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Devika Panikar

Devika Panikar
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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 under this directorate and is now posted at the Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. This website is a collection of lecture notes she prepared by referencing various sources for her students’ perusal. It has been compiled here for the sake of future generations.

Writing a Memo

A memo (also known as a memorandum, or reminder) is used for internal communications regarding procedures or official business within an organization. Unlike an email, a memo is a message sent to a la...

The Subaltern Speaks

In post-colonial theory, the word ‘subaltern’ is used to refer to a member of any group who faces oppression due to caste or gender or race. In her seminal essay, Can the Subaltern Speak?, Gayathri Ch...

Critical Pedagogy in the Classroom

Correcting students need not amount to the banking method of education. Rather, teachers should call on students to contribute their experiences so that teachers can critically engage with students’ i...

A Critique of Gender Discrimination

Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session is a critique of gender discrimination in patriarchy and the women’s fight against the injustice done to her. He represents the problems faced by ind...

Ritusamhara

Kalidasa’s Ritusamhara is an ode to Nature’s bounty and its enduring emotional response to humanity. The word Ritu (season) with the word saṃhāra is used here in the sense of “coming together” or “gro...

Sophoclean Drama

Sophocles was an ancient Greek playwright and the second of the 3 greatest Greek writers of tragedy with Aeschylus and Euripides. He is known best for what he wrote about Oedipus, the mythological fig...

From Critical Theory to Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy (CP) emanated from Critical Theory (CT) which was developed by the philosophers and theorists of the 1923 Frankfurt School of Thought like Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, and Her...

Dante Divine

Dante Alighieri was a Medieval Italian poet and philosopher whose poetic trilogy, the Divine Comedy, made an indelible impression on both literature and theology. He was one of the most learned Italia...

Bringing Classroom and Society Together

Critical pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that invites educators to encourage students to critique structures of power and oppression. It is rooted in critical theory, which involves becoming aware o...

Universal Grammar

Universal Grammar Theory states that all children are born with an innate ability to acquire, develop, and understand language. While different languages may have different kinds of grammar, humans ha...