1246 research outputs found
Sort by
Ethnic Dehumanization in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
Get PDFEthnic dehumanization occurs when an ethnic group thinks that the other ethnic group is not equal to it and can be treated as less than human. The debut novel of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner manifests intangible situation between the Pashtuns and Hazaras who are two different ethnic groups in Afghanistan. The purpose of my paper is to deal with the concept of dehumanization, the reason for dehumanizing ethnicity and to analyses the effect of dehumanization depicted in Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Theories of sociological and psychological approaches are used in this paper. Apart from Shia and Sunni sects, few Hindu, Sikh and Jew communities inhabit Afghanistan, but in this fragmented nation major issues of the conflict between Hazaras and Pashtuns have resulted in dehumanizing ethnicity. Hazaras are dehumanized by Pashtuns as they consider them as the poorest and weakest ethnic group in Afghan. Pashtuns consider themself superior than Hazaras because of physical appearance, religious’ beliefs and cultural practices. Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, highlights the issues of dehumanization and dehumanizing ethnicity which is the main reason of the bad effect on psychological health of oppressed ethnic people in Afghanistan. In this novel, Hosseini not only highlights the psychological and social health of Hassan but through Hassan he tries to give the glimpse of all Hazara’s psychological and social status. Dehumanization of ethnicity creates hate in one group of people by their fellow group of people and it divides the people into two groups in which one tries to repress others and sometimes it results in genocide, slavery and molestation. That’s why dehumanizing ethnicity is curse for the society because it creates discrimination at every level of humanity
Women in Shashi Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors and Roots and Shadows: A Critical Study
Get PDFPatriarchal domination and female submissiveness are common phenomena in almost all societies and cultures. Shashi Deshpande, an Indian female novelist, describes all kinds of visible and invisible physical, psychological, and ideological oppression caused by patriarchy in microscopic details in her novels The Dark Holds No Terrors and Roots and Shadows. Deshpande celebrates the freedom of women by creating two strong female characters, Sarita and Indu, who pay attention to their inner consciences, celebrating female emancipation and feminine identity. The patriarchy controls a notable proportion of female characters in English literature who remain silent, passive, and inactive. William Shakespeare's Desdemona, Ophelia, Thomas Hardy's Tess, Emily Bronte's Catherine, Isabella, Charlotte Bronte's Bertha Mason, and D. H. Lawrence's Miriam are all depicted as being helpless, frail, and feeble at the hands of patriarchy. Deshpande, on the other hand, is successful in showing how her female protagonists transform and become more aware of their place in society. Through these two selected novels, she depicts patriarchal dominance and the frustration that women encounter in marital relationships. Therefore, the general objective of this paper is to portray the lifelong struggle of women to find their genuine identities and a position for themselves in families, societies, and cultures. This study attempts to unravel the true nature of patriarchy, which persists in society in different shapes and forms to confine women by despising their inner strength and individuality
Exploring Dimensions of Relationships in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner
Get PDFIt is appropriately designated man as a social animal. For this reason, there a compulsion before human beings to live in society and be reliant on the functionality of others for his existence and livelihood. There are varieties of ties and bonds to be maintained with society, family and above all God with the help of connections and communication among individuals and masses. There are emotional bonds although human beings come from numerous cultures, ethnicities, races, nations, and social classes. There are internal and external connections which human beings keeps on dealing at every step. Internal and intimate bonds are maintained among the family members while external connections are maintained among friends, companions, relatives and so many others. Some relations are linked through blood but some are there based on emotions, trust, devotion, faith and needs. One of the most substantial human connections is that between a man and a woman. Therefore, the man-woman connection remains the pivotal point of any civilised society. Literature and literary texts capture the concrete and abstract image of human existence, relations, pleasures and pains. The present article brings out the different shades of relationships in the works of Khaled Hosseini. There are themes of expatriate literature in his works as an Afghan based writer having the concerns of diaspora. Most of his protagonists and other charters uphold their conviction in love and humanity although having the situations of adversity. Hope remained the prime concern of his creations
Gender Discrimination in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara: A Critical Analysis
Get PDFMahesh Dattani is a distinguished contemporary Indian playwright in English who works as a writer, stage and film director, actor, and theatrical personality. His plays are on the issues that arise in Indian contexts. He writes about those who are on the margins of society, such as minorities, women, gays, and transsexuals. The purpose of my paper is to investigate the female child's trauma in Mahesh Dattani's Tara. The predicament of Tara is akin to those of myriad unfortunate Indian females. In this conservative society, there are numerous obstacles to nurturing a girl child. On the one hand, they discover empowerment through good education, financial success, and individualism in society, yet our culture is unable to decimate long-held biases against them. "The girl child is still an undesirable arrival into an Indian home, even when the family is ostensibly educated and even has exposure to Western ideas," argues Dr. Jyoti Sharma (1). In this play, Tara is the daughter of an educated upper-middle-class family in Bangalore. The play's plot revolves around twins who are born with three legs, with blood circulation to the third leg coming from the newborn girl's torso. Only one of the twins could have two legs, while the other had to make do with one. The unwavering pronouncement to attach the third leg to the boy child's body to complete the child. This decision was not based on the medical ground but due to gender discrimination and injustice towards girl children in our Indian society. Dattani is concerned with gender discrimination and inequality toward girl children. This is done not because the girl is incapable of surviving in the merciless hands of society, but because societal conventions, economic standards, and cultural elements are to blame for this horrific activity. All of these circumstances constitute an ideology in our society in which the girl child must live and die. In this case, a girl's potential is sacrificed on the altar of gender, in which a female's role is also unforgettable and unforgivable, resulting in this unwelcome criterion
Actualizing the Traits of Romanticism in the Poetic Expressions of John Keats
Get PDFIn many ways, John Keats is the most romantic poet ever. Unlike classical poetry, which seeks to portray social experience, romantic poetry focuses on the total expression of the person. Various romantic poets include political or social commentary in their works. But Keats’ poetry is not a means of conveying any prophecy or message. His poetry is for the sake of poetry. There is no moral, political, or social significance to it. Thus, it is the truest poetry. According to Peter, “the addition of strangeness of beauty” is what gives literature its romantic element. Keats is most romantic in his straightforward quest for beauty, in everything else less so. Deity is beauty, and the truth is beauty in his eyes. His faith is beauty; thus, he will always find joy in things of beauty. He fully loses himself and his surroundings in his search for beauty. Romantic poetry describes the world of dreams rather than reality. In a realm of romance and beauty, the romantic poet looks for an escape from the harsh truths of reality. Insofar as he is the most escapist of all the poets, Keats is the most romantic. In his “Ode to a Nightingale”, the poet contrasts his own misery with the delight of the bird. The defining quality of Romantic poets is sensuality. Keats is primarily a sensualist poet
Education, Empowerment and Eros: Fakir Mohan Senapati’s “Rebati”
Get PDFFakir Mohan Senapati’s “Rebati”, considered to be the first short story written in Odia, has now been hailed as a classic for the manner it dramatizes burning social issues that the Odia society confronted at the end of the nineteenth century, majorly women’s education, in a seemingly simple yet powerful narrative. Senapati, in the story, has immortalized the character of Rebati, the ten-year-old girl from nineteenth century rural Odisha, so as to express his views regarding various facets of women’s education and its relation to empowerment in a style that has historically appealed readers of all age groups. The paper attempts to highlight Fakir Mohan’s ideological ambivalence towards women’s education as well as heterosexual love as represented in the story
Reassessing Saussure and Jakobson in the Area of Applied Stylistics
Get PDFThere are various branches of literary analysis like hermeneutics, known as the theory of interpretation, concerned with problems of understanding the meaning of the text, or stylistics which helps the reader reveal all the expressive aspects of language like phonology and prosody, morphology, syntax and lexicology. Moreover, some genres of English literature hide meaning in themselves and make it indispensable to have some expert opinion to explain it further. Applying the stylistics approach to literary text teaches the students that the language of literature is an independent kind of discourse, and the writers can use language differently. So when we analyze the literary text based on its language, we also train our students to build their knowledge of different registers- the various ways language is used, the patterns in which particular diction is used etc. Students can also clearly see the registers used in a literary text and easily compare them with the registers of a non-literary text. Keeping in mind the importance of applied stylistics, the present paper explores the pedagogical significance of using stylistics in Indian classrooms. The second part of the paper reassesses the valuable contribution of two great giants of the tradition – Saussure and Jakobson
Producers and Construction of the Spectacle in Bhraamyamaan Theatre of Assam
Get PDFProducers play a major role in creating a spectacle on the stage of Bhraamyamaan Theatre. Their choice of elements to be used on stage largely depends on the expectations of the audience. As Bhraamyamaan Theatre primarily focuses on the commercial aspects and its continuity heavily depends on its commercial success, the producers leave no stone unturned to create a great spectacle on the stage. The present paper examines the diverse methods employed by the producers of Bhraamyamaan theatre to attract the audience. An attempt has been made to critically analyze the construction of spectacle on stage through the producers of Bhraamyamaan Theatre
The Problematics of Ideological Construction and Repressive Interpellation of Caste in Bama’s Karukku
Get PDFThe problem of caste in India is supposed to have commenced from the division of the Indian society into Varna system in the ancient times. It led to the marginalization of the people of Shudra Varna to the level of untouchability, discrimination, poverty, subjugation, subordination and exploitation. In the caste system, that was, and is, categorised as the upper caste and the lower caste-- the two fractions that emerged after the Independence of India, many people of the upper caste became so antagonistic into their treatment of the people of lower caste that they designed a system of ‘power’ and ‘control’, both ideological and repressive, in order to exert their hegemony over them and dominate the consciousness of these people for the perpetuation of their privilege, authority and rule. The writings by Dalit authors, in the post-Independence era, have posed a resistance against this ideological and repressive structure of India society that enforces the people of the lower caste to accept their lot of being born to be ruled by the upper caste people. This resistance has been voiced through candour and boldness into the ‘life narratives’ of many Dalit authors. This article seeks to explore these designs and structures of ideological formations of the caste system and its repressive interpellation in the Indian society through the autobiography of Bama, Karukku
Self and Society in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice
Get PDFThe research paper attempts to probe into the concept/idea of ‘self’ by analyzing the ‘self’ of the characters in Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice its Indian cinematic adaptation Bride and Prejudice. It will explore the hybrid or diasporic identities as against the British national identities of Austen’s characters. One of the texts explored is an adaptation of the other thereby resulting in the similarity as far as the plot and characters are concerned. However, society and culture have changed during the process of adaptation. The adapted version has a global approach. It is not only a different culture and society but also a larger world weaved in one thread. The native setting of the original novel is but a part of the larger setting of the adapted movie. The globe has taken place of Britain. Not only that but the source text belongs to the imperial nation whereas the adaptation belongs to the third world. The central setting of the adaptation is a country which was once a colony to the imperial nation of the source text. In spite of this major difference of settings, not only the plot but even the characters remain unchanged. Their position in the plot, their role and the experiences they go through remain the same. Hence, they should be the same too. What is worth exploring here is the impact of the changed society, culture and setting upon these characters. The given paper attempts to explore this aspect