What if? Epidemic discourse and serial narration in the alternate history series La Révolution (2020)

The article examines the formal and thematic manifestations of seriality in the Netflix series La Révolution, which justifies the revolutionary outbreak in a counterfactual plot with a viral outbreak that turns the nobles into zombie-like monsters. While, on a macrostructural level, the generic frame of alternate history promotes the serial character through the varying repetition of the historical event, the microstructural level of the narration evokes seriality by exponential contagion and spread of the disease as well as an increasing spiral of violence. First, the focus is on the representation of the aristocrat as a monster in pamphlets and caricatures of the revolutionary era. Subsequent to a contextualization of seriality in the age of streaming platforms, the analysis then discusses the medium-specific implementation of the epidemic discourse based on selected sequences of the series. Finally, it gives a hypothetical outlook on the implied motivations regarding the fictional development of the revolutionary event: through its contrasting exaggeration, the alternate-historical narrative can shed new light on the real historical events.

Spaces and Faces

Diasporic writing has been gaining prominence as a genre in recent times. If one were to consider what holds the attention of the audience in this genre, one could narrow it down to its concern with identity and identification as also its recording of an alternate history, which would have otherwise been suppressed and forgotten. Among these writers a significant name is M.G. Vassanji who through his prolific writing explores these alternative histories dispersed across spaces. Considering himself at home in all the places he has lived in and those that are a part of his heritage, he speaks about diasporics, as those that are condemned to remain on the fringes. Complementing/complicating these are his affiliations, some of which he was born into and others which he has acquired. This paper explores the many faces that he claims, or those that have been attributed to him.

Representation of the Namasudras in Literature

In Bengali Dalit literature, the Namasudra writers and poets play a crucial role in combating the complete social margsinalization of Dalits, their movements, iconography, experiences, and worldview. According to Manohar Mouli Biswas, “It is a counter cultural movement that has been aiming to undo the age-old caste ridden oppressions against the dalits by representing their lives, deprivations, struggles, histories and promoting their culture and liberation through literature” (Biswas XXV). There have recently been many books written by Dalit Namasudra authors, some of which have been published in English. Using these archives and texts, we may now see the Dalit Namasudras from a different perspective, one that previously would not have been possible through the use of traditional historical archives and writings. Among them mentionable are Manohar Mouli Biswas’s Amar Bhubane Ami Benche Thaki translated as Surviving in My World, Manoranjan Byapari’s Itibritte Chandal Jiban translated as Interrogating My Chandal Life, Dr. Manoranjan Sarkar’s Ekjan Daliter Atmakatha, Jatin Bala’s Sikar Chenra Jiban and so on. This article attempts to rebuild the alternate history of the Namasudras by deconstructing the standard material on the subject using historical and literary analysis.

Narrative Quantum Cosmology in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

Twentieth-century drama has made the stage a site for reflecting on science. Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, considered by many as one of the most striking contributions to “science plays,” portrays the elusive yet crucial short meeting of the two pillars of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, in the autumn of 1941. The play employs ‘real’ scientists as characters that recurrently refer to and explain their scientific ideas such as uncertainty and complementarity, recognized as the Copenhagen Interpretation. Adopting the approach of possible worlds theory, this article analyses the concept of ‘possible worlds’ as projected in Copenhagen in light of the idea that physics itself has proposed a proliferation of parallel universes (multiverse). In fact, our main thesis is that the play offers an alternate history and brings about a myriad of counterfactuals that are tested as “drafts.”

Merging Fact, Fiction and Myth: Reading TD Ramakrishnan’s Sugandhi Enna Aandaal Devanayaki as a Historiographic Metafiction

TD Ramakrishnan’s novel Sugandhi Enna Aandaal Devanayaki is a mixture of the mythological, metaphysical and historical into a fictional space which transcends the boundaries of nation. The novel is a quest for retelling the historical trauma of Sreelanka. In the search for Sugandhi a Tamil liberation activist, the narrator stumbles upon the mythical Sugandhi from the folklore, creating tension between faction and reality. In the search for the mythical Sugandhi Ramakrishnan uses ‘SusinaSupina’ and arrives at Devanayaki belonging to 7th century AD Pallava Dynasty. As fact, fiction and myth blur into the contemporary social space, the myth of Devanayaki merges with Rajani Thirinagame creating the notion of the alternate history from a female perspective. In the novel History blurs into myth, reality into fiction, contemporary into past, individual into society and body into spirit.TD Ramakrishnan deconstructs the millennium old Tamil- Sinhalese political history using the alternate history from mythology and folklore. This paper is an attempt to read the novel Sugandhi Enna AandaalDevanayaki as a Historiographic metafiction.