Rasipuram Krishnawamy Narayan

1. Rasipuram Krishnawamy Narayan 1906- 2001

2. A celebrated Indian writer who writes in English • Known for his simple and unpretentious writing • Was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature

3. “I'd be quite happy if no more is claimed from me than being just a story-teller.  Only the story matters, that is all.   If readers read more significance into my stories  than was meant originally, then that's  the reader's  understanding of things.   But if a story is in tune completely with the truth of life, truth as  I perceive it, then itt will be automatically significant."

4. The Rockefeller Foundation selected Narayan for a travel grant. • He left for the United States, in October 1956.” • In the Hotel Carlton, Berkeley, California, Narayan wrote the most famous of his novels, “The Guide”. Sometimes he wrote with a typewriter, sometimes with paper and pen, cooking his own food on a hot plate in the hotel room every day.

5. The recurrent motifs in Malgudi’s saga are irrelevance and irreverence. • Narayan is irreverent in his Malgudi tales; to institutions, individuals and inclinations. • People die of disease or dotage, and survivors get on with the game, insignificant as ever.

6. The Guide: Duel POV • Third person present and first person past • Takes place in India beofre Independence (1940ish) • Theme; self deception • Techniques: irony, humor and shifting pov

7. The Guide The t narrative takes place in a fictional town called Malgudi- some place near Mysore: “Malgudiis a land of fantasy, not as in a dream, colored and brilliant; but the reverie of relaxed awakening, a contemplation of commonness. Life there is reduced, or elevated, to the lowest common denominator of living, which remains the same in nearly all places and times.” –NandanDatta (California Literary Review)

8. Temple near Ghat (steps to river)

9. Another temple

10. Bharatnatyam Dancer

11. Chapter 1 • Pay attention to the switch in Point of View • First and third person is used. • Narrative switches from time when narrtor tells us about his childhood and then returns to the present time of the narrative and his current problem.

12. Technique • first person narrative during the past action of the story • fast forward talking about Rosie. (ch.1 p.4-8) • Third person during the present action of the narrative • Cinematic techngiques: jump cut, flashback, flashforward…link between the two periods is his confession to Velan

13. Duel POV • First person: Represents voice of the modern individual with desire for self-assertion • Subjective, humorous- • Draws reader’s sympathy • Third person: represents the community and demand for civic responsibility • Objective • Juxtaposes the incongrities • Highlights the irony and satire • Sympathy and judgment for Raju are in delicate balance

14. Agenda • Looking at benefits of third person pov. How does it highlight incongruities between action and thought? How does the objective pov also support the satirical tone and irony? • Prepare individually and then in sm. Groups • Share with class • Homework: Read 3-4. Bring in two signifcant passages to share with class. Write them on the back of today’s handout and comment on what they reveal.

15. p. 12 • “He was of the stuff that disciples are made of; an unfinished story or an incomplete moral never bothered him; it was all in the scheme of life.” about Velan

16. Agenda • Warm up hand out grammar • Review ch. 1 • Finish sm. Group discussions on ch. 2 • Techniques identified in novel so far? • Ch. 3-4 share passages • Homework for Thursday: Ch. 5 pages 41-56 answer questions as you read. Completed study guide due on Friday) • Friday In-class reading day

17. 1 He is usually on time 2 Ali carefully cracked the eggs 3. It started to rain 4. Your house is on fire. 5. The speech was both long and boring (correlative expressions 6. He pitched the baseball into the upper right portion of the strike zone

18. 7. The movie, Nurse Betty, is a dark comedy. It is the story of a Kansas housewife who falls in love with a soap opera character. The movie is just fair in my opinion. • 8. After months of hard work, he ran to tell her of his victory

19. 1. What do we learn about the narrator? 1-2 • appears to be honest. • he doesn’t like to be stared at, and tells Velan “I’m not as great as you imagine, just an ordinary man.” (4). • “old habit of “affording guidance to others” • his nature to involve himself into interest of others. • p. 10 “I hope she is uninteresting.” Sense of trouble with women? Rosie • Humor p. 10 POV: “I shall be rewarded… • Ironic tone 11… adulation was inevitable • P. 14 felt irritated by the responsibilities the villagers were placing on him.

20. Ch 2 • First person past thtough p. 20 • Then switches back to third person pov present action • Raju tries to debunk his own greatness: • “There is nothing extraordinary in my guess. Still mistaken for a yogi. • He realizes “ that he had no alternative; he must play the role that Velan had given him.” • P. 14. ( irony, theme)

21. Tone? • Satirical • the use of irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to expose, denounce or poke fun at human folly. Humorous part of the comedy is that he is regarded as a sage for making expected guesses and mouthing certain platitudes (moral statement). Irreverent

22. Emerging themes? • Playing a role • Feeling lik an actor and expected to say the right lines. • Enforced sainthood • Transformation (stay tuned) • Duality (dualism of Raju’s character is reflected in the braided pov.)

23. Ch 4 • p. 34” “ I like to see young boys become literate and intelligent.” He added with fervor because it sound nice. “It’s our duty to make everyone happy and wise” • Is he sincere here, or is he falling into the appropriate responses and actions of being a yogi?

24. p. 34: “What can a crocodile do to you if your mind is clear and you conscience is untroubled?” • “He was amazed at the amount of wisdom welling up from the depths of his being.” • “He was hypnotized by his own voice…” • No one was more impressed with the grandeur of the whole thing than Raju himself • (Authorial comment)

25. Does the narrator seem to believe that acting like a holy man can give us holy man thoughts? Or is he commenting on the gullible people are when it comes to wanting to believe in the wisdom of others?

26. P. 40: “With the exception of Velan, and a few others, Raju never bothered to remember faces or names or even to know to whom he was talking. He seemed to belong to the world now. His influence was unlimited.”

27. Agenda • Look at ch. 5 • Raju’s character • Practice exam intro.

28. Chapter 5: Railway Raju • When people asked him questions, he never admitted that he didn’t know • Doesn’t mean to lie, just trying to be pleasant • He makes comments about travelers: • “Travelers are an enthusiastic lot. They do not mind any inconvenience as long as they have something to see.”

29. Scared of the man who acted as “the examiner” 47 • Then he played meek and self-effacing • He learned as he taught

30. Meet Rosie • P.48-51 • The cobra: • “She stretched out her arm slightlyand swayed it in imitation of the movement; she swayed her whole body to the rhythm-for just a second, but that was sufficient to tell me what she was, the greatest dancer of the century.”

31. “I felt annoyed with him at this stage. What did he take me for?... A tout? It made me verangty, but the fact was that I really was a tout….” • (someone who solicits business in an annoying way) • The next day he ingratiates himself a bit by offering to ask Rosie to join them on the ride to the cave.

32. p.55 Going to the Peak House • He flirts with Rosie: • “You may come out as you are and no one will mind it. Who would decorate a rainbow?” • Irony: Marco knew everything about the cave and didn’t need Raju to be his guide

33. Dharma • Hindu concept that includes both social duty and a sense of vocation. • In the introduction to the novel Michael Gorra asks how dharma “affects the novelist’s sense of the relation between plot and character?

34. Two exam questions • Compare ways in two novels (or stories) in which writers have sought to make portrayal of characters’ situations credible. • With close reference to two novels or short stories, compare the ways in which writers have used narrative strategies and with what effect?

35. Exam question • Successful characterization involves taking the reader to the heart, to the inner core, of an imagined person.” In two works of your study, discuss by what means and with what degree of success authors have tried to take you to the heart of their characters.

36. Raju? How does Narayan take us to the heart of his character? • Braided pov creates delicate balance between sympathy and judgment: a Third person(allows more objective view of character) b. First person (more subjective, creates sympathy) • Creates a Flawed character a. Emerging from jail b. covets another man’s wife 3. Use of flashbacks in first person: establish characterand motivation for self interest.

37. Which other character could you use?

38. Write a pargaraph answering this question (only on Raju) • Question: ? How does Narayan take us to the heart of his character? • Restate the question in your answer (topic sentence) • In her novel To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf uses the narrative technique of stream of consciousness and interior monologues in order to take her readers into the heart of her characters, Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe. • Skip every other line • Give two examples • Go back and omit needless word • Revise any vague language

39. paragraphs • Possible replies: • Uses shifting point of view and time periods to depict a clear portaryal of character. • Braided pov: both Raju’s 1st person subjective narrative (told with candor) and an omniscient third narrator who injects authorial comments, give a balnced view of character and insight into his core. • The Flashbacks in first person reveal an honest recollection of his own dishonest actions, and insight into his motives.

40. More…. • The 3rd person pov highlights Raju’s deception. This takes us to the heart of his character: he is a phony and we know it. We also see that he is afraid of being recognized. Fear and deceit makes him a flawed but credible character. • 1st person point of view also highlights his dishonesty, but because Raju relates his own backstory, we know he is reflecting on it honestly, from the distance of perspective and to convince Velan that he is no saint.

41. Authors use many techniques to introduce their characters to their readers and to guide us to the core of their personality. In his novel The Guide, R.K. Naryan successfully uses both a braided point of view and flashback to reveal the heart of his protagonist, Raju. The braided point of view offers the reader a balanced view of Raju’s flaws. The first person point of view is an honest retelling of Raju’s past transgressions, including his affiar with a married woman. The omniscient third person also reveals his deceitful and manipulative nature, but also provides the reader with an objective view of Raju’s eventual transformation into a better person. Both points of view contribute to a balance of sympathy for and judgement of Raju, while leading us through the motives of his heart.

42. Give to another student • 1. underline strong statements • Put ( ) around something that needs either revision or correction

43. Direct and Indirect Characterization • Direct characterization tells the reader about a character • indirect characterization shows a character in action and leaves the reader to infer the rest. • Dialogue • Interior thoughts

44. p. 64 History of Rosie’s family • Raju expresses his love and admiration • She tells him about the quarrels with her husband • She was a temple dancer • “viewed as public women” • Not viewed as respectable or civilized.

45. Rosie went to school • Earned her master’s in economics • Saw an ad for a wife that Marco placed • Is she happy in her marriage?

46. Monday • Stamp notes • Background • Point of view • Looking for irony and shifts in attitude in ch. 6 • Tomorrow: reading day in class ch. 7 answer study guide questions • Quiz on Thursday: chapters 1-6 and vocab. • ( list coming tomorrow)

47. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prQOdTmF8u0 • Bharatnatyam

48. Bharatanatyam Dance • Classical South Indian Dance • Performed in temples by a class of dancers (devadasis)

49. Bha' - Bhavam (means expression), • 'Ra' - Ragam (means music), • 'Ta - Talam (means beat or rhythm) and Natyam (means dance) in Tamil.

50. The dancer uses the space as her own sacred temple and brings the audience into her magical circle as she performs and acts out stories with Gods and Goddesses from Indian mythology, folk tales and stories with emotional content.