1st RIOC - Page 4

Re-orientalism in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s The Selector of Souls

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250 views

Urvashi Kaushal

Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat. E-mail: urvashikaushal6@gmail.com, Orcid Id. 0000-0002-6774-6849

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s5n5

Abstract

In his seminal work Orientalism Edward Said destabilized the Euro-American practice of constructing, approving and disseminating a stereotypical image of Asia as exotic backward called the ‘Orient’. This paper takes Said’s concept of Orientalism as a premise to highlight ‘self–orientalism’ or ‘re-Orientalism’ as a growing trend in South Asian diaspora writers, especially since the turn of the 21st century. It utilizes the idea of orientalism and reads Shauna Singh Baldwin’s The Selector of Souls against the grain to accentuate the reification of Indian culture into a commodity and homogenisation of complex cultural differences in multicultural India for the consumption of the West. In its effort to find answers for this growing trend, it analyses the nexus between location and commodification of literature produced by diaspora writers.

 Keywords: orientalism, re-orientalism, new-orientalism, neo-orientalism, diaspora writers, commodification.

Negotiating Scottish ‘distinctiveness’ (?): Unmasking the British Conquest and the Construction of Empire in the 19th Century Indian Subcontinent

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245 views

Subhashis Pan

Ph.D Research Scholar, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, WB. Email: subhashis.pan6@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9178-3607

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s5n2

 Abstract

India in the 19th century encapsulates a very different and contesting Scottish dimension to the expansion of British Empire. The Scottish legacy in the field of British colonial enterprise has been blurred over the time. Scotland, which was once a colony of the English, was incorporated in the Great Britain in the Union Act of 1707. But distinction between Scottish and English was never made. Thus, in the field of literature we do not find distinct Scottish identity of the contributors like- Walter Scott, R. L. Stevenson, Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle- to name a few. They are placed in the ‘English literature’ without due emphasis on Scottish background and influence. Similarly, the common notion of the British imperial enterprise has masked the contribution of the Scottish administrators working under the British. Now, in the context of India when we talk about ‘Scottish Orientalism’, we need to focus on the already blurred identity of being ‘Scottish’ in the dominant English field. The Union Act (1707) between England and Scotland produced a space for the Scottish people to participate in the British imperial enterprise. This paper focuses to unmask the role of some of the Scottish scholar-administrators working under the British for a distinctively Scottish contribution to the expansion of the British imperial activities that helps to explore the nature of the intellectual and religious engagement. The study offers a distinctive Scottish Orientalist school as Scottish participation of empire remains open ended and it argues for a complex assessment of Scottish individuals who though shared some philological and philosophical interests and assumptions, nevertheless diverged in many other respects.

Keywords: Empire, hegemony, Orientalism, Scottish-distinctiveness, Scottish Orientalist school

Policing Immigration: A Study of Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander

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269 views

Aratrika Mandal

IIT Kharagpur, mandalaratrika@iitkgp.ac.in, ORCID id- 000-0003-0465-3642

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s5n1

Abstract

The present paper looks at the representation of inter-national mobility and immigrants in select works from Swedish author Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander series. Mankell’s works are set in Sweden,  a country where despite exceptionally inclusive foreign policies lies fault lines within its very social exceptionalism. This challenges the complete denouement that  is conventionally observed in the genre of detective fiction. Sweden’s geographical proximity with the Baltic countries makes its national boundaries porous, which enables the covert extremist factions to surface and function globally. Illegal human trafficking, followed by the absence of any restriction in compliance with the social welfare state allows one to blend in better, despite the rising anti-immigrant sentiments across the nation in the more recent years. This paper studies the underpinnings of geographical features in the constant run and chase, and how these boundaries are breached by the severity, rigidity, and interdependency of these morally fractured underground networks. Mankell’s Faceless Killers (1991) reveals nascent xenophobia provoked by the neo-Nazi remnants, which is supplemented by local projection of immigrants. These boundaries are further abused in The White Lioness (1993) which has Russian and African fugitives operating deeper networks of extremist groups that manifest an inexistent national security. The paper will reflect on the idea of an immigrant figure as potentially a victim, as a criminal. Finally, an engagement with the physical aspects of the represented urban spaces will facilitate a discussion on the (il)legality of immigration which punctures the welfare state now close to collapse.

Keywords: crime fiction, immigration, refugee, world literature, Swedish fiction

Seeking theory-practice relations between humanities and fine-arts through practice of painting

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241 views

Asmita Sarkar

PhD Candidate, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Email: asmita.sarkar@srishti.ac.in, ORCID ID 0000-0002-2024-5553

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s1n5

 Abstract

In recent years different art and design institutions around the world are increasingly looking at developing programs that are research intensive. Along with this trend, doctoral programs that are art and design practice based are becoming progressively common. There are several debates around the nature and significance of art and design practice as research (Sullivan 2005 Borgdorff, 2010, Eriksson 2010). Many have doubts about the exact nature of knowledge contribution made by these PhD theses.  One distinct aspect common to all these programs is that these consider creation of art or design artefacts a part of the research process. This paper will discuss some theoretical view-points and philosophical speculations such as discourse on material of art, performance embodiment, cultural-scientific knowledge behind creation of artefact. The aim is to show that the process oriented and performative aspects of art-practice can come into a meaningful dialogue with traditional humanities. In the present article the author/artist has drawn from the writings of art-historian James Elkins (2000) and philosopher Merleau-Ponty (1964,1993,2008)   to analyze her own work and devise a methodology of artistic research. The proposed methodology consists of two theoretical lens that are used to contextualize artist’s work: phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1964, 1993, 2008) and elements of auto-ethnography (Alvesson 2003).  Thus, this paper develops a methodology that contextualizes artist’s intensely personal process of creation and critically evaluate this process. The result is a methodology of artistic research that can be a bridge between creative performance and critical research.

Keywords: phenomenological research, process and performance in humanities research, methodologies of practice-based research.

Hope amidst Despair: Revisiting John Steinbeck’s Novel The Grapes of Wrath in the times of COVID-19 pandemic

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349 views

M. Shanthi1 & Ms. Lizella Faria Gonsalves2

1Associate Professor, Department of English, Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao, Mapusa, Goa. ORCID id- 0000-0002-6114-2366. Email: shanthimuninathan@gmail.com

2Assistant Professor, Department of English,Dnyanprassarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao, Mapusa, Goa. ORCID id-0000-0001-5699-5412. Email: lizella.gonsalves@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s33n6

 Abstract

Death has always been co-existing amidst all life-forms. But when it turns its vehemence on humanity with all its force by means of pandemics, epidemics, wars or natural calamities then it gets its due, acting as a great equalizer. The Catastrophic Corona, today has revolutionized the face of humanity and the Existential Angst is acutely felt. The boundaries and demarcations of caste, creed, religion, region and gender have been ignored by the virus levelling all to the mercy of greater powers. The subversion of capitalism and deconstruction of the binaries like positive and negative, the physical and the virtual have induced discourse subjected to critical study. Since Literature and Life has always gone hand-in-hand, it is natural to witness the saga of human turmoil and suffering being portrayed in literary works. Albert Camus’s novel, The Plague is a classic example of the precariousness of human life and existential isolation. But as devastating as a pandemic or an epidemic is, equally ravaging are the forces of nature and crippling circumstances which lead to unsurmountable suffering and pain. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is an evocative saga of resilience and survival amidst the onslaught of the Dust Bowl and the Great Economic Depression. The Joad family in the novel represents a microcosm of the universal suffering and their story finds echoes in the hearts of many in such times as the present COVID-19 crisis. This paper aims at a study of the socio-economic and psychological factors affecting humanity during crisis through the study of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. It would be an endeavor to evaluate the changes and adapt to the ‘New Normal.’

Keywords: Pandemic, Existentialism, Economic Crisis, Deconstruction, Despair and Hope.

Post-nationalism and Recollecting the Nigerian Civil War Memories through Hero Beer Brands Marketing in Igboland, Southeast Nigeria

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214 views

Obinna U. Muoh & Uche Uwaezuoke Okonkwo
History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Emails: obinna.muoh@unn.edu.ng, ucheokonkwo2007@yahoo.com

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s33n3

Abstract

Since the failed attempt at secession from Nigeria in 1970, after a 30-month civil war, the Igbo ethnic nationality—who constituted the majority of the defunct Biafra Republic, have sought avenues to (re)create the memories of the short-lived country.In the political space, they attempted establishing Ohaneze Ndigbo—as an umbrella socio-political organization for recreating and projecting the Igbo agenda. This, to a large extent, has not achieved the desired objectives. Not surprisingly, militia groups have sprung up since 1999 when an Igbo failed to secure Presidential race ticket to agitate the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra. These groups include Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and recently the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). However, pop circle provided the much needed social space for Biafra nostalgic displays. In 2012, Hero Beer advert better known as O Mpa, a coined greeting style by Onitsha people for great achievers with reference to Ojukwu father figure in the Biafran struggle was launched. This study examines the nexus between beer advertorials and ethnic identity using the Igbo example. It argues that the advertorials successfully permeated into the psychology of Igbo beer drinkers, who attached ethnic connections to them and appropriated them as theirs, using the brands to recreate the memories of Biafran struggle of Independence from 1967-1970.

 Keywords:  Nostalgia, Ethnic Identity, Appropriation, Branding and Advertorials.

Hegemony, Exclusion and Equivocal Identities: Reflections on Israel’s Arab Minority in Sayed Kashua’s Dancing Arabs

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312 views

Neha Soman

ICSSR Doctoral Fellow, Dept. English, Bharathiar University, neha.efl@buc.edu.in, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3900-3607O

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s33n2

 Abstract

Social consciousness forms in allegiance with the moral and political hegemonic power structures. Gramsci’s organic ideology defines this condition of hegemonic system where societal leadership is practised by the dominant class. With the emergence of cultural studies the prevailing hegemonic discourses are challenged, but defining liminality in this spectrum is still an ongoing process. In this context, the essay aims to demarcate the problematic aspects of personal and national identities against the hegemonic power structures, specifically with the case of the Arab minority in the State of Israel. Apart from the fundamental facets of hegemony, the aberrant conflict between nationalism and citizenship emerging from Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish democratic State, places the Arab Israeli identity in question. These arguments are validated through the fictional life narrative of Israel’s prominent Arab writer Sayed Kashua. His novel Dancing Arabs (2002) recapitulates the reality of being an Arab in Israel. The impeccable representation of identities in question hinges the repercussions of hegemony and social exclusion on both subjective and national levels. Standing on the critical platforms of Gramsci’s political theory of “hegemony” and Stuart Hall’s cultural theory of “identity”, the text is closely read as an artefact of resistance with emphasis on personal, political and philosophical discourses on the identity of the Arab minority in Israel. The essay traverses through the ethnocentric status of Israel’s social structure which disorders the recognition of Arab identity and identifies the conflict as a potential hindrance to peaceful coexistence in Israel’s near future.

Keywords: Hegemony, Identity, Arab Minority, Israel, Social Exclusion

 

Two Oils, One Evil: an Appraisal of Contemporary Dilemma of the Indigenous Population of Nigeria’s Oil-Delta Communities, 1956-2019

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265 views

Victor O. Ukaogo1 & Nwakuya Cecilia Ogechi2

1Department of History & International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria. Email: victor.ukaogo@unn.edu.ng

2Careers Unit (Registry Department), University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. Email: Ogenwakuyah@yahoo.com

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s32n3

 Abstract

This study examines the processes of economic transition and the corresponding impact on the Niger-Delta communities. It argues that the region has witnessed several epochs of economic transition; all of which came with damning consequences. While the major focus of the study is the change from palm oil to crude oil (two oils), the study explores the curious linkage between economic transitions, contemporary poverty and environmental violence in the region (one evil). The integration of the region into the vortex of oil globalization has paradoxically and inversely increased the poverty amongst the rural poor. The study argues that while the ‘oily debacle’ yield endless violence against the indigenous population, issues of environmental governance exacerbates. This is evidenced in the government’s militarized mediation strategies that worsen the prospects of peace in the enclave. Typical of ‘resource curse’ philosophy, the wealth from crude oil that should improve the lot of the rural poor has directly shut them out of the expected benefits of oil extraction. The study investigates and avers that the unholy alliance between the State and global capital is a challenge and concludes that capitalist exploitation of the region on account of crude oil explains the contemporary dilemma of the indigenous population.

Keywords: Niger-Delta; Globalization; Foreign Interest; Environmental Governance; Resource curse; Environmental security; Capitalist exploitation

“An umbrella made of precious gems”: An Examination of Memory and Diasporic Identities in Kerala Jewish Songs and Literature

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457 views

Shiji Mariam Varghese & Avishek Parui

1Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036. shijimariam21@gmail.com.

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

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s32n1

Abstract

The Jews living in the state of Kerala enact their diasporic identities through a unique narrative network including songs, stories, and memoirs. Drawing on memory studies and affect theory, this article aims to examine selected Jewish folk songs as an example of entanglement of memory and culture, nostalgia and narrative.  We study Oh, Lovely Parrot (2004), which is a compilation of 43 typical Kerala “parrot songs” – devotional hymns and songs for special occasions – translated from Malayalam into English by Scaria Zacharia and Barbara C. Johnson. Performances of these songs constitute cultural as well as affective phenomena that bring together Jewish identities, especially female rituals, in a collective effort to preserve their ethnic memory and its associated social identity. The music unique to this community illustrates the ancestry and tradition of the Kerala Jews which held them together even after ‘aliyah’ (a Hebrew word referring to the migration to the nation state of Israel post-1948). Using selected songs from the book, the article aims to examine the community’s cultural identity markers related to experiential and discursive diasporic memory. It also draws on the memoir Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Jewish Woman Remembers (2001) by Ruby Daniel and Barbara C. Johnson to analyse the affective quality of songs which unites the community in collective imagination and in complex nostalgia narratives.

 Keywords: Kerala-Jews, Israel, Affect, Identity, Migration, Memory

The Global Precariat: Refugees and COVID-19

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250 views

Srinita Bhattacharjee

University of Hyderabad. ORCID: 0000-0003-4773-7045. Email: srinitabhattacharjee@gmail.com

Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s30n7

 Abstract

Are refugees welcomed by nation-states? Receiving a hospitable environment to resow the seeds of survival is a fundamental right of any human individual especially for refugees who have been rendered stateless and rightless. They require magnanimous hospitality in the form of social solidarity but what they acquire are disdainful attacks from neoliberal nation-states.  Often their traumatic voyages towards a secured mode of living meet with dejection and despair when nation-states violate their obligations by refusing to grant them asylum.  The few, who are accepted, are also compelled to hover around nation-state peripheries with ruthless indifference awaiting them. I shall critically consider Derridean ‘hostipitality’ as the premise to problematize refugee identity as the locus of precarity ensued by radical alterities.

 Keywords: refugee, COVID, precarity, hostipitality, neoliberalism

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