Journal of Narrative and Language Studies
Journal of Narrative and Language Studies, NALANS (ISSN: 2148-4066), is a peer-reviewed international academic journal welcoming manuscripts from the fields of Literature, Narrative and Language studies. Established in 2013, the journal is published biannually. The primary aim of the journal is to provide an avenue for scholars and researchers in order to publish and share their studies through an open-access environment.
Karadeniz Technical University - Mustafa Zeki Çıraklı
Recurrence of the Past, Reception of the Present, Reflections on the Future
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Narrative and Language Studies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Arguing for Decolonial Repair: Petrostate, Environmental Injustice, and Decompositional Politics in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water
Helon Habila’s Oil On Water (2011) is often considered a crucial literary depiction of the environmental and political violence resulting from the discovery and continual extraction of oil in the Niger Delta. The novel illustrates the journey and experiences of journalists Zaq and Rufus, who venture into the interior villages to investigate the kidnapping of Isabel Floode, the spouse of an oil company engineer. The novel showcases how the landscape of the Niger Delta is marked by toxic emissions resulting from relentless extraction, along with increased structural violence, which has led to militancy, abductions, and disruptive behaviour on the part of certain individuals. In this context, the article re-examines this novel not merely as a striking illustration of petrostate crises but also as a literary piece that underscores the imperative of ‘decompositional politics’ and the cultivation of epistemic solidarity to transcend the complexities of petrostate violence and comprehend the ingrained forms of epistemic inequalities that have driven the victims of environmental injustice towards insurgent trajectories. The article analyses this work as a reflection of a decolonial perspective that repudiates the top-down model of knowledge formation and underscores the potentiality of ‘decolonial repair’ by addressing the violence and repression of colonial capitalist histories.
Postcolonial Literature / Decolonial Studies
The Complex Panaroma"Shakespeare" in Turkish Theatre Historiography
In Turkish theatre history, the name “Shakespeare” reflects a long-surviving “anxiety of influence,” embodying a continual aspiration for Western dramatic traditions that have extensively shaped theatrical conventions in the late Ottoman Era and Republican Türkiye. Following the late nineteenth century in particular, the means of access to and engagement with Shakespeare’s work were closely linked to theatre’s role as a political agent in the projects of modernism and nation-state building. In contrast to the legitimating authority that Shakespeare provides theatre practitioners today, Shakespeare’s incipient legacy in the late Ottoman period flourished via a fragmented, changing pattern of dramatic texts and performances in various languages. Borrowing Margaret Litvin’s theory of Shakespeare appropriation in the Arab world, we see that Shakespeare entered the Ottoman theatrical scene through a “global kaleidoscope of indirect experiences”. Whereas the name Shakespeare wavered around different connotations such as a canonical playwright who influenced non-Muslim dramatic literature, a marker of knowledge, or an influential dramatist whose works were paraphrased or adapted in the late Ottoman Era, the playwright acquired a preserved, authorial status in modern Turkish theatre. In my article, I evaluate Shakespeare’s complex entry to the theatre scene in the late Ottoman Era and Republican Türkiye by looking at the critical work of the playwright by prominent figures such as İnci Enginün and Muhsin Ertuğrul and address the need for a new vocabulary and methodology with which to evaluate the ambivalent place that Shakespeare has occupied within this complex historical panorama.
Exploring Shakespeare Speaking Old and Modern Georgian
William Shakespeare’s global impact has been profound, which has been furthered especially through local translations of his works. In Georgia, the translations of Shakespeare’s works were utilised for political means amid the Georgian linguistic revival in the 19th and 20th centuries. Discussing the linguistic impact of Shakespeare on the development of the Georgian language, this essay underscores how several translators, including the renowned Georgian translator Ivane Machabeli, used William Shakespeare as a model for linguistic reformation and the development of the Georgian tongue.
Georgian translation of Shakespeare and cultural impact
historical, and linguistic dimensions of Shakespeare's translation
Soviet and Post-Soviet Shakespeare Reception
Unmasking the Mechanics of Brutality in Titus Andronicus: A Žižekian and Girardian Analysis
This article examines William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus through the dual lenses of Slavoj Žižek’s theory of violence and René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire and the scapegoat mechanism. It argues that the play offers more than a conventional revenge tragedy; it explores how violence is ritualized, normalized, and concealed through ideology. Žižek’s tripartite model of violence (subjective, systemic, symbolic) helps explain how Roman rituals, imperial power, and patriarchal norms transform cruelty into civic virtue. Girard’s notion of sacrificial violence and mimetic rivalry complements this framework by showing that efforts to restore social order through scapegoating often fail and instead escalate conflict. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Shakespeare’s play critiques the ideological and mimetic structures that sustain violence, using Žižekian and Girardian frameworks to uncover how Titus Andronicus exposes the political and psychological mechanisms that render such brutality both necessary and invisible within systems of power. By analyzing key moments such as Alarbus’s ritual death, Lavinia’s mutilation, and Titus’s grotesque revenge, the article demonstrates how violence is not a disruption of order but a structural force that upholds it. Through this lens, Shakespeare interrogates the cultural and psychological forces that make violence appear acceptable and even virtuous. The article contends that Titus Andronicus offers no clear moral resolution. Instead, it challenges readers to reflect on how violence is not only normalized but also rendered invisible and ideologically justified, prompting a critical reconsideration of how such mechanisms function within their own social and political realities.
Although it can be said that the influence of William Shakespeare from the early periods of modern Turkish literature was initially limited to the field of theatre, in time this influence spread to the field of fiction through the development of the novel. Accepted as a “master” by the writers of the Tanzimat period in the 1860s, Shakespeare exerted a strong influence on Turkish writers, especially novelists. From the 1890s to 1910s, Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil and Mehmet Rauf, two prominent novelists of the Servet-i Fünûn period, praised Shakespeare in their essays, referring to French literary historian Hippolyte Taine. Uşaklıgil’s interpretation of Shakespeare, who is considered the “founding father” of the Turkish novel, allows us to see Shakespeare’s influence on the development of modern Turkish literature. In his book Hikâye [The Novel] (published in 1891-1892), written to explain the history of the novel in the West and Turkish, Uşaklıgil did not include Shakespeare but when he started to teach at the university, he took a close interest in Shakespeare, and from 1909 onwards, he published essays on Shakespeare, along with other Western writers, in the magazine Servet-i Fünûn. In 1909, his main aim in these essays was to introduce Shakespeare to students and readers. Halit Ziya’s comprehensive essays on Shakespeare were published in 1941, entitled “English and French Poets and Authors: William Shakespeare” in the newspaper Son Posta. In these essays, Halit Ziya commented on Shakespeare as “a name considered the greatest genius in all world literature.” Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil does not include Shakespeare in 1892 but gives him a special place in 1909 and 1941. This means that the place given to Shakespeare in Halit Ziya’s literary universe has expanded over time. This influence, which can be traced in his essays, is not limited to Uşaklıgil. Between 1909 and 1941, Shakespeare received widespread attention in Türkiye. Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil not only acknowledges Shakespeare as a literary “genius” but considers him a “founder” in terms of his perspective on humanity. He claims that Shakespeare’s characters are not based on myths, as in ancient Greece, but on human emotions and actions. He finds the works of Shakespeare, who does not hesitate to show the evil side of humanity as well as its beauty, valuable as a reflection of reality. He praises Shakespeare’s ability to combine contrasts such as “tragedy and comedy”, “monarch and jester”, and “wisdom and madness”, which he sees as human passions. It is quite obvious that Halit Ziya’s appreciation of Shakespeare’s interpretation of humanity directly influenced Uşaklıgil’s portrayal of humanity in his novels.
A Study of Selected Works on Shakespeare in Turkish Academia
Turkish audience became familiar with Shakespeare’s works in the middle of the 19th century thanks to the visiting troupes from Europe and Armenian actors’ performances in Türkiye. The first translations of Shakespeare’s plays, albeit initially from French to Turkish, were also seen in the second half of the 19th century. Although some journalists and critics reviewed Shakespearean performances in newspapers or literary magazines in this period, it took a considerable amount of time to evaluate the context of Shakespeare’s oeuvre and his dramatic approach in Türkiye. Only after the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye in 1923, Turkish intellectuals and scholars began to introduce and analyse Shakespeare in an array of different works. This essay sets out to investigate a selection of works featured in their attempt to introduce Shakespeare to the Turkish reader/audience from the 1930s to 2012. The article maps out some studies extensively bridging the gap between Türkiye and Shakespeare in various ways. The focus of the analysis will be on Cenap Şehabettin’s Vilyem Şekspiyer (William Shakespeare) (1931), Metin And’s “Türkiyede Shakespeare” (“Shakespeare in Türkiye”) (1964), Talât S. Halman’s Türk’ Shakespeare (Shakespeare the Turk) (2003), İnci Enginün’s Türkçede Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Turkish) (2008) and Türkiye’de Şekspir Olmak (Being Shakespeare in Türkiye) (2012) directed by Gülşah Özdemir Koryürek. The range of these works provides a comparative approach to initiate an argument about how Shakespeare is located in Turkish literature, culture, and academia.
Fashioning the Social: Shakespearean Translations in the Kannada Literary Polysystem
Shakespearean plays have been the most widely translated and adapted texts into Indian languages, including the Kannada language. This essay focuses on the translations that occurred during the period between 1847 and 1930. This essay discusses the emergence of modern theatre and translations of English plays in the Kannada literary polysystem[1] in particular and Indian literary tradition in general. The essay examines the transition from the traditional theatre, the emergence of the “company plays”, and transition from traditional theatre to the proscenium theatre, and the rise of plays as social criticism. It attempts to show how English textual practices have influenced Kannada theatre in multiple ways. Further, it explains how Kannada translations of Shakespeare played a significant role in local societal changes, argues that these translations brought modern thought into the Kannada literary tradition, and critically traces the trajectory of the journey of Western texts into the Kannada language through translations of English plays including Shakespeare.
Perception of William Shakespeare in The Republican Era Turkish Novel
This study will focus on Shakespeare’s influence on Turkish literature based on Harold Bloom’s idea that Shakespeare cannot be seen simply as a Western canon, but that he is a world canon. Although the focus will be on the Turkish novels and novelists of the early Republican period, the influence of Shakespeare on modern Turkish literature will be briefly touched upon, starting with the earliest examples, and thus the literary heritage that nourished the writers of the early Republican period will be traced. In the 19th century, with the increase in Western-style theatres in Istanbul interest in Shakespeare also increased. In addition to the staging of his plays, Shakespeare is also mentioned in newspaper and magazine articles, further increasing his recognition among writers and readers. The influence of Shakespeare on the Turkish novel can be seen both in direct references and in allusions to his works regarding theme and narrative structure, starting with Turkish literature of the Tanzimat period, which developed under the influence of Western literature from the second half of the 19th century. This influence increases gradually with the introduction of lectures and academic studies on Shakespeare in universities. During the Republican period, this influence goes beyond the theatre and begins to be seen in poetry, short stories, and novels. Many writers who shaped the literature of the Republican period, such as Halide Edip Adıvar, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, and Peyami Safa, consider Shakespeare an important source regarding form or theme within the novel narrative. In the Turkish novel, the influence of Shakespeare is mostly seen as a direct reference to some of his characters. This is because Shakespeare’s characters reflect the universal human condition and the desire to benefit from the traits of these characters who have gained an immortal place in the minds of all readers. This study will focus on the novels of writers of the early Republican period such as Halide Edip Adıvar, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Peyami Safa, Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar, and Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar. In addition, the influence of Shakespeare in the non-fiction works of these authors will also be mentioned to have a comprehensive evaluation of the reception of Shakespeare by these authors. In this study, the reception of Shakespeare in the Turkish novel of the early Republican period will be analysed on the 100th anniversary of the Republic, 400 years after the publication of the First Folio.
Brutalism: The Next ‘Liberal’ Narrative of the 21st Century
Brutalism, a theoretical concept originally linked with architectural issues can also be seen as having political economy rendition. This article approaches the concept of brutalism linking it to the crisis of liberalism and the structuration of neoliberalism’s extractive practices in the global south. Building on Mbembe’s theorisation of brutalism, this article examines our living conditions in light of the incremental violence of the political economy. Under brutalism, life and liveability are no longer contingent on a democratic setup but are instead dictated by the exceptionality invested in the state-capital nexus, splitting the world into liveable and non-liveable zones, underpinned as it is by the deep state’s exclusive predatory rights. The brutal living conditions in peripheral zones are symptomatic of a quotidian reality that reinforces the notion of incremental violence – a kind of violence that does not come across as threatening or disabling – rather it is in proportion to one’s absorbing capacity. It further links brutalism to the rapacious and self-serving nature of corporatism, identifying it as neofascism since the notions of freedom and security are constantly punctured.
Brutalism, neoliberalism, global south, abstract violence, incremental violence
Pre-Birth Hamlet: Counterfactual Narratives and the Boundaries of Alternative History in Ian McEwan’s Nutshell
This article analyses the function of counterfactual narrative within the theoretical frame of alternative history and moral responsibility in Ian McEwan’s Nutshell and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Both texts investigate the limitations of agency, fate, and moral responsibility through the lens of alternate history and speculative thinking. Hamlet portrays a protagonist that is paralyzed by uncertainty and torn between action and inaction, while Nutshell presents a narrator with omniscient insight who is unable to change the course of events. Therefore, this study aims to examine the different but parallel issues, revealing that counterfactual thinking does not serve as an emancipating activity but rather reinforces existential paralysis in both characters. It situates Nutshell within the wider context of counterfactual narrative and alternative history theory, analysing McEwan’s novel as a metahistorical critique and an extension of Shakespeare’s investigation into historical contingency. Besides, it underlines the impact of counterfactual reasoning on self-perception, demonstrating that identity is shaped by both previous experiences and hypothetical alternatives. In both texts, counterfactual thinking results in the tragic dilemma of the protagonists as counter-historical subjects as Nutshell and Hamlet overlap in their portrayal of speculation as an inherently detrimental aspect of human consciousness. Consequently, McEwan and Shakespeare present a frame to explore how individuals endeavour to reconstruct or resist their preordained circumstances and realities by revealing the boundaries of counterfactual thinking in modifying historical determinism.
A Cognitive Linguistic Study on Arabic Female BA Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers in an English Department
The contemporary age has witnessed many challenges regarding the common and conventional qualities of the best teacher. Langacker’s traditional model of Domain Analysis (1987), that is, the matrix domains of content, design, and delivery, still provides insights into the distinctive features of the best teacher even though the model indicates a relatively outworn model. Integrating Endicott and Lee’s presentation of survival dimensions, the present paper examines the students’ perceptions of their teachers through a qualitative, explorative, and experimental examination. The present research is limited to the domain of teachers and demonstrated that the participants stressed ‘knowledge, interest, mastery and updated information’ regarding the content domain; the participants emphasised ‘clearly setting goals, advanced preparation, and using teaching aids/effects’ regarding the design domain. As for the delivery domain, the participants considered verbal ability, class management, and ethical aspects. The study concluded that the ‘content’ and ‘delivery’ domains are ranked top from the participants’ perspectives. However, the sub-domains of these matrix domains have varied.
Arabic Female BA Students’ Perceptions of Their Teachers in an English Department
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Narrative and Language Studies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Effects of Compound and Total Images on the Cohesion of in Al-Qahtani's Poetry
This article aims to explore the aesthetics of imagery in the poetry of Al-Qahtani, which can be categorized into two types: compound imagery resulting from the accumulation of images and compound imagery in narrative storytelling. Compound imagery is produced by accumulating carefully selected individual images to create a cascade of meanings. The second type encompasses narrative storytelling, either descriptive without dialogue or inclusive of narrative content within reading theory. This study offers a critical practice in light of reading theory regarding meaning issues that represent a complex problem with broad, intertwined and deep theoretical and practical dimensions. Selected poetic texts from the Southern Qahtani tradition are included in the study. The research methodology focuses on understanding the aesthetics of both compound and total imagery and their impact on the coherence of poetic texts. The study demonstrates how imagery serves as an artistic tool through which the poet conveys various themes, including conceptual perceptions, after projecting a sensory attribute onto them, allowing the conceptual to emerge with a sensory guise. Additionally, imagery encompasses sensory perceptions primarily arising from the poet’s sense of reality. This interconnection affords the poet ample freedom to express their imagery and present their ideas.
Cohesion of Poetic Texts within Theory of Reading
Ethics of Storytelling: The Wounds of Deception and Pseudo-PTSD in Atonement
Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001) is one of the most controversial novels due to the complexity of its narratives and characters, particularly its central character. Therefore, this article deals with pseudo-PTSD in Atonement, examining how trauma is delineated, built, and manipulated within the metafictional framework of the novel. While classical PTSD is depicted through forced memories of traumatic events, McEwan’s protagonist produces an unreliable narrative of guilt and redemption that parodies trauma without genuine experience. This study explores the character’s psychological state, arguing that her self-imposed suffering functions as a simulacrum of PTSD—what can be termed pseudo-PTSD—a term coined by Rosen & Tylor (2007). Drawing their perspective, the article examines Briony’s retrospective storytelling as both a coping mechanism and an act of self-mythologization, highlighting the ethical and epistemological implications of traumatised narrator, narrating trauma and traumatic narrative. Ultimately, Atonement challenges the reliability of memory and the legitimacy of self-inflicted psychological ‘wounds’, raising critical questions about authorship, responsibility, and the commodification of suffering in fiction.
The Wounds of Deception and Pseudo-PTSD in Atonement
Resonances of Celtic Pantheism in Claire Keegan’s Walk the Blue Fields
The relationship between nature and religion has been a matter of philosophical and religious debate for centuries. Nature has been evaluated as a means of reaching God and is considered a reflection of creative power. Pantheism occurs as represented in particular narratives, exploring nature-human coexistence as a manifestation of God. This study aims to explore the elements of Celtic pantheism as a depiction of Christian perception of life, focusing on its attempt to find a reflection of God in nature. Drawing on the terminologies offered by Spinoza, the study analyses Keegan’s story Walk the Blue Fields within a conceptual framework of pantheism, associated with a long spiritual tradition that locates divinity within the natural world, challenging traditional Church doctrines and fostering a mutual relationship between nature and culture. The paper examines how the characters disappoint traditional conceptions by seeking God not within institutional organisations but in nature and the natural. Such an attitude revives the sensitivities of Celtic pantheism by blending natural elements with divine reflections and spiriting the material world with fancy and imagination. The paper also discusses how these stories offer new ethical considerations as to what is good or bad: naturalness. The study shows how the characters’ ‘natural life’ and ‘life in nature’ yield a genuine moral expression and perception through unmediated natural experience. The study concludes that envisaging nature as a potential realm of spiritual connection and reflective involvement brings creative power and healing cure.
Biotext and Chinese/American Identity in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts
This article explores Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts, which is a blend of autobiography, fiction, myth and history, as a biotext, a text that is able to articulate the author through the writing itself rather than being reduced to binaries or to a single genre. This essay makes the case that The Woman Warrior by Hong-Kingston should be seen as a biotext since it gives the author the opportunity to write about herself and make it an extension of who she is. Instead of giving in to the constraints of genre or classification, the biotext gives the writer the opportunity to integrate themselves into the work rather than having them appear as a character in the story. By incorporating both familial and cultural themes and emphasizing the lineage and kindred, Kingston’s text differs from the typical autobiographical genre and creates a warrior who resurrects the suppressed female legends and celebrates her femininity.
Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts
The Semiotics of Pictorial Discourse in Ahmed Khalid Tawfiq’s The Legend of the Late Night
This paper analyses visual discourse in Ahmed Khalid Tawfiq’s The Legend of the Late Night (2002) by investing in semiotics as a critical method, gripping the essence of the image, especially if it involves an imagination imbued with horror literature, as it will give rise to a kind of novelistic narrative through the enjoyment and amazement at the new form that jumps to the mind to formal camouflage with an artistic and functional impact. The prominent approach to tackle this reading is characterized by its ability to analyze literary discourse, reveal its secrets, and interrogate its symbols to reach its goal or approach. Critical reading is considered a simulation analysis of the conceptual procedure through analyzing the physical form of the sign within the discourse or image, studying the semiotic units such as words, colours, shapes and images, and then linking the signs to their cultural, social and other contexts, and an attempt to observe the effect of narrative employment of two types that come together to establish a genre that inspires in terms of novelty and excitement; they are: the semiotics of the image and horror literature. The research problem can be defined by the question that searches for the nature of the encounter between method and procedure. In other words, how suitable is the semiotic approach for analyzing Arab novelist discourse and revealing its secrets? The conclusions lie in completing the accumulated knowledge to enhance the energies of the different genres and in an attempt to cross-fertilize some genres capable of producing their fruits due to valid hybridization in a place where procedure and employment interact.
Ahmed Khalid Tawfiq’s The Legend of the Late Night
Vlach-language theatre: The role of supertitles as translation in endangered-language heritage performance
During the spring and summer of 2023, I visited my hometown Veria to undertake preliminary research on endangered-language heritage performance with funding from the Welsh Government’s Taith programme. During my visit, I worked closely with the Folklore Association of Vlachs of Veria, observed their work, and participated in their heritage performance, learning not only about the communities’ cultural heritage but also about my own personal heritage. Based on empirical research, observations, personal experience and practice research, this paper focuses on the use of supertitles and multimedia projection as a translation strategy to safeguard endangered languages, traditions, and cultures. In particular, I discuss the case of Vlach-language theatre play La Câshiari (Στο Τυροκομείο / In the Dairy) by Takis Georgiou (playwright and director), performed on 28 May 2023 with Greek supertitles. Here, both the original text and translation are written by the same author simultaneously, self-translation (see Grutman & Van Bolderen, 2014), rather than translated by a different person; “an extreme case of the author/work – translator/work dialectic” (Tanqueiro, 2000, p. 63). It is then enriched by other members of the community contributions, who either identify a more appropriate Vlach word or correct the translation to allow for a clearer meaning to be made, which can be seen as an interlinear and group-dialectic approach to translation. As Geraldine Brodie (2020) notes, ‘[t]he intermedial performance of surtitles positions surtitles within new media dramaturgy, creating a form of interlinear translation’ (p. 450). Indeed, new technologies allow intermedial approaches in supertitled theatre, reaching beyond textual aspects.
When Tablets Speak: Examining Diasporic Identity in Dunya Mikhail’s Poetry
The study aims to demonstrate that diasporic people feel nostalgia for the spiritual value of their homes, not for their physical location. The diaspora theory is applied to frame the analysis of Dunya Mikhail’s selected poems. They represent how diasporic identity is intrinsically linked to the recollection of one’s native culture from positive and negative perspectives. This paper argues that diaspora and traumatic memories of the past impact the formation of the exilic identity, and there is a considerable link between the two. It deals with weighty themes, including migration, homelessness, loss, and nostalgia. It examines the poetry of the Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail (1965–), who has innovated a new poetic genre known as ‘tablets poems’. Furthermore, it exemplifies how diasporic experiences and painful memories may influence the formation of an immigrant’s identity upon arrival. It contends that historical events will always loom large in the minds of immigrants and will always impact their present-day lives.
Liminal Margins and the Appropriation of the Inherited Codes and Imposed Patterns in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s The Last Gift
The study explores the immigrant’s identity crisis in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s The Last Gift from the lens of hybridity and liminality. It analyses how the host society determines identity formation and the tension they experience between their cultural heritage and the prevailing norms of the host culture. As described by Turner, liminality accounts for the transitions that Gurnah’s characters experience while shaping their identities. Their adaptation to Western traditions impacts their cultural identities, making Bhabha’s ideas of hybridity and mimicry particularly relevant. The characters’ struggles to assimilate illustrate their liminality as they struggle with preserving their authentic culture. Second-generation immigrants also confront the challenges of balancing assimilation with a desire to reconnect with their roots. The characters embody hybrid identities, navigating their differences while keeping inherited codes and imposed acts that indicate the elements of liminality and hybridity at a time. By the end of the novel, both characters exhibit enriched hybrid identities, demonstrating the crucial role of liminality and hybridity in their identity formation throughout the novel.
Introduction to Global Folios: Shakespeare in Non-Anglophone Sources
More than 400 years have passed since the publication of William Shakespeare’s First Folio. Being compiled by John Hemmings and Henry Condell, the First Folio has shaped the Shakespearean canon and has had a profound impact on his popularity. Currently, only about 235 of an estimated 700 copies exist today. The series of subsequent folios that followed the First Folio also contributed to Shakespeare criticism and the development of editorial practices in English-language criticism. Eighteenth-century editors such as Nicholas Rowe and Samuel Johnson attempted to perfect folio versions of Shakespeare’s works. Modern publishers like Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press have differentiated between quarto and folio versions in recent editions. The publication of Shakespeare’s works in non-Anglophone regions, like India and Latin America, has led to unique adaptations that challenge traditional Western views of Shakespeare. The impact of Shakespeare in non-Anglophone regions like India and Georgia is explored in detail in essays included in this special issue focusing on Shakespeare outside the Anglophone world. In India, Shakespeare’s works were among the first to be translated into languages like Kannada, influencing local theatre traditions. In Georgia, translating Shakespeare’s plays into Georgian enriched the Georgian language. Turkish Shakespeares, which are also featured in the special issue, highlight the influence of Shakespeare in Turkish theatre history and literature. Therefore, the essays in this collection shed new light on Global Shakespeares, showcasing the complex histories of transmission, adaptation, and scholarship of Shakespeare’s works in non-Anglophone contexts. They provide valuable insights into how Shakespeare continues to resonate across different cultures and languages, adding a crucial dimension to the understanding of the Bard’s legacy and the significance of the First Folio.
The Interplay between the Consumer and the Consumed: Analyzing Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go through Donna Haraway’s Lens
Today’s culture is predominantly motivated by the urge to produce and consume. Consumption is becoming a defining characteristic in contemporary life. Kazuo Ishiguro is a well-known literary figure whose works explore memory, knowledge, and complex human relationship. This study examines the consumption of genetic engineering in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005). Donna Haraway's influential theory A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) is employed in the study as its conceptual framework. The study explores the landscape of Ishiguro's dystopian world, where human clones try to understand their existence as both subjects and objects of consumption. In Never Let Me Go, clones are made to donate their organs, stripping them of their humanity. This is consistent with Haraway's criticism of how technology objectifies people. This study aims to elucidate how Haraway's theory can be utilized to inform and enrich the understanding of the characters' experiences in Never Let Me Go. The theoretical framework draws extensively from Haraway's work on the cyborg as a hybrid entity, blurring the boundaries between human and machine. The scope of the research extends beyond literary analysis to encompass broader cultural and philosophical implications of cyborg consumption. This study concludes that the human escalating need for more products results in the grave pain and inhuman treatment of the characters in the novel. The only way to treat people equally is to prioritize humanism over consumption. The study, is then, significant to writers, readers, and academics who grapple with the complex relationship between humanity and human production.
The Rural and the Urban: A Spatial Reading of Selected Poems by Stephen Spender and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
The countryside and the city are considered among the most frequently tackled themes in British and Arabic poetry. They are viewed as two inseparable aspects of man’s life in the modern age. Many poets write about them because they appreciate the rural since it is still where man finds tranquillity, spontaneity and outlet from all urban life pressures. On the contrary, the city is presented as a place of stress, chaos, loss and instability. In the present paper, the main concern is to discuss selected poems by Stephen Spender (1909-1995) and Badr Shakr al-Sayyab (1926-1964) in terms of three intrinsic elements of space theorized by Henri Lefebvre, a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, along with Raymond Williams, to critically examine both Spender’s and al-Sayyab’s rendering of a variety of poetic devices to portray the countryside represented by the village with all its images, and the urban landscape defined by the city which is depicted in terms of corruption, pollution and isolation. It also aims to elucidate the essential components of space, applying modern poetry to the presentation of the countryside and the city to explicate how they are both oriented in Spender’s and al-Sayyab’s selected poems. One of the noteworthy conclusions is that both of them employ spatial practices and representational to portray the rural and urban images of life as conceived by the reader.
Truth and Metaphysical Aesthetics in A. J. M. Smith’s Selected Poems
Arthur James Marshall Smith, (1902-1980), a Canadian poet, critic, and professor who played a vital role in shaping the modern Canadian literary landscape, is known for his preoccupation with metaphysical aesthetics and truth that revolve around exploring deep philosophical themes. Through his keen observation and meticulous craftsmanship, Smith quests for unconcealing the potential truth and inherent beauty beneath the surface of human existence and the universe. Doing so, Smith explores the relationship between external beauty and intrinsic hidden truth that may transcend human understanding. His main concern is to reveal truths behind themes, notions, and the physical world rendered in a unique philosophical voice. Metaphysical aesthetics is the creativity of philosophical inquiries and debates of concepts where the vocalization of philosophical ideas wields poetic language and creative artwork. The present paper aims to examine the metaphysical and philosophical aesthetics in Smith’s selected poems and essays, arguing that there is a whole aesthetic realm behind the poet’s philosophical voice. This very realm reveals a tension between the endeavor to be hermeneutic to uncover the most fundamental metaphysical dimensions of human existence and harnessing unique aesthetic elements simultaneously. Employing Nietzsche’s notion of the will to power and Heidegger’s surrealistic outlook, this paper addresses Smith’s poetics of philosophy that deals with themes such as death unity, transcendence, the dynamics of spiritual transition, and the ideal nationality. Smith drags the reader’s attention to speculate the wonders of existence, the power of the mind, its interconnectedness with the cosmic essence, and the poetics of truth.
A.J.M. Smith, metaphysical aesthetics, truth, Heidegger, Nietzsche, philosophical poetry.
Narrative Intricacy in Robert Southey’s Storyworld: Locutor Voice and Monitority in “The Battle of Blenheim”
This study explores the narrative intricacy of Robert Southey’s “The Battle of Blenheim” by examining the use of monitority and locutor voice. Using these techniques, the paper analyses how the poet represents the ‘restricted perspective of the locutor’ rather than a distanced straightforward historical narrative of the experience of battle, providing an intrinsic and particularised perspective on war and prompting reflection on it. Southey’s strategy of monitority thus carries an evaluative dimension, revealing the experienced and characterised aspects of war and deviating from external generalisations of war. However, the locutor voice, which captures the focalised perspective, tone, and discourse, articulates the characters’ emotional states. The interplay of monitority and locutor voice creates an intricate narrative of the war, highlighting its brutality, the anguish and the emotional burden it inflicts. The portrayal of war’s catastrophic nature counters the traditional glorification of war as a victory, while the protracted emotional engagement indicates psychological effects on individuals. As such, Southey’s poem turns out to be an acute narrative of war, driven by a crafty interaction of monitoring and locutor voice, examines the war with polyvocal shades of fancy, joy, suffering and eventual loss, which engages the readers with critical distance as well as empathy and sympathy with those affected by its utter consequences.
Preface: “Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory”
Herman Melville's resonating narrative legacy.
From Viral Strains to Social Pains: Navigating Racial Profiling in Yang’s New from Here
Racial profiling is a discriminatory practice of singling out individuals by police officers based on their race. During COVID-19, Chinese people suffer tsunamis of racial profiling, referring to them as virus holders, which makes them confront substantial challenges facing bias and oppression in different places. Despite the number of studies that tackled racial profiling within the law enforcement field through different perspectives, none of them has tried to approach the topic outside the police field during the pandemic period using Critical Race Theory. Thus, the current study aims to investigate the acts of racial profiling appointed against the Wei-Evans in Kelly Yangs’ New from Here (2022) in light of Delgado and Stefancic’s Critical Race Theory (2017). Following a descriptive qualitative analysis, the study adopts the theory’s concepts of ‘Racism is Common not Aberrational’, ‘intersectionality’, ‘Race is socially Constructed’ and ‘The Unique Voice of Colour’ as methodological tools to analyse the novel. Scenes, where the protagonists encounter degrading, dehumanisation and racism, are examined to figure out how Covid-19 helps in profiling the Chinese characters and how they react to such profiling. The study concludes that racial profiling is a discriminatory practice perpetrated by different individuals against Chinese people during COVID-19 time to perpetuate Western dominance over non-Westerners. Moreover, the study concludes that the Wei-Evans challenge racial profiling by creating counter-narratives, empowered by their ‘Unique Voice of Colour’ to de-profile and voice themselves. Finally, the study circulates the term ‘Racial Profiling’ outside the police institution because it is only used within police areas.
Transcreation of Advertisements as Narratives
Transcreation covers emerging strategies, concepts and procedures in translation. It brings together linguistic transfer, cultural appropriation and creative invention. Recent trends in the advertisement sector indicate that translation is blended with creativity and narrativization. Hence, transculturation emerges as a critical component of the advertisement sector, and the cultural items of the source language and culture (SL, SC) are recreated in the target language (TL, TC). The crucial aspects of transcreation combine the subtleties of SL and add creativity to TL and TC. This article examines transcultural strategies and the integration of visual narratives in Turkish advertisements. A phenomenographic approach was used in this study to identify the transcreations from English advertisements into Turkish. In analysing advertisement narratives, Hans Vermeer’s “skopos theory” was used, reconsidering the concept of “domestication” from a commercial perspective. This short article shows how advertisement narratives are reproduced in TC and how transcreation strategies and illustrations are used for recontextualisation. The present illustrations can contribute to a better understanding of future transcreational attempts for cutting-edge researchers.
The Guru of Abuse: Analysing Cultural Distortions in Anuradha Roy’s Sleeping on Jupiter
This research paper delves into the intricate relationship between culture as a tool of oppression and liberation, focusing on the experiences of child abuse within the context of Anuradha Roy’s Sleeping on Jupiter (2015). The study investigates how the abuse perpetuated against the orphaned girls reflects distortions of cultural norms and traditions, thereby revealing the potential for culture to be used as an instrument of oppression. The central figure in this narrative, Guruji, manipulates religious notions of the guru-disciple relationship, exploiting his claimed status as the girls’ new “God” to mask his exploitation. Through a comprehensive analysis of the novel, this study reveals the dichotomous role of religious and cultural elements. The paper argues that while religion can be harnessed for oppression and liberation, its enduring symbols and narratives form the foundation for survivors to reclaim their agency and cultural heritage. On one hand, the guru’s invocations of worship and devotion underscore the manipulation of cultural symbols to enable abuse and control. On the other hand, the paper explores how the orphaned girls find solace by re-engaging with Hindu mythological narrative traditions through storytelling. The study demonstrates that the tales from the Ramayana provide solace from the guru’s falsehoods. Ultimately, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate interaction between cultural forces, gender dynamics, and the potential for empowerment within the framework of religious traditions, as depicted in the novel.
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A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Images of the Turks in English Renaissance Drama: A Case Study
This study is based on a critical discourse analysis of images widely used for the portrayals of Turks in English Renaissance drama with reference to Philip Massinger’s Renegado. This study intends to develop a systematic method to examine the discursive tendencies in the selected work to determine the frequencies of the use of particular linguistic expressions used to depict the Turks and the ideas that are established and promoted through the recurrently employed images of Turks in order to identify the dominant cultural attitudes and the political, ideological and religious implications of certain discursive representations and constructions. To do so, a structural framework for a thematic content analysis is created and it is based on the identified categories, codes, and themes as to who did what to whom and how. This approach provides a fertile ground for the categorical, thematic, and conceptual examination. The analysis of the data derived from the plays under study provides insight into what patterns and tendencies English Renaissance playwrights generated through their discursive practices and how the frequently used images supported historical, cultural, theological, and ideological productions that played a determining role in the development of certain perceptions, understandings and thoughts about Turks.