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Yakov Bok: A Humanist’s Odyssey in Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer
Get PDFIn a Jewish context, a man experiences numerous upheavals for which he bears no responsibility. In Bernard Malamud’s novel The Fixer the central character, Yakov Bok, undergoes a compelling journey. This journey takes us through the turbulent world of Tsarist Russia where a Jewish individual is fraught with hardships. In fact, Bok’s odyssey reveals the profound challenges inherent in the existence of a Jewish man within the societal context. This paper aims at dissecting the profound transformation of Yakov Bok against the backdrop of a society rife with prejudice and injustice. It also broods over how Bok’s journey, marked by unjust imprisonment and enduring suffering, catalyzes his evolution from an ordinary Jew to an extraordinary human being. Yakov Bok emerges as a heroic figure, staunchly confronting the systemic victimization of innocent individuals within the complexities of his society. Further this research article explores how the immediate context of the novel is resonating with universal themes of human struggle and resilience. Yakov Bok’s narrative serves as a powerful allegory for the broader human experience, emphasizing the enduring relevance of these themes in contemporary society. The article elucidates the painful existence of a Jewish protagonist by portraying his life’s trajectory as a metaphor for poignant dilemmas confronting humanity in the current era. Within this intricate narrative, His tough journey is marked by the endurance of profound adversities notwithstanding his impeccable innocence in a criminal charge. At the same time, it traces his metamorphosis from an unremarkable Jew into a formidable luminary. What it finally affirms is that the freedom to live is not merely the freedom to experience, but also ironically the freedom to struggle and even to suffer
Aesthetics of dis-ability: A Short Study on Samuel Beckett’s Endgame
Get PDFLocke, while writing his Second Treatise on Civil Government in 1689 states that all men by nature are ‘free, equal and independent’ but is everyone equal? We know by now that equity is the means through which true equality can be achieved but in order to make a change, we also need to accept the fact that ‘normalcy’ is nothing but a social construct. All those whom our society regard as ‘abnormal’, ‘incompetent’ or ‘non-productive’ have the right to live as much as ‘normal’ people do. When it comes to persons with disabilities, it gets even more complicated by the existing taboo. A sense of uneasiness and discomfort prevail whenever we confront bodies un-like our own. Some tend to sympathise while others tend to dismiss it altogether. Samuel Beckett tries to break this taboo by making use of characters in his writings who with their decomposing bodies, make an attempt to live the absurdities of life. His characters ‘stare at death with passionate attention’ but do not commit suicide because they are tenacious enough to live. Afterall as Molloy says, ‘To decompose is to live too’. The paper analyses Beckett’s Endgame in terms of disability and aesthetics. It aims to explore how the playwright makes use of theatre as a device to shatter the camera obscura that the bourgeoisie order maintains on bodies that it cannot contain. The able-bodied people witness man at his most vulnerable, striving to sustain by taking help of others thereby realising that co-dependency is evident and inevitable
Plasticity of Identity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Sachin Kundalkar’s Cobalt Blue
Get PDFThis research article examines the theme of plasticity of identity in Sachin Kundalkar’s novel, Cobalt Blue, with a specific focus on gender and sexuality. Utilizing a queer theoretical framework, the study investigates how the characters in the novel navigate their identities in the face of societal expectations and personal desires. Through close analysis of the text, the article explores the fluidity and complexity of identity construction, challenging fixed norms and categories. Kundalkar’s work portrays characters who defy traditional labels, embracing a spectrum of identities that transcend conventional boundaries. This study contributes to the field of queer studies by highlighting the novel’s role in facilitating discussions on diverse gender and sexual identities. By acknowledging the plasticity of identity, this research article promotes understanding, empathy, and acceptance, fostering a more inclusive society. It emphasizes the transformative potential of literature in shaping conversations about identity and expanding our notions of gender and sexuality
Making Visible the Invisible: An Analytical Elucidation of Tishani’s Poems
Get PDFTishani Doshi channels her unique potential into her creative work as a scholarly Indian poet, passionate artist and astounding dancer. She converts dexterously the bitter realities of life into words and scatters literary gems liberally in her poetic realm. Her ‘overlapping concerns’ through creative writing (poems, novels) and rhythmic movements make her subsequent career unparalleled. Although Tishani is deft to articulate her literary caliber through poetry and novel both, yet poetry provides her the nuts and bolts of expressing the abstract feelings into words with concrete images. Her poems leave indelible impression upon the mind of the reader. The minimal words of poems contain plethora of philosophy and provide the possibilities to widen our imagination. She dares to ponder over umpteen baffling questions related to pre-natal existence, post mortal destination, our real abode etc. While pouring out her bubbling genuine notions particularly in poems, she appears to unwrap life’s those mysteries which remain incomprehensible or unrevealed for a layman. Through her treasure trove of poetry, she temps us to fumble the hidden philosophy regarding isolation, crisis of identity, nostalgia, rootlessness and nervous exhaustion with fluctuation of moody unhappiness. What makes the poems worth reading is the coating of spiritual belief and mysticism upon them. The comprehensive analytical articulation represents conspicuously the screeching of an alienated soul yearning for a perennial settlement in this cosmos
Locating and Interrogating the Savarna Trace in Selected Marathi Dalit Short Stories
Get PDFIn the present time modern urban India denies the existence of caste prejudices and caste-based discriminations. Educated urban people talk of “caste” as concept which is centuries old and quite outdated. But how far it is true is a matter of question. Since even today when it comes to marriage, educated families look for boys or girls from the same caste, caste consciousness always remain at the back of the mind of an educated youth while forming the friend circle, and caste discrimination becomes more prominent when the so called educated modern urban families do not allow their domestic help to use the same plates. Down the ages it has been observed that the Savarnas or the so-called upper caste people have always occupied the central position in the society and continuously shaped and dictated the fate of the Dalits leaving them no choice to construct their lives according to their own will and wish. Literature, however, has always been the mimetic platform which has inspired the common people to rethink, reevaluate and bring about reformative and revolutionary changes. The present paper attempts to hear those unheard voices of the Dalits who have long been oppressed by the upper caste people in this casteist Indian society. The present paper analyses two short stories written by two prolific Dalit writers namely Baburao Bagul and Sharankumar Limbale. Through a close reading of Bagul’s “When I Hid My Caste” and Limbale’s “The Dalit Brahmin”, the present paper aims to identify and comprehend how instrumental and phenomenal is the trace of the upper caste in the lives of the Dalits and how this hegemonic savarna social system has caused the unbuilding of the identity which the Dalits have so ambitiously built equal to that of the Savarnas
A. K. Ramanujan: A Leading Indo-Anglican Poet
Get PDFRamanujan is one of the prominent Indo-Anglican Poets. Some critics consider him to be one of the three great Indo-Anglican poets, the other two being Nissim Ezekiel and Kamala Das. Ramanujan’s poetry is largely autobiographical and thought-provoking. The themes Ramanujan considers in his poetry are limited in scope, but some other passages of his poetry largely compensate for that inadequacy. Inversely important as a theme in Ramanujan’s poetry is his Hindu heritage. Ramanujan has shown a sharp and intense textual sensitivity in his poetry. Ramanujan is one of the most competent and professed craftsmen in Indo-Anglican poetry. Among the silent features of Ramanujan’s poetry is its cerebral literalism. His poetry abounds in boons of world and expression. Ramanujan generally writes in free verse without the importance of punctuation, but he does relatively frequently introduce rhyme and assonance into his poems. Another striking point of Ramanujan’s poetry is the ascendance in it of irony. Irony too is a device that is employed by nearly every Indo-Anglican poet, but Ramanujan makes use of this device in nearly every poem. Ramanujan’s poetry contains distinctive and distinguishable imagery from the imagery of other Indo-Anglican Poets
English Competencies and Challenges for Data Science and Cyber Security Students at Al Istiqlal University
Get PDFThis present research aims to determine the growing needs and challenges faced by Data Science and Cyber Security students at Al Istiqlal University's Faculty of Information Technology when learning the English language. It also tries to ascertain whether gender and level of competence affected their requirements and difficulties in mastering the English language. 35 cadets who are specializing in Data Science and Cyber Security make up the sample. The researcher gave out 39 questionnaire items divided into eight domains. The results show that cadets in Data Science and Cyber Security did not undergo any guidance regarding how to utilize English in the discipline while engaging in the analysis of data or cyber security keywords. Additionally, the study demonstrates that cadets majoring in data science and cyber security did not receive any guidance on how to learn to communicate in English, and the teaching activities in the English programs they had taken did not match their notions of the standards for expert English. Moreover, English proficiency requirements for cadets enrolling in Data Science and Cyber Security courses should be taken into consideration. Additionally, no statically meaningful differences in the demands for key competencies and barriers faced by Data Science and Cyber Security cadets are found when gender and competency traits are taken into consideration
Globalization and Redevelopment: The Crux of Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower
Get PDFThe metro cities of India are under the influence of the real estate business. Mumbai, the center of India's commerce, is not exempt from the gentrification process. Mumbai is a city of new money and rising real estate in the twenty-first century. The novel Last Man in Tower raises the issues of globalization and redevelopment in Mumbai in the last few years. Further, Globalization has widely affected the morals of the social and cultural arena too. The novel also examines how English literature is affected by the ever-evolving current trends in the postcolonial age by globalisation, which is a sort of neo-colonialism. Like his debut novel The White Tiger, this novel also, Adiga has become the voice of the marginalized section by exposing the pitfall of urban development. This propulsive, explosive, insightful story coming out of the signature wit and magic of Adiga presents several interlinked issues of the teeming city of Mumbai. With great courage, Aravind Adiga explores the theme of lawlessness as the protagonist, Master Yogesh Murthy fails to receive justice and support from law, order, and even from the media. The crux of the novel revolves around the duality of human existence in the modern world and raises the question of whose rights should be preserved in case of a conflict between an individual and society. There are grave consequences of the redevelopment of societies which include not the only issue of compensation but also the larger issue of the acquisition of land, resettlement, rehabilitation, and participation in negotiation which can mitigate the darker side of redevelopment. The novel may be acclaimed as an example of post-modernist ethos seeking to explore the modern way of life. The present paper attempts to throw light on redevelopment and its social, economic, and political impact on society
Use of Conspiracy Theories in The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
Get PDFRobert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea both have been influenced by anarchism, Discordianism and conspiracy theories. They both use conspiracy theories about Illuminati, knights Templars, Freemasons and New World Order, anti-semitism, end time prophecies of the Bible and world domination plans etc. Their main genre of writing is conspiracy fiction. Conspiracy fiction is a sub-genre of thriller fiction. Both the authors have filled their works with various types of conspiracy theories and thrilling feel. The focus of the present research paper is on the use of conspiracy theories in The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea made this trilogy one of the best works in the field of conspiracy fiction. Although the writers have used several of them, in the present paper only use of the New World Order conspiracy theories and secret societies, especially the Illuminati conspiracy theories will be analyzed. The study of conspiracy theories is an emerging field and little work has been done on this topic. So, the present paper will enrich the information about conspiracy theories and conspiracy fiction
Globalization Posing Challenges to Examine the Relevance of Postcolonial Criticism in Future
Get PDFIt has become very difficult today to assume that we are living in a world which is postcolonial just in the sense that the curse of colonialism is over. The questions of how one nation is dominating the other and how such dominating forces can be resisted have become the salient issues of the anti-colonial movements worldwide. The postcolonial studies are focusing on the contemporary neocolonial tendencies especially after when America has invaded Afghanistan and has also attacked Iraq for building a New American Empire. Globalization seems to have changed the world so radically that it has become meaningless if we try to perceive the world either from the perspectives of how the European colonizers wanted it to be or as totally decolonized from any exploitative networks. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in their seminal work, Empire (2000) have argued that they have used the term ‘Empire’ to refer to the emergence of a new sovereign power in the world politics which is predominating over all the other nations in contemporary times. According to them, one can understand this present-day power structure best by comparing it with how the European powers had maintained their sovereignty and empires during the colonial period. Simon Gikandi has accurately observed that, what is very new in globalization is that it has appropriated certain identical postcolonial terms like ‘hybridity’ and concepts like the ‘other’. All these different postcolonial terms and concepts had always been ignored by the former social scientists. This paper will be exploring why it is irrelevant to assume that this new postcolonial globalized culture, as it is reflected in some postcolonial literary images and narratives, does not seem to have any functional impact in changing the socio-cultural relationships of the people of this contemporary global world. This paper will also focus on why in the contemporary globalization the native is found to be contaminated by the west and therefore dangerously ‘un-otherable’ and no longer available as the pure. This paper will also address as to how globalization apart from carrying the overwhelming connotations of cosmopolitanism and evaporating the geo-political centres and margins, is intensifying the pre-existing global asymmetries and pre-empting the postcolonial critics from analyzing the operative networks of the contemporary neoimperial forces