Year 2017… This was the third year since I was at home watching my little baby grow. Like any other new-age woman, I was caught up in the stay-at-home vs working mom struggle. But, I was at peace spending time with my daughter and her little friends who would be around me throughout the day. But I felt the need to utilize my time for the things which I love.
I decided to enroll for the MA English Literature distance education course from IGNOU. Well, I am a faithful reader of Marathi Literature and I prefer Marathi books over English. Being a Marathi Medium student, I was not introduced to English Literature. I used to read English bestsellers or referred to English books by friends. So I thought of taking up the study of English literature. Why enrollment for a degree course? I thought I would get a better study guide and another post-graduate degree which may or may not benefit me in the future.
I received a large bundle of study material from IGNOU. There were four subjects for 1st year. British Poetry, British Drama, British Novels and Aspects of Language. The syllabus was huge. I preferred to study just two subjects in the first year. The best thing about IGNOU is that it gives you all the flexibility to study on your own.
I started with British Poetry. Chaucer, Spenser, Milton gave me the largest trouble. Difficult to comprehend words, hard to know references from Christianity, Greek Mythology, European history. I used to sit up with poems spending hours to comprehend and reach the meaning of what they wanted to say. I started doubting my own resolve to study English literature. But when I reread the Chaucer, Spenser and Milton, I was glad I was able to appreciate their poems. I loved Metaphysical poetry which somewhat freed the poetry from clutches of religion. I loved Donne and his poem ‘Flea’ is one of my favorite poems. Studying the Romantic period of English literature was an absolute pleasure. Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge became dear to me. I read their poems again and again and again. (I cursed myself for not building up good vocabulary though. I had to look up into the dictionary to get the meaning several times. Thanks to vocabulary apps nowadays the meaning of the words was just one click away.) I wrote an essay on Wordsworth's long poem - Prelude as a part of the assignment and was glad to score well. (89/100 ;-)) Modernists and postmodernists poets like Philips Larkin, Yeats gave me the feeling that I made the right decision to read English literature. I adore Philip Larkin. His simplistic attitude towards life and presenting mundane things in life with fresh perspectives is remarkable. His poems Toads and Toads Revisited are true representatives of our day to day existence. I disliked Sylvia Plath the most. Her poems were extremely pessimistic. In real life, she had suicidal tendencies and ended her life with suicide.
Journey through British poetry was a pleasant experience. British poetry gave me the ability to appreciate poetry. It unfolded life before me through various angles. Poetry is an art and the poet is an artist who presents an art. This art is sometimes incomprehensible, sometimes vivid. Sometimes it brightens the day, but sometimes it makes it dull. Rich imagery in poetry makes the life of the reader richer.
Another subject which I studied in the first year was Aspects of Language. The study material for this subject from IGNOU is worse. I had a very difficult time while reading this subject. Ultimately I browsed the topics on the internet and somehow managed to get a little grasp on the subject. Broadly, this was related to how languages came into existence, how words are formed, how English vocabulary was enriched with words from different languages, how English was spread in different parts of the world, how different Englishes like British English, American English, Canadian English, Indian English, Australian English, etc came into existence, how these Englishes are different from each other, what is bilingualism and multilingualism, how a person becomes bilingual, what is code-mixing and code-switching, how English education was spread in India during the British era, etc. One of the greatest learnings I learned from Aspects of Language is that no language is standard or non-standard. Textbooks make the language usage standard. People may speak in different accents, with different varieties of the language. Language is just a means to communicate thoughts and feelings. So if someone feels a lack of confidence for not being able to speak English, he should definitely not feel so. Be proud of the language you speak.
In the second year (2018) I was in Europe. I didn't have the study material. I was reading English classics from the Library, sometimes clueless about what to read. I came across the PG Wodehouse section. I loved Jeeves and his mischievous little acts. A great pleasure to read Wodehouse! P L Deshpande used to keep PG's books on his table. PL and PG both are immortals.
I made a list of books from the syllabus of British Novels and British Drama. I started to search for the books in the Belgium library. Luckily, I got most of them. Tom Jones of Henry Fielding is my hero now, and Sophia is a darling. Middlemarch characters of George Eliot are adorable and Dorothy is a sweetheart. I am in my prime like the Miss Broadie character from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. And I wonder how Jean got her ideas from. Heart of darkness was utterly dark and now I despise racism more and more. In short, I loved the novels.
Shakespeare is one of the greatest dramatists in the world. You may have read this several times. Why is he called so? I wanted to find out for a long time. I read two of his dramas Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet from the syllabus. Again I have to take the help of a dictionary and have to read sentences again. Midsummer's is a light comedy that I absolutely loved. Hamlet is a tragedy that was above my head. Anyway just by reading two dramas one can not know why Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist. I have resolved to read Shakespeare further. Thankfully, his classics are freely available on Kindle.
Shaw's Pygmalion was an absolute pleasure. Feminist Eliza took my heart away. I have preserved Dialogues in Pygmalion in e-note. You may have watched the movie, My Fair Lady based on Pygmalion. Waiting for Godot is an abstract play. Difficult to comprehend the play in one reading. It was a great hit in its times because of the fresh format of the play. It is an open-ended play with a lot of abstract thoughts and actions. Little amusing and little boring as well. Mostly I disliked other plays in the syllabus. I didn't find any humor in the Irish comedy Playboy of the western world. Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus I couldn't read entirely.
3 optional subjects were to be chosen in the second year. Literary criticism was the only compulsory subject. Literary criticism is difficult , but important subject. I couldn't give much justice to it. I am still clueless about what I learned there. Maybe a critical evaluation of a literary text is a skill and it needs systematic study and clarity of thoughts to critically appreciate texts.
I chose Indian English Literature, English Studies in India and Contemporary Indian Literature in English translation. English studies in India was all about the spread of English in India, pre-independence and post-independence. I loved poems in Indian English from the other 2 subjects. K Vimala's poem Kitchen is a radical poem with fresh perspectives on the kitchen in an Indian family. Must read for all women. Kamala Das's poem Grandmother's House is very touching which reminds me of the love and care I received from my own Grandmother. There are many poems worth noting which I have stored in e-notes. I didn't get time to read the entire texts (dramas and novels) from Indian English. I just read summaries and texts from the study material. But I read short stories which I loved.
In this process, I missed out reading American English Literature which I would like to go through if I get time.
Coming back to India, I appeared for exams again in Dec 2019. Tried to write the best answers.
Year 2020. I cleared the MA English exam and got a provisional degree certificate!
This was a long journey of three years. I do not claim to be a master in English Literature nor am I a master in English Language usage. My vocabulary is still poor and grammar still a mess. What I studied was a tiny dot on a full circle. The degree may not be of any value. But reading English literature gave me something to cherish for a long time. It enriched my soul and also gave me a sense of fulfillment to achieve a goal.
Looking for a perfect time to earn a degree in Marathi Literature ;-)
