Number 2 2019

From Minimalism to the Absurd: “The Intent of Undoing” in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

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S. Z. Abbas

Associate Professor. Department of English Language and Literature, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Wadi Al Dawasir, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. s.abbas@psau.edu.sa

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.18

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract

Waiting for Godot ushered in an era of Absurd drama that drew on not only modern thought about life but also the modern image of life. Samuel Beckett, unlike Sartre and Camus as playwrights, stripped the façade of the modern existence and laid bare the scene with the minimum in its real image. To project such a stark condition of human experience Beckett chose to present us the maximum with “mere-most minimum.” The message in Godot appears to be existentialist, which Beckett denied, for he asserted that if ever he read philosophy it was Descartes, who gave the dictum ‘cogito ergo sum,’ or “I think therefore I am,” something that reflects a positive undertone of the play. Minimalism of form and content thus becomes the vehicle of the Absurd in Waiting for Godot. Beckett becomes the pioneer of the minimalist art in modern drama and champions ‘linguistic gravity’ without any traditional structure of plot. There are series of incidents but they don’t amount to anything and even incidence maybe too big a word. The characters sort of improvise in order to fill the time. The dialogue is repetitious, illogical and nonsensical; the characterisation is sketchy and inconsistent. Although theatre is the most concrete literary form available, when you see Waiting for Godot you are definitely seeing a set that consists of a tree and a road and you see five actors impersonating five people. That much is concrete. But no fact or relationship about that place or those people is ever certain. All is questioned and all is in flux. Beckett is not presenting an argument toward the conclusion of existential absurdity. He is presenting images of absurdity.

Keywords: Absurd; Minimalism; Waiting; Godot; Beckett; Undoing

Morphological Classification of Dysphemisms in Artistic Discourse

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Olga N. Prokhorova, Olga V. Dekhnich, Elena S. Danilova, Vladislav A. Kuchmistyy, Ekaterina F. Bekh

Belgorod State University, Russia

 Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.16

First published September 30, 2019

 ABSTRACT:

Due to the wide-spread use of dysphemisms in contemporary speech, the topic of dysphemia has become extremely important. At the same time, research on this issue is clearly not sufficient to cover this phenomenon in full. This study pursued the following goal: to analyze the morphological features of dysphemisms within the framework of artistic discourse. The concept of dysphemism was described, and a classification of dysphemisms in contemporary linguistics was provided. Dysphemisms represented by different parts of speech were analyzed, enabling conclusions to be drawn about the features and frequency of dysphemism use. All results were illustrated with examples from artistic discourse. The research findings are summarized in the conclusion.

Keywords: artistic discourse, dysphemism, dysphemia, euphemism, classification

Review Article: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Forest of Enchantments: A Saga of Duty, Betrayal, Integrity and Honour

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Sukanya Saha

Assistant Professor Department of English and Foreign Languages, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur campus, Chennai, Tamilnadu. sukanyap@srmist.edu.in

Book Name: The Forest of Enchantments

Genre: Fiction

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India

Year of Publication: 2019

Total Pages: 359

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.13

First published September 30, 2019

 

…not all women are weak and helpless like you think. (111)

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni weaves the fabric of her Sitayan with strings essentially pulled out from Sage Valmiki’s Ramayan. She deftly accomplishes the dual task of adhering to the originality of this ancient text and introducing a renewed perception through which this epic could be reconsidered as base for moral standings. The images, characters, facts, and ideals of Ramayan are deep-seated in Indian consciousness and Banerjee infuses with it the enchanting quality of her storytelling to recreate them from Sita’s perspective. Her motifs are familiar yet molded to reverberate her stance. She adopted a novel approach anchored firmly in values inculcated through Ramayan. Her inversions often fringe on condemning lopsided judgements about moralities, yet she consciously eschews the prospects of remodeling the venerable narrative which the reader, yearning for happy endings, would have been thrilled to find though. Banerjee often stimulates a penetrating wish, a fond thought, about inverse turn of events during her narration. A sincere urge to experience the transformed fates of characters in Ramayan grows increasingly strong while reading The Forest of Enchantments. Keep Reading

Eating Well in Uncle’s House: Bengali Culinary practices in a bucolic Calcutta/Kolkata in Amit Chaudhuri’s A Strange and Sublime Address

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Rajarshi Mitra
Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati, Ambari, Assam. mitrarajarshi24@gmail.com

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.12

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract:

Kolkata has had a long and troubled relationship with food and hunger, which has shaped Bengali food-practices in the city. From famine in the 1940’s to food-movement of the 1960’s, as food production dwindled, Kolkata saw a gradual decline of its economic fortune. In the 1970’s and 80’s, it was common to portray Kolkata as a failed postcolonial metropolis filled with starving millions. With this troubled history in the backdrop, this paper focuses on culinary experiences in Kolkata as reflected in Amit Chaudhuri’s novella A Strange and Sublime Address. The novella, in its bid to highlight the trivial and the mundane in Bengali life in Kolkata in the early 1990’s, portrays culinary experiences as epiphanic expressions of an introverted, inner existence. Chaudhuri describes food-practices in an attempt to preserve an esoteric food-system – a system that connects inner life with cooking, serving and eating of food. Bengali food-practices, I argue, appear in this novella as “edible chronotopes” (Krishenblatt-Gimblett) revealing a culture’s fascination with time and food. Through Bengali food practices the novella’s protagonist Sandeep mourns a deep loss he feels about his lack of connection to Kolkata and learns to cultivate a sense of reticence, which allows him to absorb the joy of merging with the life in the city in its banal and quotidian form.  I further connect Chaudhuri’s search for the inner self in culinary practices with his journey to what he terms “bucolic” Kolkata – a journey Ashish Nandy had termed “an ambiguous journey to the city”.

Keywords: city, food and hunger, culinary experience, post-colonialism, Amit Chaudhuri

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“I Identify Myself as Russian Although I Have Never Been to Russia”: Ways of Transferring Identity and Language to Children among the Russian-Speaking Population of the USA

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Tatyana Nikolaevna Yudina1, Maria Grigorevna Kotovskaya2, Maria Vladimirovna Zolotukhina3 & Dina Kabdullinovna Tananova4

1Russian State Social University, Moscow, Russia

2Institute of Ethnology and anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

3National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and Russian State University named after ?.N. Kosygin, Moscow, Russia

4Russian State Social University, Moscow, Russia

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.22

Abstract:

The main goal of the paper is to analyze ideas and practices  involved in the transmission of the Russian language and culture among members of Russian -speaking diaspora in the United States, mostly belonging to the two recent waves of immigration from the Soviet Union and Russia and residing in different parts of America. The bulk of academic publications for this paper were released in Russia with some from the US. Three methods were used: a questionnaire (80 questions, both open-ended and closed distributed via google form among middle-age and young members of the Russian -speaking community – 52 respondents), semi-structured interviews (a total of 20) and participant observation, primarily in Boston area and Ann Arbor, MI. When reflecting on affiliation with the Russian-speaking world the preservation of language and its transmission to future generations is viewed as the most important element of everyday life and aspiration for the Russian-speaking population regardless of their ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political preferences and social status. This attitude, perceived as critical for preserving cultural identity, appears to be true even for cases when such transmission did not prove to be successful.

Keywords: Russian language, the Russian diaspora, community, identity, the Russian-speaking world, integration, assimilation, everyday practices, traditions.

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Translation as a Cultural Dialogue between the East and the West: Re-reading ‘The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech’ by Tagore

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Joyjit Ghosh

Department of English, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore- 721102, West Bengal. Email: joyjitghosh@mail.vidyasagar.ac.in

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.21

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for his English translation of Gitanjali in 1913. He was at once accepted by the Western people as one of their own poets. In the ‘The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech’, Tagore, however, categorically stated that he must not accept the laurels as his ‘individual share’ because he represented the East and it was the East in him that gave to the West. Tagore always believed in a cooperation of cultures across the world. He was certain that he belonged to an age which bore witness to the meeting of the East and the West. The present paper while making an analytical study of ‘The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech’ will try to establish that the objective of Tagore’s translation of Gitanjali into English was not merely to ‘rekindle’ the aesthetic delight which the poet once experienced during the composition of the work in Bengali but to create a space for a dialogue between two separate spheres of civilization – the East and the West.

Keywords: Culture, Dialogue, Meeting, Mission, Translation

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A Clown’s Laughter Specificity: From “Anesthesia of Heart” to “Synesthesia of Love”

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E.A. Semenova

Institute of Art Education and Cultural Studies of the Russian Academy of Education 119121, Moscow, Russia, Pogodinskaya Street, 8/1

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.20

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract.

The article provides insight into the insufficiently studied area of synesthesia in the art of clowning. The research methodology is based on the collection of essays by A. Berson “Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic”. Herein laughter is regarded as a social creative proofreader, which signals that the creative driving force has been lost in the phenomenon/process. Besides, the author refers to the theory of A.G. Kozintsev. It states that at the stage of the “language Rubicon”, anthropogenesis makes an evolutionary leap. After it, with the creation of language, a human being retains a direct two-element connection between signals and messages (inherited from animals), in particular, laughter. The latter is seen as something common between human being and animal. The difference is that a human responds to external signals not automatically, but selectively. The hypothesis of the study is that in the comic arts the connection between laughter stimulus and the response is formalized. The exception is the art of clowning, which goes beyond the comic, back to the tragic. It appears as a manifestation of human creative evolution, associated with the “language Rubicon”. The article makes a point that a clown’s laughter results from the multilevel structure of the psyche and is in a perfect step with “synesthesia of heart”, love and empathy for the clown’s character/masque. On the one hand, this unites it with the laughter of animals. On the other hand, this sharply distinguishes it by a strong feeling of laughter drama and tragedy. The laughter in a masque transforms tragedy into comedy. This gives reason to consider a clown’s laughter in terms of synesthesia and addiction. The article is based on the author’s report “Specificity of synesthesia as a form of world perception and worldview among satirists, comedians, clowns”, presented at the conference “The phenomenon of synesthesia in the interdisciplinary space of scientific knowledge” (October 22-23, 2018 in Moscow, Russia).

Keywords: laughter, anesthesia, synesthesia, clown, addiction, empathy.

Gerontological Issues in Bengali Film Dekha

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Ashoke Kumar Mandal and Dr. Shrikrishan Rai

Ashoke Kumar Mandal, Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur,  India. Email: akmandal1000@gmail.com

And Dr. Shrikrishan Rai, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur,  India.

Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.19

First published September 30, 2019

NIT Durgapur, India

Abstract

In the Indian context modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and westernization—‘the four horsemen of the modern apocalypse’ (Laurence Cohen, 1998:p.17) have a significant predicament in recent dimensions of gerontology. The problem relates to population ageing, controlled fertility, mortality rates and eventually the increase of life expectancy. The proliferation of old age home, extensive overseas migration, transnational  dispersal of families, dissociation of the traditional multigenerational joint family, and simultaneous rise up of the nuclear family etc., are also some major causes behind the problems. These multidimensional interrelated challenges have been artistically shown in case of some old characters in Gautam Ghosh’s national award-winning Bengali film Dekha (2001). Particularly in the life of the protagonist, Sashibhusan Sanyal the problems have found differently added significance because of his disability (blindness).But his positive attitude to fight against the oddities of life contextualizes the film with a projection to highlight the old age problems from three main foci—biological, psychological, and social, to justify the relevance of the problematic. This paper argues the necessity of a consolidated progressive action by social scientists, policy makers and the elderly community to promote healthy and fruitful ageing at all spheres to counter the old age hazards.

Key words: gerontology, population ageing, urbanization, loneliness, social exclusion.

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Development of Metalanguage Competence through Content and Branch Training

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Madeniyet Akhmetova1, Salima S. Kunanbayeva2 & Markhabat Kassymbekova3

1PhD Student, Kazakh Ablai khan University of International Relations and World Languages, Almaty, Kazakhstan

2Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Academician, Kazakh Ablai khan University of International Relations and World Languages, Almaty, Kazakhstan

3Kazakh Ablai khan University of International Relations and World Languages, Almaty, Kazakhstan

 Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.17

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract:

This article considers methods for developing metalanguage competence through content and branch training. Metalanguage competence is among the most important professional competences for the specialist’s formation in the sphere of foreign-language education within the framework of content and branch training. Metalanguage competence implies the accumulation of terminological knowledge and the ability to properly use foreign terms. For content and branch training, it is very important to have metalanguage competence since any sphere and field are characterized by their own specific terminology, which can be understood in a foreign language by learning the metalanguage of an industry through primary consciousness constructs in one’s native language. As a result, one can operate a specialized terminology in a foreign language. In the framework of foreign-language education, specialists in natural sciences should master a specific terminology for intercultural communication at a professional level since terms reflect main provisions in any field of knowledge and contain basic professional information. This article describes the experiment and its results achieved in the work with students at the Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages in order to determine the current development of metalanguage competence in content and branch training.

Keywords: metalanguage competence, content and branch training, foreign-language education, terminological knowledge, content-oriented education.

 

Work Life Balance: A Challenge for Employees in Indian IT and ITES Industry

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Srinivas Subbarao Pasumarti

Prof & Dean, Faculty of Commerce & Management Studies, Sri Sri University, Cuttak.

 Volume 11, Number 2, July-September, 2019 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v11n2.15

First published September 30, 2019

Abstract:                                               

More and more staff are going through the disputes between their private and professional positions in an age of globalization. They have job obligations on the one hand and family obligations on the other.   This generates a confrontation between their commitments to work and to live, which leads to increased stress. Not only does a bad “Work-life balance” affect staff, it also affects employers. Chronic stress level leads to low efficiency. The operating habits have also altered with the development of technology. Employees now use their smartphones, tablets and laptops from a distant place. Although this has significantly contributed to the flexibility of job, the lines of private and work life are blurred. In India, the IT & ITES sector has long been liberated from labor regulations to accelerate its rapid development and worldwide market capability. Although this is a thorough argument for sustaining and expanding economic growth in the aftermath of our developing economy, it still requires to be checked if the pressure is not carried by the workforce of the industry.   Keeping in view of the challenges faced by the employees of in IT & ITES industry the researcher has taken Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh as a sample to study the work life balance, where more than 10,000 employees are working.

 Keywords: Work life balance, work-family balance, work culture, IT & ITES industry,

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