LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 1 January 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.

HOME PAGE

AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

  • We seek your support to meet the expenses relating to the formatting of articles and books, maintaining and running the journal through hosting, correrspondences, etc.Please write to the Editor in his e-mail address msthirumalai2@gmail.com to find out how you can support this journal.
  • Also please use the AMAZON link to buy your books. Even the smallest contribution will go a long way in supporting this journal. Thank you. Thirumalai, Editor.

In Association with Amazon.com

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to msthirumalai2@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may send their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India     or e-mail to mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and booklength reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2009
M. S. Thirumalai
 
Web www.languageinindia.com

The Comic Vision in the Stories and Sketches of R. K. Narayan

S. Gunasekaran, Ph.D. Candidate

R. K. Narayan and Short Story

Narayan has a clear preference for the short story as an asset form. He enjoys writing a short story because, unlike the novel, it does not require a long consistent effort or a "minutely worked our detail. It can be brought into existence through a mere suggestion of a detail, the focus being kept on a central idea or climax" (Malgudi Days, 7).

In Narayan's opinion, the Indian scene provides a limitless wealth of material to a short story writer. All the rich experience cannot be utilized in novels alone since they are centralized "on a major theme, leaving out, necessarily, a great deal of available material on the periphery". The short story, he declares, can cover a wider field by presenting "concentrated miniatures of human experience in all its opulence" (Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, vii).

Humour in Narayan's Short Stories

Narayan, apart from producing humour through words, ideas, situation and character in the novels, he also equally produces humour through words, ideas, situation and character in the short stories.

Narayan's first collection of short stories, Malgudi Days (1941) contains several stories of comic and farcical situation. According to Prof. Abidi, "Malgudi Days marks a significant beginning in the creative career of R.K.Narayan, which later yielded a rich and satisfying crop in the field of short stories" (28).

Narayan creates the character of the Talkative Man who appears as a brilliant comic narrator in many short stories in later collections. The reportorial quality is also very strong in Malgudi Days and the stories have a strong popular appeal.

Irony, Satire and Other Effects

"Man-Hunt" is a funny story based on an ironic situation. Sankar, an unemployed youth, comes across an advertisement about a missing boy. Tempted by the reward of fifty rupees, he hunts out the boy, but his name and age are different. Sankar however takes the boy to his house, and is surprised to learn from the boy's father that the photo given in the paper was a wrong one. The boy he has brought is the elder brother of the missing boy and so he does not get the reward. The humour here rests on the comedy of error which is revealed towards the end of the story.

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

Linguistic Purism and Language Planning in a Multilingual Context | The Problems of Teaching/Learning Tenses | Language and Literature: An Exposition - Papers Presented in Karunya University International Seminar | Similes in Meghduta - The Absolute Craftsmanship in Language | Culture of the Tamil Society as Portrayed in Ponniyin Selvan | Deconstructing Human Society: An Appreciation of Amitav Ghosh's Sea Of Poppies | Enabling Students to Interpret Literary Texts Independently by Enhancing their Vocabulary | Coping with the Problems of Mixed Ability Students | Displaced Diasporic Identities - A Case Study of Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz | English Language Teaching in Developing Countries Error Analysis and Remedial Teaching Methods - An Overview | Diaspora Literature - A Hybrid or a Hybridized Product? | Anita Desai's Journey To Ithaca - A Manifestation of Vedantic Knowledge | A Study on the Physiological, Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives of Different Selves in a Self with Special Reference to Yann Martel's SELF | Conveniences and Complexities of Computer-Aided Language Learning | The Danger Lurking Within: The African American Woman in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye | Practices and Paradigms of Using Multimedia and Language Laboratory for Teaching Communication Skills to Technical Students | English: A Blessing in Disguise - A Study of Chinua Achebe's Technique of Hybridization | Language Teaching - The Present Day Challenges | Is Literature a Viable Medium for ESL Acquisition? | The Lord of The Rings : Galadriel, The Light Of Middle-Earth | Teaching Reading - A Challenge in Itself | The Silent Way | Translator as Reader: Phenomenology and Text Reception - An Investigation of Indulekha | The Dysfunctional Women in Mary Gordon'sThe Other Side | Utopia and Dystopia, Conflict Between Two Extremes - An Appraisal of Anita Desai's Cry, The Peacock | Reading 'god' Backwards | The Comic Vision in the Stories and Sketches of R.K.Narayan | My Responses to The English Teacher | 'Fall from Grace into Grief': Putting into Perspective the Outrages of Terrorism in Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown | Style and Language in M. G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song | Affirmation of Life in Lloyd C. Douglas' Magnificent Obsession | Effectiveness of Group Investigation Model and Simulation Model in Teaching English | A Mathematical Treatment of Feministic Literature for the Prediction of Social Trends | Multiple Intelligences and Second Language Learning | Amitav Ghosh's The Circle Of Reason - A Study of Diaspora | The Role of Multimedia in Teaching Writing in English | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF JANUARY 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT | HOME PAGE of January 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

S. Gunasekaran, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of English
Anna University Tiruchirappalli
Dindigul Campus
Dindigul - 624 622
Tamilnadu, India gunakundhavai@yahoo.com

 
Web www.languageinindia.com
  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    msthirumalai2@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknolwedged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.