Contemporary Literary Review India

10-25

Authors: Anupreeta Chatterjee

Any form of poetry is based on imagination and our introspection of what we see in reality. Poetry is a vision that reflects our visualization of reality. Poetry is an art of self-interrogation and it is indeed pictorial in its origin because without visualizing it, we cannot compose poetry. Every word which we choose to compose it is symbolic of the picture which we have visualized in our minds. Herein, imagination acts like mute poetry which enables the poetess to shape it into words. Through this paper, I am willing to understand the power of pictorial poetry which can help us to self-interrogate and enhance our mind’s quantum to integrate the inner world and outer world via using the lens of Zen psychoanalysis which emphasizes on integrating the self and the other. This associative narrative between the self and the other can help in resolving conflicts happening across the world. Thus, pictorial poetry becomes a visual lyric of transformation which helps in self-interrogation.

38-48

Authors: Sakshi Tyagi

The concept of identity has varied facets. It is not a static concept but something that is constantly undergoing change. It is through identity that we define or understand ourselves and the world around us. The idea of a national identity for a newly independent post-colonial nation involves a negotiation between the old and the new, and the product is not simply a homogeneous copy of either, but a hybrid mix of both cultures. In this paper, with the two primary texts Purple Hibiscus and The Fishermen set during tumultuous times of post-independence 80s and the political struggles for democracy in 1990s with the coming to age stories of both texts, these bildungsroman serve as a symbolic representation of Nigeria’s journey as an independent nation free of colonial hegemony. The background of erupting violence within the country in forms of military coup accompanied by a growing instinct of mimicking the colonizer’s culture reflects how a new identity was being developed. In this respect, my research aims to use Homi Bhabha’s concept of ‘mimicry’ and ‘hybridity’ to analyse how this new Nigerian identity is a product of the colonized subject’s mimicry of colonial culture and their negotiations with the pre-colonial traditions. Henceforth, the result is not exactly a duplicate copy but something different. The two secondary readings “Revolutionary Politics” and Poetics in the Nigerian Bildungsroman: The Coming‑of‑Age of the Individual and the Nation in Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen and “Half and Half Children”: Third-Generation Women Writers and the New Nigerian Novel will help in identifying in this essay how the works of literature narratively represent this struggle of understanding the complex relationship between the self and the identity that is being formed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in “The Dangers of a Single story” touches the question of what the identity of is oneself and how the dichotomy between the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized subject work towards establishing the definition of self and identity. This talk will help in analysing how the contemporary writers in Nigeria are using narratives and storytelling techniques in developing an identity for themselves. The aim of this paper is to analyse how these contemporary literary works highlight and trace the development and negotiation of this new Nigerian identity where ideas of culture and religion appear displaced and tangled between the teachings of the fathers and the white man.

57-90

Authors: Shubham Joshi

The study of all of Franz Kafka's work with a gender-based concern has been central to the study of the author's text ever since the evolution of gender studies. The Metamorphosis by Kafka is his most significant work. A critical analysis of the characters of the novella, via the gender lens, unveils the social and political changes that Kafka encapsulates in his short prose about his time. This paper attempts to evaluate a rereading of Kafka's text, its character and the metaphors in the story correlated with the author's biography. The same has been done with the help of Freudian reading, Beauvoirian reading, and theories, and arguments propounded by Mary Wollstonecraft, Judith Butler, and a few other critics.

101-109

Authors: Madan Sarma Subhajit Bhadra

The Swim is a story by Madan Sarma.

116-133

Authors: Sambit Patnaik

M.D.'s Dad is kidnapped!!! is a story by Sambit Patnaik.

138-140

Authors: Dr. A. Chandra Bose

Where Do I Go? is a poem by Dr. A. Chandra Bose.

143-145

Authors: Dr. B. H. S. Thimmappa

Constant Inspiration is a poem by Dr. B. H. S. Thimmappa.

149-152

Authors: Bonobithi Biswas

No Revolution Please and Sequel Inevitable are poems by Bonobithi Biswas.

158-161

Authors: Kumar Sawan

Traffic is a poem by Kumar Sawan.

166-169

Authors: Dr. Prashanta Chandra Panda

Shadow-fit and Treasured Moments are poems by Dr. Prashanta Chandra Panda.

180-182

Authors: Shubha Pai

Blank is a poem jointly composed by Shubha Pai, Raga Lahari, and Pallavi Sharma.

185-191

Authors: Ravindra Rao

Dr Anmol reviews Ravindra Rao’s book titled Aksara Bhagavad Gita.

196-200

Authors: Chanda Rani

Chanda Rani reviews Aparna Vaidik’s book titled My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Lynching and Blood Justice in India.