Art Spiegelman is an American cartoonist, editor, and graphic novelist, best known for transforming comics into a serious literary and historical medium. He is most famous for his graphic novel Maus, published in two volumes (1986 & 1991). It tells the story of his father, a Holocaust survivor. Jews are depicted as mice, Nazis as cats, and other groups as different animals.
Art Spiegelman, American author and illustrator was born on February 15, 1948.
Came across this reference while reading the article ‘Shrinking space for Books’ by Sandip Roy in today’s The Hindu Literary Review Sunday Magazine. To quote part where the reference occurs in the article -
“But just as I was despairing about being a writer in this age of decline of books, I stumbled upon the Instagram account of a woman in a small town in Bengal. Like many Instagrammers, Pujarini Pradhan (@lifeofpujaa) chronicles her daily life — cooking on a clay stove, chopping vegetables on a curved bonti, washing clothes three times a day. And she speaks in English so that her small-town neighbours don’t know what she is talking about. She says no one can shame her about her accent either. In a state where culture remains Kolkata-centric, she is a breath of fresh air. And she talks about books”
You may follow her at https://www.instagram.com/lifeofpujaa
Phenomenal Woman is a poem by Maya Angelou
The poem celebrates the body, mind and identity of being a women.
The speaker is proud of who she is and says it confidently: “Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”
The poem teaches that self-confidence is more important than physical beauty.
The woman in the poem does not follow society’s beauty rules but still feels powerful.
True beauty comes from inner strength, not from appearance.
The speaker celebrates her body and personality without shame.
The poem gives a strong message of women’s empowerment.
The confident tone of the poem makes readers feel positive and inspired.
The poem encourages women to accept and love themselves.
The message of confidence and self-respect is meaningful for both women and men.
The poem reminds readers that being different is a source of strength, not weakness.
It was a hot summer day.
The poet went to fetch some water from the trough.
A snake came there to drink water.
The poet was excited to see the snake.
His logical / rational mind told him to kill to the snake.
He couldn't kill the snake because he was afraid and he was a coward.
After drinking water, the snake disappeared into a hole in the wall.
The poet threw a wooden stick at the snake and felt bad about his action.
The poem tells us that we should appreciate nature and all the creatures on the planet.
The poem is also about the rational / logical vs the emotional/ creative side of the brain.
The poem The Road Not Taken is written by Robert Frost.
He is an American poet.
It is about choices in life.
The road stands for our life journey, and the two roads show different choices.
The speaker must choose only one road, just like we must choose one path in life.
Making decisions is difficult because we do not know the future.
Once a choice is made, we cannot go back.
This may either cause doubt or regret.
The poem says that choosing a less travelled path can make life special.
It teaches us to be brave and confident about our decisions.
In the end, the poem reminds us that our choices shape our life, and we must accept them.
Pride is a poem by Dahlia Ravikovitch
She is an Israeli poet, and the poem is written in Hebrew
The poem discusses mental health, emotional vulnerability
Rocks stand for people who look strong but are weak inside.
Like cracks in rocks, people hide their emotional pain.
The poet says we should accept our feelings instead of hiding them.
The breaking rocks show the difference between outer strength and
inner weakness.
The poem shows people trying to stay strong despite pain.
Ignoring emotions can cause serious emotional breakdowns.
The title “Pride” shows that pretending to be strong is harmful and accepting weakness is important.
Frank R Stockton is the author of the short story – The Lady or the Tiger
The story is about a semi-barbaric king who has a strange idea of justice.
He believes in public trials held in a special arena to entertain the people.
The king has a beautiful daughter whom he loves very much.
The princess falls in love with a young man who works in the king’s court.
The young man is an ordinary person, and the king does not approve of the relationship.
When the king learns about their love, he becomes very angry.
He decides to punish the young man using his system of justice.
The lover is asked to choose between two doors in the arena.
Behind one door is a lady whom he must marry, and behind the other is a tiger that will kill him.
The princess knows what is behind each door.
She must decide which door to point to.
The story ends without telling us her choice, leaving readers to decide the ending.
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| https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/call-taxi-driver-honoured-for-honesty/article6697075.ece |
The Taxi Driver is a short story by K. S. Duggal.
It is about Dittu, an honest taxi driver who lives in poverty after the Partition.
Because of his past experience, he is very careful about money that is not his.
One evening, he finds a wallet left behind in his taxi.
Instead of feeling happy, Dittu feels worried and guilty.
His wife, Banti, wants to use the money to support their poor family and their son, Gullu.
This difference in thinking causes conflict between them.
Dittu’s guilt shows in the form of fear and bad dreams.
In anger, he hits his wife and later feels ashamed.
Banti silently accepts both the money and the violence.
The story shows how poverty affects moral values.
It talks about honesty, hard work, displacement, and survival.
The writer leaves it to the readers to decide what is right or wrong.
The writings of Kenzaburō Ōe (pronounced OH-ay) provide an important foundation for what is now known as Vulnerability Studies, an interdisciplinary field that views fragility, dependence, and exposure as essential aspects of human life rather than as weaknesses. Long before such ideas entered academic discussion, Ōe placed vulnerability at the centre of his moral and literary vision. A turning point in Ōe’s life and work came with the birth of his son, Hikari, who was born with a severe brain injury. Ōe later reflected that he was “trained as a writer and as a human being by the birth of my son.” This experience challenged the common belief that human beings should be independent and self-sufficient. Instead, it made him recognise a life shaped by care, responsibility, and close human connection. This understanding closely aligns with the central ideas of Vulnerability Studies, which emphasise that human beings are relational and morally shaped by their responsibilities toward others. In many of Ōe’s works, fathers caring for disabled sons appear repeatedly. These stories do not treat disability as something to be corrected or overcome. Rather, vulnerability is presented as a lasting condition that reshapes values and priorities. In Ōe’s fiction, the disabled child is not important because of future success or exceptional ability, but because the child’s presence calls for patience, attention, and ethical commitment. Through these narratives, Ōe questions social ideas that equate human worth with strength, efficiency, or achievement. In doing so, his work strongly echoes the core belief of Vulnerability Studies: that care, dependence, and shared responsibility are central to what it means to be human.
Reference
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/24/kenzaburo-oe-obituary
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/books/kenzaburo-oe-dead.html
