Literary Voice A Peer Reviewed Journal of English Studies ISSN 2277-4521 Indexed with Web of Science ESCI, Cosmos, ESJI, I2OR, Cite Factor Editor Dr. T.S. Anand Associate Editors Dr. Geeta Bhandari Dr. Charu Sharma Assistant Editor Mrs. Sumedha Bhandari Editorial Board Dr. Harbir S. Randhawa (Dehradun) Dr. Bhagyashree S. Varma (Mumbai) Dr. R.G. Kulkarni (Sangli) Advisory Board Prof. Fakrul Alam (Bangladesh) Prof. John C. Hawley (U.S.A.) Dr. K.B. Razdan (Jammu) Dr. Tejinder Kaur (Patiala) Dr. Pashupati Jha (Roorkee) Dr. Somdatta Mandal (Santiniketan) Dr. Swaraj Raj (Fatehgarh Sahib) Dr. Ashis Sengupta (Siliguri) Dr. Basavaraj Naikar (Dharwad) Dr. Muhammad Shanazar (Pakistan) Reviewers Dr. Satnam Kaur Raina (Jammu) Dr. Roghayeh Farsi (Iran) Dr. Goksen Aras (Turkey) Dr. Alka Kumar (Canada) Literary Voice A Peer Reviewed Journal of English Studies ISSN 2277-4521 Indexed with Web of Science ESCI, Cosmos, ESJI, I2OR, Cite Factor Number 10 Volume 1 March 2019 RESEARCH ARTICLES Contemporary Trends in English Novel and Prose Narrative Swaraj Raj/5 Changing Dynamics of the Written Word: Reviewing Emerging Trends in Twenty-first Century Literature Charu Sharma/11 From In/visibility to En/visioning: Postmodernist Play in the 21st Century African- American Fiction Bhumika Sharma/16 Monstrous Trajectories: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and 21st Century Science Fiction K.S. Purushothaman/24 Trends in Contemporary Indian Drama Alpna Saini/32 Nonfiction as “Creative Art”: Twenty-first Century and the Tradition Behind Sarani Ghosal Mondal/Goutam Ghosal/38 Changing Trends in Women Autobiographies: A Study of Select Women Autobiographies Baljeet Kaur Anand/44 Self-Writing and Self–Identification: An Analysis of Sister Jesme's Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun Ritika Agnihotri/48 The Question of Neoliberal Subjectivity: An Emerging Trend in the Protagonist-centred Post Millennial Indian English Fiction Suchismita Ghosh/55 Foregrounding an Indigenous Environmental Ethic: A Study of Pratibha Ray's Primal Land (2001) and Sarah Joseph's Gift in Green (2011) Sumedha Bhandari/63 Blending Mythologies in New Age Fantasy Literature Sumathi Shivakumar/70 Shifting Images of Women in Contemporary Indian English Feminist Fiction and Indian Hindi Cinema Sushila Shekhawat/81 Tagged and Untagged: Body Speak in The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy Meenakshi F. Paul/86 Revisiting the Emergency: Vishwajyoti Ghosh's Delhi Calm Anupama Jaidev/93 Annie Dillard's The Maytrees: A Contemporary Investigation of Transcendental Thought Firas A. Nsaif Al Jumaili/100 Multicultural Dilemmas in National and Transnational Lands: A Study of Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss Vaneet Kaur/104 Taboo, Alternative Sexualities and Choices: The Depiction of Trans Identity in Duncan Tuckers's Transamerica Nipun Kalia/111 Indian Army: Rachna Bisht Rawat's Inspirational Writings Sangeeta Sharma/Sakshi Sharma/119 A Review Essay on The Rainbow Acres by Simrita Dhir Swaraj Raj/124 INTERVIEW A Dialogue with Dr. Jernail Singh Anand Bina Singh/127 BOOK REVIEWS Ajay K. Chaubey & Asis De, Eds. Mapping South Asian Diaspora: Recent Responses and Ruminations. Himadri Lahiri/132 Bhumika Sharma. The African American Journey to the Power Dome: Wright, Ellison, Baldwin. Satnam K. Raina/136 Basavaraj Naikar. The Golden Servant of God (A Religious Play). Raghu Venkatachalaiah/139 POETRY COLUMN Rendezvous Autumn Shabnam Kaur/141 To Mam, With Love Nutan Garg/142 www.literaryvoice.in FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Literary Voice March 2019 is devoted to the emerging trends in the literature of Twenty-first Century. Literature is an ever evolving art and assumes a life of its own. The current trends in literature are not so far removed from what they used to be fifty and even a hundred years ago. In fact, what started as an important modern trend in the mid twentieth century British literature, partly due to Jean Rhys's work, is the inclusion of non-white voices, especially those from the former colonies. The trend persists in twenty-first century too in the works of Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Andrea Levy, and the Jamaican writer Marlon James who write about what it means to be “British” and live with the legacies of slavery, racism, and colonialism. This hybridity also redefines their Britishness. Likewise the emergence of Partition literature in the wake of partition of British India in 1947, continues to engage the creative consciousness of writers in the present century as well. Globalization has erased many a discriminatory categorization in literature as much of contemporary literature, apart from Western authors, includes works by literary figures from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. After the Second World War, postmodernism and deconstructionism had a significant influence on literature. A major change to come out of the former movement is a change in discourse. “The notion of the authoritative text went out the window (e.g., Jean- François Lyotard's idea of the "metanarrative"), and there was a new emphasis on hybridity, or the inclusion of two or more cultural influences on a text.” Deconstruction, led by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, eliminated the notion that words have inherent meaning, an idea established by structuralism. It is not as if deconstruction/ poststructuralism, postcolonialism etc. have become irrelevant in present times. It is that the focus has shifted to the rise of 'post-theory,' environmental criticism, and gender/queer theory. With increasing globalization, intersections of cultures and more vocal discussions of women's rights and LGBT rights, identity has become a common theme in 21st century literature. Contemporary literature reflects current trends in life and culture and because these things change often, contemporary literature changes often as well as it questions facts, historical perspectives and often presents two contradictory arguments side by side. Well-defined, realistic, and highly developed characters are important in classifying a written work as contemporary, and most writing in this category feature stories that are more character driven than plot driven. Let us not forget the momentous events that marked the first twelve years of the new millennium--September 11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflict in Sudan, Hurricane Katrina and a crippling world wide recession. Sporadic writings on one or all these events have appeared in the literature of varying national/ethnic denominations, though not distilled into the defining literature of the era. This can be seen in literature in a number of areas such as nonlinear plots, stream of consciousness writing, deconstructionist criticism, experimentations in a literary genre and with grammar, loss of dialogue tags, plots that do not resolve. The research articles in Literary Voice March 2019 showcase the new trends, thematic concerns and experimentations undertaken by the writers in various parts of the globe. Twenty-first century African-American fiction has re-oriented the spiritual quest of the blacks into new directions of futuristic world. Neither the race nor the in/visibility of black is outmoded, yet the African American creative imagination is capable to visualize new fictional-scapes wherein their utopian and dystopian vision plays in and out. 'Frankenstein' as a metaphor for the irresponsibility of science and scientists, persists in science fiction stories of how a future world could possibly be different if humanity continues on its current path in the present, and this kind of narrative usually has a setting in either a dystopia or utopia depending on the author's point of view. Though Nonfiction is usually not classified as literature, the present era sometimes includes works of creative nonfiction which tell a true story using literary techniques. Signs of a new trend about nonfiction as “creative art” in the Twenty-first Century, are evident in some of the autobiographies/biographies which are marked by growing creative sense, clarity and elegance, reminiscent of the masters of yore. Vishwajyoti Ghosh's graphic novel, Delhi Calm, initiates a new trend as well as adds to the critical mass of the discursive trend around the 1975 Emergency in India. Contemporary trends in Indian drama being written and staged, reflect issues of gender and alternate sexuality, patriarchy, feminism and Indian history and mythology. Women autobiographies in the present century signal a new trend in debunking essentialist notions associated with the genre of autobiography, and portray woman as an agent to trigger off powerful protest against the abuse of religious systems that undermine human dignity in women and subject them to physical abuse. Likewise, an emerging trend in the neoliberal subjectivity is discernible in the protagonist-centred post-millennial Indian English fiction and Indian cinema. Some of the persistent trends under focus in the current issue range from revisiting mythologies with a new vision and exploring the layers of meaning embedded in myths-to Environmental ethics-to Multiculturalism in national and transnational lands-to multiplicities of identities in LGBTQ literature-to transcendental vision of society grounded on the individual-to womanism-to marginalized literature as of Dalits, Tribals, diaspora, protest literature-to inspirational role of literature to inculcate patriotic zeal among the teens and draw them to the exotic life in olive green uniform which offers multiple vistas for personal and professional growth. A Dialogue with Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, an authentic, prolific and