DIALOGIC INCONGRUITY IN MOMADAY’S THE INDOLENT BOYS

From the perspective of interpretive sociolinguistics, this paper offers a stylistic assessment of dialogic incongruity in Scott Momaday’s play The Indolent Boys. The mismatches between utterances and the discursive context reflect the protagonist’s psychosocial fragmentation attributable to the consequences of forced assimilation. Employing an expanded ethnography-of-speaking approach which incorporates sociocultural as well as psychological meanings of the text, the analysis of selected conversational exchanges reveals the continued significant role mythic texts play in recovering and strengthening Native identities. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0946/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

THE ROLE OF FATE IN TRAGEDY: A CASE STUDY OF ROTIMI’S THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME

The traditional pagan view of human tragedy which existed several centuries back in the ancient Greek religious myths was transposed not only to Western Europe but also to the African context in the literary representation of reality in tragedy. Common religious metaphysics across cultures occasionally occasion common conception of human tragedy across generations of human history, but such cosmological cross-cultural convergence does not take for granted their dynamic perspectives on the role of fate in human tragedy. To be sure, the audiences of each time, view and appreciate tragedy within their unique geo-political and cultural milieu. In this sense, Erich Auerbach’s new historicist reading and post-modern montage of texts and commentaries validly confirms humanity’s representation of reality from their religious and traditional customary dispensations across space and time. Coming into the world in the West African Nigerian Yoruba metaphysical universe, the tragic personage holds his fate in his own hands. The gods and supernatural beings in the invisible realms claim foreknowledge of the fate which the tragic hero brings into the world, yet do not influence the fate-holder in the winding trail of life to the fulfillment of tragic fate. The gods in the mythico-religious worldview of the Yoruba natives permit the fulfilment of prehistoric fate based on the fate-holder’s individuality, as dictated by his carnal nature. This paper therefore posits that tragedy occurs as a product of the constant working of fate in the tragic hero which fulfills itself in a tragic conflict through the hero’s free-will, according to the prophecy of the gods in Ola Rotimi’s The gods are not to blame. This is more so in the Aristotelian concept of catharsis in tragedy due to the interplay between prehistoric fate and historic fate, the latter being the product of the former. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0876/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

THE ETHNOSEMANTICS OF SORCERY IN HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

Early to mid-twentieth-century ethnographies are consulted for the stylolinguistic interpretation of the ethnosemantics of sorcery in the native world of House Made of Dawn. Utilizing the resources of linguistic anthropology with a focus on ethnoscience, a portion of the cognitive system which reveals possible strategies for the identification of practitioners of witchcraft has been reconstructed. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0895/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

SARTRE, BOURDIEU, AND GUSTAVE FLAUBERT: FROM INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND SOCIAL DETERMINISM IN THE FIELD OF LITERARY CREATION

Drawing from the analysis of Sartre’s monumental biography of the French writer Gustave Flaubert and Bourdieu’s critical response to it, this article explores anew the dialectics of agency and coercion through the lenses of sartrian philosophy and bourdieusian sociology. From his birth to his childhood and his death in 1880, the biographical elements of the life of Madame Bovary’s author and the contents of his literary works were depicted by Sartre and Bourdieu in a dialogue questioning the writer’s individual goals, strategies, limits and fate. Put in a historical perspective, this socio-philosophical confrontation between the theoretical aims and methods of existentialist psychoanalysis and structuralist socio-analysis reopens the oldest of debates between actor-centered philosophy of action and socio-centered logic of practice, between the transcendence of ego and the transcendence of social, or freedom and determinism. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0875/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

LUTHER-DEUTSCH ALS "INGREDIENS" DER SPRACHLICH-ÄSTHETISCHEN GESTALTUNG VON GOETHES GÖTZ / LUTHER-GERMAN AS "INGREDIENT" OF THE LINGUISTIC AND AESTHETIC CONFIGURATION OF GOETHE’S GÖTZ

Auch wenn nicht unbedingt in einer chronologischen Kontinuität erfährt die Luthersprache eine gewisse Perpetuierung darin, dass ihr über Dekaden hinweg auch literaturgeschichtlich weiterhin Huldigung dargebracht wird. Anschaulich hierfür darf Goethes – shakespearienisch geprägter – Sprachgebrauch (vgl. Berndhardt, 2014) in seinem Goethes Stück Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand stehen, dessen 'Sprachmosaik' das Lutherdeutsch zum mit konstituierenden Sprachmuster hat. In neutraler Distanzierung von der Polemik, dass Luther „'Schöpfer' [der deutschen] Schriftsprache [oder] eher 'Nachzügler'“ (vgl. u.a. Besch, 1999, S. 4) wäre oder im Gegensatz dazu er „nicht der Sprachschöpfer [ist] […][, sondern] eingebettet in die Entwicklung“ (vgl. Kettmann, 2008, nachträglich Besch, 2014) bzw. ob ihm überhaupt eine [ausschlaggebende] „Bedeutung“ hinsichtlich der „Ausbildung der neuhochdeutschen Schriftsprache“ (vgl. Burdach, 1996) zuzusprechen sei, verfolgt die vorliegende – nicht primär sprachhistorisch ausgerichtete – Studie einen neuen Ansatz. Ihr Ziel ist es vielmehr, wie es sich in der Themenformulierung herausartikuliert, Goethes Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand im Hinblick auf seine sprachlich-ästhetische Gestaltung, nämlich unter dem besonderen Aspekt dessen Bestand an Relikten des „Lutherdeutsch“, exemplarisch hermeneutisch bzw. analytisch-interpretatorisch zu reflektieren. Hierbei werden den Leitfragen nachgegangen, ob und inwieweit Luthers epochenbrechende Sprachwirkung (vgl. Besch, 2014, S. 49, u.a.) in Goethes Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand Resonanz aufweist und nicht zuletzt was dies an Implikation im Sinne eines Neu-Lesens des gewürdigten Werkes beinhaltet. Die Studie stellt die epochenübergreifende Perennität der [Sprach-]Wirkung Luthers insbesondere in der Literatur heraus, wovon die – in zwar restringiertem Ausmaß bestehende – jedoch würdigungswerte Präsenz von Relikten der Luthersprache sowie lutherbezogenen biographischen Spuren im untersuchten Drama wohl bezeugen kann. Insofern stellt sie rezeptionsästhetisch ein neues Herangehen an das Drama dar. "Luther’s language" is – not necessarily in a chronologic continuity – perpetuated for it has been paid tribute to over the decades, most especially in literature. Language use as it reflects in Goethe’s Shakespearian-featured play Götz von Berlichingen evidences this. Indeed, "Luther’s German" constitutes a pattern of the language mosaic which characterizes the named play. The present study is not primarily meant as a language history study. Rather, it is intended as an innovative approach which, in neutral distancing from the polemic related to Luther’s role (whether as founder vs. mere contemporary or as background vs. foreground actor) regarding the written language, examines, through literary hermeneutics-oriented methodology, Goethe’s play titled Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisernen Hand from the angle of its aesthetic and linguistic configuration, especially focussing on "relics" of the "Luther’s German" therein. Namely in dealing with three core questions. That is, on one hand, if and to which extent the effect of the historically transversal "Luther’s language" reflects in the play under study and, on the other hand, which implication is attached thereto towards a new interpretative approach to the same. The study demonstrates the "timelessness" of Luther’s influence and most especially of "his" language in literature, as evidenced by the presence of not only vestige of Luther’s Language but also Luther-related biographic features in Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen… Even though to a relatively restricted extent still worth mentioning. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0884/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

THE RESTRICTED CODE OF HOUSE MADE OF DAWN

Ethnosemantic fields appealing to the semiotics of local knowledge by circumventing translations and explanations obvious to cultural insiders created a restricted code and an ethnic boundary in N. Scott Momaday’s novel House Made of Dawn. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0747/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

MISAPPREHENSION AS A CROSS-CULTURAL EFFECT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF JOSEPH CONRAD’S HEART OF DARKNESS AND SAMMY OKE AKOMBI’S THE RAPED AMULET / LA MALCOMPREHENSION COMME UN EFFET DE CROISEMENT DE CULTURE: UNE ETUDE COMPARÉE DE HEART OF DARKNESS ECRIT DE JOSEPH CONRAD ET THE RAPED AMULET DE L’AUTEUR SAMMY OKE AKOMBI

This paper enrolls in an enhancement of Africa’s cultural representation, long time falsely perceived. England has most of time undervalued, subject to nourish misconceptions about Africa. This, because the black continent has a range of traditions that could not be seen through western glasses. In the same line of thought, Africa’s perception of England is not far from unholiness. This situation leads to discriminative behaviours towards African students in England and English tourists in African countries. In a basket, mutual-acceptance between Africans and English is difficult, because each of them misapprehend other’s traditions and perceptions. This study illustrates cultural divergences between Africans and English. The emphasis here is on cultural mutual-acceptance. To reach this goal, I use New historicism, Africana critical theory, post colonialism and reader-response to explore, interpret and analyse, facts relating to cultural misapprehension in Heart of Darkness and The Raped Amulet. Cet écrit s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un rehaussement de l’image culturelle de l’Afrique, longtemps faussement perçu. En toute sincérité, les Anglais ont longtemps mésestimé l’Afrique sur le plan culturel. Ceci est dû à la diversité des traditions africaines qui sont incomprises en raison des standards anglais. Pareillement, les Africains perçoivent à tort les pratiques et habitudes anglaises en référence aux valeurs promues en Afrique. Cette situation conduit à des comportements discriminatifs tant pour les Africains aux études en Angleterre que pour les Anglais en visites touristiques en Afrique. En somme, la cohabitation entre Africains et Anglais est difficile à cause des incompréhensions culturelles des uns et des autres. Cette étude illustre les divergences culturelles entre les peuples africains et anglais. Elle met un accent particulier sur l’acceptation mutuelle des cultures. Pour atteindre cet objectif, j’utilise le nouvel historicisme, la critique africaine, le post colonialisme et la réponse du lecteur, pour explorer, interpréter et analyser les faits relatifs au mépris culturel dans Heart of Darkness et The Raped Amulet. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0730/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

REALITY (RE-)VISITED: CHILDREN OF PROSTITUTES IN BORN INTO BROTHELS

The human quest for securing, recording, and preserving memories of reality lead to the invention of motion pictures, which then gave birth to documentary films. Documentary filmmaking has radically evolved in recent years. Capturing reality come into scrutiny as more and more technological development allows the documentary filmmakers to design and articulate reality more subjectively than ever before. Born Into Brothels is a film about real people from the red light districts of Calcutta. Poverty and disease are two common phenomena of the people who live in Sonagachi, Calcutta’s red-light district. Another name of the documentary, Calcutta’s Red Light Kids, skillfully turns audience’s focus on the children of the brothels from Calcutta, which in a way, establishes that this film is about kids and not prostitution. The fact that Born Into Brothels is about children of prostitutes and not about prostitution makes it an intriguing example in analyzing the presented “reality” as well as the filmmakers’ perspectives. This article intends to investigate specific filmic and editorial techniques that documentary filmmakers use in articulating the inevitable reality of society. This article argues that Born Into Brothels tries to invoke humanitarian awareness among the audience and in a broader sense into society. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0780/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

AN EXAMINATION OF THE REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE IN THE SHORT STORIES OF AWARD WINNING ZAMBIANS

The short story scene of award winners in Zambia is dominated by female writers. Chicken, by Efemia Chela, was nominated for the Caine Prize for African writing in 2014. A Hand to Hold, by Mali Kambandu, won the 2018 Kalemba Prize, a local award for Zambian writers. The Sack, by Namwali Serpell, won the Caine Prize in 2015 and Madam’s Sister, by Mbozi Haimbe, was the African regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019. Studies between literature and the physical environment have become an area of interest for many writers. Following the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014) and Agenda 2030, this study examines the representations of nature and ecocritical issues in the works of four award winning Zambian short story writers. Using the model by Glotfelty (1996), the examination addresses two issues (1) how nature is represented in four award winning short stories (2) the ecocritical issues raised in the short stories. Through a qualitative, textual analysis of the short stories, the findings highlight contributions that literature by Zambian writers can make towards the discourse on sustainability issues and raise awareness about nature and environmental concerns of the 21st century. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0790/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

DOS PASSOS’S U.S.A. THROUGH THE LENS OF LEFT-WING PUBLICATIONS IN THE USSR

The subject of this paper was borne out of engagement with the genre of proletarian literature in 1930’s America, the artistic output of the Popular Front era, as well as the multifaceted scholarly debates that surround them. Slightly refining the scope of this investigation, I will be examining John Dos Passos’s U.S.A. trilogy, and situating it within the context of the nuanced interconnection of aesthetics and politics in that era. I wish to argue that U.S.A. became a highly contested space of literary and ideological conflict. Within this space, a wide-ranging and sometimes heated debate on form and content transpires which is inseparable from the political project of socialist construction in the USSR. This debate was held between proponents of the aesthetic movements of modernism and realism, and was intensely present in organs and publications affiliated with these left-wing institutions. Therefore, I divert my attention towards one of these Anglophone publications, namely International Literature, in order to map Dos Passos’s presence within them and gauge the extent to which my hypothesis is legitimate. I will develop an exposition of archival material from this journal which serve the purpose of illuminating the extent to which there was a preoccupation with the work of Dos Passos within the literary circles of the organised Left, as well as outlining the content of the attitudes expressed towards him. This exposition however will necessarily be accompanied by an engagement with the scholarship around this subject, especially taking into consideration the historicity of the scholarship itself; that is to say, the recognition of historical limitations within the scholarship, as well as the attempt to supersede these limitations by more recent critical works. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0760/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>