Contemporary Literary Review India

12-33

Authors: Armeen Kaur Ahuja

The paper looks into how city of Multan and Lahore became part of tropes that run in Punjabi Folk songs. It looks at the relationship of cities and its people and how these spatial outlooks are manifested in a community’s folk lore.

56-69

Authors: Sonali Ganguly,Dr Lipika Das,Dr Tanutrushna Panigrahi

The paper attempts to investigate the impact of illustration in the making of world literature in Odia. Illustration served as a medium of expression, mode of storytelling, an element of embellishment to the narratives, and an agent of advertisement, but remained specific to children’s literature. The current paper attempts to examine whether illustration served as a promotional tool or as a medium of translation, in a world literature series titled ‘Biswa Sahitya Granthamala’ (collection of the world literary series in Odia translation), published in the twentieth century by a renowned Indian publisher, Granthamandir, Odisha. The author examines the abridged illustrated novel, Bichitra Desha re Alice’ (Alice in Wonderland) based on the theories and techniques of illustration. The article relates to the emergence of the practice of illustration in Odisha, a provincial state of India, and proceeds to discuss its’ significant function in the world literature series. It is a qualitative study based on the primary sources, i.e. the book published under the Biswa Sahitya series. The study revealed that the publishers followed significant patterns and techniques, and observed several informative functions of illustration in the series.

92-108

Authors: Prof. Sulok B Raghuwanshi

Much of the critical discussion about the emerging genre of 9/11 fiction has centred on the trauma of 9/11 and on novels by Euro American writers. The book "Post-9/11 South Asian Diasporic Fiction : Uncanny Terror” by Pei-Chen Liao draws attention to the diversity of what might be meant by post-9/11 by exploring the themes of uncanny terror through a close reading of post-9/11 South Asian Diasporic Fictions. The novels include Salman Rushdie, Hari Kunzru, Monica Ali, and Mohsin Hamid. These and other post-9/11 writers represent the return of the repressed and the unhomely migrant experience. From the perspective of these novels, if 9/11 did indeed change everything then it did so in the lives of their Pakistani-American protagonists in the ways that are often overlooked in the mainstream American public discourse. In his renown book, ‘Orientalism’, Edward Saïd has few and dismissive words to say about the issue of honor and shame in the Arabic culture. He aims his clearest barbs at Harold Glidden. It uncovers “the inner workings of Arab behavior,” which from our point of view is “aberrant” but for the Arabs it “is normal.” The Arabs have been consistently misrepresented by Hollywood with the plenty of proof. Reel Bad Arabs, both film and book, are the result of nearly 20 years’ work, during which Shaheen viewed and analysed 950 films. Of those, only 5 percent showed the Arabs of Muslims in a positive – or at least benign – light.

122-146

Authors: Mohammad Zahidul Islam

The objective of this paper is to scrutinize the modern western civilization and its social elements that inspired T.S. Eliot to write his widely critiqued “The Waste Land” which laments over the debasement of socio-psychological and moral aspects of humanity. Besides, this paper also delves into finding the possibility of connection between Eliotian chaos and an apparent misanthropy brought forth by Jonathan Swift in his much acclaimed satire Gulliver’s Travels. In both cases, it seems the authors suggest to darker follies of human nature which loom large against the backdrop of a capitalistic and scientifically advanced western world. Initially it seems there is a hidden correlation that inspired both the writers to craft their respective signature works. To put it in simple terms, western belief, pattern of logic, scientific advancement and extreme adherence to rationality often result in nothingness that eventually leads them to chaos and sufferings. In contrast to this, once hugely stereotyped ‘exotic, sensual, and crazy’ orient suddenly appears with its tranquility and connectedness enough to provide salvation from western chaos and sufferings, although this does not change the orient from its apparent disorderly ordered shape. At least this is what is presented in a 2016 Hollywood movie “Doctor Strange” and a 1980 South African movie named “Gods Must Be Crazy”. In both the movies it seems they provide a veiled harmony which is beyond western way of looking at life, if not the whole humanity. This particular harmony nurtures the belief that modern western irregularities vanishes when set in an oriental context.

155-162

Authors: Max Johansson Pugh

The Roundhouse a story by Max Johansson-Pugh.

176-181

Authors: Akhila Pingali

Show Me Art and Newspaper for Breakfast are poems by Akhila Pingali.

184-185

Authors: Karuna Kumari Gumparti

Roaring Lioness is a poem by Karuna Kumari Gumparti.

189-190

Authors: Dr Ram Kulesh Thakur

The ‘WAR’ is a poem by Dr Ram Kulesh Thakur.

194-239

Authors: Dr Dalip Khetarpal

Dr Dilip Khetarpal Reviews Phidalia Toi’s The Dusk - Enwrapping India with Darkness.