Brolly

Writing in Red

2026-01-30T18:54:09+00:00

Book review.

Nergis Ertürk. 2024. Writing in Red. Columbia University Press.

(Bio)Politics & (Bio)Power

2025-11-27T10:47:37+00:00

The term “biopolitics” exemplifies the fluidity of scientific concepts when granted epistemic autonomy, adapting to diverse academic and public discourses. It has been widely—often imprecisely—employed across disciplines such as philosophy, political science, sociology, history, medicine, and gender studies, leading to a fragmented and highly contested conceptual landscape. This paper seeks to recover Michel Foucault’s original articulation of biopolitics, focusing on his dispersed and indirect treatment of the term. Foucault’s work serves as the foundation for applying the prefix “bio” to notions of politics and power, though his archaeological and genealogical approach has since been appropriated across various fields. The interdisciplinary expansion of biopolitics has necessitated a hermeneutical reassessment of its role within Foucault’s broader theoretical project, particularly in relation to biopower. This study aims to clarify these concepts and their epistemic significance.

Performative Contradiction as Ontological Revelation

2025-12-15T14:41:28+00:00

Discourse ethics promises universality without substantive metaphysics by grounding validity in the presuppositions of rational argumentation. Its familiar vulnerability is justificatory: the procedural norms that are meant to underwrite validity are presupposed whenever they are questioned. This paper argues that the aporia is best addressed by shifting the locus of ‘unavoidability’ from participation in a procedure to the conditions of determinate signification. I reconstrue performative contradiction as a failure of signification, not merely a pragmatic inconsistency, and retrieve Aristotle’s elenctic defence of the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC) in Metaphysics ? as a model of non-demonstrative grounding. Whoever denies non-contradiction must nonetheless mean something determinate, thereby relying on the differentiations their denial attempts to dissolve. On this basis, I propose ‘elenctic normativity’: a minimal criterion of rational answerability according to which claims, norms, and institutions are defective when they negate the conditions that make their own justificatory language intelligible. I then address the strongest contemporary challenge—paraconsistent logic, dialetheism, and logical pluralism—arguing that revising consequence relations does not eliminate the semantic role of negation required for determinate assertion. A worked application to ‘transparency’ in automated welfare administration, read alongside contemporary regulatory vocabulary, shows how elenctic critique can diagnose performative self-undermining without appeal to an external moral foundation.

Educating Through Philosophy

2026-01-30T16:24:37+00:00

This paper highlights the value of philosophy as a tool for reflection and critical thinking, emphasising its epistemological dimension as a lifelong approach to inquiry and scientific reasoning. The central research question concerns the importance of educating through philosophy, fostering conceptual understanding, the pursuit of truth, the construction of arguments, and engagement in a philosophical dialogue within educational curricula that incorporate philosophy for children. Part of the argument focuses on highlighting the presence of philosophical education since antiquity. The conclusions indicate that children perceive philosophy as a distinct way of thinking, corresponding to concepts and justified beliefs. The framework of the paper’s approach is based on ancient Greek philosophy, the Socratic method, the homo mensura protagorean principle, the intellectual movement of the Sophistic Enlightenment, and the Platonic dialectic. The study’s primary contribution lies in promoting “inquiry into the meaning of concepts,” a key benefit of the P4C (Philosophy for Children) initiative, which fosters critical and philosophical thinking skills of growing importance in the modern world.

AI. Anthropological Implementation

2025-10-31T06:09:16+00:00

This essay explores the complex relationship between culture and digitalisation, moving beyond the dichotomy between utopian visions of democratisation and dystopian perspectives of cultural decline. Digitalisation is interpreted not merely as a tool applied to culture but as a co-evolutionary environment capable of redefining fundamental paradigms such as production, consumption, authority, and memory. The analysis focuses on four thematic axes: algorithmic access, the evolution of prosumerism, the transformation of institutional authority, and the dialectic between archive and oblivion. Through this critical lens, the essay highlights how emerging opportunities intertwine with systemic challenges, emphasising the need for a new digital humanism grounded in critical awareness.

Ancient Myths in the Mirror of the 21st Century

2025-10-14T09:46:58+00:00

The article explores the reinterpretation of ancient Greek myth in twenty-first-century literature. It is shown that myth functions not only as cultural heritage but also as a dynamic code of modernity. Key strategies and artistic functions are identified, including identity formation, engagement with trauma, aesthetic play, and philosophical reflection. The study concludes that through continual renewal, myth remains highly relevant within the contemporary literary process.

Metro Manila at Fifty

2026-01-30T16:49:38+00:00

Metro Manila at Fifty highlights the contradictions between economic progress and persistent inequality. Despite having the lowest poverty incidence in the Philippines at only 1.1% of families in 2023, the urban poor continue to face overcrowding, precarious housing, and stigmatisation in times of crisis (Philippine Statistics Authority 2024, 12–13). This study examines the intersection of poverty, density, and governance through official statistics and qualitative accounts from disaster risk and political studies. Findings reveal that official poverty data often conceal lived vulnerabilities, particularly among informal settlers whose experiences are shaped by overcrowding and inadequate services (Villarama et al. 2021, 3–4). Political dynasties remain dominant in the governance structure, creating barriers to inclusive development and citizen participation (Balanquit et al. 2017, 120–125; Mendoza et al. 2022, 6–7). Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates how high-density, impoverished areas suffered disproportionately due to weak social protection and moral labelling of communities as “pasaway” (Eadie et al. 2025, 8–9). These results underscore that poverty in Metro Manila is not solely an issue of economic deprivation but also of governance and spatial vulnerability. The study concludes that reforms in governance, improved measures of deprivation, and stronger citizen engagement are essential to achieve an inclusive and resilient future for the metropolis.

Odysseus’ Nest

2025-09-27T15:39:18+00:00

This article examines the restless mobility at the heart of Jack Kerouac’s "On the Road" and "The Dharma Bums" as a cultural and spatial problem rooted in the American identity. The paper situates Kerouac’s nomadic protagonists within a tradition where movement across space becomes both an act of resistance and a symptom of cultural schizophrenia. Kerouac’s ceaseless East-West and North-South trajectories echo the Odyssean myth of return. Yet, the impossibility of a final home destabilises the very notion of belonging, mirroring the ambivalent nature of American identity itself. While previous studies have explored Kerouac through the lenses of exile, mobility, and nomadism, few have interrogated the schizophrenic dynamics of space and identity shaping his narratives. This article extends these approaches by employing post-structural and postcolonial theories—drawing on Lefebvre’s production of space, Deleuze’s becoming, Bhabha’s hybridity, and Said’s cultural critique—to reveal how Kerouac’s restless cartographies expose contradictions at the core of American cultural production. By linking spatial movement to the politics of identity, exile, and resistance, the paper reveals how Kerouac embodies a minority position through the notion of space, where mobility transforms into both a critique of national myths and a search for alternative cultural geographies in literary expression.

Recycling the Remnants of the ‘Master Narrative’

2025-10-31T16:03:43+00:00

This paper examines marginality as a kernel of resistance to hegemonic representation as well as a site of self-fashioning in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986/1987). Conceived as a counter-narrative to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719/2007), Coetzee’s novel (re)narrativises or, in a sense, recycles the contingently scattered fragments of alterity, (under)represented as rudimentary and insignificant remnants of the original (hi)story in Defoe’s text. Coetzee’s text, alternately, opens up a dynamic space of renegotiation that shifts from monologue to dialogue; from narrow ethnocentric and androcentric mindsets that exclude the Other to an awareness of the Self of its own limitations and lack of autonomy to articulate its sameness without harbouring a productive and humanising relationship with difference. Such an ethical and existential necessity for intersubjectivity urges the Self to accommodate alterity as a central and significant agent in the construction of its own subjectivity. While Susan Barton attempts to write (about) the silenced and oppressed Friday, namely, by unfolding or deciphering his ‘true’ story, she ironically ends up rewriting herself and concurrently empowering her once repressed and spurned narrative by converting it into a site of resistance to and subversion of the dominant discourse of the Centre.

Hypocrisy and Discrimination in U.R. Ananthamurthy’s “Samskara”

2025-05-06T05:21:32+00:00

This paper explores the intersections of caste and gender in U.R. Ananthamurthy's "Samskara". It analyses how the novel puts forth the hypocrisy of Brahminical society. It presents a dissection of the characters of Praneshacharya and Shripati, members of Brahmin society, their actions, and the moral contradictions they embody. The paper critiques the social and religious codes that regulate women’s bodies while also showcasing how marginalised female characters, such as Chandri, resist these norms and assert their agency. Drawing on feminist and caste-critical perspectives from thinkers like Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Kelly Oliver, and Bell Hooks, the paper examines how "Samskara" seeks to expose the moral and spiritual bankruptcy of Brahmin patriarchy and reveals the deeply ingrained hypocrisy within the caste system.

The Price of Transcendence

2025-07-09T14:52:42+00:00

This article investigates the interplay between death, madness, and spiritual yearning in Anton Chekhov’s "The Black Monk" (1894) by examining the tragic journey of the protagonist Andrey Kovrin. Employing existential insights from Kierkegaard, the archetypal framework of Jung, Mircea Eliade’s sacred/profane dichotomy, and Foucault’s critique of modern medical practices, the study reveals how Kovrin’s visionary experiences embody a desperate search for transcendent meaning. His descent into madness—culminating in a fatal, serene smile—illustrates the inevitable outcome for a man whose inner mystical life is systematically pathologised by a society steeped in scientific materialism. The article contends that when spiritual ecstasy is dismissed as pathology, genuine transformative encounters with mortality are thwarted, leaving death as the sole recourse for the visionary. In fusing these interdisciplinary perspectives, the research situates "The Black Monk" within broader discussions on modernity’s disenchantment and the existential challenges confronting those whose inner lives defy rational accommodation.

How Far Will She Go

2025-05-06T05:22:47+00:00

Rage is as genuine an emotion as happiness or sadness; ideally, one would not have to put one's anger through a trial. However, the negative connotations around the word ‘rage’ make it difficult to be perceived without any bias. To make matters worse, female rage, which arises in response to patriarchal oppression, has a history of being infantilised or fetishised in popular culture. Angry women were shown as unhinged beings who relish making a mockery of morality and societal conventions. However, contemporary feminist writers are trying to change this perception. Their works, which vary in genre, strive to illustrate that this rage is a warranted response to the trauma of oppression that women face throughout their lives. They argue that it has a purpose, a moral code, and conviction, and can bring about social change. This paper illustrates how contemporary speculative fiction works, particularly the select texts of Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow, 2021) and Tasha Suri (The Jasmine Throne, 2021), portray female rage; how it manifested and what fuelled it; and what price the protagonists paid for their rage. It then uses Judith Butler’s gender theory to examine how putting a limit on this rage is just another form of patriarchal control.

Chiaroscuro Faith

2025-09-01T18:05:02+00:00

This paper endeavours to present an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the literary work Pseudo-Martyr by John Donne, with the primary objective of unveiling and elucidating his repressed Catholic identity through a thorough exploration of the intricate layers of his personality. In light of the concept of “chiaroscuro”, the core aim of this critical examination is to unravel the interwoven multifaceted dimensions of Donne’s internal conflict and the intricate process of self-negotiation, all within the broader context of his religious identity. The title of this article succinctly encapsulates the central theme, i.e. exposing the suppressed and concealed aspects of Donne’s identity as manifested in his literary opus. Through a meticulous and detailed scrutiny of the text Pseudo-Martyr, this work delves into the profound themes of religious emancipation and self-discovery, thereby shedding illuminating insights on the poet’s profound internal struggles and the eventual liberation of his covert Catholic identity, all examined through the lens of “chiaroscuro” as both a literary and an artistic technique.