Papers by Anushree Joshi
The Voice in Twenty-First Century Spoken Word Poetry and Confessionalism: An Analysis of Performances by Lozada-Oliva, Benaim, and Vaid-Menon
Women's Studies, 2022
In 1952, when Caedmon Records became the first label to market recorded literature, it is reporte... more In 1952, when Caedmon Records became the first label to market recorded literature, it is reported to have presented the sensory experience as “[a] Third Dimension for the Printed Page” (qtd. in Grobe 4). In the twenty-first century, spoken word poetry has transformed and adapted itself to become central in both critical and popular discourse, owing to the emergence of the digital content creation industry as well as the revisions in academic canon-making for post-Internet literature. This evolution, spanning nearly seven decades, has been a poignant juncture for personal and political voice-formation, as slogans of sociocultural resistance were intermingled with the emotivity of the poetic. These connections have been the focus of examination in this paper, concerning three poets who have acquired critical and popular acclaim in global slam poetry competitions as well as best-selling publications. Their visibility and popular reception in the performative space of the stage and thr...
Lost in translation: Evaluating modern escapism in Ritesh Batra’s Photograph
South Asian Popular Culture
ABSTRACT The paper evaluates the use of the escape motif in Ritesh Batra’s 2019 film Photograph, ... more ABSTRACT The paper evaluates the use of the escape motif in Ritesh Batra’s 2019 film Photograph, with respect to its modernist tendencies of fragmented psyche, nostalgia for the past, and aesthetics. It studies the sense of increasing isolation within the protagonists of the story, Miloni and Rafi, and relates the same in the sociological context of the urban hub of Mumbai city. The identities of the characters are further analysed with respect to their socio-economic privilege in the society and the paper argues that the social conditioning of, and expectations from, the characters play an instrumental role in creating two different approaches to their aforementioned need for escapism. The longing for human connection, as represented in the setting and use of the meta-narrative technique in turning to old Bollywood films and music, is one of the prominent approaches seen within the characters and the film in coping with the modern escapism from their private and public selves.
Romanticist Philosophy in Hindi Cinema: A Comparative Study of Keats, Shelley, and October
Film Matters
Using the premise of the 2018 Bollywood film, October, this article aims to contrast the poetry o... more Using the premise of the 2018 Bollywood film, October, this article aims to contrast the poetry of Keats and Shelley with the film’s plot. It focuses upon the theme of the transience of human existence, inevitability of change, and ephemerality of life. In doing so, the article argues that the expression of urban ennui in October and Hindi cinema has tendencies of the Romanticist rendering, resembling the aesthetic of the given poets. The lack of human connectivity and self-centeredness in the contemporary times is similar to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which the Romantics contested.
The Literary Herald, 2018
The paper focuses on the treatment of female sexuality in the respective societies of the
Mahabh... more The paper focuses on the treatment of female sexuality in the respective societies of the
Mahabharata and the period of partition in India. Using the Mahabharata’s Sabha Parva as the primary text, it traces the concepts of regulation and ownership of women’s sexuality, established during the times of the Mahabharata, which then became conventional in both the societies. The paper argues that the Mahabharata, as a primary text of philosophy, history and polity, has contributed to the normalcy of the treatment of women’s sexuality as property, and the most prominently remembered women in the Mahabharata lack individualized sexual agency. It
examines the texts of Manto, primarily focusing on women- Mozel, Hatak, and Thanda Gosht- along with the text of the Mahabharata to prove the difference in the approach of the representation of female sexuality through their women characters. It looks at the lack of individualization of sexuality and the concept of its control as a way to systematize patriarchy by using the evidences from the Mahabharata, and then compares these with the tone of Manto’s texts that portrayed full-
fledged human beings, not metaphors for an external ideal. The mimesis/poesis dynamic of the mentioned texts has been explored through a feminist reading. At the end, the paper concludes that the treatment of women in the text of the Mahabharata has manifested itself into the attitudes of the society, such that its projection of controlled, owned women is revered and accepted, while Manto’s representation of women as full-fledged human beings with sexual desires, expressions and individual ownership of their sexuality has been criticized among the masses, and even in the circle of writers, as a lesser, obscene form of literature.
Book Reviews by Anushree Joshi
Kitaab, 2020
This paper attempts to analyse the feminist tones in the poetry of Indian-English writer and poet... more This paper attempts to analyse the feminist tones in the poetry of Indian-English writer and poet, Kamala Das, particularly focusing on the expression and problematisation of gender roles in her 1965 poetry collection, Summer in Calcutta. It argues that her gendered identity manifests itself in her poetic style and aesthetic, wherein she questions the patriarchal expectations of gender - of women rooted in immanence and domesticity and of men rooted in transcendence and the public sphere. The custom of arranged marriage, domestic emotional abuse, confinement to the private sphere of domesticity, and daunting standards of feminine beauty, are some of the gendered expectations in the Indian woman's experience that Das' poetry interrogates. The confessional movement of poetry in the West, iconised in the poetry of women writers like Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, also appears to influence Das' mode of expression, since she emphasises on the 'I' in her poems, while voicing the experience of not only her own self, but also of women as a community who have been disenfranchised socially, linguistically, politically, or culturally due to the gendered roles and expectations imposed upon them.
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Papers by Anushree Joshi
Mahabharata and the period of partition in India. Using the Mahabharata’s Sabha Parva as the primary text, it traces the concepts of regulation and ownership of women’s sexuality, established during the times of the Mahabharata, which then became conventional in both the societies. The paper argues that the Mahabharata, as a primary text of philosophy, history and polity, has contributed to the normalcy of the treatment of women’s sexuality as property, and the most prominently remembered women in the Mahabharata lack individualized sexual agency. It
examines the texts of Manto, primarily focusing on women- Mozel, Hatak, and Thanda Gosht- along with the text of the Mahabharata to prove the difference in the approach of the representation of female sexuality through their women characters. It looks at the lack of individualization of sexuality and the concept of its control as a way to systematize patriarchy by using the evidences from the Mahabharata, and then compares these with the tone of Manto’s texts that portrayed full-
fledged human beings, not metaphors for an external ideal. The mimesis/poesis dynamic of the mentioned texts has been explored through a feminist reading. At the end, the paper concludes that the treatment of women in the text of the Mahabharata has manifested itself into the attitudes of the society, such that its projection of controlled, owned women is revered and accepted, while Manto’s representation of women as full-fledged human beings with sexual desires, expressions and individual ownership of their sexuality has been criticized among the masses, and even in the circle of writers, as a lesser, obscene form of literature.
Book Reviews by Anushree Joshi