Journal of English Language and Literature (JELL)
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Social Isolation as a Cause of Incest in Latin American Fiction
No full textIn his One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), the Latin American writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez depicts the Buendia family, whose members seem to have a great difficulty marrying and developing sexual relationships with characters outside this family. Marquez portrays these characters as such in order to represent incest and connect it with the social behavior of individuals. The present paper, then, is an attempt to prove that through depicting male as well as female characters as unable to establish healthy relationships with people outside the family, Marquez seems to show that social isolation is one of the key causes to social aberration
The Evolving Self of an Alienated Youth in Ruskin Bond’s “The Room on the Roof”
No full textThis paper examines the growth of Rusty, a teenager alienated protagonist of Ruskin Bond’s novel “The Room on the Roof”, whose gradual development from alienation to self-governance finally provides him with his own self-identity or subjectivity. Alienation, here, means the moment of abjection; however, as a captivating force, it also portrays the gradual process of the evolving self of the protagonist. While doing so, this paper basically focuses on the Theory of Abjection and the Kegan’s Constructive Developmental View as the center of critical attention, while remarkably little attention has been paid to supporting critics as well. Thus, this paper by the end provides us an innovative perspective to perceive adolescent’s identity formation process; focusing on how within abject, in the process of reification, the discarded youth Rusty has resilience and reformative ability to develop own subjective ‘self’
Human Benevolence is Innate to Man as Man Shakespeare’s Art of Characterization with reference to Macbeth
No full textShakespearean tragedies stand out in the history of world’s literature for their influential language, insight into character and dramatic ingenuity. It can be safely established that all of the Shakespearean tragedies are based upon the notion that human benevolence is innate to man as man. The current study focuses upon the notion that the Shakespearean heroes are basically good and noble men whose tragic flaw leads to their obliteration. For instance in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth describes Macbeth as “too full o’ milk of human kindness”. The character of Macbeth gives the picture of dissolution within the individual. The character of Macbeth has been analyzed to assert that he seems to suffer from a variance between his head and heart, his duty and his desire, his reckoning and his emotions. A psychological insight to his character reveals that he knows from the first that he is engaged in a ridiculous act: a distressed and paradoxical struggle. With the aid of research methods including Case Study and Close Reading this Qualitative research highlights Macbeth’s lethal proceedings which not only obliterate his peace of mind but also bring turmoil to the macrocosm of the universe, and shows that along with the king he murders his sense of reasoning as well. Hence this study asserts the idea that Shakespearean heroes possess an inherent goodness corroded by the actions of fate or destiny thus resulting in their tragic downfall
“I was refused an ELT job for being non-native”-- An Insight into the Native Speaker Ideology in ELT
No full textIn English language teaching (ELT), compared with non-native English speaker English teachers (NNESTs), native English speaker teachers (NESTs) seemingly gain prominence and are often taken for granted as better English teachers for non-native speaker students, which is described as the native speaker ideology (NS ideology) in this area. In foregoing research of this issue, much attention has been paid to the comparison of NESTs and NNESTs, or students’ perceptions on NESTs and NNESTs, while studies having a general picture of the NS ideology are scant. On the basis of literature review, the paper is attempted to have an overall picture of the NS ideology in ELT, with a focus on its causes, its effects on English teaching and learning, and its irrational aspects. In the end, corresponding implications for English teaching and learning are proposed based on the foregoing discussions.
Stories in Children’s Literature. An Analysis of Transcendent Language
No full textChildren’s literature plays an essential role in their development through the use of characters that they become familiar with, which become like friends. Stories have become a useful source of information for increasing reading skills, which are necessary for the development of new words. It is through the fiction literature that is based on real-life where children are able to understand traumatic events and complex ideas. They are able to understand life experiences and diversity of the world that they live in. Even with increased learning through literature, the National Literary Strategy conducted a study of words to show that children need 100 words in order to read a “real” children’s book. It is essential to distinguish between ‘restrictive texts,’ which allow for fewer perceptions to take place for active reader judgment of text that enables critical and thoughtful responses
Image Re-presentation in Don DeLillo’s Point Omega
No full textWhile technological advancement and artistic creations have amazingly diversified the (re-)presentation of images, infinite image proliferation becomes an irresistible trend. To resist the subsuming power of the image-laden society, the renewed perceptions and interpretations of the image presentation are explored both in artistic presentation and in literary writing. Point Omega is a convergence of such an attempt. The paper explores how the time-featured image in Point Omega activates new idea, sensuous responses, and self-perception. Point Omega represents Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho which is an adaptation of Hitchcock’s Psycho. By reframing the running speed to two frames a second, Gordon drastically challenges the familiar recognition and interpretation. Writing about Gordon’s work, DeLillo stresses the emergence of various perceptions, imaginations, and association in the video-watching process. No longer resting on the cultural critique on the media society as what has been done in his earlier works, DeLillo marks time as the prominent variable for the emergence of the new and the unknown. Moreover, DeLillo’s image representation highlights the physical condition which is both an essential feature of Gordon’s video installation and the hinge for DeLillo’s distinct writing. For one thing, the emergence of the new and the unthought lies in the interweaving between the spectator’s awareness and imagination of the physicality and his responses to the reframed image. For another, the physicality of the time-reframed image resonates with the desert underscored in the main story. In the story, DeLillo contends about the relation between the time-featured space and the transient self. The desert mirroring the time-featured image renders the distinctive conditions for different self-perception. Hence, the image representation in Point Omega proffers the condition for the unexpected and unthought, reconfigures the selfhood, and, significantly, enacts the alternative writing which trespasses from the filmic to the fictional, from the visual to the verbal
The Breach of Sisterhood and Cultural Transformation in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Vine of Desire
No full textLove, Kindness faithfulness and tolerance are widely recognized traits of feminine sensibility. Women have multifaceted personalities. Many are able to tune themselves according to the ambience they live. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni throws light on immigrant women. She picturesquely portrays the South Asian women’s plight, violence and individuality in a foreign land. The reader may never miss to notice the autobiographical elements in her works. She never misses to take us to her hometown Kolkata in her works. Women and particularly immigrant women are vibrant in her novels. She never portrays women as a weak sex. They strive to establish their identity at home, work place and in a foreign land. Divakaruni vividly portrays how women have to undergo a sea of pain to carve her own identity in the midst of gender and race dominated society. This paper ponders the introversion of immigrant women in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s “The Vine of Desire
Blended Learning in English Instruction---A Case Study of English Department in NCEPU
No full textBlended learning, which is proved to have a promising future, has incomparable advantages in learning and teaching practice. Taking English Department of North China Electric Power University as a case, the status quo of blended learning in college English learning and teaching has been investigated by adopting questionnaires and interviews. The results show that although both students and teachers have rigid demand for blended learning, the satisfactory degree is low. Implications and suggestions are further given to make improvement in terms of multimedia application, teachers, students and managers. By taking both students and teachers into consideration, a comparatively complete description of the status quo of blended learning in English Department of NCEPU has been formed, which set a good example for other departments and at the same time motivates the whole school to update their learning and teaching patterns
Self-Reported Writing Difficulties of Saudi English Majors at Qassim University College of Sciences and Arts: A Survey and Analysis
No full textThis study explored students' own perspectives on their writing challenges. A mixed methods research design combining a quantitative questionnaire with a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews was used. Therefore, the triangulation of data collection techniques was applied in this research. The study was conducted in the Department of English and Translation at Qassim University. 55 students filled 32 items questionnaire and ten were selected for the interview. For the questionnaire data, the descriptive statistics for ordinal Likert-type data include frequency, median, and mode were used. For the qualitative data analysis, the thematic coding was used for analyzing the interview. The obtained results showed that there are different types of writing problems among English language and translation major students at Qassim University. Findings suggest that some difficulties and perspectives are broadly shared by Saudi English students, e.g. struggles with irregularity and the non-phonemic nature of English. Other difficulties tend to evolve as students proceed in their studies. The lack of research into Saudi perspectives on English writing difficulties is emphasized, and further scholarly attention is strongly advised
Subjectivation through the Name-of-the-Father: A Lacanian Reading of William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily
No full textThis paper aims to interpret how the protagonist in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is re-identified under her father and the public’s repression, and to apply Lacan’s theory of “Name-of-the-Father” within two functions: to love and forbid, to analyze how subjectivation takes place regarding a woman in a conservative American southern society. The short story begins with the whole town’s going to Emily Grieison’s funeral and “male” participants are especially stressed on possessing “respectful affection” for her. In such traditional society, it is a common phenomenon that women repressed by patriarchal hegemony live without subjectivity but in Emily’s burial rite, she is finally regarded a “fallen monument” instead of a desubjectivated individual. Emily even represents the “hereditary obligation and duty” in the town where simultaneously a black woman is not allowed to appear on the street without an apron. Due to the female protagonist’s surviving in such social background filled with sexism, the unusual outcome of Emily’s playing a representative “monument” among conservative southerners has aroused the significant issue that how subjectivation ultimately happens to a woman repressed by patriarchy.