Themes Of Alienation Research Articles

ALIENATION, DIASPORA, AND GLOBALIZATION: REFLECTIONS IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION OF ANURAG MATHUR, ARUNDHATI ROY, AND MANJU KAPUR

In an era marked by unprecedented connectivity, the themes of alienation, diaspora, and globalization have become central to contemporary literature, especially in the works of Indian authors like Anurag Mathur, Arundhati Roy, and Manju Kapur. Their novels resonate with readers worldwide, portraying the impact of globalization on individual identities, familial ties, and societal norms. This paper explores how these authors portray the psychological, social, and cultural repercussions of globalization, displacement, and alienation, particularly through the lens of their protagonists. Focusing on Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans, Roy’s The God of Small Things, and Kapur’s Difficult Daughters and Home, this paper critically examines how these narratives offer nuanced perspectives on the Indian diaspora, the sense of alienation in a postcolonial context, and the impact of modernity on traditional values. Through an exploration of their unique approaches, this study sheds light on how these works reflect the challenges and transformations of contemporary India within a globalized world.

现代人的生存困境——弗洛姆异化理论下《疯癫亚当三部曲》中的异化主题探究

Margaret Atwood is one of the most influential and prolific female writers in contemporary Canada and she is also known as the “Queen of Canadian Literature”. Her works involve gender, ethnicity, ecology, politics and other fields, and constantly reflect on human survival through revealing the nature of society. In The MaddAddam Trilogy, Atwood explores the plight faced by modern people by analyzing the alienated relations between the protagonists and themselves, others and society, and embodies Atwood’s humanistic concern. Therefore, based on Fromm’s theory of alienation, this paper interprets the theme of alienation in the trilogy, discusses its causes and solutions, in order to solve the dilemma of modern people’s existence and promote the healthy development of their personality.

Alienation in Don Delillo's "Cosmopolis"

Don DeLillo's novel "Cosmopolis" explores the theme of alienation in the contemporary urban landscape, delving into the psyche of its protagonist, Eric Packer. This paper aims to analyze the various dimensions of alienation portrayed in the novel, examining the societal, existential, and technological factors contributing to Packer's sense of detachment from the world around him. By closely reading key passages and exploring relevant literary and sociological theories, this paper sheds light on the profound implications of alienation within the context of "Cosmopolis."

Alienating Hamlet

Abstract The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

“There was much new to grok”: an analysis of word coinage in science fiction literature

Abstract As can be witnessed in projects such as The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction (Prucher, Jeff. 2007. Brave new words: The Oxford dictionary of science fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press), science fiction has been fertile ground for the creation of new words and concepts. Whereas the aforementioned dictionary was constructed by eliciting examples and citations from volunteers, this paper presents an initial foray into data-driven methods for uncovering lexis unique to science fiction. Words unique to science fiction texts are extracted by comparing a science fiction corpus against the British National Corpus (BNC Consortium. 2007. The British National Corpus, XML edition. Oxford Text Archive. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12024/2554 (accessed 29 June 2022)) to produce a list of 306 neologisms from 74 texts. In addition, this study seeks to examine the ways in which authors impart the meaning of such words to the reader, drawing on frameworks of semantic word relations and work in cognitive linguistics. This reveals the use of definitions and glosses by the authors, both in narration and direct speech, co-occurrence with synonyms, and the drip-feeding of attributes pertaining to the concept being referenced. In addition, characters can be shown to struggle with the concepts to which neologisms refer, allowing authors to explore themes of alienation and other-worldliness.

Eating and cooking beyond the borders in Elif Shafak’s The Saint of Incipient Insanities

ABSTRACT In her novel The Saint of Incipient Insanities (2004), Elif Shafak explores the theme of alienation by portraying a group of individuals who live in the U.S. and struggle to adapt to the American lifestyle. This article focuses on Alegre, a Mexican-American girl with bulimia. Surrounded by her Chicana aunts and foreign friends, Alegre is forced to adopt American culture, yet she is also asked not to sever her ties with her Mexican roots. I argue that Alegre's relationship with food mirrors her connection to the American and Mexican cultures: by gorging and disgorging herself with food, she challenges the frontiers that separate cultural identities and the borders that divide the inside and the outside of the self. Alegre considers the kitchen her native soil as it provides her with the space to challenge the boundaries of her own body and identity. The food she cooks there brings different identities together over one meal, where they realise they have much more in common than they expected. Thus, she creates an environment for others to find a chance to question the boundaries that restrict their identities.

The Immigrant Critic as a Writer: Spirituality in Mikhail Nu’ayma’s Ayoub (1967)

In the early twentieth century, many Arab American writers who were recent immigrants to the United States considered themselves pioneers with a global vision. Many of them were suffering from feelings of alienation because they came from poor backgrounds and escaped to find that capitalism governs everyday living. Therefore, the main interest of the leading writers was promoting more spirituality in their literary works, especially by those who were writing primarily in Arabic. Nu'ayma who wrote in Arabic wanted to emphasize the importance of following a spiritual path in life in modern-day living in his play Ayoub. As a writer and a critic, Nu’ayma believed in the mystical aspects of literature, the power of language, and the importance of literary works in imparting spirituality in society. Living in the United States, he knew many Arab American, Russian, and American critics and writers with whom he shared literary interests and critical thoughts. In Nu’ayma’s book The Ghirbal, he put forth critical ideas that he believed should govern literary composition. His mystical play, Ayoub (1967), was constructed as a literary model that illustrated the importance of rejuvenation in the Arabic language, the significance of mysticism in drama, and the role of literature in transforming society. The following paper traces Mikhail Nu’ayma’s critical views in his play, Ayoub (1967) and discusses the theme of alienation in relations to Nu’ayma’s spiritual outlook.

The Alienation Experienced by Bruno & Shmuel in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Alienation is described as encompassing individual psychological states and types of social relationships. In the context of this study, individuals experience profound feelings of disconnection and estrangement (Kalekin-Fishman, 1998). The objective of this research was to elucidate the diverse causes of alienation depicted in the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." Analyzing the reasons for alienation in this literary work could provide deeper insights into how war and human atrocities impact an individual's mental well-being. It also contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the theme of alienation in literary research. The research employed a literature study approach with a psychological perspective, drawing on Erich Fromm's concept of alienation. The primary data source for this study was the novel "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne, focusing on character dialogues and the author's narration within the story units. The novel, published on 5 January 2006, consists of 216 pages. To analyze the data, the researcher collected, reviewed, identified, organized, and drew conclusions from the gathered information. The findings of this research reveal various causes of alienation present in the characters of Bruno and Shmuel in the novel. These causes included alienation arising from interactions with other people, alienation resulting from societal factors, and alienation stemming from internal struggles within themselves. The exploration of these aspects shed light on the complex psychological impacts of alienation amidst the backdrop of war and its atrocities in the narrative of "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR'UN WISE BLOOD VE OĞUZ ATAY'IN TUTUNAMAYANLAR ROMANLARINDA YABANCILAŞMA VE GROTESK

The term, grotesque is a technique that is used to unite oppositions such as comedy and horror, pleasure and repulsion. Originally appearing in Renaissance art, the grotesque was also employed in literature. Thomas Mann claims that “the grotesque is its most genuine style” (1991: 13) , because of the sense of loss, alienation and meaninglessness caused by the Great War. In terms of the theme of alienation, two protagonists Hazel Motes from Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood and Turgut Özben from Oğuz Atay’s Tutunamayanlar are significant with their almost insane representations in society. In this paper, two novels from two different countries will be analysed to observe the elements of the grotesque and revealed how the authors applied the elements in their novels to criticise and satirize the social and political corruption in their own countries.

Immobile Cabmen and Single-track Railroads: Images of Stasis and Redundancy in August Wilson’s Jitney and Two Trains Running

ABSTRACT August Wilson’s celebrated ten-play cycle in which he focuses on the African American condition during the twentieth century has been hailed for the way the playwright grapples with issues of history and identity. This paper adopts aspects of the New Mobilities Paradigm (NMP) as it carries forward the theme of alienation, confusion and despair in Wilson’s plays. It argues that Jitney and Two Trains Running deploy highly deceptive cause-to-effect linear plot structures in order to present African American characters who are caught-up or trapped in desultory predicaments of confinement in ways that echo tropes of memory, journeying, hope and despair. The two plays present interesting nuances and contradictions of tropes of journeying and entrapment as well as progression and stagnation, which are paradoxically connected to acts of self-assertion. This occurs in ways that are highly reminiscent of the modernist style of absurdism. Our choice of the two plays is informed by the way in which the play titles reference technologized forms of mobility and communication as they also echo African American memory, travel and the journey motif in ways that are reminiscent of the underground railroad and the promise of freedom, even as Wilson decries a palpable lack of movement, growth and social progress that has historically characterized the African American experience during the course of the twentieth century.

Feministic images of Women in Anita Desai's selected novels

Anita Desai is one of the most prominent Indian novelists of India. Her writing is different from other novelists as she deals with psychological problems in her novels. She is very much interested in the interior landscapes of the mind of her characters. Most of her novels have the theme of alienation, isolation, loneliness, loss of identity and importance of communication in married life. Anita Desai beautifully picturizes the complexities of man-woman relationships in her novels. The objective of this study is to show the feministic perspective of Anita Desai’s women characters in her novels.

A Narrative Study of the First-person Narrator in the Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger’s first novel The Catcher in the Rye was written in 1951 and was considered as a classical book in global literature. Holden’s life of three days and two nights was presented to us by a first-person narrator. I think the first-person narrator Holden was unreliable and I backed my opinion in analyzing the context, logical reasoning and the author Salinger’s reflection on Holden. The author Salinger lived in America in 1950s when there was great success in material but vacancy of spiritual values. The relationship between people and nature was alienating and people began to search for their egos solitarily. The author’s topic was clearly been exposed through Holden’s hardships and Salinger’s reflection on Holden: the theme of alienation.

Geographical Alienation of Migrant Ranch Workers in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men, a novella of John Steinbeck tells the story of American migrant ranch workers. This article observes and analyzes the alienation of the migrant ranch workers in the novella Of Mice and Men in Depression-era America in relation to American geography. The issue revolves around the major characters: George Milton and Lennie Small, as well as other minor characters. The characters in the novella suffer from alienation caused by unfair geographical conditions resulting from the uneven distribution of means and resources. After all, the characters become the victim of mental retardation and they perform inhospitable behavior to one another. To explore this state of alienation and geography, this article applies library research and content analysis of the novella. To moor the issue, the Marxist theory of alienation has been applied that discusses the influence of class economy in human interaction. According to Marx, in the capitalist mode of production, a worker is alienated from the production process, nature, society, and hence finally, with himself. In the novella, alienation related to geography is depicted in subtle and clear forms that the characters feel disconnected from society and the surrounding environment and ultimately from their intimate ones. The theme of alienation and geography is depicted in the relationship the characters share, in the plot, which presents the movement of the major characters from ranch to ranch in pursuit of the American dream, and in the setting, which represents Weed, California, as the place of poverty and inequality during the depression era. The harsh geographical conditions, as depicted in the novella, contribute to the theme of alienation of the migrant ranch workers, who are surrounded by poverty even in the crowded setting.

TEMPORARY WORKER ALIENATION IN HIROKO OYAMADA’S NOVEL KOUJOU

Alienation causes workers to feel separated and alienated from the work they are doing so that work becomes a foreign and pseudo experience. The alienation experienced by workers can not only be found in everyday life but also becomes the theme of stories in literary works. One of the literary works with the theme of alienation is the novel Koujou by Hiroko Oyamada. This article examines the alienation of temporary workers in Koujou's novel. The temporary worker alienation is shown through the character of Yoshiko Ushimaya and the character of an older brother. The research problem is examined by the alienation theory of Karl Marx and the development of the alienation theory by Melvin Seeman. This research was conducted by applying a qualitative method. Based on the research results, it can be seen that in novel Koujou the alienation of temporary workers is described in the form of 1) alienation from self-potential; 2) alienation from products and production processes; 3) alienation from other workers; and 4) alienation from the meaning of work.

Dynamic Form: How Intermediality Made Modernism

Dynamic Form: How Intermediality Made Modernism

20세기 미국 문화에 나타난 도시적 소외 문제에 대한 문학적 재현 :『동물원 이야기』에 나타난 탈소외 전략과 르페브르의 도시 공간론 비교

This paper is designed to explore the theme of alienation in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and compares the issue with Henri Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life and urban alienation. The play portrays the problems of alienation in the American city through the grotesque miscommunication and dramatic violence between Jerry and Peter. The article tries to analyze the Albee’s ideas the problem of alienation described in the play in connection with Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life and alienation in the city. According to Lefebvre, real alienation can be thought of and determined only in terms of a possible disalienation(2002, 207). Lefebvre believes that modern daily life is in a state of extreme alienation, but on the other hand, there is a potential for disalienation here. This paper argues that we can confirm Lefebvre''s thoughts on the possibility of disalienation hidden within this duality of everyday life in the message Jerry wants to convey to Peter in The Zoo Story. In conclusion, the paper shows that Albee’s reflection on the life of modern people can be a theatrical experiment that embodies the potential and power of liberation hidden within the duality of alienation in his own way. (Dongguk University)

Narrative techniques employed by Githa Hariharan in In Times of Siege

Githa Hariharan uses a variety of techniques in her novels to depict the themes of alienation, betrayal, and disloyalty. Narrative tools like the stream of consciousness technique, flashback technique, and storytelling elements, which have clear morals for society. The crisis of identity plays a pivotal role in In Times of Siege. Her stories are complete with recounting of various kinds of inequalities and power struggles. The paradox of desire for change and the status in the mind of secular intellectual is shown in this novel. In Times of Siege, the title's military metaphor outlines the film's vehemently polemical and ultimately uncompromising stance on religious extremism. Fiction depicts the glory of our culture; learners will be able to understand the structure of a sentence, word order and vocabulary. Cultural information is disseminated by Githa Hariharan through her fiction. Her work is a clear representation of Indian culture, literature, and oral traditions. This article examines the author’s use of various Narrative Techniques and Tools to investigate the theme of the novel, as well as the characters’ state of mind, attitude, and responses.

Swimming in the Dark

Swimming in the Dark

Commodification and Alienation in Edward Albee's Play The Sandbox

This research paper delves into the themes of alienation and commodification in American culture as depicted in Edward Albee's one-act drama, The Sandbox. Albee, known for his cynical observations of American society and the illusory American Dream, uses the play to explore the complexities of modern life through the perspectives and interactions of its characters. Through a close examination of the family members' dialogues and the symbol of the sandbox, this study aims to reveal the various ways in which the characters experience alienation and commodification. The significance of this research lies in its ability to shed light on the ways in which these behaviours manifest in contemporary society and how they are portrayed in literature.

Alienation in the Game of Chance Under Capitalism

Abstract Alienation is a universal theme in literature. The game of chance or gambling under capitalism can produce a hostile social setting for those who are unaware of its negative impacts. In such a social milieu, people can experience feelings of alienation, failing to make their lives their own. This paper analyzes the theme of alienation in the game of chance under capitalism in two stories written by s.e.a. Write Awardees, The Lottery of Karma by Chanthi Deuanesavanh and Lottery by Catherine Lim, through the lens of literary devices. The social settings of these stories are two countries in Southeast Asia, and these two writers set their stories in their own respective countries, Lao pdr and the Republic of Singapore. It finds that, in their exposure to such social settings, the protagonists are beset by a sense of alienation regardless of whether they perform their roles as laborers, capitalists, or consumers.