The SPL Journal of Literary Hermeneutics: A Biannual International Journal of Independent Critical Thinking

Portrayal of Communal Harmony and Religious Discord in Never Together Never Apart

Poorvi Garg — 2025-07-01

Aim: This paper aims to explore the portrayal of communal harmony and the underlying discord caused by religious differences in Professor Vikas Sharma’s novel Never Together Never Apart. It investigates how literature can act as a reflective medium for socio-political realities, particularly the dynamics of interfaith relationships and communal violence in contemporary India.

Methodology and Approaches: The study employs a close textual analysis of the novel, focusing on character development, narrative structure, and thematic depth. A qualitative approach is adopted, with the novel examined through the lens of cultural studies and postcolonial theory. Attention is given to historical and social contexts, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the author emerged as a voice of social concern.

Outcome: The analysis reveals that Never Together Never Apart is not merely a love story but a layered socio-political commentary that critiques the fragile nature of communal relationships in India. Through its characters and plot, the novel reflects how deeply religious prejudices can fracture human bonds while also offering glimpses of hope through moments of understanding and empathy.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The paper concludes that literature such as Sharma’s can play a vital role in promoting communal understanding by presenting humanized narratives of conflict and coexistence. It suggests that more literary works engaging with interfaith themes should be incorporated into academic discourse to broaden perspectives and foster social sensitivity.

Reframing India: Mahesh Dattani’s Exploration of Cultural and Social Diversity in Contemporary Theatre

Sanjay Kumar — 2025-07-01

Aim: This paper aims to explore how Mahesh Dattani’s dramatic oeuvre reconfigures Indian identity by engaging with the complex cultural and societal dynamics of contemporary India. The focus is on how Dattani challenges monolithic narratives rooted in patriarchal, heteronormative, and hegemonic structures through plays such as Tara, Final Solutions, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Seven Steps Around the Fire, and Dance Like a Man.

Methodology and Approach: The researcher adopts postcolonial and multicultural theoretical frameworks to analyze Dattani’s plays. The study involves a close reading of primary texts supported by critical secondary sources. Attention is given to Dattani’s dramaturgical techniques, including non-linear narratives, naturalistic dialogue, and Brechtian distancing, to understand how these elements contribute to his critique of societal norms.

Outcome: The analysis reveals that Dattani’s theatre foregrounds marginalized voices—women, LGBTQ+ individuals, religious minorities, and hijras—while exploring the tensions between tradition and modernity. His plays challenge communalism, gender inequity, and social exclusion, presenting India as a pluralistic society that embraces diversity.

Conclusion and Suggestions: Dattani’s work positions theatre as a powerful medium for fostering dialogue and inclusivity. By reimagining Indian identity through the lens of heterogeneity and social justice, his plays advocate for a society that acknowledges and celebrates difference. The study suggests that future theatrical and literary research should continue to focus on marginalized voices to further enrich the discourse on Indian identity.

Cultural Narratives and Poetic Imagination: Myths and Fairy Tales in Robinson Jeffers’ Poems

Alvin Joseph — 2025-07-01

Aim: This study aims to establish the idea that myths and fairy tales in various literary forms and environments are reflections of the socio-cultural constructs in a particular society. It is also the objective of this essay to highlight the various pros and cons of myths and fairy tales in the poems of Robinson Jeffers.

Methodology and Approach: This essay discusses the terms ‘myths’ and ‘fairy tales’ in brief and their role in poems as socio-cultural constructs. It is also the essay’s objective to reconsider the purpose of poets and other creative writers in telling and retelling myths, legends, and fairy tales in literature and other artistic discourses. Besides, this essay also tries to have an analysis of the experience of traveling or journeys while meditating through different myths and fairy tales through wonderlands, miraculous worlds, elfin grots, and fairy castles along with the realization that all these provide a sufficient background for poetry, drama and literature with the purpose of constructing culture, the ideals and values accepted by society

Outcomes: This study has sought to establish that myths and fairy tales, as socio-cultural constructs, play a vital role in shaping and reflecting societal values, beliefs, and norms

Conclusion: Myths and fairy tales not only preserve cultural heritage but also provide a platform for engaging with contemporary issues, offering new perspectives on identity, power dynamics, and social hierarchies.

Female Characters in Prof. Vikas Sharma’s Sana and the Issue of Women Empowerment

Tanmoy Pandit — 2025-07-01

Aim: This paper aims to identify the issue of women’s empowerment as demonstrated in Vikash Sharma's novel Sana through the eventful lives of several female characters. Prof. Sharma highlights various important issues faced by women in contemporary times, marked by complexity. The paper focuses on their struggles with career building, marriage, adultery, and many other social problems, as well as how they quest for their identity. The clash between traditional values and modern Western attitudes toward life is also clearly emphasized. This paper attempts to examine these points from different angles.

Methodology and Approach: The author has consulted both primary and secondary sources as part of his research. Furthermore, feminist theories have been applied to analyze the problems faced by the female characters. Additionally, several online materials have been utilized in this paper.

Outcome: Through this paper, the researcher found that in the cities of today's postmodern India, rich and educated women have established themselves as independent human beings, revolting against the social bondage of patriarchy. The paper highlights different issues in which female characters emerge as a dynamic force in society, capable of writing the script of their own lives.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The paper concentrates on the conflict between tradition and modernism in Indian society regarding women’s emancipation. It focuses on how the new age welcomes women endowed with the spirit of independence, while their minds remain deeply rooted in tradition.

The Poetics of Pain: Trauma and Memory in Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Dushyant Nimavat — 2025-07-01

Aim: This paper investigates how Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous expresses trauma and memory through lyrical language and narrative fragmentation. The aim is to examine how the novel captures intergenerational pain rooted in war, displacement, and cultural dislocation, and how these emotional experiences shape identity.

Methodology and Approach: The research follows a qualitative approach, focusing on close textual analysis supported by postcolonial and trauma theory. The study applies frameworks developed by Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra, and others to explore how Vuong’s stylistic strategies convey psychological rupture. Primary emphasis is placed on the novel’s epistolary structure and its use of poetic imagery to understand the link between memory, narrative, and healing.

Outcome: The study finds that Vuong’s narrative turns pain into artistic expression, making trauma visible through literary form. The novel highlights how suppressed memories—both personal and collective—emerge through fragmented storytelling. Vuong’s prose enables both the narrator and readers to confront suffering while navigating loss, identity, and belonging. The research also reveals how literature can create spaces for emotional recovery and cultural memory.

Conclusion and Suggestions: Vuong’s novel demonstrates that writing can become a therapeutic act. This study recommends further interdisciplinary research connecting literary trauma narratives to psychological resilience, with particular attention to diasporic voices and their unique modes of remembering, expressing, and surviving trauma.

Forsaking the “Mere”: Embodying the Art of Impassioned Performance/s in Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage

Vineet Maxwell David — 2025-07-01

Aims: A playwright’s acquirement of a talent for the uniqueness of stagecraft is a potential acknowledgement that can be accorded to Peter Shaffer. His acumen to perceive vibrant life stories that are conveyed in the most suitable artistic expression is most felicitous in the way that we have come to appreciate Peter Shaffer as a playwright.

Methodology and Approaches: The play Lettice and Lovage focuses on a compelling tale of a burgeoning camaraderie between Lettice and Lotte, a story about how two women cross each other’s paths and are overawed in their ability to see the banality of human existence caught in the wrangles of prosaic colloquiality of their surroundings.

Outcome: Lettice and Lotte, though binated in their obvious professional appearance, are seen as characters who eventually want to alter strictures of established discourse that prey upon the possibilities of human intellect. The need to renounce the claptrap of “mediocrity” and the horrors of the “sameness” of human imagination is what the play seriously contests.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The play’s projections of the stage are a symbolic return to the unceasing phantasm of theatre, to have sustained human imagination since times immemorial. The paper dwells on this intellectual enquiry of how the play awakens its audience from the long silent stupor of a perpetual intellectual stasis that has eschewed human capacities as “beings” who can rightfully exist in the vibrancy of an ever-creative and flourishing experience of life, but are often overwhelmed by the insinuating hold of “mediocrity” making the creative imagination compellingly ordinary.

From Overt to Covert Treatment of Dalits- A Study of Shudra: The Rising and Quota: The Reservation

Atanu Barman — 2025-07-01

Aims: The present paper attempts to study the covert oppression of Dalits in Indian academia through an analysis of two independent movies- Shudra: The Rising and Quota: The Reservation. The two movies have been selected to depict the changing nature of oppression in the forms of caste-based profiling and the use of languages as a tool for differential treatment meted out to Dalits by the upper-caste people. This paper traces the various trajectories of Dalit education in India. The present paper attempts to show that there are caste hierarchies in the educational system and the caste-based profiling and language are the two important aspects of practising castes.

Methodology and Approach: The present paper takes recourse to the cinematographic techniques like editing, movement, distance, height and angle of the camera as well as the pro-filmic elements like setting, props, costume and lighting to study the representation of Dalits in the select movies.

Outcome: Through the analysis of the two movies, the present paper concludes that despite several efforts made by the reformists to provide Dalits an opportunity for higher education, academia still remains an anti-assimilationist space.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The priority should be the merit, not the caste. There should be policies and laws which can reduce educational inequalities by finding out the newer forms of caste-based oppression which can help Dalits achieve intergenerational mobility.

Transnationality, Trauma and Emotional Estrangement in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Selected Short Fiction

Vishwendri Chaudhary — 2025-07-01

Aim: The purpose of the present research article is to explore the interrelated themes of transnationality, trauma, and emotional estrangement in Jhumpa Lahiri’s acclaimed short fiction, with a special focus on Interpreter of Maladies and Mrs. Sen’s. Lahiri masterfully and intricately captures the psychological and emotional complexities faced by diasporic individuals who navigate multiple cultural landscapes.

Approach and Methodology: This study adopts qualitative approach based on close textual reading of selected short stories to depict fractured and ruptured identities, disrupted and destabilized relationships, and the nuanced complexities of intercultural existence. The research relies on secondary sources from literary criticism, scholarly articles, and peer-reviewed journals. MLA 9th edition citation style is followed throughout.

Outcome: The analysis reveals that characters such as Mrs. Das and Mrs. Sen embody the deep psychological conflict between cultural heritage and the pressures of assimilation. Mrs. Das, though ethnically Indian, experiences a profound sense of estrangement in her role as an Indian-American tourist, while Mrs. Sen, as a recent immigrant, struggles with emotional detachment from her immediate environment in America

Conclusion: In both Interpreter of Maladies and Mrs. Sen’s, Jhumpa Lahiri poignantly explores the emotional toll of cultural displacement. Her narratives illuminate the silent, often invisible wounds inflicted by migration, where the idea of home becomes ironically fragmented and personal identity remains suspended between two worlds.

Tenants of the Earth: A Multidimensional Study of Nature, Culture, and Resistance in Narayan’s Kocharethi: The Araya Woman

Pranav Sood — 2025-07-01

Aims: This paper undertakes an ecocritical analysis of Kocharethi: The Araya Woman, examining the novel through interdisciplinary lenses such as theological ecology, postcolonial environmentalism, Marxist ecocriticism, and animal studies. It investigates the erosion of indigenous ecological knowledge and spiritual cosmologies, critiques the forces of capitalist and colonial exploitation, and interrogates the anthropocentric paradigms that dominate the Anthropocene discourse.

Methodology and Approaches: The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive literary methodology, guided by an ecocritical theoretical framework. Primary attention is paid to close textual analysis of Kocharethi: The Araya Woman in English translation.

Outcome: The study reveals Kocharethi as a significant ecocritical text that intertwines indigenous ecological sensibilities with a pointed critique of capitalist and colonial modes of environmental exploitation. Through its emphasis on reciprocity, spiritual ecology, and ancestral wisdom, the novel articulates a vision of sustainable living grounded in indigenous epistemologies.

Conclusions and suggestions: Kocharethi: The Araya Woman presents a nuanced ecological vision, revealing how external disruptions fracture indigenous systems grounded in reciprocity, spiritual continuity, and ancestral stewardship. It emphasizes human responsibility as transient custodians, advocating a relational ethic vital to contemporary environmental discourse. Despite being written in 1988, published in 1998, and translated into English by Catherine Thankamma in 2011, the text remains underexplored in scholarly discourse.

Dusting the Past: Mapping the Politico-Historical Representation of Sudan in Jamal Mahjoub’s Wings of Dust

Shamlal A Latheef — 2025-07-01

Aim: This paper examines the fictional representation of Sudan’s political and historical trajectories in Jamal Mahjoub’s Wings of Dust. Mahjoub documents significant political events and historical shifts in Sudan through the narrative voice of his protagonist, Sharif.

Methodology and Approach: Employing the inductive method and close textual analysis, the study reflects on the burden of Sudan’s historical traumas, rooted in colonial domination, postcolonial repercussions, ongoing civil wars, and the rise of religious fundamentalism.

Outcome: The research identifies Sharif as a symbolic victim of postcolonial Othering, reflecting the broader socio-political landscape of Sudan marked by corruption, internal conflict, identity crises, favouritism, racial discrimination, systemic inequality, political chaos, ethnic clashes, and persistent civil unrest.

Conclusion and Suggestion: The study unfolds the socio-political and historical realities of Sudan as represented in Wings of Dust, and suggests the need for further in-depth research into the ongoing conflicts and unrest in the region.