Paddaja Roy
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2226-9645
Ratnapith College, Assam, India
Jayashree Haloi
https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6191-1228
Bodoland University, Assam, India
Kalyani Rava Devi
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1984-5681
Bodoland University, Assam, India
The present issue (vol. 5, no. 2) of the transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies is a collection of five research articles and a book review. In the opening article, Dr. Rijumoni Gogoi and Sangjukta Dutta analyse Toni Morrison’s Beloved under the framework of Blue Humanities, framing the water body as an active agent and “blue archive” of diasporic trauma. By exploring “wet ontologies,” they demonstrate how aquatic imagery such as oceans, rivers, and bodily fluids, mediates memory, resistance, and rebirth, thereby challenging terrestrial-centric and colonial narratives. In the next article, Mridusmita Boro analyses the fragile survival of human culture in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man as a foundational secular post-apocalyptic text. The study highlights how the novel uses the imagery of plague to mirror social and political disintegration, thus anticipating modern pandemic challenges like disinformation and inequality. Patricia Mary Hodge, in the next article, analyses Octavia Butler’s Parable series, focusing on Lauren Olamina’s creation of Earthseed. The text critiques patriarchal religious authority and re-imagines God as a genderless force of “Change” thus framing Earthseed as a human-centric survival philosophy for a collapsing world. In the next article, Dr. Sharma analyses A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry and The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga through Gramscian, Althusserian, and Foucauldian lenses. The sources examine how India’s elite maintain dominance via hegemonic power and ideology. The article underscores that these novels act as counter-discourses, giving voice to subaltern resistance against systemic oppression. Dr. Rimi Nath in her article analyses Amitav Ghosh’s The Living Mountain, framing the climate crisis as a consequence of capitalist greed and colonial exploitation. The source emphasizes the importance of indigenous wisdom and storytelling in reclaiming planetary reverence and resisting the destructive myth of human-centric progress. In the next article, Dr. Jasmine Choudhury reviews Space Feminisms: People, Planets, Power. Biotechne: Interthinking Art, Science and Design as an anthology that challenges the myth of space as a neutral frontier. The text examines how terrestrial systems of inequality viz. gender, race, and class get reproduced in orbit. The article employs an interdisciplinary lens to advocates for a radical, inclusive re-imagining of extraterrestrial futures.
Bio-notes
Paddaja Roy is an Assistant Professor of English at Ratnapith College, Assam, India. She is also a Research Scholar in the Department of English, Bodoland University, Assam, India. Her area of interest includes Northeast Writings, Translation Studies, Media Studies, Indian Writing in English, Creative Writing and Oral Literatures. She is an avid reader and has also worked as content curator for Amenta Publications. She can be reached at paddajaroy@gmail.com. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2226-9645/
Jayashree Haloi is a Research Scholar at the Department of English, Bodoland University, Assam, India. Her area of interest includes Environmental Humanities, Northeast Fiction. She can be reached at haloijayashree99@gmail.com
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6191-1228/
Kalyani Rava Devi has completed her M.A. in English Literature from Bodoland University and is currently a doctoral research scholar in the Department of English at Bodoland University. Her research interests include Trauma Studies, South Asian Literatures, and Women Studies. She can be reached at kalyanirabha36@gmail.com.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1984-5681/
Open Access:
This article is distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission.
For more information log on to https://thetranscript.in/
Conflict of Interest Declaration:
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest about the research, authorship, and publication of this article.
© Author