In order to understand why Madame Bovary is hailed as an anti-romantic, realist piece of literature, and to what extent such a classification is true, it is first important to understand what realism in literature means. Literary realism is the attempt of literature to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality or elaborate artistic conventions and implausible or supernatural elements. According to the twentieth-century scholar Rene Wellek, the aim of realist literature is “the objective representation of social reality.”[1] The realist novel is concerned with contemporary life and everyday, commonplace scenes. It focuses on characters in a social setting and delves deep into their psyche. In terms of stylistic technique, the realist novel’s approach to its subject matter is straightforward and detached, almost analytic in its description of characters and events.
Author Archives: Nudrat Kamal
Musings of a Reader: Regarding Characters and their Likeability
There’s a debate a friend of mine and I have regularly while we’re discussing books. Sometimes, she really dislikes a book I recommend (which totally breaks my heart, by the way, because, let’s face it, sharing a deeply loved book with someone is like sharing a secret, hidden part of yourself, and if that person doesn’t like it, it’s like a rejection of the worst kind), and more often than not, her reason for not liking the book is: the main character was so unlikeable. Now, this friend of mine has awesome taste in books and I totally respect her opinions on most things; but, on this one point, we always just agree to disagree. My argument is that the presence of an awful, hateful character doesn’t mean the book itself is awful. And besides, why does a character have to be likeable anyway?
Continue reading “Musings of a Reader: Regarding Characters and their Likeability”
Musings of a Reader: The Wonderful World of YA Fiction
Honestly, I thought this column would be a breeze to write. Like I mentioned the last time, talking about books is one of my top favorite things to do. But it’s turning out to be surprisingly difficult. See, when reading books is such an integral part of your existence, it’s hard to know where to start or what books to talk about. Should I start at the beginning, from the books my mom would read to me before I could read myself? The Dr Seuss books, with cats in hats and the fox wearing socks, and Ibn-e-Insha’s Billo Ka Basta poems which I memorized and would recite to my parents during long car rides? Or is it better to talk about the books I read more recently, the works of writers like Italo Calvino and Julian Barnes, which make me marvel at the mind-blowing narrative techniques or clever turns of phrases? In the end, I have decided to talk about some books which I personally really love and which offer some great writing and wonderful stories, but often don’t get talked about or worse, get dismissed entirely. I’m referring to young adult or YA fiction.
Continue reading “Musings of a Reader: The Wonderful World of YA Fiction”
Musings of a Reader: The Beginning
Talking about books is one of my top favourite things to do. It’s right up there with eating French fries and, you know, actually reading the books I love talking about. This was why I refused to study literature as an academic subject for a long time. “You mean you get to discuss books at length? And you get graded for it? That seems too much fun to be real. There must be a catch.” Thankfully I got over it, and was ecstatic to discover, in one of my first literature classes, that I could gush about the many qualities of Mr Darcy and it would count as my assignment. The joy! The point being, talking about literature, to me is just plain fun.
Watch and Learn: Learning Through YouTube
Published in Newsline magazine in October 2013: http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2013/11/youtube-watch-and-learn/
For Amna Khan, an undergraduate student of Karachi University, academic learning does not stop once she steps out of her classroom. Back at home, she regularly attends a class halfway across the world in one of the top universities, via YouTube – or at least she did before YouTube was banned in Pakistan.
“I was making my way through Yale University’s online courses on political philosophy and literary theory,” she tells Newsline. “Some of these courses helped me better understand the topics I was learning in my classes, and some I took just because I don’t get to study them in my own university.” Yale University – along with other universities such as Harvard, Standford and MIT – has its own channel on YouTube, where videos of entire courses are uploaded for the benefit of students all around the globe.
For people like Amna, and many others, YouTube is not a place where they can merely watch videos of cats or, contrary to popular belief, the blasphemous Innocence of Muslims video over and over again. It offers access to a wide variety of educational tools, religious content and tutorial videos, and serves as a platform for different forms of creative expression. Banning it has deprived the people of Pakistan of opportunities to learn and interact with the world.
All around the world, YouTube is revolutionising the way knowledge is shared and acquired, and its effects have only now begun to be felt in Pakistan. According to a survey conducted in July 2013 by Bolo Bhi (an organisation geared towards advocacy, policy and research in the areas of internet access, digital security and privacy), 74% of Pakistanis who use YouTube access videos of academic tutorials and lectures. And with good reason, since YouTube offers a wide variety of educational tools, ranging from university courses to TedTalks, where professionals from different fields give lectures, and vlogs such as Crash Course and Minute Physics, which offer short lessons on physics, biology, history and literature in engaging and entertaining ways. Everything is just a click away, whether it is a talk on the latest innovation in neuroscience, an animated lecture on organic chemistry or a literary analysis of The Great Gatsby delivered in hip-hop style rap (the YouTube channel ThugNotes presents classic literature summary and analysis in the language of hip-hop).
Various Pakistani universities, such as IBA, LUMS and NUST also maintain their own YouTube channels, where they upload videos of the conferences and seminars they host on campus. These videos benefit not just students enrolled in one specific institute, but anyone with access to YouTube. The Virtual University (VU) of Pakistan also post videos on a wide range of subjects – business and finance, law and psychology, among others.
It is not just university-level students who are benefiting – YouTube hosts numerous educational channels aimed at young children, which can be used effectively by parents and teachers as teaching tools for pre-schoolers or kindergarteners. Maheen Ibrahim, a mother of three primary school-going children, says she often uses videos on YouTube to better explain basic concepts such as alphabets and phonics to them. “It is not an easy task, making a child learn the alphabet or numbers. YouTube videos such as those by Sesame Street and BabyTV, with their songs and bright colours and animated characters, played an important role in my children’s pre-school learning.”
The best thing about YouTube is that there is content available in every language. In 2011, Google (which owns YouTube) announced that 60% of its users are non-English speakers, and this number will surely have increased in the ensuing years. There is a plethora of Urdu language videos for children: Urdu nursery rhymes, lullabies, cartoons and stories. Khan Academy, a virtual library consisting of lessons on all subjects, has a separate YouTube channel for lessons given in Urdu. Along with Urdu-language videos, there are also videos in every regional language of Pakistan – a Sindhi tutorial on how to monetise your blog and website, a Pashto video lesson on Adobe Photoshop, a Balochi video teaching embroidery design, you name it. This, coupled with the fact that YouTube itself is user-friendly even for those not fluent in English, means that it can serve as a great tool for the empowerment of people who may not have had a formal education. Skills pertaining to their respective fields can be honed and new skills can be learnt, paving the way for greater employment opportunities. For instance, instead of signing up for expensive courses at IT training centres such as Arena, you can learn graphic design and multimedia software for free via YouTube tutorials, in your preferred language.
When Asma Shafiq, a housewife with a knack for embroidery and jewellery-making, decided to turn her hobby into a home-run business, she turned to YouTube for inspiration. “It gave me an idea of the latest trends in jewellery-making around the world,” she says. “I learnt new designs and techniques I didn’t know before.” For people like Asma, YouTube offers a chance to keep up with the world of art and crafts, and to use this knowledge to create new avenues of employment for themselves.
Many people, especially the youth, also turn to YouTube for religious knowledge. With channels such as QuranWeekly and Organisation for Islamic Learning offering short videos on different aspects of Islamic knowledge and sermons given by scholars who speak in an open and engaging manner, many young people prefer YouTube to more traditional means of gaining religious knowledge. According to the Bolo Bhi survey, 27% of people who frequent YouTube use it to access religious content. “It’s more convenient watching religious videos online than reading long-winding religious sermons which are difficult to understand anyway,” says Anum Shaharyar, a frequent visitor of the QuranWeekly channel.
Besides the acquisition of different forms of knowledge, YouTube is increasingly serving as a platform on which Pakistani artists can showcase their talent and interact with audiences directly, without the need of intermediaries such as recording companies and mainstream television channels. In recent years, several musicians and comedians have emerged through YouTube, such as musicians Ali Gul Pir and Bilal Khan, as well as the comedian Osman Khalid Butt. In each of these artists’ cases, YouTube was instrumental in launching their careers.
In a country where the performing arts industry is just beginning to develop, YouTube levels the playing field by making sure that everyone has the opportunity to share their work.
Regarding the ban on YouTube, Ali Gul Pir tells Newsline, “YouTube is a wonderful place where artists get to express themselves. It is a medium without any boundaries and people should not be denied the opportunities it provides.”
Read this on Newsline’s website: http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2013/10/watch-and-learn-on-youtube/
The Role of Fate in the Shakespearean Tragedy Julius Ceasar
Shakespearean drama often dealt with the eternal conflict between fate and free will. Whether it was Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed lovers destined to die in their struggle to become united or Macbeth, whose blind ambition made him preordained for evil, fate has a significant presence in most of Shakespeare’s dramas. Through his characters, Shakespeare addressed the universal human struggle between succumbing to fate and exercising free will to overcome your fate. Like in his other works, the characters of Julius Caesar wrestle with this dilemma as well: Does man have the power to change his destiny? Each of the main characters of this play struggle with the important question of whether or not their actions can change the course of fate, and by the end of the play, this conflict is resolved in different ways.
Continue reading “The Role of Fate in the Shakespearean Tragedy Julius Ceasar”
Pride and Prejudice: Austen’s Views on Love and Marriage
In the 200 years since its publication, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has spawned a plethora of sequels, prequels and adaptations, the most recent of them being a popular YouTube series. There can be several reasons for the enduring appeal of Pride and Prejudice – the handsome and rich Darcy, the witty banter the two protagonists engage in, the fairy tale-like happy ending. But an important reason why modern readers continue to relate to the novel may be Austen’s views on love and marriage which are reflected in it, views which are surprisingly aligned with progressive, modern-day sensibilities.
Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice: Austen’s Views on Love and Marriage”
Amazing Psychology: The Psychology of Happiness
Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th, 2011: http://tribune.com.pk/story/239994/studying-psychology-its-all-in-the-mind/
When I tell people that I am interested in psychology, the most common reaction I get is“Psycho parh parh kay psycho hojao gi.” There is so much that’s wrong with this sentence (the least of which is the abbreviation of psychology to psycho; its Psych, people), that I usually just smile and shrug off the scepticism instead of arguing. The fact of the matter is that psychology is more relevant to our everyday lives than most people realise, and it is definitely not synonymous with morbidity or depression.
Continue reading “Amazing Psychology: The Psychology of Happiness”
A Story Told Beneath the Stars
The painting hangs in the centre of the wall, above the television set. She always gets lost when she looks at it, whenever she visits her daughter’s house. Lost in the acres of green fields that go on forever and the dirt path that snakes its way through them. The trees lining the path remind her of the men in her village in India, how they would pick holay from the fields and sit under the trees, roasting them over a small fire. She used to watch them on the days when she was allowed to accompany her grandfather as he went to survey the fields. The memory of her grandfather, the crinkly feel of his beard, the loping way he walked, makes her smile. She thinks it impossible that he has been dead for decades. How can it be, when her memories of him are as sharp as something that happened yesterday? She sometimes feels like she has been asleep for sixty years, like most of her life has just swept past her.
***
Amazing Psychology: 5 Ways In Which Money Really Can Buy Happiness
Published on the Newsline Magazine blog in December 2011: http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2011/12/research-says-money-can-buy-happiness/
Happiness doesn’t buy happiness. It’s a ridiculously overused saying. You hear it all the time. From your parents – probably followed by its even more clichéd sister, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”. It’s the message those movies give you, in which the poor main protagonist, who is constantly complaining about having no money, suddenly gets rich, only to discover that all the money in the world can’t fill the sad, sad hole in his heart. It’s not like the message is incorrect. After all, clichés become clichés for a reason – because there is a grain of truth in them. And if I had to bet, I’d probably say that a person with healthy, fulfilling relationships would be happier than a person with an obscene amount of money in his bank account and no friends. But recent studies show that there are ways in which money can increase your happiness. In fact, these researchers say that if money isn’t buying you happiness, then you’re probably not spending it right! Here are some ways in which you can use your money to give you greater pleasure:
Continue reading “Amazing Psychology: 5 Ways In Which Money Really Can Buy Happiness”
Nudrat Kamal 