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Friendly way to reading:
Early exposure to literature in English - a systematic approach
Reviewed by Indrajee De Zoysa
Lecturer in English, ELTU, University of Ruhuna.
Realistically speaking, it is a fact that many children within the
school system of Sri Lanka have no notion of what it is to study English
Literature, although it is a subject in the Sri Lanka GCE (O'Level)
curriculum, and therefore as always, it remains restricted to a few
elite schools and a few children coming from elite backgrounds with a
certain home-grown knowledge of English.
One must remember that it is impossible to teach English to a child
as a language. Teaching the complex grammatical structures is an age-old
enterprise which yields in "almost" nothing. While teaching English to
children what should be inculcated in them from a very young age is the
habit of reading and appreciating, which then automatically will have a
spillover effect on their knowledge of grammar and stylistics.
In order for this process to take place, an early exposure to English
literature is ideal, but at the same time material becomes necessary and
the lack of proper material presenting the syllabus contents in a simple
comprehensible manner poses a huge problem. When we talk of material, we
cannot expect the children at an early stage to read complex critical
analyses written on the texts in question.
What is necessary is a guide, which is simple yet comprehensive in
approach, to help them to get a grasp of the subject matter.
In this light, the contribution made by Dr. E.A. Gamini Fonseka, as a
university teacher, is commendable. His eight-part package Friendly way
to Reading - Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Prose - is specifically designed
to help those sitting the Sri Lanka GCE (O'Level) English Literature
paper.
It covers in an entirety what is necessary to gain a comprehensive
insight into a body of literature in order to become able to handle
English (either literature-wise or language-wise) for an examination
purpose.
In fact, it can be said that anybody ranging from a schoolchild to an
adult interested in English Literature can benefit heavily by reading
the series of books while developing many options in carrying out their
academic activities. Dr. Fonseka's eight-part package then fills a sad
vacuum within the educational sphere in Sri Lanka where a lack of proper
elaborate guide material in relation to English Literature has led to
many a crisis.
Extensive reading
Parts 1-5 are compiled into one volume (even available as 5 different
volumes) in the title Friendly Way to Reading Fiction.
Dr. Fonseka positions them this way in the order of the series, as he
professes that the children should start with extensive reading and the
simplified versions of the great books - Victor Hugo's Les Miserales ,
Mark Twin's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Charles Dicken's Great
Expectations, and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Anita Desai's
original novel The Village by the Sea they cover, can gradually boost
the children's enthusiasm and expertises in reading English.
His idea is that, when the children start reading literature with the
stories in these books presented in numerous episodes, they can easily
familiarise themselves with the situations, the imagery, the characters,
the themes, and the social criticisms the authors have made in their
writings and later fluently produce their own ideas in terms of
answering questions that demand writing short essays.
Furthermore, these study guides make it much easier for the student
to deal with each text after reading it thoroughly once. In order to
make the plots easy to remember, the author has included detailed
chapter by chapter summaries accompanied by chapter by chapter
commentaries. Thus it helps the reader to internalize in a spontaneous
friendly way the plot of the novel as well as a critique of it.
After the detailed summaries and the comments, the author presents
the reader with a critical analysis of each novel at a literary level
where he pays in-depthemphasis to the themes, individual characters,
imagery and other literary techniques such as symbolism. Thereafter, a
set of comprehension questions is included which is of extreme value
because the student can test himself/herself on the questions so as to
check whether he/she is thoroughly knowledgeable of the particular text.
Part 6 is titled The Friendly Way to Reading Poetry.
It deals with the selection of poetry, What is most interesting is
the valuable introduction the author provides before entering into the
realm of poetry. His introduction provides the readers with a
comprehensive guide to the stylistics of poetry where the areas of plot,
point of view, characterization, setting, theme, imagery, symbolism, the
technicalities of sound, intonation, rhythm are covered.
This is of absolute importance because the technicalities involved in
analyzing and understanding literature tend to baffle many a young mind
and hence it presents complicated theory in uncomplicated language. The
next section brings together the selection of poetry with comprehension
questions while the last section includes a novel set of critical
commentaries on the given poems providing valuable insights into the
business of approaching, analyzing and appreciating a poem.
Biographical sketches
Part 7 of the series deals with the two prescribed plays A Villa for
Sale by Sasha Gutri and the popular middle age classic Everyman. The
brief introduction defines a drama and then deals with the
technicalities of drama such as plot, characterization, theme, point of
view, symbolism, irony etc. The biographical sketches on the authors of
the respective plays the presentation of the scripts are important
features of the book. Next, a detailed synopsis of the play is provided
for easy remembering and reading and then a critical analysis is done on
the structure and style of it.
The author here analyzes the important aspects of the play which are
brought out through the speech of its characters and does an analysis of
the characters within the context of the play.
Finally, an overall examination is done about what the play has
achieved and its vision. Hence what we find are separate analyses of
both plays done in a student-friendly manner which is easy to read and
filled with insights into the narrative, moral, critical, and aesthetic
aspects of the plays.
The final in the series, Part 8, deals with the selection of Prose.
Again what we find is a comprehensive introduction to help the students
in identifying what prose writing is and how one should go about
handling such writing critically and analytically.
He takes us on an intellectual journey in which he elaborately
identifies and explains the core technical aspects required in analysing
a prose work.
Hence, again what we find is an explanation of the plot, characters,
setting, narrators, figurative language, representation of realistic
world views, etc.
The pieces studied are given in order of The gift of the Magi by O.
Henry, The Monkeys by Punyakante Wijenaike, The life and death of
Cholmondeley by Gerald Durrel and finally Those Dark Years by Nelson
Mandela. Each prose selection is accompanied by a detailed set of
comprehension questions and activities which will test the knowledge of
the reader so as to show how it needs to be understood. The second part
of the work deals with a critical analysis of the prose selections where
all the texts are dissected into minuscule pieces. The contents are
analyzed under a wide array of sub themes and plot lines thus bringing
about an important interpretation in relation to stylistics, language,
themes, characterization, a contextualized analysis of the events,
imagery, symbols etc.
Thus, it becomes evident that anybody interested in gaining an entry
level insight into English Literature as well as students who are
sitting the GCE (O'Level) English Literature paper will immensely
benefit from this work by Dr.E.A. Gamini Fonseka. His relentless work
appeals to the senses as well as takes us on a wide intellectual journey
in giving us an important overview of the stylistics and technicalities
of analyzing literature whereby a student or a reader can develop
his/her own views and ideas of the relevant texts without being
restricted to a single idea. So, in this sense, this series of books is
a must read for literature enthusiasts and those sitting the GCE
(O'Level) exam because the knowledge it provides is profound and vital.
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