Regd. No. 26466 ISSN: 2277-4521 Number 6 - Volume - 1 - March 2017 LITERARY VOICE A Biannual Peer Reviewed Journal EDITOR Dr. T. S. Anand ASSOCIATE EDITORS Dr. Geeta Bhandari Dr. Charu Sharma ASSISTANT EDITOR Sumedha Bhandari EDITORIAL BOARD Dr. Nand Kumar (Meerut) Dr. K.S. Purushothaman (Vellore) Dr. Harbir S. Randhawa (Dehradun) Dr. Lokesh Kumar (Aligarh) ADVISORY BOARD Prof. K.B. Razdan (Jammu) Prof. A.A. Mutalik-Desai (Dharwad) Prof. Pashupati Jha (Roorkee) Prof. Ashis Sengupta (Siliguri) Prof. Somdatta Mandal (Santiniketan) Dr. Swaraj Raj (Fatehgarh Sahib) www.literaryvoice.in visit us @ www.literaryvoice.in REGD. No. 26466 ISSN 2277-4521 Literary Voice A Bi-Annual Peer-Reviewed Journal Volume I Number 6 March 2017 Diaspora as a Human Condition: An Expository Note/5 Dr. Devendra Rankawat Rethinking Diaspora: The Black Atlantic as a Concept for Diasporic Studies/13 Dr. R.G. Kulkarni Postmodernity, Consumerism and Identity Crisis in Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram/19 Shipra Joshi Dr. H. S. Randhawa Blemished Native Souls: Exploring the Aftermaths of White Intrusion in James Welch's Winter in the Blood/29 Sandeep Kour Dr. Ravinder Singh Velutha's Marginalized Sublimity in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things/ 37 Dr. Devika Unravelling the Mechanics of Black Freedom Struggle through the genre of Rhythm and Blues/47 Divya Sharma Juxtaposing Illusions and Realities in Diasporic Experiences: An Analysis of Andrea Levy's Small Island/ 63 Harpreet Kaur Scattered Identities in Rupa Bajwa's The Sari Shop/ 69 Dr. Priyanka Sharma Tracing DNA: A Study of Shilpi Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter/ 77 Sumedha Bhandari Bama's Sangati:A Critique of Marginalized Dalit Community/83 Dr. Kshamata Chaudhary Subaltern Voices of Resistance in Mahasweta Devi's Chotti Munda and His Arrow/90 Manpreet Kaur Changing Contours of Masculinity in Alice Walker's The Color Editorial Purple/97 Literary Voice 2017 has evolved itself into a Number Jaspreet Kaur engaged with the vulnerable predicament of the subalterns An Interview with Poetess, Arvinder Kaur/104 cutting across geographical, racial and socio-cultural boundaries. Dr. Sumati In fact, the notion of the subaltern was first referred to by the Italian Marxist political activist Antonio Gramsci in his article Book Review “Notes on Italian History” which appeared in his book Prison Notebook written between 1929 and 1935. The subaltern classes Lalit Mohan Sharma. Loud Whispers: A New Collection of Poems. refer fundamentally in Gramsci's words to any “low rank” person New Delhi: Books Plus 2016. Price: Rs 300./112 or group of people in a particular society suffering under Dr. Atul Acharya hegemonic domination of a ruling elite class that denies them the basic rights of participation in the making of local history and culture as active individuals of the same nation. In critical theory Poetry Column and postcolonialism, the term subaltern designates the populations which are socially, politically and geographically Avowal/115 outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colony and of the Dr. Bhagyashree Varma colonial homeland. In the 1970s, subaltern began to denote the colonized peoples of the Indian subcontinent and described a new perspective of the history of an imperial colony as told from the point of view of the colonized rather than that of the colonizers. In the 1980s, the scope of enquiry of Subaltern Studies was applied as an "intervention in South Asian historiography.” In the words of Ranajit Guha, the word subaltern can be defined as “the general attribute of subordination . whether it is expressed in terms of class, caste, age, gender and office or in any other way.” Subaltern literature talks about the struggle between castes, seen from the point of view of the lower caste, the minority, the marginal, the subaltern. An overwhelming number of articles in Literary Voice 2017 focus on the marginalized members of different societies, as, for instance, Indian slum dwellers and social misfits in Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram, American Indians in James Welch's Winter in the Blood, Caribbeans in Andrea Levy's Small Island, Dalits in the caste ridden Indian society in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Bama's Sangati, subalterns in Rupa Bajwa's The Sari Shop, tribals in Mahasweta Literary Voice 2017/5 Devi Varma's Chotti Munda and His Arrow, an abandoned/adopted poor Indian girl in Shilpi Somaya Gowda's Secret Daughter, the Diaspora as a Human Condition: marginalized and doubly colonized Afro-American women in the An Expository Note Rhythm and Blues genre lyrics, and their sufferings in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. These literary texts are peopled by persons on the margins of society--racially oppressed, socially Dr. Devendra Rankawat suppressed, culturally dispossessed, sexually abused, Assistant Professor of English economically exploited--whose marginalized sublimity is awfully Central University of Rajasthan inspiring, as their struggle to seek identity and rightful place in a hostile society is characterised by a new level of subaltern pride, "There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one's native land." militancy, creativity and above all, the use of the pen as a potent (Euripides, 431 B.C.) weapon to lend authentic voice to the voiceless. An Interview with Haiku poetess, Arvinder Kaur adds Humanity has, by now, undergone vicissitudes of which unique charm and substance to the present number. any enumeration, classification or description, no matter how Dear members, partake of this intellectual feast, and bless exhaustive, is doomed to be incomplete. Of all these experiences, our efforts with your feedback. The Board of Editors, Literary however, one experience has persisted all through human history. Voice wishes you a peaceful, prosperous and happy New Year. This is the experience of being in diaspora; or, the experience of being in separation. It is, in essence, the experience of dislocation T. S. Anand (up-rooting) and relocation (re-rooting). It may have been known by different names in different cultures at different times. But, by its sting upon human consciousness or citta, it has ever afflicted the same pain—the pain of having lost something forever. And this something is neither recoverable nor replaceable nor even substitutable. In short, it causes unbridgeable cracks in the human self. And, since the human self and the literature it produces deeply imbricate, a closer look at such a phenomenon surely leads through the portals of a wider understanding of writers in diaspora. This is what I aim at. Mythological, Religious and Historical Origins The earliest occurrence of the term 'diaspora' in biblical texts is traced to the Septuagint, the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, wherein occurs Deuteronomy, 28:25, which is translated as: “Thou shalt be a diaspora in all kingdoms of the earth” (qtd. in Judith Shuval 2007 42). Septuagint was a project undertaken by the Greek-speaking Jews living in Egyptian diaspora. In Jewish history, the term diaspora refers to the dispersion or scattering of Jews outside the 'Promised Land' i.e. Palestine, after the Babylonian captivity following the Babylon's Literary Voice 2017/6 Literary Voice 2017/7 conquest of Judah, the land of Jews. This exile, that by most and most virtuous son, to go in exile (forest is just another name for accounts lasted about 70 years, beginning with the destruction of going into exile) Dasharatha says: Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. and continuing until “Send him to the forest? What fault has he committed? Of when the Persian conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus the Great, allowed the hundreds of women in the palace, has anyone ever the Jews to return to Palestine. Interestingly, not all the Jews chose uttered a word against his honour or virtue? The whole to return; rather, a significant number of them stayed back or went world loves him for his great and good qualities. How did elsewhere and, thus, it was these Jews that constituted the first you alone among so many find cause to dislike him? . prototype Jewish diaspora. The whole world praises his truthfulness and friendliness, The Hebrew terms for exile 'Galut', and 'Gola' were, his learning and wisdom, his heroism and humility. however, not rendered in Greek as 'diaspora'. This assertion of How can I, his father, say to him 'Son, go to the forest'. This semantic non-equivalence between the term 'exile' and 'diaspora' can never be” C. Rajgopalachari 2000 73-4). was probably meant as mere semantic dilution. Though the two This is obvious what sending someone to forest meant states of being are often posed to be different, both are in those times: evidently it was a form of punishment. It being characterized by “the awareness of being an ethnic minority afflicted as punishment amply shows how unpleasant this among a foreign majority, hence the consciousness of 'us' and experience must have been. 'others' held in common. Bustenav Oded in 'Exile – The Biblical In post-Babylonian era, the Jews largely made theological Perspectives' implies a considerable degree of equivalence interpretation of the Babylonian captivity as God's punishment for between the terms 'exile' and 'diaspora' as they both evoke the violating the commands of Torah. Thus, living outside Palestine images of isolation and alienation. Exile is an oft-repeated term in was interpreted as “transitory, miserable and unfavorable. It most of the religious and historical texts. From the Bible to the generally had “an unfavorable, disastrous meaning” (Unnik 86- Ramayana and the Mahabharata to the Paradise Lost, all afford 87). Theologically, it was held that, at some undefined time in instances of this. In the Genesis there comes a mention of exile in future, the Messiah would arrive and a final gathering of the Jews the words of God to Abraham: “Know well that your offspring would come about in the 'Holy Land'.