scholarly journals Compulsory Heterosexuality and Homophobia: Reading of Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta and The World Unseen by Shamim Sarif

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Judith Chepkoech ◽  
Robert Wesonga ◽  
Cellyne Anudo

Traditionally, sexuality has often been determined by one’s gender and has further been complicated by heterosexism and homophobic ideas. This paper examines the topic of sexuality as portrayed in fiction from selected literary texts. It constitutes the discussion of various factors that affect people at different levels in association with same-sex relationships, as reflected in the literary texts. The main objective of the paper is to analyse how heteronormative societies respond to lesbian homosexuality. To establish this argument, this paper explores Sarif’s The World Unseen (2007) and Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees (2015). It seeks to answer the question: what is (are) the response(s) of heteronormative society to lesbianism in the selected texts. Ultimately it hopes to contribute to the existing but limited research on understanding experiences of lesbian homosexuals by shedding light on cultural practices that are put in place in an attempt to normalise heterosexuality. The paper utilises Judith Butler’s Queer theory to achieve its objective. The significant concern in this theory is the correlation between gender and sex. The major tenets being gender performativity, the fluid nature of sexuality, and the deconstruction of characterisation structures.

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-153
Author(s):  
Anastasiia Gubaidullina ◽  

The article focuses on Mikhail Yasnov’s poetry that is addressed to children of different ages, from younger preschoolers to older schoolchildren. Yasnov’s poetry is viewed as a corpus of texts united by several general principles: among them are the harmony of childhood and the child’s trust in the world. Another unifying principle is poetic dialogue, manifested at different levels of literary texts: from characters and imagery to metatextuality and the author’s consciousness. Dialogue in this paper is understood as overcoming a single point of view, an attempt to go beyond the personal I motivated by the attention to the Other. Yasnov’s poetry focuses on the search for similarities and differences between the phenomena of reality as it presents many voices and life positions. The concept of dialogue has great moral potential in children’s poetry as it contributes to the formation of empathy and development of self-knowledge in children. The aesthetic value of dialogue lays in the enrichment of the thematic and figurative structure of the lyrics.


CounterText ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-113
Author(s):  
Shaobo Xie

The paper celebrates the publication of Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller's Thinking Literature across Continents as a significant event in the age of neoliberalism. It argues that, in spite of the different premises and the resulting interpretative procedures respectively championed by the two co-authors, both of them anchor their readings of literary texts in a concept of literature that is diametrically opposed to neoliberal rationality, and both impassionedly safeguard human values and experiences that resist the technologisation and marketisation of the humanities and aesthetic education. While Ghosh's readings of literature offer lightning flashes of thought from the outside of the Western tradition, signalling a new culture of reading as well as a new manner of appreciation of the other, Miller dedicatedly speaks and thinks against the hegemony of neoliberal reason, opening our eyes to the kind of change our teaching or reading of literature can trigger in the world, and the role aesthetic education should and can play at a time when the humanities are considered ‘a lost cause’.


CounterText ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Sawhney

Engaging some of the questions opened by Ranjan Ghosh's and J. Hillis Miller's book Thinking Literature Across Continents (2016), this essay begins by returning to Aijaz Ahmad's earlier invocation of World Literature as a project that, like the proletariat itself, must stand in an antithetical relation to the capitalism that produced it. It asks: is there an essential link between a certain idea of literature and a figure of the world? If we try to broach this link through Derrida's enigmatic and repeated reflections on the secret – a secret ‘shared’ by both literature and democracy – how would we grasp Derrida's insistence on the ‘Latinity’ of literature? The groundlessness of reading that we confront most vividly in our encounter with fictional texts is both intensified, and in a way, clarified, by new readings and questions posed by the emergence of new reading publics. The essay contends that rather than being taught as representatives of national literatures, literary texts in ‘World Literature’ courses should be read as sites where serious historical and political debates are staged – debates which, while being local, are the bearers of universal significance. Such readings can only take place if World Literature strengthens its connections with the disciplines Miller calls, in the book, Social Studies. Paying particular attention to the Hindi writer Premchand's last story ‘Kafan’, and a brief section from the Sanskrit text the Natyashastra, it argues that struggles over representation, over the staging of minoritised figures, are integral to fiction and precede the thinking of modern democracy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-119
Author(s):  
VLADIMIR GLEB NAYDONOV

The article considers the students’ tolerance as a spectrum of personal manifestations of respect, acceptance and correct understanding of the rich diversity of cultures of the world, values of others’ personality. The purpose of the study is to investgate education and the formation of tolerance among the students. We have compiled a training program to improve the level of tolerance for interethnic differences. Based on the statistical analysis of the data obtained, the most important values that are significant for different levels of tolerance were identified.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Elvira Lumi ◽  
Lediona Lumi

"Utterance universalism" as a phrase is unclear, but it is enough to include the term "prophetism". As a metaphysical concept, it refers to a text written with inspiration which confirms visions of a "divine inspiration", "poetic" - "legal", that contains trace, revelation or interpretation of the origin of the creation of the world and life on earth but it warns and prospects their future in the form of a projection, literary paradigm, religious doctrine and law. Prophetic texts reformulate "toll-telling" with messages, ideas, which put forth (lat. "Utters Forth" gr. "Forthteller") hidden facts from fiction and imagination. Prometheus, gr. Prometheus (/ prəmiθprə-mee-mo means "forethought") is a Titan in Greek mythology, best known as the deity in Greek mythology who was the creator of humanity and charity of its largest, who stole fire from the mount Olympus and gave it to the mankind. Prophetic texts derive from a range of artifacts and prophetic elements, as the creative magic or the miracle of literary texts, symbolism, musicality, rhythm, images, poetic rhetoric, valence of meaning of the text, code of poetic diction that refers to either a singer in a trance or a person inspired in delirium, who believes he is sent by his God with a message to tell about events and figures that have existed, or the imaginary ancient and modern world. Text Prophetism is a combination of artifacts and platonic idealism. Key words: text Prophetism, holy text, poetic text, law text, vision, image, figure


Author(s):  
Admink Admink ◽  
Сергій Виткалов ◽  
Валентина Вігула

Розглядається організаційно-культурна діяльність одного з помітних у регіональному просторі Західного Полісся фотомитця – Олександра Купчинського, а саме виставковий її вектор, втілений в презентації артефактів світового фотомистецтва; видавничий, розглянутий у  контексті  друку  різноманітних  фотоальбомів  із  творів експонентів, організація творчих зустрічей художньої інтелігенції міста з питань обговорення актуальних питань культурного розвитку, заснування фотоклубу тощо. Доводиться, що втрата зв’язку з Батьківщиною, у якій би формі це не відбувалося, не дозволяє митцю творчо самореалізуватися повною мірою. The importance and problematic range of local government reform in the regions of the country and ways of its solution in the field of culture are analyzed. The most effective steps are proposed for management structures at different levels to change attitudes of both the management and the local population regarding different cultural practices. Emphasis is placed on the role of sectoral methodological services in the implementation of this reform. The experience of other countries in activating the local population in this process is emphasized. An attempt has been made to offer effective, in the authors' opinion, solutions to the reform. Emphasis is placed on the educational factor.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095624782110193
Author(s):  
Vanesa Castán Broto

All over the world, people suffer violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Queer theory has linked the politics of identity and sexuality with radical democracy experiments to decolonize development. Queering participatory planning can improve the wellbeing of vulnerable sectors of the population, while also enhancing their political representation and participation. However, to date, there has been limited engagement with the politics of sexuality and identity in participatory planning. This paper identifies three barriers that prevent the integration of queer concerns. First, queer issues are approached as isolated and distinct, separated from general matters for discussion in participatory processes. Second, heteronormative assumptions have shaped two fields that inform participatory planning practices: development studies and urban planning. Third, concrete, practical problems (from safety concerns to developing shared vocabularies) make it difficult to raise questions of identity and sexuality in public discussions. An engagement with queer thought has potential to renew participatory planning.


Author(s):  
Mohammad Paydar ◽  
Asal Kamani Fard

More than 150 cities around the world have expanded emergency cycling and walking infrastructure to increase their resilience in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic. This tendency toward walking has led it to becoming the predominant daily mode of transport that also contributes to significant changes in the relationships between the hierarchy of walking needs and walking behaviour. These changes need to be addressed in order to increase the resilience of walking environments in the face of such a pandemic. This study was designed as a theoretical and empirical literature review seeking to improve the walking behaviour in relation to the hierarchy of walking needs within the current context of COVID-19. Accordingly, the interrelationship between the main aspects relating to walking-in the context of the pandemic- and the different levels in the hierarchy of walking needs were discussed. Results are presented in five sections of “density, crowding and stress during walking”, “sense of comfort/discomfort and stress in regard to crowded spaces during walking experiences”, “crowded spaces as insecure public spaces and the contribution of the type of urban configuration”, “role of motivational/restorative factors during walking trips to reduce the overload of stress and improve mental health”, and “urban design interventions on arrangement of visual sequences during walking”.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 64-68
Author(s):  
A. M. SAMIDOV ◽  

The article analyzes the problems of existing mechanisms to stimulate financing of «green» projects. Statistical data on financing of «green» projects in the world and in Russia presented. Criteria and standards for financing «green projects», financing problems in regions with different levels of socio-economic development, and so on are considered.


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