Smart Moves Journal IJELLH (International Journal of English language, literature in humanities)
Not a member yet
2837 research outputs found
Sort by
Freedom at a Cost: Human Suffering and the Irony of Independence in Chaman Nahal’s Azadi
Full text linkChaman Nahal’s Azadi (1975) stands as one of the most compelling fictional accounts of the 1947 Partition of India foregrounding the lived experiences of displacement, identity fragmentation, and ethical disintegration that accompanied the achievement of political independence. This article examines Azadi as a narrative of forced migration and refugee trauma, arguing that the novel exposes the paradox of freedom attained through mass suffering. Drawing upon Trauma theory and Identity studies and Partition historiography, the article analyzes how Partition transforms ordinary citizens into refugees and how displacement extends beyond physical exile to encompass psychological alienation and moral erosion. Episodes of extreme violence, self-sacrifice, and ethical compromise reveal the normalization of brutality during Partition, marking a profound moral collapse within both society and the emerging nation-state. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi at the novel’s conclusion is read as a symbolic culmination of this ethical failure, underscoring the disjunction between nationalist ideals and lived realities. By foregrounding refugee suffering and moral disillusionment, Azadi challenges triumphalist narratives of independence and insists on remembering Partition through its human cost. The article concludes that Nahal’s novel remains a vital literary intervention, offering a critical lens through which displacement and identity loss can be understood as enduring legacies of decolonization
Literature Festivals in Kerala: Commercialising Culture and Navigating Public Spheres
Full text linkThe active socio-political and cultural public spheres of Kerala witness celebratory literature festivals mushrooming amidst the intense digital anomalies of the twenty-first century. Organised by governmental or non-governmental organisations, publishing houses, political parties and clubs irrespective of gender or religious biases, the gatherings create constructive ambience beyond the business and marketing strategies.
Modeled after Jaipur Literature Festival and flavoured with regional elements, Kerala Literature Festival founded in 2016 has emerged as one of the largest annual literature festivals in Asia within a few years. The literature festivals happening annually in different districts of the state flag the cultural features of respective regions and practice inclusive social sustainability. The zest of festivals appealing to children, youth and senior citizens bridges the generation gap in the literature-bound academic and social circles of the state which continues to boasts about the better indicators of literacy, health and sustainable practices.
The competitive pattern of the festivals tends to invite high profile celebrities from the field of cinema, politics and media towards ensuring increased participation. The associated book sale manifests the thriving industry of print publications at a time when gadgets and screen times are accused of savouring productive energies. The silent and reserved reading movements of twentieth century are seen converted to loud and exhibitory readership patterns, strategically navigated by commercialisation. 
Subjugation to Self-assertion: Tracing Women’s Journey in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies
Full text linkThis article explores the women’s journey to overcome self-imposed limitations and the boundaries created by society in the novel Sea of Poppies through the perspective of feminist literary analysis. Further, it highlights women’s quest to find their strength and identity on their own. Amitav Ghosh, a renowned Indian diasporic author, often deals with a lot of historical events in India and Southeast Asia in his writings. In this particular novel, he focuses on the female journey towards self-realization and the way they draw themselves towards their goals. Through his writings, Amitav Ghosh presents the female subjugation, forced marriage and women’s conditions within the family and society. He creates unique and strong female characters in his novels and further illustrates the struggles and challenges they endure. In his works, Ghosh introduced memorable female characters and traces their journey of resistance. Among them, the characters Deeti and Paulette emerge as victims of social conventions who finally overcome those limitations and discover their true selve
An Exploration of Self-Discovery in Preeti Shenoy’s The Secret Wish List
Full text linkIndian English literature frequently engages with the theme of self-discovery, a motif of significant personal and professional relevance to women’s lives. Preeti Shenoy’s The Secret Wishlist offers a compelling narrative in this vein, centering on empowerment and the reclamation of one’s aspirations. The novel follows Diksha, a woman in her thirties trapped in an unfulfilling marriage and a monotonous domestic routine. Once a vibrant adolescent with her own dreams, Diksha has gradually lost her sense of self amid societal and familial pressures. The story charts her transformative journey as she reconnects with her buried identity and ambitions. This change is catalyzed by the rediscovery of a secret wish list she created as a teenager, which becomes a blueprint for altering her conventional life. Encouraged by a cousin to revisit her past passions, Diksha embarks on a path of personal renewal, confronting traditional constraints and her own insecurities. Through Diksha’s emotional and psychological evolution, Shenoy skillfully critiques the social norms imposed on women. This paper examines the process of self-discovery in The Secret Wishlist, analyzing how the protagonist navigates issues of identity, personal growth, and societal expectations. It ultimately posits that self-discovery is an ongoing, dynamic endeavor and advocates for the embrace of individuality and self-determined life paths
“Karain” and “The Lagoon”: Crimes of Passion and Acts of Betrayal
Full text linkThis paper examines the themes of unpremeditated actions, moral ambiguity, and questions of loyalty in Joseph Conrad\u27s The Lagoon and Karain: A Memory. By delving into the impulsive and morally complex decisions of characters, the study explores Conrad’s engagement with human behaviour and the fluidity of ethical boundaries in colonial and intercultural contexts. Drawing upon primary texts and critical secondary literature, the analysis situates these stories within the broader framework of Conrad’s oeuvre and the historical tensions of imperialism and loyalty. The paper also interrogates the symbolic interplay between narrative structure and thematic content, addressing how Conrad portrays moments of crisis and their aftermath, both in personal relationships and collective allegiance. Through this lens, the study aims to elucidate the resonance of Conrad\u27s storytelling in grappling with universal questions of human conduct and the fragility of moral certainties
Room and Roots: A Transcultural Feminist Reading of Virginia Woolf and Selina Hossain
Full text linkThis present study offers a transcultural feminist reading of Virginia Woolf and Selina Hossain, exploring how both the female authors articulate feminine subjectivity through the entwined concepts of space, identity and individuality beyond set patriarchal norms and women’s preference in thwarting societal impediments. “Using “Écriture feminine”, Selina Hossain critiques patriarchal “spider-web”, and celebrates female solidarity as well as resilience in a male-dominated society highlighting the urgency for economic freedom, and inner-psychological strength. Her female characters exhibit various forms of agency as well as strong defiance against all kind of oppression. Virginia Woolf emphasizes women empowerment, women’s self-actualization dismantling male-dominated patriarchal restrictions on female creativity. Hossain’s feminism highlights postcolonial, subaltern realities while Virginia Woolf’s feminism centers on intellectual and economic independence. Woolf belongs to First World Modernist era while Hossain’s world is Third World, Postcolonial era. Nature of oppression is different in these two worlds. Hossian’s women had to fight against social injustice, patriarchal oppressions, class conflict and gender oppression. Woolf’s ladies had to fight for intellectual independence, financial freedom and creative opportunity. Selina Hossain through her writing, wanted to renew the tradition to give voice to her marginalized female characters. Virginia Woolf aimed to build a new sentence, a new tradition for female writers that is totally different from patriarchal tradition: “The androgynous mind”. She proposed psychological and creative freedom of female authors. Female authors should avoid masculine narrative and create new female literary heritage and a new robust female lineage
Writing Against the Lyric: Self-Sabotage and Poetic Survival in J. H. Prynne and Denise Riley
Full text linkThis is concerning poetry techniques utilized by J.H. Prynne and Denise Riley, who both criticize the norms of lyric coherence, expressivity, and fixed subjecthood in their artists. Through self-defiance, these poets are trying to survive by deliberately breaking the rules of the traditional poems that represent the incomplete and insecure world of modernity. In their interaction with the lyric, both Prynne and Riley destroy the fantasy of single selfhood, welcoming contradiction and multiplicity. The opaque, thick language of Prynne, with its intellectual and philosophical allusions, is artificially challenging and does not welcome easy communication, actively encouraging the reader to participate in the process of understanding. In contrast, Riley pays attention to the dislocation of time, unstable use of the pronouns, and suppressed affectivity, as she aims at revealing the intricacies of grief, loss, and even disintegration of personal identity. Although both poets are stylistically different, they prove that the notion of self-sabotage is not an unsuccessful attempt but an artistic reaction on the restrictions of the lyric tradition, developing new styles of poetry that are not vulnerable to commodification and provide alternative manifestations of subjectivity. This article brings out, through an evaluation of their work, the way that self-sabotage becomes a measure of resistance and survival to enable Prynne and Riley to push the boundaries of language and redefine poetic success in a postmodern, fragmented environment
Women on The Margins: Subalternity in Sea of Poppies
No full textAmita Ghosh, a postcolonial novelist has dealt with modern postcolonial themes like migration, existential crises like alienation, loss of identity, rootlessness, displacement and hybridity with a historical vision. Amita Ghosh is a novelist with extraordinary sense of history and place. His novels analyze the ideology of colonialism in its various shades. His multidimensional exposure of the problems related to immigrants and other socio- cultural problems with a humanist, cosmopolitan and postcolonial perception makes his fiction more interesting. He deftly includes India and its integrity or identity as a nation in his fiction. His SeaofPoppies is one of the best narratives of colonialism, Post- Colonialism and migration where a transnational diaspora mobilizes a collective identity of people dissolving their inessential ethos and milieus. Regarding his personal life, in an interview with World Literature Today, Ghosh clarifies, “my parents moved around a lot. I mean our home was in Calcutta in some way, but we also moved around a lot” (qtd in Rudramuni 218). 
Portrayal of Addiction and its Psychological effects in Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Green Tea”
Full text linkThis paper aims to show that Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story “Green Tea” is a portrayal of addiction and its issues. The paper begins by discussing the Victorian attitude to mental health in general and addiction in particular, finding that it was lacklustre in both cases. The paper then analyzes Le Fanu’s “Green Tea”, arguing that the author portrayed addiction and its effects in a sensitive manner, contrary to dominant Victorian ideas. To do so, the paper argues that Jennings’ afflictions are psychological in nature, that the supernatural monkey was a result of hallucinations borne out of substance-abuse related disorders such as HPPD. It also unpacks the symbolism of green tea and points out at Le Fanu’s understanding of the nature of addictiveness of any substance. Finally, the paper also focusses on certain textual lines that are concrete proof of the author’s deliberate portrayal of addiction and related issues. The paper concludes by finding Le Fanu’s discourse of addiction to be sensitive and humane – unlike Victorian moralistic condemnations of it – and many of his ideas to be foreshadowing developments in psychology and psychoanalysis of the twentieth century
Pi’s Lifeboat, the Serpent or the Rope? A Vedantic Reading of Maya in Yann Martel\u27s Life of Pi
Full text linkYann Martel’s celebrated novel, Life of Pi, is most often read as a gripping tale of survival and a castaway narrative. Protagonist Piscine Molitor Patel known as Pi finds himself stuck on a lifeboat, his family gone Pi at the brink life contemplates petrifying situation that is now his shocking reality. Beyond its surface as a castaway narrative, however, the novel “is a religious allegory” (Kuriakose 140). Pi’s faith forms a major thematic trope in the novel as it is a vital source of his strength and moral solace amidst his atrocious suffering in the wild. Thus, this article will attempt to trace the Vedantic tenet of Maya in the novel, Life of Pi on two levels. One, on its exploration of the polysemic narration and another on the level of Pi’s ontological crisis as wherein his 227 days long tribulations, the shipwreck of Tsimtsum and Pi’s crisis of faith are investigated under the lens of Maya. The paper shall attempt to prove that the novel within its narrative illusion and Pi’s tribulations illustrates Indian philosophical tenet of Maya- illustrative of the Vedantic distinction between the empirical, illusory world of appearance i.e the Maya v/s the ultimate, singular reality i.e. the Brahma