Poverty, Social Problems and Cultural Diversity in

1
Poverty, Social Problems and Cultural Diversity in

• R. Tagore,
• Narayan
• and Salaam Bombay
• Kate Liu, Fu Jen

2
Background

• Caste system
• Religious Conflicts
• ? Language Differences and Illiteracy
• ? Social Problems--poverty, internal migration,
  slums in Bombay, government inefficiency
• ? Colonialism -- in the background

3
Tagore Flute Music

• 1. A man in poverty--
• compared to a lizard
• save the cost of light
• his office
• his girl
• 2. The function of flute music

4
R. K. Narayan--biographyPinchia Feng

• born in Madras in 1906
• full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar
  Naranayanaswami--gt1935
• Graham Greene
• the Sahitya Akademi Award (1960)
• A. C. Benson Medal (The British Society of
  Literature, 1980)

5
R. K. Narayan-- biography

• in the U. S.--The English Speaking Union Book
  Award Fellow of the American Academy and
  Institute of Arts and Letters (1982)
• a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of
  the Indian Parliament (1989)

6
Narayan the Writer

• V.s. Naipaul (1999) He wrote about people in a
  small town in South India small people, big
  talk, small doings. That was where he began
  that was where he was fifty years later. To some
  extent that reflected Narayans own life. He
  never moved far from his origins. (The Writer
  in India)

7
Narayan the Story-teller

• Id be quite happy if no more is claimed from me
  than being just a story-teller. Only the story
  matters, that is all. If readers read more
  significance into my stories than was meant
  originally, then thats the readers
  understanding of things. But if a story is in
  tune completely with the truth of life, truth as
  I perceive it, then it will be automatically
  significant.

8
Annamalai--narrative

• narrative time and technique How does the story
  start? How does it end? Does the story follow a
  chronological order?
• narrative point of view
• letters within the story What do they tell us?

9
Annamalai--regional color

• How does Narayan characterize Annamalai and the
  peasant community in (southern) India ?
• Can we call Annamalai a story of regional
  color?
• Can you think of any example in Taiwanese
  literature that is similar to this story?

10
Annamalai--language

• language and class
• linguistic hegemony English vs Tamil

11
Salaam Bombay The migrants in a city (1)

• I. Chaipau
• his name (Krishna)
• his family and home address
• his family in the city

12
Salaam Bombay The migrants in a city (2)

• Manjus family
• Chillum
• The ghetto boys -- sleep by the railroad station

13
Salaam Bombay a series of betrays
Baba
His wife Manju

• 1.Chillum -- a drug pusher and addict

Krishna
The Sweet Sixteen
14
Salaam Bombay survival

• How do Krishna and the other kids survive?
• Skin chicken,
• rob an old man,
• serve in a rich mans wedding party

15
Salaam Bombay social factors

• State intervention Chiller Room
• drug, prostitution and Bollywood
• traces of collonial influence
• cricket, tourists, statues, movies
• Religion helpless. E.g. Ganesh