Siddharth Chauhan

 A Critical Analysis of Narrative Deception and Post-War Identity (Worksheet Sections 3 & 4) Introduction Assigned by Dr. and Prof. Dilip Barad This analytical activity, assigned by Dr. and Prof. Dilip Barad, is designed to deepen critical engagement with An Artist of the Floating World . The focus of this worksheet lies particularly in Sections 3 (Analyzing) and 4 (Evaluating), which require students to move beyond basic comprehension and examine the novel’s complex narrative strategies and ethical dimensions. In this novel, Kazuo Ishiguro presents Masuji Ono as an unreliable narrator whose fragmented memories and self-justifications challenge the reader’s perception of truth. Through subtle shifts in tone, selective omissions, and contradictions, Ono constructs a version of the past that both reveals and conceals his complicity in wartime nationalism. This activity encourages students to analyze how Ishiguro uses narrative ambiguity to expose the instability of memory and the...

  A Comparative Study of Indian Poetics and Western Literary Theory from Rasa to Catharsis, based on the Lectures of Prof. (Dr.) Vinod Joshi Foundations of Indian Poetics and Aesthetic Thought Introduction This study is inspired by the illuminating lecture series on Indian Poetics delivered by the beloved and highly respected scholar, Prof. (Dr.) Vinod Joshi . Renowned for his profound scholarship and poetic sensibility, Prof. Joshi conducted a comprehensive series of lectures exploring the foundational principles of the Indian Knowledge System, particularly the rich tradition of Sanskrit poetics. His lectures examined major aesthetic theories such as Rasa, Dhvani, Vakrokti, Riti, Auchitya, and Ramaniyatā, while also situating them within broader philosophical and comparative frameworks. Drawing upon these insightful sessions, the present work seeks to extend his discussions by placing Indian aesthetic thought in dialogue with key Western literary theories, thereby highlighting t...

Fractured Realities: Art and the Crisis of Consciousness in the Twentieth Century From Expressionist Anguish to Postmodern Irony Assigned to: Megha Trevedi Introduction The twentieth century did not merely transform artistic style; it transformed consciousness itself. Movements such as Expressionism, Surrealism, Modernism, and Postmodernism emerged not as decorative aesthetic shifts but as profound philosophical responses to crisis — industrialization, world wars, the collapse of religious certainty, and the destabilization of the human subject. Where nineteenth-century realism sought to mirror the external world, these movements interrogated the very possibility of representation. Influenced by thinkers like Sigmund Freud , Karl Marx , Jean-François Lyotard , and Jacques Derrida , artists and writers began to question whether reality is stable, whether the self is unified, and whether truth can be fully expressed at all. Expressionism externalized emotional rupture; Surrealism pr...