Crossings: A Journal of English Studies

The Living Mountain:

Rakesh Chandra — 2023-12-31

Front Matter

2023-12-31

CROSSINGS: A Journal of English Studies
Department of English and Humanities
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)
crossings@ulab.edu.bd
Volume 14 | December 2023 | ISSN 2071–1107 | E-ISSN 2958-3179

Editorial Note

Shamsad Mortuza — 2023-12-31

The Perpetual Catwalk of Modernity:

Kaiser Haq — 2023-12-31

While lazily channel browsing some years back, my attention was caught by an ongoing discussion on a now defunct Kolkata-based channel. In fact, that particular program is the only one I vividly remember from the short and distinguished life of Tara TV. Several participants had been marshalled to talk about “adhunikata,” modernity. The session was in its final stages, and seemed to have been an informal for-and-against debate. The only speaker I could watch had begun his spiel. I do not remember his name but I was struck by his cheerful countenance, and his engagingly animated and fluent delivery. He was of modest build, which might have been a consequence of a hyperactive metabolism. This is a retrospective observation I make in passing because, if we were to personify “modernity,” one of its conspicuous physical attributes would be a hyperactive metabolism.....

Rupture of Body and Mind in Hiroshima Mon Amour:

Ali Afridi — 2023-12-31

Alain Resnais has devised a narrative of fractured identity, trauma, and incommunicability in Hiroshima Mon Amour. With its minimal aesthetics, intricate movement and jettisoned conventionality, the film becomes a new map for theorizations in literary, cultural, and psychoanalytic spaces. This study uses these spaces for a phenomenological inquisition of “rupture” by positioning the subjects of the narrative within them, thus creating a spectrum for identity analysis as well. By delineating the characters as fragments and totalities, it strives to provide a critical reading of trauma and the separation it postulates in the corporeal identity. Kristevan conceptualizations of “abject” and “melancholia,” Freudo-Lacanian postulation of “spatial geometry,” and Kantian “spatiality” are used as modalities for the demarcation of new narratives within literary, social,cultural, and epistemological dialectics. The study further aims to structuralize rupture as generating new cartographies of spatiality while hinging on the film’s narrative framework of storytelling through the body and the mind.

She Laughs, She Speaks:

Shantanu Das — 2023-12-31

Saadat Hasan Manto in his story, “The Insult,” portrays Saugandhi as a prostitute who is capable of speaking of her choices, yet she speaks in a language designed by a patriarchal system that can be read as “phallogocentric” from Hélène Cixous’s perspective of poststructuralist feminism. Saugandhi’s desire to be loved by a man confines her to the passive, non-speaking position that this “phallogocentric” system has fixed for women in the Lacanian structure of the Symbolic Order. However, the rejection by a customer one night rids her of the desire for patriarchal recognition. She starts speaking in a language new to the phallogocentric system which upsets Madho, who is portrayed by Manto as a speaker of that phallogocentric language. In the last conversation with Madho, Saugandhi laughs hysterically and that threatens Madho with the fear of losing control over her. Manto writes her laughter as her language, which can be analyzed by Cixous’s idea of écriture féminine. With a qualitative approach, this paper examines how Manto, through the portrayal of Saugandhi, writes a deconstructive language that decentralizes the phallogocentric structure in Urdu short fiction and contributes to the écriture féminine in the subculture of Urdu stories even before the phrase was coined.

Re-reading J.M. Coetzee’s Dusklands:

Elham Hossain — 2023-12-31

J.M. Coetzee’s Dusklands overtly offers more of a novelistic discourse than a political pontification. It presents two narratives – one about Eugene Dawn, working for the US government agency in Vietnam in the twentieth centruy and the other moves around Jacobus Coetzee in the eighteenth century, representing a threat to the cultural integrity and undermining true African culture and traditionalism. In the postcolonial and postmodernist contexts, crony capitalism and neocolonial incursions move in the framework set by the power-structure, mostly controlled by the corporate economy. War, not only military but also psychological, even in the postcolonial situations, turns into a power game for the capitalist countries by exercising imperialist hegemony over the economically backward Third World countries while simultaneously maximizing their monetary interest. This potential disposition of the imperial enterprise questions the versions of historical truth, arbitrarily used for silencing and Othering. In Dusklands, Coetzee presents a critical assessment of historical truth inherent in power relations. In varied degrees, war affects both the target victims and the ethically lived soldiers who are forcibly appointed to cause physical and mental damage. Through the portrayal of America’s war in Vietnam in the first segment of Dusklands and Afrikaner’s colonial incursions in South Africa in the second segment of the same text, Coetzee questions the versions of historical truth. This paper examines how J.M.Coetzee exhibits the dialectical process of the construction of knowledge which works as a counter discourse to the power relations controlled by the capitalist forces assuming the role of the imperialist hegemony and, under the subterfuge of globalization and modernity, turning Africa into an endless source of raw materials for the manufacturing factories of the First World countries.

“The Last Tram Has Gone”:

Nusrat Jahan — 2023-12-31

Jibanananda Das remains one of the major post-Tagore literary personas whose works are still open to interpretation. Torn between nurturing literary aestheticism and the responsibility to be a bread-earner, the complex dichotomy of Das’ life has shaped his writings significantly. The fictional writings also guide towards the complex labyrinth Das himself is. Like a mysterious kaleidoscope, he reflects light in the unexplored regions, and his writings bear the paradox a modern man faces when he is homeless. Likewise, according to György Lukács, the philosophical term “transcendental homelessness” expresses the yearning for a soulful and emotional home that is no longer available in this world. Nonetheless, Das’ oeuvre carries a fervent longing to be at home everywhere, and the yearning to find roots in a time of restlessness has left a permanent mark on his personal life as well. The identity crisis and alienation from society have forced him to continuously search for belongingness in a world full of fragmentation. Das’ alienation and innate desire to belong somewhere in Bengal portray the finest example of transcendental homelessness, which is evident in his collection of poems and stories. This research aims to study the inherent urge of Das to be at home everywhere and the sense of belongingness illustrated in his poems and stories.

Sovereign Exceptions and Sexual Autonomy in Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo

Nazia Manzoor — 2023-12-31

This article investigates how the concept of a state of exception and its dialectic relationship with the norm are negotiated in the German author Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo (1811), the story of two doomed lovers – a Swiss visitor named Gustav and a “mestiza” woman named Toni – set against the backdrop of the Haitian revolution. Drawing primarily upon Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s political thoughts as well as Alexander Weheliye’s critique of Agamben which, the former claims, has little “to say about racism, colonialism, and the world beyond fortress Europe” (64), I argue that the novella critically engages with the concept of exception and calls attention to its limitations but simultaneously offers an alternative conception to what political action may look like during a moment of intense conflict. The novella scrutinizes bio(necro)political theory’s placement of death at the center of our political thought, emphasizing instead the inadequacy of the universalization of the concept of “life,” particularly outside its Eurowestern perimeters. Through Weheliye, my analysis further suggests that Betrothal in San Domingo establishes Toni as an active, sovereign subject who, through actions of friendship and love, poses a significant challenge to the systems of exception and its underlying violent potentialities.

Transgression of Race, Gender, and Class:

Subrata Chandra Mozumder — 2023-12-31

This paper aims to explore Mary Ann Shadd’s transgression of race, gender, and class boundaries by employing a close reading of the text, A Plea for Emigration. I will explore the triangular relationship between race, class, and gender seen in the text from intersectional feminist perspectives. My contention is that, through her activism by pen, especially in A Plea for Emigration, Shadd exposes the feminist voice that enables her to protest against racism, slavery, gender stratification, and marginalization based on class hierarchy. In other words, I claim that Shadd’s transgression of the borders of race, gender, and class lies in her activism and
ideology as a woman, black, and marginalized. This paper will, therefore, show that Mary Ann Shadd strongly transgresses the borders of race, gender, and class as the first black woman who owned and edited a newspaper, inspired American blacks towards freedom, confronted her contemporary male leaders, exposed the female gaze during a period of history when the male gaze was predominant and authoritative, became a public speaker making the world listen to her while working with the so-called socially aesthetic people despite being a “negro”.

Women and Madness in Game of Thrones:

Afsana Rahman — 2023-12-31

Historically, women do not appear to be escaping the determination to be insane either by adopting prescribed patterns of femininity or by opposing the attributions. No matter how strong or weak a woman is, in the end, there is always a possibility of the loss of the self that turns them into mad women. This paper examines why and how several female protagonists in Game of Thrones are depicted as insane and hysterical as over time their characters grow stronger. The analogous arrangement of madness and femininity blocks their access to the position of normality in this fictional world. Moreover, female abnormality is a clear form of female normality since, weak or strong, women like Daenerys, Sansa, Arya, or Cersei end up being labeled as insane or hysterical by the patriarchal normativity. In the fictional world of Westeros, madness and gender performative discourses form the framework of behavioral traits that lead its female protagonists towards madness. This paper will use gender theories and Butler’s performative acts to explain the attitudes of the writer as well as the creators of Game of Thrones towards female insanity and the reasons behind the depiction.

Precarity in the Capitalocene:

S.A.M. Raihanur Rahman — 2023-12-31

This paper, mapping the trajectory of migrant workers’ lives in Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island, locates precarity in the nexus of capitalism and climate change and identifies the latter as a new determinant of precarity. Heightened precariousness is generally perceived today as an effect of conflicts and wars. Contemporary South Asian novels mostly explore how caste, class, religion, gender, and sexuality condition the production of precariousness in today’s world. My paper looks into the production of a precarious subject seldom represented in contemporary South Asian Literature: climate refugees. Drawing upon Gun Island, I argue that climate refugees inform us about the necessity to expand our understanding of vulnerability so we are able to factor in those whose lives have been upended by the effects of anthropogenic climate change along with the dynamics of neoliberal capitalism.

Partition’s Shadow:

Debjani Sengupta — 2023-12-31

Assam’s Barak Valley is an example of how the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan left behind long-term conflicts and issues pertaining to identity, place, and belonging that have created turmoil in the geo-political space that we refer to as India’s Northeast. The transformation of this space from a frontier during colonial times to a borderland in 1947 is not only significant for the genealogy and configuration of states within the region but also because this understanding subverts common assumptions about 1947, particularly on issues of communal polarizations, the formation of the border as well as the participation of non-
political groups like the tribal populations who had very little stake in the playing out of the Radcliffe Line. Siddhartha Deb’s 2002 novel The Point of Return looks at some of these questions of identity and belonging that so plague the region. The novel is an exploration of the life journeys of Dr. Dam and his son Babu and their relationship to the geographical locations they come to inhabit. The spatial and temporal realities that came into being in the Northeastern region is charted through this text in the postcolonial state making practices that produce irreversible patterns of social and political chaos. Issues of ethnicity, language, and belonging that are contentious questions in this region are represented in this narrative as the continued precarity of people who had come to live here. This essay presents an analysis of the novel through the optics of history and literature, using tools from the Phenomenological analysis of Time by Paul Ricouer, to investigate how the interface of events and memory transform and complicate our understandings of a contentious divided past.

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Registers of the Street Hawkers in Dhaka

Tanvir Hassan Anik — 2023-12-31

This study examines the distinctness of registers shared as a part of communication by the street hawkers in Dhaka. The reasons for studying these registers are to investigate their different jargons, why they use them while selling their products, and what they mean through them. It also explores the effectiveness of their registers in their communication. By adopting the qualitative method, the researchers have interviewed 40 street hawkers, recorded their conversations and some distinctive vocabularies for over a month, and found some striking meaningful registers they share in this profession. The results show that they use these specific registers before the customers to make communication comfortable and smooth. They also share these jargons to hide the real meaning from customers, to make fun of them, to discourage their fellow hawkers from promptly selling a product, to get
rid of some particular customers, and sometimes even to cheat and provoke them. The findings of the study are discussed carefully to draw the attention of language users, planners, and policymakers. One of the important reasons for choosing the street hawkers was to concentrate on the professional language variation of an underprivileged community in Dhaka.

The Role of Temporal and Spectral Cues in Non-native Speech Production:

Md. Jahurul Islam — 2023-12-31

This study investigated the role of durational and spectral cues in second language tense and lax vowel contrasts produced by non-native speakers. To test previous claims that speakers primarily rely on durational cues over spectral cues to distinguish L2 tense and lax vowel pairs, citation style speech data were collected from 16 native speakers of Bangla; participants were all undergraduate students. The data were collected via a shadowing task where participants listened to a carefully constructed list of English words in random order and repeated each word immediately after they heard them. The utterances were recorded via a Zoom H1n voice recorder. Collected speech data were annotated and processed using the phonetic analysis software Praat and the semi-automatic annotation toolkit DARLA; statistical analyses were performed using R statistical computing software. Results indicate that Bangla speakers do not emphasize on durational cues to differentiate English tense-lax vowel pairs, contrary to the general patterns reported from other languages; rather, they prefer the spectral cues over the durational cues.

Peer Feedback in Developing Writing in Tertiary EFL/ESL Education:

Md. Nurullah Patwary — 2023-12-31

English language teachers and practitioners always look for effective methods to understand the strengths and weaknesses of students’ writing. One of the effective methods is collecting the comments of students through the process of peer feedback, which can provide critical views and constructive suggestions about the strengths students have and challenges they experience in their writing classes. Peer feedback has gathered growing interest among tertiary ELT practitioners and researchers over the last few decades. In this paper, peer-reviewed research articles published mainly in the last three decades have been studied critically with a view to exploring the benefits and challenges of the use of peer feedback in the tertiary EFL/ESL writing classroom. In order to have a clear picture of the benefits and challenges of the use of peer feedback in the tertiary EFL/ESL writing classroom, the results and implications of relevant scientific studies have been presented categorically. This study offers the concerned stakeholders valuable insights into the impacts of peer feedback on developing tertiary EFL/ESL students’ writing
abilities. Towards the end, some recommendations for further research have also been offered.

Identity Around Multilingualism:

Radia Al Rashid Radia Al Rashid — 2023-12-31

As no country houses people speaking solely one language in the present world, various studies regarding the use of multilingualism were done over the years not only in the field of empirical research but also in literary contexts. Code-switching has been the most researched phenomenon in literary language from a multilingual perspective. The debate between considering literary characters as real-life human beings or merely textual constructs has intensified over the years. Subsequently, a middle ground combining both humanizing and non-humanizing aspects of literary characters emerged. In this study, I analyze the use of multilingualism in a literary character’s portrayal by examining her linguistic identity through her behaviors involving language use and comprehension. Yolanda, the second daughter of the De La Torre family depicted in the novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, written by Julia Alvarez in 1991, is the target character for this study. Using a qualitative research approach, Yolanda’s character is analyzed by using the characterization model developed by Culpeper in 2001. Three textual cues, namely explicit, implicit, and authorial, are examined in the descriptions and language uses of Yolanda’s character. The outcomes of the study not only portray Julia Alvarez’s philosophy and attitude regarding multilingualism, but also show Yolanda’s unique traits, struggles, confusion, liminality, and linguistic position in the world of the novel.

Note to Contributors

2023-12-31

Crossings: A Journal of English Studies
Volume 14 | 2023 | ISSN 2071–1107 | E-ISSN 2958-3179