Hem's Literary Hub

The Snake Song- Summary and Thematic Analysis R K Narayan The theme of R K Narayan's short story- The Snake song has the theme of knowledge, fear, charity, forgiveness, isolation, dedication, tradition, desperation and escape. This piece of short story has taken from his Malgudi Days collection. The story has an unnamed narrator though the narrative voice that changes during the story to the voice and experience of a talkative man. There is a fact to notice is, from the beginning, the Talkative Man does not allow the narrator to ignore him when it comes to discuss his knowledge of music. Highly pleased with the musical performance, the people were returned to their home. One among them was a talkative man and he seemed to be very much disappointed with the performance. He looked very dejected. Some people asked him if he had an aversion to modern music. They asked him for the reason for his disappointment. In response to their questions, the talkative man stated as follows.

The Future of the Novel- Henry James Henry James (OM) [Henry James, throwing his moral weight into Britain’s struggle in World War I, James became a British subject in 1915 and received the Order of Merit (OM) from King George V] was an American novelist and critic (1843-1916), who became a British citizen in the last year of his life. During his lifetime, he wrote 20 novels, 112 tales and 12 plays in addition to several volumes of travel writing and criticism. Today he is the best remembered as the author of the novel “ The Portrait of the Lady ” (1881) and the novella “ The Turn of the screw ” (1898). He was the great figure in the transatlantic culture. His fundamental theme was the innocence and exuberance of the New World in clash with the corruption and wisdom of the world , as illustrated in such works as Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady , The Bostonians (1886), and the Ambassadors (1903). The Future of the Novel was written by Henry James on April 11, 1900 i

                                                 Virginia Woolf's The Modern Fiction (The English Critical Tradition) ed. Ramasamy and Sethuraman. Woolf belongs to the category of Post Modern writers. In her work, 'The Modern Fiction' , Woolf has all the possible suggestions for the modern novelists. Also she provides parameters for a proper literary work that differs from the current entertainment-sake fictions. In this prose, Woolf suggests, ·          Modern novelists should write what they feel and not what society or publisher wants them to write. ·          Write what inspires them. ·          Not to follow any special methods. ·          A writer's job is to portray the complexities of life, the unknown through the work, not the important things. Woolf also praises some writers of her age as "James Joyce, Henry Fielding did well, Jane Austen even better.” She also highlights the aspect of T.S. Eliot on literature- “Literature is like everythin