Frame study- The Modern Times

This blog is a response to the blog task assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. It deals with understanding of 20th century socio- political- economic- religion conditions. For better understanding of any literary text films or documentaries play a very vital role. And Charlie Chaplin's films 'The Modern Times' and 'The Great Dictator' serve a great purpose of better understanding of 20th century scenario. This blog concerns the setting of 20 century, demonstrating it through Chaplin’s films ‘The Modern Times’ and ‘The Great Dictator’ And few frame studies from the movie.

FRAME STUDY- 'THE MODERN TIMES'

Read my blog on the 20th century setting. CLICK HERE.

Charlie Chaplin:

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen , and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. Through the films of Chaplin we can learn many things about the 20th century. If films are watched for the sake of fun it's mere comedy; it brings out the reality of Chaplin is a comedian but not a comedian.

Let’s discuss his films which are distinctly presenting the 20th century.

Study of ‘The Modern Times’

'The Modern Times' is a 1936 film directed by Charlie Chaplin. The movie talks about the little Tramp trying to adjust in the industrialized world. The movie is a complete comedy film but it shows the reality of an industrialist capitalist world. It is a silent movie but as it is said by Rumi, Persian poet 'Listen to silence, it has so much to say.’

What is frame study?

A frame is a single image of film or video. Framing (a shot) involves composing the visual content of a series of frames as seen from a single point of view, i.e., a fixed camera. When framing a shot, the filmmaker creates a visual within the dimensions of the lens just as a painter creates a visual within the dimensions of a canvas. A frame study is the study or understanding of the frame by a camera which is describing or indicating a lot of things to actually understand the meaning behind the fixed camera image.

Frame 1: Time Boundaries

The movie begins with this frame of a clock, the clock is a suggestion of a mechanical life. We hear from elders, people used to work with the rotation of the sun; they used to start their work with the rising of the sun and end their day with the setting of the Sun. so it was usually heard that not much work was completed in the winter as the days were short but today our life works on the hands of the clock. We wake up with an alarm, we sleep with the clock, we work according to the timing. The rising of the sun and setting of the sun doesn't bother, so the clock is a symbol of mechanical life. The frame of clock in the movie also suggests the industrialization that with the increase of industries the life of people has also turned like a machine and they work in a 9;00 am to 5:00 pm job, in a monotonous routine.

Frame 2: Sheep + people= sheeple

In the beginning of the movie there comes a frame of a herd of sheep running towards the pen and in a fade in transition comes the frame of a people who are moving in a crowd with one destination that is industry. This frame of people moving in a crowd shows that people don't have a different ideology, a direction they are running behind one man where society is taking to them. It can also be read as a sheep or animal following the order given by Shepherd similarly a crowd of people follows the order given by their head or industrial, mechanical world. We can call them ગાડરિયો પ્રવાહ, no direction, no individual ideology just following the orders.

Frame 3:

These three frames of the movie show how an aristocratic class, the head of the industries, are spending their leisure time by playing a Jigsaw puzzle which can also be interpreted as the industrialist is playing with the life of the working class people. In the second image we see that the president of an industrial industry is reading a newspaper, a cartoon Section of the newspaper and on the other side of the working class is working hard to run the industry. it indicates the difference in the life of upper class society and the working class society. Working class society have to do a lot of physical hard work while the upper class society do have their leisure time even being the head of the industry, they have their own power and there is no one to control them.

Frame 4: Muscle Power vs Mind Power

This frame suggests the mind power ruling over muscle power. In monarchy muscle power was force, strength with its help kings ruled their nation but in the 20th century mind power ruled to muscle power.

Frame 5/6: Man Vs Machine

The above frame of the movie shows how a man in an industrial world lives a life according to the machine. The president of the industry ordered to increase the speed of a section 5 where our hero the Tramp is tightening the bolt. as the machine speeded the tramp had to increase his speed of tightening the bolt, again and again he is falling behind but he is trying his best to cope up with the speed of a machine and this directly symbolizes how human beings are trying to cope up with the machine and have to run with the machine.

Through this we can also conclude that it is necessary to be smarter than technology. If technology gets smarter than us it will start dominating human beings as here the tramp had to work according to machines which demonstrate machines dominating the tramp. Technology has an ability to enslave human beings if human beings skip following the one direction.

It is a surreal (unreal, unusual) image. But it shows how humans are running according to the machine, working on the fingertips of the machine.

Frame 7: Control

These two frames of the movie suggest how the upper plus society in people had a control over the working class. The working class had to work on the order of their head. They didn't even get a time to freshen up, they had to completely work as a machine. As Josiah Bounderby of the novel 'Hard Times’ considered his workers to be emotionless, faceless “hands”. Here we can clearly see that technology, science, and machines are used to control life. while the main motive of the advancement in technology is to make the life of the people easier but here instead of giving freedom its controlling life.

Frame 8: Mechanization of Man

This video shows how the mechanical life of The Tramp came under the influence of machines and industrialization that he himself couldn't control his body and this resulted Into nervous breakdown of the Tramp in the movie. And he kept on tightening the bolt wherever he could, whether the buttons in the skirt of a lady or the buttons of the men's dress.

Frame 9:

This frame shows the rise of advertisement in the 20th century. A few people from the company came with a feeding machine and with an opinion that if the industry buys this feeding machine workers will work even in recess time the time will not be wasted for lunch. Again we see, technology is not used to make life easy but to increase the physical workload of the workers. When the machine malfunctioned no one was worried about the worker, everyone was busy repairing the machine. The industry was not ready to purchase this machine because it is not practical, not because it is dangerous.

Frame 10:

These frames of the movie show how industrialization was at the peak in the period that the unemployed working class people had to fight for their Liberation, for their employment. And the newspaper shows the strikes and riots and it shows the social condition of the 20th century. The Tramp was happy that at least he is getting food and a place to sleep because outside the jail he was unemployed, riots were going on, strikes were going on. He had no food to eat, no shade to live in which shows the image of the 20th century; the working-class didn't have even the basic amenities of life like Roti, Kapda, Makan.

Frame 11: Hunger

This frame of the movie shows the scenario of the 20th century, socio economic condition of the society. This child, Gamin, is stealing the food she has no mother and her father is unemployed. they don't have anything to eat and the condition is the people had to steal the food for their living. Comparing it with contemporary times we can see that even today, a crore of people need to give free food for their living because they are not employed and don't have money even for buying food.

Frame 12: Fact vs fancy

These images this frames of the movie shows that every working class people unemployed people have their dream life of having a basic necessities like Roti, Kapda, Makan but in real life they didn't had a house to sleep. They found a small house which was breaking now and then and the Tramp was being hurted by it. This clearly shows the socio economic condition of the society that the people were unemployed, there were riots in the society, strikes were going on for liberty and they were deprived of the basic necessities like food shelter and clothes.

Frame 13:

These images show that the Gamin was dancing in the street and then was selected by a bar owner for dancing in his cafeteria. This shows that time didn't permit anyone to follow their hobbies. Everything was to be done within economical insight, financial Insight. Everything done was only for money and The Gamin also started dancing in the cafeteria for money.

Frame 14:

This is the last frame I would like to discuss. In this scene officers were taking The Gamin to the Orphan house forcefully . After the death of Gamin's father her two younger sisters were taken to the orphanage house. This was the idea of the welfare state but the Gamin Escaped from this officer, this cruelty of taking a Orphan child forcedly to the orphanage also seems like enslaving the human being. It is the idea for the Welfare of the human but doing anything forcedly is not for the Welfare through this we can interpret that it even in the name of the Welfare human were enslaved or can be said are forced to follow the rules of the State, Authority or officers. Indicates dictatorial 20th century. 

Reflecting Over the process:

This is the first time where I had tried the frame study of the movie. watching a movie for the means of entertainment and watching the movie for the understanding of the literary text makes a great difference. Charlie Chaplin movie ‘The Modern Times’ is a comedy but watching this movie After studying about the setting of the twentieth century we realize That it is not just mere comedy but it is the reality of the society which prevailed sometime. Watching movies has always been entertaining but studying movies and understanding the framework of the movie seems interesting. It turned out to be a difficult task which needed a lot of thinking and understanding but was delightful.

I hope this blog was useful to you thanks for visiting.

Cited work:

Dickens, Charles. “Hard Times, by Charles Dickens.” Accessed January 30, 2022. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/786/786-h/786-h.htm.

“Framing in Filmmaking - Hollywood Lexicon.” Accessed January 30, 2022. http://www.hollywoodlexicon.com/frame.html.

Guerra. Charlie Chaplin Tempos Modernos Modern Times 1936 Legendado, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Blz8AWQXA.

News, A. S. V. “Study Frames of Charlie Chaplin’s Films The Modern Times and The Great Dictator - Asvnews.” Accessed January 30, 2022. https://asvnews.in/study-frames-of-charlie-chaplins-films-the-modern-times-and-the-great-dictator/.

For reading about the framework of the movie ‘The Great Dictator’ by Charlie Chaplin please CLICK HERE

[words- 2050]

Thinking activity on movie screening- Vita and Virginia

VITA AND VIRGINIA
ORLANDO

This blog is written in response to a post-viewing task of a Movie Vita and Virginia in connection to Novel Orlando by Virginia Woolf, given by Vaidehi Ma’am. In this blog I am answering the questions stated by ma’am in her blogs.

Vita and Virginia:

Vita and Virginia is a movie directed by Chanya Button, released in 2018. This movie talks about a Romance between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville. It is a biographical romantic drama adapted from the 1992 play Vita & Virginia by Atkins.

Orlando:

Orlando: A biography is a Biographical novel published in 1928. It is inspired from the life of Vita Sackville Woolf’s lover and a close friend. The book describes the adventures of a protagonist who changes sex from man to woman and lives for around 36 years only but story spans over 300 years.

How far do you feel that Orlando is influenced by Vita and Virginia’s love affair? Does it talk only about that or do you find anything else too?

When we see the relationship between Vita and Virginia we find that it was the time when the relationship between two females or male was not accepted by society. They wanted to change this relationship. It was questioning the gender identity there was no gender as the female and male. Vita and Virginia both are female, both are having their own individual neutral family, they are having their husband which is a normal family, normal relationship according to society. But they both are attracted towards each other and they get into a love affair which is not normal or accepted by the society. There comes a question about gender identity.

I interpret that this same question of gender identity is brought to light in Orlando as we see that In Orlando, protagonist Orlando's gender changes suddenly in the novel. First he is a male living the life of a male and in the other half of the novel he is changed into, he turns into the female gender and very precisely we can see that there is a lot of change by the society towards a female and a male protagonist. very clearly we can see that through the example of writing of the poem The oak tree, when Orlando was the male was writing the poem The oak tree the critics were ready to listen and were ready to write review on his that poem but once he turned into the female Gender and was writing the Oak tree she had to face the problem for its publication and acceptance.

So here looking at the concept of gender identity we can say that Orlando is influenced by Vita and Virginia as a love affair.

Who do you think is confused about their identity Vita or Virginia? Explain with illustrations.

Vita and Virginia both were celebrated female writers, Vita was more popular than Virginia. They both met at a party. Vita and Virginia both had homosexual relationship with each other in the time of 1920s where the sexual relationship of male that is a gay relationship was also a crime and in that period to female had homosexual relationship in a way. It was real daring, Vita and Virginia both were married to a male and had a happy married life.

According to me I feel in both, Vita was more confused about her identity she had various love affairs with various people. We also find in the movie that in the beginning her mother was questioning her or in a way scolding her for being eloped with a man named Violet. Vita was also mother of two children, we also found that her own as husband had other extramarital affairs, Vita already had love affair with Violet, was a wife of a man, was a mother of two children and yet she had homosexual relationship with Virginia and in the movie itself we saw that after Virginia he also her she also had sexual relationship with another lady with whom he entered into the exhibition. Through that we can read that she had various relationships with male and females. She herself was perhaps confused that to whom she was in a relationship a male or a female also she was married and was playing the role of wife in the eyes of society and also she was a mother of two children. through the behavior of Vita we can feel that she herself is confused that what she wants in her personal relationship she wants to have a a ideal family relationship also and wants to have a fantasy homosexual relationship also not only homosexual, she is also having an extramarital affair with a man which clearly suggests that Vita is confused in herself.

What is society’s thought about women and identity? Do you agree with them? If Yes then why? If not then why?

In a view of society it is generally accepted that every woman or a female should play her role genuinely and her own gender roles should be her own priority. Doing something out of the box is not appreciated by society at first. the traditional role of a female is to look after the family, look after the husband and children and to complete the household work and today women are coming out of the traditional home and stepping out of the house for earning money for having her own stability and being independent but still today society expect that it's ok if women is working outside the house but she should look after the family first. If a family is in trouble or has functions, the woman is expected to leave his work and give priority to the house. Even if she is earning, earning turns to be a second priority and it is completely opposite for the man. For men earning is still a first priority and household work or house looking after the home is secondary.

In short, according to me, in the eyes of society women are expected to play their traditional gender roles which is not correct today. The world is advancing, society should widen its view and happily accept and support females working and should help to make a free from traditional roles. Conditioning of the mind should be changed and should be explained that you are also equal to the men and she has all the Independence to do what she wants to.

What are your views on Gender Identity? Would you like to give any message to society?

Gender identity is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female (or rarely, both or neither). Gender identity is the major issue in our nation. society is not ready to accept their children or their relatives in any other Gender than male and female. It is necessary to understand for everyone that it is natural and it’s not in their hands. We can understand that it is not easy to accept the truth of transgender but if they are we should support them. today our nation has made a section about its permission and its allowance but still we find that they are there are people who are not ready to accept it or look at the transgender sex with surprise. Being an individual and Society we should support them, accept them and should make them feel that they are one of us, normal people not an exceptional case.

Today much of Attempts are made by literary writers, filmmakers, TV serial makers to open the eyes of the society and to normalize this thing about transgender. we had a TV serial named ‘Shakti' talking about transgenders; serial name the 'Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan' which had a character who was homosexual and was not accepted by her mother. This attempt made by the directors and producers are a good step towards a good Society for such people who are ignored in the society.

Write a note on the direction of the movie. Which symbols and space caught your attention while watching the movie?

In the movie Vita and Virginia we get to see where Virginia is very much in a disturbed and she is running out of the house and lots of black birds are flying over her. She visualizes blackbirds coming towards her and striking her. This scene was a strong scene that attracted my attention and I think it was symbolizing the mental stability of Virginia. it was symbolizing her loneliness and depression. I interpret this scene as showing the mental illness of Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf suicide is considered to be the most artistic suicide. In the movie we find a scene where she is standing near the river bank and looking at the water. I personally feel that scene symbolizes her suicidal thoughts after being tired of her own indecisiveness and mental illness which was also creating troubles for her husband.

In the movie we also have a scene where Virginia and Vita are meeting for the first time and the camera is moving towards the leaves and the plants which are growing faster. It might be symbolizing the growing feelings, attraction between the two, Vita and Virginia.

Vita and Virginia" had to be made into a Bollywood Adaptation, who do you think would be fit for the role of Vita and Virginia?

If Vita and Virginia would be a Bollywood adaptation I would select Priyanka Chopra in the role of Virginia Woolf And Alia Bhatt in the role of Vita Sackville.

Thank you for visiting. I hope this blog was useful to you. Please share your views about gender identity in the comment section.

[words- 1597]

Modern Times- Science Fiction

This blog is written as response the blog task based on the modern times. In the blog task I am going to describe about Science- fiction of 20th century with reference of some Bollywood movies.

Sci- Fi

What defines science fiction?

Science fiction is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. Scientific fiction deals with futuristic and imaginative concepts. It is also called ‘literature of Ideas'. It generally deals with advanced science inventions or Technologies. By the beginning of the 20th century, an array of standard science fiction “sets” had developed around certain themes, among them space travel, robots, alien beings, and time travel.

We can interpret the science fiction developed in the 20th century because it is a century of scientific advancement. Industrialization increased, mass production and the materialistic view of the public increased . Science fiction can work on the two motives. Science fiction shows the positive impacts of the development of Science and Technology and many times a science fiction novel and television series shows how it will start dominating us and will bring the negative impact in society.

We can also interpret that some science fiction readers are so much involved in the reading of sci- fi novels that they are attracted towards it which inspired them to make some of the scientific experiments and to invent new things, reading imaginative scientific fiction developed their imagination of power to invent new things.

H.G. Wells was once referred to as 'the Shakespeare of Science Fiction.' He is more often called 'the father of Science Fiction' because of his novels such as The Time Machine (1895) or The War of the Worlds (1898).

Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1818):

Here we say that science fiction developed majorly in the 20th century but we also say that Mary Shelley's ‘Frankenstein’ is science fiction which was published in the 19th century in 1818. Novel was written because electricity was developing in that era and it was so powerful that it would bring danger to the lives of people. Electricity was tested on the dead bodies of animals and was shown how the electricity creates vibrations in the dead body. If it can give life to a dead body then how harmful it can be to the living person to show this concept. Mary Shelley wrote a sci-fi name Frankenstein but it emerged in the 20th century.

Mary Shelley's novel of the 19th century gave us the futuristic view of robots which we are seeing today. In Frankenstein the body parts were joined and through electricity a life was given to that stitched to body parts and the monster was created and if we compared to the present time we can see that what a futuristic insight Mary Shelley had with the help of electricity and wires and connecting the iron we are creating a person a robot.

H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’ (1895):

H.G. Wells Sci-Fi novel ‘The Time Machine’ talks about a device or a vehicle through which a person came back in the time or further in the time. Time Machine is interpreted in modern times as a commentary on the increasing inequality and class divisions of Wells' era, which he projects as giving rise to two separate human species.

Comparing it with the present time still we have not got any such machine device or a vehicle through which we can move back and forth in the time as we so that in Mary Shelley Sci-Fi Frankenstein we can compare that to Electricity we have invented a robot the futuristic view which Mary Shelley gave came true but till 21st century the future is to give you a given by HG Wells of time machine has not came true.

The Other Sci-Fi novels written by HG wells are The Invisible Man, The War of the World

There are various Sci Fi novel writers do read about them by clicking on this link

https://www.famousauthors.org/10-famous-science-fiction-authors-you-must-be-reading

We do see such types of sci-fi movies in Bollywood also.

Mr. India

Bollywood movie mister India directed by Shekhar Kapoor introduced a gadget through which the protagonist mister India was able to get invisible and was visible only in the red light the gadget was like a wrist watch .

Tarzan The Wonder Car:

This movie is directed by Abbas Burmawalla and Mustan Burmawalla. They used an artificial intelligence in the car which made a car work on its own. We do see such intelligence in today’s driverless cars.

Love story 2050:

Love Story 2050, directed by Harry Baweja, was exclusively about traveling to a utopian future-city of Mumbai in the year 2050. It is the first utopian time travel film of Bollywood. The movie shows futuristic Mumbai, with its flying cars, holograms, robots, 200-story buildings and more.

Robot:

Robot movie, directed by S. Shankar. It gives a So Beautiful idea that how robot can help be helpful to us in our everyday life it makes our life easy it can also be used in the armed forces to safeguard the nation but it also showed that when science will advance to a state where it and will grow by its own artificial intelligence it can also dominate a human being and can be harmful for the living beings.

Doraemon:

We also have a children's fantasy cartoon named Doraemon which we consider to be a sci-fi cartoon. In this cartoon a robot name the Doraemon has came to Nobita from the 22nd century and he provides the various gadgets to help Nobita and to make the life easy. he has the various gadgets like time machine, anyway door which helps a person to reach anywhere in a very less period of time, big light, small light. Translating tools through which the human would be able to understand the language of animals and also the people who are speaking a completely opposite language we can interpret that it will increase the brotherhood in the nation. He has a gadget which cleans a house on its own and takes care of the house which can be very much necessary in the faster and the busy life. This cartoon shows how the 22nd century would be. At present we are in the 21st century and we have grown a lot faster and better than the 20th century. We can interpret that the 22nd century might be faster than what life we are having at present and can also imagine and have a futuristic view that perhaps the gadgets shown in the cartoon will be present in some or the other way.

Conclusion:

Science fiction novels, films are the genres in Literature which can be considered to be the most creative genres. Sci- fi novels take readers or the viewer to adventure from galaxies to the underwater, it also introduces the readers and viewer to the otherworldly characters and also gives insight into the Technologies, showing the power of Science and Technology.

I hope this blog was useful to you. Thank you for visiting.

[Words- 1133]

Modern Period

This blog is the thinking activity given to us on the setting of the 20th century in reference to the text by A. C. Ward Dr. Dilip Barad sir. In this blog I am going to talk briefly about 'the highlights of the setting' of the 20th century along with the scientific fiction literature written in this period.

 The Setting

“In the first fifty years of the twentieth century the human race moved through a remarkable series of upheavals than during perhaps fifty generations in the past.”

-A.C. Ward

The 20th century is considered to be the Anti- Victorianism, the century immediately after the Victorian century. The youngster realized that the Decorum, Civilization, culture, manners of Victorian Society is a hypocrisy and the religion they followed was sham. idealism showed a clear hypocrisy and the youngsters started standing against all this Victorian manners or way of living which were fake and not to the mark. Also the time of 1890- 1990 was considered to be naughty Nineties as the youngsters started a revolution or a kind of rebellion against the way of living which was for the longest period, Victorian period in the English literature. We can define modern age as the reaction against the Victorian age both at social and literary level.

We would see what Victorianism was and how a modern mindset emerged through Anti- Victorianism.

Victorians used to believe that it is the best order of society, it is the perfect as God has designed. They believed in the idea of permanence. Felt that the institutions, Institution of The home, the constitution, the Empire, the Christian religion given by Victorians were the final revelation. They felt that their houses were of the unshakable foundation; they didn't believe in the idea of change. While Early twentieth century writers believed in universal mutability. H G Wells spoke of 'the flow of things'. Youth hated furnishing of Victorian households but even more of Victorian minds.

There was a widespread submission to the expert and the voice of authority by the Victorians. It was the natural tendency, natural attitude of the Victorians to accept whatever is stated by the authority without questioning. But it was not accepted by the youth, by the modern society they believed in the idea of the interrogative habit of mind. The idea of G.B. Shaw Question! Examine! Test! Was more powerful in youth. They believed in the voice of Darwin in ‘The Descent of Man’ rather than of Victorian authorities or the voice of God in the Bible.

1901 to 1925 literature was written with mental attitudes, moral ideas and spiritual values which were completely opposite to Victorian literature in the Modern Times. All the certainties were certainties no longer everything was held open to question. The youth of the early 20th century looked back upon the Victorian age as dull and hypocritical. Victorian ideals appeared mean and superficial and stupid.

“Man's growing mastery of the physical world and its material resources is a story of ever-accelerating progress accompanied in its later phases by an unprecedented moral and spiritual relapse.”

-A.C. Ward

As mentioned by the A.C. Ward, The 20th century moved backward and forward faster than any other century and it was because of the scientific Revolution, advancement of Science and technology. If we compare the 20th century with the 21st century, we can interpret that the 21st century might be faster; it must be having more upheavals than the 20th century. Today the world is changing every 5 years. Who thought about the Corona pandemic? It changed the image of the world completely in 2 years.

Progress and Regress are the fruit of the Scientific revolution. It made lives of people easy but on the other hand it brought wars. If we take an example of an airplane it made the lives of the people easy, made life faster for traveling but played a major role in World wars.

With progress of science Mass production increased Which caused the threat of the death of craftsmanship. More and more people started moving towards readymade clothes and branded clothes. The example of the threat of the death of craftsmanship can be seen in a literary work of John Galsworthy's ‘Quality’ (1912) which talks about a cobbler, who used to make shoes for years and suddenly had to face breakdown. Art gave place to Anti- art

The writers of the century were divided into two groups: Bloomsbury Group and Fabian Society.

Bloomsbury group was an informal network of an influential group of artists, art critics, writers and an economist, many of whom lived in the West Central 1 district of London known as Bloomsbury. ‘At the turn of the new century came a succession of writers with powerfully skeptical minds untouched by reverence for custom or the established order.’ Bloomsbury Group had the principle of ‘Art for the Arts sake’. It was the group who used to go against Victorian ethics and customs, it believed in informal meetings and lifestyle. This group consists of men and women who used to informally meet and sit in gardens which was completely against Victorian mannerism. Writers of this group were majorly from the Porsche region.

Fabian society was completely opposite to the Bloomsbury group. This group talked about the poor, it consisted of writers like G.B. Shaw, H.G. Wells, Galsworthy. This society reflected Victorian ideals because instead of fighting to get what they wanted, The Fabians used respect and manners. Nearest general action was of spreading knowledge as to the relation between the individual and Society. They had the principle of ‘Art for life's sake’ and gave the concept of ‘Welfare state’.

In the two world wars we found a lot of dictatorship by dictators like Mussolini and Hitler society public mass was very much influenced by all these dictators. Political condition of the 20th century was dictatorship, Mussolini, Hitler all these dictators were of cult personalities, they were very much popular among the masses, people were their blind followers. As we know literature and life goes hand in hand the writers of that era were able to see that this dictatorship is a threat for the nation ruining the people and Society but if the literary writers would have written anything against them the society would not have accepted them and would have contempt for them. So in 1922 a new form of writing emerged through the publishing of Ulysses and the Wasteland. They wrote literature of Esoteric fastness. complex intellectualized language outside the mental range and unstirring to the emotion of most of the proletariat (working class people).

E.M. Foster states that this use of highly intellectual language seems to be an escapism. He states that write a writing in a highly intellectualized language so that Ivory Towers, in the mind the position what they have gained does not break down due to the reaction of the mob towards their writing and other reason was the dictatorial intellectualism the writers were completely under the influence of the dictator and if they were shown the truth of that time they were not in a mental state to accept the truth. so They decided to write in a language which is not at all understood by the common man with an idea that the people of the future would be able to understand them.

As it was a time of War the anti war literature also began in this period. The war poems were written and it talked about the anti-war and Humanism. War is useless and leads to massacre of human beings. Nothing comes out of the war. writers are human centric so whenever the activity happens which is anti-humanistic. They have to write a literature which talks about the Anti- humanistic activity here which is war.

Later after the world war many questions of social security started. There was an increase of a group which was completely poor and on the other side there was a group of rich people and affluent society who had a life of fun and came a wealth wastage. while there were other side there was a people who are unemployed who needed more security the and it resulted into the increase increment of crime and prostitution. No spirituality and abundance of sexuality. and as in this period the spirituality was destroyed a new group of people, a 'Beatnik group' emerged which were considered to be the spiritual tramps, the Dharma Bums to increase the spirituality in the nation which was lost, humanity which was lost in this war period.

With scientific advancement the world became materialistic. Mass production happened, the death of craftsmanship, production was done in the Assembly line, more and more production was done, it was necessary to increase the sales of the production and so the genre of advertisement came into existence . Advertising was working with depth psychology. It made two people hungry for the branded things, to buy the things so the people of the wealthy class bought more and more things. At this time the literature also started getting advertised where the old mindset was that good literature is sold mouth to mouth. The influence of advertisement increased a lot.

The literature of a satirical tone increased in this period majorly the tragicomedy gained popularity because when the people were shown that a harsh reality of of the period they were not able to accept it and going against the political party, a ruling party would harm to the literary writers so they adapted the genre of tragicomedy which seemed humorous but it showed a very harsh reality of the society.

In the conclusion paragraph A.C.Ward says that as Victorian time is gone we can judge them in a better way, they had a civilized manners, customs, virtues and restraints which were not naturally grown but were arbitrarily imposed and forced. There was a personality Cult among them, Passion for exhibition increased in the people. Comparing it with the contemporary time today we feel that the 21st century is about digitalization. It is a digital era but we don't know how The future is going to see this period. A.C Ward what is saying the 20th century had passion for exhibition then if we see the present time today every person has your personal camera and they keep on exhibit in themselves on the social media through their photos, their work, activities, achievements done by them. personality cult and passion for exhibition we can say by reading the A.C Wards statement that it has increased in the 21st century in comparison to the 20th century.

I have written blog on science fiction in recommendation to 20th century to visit it CLICK HERE.

I hope you were able to get a basic idea about the setting of the 20th century. I have tried to cover necessary points of the setting in reference to A.C. Ward’s text and have shared my ideas about scientific fiction. Thank you for visiting, please comment for queries

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Bridge Course: T.S. Eliot's Tradition and Individual Talent

T.S. Eliot's 'Tradition and Individual Talent'

This blog is in response to the bridge course given to us by Dr. Dilip Baradsir. It is about the T.S. Eliot’s ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’, an essay of literary criticism which is considered to be the beginning of new criticism. In this blog I am going to share my understanding about essay tradition and individual talent.

Thomas Steams Eliot:

Thomas Steams Eliot (1888-1965) was a poet, publisher and playwright along with a seminal critic of his time. T.S. Eliot has described his criticism as a “by-product” of his “private poetry-workshop” and as “a prolongation of the thinking that went into the formation of my own verse”. He has been strongly influenced by the school of new criticism .

Tradition and Individual Talent:

In his essay ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’, argues that art must not be understood in vacuum but in context to his previous species of art that is past artistic work. An essay ‘Tradition and Individual Talent was first published in the periodical ‘The Egoist’ in 1919 and later it was published in Eliot’s book of Criticism ‘The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism in 1919/20. This essay is divided into three sections.

The structure of the essay as is as below:

State the difference between the judgment of a work done by the Englishmen and the Frenchmen. He says that the Englishman judges the work based on the novelty of the work and the individuality of the author in the work. If an Englishman examines work critically they will realize that the best part of a book is where a writer mirrors their ancestors/ past writers. That part of the book would be the Immortal part. To judge any book write needs to compare the work with the work of past, comparison is not for derogating the present work but it will help to judge the present work in more better way it will help to understand the facts and to analyze the work done in the contemporary time following the work of the ancestors of the past write a does not mean the mere copy of the past or historical work but it shows that the good the writer has the good historical sense which is necessary for the author.

Concept of Tradition:

How would you like to explain Eliot's concept of Tradition? Do you agree with it?

 What do you understand by Historical Sense? (Use these quotes to explain your understanding)

Tradition means a belief, principle or way of acting which people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time, or all of these beliefs, etc. in a particular society or group.

-Cambridge Dictionary

‘Tradition’ an ‘inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom)’

-Merriam-Webster Dictionary

There is always tension between being traditional and the modern writer. Being modern automatically means good and being traditional automatically means not good or undesirable. Englishmen associate the term tradition with a poet and see it in a derogatory way. They criticize poets for being traditional, it seems like imitations of predecessors and is considered as pointing to negative qualities of a poet. But Eliot says that it is not true, an idea of tradition is very wide, It is not just imitating predecessors. He does not mean slavish repetitions of stylistic and structural features. According to Eliot no words can be charged in isolation if you want a correct judgment about any work then it must be compared with the past work it doesn't mean that the writer should have a bookish knowledge about the history and predecessor writer or they should spoon-feed the history but they should know style and structure of the work from the homer to the till day. so that they can write their work in a better way. Every writer should have a historical sense which is not only important in writing but it is also important in everyday life.

“the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity.”

Through this statement he states that authors should develop the sense of pastness of the past and examine the work in relation to the work of past writers/ predecessors. According to Eliot tradition is already an existing monument and individuals can only marginally add a bit or extent a bit. For example if we have a heritage structure we can just add a minaret or a floor. Keeping the overall harmony of the individual structure can make an existing thing beautiful.

"The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence"

This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional.

Similarly, following tradition in literary work doesn't mean mere imitation of predecessors, it is fitting within the tradition and seeing how he can contribute to the tradition and concept of individual talent. If we read the poetic work of Eliot we need to have knowledge of all the fields like anthropology, French, Shakespeare, religious tradition; we need to have knowledge of all disciplines like mythology, oriental influence, Upanishads etc.

Throughout essay he uses the words like ‘surrendering to the tradition’, ‘sacrificing one’s own self’, We can interpret that all these words are coming in opposition of the writing style of Wordsworth or of all the romantic writers as according to Eliot ‘upholding the self’ is not important but merging with the tradition is important.

Explain: "Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential history from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum".

According to the argument done by Eliot, all the writers must be learned scholars and should have the historical sense but here he presents an exceptional case of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare's biography doesn't say that he has visited the university and one of his prefaces also says that Shakespeare must not be knowing any language other than English so we cannot say that he is a learned person but the literary works produced by him is extraordinary work.

“Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it. Shakespeare acquired more essential histories from Plutarch than most men could from the whole British Museum”.

He says that some people are so intelligent or talented that they absorb the knowledge of his/her age. Shakespeare acquired so much historical sense about the Roman and Greek histories from the work of Plutarch that today's learned man is not able to get it by reading the whole British museum. The one who is intelligent absorbs the knowledge and others who are ‘Tardy’ have to sweat for gaining the knowledge.

Harold Bloom criticizes and says that ‘this is some kind of anxiety of influence that the current author is feeling the presence of His/ her creative processes/ ancestors looming large upon him/ her.’ Harold Bloom in his book ‘Anxiety of Influence: A theory of Poetry’ says that there is some psychological struggle in the new aspiring authors to overcome the anxiety caused by the influence of their literary antecedents. He says it criticizing Eliot because this essay is stating that the poet should use knowledge of the writers of the past to influence their work.

I personally do agree to the idea of tradition. It is necessary to have historical sense. Edmund Burke is often misquoted as having said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Theory of Impersonal Poetry:

Theory of Impersonal Poetry Eliot is comparing the poet and the process of making a poem with a scientific chemical reaction of formation of sulphurous acid in the laboratory. He says that the mind of the poet should be like the catalyst. In the preparation of sulphurous essay Water acidic reaction takes place between water and Sulphur dioxide in the presence of a catalyst Platinum. Once the reaction is done and Sulphurous acid is prepared we find that there is no trace of platinum in sulphurous acid that means that it has taken part in reaction but it has no effect on the production similarly according to the mind of the poet, it should work like a catalyst.it should work in the production of the poem but it should not have effect on the poem that means the personal emotions and personal feelings of the poet should not the present in the poem And this theory is known as the Theory of depersonalization

Explain: " Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality."

According to Eliot mind of the poet is like a glass which has infinite emotions and feelings but the proper organization of these emotions and feelings produce an organized poem which is important. So according to Eliot personal emotions don't matter, But composition of the poem and intensity of the poem matters more. Later in the essay he gives an example of John Keats poem ‘Ode to Nightingale’, he says that this poem has many unnecessary personal feelings of the poet which are not related to not nightingale. Here he denounces or criticizes the poem. He also criticizes the definition of the poem given by the Wordsworth ‘Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquility’. Eliot is trying to bring classicism and objectivity in the poetry so when Wordsworth is saying that a poetry is an expression of the personal feelings and emotion Eliot is rejecting this subjectivity and says that poetry is the impersonal and universal. So he says that poetry is not to escape from emotion and to escape from personality and tries to bring out the difference between the personal emotions and the artistic emotions. Because the personal emotions can be raw while the artistic emotions can be refined. According to Eliot the poet's mind is filled with so many experiences the poet should look at the experiences in an artistic way and organize them properly to make a poem and not on it by giving the personal experiences.

Explain: "Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry"

It is supporting to write a poetry with artistic emotion he says the following line

“Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry”.

Poems should be criticized or should be appreciated based on the poetry not on the poet. That means if a poem is written with personal emotions or feelings then when we are not criticizing a poem we are criticizing the poet, the author but this is not the right way. According to Eliot's definition poem should be written with artistic emotion and the critic also should criticize the poem based on the poetry and should not feel that the poetry is the personal emotions and feelings of the poet so that the poet should not be criticized the criticism is of work.

Conclusion:

Finally Eliot concludes his essay by saying that the poet should depersonalize himself/herself from his poetry and should not ever express his personal feelings in the poetry. According to Eliot tradition is not something that is already living and this is in the historical sense. by saying that it is not the pastness of the past but the present which is important. He disapproves romantic tradition and talks about the recognition of the continuity of literature. For example when a poet of Gujarati or Bengali or any regional language writes a literary work we do find his roots in the classical Sanskrit literature. Similarly the Western writers should have his roots in the European history of literature that is from Homer to the till date he says that the work of art does not exist in isolation but in continuity. he also says that tradition is not something that you passively in inherent or bestowed upon you but something that you have to strive to get it. His idea of tradition is dynamic. And in the last part the emphasis is on the need for concentrating on the close reading of the text that begins the new criticism.

If we see the idea of tradition in the context of Indian tradition we talk about Ram/ Krishna. It is what is the pastness of Ram but how they are still alive, still living in our perception and attitude. That is what makes tradition it is timeless, do not have any past or present and is temporal, is still existing this is an idea of Eliot that it is not that you completely copy, walk on their footprints but the ideologies what they had in their life, inspire us, which are also applicable in our life and we use the idea of their life we keep the continuity of ideologies, positive ideologies is tradition.

This blog is lengthy but I have tried to cover all the points given by Eliot. I hope it is at least helpful to get a basic idea about the essay. Thank you for visiting.

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