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Eyes Everywhere: Ecological Migration and State Surveillance in the Age of Iron Man

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205 views

Thejas Gigy Thomas1 & Dr. Prasantha Kumar N.S.2

Research Scholar, Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Tamil Nadu, India. Email: thejasgt@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0002-5603-9057. Corresponding author.

Assistant Professor (Senior), Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore – 632014, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: prasanthkumarns@vit.ac.in. ORCID: 0000-0002-7907-2423

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.05

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Abstract

In today’s society, migrants/citizens are monitored and exploited. A comprehension of the complexity of surveillance and resistance to it is crucial to guarantee a more democratic community. Disciplinary societies (in the Foucauldian context) have moved beyond the panopticon’s ecologies. Today’s monitoring is reterritorialized. Surveillance, enabled by digitalization, can adapt to any room today, but with the constant change in spaces, simply monitoring human actions would be inadequate. It is necessary to monitor both behavior and geographical place. Surveillance is also increasingly being marketed. Products are now being sold on the basis of people’s private lives. This dual aspect of surveillance connected to “safety” and “company” is well suited to the neo-liberal agenda. But monitoring also needs the supervised to participate. The States and MNCs are in a challenging situation if and when the monitored resist surveillance. Efforts are still being made by the state and its technology to properly monitor ecological migrations. This study claims that it is ecological and migration surveillance that makes Iron Man a strong avenger. Yet there are several cases in which his surveillance is inefficient through the cinematic narrative. For those already oppressed and who resist surveillance, the study would investigate these moments as flashes of optimism. This study also attempts to enunciate some of the aspects derived from works by theoreticians like Gary Marx and David Lyon. With the collective will of surveillance, unethical monitoring of ecologies and migrations imposed on us, it can be resisted to a good extent.

 Keywords: Ecology, surveillance, migration, marvel, neoliberalism, iron man.

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A Study on Petromodernity, the Socio-cultural Implications of Oil and the Disintegration of Human Behaviour in James Howard Kunstler’s World Made by Hand

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285 views

Rajan R.1& Dr. K. Sujatha 2

1Guest Lecturer & PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, Bharathiar University Arts and Science College. Tamil Nadu. India. E-mail: rajanisverybusy@gmail.com.  ORCID: 0000-0002-4829-7355. Corresponding author.

2Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, Emerald Heights College for Women, Ooty. Tamil Nadu. India.

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.04

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Abstract

The Postcolonial theorist Dipesh Chakravarthy in his article “The Climate of History: Four Theses” (2009) states, “The mansions of modern freedom stands on the ever- expanding base of fossil fuel use’’ (208). In the present time human beings are accustomed towards high energy intensive lifestyle which is largely fuelled by the Fossil Fuels and modern ‘itions’ such as Industrialization, Globalization and all other entities that have made fossil fuels cheap and easily accessible. The research paper gives a brief introduction to the genre Energy Humanities.  The paper delineates on how the non-availability of fossil fuels plays a major role in the breakdown of the society as well as explores the behavioural changes experienced among individuals in the post-oil world.  The novel chosen for the research discourse is World Made by Hand a speculative fiction written by James Howard Kunstler who portrays a dreadful society which functions in the absence of oil. The research also sheds light on how Energy resources act as equilibrium between individual and society.

 Key words

Energy Humanities, industrialization, globalization, accessibility, discourse

Globalisation, the Forgotten Phase: Some Personal Reflections

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175 views

Thakur S Powdyel

Former Minister of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan, Thimphu. Email: powdyel@gmail.com)

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.02

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Preamble

This paper is built on the premise that there have been at least two waves of globalisation – sublime globalisation of the earliest times that was truly an expression of global minds, and the modern material globalisation that represents a largely reductive, economic obsession that characterises today’s brand of globalisation. The paper begins by looking at the advent of globalisation in a little Bhutanese village, discusses globalisation as it is understood today and makes an attempt to distinguish the two waves of globalisation with the help of some examples. The paper concludes with a vision of a time when the world attains a sense of true globalisation.

Music as a Universal Bond and Bridge Between the Physical and the Divine: Transcultural and Medieval Perspectives

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Albrecht Classen

University Distinguished Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of German Studies, University of Arizona. Email: aclassen@arizona.edu

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.01

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 Abstract

This article accepts the challenge to reflect on the cultural history of music as a transcultural and universally human phenomenon, particularly in the medieval context. To what extent has music played the same or at least similar function in endless cultural contexts all over the world from the past to the present? We know for sure that music has always been present at all age groups, in all ethnic groups, among all genders, and throughout time. There have always been local, ethnic types of music (folklore), and universally accepted manifestations of music (esp. classical music). The emphasis here rests, after an extensive study of music in global cultural-historical terms, on comments about music in medieval philosophy, mysticism, and literature because here we discover fundamental notions about music being the medium to connect the individual with the cosmic harmony, hence with the divine. In literary texts, above all, music was identified as the critical expression of identity, love, and religion.

Keywords: Transcultural music; classic music; music in cultural-historical terms; The Beatles; Martianus Capella; Boethius; Gottfried von Strassburg; Jörg Wickram; Hermann Hesse

The Resonance of Music Across Cultures

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567 views

Rolf J. Goebel, Ph.D.

Distinguished Prof. of German, Emeritus, University of Alabama in Huntsville. Email: Goebelr@uah.edu

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.00

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Abstract

What predestines music to be able to transgress geo-cultural boundaries? I argue that music’s sensuous, bodily-affective immediacy requires a mode of cross-cultural translation via what I call auditory resonance—the spontaneous attunement of listeners with the sonic presence of music through media-technological transmission despite vestiges of cultural colonialism and other sociopolitical barriers. I trace such resonance effects from German Romanticism through our global present, focusing especially on the conversations between two Japanese cultural figures, the conductor Seiji Ozawa and the novelist Haruki Murakami. These texts show that the category of auditory resonance is more suitable for addressing European music’s global significance than its traditional claims to transcultural universality.

Keywords: Music, resonance, immediacy, presence, media technologies, cultural translation, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Walter Benjamin, Seiji Ozawa, Haruki Murakami

Critiquing Child characters as Heroes, Villains, and Victims in Ru Freeman’s On Sal Mal Lane

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Sneha Choudhary1, Priyanka Chaudhary2

1Department of Languages, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. csneha46@gmail.com

2 Professor, Department of Languages, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. priyanka.chaudhary@jaipur.manipal.edu

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.54

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Abstract

Social behaviour and filial background define the formation and development of a character that is bound by cultural influence in South Asian fiction. Ru Freeman weaves numerous characters and their stories in a single lane as a synecdoche of Sri Lankan history. On Sal Mal Lane (2014) showcases the different social groups defining Sri Lankan conflict in the 1980s with the presence of child characters who are unaware of the extent of the ethnic conflict swirling in the background of the narrative. This paper tries to define the concepts of heroes, villains, and victims through the socio-emotional development of the characters to determine the contradiction between their intentions and subsequent actions. The study uses Character Theory and elements of Affect Control Theory for critical analysis. The paper analyses the change in personality traits of child characters in response to the violence wrought by Sri Lankan ethnic prejudices and the extent of destructive development from the unstable familial and societal environments.

Keywords: Character Theory, On Sal Mal Lane, Socio-emotional Development, Sri Lankan ethnic war, Affect Control Theory, Child characters

The ten kinds of conditionals and Chrysippus’ criterion

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160 views

Miguel López-Astorga

Institute of Humanistic Studies “Juan Ignacio Molina”, University of Talca, Talca Campus (Chile). ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6004-0587. Email address: milopez@utalca.cl

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.52

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Abstract:

The theory of mental models proposed ten possible interpretations for the conditional. In particular, Johnson-Laird and Byrne provided those interpretations in 2002. On the other hand, in ancient times, Chrysippus of Soli claimed that conditionals have to fulfill a requirement: the negation of their consequents must be inconsistent with their antecedents. This paper considers the ten interpretations of the conditional the theory of mental models indicates as ten different kinds of conditionals. Thus, it analyzes those ten types from Chrysippus’ requirement. The results show that the ten kinds of conditionals that can be derived from the theses of the theory of mental models follow the criterion given by Chrysippus. Accordingly, it can be thought that the criterion refers to an essential characteristic of the conditional.

Keywords: Chrysippus’ criterion, conditional, possibility, state-description, theory of mental models

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Spatializing the Musicking Of an Expressive Urban Imagination: A Trans-Cultural Evaluation of the Early-Modern Rock Music of Bengal

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229 views

Shankhadeep Chattopadhyay

Research Scholar, Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India, shankhamanu@gmail.com, ORCID id – 000-0003-4678-3031.

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.51

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Abstract

The technological reproduction of the imaginary has always reflected a polarization in urban consciousness, considering the city as the urban ‘body’—which retains a space for contemporary imaginations. Rock music of the American 60s radiates exactly such urban consciousness by constantly experimenting with lyrics, sounds, images and celebrations, which continually harmonize with the changing industrial and technocratic city structures. This paper explores a progressive cultural synthesis between the American and the early-modern rock music of Bengal. The city of Kolkata in West Bengal has always been repleted with a vibrant ‘representational space’ with a high rate of western-music consumption since the late 1970s, thus reflecting western urban ethos into the Indian urban imagination through modern Bengali rock music. Lefebvre (1974) suggests that the potential for genuine social change is possible only through the city as practised rather than the city as planned; on this note, this paper analyzes how the Indian urban imagination negotiated with the everyday urban experience of distant musical and cultural behaviours through ‘musicking’ by producing a musically reflective space where thought, feelings and different moods are crafted and performed. Further, how, in the age of technical reproduction, rock music produces a ‘counter-space’ by projecting urban ethos, which acts as an exegetic tool for the symptomatic reading of any expressive culture, and makes the city claim its spatial identity.

Keywords: representational space, counterculture, rock music, urban ethos, musicking.

Direct, Indirect and Conditional Indirect Effects of Communication and Career Anxiety on Perceived Stress during Interviews in University Students – A PLS SEM Model

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Irum Alvi

Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan. ORCID: 0000-0001-9509-6225. Email:  ialvi@rtu.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.50

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Abstract

By exploring the connections between communication and career anxiety and perceived stress, the current study contributes to a more nuanced appreciation of the university students’ emotional and psychological frame of mind during interviews. The study evaluates the direct, indirect and conditional indirect effect of CA on perceived stress PS during interviews. The study also presents a complex research model, based on Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (2007) model where the independent variable CA has a moderating effect on FCA, which is the mediator. The model is validated using empirical data, sample size 177 with 124 males (70.1%), and 53 (29.9%) females, with PLS-SEM using Smart PLS 3 (3.2.9). To test the hypotheses formulated, two tests were conducted using the same sample; the first one verified the direct and mediating hypotheses, the next verified the moderated mediation hypothesis. The results indicate CA affects PS. Secondly, FCA mediates the effect of CA on PS. Moreover, the study confirms the effect of moderation as CA moderates the effect of FCA on PS, such that the relationship between FCA and PS is weaker when CA is small compared to when it’s high, however at very higher level the effect is seen to dampen and weaker. The implications are discussed.

Keywords: emotional and psychological experiences, moderated mediation, PLS SEM, anxiety and stress.

Empire Style as a Model of the Embodiment of Patriarchal and Orthodox Ideas in European Culture and Music of the Restoration Era

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199 views

Olha V. Muravska

Department of Theoretical and Applied Culture, Odessa National A.V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music, Odesa, Ukraine. ORCID: 0000-0002-8840-3853.

E-mail: muravska5907@tanu.pro

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.49

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Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the qualities of Napoleonic and Alexanderian empire as a “style of empire” and their manifestation in the musical and historical tradition of France and Russia in the first half of the XIX century. The typology of this style is directly associated with the essence of the concept of “empire” as a universal state, pursuing the goals of world domination or leadership and possessing a kind of cultural civilizational mission. For the French absolutism of the New Age and its imperial “hypostasis” in the XIX century, the emphasis on the enlightening and civilizing mission is indicative, while in the history of the Russian Empire, throughout all stages of its existence, the spiritual-messianic idea of understanding Russia as a guardian has been consistently upheld (as “Third Rome”) Orthodoxy inherited from Byzantium. The musical “signs” of the empire became those genre spheres in which the scale of design and ideas were combined with reliance on typical, universally significant means of musical expression, the genesis of which often goes back to the spiritual and religious tradition. The empirical qualities of French musical culture are considered in the example of the poetry of the musical theater of G. Spontini, summarizing the cultural and historical realities of France of the era of the first empire, while the choral polonaises of O. Kozlovsky, which absorbed the sacred genesis and typology of edging, anthem and polonaise, become a sign-symbol of the Alexanderian Empire and its associated imperial court culture.

 Keywords: empire “signs”, Empire style, polonaise, musical theater, Russian culture.

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