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

Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Role of Emotional Health in Women’s Empowerment and Self-Actualization

Manjari Johri — 2024-12-16

Aims: This paper aims to demonstrate that women can achieve a balanced and fulfilling life by prioritizing their physical and mental health alongside a successful career, economic independence, and civil rights. It highlights the importance of holistic self-care for women’s empowerment and self-actualization.

Methodology and Approaches: The study uses Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) to contextualize and foreground the neglect of women’s emotional health by caregivers. The analysis is supported by insights from Sichel and Driscoll’s Women’s Moods (1999) and Christiane Northrup’s Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (2010), alongside Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Human Motivation (2017), originally propounded in 1943. These sources collectively argue that women’s empowerment extends beyond external achievements to include attention to emotional and psychological well-being.

Outcome: The findings emphasize that despite progress made through the Four Waves of Feminism, many women globally continue to suffer from physical and emotional health complications. They struggle with feelings of inadequacy, unregulated emotional states, and the need for social validation. Societal pressures on youth, beauty, appearance, and fulfilling multiple roles exacerbate these challenges.

Conclusion and Suggestions: The Feminist Movement and Women’s Liberation have underscored the need for giving women agency through legal rights and social recalibration. However, true empowerment requires equal focus on mental and emotional health. The study suggests that through holistic self-care and balanced attention to emotional well-being, women can achieve self-actualization, empowerment, and a more integrated life.

Cultural Hegemony and Systemic Intolerance: Mapping the Politics of Exclusion in The God of Small Things

Rusav Kumar Sahu — 2025-01-11

Aim: This paper examines Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things through the lens of cultural hegemony and systemic intolerance, analyzing how the novel portrays various forms of social exclusion within Kerala's socio-cultural landscape. The research aims to map the intersecting hierarchies of caste, gender, and class that perpetuate systems of oppression and marginalization in postcolonial India.

Methodology and Approach: The study employs a critical analysis framework combining postcolonial theory and cultural studies. Through close textual analysis of the novel, supported by secondary scholarly sources, this research examines key scenes and character relationships that illuminate patterns of social exclusion.

Outcome: The analysis reveals how Roy masterfully depicts the intricate web of social oppression through multiple narrative threads. The study particularly highlights how the novel's non-linear narrative structure mirrors the fragmented experiences of characters struggling against systemic intolerance.

Conclusion and recommendation: Future research should explore comparative analyses of Roy's work with other postcolonial texts addressing similar themes of cultural hegemony. Additionally, scholars should investigate how Roy's portrayal of systemic intolerance in Kerala can inform broader discussions of social justice in contemporary India. The study recommends examining the novel's relevance to current debates on gender equality and caste discrimination in Indian society.

Mapping the History, Different Dimensions and Interpretation of Art in India with Special Reference to Painting

Mukesh Kumar — 2025-01-24

Aims: To explore the history, dimensions, and interpretations of Indian art, with a focus on painting, analyzing its evolution, spiritual essence, and cultural significance. The study aims to highlight Indian art's historical and symbolic aspects and its impact on identity and society.

Methodology and Approaches: The research examines Indian painting through its spiritual, emotional, and aesthetic aspects, incorporating historical contexts and artistic philosophy. The study explores various painting styles, such as Mithila, Rajasthani, and Himachal, tracing their origins, themes, and symbolic representations

Outcome: Indian art is found to reflect spirituality, ritualistic traditions, and socio-cultural narratives. It retains its relevance by blending ancient motifs with contemporary themes. Paintings such as Mithila and Rajasthani embody deep cultural symbolism, while post-independence art reveals political, feminist, and autobiographical dimensions. The study also identifies commercialization’s dual impact, fostering global recognition but risking the erosion of indigenous identity.

Conclusion and Suggestions: Indian art is a repository of tradition, spirituality, and socio-political expression. Misinterpretations arise from applying Western frameworks to indigenous art, emphasizing the need for contextual understanding. Suggestions include fostering authentic interpretations, preserving traditional forms, and promoting artists’ voices to sustain the rich cultural heritage. Encouraging cross-cultural dialogue while safeguarding uniqueness is crucial for its continued relevance.

Dalit Perspectives and the Spirit of Rebellion in “Barber’s Trade Union” by Mulk Raj Anand

Hukum Chand — 2025-01-22

Aims: The present paper aims to demonstrate Mulk Raj Anand's strong humanist views and his unshakable conviction that everyone has the fundamental right to live in dignity and self-respect. It highlights his belief in the power of the commoner, both as an individual and as a group, to bring about social change, with the chief aim of redeeming humanity from injustice and restoring its rightful place in society.

Methodology and Approaches: The study analyzes Anand's novels and stories, particularly his story Barber’s Trade Union, to explore his condemnation of caste, creed, class, and status differentiation. It also examines his portrayal of the exploitation and inhuman atrocities endured by marginalized sections of society due to caste-based social hierarchies.

Outcome: The study finds that Mulk Raj Anand emerges as a grand champion of the underprivileged, the humiliated, and the oppressed. His creative works powerfully reflect his rebellion against caste discrimination and his efforts to uphold unity and equality.

Conclusion and Suggestions: Mulk Raj Anand’s literary works present a heart-rending and realistic depiction of the social evils of caste oppression and discrimination. His writings serve as a call for social change, promoting justice, equality, and human dignity, offering a beacon of hope for a united and equitable society.

Post-Truth Paradoxes: Emotional Quantum Theory and the Hauntological Ethics of Dialogic Fragmentation in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikas Sharma's Fiction

Sunny — 2025-01-22

Aim: This research aims to explore the post-truth paradoxes in the works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Vikas Sharma, focusing on the uncharted terrains of Emotional Quantum Theory, where feelings and truths exist in states of flux—dynamic, uncertain, and layered. In an era dominated by subjective interpretations and the erosion of objective truth, how do fictional narratives navigate the intricate interplay between emotions, fragmented dialogues, and suppressed realities?

Methodology and Approaches: This paper applies emotional quantum theory and hauntological ethics to analyze dialogic fragmentation in a post-truth context.

Outcome: It reveals how their novels' dialogic fragmentation leaves readers wondering about the coherence of meaning by reflecting the shattered realities of a post-truth world.

Conclusion and Suggestions: This paper concludes these major questions -What occurs when feelings remain unresolved spectres in the story? In what ways do subtextual conversations reintroduce concealed truths to subvert conventional wisdom? Based on the idea of hauntological ethics, this research explores how the characters' lives and relationships are shaped by lingering moral and emotional quandaries, offering a more profound commentary on the fallibility of truth and the human condition. This study aims to explore how fiction functions as a reflection and critique of the post-truth period by combining viewpoints from postmodernism, affect theory, and hauntology.

Locating “Home” in a Liminal Space: A Decolonial Reading of The Black Hill and Sky is My Father: A Naga Village Remembered

PF John Bosco — 2025-01-30

Aims: The paper Locating “Home” in a Liminal Space: A Decolonial Reading of The Black Hill and Sky is My Father: A Naga Village Remembered explores Indigenous notions of home and belonging. Both novels evoke a strong sense of place while challenging colonial ideologies. Indigenous concepts of home are deeply tied to unique ontologies and epistemologies, viewing home as an interconnected space of emotional, spiritual, and social well-being rather than merely a physical structure. This contrasts with the Western perspective, which often separates these aspects, emphasizing the relational and cultural significance of home.

Methodology and Approaches: The study employs a qualitative and historical approach, analyzing how India’s Northeast was historically shaped through the colonial encounter, which influenced its inhabitants’ identities. The research situates Mamang Dai’s and Easterine Kire’s novels within a broader postcolonial framework, incorporating historical, socio-cultural, and ethno-spiritual perspectives.

Outcome: These Indigenous narratives counter colonial stereotypes that depict the tribal world as chaotic, primitive, and unstructured. Instead, they reveal a deeply spiritual worldview centered on harmonious coexistence between the physical and spiritual realms. Another objective is to present Northeast India as a fluid, interconnected space, highlighting the Indigenous struggle for identity recognition.

Conclusion and Suggestions: While the article critiques colonial misrepresentations, it does not advocate for essentializing old traditions. It acknowledges the dangers of Western hegemony but also cautions against extreme decolonial perspectives that reject all Western thought, leading to new forms of exclusion. Examples include Hindu chauvinism at the national level and ethnic essentialism at the regional level. A balanced approach is necessary, ensuring both ethnic assertion and openness to external influences.

The Healing Mother: Ecological Consciousness in Namita Gokhale’s The Blind Matriarch

Ramnath Kesarwani — 2025-01-31

Aims: The present study is focused on exploring the conceptual connection between women and nature discussing how Namita Gokhale, a famous Indian novelist in English, has created the character of Matangi Ma who has deep rooted ecological consciousness and holds a benign and protective attitude to the natural world.

Methodology and Approaches: Both primary and secondary sources are consulted to explore a conceptual connection between women and nature, a kind of positive affinity where women hold a more benign and protective attitude to the natural world and also feel a spiritual connection with her.

Outcome: The findings of the study highlight that the ecological ways of knowing nature are primarily participatory and Matangi Ma is attributed with this kind of participatory epistemology. The textual analysis makes explicit the close affinity between nature and women in which the most common similarity lies in the concept of maternity that both Nature and Women are mothers. Moreover, both Nature and Matangi Ma are in the role of a healing mother- to others as well as to each other.

Conclusion and Suggestions: As we are closely tied to the environment, the ecological consciousness enables us to understand the relevance of being connected to the roots that define the sense of identity, sense of existence. It is suggested that the future researchers should explore the novel The Blind Matriarch how there is an ethical substrate – a cosmic sympathy, expressed through emotional qualia, that comes alive or becomes apparent in communicative encounters between living entities.