Devika Panikar
δάσκαλος (dáskalos) means the teacher in Greek. Devika Panikar has been teaching English Language and Literature since 2006. She is an Assistant Professor with the Directorate of Collegiate Education under the Government of Kerala. She teaches at the Government Colleges coming under this directorate and is now posted at the Department of English, Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram. This website is a collection of the lecture notes that she prepared by referring to various sources, for her students’ perusal. It has been compiled here for the sake of future generations.
The Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a genre that blends elements of both comedy and tragedy. Most often seen in dramatic literature, it can be a tragedy with a happy ending or a tragedy with enough comic relief that the...
The Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that is intended to incite laughter and amusement, especially in theatre, television, radio, books, film, stand-up comedy or any other entertainment medium. It dates bac...
Exploration into Individuality
Well-known in her native Poland, Maria Wislawa Anna Szymborska received international recognition when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. In awarding the prize, the Academy praised her ...
Confusing Contronyms
Many people -native speakers and learners alike -decry English as being illogical. But some other words are just as frustrating: Contronyms. It is a word that is its opposite -like 'fast', which can r...
From Transience to Permanence
Rabindranath Tagore’s Chitra is a drama on the theme of true love. This lyrical play is a work of supreme art that has immense use of symbols and poetical language. Tagore is known for his aesthetic a...
The Present Tense
In the English language, verb tenses indicate whether an event is from the past, present, or future. There are 12 verb tenses in the English language:Present Simple
Present Cont...
A Dog has Died
A Dog has Died by Pablo Neruda is a heart-wrenching eulogy for the poet’s much-loved, deceased dog that also explores the dog’s personality and interactions with the speaker. It was written in Spanish...
Introduction to Tenses
In modern linguistic theory, tense is understood as a category that grammaticalizes time reference; namely, one which, places a state or action in time. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of spe...
ICT in ELT
English is one of the most important languages which have played a significant role in the process of globalization and knowledge explosion. It is the most common means of communication throughout the...
Fire on the Mountain
Anita Desai has added a new dimension to Indian fiction in English by writing a novel like Fire on the Mountain, which probes deep into the bottomless pit of the human psyche and brings the hidden con...