A WIDE CANVAS
ACADEMIC ADVANCE AND CREATIVE DECLINE
Karunanidhi, the Tamil Dravidian advocate and Hindu baiter, used to ask "From which engineering college did Rama obtain his degree that he constructed the bridge to Lanka?". And the "pit" used to applaud him. Which engineers constructed the hundreds of majestic temples that still stand in the South, thanks to the protection of Vijaynagar rulers? Which college did the builders of the Grand Anicut get their degrees from?
The Grand Anicut- built in the 2nd Century- the oldest water regulating structure in the world, still in use!
Certainly no IIT engineer built it!
Beckamrajeev.Own work. CC BY SA-3.0 Wikimedia Commons.
On the other hand, what is the quality of the roads laid by the modern civil engineers, with all their degrees? See the buildings erected by the British, even simple things like court buildings, and what have our modern engineers to show, except match boxes and pigeon holes?
Meenakshi Temple, Madurai.
Jorge Royan/http//www.royan.com.ar.via Wikimedia commons.CC BY SA-3.0
The Grand Anicut- built in the 2nd Century- the oldest water regulating structure in the world, still in use!
Certainly no IIT engineer built it!
Beckamrajeev.Own work. CC BY SA-3.0 Wikimedia Commons.
On the other hand, what is the quality of the roads laid by the modern civil engineers, with all their degrees? See the buildings erected by the British, even simple things like court buildings, and what have our modern engineers to show, except match boxes and pigeon holes?
Meenakshi Temple, Madurai.
Jorge Royan/http//www.royan.com.ar.via Wikimedia commons.CC BY SA-3.0
By KARTY JazZ (Own Work) CC BY- SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons.
In every sphere, there has been a steady decline in quality, with every technical advance. Nowhere is this seen more glaringly than in the academic field.Colleges and universities have proliferated, but the graduates are becoming 'unemployable'. In the professions, doctors, lawyers and accountants still have to undergo long apprenticeship under good practitioners to attain proficiency. Mere academic degree does not help.
Certified professional qualification is required for teachers; certificates are awarded routinely, but teaching has not improved. Ph.D is insisted upon for college teachers, as if this will make everyone a good teacher. In fact, many good scholars cannot express themselves, either in speech or in writing.. This I noticed clearly in books published in the series ' Very Short Introductions' by Oxford University Press. Each one is written by a scholar and acknowledged authority on the subject, but while some write delightfully, and make even a difficult subject light and interesting, others struggle to make themselves clear. Good teachers and writers are born (though good editors are behind many famous authors).
It is what we see in the field of classical music. There are now many schools and colleges teaching music and awarding certificates. But how many of them become performing musicians? Only those who undergo personal training for long under a good performing musician flower into performing artists themselves. College degree counts for nothing.
It is what we see in the field of classical music. There are now many schools and colleges teaching music and awarding certificates. But how many of them become performing musicians? Only those who undergo personal training for long under a good performing musician flower into performing artists themselves. College degree counts for nothing.
Govt. Music College, Madurai.
How many performing artistes has it produced?
The academic disciplines have become so narrow that most scholars are boring to read or listen to. There is so much of speculative theorising even in humanities and social sciences that the pleasure of reading good literature is fast disappearing.
How many performing artistes has it produced?
The academic disciplines have become so narrow that most scholars are boring to read or listen to. There is so much of speculative theorising even in humanities and social sciences that the pleasure of reading good literature is fast disappearing.
Take for instance Shakespeare. We know that Shakespeare wrote 'plays' to be enacted. But can they be enjoyed as plays by all? Even in England? Now? The whole world has been enjoying Shakespeare as literature for over three centuries, savouring its poetry and philosophy. A character like Shylock has been part of the total human experience for the last 400 hundred years. Hamlet has intrigued us, defying all attempts at classification. When seen as play, the interest is on the plot, action- the entertainment element. When Macbeth is enacted as stage play, the focus is on the sets, period costume, the performance of the actors, the light arrangements etc- all technicalities. And we tend to compare performances by different actors. The focus is entirely on the 'drama' element, how the story progresses on stage. And it can be appreciated only by audiences familiar with the Anglo-Saxon-Scottish background. However, when studied as literature, it engages the mind, and the universal human element comes out. Local history is forgotten. That is why it is said that when we "read" Shakespeare, we become "greater, wiser, purer". This can be applied to other great masterpieces too which represent " the best which has been thought and said in the world", as Matthew Arnold said. Can any movie ever bring to life 'A Tale of Two Cities' or 'Great Expectations'? When we read the latter, we grow and stay with Pip. We live a lifetime with him. The movie experience lasts but a couple of hundred minutes. No movie screen can match the mental screen.
A century ago, A.C. Bradley, that fine Victorian scholar raised a substantial question about reading Shakespearean tragedies, in his famous lectures on that subject.
Bradley was such a formidable authority on Shakespeare that the following anonymous poem used to circulate:
I dreamt last night that Shakespeare's Ghost
Sat for a civil service post.
The English paper for that year
Had several questions on King Lear
Which Shakespeare answered very badly
Because he hadn't read Bradley.
Children watch the play for enjoyment. Mature persons read the play for an understanding - not just of the mind of Shakespeare, but of aspects of life represented by a fine and lofty mind. And Shakespeare is great, greater than any other English writer because unlike a Milton or Wordsworth, Coleridge or Keats or Shelley, all great in themselves, Shakespeare presented varied aspects and characters of life through the prism of his mind, and river of his thought. Appreciation of such aspects is possible only through reading and study, though the stage play or movie may have its own limited aesthetic aspects. The movie or play is a passing show; the effect of reading lasts a lifetime.
Procession of characters from Shakespeare's plays.Only the mind's eye can behold them all!
Unfortunately, with the rise of the industry of awarding degrees by universities, such finer aspects are being discarded. The latest revised editions of Shakespeare's plays by the Oxford University Press are oriented towards presenting them mainly as meant for acting- special efforts being made to assist "actors and directors of the play", as some editor puts it. A play like Coriolanus is subject to :
From: The Greek Search For Wisdom by Michael K. Kellogg. Prometheus Books, 2012.
A century ago, A.C. Bradley, that fine Victorian scholar raised a substantial question about reading Shakespearean tragedies, in his famous lectures on that subject.
What is the substance of a Shakespearean tragedy, taken in abstraction both from its form and from differences in point of substance between one tragedy and another? Or, what is the nature of the tragic aspect of life as represented by Shakespeare?
This question implies only that, as a matter of fact, Shakespeare in writing tragedy did represent a certain aspect of life in a certain way, and that through examination of his writings we ought to be able...to describe this aspect and way in terms addressed to the understanding.
Andrew Cecil Bradley. From Wikimedia Commons.
Bradley was such a formidable authority on Shakespeare that the following anonymous poem used to circulate:
I dreamt last night that Shakespeare's Ghost
Sat for a civil service post.
The English paper for that year
Had several questions on King Lear
Which Shakespeare answered very badly
Because he hadn't read Bradley.
Children watch the play for enjoyment. Mature persons read the play for an understanding - not just of the mind of Shakespeare, but of aspects of life represented by a fine and lofty mind. And Shakespeare is great, greater than any other English writer because unlike a Milton or Wordsworth, Coleridge or Keats or Shelley, all great in themselves, Shakespeare presented varied aspects and characters of life through the prism of his mind, and river of his thought. Appreciation of such aspects is possible only through reading and study, though the stage play or movie may have its own limited aesthetic aspects. The movie or play is a passing show; the effect of reading lasts a lifetime.
Procession of characters from Shakespeare's plays.Only the mind's eye can behold them all!
Unfortunately, with the rise of the industry of awarding degrees by universities, such finer aspects are being discarded. The latest revised editions of Shakespeare's plays by the Oxford University Press are oriented towards presenting them mainly as meant for acting- special efforts being made to assist "actors and directors of the play", as some editor puts it. A play like Coriolanus is subject to :
- Ideological approaches
- Right-wing interpretation
- Anti-heroic interpretation
- Left-wing interpretation
- Historical relativity
- Post-modernist interpretation
This is beside the political, psychological and existential interpretation, apart from the Feminist and Freudian! We are bound to ask: Can Coriolanus or even Shakespeare survive such an assault? Is this the way to treat great literature? We are counting the trees, and failing to appreciate the beauty of the wood. Well, our academics are licensed to maul any author or character in the name of 'research' and for a degree. The days of regarding literature as a guide to understanding life are gone. It is now one more way to make money. This is the impact of modernism.
No later epic poet has surpassed Homer; no dramatist (not even Shakespeare) has eclipsed Aeschylus and Sophocles; no historian has bettered Herodotus and Thucydides; and no philosopher has come close to matching Plato and Aristotle in the depth,breadth, and subtlety of their thought.
From: The Greek Search For Wisdom by Michael K. Kellogg. Prometheus Books, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment