Towards Praxis: Literature, Society and Politics
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MEJO The MELOW Journal of World Literature Volume 1: 01: July 2016 ISSN: Applied For A peer refereed journal published annually by MELOW (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World) Towards Praxis: Literature, Society and Politics Editor in Chief: Manju Jaidka Board of Editors: Anil Raina Debarati Bandyopadhyay Himadri Lahiri Manpreet Kang Neela Sarkar Rimika Singhvi Roshan Lal Sharma Editorial Assistants: Anupam Vatsyayan Harpreet Bali Ramanpreet Grewal Saidul Haque EDITOR’S NOTE MEJO, or the MELOW Journal of World Literature, is a peer-refereed journal brought out biannually by MELOW, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World. It is a reincarnation of the previous publications brought out in book or printed form by the Society right since its inception in 1998. MELOW is an academic organization, one of the foremost of its kind in India. The members are college and university teachers, scholars and critics interested in literature, particularly in World Literatures. The Organization meets almost every year over an international conference. It seeks to maintain academic standards, encourages and grooms younger scholars, and provides a forum for senior scholars in literature. The essays presented at MELOW conferences are screened, selected, edited and published by a Board of Editors especially appointed for the purpose. Whereas in the initial years the Society favoured a book publication, in subsequent years it was a journal that was published annually. With the changing times, MELOW decided to move on to online publication. The result is MEJO. Dear readers, this is the first issue of MEJO, the MELOW Journal, but it is the outcome of almost two decades of experience in editing, proofreading and publishing. An e- journal has its own challenges and we, at MELOW, are coping with our challenges the best we can. For us it is a new beginning and – like all beginnings – it is to be warmly welcomed. There is a lot to be done and many more milestones ahead. With the support of all our readers and members, we shall keep on striving. This issue, Vol 1: no. 1: July 2016, collects half of the essays selected from presentations made at the 15th MELOW Conference held at GGS Indraprastha University, Dwarka, Delhi, in February 2016. The second issue of MEJO (Volume 1: no. 2) will come out in March 2017. It will bring together the remaining selection from the conference presentations. EDITOR About MELOW MELOW (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World) was first set up in 1998. It is an academic organization, among the foremost of its kind in India. The members are college and university teachers, scholars and critics interested in literature, particularly in world literatures, and literature across borders of time and space. The organization meets every year over an international conference. It seeks to maintain academic standards, encourage younger scholars and provides a forum for senior scholars in literature. This is the first volume of the MELOW revamped journal which has existed in hard print for about a decade. The present issue comprises a selection of papers presented at the 2016 MELOW Conference in Delhi. A second issue of this volume is slated for January 2017. MELOW Office Bearers President: Prof Anil Raina (Chandigarh) Vice-President: Dr Vijay Sharma (Delhi) Secretary: Prof Manju Jaidka (Chandigarh) Jt. Secretary: Prof Manpreet Kang (Delhi) Treasurer: Dr Meenu Gupta (Chandigarh) Executive Members: Prof Sushila Singh (Varanasi) Prof Ashis Sengupta (Darjeeling) Prof Debarati Bandopadhyay (Kolkata) Prof Ravichandran (Kanpur) Dr Roshan Sharma (Dharamshala) Dr Seema Bhupendra (Rajasthan) Dr RG Kulkarni (Shangli) Dr Neela Sarkar (Kolkata) Dr Jyoti Mishra (Chattisgarh) Dr Vandhana Sharma (Jammu) International Advisory Board E. Nageswara Rao, (Osmania University, Hyderabad) Giorgio Mariani (University of Sapienza, Rome, Italy) Shirley Geok Lim (University of California, Santa Barbara) Rajeshwari Pandharipande (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA) Mukesh Williams (Soka University, Japan) Pawel Jędrzejko (University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland) Reach us online http://www.melusmelow.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003036474708&fref=ts ISAAC SEQUEIRA MEMORIAL FUND Professor Isaac Sequeira (5 January 1930—7 September 2006) Professor Isaac Sequeira from Hyderabad, who worked at the Osmania University and was closely associated with the ASRC, Hyderabad, was a mentor and patron to several generations of academics in India. His sad demise in 2006 created a void hard to fill. We, at MELUS- India/MELOW, wish to keep alive the memory of our Patron and guiding light who played a key role in all the activities of our organization. We have set up an Isaac Sequeira Memorial Fund out of which a cash prize of Rs. 5,000 is awarded for the best paper presented at our conferences (see details below). With effect from the 2010 conference, there is a Special Invited Lecture by a person of eminence funded by the Isaac Sequeira Memorial Fund. Several individuals have come forward to offer contributions towards the corpus and donated generously to the ISM fund. Donations of Rs. 1,000 or more may be sent in cash/by draft payable to MELOW at Chandigarh. Contributions may be mailed by registered post/courier to Prof Anil Raina, Dept of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh - 160014. THE ISM AWARD • In the memory of Prof Isaac Sequeira, MELUS-India / MELOW annually awards a prize for the best paper presented at its conference. The award comprises a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 5,000. • The competition is open to Indian citizens who are members of MELUS-India or MELOW. The participant/delegate should be less than forty years of age at the time of the conference. The abstract and complete paper should be submitted by the stipulated deadlines before it is presented at the conference. • A panel of Judges is appointed by the Office Bearers of MELUS-India/MELOW. • If required, these rules may be amended by a simple majority of members present and voting at the Conference. GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES FOR PUBLICATION IN THE MELUS-MELOW JOURNAL An article submitted for publication in our journal should be actually presented at the MELUS-MELOW Conference. It should be an original scholarly work, not presented or published elsewhere. The final selection will be done by the editorial board constituted for each volume/issue of the journal and its decision will be final. The article should also comply with the theme of the conference. The guidelines for documentation are as follow: Manuscripts should be submitted electronically typed in Microsoft Word (Times New Roman 12 font) in double spacing with 1” margin on both sides of the page. E-mail id for submission of manuscripts is [email protected] The article should follow the MLA Handbook format (7th edition) wherein all references are placed in the body of the text (e.g. Hassan 15 or Toffler xi) with an alphabetically arranged “Works Cited” list at the end. Kindly note, reference footnotes/endnotes are not permissible. Articles not following this format of documentation will be summarily rejected. Some sample entries: Handlin, Oscar. The Uprooted. Boston: Little Brown Co., 1973. Vance, Carole. “Pleasure and Danger: Toward a Politics of Sexuality.” Feminisms. Eds. Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. 327-35. “Chandigarh.” Map. Google Maps. Google, 15 May 2012. Web. 18 May 2012. CONTENTS 1. Cartooning the Colony, Empowering the Empire: A Study of Punch Cartoons(ISM Award-Winning paper) Saidul Haque 8 2. Consciousness-Raising in the Postcolonial Novel Tej Nath Dhar 42 3. Post-Catastrophe Futuristic Scenarios: A Perspective upon Aldous Huxley’s Ape and Essence (1948) K.B. Razdan 53 4. From Silence to Speech: Women Warriors in In-between Worlds Nandini Bhadra 59 5. “Being Violent”:Critiquing Masculinity and Capitalism in Joyce Carol Oates’sZombie Payel Pal 66 6. Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class”: The Contemporary Family and the “Curse” of the American Dream Galawezh I. Muhiadeen 74 7. Many Stories, Many Lessons: The Plurality of Draupadi, Sita and Ahalya Benu Verma 81 8. Gendering the Genre: Interrogating the Fairytales of Colonial Bengal Sarani Roy 91 9. The Kashmiri Ramayana: Voices and Silences Aarttee Kaul Dhar 99 10. “ I find thy cunning seeds, O million murdering Death”:Western Science, Indian Climes in Amitav Ghosh’sThe Calcutta Chromosome Sakoon N Singh 106 11. Literature as Social Agenda: The Poetry of Temsula Ao Neeraj Sankhyan and Suman 113 12. The Cyborg Prophecy: Reading between Isaac Asimov’s Lines Rudrani Gangopadhyay 122 6 13. Sexual Innuendoes in LittleRed Riding Hood Harpreet Kaur Vohra 130 14. Book Review T. S. Eliot: Poems. Eds. Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue Hugh Foley 136 7 ISM AWARD-WINNING PAPER* Cartooning the Colony, Empowering the Empire: A Study of Punch Cartoons Saidul Haque Research Scholar University of Hyderabad Abstract: This paper addresses the larger politics of the machination of the British Empire in order to preserve its overseas colonies like India, the precious jewel in the crown. It examines a significant aesthetic apparatus of colonial domination, in the form of political cartoons, on the colony published in the British weekly magazine, Punch or The London Charivari (1841-1992 and 1992-1996). While both literature and politics are “serious” affairs, the cartoons, for one thing, treated them as “casual” or “non-serious” perhaps only to charge them with an alternative seriousness. This politics of deception is central to the functioning of the cartoon. Cartoons triggered humor not merely for their aesthetic purpose but with the larger aim of disseminating and validating the operations of empire in the colony. While this paper does not aim at reaching the simplified conclusion that these visual cartoons actually symbolize the political gaze of the British Empire at the colony producing a self- other/master-slave binary, these visuals surely exploited the porous boundaries between literal and the figural, between meaning and non-meaning.