The following article is based on a true event in history. Historical facts have been repeated be... more The following article is based on a true event in history. Historical facts have been repeated because an analogy has been found between the former and the current socio-political situation of the country. It is interesting to note that how one short story of a writer from West Bengal will raise the voice of resistance for a woman encountered in Manipur years later. "Draupadi" by Mahasweta Devi predates the murder of Thangjam Manorama. "Draupadi" was about a revolution of Santals-a Naxalite movement in the 1970s. Manorama Devi was the victim of an encounter by the army of 17 Assam Rifles. She was a suspect of underground activities associated with People's Liberation Army. However, this claim by the army personnel has never been proved. Manorama Devi never had a chance to prove them wrong. This article also questions the existence of a law like AFSPA in a democratic country like India. It violates human rights. One does not have to look further to find the violation of human rights, be it in India or in the USA (George Floyd). So, the story of Mahasweta Devi is more relevant now than ever. And Manorama Devi and her story will never be forgotten.
The following article is an attempt to trace trauma in memory of the characters of the novel, and... more The following article is an attempt to trace trauma in memory of the characters of the novel, and how those memories haunt these characters. Memories of each character are intertwined with memories of other characters. This article has tried to show how characters find it difficult to come to terms with past which they are part of, how they find it difficult to breach the silence of words. It is a historical novel, and attempts have been made to treat each documentation of history with vigil. It has also been shown how an event of history bears the seeds of trauma for the days to come. In The Shadow Lines the history is not just a time in past, but it is a time replete with memories where trauma of war and riot can be found in every nook and corner. There is also a commentary on what has caught the imagination of characters: war or riot. This analysis is preceded by tracing source of trauma in psychology with reference to Freud. What he talks about departure and its relation to trauma proves to be very significant when the themes of departure and arrival are dealt with in the novel. Freud’s interesting take on history becomes helpful in maintaining a uniform structure of the article.
The following is a critical overview of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s short story Mahesh focusing... more The following is a critical overview of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s short story Mahesh focusing on how power is exercised to its base ends. The story represents a vivid picture of rural Bengal society in the time around 1920s under colonial set-up and how people like Gophur, Mahesh and Amina fought and did not yield into the submission of power. The story shows the chasm-like-gap in dialogues in which poor hapless people find themselves trapped at the end of it. In fact they do not even know that they are getting themselves into trouble. There is no surreal rescue; no escape; but there remains an unrelenting hope for a future.
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is too long to be a short story and again shorter for a novel. Like t... more Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is too long to be a short story and again shorter for a novel. Like the form of novella, the story also dwindles between choices: whether to accept the transformed life or to keep on living the same life that Gregor can no longer stand a moment. The novella is a process – a transformation along with its many problems and the incapacity of actually going for what is needed the most. The need perhaps is very ambiguous, considering the need of Gregor’s family and the need of Gregor’s, something which he only realized but could not have the means to fulfil.
The primary aim of this analysis is to strike at the very core of the age old belief of insanity ... more The primary aim of this analysis is to strike at the very core of the age old belief of insanity to be something of an evil. This analysis strives to show how W. Shakespeare in King Lear questions the very idea and definition of madness. It shows how madness can have a healing touch of liberating a soul which had been trapped for years of stubbornness and ingratitude. This analysis finds madness to be perceptive, self analytical and sometimes unflinching. Insanity is not the last reserve of an old man but a chanced opportunity of looking at things which have been overlooked for years. Things which can mean a lot if given due acknowledgement. Insanity has been given a new definition by Shakespeare. It is a positive energy, a life force unlike anything. It is one of those rare moments of creativity in which man understands the meaning of life. At times Lear’s insanity kept him going; it adds a meaning to his life which is unshackled, undeterred and foresight.
Often have we heard of Kafka’s writings to be existentialist, but there are certain aspects of hi... more Often have we heard of Kafka’s writings to be existentialist, but there are certain aspects of his writings which resist such labelling. Dr. Mallikarjun Patil in Franz Kafka and Literary Modernism* claims him to be neo-romanticist, expressionist and surrealist. Martin Esslin opines Kafka’s works to be the embodiment of modern man’s anxiety, dread and purposelessness. Theodor Adorno Claims in Prisms* that most of the critical writings which were written on him count little, as most of them are existential in nature. Kafka’s writings cannot be assimilated into one established theory. His writings are not black and white. Things are grey, only very much. Attention needs to be paid to those grey areas. The aim of this analysis is to interpret how his writings are a blend of aspects of modernity and “Kafkaesque” – a very unique circumstantial situation into which his characters are locked while Kafka has thrown the key away. Kafkaesque is an aspect of modernity but at the same time it is an addendum to it. It enlarges the scope of modernity and widens its very margin. The following analysis is primarily about the aspect of modernity that can be found in Franz Kafka’s writings. It is an attempt to find the nature of modernism at work in some of his selected works. In order to get a sense of that we need to have a closer look at modernism and modernity.
The following article is based on a true event in history. Historical facts have been repeated be... more The following article is based on a true event in history. Historical facts have been repeated because an analogy has been found between the former and the current socio-political situation of the country. It is interesting to note that how one short story of a writer from West Bengal will raise the voice of resistance for a woman encountered in Manipur years later. "Draupadi" by Mahasweta Devi predates the murder of Thangjam Manorama. "Draupadi" was about a revolution of Santals-a Naxalite movement in the 1970s. Manorama Devi was the victim of an encounter by the army of 17 Assam Rifles. She was a suspect of underground activities associated with People's Liberation Army. However, this claim by the army personnel has never been proved. Manorama Devi never had a chance to prove them wrong. This article also questions the existence of a law like AFSPA in a democratic country like India. It violates human rights. One does not have to look further to find the violation of human rights, be it in India or in the USA (George Floyd). So, the story of Mahasweta Devi is more relevant now than ever. And Manorama Devi and her story will never be forgotten.
The following article is an attempt to trace trauma in memory of the characters of the novel, and... more The following article is an attempt to trace trauma in memory of the characters of the novel, and how those memories haunt these characters. Memories of each character are intertwined with memories of other characters. This article has tried to show how characters find it difficult to come to terms with past which they are part of, how they find it difficult to breach the silence of words. It is a historical novel, and attempts have been made to treat each documentation of history with vigil. It has also been shown how an event of history bears the seeds of trauma for the days to come. In The Shadow Lines the history is not just a time in past, but it is a time replete with memories where trauma of war and riot can be found in every nook and corner. There is also a commentary on what has caught the imagination of characters: war or riot. This analysis is preceded by tracing source of trauma in psychology with reference to Freud. What he talks about departure and its relation to trauma proves to be very significant when the themes of departure and arrival are dealt with in the novel. Freud’s interesting take on history becomes helpful in maintaining a uniform structure of the article.
The following is a critical overview of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s short story Mahesh focusing... more The following is a critical overview of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s short story Mahesh focusing on how power is exercised to its base ends. The story represents a vivid picture of rural Bengal society in the time around 1920s under colonial set-up and how people like Gophur, Mahesh and Amina fought and did not yield into the submission of power. The story shows the chasm-like-gap in dialogues in which poor hapless people find themselves trapped at the end of it. In fact they do not even know that they are getting themselves into trouble. There is no surreal rescue; no escape; but there remains an unrelenting hope for a future.
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is too long to be a short story and again shorter for a novel. Like t... more Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is too long to be a short story and again shorter for a novel. Like the form of novella, the story also dwindles between choices: whether to accept the transformed life or to keep on living the same life that Gregor can no longer stand a moment. The novella is a process – a transformation along with its many problems and the incapacity of actually going for what is needed the most. The need perhaps is very ambiguous, considering the need of Gregor’s family and the need of Gregor’s, something which he only realized but could not have the means to fulfil.
The primary aim of this analysis is to strike at the very core of the age old belief of insanity ... more The primary aim of this analysis is to strike at the very core of the age old belief of insanity to be something of an evil. This analysis strives to show how W. Shakespeare in King Lear questions the very idea and definition of madness. It shows how madness can have a healing touch of liberating a soul which had been trapped for years of stubbornness and ingratitude. This analysis finds madness to be perceptive, self analytical and sometimes unflinching. Insanity is not the last reserve of an old man but a chanced opportunity of looking at things which have been overlooked for years. Things which can mean a lot if given due acknowledgement. Insanity has been given a new definition by Shakespeare. It is a positive energy, a life force unlike anything. It is one of those rare moments of creativity in which man understands the meaning of life. At times Lear’s insanity kept him going; it adds a meaning to his life which is unshackled, undeterred and foresight.
Often have we heard of Kafka’s writings to be existentialist, but there are certain aspects of hi... more Often have we heard of Kafka’s writings to be existentialist, but there are certain aspects of his writings which resist such labelling. Dr. Mallikarjun Patil in Franz Kafka and Literary Modernism* claims him to be neo-romanticist, expressionist and surrealist. Martin Esslin opines Kafka’s works to be the embodiment of modern man’s anxiety, dread and purposelessness. Theodor Adorno Claims in Prisms* that most of the critical writings which were written on him count little, as most of them are existential in nature. Kafka’s writings cannot be assimilated into one established theory. His writings are not black and white. Things are grey, only very much. Attention needs to be paid to those grey areas. The aim of this analysis is to interpret how his writings are a blend of aspects of modernity and “Kafkaesque” – a very unique circumstantial situation into which his characters are locked while Kafka has thrown the key away. Kafkaesque is an aspect of modernity but at the same time it is an addendum to it. It enlarges the scope of modernity and widens its very margin. The following analysis is primarily about the aspect of modernity that can be found in Franz Kafka’s writings. It is an attempt to find the nature of modernism at work in some of his selected works. In order to get a sense of that we need to have a closer look at modernism and modernity.
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