Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature
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Extending the Notion of Home Through the Language of Poetry
Get PDFThis essay will offer a personalised, critical consideration of how the notion of “homeâ€, while remaining central to my vision as a poet, has evolved from the provincial to the international to the universal through the medium of landscape. It will accordingly ask the following question: how do we find a way to express ourselves through the features of a landscape we might not initially consider to be “homeâ€, in the language of poetry? In answer to that question, the Japanese concept of “shakkei†or “borrowed landscape†will be explored as it relates to both literary history and the more contemporary concern for the expression and cultivation of the individual self. In particular, the technique of “ikedoriâ€, or the “capturing alive†of a landscape will be examined. And finally, this essay will suggest that “shakkei†and poetry are much more than just metaphors for each other. Rather, they are organically and artistically linked mediums through which creative wonder is formalised, personalised and expressed
Eric G. Loo and Mustafa K. Anuar, Journalism in Good Faith: Issues and Practices in Religion Reporting
Get PDFNever Not an Educator: Tagore as a Poet-Teacher
Get PDFTagore was an educator in everything he wrote and did. He was also always a poet, in his novels and plays as well as his poetry. The dénouement of his novel YogÄyog can be faulted on novelistic grounds, but is understandable if one relates it to his sometimes oppressive sense of his own destiny. His play MuktadhÄrÄ shows that he was well aware of the perils of charisma and gurugiri. His educational experiment at Santiniketan, which rested so heavily on his own charisma, may therefore have had some inherent dangers. Visva-Bharati’s chequered history may in time lead one to ask whether there were problems with the Poet’s dream itself
English Literature in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh: The Question of Post-colonial Pedagogy
Get PDFEnglish literature has been part of the syllabus of English-medium schools from the early days of the British colonial encroachment in the South Asian region. In today's Bangladesh from the late seventies, the O/A level or equivalent “international†systems started spreading, instead of the “national curriculum in English-medium†of the Pakistani era. The proliferation of English-medium schools after 1990, concurrent with the wholesale adoption of free market policies, the return of democracy in 1990, and globalisation, has meant that an ever-increasing number of Bangladeshi children and young adults are studying English literature as a compulsory subject until standard eight, or as an optional subject after that. However, they are doing this in an inchoate way, some if not many of them imbibing the inherent culture, values and worldviews of these texts. The students remain comparatively unaware of other non-western literatures, including to some extent, Bengali literature, due to the primacy of English language, literature and culture in these institutions. Thus, there is a need for a postcolonial pedagogic system for English literature at these institutions in order to offset the effects of neo-colonialism. This study tries to analyse the present teaching and learning practices, argues for a post-colonial pedagogy and suggests ways of formulating a revised pedagogy for teaching English literature at these schools
Traditional Myths and Problematic Heroes: The Case of Harry Freame
Get PDFThis article reconstructs key elements in the life-story of Harry Freame, a Japanese-born Australian who served in both the First and Second World Wars. Freame's courageous role in gathering intelligence as a forward scout at Gallipoli, Turkey, in 1915, was matched by a different kind of bravery in his intelligence work in Sydney and Tokyo in 1940. Yet Freame has received little public recognition for his remarkable feats. The main reasons for this neglect appear to be Freame's mixed-race background and an Australian wariness about praising secret agents and spies. His unusual ethnic origins in a mainly "white‟ Australia and his involvement in secret work made him a problematic hero. In contrast, British and American spies have achieved a mythological status as heroic figures in the public culture of these nations