International Journal of Literature Studies
The International Journal of Literature Studies (ISSN: 2754-2610) is a monthly publication that aims to provide a scholarly platform for the dissemination of high-quality research in all areas of literary studies. Its scope encompasses a wide range of topics, including but not limited to comparative literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural and interdisciplinary approaches, modern and classical literature, and emerging trends in narrative studies. The journal seeks to promote critical dialogue among scholars, foster innovative perspectives, and support the global exchange of ideas that advance the understanding and appreciation of literature across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts.
Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development
Beyond the Mirror: Gaze, Resistance, and the Reconstruction of Subjectivity in Jane Eyre
This paper explores the reconstruction of female subjectivity in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre through the lens of gaze theory, integrating existentialist, feminist, and Foucauldian perspectives. It argues that Jane’s trajectory represents a radical struggle for visual liberation against the pervasive social and institutional control of nineteenth-century Britain. The study examines Jane’s initial suppression under the disciplinary surveillance of Lowood School and the romantic objectification she encounters at Thornfield Hall. By developing a defiant perspective, Jane evolves from a fragmented object of observation into a self-determined subject. The analysis focuses on her resistance to the various ways men attempt to categorize her, such as Edward Rochester’s mythological framing and St. John Rivers’ instrumental approach. A pivotal moment occurs during her declaration of equality, which functions as a direct challenge to traditional power hierarchies. Finally, the research suggests that Rochester’s physical blindness and Jane’s economic independence signify the total collapse of oppressive visual structures. By assuming the role of the primary observer at Ferndean, Jane secures the right to define her own reality. Ultimately, the novel demonstrates that true liberation is achieved when a woman moves beyond being a mere spectacle and asserts her own internal vision.
Jane Eyre ; Gaze Theory; Female Subjectivity; Male Gaze ;Resistance
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From Watching to Narrating: Thirdspace and Female Experience in The Mai
Irish playwright Marina Carr’s The Mai, on the surface, depicts the marital tragedy of the mother Mai and reveals the emotional predicament of Irish women within the cyclical patterns of family and history. At the level of narration, however, the daughter Millie’s ways of watching and telling stand in tension with that content. Her gaze shifts from standing at the window to watching her mother looking outward, transforming the inherited posture of intergenerational looking from unconscious repetition into a spatial practice open to reflection. The ensuing “Aleph-like” voice-over breaks linear time, juxtaposing past and present, reality and imagination within synchronic scenes and making language itself a medium for the “production” of space. Through the interweaving of the window and the voice-over, the play constructs a Thirdspace that combines constraint and resistance, allowing female experience to be seen again and the tragic cycle to be transformed into an open narrative practice. In this way, the play responds to the contemporary feminist-narratological orientation that values both narrative form and social context.
Marina Carr; The Mai; Thirdspace; spatial narration; female experience
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Literature Studies
The Beauty of Death: “Archetypes” in Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelly and Emily Dickinson
Percy Bysshe Shelley is a central figure in British Romanticism whose works explore philosophical issues such as life, death, fate, and freedom through depictions of nature. These themes are closely intertwined with inner conflict, spiritual transcendence, and the pursuit of beauty. On the other hand, Emily Dickinson is one of the most influential poets in 19th-century American literature. Her poetry delves into profound themes of life, death, and faith, showcasing her continuous questioning of the true nature of existence. Although Shelley and Dickinson differ in writing style and emotional expression, both share a deep focus on the meaning of death and the relationship between life and death. Through symbolic imagery such as death, rebirth, elements of nature, and figures of the hero or anti-hero, both poets convey universal human emotions and collective experiences. While there is no shortage of research on the poetry of Shelley and Dickinson, few scholars have compared their works through the lens of Jungian Archetypal Theory. This paper tries to fill this gap by exploring the “beauty of death” embedded in the two poets’ works by analyzing the archetypal features in their poems from three perspectives—Self, Hero, and Shadow. Meanwhile, the paper also seeks to inspire readers to rethink the relationship between life and death.
Ayyar and Ayyari: From Genealogy to Historical Background
The present study, entitled “Ayyar and Ayyari: From Genealogy to Historical Background,” examines one of the most influential cultural–social movements in the history of Afghanistan. Rooted in the pre-Islamic tradition of futuwwa and chivalry, Ayyari gradually merged with Islamic teachings and Sufism, embodying values such as magnanimity, self-sacrifice, loyalty, generosity, courage, discretion, and independence. The primary aim of this research is to analyze the structure, principles, and linguistic as well as cultural features of the Ayyars, while its secondary objective is to explore the historical and geographical development of the Ayyari movement and its regional variations. The study employs a descriptive–analytical methodology based on an inductive approach, integrating data from library research, field observations, and interviews. Historical and geographical sources, along with previous scholarly studies, were first reviewed, followed by an analysis of literary texts to identify concrete evidence of the relationship between the rituals, customs, and social practices of the Ayyars. The findings reveal that the Ayyars maintained a coherent social organization under the leadership of a designated master or spiritual guide. Their distinctive attire—such as two-colored garments, shortened footwear, staffs, travel bags, and symbolic sashes—served as markers of identity and reflected their independence from formal political authorities. Ethical principles, including initiating greetings, fidelity to promises, and support for the disadvantaged, were directly evident in their social conduct and indirectly reflected in literary expression. Linguistically, specialized Ayyari terminology entered everyday speech and later became part of formal literature, contributing to the formation of a popular and oral layer within the literary tradition. In Afghanistan, Ayyari preserved its local characteristics over centuries and, during critical socio-political periods, functioned as a voice for the marginalized and a critique of power. The study concludes that Ayyari should be understood not merely as a historical phenomenon but as a living cultural heritage that continues to inspire contemporary literature, highlighting the need for further comparative, linguistic, and field-based research.
Viewing Little Women through Gendered Lenses: Interpretive Differences in a Film Adaptation
This study examined the intricate relationship among gender, literature, and education to determine how gender influenced interpretations of the 2019 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Using a qualitative method, this study involved ten purposively selected participants from the Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED) major in English programs at Mindanao State University–Main Campus, Bataraza Extension (MSU-MCBE), and Palawan State University–Brooke’s Point Campus (PSU-BPC). Three primary research instruments were employed to gather data: Focus Group Discussion (FGD), In-Depth Interviews (IDI), and Written Open-Ended Questions. Findings revealed that while participants largely agreed on the film’s themes, female participants demonstrated an understanding of the character’s struggles with societal expectations and an appreciation for the film’s exploration of female agency and individuality. Male participants tended to focus more on the expectations placed on men during that period and on established power structures. When participants with more traditional beliefs viewed the movie through a lens of conformity and traditional expectations, the study also demonstrated the impact of internalized gender prejudice. The study also showed that the participants’ judgments were influenced by their educational backgrounds, personal experiences, and cultural backgrounds, demonstrating an intricate knowledge of how gender roles are changing. This study showed how literature both reflects and challenges social norms, underscoring the significance of incorporating gender perspectives into literary analysis and instruction.
Gender Perspective, Literary Analysis, Gender Roles
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A Stylistic Study of Postposing in Knowers Monologue of Al-Imam Al-Sajjad (Peace be upon him)
Literary language has long held a distinctive status, characterized by its style and distinct from ordinary linguistic conventions. Such style, manifested through various forms of linguistic variation, is a core feature of literary language. One notable syntactic device in literary language is postposing, which involves delaying an element to the end of a clause to achieve stylistic effects such as emphasis and textual effectiveness. This study examines postposing stylistically in The Knowers’ Monologue of Al-Imam Al-Sajjad (peace be upon him), attempting to identify the purposes served by this construction. An eclectic analytical model is adopted, combining Huddleston and Pullum’s (2002) syntactic framework with Oliva and Serrano’s (2013) stylistic approach. Hence, the study aims at exploring the role of the postposing constructions in Knowers’ Monologue, identifying the types of postposing constructions, and discovering the most common type of postposing employed in that Monologue. The study concludes that Knowers’ Monologue employs two types of postposing construction, subject postposing and verb postposing and uses powerful and diverse rhyme.
Stylistics, Linguistic Levels of Stylistics, Syntax, Information Packaging Constructions, Postposing
Domestic Violence in the Ghanaian Context: Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon in Perspective
In the majority of African nations as well as other communities worldwide, domestic violence is not a recent issue. Based on a person's gender, violence against them is common and increasingly common. Sadly, marital violence that results in murder is also on the rise. In an effort to put a stop to the problem, numerous studies have been done on what causes and fosters gender violence. The analysis of domestic abuse in Amma Dark Beyond the Horizon is examined in this paper. This study examines how Darko depicts domestic abuse in her novel and how it impacts women. This study demonstrates that religion, culture, and tradition are significant factors in sex variation, gender identity conception, and energy sharing in the text selected by its theme of patriarchy and oppression of women. It also shows how socially constructed identities and roles in patriarchal countries fuel social and national conflict. The study used the feminist viewpoint and Radical Feminism theory to analyze themes and the symbolic portrayal of characters. This is because knowledge theories about a person's biological sex and gender identity and how they impact power sharing, as well as the role of religion, tradition, laws, and the prevailing ideology in the continuation of gender-based violence, must be considered in analyses of gender relations. The feminist voice must battle against gender radicalism because Darko's work strongly condemns domestic abuse and the portrayal of women as objects. Darko’s writing portrays a strong call against gender violence and the treatment of women as subjects, therefore calling for the feminist voice to fight against gender radicalism.
Domestic violence, patriarchy, Radical Feminism, sex.
Networked Spectrality and the Glocal Mediation of Cultural Anxiety in Digital Horror
Digital horror operates not only as a mode of fear production but as a site for immersive psychological and existential engagement, employing a wide range of narrative strategies and aesthetic forms. A defining feature of many digital horror texts is their reliance on participatory spectatorship, requiring audiences to interpret symbols, navigate fragmented archives, and actively reconstruct meaning. These practices articulate contemporary anxieties surrounding surveillance, dislocation, identity instability, and existential uncertainty. This study examines selected digital horror narratives to analyze their formal and aesthetic configurations in relation to their broader cultural, ethical, and transnational circulation. In doing so, it demonstrates how digital horror reconfigures traditional cultural motifs within globally circulating media frameworks, revealing the mutability of cultural memory and the destabilization of tradition within networked environments.
Digital horror, glocalization, cultural anxiety
Reimagining Fables: Power and Intertextual Dialogues in Kalila and Dimna and Eggers’ Narrative
This study examines the intertextual deployment of the fable in a contemporary narrative through a comparative reading of Kalila and Dimna and Dave Eggers’ The Eyes of the Impossible. Classical fables such as Kalila and Dimna have exerted a sustained influence on literary traditions across cultures, shaping moral discourse, narrative authority, and representations of power. Drawing on cultural theory, comparative literature, and close textual analysis, the study applies a Foucauldian and intertextual framework to examine how power is constructed, negotiated, and contested in both texts. Through allegory and anthropomorphic characterization, the two works explore hierarchical relations, social conflict, and the psychological dimensions of authority. The analysis demonstrates that while Kalila and Dimna foregrounds power through counsel, balance, and hierarchical order, Eggers reconfigures fable conventions to address modern mechanisms of control, including surveillance, institutional regulation, and habitus. By expanding the fable beyond moral instruction, Eggers transforms it into a critical narrative form that interrogates freedom, individual agency, and the relational nature of authority. The study concludes that both texts ultimately emphasize balance, consultation, and imaginative freedom as essential conditions for just and sustainable power
fable tradition, intertexuality, power and tradition
“To be, or not to be”: Has Hamlet’s Famous Line been Misunderstood?
Shakespeare’s "To be, or not to be" is perhaps the most famous line in English literature, yet it remains frequently reduced to a mere contemplation of suicide. This paper challenges that traditional interpretation, arguing instead that the soliloquy represents a complex philosophical inquiry into morality, the nature of existence, and the ethics of revenge. By examining the linguistic limitations encountered in translation—specifically within Arabic interpretations—the study demonstrates how translating the ambiguous syntax of the verb "to be" often forces a reductionist reading of "suicide versus life," thereby stripping the text of its inherent subtlety. Furthermore, this article contextualizes the soliloquy within the play’s immediate dramatic action. It argues that Hamlet’s meditation is not the result of paralyzed melancholia, but rather a calculated performance intended for the eavesdropping King Claudius and Polonius. By highlighting Hamlet’s contradictions regarding the afterlife and his simultaneous, active planning of the "mousetrap," this paper posits that the speech serves a dual purpose: it is both a genuine moral interrogation of the validity of private revenge and a strategic deployment of feigned madness designed to mislead his enemies. Ultimately, this analysis suggests that a faithful understanding of the soliloquy requires looking beyond the text to the staging, the ambiguity of language, and the strategic intellect of the protagonist.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, To be or not to be, Soliloquy, Literary Translation, Feigned Madness, Revenge, Moral Dilemma.
Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
The Versatile Language of Absurd World in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party
Pinter writes The Birthday Party in an absurd dead language, but he does not exclude the compassions, love, kindness, menace and good manners. It is known that absurdity is a philosophical concept that refers to individual’s attempt to find reason in this life, which is thwarted by human limited constraints where the existence has no meaning. Pinter through his versatile language, does not exclude compassionate sense in an absurd drama. He does not exclude how to sympathize with Stanly by audience as an oppressed person. Meg shows well-mannered towards Stanly in spite of hardships of absurd language and behaviors. Pinter consolidates human actions in one drama through artistic language in an absurd drama. Language plays the role of hero to imitates the chaos of human beings. Absurdity is dominant in everything and everyone, even language and life itself nowadays.
Absurd World; Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party; compassions; love, kindness, menace; good manners
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Expectations of Pamela’s Presentation of Herself and Her Situation in Her Narrative
Samuel Richardson is widely considered the first author to promote the epistolary novel in the 18th century with his popular novel Pamela. Richardson claimed that epistolary novels would help close the distance between readers and characters, helping them understand the physical and mental basis from which protagonists drew inspiration when writing letters. However, it is immediately apparent that Pamela is based on only one character: the eponymous Pamela. In contrast to the primary argument that epistolary novels possess a distinct edge over other formats due to the variety of perspectives represented through letters, Pamela, in presenting only one point of view, prevents readers from accessing other characters with the same intimacy. Essentially, readers are assessing all the other characters solely through Pamela’s perspective, a quality that is oppositional to what the reader expects from the epistolary format. Richardson is regarded for his ability to imbue Pamela’s letters with an authentic female voice that channels the feminine concerns and sensibilities of his time. Nevertheless, readers develop biased interpretations of the other characters due to Pamela’s emotional, naïve disposition. While Pamela’s letters are part of the novel’s realism, they simultaneously serve to weaken the verisimilitude of this novel. For example, in one of Pamela’s letters, she writes, “My young Master” (11). This salutation could be interpreted in many different ways, influencing the readers’ understanding of her intentions. In this essay, I will explore both Richardson’s technique and role in expanding and popularizing the epistolary novel as well as the textual evidence in Pamela that undermines her credibility as a narrator and casts her virtue into question.
Epistolary Novel, Narrative Manipulation, Unreliable Narrator, Pamela, Samuel Richardson, Female Voice, Verisimilitude, Virtue
Hybrid Identity and the Deconstruction of Colonial Myth In Toer’s Novels Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa
This study analyses how Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa expose and deconstruct colonial assumptions about race, gender, and power dynamics in the Dutch East Indies, while portraying hybrid identities as a means of cultural resistance. This research integrates postcolonial and decolonial frameworks, utilizing a qualitative-descriptive methodology to conduct a comprehensive examination of the story, characters, and ideological symbols within the text. The study's findings indicate that characters like Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh employ language, education, and morality as instruments for decolonizing consciousness, whereas Annelies, Robert Mellema, and Jan Dapperste exhibit a range of hybridity from conflict and rejection to interracial solidarity. Colonial myths regarding Western superiority and Eastern inferiority are articulated and subsequently deconstructed through narratives that validate universal humanity. Pramoedya's oeuvre delineates colonial tensions while also establishing a novel epistemological framework grounded in ethics, labour, and human dignity. This article asserts that literature serves as a reflecting and liberating tool for decolonial consciousness in Indonesia.
hybridity, colonial, decolonial, colonial myth, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
On the Violence of Silence: The Intergenerational Transmission Mechanism of Implicit Family Trauma in 'night, Mother
Marsha Norman’s one-act play 'night, Mother (1979) centers on a 90-minute conversation after the daughter informs her mother of her suicide plan. With its almost brutal theme of "suicide," the play condenses the life crisis under the silent violence of the family—an achievement that earned Norman the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and established the work as a classic Broadway production. Through the tragic fate of the daughter Jessie, the trauma-internalization mechanism of the family’s silent system can be clearly observed in shaping her individual life. The father’s emotional neglect, the mother’s discursive evasion, and Jessie’s "self-silence" (a result of trauma internalization) together form an invisible power structure. As a form of structural violence, silence leads to the disintegration of individual existence through the logic of "discourse suppression → trauma normalization → behavioral compensation." Essentially, Jessie’s suicide is a desperate resistance against the "unspeakable pain" embedded in the family’s power structure. 'night, Mother not only provides a literary model for understanding the implicit trauma caused by silence but also offers an effective perspective for examining social and family issues in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Transformation of Taoist Philosophy into Deep Image in W. S. Merwin's Poetry
Eastern philosophies have undeniably left an indelible mark on the American poetry scene in the twentieth century, with the Deep Image school standing as representative. This paper focuses on how American poet W. S. Merwin realizes the transformation of Chinese Taoism into the Western deep image poetry. In the collection of poems, The Shadow of Sirius, the Taoism of reconciliation with death is transformed into the exploration of the collective unconscious. Simultaneously, the natural view of the unity of heaven and man is transformed into the communication of the image of “The third body”, skillfully effectuating the transformation of Eastern philosophy into Western poetics, employing diverse avenues of poetic expression.
Cultural Depiction of Prostitution and Poverty in The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon and In Darkest London
This discussion looks at two of the landmark texts on the themes of prostitution and urban poverty in late Victorian Britain: The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (1885) by W. T. Stead and In Darkest London (1889) by Margaret Harkness. The paper will also look at how the two writers deal with the epidemic childhood sexualization, rampant poverty and institutional insensitivity by the established authority especially in the infamous slums of the East End in London. In this example by Stead, the story would serve as a weapon of investigative journalism that aims to induce outrage and arouse the moral anger of the people in order to create the necessary pressure that would succeed in changing the law. Employing sensationalism of journalism and evocative language, Stead deliberately propagates a moral panic to reveal how female innocence is commodified and those with seemingly big power are accomplices to it. By contrast, the difference between the literary style of Harkness and her realist prose with its explicit description of poverty-stricken life of people living in the urban area and the strength of these people contrasting the inefficiency of the existing institutions is quite startling. The influence of the most visible themes in the two works is the gender aspects of social suppression, the commercial and feminine exploitation of female weakness, the hypocrisy of the moral meaning displayed by governing classes, and the failure of state and humanitarian monitoring. By making use of thorough investigations into primary sources and interactions with secondary sources, the analysis determines that both Stead and Harkness apply journalistic sensationalism and social realism interchangeably, not only using these literary forms as the means of narration but as tools of social awareness and critical social thinkers. Although the stylistic and ideological distinctions that distinguish between two authors are big, both of them are successful at turning their literary works into a kind of socio-political activism that reflects on the laxity of readers and highlights the institutionalized ills of Victorian London.
Prostitution - Slums - Gender Oppression - Social Criticism - Victorian London
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Patriarchy and Racism: The Female Lament in Eat a Bowl of Tea
Eat a Bowl of Tea, the only novel by Chinese American author Louis Chu, first published in 1961, is regarded as a significant contribution to the field of Chinese American literature. Set within the context of Chinatown’s bachelor society, the novel realistically portrays the lived experiences of early Chinese immigrants in the United States through the marital narrative of Ben Loy and Mei Oi. Existing scholarship has focused mainly on the representation of male characters in the novel, while critical attention to female figures remains relatively limited. In response to this gap, this study centres on three distinctly characterized female figures, Lau Shee, Mei Oi, and the Jook Sing girls in the novel, and examines their lived realities and struggles under the dual pressures of patriarchal traditions within the Chinese immigrant community and systemic racism in American society, thereby revealing the structural oppression produced by the intersection of gender and ethnicity.
Eat a Bowl of Tea, Female Images, Patriarchy, Racism
On the Evolution of Class Struggle Thought in Sean O’Casey’s Plays
Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) is one of the proletarian playwrights in 20th-century Irish literature. Through a careful examination of O’Casey’s plays with close reading, a discernible trajectory in the evolution of class struggle thought can be found. In his early work, The Harvest Festival (1918 or 1919), the protagonist Jack began to develop the thought of class struggle. In The Plough and the Stars (1926), the third play of his “Dublin Trilogy”, O’Casey reflected on the class struggle within the context of Irish nationalism with the portrayal of a marginal character, Covey. By the 1940s, he returned to the theme of class struggle in The Star Turns Red (1940) and Red Roses for Me (1942), demonstrating a deepening exploration. The evolutionary process of class struggle thought exhibited in the plays is essentially a mirror of the playwright’s ideological evolution. The formation of O’Casey’s class struggle thought stems not only from his personal life experiences but also from the international context. Examining O’Casey’s class struggle thought reveals that he is not merely an anti-war playwright as traditionally interpreted, but rather a playwright who attaches great importance to the class struggle as a means to fight for freedom and liberation, thereby providing a more comprehensive interpretation of his political stance.
Sean O’Casey, class struggle, the proletariat, ideological evolution, Irish plays
How Diversely a Narrator use Digital Rhetoric and Personal Rhetoric Depending on the Scenario?
In communication, the use of rhetorical devices is integral to persuading, engaging one another, and communicating messages effectively. Multimodal tools like images, memes, and interactivity add layers of meaning to rhetoric in digital spaces; however, personal communication is dependent on spontaneity and non-verbal cues. The study analyses how rhetorical strategies differ when applied to digital versus personal interactions and how they adapt to different communicative contexts. Based on thematic analysis of existing academic literature — peer-reviewed journals and conference papers — we identified key rhetorical patterns that were indicative of digital and personal communication. Digital rhetoric highlights ethos and pathos as a means of communal amplification, which can also be used in interactivity. In contrast, personal rhetoric is much more logos-oriented, with its firm grounding in rational reasoning and relational ethos. In addition, personal rhetoric is more convincing since it has more credibility by establishing authority, while digital rhetoric is more interactive. The importance of rhetorical adaptation is significant to marketing, education, and digital engagement. Future studies should examine the AI-enhanced rhetoric and the growing influence of this technology on human interaction.
Rhetorical devices, digital communication, social media, personal narratives, thematic analysis
Book Review: Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching by Tan Bee Tin (2022)
Tan Bee Tin’s Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching (2022) presents a thorough and critical examination of creativity’s role in language education, blending theoretical analysis with practical classroom applications. The book challenges conventional views of creativity as an optional or peripheral element in teaching, arguing instead for its central importance in fostering meaningful and dynamic language learning experiences. Through twelve well-structured chapters, Tin explores diverse dimensions of creativity, including its definitions, theoretical models (such as the 4Ps—Person, Process, Product, Press—and the 5As—Actor, Action, Artifact, Audience, Affordances), and its intersections with heuristics, constraints, and even algorithmic thinking. The book stands out for its interdisciplinary approach, drawing from applied linguistics, cognitive psychology, and pedagogy to present creativity as a multifaceted, context-dependent process that involves novelty, intentionality, and value. A key strength of the book lies in its balance between theory and practice. Tin not only deconstructs abstract concepts but also provides over 60 practical tasks designed to help teachers integrate creativity into their lessons. These activities reflect decades of research and classroom experience, offering concrete strategies to nurture creative language use among learners. The discussion on constraints is particularly insightful, demonstrating how limitations can paradoxically enhance creativity rather than stifle it. However, the review notes that the depth of theoretical discussion, while valuable, may be overwhelming for some readers, and additional real-world classroom examples could further strengthen the book’s applicability. Despite this, Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching succeeds as both a scholarly resource and a practical guide, urging educators to move beyond superficial creative exercises and instead embed creativity as a foundational element of language pedagogy. Tin’s work ultimately redefines creativity not as a supplementary tool but as an essential, transformative force in language teaching and learning.
A Wound Made Local: Seamus Heaney's 'Irishification' of Myth in The Cure at Troy
This paper delves into The Cure at Troy, a dramatic work by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, which is a modern adaptation of Philoctetes by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles. From the perspective of adaptation, this study meticulously analyzes how Heaney, through his adaptive practice, reconstructed the original work's fundamental structure, character portrayals, and themes. The article aims to reveal Heaney's motivations for adaptation, the techniques and strategies employed, and to evaluate its impact on contemporary literature. Heaney's adaptation is not merely a literary innovation but also embodies profound political significance. Firstly, his adaptation carries clear political intent; secondly, he employed diverse adaptive methods, boldly reshaping and innovating the plot and dramatic structure; finally, Heaney's adaptation strategies offer significant reference and inspiration for subsequent Irish writers dealing with Greek tragedy.
Seamus Heaney; Philoctetes; The Cure at Troy; Adaptation Strategies
Wandering and Freedom: A Lacanian Reading of Subjectivity in The Adventures of Augie March
The Adventures of Augie March, a seminal work by Saul Bellow, descripts the protagonist Augie's wandering and self-exploration in mid-20th century American society. Augie is not a traditional hero; instead, he constructs a dynamic and fragmented subjectivity through a series of choices, failures, and existential reflections. This paper applies Jacques Lacan's theory of subjectivity as its analytical framework, tracing four stages in Augie’s development: childhood (mirror stage), adolescence (symbolic order), adulthood (split subject), and ongoing future (lack and becoming). It explores how Augie negotiates the question "Who am I?" in the tension between external social discipline and inner desire. The novel, with its open ending and resistance to narrative closure, critiques the traditional American Dream and offers a profound literary reflection on modern identity.
Amin Maalouf’s Leo The African : Between Self-Orientalism and Reconstructing Identity
This paper explores the fictional world of Amin Maalouf both as a manifestation of World Literature in French, and as an exceptionnal diasporic voice, while problematizing Maalouf’s positionality as an exophonic writer grappling with issues of language, exile, and identity. It further questions Maalouf’s engagement with the essentialist Logic characteristic of self-Orientalist/exoticist rhetoric, and thus speculates on his involvement -by accident or by design-with the machinery of the global capitalist marketplace and the publishing industry. The paper incidentally invites the reader to envisage Maalouf’s literary opus Leo The African (1986) as a market commodity making its way through the international circuits of book trade dissemination, and to further examine the discursive strategies mobilized by both author and publisher to promote the circulation of Maalouf’s text on a planetary scale.
Amin Maalouf; exophonic; World Literature; Self-Orientalism; Leo The African; Global market
Pagellu as Cultural Praxis: Embodied Social Values in Torajan Traditional Dance
Traditional dance serves as a vital manifestation of cultural identity and the transmission of values in numerous indigenous cultures. In Toraja, South Sulawesi, Pagellu plays a pivotal role in ceremonial life, representing spiritual devotion, communal cohesion, and ancestor veneration. Although previous studies have recorded its aesthetic and ritual components, there is limited understanding of how Pagellu operates as a cultural practice that actively incorporates and conveys social ideals. This study, conducted through ethnographic research, demonstrates that Pagellu functions as a dynamic pedagogy, incorporating embodied symbolism, intergenerational learning, and adaptive performance. The findings highlight the way the dance conveys religious, educational, economic, communicative, and patriotic ideals through its gestures, contexts, and modes of transmission. Despite its extension into contemporary environments, such as academic institutions and tourism, Pagellu preserves its cultural authenticity and educational profundity. These findings underscore the importance of traditional dance in preserving indigenous identity and highlight its ongoing relevance for cultural resilience in the face of modernization.
Gender Roles and Class Relations: Neurasthenic Representations in Edith Whartons’ The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth
This paper examines the neurasthenic condition of Edith Wharton’s characters, Ellen, Lily and Aracher, in The age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. Those characters show rebellious attitudes to the social values and conventions of the nineteenth century American society. Our characters showed strong desires and ambitions to change the social values, gender roles and class relations. They did not accept the modern social system; while trying to live differently, they drained their nervous energy and became neurasthenic and ended up secluded and rejected as an act of retaliation. Lily and Ellen decided that they could not fit in and refused to submit to the culture’s belief that a woman should remain within the boundaries of her house. Therefore, they ended their lives. Lily killed herself and Ellen decided to live alone, in her apartment in Paris, and leave the New York society. On the other hand, unwillingly, Archer conformed to the social conventions of the time and suppressed his feelings for the sake of cultural acceptance. In fact, he remained living in his past where he fantasized a life with Ellen in a world outside New York society.
Neurasthenia, Edith Wharton, New Woman, American Nervousness, The Gilded Age, Industrial Revolution, Agrarian Society
Initiation and the construction of the masculine ethos in the negro-African novel: a comparative, psycho-sociological and anthropological study
So marked is it by its roots in orality and ancestral traditions, Negro-African literature highlights acts of initiation, understanding them as vectors for the transmission of a socio-cultural heritage confronted with colonial and post-colonial realities and upheavals. Using a transdisciplinary approach combining the sociology of the text, anthropology, sociocriticism and postcolonial studies, this work examines how these rites - whether social (circumcision), religious (Koranic teaching) or educational (modern school) - shape a collective ethos while reflecting the existential and cultural tensions between traditionalism and modernity. By analysing two works from this literature: Camara Laye's L'Enfant noir and Cheikh Hamidou Kane's L'Aventure ambiguë, we show how initiation, far from being a simple rite of passage, embodies an identity, existential and political issue. In Laye's case, the practices (circumcision, palavers) celebrate a cultural continuity that is transmissible and harmonious, nourished by both folk lyricism and residual orality. Kane, on the other hand, highlights the fractures of an initiation divided between mystical African spirituality and philosophical Western rationality. This initiation, embodied in the colonial school and the traditional school, a space for uprooting and identity metamorphosis, is intended as cultural resistance to post-colonial demands.The mechanisms governing this initiation reveal a dialectic between preservation and rupture: while Laye's circumcision maintains the masculinity so deeply rooted in the Malinké community, Kane's Samba Diallo dilemma demonstrates the alienation engendered by the oppositional hybridity between foreign educational models. Space emerges as a key initiatory actor, structuring power relations, post-colonial existential issues and gendered representations.
Initiation, education, identity, ethos, gender, space
Archetypes and the Process of Innovation in Modern Vietnamese Women’s Poetry
Archetypes, understood as universal psychic structures embedded in the collective unconscious of humanity, have undergone significant transformations when entering the realm of modern literature—particularly in the landscape of contemporary Vietnamese poetry. This paper explores the interrelation between archetypal motifs and feminine sensibility in the works of Vietnamese female poets from the late twentieth to early twenty-first century. Grounded in Carl Jung’s archetypal theory, Hans Robert Jauss’s reception aesthetics, and critical methodologies including archetypal criticism, myth criticism, and the psychology of artistic creation, this study aims to elucidate the evolving significance of archetypes in modern poetic discourse. Focusing on a selection of recurring motifs—namely Water, Darkness, Dream, Mirror, and Mask—found in the poetry of several prominent female voices, this article argues that archetypes are not static structures but dynamic sources of transformative energy. In the hands of female poets, archetypes become instruments for reconfiguring traditional poetics, subverting gender stereotypes, and constructing nonlinear, polysemous narratives. These functions contribute to the shaping of feminist discourse and the redefinition of feminine identity in modern society through the poetic interplay of language, cultural perception, and symbolic imagination.
Distance: the Flâneuse’s Path From Alienation to Wholeness in Mrs. Dalloway
This research focuses on the image of the flâneuse in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. It aims to explore how women seek identity and draw strength from ordinary life by adjusting the distance between the self and the external world. By applying George Simmel's concept of distance, the research reveals that modernity offers women the freedom to step away from their confining daily roles and become the flâneuses to see and to experience the 'others'. By maintaining a delicate balance between detachment and involvement, flâneuses experience flexible physical and psychological distance which endows them with a unique aesthetic perspective. The aesthetic dimension helps them extract inspiration and strength from the everyday life. Different from the masculine flâneurs, who tend to objectify others, women construct a community of their own through the action of looking and building up. Their empathetic capability makes it easier for them to cross the distance between people and objects, thus transcending the distance from alienation to wholeness. The flâneuse’s experience in Mrs. Dalloway significantly contributes to the presentation of women’s experience in urban life. It reveals the complexity of social life and women's inner world, enriching the perspective for literary research on women’s agency in modernity.
Interconnectedness: A Study of Forrest Gander’s Be With through the Lens of Ecocriticism
Forrest Gander is the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry for his volume Be With. Although such work is normally regarded as a collection of elegies, Gander’s distinctive poetry writing techniques and ecological insights are profoundly manifest in this collection, with intricate words exploring the relationship between nature and culture, language and perception. Through associating the American eco-critic Scott Slovic’s thoughts about ecocriticism, including the strategy of broadening the analyzing texts of ecocriticism, the reasons for ecological crises, and methods to deal with current environmental problems, this paper aims to examine Gander’s central ecological idea of interconnectedness in Be With.
Forrest Gander, Scott Slovic, Be With, Interconnectedness, Ecocriticism
Constructing Desire: Beauty, Love of Blackness and Black Constellations in The Bluest Eye
This paper examines The Bluest Eye as a critique of the ideological mechanisms that enforce white beauty standards and lead to the self-denial of Black identity. Through the experiences of Pecola Breedlove, Claudia MacTeer, and Pauline Breedlove, Morrison illustrates how dominant cultural narratives, particularly through mass media and literature, shape self-perception and enforce racialized hierarchies. The paper explores how Morrison historicizes the Black experience, analyzing the impact of Jim Crow laws, migration, and systemic exclusion on the construction of beauty and self-worth. Drawing on psychoanalytic and ideological critiques, this study argues that Morrison exposes the destructive effects of internalized racism and presents The Bluest Eye as an urgent call for Black solidarity and love of blackness. By engaging with theoretical perspectives on subject formation, ideology, and trauma, the paper discusses Morrison’s work within broader literary and cultural discourses on racial representation and self-identity.
black pride, disinterested violence, self-denial, constellations of support, standards of beauty, historicizing the black experience