scholarly journals The Calcutta Chromosome: An Acknowledgement of Indigenous Caliber and Extrapolation upon the History of Malaria Parasite Discovery

Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Pathak

Amitav Ghosh novel The Calcutta Chromosome: a Novel of Fevers, Delirium and Discovery is considered, - an outstanding literary work in which the writer reveals a discourse of science versus counter-science from the earlier world of social, cultural and ethnical history of Indian subcontinent. India is home to the oldest continuous civilization, nevertheless, the long invasive rule of the Mughals and the Britishers has framed minds to undervalue the indigenous knowledge, practices, customs and discourses. Amitav Ghosh novel denies the Western supremacy in every field and puts a question mark in the invention of Anopheles maculipennis as the cause of malaria. Dr. Ronald Ross received the prestigious Nobel Prize in 1902 for his discovery of malaria parasite but Ami- tav Ghosh supports the contribution of Indian assistants Mangala and Laakhan who were not acknowledged by the British researchers. The novel reflects a postcolonial approach to interpret Western scientific mechanism, posits the question to unethical exploitation of native workers by the English and gives voice to the traditional knowledge of the subalterns. An integral part of Ghoshs approach in this novel is to illuminate the richness of ideas and complexity of Indigenous life, and to create a place where aboriginals are acknowledged for their remarkable contributions.

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-236
Author(s):  
Thangam Ravindranathan

Abstract This essay considers the unworldly setting of Jean Rolin’s novel Ormuz (2013), composed around the attempt by a shadowy character named Wax to swim across the Strait of Hormuz. This twenty-one-nautical-mile-wide stretch of sea separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula, through which is shipped 35 percent of the world’s petroleum, is a waterway of the utmost geopolitical importance, its harbors built not for dreamy swimmers but for giant oil tankers and the elaborate maritime-military infrastructure assuring their passage. Such a setting would seem to stand as a bleak other to the novel as genre. Yet if one thinks of the history of the novel as inseparable from that of carbon capitalism (as Amitav Ghosh has argued), such a claim is reversed—this site where powerful strategic interests drive the flow of oil, capital, and power is the place of the continual making and unmaking, by night and day, of the world order, and thereby of the modern novel. The essay reflects on what Wax’s weird wager—as an emblem for a remarkable narrative wager—may owe to such intertexts as Google, Descartes’s Meditations, and Jules Verne’s Tour du monde, and argues for reading Ormuz as an ecological novel for our times.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gulnara Dadabayeva ◽  
Dina Sharipova

This article focuses on the famous novel Koshpendiler (1976) by Ilyas Esenberlin. This literary work occupies a special place in Soviet Kazakh literature because it raises important problems such as the foundation of the state and nation, the sense of territoriality, and the struggle against Russian colonizers. The authors argue that this historical novel can be considered as an example of post-colonial discourse. The novel itself is an extrapolation of the 1970s’ Soviet reality when national Union republics, including Kazakhstan, were seeking greater independence. Kazakh cultural elites and the intelligentsia turned to the past history of nation-building to address the problems of the present day. Not having an opportunity to openly express their views, the Kazakh establishment preferred to express their national sentiments through the historical genre. In this work, the authors suggest their own vision of Soviet national literature from political science and historical perspectives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Abbas Abbas

This article discusses the social facts experienced by Americans in literature, especially novel. Literary work as a social documentation imagined by the author is a reflection of the values of a nation or ethnicity. The main objective of research is to trace the reality of slavery that occurred in America as a social fact in literary works. This research is useful in strengthening the sociological aspects of literary works as well as proving that literary works save a social reality at the time so that readers are able to judge literary works not merely as fiction, but also as social documentation. The writer in this study uses one of the literary research methods, namely Genetic Structuralism Approach. This method emphasizes three main aspects, namely literary work, the background of the author's life, and social reality. Novel Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl written by Harriet Ann Jacobs in 1858 was used as primary research data, then a number of references about the author's social background and the reality of slavery in the history of the American nation became secondary data. Primary and secondary research data obtained through literature study. Based on the results of this study found the events of slavery in the history of the American nation. Slavery was the act of white Americans forcibly employing black Negroes on the lands of plantation and agricultural also mining areas. Slavery is a valuable lesson for Americans in protecting human rights today as well as a historic lesson in building the American national spirit, namely freedom, independence, and democracy. The reality of slavery is reflected in the novel Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl as well as the life experience of its author, Harriet Ann Jacobs.


Author(s):  
María Elena Martos Hueso

Abstract:Since the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the recent history of Indian Literature in English has been characterised by a growing interest in rewriting the history of India from an angle diametrically opposed to that of official historiography. Taking as a starting point Foucault’s concept of Nietzschean genealogy, which emphasises the value of microhistory and interrogates the function of narrative linearity in historiographic practices, this paper analyses two analogous Indian English novels based on the independence and subsequent partition of the Indian subcontinent: The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh and Difficult Daughters by Manju Kapur. It mainly focuses on the deconstruction of the nationalist myth, where women and motherhood lay at the centre of the gestation and birth of the new nation.Keywords: Amitav Ghosh, Manju Kapur, The Shadow Lines, Diffi cult Daughters, history, genealogy, women, Indian Literature in English.Resumen:Desde la publicación de Midnight’s Children de Salman Rushdie, la historia reciente de la novela india en lengua inglesa se ha visto marcada por un interés creciente en reescribir la historia de la India desde un ángulo diametralmente opuesto al de la historiografía oficial. Partiendo del concepto de la genealogía nietzscheana de Foucault, que enfatiza el valor de la microhistoria y cuestiona la linealidad narrativa de la práctica historiográfica, este estudio analiza dos obras de inquietante paralelismo basadas en la independencia y posterior división del subcontinente indio: The Shadow Lines de Amitav Ghosh y Difficult Daughters de Manju Kapur. Se centra principalmente en la deconstrucción de los mitos nacionalistas, donde la mujer y la maternidad se convierten en foco de toda una alegoría en torno a la gestación y nacimiento de la nueva nación.Palabras clave: Amitav Ghosh, Manju Kapur, The Shadow Lines, Difficult Daughters, historia, genealogía, mujeres, literatura india en lengua inglesa.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-146
Author(s):  
Karin Wolgast

Abstract Introducing life and work of Janina Katz, the article undertakes an analysis and interpretation of her second novel, the autofictional Putska. Born on the second of March 1939, Katz belonged to a renowned Jewish family with numerous members, of whom, however, only her mother and she survived the Second World War. Their extraordinary family history may be traced in practically all of Katz’ writings, as can her Jewish cultural heritage. The novel Putska is no exception. Its composition, characters and the image it gives of life in Cracow are examined in order to make understandable the protagonist’s decision to exile herself from Poland and migrate to Denmark, much like the author herself. 1969, having fled from that revival of anti-Semite harassment which was launched by the political leadership of socialist Poland, Katz was granted asylum in Denmark, where she soon learned the language to a perfection which enabled her to unfold a widely acknowledged literary work which does not cease to speak of her unique life experience. Central perspectives on her life and work include migration, autobiography, Jewishness and social and cultural history of Poland.


Author(s):  
Bokshan Halyna

The purpose of the paper is to examine the specificity of the modeling of the character-narrator’s body identity in B. Hrabal’s novel “I Served the King of England”. Firstly it stresses on the body-centered nature of the narration in this literary work, in which the evolution of personality is represented as “a history of the body”. The study focuses on the techniques of restructurizing “the body scheme” and the manifestation of psychophysiological transgression caused by the existing “archetypal canons”. It traces the correlation of the semantics of the body identity with the aesthetic categories of the beautiful and the ugly and with gender differentiation. The paper also considers gastronomy as one of the aspects of bodiliness in B. Hrabal’s novel. It details the poetics of grotesque which manifests itself in the descriptions of the body emphasizing its objectiveness. The study looks at the Rabelaisian traditions followed by the writer in the depiction of the scenes connected with eating both everyday food and exotic dishes. The research underlines that the body in B. Hrabal’s novel is displayed as a genetic data medium, visualized through physical characteristics, that highlights the social arrangement of the body identity problems. It pays attention to the social function of a human face in archaic societies originally interpreted in the novel. The research determines the peculiarities of the space marking of the body in the literary work and its correlation with the binary opposition “top–bottom”. It looks at the formation of the body identity by means of a mirror reflection and the image of the double. The conclusions of the research emphasize the specificity of the modeling of the body identity in the novel of the Czech writer. The results of this scientific paper can be used in further research on B. Hrabal literary prose and in comparative studie


Asian Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-227
Author(s):  
Tahereh AHMADIPOUR

Bartol’s Alamut as a valuable Slovenian literary work has been exposed to several interpretations for more than 70 years. The simplest or maybe the most credulous reading of this book is the one that considers it as a history book. This reading deems that the novel literally narrates the political and social events of Iran in the 11th century, the time that the Ismailis with Hasan Sabbah as the leader ruled over Alamut Castle. In this article the novel’s most important interpretations have been provided by discussing the deliberate critical essays through content analysis and historical criticism of the happenings. Then by using some important historical documents and relevant evidence, some events and persons of that time have been detected. The main aim of the article is to show that while Bartol incorporated a vast knowledge of the history of the Middle East as the core part of his novel, he also regarded his own nation and the miserable events of his own country. As a matter of fact he sent a harsh message through creating his own Hasan Sabbah, without any concern for the history.


2019 ◽  
pp. 274-279
Author(s):  
A. A. Gaponenkov

In his review of A. Demchenko’s two-volume academic biography of N. Chernyshevsky, the author dwells on the biographer’s approach to the sources, treated with utmost critical scrutiny. He also discusses the established combination of ideological principles and the evolution of worldview. Chernyshevsky remained a truly democratic thinker throughout his years, and the concept of his democratism is at the core of the biography produced by Demchenko. The book succeeds in creating a multi-faceted perception of Chernyshevsky’s colossal personality, drawing thousands of historical names into its orbit. A. Demchenko meticulously retraces Chernyshevsky’s ‘literary work’: the creative history of What Is to Be Done? [Chto delat?], the works from his Siberian exile, and the lost oeuvre (e. g. the novel The Sower [Seyatel]) as well as Chernyshevsky’s post-Siberian attempt to re-enter big literature and journalism.


Author(s):  
Feliks M. Shteinbuk ◽  

The interest to literary works of I. Babel has not decreased for the last few years. However, the problem of the author�s main book is not solved yet because the history of writing �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) proves that the initial discrete character of the composition turns the standard situation which leads to formation of the unique genre of Babel�s book. The aim of the article is to analyze the plot composition of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) and define the character of its composition uniqueness and genre of this literary work, applying the comparative approach and using elements of the hermeneutic method, and also structural and functional methods. The episodes, included in the best book of the writer, were initially published as separate stories and novellas in varied newspapers and magazines mostly in 1923-1924. If we make a comparative analysis of the episodes sequence, taking into account the date when they were published and the configuration done by the writer in the final variant, it will become obvious that the order of publishing does not correspond to either the dates, or their order in the traditional variant of some editions of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�). The discrepancy of the episodes sequence according to every position can indicate that their final configuration is the result of not a random but a conscientious choice based on the specific composition design. The examples to testify the aforementioned view on the creation of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) can be the following episodes, such as �A Letter�, �Crossing the Zbruch�, �The Church at Novograd� or �Betrayal�, �Argamak�, �A Kiss� because their position in the book is strictly determined and not accidental. Another example of how important the composition structure of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) for its content is the presence and position of the episodes related with the topos of movement. There are a few episodes in the book, namely �Crossing the Zbruch�, �The Chief of Konzapas�, �The Road to Brody�, �Discourse on the Tachanka�, �The Story of a Horse�, �Konkin�, �The Story of a Horse, Continued�, �Argamak�. Thus, having analyzed the composition uniqueness of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�), we can state that first, the book by I. Babel is the result of long, controversial, stressed, and often painful search of the appropriate form to depict the artistic idea which is the basis of this literary work. Second, the composition of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) is not an arbitrary or random selection of works but a thoroughly built and tightly bound structure, every part of which, becoming a part of the whole, almost loses its �independence� and �autonomy� because it is determined and in its turn determines other parts of the book. Finally, third, the discrete, interrupted character of the composition of �Konarmiya� (�Cavalry Army�) does not deny that this literary work is integral but only indicates a different way to organize artistic space, a novel one in particular, and establishes the possibility of divergent form of the novel or a �discrete� novel. It is such a genre variety which is based on the principle of interrupted continuity and negation of linear development of events while depicting the characters and building the text composition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Lee

The lexeme Rhythmus has a long history of its own. In the context of Goethe’s thought, it needs to be approached via both his theoretical discussions of the term and his handling of rhythm in his literary work. Goethe conceives of rhythm in terms of its materiality, and its major philosophical opportunity is the intense connection that it offers between subject and object. Goethe’s attitude to meter—that is, rhythm organized for the purposes of poetic production—was ambivalent: although he mastered any number of different verse forms, he remained suspicious of poetic rhythms that were too metronomic. The creative tension of rhythm is an implicit theme in various works and is explored through two examples in this entry: the poem “Der Musensohn” (1774/1800; The Son of the Muses) and the character Mignon from the novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–1796; Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document