Vol15N32023

Baby Boom amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: of Unwilling Fathers, Painful Motherhood and Poverty in Ozuitem Rural Community, Southeast Nigeria

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Victor Okoro Ukaogo1    & Ogechi Cecilia Ukaogo2
1,2 University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.32
[Article History: Received: 28 July 2023. Revised: 25 Sept 2023. Accepted: 26 Sept 2023. Published: 28 Sept 2023.]
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Abstract

This study interrogates the socio-economic outcomes of the COVID-19 lockdown especially the unexamined theme of the baby boom and unrestrained sexual behavior of teenagers in Ozuitem rural community, Abia State southeast Nigeria. It contends that although the lockdown restricted movements by keeping nearly everybody at home, it inadvertently provided opportunities for the predictably idle teenagers to grow their sexual appetite and experiment with their bodies. This yielded unwilling fathers and painful motherhood. With thirty-five (35) teenage mothers and a colony of male partners as of December 29, 2020, what appeared as a sex bazaar in a sleepy rural community clearly put UNICEF’s prediction of a massive baby boom for Africa between now and 2050 in sharper perspective. Using an admixture of oral interviews, participant-observer method and secondary sources, the study yielded curious and bizarre outcomes particularly the demography of the unwilling fathers, inappropriate rural perceptions and unpalatable insight into the future of the community and the wider society. To achieve this, newspapers, interviews, archival materials and other extant secondary sources have been used for data collection, analysis and the interpretation of results. The paper employs the qualitative method of analysis.

Keywords: Baby Boom, COVID-19, Unwilling Fathers, Teenage Motherhood, UNICEF, Africa.

Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality, Good Health and Well-being, Reduced Inequalities
Citation: Ukaogo, Victor Okoro & Ogechi Cecilia Ukaogo. 2023 Baby Boom amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: of Unwilling Fathers, Painful Motherhood and    Poverty in Ozuitem Rural Community, Southeast Nigeria. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.32 

Investigating ‘Moral Legitimacy’ and ‘Belonging’ within Subaltern Counterpublics vis-à-vis the Raj: A Study of Select Short Stories by Janice Pariat

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Lemon Sam1  & Ridhima Tewari2
1,2 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad, India

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.31
[Article History: Received: 16 August 2023. Revised: 24 Sept 2023. Accepted: 25 Sept 2023. Published: 28 Sept 2023.]
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Abstract

When there is a stringent demand for a viable reconstruction of the traditional socio-political structure, especially amid the paucity of “reliable” historical records from the pre-colonial era, the native population’s recurrent anxieties of losing indigenous cultural heritage, and instances of its xenophobic politics, become visible in an unprecedented form. In this context, the discursive void between the dominant state-power and “excluded” subjects usually engenders counter-cultural values of endowed “subaltern counterpublics”. Though these alternative public spheres are formed to uphold neglected discourses, often, a few ‘dissident’ voices reside within them to challenge the unanimity of such groups, towards more progressive ends. These apparent “nonconforming” discourses within the subaltern groups strive to foreground humanitarian principles by giving voice to alternative ideologies, and sometimes, for these propositions, are accused of lacking moral legitimacy towards the subaltern counterpublics themselves. Accentuating this vital site within the marginal yet homogenized discourse, the present paper attempts to foreground the question of moral legitimacy and its critical linkages with participatory parity of the subaltern counterpublics in the context of the British colonial era in Meghalaya. It further seeks to unpack how subaltern politics itself is manipulated by anti-egalitarian ethos within the subaltern counterpublics, in response to the colonial rule. In order to understand the inclusive approach of the “nonconformist” subaltern within the subaltern colonial subjects, who sometimes appear to challenge and rethink the very basic tenets of subaltern counterpolitics, and their negotiations of the varied legacies of the Raj, this study endeavours to analyze select short stories by Janice Pariat, the 2013 Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer from Meghalaya.

[Keywords: Subaltern Counterpublics, Public sphere, Moral Legitimacy, Belonging, Alternative discourse]

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Sam, Lemon & Ridhima Tewari. 2023. Investigating ‘Moral Legitimacy’ and ‘Belonging’ within Subaltern Counterpublics vis-à-vis the Raj: A Study of Select Short Stories by Janice Pariat. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.31 

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Memory, Insidious trauma, and Refugee crisis in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015)

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Rashi Shrivastava1 , Avishek Parui2 , Merin Simi Raj3
1,2,3 IIT Madras, India

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.30
[Article History: Received: 03 March 2023. Revised: 11 Sept 2023. Accepted: 15 Sept 2023. Published: 28 Sept 2023.]
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 Abstract

This article argues that refugee crises include complex forms of insidious and latent trauma, insufficiently engaged in dominant discourses of trauma studies which largely draw on Western models and cultural experiences, often overlooking various aspects of postcolonial trauma, trauma due to casual violence and racism, and other forms of everyday marginalization which are interstitial, experiential, and quotidian in quality. Through a historical examination of the America-Vietnam War and its subsequent diasporic subject-formations, we aim to offer an original reading of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer (2015) using a complex framework of memory studies that highlights an interplay of nostalgia, spectrality, and posttraumatic stress manifestations. The study argues how trauma may be examined as a quotidian and experiential phenomenon of slow disintegration emerging from a profoundly political context, and how the medium of fiction offers a unique cognitive, affective, and focal framework to articulate and empathize with the same.

Keywords: Memory; PTSD; Refugee Crisis; Trauma; Vietnam War fiction; Postmemory

Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Shrivastava, Rashi, Avishek Parui, Merin Simi Raj. 2023. Memory, Insidious trauma, and Refugee crisis in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015). Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.30 

Book Review: The Third Eye and Other Works: Mahatma Phule’s Writings on Education by Rohini Mokashi-Punekar

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Orient Blackswan, 2023, New Delhi, Rs.855, ISBN-978-93-5442-380-2.

Reviewed by
Kumuda Chandra Panigrahi
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.r02
[First published: 23 Sept 2023.]
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The Third Eye and Other Works: Mahatma Phule’s Writings on Education by Rohini Mokashi-Punekar begins with a forward, written by Bhalchandra Nemade, which claims that Phule was a rebel who fought against Brahminical hegemony and their self-made Hindu social order.  This book is divided into seven sections, although there are no chapter numbers or an introduction or conclusion, as are typically found in academic texts. The book offers a critical examination of Phule’s original writings and social reform activism in order to comprehend the current educational system and social structure from India’s subaltern class perspective. Historically ingrained social and educational inequality is still persistent in India, which hinders the state’s educational growth of women and lower castes. This book gives a historical analysis of the dilemma of pervasive educational inequality and its effect on society. Punekar (2023) has been chosen as a case study amongst all historical figures in Indian history and discovered that due to his unconventional ideas, real-world actions, first-hand knowledge, and efforts to achieve comprehensive education for all, which makes him unique. The author has presented a critical analysis of the socio-political situation of ‘Shudratishudra’, women, and Muslims based on an analysis of Phule’s original writings. The analysis reveals Brahminical exploitation of these groups as well as how British Administrative policies enabled the Brahmin elites to maintain their hegemony. The book has shed light on the struggles and hardships endured in order to construct his ideal society, known as ‘Balistan’ (p.4-11), which is free from oppression and exploitation but founded on science, reason, equality, and freedom. Keep Reading

Somdev Chatterjee’s Why Stories Work: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Roots of the Power of Narrative: A Review

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T. Mangaiyarkarasi
P.G & Research Department of English, Holy Cross College (Autonomous), Bharathidasan University, India.
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.r01
[First published: 23 Sept 2023.]
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Stories are universal and storytelling is essential to the creation of meaning in human life.  The story is “central to meaning-making and sense-making” (Peterson, 2).  Our minds construct and analyse our truths and beliefs, as well as determine how they relate to other people’s truths and beliefs, through the use of stories. We develop fresh viewpoints and a deeper comprehension of the world by listening to stories. By examining how others perceive the world and how they comprehend it, we are pushed to question and broaden our perspectives. Ken Liu a fantasy novelist states that “The planet is at the mercy of our history, our story, our spell.” Furthermore, he adds that “Out of stories, we construct our identity, at the individual as well as the collective level. Our stories tell the world how to be” (Liu,2022). Somdev Chatterjee in his book Why Stories Work (2023) claims that the importance of stories is often overlooked and we are losing control of the narratives that shape our lives. Keep Reading

Predictors of audience engagement among Nigerian journalists

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Ogemdi Uchenna Eze , Kenechukwu Josemaria Ugwu & Alphonsus Chukwuma Ugwu
1,2,3Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
2Corresponding author

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.29
[Article History: Received: 07 July 2023. Revised: 15 Sept 2023. Accepted: 18 Sept 2023. Published: 20 Sept 2023.]
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Abstract

This paper examined the factors that predicted audience engagement in Nigeria. We surveyed 308 Nigerian journalists. Using the questionnaire as our research instrument, data gathered were analysed using frequency and percentage as well as linear and multiple regression analyses. The study was grounded in Bourdieu’s field theory. The results indicated a moderate relationship between the attitude of Nigerian journalists and audience engagement while a high correlation between Nigerian journalists’ role conception and audience engagement on social media was observed. The three hypotheses (the degree to which journalists’ attitude; role conception; and perceived audience rationality, and perceived audience interaction quality predicted audience engagement was significant) raised in the study were supported by our findings. Implications of this study were discussed in light of the objective of audience engagement.

Keywords: Nigeria, journalists; audience engagement, perceived audience rationality; role conception.
Citation: Eze, Ogemdi Uchenna, Kenechukwu Josemaria Ugwu & Alphonsus Chukwuma Ugwu. 2023. Predictors of audience engagement among Nigerian journalists. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.29 

Ecotopia: Ecological Concerns and Alternate Womanspace in Select Novels of Ursula K. Le Guin

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Asish Kr. Charan & Tanu Gupta
1,2Chandigarh University, Punjab, India. 

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.28
[Article History: Received 10 June 2023. Revised: 17 Sept 2023. Accepted: 18 Sept 2023. Published: 20 Sept 2023.]
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Abstract:

The term ecotopia draws attention to the etymological link between utopia and ecologism, which emphasizes the importance of maintaining a sustainable relationship with the natural world in the context of an ideal egalitarian society. Literary utopias aim to evoke a longing for a society that differs from the present, playing a crucial role in breaking free from conventional thinking and envisioning alternatives to oppressive social institutions. The concept of green utopias is unthinkable without radical social reforms and changes in culture and lifestyle. Feminist ecotopia proposes a gendered deconstruction and reconstruction of a green utopian society. In her ecotopian novels Always Coming Home and Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin explores the relationship between ecologism and utopia. The structure of these novels frequently exhibits an ecotopian sensibility, while their content emphasizes the process of creating a better society. Le Guin’s transgressive concept of utopia and ecology seeks to challenge and subvert the ideological frameworks that support materialist and dominant patriarchal conceptions. It provides feminist writers with a distinct space to imagine transgressive and oppositional ecotopian alternatives, where mothering-related myths and femininized characteristics are valued. This paper delves into how Le Guin’s utopian novels interrogate and deconstruct powerful patriarchal structures, creating a cultural space for women to imagine transgressive and oppositional ecotopian alternatives.

Keywords: Ecotopia, Utopia, Ecology, Feminist Utopia, Terraforming, Yin-Yang, Daoism   

Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality, Life on Land
Citation: Charan. Asish Kr. & Tanu Gupta. 2023. Ecotopia: Ecological Concerns and Alternate Womanspace in Select Novels of Ursula K. Le Guin. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.28 

Keeping Myth Memory Alive: The Usual and the Unusual in Sudha Murty’s Unusual Tales Series

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Susan Lobo
Associate Professor, Department of English, St. Andrew’s College of Arts, Science, and Commerce

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.27
[Article History: Received: 12 June 2023. Revised: 10 Sept 2023. Accepted: 11 Sept 2023. Published: 12 Sept 2023]
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Abstract  
If myth is vital to a community, its memory must be kept alive. But how, is the question? Is it always prudent to remain faithful to the ‘original’ version of the received myth, or is it desirable to tamper with, or destabilize, the source myth? In India, mainstream versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have long been disrupted by folk, feminist, and queer adaptations. Reversions of these oral, transhistorical master narratives of Hinduism have made a resurgence in a post-independence India that is precariously perched between tradition and modernity, and hence more acutely desirous that its children veer closer to their roots, or so the flourishing market for myth retellings for children suggests. Amongst this incandescent body of literature is Sudha Murty’s series of five books that revisits popular stories about the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon — The Serpent’s Revenge: Unusual Tales from the Mahabharata (2016), The Man from the Egg: Unusual Tales about the Trinity (2017), The Upside Down King: Unusual Tales about Rama and Krishna (2018), The Daughter from a Wishing Tree: Unusual Tales about Women in Mythology (2019), and The Sage with Two Horns: Unusual Tales from Mythology (2021). This paper explores how these tales of antiquity, refracted and reconstructed through the author’s own personal memory, intersect with the more public and collective myth memory of the community. In reviewing Murty’s retrieval of myths by reimagining and re-situating the ‘evidentiary traces’ of myth in the here and now for the children of today, it interrogates how, if at all, the retold myths counter the metanarratives of gender, religion, culture and perhaps, history too. Finally, it argues that the genre of myth retelling must go beyond simply reviving myth memory to destabilizing myth by ‘fiddling ‘with the sacred, especially when adapted for children.

Keywords: destabilization, evidentiary traces, myth memory, myth retelling
Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality
Citation: Lobo, Susan, 2023. Keeping Myth Memory Alive: The Usual and the Unusual in Sudha Murty’s Unusual Tales Series. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.27

The Historical Revolution of Vatican II and the Vision of a Post-Western Christianity in India

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Enrico Beltramini
Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, California, USA. 0000-0001-9704-3960

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.26
[Article History: Received: 28 August 2023. Revised: 10 Sept 2023. Accepted: 11 Sept 2023. Published: 12 Sept 2023]
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Abstract

The vision of a post-western Christianity in India is traditionally linked to a distinct theological interpretation of Vatican II. According to such an interpretation, Vatican II was a theological revolution that favoured the openness of the Church to the world. In this article, I explore that vision through a historical, rather than a theological, interpretation of Vatican II. In Europe, Vatican II was a historical revolution that promoted the exit of Catholicism from Christendom and the establishment of a new Christian order with no links with Christendom. In India, this post-Christendom order has taken the form of a post-western order.

Keywords: Vatican II; revolution; reception; India; theology; Church; Roman Catholicism
Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Beltramini, Enrico. 2023. The Historical Revolution of Vatican II and the Vision of a Post-Western Christianity in India. Rupkatha Journal, 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.26 

 

Mondrian’s rendition of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of will and disinterested aesthetic experience

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Ali Fallahzadeh 1 & Zahra Rahbarnia 2
1,2Department of Research of Art, Faculty of Art, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.25
[Article History: Received: 10 August 2023. Revised: 5 September 2023. Accepted: 7 Sept 2023. Published: 12 Sept 2023]
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Abstract

Despite the pivotal role of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) in the sophistication of Modern aesthetics and art theories in the 20th century and his special attention to aesthetic experience, considerably little is known about the impacts of his aesthetic theory, particularly pertaining his account on conception disinterested aesthetic experience formed based on his metaphysics of will, on some of the most enriched Modern art theories like Piet Mondrian’s Neo-Plasticism. On the other side of the spectrum, Mondrian’s Neo-Plastic paintings, his universal pure abstract style, have been well examined through historical approaches and Modernist theories, especially about the Greenbergian account and Modern styles like De Stijl art movement in the last few decades. Moreover, his quasi-philosophical writings have been vastly scrutinized in the light of their impacts on Theosophic, Platonic, and Hegelian doctrines. Interestingly, Mondrian, in his theoretical writings, explicitly refers to the Schopenhauerian conception of disinterested contemplation and the requirements for having a universal aesthetic experience. Yet, Mondrian’s account of Schopenhauer’s notion of disinterested contemplation, namely for notions like individual will, Will, intellect, cessation of subserviency of intellect to the will, and so on, has not been scrutinized through an aesthetic lens.

Hence, this article first aims to investigate Mondrian’s rendition of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of will and his account of disinterested aesthetic experience. Indeed, this article proposes this hypothesis that Mondrian, who always sought to unveil the Platonic Idea of an objective manifestation of a universal equilibrium (harmony) or pure beauty as truth through his universal Neo-Plastic art, was heavily influenced by Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of will and his attitude toward aesthetic contemplation which is disinterested and objective. At the end of this article, it becomes clear that Mondrian’s conception of pure intuition and his contemplative approach to aesthetic experience intimately conform to Schopenhauer’s view on the notion of disinterested aesthetic attention or contemplation narrated within his metaphysics of will.

Keywords: Arthur Schopenhauer, aesthetic experience, disinterestedness, metaphysics of will, Piet Mondrian, Neo-Plasticism, intuition.

Citation: Fallahzadeh, Ali, Zahra Rahbarnia. 2023. Mondrian’s rendition of Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of will and disinterested aesthetic experience. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.25 

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