Utilising reconstructions established on historical events, historical fiction provides significant value for the process of historical inquiry. India Dark, by the Australian author, Kirsty Murray, provides deep insight into the history of South India and Australia and twentieth-century social ethics. Due to Murray’s ability to incorporate factual events with authenticity and reflect the values and spirit of the times, its value as an integral and well-researched composition of historical fiction is assured.
Murray smoothly blends authentic events of history into her construction of historical fiction, engaging readers in a well-written story that utilises various perspectives. Seamless integration of factual detail describing authentic aspects
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The spirit of the times is reflected through detail Murray provides, illuminating mystical beliefs held by Indian people who infused their culture with strong spiritual values,“That’s why there are so many holy men here. They reckon gods come down and walk around in the skins of ordinary people. This country is full of magic.” The third person narration illustrates the distinctive magical aura within India during those times, by giving a strong sense of Indian spiritual beliefs and revealing the popularity of asceticism. Murray captures the spirit and values of India through the narrative perspective of Charlie Byrnes, who observes a pervasive sense of magic that characterises Indian views of their natural world as a result of their beliefs, “The Indians think they are holy rivers. They even believe that a magic, invisible river called the Sarasvati joins them.” Murray illuminates the importance the rivers had on their life and culture, continually referencing magic and how sources of life are referred to as holy and given god-like characteristics to reflect the spirit and values of the time. The difference in tradition and culture between Australia and India are heavily highlighted throughout this novel, providing a rich understanding and unique perspective of the values and spirit of those contrasting
In Philip J. Deloria’s Athletic chapter from his book “Indians in unexpected places” he talks about his grandfather’s connection to sports. He goes into further detail about how his grandfather’s place in sports is similar to other Native Americans. Native Americans used sports as a way to find their place in a new society. Sports was also used to strengthen the community. “Many Indian communities responded by drawing webs of kingship and unity ever tighter, trying to keep sport stars humble” (113). Athletics was now being used to bring all of the community, especially in times when it seemed divided. Sports also disproved the “Vanishing Indian” idea because society saw Native Americans playing in these sports and saw that they still existed.
Fuller, C. J. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2004. Print.
One statement in the beginning of the book was especially poignant to any one who studies Indian culture, It is easy for us to feel a vicarious rage, a misery on behalf of these people, but Indians, dead and alive would only receive such feelings with pity or contempt; it is too easy to feel sympathy for a people who culture was wrecked..
The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflection on the field trip to the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago. After a brief introduction to the context, the Watercress tool will be used to highlight my observations. In our study of the Hinduism, the class visited The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC). This active temple is a house of worship that serves thousands of devotees as they pay homage to a diverse variety of idol and spiritual gods. Taught as one of the oldest religions in the world, it accepts all religious belief systems and God.
Experiencing new worlds and encountering new dilemmas, magic, wisdom, truth: all of these elements characterizes the context of the book Of Water and Spirit by Malidona Patrice Some. Here, magic and everyday life come to an affinity, and respect and rituals are necessary tools to survive. The author portrays the Dagara culture in a very specific way. This culture makes no differentiation between what is natural, or "normal", and what is supernatural, or magical. Ancestors compound the core of communities and individuals. These higher beings are present in ordinary life activities and actions. They constitute the connection between this world and another.
“This Blessed House” is a story that focuses on two distinct characters that have a different perception about each other and their religious values. Sanjeev and Twinkle is a Hindu couple in an arranged marriage; these characters represent two different ways of looking at life and appreciating it. In focusing on the characterization of both characters Sanjeev and Twinkle the audience gets an understanding on the different values that Hindus and Americans share and also how religions can affect how people perceive things in life. Religious artifacts
Great Indian authors have written grand epics that depict heroic characters performing virtuous deeds. Many of these epic tales feature fearsome and godly battles, while others highlight the soft side of human emotions. Despite seemingly unrealistic characters such as talking hawks and ten-headed monsters, and unlikely conflicts that feature bloody battles, many of these grand epics display many traditional values that Americans value in modern society. When construing three particular celebrated Indian epics (“the Mahabharata,” “the Bhagavad-Gita,” and “the Ramayana”), readers would easily glean the values and belief system that Ancient Indian society held in high esteem many thousands of years ago. Moreover, by comparing and contrasting respective ideals and principles, similarities between Ancient Indians and Americans would come to surface.
The source is about the meeting of an Indian that came right into the colony. He spoke broken English. He asked them for a beer, instead they gave him food and water. Around evening time the colonists were ready for him leave. He described the area and the inhabitants there to the settlers. They also gave him a coat, a very nice coat. He was not ready to leave, so the colonists were going to put him aboard ship, but they could not get to the ship. So they gave him a room Stephen Hopkin’s home where they watched him carefully. The next day he went back to Massasoits, who was the Chief of the Indian tribe. He informed them that the Nauset Indian tribe were enemies of the Europeans because they had taken some of the Native Indians and sold them into slavery. As the Native American was leaving they gave him a bracelet, a knife and a ring, and he promised to return within a day or two. He was going to bring Massasoits and others from the tribe and beaver skins. He actually spoke broken English, he had learned some English being around English fishermen. He asked for a beer, and instead they gave him strong water, biscuit with butter and cheese, duck and some pudding.
The unknown has fascinated mankind for generations. It binds humans together, on a morally “higher” level. Yet, across continents and parted by oceans, each civilization has taken on its own interpretations of deities and monsters, but still, are bound together by the same thread of suspended disbelief to bring worship to the all-powerful forces working for or against them. Mysticism connects us, on a level of unexplainable and profound connections, chiefly by using its most powerful tool of all: storytelling.
Recent years have witnessed a large number of Indian English fiction writers who have stunned the literary world with their works. The topics dealt with are contemporary and populist and the English is functional, communicative and unpretentious. Novels have always served as a guide, a beacon in a conflicting, chaotic world and continue to do so. A careful study of Indian English fiction writers show that there are two kinds of writers who contribute to the genre of novels: The first group of writers include those who are global Indians, the diasporic writers, who are Indians by birth but have lived abroad, so they see Indian problems and reality objectively. The second group of writers are those born and brought up in India, exposed to the attitudes, morale and values of the society. Hence their works focus on the various social problems of India like the plight of women, unemployment, poverty, class discrimination, social dogmas, rigid religious norms, inter caste marriages, breakdown of relationships etc.
After watching “The Brave New World of Medical Robots (Improved Version)” speech and evaluating it, I saw many things that a good speech needs as well as things that can be left out to enhance the speech. Overall I thought that the speech was very good and I probably would have given him an A. With that being said no one is perfect therefore we cannot do everything perfect I believe there are some things that he could improve on. His introduction was awesome! He grabbed my attention with the story of mechanical arms over a woman on a surgery table as the lead in to his speech. He used the story and distinctly told us the topic of his speech followed by the three main points he would discuss.
Anil’s Ghost compels a reopening of the debate over literature’s relation to politics through it’s over preoccupation with a complex political backdrop, as well as a carefully articulated ambivalence about its project. Ondaatje’s decision to write a so-called political novel is obviously a deliberate one, and the critical responses to it have been unexpectedly diverse. The multiple analyses advanced by critics have specific implications for the evaluation of Sri Lankan fiction in particular and for postcolonial literatures in general. Over the last decade, Sri Lankan writing has been, for the most part, driven by politics, and Ondaatje’s intervention meets to be seen as a significant attempt to champion a particular stance. This paper argues that, far from biased, orientalist are otherwise irresponsible, Ondaatje’s novel charts new territory by establishing a careful balance between political engagement and aesthetic distance.
Sharpe, Jenny. “A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. James P Draper, Jennifer Brostrom, and Jennifer Gariepy. Vol. 77. Detroit: Gale, 1993. 253-57. Rpt. of “The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter-Insurgency.” Genders 10 (1991): 25-46. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. .
Crane, Ralph J. Inventing India: A History of India in English Language Fiction. London: Macmillan, 1992.
Classical Hindu Mythology. Cornelia Dimmitt and J. A. B. van Buitenen. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978. 38-40. Print.