scholarly journals The Voice of a Dalit Feminist

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahuya Bhaumik
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Social Activist ◽  
Seminal Contribution ◽  
Warm Hospitality ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Voice

Urmila Pawar is a prolific Dalit feminist writer who belongs to the Mahar community ofMaharashtra. She is a social activist whose protesting voice has been a source of inspiration forthousands of Dalit women. Despite encountering diverse levels of discrimination on the basis ofcaste and gender she completed her Masters in Marathi Literature and chose to write about thewomen of her society and their marginalised position. Her autobiography Aaidan, written inMarathi, has been translated into English as The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirsand published by Columbia University Press. Her short story 'Kavach' has been included in thesyllabus for SNDT Women's University and her documentation with Meenakshi Moon on theparticipation of Dalit women has been a seminal contribution to the construction of Dalit historyfrom a feminist perspective.I went to Urmila Pawar's house in Mumbai in early 2019 to take the interview. I wastouched by her warm hospitality. She spoke sometimes in English and at times in Hindi. Then Icompiled the entire conversation in English. The following version is published with herapproval.

scholarly journals Relevance of Dalit Life Narratives: A Contextual Study of Urmila Pawar’s ‘The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs’

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 154-159
Author(s):  
Revathi M. Anil
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social Discrimination ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Contextual Study ◽  
Feminist Movements

Urmila Pawar’s autobiography Aaydan (The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs) is a moving saga of a socially deprived woman who fights all odds in life.  Pawar narrates the pitiable tales of three generations of Dalit women driven deeper into invisibility by the patriarchy. In her memoir, Pawar not only shares her tireless efforts to surmount hideous personal tragedies but also conveys the excitement of an awakening consciousness among the Dalit community. This paper explores the relevance of Dalit autobiography in the present scenario with particular reference to Urmila Pawar's autobiography The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs. She delicately navigates her readers through her long journey from the harsh landscape of the Konkan region to Mumbai, first as a Mahar and later as a woman as she challenged the conventions of both caste and gender to emerge as an activist and strong literary voice. Urmila Pawar is an Indian writer and activist, born in a Hindu Mahar family in Maharashtra. Apart from The Weave of My Life she has published several short story collection which talk about the caste-class and gender axes in everyday life. She is a prominent figure in the Dalit and feminist movements. Her writings are hailed as a critique of social discrimination.

The voice of others: Identity, alterity and gender normativity among gay men in Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erez Levon
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Male Sexuality ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Voice

AbstractThis article presents an analysis of a slang variety, called oxtšit, as it is described and used by a cohort of gay men in Israel. Unlike many previous analyses of gay slang, I argue that the men described do not use the variety to help construct and affirm an alternative gay identity, but rather that they use it as a form of in-group mockery through which normative and nonnormative articulations of Israeli gay male sexuality are delineated. It is suggested that this discussion has implications for sociolinguistic understandings of “groupness” more broadly, and particularly the relationship between macro-level social categories (like “gay”) and individual lived experience. (Gay slang, Israel, vari-directional voicing, identity/alterity)*

scholarly journals The Advent of Ambedkar in the Sphere of Indian Women Question

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Poonam Singh
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Archival Study

The paper attempts to project Bhim Rao Ambedkar as one of the foremost liberal feminists who advocated for Hindu women’s legal rights through the constitutional provisions listed in the Hindu Code Bill. He proposed four major stipulations, “one change is that, the widow, the daughter, the widow of predeceased-son. All are given the same rank as the son in the matter of inheritance. In addition to that, the daughter is also given a share in her father’s property: her share is prescribed as half of that of the son.”[1] To contemplate the predicament and marginalized position of Indian women, Ambedkar posited that caste and gender are intertwined. The imposition of endogamy was made compulsory by Brahaminical hierarchy which eulogized by Hindu religious scriptures to ensure sustained subjectivity of women, which eventually depreciated the egalitarian position of women. The focal point of the research paper remains a close textual analysis of Ambedkarite canon with archival study and genealogical examination contouring the discourse. The paper also encompasses potent reasons to establish the differences between the marginalization of upper-caste women and Dalit women. Difference between them is maintained by the ‘graded inequality.’ After having observed such differences, the paper intends to extend the idea that Ambedkar worked as a socio-political champion for Dalit women and Indian women concomitantly. To guarantee the freedom, equality, and individuality of Indian women, Ambedkar resorted to legalized mechanism and constitutional provisions. Key Words: Ambedkar, Hindu Code Bill, Manusmriti, Indian Women, Dalit Women, Indian Feminism, Caste, Patriarchy

scholarly journals Sounding diasporic dislocation: The object voice in postcolonial short stories

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Jorge Sacido-Romero
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Acoustic Field ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Jacques Lacan ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
Introductory Part ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Limited Scope

Jacques Lacan conceives of the voice as more than meets the ear: that is, as an objet a that must be subtracted from the acoustic field to preserve the coherence of reality as a symbolically constructed order in which subjects are inserted and from which they derive a sense of identity. Disruptive manifestations of the object voice are frequent in the modernist and postmodernist British short story, a form which, on account of its brevity and limited scope, renders more sharply the traumatic nature of such episodes, which thus become more memorable and engaging for readers. The short story, likewise, is an apt vehicle for postcolonial and diasporic subjectivities characterized by the tensions and psychic distress provoked by their liminal location between different cultures and their heterogenous and often conflicting interpellations. After an introductory part which elaborates on the interrelations between object voice, the short story genre and the postcolonial subject, this article examines two recent stories by Koye Oyedeji (‘Postscript from the Black Atlantic’) and Diriye Osman (‘Earthling’), in which existential conflicts become so acute that they trigger aural hallucinations, which determine the central characters’ predicament in the context of the migrant diaspora in Britain.

scholarly journals ʿĀʾisha al-Kaʿbī’s “The Ladies’ Fitting Room”: Translation with an Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
O. Ishaq Tijani ◽  
Imed Nsiri
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Narrative Technique ◽  
And Gender

This article features a translation of “Ghurfat al-qiyās” (2007, The Ladies’ Fitting Room), a short story by the emerging Emirati female writer ʿĀʾisha al-Kaʿbī (1973-). The Introduction provides some brief comments on the content of the story in order to show how, while foregrounding the portrayal of some women’s obsession with their looks, the narrative reflects some of the socio-cultural issues that concern women and gender in contemporary Emirati and Arabian Gulf societies. The story is very minimalistic in the exploration of its subject-matters, but it is this narrative technique that makes its content—especially the sub-text, or the un-said aspects of the story—much more intriguing than its form.

The Voice of a Transgressive Young Man

2020 ◽  
pp. 91-134
Author(s):  
Machiko Ishikawa
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
New Left ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Voice

This chapter focuses on Nakagami's early writings and a short story titled “Rakudo” (1976). A number of prominent themes feature in his late 1960s writing. These include criticism of Japanese New Left writers, recollections of his “uneducated” half-brother's violence and suicide, and reflections on then nineteen-year-old Nagayama Norio, who shot and killed four people in 1968. First, through an analysis of nonfiction material produced by Nakagami from 1965 to 1969, the chapter profiles two elements that were frequently represented in literary production and discussed in academic writing during this period: the masses (taishū) and loss (sōshitsu). It also provides a detailed discussion on the intertextual relationship between Nakagami's late 1960s texts and the contemporaneous perspective of two Japanese critics. By referencing these scholars' texts, the chapter articulates Nakagami's motives for writing—giving representation to—hidden voices that express a sense of loss. Finally, the chapter focuses on Nakagami's short story “Rakudo.” Through reading this “autobiographical” yet fictional shōsetsu, it demonstrates how Nakagami represents the voices of a violent young husband and the silence of his battered wife.

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