ISSN: 3048-6920 DOI: 10.70396 An Indian outlook on the World's Literature is ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives! India is a land of wisdom and intellectual prowess. The Golden Perspective that Indians have is unique and exclusive. We capture this stream of premium literary intelligence and projects it to the world. ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives is a peer-reviewed, open-access quarterly e-journal, that is published on the 30th of March, June, September and December. We accept research articles and book reviews from Indian academicians, Indian scholars, Indian researchers and Indian faculties of English Literature, English Language and Linguistics.
Blockade, Starvation, and Weaponization of Food: Synthesising Bare Life, State of Exception, and Biopolitics through Select Palestinian Poems
Section: Articles Keywords: Blockade, Weaponization of Food, State of Exception, Bare Life, Biopolitics, Starvation, Stultification, Sovereign Decision This research article examines the synthesising and contrasting repercussions of blockading and weaponizing food in the theoretical light of through Giorgio Agamben’s concept of bare life, Carl Schmitt’s theory of the sovereign decision, and Michel Foucault’s account of biopolitics, with Palestinian poetry as the primary reference. The article argues that hunger in Palestinian literary discourse is not merely a humanitarian consequence of war but a deliberate political strategy employed to regulate, discipline, and control civilian populations. This article examines how Palestinian poetry represents starvation and blockade as instruments of political control, reading these representations. Drawing on the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, and Hind Jouda, the study argues that the withholding of food functions simultaneously as a legal, political, and biological act of control, one that reduces civilian life to bare survival while remaining outside ordinary legal accountability. Particular attention is given to how hunger is shown to stultify language and memory, threatening the very capacity for testimony even as the poems themselves manage to give it voice. Comparative readings of Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve and scholarship on Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Vanni situate the Palestinian case within a broader pattern in which sovereign power suspends legal protection under conditions of exception. The article contends that these poems do more than document suffering: they resist the erasure that blockade seeks to impose, affirming what Judith Butler calls the demand that precarious lives be recognized as grievable.
Copyright (c) 2026 S. Khaleel Ahamed (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Echoes of Trauma: Survivor's Guilt and Postmemory in Howard Jacobson's Kalooki Nights
Section: Articles Keywords: Story-telling, Massacre, Religion, Identity , Trauma This research article deals with survivor’s guilt, which has been unnoticed and unrecognized in the lives of Jews settled in Britain. Howard Jacobson, a twentieth-century British Jewish writer, addresses this issue through his British Jewish characters. In his work Kalooki Nights, almost all the characters are aware of this guilt through post-memory. The nature of the religion and its customs, along with the constant hatred from anti-Semites, remind them of past tragedies. They respond differently to this inherited survivor’s guilt. When Max sought to avoid this guilt, it manifested in the form of investigating his childhood friend, who had murdered both of his parents. Manny’s obsession with taking revenge on the Nazis by exposing their world ultimately led to him killing his own parents, who had instilled religious values in him more than he had wished to learn. The study further explores how inherited trauma continues to shape the psychological and moral consciousness of later generations. It argues that Jacobson presents survivor’s guilt as a persistent legacy that transcends lived experience and becomes embedded in collective Jewish identity. Both characters realize that the post-memory of the Holocaust causes them to question their meaningless existence and the unavoidable influence of anti-Semitism, even in the present.
Copyright (c) 2026 D M Jebasynthia, Dr Sr Judy Gomez (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Synaesthetic Sphota: Reimagining Dali through the Linguistic Vision of Bhartrhari
Section: Articles Keywords: synaesthetic sphota, surrealism, Salvador Dali, pratibha, pasyanti, madhyama, vaikhari, visual signification, Indian aesthetics This article introduces the concept of synesthetic sphoṭa by extending Bhartrhari’s theory of sphoṭa—the sudden, holistic emergence of meaning -beyond language into visual art. Drawing on stages of expression (paśyantī, madhyamā, vaikharī) and the intuitive faculty of pratibhā, it argues that images can function as utterances, producing multisensory semantic flashes. Through close analysis of Salvador Dalí’s “The Elephants” and “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”, the study shows how surrealist visuality evokes meaning in ways analogous to linguistic cognition. This framework fuses Indian epistemology with Western aesthetics, offering a new model for reading, hearing, and feeling images.
Copyright (c) 2026 Rea Hazra, Prof. Amith Kumar P V (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Leveraging Digital Platforms to Enhance ESL Reading and Writing Skills: A Case Study of Google Docs and Grammarly
Section: Articles Keywords: Technology-Based Learning, Google Docs, Grammarly, Collaborative Writing, Learner Engagement, AI-Assisted Learning, Digital Pedagogy The use of digital technology in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms has grown rapidly in recent years. It has changed the way students learn by encouraging them to work together, interact with one another, and take more responsibility for their own learning. Although technology-supported language education has received growing scholarly attention, comparatively limited research has explored learners’ experiences with the combined use of collaborative and AI-assisted digital tools in higher education ESL contexts. This study looks at how two specific tools Google Docs and Grammarly were used in ESL reading and writing classes for first-year engineering students. It focuses on how students felt about these tools, how engaged they were, how they worked with their classmates, and what their overall learning experience was like. The study was also driven by the understanding that engineering students have particular language needs that traditional ESL teaching often does not fully meet. Sixty undergraduate ESL students took part in a three-week classroom programme that involved reading together, writing in groups, giving feedback to peers, and using AI tools to improve their writing. Information was gathered through classroom observations, interviews, personal journals, and an analysis of students' written work. The data were then examined to find common patterns and themes. The results showed that Google Docs helped students work together more actively and stay engaged in class, while Grammarly helped them improve their writing and feel more confident. Students said they enjoyed using these tools because they made learning more flexible and interactive. Howbeit, some difficulties were also noted, including limited access to technology, differences in students' ability to use digital tools, and a tendency to rely too heavily on automated suggestions. The study concludes that digital tools can genuinely improve ESL reading and writing skills, but only when teachers guide students on how to use them thoughtfully and critically.
Copyright (c) 2026 S.Brindha Subramanian, Dr. Ramkumar Emaraj Vairamuthu (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Towards a Vision of the Whole Sky: Tracing the Changing Contours of Dalit Life in Baby Kamble’s Jinna Amucha and Urmila Pawar’s Aaydan
Section: Articles Keywords: autobiography, Dalit womanhood, experiential history, Caste Autobiographical writing was one of the genres employed by Dalit women in India to explore new possibilities for constructing, confirming and subverting their caste based gendered subjectivity. These writings are a literary and historical corpus for both the Dalit Movement and Dalit Feminism through their unmediated version of experiential history and provided an alternative discourse that disrupted authorised representations of history/reality. Dalit women's autobiographies have come into print only from the beginning of the 1980s, yet they are a testimonial record of the 20th century Dalit Movement, its transformational nature and Dalit women's participation therein. This paper, through an analysis of two Dalit women's autobiography belonging to two different generations, assess how collective activism and consciousness has affected Dalit women's subjectivity; also, how modernisation, urbanisation, industrialisation and social mobility has affected a redefinition of the identity contents of the 'I'. The texts chosen for study are Baby Kamble's Jinna Amucha/ The Prisons We Broke (1985) and Urmila Pawar's Aaydan/The Weave of My Life (2003). Baby Kamble's autobiography, though published in 1985, was written at least twenty years before the date of its publication and records in vivid detail a Mahar village in the 1920s Maharashtra and the socio-cultural upsurge wrought by the Ambedkarite Movement that awakened not only a Dalit consciousness but also a Dalit Feminist consciousness. Pawar's text traces the contours of a multiply inflected Dalit female subjectivity and the changing connotations of caste in a modern urban setup.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr Shimi Moni Doley (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Object to Subject: Feminist Consciousness in Divakaruni's The Palace of Illusions
Section: Articles Keywords: Mythological revisionism, female agency, patriarchy, Female Subjectivity This research article critically examines Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s 2008 novel, The Palace of Illusions, through a feminist lens where a woman’s perspective reshapes the ancient tale of the Mahabharata. Not often seen this way before, the tale shifts its focus toward Draupadi – not as a background presence but as someone who thinks, speaks, and feels. Instead of silence, she now holds voice; rather than passivity, there is intent. Her story unfolds in her own words, giving depth that was absent from earlier versions shaped by male views. One after another, moments arise in which defiance takes shape: how she describes coming into being, what happens during her wedding, and the feelings stirred by Karna despite the limits placed on women’s longing. The article argues that the novel The Palace of Illusions consolidates a broader tendency toward mythological revisionism as a feminist practice, where the retelling of epic history aims largely to give women a voice of their own.
Copyright (c) 2026 Pankaj (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The River, the School, and the Future: Education in Abdus Samad's Herai Puwa Prithibi (The Lost World)
Section: Articles Keywords: Subaltern, Futurity, Ecological Intervention, Education, Conscientization This article argues that education in Abdus Samad’s Assamese novel Herai Puwa Prithibi (The World Found Again) does not constitute development in that it does not act as a tool for economic mobility, but constitutes a transformation in the environment of the char chapori community. In the following discussion based on textual clusters such as Naji’s self-aware epistemic wound and the lost land lease, Adili’s romantic-educational consciousness and the geographic boundary represented by the Champavati river, and the community’s collective housing of Mozammel and the construction of a school in two days, this analysis proposes that in Herai Puwa Prithibi, education constitutes what this paper would like to call ‘subaltern educational futurity’, i.e., a uniquely environmentally situated educational desire that is grounded in material practices at once collective and local. This educational desire that this study is referring to is distinct from the dominant developmentalist model in which literacy and education function as instruments for individual economic mobility. Using the concepts of Paulo Freire’s conscientization, Elinor Ostrom’s commons management, and José Muñoz’s notion of futurity as a political act, the paper argues that Char Chapori novels have presented a vision of educational aspiration that remains unexplored within the South Asian literary tradition and the field of education studies.
Copyright (c) 2026 Prastuti Mahanta (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Echoes of Culture: Marriage and Identity in Gopinath Mohanty’s The Dynasty of the Immortals
Section: Articles Keywords: Cultural Identities, Tribe, Marriage, Udulia, rituals This article examines the marriage customs of the Kondh tribe, with particular focus on Gopinath Mohanty’s novel, The Dynasty of the Immortals. By analysing the narrative, the article highlights the subtle social, cultural, and ritual elements of Kondh marriage practices. The author’s narration vividly portrays the tribe’s cultural identity, emphasising marriage as a cornerstone of Kondh tribal society. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of tribal marriage traditions and their representation in the novel The Dynasty of the Immortals, thereby deepening appreciation for the cultural identity of the Kondh tribe. Sociologists and anthropologists, including George Peter Murdock, Stephanie Coontz, Nadeem Hasnain, and L. P., conduct various research studies. Vidyarthi, etc., have been consulted to conceptualise marriage and validate the research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dilshad Ali (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Scars to Stars: Redefining Black Womanhood in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred through Afrofuturism
Section: Articles Keywords: Black womanhood, trauma, resistance, Afrofuturism, slavery, identity, memory, survival This article examines the redefinition of Black womanhood in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred from an Afrofuturist perspective, through the concepts of trauma, memory, survival, resistance, and identity. Building on the work of Afrofuturist scholars including Ytasha L. Womack, Kodwo Eshun, and Lisa Yaszek, this article proposes that Butler constructs a new form of Black feminine subjectivity by collapsing the spatial and temporal divide between slavery and contemporary society. Through Dana Franklin’s involuntary return to the past, during which she experiences slavery firsthand, Butler illustrates how Black womanhood has been shaped by history through memory, survival, and a conscious connection with one’s ancestors. The study further demonstrates that Afrofuturism functions as a critical framework for reimagining Black female agency beyond the limitations imposed by historical oppression. It argues that Butler’s narrative transforms the legacy of slavery into a foundation for envisioning resilient and empowered Black futures. The article also investigates how both physical scars and emotional wounds function as indicators of empowerment and future potential within the Afrofuturist framework articulated by Butler.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bharathidasan J, Dr J. Amalaveenus (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Remembering Homeland: Negotiating Migration Through Dual Belonging in Roma Tearne’s Brixton Beach
Section: Articles Keywords: Transnationalism, dual belonging, third space, displacement, identity, hybridity Migration may lead to emotional, psychological, and cultural dislocation for individuals who are living between their homeland and host nation but this does not always result in a loss of belonging. Migrants frequently develop simultaneous attachments to both the homeland and the host nation. The article conceptualizes migration as a condition of dual belonging in which identity is constructed by overlapping cultural, emotional, and imaginative affiliations with both spaces. The article examines Roma Tearne’s Brixton Beach to analyse how characters in this work negotiate their connections between Sri Lanka and Britain. This research uses Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the third space, Vertovec’s theory of transnationalism, and Levitt and Glick-Schiller’s notion of simultaneity to argue that Tearne represents dual belonging as a hybrid mode of existence rather than as a fractured one. The study further demonstrates how memory, cultural continuity, and transnational relationships enable migrants to sustain meaningful attachments across national boundaries.
Copyright (c) 2026 Genesis J, Dr R. Jayakanth (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Commodification to Companionship: Human-Animal Relationality in R. K. Narayan’s A Tiger for Malgudi
Section: Articles Keywords: animal capital, companion species, ahimsa and Vedantic non-dualism, interspecies relationality R. K. Narayan’s A Tiger for Malgudi(1983) offers a distinctive narrative in Indian writing in English by placing a tiger named Raja at the centre of its story as both protagonist and first-person narrator. This article examines the shifting dynamics of human-animal relationality in the novel, tracing Raja’s journey from a commodified animal exploited successively by the circus and the film industry as a spectacle for human profit, to a companion and spiritual equal under the guidance of an ascetic Master. Drawing on Nicole Shukin’s concept of animal capital and Donna Haraway’s notion of companion species, and situating the analysis within the Indian philosophical traditions of ahimsa and Vedantic non-dualism, the article examines how Narayan deconstructs anthropocentric assumptions by asserting Raja’s interiority, consciousness, and capacity for transformation. The research article further argues that the novel moves beyond the binary of human and animal to propose a model of interspecies relationality that is grounded in recognition, empathy, and spiritual companionship. This contributes to the growing field of Animal Studies in Indian literary criticism.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ushasree Mishra (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Bridging Language and Life: A Learner-Centric, AI-Assisted Model for English Fluency in Multilingual Classrooms
Section: Articles Keywords: English language teaching (ELT), learner-centric pedagogy, AI-assisted learning, digital language portfolio, bilingual fluency, communicative competence, personality development In the case of lower-intermediate English speakers, they are aware of more than they can express. There is a great need to bridge this gap, as conventional classroom teaching alone does not benefit most undergraduate students. Bridging Language and Life emerged from this core idea. This paper discusses a study that lasted for about six months and involved undergraduate students at the lower-intermediate level. The purpose of the study was to enable lower-intermediate learners to express themselves in real-life situations using the English language, both in writing and speaking, rather than merely learning it theoretically. To achieve this goal, Bridging Language and Life incorporated various digital AI applications (Grammarly, Quizizz, QuillBot, ChatGPT, Gemini AI, and BBC Learning English), together with classroom-based activities relevant to the students' culture and life experiences. The highlight of this study sheds light not only on technology but also on the "how" of the extensive use of AI tools in the education sector. The study included voice journals, real-life situational dialogues, the exploration of informal vernacular English alongside formal registers, and engagement with literature in ways that encouraged learners to think about other people's experiences. These activities were designed to give learners something to say and meaningful reasons to say it. The findings of the study, which form the focus of this paper, demonstrate that AI tools were effective only when they served a larger purpose. AI usage was reframed from dependence to purposeful use. When students used AI tools to refine ideas they had already developed, their confidence grew. However, when the tools replaced their own thinking, little changed. As the study revealed, fluency, in any context, must ultimately come from the learner.
Copyright (c) 2026 Catharinal Silvia M (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Behind the Quilt: Child Sexual Grooming, Silence, and the Child Narrator in Ismat Chughtai’s “The Quilt”
Section: Articles Keywords: Ismat Chughtai, Lihāf, The Quilt, Child sexual grooming, Child sexual abuse, Child narrator, Begum Jaan, Cultural silence, Domestic space, Trauma, Queer reading, Patriarchal neglect, literary criticism, Female perpetrator, Indian literature Ismat Chughtai’s “The Quilt” is usually read through female desire, patriarchal neglect, and same-sex intimacy within the enclosed world of the zenana. These readings remain necessary, but they often leave the child narrator at the edge of the discussion. Her experience deserves closer attention than it has so far received. Building on child-centred readings of Lihāf, it argues that Chughtai does not present the child’s violation as a sudden, isolated event. The story traces a slower movement: the child is placed inside Begum Jaan’s domestic world, drawn into affection and admiration, exposed to adult sexuality, involved in bodily boundary-crossing, and then left with fear she cannot name. Using child sexual grooming as a literary-critical lens, the article reads the quilt as a figure that both conceals and exposes harm. Begum Jaan is not reduced to a simple villain; she remains a woman wounded by patriarchy, even as she becomes implicated in the child’s violation. The article argues for a trauma-aware reading of “The Quilt” that can hold its feminist, queer, and child-centred dimensions together.
Copyright (c) 2026 Priyanshi Agrawal, Dr Sangeeta Kotwal (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Dreams And Historical Memory: Exploring Girish Karnad's The Dreams of Tipu Sultan
Section: Articles Keywords: Girish Karnad, Indian theatre, Tipu Sultan, postcolonial historiography, dreams in literature Girish Karnad’s The Dreams of Tipu Sultan (2004) is a postcolonial intervention in the historical narrative surrounding Tipu Sultan, the eighteenth-century ruler of Mysore. The play employs dreams as a narrative device to reconstruct Tipu’s legacy, challenging colonial historiography that has often demonized him as a fanatic and despotic ruler. By juxtaposing the perspectives of an Indian court historian, Mir Hassan Ali Khan Kirmani, and a British orientalist, Colonel Colin Mackenzie, Karnad exposes the biases in historical documentation. This paper argues that Karnad’s play functions as a counter-historical text, offering an alternative understanding of Tipu Sultan as a visionary leader and an early anti-colonial resistance figure. Drawing upon Ronald Inden’s critique of Orientalist historiography and Hayden White’s theory of historical narrative as poetic discourse, the study examines how Karnad’s fictionalized dreams serve as a means of reclaiming agency for Tipu Sultan. The analysis focuses on four key dreams from Tipu’s Khwabnama (dream diary) to illustrate his secular outlook, diplomatic ambitions, and tragic downfall due to betrayal. The paper concludes that Karnad’s play not only revises colonial narratives but also invites contemporary audiences to reconsider Tipu Sultan’s contributions to Indian history.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr Krisha Das (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cancer as a Shared Experience: Reading Melissa Kantor’s Maybe One Day through Symbolic Interactionism
Section: Articles Keywords: cancer, symbolic interactionism, illness narrative, Young adult fiction Young Adult Fiction often presents illness in a way that helps readers understand how serious disease affects the emotional and social lives of teenagers. It offers both an authentic portrayal of medical conditions and a deeper exploration of their meanings. Melissa Kantor’s Maybe One Day centres on the friendship between Zoe and Olivia, whose lives change completely when Olivia is diagnosed with leukemia. This paper studies the novel through Herbert Blumer’s theory of symbolic interactionism. It explains that people act according to the meanings that things have for them. These meanings are formed through social interaction and are modified through interpretation. By focusing on the representation of cancer and the interactions Zoe has with Olivia, health professionals, family members, and friends, this paper argues that cancer in the novel is understood not only as a medical condition but also as a shared social experience that is shaped through everyday relationships.
Copyright (c) 2026 Rughanyah S, Dr. D. Nalina Palin (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Petrofiction at the Periphery: Reconceptualizing Indian Oil Literature through Gulf Migration in Benyamin’s Goat Days and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People
Section: Articles Keywords: petrofiction, Gulf migration, petroculture, Energy Humanities, kafala system, Kerala diaspora, domestic petroculture, climate imagination Amitav Ghosh coined the term “petrofiction” in 1992 to name a global literary failure: fiction’s inability to reckon with oil’s reshaping of modern society. That the diagnosis came from an Indian writer makes its domestic non-application particularly telling. India consumed approximately 5.3 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, ranking third globally, and is projected to lead global consumption growth through 2025 (EIA), yet has produced no sustained literary engagement with petroleum on its own soil. This article argues that Indian literature’s relationship with petrofiction is genuine but limited in scope: it exists almost entirely as Gulf labor migration narrative, most significantly in Benyamin’s Goat Days (2008) and Deepak Unnikrishnan’s Temporary People (2017), works that render the human cost of petroculture through the disposable bodies of Keralite migrant workers in Gulf petro-states. Drawing on Imre Szeman and Dominic Boyer’s Energy Humanities framework and Ghosh’s concept of the “oil encounter,” this article reads both texts as representing only one vector of India’s petroleum relationship, namely the externalized labor of a consuming nation, while domestic petroculture, from the Digboi oilfields to ONGC refinery townships, remains narratively invisible. This absence is not incidental; it reflects how postcolonial consuming nations structure their literary imagination of energy, displacing oil onto sites of extraction and labor export while rendering their own petroleum dependency mundane and therefore unwritable.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ayushi Sen (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Existential Theodicy in Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins
Section: Articles Keywords: Vindication, Conscience, Theology, Existentialism, Incredulity, World War Walker Percy’s novel Love in the Ruins opens a discourse on serious societal issues that ruin morality. In the world after the World Wars, the role of morality and social systems became ambiguous, and Walker Percy articulates the importance of falling back on the old belief systems, God and Religion through his fiction and non-fiction. The researcher explores the novel’s perspective on faith, spirituality, and moral integrity amidst societal chaos and existential ambiguities. This research article focuses on the problems of evil, Walker Percy’s preoccupation with religion, and the context of moral integrity in the past and present. Religious writings can use symbolism and imagery to represent the ambiguity in morals that haunted the twentieth century. This article focuses on the nuanced insights of theodicy and existentialism, along with their converging points.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ambika Kamaraj, Dr Laura Dameris Chellajothi (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Labour of Marriage: Care, Gender and Refusal in Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian Across Kerala and South Korea
Section: Articles Keywords: Care labour, South Korea, Kerala, Marriage, Violence There are many social institutions that regulate labour. Of the various kinds of labour, ‘care labour’ is regulated especially by the institution of marriage. This makes it particularly gendered, with its effects tipping unfavourably against women. Many cultural texts have engaged with this aspect of marriage and offered searing critiques of the inherently unequal and oppressive nature of the institution. This article examines two diverse texts from very different cultures, the Malayalam-language film The Great Indian Kitchen by Jeo Baby and the Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s celebrated South Korean novel, The Vegetarian. These texts are read as instances of the rage and despair that women from both places feel with regard to the ways in which the institution of marriage regulates care labour and the consequent erasure of women’s work, aspirations, sexuality and autonomy. This article reads the two texts in the context of women's articulation of resentment toward heterosexual institutions such as marriage in South Korea, as expressed through radical movements such as the 4B movement, and a nascent trend in Kerala, where young women are increasingly resisting or deferring marriage. In both texts, women's autonomy and agency are subjected to various forms of control and suppression, prompting responses that range from anger and defiance to what is perceived as 'madness'. The article situates these representations within the broader context of demographic shifts in both societies, where women are choosing to marry later or not marry at all, thereby influencing fertility rates and reshaping traditional social structures. This article focuses on the anxieties generated by, and the questioning of, the uncomplaining and incessant care labour expected within marriage.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bindu K.C, Krishna Menon (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Gendered Spaces and the Quest for Selfhood in Anuradha Roy’s All the Lives We Never Lived
Section: Articles Keywords: female autonomy, selfhood, identity, masculinity, gendered space, spatial disparity, the private sphere Gendered space is constructed by those in positions of power and control, attributing specific duties and responsibilities to men and women, respectively. Generally, the public sphere is dominated by men, leaving zones of leisure and recreation primarily to them. In her novel All the Lives We Never Lived, Anuradha Roy uses the character of Gayatri to narrate the struggle of domestic women who are confined to the kitchen, sacrificing their potential for their children and husbands. Gayatri takes a poignant step by leaving her family to pursue her artistic passion, an act that mirrors the stifled dreams of many Indian women who suppress their own identities to nurture their families. Situating that rebellion within the sociology of gendered space, this paper reads her flight not merely as a private transgression but as a critique of the spatial logic that allots the outdoor world to men while immuring women within the home. It examines the urgent need for a shift in male attitudes and argues that traditional masculinity must be redefined to accommodate female autonomy.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nandhini Meena I, Jerrisha J (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Who Never Said “Let It Be": Music, Irony, and the Maternal Counter-Text in Arundhati Roy's Mother Mary Comes to Me
Section: Articles Keywords: sonic autobiography, musical hermeneutics, mother-daughter narrative, Indian women's life writing, postcolonial selfhood Arundhati Roy’s debut memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me (2025) takes its title from “Let It Be,” the Beatles’ canonical hymn to consolation and surrender. Yet the memoir itself is an act of sustained refusal. Neither Roy nor her mother Mary ever let anything be. This paper argues that Roy deploys “Let It Be” as a deliberate ironic counter-text. This irony is structural. It organises the memoir's narrative of self-formation and artistic becoming. The argument draws on the theory of the grain of the voice by Roland Barthes, the framework of musical meaning in literary texts by Lawrence Kramer, and the distinction between the symbolic and the semiotic by Julia Kristeva. The paper reads Roy’s sonic autobiography and her recurring invocations of the Beatles, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix as a grammar of resistance. In the context of 1970s postcolonial India, Western popular music functioned for Roy as a third space in Homi Bhabha’s sense: a site where a young woman from Kerala could imagine a self-exceeding the demands of caste and the formidable mother who was simultaneously her shelter and her storm. To read Mother Mary Comes to Me through the lens of music-literature theory is to recover a dimension of the text that conventional memoir criticism has not yet addressed. Roy's memoir is, at its deepest level, a score written against a song she could never stop hearing.
Copyright (c) 2026 P Caroline Rini (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Probing the Gender Aperture: Exploring Gender Differences in Language Learning
Section: Articles Keywords: Gender, gender based outcome , Second Language Acquisition (SLA) This paper endeavours to abstain from normal discrimination among gender; rather, attempts to become aware and detect the reason behind successful outcome of language outcome between gender. This research focuses on the gender and their knowledge, proficiency and utility of language; additionally, this paper prefers the reason why a particular gender is overwhelming and surpassing the other gender in language learning. There have been so many researches discussing the gender differences through anthropology, but when considering language, phonology, lexicon students are taken into account for determining the better performer among the gender. Pondering the previous studies and various research papers have been submitted, the researcher takes the side of female; that substantially female are good at learning a secondary language and they carry out pronunciation, accent and vocabulary one step ahead and more acceptable than male. This research paper is going to bring some considering points with evidence to prove the researcher’s view and stand on gender vent in learning a secondary language. Further, this paper undertakes to perceive the facts which makes female to learn well- accelerated with perfection than male.
Copyright (c) 2026 Suryakala I, Dr Ramkumar E. V (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Intersections of Caste and Class in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, The Road, and Coolie
Section: Articles Keywords: Discrimination, Mulk Raj Anand, Social Exploitation, Untouchable, Casteism This article examines the societal prejudice in Untouchable and The Road by Mulk Raj Anand critically. It centres on the lower castes’ social and psychological oppression in traditional culture. Hindu scriptures explain the traditional caste system, which separates people into four main varnas: Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Shudras, and Vaishyas. Shudras were among these varnas or groups, working as labourers and providing services; they are untouchables and are subjected to severe prejudice and exploitation. Bakha, the protagonist of Untouchable (1935), is a lower caste sweeper who faces harsh societal limitations. His livelihood depends on upper castes, and he cannot access public resources like well water. Concomitant with its criticism of the hypocrisy of upper caste members and the exploitation of women, this book explores the ceremonial purifying procedures that serve as the foundation for the marginalization of members of lower castes. Albeit, advancements in knowledge and progress, the poorer castes in an Indian village continue to face economic exploitation and social inequity in The Road (1961). Because the lower caste depends on higher caste landlords for their sustenance, Untouchability, oppression, and the lower castes’ inability to rebel are emphasized in both texts. Mulk Raj Anand criticizes caste, subjugation of lower castes, and the inaction of social and religious institutions in addressing these injustices through these narratives.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sonu Kumar Mehta (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Maternal Ambivalence and Repressed Guilt: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills
Section: Articles Keywords: psychic defence mechanisms, contradictions of mothering, splitting, trauma and repression, maternal guilt The article provides
Copyright (c) 2026 Celin Selvakumari K, Dr Wilfin John (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Reconceptualising Nature on Mars: Terraforming and Human Intervention in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars
Section: Articles Keywords: terraforming, Red Mars, environmental ethics, ecocriticism, science fiction Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars is one of the most important speculative novels for examining environmental ethics beyond Earth. The novel does not treat Mars merely as a distant scientific setting or a technological challenge; instead, it turns the planet into a moral and philosophical space where human beings must confront fundamental questions about nature, ownership, preservation, and intervention. This paper argues that Red Mars redefines nature by presenting Mars not as an empty resource waiting for human use but as a world whose apparent barrenness still demands ethical consideration. Through the ideological conflict between preservationists and terraformers, Robinson explores whether humanity has the moral right to alter another planet for habitation. The novel also connects environmental ethics with colonialism, capitalism, scientific ambition, and political power, showing that ecological decisions can never be separated from social structures. By using an ecocritical framework, this article demonstrates that Robinson challenges simple binaries such as nature versus technology or preservation versus progress. In lieu of, Red Mars develops a more complex vision in which environmental ethics becomes relational, collective, and historically aware. The novel decisively suggests that human intervention in nature creates responsibility rather than mastery and that the future of any world depends on how carefully humanity learns to inhabit rather than dominate it.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr Yunush Ahamed Mohamed Sherif, Thalha K (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Representations of Childhood Innocence and Spiritual Consciousness in José María Sánchez-Silva’s The Miracle of Marcelino
Section: Articles Keywords: crucifix, sacrifice, faith, innocence, longing for true love, redemption This article explores how the figure of the orphaned child functions as a mediator between the human and the divine, with particular emphasis on the symbolic role of the crucifix as an embodiment of suffering, redemption, and divine compassion. Employing a qualitative, text-centered analytical approach, the study engages with existing scholarship on children’s literature and religious narratives to highlight how Marcelino’s innocent acts, especially his offering of bread and wine to the crucifix, articulate a profound spiritual understanding that transcends institutional religiosity. The article further contextualizes the work within post-war Spanish society, acknowledging both its emotional appeal and its reception as a potentially ideological narrative. Marcelino’s longing for maternal love is interpreted as both an emotional and theological quest, culminating in a redemptive union that merges personal desire with spiritual fulfillment. The study argues that the narrative’s enduring impact lies in its ability to communicate complex theological concepts through simplicity, emotional depth, and symbolic imagery. The findings demonstrate that the novel constructs innocence not merely as a sentimental attribute but as a powerful epistemological and spiritual force that enables direct communion with the divine.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr R. Celin Diana (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Dismantling Oppressive Family Dynamics through the Study of Memory in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
Section: Articles Keywords: memory , cultural hegemony, family dynamics, trauma This article analyses oppressive familial dynamics through memory in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The research employs Antonio Gramsci’s notion of cultural hegemony and Sigmund Freud’s concept of repression to analyse the dynamics of power inside the family unit. The Ipe family exemplifies a microcosm of society wherein caste, gender roles, and social expectations shape individual conduct and interpersonal dynamics. The article examines the experiences of Estha and Rahel, illustrating how childhood trauma influences their adult lives. Estha’s quiet is examined as a consequence of suppression and mental anguish, but Rahel’s recollections signify loss, separation, and psychological distress. Their reactions to trauma illustrate the impact of memory and silence on identity and relationships. The article highlights how figures, characters like Baby Kochamma and Mammachi endorse patriarchal and caste-based dominance within the home structure. Into the bargain, Comrade Pillai's role illustrates how political power perpetuates social injustice. This contrast underscores the relationship between home and governmental power structures. The study contends that oppression in the novel transcends individual actions, being fundamentally embedded in social institutions and cultural values. The novel elucidates how memory, trauma, and silence collectively influence identity and perpetuate unequal power dynamics across generations within family and societal contexts.
Copyright (c) 2026 Fenulah Hepzi G (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Tortuous Triad of Religion, Caste and Money:A Rereading of Pudhumaipithan’s Select Short Stories
Section: Articles Keywords: Satire, religion, caste issue, education, deconstruction Pudhumaipithan, born in the early half of the 1900s, is well known for his satirical short stories that poke fun at contemporary Tamil society. Pudhumaipithan is a revolutionary writer for his satires of the fundamental facets of society, including religion, beliefs, economics, existing institutions, education, and interpersonal relationships. Pudhumaipithan has spoken out against the socially repressive elements by merely identifying the issues facing the community, whereas no firm solution has been presented in his texts. In an effort to portray the lives of those who live below and slightly above the poverty line, he has attempted to undermine accepted moral principles and ethics. The caste system that is resisting doesn’t have to be explosive; it can be gradual, as evidenced by the subtle shifts in societal attitudes and behaviours that Pudhumaipithan illustrates in his narratives. This study attempts to trace the intimidating interplay of religion, caste and money in combination, as presented in the selected short stories of Pudhumaipithan.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Christober Jacob, Dr. S. Samuel Jude Frank (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Spectacle and Selfhood: The Politics of the Male Gaze in Olivia Gatwood’s The Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Section: Articles Keywords: Female Subjectivity, Disciplinary power, Male Gaze, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Olivia Gatwood, Heteronormative discourse, Feminist poetics, Contemporary poetry This study employs a qualitative textual analysis of the poem “Manic Pixie Dream Girl Says” by Olivia Gatwood, with a focus on recurring themes of gendered spectatorship, performative femininity, and resistance to objectification. The analysis is grounded in feminist literary theory, particularly frameworks addressing the male gaze, subjectivity, and narrative agency, drawing from critical insights associated with Laura Mulvey and Judith Butler. The poem was selected based on the criteria of direct or indirect engagement with gendered perception, representation of female embodiment or performance, and thematic alignment with or subversion of the “manic pixie dream girl” trope, a culturally pervasive construct that reduces female subjectivity to a narrative function within heteronormative frameworks. Close reading techniques were used to examine imagery, tone, voice, and narrative positioning, with particular attention paid to moments where the poetic speaker transitions from object (being seen) to subject (a self-defining voice). In doing so, the study situates the poem within broader discourses of surveillance, internalized gender norms, and affective labour, while also engaging with Foucauldian notions of disciplinary power and normalization. By tracing the speaker’s ironic self-awareness and metafictional articulation, the analysis demonstrates how Gatwood’s poem not only exposes the limitations of the trope but actively reclaims agency, disrupting the visual and narrative economy of the male gaze and foregrounding a resistant, self-conscious feminine subjectivity.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr N. Jessie, Dr W. Jefflims Samraja (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Beyond Engagement: Scrutinizing Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in Active Digital Classrooms
Section: Articles Keywords: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Mobile Applications and Digital technologies Learners face numerous hurdles while acquiring a second language. The use of mobile applications and digital technologies in language learning enhances the language proficiency of the learners. The objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of technology in second language classroom. The study also tries to explore the theoretical aspects of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning by Richard Mayer. The role of facilitator has also been elucidated along with Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model. The method of the study includes a quantitative method to collect data for the pretest and post-test. “Mobile learning offers unprecedented opportunities for learners to engage with language learning materials anytime and anywhere. This flexibility promotes learner autonomy, enhances motivation, and supports individualized learning experiences, allowing students to progress at their own pace and according to their specific learning needs” (Kukulska-Hulme and Shield 273).The methodological tools used in the research include structured classroom activities, digital tools and instructional materials. The findings of the research elucidate that the technology and mobile applications help learners to attain language proficiency. The research tries to explain that technology enhanced language learning plays a pivotal role in second language acquisition. The future scope of the study can be associated with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Learning environment.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR)
Mobile Applications and Digital technologies
Copyright (c) 2026 Sushma S K, Dr A. Rathina Prabhu (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Konkani Wordsworth: Tracing Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Lyrics of Wily Rebimbus
Section: Articles Keywords: romantic poetry, william wordsworth, wilfy rebimbus, romanticism, konkani literature, comparative literature, nature, spirituality This article examines the presence of Romantic features in the lyrical compositions of the renowned Konkani poet and musician Wilfy Rebimbus and attempts to establish a comparative framework between his poetic vision and the Romantic philosophy of William Wordsworth. While Wordsworth wrote within the cultural and historical context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England, Rebimbus composed his lyrics within the socio-cultural environment of the Konkani-speaking coastal communities of India. Despite these geographical and temporal differences, both poets reveal similarities in their treatment of nature, rural life, and human emotions. The study outlines the major characteristics of Romantic poetry such as the celebration of nature, the emphasis on individual emotion and imagination, the portrayal of common people, and the importance of solitude and introspection. This article analyzes the lyrics of Wilfy Rebimbus to demonstrate how these Romantic ideals are reflected in his works. Rebimbus’s lyrics portray nature as a living presence closely connected with human emotions, where natural elements mirror the joys and sorrows of life. His work shows affinity with Wordsworth’s belief that nature is a moral and spiritual teacher. The article highlights Rebimbus’s portrayal of rural life, paralleling Wordsworth’s focus on ordinary people, and shows how natural imagery expresses emotions such as love, longing, hope, and faith. Whilst Rebimbus has not consciously imitated Wordsworth, the similarities between them reveal a shared Romantic sensibility. The article concludes that Wilfy Rebimbus can be considered a “Konkani Wordsworth,” as his lyrics embody key Romantic principles such as love for nature, emotional sincerity, and harmony between humanity and the natural world.
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr Vincent Alva (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0