History, Conflict and Socio-Religious Protest in John Osborne's Luther

Luther, a historical play by John Osborne foregrounds the legendary figure of Martin Luther as the texture for the play. The play significantly portrays the age of heavy influence of rigid, orthodox Christianity and the oppression of Pope of the Rome. John Osborne deals with historical figure of Martin Luther as the strong opponent to evil practices of Princes, Electors, Dukes, Ambassadors, Bishops, Counts and Barons. Luther's revolutionary ideas were highly influential to propagate the true Christianity as professed by the Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. Luther, the protagonist is being mediated as an Angry Young Man who summarily exhibits the British Society with its contemporary evils and rejects their false, unrealistic ideals and simultaneously aims to restore the religiosity to its prestige. John Osborne, more prominently overcomes with deeper understanding of Historical ethos, successfully portrays the conflict between interior and exterior of Martin Luther and scornfully professes his social criticism through the play. The present paper aims to explore in the realm of historical account, Martin Luther's world of conflicting ideas of religiosity and under his socio-religious criticism over the evil practices of the propagators of Christianity. The paper would also talk about the exploitation of middle classes under the oppressive system of the then British society

The Politics of Space: Representation of the Postcolonial Space in Ngugi wa Thiong’O’s Petals of Blood

The spatial turn in the field of literary studies in the contemporary period has given rise to a new perspective to the notion of space. Traditionally, space was considered as a homogenous, static entity, confined to its geometrical aspect. It is after the spatial turn that space came to be recognized as being discursive, being socially produced and productive. The new spatial concept brings to light the power relations implicated in the production and operation of space. The process of urbanization creates peripheries and centres and is also responsible for destroying villages and countryside. Urbanism is an ideological, hegemonic space that operates under the myth of modernity. It is a social centrality where many elements and aspects of capitalism intersect in space. The production of urban space operates through the practices of representation of space as well as the appropriation of spaces of representation. Alongside urbanization, ruralisation also takes place. The rural spaces often lose their independence, as centrality accumulates wealth, knowledge and information. They wield power and the periphery becomes insignificant, powerless and dependent. Population and wealth generated by the urba trade gives advantage to the city based governments over the rural areas. From the cities, ideological and governmental control spread out to the rural village space. The relationship between the centre and the periphery is similar to that of the colonizer and the colonised. The city spaces in former colonies reincarnate as spaces of neo-liberalism and capitalism, which in turn exert its agency over the rural space. In this context, Ngugi wa Thiongo’s novel Petals of Blood becomes very significant as it represents how the village spaces in Kenya are appropriated by these hegemonic forces which result in the transformation of the lives of the native folk. They are forced to adapt to the new ways of life or end up losing their lives trying to hold on to their traditional ways. Represented through the lives of four main characters in the backdrop of the Mau Mau rebellion, the novel shows how the rapid westernization and urbanisation shake the whole village of llmorg. The paper therefore is an attempt to understand how the neoliberal construction of spaces in the wake of globalisation in Kenya (in the third world) produces discursive spaces, which are neo-colonial, hegemonic and exploitative. It postulates that space is a dynamic, discursive domain, that can be used to conquer and manipulate the Other

A Discourse on the Interrelation Between International Business Development and Globalization

Nowadays, doing business anywhere in the world is easy due to major changes in global politics, technology and expanded educational opportunities. Globalization has helped in creating major changes throughout the world. Technological, social, economic and organizational changes have sprout out due to this phenomenon. International relationships have got intensified with the effect of globalization and it increased the importance of cultural dimension. Understanding the cultural context and seeking required adjustments to avoid problems will help the entrepreneurs to solve such culture related issues. Difficulties arise when managers take over the existing norms of one country to the other thinking that such norms are applicable in other contexts. Cultural factors make business work. This paper elucidates the link between social entrepreneurship, international business development, globalization and the English language in the international scenario. &nbsp

Nautical Gothic in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Premature Burial”

Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, varied as they are and articulated from different narrative standpoints, reliable or otherwise, have an overriding thematic resemblance—they are all built upon profound and irreconcilable contradictions. They navigate the liminal zone between life and death, health and disease and sanity and madness so nimbly that there is perhaps no other American writer of Gothic fiction whose works gain so much from the deployment of such a dialectic. Apart from landward Gothic dominated by the presence of mediaeval cathedrals, castles and dungeons, Poe has penned some remarkable Nautical Gothic too. In the short story “The Premature Burial”, an example of this genre, Poe presents the dialectics between the inside and the outside as centered on the discourse of spatiality

An Experimentation of Hindi Film with Subaltern Perspective: Special Reference to ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953)

History has witnessed that the subaltern mass has not been properly reflected in Hindi films. Critics feel it as a serious concern that the voice, problem, crisis of the subaltern people have been bypassed by the show-biz of the Hindi film. Though the subaltern mass has performed an important role to form the backbone of Indian economy, Hindi films have abandoned the subaltern people by providing no importance to this crucial issue since Hindi film has largely focused on ‘entertainment’ only. Majority of the Hindi films have now addressed the wishes and aspirations of the N.R.I. except a few. But history has witnessed that once Hindi films were made showcasing a laborer or a peasant representing the subaltern community as its central protagonist. The filmmakers nurtured the scripts and directed the films with utmost care and concern for the have-nots and they also had immense empathy and sensitivity to the problem and crisis of the community belong to subalternity. ‘Neecha Nagar’ made by sensitive Director Chetan Anand tried to exhibit the unfathomable distance between the haves and the have-nots. He also showcased the shocking exploitation of the labor class. Accepting the cue made by Chetan Anand, the other torch bearers like Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan, S. S. Vasan, B. R. Chopra and others approached the same way with directing films that also raised the conscience of the society. Not only that, these socially committed directors tried to find ways to combat the agony and sorrow of the down trodden. It appeared that the screenplay writers and filmmakers were the tone of the afflicted working class. These films appeared as the objective representations of the sorrow and woe of the subaltern mass. If film is, as a matter of fact, a reflection of society, it can be noted that presently it faces failure to perform its true role. Besides entertainment, film is a powerful medium to motivate and mobilize audience. It is a strong and influential mass media for social change. Some noted responsible directors like Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Shyam Benegal and others made films which appear as the stark reality existing in the society. Commercial success and entertainment of their films did not discourage them from dealing with relevant problem, crisis and issues of the subaltern mass

Using Kendall’s Co-Efficient Index Method for Agricultural Development in Ahmednagar District, M.S, India

This research paper is based on secondary data sources, the statistical data taken primarily from Statistical Bulletin of Ahmednagar district. Thirteen factors have been considered for making Agriculture Development of Ahmednagar District according to the tehsils. Using Kendall’s ranking co-efficient index with the composite score is the method adopted. Using Composite Score method for agriculture development, based on 10 parameters as well as the level, spans three types: high, medium and low. Geographical, socio-economic, political and technological factors affect the development of agriculture, preventing it in a particular geographical region completely or in a geographical region as a whole

Understanding Eroticism in Art Forms: A Critical Analysis of Octave Tassaert’s Painting ‘The Cursed Woman’

Erotic capital is a value that one acquires as a result of sexual attractiveness which is as important as social and cultural capital. It is a combination of many attributes. It was first used by Catherine Hakim who defined it as a separate form, independent of class origin and which therefore enables social mobility. The erotic theory states that every individual has complete freedom upon their sexual life. This paper attempts to question the title of one of Octave Tassaert’s famous paintings, ‘The Cursed Woman’. It brings the picture of a woman receiving sex from three partners. The title translates into ‘The Damned Woman’, but it looks more like heaven than damnation. Sexual intercourse with more than one partner cannot make a woman cursed. Above all, the features of the painting prove the woman’s state of happiness and satisfaction. She seems comfortable with what she does. It is commonly believed that women are those supposed to beautify themselves but not allowed to show their interests in sexual acts. Another fact is that the painter who considered, the woman having sex with multiple partners as cursed, was himself considered as the worst painter by the people because of the representation of sex and nudity. He had to face opposition for most of his paintings. According to the theory, the woman has a complete right over her body and thus it opposes the title of the painting.&nbsp

Towards a Heterotopic Turn: A Selected Analysis of Glück's A Village Life

“Heterotopia” is a minor concept within Foucault’s oeuvre, but one that has caught the attention of writers across a number of disciplines, particularly within Fine Arts and Geography. The concept appears three times within Foucault’s works: in the preface to The Order of Things ([1966] 2002); in Different Spaces ([1967] 1998); and in a radio recording Le Corps Utopique, Les Hétérotopies ([1966] 2009).  “According to Foucault, heterotopias are spaces that operate to make existing orders legible. By doing so they unsettle received knowledge that is common sense – both revealing and destabilizing the foundations of knowledge. This destabilization renders knowledge opens to critique, introducing contingency into the present and demonstrating that if the order of things is socially produced, then it can be made differently” (Beckett et al. 2016, 4). Though the poetry of Louise Glück (1943- ) is an exploration of the nuanced relationation between subject and context, there is little doubt on the fact that her texts have earned a spate of critical responses. Drawing from a theoretical apparatus, the Foucauldian concept of heterotopia, this paper focuses on the spatial analysis of Glück's poetry in her collection A Village Life (2009) which is replete with fields, thresholds, windows, with a major focus on her imaginative repertoire of heterotopic spaces including riverside, darkness, lonely fields, cemeteries

A Study on the Predominance of Physical and Psychological Variables of Calicut University Women Kho-Kho Team

The study was to compare the physical and psychological variables among women kho -kho players. Total of 12 women kho-kho players were selected for the study whose age group ranged from 18 to 25 years. Descriptive statistics such as Mean, median mode, standard deviation, kurtosis, skewness, cohesion, of variance, range, minimum score, maximum score, and 25th, 50th, 75th percentile score were found in order to get the basic idea of the data distribution. Descriptive analysis was done on all the predominant physical variables namely: Speed, Abdominal Strength, Explosive Power, Endurance, balance, Agility, Flexibility, and the Psychological variables namely: Emotional intelligence, Team Cohesion, Achievement motivation, Anxiety.  The factor analysis describes a procedure to identify the linear combination of variables (called factor), which have a large variance, ignoring the liner combination method selected for the primary solution of factor analysis