https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/5749 2026-04-26T21:27:43Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/5890 Title: Contesting Humanism(s) in a Humanist Cause: Musings on Three Kinds of Antihumanist Challenges Authors: George, Jibu Mathew Abstract: Against the backdrop of myriad antihumanist challenges that are current in the contemporary theoretical climate, this article distinguishes between and discusses three kinds of such challenges to the received discourse of humanism. The first is the counterdiscursive contestation of universalistic claims of Western humanism on behalf of those subtly excluded from and subdued by this discourse. The second is a critique of the tropology of the human with the aim of unraveling illusory autonomies and helping human subjects to attain (or regain) their subjectivity. The third involves analyzing the implications of redefining the human in the transhumanist/posthumanist context of scientific-technological developments, many of which are comparatively too recent to have been factored in by the conceptual challenges mounted earlier. The article foregrounds the paradoxical possibility of ser ving the humanist cause even as one contests received conceptions of the human as a category. 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/5889 Title: “Volcanic Evidence” in D. H. Lawrence’s Letters and Works Authors: Bricout, Shirley Abstract: This article proposes to examine how volcanoes fired D. H. Lawrence’s imagination throughout his works and letters. As he travelled the globe, the majesty and power of volcanoes inspired the writer beautiful picturesque descriptions of landscapes, however these always blend with allusions to a more primitive world. References to Greco-Roman mythology, as in Sea and Sardinia, express in gendered terms the author’s ambivalent relationship to volcanoes and the cultures and places associated with them. In Sea and Sardinia, these narrative choices infuse the written farewell to Etna with words of Greek origin, in such a way that the effect of the magnetism of the volcano is felt on Lawrence’s language too. Moreover, Lawrence’s language is, like molten lava, maintained in ebullient flux as varying shades of meaning turn the literal volcanic features into metaphors to express moods, as in the poem “Volcanic Eruption” devoted to a woman, and to depict conflicts, as in Kangaroo and The Plumed Serpent. Indeed, making ample use of Nietzsche’s metaphor of “eruption”, Lawrence extends his idea of the “spirit of place” to volcanoes whose paradigms provide imagery to convey his own views on Western civilization. For instance, the poem “Peace”, written in Sicily in 1920, explores in volcanic terms the effervescent passions stirring within men and society. It is nevertheless in Kangaroo that the narrative itself is fragmented when newspaper cuttings about volcanoes are inserted with other news items to convey the character’s swaying moods and hesitations. Thus, in Lawrence’s oeuvre, volcanoes and lava can be said to epitomize Modernist experimental writing through the motifs of expulsion, fragmentation and flux. 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/5879 Title: Home and Identity for the Bengali in Northeast India: Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return Authors: Dev Ray, Abantika Abstract: Displacement and identity crisis resulting from Partition affected people of undivided India immensely. The loss of ‘home’ and land which led to this crisis became eternal to the postcolonial experience of Bengalis on the eastern side of the border. This search for ‘home’ was the only way to recover their identity. This paper will study the postcolonial Bengali yearning for a ‘home’ and the stability it embodies through Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return. It will also look at how Bengalis bore the brunt of Khasi sub-nationalism that added to their identity crisis and strengthened their desire for a ‘home’ of their own. 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.vidyasagar.ac.in/jspui/handle/123456789/5878 Title: Chaos, Fractal & Elusive Formula for the Future: A Reading of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia Authors: Pal, Amitava Abstract: Tom Stoppard announced his arrival on the British theatre with his breakthrough play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1966. Since he appeared towards the fag-end of the theatre of the absurd era, he did at once imbibe and depart from the core tenets of the absurd worldview. One interesting point that early Stoppardian plays often explore is the question of free will versus determinism. This question becomes further intriguing in mature Stoppard. While free will is often disallowed a free run, the path of inevitable predictability becomes more of a question mark. Stoppard largely resolves this perennial conflict in his unique way in his 1993 play Arcadia. This resolution is aided by otherwise non-theatrical ideas – ideas which primarily pertain to the world of science and geometry. This article would decipher the layers of Chaos theory, fractals, Fermat's Last Theorem, iterated algorithm et al, and zero in on how these scientific concepts are integrated by Stoppard into not only the content, but also the form of the play. 2021-02-01T00:00:00Z