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Folk Theatres, Oral Poetry and Cultural Artifacts along the Border Regions of North Bengal
Get PDFContested border regions often become “memory landscapes” with monuments, historical sites, and cultural artefacts; they become sacred spaces for national or ethnic memory. In some cases, border regions can take on a dramatic theatrical character in which specific national interpretations of past conflict and the culpability of the other side are carefully staged. This is particularly the case of Cooch Behar district. Martyrs from past conflicts are “reanimated”, at appropriate times for the strategy of social mobilization. Such changing cultural expressions can be traced to the growth and evolution of the indigenous art forms of Cooch Behar. The successive waves of migration and a shift in the demographic in the later decades of the last century have resulted in the emergence of a very syncretic cultural scene, one that is informed by both migrant narratives, while paying due diligence to the indigenous roots of the art forms. This chapter aims to evaluate orality not as a static medium but as one that is subject to constant change resulting in cultural transition. This paper highlights the history of border planning and population division in the region of North Bengal is fraught with religious tension, transition from a principality to a constituting state in the case of Cooch Behar and an overarching sense of loss that is prevalent across the whole region of North Bengal. Midnight’s borders that were arbitrarily drawn in Undivided Punjab and Bengal in 1947 had wreaked havoc in the lives of people occupying the border adjacent districts, an impact that can still be felt in the mnemocultural productions of these districts
Portraits of Contradiction: Kerala\u27s Popular Cinema and the Shifting Narratives of Subjectivity
Get PDFPopular cinema, particularly domestic melodrama, has played a vital role in understanding how families interact with the state and how the popular understanding of the subject changes. The concept of normal subjects has changed drastically with modern norms superimposed on pre-modern social identities. This resulted in a composite construct of subject normality, including pre-modern belief systems and values hidden within the modern secular state\u27s norms. Malayali popular culture narrates the internal biases of the population better than the analyses of \u27economics\u27. Kerala has a unique development trajectory, with family norms and popular cinema playing significant roles in shaping the state\u27s narrative structures. The state\u27s development model is influenced by its economic objectives, with the family being seen as the building blocks of modern society. Popular cinema in Kerala has been instrumental in capturing the contradictions and exceptions in the state\u27s development. Domestic melodramas, which revolve around male subjects, have provided commentary on the discourse of the state and economics. The context of Kerala\u27s popular cinema and its connection with the \u27social\u27 of the state allows for various points of ideological import. Popular cinema is a space where the \u27exception\u27, resultant contradictions, and connection between popular culture in Kerala during 1989-2009 and the new face of governmentality are portrayed through domestic melodramas. These films enable us to better understand the attitudes of the people engendered by the changed context
Ripples of Insurgency: A Reading of The House with a Thousand Stories
Get PDFThe inexorable presence of insurgency has vitiated Assam and the other North-eastern states for a long period of time; but the reality faced by the inhabitants in these areas are represented more sensibly and truthfully by the literature produced by the writers of the North-east. The paper looks at one such depiction by a young writer from Assam, Arun Kashyap in his English novel, The House with a Thousand Stories
The Grammar of the Disabled-Able Agency Construing ‘Hindu Studies’: Perusing the Ashtavakra Gita
Get PDFThe Ashtavakra Gita is a metaphysical treatise by Rishiraj Janaka and the able-disable Sage Ashtavakra in Indian mythology. It spans 20 chapters and 285 shlokas, focusing on the post-human and the disabled-able agency. The text is influenced by Hindu Studies and Indian knowledge systems, and its interconnection of ideas, cohesion, consistency, and logic are key research questions. The study explores themes such as the impact of Hindu Studies on Western literature, tangible and intangible identities, and the concept of province and region. The text also explores themes of femininity, iconography, nationalism, time, and regional poetics. The study also explores cultural paraphernalia, mythology, knowledge, detachment, liberation, and the Adwaita philosophy. The paper will examine how the text constructs and conveys concepts of ability and disability through its narrative and philosophical discourse. Additionally, the paper will analyze the linguistic and grammatical frameworks employed to understand the interactions between disabled and able-bodied characters in the context of Hindu religious and philosophical traditions
A Cognitive Analysis of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks
Get PDFFrantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952) presents a radical cognitive analysis of how colonialism disturbs the psyche, leading to alienation as much from one’s own identity as from others. Through the lens of psychoanalytic theory and concepts of cognitive psychology, Fanon examines how the colonized individual internalizes racial stereotypes and constructs fragmented identities in a colonial system where whiteness is the standard to which society adheres. The epidermal (or skin color)ization of inferiority, an important tenet in Fanon’s argument, helps to make sense of how certain schemas through which we process social interactions became pervasively organized around skin color, which may lead to the internalization of inferiority and a desire to mediate the experience and knowledge of one’s self-world through the lens of skin color. From a cognitive point of view, Fanon’s work examines the way perception, memory and thought processes are formed by systemic racism. Individuals who have gone through colonization find themselves constantly having to navigate a world where negative stereotypes become represented in their lived experience, where discrimination is part of the daily discourse, and their own identity becomes a dissonance in the endogenous order of whom to be as citizens. Fanon’s writings illustrate the ways that colonial subjects suture themselves together in the midst of external pressure to rehearse dominant white conventions. This cognitive perspective highlights how the impact of the colonial mindset manifests in mental health, identity formation, and social relations. Fanon’s investigation leads us to important questions concerning how these schemas which inform and are informed by cultural and historical contexts continue to perpetuate internalized racism and psychological trauma. His works continue to provide significant insights into the cognitive level of colonial oppression and its impact on post-colonial societies
Intercultural engagement and inherent difficulties: Examining translation and transfer of cultural concepts and idioms in Femi Adedina’s Highway to Nowhere
Get PDFWriting as an L2 English language writer for L1 English language readers and trying to convey concepts and elements of an indigenous language to them have challenges. The challenges include perception, beliefs and cultural understanding. Many writers try to tackle these challenges through many means such as substitution, transliteration and the use of glossaries. This article centres on the challenges faced by an L2 English language writer trying to convey Yoruba concepts and culture in his novel, Highway to Nowhere, to non-Yoruba speakers and L1 English speakers. These challenges include misconception of ideas and concepts about women and the non-understanding of Yoruba language, Yoruba’s culture’s ideas of respect and some other ideas embedded in the culture. This article explains the tools the writer used such as footnotes, epitaphs and folktales, and it also explores the ways the writer handles cultural and perceptual difficulties that are encountered by his L1 English language reader. The paper then concludes that, a glossary could have been better than footnotes and that there are differences in cultural perceptions and world views of both the writer and his readers. It then suggests that the use of new media with its potential of multimedia presentations would be a better means of transferring cultural concepts without losing most of what the concept contains.
“The agony it was to switch from Russian to English... not only style but subject undergoes a horrible bleeding and distortion when translated into another tongue” – Vladimir Nabokov
“Nobody who attempts to translate Yorùbá into English will doubt that ‘poetry is what is left out of translation’ “– Ulli Beie
Story of the Story-Teller: A Conversation with Ramendra Kumar
Get PDFRamendra Kumar (Ramen) is an award-winning writer, storyteller and inspirational speaker with 42 books to his name. Ramen’s writings have been published by many of the leading publishers in the county and translated into 30 languages. They have found a place in several textbooks and anthologies. He has written across all genres ranging from picture books to adult fiction, satire, poetry, travelogues, biographies and on issues related to parenting and relationships. He has been invited to literary festivals held in Denmark, Greece, Sharjah, Sri Lanka as well Indian events including the prestigious Jaipur Litfest to conduct storytelling sessions and creative writing workshops. He has also been empanelled by Pearson India Education Services as well as several schools to conduct workshops. He was nominated as a Jury Member for the Best Children’s Author Category of The Times of India’s ‘Women AutHer’ Awards 2020. Many of his stories have been showcased by popular audio streaming, apps both within and outside the country, such as Spotify, Gaatha, Talking Stories Radio – London et al.
An Engineer & an MBA, Ramen was serving as the General Manager (Corporate Communications), SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant, when he took Voluntary Retirement to pursue his passion, in August 2020. To know more about the writer, you can visit his website www.ramendra.in & his page on Wikipedia. Dr. Sagar Kumar Sharma interviews the author and unfolds the pages of his life.