CHAPTER ONE CONTEXTUALIZING AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN MAHARASHTRA Origin and Dimensions of ‘Autobiography’: Autobiography is an act of a conscious self that documents significant events through the active help of memory to construct historical facts rather than truth. It is a western phenomenon which has its root in the Greek literature. The Western autobiographical tradition has started long back in an ancient time while documenting military achievements or important lifespan of the worriers or the kings. In the late middle ages, i.e. in the period of Renaissance, the intense unusual experiences on the part of the authors have formed their autobiographies. Even the genre was used to expand their personalities as well as psychological development. …show more content…
The dominant Vedic philosophy has negated the material existence of an individual. According to it, the ‘self’ is eternal however, the individual existence is temporal. Thus the ‘self’ is detached from the individual. Simultaneously, the social structure preferred communal solidarity into which the individual ego was merged in its communal superego. In the absence of political history of India, the cultural unification grouped the people in various castes across the territory. The British invaders introduced ‘individualism ’ along with modernity to the Indians. As the administrator of India, British invented rationalism, legal system, property rights and independent relations. (Parekh 254, 55) The rationalism questioned Indian traditional values. It moulded people to experiment logic in their thoughts. The legal system broke down hierarchy in Indian society with equal value system. The property rights made the people aware regarding their ‘temporal existence’. The Western literature introduced them the independent relations. Even the social reformists stressed the subjectivity in their social and political issues that was reflected in their literature. These social and political issues in the context of ‘self’ were recognised as their autobiographies. Afterwards the social and political issues are replaced by the personal achievements and uncommon experiences …show more content…
Recently, it has emerged from the personal choice and community imposition. It indicates it affiliation to the particular universe and its world views. Narmada Shankar’s Mari-Hakikat (Gujarati: My Life or Statement); Narayan Hemchandra’s Hoon Pote (Gujarati: I Myself); Rajnarayan Basu’s Atmajivani (Bengali: My Life), Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar’s Atmacharitra (Marathi: My Life); and Debendranath Tagore’s Autobiography are some of the examples of the initial
What provokes a person to write about his or her life? What motivates us to read it? Moreover, do men and women tell their life story in the same way? The answers may vary depending on the person who answers the questions. However, one may suggest a reader elects to read an autobiography because there is an interest. This interest allows the reader to draw from the narrator's experience and to gain understanding from the experience. When the reader involves him/herself in the experience, the reader encounters what is known and felt by the narrator. The encounter may provide the reader an opportunity to explore a time and place long past.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which was written by Sherman Alexie, combines humor and tragedy to tell a first-person narrative story of Arnold Spirit Jr., a 14-year-old Native American teenager, and the events in his life about pursuing his dreams. This book is a semi-autobiographical novel and it has won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people. The language in this book is simple, humorous and spontaneous, however, tragedies have played a more important part than comedies.
The philosophies of many cultures are presented and theories discussed are arranged according to distinct traditions that represent specific religions. Themes In Religion and Human Nature, Ward presents the reader with six major religious backgrounds that center as major themes in this novel. Ideals presented are: Advaita Vedanta there is no supreme self, Vaishnava there is an infinite number of souls, Buddhist there is no eternal self, and Abrahamic persons are embodied souls. Subsequent to these philosophies are Indian ideas of rebirth, Semitic belief, and the impact of scientific theories of biological evolution. Next, Ward presents the Christian Doctrine of original sin where he emphasizes the concept of materiality.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is a humorous and intuitive novel written by Sherman Alexie. The reader gets an insight into the everyday life of a fourteen year old hydrocephalic Indian boy named Arnold Spirit, also referred to as Junior Spirit. He is living on the Spokane Indian reservation and is seen as an outcast by all the other Indians, due to his medical condition. Against all odds Arnold expands his hope, leaves his school on the reservation and faces new obstacles to obtain a more promising future at a school off the reservation. The novel is told through Arnold’s voice, thoughts, actions and experiences. Alexie incorporates one point of view, different themes and settings, such as poverty, friendship, Spokane and Reardan within Arnold’s journey to illustrate the different hardships he must overcome to gain a higher education.
Listening as the family spoke to me about what is important in their family I couldn’t help but refer back to Marcus and Conner’s idea of interdependence versus independence. As the family spoke to me on how important it is that the soul reincarnates itself, which is when all bad karma is out of the body, I kept referring to the independent self. But often again when they spoke of theologies and learning constantly from what they take from others around them, I found interdependence. Both selves balance each other out but do not reside on one more than the other. Adhita kept telling me the main goal of being a Hindu is “self-realization or just to be free from any type of suffering or hardship/bad karma,” (You achieve this through reincarnation) you have to acknowledge the simultaneous efforts that take place to achieve this goal. “You can’t just set a high sta...
Ever wondered what gets readers hooked on a book? In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie the authors have many ways to grab the reader's attention by using many techniques from humor to emotional and traumatic to suspense. In the book the main character named Junior is an Indian boy growing up on a reservation. By growing up on the reservation junior makes a choice to leave the reservation and go to a white school which gives Junior obstacles in his life.There are many obstacles that happen even before Junior decided to go to another path with his life. With the obstacles that happen to Junior it creates an emotional and traumatic impact on junior as well as getting the readers hooked to turn the page and keep reading.
Political and social reform in India was achieved as a result of the European political principles brought to India by the British. Indians were Anglicised, and the British ideal for an Indian was to be "Indians in blood and colour, but English in tastes, opinions and intellect", as put by one British legislator (Rich, 214, 1979). This Western education inevitably led to well-read Indians encountering European principles such as human rights, freedoms of speech, travel and association, and liberalism.
Narrative is a fundamental aspect of an effective historical composition. A successful narrative can provide important sensory details that a straightforward analysis may omit. David Hackett Fischer suggests, “To reconstruct a series of happenings, the best and only instrument is narrative.” Even so, many historians still struggle with the status of narrative in scholarly works. Similar sentiments follow the genre of biography in history. Biography is equally controversial, as many historians have dissenting opinions regarding its treatment and official definition.
The beginning of this article is all about Indian politics and the newly developed government after India's independence. The
John-Raphael Straude defines autobiography as, “a dialogue of the self with itself in the present about the past for the sake of self-understanding” (Staude 249). Although autobiography may acquire many functions, its aid in understanding oneself is an important one. In particular, autobiography and narrative promote understanding of people’s lives, the world, and improve their sense of connectedness with the world around them.
I would like to conclude by stating that this paper is an attempt to understand in depth the basic values, social norms,traditions and history of my culture; the culture of India. Research on this paper enlightened me on India's war laden past, evolving traditions, regional diversity, but , national unity and reconfirmed my own identity. Respect for one's own culture leads to acceptance and regard for other cultures'.
Self-referred means that a person is aware of themselves and comfortable with who they are, not relying on the approval of others. Object-referred means that a person bases their happiness and their entity on objects. They allow material things to define who they are. Someone who is object-referred is not in tune with their true self and do not know the experience of true happiness. In this book, Chopra talks about the importance of transcending and recognizing different states of consciousness that go beyond just the state of being asleep or being awake. The book explains that people are so much more than just the labels identified by society. Being is a state of being one with the universe and everything in it. Chopra offers key points within each chapter that offer the most valuable lessons to the reader about the practices. The book ends its final chapters guiding readers on how they can achieve the advertised Power, Freedom, and Grace. Chopra encourages people to forget everything they thought they knew, and adopt the philosophy of Vedanta because that is when happiness and self-discovery will be
Autobiography is about self-reflection, expressing a personal distinctive view which, in a broader context, can be a commentary on the human condition and a statement on the morality and ethics of one’s personal history. It is about the recounting of selective experiences as seen through the eyes of the author, and although events of certain autobiographies may have been embellished and others not taken place at all, this style of writing is supposed to be sensitive to what actually happens. The sum of events represent the complex value-laden perceptions of a world filled with extremes of both good and evil.
Nicholas B Dirks. (1989). The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India: Social Analysis. The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice. No. 25, pp. 42-52
In studying the advent of autobiography as a genre in its own right, it would seem to be a particularly modern form of literature, a hybrid form of biography. Also, the distinctions between the forms of the biography, personal history or diary and novel are becoming questioned in that the autobiography is not an account of wisdom accumulated in a lifetime but a defining of identity. 2