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A Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith

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250 views

Abdul Wadood Khan

Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Translation, College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ORCID : 0000-0003-1077-8361. Email: khanaw2003@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n7

 Abstract

The multicultural novels of Zadie Smith, though fiction, invite linguists’ attention because of the efforts she makes to achieve dialectal and social accuracy. While Smith’s On Beauty (2005) is celebrated for its use of American Black English Vernacular; White Teeth: A Novel (2001) is acclaimed for its use of Cockney, Jamaican Creole, and youth language in London. In this linguistic review of White Teeth, specific features of the characters’ dialects are compared with standard versions of English. The impact of these speech patterns on the larger narrative is discussed. This study focuses especially on verbal inflections in the variety of dialects appropriated in the novel. It reviews the relevant research in the field of linguistic inflections and partial derivations with a view to comparing and contrasting their significance. This paper also debates the efficacy of existing sociolinguistic tools vis-à-vis a linguistically challenging work like White Teeth. The study aims at facilitating a better understanding of the linguistic features in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and their literary use.

Keywords:  Dialect, speech inflections, White Teeth, Zadie Smith

Celebrating Female Desire in the Medieval Era: an Exegesis of the Erotic Verses from Jayadeva’s G?tagovinda

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299 views

Tirthendu Ganguly

Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University .  ORCID: 0000-0002-0957-5295. Email: tirthaforyou7@gmail.com,

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s29n4

Abstract

Discussing women’s sexual desire has long been perceived as a taboo in the East and the West as well. Undeniably, there is a stigma attached to it which, unfortunately, continues even today. However, surprisingly enough, the ancient and the medieval Indians had always been open to female sexuality before their philogynist culture was obliterated and replaced by the ‘zenana culture’ of the Mughals and the ‘Victorian morality’ of the British Raj. Even in the Medieval Era, which is often labelled as conservative and orthodox, people accepted female desire as a biological reality. Composed in twelve cantos, Jayadeva’s magnum opus, G?tagovinda, celebrates sexuality and candidly depicts female orgasm with sheer poetic acumen. Jayadeva has not only eradicated the stigma attached to it, but he has also delineated it from the aesthetical perspectives of the San?tana Dharma which makes it “a unique work in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaisnavism” (Miller, 1984). In this paper endeavours to analyze, assemble, and demonstrate how the poet has celebrated female psyche, female sexuality, and female orgasm in the 12th Century CE. The paper deals with the primary aspects of the book which are related to female mind and sexuality. Library method of research has been carried out to substantiate the claims that this research paper makes. As the book is originally composed in Sanskrit, the research paper contains many Indic names and words which are written in accordance with the International Alphabet for Sanskrit Translitearation (IAST) method.

Keywords: Jayadeva; Gitagovinda; female sexuality; female orgasm; female psyche.

An Existential Crutch?: Interrogating Women’s Silence in Select Plays of Mahesh Dattani

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222 views

Manisha Sinha

Ph.D. Research Scholar, Amity Institute of English Studies and Research, Amity University, Noida. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9205-533X. Email: manisha.s27@icloud.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s14n2

Abstract

Silence can stem from myriad stimuli, including but not limited to quietude, speechlessness, secretiveness or repression. The oppressed and marginalised women often resort to the ‘act’ of silence to survive in a patriarchal society. Indian playwright Mahesh Dattani has raised the social problem of misogyny in several of his plays. The women in these plays are neither timid nor shy. Yet, despite being quite vocal about various aspects, they keep parts of their lives buried in deep secrecy. Their selective silence also raises pertinent questions regarding gender-based power equations. Exploring the interconnection between patriarchy and silence in Mahesh Dattani’s Where Did I Leave My Purdah? and Final Solutions, this paper attempts to analyse as to whether silence of women in these plays is a manifestation of their agency or indirect patriarchal imposition.

Keywords: feminism, patriarchy, silence, partition literature, Indian drama.

Centering Bhasha (Indigenous Languages): An Ecolinguistics Perspective

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211 views

Ravi Bhushan

Associate Professor, Department of English, Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana, India; Email: rb.bpsmv@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s30n6

Abstract

The 21st February is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day to commemorate the sacrifice of Bangladeshis who struggled to keep their mother tongue (Bangla) alive. The day is also celebrated to mark respect for world’s indigenous languages (Bhasha), which are on the verge of decline and demise. Notwithstanding the fact that, increasingly, English has gained most of the linguistic ground world over, the tacit and now most vocal resistance to ‘English imperialism’ is witnessed in at least the third world countries like India and its neighbors. In fact, because of extraordinary intervention of ICT and virtual world promoters like social media, the question of English has come to be the Shakespearian question in Hamlet; “to be or not to be”. The moot point is, should we resign and accept English as fait accompali or to think of alternative ways to turn ‘English advantage’ to our side without denying the fact that indigenous languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. As far as English in multilingual, multicultural and multireligious context like that of India is concerned, one must remember that language is a cultural product and also the potent vehicle to transit culture. Language is not only the medium but also the creator of thoughts and truth. These functions of language are necessarily associated with one’s mother tongue as these are the markers of one’s identity. Indian philosopher of language Bharthari (570 AD) said that language constructs our world; jagat sarvein sabdein bhashatei (we take cognizance of the world through language). Therefore construction of meaning is at the centre of language use, which is manifested through literature resulting in gyan (knowledge) and anand (bliss), the twin objectives of literature obtainable through indigenous literature created in mother tongues. The dwindling ecological diversity and declining linguistic diversity are the two greatest challenges before the world in modern times. The following research article discusses why we should care for promoting linguistic diversity (Bhasha) and solutions thereof.

 Keywords: Language, Literature, Culture, Thought, Linguistic Diversity, Indigenity

Research Approaches «Memory Studies» In the Study of Reverse Socio-Cultural Processes in Modern Russian Society

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161 views

Tatiana V. Pushkareva1 & Darya V. Agaltsova2

1Candidate of Philosophy, Associate Professor of the Department of Visual communication Synergy University, Moscow, Russia. E-mail:  ap-bib@yandex.ru

2Candidate of Pedagogy, Associate Professor of English Language Training and Professional Communication Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: darya_agaltsova@mail.ru

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s29n3

Abstract

Reverse processes in the public socio-cultural life of modern Russia are associated with the revival of a number of contradictory past values: the Soviet society ideals (the social experiment of building socialism ended twenty years ago, and before that it lasted more than 70 years); religious Orthodox revival (focused on the values of pre-revolutionary Russia before 1917); the development of traditional folk culture (transferring the value horizon into pre-Christian Slavic culture). The purpose of the article is to show how historical memory “lives” in the collective consciousness of modern Russians, how the archaization processes of historical memory and memorial practices are implemented at various social levels – from individual families (family memory), lower social cells (the level of municipalities, local clubs, schools), to federal school textbooks and national holidays. And turning to the analysis of Russian reality through the approaches of “memory studies” can have serious heuristic potential.

Keywords: cultural memory, historical memory, archaic, tradition, Soviet past, Russia.

Inking the Identity: a Study of the Apatani Tradition of Tattooing through Bakhtinian Chronotope

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143 views

Shrestha Bharadwaj1 & Uttam Boruah2

1Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. ORCID: 0000-0002-0201-4452. Email: shresthabhardwaj112@gmail.com.

2Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. ORCID: 0000-0002-4862-1210. Email: uttamboruah2014@gmail.com.

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s29n1

Abstract

Known for their inked faces, the last generation of ‘tattooed’ Apatani women stands as a testimony of this obliterated tradition of tattooing the tribe practiced. Started as a mark of uglification, this practice later turned to be a cultural epitome. A symbol of beauty, it became the celebration of being a culture, a tradition, a strong woman and an Apatani. Outlawed in the 1970s, this tradition is today considered as grotesque and is now only a site of the exotic. The last practitioners of this heritage reside in desolation in the Ziro valley of Arunachal Pradesh, after which this endangered customary paragon goes into extinction. The present paper will try to analyze the tattooed Apatani octogenarian women as Bakhtinian Chronotope. Their spatial configuration will be examined along with the patterns of trauma and identity crisis. In this process Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque will also be analyzed taking into consideration the progressive Apatani frame of reference.

Keywords: Apatanis, Chronotope, Exotic, Grotesque, Tattoo, Trauma.

Towards Creating a Socially Sustainable Society amid COVID- 19 Pandemic: A Gandhian Perspective

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199 views

Neha Mishra1 & Anindya J Mishra2

1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. ORCID ID 0000-0001-8654-7581. Email- neha.mishra1293@gmail.com

2 Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India. Email- anindya.mishra@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s26n5

Abstract

The current coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a threat to the entire humanity. It has affected society at large and has created a lot of chaos and uncertainty in the world. This has created the need to restore and establish social sustainability in the society. Social sustainability is viewed as a process for creating successful places that promote people’s well-being by understanding people’s needs and wants. Here, Gandhi’s comprehensive vision for society can be related to the sustainable development approach and the social dynamics prevailing in the society amid the pandemic. As the three pillars of sustainable development- environmental, economic, and social- are interlinked, Gandhi’s ideas and principles of value-based approach and ethical living hold good in sustainable development discourse. However, though Gandhian principles and concepts have been often viewed in environmental sustainability, it is least analyzed and understood in terms of social sustainability. Therefore, the paper tries to fill this gap by focusing on building a social aspect of sustainability amid the pandemic through Gandhian perspective. This paper analyses social sustainability in terms of (a) social equity, (b) social well-being, and (c) participation by all. In this context, his idea of “Sarvodaya” is significant as it deals with social welfare, which holds importance in current pandemic days. Apart from “Sarvodaya,” Gandhi also developed an integrated view of the individual, society, and state by focusing on social harmony based upon the moral principles- love, truth, justice, and non-violence, which hold importance even today.

Keywords: Coronavirus pandemic, social sustainability, social equity, social well-being, Gandhian perspective

A Pandemic Circumscribing another Pandemic: The Covid 19 World of Disabled Women

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242 views

Gokul S

Research Scholar, Department of English Literature, the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, gokulloyola13@gmail.com, ORCID id: 0000-0001-8969-1570

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s26n1

Abstract

Accessibility and inclusion have always been a major impediment in the lives of the disabled. As a result, their lives have always been ontologically nebulous from the gaze of the outside world. Covid-19 has brought new norms of normalcy and extrapolating social behaviour such as social distancing. Such a regimented form of behaviour has ossified even further the problems of inclusion and accessibility. The upsurge of the pandemic has further complicated the forms of social behaviour and thereby adding more to the disability of an already disabled. This paper aims to analyze the problems of this new behavioural norm by the espousal of a centrifugal outlook and multilateral imagination keeping the disabled as the focal point of discussion. It also explains vis-a-vis Foucault’s idea of Bio politics, the ways new norm installs amongst people a different kind of solidarity based upon a common idea of vulnerability.

Keywords: Pandemic, Disabled, Women, Accessibility, Inclusion, Bio-politics.

Resonance of Existentialism on Pandemic literature: An Introspection of Pandemic Literature of the Past

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259 views

Nencepreet Kaur

Research Scholar, Department of English, UILAH,Chandigarh University, Punjab, ramanperry@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1589-9154

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s25n3

Abstract

Literature has always been impacted by the abject state of thought of humans existing in a particular time and era. A sense of meaning, or forging an explanation evinced within literature during the cataclysmic contemporary crisis of the pandemic, definitely resonates within the existentialistic paradigms. Not addressing the effects this humanitarian crisis has had on humans in literature is akin to being in a bubble of time and being immune to the devastation all around. The pandemic which is arguably one of the most horrific disasters of modern times has nearly irreversibly affected the outlook, imagination and thinking of humans. It will definitely have an irrefutable impact on the literary discourse of modern times. The interactions during a crisis of such proportions, the various texts, practices, the socio-economic and political repercussions have an indelible impact on the way the literature of that time is doled out as literature effectively represents the society and its sentiments in general. The essence of the present times is survival, with death gaping at all within close quarters and this is the root of an existential way of living which reflects in literature as well. This can be ascertained by introspecting pandemic literature of the past and the purpose of this paper is to analyze the resonance of existentialism in pandemic literature.

Keywords: Contemporary Crisis, Pandemic Literature, Existentialism.

The Film Life of Pi as a Multimedia Tool in English Language Classrooms of Engineering Colleges in Gujarat- An ESP Approach

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222 views

Barnali Chetia1 & Dharna Bhatt2

1Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Information Technology Vadodara. ORCID: 0000-0003-3243-2361.  Email: barnali@iiitvadodara.ac.in

2Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Information Technology Vadodara. ORCID: 0000-0001-9495-0346Email: dharnapandya@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s23n6

Abstract

 ESP advocates the designing of special courses instead of one multi-purpose course, to suit the needs of different courses of students. The curriculum of English as a course in Engineering Institutes differs from other disciplines in Arts, Commerce and Science colleges. Use of films as a multimedia tool and as an ESP approach in English classrooms of Engineering Institutes has become inevitable. For many students, films are their initial contact with English-speaking culture and a fun way to relax and also learn at the same time. The present study tries to examine the use of films as a multimedia tool in the English language classrooms of Engineering Institutes of Gujarat. The film Life of Pi by Ang Lee is considered as a major instrument for the present study. The study was conducted on a sample of 315 students pursuing their B.Tech in different Government Engineering colleges of Gujarat, India. The study was accomplished by using the survey and observation method. The survey questionnaire was used as a major instrument for the data collection of the study. The results suggests that Films as a teaching tool motivates student to learn English in second language classrooms and also helps them to understand and enhance their second language skills.

Keywords: ESP, Second Language Acquisition, Multimedia, Life of Pi

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