EDITORIAL
From July 2019 The Contour could not be published due to some inadvertent reasons relating to technicalities. However, we could have perhaps overcome these hurdles over time if it was not the Pandemic Covid 19 that we suddenly found ourselves engulfed with in the meantime, causing uncertainty, panic, agony, trauma, blackness and bleakness in the society at large.
As with the turn of the year the world is seemingly getting away with the fear of the pandemic, we, the Editors along with the Editorial Board, too, hereby feel happy to publish the much awaited Volume 6, Issue I-IV (July 2019 & April 2020) of our journal The Contour (ISSN: 2349-6398). It has become possible only because of the constant and enduring support and encouragement we have received from its well-wishers all along. We also express our sincere gratitude to the contributors, reviewers and advisors for their critical perspectives and suggestions much needed for the upkeep of the sound health of the journal. No word is enough to express our thankfulness to Suman Saha who with his expertise in computer and information technology has been painstakingly working since its very inception to give the journal a proper shape. His sheer enthusiasm in this regard is truly encouraging.
For several technical reasons we are not in a position to accommodate all the papers submitted for the present issue and we seek apology for the same from our learned contributors. However, we hope to publish their articles in our forthcoming issues once they go through the acid test of blind review by our esteemed reviewers.
The readers and the well-wishers of the journal are earnestly requested to give their valuable suggestions for the improvement of its future issues. It is also declared that the views and observations presented in the writings are solely of the respective authors, and not of the editor/ editorial board of the journal.
Covid 19 has snatched more than one and half crores human lives from our world so far. Only consolation is that the process of vaccination has started. Two great assets of our motherland India named Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Ex-President of India, and Mr Soumitra Chattopadhyay, a legendary film and theatre personality, were also the victims of this pandemic disease. We dedicate this present volume of The Contour to these two Legends and Prides of ours.
31 December 2020
Susanta Kumar Bardhan
Abhisek Das
Arijit Ghosh
Former President of India
11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020
Indian film actor
19 January 1935 – 15 November 2020
ARTICLE
- The Merchant of Venice, Historical Materialism and the Impossibility of Consciousness– Pradeep Sharma
- A Tough Carapace: Configuring Blake’s Mysticism through his Visionary Paintings and Engravings– Dr Subhadeep Paul
- Power Struggle and Identity Reconstruction in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog– Emmerencia Beh Sih
- The Spectre of Cannibalism in Patrick White’s A Fringe of Leaves– Sukhendu Das
- Resisting the Savarna Food Aesthetic: A Study of Sharankumar Limbale’s The Outcaste and Manohar Mouli Biswas’ Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal– Bishakha Sarkar
- Asha Jaoar Majhe: Experiment of Language in the Film– Subham Patar
- Anxiety in Using ICT and Online Reading Strategies of Service Sector Employees– P Madhumathi
CREATIVE WRITING
♣ Poem:
- Nostalgia– Dr Sushil Kumar
- Human, at Home?– Debashish Chattopadhyay
- The Unwelcome Stranger– Aditi Bandyopadhyay
♣ Short Story:
BOOK REVIEW
- Mala Sharma. The Twilight Shades: A Study of Dear Life by Alice Munro. New Delhi: Atlantic Publications. Pp. i-x +115. 2020. ISBN: 978-81-269-3158-3. ₹ 595/-. – Dr Susanta Kumar Bardhan
- Debayan Deb Barman and Susanta Kumar Bardhan. Edited. Post Independence Indian Theatres: Critical Perspectives. Jaipur: Yking Books. Pp. i-xi + 272. 2020. ISBN: 978-93-87945-85-2. ₹1825/-. – Abhisek Das
REPORT
- Pluralism is embedded in the very origin of Human civilization: Prof. Harish Narang