Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3000
Pragya Dev, Binod Mishra, Iit Roorkee
Contemporary descriptions of female embodiment are rife with images of violence, domination, and subjugation. Often bracketed as vulnerable, women are constantly subjected to patriarchal and gendered violence. Vulnerability, however, is an ontological condition of humanity and can yield multifarious responses – abuse, love, disarray, violence, generosity, and contempt – making human life precarious. This precariousness, when situated in the Indian context, exposes humans to varied practices of violence enmeshed in vicious systems of caste, class, region, and religion as demonstrated in K. R. Meera’s Hangwoman (2014). Owing to their centuries-old lineage of hangmen, Grddha Mullicks began making nooses right away in their mother’s wombs. Chetna, the first hangwoman in her family, is staged as the successor to her familial duty to the Nation only because of her brother’s tragic amputation of limbs. Subjected to a shrewd media lens and patriarchal manipulation, the struggle of constructing a new-feminist-styled ‘angel of the house’ depicted in the novel whirls poignant questions to corporeal vulnerability. This article scrutinises the societal treatment of vulnerability and explores physical, interpersonal, and epistemic violence haunting the book’s pages. It further adds nuances to the engagement of media and identity while examining the precarity of the novel’s characters.
当代对女性形象的描述充斥着暴力、统治和征服的形象。女性通常被视为弱势群体,不断受到父权制和性别暴力的侵害。然而,脆弱是人类的本体论条件,可以产生多种反应--虐待、爱、混乱、暴力、慷慨和蔑视--使人类生活岌岌可危。正如 K. R. Meera 的《女刽子手》(Hangwoman,2014 年)所展示的那样,在印度的语境下,这种不稳定性使人类暴露在种姓、阶级、地区和宗教等恶性制度下的各种暴力实践中。由于拥有数百年的刽子手血统,Grddha Mullicks 在母亲的子宫里就开始制作绞索。切特娜是家族中的第一位刽子手,因为哥哥惨遭截肢,她才成为家族对国家责任的继承者。在精明的媒体镜头和父权制的操纵下,小说中描绘的构建新女性主义风格的 "家庭天使 "的斗争引发了关于肉体脆弱性的尖锐问题。本文审视了社会对脆弱性的处理方式,并探讨了萦绕在书页中的身体暴力、人际暴力和认识暴力。文章在审视小说人物的不稳定性的同时,进一步对媒体与身份的关系进行了细微的探讨。
{"title":"Making of Nooses: Accentuating Vulnerability, Resilience, and Violence in K.R. Meera’s Hangwoman","authors":"Pragya Dev, Binod Mishra, Iit Roorkee","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3000","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary descriptions of female embodiment are rife with images of violence, domination, and subjugation. Often bracketed as vulnerable, women are constantly subjected to patriarchal and gendered violence. Vulnerability, however, is an ontological condition of humanity and can yield multifarious responses – abuse, love, disarray, violence, generosity, and contempt – making human life precarious. This precariousness, when situated in the Indian context, exposes humans to varied practices of violence enmeshed in vicious systems of caste, class, region, and religion as demonstrated in K. R. Meera’s Hangwoman (2014). Owing to their centuries-old lineage of hangmen, Grddha Mullicks began making nooses right away in their mother’s wombs. Chetna, the first hangwoman in her family, is staged as the successor to her familial duty to the Nation only because of her brother’s tragic amputation of limbs. Subjected to a shrewd media lens and patriarchal manipulation, the struggle of constructing a new-feminist-styled ‘angel of the house’ depicted in the novel whirls poignant questions to corporeal vulnerability. This article scrutinises the societal treatment of vulnerability and explores physical, interpersonal, and epistemic violence haunting the book’s pages. It further adds nuances to the engagement of media and identity while examining the precarity of the novel’s characters.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"7 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169647","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2996
Esther Daimari, Debajyoti Biswas
This article examines the trope of the ‘missing person’ in the literature about Kashmir and argues, by taking Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field (2019) as an example, how the trope allows the examination of a multilayered history of violence. The article problematises the idea of visibility and invisibility of the missing/abducted/hidden/underground people during conflict and suggests that these figures can be read as metaphors for personal and collective trauma and loss. By triangulating three coordinates in Kashmiri context – violence, trauma, and invisibility – the essay argues that a missing person can be emblematic of memories of trauma, negation of humanity, violation of body, and public complicity in institutional violence. By foregrounding Shalini’s journey to recover the missing people, the novel underpins the “rot remains” of a society afflicted with violence and state apathy. Within the framework of trauma theory in the postcolonial context, the essay shows how the focus of Vijay’s narrative of Kashmiri people’s trauma is shifted from speech to body. The emphasis on the body contributes to a compelling narration of trauma by conflating land and people.
{"title":"The Missing Person in a Story about Kashmir: A Reading of Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field","authors":"Esther Daimari, Debajyoti Biswas","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2996","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the trope of the ‘missing person’ in the literature about Kashmir and argues, by taking Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field (2019) as an example, how the trope allows the examination of a multilayered history of violence. The article problematises the idea of visibility and invisibility of the missing/abducted/hidden/underground people during conflict and suggests that these figures can be read as metaphors for personal and collective trauma and loss. By triangulating three coordinates in Kashmiri context – violence, trauma, and invisibility – the essay argues that a missing person can be emblematic of memories of trauma, negation of humanity, violation of body, and public complicity in institutional violence. By foregrounding Shalini’s journey to recover the missing people, the novel underpins the “rot remains” of a society afflicted with violence and state apathy. Within the framework of trauma theory in the postcolonial context, the essay shows how the focus of Vijay’s narrative of Kashmiri people’s trauma is shifted from speech to body. The emphasis on the body contributes to a compelling narration of trauma by conflating land and people.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"31 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139168591","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3016
Muhammad Shah Daniel
.
.
{"title":"Lament for Watermelon","authors":"Muhammad Shah Daniel","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3016","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"85 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139170061","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3001
Syafruddin, Brillianing Pratiwi, Isra F. Sianipar
The aims of the study are to explore the occurrence of Redundant Acronym Syndrome (RAS) in Indonesian news articles and examine its implications by employing corpus analysis approach. The main source of the data from the Indonesian news corpus, which consists of 150,466 articles from Indonesian news websites over a six-month period spanned from July 2015 to December 2015. The data analysis was conducted by using Antconc software version 4.02. The analysis reveals a systematic and recognisable structure in acronym formation, highlighting cultural or organisational conventions such as initial phoneme retention, retention of syllables + letters, and retention of syllables and syllables, and retention of initial phonemes and letters. The findings of this study revealed a total of 40 Redundant Acronym with 5730 occurrences identified in the Indonesian news corpus, covering various fields such as the name of football clubs, banks, political parties, educational institutions, government-related terms, and commonly used phrases. This research also discussed that that RAS in news articles can have both negative and positive impacts. It negatively impact readability by making repetitions and potentially confusing the reader. In contrast, RAS can also improve clarity by emphasising certain aspects or reinforcing associations in acronyms, so that readers can instantly recognise and understand them. The findings provided valuable insights for news writers and editors, emphasising the importance of a balance between readability and clarity in news articles.
{"title":"Redundant Acronym Syndrome in Indonesian News Articles: A Corpus Analysis Approach","authors":"Syafruddin, Brillianing Pratiwi, Isra F. Sianipar","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3001","url":null,"abstract":"The aims of the study are to explore the occurrence of Redundant Acronym Syndrome (RAS) in Indonesian news articles and examine its implications by employing corpus analysis approach. The main source of the data from the Indonesian news corpus, which consists of 150,466 articles from Indonesian news websites over a six-month period spanned from July 2015 to December 2015. The data analysis was conducted by using Antconc software version 4.02. The analysis reveals a systematic and recognisable structure in acronym formation, highlighting cultural or organisational conventions such as initial phoneme retention, retention of syllables + letters, and retention of syllables and syllables, and retention of initial phonemes and letters. The findings of this study revealed a total of 40 Redundant Acronym with 5730 occurrences identified in the Indonesian news corpus, covering various fields such as the name of football clubs, banks, political parties, educational institutions, government-related terms, and commonly used phrases. This research also discussed that that RAS in news articles can have both negative and positive impacts. It negatively impact readability by making repetitions and potentially confusing the reader. In contrast, RAS can also improve clarity by emphasising certain aspects or reinforcing associations in acronyms, so that readers can instantly recognise and understand them. The findings provided valuable insights for news writers and editors, emphasising the importance of a balance between readability and clarity in news articles.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"135 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139170423","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2997
Raihan Rosman
The position of Muslim women is much debated, as they are often perceived as oppressed, subjugated, and victims of patriarchal society. However, Islam ensures women’s dignity as equal human beings. Nevertheless, cultural expectations and the multiplicity of interpretations of Islamic teachings lead to various conventions, practices, and beliefs that limit women’s rights. Based on this observation, this paper explores Muslim women’s sartorial liberty and right to education as depicted in Shelina Zahra Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf. It emphasises the distinction between the Islamic faith and Muslim cultural practices, and examines the ways in which the text supports and develops what Islam has given women.
{"title":"Women’s Sartorial Freedom and Educational Rights in Shelina Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf","authors":"Raihan Rosman","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2997","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2997","url":null,"abstract":"The position of Muslim women is much debated, as they are often perceived as oppressed, subjugated, and victims of patriarchal society. However, Islam ensures women’s dignity as equal human beings. Nevertheless, cultural expectations and the multiplicity of interpretations of Islamic teachings lead to various conventions, practices, and beliefs that limit women’s rights. Based on this observation, this paper explores Muslim women’s sartorial liberty and right to education as depicted in Shelina Zahra Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf. It emphasises the distinction between the Islamic faith and Muslim cultural practices, and examines the ways in which the text supports and develops what Islam has given women.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139168197","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3006
Sabiha Huq
.
.
{"title":"Fayeza Hasanat (Trans), The Voices of War Heroines: Sexual Violence, Testimony, and the Bangladesh Liberation War","authors":"Sabiha Huq","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3006","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"40 18","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139171021","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3004
M. Quayum, Saad Z. Hossain
In this interview, Bangladeshi Anglophone writer Saad Z. Hossain (1979–) addresses several important issues involving his works, worldview, and writing career. First, he explains when he began writing, what inspired him to write, why he chose to write in English, and whom he writes for. He also discusses his writing and reading habits, his favourite authors, how he negotiates between his seemingly opposite interests as a businessman and a writer, and his view of the present state of English writing in Bangladesh. Moreover, Hossain talks about his narrative techniques, how his fiction has evolved over the years, how he works out a plot from his multi-thread narrative, his predilection for characters over plot, and how he compares his experience of writing prose fiction in different forms: novels, novellas, and short stories. Finally, the author reflects on his themes, use of humour, view of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and what he is currently writing.
在这篇访谈中,孟加拉国英语作家萨阿德-Z-侯赛因(Saad Z. Hossain,1979-)谈到了涉及其作品、世界观和写作生涯的几个重要问题。首先,他解释了自己何时开始写作,是什么激发了他的写作灵感,为什么选择用英语写作,以及为谁写作。他还谈到了自己的写作和阅读习惯、最喜欢的作家、如何在商人和作家这两种看似截然相反的兴趣之间进行协商,以及他对孟加拉国英语写作现状的看法。此外,霍赛因还谈到了他的叙事技巧、他的小说多年来是如何演变的、他是如何从多线程叙事中构思情节的、他对人物而非情节的偏爱,以及他是如何比较不同形式的散文小说写作经验的:长篇小说、中篇小说和短篇小说。最后,作者回顾了他的主题、幽默的运用、对人工智能(AI)的看法,以及他目前正在写作的作品。
{"title":"A Writer of Hope, Humour, and Resistance: An Interview with Saad Z. Hossain","authors":"M. Quayum, Saad Z. Hossain","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3004","url":null,"abstract":"In this interview, Bangladeshi Anglophone writer Saad Z. Hossain (1979–) addresses several important issues involving his works, worldview, and writing career. First, he explains when he began writing, what inspired him to write, why he chose to write in English, and whom he writes for. He also discusses his writing and reading habits, his favourite authors, how he negotiates between his seemingly opposite interests as a businessman and a writer, and his view of the present state of English writing in Bangladesh. Moreover, Hossain talks about his narrative techniques, how his fiction has evolved over the years, how he works out a plot from his multi-thread narrative, his predilection for characters over plot, and how he compares his experience of writing prose fiction in different forms: novels, novellas, and short stories. Finally, the author reflects on his themes, use of humour, view of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and what he is currently writing.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"7 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139168909","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3011
Abdul Hai
.
.
{"title":"The Poetry of Abdul Hai","authors":"Abdul Hai","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3011","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"33 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169338","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3009
Anindita Das
.
.
{"title":"Vaasanthi, Breaking Free: A Novel","authors":"Anindita Das","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3009","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"204 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169121","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}
Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2993
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Unbearable scenes of cruelty and human suffering challenge the tendency of a section of academics to overlook the reality of everyday life and to remain detached from the wider world that they are supposed to serve intellectually. The recent episode of prolonged genocidal killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces has brought this question again to the fore. Given the ongoing human tragedy in Gaza, in this essay I seek to advance the ethos of writerly commitment to promoting equity and justice, drawing especially on the works of Edward Said and Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
{"title":"Writing in the Time of Mass Murder","authors":"Md. Mahmudul Hasan","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2993","url":null,"abstract":"Unbearable scenes of cruelty and human suffering challenge the tendency of a section of academics to overlook the reality of everyday life and to remain detached from the wider world that they are supposed to serve intellectually. The recent episode of prolonged genocidal killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces has brought this question again to the fore. Given the ongoing human tragedy in Gaza, in this essay I seek to advance the ethos of writerly commitment to promoting equity and justice, drawing especially on the works of Edward Said and Ngugi wa Thiong’o.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"31 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139168274","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}