a transdisciplinary biannual research journal Vol. 3 Issue 2 July 2016 Scan QR Code Postgraduate Department of English to read Back Issues Manjeri, Malappuram, Kerala. www.kahmunityenglish.in/journals/singularities/ Chief Editor P. K. Babu., Ph. D Principal D.G.M.M.E.S. Mampad College, Mampad Members: Dr. K. K. Kunhammad, Head & 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. Shahina Mol. A. K. Assistant Professor and Head Department 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 Singularities aspires to be a journal which not just records the researches through publishing, but one which also initiates dialogues and urges involvement. True research writing need to take on the job of intellectually activating untrodden tangents . The Singularities Conferences, envisaged as annual events, are meant to be exercises in pursuing the contemporary and wherever possible to be efforts in leading the contemporary too. Power being a tenet that permeates our lives in umpteen ways, the first Singularities International Conference has chosen that concept as its theme. We are passing through an era in human history in which 'Power' is rampantly reformulated to accommodate partisan principles couched in self serving, sectarian and pseudo-secure terminology. Rather than evolving into a more humanised and democratised version, as many of us would have thought through our humanist simplicity, Power is assuming technological and theological proportions in unimagined ways. This explains why Power has to be dialogued and critiqued in its differing trajectories. The first Singularities International Conference is achieving this goal, as is evident from the conference papers compiled in this first of the two Conference Special Issues. Surveillance to Satyagraha, theyyam to cinema, politics to pornography, Geography to gender - the papers which make up this issue testify to the spread of the unseen filaments of the concept, and the manifold ways in which it affects/effects the ecosystem of cultural pathways. We are happy to present the Singularities Power Conference issue which offers stimulating read in terms of perspectives of power. P. K. Babu., Ph. D Chief Editor Contents 1. Dr. Kunhammed. K. K. 7-11 Dr. Priya K. Nair Interview with Professor Bill Ashcroft 2. P. K. Babu Ph. D. 12-19 Words don't Ever Fit: Travails of Articulation in William Faulkner's Fiction 3. Aysha Swapna. K. A. 20-24 Equating Power and Dependency Paradigm in Jamaica Kincaid's 'A Small Place' 4. N.V. Fatimathu Zuhara 25-29 Genetics – Potential Risk Factor for Type 2 Diabetes in Kerala 5. Krishna Sunder. A. 30-32 Decoding The Power of The Solipsistic Heroes of Nolan : An Analysis of Memento and Insomnia 6. Krishnaja. T. S. 33-37 Power and Sexuality: 'Sex Segregation and Marginalisation of Transgender' as Revealed in A. Revathi's The Truth about Me and S. Balabharathi's Avan–Ath= Aval 7. Priyanka M.C. 38-42 Malevolence Subverted: (Re) Defining Gender Roles in the film, Maleficent 8. Aboobakar. A. 43-48 Space as Power in Orhan Pamuk's Black Book 9. Mariyumma. V. K. 49-54 Retributive Intolerance : Honour, Power and Community in Bela Lal's Novel For Honour 10. Muhammedali. P. 55-59 Dalit Autobiography as Alternative Discourse : A Reading of Satyanarayana's My Father Baliah 11. Shyama Ramsamy 60-67 Srikanth. S. Violence: Site of Postcolonial Resistance in Romesh Gunesekera's Heaven's Edge 12. Dr. Zeenath Mohamed Kunhi 68-73 Power of the Carnivalesque : An Analysis of Arundhati Roy's Select Writings on Neo-imperialism 13. Eldhose. A. Y. 74-80 Neethu Das. K. Transcending the Sexual Binaries : Resistance through Performance in Panmai Theatre's Colour of Trans 14. Rakhi. N. P. 81-84 Mapping India : Nationalism and Tribes in “Douloti the Bountiful” 15. Roshni Prabhakaran 85-90 Gendering Intelligence : Representation of females in The Big Bang Theory 16. Dr. S. Jayalakshmi 91-97 Negotiating Language Competence as a Potential Factor to Wield Knowledge Power in Subject Classes 17. Sakshi Wason 98-101 Re-Visiting Surveillance, Power and Knowledge 18. Sowmya. A. 102-106 Negotiating Marginality through Motherhood in Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age 19. Sunil Kumar Mannil 107-112 Power Pleasure and Body: A Study On The Movie The Taboo 1 20. Shahina Mol. A. K. 113-117 Authoring Vs Authority : Censorship, Trauma and Fugitivity in the Post Dispossession Palestinian Women Writers 21 Sherin K. Rahiman 118-123 From Beautiful to Bold: The Politics Behind the Transition of Disney Princesses from Snow White to Frozen 22. Afsal Jamal. P. 124-128 Bioremediation: Uprooting the Power Dynamics of Ecological Obliteration-Reading Silent Spring 23. Dr. Annie Ninan 129-140 Adolescent Pregnancy Equals Powerlessness 24. Dr. Rajani. R. 141-145 Corn Flower Vs Kalashnikov : The Struggle of a Teenage Girl for Education and Women's Rights : An Analysis of I Am Malala 25. Haris. U. & Dr. V. Kabeer 146-152 The Power of Machines in Automatic Detection of Diseases: A Review on Computer Aided Detection of Breast Cancer in Digital Mammograms Dr. Kunhammed K. K. and Dr. Priya K. Nair Conceptualizing Postcolonial Utopia An Interview Conducted with Professor Bill Ashcroft on the Sidelines of Singularities International Conference on Power Question 1 : Could you tell us something about your present project? I am about to publish a book that deals with Utopianism in Postcolonial literatures. The interesting thing about Utopian studies is that it began in the 1990s when Postcolonialism also took off. But they rarely come together, and Utopian studies has been largely driven by Marxism. It provides a very interesting theoretical approach to the view of the future. I am interested in the way Utopianism is reflected in Postcolonial literatures. Utopianism doesn't mean “pie in the sky”, or Panglossia, or that everything will be ok. They key to Utopianism is the idea that things can be better and it is fundamentally a critique of the present. And this is really significant in Postcolonial Studies. The interesting thing is that the view of the future in the pre-independence period was that the independent nation state would end all problems. But with independence the sombre reality became clear. Nevertheless the concept of hope for the future is what drives Postcolonial literatures and the key to that is the idea that art or literature are themselves Utopian in nature, not because they are optimistic but because they have the capacity to imagine a different world. And that is a fundamental theory of Ernst Bloch, the Jewish Marxist theorist who wrote a book called The Principle of Hope. Although he is a European thinker his work is very appropriate for Postcolonial writers because imaginative literature critiques the present while envisioning what is possible. That hope for the future is operating in Africa, India, the Caribbean the Pacific in Native America. It's being very productive. Q. 2. Isn't the concept of Utopianism linked to your notion of “the excess'? The different kinds of Postcolonial excess? That is indeed a good point. The concept of a possible future is an excess of the present and the notion of excess is extremely potent in Postcolonial literatures. Not just literature but Postcolonial studies of various kinds. Utopia – the idea of the future, the idea that things could be better, the vision of even the impossible. This is the key gift that literature brings us. As well as being very important to postcolonial writing. As we progress from the era of imperialism to neo imperialism, neo Colonialism, globalization and different forms of global corporate control, so postcolonial strategies become equally relevant in a globalised world and thus Utopianism is very important. I am interested in it because most critics have been very down on Utopia, and Utopianism has had a lot of criticism in the 20th Century since utopian political projects inevitably ended up creating dystopias. Yet the theory has flourished in the twentieth century through a combination of Marxism and Science fiction, but in fact what I am doing is changing the scene of Utopian studies as well as the scene of Postcolonial studies. What used to be the fall back position for postcolonial theory were various forms of anti-colonial resistance or opposition. The field is dominated by the idea of resistance. But effective resistance is Dr. Kunhammed K.K is Head & Assistant Professor in English, Kannur University Dr. Priya. K. Nair is Assistant Professor, St. Theresa’s College, Ernakulam 7 Singularities Vol.3 Issue 2 July 2016 ISSN 2348 – 3369 transformative and that idea underpins my book Post-Colonial Transformation. So in a sense the concept of postcolonial Utopianism is a continuation of my theory of transformative resistance. Q. 3. You said once that Utopia occupies a space beyond ideology and you attempt to broach Utopia in the absence of an ideology about the future? One of the most interesting commentators on the distinction between ideology and utopia is the French theorist Paul Ricoeur. He looked at the continuing problem of ideology as a mirror image of utopia. Karl Mannheim wrote Ideology of Utopia but was more interested in ideology than in Utopia. He found himself faced with what has been called 'Mannheim's paradox', the discovery that he couldn't critique ideology from a position outside it. Paul Ricoeur gave a series of lectures in 1976 in which he said that one of the key benefits of Utopia is that it overcomes Mannheim's Paradox: the only way to critique ideology is from a position “nowhere” which is the position of Utopia (or “No Place”).