Labyrinth|Vol.4-No.2

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Jun 20, 2012 ... Humayun Ahmed's Road to Popularity with Himu and Misir Ali .... margin between 'high' and 'low' literature, the Himu and Misir Ali books.
Table of Contents Articles: Stoppard's Postmodern Differance: The Courage of No Convictions - Sarangadhar Baral 5-13 Trans-creating the Bard in Alien Soil: A Critical Look at Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool - N D Dani 14-20 The Use of Short-stories in EFL Classroom: Advantages and Implications - Mustafa Mubarak Pathan 21-26 Humayun Ahmed's Road to Popularity with Himu and Misir Ali - Syed Mahmudur Rahman 27-37 Portia's Journey from the Margin to the Centre in Shakespeare's Play The Merchant of Venice - Tanuka Das 38-45 A Comparative Study of R.K.Narayan's Talkative Man and R.K.Laxman's Common Man - Sandhya Saxena 46-52 A Foucauldian Study of Power, Gender and Violence in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - Nozar Niazi, Zohreh Daeizadeh 53-62 “Unfencing the Fence”: The Wife as Mediator in August Wilson's Fences - Yvonne Iden Ngwa 63-76 Revisiting the Gender Issues: The Good Girls' Revolt by Lynn Povich - Daisy 77-84 Toni Morrison's Fiction: Challenging Authority - Shruti Das 85-91 Religious Ethos and Re-Visioning Reality: Ethical Outbreak in the Autobiography of Sr. Jesme's Amen and Sarah Joseph's Fictional Analogue Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side - S. Visaka Devi 92-103 Major Developing Trends in the Representation of the Marginalized Sections of the Indian Society in the Indian Dalit Literature: A Critical Study - Abhinandan Malas 104-111 Globalization and the Changing Perspectives on Intelligibility of English - Roy Pushpavilasam Veettil 112-117 Marxist Reading of Ernest J Gaines's Of Love And Dust and A Gathering of Old Man - C. Jayapal & K. Ravichandran 118-122 Ecological Crisis in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams - Chinsu Joy 123-127 Bharud : The Folk Art - Admane Meera 128-131

Carnivalising the Grey Friar : A Bakhtinian Survey of Eco-Spirituality in God's Pauper - Alwin Alexander 132-136 The Emotional and Social Plight of The Homosexual in Dattani's On A Muggy Night In Mumbai and Mango Souffle - Sangeeta Das 137-143 Maya Pandit's The Prisons We Broke: Translation As An Act of Power and An Expression of Ideology - Muktaja Mathkari 144-148 The Pursuit of Happiness in Robinson Crusoe and The Scarlet Letter - Baleid Taha Shamsan 149-157 “Strong myths never die”: A Postmodern Reading of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad - C M Dhanumol 158-164 Potential Abilities, Real Disabilities: Dattani's Tara - Anshoo Sharma 165-171 Voicing the Subaltern in the works of Margaret Wilson - Binda Sah 172-176 Excess and Exaggeration: A Critical Reading of Gabriel García Márquez's Short Story Big Mama's Funeral - Bhatima Barman 177-181 Anarchy and Chaos in V.S. Naipaul's Guerrillas - Sonia Soni 182-187 Voice for an Identity: Globalization and Gay Community - Sunita Agarwal 188-193 Perception of International Students on Multiculturalism in Malaysian Universities - Ambigapathy Pandian, Shanthi Balraj Baboo & Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh 194-207

Interview K.V. Dominic

Our Esteemed Contributors

- Elisabetta Marino

208-212 215

Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 5-13

Stoppard's Postmodern Differance: The Courage of No Convictions - Sarangadhar Baral Abstract: The Stoppardian play enacts a postmodern situation where an acknowledgment of the undecidable, however incoherently comprehended, is met with realistic, identifiable men but with witty measures of parody, inscribed with an enlivening sense of playfulness. In this, Stoppard aims to self-discursively move beyond the limits of the absurd. Stoppard's dramatic texts are steeped in dialogic premises which can be lighted by the Bhaktinian socio-linguistics. Stoppard reveals that he is “a man of no convictions,” and believes that one should have the courage of no convictions. This amply reveals the playwright's moral of no convictions explored through interplay of convictions and counter-convictions; in other words, he interrogates and subverts established beliefs under dominant traditions that drive his dramatic characters and situations which ignore or oppress the other silent and suppressed ones. Keywords: Convictions, pluralism, plurivocality, Travesties, Jumpers

The idea of humans holding onto no convictions with courage sounds not only paradoxical but unappealing too; and it appears more uninteresting when it is literature's domain, since art characteristically posits an exemplary courage at the center of its conflicts. But Stoppard does not fail to capture the imagination of the age and that of the theatre world in particular. His attitude toward convictions or confirmed beliefs gets revealed through many dramatic modes, especially through parody, dialectic and play. Stoppard has admitted that his chimed line comes from Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist: “I'm a man of no convictions — at least, I think I am.” (Delaney 108) Kenneth Tynan once charged that Stoppard preferred to float above the battle rather than take an uncomfortable position in the moral trenches (108). To this Stoppard's response would be that he does not believe some overall context like an intellectualized cosmos is always ideal to make sense of his writing, in other words, make up “a certain sort of writer with certain appropriate preoccupations” (108). But that he is not morally involved is a pseudotruth. He asserts, “I am always morally, if not politically, involved.” (ibid 107). His Professional Foul and Every Good man Deserves Favor dispels even the misconception of Stoppard's politically detached or morally uncomfortable position. The courage of having no convictions is insinuatingly a kind of conviction in itself. This inescapable paradox defines the characteristic attitude of Stoppard as a dramatist who would claim no authority of miraculous knowledge, no logocentrist finalism. A

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 14-20

Trans-creating the Bard in Alien Soil: A Critical Look at Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool - N D Dani Abstract: This paper proposes to critically assess the 'achievement' of the Indian filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj's trans-creation of 'Macbeth' in Hindi. The Hindi trans-creation titled Maqbool has no doubt received both praise and reservations at the hands of film critics and reviewers. Keywords: Shakespeare, Macbeth,Vishal Bhardwaj, Maqbool

Shakespeare's plays have always fascinated filmmakers and television producers who have tried to transfer his memorable creations from the medium of the stage to the medium of the film and the small screen. According to one estimate four hundred plus screen and television incarnations of the Bard have been attempted and while most of them are straight transfers from the stage to the other medium, a good number of them are adaptations varying in the degree of alterations that have been introduced in the adapted versions. Let it be said that the straight transfers are certainly a challenge to the director and actors as the wide gap between the medium of the stage and the medium of the film and television confer both advantages and disadvantages. According to film folklore (film folklore/gossip runs the risk of being apocryphal, hence should be taken with a pinch of salt) Lawrence Olivier, whose masterly creations of Shakespeare's tragic heroes are well known, simply laughed at the idea of transferring the Bard to the silver screen when the idea was first shared with him.That he succeeded so well bespeaks of his histrionic capacity to understand and take up the challenge and deliver. The paper will quickly look apart from Maqbool, the film under study, at two other film versions of Macbeth, the one being 'Orson Welles' Macbeth in English and the other being Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood' made in Japanese, but available with English sub-titles. The purpose of considering, albeit quickly, these two films is to compare the extent of the liberties that a Western filmmaker and an Asian/ nonwestern filmmaker take while transferring the Bard from the stage to the cinematic medium. These liberties may range over the whole gamut of the dramatic elements from setting to dialogue or may be restricted to a few select elements and are guided by the thematic visions that the filmmaker is able to bring onto the original play of Shakespeare. Orson Welles wanted to draw attention to the element of violence in Shakespeare's Macbeth and that's why his film on the play introduced certain changes in the original. A quick look can be taken at these changes. Incidents of violence reported in the original play are shown on the screen.The body of the traitor is shown hanging from a horizontal bar and Welles' camera focuses upon this element in the scene concerned. The execution of another traitor, namely,Thane of Cawdor, is performed with maximum ruthlessness in a scene before building up a sense of

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 21-26

The Use of Short-stories in EFL Classroom: Advantages and Implications - Mustafa Mubarak Pathan Abstract: Today, the foreign language teaching professions and intellectuals are strongly advocating and recommending the use of short-stories in EFL contexts as this use is said to contribute not only in the effective fostering of foreign language skills but also in multi-faceted, socio-cultural, cognitive, emotional as well as personal growth of foreign language learners. The use of short-stories in EFL classroom, thus, promises, the much needed and constantly sought, the true aim of teaching and learning of any foreign language, which is the linguistic and socio-cultural as well as personal development of foreign language learners as 'linguistically competent, open-minded, responsible citizens of this culturally diverse world'. Such multidimensional advantages and benefits of the use of short-stories, and their implications in EFL context, are discussed, both from theoretical and practical perspectives, in this paper. Keywords: EFL Learner, Language learning, Story telling

Introduction: Literary texts, in general, and short stories, in particular, have been an important source of teaching and learning materials for EFL classes for ages as they demonstrate a wide range of language use in authentic contexts. Stories, being the product of creative writers, are rich in language and have many pedagogical benefits for EFL teachers and learners. They arouse interest and love for reading among the EFL learners and can offer maximum exposure of functional and situational use of language, which is considered not only essential, in foreign language teaching and learning context, but also very important to understand and master the intricacies and nuances of the target language like English. Along with such infinite linguistic benefits, stories also possess many social, moral, cognitive as well as emotional and personal benefits that can contribute a great deal to the socio-cultural, emotional, cognitive and personal growth of EFL learners. Probably it is this understanding, of such advantages underlying in the use of short-stories in the foreign language context, has made many professions and pedagogues in the field to advocate their use for developing not only the language skills but also other personal traits. 1. Advantages of Using Short-stories in EFL Classroom and their Implications: The use of short-stories in EFL classroom, for developing language skills, has always been the topic of academic debates and discussions for ELT professions and pedagogues. Therefore, it is not surprise that we find plenty of literature on the topic, discussing various aspect of such use. These debates, discussions and research studies, on the potential advantages of the use of short-stories in the EFL classrooms and their implications for EFL teachers and learners, have often ended on recommending this use for effective teaching and learning of foreign

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 27-37

Humayun Ahmed's Road to Popularity with Himu and Misir Ali - Syed Mahmudur Rahman Abstract: In the realm of literary popular culture among the readers of Bangla literature, Himu and Misir Ali by Humayun Ahmed are two hyper-real popular icons. Both the characters enjoy high popularity because of their hyper-real sensitivity and supernatural power. Himu is also popular for his eccentric yet very catchy life style in which he enjoys endless freedom while Misir Ali is famous for his telepathic power through which he can communicate with the ever mysterious inner mechanics of human psyche. Misir Ali is a person of logic and rationality while Himu symbolizes anti-logic and unconventionality. Humayun Ahmed seems to cash in on the popularity of these characters, especially of Himu, though he seems to promote a set of his own ideology through these characters as well. In spite of the accusation of being 'inferior' kind of works, the books of Himu and Misir Ali are highly popular among the readers of Bangla literature. As the postmodern notion rejects the margin between 'high' and 'low' literature, the Himu and Misir Ali books can be evaluated in respect of Humayun Ahmed's popularity and commercial success achieved through them. Keywords: Humayun Ahmed, Himu, Misir Ali, popular culture, icon, postmodernism.

1. Humayun Ahmed's Road to Popularity with Himu and Misir Ali: An Overture - Humayun Ahmed is a popular writer among the readers of Bangla literature. His road to emerge as a popular writer is heavily merged with the road to popularity of Himu and Misir Ali. The emergence of Himu and Misir Ali as popular figures and their rise to popularity can be traced under the light of some distinct features of the two. Both Himu and Misir Ali are somehow different from the 'traditional' literary protagonists. These two are depicted under the light of some super-natural power and hyper-real sensitivity. They seem to be very familiar yet they are different. Himu, with his distinctly articulated lifestyle, somewhat scrappy personality and whimsical characteristics, forms a strange yet very attractive image of himself that delivers him an edge over Misir Ali in the realm of popularity. Himu becomes an iconic cult from an icon and starts enjoying the pleasure of having a community of followers. Himu becomes the hub of a complete network. Moreover, both Himu and Misir Ali attract the audience as the two successfully provide the readers the points of release against the people's natural longing for freedom; against the habitual desire to dismantle the chain of formality, sociality and civility; and, against the wish to see the future; against the desire to know the mystery of others' psychic realm. Himu and Misir Ali drag the readers into such a realm, in which, so many such things are possible that are impossible in the general course of lives or in reality. Miracles are performed by Himu and Misir Ali in points of anxiety so

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 38-45

Portia's Journey from the Margin to the Centre in Shakespeare's Play The Merchant of Venice - Tanuka Das Abstract: Portia in The Merchant ofVenice, (a play rife with positions of marginality and bondage), begins as a woman 'castrated' by a patriarchal society. She will have to marry and spend her life with any male who happens to open the right casket containing her picture. Her father, now dead, took away from her the right to choose a life partner to her liking. She conforms to the expectations that a patriarchal society has from an obedient daughter − by submitting to the lottery drawn over her life, her happiness.Trying to salvage some redeeming features about Portia from this situation, it could be said, however, that she has the power to love (and not to question), even if it is a tyrannical father. It is this power to love that later on gives her strength to do something unusual for a woman of her class at that time in the Venetian society. Thus it is that her love for Bassanio enables her to perform a 'reversal' of the gender roles. It is not that she puts on the dress and appearance of a young man in a notso-serious frame of mind somewhat in the manner of Rosalind in AsYou Like It. As she carefully thinks out her procedures, there is a playful attitude in her, infecting Nerissa, too (cf. Act 3, Sc.4). But then there is an exigency behind that move of hers. Where the learned, efficient, empowered males are failing to rescue her husband's dearly loved friend, she must achieve that feat. And her society would not allow her to even try to do that in her capacity as a woman. She therefore determinedly ventures into the social space in the disguise of a man. It is like an adventure for her, exciting and challenging at the same time. Portia successfully executes the 'much-needed reversal' of the roles of the sexes. But Shakespeare does not allow her story to stop there. There is another dimension to her character that is revealed at this point in the play. Strengthened by her love for her husband she can confidently put him to a test of fidelity. She raises issues of her “worthiness” and his “own honour” vis-à-vis their marital relationship (cf. Act 5, Sc.1). Now it is she who determines and defines the bond between herself and her husband, in sharp contrast to her situation earlier, when she was in a relationship of 'bondage' traditionally enjoyed and wielded by Portia's father between her and himself. My paper would be a study of Portia's gradual emergence as a New Woman in the play. Keywords: Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice, Centre-Margin.

In the play The Merchant ofVenice (a play rife with positions of marginality and bondage) Portia begins as a marginal member of the patriarchal society in which her father decides entirely arbitrarily how she is to marry. Worse still, the manner in which her marriage can be initiated at all and then finalized, will also determine whom she is to marry. The entire

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.1 January-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 46-52

Talkative Man Vs Common Man: A Comparative Study of R.K. Narayan's Talkative Man and R.K. Laxman's Common Man - Sandhya Saxena Abstract: Art is the representation of life through different media. Words are the tools of a writer while lines constitute the paraphernalia of a cartoonist. The art of graphic satire and humour resembles a lot to the satiric and humourous sketches of a creative writer. In both cases, the representation of life emerges from visual sensibility and minute observation which make them create a universe where lines seem to be speaking immediately and words seem to be sketching a lively world of human beings. The present paper concentrates on the works of two artists: R.K.Narayan, whose novels and stories replete with the comic account of humanity and R.K.Laxman whose cartoons capture the entire gamut of contemporary conditions in India. Laxman creates an archetypal Common Man who is a silent spectator of multi-faceted humanity, which he minutely draws, pinpointing and highlighting their singularities and absurdities. Narayan's Talkative Man is a story teller with an irresistible urge to share his experiences with others. In the novelette Talkative Man, he finds himself caught into the mire of troubles as he publishes in his paper a photograph of Dr Rann who claims to be a United Nations' specialist. Talkative Man has an affinity with Laxman's Common Man. Keywords: R.K.Narayan, R.K.Laxman, Common Man, Talkative Man, Cartoonist, Comic Writer, R.K.Laxman Ki Duniya, Bakula Bhavesh Vasavda.

“Just as form and colour are used as means by some, who (whether by art or constant practice) imitate and portray many things by their aid, and the voice is used by others; so also in the above mentioned group of arts (poetry and drama), the means with them as a whole are rhythm, language and harmony-used, however, either singly or in certain combination.”(Aristotle, 23-24) Thus spoke Aristotle about the kinship of various kinds of fine arts. Poetry, music and painting- all imitate life through different means which attribute distinct shape to their reproduction and representation, yet a fundamental affinity is bound to be there. Words are the modes of expression for a creative writer while lines constitute the paraphernalia of a cartoonist. However, in the process of creation sometimes the words seem to be turning into lines while lines appear to be relating a tale of their own kind. Hence in the creative output of a literary artist there can be found word sketches which make him resemble a cartoonist. India has a glorious tradition of witty and satiric humour in the form of folklore and popular court jesters of yore. There are thousands of tales related to witty characters like Birbal and Tenaliram, who skillfully enjoyed the liberty of poking fun at the follies of

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.1 January-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 53-62

A Foucauldian Study of Power, Gender and Violence in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights - Nozar Niazi & Zohreh Daeizadeh Abstract: This paper studies Emily Bronte's only published novel Wuthering Heights from the New Historical point of view mainly based on Foucault's ideas. The focus is mostly on the dialogs and the circulating discourse throughout the novel. Foucault's concepts like gender, identity, discourse, opression, violence, resistance and their relationship with power are discussed. Also, this article elaborates on the circulating and dominant discourses flowing in the English society of the nineteenth century such as the discourse of patriarchy and masculinity, feminism and capitalism. In this article, the attempt is ventured to highlight and demonstrate how ordinary members of oppressive institutions are victimized within the manipulative power systems, and how their individuality and freedom are ignored as the consequences of their involvement in the power relations. Keywords: circulating discourse, gender, identity, oppression, power, resistance, sexuality, violence.

Introduction: Inspired by Foucault's concepts of discourse and power, New Historicists attempted to show how literary works are entangled in the power relations of their time, not as secondary 'reflections' of any coherent world-view but as active participants in the continual remaking of meanings. (Drabble, 2000, p. 719).

Power is often conceptualized as the capacity of powerful agents to realize their will over the will of powerless people, and the ability to force them to do things which they do not wish to do. Power is also often seen as a possession – something which is held onto by those in power, which the powerless try to wrest from their control. Foucault criticizes this view, arguing in The History of Sexuality,Vol. I (1978) that power is something which is performed, something more like a strategy than a possession. Power should be seen as a verb rather than a noun, something that does something, rather than something which is or which can be held onto. Foucault puts it in the following way in Power/Knowledge: "Power must be analyzed as something which circulates, or as something which only functions in the form of a chain ... Power is employed and exercised through a netlike organization ... Individuals are the vehicles of power, not its points of application" (1980a, p. 98). Foucault's view of power is directly counter to the conventional Marxist or early feminist model of power which sees power simply as a form of oppression or repression, what Foucault terms the 'repressive hypotheses'. Instead, he sees power as also "at the same time productive, something which brings about forms of

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.1 January-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 63-76

Unfencing the Fence: The Wife as Mediator in August Wilson's Fences - Yvonne Iden Ngwa Abstract: This paper aims at demonstrating the fact that, although the term “fences” in August Wilson's Fences is generally associated with “division” and “separation” by literary critics, “fences” in this play is equally a unifying agent― an enclosure. The playwright depicts a wife who is very instrumental in uniting family members, thus gathering them behind the fence built by her husband. The fence here therefore fosters family cohesion. Formalism and Feminism will both shed light on the division suggested by the metaphor of the fence and the wife's ability to break these divisions and convert this fence into a unifying enclosure around the family unit. Keywords: fence, wife, mediator, August Wilson.

Introduction: The metaphor of the fence in August Wilson's fences has been unambiguously associated with “division” or “separation” by several critics. In Thaddeus Wakefield's The Family in Twentieth Century American Drama, the author avers that in America's twentieth century capitalistic society “powerful economic “fences” are constructed which separate family members from one another” (42-43). This image of the fence as divisive agent is further highlighted when Wakefield adds that Troy (Wilson's hero) is fenced off from his wife and children because he views them as commodities rather than individuals (ibid). In other words, the fact that Troy reduces his relationship with his wife and children to the cost he has to incur in order to properly take care of them makes it impossible for him to properly commune with them the way a husband and father should commune with his wife and children. Money or materialism thus acts as a fence that distances Wilson's protagonist from other family members. In “Safe at Home?”: August Wilson's Fences,” Matthew Roudané reiterates this same idea when he says of Troy that the latter has suffered profoundly from the white world that has fenced him in athletically, professionally and emotionally (A Cambridge Companion to August Wilson 135). Roudané is thus alluding to Troy's marginalisation by the white hegemonic world of the American society that has made it impossible for him to become a baseball celebrity by preventing him from playing in the country's major leagues. The same system initially limits other Blacks and Troy to the work of garbage carriers while the Whites drive the lorries. These discriminations embitter Troy and alienate him from the society against which he nurses animosity. While Wakefield identifies money or twentieth-century American society materialism as the fence that fragments family relationship in this play, Roudané's observation points to racism as being

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 77-84

Revisiting the Gender Issues: The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich - Daisy Abstract: The awakening of women to sex-discrimination has been on the rise since Renaissance resulting into revolutionary writings by them. Lynn Povich, who was the first ever female Senior Editor at “Newsweek" magazine of the United States, has come out with her new book The Good Girls Revolt in which she chronicles the story of how the women of "Newsweek" came together to sue the publication for gender discrimination in the 1970's. In this book, she documents how after months of secret plotting, she and 45 other women sued Newsweek for gender discrimination, the first lawsuit of its kind. My paper would elaborate in detail how the first sex-discrimination lawsuit in the history of media shaped the modern workplace at the 'Newsweek' and how the struggle must go on because the struggle is not just 'to get something' but to understand how something can be an institutional issue rather than a personal flaw keeping one from getting ahead. Keywords: Gender, sex-discrimination, Lynn Povich, The Good Girls Revolt

20th century has witnessed an extraordinary transformation of women's opportunities and outcomes both in and outside the household. By many measures, the status of women and girls has improved significantly over the last 50 years. They have achieved higher rates of literacy and education, increased their per capita income, and risen to prominent roles in professional and political spheres. Moreover, the networks of women at national and global level, have succeeded in putting women's concerns on the global agenda and catalyzed the creation of legal and institutional mechanisms to address these concerns. National institutions for the advancement of women have been established in nearly every country around the world. They include offices, commissions, agencies and ministries on the status of women. As a result, there has really been a boost in the status of women and the world has observed women rising in every field. If we consider 'writing', we come across eminent women writers right from Harlem Renaissance woman Jessie Fauset (literary editor of The Crisis and writer of many articles and novels), to Pulitzer Prize winners like - Gwendolyn Brooks (the African American poet) and Alice Walker; and Nobel Laureates Selma Lagerlof ( the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature), and Toni Morrison (the African American woman writer). One wonders whether these world famous women writers had to face discrimination at any stage in their lives. But one such great writer exposes the truth about herself and her colleagues in a book which was released in September this year. Lynn Povich, the first ever female Senior Editor at weekly news

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 85-91

Toni Morrison's Fiction: Challenging Authority - Shruti Das Abstract: Toni Morrison concerns herself with unheard voices of pain, suffering and betrayal that have always clamored to be heard but have been acknowledged and passed on as if it were an everyday normality. These broken, oppressed and untouchable children of God are a people who have held a central place in the imaginations of power and have been the 'other' in the binaries of civilizations. In this paper my focus is on the manner in which Toni Morrison negotiates the margins, deconstructing the sense of political utopia of the privileged classes and bringing to the forefront the tales of universal woe through myth and memory. I shall be discussing her novels to this effect. Keywords: Unheard voices of pain; power; margin; White hegemony; racial denial; myth; memory.

Toni Morrison concerns herself with unheard African-American voices of pain, suffering and betrayal that have always clamored to be heard but have been acknowledged and passed on as if it were an everyday normality.These broken, oppressed and untouchable children of God are a people who have held a central place in the imaginations of power and have been the 'other' in the binaries of civilizations. Morrison re-tells the tales of subjugation, racism and sexism and their subsequent impact in numbing and devoicing the victims over centuries. She uses memory and myth in her narration pointing to these people's desperation for survival. She suggests shifts in universal culture and politics resulting from White hegemony and from racial denial. Morrison deconstructs the concept of center ignoring the binaries of white-centric narratives; she recasts the drama of American cultural history between the text and the reader. In this article I shall be focusing on the manner in which Toni Morrison negotiates the margins, deconstructing the sense of hegemony of the privileged classes and bringing to the forefront the backgrounded tales of American cultural history through myth and memory. I shall be discussing her novels to this effect. In an interview on television, sometime before she got the Nobel Prize, Bill Moyers once told her “You write well enough. You could come into the center if you wanted to. You don't have to stay out there on the margins” (Schappell 120). To which Toni Morrison replied, “Yeah, well I'm gonna stay out here on the margin, and let the center look for me” (120). Indeed she is quite vocal about her views regarding marginality, Black people and Whiteness in America. She refuses to privilege White people in her novels. In an interview published by TheAntiIntellect more recently on June 20, 2012, we read that: Toni Morrison has always taken for granted the centrality of Blackness in her novels. She has refused throughout her writing

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 92-103

Religious Ethos and Re-Visioning Reality: Ethical Outbreak in the Autobiography of Sr. Jesme's Amen and Sarah Joseph's Fictional Analogue Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side - S Visaka Devi Abstract: The article attempts to study two sides of the coin namely religion based on Sr. Jesme's Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun and Sarah Joseph's fictional analogue- Othappu- the Scent of the Other Side. The study reflects on religion as made evident in the two books that throw newer insights on various aspects of religion and call for amendments. The study tries to highlight how the two books reflect on religion and the related plight of women in certain specific Indian contexts and reiterates a demand for reformations. The role of the reader is to be sensitized while reading and also respond to them appropriately. Keywords: Exploitation Corruption Discrimination forgiveness, amendments

Religion has been a major philosophy of thought that has had a great impact and influence on our minds, lives, and writings. Religion originated as a philosophy and branched out as a practicable theory that found its place in Holy Books all over the world. Whether convictions came first or verses in Holy Books became convictions is debatable. But what is true is despite the diverse religiosity that is followed throughout the world it is found that they are all bound together by the commonness of their tenets. However, in the modern context religion and related practice of it have become quite noticeably dilute and less stringent. The dogmas preached and the practice of those has become contrasting extremes today. As a result, the two are at loggerheads leaving an absolutely perplexed society. As a result, rivalry between religions and rebellion against religion as a ritualistic exercise has become the order of the day. The paper attempts to study two sides of the coin namely religion. The study narrows down to the reflections of Sr. Jesme in Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun, and Sarah Joseph's fictional analogueOthappu- the Scent of the Other Side. The study reflects on religion and women as made evident in the two books that throw newer insights on various aspects of the two and call for amendments. The paper also tries to highlight how the two books reflect on Christian life in certain specific Indian contexts and reiterates a demand for reformations. Since the time of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Milton's Paradise Lost, Donne's secular, erotic love poems down the ages to the latest Post Modernist trends - Literature has reflected many aspects that typify reality. This

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 104-111

Major Developing Trends in the Representation of the Marginalized Sections of the Indian Society in the Indian Dalit Literature: A Critical Study - Abhinandan Malas Abstract: In this paper I focus on the various developing trends of the Indian English literature and the other regional literatures of India in regard to the representation of the marginalized classes and individuals of the country. This paper also refers to the literary works of the writers belonging to these marginalized sections, writing both in English and regional languages (Bhasa literatures), that provide a voice to the marginal in the postcolonial Indian society. Keywords: Dalit writings, Bhasa literature, class conflicts, marginalized individual, privileged and marginal writers, family, domestic violence, protest.

Society and class conflicts have always been important factors in Indian literature. The evolving Indian literature (that includes various regional 'Bhasa' literatures and the Indian writings in English) has given a proper shape and a universal image to these conflicts and problems. The themes of Indian literature are no longer dominated by the privileged classes. The writers are vehemently writing about the marginalized sections of Indian society. Writers from the oppressed classes are also coming up with their works and generating ripples in the Indian literary scenario. In this paper I focus on the various developing trends of the Indian English literature and the other regional literatures of India in regard to the representation of the marginalized classes and individuals of the country. This paper also refers to the literary works of the writers belonging to these marginalized sections, writing both in English and regional languages (Bhasa literatures), that provide a strong voice to the marginal in the postcolonial Indian society. The Indian literature, both in English and the regional languages, has started receiving tremendous responses from the marginal sections of the society that are now contributing seriously and in great amount to the Indian literary domain. So far, till the first half of the twentieth century we have seen that the literary works produced by writers belonging to the privileged sections of the society have formed the bulk of the colonial and postcolonial Indian literature. But now things are changing and in this scenario we see that different Dalit writers and writers of the marginalized sections of the society are evolving and occupying a prominent position in the modern Indian literary discourse. In the writings of the main stream writers also we see the representation of the subaltern sects of the Indian society and the problem of their subjugation. In this paper I intend to make a study of the

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Globalization and the Changing Perspectives on Intelligibility of English - Roy Pushpavilasam Veettil Abstract: The global diffusion of English and the resultant birth of its varieties have had various sociolinguistic impacts. The present socioeconomic-linguistic situation is such that communities need to communicate as never before. In the matter of communication in English the native speaker had an upper hand as the other variety speakers were expected to understand him. However, the elevated status of the non-native varieties of English and the financial emergence of many onetime third world countries, such as China and India have, if not subverted, balanced the situation. This paper attempts to throw some light on how intelligibility is perceived differently today. Keywords: intelligibility, native speaker, non-native speaker, globalization, global diffusion, perspective.

Introduction: Prior to the extensive globalization of English, English was viewed as the sole property of native speakers. It was their right and privilege to adapt, to change, to accept or to reject anything related to English. It was their language. They were the sole proprietors, and theirs was the final verdict. They decided the right and wrong of English. In such a scenario, 'intelligibility' meant intelligibility to the native speaker. It was a time of hegemony. The non-native speakers were merely the users of the language with a consumer status. Production and distribution were always on the other side. Non-native speakers depended on norms provided by natives. Notions of democracy and heterogeneity were not much encouraged. The native speaker was the lord to be pleased. On the altar of intelligibility, the non-native speaker had to sacrifice all the non-native features in his speech. It was his job to make himself understood by the native speaker. It was again his fault, if he could not understand the native speaker. The native masqueraded among the applauding crowd of non-natives who were supposed to bear all the brunt of intelligibility. One-sided Perspective on Intelligibility: Thus, any earlier discussion on intelligibility was with reference to the native speaker because he was considered the sole owner of English. The native was the model, and it was the responsibility of the non-native speaker to emulate him. English had to sound like English both in articulation and in culture. It was the one-time tenable view, which ignored both the nonnative speaker's perspective and the role of the listener. As far as the international intelligibility of English is considered, the view, which once prevailed among applied linguists and ELT professionals, was a one-

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Marxist Reading of Ernest J Gaines's Of Love and Dust and A Gathering of Old Men - C. Jayapal & K. Ravichandran Abstract: Ernest J Gaines was born on river lake plantation near Oscar, Louisiana, in Point Coupee Parish on January 15, 1933. He started to work as a potato picker at the age of nine, earning fifty cents a day. Poverty became centrifugal in all his works as he grew up with problem of food, education, and attained it through hard work. Gaines' work clearly tells the social, political, and economical position of African American people in South Louisiana.The ideology of Marxism is taken as a tool to interpret his novels to explore the pathos of the poor, labourer, voiceless and slave. This paper aims at analysing of Gaines's the subjugation of poor blacks by the racist white society. Of Love and Dust and A Gathering of Old Men , show how the central theme of his fiction revolves around the rich and poor, owner and labour conflicts. Each work depicts the common strivings of the disenfranchised, the control of subservient labour by the majority class, and the subsequent revisiting of folk culture that helps to foster the leadership of subordinated and generate a change. As Gaines writes openly and passionately about the proletariat, the most critical aspect of each work in this study is the impact of Marxist reading upon black labour – especially Cajuns and poor blacks. It has the human action and its effect on society is constructed by imperialistic behaviour. Additional to this scrutiny there are various levels of class struggles and emphasis on a changing social system. Gaines's, ultimate message of human equality to achieve true manhood finds similarity with Marxist ideology. Keywords: Culture, Labour, Owner, Human Equality, Colonizers, Have's vs. Have not's, Economic. Whatever the motives- whether they have been power, prestige, or security- men have accumulated wealth through conquest, looting, human exploitation and even trade; using, money or lending- most frequently for consumption purposes- has also played its part in this process of the maintenance of an unequal distribution of the income a people has produced. (9)

In that way Marxist criticism is based on social and philosophical theory, introduced by Friedrich Engles and Karl Marx. It is theoretical ideas which interpret their world of political, social and economic structure. In other words, this principle helps to view the social culture and life structure between rich and poor using materialistic lens. Because they control human life such as government, education, religion, culture including literature. The ideology of Marxism came into existence only during the early 20th century. In the initial stage, it criticized the government. The criticism on government gets reflected in the works of middle 20th century writers of the world. The Marxist reading is used to understand the motivating ideology behind human action and its effects on society.Thus America grew under the leadership of its first generation

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Ecological Crisis in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams - Chinsu Joy Abstract: Grace is faced with the deterioration of the environment. Codi Homero Noline, the protagonist begins to devote herself to the local environmental justice movement which aims to confirm the equality between mankind and nature, and the equal access to natural resources for the sake of sustainable development in the community. By educating her students about the seriousness of the ecological crisis she works with her town people for cultural activism and finally succeeds in winning the fight for environmental justice. This paper is an attempt to analyse the ecological crisis in the novel Animal Dreams. Keywords: Ecological Crisis, Cultural Activism

Introduction: Barbra Kingsolver emerged in the American literary scenario during the 1980's.Throughout the three decades of her literary career she has followed the progressive social conscience of her times. Her thematic concerns in her writings include environmentalism, class structure, feminism and ecological diversity all arise from a life lived in pursuit of social justice. When Animal Dreams was published in 1990, it soon became a popular and critical success as the novel won an American Library Association Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults, Pen/USA West Fiction Award, New York Times Notable Book and Edward Abbey Award for Ecofiction. The Kentucky-born author Barbara Kingsolver rises to prominence and becomes an important voice among the southwestern writers in the United States. Based on her book Holding the Line which covers the great Arizona mine strike of 1983, the novel, through the characterization of Codi and her female town fellows devoted to the protection of their homeland ecological system, is considered as an ecofeminist fiction incorporating the themes of female autonomy and ecology. Houston and Warren argue that Animal Dreams is one of Kingsolver's works that unfold a blending of “environmental fiction and feminism known as ecofeminism” (4). According to Roberta Rubenstein, Codi's longing for belonging can be illustrated in two dimensions, namely, “the longing for the idealized lost mother and her association with the lost home/land” and the longing for “connection to a collective cultural history and home” (38) According to Richard Hofrichter, environmental justice is about “social transformation directed toward meeting human need and enhancing the quality of life…using resources sustainably” (4). Its central principle stresses “equal access to natural resources and the right to clean air and water, adequate health care, affordable shelter and a safe workplace” (Hofrichter,5). As a matter of fact, environmental justice takes into

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Bharud: The Folk Art - Admane Meera Abstract: Permanence is a noteworthy quality of folk literature. The literature written by saints has this quality. It has become people's philosophy-the bent of mind. Saint Eknath was not only a saint but a social reformer also. In order to bring social awareness among the people, he advised them through his uncommon literary genre known as Bharud. It has performance quality. Bharud, a kind of narratorchorus performance with percussion instruments, begins with satirical entertainment but ends in edification. This sugar-coated quinine dose works like teaching-learning process. In the present article, the author tries to explain the qualities of Bharud as a literary genre and its performing qualities. The article also points out the then social implications of this genre and its need in present social scenario against all pervading violence in our society. Keywords: Folk literature, Bharud, Performance, Social awareness, Social implications.

Since times ancient, every society has its own literature, may be in written or in oral form.The literary qualities of that literature nourish the people, cater to their taste and in the course of time it becomes their philosophy of life : hence an integral part of their mental moral built up. Fortunately Maharashtra has rich inheritance of great literature. The literature written by Saint Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Eknath and Ramdas not only nourished and protected the people but also motivated them to fight against social and political adversity.The renowned king Shivaji and the 19th century social reformers are the noteworthy examples / products of it. Bharud is a form of Marathi Literature and Folk art. It is popular among masses and in rural area. Nowadays elites also cherish it. 'Bharud' is a kind of Lalit (»fd»f°f) – a performance. It is presented at the end of 'Keertan'. Since it has features of social awakening and reforming through entertainment it is presented even without a 'keertan' also, that means it is presented separately also. Bharud is a short musical poetic drama with entertainment and edification. It's name suggests its a etymological meaning - ¶fWbø PÞ - 'Bahu' means masses and 'Rudh' means popular, means popular among the masses. It is said that the word 'Bharud' has come from Sanskrit Bharunda. Bharunda is a mythological bird with two faces but one body. 'Bharud' 'also has two meanings, one is literal and the other is metaphorical. Most of the 'Bharuds' are metaphors. The meanings are significant and symbolical. The song 'Bharud', begins with entertainment but ends with edification. Bharud is a kind of lesson where entertainment and enlightenment go hand in hand. Bharud has one more etymological meaning which comes from Kannad. 'Bhar' means people and 'Hadu' means song. It is sung by

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Carnivalising the Grey Friar: A Bakhtinian Survey of Eco-Spirituality in God's Pauper - Alwin Alexander Abstract: The images of ecology and spirituality in Nikos Kazantzakis' God's Pauper form the subject of this paper. Kazantzakis's novel commemorates the mystery of St. Francis of Assisi.The novel is not just a biography. It captures the spirit of St. Francis which evinces a profound concern for nature. St. Francis' nature mysticism communicates the interconnection of all things. This presents a theological affiliation for the concerns of ecology. It is within this context of interconnectedness that Bakhtinian thought becomes relevant to ecological studies. Bakhtin's conception of the self/Other inter-relation (which does not objectify the Other but rather considers it also as the subject to the subject doing the knowing) articulates a coherent ethical code. Although Bakhtin's treatment of human-nature relations is inchoate, an attempt to extend his concepts to the realm of ecology is justified and imperative in today's world. Bathinian dialogism, using the concepts of carnival, heteroglossia, self/other etc, constitutes a weltanschauung that underscores a persistent interconnectedness of boundaries. This is integral to the postmodern scheme of things. Keywords: Bakhtin, Dialogism, Carnival, St. Francis, Ecology, Ecospirituality

This paper employs Bakhtinian dialogism to critically explore the paradigms of ecology and spirituality in Nikos Kazantzakis' God's Pauper. The enigma of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most venerated saints of the Catholic Church, is celebrated by Kazantzakis in the novel. His profound admiration and love for the saint finds rhapsodic expression in the work, making it a passionate narrative infused with poetry, paradox, parables, dreams and symbols. The novel, more than being a mere biography, creatively concretises the spirit of St. Francis; which assuredly subsumes a deep regard and empathy for nature. Francis' God descends to his material limitations, appearing to him in the form of a 'beautiful night sky', 'a glass of refreshing water' or 'a consuming fire'. Extending beyond the egalitarianism of human beings, his spiritual equations proclaim parity between nature and man. So he talks and communes with nature, conversing with birds, swallows and doves as though talking with his own biological brothers and sisters. This prophetic quality of his dialogic response to nature is comparable to the approach found in ecotheology. Ecotheology combines concern with the environment and an understanding of God. It is that reflection on different facets of God experience in as much as they take their bearings from cultural concerns about the environment and man's relationship with the natural world. It

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The Emotional and Social Plight of The Homosexual in Dattani's On A Muggy Night In Mumbai and Mango Souffle - Sangeeta Das Abstract: Mahesh Dattani has shown his expertise in handling the sensitive issue of the homosexuals in both his plays – On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Mango Soufflé. Both his plays have been smoothly constructed without sudden jolts that might shock and flabbergast the readers. Throughout the plays, the readers show a compassion for the sorry plight of the homosexuals – whose emotions are neglected or trampled by the society. Their existence is a shame for the family members and the society which has been smartly executed and projected by Mr. Dattani in both his plays. Keywords: Indian English Drama, Mahesh Dattani, Homosexuality

On a Muggy Night in Mumbai is a complete story about a merry group of homosexuals who gather at Kamlesh's farmhouse at the invitation of Kamlesh.This group had an affinity with each other of such a kind which was outstanding for they were honest to each other about their personal emotional turmoil. Each one knew about the other's problem and looked at it with compassion.The group consisted of Kamlesh, who was jilted by Ed, who thwarted him to lead a normal life by marrying a girl, who was unfortunately Kamlesh's sister, Kiran. Edwin Prakash Matthew alias Ed, is one of the central character, around whom Kamlesh, Kiran and others revolve like satellites. In reality, Ed is a homosexual and has had a close relationship with Kamlesh until he was suddenly overtaken by his innate fear of ostracizing and disliking himself and Kamlesh and everything that reminded of his identity, wanted to relinquish them and become like others i.e. pretend to be a heterosexual. In his desperation, he forgot that he would emotionally shatter Kamlesh, with whom he had gone far in their relationship, and the reality that no matter how much one tries to impersonate, cannot belie and runaway from his own identity. It was his infidelity towards Kamlesh that pushed him to the pit of depression, later filled Kiran with hatred and dislike for him and made himself a laughing stalk for the gathering and the neighbours. In his pursuit for normal manly life, he lost both Kamlesh and Kiran and was left as alone as he was, before he met Kamlesh who had rescued him from committing suicide out of depression. Talking about Kamlesh, the next important and paramount character of the play, who had called the gathering and remained the person in question throughout the play, has been presented as a gentle and amicable sort of person who loved his sister very much and cared for her welfare more than his own. So much so that he fortified

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ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 144-148

Maya Pandit's The Prisons We Broke: Translation As An Act of Power and An Expression of Ideology - Muktaja Mathkari Abstract: The Prisons We Broke (2008) is an English translation of Jina Aamcha(1985), a Marathi text by Baby Kamble. The translator is Prof. Maya Pandit, a feminist and a social activist herself. Baby Kamble's Jina Aamcha(1985) is the first work of Dalit women's writing. The book, an autobiography, written in Marathi language, deals with the lives of the Dalits in Veergaon, Kamble's village. It brings out oppression, exploitation of the Dalits by the upper class, women's status in a patriarchal society, the ignorant and superstitious lives of Dalits and the agonizing experience of being Dalit and also being a Dalit woman. The book also interrogates the various institutions like society, marriage, family, religion and God. The work crosses the boundaries of the 'personal' and the 'personal' becomes 'political' as well as 'a social comment' and also a story of a Dalit woman's search for identity in the caste based, patriarchal Hindu Indian society.Therefore, this paper aims at bringing out how Maya Pandit 'creates', 'disseminates' meaning and how her translation is an act of power. An attempt will also be made to show how this translation is an expression of a particular ideology of the translator and how Pandit attempts to unravel the deeper multiple meanings of the original text for the sake of a large number of readers. Keywords: dalit autobiography, translation, act of power, ideology, multiple meanings, social change in India

The analysis and comparison of the two texts leads to the following conclusions: Ÿ Jina Aamcha is a powerfully told story and the translation The Prisons We

Broke is also pregnant with the same power and multiple meanings. Ÿ The change in the title and the use of language by the translator initiates the

reader into the deeper meaning of the lives of the Dalits. Ÿ The translation certainly takes the critical issues to a wider horizon and

therefore, it helps in creating a feminist consciousness and social awareness of power politics in a caste based patriarchal Hindu Indian society, on a large scale. Ÿ The book is a great contribution to the field of translation studies and will bring social change in India.

Baby Kamble's Jina Amcha(1986) is the first work of Dalit women's writing. The book, an autobiography, deals with the lives of the Dalits in Veergaon, Kamble's village. It brings out oppression, exploitation of the Dalits by the upper classes, women's status in a patriarchal society, the ignorant and superstitious lives of Dalits and the agonizing experience of

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The Pursuit of Happiness in Robinson Crusoe and The Scarlet Letter - Baleid Taha Shamsan Abstract: This paper aims at finding the obvious reason behind suffering of the two classical protagonists Robinson Crusoe and Hester Prynne in their life either in the sea or on a deserted island as in the case of Robinson or in a hometown as in the case of Hester. It emphasizes the assertion of individuality and its aim to find out the possible alternatives of the present life. An investigation of the particular background will shed light on our understanding of the two stories. Hester moves from the Old World of Europe to the New World of America, and settles down near Boston. After committing the adultery with Dimmesdale, Hester, all by herself, becomes a lonely woman in a totally alien land. Keywords: Robinson Crusoe, The Scarlet Letter, transgression, humiliation, happiness

An Overview of Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Defoe the life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe was published as a fictional story in 1917. It is based on the true story of a real-life castaway. His name was Alexander Selkirk, and was a Scottish sailor who got stranded on his own desert island off the coast of Chile for four years. Historians said that after the sailors' vessel had become unseaworthy, Selkirk asked to be put ashore on one of the inhabited Juan Fernandez islands (now called Robinson Crusoe Island) about 400 miles of the west coast of Chile, south America. Selkirk was eventually rescued in 1709 and his story appeared in print and periodicals in England. Daniel Defoe made use of that real story of Selkirk whose name changed to be Robinson in Robinson Crusoe. In the novel, Robinson Crusoe is a mariner who takes to the sea despite parental warnings. Crusoe's father wants him to be a good, middle-class man. However, Crusoe wants nothing more than to travel around in a ship. He struggles against the authority of both his father and God and decides to use his own instinct which is to go advertising on the sea instead. He suffers a number of misfortunes at the hands of Barbary Pirates and faces a number of sea hardships. He eventually escapes and is helped to Brazil where he becomes a successful plantation owner. He embarks on a slave gathering expedition to West Africa but is shipwrecked off the Coast of Venezuela in a terrible storm. An Overview of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter :The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the story of a heroine called Hester Prynne. She is beautiful and young and has been married to Chillingworth, and elderly 17th-C English scholar; Chillingworth sends her to puritan New England. The story takes place in the puritan village of Boston. The narrator informs the readers that several years before the novel begins, Hester Prynne came to the New World to await the arrival of her husband in New England and did not arrive in Boston as Hester

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Strong Myths Never Die: A Postmodern Reading of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad - C M Dhanumol Abstract: Myths are mysterious phenomena. They are the symbolic projections of people's hopes, values, fears, and aspirations. They are at once provincial and yet universal. Though they belong to a pre-literate and pre-historical era, they keep recurring in all ages and are a part of our contemporary society. Myth is not to be equated with literature, but there exists a symbiotic relationship between the two. Setting a different trend, post-modem myth criticism as well as mythical literature replaces the classical (Greek and Roman) myths by local myths and interweaves ancient myths and modern stories, attributing a splendid, contemporary colour. In the article, I have dealt with the application of myth and archetypes by Margaret Atwood in her novella, The Penelopiad and an effort has been made to vindicate 'the melancholic feminist voice' of Penelope and the maids. The paper also seeks to examine the 'epic distance' and the mythical method from a postmodern perspective. Keywords: myth and literature, Epic distance, post-modern notions, archetypes.

Myths are mysterious phenomena. They project symbolically peoples' hopes, values, fears, and aspirations. They are at once provincial and yet universal. Connecting the members of a society to their tradition and past, they bind a tribe, a society or a nation together in common psychological and spiritual activities. In The Language of Poetry, edited by Allen Tate, Philip Wheelwright explains “Myth is the expression of a profound sense of togetherness of feeling and of action and of wholeness of living” (11). Primarily, Myths are basic stories or human dramas about our recurring, persistent struggles with life and death, good and evil and are designed to assist us to cope with any problematic human predicament. They perhaps exist more in the hearts of men than in reality, but express the needs, longings, desires and aspirations of men and represent something beyond the mundane nature of their life, the limits of their life and the confines of their actions. Commenting on the symbiotic relationship between myth and literature,Thomas Bullfinch, a renowned expert on mythology, notes, “Without a knowledge of mythology, the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated”(Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology: The Age of Fable, Introduction vi). While studying the literature of our past and present day, knowledge of mythology is fundamental and vital if

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Potential Abilities, Real Disabilities : Dattani's Tara - Anshoo Sharma Abstract: Mahesh Dattani is perhaps India's foremost playwrights to have taken up the challenge of writing about the local Indian scene in an 'alien language'. There is a smooth blending of the social critique and the English language which sometimes has certain limitations while describing subtle nuances of Indian culture. But he succeeds in his experiment just as he succeeds in bringing conventional themes along with some startlingly new ones in his plays. The present article focuses on one of his best loved plays Tara which is a reworking of certain staple critical idioms such the marginalization of the female sex and some unexplored ideas as far as Indian playwrighting is concerned such as the alter ego or the gendered self. But it is the only play of Dattani's that has touched upon the issue of disability and this aspect as to how disability affects not only the persons having it but also the immediate family, their reactions, responses, biases and the efforts put in to handle it deserves special attention. Along with this his technique as far as use of 'Indian English' is concerned, use of stage-spaces, and the effort put into making the written dramatic text as a performative text is looked into. The use of music is also indicative of the debate between aesthetics, beauty and ugliness. Music has been used as a strategy to highlight the thematic thrust of the play Tara. Keywords: Ability/Disability, gender, binaries, alter ego, social critique, marginalization, stage craft, language experimentation.

For Mahesh Dattani the love of his life is Drama and his principal dramatic subject are the issues of the urban upper and middle classes where personal relationships are stressed and strained, where home is depicted as a place of resentment, confrontation and sometimes barely suppressed violence. The domestic settings, marriage, parent child conflicts and generational shifts or to put it more comprehensively 'the psychodrama of family relationships' is Dattani's modus-operandi (Dharwadker 269). But with every new play he follows an arduous and unique task of being different.There is no denying the fact that each time he writes a play he tries to create something different from what he has done earlier. Thus one can observe a repertoire of themes and issues in his plays and all taken up with equal panache. To take an example from linguistics – when we have to coin a new word we fall back on difference to create one. Similarly in the play Tara, Dattani focuses on the differently-abled to explore a new concept through drama. In Tara he encapsulates the various binaries like – able -disabled | Past Memory present experience | Husband-Children | Brother-Sister | Stage-audience |

and uses the equation arising out of them to his advantage ; and as usual

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Voicing the Subaltern in the works of Margaret Wilson - Binda Sah Abstract: The term 'subaltern', oft- quoted in post-colonial theory, is, literally, referred to any person or group of inferior rank and station because of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion. However, the exact meaning of the term in current philosophical and critical usage is disputed. Mostly the thrust of subaltern is on the marginalized groups and the lower classes – a person rendered without agency by his or her social status. I have discussed subaltern in this sense in the works of Margaret Wilson which are based on her experiences in India as a missionary. The main thrust of the paper is colonial subalternity and its impact on the life of subjugated Indians under British Raj. Keywords: Colonial subalternity, Margaret Wilson, Daughters of India, Tales of a Polygamous City.Voicing the subaltern in the works of Margaret Wilson

“Our joy was great – until my daughter was born” (Margaret Wilson: “A Mother”, 1919: 229)

Margaret Wilson (1882–1973) was a missionary in the service of the United Presbyterian Church of North America. When she was assigned to the Panjab region of India in 1904, she worked at a girl's school and at a hospital. Her experience in India has been very crucial in shaping her literary career as it inspired her to write about Indian life and condition. Her important works are The Able McLaughlins (1923, 1924 Pulitzer Prize winner), The Kenworthys (1925), The Painted Room (1926), sequel to The Kenworthys, Daughters of India (1928), Trousers of Taffeta (1929), The Valiant Wife (1933), Law and the McLaughlins (1937), and the collection of short stories entitled The Tales of a Polygamous City. No doubt, Margaret Wilson has a sizeable contribution to the English literature, but in this paper only her Daughters of India and the collection of short stories entitled Tales of a Polygamous City have been extensively treated for they focus on the subaltern issues. Tales of a Polygamous City is consisted of eight stories; six were published in Atlantic Monthly under the pseudonym An Elderly Spinster between 1917 and 1921, and two were published under her real name in Asia in 1921. The eight stories are “Taffeta Trousers”, “A Woman of Recourse”, “God's Little Joke”, “The Story of Sapphire”, “A Mother”, “Waste: The Story of a Sweet Little Girl”, “Speaking of Careers, and “The Gift of God”. “Taffeta Trousers” is about the life of an American woman who is in India for missionary work. Despite living all her life in India, and being accustomed to Indian surrounding, it is interesting to note that she longs for her home in America. “A Woman of Recourse” presents a picture of the colonial Indian woman. Their concerns are well conveyed through the Pardah

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Excess and Exaggeration: A Critical Reading of Gabriel García Márquez's short story Big Mama's Funeral - Bhatima Barman Abstract: Latin American nations have been subject to enormous political upheavals since colonial times-a history burdened with an extreme abuse of power leading to gross socio-economic inequities till present times. Even after centuries of independence from colonial control; the prejudices, injustices and excesses still persist in the nations. In Colombia as well as in most other Latin American nations, the powerful elites-usually the landed aristocracy (also called latifudistas) have traditionally retained and monopolized political power. Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez has most often used his writings as an effective tool in exposing the malaise of an anachronistic power structure. This paper aims to critically analyse Márquez's short story 'Big Mama's Funeral' in the context of the malignant socio-political scenario. Keywords: Latin America, Gabriel García Márquez, latifundia, colonial legacy, political excess Across the Americas, the Spanish and Portuguese built colonial societies on a clear and harsh hierarchy: a social structure where a small, white elite controlled economic and political power through their control of land and a non-European labour force. The pronounced inequities built into these structures of exploitation are the most enduring and burdensome legacy of Latin America (Eakin 105).

Exploitation of land as well as that of the vast natural and mineral resources of Latin America was one of the dominant aspects of the colonial powers which continued till the twentieth century. Agriculture and an agrarian based economy built on trade and exports of food products and raw materials have been one of the most pronounced legacies of colonial Latin America. Since the beginning of colonial domination, the Spanish conquistadors tactfully as well as forcefully conquered the lands which also led to the exploitation of a huge but compliant labour force comprising mostly of Native Americans and later of the Africans. Out of this emerged the huge landed estates (latifundio) whose profits and produce depended on the exploitation of the native labour force. A coercive labour system emerged out of the land-owning or rather land grabbing policies. Land ownership, therefore, has always been a crucial factor in determining one's position in a Latin American society and “from colonial times onwards, possessions of large tracts of land has been the most public and effective affirmation of political power” (23) and in fact “landownership was power” (Calvert 23). In Marshall.C.Eakin's words:

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.2 April-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 182-187

Anarchy and Chaos in V.S. Naipaul's Guerrillas - Sonia Soni Abstract: Naipaul presents the anarchy and chaos of African reality in its true colours in Guerrillas and A Bend in the River. These novels present the barrenness and fluidity that prevailed after the colonial rule is over.There has been interesting parallels between Guerrillas and Water With Berries by George Lamming. Both novels feature exile of protagonists to London from the Caribbean who gets involved in revolutionary acts and both contain liberal dozes of sex and violence. Naipaul's attitude to the rootless expatriates is that they exist in insecurity and envy to one another. Their relations are marked by mistrust and violence. He lays bare the shallowness, the chaos and their lack of loyalty to England despite their eager will to return to England. Keywords: V.S. Naipaul, expatriate, Guerillas.

I feel that to destroy the world is the only course of action that is now open to sane men. (Naipaul 1975: 42). These lines very well describe the characteristics of V.S. Naipaul's later fiction. He portrays the social and political tensions inherent in the colonial and post-colonial world. However, Naipaul was not a political writer in his conscious scenes at the onset of his career. One can very well see his shift of focus to the postimperial Third World political scenario where individuals are representatives of power politics. Naipaul, the Nobel Laureate, himself migrated to England and acquired the British citizenship. So, he enjoys his multiculturalism but wailing the loss of belongingness can also be heard in his writings. George Lamming puts this feelings in these words in Pleasures of Exile, “the pleasure and paradox of my own exile is that I belong where I am” (Lamming 1960: 56). Manjit Inder Singh has a point when he says: Economic power, racial revenge and exploitation of all sorts mark the fate of the hopeless immigrant or expatriate exposed to danger and humiliations at the hands of the new post-colonial powers which bulldoze aliens and outsiders, seeking revenge for their own past operations and brutalization (Singh 2002: 131).

Guerrillas, set in an unnamed Caribbean island, revolves around the action of three major characters – Jimmy, Jane and Roche. This novel shows the bleakness and utter desolate vision of the world. Infact, the landscape of the novel itself throws light on the anarchy of the world.This novel has a sound like Eliot's The Waste Land and the people who inhabit in this ''Waste Land” are quite in tune with it. They are morally and intellectually barren. Naipaul writes:

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.1 January-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 188-193

Voice for an Identity: Globalization and Gay Community - Sunita Agarwal Abstract: The paper proposes to examine the research work of the writer, Parmesh Shahani, entitled “Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (be) longing in Contemporary India”. Being a gay himself, the writer voices and represents the cause of Bombay gay community, placing and positioning the politics of gay identity in a broader sociohistorical context of globalization, internet technologies, and the media industry. Against social institution and statutory norms, the community struggles to establish their position above gender and sexuality, destabilizing the fixity and categorization of identity. Section 377 of the Indian Panel code, commonly known as 'Anti Sodomy law' which criminalized homosexuality in India was repealed by High court in July 2009 on the plea of human rights. Nevertheless, religion and religious scripture still do not approve such practices and declare them as taboo. The paper, based on this framework and background, will interrogate (1) the intervention of mass media, internet and globalization in changed/unchanged perspective (2) location of gender and identity of this queer community. Keywords: gender, gay community, globalization, gaze, internet technologies, mass-media.

Globalization has greatly impacted communication, community, culture and civilization. The borderless and boundary less world can be contacted and connected at the tip of the finger. This accessibility of 24/7, be it communication or commutation has helped in strengthening collaboration and relationships on the one hand, on the other the viability of criticism and contamination. The much hyped news by mass media channels, spread at lightening speed, contribute in the formation and transformation of public opinion. Even firmly rooted taboos and traditions are passing through a period of transition and; attitudes and perspectives alter though the change might be slow sometimes.Western constructions of gay culture are now circulating widely beyond the boundaries of western nations due to influences as diverse as Internet communication, global dissemination of entertainment and other media, increased travel and tourism, migration, displacement, and transnational citizenship. Internet through its social networking sites has provided them space for the realization of their sexuality and 'locus for expressive' and 'emotionally reciprocal' behaviour. These online groups function as 'third space' for its members, a place other than home and work. Intervention of international mass media on such issues lend them visibility to all across the world and the support ,financial as well as at the group level, encourage them to struggle for their rights and identity.The exposure to gay culture through various international TV channels and

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Labyrinth: Volume-4, No.1 January-2013

ISSN 0976-0814; pp. 194-207

Perception of International Students on Multiculturalism in Malaysian Universities - Ambigapathy Pandian, Shanthi Balraj Baboo & Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of international students of the impact of multiculturalism at institutions of Malaysian higher education. Data were collected through employing questionnaires and focus-group interviews. The respondents in this study were all international students in twelve public Malaysian universities.The results of this study show that the institutions of higher education in Malaysia provide their students with good facilities for helping them to overcome study difficulties. Although the results indicate that the institutions of higher education in Malaysia provide good services and facilities for sport activities, health services and food services, results reveal that improvement of services provided at language and counselling canters should be given more attention by authorities. On the other hand, the results of this study show that services and facilities for housing and vegetarian food should be improved. Finally, the findings show that the institutions of higher education in Malaysia have gained good reputation due to (a) the presence of international students, (b) encouragement for academic research and (c) providing good opportunities for scholarships. Keywords: Multiculturalism, Institutions, International students, Malaysia

Higher Education and Benefits of international students: Higher education is one of the most important parts of the increasing globalisation of the trade in goods and services. This is because it has been estimated that the number of international students seeking education in or from a foreign country will reach 3.1 million in 2025 (Blight, 1995). In the last few years, it has been noticed that there is an increasing interest in international higher education worldwide (Rauhvargers, 2006). As a result of this, it has been observed that there is an increase in the number of journals that focus on issues related to international higher education and studying abroad with a focus on Europe, North America, Australia, and recently in Asia. The presence of international students in institutions of higher education has valuable benefits for any host country. Studying abroad is also beneficial for international students themselves. Research has shown that study abroad experiences benefit students and society in several ways (e.g., Hoffa & Pearson, 1993; Ridley, 2004). Studying abroad helps to create global awareness, promote international security, enhance academic learning, develop leadership skills, and advance students' careers. Students doing their higher education abroad also experience personal growth and have the opportunity to learn different languages and learn about different cultures. According to Hoffa and Pearson (1993:22), the goal of studying abroad is to enable students get academic and cultural

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Our Esteemed Contributors Ÿ Sarangadhar Baral, Associate Professor, Department of English,

Mizoram University, Mizoram. Ÿ N D Dani, Associate Professor Department of English, Sri Jai Narain

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Postgraduate College, Lucknow University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Mustafa Mubarak Pathan, Department of Linguistics and Translation Studies, Faculty of Arts, the University of Sebha, Sebha, Libya. Syed Mahmudur Rahman, Lecturer, Department of Languages, IUBAT - International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tanuka Das, Associate Professor, Department of English & OMEL, Bhasha-Bhavana,Visva-Bharati,West Bengal. Sandhya Saxena, V. R. A. L. Govt. Girls Degree College, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. She is the Principal Investigator in the Major Research Project entitled WordsVs Lines A Comparative Study of R.K.Narayan's lingual and R.K. Laxman's Graphic Representation of Humanity sponsored by UGC. Nozar Niazi, Department of English Literature, Lorestan University-Iran. Zohreh Daeizadeh, MA English Literature, Lorestan UniversityIran. Yvonne Iden Ngwa, Assistant Lecturer, Department English, Higher Teacher Training School, The University of Yaounde-I, Yaounde, Cameroon. Daisy, Associate Professor, Department of English, BPSM Girls' College, BPS Women University, Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, Haryana. Shruti Das, Reader, Department of English, Berhampur University, Berhampur, Odisha. S. Visaka Devi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. Abhinandan Malas, Department of English, Kishore Bharati Bhagini Nivedita College,West Bengal. Roy Pushpavilasam Veettil, Research Scholar Bharathiar University, Lecturer in English, National College, Taliparamba, Kerala. C. Jayapal, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Annamalai University. K. Ravichandran, Ph.D., Asst. Professor in English, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar,Tamil Nadu.

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Labyrinth | Vol.4 No.2 (April 2013)

Ÿ Chinsu Joy, PhD Scholar, Department of English, Annamalai

University, Annamalai Nagar,Tamil Nadu. Ÿ Admane Meera, Department of English, Sangamner Nagarpalika

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Arts, D.J.Malpani Commerce and B.N. Sarada Science College, Sangamner, Dist-Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. Alwin Alexander, Department of English, Union Christian College, Aluva, Kerala. Sangeeta Das, Associate Professor, Department of English, D.G. P.G. College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Muktaja Mathkari, Associate Professor, B.M.C. College, Pune, Maharashtra. Baleid Taha Shamsan Saeed, Taiz University, Faculty of ALTorba, English Department,Yemen Republic -Taiz. Dhanumol C. M., Research Scholar, The American College, Madurai Kamaraj University,Tamil Nadu. Anshoo Sharma, Lecturer, Department of English, S.K. Govt. College, Sikar , Rajasthan. Binda Sah, Department of English, North Lakhimpur College, North Lakhimpur, Assam. Bhatima Barman, Research scholar, Department of English, Assam University, Silchar, Assam. Sonia Soni, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana. Sunita Agarwal, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan. Ambigapathy Pandian, Professor, School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang – Malaysia. Shanthi Balraj Baboo, Associate Professor, School of Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang – Malaysia. Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh, School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang – Malaysia.

The other esteemed contributors are at the Editorial Board of Labyrinth.