Postcolonial - Page 4

Postcolonial Aesthetics and Sensuous Geographies in Aruni Kashyap’s The House with a Thousand Stories

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Ivy Roy Sarkar1 & Rashmi Gaur2

1Doctoral Student, Dept. of Humanities & Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. First Author & Corresponding Author. Email: Ivy.vns.2013@gmail.com, isarkar@hs.iitr.ac.in. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-3743

2Professor, Dept. of Humanities & Social Science, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. Email: rgaurfhs@iitr.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.25

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Abstract

The place is fundamental to our existence; it conforms to the phenomenology of being in the world as we always occupy a place “if not with our minds, then always with our bodies”, to quote Moslund. The role of the senses in knowing the geographies of our existence, form a kind of structuring of space and defining of place. To understand the construction of sensorial-socio-cultural space of Assam at the time of extrajudicial killings that produces a ‘sense of fear’ jeopardizing the everyday negotiations of people inhabit the exceptional zones, this paper takes into account Aruni Kashyap’s debut novel The House with Thousand Stories (2013) that set in Hatimura village of Mayong area and deals with alternate retellings of micro-historical account of Assamese people. The paper dwells upon the artist’s creative response to the Agambenian ‘bare life’ that he associates with ‘bare’ or ‘pure senses’ to cultivate the idea of sensuousness of geography produced through the life stories of people and the interactions between human and non-human beings. Like Manipuri mother’s Naked March in front of Kangla Fort and Irom Sharmila’s sixteen years-long hunger strike that can be looked at as the metaphor for staging the ‘bare life’ against the body polity of the state, the sensual dimension of the geographic experience of Pablo, the narrator of the novel, in the village helps to understand the spaces of difference in the time of conflict.

Key Words: Peripheral Aesthetics, Sensuous Geography, Secret Killings, Embodied Experience, Assamese Literature in English

The Use of Foul Language in Pop Music Composition in Nigeria: A Historical Analysis

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Nnanyelugo Emelda Chinasa1, Onyeke Blessing Uzoamaka2 & Izuchukwu John Ewulu3

1Lecturer, Department of Music, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Corresponding author. Email: chinasa.nnanyelugo@unn.edu.ng.

2 Lecturer, Department of Music, Federal College of Education Ehamufu. Email: blessingonyeneke@gmai.com

3 Lecturer, Department of Music, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: izuchukwu@unn.edu.ng

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.20

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Abstract

The background and exposure of music artistes contribute a lot in shaping the quality of songs they compose and produce. Since the 21st century, there has been a great departure in what used to be the ideal choice of words for musical composition and productions in Nigeria, especially in the popular music spheres. Hitherto, musicians of all genres were careful in their choice of words; but regrettably, the decent use of language is fast disappearing especially in dance hall and emotional songs. This stems from the cultural shack on the part of the artistes especially in the influence of the environment. It is this inherent lacuna that this paper seeks to address but most importantly the paper recommends a cultural policy for the government and as well as the need to checkmate and regulate the brands of music by periodically engaging DJs, radio presenters and other principal stakeholders in the entertainment industries.

Keywords: Cultural shack, History, Philosophy, Language, Environment

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Ras Kimono, the Relics of Slavery and the African Diaspora: A Study on the Socio-Cultural Factors in the Haitian-Biafran Relations

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Ibenekwu Ikpechukwuka E.1, Uche Uwaezuoke Okonkwo2 & Efobi Ifesinachi3

1 PhD, Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: Ikpe.ibenekwu@unn.edu.ng

2 Senior Lecturer, Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Corresponding Author. Email: ucheokonkwo2007@yahoo.com.

3 Graduate, Department of History and International Relations, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki. Email: Efobi111@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.18

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Abstract

It is no longer news that people of African descent were enslaved to the new world via: Caribbean, America and Europe for more than four hundred years. Rastafari movement has always engaged in the history of memory especially to reminiscence about slave experiences. Bob Marley songs are replete with such freedom chants. For example, Marley’s Redemption song and Buffalo Soldier are strong lyrics about the horrors of slavery. The cultural linkage between the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria and Haiti in the Caribbean is examined, especially the nexus between Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Haitian support to the Biafran struggle during the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970 re-echoes the African slave narratives as Kimono recorded in his song.

 Keywords: Ras Kimono, Slavery, African diaspora, Biafra, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Nigerian Civil War

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The Author is Dead, Long Live the Author! Postmodern Metanarrative and the Performance of the Author Function

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253 views

Arnab Dasgupta

PhD Scholar (JRF), Presidency University, banjogray@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.12

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This research paper critically examines the meta-narrative text The Master of Petersburg, a novel by Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee, which has the figure of the author at the centre of its narrative structure.  In his fictions, Coetzee is not shy of dislodging what Roland Barthes calls ‘reality effect’ in order to critically assert the role of the authorial figure; this is also to be seen in the novel Slow Man where Coetzee ruptures the realist texture of the narrative by introducing the figure of Elizabeth Costello who enters the text, as well as the life of Paul Rayment an amputee, as the author figure who is responsible for her creation i.e. Paul Rayment himself. At the same time Coetzee in order to explore the issues of writing at its ethical dimension, transforms some realist tropes at his disposal. For instance, in Elizabeth Costello, Coetzee with a brilliant manoeuvre plays on the trope of epistolary novels and presents the novel in a form of a series of lectures delivered by Elizabeth Costello, an Australian author of international fame.  But in a brilliant ironical move, Coetzee through the performance of the authorial voice breaks the realist structure of the Novel. The paper will, however, primarily focus on the novel The Master of Petersburg (1994), which is a meta-narrative in which Coetzee actively interrogates the ethics of writing as in this novel he places the fictively re-imagined figure of Dostoevsky in Petersburg in late 1868, after the murder of his step-son Pavel.  In this novel like his earlier novel Foe(1986), Coetzee examines the process of artistic creation and ethics involved in the event of writing, as Coetzee in his novel evokes a mix of historical factors and fictive characteristics which inspired and featured in Dostoevsky’s novel The Devils. Through a close examination of the interstitial spaces between the two novels, this paper explores the figure of the author and its performance in postmodern fiction. The author as the figure has caused much debate in the postmodern fiction and narrative theory. Post Roland Barthes’s declaration ‘author is dead’ many deconstructionist and narrative theories have debated the relevance of author figure in fiction, and the meta-narrative and self-referential nature of postmodern literature make these debates even more potent. This paper seeks to explore the debate concerning the author figure from Bakhtin, Barthes, Bennet and Foucault and try to understand the implications which the author figure has in a postmodern text through a close examination of Coetzee’s The Master of Petersburg.

 Keywords: Author figure, Authorfunction, Metafiction, Narrative theory, Performance theory, Postmodernity.

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The Party of Evil Genius in Orwell’s 1984

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Malek J. Zuraikat1 & Haneen al-Nawasreh2

1Department of English, Yarmouk University. Corresponding author. ORCID: 0000-0003-1948-2671. Email: m.zuraikat@yu.edu.jo

2Independent Researcher, Jordan. Email: 2018300002@ses.yu.edu.jo

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.13

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 Abstract

This paper explores the strategies of Evil Genius for manipulating people’s principles, thoughts, orientations, and ideologies in favor of promoting the logic of the party of Evil Genius, as found in Orwell’s 1984 (1949). Relying on Descartes’s definition of Evil Genius, we argue that the party in 1984 deploys the strategies of delusional propaganda, memory resetting, and doublethink to convince people of the significance of Big Brother for their peace and prosperity. The paper examines the party’s approach towards Winston, who has always been suspicious of the party, contending that the party successfully toys with Winston’s mental and emotional perspectives, thus leading him to view his own ego or rationale as his worst enemy. Such a reading is significant due to potential similarities between Winston’s experience of victimization and people’s feeling of being victimized by the party of Evil Genius in the postmodern society.

Keywords: Descartes, Evil Genius, George Orwell, 1984, postmodernism.

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What is Performance Studies?

Richard Schechner Tisch School of the Arts, New York University  Download PDF Version Because performance studies is so broad-ranging and

Indian English is also Creole: Incorporating Regional Bias in Research Pedagogy

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655 views

Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay

Professor, Department of Art and Enterprise, University of Guanajuato, Campus Irapuato-Salamanca, Mexico., Mexico. Email: chiefeditor@rupkatha.com

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.16

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Research pedagogy in India should readjust itself to accommodate claims of regional autonomy in arts and letters. Different ways of reconstructing a pedagogy of research are recommended. Reflexive Humanism ensures adequate assessment and evaluation of cultural, literary, and aesthetic achievements of diverse populations. The Indian English corpus is redefined as a creolized Indian language with lexical and semantic factors borrowed from English. The consciousness of pro-national subjectivism is also considered an essential constituent of Indian English literature. Lines of research are suggested for aspiring scholars in the Indian academy. The author emphasizes a dynamic and sensitive adaptation of research methodology which respects and reintegrates itself with the evolution of globally aware, contemporary society in India.

 Keywords: Anglophone, Creolization, Indian English, Research Pedagogy

 

Eyes Everywhere: Ecological Migration and State Surveillance in the Age of Iron Man

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Thejas Gigy Thomas1 & Dr. Prasantha Kumar N.S.2

Research Scholar, Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Tamil Nadu, India. Email: thejasgt@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0002-5603-9057. Corresponding author.

Assistant Professor (Senior), Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore – 632014, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: prasanthkumarns@vit.ac.in. ORCID: 0000-0002-7907-2423

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.05

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Abstract

In today’s society, migrants/citizens are monitored and exploited. A comprehension of the complexity of surveillance and resistance to it is crucial to guarantee a more democratic community. Disciplinary societies (in the Foucauldian context) have moved beyond the panopticon’s ecologies. Today’s monitoring is reterritorialized. Surveillance, enabled by digitalization, can adapt to any room today, but with the constant change in spaces, simply monitoring human actions would be inadequate. It is necessary to monitor both behavior and geographical place. Surveillance is also increasingly being marketed. Products are now being sold on the basis of people’s private lives. This dual aspect of surveillance connected to “safety” and “company” is well suited to the neo-liberal agenda. But monitoring also needs the supervised to participate. The States and MNCs are in a challenging situation if and when the monitored resist surveillance. Efforts are still being made by the state and its technology to properly monitor ecological migrations. This study claims that it is ecological and migration surveillance that makes Iron Man a strong avenger. Yet there are several cases in which his surveillance is inefficient through the cinematic narrative. For those already oppressed and who resist surveillance, the study would investigate these moments as flashes of optimism. This study also attempts to enunciate some of the aspects derived from works by theoreticians like Gary Marx and David Lyon. With the collective will of surveillance, unethical monitoring of ecologies and migrations imposed on us, it can be resisted to a good extent.

 Keywords: Ecology, surveillance, migration, marvel, neoliberalism, iron man.

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A Study on Petromodernity, the Socio-cultural Implications of Oil and the Disintegration of Human Behaviour in James Howard Kunstler’s World Made by Hand

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294 views

Rajan R.1& Dr. K. Sujatha 2

1Guest Lecturer & PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, Bharathiar University Arts and Science College. Tamil Nadu. India. E-mail: rajanisverybusy@gmail.com.  ORCID: 0000-0002-4829-7355. Corresponding author.

2Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, Emerald Heights College for Women, Ooty. Tamil Nadu. India.

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.04

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Abstract

The Postcolonial theorist Dipesh Chakravarthy in his article “The Climate of History: Four Theses” (2009) states, “The mansions of modern freedom stands on the ever- expanding base of fossil fuel use’’ (208). In the present time human beings are accustomed towards high energy intensive lifestyle which is largely fuelled by the Fossil Fuels and modern ‘itions’ such as Industrialization, Globalization and all other entities that have made fossil fuels cheap and easily accessible. The research paper gives a brief introduction to the genre Energy Humanities.  The paper delineates on how the non-availability of fossil fuels plays a major role in the breakdown of the society as well as explores the behavioural changes experienced among individuals in the post-oil world.  The novel chosen for the research discourse is World Made by Hand a speculative fiction written by James Howard Kunstler who portrays a dreadful society which functions in the absence of oil. The research also sheds light on how Energy resources act as equilibrium between individual and society.

 Key words

Energy Humanities, industrialization, globalization, accessibility, discourse

Critiquing Child characters as Heroes, Villains, and Victims in Ru Freeman’s On Sal Mal Lane

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Sneha Choudhary1, Priyanka Chaudhary2

1Department of Languages, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. csneha46@gmail.com

2 Professor, Department of Languages, Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. priyanka.chaudhary@jaipur.manipal.edu

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.54

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Abstract

Social behaviour and filial background define the formation and development of a character that is bound by cultural influence in South Asian fiction. Ru Freeman weaves numerous characters and their stories in a single lane as a synecdoche of Sri Lankan history. On Sal Mal Lane (2014) showcases the different social groups defining Sri Lankan conflict in the 1980s with the presence of child characters who are unaware of the extent of the ethnic conflict swirling in the background of the narrative. This paper tries to define the concepts of heroes, villains, and victims through the socio-emotional development of the characters to determine the contradiction between their intentions and subsequent actions. The study uses Character Theory and elements of Affect Control Theory for critical analysis. The paper analyses the change in personality traits of child characters in response to the violence wrought by Sri Lankan ethnic prejudices and the extent of destructive development from the unstable familial and societal environments.

Keywords: Character Theory, On Sal Mal Lane, Socio-emotional Development, Sri Lankan ethnic war, Affect Control Theory, Child characters

Review article: The Politics of Gender Hybrid Representation of Delhi

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Shruti Rawal

Department of English, St. Xavier’s College, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Email: shrutirawal@stxaviersjaipur.org

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.40

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The growth of the metropolitan phenomenon has resulted in the emergence of new power centres in all the countries of the world. These cities have geographical, political and economic significance. The narratives of these cities have been captured by the writers for centuries in their fictional and non-fictional work. The research intends to focus on the representation of the city of Delhi in two prominent works: Khushwant Singh’s Delhi: A Novel and Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Both the texts are located in the city of Delhi and have a prominent transgender character at its core and the study aims to understand the writer’s intent and manner of drawing similarities between the city and the character. It also proposes to explore this hybridity of gender as a deliberate tool to represent the city of Delhi. The failure of anyone binary to capture the essence of the city and the advantage of the androgynous approach will be discussed in the paper. It will also endeavour to understand how the phenomenon of cities has led to the creation of spaces that promote hybridity.

Keywords: Delhi, transgender, spaces, androgyny

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