Self

Articulating Difference: Self, Identity and Representation

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Mohan Dharavath

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. Email: mohan.dharavath@tiss.edu

 Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.08

Abstract

The Adivasis are often presented as they exist in a timeless, historical space, untouched and unperturbed by complex changes in society, politics and culture though the reality is the other way round. The self-esteem and the identity of the Adivasis are not just distraught and distorted by the non-Adivasi writers but is a fraught with misconceptions. In such a scenario, the writings of the Adivasi writers on Adivasi become more significant with all due respect since it reflects the insiders’ perspective. The paper therefore examines the voices and concerns of the Adivasi through Adivasi writings and attempts to substantiate assertively on how and why any non-Adivasi writers could not escape from representing the Adivasi without distortion. It further explores that the non-Adivasi writer, an outsider is more than fascinated to write more of the fetish, exotic and criminalization of the Adivasi on one hand and on the other hand stereotyping them rather understanding the Adivasi life. It also focuses on and discusses the broader concerns of the Adivasi life and experience that ensure the subject happens to occur from the locational similarity.

Keywords: Adivasi, Articulation, Identity, Self, Representation

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Cross- Culture Dialogue in R.K. Narayan’s My Dateless Diary

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Pulkita Anand

Assistant Professor, Department of English and Modern European Languages, Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan. ORCID: 0000-0003-0586-3975. Email: pulkitaanand@ymail.com

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.27

 Abstract

Man has desires to explore the unexplored, to chart the uncharted, and to know the unknown. R K Narayan takes us to different terrain in his work My Dateless Diary: An American Journey (1960). Though the book was written quite late by Narayan, it has an unmistakable stamp of his style and ease. Written in the first-person, it takes us directly to the core of the writer’s persona and his idiosyncrasies.  The book is about a journey to America and self in the act of writing, journeying inside and outside the world.  It is a conglomeration of fact and fiction, memories and desires, experience and observation, self and other, and the East and the West. The word ‘dateless’ is metaphoric in a way that many things are still prevalent in the present time.  In his witty and amusing tone, Narayan draws up the subtle difference in linguistic, cultural, social, economical, religious and professional aspects of American and Indian ways of life, which at once invites comparison and contrast. It seems to be a mingling of two cultures in literature. Narayan reveals how we Indians get easily adjusted and assimilated in any culture. He also depicts no desire on the parts of Indians to subvert this general representation. The paper aims to dwell on these aspects as reflected in the text. It also attempts to see how Narayan juxtaposed the Indian and American ways of life, and how they complement each other in their ways.

Keywords:  India, America, culture, life, travel, self.

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Analyzing Indira Parthasarathy’s High Noon in Light of G.H. Mead’s Theory of Self and Society

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Jesintha Princy.J1 & Sarika Gupta2

1Research Scholar, School of Social Science and Languages,VIT. ORCID: 0000-0001-7304-5726. Email:  jesinthaprincy@gmail.com

2Associate Professor, School of Social Science and Languages,VIT. Email: tyagisarika27@gmail.com.

 Volume 12, Number 2, April-June, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n2.10

 Abstract

The concept of self is the individual’s configuration of beliefs and opinions that have the primary association to his/her own behavior, “especially those ideas considered most central and enduring in the individual’s behavior” (Pasricha, 206). This organization of one’s own thoughts and beliefs relatively provides a continual experience in different social situations. The exchange, evolution, participation in the social process organizes the behavior of the individual that results in the emergence of a better self. George Herbert Mead’s analysis of self and society emphasizes that the existence of self without the experience in the social process is absolutely impossible. Indira Parthasarathy’s penmanship is often a social criticism that is embellished with an individual’s participation and response to the social setting. Analyzing the novella High Noon through the viewpoint of Mead’s theory of self and society, the process of emergence of self in the individual makes our understanding of the issues better. The development and emergence of self of the two main characters Ambi and Vembu Ayyar are observed through their reflexes in the social process they are involved in.

Keywords: self, society, social setting, behavior, socio-psychology, development, emergence.

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Self and the Quest for Ideal Existential Space: a Study of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

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Saumya Bera1 & Soumyajyoti Banerjee2

1Assistant professor, Haldia Institute of Technology. Haldia, Dist- Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India, 721657. ORCID: 0000-0002-1198-9366. Email: berasaumya@gmail.com

2Assistant professor, Haldia Institute of Technology.

 Volume 10, Number 2, 2018 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v10n2.06

Received November 27, 2017; Revised March 28, 2018; Accepted March 31, 2018; Published May 06,  2018.

Abstract:

The present study seeks to explore questions of formation, discernment and inspection of the individual identity through the exploration of existential space. This idea has been explicated through the narrative of Sal in the selected text who attempts to disembark at an understanding about the entirety of human existence. In the present study, Sal begets an identity in his mental space, which is devoid of any rootedness to his present contextual existence. This very realization drives him to go on the road in search of an ideal existential space that might resonate his own ‘self’. However, in doing so, he actually looks for an existential space to form his own identity which consequently gives birth to the conflict, the existential angst. His attempt to ‘be’ by idealizing the ‘other’ and assimilating the ‘otherness’ halts the process of formation of identity. Therefore, Sal’s imagination of ‘self’ and ‘other’ fades away in an unending loop of deference. The study intends to employ the theoretical tool of Existential Space to understand the imaginary constructs that inform the creation and evaluation of the identity of the individual.

Keywords: self, identity, quest, idealization, existentialism, space

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“I Is Another”: In Search of Bob Dylan’s Many Masks

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Debanjali Roy1 & Tanmoy Putatunda2

1, 2Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Adamas University. Email: tanmoy.putatunda@gmail.com

Received March 9, 2017; Revised on June 17, Accepted June 17, 2017; Published June 28, 2017.

Volume 9, Number 1, 2017 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v9n1.s07

Abstract

The phenomenon called Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan has always intrigued and fascinated the world for decades. The amorphous nature of his musical journey makes it difficult to map and define his career as an artist. Nonetheless, it’s been a while that academia has embraced Dylan and a number of books and research articles have since made their foray to analyse and appreciate a myriad career that has spanned across more than five decades. Through an overall study of Dylan’s musical oeuvre, this paper attempts to trace the diverse, fractured self that lies beneath the mask of the pop-icon.

Keywords: music, songs, self, enlightenment, postmodern, faith, protest.

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The Inseparable Dichotomy of Nationalism: the Readings of The Home and the World in China and the Reconsiderations

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Xingyue Zhou, Peking University, China

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Abstract

While Tagore’s literary works are widely praised in China, his political thoughts have undergone a longtime denouncement. The reception history of The Home and the World fully proves this double-standard: acclaimed for its artistic achievements but despised for its nationalistic thoughts. This essay traces the Chinese scholars’ different reviews on this novel in various periods, at the same time it investigates into Tagore’s own meditation and choice in front of the conflict between mild humanism and radical patriotism. As this investigation touches some ideological dichotomies, it intends to uncover the absolutism of these criticisms, in order to refresh the critical views toward Tagore’s effortful request in the complicated reality of nationalism. Keep Reading

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What is Performance Studies?

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

Book Review: Mani Bhawmik’s Code Name God

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First published in the U.S.A by The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2005,

ISBN-13: 9780824522810

First published in India by Penguin Books India, 2006

ISBN-13: 9780144001033, 978-0144001033

Review by

Biswaranjan Chattapadhyay, Serampore College Keep Reading

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