Vol 13 No 3 2021 - Page 4

Methodology versus theory: historical approaches and the problematic field of the humanities in postmodernism

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Tetiana Vlasova1, Olha Vlasova2, Larysa Martseniuk3

1Doctor of Philosophic Sciences, Professor, Head of the Philology and Translation Department, Dnipro National University of Railway Transport named after Academician V. Lazaryan, Dnipro, Ukraine. Corresponding author. . ORCID: 0000-0001-5040-5733. E-mail: vasovat2@gmail.com

2Candidate of Philosophic Sciences, Associate Professor at Philosophy and Sociology Department, Dnipro National University of Railway Transport named after academician V. Lazaryan, Dnipro, Ukraine. E-mail: 358358olga@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0003-1755-0853

3Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Professor in the Economics and Management Department, Dnipro National University of Railway Transport named after Academician V. Lazaryan, Dnipro, Ukraine. E-mail: rwinform1@ukr.net. ORCID: 0000-0003-4121-8826

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.10

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Abstract

Among the diverse methodological approaches that are currently represented in the postmodern studies, the one, which dominates nowadays, is the statement that there cannot be any methodology in postmodernism per se otherwise it would be a “relapse” into constructing one more “universalizing method”. Evidently, this assertion is stipulated by the highly pluralized context of the postmodern “normalization of change”, the transformations of the socio- cultural order in accordance with the postparadigmatic shift of the theory. Postmodern researchers both implicitly and explicitly state that the only way to “manage” the increasing pluralism and diversity is unmasking prior modernist ideas and ideals in the individual and general meanings of the human experience. On the other hand, the postmodern methodological “openness” encourages academic ambivalence, which results in the denial of the universal notions and absolute moral values. With the apparent postmodernist accent on the interdisciplinary approaches, the “scientific conditions” have become even more complicated: nowadays philosophy, history, theology, gender studies, arts are being connected with biology, genetics, cybernetics, economics, etc. As one of the main components of the postmodern intertextual analysis the historical method is vividly represented both in the western feminist theory and in the eastern post-colonial criticism, poetics of fiction and cultural studies. All mentioned above, appearing in the pluralized modes, occasion the turn into considering interdisciplinary techniques more scrupulously. The objective of this research is to reconstruct conceptually the comparative-historical methodology in the theoretical field of the postmodern humanities with the focus on the specific character of the interpretation of history in the cultural texts. The main thesis of the research reflects the reconstruction of the historical methods as an important systematic and meaning-conscious component in postmodern theoretical studies. The research proves that nowadays historical approaches are significant and valid because they locate certain techniques into the contemporary scholarly work in order to properly utilize the sources and pieces of evidence in writing “history”. The value of the comparative-historical method is also based on the fact that it proposes some models and patterns in dealing with the analysis of the particular theory in interdisciplinary studies. The historical narrative with its objective to tell the “truth” cannot be reflected according to some simple schemes, without taking into account the “hardcore” role of the context in the hermeneutic reading of history. Though there is a view that historiography is located “between” modernity and postmodernity, the articulated point of view is that postmodernism, being a theoretical cluster of historical disruption and “brokenness”, in fact, cannot reject the tradition of historicism in the humanitarian studies.

Keywords: postparadigmatic shift, interpretive approaches, interdisciplinary studies, historically-conscious analysis.

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Editorial (Vol 1, No 2)

The second issue of Rupkatha journal is ready for access. The gratitude due to contributors should be acknowledged not just

Animality and Entanglement: The Gothicized “anthropological machine” in Bram Stoker’s short fiction

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Vincent Pacheco

De La Salle University, Manila. vincent.pacheco@dlsu.edu.ph, ORCID id: 0000-0002-1812-5528

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.08

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Abstract

This paper closely reads what constitutes the “non-human” vis-à-vis animality in Bram Stoker’s often overlooked short stories, namely The Squaw and The Burial of the Rats. The Squaw is a tale about an American who murders a kitten in cold blood, and in turn, the mother grotesquely avenges her kitten. The anxiety of interspecies relationship is evident in this text, and I argue that this anxiety allows what Giorgio Agamben calls the “anthropological machine” (a system which excludes animals from the zone of livable human life) to operate. The same can be said in The Burial of the Rats where the inability to articulate a boundary between animality and humanity becomes the same thing that pervasively haunts the characters in the story. Here, the vermin and the humans become “relationally entangled” as Donna Haraway puts it and I argue that the notion of entanglement here is precisely what makes the “anthropological machine” gothic in the stories. I also suggest that what makes the representations of animals horrific is the possibility that the caesura between man and animal is non-existent.

Keywords: Animal Studies, Giorgio Agamben, Bram Stoker, Entanglement, Donna Haraway

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Sociology and Animal Studies: Human Responses to Animal Loss in Times of Disaster

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Joseph Ching Velasco

De La Salle University, Manila. josephchingvelasco@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7098-8216

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.07

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Abstract

A number of attempts have been made to include animals in explorations in the humanities and social sciences. This is a response to the gap where animals are much-neglected entities in the said disciplines. There have been debates pertaining to the inclusion of animals in scholarly discourses in the field of sociology. Notably, human exceptionalism has been one of the key ideological drivers which prevent a more inclusive consideration of animals in the study of our social world. The anthropocentric view of the world and society has put the needs and status of humans above all other animals. This line of thinking has implications on how humanity relates and interacts with animals in a broader context. In times of crisis, humans relegate animals as conveniently expendable or an inconvenient afterthought, which easily leads to instances of animal abandonment and even abuse. However, there has been a collective shift in the way acts of animal abandonment are perceived on social media. This article examined the responses on social media pertaining to animal abandonment during the onslaught of typhoon Vamco in the Philippines in 2020. More specifically, two themes were analyzed: outrage against negligence and compassionate treatment of animals. While this article looks specifically at the abandonment of animals, the project invites further reflection on the notions of environmental ethics and the species boundary.

 Keywords: Animal Loss, Animal Abandonment, Animal Liberation, Typhoon Vamco, PAWS, Sociology of Animals

Of Crows and Humans: The Affective Economy of Mourning and Grieving

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Alexandra Margarita A. Orbeta

De La Salle University, Manila, alexandra_orbeta@dlsu.edu.ph, ORCID: 0000-0003-4056-898X

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

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.06

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Abstract

This paper aims to examine the representation of animals in Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2015), a multi-awarded novel about an academic’s struggles on coping with the grief of losing his wife. Previous scholarship on Grief is the Thing with Feathers focuses on an anthropocentric approach to grief and melancholia. However, I argue these emotions can be approached through an examination of the Crow, a fantastical talking bird who makes itself known during the funeral, against the human protagonists of the novel. My approach focuses on how the Crow manages to facilitate what Sara Ahmed calls an “affective economy” which aids the human characters to process their emotions. I critically analyze in this paper how the novel blurs the boundary that separates the human and beasts through its representation of animal emotion. I speculate on how the moments of encounter between the crow and humans emphasize the acts of touching and smelling as a mode to cope with melancholia and grief. Lastly, I look at how its hybridization of prose and poetry performatively imitates affective and emotional responses to personal loss.

Keywords: Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter, Affective Economy, Sara Ahmed, Animal Studies, Ignês Sodré

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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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

Globalisation, the Forgotten Phase: Some Personal Reflections

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Thakur S Powdyel

Former Minister of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan, Thimphu. Email: powdyel@gmail.com)

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.02

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Preamble

This paper is built on the premise that there have been at least two waves of globalisation – sublime globalisation of the earliest times that was truly an expression of global minds, and the modern material globalisation that represents a largely reductive, economic obsession that characterises today’s brand of globalisation. The paper begins by looking at the advent of globalisation in a little Bhutanese village, discusses globalisation as it is understood today and makes an attempt to distinguish the two waves of globalisation with the help of some examples. The paper concludes with a vision of a time when the world attains a sense of true globalisation.

Music as a Universal Bond and Bridge Between the Physical and the Divine: Transcultural and Medieval Perspectives

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Albrecht Classen

University Distinguished Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of German Studies, University of Arizona. Email: aclassen@arizona.edu

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.01

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 Abstract

This article accepts the challenge to reflect on the cultural history of music as a transcultural and universally human phenomenon, particularly in the medieval context. To what extent has music played the same or at least similar function in endless cultural contexts all over the world from the past to the present? We know for sure that music has always been present at all age groups, in all ethnic groups, among all genders, and throughout time. There have always been local, ethnic types of music (folklore), and universally accepted manifestations of music (esp. classical music). The emphasis here rests, after an extensive study of music in global cultural-historical terms, on comments about music in medieval philosophy, mysticism, and literature because here we discover fundamental notions about music being the medium to connect the individual with the cosmic harmony, hence with the divine. In literary texts, above all, music was identified as the critical expression of identity, love, and religion.

Keywords: Transcultural music; classic music; music in cultural-historical terms; The Beatles; Martianus Capella; Boethius; Gottfried von Strassburg; Jörg Wickram; Hermann Hesse

The Resonance of Music Across Cultures

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Rolf J. Goebel, Ph.D.

Distinguished Prof. of German, Emeritus, University of Alabama in Huntsville. Email: Goebelr@uah.edu

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.00

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Abstract

What predestines music to be able to transgress geo-cultural boundaries? I argue that music’s sensuous, bodily-affective immediacy requires a mode of cross-cultural translation via what I call auditory resonance—the spontaneous attunement of listeners with the sonic presence of music through media-technological transmission despite vestiges of cultural colonialism and other sociopolitical barriers. I trace such resonance effects from German Romanticism through our global present, focusing especially on the conversations between two Japanese cultural figures, the conductor Seiji Ozawa and the novelist Haruki Murakami. These texts show that the category of auditory resonance is more suitable for addressing European music’s global significance than its traditional claims to transcultural universality.

Keywords: Music, resonance, immediacy, presence, media technologies, cultural translation, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Walter Benjamin, Seiji Ozawa, Haruki Murakami

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