Major Literary Awards 2019

• Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2019 was
awarded to Peter Handke "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience."

• Sahitya Akademi Award

In 2019, Dr Shashi Tharoor received the Sahitya Academy Award for his book An Era of Darkness in a non-fiction category in English language. 

• Booker Prize

The 2019 Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on 14^th October 2019. The Prize was awarded jointly to Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other. This was the first time the prize was shared since 1992, despite a rule change banning joint winners.

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

This year, Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2019 for his epic nature novel The Overstory.

• Poet Laureate of United Kingdom

On 10th May 2019, Simon Robert Armitage was declared as the Poet Laureate. He has succeeded Carol Ann Duffy. 

Thomas Stearns Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)

A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read.

_Northrop Frye

• Born on 26th September 1888 in USA.
• Modern Poet and dramatist. One of the great Poets in 20th century English literature.
• Known as Invisible Poet. He called himself OLD POSSUM
• Influence on him: his mother and grandfather, his teachers- George Santayana and Irving Babitt and the book he read The Symbolist Movement inLiterature by Arthur Symons
• His interests: Classical literature and Comparative literature
• In 1914 he met Ezra Pound whom he called his II Miglior Fabbro
• From 1917 to 1919 he worked as an assistant editor of THE EGOIST.
• In 1923, he became the editor of THE CRITERION.
• HE WON NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE  IN 1948.

Important Works:

Drama

• Murder in the Cathedral
• The Family Reunion
• The Cocktail Party
• The Confidential Clerk

Poetry

• The Waste Land
• The Hollow Man
• A Cooking Egg
• Journey of the Magi
• Portrait of a Lady
• Boston Evening Transcript
• Ash Wednesday

Features of his Works:

• Revolt against traditional poetry
• Rejection of contemporary life
• Use of new techniques
• Borrowings
• Absence of logical link
• The urban setting
• Rejection of Nature and love
• Use of myths

Social Media inside the Classroom

Social media: an easiest way to connect with the world, an impressive way to create virtual identity, and nowadays a handy tool to communicate with friends and
other people as well. In short, it’s an easy tool to reach millions of people virtually, to impart knowledge, to share thoughts and lots of things which we love to do.

Social media is not limited just for society but it also entered the classrooms very effectively. It is possible and it often happens that students get distracted only because of social media. Even it may be proved harmful for society as many people specially young generation lose their lives or get depressed in comparison of likes and dislikes, comments of friends and many times because of cyber crimes.

Nevertheless, does social media mean only Whatsapp, facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Hangout? No, I don’t think so.  However, there are a number of tools which are the parts of Social media but can be used or I should say are being used for academic purposes in this present era of technological enhancement.

Blogs are very popular and useful tool for sharing material with students. It can be used to enhance the communication skills of the students. Google Classroom is also very helpful tool for teachers as well as learners to share material, assignment collection, and virtual classroom communication. Ted talk is also very helpful for not only motivational talks or knowledge sharing but also for improvement in listening skills.

Hangout or Zoom applications can be used for group discussion among students, teacher can deliver lecture even during holidays from their home and students can learn at their time and place. There are thousands of tools we can consider as a part of social media, which can be fruitful, if we allow them in the classroom.