LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:1 January 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

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

  • Your articles and book-length 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 © 2020
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Katherine Mansfield and Rajam Krishnan:

Womanhood from a Conventional Perspective

Dr. S. Chelliah, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to lay focus on Katherine Mansfield and Rajam Krishnan’s comparative perspective of their writings in terms of treatment of themes and narrative style. Both the writers believed that true literature is a product of inspiration and uses convention with individuality and imagination. Both the writers project the suppression and oppression of womanhood; through their writing, they intend to provoke awareness to them.

Keywords: Katherine Mansfield and Rajam Krishnan, Womanhood, Loneliness, conventional domestic life, Freedom and rights, Indian culture.

Comparative Literature, according to Rene Wellek, is “a study of all literatures from an international perspective with a consciousness of unity of all literary creations and experience-independent of ethnic and political boundaries.” One obvious objective of Comparative Literature is to arrive at a universal view of literature independent of linguistic, national or racial demarcations. A comparative analysis does not just add to our knowledge but leads to a fuller understanding of the works of art, thereby cultivating in us superior standards of literary judgement. Comparative literature has been made odious by mechanical analogies and forced parallelisms. Influence – hunting is an intellectual game that has caught the attention of many a comparatist. Under such circumstances, a comparative study of Katherine Mansfield and Rajam Krishnan seems to be a novel venture. Though separated by two generations, by race and by nationality, one can find obvious similarities in the writings of both in terms of treatment of themes and narrative style.

A genuine similarity between writers suggests itself to the discerning reader’s mind. One’s appreciation and classification of a writer is basically an unconscious process and sometimes comparisons strike one with the force of lighting. To use a convention with individuality requires genius and imagination. Of course, ideas and concepts can be the unique contributions of an author following an age-old technique. But in modern literature, there is not much of sympathy for writers who are mere instinctivists or thinkers. Modern literature of the West, certainly – is marked by its self-consciousness. Consequently modern criticism is also very much technique-oriented. But in Tamil, technique was not yet of this great importance. There were indeed a few writers like La. Sa. Ramamirtam, Mouni, and Ti. Janakiraman, following on the footsteps of Ku. Pa. Ra., who thought much about technique and evolved their own techniques. Many, however, just followed the formula.

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

Dr. S. Chelliah, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.
Dean of Arts, Humanities & Languages
Professor & Head
Department of English & Comparative Literature
Madurai Kamaraj University
Tamilnadu, India
Cell: 9442621106 / 7339129324
schelliah62@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@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 acknowledged the work or works of others you 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/South Asian scholarship.