Weaving of Arachne

Maus – A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History Part 1 by Art Spiegelman is a humanist, unique and hard hitting take on the plight of the Jews during the Second World War. World War 2 and its inhuman atrocities have been documented across mediums, be it films, novels, poetries, documentaries, etc. Hence, any art form’s claim to uniqueness which is dealing with this theme becomes preposterous. But this is certainly not the case with Maus – A Survivor’s Tale for it documents the survivor’s account which happens to be Art Spiegelman’s father through the medium of comic strips. Also, its uniqueness doesn’t cease with its unusual choice of medium but it continues in the characterization. Spiegelman very innovatively portrays the different ethnicities as animals, for example the Jews are portrayed as mouse, the Polish as pigs, the Germans as cats, and the Americans as dogs. Though it portrays the characters as animals yet the characters retain uncanny human characters and resemblances. ...

Rape, a word which shudders every conscientious human to their very core; a word which terrifies and disgusts us; a word which represents the blot of society and failure of humanity. Yet, unfortunately the word is thrust at our face every morning by the newspaper headlines. Hence, it is foolish to desist from a word which so menacingly dominates our daily discourse. Therefore it becomes imperative that we sensitize the prevailing narratives concerning rape rather than naively categorizing the word as an unutterable taboo. Rape, though undoubtedly the most horrendous crime afflicting humanity, cannot simply be categorized through the binary division of black and white by relegating it into the abyss of the black. As the most insidious implications of rape acquire a grey shade by defying the binary opposition of white and black. This article aims to bring forth one such insidious implication of rape which operates so implicitly that it deludes an unobservant eye into believing it to...

Is Shakespeare the greatest playwright that ever trod the earth? Well, this is a very contentious question and the answers oscillate between the extremities of the opinion spectrum. However, the bottom-line is not finding the absolute answer to the question rather the fact that Shakespeare continues to pervade the collective conscience even in the 21 st century. I have always found myself confused regarding the literary genius of Shakespeare, because I hitherto could not understand the texts which brim with plethora of voices. I have been trained to think in binaries, that is either the text is something or it isn’t. But Shakespeare is filled with the grey area, with an ambiguity that defies all the binaries. It is only when one acknowledges the ambiguity of Shakespeare does one truly begins to appreciate his literary genius. Hamlet is not (literally) my first encounter with Shakespeare. Being an English major student, I have read a few of his other works. But, Hamlet is my first ...