travel

Traversing Paths/Pasts: Places of Filipino Philosophy

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[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] Hazel T. Biana [wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]  

Department of Philosophy, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–13. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.08

Abstract received:  19 Feb 2021 | Complete article received: 3 June 2021 | Revised article received: 25 Aug 2021 | Accepted: 29 August 2021 | First Published: 05 February 2022

(This article is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Traversing Paths/Pasts: Places of Filipino Philosophy

Abstract

Place is a vital framework of human experience and is essential to the configuration of experience. It is more than the mere geography or arrangement of things in a particular spatial location. As a concept and not merely as a specific instance, place moulds human experience and contributes to the understanding of oneself and the world. Philosophers have long tackled the unravelling of these significant experiences, and the importance of theorizing about the place. As such, understanding philosophy also necessitates looking into its place. Regrettably, Filipino Philosophy has not yet been examined closely in this regard. To address this gap, this paper inquires about the development of Filipino Philosophy as it has been shaped by the places of its pioneers. It uncovers the connections between the development of Filipino thought and the places of Filipino philosophers who emerged in the 1970s-80s. By culling these philosophers’ paths/pasts, homage is paid to a significant resource often ignored, viz., the places of philosophy.

 Keywords: Philosophy of Place, Filipino Philosophy, Travel, Philippines

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Postcolonial Queer Dimension of Travel in the Goopi-Bagha Trilogy of Films

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Koushik Mondal

Ph.D, Independent Researcher. ORCID: 0000-0002-9003-3433. Email: itsme.onlykoushik@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.41

 Abstract

European genre of travel writing is guided by an “ethnographic impulse” which constructed India as an exotic space. Neglecting the country’s vast complex and liberal culture, the European travel narratives about India focused on certain negative aspects like ignorance, women subordination, casteism, and religious conflict to construct India as a primitive and exotic space, an excuse for colonialism. In contrast to these the British presented themselves as civilised, rational, masculine and enterprising. Resisting these definitive absolutes, postcolonial travel writers challenge the construction of India in terms of exotic barbarity. Goopi-Bagha trilogy (Satyajit Ray’s Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne (Adventures of Goopi and Bagha, 1969), Hirak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamond, 1980) and his son Sandip Ray’s Goopi Bagha Phire  Elo (The Return of Goopi and Bagha, 1992)), though primarily children’s fantasy films, uses the motif of travel to challenge the Orientalising gaze of the European travel narratives. The scholastic seriousness of the realistic genre is parodied in a carnivalesque spirit through the fantastic mode of children’s films. The films not only question the ‘ethnographic impulse’ of constructing India as irrational and uncivilised but also dismiss the tropes of exoticism exposing India’s complex and rich culture and focusing on its scenic beauty. While European travel narratives are the story of exploitation of nature, of discovery and conquest, in these films the two friends Goopi, Bagha travel only to enjoy and wonder at nature’s unconquerable spirit. Presenting two lower caste effeminate men in the guise of travellers, the films unsettle the masculine aura of adventure, associated with this imperial genre. Travel provides them not only the opportunity to enjoy nature and express a concern for the marginalised, but also the scope to move beyond the carceral gaze of heteronormativity and enjoy their homoeroticism. Thus travel becomes the means to unsettle the heteronormative paradigm of knowledge and relation which was consolidated by the British colonisers in India through mediums like travel literature. Using the destabilising effect of postcolonial queer theory, this paper explores how the films not only resist the Oriental construction of India as an ‘exotic other’, but also how the motif of travel is used to contest the ideas of colonial modernity, of power and marginality.

Keywords: Travel, Exoticism, Postcolonial, Masculine, Queer

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Theorizing the Experience of Travel in the Film North 24 Kaatham

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Anupama A. P1 &  Vinod Balakrishnan2

1Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. National Institute of Technology,Tiruchirappalli. Tamil Nadu. India. E-mail: anupriya2621@gmail.com

2Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. Tamil Nadu. India. E-mail: winokrish@yahoo.co.uk

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.40

Abstract

There are two spaces in Anil Radhakrishnan’s travel narrative, North 24 Kaatham (2013), the topographical space outside and the psychological space inside. The film is read as a dialectical tension that plays out in the character of Harikrishnan who suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder. The fateful journey of Harikrishnan on a day of harthal (general strike) is, to all appearance, topographical though it is, in equal measure, a psychological one. The paper, through a formalist analysis of the film, draws a correspondence between the two journeys of Harikrishnan in the company of fellow passengers: Gopalan and Narayani (Nani), in order to demonstrate Hari’s transformation from a self-absorbed individual towards a sociable human being. The argument is structured by combining Walter Benjamin’s idea of “aura” and Gaston Bachelard’s dialectics of space to explain the protagonist’s psycho-spatial transformation.

Keywords: travel, outside/inside, topographical space, formalist analysis, spectator experience

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Anxious Encounters with the (Monstrous) Other: The Yakshi Tales of Medieval Kerala

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Meenu B.

Department of English, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences, Amrita ViswaVidyapeetham, Kochi Campus.ORCID: 0000-0002-9141-3921. Email: beingmeenu@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.39

 Abstract
Stories about monstrous encounters during travel are ubiquitous in every culture. Scholars see them as figurative representations of the cultural anxiety related to traversing the unknown and the encounter with the “Other”. For instance, the early Greek ‘monster-on-the-road’ tales are often read in the context of the expansion of trade among Greek city-states and the Greek colonization of far flung territories which necessitated going beyond the safety of familiar town boundaries. The Indian epics and folktales also abound with encounters of travellers with supernatural/monstrous beings. Whether it is episodes such as the “YakshaPrasna” in the Mahabharata, or the Bodhisatta’s encounter with the Naga and the Yaksha in Buddhist legends, or his encounter with Yakkhinis in the Jataka tales, travel often involved encountering the Dangerous “Other” who had to be defeated/satiated/converted. These early traveller’s tales can be read as records of the anxieties regarding expansion/establishment of the Kshatriya hero’s kingdom where the wild/primitive outside the bounds of civilization had to be conquered/appropriated. In the case of the religious hero, the monster represented a crisis of faith – either he/she was an embodiment of the allures of material pleasure the ascetic had to guard against or a staunch believer of another faith who had to be converted/conquered. All these “forgotten” traditions of travel come together in the Yakshi tales of medieval Kerala where a shape-shifting tree spirit haunting lonely pathways evokes memories of the ancient traveller’s encounter with the wilderness and its corresponding deities. This paper attempts to read these tales from medieval Kerala against earlier Indian traditions of travel as well as the literal and metaphorical crossings of caste and gender borders that travel entailed during the medieval period.

Keywords: monsters, travel, Indian epics, Jataka tales, medieval Kerala, Yakshi tales

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Travel Discourses: Narrative of Witnessing Human Rights in Samanth Subramanian’s This Divided Island (2014)

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R. Samuel Gnanaraj¹ & S. Azariah Kirubakaran²

¹PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli). ORCID: 0000-0002-2837-1175.Email: rgsam93@gmail.com

²Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli). Email: sak.bhc@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.33

 Abstract

Travel discourses very often reflect what the traveller encounters among the people, regarding their culture, tradition and space. The nuance of encountering the novelty is pivotal for a traveller. Samanth Subramanian in This Divided Island emancipates many restraints through identifying the solitude and unseen areas in the divided island (Sri Lanka). This paper aims to present the narrative of violation of human rights through embracing the interdisciplinary subject of travel across boundaries. Human rights and travel writing are vital to its subject. It establishes the narrative of witnesses of the internal war that happened in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and the Tamils for three decades. The narrative discourses in This Divided Island bear the truth of witnessing. This paper also comprises two component features. One, it establishes that travel writing witnesses the unseen realm of humanity during the wartime in Sri Lanka, and two, it witnesses the deep memories and rebuilds it. The sufferers of the war were neither majority nor minority. The important facets of the civilians who were affected internally and externally underwent a period of transition, where they became victims or they were restructured as militants. Subramanian’s This Divided Island brings strength and reveals unknown factors and transmits the violated rights through narrating the events.

Keywords: Travel, Witnessing, Human Rights, Memories, Rebuilding

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Travelling Across Borders: Temporality, Trauma, and Memory in Amitav Ghosh’s Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma

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Hariom Singh

Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of English, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Satellite Campus, Amethi (UP). Email: h.singh765@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.29

Abstract

In travel writing as a genre, the convergence of the words temporality, memory and trauma has occasioned an explosion of deliberations centred around the representation of the other(ness), the privilege of speaking of and for a foreign culture, and strategies used to perpetuate hierarchies and differences in cultural discourses. From having strong cultural affinities with Greater India in the ancient past, the countries of Southeast Asia like Cambodia, Myanmar have undergone sea changes in the present experiencing a long phase of colonisation and then ravaged by their own internal strife and upheavals. Writers from the erstwhile colonised countries like Amitav Ghosh have attempted in their travelogues to document the history and culture of Cambodia and Myanmar while traversing its rough terrain. Amitav Ghosh’s widely acclaimed Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma stands as the foremost example for understanding the travails of time and history of Cambodia and Myanmar. The narration of Ghosh’s travel experiences in these countries brings to the fore the complex temporal dimensions of history amalgamated with collective trauma caused to its people through seemingly unabated and intense phases of violence and bloodshed in Khmer Rouge revolution. The proposed paper explores the various couplings of history and memory to explore the perennial traumatic feeling of the people of Myanmar and Cambodia and attempts to locate it in a larger historical perspective generally shared with India. Some pertinent questions which the proposed paper seeks to reflect upon are: the dangers of homogenisation and using ahistorical vocabulary to replicate the hegemony of cosmopolitan models of postcoloniality over local models. Also, is ‘out of placeness’ of the narrator is a problematic identity or something permanent and worth celebrating? Is cosmopolitanism suitable for postcolonial societies or is it just another totalising discourse of colonialism spreading its tentacles in complicity with neo-liberalism?

Keywords: Memory, Travel, Trauma, Cosmopolitan

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

Can the Hypnotized Subaltern Speak? Assessing 19th Century Gujarati Travelogues to England

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Dhwani Vaishnav

Assistant Professor, Shantilal Shah Engineering College, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. Orcid Id: 0000-0002-9528-7934. Email: dnv_07_eng@yahoo.co.in

 Volume 12, Number 3, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.20

 Abstract

Travel broadens the mind but it would be interesting to trace how many people actually have the opportunity to travel and learn something new. Even if travel is one of the most natural human instincts, written expression of travel experiences, i.e., travelogue is considered as a minor genre of literature. It is only in the latter half of the 20th century that this genre gained popularity within literary circles. Indian travel writing and specially Gujarati travelogues started being written in the 19th century, an age of social reformation in India. This paper endeavours to study three early Gujarati travelogues about journeys to England made by Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth, Karasandas Mulji (both written in Gujarati) and Behramji Malabari (written in English) as representative writing depicting how Indians were influenced by the English and took note of English life during the age of colonialism. Mahipatram and Mulji faced uproar from their community but ventured to visit the land of the masters. Malabari as a student of humanity, went to search the truths of life, especially the study of human progress in two different civilizations by travelling and adopting a comparative method for which he thought a metropolis like London was the best place. The age of social reformation had already injected sparks of bringing change in these travellers. The grandeur of the English land hypnotized these subalterns. Hence, Mahipatram and Karsandas have tried to present a beautiful picture of the places whereas Malabari does not make any exception in his criticism about the life and culture of England. This paper analyzes the experiences of these three travels which were made between 1860 and 1890 and show how these travellers perceived the function of the British Raj in India and actually in their own land. Their awe, pleasure and dislike about a culture and a nation that was governing their own land for a long time would also be highlighted.

Keywords: travel, social reformation, colonialism, subaltern, Gujarati travelogue

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We got a right to pick a little fight, Bonanza

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Mavik Banner: physician; scientist. Searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have… then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body chemistry. And now when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs. The creature is driven by rage and pursued by an investigative reporter. The creature is wanted for a murder he didn’t commit. David Banner is believed to be dead, and he must let the world think that he is dead, until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.

What would we do baby, without us?

I bet we been together for a million years, And I bet we’ll be together for a million more. Oh, It’s like I started breathing on the night we kissed, and I can’t remember what I ever did before. What would we do baby, without us? What would we do baby, without us? And there ain’t no nothing we can’t love each other through. What would we do baby, without us? Sha la la la.

Here’s the story of a lovely lady

Here’s the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls. Here’s the store, of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own. They were four men, living all together, yet they were all alone. ‘Til the one day when the lady met this fellow. And they knew it was much more than a hunch, that this group would somehow form a family. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch, the Brady Bunch. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch!

Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it’s you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every little movement you show it. Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can have a town, why don’t you take it. You’re gonna make it after all. You’re gonna make it after all.

In time of ancient gods, warlords and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle. The power. The passion. The danger. Her courage will change the world.

Being evil has a price. I hear a lot of little secrets. Tell me yours, and I’ll keep it. You oughta know my name by now, better think twice. Being evil has a price. I’ve got a nasty reputation. Not a bit of hesitation, you better think twice. ‘Cause being evil has a price.

Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles

The time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight! It’s time to put on makeup, it’s time to dress up right. It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight. Why do we always come here? I guess we’ll never know. It’s like a kind of torture to have to watch the show! And now let’s get things started – why don’t you get things started? It’s time to get things started on the most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational… This is what we call the Muppet Show!

Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury – Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never-ending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word – SHAZAM – a word which transforms him in a flash into the mightiest of mortal beings, Captain Marvel!

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My entrance exam was on a book of matches

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Mavik Banner: physician; scientist. Searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have… then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation alters his body chemistry. And now when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs. The creature is driven by rage and pursued by an investigative reporter. The creature is wanted for a murder he didn’t commit. David Banner is believed to be dead, and he must let the world think that he is dead, until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.

What would we do baby, without us?

I bet we been together for a million years, And I bet we’ll be together for a million more. Oh, It’s like I started breathing on the night we kissed, and I can’t remember what I ever did before. What would we do baby, without us? What would we do baby, without us? And there ain’t no nothing we can’t love each other through. What would we do baby, without us? Sha la la la.

Here’s the story of a lovely lady

Here’s the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls. Here’s the store, of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own. They were four men, living all together, yet they were all alone. ‘Til the one day when the lady met this fellow. And they knew it was much more than a hunch, that this group would somehow form a family. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch, the Brady Bunch. That’s the way we all became the Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch!

Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it’s you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every little movement you show it. Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can have a town, why don’t you take it. You’re gonna make it after all. You’re gonna make it after all.

In time of ancient gods, warlords and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle. The power. The passion. The danger. Her courage will change the world.

Being evil has a price. I hear a lot of little secrets. Tell me yours, and I’ll keep it. You oughta know my name by now, better think twice. Being evil has a price. I’ve got a nasty reputation. Not a bit of hesitation, you better think twice. ‘Cause being evil has a price.

Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles

The time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights. It’s time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight! It’s time to put on makeup, it’s time to dress up right. It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight. Why do we always come here? I guess we’ll never know. It’s like a kind of torture to have to watch the show! And now let’s get things started – why don’t you get things started? It’s time to get things started on the most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational… This is what we call the Muppet Show!

Chosen from among all others by the Immortal Elders – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury – Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a never-ending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the Immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word – SHAZAM – a word which transforms him in a flash into the mightiest of mortal beings, Captain Marvel!

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