Ounongo Repository :: Browsing by Author "Krishnamurthy, Sarala"

Browsing by Author "Krishnamurthy, Sarala"

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An analysis of English errors made by NUST students.
(NUST, Department of Communication, 2010) Krishnamurthy, Sarala; Kangira, Jairos; Tjiramanga, Alexandra; Beukes, Bronwen
The focus of this study is errors made by students using English at the NUST. An investigation into errors and their causes peculiar to Namibia is significant insofar as it enables the researchers to develop a methodology in teaching to help students avoid committing mistakes that they make normally. This study, therefore, has far reaching implications in English language teaching and pedagogy in the country.
Cause and effect: A stylistic analysis of the story in Ngugi's "A Grain of Wheat".
(2010) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
Analysis of story in narrative fiction poses a major challenge to stylisticians. There are several studies of style in fiction, which are mainly micro-linguistic in nature and focus on certain sections of the novel that is being analysed. But up until today, there are has not been a comprehensive analysis of the story of a full length novel because of the unwieldy form of the novel on the one hand, and, on the other, disagreement amongst scholars about identification of individual units that make up the story and how these units mesh together. Stylistic analysis of story in fiction, therefore, is a contested area of study. Narratologists attempt to describe the deep narrative structure or surface narrative structure of different kinds of narrative forms such as: folk tale, fairy tale, epic, myths, short stories etc. While it is exciting to discover the basic underlying patterns of diverse narratives and identifying the universal structure of narratives from various cultures and climes, the reduction of all narrative to its skeletal form divests the immense variety and incredible complexity of a narrative form, such as a novel. This article is an attempt to develop a methodology for the examination of a composite form of the story of a novel drawing upon insights gained from Stylistics and Narratology. Through this analysis, I hope to prove that it is possible to examine the story of a novel thereby emphasizing textual analysis and empiricism as a rationale for stylistic inquiry. For purposes of illustration, I examine A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’O , Kenya’s foremost novelist and one of Africa’s greatest intellectuals.
The chutnification of English: An examination of the lexis of Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children".
(2010) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
Midnight’s Children has been variously described as a Postmodern novel, Post colonial novel, and a novel which uses techniques of magic realism, metafiction and historiography. Having won the Booker Prize, the novel has attracted the attention of many critics for its remarkable use of language and the blending of history and story, fact and fiction and, reality and sur-reality. While the novel has been acclaimed as one of the most ingenious and fascinating piece of writing in the modern age and Rushdie has been described as a “juggler of words” (Narasimhaiah:1995), not many critics have focused on the use of lexical items in the novel. It is my argument that an examination of the lexis of Midnight’s Children within the ambit of Stylistics, will yield a rich dividend, and an analysis and a study of this kind will add new insights not just to the novel but also to the field of lexicology. Lexicologists are mainly concerned with word-formation and multi word expressions in natural language processing. While the analysis and application of lexicology studies tend to revolve around teaching and transfer of culture, an analysis of the kind suggested above would not only extend the field of Stylistics, but also lexicology as well. Salman Rushdie‟s use of the expression 'chutnification' epitomizes his use of language in the novel. “Chutney” is an Indian dish, which is a side dish and tangy, adding flavour to the main course of any meal. “Chutney” is a noun form and is understood as such in English. By adding “-fication”, Rushdie changes an Indian word into an English one to stand for transformation. Therefore “Chutnification” in the novel means transformation of English having an additional connotation of making the language used in the novel tangy and more flavoursome and exciting. An examination of the lexis of Midnight’s Children will, therefore, be a useful exercise in comprehending Rushdie‟s inimitable style, as well as understanding the ways by which a language grows. The study, in other words, will contribute to, in particular, a critique of Midnight’s Children, and also to the fields of lexicology and morphology.
Cognitive stylistics and petit recit: An examination of the narrative consciousness in the "God of Small Things".
(2011) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
As has been pointed out be many critics, “God” in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy functions as a metaphor for Velutha and becomes symptomatic of power relations that cut across the several binaries: man/woman, postcolonial,/ imperial, upper caste/lower caste, Hindu/ Christian, upper class/lower class resulting in notions of “big things ” and “small things ” which, one realizes as one reads the novel , acquire multiple meanings. The subversion of the “big things ” by the “small things ” is articulated by the variegated narrations of Rahel, who, in her own person, projects this dichotomy. She is one of a twin, a girl as opposed to her male twin and the narration through her consciousness is dualistic because it encompasses both her voice as a child and also as an adult creating a rich and complex narrative that confounds as it explicates lending itself to various interpretations. While there have been many interpretations of the novel both in terms of its themes and its language, and most critics praise Roy for painting a canvas that is both multihued and multilayered, and yet congealing into a harmonious whole, they have largely ignored the narrative voice of Rahel and the ambivalence that is projected through it. My paper is an attempt to unravel the plurality of the competing discourses through Cognitive Stylistics. I argue that the Derridean slippage that occurs in the novel is because of the different schemas of Rahel ‘s narrative as a child and as an adult. Cognitive stylistics therefore provides a useful tool in the analysis of the novel thereby affirming what is stated in the epigraph: “Never again will a single story be told as though it is only one.” ( The God of Small Things:1997).
Endangered indigenous languages of Namibia.
(IKTC, 2011) Krishnamurthy, Sarala; /Nanub, David
In this paper, we examine the use of indigenous languages for transference of not just knowledge, but also culture and the relation between context and peculiar nature of indigenous, traditional and local knowledge itself. The paper includes two sections: a performance section and academic section with a view to capturing the authentic voice of the performer and exploring the narrative and linguistic elements in the performance. While the presentation itself will be interactive, the paper will try to encapsulate the concerns of IK systems and the use of technology for preservation of these systems.
An exploration of the theme of guilt and redemption in "The Guide" by R. K. Narayan and "A Grain of Wheat" by Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
(NUST, Department of Communication., 2007) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
This article examines the theme of guilt and redemption in The Guide by R.K. Narayan and A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Guilt and redemption are treated as one because redemption of the two main protagonists in the two novels follows upon guilt. The protagonists of the two novels are compared with each other because both of them dupe the general public into believing that they are heroes. They follow similar paths of being ordinary men who, in the course of their lives, win the admiration of their people because of a misunderstanding.Instead of revealing their true selves they allow this misperception to continue because it suits them. How each of the protagonists meets his destiny and seeks his redemption is, in the final count, the embodiment of the philosophical vision of the two novelists writing from a post colonial perspective. Since the article deals with the theme of guilt and redemption as one, it, therefore, not only compares and contrasts the protagonists in the novels, also addresses the issue of writing in a post colonial world and how this impacts the world view of each writer.
Exploring Herero Genocide Survivor Narratives
(2019-07-14) Krishnamurthy, Sarala; Tjiramanga, Alexandra
Contemporary post-colonial writers are increasingly, through their fiction, delineating suppressed and occluded histories which do not form a part of the dominant “Grand Narratives” of a nation. Such writing has been facilitated due to the collapse of the rigid binaries of the colonial past, both literal and ideological derived from Post colonialism and Post modernism which allow for the plurality of divergent voices. Thus, multiple competing discourses and histories provide for the excavation of hidden narratives. The German Herero war (1904-08), also called the “Herero Genocide” or the “first holocaust”, forms a part of the troubled history of Namibia leading to collective amnesia and silence on the part of the Germans on the one hand and extensive debate, discussion and demands of reparation by the Namibians on the other. There are several stories of the German-Herero war which are in the communal memory of the Herero people, but are neither recorded nor preserved for posterity. It is imperative that the narratives are collected and preserved, because the elders of the community, who are the repositories of knowledge, are dying. Our research has solicited personal narratives to provide for empirical evidence about the cause, trajectory and effects of genocide on the Herero communities in order to critically explore cultural sites where genocide is most crudely felt from an interdisciplinary perspective with a view to adding to the body of literature of this period, for purposes of preservation and analysis. Research in Genocide studies in Namibia remains Euro-centric and fragmentary. We hope to problematize Trauma theory as we examine transgenerational trauma in these narratives.
A feast for the imagination: An exploration of narrative elements of the text and hypertext of 'Song of Ice and Fire' by George R. R. Martin.
(NUST, Department of Communication, 2013) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
Fantasy novel as a sub-genre of children’s literature has crossed over to the adult world resulting in the rapid growth of adult fantasy fiction in the last ten years. George R.R. Martins’ A Song of Ice and Fire, consisting of five volumes at present, is one example of extremely popular adult fantasy fiction which has sold more than fifteen million copies all over the world. But what is more remarkable is that A Song of Ice and Fire has spawned a TV series called A Game of Thrones, as well as a comic book adaptation, a card game, a board game, a role playing game and two video games. In other words, A Song of Ice and Fire is available for consumption both as text and hypertext. My paper sets out to investigate the text and hypertext of A Song and Ice and Fire with a view to gaining a greater insight into the narrative elements common to both genres of text and hypertext, making use of Conceptual Blending theory which offers a general model of meaning construction in which a small set of partially compositional processes operate in analogy, metaphor, counterfactuals and many other semantic and pragmatic phenomena. In this theory, understanding meaning involves the construction of blended cognitive models that include some structure from the input models as well as emergent structures that arise through the process of blending
"How ya doin'?" Meta-pragmatic awareness in TV-serials: Friends (a case study).
(2009) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
That TV serials by nature consist of conversation is stating the obvious. Whether the serials are soapies (Dynasty, The Bold and the Beautiful, Dallas) or detective (CSI, Miami), drama in the courtroom (Boston Legal, The Practice), adventure (Lost) or plain and simple “slice of life" (Sex in the city, Desperate Housewives, Friends), all of them depend on two vital ingredients for their success. These two ingredients are the elements of suspense and conversational exchange. It is the plot with the element of suspense that moves the story forward, quite like the Victorian three decker novel which was serialized in magazines in the 19th century and disseminated amongst an agog, eager, hungry-for-information public. In the 21st century plot ensures that the TV audience returns week after week, episode after episode. The other element, conversation, keeps them glued to the TV set and the interplay of words amongst the characters not only furthers the action but also provides for various factors like humor, profound insight into human nature and a vicarious experience of the unknown. Any TV show's success is reflected by the number of seasons that it has run. “Friends”, a popular TV serial of the 90s ran for 10 seasons before it finally wrapped up after ten years. Part of the show’s success was because of the situational comedy in which the characters are trapped. But most of it was because of the lively verbal interaction amongst them. This paper examines the cultural assumptions that are inherent in and integral to an understanding of social behavior using “Friends” as a case study with a view to explicating that although the pragmatic conditions of communicative tasks are theoretically taken to be universal, the realization of these tasks as social practice is variable.
Inner landscapes: An examination of mind style and ambivalence in "The Poisoned Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver.
(2010) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
Set against the back drop of the Belgian Congo made famous by Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Barbara Kingsolver‟s The Poisonwood Bible depicts the trial and tribulation of a missionary's family and the inner lives of its five women protagonists who travel to Belgian Congo in the wake of the family patriarch, Mr. Price. By presenting the story through the narrative voices of Orleanna Price, the wife of the missionary and her four daughters, Kingsolver explores issues of "double colonisation" of women through colonial and post-colonial times. Western women traveling to Africa during colonization find themselves in a problematic position insofar as they consider themselves superior to the natives or colonized and yet are disempowered within Western patriarchy. In order to cope with the contradictory position in which they find themselves they employ different strategies for survival. The intersection of colonial and feminist discourses in the novel creates ambivalence which is the subject of this paper. Through my analysis of mind style, I hope to reveal the ambivalence in The Poisonwood Bible. I examine the language of the 5 narrators because each one of them has a unique and distinctive voice, thereby creating inner landscapes for each which are as divergent as they are varied. Through this analysis I would like to argue that a woman's position in the colonial and post-colonial world can only be ambivalent and since The Poisonwood Bible depicts this uncertainty, Barbara Kingsolver succeeds as a novelist.
An investigation into introduction of a post-graduate certificate in the Teaching of English in Namibia.
(2010) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
This paper proposes an online learning programme in English Language for professional development for education professionals particularly primary and secondary school teachers in Namibia. The paper is divided into two sections. The first section will deal with the context in which this course will be developed and offered, and the second section will discuss the pedagogic issues that surround the teaching and learning of an online programme particularly as related to the environment in which it will be offered.
Literature and the teaching of stylistics: An investigation into the pragmatics of community formation in the educational context of Namibia.
(David Publishing, 2012) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
The author’s paper is an attempt to investigate the success of the pedagogy of stylistics and pedagogical stylistics in the Namibian context. As an applied linguistics course, stylistics is eminently suitable for study and analysis of literature, because it clearly explicates literary effects through linguistic analysis. Many scholars have illustrated the use of stylistics analysis for the purposes of studying literature and teaching it, which is, pedagogical stylistics. However, this paper combines both the study of Stylistics as a discipline, which is the pedagogy of Stylistics, and the use of stylistics for teaching literature in general and poetry in particular. Namibia adopted English as its official language 22 years ago. Since then, both teachers and students have been struggling with the analysis of poetry. This study is an empirical one using qualitative methods in the author’s research to determine the impact of the study of Stylistics on the understanding and teaching of literature in Namibia. The author uses traditional British poetry from the 16th century up to the 20th century alongside postcolonial poetry to assess the importance of culture in understanding poetry and examine the advantage of using stylistics to teach the poems that the author selects. Keywords: pedagogy, pedagogical stylistics, foregrounding, parallelism, deviation, collocation, denotation, connotation, colligation
Pragmatic analysis of students' performance at the NUST.
(NUST, Department of English Communication., 2009) Krishnamurthy, Sarala; Ithindi, Elina; Brewis, Alexander; Eiseb, Juliet
Pragmatics has been described as the analysis of language taking into account the socio-cultural context in which it is used. In other words, it is the study of language of a particular region which reveals the influence of mother tongue and other cultural aspects. While pragmatic analysis can be done in many ways, this paper focuses on discussions that take place in the class room. Our subjects are students of the NUST who are expected to participate in classroom discussions as part of their formative assessment. This paper explores the relative success of classroom discussions according to the proficiency level of the students with a view to identifying and improving their interactions both in the classroom and in a societal setting.
Reflexive inquiry and reflective practice: Critical reflection and pedagogy in English language teaching.
(NUST, Department of Communication., 2007) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
There is an ongoing debate on learners’ poor performance in English at the NUST. The main challenge that the institution faces to train faculty is addressed by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) which has an Academic Support Unit in charge of organizing teacher training workshops, special lectures and several other activities. While some members of staff believe that it is impossible to mark a test without taking cognizance of the language in which it is written, others distinguish between form and content and choose to ignore the language component of a test. This discrepancy of thought has led to skewed results with students scoring brilliantly in their content subjects like Mathematics, Business Management courses, etc, and failing in English. The current state of affairs begs the question: what do we focus upon in our teacher training programs: is it on language or on content?
Representation of time: A stylistic analysis of real and surreal elements in Joseph Heller's "Catch 22".
(2009) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
Surrealism is a movement that derives from psychology and embraces widely disparate genres such as art and literature. It has been defined as pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express either verbally, in writing or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. In other words it is dictation of thoughts in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation; for example, as seen in dreams. According to Freud, dreams can be analysed through free association to bring to surface desires and longings suppressed in the subconscious and unconscious. The suppression of desires leads to neurosis. Surrealist painters absorbed the notion of idiosyncrasy in Freudian psychoanalysis while rejecting the underlying madness or darkness of the mind. Painters, such as Salvador Dali, are described as surreal because of the juxtaposition of the abstract and concrete in the form of disturbing and incongruous images in their paintings. This kind of depiction has come to be accepted as a characteristic style of surrealism. In literature, surreal writers have expressed a disdain for literal meanings given to objects and focused on the undertones, the poetic undercurrent that infuses their writing with an uncanny, eerie spirit. Surreal writers seldom organise the thoughts and images that they present and most people find it difficult to understand or analyse their writings.
Review of the book Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(NUST, Department of Communication, 2013) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
This article reviews the book entitled: "Americanah" written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013, published by Harper Collins.
Review of the book Between yesterday and tomorrow: Writings by Namibian women.
(NUST, Department of Communication., 2008) Krishnamurthy, Sarala
This article reviews the book "Between yesterday and tomorrow: Writings by Namibian women", edited by Elizabeth Ikhasas.
Review of the book Hakahana: Anthology of poetry by Hugh Ellis.
(NUST, Department of Communication, 2012) Krishnamurthy, Sarala

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