Embedded Storytelling and Gender Negotiations in Githa Hariharan's First Three Novels

This thesis treats Githa Hariharan s first three novels The Thousand Faces of Night (1992), The Ghosts of Vasu Master (1994) and When Dreams Travel (1999) as a trilogy, in which Hariharan studies the effects of storytelling from different perspectives. The thesis examines the relationship between embedded storytelling and the primary narrative level, the impact of character-bound storytelling on personal development and interpersonal relationships. Thus, I assume that an analysis of the instabilities between characters, and tensions between sets of values introduced through storytelling displays the development of the central characters in the novels. My focus is on the tensions between different sets of values and knowledge systems and their impact on the gender negotiations. The tensions are articulated through a resistance and/or adherence to a cultural narrative, that is, a formula, which underlies specific narratives. Conveyed or disputed by embedded storytelling, the cultural narrative circumscribes what it means to be gendered in Hariharan s novels. The analysis centres on how the narratee in The Thousand Faces of Night and the storyteller in The Ghosts of Vasu Master relate to and are affected by the storytelling, and how they perceive their gendered positions. The analysis of the third novel When Dreams Travel focuses on storytelling, and its relationship to power and representation. I argue that Hariharan's use of embedded storytelling is a way to renegotiate and even reconceptualise gender. Hariharan s primary concern in all three novels is the tensions between tradition or repetition, and change, and how they affect gender. Although the novels feature ancient mythical heroes, mice and flies, or are set in a fantasy world of jinnis and ghouls, they are, I argue, deeply concerned with contemporary issues. Whereas the first novel questions the demands set by family and society on the individual, the second strives to articulate an ethical relationship between the self and the other. The third novel examines the relationship between representation and power. These issues could not be more contemporary, and they loom large over both the regional and global arenas.

Tumorigenesis in celiac disease

Celiac disease is life-long autoimmune disorder of the small intestine, which is caused by a reaction to gliadin found in wheat, rye and barley in genetically predisposed individuals. Proline- and glutamine -rich proteins cause villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia with extensive inflammation in the epithelium and lamina propria. Symptoms of celiac disease vary considerably and elimination of gluten from diet is the only way to treat disease. In small intestine of celiac disease patient transglutaminase 2 (TG2) modifies gluten peptides, which causes T-cell activation and inflammation in the epithelium of mucosa. T-cell activation induces development of celiac disease specific antibodies. These celiac disease specific antibodies recognise TG2 and interfere in vitro and in vivo in angiogenesis. Abnormal angiogenesis is typical in many disorders, such in cancer, in which TG2 has a crucial role in the development and growth of tumor. Overexpression of TG2 has been shown to correlate with accelerated growth of tumor. TG2-specific antibodies are suggested to inhibit differentation of epithelial cell, increase their proliferation, decrease their barrier-function and increase the permeability of blood vessels. The aims of the pilot study were to establish whether celiac disease TG2 antibodies affect in vivo tumorigenesis and tumorangiogenesis as well as to try to clarify the mechanism behind the phenomenon. Tumor xenograft model was used in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. Human oesophageal carcinoma (OE-19) cancer cells were incubated with celiacs TG2 miniautoantibody (mini 2.8), non-celiac miniautoantibody (mini 6.2) or PBS before cancer cells were injected to mice subcutaneously. During the experiment mice were weighted and tumor size was measured couple of times per week. To estimate the volumes of tumors the following formula was used: π/6 * L* W* H. Experiment lasted for four weeks after which the mice were euthanized, cardiac blood and tissue samples taken and tumours were excised and weighted. Sections were made from tumors and immunohistochemical stainings were done to compare blood vessel areas and to study general tumors´morphology and other parameters. Western blot -analyse were performed to cancer cells. The masses and volumes were clearly smaller in mini 2.8-group compared to control groups and the necrotic area of tumor in mini 2.8 was smallest as percentage compared to control groups. Blood vessel area were smallest in mini 2.8 group. Results suggest that celiac disease anti-TG2-autoantibodies inhibit tumor growth, but the number of animals is insufficient to give an accurate outcome.

The Enlightenment Idea of History as a Legitimation Tool of Kemalism in Turkey

The study analyzes the effort to build political legitimacy in the Republic of Turkey by ex-ploring a group of influential texts produced by Kemalist writers. The study explores how the Kemalist regime reproduced certain long-lasting enlightenment meta-narrative in its effort to build political legitimacy. Central in this process was a hegemonic representation of history, namely the interpretation of the Anatolian Resistance Struggle of 1919 1922 as a Turkish Revolution executing the enlightenment in the Turkish nation-state. The method employed in the study is contextualizing narratological analysis. The Kemalist texts are analyzed with a repertoire of concepts originally developed in the theory of narra-tive. By bringing these concepts together with epistemological foundations of historical sciences, the study creates a theoretical frame inside of which it is possible to highlight how initially very controversial historical representations in the end manage to construct long-lasting, emotionally and intellectually convincing bases of national identity for the secular middle classes in Turkey. The two most important explanatory concepts in this sense are di-egesis and implied reader. The diegesis refers to the ability of narrative representation to create an inherently credible story-world that works as the basis of national community. The implied reader refers to the process where a certain hegemonic narrative creates a formula of identification and a position through which any individual real-world reader of a story can step inside the narrative story-world and identify oneself as one of us of the national narra-tive. The study demonstrates that the Kemalist enlightenment meta-narrative created a group of narrative accruals which enabled generations of secular middle classes to internalize Kemalist ideology. In this sense, the narrative in question has not only worked as a tool utilized by the so-called Kemalist state-elite to justify its leadership, but has been internalized by various groups in Turkey, working as their genuine world-view. It is shown in the study that secular-ism must be seen as the core ingredient of these groups national identity. The study proposes that the enlightenment narrative reproduced in the Kemalist ideology had its origin in a simi-lar totalizing cultural narrative created in and for Europe. Currently this enlightenment project is challenged in Turkey by those who are in an attempt to give religion a greater role in Turkish society. The study argues that the enduring practice of legitimizing political power through the enlightenment meta-narrative has not only become a major factor contributing to social polarization in Turkey, but has also, in contradiction to the very real potentials for crit-ical approaches inherent in the Enlightenment tradition, crucially restricted the development of critical and rational modes of thinking in the Republic of Turkey.