Gauri as woman protagonist in Mulk Raj Anand's novel
Autor/in:
Yadav, Shashi
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 60, S 134-136
Inhalt: Through this novel "Gauri" Mulk Raj Anand expresses his indisputable concern for the suffering humanity of India. It forces one to ask a few questions about the Indian character of woman. We call the woman as "Mother", "Goddess" and claim that our society always been given due respect to women. At the same time, we also beat them ablaze or turn them out of the house. Mulk Raj Anand's novel Gauri eloquently exposes the hypocrisy of our society. It not only voices a strong protest against ill treatment of women but also explores through the example of Gauri what woman in India should do for her emancipation.
Cultural identity in Eugenia Kim's The Calligrapher's Daughter
Autor/in:
Ng, Wen Lee; Wan Yahya, Wan Roselezam; Mani, Manimangai
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 62, S 131-139
Inhalt: Eugenia Kim’s The Calligrapher's Daughter (2009) is a well-received East Asian novel about a Korean Christian, Najin's encounter with western culture. As an aristocratic woman, she is expected to uphold Korean tradition. However, as Najin realises that she is culturally marginalised by her father and the Korean traditional society mainly due to her gender, she picks up a foreign culture introduced to her, western culture. This move is extremely significant because after Najin driven by cultural marginalisation to embrace western culture, her cultural practices are no longer the same with traditional Korean women. This important turn of the novel has not been explored by scholars extensively. Thus, this study aims to depart from the cultural marginalisation faced by Najin. Furthermore, due to the fact that cultural identity formation is highly influenced by culture, there is a need to look into the changes of Najin’s cultural identity as she incorporates western culture into her Korean traditional culture. By investigating the changes of Najin’s cultural identity throughout the novel, this study finds that Najin has transformed from a nameless girl without an identity into an independent woman with the help of western education.
Schlagwörter:Christentum; Literatur; Tradition; Ostasien; Roman; Emanzipation; Marginalität; Western world; culture; woman; kulturelle Identität; emancipation; westliche Welt; cultural identity; literature; Kultur; Christianity; tradition; marginality; Far East; novel; Korea
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
The role of culture and society in the development of plot in Tanushree Podder's Escape from Harem and Gita Mehta's A River Sutra: a feminist reading
Autor/in:
Khandhar, Diren Ashok; Mani, Manimangai
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 56, S 44-49
Inhalt: Culture and Society are often the main gist of most novels. These two factors often influence and control the characters, thus helping in the development of the plot. A plot, as defined by Egan (1978), is used to indicate an outline of events and serves as a skeleton in a literary piece. In other words, it is a tool in making sure the main incidents or scenarios are presented in a particular order to establish a clear understanding of what is being written. Culture and society plays the essence in a novel as it constructs these main ideas in engaging the interest of a reader and also extends the intended message of the particular writer. This paper looks into how culture and society helps in developing the plots of the selected novels using the feminist approach. Tanushree Podder's, Escape from Harem (2013) and Gita Mehta's A River Sutra (1993) amazingly are both set in India. Podder and Mehta have inserted the perception society had over women and how male supremacy was glorified in many aspects. The essence of feminist approach was very much present in these two novels. According to Tyson (2006), feminism concerns the ways in which literature undermines the economic, political, social and psychological oppression on women. Though the setting of both novels fall in different eras but the theme of female oppression remains the same. The patriarchal society uses culture and religion as a tool to control women and oppress them. Both authors have shown how the women in the 17th century and in the 20th century face the same kind of judgment from the society and men in general.
Rezension: Josch Hoenes, 2014: Nicht Frosch - nicht Laborratte: Transmännlichkeiten im Bild. Eine kunst- und kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse visueller Politiken
Autor/in:
Stänicke, Andrea
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 7 (2015) 3, S 152-154
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Racial awareness in Phillis Wheatley's selected poems
Autor/in:
Mani, Manimangai
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 56, S 74-79
Inhalt: Slavery in America began when Africans were brought in as slaves to the North American Colony of Jamestown Virginia around 1619. Slavery in America lasted for almost four hundred years though the trade was legally abolished by Britain in March 1807 (Walvin 163). Although the trade ended, slavery itself continued to survive. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) is considered the first prominent Black writer in the United States to publish a book of imaginative writing. She is also the first to start the African-American literary tradition, as well as the African-American women literary tradition. Her work, which was derivative, was published in the collection, Poems on Various Subjects (1773) and in various magazines. Her choice of words was mostly biblical where it helped to camouflage her view on slavery. This paper intends to show that all of Wheatley's poems actually carried the theme of freedom. She has intelligently used this theme to articulate her desires in a subtle manner. On the surface, the poems are all preaching the greatness of Christianity to the readers and urging them to find solace through religion. She shows her racial awareness and resistance through various themes of the poems that she wrote. This paper highlights Wheatley's disapproval of slavery through her praise for religion, political commentaries, supporting elegies and death and finally through her escapism into an imaginary world.
Schlagwörter:Literatur; Bewusstsein; escapism; slavery; Freiheit; Rassismus; poetry; Sklaverei; USA; freedom; literature; Dichtung; consciousness; Eskapismus; United States of America; racism
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, soziale Probleme
Rezension: Andreas Heilmann, Gabriele Jähnert, Falko Schnicke, Charlott Schönwetter, Mascha Vollhardt (Hg.): Männlichkeit und Reproduktion: zum gesellschaftlichen Ort historischer und aktueller Männlichkeitsproduktionen
Autor/in:
Sulzenbacher, Stefan
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 24 (2015) 2, S 167-169
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 58, S 123-129
Inhalt: This article aims at studying the representation of the Orient in Pasolini's film Arabian Nights(1974). Since this film is a faithful adaptation of Thousand and One Nights it will be examined as carrying the same ideology which the text carries. The text of Thousand and One Nights established and legitimized orientalism in the west. Thus the movie follows suit in institutionalizing Orientalism. This is obtained by a close watching analysis and by looking at the images of the Orient, the plot itself, potential stylistic features which expresses images or attitudes in this regard. Our hypothesis is that the Orient in this movie is portrayed in accordance with notions of representation of the Other being depicted as, amongst other aspects, exotic, sexual, erotic and as a homogenous mass. Pasolini portrays Oriental men and woman as bodies in the duality of mind and body, and portrays them as a homogenous mass this is merely due to their belonging to a particular culture or race. The film represents the Oriental men and women as having a defining interest in sex and eroticism. It displays an exoticising Western view of the Oriental culture.
Schlagwörter:Erotik; eroticism; Orientalistik; Arab countries; Western world; Anpassung; culture; Film; film; westliche Welt; adaptation; Kultur; arabische Länder; orientalism; Darstellung; Pasolini, P.
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, andere Medien
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 55, S 154-159
Inhalt: Margaret Atwood is the most prominent Canadian writer. Her feminist ideology is clearly obvious in her novels. She overtly illustrates her feminism view in human rights equality and freedom of choice. Atwood's works are consisted of the fundamental freedom and human rights. In general, her fictions truly portray the women's rights that are equal to men's rights. Social constructions of gender are attacked by Atwood's novels. Her stories represent the silence and sexual discrimination in female characters. She is not only looking for annihilating of the gender system i.e. women's subjugation, but look at men and women at the same level in society. Female bodies in Atwood's point of view have been captured in patriarchal societies. Female protagonists in the selected novels explain noticeable symbols of bodily nervousness. Female characters are mostly used as objects in Atwood's stories. Women are considered as a tool or toy, as if they have no feelings, opinions or rights of their own. Body in female characters plays an important role and it is symbol of sexuality. Female body in Atwood's selected stories is under the cruel dominance by male and that is what she always tries to portray under the sexual politics. This paper aims to illustrate sexual politics though female body in Atwood's selected works.
SSOAR Kategorie:Kultursoziologie, Kunstsoziologie, Literatursoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Allgemeine Soziologie, Makrosoziologie, spezielle Theorien und Schulen, Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie
Unblinding history through literature in Tanushree Podder's, escape from harem
Autor/in:
Mani, Manimangai
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 53, S 60-67
Inhalt: The history of India had been coloured by series of brutal invasion, torture, bloodshed and massacre in the name of religion and conquest. One of the most remembered invasions is by the Mughals in the beginning of 16th. century where Babar successfully established the Mughal dynasty in 1526. The Mughal dynasty, from the eyes of the historians is one of the most dynamic dynasty which possessed splendour, wealth, bravery, artistic architecture and conquerors who fought to glorify Islam. While historians and history were limited to the study of chronological events, the historical novel Escape from Harem took the liberty to peep into the human and humanity of this dynasty; a scope which is deep irrelevant in the study of history. This paper intends to show how Tanushree Podder exposes some unknown episodes from the history of these great conquerors and builders through her novel, Escape from Harem. Strings of episodes and secrets which may not be deemed important by historians are revealed as the readers follow the journey of the girl who is taken into the harem. These episodes will be seen in the light of new historicism. This research reveals the dark side of the dynasty which are as intriguing as the magnitude of splendours which are identified with this kingdom and its rulers. The untold stories from the darkest chamber of the harem, massacre, filicide, fratricide, animalistic behaviour of emperors and the oppressive treatment cast upon women that was carried from one generation to another in the name of power and conquest will be brought to light through this research.
Quelle: International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, (2015) 50, S 86-90
Inhalt: Canadian novels have witnessed a movement from description to more different analytical and interpretative directions. Margaret Atwood's oeuvres are belonged to the postmodern literary field of feminist writing. Her fictions show a severe alertness of the relationship between chains and slavery, i.e. between women's requirement for relationships with others and her requirements for freedom and autonomy. In this paper, The Handmaid's Tale, Bodily Harm, Surfacing, and The Edible Woman will be surveyed in a direct relationship between politics, violence and victimization of female protagonists. An examination on Margaret Atwood's novels demonstrates that she is pioneer in the dimension of time by being a revolter against the patriarchal society.
