River Of Fire Research Articles

History Reincarnate: George Eliot and Qurratulain Hyder

Abstract: This essay sets aside George Eliot's preoccupation with incarnation, a principle extrapolated from the New Testament, and instead identifies in her work a parallel discourse of reincarnation: the reentry into flesh, the successive rebirth and reembodiment of a preexisting spiritual entity in new forms. Drawing on Victorian understandings of Buddhism and Hinduism, I trace Eliot's interest in forms of ensouled embodiment that take shape in multiple iterations over time. Inspired by calls to reimagine the geographical and chronological boundaries of Victorian studies, I additionally pair Middlemarch (1871–72) with Qurratulain Hyder's River of Fire (English trans. 1998), a twentieth-century Urdu novel which makes reincarnation a central narrative principle. In doing so, I examine how both authors employ a reincarnational aesthetic to theorize the place of the individual in history and even the nature of history itself.

River of fire and ice: infrastructure, territoriality, and the colonization of eastern Hokkaido, Japan, 1600s–1900s

River of fire and ice: infrastructure, territoriality, and the colonization of eastern Hokkaido, Japan, 1600s–1900s

Imagined Buddhisms and the Limits of Female Liberation in Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire

This study considers how Urdu Indian writer, Qurratulain Hyder historicizes the role of Buddhism in her magnum opus, River of Fire. Previous studies have approached the question of religion in River of Fire in relation to the radical nationalisms of Hinduism and Islam. Meanwhile, Buddhism—a religious philosophy often perceived as innocuous in the polemics of Partition—has received only a passing nod. This study demonstrates that Hyder’s imagination of Buddhism from the perspective of female domesticity, unravels a more complicated religious and literary legacy than what was generally understood among her contemporary intelligentsia. In the opening chapters of the novel, Hyder draws on classical Buddhist literatures such as the Therīgāthā, to challenge romanticized imaginations of Buddhism. This article teases out this intertextuality between the novel and the Buddhist canon as a moment that foregrounds the implications of liberation for generations of women silenced by hegemonic religious and national histories. Drawing on Saba Mahmood’s Politics of Piety, I argue that Hyder explores alternative conceptions of feminine self-realization and liberation which interrogate not only traditional monastic notions of freedom and liberation but also feminist and Buddhist discourses of equality in the nation.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PAST IN THE WORKS OF QURRATULAIN HYDER

Writers have always had a fascination for history and employ historical aspects in their works as well, knowingly or unknowingly. They attempt to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of their time. And Qurratulain Hyder is not an exception. The majority of her works deal with India and its history. All of Qurratulain Hyder's wonderful works addressed a collection of experiences with a small amount of heartfelt substance. She takes the content from the past and uses it in her novels with imaginative reconstruction. The present paper deals with the reconstruction of the past reflected in Qurratulain Hyder’s well-known works like River of Fire, Fireflies in the Mist, and My Temples too. This is a qualitative research work based on the content and textual analysis of selected novels of Hyder. The aim is to enquire into the ways how Hyder has incorporated the process by which she reconstructed or recreated history in her novels.

Last Judgment in iconography.Case studies

The present study proposes a research on the iconography of the Last Judgment, starting from the 5th and 6th centuries up to the 14th century, when the compositional structure had already been established. These early scenes correspond to a symbolic vision whose character and perspective are both eschatological. The theological elements set forth demonstrate the fact that the iconographic scenes have a biblical foundation that is both necessary and included in their thematic typology. We have analyzed case studies both from Eastern Europe and from the West; they testify to the fact that certain iconographic details had been embraced until a complex compositional structure was shaped. The proposed examples have been executed in different techniques, throughout different eras, and across different geographical areas. Among these techniques, we note mosaics, bas-reliefs, frescoes, illustrated manuscripts, and icons. Our case studies include the miniature from Paris and the one from the British Library in London, as well as the mosaic from Torcello and the icon from Sinai. The depictions of the Judgment contain significant scenes and registries, such as: Jesus in the Almond Tree, the scene of the Deisis and the Twelve Apostles, the throne of Etimasia, the river of fire, the righteous and the sinners, Heaven and Hell, as well as the weighing of souls.

Antonio Panaino. The “River of Fire” and the “River of Molten Metal”. A historico-theological rafting through the rapids of the Christian and Mazdean apokatastatic falls

Antonio Panaino. The “River of Fire” and the “River of Molten Metal”. A historico-theological rafting through the rapids of the Christian and Mazdean apokatastatic falls

On Mitigating Islamophobia

On Mitigating Islamophobia

'Becoming' and 'Belonging': The Ambivalent Space of Hybrid Identity in Qurratulain Hyder's River of Fire

This research paper explores the role of ambivalent space of hybrid identity and the 'longing' and 'belonging' in the lives of major characters of River of Fire by Qurratulain Hyder to attain a positive vision towards life. In addition, the research tends to perceive the ways by which major characters in the different eras get insight to bridge the 'longing' and 'belonging' by standing in a liminal place.Thus, the study explores the role of subjective liminality in a person's life that induces a new perceptive socio cultural vision in the lives of Hyder's characters. This research uses postcolonial theory as a lens to examine the circumstances that compel the characters towards slip page without regarding their social status and hierarchy. Furthermore, according to Homi k. Bhabha, the term ‘belonging’ represents the cultural history of a nation that always remains in flux because of the ‘longing’ or desires of its individuals of sharing their objectives with other nations in new places to make harmony with new people and circumstances. River of Fire tends to combine a syn chronic and diachronic approach to show that cultural hybridity always orientates the social, economic, and cultural tenets of the characters idiosyncratic ambivalence

The Discursive Resistance to the British Imperialism: Writing Back the Colonial Discourse of Violence in Hyder's River of Fire

This paper analyses the discursive representation of the Indian natives' resistance to British imperialism in Hyder's River of Fire. The violent resistance to British Empire by Indian natives has been termed as 'mutiny' by imperial discourses whereas postcolonial discourses term it the heroic 'war of independence'. In the backdrop of postcolonial theory and the concept of counter discourse, the discursivere presentation of violent resistance to British Imperialism is highlighted. Hyder has portrayed the events of 1857as a heroic response of vibrant culture to the cunning rulers of the British Empire.

Dislocation and Exile: A Critical Study of River of Fire by Quart ul ain Haidar

Dislocation and Exile: A Critical Study of River of Fire by Quart ul ain Haidar

Cultural and Historical succession of India from Vedic Period to Post Partition: River of Fire

Cultural and Historical succession of India from Vedic Period to Post Partition: River of Fire

River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey by Sister Helen Prejean

Reviewed by: River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey by Sister Helen Prejean Nancy Small River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey. By Sister Helen Prejean . New York: Random House, 2019. 289 pp. $27.00. River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey . By Sister Helen Prejean. New York: Random House, 2019. 289 pp. $27.00. Sister Helen Prejean is well-known for her bestselling book Dead Man Walking and her work to abolish the death penalty. So it may come as a surprise to learn that she once believed it was enough to pray to God to right the world's wrongs. Following Jesus included doing works of charity, she believed, but had nothing to do with working for social change. River of Fire illumines the twists and turns of the spiritual journey that shaped her for the work that has become her life's passion. This beautiful spiritual memoir is alive with the youthful energy of spiritual discovery and awash in the wisdom of a seventy-nine-year-old sharing lessons learned along the way. The story begins when eighteen-year-old Helen bursts through the convent doors of the Congregation of St. Joseph and announces that she has arrived. She writes with humor and honesty about the austere years of novitiate. Yet here she was steeped in the "mystical tradition [End Page 83] that taught me to stay alert to God's mysterious presence in my own heart and the world" (118). This book sheds light on the life of a nun coming of age when the church was in a major state of change. Her writing conveys the seismic impact of Vatican II and captures the spirit of a church riding a tidal wave of transformation, convinced that God was the wind filling its sails. Readers will be enriched by her understanding of how monumental the Council was for those living its changes and sisters like her who educated the laity about them. She offers valuable insights into how Vatican II changed the church's understanding of authority, morality, its place in the world, and the people of God. Woven into River of Fire is a powerful story about a heart trying to be true to God while being pulled by love in different directions. Love's power and pitfalls come to light through stories of sisters who drove her crazy, the blossoming of a lifelong spiritual friendship with a beloved sister, and an intimate relationship with a priest that tugs at her heart even as she finds herself falling more deeply in love with God and religious life. A particularly poignant story highlights a graced time when Sister Helen realizes the truth of her calling in the context of God's all-encompassing love for her. As she unpacks this experience with a trusted friend, she sees clearly what she must do to embrace the truth of God's call in her life. Her story reveals love's power to draw us more deeply into authentic relationship or pull us further away. River of Fire will speak to spiritual seekers, those discerning their call in life and all who long to live with purpose and passion. It offers spiritual wisdom gleaned from a life devoted to a deeper understanding of and relationship with God. Sister Helen heard the words that stirred her soul toward social justice at a community retreat. The candid comments of her sisters helped her recognize what she needed to do once she was awakened. They challenged and supported her, reminding the reader of the power of spiritual community and trusted friends in discerning God's voice. [End Page 84] It took years for Sister Helen to awaken to the call to work for social justice. She accomplished much in education and spiritual formation during those years. Still, there was a chapter of life that could not be written until she was ready to embrace new ways of thinking and living. Her story emphasizes how important time and watering seeds of change can be in the process of spiritual growth. It also shows how our beliefs about the right way to serve God can change in ways we might never imagine. Sister Helen speaks about the...

ПАДЕНИЕ ДЕМОНОВ: ВАРИАЦИИ МОТИВА В СРЕДНЕВЕКОВОЙ РУССКОЙ КНИЖНОСТИ И ИКОНОГРАФИИ

This paper dwells upon the fall of the demons from heaven in Russian iconography. It covers the key concepts concerning the origin of the demons transmitted in medieval Russian booklore and their visualization in icons, fresco paintings and miniature paintings. The most important visual themes reflecting the idea of the angels’ transformation into demons as an outcome of a battle in heaven are as follows: a defeat from the heavenly host / Archangel Michael, falling into a river of fire, falling down to the Earth, etc. Russian iconography of the Final Judgement, finally emerging by the second half of the 15th century, came to be the visual compilation of these motifs. In Judgement scenes, demons are playing a wide spectrum of roles: losing the battle in heavens and falling down to the Earth in the beginning of times, fighting for human souls (waiting for the souls at the stations of ordeal, adding scrolls of a soul’s sins to the scale of righteousness, pursuing the angels that carry saved souls away and pushing the condemned into the hellfire), tormenting the sinners in various segments of hell and, finally, being themselves the eternal prisoners of the pit of hell. In the 17th century all these motifs, including that of the angels’ fall from heaven, will be elaborated upon in illuminated collections.

“Postscript: 1976”: E. P. Thompson and the River of Fire

This new section ofVictorian Literature and Culturefocuses on apparently minor works of criticism, works that have fallen out of view but that might deserve another look. I want to talk about an almost aggressively minor instance of very Victorian scholarship, minor not only because it isn't often read but also because minorness is built into its very design: E. P. Thompson's “Postscript: 1976,” a longish essay that followed the second and revised edition of his 1955 biography,William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. When seen in the reciprocal contexts of Thompson's career and the story of the British left (when, in other words, theory is seen not as opposed to but rather as a part of history), the apparently minor and belated qualities of Thompson's postscript emerge as a source of critical and even utopian promise. I want to argue that Thompson's lifelong engagement with the life of William Morris and with Morris's late conversion to socialism led him to a powerful and counterintuitive account of the lived threshold (what he and Morris call the “river of fire”) as essential to the methods of history and historical materialism.

Feminist Discourses and Multiple Identities: A Postcolonial Representation of Woman in Hyder's River of Fire

This research paper foregrounds the postcolonial representation of women in Hyder's River of Fire. The novel covers a large span of history. In the entire novel, the female writer presents a lot of women in the backdrop of socio-political and historical backdrop. The western totalizing and Universalist discourses of feminism do not explain well the scope of representation of women in this novel. Even third-world feminism does not suffice here. The research shows that the novelist consciously writes back the colonial and postcolonial feminist representation of women. The analysis highlights that the question of marginalization and subjugation must be seen with multiple factors such as history, society, culture and class. The novel presents multiple identities of women in the historical flux of more than two thousand years.

Crossing the River of Fire: The Liberal Attack on Naomi Klein and This Changes Everything

Naomi Klein’s new book, This Changes Everything [argues that the source of the looming crisis from climate change] is not the planet, which operates according to natural laws, but rather the economic and social system in which we live, which treats natural limits as mere barriers to surmount. It is now doing so on a planetary scale, destroying in the process the earth as a place of human habitation.… In the age of climate change, Klein argues, a system based on ever-expanding capital accumulation and exponential economic growth is no longer compatible with human well-being and progress—or even with human survival over the long run.… In this way Klein…signals that she has now, in William Morris’s famous metaphor, crossed “the river of fire” to become a critic of capital as a system.… [This] has led to a host of liberal attacks on This Changes Everything, often couched as criticisms emanating from the left. These establishment criticisms of her work, we will demonstrate, are disingenuous, having little to do with serious confrontation with her analysis. Rather, their primary purpose is to rein in her ideas, bringing them into conformity with received opinion. If that should prove impossible, the next step is to exclude her ideas from the conversation.

The Logics of the Impulse of Oh Jeong-hee's novels - Focused on The River of Fire, The Bank of Fog, and The Game of Evening -

The Logics of the Impulse of Oh Jeong-hee's novels - Focused on The River of Fire, The Bank of Fog, and The Game of Evening -

River of Fire and Other Stories. By O Chŏng-hŭi. Translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 224 pp. $27.50 (cloth).

River of Fire and Other Stories. By O Chŏng-hŭi. Translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 224 pp. $27.50 (cloth).

RECONSTRUCTING THE CONTESTED PAST

Qurratulain Hyder's River of Fire (originally ‘Aag Ka Darya’) is an astounding work spanning over 2,500 years of Indian history through a plethora of multifarious characters. While the work has been hailed as one of the best novels not only in Urdu but also in the entire gamut of South Asian literature, surprisingly it has received very minimal critical attention. However, it generated controversy in Pakistan for its highlighting of the composite Indo-Muslim culture of pre-Partition India, which was not in sync with the ideologies of theocratic nationalism. In this essay I look at the various methods Hyder uses to construct a synthesized past based on an alternative historiography that can be read as challenging the narratives of fragmentation not only in the discourse of Partition but also in the 1990s upsurge of anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement for a pure Hindu India. The novel has immense pertinence in the context of modern India in its potential to challenge the sectarian hindutva discourses in India and the rhetoric of a separatist history through the tropes of alternative political history, cultural synthesis and subaltern pasts.

The pattern of oppressed metropolitan life which appears in The River of Fire of Jung-Hee Oh

The pattern of oppressed metropolitan life which appears in The River of Fire of Jung-Hee Oh