A New Critical Notice of Robin Cook’s Medical Thriller ‘Coma’

This paper is an exploration of the medical thriller Coma often categorized as popular fiction through a grotesque lens. This study enables to delineate how grotesquery sustains and reinforces the relevance of fiction. Giving space to anxious imaginations about medicine and technology, these texts cannot be dismissed altogether as ‘wrong sort of fiction’ as suggested by Catherine Belling in her critique of Coma. Therefore, the paper argues that the creative audacity of grotesque equips it doubly as a reflection of an anxious society and also as a ‘boundary creature’ as opined by Frances S Connelly. Using the idea of grotesque as hybrid creature, that is as one entity which has several incompatible components jumbled together to construe meaning and sense, its emotional effects on the readers are justified. This paper takes Coma as an instance of medical thrillers and examines the various ways grotesque is embedded in the narrative. The paper concludes by suggesting the genre by extension is grotesque. Thus medical thriller becomes a space for new imaginations and inclusivity that can bring possible progress to humanity while still keeping a control over human experimentation ethics that powerful institutions may or may not employ. The idea that pervades this study is that grotesquery is employed as a template to translate meanings and interpretations of medical thrillers. Through multiple responses as elicited by the grotesque, these thrillers engage with readers differently and hence produce varied responses. This enables us to project the importance and usefulness of the medical thriller genre. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00012.

Crises of integration in Africa: Nigeria Federal experience

The paper used secondary data in which newspapers, Journal articles, textbooks, documents, etc. are reviewed and analyzed in identifying the factors responsible for the crises of integration in the Nigeria federal system. These are with the intention of providing information on the crises of integration in Nigeria. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00016.

Water Management in India: Emerging issues and challenges

Water is a foundation of life and livelihoods and is a key to sustainable development. Successful water management will serve as a foundation for the achievement of many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as for SDG 6—which is to ‘ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’. India with 2.4% of the world’s total area has 16% of the world’s population but has only 4% of the total available fresh water. The total water available from precipitation in the country in a year is about 4,000 cubic km. The availability of surface water and replenishable groundwater is 1,869 cubic km. Out of this only 60 per cent can be put to beneficial uses. Thus, the total utilisable water resource in the country is only 1,122 cubic km. This clearly indicates the need for water resource development, conservation, and optimum use. While the total water resource availability in the country remains constant, the per capita availability of water has been steadily declining since the year 1951 due to population growth. The twin indicators of water scarcity are per capita availability and storage. A per capita availability of less than 1700 cubic metres (m3) is termed as a water-stressed condition while if per capita availability falls below 1000 m3, it is termed as a water scarcity condition. Safe and clean drinking water is one of the biggest problems in India. There is a shortage of water for agriculture and industrial sectors also. The main issue is how to make better water management in India. Unplanned development and management of water are leading to water scarcity, an economic and environmental strain which may increase manifold in the coming decades. The main issues and challenges for water management in India are (i) Deterioration of Water Quality (ii) Water Conservation (iii) Lack of Safe and clean drinking water (iv) Insufficient water for irrigation. The Ministry of Water Resource, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation has been allocated the subject of regulation and development of inter-State rivers, implementation of awards of Tribunals, water quality assessment, bilateral and external assistance and co-operation programmes in the field of water resources and matters relating to rivers. In the 21st century India, there is a declining availability of fresh water and increasing demand, the need has arisen to conserve and effectively manage this precious life-giving a resource for sustainable development. There is need to take quick steps and make effective policies and laws (no doubt, there is water policy 2002, but that is not dealing effectively with these issues), and adopt effective measures for its conservation. There is a need to encourage watershed development, rainwater harvesting, water recycling and reuse, and conjunctive use of water for sustainable water supply in the long run. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00018.

The metaphysics of the Time-Machine

The concept of time-travel is a modern idea which combines the imaginary signification of rational domination, the imaginary signification of technological omnipotence, the imaginary concept of eternity and the imaginary desire for immortality. It is a synthesis of central conceptual schemata of techno-science, such as the linearity and homogeneity of time, the radical separation of subjectivity from the world, the radical separation of the individual from his/her social-historical environment. The emergence of this idea, its spread during the 20th century as a major theme of science fiction literature alongside its dissemination as a scientific hypothesis, its popularity with both the public and the scientific community, are indications of the religious role of techno-science.  It is my opinion, finally, that, as a chimera, time-travel is non-feasible and impossible. In order to support my claims, I will briefly outline the origins of the time-travel concept and its epistemological and metaphysical/ontological conditions. If these conditions prove to be absurd, the logical impossibility of time-travel will have been demonstrated. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00014.

Resurrecting the Africa: Voices of Rebel

The given poem serves multitude of purposes while delineating a sea change in the outlook of the people of Africa which took place during pre and postcolonial times. It manifests the barbarious, ruthless and aggressively hostile treatment meted out to the natives by the colonizers, with not an iota of mercy in their eyes apart from defaming and eroding the culture and mores of the colonised. Behaving as a mirror, the poem reflects how wrong, unjustified and undesirable they were who failed to understand the pagan nature and simple living of the African tribes. Eventually, the Africans did manage to get the ‘Uhuru’ or Freedom from the Whites by retaliating through Mau-Mau rebellion and thus they celebrate their independence through the crescendo of the very peculiar trumpet, drum and dance. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00006.7 &nbsp

Dis/Locating Power and Knowledge in Media Discourse

The construction of ‘otherness’ in media discourse is meant to legitimize and naturalize the reproduction of the ideology of opposition that widens the gap between the identification of “Self” and “Other”. This identification relies mostly on knowledge and its relation to power that could be detected in discourses where voices interact with one another to assert a fixed hegemonic conception of the Self in contrast to the Other. In this sense, the production of knowledge in media discourse remains subject to the interference of different authoritative institutions that represent the position of power through instilling and presenting the ideology of this regime as the taken-for-granted truth. Being annexed to power, truth is perceived as having the quality of credibility that lends credence to its producers’ claim. What strengthens and bridges more effectively the power and knowledge relation is the fact that these discourses are institutionalized by authoritative systems. This fact engenders the possibility that the intellectuals themselves are institutionalized and that their role in societies is restricted. This fact calls for the urgent need of giving space for the subaltern to speak for themselves and deconstruct the ideologies that are produced by the dominant groups. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2017.00017.

Interpreting and Comparing the Representations of Hermes in Ancient Greece and Archangel Michael in Macedonian Folk Beliefs

This paper provides a comparative interpretation of the Ancient Greek image of Hermes as a mythological figure with the image of Archangel Michael as a highly revered Orthodox saint in modern Macedonian society. The goal of this research is to show the similarities and the differences between these two characters and how these images are understood today in modern society. By comparing the representations of these two characters, popularly accepted as soul reapers and psychopomps and regularly portrayed holding a stick, and then through the comparison of the days that mark their celebration, the aim of this paper is to show that rudiments of Macedonian folk beliefs and customs associated with this saint, although modified, are still strongly present in the Macedonian tradition. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00011.

Displaced Identities of Transnational Migrants in Salman Rushdie’sThe Ground beneath Her Feet: A Cross-cultural Perspective

The postcolonial era has manifested its specialty in the evolution of postmodern discourses which have cross-cultural effects on the contemporary society. The new era of globalization has churned the nuances of transnational migration which is essentially a postcolonial factor. Migration of indigenous populations to various countries around the globe induces a new set of social expectation, cultural values and beliefs. This new cultural environment postulates a craving for the past life which is effectively dealt with in Salman Rushdie’s works of art. The prospects of religious conversion and its counter effects are also elaborated by Rushdie in his novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet. This paper highlights Rushdie’s successful attempt in blurring the frontiers of the East and the West. Migrancy and cultural displacements form the strength of Rushdie’s novels and he highlights his displaced migrants as decentered beings, unable to free themselves from the cultural pull. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00002.X &nbsp

The Concept of Radif and Three Paradigms of Persian Music in Contemporary Iran

From 30 years ago onwards, Persian music, under the influence of Western philosophy, has been Westernised in the sense that some elements of Western philosophy have strongly impacted Persian music. In this paper, I intend to propose a critical leap in Persian music which leads to the creation of three different paradigms in Persian music. Philosophically, Persian music can be seen from three perspectives: Transcendental, Secular and Nominalistic. The Transcendental view considers Persian music as something that is related to what comes from high up, i.e. God. In this paradigm, the concept of Radif is a very important element which has a high place in the history of Persian music. Contrarily, the Secular view focuses on the mundane feature of Persian music in the sense that musicians care to produce melodies by humans and for humans. If Transcendentalists consider music as “less is more,” Secularists treat it as “less is bore.” However, the Nominalistic view tries to leave the two previous paradigms behind by not considering any essence for music, and thus focuses on the contextual feature of music. I conclude by saying that we are now dealing with different “Persian musics” rather than “a Persian music”. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2017.00019.

Power, Privilege or Right: A Radical-Feminist Evaluation of Attar of Roses and other stories of Pakistan

The present research paper is an evaluation of power, privilege or right enjoyed by the men in Pakistani Patriarchal society in Attar of Roses and Other Stories of Pakistan, a collection by Tahira Naqvi. Naqvi is an emerging female Pakistani writer in English, who has used her fiction to radicalize the marginalized position of Pakistani women. The objective of this paper is to pinpoint the social and political position of patriarchal society through which woman subjugation by men becomes a power, a privilege or a right to be exercised. Radical Feminism will serve as a theoretical and conceptual framework for the apt exploration of the problematic. Naqvi has a well-organized stance to present in her stories and there is a true depiction of woman subjugation, patriarchal oppression and sense of insecurity in housewives and working ladies as well. However, Naqvi has delineated her female characters rebellious of set norms and traditions which show seeds of radicalism in our society. The tentative conclusion of this research will hint at the changing social position of men and women in our society. DOI: 10.5958/2347-6869.2018.00008.