Language lab review :~

What is Language Lab ?

The Language Laboratories are becoming items better and better valued within educational institutions since the functions and possibilities they offer are much higher than the ones in the traditional teaching-learning system

Moreover it is necessary to distinguish between language laboratory, language method and control software. A method in a procedural that guides teachers when, in turn, control software is a computer program that is used to control students' computers and to know what they are doing at all times. Instead, a language lab goes beyond, a language lab can integrate the method we want to use allowing further development of a large number of different activities in the classroom, the communication between teachers and students, using multimedia material, etc. taking into account at the same time the functions of control software.

Language immersion, attention to diversity, teamwork promotion, etc. are just some of the outstanding features of the language laboratories. According Juana Gil Fernandez (Head of the Laboratory of Phonetics. Council for Scientific Research) a language lab “allows the teacher, if desired, to transcend everyday teaching of a language to enter fully in the investigation of cognitive process of acquiring and learning foreign languages ​​in general ”.

"Digital language laboratories are much more than a tool for training and listening discursive language, they are places to study and experiment with real samples of languages​​, learn languages ​​and exercise in their use. So they are configured using multimedia technology, communications and flexible and open organizational models with any necessary tool to process philological materials.

All this and much more is what you get with language laboratories, a complete tool to put in the service of teachers and students the latest technology for teaching."

The White Tiger thinking activity :~

1) How far do you agree with the India represented in the novel The White Tiger?

Ans :-

The India which is represented by Adiga is poor, corrupt, uneducated, and cheater also. Well I do agree that not only India but all countries in the world do have these bad kinds of problem in it. But it doesn’t make them all bad. Adiga has represented the darker side of India. This novel was written in 2008, after that India has progressed in many ways. But then even we can bot fully deny that poverty, corruption, and illiteracy are vanished from India. Still in some remote place there are landlords who ruled over town people. Still there are many people who are not educated properly. So, we can not deny the India which is represented in “The White Tiger” by Adiga, but we can say that, India is not only what is represented by Adiga.

(2) Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

Ans :

We can see that the stories which portrays poor as central character at the end of the story the poor becomes rich. We can see many people who are same as Balram. Same like who belongs to poor and wide family, who didn’t complete their studies, who goes to work from early childhood, and who has bearing insults from those who are rich. These types of stories shows the struggle of poor to achieve their dream and for that becoming rich. The ways of reaching to the destination of wealth might differs of each stories but the suffering always remain same. So this way we can say that Balram’s story is archetype of all stories of “Rags to Riches”.

(3) "Language bears within itself the necessity of its own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to show that any text inevitably undermines its own claims to have a determinate meaning, and licences the reader to produce his own meanings out of it by an activity of semantic 'free play' (Derrida, 1978, in Lodge, 1988, p. 108). Is it possible to do deconstructive reading of The White Tiger? How?

Ans :

Yes, it is possible to deconstruct “The White Tiger”. We can deconstruct it with the help of Derrida’s concept of free play of meanings.  To break the language we need to find the loose stone of it. The loose stone of “The White Tiger” is that Balram himself says that he is “Half-backed”. This word breaks all the philosophy and all the ideals which Balram is presenting by giving his own example. Because he is not fully educated. He understand things with his limited power of analysis. He appropriate the deep philosophies with his shallow ideas and thinking. For example, he compares his idea of killing his master and get freedom with the enlightenment of Buddha.

Cultural Studies and Postcolonialism Online Discussion

What is Cultural Studies?

Cultural studies is an innovative interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that investigates the ways in which “culture” creates and transforms individual experiences, everyday life, social relations and power. Research and teaching in the field explores the relations between culture understood as human expressive and symbolic activities, and cultures understood as distinctive ways of life. Combining the strengths of the social sciences and the humanities, cultural studies draws on methods and theories from literary studies, sociology, communications studies, history, cultural anthropology, and economics. By working across the boundaries among these fields, cultural studies addresses new questions and problems of today’s world. Rather than seeking answers that will hold for all time, cultural studies develops flexible tools that adapt to this rapidly changing world.
What is Postcolonialism ?

"Postcolonialism" refers broadly to the ways in which race, ethnicity, culture, and human identity itself are represented in the modern era, after many colonized countries gained their independence. However, some critics use the term to refer to all culture and cultural products influenced by imperialism from the moment of colonization until the twenty-first century. Postcolonial literature seeks to describe the interactions between European nations and the peoples they colonized. By the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the world was under the control of European countries. At its peak in the late nineteenth century, according to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the British Empire consisted of "more than a quarter of all the territory on the surface of the earth: one in four people was a subject of Queen Victoria." During the twentieth century, countries such as India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Canada, and Australia won independence from their European colonizers. The literature and art produced in these countries after independence became the subject of "Postcolonial Studies," an area of academic concentration, initially in British universities. This field gained prominence in the 1970s and has been developing ever since. Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said's critique of Western representations of the Eastern culture in his 1978 book, Orientalism, is a seminal text for postcolonial studies and has spawned a host of theories on the subject. However, as the currency of the term "postcolonial" gained wider use, its meaning was expanded. Some consider the United States itself a postcolonial country because of its former status as a territory of Great Britain, but it is generally studied for its colonizing rather than its colonized attributes. In another vein, Canada and Australia, though former colonies of Britain, are often placed in a separate category because of their status as "settler" countries and because of their continuing membership in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Some of the major voices and works of postcolonial literature are Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children (1981), Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart (1958), Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992), Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Jamaica Kincaid's ASmallPlace (1988), Isabelle Allende's TheHouseof theSpirits (1982), J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbariansand Disgrace (1990), Derek Walcott's Omeros (1990), and Eavan Boland's Outside History: Selected Poems, 1980-1990.

Thinking activity of Da Vinci Code :~

1. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian, though he is on a 'constant spiritual journey' himself, and says that his book The Da Vinci Code is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."

Ans :

Dan Brown asserts that his books are not anti-Christian, and it is right also because he wants to reveal the facts. He also says that he is on the spiritual journey as he portrays the characters who have faith in the religion. Through the murder mystery he unfolds the factual things about the Christianity.  if we look deeply then we can find that there is much serious issues on which Brown throws light. In a way he is trying to awaken the people from the blind faith.  there are several incidence which shows us that our hero has faith on the Christianity and also he don’t want to break it. We can say that Robert Langdon's journey as a pilgrimage. The search for the Spiritual Truth. Brown is just using the historical fact with his imagined story.

2. Although it is obvious that much of what Brown presented in his novel as absolutely true and accurate is neither of those, some of that material is of course essential to the intrigue, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has retained the novel's core, the Grail-related material: the sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene's marriage, the Priory of Sion, certain aspects of Leonardo's art, and so on[1].” How far do you agree with this observation of Norris J. Lacy?

Ans:

Yes, the observation of Norris Lacy is true. We can say Akiva Goldsman has conserved the story line and it is much like novel. The grail related material, definite aspects of Leonardo's art and many things. The screen writer is successful to keep the core content through the use of all the symbols and secrets about the novel. We can find the scenes in Louvre museum so it is much realistic. Dan Brown's major materials for the novel is taken from the book 'The holy blood and the holy grail'. The idea of feminine sacredness is much live as Sophie Nevue leads to Robert Langton.

3. You have studied ‘Genesis’ (The Bible), ‘The Paradise Lost’ (John Milton) and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (Dan Brown). Which of the narrative/s seem/s to be truthful? Whose narrative is convincing to the contemporary young mind?

Ans:

The narrative of the da Vinci code is more convincing because its time to doubt and not believing in what is written and said. Milton's The Paradise Lost is story of god,punishment So it keep people in fear while The Da Vinci code tries to prove Jesus as man in logical way. So Da Vinci code is more convincing in this era.

4. What harm has been done to humanity by the biblical narration or that of Milton’s in The Paradise Lose? What sort of damage does narrative like ‘The Vinci Code’ do to humanity?

Ans:

 Milton displays woman as downfall of a man and in many narrator there is woman who is the reason of downfall of man. In The Da Vinci code society and people were not free. Even artists also had to paint and draw what church want. Lots of people have been killing for religion. The Da Vinci code tries to deconstruct Jesus as God with the help of myths. In the novel there is description of how millions of women were killed for killing of Marie Magdalene. This work can be do harm in that way. In the end it proves that heir of Jesus is living. So for protection of power again church can do same thing.

5. What difference do you see in the portrayal of 'Ophelia' (Kate Winslet) in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, 'Elizabeth' (Helena Bonham Carter) in Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or 'Hester Prynne' (Demi Moore) in Roland Joffé's The Scarlet Letter' or David Yates's 'Harmione Granger' (Emma Watson) in last four Harry Potter films - and 'Sophie Neuve' (Audrey Tautau) in Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code? How would justify your answer?

Ans:

The portrayal of the character its makes difference, and the perspectives towards the author or film maker is different for us, Kenneth Branagh sexually objected Kate Winset by taking liberty with Ophelia's portrayal and showed her nude which we do not find in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ron maintained sacredness in Sophie's portrayal  in movie and thus, even if Dan's Sophie is kissed on lips, he do not show those scenes in movie. Kenneth Branagh in Frankenstein also, takes liberty with portrayal of Elizabeth on screen, whereas Ron Howard, remained faithful to the central theme of feminine sacredness in Sophie's portrayal.

 6. Do novel / film lead us into critical (deconstructive) thinking about your religion? Can we think of such conspiracy theory about Hindu religious symbols / myths?

Ans:

 The DA Vinci code questions that whom we believe God, are they really God or they were humans like us? In Hindu religion also there are established gods and goddesses. Rama and Krishna are prominent gods of Hindus but they can be man. Only source of their information are books.  Most of the stories of Hindu religion tells the stories of how God punishes who do not worship them. There are lots of examples in vratkathas.  Those type of stories are conspiracies to keep people in fear.

7. Have you come across any similar book/movie, which tries to deconstruct accepted notions about Hindu religion or culture and by dismantling it, attempts to reconstruct another possible interpretation of truth?

Ans:

Yes, we can find in films like 'OMG' and 'PK', which deconstructs the idea of God and the existence of God.

8. When we do traditional reading of the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology, Harvard University emerges as protagonist and Sir Leigh Teabing, a British Historian as antagonist. Who will claim the position of protagonist if we do atheist reading of the novel?

Ans:

When novel ends protagonist Robert Langdon clearly  emerges as staunch believer of God while antagonist Leigh Teabing as atheist. Teabing's only intention is to make all humans free. Free from fear of God. He always believed that Jesus is not God and whole life tries to find secret of holy grail and prove it. He kills many people and can do anything to prove his belief. So if we read novel as atheist novel then Leigh Teabing will be protagonist. And his intention also can be consider good for humanity.

9. Explain Ann Gray’s three propositions on ‘knowability’ with illustrations from the novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
a.       1) Identifying what is knowable
b.      2) identifying and acknowledging the relationship of the knower and the known
c.      3) What is the procedure for ‘knowing’?

Ans :

 In this novel this sentence "I dont know what I dont know" is reflecting here, even character of Sophia her self don't know that she is descendant of Jesus and also Robert langdon quest for knowing is also presented, so idea of 'knowability' is play a vital role in this novel.  And after the known the truth Sophia and Robert langdon are seems to not happy, they dont take much interest to revel the truth to the worlds.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. Originally published in the First Folio of 1623, where it was listed as a comedy, the play's first recorded performance occurred in 1604. The play's main themes include justice, "mortality and mercy in Vienna," and the dichotomy between corruption and purity: "some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." Mercy and virtue prevail, as the play does not end tragically, with virtues such as compassion and forgiveness being exercised at the end of the production. While the play focuses on justice overall, the final scene illustrates that Shakespeare intended for moral justice to temper strict civil justice: a number of the characters receive understanding and leniency, instead of the harsh punishment to which they, according to the law, could have been sentenced.

Measure for Measure is often called one of Shakespeare's problem plays. It continues to be classified as a comedy, albeit a dark one, though its tone may defy those expectations.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggling to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered.

Presentation paper no 13 New literature

Paper13 the new lit.. from Vijay Makwana

Topic : The role of second sex in Patriarchal society (With Reference To Da Vinci Code)