POST COLONIALISM

THE SINGAPORE GRIP

                        Singapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn't what it used to be for Walter Blackett, head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett's partner, is an idealistic sympathizer with the League of Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be booming—what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett's price-fixing and market manipulation—but something is wrong. No one suspects that the world of the British Empire, of fixed boundaries between classes and nations, is about to come to a terrible end.

                 A love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, The Singapore Grip completes the “Empire Trilogy” that began with Troubles and the Booker prize-winning Siege of Krishnapur.

CRITICISM

   This story falls under the theory of post colonialism. Post-colonialism (also Post-colonial Studies, Post-colonial Theory, and Postcolonialism) is an academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyse, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism. Drawing from post-modern schools of thought, Post-colonial Studies critique the politics of knowledge (creation, control, and distribution) by analysing the functional relations of social and political power that sustain colonialism and neo-colonialism; the how and the why of an imperial régime’s representations (social, political, cultural) of the imperial coloniser and of the colonised people. As a genre of contemporary history, post-colonialism questions and reinvents the modes of cultural perception — of viewing and of being viewed. As anthropology, post-colonialism records human relations among the colonial nations and the subaltern peoples whom they had ruled and exploited in the colonies. As critical theory, post-colonialism presents, explains, and illustrates the ideology and the praxis of Neo-colonialism, with examples drawn from the humanities — history and political science, philosophy and Marxist theory, sociology,anthropology, and human geography; the cinema, religion, and theology; feminism, linguistics, and post-colonial literature, of which the Anti-conquest narrative genre presents the stories of colonial subjugation of the subaltern man and woman.

                     Why it is under the theory of post colonialism?

            It is simply because the story discusses the revolution of the old times, the colonialism and imperialism. there are peoples who fight against the powerful peoples. they fight for their freedom amd their teritory. it also discuss how a powerful person invqde a particular place because he knows that no one can beat him. the colonialism of old times in Singapore was written on this novel. it is like the history of singapore. it views the political views during those times and how those powerful person rule that country.

ROMANTICISM

THE QUEEN OF THE BIG TIME

                     In the late 1800s, the residents of a small village in the Bari region of Italy, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, made a mass migration to the promised land of America. They settled in Roseto, Pennsylvania, and re-created their former lives in their new home–down to the very last detail of who lived next door to whom. The village’s annual celebration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel–or “the Big Time,” as the occasion is called by the young women who compete to be the pageant’s Queen–is the centerpiece of Roseto’s colorful old-world tradition.

              The industrious Castellucas farm the land outside Roseto. Nella, the middle daughter of five, aspires to a genteel life “in town,” far from the rigors of farm life, which have taken a toll on her mother and forced her father to take extra work in the slate quarries to make ends meet. But Nella’s dreams of making her own fortune shift when she meets Renato Lanzara, the son of a prominent Roseto family. Renato is a worldly, handsome, devil-may-care poet who has a way with words that makes him irresistible. Their friendship ignites into a fiery romance that Nella is certain will lead to marriage. But Nella is not alone in her pursuit: every girl in town seems to want Renato. When he disappears without explanation, Nella is left with a shattered heart. Four years later, Renato’s sudden return to Roseto the night before Nella’s wedding to the steadfast Franco Zollerano leaves her and the Castelluca family shaken. For although Renato has chosen a path very different from Nella’s, they are fated to live and work in Roseto, where the past hangs over them like a brewing storm.

                  An epic of small-town life, etched in glorious detail in the trademark Trigiani style, The Queen of the Big Time is the story of a determined, passionate woman who can never forget her first love.

CRITICISM

               This novel falls under the theory of romanticism. Romanticism (or the Romantic era/Period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1900. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and the natural sciences. Its effect on politics was considerable and complex; while for much of the peak Romantic period it was associated with liberalism and radicalism, in the long term its effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant.

           this story focuses on the life of a woman and how she become the real queen of bigtime. the story narrate the story of a woman who fell in love and fight for it even if all if the people was against on them and the id shows how a woman escape on the feeling wherein youre so much inlove to a priest.

NEW HISTORICISM

MIDNIGHT"S CHILDREN

               The book begins with the story of the Sinai family, particularly with events leading up to India's Independence and Partition. Saleem is born precisely at midnight, August 15, 1947, therefore, exactly as old as the independent republic of India. He later discovers that all children born in India between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on that date are imbued with special powers. Saleem, using his telepathic powers, assembles a Midnight Children's Conference, reflective of the issues India faced in its early statehood concerning the cultural, linguistic, religious, and political differences faced by a vastly diverse nation. Saleem acts as a telepathic conduit, bringing hundreds of geographically disparate children into contact while also attempting to discover the meaning of their gifts. In particular, those children born closest to the stroke of midnight wield more powerful gifts than the others. Shiva "of the Knees", Saleem's nemesis, and Parvati, called "Parvati-the-witch," are two of these children with notable gifts and roles in Saleem's story.

              Meanwhile, Saleem's family begin a number of migrations and endure the numerous wars which plague the subcontinent. During this period he also suffers amnesia until he enters a quasi-mythological exile in the jungle of Sundarban, where he is re-endowed with his memory. In doing so, he reconnects with his childhood friends. Saleem later becomes involved with the Indira Gandhi-proclaimed Emergency and her son Sanjay's "cleansing" of the Jama Masjid slum. For a time Saleem is held as a political prisoner; these passages contain scathing criticisms of Indira Gandhi's overreach during the Emergency as well as a personal lust for power bordering on godhood. The Emergency signals the end of the potency of the Midnight Children, and there is little left for Saleem to do but pick up the few pieces of his life he may still find and write the chronicle that encompasses both his personal history and that of his still-young nation; a chronicle written for his son, who, like his father, is both chained and supernaturally endowed by history.

CRITICISM:

              This novel falls under the theory of New Historicism why because New Historicism assumes that every work is a product of the historic moment that created it. Specifically, New Historicism is "...a practice that has developed out of contemporary theory, particularly the structuralist realization that all human systems are symbolic and subject to the rules of language, and the deconstructive realization that there is no way of positioning oneself as an observer outside the closed circle of textuality" (Richter 1205}. the story focuses on the main character who has intellect powers as time goes by he will realize what is the use of his powers and later they will make an alliance called Midnight's Children. an alliance of children born in midnight of august 15 1947 and has powers. the story revoves on the historical background of India, and how the main characters help those people in the history of india to have an independence against the westernians.

MARXISM

THE IRON HEEL

                    The Iron Heel is a story with stories within stories...it’s about a past, a present, and a future...all told from the perspective of a man (Jack London) in 1906...read by current readers almost 100 years later. It’s about a future time with its own history...a substantially fictional history about the very time spanning its writing and our current reading. Within the novel the fictional writer is living a present and recalling her past...all the while presenting that past as if it were happening in the present. This fictional writer is the narrator within the story, but there’s another narrator (presenting the whole story) far in the future...looking back and remembering. In short, London has written a multi-level novel, which is, itself, a speculative prophecy of things to come in our own time. 

                   The Iron Heel is a sociological novel...one which includes micro-level agency, meso-level institutional patterns, and macro-level structures (both national and global)...reciprocally linking them together with an historical materialist thread...Marxist to the core and humanistic in intent. Individuals...their agency... are clear and distinct...namely Ernest and Avis (Cunningham) Everhard. Institutions are clear and distinct...political economy is spelled out in detail. Society is clear and distinct...America is real, as is the rest of the world. It’s about remaining static and about how change takes place...change for the "bad" and for the "good."

                   Some have said that London foresaw the rise of fascism...Nazi and otherwise. This is true, but it would be a mistake to see it solely in those terms...as if the rise of European fascism was beat down and totally eliminated. Truth is...it may very well be a prophecy of what is YET to come in our lives today. The flexing of fascist muscles in the 20th century...in Germany, Spain, and Italy...may only be the "first act" of the future we may live in America. Fascism wasn’t so much defeated in World War II, as a given manifestation of it was temporarily halted.

                  More to the point, The Iron Heel’s main thrust is about capitalism, its internal contradictions, and the rise of oligarchy, which flowed inevitably from it as it over did itself. London spoke of the same reality that Zymiatin, Huxley, and Orwell did...that is, the transcendence of capitalism for the sake of power itself. All these novels saw capitalists as transitory...ultimately as mismanagers of society and in need of replacement.

                  This is the story of both Ernest and Avis, through her eyes and recollections. He was a powerful sociological thinker and dynamic speaker...from the working class. She was the very intelligent daughter of a college professor who lived an elite and sheltered life. She fell in love and it wasn’t too long before she was a revolutionary too. She and her father learned of the realities of the working class (an "other America" long before Harrington wrote his powerful book) and soon, because of their affiliation with Ernest, lost all their status, wealth, and upper class privileges. London gave Ernest the intelligence and courage to face the oligarchs and to tell them the truth about themselves. He threatened them with revolution and in return was told the truth by them...that the Iron Heel would crush them as they progressively took direct control of society and the world. For 300 years the Heel ruled...with countless revolts crushed along the way. Yet, the revolutionists persisted and eventually prevailed...spawning the Brotherhood of Man. London gives us a twenty-year "peek" of these early days and the conditions, which gave rise to the Oligarchy and their terrible and absolute control for three centuries.

                     The story ends in mid-sentence...Avis had to hide her manuscript in the hollow of an oak tree...where it remained for centuries until discovered by the B.O.M. This was on the eve of the Second Revolt...with Ernest already captured (again) and executed. The First Revolt had ended in tragedy (in Chicago) and so would the Second...and many others until the Heel was finally defeated. London provides idea after idea as to how to be a socialist revolutionary and eventually win. He also warns us that if we, today, allow the capitalists and eventually the Oligarchs to do certain things unchallenged, we will suffer the same fate as the fictional people in the story did.

                      There are many interesting insights throughout the story. Some were probably fictional "guesses" by London. Others, however, were conclusions he made based on the premises of given conditions. One mentioned by commentators is the Iron Heel’s alignment with the preferred Labor Unions...shutting out the substantial number of smaller unions and the bulk of the working class. H. Bruce Franklin, in an Introduction to The Iron Heel mentions many of London’s insights. Leon Trotsky, in a letter to London’s daughter in 1937, mentions some of these insights. I’ll leave to the reader to discern these from these writings as well as from your own reading of the novel.

                     I highly suggest one read this book. Personally, I don’t think it’s the greatest piece of writing, but its purpose and clarity is plain. The lives of the protagonists are portrayed in detail...as is the everyday life of many people, both rich and poor alike. London’s socialist and Marxist critique of capitalism (and the eventual Oligarchy) is uncompromising. Some of the best parts are where London has Ernest "explaining" political economy and confronting the oligarchs.

                      Finally, as I write this review/essay in August, 2003, I can’t help but entertain speculative thoughts about what America (and the world) is going through right now...with Bush the front man for the oligarchy...as they take the initial steps in calling forth our own Iron Heel. The “neoconservatives” who are power-grabbing daily are bankrupting the United States...creating polarization and unrest...covertly and overtly eliminating "rights" which many of us have taken for granted for much too long. I believe that any current reader of this novel would be hard pressed not to have similar thoughts. Lord knows what London would be saying or doing today.

CRITICISM

                   Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism.according to the synopsis of the story of THe IRon Heel written by Jack London the whole story discuses the siciological topic. includes micro level agencies and other topics. the topics that been discuss in the story are all subtopics of an economic and sociopolitical worldview. the main characters plays a role within the area of political issues and problems and as said in the synopsis other explanations and proof that this story falls under the theory of marxism was discussed and well explained. The whole story revolved on the political issues related to the main characters

EXISTENTIALISM

ARCADIA

              ARCADIA is set in Sidley Park, an English country house, in both the years 1809–1812 and the present day (1993 in the original production). The activities of two modern scholars and the house's current residents are juxtaposed with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

                    In 1809, Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house, is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron who is an unseen guest in the house. In the present, a writer and an academic converge on the house: Hannah Jarvis, the writer, is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds; Bernard Nightingale, a professor of literature, is investigating a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by Valentine Coverly, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, the truth about what happened in Thomasina's lifetime is gradually revealed.

                 The play's set features a large table, which is used by the characters in both past and present. Props are not removed when the play switches time period, so that the books, tortoise, coffee mugs, quill pens, portfolios, and laptop computers appear alongside each other in a blurring of past and present.

CRITICISM:

              This kind of play falls under the theory of existentialism which means the story focuses on the analysis of the beliefs and other things related to human behavior and thinking. thge story revolved on the mystery of that old house that the main characters lived. they are investigating byron, one of the person who lived before in the house of the main charters. the mystery, the investigation that seen on that play proves that the play of arcadia falls under the theory of existentialism.