248 research outputs found
Sort by
Theatre as Counter-Discourse: Disrupting Institutional Truth in Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Get PDFThis study presents a Foucauldian interpretation of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, focusing on the interplay of power and truth within modern institutional frameworks. Focusing on Michel Foucault’s theories of power and knowledge, disciplinary practices, and the genealogy of truth, this research paper investigates how the play critiques state institutions particularly the police and judiciary as mechanisms of ideological domination and producers of “official” narratives. The central character’s use of theatrical impersonation serves to disrupt authoritative discourses, reveals how truth is strategically constructed, manipulated for political ends. Through detailed textual analysis and theoretical engagement with Foucault’s works, especially Discipline and Punish and The Archaeology of Knowledge, this research highlights the irrationality and contradictions inherent in bureaucratic systems that assert objectivity while enacting systemic violence. Ultimately, this paper contends that Fo’s play operates as a form of theatrical dissent, using satire to confront institutional truth-making and to expose the performative and unstable nature of justice under authoritarian regimes
Vlogs as Digital Narratives of Psychological War: Unpacking Their Role in Fifth-Generation War in Pakistan
Get PDFThis study explores the role of v-logs as potential channels for 5GW in Pakistan by analyzing their content and the economic sentiments they convey. In the modern digital era, v-logging platforms have become significant instruments for political and sociological influence, particularly within the framework of Fifth-generation War (5GW). Utilizing purposive sample for prominent political and ideological v-logs on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, this study employs qualitative content analysis and automated sentiment analysis to identify patterns of disinformation, and psychological manipulation. These contents emphasize manipulating public perception and conducting psychological operations without traditional military war. Additionally, this research highlights how v-loggers, often presenting as independent commentators, within broader information war networks, whether deliberately or unwittingly. The findings also reveal that many v-logs feature emotionally charged political rhetoric, conspiracy narratives, and framing. The v logging contents are potentially fostering societal division and undermining trust in state institutions. By examining the nexus of v-logging culture and hybrid information and communication war, this research contributes to the growing body of media studies literature in Pakistan on fifth-generation war as well as hybrid war. The study also emphasizes the critical need for enhanced digital media literacy through social media and robust policy frameworks to counter the effects of fifth-generation war tactics
A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistani Instagram Food Blogs
No full textInstagram is one of the social media platforms that cater to the users with infotainment, blogging opportunities, freedom to start or promote businesses, and so on. In addition to these functions, it opens the window to free marketing and advertising. To engage its users, Instagram uses various kinds of semiotic resources, making the content aesthetically appealing. This paper examines how Instagram food blogs control the masses by re-contextualization of discourses to promote neoliberalism and unequal power relation by exploiting multimodal resources. The qualitative content analysis is performed keeping in view the research questions: How various semiotic approaches are deployed by Instagram food blogs in Pakistan? How re-contextualization is used as a marketing tool in food blogs? How food blogs are a source of neoliberalism in Pakistan? This research is conducted to make the implicit impact of the social actors explicit in the context of Instagram food blogs and to unveil the neoliberal market hidden under the cover of infotainment. The descriptive exploratory research design is utilized and the qualitative content analysis is conducted by using posts from six Pakistani food blogs with wide followership. The theory of social semiotics by van Leeuwen (2005) along with notions from Machin and Mayr (2012) is used as a framework to carry out multimodal critical discourse analysis. The analysis shows that food blogs employ visual semiotic resources (images) and verbal resources (captions) to entrap the audience and inject a consumerist ideology in them that promotes neoliberalism in society. The study concludes that bloggers act as social actors who direct the actions of the audience by making capital out of semiotic multimodal resources and it manifests unequal power relations in society because the audience act as consumers and bloggers act as social actors. This research is intended to create awareness by highlighting the changing dimensions of power relationships in the digital world of the 21st century
Cultural Cannibalism: Society's Consumption of a Woman's Body in Han Kang's The Vegetarian
Get PDFThis study focuses on The Vegetarian (2015) by Han Kang to explore how the book is a literary expression of cultural cannibalism the symbolic feeding of the woman on the patriarchal society by social control, moral discipline, and mental control. The paper explores the way the novel reveals the violence inherent in normative femininity and uses the framework of social psychology, and gender performativity created by Judith Butler to explain the bodily transformation of Yeong -hye and her opposition to these patriarchal spaces. the research uses a qualitative research design and thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The results indicate that The Vegetarian depicts food, body, and silence as both the power of repression and subversion. The decision of Yeong-hye not to eat meat is a moral and corporeal resistance that dislodges the performativity of patriarchy, the repetitive social practices that constitute and imprison womanhood. The novel depicts the consumption of the female identity by the society in the form of scenes of familial violence, medical intervention and aesthetic objectification through the pretext of order and sanity. The undoing gender as presented by Butler gives a critical perspective of interpreting the gradual loss of language, appetite, and human identity that Yeong-hye engages in as a extreme form of nonconformity to the societal norm. This final metamorphosis of her into a tree is the breaking of the gender performativity as a symbol of emancipation and destruction. The study concludes that The Vegetarian is an allegory of the reliance of the gendered social order on the female sacrifice. It reveals how the patriarchal culture is perpetuated by cannibalizing the obedience of women, and Yeong-hye self-erasing as a person tells us of the predatory nature of the consumption that results in self-denial. The interdisciplinary work is relevant to the feminist literary studies research by combining the social-psychological theory proposed by Butler and the thematic literature analysis, as it provides a new understanding of the intersection of body, gender, and resistance in the East Asian feminist literature
Bridging the Gap: Fostering Inclusive Education for Students with Learning Disabilities
Get PDFLearning disabilities (LDs) afflict millions of students, posing unique challenges to overall academic success and the general well-being of a child. This paper seeks to investigate the major impact special education has on catering to the many learning needs of these students and establishing inclusive educational settings. It sets out to describe the various types of learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, and outlines their effects on the processes of learning. This paper stresses the importance of early diagnosis and provides support for shortcomings connected with LD by emphasizing the advantages of timely and relevant intervention. It will also focus on evidence-based instructional strategies, such as multisensory instruction, explicit instruction, and assistive technology that can help this population fill the holes in the learning process due to LDs. This paper states that collaboration among teachers, parents, specialists, and students themselves in the development and implementation of IEPs is equally pertinent. Moreover, it discusses the IEP process, setting out the need for measurable goals, adequate accommodations, and proper progress monitoring. Finally, this paper advocates for the establishment of inclusive classes where children with LDs feel supported, recognized, and encouraged to reach their full potential. Differentiated instruction, the fostering of a growth mindset, and promoting social- emotional learning all dovetail into making resilient schools with robust learning settings for each and every child
Organizational Culture at Home: A Belonging Sense Developer
Get PDFOrganizational Culture at home is not a traditional review to understand the relevance of it to family organizational development. But today’s researchers like Velez, S., Rosario, I., Mendez, V & Vargas, L. (2016) and Velez-Candelario (2019), who examine the organizational behavior at home for the first time, observed and measure the family as a socioeconomic organization including the Organizational Culture as a one of the main areas to develop. These researchers exposed that a successful organizational development at home will depend on a well define organizational culture that enhances the belonging sense of the family members. They explain that depending on the family members’ cultural manifestation at home, a sense of belonging will be strong, unifying the members’ organization and enhancing their leaders’ influence or not. It is bibliographical research in a monographs format that will guide the lector to understand this phenomenon of the family organizational culture and the influence of it to enhance the belonging sense of this socioeconomic organization. This analysis will expose how belonging sense helps to develop the family group cohesion to work together to reach their vision, mission and goals, capable of delivering a healthy and productive human capital to their macro-economic system
Narratives Across Media: Cultural and Structural Transformations in Literary Adaptations for Screen
Get PDFThis study offers a comparative narratological analysis of three canonical literary texts and their respective screen adaptations: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1993) and its BBC television adaptation (2020), Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847) and its 2009 film version, and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606) reimagined as Maqbool (2004) by Vishal Bhardwaj. Drawing on classical narratology (Genette), transmedial narratology (Ryan, Wolf), and adaptation theory (Hutcheon, Stam), the study explores how narrative structures, focalization, character functions, and thematic concerns are transformed in the shift from print to screen. Through close reading and scene-by-scene comparative analysis, this study reveals both the compression and restructuring of plot and the shift from complex narratorial focalization to cinematic focalization strategies. While A Suitable Boy retains the socio-political texture of post-Partition India in a streamlined romantic narrative, Wuthering Heights sacrifices its Gothic layering and narrative complexity in favor of a linear romantic tragedy. Maqbool, by contrast, serves as a culturally situated reworking of Macbeth, replacing its metaphysical fatalism with a psychological, emotionally driven narrative rooted in the Mumbai underworld. The study finds that adaptation is not merely an act of translation, but a form of cultural and narrative negotiation shaped by medium-specific affordances, ideological repositioning, and local context. These adaptations highlight the dynamic interplay between narrative form, audience reception, and cultural meaning, contributing to evolving theories of transmedial storytelling. This research advances the understanding of adaptation as a multidimensional dialogue across media, genres, and cultures, with pedagogical and theoretical implications for literary, film, and cultural studies
The World on Fire: The Role of Trumpism in Global Conflict
Get PDFTrumpism marks a crucial transformation in the power dynamics of contemporary international politics. Emerging as a defining force, Trumpism rooted in unilateralism, selective intervention and interest-driven engagement has profoundly reshaped the strategic directions of the United States foreign policy. The article examines how Trumpism has replaced multilateral consensus with transactional diplomacy and pragmatic realism. Employing a qualitative research design within the theoretical framework of offensive realism, the research examines three critical conflicts of contemporary era: The Russian-Ukraine War, The Gaza Conflict and the 2025 India-Pakistan escalation. The findings reveal that Trumpism advances a strategic rationale centered on power maximization and national self-interest rather than normative diplomacy and collective security. The insights carry significant implications for global peace, the erosion of multilateralism and the future of international order
Effectiveness of an AI-Assisted Cognitive Load Management Intervention to Improve Geometry Performance Among Students with Learning Disabilities: An Experimental Study
Get PDFChildren with learning disabilities (LDs) often experience the cognitive overload. It makes mathematics, and more specifically geometry, particularly challenging for them. Traditional instructional approaches usually fail to address the unique cognitive needs of LD students. This study developed and evaluated an AI-Assisted Cognitive Load Management Strategy (AI-CLMS) for improving geometry performance in LD students. AI-CLMS was designed to manage the cognitive load in LD students using AI platforms which can provide adaptive and personalized instructions. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate whether the AI-CLMS is an effective strategy to improve geometry performance in LD students. A total of 32 purposively selected students were randomly assigned to a control group (n=16) and an experimental group (n=16). The experimental group received three weeks intervention through an AI platform incorporating CLT principles such as content segmenting and progressive complexity while the control group continued with traditional instructions. An 18-item Geometry Performance Assessment (KR-20 = 0.74) was used as a pre-test and post-test data collection tool. Descriptive statistics, Shapiro-Wilk tests, Levene’s test, t-tests and Cohen’s d were performed for data analysis. The data analysis revealed that there was no significant difference in baseline scores of both groups (p = .944). The control group didn’t show significant improvement in post-test (p = .518). Whereas the improvement in post-test scores of the experimental group was significant (t (15) = -4.84, p < .001, d=2.87). Post-test between group comparisons also revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group (t (30) = -4.68, p < .001) with a large effect size (d = 1.65). These results confirmed that AI-CLMS is an effective strategy to improve the mathematical performance among the LD students. Findings of this study also confirm that AI platforms can be effectively integrated with CLT in order to improve learning in special education
Impacts of Spotlight Effect on Performance Anxiety and Self-Confidence Among Athletes in University of Port Harcourt
Get PDFThis study investigates the impacts of the spotlight effect on performance anxiety and self-confidence among athletes in University of Port Harcourt. The spotlight effect refers to the tendency of individuals to over-estimate the extent to which they are the focus of others’ attention, which can lead to heightened anxiety and diminished confidence, especially in competitive sports environments. The research employed a quantitative approach, using a structured questionnaire divided into four sections: demographic information, performance anxiety, self-confidence, and coping strategies. The sample size consisted of 60 undergraduate athletes, both male and female, representing various sports disciplines. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and one-way ANOVA to assess differences based on gender and sport type (team vs. individual). The findings revealed a significant relationship between the spotlight effect and increased performance anxiety, with male athletes experiencing higher levels of anxiety compared to females. Additionally, athletes participating in individual sports reported lower self-confidence under the spotlight effect than those involved in team sports. The analysis of coping strategies highlighted that athletes employ various techniques, including relaxation exercises, mental visualization, and peer support, to mitigate the negative impacts of the spotlight effect. The study concludes that the spotlight effect significantly influences athletes’ psychological states, affecting their anxiety levels and self-confidence, with notable differences across gender and sport type. It recommends targeted mental training programs, gender-specific support, and simulation of high-pressure environments to help athletes manage the pressures of being observed during competition. These interventions could contribute to improving overall athletic performance and well-being