Said’s idea on Orientalism

Said’s idea on Orientalism:

Before discussing Orientalism, it is necessary to know about Edward Said. So let’s have a look on Edward said in detail.

About Author:

Edward Said is one of the most shining stars of the postcolonial literature. He was a Palestinian American literary theorist and public intellectual who had found the difficult theory and field of post colonialism. Edward said is known mainly for his contribution to postcolonial studies on the topic of Orientalism-this being a consideration of the many different stereotypes that are present in the representation and understanding of the many Asian communities.

Edward Said has multiple critics. Porter concedes that Edward Said’s text has value, in so far as it examines the relationship between manifest Orientalism and its latent, originating ideas about the orient, rather than trying to consolidate the based perception of Orientalism with historical and biological facts. However he notes that it contains a fundamental contradiction in its basic structure.

Now let’s elaborate what is Orientalism in detail.

What is Orientalism?

“Orientalism is a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab people and culture as compared to that of Europe and the U.S.It often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic,backward,uncivilized and at times dangerous”

According to Edward Said:

“Orientalism is the acceptance in the west of the basic distinction between east and west as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the orient, its people, customs, mind and so on”

According to Edward Said, Orientalism dates from the period of European enlightenment and Colonization of the Arab World. Example of early Orientalism can be seen in European paintings and photographs in the U.S in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Edward Said starts by asserting the fact that orient played an instrumental role in the construction of the European culture as the powerful of other. The orient has helped to define Europe as its contrasting image, idea, personality experience. 

He then states that this Orientalism can be understood in combined representation of the orient in the western culture, science, politics etc. and transcending the borders of all this field of knowledge and it becomes a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between The Orient and the Occident.

Moreover, it transforms in to a powerful political instrument of domination.

“Orientalism as a western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over other nation”

As Edward Said is a Marxist, there is no wonder that it is third incarnation of the Orientalism and domination. In the Foucautian tradition, Edward Said suggests to look at Orientalism as a discourse.

Even today oriental countries have the same perspectives that they had earlier. They even today see any oriental country as a developing country. They believe that they are ahead in the world and we are underdeveloped people.

So, here Edward Said puts forward his ideas about Orientalism and later on he asks several questions as given below

Ø How do we look at east?

Ø How do the European countries look at east?

Ø How do they look at west?

So, these questions can be studied in a broader way. Edward Said then states that the western image of the orient and Orientalism had little to do with the real orient.

Orientalism is not simply the work of European imagination but it is all about power, domination, hegemony and authority. Orientalism is not a mere political subject matter or field that is reflected passively by culture.

Further Edward Said tells that we always look at our country as we are lacking those powers and reputation that the western countries possess. Edward Said starts by analyzing that public speeches and writing of two British imperialist of the 20^th century about the Egypt, making an emphasis on how the stress that since the British imperial authorities know better their country and they have a natural right to rule it.

Furthermore, Edward Said conveys his ideas and tells that we always want for reputation and power and it may be the possible reason for the thing that we are more and more by the western world and the impression is shrinking and our perspectives towards our country has started shrinking in our mind.

Furthermore Edward Said discusses the colonial effort of European powers in the second half of the 19^th century as it drew on symbolic resources provided by the Orientalism to claim the national support for the British and French imperial presence underdeveloped lands. Regarding how the orient was supposed to be divided between the European powers.

Moreover, Edward Said explains that how the science of Orientalism developed and how the Orientals started considering the Orientals as non-human beings. The oriental divided the world in two parts by using the concert of ours and theirs. An imaginary geographical line was drawn between what was ours and what was theirs.

The orients were regarded as uncivilized people and the westerns said that since they were the refined race and it was their duty to civilize these people and in order to achieve their goal, they had to colonize and rule the orientals.they said that the orients themselves were incapable of running their own government.

The most important use of Orientalism to the Europeans was that they defined themselves by defining the Orientals for example qualities such as lazy, irrational, uncivilized, crudeness were related to Orientals and automatically the Europeans became active, Rational, civilized and sophisticated.

Thus in order to achieve this goal, it was necessary for the Orientals to generalize the culture of the orientals.Another feature of Orientalism was that the culture of the orient also was explained to the European audience by linking them to western culture. For example Islam was made into mohammadism.the because Mohammad was the founder of this religion.

Since religion of Christ was called Christianity thus Islam should be called mohammadism.the point to be noted here is that no Muslim was aware of this terminology and this was a completely term to which the Muslims had no say at all.

In India, the Britishers were able to rule because of India need to be like them.we, somewhere show them that they can rule but this attitude changed our entire identity and up to some extent they succeeded in molding our identity the way they wanted. The Britishers shown what they wanted but we were spellbound by their identity and hidden intentions. So by establishing the east India Company, they got the half victory and the remaining half was achieved by them by expanding their British business.

To wind up:

At the end of this topic it can be said that here Edward Said says about Orientalism  because he wanted to show the European-American power to the orient and the perspective of western towards the east which has been well elaborated by Edward Said, who concludes this chapter by saying that European should include the perspective of Orient too.

Critical evaluation of “The Waste land”

Critical evaluation of “The Waste land”

Ø About the author:

          T.S. Eliot, the greatest modern English poet, was an American by birth and an Englishman by adoption. Born at St.Louis, Missouri, U.S.A, he became a naturalized British Subject in 1927. As such he had the blending of the best of the American blood and the English intellect. He combined in himself strange and opposing characteristics. He came to possess a many sided personality. He was a classicist, an innovator, a critic social reformer and a mystic all combined into one.

          T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is by far the most representative poem of the 20^th century. It exposes the very soul of the modern generation with all its horrors moral, spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy, disillusionment and waste. Eliot wrote the work not merely to understand the war but he wanted to show spiritual degradation through this poem.

“The Waste Land” contains five parts like

Ø The Burial of the Dead

Ø A Game of chess

Ø The fire sermon

Ø Death by water

Ø What the thunder said etc.

          “The Waste Land” is a multi-layered poem in which several things can be included to study critically, they are given below

Ø Title of the poem

Ø Theme of the poem

Ø Myth in the poem

Ø Symbolism in the poem etc.

          Now let’s have a glance on these above indicated points in detail.

Ø Title of the poem:

          T.S. Eliot has represented his reaction in the form of this poem entitled “The Waste Land”. It is a symbolic poem composed in the style of poetic esotericism, “Formally” the symbol has been described as a much of ideas and a poetic cryptogram. As such it is the poem of myth and symbols of a series of trains of thoughts whose parts look unconnected with one another.

          The title of the poem “The Waste Land” has been inspired by Miss Dessie L. Weston’s book from Ritual to Romance. It refers to a waste land described in one of the Grail Romances. The Land was ruled by the fisher King.

          He along with his knights ravished curtail maidens who were guardians of the Grail mysteries. Because of that outrage, he become impotent and fell ill, and his land become waste materialistic world as the waste land, and its ruler as the modern materialistic man. He has profaned the mysteries of life and being, namely the soul and become spiritually impotent and has become waste spiritually. Therefore, it can be said that the title of this poem “The Waste Land” is appropriate and very well chosen by Thomas Stern Eliot.

Ø Themes of the poem:

“The Waste Land” possesses many theme and all these themes have been very well elaborated by T.S Eliot, who conveys these all themes through symbolism and of course with the help of various mythical technique, here in this poem “The Waste land”, T.S Eliot indicates his ideas so it is very much difficult to understand this poem at a first reading but an individual has to read twice or thrice then and then he/she can grasp the central idea of the poem.

Here are several themes, which can be observed

·        Death

·        Rebirth

·        Love

·        Lust

·        Water

·        Spiritual degradation

So now let’s discusses these themes in detail.

v Death:

Death is the major theme of this poem as two sections of this poem ‘The Burial of the dead’ and ‘death by water’ refers or indicates to this theme. What complicates matters is that death can mean life so in other words one cans say that by dying, a being can pave the way for the new lives. Therefore the death is the central theme of this poem.

v Spiritual degradation:

T.S Eliot has expressed what he felt about his land in The Waste Land and how people gradually lost faith in God and spiritual decay is the main theme of the poem as because of it only his land is waste land. In modern society there is a decay and spiritual degeneracy whenever the sexual function is prevented. So Spiritual Degradation can be taken as the main idea of this poem.

v Rebirth:

Here Rebirth can be a major theme which is found in this poem. The Christ images in the poem, along with many other religious metaphors, causes rebirth and resurrection as central theme of this poem.

v Love:

Love is the main theme of this poem. Here in the poem many references can be noticed such as Tristan and Isodle in ‘Burial of the Dead’ and Cleopatra in a ‘Game of Chess’ and to the story of Tereus and Philomela suggests that love in the waste land is often destructive.

v Lust:

Here T.S Eliot has very well depicted the theme of lust through this poem. T.S Eliot depicts the sin as something a akin to rape this chance sexual encounter carries with it mythological beggage.The violated Philomela, the blind Tiresias who lived for a time as a woman. Sexuality runs through the waste land taking centre stage as a cause of calamity in the ‘The Fire Sermon’.

v Water:

“The waste land” lacks water and water also promises rebirth at the same time however water can bring about Death. T.S Eliot sees the card of the drowned Phoenician sailor and later titles the fourth section of this poem ‘Death By water’ when the rain finally arrives at the close of the poem it does suggest the cleansing of sin, the washing away of misdeeds and the start of a new future, however with comes thunder and therefore perhaps lightening.

Ø Myths in the Waste Land:

There are many myths which can be observed in this poem. T.S Eliot’s The waste land is an important land mark in the history of English poetry and one of the most talked poems of the same Age. Here T.S Eliot described the mythical background in his poem. This mythical technique can be elaborated as given below.

·        The Grail Legend

·        The King Fisher

·        Myth of Tiresias

·        Myth of Vegetation and fertility etc.

Now let’s illuminate these myths in detail.

v The grail Legend:

Here in this poem this myth is visualized as The Grail was the cup or plate used by Christ for his last supper, in that cup the blood of the Savior was gathered when he was crucified. The Myth about this vessel was that at have acquired medicinal and miraculous properties so the result is that it became an object for purity or one kind of devotion and worship. The lance used to pierce the sides of Christ and kept with it. But a time the original Grail was mysteriously disappeared and many of the bold Knights staked their lives and them searching for this vessel. It was generally believed that the grail was sometimes could be found in the sky as the floating saucer but it could only see by those, Knights who were virginal beauty.

v King Fisher:

According to this myth King Fisher was the prince named King Fisher. It was one of the regions where Grail worship had been anciently vogue, and a temple Known as Chapel Perilous, still stood there, broken and dilapidated, as a mournful memorial of what once was, but later had ceased to be. It was said that the lost Grail was hidden in this chapel. At that time the king himself had become a physical wreck, maimed and impotent, as a result. It was whispered, of a sin committed by his soldiery in outraging the chastity of a group of nuns attached to the Grail chapel.

The impotency of the Fisher King was reflected sympathetically in the land of which he was the head and ruler. It had become dry and barren, the haunt and home of want and famine. The King, however, was waiting with hope, despite his illness, that one day the Knight of the pure soul would visit his star-crossed kingdom, march to the Chapel Perilous, answer questions and solve riddles.

v Myth of Tiresias:

Here in this poem this myth often comes up to the end of this poem. Tiresias is represented as a bi-sexual in The Waste Land as he was blind but he has the gift of prophecy and immortality. Many stories are same like Tiresias story. According to one story this wise Theban soothsayer in his youth once saw the goddess Athena naked in a pond and goddess struck him blind but his mother was a friend of hers so she bestowed upon him.

Ø Symbolism:

Here in this poem there are many symbols which can be elaborated in a separate essay because here T.S Eliot has used several kinds of myths and collage of images which causes some problem to understand this poem.

v Water:

Here in this poem Water a predominant symbol of birth, death and resurrection appears through the poem as in the opening water signifies the giver of life. Yet it also stands for death. “Fear death by water”, or those are pearls that were his eyes. The symbolic meaning depends with a deceased Phoenician.

v The king Fisher:

So, here Eliot shows the Fisher King as symbolic of humanity robbed of its sexuality potency in the modern world and connected to the meaninglessness of urban existence.

There are other symbols like

Ø Drought

Ø Animals

Ø Landscape

Ø Thunder

Ø Religion etc.

To Sum up:

So, here this poem The Waste Land is symbolically very rich poem and it has many interpretations so we rarely find such a variety of symbols except in T.S.Eliot’s Wasteland. Living beings, animal or insect have been the important symbol. Therefore, this poem can be elaborated from various perspectives.

Teaching of Language Skills

Teaching of Language skills

Introduction

Language is a medium of communication. Which helps us to gain knowledge.Here in Teaching of language skills, this unit contains certain chapters as given below.

Ø Grammar

Ø Discourse

Ø Sociolinguistics

Ø Computer assisted Language learning

Ø Observation  etc.

So, let us elaborate these chapters in detail.     

Grammar

Grammar is very wide term, which has multiple meaning. Moreover, a study of English grammar includes function words such as frequently occurring articles, whose role is largely syntactic. Some grammars also include phonology and semantics, but the usual interpretation organization of Language. The use of grammar may vary in purpose and scope.

There are two types of descriptive grammars.

Types of grammars:

Ø Formal Grammar

Ø Functional Grammar

Let’s illustrate descriptive grammars in detail.

1)    Formal Grammar:

Formal grammar deals with the form or structure of language. It focuses on how words are framed as it is needed in the English Language Teaching.

In the communication sometimes Formal grammar functions well as we have to observe or focus on the structure that how sentences are arranged and how it articulates. So Formal grammar is very much necessary in Language.

2)    Functional Grammar:

Functional Grammar determines with the meaning of language (semantic level or level of meaning). It highlights on how words are utilized. In Language education in matters a lot as it deals with the meaning.

Grammar in Language Education:

In language education grammar is very much significant part. Therefore, freeman tried to distinguish grammar on this chapter of grammar. In language education the method of audio-lingual has been practiced in the 1950s and 1960s by scholars.

Because of the influence of transformational grammar, materials in the 1970s features sentence based linguistic rules with exercise asking student to transform one sentence pattern into another.

As far as Grammar is concerned in Language Education the major shift in Language pedagogy received additional impetus from Second Language acquisition was negotiated in learner interactions.

Discourse

What is Discourse?

“The study of discourse is the study of Language independently of the notion of the sentence.”

It deals with the relationship between a text and the situation in which it occurs.Grammatical analysis of sentence has no such constraints on it. Further we may say that sentences can be studied in isolation as blocks of language, illustrating well or ill formed grammar. Who or what the subject is can be specified by the kinds of subject permitted by the chosen verb. This is what grammarians mean by well formalness.

Discourse analysts are also interested in things being “well – formed”, discourse analysis work with utterances (sequence of words written on spoken in specific contexts) rather than with sentences.

Discourse Analysis:

Ø Spoken (speech analysis)

Ø Written texts (text analysis)

Furthermore, it can be said that generally different models have grown up for analyzing spoken and written Language. It is widely agreed that there is no simple, single difference between speech and writing. The most useful way to conceive of the differences is to see them as scales along which individual texts can be observed.

For example, we can take that casual conversations tend to be highly involved interpersonally; public notices, on the other hand tend to be detached. Speech is most typically created ‘on line’ or spontaneously and received in real time, writing is most typically created ‘off line’ usually with time for reflection and revision.

A further complication is that the terms text linguistics and discourse analysis have, respectively become strongly associated with the study of either written texts or spoken recordings or transcripts.

So, at last we may say that both approaches have made significant contributions to applied linguistics and language teaching.

Sociolinguistics

“Sociolinguistics examines the relationship between Language use and the social world”

It deals with how language operates within and creates social structures. It looks at speech communities base on social categories such as age, class, gender, geographical, profession and sexual identity.

Origin of Sociolinguistics:

The term sociolinguistics, which emerged in the 1960s,  in part as a reaction to ‘autonomous’ Chomskian linguistics, capturing the interdisciplinary nature of the enterprise, a distinction is often made between Micro- Sociolinguistics and

Background of Sociolinguistics:

Both of these methods which are known as quantitative and qualitative, which have been employed to example such linguistic phenomena as phonological differences between dialects or discourse variation between male and female speakers. While on the other hand macro- sociolinguistics looks at the behavior of entire speech communities.

Sociolinguistics:

Ø Micro –Sociolinguistics

Ø Macro – Sociolinguistics

Let’s elaborate it in detail.

1)  Micro – Sociolinguistics

1)    It refers to linguistics slant

2)    It focuses on dialect variation

3)    It deals with quantitative and qualitative research

4)    Coulmas refers it as social- dimensions of language.

2) Macro- Sociolinguistics

1)    It deals with the behavior of entire speech community.

2)    Coulmas refers Macro – Sociolinguistics as linguistics dimensions of society.

Research Sociolinguistics:

Ø Language Variation

Ø Linguistic Relativity

Ø Languages in Contact

1)    Language Variation

As far as language variation is concerned, it is earliest studies, which reported the work of Labov and his colleagues among inner city youth in New York City. In 1979 as a result youth of court testimony by linguistics including Labov and Smitherman a US federal judge.

Apart from language variation, Pidginisation is a process that results from contact of two or more languages in a contact of two or more languages in a context where language must be satisfied through the use of simplified code.

Through a creolisation process, speakers develop an elaborated code that can accommodate the full range of life’s functions. A gradual decreolisation process can occur as speakers incorporate features from a dominant language.

2)    Linguistic Relativity

In Linguistic relativity Hymes coined the term ethnography of speaking to describe the task of the researcher who is concerned with the situation and use and functions of speaking. In computer – assisted language learning there is a learning which is possible through computer. In the 1990s the personal computer emerged as a significant tool for language teaching and learning.

Computer Assisted Language Learning

 The widespread use of software, local area networks (LANS) and the internet has created enormous opportunities for learners to enhance their communicative skills and abilities. The history of the computer began very early because much of the early history of computers in Language learning in the 1980s and 1990s were concerned with keeping abreast of technological change. With the gradual development of the multimedia personal computer were the changes in our understanding of the teaching and learning of Languages.

1)    Communicative approaches

2)    Content – based learning

3)    Task –based learning

 Are all enhanced by the use of the computer.

In computer assisted language learning a very important interest of the early CALL studies was the comparison of computer- enhanced classes with traditional or conventional classes. Another area of interest is comparing computer use with other technologies. For example: computer based listing activities and audio- taped language materials in a ‘traditional’ language lab.

Linguistic Analyses and Skills Acquisition:

Broader skills areas are also receiving attention. For example:  chum and pass examine the reading comprehension skills, Negretti uses conversational analysis in web-based activities and Sullivan explores the connections among reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking.

The Computer as a research tool:

With the advancement of technology here the computer can be taken as a research tool, and the recent studies indicate a growing trend towards using the computer as primary research tool either to elicit data or to record data indirectly.

Observation

In language learning observation plays very significant role, which is used here as a term which deals with the examination of teaching or learning events through systematic process of data collection and analysis. However, teachers themselves have undertaken classroom observation foe a variety of reasons. These include peer observation for professional development purposes, peer couching and action research

.

In language, observation in second foreign language classrooms has been strongly influenced by the traditions of observation in first language classrooms in general education settings.‘COLT’ – communication orientation of language teaching is an example of an observational instrument which was developed as a result of changes in Language pedagogy.

COLT’s categories reflect developments in communicative language teaching, such as the use of information gap activities.

Discourse analysis examines both written and spoken texts, so discourse analytic procedures can be brought to bear on classroom speech as a data base.

When using an obtrusive form data collection, such as a video camera, it can be helpful to familiarize the learners with the equipment. It is also useful to visit the classroom often enough over time that the teacher and the students become desensitized to the presence of the observer and the recording device.

In anthropological research, triangulation refers to process of verification which gives us confidence in our observations. Denzin describes four different types of triangulation.

1)    Data triangulation, in which different sources of data contribute to an investigation.

2)    Theory of triangulation, when various theories are brought to bear in a study.

3)    Researcher triangulation, in which more than one researcher contributes to the investigation.

To Sum up:

At last we can say that these all chapters are an integral element of language and it also deals with peer observation and peer coaching, teachers themselves use a variety of procedures for observing classroom interaction and analyzing the data collected during observations.