Vol 8 No 4 - Page 2

The Aesthetic Gaze: Siting Nineteenth Century Indian Travel Writing

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Avishek Ray

Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Silchar, Cachar, Assam. Email: avishek.avishek@gmail.com

 Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.14

Received October 19, 2016; Revised December 24, 2016; Accepted December 30, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

Indians have reportedly been traveling to Europe since the seventeenth century and narrativizing their travel accounts at least since the mid-eighteenth century. However, ‘travelogue’, what we know by European standards, as a genre in the Indian context is intrinsically linked with colonial exposure, the literary ‘modernity’ that purportedly ushered thereafter, and the high noon of Indian nationalism. Citing late nineteenth and early twentieth century ‘Indian’ travelogues, this paper examines the stakes in the Indian travelers emulating the eighteenth century Grand Tourist, and demonstrates how the literary articulation of tourism therein is symptomatic of an elitist-exclusionary mindset that strived to showcase cultural proximity with the colonizer on the one hand, while distantiating the colonially un(der)exposed ‘natives’ on the other hand.

Keywords: Indian travelogue, nineteenth century, colonial modernity, British India, aesthetic gaze

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The Two-Faced Hound: On the Existence of Chivalry and Its Relevance to Knighthood in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Tales of Dunk and Egg

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Siavash Rohani & Hassan Abootalebi

Jahad Daneshgahi (Isfahan), Iran

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.13

Received October 21, 2016; Revised December 12, 2016; Accepted December  20, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

The current paper deals with the nature of knighthood and its connection with chivalry in George R. R. Martin’s medieval fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-) and Tales of Dunk and Egg (1998-). Taking place in the fictional world of Westeros, these novels portray a realm in which there is an increasingly growing rift between knighthood and chivalry. On one side of the rift, which is mainly spearheaded by Sandor “the Hound” Clegane, the practice of knighthood solely centers on the skill at swords and horsemanship, with chivalry and honor regarded as expendable decorations. On the other side, exemplary knights like Barristan Selmy and Duncan the Tall hold that, while martial skills are inseparable from knighthood, it is chivalry that distinguishes a knight from a common soldier. With an emphasis on the outlooks of the Hound on knighthood and chivalry, the current study aims to examine the character’s sometimes conflicting attitudes towards his profession in an attempt to determine the accuracy of his claims on the irrelevancy of chivalry and knighthood, as well as the unreality of true knights.

 Keywords: knight, chivalry, George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, Tales of Dunk and Egg.

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Contemporary Geopoetics in the Context of the Formation of a New Geospatial Discourse

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Vladimir Gennadyevich Bogomyakov

Tyumen State University, Russia

 Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.12

Received August 28, 2016; Revised November 30, 2016; Accepted December  05, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

 Abstract

Currently, the geospatial discourse is rapidly changing. This is caused by the search for identity, people’s attempts to understand themselves and the space where they live in a new global and universal context. Geopoetics as a semantic field between poetry, philosophy and science, a method of space poetization, an attempt to create a particular language associated with the admiration of landscape, takes a special place among the areas of non-traditional geography, appearing in the conditions of a “spatial turn” in social sciences and humanities. The article considers some geopoetical projects in which the author participated, and concludes that they represent an important trend in the formation of a new geospatial discourse. All of them are not based on meta-narratives, imply the admiration of landscape and empathy for it; they often gravitate toward the performance, happening and street-art.

 Keywords: geospatial discourse, geopolitics, geopoetics, landscape.

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Communication as a Factor of Achieving a Holistic Being in the Age of Networked Media

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Vladimir Gladyshev1, Alena Kouznetsova2, Regina Penner3

1,3South Ural State University, Russia

2American Center of Education, Moscow

                      Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.11

Received October 08, 2016; Revised December 09, 2016; Accepted December  15, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

The problem of communication has always been in the center of attention of philosophers. Today it became of current interest because the world is changing and becoming very complicated. Human’s position in the world is unstable and it is becoming difficult to survive in a total communication. Virtual communication “displaces” real “meeting” I and Thou. Media just complicate existing structures of communication. In this turbulent world the younger generation (Digital Natives) still needs mentors which are able to direct their intuition and energy in creative direction, to create a sphere of dialogue, to cultivate harmonious personalities. Communication is the substance of human existence, but in the discourse of the media features of communication complicated, they take the nature of rhizome, become chaotic. At the same time human can establish harmony with the outside world and him- (or her-) self. But he (or she) can’t overcome the effects of the media (the acceleration of information; the simplification of information; the likening of information; the “dissolution” of person) alone. Therefore, finding ways to harmonize communication in the era of networked media becomes the priority. That is why the main result of the study is identifying requirements of communication which can help human to find announced harmony.

 Keywords: communication, media, modernity, integrity, holistic being, communication requirements.

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The Media Discourse in the Conceptual Coordinates of Linguistic Ecology

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Anna Vladimirovna Kuznetsova1  Ella Germanovna Kulikova2 Vladimir Rafaeliyevich Sarkisiyants3 Pavel Vsevolodovich Zayats4

1Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia

2Rostov State University of Economics, Rostov-on-Don, 344002, Russia

3Russian State University of Justice (Rostov Branch), Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia

4Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russia

 Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.10

Received August 25, 2016; Revised November 25, 2016; Accepted December  15, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

 Abstract

Linguoecology studies all various-level language units, the use of which is contrary to the structural-language or ethical-speech standards and reduces the purity and comfort of communication. Linguoecology researches discourse as speech-thinking activity organizing specific communication types (audio, visual, audio-visual communication) which are eventually markers of mass media discourse and mediaspace in general. Discourse is understood as the actualizations of text structures in interaction with extralinguistic factors determining the perception and understanding of information allowing to consider the discourse as cognitive and communicative-pragmatic phenomenon. The discourse structure is multidimensional and includes described events, their participants, performative information and “non-events”, i.e.  the backdrop to the events, background, evaluation of the event participants, etc. The article discusses the emerging correlative connections between the conceptual paradigm of linguistic ecology and heuristic potential for the study of media discourse in modern linguistics.

Keywords: linguoecology, media discourse, media space, communicative space, borrowings, manipulation, criminalization

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Imagining the “Enemy”: Adversarial Roles in Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Stories

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Mohammad A. Quayum

Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia. Email: mquayum@gmail.com

 

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.09

Received September 09, 2016; Accepted September 19, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

This essay investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s portrayal of antagonists or adversarial characters in a select body of his short stories, and argues that his perception of the antagonist is rooted in the influences of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita on his literary sensibility. Cut off from the paramatman and their antar-karana, his antagonists live in adviya and in rajasic or tamasic states.

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Politics of Equivocation and Deferral: Queen Elizabeth I and the Execution of Queen Mary of Scotland

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Nabanita Chakraborty

Assistant Professor, Hansraj College, University of Delhi. orcid.org/0000-0001-7182-6246. Email: cnita.in@gmail.com

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.08

Received October 29, 2016; Revised December 21, 2016; Accepted December 25, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

Equivocation, indecisiveness and delay in action have often been viewed pejoratively in a world dominated by the discourse of rationality, dynamic individual action and potentiality. My article argues that procrastination and equivocation can be political strategies to avoid exigencies in the state. To elaborate my argument, a speech of Queen Elizabeth I deferring the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, November 24, 1586 has been closely analyzed to examine how rhetoric of ambiguity and deferral  act as diplomatic and prudent approaches to promote peace and respond to political exigency in early-modern England. This article concludes that Queen Elizabeth’s political statesmanship lies in understanding the dynamics of power related to voluntary inaction rather than to violent action.

 Keywords: deferral, equivocation, politics, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary of Scotland

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Heidegger and the Question of Freedom in The Eumenides

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Bahee Hadaegh1 Mohsen Sohrabi2

1Assistant Professor, Shiraz University, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics, Department of Foreign Language and Linguistics. Email: bhadaegh@rose.shirazu.ac.ir

2M.A. Graduate of Shiraz University, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics. E-mail: soshiant.sohrabi@gmail.com

 

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.07

Received August 13, 2016; Revised November 20, 2016; Accepted December  22, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

This paper first applies Heidegger’s notion of in/authenticity to Orestes in Aeschylus’ The Eumenides. The examination of authenticity is the departure point after which the question of freedom in this tragedy can be addressed mainly with Heidegger’s Being and Time in view. It then discusses a possible interpretation of the Greek god Apollo which frees and yet entangles Orestes in his course of decisions, which is also a harbinger of a new historical era in which the mythos for the historical Dasein brings it to the destiny of people. Heidegger’s understanding of tragedy brings the fate of historical man to the destiny of its people; therefore, in this reading of Aeschylus’ The Eumenides the individual—as in early Heidegger— transforms into a historical gestalt which is meaningful only with a look into the possibilities of future.

 Keywords: Authenticity, Being and Time, Freedom, History, The Eumenides

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Unhappy Consciousness: The (Im)Possibilities of Happiness in Hegel, Adorno, and Badiou

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Jeremy De Chavez1 & Jan Alain Villegas2

1Department of Literature, De La Salle University, Manila, Orcid: 0000-0003-0320-372X. Email: jeremy.dechavez@dlsu.edu.ph

2Department of Political Science, De La Salle University, Manila.

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.06

Received October 14, 2016; Revised December 10, 2016; Accepted December 12, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract
Dominant approaches to the study of happiness have primarily tended to be oriented towards the maximization of happiness. This drive toward maximization has entailed looking for ways to quantify and consequently measure the levels of happiness in individuals as well as in social groups. This paper, which represents an initial inquiry into the critical study of happiness, insists on the irreducible and finally profoundly subjective dimension of happiness. Drawing on the work of G.W.F Hegel, Theodor Adorno, and Alain Badiou, this essay attempts to formulate a theoretical framework that would be able to advance a legitimate critique on happiness, a concept that has for the most part evaded criticism, and suggests that the insights drawn from those aforementioned thinkers offer meaningful entry points through which a thorough inquiry of happiness might be pursued.
Keywords: Happiness, Affect, Adorno, Hegel, Badiou

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The Body Move: Revising Portuguese Female Poetry of the First Quarter of the Twentieth Century

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Isabel Pinto

Research Centre for Communication and Culture (the Catholic University of Portugal), Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, UCP, Palma de Cima, Lisboa–Portugal.E-mail: vilhalpandos@hotmail.com

Volume 8, Number 4, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n4.05

Received August 25, 2016; Revised December 15, 2016; Accepted December 20, 2016; Published January 14, 2017

Abstract

The first quarter of the twentieth century in Portugal was characterised by a series of important historical and political events: the Regicide (1st February 1908), the fall of the Monarchy and establishment of the Republic (5th October 1910), and the First World War (1914-1918). By this time, women could not yet vote and they were systematically ignored in the debate of crucial social issues. Therefore, the main question here addressed is how poetry as free embodiment can take part in a gender revolution, promoting the feminist turn. The answer lies in the consequent breakout of female sentimental literature, which entitled women to reveal themselves, by enabling the poetic scrutiny of their intimacy through a particular focus on the body as prime referent. In this way, they dared to expose dreams, desires, fulfilments and despairs, firming an identity pact through poetry, and engendering a collective voice with social meaning. The published poems here analysed convey the idea that being a woman was something valuable and unique, and, at the same time, manage to inscribe female poets such as Virgínia Vitorino and Zulmira Falcarreira in the Portuguese intellectual mainstream.

Keywords: twentieth-century poetry; women; gender; body; feminism.

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