scholarly journals Exploring literature in English teaching:

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-93
Author(s):  
Henrique De Paiva Soares ◽  
Denise Ismênia Bossa Grassano Ortenzi

With a purpose of investigating if a book club creates spaces for students to experience personal involvement through the fruition of art, this paper discusses the book club experience of the novel “Wonder” in a group of 18 upper-intermediate English students. The data were collected through 6 personal responses from each student; then, a quantitative analysis of the Halliday’s types of processes (2004) and a qualitative categorization concluded that they have shown personal involvement with the novel through their lexicon-grammatical choices. As an outcome, in 71% of the answers, students expressed themselves by verbal and mental cognitive functions, sharing personal beliefs and point of views that they had while interacting with the novel. Such answers exposed how relationships with the social-cultural background of the student leads to personal involvement with a literary text. It makes possible to conclude that once learning a language through reading, literature becomes a key point to activate the process of fruition of art and lead to a meaningful and unique process.

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherill A. Gilbas

Hornedo, a literature icon asserts that “A piece of literature documents the world and the worldview of its author.” Accordingly, some literary pieces can provide information on the socio-political and cultural background of a certain society. Anchored on this premise, this paper aimed to identify the aesthetics of satire in Merlinda Bobis’ Banana Heart Summer. It also sought to unveil the novel’s message and the author’s manner of criticizing the novel’s social setup. Specifically, it sought to describe the novel’s theme, tone, structure and style, as well as the socio-political and cultural aspects using food as primary trope. The paper also aimed to present the reality frame of the depicted societal problems of the Filipinos in general and those of Bicolanos in particular. The formalist theory was applied in the treatment of material, which is a satire, and being so, the researcher also applied defamiliarization theory, through devices such as tropes and social realism, as it forms part of the aesthetics of satire that can help identify the ideology behind the author’s work. The researcher grouped the identified satirical techniques into five: exaggeration, incongruity, parody, reversal, and defamiliarization.  In conclusion, this paper asserts that Bobis wrote the material for the readers to see the flaws of the society; alongside, she also implicitly offers a solution or presents the possibility of curing the social ills highlighted in the novel. Keywords—Literature, aesthetics of satire, defamiliarization, Banana heart summer, Bicolanos,  Filipinos,  formalist-contextual analysis, Philippines


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Ankur Yadav

Cultural Studies have played a pivotal role in understanding and evaluating the power dynamics of the social, political, economic and ethical world order by empirically engaging and focusing on the present-day culture, tracing its historical roots and explicating its attributes with reference to a particular literary text and its reception in a society. Arvind Adiga, the Man-Booker Prize winning Indo-Australian author, in Selection Day, has adroitly detailed how cricket as an individual entity impacts the cultural phenomena of a society by confronting its inherent myriad issues. The narrative delves deep into the lives of two siblings – Radha and Manju, witnesses the dramatic turnaround of events and tries to capture the themes of unfulfilled desires and preordained destinies. The novel also explores how the sport holds different meanings and significance for different characters, each of whom view the game in the light of their own ideology. The author foresees and sensitizes the theme of homosexuality, which is still a taboo and been unheard of, within the sports fraternity. Adiga’s critique of the parental felony, embodied in Mohan Kumar, and its repercussions is the most compelling theme at the heart of this work of fiction. Selection Day powerfully binds together the societal phenomena of class construction, unquenchable thirst for money, sexual orientations and ideologies with a single thread and studies how culture, in itself, is an ever-evolving phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Anna Pidhorna ◽  
Olha Moiseienko

The article is devoted to the sociolinguistic aspects of studying the social status and its reflection in literary texts through the speech of fiction characters. Particular attention is paid to the description of the key concept «social status» as a constituent element of the literary character’s image as well as to the research of the ways the character and his/her linguistic peculiarities are represented in the literary text. It was hypothesized that the character’s social status, education level, and worldview in general must be explicitly seen through the speech the author ascribes to the character. The article deals with the novel «The Collector» by J. Fowles and focuses on analyzing the speech peculiarities of its main character, Miranda. Her language is full of various stylistic devices and expressive means, which also testifies how open-minded this personality is, proves her ability to listen and accept different points of view. Miranda’s speech can be described as extremely poetic and emotional. Concerning key linguistic features of her speech, both lexical and grammatical ones can play a role in defining the character’s social status. The article also studies and analyzes the ways of reproducing the stylistic features in the Ukrainian translation of the novel made by G. Yanovska.


ALAYASASTRA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Nani Mardiani

This research aims in analyzing Mantra Pejinak Ular, a novel by Kuntowijoyo using sociology of literature approach. The Methods and technique applied in conducting this reseach are reading and understanding the novel completely, collecting and noting the data related to identify the cultural background of the novel Mantra Penjinak Ular by Kuntowijoyo. Furthermore, as sociological analysis of literature was done by investigating the social culture described in the novel Mantra Penjinak Ular. The result of this study is there are three social problems in this novel: cultural value, political value, and love value. Keys Word: people, novel, Javanese culture, sociology of literature


This research article focuses on the theme of violence and its representation by the characters of the novel “This Savage Song” by Victoria Schwab. How violence is transmitted through genes to next generations and to what extent socio- psycho factors are involved in it, has also been discussed. Similarly, in what manner violent events and deeds by the parents affect the psychology of children and how it inculcates aggressive behaviour in their minds has been studied. What role is played by the parents in grooming the personality of children and ultimately their decisions to choose the right or wrong way has been argued. In the light of the theory of Judith Harris, this research paper highlights all the phenomena involved: How the social hierarchy controls the behaviour. In addition, the aggressive approach of the people in their lives has been analyzed in the light of the study of second theorist Thomas W Blume. As the novel is a unique representation of supernatural characters, the monsters, which are the products of some cruel deeds, this research paper brings out different dimensions of human sufferings with respect to these supernatural beings. Moreover, the researcher also discusses that, in what manner the curse of violence creates an inevitable vicious cycle of cruel monsters that makes the life of the characters turbulent and miserable.


IJOHMN ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
RASHMI Ahlawat

Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning debut novel The White Tiger is sharp, fascinating, attacks poverty and injustice. The White Tiger is a ground breaking Indian novel. Aravind Adiga speaks of suppression and exploitation of various sections of Indian society. Mainly a story of Balram, a young boy’s journey from  rags to riches, Darkness to Light transforming from a village teashop boy into a Bangalore entrepreneur. This paper deals with poverty and injustice. The paper analyses Balram’s capability to overcome the adversities and cruel realities. The pathetic condition of poor people try to make both ends meet. The novel mirrors the lives of  poor in a realistic mode. The White Tiger is a story about a man’s journey for freedom. The protagonist   Balram in this novel is a victim of injustice, inequality and poverty. He worked hard inspite   of his low caste and overcame the social hindrance and become a successful entrepreneur. Through this novel Adiga portrays realistic and painful image of modern India. The novel exposes the anxieties of the oppressed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 462-468
Author(s):  
Latika kothari ◽  
Sanskruti Wadatkar ◽  
Roshni Taori ◽  
Pavan Bajaj ◽  
Diksha Agrawal

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable infection caused by the novel coronavirus resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV). It was recognized to be a health crisis for the general population of international concern on 30th January 2020 and conceded as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. India is taking various measures to fight this invisible enemy by adopting different strategies and policies. To stop the COVID-19 from spreading, the Home Affairs Ministry and the health ministry, of India, has issued the nCoV 19 guidelines on travel. Screening for COVID-19 by asking questions about any symptoms, recent travel history, and exposure. India has been trying to get testing kits available. The government of India has enforced various laws like the social distancing, Janata curfew, strict lockdowns, screening door to door to control the spread of novel coronavirus. In this pandemic, innovative medical treatments are being explored, and a proper vaccine is being hunted to deal with the situation. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the current situation. Thus, this review illustrates and explains the criteria provided by the government of India to the awareness of the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
pp. 182-197
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Goral

The aim of the article is to analyse the elements of folk poetics in the novel Pleasant things. Utopia by T. Bołdak-Janowska. The category of folklore is understood in a rather narrow way, and at the same time it is most often used in critical and literary works as meaning a set of cultural features (customs and rituals, beliefs and rituals, symbols, beliefs and stereotypes) whose carrier is the rural folk. The analysis covers such elements of the work as place, plot, heroes, folk system of values, folk rituals, customs, and symbols. The description is conducted based on the analysis of source material as well as selected works in the field of literary text analysis and ethnolinguistics. The analysis shows that folk poetics was creatively associated with the elements of fairy tales and fantasy in the studied work, and its role consists of – on the one hand – presenting the folk world represented and – on the other – presenting a message about the meaning of human existence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-158
Author(s):  
A. V. Zhuchkova

The article deals with A. Bushkovsky’s novel Rymba that goes beyond the topics typical of Russian North prose. Rather than limiting himself to admiring nature and Russian character, the author portrays the northern Russian village of Rymba in the larger context of the country’s mentality, history, mythology, and gender politics. In the novel, myth clashes with reality, history with the present day, and an individual with the state. The critic draws a comparison between the novel and the traditions of village prose and Russian North prose. In particular, Bushkovsky’s Rymba is discussed alongside V. Rasputin’s Farewell to Matyora [ Proshchanie s Matyoroy ] and R. Senchin’s The Flood Zone [ Zona zatopleniya ]. The novel’s central question is: what keeps the Russian world afloat? Depicting the Christian faith as such a bulwark, Bushkovsky links atheism with the social and spiritual roles played by contemporary men and women. The critic argues, however, that the reliance on Christianity in the novel verges on an affectation. The book’s main symbol is a drowning hawk: it perishes despite people’s efforts to save it.


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