My escapades with English Literature

It is impossible to pen two years of the English literature ocean of my Masters in Arts. From Eliot to Brecht… every lecture was a window to a different genre, age, and author. I felt so much in the fourteen lines of Shakespearean sonnets. Sometimes some works coincidentally mirrored my own emotions and sometimes they helped me articulate the same. What can be expressed by an artist in his or her art is made of infinite possibilities.

Some may say that literature is fiction, a sort of entertainment, or a source of leisure. But beyond this shallow perception is the truth about literature. Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ carves out the absurd mindset of people after the second world war and Heller explains this helpless situation as the term “Catch-22.” Ibsen challenged the patriarchal norms by making Nora slam the door of a puppet-like existence in his ‘A Doll’s House’ in the nineteenth century. Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’ brought forth the dark realities of the slave trade and Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’ opened a million ends of colonial and postcolonial discussions.

Literature offers varied emotional flavors. From Shelley’s gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’ to Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, writing is surely a way to enter the dark realm of human nature. Joyce’s ‘A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man’ provided the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique for psychological inquiry. Chopin’s heroine in ‘The Awakening’ and Plath as a poet expose mental health challenges that are still considered as taboos in the society. Undoubtedly, literature supports the human soul.

Just like continents stretch between the North pole and the South pole, literature soars in all directions. Sometimes it will fly you to Aran Islands of Ireland in Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’, while other times it will ground you in Tagore’s translations of Kabir’s poems in India. But if you want more, you are always welcome to travel to Swift’s imaginary world in his ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ based on his take on the realities of the Crown.

Before you laud yourself with pride for standing up against your authorities, you must credit Milton for representing Satan’s defiance against God in ‘Paradise Lost.’ Literature therefore, also lays out a blueprint of the quality of a good leader, as portrayed in the character of Satan, who not only won the trust and respect of his fellow Fallen Angels to rebel against the Almighty but who was also brave and sly enough to carry out the impossible.

However, wars are not limited to Biblical references. Arundhati Subramaniam lays open the microcosmic wars being fought in the minds of each “Kali on wheels” in her poem, ‘5.46, Andheri Local.’ Writers tell us that issues of Gender inequalities and stigmatization are not ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’

So when ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ the next time, he may want to wait, see deeply into the vast horizons of English Literature and write all about his interpretation of this never-ending book. He may also want to ask how and why Giovanni ‘(I)Wrote a Good Omelet’