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A Stylistic Investigation of the Act of Murder in Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing

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Ujjal Jeet

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab. ORCID: 0000-0003-1897-2142. Email: ujjal.eng@gndu.ac.in

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.34

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Abstract

This paper is a functional stylistic study of a selected passage from Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass is Singing. In the novel The Grass is Singing, a white woman in Rhodesia is killed by her black servant but surprisingly the murder instead of bringing a stir spreads a silence in the local white community. Further, the text on an intuitive reading seems to absolve the murderer of the crime which forms the research question of the paper. Thus, close and systematic textual analysis of the text representing the murder scene was conducted and it was found that the linguistic choices of the text does create a semantic universe where the murder and the murdered are allegorical figures representing nature and nurture in a mutual conflict. The methodology for linguistic analysis of the selected text is borrowed from Michael Halliday’s theoretical system Systemic Functional Linguistics. The text is analysed by means of transitivity system which provides the investigative tools to study the representational choices of the text.

 Keywords: Functional Stylistics; Systemic Functional Linguistics; Transitivity; Ideational metafunction; Experiential Choices; Lessing Studies

The Uneasy Gaze – Appearing for Interviews to get Married – An Empirical Investigation into the Pre-marital Arranged Marriage Negotiations in Urban Kolkata

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Sucharita Sen
PhD Scholar, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Email: sucharitasen13@gmail.com

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.33

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Indian society, when viewed from a Foucauldian feminist perspective offers a curious and unique example of societal scrutiny over its members. This overt exercise of power influences individual behaviour, attitudes and has a profound influence on decision making. In this context, this paper argues, within an empirical framework, the limitations of freedom of choice for women in pre-marital arranged marriage negotiations. Women find themselves coercively thrust into uneasy situations of objectification, forced to mould themselves to fit into hegemonic patriarchal parameters. They are lambasted if they fail to fulfil the required expectations. Based on a survey of 250 young brides and prospective brides of upper-caste, middle-class background in urban Kolkata, I argue that the pre-marital negotiations in arranged marriages systematically subjugate the women. Faced with societal and familial pressure, the women often find themselves marginalised and subjugated in the process of arranged marriage.

Keywords: Women, Patriarchy, Arranged Marriages, Objectification.

Performance Space of the Digital Performer/Reader inside Andy Campbell and Judi Alston’s Digital Fiction the Nightingale’s Playground

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Gitanjali Roy

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts, ICFAI University, Tripura. Research Scholar, Dept of English, Tripura University. ORCID: 0000-0003-3672-3481. E-mail: itzgitz@gmail.com/gitanjaliroy@iutriipura.edu.in 

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.32

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 Abstract:

A digital performer has to negotiate with different kinds of affordances inside the space of a digital text. The Nightingale’s Playground (2010), a digital fiction authored by Andy Campbell and Judi Alston offers the reader/player with four versions of the text centering on the protagonist Carl Robertson who tries hard to search for his lost school friend Alex Nightingale. The online texts (‘Consensus Trance’, ‘Fieldwork Book’) and the gaming version of the digital fiction (‘Consensus Trance II’) offer the reader different decisional platforms. This makes it a challenging task for the reader to connect the affordances of the digital text. At the same time, the offline pdf version of the digital fiction hints at Carl being affected by a psychological disorder. The paper shall focus on how a digital reader negotiates his/her position inside the digital text by decoding the programmer’s/author’s encoded plot.

Keywords: Digital, Performer, Text, Nightingale’s Playground, Reader, Player.

Who is a Refugee? Understanding the Figure of the Refugee against the Backdrop of the Bengal Partition (1947-1970)

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Sumallya Mukhopadhyay

Doctoral Fellow and Teaching Assistant, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4762-2099. Email: mukhopadhyay.sumallya@gmail.com,

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.31

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The paper intends to study the figure of the refugee in post-Partition West Bengal by critically examining the oral history narratives of individuals who migrated from East Pakistan in the wake of the 1947 Partition. It underscores the value and relevance of narrativity in the representation of factual history, the motivation and manifestation of which make history subjective, interpretive and contingent on the refugee’s narrative. The narrative act presents the refugees’ transition from, what may be called, figurative to socio-material subjects who interrupt and derange the nationalising exercise of the nation-state. The multivalent understanding of refugees makes the nation-state suffer from an anxiety of incompleteness (Appadurai 2006). The paper extends the idea of incompleteness by showing that however much the nation-state attempts to frame a particular brand of nationalism, variants of ethnocultural nationalism do exist, demonstrating the diverse subjectivities embodied by the refugees/narrators. Such ethnocultural nationalism can be read as alternative forms of self-assertion deeply etched in the social memory of the refugees.

 Keywords: Partition, Bengal, Refugees, Migration, Narratives, Ethnocultural

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Critiquing 21st Century Creative Violence: Tagore’s Concord (Milan) and Harmony (Samanjaysya) Imagining “One World”

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Ayanita Banerjee (Ph.D)

University of Engineering and Management.New-Town, Kolkata. West Bengal. Email: abayanita8@gmail.com

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.30

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Modern science, acclaiming the success of the creative human brain as ‘progressive changes’ in the 21st century continues to prosper through prominent images of scientism, ingestion, cartelized capitalism, chemistry and rocket technology to name a few. Introspecting the 21st century from the given nexus, we are quite likely to conclude that it has remained a century when the human destructiveness has reached its creative pinnacle. ‘Creative progression’ disguised under the garb of SARS COVID-19 is currently ransacking mankind, resulting in mass genocide, destruction of cultures and worldviews. The creative human self now remains predisposed with the activation of low-grade mental illness. depression, anxiety and trauma. Tagore’s ‘creative self’ with a magisterial rebuke had always protested the prevalent dominant theories of violence and counter- violence down the time line. His philosophical vision intertwined with the humane self of ‘being’ instead of ‘becoming’ counterpoises this ‘creative enigma’ of scientific and material human progression even to this day. Standing on the threshold of the 21st century we earnestly look forward to reminiscence Tagore’s vision of Concord (milan) nurturing the “living bonds in a society” and brewing Harmony (samanjaysya) as the “wholeness and wholesomeness of human ideals” to provide a remedy for re-thinking the possibilities of “One World” (my italics) defined in terms of ‘becoming’ instead of ‘humane -being’.

 Keywords: Tagore, creative violence, mechanization, concord, harmony, one world

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The Era of Environmental Derangement: Witnessing Climate Crisis in Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island

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Nupur Pancholi1, Sanjit Kumar Mishra2

1Research Scholar, Department of Applied Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. E-mail: npancholi@as.iitr.ac.in, nupurvpancholi@gmail.com
2Professor, Department of Humanities & Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. E-mail: sanjit.mishra@hs.iitr.ac.in

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.29

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Drawing on Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island (2019) together with his nonfictional The Great Derangement (2016), the article strives to present that while advancing endless desires, human-centric culture and the idea of ‘good life’ drive climate change and environmental deterioration. It seeks to enumerate the devastating consequences of changing climatic conditions and degenerating ecosystems and their cumulative impacts on the humankind and non-human world. It aims to locate how human life at the margins has been affected by these cataclysmic consequences through analysing Ghosh’s Gun Island. It attempts to show that human interventions had significantly fuelled the global climate crisis in the seventeenth century, decoding the myth of Bonduki Sadagar that Ghosh identifies in Gun Island.

 Keywords: Climate change, human-centric culture, the idea of ‘good life’, environmental derangement, myth of Bonduki Sadagar

Locating Women in the Naxalbari Movement: A Story of Resistance and Fabrication of the Individual Female Identity

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Pritha Sarkar

Research Scholar; Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur; spritha353@gmail.com

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.28

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The objective in this paper is to explore the role of women in the Naxalbari movement by studying how a woman resists all the patriarchal authorities and carves her own space in a male-dominated movement through The Naxalites: A Novel (1979), a representative text on the Naxalbari movement in Indian English Literature. The Naxalbari movement (1965-1975) is the first peasant revolution within twenty years of Indian Independence that initiated in a small village named Naxalbari situated in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Though there have been many scholarly studies on the movement, the representation of women and their experiences in the texts on the movement in Indian English Literature has not yet been traversed upon. The paper, therefore, addresses this gap by studying the movement from the feminist standpoint through one of the representative texts. While on one hand, historical records show how women had been frontline warriors in the initial phase of the movement only to be marginalized with the spread of the movement; on the other, none of the chronicles on the movement recognizes the role of women and their contributions in it. Through the text of The Naxalites: A Novel, this paper engages with such problematic and contradictory location of women through the portrayal of a female character who attempts to change the whole direction of the movement with the aim to make it more sustainable. Thus, the paper tries to analyze women as a subversive force within the movement who represent the critical voice against the patriarchal framework by suggesting an alternative modus operandi while staying within the folds of the movement.

Keywords: Women, Movement, Patriarchy, Female Identity

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The Dislocations and Transgressions in Bhajju Shyam’s The London Jungle Book (2004)

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Shikha Singh

PhD Scholar, Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, shikha52_llg@jnu.ac.in, ORCID: 0000-0003-0255-8289

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.27

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  Abstract

The paper explores the multiple transgressions and border-crossings elaborated in the visual travelogue The London Jungle Book (2004), by Bhajju Shyam, a Pardhan-Gond artist and produced by Tara Books, an independent artists’ collective specialising in experimental visual literature. The paper discusses the cultural history of “Pardhan-Gond art” and the dislocations and relocations of the art form in the contemporary art world. The paper argues that the personal experience of the artist appears to reflect these shifting categorizations, movements and locations of performance of the art form. The images and metaphors of displacement and transgression have varied connotations in the visual travelogue as they reveal the complex mechanisms of travel and mobility in the contemporary world. The text also articulates the response of the artist to the social, political and economic conditions surrounding the production and circulation of his art, through reimagining his homeland, his cultural ties and his own identity. In a paradoxical sense, the experience of travel and mobility does not symbolise the uprootedness or detachment of the artist, but it brings into effect, with more immediacy, the cultural identity and ties of the artist, as a Pardhan-Gond artist, in the contemporary art world. Furthermore, the materiality of the crossover text challenges the notions of media, genre and readership, associated with the picturebook format, destabilising the categories and assumptions associated with the literary genre.

Keywords: Pardhan-Gond art, Bhajju Shyam, Tara Books, tribal art, book illustration.

The Bidayuh People of Sarawak Borneo: Ritual and Ceremonies

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Awang Azman Awang Pawi1 & Chali Ungang2

1Associate Professor of Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email Id: awangazman@um.edu.my, awangazman@gmail.com. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4939-2706

2 Research Scholar of Academy of Malay Studies, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email Id: charlieungang@yahoo.com

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.26

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This study aims to analyse the role of rituals and ceremonies of the Bidayuh tribes in Sarawak Borneo as a way of life of the Bidayuh people. Therefore, the cultural history of the Bidayuh people as well as the function and influence to the entire community which becomes the pride and identity is analysed. The data were taken from the Bajo asal (traditional songs), girite Bidayuh damba (stories and legendary), and the exploration and preview of the authenticity of the role in the manifestation of the Bidayuh culture and tradition in the numerous villagers through dynamic modernization.  The content analysis was used to identify the rituals and ceremonies of the ethnic group. With this regard, emic perspective approach was applied to the study of the description of Bidayuh ritual, focussing on the internal elements and their functions in the Bidayuh society area in Bau, Padawan, and Serian division of Sarawak. Among the findings of this community is how important it is to preserve their beliefs to make sure the management of paddy fields are always cared for and preserve abundant harvests, apart from the ‘guardians’ to safe keep the peace of the village. The function and preservation through the ritual and ceremonies as their weltanschauung, influences the peasant society in that area. The study is highlighted to ensure people that the existence of the ritual and ceremonies is still implemented in the modern era as a part of the ancient heritage in Borneo Island- Sarawak.

.Keywords: ritual and ceremonial process, customs and traditions, Bidayuh culture, Sarawak Borneo

Consciously eco-conscious: An eco-conscious re-reading of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Moon Mountain as young adult literature

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Narendiran S1 and Dr. Bhuvaneswari R2

1Research Scholar, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vandalur – Kelambakkam Road, Chennai-600127, Tamilnadu, India. Email: narendiran10@gmail.com. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9280-9178

2Assistant Professor (Sr.), School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vandalur – Kelambakkam Road, Chennai-600127, Tamilnadu, India. Email: bhuvanadoss@yahoo.co.in. ORCID iD: https:// orcid.org/0000-0003-4660-7118

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.25

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Abstract

A better physical environment is quintessential for a comfortable life; this conscious of environment has been one of the post-world-war effects. The predominance of colonialism is accompanied by exploitation of forest and environment.  Since then, land is nothing more than a resource that conferred wealth and materials for the colonizers. The depletion of forest for agriculture and urban development is a historical phenomenon. It is then aggravated by industrial revolution and colonization. The legacies of colonialism have influenced the mindset of the colonized. Recently, the scarcity of the resources and climate change are the rising concerns of the world. This is mainly because of the humans’ insensitivity towards nature and literature plays an effective role in spreading the need for being eco-conscious. This article highlights the role of young adult narratives in spreading social awareness and interprets the classic Indian young adult novel Moon Mountain by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, which has symbolic references offering ecological insights. The journey of the protagonist through the African continent is critiqued to highlight the enfeeble consciousness about the natural ecology of an individual who seizes material development. This study partly brings out how the colonial legacies continues to influence the contemporary environmental challenges, and discusses the literary relationships between nature and youth influence readers’ attitudes towards the contemporary anxieties such as climate change and related environmental crises.

 Keywords: Eco-consciousness, Habitat, Young, Adult, Environment, Nature

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