Showing papers in "International Journal of English and Literature in 2014"
TL;DR: The authors concretize unplanned language teaching experiment into a well planned, syllabus-oriented and academically productive package, which is an effort to concretise unplanned learning experiment into well planned and well planned curriculum.
Abstract: The present scholar’s experiments in the class room related to the media using the print media while teaching English at the undergraduate level and the students’ enthusiastic response has been the source of inspiration for the present paper. Here is an effort to concretize unplanned language teaching experiment into a well planned, syllabus-oriented and academically productive package.
Key words: English Language Teaching, media, undergraduate and students.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that Baya's play, Tomorrow's People, advocates the transformation and localisation of the African theatrical industries as a part of the educational system that aims at liberating the mind and promoting an Afro-centric worldview within a global framework.
Abstract: The paper argues that Baya’s play, Tomorrow’s People, advocates the transformation and localisation of the African theatrical industries as a part of the educational system that aims at liberating the mind and promoting an Afro-centric worldview within a global framework. It explored the dramatisation of the school system and showed that the reclamation of the African academy requires the enactment of an indigenous curriculum that allowed pupils to relate to the wider global world. Through textual analysis of the play, it was noted that the playwright rejected the anti-creative culture of imitating established Eurocentric artistic traditions and championed the training of independent and innovative thinkers who can improvise, theorise, confidently articulate issues from an Afro-centric perspective and contribute to the enrichment of a multicultural global village where Africans participated as peers. The play was rooted within Zimbabwean histories, realities and sensibilities; whilst proffering solutions to real life developmental and existential problems that enabled Africa to participate in shaping global cultural and intellectual discourses.
Key words: Glocalization, globalisation, creativity, indigenisation, reclamation, African-centeredness, academy, knowledge, discourse.
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the nature and scope of the washback effect from the Intermediate English examination on teachers and students of a public sector college in Pakistan and found that there seems to be a strong negative effect of the examinations on teaching methodology, content and learning.
Abstract: The impact of a test on teaching and learning is commonly referred to as the washback effect. This study investigated the nature and scope of the washback effect from the Intermediate English examination on teachers and students of a public sector college in Pakistan. The research relied on qualitative approach utilizing interviews to collect data from six teachers and six students. The data was analysed using open-coding. The results revealed that there seems to be a strong negative washback from the examinations on teaching methodology, content and learning. The pedagogical implications of the current study in the form of recommendations related to English language assessment procedures include the employment of formative assessment, the use of authentic tasks and focus on all four language skills.
Key words: Washback effect, English language examination, language assessment.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a taxonomy of the major and minor languages spoken by a vast population of Nigerians is proposed, based on the popularity of various ethnic groups which culminate in the variations that subsist in the accents of English available in Nigeria.
Abstract: The dream of a Nigerian English dictionary has recently been actualized. The academic body of teachers and researchers known as NESA recently published a dictionary of the Nigerian English. The corpus of words and expressions in the dictionary represents the meaning and pronunciation of words as used by Nigerians.As a headlamp into the major and minor languages spoken by a vast population of Nigerians, this article seeks to stratify the varieties of Nigerian English on the basis of the popularity of the various ethnic groups which culminate in the variations that subsist in the accents of English available in Nigeria. As a result, in the first instance, a pyramid which classifies the over three hundred languages into three levels (in a pyramidal structure) is proposed. Secondly, coalesced phonemic inventories from all the varieties of Nigerian English are linguistically reconciled. From the methodology of the study to the findings, formal and informal interviews, perceptual and acoustic experiments carried out textually and inter-textually form the background of results which have been corroborated in the literatures of Nigerian English. This study is basically an appraisal of Nigerian English without any bias for the educated, uneducated, standard, or sub-standard varieties. Whereas, linguistic, educational and ethnic parameters have been used in describing Nigerian English, the multi-ethnic influences on Nigerian English, being spoken in Nigeria has given it an appealing status among the colony of Englishes around the world to researchers. Thus, Nigerian English should begin to assume a status whose taxonomy will aid its international identity.
Key words: Multi-ethnicity, taxonomy, Nigerian English, Standard British English, dialects, topos, genesis, techne, nomos, polis, onyma, glossa, ethos.
12 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how textbooks influence learning experiences and highlighted the pedagogical implications of the incorporation of materials as the backbone of language-teaching program, and concluded that the relevant textbook does not cater to the needs of the learners.
Abstract: This study investigated how textbooks influence learning experiences and aims to highlight the pedagogical implications of the incorporation of materials as the backbone of language-teaching programme. It analysed and evaluated a prescribed textbook (“Prose and Heroes” – a Compulsory English course book for intermediate classes in Pakistan), and explored the degree it benefited and challenged both the learners and the teachers. The research project utilized both the teacher’s and the learner’s perspectives and was based on Dubin and Olshtain (1986) textbook evaluation model. The main purpose of this study was to arrive at conclusions that would contribute to the improvement of the English language programmes in Pakistani colleges. The results of this study show that the relevant textbook does not cater to the needs of the learners. The data also implied that more attention needs to be given to the English language textbooks being utilized in language programmes.
Key words: ESL textbook evaluation, learner’s needs, ESL in Pakistani Colleges.
9 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined public second cycle primary school English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' level of emotional intelligence (EI) and self-efficacy beliefs and the relationship between the two constructs.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine public second cycle primary school English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ level of emotional intelligence (EI) and self-efficacy beliefs and the relationship between the two constructs. Forty- three randomly selected EFL teachers were taken as a sample of the study. To generate data and answer the research questions, the researcher adapted two questionnaires – EFL teachers’ EI and self- efficacy beliefs - from two separate sources and the instruments were checked for their reliability and validity. Data generated through the administration of the questionnaires were analyzed by using one sample t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The results of the study indicated that EFL teachers’ EI and self-efficacy beliefs were found low as the observed means trailed far behind from the expected means in all the major categories of the two constructs. However, significant and strong relationship was found between EFL teachers’ EI and sense of self-efficacy beliefs. Following the shift in orientation from teacher-centered to student-centered curriculum which underpins the application of communicative-based English textbooks, the two constructs are suggested to be incorporated both in EFL teacher preparation and professional development programs so as to address both cognitive and affective side of the target language learning and teaching.
Key words: Emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, EFL teachers.
8 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates the interplay of the sublime and beauty in Graham Swift's attempts at communicating humanly and vividly with readers about human experience, concluding that the author's aesthetic conceptions prove to be far from stable.
Abstract: This paper aims at investigating the interplay of the sublime and beauty in Graham Swift’s attempts at communicating humanly and vividly with readers about human experience. In the author's works, both the sublime and beauty convey a sense of order and destabilisation. Both can be construed as enlightening transitions. Sublime patterns of human transgression trigger a quasi-divine sublime revenge and result in the unveiling of a new agnostic order. However, this new sublime-induced order is in turn irremediably damaged by the mutual erosion of art and reality created by sublime terrorism. As far as beauty is concerned, if characters do discover their integritas, the total fulfilment of their possibilities linking them to the universe and hence to the natural order at large, if eros and philia have them progress towards greater truth, the novelist's aesthetic conceptions prove to be far from stable. Indeed, Graham Swift's sense of beauty incorporates contemporary anti-aesthetics, the elaboration of a beautiful realism as well as a critical distanciation on beauty.
Key words: Graham Swift, contemporary British literature, beauty, sublime, aesthetics.
The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations on the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man alive tremble. (Lawrence, 1936: 535).
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse intertextual relations based on activation of textual codes in the famous chain of works by Virgil (The Aeneid 1990), Dante (The Divine Comedy) that continues through romanticists and up to the modernist literature (T. S. Eliot The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets) taking T.S. Eliot's essays on literature as the basis for their analysis.
Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to analyse intertextual relations based on activation of textual codes in the famous chain of works by Virgil (The Aeneid 1990), Dante (The Divine Comedy) that continues through romanticists and up to the modernist literature (T. S. Eliot The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets) taking T.S. Eliot`s essays on literature as the basis for our analysis. Homer`s Odyssey and Iliad serve as a hypertext for these works in which each author develops in his own way the thematic codes from the works of his predecessors thus affirming the continuity of a single cultural tradition -- “from Homer and within it…”.
Keywords: Cultural tradition, intertextuality, classics.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focused on how post-colonial African leaders in Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Achebe's A Man of the People have shifted from democratic leadership to an autocratic type of governance.
Abstract: This paper centers on how post-colonial African leaders in Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Achebe’s A Man of the People have shifted from democratic leadership to an autocratic type of governance. The paper denotes a form of corruption that departs from cherished values and ideals of post-colonial Africa. The key method of this paper is textual analysis. The paper seeks to show the socio-economic disillusionment of an independent African society. The leaders abuse their posts to enrich themselves at the nation’s expense. The paper seeks to show how the black people’s quest for shared power and freedom has been thwarted by the post-colonial African governments. The paper also dwells on how the misuse of power causes the offices of African leaders to be sources of evil and wealth creation for a few selected individuals.
Key words: Post-colonial African leadership.
5 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated how Lubukusu borrows words from English and yet the two differ widely in terms of phonemic inventories and established morphophonological rules that account for the changes.
Abstract: This study set out to investigate how Lubukusu borrows words from English and yet the two differ widely in terms of phonemic inventories. Borrowing of words form English to Lubukusu required assimilation processes to enable the transfer of characteristics of one language into the other. The study identified and described the morphophonological change that the loan words from English go through to fit into Lubukusu speech system and established morphophonological rules that account for the changes. The study adopted the theory Natural Generative phonology (NGP) which was propagated by Hopper (1976) as the theoretical framework. Sampling procedure was used to arrive at the fields most affected and sample population. Eighty speakers of Lubukusu from Bumula Division, Bungoma district were interviewed, ten respondents from each field of Education, Police, Health, Mechanics, commerce, Building and Construction, Religion and domestic. An interview schedule was used in data collection. The loan words were also recorded on a magnetic tape during articulation for the sake of analysis to get a clear picture of their morphophonological structure. The Loan words were transcribed for Morphophonological analysis. It was evident that there were lot of consonantal changes like consonant insertion, consonant deletion and consonant substitution among others. There were also vowel changes that were observed such as vowel deletion, vowel substitution and vowel insertion. No single loan word was found to maintain its original morphophonological structure when it moved from English to Lubukusu in both singular and Plural form. The study contributes to linguistic scholarship in the area of Lubukusu Morphophonemics. The knowledge acquired could be utilized by institutions of higher learning and translation centres. It was recommended that more studies like the current study should be conducted in the rest of the remaining dialects of Luhyia to give a clear picture of how Luhyia borrows words from English and also the suprasegmental level should be considered.
Keywords: Lubukusu, English, higher learning and translation, languages, communication.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an understanding of Lucille Clifton's poetry through the theory of ecofeminism that finds a connection between the exploitation of nature and the oppression of women.
Abstract: This paper seeks to present an understanding of Lucille Clifton's poetry through the theory of ecofeminism that finds a connection between the exploitation of nature and the oppression of women. According to ecofeminists, among all the human groups threatened by the devastation of the environment, women in particular are exposed to the greatest dangers. This can be seen in the births of deformed babies, miscarriages due to radioactive waste, and serious health problems affecting the woman, the family, and society in general. Some ecofeminists have even gone further asserting that women have a greater appreciation of the connection between nature and humanity. Accordingly, this keen awareness which makes women more attentive than others to ecological problems nominates them to speak for the environment and defend it against abuse and mistreatment. As a woman whose roots go back to Africa, Clifton depicts nature in her poetry as being oppressed in the same sense that both women and African people have been subjugated. Thus, she connects nature to history showing how the environment, women, blacks, the colonized, the poor, and children are exploited and dominated. What Clifton yearns for in her poetry is a community born out of love rather than of oppression. Therefore, she calls on all voices of the community to be recognized and heard. Through an ecofeminst lens, this paper finds that Clifton weaves into her poetry an insight that acknowledges the interconnection of all living entities on earth and emphasizes that each being, whether human or nonhuman, has a purpose to fulfill in the world.
Key words: Clifton, ecofeminst, grief, human, insight, poetry.
TL;DR: The reasons for use of “strategy” from a dictionary-based translational perspective are discussed, and the global strategies, such as literal/free translation and foreignizing/domesticating translation, are analyzed, analyzing the similarities and differences between the four categories.
Abstract: No consensus has been reached on an umbrella term for covering various macro- and micro- transfer operations in translating in the field of translation Studies. Writers have offered a wide spectrum of terminologies of their own for the operations in the past decades. This paper first discusses the reasons for use of “strategy” from a dictionary-based translational perspective. Then, it deals with the global strategies, such as literal/free translation and foreignizing/domesticating translation, analyzing the similarities and differences between the four categories. Finally, the paper summarizes the specific foreignizing/domesticating translation strategies on the basis of Venuti’s 1998 entry on “strategies of translation” in Routledge Encylopedia of translation Studies, with a supplementation of some other strategies.
Key words: Transfer operation, conceptual issue, strategy, reason, type.
TL;DR: The dilemma of belongingness in these three novels is a matter of flux and agony, which explores the problem of nationality location, identity and historical memory in USA as discussed by the authors, and explores the desire for cultural fusion in the new dwelling, which in fact is Mukherjee's own inward voyage in The Middleman and other stories.
Abstract: Words like “Expatriate” and “Diaspora” need no introduction in postcolonial literary scenario. Indian -iaspora, today, has emerged with the “multiplicity of histories, variety of culture, tradition, and a deep instinct for survival.” Indian Diaspora, though counting more than 20 million members world-wide, survives in between “home of origin” and “world of adoption.” The process of survival of the diasporic individual/ community in between the “home of origin’’ and “world of adoption” is the voyage undertaken in the whole process from “alienation” to final “assimilation.” Bharati Mukherjee as well as Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian born Canadian/American novelist, has made a deep impression on the literary canvass. Their novels honestly depict the issues of their own cultural location in West Bengal in India. They were displaced (alienation) from their land of origin to USA where they were “simultaneously invisible” as writers and “overexposed” as a racial minority and their final re-location (assimilation) to USA as naturalized citizens. They are the writers of The Tiger’s Daughter, Wife and The Namesake. The dilemma of belongingness in these three novels is a matter of flux and agony, Which explores the problem of nationality location, identity and historical memory in USA. The “cultural diaspora-isation” which Stuart Mall calls it marks the beginning of the desire for the survival in the community of adoption. The paper aims to explore their sense of alienation in USA where life as an immigrant was unbearable, forcing them to make an effort towards the process of economic, social and cultural adjustment. Further, the paper will explore their desire for cultural fusion in the new dwelling, which in fact is Mukherjee’s own inward voyage in The Middleman and other stories. Finally, they visualized “assimilation” as on “end –product” which implies in totality “conforming to a national culture” of “nationalist way of life.”
Key words: Diaspora, alienation, assimilation, isolation, culture.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at three types of Nollywood movies and their effects on the viewers, not only the Nigerian viewer, but also the globe where Nollywood currently ravages.
Abstract: Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation with a vibrant emerging theatre culture; the home movies. Currently, Nigeria is ranked the second largest producer of films in the world. Nollywood, as the home movies industry is called, has produced films in their thousands reflecting various aspects of the Nigerian culture and tradition. Prominent amongst such pre-occupations of directors and producers of Nollywood is the presentation of a class of wealthy citizens in the society who determines what happens to people in their environment. Because of this get-rich quick mania, characters are portrayed in a number of Nollywood movies that tend to encourage even the lazy to do odd jobs, including most often, ritual sacrifices to get to the socio-economic class of people in the society. This paper attempts to look at three of such movies, their effects on, not only the Nigerian viewer (Nollywood's immediate target audience), but the globe where Nollywood currently ravages.
Key words: Change, glamourising, social misfits, Nigerian home movies.
TL;DR: The Mantra is the future poetry as discussed by the authors, the poetry which expresses the deepest spiritual reality, the poetry written from some higher plane of, what he calls, the Intuitive Mind Consciousness and Over mind Consciousness.
Abstract: Sri Aurobindo, a man of the supramental plane of consciousness has found ‘Mantra’ to be the future of Poetry, the poetry which expresses the deepest spiritual reality. He discovers that poetry written from some higher plane of, what he calls, the Intuitive Mind Consciousness and Over mind Consciousness, the two uppermost planes of spiritual consciousness on the plane of Mind is the Mantra. Since man is yet to evolve to these higher planes of the spiritual mind-consciousness, the Mantra is the future poetry. On examination of Tomas Transtromer’s Answers to Letters and some other poems of the present century it is found that the evolution of consciousness is going on, and the poetic consciousness is destined to evolve to such higher planes of the Mantric Consciousness.
Key words: Poetry of Future, Mantra, Sri Aurobindo, Tomas Transtromer.
TL;DR: Achebe's Living in Bondage as mentioned in this paper is a seminal home video movie that burst into the market and Nigerian homes in 1991, it literally hit the ground running! It was such an instant hit that it caused a revolution in the Nigerian movie industry akin to the literary revolution set off by Chinua Achebe with Things Fall Apart fifty-six years ago.
Abstract: When the seminal home video movie, Living in Bondage, burst into the market and Nigerian homes in 1991, it literally hit the ground running! It was such an instant hit that it caused a revolution in the Nigerian movie industry akin to the literary revolution set off by Chinua Achebe with Things Fall Apart fifty-six years ago. One aspect of the novelty, mystic, charm and great promise of the great movie was that it was rendered in Igbo language with English sub-titling. It triggered a rash of home video productions in several Nigerian languages notably Igbo, Ibibio, Edo, Hausa and Yoruba in English sub-titles. For the Igbos and their language – still to recover sufficiently from the debilitating effects of the Nigerian civil war, the Biafran War – that seminal movie seemed to herald the beginning of a much awaited linguistic and cultural renaissance. But that was not to be. The Nigerian home video industry did grow from its humble beginnings in Living in Bondage to become a world renowned industry called Nollywood – named and rated third after the Indian Bollywood and the American Hollywood. Unfortunately, the Igbo language component of the revolution soon petered out like a flash in the pan – an unfortunate victim of the dictate of the profit motive and yet another evidence of the free fall of the Igbo language from its previous position of strength in the era of Tony Ubesie, hailed as ‘probably the most gifted and accomplished Igbo writing fiction today in any language’ (Emenyonu, 2001:3
TL;DR: In this article, the protagonist in Leila Aboulela's The Translator moves into contested and controversial territory through a new and shifting state of engagement with Western culture, and the protagonist dances with it, ultimately taking the lead in a creative process of forming a new hybrid vocabulary of experience and meaning.
Abstract: The protagonist in Leila Aboulela’s The Translator moves into contested and controversial territory through a new and shifting state of engagement – one might say entanglement – with Western culture. Far from capitulating to cultural domination, the protagonist dances with it, ultimately taking the lead in a creative process of forming a new hybrid vocabulary of experience and meaning. This process in Aboulela’s novel is examined with reference to feminist and postcolonial criticism and a comparison to traditional storytelling tropes, including that of the romance and the heroic cycle as described by Joseph Campbell. One Arthurian legend, that of the Fisher King, provides a comparison and a pathway to understanding the subtle transformation of the East/West relationship in Aboulela’s novel.
TL;DR: In this paper, the reflection of the African system of marriage and the very culture of paying bride price in Buchi Emecheta's novel The Bride Price is analyzed and analyzed.
Abstract: The social institution of marriage and the culture of paying bride price are interlinked and form an important part in the lives of African men and women. Like other communities, the African society has its own series of events that take place before and after marriage such as the hunting of bride by going to the prospective bride’s hut before marriage and the inheritance of a widow and her family by the brother-in-law after the death of the husband. The traditional society of Africa strictly follows the culture of paying “bride price” by the groom’s family failing to which consequently lead to the death of the bride in her first childbirth. The African men and women strongly hold this belief no matter how modern the society has become in order to avoid death. In the light of these social practices and taboos prevalent in the African society, the paper is an attempt to analyze the reflection of the African system of marriage and the very culture of paying bride price in Buchi Emecheta’s novel The Bride Price.
Key words: African women, bride price, marriage, traditional and patriarchal society.
TL;DR: This article conducted a data-based investigation of the phonology of the Basilectal Philippine English as a response to Tupaz' (2004) challenge to conduct Philippine English studies that would describe not only the educated English (the acrolect and mesolect speakers), but the linguistic practices of genuinely marginalized voices (the basilect speakers) in Philippine society.
Abstract: This paper attempts to describe the result of a data-based investigation of the phonology of the Basilectal Philippine English as a response to Tupaz’ (2004) challenge to conduct Philippine English studies that would describe not only the “educated English” (the acrolect and mesolect speakers), but the “linguistic practices of genuinely marginalized voices (the basilect speakers) in Philippine society” (p.54), as described by Llamzon, 1997 in Tayao, 2004). The findings of this study provide a description of the phonological features of these “marginalized” voices that include minimally functionally literate Filipinos such as jeepney drivers, nannies, janitors, market vendors, and the like from a particular region and Visayan language variety – Cebuano speakers from Region 7 – to distinguish it from the previous studies that have usually sampled subjects of Luzon origin only. Finally, the paper echoes the call for future studies of Philippine English phonology describing the range of segmental and suprasegmental features of various Basilectal Philippine English speakers across the country.
Key words: Phonology, sociolinguistics, Philippine English, Basilectal speakers, Basilectal Philippine English speakers, Philippine English phonology.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors explored the construction, restrictions and measures of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world, and found that there are two models of canonization of Chinese translated literature, static canonization and dynamic canonization.
Abstract: Researches on the canonization of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world focus on the canonization of a very limited sum of works such as Waley’s translation of Chinese poems, English translation of Han Shan poems and Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, etc. Till now, there have been no macro-researches on the canonization of Chinese translated literature in the English-speaking world. This paper explores the construction, restrictions and measures of canonization of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. The research finds that there are two models of canonization of Chinese translated literature, static canonization and dynamic canonization. The internal and external factors together function in the construction of canonization of Chinese translated literature, namely, artistic values and rich meanings of the translated works, interactions between the selection of Chinese literature and the socio-cultural contexts, reviews and promotions of the translated works, and patrons in the translation activities. Measures should be made to promote the canonization of Chinese translated literature, such as strengthening the art of Chinese literature, closer interaction between the selection of Chinese literature and the socio-cultural contexts, reviews and promotions of the translated works, and optimizing the national and international environments of the English translation of Chinese literature.
Key words: English translation, Chinese Literature, canonization.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the existential predicament of a Dalit in the trap of caste politics and feudalism and present the shame and guilt of the doer of the injustice and exploitation which he inflicts on the poor untouchables under the spell of his position, monopoly and authority.
Abstract: Caste identity is not just a question of consciousness; it is a matter of structure, of power. Can the category Dalit merely represent a perspective? Can it just be a standpoint? And what are the tools/ideas/texts that would enable a Dalit perspective? Can a Dalit perspective be divorced from the experience of being termed an untouchable? Untouchability is not a singular experience; what holds Dalits together is the structural fact that they have all been termed untouchable and subjected to exclusions of varying degrees, and their rejection of that identity. Dalit, thus, is related to identity, and at the same time is anti-identity. Untouchability and feudalism exist in India even today in the small villages of South India. A Dalit has no right to voice out in resistance against oppression of the high caste and class feudal lords- this problem is presented through a heart-touching and thrilling story ‘Classmate’ written originally as ‘Sahapathi’ by P. Lankesh. The writer is not only depicting the plight of a Dalit but also presents the shame and guilt of the doer of the injustice and exploitation which he inflicts on the poor untouchables under the spell of his position, monopoly and authority. P Lankesh in ‘Classmate’ attempts to unravel the labyrinths of a decadent feudal order governed by a dehumanizing caste-system. The existential predicament of a Dalit in the trap of caste politics and feudalism is projected by Lankesh. To the usual theme of resistance of the down-troddens, Lankesh brings the subtle dynamics involved in the reality of caste system in India. Instead of bringing in a binary of right and wrong, he gives a holistic view of a social reality that is rooted in the Indian mindscape for centuries.
Key words: Dalit Literature, power, hegemony, mindscape, caste-system, feudalism, identity, oppression, dalit identity, contemporary kannada literature, subjugation, dalit perspective.
TL;DR: Steinbeck's earlier works, "The Vigilante" and In Dubious Battle are described with a tangibly cynical tone towards the nature of man, and the destructive potential of misguided “phalanxes.” However, his later works, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row offer a positive and even hopeful view on the potential of these phalanxes as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Steinbeck’s earlier works, “The Vigilante” and In Dubious Battle are described with a tangibly cynical tone towards the nature of man, and the destructive potential of misguided “phalanxes.” However, his later works, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row offer a positive and even hopeful view on the potential of these phalanxes. The reason for this shift lies within Steinbeck’s development of “influential actors” and their ability to cultivate democratic communities.
Key words: Steinbeck, phalanx, group-man, grapes of wrath, in dubious battle, cannery row, the vigilante, Berardino.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the psychological nexuses of landscape with reference to Sorayya Khan's novel, Noor, while accounting impinges of geographical landscape on the psyche of the characters.
Abstract: Through the different forms of landscape, the writers of South Asia render their texts with an indigenous flavour as well as a universal one. This paper aims to unearth the South Asian novels, Noor and Ladies Coupe with reference to the geographical, psychological and cultural landscape in these works of fiction. The paper will explore the psychological nexuses of landscape with reference to Sorayya Khan’s novel, Noor, while accounting impinges of geographical landscape on the psyche of the characters. Finally, the cultural landscape will be discussed with reference to Anita Nair’s Ladies’ Coupe. Through an exploration of these three forms of landscape an attempt will be made to see how landscape works as an important cohesive device that adds to the psychological, geographical and cultural make-up of a literary text.
Key words: Landscape, indigenous, amorphous memories, diaspora, claustrophobic.
TL;DR: In this paper, Afolabi's Goodbye Lucille and A Life Elsewhere focuses on the issues that have defined Nigerian migrants abroad and highlights the illusions that have made this move a worthless effort.
Abstract: This paper ‘Migration, Disillusionment and Diasperic Experiences in Segun Afolabi’s Goodbye Lucille and A Life Elsewhere’ centres on the issues that have defined Nigerian migrants abroad. The paper seeks to identify the various regrets that have attended Nigerians’ quest for greener pastures abroad. It also focuses on the abandonment syndrome that has characterized the lives of Nigerian professionals abroad. Many Nigerian professionals have abandoned their more lucrative jobs in Nigeria only to go and take dehumanizing and degrading jobs simply because they want to live abroad. This paper also highlights the illusions that have made this move a worthless effort. The various negative tales of the migrants are discussed to validate the assertion that there is no place like home.
Key words: Migration, diaspora, abroad, home, displacement, loneliness.
TL;DR: The second attempt on historical fiction by Dickens and French Revolution is his subject as discussed by the authors, which is set in London, Paris and the French countryside at the time of French Revolution and the whole book is dominated by the guillotinetumbrels thundering to and fro and the bloody knives.
Abstract: Charles Dickens (1812 to 1870) is a foremost representative novelist of the Victorian era, a great story-teller and social reformer. A Tale of Two Cities has always been one of his most popular and best-loved novels. It is the second attempt on historical fiction by Dickens and French Revolution is his subject. Always interested in the interaction between individuals and society, Dickens was particularly inspired by Thomas Carlyle's history, The French Revolution. He saw similarities between the forces that led to the Revolution and the oppression and unrest occurring in England in his own time. Although he supported the idea of people rising up against tyranny, the violence that characterized the French Revolution troubled him. In the preface to his novel he says “to add something to the popular and picturesque means understanding that terrible time”. The story is set in London, Paris and the French countryside at the time of French Revolution. The book is sympathetic to the overthrow of the French aristocracy but highly critical of the reign of terror that followed. The whole book is dominated by the guillotine-tumbrels thundering to and fro and the bloody knives. Actually, these scenes occupy only a few chapters, but they are written with terrible intensity, and the rest of the book is rather slow going. That is why everyone remembers the revolutionary scenes in A Tale of Two Cities. Again and again, he insists upon the meaningless horrors of revolution, the injustice, the ever-present terror of spies, and the frightful blood lust of the mob. The descriptions of the Paris mob, for instance, the crowd of murderers struggling round the grindstone to sharpen their weapons before butchering the prisoners in the September massacres outdo anything. These are the events in the history of France which form the flaming background of A Tale of Two Cities. Its interpretation of the French Revolution has strongly shaped the British views of national identity and political legitimacy. At the same time, it offers a powerful melodramatic plot pitting private individuals against political systems.
Key words: Charles Dickens english novel, french revolution and Shakespeare.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore what is Bildungsroman and its history and how this genre has been tackled distinctively by the third generation African woman novelists, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Abstract: The paper will explore what is Bildungsroman and its history and how this genre has been tackled distinctively by the third generation African woman novelists. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is unique in using the genre Bildungsroman. The political- historical background of the text Purple Hibiscus will be focused on as well as the development of the protagonist Kambili both physically and psychologically in each stage of the changing environment, the awakening of the protagonist about her present condition and aspiration for a better future. At the same time how her interaction with people helped her to gain her self-awareness to stand against the forefront of her father. It will also cover the development of the protagonist to identify the indigenous identity and culture when truth is unfolded before her about the religious hypocrisy of her father. It will also focus on the feeling of exile during the stay at home and the feeling of familiar environment during the stay outside the home in postcolonial Bildungsroman. She explores her feminity and begins redefining her identity as she journeys into adulthood and she also observes the development and growth, the change that has occurred in her brother Jaja. Both the characters are developing in the novel which is marked by Kambili, the protagonist who is the narrator of the novel. The final section will portray how she finally gets the maturity and independence free from the clutches of everything which comes as a barrier for her development.
Key words: Postcolonial, Bildungsroman, identity, third generation woman novelists, freedom.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at Bama's "Sangati" as a narrative of resistance and voicing, and analyze the Dalit woman's voice and question whether it is clearly articulated and heard through a study of Bamas's non-conventional language.
Abstract: Bama is one of the first dalit women writers whose work has been translated into English. While ‘Karukku’ was personal in nature, ‘Sangati’ deals with the community at large: the community of Dalit women who are marginalized both on grounds of caste as well as gender. This paper looks at Bama’s ‘Sangati’ as a narrative of resistance and voicing. Bama loosely strings voices that demonstrate how Dalit women's bodies are scarred by the many burdens of domestic, farm and sexual labour and yet how in ways they are better placed than caste-Hindu women. Touching upon Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern speak?’ the paper reads ‘Sangati’ as a work which gives voice to the doubly marginalized Dalit woman. The paper questions the hegemony of the non-Dalit women writers in claiming to speak for the Dalit women as well as that of the Dalit men who claim to speak for the women. The paper tries to explore how Bama has, through her narrative, especially the form of the autobiography, relocated herself and other Dalit women to the centre and regained their self-esteem and carved out an identity for them. The paper analyses the Dalit woman’s voice and questions whether it is clearly articulated and heard through a study of Bama’s non-conventional language.
Key words: Subaltern, Dalit woman, marginalization, consciousness, identity, caste and gender, voicing.
TL;DR: The authors examined Vonnegut's concretization of the post-modernist theory in writing "an anti-war book" based on his personal experience as a prisoner of war in the second world war.
Abstract: The paper offers a postmodernist reading of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five to verify the long-debated premise that postmodernism really departs from and even challenges the modernist philosophy. The state of epistemological skepticism that throws its shadows on our cognitive apparatus challenges the rationalist ideals; and the state of ontological uncertainty – both intratextually and extratextually – questions the claims of modernism as far as homogeneity, sound meaning and credible representation of the world are concerned. The focal point of this paper is examining Vonnegut’s concretization of the postmodernist theory in writing “an anti-war book” based on his personal experience as a prisoner of war in the second world war. Vonnegut has attempted to blend this serious theme in Slaughterhouse-Five with science fiction and humor. Through the choice of his protagonist – Billy Pilgrim – and the manipulation of various postmodernist techniques, Vonnegut exposes the atrocities of wars by uncovering the heroic facade by which nations mask their real intentions in launching wars, and manifests the moral vacuum that characterizes postwar western societies.
Key words: Postmodernism, American novel, anti-war literature, Vonnegut.
TL;DR: The first main assignment required in the first six weeks of Writing II class was designed on the expressivist approach as discussed by the authors, and students were asked to write a one-page journal entry to reflect on and evaluate their writing experience.
Abstract: The first main assignment required in the first six weeks of Writing II class was designed on the expressivist approach. The article provides an actual class realization when the assignment was given to a group of thirty, English-major students at one Jordanian university. Those six weeks were a mixture of hard work, complaint, excitement, and actual texts produced. An overview of the theoretical basis on which the assignment was built is provided followed by a quick account of how the class was conducted employing expressivist pedagogy. At the end of the sixth week, students were asked to write a one-page journal entry to reflect on and evaluate their writing experience. The article tries to analyze this journal entry to uncover what students learned from doing the assignment and how they evaluated their learning. Analysis reveals that students achieved firsthand knowledge of the writing process and the requirements needed to develop readable effective texts. They finished the assignment believing that they had high potentials, that they could produce texts of good quality and with purpose—just like real writers. In other words, they could write; they could become authors.
Key words: Composition studies, Advanced Writing, expressivist theories, writing workshop.
TL;DR: In view of its radical annihilation of the principle of hierarchy known to monotheistic religions, communism has been set to rival with all religions at once and with Christianity in particular, due to the social and cultural environment where they were both vying for popularity: namely the West as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.» Karl Marx. Communism, in its chauvinistic fervor, often takes the form of a religious section not to say an orthodoxy in its own right. Paradoxically enough, in communism, the world is not there save as a mass of materials and it is for this reason in particular that it offers no room for deity at once. All deities, in its philosophy are considered as a means for the rulers to manipulate the masses. In view of its radical annihilation of the principle of hierarchy known to monotheistic religions, communism has been set to rival with all religions at once and with Christianity in particular, due to the social and cultural environment where they were both vying for popularity: namely the West. From a communist point of view, man is held as the sole responsible for his own deeds and it is only by reference to those deeds that he shall go « up » or « down » in the eyes of his immediate social surrounding. And yet, unconsciously, communism seems to have been perpetrating a lie that has grown into something self-induced.
Key words: Christianity, communism, communists and humanism and Man.