Siddharth Chauhan

  Introduction As part of a reflective blog assignment assigned by Prakruti Bhatt ma'am , this piece engages with the philosophical movement of Transcendentalism, exploring its core ideas, key thinkers, and continuing relevance in contemporary life. Emerging in 19th-century America, Transcendentalism challenged rigid social norms and emphasized the power of individual intuition, a deep spiritual connection with nature, and the importance of self-reliance. Through the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau , the movement not only reshaped literary thought but also inspired ethical and political action. This blog critically examines the strengths and limitations of Transcendentalist philosophy, compares the perspectives of its major proponents, and reflects on how its ideas can help us better understand the complexities of the modern world. Here is the You Tube Video - Click Here  Here is PPT - Click Here  1. Pros and Cons of Transcendentalism Pros Spiritu...

                Not Translation, But Awakening : - Feedback Of IKS Seminar  A personal reflection on how the National Seminar on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and English Studies, guided by Dr. Dilip Barad , reshaped my understanding of literature. (You can explore the full seminar documentation Click here for a detailed overview.) Reframing the Lens: Moving Beyond Inherited Frameworks For years, my engagement with English literature felt curiously displaced—as though I were interpreting the world through a finely crafted yet ill-fitted lens. The frameworks I inherited—Marxism, Postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis—were intellectually rigorous, even illuminating, yet they often seemed slightly estranged from my lived cultural reality. As a postgraduate student of English literature in India, I found myself repeatedly asking a quiet but persistent question: Why must I rely exclusively on Western epistemologies to interpret texts, including ...

Abstract   This research paper examines the emergence of "modern consciousness" through the prism of identity fragmentation in the works of T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Moving beyond a purely thematic reading, the study situates fragmentation within broader epistemological, psychological, and socio-cultural transformations of the early twentieth century. Eliot’s poetic landscapes render the collapse of metaphysical certainty; Woolf’s narrative experiments articulate the instability of subjective experience; Fitzgerald’s fiction dramatizes the commodification of identity within capitalist modernity. Drawing upon modernist criticism, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural studies, the paper argues that identity in modernist literature becomes a performative and intersubjective construct rather than an essentialist core. Ultimately, these writers do not merely depict fragmentation—they aestheticize it as the defining condition of modern being.   Keyw...

Abstract: This research paper delineates a synthetic hermeneutic model that bridges the gap between Western formalist-structuralist methodologies and ancient Indian affective-receptive theories. By engaging with I. A. Richards’s Practical Criticism , the paper establishes a rigorous linguistic baseline for interpretation. This is expanded through Northrop Frye’s Archetypal Theory , which elevates the individual text into a trans-historical mythic system. Finally, the study integrates Indian principles of Rasa (aesthetic relish) and Dhvani (suggestion) to account for the emotional transcendence that Western models often describe but fail to systematically map. The synthesis argues that while Richards provides the "how" (technical reading) and Frye provides the "where" (mythic placement), Indian poetics provides the "why" (emotional purpose). This integrated approach offers a more holistic, culturally inclusive framework for the 21st-century literary cri...