Teaching Guide for: ‘Chaucer’s gender‐oriented philosophy in The Canterbury Tales’
Literature Compass, Volume 21, Issue 4-6, April-June 2024.
Illusions of textuality: The semiotics of literary memes in contemporary media
Abstract
This article seeks to account for the phenomenon where cultural productions are able to transcend different chronotopes and masquerade in myriad forms while sustaining an illusion of itself as a text. Using the Barthian distinction between work and Text as its framework, the article argues that multimodal semiotics offers a theoretically viable perspective on the global circulation of cultural artifacts by way of the concepts of memes, distribution, resemiotization, and assemblage. The central argument is this: what we call a text in common parlance is in fact a node within a networked assemblage of individually constituted works loosely connected through a substrate recognizability of memes. Operating at the level of this network is the Barthian Text that is always in-progress and can never really be completed. The article concludes by proposing that with the imminence of Web 5.0 and in light of the ever-pervasive influence of artificial intelligence in cultural production, it is imperative that we adopt nonlinear thinking to understand the shifting semioscapes in digital space and their impact on contemporary textuality.
Issue Information
No abstract is available for this article.
Book review: Trina Nileena Banerjee, Performing Silence: Women in the Group Theatre Movement in Bengal
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
Trina Nileena Banerjee, Performing Silence: Women in the Group Theatre Movement in Bengal (Oxford University Press, 2021), 354 pp., ₹1795 (Hardbound). ISBN 978-0-19-012770-1.
Trina Nileena Banerjee, Performing Silence: Women in the Group Theatre Movement in Bengal (Oxford University Press, 2021), 354 pp., ₹1795 (Hardbound). ISBN 978-0-19-012770-1.
Book review: Norena Shopland, A History of Women in Mens’ Clothes: From Cross-Dressing to Empowerment
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
Norena Shopland, A History of Women in Mens’ Clothes: From Cross-Dressing to Empowerment. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2021, 344 pages, ₹1,679
Norena Shopland, A History of Women in Mens’ Clothes: From Cross-Dressing to Empowerment. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., 2021, 344 pages, ₹1,679
New Resources
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
The Precariat in Our Lives: Women Domestic Workers
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
Caring Hands, Fragile Health: Unravelling Women’s Occupational Health and Well-being in Domestic Work, Jagori, New Delhi, 2023.
Caring Hands, Fragile Health: Unravelling Women’s Occupational Health and Well-being in Domestic Work, Jagori, New Delhi, 2023.
Social Implications of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) on Women in India
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a technological innovation enabling infertile women to conceive through medical procedures. However, social inferences of IVF need to be contextualised within gender dynamics, especially in India. Though several studies have examined specific social aspects of IVF none have delineated the combination of determinants as well as implications of IVF for women. The present study assesses various social factors influencing choices for infertility treatments like IVF, and also the implications for women undergoing IVF. For a nuanced understanding of these conditions in the larger social context of India, 41 studies discussing important indices like gender dynamics, health status, power relations and social vulnerabilities of women experiencing IVF have been critically reviewed. Based on the review we contend that social pressures, gender identity, desire for a biological child, fear of marital discord and loss of self-esteem are most important factors determining such decisions.
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a technological innovation enabling infertile women to conceive through medical procedures. However, social inferences of IVF need to be contextualised within gender dynamics, especially in India. Though several studies have examined specific social aspects of IVF none have delineated the combination of determinants as well as implications of IVF for women. The present study assesses various social factors influencing choices for infertility treatments like IVF, and also the implications for women undergoing IVF. For a nuanced understanding of these conditions in the larger social context of India, 41 studies discussing important indices like gender dynamics, health status, power relations and social vulnerabilities of women experiencing IVF have been critically reviewed. Based on the review we contend that social pressures, gender identity, desire for a biological child, fear of marital discord and loss of self-esteem are most important factors determining such decisions.
Male and Female Brain Activity During the Screening of a Violent Movie: An EEG Study
Journal of Creative Communications, Ahead of Print.
Movies have the ability to trigger our emotions and affect us in powerful ways. But the impact is not the same among all the audience and, according to our results, also not between women and men. In this study, we used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to register the brain activity of a group of 30 students while they watched a violent scene. The results showed that both male and female groups activated the left temporal lobe. However, the female group also activated the left insula and orbitofrontal areas of both hemispheres. The results of Hotelling’s T-squared distribution also showed significant differences in occipital areas of the brain in favour of women. Thus, our findings evidence that the violent scene activated emotional areas in both male and female groups, but in women there was also an activation of brain areas related to shape and colour recognition and to cognitive processes.
Movies have the ability to trigger our emotions and affect us in powerful ways. But the impact is not the same among all the audience and, according to our results, also not between women and men. In this study, we used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to register the brain activity of a group of 30 students while they watched a violent scene. The results showed that both male and female groups activated the left temporal lobe. However, the female group also activated the left insula and orbitofrontal areas of both hemispheres. The results of Hotelling’s T-squared distribution also showed significant differences in occipital areas of the brain in favour of women. Thus, our findings evidence that the violent scene activated emotional areas in both male and female groups, but in women there was also an activation of brain areas related to shape and colour recognition and to cognitive processes.
Constructing Adolescent Sexuality Through Schooling: Analysis on Gender Socialisation in All-girls Schools at the Secondary Level in Kerala
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Ahead of Print.
This article seeks to understand the processes of gender socialisation in schools. The article endeavours to analyse the construction of normative femininity in the strict contours of schooling and to capture the response of students to it. The context of this article is the critique of the celebrated Kerala development model, suggesting that a better status for women continues to be a challenging process. The research was carried out on adolescents in two all-girls schools in Kerala, a convent private school and a government school. Qualitative research methods were used for the study. The research foregrounds how schooling continues to perpetuate the social control of girls that undercuts the efforts and aims of the curriculum. The article presents key aspects of the socialisation of female sexuality that spawns a stereotypical and rigid femininity.
This article seeks to understand the processes of gender socialisation in schools. The article endeavours to analyse the construction of normative femininity in the strict contours of schooling and to capture the response of students to it. The context of this article is the critique of the celebrated Kerala development model, suggesting that a better status for women continues to be a challenging process. The research was carried out on adolescents in two all-girls schools in Kerala, a convent private school and a government school. Qualitative research methods were used for the study. The research foregrounds how schooling continues to perpetuate the social control of girls that undercuts the efforts and aims of the curriculum. The article presents key aspects of the socialisation of female sexuality that spawns a stereotypical and rigid femininity.