Lecture notes drop box and creative corner of Dr Aswathy Aravindakshan
Reading Time: 11 minutesAnees Salim’s Small Town Sea is a novel about family relationships and growing up. Set in a small coastal town in Kerala, the novel presents the world through the imaginative eyes of children struggling to understand the complicated realities of adult life. The sea, the family home, photographs, birds, railway tracks, etc., become important symbols…
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Reading Time: 15 minutesSarah Caldwell’s Oh Terrifying Mother: Sexuality, Violence and Worship of the Goddess Kali is an important anthropological study of religious practices in Keralam. The book explores the worship of Goddess Bhagavati and the ritual performance known as mutiyettu. Through this study, Caldwell examines the relationships among religion, gender, sexuality, violence, caste, social life, etc. The…
Reading Time: 3 minutes“Someday I’ll Love Ocean” is a deeply emotional poem by Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. The speaker addresses himself as Ocean, as if comforting his younger self. The poem describes his struggle to overcome painful memories and learn to accept himself. Self-love is the poem’s central theme. The opening line, “Ocean, don’t be afraid,” shows the…
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Reading Time: 3 minutesOcean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American poet. He was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY). He often connects personal experiences with history and society. Vuong’s poetry is known for its emotional depth and experimental style. He…
Reading Time: 5 minutesAudre Lorde’s 1973 poem “Who Said It Was Simple” explores the complex relationship between racism and women’s liberation. Lorde, an influential Black feminist poet and activist, used literature to challenge social injustice. In this poem, she asks whether the women’s liberation movement can achieve true equality while ignoring racial discrimination and the struggles of less…
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Reading Time: 7 minutesWalt Whitman (1819–1892) is one of the most important American poets and is widely known as the Father of Free Verse. “I Sing the Body Electric” is one of Whitman’s most powerful poems. It celebrates the human body as beautiful and sacred. The poet rejects the traditional belief that the body is inferior to the soul….
Reading Time: 2 minutesWalt Whitman (1819–1892) is one of American literature’s most important poets. He is often called America’s world poet because his works explore universal themes. Along with Emily Dickinson, he is regarded as one of the nineteenth century’s greatest American poets. Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on Long Island, New York, and grew up…
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Reading Time: 3 minutesAdrienne Rich (1929–2012) was an influential American feminist thinker. Her essay Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (1980), published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, is an important contribution to feminist theory and lesbian studies. In this essay, Rich challenges the assumption that heterosexuality is a natural and universal condition. She argues that…
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Reading Time: 2 minutesAdrienne Rich (1929–2012) was a prominent American feminist thinker whose writings made significant contributions to lesbian literature and queer studies. Her poetry and critical essays challenge compulsory heterosexuality and the marginalisation of lesbian identities. She connects personal experiences of sexuality with broader questions of gender and social justice. Rich’s early poetry, including A Change of…
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Reading Time: 9 minutesJhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter,” in her acclaimed short-story collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999), poignantly explores marital alienation and the fragility of human relationships. Set in Boston, the story centres on Shoba and Shukumar, an Indian American couple whose marriage undergoes a profound transformation after they lose their child in a stillbirth. Through restrained narration and a…
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