Admin

Negotiating Faith and Culture: De- Orientalising hegemonic representations of the ancient city of Banaras

236 views

Maya Vinai1 & Vinai Sankunni2

1 Assistant Professor, Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS-Pilani (Hyderabad Campus). ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5217-9645.  Email: mayavinai@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

2 Director, Support – Global Delivery Center, WPP Group of Companies, Kantar Operations

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.20

Received July 30, 2017; Revised September 05, 2017; Accepted September 15, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

Banaras has forever remained an enchanting place since millennia. If the colonial era pinned down, Banaras as an exotic site for theology and spirituality; the post-colonial era has witnessed the de-mystification process of legends and beliefs associated with Banaras. However, every time Banaras is bracketed, a new facet emerges. This paper presents two contesting visions of Banaras and also the argument that; there can be no absolute version of truth because such deliberations not just posit a conflict within the national imagination but also creates falsifications across borders. The universalized and monolithic understandings offered on Banaras from the elite metropolitan locations and through media have paved way for creation of certain stereotypes regarding Banaras in the public imagination. This in turn, has led to a shelving and obstruction to the multiple realities and unaccounted stories on Banaras. In this paper, to understand the hidden nuances of the cityscape of Banaras we have looked at Pankaj Mishra’s popular novel The Romantics along with a local boatman’s perspectives on aspects like choice of profession, their historic contribution to the city, presence of electric crematoriums, various development policies introduced by the government, and regular conflicts with the hegemonic groups to possess the ritual space.

Key words: Banaras, representation, hegemony, alternate narratives, counter establishment, boatmen, legends, modernity.

You might be interested in

Stereotyping India’s North East: Examining the “Paradise Unexplored” in Tourism Discourse

359 views

Somdev Banik

Department of English, Tripura University.

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2481-3861. Email somdev@tripurauniv.in

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.21

Received July 13, 2017; Revised September 11, 2017; Accepted September 15, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

India’s North East had been perceived for decades as a hotbed of insurgency, unrest, backwardness, and buffer against any Chinese aggression. Tourists from India and abroad had consciously avoided this region for years from the perspective of security. To counter this negative perception and promote the brand image of the region, Paradise Unexplored: India’s North East campaign has positioned it as the unspoilt idyll of India. But in doing so, it has constructed the North East as the “other” of India; by reinforcing the myth of difference and remoteness, it has transformed the North East into a living museum of India.  This paper attempts to study the construction of the North-East as an ‘unexplored Paradise’ by analyzing representation of the region in one of the most successful campaigns of Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Incredible India campaign. The campaign, while branding India as the transcendental, magical, mesmerizing wonderland, relegates the North-East to the ‘exotic/erotic Unspoilt Other’. Instead of bridging the gap between mainland India and the North East, which had subsisted for decades, it has reaffirmed the age-old perceptions that had been part of the dominant discourse about the region in India.

Keywords:  tourist gaze, representation, exoticization, semiotic analysis, misperceptions

You might be interested in

A New Samanya Laksana of Bhakti

223 views

Arjundeb Sensarma1 & Sudipta Munsi2

1 Assistant Professor, Indian Comparative Literature, Assam University, Silchar. Email: arjundebsensarma@gmail.com

2 Independent scholar of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. Kolkata. Email: sudiptamunsi1987@gmail.com

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.19

Received August 04, 2017; Revised September 10, 2017; Accepted September 15, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss a new definition of the word Bhakti, proposed by Sri Niraiijanasvarupa Brahmacdri, in his Bengali book, Advaitamatatimirabhaskara. This definition is interesting in the sense that it uses the Navya-Nydya terminology and style of formulating laksatia-s or definitions and also for the fact that it seeks to bring the various (apparently) different and conflicting definitions of bhakti into one fold. Besides, the author offers a new analysis of the term Eslvarapratiidhana, found in the Yogasutras of Pataiijali, in tune with this new definition and shows how the traditional interpretation cannot stand the test of reason.

Keywords: Advaitamatatimirabhaskara, Bhakti, Premalaksatia Bhakti, Navadha Bhakti, grrmadbhagavata, Madhusadana Sarasvatr, Ramanuja, Mvarapratiidhana

You might be interested in

Locating to ‘Erotica’ Themes in to Translation and Transcription of Palm-Leaf: Reading an Un-Known Odia Kama-sutra

903 views

Santosh Kumar Mallik

Assistant Professor in Dept. of History, Nayagarh Autonomous College (Utkal University), Nayagarh, Odisha, India. Email: santoshkumarmallik@gmail.com

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.18

Received July 29, 2017; Revised September 02, 2017; Accepted September 15, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstracts

This paper is entitled “Locating to ‘Erotica’ Themes in to Translation and Transcription of Palm-Leaf: Reading an Un-Known Odia ‘Kama-sutra”. The main aim of this essay is to see how translation intercedes in the emplacement of cultures. For my purpose, I shall take up an illustrated poetical composition of unknown/unpublished palm-leaf manuscript called ‘Chaushathi-Rati Bandha’ by the Odia poet Gopala Bhanja, and his translations/adaptations in particular that text regularized by a set of erotica theme and factors like erotica-literature in the form of vernacular or local “Kamasutra”.

Keywords: Erotic Fantasy, Illustrated Manuscript, Odia Literature, Medieval  Kings Court, Courtly Culture, Production of Pleasure product, Erotic Illustrated Manuscript

You might be interested in

Religion, Modernity, and the Nation: Postscripts of Malabar Migration

271 views

Ambili Anna Markose

Ph.D Candidate, Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hydrebad. Email: ambilianna@gmail.com

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.17

Received July 30, 2017; Revised September 01, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

This paper attempts to read the event of Malabar migration as articulated in the migrant writings. Arguably, the event and the representations – both individual and community narratives – are political documents which facilitate different discourses on minority politics in Kerala/India. Community identity and claims of legitimacy in a secular modern state become crucial in these narratives which make them significant within the sphere of history-literature on the historical event of Malabar migration. The narratives are examined in view of the cultural and political signification of Syrian Christian community and the very act of writing history has in the ideological nexus associated within. In doing so, the paper looks at the way these discourses make inroads to the idea of modernity, nation-state, and thereby opens up discursive terrains of the politics of representation and the articulations of the self.

Keywords: Migration, Syrian Christians, Modernity, Minority, Nation

You might be interested in

Foregrounding the Animal Stance: A Critical Study of Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

219 views

Parul Rani & Nagendra Kumar

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. Email: parulnet.e@gmail.com. ORCID Id: 0000-0002-9934-3585

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.16

Received July 30, 2017; Revised September 01, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

The present article argues that the representation of the animals in the colonial texts try to reassert and reconfigure the colonial rule on the colonised subjects. Likely, the handling of the non-human animals by the colonials in sporting or non-sporting ways erects an invisible and persistent hegemonic control over the native land. As far as the processing of the big cat animals, particularly a man-eater is concerned; it emerges with convoluting the sound factors of race, gender and supremacy. The shooting of the man-eater animal by a white is purely a forefront which designs an imperial masculinity. Through a critical analysis of Jim Corbett’s text Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, the study aims exclusively at: first, to explore the role of an animal (Leopard): a vital object in contouring masculinity. Secondly, to foreground the animal stance, questioning the human authorised version of a man-eater and the enduring human rule over the non-human animals. The discussion implants the leopard, a subject of explication, as an essential character; liable to his ‘natural’ proviso.

Keywords: Imperial masculinity, animals, the man-eating leopard, animal studies, Jim Corbett.

You might be interested in

Defining the Japanese Gaze on India in Postwar Fiction: Analysis of Mishima Yukio’s Hojo no Umi

272 views

Lakshmi M.V.

Jawaharlal Nehru University. Orcid: orcid.org/0000-0002-4038-207X. Email: mvlakshmi@mail.jnu.ac.in

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.15

Received July 26, 2017; Revised September 11, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

This paper attempts to bring to light the fictional portrayal of India in a work of postwar Japanese novel-H?j? no Umi (Sea of Fertility), 1970, which paved the way for other works of contemporary Japanese fiction to follow a similar model of depiction of India, such as Fukai Kawa (Deep River) by Endo Sh?saku, 1993. The images employed by the author Mishima Yukio in the novel H?j? no Umi are instrumental in painting a picture of India in not just the eyes of readers of the novel, but also in the minds of contemporary Japanese writers. The paper illustrates the significance of the novel in providing the framework of motifs that are employed to portray India in fiction, through the many images used by the author, which influenced later fictional representations of India, as described above.

Keywords: India, Image, Literature, Mishima Yukio, postwar

You might be interested in

The Wrongs of the Subaltern’s Rights: a Critique on Postcolonial Diasporic Authors

177 views

Abida Younas

University of Glasgow, USA. Orcid id: orcid.org/0000-0003-0925-3461. Email: abida.younas89@gmail.com

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.14

Received August 09, 2017; Revised September 14, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

My article discusses propagation of the project of orientalism in the arena of contemporary postcolonial fiction written in English by diasporic authors. In the contemporary world, the project of orientalism is no longer perpetuated by the occidentals but ironically by orientals, albeit diasporic authors, through Re-orientalisation. Like orientalism, the process of Re-orientalism distorts the representation of the natives, seizes their voices and consigns them an inferior rank or in other words, the position of subalternity. Instead of giving voice to their own people, diasporic authors authenticate the project of orientalism by giving inside voices to the global world. While perpetrating the project of orientalism, they wrong the subaltern’s rights as well. It is because, these writers claim to be ambassadors for their own people and foreground their issues. But instead of accentuating the plights of their own people, these writers seem to work for global capitalism, where they are required to write according to the demands of the global market. My paper aims to present a critique on those diasporic writers, who instead of resisting the orientalist agenda in their writings by highlighting the wrongs of subaltern’s rights in the Third world countries, are more engaged in the project of Re-orientalism with special reference to Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers, Adiga’s The White Tiger and Abouzied’s Years of the Elephant. Drawing on the theories of Gayatri Spivak, Lisa Lau, Vanessa Andreotti and Ilan Kapoor, the hypocritical role played by diasporic writers is investigated in order to emphasize that how these authors write from Eurocentric perspectives to affirm the Western hegemony over the postcolonial world even after the European decline in this part of the world.

Key Words: Subaltern, Righting Wrongs, Diasporic Writers, Re-orientalism, Eurocentric.

You might be interested in

“The broken wall, the burning roof and tower”: W. B. Yeats’s Revision of the Leda Myth in Historico-Political Contexts

301 views

Pawan Kumar

Center for English Studies, School of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Orcid: orcid.org/0000-0002-2321-3565. Email: pawan.voice@gmail.com

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.13

Received June 10, 2017; Revised September 15, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

The paper critically engages with W. B. Yeats’s use of the Leda myth from ancient Greece in his works, especially focusing on his magnum opus A Vision and the poem “Leda and the Swan.” The paper, in elucidating Yeats’s employment and constant revisions of the Leda myth and its myriad symbolic meanings in his repertoire, attempts to illuminate Yeats’s commentary on the historical and political reality of the then Ireland, thereby also bringing to fore his ideas about historical progressions, change and political violence. The methodology adopted for the paper entails a close reading and critical analysis of Yeats’s aforementioned works, alongside his biographical details, aided by the critical responses to Yeats’s mythopoetic experiments by established scholars on Yeats. The paper not only sheds light on the significance of mythical, literary and artistic cross-fertilization, but also on Yeats’s ideological favouring of the necessity of violence for cultural regeneration and epistemic change.

Keywords:  Yeats, Leda myth, Yeats’s Vision, mythopoetic, ideological.

Transcending Boundaries: Kwame Dawes’ Digital Projects

209 views

Lamia Zaibi

Lecturer, Higher School of Digital Economy, University of Manouba, Tunisia. Email:lamya.zaibi@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0003-2306-6881

Volume IX, Number 3, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n3.12

Received August 11, 2017; Revised September 16, 2017; Accepted September 18, 2017; Published September 20,  2017.

Abstract

In this new digital era, marked by the proliferation of social networking and advanced media tools, writers have found themselves bound to engage with technology in order to access wider audiences. The Ghanian- born Jamaican award-winning poet and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner Kwame Dawes is representative of Caribbean artists whose digital-based collaborations have had an impact on the way his work is shaped and designed. By focusing on major online projects such as “Live Hope Love”, “Voices of Haiti” and “Ashes”, this paper seeks to show how Dawes uses the digital space as a site where the boundaries between different genres of communication are blurred opening the possibility for poems to perform off the page, thus extending the long tradition of performance poetry. My reading of digital poems in light of their performative potential is informed by performance studies theorists and critics who contend that by virtue of the medium used, both the acts of writing and reading are a performance.

Keywords: digital, performance, poetry, Dawes, multimodal.

You might be interested in

1 … 105 106 107 108 109 … 163