ISSN 2278 - 7208 VOL. VIII, January 2019 An International Journal of Culture and Communication Studies Contents Note from the Editors 1. Tej N. Dhar: Literature and the Aesthetic: From the Greek Age to Modern Age 1 2. Anmol Sahni: Postcolonial Gothic: Hybridisation of Genres and the Dak Bungalow 13 3. Sakshi Sundaram: Mapping the Feminine Subjectivity in Amrita Pritam’s Once There Was an Anita and Krishna Sobti’s Damn You, Mitro!23 4. Neeti Singh: Sainthood, Patriarchy and Saguna Bhakti in the Verse of Andal and Mahadevi 37 5. Kusum Deswal: The Culture and Politics of Representation in Mirabai’s Poetry 53 6. Manali Dogra: Metaphorical Metamorphosis: A Critical Reading of Select Stories, Poems and Plays 63 7. Shivani Bhatt: The Diasporic Rainbow: An Intersectional Study of Queerness and Diaspora 70 8. Shaival Thakkar: Rohinton Mistry’s Indo- Nostalgia in Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance as Monochromatic Photographs of Mumbai 77 9. Abhilasha Sawlani: Negotiating Gender: Women in Bollywood Cinema 89 10. Naresh K. Vats: Post-national, Global, or Local: Literary Cinematic Responses 99 11. Kirti Sachdeva: From Othello’s Race to Omkara’s Caste: A Study of the Conflicting Political Identities in Omkara 109 12. Shibangi Dash: Radicalisation of Narration in Dalit Fiction: An Analysis of Selected Works 119 13. Nilanjana Ray: Writing Resistance, Building Identities: Persepolis and Embroideries 132 14. Srishti Sharma: Women as Warp and Weft of Painting through Time: A Select Study of ‘Fallen Woman’Across Translational Space 141 15. Mandavi Choudhary: Godna and Modern Tattoo: A Transitional Narrative 152 16. Akansha Shukla: Home and the Inner Lives of Homemakers: A Study of Women Protagonists in Select Indian English Novels 162 17. Adiba Faiyaz: Rethinking Relationships in the Fictional Retellings of the Mahabharata 175 18. Prerena Kush and Rekha: Sita and Exile: Revisiting Ramayana in Devdutt Pattanaik’s Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana 183 19. Obinna Ibezim: Myth-Making and the Holy Orders: An Appraisal of the Power of Homiletics and Hermeneutics of Sacred Texts 196 20. Sami Ahmad Khan: Worlds Apart: Myth, Science and Fiction in Sukanya Datta’s Short Stories 209 21. Mahim Sharma: Turbulent Flow: Chaos as a Narrative Technique 220 22. Jaishree Kapur: Between Hammer and Pen: Variegated Hues of Gurdial Singh in his Autobiography Kya Janu Mai Kaun 231 23. Chetna Nassa: Tailing the Tales of Love: Reading Rendition as an Extension of Imagery in the Select Compositions of S.D. Burman 241 24. Hiba Ahmed: The Curious Case of the Indian Muslim: Assessing Significance of Physical Spaces in the (re)Definition of Identity 252 25. Chetna Karnani: Sights and Sites of Communal Violence: Reading Memory through Temporality 262 26. Nikita Sharma: Monological Inflictions on the Margins of Existence: The Design of Madness in The Bluest Eye 272 27. Sheena Lama: Beyond Heteronormativity: An Interrogation of Homosocial Desire in Science Fiction 280 28. Avani Bhatnagar: Socio-Logic of the Capitalist World: A Reading of Machiavelli’s The Prince 288 29. Kanika Puri: The Muse and the Music: The Story of Love and Loss in Agra Bazaar and Umrao Jaan 300 30. Anup Singh Beniwal: Interdisciplinarity as Epistemic Expansion: Contextualizing the Debate in Indian Context 309 31. Ishika Tiwari: A Review of Aranyaka: Book of the Forest 319 32. Nawal Negi: A Review of Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” 323 33. Tushar Sharma: A Review of Premchand’s Godan 327 34. Somdatta Mandal: A Review of Jasbir Jain’s Interpreting Cinema: Adaptations, Intertextualities, Art Movements 330 List of Contributors 335 Note from the Editors Life constantly undergoes a process of change – so does literature. Its study must evolve too. The present issue of Indraprasth brings novel perspectives and nuanced perspectives to its readers: it represents a wide selection of literary and scholarly articles exploring a variety of disciplines, themes and ideas. The papers here seek new dimensions of looking at literary, social and cultural contexts that shape human lives and narratives. They become examples of how critical engagement with cultural production can not only assist us in comprehending our today(s) but can also help us in raising questions about our tomorrow(s). Tej. N. Dhar’s “Literature and the Aesthetic: From the Greek Age to Modern Age” critically examines the significant intersections of literature and aesthetics by focusing on mimesis in Plato-Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Plotinus, and the mix of Plato-Horace in Sidney. Anmol Sahni in “Postcolonial Gothic: Hybridisation of Genres and the Dak Bungalow” discusses the emergence of Postcolonial Gothic as a genre and how it reconfigures the idea of ‘monstrosity’ within the identity of the colonised other. It traces the motif of the haunted house as it travelled to the Indian subcontinent with the British, and how it became a site for the cultural anxieties of the colonial experience. “Mapping the Feminine Subjectivity in Amrita Pritam’s Once There Was an Anita and Krishna Sobti’s Damn You, Mitro!” by Sakshi Sundaram discusses women’s marital lives and their personal spaces in terms of freedom of their bodies. Neeti Singh’s “Sainthood, Patriarchy and Saguna Bhakti in the Verse of Andal and Mahadevi” examines the semiotics of gender and patriarchy in Saguna Bhakti through the works and lives of two South Indian saint poets, Shaiva and Vaishnav. The author also examines how myth, history, cultural and religious practices in a patriarchal society affect the women bhakti poets.“The Culture and Politics of Representation in Mirabai’s Poetry” by Kusum Deswal explores the Vaishnava Bhakti movement with a focus on Mirabai’s poetry. It attempts to highlight the power and control of Mira Bai on her ‘self’, and how she surmounted the hurdles on the path of her spiritual and mystical journey. Manali Dogra’s “Metaphorical Metamorphosis: A Critical Reading of Select Stories, Poems, and Plays” explores the ideas of non-linearity, irrationality, organic sensibilities of monuments as metaphors of love and empathy in tragic times. It examines the temporary and eternal in the transient world of reality. “The Diasporic Rainbow: An Intersectional Study of Queerness and Diaspora” (vi) by Shivani Bhatt attempts to understand the levels at which nationalities and sexualities intersect through Suniti Namjoshi’s Conversations of Cow and other poems. It also tries to explore the nexus of transnational, cultural, ethical levels factors that configure vis-à-vis gender, desire and sexuality. Shaival Thakkar’s “Rohinton Mistry’s Indo-Nostalgia in Such a Long Journey and A Fine Balance as Monochromatic Photographs of Mumbai” attempts to demonstrate the intermingling of cityscapes and characters’ perspectives on Mumbai through two novels. Abhilasha Sawlani in “Negotiating Gender: Women in Bollywood Cinema” examines three Bollywood films — Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Astitva, and Queen — in light of Judith Butler’s notions of gender as performance, open to continual refashioning. “Post-national, Global, or Local: Literary Cinematic Responses” by Naresh K. Vats examines how globalisation and post-nationalism work in the realities of today. The paper investigates today’s cinema (Newton, Hindi Medium, Barfi, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Pad Man) as experiences of individuals who are struggling with the day-to-day realities under the light of globalisation. Kirti Sachdeva’s “From Othello’s Race to Omkara’s Caste: A Study of the Conflicting Political Identities in Omkara” highlights how a nexus between caste system and party politics plays out in the hinterlands of India, leading to an inversion of the idea of collective identity through various inclusive methods, coalitions and novel ways of flattering popular stereotypes and hierarchies. Shibangi Dash in “Radicalization of Narration in Dalit Fiction: An Analysis of Selected Works” looks into three novels namely, Kusumabale, Hindu and Untouchable Spring to analyse the caste system prevalent in India. Nilanjana Ray’s “Writing Resistance, Building Identities: Persepolis and Embroideries” traces Marjane Satrapi’s journey of writing graphic novels. The texts are further analysed in-depth, which enhances the importance and effect of graphic novels in postmodern form. Srishti Sharma in “Women as Warp and Weft of Painting through Time: A Select Study of ‘Fallen Woman’ Across Translational Space” presents visual-arts from 19th century and songs by Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and John Lennon using ekphrasis as a technique. Mandavi Choudhary’s “Godna and Modern Tattoo: A Transitional Narrative” studies the tradition of body art, referred to as the practice of godna in the particular cultural context of Mithila. Akansha Shukla’s “Home and the Inner Lives of Homemakers: A Study of Women Protagonists in Select Indian English Novels” focuses on the women in Indian households through the analysis (vii) of select Indian English novels like Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain, and Rama Mehta’s Inside the Haveli. Adiba Faiyaz’s “Rethinking Relationships in the Fictional Retellings of the Mahabharata” takes two modern day retellings of the epic, namely, Chitra Banerjee’s Devakaruni’s Palace of Illusions and Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi”. The paper scrutinizes Divakaruni’s attempt to provide a feminist retelling of the epic through the point of view of Draupadi and contrasts this with the Draupadi in the text by Mahasweta Devi. Prerena Kush and Rekha’s “Sita and Exile: Revisiting Ramayana in Devdutt Patnaik’s Sita: An Illustrated Retellings of the Ramayana” traces the pattern of journey which Sita undergoes in her exile to different places. It tries to look into the transition that Sita experiences during these multiple exiles and asks if this leads to any psychological, intellectual or emotional displacement for her. “Myth-Making and the Holy Orders: An Appraisal of the Power of Homiletics and Hermeneutics of Sacred Texts” by Obinna Ibezim looks into the myths and the myth-making process adopted by the preachers and teachers of different religions through the two activities of Hermeneutics and Homiletics.