Volume 11, Issue 15 , October 2015, , Pages 1-19
Abstract
Abstract
Learning strategies are specific performances that using of them by individuals make the learning process easier, faster and more effective and the transfer of learning to new situations makes possible. The aim of this study was investigating of learning strategies and attitude towards general ...
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Abstract
Learning strategies are specific performances that using of them by individuals make the learning process easier, faster and more effective and the transfer of learning to new situations makes possible. The aim of this study was investigating of learning strategies and attitude towards general English language in undergraduate students of Birjand university in terms of the gender, native or non-native and Location. The population consisted of 4125 subjects which according to Morgan table and random cluster sampling, 351 persons were chosen and studied. The tools used in this research were questionnaire of Oxford language learning strategies and attitudes towards Gardner English language learning. T- test was used to analyze the data. Data analysis showed that memory strategies, the compensation process, general language strategies (P< 0/05) and cognitive process and attitude toward language are different in terms of native or non-native(P< 0/01) and it was not seen no significant difference in study of the learning strategies and attitude toward English language learning in terms of gender and location.
According to the results of research and the role of personal differences of learners including native or non-native, holding of the workshops for improving the quality of students" education and increasing their learning ability in the English course is necessary.
Volume 10, Issue 14 , October 2015, , Pages 13-43
Abstract
European orientalists have consider Nizami works from The middle of 17th century. They Tried to produce summaries of his works to translate in different languages.
In the beginning of 19th century Durbello starled to translate some pieces of Nizami’s works. After him, J.F.Von Hammer Purgestall Continued ...
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European orientalists have consider Nizami works from The middle of 17th century. They Tried to produce summaries of his works to translate in different languages.
In the beginning of 19th century Durbello starled to translate some pieces of Nizami’s works. After him, J.F.Von Hammer Purgestall Continued to comptete what had already done by Purgestall. F. Petis de Lacyoix Tried to gain a Translation of “Haft Peikar” in French. In 1809 Purgestall compited tow volumes considering the story of Shirin. In 19th century a movement came up in concern with Nizaman in European Countries and Some serious Tranlations came into existance. After that many works appeared being inspired of Nizami works in Englan, Germany and french.
sahar bagherzadeh; Mahvash Ghavimi
Volume 14, Issue 18 , June 2018, , Pages 13-28
Abstract
The present study which was carried out according to Norman Fairclough's CDA approche, seeks to present discourse practice and social practice of discourse in the consumer society as one of the postmodernist paradigms in Patrick Deville minimal writing. The main objective of this research in the first ...
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The present study which was carried out according to Norman Fairclough's CDA approche, seeks to present discourse practice and social practice of discourse in the consumer society as one of the postmodernist paradigms in Patrick Deville minimal writing. The main objective of this research in the first stage is to display the paradigm of consumer society in the novel. In the second stage the impact of the consumer society in the formation of social context of the story is studied. The third stage tends to question the social sources which produce the discourse and social practice of discourse to express the side effects of consumer society. In order to achieve this aim the consumer society paradigm will be analyzed in three levels: description, interpretation and explication. The results show that Patrick Deville's specific consideration on the social, economic and political events of postmodernism period are reflected in his novel. Reflecting the consumer society is not a simple representation of postmodernism. Reflecting the consumer society creates the social context of the story and shows the discursive opposition between the rich and poor class of the society.
Kamran Ahmadgoli
Volume 14, Issue 19 , October 2018, , Pages 13-32
Abstract
This article tries to deal with chess-related expressions and metaphors and their complexities in the poetry of the renowned the twelfth-century Azerbaijani-style poet Khāqāni and the seventeenth-century Metaphysical poet Abraham Cowley. Based on such concepts as T. S. Eliot’s ‘unification of sensibility’ ...
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This article tries to deal with chess-related expressions and metaphors and their complexities in the poetry of the renowned the twelfth-century Azerbaijani-style poet Khāqāni and the seventeenth-century Metaphysical poet Abraham Cowley. Based on such concepts as T. S. Eliot’s ‘unification of sensibility’ and ‘objective correlative’ and a comparative conceptual analysis of the Azerbaijani-style and metaphysical poetry in their historical context, it is shown that the two poets, though far removed in time, enjoyed the same intellectual and poetical strategies in presenting their ideas and would employ abstruse chess conceits in an attempt to act upon what the eighteenth-century English critic Samuel Johnson depreciatively calls ‘the most heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together’ and what the modernist poet T. S. Eliot would appreciate as 'a fusion of thought and feeling'. The result is a kind of poetry in both poets which is intellectually challenging and emotionally engaging.
Homayoun Eslami; Mohammad Javad KAmali
Abstract
Walter Benjamin is a thinker standing on the edge of the frontier of the tradition and modernity, and attempts to interpret the modern dimensions of human existence in the traditional statement. By using literary techniques, he mixes metaphysical justification with objective facts, and creates an unusual ...
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Walter Benjamin is a thinker standing on the edge of the frontier of the tradition and modernity, and attempts to interpret the modern dimensions of human existence in the traditional statement. By using literary techniques, he mixes metaphysical justification with objective facts, and creates an unusual language that is not easy to understand. We believe that one of Benjamin's key concepts that has been neglected so far, is the intention; and this has led us to fail to grasp the understanding of his ideas on language and literature. This term generally refers to the agency and subjectivity, and so words and texts cannot have intention. According to him, the denotation of “brot” (in German language) and “pain” (in French language) is “bread”, but their intentions is different. For this reason, they cannot be equivalent. In a wider perspective, the intentions of all the words of each language is different from that of the other language. This article tries to get a clearer understanding of this concept using authentic sources, and show that the correct perception of this concept can bring together his disconnected ideas around a single axis. For this purpose, we will use several sources in Persian, English and French. We first see how Benjamin describes the language; then we look at his definition of poetry; finally, we examine his conception of translation. Based on the interpretation given in this article, we can understand the key concepts of Benjamin, namely, language, poetry and translation only if the intention is recognized. We will present the results in the conclusion section.
Mohammadhossein Khani; ٔNegar Davari Ardakani; Fatemeh Bahrami
Abstract
Introduction: Textbooks are the basis of school education and the main sources of information for teachers and students. Many researchers emphasize on the fact that textbooks have a lot of problems and shortcomings in terms of social, cultural, educational and linguistic aspects. Grammar teaching is ...
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Introduction: Textbooks are the basis of school education and the main sources of information for teachers and students. Many researchers emphasize on the fact that textbooks have a lot of problems and shortcomings in terms of social, cultural, educational and linguistic aspects. Grammar teaching is one of the most important issues in language instruction. Thus the purpose of this research is to evaluate and analyze the grammatical content of Iranian junior high school English textbooks in the framework of Keck and Kim (2014) Pedagogical Grammar.Study Questions:1. To what extent do these textbooks comply with the principles of pedagogical grammar?2. According to the principles of pedagogical grammar, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the textbooks?Literature Review: Theoretical framework of this research is Keck and Kim (2014) Pedagogical Grammar. According to them the most important principles of pedagogical grammar are as follows:1. Learners' attentional resources are limited, thus stimulating their attention to the maximum, leads to better learning of language and consequently grammar.2. Paying attention to the relation between form, meaning and use is a necessity of pedagogical grammar.3. The preparation of the content of pedagogical grammar should be based on the linguistic corpora of the target language.4. In compiling the content of pedagogical grammar, the instruction of both grammar and lexical items must be considered.5. To consider the processing and learning abilities of the learners is important.6. Grammar instruction must be done both explicitly and implicitly.7. The use of different types of corrective feedback is very effective in grammar teaching.8. Intensive and extensive instruction of grammatical structures is helpful in language learning.9. The role and importance of language learners in learning grammar by other language learners is significant.10. The content of pedagogical grammar should be designed based on meaningful communication exercises and tasks.Methodology: After extracting and introducing the principles of pedagogical grammar, a checklist based on them was designed which measures the compliance of the grammatical content of the books with the mentioned approach.. After the checklist items were developed, 15 experts in the field of English language teaching and linguistics were asked to express their views on the checklist and its items in detail and determine the content validity ratio and content validity index of the items, based on the Likert scale. In total, the necessity and relevance of 42 out of 50 initially designed items were confirmed.Results: The score that these books have obtained out of 210 total score is 135, which is approximately 64% of the total score. Therefore, the compliance of the books with the principles of pedagogical grammar is above average. A qualitative analysis also revealed that in compiling the books, observing the principles of• implicit and explicit grammar teaching,• attention to lexis-grammar interface,• intensive and extensive instruction of grammatical structures,• form, meaning and use relation,• attention to learning and processing abilities of learners,• the use of various tools to draw the learner's attention to grammatical structures,are its strengths ando non-compliance with the communicative language teaching principles,o scanty and inappropriate input,o lack of attention to the linguistic corpora of the target language and unrealistic input,o inattention to the important of corrective feedback,o insufficient attention to the significance of learners in learning the grammatical points by their classmates ando insufficient attention to the importance of morphologyare the weaknesses of these books.
Gelareh Esfandiari; Mohammad Motiee
Volume 15, Issue 20 , April 2018, , Pages 15-31
Abstract
The present essay attempts to accomplish a Weberian reading of Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, ‘Night, Mother, and Third and Oak. The depicted status quo in the selected plays corresponds with the concept of conflict, propounded in Max Weber’s Economy and Society, which is the main concept of this ...
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The present essay attempts to accomplish a Weberian reading of Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, ‘Night, Mother, and Third and Oak. The depicted status quo in the selected plays corresponds with the concept of conflict, propounded in Max Weber’s Economy and Society, which is the main concept of this study. Conflict which is a social phenomenon that occurs due to inequality in class, status, and power, can be found through the life of the characters. As class is associated with economy and status is associated with prestige, the level of prestige and economy and its relation to power are examined through the process of conflict. Through this process, while domination appears due to the power, it transforms to authority if its legitimacy happens out of the submission of the other part. This study tries to probe the inevitability of conflict, the reactions of the individuals through the process of conflict, the elements which have a role in this process, and also the types of authority that emerge due to the compliance of the subjects. Through the examination of the mentioned issues, the current study aims to see the different consequences of the conflict. While ‘Night, Mother and Third and Oak convey the negative aspect of the conflict, Getting Out depicts the positive one.
Kavah Bahrami
Volume 12, Issue 16 , April 2016, , Pages 55-70
Abstract
The present paper is a contrastive analysis of complement clauses in Farsi and German. A complement clause is a type of subordinate clause.Depending on their degree of dependence on the verb, complement clauses in Farsi and German are of different types. This study makes an attempt to illustrate the ...
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The present paper is a contrastive analysis of complement clauses in Farsi and German. A complement clause is a type of subordinate clause.Depending on their degree of dependence on the verb, complement clauses in Farsi and German are of different types. This study makes an attempt to illustrate the various kinds of complement clauses and show their position with regard to the matrix clause. The results of this study answer in part the questions raised in this area with regard to learners of both languages.The results show that the position of the verb in complement clauses can bechanged in German; the subject of complement clauses can be omitted in Farsi; and the complementizer can be removed under certain conditions in both languages.
Zahra Taghavi Fardoud
Volume 13, Issue 17 , October 2017, , Pages 101-116
Abstract
The discovery of a repertoire of myths proves that Sépanlou and Apollinaire are well aware of the social, cultural, traditional, religious and literary geography of various nations. They consciously proceed to the poetic reconstruction of space in order to establish interactions between human space ...
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The discovery of a repertoire of myths proves that Sépanlou and Apollinaire are well aware of the social, cultural, traditional, religious and literary geography of various nations. They consciously proceed to the poetic reconstruction of space in order to establish interactions between human space and literature. In addition to the legendary myths in their poetry, we can discern mythical elements, concealed behind actions, thoughts, words, characters and spaces. The present article intends to address, through two myths common among poets, certain mythical stratifications sedimented in space-time, as well as the reconstruction of space by poets who rely on these mythical stratifications. Moreover, we rely on the methodology of Gilbert Durand, in order to discover the unconscious mind of the poets and present their desires. This fact highlights actions, spaces and literary characters that have resemblances restored with their mythical counterparts. This will clarify the latent myths in them, highlighting the relationship between subject and space, and representing the commonalities between poets.
Sasan Baleghizadeh; سلماز آقازاده
Abstract
در دنیای امـروز که ضرورت دانستن زبان انگلیسی برای انجام تعاملات بین فرهنگی امری غیرقابل انکار است، آموزش و یادگیری زبان انگلیسی باید همـراه بـا درنظر گرفتن ارزشهـای ...
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در دنیای امـروز که ضرورت دانستن زبان انگلیسی برای انجام تعاملات بین فرهنگی امری غیرقابل انکار است، آموزش و یادگیری زبان انگلیسی باید همـراه بـا درنظر گرفتن ارزشهـای فرهنگ خودی باشد که در سایۀ توجه بیشتر به هویت ملی و فرهنگی زبانآموزان امکان پذیر است. از آنجایی که در فرآیند یادگیری زبان انگلیسی، بخش عظیمی از مفاهیم و الگوهای فرهنگی نیز به صورت آگاهانه یا ناآگاهانه به زبانآموزان منتقل میشوند، نباید از توجه به تأثیر انتقال اطلاعات میانفرهنگی بر نگرش و هویت فراگیران غافل شد. با توجه به جایگاه کنونی زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان بینالمللی، انتظار میرود که منابع درسی تدوین شده نیز بتوانند چندفرهنگی بودن و تهی بودن این زبان از ارزشهای فرهنگی کشورهای انگلیسیزبان را منعکس کنند. بنابراین، هدف پژوهش حاضر بررسی میزان به کارگیری فرهنگهای غیر بومی در کتابهای آموزشی زبان انگلیسی در رابطه با جایگاه زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان بین المللی است. بدین منظور، مدل فرهنگی یواِن (2011) که شامل چهار مؤلفۀ محصولات، اعمال، نگرشها و اشخاص است مورد استفاده قرار گرفت و میزان وقوع هر یک از این مؤلفههای فرهنگی در کتاب دستورزبان Communicate What You Mean: A Concise Advanced Grammar، که کاربرد گسترده بینالمللی در حوزۀ آموزش زبان انگلیسی به غیر انگلیسیزبانان در مقطع دانشگاهی دارد، مورد بررسی قرار گرفت. یافتهها به وضوح نشان دادند که این کتاب به ارزشهای فرهنگی بومی کشورهای انگلیسیزبان ارجحیت داده و از توجه به ارزشهای فرهنگی سایر ملل غافل مانده است. این امر حاکی از وجود گرایشها و تعصبهای یک سویعهای است که ریشه در فرهنگ غرب دارند و نشان میدهند که زبان انگلیسی،علی رغم جایگاه کنونی خود به عنوان یک زبان بینالمللی، هم چنان در حال ترویج یک جانبۀ نگرشها و عقیدههای غربی به زبانآموزان سراسر جهان است.
Zahra Taheri
Abstract
This article, through a post-colonial feministic approach and the deployment of ideas by Whitlock, J. Butler and Emanuel Levinas tries to focus on the re-emergence of “Harem literature” through the new genre of Veiled Best-sellers. To this end, it focuses on the Sasson’s Mayada: The ...
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This article, through a post-colonial feministic approach and the deployment of ideas by Whitlock, J. Butler and Emanuel Levinas tries to focus on the re-emergence of “Harem literature” through the new genre of Veiled Best-sellers. To this end, it focuses on the Sasson’s Mayada: The Daughter of Iraq (2003) to discuss how such works have been abused to endorse neo-liberal policies and to justify the West’s attack on Afghanistan and Iraq; it, also, reveals how such works have been in line with the western policies of “war against terror.” It is argued that, despite the West’s attempt to attribute the popularity of such post- 9/11 works to the “white man’s burden” towards his “oriental sister” at that time, such “other-oriented” ethical discourse brings about no end to the liberal conception of subjectivity (as defined by modernist binary oppositions). On the other hand, it once more pushes the liberal humanism’s discourse of western racial supremacy and consequently justifies the neo-colonial wave in the West.
Sayyed Rahim Moosavinia
Volume 15, Issue 21 , October 2019, , Pages 255-272
Abstract
One of the most important concerns of postcolonial studies and colonial discourse analysis is, doubtless, geographical imperialism whether imaginative or worldly. In interdisciplinary fields, the relationship between postcolonial studies and geography or space has set an arena for showing the conflict ...
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One of the most important concerns of postcolonial studies and colonial discourse analysis is, doubtless, geographical imperialism whether imaginative or worldly. In interdisciplinary fields, the relationship between postcolonial studies and geography or space has set an arena for showing the conflict on geography that is sometimes even more important than actual wars. Thus the critic or intellectual should shoulder the responsibility of uncovering the bonds between literary texts and geographical politics. Literary space here could be the most important element to connect the imaginary world of literature to the worldly realities. Space could be studied at different levels and on different layers of the text. This study is an attempt to excavate the space of the Marabar Caves in E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India and informs the air of Orientalist uncertainty in the novel in light of Edward Said’s Orientalism. This reveals the connection between the text under study and the ones preceding it to reveal the social, cultural and political contexts. The present study concludes that Forster merely shows sympathy towards the natives and falls short of a maturity to awaken him for a native unity to resist the British colonialists.
Volume 6, Issue 1 , October 2013
Volume 7, Issue 1 , June 2014
Abstract
H.G. Wells, as the forefather of science fiction has used the relativity of time in his stories, and has manifested how through shattering the boundaries between time and place, the technological advances have changed the notions of classical physics into modern physics. These changes are inserted via ...
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H.G. Wells, as the forefather of science fiction has used the relativity of time in his stories, and has manifested how through shattering the boundaries between time and place, the technological advances have changed the notions of classical physics into modern physics. These changes are inserted via opacity, resistance to the gravitational force and also freedom in movement to and fro in the time zone. In this article, Wells's science fiction stories which show the transformation of the human into machines, otherness, and resistance to gravity which would result in the devastation of the whole humanity have been studied, with the aim of coming to this conclusion that the main reason of the time traveling of the humans is opacity in Wells's science fiction
Volume 6, Issue 2 , June 2014
Abstract
Death is one of the common subjects and yet the most important one between humans in the world without considering neither the time nor the place, that has been tried to ponder about it in different ages of time.
Persian and Spanish languages are one of the elite languages in the world since inner ...
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Death is one of the common subjects and yet the most important one between humans in the world without considering neither the time nor the place, that has been tried to ponder about it in different ages of time.
Persian and Spanish languages are one of the elite languages in the world since inner feelings, objections and uprisings can be clearly expressed by them. Khayyam and Lorca are the two outstanding poets who could skillfully put the feelings into words. The inner turbulence of both poets has made death, which is the essence of their thoughts, to play the main role in their poems. Their feelings, challenges and reactions toward death have been directly or indirectly reflected in their poems. Though Khayyam and Lorca have written about love, life and death, but in this article the author focuses only on death since this expression has made them worldwide poets.
Bahman Zarrinjooee; Seyed Vahid Abtahi
Abstract
John Barth, among postmodern American novelists, is apt to be called the reviver of Pyrrhonist tradition in the Twentieth century. In his creation of Pyrrhonist characters, he criticizes the American value system and the empty life of contemporary man in a broad sense. The End of the Road, Barth’s ...
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John Barth, among postmodern American novelists, is apt to be called the reviver of Pyrrhonist tradition in the Twentieth century. In his creation of Pyrrhonist characters, he criticizes the American value system and the empty life of contemporary man in a broad sense. The End of the Road, Barth’s second novel is a successful example in which the marry traits of a protagonist give their place to the mean qualities of an antagonist. In the novel, the anti-hero characters suffering from a mental paralysis under the title “Cosmopsis” resort to “Mythotherapy” which means nothing but a distortion of identity. Among the consequences of this treatment are, of course, “Decidophobia” and “hyperbolic Cartesian doubt.” Interestingly, Barth’s description for the irrationality of such a man corresponds to the definition of rationality in Pyrrhonism. On this basis, the main question of the research arises from the fact that Barth’s views are an embodiment of those historical thoughts regarded as Pyrrhonist skepticism, which have been developed through ages by different forms. Apart from the historical impressions on the formation of modern skeptical philosophy which was flourished first by Cartesian doubt and developed by Hume’s empiricism the research also examines Barth’s postmodern-skeptical cosmology which derives from his obsession with identity and meaning. The overall point inferred by the researchers is that how Barth in The End of the Road indicates human decisions rely most on “emotions” rather than “reason” and that the rationality of man take him nowhere but in itself.
Volume 11, Issue 15 , October 2015, , Pages 21-40
Abstract
Abstract
Edward Said challenges western orientalism in an analytical way in his book, Orientalism (1978). His view of orientalism is based on finding a new relationship between the Orient and the Occident. Western orientalism refers to English, French and American ones based on the dominant power and ...
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Abstract
Edward Said challenges western orientalism in an analytical way in his book, Orientalism (1978). His view of orientalism is based on finding a new relationship between the Orient and the Occident. Western orientalism refers to English, French and American ones based on the dominant power and hegemony of the West over the East which is a kind of Nietzschean will to power. From Friedrich Nietzsche’s perspective, every idea is a will to power; meanwhile, the evolution of man’s wisdom is the result of his will to power; in this way, knowledge will be the instrument of power. This paper, through Said’s analytical criticism, challenges orientalism to show that, the formal expression of will to truth is will to power that leads to a kind of cultural imperialism. Moreover, it represents a form of cultural imperialism in Said’s Orientalism, which is one of the most powerful factors of the hegemony of imperial powers especially in the colonized countries. Through amateurism, Said indicates how creating such a culture in literary works can be one of the most resisting factors in the postcolonial societies. Thus, he suffers from an intellectual personal imperialism, which is in contradiction with the world of critical theories and criticism .
samira Bameshki; Shamsi Parsa
Volume 14, Issue 18 , June 2018, , Pages 29-57
Abstract
داستان شیخ صنعان یکی از برجستهترین روایات منظومه تمثیلی منطقالطیر، شاهکار فریدالدین عطار نیشابوری شاعر، عارف و نویسنده قرن ششم و اوایل قرن هفتم هجری ایران است. ...
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داستان شیخ صنعان یکی از برجستهترین روایات منظومه تمثیلی منطقالطیر، شاهکار فریدالدین عطار نیشابوری شاعر، عارف و نویسنده قرن ششم و اوایل قرن هفتم هجری ایران است. پیشمتنهایی از این داستان موجود است که قدمت آن را به قرون اول هجری و حتی به دوران یونان باستان میرساند. یکی از آن پیشمتنها افسانه تائیس، معشوق اسکندر مقدونی است که به قرن چهارم میلادی برمیگردد. این داستان را آناتول فرانس، نویسنده برجسته اواخر قرن نوزدهم و اوایل قرن بیستم فرانسه، نیز با عنوان «تائیس» روایت کرده است. بنابراین هدف این جُستار، مقایسه داستان شیخ صنعان و تائیس که هر دو روایاتی از یک داستان واحد هستند، میباشد. رویکرد مورد نظر برای این مقایسه، مطالعۀ مایگان یا مایگانشناسی، از نوعِ بازنمایی ادبی شخصیتهای اصلی و معروفِ افسانهای است ، رویکردی که یکی از پربارترین و غنیترین حوزههایِ پژوهش در عرصۀ ادبیات تطبیقی است. روششناسیِ این پژوهش نیز از حوزۀ دانش روایتشناسی بهخصوص مبحث شخصیتپردازی و تجلی شخصیت بهره میبرد. زیرا از منظر روایتشناسی شخصیت، شیوهای برای انتقال مضمون یا همان مایگانشناسی است. پرسش اصلی این جستار عبارت است از اینکه کدام یک از بخشهای دو روایت را متفاوت از یکدیگر مییابیم؟ چرا؟ به دیگر سخن، طرز تلقی و برخورد هریک از نویسندگان با این داستانِ واحد سبب ایجاد چه گشتارهایی در هریک از روایتها میشود؟
Peyman Amanolahi Baharvand; Bakhtiar Sadjadi
Abstract
Abstract Introduction: As a prominent American novelist, James A. Michener wrote twenty-six novels and won several literary prizes, including the Pulitzers Prize for Fiction in 1948. Michener was preoccupied with the reflection of the European colonialism of North America and its detrimental environmental ...
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Abstract Introduction: As a prominent American novelist, James A. Michener wrote twenty-six novels and won several literary prizes, including the Pulitzers Prize for Fiction in 1948. Michener was preoccupied with the reflection of the European colonialism of North America and its detrimental environmental and ecological consequences, including deforestation and massive slaughter of wild animals, in his novels. Likewise, he exhibits the deleterious consequences of European settlement on the natural world in Chesapeake (1978). The white explorers and colonists who settle in the New World relentlessly burn forestlands to prepare vast lands for the cultivation of tobacco that was indeed a “cash crop” in North America. Euro-American anthropologists and researchers, including Shepard Krech III, have referred to indigenous North Americans as savage and uncivilized subjects with a cultural background that has always endorsed the devastation of nature and its inhabitants. Distorting the real cause of environmental damages, Krech asserts that Native Americans deliberately burned ancient forests, fell myriads of trees, and slaughtered countless numbers of buffaloes prior to the commencement of European settlement. He contends that the depredations of indigenes had induced the depletion of natural resources. Nevertheless, an examination of several novels of the Native American Renaissance, including Chesapeake, that mirror the adverse environmental and ecological outcomes of the European colonization of the New World, indicates that these allegations debunks these allegations. The present study seeks to challenge the claims raised by certain Euro-Americans concerning the injurious interventions of Native Americans through an ecocritical exegesis of Chesapeake. It shall be indicated that the prevalence of anthropocentrism among the European settlers induces environmental catastrophes in the New World. Moreover, this research shall exhibit that the Native Americans live in harmony with the natural world in that they believe in biocentrism rather than anthropocentrism. Background Studies: Chesapeake has not been sufficiently dealt with in critical articles and books to date. Marilyn S. Severson (1996) focuses on the exploration of human tolerance that he considers an essential value in Chesapeake. She maintains that Michener is critical of various sorts of discriminations imposed on both black and white individuals in his seminal novel. Race and religion are the two significant sources of discrimination in Chesapeake. Racism is a powerful impetus instigating the white colonizers to commit genocide following the dispossession of Native Americans. African slaves are the second group of wretched individuals brutally tortured in Chesapeake. According to Severson, “the black slaves are considered a possession similar to a ship or a wagon” (100). The slightest insubordination among the miserable slaves leads to horrible forms of torture. Nonetheless, discrimination does not affect merely Native Americans and African slaves. Severson remarks that since Michener was preoccupied with the tolerance of different religious groups in most of his novels, he focuses on this issue in one of the chapters of Chesapeake. Stuart G. Leyden (1979) examines, in his article, the depiction of religious tolerance in Chesapeake. Referring to Michener as a “preachy moralistic writer,” Leyden contends that Christian morality was a significant concern for Michener. He compares Pentaquod, a fugitive Native American who abandons his hostile tribe to join a peaceful group of Native Americans, with the Quakers who are persistently persecuted by authorities in Michener’s novel. Pentaquod and the Quakers, Leyden argues, are both outcasts among their people. Ironically, these outcasts are peaceful individuals. They are coerced and beaten due to religious or political dissidence. Apart from religious tolerance, Leyden maintains, the struggle for women’s rights is also highlighted in Chesapeake. He argues that Rosalind Steed and Ruth Brinton exert themselves to end the brutal whipping of women for misconduct in that they firmly believe in human dignity and equality of men and women. Glenn Uminowicz’s article, published in a magazine title Tidewater Times (2008), compares Michener’s concern for animals in Chesapeake with the endeavors of Thornton Waldo Burgess (1874 –1965), a conservationist and an author of children’s stories, to raise the public awareness concerning the necessity of preserving non-human species. Uminowicz contends that Michener was inspired by Burgess who utilized anthropomorphism in his short stories. Similarly, he maintains, Michener uses animal characters in Chesapeake to teach his readers about the life of animals in Maryland. Hence, he argues that Michener plays the role of Burgess for adults. As Burgess wrote about a duck, named Mrs. Quack, which exerted to save her family from the guns of hunters, Michener focuses, in the eighth chapter of Chesapeake, on the perils awaiting ducks in Maryland during autumn when they arrive from Canada. According to Uminowicz, Michener portrays a family of geese headed by Onk-or to depict the complex strategies animals undertake to escape the terrible guns of white hunters. Materials and Method: The present study could be categorized as a qualitative literature-based research whose accomplishment required extensive academic and library research. Since this article is classified as a research project in the humanities, its critical argument rests upon a specific theoretical framework. Rather than statistical analysis, a particular approach to literary criticism was utilized to interpret the selected novel. Likewise, a variety of scholarly writings addressing ecocriticism, anthropocentrism and biocentrism were scheduled to be scrutinized prior to the commencement of writing the manuscript. Moreover, as a research work categorized under the field of applied research, this study sought to present a detailed survey of the sample. Hence, the critical investigation of the selected novel was carried out through the application of the critical concepts of anthropocentrism and biocentrism. As a qualitative research, the present study began with theoretical assumptions and subsequently focused on the representations of the critical concepts in the selected novel. Conclusion: The world portrayed by Michener in Chesapeake drastically undergoes adverse alterations following the onset of European settlement. The prevalence of anthropocentrism among the European settlers induces detrimental environmental consequences in the New World. Comparing and contrasting the treatment of the natural world by the Euro-Americans and Indigenous North Americans, the present study indicates that the Natives do not make any effort to damage the environment. This research reveals that contrary to the false accusations raised by Shepard Krech III and other white researchers against Native Americans, the Indigenes in Michener’s novel prove to be preoccupied by the preservation of natural resources. The benign treatment of animals by the Natives, and their agitation upon the burning of trees by Edmund and Simon, indicates that in contrast with the European immigrants they firmly believe in biocentrism.
Roya Elahi; Amirali Nojoumian
Volume 14, Issue 19 , October 2018, , Pages 33-55
Abstract
The Uncanny whose presence at least refers back to Freud's 1919 essay of the same title has been reconsidered by critics in recent century. The uncanny is no more attributed merely to the realm of aesthetic or psychology as Freud attempted to explain. It is rather an interdisciplinary issue to discuss ...
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The Uncanny whose presence at least refers back to Freud's 1919 essay of the same title has been reconsidered by critics in recent century. The uncanny is no more attributed merely to the realm of aesthetic or psychology as Freud attempted to explain. It is rather an interdisciplinary issue to discuss our modern anxieties such as migration, gender, history, etc. Margaret Atwood (1939- ) is a contemporary Canadian writer who has reconsidered history. What makes her different from other writers is the way she rereads history. This article is an attempt to study The Handmaid's Tale, her 1985 novel through the uncanny. In her novel, history is a narrative whose uncanny reading foregrounds the unrepresentable realities in relation to subject formation. Through the uncanny, history which has been taken for granted as a familiar, clear and unchangeable "fact" becomes a strange, ambiguous and alternate "sign". The theories of Sigmund Freud and Jean-François Lyotard are mainly consulted to delineate the uncanny and history and their tendency to foreground the unrepresentabilities of subject formation. In Atwood's novel, Language and memory function as two significant uncanny issues whose indecisive and abeyant nature shun any historical "fact" to actualize as a familiar, clear and unchangeable given. This in turn, keeps the reader incessantly in the state of indecision and ultimately renders the process of subject formation as unrepresentable.
Volume 10, Issue 14 , October 2015, , Pages 45-77
Abstract
Abstract Drama has staged, presented, represented, and performed different concepts of subjectivity, throughout history. Many theoreticians believe in the mutual interdependence between modern drama’s structural and stylistic innovations and the major changes in the conceptual understanding of identity ...
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Abstract Drama has staged, presented, represented, and performed different concepts of subjectivity, throughout history. Many theoreticians believe in the mutual interdependence between modern drama’s structural and stylistic innovations and the major changes in the conceptual understanding of identity and subjectivity particularly from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. Acknowledging the importance of theatre’s endeavour to imitate, negotiate and construct human identity; no one disputes their fundamental premise about the basic correlativity between the two. Critical analysis regarding the reciprocal relationship between the conceptual fluctuations of subjectivity and the structural and stylistic theatrical and dramatic innovations of our time is yet far from exhausted. The present article specifically will focus on the definition of postdramaticality form Lehman’s perspective and endeavors to investigate and identify the possible underlying causes for postdramatic innovative methods of characterizations in theatre after 1980. It also tries to explicate the necessity of stylistic and structural changes in theatre, due to the new conceptualization of subject in postmodern theories of subjectivity, and also the changed status of the subject in the mediatized environs of today’s world. The essay introduces five different postdramatic methods of characterization in theatre that are practiced by different playwrights to perform/represent postmodern subjectivity
Atieh Momenzadeh; Bahman Zarrinjooee
Abstract
Game of Thrones is the first book of Song of Ice and Fire series by American author George Raymond Richard Martin; a fictional-epic story set in the realm of Westeros. The main line of story is the struggle and war to reach the Iron Throne, during which several other stories are born. What distinguishes ...
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Game of Thrones is the first book of Song of Ice and Fire series by American author George Raymond Richard Martin; a fictional-epic story set in the realm of Westeros. The main line of story is the struggle and war to reach the Iron Throne, during which several other stories are born. What distinguishes its plot is the existence of chaos in the system of government that seeks a unified leadership over this chaotic world. This research traces Nancy Katherine Hayles and Edward Lorenz’s chaos theories in the novel–as a complex and chaotic system—, shows various forces that dominate time, place, and characters who make the end of the story unpredictable. It shows the "Butterfly Effect" in the story, and since events in the history of this complex system are repeated, the role of “Fractals” is identified. The researchers show the structure of this novel is full of chaos and disorder and the author tries to create order from these irregularities.Background of the Study: A collection of analytical readings edited by James Lowder on Song of Ice and Fire entitled Beyond the Wall (2012) examines Martin’s fantasy collection. This anthology provides a way to explore Martin’s multifaceted world. Moreover, different works have been conducted on the series from romanticism to psychological reading. However, there is not a single work from chaos perspectives. Therefore, the present research can fill the existing gap in these fields.Methodology: This research reads Martin’s Game of Thrones through an interdisciplinary method based on Catherine Hayles and Edvard Lorenz’s theories of chaos. Martin’s works are implicitly chaotic in nature; the narrative forms problematize the linear structure and coherence presenting multiplicities of point of views that serve to augment individual insights, a carefully crafted and cohesive drama about the prevalence of disorder in life. The other major concepts of chaos like “Butterfly Effect” and “Fractals” which are overarching patterns, probable and possibly deterministic but not predictable, lied underneath the texts. The researchers aim to apply the principles of the chaos theory to the novel and explore the changing nature of this system in which truth, precision, and predictability cannot be obtained.Conclusion: Reading Game of Thrones—having a non-linear history, full of complexity, entanglement of stories and variety of characters—based on chaos theory facilitates a more complex understanding of the oeuvre. Westeros’ chaotic world with its protective Wall functions as a closed system. However, chaos is an inevitable phenomenon that takes place due to reliance on the initial condition. Based on the “Butterfly Effect”, the smallest change in the system can cause the greatest events. Westeros is full of unpredictabilities in which consequences surprise the characters and the existence of “Fractal” adds to the complexity of chaos. History repeats itself with the same pattern for the characters; they are living in a deterministic system in which their destinies have already been decided through complex relationship.
Shohreh Chavoshian
Volume 15, Issue 20 , April 2018, , Pages 65-84
Abstract
Though Beckett’s name is closely associated with fiction and drama in the world of contemporary art and literature, a thorough understanding of his oeuvre seems impossible without the study of “Film,” the only film script he has ever written. The present research is a psychoanalytical study of ...
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Though Beckett’s name is closely associated with fiction and drama in the world of contemporary art and literature, a thorough understanding of his oeuvre seems impossible without the study of “Film,” the only film script he has ever written. The present research is a psychoanalytical study of “Film” within the critical framework of Lacanian theory. The study illustrates that both Lacan, in his theory, and Beckett, in his “Film,” differentiate between the concept of the eye and the concept of the gaze: in both masters, the eye stands in close relation to the consciousness, the subjectivity, and the representation; whereas, the gaze bears a close relation to the unconscious, the Object Petit a and the image. The concept of gaze occupies some different positions in Lacanian theory, corresponding to the different definitions the critic provides for his notoriously elusive notion of the Object Petit a: 1. the gaze as the lost object; 2. the gaze as the substitute object; and 3. the gaze as the feeling of strangeness, separation, captivation and lack of self-mastery. The present research, moreover, suggests that the subject’s avoidance of the gaze of the Other/other, on the one hand, and his attempt to escape from the dominant ideological discourses and regulatory norms, on the other hand, take place at the very crucial and unexpected moment of his short encounter with the Real, which is marked as a pathological symptom in the realm of the Symbolic.
Hossein Mohseni; Kian Soheil
Abstract
Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. In it, characters deal with various cybernetic and technological advancements with futuristic affinities. In this genre, characters experience such futuristic advancements through a series of images and surface values. In the ...
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Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. In it, characters deal with various cybernetic and technological advancements with futuristic affinities. In this genre, characters experience such futuristic advancements through a series of images and surface values. In the present study, it is asked what the status of characters’ knowledge and identity is in the cyberpunk world. Through utilization of ideas of Garfield Benjamin and William Haney, two well-known critics in Cyberculture and Posthuman/Cyborg Identity, the study believes that cyberpunk citizens’ knowledge and definition from their identities is shattered and non-essential. Cyberpunk citizens have fluid movement between their various identities and have a simultaneous sense of belonging and non-belonging to all of them. All these identities are formed around the hollowness and emptiness of the citizens’ identity core, which is the only essence of posthuman subjects.
Dominik Carnox –Torabi; Monireh Akbarpouran
Volume 13, Issue 17 , October 2017, , Pages 79-99
Abstract
Imagology, as un approach in Comparative Literature for the study of images and representations of the alien ("other") in a literary work, may have a special relation with Epic genre; because only in this genre, representation of Other necessarily accompanies rejection, fear and exaggerated humiliation; ...
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Imagology, as un approach in Comparative Literature for the study of images and representations of the alien ("other") in a literary work, may have a special relation with Epic genre; because only in this genre, representation of Other necessarily accompanies rejection, fear and exaggerated humiliation; and in the trilogy of reactions to the alien, defined by Daniel Henri Pageaux, i.e. xenophobia, xenophilia and xenomania, this representation is placed in former category. The Epic genre, in fact, is an identity-based genre that, highlighting the differences and conflicts between Us and the Other, covers up the internal contradictions and conflicts and reconstructs social identity. This identity is certainly defined in relation to an otherness which monsters and ogres are examples. In this article, we would analyze the poetic of Other representation in the epic genre, study the mechanism of exclusion and deformation of the alien, and examine its relation with the intrinsic properties of epic.