The thought that the United States could engage in a second civil war is disturbing, as it represents a significant threat to the stability not only of one nation, but also of the world. Harbouring the idea of such a conflict is not as outlandish as it might seem at first glance: Several movements that have gained attention in recent years seem to be preparing for such a scenario. The two that are most interesting, essentially because they come with territorial claims, are the Greater Idaho Movement, which advocates for the secession of rural counties in eastern Oregon and northern California to join the state of Idaho and create a super-state, and the American Redoubt, which supports the establishment of a territorial entity that would include most of Greater Idaho plus Montana and Wyoming. Significantly, northern Colorado, along with North and South Dakota, while ideologically in tune with American Redoubt political and cultural philosophies, are specifically excluded in the territorial plan for this super state, as they are mainly flat and therefore difficult to defend against a modern mechanised military. It is obvious that the American Redoubt’s hypothetical defensive operations are being calculated to thwart United States Army advances in case of conflict. I will argue here that these movements’ ideology is secessionist, and that they may cause armed conflict in the United States, the likelihood and scale of which is difficult to determine.
{"title":"U.S. Civil War Redux? A Prevue","authors":"Alfonso J. García-Osuna","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.13","url":null,"abstract":"The thought that the United States could engage in a second civil war is disturbing, as it represents a significant threat to the stability not only of one nation, but also of the world. Harbouring the idea of such a conflict is not as outlandish as it might seem at first glance: Several movements that have gained attention in recent years seem to be preparing for such a scenario. The two that are most interesting, essentially because they come with territorial claims, are the Greater Idaho Movement, which advocates for the secession of rural counties in eastern Oregon and northern California to join the state of Idaho and create a super-state, and the American Redoubt, which supports the establishment of a territorial entity that would include most of Greater Idaho plus Montana and Wyoming. Significantly, northern Colorado, along with North and South Dakota, while ideologically in tune with American Redoubt political and cultural philosophies, are specifically excluded in the territorial plan for this super state, as they are mainly flat and therefore difficult to defend against a modern mechanised military. It is obvious that the American Redoubt’s hypothetical defensive operations are being calculated to thwart United States Army advances in case of conflict. I will argue here that these movements’ ideology is secessionist, and that they may cause armed conflict in the United States, the likelihood and scale of which is difficult to determine.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129613051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study aimed to conduct a structural analysis of seven legends surrounding an iconic image in the Philippines, the Sto. Niño de Cebu. The corpora used for the study were limited to the legends on healing people’s illnesses through the Sto. Niño’s miraculous interventions. Specifically, this study identified the binary oppositions found in the legends, derived syntagmatic sequences or mythemes and their variations from the legends, determined the central message of each legend based on the mythemes, and related each legend to one another. This qualitative study adopted the procedures used by Gray (1978) in “Structural Analysis of Folktales: Techniques and Methodology.” The study found that each legend has its binary opposition/s and central message textually, and the mythemes were expressed in different details and bundles. Intertextually, such binary opposition sickness vs. healing, may be linked with the mythemes and central messages. The researcher recommends that future researchers study the other legends about the Sto. Niño focused on other themes to validate if the mythemes found in this study may apply or if a new set of mythemes may surface. It is also highly recommended that the Sto. Niño legends are included in the reading list or required readings in English and Philippine Literature classes. For the study’s academic implications, the study of religious legends, particularly the Sto. Niño legends as texts for critical analysis to apply Literary Criticism theories may be integrated into the basic and higher education curricula.
{"title":"A Structural Analysis of Religious Legends about an Iconic Image in the Philippines","authors":"Jose Macatangay","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.01","url":null,"abstract":"The study aimed to conduct a structural analysis of seven legends surrounding an iconic image in the Philippines, the Sto. Niño de Cebu. The corpora used for the study were limited to the legends on healing people’s illnesses through the Sto. Niño’s miraculous interventions. Specifically, this study identified the binary oppositions found in the legends, derived syntagmatic sequences or mythemes and their variations from the legends, determined the central message of each legend based on the mythemes, and related each legend to one another. This qualitative study adopted the procedures used by Gray (1978) in “Structural Analysis of Folktales: Techniques and Methodology.” The study found that each legend has its binary opposition/s and central message textually, and the mythemes were expressed in different details and bundles. Intertextually, such binary opposition sickness vs. healing, may be linked with the mythemes and central messages. The researcher recommends that future researchers study the other legends about the Sto. Niño focused on other themes to validate if the mythemes found in this study may apply or if a new set of mythemes may surface. It is also highly recommended that the Sto. Niño legends are included in the reading list or required readings in English and Philippine Literature classes. For the study’s academic implications, the study of religious legends, particularly the Sto. Niño legends as texts for critical analysis to apply Literary Criticism theories may be integrated into the basic and higher education curricula.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122580998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The fratricidal war between Nigeria and Biafra ended some over five decades ago. But the lessons learned are not yet forgotten. This article attempts to historicise the role of foreign powers in the Nigeria–Biafra war of 1967-1970. Most scholars erroneously refer to the war as the Nigerian civil war, but historically it was a war fought by two “independent” countries – The Republic of Nigeria and Republic of Biafra, for There was a Country, as Achebe puts it (2012). Over the years the raison d’etre of foreign powers’ intervention in the war has not been properly contextualized. This work, then, sets out to historicise and deconstruct the determinant factors and the role played by foreign intervention in the war. The article employs both primary and secondary data to achieve its objective and reveal the national interests and foreign policy objectives – as expressed in economic, strategic and political objectives – that were factors in the foreign powers’ intervention. The fallout from the 1963 and 1964 general elections is a relevant initial cause of the Nigeria-Biafra war. The article intends to analyse and interpret the political thought processes that generated foreign intervention, and suggests that, should there be another implosion that leads to a repeat of 1967-1970, the foreign powers that politicians usually rely on for aid and assistance can be expected to respond in line with certain patterns of economic, strategic or political interest, to the detriment, needless to say, of the Nigerian people.
{"title":"Historicising Foreign Powers’ Intervention in the Nigeria–Biafra War (1967-1970)","authors":"Uwomano Benjamin Okpevra","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.05","url":null,"abstract":"The fratricidal war between Nigeria and Biafra ended some over five decades ago. But the lessons learned are not yet forgotten. This article attempts to historicise the role of foreign powers in the Nigeria–Biafra war of 1967-1970. Most scholars erroneously refer to the war as the Nigerian civil war, but historically it was a war fought by two “independent” countries – The Republic of Nigeria and Republic of Biafra, for There was a Country, as Achebe puts it (2012). Over the years the raison d’etre of foreign powers’ intervention in the war has not been properly contextualized. This work, then, sets out to historicise and deconstruct the determinant factors and the role played by foreign intervention in the war. The article employs both primary and secondary data to achieve its objective and reveal the national interests and foreign policy objectives – as expressed in economic, strategic and political objectives – that were factors in the foreign powers’ intervention. The fallout from the 1963 and 1964 general elections is a relevant initial cause of the Nigeria-Biafra war. The article intends to analyse and interpret the political thought processes that generated foreign intervention, and suggests that, should there be another implosion that leads to a repeat of 1967-1970, the foreign powers that politicians usually rely on for aid and assistance can be expected to respond in line with certain patterns of economic, strategic or political interest, to the detriment, needless to say, of the Nigerian people.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125545907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haruki Murakami introduces a wide array of issues and topics in his fiction; his variegated characters typically enact a wide range of human attitudes and behaviours when encountering the problems of modern life. One recurrent theme in Murakami’s novels is memory. The novelist has a unique ability to present his characters “from the inside”, as it were, describing thus the interior mechanisms that make them who they are. His novels present an opportunity to understand the workings of memory and how people are led by its dictates. His characters often find themselves recollecting their past in order to sustain a present existence that is marred by some type of crisis. As they progress in time, protagonists experience a profound sense of disequilibrium that prompts them to return to the past in order to rebalance their self’s sense of value. In this regard, the paper investigates the dynamics of memory as well as its role in the formation of identity in Haruki Murakami’s novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014). For this purpose, the paper draws on different theories of memory and identity in its analysis.
{"title":"Memory and Identity in Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage","authors":"Nidhu Kumar Dhar","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.07","url":null,"abstract":"Haruki Murakami introduces a wide array of issues and topics in his fiction; his variegated characters typically enact a wide range of human attitudes and behaviours when encountering the problems of modern life. One recurrent theme in Murakami’s novels is memory. The novelist has a unique ability to present his characters “from the inside”, as it were, describing thus the interior mechanisms that make them who they are. His novels present an opportunity to understand the workings of memory and how people are led by its dictates. His characters often find themselves recollecting their past in order to sustain a present existence that is marred by some type of crisis. As they progress in time, protagonists experience a profound sense of disequilibrium that prompts them to return to the past in order to rebalance their self’s sense of value. In this regard, the paper investigates the dynamics of memory as well as its role in the formation of identity in Haruki Murakami’s novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2014). For this purpose, the paper draws on different theories of memory and identity in its analysis.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123370557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1971, the civil war in the Pakistani state and consequent genocide in present Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) led to a great influx of refugees who were desperately crossing the porous borderlands of the eastern states of India. Despite the abject living conditions in the saturated refugee camps and the stringent regimentation of the youth camps and muktijoddhā (Liberation Warrior) training sectors in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam borderlands, the space inhabited by the refugees was charged with powerful national imaginaries laced with an eclectic blend of emotions – resistance, hope, nostalgia, desire, aspiration. Drawing on ethnographic and anthropological research, the essay aims to explore various folk forms of poetry which emerged out of these refugee camps and guerrilla army training sectors during the war, such as kabigān (a form of lyrical oral poetry where the poet spontaneously composes verses to be performed at a public gathering) or hāture kabitā (poems to be read aloud in the middle of a hāt or marketplace) written and performed by refugees from Assam’s Barak Valley in North-East India, and later collected by Bangladeshi historian Shahid Quader Chowdhury. Besides problematising aesthetic practices and their relationship to the idea of border-crossing, refugeehood and national identities, to what extent do these poems – loka kabitā or oral folk poetry, open up a discursive space where shared cultures, histories and memories play a momentous role in political mobilisation and in the creation of a radical alterity within the “national” culture and history? To what extent do these aesthetic registers succeed in combating the irrepresentability of violence, injustice and trauma? These are primarily the questions that this essay aims to ask and resolve.
{"title":"The Poetics of Borderlands: Reflections on Oral Folk Poetry from Assam’s Barak Valley during Bangladesh Liberation War","authors":"Sushrita Acharjee","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.09","url":null,"abstract":"In 1971, the civil war in the Pakistani state and consequent genocide in present Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan) led to a great influx of refugees who were desperately crossing the porous borderlands of the eastern states of India. Despite the abject living conditions in the saturated refugee camps and the stringent regimentation of the youth camps and muktijoddhā (Liberation Warrior) training sectors in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam borderlands, the space inhabited by the refugees was charged with powerful national imaginaries laced with an eclectic blend of emotions – resistance, hope, nostalgia, desire, aspiration. Drawing on ethnographic and anthropological research, the essay aims to explore various folk forms of poetry which emerged out of these refugee camps and guerrilla army training sectors during the war, such as kabigān (a form of lyrical oral poetry where the poet spontaneously composes verses to be performed at a public gathering) or hāture kabitā (poems to be read aloud in the middle of a hāt or marketplace) written and performed by refugees from Assam’s Barak Valley in North-East India, and later collected by Bangladeshi historian Shahid Quader Chowdhury. Besides problematising aesthetic practices and their relationship to the idea of border-crossing, refugeehood and national identities, to what extent do these poems – loka kabitā or oral folk poetry, open up a discursive space where shared cultures, histories and memories play a momentous role in political mobilisation and in the creation of a radical alterity within the “national” culture and history? To what extent do these aesthetic registers succeed in combating the irrepresentability of violence, injustice and trauma? These are primarily the questions that this essay aims to ask and resolve.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"17 6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125763541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Literature was quick to respond to emerging digital technologies in the late 1990s. Fiction writing and publishing took to the Internet, although traditional methods of print publication largely remained in place. However, it became evident that the literary world had embraced online platforms to produce and consume literature. Keshava Guha’s debut novel Accidental Magic (2019) captures this transformation from print to the digital world in the early 2000s. This paper is a study on how digital technology is adopted and utilised by literary readers in Accidental Magic. It also analyses digital technology’s impact on the art of storytelling. The paper concludes that online communities have introduced a new means of storytelling, which is now a two-way process, unlike what was the case in the pre-internet era. Also, mainstream literature is frequently and actively challenged – and promoted – on digital media. Guha’s novel illustrates how online platforms impact the lives of four people, suggesting that such platforms have the power to change the dynamics of human relationships and alter reader interactions with literature in general.
{"title":"Digitalised Responses: Understanding the Digital Literary Spaces in the Light of Keshava Guha’s Accidental Magic","authors":"Sapphire Mahmood Ahmed, K. Sultana","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.02","url":null,"abstract":"Literature was quick to respond to emerging digital technologies in the late 1990s. Fiction writing and publishing took to the Internet, although traditional methods of print publication largely remained in place. However, it became evident that the literary world had embraced online platforms to produce and consume literature. Keshava Guha’s debut novel Accidental Magic (2019) captures this transformation from print to the digital world in the early 2000s. This paper is a study on how digital technology is adopted and utilised by literary readers in Accidental Magic. It also analyses digital technology’s impact on the art of storytelling. The paper concludes that online communities have introduced a new means of storytelling, which is now a two-way process, unlike what was the case in the pre-internet era. Also, mainstream literature is frequently and actively challenged – and promoted – on digital media. Guha’s novel illustrates how online platforms impact the lives of four people, suggesting that such platforms have the power to change the dynamics of human relationships and alter reader interactions with literature in general.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124822241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The paper seeks to critically explore Angela Carter’s use of colour symbolisms in her short story “The Bloody Chamber” (1979). By focussing on the recurrent invocation of three major colours, namely red, black and white, the paper studies how chromatic coding becomes a potent rhetorical device through which the psychological and physical implications of gendered violence are negotiated in Carter’s story. Paying close attention to the protagonist’s interaction with an aesthetically stimulating narrative world, steeped in visceral colours, the paper attempts at problematizing the politics of victimisation and female agency that underlies the entire narrative. Carter’s deployment of colour symbolisms has a quasi-theatrical dimension that tends to visualise the subversive implications of the text. Keeping that in mind, the paper seeks to crack the chromatic codes at multiple levels; for instance, red is studied in context to patriarchal violation of female bodies, as an embodiment of female desire and a manifestation of female bonding. Black is read through the lens of motherhood where it becomes a visual trope that deconstructs the prototype of an ideal mother and individualises her as a redemptive and rebellious figure. Finally, by paying attention to Carter’s use of the colour white, the paper seeks to trace its dual purpose in perpetuating invisibilization of female desire and charging the act of seeing with an agential import.
{"title":"The Significance of Colour Symbolisms in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber (1979)","authors":"Ankita Sen","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.11","url":null,"abstract":"The paper seeks to critically explore Angela Carter’s use of colour symbolisms in her short story “The Bloody Chamber” (1979). By focussing on the recurrent invocation of three major colours, namely red, black and white, the paper studies how chromatic coding becomes a potent rhetorical device through which the psychological and physical implications of gendered violence are negotiated in Carter’s story. Paying close attention to the protagonist’s interaction with an aesthetically stimulating narrative world, steeped in visceral colours, the paper attempts at problematizing the politics of victimisation and female agency that underlies the entire narrative. Carter’s deployment of colour symbolisms has a quasi-theatrical dimension that tends to visualise the subversive implications of the text. Keeping that in mind, the paper seeks to crack the chromatic codes at multiple levels; for instance, red is studied in context to patriarchal violation of female bodies, as an embodiment of female desire and a manifestation of female bonding. Black is read through the lens of motherhood where it becomes a visual trope that deconstructs the prototype of an ideal mother and individualises her as a redemptive and rebellious figure. Finally, by paying attention to Carter’s use of the colour white, the paper seeks to trace its dual purpose in perpetuating invisibilization of female desire and charging the act of seeing with an agential import.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124166879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper addresses the fin-de-siècle period as a time when most of what are called intermedial processes, that is to say, those processes that arbitrate aesthetic design at the intersection between different media, began to play a substantial role in the production of cultural artifacts. The epoch is investigated through the prism of intermediality, which manifested itself as a valuable tool in the development of the arts and media, particularly after the birth of photography and cinematography. These intermedial processes fostered a media-based creative experimentation that culminated in the modernist and postmodernist movements. The role of intermediality in the fin-de-siècle, particularly in light of the syncretic processes it originated, is considered as an aftereffect of the tumultuous events of the time, which in a way acted as a stimulus for this new-fangled aesthetics. The paper concludes that the turbulence that characterizes this epoch, as well as the diffusion of new artistic and philosophical movements, impacted the development of mixed (intermedial) arts, stimulated their growth and activated the exploration of intermedial forms and genres in all the arts. This is the era of mass publishing and the growth of literacy rates, an era that laid the foundations for future theories on intertextuality and the idea of the work of art as an inclusive “canvas” inside of which all media have a place.
{"title":"Turbulence of the Fin-de-siècle: Arts Through the Looking-Glass of Intermediality","authors":"Mykyta Isagulov","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.08","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the fin-de-siècle period as a time when most of what are called intermedial processes, that is to say, those processes that arbitrate aesthetic design at the intersection between different media, began to play a substantial role in the production of cultural artifacts. The epoch is investigated through the prism of intermediality, which manifested itself as a valuable tool in the development of the arts and media, particularly after the birth of photography and cinematography. These intermedial processes fostered a media-based creative experimentation that culminated in the modernist and postmodernist movements. The role of intermediality in the fin-de-siècle, particularly in light of the syncretic processes it originated, is considered as an aftereffect of the tumultuous events of the time, which in a way acted as a stimulus for this new-fangled aesthetics. The paper concludes that the turbulence that characterizes this epoch, as well as the diffusion of new artistic and philosophical movements, impacted the development of mixed (intermedial) arts, stimulated their growth and activated the exploration of intermedial forms and genres in all the arts. This is the era of mass publishing and the growth of literacy rates, an era that laid the foundations for future theories on intertextuality and the idea of the work of art as an inclusive “canvas” inside of which all media have a place.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121029149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jotiba Phule’s Gulamgiri (1873), which is widely translated as Slavery, equates casteism with slavery. His book carefully deconstructs the Vedic scriptures, which make up the largest chunk of central religious texts in Hinduism, in order to expose the latent hypocrisy and the conspiracy of Brahminical ideology to dominate a section of society. Gulamgiri was the radical manifesto of the social reform society called Satyasodhak Samaj, founded by Phule in 1873 along with his wife Savitribai Phule. Aparajita Ninan and Srividya Natarajan’s graphic novel A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule’s Fight for Liberty (2011), by revisiting Jotiba Phule’s ground-breaking text Gulamgiri, examines the contemporaneity and the continuity of caste issues and thus attempts a conversation between the past and the present historical reality of casteism. The present study focuses on the centrality of the metaphor of the garden in highlighting the gravity of the caste problem and its larger implications in the lives of India’s marginalised Dalit community. By focusing on the physical aspects of gardening, this paper touches upon Dalit eco-literary concerns and brings to the fore the role of labour that defines the relationship between Dalit bodies and nature. It also aims to capture Natarajan and Ninan’s contribution to Phule’s task of metaphorical gardening, thus becoming co-gardeners in distant time and space.
{"title":"Gardening as Activism: Cultivating Human Minds in A Gardener in Wasteland","authors":"A. Sen","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.10","url":null,"abstract":"Jotiba Phule’s Gulamgiri (1873), which is widely translated as Slavery, equates casteism with slavery. His book carefully deconstructs the Vedic scriptures, which make up the largest chunk of central religious texts in Hinduism, in order to expose the latent hypocrisy and the conspiracy of Brahminical ideology to dominate a section of society. Gulamgiri was the radical manifesto of the social reform society called Satyasodhak Samaj, founded by Phule in 1873 along with his wife Savitribai Phule. Aparajita Ninan and Srividya Natarajan’s graphic novel A Gardener in the Wasteland: Jotiba Phule’s Fight for Liberty (2011), by revisiting Jotiba Phule’s ground-breaking text Gulamgiri, examines the contemporaneity and the continuity of caste issues and thus attempts a conversation between the past and the present historical reality of casteism. The present study focuses on the centrality of the metaphor of the garden in highlighting the gravity of the caste problem and its larger implications in the lives of India’s marginalised Dalit community. By focusing on the physical aspects of gardening, this paper touches upon Dalit eco-literary concerns and brings to the fore the role of labour that defines the relationship between Dalit bodies and nature. It also aims to capture Natarajan and Ninan’s contribution to Phule’s task of metaphorical gardening, thus becoming co-gardeners in distant time and space.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"119 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121166245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Globalization epitomizes the convergence of diverse cultures, economies, and communities on a worldwide scale, engendering the exchange of ideas, technology, inventions, and import and export services across nations and societies. Technology, as a pivotal agent, assumes a vital role in building bridges among the global economies by overcoming information disparities and thereby empowering people. Specifically, television, a very influential medium, assumes the function of capturing, collating, and disseminating personal and cultural memories. Its significance is especially pronounced in the context of Khaled Hosseini’s literary works, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, where television’s role as a tool for constructing memories and shaping the identities of the characters is scrutinized. The ramifications of the Taliban’s television ban are examined in this paper, highlighting how this drastic measure has significantly impacted the nation’s culture.
{"title":"Television as a Tool of Memory and Identity in Khaled Hosseini’s Novels","authors":"P. Meena","doi":"10.22492/ijah.10.1.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22492/ijah.10.1.04","url":null,"abstract":"Globalization epitomizes the convergence of diverse cultures, economies, and communities on a worldwide scale, engendering the exchange of ideas, technology, inventions, and import and export services across nations and societies. Technology, as a pivotal agent, assumes a vital role in building bridges among the global economies by overcoming information disparities and thereby empowering people. Specifically, television, a very influential medium, assumes the function of capturing, collating, and disseminating personal and cultural memories. Its significance is especially pronounced in the context of Khaled Hosseini’s literary works, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, where television’s role as a tool for constructing memories and shaping the identities of the characters is scrutinized. The ramifications of the Taliban’s television ban are examined in this paper, highlighting how this drastic measure has significantly impacted the nation’s culture.","PeriodicalId":270323,"journal":{"name":"IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128467925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}