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 Editorial Office 204- Motiramani Complex, Naya Bazar, Lashkar, Gwalior - 474 009 (MP) INDIA Cell. +91 97531 30161 email- [email protected] Title Owner & Publisher Lata Mishra, Editor- Labyrinth Styling and Design Digital EFX, Gwalior Visit us at: www.thelabyrinthjournal.com DISCLAIMER: Articles and views published in this journal DO NOT necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Editorial Board. © COPYRIGHT: Reproduction of the contents of Labyrinth in whole or in part without the prior permission of the Editor is prohibited. All disputes concerning the journal are subject to Gwalior Jurisdiction. Table of Contents 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.