Pub Date : 2023-12-20DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2998
Binayak Roy
Literary narrative provides a new perspective of looking at the historical past, often questioning the credibility of representation. Interrogating what Hayden White calls history’s tropic prefiguration, the prominence given to key historical figures, the erasure of subaltern individuals or communities, literature foregrounds the role of narrative in constructing the way one understands the world, meaning, and truth. A postcolonial writer, in their critical re-interpretation of the historical archive, creates a hybrid text that combines historical evidences and imaginative reconstructions, and historical as well as invented characters. With this interplay, history is stripped of its objective quality. This article seeks to explore how Debendranath Acharya’s Jangam presents the precarious condition of the migrant Burmese Indian peasants during World War II and the manner in which they establish a community during their historically forgotten long march to Assam. What Acharya attempts to reconcile in Jangam are the “analytical” histories through utilising the rational categories of modern historical thought and the “affective” histories which account for the plural ways of being-in-the-world.
{"title":"Precarious Migrancy, Community, and Resilience in Debendranath Acharya’s Jangam","authors":"Binayak Roy","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2998","url":null,"abstract":"Literary narrative provides a new perspective of looking at the historical past, often questioning the credibility of representation. Interrogating what Hayden White calls history’s tropic prefiguration, the prominence given to key historical figures, the erasure of subaltern individuals or communities, literature foregrounds the role of narrative in constructing the way one understands the world, meaning, and truth. A postcolonial writer, in their critical re-interpretation of the historical archive, creates a hybrid text that combines historical evidences and imaginative reconstructions, and historical as well as invented characters. With this interplay, history is stripped of its objective quality. This article seeks to explore how Debendranath Acharya’s Jangam presents the precarious condition of the migrant Burmese Indian peasants during World War II and the manner in which they establish a community during their historically forgotten long march to Assam. What Acharya attempts to reconcile in Jangam are the “analytical” histories through utilising the rational categories of modern historical thought and the “affective” histories which account for the plural ways of being-in-the-world.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"6 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169665","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.v17i2.3003
Talat, Sukhdev Singh
Owing to the graded inequality inherent in Indian society, Dalit women lie at the bottom of the hierarchy with no power to execute. In short, one can say that they are “Dalit of Dalits.” The present paper looks at the challenges and exclusionary practices faced by the Dalit women with reference to the works of Bama’s Sangati (2005) and Baby Kamble’s The Prison We Broke (2008). Delving into the concepts of gender and caste, the paper aims to demonstrate how both writers portray the idea of the outsider within the identity of Dalit women. It will also deal with how this outsider within identity gives them a standpoint of their own. In its entirety, the paper highlights the challenges and haplessness of Dalit women because of their identity and their zealousness in fighting the oppressive forces.
{"title":"Dalit Women as Outsider Within: A Standpoint Exploration","authors":"Talat, Sukhdev Singh","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3003","url":null,"abstract":"Owing to the graded inequality inherent in Indian society, Dalit women lie at the bottom of the hierarchy with no power to execute. In short, one can say that they are “Dalit of Dalits.” The present paper looks at the challenges and exclusionary practices faced by the Dalit women with reference to the works of Bama’s Sangati (2005) and Baby Kamble’s The Prison We Broke (2008). Delving into the concepts of gender and caste, the paper aims to demonstrate how both writers portray the idea of the outsider within the identity of Dalit women. It will also deal with how this outsider within identity gives them a standpoint of their own. In its entirety, the paper highlights the challenges and haplessness of Dalit women because of their identity and their zealousness in fighting the oppressive forces.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"779 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169972","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.v17i2.3008
Preetinicha Barman
.
.
{"title":"Mitra Phukon (ed.), The Greatest Assamese Stories Ever Told","authors":"Preetinicha Barman","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.3008","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"436 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139170538","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.v17i2.2999
Nishat Atiya Shoilee
With five different plotlines over a prolonged course of sixty years in British Bengal and East Pakistan, Canadian-Bangladeshi writer Arif Anwar’s debut novel The Storm (2018) captures historical ethos through a series of micronarratives. An occupied Burma during WWII, a 1965 pre-Partition Calcutta, and a devastated Bhola after the 1970 cyclone — all these feature in this historiographic metafiction. Each character contributes as an independent narrator for the greater geopolitical mise-en-scènes of their times, rediscovering a forgotten past. This paper aims to identify the narrativised version of historicity that Anwar considers “authentic” in his novel. The findings propose a reciprocal commitment between narration and history on the basis of lived experiences or memories, phenomenological recurrences, and intersubjective surroundings.
{"title":"Narrativised Historicity in Arif Anwar’s The Storm","authors":"Nishat Atiya Shoilee","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2999","url":null,"abstract":"With five different plotlines over a prolonged course of sixty years in British Bengal and East Pakistan, Canadian-Bangladeshi writer Arif Anwar’s debut novel The Storm (2018) captures historical ethos through a series of micronarratives. An occupied Burma during WWII, a 1965 pre-Partition Calcutta, and a devastated Bhola after the 1970 cyclone — all these feature in this historiographic metafiction. Each character contributes as an independent narrator for the greater geopolitical mise-en-scènes of their times, rediscovering a forgotten past. This paper aims to identify the narrativised version of historicity that Anwar considers “authentic” in his novel. The findings propose a reciprocal commitment between narration and history on the basis of lived experiences or memories, phenomenological recurrences, and intersubjective surroundings.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"252 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139169042","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.v17i2.2995
Om Prakash Dwivedi
In the wake of rising precarity, the pressing question that confronts thinkers is how to formulate a new form of a social contract that recognises, legitmises, and promotes systems of social infrastructures. By focussing on Kavery Nambisan’s The Story That Must Note Be Told (2010), this article highlights the precarious class of people living in a slum area. The crux of Nambisan’s account is that few lives matter more than other lives, and few spaces need more supply of resources than others, and the task of government and corporate agencies is to render agential measures to the elite class. It is a precarious tale of a place where the vulnerability and death of the marginalised feed off the privileged class. In the light of the precarious conditions rendered by the neoliberal regime, this article analyses Martha Albertson Fineman’s theory of human vulnerability, underlining the urgency to recognise human dependency on social institutions inherently linked to their resilience and survival.
{"title":"Precarity and Resilience in Kavery Nambisan’s The Story That Must Not be Told","authors":"Om Prakash Dwivedi","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2995","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i2.2995","url":null,"abstract":"In the wake of rising precarity, the pressing question that confronts thinkers is how to formulate a new form of a social contract that recognises, legitmises, and promotes systems of social infrastructures. By focussing on Kavery Nambisan’s The Story That Must Note Be Told (2010), this article highlights the precarious class of people living in a slum area. The crux of Nambisan’s account is that few lives matter more than other lives, and few spaces need more supply of resources than others, and the task of government and corporate agencies is to render agential measures to the elite class. It is a precarious tale of a place where the vulnerability and death of the marginalised feed off the privileged class. In the light of the precarious conditions rendered by the neoliberal regime, this article analyses Martha Albertson Fineman’s theory of human vulnerability, underlining the urgency to recognise human dependency on social institutions inherently linked to their resilience and survival.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"37 31","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139171075","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 : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2792
Kazuo Ishiguro, Malcolm Bradbury, Winifred Holtby, Martin Amis, Ian Mc Ewan, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Jeanette Winterson
This article focuses on components of memory and identity and their thematic centrality in Kazuo Ishiguro’s two novels namely, A Pale View of Hills (1982) and The Remains of the Day (1988). Ishiguro explores the complexities of memory in his novels, where distortion, suppression, and unreliability serve to define an individual’s identity through memory. Memory is a literary trope that Ishiguro has used repeatedly and diversely to enrich both his characters and plots. By examining how memories inform identity, this paper seeks to understand how our memories can affect our sense of self, and how this can shape our identity. The paper proposes that memories are not just simple recollections of events but are also complex narratives that are constructed from various sources. It argues that the interpretations of our memories can have a powerful effect on our sense of self and our identity.
{"title":"Situating Kazuo Ishiguro Within the Realms of Memory and Identity","authors":"Kazuo Ishiguro, Malcolm Bradbury, Winifred Holtby, Martin Amis, Ian Mc Ewan, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Rose Tremain, Jeanette Winterson","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2792","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on components of memory and identity and their thematic centrality in Kazuo Ishiguro’s two novels namely, A Pale View of Hills (1982) and The Remains of the Day (1988). Ishiguro explores the complexities of memory in his novels, where distortion, suppression, and unreliability serve to define an individual’s identity through memory. Memory is a literary trope that Ishiguro has used repeatedly and diversely to enrich both his characters and plots. By examining how memories inform identity, this paper seeks to understand how our memories can affect our sense of self, and how this can shape our identity. The paper proposes that memories are not just simple recollections of events but are also complex narratives that are constructed from various sources. It argues that the interpretations of our memories can have a powerful effect on our sense of self and our identity.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139368390","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 : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2793
N. Noorashid
This paper analyses semiotic elements in Pengabdian, a Malay novel published in 1987 and written by the 2009 SEA award winning Bruneian writer, Norsiah Gapar. Three main themes of semiotics in relation to Islamic principles and values are highlighted in Pengabdian: submission to God, attitudes towards worldly affairs, and the issue of rights and possessions in Islam. Besides the inclusion of explicit sermonic discourse in the novel, semiotic elements are foregrounded to support the edification of Islam to the readers. Following the co-existence of semiotic symbols and sermonic discourse, which is in line with the Islamic requisite of Amar Ma’ruf wa Nahi anil Munkar (enjoining good and forbidding wrong), this essay raises the potential of Pengabdian as a piece of Islamic literature. It offers readers a new way to appreciate Pengabdian from a linguistic-literary perspective, as it also suggests the possibility of undertaking further studies on this acclaimed novel.
{"title":"Immediate Surroundings as Inspiration: A Semiotic Analysis of Religious Discourse in Norsiah Gapar’s Pengabdian","authors":"N. Noorashid","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2793","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses semiotic elements in Pengabdian, a Malay novel published in 1987 and written by the 2009 SEA award winning Bruneian writer, Norsiah Gapar. Three main themes of semiotics in relation to Islamic principles and values are highlighted in Pengabdian: submission to God, attitudes towards worldly affairs, and the issue of rights and possessions in Islam. Besides the inclusion of explicit sermonic discourse in the novel, semiotic elements are foregrounded to support the edification of Islam to the readers. Following the co-existence of semiotic symbols and sermonic discourse, which is in line with the Islamic requisite of Amar Ma’ruf wa Nahi anil Munkar (enjoining good and forbidding wrong), this essay raises the potential of Pengabdian as a piece of Islamic literature. It offers readers a new way to appreciate Pengabdian from a linguistic-literary perspective, as it also suggests the possibility of undertaking further studies on this acclaimed novel.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139368489","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 : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2801
Bibhash Choudhury
.
.
{"title":"Margaret L. Pachuau (ed), Negotiating Culture: Writings from Mizoram","authors":"Bibhash Choudhury","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2801","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2801","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139368564","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 : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2794
Khuda Gawah
Afghanistan, popularly known as the graveyard of empires, has long been a contested site in geopolitics. With the Taliban coming to power after its victory over the US, it has become more critical than ever to discuss how Afghanistan has been presented in the media. While Hollywood’s long history of Orientalist gaze particularly towards Muslim nations is apparent in its vilified representation of Afghans in films like Iron Man (2008), Red Sands (2009), 12 Strong (2018), and The Outpost (2020), Bollywood’s representations of Afghanistan have not been studied with similar critical parameters. With Bollywood exerting significant influence as one of the largest film industries in the world, it has become imperative for us to learn whether Afghanistan has been subject to the same Orientalist gaze. This paper examines two pre-9/11 Bollywood films Khuda Gawah (1991) and Dharmatma (1975) in order to better understand this issue.
{"title":"The Othering Bollywood: Nobleness and Savagery in Khuda Gawah and Dharmatma","authors":"Khuda Gawah","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2794","url":null,"abstract":"Afghanistan, popularly known as the graveyard of empires, has long been a contested site in geopolitics. With the Taliban coming to power after its victory over the US, it has become more critical than ever to discuss how Afghanistan has been presented in the media. While Hollywood’s long history of Orientalist gaze particularly towards Muslim nations is apparent in its vilified representation of Afghans in films like Iron Man (2008), Red Sands (2009), 12 Strong (2018), and The Outpost (2020), Bollywood’s representations of Afghanistan have not been studied with similar critical parameters. With Bollywood exerting significant influence as one of the largest film industries in the world, it has become imperative for us to learn whether Afghanistan has been subject to the same Orientalist gaze. This paper examines two pre-9/11 Bollywood films Khuda Gawah (1991) and Dharmatma (1975) in order to better understand this issue.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139368369","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 : 2023-06-26DOI: 10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2790
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Adhering to the demands of integrity and having research attitudes rooted in moral sensibilities are of paramount importance for academics, researchers, and writers. Publishing etiquette requires them to invest adequate time and energy in conducting research and writing manuscripts and thus to produce beneficial knowledge. Putting together a document hastily and avoiding the much-needed effort in research and writing lead to negative outcomes. The corrupt practice of plagiarism and the desire for recognition through fraudulent and duplicitous publications are marked by deliberate deceptiveness. It debases the plagiarists, stagnates their intellectual growth, and vitiates the academic environment. Highlighting this observation, in this essay I shall discuss some dimensions and significance of publishing etiquette. I shall argue that attitudes and behaviours of researchers and academic practitioners determine the quality of the words and works that they produce.
{"title":"Good Words, Corrupt Words, and Publishing Etiquette","authors":"Md. Mahmudul Hasan","doi":"10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v17i1.2790","url":null,"abstract":"Adhering to the demands of integrity and having research attitudes rooted in moral sensibilities are of paramount importance for academics, researchers, and writers. Publishing etiquette requires them to invest adequate time and energy in conducting research and writing manuscripts and thus to produce beneficial knowledge. Putting together a document hastily and avoiding the much-needed effort in research and writing lead to negative outcomes. The corrupt practice of plagiarism and the desire for recognition through fraudulent and duplicitous publications are marked by deliberate deceptiveness. It debases the plagiarists, stagnates their intellectual growth, and vitiates the academic environment. Highlighting this observation, in this essay I shall discuss some dimensions and significance of publishing etiquette. I shall argue that attitudes and behaviours of researchers and academic practitioners determine the quality of the words and works that they produce.","PeriodicalId":504252,"journal":{"name":"Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature","volume":"145 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139368439","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}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：