LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 4 April 2010
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.

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Technique as Voyage of Discovery:
A Study of the Techniques in Dante's Paradiso

Raji Narasimhan

Contents

Chapter 1         Introduction

Chapter 2         Technique as Discovery

Chapter 3         Synthesis

Works Cited

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish . . . The business of life is mainly carried on by means of this difficult art of literature, and according to a man's proficiency in that art shall be the freedom and the fulness of his intercourse with other men (Stevenson).

Life is communicated through literature and the means by which this communication is reached is through the use of techniques. The "proficiency" that Stevenson speaks of is the deft use of technique. Mark Schorer advocates for the importance of techniques in literature:

When we speak of technique, then we speak of nearly everything. For technique is the means by which the writer's experience which is his subject matter, compels him to attend to it; technique is the only means he has of discovering, exploring, developing his subject, of conveying its meaning, and, finally of evaluating it. (249-250)

Technique is not just an "embellishment" in art, or a device of secondary importance. It is only with the help of techniques that the subject matter taken from life can be presented in the form of art; without techniques the author will certainly not be able to bring out the effect that he wishes to deliver. Technique is:

. . . the uses to which language, as language is put to express the qualities of experience in question; and the uses of point of view not only as a mode of dramatic delimitation, but more particularly, of thematic definition. Technique is really what T.S.Eliot means by 'convention': any selection, structure, or distortion, any form or rhythm imposed upon the world of action; by means of which it should be added, our apprehension of the world of action is enriched or renewed. (Schorer 252)

Art that lacks adequate techniques may take amoeboid forms of interpretation, far from what the author meant it to be. Schorer points out various novels where the use and neglect of techniques has made or marred the effect of the work respectively. This make the subject of art depend closely on the manipulation of techniques for the success of the work of art. Schorer points out that:

. . . everything is technique which is not the lump of experience itself and one cannot properly say that a writer has no technique, or that he eschews technique, for, being a writer, he cannot do so. We can speak of good and bad technique, of adequate and inadequate, of technique that serves the novel's purpose or disserves. (251)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

The Influence of First Language Grammar (L1) on the English Language (L2) Writing of Tamil School Students: A Case Study from Malaysia | Economic Hardship and Emotional Humiliation in Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable | Effects of Using Urdu Dictionary as a Teaching Tool for Teaching Urdu in Urdu Language Classroom in Pakistan | Acoustic Correlates of Stress in Mizo, a Tonal Language | Racism and the American Dream in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men | Stimulating Language Strategies through Thinking - Help for Slow Learners | Masses as the True Makers of History - Analysis of the Play The Trial of Dedan Mimathi | Personal and Labour Market Environment Factors in English for Employability: A Case Study of KSA | A Study of the Reported Language Skill Development Strategies of the Student Teachers in Pakistan | Strategies for Communication Skills Development | Schema in Learning | Achieving Professional Goals: Use of a Mixed Discourse in Interviews | The Reality in Langston Hughes' Poems | Techniques to Teach Vocabulary to Regional Medium Students | Life History of Buddha as Reflected in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha | Technique as Voyage of Discovery: A Study of the Techniques in Dante's Paradiso | Some Gaps in the Current Studies of Reading in Second/Foreign Language Learning | Unmasking Student Competence: Using Computers to Teach Writing | Feminist Literary Criticism | Amy Tan and Chinese American Literature | An Acoustic Analysis of Glottal Fricative [h] at Word Medial and Final Positions:
A Comparison between Regular and Non-regular Urdu Speakers of Pakistan | Teaching Writing Skills | Self-esteem of Institutionalised Elderly Women in Coimbatore - A Case History | An Assessment on Women's Work Participation and Economic Equality | Economics of Crime : A Comparative Analysis of the Socio-Economic Conditions of Convicted Female and Male Criminality in Selected Prisons in Tamil Nadu | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF APRIL 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT | HOME PAGE of April 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

Raji Narasimhan, M.A. Candidate
Department of English
PSGR Krishnammal College for Women
Peelamedu
Coimbatore 641004
Tamilnadu, India

 
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