Research Journal of Language and Literature (RJLL)

EXEGESIS OF VARNA THROUGH THE LENS OF SOCIAL DOMINANCE THEORY IN SUNJEEV SAHOTA’S THE YEAR OF THE RUNAWAYS

Maryam Raza — 2023-12-29

Sunjeev Sahota’s thematic concerns border on immigrant literature, identity crisis and Indian roots. The aim of the research is to explore the exploitation of Varna Casteism in South Asian writer Sunjeev Sahota’s novel The Year of the Runaways published in 2015. The researcher probes the role of casteism in a post-capitalistic world to assess how much it has seeped in the financial sector. The objectives are to unravel the hegemonic casteism; and to gauge the extent of conditioning through textual events and characters’ fates.

To analyze the primary text, Lewis Coser and Ralf Dahrendorf’s Conflict Theory and, Jim Sidanius and Felecia Pratto’s Social Dominance Theory with specific focus on Legitimizing Myths have been employed. As secondary sources, literary reviews, online journals, print and written material have been used. The novel has hitherto been merely studied as Dalit Literature. However, the research undertaken expands the meagre research by bringing in the complete social model of Varna system. Research findings strongly endorse the role of Indian community itself in sustaining Varna Casteism through mythmaking strategies employed.

Paradigms of Motherhood in Shahid Nadeem’s Plays: Kala Meda Bhes/ Black is my Robe,and Bari/ The Acquittal

Dr Sobia Mubarak — 2023-12-29

Abstract

A central aim of Shahid Nadeem’s plays: Kala Meda Bhes and Bari is to redefine the role of mother in South Asian society, especially, in rural areas of Pakistan. Both these plays are matrifocal narratives in the sense that they seek to interrogate the maternal role and subjectivity. The paper aims to explore the “agony and ecstasy” of motherhood, the social pressure on women who are childless (Kala Meda Bhes), and the way state controls and uses different modes of regulation to subjugate women in custody-the unwed mothers/ rape victims (Bari). I argue that a woman’s power to reproduce and nurture the species is transformed into the most implicit instrument of her servitude and exploitation. “Motherhood” is the most paradoxical term in the sense that it empowers and subordinates women simultaneously. The plays in this study also seek to explore power in its different aspects, both in covert and overt forms. In the traditional patriarchal societies, women have some power in a very restricted sphere, marked as women’s regime but it operates under the authority and control of male heads of the family and community. The plays study how the” category of the woman is constructed in relation to the category of the child” (Carol Smart). These plays can be termed as maternal texts as they seek to interrogate mothers who are embroiled in similar predicaments. The paper uses qualitative method as the research methodology and interrogates motherhood from the perspective of feminist theorists like Elain Tuttle Hanson, Jasodhara Bagchi, and Adrien Rich and Hélène Cixous.

Key Words: Maternal, matrifocal, motherhood, patriarchal, power

Appropriating Shakespeare through the Visual and Performative in Pakistani Theatres

Zakia Resshid Ehsen — 2023-12-29

Abstract

This research delves into the appropriation of Shakespearean drama in contemporary Pakistani theatrical performances, using it as an experimental tool to explore dramaturgical and aesthetic elements in the presentation of Shakespeare's plays. Notable productions, including NAPA's Hamlet (2016) and Here Lies A Noble Man (2015), as well as Theatre Wallay's The Comedy of Errors (2014), serve as case studies for examining how Pakistani contemporary theatre, guided by Hens Theis Lehmann's postdramatic (1999) theoretical framework, incorporates performative and visual elements to appropriate Shakespeare's works. This study investigates various modes of appropriation, including the reinterpretation of themes, the recontextualization of original settings, and the use of symbols and language in live performances. It also delves into the repurposing of existing text from Shakespeare's plays, where the stage’s setting, lighting, or imagery are altered to convey new meanings or messages. Simultaneously, these theatrical productions in Pakistan that incorporate visual and performative elements to appropriate Shakespeare's plays are subjected to critical analysis through the framework of Lehmann's postdramatic theatrical concepts, including the reversal of roles, irruption, presentness, and fragmentation of the plot. This analysis illustrates how the performing arts in Pakistan transcend established conventions, giving rise to a fusion of aesthetic forms. Additionally, this research underscores how appropriation, viewed through a postdramatic lens, dismantles the textual originality in conventional Shakespearean performances. Beyond showcasing the evolution of Pakistan's stagecraft and performing arts, this study also serves as a platform for Pakistan's active engagement in Shakespearean studies through the innovative lens of appropriation.

OF LOVE AND REVENGE: A GAME THEORETICAL STUDY OF MAJOR DECISIONS IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS

Hadia Baloch — 2023-12-29

Eugene O’Neil’s Desire Under the Elms is a play, which has a plot thick with conflict, with every character having emotional and material stakes. Its deliberative nature makes it a rich ground for a game- theoretical analysis. This paper studies major decisions taken by the play's main characters that formulate the thrust of the action. Each choice made is seen to be a negotiation, either with other characters or with the situation at hand in order to achieve some end, often at the expense of others. The paper treats every major decision as a frustration game between two players. These games are examined according to Steven J. Bram’s Theory of Moves. Each player’s action is taken as a move, and it is seen to be countered by that of the other. This paper studies all possible courses of action that can be taken in each game and then sees which one yields to be most beneficial, and which one is taken by the relevant players. The study brings forth an otherwise forgone aspect of interpretation: rationalization of action. It is seen that not all choices taken are thoroughly calculated or premeditated; sometimes they are more emotionally charged. This game-theoretical analysis reveals the complete range of possible actions, providing a deeper insight into the characters by bringing to light all the variables they have dealt with, and how they react to them under different circumstances.

Echoes of Byronism in The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Zoya Chaudhry — 2023-12-29

The study endeavors to highlight echoes of Byronism in Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered representative of his era but this study carves his niche beyond time and age. The research traces the common thread of aesthetics in Fitzgerald and Byron through The Great Gatsby and also marks its evolution through the novel’s textual analysis to mark the predominant traces of Byronic features embedded in the subtext. It specifically focuses on the characterization, symbolism, and imagery of the book to archive evident streaks of Byronism. Furthermore, the study aims to establish the stance that the two writers meet at a common juncture of philosophy.

Navigating Monstrous Spaces in the Dystopian Novel Before She Sleeps

Aleena Shahzad — 2023-12-29

This paper demonstrates that Before She Sleeps portrays Green City as a monstrous space where female spaces are jeopardized and cultivate other monsters in the forms of sexuality and technology. It attempts to explain that Green City is festering different monsters which make female spaces more claustrophobic and it is analyzed with the theoretical insights from the Monster Theory. This study also analyzes that the violent monstrous culture of Green City is brushing aside the individuality of the females. They are forced to seek refuge in the technological world with false hope to get relief from the monstrous city but entered into other spaces where their bodies absorb pain at the hands of patriarchy. In the novel, Green City with its monstrous corporeal or incorporeal outlook is constantly keeping an eye on the everyday spaces of females and it affected them perpetually. I analyze that the monstrous city space has different psychic contours that affected the emotional and cognitive pattern of the females and it corroborates with the idea of Psychogeography which is jelled in the main nexus of Monster theory to amplify the female spaces. My study also analyses that female bodies are reduced to periphery and invisibility and this concern is voiced by the notion of body and space where their own identity is nullified at the hands of patriarchy.

Socio-economic Independence and Female Emancipation: A Marxist Feminist Analysis of Jane Eyre.

Rimsha Rauf — 2023-12-29

Marxist Feminism, an intersecting branch of Marxism and Feminism, observes the ways in which females are oppressed or marginalized due to capitalism. This research mainly aims at finding out how Charlotte Bronte criticizes gender discrimination against females based on their socio-economic status in her novel, Jane Eyre (1847). Earlier studies on Jane Eyre have mainly focused on its feminist themes but this project analyzes the Marxist Feminist ideology depicted in Jane Eyre. By applying the lens of Marxist-Feminism, based on the insights of Elisabeth Armstrong’s Marxist and Socialist Feminism (2020) and Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong’s Beyond Sexless Class and Classless Sex: Towards Feminist Marxism (1983), it is contended that Bronte strongly condemns socio-economic discrimination against females. This research highlights the typical abusive relationship of a capitalist with his worker with special emphasis on the unrestrained exploitation of female workers. This research discusses the major and minor female characters of the novel who undergo oppression due to their socio-economic statuses. Bronte also seems to use Jane’s character as a mouthpiece to promote the cause of socio- economic independence for females. Jane’s educational and economic resistance against patriarchal ideals calls for socio-economic equality for all genders. This study also highlights the significance of female comradeship against patriarchal and capitalist subjugation. Hence, Bronte promulgates the importance of socio-economic independence for female emancipation because no woman can be fully liberated until she is financially independent.