Explore each TV genre

Name: Drashti V. Dave

Assignment sub: Explore each TV genre

Roll no: 6                      Year: 2013-2015

Sem-4                            M.A.part-2

Enrolment no: PG13101007

Paper no: 15- Mass communication and Media studies

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krisnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Explore each TV genre

Television is one of the major medium of mass-media. There are a large number of people who cannot read or write for them television is useful tool. It gives us the knowledge about all around the world. There are so many main or sub genre of television; it helps to people for gaining knowledge in different ways. First of all let’s understand the meaning of genre.

What is the meaning of genre?

Simple meaning of genre is kind, sort or style. Genre is the term for any category or literature or other forms of art or culture. For example: music, any type of discourse (written or spoken) (audio or visual) generally it is a category of artistic composition as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style form or content. Genre is come from French genre means “kind” or “sort” from Latin genus and from Greek genos. Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature. Genre including or involving other forms as well because it has special characteristics. There are many types some universal genre and other sub genre are also there.

Television genres are different from them; here are some major types of television genre.

TV genre: 1) TV news 2) TV documentaries 3) children’s programs 4) talent hunt show

5) Reality show 6) religious programs these are main genres of TV there are some other sub genres also.

Other sub genre: 1) sports channel 2) cookery show 3) wildlife 4) game 5) music 6) fashion program etc. It was included with main genre and these are known as show.

Now let’s deeply discuss each television genre in detail.

1. Animated Television program:

Description: Work created by recording a series of still images, such as drawings, objects, or posed people; when played back, the static images combine to simulate motion, creating the impression of movement.

For example-
Rocky and Friends/The Bullwinkle Show (1959-63)
The Flintstones (1960-66)

2. Television comedies

Description: Fictional work for television, normally running a half hour in length, which creates humor around the lives of a cast of recurring characters and the "situations" in which they find themselves. Generally, regardless of what happens in any given episode, the characters remain in the same relationships and position as they were before, and much of the humor derives from this predictability. The characters seldom change, and react in an expected manner to whatever challenges them, and generally the overall tenor of the shows is upbeat, expecting a happy, satisfying resolution. Everyday life is often an important element, and as a result, although the setting could be almost anywhere, most situation comedies are set in the home or workplace.
For examples-
I Love Lucy (1951-61)
The Honeymooners (1955-56)
The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68)

3. Detective and mystery television programs

Description: Fictional work in which a detective (sometimes merely an endangered individual forced to "detect" for his own self-protection) attempts to solve a crime, usually a murder or theft. The detective may be an amateur, a private investigator, or a plainclothes member of a police force. Emphasis is placed on the search for clues and rationative power of the detective, rather than the efforts of police or lawbreakers.
For example-
Perry Mason (1957-66)
Columbo (1971-77, 1989-93)
The Rockford Files (1974-80)
Moonlighting (1985-89)
Twin Peaks (1990-91)
X-Files (1994-02) CID etc.

4. Documentary television programs

For documentaries originally released as feature films
Description: Nonfiction work defined by documentary pioneer John Grierson as the creative treatment of actuality. Grounded in some aspect of real life, documentaries may vary from a very deliberate account of facts to an extremely interpretive rendering of a subject, advocating a particular viewpoint on a political, social, or historical issue. In documentaries, actuality should still be dominant over the creative treatment, which, while often staged for the camera, should not go so far as to be dramatized for emotional impact and belong to such genres as historical films or propaganda. Documentaries may include re-enactments, such as showing the movements of armies, or brief scenes of individuals and dialogue, but do not include films that merely use a realistic technique in telling a fictional story. (tv genres)
Television history or works of literary writers which is broadcasted on television it is known as documentary. There are two types of documentary i) short documentary and ii) long documentary. Long documentary also known as film or documentary film.
5) Reality show

Descriptions: reality shows means a television show in which members of the public or celebrities are filmed living their everyday life or undertaking specific challenges. It is one of the most significant program developments of the new century though the genre is in fact nearly as old as the medium itself. Reality show are another popular form of TV but it has many negative sides also and most of the reality shows have been controversial at some extent, there are so many reality shows which broadcasted on television.
For example- Big Boss, Khatroo ke khiladi, Survivor etc.
But now a day’s glamorous shows are more popular than simple or truly realistic on that I found one article from internet while searching; article is about “reality” of the reality shows, title of that article is- Reality or vulgarity: Government should take action on such content. In that article many negative sides of reality shows have been reflected that how people used each other or how money becomes everything or harsh reality of such kind of reality shows.

6) Talent hunt show:

Description: a  talent show is an event where participants perform talents of singing, dancing, acrobatics, acting, drumming, martial arts, playing an instrument, or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather than contests, but some are actual contests. In the instance of a contest, participants may be motivated to perform for a reward, trophy, or prize of some kind. (Talent show, 2014-2015) In recent times talent hunt shows have become a notable genre of reality television. Talent show have been critical in capuling some artists to stardom and resulting in their successful careers. There are many talent shows broadcasted on television which are many famous for almost decade and they are running so many seasons. Talent hunt show is very important because of that person learn something and it also be necessary for person’s “inner talent” so talent show is one medium through which one can be learn so many things.
For example- Indian idol, India’s got talent, Dance India dance, India’s Raw star, Jalak Dhiklaja, Boogie woogie.
These all shows about performer’s singing, dancing and other abilities through which performer learn how to perform or which type of ‘inner ability’ he/she have.
Main thing is about talent hunt show: that talent shows can be seen as a way to help boost the self-esteem, confidence and assurance of youth. Some communities see talent shows as a way to help prevent delinquency among children, teens and young adults.
Talent hunt show would provide a platform for talented, active or advanced learner or performer.
7) Cookery show:

Description: a cookery show is another famous genre of television that presents food preparation in a kitchen studio set. Typically the show’s host often a celebrity chef prepares one or more dishes over the course of an episode, taking the viewing audience through which viewer know that how to prepare different food or dishes. Cookery show taking the viewing audience through the food's inspiration, preparation, and stages of cooking. Such shows often portray an educational component, with the host teaching the viewers how to prepare different meals, but some (such as Chopped, Iron Chef or Junior Masterchef) are competitions that are primarily for entertainment.
While rarely achieving top ratings, cooking shows have been a popular staple of daytime TV programming since the earliest days of television. They are generally very inexpensive to produce, making them an economically easy way for a TV station to fill a half-hour (or sometimes 60-minute) time slot.
A number of cooking shows have run for many seasons, especially when they are sponsored by local TV stations or by public broadcasting. Many of the more popular cooking shows have had flamboyant hosts whose unique personalities have made them into celebrities. (cooking show)
A number of cooking shows have been run for many year especially when they are sponsored by local TV stations or by public broadcasting.
For example- Flavors of Gujarat, Chopped, Master chef, Ready steady cook, Rasoini Rangat.
Even cookery show is also another form of self learning and self improving show through which person who is interested in cooking especially woman learn how to cook so it is one of the most famous and informative genre.
8) Religious show:

Description:  list of the greatest religious broadcasting shows also includes pictures from the shows when available. Popular religious broadcasting TV shows have been a staple of television for years, so there's often debate about what the most entertaining religious broadcasting show of all time is. It is very popular genre of television. There are so many channels and in that so many religious channels are telecasted on television twenty four hour; main purpose of this type of channels is that one believes in God.
Because of that type of shows people believe in God, and believing in God because it changes your whole outlook on life and religion and can make people so devoted to the religion they change the way they live or their life. There are so many arguments about God’s existence. And many people who don’t believe in God’s presence at that time religious shows or programs can be helpful, it can be work like torch in darkness. Believing in God or not it is different from person to person but one of the problems is that;
Are religious shows or channels can be truly broadcasted? or Is there any reality shown in the religious shows? or Is it right to playing with people’s emotions only for the name of God or any religion?
We may say that most of television religious programs or channels only broadcasted for their benefit. There are dozens of religious channels are telecasted on TV but it will not at all helpful to viewer.
9) Wildlife show:

Description: The wonder or wildlife show is a rare opportunity to see a variety of unique and exotic animals from a very different perspective. Caretakers are interacting with these fascinating animals. We often think of animals in basic survival terms, but in different shows that are shown animals are also part of society. Wildlife shows are not only intimate, informative but it will educate and inspire successive generations about the wonders of wildlife.
For example: Jungle hut eatery, Creature future, Tiger splash, Giant snake show etc..
  Many channels like; Discovery or National Geographic channels are providing wildlife or animal shows, wildlife shows are giving information about unknown animals their life style and other things.
10) Talk show or chat show:
Description: A talk show or chat show (as it is known in the UK) is a television programming or radio programming genre in which one person (or group of people) discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host.^[1]
Usually, guests consist of a group of people who are learned or who have great experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed on the show for that episode. Other times, a single guest discusses their work or area of expertise with a host or co-hosts. A call-in show takes live phone calls from callers listening at home, in their cars, etc. Sometimes, guests are already seated but are often introduced and enter from backstage. Gay Byrne, Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson,Dick Cavett, Ed Sullivan, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and Mosunmola Abudu have hosted notable talk shows; in many cases, the shows have made their hosts famous. Talk shows are more popular in other countries than India. There are several major formats of talk shows Breakfast chat, Sunday talk, late night talk shows. (wikipedia contributors "talk show", 2015)
Late night talk shows are especially significant in the United States. In Indian television Coffee with Karan and that type of talk shows are famous or well known. Talk shows had been broadcasted on television since the earliest days of the medium. So it is also informative genre. Because of that general people came to know about celebrities their life style and other things as well.
11) TV news:

Description: news channels are common thing for any uneducated people also because it is very famous form of television. News channels provide complete live coverage of national or international news, business news, breaking news etc. There are different types of news. So news is one of the most famous, popular and informative genre of the television. It instantly gave information about all over the world, without that it also provides information or gossips of bollywood, cricket, football, politics, entertainment, sports, life-style news.
All type of information telecasted on television news channels because of that person gaining some informative thing. There are half a dozen of news channels with different languages which are broadcasted on television 24 hour. And it reaches everywhere so illiterate person can also came to know that what is going on in society. Many Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, English, Sanskrit, Marathi or many other languages’ channels are telecast on TV. Many of them are providing instant news.
For example: NDTV, Live TV, CBS news, News 24, BBC world news, Star sports, CBN 7
These all are famous news channels which telecasted daily and provide minor information to the viewer. Sports news is sub genre of television news in that all type of sports activity shown. If it is about cricket, hockey, football, tennis, golf, chess, wholly ball, kho-kho, kabbadi or even match results and announcements of different games. Those who are interested in sports with the help of sports news they gain interests and knowledge about their area of interests. TV news is large form of television platform in that many genres can be included.
Conclusion: genre means kind or type in any literary form there are genre, Steve Neale stresses that “genre are not systems, they are processes of systematization”
Furthermore David Buckingham argues that “genre is not simply “given” by the culture; rather is  in a constant process of negotiation and change”.

A genre defines a moral and social world, indeed a genre in any medium can be seen as embodying certain values and ideological assumptions so television genres are useful tool to gaining information in a different ways or directions.

Theme of violence in Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians

Name: Drashti V. Dave

Assignment sub: Theme of Violence in J.M.Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

Roll no: 6                      Year: 2013-2015

Sem-4                            M.A.part-2

Enrolment no: PG13101007

Paper no: 14- The African Literature

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krisnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 Waiting for the Barbarians clearly embraces many themes at the heart of the South African condition, as well as universalizing the dilemma at the heart of imperial conquest generally. Coetzee borrowed the title of his novel from the poetry of the Alexandria-born Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy Coetzee understands that it is against the image of the diabolical dark barbarian that Eurocentric cultures have constructed their own fragile sense of civilization and identity. In Coetzee’s world Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel about “the impact of the torture chamber on the life of a man of Conscience” (Encyclopedia.com, 2004)

About the novel: “From horizon to horizon the earth is white with snow. It falls from a sky in which the source of light is diffuse and everywhere present, as though the sun has dissolved into mist, become an aura. In the dream I pass the barracks gate, pass the bare flagpole. The square extends before me. Blending at its edges into the luminous sky. Walls, trees, houses have dwindled, lost their solidity, retired over the rim of the world.” -The Magistrate’s dream
Waiting for the Barbarians is rich in symbol and meaning. Among its primary motifs is the movement of the seasons, the time of nature, set in pointed opposition to the time of human history. The novel begins in late summer, at a time of harvest and bounty, and ends at the verge of winter, and the end of civilization as known by the town’s inhabitants. Even in the beginning the oblivion that threatens is introduced in a dream motif, which anticipates the novels final pages as well as the barbarian girl. In striking contrast to the Magistrates unsparing and wry narrative, the dreams are the novels most stunning prose, recreating with authenticity the language and sublime images of a sleeping but lucid mind, and evoking both primal terror and pleasure.
In a recurring dream the Magistrate enters the town square in winter, where a kneeling girl, her face obscured, is working on a snow castle. Sitting with other children, they melt away upon the Magistrates approach. Unable to see her or even imagine her face, she is a living contrast to the stark white austerity of the empty square.
It is also in an empty square that the Magistrate first encounters the kneeling barbarian girl, the north wind bringing with it the first hint of winter. The dream motif weaves its way through the Magistrates narrative. In it the snow blankets the familiar world like a shroud, containing just the smallest hint of a latent fertility. Struggling to glimpse the face beneath the hood he encounters instead the face of an embryo or tiny whale, as white as the snow itself.
As the dream progresses he is disturbed to find the fort or square the girl is building is empty of life, only the girl, who he glimpses in a moment of clarity, relieves the dream of its desolation. In his brief glimpse of her face her eyes shine and she smiles. The dream sharpens in the next sequence and he sees her clearly, a gold thread woven through her hair, wearing a blue robe, the snow castle transformed into a clay oven. The girl is baking live-giving bread, but the dream ends before the Magistrate can accept or taste it, and his is never able to renter the dream at this point. Instead, the final winter dream is a mere collision with the girl, which echoes his collision with a woman in the night; his clarity has already begun to fade. In the novel’s final paragraph the dream and its insights have been wholly effaced by the reality of winter, it is not a dream but real children, building a snowman as they await their destiny, who have replaced the girl and the enigma she represents.
Two other dreams work also to underline the books themes. In the beginning section the Magistrate dreams of a disturbing image of a body spread on its back. Reaching to brush the black pubic hair, his hand disturbs a cluster of bees, which crawl out and fan their wings. Together an image of death, and life latent within it, it has an echo at the end of the book, in a dream occurring after the Magistrate has discovered the pit of bodies inside the towns walls. In the dream he is standing in the pit again, and his hand comes up with the corners of a jute sack, black and rotten, but this time there is no stir of life and wing, but as his hand searches further it uncovers a fork and a dead bird with empty eye sockets. This is the books final dream. “Aging and death have been persistent themes in Coetzee's work, since at least Waiting for the Barbarians, perhaps earlier.  Time after time, he brings his protagonists to the brink of death, and sometimes beyond,” says Gillan Dooley in J.M. Coetzee and the Power of Narrative. In Waiting for the Barbarians, the Magistrate struggles with his own senescence while attempting to comprehend the end of the world he belongs to, doubling and intensifying this theme.        
Among the novels other potent themes is an exploration of the idea of barbarism. Like the Cavafy poem, it explores the necessity of the “other” to the function and exercise of imperial power. In it a town awaits the arrival of the barbarians, and in its final lines the people are not unsettled by the barbarians arrival, but another menace:
Because night is here but the barbarians have not come.
And some people arrived from the borders,
and said that there are no longer any barbarians.
And now what shall become of us without any barbarians?
Those people were some kind of solution. (hyperlink.com)

The narrator of Waiting for the Barbarians tells us what narrator might that his ear is ‘tuned to the pitch of human pain’. The main character in Coetzee’s allegorical novel is a magistrate in an outpost at the edge of an empire. He is aware of the dangers of passing judgment on the barbarians: while his fellow settlers blame them for lying drunk in the gutter, the magistrate finds fault with the settlers for selling them the liquor. Yet for all of his sensitivity he fails to understand the barbarian girl he adopts out of a mixture of compassion and lust. The Cultural distance is too great and at the end of the novel the magistrate concludes that his liberalism was no more helpful to the barbarians than the behavior of the soldiers who make war on then. The novel details the fall from grace of an unexceptional magistrate of the Empire, and addresses the social perversions that necessarily attend to colonial and imperial projects driven by expand sionist ambitions, pre-emptive philosophies and delirious self-righteousness. The man of conscience is the magistrate and he is the main protagonist of the novel who leads the story. The protagonist protests the unjust treatment of the so called “barbarians” although the Empire perceives them as a dangerous tribe preparing to attack the outpost and battle against the Empire. Waiting for the Barbarians can be read as an oblique parable of South Africa’s predicament and a prophecy for its future as a retrospective account of the end of empire in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as a portrayal of the twilight of colonialism and colonial power, and as a revelation of the inadequacy and sterility of masculine consciousness. Coetzee describe the harsh reality of the ‘Empire’ and ‘Barbarians’ in this novel. Empire is imagery and self-destructive.

Waiting for the Barbarians can be read as an oblique parable of South Africa’s predicament and a prophecy for its future, as a retrospective account of the end of empire in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as a portrayal of the twilight of colonialism and colonial power, and as a revelation of the inadequacy and sterility of masculine consciousness. Coetzee took his title from the poem “Waiting for the Barbarians” by Constantine P. Cavafy. Coetzee uses the poem’s notion that the barbarians “were a kind of solution” for the Romans, as a starting point for his examination of the Empire. The barbarian lands surround and thereby define the Empire; the barbarians, or rather the myth of barbarians, proves that the Empire exists and gives it a purpose. The Third Bureau, in order to justify its existence, attempts to locate and make war on barbarians, but inevitably, if ironically, Colonel Joll proves to be “in his heart a barbarian,” proves to be “the enemy.” The Empire’s perverse insistence on fighting barbarians is seen as a clear indication of its inability to accept change, its desperate resistance to the forces of social and political evolution. The magistrate has accepted the fact that all human beings and all empires are transient. He is not naive about what course the future will or should take; he offers no solutions to the political, economic, or sociological dilemmas faced by this or any other empire; he knows that the Empire cannot simply open “the gates of the town to the people whose land” it has “raped.” (enotes) That is one type of violence.

Theme of Violence reflected in the novel:-

In this novel, Coetzee juxtapose his magistrate narrator- a kind of everyman colonial bureaucrat- against two other central characters. The first is Col Joll another official of the empire who serves in an intelligence agency that bears the inspired name the “third bureau”. The second character is a young barbarian woman who has been blinded by Col.Joll’s enlightened from of intelligence gathering. As with all colonial cultures in Coetzee’s literary creation all the settlers’ fear of the indigenous other that both threatens the dominant society and justifies the violence exacted in the name of a search for that always elusive state of security. As the magistrate relates: there is no woman living along the frontier who has not dreamed of a dark barbarian had coming from under the bed to grip her ankle, no man who has not frightened himself with visions of the barbarians carousing into his name breaking the plats setting fire to the curtains, raping his daughters. Here we are showing high state of violence physical as well as mental. Violence and complicity both are common theme in Coetzee’s work in his many works we are shown these theme. J.M.Coetzee’s treatment of violence in his fiction is very interesting way of looking from one angel that feature of complicity and violence of those who are not directly involved in the actual crimes committed by others.

      In “Into the dark Chamber the writer and the South African State” (1986) one of the essays in Doubling the point Essays and Interviews (1992) J.M.Coetzee interrogates the problem of representing violence in literature. He observes that many South African authors including himself, reveal “a dark fascination” with tortures and he contends that there are two reasons for their enthrallment.

             The first is that relations in the torture room provide a metaphor for relations between authoritarianism and its victims. The second reason for authors’ engagement with brutality is that the torture room is a site of extreme human experience accessible to no one save the participants. The challenge for an artist Coetzee asserts,

how not to play the game by the rules of the state

how to establish one’s own authority,

how to imagine for torture and death on one’s own terms.

The above dilemmas Coetzee carries on to explain are particularly urgent for fiction writers; they are less constraining for authors of auto-narrative: autobiographer’s personal experience of suffering and pain gives them the authority to retell those aspects of experiences. Dusk lands (1974) his first novel pursues the aim of diagnosing the sources of colonial violence. Even the title of the novel itself shows some sort of violence Waiting for the Barbarians here barbarians are specified as violated.

Barbarian means: people from other countries were thought to be uncivilized or violent. And here identity of the ‘barbarians’ will always be regarded as ‘others’ by imperialist society. Coetzee’s characterization is real essence with the help of characters he criticize society which he live especially character of barbarian girl, the relationship between magistrate and barbarian girl, who is central figure of theme of violence. For her part the unnamed barbarian woman her role is largely objective. All but adopted but the magistrate who makes no effort to cancel his infatuation with the oppression she has suffered, she represents the captive native upon whom the magistrate is able to project his colonial gaze. It is also to this young barbarian woman that the magistrate reveals a central theme of the novel: the terror of colonial paranoia. ‘Nothing is worse than what we can imagine’ he whispers in a moment of intimacy.

        As with all colonial cultures in Coetzee’s literary creation is above all the settlers’ fear of the indigenous other that both threatens the dominant society and justifies the violence exacted in the name of a search for that always-elusive state of security. Coetzee’s way of describing torture room, empire, barbarian girl, magistrate and his behavior with the barbarian girl, brutality, injustice all shows that how violence is represented by different ways in the novel.

               The theme of violence is prevalent throughout the book but it doesn’t’ really discuss why the capital go straight to violence to get what they need. Coetzee used this theme to describe the time in South Africa during the apartheid. They were not looking for compromise or justified trials to question the people about what they knew about the group they simply thought that if they just scare them then that would end of the problem together. It didn’t seem like an act of cruelty just an act to get what they needed out of the people. Because of novel’s treatment with violence it is different from Coetzee’s other works, violence is most important theme of the novel; here Coetzee represent both type of violence physical as well as mental. Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) marks a discernable change in Coetzee’s treatment of violence in the sense that unlike in Dusk lands here Coetzee redirects his attention from the perpetrators to the victims of tortures and to the witness of atrocities who don’t suffer themselves but who are demoralized by the violence of others.

                         In the novel the descriptions of the atrocities are not made less violent and less piercing than the other works of Coetzee like in; Dusk lands. But in Waiting for the Barbarians they are viewed from the perspective of the oppressed not for the oppressors. The focus falls on the victims’ response to tortures and the result of tortures the wounded pain, suffering. Simultaneously, the perpetrators, despite their undeniable power to inflict pain are marginalized in the sense that their characterization reveals their banality. Somehow violence is reflected in many ways in the novel Coetzee shifts focus of his interest from the tortures to the consequences of their aggressiveness- the impact violence has on the oppressed and on those who are not directly subjected to brutality but who are aware of oppression of others.

                          Another point of the novel is magistrate’s relationship with the tortured girl is ambiguous and disquieting. He is fascinated by the tortures she was subjected to and celebrates her wounds in his evening ritual; the act of washing feet appears as an act of hospitality. The magistrate as though wants build on emotional and moral bond with girl, a bond that would go beyond the ritual act he thinks he reveals his compassion and brutality for the girl and pays homage to her victimization and suffering. In fact the magistrate throughout the starry attempts to link tortures with religion. So this torture girl’s suffering and other things which is presented in the novel that is also one type of violence.

                 Coetzee’s overt critique of West’s treatment of violence at the same time his ambivalence about the nature of evil and violence appears as a conscious and meaningful evasion that shows yet another aspect of representing violence. For Coetzee writing is: “a matter of awakening the counter voices in oneself and embarking upon such speech with them, I am some measure of writer’s seriousness weather he does evoke/invoke those counter voices in himself” Theme of violence is common in his work we are shown many of his work;

For example: Coetzee’s novel Age of Iron (1990) marks another turn in his treatment of violence.

According to Fraud all those feelings that arises trouble, anxiety, fear, horror, like as it is felt while reading Waiting for the Barbarians, belongs to realm of uncanny.

Conclusion:  S.Gallagher writes that “Coetzee succeeds to solve the moral issue of representing violence through his use of textual strategies that create a reality of; moral vacuum that allows torture to exist in the contemporary world.”

          Coetzee intentionally used the word violence because it has its own importance the crucial question is about the meaning of violence for an individual, that is how an individual person come to understand violence on one’s own terms. The evolution of Coetzee’s treatment of violence in his works may be described as progression from his examination of the perpetrators and tortures to his concentration on the oppressed with their suffering and resistance to his projection of meaningful relations based on ethical values. We can say about Coetzee that he exposes himself in front of the readers, betrays himself and becomes utterly vulnerable.

Is 'Idea of knowability' presented in The Da Vinci Code or not?

Name: Drashti V. Dave

Assignment sub: Is “Idea of knowability” presented in The Da Vinci Code or not?

Roll no: 6                    Year: 2013-2015

Sem-4                          M.A.part-2

Enrolment no: PG13101007

Paper no: 13- The New Literature

Submitted to: Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krisnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Is “Idea of knowability” presented in The Da Vinci Code or not?

Brief introduction of the novel and the author:

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu after a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris, when they become involved in a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the finding of the first murder victim in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentagram drawn on his chest in his own blood.
The novel explores an alternative religious history, whose central plot point is that the Merovingian kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, ideas derived from Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation (1997) and books by Margaret Starbird. The book also refers to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) though Dan Brown has stated that it was not used as research material.

The Da Vinci Code provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Mary Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has, however, been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church, and consistently criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies. The novel nonetheless became a worldwide bestseller that sold 80 million copies as of 2009^] and has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel Angels & Demons.

Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, and feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 52 languages, and as of 2012, sold over 200 million copies. Two of them, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, have been adapted into films. (wikipedia the free encyclopedia)
Story follows Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon and the gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris' Louvre Museum. They are stunned to discover bizarre riddles that lead them to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, seemingly left by the museum's late curator, Jacques Saunière minutes before his death. Their race to discover the closely guarded secret held by Saunière uncovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to Mary Magdalene. Brown reveals his conspiracy through the book’s fictional expert, British royal historian Sir Leigh Teabing. Presented as a wise old scholar, Teabing reveals to cryptologist Sophie Neveu that at the Council of Nicaea in a.d. 325 “many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon,” including the divinity of Jesus. Thus, according to the theory, the entire foundation of Christianity rests upon a lie. (jesus.com)
Without that theory we can apply so many other theories, ideas and views here. Especially ‘idea of knowability’ can be very properly apply because through so many major characters we came to know how ‘knowledge’ is important for them so knowledge plays a very vital role in the book, we can say that knowledge and knowability both are main pillar of the text. Let’s look what is the meaning of knowledge, knowability and how it is apply for all the characters like; Sophie Neveu, Robert Langdon, Leigh Teabing, Silas etc.

Ann Gray’s book entitled “research practice for cultural studies” in this book she point out so many things which is totally related here in the novel. According to Ann Gray her aim in writing this book is to enable students and researchers within the broad field of cultural studies to approach the study of some aspects of social world.
In this book she gave so many important ideas which are very much connected The Da Vinci Code; now let’s discuss what she was trying to say in chapter-4-Ouestion of Research in this chapter she describes the idea and question of identity.
Ann Gray’s book chapter-4-Ouestion of Research: in this she said that; question of identity are also pressing and take on a particular poignancy and urgency as students explore questions and take their own and others’ identities and the ways in which they are shaped by cultural forms. At the same way question of identity shown in The Da Vinci Code if we can compare Sophie’s character with it than we came to know that Sophie doesn’t know her real identity and that’s why quest for knowing and quest for identity emerge. Furthermore Ann Gray said in this chapter when the very things we are getting have shaped us, influences us, made us what we are and what we become? In oreder to develop her project with working –class women Beverrley Skeggs (1994) drew on what Guba (1990) has argued are the three fundamental research questions that structure any research project:

•          three fundamental research questions

Ann Gray describe these three questions in detail and says that how these three are important for question of identity, we can apply these three questions in The Da Vinci Code because in the novel one of the major questions is about ‘identity’ and ‘knowledge about the self’.
Now let’s discuss fundamental questions in detail.

1.      What is there can be known- what is knowable? this is an ontological question, it refers to the aspect of social reality to be studied but also deals with assumptions we are willing to make about the nature of reality. It requires you to take position in relation in your project and to define your ‘knowable space’ How you construct your knowable space and how you go about exploring and investigating that knowable space will depend upon your theoretical approach to the social world. So here we are shown that how can we define our knowable space and what can be known to us, we are shown different ways, methods, theories, perspectives, aspect, choises, and research questions here. Another aspect is that relationship between knower and the known.

2.      What is the relation of the knower and the known? this is an epistemological question and put simply asks how we know that we know. The assumptions that are made about this depend upon how we perceive of the reality although Guba does not suggests this, how we locate as subjects within our research. What we bring to our work how our own knowledge and experience is brought to bear on the research itself will certainly shape it. It is to acknowledge what we ourselves bring our research in terms of our lived experiences. So these researches bring to our attention the importance of acknowledging that in many things so knower and the known both are different from each other. 

And third last question is mainly stressed that it is too difficult to find out the things but there are so many methods which are useful to finding out he things.

3.      How do we find out things? These are methodological question so in this we come to know that there are many ways to find out the things. These three questions are very much related to the novel because one of the major thing of the novel is that; knowledge and knowability. So for that perspective understanding of these things from Ann Gray’s book is very helpful. In that book Ann Gray differentiate so many things which can be applied in the novel. Some chapter’s ideas are also presented in some theories and characters of The Da Vinci Code. Especially theories of this book are for cultural study but at some extent questions about the knowledge and knowability presented in the novel. In chapter-10 of research methodology theorists furthermore talks about knowledge.

Chapter-10 sources of knowledge and ways of knowing: in this chapter Denzin and others says that; these might be thought of as the common-sense approaches knowledge that posit a knowable world and a researcher who can come to know through the application of particular observational method. Further in another theory people contested claims that what constitutes knowledge. Scholars argued that ‘knowledge comes from experience’

So in the novel idea of knowledge and knowability is reflected through so many characters like; Robert Langdon, Sophie Neveu, Leigh Teabing, Silas etc. Because the novel is conspiracy fiction and it is frontal attack on Christian faith so we also don’t know so many things so now let’s discuss unknown things from the novel with the help of Ann Gray’s perspective. ‘idea of knowledge leads towards calmness’

I don’t know what I don’t know it is very necessary for understanding this idea.

Robert Langdon’s quest for knowing: 

 Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by author Dan Brown. In the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon is in Paris to give a lecture on his work. Having made an appointment to meet with Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre, he is startled to find the French police at his hotel room door. They inform him that Saunière has been murdered and they would like his immediate assistance at the Louvre to help them solve the crime. Unknown to Langdon, he is in fact the prime suspect in the murder and has been summoned to the scene of the crime so that the police may extract a confession from him. While he is in the Louvre, he meets Sophie Neveu, a young cryptologist from the DCPJ. He spends the rest of the novel dodging the police and trying to solve the mystery of an ancient secret society, the Priory of Sion, which was once headed by Leonardo Da Vinci. At the end of the novel, Langdon uncovers the mystery behind Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail But his entire journey and quest for knowing is very interesting while the quest of the Holy Grail Langdon passes the stage of knowing and he know the things from different levels. And at the end of the novel it is his last stage of knowing he was standing to beneath the ancient Rose Line at least he sensed and he understood the true meaning of  the grand master’s verse and ‘the quest for the Holy Grail is the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, and at last with a sudden upwelling of reverence Robert Langdon feel to his knees.  So we can say that Robert Langdon’s quest for knowing is one idea of knowability because at the end of the novel he knows that sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene is beneath the museum, and symbolically novel ends with the end of quest of knowing.

Sophie’s self-identification: 

Sophie Neveu is the granddaughter of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. She is a French National Police cryptographer, who studied at the Royal Holloway, University of London Information Security Group.

She was raised by her grandfather from an early age, after her parents were killed in a car accident. Her grandfather used to call her "Princesses Sophie" and trained her to solve complicated word puzzles. With the help of Langdon Sophie finds out at the end of the book that she is a descendant of the Merovingian’s, and a living descendant of the historical Jesus. She first starts suspecting this when Sir Leigh Teabing reveals the truth of the Holy Grail, but dismisses the idea when Langdon tells her that neither her surname nor her grandfather's is a Merovingian name. (The surname Neveu is the French word for "nephew.") In fact, as she later finds out, her parents and ancestors had, for protection, changed their family names of Plantard and Saint-Clair. When Sophie went to Rosslyn Chappell with Langdon at that time she said that “my grandfather must have brought me here when I was young I don’t know it feels familiar” it is also one way of looking the idea of knowability. It is the starting point of knowing and at the end of the novel she identifying herself as ancestor of Christ so her self-identification and her journey to know about herself is also presented very well in the novel. So she is important character whom we can apply idea of self identity. Like Langdon she is also at the process of knowing especially self-identification. For her we can say that after a long journey of knowing her completely knowing herself. So idea of knowability presented through Sophie’s character.

Silas’s illusion to know everything:  

Silas is an albino numeracy of the Catholic organization Opus Dei, who practices severe corporal mortification (he is seen using a metal cilice and flogging himself). During the events of the main storyline, he is about forty years old. The film portrays him as younger. The novel depicts him as a monk, although Opus Dei has no monks. Silas's real name is unknown. He had originally lived in Marseille with his parents. However, his father was furious at having an albino for his son, and blamed Silas's mother, repeatedly beating and eventually killing her. Enraged, Silas murdered his father using a butcher's knife and fled. He was only seven years old. He grew up on the streets, eating garbage and waste. Other young runaways excluded him due to his strange appearance. After he pummeled a girl for making fun of his condition, police gave him an ultimatum to either leave Marseille or go to prison. He moved to Toulon, where he continued living on the streets. After getting into a fight with two sailors, he killed one, and was imprisoned in Andorra in the Pyrenees until freed by an earthquake that destroyed the prison walls. He found refuge with a young Spanish priest named Manuel Aringarosa, who gave him the name Silas, after a person in the Bible who was the companion of Paul of Tarsus, imprisoned at Philippi and freed by an earthquake after singing. Aringarosa eventually became a bishop and the head of Opus Dei. Before the story's main narrative, Aringarosa puts him in contact with an enigmatic figure called The Teacher and tells him that the mission he will be given is of utmost importance in saving the true Word of God. Under the orders of The Teacher, he murders Jacques Saunière and the other three leaders of the Priory of Sion in order to extract the location of the Priory's. However, Silas is reluctant to commit murder, knowing that it is a sin and does so only because he is assured his actions will save the Catholic Church. So idea of knowability presented here.
Even Silas don’t’ know who the teacher is but then also he works for him and killed so many people under the order of the Teacher.  Silas follows the information given by the Priory leaders to the Church of Saint-Sulpice, however he discovers that he was duped with false information at that point we can say that he thinks that now he know everything but latter on he know nothing. By mistake he shoots Aringarosa after carrying him to the hospital he vows to kill the Teacher but Aringarosa saying that if he had learned anything from his teaching; he must know that “forgiveness is God’s greatest gift” In his last moment Silas goes out alone and prays to God for mercy and forgiveness, idea of knowability can be presented here because Silas know that whatever he did God must punished him even he himself punished his body and pray to God for his bad deeds. At that level he know the things at least he thinks that he know so he is knower but we came to know that he know nothing.

Sir Leigh Teabing’s quest for knowing: 

after Robert Langdon Leigh Teabing is another character whose quest for knowing is as similar as Langdon. Leigh Teabing is the primary antagonist of the Da Vinci Code, he is a British Royal Historian a knight of the realm Grail scholar and friend of Professor Robert Langdon. At some unrevealed point during his life Teabing had suffered from polio. When the millennium comes and goes without the Priory of Sion the only ones beside Teabing who know the truth about the Holy Grail. Teabing revealing the truth Teabing blames the Catholic Church as the ones behind it, and so he schemes to find the documents revealing the truth and show them to the world from that point his journey for quest for knowing and quest for the Holy Grail started. But he doesn’t know the password of keystone so he helped Sophie and Langdon. Teabing is the Teacher but from the beginning and half-middle of the novel no one knows that Teabing is the Teacher but when he killed his butler Remy Legaludec at that time we came to know that he is the Teacher.
Teabing instructs Silas to kill four members of the Priory of Sion, and at the same time gain the whereabouts of the secret keystone which leads to the Grail. There are so many complications about his character but his stage of knowing is very interesting. He then minister of West minister Abbey where the keystone’s riddle leads to Langdon and Sophie arrive shortly after Teabing and there he reveals to them his identity as Teacher at that time Sophie and Robert knows his real identity. He hands over the keystone to Langdon but later Langdon throws the keystone up in midair Teabing tries to catch it but it slips out of his hands and on the ground just when Teabing thinks the secret of the Grail lost forever.
And then he knows that Langdon had already guessed the password.
Before Teabing can know what the clue is, the police arrived and arrest him for Teabing we can say that he is important character and we can apply the idea of knowability here also. And through his actions he prove that he know the things, apart from these characters; Robert Langdon, Sophie, Leigh Teabing and Silas Holy Grail is also symbol of knowledge and knowability, how let’s discuss.

Holy Grail is kind of symbol of knowledge:

According to the novel the secrets of the Holy Grail as kept by the Priory of Sion only they know where the Holy Grail is. Even readers don’t know what the Holy Grail is. The Holy Grail is not physical chalice but a woman namely Mary Magdalene who carried the bloodline of Christ the Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion. While reading of it we come to know that Grail is Mary Magdalene. Holy Grail itself is idea of knowledge because it inspired us to lead towards the knowledge.

“it is the mystery and wonderment the serve out our souls not the Grail itself , the beauty of the Grail lies in her ethereal nature” Marie Chauvel said to Langdon and gazed up at Rosslyn. “For some Grail is a chalice that will bring them everlasting life, for others it is the quest for the documents and secret history. And for most I suspect the Holy Grail is simply a grand idea..a glorious unattainable treasure that somehow even in today’s world of chaos , inspires us.”

So it gave knowledge to us so Ann Gray’s ideas are very much presented through the characters, and the idea of knowledge leads towards calmness.