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Papers by Department of English Banaras Hindu University
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Literature is the offspring of mysticism; it appropriates a world that goes beyond the logic of a... more Literature is the offspring of mysticism; it appropriates a world that goes beyond the
logic of antonyms and synonyms and explains the genesis of both literature and
mysticism. Mysticism resides in human body as illumined in the Yoga; in the Kundalini
form of Goddess Kali. The exploration of the subliminal layers of the Gita, Rig Veda
and Upanishads unfolds how mystic seeing is in the sense of the syncretic — both
conscious and unconscious. The cognoscibility of human faculties is concomitant to
divine experience. It is neither the supplement nor a surrogate. This is what the
Upanishad says: a flight from the beyond to the beyond. The endeavor of the one
engaged in the quest-the Sadhaka - establishes a telic relationship with a supramental
power that guides him across a journey through ages and eras. The poetry of Meera,
Kabir, Tulsi, Dadu, Nanak and Namdev among others testifies that man’s search for
his real existence leads to the production of literature. Awareness of the syncretic
nature of imagination makes evident how Buddha’s deconstruction of the idea of
logocentric presence finds reappearance in the Derridean discourse. A reading of the
syncretic mysticism in Eliot and others reveals how in spite of owning immensely to
the Hindu mystic thought, Eliot remained fettered to the organized Christianity.
The greatest danger in the contemporary literature however is the loss and
disappearance of the sublime. Apprehending the secrets of language lets one know
how fraught it is for it contains the secrets of heaven and the realities earth. Mystics
take the former route while the novelist the latter.
In 1823 French romantic writer Stendhal published Racine et Shakespeare, a vital text in the hist... more In 1823 French romantic writer Stendhal published Racine et Shakespeare, a vital text
in the history of French Romanticism partly hailed as a precursory text. It was a
compilation of Stendhal’s published and unpublished leaflets defending the romantic
movement that he was more than a witness to in Milan during his frequent visits to
Italy. Stendhal spent the early years of the nineteenth century independently studying
Racine and Shakespeare among others, whom he later brought together to address the
classicist-romantic conflict. He uses Racine as the figurehead of classicism, yet calls
him and Shakespeare both romantics. In this paper I have tried to examine the
circumstances that led to Stendhal’s publication of Racine et Shakespeare, his theory
of romanticism and if Racine was more than a romantic in the Stendhalian sense of the
term, also trying to develop an argument on Racine’s inherent mystical romanticism
that Stendhal does not address.
Mysticism is a tendency of the mind to see unity and likeness in all things of the world. The Pla... more Mysticism is a tendency of the mind to see unity and likeness in all things of the
world. The Platonic idea of truth is such a unity, which when viewed from diverse
angles takes myriad shapes and forms. Plato’s concept of Truth as something that
precedes all points of view is formulated anew by Slavoj Zizek in his reading of what
Lacan meant by the Real. In this sense Real is the world before it is carved up by
language or the Symbolic. The Symbolic is the big Other that distorts/ represses the
Real and works in terms of an automatic system in which the subject loses its agency.
This loss is camouflaged by what Zizek calls “ideology” until the Real returns with
the return of the repressed. Psychoanalysis does this job of demystification and
restores agency to the subject. If mysticism according to Plato is recuperation of the
Real, in Lacan it is just the opposite: the Symbolic Other mystifies the Real and
incites trauma of subjectivity. In this article, I attempt a Lacanaian-Zizekian analysis
of the traumatic that inflect the subject positions in violent state politics of Sri Lanka
and seek to trace its continuity in the (anti)-ethics of Sinhala Buddhist folk rituals
practised in the southern (low) part of the country. Answer has been sought to the
question: “Is the ultimate horizon of ethics a deference towards an unfathomable
Otherness that subverts any encompassing universality?”
The paper interprets Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969)in terms of the Hindu concept of ... more The paper interprets Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969)in terms of the
Hindu concept of Time as enunciated in The Bhagavadgita. Vonnegut and his wife
were the followers of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi who acquainted them with the Technique
of Transcendental Meditation. While in Samaadhi , the third stage of meditation,
human soul communes with the Super Soulsm breaking off the fetters of the earthly
time. In the Superconscious the human soul can traverse all three times back and forth
un-inhibited. Vonnegut deployed the Hindu concept of cosmic time in Slaughterhouse
Five with a view to exploring the alternate brief systems for a solution to the mundane
problems of the modern man. The paper interprets Vonnegut’s use of time travel in
relation to the Gita and explores his protagonist’s comic/parodic adventures as a
serious attempt to overcome his war trauma.
Love is divine, hallowed and heavenly for those who love selflessly and without expectations. It ... more Love is divine, hallowed and heavenly for those who love selflessly and without
expectations. It has several manifestations and true love is a form of worship which
encompasses the experience of eucharistia or nearness to god. Sheikh Sa’di of Persia
and John Donne of England have penned some excellent poems brimming with love in
its most natural and pure forms. Their love verses are like supplications; or earnest
solicitation coming straight from the heart. Sa’di’s love verses are comparable to
exhortations and Donne’s to that of testaments written on love. This paper is an
humble attempt to examine the similarities between the love verses of Sa’di and
Donne, while focusing on the transactions of the elements of mysticism, spirituality,
transcendentalism, moral and devotional dimensions of love.
Archie Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) is a well-known twentieth century American poet ardently promo... more Archie Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) is a well-known twentieth century American
poet ardently promoted by none other than the formidable critic Harold Bloom as
an heir of the American Romantic tradition. He is renowned for his poetic
experiments in Tape for the Turn of the Year and Sphere: The Form of a Motion. He
is equally popular for his ecological concerns in almost all of his poems, especially
in Garbage. Like Walt Whitman, he is a poet of the common man with common
themes that touch the heart of humanity usually with a tinge of sadness. Ammons
celebrates the ordinariness of life extraordinarily in his poems. His volume A Coast
of Trees is no exception. It won him the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1981.
His poetic roots are generally found in the Eastern tradition of Buddhism and
Taoism. Ammons is especially attracted to the natural Way of Lao Tzu. This paper
attempts to examine the paradoxical themes of life and death, one and many,
emptiness and fullness, nature and culture in A Coast of Treeswith reference to
Taoism.
The traditional attitude towards mysticism centres round its association with religious sentiment... more The traditional attitude towards mysticism centres round its association with religious
sentiments, hence it often seems problematic to associate mysticism with secular
literature. However, even in religious literature, we see a humanistic amalgamation of
mystic impulses and the (literary)will-to-communicate. Thus, literary articulations
of mysticism render it closer to human imagination and the mythologies which develop
out of this articulation bring forth the human elements in the divine. Such an instance
of humanistic mysticism developed through innovative mythologies is Amish Tripathi
’s The Shiva Trilogy, based on the reconstruction of several Indian mythical characters
and stories drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Shiva Purana.. The
paper seeks to analyse how the theological arcana of religious mysticism associated
with the divine figure of Shiva has been transformed into a humanistic mythography
by the author of the trilogy, Amish Tripathi, and seeks to reconsider the conceptual
paradigms underpinning the trilogy by critically synthesizing two prominent modes
of theistic philosophy in India: Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism.
As a poet-saint of the Bhakti-movement, Tukaram posed a challenge to the contemporary social orde... more As a poet-saint of the Bhakti-movement, Tukaram posed a challenge to the
contemporary social order by writing his abhangs in colloquial Marathi. Only the
Brahmins were allowed to sing the praises of Vitthal and only Sanskrit was used as the
language of religious scriptures. Tukaram’s abhangs enabled the poor peasants to
worship their Lord. His mysticism is deeply rooted in the acceptance of reality. As
Tukaram seeks a union with Vitthal, he expresses a wide range of emotions in his
abhangs. He acknowledges as well as doubts the existence of God. He becomes
ecstatic about his union with Vitthal, and he also says that he has been tricked into
serving Vitthal. The paper examines how Tukaram’s mystical poems express the
spiritual anguish of a devotee seeking a union with Vitthal.
During his stay in Britain in 1913, Robert Frost met many Georgian poets and one with whom he dev... more During his stay in Britain in 1913, Robert Frost met many Georgian poets and one with
whom he developed an intimate friendship was Edward Thomas. There were many
things similar between Frost’s life and Thomas’s: both found the each other to be his
mirror image. They both faced similar disappointments in being recognized, in marrying
their beloved, and in carrying on with the family responsibilities amid financial crises.
Both of them loved farming and writing poetry; in fact, it was Frost who inspired the
poet in Thomas. They would roam the countryside and in the process their bond
deepened so much that they fell in love with each other. They subsequently stayed
side by side, farming and writing poetry. Their homoerotic feelings are expressed in
poems written by them for each other. Frost has expressed his deep passion and
longings for Edward Thomas in his poems Iris by Night, The Road Not Taken, The
Soldier and many more. The discussion of these poems brings out the mystical
moments faced by the two lovers during their homoerotic liaison.
The present paper dwells upon the concept of Zen in Haiku poems in the true Japanese traditions. ... more The present paper dwells upon the concept of Zen in Haiku poems in the true
Japanese traditions. As the mystic guru of the Japanese Zen Dogen observes, it is the
“dropping away of mind and body”. The exploration of the present study is to know
how Haiku as a medium of expression does this function to encode the feeling of
Eastern mystic enlightenment. Haiku is usually contemplative, mystical and profound.
It expresses the momentary impression, emotion and contemplation of nature. Haiku
is often used by Zen masters, as a conductive form to illustrate the uniqueness of each
moment. Its style expresses a deep fascination with the beauty of meditation and the
world. It is rather an expression of ego-lessness in which the poet turns outward to
fully experience and capture the essence of being in a particular moment at a particular
place. The life experiences and works of poets such as Matsao Basho and Fukuda
Chiyo-ni are taken up for study.
Mysticism is the art of union with supra rational reality. The paper intends to discuss mysticism... more Mysticism is the art of union with supra rational reality. The paper intends to discuss
mysticism in the contemporary Indian English fiction, in the light of Sudhir Kakar’s
novel Ecstasy. The paper also proposes to analyze the various elements and factors of
mysticism implied in the novel in the light of Hindu religion and faith, treating the novel
as a spiritual bildungsroman.
Anway Mukhopadhyay reviews two books on mysticism and Vinamrata reviews a book on Indian English ... more Anway Mukhopadhyay reviews two books on mysticism and Vinamrata reviews a book on Indian English poetry.
Critics have advanced multiple modes of understanding T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) from the... more Critics have advanced multiple modes of understanding T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) from the personal, impersonal, Christian, Indic, philosophical, psychological, mythical and cultural angles. However, no commentator has so far paid due attention to yet another mode of understanding the poem--the muted echoes of Eliot's sense of betrayal over his wife Vivienne's adulterous affair with his former teacher Bertrand Russell in the early years of their married life. The Eliot scholars generally examine the theme of betrayal in The Waste Land as mere literary examples either of the past moral profligacy or of the prevalent sexual perversion in the modern world. The key aspect of betrayal in Eliot's poem remains to a great extent underestimated, although not completely unnoticed. I submit in this essay that several episodes in The Waste Land indeed signify the betrayal theme as Eliot's personal 'grouse' against Vivienne and Russell who indulged in a guilty sexual liaison behind his back. These instances in Eliot's poem even suggest that he inherently wanted to revenge the betrayal upon the two defaulters but preferred not to at that point of time. Nevertheless, Eliot did fulfill his secret wish for retaliation against the culprits much later-in a manner as conceived earlier-in The Waste land.
Postmodern films, unlike the mainstream movies that define themselves by their nation, region and... more Postmodern films, unlike the mainstream movies that define themselves by their nation, region and ideology bound representations, challenge such inherited aspects of representations. Doubting the very notions of representing reality and the truth accompanying it, postmodern films have hyperreal locales. Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, for instance, projects a world that is both high-tech and primitive with its blend of the prehistoric as well as futuristic inhabitants. In the movie, the boundaries between humans and "the replicants" (like androids or cyborgs) are blurred deliberately to express the concern that we are in a world in which the body cannot define itself, locate itself in space, or fix its consciousness in history. Again, while conventional movies take for granted that human identities are constituted by national, regional, and individual ideologies, a postmodern film like Blade Runner raises fundamental questions as: What essentially constitutes a human being? How do we learn to live in a hyperreal world where imitations/replicants look real and "more human than human"? The paper attempts to analyse issues pertaining to human, national, and cultural identities in relation to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Annie Besant's theosophy combined Christianity with Buddhism and Hinduism and this combination of... more Annie Besant's theosophy combined Christianity with Buddhism and Hinduism and this combination of the spiritual led her to question the very nature and rationale behind the existence of the British Empire. She shared spiritual affinities with the natives and attacked the very same empire she was alleged to be spying for, landing herself in prison.Part of the decolonization agenda has been to reassess history, specially the colonial interludes that have cast a significant shadow on postindependence developments. Years of militancy against colonialism are over and a new reconciliatory chapter seems to have begun. The role of the diaspora settled in Britain has been important because they traverse two cultures. It is from within both the metropole and the former colony that they write gifted as it were with a double vision that challenges the colonial and the nationalist points of view at once. The shootings in Jallianwalla Bagh were misrepresented before her and she made the mistake of speaking out her politically incorrect mind thereby losing her mass appeal.
Drawing on the concepts of "schizoanalysis" and "chaosmosis" as presented by Felix Guattari, this... more Drawing on the concepts of "schizoanalysis" and "chaosmosis" as presented by Felix Guattari, this essay argues for a chaosmic, radically trans-disciplinary model of comparativism, for the academic negotiation between different cultural frameworks. The essay focuses on the analyses of the Hindu divine images in the works of Diana Eck and Iris Murdoch. In order to render a richer and complex account of the whole issue of monotheism and polytheism from the perspective of the Western dichotomy between One and Many, I invoke the figure of Diotima from Plato's Symposium by placing the intricacies of her discourse of beauty on a comparative spectrum with the dichotomy between Murdoch's focus on the "sovereignty" of the Platonic Good (the One), aesthetic predilection for the multiplicity of figures and images to which she has an ambivalent approach, and Diana Eck's radical critique of the monotheistic intellectual universe of the West. Did Diotima actually seek to reconcile the One with the Many, rather than echoing the Socratic warning against the lure of multiplicity, whether theological or existential? All these issues are dealt with in the essay within the larger critical framework of the Guattarian schizoanalysis that celebrates a radically decentred plurality. However, in the concluding part, I also subject the schizoanalytical mode of interpretation itself to a cross-cultural schizoanalysis, offering a critique of the madly moving "machines" of Guattari.
This Paper will argue that the intersection of rats and human beings at a key moment in the histo... more This Paper will argue that the intersection of rats and human beings at a key moment in the history of the African Americans is a useful locus to identify some of the complex and multilayered problems related to gender and self-identification. To this end, I have selected four novels of the period between 1946 and 1953. These four novels are Native Son, The Street, Third Ward Newark and Maud Martha. I will zero in on the richly evocative rodent scenes in these novels and study their meaning in the context of the larger African American cultural issues.
One problem that the interpreters of texts have always faced is the problem of surplus significat... more One problem that the interpreters of texts have always faced is the problem of surplus signification that the texts generate. Since the beginning of hermeneutical practices, various thinkers have suggested a range of methods to resolve this complex issue. In this paper, I attempt to bring out the conceptual frameworks that Jacues Lacan has created to deal with the issue of surplus signification. I discuss the concepts of language, signifier, lalangue, epos, jouissance, sinthome, and lamella in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to explicate the nature of the text, its constitutive elements, and its relationship with the author and the reader. By implication, the nature of signification is subjected to exhaustive scrutiny in order to arrive at an understanding of the complex issues of language and text.
Literature is the offspring of mysticism; it appropriates a world that goes beyond the logic of a... more Literature is the offspring of mysticism; it appropriates a world that goes beyond the
logic of antonyms and synonyms and explains the genesis of both literature and
mysticism. Mysticism resides in human body as illumined in the Yoga; in the Kundalini
form of Goddess Kali. The exploration of the subliminal layers of the Gita, Rig Veda
and Upanishads unfolds how mystic seeing is in the sense of the syncretic — both
conscious and unconscious. The cognoscibility of human faculties is concomitant to
divine experience. It is neither the supplement nor a surrogate. This is what the
Upanishad says: a flight from the beyond to the beyond. The endeavor of the one
engaged in the quest-the Sadhaka - establishes a telic relationship with a supramental
power that guides him across a journey through ages and eras. The poetry of Meera,
Kabir, Tulsi, Dadu, Nanak and Namdev among others testifies that man’s search for
his real existence leads to the production of literature. Awareness of the syncretic
nature of imagination makes evident how Buddha’s deconstruction of the idea of
logocentric presence finds reappearance in the Derridean discourse. A reading of the
syncretic mysticism in Eliot and others reveals how in spite of owning immensely to
the Hindu mystic thought, Eliot remained fettered to the organized Christianity.
The greatest danger in the contemporary literature however is the loss and
disappearance of the sublime. Apprehending the secrets of language lets one know
how fraught it is for it contains the secrets of heaven and the realities earth. Mystics
take the former route while the novelist the latter.
In 1823 French romantic writer Stendhal published Racine et Shakespeare, a vital text in the hist... more In 1823 French romantic writer Stendhal published Racine et Shakespeare, a vital text
in the history of French Romanticism partly hailed as a precursory text. It was a
compilation of Stendhal’s published and unpublished leaflets defending the romantic
movement that he was more than a witness to in Milan during his frequent visits to
Italy. Stendhal spent the early years of the nineteenth century independently studying
Racine and Shakespeare among others, whom he later brought together to address the
classicist-romantic conflict. He uses Racine as the figurehead of classicism, yet calls
him and Shakespeare both romantics. In this paper I have tried to examine the
circumstances that led to Stendhal’s publication of Racine et Shakespeare, his theory
of romanticism and if Racine was more than a romantic in the Stendhalian sense of the
term, also trying to develop an argument on Racine’s inherent mystical romanticism
that Stendhal does not address.
Mysticism is a tendency of the mind to see unity and likeness in all things of the world. The Pla... more Mysticism is a tendency of the mind to see unity and likeness in all things of the
world. The Platonic idea of truth is such a unity, which when viewed from diverse
angles takes myriad shapes and forms. Plato’s concept of Truth as something that
precedes all points of view is formulated anew by Slavoj Zizek in his reading of what
Lacan meant by the Real. In this sense Real is the world before it is carved up by
language or the Symbolic. The Symbolic is the big Other that distorts/ represses the
Real and works in terms of an automatic system in which the subject loses its agency.
This loss is camouflaged by what Zizek calls “ideology” until the Real returns with
the return of the repressed. Psychoanalysis does this job of demystification and
restores agency to the subject. If mysticism according to Plato is recuperation of the
Real, in Lacan it is just the opposite: the Symbolic Other mystifies the Real and
incites trauma of subjectivity. In this article, I attempt a Lacanaian-Zizekian analysis
of the traumatic that inflect the subject positions in violent state politics of Sri Lanka
and seek to trace its continuity in the (anti)-ethics of Sinhala Buddhist folk rituals
practised in the southern (low) part of the country. Answer has been sought to the
question: “Is the ultimate horizon of ethics a deference towards an unfathomable
Otherness that subverts any encompassing universality?”
The paper interprets Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969)in terms of the Hindu concept of ... more The paper interprets Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969)in terms of the
Hindu concept of Time as enunciated in The Bhagavadgita. Vonnegut and his wife
were the followers of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi who acquainted them with the Technique
of Transcendental Meditation. While in Samaadhi , the third stage of meditation,
human soul communes with the Super Soulsm breaking off the fetters of the earthly
time. In the Superconscious the human soul can traverse all three times back and forth
un-inhibited. Vonnegut deployed the Hindu concept of cosmic time in Slaughterhouse
Five with a view to exploring the alternate brief systems for a solution to the mundane
problems of the modern man. The paper interprets Vonnegut’s use of time travel in
relation to the Gita and explores his protagonist’s comic/parodic adventures as a
serious attempt to overcome his war trauma.
Love is divine, hallowed and heavenly for those who love selflessly and without expectations. It ... more Love is divine, hallowed and heavenly for those who love selflessly and without
expectations. It has several manifestations and true love is a form of worship which
encompasses the experience of eucharistia or nearness to god. Sheikh Sa’di of Persia
and John Donne of England have penned some excellent poems brimming with love in
its most natural and pure forms. Their love verses are like supplications; or earnest
solicitation coming straight from the heart. Sa’di’s love verses are comparable to
exhortations and Donne’s to that of testaments written on love. This paper is an
humble attempt to examine the similarities between the love verses of Sa’di and
Donne, while focusing on the transactions of the elements of mysticism, spirituality,
transcendentalism, moral and devotional dimensions of love.
Archie Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) is a well-known twentieth century American poet ardently promo... more Archie Randolph Ammons (1926-2001) is a well-known twentieth century American
poet ardently promoted by none other than the formidable critic Harold Bloom as
an heir of the American Romantic tradition. He is renowned for his poetic
experiments in Tape for the Turn of the Year and Sphere: The Form of a Motion. He
is equally popular for his ecological concerns in almost all of his poems, especially
in Garbage. Like Walt Whitman, he is a poet of the common man with common
themes that touch the heart of humanity usually with a tinge of sadness. Ammons
celebrates the ordinariness of life extraordinarily in his poems. His volume A Coast
of Trees is no exception. It won him the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1981.
His poetic roots are generally found in the Eastern tradition of Buddhism and
Taoism. Ammons is especially attracted to the natural Way of Lao Tzu. This paper
attempts to examine the paradoxical themes of life and death, one and many,
emptiness and fullness, nature and culture in A Coast of Treeswith reference to
Taoism.
The traditional attitude towards mysticism centres round its association with religious sentiment... more The traditional attitude towards mysticism centres round its association with religious
sentiments, hence it often seems problematic to associate mysticism with secular
literature. However, even in religious literature, we see a humanistic amalgamation of
mystic impulses and the (literary)will-to-communicate. Thus, literary articulations
of mysticism render it closer to human imagination and the mythologies which develop
out of this articulation bring forth the human elements in the divine. Such an instance
of humanistic mysticism developed through innovative mythologies is Amish Tripathi
’s The Shiva Trilogy, based on the reconstruction of several Indian mythical characters
and stories drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Shiva Purana.. The
paper seeks to analyse how the theological arcana of religious mysticism associated
with the divine figure of Shiva has been transformed into a humanistic mythography
by the author of the trilogy, Amish Tripathi, and seeks to reconsider the conceptual
paradigms underpinning the trilogy by critically synthesizing two prominent modes
of theistic philosophy in India: Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism.
As a poet-saint of the Bhakti-movement, Tukaram posed a challenge to the contemporary social orde... more As a poet-saint of the Bhakti-movement, Tukaram posed a challenge to the
contemporary social order by writing his abhangs in colloquial Marathi. Only the
Brahmins were allowed to sing the praises of Vitthal and only Sanskrit was used as the
language of religious scriptures. Tukaram’s abhangs enabled the poor peasants to
worship their Lord. His mysticism is deeply rooted in the acceptance of reality. As
Tukaram seeks a union with Vitthal, he expresses a wide range of emotions in his
abhangs. He acknowledges as well as doubts the existence of God. He becomes
ecstatic about his union with Vitthal, and he also says that he has been tricked into
serving Vitthal. The paper examines how Tukaram’s mystical poems express the
spiritual anguish of a devotee seeking a union with Vitthal.
During his stay in Britain in 1913, Robert Frost met many Georgian poets and one with whom he dev... more During his stay in Britain in 1913, Robert Frost met many Georgian poets and one with
whom he developed an intimate friendship was Edward Thomas. There were many
things similar between Frost’s life and Thomas’s: both found the each other to be his
mirror image. They both faced similar disappointments in being recognized, in marrying
their beloved, and in carrying on with the family responsibilities amid financial crises.
Both of them loved farming and writing poetry; in fact, it was Frost who inspired the
poet in Thomas. They would roam the countryside and in the process their bond
deepened so much that they fell in love with each other. They subsequently stayed
side by side, farming and writing poetry. Their homoerotic feelings are expressed in
poems written by them for each other. Frost has expressed his deep passion and
longings for Edward Thomas in his poems Iris by Night, The Road Not Taken, The
Soldier and many more. The discussion of these poems brings out the mystical
moments faced by the two lovers during their homoerotic liaison.
The present paper dwells upon the concept of Zen in Haiku poems in the true Japanese traditions. ... more The present paper dwells upon the concept of Zen in Haiku poems in the true
Japanese traditions. As the mystic guru of the Japanese Zen Dogen observes, it is the
“dropping away of mind and body”. The exploration of the present study is to know
how Haiku as a medium of expression does this function to encode the feeling of
Eastern mystic enlightenment. Haiku is usually contemplative, mystical and profound.
It expresses the momentary impression, emotion and contemplation of nature. Haiku
is often used by Zen masters, as a conductive form to illustrate the uniqueness of each
moment. Its style expresses a deep fascination with the beauty of meditation and the
world. It is rather an expression of ego-lessness in which the poet turns outward to
fully experience and capture the essence of being in a particular moment at a particular
place. The life experiences and works of poets such as Matsao Basho and Fukuda
Chiyo-ni are taken up for study.
Mysticism is the art of union with supra rational reality. The paper intends to discuss mysticism... more Mysticism is the art of union with supra rational reality. The paper intends to discuss
mysticism in the contemporary Indian English fiction, in the light of Sudhir Kakar’s
novel Ecstasy. The paper also proposes to analyze the various elements and factors of
mysticism implied in the novel in the light of Hindu religion and faith, treating the novel
as a spiritual bildungsroman.
Anway Mukhopadhyay reviews two books on mysticism and Vinamrata reviews a book on Indian English ... more Anway Mukhopadhyay reviews two books on mysticism and Vinamrata reviews a book on Indian English poetry.
Critics have advanced multiple modes of understanding T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) from the... more Critics have advanced multiple modes of understanding T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) from the personal, impersonal, Christian, Indic, philosophical, psychological, mythical and cultural angles. However, no commentator has so far paid due attention to yet another mode of understanding the poem--the muted echoes of Eliot's sense of betrayal over his wife Vivienne's adulterous affair with his former teacher Bertrand Russell in the early years of their married life. The Eliot scholars generally examine the theme of betrayal in The Waste Land as mere literary examples either of the past moral profligacy or of the prevalent sexual perversion in the modern world. The key aspect of betrayal in Eliot's poem remains to a great extent underestimated, although not completely unnoticed. I submit in this essay that several episodes in The Waste Land indeed signify the betrayal theme as Eliot's personal 'grouse' against Vivienne and Russell who indulged in a guilty sexual liaison behind his back. These instances in Eliot's poem even suggest that he inherently wanted to revenge the betrayal upon the two defaulters but preferred not to at that point of time. Nevertheless, Eliot did fulfill his secret wish for retaliation against the culprits much later-in a manner as conceived earlier-in The Waste land.
Postmodern films, unlike the mainstream movies that define themselves by their nation, region and... more Postmodern films, unlike the mainstream movies that define themselves by their nation, region and ideology bound representations, challenge such inherited aspects of representations. Doubting the very notions of representing reality and the truth accompanying it, postmodern films have hyperreal locales. Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, for instance, projects a world that is both high-tech and primitive with its blend of the prehistoric as well as futuristic inhabitants. In the movie, the boundaries between humans and "the replicants" (like androids or cyborgs) are blurred deliberately to express the concern that we are in a world in which the body cannot define itself, locate itself in space, or fix its consciousness in history. Again, while conventional movies take for granted that human identities are constituted by national, regional, and individual ideologies, a postmodern film like Blade Runner raises fundamental questions as: What essentially constitutes a human being? How do we learn to live in a hyperreal world where imitations/replicants look real and "more human than human"? The paper attempts to analyse issues pertaining to human, national, and cultural identities in relation to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Annie Besant's theosophy combined Christianity with Buddhism and Hinduism and this combination of... more Annie Besant's theosophy combined Christianity with Buddhism and Hinduism and this combination of the spiritual led her to question the very nature and rationale behind the existence of the British Empire. She shared spiritual affinities with the natives and attacked the very same empire she was alleged to be spying for, landing herself in prison.Part of the decolonization agenda has been to reassess history, specially the colonial interludes that have cast a significant shadow on postindependence developments. Years of militancy against colonialism are over and a new reconciliatory chapter seems to have begun. The role of the diaspora settled in Britain has been important because they traverse two cultures. It is from within both the metropole and the former colony that they write gifted as it were with a double vision that challenges the colonial and the nationalist points of view at once. The shootings in Jallianwalla Bagh were misrepresented before her and she made the mistake of speaking out her politically incorrect mind thereby losing her mass appeal.
Drawing on the concepts of "schizoanalysis" and "chaosmosis" as presented by Felix Guattari, this... more Drawing on the concepts of "schizoanalysis" and "chaosmosis" as presented by Felix Guattari, this essay argues for a chaosmic, radically trans-disciplinary model of comparativism, for the academic negotiation between different cultural frameworks. The essay focuses on the analyses of the Hindu divine images in the works of Diana Eck and Iris Murdoch. In order to render a richer and complex account of the whole issue of monotheism and polytheism from the perspective of the Western dichotomy between One and Many, I invoke the figure of Diotima from Plato's Symposium by placing the intricacies of her discourse of beauty on a comparative spectrum with the dichotomy between Murdoch's focus on the "sovereignty" of the Platonic Good (the One), aesthetic predilection for the multiplicity of figures and images to which she has an ambivalent approach, and Diana Eck's radical critique of the monotheistic intellectual universe of the West. Did Diotima actually seek to reconcile the One with the Many, rather than echoing the Socratic warning against the lure of multiplicity, whether theological or existential? All these issues are dealt with in the essay within the larger critical framework of the Guattarian schizoanalysis that celebrates a radically decentred plurality. However, in the concluding part, I also subject the schizoanalytical mode of interpretation itself to a cross-cultural schizoanalysis, offering a critique of the madly moving "machines" of Guattari.
This Paper will argue that the intersection of rats and human beings at a key moment in the histo... more This Paper will argue that the intersection of rats and human beings at a key moment in the history of the African Americans is a useful locus to identify some of the complex and multilayered problems related to gender and self-identification. To this end, I have selected four novels of the period between 1946 and 1953. These four novels are Native Son, The Street, Third Ward Newark and Maud Martha. I will zero in on the richly evocative rodent scenes in these novels and study their meaning in the context of the larger African American cultural issues.
One problem that the interpreters of texts have always faced is the problem of surplus significat... more One problem that the interpreters of texts have always faced is the problem of surplus signification that the texts generate. Since the beginning of hermeneutical practices, various thinkers have suggested a range of methods to resolve this complex issue. In this paper, I attempt to bring out the conceptual frameworks that Jacues Lacan has created to deal with the issue of surplus signification. I discuss the concepts of language, signifier, lalangue, epos, jouissance, sinthome, and lamella in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to explicate the nature of the text, its constitutive elements, and its relationship with the author and the reader. By implication, the nature of signification is subjected to exhaustive scrutiny in order to arrive at an understanding of the complex issues of language and text.