Papers by Razeena Mustafah
Malayalam Literary Survey, 2022
Translation of the short story ' Abhyantharaharmathile Vihaarangal' by famed Malayali writer S S... more Translation of the short story ' Abhyantharaharmathile Vihaarangal' by famed Malayali writer S Saradakutty
Madhya Bharati, 2022
Cuteness is a powerful dichotomy and an affective register that sets a tirade of responses rangin... more Cuteness is a powerful dichotomy and an affective register that sets a tirade of responses ranging from awe to awww. The importance accorded to it in popular culture contradicts with the notion that it is not a 'serious' area of reception. The worldwide phenomenon of `cuteness' is judged hastily by the kind of responses it often evokes, but given the range of and sheer growth of 'cute cultures' across the world, the social proliferation since the turn of the millennium has been particularly striking. Cute animal videos have been flooding Instagram and YouTube post pandemic lockdown. Sara Ahmed's concept of "happy objects" questions the spreading of certain forms of affect happiness and she says that such transmission can be attributed to objectifying cute animals as 'social goods'. Changes in culture surrounding 'companion species' by Donna Haraway talk about how increase in emotional precarity leads to an increase in neoliberal logics of consumption. This article addresses the question as to whether or not cuteness is a function of subjective judgement or if it is a quality inherent to the objects one perceives as cute. Keywords-Cute Studies, Affect theory, Companion Species, Anthropomorphism Concept Note The notion of cuteness is constantly evolving and undergoing notable migration into hitherto unseen forays and institutions that are considered to be the land marks of high culture. Public spaces like museums, galleries, subways are all being increasingly materialized with cute rhetorics and images. This constitutes a performative aesthetic culture and a form of communication for the consumeristic society that seeks to enact, represent or rephrase cuteness (be it positive or negative). This is controlled by factors of self-representation, affiliations with fan culture and other collective modes of representation. The power vested in these sources navigate between the subject affected by 'cuteness' and a visibly powerless 'cute' object. This has serious implications when it is expressed through variables like gender, race, class and species. The word 'cute' dates back to the 1850s in American and British English where the term was associated with children, women, domesticity and referred to a particular form of "feminine spectacle". This paved way for the rapid rise of 'cute culture' in the twenty-first century which
One of the major poetic enterprises of the twentieth century, Malayalam poetry was an attempt to ... more One of the major poetic enterprises of the twentieth century, Malayalam poetry was an attempt to give `words' to sorrow ,at times when the `noise' of the time came close to overwhelming the regional poet, kin and the community as a whole. In a place that throbs with multitude realties of themes that come alive only through the pen of the regional writer, Regional literature in India add a new dimension to the Indian English language. But it is unfortunate that many great regional writers go unnoticed, only because they do not get good translators. Syam Sudhakar, a bilingual poet from Kerala, was one of their kind, but his language-not adhering to classic metre or rhyme and forging a register drawn from his bilingual inheritance-was both regional and cosmopolitan at the same time. Born in Vadanamkurussi, a village in Kerala, he writes poems in Malayalam, his native language, and in English. His poems have been translated into several languages including Tamil and Bengali. His first publication was the anthology Earpam (Damp) which was in 2001 by Pappiyon Books, Calicut, India. This was followed by Syam Sudhakar Kavithaikal (Poems of Syam Sudhakar) translated into Tamil by Tamil writer Yuma Vasuki. Slicing the Moon: A Screen book of Poems, a video rendering of his poems was brought out by Black Dot & SSOA, Chennai & Sydney in 2013 along with the first edition of Drenched by the Sun (2015), Avasanathe Kollimeen (The Last Meteor) was published in 2014 by Current Books, Thrissur, Kerala. The poems of Sudhakar delivers an array of insight on the topic of death; from its grotesqueness to its humbleness. They approach or meditate upon death with disgust as well as with nonchalance. His work represents a vernacular cosmopolitan that has a
Books by Razeena Mustafah
Memories, 2022
An anthology of poems by talented young poets, compiled as part of 'Agassia 2022' Intercollegiate... more An anthology of poems by talented young poets, compiled as part of 'Agassia 2022' Intercollegiate Verification Competition.
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Papers by Razeena Mustafah
Books by Razeena Mustafah