ISSN 0976-0814 Labyrinth An International Refereed Journal of Postmodern Studies

Vol.6 - No.4 October 2015

Abstracted & Indexed at Literary Reference Centre Plus, EBSCO HOST, USA

Editor Lata Mishra Dept. of English Studies & Research, Govt. KRG (PG) Autonomous College, Gwalior, MP

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Articles Multidisciplinary Approach and Literature as Knowledge Area -Bir Singh Yadav 5 Lilith: A Woman's Tale of Surfacing - Sujatha Aravindakshan 16 Towards Her “Poetics”: Mahadevi Varma's Shrinkhala ki Kariyan in the light of Gynocriticism -Almee Raza 22 "Was it a boy or a girl": Exploring Gender Issues in Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore - Muhammed Sobhi Salama 30 Mahasweta Devi's Water: A Critique of Social Reality and its Relevance -Krishna Singh 37 Masculinity, War and the Politics of Ethnic Identity: A Study of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner -Mriganka Sekhar Sarma 41 Free Will vs. Determinism: An Existential Reading of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland -A.Sharada & N.Usha 47 Some Traits of Human Psyche and the Attainment of Moksha/Mukti in Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala: Play with a Cobra and Flowers: A Dramatic Monologue -Abhinandan Malas 57 Media and Practices of Mediation: Role of Activist Documentary Films in Indian Mediasphere - Sudhir Kumar Pandey & Manjari Johri 69 Reviewing Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish: An Exploration of the Issues of Adaptation and Gender-Crisis in Rituparno Ghosh's Film -Arundhati Tarafdar 79 Women in Purdah: Representation of Indian Women in Women's Travel Writing in Colonial India -Nurjahan Begum 91 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Magical Realism and the Creation of a Feminist Space in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye -Vijay Kumar Rai 100 Julia Kristeva's “semiotic chora” and its Subversive Potential -Sonal Singhvi Choudhary 107 Western Influence in Queen – A Critical Study - Ranveer 111 Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love: Writing a Self- The Female Voice - Papri Sultana 118 Indian Womanhood: A Picture of Freedom and Fear in R.K. Narayan's The Dark Room -Prashant Mahajan, Pragyaa Gupta 124 Search for Identity and Independence in A House for Mr. Biswas - Swarupananda Chatterjee 128 Feminism in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande -Rashmi Jain 133 Songs of Baul A Strategic Essentialism Surrogates over The 19th Century Hegemonized Societal Format - Auritra Munshi 139 Widows and women: Soueif's presentation of women and widows in The Map of Love -Mir Mohammad Tonmoy 146 Indian Youth Perceptions & Attitudes towards Homosexuality - A Qualitative Study -Ruhi Jadhav 151 Post-colonialism and Indian Literature -Farhana Sayeed 160 Social-Economic Conditions of the Contemporary Deori Women of Assam in India - Guptajit Pathak 166 An Indian English Poem: The Use of Stylistics in Innovative Teaching -Ashok P. Khairnar 172 Depiction of Devotional Songs as Borgeets: The Wonder of Assam -Azizur Rahman Sarkar 184 Deconstructing the African American Womanhood: A Critical Analysis of the Recalcitrant Black woman in Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness - N.Vijayalakshmi & Soumya Jose 186 Short Stories The Seminar - ND Dani 193 The Botanist's Resignation - Sayantan Pal Chowdhury 199 Book Review The Vacanas of Sarvajna - IK Sharma 203 Poem Adieu, Adios & Farewell - Albert Russo 205

Our Esteemed Contributors 207 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 5-15 Multidisciplinary Approach and Literature as Knowledge Area - Bir Singh Yadav Abstract: Knowledge is the grace, glory, and dignity of human beings as it leads to peace, progress, prosperity and happiness of the world, thereby in its holistic form it creates a halo of admiration with magnetic aura around the human face elevating and uplifting the mortal beings to divine status. Hence the flow of the entire peace and sustainable development emerges out of the holistic whole of the knowledge that comes through the pipelines of the multidisciplinary approach. In this holistic system of multidisciplinary approach, different branches of knowledge crossing their boundaries are merged together in such a harmonious way that without harming one another they form a broad system to generate pure knowledge with zero or minimum negative effect coupled with maximum welfare of the human and non-human world. When knowledge of one discipline crossing its boundaries goes to the other discipline, it does not harm that discipline but enriches it through idealization by adding something of nobility to it that makes its knowledge more beneficial, valid, vast, true and useful. But the wrong thing happening in the present world is that knowledge is being abused and misused in the name of the specialization. Currently in the epistemological field the main problem is that the modern scientific culture accomplished with modern technology and blinded with material progress is rapidly moving towards its own annihilation without caring and curing the loss of the non-human world as well as moral and spiritual values. Literature which has the right to say everything in any way provides fertile ground to multidisciplinary system of knowledge for the welfare of the world as a whole. Hence this paper concentrating on the seminal works of some literary bards intends to reflect how different disciplines interwoven in the web of literature create a whole of holistic knowledge that shapes better and bright future for humanity on this planet. Keywords: Deep ecology, Interdisciplinary approach, Holistic knowledge, Science, Spirituality, Technology. Knowledge is the grace, glory, and dignity of human beings as it leads to peace, progress, prosperity and happiness of the world, thereby in its holistic form it creates a halo of admiration with magnetic aura around the human face elevating and uplifting the mortal beings to divine status. The Vedas also assert that knowledge is the pivot of all kinds of progress. Hence the flow of the entire peace and sustainable progress emerges out of the holistic whole of the knowledge that comes through the pipelines of the multi-disciplinary approach. In this holistic system of multi- disciplinary approach, different branches of knowledge crossing their boundaries are merged together in such a harmonious way that without harming one another they form a broad system to generate pure 5 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 16-21 Lilith: A Woman's Tale of Surfacing - Sujatha Aravindakshan Abstract: The object of this paper is to present the theme of surfacing in Sara Maitland's short story, “Lilith.” The quest for self-revelation that Lilith has undertaken is an eternal one, while the journey of Cain is ephemeral and comes to an end with his death, which relieves him of his sense of sin and guilt. Keywords: Feminism, feminine, Jewish and Bablyonian myths. “Myths often have some serious underlying purpose beyond that of telling a story” – Diane Purkiss The object of this paper is to present the theme of surfacing in Sara Maitland's short story, “Lilith.” Most of Maitland's short stories fall under the genre of mythic feminism, where she rewrites popular myths with the sole aim of exploring the feminist vein in them. In “Women's Rewriting of Myths”, Diane Purkiss discusses the problematic approach of feminist authors who, by ... rewriting the myth—changing the narrative, changing the position of the speaker, changing the spaces available for identification—are held to be at once making a dramatic break with the myths as told by the fathers, and also to be recovering the dark, secret, always unconscious truths which the fathers have struggled to repress. (444) Generally, feminists are of the opinion that there are three major phases in a woman's life – Scooting, Succumbing, and Surfacing. Women pass through either of these phases or all of them in succession. Scooting is the phase where woman flees either out of fear or hatred from the ideals of men. But not every woman succeeds in this attempt. Dorothy Dinnerstein rightly points out, “The prevailing symbiosis between men and women is something more than a product of societal coercion” (234). In other words, women cannot evade men for long, for men, through the exertion of patriarchal authority, manage to force women either into willing or unwilling subjugation. Women therefore are forced to encounter the succumbing phase. According to most women, subservience is predestined, but when it becomes intolerable, a few begin to discover methods of extricating themselves from the yoke of subordination and oppression. The desire to acquit oneself from the norms of an androcentric society is the first symptom of the surfacing of a woman's personality. Radical feminists affirm that surfacing is the phase of rejuvenation or rebirth in a woman's life. There are two types of women. The obsequious woman knows that she has succumbed to man either willingly or unwillingly and yet makes no attempt to break free from those shackles that have bound her to the male-centred society. This could be probably out of fear or her unwillingness to change. The second type of woman, unlike her docile counterparts, is bold enough to emerge free 16 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 22-29 Towards Her “Poetics”: Mahadevi Varma's Shrinkhala ki Kariyan in the light of Gynocriticism - Almee Raza Abstract: If literature is a representation and reflection of society, a society, then comprises both man and woman. It would therefore, be injustice on the part of women if their silence remains unspoken and their agonies persist without representation. The representation of women in literature was felt essential for an authentic representation of society. With this objective many women writers took the responsibility to represent and give an expression to the agonizing, voiceless women resulting, thus, in the role of 'woman as writer' and creator of their body of literature. The present paper emphasizes this aspect. This paper attempts a study of Mahadevi Varma's Shrinkhala ki Kariyan as a gyno text in the light of Elaine Showalter's notion of 'gynocriticism'. The paper reflects on Showalter's theory of “gynocritics” and offers a parallel significance of 'woman as writer' in Mahadevi Varma's plea to women to write and create 'a literature of their own'. It also focuses on the multiple issues and problems facing women as described in Shrinkhala ki Kariyan and portrays not only the suppression, suffering and humiliation of women but also emphasizes the necessity for articulation. Keywords: Gynocritics, representation, articulation, woman's language, selfhood. Jean Jacques Rousseau, the great French philosopher and leader of the French Revolution, once mentioned that a man is born free but he is everywhere in chains. The statement by the well known philosopher can symbolically be applied to the status and existence of a woman in a patriarchal social set up. A woman, though, was born free, yet is everywhere in “chains”. She is stifled by the everlasting shackles of the society. She gasps under the harsh, stubborn and biased social customs, norms and prejudices and is even suppressed by her own family. The paraphernalia of her peripheral existence is demarcated by the hypocritic social order.History bears evidence how a woman has been subjugated and ruled at the hands of her changing rulers - father, brother, husband, son. She is governed by what can be called the law of the threshold which has been imposed on her and which she is forced to abide. A breach of this law brings her doom and her plight can even be more hazardous than 'Judith Shakespeare', the “wonderfully gifted sister” (Woolf, 1998, p.53) of William Shakespeare, as Virginia Woolf mentions in her feminist treatise, A Room of One's Own. Commenting on the inferior status and abuse of women, Woolf quotes historian, Professor Trevelyan: Wife-beating was a recognized right of man, and was practised without shame by high as well as low...the daughter who refused to marry the gentleman of her parents' choice was liable to be locked up, beaten and 22 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 30-36 Was it a Boy or a Girl : Exploring Gender Issues in Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore - Muhammed Sobhi Salama Abstract: This article aims at analyzing various views/definitions of gender and how these can be applied to Martin McDonagh's most political play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Further, it intends to provide insights into the concepts of backlash and stereotypes. The article illustrates how Davey and Mairead clearly break society-governed confines, which everybody else succumbs to. They boldly assert aspects of their personalities in an attempt to be who they are, and not who they ought to be. The conclusion is a summing up of the ideas and points discussed in the paper. Keywords: gender, masculine, feminine, backlash, society, socio- cultural, stereotypes, Irish drama The article attempts to provide answers to the following questions: How are male and female images represented? Why are these roles depicted as reversed? Within the play, do these reversed roles revert to their original stereotypical states or do they remain as they are? This is fixt/ As are the roots of earth and base of all; Man for the field and woman for the hearth: Man for the sword and for the needle she: Man with the head and woman with the heart: Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion- Alfred, Lord Tennyson Catherine Villanueva Gardner (2006) affirms that “Gender is the set of socially constructed behavioural and psychological characteristics associated with masculinity and femininity.” But, the term gender has often been related to women and women's rights and freedom. Although critics state that the world has seen too much of feminism and feminist thought and ideology, it is a fact that gender issues have pervaded the very existence of society and will continue to do so. Therefore, the concept of gender is undoubtedly an interpreter's Paradise that unravels layer after layer of interpretation endlessly like a humongous onion. This, apparently, is the reason for having selected gender issues as one of the central themes in Martin McDonagh's most political play and his second of the Aran Trilogy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The article attempts to provide answers to the following questions: How are male and female images represented? Why are these roles depicted as reversed? Within the play, do these reversed roles revert to their original stereotypical states or do they remain as they are? McDonagh entered the realm of drama in an unusual fashion, without attending a drama school or earning a theatre 30 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 37-40 Mahasweta Devi's Water: A Critique of Social Reality and its Relevance - Krishna Singh Abstract: The present paper endeavours to analyze Mahasweta Devi's play Water translated by Samik Bandyopadhyay as a document of social reality and its critique. Untouchability, caste and culture conflict, extreme poverty, illiteracy, lack of basic amenities of life, Naxalism, Government officials' apathy and administrative reluctance, nexus between Zamindars, administrative and police officers to exploit poor untouchables are the core issues dealt in dexterously. Rooted in history and following myth as well as contemporary reality, with socio- economic milieus ranging from the urban bourgeoisie to the urban under world, rural untouchable settlements to rural tribal communities, the present play offers a view of India rarely seen in literature. Further, it closely studies the thematic concerns in her plays and different modes of exploitation prevalent in both urban and rural world. Uniqueness of her dramatic vision and her artistic excellence are also incorporated in the present study. Keywords: Culture, Knowledge, Caste, Community, exploitation. Mahasweta Devi is one of our foremost literary personalities, a prolific and best-selling author in Bengali of short fiction and novels; a deeply political social activist who has been working with and for tribals and marginalized communities like the landless labourers of eastern India for years; the editor of a quarterly, Bortika, in which the tribals and marginalized peoples themselves document grass root-level issues and trends; and a socio-political commentator whose articles have appeared regularly in the Economic and Political Weekly, Frontier and other journals. Mahasweta Devi has made important contributions to literary and cultural studies in India. Her empirical research into oral history as it lives in the cultures and memories of tribal communities was a first of its kind. Her powerful, haunting tales of exploitation and struggle have been seen as rich sites of feminist discourse by leading scholars. Her innovative use of language has expanded the conventional borders of Bengali literary expression. Standing as she does at the intersection of vital contemporary questions of politics, gender and class, she is a significant figure in the field of socially committed literature. Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, to literary parents. Her father Manish Ghatak was a well- known poet and novelist of the Kallol era and mother Dharitri Devi was also a writer and a social worker. Mahasweta Devi's schooling was in Dhaka, but after the partition of India she moved to West Bengal and thereafter joined Vishvabharti University in Shantiniketan and completed B.A. (Hon's) in English and M.A. in English at Calcutta 37 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 41-46 Masculinity, War and the Politics of Ethnic Identity: A Study of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner - Mriganka Sekhar Sarma Abstract: This paper explores the proximity between masculinity and war, and examines how these two concepts are related to the politics of ethnicity-based identity through a study of Khaled Hosseini's debut novel, The Kite Runner. The novel portrays the plight of the various marginalised sections in the war-ravaged Afghanistan. However, a close reading of the novel exposes the novelist's complicity in the hegemonic order which has perpetuated the exploitation of the marginalised, and the novel's consequent failure to offer any alternative to the violent, exploitative space, created by masculinity and war. Keywords: Masculinity, War, Ethnicity, Khaled Hosseini There is a dialectical relationship between masculinity and war. War creates a fertile ground for the flourishment of the masculine traits. Similarly, an over glorified masculinity prepares the ground for war. Khaled Hosseini, the Afghanistan-born American novelist's debut novel, The Kite Runner (2003) can be read as an interesting case study for exploring this relationship between masculinity and war. Hosseini's novel also reflects how the concepts of masculinity and war are closely related to the politics of ethnicity-based identity. The Kite Runner depicts the victimisation of ethnic minorities, women and children in a war-ravaged, male-dominated society. However, Hosseini's novel cannot be considered as a radical critique of the dominant, exploitative order. By portraying the ethnic minorities and women in stereotypical terms as weak and passive, and as almost absent figures, the novelist reinforces the same ideological presuppositions which help the racist, patriarchal society to maintain its hegemony over the marginalized. The Kite Runner encapsulates a very turbulent period of modern Afghan history, starting with the overthrow of monarchy and invasion of the Soviets, and ending with the rise of the Taliban. The novel intertwines the personal life of Amir, the son of an wealthy Afghan businessman with the violent political events of the twentieth-century Afghanistan. In the early part of the novel, Amir is shown enjoying a fun-filled childhood in the company of Hassan, the son of the family's long-time, trusted servant, Ali. However, Amir shares a tensed relationship with his father, whom he calls “Baba”. Though Amir constantly seeks the attention and affection of Baba, he feels neglected. Baba is often critical of Amir since he considers the latter as weak and effeminate. The tension in the father-son relationship eases a bit when Amir wins the kite-fighting tournament. However, Amir's happiness after the win lasts only for a few moments since his relationship with Hassan 41 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 47-56 Free Will vs. Determinism: An Existential Reading of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland - A. Sharada & N. Usha Abstract: The 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in U.S.A, was a kind of inflection point in American history. Many Americans, who had been led by the illusion of American power and global reach and enjoyed a sense of invincibility, were shattered, as they began to sense the precarious nature of their existence. Confronted by a bleak prospect of the world, they felt compelled to put behind them their naïve optimism and simplistic dichotomies with which they had been accustomed to view the world. Post 9/11 traumatic phase, was a period of deep introspection for Americans as they began to confront the tragic nature of their existence. Lacan had once said, “… the philosopher`s cognito is at the centre of the mirage that renders modern man so sure of being himself even in his uncertainties about himself” (Ecrits, p.167). Written in an existential vein, Lahiri's The Lowland (2013), holds a special appeal for the twenty-first century readers, as it dwells on modern man's perplexity in the face of a major personal. Though the backdrop for most of the story is mid twentieth century India and America, the historical context of The Lowland is very contemporary as Lahiri engages with some of the dominant ideological discourses of our time. Keywords: Free will, Determinism, Existentialism, Consciousness, Quietism. Introduction: As a new school of thought, existentialism emerged in the years following World War II. It stressed on an individual's capacity to act autonomously in accordance with his own desires and interest. The chief proponent of the school, Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) says “Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself” (1948, p.24). This central tenet, “existence precedes essence” aims at resolving one of the oldest dilemmas related to human freedom and determinism. It attempts to understand the human condition in the world by taking into account the subjective states of a human, i.e. anxiety, alienation, and awareness of death. Man is not a prefabricated being; his life should not be understood as predetermined or as unfolding of an essence that persists through time. The Lacanian view posits, if there is any essence it is precisely “the lack of essence” (Chaitin, 196). Lacan, the psychoanalyst would also say, knowledge of the world to a large extent involves knowledge of the conditions of our mind. Sartre concedes, there are certain a priori limits which outline man's fundamental situation in the universe; his necessity to exist in the world, be at work there, be in the midst of other people, be mortal, etc. However, these “existential aspects” (a term used by Heidegger) are universal and transcendental. They do not prevent men 47 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 57-68 Some Traits of Human Psyche and the Attainment of Moksha/Mukti in Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala: Play with a Cobra and Flowers: A Dramatic Monologue - Abhinandan Malas Abstract: Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala: Play with a Cobra and Flowers: A Dramatic Monologue provide the reader with immense opportunities to explore the human psyche from various perspectives. Since Indian history, society, myths and folktales play a huge role in forming the background of Karnad's plays; therefore, a researcher finds it more comfortable to explore the Indian psyche in Karnad's characters. In both these plays the concept of Indian psyche plays an important role in sketching out the human unconscious and without which Freud's theory of unconscious remains incomplete in this regard. While Naga-Mandala depicts the feminine desires Flowers displays the various traits and consequences of the male sexual instincts. But, in both the plays, the theme does not remain confined within the sexual instincts of the unconscious and develops into an incident that makes the individual realize the freedom of the spirit and the devotion to God. My research paper focuses on Karnad's presentation of the human unconscious in Girish Karnad's two plays Naga-Mandala and Flowers. This paper attempts to highlight the basic traits of human psyche that add to the general concept of human unconscious propounded by Sigmund Freud and make it easier for us to understand the working of this unconscious when placed against the backdrop of Indian myth and folktales. My paper also focuses on the concept of Moksha and Mukti that seem to become the ultimate goal of the individual and which get manifested in different ways to bring to the subject a sense of relief, satisfaction and emancipation in these two plays. Keywords: Human Psyche, Unconscious, Shiva Linga, Mandala, Moksha, Mukti, Female and Male Desires, Myth, Folktales, Freedom. A psychoanalytical reading of Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala: Play with a Cobra and Flowers: A Dramatic Monologue provides us with enough scope and opportunity to explore and understand the human unconscious that stores the psychic energy and motivates it to flow through various levels of human psychology and enables the subject to realize the pleasure through fantasy and avoid the pain through repression thus empowering him or her with the ability to keep the libido and other instinctive desires in check. Karnad's subjects become the very battleground over which reality and fantasy lay their claim. In both the plays Freud's pleasure-principle and reality principle come into a serious conflict which is manifested and executed through the phallic object 57 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 69-78 Media and Practices of Mediation: Role of Activist Documentary Films in Indian Mediasphere - Sudhir Kumar Pandey & Manjari Johri Abstract: After the Second World War, there has been a significant increase in the production of documentary films. It comes under the category of non-fiction films, because it engages with the reality of the present time. Films in general and non-fiction films in particular have always been a popular source of communication. This paper explores the role of activist-documentary films in the present Indian socio- political environment. As a communication tool, it is well known that in the moment of social crisis; films, magazines, and television become a significant medium. Particularly, in the post-modern era, popular texts such as film, television and newspapers work as a mediating agency which reveals the system-supporting ideologies. Keywords: activist documentary films, cultural texts, mediating agency, system-supporting ideologies. The present paper deliberates on the intersection of cultural texts and social change through activist documentary films. Unlike the fiction films, an activist documentary film uses camera as a tool for social justice in terms of production, as well as, distribution. Its unique feature is the use of citizens as content and medium. It employs sound and image to capture and demonstrate strikes, protests, and harsh realities of the time. Consequently, it creates an organization of citizens into instrumental public— the mass audience. What is a Documentary Film: The Definition?; A documentary film epitomizes the real world. Veracity is the crux of a documentary film. However, there has been a debate over the definition of documentary film, whether it is the 'creative treatment of actuality' as Grierson puts it. Grierson is believed to be the first one who used the term 'documentary' for the first time. John Grierson, in First Principles of documentary, states that 'the French who first used the term only meant travelogue (p.19)'. For Grierson the distinguishable point of documentary films is the natural material of which it is made. He defines the nature and functions of documentary in three ways: first is that documentary photographs the living scenes and the living story; second native actor and native scenes add up to the originality which further provides 'a greater fund of material; and the third is that 'the raw material' and 'spontaneous gesture' have more real and screen value. It seems that for Grierson camera occupies the central position. Nonetheless, this definition has been criticized and modified by the documentary scholars; it is one of the most famous definitions till date. 69 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 79-90 Reviewing Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish: An Exploration of the Issues of Adaptation and Gender- crisis in Rituparno Ghosh's 2012-Film - Arundhati Tarafdar Abstract: Gender studies has spread its wings and has taken a flight to a horizon of various possibility. Though it started with 'Feminism', but with passing of time the term 'Queer' has been tagged with it. This paper gives a glimpse of a gay, who fights vigorously with his inner and outer self, fights with society and himself in search one's 'self'. This paper is a juxtaposition of the issue of 'Adaptation' and the fight of a gay personality in a society, where 'gay' and 'lesbian' are mere words taken as taboo or as mere psychological disorders. Keywords: Section 377 of Chapter XVI, postmodern 21st century literature, 'Visva-sahitya' and 'Weltliteratur', my choice, androgynous, nrityanatya, adaptation. Foreword:

“My body, my mind, my choice; […] My choice. To love temporarily or to last forever; [...] My choice.To love a man, or a woman, or both; […] My choices are like my finger prints, they make me unique; […] I am the Universe, Infinite in every direction. This is MY choice” – Deepika Padukone 1 Even before specific explanations by the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, wishes and desires have been considered by intellectuals and common people alike to be an integral part of the workings of the human psyche. The supreme importance of wishes and individualism has also been upheld in the definition of the 'Fundamental Rights' in the Constitution of India, which guarantee civil liberties to Indian citizens. These liberties champion individual rights by including under their 79 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 91-99 Women in Purdah: Representation of Indian Women in Women's Travel Writing in Colonial India - Nurjahan Begum Abstract: Representation of Indian women is one of the most significant aspects of nineteenth century travel writing. The purdah (seclusion) aroused great curiosities among colonizers and was often the subject of numerous fantasies and speculations. Almost all the women travel writers in their narratives have extensively discussed the secluded life of Indian women. As women had privileged access to Indian households, their values were of paramount significance in forming popular opinion about women in India. In fact, stories of the harems are the most desired information in most travel writing of the nineteenth century. This paper is an attempt to look at the projection of life of Indian women in the harem by women travel writers in Colonial India, that is, to study the trajectories of everyday life that both these writers highlights in their travelogues. The texts chosen for analysis are –– Anne Elwood's Narratives of a Journey Overland (1830), Fanny Parks' Wanderings of a Pilgrim in search of the Picturesque (1850), and Mary Billington's Woman in India (1895). Keywords: Representation, Harem, Seclusion, Women's Travel writing, Colonial India I The aim of this paper is to examine the representation of Indian women in the zenana in women's travel writing in colonial India. British women working as journalists (for example Mary Billington), tourists (for example Fanny Parks), social reformers (for example Mary Carpenter), missionaries (for example Sara Tucker) as well as those in the roles of mothers, wives, daughters and sisters played an important part in establishing and forwarding the imperial project and in writing about that project from their own different perspectives. It is noteworthy that the gender of the author plays a vital role in shaping the way s/he views foreign culture. The purdah aroused great curiosities among colonizers and was often the subject of numerous fantasies and speculations. With women alone having access to the zenana, their writings became an important source of information about zenana life. For the British women travel writers, one of the most remarkable aspects of Indian women's lives was its preoccupation with the purdah, which was subject to numerous fantasies, curiosities and myth-making, creating a divide between the observers and the observed. Almost all the western women travel writers have included discussions on the life of Indian women in a zenana/harem. The texts chosen for analysis are –– Anne Elwood's Narratives of a Journey Overland (1830), Fanny Parks' Wanderings of a 91 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 100-106 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Magical Realism and the Creation of a Feminist Space in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye - Vijay Kumar Rai Abstract: In this paper it is my intention firstly to introduce and discuss the genre or mode called magical realism. Secondly I intend to analyse the text The Bluest Eye by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. I plan to examine how this text fits into the tradition of magical realism. The mode has been considered to be a subversive literary movement in the postcolonial regions or the world and I intend to investigate whether this nature of subversiveness has survived in the hands of this Black- American author. The novel has been very successful and i will examine whether it can be considered as containing subversive elements in it from a feminist point of view or is it merely representation of how marginal phenomena tend to move from the side lines to the centre. Keywords: Magic Realism, Subversiveness, Feminist Space. Magic realism is basically a postmodern mode, which has the subversive nature and therefore feminism has acquired a space by shifting margins to the centre in it. Its a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment. On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting. Professor Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as, "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe." The term "magic realism" first appeared in the context of art. The German art critic Franz Roh used it to describe the work of post-Expressionist artists in the mid 1920s (Baker). To Roh, magical realism (or Magischer Realismus) was a way of reacting to reality and pictorially representing the mysteries inherent in it (Chanady, 17). The term migrated across the Atlantic Ocean, and in Latin America in the nineteen-forties it became a means of expressing the authentic American mentality and developing an autonomous literature for the continent. This has been commonly referred to as the Latin American Boom of magical realism. Irene Guenther speculates that the effect of the Second World War might have been crucial for the migration of the term since many cultural luminaries travelled from Europe to South American in the wake of those events (61). After the appearance of Angel Flores' article on magical realism in 1955, the term became a concept in literary criticism and has been applied to authors who have adopted certain themes and techniques in their writing. Luis Leal also goes about explaining magical realism: 100 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 107-110 Julia Kristeva's “semiotic chora” and its Subversive Potential - Sonal Singhvi Choudhary Abstract: Julia Kristeva considers “Poetry” to be “the privileged site of analysis”. This statement of Kristeva is one that is loaded with meaning as she draws upon the relationship between gender and language. Adhering to the Poststructural theory, she begins with the premise that gender difference dwells in language which is our tool for applying meaning to the world. Kristeva is indebted to the poststructural psychoanalyst Lacan for her theory of poetry because she believes that the site at which psychological subjugation takes place and can be investigated is “language”. Kristeva differs from Lacan in that she reveals a “semiotic dimension” of language which exhibits a new poetic maternal linguistic practice”. This paper attempts to analyze the concept of the “semiotic” dimension of language as proposed by Julia Kristeva, and how this new poetic maternal linguistic practice gives women a voice in the phallocentric language of the “symbolic” order. Keywords: gender, language, psychoanalysis, semiotic, symbolic, phallocentric. The paradoxical task of voicing the silence that has enveloped women and their predicament for centuries is only possible if women write from their own perspective. “Serious literature”, says Shashi Deshpande in her essay “Writing from the Margin”, “is supposed to be written by men about men; when women write, it is never regarded as just 'writing', it is always 'women's writing'”. So when a woman writes, she cannot be just a writer, she is always a woman writer. Deshpande raises the very pertinent question in this essay, “Why is women's writing, specially when it deals with women's lives, considered to be both insignificant and marginal? What confers the badge of inferiority on women's writing? Why do we have so many men disclaiming any interest in a woman's work? Are women's lives and their works of interest only to other women? The answer she says lies in the history of women. We live in a patriarchal society, a patriarchal culture, which is in every way a man's world. The laws, customs, practices and beliefs are therefore all designed to suit male needs. So when women write from a female perspective it is considered “minor”, “inferior”, and “trivial”. “Marginalization begins here, for with this label one is steadily edged away from the group of writers in general”(Deshpande 145). Very rarely have women been encouraged to express themselves because in many respects women's lives, and experiences have been assumed to be normative. Even if women's writing was acknowledged it was done if it was in line with men's perspective. Activities which occur in public are coined “important,” while private life and feelings are less important. Even if women's writing was acknowledged it was done if it was in line with men's perspective. And as 107 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 111-117 Western Influence in Queen – A Critical Study - Ranveer Abstract: Western culture with its different ingredients has greatly influenced the film Queen. It is visible in the title, setting, story and characters of the film. The rediscovery of Rani, the leading character of the film is not something brought about because of her brief interaction with western culture and atmosphere but as a result of her evolved inner strength. Other characters are variously affected by this western influence. Contradicting the popular belief concerning liberating influence of western culture, most of these characters remain shackled in their narrow prejudices despite remaining in touch with it (western culture) for long. Keywords: Western influence, Culture, Rediscovery, Interaction, Intervention, Inner strength. Considering the success and wide critical acclaim received by the movie 'Queen' it is beyond doubt that director Vikas Bahl must have put a considerable thought and research into its making. There have been a number of movies, which could become successful because of a foreign and exotic setting in addition to other vital ingredients warranting this success. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ), Aa Ab Laut Chalein, Pardesh, Love Aaj Kal and English Vinglish are some of the names that prove the point. The filmmaker must have been enamored with adding the element of foreignness and exotica keeping in mind the earlier trend. John Desmond Bernal, famous scientist and writer observes in his essay The World, the Flesh & the Devil (1929): “the present aristocracy of western culture, at the moment when it most clearly dominates the world, is being imitated rapidly and successfully in every eastern country”. As far as this film is concerned this imitation is evident in more than one ways – from the selection of the title to the setting of the film and from story to selection of characters. The demand of the story of this movie made it easier for the director to find a suitable foreign location for the planned honeymoon of the planned marriage. We just cannot question the choice of Paris and Amsterdam, the two hottest destinations for honeymoon goers who can afford. We cannot even blame the director for not choosing any other beautiful location in India as Vijay, the would- be-groom, a London return must have a lot to spend. Our (Indians') mindset and colonial attitude of attributing all the charm, goodness and wonder with everything foreign, particularly the West, must have also been taken care of by the director. Then the story, having hardly any elements of the so-called formula of masala movies, required to have something of the exotica and foreignness to compensate. The choice of 111 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 118-123 Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love: Writing a Self-The Female Voice - Papri Sultana Abstract: In the novel The Map of Love, Ahdaf Soueif has portrayed a living picture of a society where women are conquering the time and space boundary. The bonding among women of different generations and land are exposed throughout the novel. This novel concerns about the comprehensibility of women among each other. Paperno (2004) says, “scholars (…) can be judged based on their ability to deal with diaries, which calls for attention to the form (or genre), context, and individual subject simultaneously (573)”. These women, from this perspective, are truly scholar as they have well dealt with the diaries and have got the interpretation of their ancestor's life along with their own. It is difficult for a person to be aware of all the movements taking place within her; and it is of course inaccessible to external observers. A person pays attention to only some aspects of this stream. And a person can only provide some aspects of this stream to others. This paper gives us the impression of such linguistic and emotional reading; and the capability of interpretations of other women and self. This paper focuses on the power of understanding and comprehensibility of women and expression of women. It also discusses the reason, why it has been done through the use of diary and letters conquering the emotion, generations and time. Keywords: Diary, letters, expression, comprehensibility, relationship, feeling, thought, self and other. Though not often taught in English literature courses, in Bangladesh, Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love is an especially valuable text for exploring female gender issues. Living away from her beloved husband along in London she has spent a long time; from that time of her life until her death, Anna wrote constantly. However, most of her writing is not only about the life she is living or experiencing but also about what is occurring outside there in the war. She has also written about the impact of these wars in her life. We have seen how she has lost her first husband, Edward in the war of Sudan. Though he came back live from there, he was not healthy. He imprisoned himself and it was not very long that he lived after he was back from Sudan. Anna also lost her second husband, Sharif, in a bomb blast in Egypt. In The Map of Love, the reader witnesses the unfolding of female self as Anna navigate from the known life of her youth and comfort of companionship towards a much more complex female persona of self-questioning and self-censorship. Freud has designed of a psychoanalytical setting which is meant to facilitate the externalization of the stream of thought. In this process, the person lies down and talks to an unseen analyst sitting behind her. This is meant to lower her level of self-consciousness which helps her to express as closely

118 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 124-127 Indian Womanhood: A Picture of Freedom and Fear in R.K. Narayan's The Dark Room - Prashant Mahajan & Pragyaa Gupta Abstract: This paper is an attempt to study freedom and fear in the women characters of the novel, The Dark Room. Here, Narayan draws the poignant picture of a middle class south Indian domesticity run by an irritable husband. It is a tale of a tormented wife, Savitri. She is a true symbol of traditional Indian womanhood. Keywords: R.K. Narayan, Indian Womanhood, Domesticity. R.K. Narayan is one of the greatest of Indian writers of English. He occupies remarkable position among the top ranking Indian novelists in English, for his great achievements. About the writings of the novel in India as a literary phenomenon, K.R.S. Iyengar says: For the novel, properly so called, we have to wait till the latter half of nineteenth century when the Western impact on India's cultural front has resulted among other things in the development of formal written prose in the regional languages, first as a financial and presented as an artistic medium. (314) R.K. Narayan is the most artistic of the Indian writers; his sole aim begins to give aesthetic satisfaction, and not to use his art as a medium to serve some social purpose. He gives the reader a picture that strikes him as typical of everyday reality. His picture of life is always true to facts. The Dark Room, published in 1938, is the third novel of R.K. Narayan, which did not receive much appreciation. It is entreated only on the plight of women locked up within the confines of an orthodox society. In the novel there are many interesting aspects as the concept of Indian atmosphere and reality. But this paper is an attempt to study freedom and fear in the women characters of the novel. In the novel, Narayan draws the poignant picture of a middle class south Indian domesticity run by an irritable husband. It is a tale of a tormented wife, Savitri. Ramani, the office secretary of Engladia Insurance Company, is very domineering in his ways, and hence governs his home according to his own sweet will. Savitri is a true symbol of traditional Indian womanhood. All goes well, till there arrives at the scene a beautiful lady, Shanta Bai, who is able to seduce Ramani. Ramani is attracted by her beauty. This upsets the peace of his domestic life, till seeing no way of correcting her husband, Savitri revolts against him and leaves the house to commit suicide. She goes to the river and throws herself into it. But the blacksmith, Mari, saves her. Persuaded by Mari's wife Ponni, she goes to their village and lives upon an independent living of her own by working in temple. The feeling of home

124 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 128-132 Search for Identity and Independence in A House for Mr. Biswas - Swarupananda Chatterjee Abstract: This article tries to explore the different struggles of the protagonist, in Naipaul's The House for Mr. Biswas to achieve his aim in a diasporic world of West Indies. Keywords: Diasporic fiction, Identity, colonization. Among the issues, then, treated in A House for Mr. Biswas is the problem of geographical uprooting of peoples and the results of culture contact. Each uprooting brings a farther weakening of traditional forces- a problem faced by all racial groups in the west Indies and which raises the constant dilemma of identity -Maureen Warner Lewis (102) V.S. Naipaul was born is an age the principle doctrine of which was composed of dislocation and rootlessness. The works of many famous writers of that age was prevailed by a sense of alienation, isolation and the crisis of identity. V.S. Naipaul was a descendant of an Indian emigrant to Trinidad. He had a strong revulsion towards the multiracial character of the society of Trinidad and as well as to his caste-ridden Hindu heritage. So he had a destabilized ethnic-identity and simultaneously the subconscious anxiety of enslavement of the family of an indentured labour. This created in his pen a strong desire for a stable identity and independence. The protagonist of his magnum opus A House for Mr. Biswas –Mr. Mohun Biswas-suffers from spiritual and existential colonization and his character portrays a rebel's struggle for freedom and a dignified identity. This article tries to explore the different struggles of the protagonist to achieve his aim in a diasporic world of West Indies. Mr. Biswas was born is an unpropitious moment with a deformity of being six-fingered. His desire for a secure, private space called home leads him to a life-long struggle. He is actually an ugly, Comic, improper yet venerable, jeopardized yet undaunted man. But in spite of these he becomes the unusual hero of A House for Mr. Biswas mainly for his being the quintessential 'everyman'. He has limited capabilities and resources nevertheless with his indomitable spirit he fights his best to establish his dignity and identity. His struggle to achieve a permanent home is an exposure of his search for freedom and identity to retain his individuality. Mr. Biswas's sense of homelessness and subserviency, the subject of this paper, is inherited by him from his preceding generations who had migrated from India to the West Indian World of Trinidad. He lost his father in his early childhood. So he had to live a life of dishonor and his self-respect as well as his identity is threatened at every moment from his first encounter with the outside world of adversity up to his premature death with a burden of debt.Y et finally he gains a house of his own though 128 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 133-138 Feminism in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande - Rashmi Jain Abstract: Feminism is a movement or call for liberation of women from certain forms of gender based discrimination which deprives women of opportunities of self promotion and equality. Shashi Deshpande a Sahitya Akademi awardee explores suppression, domination and restrictions on women at every step of life but when self realization dawns upon them, it gives voice, a hope to the protagonist. Her novels like That Long Silence, The Dark Holds no Terror, Roots and Shadows, A Matter of Time, Binding Vine and others express feministic views. Indu of Roots and Shadows, Jaya of That Long Silence and Saru of The Dark Holds no Terror exhibits the position of women in India. They are educated but stress on education is only to get a good match for them. It is expected from them to be a good daughter, wife, daughter - in- law but nobody cares for the real person in them. The inner struggle and suffering of new middle class women is exposed. Their alienation and question of identity is evoked. Towards the climax all the three protagonist i.e. Indu, Jaya and Saru revolts against the conventions of society to assert their identity and individuality. Keywords: Feminism, Patriarchy, identity, alienation, self-realization Feminism is a movement or call for liberation of women from certain forms of gender based discrimination which deprives women of opportunities of self promotion and equality. The epoch-making work of Feminism is Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of rights of Women and Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex. Indian novelists were influenced by western movement of feminism and tried to project feminine emotions, sentiments and consciousness in their works. Shashi Deshpande a Sahitya Akademi awardee explores suppression, domination and restrictions on women at every step of life and their searching for individual identity. When self realization dawns upon them, they break all the bondages and silence which also showcases a glimpse of hope. Her important works includes That Long Silence, The Dark Holds no Terror, Roots and Shadows, A Matter of Time, Binding Vine and others. Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence, The Dark Holds no Terror, Roots and Shadows exposes the patriarchal social system in India which refers to the autocratic rule of male head in the family and subordination of female. Sociologist Sylvia Walby has designed six overlapping structure to define patriarchy “that takes different forms in different cultures and different times: First the state: women are unlikely to have formal power and representation. Second, the household: women are more likely to do the house work and raise the children. Third, Violence: women are more prone to being abused. Fourth, Paidwork : women are likely to be paid less. Fifth, Sexuality: women's sexuality is more likely to be treated 133 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 139-145 Songs of Baul A Strategic Essentialism Surrogates over The 19th Century Hegemonized Societal Format - Auritra Munshi Abstract: Bauls, an esoteric group of people vacillating from place to place having no cultural moorings is totally different in terms of their attire and attitude which invariably essentialises the otherness of them. The essence of their activity is to strive for the ultimate reality which can be achieved by self-realisation having a close rapport with sahajiya principle redolent with Tagorian concept of Monermanush. Though owing to their grotesque nature of exposing voices they have been categorized as Samprodai or heretic but still they tried to topple such discursive metaphor with a great resistance to the socalled colonial induced Bhadralok or babu sampraday who sought to occlude their voices by representing the Bauls. But bauls have forged their alternative voices against the hegemonic social formations. Keywords: Baul songs, subaltern; everyday resistance, hegemony, Permanent Settlement and colonial Bengal The Bauls belong to the lower ranks of both the Hindus and Muslim communities of Bengal and they are composed partly of the householders and mainly of wandering mendicants. The word 'Baul' with its hindi variant 'Baur' may be variously derived. It may be derived from the Sanskrit word 'vatula' (affected by wind diseases i.e., crazy), from 'Vyakula' (impatiently eager). Both these derivations are consistent with the apparent lifestyle of the Bauls which denotes a group of inspired mystics with an ecstatic eagerness for a spiritual life beyond the shackles of scriptures and religious institutions. The name 'Baul', as also its cognate form 'Aul' can well be associated also with the Arabic word 'awliya'(Plural of 'wali', a word originally meaning 'near' which is used for 'friend' or 'devotee') that refers to a group of perfect mystics. Bauls actually debunk the institutional religion where natural piety of soul is eclipsed by the useless paraphernalia of ritualism and ceremony on the one hand and pedantry and hypocrisy on the other. 'Ulto sadhan 'or reverse journey becomes the motto of their lives which actually denotes their wistful lingering to realize their own selves which is 'sahajiya' or inborn in nature. So they sing 'Reverse are the modes and manners | Of the man who is a real lover | Of the true emotional life. ' So to return to ones ownself or sahajiya is the natural path to attain ultimate reality. To conform to the emotional approach of the bauls, the sahaja or the ultimate reality has gradually been transformed into a

139 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 146-150 Widows and Women: Soueif's Presentation of Women and Widows in The Map of Love - Mir Mohammad Tonmoy Abstract: In her novel The Map of Love, Ahdaf Soueif has created women and widow characters with a better understanding that a writer could ever do. Generally widows are thought to be a kind of stereotype who always mourn the loss of their husband. They are also expected not to have any other feelings and desires. But in Soueif's writing there is empathy and sympathy for these women. For her widows are similar alike other women. According to her novel, they have equal independence and right to live there life as much as other women have. That is why all prominent characters of this novel, The Map of Love, are women. These women characters are created with as much diversity as possible. These women characters are considerate and concerned about each other. They have a kind of bonding with the writer as well. However, Soueif has tried to establish the women's and widow's place in the society through the novel. Keywords: women, inherence, sympathy, society, bonding Ahdaf Soueif'sThe Map of Love, is one of her prominent piece of writings where we see insightful representation of women. This gives us an opportunity to perceive women in the society with a wider range of prospect. Soueif has focused on the condition of women from multicultural zone. She has also put up the position of women in the society and their expectations and dissatisfaction. She has also talked about the social desire and personal desire and their ultimate achievement. In this novel, she particularly focuses on women in widowhood. Two prominent characters of this novel Anna Winterbourne and Amal go through widowhood. Widows are viewed as suspect in all culture because they do not conform to patriarchal idea of the standard women. According to this ideology they are the women who have lost their husband and also lost all rights to live their lives. They are not supposed to have any feelings or desires anymore. They are just expected to invisible to society and yet submissive to the patriarchal laws and regulations. As Kehler comments: But like their real-life counterparts, literary widows regardless of age are inherently embedded within a specific and individual set of political, social, and economic circumstances. Ideological preceptors, whether in the name of morality or decorum, were prone to ignore the particular circumstances that each widow faced. Rather, they lay down rules and made value judgments as if widows were a monolithic abstraction.(2) To show how similar the patriarchal ideology is in all countries and culture Ahdaf Soueif has created most of her writing on the contact zone. 146 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 151-159 Indian Youth Perceptions and attitudes towards Homosexuality - A Qualitative Study - Ruhi Jadhav Abstract: Homosexuality has existed for generations in the human society yet normative culture legitimizes only heterogeneous sexuality while homosexuality or bisexuality are deemed as an aberration. With the Indian society being predominantly homophobic and political persuasion being highly contingent upon 'public sentiment', understanding attitudes and sentiments of the people, particularly the youth, toward homosexuality becomes an important aspect in analyzing resistance or acceptance of homosexuals in our society. The overarching objective of this micro-level study is to explore the Indian youth perceptions and attitudes toward homosexuality. This research into the broad theme of homosexuality was attempted as a qualitative study to be able to do a fine grained thematic analysis as a way of developing deeper appreciation of the content. Keywords: homosexuality, youth, Indian society 1.1 Introduction: Adolescence is that period of time of emerging sexuality where one's feelings, identities and behaviors become more pronounced. Homosexualism is a behavior or a phenomenon in which persons of the same sex are attracted or have sexual relations with each other. Such a behavior has existed for generations in the human society yet normative culture legitimizes only certain a sexuality (heterogeneous) while others such as homosexuality or bisexuality are deemed as an aberration. We perceive ourselves to be living in an era of heightened self-awareness and individualism, and yet when a certain section of society with non-heterosexual feelings, identities, or behaviors choose to conform to their sexual orientation we create an unwelcoming environment for them. American Psychological Association reports that “verbal harassment and abuse are nearly universal experiences among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and that discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in employment and housing appears to remain widespread” 1. Such discrimination and unequal treatment calls into question the notion of natural rights or more appropriately, human rights. Homosexual intercourse in India was treated as an offence, punishable by law, under the Indian Penal Code 1860 until 2009 when this law was struck down by the Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court judges commented that the 148 year old ban that denied gay rights was an “affront to human dignity” and that “it cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual.” 2 Although the lift

151 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 160-165 Post-colonialism and Indian Literature - Farhana Sayeed Abstract: The purpose of this research paper is to highlight the importance of Indian tradition and culture in response to the Macaulay's Minutes on Indian Education in 1835 (period of colonization) by taking the examples from Bhatrhari's Vakyapadiya, Bharat's Natyasastra, Bhamaha's Kavyalankara etc. It would not be exaggeration if we say that a single shelf of Indian classics is worth the whole European literature.It is debated that post-colonialism provides a means of defiance by which any exploitative and discriminative practices, regardless of time and space, can be challenged. The paper discusses various experiences of anti-slavery and anti-colonial movements in India comprising the development of post-colonialism. The paper consists of a section where in a discussion of the elements that functioned as justification of humanitarianism, democracy and culture in colonial and post-colonial India in context of linguistic colonialism through several eminent texts of Indian writers, followed by a reflection on the concept of “hybrid identities”. Keywords: Post-Colonialism, Indian literature, Macaulay's minutes on Indian Education. In order to define Post-Colonialism it is necessary to understand Colonialism first. Colonialism is the establishment, upholding, possession and extension of colonies in one terrain by people from another terrain. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are altered by colonizers from the metropole. Colonialism is a set of lopsided relationships between the metropolis and the colony; and between the colonists and the indigenous population. Most of the indigenous people were oppressed and enslaved by the ruling power. At the same time, they were forced to give up their cultural heritage and to assimilate the colonizers' culture. This strategy, which is also known as culture colonization, was supposed to manipulate the colonized people's minds. Most of the colonial powers tried to integrate their language, the major aspect of their civilised culture, in foreign societies. Language and literature have always been used as a powerful tool by colonisers in the process of colonisation. For example, in India the Aryans and Moghuls came to the sub-continent; established their rule and settled down over the area for a long time. Both the Aryans and the Moghuls produced their literature in their own languages like the Vedas, the Upanishads, etc in Sanskrit. In fact, the Moghuls created a new language, Urdu, in this sub- continent. Though they colonized at the beginning and settled down in India. Did their literature sustain its impact? Similarly the British and the other Europeans like French and Portugese came to India as colonizers 160 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 166-171 Social-Economic Conditions of The Contemporary Deori Women of Assam in India - Guptajit Pathak Abstract: IDifferent Studies on women's questions now exist all over the globe. These issues have newly caught the concentration of many and have expanded impact in the academy through student and faculty activism. A variety of issues interrelated to women have been evolving in the feminist movement in India from the demand of changing socio- economic values and demands. In nineteenth century for the first time the women's issues comes to the front position. Social reformers all over the country explained deep apprehension for women issues for example sati, child marriage, female infanticide, widowhood, purdah, education, polygamy and so on. Different scholars have been focusing critical explanation on women's position in the nineteenth century. From the early twentieth century women's unions began to form and a special category of women activities was constructed. It is noted that from the first decades of the twentieth century, the verbalization of women's topics was based on liberal ideologies of equality in each meadow of society. A mixture of works is going on through out the academia on women's concerns. Although a hub from a verity of viewpoint is needed when we talk of the problems connected to tribal women, as it differs a bit in there nature. While the condition of tribal women in India has been recognized as being better than that of their non tribal counterparts, in actual fact, these meticulous women are deprived of social and economic autonomy in lots of respect. The proposed Research Project is an effort to highlight the different socio- economic conditions of Deori women, who form one of the weakest sections of the society in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Keywords: Contemporary, Deori Women, Assam, India, Ethnic, Tribe Introduction: Deori is one of the foremost ethnic tribes in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The Deori community has its own Society, culture and traditions which are hidden treasures for the Anthropologies, sociologists and the Researchers. The Deoris were originally priests and worshippers and depended mostly on agriculture for their livelihood.In North-East India the Deoris are identified as well civilized people. They have their own language to converse amongst themselves. History states that the Deori language was the original language in the Chutaan kingdom before the reign of the Ahomes in Assam they worship kundi Mana (Shiva-Parvati) and hence fall under Hinduism by default.Deori women contributed whole heartedly towards Society, culture, language, literature and economic status for the making of entire Assamese culture. They have century long culture and tradition. It is important that the Deori women have something more peculiarities which may have been a 166 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 172-183 An Indian English Poem: The Use of Stylistics in Innovative Teaching - Ashok P. Khairnar Abstract: This paper attempts to demonstrate the appreciation procedure of a poem through its critical textual analysis. The stress of the textual scrutiny is on the use of lexical items in a poem. Word classes like adjectives, pronouns and other content classes are analysed in terms of their length, sound pattern and structural design and in respect of the grammatical features like articles, tenses and others. The balanced and parallel constructions and the rhymes are studied minutely. The poem 'Father Returning Home' by Dilip Chitre is a comment on the dull, drab routine of an alien in the city life of Mumbai. This idea is conveyed through the use of the length and completeness of the lines. Various devices have been mathematically assessed in order to display the use of Stylistics in literary appreciation. The paper brings out the fact that mechanics of stylistic analysis enhance the pleasure of enjoying a poem. It is a practical lesson that uses the art and science of stylistics. Keywords: lexical items, stylistics, appreciation, balance, parallelism, structure-length, rhyme, imagery, symbolical suggestiveness, critical analysis, textual scrutiny. Stylistics is a branch of modern linguistics “devoted to the detailed analysis of literary style or of the linguistic choices made by speakers and writers in non- literary contexts”(Baldick 215). Stylistics makes a rigorous and systematic study of the language of a text and enables a reader to appreciate its meaning in its totality. But this basic assumption is often questioned by critics of stylistics. Gower opposes any literary stylistic analysis of literature and he “considers it to be too mechanistic and cerebral in operation and maintains that instead of helping readers appreciate literature, a stylistic analysis actually impedes the whole process of reading and appreciating literature”(Misra 47).But Gower's criticism of the use of literary stylistics in the study of literature is difficult to accept because the analysis of the different parts of a literary text following a literary stylistics model is never an end in itself. On the other hand it enhances the appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of the text. Literary stylistic analysis offers the necessary tools to understand the aesthetic qualities of a text. Lexis is considered as a starting point for the study of the nature of language and a study of the ways lexical items are patterned in a poem offers the reader valuable clues to the meaning of the poem. Stylistic analysis enhances our appreciation of the artistic quality of the poem. The present paper attempts to make stylistic analysis of 'Father Returning Home' by Dilip Chitre. 172 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 184-185 Depiction of Devotional Songs as Borgeets: The Wonder of Assam - Azizur Rahman Sarkar Abstract: While talking about the devotional songs of India we have to talk about the 'Borgeets' of Assam. 'Borgeets' the magnitude of Assam and is the compilation of lyrical songs that are set to specific ragas but not necessarily to any 'Tala'. These songs, composed by Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva in the 15th-16th centuries, are used to begin prayer services in monasteries related with the Ekasaran Naan Dharma. Keywords: Borgeets, Assam, devotional song, Sankardeva, Madhavdeva 'Borgeets' composed by Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva in the 15th-16th centuries, are used to begin prayer services in monasteries related with the Ekasaran Naan Dharma. They go to the range of Music of Assam outer the spiritual background. They are a lyrical strain that eloquent the spiritual feelings of the poets responding to special conditions, and vary from other lyrics connected with the Ekasarana Dharma. Comparable songs composed by others are not generally considered Borgeets. The Borgeets are written in the Pada form of rhyme. The first Pada, noticed as Dhrung, works as desist and is repeated over the path of praying of the following verses. In the last couplet, the name of the poet is normally stated. The construction of Borgeets is said to replica the songs of 8-10th century Charyapada. It is noted that, the first Borgeet was composed by Srimanta Sankardeva for the duration of his first pilgrimage at Badrikashram in c1488, which is contemporary to the birth of Dhrupad in the court of Man Singh Tomar (1486-1518) of Gwalior. The name Borgeet, commonly submits to a particular set of devotional songs. Shankardeva and Madhavdeva highlighted their songs as 'Geet' only. The adjectival prefix 'Bar', sense grand or superior, must have been a later respectful addition by their pious followers, which might stand upon the harmonious splendor of the songs also. Shrimanta Shankardeva, the resourceful genius, even though primarily referred to as the advocate of Vaishnavism in Assam, was fundamentally a community reformer. For the cause of the socio- cultural inequality and immorality that had been crippling the society in the name of religion (Barnashram Dharma and Tantrik Buddhism), he upheld Vaishnavism as a superior option before the human. In this arena, religion was not his chief agenda. He highlighted at changing the society from side to side an inclusive cultural revolution by increasing the art and music of Assam and gave religion as a creative shape by declaring the leading of Shravana and Kirtana among the nine types of Bhakti. Srimanta Sankardeva had his artistic creations, particularly dance, 184 Labyrinth: Volume-6, No.4 October-2015 ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 186-192 Deconstructing the African American Womanhood: A Critical Analysis of the Recalcitrant Black woman in Alice Childress's Wine in the Wilderness - N.Vijayalakshmi & Soumya Jose Abstract: The doubly marginalized African American women are always portrayed as stereotypes in the plays of mainstream playwrights. The real identity of the African American women has been brought to the limelight by the emergence of women playwrights. The present paper makes an attempt to analyse how Alice Childress projects the identity of black women which was unknown to the American society and the world in general. The resilient protagonist springs out as a real African queen and she edifies the myopic African American characters in the play. Keywords: stereotype, marginalization, grass roots, black womanhood, “lost” women The relations between the sexes govern the network of relations in the black community. On the basic union between man and woman rests the cohesion of the family and, more important, the nation. The theatre explores the experience and sentiments of blacks through two poles of sensibility and consciousness, the masculine and the feminine, which create and sustain life. At the core of the conflict of drama lies the contest between man and woman, either as parents or as mutual antagonists or complements. (Fabre 137-38) African American theatre portray the dogged determination, resilience, struggles, marginalization and the “real identity”of the African Americans. The concurrent African American theatre has emerged from the National Black Theatre. National Black Theatre is described as the “Temple of Liberation, designed to preserve, maintain and perpetuate the richness of the black life-style”(qtd in Harris 85). Theatre has always been a medium for the African Americans to express their real entity as opposed to the African American characters portrayed in the plays of mainstream playwrights. The African American women are not given due space in the plays written by African American male playwrights. The emergence of African American women playwrights have given voices and space to the doubly marginalised African American women. The mainstream playwrights have most of the time depicted stereotype black characters. Black women are portrayed as adulteresses, mammies and having an erotic demeanour. African American women playwrights have made an optimum use of theatre as a tool to highlight the “real identity” of the 186 Our Esteemed Contributors Ÿ Bir Singh Yadav, Associate Professor, Department of English, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh, Haryana. Ÿ Sujatha Aravindakshan, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Jazan University, KSA. Ÿ Almee Raza, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Ÿ Muhammed Sobhi Salama, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Jazan University, KSA. Ÿ Krishna Singh, Professor & Head, Department of English and Foreign Languages, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. Ÿ Mriganka Sekhar Sarma, PhD Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi. Ÿ A. Sharada, Associate Professor, Department of English, Vignan University, Vadlamudi, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Ÿ N. Usha, Head of Department of English, Krishna University, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Ÿ Abhinandan Malas, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Shishuram Das College(CU),West Bengal. Ÿ Sudhir Kumar Pandey, Faculty, English and Communication, B.K.M.I.B.A., Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Ÿ Manjari Johri, Assistant Professor, Amity School of Languages, Amity University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Ÿ Arundhati Tarafdar, M.A. Student, Department of English, Central University of Rajasthan, Bandarsindri, Kishangarh, Ajmer, Rajasthan. Ÿ Nurjahan Begum, Research Scholar, Department of English & Foreign Language, Tezpur University (A Central University), Tezpur, Assam. Ÿ Vijay Kumar Rai, Research Scholar, Department of English, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Ÿ Sonal Singhvi Choudhary, Assistant Professor, Department of English Govt. Benazeer Science and Commerce College, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Ÿ Ranveer, Research Scholar, Department of English, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi. Ÿ Papri Sultana, Teaching Assistant, BRAC Institute of Languages, BRAC University, Bangladesh. Ÿ Prashant Mahajan, Department of P.G. Studies and Research in English, Rani Durgavati Vishvavidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

207 208 Labyrinth | Vol.6 No.4 (October 2015) Ÿ Pragyaa Gupta, Department of P.G. Studies and Research in English, Rani Durgavati Vishvavidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. Ÿ Swarupananda Chatterjee, UGC-NET, Assistant Teacher, Pasara Pitulsha High School, Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. Ÿ Rashmi Jain, Research Scholar, Department of English and MEL University of Allahabad, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Ÿ Auritra Munshi, Research scholar, Department of English, University of North Bengal, West Bengal. Ÿ Mir Mohammad Tonmoy, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Southeast University, Bangladesh. Ÿ Ruhi Jadhav, Research Officer B.R. Amedkar Research & Training Institute (BARTI), An Autonomous organization under the Department of Social Justice and Special Assistance, Government of Maharashtra, Pune, Maharashtra. Ÿ Farhana Sayeed, Ph.d Scholar, BPS Mahilavishwavidyala, Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana. Ÿ Guptajit Pathak, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Affiliated to Gauhati University, Guwahati. Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of Women's Studies, Magadh University, Bodh Gaya, Bihar. Ÿ Ashok P. Khairnar, Principal and Head, Department of English, Adarsh College of Arts, Nizampur, Sakri, Dhule, Maharashtra. Ÿ Azizur Rahman Sarkar, Assistant Professor, Department of Assamese, Bilasipara College, Bilasipara, Dhubri. Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of Assamese, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, Bolpur, West Bengal. Ÿ N. Vijayalakshmi, Research Scholar, Department of English, School of Social Sciences and Languages VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Ÿ Soumya Jose, Assistant Professor Department of English, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Ÿ N.D. Dani, Associate Professor, Department of English, Sri Jai Narain Postgraduate College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Ÿ Sayantan Pal Chowdhury, UGC-NET qualified, Assistant Teacher, Siliguri Baradakanta Vidyapith (HS), West Bengal. Ÿ I.K. Sarma, Former Professor & Chairman, Department of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan. Other Esteemed Contributor/s are on the Editorial Board of Labyrinth.