Rides of Insight

This paper analyzes the act of ‘thalaikoothal,’ performed on ill and infirm older people in the southern part of the state of Tamil Nadu, India, with reference to two Tamil films, K.D. (2019) and Thalaikoothal (2023), which portray the horrors of the practice. A kind of involuntary euthanasia, the ritual continues to have covert social acceptance as exemplified in the films, favoring the common stereotype that marks aging bodies as unproductive and unworthy of living. Therefore, this article explores the aging bodies in the films as sites of power, controlled by death enforced through Thalaikoothal, employing Mbembe’s concept of ‘necropower.’ It also examines the effects of the practice on the elderly, who are compelled to prepare themselves for a forced death. The study further identifies the underlying factors contributing to the prolonged existence of Thalaikoothal even in the present times.Keywords: Thalaikoothal, aging bodies, senicide, necropower, Tamil films, Achille Mbembe

Kritika „metodološkog nacionalizma” i razvoj transnacionalnih pristupa doveli su u pitanje relevantnost nacionalne države kao istraživačke jedinice. Štoviše, brojne pojave i kretanja koji se uočavaju u nacionalnim državama rezultat su interakcija s drugim društvima te se čini da je postojanje sličnih elemenata u različitim kulturama često plod cirkuliranja modela i razmjena, a ne posljedica usporedivih uzroka (kada nije riječ o zajedničkom nasljeđu). Utječe li na koncept „polja” promjena perspektive s nacionalne na transnacionalnu, i ako da, na koji način? To će pitanje biti postavljeno u ovom promišljanju, koje je još uvijek provizorno. Iako se koncept polja općenito koristi unutar nacionalnih okvira, do te mjere da su mnogi istraživači koji se bave transnacionalnim i internacionalnim temama odustali od njegove upotrebe, dajući prednost manje ograničavajućem konceptu „prostora”, Pierre Bourdieu nigdje u svom opusu ne kaže da su polja nužno ograničena na područje nacionalne države. Pol...

Samuel Beckett bilingvalni je autor. Većinu je svojih književnih tekstova napisao na dva jezika, engleskom i francuskom. Nakon književnih početaka na materinjem engleskom jeziku, nakon Drugoga svjetskog rata, tijekom nekoliko idućih godina, Beckett piše isključivo na francuskom jeziku, potaknut razlozima estetske naravi. Od 1956. godine pa sve do smrti istovremeno piše na oba jezika. Vlastite tekstove, napisane na počecima književne karijere, sâm ili u suradnji nakon sredine pedesetih godina prevodi na drugi jezik.Beckett je vlastite tekstove tijekom prevođenja revidirao, mijenjao izraze i kulturne referencije, pa je stoga svaki prijevod ujedno revizija i transformacija prethodno napisane verzije. Tekstovi koji su prevedeni nedugo nakon dovršetka izvornika u nešto se manjoj mjeri razlikuju od samoprijevoda koji su nastali godinama ili čak desetljećima nakon dovršetka izvorne verzije teksta, poput primjerice engleske i francuske verzije Murphy, Watt ili Mercier i Camier. Također, Becket...

In this paper, I investigate the 'creatureliness' of film, questioning whether we can perceive film as a process of witnessing history. Is there trust in the cinematic image as a document, and what role does film play in memory and history? Responding to these questions, inspired by Eric Santner's concept of political theology and sovereignty, as well as Laura Mulvey's concept of death in 24 frames per second, I analyze W.G. Sebald's novel Austerlitz. In the novel, the protagonist attempts to fathom a traumatic past through slow-motion, raising inquiries about the possibility of redemption through the cinematic image. I also write about what escapes the field of visibility in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.Keywords: political theology of film, sovereignty and temporality of film, 'creatureliness' of filmic lifeJedna od najdužih i najtežih polemika o povijesti i filmu u dvadesetom stoljeću ticala se Shoah (holokausta): je li film „kriv” jer nije dokumentirao genocid, da l...

Research into humour in Indigenous Australian fiction is strikingly rare, even when compared to studies on humour in traditional Indigenous societies. As a consequence, when channelled through fictional prose, Indigenous humour rarely “receives any echo” (Bergson). One case in point is Gayle Kennedy’s novel Me, Antman & Fleabag (2007). Kennedy’s text, despite being marketed as humorous and winning the prestigious 2006 David Unaipon Award, has attracted a handful of minuscule reviews. The paper discusses distinctive “elastic polarity” of humour (Boskin) in Kennedy’s text, which simultaneously denies and affirms. By analysing the way in which her narrative debunks social and racial stereotypes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, the paper argues that her double-edged humour produces a site of cultural negotiations necessary for understanding complexities of contemporary Indigeneities and contemporary Australia. Keywords: Gayle Kennedy, Me, Antman & Fleabag, humour, elastic polari...

In the novels published in the course of the nineties, Every Light in the House Burnin’ (1994), Never Far from Nowhere (1996), and Fruit of the Lemon (1999), Andrea Levy (1956–2019), a British writer of Jamaican origin, focuses on the experiences of British-born daughters of first-generation Caribbean immigrants in Britain. This paper will examine how Levy’s young protagonists struggle to come to terms with their highly hybridized identities, which resist reductive racial categories of ‘white’ and ‘black.’ Experiencing racial bias on the one hand and confronting silences about their Jamaican heritage on the other, Levy’s protagonists often find themselves in liminal spaces and are constantly compelled to negotiate private (Jamaican) and more public (British) spheres of existence.Keywords: Andrea Levy, Stuart Hall, womanhood, British, hybridity, identityIn Jackie Kay’s 1984 poem “So You Think I Am a Mule,” the lyric speaker is an unapologetic mixed-race woman. She responds very assertiv...