NEW ACADEMIA: An International Journal of English Language, Literature and Literary Theory

1

Authors: Anna Wing Bo Tso

The gentle motion of constellations Is the element starring every petal Beyond the silhouette of morning dews The brilliance of stardust dances in the scent of the corolla Against the dark Splashes of starlight strokes through the delicacies of the blossom Lovingly As a stream might feel for its stones

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Authors: Dr. Swati Samantaray

The universal element of all dystopian fiction is the utter bleakness of the worlds delineated. This paper presents the theme of dystopia as represented in Arthur Asher Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). The playwright portrays characters of postwar era of America who resort to manners of escapism into illusionary realities in order to free themselves from their harsh and frustrated existence. Their predicaments result from their failure to reach a reasonable adjustment to their contemporary life, lack of fruitful communication among the family members in addition to their inner conflicts. Therefore, they all share discontent with their realities, a sense of boredom and frustration. They hang their hopes on the concept of the American Dream which turns to be a nightmare. The world of dystopia is the counterpart of utopia. Dystopia challenges utopia's (ideal societies) assumption of human perfectibility and perfect society.

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Authors: Dr. Khem Raj Sharma

Julius Caesar (1599) projects the decline of the ideals of republic and the consequent destruction of Rome. In this play, Brutus and Cassius attempt to create a utopian republican society in the wake of the assassination of the so-called tyrant. Shakespeare believed that the Republic should be a place where equality, fraternity, and liberty reigned. This is what the second triumvirate – Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, in Julius Caesar hope to achieve, but their reasons for believing in the Republic are neither convincing nor the same. While Lepidus believes in the Republic, and works diligently towards achieving it; Antony uses the concept of the Republic as a carrot for Lepidus and makes him do the hard work. What Antony does is sheer exploitation. By depicting Antony in this manner, the playwright questions the motives of people who sell dreams of Republic to the public. This paper seeks to look at this facet of Antony’s character, as depicted in Julius Caesar, keeping in mind Shakespeare’s condemnation of him in the approximated continuation to Julius Caesar – i.e. Antony and Cleopatra. It also seeks to show why Shakespeare does this, and what one can garner about his ideas about the Republic alongside his appropriation of the same in the context of the Renaissance.

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Authors: Dr Panayiota Chrysochou

My paper will focus on two plays, Sophocles’Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in an effort to show how they structure and subvert traditional and stereotypical genderized roles of heteronormativity, even heterosexuality. By closely examining the main female characters in the two aforementioned plays, Jocasta and Lady Macbeth, I should like to show how they not only function as a complementary Other to the male psyche or Self, but also rewrite Judith Butler’s notion of a heterosexual matrix on their own terms. For example, although traditionally – and pace Freud – the character of Oedipus has almost always been accorded primacy in Western philosophy and theory, hence marginalizing the position Jocasta occupies in the play as both mother and sexual partner, this paper attempts to show how she reclaims agency through the very real potency of her sexual power and dynamic relationship to her son-cum-lover-cum husband Oedipus. In a similar vein, it argues that Lady Macbeth does not simply subvert the typical gender-specific position of the oppressed female subject in patriarchal discourse by masculinizing herself, but also creates a potentially new space or symbolic realm with its own structuring processes, affording us with another reading where the female’s role is wrested away from the maternal and notions of nurturance as a naturally feminine construct in phallic binarism and accorded its own agency. By drawing on theatrical conventions, as well as Amber Jacobs’ formulation of a matriarchal law and a maternal structure with its own logic and structuring power that can also coexist within the Symbolic order, this paper seeks to examine how these female characters resist assimilation into the oppressive, dyadic binary of Lacanianphallogocentrism by opening up the interpretative field and laying claim to the possibilities of other discursive sites and symbolic structures within gender discourse analysis and on the stage.

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Authors: Dr. Chung Chin-Yi

Lessing has thus written a compelling critique of marriage as an institution in the Fifth child. Indeed with Ben Lovatt it is seen that not all children will bring you marital bliss and harmony, they could be the very reason the marriage falls apart. Harrier suffers all the blame and responsibility for the freak that Ben turns out to be with David hardly suffering any such liability.It is thus shown that marriage is the ultimate burden for women- they are tasked with the painful act of childbirth and then the entire journey of bringing up children becomes almost solely theirs with their husbands taking on minimal responsibilities and burdens for bringing up the children. It is shown that women take on a burden beyond their husbands while they are expected at the same time to manage their careers and contribute financially. The modern marriage thus seems to be a plight for women- they are first burdened with painful childbirth and almost total responsibilities for bringing up and answering for the well being and outcomes of their children- whether or not these children’s defects are their fault at all. Lessing is thus feminist to the extent that she does not paint a utopian view of marriage- viewing it as an unequal partnership with a suffocation of women’s autonomy and rights- in her novels the women seem to be victims of their marriages. The women in Lessings’ novels marry although they do not really see a need to and subsequently suffer heavily from the marriages as they are burdened financially, emotionally and psychologically beyond the mens’ share of burden.

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Authors: Elizabeth Lambert

This paper focuses on notions of madness as found in the works of American authors Gwendolyn Brooks and Sylvia Plath. The author considers Brooks’ Maud Martha and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for instances of madness as it is expressed by both anger and rage and by mental psychosis. The paper argues that the female protagonists, though separated by race, region, and age, both experience forms of madness that result from the social climates in which they live. Ultimately, each of these novels serve as cautionary tales for the effects of repressed madness in women.

22

Authors: Francesco Levato

Semi-peripheral: Spaces of Deviation, Abjection, Madness; is a mash up of critical theory, poetry, science, and an examination of the works of H.P. Lovecraft as an (other)world-system, through the theoretical frames of world-systems analysis (Immanuel Wallerstein), heterotopic spaces (Michel Foucault), and abjection (Julia Kristeva). The work is a move towards blending my creative and critical texts in a more seamless whole; creating resonances between different texts, paratexts, practices and entities, while simultaneously attending to creative, critical, and materialist concerns. The poems are based on chance operations (a variation/combination of Bernstein’s Acrostic Chance method and John Cage’s Mesostics) that use (other)world texts (fictional books located in Lovecraft’s mythological system) as a seed text, and a series of source texts including the Collected Works of H. P. Lovecraft, and a combination of obscure books referenced in Lovecraft’s stories. Language from the source texts is collected via procedure, then reworked to shape the final poems. The prose sections blend critical theory with quotations from Lovecraft’s short story, The Call of Cthulhu.

4

Authors: Deanna Rodriguez

From Cat’s Cradle to Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut’s work is full of philosophical musings that can be read as existentialism. One of the more obvious existential dilemmas Vonnegut struggles with is the notion of suicide. Albert Camus in his collection of essays entitled The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays explores the notion of the absurdity of suicide– absurdity being used in the philosophical sense, meaning the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning inlife and the human inability to find any,and on what leads a man to think about suicide and ultimately how one can make the decision life is not worth living anymore. Camus explains what can spur on suicidal thoughts as¬¬– “A world that can be explained even with bad reason is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, man feels analien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprivedof the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land. Thisdivorce between man and this life, the actor and his setting, isproperly the feeling of absurdity” (Camus 6). It’s a common trend in Vonnegut’s writing, the loss of home as well as the hope of a promised land, or more particular in Vonnegut’s case, the nostalgia of a better time and as well, the yearning for an Edenic existence. Vonnegut places so much of himself into his writing, and he even goes so far as to insert himself as a character. Particularly in Breakfast of Champions, he talks to himself as a character. It is through his writing that Vonnegut can truly work out his existential dilemma, and it is seen most clearly in the novel Breakfast of Champions. By looking at the solutions reached by not only Vonnegut himself, but also by the characters in the novel, which are clearly presenting issues of mental anguish, it’s clear to see how Vonnegut is an absurd creator, in the existential sense presented by Camus.

5

Authors: Kousik Adhikari

Girish Karnad’s ‘Hayabadana’ (1975) marks a grand resurgence of Indian theatre with its various nuances, characteristic styles, techniques and motifs that attempts to reclaim the glory of Indian theatre in European psyche who were lost in the exuberant and almost pastoral panorama of Kalidas’s ‘Avhiganyam Sakuntalam’. Folktale, myth undoubtedly reserves its basic source in ‘Hayabadana’, but it has also a rich multiplicity of texture and multiple layers of meaning with its various re-interpretations. With each telling, the story changes and gains a new permutation and momentum. The dictionary definition of ‘absurd’ is ‘something that is completely stupid and unreasonable’. In a musical context it means ‘out of harmony’. However the definition of ‘absurd’ derives into the literature from the mid 20th century essay ‘Myth of Sisyphus’ by the French author and philosopher Albert Camus. In 1962, Martin Esslin wrote his book on the topic entitled simply ‘The Theatre of the Absurd’. In this book Esslin mentions the Romanian Eugen Ionesco’s definition for the ‘absurd’,

5

Authors: Dr. Santosh Kumari

Walker's fiction strongly affirms that true revolution enlightens the inner self and it is through respect for life and generous way of living that freedom is attained. An individual has to confront egocentric self concerns to establish democratic pattern in society. Her novel Meridian gravely ponders over a series of barbaric acts and violent lynching of blacks. The painful picture of social and cultural degeneration and hypocrisy is indeed stirring and thought provoking. Mutual hatred often darkens social scenario resulting in hair raising incidents of bloodshed, rape, robbery, and merciless killing. Celie's father in The Color Purple is brutally killed simply because the white master's soul could not compromise with his hardworking spirit and prosperity. A confrontation between individual and society with a vigorous demand for justice and integrity has been well crystallized by Walker's pen. Most of Walker's protagonists are equipped with intelligence, acute sensitivity and cosmic vision of life. With an unyielding courage and confidence, Walker calls to counter the ruthless forces which deem to pressurize and lower down common men's lot. Walker's strong conviction is that "man only truly lives by knowing." Walker rejects cowardly submission of a man "who simply performs, coping the daily habits of others, but conceiving nothing of his creative possibilities as a man and accepting someone else's superiority and his own misery"(Gardens 121-122). Walker's commitment to support the principle of democratic set up is highlighted through her protagonist Meridian who is dedicated to the values of humanity, equality and dignity. Walker is firmly resolved to discard all those circumscriptive and stilling precepts which may impede the growth of one's autonomy and identity. Walker rejects the conventional religion that encourages passive acceptance of the overlapping constraints with an escapist and conformist coincidence. Meridian, the protagonist in the novel, challenges the rationality of her mother's Christian belief of relinquishing all her responsibilities to God. Meridian defies by keeping silence and refuses to submit to the strangulating hold of traditional adherence to hypocrisy and self-deceptive codes that may only add to one's surrender and failure. Silence is a legitimate mode of protest and it empowers Meridian to defiantly challenge the system that denies her individuality. Her self determination, elevation and transformation, strongly stir the human beings around her.

5

Authors: Md Abdul Momen Sarker &Tusar Talukder &Debdas Biswas

It is quite relevant to say something regarding Expressionism before going to browse the expressionistic vision prevailing in O’Neill’s dramas. The movement of Expressionism seems to have arisen as a kind of revolt against the mutual exclusiveness of romanticism and realism. It is a revolt, on the one hand, against the tendency of realism and naturalism and, on the other, against the tendency of realism or naturalism to satisfy itself with a scrupulous representation of the surfaces of life, the speech, manners, emotions and ideas of one or another class in society. The expressionists cry for a “real” reality. This reality indicates the inner world of thought and vision. They are profoundly interested in psychology and they celebrate the supremacy of spirit over matter. They deal with the subjective, with ‘inner’ realities of human mind. Man becomes a key figure in their works. The expressionists undertake the study of human passion in lieu of the history of persons and their achievements. In the words of N. S. Wilson: “it attempts, in a word, to dramatize the inner life of a man, to represent what is passing in his soul.”

6

Authors: Esther Daimari

Mamang Dai is a well-known figure in literature from Northeast, India. She has to her credit a book of poetry called River Poems and other works of fiction like The Legends of Pensam, Arunachal Pradesh:The Hidden Land and Stupid Cupid. Mamang Dai’s poetry and prose are mostly about Arunachal Pradesh, her birth place. While most other writers from Northeasti write about the distinctive problems of Northeast like the insurgency movements, marginalization of the Northeastern states of India, the struggle of the region to seek separation and sovereignty from the centre, etc., Mamang Dai’s writings are neo-romantic in nature and she often projects Northeast as an exotic land, different from the rest of India. It is also interesting to note that in the few works of fiction that she has written, she has penned down varied and interesting images of tribal women of Northeast and voiced out the unique problems of these women. By the phrase “tribal women of Northeast”, I specifically refer to the women of hilldwelling communities of Northeast India, with roots in Southeast Asia. This paper is thereby, an attempt to read the varied images of women in Mamang Dai’s fiction like Stupid Cupid and The Legends of Pensam.

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Authors: Ali Asghar Rahimi

During the Final decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, human beliefs-remaining unchanged from the time knowledge-based, moral and religious norms had first emerged- were most challenged. Classic or traditional beliefs of the era were challenged by scholars of different fields. Although natural scientists like Copernicus and Galileo had already attacked traditional beliefs, but new scientific and philosophical movements occurred at the turn of the 20th century. At the time, Darwin and Darwinism were well-known throughout Europe. As far as natural sciences are concerned, Europeans were acquainted with Sigmund Freud and his theories of “Unconscious Mind” and “Psychological Determinism”. In physics, Heisenberg and Einstein had undermined the most dogmatic common beliefs concerning time and space. In philosophy, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer were at work. In his works, Nietzsche challenged all idolized concepts of human mind. This article casts a furtive glance at the vitality and dynamics of language and literature, correspondent with developments in the other fields.

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Authors: Dr. Leena Pundir

Bodily Harm is Margaret Atwood’s profoundly moral and religious work which emphasizes the need for mercy, pity and love in our power-mad world. Its heroine Rennie’s painful and terrifying experiences make her realize that her cherished marginality and dis-involvement has all along prevented her from living her life as a ‘human being’ in the truest sense of the term. The narrative structure of Bodily Harm follows a pattern familiar in Atwood’s fiction. As the action of the plot unfolds, memory and association trigger flashback sequences. Revelations from earlier years help the reader understand the central character’s actions and responses in the present. Rennie is another of Atwood’s powerless heroines. And once again, it is a woman, Rennie’s grandmother, who embodies the archetypal paternalistic patterns of repression and domination that account for Rennie’s ingrained passivity and subservience.

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Authors: Dr. Kaustav Chakraborty

Religion forms a significant institution in Indian society in particular and in almost every society in general, in shaping attitudes and outlooks regarding sexuality. This paper is an attempt to trace the trajectory of change in response towards the non-heterosexuals in Indian society by discussing the religious prescriptions laid down by spokesperson/testimonials of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity. The aim of this venture is to highlight how the concept of an imported/borrowed/Westernized queer identity, as often projected by the nationalist (not only the Muslim fundamentalists but more often the Hindutva-vadis) critics of queer liberty in India, is a flawed and motivated one—rather it is the infiltration of the Victorian Christian concept of sex in totality as a sin and the same-sex as a deadlier one in particular that had resulted in intensification of the stigma associated with the Indian LGBT group. The method adopted here is mainly the documentation mode of citing the portions of classical religious treatises that deal with sexuality (i.e. the way people act/fantasize) and gender.

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Authors: Ogechukwu A. Ikediugwu

This essay analyzes the feminist inclinations of Chimamanda Adichie in Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus. The essay highlights the main characters in the texts and assesses the author’s presentations of the female characters in contrast with the male characters. The sharp contrasts that exist in the developments of both sexes make the essay conclude that Adichie is a feminist and that her feminism does not deviate from the African point of view.