World Literature Lecture : Laxmi Prasad Devkota

The book “Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming to know another culture” is ethnography by Ernestine McHugh. In the beginning of the book, the author talks about how she developed her interest in the field of anthropology during her undergraduate study since “at that time [she] knew little about [it,] but [she] had mapped out a project relating to culture and the aesthetics of life” (McHugh). It was her mentor Gregory Bateson, under whom she had developed this project who inspired her to carry out this project in Nepal. Although her attempts at writing about her experience failed the first time, during her graduate schooling she was encouraged by her advisor Roy D’Andrade to continue. This book revolves around the ethnic Gurung community who live at the foothills of the Annapurna Mountain; just about thirty miles up from the famous tourist destination in Nepal called Pokhara. At the age of twenty-one, the village where the author lived was called “Tebas.” Although Nepal is a country filled with people who follow Hinduism and the official language is Nepalese, she chooses a place in north central Nepal where people mostly spoke in their own ethnic language which is very similar to Tibetan on contrary to the popular Nepalese language. In this book she talks about how she fully immerses herself in the field work and in the process tells the story of the people who let her in their house and more importantly made her a part of their family. Throughout her stay she was treated

Othello is a hero due to being a hardened and vicious warrior on the battlefield but he is also a tragic hero in this play. A tragic hero by definition is a literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. For example Othello is the husband of Desdemona whom he murders because he has been misled by the villainous Iago. Allowing himself to be manipulated instead following his heart, he attempts to redeem himself then he realizes he put his trust in the wrong people and it is too late to save his beloved Desdemona who he smothered

Mirabai’s life and devotional practices serve as a model of the spiritual path of bhakti yoga. Initially considered mad, Mirabai brushed off any hostilities and danced with a blissful ecstasy in the streets (Fisher 105). She paid little heed to social conventions and described herself as, “defiant of world censure or family shame” (Fisher 105). Free from societal constraints, Mirabai sung devotions like, Without Krishna I Cannot Sleep, during her time as a wanderer around 1500 and 1550.

Mohandas Gandhi was born on October 2nd, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He spent most of his childhood going to school and growing up in different parts of India, moving to Rajkot when he was only seven years old. He was the youngest member of his family, growing up with 3 older siblings. When Gandhi was growing up he took his religion of Hinduism very seriously.

There are many countries where culture or religion can sometimes deny certain peoples ' right to have an education, restricting them from going to school to learn. Those countries don’t see the benefits people can get from learning new languages, or learning their own history. One of these countries that do such restrictions of education is Pakistan. In the country of Pakistan, some people think that there is no use of education, it 's unnecessary

Sati is still deeply engrained in the culture of many parts of rural India, and nowhere more so than in Rajasthan, which is now the centre of the cult of the goddess Sati Mata.... a memorial put up to mark the place where a living, breathing widow chose to climb atop her husband's burning funeral pyre, sacrificing herself to ensure her husband's successful rebirth. In this way she is believed to join her soul with the goddess Sati Mata and to bring good luck to her family and her village for seven generations (122).

Langston Hughes was born on February 1st 1902 in Joplin Missouri. His parents divorced while Langston was still young and his father moved to Mexico shortly after. His mother remarried he was taken in by his Grandmother. He was raised up until the age 13 by her. Months after his 13th birthday, Langston moved in with his mother and her husband in Lincoln, Illinois. The family then decided to settle in Cleveland, Ohio. He finished his schooling and graduated from Cleveland High School.

Book I as he demonstrates a way of detecting a man’s true conviction to his moral and

Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India on October 2nd, 1869. His family was rich enough to send him to a law school in London. After his education, he returned to India to start a law practice. That law

The institution of education in many regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan is virtually nonexistent. Many girls don’t have access to schools (Stones into Schools p.4) and those that do usually don’t graduate from high school. While Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools and the documentary The Miseducation of Pakistan deal with two different areas, they both show many similar themes.

Mohandas K. Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India. Gandhi’s mother, Putlibai Gandhi, was illiterate, but her intelligence and religious devotion had a great impact on Gandhi’s character. Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, was the chief of the

Mohandas Gandhi, later called Mahatma Gandhi, was born on October 2,1869 in Porbandar, which is the present day state of Gujarat, India (Andrews

The consolidated nature of Indian families gives extended family members the power to have great influence over their younger relatives. If this aspect of Indian family life holds true, then it is natural for parents to have a colossal amount of influence over their children. In the Indian culture, parents are a symbol of unquestionable authority and the unmovable force of their household. We can see that Indian children are educated

She was the daughter of King Subala, ruler of a vast area west of the river Sindhu (now called the Indus) extending to Kabul, Afghanistan. The main city was Gandhar (modern Kandahar). Grandsire Bhisma sent a proposal seeking her hand in marriage for Dhritarashtra. Subala knew that Dhritarashtra was blind, but thinking that an alliance with the powerful Kuru clan would be in the larger interest, agreed to the proposal. Gandhari accepted her father’s decision as a dutiful daughter. She wanted to experience blindness and share it with her husband. Showing great strength of mind and in a spirit of personal sacrifice, she voluntarily forewent her sense of sight after marriage by tying a scarf over both her eyes. Gandhari was a votary of Lord Siva. Pleased with her devotion, he granted her a boon that she would be the mother of a hundred sons. Gandhari had been jealous of her sister-in-law. Kunti, who had given birth to two sons. The boon caused her to conceive, but strangely, the pregnancy lasted two years. Out of frustration, she struck her abdomen with an iron rod and surprisingly delivered a congealed mass. Sage Vyasa called for one hundred and one clay jars, carefully divided the flesh into the jars, filled them with ghee, and had them closed. In time, the jars broke, and Gandhari became the mother of one hundred sons and one daughter. The boys grew up and had their training in the martial arts under

Literature is an imitation of societal values and is thus a reflection of the human experience of a time period. Written works emphasize the elements of culture, by means of characters, particular events, setting and theme, specific to the time period in which it was composed. Furthermore, literature mirrors the troubles or hardships of society and projects the core values that define said society. Thus, as culture has changed over time, literature has remained a critical facet in representing time periods of the past. Essentially, the culture of a time period is manifested through writing in the projection of society’s values, symbolism of the center of community and literature itself.