Vol 15 No 2 - Page 2

Effectiveness of the Reading Strategies Used by Engineering Students at the Undergraduate Level

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K. R. Surendran1 & Janaki Bojiah2

1Assistant Professor, Velammal College of Engineering & Technology. Email: krsd@vcet.ac.in

2Professor, Department of English, Velammal College of Engineering & Technology. Email: bj@vcet.ac.in

[Received 15 January 2023, modified 30 June 2023, accepted 2 July 2023, first published 22 July 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.18
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Abstract

Communication skills consist of four primary skills namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. This study tries to investigate the effectiveness of the reading strategies used by undergraduate technical students with diverse backgrounds at the intermediate level of learning English. A total of 371 Tamil-speaking Indian students of second-year and third-year of an engineering institute in South India participated in this study. They were provided with a list of questions that were five-point Likert scale closed-ended. The survey was conducted in the presence of the researchers for effective collection of data. To measure the reliability of the data collected, the Cronbach alpha test was conducted and the coefficients were derived. IBM SPSS and the data analysis tools of MS Excel were used for data analysis. The items presented in the questionnaire were divided into three sub-scales and the effectiveness of the same was interpreted. The results showed that the global understanding strategy is predominantly used by the participants followed by problem-solving strategy and supporting strategy. This lays the scope for the enhancement of the items clubbed under the problem-solving strategy and supporting strategy. The study also suggests training the instructors and the students to evaluate the effectiveness of their strategies and compare them with their peers’ strategies for better investigation and learning experience.

Keywords: reading strategies, global understanding strategy, problem-solving strategy, supporting strategy.

Book Review: Childscape, Mediascape: Children and Media in India

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Raman, Usha and Kasturi, Sumana, (Ed.) (2023). INR 1100 (Paper Back). Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan. 349pp. ISBN: 9789354427305.

Reviewed by
Kanchan Biswas
Ph.D Research Scholar, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Email id: kancha48_ssg@jnu.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.17
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Numerous forms of electronic media are intricately woven into the fabric of a child’s existence nowadays with television, movies, videos, music, video games, and computers vital to both learning and play. The way youngsters react to interactive technology and instructional content supplied through it has an immediate and long-term impact on them. Corresponding to these benefits of media is an unfortunate reality that young children are more susceptible to the adverse effects of media usage, resulting in problems such as corpulence, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and insomnia, among others, which have lately become an existential danger. 

Media scholars and advocates view children as a special interest group because they are seen as a vulnerable group whose rights must be protected as well as the future of the world, making their education and socialization of particular importance. Existing books, like Media And Children: Emerging Issues in Today’s World, have attempted to investigate the ubiquitous growth and reach of media in several domains relating to children. It also investigates how the media influences and shapes children’s minds, both favourably and catastrophically. The book aims to help youngsters understand and analyse the impact of media on them, and to help them become critical and informed viewers. It is also an attempt to examine how media literacy plays a part in educating parents and educators about the impact of media and determining what content is beneficial or bad for children. Similarly, The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development brings together a wide range of experts from developmental psychology, developmental science, communication, and medicine to provide a competent, thorough examination of the field’s empirical research on media and media policies.

However, in India, there has not been much critical research on children’s media habits despite there being global research on this subject. Until the 1980s, understanding children’s lived experiences of everyday life and their own viewpoints on various parts of society was not a focus of social scientific study. As a result, the ‘new’ social studies of childhood not only established conceptual frameworks for understanding children’s place in society but also engaged directly with children, utilising their own words and narratives to make sense of their experiences. This has prompted scholars to pay special attention to how children think and act in specific settings, as well as to grasp the concept of children’s agency. Unfortunately, studies on Indian children and their daily life have been scarce. Those that have recently been published are largely on schools and education, delinquency, cognitive development, or topics such as street children, child abuse, pedophilia or child labour. As vital as these areas are for understanding Indian society, the use, interpretation, and depiction of Indian children in media garner inadequate scrutiny. First among such endeavour is Shakuntala Banaji’s book, Children and Media in India: Narratives of Class, Agency and Social Change, extensive longitudinal fieldwork in India with children offers provides a rich and detailed account of the role of media in the lives of children from both the middle and working classes. Often, studies on childhood and media focus solely on class in terms of purchasing power and media availability. However, in her research, class intersects with caste, religion, and location to involve children’s intersectional identities.

Extensively citing Banaji, and building upon newer scopes of study, the volume editors Raman and Kasturi have brought together a range of viewpoints from media researchers, practitioners, and those involved in secondary school teaching with an emphasis on children and media, Childscape, Mediascape addresses this gap. This collection investigates a range of topics pertaining to children and the media environment while confronting the question of what it means to “grow up digital” in India in the twenty-first century. The edited volume by Raman and Kasturi contains twelve essays on important issues like, children’s use of new media and digital media literacy, mediated childhood and children’s rights, children as social media users and creators, digitality and education, children’s recreational and cultural activities, and issues of sense of self, representation, and individuals in a mediated world.

In the first chapter titled “Coming of Age” reviewing research on children and media in India, Pathak-Shelat extensively discussed the magnitude of literature in this particular domain. Her critical take from the north failed to acknowledge children belonging to intersectional identities bearing on caste, gender, class, religion and so forth. Most studies of the global north have largely focused on the class aspects which determine children’s engagement with media. She hopes for an ‘upward and onward’ (p.56) direction of research that would engage with a fresh examination of domains like ‘consent, vulnerability, adult-centricity’ (p.52).

In the second chapter titled “What’s the story here?”, Sarwatay focused on the transformative aspect of digital media. Drawing upon the discourse, she used the archival method and attempted to look into how youngsters interact with media. She analyses how children use media, what effects they have, and further, how the effects could be managed through policy and practice. Her findings focus on issues like cyber-bullying, stalking, media addiction, digital detox, helicopter parenting etc (p.71-6). She aims to encourage media literacy initiatives and address technopanics (p.64). She uses the concept of Mass self-consumption (p.63) to analyse and orient the discourse towards a ‘rights-based approach for children’s digital and social media lives’ (p.80).

The second section of the book consisting of three essays is premised around the idea of Representations, where the focus is to emphasize the need for inclusion and diversity. In chapter three titled “Transgressing ‘Innocense’” Sreenivas problematizes the idea of representation in popular children’s book publishers like Tara and Tulika. She argues that children’s narratives are routinely and decidedly middle-class privileged background in nature. She calls for the disruption of middle-class gaze and questions, what kind of mediation would be required to call for such disruption? She concludes her chapter by arguing “…children’s literature can look into biographies and other narratives emerging from Dalit and other marginalised groups for a productive and radical imagination of the field. This would not entail the abandonment of enjoyment, but perhaps new pleasures will emerge” (p.109).

In chapter four titled “Juxtapositions and Transformations”, Deshbandhu examines the manner in which media conducts children’s news narratives. Further pointing out that popular understanding places children as subjects that are vulnerable, fragile and without agency (p.26). To counter this popular claim, he draws upon children’s characters in video games where they are active and exhibit agency. However, he points out that such agency is only at the disposal of a particular class and such infrastructure does not challenge the status quo. He writes, “What is the rest of the children in the country challenges of class, caste and gender will continue to persist” (p.133)

In chapter five titled “Reflections and Re-presentations”, Siddiqui extends her description of Children in media, where they are co-opted to produce narratives that trigger politics. She argues that media portray systematic biases, where, children’s images are appropriated as passive symbols in war/conflict zone; at the same time, children are depicted as central actors in relief fundraising. She mentioned “even a cursory review of news in India will reveal a general repeated pattern of children being consistently underrepresented… however, news, media trials on sensationalist stories, particularly in todays ever competitive media sphere, and children often get co-opted within this” (p.147).

The next section of the book Interactions, consists of a set of three essays that explores Children’s engagement with old and new media.  Children’s involvement with media has traditionally been viewed as one-directional, with children functioning as passive recipients of signals that may shape them into ideal individuals or have negative consequences. However, this section breaks away from such cliched understanding, and provides fresh evidence on media interactions. The following chapters in this section use evidence-based approach (empirical) and suggest ‘media literacy’ to make interactions healthy and meaningful (p.29).

In chapter six titled “To be or not to be …with technology”, Mukunda offers its readers an insight into the debates and policy decisions around smartphones in the school curriculum, using Focus group discussion among senior students in schools. While some people believe that children should be protected from modern forms of media such as television and the Internet, others recognise that what is important is interaction that allows children to explore their engagement with media entities.    Upon analysing the pros the cons of technology in education, Mukunda suggests that banning technology would not keep harm at bay, rather healthier means of using devices could be a possible solution. He flagged concerns regarding the addictive nature of smartphone use and also the reasons for most smartphone policy in schools. He concludes by pointing out “so quiet observation and open dialogue, we can together learn how to be aware of certain movements in ourselves that make us vulnerable to emotional Ill-being. Such awareness is perhaps the best way to prepare for the future life of digital immersion” (p.180).

In Chapter seven titled “Everyday use of digital technologies by adolescent girls”, Parihar uses action research approach and focused group discussion, to promote discussions around cyberbullying and risky behaviour among adolescents online. She suggests that adolescents are more aware of such instances than anticipated, thus their outlook and opinions must be incorporated in developing policies. She elaborately discussed the Indian scenario of changing media context, becoming and being digital, which also entails malicious communication, perceptions, practices and peers as perceived by adolescent girls. She concludes, “we must make the youth more alert and discerning about dedicatedly and damaging media content and to raise public awareness about media among teenagers their parents and other adults in their milieu… event, specially organised and undertaken by all the stakeholders. We can support democratic and just societies (pp. 206-7).

In chapter eight titled “Adolescents and social media”, Kumari used in-depth interviews among a study cohort of children of 13-17 years of age in urban and peri-urban surroundings to understand their issues of accessibility, expectations and control from new media. So out she questions, ‘whether the use of social media by adolescents can be characterised as a traction addiction impression or necessity?’ (p. 209). Her finding yes, that social media discs include cyberbullying, online harassment, sex, sting depression, social comparison and privacy concerns (p.215). Further, she contends “since social media has spread rapidly with little regulation, self-regulation appears to be one of the ways for users to protect themselves from its possible harms…” (ibid.). She noticed in her study that the perception of social media among the urban youth and the rural youth differed considerably in terms of objective, apprehension and attitude.

The next section of the book titled “Constructions” consists of two chapters where the scholars have described content-making processes among children using media. Through their ethnography and participatory approaches, they analysed the changing world of media which also had an impact on how the arts are consumed and practised. There is an increased recognition for creative work. In the past, children used to be told to put away their painting instruments and focus on “studies,” today parental figures frequently serve as patrons who post their children’s artistic strives on social media, hoping for encouragement and validation.

In chapter nine titled “Kids make art”, Mishra points out the importance of creative art in the lives of children, such that they can meaningfully create content. Such an enterprise would make them creative, resilient and promote empathy. This is also linked to the drive for self-promotion that characterises the contemporary work environment, which requires the individual to continuously demonstrate herself as a valuable professional.  The onus is increasingly on the person to illustrate the worth of her work rather than the frameworks of the artistic sector, and social networking operates as a medium to do so. His concluding remarks point out that “so many of the young people display, fragile, inner resources. Often, they come to creative practice because they have not been able to find a way to express themselves elsewhere… clearly children not taking on the role of creative practitioners. In a variety of ways. They are finding their own way to some of these strengths” (pp. 253-4)

In Chapter ten titled “Redefining the political by visual narratives of Sangwadi Khabaria in central India”, Belavadi recounts instances from Sangwari khabariya community, where media literacy among children of underprivileged backgrounds has been beneficial in developing agency, projecting marginal voices and most importantly, helped them making critical political observations.   He described how the students chosen for the project were originally apprehensive to participate because the majority of them had not been exposed to the world outside their village. The first challenge was convincing them to trust our organisation and how it worked.  Peer learning, as well as vernacular vocabulary, were employed to instruct students in video editing. By the end of the programme, all of the youngsters could edit videos on their own, though not with professional finesse. These videos were streamed in community gatherings, intended to inform people about their rights and privileges. He argues that, in order to build a paradigm for financial sustainability, alternative or community media must be embedded in political and democratic interactions (pp.265-8).

The final section of the book, “Negotiations” offers insights from margins, where media acts as an escape route as well as survival strategy among young people belonging to the margins of society. In chapter eleven titled “Romance in the times of Facebook”, Rangaswamy used face-to-face in-depth interviews with 31 teenagers, adopting participative, observational and formal methods of study to reflect upon their Facebook usage in everyday life in urban slums of Chennai and Hyderabad. She explored online social relationships and digital etiquettes, where youngsters learn through trial and error. The idea of the digital self and its allied practices are empowering for teens. She noted, “multimedia-rich, interactive interfaces like Facebook timelines, seem to provide a part of self-empowerment through reciprocal acknowledgement, admiration, and even self-expressions of passionate fandom” (p.284). Her findings imply that the availability of unfiltered digital products among adolescents and teens helps in articulating, a sensation of being lesser-marginalised, particularly in the use of digital media. She also stated that an excess of digital self-profiling on Facebook resulted in a surplus-self, which is a combination of both beneficial and detrimental interactions encountered by users on the margins of digital society. While she further questions, the academic audience that, “rather than technology, injecting, social norms and behaviours into users. This study exemplifies how young people can knead technologies to support social norms. Even social norms are usually thought of as deeply embedded in social systems where technology is least expected to bring dramatic sometimes impactful change” (p.295).

In chapter twelve, titled “Religious Socialization of Children”, Bhatia’s essay criticises how the media promotes religion as the main reason for regulating children’s activities and behaviours. Her findings imply that media has the capacity to plunge youngsters into religious fantasies by determining the ways in which they speak, act, and behave in connection to the religious self and the other. In her ethnographic research on Hindu and Muslim young children in Gujarat, she demonstrates how media discourse includes representational tactics and promotes the normalised code of behaviour in religious communities, resulting in the appearance of microaggression (p.317).  She concluded by expressing hope that the goal of unlearning religious biases will necessitate research by scholars and educators in order to conceptualise projects in critical media literacy (p.323-4).

These detailed engaging empirical and theoretical chapters in this volume suggest that the creative arts and media landscapes are inextricably linked. In this surrounding environment, children, particularly urban children, begin acquiring media skills at a young age, outside of mandatory education. Children today have an inherent comprehension of the language of imagery. This is apparent in how kids utilise social media sites such as Instagram and Snapchat, combining image and text to create narratives from their day-to-day. This book will be valuable to academia in media and communication studies, cultural studies, and research, in addition to the field of psychology and broadcasting readership.  The chapters give crucial information for parents, teacher training programmes, child-oriented NGOs, and other parties involved in children’s issues. The book is a thorough synthesis of several theoretical traditions and research practices, and it is one of the few publications on the subject that covers both critical and empirical approaches to the topic. It combines developmental psychology, cultural studies, childhood sociology, and health studies, among other disciplines, to provide knowledge of the roles media play in the changing nature of childhood in India.

Reflection of Saudi Women’s Participation and Leadership: A Study on the Gender Differences in Leadership and Structural Barriers

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351 views

Musrrat Parveen
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Department of Human Resource Management, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Email mpmohammed@kau.edu.sa

[Received 18 March 2023, modified 25 June 2023, accepted 27 June 2023, first published 18 July 2023′]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.16
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Abstract

This article examines gender disparities and structural barriers in the Saudi Arabian workforce from 2000 to 2022. It proposes measures to promote women’s participation and leadership. Multiple databases, including Emerald, IEEE Explore, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, were searched using generic terms. Additionally, official Saudi government reports, magazines, newspapers, books, and journals were used as secondary data sources. Torraco’s method analyzed 10 studies on gender gap and gender differences (2011-2023), 16 studies on structural barriers (2000-2012), and 30 studies (2013-2022). The study highlights critical areas of disparities and barriers, including the need for legal and policy reforms, increasing women’s visibility in the economic sector, transforming attitudes towards women’s leadership and participation, addressing time and mobility constraints, reducing wealth and power inequalities, inspiring and supporting women in leadership roles, and providing assistance for the transmission of leadership roles that recognize and promote women’s rights. The findings divulged various implementations and Strategies to overcome the gender gap, gender differences in leadership, and structural barrier to women’s participation by Saudi government. The research emphasizes the importance of policy reform to foster gender equality in the Saudi Arabian workplace. Reforms outlined in the “Saudi Vision 2030” have made significant progress. Policymakers can utilize this study’s findings to promote women’s participation and leadership in the Saudi workforce.

Keywords: Strategies & policies, Structural barriers, Gender differences, Gender gap, Saudi Women Studies

Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality

Logic as a Tool for Developing Critical Thinking

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336 views

Lukas Vartiak1, Galina Jaseckova2, Milan Konvit3

1Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Mediamatics, Bratislava, Slovakia. ORCID: 0000-0002-9735-5945. Email: lukas.vartiak@fses.uniba.sk

2Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Mediamatics, Bratislava, Slovakia. ORCID: 0000-0002-3699-8082. Email: galina.jaseckova@fses.uniba.sk

3Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Mediamatics, Bratislava, Slovakia. ORCID: 0000-0002-4959-7819. Email: milan.konvit@fses.uniba.sk

[Received 25 May 20023, modified 26 June 2023, accepted 28 June 2023, first published 30 June 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.15
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Abstract

A characteristic feature of modern society is the ever-expanding information space. Hidden information attacks harm the lives of individuals and society in general. In this regard, studies of critical thinking seem particularly important to us. Therefore, critical thinking is interpreted in the academic discourse mainly in connection with the effort to cope with the growing amount of misinformation and hate speech. While teachers and policymakers consider critical thinking an important educational goal, many are unclear about developing this competency in a school setting. For many key competencies, the question is whether and how they can be acquired through planned educational courses/programs. Although there are specific training programs for critical thinking as a core competency, their design and effectiveness are scientifically controversial. Instruction in critical thinking becomes extremely important because it allows individuals to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the information they encounter and promotes good decision-making and problem-solving in real-world applications. Despite the ambiguity of the term critical thinking, its close connection with logical culture is evident. Logical culture is the culture of thinking manifested in the culture of written and oral speech. The starting point for developing critical thinking skills should be logic. Logic as a science of correct thinking is the basis on which the program for developing critical thinking is based. The paper’s main aim is to identify the status of critical thinking as an independent discipline. A partial aim of the paper is to define the relationship between critical thinking and logic. The paper is divided into six parts, while the main findings are summarised in conclusions. In its purest form, logic does not teach how to work with a changing context or apply it to the subject realities of various disciplines, but such characteristics as precision, clarity, provability, and persuasiveness are key for this science. It is through logic that the basic principles of thinking, which we call critical, are revealed, the rules of argumentation and definitions are explained, and misconceptions and errors are displayed. Logic is distinguished from other sciences by the fundamentality of the discussed problems. Logic is the only science that combines mathematics, computer science and humanities education. We believe that modern logic is only the beginning of the first of the sciences of a new generation, which will be invited to combine the analyticity of the scientific method with the synthetics of perception of the humanitarian point of view. Therefore, we believe that the development of critical thinking skills appears to be productive in combination with the study of logic and is a priority in the modern educational process. It is difficult to imagine the formation of critical thinking in isolation from the building of the logical culture of the individual, which gives him a solid foundation for understanding the essence of critical thinking.

Keywords: Logic, Informal logic, Critical thinking, Cognitive theories, Teaching Logic, Competencies.

Retrieval of Identity Layers in Persian Illustrated Lithographed Manuscripts with Religious Themes of the Qajar Era

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255 views

Mahmonir Shirazi1 & Maryam Hoseini2

1Postdoctoral Researcher, Lecturer at Alzahra University. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4175-4912. Email: m.shirazi@alzahra.ac.ir

2Professor at Alzahra University, Department of Persian Literature, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6778-1188. Email: drhoseini@alzahra.ac.ir

[Received 05 May 20023, modified 20 June 2023, accepted 22 June 2023, first published 24 June 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.14
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Abstract:

This paper aims to scrutinize the identity layers in artworks of the Qajar era. Identity in art has different layers and each layer depends on different aspects. the Qajar Era is one of the culturally productive periods in Iran. It also had widespread relations with the West in different matters. Thus several identity layers in the culture and artworks can be seen in this period. The research tries to answer this question: what are the identity layers and their priorities found in the Lithographed Manuscripts with religious themes in the Qajar Era? The analysis of 10 manuscripts with various dates shows that there are four identity layers: archaism, Persian-Islamic, Western-style and Islamic-Shi? tendency in artworks of the Qajar Era and each type of artwork, some layers have more importance.

Keywords: Identity layers, Lithography, Art of the Qajar, religious Manuscript, Illustration

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The Dialectics of the Performance of the Kecak Ramayana in Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia

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Robby Hidajat1, Utami Widiati2, E.W. Suprihatin D.P3, Guntur4 & Surasak Jamnongsarn5
1-3Department of Art and Design, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Email: robby.hidajat.fs@um.ac.id
4Department of Craft, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Surakarta
5Department of Traditional Thai and Asian Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, Srinakharinwirot University

[Submitted 05 May 20023, modified 20 June 2023, accepted 22 June 2023, first published 24 June 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.13
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Theoretical
The Ramayana kecak is a popular tourist art in Bali that is rich in symbolism. The audience watches only from the front of the stage, which is formalistic in nature, witnessing different scenes, characteristics of figures, structures, and dramatic factors. The performers are not aware that the backstage is the realm of rituals and a part of the deep experience of spiritual beliefs. The front stage and backstage should be viewed as complementary duality. Activities behind the stage are more natural while those on the front stage are a manipulation. The backstage can be understood as a dramaturgical richness of a paradoxical and symbolic Eastern performing art. Therefore, the appeal of the backstage is not an attractive consideration. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with Ramayana kecak artists at Uluwatu Temple, Bali, and a document analysis was done. The theories used are symbolic interpretation, text and context, and symbolic structure. The results of the research present a description of the dramaturgy of Balinese performing art with a specific focus on: 1. Dramaturgy of the front stage, 2. Dramaturgy of the backstage, and 3. Local spiritual aesthetics including the spirit of duality known as taksu which is rooted in Rwa Bhineda.

Keywords: Kecak Ramayana, dramaturgy, performing art, Uluwatu Temple.

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Ballet in Virtual Reality: On the Problem of Synthesizing “End-to-End” Technologies and Theatrical Stage Art

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Tatiana V. Portnova
The Kosygin State University of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: portnova_ta@bk.ru

Submitted 10 January 2022, modified 27 May 2023, accepted 17 June 2023, first published 21 June 2023

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.12
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Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of synthesizing “end-to-end” technologies and theatrical (stage) art. The author proceeds from the fact that in the era of industrialization, a person’s perceptual practices are carried out through the prism of a new, generative reality, which, consequently, causes the transformation of the spatial-temporal model of aesthetic experience. However, the artist as the creator of a work of art, having a special sensitivity to reality, can see what may be inaccessible to his audience. The hypothesis is put forward that this ability is based on a simultaneous perception of time and space, the fundamentalization of which in the perceptual practice and aesthetic experience of the viewer is the main task of a modern artist. The verification of this hypothesis was carried out through the prism of the synthesis of virtual reality as an “end-to-end” digital technology and stage (choreographic) art, where time and space become the subject of artistic reflection. The methodological foundation of the research is based on a discursive analysis, which allows us to understand, firstly, how modern stage (choreographic) digital art offers the viewer to make a path on his own, with a “previously passed meaning” and with the help of his already existing perceptual experience; secondly, how the artist, as the creator of a work of digital art, builds and carries out a “conversation” with the viewer through the prism of the simultaneous communicative space initiated by him. The author emphasizes that a modern artist, regardless of his/her role in art, must have the skill of discursive analysis to be able to create a communicative space in which the viewer will be able to gain perceptual experience and independently “realize” the temporal-spatial mega-code, and understand the idea of the artist, regardless of how much it is hidden from the audience. In turn, the ability to discursive analysis of the viewer will allow you to collect and disperse meanings, transform them, return them to their original state and let them go back into the element of the game of signifiers, offering yourself to overcome the path in the semantic landscape of the work of theatrical (stage, choreographic) art.

Keywords: “end-to-end” technologies, theatrical art, choreographic art, virtual reality, perceptual practice, ballet, space, time.

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Scientific Experiment and Aesthetic Experience: A Review of Tabish Khair’s The Body by the Shore (2022)

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434 views

Publisher: Interlink Books (7 June 2022). Language: English

Reviewed by
Ramesh Kumar Mahtha
Doctoral Scholar of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Indore. Email: phd1901261012@iiti.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.11
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Abstract

Based on the post-pandemic scenario and set in the year 2030-31, Khair’s novel The Body by the Shore explores human interventions in the natural dimensions of life in their ugliest forms. Featuring microbes and viruses, this book presents a scathing criticism of our society, where people’s unquenchable desires for power and capital have been a big obstacle to humanity. Delving into the experiment of science and aesthetics of literature with a tinge of religion, Khair has taken an in-between space between these two without taking any side to show the ethics of the society in power. The old wound of racism has not left its mark in Denmark because the big and powerful from top positions take care of permanent economic exploitation, which Khair shows in this novel through Private and Governmental associations and their convoys like Command Alpha Mercenary Group. While making literature a thinking device, at the same time, bringing the mixture of mystery and thriller on the oil rigs, this novel evokes a fantastic experience for readers of all age groups.

Keywords: Speculative fiction, Covid-19 post-pandemic, Human intervention with nature, Microbes and Symbiosis, Oil-rig, Tabish Khair,

Introduction

The Body by the Shore is a literature cum science fiction or speculative fiction set in Denmark that imagines a futuristic abandoned oil rig used for an organ trade business through a secret refugee route in the North Sea. Khair’s novel, as a speculative fiction, is a Chimera, a fantastic idea about metabolic symbiosis that can change humanity. His concern for the environment is paramount in this novel presenting “greater worries due to sinking coastlines and islands” (The Body by the Shore: 2022, 63). The Covid-19 pandemic and its atrocities in the world created a sense of panic against the dangerous bacteria and all kinds of microbes, and this age became the age of bacteria. The Body by the Shore has centered on this tension of microbes and symbiosis.

A human being cannot directly fight bacteria; we need antibiotic-resistant bacteria that will fight from our side. So, this book explores the idea of symbiosis between good microbes and harmful microbes that human interventions have disrupted for their unquenchable greed for material wealth and power. Based on the post-pandemic Denmark and connecting other parts of the world, including oil rigs in the sea, Khair has taken this issue of human intervention with nature and how far they can go in their evil intentions forgetting their place on the earth. But even after all this social turmoil, people have not understood the impact of the anthropocentric characteristic that has endowed all the troubles of microbes. Mr. Watch (Mikhailov) says, “What a virus it was, it changed everything, and no one has noticed it” (273). Khair wants to throw light on the health crisis and gov. policies on how abnormal things are normalized in this period. People suffered more from systemic violence from the government and big corporations than viruses or microbes. In this novel, an abandoned rig has become the operation theatre of organ trade and lab for the experiment of the human body. Similarly, Khair creates Command Alpha, a mercenary group that benefits from global tragedy. Khair’s intertextual understanding of scientific observations is relatively new and praiseworthy.

Human beings, or Homo Sapiens, believe themselves the perfect being in every sense and is “the only species on the earth that produces junk … Not excrement, not waste, junk” (261). He takes it to another level by arguing,

Our planet is full of junk. … Anti-nationals, Jews, Palestinians, Yazidis, Rohingya. This novel is a criticism of our human society by giving DNA examples by saying that 98% out of 100% of our DNAs are superfluous in terms of ‘freeloaders, bums, refugees, anti-nationals, discards, rejects etc. (261).

If nothing else, the pandemic showed the precarious nature of human existence that can be unsettled with tiny microbes. If any event could teach us that we are a tiny part of the universe cosmic, this should be it.

Progress for the human species should not be in a few hands. And yet, a few powerful multi-billionaires, sitting in different corners of the world, run this material world which makes regress instead of progress for species, as Mermaid believes, “progress for our species is regress for life on earth” (262). Progress will happen, as Vijay Nair in the novel says, until or “unless every one of them has an equal share in the good” (171). Khair has shown coral concern in this novel caused by thermal power in the big oil rig business. People are running behind artificial paradise or finding happiness in elements like drugs, which has become one of the options for the post-pandemic world. Kathy, a drug addict, lives in such a world. Khair’s concern for future people’s peace is noteworthy; he believes that dreams have become very costly, and people cannot do what they want. They are just mere little fish in the mouth of a bigger one and can enjoy their freedom till the big fish is not closing its mouth. Microbes are an essential part of the life cycle, and Khair sees this in two aspects: one, if we destroy microbes from the earth, many infectious diseases will disappear, and second, at the same time, other lives, including humans, will disappear too. Microbes are so powerful in nature that “they do not just make us see things; they can also make us do things” (264).

Humans have always glorified the human communication system, and they are very proud of this, but to think that we humans are the only beings capable of communicating and especially communicating across species is a big mistake. The novel disagrees with this by saying that ‘trees, shrubs, mushrooms, fungi, microbes are far better at communicating than we are, and that they communicate between species too’ (265). We are not just part of an ecosystem. We are ourselves an ecosystem (265). We find the glorification of ancient Indian sages in terms of their perceptions and knowledge of organisms inside and outside us, what they said and figured out ages ago.

The novel’s protagonist, Jens Erik, is depicted as an anti-hero because of his conservative take on outsiders. He cares more about what happens in his country than any migrant, refugee, and nigger people. It is something unexpected for a writer from postcolonial literature to present an anti-hero in his novel. After living many years in Denmark, Khair’s observation sheds a clear light on Danish society. Jens Erick’s character, a semi-retired police officer, gives a real sense of understanding against his racist ideas and hate against black and diaspora people in Denmark. Khair notices the changes coming from the people of a new generation. In the novel, Erik’s daughter, a new generation’s mind, sees her father as a racist after she sees the picture of her father involved in police brutality. Coming from this younger generation, she does not accept the racist ideology that her father generalizes for outsiders. Mr Erik’s justification, as a police officer, for his violent action against migrant people (black) is that he became fearful because of the mob and hit them, which is what xenophobia means. Xenophobia is more about power than fear (The New Xenophobia, 2016), it starts apparently from the fear of other people that changes into hatred for them, leading to violence. The perpetrator never says he has committed any wrong.

The idea of fear is interior, whether it is islamophobia, xenophobia, or homophobia. The older generation is affected by their tradition; sometimes, this fear comes from traditional beliefs and thinking that is not one day or sudden emotion. It can be ancient traditions that, in the case of Jens Erik, work as a protective cloth from his childhood, it makes a root inside him, and it is not easy to throw very quickly as the newer generation as his daughter does. The reason for hatred and prejudice against others can be so many things, and it is complex to understand them. This can help to understand how the idea of nation and nationality are always divisible in nature and hence protected by a national border. But it is never meant to see migrants and migration as other and hostile. It is only when the feeling of hyper or radical dominates people in terms of hyper-masculine, hyper-protective, hyper-reactive etc., nationality loses its integrity.

Khair’s early novel, How to Fight Islamist Terror from Missionary Position, raises this question of migration and Danish people’s attitude to migration in general and Islam in particular. In the novel The Body by the Shore, Khair shows this tension of migration between the characters of Mr Erik and his daughter, Pernille, through their recurring arguments and fight about second-generation immigrants and first-generation immigrants. Khair tries to show how the non-Muslim world is still not empathetic towards Muslims and fails to perceive their culture and lifestyles, as the narrator says, “Muslims had been replaced by a virus as the global villain […], though with similar effects” (37), suggests how this Western idea about Muslims is stereotyped as terrorists or global villains is nothing but the western discourse and its power of distorted cognition that people are suffering from. But Covid-19 and the viruses replaced this Muslim villain by taking their job of killing people worldwide. People forget about terrorist and their problems when news channels and media got their new topics, or we can say new discourse, to feed upon the distorted cognition of people. This racism does not come because they are a police officer or businessman but the very identity of their Muslim background. Aslan, Erik’s Turkish friend, always remained the subject of suspicion because of his identity as a Muslim. Same with Hanif from Bangladesh, his representations as an agent remained suspicious because of his background as a Bangladeshi Muslim and hence others. Khair believes that understanding is more important than knowledge because a straightforward generalization of knowledge lacks many kinds of understanding. Michelle, the most suppressed character, could save her life because of the quest of Jens Erick and Aslan Barzani for an unknown black body that washed up years ago. Aslan understands and ignores Jens Erik’s xenophobic ramblings because, on the one hand, if Erik hates immigration, on the other hand, he has sympathy for outsiders and saves Michelle, a Caribbean woman, from dying, which the daughter of Erik could not understand. According to Khair, this understanding is not simple, “Not all is direct. Not all visible, not all verbal” (266). Pernille hates her father because she sees him as a racist who hates foreigners and blacks. But later, she realizes she is partly wrong because her father saves Michelle.

Set in the frame of a campus novel, it deals with post-pandemic life in 2032 based on one past symposium organized in 2012 at Arhus University. Khair makes this symposium a mystery as most of the scholars who had attended that symposium died in mysterious ways. The science experiment with the human body to make it extraordinary so that even after death, it can be used as a killing machine for various purpose shows how science always pushes the boundary of limitations and go beyond nature. The international organ trade racket hidden behind the curtain of a tourist agency that facilitates this business without much trouble is one of the sharpest attacks by Khair on Western ideology when he shows how the West is using young ‘bodies’ with good organs as resources for their upliftment. Khair’s attention on the unprecedented numbers of refugees moving from one country to another, their forced migration inside and outside the country caused by the post-pandemic world due to Covid-19 presents a phenomenon that has completely shaken humanity from the very core leading human exploitation. Human trafficking for the healthy organ trade is something Khair wants to show can be humanity’s biggest challenge, as the ivory trade has changed into the organ trade, which has surplus value in the international market.

The novel’s most important location is an oil rig in the North Sea, where Kurt, the agent, who deals with the business of organ trade and human trafficking, makes this novel a petrofiction. The oil industry and organ trade are the kind of business with another dark face of the black market. Such business can be handled only by powerful people who involve big corporations, including the government, who can take care of law and order very easily. This thing is apparent in the novel that all the official records are erased by government officials in confidential ways so that none can trace the death of most of the scholars and professors who had attended the Arhus University symposium and were in tune with the knowledge of such gory business where money overflow.

Khair, being an avid reader of Ghosh’s works, has done a thorough reading of counter-science as Ghosh has done in his work, Calcutta Chromosome (1996) and has been able to bring out the spark of discussions in secret occults and the existence of souls even after death by depicting the long flowery gown lady who floats in the air nearby the oil rig after her death. The impact of climate change is one of the most critical issues presented in this novel. Khair has tried to warn this society of the sudden and unexpected water level in the tsunami shown in the novel in the North Sea. Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, greatly influences Khair’s writings. The comparison between Khair’s character, ‘Kurt’ can quickly be made with Conrad’s character ‘Kurtz. Kurt is doing his evil and dark business of organ trade and lab experiments with human beings on an oil rig in the North Sea, whereas Conrad’s Kurtz does his cruel business of ivory in the heart of Africa, down the Congo River. The eponymous character Michelle is Khair’s Marlow, whom half remembers the line from Conrad’s novel, “he is very little more than a voice” (181). This novel can be read as the present-day colonialism and vast wealth inequality in trade business between the global North and the global South. Through Michelle’s narrative strand, Khair has also created a claustrophobic atmosphere in the oil rig.

In the futuristic setting of the 2030-2032 post-pandemic world, Khair presents an apocalyptic vision of the world where the retirement of people from work is like big death and the addiction to dangerous drugs like ‘crobe’ has changed the face of humanity. Even a fitness addict like Kathy can change into a drug addict, who is not a typical female but a former clandestine Command Alpha mercenary group member. Khair presents a sight of the future where the oil rig is still a problem, showing his understanding of our human society, which will never do anything without benefit. Khair’s portrayal of a mysterious woman in a long flowery dress who disappears and reappears anywhere at any moment remains a mystery at the novel’s end. The oil rig where the business of organs trade and all the experiments with human genes were happening became a haunted rig for other people, “they often claimed that the water around the rig smelled of violets, not seaweed or oil” (267).

The anti-hero, Jens Erik’s understanding of migrants and refugees, is very critical; he supports the idea of staying rooted in one place. But his devotion or faith in his locality and country is adamant and unabashed, which makes his character endearing to readers. This relating and, at the same time, combative nature of roots and routes presented by Khair is intensive and creates the dialogue Rushdie presents in his novel Shame. The dialogue between father and daughter creates tension of national importance when Jens Erik believes that one should not leave the familiarity of the place where one grows up and is suspicious and xenophobic of migrants for having left their homes. But his daughter Pernille sees this differently. She believes in routes out for refugees and migrants whose homes have become unlivable because of Western intervention. Pernille attacks him by giving reference to Rushdie’s lines, “he writes in one of his books that trees have roots, human beings have legs. […] Trees have roots, so they stay in one place; human beings have legs to move with, walk, run, travel, emigrate” (53). But Mr Erik manages a witty reply – “human beings also have buttocks to sit on” (53). This reply declares Khair’s voice that he does not want to give his final comment about what he supports for human- routes or roots. Khair, through the minor characters, like Lenin Ghosh from Phansa, and the rural Zimbabwean girl Maita, literalizes this notion of roots in this novel because they live where they grow up. But his taking of this very issue and presenting this problem somehow shows that he supports routes; he wants people to move as Khair’s other works also deal with the issue of migration and throw light on how to fight in such conditions. So, The Body by the Shore harnesses the anxiety and latent insecurities that have floated in the post-pandemic world.

Declaration of Conflicts of Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest.

References

Khair, T. (2022). The body by the shore. Interlink Books, an imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, Inc.

Khair, T. (2016). How to fight Islamist Terror from the missionary position. HarperCollins.

Khair, T. (2016). The new xenophobia. Oxford University Press.

Ghosh, A. (2011). The Calcutta chromosome. Murray, John.

Rushdie, S. (2008). Shame: A novel. Random House Trade Paperback.

Conrad, J. (2017). Heart of darkness. Amazon Classics.

Authors‘ Bio

Ramesh Kumar Mahtha is a Doctoral scholar in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Department of English, IIT Indore. He has completed his masters from Banaras Hindu University. He is currently working as an SRF scholar on the works of Tabish Khair with the supervision of Professor Nirmala Menon in the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, IIT Indore. His area of research involves Postcolonial and Postmodern studies in Indian English literature and his thesis indulges on the problems of Identity and Violence.

 

Factors Affecting Motivation in Learning Classical Dance: An Empirical Study

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Kateryna I. Kukhar1, Natalia V. Bilous2
1Kyiv State Ballet College, Kyiv, Ukraine. Email: kateryna_kukhar@edu-knu.com
2Branch of Museum of Kyiv History, Serge Lifar Museum, Kyiv, Ukraine. Email: bilous0712@gmail.com

Received 15 January 2022, modified 17 May 2023, accepted 20 May 2023, first published 14 June 2023.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.10
Full-Text PDF Issue Access

Abstract

This article aims to determine the most optimal pedagogical techniques and methods for influencing students to develop motivation in teaching classical dance. The article reveals the essence of the concept of motivation and examines the factors that affect the reduction of motivation during classical dance lessons. In the empirical part of the study, the author analyzes the self-determined level of motivation of students of Kyiv State Ballet College. The authors of this article used the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (BREQ-2) adapted to the issue under the study, the technique for determining the level of learning motivation in students developed by Ginzburg, and the technique for diagnosing learning motives developed by Badmaeva. The study shows that the level of motivation is growing among senior college students due to the improvement of their formed competencies and an increase in responsibility for learning outcomes. It was also studied that the self-motivation to dance was stronger than demotivation among the respondents. In the final part of the study, the authors of this article suggest various approaches and techniques to increase the motivation of students, activate their creative potential, and thereby enhance the effectiveness of the educational process. The study also highlights psychological and pedagogical conditions for increasing the motivation level to succeed in teaching classical dance.

Keywords: classical dance, motivation, demotivation, pedagogical techniques, methods of influence.

 

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Polyartistic Approach in Music Education: A Tool for Teaching and Developing Creative and Critical Thinking

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Jin Yaoquan1, Huang Ruiping2, Zhang Yang3, Valerii Marchenko4
1 Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Social Sciences, Izmail State University of Humanities, Odesa, Ukraine. Email: jin_yaoquan@edu.cn.ua
2 Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Social Sciences, Izmail State University of Humanities, Odesa, Ukraine. Email: huang_ruiping@edu.cn.ua
3 Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Social Sciences, Izmail State University of Humanities, Odesa, Ukraine. Email: zhang_yang@edu.cn.ua
4 Scientific and Educational Institute “Academy of Arts named after S.S. Prokofiev,” V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University, Kyiv, Ukraine. Email: valerii_marchenko@sci-univ.com

Received 15 May 2023, modified 02 June 2023, accepted 08 June 2023, first published 14 June 2023.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.09
Full-Text PDF Issue Access

Abstract

The article presents two models for introducing a polyartistic approach in Bachelor’s and Master’s training. The study emphasizes the need to integrate art and art education into the educational process as a factor in the development of creative and critical thinking, communicative and sociocultural competencies of future music teachers. The first model, known as the linear one, implies the inclusion of polyartistic disciplines and tracks in the educational program. This model allows students to choose electives that meet their interests and professional qualifications. This approach provides students with flexibility in planning their academic path and learning issues related to polyartistic education more comprehensively. The second model, the concentric one, is used in the Master’s degree programs. This model enables students to expand their knowledge and skills in the polyartistic component based on the knowledge gained during their Bachelor studies. Students study polyartistic subjects and thus expand their theoretical, methodological, and performing skills. These two models can be used for training secondary school music teachers and teachers of institutions of supplementary art education. The introduction of a polyartistic approach into the discussed models helps to better understand and apply art as a tool for teaching and contributes to the development of creative and critical thinking, communicative and sociocultural competencies of future music teachers. This article suggests new approaches to the formation of the professional identity of music teachers, the development of students’ creative abilities, and the use of modern technologies in polyartistic education. The conclusions of this article can serve as a basis for further research and development of practical aspects of introducing a polyartistic approach into the process of training music teachers.

Keywords: Polyartistic approach, teacher training, linear model, concentric model.

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