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A Suitable Boy: Blurring the Line Between Fiction and Non-Fiction
Get PDFVikram Seth was the son of a judge and a businessman was raised in London and India. He has written about a variety of themes and topics including music, travel, work environments, family, homosexuality and Catholic belief. He wrote poetic novel The Golden Gate and turned to prose in his epic novel, A Suitable Boy. It functions as a political fable, a roman a clef, showing the emerging polity of the newly independent India. Seth has used a variety of characters to show how in the very first decade after independence the mood of the people changed from euphoria to despondence. While debating the role of students in politics, Seth briefly mentions his central theme thus, “Their post-independence romanticism and post-independence disillusionment formed a volatile mixture” (p. 815). His diagnosis-vote-bank politics and communalism as an election tool have corroded the soul of the fledgling Indian democracy
Beyond the Bond: Love, Marriage and Romance in Anton Chekhov’s Selected Short Stories
Get PDFAnton Chekhov is a literary giant in nineteenth century fiction. He has contributed to the contemporary literature a deep awareness of human emotions, which foregrounds the necessity to understand the emotional values in narrative. Chekhovian realism has been a formula which writers have diligently followed ever since. In most of his fictional oeuvre he has depicted the individuals of modern society experiencing various shades of emotions which guide their psychological, interpersonal as well as social life. The stories written by Anton Chekhov are kaleidoscopes of various experiences which are an integral part of modern existence. Interpersonal relationships, especially man-woman relationships are portrayed by Chekhov in a striking manner. The present paper is an attempt to study a few of his selected short stories, keeping in mind Chekhov’s interest in a counter-presentation of such relations
Reentering the Aspects of Eco-feminist Responsiveness in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
Get PDFHuman beings are supposed to be the gifted creations of the universe in which many more creations are also found. There is a reciprocal or mutual relationship among them. This relationship has been variously defined to be one of the most powerful sensibilities of this universe. Such sensibilities of these creations and co-relations among them can be seen hither and thither which has been rightly defined and recognized as the ecological relations of the species. The concept ecofeminism with its multifaced dimensions is one of them. It is studied in the growth of ecological relations of the women and the environmental happenings all over the world. The present research article attempts to reconnoiter the combination of environment with the creativities and relative coherence of women in Toni Morrison’s well-known novel, The Bluest Eye
Problematics of the Matrix of Gender and Sexuality: Men, Women and Transgenders
Get PDFGender and sexuality are now too much talked about terms in our society and academics but they still have a labyrinth of complications and matrix of misunderstandings that confuse the identities of the concerned individuals— both from the individual side and from the public side. Gender and sexual identities, as critics of feminism and sexuality studies argue, are culturally constructed and are more fluid and cultures specific. Gender identities seem to remain universal as almost every society, in all over the world, with few exceptions, is patriarchal. In such typically patriarchal societies gender norms are more rigid in terms of their performativity among the common members of the set society and are more part of the public sphere, sexual identities are more tabooed and are part of more personal and protected spheres. Speaking of the formation of such identities and naturalization of the self through the processes in which an individual goes through it has been observed that all these identities are spatial and temporal and, in many cases, they are more based on the occasions in which a child unfortunately grows up—for example sexual abuse and exploitation. The article tries to explore the ways in which these gender and sexual identities are formed not only in terms of man and woman but also of transgenders
(Re)Examining Womanism in Phoebe Jatau’s The Hound
Get PDFOver the years, there has been a proliferation of writing by women authors in Northern Nigeria, central to their concern, is negotiating between what culture is and is not, especially as it relates to the women folks. With literature’s overwhelming role, in its stance as the mirror of the society, is the forceps with which one can gather the customs, believes, thoughts and value systems of a people, thus; learning about how their culture(s), could make or mar them. This explains why the Northern Nigerian woman as a prototype of the African woman has her role(s) defined by history, religion and cultural practices. In light of the foregoing, this paper finds that, this phenomenon called culture (in all its social forms, material traits of a racial, religious or social group) with its cancerous fangs on the livelihood of the average African woman, has today been reconfigured by the Womanist strand of feminism to the extent its impact are both felt and visible. Thus; this paper unknots the nitty-gritties of Africans perception of womanhood by the males and how the woman also sees herself and/or expects to be seen with particular focus on Phoebe Jatau’s The Hound. By this, it shows that contemporary female writers in Northern Nigeria and Africa at large have both re-evaluated themselves and are akin to the significance of their place, thus; crushing the patriarchal hold of their individual societies on them, and in the long run, assuaging their worth as less than humans
Structural Violence: A Tool of Oppression in Munshi Premchand’s Nirmala
Get PDFMunshi Premchand was a progressive writer in India during nineteenth century. His writings revolve round the social themes such as caste, class, women’s rights, poverty, superstitions, feudalism and onslaught of capitalism on the middle and lower class people. Due to his utmost attachment with the commoners, he is regarded as the Charles Dickens of India. He has written almost more than a dozen novels and three hundred short stories in Hindi and Urdu. His works; Gaban, Godan, Karmbhoomi, Sewasadan, Mantra, Namak Ka Daroga, Idgah etc. highlight his social and reformative concerns. His novel, Nirmala, which underscores the constant oppression of young girls as a result of mismatched marriages, is quite popular among readers. It weaves its plot around the exploitation of a sixteen-year-old girl named Nirmala and depicts how ill-matched marriages caused by the lack of suitable dowry bring downfall of families in general and emotionally shatter young girls in particular. The heroine of the novel is driven to her plight not out of her free choice but due to the compulsions a society imposed upon newly married young girls. The laws, norms and rules a patriarchal society creates, legitimizes and maintains for its smooth functioning become oppressive in many cases for the women and girls as they are trained to follow these norms since childhood their childhood. Violence caused by the odd and biased structures of any given society is called structural violence. Its covert form prohibits people to meet the most basic needs of their life/existence. Johan Gultung, a Norwegian sociologist, theorizes this form of violence by pointing out towards various socio-cultural norms/structures which restrict the freedom of such people who fail to fit themselves into these structures. The present research paper is a genuine endeavor to highlight those subtle and systemic ways through which the protagonist of the novel, Nirmala, is made the victim of a number of unfair socio-cultural norms
Ecoconsciousness in the Works of Select American Writers
Get PDFAmerican authors have shown a special interest in ecology right from the times of Transcendentalism. The transcendentalists especially are of the opinion that Divinity is revealed through Nature and when people communicate with Nature it’s a means of connecting with God. This idea was advocated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Frost, Kate Chopin and Sarah Orne Jewett. These authors are sensitive to their environment and demonstrate ecoconsciousness through their works, which paved way for a distinct class of writing
Social Criticism in Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger
Get PDFSocial criticism is a form of criticism that deals with the shortcomings and flawed structures of the society in order to reform them. In India, since the inception of English writings, a number of works especially novels have been written in order to underscore several burning socio-cultural issues which have been problematic for the smooth functioning of the society. Aravind Adiga’s epistolary novel, The White Tiger, is one such novel that tells the venturesome story of a character named Balram Halwai who writes a series of letters to Mr. Wen Jiabao, the Prime Minister of China. In these letters, he elaborates his struggles, his moral degradation and his social upliftment as a result of his daredevilry and hard work. He also mentions how the corrupt behaviour of a number of government officials in the country has helped him to raise his status. Throughout the novel, Adiga tries to portray one or other social, political, religious or cultural problems which hinder the progress of his country. In the novel, he raises many crucial issues of the country such as hunger, oppression, poverty, illiteracy, sufferings, corruption in government offices, unemployment, dowry system, prostitution, rotten political system, feudalism, wrong doings of the religious heads etc. Most of these issues are based on the grounds of caste, class and religion which heavily influence Indian society
Dramaturgy: Exploring the Elements of Shakespearean Tragedy with the Perspectives of R. Srinivasa Iyengar
Get PDFR. Srinivasa Iyengar has presented his views on William Shakespeare’s art of dramaturgy in his noteworthy work; Shakespeare: His World and His Art. It was published in 1964 and was received enthusiastically by lovers of literature. The work has finally been divided by Iyengar into fifteen chapters. The purpose of present study is to discuss Iyengar’s view on Shakespeare’s tragedy in detail. His love for the Shakespeare’s artistic sense was cherished by his mother who was fond of literature specially of Shakespeare. He received a book Tales and Travels by Hugh Laurence as second prize when he was in fourth class (1916-1917). It was signed by the principal, K.C. Viraraghava Iyer and the family has still preserved it. Iyengar loved great literature and so, generally speaking there were no favorites as such in his literary world. But two names were very close to heart: William Shakespeare and Sri Aurobindo. His first encounter with Shakespeare was through reading Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare in1922. The impact of this first encounter with Shakespeare lasted through his life time. Such was his phenomenal memory that long after he gave up reading due to loss of vision, just a year prior to his passing away, he could name the character, act and scene from all the plays of Shakespeare when just a single line from any of the plays represented in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1941) was read out to him. He loved teaching Shakespeare’s plays and had acquired an enormous amount of matter on the subject. It was natural that the approaching quarter centenary of the Bard of Avon galvanized him into action
Financial and Psychosocial Entrapment in Aravind Adiga’s Selection Day
Get PDFThe present paper deals with Aravind Adiga’s fourth novel Selection Day based on extraordinary panorama of cricket game. Financial condition of the poor and bourgeois is responsible for their future planning, decision in studies and the way of life at the same time the struggle of middle and lower-class people ensnare them into psychosocial entrapments. Aravind Adiga’s Selection Day contains financial and psycho-social entrapment of Kumar Family. By the help of cricket game the writer aesthetically webs the themes of unexplored sexuality, unsatisfied desires and all the aspects of the struggle faced in the life of Radha and Manju. Eric Erikson has propounded the stages of psychosocial development, the protagonist of this novel endeavors to uplift his life therefore he passes throw these stages. His theory is adhered to Sigmund Freud’s theory of Psychoanalysis. Money minded father and psychologically traumatized sons are working day and night for golden future in the vast area of corrupt capitalist immoral society therefore this novel is a harsh criticism of money possessiveness of games and people’s different point of view regarding national glory