School of Humanities & Social Sciences

Title and Authors Name
“Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”): A “Perspective” on Nietzsche and Infanticide By Norman K. Swazo DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.of0001 Abstract: In his Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science), Nietzsche writes an aphorism (Book 2, No. 73) titled “Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”). There is no obvious scholarly engagement in the literature with this particular aphorism to elucidate its meaning. Clearly, the very juxtaposition of the two concepts—holiness and cruelty—is problematic, even as the content of the aphorism is interpretively problematic for the counsel the holy man gives to a father seeking advice as to what to do with his deformed newborn, i.e., to kill the child. At issue here is the moral rationality involved in Nietzsche’s perspective in this particular instance, but also in relation to the perspective of Christian moral rationality of which Nietzsche is critical. The exposition provided here analyzes the text and contributes an interpretation as an important element to understanding Nietzsche’s “ethics” as it relates to contemporary discourse on euthanasia qua mercy killing. Keywords: Cruelty, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Euthanasia, Infanticide, Mercy Killing, Nietzsche ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 898 Views \| 485 Downloads
Forgotten Memory or Hidden Identity?: Analyzing Krishnendu Chattopadhyay’s Jinnah Is Dead By Mahabuba Rahman DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.of0002 Abstract: More than fifty years have passed since Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan, yet certain communities in the country continue to face socially constructed barriers that affect their identity and belonging. Among them, the Biharis, though legally recognized as Bangladeshi citizens, are often excluded from full social acceptance by the native Bengali population. Bangladeshi media has increasingly highlighted their struggles, and the short film Jinnah is Dead, part of Bangladesh's first anthology film, Sincerely Yours, Dhaka, vividly depicts the intense identity crisis of a Bihari man attempting to conceal his origins while navigating conflicts within his own community. This paper examines the historical and socio-cultural factors that have marginalized the Biharis from 1971 to the present, exploring the psychological and social consequences of this exclusion through famous works of modern-day Bangladeshi filmmakers. Throughout the paper, the visual portrayal of the Biharis suffering from identity crisis and the reason behind their notion of unhomeliness will be discussed. Keywords: Identity Crisis, Language, Liberation War, Marginalization, Unhomeliness ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 274 Views \| 121 Downloads
Reconciling South Asian Novels with the Anthropocene: A Postcolonial Ecocritical Study By Syeda Fatema Rahman DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.v1i1.01 Abstract: From novelist Amitav Ghosh to historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, the imaginative impediment at the heart of the climate crisis appears to be widely felt. Ghosh has argued that conventional novels often fail to grapple with the scale and improbability of climate change, while Chakrabarty has identified a methodological tension between postcolonial studies and the emerging field of Anthropocene scholarship. This paper attempts to reconcile the rift identified by Chakrabarty through a postcolonial ecocritical analysis of South Asian novels – that is, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Shahidul Zahir’s Life and Political Reality and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India. In doing so, it argues that these texts subvert the Western anthropocentric human-nonhuman binary that Ghosh and Chakrabarty have articulated. The paper illuminates how boundaries between human and nonhuman actors are often refracted through caste and social hierarchies in South Asia, and how alternative conceptions of the natural environment and nonhuman agency are intricately woven into the narrative fabric of these works I further contend that environmental insensibility reflects a colonial mindset embedded within historical and social structures. Overall, this paper seeks to reconsider literature’s capacity to overcome its imaginative limitations in addressing climate change—a challenge both enabled and constrained by literary form, as Ghosh notes. Ultimately, the texts under analysis reveal that the project of reassessing human and nonhuman agency and reimagining their relationship in the age of the Anthropocene is well underway. In the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” and more than ever, the current climate crisis underscores the urgent need for writers to engage their imagination in shaping a more ecologically conscious world. Keywords: Postcolonial Studies, Anthropocene, Ecocriticism, South Asian Literature, Fiction. ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 222 Views \| 126 Downloads
Teaching Weathering: Children’s Literature and the Renewal of Humanities Pedagogy By Tess Ezzy DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.v1i1.02 Abstract: Children’s literature offers a vital space for rethinking how we teach in an era marked by political division, ecological instability, and technocratic pressure. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s work on affect, Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence, and contemporary theories of weathering, this article argues that texts for young readers—often marginalised within literary studies—provide rich resources for navigating crisis. Through close readings of The Heart and the Bottle, The House That Once Was, Zillah and the Rainbird, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, the article examines how children’s books engage themes of grief, ecological haunting, trauma, and temporal entanglement. These texts resist simple moral instruction, instead cultivating affective attunement and inviting readers to dwell in uncertainty. Rather than treating children’s literature as merely developmental or imaginative, the article positions it as a site of ethical and cultural theory. By incorporating such texts into university curricula, especially in literature and education programs, it advocates for a pedagogy grounded in wonder, vulnerability, and relational knowledge. Children’s literature, I argue, opens new possibilities for teaching with care and imagination in a fractured and unstable world. Keywords: Children’s literature; affect theory; ecological humanities; pedagogy; weathering ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 199 Views \| 115 Downloads
The Mind-Body Problem in Times of Ideological Radicalization By Timo Schmitz DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/ Abstract: The mind–body problem extends beyond a purely metaphysical dispute between idealism and materialism. In contemporary contexts, debates concerning the origin of mind and life have become increasingly politicized, often serving as focal points of broader cultural conflicts. As a result, the philosophical question of whether intellect or matter is ontologically primary is frequently obscured by ideological commitments. This paper examines the mind–body problem from a Marxist perspective and argues that historical materialism, when treated as an exhaustive and universal explanatory framework, assumes a dogmatic rather than evidential status. This critique, however, does not diminish the analytical strength of Marxism in explaining socio-economic and historical processes. Rather, it seeks to clarify the limits of its applicability. In addition, the paper assesses the epistemic scope of Darwinian evolutionary theory, arguing that while it constitutes a robust scientific framework—particularly at the microevolutionary level—it remains limited with respect to questions concerning the origin of life and mind. These limitations justify the continued philosophical legitimacy of non-Darwinian and non-materialist paradigms as complementary or critical alternatives within specific domains of inquiry. Keywords: Mind, Body, Descartes, Christianity, Evolution, Historical Materialism ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 207 Views \| 157 Downloads
Beyond Public and Private: The Limits of Prison Reform in Bangladesh By Sabiha Mehzabin Oishee DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.v1i1.04 Abstract: Bangladesh’s prison system is marked by chronic overcrowding, prolonged pre-trial detention, inadequate healthcare, and persistent custodial deaths, raising serious concerns under both constitutional law and international human rights obligations. Despite repeated reform initiatives, these conditions have proven structurally resistant to incremental public-sector intervention. Against this backdrop, prison privatization has occasionally been invoked as a possible alternative, yet it remains largely absent from sustained legal scholarship in the Bangladeshi context and is often dismissed or endorsed on ideological grounds rather than constitutional analysis. This article examines whether, and under what conditions, prison privatization could be constitutionally permissible in Bangladesh. Drawing on domestic constitutional principles, international human rights law, and comparative experiences from jurisdictions including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa, it argues that privatization is neither inherently unconstitutional nor inherently corrective. Rather, its permissibility depends on the preservation of non-delegable state duties relating to liberty, dignity, and due process, alongside robust regulatory and oversight mechanisms. Rejecting both wholesale privatization and categorical rejection, the article advances a conditional, context-specific model of limited private involvement, focused on non-coercive functions and non-violent or remand populations. It situates privatization as a harm-reduction strategy within a demonstrably failing public system, while emphasizing that no institutional rearrangement can substitute for broader criminal justice reform. Key Words: Prison Privatization, Constitutional Law (Bangladesh), Non-Delegable State Duties, Human Rights and Detention, Carceral Reform ⬇️ PDF Download \| ⬇️ HTML Download \| 14 Views \| 11 Downloads

“Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”): A “Perspective” on Nietzsche and Infanticide

By Norman K. Swazo

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.of0001

Abstract: In his Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science), Nietzsche writes an aphorism (Book 2, No. 73) titled “Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”). There is no obvious scholarly engagement in the literature with this particular aphorism to elucidate its meaning. Clearly, the very juxtaposition of the two concepts—holiness and cruelty—is problematic, even as the content of the aphorism is interpretively problematic for the counsel the holy man gives to a father seeking advice as to what to do with his deformed newborn, i.e., to kill the child. At issue here is the moral rationality involved in Nietzsche’s perspective in this particular instance, but also in relation to the perspective of Christian moral rationality of which Nietzsche is critical. The exposition provided here analyzes the text and contributes an interpretation as an important element to understanding Nietzsche’s “ethics” as it relates to contemporary discourse on euthanasia qua mercy killing.

Keywords: Cruelty, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Euthanasia, Infanticide, Mercy Killing, Nietzsche

⬇️ PDF Download | ⬇️ HTML Download |

898 Views |

485 Downloads

Forgotten Memory or Hidden Identity?: Analyzing Krishnendu Chattopadhyay’s Jinnah Is Dead

By Mahabuba Rahman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47126/nsushssjournal.of0002

Abstract: More than fifty years have passed since Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan, yet certain communities in the country continue to face socially constructed barriers that affect their identity and belonging. Among them, the Biharis, though legally recognized as Bangladeshi citizens, are often excluded from full social acceptance by the native Bengali population. Bangladeshi media has increasingly highlighted their struggles, and the short film Jinnah is Dead, part of Bangladesh's first anthology film, Sincerely Yours, Dhaka, vividly depicts the intense identity crisis of a Bihari man attempting to conceal his origins while navigating conflicts within his own community. This paper examines the historical and socio-cultural factors that have marginalized the Biharis from 1971 to the present, exploring the psychological and social consequences of this exclusion through famous works of modern-day Bangladeshi filmmakers. Throughout the paper, the visual portrayal of the Biharis suffering from identity crisis and the reason behind their notion of unhomeliness will be discussed.

Keywords: Identity Crisis, Language, Liberation War, Marginalization, Unhomeliness

⬇️ PDF Download | ⬇️ HTML Download |