Newsletter May 2016

In 1819, British poet John Keats (1795-1821) offered a new life to an old genre, the ode, with six pieces that would later become classics, and contribute to his fame: “Ode on Indolence,” “Ode on Melancholy,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode to Psyche,” “To Autumn” and finally, “Ode of Grecian Urn.” In the latter piece, a poem of 5 stanzas, Keats reflects on the nature of Art, and in particular representational Art, via the discussion of two scenes displayed on an imagined Greek vase. As a poetic representation of a piece of art, this ode belongs also to the genre of the ekphrasis, itself prominent during the era of Greek art. The first scene represents two lovers and communicates an idea of an impossible passion. The second represents villagers about to perform a sacrifice. In this short commentary, I shall try to discuss certain passages of the ode, and explore the underlying reflection or contemplation that Keats attempts to undertake . . .

The Enlightenment Century is generally presented as an era of revolutions in science and philosophy in occidental Europe. The Enlightenment’s appeal to reason was then considered as the cornerstone for the conception of the human being and life in societies, which was to be followed during the major social, political and economical developments that would occur in the following centuries. One of its main effects would become the growing critical spirit towards all things religious, from the very theological conceptions of God, soul, etc. to the more concrete faces of religion, such as matters concerning the clergy and the institution of the church. In other words, the deepest roots of the West’s contemporary distrust and skepticism towards religion may be the Enlightenment Century . . .

In the mid-19^th c., when Karl Marx announced, in the Communist Manifesto and later in his Capital, the emergence of strong movements of revolt by the working class in industrialised England, France and Germany, he certainly did not imagine that the first cases of such uprisings would actually take place far away from Western Europe. In 1917, the Russian Revolution revealed to the world that this social insurrection could also concern populations of the rest of the world, of “marginal” countries, of the so-called “developing” nations. It is during that era that the left as a political project arrived in India. In the 1920s, the Communist party was officially launched. These times were marked by a world of huge possibilities. Around the globe, young and educated individuals felt the potential of these days and decided which side they would adopt, in a variety of forms. More than just a political matter, this opposition also represented ideologies and ideals, and it would thus find a particularly fertile terrain in the arts and literature. It is in this context that grew, in India, a group of young writers with a broad affinity with leftist politics: All-India Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA) . . .