a transdisciplinary biannual research journal Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2015 Workshop on With articles curated through: 'How to Write & Publish a Research Article' at KAHM Unity Women's College, Manjeri, Kerala Inviting articles for the January 2016 Issue of Volume 3 Issue 1 January 2016 Open Issue Article submission deadline : 2015 November 30 Visit www.singularities.in for details a transdisciplinary biannual research journal Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2015 Postgraduate Department of English Manjeri, Malappuram, Kerala. www.singularities.in Chief Editor P. K. Babu., Ph. D Associate Professor & Head Postgraduate Dept. of English KAHM Unity Women's College, Manjeri. Members: Dr. K. K. Kunhammad, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Studies in English, Kannur University Mammad. N, Asst. Professor, Dept of English, Govt. College, Malappuram. Dr. Priya. K. Nair, Asst. Professor, Dept. of English, St. Teresa's College, Eranakulam. Aswathi. M . P., Asst. Professor, Dept of English, KAHM Unity Women's College, Manjeri. Advisory Editors: Dr. V. C. Haris School of Letters, M.G. University Kottayam Dr. M. V. Narayanan, Assoc. Professor, Dept of English, University of Calicut. Editor's Note When the digital era walked in with its plethora of means of duplication, originality has been driven further backwards. When the technological means are not merely plenty, but also easily and cheaply accessible, the wonder why one shouldn't seek to re appropriate the available perceptions, without struggling to think out of the cut and paste box has come to stay. One can't keep away from realising that there are even those who seek umbrage under theories which underline the superficiality of all expressions, emphasising the ethereality and instability of selves and statements. When these technologically mundane realities and theory (literary, not literally) inspired positions overlap, the fear of the steady decline in the quality of original writing and research has come true. The effect has easily filtered down to the student levels threatening to make (mis) appropriations the mainstay of research writing. The cut and paste research writing has taken roots and if anything threatens to challenge it, it is the manner in which the texts are remixed in the music fashion. The workshop organised on 'How to write and publish a research article' was intended to train the research scholars and teachers in the art and technique of research writing. It is heartening that we could groom bunch of young scholars and academics through the act. The issue carries part of the positives results it yielded. P. K. Babu., Ph. D Chief Editor Contents 1. Elephants in the Room: 'Five Minds' and the State of Higher Education in Kerala Dr. Kunhammad. K. K 7 2. The Multiplicity of Screens And Its Impact on Filmic Narration: A Study on The Feature Films Of Makoto Shinkai Lissy Jose 11 3. Traumatic Citizenship in Black Watch: Exploring the Victimizers' Plight Eldhose A Y 17 4. Text language and Standard English Language: A Comparison Hamna Mariyam 23 5. Re-visiting History: Revisionary Writings and Resistance Dr. Hina Tahir 28 6. Problematizing 'Home' and 'Nation': Fluid Identity in Burnt Shadows Mohammed Ali. P 40 7. Subverting Repressive Structures: A Study on Munnariyippu Anaswara 45 8. Not Adding a Last Line: Musings on Trauma in Select Post-9/11 Poems Jouhar. K 49 9. Elementary English in State Schools: the Need for Pedagogic Restructuring M. K. Vineetha 55 10. Broken Mirrors: Representation of India in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children Unaisa. T 61 11. Apocalyptic Narrative and the Ecological Discourse: An Insight into the Eco-crisis in Dan Brown's Inferno Sangeeta. K 66 12. Bond Goes Green: Quantum of Solace and its Environment Consciousness Parvathy. G 71 13. Perennial Wounds – Interrogating Women Consciousness with Reference to Doris Lessing's The Golden Note Book and Selected Poems of Kamala Das. Sangeetha Nair 75 14. Reconstructing Identities in Fourth World Literature: Emerging forms of Resistance in G Kalyana Rao's Untouchable Spring. Shahina Mol. A. K 81 15. Story of a Crying Wound: Trauma of Living after Rape Mohammed Shafeeq. C. P 85 16. From the Hub of Miasma to the Haven of Freedom : Facets of Deception in The Shawshank Redemption and Life is Beautiful A. Krishna Sunder 91 17. Da Thadiya : A Discourse on Postmodern Identity Anusree 96 18. “Purdah” and the Ramification to “Purdahization”: The Attitude to Veil in Some Women Poets Saikat Guha 102 19. Alcoholism as A Colonial Strategy: A Reading Of Beatrice Culleton's In Search Of April Raintree and Jeannette Armstrong's Slash Sini. K 109 20. An Alternative Spiritual Countenance: Exploring the Mystic Feminine in What the Sufi Said Aswathi. M. P 115 21. A Formula for Infinity: A Study of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and The Thousand and One Nights Shivshankar Rajmohan. A. K & Sheethal. N 121 22. Co(mmo)difying Warli Art--Art For Art's Sake or Art For Life's Sake? Mallika A Nair 130 23. Marxism: The Future and Beyond Sajan George 134 24. Satire in Shakespeare's Sonnets 1-5 & 9 Segun Omosule Ph.D 137 Dr. Kunhammad. K. K Elephants in the Room: 'Five Minds' and the State of Higher Education in Kerala The paper is an attempt to highlight some of the blatant lacunae in the Higher Education process of Kerala. The current system of education in Kerala seems to consistently bypass the vital directions in the educational process that Howard Gardner, the renowned exponent of the 'multiple intelligences', has identified as the “five minds” in his book Five Minds for the Future (2006). According to Gardener, with the help of these 'five minds, 'a person will be able to deal with not only “what is expected in today's life” but also “what cannot be anticipated” because in the absence of these minds, “a person will be at the mercy of forces that he or she can't understand, or control” (14). The five minds that Gardner describes in detail are: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind. The disciplined mind is a vital component of true excellence and quality in education. The classical notion of discipline has a negative tint because it is a form of punishment to student infractions; it is a passive virtue that refers to the ability on the part of students to unquestioningly follow the rules of the school and the instructions of a teacher in the classroom. It is an inability to stand up for oneself; it is the fear to speak up for a common cause; it is the fear to resist a teacher's injustice. But, according to Gardner, this concept of discipline is fundamentally flawed. The word 'discipline' opens out primarily in three semantic directions: (a) a willing commitment and dedication to a process of systematic efforts directed at the mastery of a field, (b) a systematic and organized field of study, and (c) the ability or skill to translate disciplinary knowledge into real-life practice. Although Gardner speaks only about the first two meanings of the word 'discipline,' following Peter Senge's reconceptualization of the word in the third sense mentioned above, it may be safely assumed that the word 'disciplined' in the phrase 'disciplined mind' includes all these three meanings within its semantic reach. As Gardiner puts it, “the disciplined mind knows how to work steadily over time to improve skill and understanding—in the vernacular, it is highly disciplined. Without at least one discipline under his belt, the individual is destined to march to someone else's tune.”A disciplined mind has been able to develop, through sustained hard work, 'a distinctive mode of thinking that characterizes a specific scholarly discipline or profession' (15). In the current system of Higher Education in Kerala, discipline in all these senses—a culture of disciplined hard work, the systematic mastery of a discipline and the ability to transform theory into practical skills—has disappeared. Very few postgraduates acquire disciplinary sophistication in their chosen majors and instead of accepting a culture of single- minded dedication to a field of study, a specific 'discipline,' students resort to short-cuts that will help them complete their 'courses' of study, which has resulted in an academic situation where the so-called 'qualified' professionals are incapacitated to do their jobs properly and thrive by producing sub-cultures of incredible mediocrity even in higher centers of learning. In the Kerala context, the synthesizing mind and the ethical mind must be examined together as some of the most unethical practices in higher studies are intimately bound up with our students' inability to develop these two vital life skills. A synthesizing mind has Dr. Kunhammad. K. K is Assistant Professor in English, Kannur University 7 Singularities Vol.2 Issue 1 January 2015 ISSN 2348 – 3369 learned to garner knowledge from a diversity of sources and present it in uniquely innovative forms. According to Gardiner, while earlier centuries put a high premium on memory and storage, the current scenario requires the ability to survey vast expanses of information and to understand and evaluate that information objectively, and present it in meaningful ways. “Valuable in the past, the capacity to synthesize becomes ever more crucial as information continues to mount at dizzying rates.” Synthesizing becomes an important skill in the present time, especially in writing papers and assignments and preparing for tests that would be evaluated by others. Developing the ability to create proper synthesis of existing knowledge through a regime of disciplined study and careful internalization is one of the chief objectives of written assignments at all levels of education. But unfortunately, what happens in most higher education centres of Kerala and, with rare exceptions, in all parts of the country today is a mindless copying of information from books and other internet resources.