Reflactive blog on Expert lectures by Prof. Balaji Ranganathan

Hello!!

Here is my reflactive blog upon our 3 days (19th August  to 21st August)  journey about Postcolonial studies with Prof. Balaji Rangnathan sir.He has effectively taught us Postcolonial studies and its various aspects.

    During these three days Balaji sir has dealt with these topics:

1.Black skin, white mask : - Frantz Fanon 

2. A Tempest :- Aime cesaire 

3. Orientalism :- Edward said 

4. Imaginary  Homelands :- Salman Rushdie. 

5. How to prepare for Government exam [ GPSC, NET, G-SET]

On19th Aug, sir has talked about What is Postcolonialism? and also about Black skin White Mask 

 During this discussion sir has given many relevant example to this the topic, witch helped us to understand about that notion. The first three chapters deal with the modern negro. The 4th and 5th chapters rest on a fundamentally different basis. In this the fact of blackness is important for more than one reason. Balaji sir preferred to us that to read original book or work. Be habituated with to read original one. 

Here are some original text's sentences ;

" Toward a new humanism....

  Understanding, among men....

  Our colored brothers....

  Mankind, I believe in you...

  Race Prejudice....

  To understand and to love..."

" What does a man want?

  What does the black man want?"

" The White Man is sealed in his whiteness.

  The black man in his blackness."

• Here fanon is rising about binary. He says that it is good form to introduce a work in psychology with a statement of its methodological point of view.  I leave methods to be botanists and the mathematicians. There is a point at which methods devour themselves .

• In the final chapters of it Fanon explores how people might move beyond this situation in which black people are depicted as inferior and often develop a feeling of inferiority as well.

Then on second day, Balaji sir dealt with another two chapters ;

• A Tempest by Aime cesaire 

• Orientalism  by Edward Said

• Moroever, to understand A Tempest we have to first understand The Tempest by William Shakespeare, we have already gone through it in our class. Now, if we talk about orientalism, it was a entire book on America and Arabic world. It says how to read postcolonialism. Orientalism asks how do we come to we come to understand people, strangers, who look different to us by virtue of the color of their skin? The central argument of Orientalism is that the way that we acquire this knowledge is not innocent or objective but the end result of a process that reflects certain interests.
•    On the third and last day Sir talked about Imaginary Homelands as well as Competitive exam. So here sir first give brief introduction of Salman Rushdie, about his life and work. Sir repeted many times to give a notion of Imaginary homelands. In during class sir liked to ask are you getting it proper?  Are you enjoying?  Do you have any questions?  Sir waits for our response and questions. This kind of nature make class live and we took interest in it. It shows whether we mentally present in class or not? 

•   Meanwhile, sir widely talked about the term " Diaspora ". From when and where it comes?  Its specific reasons. Notion of Globlization, notion of Communism also about Nostalgia and Memory. After that Cosmopolitization - Multiculturalism (part of state policy). He says that here Rushdie is not talking about specific home, geographical place, he talking about vivid mind. Also says that Memory is always partial way. For the Diaspora they give many state's and country's example. So, this was the all thing about our syllabus.
•   On the other side sir talked about reality of our life. What should do in further? Sir advised that never take shortcuts, always try to read original one. Try to crack such kind of exam and if u are not able to this then make new another way, don't need to stick with it or disappointed. Make your own way in which you are good and can achieve something. In our class mostly all students want to be professor, but sir said that it is not so that only Prof, is good job. There are many other jobs also. In reality we have to fight and face problems, society, all kind of circumstances . Accept the reality and be happy with whatever u have.They showed real face of world infront of us and we are going to peeped into it.

At last, with this such an informative and bitter truth of life we ended our session with feedback and thanking speech by our classmates. So, it was a good and memorable days.


Thank you............