DEHUMANISATION AND OBJECTIFICATION: LESSONS FROMPRAJWAL PARAJULY’S “THE CLEFT”

In the current world of globalism and multiculturalism and the face of radical-ism and terrorism, it is deemed necessary to prepare our students better to facetoday's world challenges – to guide students to accept differences among them.Therefore, it is considered necessary to unravel their sense of humanity, beingaware of ideas such as objectiβication and dehumanisation – to introduce stu-dents to the idea that we, humans, despite our different beliefs, ideals, politicalviews, andreligions, sharecommonfeelings, desires, andneeds. Peoplecomeindifferent shapes, colours, and they all have their deβiciencies. How do studentsdeal with the injustice, the inhumanity around them? Do they understand actsofobjectiβicationanddehumanisationtakingplaceintheworld? Dotheyunder-stand the concepts? What are their ideas of the two terms related to human-ity? Understanding these two keywords will help students unravel within themsome sense of humanity. This project highlights efforts to introduce studentsto a work of literature entitled “The Cleft” written by a Nepalese writer PrajwalParajuly. The students read the story and are expected to uncover their senseof humanity by understanding the concepts of objectiβication and dehumanisa-tion. What lessons can students draw after reading the story? After being intro-duced to the story and the concepts, students are expected to produce their artproject as a reβlection and reaction to the story and the ideas embedded in it.