The Objectifying Gaze: A Lacanian Reading of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees

Hadi, Nurfarah Hadira Abdul; Asl, Moussa Pourya

doi:10.17576/gema-2021-2101-01-04

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Connelly (2003) argues that even though grotesque has numerous meanings from one state of affairs to another state of affairs, these meanings are not mutually exclusive, and "their range of expression runs from the wondrous to the monstrous to the ridiculous" (p. 2). Grotesque can cross religion, culture, and class boundaries by showing and appealing to a mixture of spectators from different beliefs, social classes and areas of living (Hadi & Asl, 2021;Sumali & Asl, 2019). Even being rebellious, blasphemous, and not following the moral conduct, religious faith, and beliefs of one's own religion can be considered as grotesque.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grotesque, Shadow and Individuation: A Jungian Reading of Selected Short Stories by Tunku Halim and Edgar Allan Poe

Asl¹,

Ramli²

2021

JSSH

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In examining Malaysian literature in light of the global canon, one cannot miss the numerous parallelisms between literary works by Tunku Halim bin Tunku Abdullah and Edgar Allan Poe. Both writers are preoccupied with grotesque realities of mentally deranged individuals, and similarly visualize the darkness and animality of human consciousness. This article aims at conducting a comparative analysis of the dynamics of personality and of the psyche of fictional characters in selected short stories by the two writers. To this end, the study draws upon Jung’s notions of the Shadow and the Individuation to explore the key psychological motives behind the characters’ behaviour patterns, as well as to examine their level of subjectivity and agency in harnessing the same motives. Notwithstanding the seemingly different ways of presenting the narrative patterns of the characters’ journey towards Individuation, the selected stories are marked with similar examples of characters’ failures in the process of self-realization. While some characters remain trapped in the obscure and perplexing world of the Shadow, others achieve a minimal level of maturity as they begin to realize their own being. In the case of Halim’s stories, however, the characters are additionally held back by cultural and structural forces that constantly affect their realities. It is concluded that this particular difference accounts for Halim’s uniquely hybrid style of writing that merges Western horror genre with more local folklore.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grotesque, Shadow and Individuation: A Jungian Reading of Selected Short Stories by Tunku Halim and Edgar Allan Poe

Asl¹,

Ramli²

2021

JSSH

Self Cite

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Decolonized Trauma: Narrative, Memory and Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Pourgharib

Asl

Esmaili

2023

Arcadia

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Even though literary works serve as excellent media for bearing witness to trauma, postcolonial and diasporic literary texts are often dismissed for their falsified accounts of traumatic life experiences. Recent studies on African American literature have stressed the need for a decolonized conceptualization of trauma that would not only disrupt the long-existing white Global Northern perspectives but also recognize feelings of empathy and solidarity among members of the community in these literary corpora. The present study adopts a hybrid analytical framework to examine the representations of trauma in the Nigerian American writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013). Specifically, we draw upon Gérard Genette’s narrative levels, Ron Eyerman’s collective memory, and Jeffrey Charles Alexander’s collective identity to argue that the novel defies conventional forms of narrative by depicting postcolonial and diasporic identities as volatile and dynamic constructs. The findings indicate the multiple ways in which the story presents diasporic Africans – that is, the female protagonist Ifemelu and her male lover Obinze – as capable of overcoming the adverse effects of traumatic memories by chronicling an authentic record of their experiences. The study also reveals that the leading female character, like the novelist Adichie, creates an empowering platform for migrants of various ethnicities to speak up about their traumatic experiences, and thereby establish what is called ‘cross-cultural solidarity’ in reconstructing a new community.

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Gender and Sexual Identity in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Cixousian Analysis of Hijra’s Resistance and Remaking of the Self

Anuar

Asl

2021

JSSH

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Hijra is a distinctive South Asia known for their gender and sexual difference and associated with their transgender and intersex identities. Otherwise known as transwomen, they are traditionally subjected to prejudices and embedded within narratives of exclusion, discrimination, and the subculture. As a result, Hijras are typically perceived as isolated, abject, and passive victims who remain social and economic peripheries. Concerning the stereotypical image of hijras, this study explores Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happinessecriture féminine, this study examines characters’ contestations and alterations of existing definitions of sex and gender. This framework allows for a manifestation of gender flexibility and feminine writing as a tool for self-emancipation. Both protagonists Anjum and Tilo, illustrate that hijras are not predetermined but are formulated in a complex process of a conscious rewriting of the self. While the former character resists heteropatriarchal normativity through her conscious alterations of the phallogocentric structure of her Urdu language, the latter defies societal conventions of family and marriage with unorthodox views and actions that are materialized in the writing of her story.

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The Objectifying Gaze: A Lacanian Reading of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Grotesque, Shadow and Individuation: A Jungian Reading of Selected Short Stories by Tunku Halim and Edgar Allan Poe

Grotesque, Shadow and Individuation: A Jungian Reading of Selected Short Stories by Tunku Halim and Edgar Allan Poe

Decolonized Trauma: Narrative, Memory and Identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah

Gender and Sexual Identity in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Cixousian Analysis of Hijra’s Resistance and Remaking of the Self

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