Nagendra Bhandari - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Nagendra Bhandari

Prithvi Journal of Research and Innovation

This paper analyses the implication of Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) training in p... more This paper analyses the implication of Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) training in pedagogical transformation in community schools in Gandaki Province, Nepal. It followed sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. The sample size of this study comprised selected 45 secondary level TPD trained teachers purposively from Kaski, Tanahu, and Syangja Districts of Gandaki Province from five schools from each district. The quantitative data were collected through questionnaire survey with teachers and the qualitative data were collected through Focus Group Discussions with trainers and head teachers separately. The analysis of data reveals that pedagogical transformation through training is not satisfactory. For the effective implementation of training knowledge and skill of training, the coordination among all the stakeholders needs to be harmonious. The training curricula, trainers’ knowledge and skill, and teaching context should be updated and improved as per the...

The Outlook: Journal of English Studies

This article examines the transformation of gender identity of Prema, an immigrant girl from a mo... more This article examines the transformation of gender identity of Prema, an immigrant girl from a mountainous village of Nepal to the metropolis of the US in Manjushree Thapa’s Seasons of Flight. The novel synchronizes the spatial journey of this village girl with her mental and emotional transformation. In course of her journey, she persistently crosses the cultural and social expectation for a girl born in typical Hindu family of the hinterland of Nepal. Particularly, she takes crucial decision of her life independently, supports her family financially and enjoys liberated sexual life. For this, she resists numerous social and cultural restrictions and obligations which gradually transform her as an independent girl. In this paper, Prema’s transformation process is analyzed through the critical frame of David Jefferess resistance model which emphasizes on transformation in perception, material reality and human relationship in resistance process.

SCHOLARS: Journal of Arts & Humanities

This article analyzes the formation of multiple and hybird identities of an immigrant in Korean A... more This article analyzes the formation of multiple and hybird identities of an immigrant in Korean American writer Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker (1995). Growing up between Korean ancestry and American surrounding, the second-generation immigrant Henry feels uncertainty and dilemma in his sense of belonging. He simultaneously travels in both cultural spaces in his quest of sense of belonging. At times, he attempts to identify himself with American cultural space along with his White wife. However, the reaction of the mainstream society to the immigrants of Asian origin like him makes him aware of his marginalized status in the US. In the same way, he cannot wholeheartedly identify with his Korean ancestry. His upbringing in the American cultural milieu problematizes his sense of belonging in the Korean cultural space. He negotiates between his origin and upbringing in the third space of the diaspora. This negotiation renders multiplicities and pluralities of self, which reflects in...

Prithvi Academic Journal

Homi K. Bhabha proposes the interstitial space of cultural encounter in which the colonizer and t... more Homi K. Bhabha proposes the interstitial space of cultural encounter in which the colonizer and the colonized negotiate, producing hybridity in culture. This type of culture subverts colonial domination by deconstructing essentialist identity and binary opposition of the colonizer and colonized or the East and the West. In this case, his in-between third space resists colonial oppression largely depending on the analysis of colonial discourse and cultural identity formation of the colonized people. However, lack of concern to the political and economic exploitation of the colonizers and the material condition of unequal access to resources and opportunities make his third space a cultural project that helps for mental and psychological liberation only. Today, the First World countries and the former colonizers manipulate a negotiation in the intercultural and international third space created by World Trade Organization (WTO) and Social Media Networks (SMNs) in their favour. Thus, t...

Prithvi Journal of Research and Innovation, 2020

This article discusses the social pressure upon the black immigrants to adopt the white standard ... more This article discusses the social pressure upon the black immigrants to adopt the white standard of beauty and their resistance to such racist pressures, which is depicted in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. The discourses and practices of beauty have been colonized by the racist attitude of white supremacy in the US. This cultural colonization has exerted the social pressure upon the black immigrants to regulate their bodily features to comply with the white standard of the beauty for social acceptability and professional growth. They suffer physically and emotionally in this process. Ifemelus, the protagonist of Americanah, gradually develops her critical consciousness after going through emotional and physical suffering while straightening her hair. Her resistance process is analyzed in the critical frame of David Jeferess transformative resistance model. She resists the white standard of beauty by proposing an alternative form of aesthetics on the basis of bodily features ...

Curriculum Development Journal, 2020

In association with different disciplines, the conceptualization of the third space with differen... more In association with different disciplines, the conceptualization of the third space with different jargons and theoretical tropes has evolved historically. However, this article makes a brief review about the concept of the third space in relation with formation of human subjectivities. Particularly, the ideas of Arnold Van Gennep, Victor Turner, Edward Burghardt DuBois, Gloria Anzaldua and Homi Bhabha are reviewed briefly. In fact, observing the cultural rituals and how they transform human subjectivities, Gennep locates the transitory space which is crucial informing changing roles and identities of human beings. From cultural rituals, Turner takes up this idea in the process of social changes. He identifies this space in between the interaction of structured and anti structured social roles. Likewise, DuBois expands this idea in examining subjectivities of Black people. But, Anzaldua incorporates all people and formation of their identities in her analysis. Multiple factors and a...

Prithvi Academic Journal, 2020

In Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Chinese American mother LuLing involves in the self-expl... more In Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Chinese American mother LuLing involves in the self-exploration vacillating between her home and host cultures. The Chinese immigrant LuLing cannot remain totally independent of her indigenous culture of her native country China. Consequently, she demonstrates residual of Chinese culture in her diasporic life. Moreover, she forces her American born daughter to follow the same which sometimes renders conflict in mother-daughter relation. However, she cannot resist the influences of the culture of host country in the United States. She follows certain practices of American cultures. At the same time, she manifests an ambivalent attitude to both cultures. In such cultural interaction, her subjectivity encompasses multiplicities and pluralities by deconstructing the binary of the home and host culture. In this article, the formation of her subjectivity is analyzed through the critical postulations of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ of Stuart Hall and ‘thi...

Tribhuvan University Journal, 2018

Immigrants suffer problematic cultural identities due to their bicultural allegiances to their ho... more Immigrants suffer problematic cultural identities due to their bicultural allegiances to their host and native cultures. They can not be totally free from their ‘being’, the shared cultural and historical experiences. As a result, they follow their cultural practices of native country even in their diasporic existences. At the same time, they adopt and follow the cultural practices of the host country. In fact, they are living in the cultural third space simultaneously oscillating between two cultures. In such cultural in-between’s, the first generation and the second generation immigrants undergo different experience in diaspora. In this article, Chinese American writer Amy Tan’s two fictions namely The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter are analyzed focusing on cultural identities of second generation immigrants. The second generation in these narratives is the daughters of Chinese immigrant mothers. Their relationship with their mothers unfolds their simultaneous attract...

Prithvi Academic Journal, 2018

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake explores the cultural negotiation of first and second generation Ind... more Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake explores the cultural negotiation of first and second generation Indian immigrants in America. They oscillate between two cultural spaces i.e. Indian and American searching cultural identity. This study makes an attempt to analyze the paradigm shift between the first and second generations in their cultural negotiation. Their experience of identity crisis, the process of assimilation in the host culture, the deculturation and acculturation processes, the reactions to the discriminatory practices and sense of belonging are examined. They are analyzed by using the theoretical concepts of Hall’s cultural identity and Bhabha’s third space. The cultural negotiation experienced by these two generations in diasporic hybrid cultural space renders fluid and unstable cultural identity. However, the differing approaches adopted by these two generations in their cultural negotiation results in diverse experiences.

This article examines translation theories which explore the practices of reinforcing the colonia... more This article examines translation theories which explore the practices of reinforcing the colonial stereotypical images of the Third world people and culture while translating the Third World literature into English. The unequal power relations between the First World and the Third World, and the historical colonization have influenced both the product and process of translation. Moreover, the translator, a politically and culturally constructed subject, is caught up in the nexus of institutional demands and expectations of the readers. These factors also influence in the selection of the texts and writers of the translation. Consequently, the translation of the Third World literature into the language of the First World involves in manipulation due to unequal power relationship, subjective influence of the translator, and the cultural and linguistic untranslability. This article discusses these issues in references to the critical writings of Anuradha Dingwaney, Carol Maier, Mahasw...

International Journal of English and Literature, 2021

This article analyzes the cultural negotiation and identity formation of immigrant characters in ... more This article analyzes the cultural negotiation and identity formation of immigrant characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s narratives. In the transcultural space of diaspora, the immigrant characters often vacillate between cultural practices of their home and host country problematizing their cultural identity. They can neither forsake their past: cultural origin nor fully emerge into the cultural practices of their host country. They tend to adopt the new cultural identity without leaving the old one. In a sense, they occupy a shared cultural space of their host and home country rendering cultural ambivalence. Such cultural negotiations lead them to the third space: hybrid cultural space which renders new form of fluid and dynamic cultural identity that transcends the binary of the past and present, and home country and host country. Formation of such unstable cultural identity of immigrants is examined in the critical frame of Stuart Hall’s cultural identity and Homi K Bhabha’s third space...

This article examines the problematic cultural identity of the first-generation immigrants in Amy... more This article examines the problematic cultural identity of the first-generation immigrants in Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2001) and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (2003). The immigrant characters problematize their cultural identity by oscillating in the cultural spaces of their home country and the host country. They tend to adopt new cultural identity of their host country while sustaining the old one of their home country. As a result, they negotiate their cultural identity in the shared cultural space which Homi K Bhabha terms as the third space. While analyzing the third space of cultural encounter, I refer to homeland culture as the first and the host land culture as the second cultural space of immigrants. Negotiating in the third space of the diaspora, the immigrants embody fluid and dynamic cultural identities that go beyond the binary of the host and home country. The process of the cultural negotiation of the immigrants is analyzed in the critical frame of Stuart H...

Unity Journal, 2021

The representation Gurkha soldier or Lahures in British military writings and Nepali modernist na... more The representation Gurkha soldier or Lahures in British military writings and Nepali modernist narratives vary drastically. The British writings expose their martial skill and strength with high degree of integrity and loyalty in different wars including the First and Second World Wars. For instances, Brian Houghton Hodgson’s “Origin and Classification of the Military Tribes of Nepal”, J. P. Cross’s In Gurkha Company: The British Army Gurkhas and John Pemble’s British Gurkha War reflect their gallantry and unconditional loyalty. On the contrary, Nepali modernist narratives unravel their personal loss, separation, unpatriotic feeling and irresponsibility. Such unpleasant connotations in Nepali literature appears in ‘Aamali Sodhlin ni’ (Mother May Ask), a song of Jhalak Man Gandharva, “Sipahi” (Soldier), a story of Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Sisirko Phul (Blue Mimosa), a novel of Bishnu Kumari Baiba ‘Parijat’ and poems of Bhupi Sherchan. This article explores drastically different ty...

This article explores the ambivalence retention of immigrant characters to their home and host co... more This article explores the ambivalence retention of immigrant characters to their home and host country in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. The novel depicts the immigrant characters‘ simultaneous attraction toward and distraction from the native and host country. At times, they manifest fascination to their host country and culture. In such moment, they tend to adopt the cultural practices and lifestyle of their host country. However, they cannot be free from their native culture and country which is deeply rooted in their subconscious. Consequently, these immigrant characters concurrently vacillate between the cultural spaces of their native and host country. In a sense, they adopt new cultural practices of their host country without forsaking the old one. They live in a shared cultural space of their home and host country while negotiating their cultural identity in the diaspora. With such ambivalent retention, they involve in negotiation in the shared space of the diasp...

The theorists vary in their conceptualizations of diaspora and cultural identity of immigrants. B... more The theorists vary in their conceptualizations of diaspora and cultural identity of immigrants. Broadly speaking, the theorizations of diaspora can be categorized into four different groups with their focus on diverse aspects of immigrants’ lives. The first classical phase describes the forced migration of immigrants including victimhood diaspora of Jewish, Africans and Armenians. The second conceptualization incorporates historical, cultural and social diversities of people living in the diaspora. Critiquing the second phase, the third group of theorists deconstructs bipolar notions of the home and host country, and celebrates the inconsistencies, and fluidities of immigrants’ identities in diasporic third space. In contrast, the fourth conceptualizations emphasizes on relevance of the origin and historical exploitation of people of poor countries. Both the historical experiences and present negotiations play decisive roles in the formation of cultural identity of immigrants. The p...

Literary Studies

This article analyses the formation of the hybrid and multiple subjectivities of the second-gener... more This article analyses the formation of the hybrid and multiple subjectivities of the second-generation immigrant Murasaki in Hiromi Goto’s Chorus of Mushrooms. In diaspora, Murasaki simultaneously vacillates in the cultural spaces of her homeland Japan and host land Canada. She follows cultural practices of both cultural spaces in her cultural negotiation in the diaspora. Her simultaneous vacillations in two cultural spaces render hybridity and multiplicities in her subjectivities that deconstruct bipolar notion of home and host culture. Moreover, her subjectivities involve in a constant process of formation and reformation undermining the notion of stability and consistency.Murasaki’s evolving subjectivity is analyzed through Stuart Hall’s notion of cultural identity and Homi Bhabha’s postulation of third space in this study.