Annals of Human and Social Sciences

The Dynamics of Color: Trauma, Violence, and the Aesthetics of Suffering in Han Kang’s The White Book

Dr. Hafiz Kamran Farooqi, Dr. Taimur Kayani, Abdul Rehman Nasir — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0500

This paper examines trauma, violence, and the aesthetics of suffering in The White Book by Han Kang, focusing on the complexities of personal and historical trauma within South Korean culture. It explores the symbolic use of white imagery – objects and photographs – as representations of socio-political and psychological themes. Using a qualitative approach and Judith Herman’s trauma recovery framework, the study investigates the novel’s meditative and fragmented narrative, analyzing how metaphors, symbolism, and imagery articulate both individual and collective trauma. The narrator's journey reflects the transformation of trauma, revealing how trauma impacts identity and memory across generations. White serves as a powerful metaphor for both mourning and renewal, signifying loss while also suggesting healing. The paper argues that literature, particularly South Korean fiction, can facilitate trauma recovery by restoring confidence, rebuilding trust, and fostering societal reconnection. It concludes by encouraging further interdisciplinary inquiry into trauma, memory, and identity in literature, particularly within the context of Korean cultural and historical narratives.

Body Dysmorphism and Sleep Quality among PCOS Patients: Assessing the Predictive Role of Alyxthymia

Dr. Shagufta Perveen, Sharmeen Gulfam, Hafsa Khan — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0500

PCOS is linked with psychosomatic issues such as apprehension, alexithymia, poor body image, and sleep problems. The current study mainly aims to examine the predictive role of alexithymia in the relationship between body dysmorphism and sleep quality and to explore the demographic differences in the study variables. The study was carried out on purposefully selected (N=300)PCOS patients from different hospitals and clinics. Along with a demographic sheet, the patients completed three instruments: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Appearance Anxiety Inventory, and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire. Results suggested that alexithymia significantly predicted the association between quality of sleep and body dysmorphism traits and body dysmorphism is significantly positively associated with alexithymia whereas inversely associated with quality of sleep. Marital and fertility-based differences were also proved. Study results will be helpful for professionals in resolving PCOS-related psychological issues. Future research should be based on a larger sample and longitudinal study design.

The Collapse of Meaning in McCarthy’s The Road: A Post-Modern Critique

Javeria Saleem, Dr. Sadia Waheed, Ayesha Khan — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0500

This study analyzes Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2022) from the Postmodernist-Marxist theoretical framework of Fredric Jameson, which he cited in his book Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), and aims to uncover how the characters, dialogues, and incidents reflect meaninglessness, fragmentation, and superficiality. Moreover, this study critically examines how capitalism shapes the economic world and prophesizes how it could lead humans to self-destruction. The Road (2022) is a narrative about two characters, ‘the boy’ and ‘the man,’ trying to construct the meaning of their identities and surroundings while trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. This post-modern critique traces these phenomena in the narrative through close reading and thematic analysis. The present study concludes that the erosion of meaning and identity foreshadows the disastrous effects of late capitalism and suggests that readers reflect on their cultural and environmental practices in a deeper insight and consider the hazardous effects of late capitalism.

Investigating the Role of Positive Parenting in Mitigating Adolescent Disruptive Behaviors in Religious Education

Yusrah Khan, Maryum Tabbasum — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0500

This research aims to investigate the impact of various forms of religious education on adolescents' perceived parenting styles and disruptive behavior. A quantitative research design employing a comparative correlational approach was utilized to collect data from adolescents (N = 300) with the age range of 12-18 years. Convenient purposive sampling technique was employed to gather data from those participants who are exposed to any form of religious education, to explore their parental perceptions and behavioral tendencies. The findings of this research give light to different parenting dimensions that have an effect on the adolescent’s disruptive behavior & facilitate the field of Psychology by giving a new perspective towards religion and religious education along with their association with parenting and maladaptive behavior. Future studies can work on collecting samples from different cities and people of different backgrounds to strengthen the analysis