public and for a lady to ride a bicycle. To a great extent the new morality was a natural revolt against the grossness of the earlier regency, and the influence of the Victorian court was all in its favor. In literature it is amply reflected. Tennyson is the most conspicuous co placement sir Galahad and King Arthur, dickens, perhaps the most representative of the Victorian novelists took for his model the old picaresque novel. But it is almost laughable to observe his anxiety to be ‘moral’. This type of writing is quite blameless but it produced the king of public that denounced the innocuous jane eyre as wicked because it dealt with the harmless affection of a girl for a married man.


2. The Revolt : Many writers protest against the deadening effect of the conventions. Carlyle and Matthew Arnold in their different accents were loud in their denunciations thackerary never tired of satirizing the snobbishness of the age and bowing’s cobbly mannerisms were an indirect challenge to the velvety diction and the smooth self  satisfaction of the Tennysonian School. As the age proceeded the reaction
strengthened. In poetry the Pre-Raphaelites, by Swinburne and William Morris proclaimed no morality but that of the crtist’s regard for his art. By the vigour of his method Swinburne horrified the timorous and made himself rather ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people. It remained for Thomas hardy to pull a side. The Victorian veils and shutters and with the large tolerances of the master to regards men’s actions
with open gaze.

2. Intellectual developments : The literary product was inevitably affected by the new ideas in science, religion and politics. On the origin of species (1859) of Darwin shook to its foundation scientific thought. We can perceive the influence of such a work in Tennyson’s. in memoriam in Matthew Arnold’s meditative poetry and in the works of Carlyle. In religious and ethical thought the Oxford movement as it was called was the most note warthy advance. This movement had its source among the young and eager thinkers of the old university and was headed by the great Newman who ultimately (1854) joined the church of Rome, as a religious portent it marked the widespread discontent with the existing belief of the church of England as a literary influence it affected many writers of note, including Newman himself, roude, Maurice kingsley and glad stone.

3. The new education : The new education acts, making a cetian measure of education compulsory, rapidly produced and enormous reading public. The cheapening of printing and paper increased the demand for books so that the production was multiplied. The most popular form of literature was the novel and the novelists responded with a will. Much of their work was of a high standard so much so that it has been asserted by competent critics that the middle years of the nineteenth century were the richest in the whole history of the novel.

4. International influences : During the nineteenth century the interaction among American and European writers was remarkably fresh and strong. In Britain the influences of the great german writers was continuous and it was championed by Carlyle and Mathew Arnold. Subject nations in particular the Italians, were a sympathetic theme for prose and verse. The browning Swinburne, morris and Meredith were deeply absorbed in the long struggle of the followers of garibaldi and Cavour and when Italian freedom was gained the rejoicings were genuine.

5. The achievement of the age : With all its immense production, the age produced no supreme writer. It revealed no Shakespeare no Shelley nor a Byron or a Scott. The general literary level was however very high and it was an age moreover of spacious intellectual horizons, noble endeavor and bright aspirations.

Conclusion :
To conclude this point we can see that basically in this age the most beneficial things is the cheapening of printing and paper. They increased the demand for books. This age is also known as the age of peace. In these ages there is also one important development of material and during that time there was a revolution happened in commercial enterprise.




T.S.ELIOT TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT

NAME:-THAKAR. ANERI. R
ROLL NO:-01
SEMESTER:-2
M.A.PART:-1
TOPIC: - T.S.ELIOT TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT.
PAPER NO:-7 LITERARY CRITICISM.
 
  •     T.S.ELIOT TRADITION AND INDIVIDUAL TALENT


            In his essay “Tradition and individual talent” Eliot spreads his concept of tradition, which reflects his reaction against romantic subjectivism and emotionalism. He opines that tradition gives the reader something new, something arresting something intellectual and something vital for literary conception.

            Tradition according to Eliot is that part of living culture inherited from the past and functioning in the formation of the present. Eliot maintains that tradition is bound up with historical sense, which is a perception that the past is not something lost and invalid.

                 According to Eliot, is the part of living culture which is inherited from the past and also has an important function in forming the present. Historical sense is a perception that past is not something that is lost or invalid. Rather it has a function in the present.

                   It exits with the present. It exerts its influence in our ideas, thoughts and consciousness. This is historical sense. It is an awareness not only of the pastness of the past but the presence of the past. On this sense the past is our contemporary as the present is. Eliot’s view of tradition is not linear but spatial. Eliot does not believe that the past is followed by the presence and succession of a line. On the contrary, the past and the present life side by side in the space .Thus it is spatial. Then Eliot holds that not only the past influences the present but the present, too, influences the past. To prove this idea, he conceives of all literature as a total, indivisible order. All existing literary works belong to an order like the member of a family. Any new work of literature is like the arrival of a member or a new relative or a new acquaintance. It arrival and presence bring about a readjustment of the previous relationship of the old members. A new works takes its place in the order. Its arrival and inclusion modifies the order and relationship among all works. The order is then modified. A new work art influences all the existing-literary work, as a new relative influences the old member of a family. It is this sense that the present modifies the past as the past modifies the present. The past is modified by the present also in the sense that we can look at the past literature always through ever renewing perceptive of the present. A new work of art cannot be evaluated in isolation without reference to past literature and tradition. Evaluation is always comparative and relative. It calls for a comparison with the past that is with tradition. No poet, no artist of any art has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone. You must set him for contrast and comparison among the dead.

                             A work of art has two dimensions-it is at once personal and universal. It is an individual composition, but at the same time, its inclusion into tradition determines its worth and universal appeal. A writer must be aware that he belongs to a larger tradition and there is always an impact of tradition on him. Individual is an element formed by and forming the culture to which he belongs. He should surrender his personality to something larger and more significant.

                          In his conscious cultivation of historical sense, a writer reduces the magnification of personal self, which leads to depersonalization and impersonal act. When a writer is aware the historical sense, it doesn’t mean that he influenced by the past or his own self. Rather the writer should minimize the importance of his personal self, which will lead him to depersonalization and impersonal act. Tradition is a living stream. It is not a lump or dead mass. But the main current does not always flow through the most noted authoress. Eliot regrets that tradition in English world of letters is used in prerogative sense. This is one reason of the undeveloped critical sense of the English nation. They are too individualistic on intellectual habits. Eliot criticizes the English intellectuals. According to Eliot to the English intellectual tradition is something that should be avoided. They give much more importance on individualism and are critical about the historical sense or tradition.

                                 Like Arnold, Eliot views tradition as something living. For both the word “tradition” implies growth. Eliot recalls Edmund Burke what burke did for political thought, by glorifying the idea of inheritance; Eliot has done for English literary criticism. Burke, famous English politician, gave emphasis on the experience of the past in politics. In the same Eliot also gives emphasis on the past regarding English criticism.

                      Tradition does not mean uncritical imitation of the past. Nor does it mean only erudition. A writer draws on only the necessary knowledge of tradition. He must use his freedom according to his needs. He cannot be completely detached. Often the most original moments of a work of art echo the mind of earlier writers. Though it sounds paradoxical it is true. It is paradoxical but true that even the most original writings sometimes reflect the thinking of the past or earlier writers. So, there is nothing which is absolutely original.

                       A partial or complete break with the literary past is a danger. An awareness of what has gone before is necessary to know what is there to be done in the present or future. A balance between the control of tradition and the freedom of an individual is essential to art. Eliot said elsewhere that by losing tradition we lose our held on the present. Hence, a writer should be aware of the importance of tradition.

                  The essay gives voice to the fact that modernist experiments seldom simply destroyed or rejected traditional methods of   representation or traditional literary forms; rather, the modernists sought to enter into a sort of conversation with the art of the past, sometimes reverently, sometimes mockingly. No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervening  of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered…… the past[is] altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past.

                                 Eliot emphasis both the way that tradition shapes the modern artist and the way that a “really new” work of art makes us see that tradition anew.

                                   Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry. If we attend to the confused cries of the newspaper critics and the SUSURRUS of popular repetition that follows, we shall hear the names of poets in great numbers; if we seek no Blue-book knowledge but the enjoyment of poetry, and ask for poem, we shall seldom find it. I have tried to point out the importance of the relation of the poem to other poems by other authors, and suggested the conception of poetry as a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written. The other aspect of this impersonal theory of poetry is the relation of the poem to its author. And I hinted, by an analogy, that he mind of the mature poet differs from that of the immature one not precisely in any valuation of “personality,” not being necessarily more interesting, or having “more to say,” but rather by being a more finely perfected medium in which special, or very varied, feelings are at liberty to enter into new combinations.

                        The experience, you will notice, the elements which enter the presence of the transforming catalyst, are of two kinds: emotions and feelings. The effect of a work of art upon the person who enjoys it is an experience different in kind from any experience not of art. It may be formed out of one emotion, or may be a combination of several; and various feelings, inhering for the writer in particular words or phrases or images, may be added to compose the final result. Or great poetry may be made without the direct use of any emotion whatever: composed out of feelings solely if you compare several representative passages of the greatest poetry you see how great is the variety of types of combination, and also how completely any semi-ethical criterion of “sublimity” misses the mark. For it is not the “greatness,” the intensity, of the emotions, the components, but the intensity of the artistic process, the pressure, so to speak, under which the fusion takes place, that counts. The episode of Paolo and Francesca employs a definite emotion, but the intensity of the poetry is something quite different from whatever intensity in the supposed experience it may give the impression of. It is no more intense, furthermore than the murder of Agamemnon, or the agony of Othello, gives an artistic effect apparently closer to a possible original than the scenes from Dante. In the Agamemnon, the artistic emotion approximates to the emotion of an actual spectator; in Othello to the emotion of the protagonist himself. But the difference between art and the event is always absolute; the combination which is the murder of Agamemnon is probably as complex as that which is the voyage of Ulysses. In either case there has been a fusion of elements. The ode of Keats contains a number of feelings which have nothing particular to do with the nightingale, but which the nightingale, partly, perhaps, because of its attractive name, and partly because of its reputation, served to bring together.

“It is not in his personal emotions, the emotions provoke by
Particular events in his life that the poet is in any way
Remarkable or interesting. His particular emotions may
Simple, crude, or flat. The emotion in his poetry will be a
Very complex thing, but not with the complexity of the
Emotions of people who have very complex or unusual
Emotions in life.”

                According to this quote he told that the emotions which are described in the poetry by poets it shows the emotions of the poet which related with the particular event of his life which is remarkable or interesting for poet. It is possible that poetry is a complex thing but the complexity of emotions of poet is not Acceptable in poetry.

“The business of the poet is not to find new emotions; But to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all. And emotions which he has never Experienced will serve his turn as well as those familiar to him. Consequently, we must believe that “emotion recollected in tranquility” is an in exact formula.”


                 According to this quote the business of the poet is not to find new emotion but to use of an ordinary emotions in new way and create a new emotions from the ordinary one.

                 T.S.Eliot’s ‘tradition and individual is one of the critical essay in which Eliot has described with concept of tradition, individual talent, emotion and poetry as well as his concept of depersonalized art. In the opening of the essay, Eliot’s defines tradition, which is the literary history. He says that each and every nation has its individual genius who creates literature. So many such individual writers produce a big bulk of writing which is tradition. In other words, tradition is the matter of past that is even related to present because it is in the process of formation. Eliot gives an example of English literature produced from the Anglo Saxon period up to the present day. It is like a wall where there are so many bricks working commonly. Eliot also says that when a writer comes to write at present. He should be aware of the tradition. To learn the tradition he should have a great labor but he should not imitate it. Learning the tradition is also called historical sense that is necessary to the present writer, because tradition as the past influences.

                    Eliot even says that the new writer writing at present becomes the part of tradition so he has to learn tradition but to imitate it. No writers and writings have value in isolation, the writer and his writing would not be evaluated with the writers of the past, he should be compared and contrasted with the tradition, it is possible to examine his individual talent. If the new writer has imitated the tradition, blindly such slavish imitation should be discouraged because it has not individual talent. Individual talent is the novelty or newness. If the present writer has brought something novelty in his writing, it is called individual talent such novelty should be encourage because it suggests the genius of the writer.

      Eliot has also given his personal idea about the depersonalization of art, which is also called impersonal poetry. He says that emotions and feelings are related to poetry but they should be expressed indirectly and objectively. In other words, Eliot says that emotions of the poet are expressed in poetry but the poet should in personified them. His concept is against the concept of words being involved in poetry. Instead, the poet should not be identified as the direct speaker in poetry but he should indirectly through the characters or other object, which is called objective correlative. So Eliot says “poetry is not the turning loose of emotions but escape from emotion. It is not the expression of personality but escape from it


             In order to support his concept of depersonalized art, Eliot use and analogy related to a gas chamber. In a gas chamber during the process of forming sulpheric asid, sulpheris dioxide and Oxygen are needed but they do not react until a plate of platinum is kept. When the platinum is kept there, it causes reaction between them so that, sulpheric acid is formed. In the acid platinum does not become present. This analogy is applied in the process of poetic creation.

                   The poet and his mind is catalyst like the platinum to change others, medium but as if the platinum is not present in the acid, the poet also should not be present in poetry. His role is very crucial because without the poet, poetry is not possible to create but, in the creation he should be totally dead or absent like the platinum absent in acid. It is his concept of impersonal art and he criticizes many English poets including Wordsworth who have not become impersonal. He appreciates metaphysical such as a John Donne is to be impersonal in poetry.

      Conclusion:-
              
                   T.S.Eliot spread his concept of Tradition which reflects his reaction against Romantic subjectivism and emotionalism.He describes the concept of historical senses very useful for better understanding of poetic sense or literary sense.               

                                          

media culture, audience and reception

Name               :       Thakar Aneri R.
Roll No.           :       01
Semester        :       02
M.A. Part         :       1
Paper No.        :       8 cultural studies
Topic Name    :       media culture, audience and reception

  •   Media Culture, Audience, reception and culture studies.

Ans.    Definition of Media Culture:-
                        In Cultural studies Media culture refers to the current western capitalist society that employed and developed from the 20th country under the influence of mass media. Media culture is associated with consumerism and in this sense called alternatively “consumer culture the media and culture studies program emphasizes the study of media in their historical economic social and political context we examine the culture forms created and disseminated by media industries and the ways in which they resonate in everyday life on the individual national and global level.

Purpose or goal of M.A. student to study media and culture studies:-

                        In M.A. Media and culture studies aim at boning skills of media production and research within a frame work that enables the development of a critical perspective on media culture and society in contemporary society, media and culture are crucial sites where identities are produced and popular ways of seeing are consumed. Cultural studies enable us to meaningfully engage and interact with these new modes of a being and doing. By making us conscious of the many complex ways in which power impinges on our lives and constructs our cultures it has the potential of empowering us to critically read the media and the other cultural reas the media and the other cultural institutions and texts to understand how they shape our identities and to think about how we could possibly shape them.
                        The M.A. student studies Media and cultural studies for works to words the creation of a lively group of media “thinking doers” and “doing thinkers” who could then choose to branch out into a diverse range of work or educational situations. The students will equipped to works in the areas of media and television production, Independent media practice media education and advocacy and research.

Media culture and cultural studies:-

                        Cultural studies are interested in the ways in which communication and community are linked. Communication is about language discourse and representation and we have seen that representation is central to the production consumption and mediation of cultural products advertising marketing and critique are all features associated with media. Media are technologies of communication and therefore technologies of communication and therefore of meaning production and meaning dissemination is there in media. In mass media the source is central and usually single, and the audiences are the total number of human beings for away from the source. Thus mass media like films affect and influence a large number of people and are therefore integral to culture.
            Mass media constitute a public space. They generate debates, influence opinion and create markets. And they may be or maybe not controlled by the state or power position of society.

Effect of TV Serials and Films on cultural:

            Media cultural reproduces existing social values, oppressions and inequalities. When TV serials or films shown us the glorified “perfect family” they gloess over the gender inequalities that represent the patriarchal family structure. When films dealing with the issues like corruption of the political system and the common man’s quest for justice and how they fight for their justice and wrights.
            Today on television serial Guajarati, Marathi, and Rajasthan cultural is famous and TV serials show the good and bad aspects of the cultural. And also inspire or make aware the audience for improvement in the circumstances of society and culture. There are two representations in the media and they are like

1. Suggestive        2.        Provocative
                                                              


1. Suggestive:

In these suggestive ideologies that the audience. If not alert you imbibes them means you put your thought in front of them then they started believing in you and thought that are right and true the started accepting your idea. Media culture does not need to declare its position or ideology openly. It only needs to suggest showing a film start using particular brands of clothing is not necessarily a marketing strategy of the product. But it can be suggestion also tat start wear certain kinds of clothes.

2. Provocative:

Media culture is provocative because it sometimes asks us to rethink what we know, or reinforce what we believe in. in this provocative ideology media shows that what we know about the particular thing or situations and actual in which we have to believe and also we get something new for example: portrayal of Pakistan as a terrorist state’ in Hindi films reinforces the political and social image of Pakistan by raising our anger levels at the injustices of Pakistan’s army.
            A cultural study media culture is studied through an analysis of popular media culture likes films, TV serials advertisement rather than avowedly political programmers.

Audience and cultural studies:

            Reception and cultural studies as we have noted that cultural studies explores the processes through which a cultural produces meaning, where the meaning is the effect of communication and representations and negotiated through power relations. Communication and representation are two way process. The message is sent from an addresser to an addressee through a medium so it is not enough to speak of the ways in which advertisement media, propaganda and other cultural forms represent women, men family or the notion we need to examine how these representations are received and consumed cultural studies is interested in the ways in which audiences receive the message, how they respond to it and the effects the message generates.
“Audience includes readers, listeners, viewers consumers who consume different kinds of image and representations”.
“Reception is the use of mediated cultural texts by the audience. That is reception is the way in which we react to internalize representations.”
This reception is not a passive process we modify images to suit our requirements and cultural political beliefs. Our process interpretation which is central to the act of reception is based also on our cultural context. For e.g. Indian people do not need an explanation of Mahatma Gandhi because we are Indians and sharing a common cultural code. We interpret the symbols because we know them in advance.
Studying audiences’ means looking at how demographic audiences are targeted and measured and how media are circulated and distributed throughout. It means looking at different ways in which individual use, interpret and respond to media.

Studying media audiences means looking at:

Targeting     :

            How are media aimed at particular audiences?

Address :

            How do the media speak to audiences?

Circulation   :

            How do media reach audiences?

Uses      :

            How do audiences use media in their daily lives? What are their habits and patterns of use?

Making sense         :

            How do audiences interpret media? What meaning do they make?

Pleasure           :

            What pleasures do audiences gain from media?

Social differences     :

            What is the role of gender, social class age and ethnic background in audience behavior?

These all things are included in audience study.
When people (the audience) use and identify with particular symbols and artifacts. They express their cultural identities. As an e.g. when we respond readily to the tricolor or the Gandhi symbol we identify ourselves as Indians. It distinguishes us from other cultural identities. And our cultural codes like dress, eating habits and life styles give us a identities of as member of particular cultural group.

Reception Theory:

Reception theory emphasizes the reader’s reception of a literary text or media. This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for negotiation and opposition on the scope for negotiation and opposition on the part of the audience. This means that a “text” be it a book, movie, or other creative work is not simply passively accepted by the audience. But that the reader / viewer interpret.
The meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experience. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. A basic acceptance of the meaning of a specific text tends to occur when a group of readers have a shared cultural background and interpret the text in similar ways. It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist the less he /she will be able to recognize the artist’s tended meaning, and it follows that if two reader have vastly different cultural and personal experiments their reading of a text will vary greatly.
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory it was most influential during the 1970s and early 19805 in Germany and use. A form of reception theory has also been applied to the study of historiography.
The theory of student hall considered that how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded by audiences.

Encoded and Decoded

-       When a producer constructs a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience.
-       In some instances audiences will correctly decoded the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say.
-       In some instance the audiences will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message.

Student hall’s types of audience.

Student halls give us three types of audiences.

1. Dominant audience :

             Where the audience the message as the producer wants them to do broadly agrees 
             with it.E.g. watching a political speech and agreeing with it.

    2. Negotiated:

Where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of.
E.g. neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.
         
         3. Oppositional:

      Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition.

Conclusion:

            I would like to conclude my point adding that producer encodes the meaning and audience decodes meaning and message by their own ways. Thought and values.