Explorations in Critical Humanities: A Collection of Essays undertakes to analyze the processes of social inclusion and exclusion under the changed scenario of global integration. There are deliberations on different topics and issues with a view to revise our critical apparatus in ways that are transculturally effective and socially embedded. These essays explore the problems and potentials for critiquing the domain of humanities. In the present glocal context characterized by international flows of political cultures, capital and power structures, it has become increasingly difficult to occupy a firm vantage point from which critique might be exercised. This has become a problem both in the academy as well as in the public discourse since global processes are experienced as quasi-autonomous and beyond regulation and critical intervention due to systematic over-complexity. Moreover, the export of Western paradigms into non-Western cultural context also poses itself to be problematic. On top of all, central to any critical procedure is the objective to promote justice and emancipatory social transformation. Accordingly, these papers carve out a satisfactory methodological paradigm hinging on the ethical, philosophical, political and cultural experiences/demands of the twenty first century, which together envisage an interdisciplinary exchange of explorations. In general, the focus is on how methodologies of humanities grapple the ‘glocal’ in the modern/postmodern context attempted from a general and comparative point of view. Contents: Foreword Advisory Committee Chapter 1: Unburdening the School Bag - Dr. P.P. Vijayalakshmi Chapter 2: Cultural Shock as a Metaphor of Human Condition in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess - Dr. A.R. Chitra Chapter 3: Rethinking the Scope of Kitchen in the Post-feministic Era - Dr. Sreena K. Chapter 4: An Ism for the ‘Ithihasam’? – Khasak Revisited - R. Nandakumar Chapter 5: Cymini Sectors of Belief - B. Sonia Chellirian Chapter 6: Magical Gourmet: Culinary Nostalgia in Reef by Romesh Gunesekera - Geetha R. Pai Chapter 7: Ecological Concerns in the Poetry of North East Indian Women Poets: An Analysis of Select Works - Kavya Purushothaman Chapter 8: Refined and Redefined – How Music and Dance Entered the Sabhas - Dr. V. Veenalakshmi Chapter 9: Dance Like a Man and Vanaja: Gender, Caste and Classical Dance Forms - Dr. Sreebitha P.V. Chapter 10: Universities as Panopticons – Negotiating Power and Powerlessness - Sheena Kaimal N. Chapter 11: Transcending the (Generic) Self: Liminality in Merrily Weisbord’s The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das - Swetha Antony Chapter 12: Disability and the Body: A Sociological Understanding - J.S. Jahangir Chapter 13: Representing the Postmodern and the Countercultural: Totto-Chan and the Critique of the Grandnarrative of Education - Amrutha Narayanan Chapter 14: Quality of Drinking Water and its Health Risks - Brilla Balsam J. and Dr. T.S. Lancelet Chapter 15: Gramsci’s Idea of Hegemony and Social Exclusion - Chetan Sonawane Chapter 16: Nature as Miracle: Critical Humanities and Eco Aesthetics - Manu Mangattu and Neethu Tessa Baby Chapter 17: From Phobics to Inclusives: Redefining Gender, Sexuality and Identity in Select Malayalam Queer Posts - Rahana Mansur Chapter 18: Quest for Identity: The Representation of a Gendered Dalit in Bama’s Karukku - Manjusha K.G. Chapter 19: Relationship between Displacement and Familial/Community Ties in Select Short Stories of Rohinton Mistry and Ambai - K. Mary Elizabeth Chapter 20: Neo-Narrative of ‘Doves and Hawks’: The Rise of Counterculture of the ‘Indian Spring’ Intellectuals - Dr. Beena S. Nair Chapter 21: Race: A Cultural Tool for Hegemony Under the Apartheid Rule as Portrayed in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter - Jibin Jose P. Chapter 22: The Invisible Opposition: Humor’s Philosophical Tale - Dr. Sreekumar Jayadevan Chapter 23: Redefining the Public Sphere in the Indian Context: A Reading of K. Sachidanandan’s Poetry - Mani P.P. Chapter 24: Disability and Economic Disadvantage: An Analysis of Characters in Mollywood Sarah (Parvathy-Bangalore Days) and Stephen Louis (Jayasurya-Beautiful) - Meera U. Menon Chapter 25: Comparative Literature or Comparative Indian Literature: Understanding Comparative Literature as an Academic Discipline - Jemsy Claries Alex Chapter 26: The Song of Hamlet - Nirmal A.R. Chapter 27: Changing Island Lifestyle – A Micro Level Analysis of Munroe Island, Kollam, Kerala - Saranya U. and Dr. Lancelet T.S. Chapter 28: Ethnographic and Economic Perspectives as Barriers of Language Learning for Fishermen Community in Kanyakumari District: A Cohort Study - S. Sakthivignesh and Dr. P. Nagaraj Chapter 29: ‘The Real Charisma Behind the Vocal Versatility’ – A Study Based on the FM Stations Working at Thrissur - Priyanka V., Gayathri Krishna, Jaishin J. and Nikhil P. Chapter 30: Locating Food in the Para Literary Questions - Lincy K. Thankappan Chapter 31: A Critical Analysis of Food Metaphor in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel - Devika Kakkat, Manjubasini S. and Shubha P. Chapter 32: Dalits as Homines Sacri: The Politics of Inclusive Exclusion in Select Dalit Poetry - Abhijith T.S. Chapter 33: How Football Shaped the Society in Bengal and Goa in the Twentieth Century - Ashish Krishna