Guest Lecture - II - on 31 July - A Report...:

The second series of Guest Lectures, for students of Literature, [or rather, for students having a love of literature] was inaugurated by Dr.Stephen Jebanesan, Warden, Selaiyur Hall, MCC at 9.45 am at the Sel Hall Indoor Theatre.

Prof.Daniel David introduced Dr.Bennet Sundersingh, from National College, Trichy.

Dr.Bennet started off with the modus of preparing for UGC-NET Exams, and outlined the new format of paper III. He started from Chaucer's contribution to literature, his narrative poetry, the "Mutability Cantos" of Spenser, [The Faerie Queene], the curtal sonnet form, invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems, etc. He explicated on the various genres and the important adherents to those genres, from ballads, sonnets, plays and novels. While making a comparison between the Jew of Malta - Barabas, the Jew of Venice - Shylock, the Jew of Oliver Twist - Uncle Faggins, he emphasized the fact that studying facts of history become simpler by making these subtle connections between characters in literature. He asked a lot of interesting questions like, 'how Mephistophilis was related to Beelzebub?', on why Greene called Shakespeare an 'upstart crow', 'sieze the day' poem of Marvell, 'Sieze the Day' - a novel by Saul Bellow, etc.

He asked for an elaboration on the nine muses, and had special facts about Dryden, Swift and Pope, and their unique contributions to literature. He also gave info on closet plays, which were meant to be read, than to be performed, on the influence of "Gulliver's Travels" in Carroll's "Alice in Woderland," which inspired the comedy film "Honey, I shrunk the kids".

"Having a chronological, historical sense, as to who/what comes after who/what, helps a lot in easy approach to that particular literature", he said.

In the second session, Dr.Bennet touched upon Literary Criticism, and expounded the various theories of the Literary Critics, right from Aristotle down to Antonio Gramsci. Dr.Bennet finished his talk at 1:20 pm., and then interacted with students at the Guest Room.

The afternoon session, which started at 2:20 pm, saw Prof.Daniel David give a splendid explication on Structuralism. (excerpts on that, to follow...)

[Our sincere thanks to Dr.Stephen Jebanesan, Warden, Selaiyur Hall, for being a great source of support and encouragement to us. We also thank the L&D Secretary, Selaiyur Hall, for facilitating in the successful conduct of the program. ]