scholarly journals ‘WAR AS REMEDY OR POISON’: READING THE BLIND MAN'S GARDEN AND THE KITE RUNNER WITH A CRITICAL LENS OF MBEMBE’S NECROPOLITICS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1577-1584
Author(s):  
Sara Iqbal Kakar ◽  
Humaira Riaz ◽  
Nayab Ahmad Khan
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Political Consciousness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reading Technique ◽  
Asian Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Asian People

Purpose of the Study: This study emphasizes the contribution of fiction in highlighting the American exercise of power around the world predominantly Pakistan and Afghanistan. It investigates how America has become a dictating body deciding the life and death of human beings mainly in South Asian developing countries. Methodology: Being Qualitative, this study uses Eaglestone’s (2000) close reading technique to analyze words and structure of the texts of Khalid Hosseini's The Kite Runner and Nadeem Aslam Khan’s The Blind Man’s Garden. It develops a descriptive thesis leading to construct arguments by drawing a theoretical framework from Mbembe’s necropolitics (2003). Mbembe took his inspiration from Foucault’s idea of bio-power. Modern narrative discourse on sovereignty and its relation to war is taken as the main subject of necropolitics. Mbembe’s idea of sovereignty as an exercise to get control of the mortality of the enemy helps to interpret the texts via the close reading method. Main Findings: This study evaluated two novels to assert that necropolitics by taking its four basic concepts, power, war, politics, and death was the actual controlling power of a country. It analyzed fictional characters to argue how individuals endured hardships because of the necropolitical exercise of America and Russia in Afghanistan. Mbembe’s conception of necropolitics helps in understanding fiction. Applications of this study: The present study has significant implications from both theoretical and interpretative perspectives. Necropolitics, originally a political notion is reworked in fiction, which asserts that using this concept, power relations, their roots, and exercise around the world can be explored in various fields. This study contributes to dismantling the latent necropolitics in the society represented in fiction. It elevates the social and political consciousness of the general public of South Asia, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan. This study can be helpful in the field of psychology to popularize the notion of necropolitics in contemporary society. Novelty/Originality of this study: Comparatively a new field, Necropolitics has been discussed in the fields of medical sciences and education. This study significantly highlights its existence in the field of literary studies. Fiction as a direct reflection of society helps in deconstructing the prevailing exercise of necropolitics in South Asian society. It is also helpful in raising the social and political consciousness of South Asian people.

scholarly journals POETIC JUSTICE DALAM KARYA-KARYA SAPARDI DJOKO DAMONO: SEBUAH AJARAN MORAL DALAM MENJALANI HIDUP

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diah Ariani Arimbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Conduct ◽  
Reading Technique ◽  
The World ◽  
Poetic Justice ◽  
Important Position ◽  
The Right

Sapardi Djoko Damono or Sapardi is known as one of the greatest poets in the world of Indonesian literature whose works are full of intensity in the quest of moral conduct and moral virtue.  Reading works of Sapardi parallels to read teachings of morality: of how one should live in the world with full moral responsibilities. One major issue Sapardi always tackles in his works is the notion of poetic justice. As a literary device, poetic justice always sees that the right will win in the batttle against the wrong, and eventually truth will prevail.  In the perspective of Martha Nussbaum: a philosopher who believes that literature signifies important position in establishing social justice, poetic justice may function essentially as moral conduct human beings long for. The works of Sapardi will be analyzed using close reading technique as one method in literary reading and analysis. Sapardi’s works, be it his poems, lyrical proses, or short stories propose human struggles in search for truth and social justice. Using poetic justice in scrunitizing the works of Sapardi one can easily understand that in the battle between the virtue versus the vice, the virtue will win and be rewarded while the vice will be defeated and punished, and often virtue will replace vice in ironic twist. Sapardi’s works also show that in the quest of truth, sacrifice is necessary action as through sacrifice transformation from bad to good will take place. Abstrak Sapardi Djoko Damono atau yang dikenal sebagai Sapardi adalah salah satu pujangga besar yang sangat produktif dalam dunia sastra Indonesia. Membaca karya Sapardi seperti membaca pencarian moral karena karyanya, baik puisi, prosa liris, maupun cerita pendek sarat dengan ajaran moral. Salah satu isu utama yang selalu muncul dalam karya Sapardi adalah keadilan puitis, yaitu dalam pertarungan antara kebaikan dan kejahatan pada akhirnya kebaikan dan kebenaran selalu muncul. Itulah yang dikatakan sebagai keadilan puitis (poetic justice) dalam perspektif Marta Nussbaum, seorang filsuf yang selalu menggunakan sastra sebagai sarana dalam membangun keadilan sosial. Dengan menggunakan pemikiran Nussbaum tentang pentingnya sastra sebagai pembentuk ajaran moral dan panduan moral dalam kehidupan seseorang, tulisan ini membedah karya Sapardi, baik yang berupa puisi, prosa liris, maupun cerita pendek. Terbukti bahwa karya Sapardi tidak pernah lepas dari pergulatan manusia dalam mencari kebenaran dan keadilan sosial. Dengan menggunakan metode pembacaan sastra yang dikenal sebagai teknik pembacaan mendalam (close reading technique) tulisan ini akan menggunakan perangkat sastra, yaitu poetic justice yang sering kali muncul melalui pembalikan posisi dari awal yang baik kalah dan menjadi pemenang pada akhirnya dan yang awalnya kejahatan menang tapi kalah pada akhirnya. Melalui karya-karyanya Sapardi mengingatkan kita sebagai pembaca bahwa kebenaran akan selalu menang pada akhirnya dan kebenaran membutuhkan pengorbanan karena melalui pengorbanan itulah transformasi dari yang buruk menjadi yang baik akan terjadi. 

scholarly journals Mundo de la vida y cultura: la educación como acción ética e intercultural

10.14201/3110 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo S. Vila Merino
Keyword(s):  
Nous Avons ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Socialization Process ◽  
Life World ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

RESUMEN: Los seres humanos, como seres culturales, tenemos nuestras referencias inmediatas en los significados con los que interaccionamos en nuestro proceso de socialización y es a partir de los mismos desde donde nos hacemos y construimos el mundo. En este sentido, y más aún en nuestras complejas sociedades multiculturales, resulta muy importante rescatar el valor del concepto de mundo de la vida y sus aplicaciones al ámbito educativo. Todo esto nos debe llevar a entender este proceso como integrado por acciones simbólico-significativas y argumentando la necesidad de desarrollar en el mismo posicionamientos comunicativos que potencien la dimensión ética e intercultural en los intercambios socioeducativos.ABSTRACT: Human beings, as cultural beings, have our immediate references in the meanings which we make contacts in our socialization process, and from this relations we build the world. In this sense, and still more in our multicultural and complex societies, is very important to rescue the value of the concept life-world and its applications to the educative ambit. This question must lead us to understand this process as integrated for symbolic-meaning actions and reasoning the need to develop in the same comrromicative positions that promote the ethical and intercultural dimension into the social-educative exchanges.SOMMAIRE: Nous, les êtres humains en tant qu'êtres culturales, nous avons nos références immédiates dans les significations avec lesquelles nous interagissons dans notre processus de socialisation. C'est à partir de ces mêmes significations que nous nous formons et à la fois construisons le monde. En ce sens-là, et même plus dans nos sociétés multiculturelles complexes, il est primordial de restituer la valeur du concept de monde de la vie et de toutes ses applications au domaine éducatif. Tout cela doit nous amener à comprendre ce processus comme intégré par des actions symbolique-significatives et, parallèlement à justifier le besoin de développer des positions communicatives qui favorisent la dimension éthique et interculturelle dans les échanges socioéducatifs.

Genealogies of the Global

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 387-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Featherstone
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media

The term global suggests all-inclusiveness and brings to mind connectivity, a notion that gained a boost from Marshall McLuhan's reference to the mass-mediated ‘global village’. In the past decade it has rapidly become part of the everyday vocabulary not only of academics and business people, but also has circulated widely in the media in various parts of the world. There have also been the beginnings of political movements against globalization and proposals for ‘de-globalization’ and ‘alternative globalizations’, projects to re-define the global. In effect, the terminology has globalized and globalization is varyingly lauded, reviled and debated around the world. The rationale of much previous thinking on humanity in the social sciences has been to assume a linear process of social integration, as more and more people are drawn into a widening circle of interdependencies in the movement to larger units, but the new forms of binding together of social life necessitate the development of new forms of global knowledge which go beyond the old classifications. It is also in this sense that the tightening of the interdependency chains between human beings, and also between human beings and other life forms, suggests we need to think about the relevance of academic knowledge to the emergent global public sphere.

The Minstrel as Social Critic: A Reading of Ezenwa–Ohaeto's

Matatu ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sule E. Egya
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Social Vision ◽  
Social Critic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Ethical Failures

Ezenwa–Ohaeto is one of the modern Nigerian poets who, in their creative endeavours, have continued to tap the rich sources of orature in their culture, in what is now known as 'the minstrelsy tradition'. The maturity of his explorations of the minstrelsy tradition comes through in the last volume of poetry he published before his death, (2003). In a close reading of some selected poems from this volume, this contribution not only looks at the minstrelsy tradition so central to Ezenwa–Ohaeto's poetry, but, more broadly, explores the social vision of Ezenwa–Ohaeto as an African poet. Unlike his earlier volumes of poetry, takes a critical swipe at the inadequacies of advanced countries in Europe and America in what we may call the poet's transnational imagination. In his chants across the world (the volume is an outcome of his many travels), Ezenwa–Ohaeto examines the issues of racism, equity in international relationships and, as is characteristic of his oeuvre, the moral and ethical failures of leaders in Africa.

scholarly journals Lessons from science fiction: Frederik Pohl and the robot prosumer

2020 ◽  
pp. 146954052094422
Author(s):  
MJ Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Vital Resource ◽  
Impact Mass

The diverse fields of business, management and marketing have long explored the concept of the ‘prosumer’ – the producer-consumer who not only consumes those products produced by industry, but also has some hand in their creation. But while the term itself is often credited to futurist Alvin Toffler , the concept he describes (and that which Ritzer et al. adapt) is a central concern of science fiction, which has much to offer our understanding of modern-day prosumption and is not limited by the language and limitations of purely scientific academic discourse. Indeed, one of the most important voices in this area is author and editor Frederik Pohl, with his co-authored novel The Space Merchants and short stories including ‘The Midas Plague’ and ‘The Man Who Ate the World’. In each of these works, Pohl seeks to satirise the mindless robot-like behaviour of human beings, while also posing a word of warning for the social, economic and ecological impact mass-prosumption. This is a particularly relevant message given the rise of ‘surveillance capitalism’ – the real world manifestation of the dystopias that Pohl and his contemporaries describe. In this paper, I argue that science fiction isn’t just a useful tool for social theorists, but rather, a vital resource, as it provides a speculative framework through which to interrogate the potential impacts and implications of new technology, and the links between production and consumption, technology and work. Furthermore, it provides the means through which to imagine possible futures and the lasting impacts of consumption that go beyond describing the world as it is, and move into the realms of what the world may become.

scholarly journals Los ‘apocalipsis silenciosos’ del arte contemporáneo como dispositivos transformadores de conciencia para la reparación de una memoria ecológica degradada

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 230-246
Author(s):  
Ricardo González-García
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Future Scenario ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
El Sistema ◽  
Unlimited Growth ◽  
Arte Contemporáneo

Como una reunión simbólica de conciencia, toda gran obra de arte es un apocalipsis silencioso que, con sus significativas impresiones o interacciones, puede llegar a transformar la estructura social. Transfigurando el mundo mediante sus espacios de representación, es capaz de adquirir una capacidad profética que denuncia situaciones a fin de, como en el caso específico aquí ofrecido, reestablecer el equilibrio de los ecosistemas degradados por la huella que el ser humano ha impreso sobre ellos. Esta misma impronta antropocénica, auspiciada por la idea de progreso que confiere la utopía del crecimiento ilimitado propuesta por el sistema capitalista, paradójicamente podría llevar al ser humano a asistir al fin de su propia especie. Por esta razón, parte del arte contemporáneo lleva tiempo sumamente preocupado en concienciar a la sociedad y, así, frenar la llegada de un catastrófico escenario futuro. Debido a la urgencia de esta acuciante situación, se abordan diversas denuncias establecidas en las prácticas artísticas para cambiar la actitud de sus espectadores. Para ello, se proponen aquí dos vertientes: la de obras que muestran escenarios distópicos y la de otras más activistas que tratan de atajar la situación desde entornos concretos. As a symbolic gathering of conscience, every great artwork is a silent apocalypse that, with its significant impressions or interactions, can transform the social structure. Transfiguring the world through its spaces of representation, it is capable of acquiring a prophetic capacity that denounces situations in order to, as in the specific case offered here; restore the balance of ecosystems degraded by the footprint that human beings have printed on them. This same anthropocenic imprint, sponsored by the idea of progress that confers the utopia of unlimited growth proposed by the capitalist system, paradoxically could lead the human being to attend the end of his own species. For this reason, part of contemporary art has been extremely concerned about raising awareness in society and, thus, curbing the arrival of a catastrophic future scenario. Due to the urgency of this pressing situation, we complaints various complaints established in artistic practices to change the attitude of its spectators. To do this, we proposed two aspects here: that of works that show dystopian scenarios and that of other more activists which try to tackle the situation from specific environments.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Islamic Ideology with Regard to Gender and Women’s Education in South Asia

Asian Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52
Author(s):  
Forkan ALI
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Women's Education ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Asian Society ◽  
Historical Practices

The article presents an investigation on certain anthropological-social aspects and the social organization of women with a focus on female education and women’s rights in Islam in South Asia, and especially in the subcontinent. It starts with the Moghul period and then turns to the colonial era and contemporary developments. Through the movement for independence from colonial rule of Britain, the Muslim identity in the South Asian region rose in a state of transformation, reform and development. This occurred due to several factors that encouraged the regeneration and reviewing of Indian society in response to the condemnation, discrimination and chauvinism of their colonial rulers and their deep-seated legacy. Women of the society, who were censured to be subjugated by the native men as entitled by colonial rulers, empowered this transformation by taking direct and indirect participation in it even though patriarchal norms and mind-sets have been a durable feature of South Asian society, cutting across faith communities and social strata, including the Hindu, Buddhist and other non-Islamic traditions on the subcontinent. While religious arguments are generally used in efforts to preserve the asymmetrical status of men and women in economic, political, and social arenas, this investigation attempts to show that religious traditions in South Asia are not monolithic in their perceptions of gender and women’s education. The structure of gender roles in these traditions is a consequence of various historical practices and ideological influences. Today, there is a substantial variability within and between religious communities concerning the social status of women. At different times and in different milieus, religious points of view have been deployed to validate male authority over women and, in opposition, to call for more impartial gender relations. 

scholarly journals Education for Citizenship and Identities

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-93
Author(s):  
Antoni Santisteban Fernández ◽  
Neus González-Monfort
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Community Relationships

Individual identity is defined by unique traits and is constructed from the diversity of human beings and, at the same time, in relationships with other people. This gives rise to a plurality of ways of thinking and perceiving the world. The collective identity is constructed through the discourse or the story that is shared in the community, relationships, or in socialization spaces, among others, in the school, through the discourse of the teaching staff or the school texts. Otherness acts as a mirror where we look at ourselves to recognize ourselves. Otherness is the acceptance that there are different views when we interpret the world, different ways of thinking or ideologies, but it also shows that we human beings have much in common. Education for citizenship should aim to enable people to define their diverse identities in an education for freedom, equality, and participation. Education for citizenship must ask what identities are invisible and why, and demand the social change.

scholarly journals Social transcending as a conceptual basis for understanding culture and society

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Zh. V. Latysheva
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Social Creativity

Modern problems of the socio-humanistic sciences, including the interaction of structure/ agency, the ways and forms of both personal development and socio-cultural changes, the transformation of the value status of a social ego, the reinterpretation of its contribution to the creativeness of society require substantial amendments to the definitions and methodology of socio-humanistic research. In order to achieve this goal, the article considers one of the basic concepts of European philosophy, transcending from the point of view which differs from generally accepted. The singularity of the author’s approach is the social notion of this concept and the identification of its integrating capabilities regarding to semantically close concepts and terms of social theory of the 20th – 21st centuries. To reach these objectives, a comparative analysis of the concepts of social transcending and the concepts of action creativity (H. Joas), fabulation (A.-T. Tymieniecka), signification (P. Berger, T. Luckmann), noting (J. Alexander), metalanguage (R. Barthes), agency (E. Giddens et al.) was treated. Social transcending is as intentional and creative as human action. However, the first concept, besides, is intersubjective, communicative and teleological. As a fabulation, social transcending raises a person by means of functioning of many sociocultural practices, above the world of mundanity. However, in fabulation the mechanism of such exaltation is a artistic and aesthetic experience, while in social transcending all the interests peculiar to human beings are used: cognitive, ethical, religious, etc. Signification involves the individually-personal and sign-symbolic aspects of social transcending, its everyday and non-everyday levels, being one of the significant ways of social transcending. Noting and metalanguage also embody the options of signifying of social transcending; by means of agensy its dynamism is revealed. The author comes to the conclusion that the generic conceptual-substantive basis of the analyzed concepts is social transcending, which «incorporates» the most important processes of social creativity.

scholarly journals COMMUNITY OF CHILDREN INMATES AND ASSISTANCE SYSTEM IN THE PENITENTIARY: The Impact of Child Social System to the Assistance Process at Kutoarjo Children Penitentiary

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Indah Sri Utari
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

The community of inmates children as a unique and unique social system is difficult to understand when viewed only from the outside, so it is necessary to systematically attempt to know the values, norms, relationships, and objectives-through where and with what they are living, and understand both their own experiences and the world in which they liveThe situational system of the inmates children as human beings (although in this case is the child) to be fostered, is one of the important elements in the whole process of assistance in the Penitentiary is no exception to the Children Penitentiary in Kutoarjo. The entire penitentiary system design, from the assistance program, the assistance mechanism, and the assistance implementation, is actually determined by the circumstances and the reality of the people who are to be fostered, the inmates.The reality of the children inmates who are always on the "social order" in their various communities is essentially constantly changing. Specifically, this study finds links between: the institutional reality of a children penitentiary, which includes the factual circumstances concerning facilities and infrastructure, and the administrative aspects of KutoarjoChildren Penitentiary. The reality of the member of KutoarjoChildren Penitentiaryin the form of identified number of occupants, placement systems, and formal and informal groupings of the targeted children in addition to the build and formed a community of the assisted children in KutoarjoChildren Penitentiary and the basic elements of the Social System of the Auxiliaries in all the community of assisted children and etc.As Soerjono Sukanto said that even though human "convicts" live in a confined state, they instinctively want to interact with fellow inmates. This instinct is referred to as "gregariousness" (Soekanto: 1998: 73), which in the last instance will give birth to so-called "social groups". In this context created social structure, social system, norms and so on.

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