دانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Reading Tom Stoppard’s Travesties as Serio-comic GenreReading Tom Stoppard’s Travesties as Serio-comic Genre112010621210.48308/clls.2025.241323.1370FAمهدیطیموریگروه زبان دانشگاه خیامJournal Article20250830The objective of this paper is to argue that Stoppard’s Travesties exemplifies a serio-comic work, a kind of genre whose emergence and development were theorized by Mikhail Bakhtin in his attempt to account for the rise of the novel. Known for his conception of language as dialogic, Bakhtin traced the rise of novel back to Socratic dialogue and Menippean satire, two genres heavily influenced by the carnivalistic folklore that inculcates a carnival sense of world. He believed that dialogism and polyphony, as the defining characteristics of the novel, were the products of carnivalization as the shaping influence of the carnival. My discussion will proceed along similar lines demonstrating that Travesties contains features and elements that qualify it as a serio-comic genre. To do so, I will first provide an introduction to carnival and carnivalization and then elaborate on the defining features of serio-comic genres with a view to reading Travesties in light of them.The objective of this paper is to argue that Stoppard’s Travesties exemplifies a serio-comic work, a kind of genre whose emergence and development were theorized by Mikhail Bakhtin in his attempt to account for the rise of the novel. Known for his conception of language as dialogic, Bakhtin traced the rise of novel back to Socratic dialogue and Menippean satire, two genres heavily influenced by the carnivalistic folklore that inculcates a carnival sense of world. He believed that dialogism and polyphony, as the defining characteristics of the novel, were the products of carnivalization as the shaping influence of the carnival. My discussion will proceed along similar lines demonstrating that Travesties contains features and elements that qualify it as a serio-comic genre. To do so, I will first provide an introduction to carnival and carnivalization and then elaborate on the defining features of serio-comic genres with a view to reading Travesties in light of them.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106212_53a25467d89e2140159bd22aa02bdc51.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Narrative Ethics and Trauma-Form in The Brothers KaramazovNarrative Ethics and Trauma-Form in The Brothers Karamazov213310661210.48308/clls.2026.242944.1417FAعلیسلامیدانشیار، دانشکده زبانها و ادبیات خارجی دانشگاه تهران ، تهران، ایرانJournal Article20251219This article argues that The Brothers Karamazov does not merely represent trauma as content but constructs a trauma-form: a repeatable narrative mechanism that produces ethical pressure by positioning the reader as a juror of damaged testimony. To make this claim operational, the essay offers four analytically separable formal processes, rupture, recurrence, testimonial gap, and juridical capture, and demonstrates how they function across key scenes including Ivan’s “Rebellion” and “Grand Inquisitor” materials, Smerdyakov’s confessional sequences, and Dmitri’s trial. Drawing on trauma and testimony theory alongside narrative ethics, the paper shows how Dostoevsky’s narration converts breakdown, contradiction, and withheld verification into conditions of judgment, recruiting readers into decision under uncertainty rather than offering stable evidentiary resolution. Moral injury is used here as a critical heuristic for the ethical damage produced when adjudication is demanded without reliable grounds. By shifting trauma studies from a vocabulary of inner states to a protocol for reading narrative address and evidentiary form, the article provides a transferable method for tracing how novels engineer responsibility through testimonial contamination and the pressures of public verdict.This article argues that The Brothers Karamazov does not merely represent trauma as content but constructs a trauma-form: a repeatable narrative mechanism that produces ethical pressure by positioning the reader as a juror of damaged testimony. To make this claim operational, the essay offers four analytically separable formal processes, rupture, recurrence, testimonial gap, and juridical capture, and demonstrates how they function across key scenes including Ivan’s “Rebellion” and “Grand Inquisitor” materials, Smerdyakov’s confessional sequences, and Dmitri’s trial. Drawing on trauma and testimony theory alongside narrative ethics, the paper shows how Dostoevsky’s narration converts breakdown, contradiction, and withheld verification into conditions of judgment, recruiting readers into decision under uncertainty rather than offering stable evidentiary resolution. Moral injury is used here as a critical heuristic for the ethical damage produced when adjudication is demanded without reliable grounds. By shifting trauma studies from a vocabulary of inner states to a protocol for reading narrative address and evidentiary form, the article provides a transferable method for tracing how novels engineer responsibility through testimonial contamination and the pressures of public verdict.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106612_e7becf3613941389d44c43444573d282.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Analysis of the Racial Discourse and Gender Oppression in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave GirlAnalysis of the Racial Discourse and Gender Oppression in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl354310623910.48308/clls.2025.241261.1372FAمحمد امینمذهبدانشیار زبانشناسی کاربردی، دانشگاه امام صادق تهرانJournal Article20250903This study explores the complex discourse surrounding race and slavery as portrayed in Harriet Jacobs’s seminal work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It delves into how Jacobs’s narrative critiques the intertwined forces of race, gender, and power operating in nineteenth-century American society. Through a careful analysis of Jacobs’s firsthand account, the study highlights the dual oppressions faced by African American women under slavery, emphasizing the compounded nature of racial and gendered subjugation. Key themes addressed include the pervasive sexual exploitation of enslaved women, the social degradation they suffered, and the destructive effects of slavery on family cohesion and stability.<br />The present study also examines Jacobs’s acts of defiance and resilience, revealing how her story serves as a powerful challenge to the prevailing racist and sexist ideologies of her time. It foregrounds the significance of motherhood as both a profound source of pain and a crucial locus of resistance for enslaved women, illustrating how maternal bonds inspired forms of survival and insurgency. Furthermore, the current study situates Jacobs’s narrative within a broader historical and intellectual context by tracing its influence on the development of civil rights and Black feminist movements in the late twentieth century. In particular, it acknowledges the role her text played in shaping the theoretical foundations of groups such as the Combahee River Collective, which fought against intersecting systems of racial and gender oppression.<br />Overall, this study offers a nuanced understanding of how Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl not only reveals the harsh realities of slavery but also amplifies the voices of enslaved Black women as agents of resistance and social change. It underscores the enduring legacy of Jacobs’s work in advocating for justice and equality across intersecting axes of identity and power.This study examines the discourse of race and slavery in a seminal work by Harriet Jacobs entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, focusing on how the text critiques the intersections of race, gender, and power in nineteenth-century American society. Through an African-American analysis of Harriet Jacobs’s personal narrative, the present study highlights the racial and gendered oppression that African-American women endured under slavery. Themes such as sexual exploitation, social humiliation, and the disintegration of family structures are emphasized within the context of the slave system. By analyzing Jacobs’s resistance to inhumane systems of racial and sexual domination, the current study demonstrates how her narrative contests racist and sexist ideologies. Furthermore, the text foregrounds motherhood as both a locus of suffering and a site of resistance for enslaved women. In doing so, it situates Jacobs’s work as a vital intervention in both abolitionist discourse and early feminist thought.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106239_d9152a9c0de25819aa1528fbb011c437.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Female Subjectivity Formation in Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be NormalFemale Subjectivity Formation in Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal455310671610.48308/clls.2026.242926.1416FAهادیشاهی قره آغاجیاستادیار، دانشگاه زنجانمعصومهجنت نیادانشجوی دکتری، گروه ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده ادبیات و زبانهای خارجی، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد تبریز، تبریز، ایرانJournal Article20251217Jenette Winterson, postmodern iconoclastic writer, posits the concept of ‘self’ as the central challenge of her female characters. Her autobiographical novel, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, depicts contemporary woman’s solo quest to achieve her true self and construct her desired subjectivity. Portrayal of female subjectivity in Winterson’s text goes well with the figuration of nomadic female subjectivity in Rosi Braidotti;s feminist philosophy. Braidotti by employing the concept of “nomadic subjectivity” has contributed to the critique of identity, she notices the velocity of changes in the twenty first century and challenges the issue of identity and emphasizes that we need to know who we want become rather than who we are. Winterson in her story represents a positive and prosperous image of a woman who in the search of her true self, finds out that her subjectivity is a matter of construction and becoming not an essence given to her by her biological or adopted parents. This study traces the process of becoming a free female thinking subject through Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal in Rosi Braidotti’s nomadic subjectivity theoretical framework and tends to conclude that all women are at the threshold of becoming a free female thinking subject, but only women who acquire knowledge and intellectuality are apt to transgress phallocentrism and constitute their independent subjectivity.Jenette Winterson, postmodern iconoclastic writer, posits the concept of ‘self’ as the central challenge of her female characters. Her autobiographical novel, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, depicts contemporary woman’s solo quest to achieve her true self and construct her desired subjectivity. Portrayal of female subjectivity in Winterson’s text goes well with the figuration of nomadic female subjectivity in Rosi Braidotti;s feminist philosophy. Braidotti by employing the concept of “nomadic subjectivity” has contributed to the critique of identity, she notices the velocity of changes in the twenty first century and challenges the issue of identity and emphasizes that we need to know who we want become rather than who we are. Winterson in her story represents a positive and prosperous image of a woman who in the search of her true self, finds out that her subjectivity is a matter of construction and becoming not an essence given to her by her biological or adopted parents. This study traces the process of becoming a free female thinking subject through Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal in Rosi Braidotti’s nomadic subjectivity theoretical framework and tends to conclude that all women are at the threshold of becoming a free female thinking subject, but only women who acquire knowledge and intellectuality are apt to transgress phallocentrism and constitute their independent subjectivity.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106716_4bed53be669c0b6ff381a52cd64f8408.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Acculturation Process in Tishani Doshi’s The Pleasure Seekers: From Identity Crisis to Integration into the Host CultureAcculturation Process in Tishani Doshi’s The Pleasure Seekers: From Identity Crisis to Integration into the Host Culture556410650910.48308/clls.2025.241694.1386FAهداشب رنگدانشیار زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی ، گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه خاتم، تهران، ایرانساراگودرزیدانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، گروه زبان انگلیسی، دانشکده علوم انسانی، دانشگاه خاتم، تهران، ایران0009-0005-2237-3005Journal Article20251012This article explores acculturative stress and the broader process of acculturation in Tishani Doshi’s selected novel, The Pleasure Seekers, utilizing John W. Berry’s acculturation framework. It focuses on key concepts: acculturation, assimilation, integration, marginalization, separation, and acculturative stress to examine how migrant characters navigate cultural adaptation and identity negotiation. In The Pleasure Seekers, Doshi traces Sian’s transformative journey from Wales to India, where she encounters cultural dissonance and societal pressures, ultimately crafting a hybridized identity. The article examines the psychological and social aspects of migration, emphasizing the role of cultural flexibility and emotional resilience in shaping identity. It looks at how acculturative stress manifests in Sian’s interactions with Indian traditions and family dynamics, analyzing her transition from alienation to integration. The article argues that as migrants become closer to the host culture, acculturative stress decreases, facilitating faster integration. It also contends that the degree to which migrants engage with the host culture while retaining aspects of their original identity directly affects their stress levels, suggesting that deeper cultural integration leads to smoother identity negotiation and enhanced psychological well-being. This proves that Sian’s reduction in acculturative stress was the direct result of her alignment with multiple dimensions of cultural interaction, namely, adopting the local language, participating in religious rituals, adapting to traditional cuisine, navigating family structures, and fulfilling culturally defined gender roles such as those of wife and mother. These practices not only facilitated her psychological adaptation but also enhanced her sense of belonging within the Indian social fabric.This article explores acculturative stress and the broader process of acculturation in Tishani Doshi’s selected novel, The Pleasure Seekers, utilizing John W. Berry’s acculturation framework. It focuses on key concepts: acculturation, assimilation, integration, marginalization, separation, and acculturative stress to examine how migrant characters navigate cultural adaptation and identity negotiation. In The Pleasure Seekers, Doshi traces Sian’s transformative journey from Wales to India, where she encounters cultural dissonance and societal pressures, ultimately crafting a hybridized identity. The article examines the psychological and social aspects of migration, emphasizing the role of cultural flexibility and emotional resilience in shaping identity. It looks at how acculturative stress manifests in Sian’s interactions with Indian traditions and family dynamics, analyzing her transition from alienation to integration. The article argues that as migrants become closer to the host culture, acculturative stress decreases, facilitating faster integration. It also contends that the degree to which migrants engage with the host culture while retaining aspects of their original identity directly affects their stress levels, suggesting that deeper cultural integration leads to smoother identity negotiation and enhanced psychological well-being. This proves that Sian’s reduction in acculturative stress was the direct result of her alignment with multiple dimensions of cultural interaction, namely, adopting the local language, participating in religious rituals, adapting to traditional cuisine, navigating family structures, and fulfilling culturally defined gender roles such as those of wife and mother. These practices not only facilitated her psychological adaptation but also enhanced her sense of belonging within the Indian social fabric.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106509_f0a8a6ce9a328bb45de412a628bea527.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor: A Time-Image Filmic Space, Embodying Henri Bergson's DureeJohn Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor: A Time-Image Filmic Space, Embodying Henri Bergson's Duree657410650610.48308/clls.2025.242172.1393FAشه تاوناصریدانشگاه خوارزمی تهرانمحسنحنیفدانشگاه خوارزمی تهرانJournal Article20251024Exploring literary works based on media theories constitutes a major part of interdisciplinary studies. Gilles Deleuze’s notions on time-image cinema, a trend dominant after the Second World War, have provided a suitable platform for investigating postmodern novels. Using his theories as well as the filmic space of John Barth’s novel The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), the present study seeks to present it as a time-image crystalline narrative. No matter from which dimension we look at a crystal, we will simultaneously see the other dimensions, as well. Therefore, according to Deleuze, crystal displays the indistinguishable continuity and unity of the real and the virtual; that is why what we see in crystal is pure time (durée). Inspired by Henri Bergson, Deleuze considers the nature of time as qualitative, rather than quantitative, and sees durée as real time that is in continuous becoming. Characteristics such as pure heterogeneity, pure quality, the fusion of moments, incompatibility with determination and identification, and innumerability can be attributed to durée, a concept independent of the linear time discussed by Immanuel Kant. Relying on concepts such as crystal-image, the blurring of the boundary between history and fiction, the power of the false, and non-linear flashback, this article considers them as appropriate tools that have already rendered The Sot-Weed Factor a time-image cinematic space, embodying pure time and making its characters and readers (spectators) immediately intuit it.Exploring literary works based on media theories constitutes a major part of interdisciplinary studies. Gilles Deleuze’s notions on time-image cinema, a trend dominant after the Second World War, have provided a suitable platform for investigating postmodern novels. Using his theories as well as the filmic space of John Barth’s novel The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), the present study seeks to present it as a time-image crystalline narrative. No matter from which dimension we look at a crystal, we will simultaneously see the other dimensions, as well. Therefore, according to Deleuze, crystal displays the indistinguishable continuity and unity of the real and the virtual; that is why what we see in crystal is pure time (durée). Inspired by Henri Bergson, Deleuze considers the nature of time as qualitative, rather than quantitative, and sees durée as real time that is in continuous becoming. Characteristics such as pure heterogeneity, pure quality, the fusion of moments, incompatibility with determination and identification, and innumerability can be attributed to durée, a concept independent of the linear time discussed by Immanuel Kant. Relying on concepts such as crystal-image, the blurring of the boundary between history and fiction, the power of the false, and non-linear flashback, this article considers them as appropriate tools that have already rendered The Sot-Weed Factor a time-image cinematic space, embodying pure time and making its characters and readers (spectators) immediately intuit it.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106506_6578a39f5a65b0e5ccb0add1588233c3.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321From Irishness to Universalism: An Antithetical Study of W.B. Yeats’s PoetryFrom Irishness to Universalism: An Antithetical Study of W.B. Yeats’s Poetry758510629310.48308/clls.2025.241503.1373FAسید رحیمموسوی نیادانشگاه شهید چمران اهوازJournal Article20250911Antithesis is an inseparable part of Yeats’s poetry. In this study, antithesis is also related to the poet’s social life. It gains its true significance when the reader affirms Blake’s genuineness in saying that there is no progress without opposition. The use of antithesis dominates almost every individual structure of Yeats’s poetry. Yeats’s attempt to represent the complex, intense situation where each theme is examined against its contrary culminates in the multiplicity and maturity of his poems. The presence of antithesis is traced in Yeats’s poetry in terms of the poet’s movement from Irishness to universalism. Among the three stages of Yeats’s development, Early Period, Middle Period and Mature period, the movement happens mostly in the Middle Period. In this second period the poet’s unique nationalism is examined while, at the same time, his inclination towards universalism is shown through three poems. The significant finding is that Yeats’s poetry is seen as a dialectic journey rooted in Irish soil and aspiring towards the cosmopolitan through artistic symbols.Antithesis is an inseparable part of Yeats’s poetry. In this study, antithesis is also related to the poet’s social life. It gains its true significance when the reader affirms Blake’s genuineness in saying that there is no progress without opposition. The use of antithesis dominates almost every individual structure of Yeats’s poetry. Yeats’s attempt to represent the complex, intense situation where each theme is examined against its contrary culminates in the multiplicity and maturity of his poems. The presence of antithesis is traced in Yeats’s poetry in terms of the poet’s movement from Irishness to universalism. Among the three stages of Yeats’s development, Early Period, Middle Period and Mature period, the movement happens mostly in the Middle Period. In this second period the poet’s unique nationalism is examined while, at the same time, his inclination towards universalism is shown through three poems. The significant finding is that Yeats’s poetry is seen as a dialectic journey rooted in Irish soil and aspiring towards the cosmopolitan through artistic symbols.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106293_9215fb238d12ece8ac24f259b90e9fa5.pdfدانشگاه شهید بهشتینقد زبان و ادبیات خارجی20087330233620260321Operationalizing Learner Well-Being in ELT Textbooks: A Qualitative Study of Expert Reasoning and Methodological ConstraintsOperationalizing Learner Well-Being in ELT Textbooks: A Qualitative Study of Expert Reasoning and Methodological Constraints879910672310.48308/clls.2026.243026.1418FAموسینوشیدانشگاه شهید بهشتی تهران ایرانمهرانحسین خانیدانشگاه شهید بهشتی تهران ایران0009-0002-4018-2235Journal Article19700101This study investigated how experts in applied linguistics and positive psychology (PP) reason about the feasibility and limits of operationalizing complex psychological learner well-being constructs for English language teaching (ELT) textbook evaluation. While PP models such as EMPATHICS have substantially enriched theoretical understandings of learner well-being, their application to textbook evaluation raises unresolved methodological questions. Drawing on a qualitative, interpretive research design, the study foregrounded expert reasoning itself as the primary object of inquiry rather than treating expert consultation as a procedural step toward consensus or instrument validation. Data were collected through a recursive expert consultation process involving specialists in PP, English language education, and ELT materials development, and were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings showed that experts differ systematically in their judgments of construct observability, the role of contextual mediation, and the legitimacy of inferential claims based on textbook content. These disagreements were not attributable to technical deficiencies or lack of expertise, but to deeper epistemological orientations concerning evidence, pedagogy, and the relationship between texts and lived learning experience. By making visible the interpretive work underlying feasibility judgments, the study contributes to methodological debates on discourse- and materials-based analysis and argues for a more reflexive approach to applying holistic psychological models in ELT materials research.This study investigated how experts in applied linguistics and positive psychology (PP) reason about the feasibility and limits of operationalizing complex psychological learner well-being constructs for English language teaching (ELT) textbook evaluation. While PP models such as EMPATHICS have substantially enriched theoretical understandings of learner well-being, their application to textbook evaluation raises unresolved methodological questions. Drawing on a qualitative, interpretive research design, the study foregrounded expert reasoning itself as the primary object of inquiry rather than treating expert consultation as a procedural step toward consensus or instrument validation. Data were collected through a recursive expert consultation process involving specialists in PP, English language education, and ELT materials development, and were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings showed that experts differ systematically in their judgments of construct observability, the role of contextual mediation, and the legitimacy of inferential claims based on textbook content. These disagreements were not attributable to technical deficiencies or lack of expertise, but to deeper epistemological orientations concerning evidence, pedagogy, and the relationship between texts and lived learning experience. By making visible the interpretive work underlying feasibility judgments, the study contributes to methodological debates on discourse- and materials-based analysis and argues for a more reflexive approach to applying holistic psychological models in ELT materials research.https://clls.sbu.ac.ir/article_106723_2cb12c4544dcade4be55f98a5cbecdb4.pdf