Papers by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
Journal of Posthumanism, 2024
Published in 2020, Wessel Reijers and Mark Coeckelbergh's Narrative and Technology Ethics provide... more Published in 2020, Wessel Reijers and Mark Coeckelbergh's Narrative and Technology Ethics provides insight into contemporary views on virtuous technical practices. As with their 2016 and 2018 papers on narrative technology, Reijers and Coeckelbergh's stated objective is to expand a philosophical theory of narrative technology in other spheres of human lives-in this case-ethics. Starting with the effects of technology on the Covid-19 pandemic, the book traces the evolution of technology throughout the twenty-first century. In tandem with Plato's technology of writing, Prometheus's technology of fire, and the technologies used by Icarus and Pandora, the book argues that technology has been responsible for both the development and the suffering of individuals. In its Introduction, the book states that it does not treat technology from a transhumanist point of view, which pits humans against machines; instead, technology is viewed as a mediating agency. As the authors state: "Technologies persuade us, teach us, invite us, inhibit us, harm us, and thereby passively or actively contribute to the ethical choices we make and actions we engage in" (Reijers & Coeckelbergh, 2020, 3). According to the authors, a technical practice can be considered virtuous only when there exists a reciprocal relationship between two agents whose roles are reversible, but they themselves are non-substitutable. Engaging in such a practice is integral to the good life since it allows us to attend to the suffering of others and to imply solicitude. Reijers and Coeckelbergh propose that technology can be conducive to a good life via correlating technical practice with narrative. By linking technological mediation with normative ethics, the book succeeds in bridging the gap between philosophical theories of technology and those of normative ethics, as in the works of Ricoeur.
Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema, 2022
Mythology and religion have always been integral components of Indian
cinema, and the audience ha... more Mythology and religion have always been integral components of Indian
cinema, and the audience has always accepted them.i Satyajit Ray’s Devi:
The Goddess (1960) and Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020) are two such films
that reveal the hopes and fears of people regarding the Hindu goddess Kali. This chapter offers an intertextual reading of Devi and Bulbbul to expound on the representation of the goddess Kali in nineteenth and twentieth century Bengal, where the films are set. Following the stories of child brides in Bengal, these films represent the constraints and prohibitions imposed on women in the name of religion. These films portray the existing conceptualization of the incarnation of goddesses in women and how miracles are expected of them. Although Devi is a much earlier film than Bulbbul, their comparison is not arbitrary. These films brutally expose the Hindu patriarchy and the treatment meted out to women in the name of religion. The poster of Ray’s Devi was also an inspiration for the cinematography of Bulbbul. While in Devi Dayamayi is worshipped and treated as a divine figure, Bulbbul is represented as a chudail whom everyone is scared of. Although the narratives of these two films are manifestations of the same Hindu goddess, the way they treat the subject is very different.
Gender, Sexuality, and Indian Cinema, 2023
Partha Chakraborty’s Samantaral (2017) and Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan (2017), both released in... more Partha Chakraborty’s Samantaral (2017) and Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan (2017), both released in the same year, represent the lived realities of transgenders born and brought up in Bengali households. These films portray the existing conceptualisation of the transgender, which treats it as a disfigurement based on genital status, and at the same time, rejects transgender individuals referring to them as non-normative. The films received great critical acclaim because of their treatment of several complicated issues, such as the postmodern fantasy of heteronormativity, the social stigmas around the transgender body, and how that body is seen as non-normative. While Samantaral portrays the struggle of a transgender in breaking the shackles of his home and coming out to the world with their true identity, Nagarkirtan represents the struggle of Puti to live a happy, fulfilling life on her own terms.
This paper examines the second volume of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots (2021) to demons... more This paper examines the second volume of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots (2021) to demonstrate how the technologization of the bodyessentially questions and critiques the "human" conditionand focuses on the idea of the boundarycollapse between the human and the posthuman. Having examined Katherine Hayles'se xpansion of the theory of "bodies without organs," the essay arguest hat the posthuman beings of Love, Death & Robots strivet ot ranscend the constraintso ft heir embodiment and proceed to develop their individualism.This essay establishesthat the series has emerged as aspace wherein the impact of emerging technologies on the body in order to achievepolitical agency has been exposed, examinedand critiqued. This paper further examines how the intra-active entanglement of matter, substance, multidimensionale ntanglements, and storytelling makes Love, Death & Robots expand the semioticspace of "worlding.
NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, Jan 2024
This essay examines how crip-queer ethics of care is represented in two case studies from contemp... more This essay examines how crip-queer ethics of care is represented in two case studies from contemporary feminist graphic fiction. A comparative textual and theoretical analysis is conducted to examine diverse queer communities represented in Amruta Patil’s graphic novel Kari and Sybil Lamb’s illustrated novel I’ve Got a Time Bomb. Both novels use crip-queer aesthetics to deconstruct gender binaries and pave the way for a more radical, fluid, and inclusive culture. Using Robert McRuer, Carrie Sandahl, and Jack Halberstam’s theories of gender and disability, the essay examines how Patil and Lamb create protagonists that combat the very category of the “normative” in white heterosexist patriarchy. It reveals how a crip-queer ethics of care can create the possibility for more emancipated futures for the transnational queer and trans communities.
Digitalization of Culture Through Technology, 2022
This paper analyses the genre of interactive fiction, emphasising three interactive storytelling ... more This paper analyses the genre of interactive fiction, emphasising three interactive storytelling applications: Chapters: Interactive Stories; Choices: Stories You Play; and Journeys: Interactive Series. Interactive fiction is the process of narration delivered via software-simulating environments in which the interactors make choices to influence the storyline. These choices are usually textual prompts that appear at different points of narration. The rich graphics and the visual components make these interactive stories attractive and user-friendly. Using posthumanism as a theoretical framework, the essay answers the central question that underlies how this new revisionist and interactive medium of storytelling parodies the traditional roles of the author and the reader. Through these three interactive story applications, the paper demonstrates how spectatorship is closely associated with capitalism using Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of “liquid modernity” and the desire to obtain pleasure from these applications, making the interactors spend money. The paper argues that the aesthetics of the posthuman interactivity adds to the experience of the discovery of the narrative with the choices that the interactors make to proceed further and make them feel a sense of wholeness and personal integration.
Popular Literature: Texts, Contexts, Contestations, 2022
The chapter demonstrates how over the last few decades, popular fiction with its presentation of ... more The chapter demonstrates how over the last few decades, popular fiction with its presentation of cumbersome urban life has captured the attention and reading culture of the post-millennial urban dwellers. This chapter examines Chetan Bhagat’s Half Girlfriend (2014) and attempts to decode the underlying socio-cultural message through the semantic-cultural hegemony of the English language in the urban Indian society and how the linguistic abilities problematically determine one’s social status and literacy. Using Althusser’s concept of the Ideological State Apparatus and Foucault’s Panopticon, the chapter interrogates the facade of the Indian education system that limits itself to judging one’s level of education by one’s proficiency in English that eventually interlaces with one’s position in the urban-cultural structure. The interrogation into the class structure and the class struggle is efficiently represented through Madhav Jha’s linguistic struggle and his love interest for a high-class girl, Riya Somani who proposes to be his ‘half girlfriend’ which further problematises the relationship and re-intensifies the class difference and class consciousness, prohibiting Riya to be Madhav’s ‘full girlfriend’. This chapter further demonstrates how the socio-cultural structure and the hegemonic relations in a city create a phantasmagoria through which it exploits its production of the labour force.
Reconsidering Cartesian dualism and selfhood in Love, Death & Robots, 2022
This paper argues that the first season of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots offers a repre... more This paper argues that the first season of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots offers a representation
of how consciousness might evolve outside of the body when it is downloaded into a
techno-body, and how it transcends the limits of the biological body. Using posthumanism as a
framework, the essay demonstrates how this process interrogates and critiques the ‘human’
condition and focuses on the idea of the boundary collapse between the human and the posthuman.
The series also provides a hopeful narrative of cyborg liberation through rebellion against humans.
The essay establishes the impact and critique of emerging technologies on the body and political
agency in the series. Having examined the Cartesian mind-body split and Heidegger’s concept of
Dasein, this paper argues that the cybernetic beings of Love, Death & Robots strive to transcend the
embodiment constraints and develop a sense of individuality and free will. The paper also discusses
how the blurring of the human/animal boundaries portrayed in the series supports a transgressive
politics that underpins the first season of Love, Death & Robots. Additionally, the paper endeavors to
depict how the series represents an ‘ontological turn’ and how the posthumans retain their selfhood
and individual agencies even when they constantly transcend their subjectivities.
Virus and Visible Reality: Biopolitics, Crime, and Disability in Peter May's Lockdown, 2022
This paper examines Peter May's crime novel Lockdown (2020) to explain how a bioengineered virus ... more This paper examines Peter May's crime novel Lockdown (2020) to explain how a bioengineered virus cripples London and results in a crime, the denouement of which reveals a nefarious, capitalist purpose that is a stark reflection of the world we live in. The plan to use an artificially engineered virus as a bioweapon to profit wreaks havoc in London, resulting in several deaths, fear, panic, civil disorder, a spike in crime, and a string of anarchy throughout the city. By examining Michel Foucault's concept of biopower and Giorgio Agamben and Slavoj Žižek's perspectives on the ethics and politics of the virus, the paper aims to demonstrate how a virus transforms London into the centre of a global pandemic, compelling the officials to implement a lockdown. The paper also discusses how Lockdown (2020) can be viewed as a hard-boiled crime narrative due to the urban setting of London, the sensational and violent crime, the true-to-life description of events, and the male protagonist's visible dominance. Additionally, the paper endeavours to depict how the disabilities of certain characters are inextricably linked to the frozen state of the city under lockdown.
Reading Hypertext as Cyborg: The Case of Patchwork Girl, 2020
This essay examines Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson to reveal how hypertext functions like the ... more This essay examines Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson to reveal how hypertext functions like the posthuman concept of the cyborg defined by Haraway as “a condensed image of both imagination and material reality.” For the theoretical framework, I draw on Katherine Hayles and Rosi Braidotti’s theories of Posthumanism and cyborg subjectivity, among other Postmodernist Feminist ideas of the body and visual culture. Using these theories, my essay will answer the central question that underlies how this new revisionist and interactive medium of storytelling parodies the traditional roles of the author and the reader. Interpreting a ‘cyborg’ hypertext requires a "cyborg reader," not only because the reader shares a
posthuman connection with the narrative in terms of involving their gestures through touch and click, but also because the hypertext forces the reader to adopt a gaze that is equally modular and fragmentary. My
paper argues that just like the medium of hypertext itself, the author and the reader become a part of the cyborg subjectivity.
Bodies and Expressions: Exploring the Aesthetics of Disability Performance Art, 2022
This paper examines how the bodies of disabled performance artists challenge the system from the ... more This paper examines how the bodies of disabled performance artists challenge the system from the stage by pushing back against the barriers of normativity. Disabled performance artists call out cultural expectations and objectification, which troubles issues of ableism. Drawing on Jasbir Puar’s theory of assemblage, which deindividualizes agency, this essay interrogates how the aesthetics of disability performances invite the audiences to accept rather than reject unfamiliar physical forms. Using Tobin Siebers and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concept of disability aesthetics, the paper challenges the particular inclination to equate normalcy with beauty. Drawing examples from disability performance art, the paper examines the representation of freakishness and its exhibition in Western societies, demonstrating how public displays of extraordinary bodies facilitated the definition of cultural distinctions as natural. Disability performances recreate the scenes of disability in such a way that the normative viewer requires a sort of justification after encountering a disabled body. This brings to the forefront the existence of social hierarchies and power relationships. The presence of the performance artist on the stage questions the dynamic relationship between the performer and the audience and results in the act of staring. The disabled body summons the stare, and the stare mandates the story. The essay focuses on how the disabled body, which had been isolated and confined in institutions for long, is emerging out of the boundaries of academic study and into the streets, stages, and daily lives of the nondisabled.
Conference Presentations by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
Proceedings of the “Posthumanism and the Ecological Crisis” Conference, 2023
This paper examines Samit Basu’s speculative fiction Turbulence (2012) to situate postcolonial po... more This paper examines Samit Basu’s speculative fiction Turbulence (2012) to situate postcolonial posthumanism within the novel and to deconstruct the concepts of speciesism and ableism. Turbulence depicts how four hundred and three passengers travelling on a British Airways flight from London to Delhi fall asleep and wake up to find themselves possessing superhuman abilities. Among those passengers are Sher and Mukesh, who possess powers that enable them to transform themselves into
animals at their own will. The boundaries collapse one after the other, whether it is the human-posthuman, body-mind, or even human-animal. The complex relationship between the external animalisation of Sher and Mukesh and their thoughts and emotions that remain recognisably human suggests that these boundaries might not be as rigid and impenetrable as is generally assumed. They abandon the centrality of the human body and choose animal shapes to initiate changes in being and erode any binaries, separations, and priority accorded rationalities. The animal is no longer seen as the other in the posthuman context and is part of an environment that is non-hierarchical. The essay establishes this along the lines of Stacy Alaimo’s concept of animals as individuals with personalities who block their appropriation into victimisation discourses. This elevation of animals
to the status of ‘individuals’ frees them from their status as Other and denies the humans their species supremacy. This paper uses postcolonial and posthuman theories to demonstrate how posthumanism crossovers with empowerment and colonial affective practices. Using a postcolonial posthumanist framework, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of human-animal relations.
This article focuses on the panel titled "Interspecies Agencies: Controversies, Ontologies and Ne... more This article focuses on the panel titled "Interspecies Agencies: Controversies, Ontologies and New Forms of Cohabitation", presented on the 8th and 9th of July, 2022, at the EASST "Politics of Technoscientific Futures Conference" held in Madrid. The aim of the panel was to observe the interspecies bond that is manifested in various dimensions, including human-animal cooperation, public health, interspecies contagion through close contact with microorganisms, and issues related to nature and wildlife conservations. The panel included presentations that lie at the intersections of interspecies agencies and socially controversial aspects. The presentations also focused on multiple modes of scientific knowledge about animals, mushrooms, and microorganisms. New discussions and perspectives about multiple ontologies were initiated, and there was also a strong focus on theories and concepts related to 'beyond the human'.
Indian Supercrip Cyborg: Deconstructing Normativity through Feminist Posthumanism , 2021
This paper demonstrates how Indian female para-athletes stand beyond the imaginary identification... more This paper demonstrates how Indian female para-athletes stand beyond the imaginary identifications and frames of mirrored wholeness and antagonism. In the postcolonial scenario, both the biological and the technological female bodies are categorised as the Other. Consequently, the female cyborg in Haraway and Braidotti’s sense is considered a cultural and technological transgressor whose politics is not viewed as a simple mind/body opposition. The aim here is to trace the noticeable shift in the cyborg ontology and map out how the female para-athletes assume the cyborg’s role. Having examined the theory of supercrip, Cartesian mind-body split and Heidegger’s concept of Dasein, this paper argues that the cyborg athletes strive to transcend the embodiment constraints and proceed to their individualism and free will. This is not just liberation of the feminine against the clutches of the patriarchy, but also that of the cyber-identities against the capitalist society as a whole. For the Indian female para-athletes, the oppression works in multiple levels: they are treated as the Other by the Western tradition of thought, by the patriarchy in India and by every other non-disabled person. Using feminist posthumanism as a framework, this paper explores how Indian female para-athletes interrogate the historical exceptionalism given to human “man” and critiques the unequal social stratifications privileging few human and non-human bodies, modes of being and knowledge over others.
Books by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
Cultural and Literary Traditions in India: History, Myth and Orality, 2024
The paper examines the documentary film Prostitutes of God (2010), directed by reporter, journali... more The paper examines the documentary film Prostitutes of God (2010), directed by reporter, journalist, and filmmaker Sarah Harris, to demonstrate how the tradition of devadasis has degenerated over the centuries in the context of child prostitution in the contemporary moment. The select documentary represents the worldview of religion dominating the lives and lifestyle of the people in India. Religion is a complex phenomenon that greatly influences different human activities in society. The presence of the divine is manifested by creating an ideal, imaginary worldview through individuals, families, and society. One such instance of activity manifesting divine presence is the dedication of young girls to the temple. This practice, later on, offers a license to carry out child prostitution. Harris’s documentary is set in Southern India, where there is a strong presence of gods and goddesses, famous and infamous religious practices, and cultural heritage of religion. The paper investigates the cultural tradition of devadasis in the contemporary India, which has become no less than sex slavery. There is no divine aspect in it anymore and the whole system has become commercialized. Although the devadasi practice is now made illegal, the practice still provides livelihood to more than 2.5 lakh women in Karnataka who take part in this practice as devotees of the mysterious Hindu Goddess Yellamma. Their dedication to the goddess takes place during Saundatti festival in the Yellamma temple. The paper analyses Prostitutes of God to track the devadasis across northern Karnataka to show the corruption of tradition in the present time. In the analysis, the paper explores the re-interpretations of the myths and traditions concerning the devadasis in the past.
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Papers by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
cinema, and the audience has always accepted them.i Satyajit Ray’s Devi:
The Goddess (1960) and Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020) are two such films
that reveal the hopes and fears of people regarding the Hindu goddess Kali. This chapter offers an intertextual reading of Devi and Bulbbul to expound on the representation of the goddess Kali in nineteenth and twentieth century Bengal, where the films are set. Following the stories of child brides in Bengal, these films represent the constraints and prohibitions imposed on women in the name of religion. These films portray the existing conceptualization of the incarnation of goddesses in women and how miracles are expected of them. Although Devi is a much earlier film than Bulbbul, their comparison is not arbitrary. These films brutally expose the Hindu patriarchy and the treatment meted out to women in the name of religion. The poster of Ray’s Devi was also an inspiration for the cinematography of Bulbbul. While in Devi Dayamayi is worshipped and treated as a divine figure, Bulbbul is represented as a chudail whom everyone is scared of. Although the narratives of these two films are manifestations of the same Hindu goddess, the way they treat the subject is very different.
of how consciousness might evolve outside of the body when it is downloaded into a
techno-body, and how it transcends the limits of the biological body. Using posthumanism as a
framework, the essay demonstrates how this process interrogates and critiques the ‘human’
condition and focuses on the idea of the boundary collapse between the human and the posthuman.
The series also provides a hopeful narrative of cyborg liberation through rebellion against humans.
The essay establishes the impact and critique of emerging technologies on the body and political
agency in the series. Having examined the Cartesian mind-body split and Heidegger’s concept of
Dasein, this paper argues that the cybernetic beings of Love, Death & Robots strive to transcend the
embodiment constraints and develop a sense of individuality and free will. The paper also discusses
how the blurring of the human/animal boundaries portrayed in the series supports a transgressive
politics that underpins the first season of Love, Death & Robots. Additionally, the paper endeavors to
depict how the series represents an ‘ontological turn’ and how the posthumans retain their selfhood
and individual agencies even when they constantly transcend their subjectivities.
posthuman connection with the narrative in terms of involving their gestures through touch and click, but also because the hypertext forces the reader to adopt a gaze that is equally modular and fragmentary. My
paper argues that just like the medium of hypertext itself, the author and the reader become a part of the cyborg subjectivity.
Conference Presentations by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
animals at their own will. The boundaries collapse one after the other, whether it is the human-posthuman, body-mind, or even human-animal. The complex relationship between the external animalisation of Sher and Mukesh and their thoughts and emotions that remain recognisably human suggests that these boundaries might not be as rigid and impenetrable as is generally assumed. They abandon the centrality of the human body and choose animal shapes to initiate changes in being and erode any binaries, separations, and priority accorded rationalities. The animal is no longer seen as the other in the posthuman context and is part of an environment that is non-hierarchical. The essay establishes this along the lines of Stacy Alaimo’s concept of animals as individuals with personalities who block their appropriation into victimisation discourses. This elevation of animals
to the status of ‘individuals’ frees them from their status as Other and denies the humans their species supremacy. This paper uses postcolonial and posthuman theories to demonstrate how posthumanism crossovers with empowerment and colonial affective practices. Using a postcolonial posthumanist framework, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of human-animal relations.
Books by Dr. Jaya Sarkar
cinema, and the audience has always accepted them.i Satyajit Ray’s Devi:
The Goddess (1960) and Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2020) are two such films
that reveal the hopes and fears of people regarding the Hindu goddess Kali. This chapter offers an intertextual reading of Devi and Bulbbul to expound on the representation of the goddess Kali in nineteenth and twentieth century Bengal, where the films are set. Following the stories of child brides in Bengal, these films represent the constraints and prohibitions imposed on women in the name of religion. These films portray the existing conceptualization of the incarnation of goddesses in women and how miracles are expected of them. Although Devi is a much earlier film than Bulbbul, their comparison is not arbitrary. These films brutally expose the Hindu patriarchy and the treatment meted out to women in the name of religion. The poster of Ray’s Devi was also an inspiration for the cinematography of Bulbbul. While in Devi Dayamayi is worshipped and treated as a divine figure, Bulbbul is represented as a chudail whom everyone is scared of. Although the narratives of these two films are manifestations of the same Hindu goddess, the way they treat the subject is very different.
of how consciousness might evolve outside of the body when it is downloaded into a
techno-body, and how it transcends the limits of the biological body. Using posthumanism as a
framework, the essay demonstrates how this process interrogates and critiques the ‘human’
condition and focuses on the idea of the boundary collapse between the human and the posthuman.
The series also provides a hopeful narrative of cyborg liberation through rebellion against humans.
The essay establishes the impact and critique of emerging technologies on the body and political
agency in the series. Having examined the Cartesian mind-body split and Heidegger’s concept of
Dasein, this paper argues that the cybernetic beings of Love, Death & Robots strive to transcend the
embodiment constraints and develop a sense of individuality and free will. The paper also discusses
how the blurring of the human/animal boundaries portrayed in the series supports a transgressive
politics that underpins the first season of Love, Death & Robots. Additionally, the paper endeavors to
depict how the series represents an ‘ontological turn’ and how the posthumans retain their selfhood
and individual agencies even when they constantly transcend their subjectivities.
posthuman connection with the narrative in terms of involving their gestures through touch and click, but also because the hypertext forces the reader to adopt a gaze that is equally modular and fragmentary. My
paper argues that just like the medium of hypertext itself, the author and the reader become a part of the cyborg subjectivity.
animals at their own will. The boundaries collapse one after the other, whether it is the human-posthuman, body-mind, or even human-animal. The complex relationship between the external animalisation of Sher and Mukesh and their thoughts and emotions that remain recognisably human suggests that these boundaries might not be as rigid and impenetrable as is generally assumed. They abandon the centrality of the human body and choose animal shapes to initiate changes in being and erode any binaries, separations, and priority accorded rationalities. The animal is no longer seen as the other in the posthuman context and is part of an environment that is non-hierarchical. The essay establishes this along the lines of Stacy Alaimo’s concept of animals as individuals with personalities who block their appropriation into victimisation discourses. This elevation of animals
to the status of ‘individuals’ frees them from their status as Other and denies the humans their species supremacy. This paper uses postcolonial and posthuman theories to demonstrate how posthumanism crossovers with empowerment and colonial affective practices. Using a postcolonial posthumanist framework, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of human-animal relations.