The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Fluid Bodies, Liminal Selves: Rabindra Nritya as an Aesthetic of Becoming in Tagore’s Dance Dramas

Geeti Maity

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.66

Rejecting regulated postural syntax of Classical Dance forms, Rabindra Nritya emphasizes on the free-flowing body’s kinaesthetic continuity. Closely analysing Tagore’s dance dramas Chitrangada, Chandalika, and Shyama, this paper argues that Tagore frames the body as a repository of lived experiences being transformed into lyrical gestures. Maurice Merleau-Ponty in Phenomenology of Perception argues that "Our body is not an object; it is a grouping of lived-through meanings which moves towards its equilibrium." Tagore’s protagonists embody a body which is the primary medium through which life expresses itself. Their identity is evolving, not fixed as is argued by Deleuze & Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus that "Becoming is to enter a zone of proximity, indiscernibility, or intensity." This research engages discussions on fluid bodies and the transformative power of dance, reaffirming Tagore’s enduring relevance within global embodied performance studies.

Geeti Maity. “Fluid Bodies, Liminal Selves: Rabindra Nritya as an Aesthetic of Becoming in Tagore’s Dance Dramas.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 1042–1059. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.66.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Decolonizing Narrative Forms: Indigenous Cosmology in When the River Sleeps and Carpentaria

Dr. Tirna Sadhu, Binoy Dangar

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.24

This paper examines Easterine Kire’s When the River Sleeps (2014) and Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2006) as examples of indigenous literary sovereignty that challenge Western epistemological frameworks. While critics have often situated indigenous writing within the category of magic realism—a Latin American literary movement rooted in Western modernist aesthetics—this comparative analysis argues that such categorization constitutes a form of epistemological violence. Instead, these novels should be understood as practicing indigenous realism, where rivers possess healing powers, ancestral beings intervene in contemporary lives, and land exercises agency not as metaphor but as lived reality within Naga and Aboriginal cosmologies. Through close textual analysis, this paper explores how both writers reimagine the novel form to accommodate indigenous ways of knowing.

Dr. Tirna Sadhu, and Binoy Dangar. “Decolonizing Narrative Forms: Indigenous Cosmology in When the River Sleeps and Carpentaria.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 403–415. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.24.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Seasoning Culture through the Trope of Food in Esther David’s Book of Rachel

Anjali Singh

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.27

This paper examines Esther David’s novel, Book of Rachel, as a cultural product through the lens of food. The analysis of the food trope is required to derive the cultural meanings embedded in narratives surrounding food practices. This research paper maps out the different ways in which food operates and communicates in diasporic narratives. Thus, interrogating and understanding the threads of identity, memory, communal laws and religious duties that are part of the Bene Israel diasporic community of India. The study reveals that meanings embedded in food cultures of a community are interconnected, and food acts as an anchor for the desired messages to be conveyed through such narratives. The method used to conduct this research is qualitative, that is, literary analysis and close reading of the text using the theoretical framework situated in Stuart Hall’s circuit of culture.

Anjali Singh. “Seasoning Culture through the Trope of Food in Esther David’s Book of Rachel.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 439–454. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.27.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Perilous Peripheries: Isolated Outposts as Moral Crucibles in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Syed Waliullah’s Lalsalu

Dr. Sraddha Nag

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.53

The image of an outpost has often been associated with a corner of civilized society which denotes isolation, segregation, and separation from the heart of civilization—a corner where isolation situates inhabitants in a position of constant tension between moral constraints and an achieved liberation from it. Joseph Conrad’s portrayal of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness reveals a man’s shunning the world of commonplace values and morals of the white European society, ending up becoming instead the ‘king’ of an outpost in colonial Congo. On the other hand, Majid in Syed Waliullah’s Lalsalu represents the figure of a religious beacon to the people of a village who despair for an anchor. The article aims to analyze how such outposts (both literal and metaphorical) serve as crucibles and impact the gradual transformation and transgression which underlie acts of moral decadence and persistent submission to greed and brutal ambitions.

Dr. Sraddha Nag. “Perilous Peripheries: Isolated Outposts as Moral Crucibles in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Syed Waliullah’s Lalsalu.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 830–844. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.53.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Reading the Kitchen: Domestic Architecture and Gendered Knowledge in Susan Glaspell’s ‘A Jury of Her Peers’

Sakshi Kachchhap

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.23

Feminist critics have established that the kitchen in Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers is crucial to the story’s gender critique. Yet, they have not fully theorised how the kitchen produces the epistemological difference that enables two farmwives to solve a murder that professional investigators cannot. This paper addresses that gap through spatial analysis, applying Bachelard’s vertical polarity, Foucault’s heterotopia, and Ahmed’s affective economies to demonstrate that the kitchen is not merely symbolic but materially productive of alternative knowledge. These spatial mechanisms reveal that gendered knowledge does not simply emerge from social positioning alone but through material engagement with space and objects. This reveals how contemporary institutions continue to devalue domestic knowledge, which is embedded in spatial hierarchies.

Sakshi Kachchhap. “Reading the Kitchen: Domestic Architecture and Gendered Knowledge in Susan Glaspell’s ‘A Jury of Her Peers’.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 392–402. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.23.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Between Decline and Renewal: The Representations of Menopausal Bodies in Select Indian Cinema

Athira Suresh, Dr. Moncy Mathew

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.21

Menopause is an overlooked area of study in the Indian context. This paper discusses the representation of menopause in Indian cinema through the analysis of selected films. It uses theoretical frameworks of embodiment, abjection, and the male gaze, along with Singh and Sivakami’s notion of menopause as distress. Through these frameworks, the physical symptoms and psychological distress of the protagonists are analyzed to understand menopause as rooted in social and cultural interpretations shaped by stigma rather than a mere biological process. Protagonists’ everyday experiences, domestic space, social encounters and moments of solitude demonstrate how menopausal bodies are constructed as disruptive to normative expectations of femininity and framed as abject. Visual and narrative strategies of these films highlight women’s anxiety about the loss of youth and desirability during menopause. It shows cinema can challenge the taboo surrounding menopause. This paper contributes to emerging feminist film studies and menstrual studies.

Athira Suresh, and Dr. Moncy Mathew. “Between Decline and Renewal: The Representations of Menopausal Bodies in Select Indian Cinema.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 346–368. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.21.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Analyzing Select Poems of Dylan Thomas from the Lens of Memory Studies

Dr. Chandrima Sen

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.25

The 19th-century Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, is a prolific poet of his time. He is well known for delineating his emotional self. His poems ascertain the trajectory of life and living, hope and aspiration, time and place, nostalgia and memory and death and dying. The most significant aspect of his poetry appears to be the re-association and reorientation of his past. This particular paper concentrates on the select poems, namely "A Poem in October" (1944) and "Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night" (1951) where there is a spontaneous growth of time past and time present. His childhood innocence and youthful vigour occupy a special place in his poetry. The element of time sets to unite his thoughts with his actions. His poetic persona resonates between memory and recollection. This paper sets out to explore the idea of memory as a contemplating agent that strives as the primary advocate of all human perception.

Dr. Chandrima Sen. “Analyzing Select Poems of Dylan Thomas from the Lens of Memory Studies.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 416–426. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.25.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Evolving approach of representation of disability in women from the 20th century to the 21st century in Indian Hindi cinema

Zahra Ahmad

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.52

Impairment arises from physical or psychological causes such as accidents or genetics, while disability is shaped by social prejudices and the exploitative attitudes of the able-bodied. It deprives the impaired of identity, creating layers of oppression through discrimination, patriarchal norms, and the male gaze. Families, too, may suffer stigma and exclusion. Medically, disability is seen as disease, but theology often interprets it as divine punishment. In contrast, the social model promotes inclusion, autonomy, and a shift in perceptions by reducing barriers. Cinema, as an audio-visual medium, plays a crucial role in raising awareness, shaping attitudes, and addressing stereotypes. The portrayals of disability in film evoke pity, empathy, admiration, or discrimination, reflecting challenges while also providing entertainment. This paper analyses cinematic representations to examine stereotyping, stigmatisation, and the intersection of gender and disability, while tracing the evolution of depictions of women with disabilities from the 20th to the 21st century.

Zahra Ahmad. “Evolving approach of representation of disability in women from the 20th century to the 21st century in Indian Hindi cinema.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 801–829. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.52.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

The Body as Enterprise: A Foucauldian Investigation of Beauty Capitalism and Embodiment in the novel Breasts and Eggs

Karthika Aravind

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.51

Today’s capitalist society is one driven by profits and economic viability, and people adapt the most lucrative strategies to survive. This trend manifests itself even at the personal level. It influences one’s decisions in life that affect one’s physical and mental well-being. Beauty is one such goal that many find irresistible. Its standards are decided by demand in society, and meeting them is a business model at this point. Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs is a story set in Japan and which deals with the theme of pursuit of beauty, and autonomy. It presents the case of a bar hostess who contemplates cosmetic surgery to improve her professional life. Alongside her is her sister who asserts her reproductive rights by choosing IVF conception, entirely of her accord, offering readers a contrarian case of assertiveness. This paper investigates this story with the help of the theoretical framework of biopolitics propounded by Foucault, and consider the beauty capitalism that encourages alterations of the kind presented in the book.

Karthika Aravind. “The Body as Enterprise: A Foucauldian Investigation of Beauty Capitalism and Embodiment in the novel Breasts and Eggs.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 787–800. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.51.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 2 · April 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Subverting Canonical Narratives: Dalit Re-readings of Indian Epics and Mythology

Chettupally Anvesh, Dr. V. Narayanappa

Digital Object Identifier

10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.26

Indian epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata continue not only as literary texts but also as Brahminical metanarratives that have advocated social order and the division of power based on caste for centuries. Modern Dalit literature is redefining the existence of oppressed Dalit-Bahujan characters in these legends with a resistance perspective. The main focus of this research is to remove the layers of divinity surrounding characters like Shambuka, Ekalavya, and Ravana, who are labelled ‘Vile’ or ‘Villains’ in standard narratives, and to make them symbols of social justice struggle. In the works of Ambedkar’s ‘Riddles in Hinduism’ and Kancha Ilaiya’s ‘Dalitization’ theories, these reinterpretations challenge standard aesthetics and invent a new ‘Dalit Aesthetics’. Recognised as Lived Experience as Knowledge, this literary revolution has been paving the way for an integrated cultural structure in contemporary democratic India.

Chettupally Anvesh, and Dr. V. Narayanappa. “Subverting Canonical Narratives: Dalit Re-readings of Indian Epics and Mythology.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 427–438. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.26.

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