Metanarrative Autofiction: Critical Engagement with Cultural Narrative Models

This chapter examines a new form of autofiction that has emerged in the twenty-first century, which the chapter proposes to call metanarrative autofiction. Such writing displays awareness of how our ways of narrating our lives are socially, culturally, and historically conditioned. The chapter conceptualizes metanarrativity in this context as a form of self-reflexive storytelling that makes narrative its theme, reflecting not only on the process of its own narration but also on the roles of cultural narrative models in making sense of our lives. The chapter discusses affordances of metanarrative autofiction in Annie Ernaux’s Les Années (The Years) (2008), Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Min kamp (My Struggle) (2009–2011), and the Finnish singer-songwriter Astrid Swan’s Viimeinen kirjani (2019, My Last Book).

Agrarian Studies and the Caste Conundrum

The article calls for a recognition of caste as a structuring reality of agrarian life in South Asia. Such a recognition may also have a larger and comparative bearing beyond India. The article also argues for a simultaneous recognition of the serious problems with the almost universally accepted “idealistic” conceptualizations of caste. Further, approaching caste as an aspect of land relations and the realities of economic processes would significantly enhance our understanding of its obvious materiality, which makes it persist in contemporary times. A widespread “blindness” towards caste in the agrarian studies and, likewise, the imaginations of caste primarily as a “religious” phenomenon have broader academic and political implications. Bringing them together would thus require a recognition and opening-up of this academic conundrum. A critical engagement with the disciplinary framings of agrarian studies and, perhaps more importantly, of caste studies is thus called for.

Taking ideology seriously in the time of plague: insights versus distractions

This article argues that insights from ideology theory shed valuable light on the political aspects of COVID-19 and help understand and categorise policy responses to it. Much of the debate on the politics of COVID-19 has been dominated by questions concerning populism, but this article contends that this is not a fruitful direction for understanding current developments. The argument advanced here is that populism is a hollow and incoherent ideological category and so does not provide a suitable departure point to explore the ideological dimension of the pandemic. On the other hand, a critical engagement with the dominant ideology of neoliberalism goes a long way to explain different kinds of political fallout from COVID-19. While neoliberalism is unfit for the challenge posed by the virus, identifying the ideological underpinnings of the neoliberal approach may help to grasp its implications and formulate urgently needed alternatives.

Word & Image

This chapter examines the relationships between visual and verbal media in Roman antiquity. More specifically, it demonstrates how the study of Roman art intersects with the study of ancient Greek and Latin texts, and vice versa. Despite the tendency to segregate areas of scholarly expertise—above all, to separate “classical archaeology” from “classical philology”—any critical engagement with Roman imagery and iconography must go hand in hand with critical readings of written materials. The chapter proceeds in three parts. First, it explores some of the ways in which Roman literary texts (both Greek and Latin) engaged with visual subjects. Second, it discusses the textuality of Roman visual culture, surveying the roles that inscriptions played on Roman buildings, statues, mosaics, paintings, and other media. Third, it demonstrates the “intermedial”—or, perhaps better, the “iconotextual”—workings of Roman texts and images, with particular reference to the fourth-century ce picture-poems of Optatian.

Editorial policy

The Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training (JOVACET) recognises the need for critical engagement through studies in TVET and Adult and Continuing education and training, and for encouraging critical scrutiny of this expansive knowledge area on the African continent.

Opus Oppidum: Research for architecture, research beyond the city

<p>Metropolises around the globe continue on the path of relentless growth under the extreme forces of urbanisation, whilst the provinces are neglected. This design-led research builds on recent discussions concerning New Zealand’s regional inequality and decline, calling upon the critical role of architecture. It asks, what about the small towns? What about the non-city? The research presented in this thesis was deployed through a dual inquiry; Firstly, it explores the emergent rurban context of the non-city as architecture’s project; Secondly, it seeks to reveal methods for architecture’s critical engagement as a catalyst towards regional transformation and prosperity. An uninhabited ‘buffer zone’ between Port Otago and the township of Port Chalmers is presented as the rurban context for architecture’s project. Developed in parallel to the design inquiry, the theoretical framework discusses new critical urban theory, arguing for a new lens to which design methods and experiments within form and field can be tested. The dual inquiry reveals strategies and tactics towards a transformative rurbanism equating to the final design proposition: Opus Oppidum: A possible armature. The conglomeration of the final design proposition, theoretical framework and exploration of design method, form a body of work that establishes the rurban condition (the non-city) as a place that desperately needs architecture’s critical engagement, and a place that is critical for the discipline of architecture.</p>

Opus Oppidum: Research for architecture, research beyond the city

<p>Metropolises around the globe continue on the path of relentless growth under the extreme forces of urbanisation, whilst the provinces are neglected. This design-led research builds on recent discussions concerning New Zealand’s regional inequality and decline, calling upon the critical role of architecture. It asks, what about the small towns? What about the non-city? The research presented in this thesis was deployed through a dual inquiry; Firstly, it explores the emergent rurban context of the non-city as architecture’s project; Secondly, it seeks to reveal methods for architecture’s critical engagement as a catalyst towards regional transformation and prosperity. An uninhabited ‘buffer zone’ between Port Otago and the township of Port Chalmers is presented as the rurban context for architecture’s project. Developed in parallel to the design inquiry, the theoretical framework discusses new critical urban theory, arguing for a new lens to which design methods and experiments within form and field can be tested. The dual inquiry reveals strategies and tactics towards a transformative rurbanism equating to the final design proposition: Opus Oppidum: A possible armature. The conglomeration of the final design proposition, theoretical framework and exploration of design method, form a body of work that establishes the rurban condition (the non-city) as a place that desperately needs architecture’s critical engagement, and a place that is critical for the discipline of architecture.</p>

Problematising Tribality: A Critical Engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories

Tribality simply means the characteristic features of various tribal communities and the qualities of being tribal. In the 1940s leading anthropologists like Verrier Elwin and G.S.Ghurye tried to theorize and categorize tribal identities. However, they were often accused of representing either a ‘protective’ or ‘romantic’ notions of tribality. One cannot determine the tribality of a person based on their features, dialects, food habits or geographical location. Tribality is said to bind the pan-Indian Tribal literature which is again problematic considering language which is considered as the useful indicator of any identity. Tribal Literature is a distinct form of writing to represent people, things and ideas in their cultural authenticities. The tribals essentially have an oral culture and thus when a tribal writer like Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a Government Doctor by profession, writes in the canonical English language, we will be tempted to probe if he seeks to ‘write in’ or ‘write back’ to the mainstream literary culture; or if his works can fit into the mould of minor literature, thereby making the seemingly personal an intensely political statement. This paper also aims to interrogate issues of tribal identity and their representation through a critical engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2017).