Smart Moves Journal IJELLH (International Journal of English language, literature in humanities)
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Internalizing a Discourse: Reading Shauna Singh Baldwin’s What the Body Remembers
Get PDFShauna Singh Baldwin’s novel What the Body Remembers is mostly remembered as a Partition novel. No doubt, one of the best Partition novels, the novel is also successful in exemplifying how grand-narratives bring us into adherence and train our minds to pass on the same to our coming generations. Baldwin’s characters are prisoners to these grand-narratives but they hardly realize that, and thereby make no effort to shirk away from these beliefs. This paper endeavors to study these characters in the light of this socializing process, and the transformation that it brings
The Evolution of Man: Studying Sri Aurobindo\u27s Dramatic Ouevre
No full textSri Aurobindo wrote around eleven verse plays, much in the tradition of the Elizabethan poetic plays. Many similarities and equally numbered distinctions may be traced midst the dramatic output of William Shakespeare and Sri Aurobindo. However, of the eleven plays only five plays are complete, in that they have a five act structure, namely- Viziers of Bassora, Eric, Rodogune, Perseus: The Deliverer and Vasavadutta. The genealogy of all these plays may be traced to the legends or myths, of the various ancient cultures which populated the world and shaped its history. Irrespective of their different myths of origin, Sri Aurobindo, much like Shakespeare employs these stories only as the raw clay, while he mould the statue out of it, according to his own vision, that is the Evolution of Man.
An analysis of Sri Aurobindo’s plays elucidates the unparalleled range and vision to which his plays bear testimony. The notable feature of Sri Aurobindo’s plays is that they portray diverse cultures and nations in different aeons, populated with an array of characters, moods and sentiments.
Sri Aurobindo spent almost all his growing years in England, studying English and other classical literatures and the impact of this reading is discernible in his plays. He seems to be particularly impressed by the Elizabethan drama and employs its technique in matters of plot construction and characterisation. He is said to have perfected the English blank verse which he deftly displays in the dialogues of his characters. His plays can thus be said to be a unique blend of the Sanskrit and Western philosophical and aesthetic theories as the plot, the climax, the progression and the theme is unmistakably Indian. He seems to have been influenced by the Sanskrit playwrights like Bhasa, Kalidas and Bhavabhuti and all five plays are imbued with the poetry and romance which is similar in spirit and flavour of the distinctive dramatic type which was the signature style of Bhasa, Kalidas and Bhavabhuti, and simultaneously preserve the Aurobindonian undertones. The paper attempts to elucidate the ‘Evolution of Man’ which Sri Aurobindo mounts through his plays
Cultural Inheritance and Subjugation in Mahasweta Devi’s Water
Get PDFThis paper focuses on the cultural inheritance and the Subjugation of the oppressed in Mahasweta Devi’s play, Water (Jal), which was translated by Samik Bandyopadhyay. Mahasweta Devi, a Bengali writer, was a committed social activist, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and winner of many prestigious awards for her contribution to the field of literature and cultural studies. She has written several novels and short stories in her native language, almost half of which were later translated. Her works are based on the marginalised and the oppressed, projecting her concern for the downtrodden. In the play, the basic consent was denied for a particular group of people which in turn exploded into a rebellion.The use of characters, plot construction and structure paves way for the exploration of the conflict between the oppressor and the oppressed. This paper also focuses on the myth and the agrarian society of the post-colonial India in regard to the play
Cultural Dilemma of The Arab Woman Expressed through Nature Imagery: An Ecocritical Study of Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt
Get PDFThe Arab community is essentially a patriarchal one with a history of women being subjected to various kinds of afflictions and oppression under cultural, religious and societal laws. Though there is a collective consciousness now regarding the position of the Arab woman in the Arab world, with significant progress being made to emancipate and empower them, much needs to be done still. Set in the mid-20th century Jordan, Arab Anglophone author Fadia Faqir’sPillars of Salt portrays the tragic plight of Arab women at the hands of the traditional patriarchal Arab communities of Jordan. Nature plays a significant role in Faqir’s narrative wherein much of the miseries faced by the women characters are conveyed through rich nature imageries and analogies. This renders the novel the identity of an eco-fictional work and provides scope for analysis based on the ecological approaches as perceived in Emerson’s Nature to the more recent theory of Ecocriticism formulated by William Rueckert. This paper explores an ecocritical approach towards the position of women in the Arab society as expressed through profound eco-comparisons, imageries and analogies in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt
Challenges of Curriculum Implementation in Junior Secondary Schools: (A Case Study of Four Selected Junior Secondary Schools in Kpanga Chiefdom, Pujehun District)
Get PDFSince the inception of Western Education in Sierra Leone, frantic efforts have been made to formulate policies in order to improve the quality of education. It has been acknowledged by various educationists that curriculum implementation is instrumental in improving the quality of education in any society. Therefore, it is seen as an approach which improves students’ academic achievements, equipping graduates with sufficient knowledge and skills for them to survive academically and socially in this modern world.
On that note, the development of school curriculum is very significant in the life of a nation. The National School Curriculum as a program of learning is supposed to be a highly sensitive document as it contains the aspiration of the nation, preparing its citizens to face future challenges. It is supposed to be a document of hope.
Notwithstanding the wide recognition and acceptance accorded the roles of curriculum as a career of national philosophy in Sierra Leonean Educational system, there seems to be challenges in the implementation of this important blue print. This could not be disassociated with inadequate trained and qualified teachers in the field/classroom; community/volunteer teachers unpaid; ill-trained and sometimes confused graduates and inadequate Teaching Learning Materials; lack of guidelines for the implementation of curriculum and the complexity of managing the curriculum coupled with inadequate training regarding curriculum implementation. Capacitation of teachers is essential in the successful implementation of any curriculum as they are the main role-players in promoting quality education. This and other related problems should be a cause for concern.
By and large, the researcher is optimistic that although people are different and despite the negativity and inadequacies surrounding the curriculum, there is hope that with time and effort and given the total commitment of all stakeholders to implement the curriculum, success can be attained. Especially with the President’s (Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio’s) New Direction Agenda on education in Sierra Leone. Therefore, it can be concluded that the aim of the study and primary research questions which were explored, namely the Challenges towards Curriculum Implementation in Four Selected Junior Secondary Schools in Kpanga Chiefdom, Pujehun District, were adequately addressed and answered.  
Existential Crisis, Sexuality and Immutable Plight of Women in the Plays \u27Sakharam Binder\u27 and ‘Silence the Court is in Session\u27
No full text“It\u27s a men\u27s world women are here only to assist, serve and please men. It’s the way the world has always been.”
In the world there is only one supreme culture prevailing universally in all the societies is the men-centric culture, which is all powerful and all pervasive. This patriarchal culture and its norms are so deeply engrained in the soul of people that they relegate women into fringe or secondary position.
Women\u27s rights talk about equality in each aspects of life but in India where patriarchy has solid roots in society, it appears to be extremely hard to acquire concordance and equality in power structures. Patriarchy has clasped Indian middle class society in its stereotyped shackles and its hold on society is unbending and heavy which adversely affects the lives of women. The torture born by women is the result of brutal dominating tendency of males and Tendulkar in general, spotlights on the patriarchal society in both of his plays. He indicated how a men centric society and women\u27s liberation are interconnected and how male domination transforms into maltreatment of women. All the power in Indian society is in the hands of the males which at last prompts the pathetic state of females. Power, when gets discordant, without a doubt results into persecution and domination whether it is mastery of man over women or the other way around. Indian middle class has the same imbalanced power structure and consequently male domination exists because of male dominated society. The ruling idea of males tosses women into a well of persecution of each sort. Such state of females is exhibited by Tendulkar in ‘Sakharam Binder\u27 and in ‘Silence the Court is in Session\u27 caused by the patriarchal system of culture wherein the women have to struggle hard and pass through severe plight to establish their place in society. As we see in case of these three women Miss Benare, Laxmi and Champa. All these three are discarded women who strive hard for their existence in society and have to pass through so many inextricable difficulties. But the plight goes immutable, and unending
A study of Ageism in Carol Shields’s The Stone Diaries: Narrative and Body Foregrounding the (old) self
Get PDFThis paper looks at the (re)presentation of ageing in Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries. In an attempt to unmask society’s ageist attitudes towards its elderly, the research attempts to analyse ageing through the prism of gender as surely ageing is worse for women than it is for men. The research sheds light on how the old person is viewed just as an old body which is also genderless and therefore expected to be devoid of any carnal desires. As the novel revolves around a narrative within the novel’s narrative, the paper also sees how Daisy, the ageing protagonist, loses her self behind her narrative. Her self is also in perpetual submersion due to her hyper-visible ageing body. Her sagging skin and wrinkles are the only assertions that the world registers from her side while her selfhood and identity are either erased or ignored. The novel’s story follows Daisy through her tumultuous life but this paper attempts to live it with her. So while Daisy composes her life story, her life composes her story which eventually begins to foreground her to the extent that she is completely submerged in her story and ultimately dies in a nursing home in Florida. Her death bringing relief to her family is the peak of ageism that the story throws in our faces. She lived as an association- a mother, a grandmother, an aunty, a wife, a widow; and died as an old woman and nothing more
A Study of the Significance of Communion in Toni Morrison’s Novel Beloved
Get PDFThe term ‘communion’ means sharing of thoughts and feelings. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines communion as a close relationship with someone in which feelings and thoughts are exchanged. Communion is a recognizable theme in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Beloved is set in the era of Reconstruction and explores the psychological state of African Americans and their struggles to rebuild themselves after the trauma of slavery. In Beloved, Toni Morrison shows communion as a remedy to recover from one’s past traumatic life. Most of the characters in Beloved are slaves or ex-slaves struggling to reconcile with their past. This paper aims to study how communion helps the characters to remember and share their past and how their close relationship with mutual understanding makes recovery possible. This paper also presents characters who encourage communion and discourage it. Through her novel Beloved, Morrison conveys the message that communion leads to a better life.
 
Demystifying the Image of Eunuchs: A Study of Indrani Majumdar’s “The Paradox of Vantage Point”
Get PDFThe objective of this paper is to demystify the image of ‘Eunuchs’ in our society where they always have been defined in a derogatory manner. The novel The Paradox of Vantage Point concerns the life of three friends-Anwesha, Vikram and a Eunuch Raghubir who later plays an imperative role in their lives. The titular “paradox” eventuates when Anwesha “has to, under unavoidable circumstances, share her room with a Eunuch” who later becomes her best friend. The Eunuch’s character who was the “Knight in the shining armour” for Anwesha also becomes the object of mortification for her in public. The novel shows Anwesha’s “vantage point” from where she commiserates with Raghubir on one hand but also feels hesitant when it comes to accepting him outside the walls of her house. The character of Raghubir in the novel basically deconstructs the crippled mindset that excludes eunuchs from the mainstream society, considering them as despicable creatures. The paper also deals with the idea of how a Eunuch, even if liberates himself from the societal boundaries, educates himself and even manages to live a “cultured” life different from his community still struggles to attain the desired respect in society. It basically shows the constant intimidation of society towards a Eunuch who, leaving all his anticipatory roles, tries to fit in the “civilized” life
The Cycle of Life in The Hundred Little Flames
No full textIndia has a variety of cultures which are more common in South India. India\u27s culture collectively refers to the thousands of unique and distinct cultures of all the religions and communities present in India. The languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs of India vary from one place to another within the country. Indian culture has often been described as a fusion of several cultures. It\u27s a family story, a relationship and a friendship. Ayan unravels mysteries that surround his grandfather Gopal Shanker\u27s life. The story is simple and revolves around the protagonist, Ayan, whose life is thrown into turmoil following an unfortunate incident at a party which he attends due to peer pressure. Ayan is the symbol of the Millennial, careless young man of today who is over-imaginative of life. However, when you come to its core, Religion, caste system and local traditions are reflected in the day-to-day life of the people. Each locality has its own traditional customs based on a particular religion and caste. While Indian culture is vast, there are not many books on the subject that are not well adapted to readers \u27 needs. Preeti Shenoy\u27s "A Hundred Little Flames" among the few read-friendly books. Every Modern household has modern amenities, but in its relationship, family bond, etc., the truth is lacking. In India, people used to give the relationships and bonds more values. All those good factors are vanishing in the modern days. The author highlighted these situations of Indian families and systems of today. People forget about their parents when you age and send them to old age homes. A Hundred Little Flames is a gem of a novel that continues to attract the attention of its reader. A sequel with a twist on other characters maybe wouldn\u27t be such a bad idea. How our values were, and what importance we neglect these days, and disregard, and tells us what Gopal and Rohini can teach us. The book enlightens us on a good path and brightens our lives like hundred little flames