ENG252Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Long Poem, Narration, Culavamsa
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
ENG252 - Lecture 18
Phinder Dulai
-Poet/community
-Cultural memory
•often marked by internal contradictions
•events touch people in different ways, they remember things differently
Archives
•fluid nature of archives
•history embodied in cultural archives is heard in the plural
•imperative to remember
-compulsion to come to terms with what’s happened
•not homogenising the past
Cultural memory
-Attests and resists the original narratives it unearths
-What happens when the archive is opened
-Archive fever (Derrida) - like a sickness
•nostalgic desire for the past
•but also the discovery that the archive does not reveal itself as an open text
•requires “translation”
Long poem
-Consisting of disparate generic elements
-Epic, lyrical, documentary, concrete poems, prose, photos
-As a polyphonic discourse that allows generic and other contradictions to coexist
!1
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Michael Ondaatje - Anil’s Ghost
-Strong transnational character of the book
-Mostly in Sri Lanka though
•currently in violent ethnic conflict
-We have actual archeologists in Sri Lanka here
-We also see a lot of archives
•archives as a metaphor, a repository
-A preoccupation with history
•war, colonialism, post-modernism
-Conflict between western and non-western values
-Humanitarianism
•related to humanism
Omniscient narrator
-non-linear plot
-8 Sections
•Sarath * The Grove of Ascetics * A Brother * Ananda * The Mouse * Between
Heartbeats * The Life Wheel * Distance
-Presence of families create a certain effect and empathy
•narrator goes inside minds
•complex voice tells the story
-Omniscient voice is quite choosy
•we never get into the mind of Sarath when he is tortured and killed
-Sections focalised through the consciousness of a given character
•e.g. “A Brother”
•Gamini ~ Anil’s brother
!2
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Cultural memory: often marked by internal contradictions, events touch people in different ways, they remember things differently. Archives: uid nature of archives, history embodied in cultural archives is heard in the plural, imperative to remember. Compulsion to come to terms with what"s happened: not homogenising the past. Attests and resists the original narratives it unearths. What happens when the archive is opened. Archive fever (derrida) - like a sickness: nostalgic desire for the past, but also the discovery that the archive does not reveal itself as an open text, requires translation . Epic, lyrical, documentary, concrete poems, prose, photos. As a polyphonic discourse that allows generic and other contradictions to coexist. Mostly in sri lanka though: currently in violent ethnic con ict. We have actual archeologists in sri lanka here. We also see a lot of archives: archives as a metaphor, a repository. A preoccupation with history: war, colonialism, post-modernism.
