Thinking activity: Age of chaucer to Elizabeth.

Ben jonson

Benjamin Jonson was born on 11 june 1572 and died on 16 august 1637. He was an English playwright and poet. Jonson’s lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularized the “comedy of humours.” he is best known for the satirical plays like 

Every man in his humor (1598), volpon, the fox(1606), The alchemist(1610), bartholomew fair(1614),  and also for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable , and also sometimes surprising or satirical statement. 

He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare. He was a classically educated, well read and cultured man. His ancestors spelled the family name with a letter “t” johnstone or johnstoun. While the spelling had changed with “johnson”.

His Early life- 

Jonson’s father lost his property, he was imprisoned and suffered forfeiture under queen mary, he died a month before his son's birth. His mother married  a master bricklayer two years later. Johnson attended school in St Martin's lane. Then a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster school.  The event, the pupil and the master became good friends, and the influence of camden's broad- ranging scholarship upon johnsons art and literary style  remained noteble.

He left Westminster school in 1589, and attended the university of cambridge, to continue his book learning but he didn't, because of his unwilled apprenticeship with his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Johnson built a garden wall in Lincoln's inn. 

The conversation between ben jonson and the poet william drummond “ the hawthornden manuscripts(1619), report that, when in flanders, jonson engaged, fought and killed an enemy soldier in single combat. After his military activity on the continent, Jonson returned to England and he worked as an actor and as a playwright. As an actor, he was the protagonist “hieronimo” in the play the spanish tragedy (1586) by thomas kyd, that is the first revenge tragedy in english literature. Moreover,by 1597, he was a working playwright employed by philip henslowe, the leading producer for the english public theater; by the next year,the production of everyman in his homour(1598) had established jonson reputation as a dramatist.

His later life-

According to his marriage he describes his wife to william drummond as “ a shrew, yet honest”. His wife's identity has always been obscure, yet she sometimes  is identified as “ann lewis”, the woman who married  a benjamin johnson in 1594.  At the church of St Magnus the martyr near London bridge. Their elder daughter died in november 1593, at six months of age. Then in 1603 benjamin johnson their elder son died of bubonic plague when he was seven years old. To honour the dead boy , Benjamin johnson pere wrote the elegiac on my first sonne(1603). Then 32 years later, a second son, also named Benjamin Jonson, died in 1635. In that period, ann lewis and ben johnson lived separate lives for five or six years.

During this period , he made a mark second only to Shakespeare's in the public theater. His comedies volpone, or the fox (1606) and the alchemist (1610) were among the most popular plays of the time. Each exhibited man’s folly in the pursuit of gold. set respectively in italy and London, they demonstrate jonson’s enthusiasm both for the typical renaissance setting and for his own town on europe’s fringe. The comedies epicoene(1609) and bartholomew fair(1614) were also successful.

On his return to England he received an honorary master of arts degree from oxford university, a most signal honour in his time. His life was a life of talk as well as of writing.

In 1623 his personal library was destroyed by fire. By this time his services were seldom called on for the entertainment of charles 1’s court, and his last plays failed to please. Jonson died in 1637 and was buried in Westminster abbey.

About his career-

Ben Jonson had begun to write original plays for the admiral’s men; in 1598 he was mentioned by francis meres in his palladis tamia as one of “ the best for tragedy”. None of his early tragedies survive, an undated comedy, the case is altered, may be his earliest surviving play.

Jonson produced his first great  success, every man in his humour, this capitalizing on the vouge for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with a humorous day's mirth. William Shakespeare was among the first actors to be cast. Johnson followed this in 1599 with “every man out of his humour”, it is known whether this was a success on stage, but when published it proved popular and also went through several editions.  

His other work for the theater in the last years of Elizabeth 1 reign was marked by fighting and controversy. Cynthia’s revels  were produced by the children of the chapel royal at blackfriars theater in 1600. Then the war of the theaters  appears to have ended with reconciliation on all sides. Johnson collaborated with dekker on a pageant welcoming james 1 to england in 1603 although drummond reports that johnson called dekker a rogue.

The Restoration dramatists’ use of type names for their characters (Cockwood, Witwoud, Petulant, Pinchwife, and so on) was a harking back to Jonson, and similarly in the 18th century, with such characters as Peachum, Lumpkin, Candour, and Languish. And though, as the 18th century proceeded, comic dramatists increasingly used names quite arbitrarily, the idea of the Jonsonian “type” or “humour” was always at the root of their imagination. Jonson thus exerted a great influence on the playwrights who immediately followed him. In the late Jacobean and Caroline years, it was he, Shakespeare, and Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher who provided all the models. But it was he, and he alone, who gave the essential impulse to dramatic characterization in comedy of the Restoration and also in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Ben jonson wrote this for shakespeare in english eassy 1909.

About his religion-

Jonson recounted that his father had been a prosperous protestant landowner until the reign of " bloody mary" and had suffered imprisonment and the forfeiture of his wealth during that monarch's attempt to restore England to catholicism. On Elizabetha accession he had been freed and had been able to travel to London to become a clergyman. His interest in catholic belief and practice remained with him until his death.

His work-

Drama:

Apart from two tragedies, sejanus and catiline, that largely failed to impress renaissance audience, johnson's work for the public theater was in comedy

Comedy-

• A tale of a tube
• The isle of dogs
• The case is altered
• Every man in his humor
• Every man out of his humor
• Cynthia's revels
• The poetaster
• Eastward ho
• Valpone
• Epicoene, or the silent woman
• The alchemist
• Bartholamew fair
• The devil is an ass
• The staple of news
• The new inn, or the light heart
• The magnetic lady
• Humorous reconciled

Tragedy-

• Sejanus his fall
• Catiline his conspiracy
• Historical work-
• Mortimer his fall

Poetry-

His poetry, like his drama. As informed by his classical learning, some of his better known poems are close translations of greek or roman models. Jonson largely avoided the debate about rhyme.

• Epigram(1612)
• The forest(1616) 
• On my first sonne(1616), elegy
• A discourse of love(1618)
• Barclay's argenis(1623)
• The execration against valcan (1640)
• Horace's art of poetry (1640)
• Underwood(1640)
• To celia

Here is link of video "Ben jonson's introduction and literary works" 

https://youtu.be/1iFQ40-KEe0

Thank you.

Thinking skills workshop by dr.milan pandya.

 Two day’s thinking skills workshop

Our department of English has organized a two day’s workshop on thinking skills by profesor Milan pandya. He is a Teacher, trainer and Educator in the field of critical, creative  and design thinking skills, English language teaching, communication skills, humanities and social science. He has 12 years teaching experience, he authored 2 books. He has trained numerous  universities and institutes training more than 30,000 people. He has BA and MA in english literature, also did m.phil and ph.d.

The workshop started on 13 august, our Dr.dilip barad sir warmly welcomed him and gave a brief introduction of milan pandya sir, and gave information about his works and what he has achieved, and told us that we can ask any question to him and our dr. barad sir also refers that dont be nervios to ask any question, you would think that your question is stupid but “ A stupid question can bring the smartest answer”.

About day-1

On the first day of the workshop Milan sir started the session with entuziasm. He asked the first question, “What is critical thinking ?” and “ what is the meaning of  critical ?” and he refers that  context is everything and thinking is when we apply our mind in anything that we want to know for, and want to come across also also added that critical thinking is that when we are not agree with someone's work and having doubt that is critical thinking and thinking covers main three major parts-

 

• Logical

• Rational

• Scientific

He define that -

“Thinking about thinking in order to improve thinking is critical thinkinking”

 

As human beings we have many advantages, the main advantage is thinking, because of this  we are superior to all living beings on earth. Thinking is also synonymously used with the words reason, cogitate, and reflect. Thinking is an incredibly complex process and it is the most difficult concept in psychology to define and explain something. Psychologists define thinking as the manipulation of the mental representation that takes the form of a word, a visual image , sound and many more things.

  

Further he point out that- 

“Your teacher might be wrong, learn to think for yourself”

We should not accept things which are shown to us, we should go through all conceconses. Anyone could be wrong, that's why we should go through the roots of that thing. When we look at anything we should have a critical opinion on that particular thing. For that he points out one thing that

“ If something is true what else has to be true.”

We are because of thinking,we are nothing without our mind, our personality development is done by our thinking skills, and because of this revolution happening in the human race. And further he gave many example that we are go through-

1. A scene from star plus tv serial-

Yeh hai mohabbatein

Sir shows us a tv serial scene, in that scene the female protagonist hand is fractured, and a husband is helping his wife to wear sari, but when we see this picture in critical way we could notice that the female protagonists makeup is done and it looks pretty good, and she did her hairstyle well but how this is possible with fractured hand ? She did her hairstyle and makeup well but couldn't fix her sari ! 

At first glance we can't notice everything, but when we look critically we can find many irrelevant things.

2. A scene from Kareena kapoors advertisement for lux soap.

As we know that kareena kapoor is from a wealthy family and she is successful in her profession of acting. In this advertisement She is  smiling for a 3 rupees discount on lux soap. Many advertisement did brainwash of viewers, the actors pretend that the product is all chemical free and all that stupid thing but that is not true at all.

3. Satish Shah posted a pic with the Indian flag claiming it’s from 1942.

Satish Shah took to twitter to share a photo with the Indian flag. The actor claimed that the flag is frome 1942. However, twitterati are not convinced, they want to go and fact check.

  

The actor posted a photo with an Indian flag claiming it is from 1942. But people want him to fact check. In fact, they are  ready to give some Indian history lessons. It all began when the actor, known for characters like indravadhan sarabhai posted a photo on twitter saying , “ The very same tiranga dhwaj my mother had got during quit india movement1942.”

There were also some who felt like Shah should apologize to everyone. “Peddling lies is so easy these days, and celebrities are eager to do so, just to win patriotism brownie points. So sad that after thousands have commented underneath that this flag did not exist in1942, he had not corrected himself or offered an apology/ explanation,” this tweet from arnav gupta. 

4.shraddha kapoor shared a photo  about siachen glacier and our indian soldiers.

Famous Indian actress shraddha kapoor shared a photo of indian army soldiers posted at siachen glacier, she gave the caption “ respect and salute to indian army”. In that photo they were seen discharging their duties in extremely cold weather, where people claim that it is a fake photo, that particular photo is from the Russian army. This is a very basic manner that when we want to post something first of all we should check about that particular picture or post, we could google it to see if it is true or not ? 

5. Amitabh bachchan shared a photo of a world map.

Actor amitabha bachchan shared a photo of a world map during covid pandemic,on sunday after lighting lamps for the 9pm 9minutes initiative by prime minister narendra modi,   and he tweeted that india glowing on a dark world, but that is not real photo at all. 

6. Sunny Leone shared a photo of kerala.

Sunny leone shared a photo of kerala in 2017, that one car is stuck in thousands of people. Kerala is one of the most educated in india. In the picture we clearly saw that many people were stuck around the car.. They all gathered to welcome our prime minister Amit shah. but that is not true.

By all these examples sir taught us that we should go through the truth, and not trust blindly on anyone, they might be wrong.

About day-2

On the second day, 14th August of our workshop, this day is about thought experiments. Sir points out that is a rational animal, but we could not say man is born with rationality. It is quality or state of being rational. Rationality has different meanings in different aspects.

On this day  sir defined what is creativity ? in creativity there   were two elements , which is not talked about before and which is brand new, there were 4 p’s in creativity.

• Person 

• Process

• Press

• product

He also highlighted one thing that-

“No one is born creative, they have to make themself creative.”

He taught us that no one is perfect they make themself perfect by practicing, as i like doing painting since my chilhood i wasn't perfect but i practiced a lot of  sketching by pencil, charcoal and make many painting in different material, like oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolor painting and experiment a lot with different stuff. It improves my skills.

(1)

Furthermore he showed us one picture, which looked creative but it was not.in first picture there were 4 people and there were many aspects. There was a man who was driving cycle and mother doing sewing work, and a little girl enjoying the ride. She had control on liver. This picture looks reactive but it is not.

(2)

Second picture was about stuff. Sir just wanted to check our reactivity level, And he told us to categorize stuff in the groups where minimum two things were included. In This picture there were many things the whole class categories that stuff in many groups that are written

below…

• Food 

• Sorts

• Electronic gadgets

• Vehicles

• Art 

• Clothes

• Fast Food

• Weapons

• Things that rotate

• Things that red colored

• Life and death 

• Household things

• Religion vs science

• Things that made with wood and metal

• Manmade and natural things

The third picture was of a toothbrush and we gave maximum and unique use of it, and also shows the picture of glasses. 

The last task was about a thought experiment, sir shows us two different images, and we should choose only one picture. That is quite difficult. I have been watched this type of thought experiment in webserise called “love, death, tobots” in that webseries there in one episode there were death experiment of “hitlar” who is leader of nazi party, in that webseries his death shown in different aspect, in first scene he was died because of road exident, in second scene he was died by an asteroid, that asteroid is falled down on his head and he died, and in third scene he was shooted by army team, when he was sitted in bench. That  how thought experiment of hitler shown in that episode.

My learning in this 2 days workshop-

In this two days workshop of thinking activity I personally learned a lot, how to improve our thinking skills. This is pretty much an interesting and important thing. We have to improve our creative aspect and train our respected minds to think differently. In this modern technical world, it is very easy to spread wrong things. We should have checked it and we  could not trust blindly. They must wanted to get attention by that wrong thin. 

Thanks to dr.dilip barad sir and milan pandya sir for this amazing two days thinking skills workshop.

 

  

THE NEOCLASSICAL AGE

 The Neo classical age

Thinking activity

This blog is particularly based on the Neo classical age, and this is the task of thinking activity given by kavisha ma'am.

Introduction -

The main neoclassical movement coincided with the 18 th century age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century.

Neo classicism in English literature refers to a movement which flourished  between 1660 and 1798. This term refers to a style that is based on , but different form, the classic structures of the Roman and Greek writers of old. "Neo" means 'new', so  that the term literally means the "old classic",However, neoclassicism was a unique  style with its own themes and works.

Neoclassicism started in 1660 when the Stuarts returned  to the throne  and the Enlightenment was in full  swing. when the predominant style, artists like  Daniel Defoe and Samuel  Johnson flourished. Basically Neoclassicism  began after the Renaissance. whereas the Renaissance focused on lifting the individual and making people larger than life and limitless in their potential, Neo classicism  placed the  individual in the context of society.

The Neoclassical era divided  into three general eras -

(1) The Restoration period-

(2) The Augustan period-

(3) The age of   Johnson -

(1) The restoration period

The first period in the Neoclassical period was the Restoration period. The name comes from the restoration of the monarchy after the return of Charles 2 after Oliver Cromwell's commonwealth.

Restoration literature is the English literature written during the historical period of English restoration, which corresponds to the last years of Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and ireland.

 (2) The Augustan period-

The Augustan period was named after the Roman empire Augustan. The name gives credit to his drive to bring order and prosperity to the Roman empire.

The augustan age was also marked by the evolution of satirical verse, the development of the novel, and the use of melodrama over political satire. 

(3) The age of Johnson-

The age of Johnson is named after Samuel Johnson, one of the most prominent artists during this time. He wrote "The dictionary of the English language"  between 1745 and 1755.

The age of johnson also referred to as the age of sensibility, this is the period in english literature that ranged from the middle of the eighteenth century until 1798.  At the  ending of this age the romantic period arrived in 1798.

Question-1

- Write about 18th century women poets.

In 18th century there were many women poets like Charlotte smith, Phillis wheatley , Mary barber, Mary leapon, Anna seward, lady mary chudleigh , Elizabeth singer Rowe, Anne finch , Countess of Winchilsea , mary masters, Anne yearsley, elizabeth carter, lady mary wortley montagu, mary collier, hannah more, and many more…

I would like to write about charlotte smith, phillis wheatley, mary barber, anne seward.

Charlotte smith-

Charlotte Smith was born on 4 may 1749 and died on 28 october  1806. She was an English novelist and poet of the school of sensibility whose elegiac sonnets (1784) contributed to the revival of the form in England.

Smith left her husband and began writing to support their children. Her struggles for legal independence as a woman after her poetry, novels and autobiographical prefaces. Her novels such as Desmond and the old hunor house praised the ideals of the french revolution.

Charlotte went to join king's bench prison in 1783 where she wrote her first collection of poetry called Electric sonnets. The poems were a great success.

 Phillis wheatley-

Phillis wheatley peters also spelled phyllis and wealthy, she was born in 1753 and died on 5 december, 1784. She was an American author who is considered the first African - American author of a published book of poetry. Born in west africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to north america, where she was bought by the wheatley family of boston.

The publication in London of her poems on various subjects, religious and moral on september 1, 1773 brought her fame bothin England and American colonies.

Some scholars had generally believed that an elegiac poem, on the death of that celebrated divine, and eminent servant of jesus christ, the reverend and learned george whitefield..(1770) was wheatley's first published poem.

Mary barber-

Mary Barber was born in 1685 and died in 1755. She was an Irish poet, was a member of swifts circle, she has been described as a domestic , small scale, early eighteenth century poet of charm and intelligence, but also an incisive often satirical commentator on social and gender issues.

Barber's parents are not known, she married Jonathan Barber, a woolen draper in capel street , Dublin, with whom she had nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood.

" the windows address"(dublin, 1728)

" a tale being an addition to gays fables"(dublin, 1728) these are her works.

Anne seward- 

Anne Seward was born on 12 december 1742 and died on 25 march 1809. She was an english romantic poet, also called the swan of lichfield. She benefited from her fathers progressive views on female education.

She began to write poetry early with encouragement from her father, a published poet, but against the wishes of her mother her verses, which date frome at least 1759 include elegies and sonnets and a verse novel, louisa (1784), of which five editions were published. However, she did not publish her first poem until 1780, at the age of 38. Sewards many letters and other writings have been called "commonplace".

Question- 2

Portrayal of humans in neo classical novels.

Neoclassical literature is characterized by order, accuracy and structure. In direct opposition to renaissance attitudes, where man was seen as basically good. The neoclassical writers portrayed man as inherently flawed. They emphasized restraint, self control, and common sense. This was a time when conservatism flourished in both politics and literature.

Man had found himself in the long struggle for personal liberty, now he turned to the task of discovering his neighbor, of finding in whig and tory, in catholic and protestant, in anglican and dissenter, the same general human characteristics that he found in himself.

Neo classical poets constantly stress the need for man to recognize his imitations, not to aspire beyond his reach or entertain exaggerated ambitions.

 

As pope puts it:

" know then thyself, presume not good to scan 

The proper study of mankind is man."

           - Alexander pope (essay on man)

Question- 3

Tom jones moll flanders as picaresque novels.

          Tom jones as a picaresque novel

         - June 29, 2021 by somnath sarkar

The picaresque novel is a tale of adventures or misadventures of a picaro which means a 'rogue' or 'knave'. It originated in Spain in the sixteenth century as a reaction against the romance of chivalry. Lazrillo de tormes and guzman de alfarache are the earliest of the spanish picaresque novels.

Defoe's moll flankers are in the picaresque tradition. It is the story of the adventures of a dissolute woman. She is the heroine of the novel. Some critiva do not accept moll flanders as a picaresque novel on the grounds that the crimes of the protagonist are rooted in the dynamics of economic individualism.

Robinson Crusoe is also rejected as a picaresque novel on similar grounds.

The chief characteristic of the picaresque novel.

They are Picaro and his adventures, frome these emerge other characteristics. In order that a person is a picaro he should be of dubious parentage  like the protagonists of 'tom jones' and great expectations.' he should be restless by nature so that he may keep on moving from place to place frome country to country.

-The picaresque character.

Character of the novel is amply reflected after Tom's expulsion from Allworth house. He goes to briaton. He meets the soldiers on the way to bristol. He accompanies them in order to become a soldier himself. Tom's adventures begin.

In short, tom jones has a lot of picaresque elements, but in many respects it does not follow the picaresque tradition. Its hero is not a rogue. He is a kind, generous and sensitive person. He is a man of helping attitude. The aim of the novelist is definitely moral. Thus it can be said that though Tom Jones has a lot of elements of a picaresque novel, it is not a regular picaresque novel.

Thank you.