5 research outputs found
The Apocalyptic Vision in Modernist and Romantic Poetry: A Comparative Study between T. S Eliot’s The Hollow Men and Lord Byron’s Darkness
No full textThis paper aims to explore how both romantic and modern eras experience a traumatic change that led many writers to delve into an apocalyptic vision. T.S. Eliot (1925) and Lord Byron (1816) are among the poets who hold the apocalyptic. They reflect on the causes and nature of the Apocalypse using different tropes. On the one hand, Eliot (1925) believes that spiritual hollowness in postwar countries leads to destruction, and that the trauma of the Great War turns the European societies upside down. He employs certain images and symbols to illuminate the deadness of western culture. He further uses a fragmented style to reflect the fragmented atmosphere of post war Europe. On the other hand, Byron (1816) believes that the end of the universe comes as a result of the animalistic life in industrial societies. He implements images and symbols to illustrate his apocalyptic view. The use of melancholic mood emphasizes Byron’s pessimistic vision of humanity. The chaotic form of “Darkness” indicates the chaos brought by the industrial revolution. Accordingly, by using a comparative method of data analysis, this paper demonstrates that Eliot focuses on the external perception of the apocalypse while Byron tackles the apocalyptic psychology of the traumatized people. Besides, Eliot uses depersonalization in his poems; whereas, Byron focuses on the individual subjectivity making his poems unable to reach the universal dimension
The Heterotopic Ranch: A Foucauldian Reading of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
No full textAbstract: This paper explores John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937) from the
perspective of Michel Foucault’s heterotopia (1967). Foucault defined a heterotopia as a
space which is separated from ordinary places, yet it reflects the realities these places
belong to.Therefore, this study illustrates how the ranch in Steinbeck’s novella constitutes
a heterotopic space to mirror the American society. First, the gathered people in the ranch
are different from the norms of society, a mentally-disabled Lennie or a maimed Candy,
which makes it a “heterotopia of deviation”. Secondly, Foucault said that heterotopias
might “change their function over time”; the function of the ranch, which is a place for
farming and agriculture, change over time to serve new purposes such as a home or a
refuge. The third principle of heterotopia shown in the ranch is the existence of
“incompatible spaces” within its space. Moreover, the principle of the relationship
between heterotopia and time is reflected in the temporary existence of the ranch in the
journey of workers like George and Lennie. Next, the ranch has its own “system of opening
and closing” as it is exclusive to certain people only such as George and Lennie who
needed a work permit to get there. Finally, the ranch is what Foucault called a “heterotopia
of compensation” as its role is to portray an organized safe place in contrast with the messy
dangerous reality of American society during the Depressio
The Phonological Development in the Speech of Children of Collo at SkikdaSpeechCommunity
No full textThis study investigates phonological acquisition patterns among preschool children (ages 3–5 years, n=20) from the Collo dialect region in Skikda, Algeria, applying Optimality Theory (OT) as the primary analytical framework. Speech data were gathered through standardized picture-naming tasks using 26 black-and-white line drawings depicting culturally familiar concrete objects—such as animals (dog, cat), food items (orange, carrot), and household goods (chair, cup, shoes)—alongside repetition of 10 carefully selected target words that varied systematically in syllable structure (CV, CVC, CCVC, CVCC) and included challenging phoneme sequences and consonant clusters typical of Collo Arabic. All samples received narrow phonetic transcription, enabling detailed descriptive analysis that identified seven distinct phonological processes: assimilatory types (consonant harmony, initial consonant voicing, manner assimilation) and non-assimilatory types (consonant cluster reduction, weak syllable deletion, vowel epenthesis, fronting, backing).Findings revealed pronounced age-based differences: younger children (3–4 years) displayed elevated frequencies of assimilatory processes—for instance, consonant harmony occurring at 100%—driven by markedness constraints that prioritize phonological simplification in immature grammars. In contrast, older children (4–5 years) demonstrated substantially reduced rates across nearly all processes, consistent with OT\u27s core mechanism of constraint reranking, whereby faithfulness constraints progressively outrank markedness ones to produce increasingly faithful adult-like outputs. Non-assimilatory phenomena, including cluster reduction guided by the Sonority Sequencing Principle, persisted across groups but similarly declined with maturation, highlighting unique Collo dialectal characteristics.Although constrained by a modest sample size and single-session protocol, these results provide essential baseline descriptive data on Collo phonological development. They illuminate systematic progress toward target phonology and affirm OT\u27s robustness in modeling dialect-specific acquisition trajectories
The Interplay of Botany and Identity in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men
No full textThis paper seeks to draw parallels between the botanical characteristics of certain trees and plants mentioned in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men—notably the willow, sycamore, alfalfa, and weeds—and the identities of characters such as Lennie, George, Slim, and Curley’s wife. First, the willow symbolizes the grief and harsh working conditions endured by the ranch hands, as its leaves are bitter. Additionally, the willow may evoke the destruction of Willows, California, by dust storms during the Great Depression, reinforcing themes of loss. Second, alfalfa represents the ranch hands’ hope for a prosperous life, as it is a flowering plant with vibrant purple leaves, suggesting vitality and growth. Third, the California sycamore, known for its hard-to-split timber, symbolizes the unity among the ranchers and the tough, bleak atmosphere within the ranch. Finally, the term “weed” refers to an unwanted plant, reflecting the sense of undesirability that follows George and Lennie wherever they go. Weed also symbolizes the various disruptions faced by the ranch hands, as it is as noxious and troublesome as Curley’s wife who frequently causes problems, especially for George and Lennie
Hailsham as an Intimate Space: A Bachelardian Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
No full textThis paper aims to investigate the role played by Hailsham, the fictional boarding school in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, in the mind of its central characters as seen through Gaston Bachelard’s conception of space. The article then aims to explore how the memory of Hailsham works as a coping mechanism for some of the novel’s characters, especially for Kathy. After a brief survey of Bachelard’s spatial criticism, the article then discusses the elements of intimacy in the space of Hailsham and portrays the boarding school as a oneiric house or a childhood home in Bachelard’s terms. By using an analytical method, this study offers an examination of two notions, that of memory and that of imagination, which are built upon the aspect of association and intimacy. Following the development of the plot of Never Let Me Go, the article sheds light on the role played by the so-called “cottages” in the shaping of these character’s relations to themselves, to each other, and to the outside world. This paper opens the door to other critics to read Never Let Me Go from the perspective of other spatial theorists like Mitchel Foucault, Henri Lefevbre, and Edward Soja
