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Trauma, Body Movement and Mental Health: An Appreciation of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

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Joyanta Dangar

Assistant Professor of English, M. U. C. Women’s College, West Bengal, India ORCID: 0000-0003-2246-7712, Email: joyengsimlapal@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.07

 Abstract

This article is intended to create an interdisciplinary space to enable productive dialogue about bodily representation of psychological trauma and its meanings in artistic, literary, visual, and health discourses, with reference to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Drawing on Pat Ogden and her colleagues’ somatic approach to trauma therapy and on Bessel A. van der Kolk’s hypothesis that traumatic experiences of the past manifest in physiological states and actions of the present, the article views postures and body movements of the characters in the play as symptoms of psychological trauma. It shows how the play offers unique insights into the trauma pathology of postwar Europe, which may be valuable to psychiatrists, psychotherapists, rehabilitation workers, victim advocates, and students and interns entering the fields of mental health and trauma treatment.

Keywords: chronic abuse, collapse, foetal posture, “robopathology,” trauma dance

Reconsidering Autistic Narrative Agency and the Autobiography: The Curious Case of Tito Mukhopadhyay’s Beyond the Silence: My Life, the world and Autism

339 views

Shibashish Purkayastha

PhD Research Scholar (English), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India. Email: shibashish.purkayastha@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.06

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper will be to investigate whether in narrativizing the subtleties of shame and stigma into the form of a coherent autobiography, the autistic autobiographer, Tito Mukhopadhyay, intentionally or unwittingly, explores different avenues regarding the types of autobiographical accounts, which causes us to re-imagine our understandings of autism and numerous other forms of cognitive impairment, and move past excessively deterministic and essentialist/normalizing biomedical discourses of cure and care. The study shall work within theories of postcolonialism, phenomenology, narrative theory, trauma studies and life writing studies. A literature review based on the extant scholarship in the field of life writing studies, health humanities and other disciplines has been conducted and after the identification of the research gap, this study chiefly seeks to purport that the lived experience of autism can be at variance with the prevalent biomedical and neurological understanding of this condition. By taking into cognizance the various material realities of the patients as evinced in their autie-biographies, I maintain that this information can come to the aid of medical practitioners, psychologists and psychoanalysts in considering the subjective dimensions of experience of autism apart from the monolithic and monolingual truth as evidenced by a scientific enquiry of autism spectrum disorder. This also suggests some appropriate conversation starters about the crossing points between a debilitating condition and the act of composing one’s life narrative with such a debilitating condition.

Keywords: autobiography, trauma, agency, narrative, autism, stigma

Metaphor and Melancholy Consciousness: Enduring Efficacy and Universal Common in Obiora Udechukwu’s Eight Paintings

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269 views


Chukwuemeka Okpara1, Emeka Aniago2 & Tochukwu Felicia Okpara3

1Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Fine & Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

2Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

ORCID id 0000-0003-3194-1463. Email Id: emekaaniago@gmail.com

3Lecturer, Dept. of Fine & Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.05

 Abstract

This paper analytically discusses the efficacy of Obiora Udechukwu’s eight paintings particularly their commonality in projecting humanity universal common, pervading melancholy consciousness, and their propensity to activate effectual catharsis. This paper also discusses how these eight paintings provide cognitive channels through which plausible interpretive attempt at psychoanalysis of Udechukwu in relation to the paintings can be attained. We are adopting interpretive approach in our attempt at coming up with plausible deductions and extrapolations of the embedded significations in the paintings. To deepen our purview on efficacy of these paintings as stimuli for emotion activation, we shall apply select theories explaining contexts of melancholy consciousness, effectual catharsis and cognitive channels of psychoanalysis in relation to paintings as texts. In the end, our interpretations indicate that Udechukwu’s techniques in these paintings create perpetual atmosphere subsuming consciousness of universally acknowledged debilitating agonies resulting from wars.

 Keywords: consciousness, efficacy, melancholy, metaphor, Obiora Udechukwu, painting

“Shadowy objects in the test tubes”: Biocitizenship, Disposable Bodies, and Wasted Lives in Hanif Kureishi’s “The Body” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

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Manali Karmakar 1 and Avishek Parui 2

1Assistant Professor of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, Chennai 600127. ORCID: 0000-0002-9256-6081. Email: manali.karmakar@vit.ac.in

2Assistant Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036. Associate Fellow, UK Higher Education Academy. ORCID: 0000-0001-8008-9241. Email: avishekparui@iitm.ac.in

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.04

 Abstract

The paper aims to explore Hanif Kureishi’s (2002) “The Body” and Kazuo Ishiguro’s (2005) Never Let Me Go in order to throw light on the bioethical issues related to ageing, biocitizenship, organ transplantation, wasted lives and disposable bodies by extending the discussion from a human to a dystopian posthuman world where affluent sections of society replenish their aged degenerating organic body by incorporating biomatter from non-citizens and clones. The paper draws on and extends Nikolas Rose and Carlos Novas’s concept of biocitizenship, Zygmunt Bauman’s notion of wasted lives, Giorgio Agamben’s explanation of bare life and Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection in the context of literary studies in order to analyze the socio-political status of the engineered lives who are classified as biomedical fodders.

Keywords: biocitizenship, organ transplantation, disposable bodies, wasted lives

The Struggle with Disease Taxonomy in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

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Jharna Choudhury

Ph.D. Scholar. Tezpur University, Assam, India. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0916-373. Email: jharnachoudhury123@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.03

 Abstract         

The root cause of the suffering of Yeong-hye denies all clear-cut medical nomenclatures in Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian. This paper discusses how heath institutions (in the context of the text) negate the aspects of cultural oppression, sexual trauma and power-play (referring to Michel Foucault) within the family structure while formulating a categorical taxonomy of a disease. In a constant struggle with anorexia, vegetal metamorphosis and parallel dream sequences, the cause-effect relationships in the illness of Yeong-hye and her sister In-hye defers end-significations with plurality. Bringing in Susan Bordo, the hierarchy of gender in the control over food choices is discussed in the light of etiology of Yeong-hye’s disease, its “whatness”, and how medical institutions define her clinical condition.

Keywords: Disease, Taxonomy, Han Kang, Gender, Health Institution

What Skills Should Be Taught in Health Humanities Education?

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247 views

Larry R. Churchill

Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics Emeritus, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. Email: larry.churchill@vumc.edu

 Volume 12, Number 6, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n6.01

 Abstract

This essay argues that those working and teaching in the new field of Health Humanities should avoid definitions of their work that borrow from existing disciplines and focus instead on three fundamental skills. A case study is provided to differentiate health humanities questions from those typically asked by bioethicists. Three skills are given detailed examination: empathic listening, involving the capacity to expand our imagination to others; emotional equanimity, involving the ability to understand and learn from our emotional responses; and the de-centering skills of taming our moral vanity and recognizing the full humanity of others. These are not the only skills in play in health humanities, but these three are basic and will lead to the other skills needed.

 Keywords: Health Humanities, education, skills, bioethics

M.O. Auezov and Musical Art of Kazakhstan in the Coordinates of the Global World

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240 views

Omarova A.1, Kaztuganova A.2, Sultanova A.3, Tatkenova S.4 & Kdyrniyazova Z.5

1Candidate of art History, Leader Research Fellow the Department “Musicology”, M. Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan. Email: omarova.aliaya@gmail.com

2Candidate of art History, Head of the Department “Musicology”, M. Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan

3Master of arts, Junior researcher of the Department “Musicology”, M. Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan

4Musicology and Composition, Department of Musicology and Composition, Kazakh National conservatory named after Kurmangazy, Kazakhstan

5Master of arts, teacher of the Kazakh specialized musical boarding school for gifted children named after Akhmet Zhubanov

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s24n5

 Abstract

The article discusses the patterns of national musical art in scientific, critical, and artistic interpretation of the classic of Kazakh literature M.O. Auezov (1897-1961). In this regard, the following aspects have been consistently presented and commented: 1. Fragments from his works on literary studies and publications in magazines and newspapers which focus on the traditions and genres of the musical and poetic heritage of the Kazakhs, significant names and events of opera and theater practice, assessments that reveal the principles of personal perception and interpretation; 2. “musical” pages of literary works of different periods and, above all, the famous novel-epopee, aitys as one of the traditional types of folk theater creativity and the object of recreation in the works of M.O. Auezov-the playwright; 3. multi-genre opuses of composers of Kazakhstan, created as a result of the impact of the plots and texts or dedicated to his memory. The principles of interdisciplinary researches are involved, which enabled the identification of a new level of understanding of the chosen topic, which can be productive in view of practical implementation, subsequent reflection and development in methodological aspect, and active transfer in the educational environment. The obtained and formulated results are significant in the context of the currently obvious interest in the historical past, rich traditions which are typical for the folklore and national professional sphere, figures that are generally significant for the culture of the nation.

Keywords: leitmotif, opera, libretto, composer, playwright, theater, premiere, score, text.

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

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309 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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345 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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275 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.

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