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Ananya Buragohain^1*     & Lakshminath Kagyung^{2    
1,2} Department of English, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. *Corresponding author.

 Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.10
[Article History: Received: 11 October 2023. Revised: 24 December 2023. Accepted: 25 December 2023. Published: 27 December 2023]
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Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the techniques and strategies used by African and Afro-American writers to disseminate a sense of Black interdependence and solidarity on a global level. It will examine how Black authors are unceasingly using a planned strategy in their literary works to encourage Black people to envision a sustainable future for themselves. We contend that Black authors and critics are incessantly using the literary medium to inspire Black audiences to self-heal themselves from the trauma associated with European colonization of Africa in the bygone days and this issue is yet to receive a noteworthy observation in the literary field. Hence, this paper will examine various dimensions associated with the Black literary genre to explore more about the philosophies and strategies imbibed by Black writers to encourage their people to self-heal from their past while comprehending the significance of mutual interconnectedness. The select works this paper seeks to study comparatively are Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart (2010), Alice Walker’s epistolary novel The Color Purple (2014), Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes’s fantasy fiction The Deep (2020), and Nnedi Okorafor’s science fiction Lagoon (2014). The frameworks used for this study are Postcolonialism, Africanfuturism, Afrofuturism, and African feminism which are treated as the vantage ground for this reading.

Keywords: Black solidarity, Gender, Racism, Interdependence, Sustainable future.

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Buragohain, A, & Kagyung, L. (2023). Exploring Black Writers’ Literary Strategies for Interdependence and Global Solidarity. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.10 

Aparajita Dutta Hazarika^1*  & Smita Devi^{2    
1,2} Department of English: Assam Don Bosco University, Assam. ^*Corresponding author.

 Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.12
[Article History: Received: 10 October 2023. Revised: 25 December 2023. Accepted: 26 December 2023. Published: 27 December 2023]
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Abstract

At a time when Gordimer was writing her short stories and novels which stretched over four decades beginning from the 1940s to the 1990s, several historical and political events were taking place in South Africa. Gordimer’s entire oeuvre of fiction was her way of responding to those historical and political events that unfolded in the country. Many writers and critics believed that the history of the Nationalist Government from 1948 onwards has been faithfully recorded by the novels of Nadine Gordimer and they “will provide the future historian with all the evidence required to evaluate the price that has been paid by the people”. (Green, 563) She published her first collection of short stories in 1949, a year after the first Nationalist Government was elected to power. Her body of work from 1949 to 2000 covers the entire period of apartheid in South Africa. Therefore, she was a writer with serious intent and meant to convey through her novels her rigid stand against apartheid. The term ‘apartheid’ means ‘apartness’, a policy meant to segregate people on the foundation of their race and colour. In The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places (1988), Gordimer noted that it was not the “problems” of her country that set her to writing; rather, it was learning to write that sent her “falling, falling through the surface of the South African way of life”. (Gordimer 1988, p. 272) This paper shall attempt to study how Gordimer constructs identity in her novel July’s People (1981). The paper posits that the most important theme in Gordimer’s novels has been identity, an issue that she has been dealing with since her childhood, due to her situation as the daughter of immigrant parents, and living and writing in South Africa at a time when her country was divided based on colour.

Keywords: apartheid, identity, politics, history

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Hazarika, A. D. & Devi, S. (2023). The Narrative Construction of National Identity in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.12 

Nihal Zainab¹    & H. Sofia^{2  
1,2} B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science & Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

 Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.11
[Article History: Received: 13 October 2023. Revised: 25 December 2023. Accepted: 26 December 2023. Published: 27 December 2023]
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Abstract

India is a country that is home to 1.4 billion people. These people are part of wide and intricate groups, communities, castes and tribes. While close to 91.4% of the Indian population has progressed into the colonial standard of civilization, according to the Census Report 2011, about 8.6% of people are still living in their original and natural way of life. These people are the tribes of India whose way of life has been romanticized as the ‘Indian Culture’. A section of tribal people continues to live in mountains, and forests and construct only mud houses or huts. They have little access to basic amenities like healthcare, education, electricity and water. While few tribes have moved out of their original ways of life by converting to other religions, certain tribes are still governed by their respective leaders, following the religions and customs that were taught to them centuries ago. It is at times difficult for the State Governments to reach the tribes since most of them resist any such advancements. European Colonization of India led to the discovery of several tribes that were until that point in time living in harmony with nature and forests. This paper will analyze through literature the pre-colonial and post-colonial lives of certain Indian tribes living in the mountains of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Keywords: tribes, trauma, assimilation, resistance, decolonization, Indian Culture.

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Zainab, N. & Sofia, H. (2023). Postcolonial Trauma in the Lives of Indian Tribes. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.11 

Nitisha Seoda¹  & Devendra Kumar Sharma^{2      
1,2} Department of English & MELs, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India

 Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.06
[Article History: Received: 11 October 2023. Revised: 26 December 2023. Accepted: 26 December 2023. Published: 27 December 2023]
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Abstract

This study situates itself in the literary representations of the interplay of gender, class, color, race, postcoloniality, power politics, violence, identity, and the African self in a Bildungsroman. It focuses on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus as a Bildungsroman of woman, written from a postcolonial outlook. The narrative centers on the growth, development, and experiences of the female Bildungsheld, Kambili, who eventually attains epiphany, and explores her true self and identity. In other words, the study follows an eclectic approach, which further focuses on Kambili’s odyssey of encountering freedom by tearing out the different challenges, and insecurities during the process of subjectivization, objectification, and interpellation towards her journey of becoming in a political context of a military coup in Nigeria. As a result, the article emphasizes the confluence of history and literature, as well as Africans’ experiences in the postcolonial world in general, and accounts for Kambili’s becoming in particular.

Keywords: Gender, Female Bildungsroman, Patriarchy, Postcolonialism, Self

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Seoda, N. & Sharma, D.K. (2023). Poetics of Self in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus:  A Postcolonial Bildungsroman Study. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.06

P. Sarojini    
Ph.D. Research Scholar in English, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem. Tamil Nadu. India.

Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.04
[Article History: Received: 12 October 2023. Revised: 20 December 2023. Accepted: 21 December 2023. Published: 26 December 2023]
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Abstract

Identity and identity crisis are crucial aspects of a person’s mental and physical well-being. Identity is what sets an individual apart from others in society. An identity crisis can cause a person to experience confusion and uncertainty at various stages of their life. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development is based on the ‘Epigenetic principle,’ which suggests that our environment and culture influence how we progress through the planned stages of personality development. Erikson’s eight stages describe how people develop emotionally and socially throughout their lifespan. In Isabel Allende’s novel, Daughter of Fortune, the protagonist Eliza Sommers undergoes an identity crisis. The paper focuses on this concept of identity and identity crisis and the mystery and troubled identity surrounding Eliza Sommers.

Keywords: Identity, Identity Crisis, Epigenetic Principle, Mystery, Erikson’s Theory.

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Sarojini, P. (2023). Identity versus Identity Crisis: An Analysis of Erikson’s Epigenetic Principle in Isabel Allende’s Daughter of Fortune. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.04 

M. Aarthi Priya  
PhD Research Scholar, PG & Research Department of English, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. 

Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.07
[Article History: Received: 12 October 2023. Revised: 20 December 2023. Accepted: 21 December 2023. Published: 25 December 2023]
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Abstract

Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, developed the idea of ‘learned optimism’ by embracing the idea that an optimistic outlook can be developed through learning. This article discusses the idea of learned optimism, its advantages, and how one may begin to transform their life and thinking. According to the analysis, optimistic personalities appear to have a greater success rate when it comes to reaching their intended goals, even when the pessimistic characters do amazing things in their lives. Both pessimists and optimists achieve things in their lives, but optimists are perceived as having accomplished more. Martin Seligman’s theory of learned optimism is analysed and contextualized in this paper, which aims to evaluate the optimistic and pessimistic personalities found in the characters in the selected short stories of C.S. Lakshmi. Seligman’s concept of learned optimism is well connected with the characters of Loki in “Once Again” and Anjana in “Trisanku”. The characters are also subjected to cognitive distortions of the three P’s: Personal, Pervasive and Permanent to develop themselves to be optimistic personalities through the concept of learned optimism. Seligman also proved that through learned optimism one can change from a pessimistic to an optimistic personality so that they can prevent themselves from depression and anxiety.

Keywords: Learned Optimism, Cognitive distortions, Three P’s, optimistic, pessimistic.

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Priya, M.A. (2023). Optimist vs Pessimist: Indulging and Contextualizing Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism in “Once Again” and “Trisanku” by C.S. Lakshmi. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.07 

Maria-Ana Tupan     
Alba Iulia University, Romania

Rupkatha Journal, Special Issue on Poetics of Self-construal in Postcolonial Literature, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.13
[Article History: Received: 15 November 2023. Revised: 10 December 2023. Accepted: 11 December 2023. Published: 24 December 2023]
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Abstract

Rosi Braidotti’s theory of “nomadic subject” (2011) has shifted the focus from traveller in the literal sense of the word to subject as a process; becoming subject entails a denial of universals in the construction of identity which is redefined as situated embodiment in the world, open to the heteronormativity of changing social codes and accepted modes of living or of conceiving otherness. Nevertheless, travel has always been associated with an explicit ethos, whether as a pious pilgrimage, educational world tour or the grand narrative of civilizing mission. Located on various maps, real or imaginary, civilizations are brought into contact by the huge number of migrants, the problems they raise including the relationship between third worlds and metropolitan cities/ countries, the migrants’ othering by mainstream populations, the migrants’ desire to be naturalised and the estrangement from their true selves as a result. By building simulation models, speculative fiction probes deeply into underground concerns which well up to the surface in postcolonial literature, being expected to produce cognitive enlightenment. Relieved from the material deprivations of the colonial past, the postcolonial subject is now caught in the process of identitarian reconstruction.

Keywords: self-construal, deconstruction of presence, world-building,  cultural narratives, multiculturalism.

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Tupan, M. (2023). Troping Identity in Arkady Martine’s Space Opera: From Historical Realism to Quantum Anthropomorphization. Rupkatha Journal 15:5. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n5.13