Linguistics and Literature Review

Actantial Paradigm of Narrative Structures in Techno-thriller and Visionary Fiction

2024-09-18T09:36:54+00:00

This study examines the structural patterns of two radically distinct genres, namely techno-thriller and visionary fiction, by focusing on the actantial elements of fictional works. It seeks to clarify misconceptions about traditional literary analysis by comparing the novels Rumi's Daughter by Maufroy (2004) and Deception Point by Brown (2001). The actant theory, first introduced by Greimas (1971) and later amended by Hébert (2020), is employed to analyze the roles of characters, exploring both their similarities and differences within the internal narrative structure of the selected novels. The study investigates narratives’ universal “grammar” by focusing on three pairings of binary oppositions, that is, subject/object, sender/receiver, and helper/opponent. Despite the differences in theme, culture, characters, and genre, the study shows that the characters’ narrative structure and actantial function are the same, proving Greimas’ claim that the actantial theory applies to all narratives. This study contributes to the basic understanding of the fundamental patterns that connect human narratives, despite the apparent differences between the civilizations they belong to.

Writing Trauma: Poetics of Cultural Trauma and Memory in Anglophonic Kashmiri Literature

2024-10-02T06:10:11+00:00

This study concentrates on the Anglophonic literature produced in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. It explores its narratives through the lens of trauma theory, pertaining to the region’s history of forced conflict. After the Second World War, the relevance of trauma in literary studies has increased and texts have been characterized by an archeology of traumatic consciousness. Also, the narratives act as vehicles for transmitting stories of suppressed and wounded consciousness. This research focuses upon Mirza Waheed’s (2011) novel The Collaborator and Basharat Peer’s (2010) memoir Curfewed Night as the primary texts and investigates the art of
writing trauma by exploring the narrative structures deployed by the authors. The objective is to find out as to how the very act of writing trauma is shaped by traumatic memories of a past rooted in the partition conflict,
war, and prolonged violence. Furthermore, the study probes into how the fictional characters embody and express pain and anguish as part of their memories. The key focus remains on how both the works portray the
(un)speakability of grief and the (in)comprehensibility of trauma drawing on some of the seminal contemporary theories of cultural trauma and memory studies. Using qualitative methodology and trauma theory as the
theoretical framework, it is concluded that apart from presenting reality as horrific, gloomy, and glim, Kashmiri texts discuss how causalities create memories riddled with unspoken fears by bringing forth the intricacies of speechless terror and trauma. Thus, the study captures the narration’s struggle to represent evasive and suppressed memories and the challenges of trauma writing.

Ambivalent Temporalities of Nation-Space: A Study of Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

2024-10-23T06:22:07+00:00

Following Bhabha’s theorization on the ambivalent temporalities of nation-space, this research seeks to analyze how the mutual tension between the pedagogical and the performative temporalities of nationalist representation plays out in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997) and Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke (2000). This article explores how the nation-space narrated by Roy and Hamid is marked by a tussle between the pedagogical and the performative on the lines Bhabha describes it in his seminal essay, ‘DissemiNation: Time, narrative and the margins of the modern nation’. The novels display how the narration of the nation engages in a ‘double movement’ through a harking back to the past while simultaneously being progressive and forward-looking. These double movements cause ambivalent temporalities and produce a disruptive anterior where a deterministic past/history comes head-to-head with the daily performance of the people. The invasive presence of the past quashes the emancipatory maneuvers of the characters who try to chart a performative of their own in contravention of the traditions. In both the novels, the pedagogical pitted against the performance enforces its impersonal and transhistorical outreach by trying to quash what it sees as the unauthorized performance of the people. The nation-space, therefore, remains ambivalent and split between the myths of the past and the realities of the present.

Exploring Spatiality in the Selected Poems of Moniza Alvi: A Poetic Cartography of Displacement

2024-10-24T09:34:23+00:00

This research aims to analyze the dynamics of space in Moniza Alvi’s seven poems taken from her collection The Country at my Shoulder (1993) to explore how spatial anxiety and dislocated geographical and cultural concerns become prominent in her poems through different spaces. Through the framework of spatiality discussed by Gaston Bachelard, Henri Lefebvre and Benjamin N. Vis, it highlights the collision of two diverse cultures and value systems in Alvi’s poems to bring forth her transcultural quests, which display the influence of geographical perplexity on postmodern literature. First, the representative architectural spaces, such as rooms and buildings are explored and discussed in the context of Alvi’s native culture. Second, social and filial spaces are traced in the city space and ties respectively to unearth their influence on the poet’s existence. Third, diasporic spaces are analyzed through the contrast of oriental and occidental psyches to determine the poet’s vacillation between dual cultures. Fourth, geological and body spaces are interpreted through the metaphor of displaced geography to highlight the angst of dislocation. An exploration of these spaces suggests that Alvi’s poetry proves to be a trans-spatial landscape that reflects the general restlessness of the 21^st century due to postmodern spatial crisis, and the dilemma of migration.

Magical Realism and Mythmaking in Pakistani English Children Fiction: A Linguistic Critique of A Firefly in the Dark

2024-10-24T09:47:51+00:00

The present study analyzes the linguistic choices and quality through a co-textual study of the magical and mythical stories inscribed in Shazaf Fatima Haider’s A Firefly in the Dark (2018). This research emphasizes the ways the author retrieves an intersection of Pakistani history through its magical and cultural threads weaved convivially in the textual and contextual parameters of temporal and geographical spaces of the selected text. The researchers examine the selected text linguistically to see how it negotiates the magical quality of stories of ghosts and gods, daydreaming, horror and myth, imagery and identity, and the amalgamation of rational and irrational worldviews. The writer has proven to be the flag bearer of contemporary literature of magical realism in Pakistan. The textual study grasps the historical context, aspects of magical realism and mythmaking linguistic choices inherent in A Firefly in the Dark. . The researchers have carried out the study by developing an analytical framework from the existing theories of magical realism by Faris (2004) and Campbell’s theory of hero, mythmaking, and monomyth (Campbell, 1988). By connecting traditional mythmaking with cutting-edge storytelling techniques, the novel encompasses the fundamental values of magical realism. The researchers examine the ways the text negotiates the myth-making tradition and gains a fresh perspective on cultural narratives.

Alignment of Punjab Textbook Board’s English Textbooks with the National Curriculum for English (2006): An Evaluative Study

2024-11-21T04:38:57+00:00

In Pakistan, English language textbooks are considered the most authentic and useful material for language teaching and are expected to be designed by following the objectives stated in the National Curriculum for English, 2006. The federal government has complete control over designing and selecting the content of the books. Pakistani society has a religious, cultural and ethnic diversity that seeks a curriculum which promotes national identity and unity among various groups. As it is a developing country, where traditional methods and techniques are used to teach language, hence, it becomes necessary to minutely evaluate the teaching material. For this purpose, textbooks taught at intermediate-level English classes are evaluated following the objectives stated in the National Curriculum. The data has been taken from the four textbooks taught at HSSC in Punjab, Pakistan. This research employs a qualitative approach to analyse the exercises of various types of deviations and the objectives of the curriculum. The research argues that the textbook exercises are partially aligned with students' learning outcomes of benchmarks, standards and competencies mentioned in the National Curriculum. The study also suggests ways to synchronize the textbooks with the policy document which would ultimately improve the overall English language skills of the students.

Tragedizing the Villain: Shakespearean Perspective on Iago as a Tragic Character

2024-10-31T05:56:09+00:00

Through a critical analysis of Shakespeare's Othello, this study reveals how certain dramatic techniques contribute to the creation of tragic characters, particularly in the case of Iago as a villain. An examination of these techniques shows how Shakespeare blurred the distinction between hero and villain, not only in characters such as Macbeth and Richard III, but also in Iago. The critical analysis demonstrates how Shakespeare affected a moral ambiguity in creating Iago and crafted him as a tragic villain, calling for a sympathetic understanding of his motives and thereby evoking sympathy. Based on the findings, this research supports the use of the term “tragic” for a criminal character like Iago. The study allows for the discussion of the complex relevance of justice to tragedy and tragic characters, as well as its implications for contemporary culture and pedagogy, in which popular culture figures, such as the Joker of Marvel Comics, are discussed as tragic only because they are given sad backstories.