The Curious Case of Professor Godbole: A Passage to India Re-Examined

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 426-435
Author(s):  
David Shusterman ◽  
Paul Fussell
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Human Reality ◽  
Individual Consciousness ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe

Although many critics of E. M. Forster's A Passage to India have mentioned that Professor Godbole, the Hindu educator, behaves somewhat queerly during the course of the novel, no one, so far as I can discover, since the book's publication in 1924 has seemed to have any serious doubt that Godbole is a man of genuine goodwill or that he is the source of much that is good. This conventional attitude has been expanded upon within recent years by several critics who have put Godbole forward as Forster's primary spokesman for cosmic and divine truth. Forster's point, they claim, is that Hinduism is closer to this truth than any other religion; the author is using Godbole to make this revelation known. To James McConkey, one of the proponents of the Godbolean viewpoint, “the full measure of the success” of Forster's Indian novel “suggests that Forster has finally come to terms with himself and his universe.” These terms are imparted through Godbole “the only person in all the novels who becomes the character-equivalent of the Forsterian voice.” Godbole's position is “one of detachment from human reality and from the physical world, a detachment obtained by as complete a denial of individual consciousness as is possible, that denial and remove bringing with them a sense of love and an awareness of unity.” Hindu metaphysics “bears a number of definite relationships to the stabilized Forsterian philosophical position.” It is Godbole who is “the one most responsible for whatever sense of hope is granted” in the last section of the novel. The “way of Godbole is the only possible way: love, even though to exist it must maintain a detachment from the physical world and human relationships, offers the single upward path from the land of sterility and echoing evil.” To Hugh Maclean, another Godbolean adherent, Mrs. Moore, the elderly Englishwoman, finds completeness only after death through the intercession of Godbole; the latter “excludes nothing” from his spiritual life, and because of this he “will be able [ultimately] to encompass everything.” It is only Godbole whose mind has seized on the order of the universe. Forster is advocating above everything else that people should become like Godbole, one who is able to accomplish the “absorption of the self within a transcendental frame of reference.”

scholarly journals Sacrilegious character of «The cross on Saturn» in the self-titled novel of Oles Ulianenko

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Aesthetic Appeal ◽  
Inner World ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Professional Evaluation ◽  
The One

Oles Ulianenko, one of the most talented and controversial Ukrainian writers of these days, has been dead for ten years. His literary works did not receive any appropriate professional evaluation though because literary scholars and critics applied either the wrong or unproductive research methodology due to some objective and subjective reasons. The aim of the article is to suggest an alternative, in comparison to traditional variants, theoretical literary analysis which is grounded on the principles of the corporal-mimetic method to interpret fiction done on the extremely controversial novel “The Cross on Saturn” by O. Ulianenko. Having analyzed the idea and artistic content of the novel “The Cross on Saturn”, the conclusion is made that, first, the book characters seem to function as simulacra of their shallowness because they lack the depth of inner world. But despite this fact, despite parody, superficial dialogues and surrogate actions, the main characters of the novel and the peripeteia, they find themselves in, do not lose aesthetic appeal because these characters do not need deep inner world since their function is not determined by what these trivial characters reflect in the text mirror but by what the text mirror reflects in them. Second, the shallowness is filled with the content conditioned by the incest precedent which provides the basis of Oles Ulianenko’s novel to the degree to what the writer creates the tragedy in its exact, namely ancient Geek, meaning of the notion according to which tragedy is, on the one hand, a story determined by an utterly artificial form and content and, on the other hand, it is a story which does not simply end by death, it is a story which cannot end by anything else but death. It seems as if nothing but tragedy could make it impossible for a man to have their animal essence to supersede their human part.

scholarly journals THE DICHOTOMOUS STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTUAL WORLD OF IVAN FRANKO’S NOVEL "LEL’ AND POLEL’" IN THE ASPECT OF LINGUOPOETICS OF MOTIVENESS

2021 ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
M. Zaoborna
Keyword(s):  
Literary Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
French Studies ◽  
Semantic Organization ◽  
Individual Consciousness ◽  
Intertextual Connections ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Effect Of Polarity

Based on literary studies, the article highlights the text of Ivan Franko's novel "Lel’ and Polel’" from the perspective of motif as a linguistic text category. In this respect, the motive is defined as linked with the personality of the author (narrator) impulse to create the text, related to the psychological aspect of text-creation and actualized by means of certain lingual signals. Understanding the motive as a text-creating category is expressed against the background of the stages of text generation that structure the trajectory of research considerations: situation → actualization of meanings → motive → intention → text concept → semantic organization of text. At the same time, given the presumption of modern French studies on the implicit autobiography of the writer's novels, the conceptual core of the study turns out to be the thesis of the personal senses of the author (narrator) as the basis for the motive. Thus, the effective summarizing positions of the analysis are centered around the linguistic signals associated with the individual consciousness of the sense-creating activity of the writer. In this respect, the intertextual field of the novel is determined to be relevant for grasping the sense, the basis for deriving the motive for creating the text "Lel’ and Pole’l". Intertextual connections, on the one hand, emphasize and maintain the effect of polarity in the text of the novel, and on the other hand, actualize the state of mental dichotomy that the writer experienced throughout his life. On this basis, an implicit presuppositional assessment of life in general and of the man in particular as dual phenomena has been derived, which correlates with the sense-being problem of Franko's life. As a result, the proposed theoretical construct of the logic of understanding the motivation of the text in relation to the novel "Lel’ and Polel’" has been concretized with the conclusive position: the spiritual and mental world of the writer → ambivalent evaluative sense as a basis for the formation of motive → motive, realized in the image of twin brothers → the intensity of explanatory psychology → textual concept as a logos of human destiny. Therefore, the dichotomous structure of the textual world of the novel "Lel’ and Polel’" is realized as a consequence of emanating the nature of the author's motive for the meaningful organization of the text. At the same time, the specificity of the figurative embodiment of the motive, which is consistent with the figurative-conceptual paradigm of text units formed on the basis of changing narrative strategies of the author, connected by means of associative cohesion, determines the centripetal nature of the text of this literary work.

Reconceiving the Divine in Eliette Abécassis’ La répudiée

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-393
Author(s):  
Raquelle K Bostow
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Helene Cixous ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Intellectual Engagement ◽  
The Face ◽  
French Author

Abstract Eliette Abécassis’ La répudiée (2000) narrates a rare story of female mystical practice in the face of her impending repudiation from a Hasidic community, which excludes women from intellectual engagement with religious texts. Set in the fictionalised neighbourhood of Meah Shearim in Jerusalem, the novel’s main character, Rachel, faces a divorce under the law of halakhah when she fails to become pregnant after ten years of marriage. Yet, throughout the novel, Rachel asserts her own individualised spiritual practice by locating the ‘divine’ within the love that she shares with her partner, placing her on the path of mysticism. To articulate Rachel’s intuition of the divine within human relationships, I rely on French author Hélène Cixous’ secularised notion of the juifemme: a woman who rewrites sacred texts, conceives of a God detached from dogmatic religion, and locates the divine within the other and the self.

scholarly journals The Qing Policy of Self-Isolation in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Elvina Albertovna Khusnutdinova ◽  
Dmitry Evgenyevich Martynov ◽  
Yulia Aleksandrovna Martynova
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
The Universe

This article discusses the difficult period of the XVII - XIX century in China's development. As a result of Manchu taking over China, the Qing empire was formed, and historiographers differ in evaluating the results of its rule. On the one hand, the Qing dynasty inherited the sinocentric view of the world from its predecessors - China was declared as the center of the universe, and all other states as sidelined vassals, who should not be subject to equal treatment. Manchu attempted to apply this doctrine in practice, which resulted in a significant expansion of the state, the annexation of Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang, and border wars with Russia, Vietnam and Burma. The self-isolation policy led to economic stagnation while the population was growing strongly. These problems could not have been resolved within the bounds of the traditional society.

The Sacred Fount: The Narrator and the Vampires

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 407-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Rebecca West ◽  
Human Relationships

Criticism of Henry James's controversial novel The Sacred Fount has tended rather insistently to take one of two interpretive directions. Since Edmund Wilson's famous essay “The Ambiguity of Henry James” appeared in 1934 and made everyone more aware of the potential complexity of James's handling of the focus of narration, the perhaps more frequently encountered approach to the novel has been one which regards it, like The Turn of the Screw and In the Cage, as principally another Jamesian experiment with a narrator of doubtful omniscience. The other approach, one still found in many treatments of the novel, tends rather to accept completely the narrator's version of events at Newmarch and looks for the meaning and significance of the work in his most obvious preoccupation during the weekend in which those events occur, the vampire theme of fulfillment and depletion in intense human relationships. Both approaches are valid. Indeed, one of the impressive aspects of the serious criticism of The Sacred Fount is that nearly all of the important attempts at analysis have been and remain true to some degree. Leon Edel, following and building on the hints of Wilson, has shown that the novel clearly is about “appearance and reality,” and R. P. Blackmur has pointed out the parabolic nature of the story and called attention to The Sacred Fount as the “nightmare nexus” in the Jamesian struggle “to portray the integrity of the artist and… the integrity of the self.” Even Rebecca West, in her witty dismissal of the book some years ago, was correct—more correct than she knew perhaps since she gives James no credit for a deliberate and skillfully manipulated irony—-in recognizing and mocking the disparity between the passion, pride, and labor expended by the incredibly egocentric, narcissistic narrator and the, if not completely trivial, at least gossamer issues involved. But the irony, like the ambiguity, is both constant and conscious. Unlike the narrator, to whom James has frequently been compared, James presides confidently over his fictional world like, in Lady John's words, “a real providence,” who “knows” (p. 176).

scholarly journals Auch das Beständigste war nicht mehr von Dauer!1 Die Darstellung des Eigenen und des Gegenübers in Andreas Birkners Roma Die Tatarenpredigt

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-139
Author(s):  
Maria Sass
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
German Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Self Image ◽  
The One

Abstract The present study focuses on imagology. Starting from the theoretical aspects of the concepts self-image and hetero-image, the analysis ponders upon the imagological constructs of two ethnical groups in the novel of the Romanian German-language author Andreas Birkner. In this analysis, the self image identifies with the one of the Transylvanian, and the image of the other is that of the Roma. The analysis of Birkner's novel leads to the conclusion that there have been certain mental images deeply rooted in historical reality and which can be, partly, explained by means of collective memory parameters. Stereotypes and prejudices should be considered in this context.

scholarly journals The Identity of Logic and the World in terms of Quantum Information

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasil Dinev Penchev
Keyword(s):  
Hilbert Space ◽  
Quantum Information ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Free Variable ◽  
Quantum Systems ◽  
Universal Logic ◽  
A Value ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe

One can construct a mapping between Hilbert space and the class of all logics if the latter is defined as the set of all well-orderings of some relevant set (or class). That mapping can be further interpreted as a mapping of all states of all quantum systems, on the one hand, and all logics, on the other hand. The collection of all states of all quantum systems is equivalent to the world (the universe) as a whole. Thus that mapping establishes a fundamentally philosophical correspondence between the physical world and universal logic by the meditation of a special and fundamental structure, that of Hilbert space, and therefore, between quantum mechanics and logic by mathematics. Furthermore, Hilbert space can be interpreted as the free variable of "quantum information" and any point in it, as a value of the same variable as "bound" already axiom of choice.

scholarly journals Symbol of light in “Paternal lantern” by Roman Fedoriv

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
Mariana Hirniak
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Native Land ◽  
The People ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe

The paper deals with the novel “Paternal Lantern” by Roman Fedoriv, namely with the symbolic meanings the light acquires according to its material representation in the work. The writer interprets this symbol, common for the cultures of the whole world, in a rather original way. In the novel, the sunlight is associated with the human internal strength and power of nature; it is a precondition for life as well as evidence of righteous existence on earth. The sunset symbolizes approaching death and thereby manifests the man’s need to rethink his way of life. The fire is a source of light and heat, and even, in accordance with ancestral beliefs, an abode of the deity; therefore it is frequently treated as a guarantee of family’s happiness and longevity, as a patron of the house. The fire has the power to clear evil and passions out; however, it also symbolizes love, which needs care not less than a bonfire. The ambivalence of the fire, namely the fire of life and the one of death, caused by its origin and destination, represents opposite principles of the universe. The ‘free’ fire, lit in the open air due to the community’s will, resembles the lantern of Halychyna land for the novel’s characters. Hidden in the depths of human being, the outbursts of anger, the experience of happiness and joy, and still untapped potential, which makes a person capable of making great things, are also associated with fire. The candle symbolizing “light that enlightens everyone” accompanies characters’ good thoughts and actions, it can be a prophetic sign or guide to the afterlife. The function of ‘lantern’ in the novel is also performed by the things related not to the physical light but the shine of life, insight, and true understanding. These are home (native land), a righteous person, art and texts, minstrels, scholars and teachers that bring enlightenment to the people, help them search for truth and pass it on to the next generations leaving the trace of light in their descendants’ memory.

“No Journey is Possible Outside of the Heart”: The Story of King Lavaṇa in Bedil’s Muḥīṭ-i aʿẓam

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-115
Author(s):  
Hajnalka Kovacs
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
The Self ◽  
Essential Unity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe

Abstract In his sāqīnāmah, Muḥīṭ-i aʿẓam (“The Greatest Ocean”), Bedil describes the cosmogonic unfolding of the universe from the One as the gradual overflowing of wine, and the spiritual return of the soul as transcending the boundaries of the self in intoxication. This paper examines Bedil’s adaptation of the story of King Lavaṇa, a tale originally from the Yogavāsiṣṭha, showing that within the conceptual framework of the Muḥīṭ-i aʿẓam the story of King Lavaṇa serves to underscore the necessity of transforming the heart from its imagined separateness into a state of awareness of its essential unity with the one Reality.

Stories and the Self

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Markus Appel
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lower Degree ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Abstract. Two experiments examined the influence of stories on recipients’ self-perceptions. Extending prior theory and research, our focus was on assimilation effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in line with a protagonist’s traits) as well as on contrast effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in contrast to a protagonist’s traits). In Experiment 1 ( N = 113), implicit and explicit conscientiousness were assessed after participants read a story about either a diligent or a negligent student. Moderation analyses showed that highly transported participants and participants with lower counterarguing scores assimilate the depicted traits of a story protagonist, as indicated by explicit, self-reported conscientiousness ratings. Participants, who were more critical toward a story (i.e., higher counterarguing) and with a lower degree of transportation, showed contrast effects. In Experiment 2 ( N = 103), we manipulated transportation and counterarguing, but we could not identify an effect on participants’ self-ascribed level of conscientiousness. A mini meta-analysis across both experiments revealed significant positive overall associations between transportation and counterarguing on the one hand and story-consistent self-reported conscientiousness on the other hand.

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