Every year at the onset of the month of October, the scientific community eagerly waits for the highest prizes in sciences, the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was announced on October 07, to be awarded to Louise Gluck for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal. She is the fourth woman to win the prize for Literature since 2010, and only the 16th since the Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. A total of 113 Nobel prizes in Literature have been awarded so far since 1901.
The Society for Promotion of Science of Science & Technology in India (SPSTI), in association with the Chandigarh chapter of the National Academy of Sciences, India conducted an online awareness lecture on the above topic on Tuesday, November 17, 2020, at 3:00 PM. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Pushpinder Syal, Department of English & Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. This was the third in the series of lectures on Nobel Prizes, 2020. The lecture was attended by 48 on the zoom window and 1800 reached on Facebook page of SPSTI.
Prof. Arun K. Grover, Former Vice Chancellor of Panjab University and Vice President of SPSTI spoke about the series of expository lectures covering each of the 2020 Nobel prizes, scheduled to be delivered by Dec. 10, when the prizes will be awarded. Prof. Keya Dharamvir, General Secretary of SPSTI, introduced the speaker. Prof. Suman Beri from Panjab University and a member of SPSTI, conducted the program.
Prof. Pushpinder Syal dwelled on the writings of Louise Gluck not only limited to her poems but also the essays written by her. Her poems revolve around the themes of childhood, family relationships, which were deep and conflicted, nature, mortality, loss and mythology. One can discern mystic strains in her poetry but she has been described as an unromantic poet and romance is something she tries to be free of. She talked about how the Nobel laureate has talked about the voices of nature, flowers, God in her poems in a very different way, unlike other poets, having a range of contexts, with being bleak and depressing in her themes, and not being afraid of truth and dark that may get revealed during the exploration.
The session followed with questions and discussions relating to the writings of recent poets being not included in the course books. The concluding remarks were made by Mr. Vivek Atray, ex-IAS officer and author who talked about bringing young and talented minds to such for a so as to be encouraged and we can come up with better quality of literature. Shri Dharam Vir, IAS (Retd.) & President SPSTI, paid a vote of thanks to the speaker as well as the audience.
SPSTI has scheduled four more lectures in the Nobel series for the general audience: November 21 (Economics), November 28 (Physics), December 05 (another perspective on Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and December 08 (Peace). The details of the upcoming lectures can be found at www.spsti.org.