Feeling of love in Batticaloa folk songs

Literatures have been studied orally before taking written form. History makes it clear that such songs were written during the Sanskrit period. These oral literatures shed light on the life and history of a country and its flaws and serve as a mirror that reveals the cultures, customs, and ancient thoughts of the people. Although the study of folk songs on the world stage has been in vogue for a long time, it came into practice in Tamil Nadu in the 19th century and then came into the study. However, it has not been advanced as a separate discipline in the University of Sri Lanka to date. Instead, the study of folk songs is being carried out in collaboration with the Tamil Department.In the case of Batticaloa Tamil Nadu, the close connection between India and Sri Lanka due to migration, migration and migration from ancient times can be seen from the identification of Tamils as the first and last king of Sri Lanka.Therefore, it is possible to realize that folk songs are widespread among the people of Batticaloa as there was not only Tamil Nadu connection but also Indian national connection. The songs are arranged in the form of Ritual, Rain and Famine, Lullaby, Game, love, Marriage, Family, Community, Relationship and Career, Obpari, Swing, Satire, Mother Songs.These songs explore love songs, present the feeling of love found in them, show how they fit in with the general characteristics found in the literature of Sangala Agathi and reveal aspects of the Batticaloa socio-cultural hierarchy. The gist of the song is not to give a direct meaning, but to explain its essence. They are classified as motherly songs, Fatherly songs, Leader songs, Leader songs, Friend songs, and General songs.

Chinese and Taiwanese Identities in Taiwan as Epistemic Challengers

This paper deals with two theoretical dilemmas concerning Chinese and Taiwanese identities in Taiwan: their vague classification and the unclear dynamics of change. By using grounded theory to analyse 110 in-depth interviews, the research identifies three crucial themes behind individuals’ conceptualisations and interactions with the two identities: (1) ethical narrative, (2) cultural hierarchy, and (3) political ideology. Further theoretical comparisons generate a new epistemic framework which understands identity as a discourse of value: identity in its essence is merely a generic idea; only when associated with other discourses of value can an identity acquire full functions such as arousing people’s sentiments and mobilising them to take actions. The theory suggests that Chinese and Taiwanese identities should be regarded as unique generic concepts attached with distinctive values. People seek identity change upon becoming aware that the original identity can no longer represent the values they have dearly cherished and followed.

The Music Cities Paradigm

Because music cities are fast becoming economically important urban spaces for neoliberal capitalism, this chapter draws a map of this emerging field of research. Using thematic analysis, it offers an overview of the current debates connected with the development of music cities, focusing on two key issues, definitional problems, and the music city branding process. Building on these issues, the chapter examines a set of algorithms used to describe the development of neoliberal music cities, based on economics, the creative cities index, and heritage. In case studies of the size, scope, and significance of London, New York City, and Los Angeles, it uses algorithms to unpack the branding of these neoliberal cities as music city superstars. Uncovering a global music ecosystem based on a three-tiered cultural hierarchy of authority, where the city on the highest tier has the most power and influence in the global music industry, it notes that London is highest in the hierarchy because it is seen as the music business capital of the world. Representing the digital music and music consumption capitals of the world, New York City is second in the hierarchy, and Los Angeles, viewed as the entertainment capital, is third. The chapter concludes by offering a summary of what the study of global music cities might look like in the future.

Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish press

In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from literary criticism – all in service of pre-established cultural hierarchy and “good taste”. This article also highlights the ubiquity of American quality serial television across the Swedish television landscape, which suggests that such programmes represent both a niche product and a mass phenomenon with extensive reach and multidimensional appeal.

LAYERS OF DISCOURSE AND GENDER RELATION IN KHALED HOSSEINI'S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Purpose of the study: The research explores the gender relation and coercion on the marginalized section—women primarily due to socialized stereotypes in Hosseini's bestselling A Thousand Splendid Suns. The paper deciphers discrimination among the Muslim society of Afghanistan. It leads to how the filial and societal norms, which women are expected to upkeep, gradually develop revulsion and motivation for resilience to bring peace in filial relations. Methodology: In the context of postcolonial and feminist literary debates, this research is framed by Discourse Analysis of Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, Karl Marx, and Foucauldian theories on 'Othering,' alienation, and power relation. Main Findings: It is found that the inflexible gendered roles in conventional Afghan society instigate the oppressed to cultivate insolence against cultural hierarchy. The female characters, three generations apart, an embodiment of Afghan women, show resilience against the discourses. Women, being more prone to being triply marginalized in the regimes of phallocentric norms—Taliban dictatorship, and western ideologies of Soviet and American government. Applications of this study: The novel is chosen to discuss this problem as it demonstrates Afghan women's conflicts through the heart-rendering portrayal of their positions and roles in the community. The protagonists develop a sisterhood to raise voice against the cultural institutions to seek peace in filial relations. Novelty/Originality of this study: The novel is thoroughly examined under discourse related to gender relations and under feministic criticism, which is far apart when we talk about the women in third world countries. They try to gain their space and share not by keeping themselves in the centre similar to Eurocentric feminism; rather, they are more concerned with filial welfare instead of the 'self.'

Rethinking Romantic Comedy through the Art Film: Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

In this chapter, Rafaele Ariano examines Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2014) as a hybrid of the art film and the romantic comedy. Ariano conceptualizes the “art romantic comedy” as a sub-genre that targets audiences that would typically reject the romantic comedy based upon conventions of taste and cultural hierarchy. The chapter places Gondry in a cohort of contemporary auteurs, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Sofia Coppola and Alexander Payne, whose romantic comedies are characterized by qualities drawn from art and indie cinema. These characteristics include the expressive use of film style and implementation of metafictional devices, complex “sensitive” protagonists, and endings that are ambiguous and thus only partially “happy.” Ariano applies this genre framework to an analysis of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but also places the film within wider trends in the genre of romantic comedy.

The Cultural Diversity of Text Selection in Dutch Literary Education: An Analysis of Reading Tips, Teaching Packs, and Student Choices

The cultural diversity of secondary literary education is often analyzed by examining teachers’ text selections. This article broadens this scope by exploring the cultural diversity of text selections in an educational system in which students have much autonomy to choose literary texts themselves. Using Dutch literary education as a case study, the article considers text selections from the perspective of both teachers, teaching packs and student choices. Specifically, three dimensions of diversity in text selection are analyzed: gender, ethnicity, and national diversity (Netherlands versus Flanders).Focusing on (1) reading tips given by teachers to students, (2) contents of frequently used teaching packs, and (3) book selections by students in upper-secondary education, the analysis reveals that Dutch literary education has much to gain in terms of diversity. Female and non-western authors are underrepresented, while Flemish authors are considerably less represented than Dutch authors. Almost without exception, this imbalance between male and female, western and non-western, increased when the number of unique authors in text selections was compared with the total number of selections of specific authors. Hence, the article argues that the cultural hierarchy in which ‘literature’ is automatically associated with male, western authors is very present in literary education.

CONSTRUCTING ETHNIC IDENTITY IN RAJANIKANTA BARDOLOI’S MIRI JIYORI: A (POST) COLONIAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEXT

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to understand the concept of ethnic Identity projected in the early novels of Assamese literature. This study also investigates a colonial narrative in the text and tries to understand the present scenario highlighting the past. Methodology: It is a descriptive analysis based on qualitative method research. Focusing on the concept of ethnic Identity the research has been done under the discourse of postcolonial literary theory. The data and speculation are drawn from the secondary sources. Any kind of technical software has not been used in carrying out the research. Main Findings: The research brings out to the forefront that even in the colonial period; the native writers seem to be conscious about their own culture and the society. They were aware of the marginal boundary created by hegemonic colonial products. The writers raise the question of constructing ‘self’ and ‘other’ and a developing sense of cultural hierarchy. Applications of this study: This study would help to locate the space of marginalised society in that colonial construction and help the researchers to understand the gap between the early Assamese literatures of the colonial period. Moreover, the study also finds out the awareness of the writers even in the colonial rule about the peripheral boundary and ethnic Identity of a multiethnic/multilingual society. Novelty/Originality of this study: It is certain that Assamese novels have been studied under various theoretical frameworks, but as we are concerned this theme has not been discussed yet for this particular novel. The presentation of the colonial past in the text is the originality of this research.