Story telling

Story Telling 

Storytelling is as old as humanity itself. The tradition of capturing the events and beliefs of communities reaches back to a time when humans first sat by
a fire and told tales. History was preserved in the form of legends and mythologies that were passed down from one generation to the next, and offered answers to the mysteries of the universe and its creation.
Written accounts emerged at the same time as ancient civilizations, but at first the invention of writing met simple, prosaic functions—
for example to record transactions between traders or tally quantities of goods. The thousands of cuneiform clay tablets discovered at Ugarit in Syria reveal the already complex
I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second. Laurence Sterne
nature of the written form by
1500 BCE. Writing soon evolved
from a means of providing trading information, to preserving the oral histories that were integral to every culture and their customs, ideas, morals, and social structures. This led to the first examples of written literature, in the epic stories of Mesopotamia, India, and ancient Greece, and the more philosophical and historical texts of ancient China. As John Steinbeck so succinctly put it in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1962: “Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.”
Miss Bingley of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice may have been talking fatuously when she declared: “How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!” but
this sentiment rings true for many of us. Despite the almost limitless diversions that face readers today, literature continues to satisfy a spiritual or psychological need,
and open readers’ minds to the world and its extraordinary variety. There are works penned hundreds of years ago that continue to enchant and amuse to this day; complex postmodern texts that
can be challenging in the extreme, yet still hold us in their grip; and new novels that feel so fresh that they read as if words have only just been invented.

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History of Literature

History of Literature

Around 4,000 years ago, the first stories to be written down came
in the form of poems such as Mesopotamia’s The Epic of Gilgamesh and India’s Mahabharata, which were based on oral traditions. Rhyme, rhythm, and meter
were essential aids to memory in songs and oral accounts, so it is unsurprising that the first texts made use of familiar poetic devices. Many early written texts were religious, and sacred texts such
as the Bible and the Koran tell the stories of early histories, and have influenced writing for centuries. The form of literature that became Greek drama used a narrative balladlike form and introduced characters with individual voices, choruses of commentary, and the distinct categories of comedy and tragedy that continue to be used today. The collections of stories that make up the Arabic One Thousand and One Nights have multiple origins, but this prose fiction, written in plain speech, makes use of techniques that eventually became a mainstay in modern novels, such as framing (which introduces stories within the framework of another story), foreshadowing, and the inclusion of repetitive themes.
Although the vast medieval era was studded with secular highlights such as the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and tales of chivalric romance, it was dominated in the West by religious texts in Latin and Greek. During the Renaissance, the joint energies of new philosophical investigation and sheer invention opened the door to literary innovation. The driving force behind the Renaissance was the production of new translations of ancient Greek and Roman texts which freed scholars from the dogma of the church. A humanist program of education which incorporated philosophy, grammar, history, and languages was built
on the wisdom of the ancients. The Bible was translated into vernacular speech, enabling Christians to commune directly with their God. Gutenberg’s printing press brought books into the lives of ordinary people, and authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio made everyday life the subject of literature. By the early 17th century, Miguel de Cervantes and Daniel Defoe had given the world what many scholars consider to be the first novels, and the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays was published.

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Definition of Literature

Defining literature

Although the simple definition
of “literature” is “anything that is written down,” the word has become primarily associated with works of fiction, drama, and poetry, and weighted with the impossible- to-quantify distinction of merit
and superiority. These values are intrinsic to the canon of literature drawn upon for academic study and appreciation that has been evolving since the middle of the 19th century. The term “canon” was borrowed from the ecclesiastical canons
of authorized religious texts.
The literary canon—a collection
of works commonly agreed to be of exceptional quality—was formed almost entirely from familiar works of Western European literature.
Since the mid-20th century, cultural and literary theorists have done much to destabilize the canon by disputing the authority of these lists of the works of “dead, white Europeans.” The idea of a perceived canon of “great works” still stands as a useful framework, but rather than the term being used to define the same set of titles, it evolves with each new generation, which
reexamines the ideology and power structures that underpin the selections of previous generations, and questions why certain other works were excluded. Arguably, studying how literature is created and testing its place in the canon may help to make us better readers. In the same spirit, this book features many titles that are traditionally regarded as “great works,” but explores their place in the wider story of literature, and within a richer mix of writing drawn from around the globe. They sit alongside newer texts that empower some of the voices that were silenced over the centuries by social constructs such as colonialism and patriarchy, and Europe’s dominance over literature.

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Maria

Critical Comments

Maria is an interesting little girl of about fifteen. She is a rich girl , and is living with a rich aunt and uncle. They sent her to a very fashionable school where everything was properly looked after , and she never faced any difficulties. She always complained that she had never had a home of her own , and in that way she managed to win the love and sympathy of her aunt.

At the Dosleys house she was being treated like a member of the family, but even there Mrs. Dosely wanted to be very nice to her so that she might make friends with her girls and they might be able to boast of high connexions when Maria came out. So that she felt disgusted with the place and created trouble for any one and every one. She tried to be as nasty as she might and thought in that way she would be sent away. She was baffled to find that they did not care for what she said or did. At last she found that Mr.Hammond was badly affected by her conduct and behaviour and she took it on herself to make things as difficult for him as she could. She had a reputation for being nasty and unpleasant to others with the result that people in the neighbourhood refused to take her in when her aunt asked them to do so.

But she had some good points too, when Hammond beat her she did not complain and bow down as any other woman in her position would have done. She fought him but when things became difficult took the beating like a little sister, and when she was told that she was to go she felt sorry for having to go away from the brotherly and sisterly treatment which was accorded to her in the house.

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The woman who had imagination by H.E. Bates

Critical Comments

The women who had Imagination is very interesting story. It gives the experience of Henry and shows rather flashy, and highly sensitive girl who married ab old man, and had to live indoors all the time in spite of the fact that she had a great imagination. Her existence is quite pathetic. She cannot leave the old man for even a minute, because when she does, he gets so upset that it results in a fit. His attitude towards her becomes apparent from the very beginning. The moment he saw Henry he asked who he wad and she could not say that he was a visitor to the house. So she told him that he was the new gardener. Evidently the man felt jealous of any man who came there. It also showed that the lady had a romantic temperament, and perhaps she married the old man in the hope that he would not interfere in her escapades, but he proved to be just the contrary. This fact is suggested by the following sentence at the end.

‘Imagination! It needed a bit of imagination to marry that old cock.’

Her conduct with Henry also showed that she liked him and wanted to flirt with him but the old man was a terror for her. He would make a hell of a mess if  she did not go back at once. Evidently she had sent Henry to the lake so that she might meet him there in the evening and she was also thinking of going for a little boating with him but then felt helpless about it , and the result was the tears which she quietly shed by the lakeside. Henry was a quiet, serious minded boy. He did not like the people who were making love to each other in the brake, and who could not understand the intention of the lady when she indulged in the frolics by the lake side. If he had, things might have taken a different turn and the story would have been some what different.

There is a atmosphere of mystery throughout the story. We do not know who the women is and what she is doing there with the old man , the very entrance of Henry into their room is so managed as to give her and the old man a mysterious air. Her conduct remains a mystery not only for Henry but also for the reader, till he is told by suggestion that she was a gay woman. The writer does that quite well by giving an indirect suggestion that her mother was little irresponsible.

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The Duchess and the Jewlers by Virginia Wolf

Critical Comments

The duchess and the jewelers is a fine little short story the whole life of the jeweller is very well portrayed in a few lines. The writer has told us that he had risen through sharp practice, and had become the richest jeweller in England. But he was not satisfied. He wanted to win greater glory and more money, and worked with that object in view.

Imagine a giant hog in a pasture rich with truffles after unearthing this truffle and that , still it smells a bigger , a blacker truffle under the ground farther off. So Oliver snuffed always in the rich earth of Mayfair another truffle, a blacker , a bigger farther off.

He never thought that any one could have deceive him. Then came the old Duchess who was a cunning and sharp as he was , and by giving him the bait of the company of her daughter deceived him into paying her twenty thousand pounds . He had lost for once , and it was a big loss from all angles .

In this story the writer has studied the psychology of the jeweller. He is clever , and very intelligent. No one can deceive him but he has a weak point. He has failed in love. The Mademoiselle who used to give him flowers had married someone else , and he was still a bachelor of mature years. He loved the daughter of Duchess , but had no opportunities of making love to her. The duchess knew that and gave him the right bait at the right time. In the hope of being near his beloved, he forgot the golden principles of his trade and was taken in. In his circumstances no one, no man , with a heart in his breast , could have withstood the temptation. That is the point of the story.  There are losses which one must bear, because after all man is a man, and sometimes his passions rather than his reason govern him.

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The Voice by V.S Pritchett

Critical Comments

This is a simple story which shows how the differences between men are superficial in their essence, and that men can come together when they are facing a common danger, or when they feel the need for each other. Lewis hated Morgan. He thought that the other man was nothing short of the devil personified. But even then he loved the strong and resonant voice with which he sang his hymns . It was for the love of that voice that Lewis was the first to proceed with the rescue operations. 

His anger was however , roused by the fact that the other man had been drinking in the church, and had been doing so every day. They exchanged some harsh words. But it did not last long and soon they were friends because Lewis too had fallen down, and in that state he needed the other man. The two men began to sing together. 

It is a short and very well constructed story. From the beginning to the end there is no flagging of interest, there is nothing irrelevant, or digressionary about it. 

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