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Images of Chinese American women on Screen: Femme Fatale and Chinese Swordswoman as the Oriental drug for Western viewers
Get PDFRepresentation in the U.S. film industry since the early twentieth century has invariably presented Asian women as sexualized and vampish. The figure of the Asian American femme fatale signifies a particular deathly seduction. She attracts with her soft, unthreatening and servile femininity while concealing her hard, dangerous, and domineering nature. Early images, particularly the performances of Anna May Wong, continue to this day to haunt the production and reception of Asian women on screens, such as in the star-making roles of Nancy Kwan in the 1960s and Lucy Liu in the present. If Asian/ American women’s subjection is fundamentally dependent on sex, creating the parameters for Asian women’s presences in popular film and in history, racialized sexuality on screen must then be sites where bondage of representation is itself re-imagined, recast and criticized at the very moment of performance… This gender imbalance not only sustains the construction of Asian American women as more desirable candidates to be assimilated when paired with White men but also reinforces the “ownership” of White American males over the bodies and spirits of Asian/American women by negating the potential physical and sexual threat imposed by Asian/American men
V. S. Naipaul’s Exploration of India: A Reading of Land, People and the Self
Get PDFThis paper examines the non-fiction of the novelist, V.S. Naipaul, in particular, his writings on India. The paper argues that Naipaul’s repeated exploration of India, over three decades (1964-1990) can be read as his attempts at exploration of the Self. In his An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilisation, India: A Million Mutinies Now and in his Collection of Journalistic Essays, Naipaul examines the land of his ancestors, its people, its culture, polity, literature. But the most fascinating part of this journey pertains to his exploration of his own inner self. The paper juxtaposes his critique of India to probe an interesting analysis of the entity of a country, through a geographical, cultural and inner exploration of the writer
Jane Austen’s Novels: A Study from Feminist Perspective
Get PDFTo bring changes in the society, the role of courageous women and their sacrifices are always to be recognised though many a times, it is seen that they are deprived of it and are rather exploited. Jane Austen is alleged to be such a woman. Six of her novels, concerned basically with the themes of love, marriage and wealth show many progressive notes here and there in the respective texts. They vividly depict the life led by and psychology revealed by women in that age. Apart from that, these texts also reveal the author’s feminine realization and thoughtful propositions. Feminist policy of the Victorian Era is shown in novels like Pride and Prejudice and Emma. In first half of the nineteenth century, also known as the Romantic Age, Jane Austen is acclaimed as one of the most reasonable and artistically perfect writers of narratives as her novels are acknowledged by readers world-wide. She has produced diverse woman characters with unlike individualities and knowledge in her work. Her stories show that women protagonists start to follow their true love despite various challenges from society, public stigma and differences in class, strata, social and monetary status which symbolize female self-awareness and sense of self-dignity. The present paper puts forth a critical analysis of Austen’s work in the context of feminist ideology
Existentialism in Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupe
Get PDFThis paper is an attempt to explore the fragrance of existentialism in Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupe. She was born on 26th Jan., 1966. She has penned down three very famous novels; The Better Man (1999), Ladies Coupe (2001) and Mistress (2005). She happens to be a multi-talented literary figure, holding her authority not only in the field of fiction but also that of poetry. She is better known as a competent modern woman-novelist in the realm of Indian English literature of the modern age. Currently she lives in Bangalore. Ladies Coupe is basically a novel of the “feminine sensibility” but it remains unsuited to the category of the female-writing that represented women as “battered, bartered and abandoned” on the shoals of low self-worth. It rides triumphantly against the tide giving us a glimpse of the innate strength that a woman has to rebuild up her life. This is why Nair has called her novel a story revealing about “ordinary women with indomitable spirit”. Unlike her first novel – ‘The Better Man’, having a male protagonist, Nair’s ‘Ladies Coupe’, rotates around the 45 year old bachelor Akhila or Akhilendeswari, being a pen pusher in the Income Tax Department. She has gone fed up with the lone provider in her family. One day, she happens to get a ticket booked for Kanyakumari to explore certain answers for herself, mainly to the question if a woman is able to make her survival alone, being away from her family. There are five other women accompanying her for the overnight journey. They are Janaki, married with Margaret, a forty year old young Chemistry-teacher, Prabha Devi, very close to Akhila’s age, the fifteen year old Sheela and Mariakonthu, a woman who is obviously different from the rest of them. All these women connect their life-stories to Akhila, helping the latter to gain her full potential woman and struggle with the response to the questions she has been searching out so long. Thus this paper analyses the search-operation of Akhila as she arrives by degrees as to how she should live her life freely and maintain her own identity in this patriarchal society. Anita Nair has paid emphasis on the fact that it is not the response to the question which has been alluding Akhila so long, but the search for exploring it which is more pleasant to the protagonist. The central character Akhila’s responsibility has been considerably exposed. She has found the potential to come out more afresh from the prison-house of her old-self as symbolized by the stiffness of the cotton saris she always used to put on while working. She can at least switch back to her previous life where perhaps nothing could have changed on the surface but on a mental plane a sure process of development has occurred.  
An Interpersonal and Appraisal Analysis of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
Get PDFThis paper attempts to analyze Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House through linguistic perspective where conversational exchanges of the characters are laden with power and dominance. In most of the earlier studies done on A Doll’s House, feminism has been discussed along with the basic socio-economic differences between males and females. The analysis of differences between the language of male and female characters, however, were scanty. But in this paper, an attempt has been made to study differences between the language of male and female characters of the play with the help of theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics as proposed by M.A.K. Halliday and Appraisal theory as described by Martin
Negotiating Literary Transactions: Translation as Mapping Empowerment through Dissemination
Get PDFThis paper argues for wider negotiation of Dalit literary discourse through translation amongst Indian languages. This would provide a marshalling of cultural and political solidarity amongst Dalit communities and help in the movement for social justice and inclusive transformation in a pluralist culture that is the core marker of Indian social rubric. The paper argues that a translator works under constraints imposed by the publishing industry regarding choice of author to be translated, themes and genres to be accessed, thereby restricting wider dissemination of powerful narratives in regional languages. A translator has to negotiate a subversive strategy to initiate a healthier exchange of literary discourse amongst Indian languages and English. The paper analyses possibilities through translation of the same text in English and an Indian language to illustrate the political, activist choices of choosing an Indian language over English in a translation project
Representation of Nature and the Dalits: A Close Reading of Karukku and Gun Island
Get PDFThe Dalit community coexists with nature that acts as their chief benefactor in a world of exploitation. They carry out tasks like labouring, collecting firewood for the basic necessities of survival. Besides this, it is in the company of nature that they earn the pleasure in taking part in primitive sports like fishing or festivities and belief in the supernatural. This paper attempts to explore the extent to which coexistence with nature influences the lives and decisions of the Dalits and the way they stand in face of casteism. It also attempts to explore the supernatural aspect associated with nature and the way this influences the choices and decisions of a Dalit. The former is studied from an objective perspective by referring to the Paraya community of Bama’s Karukku while the later is highlighted by referring to the choices of an individual Dalit named Tipu from Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island
When the Festival Drums Beat: Demystifying Festival Cuisine in Kerala
Get PDFFood and culture are inextricably bound together. The food we eat carries the trait of our culture. Though unnoticed, the food that we eat every day and the special cuisine that we prepare for festivals, all reveal we are a part of the invisible cultural link. The cuisine of a region mirrors its history, tradition, culture and lifestyle. Kerala is often described as a “museum of races and cultures”. In Kerala Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are the main religions followed by a majority of people. A cursory look at the festival cuisine of these communities reveals a drastic difference in culture. While the Hindus stick on to vegetarian sadya on festival days, Christians and Muslims celebrate with non-vegetarian food. In an analogous geographic milieu, the gastronomic alterations of different communities provide an insight that food habits and culture are things that are kept intact to be handed down to generations. This paper tries to analyse the trajectories of history and culture that has moulded the food habits of the main communities in Kerala
Three Generations Having the Same Treatment: Feminist Study of The God of Small Things
Get PDFMen controlled society additionally assumes a significant part in downsizing the state of the characters in the novel, seen from the feminist point of view. The novel The God of Small Things is essentially a novel by a woman about women and it has been seen through the eyes of a woman. It is a women-centered novel in the sensibility of pity and fear. It brings out before the readers the state of fair sexes in a specific social milieu. The tale presents three ages of women: Baby Kochamma, Mammachi Ammu and Rahel, and all are despondent in their own specific manners. The story of the novel puts before the readers how in a patriarchal-society woman are just removal things. Practically, each and every female character directly from Mammachi, Ammu, Baby Kochamma, Rahel, to the minor characters like Kalyani, and K.N.M. Pillai's niece, Latha is the casualty of male bullhead society
The Shine of Pollyannaism in Maya Angelou’s Works
Get PDFThe optimism in life is a pleasurable feel. The small key role in a story makes a huge difference in the universe. The hope helps to jump over the depression, failure, marginalization, etc. to reach the healthy balanced life. The Pollyannaism and Still I Rise holds the similar techniques for the blooming peaceful life. Thinking hopeful, spreading positivity is the major part of the two titles. Seeking good in bad and likes in dislikes are the drastic change of the upbeat personality