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Narrtive technique is one among the important aspects of literature. It deals with the facts and imagination as based on the narrator. A narrative is different to that of descriptions in a work’s quality or situations. It consists of a set of events as recounted by the author through the narrator in which the events are selected and arranged in a particular order, like telling a story through a first person narrative and third person narrative.

      A narrative  technique is the method of telling stories which is distinct from that of dramatic and lyrical poetry. To put it short, a narrative is a story which can be conveyed through pictures, poetry, songs and so on in a fiction or any non-fiction. This mode narrating a story is connected to someone in specific and hence becomes a technique used by that person who narrates the story. This narrator serves as a prism through which ideas and views are transmitted to the readers. A narrator has to detain the past, by holding the present and making the reader ready for the future.

      Some techniques since 1930s when Raja Roa’s  when Kanthapura was published. Usually narrative techniques are explained through point of view in a novel, which posseses three types namely- first person narrative, when he comments on the events; the third person narrative in which the narrator is objective and omniscient  point of view where the narrator is God who makes his in bgpresence felt.

A narrator has plethora of options to narrate the events.It is based on either the temporal or casual way of narrating through ‘focalization’. It changes the course of0 narrative as a reader, receiving impressions of characters through narration. Moreover in an emerging narrative technique, a reader can notice double consciousnesls in the narrator. This is due to the narrator’s speaking language which  is tinged with deep anguish for mymotherland since 1990s in Indian English fiction. Thus there is deep rooted awareness of the belonging to the periphery.

In this way, R.K.Narayanis a good story teller who shows no interest in socio-political issues or even in following techniques. He values only the story and narrates it in a superficial level and in a deeper sense.His tone of narration gives rise to humour, and the narrative technique of Narayan.

There are several other writers who use the stream of consciousness technique in narrating stories. Like things one after the another,whereas Khushwanth Singh in his Train to Pakistan gives a blending of growth in space and movement in time. He elegantly describes the movement of trains, signaling time for action, symbol of despair and darkness. His symbol of narrative is suggestive of the upcoming events of the novel.

A critic is an ideal reader, methodically trained and provides judgement. A critic analyses, classifies,evaluates, examines, inquires, subjects the text closer, scrutinises, pronounces a verdict upon the text. He demands intellectual freedom. Literary criticism is an exercise of judgement on the works of literature.

History of Criticism

Hellenic Criticism

Fourth and fifth century Athens became the centre of criticism, mainly Plato and his disciple Aristotle. Many real principles were derived from them. Aristotle was the first theorist in literature and the first scientific critic whose poetry is known famously as the storehouse of theories.

Hellenistic Criticism 

Scholars of this period preserved the writings of the writers. Alexandria became the literary activity of this age.

Greco-Roman Criticism

They were inspired by the ancient Greek writers and wanted to be either equal or to excel them. So they started imitating them. They elaborated, interpreted and started applying the rules of the ancient people in their variety of writing. Horace, Quintilian, Longinus are the notable critics of this period

The Dark Middle Ages

Fifth to fifteenth century which was filled with confusions and dislocation and hence the literary activities suffered. Hair splitting arguments took place and were called hair splitters. they started frowning at literature as if it were sensual. Grammar, rhetoric and logic were given a pride of place during this period. It also integrated the ancient literature in an allegoric manner. The only ray of hope of this period was Dante. 

The Renaissance Criticism 

Great ancient Greek books were translated in this age. Appreciation and creation went hand in hand. Creativity of great amount took place. There are four stages – rennaisance of style and language of the ancients rhetorations, made an attempt to introduce classical metres into English poetry, an attempt was made to justify imaginative literature against the attacks of puritans and moralists, and attempts were made to device rules and principles to guide the would-be future poets. 

Neoclassical Criticism 

Ben Johnson was an important critic of this age who was also the first champion of new classical criticism. he followed the liberal criticism aiming at curbing the absurdities of literature. Addison, Steele Dryden wanted to bring back classical rules once more into this age and called themselves neoclassicals and followed strict rules.

The Romantic Phase

French Revolution and German idealist philosophy contributed to the development of race of romanticism individuality subjectivity freedom of expression and inspiration were given importance what’s that and called which were important products of this time imagination and creativity well given room 

Victorian Criticism

This phase saw a transition of the writers focusing on art, literature and providing critical comments on other works. This period of ocused significantly on an ideal life. Great writers of poetry, prose like Tennyson, Dickens, Arnold and others hold the pride of embracing this Victorian literature

Modern Age

People in this phase were not original thinkers but academicians. They formulated theories and started discussing them in classes. It starts with T S Eliot and the rise of other new critics. The study of the text has to be done word by word, sentence by sentence as they believed. F R Leavis was also a notable textual scholar of this period.

Three forms of Criticism

Legislative Criticism

This form of critical endeavour lays down rules for the art of writing. It’s largely based on standard works of literature like Greek and Latin literature. It assumes that the would-be writer has only to be told how to write well. Hence it addresses the writer and not the reader. 

Aesthetic Criticism

It treats literature as art and as an independent activity of the mind, having an end of its own which may or may not coincide with that of religion, morality, science or politics. It therefore probes the nature of literary arts and formulates its theories accordingly.

Descriptive Criticism

It is a study of individual words of authors’  methods, aims and effects. It may draw on legislative or aesthetic norms to justify its actions or follow an independent life of its own, it assures that what it says can always be confirmed from the work under discussion.

A.M.Klein

The lamenting tone is dramatic with an abrupt beginning to captivate the attention of the readers. It means a sense of loss. Men were of different kinds like warriors and chieftains, wherein brave means warriors which has two semantic differences  “where and brave”. It tells us that they are no more brave. The early natives lived in a bound state having a vast land. Being colonised they lost their identity and their mind power. They were not able to express themselves as the sons of the soil and were treated like animals to be tamed. The autumn front symbolises the old age and a season of death and also the beginning of the race. The poem is narrated from the middle with an extrinsic information. 

“Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga” is a poem about the fall of an Indian and what happened after he fell. It narrates who is responsible for the fall which is basically a ‘sense of fear’.  The poet A.M.Klien is a Jewish Canadian writer, yet talks about the Indians. He is an insider as a Jewish who suffered in the hands of whites. His poem “Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga” is about the story of the Indians which starts with a melancholic tone.

The child here refers to the poet himself who feels nostalgic about the flown away bravery of the Indians. It has two perspectives – the child’s and the adult’s. The child looks at the “coloured frontpiece” which his the front-page of a book. It has the picture of the braves and the “monosyllabic chief” who has dignit and never wasted time in speaking; compared to the Indian God Manito, known for courage, grandeour and greatness which is seen in the coloured frontpiece. He is standing arms akimbo showing his self-esteem, dignity and pride which is now only an analepsis. 

The poet says that in his childhood he wished he were an Indian, a kind of exclamation, fancy, illusion. “The classroom chalk” is a symbolnof symbolisation; “varnish smell”, “the watered dust of the street”, where he wanted to enter a life of naturally; an escape from the problems of reality and goes to nature. He mentions the Iroquois which was the chief tribe invaded by French. It had sub-tribes and many dialects in their path. They never go in the same for the sale of security which also has adventurous experience in it. He says that this is what his illusion was but in reality it never came through. And he tells that the chief stands his arms akimbo who awaits “the runaway mascot” which is a symbol of good omen and luck changing. Cultural changes usually come very quietly he says. 

Later, a drastic change has happened where moccasin, a shoe without heels which protected the feet of Indians and made no sound is now used by the robbers which was vulnerable and had a glorious past. Feeling is one way of learning in the lap of nature. He wanted many adventures by taking different paths. There he can see what others have not seen and experienced like the Indians. He says that Indians are dying, what we see now is the remembrance of the chief, living in the world of illusion and experiencing reality. The change of western culture is visible in the names we choose and the dress we use. When the names change, the identity also changes. Still braves are there by it not with the indianess, completely changed to western culture. 

He says that indiqn has become pale, lost his colour of health and nobility and vulnerable nature. He is ironic. The women were inside the “elementary shawls’ being inactive who also have lost their identities. Children were playful but now they have become least worthy. Tourists, white men had pleasure in throwing money to those children “at the old church door” who had been defeated. 

Their past is sold in shops which means that their tradition isnlost because of the colonisers. They fell on the ground, dust. The old church door symbolises love, giving and brotherhood but now has become the sight of cultural humiliation. Children being transformed to beggars. In the poem “The Dying Eagle”, man fell internally in his mind, spiritually. But here it is visible through tradition. 

It is the selling of the character of an individual amongst the selling of a tradition. They are made by o sell themselves and white men make themselves sold. Exploiting Anand can also be done by destroying a land. Man is the cause of exploitation as wel as the judge and becomes the top predator in food chain. Justice not denied but deranged. 

Nature is shrinking as we are expanding, thereby by killing tradition and make momentous out of it which is an insult to the Indians. The worst was the white men selling Indian tradition. White men scalped Indian’s tradition and we live with dead things. We have become savages of civilisation. The irony is made to generate the Indians.

The last stanza is very pathetic, ironically presents the promises made and the betrayals, illusions and realities, the desires of Indians as a “grassy-ghetto”, an oxymoron

 There is a composition of both freedom and bondage. They were promised freedom but bound in bondage. The entire poem seems to be about reservation. A “ghetto” is a synonym for reservation. Through a positive commotion of the culture, the white men destroyed them and used them. “And these are fauna on a museum kept”. Fauna is associated with the animal like Indian; the savage is now imprisoned in museum. The irony is that the hunter has now become the hunter. “The better hunters have prevailed”. The Indian has transformed from a golden position to a civilized poverty and humility. The poet calls the hunting as a game which is a very significant statement. He says that both are hunters, the Indian hunts for his survival, but the white men hunt for the destruction in one way. This goes by the theory of Darwinism. He hits at the sore of the white men’s civilisation. Indians lose their blood which empathetically means “passions and emotions” that “makes the grounds it’s crypt”, “bleached are their living”. Indian is dead, in becoming the subservient servant of the whites. He has lost his life and lives like a “living vegetable”. The whites are referred to as “pious prosperous ghosts”, an oxymoron which means they are materially prosperous.

The poet concludes by saying that the ruler and the ruled, higher and lower, the rich and the poor are the marginals. He uses the metaphor “hunting” to show their lives. The analogy is that the individual hunts for the sake of survival whereas whites do it for fun and sport. Human rights have it’s boundaries as per P.G.Wodehouse, “the sons of the toil are buried beneath tonnes of soil”. Indian for his sake of survival has lost his identity. If Indian is the dead living, then the white man is the living dead, concludes the poet. 

The opening lines of Francis Bacon’s essay from his The Essays is a statement of Aristotle, which means that man is naturally gregarious and that it is unnatural to avoid the society unless he performs meditation or has a contemplation of the divine. Bacon says that living in a crowd as in a great city may also loneliness and the lack of true friendship. He makes three points in favour of friendship. It is important to release pent-up emotions, worries, cares and so on and to share these emotions make friendship an essential. Kings and great rulers are lonely people who definitely need such kind of support and emotional release. He gives examples of Sylla and Pompey, Caesar, Brutus, Augustus and Agrippa, and so on. Friends are considered important in spite of having wise children and close relatives and to confide in a true friendship is equally important as a family. It doubles the joys and lessens the burdens in sharing.

The second aspect is that it allows to clarify ideas and thoughts through discussion and argument. There can be sounder arguments that can allow one to come to a proper decision on the issue. It also allows Anderson to understand and find the weakness and strength of one’s arguments. A friend can also contribute to the judgement and further add his advice as a caution or encouragement. The advice from a friend is more reliable since he knows personally than any other outsiders.

A friend can be useful in several ways, he can help in advising on the marriage of our children or the completion of work. He can recommend his friend to others and enable him to act or speak without emotional involvement. No man can really afford to be without true friends.

This essay is more warm and personal than the essay on love. Plato, Aristotle – to whom he owes much and many writers of the classic have gone deeper into the subject than anything else, yet this is one of his largest essays.