Global Humanities Review (ISSN 3108-1983) is a peer-reviewed, indexed, and international online journal published bimonthly—January, March, May, July, September, and November—by the Global Humanities Research Forum. The journal serves as a platform for scholars and researchers to share original, insightful, and interdisciplinary work that contributes to the understanding of human culture, thought, and expression in a global context. The journal fosters global dialogue, critical inquiry, and innovative approaches to understanding the diverse human experience in a rapidly transforming world. Editor in Chief: Dr. C. Priya Established: July 2025 Frequency: Bimonthly
Spatial Geographies of the Subaltern in Contemporary Indian Fiction: A Study
Physical space in literature functions not merely as a neutral background but as an active agent that enforces cultural and socio-economic hierarchies. This paper argues that marginalised characters in contemporary Indian fiction utilise, subvert, and reclaim oppressive architectural spaces to challenge cultural hegemony. While current academic literature frequently focuses on how post-2000 Anglophone Indian novels deconstruct the dominant cultural narratives, research often treats marginalisation strictly as a social or economic condition. It rarely examines marginalisation as a geographical or architectural reality. This study investigates the spatial dimensions of subaltern oppression. The paper examines Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) to explore class disparity and capitalist confinement. It analyses Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions (2008) to understand mythological revisionism and patriarchal architectural control. It studies Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) to interpret marginalised identities and spatial politics. Through a comparative approach grounded in post-colonial and spatial theory, this research answers how marginalised characters transform spaces from palatial estates to urban graveyards into sites of subaltern agency.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Double-Bind of the Black Detective: A Socio-Critical and Structural Analysis of the TV series “Cross”
The 2024 Amazon Prime Video series ‘Cross – Season 1 and Season 2’, starring Aldis Hodge, represents the most sustained and ambitious screen adaptation to date, benefiting from the expanded narrative space of episodic television to develop character relationships, casework, and backstory with greater fidelity to Patterson's source material. Across all iterations, Alex Cross endures as a significant figure in popular literary culture - a detective whose longevity reflects the genre's appetite for protagonists who are professionally formidable, emotionally available, and morally unambiguous in a world defined by violence and ambiguity. This article surveys Detective Alex Cross as a luminary fictional character in Amazon Prime Video series ‘Cross – Season 1 and Season 2’. It examines his translation across screen adaptations, considering the tensions and transformations that arise when a richly textured character moves between media.
Fashioning Criminality: Style, Masculinity and the Anti-Hero Vogue in Contemporary Indian Cinema
The emergence of anti-heroic protagonists has significantly transformed contemporary Indian cinema, creating characters who command audience admiration despite their involvement in violence and crime. Films such as KGF: Chapter 1 (2018), Pushpa: The Rise (2021), and Animal (2023) exemplify this trend by presenting criminal protagonists through distinctive costumes, grooming practices, accessories, and bodily performances that elevate them from narrative outlaws to cultural style icons. This article examines how fashion functions as a crucial mechanism in the aestheticisation of criminality and the construction of aspirational masculine identities. The article analyses the visual representation of the anti-hero in contemporary Indian cinema and argues that costume and performative style function as forms of symbolic capital, transforming criminality into a desirable, consumable aesthetic. Through these visual strategies, anti-heroes are presented as embodiments of confidence, power, rebellion, and masculine success. It also explores how these cinematic styles circulate beyond the screen through fan cultures, social media, and everyday fashion practices. The study concludes that contemporary Indian cinema contributes to the normalisation of criminal aesthetics and reshapes popular understandings of masculinity, identity, and cultural aspiration in contemporary India.
Components of Fantasy and Nightmare in the Harry Potter Series
Harry Potter is every child’s must-read when in the young adult stage. Its popularity is passed down from one generation to the next. J.K. Rowling is said to have agreed that fantasy is not her genre of writing. Readers tend to find that Harry Potter failed to live up to the expectations of the fantasy genre. Rowling provides an account of how fantasy highlights everyday experience and an individual’s standing in society. This paper examines the elements of fantasy in the Harry Potter series and how the genre is blended within the books and widely accepted by audiences across cultures. Rowling draws parallels between the Muggle and wizarding worlds and discusses capitalist society. Rowling uses bildungsroman and the school’s story to make her books adore the element of fantasy. This restricts the scope of discussion about society, and the focus is clearly on Harry Potter as a character. Rowling wrote this book for herself; the author herself agreed. Thus, the target audience wouldn’t be children alone. Rowling keeps focusing on the plot, which shows how the series stands out in children’s literature.
Representations of Class and Human Equality in K. Hminga's "Tu Nge Inthlei Thei?": A Marxist Reading
This paper examines K. Hminga's song "Tu Nge Inthlei Thei?" through the lens of Marxist literary criticism. The study explores how the song represents class distinctions, social inequality, and power relations within Mizo society. Drawing upon key Marxist concepts such as class struggle, ideology, false consciousness, and social hierarchy, the paper analyses the song's lyrics to demonstrate how they challenge discrimination based on wealth, social status, education, and institutional power. The study argues that the song advocates human dignity and equality while critiquing the tendency of privileged individuals to misuse their social position. Furthermore, the paper highlights how the song exposes the ideological structures that normalise inequality and encourage social division. By foregrounding the experiences of marginalised individuals and questioning hierarchical social relations, "Tu Nge Inthlei Thei?" functions as a form of social criticism that resonates with Marxist concerns regarding justice and equality. The paper concludes that the song serves not only as a cultural expression but also as a powerful medium for raising social awareness and encouraging critical reflection on contemporary Mizo society.
Politics of the Canon and Literary Activism: A Select Reading of Indigenous Narratives by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Maria Campbell
Indigeneity functions as a vital hermeneutic for interrogating race as a socially constructed category. Entangled within hegemonic power structures encompassing ideology, political economy, and cultural politics, indigenous social formations remain susceptible to systemic violence and subjugation. Literature, situated at the nexus of the liberal humanities and social sciences, provides a crucial site of critical intervention. It not only maps the aesthetic modalities of racial representation but rigorously interrogates the attendant ethical and political dimensions. Consequently, literary authorship precludes objective neutrality; rather, an author's ideological subjectivity fundamentally mediates the aesthetics and ethics of their representational praxis. The textualisation of indigenous histories, systemic marginalisation, and identity formation thus operates as a modality of ethical activism, significantly shaping public discourse. This essay examines select works by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Maria Campbell to analyse their literary engagement with racial politics, indigenous historiography, and the articulation of selfhood. Both authors, prominent activists within indigenous liberation movements, inextricably link their political praxis with their literary output. Ultimately, this study investigates how these writers negotiate their authorial subjectivities to articulate indigenous realities.
The Joy of Not Fitting in: Asexuality Dynamics in Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman
The notions of success, sexuality, and happiness are largely arbitrary and mediated by culture, gender, and societal norms. The linear narrative of many women’s lives has largely been circumscribed and bound by family structures. The vocal feminist defies these norms flagrantly, but what if the woman is just another Fly on the wall, doing a mind-numbing routine for two decades yet finds comfort in the banality of her existence? Sayaka Murata’s protagonist Keiko Furukura is an ordinary saleswoman in a supermarket at the heart of Tokyo. Juxtaposing Keiko’s ordinariness with the opulence and grandeur of uptown Tokyo, this paper explores the struggles and subtleties of living a life of nonconformity without regard to sexual orientation. At 36, with no great career, no companion, no money and no prospects of a ‘bright’ future, Keiko is ‘different’, the oddball without purposefully intending to be one. Reading Keiko’s life in the light of contemporary asexuality theories, this paper chooses to play on the binaries of success/failure, sexual/ asexual, society/individual, insider/outlier and illuminate the cause of the most marginalised stream of sexuality studies: asexuality.
Digital Gender Identities and Identity Construction in Social Media Culture
With the advent of social media, gender identity has been renegotiated through interactions and the creation of personas on platforms such as Instagram, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Unlike mainstream media channels, social media is a user-driven medium that allows people to generate representations rather than be dictated to or shaped by mainstream media corporations. In this manner, social media offers people from all walks of life, especially women and the LGBTQ+ communities, the means to engage in discourse and representation through their digital selves. Social media can both empower people to challenge traditional gender representations and be used to perpetuate inequalities within society. The present study investigates the link between digital gender identity and the politics of representation in today’s social media environment. By applying theories from feminist thought, queer theory, and cultural studies, the study analyses the performative aspects of digital gender representation and negotiation on social media. Specifically, the paper argues that social media is a space where both empowerment and regulation occur.
Remnants of Pain and Threads of Resilience: Trauma and Memory in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
This paper explores the profound and multifaceted representation of trauma in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, employing trauma theory to unravel the intricate layers of pain, memory, and healing embedded within the narrative. Centred on the experiences of Little Dog, a queer Vietnamese-American immigrant, the novel is a poignant meditation on the interplay among personal, intergenerational, and historical trauma. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Cathy Caruth and Judith Herman, the paper examines how the Vietnam War’s devastating legacy manifests across generations, shaping the lives of Little Dog and his family. This research delves into the mother-son relationship as a site where the scars of war intersect with the challenges of immigration, revealing how inherited trauma shapes Little Dog’s understanding of self and belonging. By situating the novel within the broader framework of immigrant and diasporic literature, this study highlights the universal resonance of trauma as a means of connection, survival, and, ultimately, transformation. The paper contributes to the evolving discourse on trauma in contemporary literature, emphasising how Vuong redefines the boundaries of narrative form to encapsulate the unspeakable echoes of trauma in a fractured yet profoundly beautiful world.
Effects of Interpersonal Written Feedback on the Writing Achievement of ESL Learners in Online and Distance Mode
This study investigates the use of interpersonal written feedback in an ESL classroom in an online and distance learning (ODL) mode. This study aims to examine the effects of feedback. Interpersonal written feedback is a contentious and complex task that has long piqued the interest of scholars and educators. This paper discusses the effects of interpersonal written feedback on the writing achievement of ESL learners in online and distance learning modes. A quasi-experimental design was employed involving ESL learners enrolled in different online courses. Data were collected from 30 students in the ODL mode from different institutes of distance education in Aligarh. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The participants reported positive perceptions of the clarity of interpersonal feedback in the online environment because they could review the written feedback repeatedly. They could go back to the feedback written by their teachers and evaluators. Future research should focus on maximising the potential of interpersonal written feedback and on contextual variables in feedback, while also shedding light on how teachers can best deliver feedback in ODL modes to suit learners at different levels.
Global South Literary Studies: Reclaiming Voices, Histories, and Cultural Identity
Global South Literary Studies has emerged as a significant field within contemporary literary and cultural scholarship. The discipline focuses on literary works produced in societies historically affected by colonialism, imperial domination, economic exploitation, and cultural marginalisation. Literature from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and indigenous communities offers alternative perspectives that challenge dominant Western narratives. Through themes of resistance, identity formation, migration, language politics, and cultural survival, Global South literature contributes to a broader understanding of world literature and decolonial thought. This paper examines the development, themes, theoretical foundations, and significance of Global South Literary Studies. It also analyses the contributions of major writers and theorists whose works have reshaped literary criticism by emphasising marginalised voices and alternative epistemologies.
Bridging Worlds: Sexuality, Spirituality and Cultural Exchange in Luso-Hispanic and European Encounters with India
This paper critically explores the intersections of sexuality, spirituality, and cultural perception through the works of Jose Ignacio Cabezon and Ilija Trojanow, situated within the broader discursive framework of Luso-Hispanic and European engagements with India. Building on Cabezon’s extensive analysis of sexuality in classical South Asian Buddhism, this work offers a nuanced understanding of how sexual ethics were perceived and practised in historical Indian Buddhist traditions. This comparative study immerses us in the idea of Maya – as both a type of ontological thinking and a philosophical conception in Buddhist thought – and raises the question: How do Cabezon's and Trojanow's interpretations of sexuality and spirituality engage with the Buddhist concept of Maya, in particular about desire, attachment, and the illusory nature of sexual identity? In order to answer this question, both authors use Maya to illuminate the process of self-discovery in India, where the transcendence of illusion-including that of sexual identity-becomes part of the spiritual journey toward enlightenment. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how Buddhist epistemology reframes Western narratives of desire and spirituality, offering alternative frameworks for cross-cultural engagement.
Representation of Mental Health in Modern Indian English Fiction: Narratives, Stigma, and Socio-Cultural Contexts
This paper presents an analysis of how mental health has been represented in contemporary Indian English fiction, specifically evaluating the construction around psychological distress, psychiatric illness and emotional suffering that both novelists and short story writers have created out of the diverse milieu of Indian socio-cultural life. Evoking a corpus of texts from the 1980s to the present that includes works by Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Anita Nair, Chetan Bhagat, Shubhangi Swaroop, and others, the study scrutinises how mental illness is depicted in conjunction with caste hierarchies, gender oppression, colonial trauma and familial duty and spiritual belief systems. The paper argues that Indian English fiction holds a critical site as it contributes to challenging the ingrained stigma of mental health while reflecting on and interrogating the socio-cultural architectures producing and maintaining psychological pain. Drawing on frameworks from postcolonial studies, feminist criticism, and disability studies, this research illustrates how literary portrayals of mental health in India are far from monolithic or static, rather class- (and region-, religion-, and broader politics of modernity-) contingent. The paper finally argues that fiction is a potent diagnostic and empathetic tool, one able to humanise the mentally unwell in a society that often allows them to become invisible.
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The Willful Body: Reclaiming Indian Urban Space through “Walk” and “Meet to Sleep”
This paper examines how contemporary feminist performance in India shifts the discourse on gender-based violence from legalistic “protection” to radical “presence.” Centred on the aftermath of the 2012 Nirbhaya case, the research provides a comparative analysis of Maya Krishna Rao’s “Walk” (2012) and Blank Noise’s “Meet to Sleep” (2014). Drawing on Diana Taylor’s distinction between the “archive” and the “repertoire,” this paper argues that these performances resist the closure offered by judicial verdicts by sustaining an affective space of collective mourning and defiance. While Rao’s Walk utilises the minimalist stage to simulate the “zebra crossing” as a failed social contract, Blank Noise’s Meet to Sleep intervenes directly in urban parks, transforming the vulnerable act of napping into a refusal of “slow violence.” By applying the theories of Sara Ahmed (2004; 2014) and Rob Nixon (2011), this research demonstrates how these “willful” bodies disrupt the normalisation of fear. The paper contends that these performative acts do not merely seek safety, but demand a fundamental right to the city, making feminist rights visible through embodied practice long before they are realised in law.
Sons of the Soil: Representation of Ecological Masculinity in Oil on Water: A Novel
The relationship between man and environment has been a topic for critical debate ever since ecocriticism entered the arena of literary discourse. The apocalyptic future of the universe has been seriously dealt with in recent global literature. Masculine hegemony and the toxic effects it unleashed upon nature and environment are well portrayed and exposed by ecocritical readings in general and ecofeminists in particular. Dominance in the name of culture, religion, development, modernisation, etc., must be addressed if we are to save Mother Earth. Hence, it has become imperative that masculine hegemony be replaced by a theoretical praxis that can advance gender equality and environmental justice. Even though the ecofeminist thinkers have thrown light upon the oppressive gender practice of patriarchy, they have ignored the rise of ecological masculinity as a counter force against masculine hegemony. Ecological masculinity is inherently egalitarian, pro-feminist, pro- environmental and progressive in ethos and spirit. This paper reads Oil on Water: A Novel by Helon Habila in the light of ecological masculinity. The destruction of the environment in the Niger Delta is presented in the novel within the backdrop of the large-scale oil extraction and the forced evictions of the native communities when oil companies encroach into their villages for drilling. It illustrates the environmental and human costs of resource extraction in the corrupt, postcolonial Africa in a subtle manner. The paper seeks to analyse the issue from the perspective of ecological masculinity, in relation to the leaders, chiefs, of the village of Ikirefe as presented in the novel, and in line with the first-hand experiences of the two journalist protagonists. Characters like Chief Ibiram and Chief Malabo exhibit conspicuous traits of ecological masculinity. They stand for protecting the environment and the survival of their communities.
Interdisciplinary Teaching Approaches: Enhancing Holistic Learning in Modern Education
Interdisciplinary teaching has emerged as a transformative approach in contemporary education, addressing the limitations of traditional subject-centred pedagogy. By integrating knowledge, methods, and perspectives from multiple disciplines, it promotes holistic learning and equips students with essential 21st-century skills. This paper critically examines the conceptual foundations, significance, models, and pedagogical implications of interdisciplinary teaching. Using a qualitative, analytical methodology based on secondary data, the study explores various approaches, including thematic, inquiry-based, and project-based learning. The findings indicate that interdisciplinary teaching enhances learners' critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and real-world problem-solving abilities. However, challenges such as rigid curriculum structures, lack of teacher preparedness, and assessment difficulties hinder its effective implementation. The paper concludes by emphasising the need for curriculum flexibility, professional development, and institutional support to successfully integrate interdisciplinary practices into modern education systems.
A Sense of Lassitude and Unease in the Speaker of Sonnet LXVI
This paper examines the sense of lassitude and divestment of joy in Sonnet LXVI. It represents the fallen world of Shakespeare across his dramatic and lyrical form. The speaker has disaffection towards the hellish world. The speaker feels a kind of alienation and distortion which overstate him as unchosen. The sonnet functions as a critique of society and the loss of values. Like his other plays, this sonnet overemphasises Christian values like humility and endurance. The captain of greed and profit governs the world. The speaker remains ethical and allows his feelings to be verbalised. He is too pure to die and too innocent to rebel. The tone of the poem is observational and judgmental. Love is the only source of redemption and protection in the fallen world. The sonnet starts with a cry for death, a pathway to escape the pain, but ends with a tussle of questions on death.
From Desire to Selfhood: Mapping Queer Fluidity in Rituparno Ghosh’s Cinematic Journey
Rituparno Ghosh’s late cinematic oeuvre marks a radical departure from conventional Bengali cinema by foregrounding queer subjectivities and gender fluidity within deeply personal and socio-cultural contexts. This paper examines three of his seminal works—Arekti Premer Golpo (2010), Memories in March (2010), and Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish (2012)—as a continuum that maps the trajectory of desire, loss, and selfhood in queer lives. In Arekti Premer Golpo, Ghosh inhabits a queer filmmaker who draws parallels between his own identity and the historical figure of Chapal Bhaduri, a female impersonator in Bengali theatre, thereby situating queerness within a performative archive. Memories in March shifts the narrative from public to private spaces, depicting a mother’s journey of reconciling with her deceased son’s homosexuality through his surviving partner. The film interrogates heteronormative familial structures and foregrounds queer grief and love as equally legitimate. Chitrangada, arguably Ghosh’s most autobiographical film, fuses Tagore’s play with his own exploration of gender transition, embodying the fluidity of selfhood while negotiating the politics of body, desire, and social legitimacy. Read together, these films create a cinematic map of queer becoming in postcolonial India: from representation to recognition, and finally to transformation. They dismantle binaries of male/female, normal/other, and tradition/modernity, situating queerness as both lived experience and aesthetic resistance. Ghosh’s cinema thus becomes a site where postmodern fluidity, body politics, and the queer gaze converge, challenging the hegemonic constructs of gender and sexuality in Indian cinema.
Cripting the Classics: Disabled Women Reclaim The Ugly Duckling and Rapunzel
Disability Studies questions cultural ideas that treat disability as a problem or defect that needs to be fixed. Crip theory builds on this approach by challenging able-bodied norms and understanding disability as an identity and a source of agency rather than limitation. This paper explores how disabled women retell The Ugly Duckling and Rapunzel in And They Lived… Ever After: Disabled Women Retell Fairy Tales, and how these retellings reshape familiar fairy tales into stories of empowerment. The Ugly Duckling becomes a story about resilience and belonging instead of shame. In contrast, Rapunzel is reimagined as an active character who turns confinement into a path toward self-discovery and connection with others. Drawing on Alison Kafer’s ideas about the politics of disability, the paper argues that these retellings challenge ableist and gendered assumptions and create new ways of imagining agency, community, and transformation.
Contested History and Struggling Lives: Reading A Bend in the River as a Narrative of Change and Disorder
History is constructed by those in power and is shaped by memory, perspectives, and subjective truth. It can be fragmented, contested, and chaotic, marked by the transition from colonial rule to post-independence, from traditional to modern living, and by the struggle for survival and the relentless escape from the void. Naipaul has depicted postcolonial societies and their struggles in his novels. The present novel, Bend in the River, is set in an African society marred by chaos and disorder after the withdrawal of colonial forces and depicts the problems associated with the new order and militant forces. It showcases the struggles and difficult lives of migrants and diasporic people who want to achieve something but are caught in the chaos of changing circumstances in a foreign land. This paper, therefore, attempts to bring out the negotiation of colonial history, subjective history and postcolonial history- thereby revealing their intersections. While doing so, the narrative reflects the universal human predicament, migration, and the search for meaning amid navigating phases of change and disorder.
The Female Bildungsroman: The Study of Krupabai Satthianadhan
This article proposes that the autobiographical novels Krupabai Satthianadhan wrote can be considered bildungsroman novels, in which the protagonists evolve into mature personalities by the end of the novel. A bildungsroman is a story of the growing up of a sensitive person, who finds answers to his/her questions through maturity. Generally, such a novel begins with a loss or tragedy that emotionally disturbs the main character. The protagonist gains maturity through a series of life experiences. Saguna’s account of her relationship with her mother and her experiences of the loss of her child is the basis of this analysis.
Gendered Silences and Narrative Resistances in Sally Morgan’s My Place and Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence
My Place attempts a close reading of Sally Morgan’s representation of Aborigines in Australia, in the early life of Sally. It also sketches out the problematic life of Sally and her family members, which unlocks the issues of the Aboriginal people, the marginalised communities in Australia, during the history of colonisation. It determines the quest for her lost identity, besides the inhuman treatment that demonstrates the projection of Aboriginals’ past discrimination and injustices. It also foregrounds how Sally attempts various ways to highlight the problems in her mundane family life in Australia. It reveals the defamiliarising nature of Sally’s lost identity, transforming her from a state of ignorance to comprehension, with a sense of pride and self-esteem. That Long Silence offers a detailed analysis of the Indian writer Shashi Deshpande’s portrayal of Jaya’s intricacies and day-to-day life in patriarchal Indian society. It also foregrounds how Shashi Deshpande, in various instances, attempts to highlight Jaya’s plights in the enigmatic, mundane existence, ranging from domestic suffering, betrayal, alienation, subjugation, acculturation and displacement. This paper concisely explores the protagonists’ empathy for society and their search for identity amid the complex mix of repressive circumstances.
From Ecofeminism to Green Theory: Understanding Transnational Intersections within Nature and the Self
This paper examines the work of Autumn Peltier and Parineeta Dandekar, environmentalists working within transnational spaces of Canada and India, on the question of water. In this context, the paper attempts a reading of the Marathi novel Nadisht, by Manoj Borgavkar and Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, bringing together issues of marginalised communities, gender, ecology and the relationship with nature. Dandekar unearths stories, lore, songs and poetry that depict a connection with the river; Peltier evokes the archetypal connection within the womb. Borgavkar’s novel revolves around the constructs of the mother and the river, while Atwood’s protagonist grapples with separation and the rebirth of the self. These transnational intersections are examined from an ecocritical and green studies perspective, including ecofeminism and green theory. The study finds that the relationship between nature and the self, the power, inequity and domination is symbolized in the abuse of nature and questions it to bring about change.
The Unforgettable Women of History in India: Untold Narratives of Courage and Resilience
This article examines the contributions of women in India’s struggle for freedom. India has witnessed the rise of numerous valiant women who have shattered gender norms and stepped onto the battlefield to protect their people, culture and kingdoms. These warrior women, whose tales of bravery echo through the annals of time, remain an inspiration for generations to come. The present paper delves into the narratives of some of the iconic figures, in order to explore the lives of some of the unforgettable women, who defied societal expectations to defend their realms namely: Rani Durgavati, Rani Mangammal, Ahilya Bai Holkar, Kittur Rani Chennamma and Rani Lakshmi Bai These women faced many challenges in their quest to defend their kingdoms and were known for their exceptional administrative acumen and military prowess. Overcoming the prejudices of their own societies and overcoming adversity yielded remarkable outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine these extraordinary women, their indomitable spirit and resilience, who have become our beacons of inspiration, motivating the women kind to rise for their own rights and liberties. Their unwavering commitment undoubtedly played a role in shaping the very course of history. Their narratives resonating across the globe continue to ignite the flames of courage and determination in the hearts of people everywhere.
Contours of Communal Idealism in Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions
Dattani’s play Final Solutions is the true representative play of his observations, dealing with one of the burning issues: communal riot. The play showed how the seed of riot is sown, and some vested groups reap its fruit. Even in the twenty-first century, the concept of idealism makes everyone disgusted with one thing. Because of idealism, many people are suffering in the name of religion. In contemporary society, not only in India but everywhere, a group of people is forced or tortured in the name of terrorism. It is common for everyone to want a good solution to the issue. Idealism is one thing that makes others suffer physically and psychologically. Dattani discusses the roles of politicians, police and the public during a communal riot. The common people who live together for years, at the moment of riot, suddenly cease to recognise one another and become enemies on the grounds of religion. This paper analyses how people's ideology dismantles humanity from their hearts during difficult times and suggests answers to the agony faced by innocents.
Beauty as Violation: Female Desire, Disposition and Destiny in the Select Short Stories of Ismat Chughtai
At a time when India was still not ready to accept sexuality as a natural phenomenon or women’s desire as a need, Ismat Chughtai wrote about these non-traditional themes without being overtly didactic in its undertones. She lays bare the true human nature in the most raw and unashamed manner through her narrations. The female desire, patriarchal control and marriage as a means of regulating how power is exercised form a large part of her oeuvre. This paper aims to show that female beauty and body become a site of surveillance, dominance, as well as a tool that threatens to destabilise the male ego. Drawing on her three short stories, ‘Eternal Vine’ (Amar Bel), ‘The Rock’ (Chatan) and ‘The Wife’ (Ghar Waali), which rely on the theatrics of marriage, it shows how women negotiate between the pain and pleasures of beauty, their own desire and presupposed disposition within the conjugal relationship.
Posthuman Care and Liquid Dystopia in Klara and the Sun
Science fiction today often moves away from distant futures and instead focuses on everyday systems that shape human life. Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun is one such text that explores technology, care, and social inequality in a near-future setting. Drawing on Lars Schmeink’s ideas of dystopia, posthumanism, and liquid modernity, this paper examines how the novel presents a world in which systems of control, genetic enhancement, and technological dependence gradually shape human relationships. The novel introduces Artificial Friends as companions for children, but it also reflects deeper social problems such as isolation and inequality. At the same time, the idea of “lifting” creates a divide between individuals, showing how biology itself becomes a site of control. As Schmeink suggests, contemporary science fiction often shifts from digital control to biological and social regulation, where life itself becomes structured and managed (Schmeink). This paper argues that Klara and the Sun presents a form of quiet dystopia, where control is not forceful but normalised, and where care itself becomes something designed and distributed. The novel does not give clear answers, but it raises uncomfortable questions about identity, replacement, and what it really means to be human.
Water Politics and Environmental Injustice in The Water Knife
The novel The Water Knife (2015), by Paolo Bacigalupi, presents a post-apocalyptic vision of a water-scarce American Southwest where social stratification deepens amid the region's ecological collapse. This paper explores the book through the perspectives of Postcolonial Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and Political Ecology. This novel highlights how internal colonial powers use water as a commodity amid a resource crisis, leading to human displacement and exploitation. While focusing on the plight of people living on the margins of society, the author shows how climate change results in socio-economic and political inequalities and forces individuals to leave their homes and fight to obtain essential resources. Overall, the work provides a thought-provoking perspective on socio-environmental issues associated with climate change.
Digital Flesh: Posthuman Embodiment, Surveillance, and the Ethics of Datafied Selves
The rapid expansion of digital technologies has transformed the human body into a site of continuous data production, circulation, and control. This study examines the emergence of “digital flesh” within the framework of posthuman embodiment, where wearable devices, biometric systems, artificial intelligence, and networked platforms increasingly mediate biological existence. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Michel Foucault, Donna Haraway, Shoshana Zuboff, and N. Katherine Hayles, the paper conceptualises the body as an informational construct subject to pervasive surveillance and algorithmic governance. It argues that datafication reconfigures subjectivity by rendering individuals into measurable and predictive entities, thereby dissolving the boundaries between the physical and the digital. The study further foregrounds the bioethical implications of this transformation, particularly regarding autonomy, consent, privacy, and identity. It contends that contemporary regimes of data extraction operate through forms of implicit or coerced consent, undermining individual agency while intensifying structural inequalities. By engaging with select literary and cultural texts, the study demonstrates how these concerns are critically imagined and contested. Ultimately, it calls for a rearticulation of bioethical frameworks to address the complexities of technologically mediated embodiment.
Trauma, Resistance and Resilience in Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore’
This paper explores the conflicts among trauma, resistance, resilience, and acceptance in Kafka on the Shore through thematic and qualitative analyses of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore (2002; tr. 2005). The novel depicts both individual and collective traumas, contrasted through two protagonists. The parallel stories of the protagonists, Kafka Tamura and Nakata Satoru, highlight the themes of trauma, resistance, resilience, and acceptance through gradual intertwining. The paper presents how Kafka is affected by his personal psychological traumatic childhood experiences with lasting effects, and how he attempts to resist them and becomes resilient. The paper analyses the other strand of narrative in which Nakata faces trauma, resists it, and finds a resolution. His trauma appears more socio-political and collective, referring to Japanese human conditions after the World Wars in the mid-twentieth century. The other characters, Miss Saeki, Oshima, and Hoshino, play a key role in reflecting trauma and in the quests undertaken by Kafka and Nakata. They support Kafka and Nakata in finding ways to overcome traumatic experiences, internal conflicts, and quotidian dilemmas. The characters strive to resist trauma, to escape suffering through it, and, ultimately, to accept their circumstances and move forward. Through these interwoven narratives, Murakami illustrates a universal movement: from the paralysis of trauma, through deliberate resistance, to resilient acceptance of the past as an inseparable part of the self. The novel thus offers a nuanced meditation on how individuals and societies can navigate historical and personal wounds without being defined by them.