Reading and Language Commons^™

From Franz Kafka To Franz Kafka Award Winner, Yan Lianke: Biopolitics And The Human Dilemma Of Shenshizhuyi In Liven And Dream Of Ding Village, Melinda Pirazzoli

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

To date, many studies have exhaustively explained how and why Yan Lianke deals with both the intimate relationship between disease and biopolitics and the relationship between utopia and dystopia. These are certainly the most important themes in Liven (2004) and Dream of Ding Village (2006). However, biopolitical discourses cannot fully account for the complexity, depth and humanity of these novels, which in addition to exploring the complex and protean meaning of life also represent shenshizhuyi, an expression coined by Yan Lianke to describe his human dilemma in representing the complex relationship between shen 神 (soul, spirit, mind and myths) …

Hanay Geiogamah’S Body Indian And Foghorn As “Plays With A Purpose”, Danica Čerče

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, “Hanay Geiogamah’s Body Indian and Foghorn as ‘Plays with a Purpose,’” written against the backdrop of critical whiteness studies, Danica Čerče discusses how Geiogamah’s theatrical rhetoric intervenes in the assumptions about whiteness as a static, privilege-granting category and system of dominance. By focusing on various techniques and strategies mobilized to define and affirm Native Americans’ authentic rather than imposed identities, the article shows that humor is one of the prime textual devices in Geiogamah’s plays to renegotiate what Walter Mignolo calls “the racist structure of power.”

Problems With Perceptual And Cognitive Idiosyncrasies In Li Wenjun’S Translation Of The Benjy Section Of Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury, Aaron L. Moore

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article “Problems with Perceptual and Cognitive Idiosyncrasies in Li Wenjun’s Translation of the Benjy Section of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury,” Aaron Lee Moore conducts a close explication of a 2014 English-Chinese edition of part of The Sound and the Fury. Li Wenjun’s translation of the Benjy section of The Sound and the Fury is certainly admirable in its graceful rendering of Faulkner’s complex, idiosyncratic prose style into accessible Chinese—and particularly laudable in its meticulous tracking of the a-chronological sequence of Benjy’s stream of consciousness narrative. However, problems arise in the translation due to an …

The Inappropriate/D Fantastic: A Proposal Beyond Feminism, Teresa López-Pellisa

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Teresa López-Pellisa’s article “The Inappropriate/d Fantastic: A Proposal Beyond Feminism” discusses a type of narration that goes beyond the feminist fantastic. These are fantastic texts permeated not only by a feminist discourse, but by intersectionality, transfeminism, ecofeminism, cyberfeminism, post-humanism, xenofeminism and/or necropolitics as well. Borrowing the term inappropriate/d others from Donna Haraway (The Promises of Monsters), who in turn takes it from the feminist theorist Trinh Minh-ha, we can analyze those fantastic stories that call into question the categories of gender, class, race and sexuality established by Western enlightened humanism. These types of non-mimetic narrations have …

Female Fantastic In Anthologies: Gendering The Genre And Its Discourse, Anna Boccuti

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In the last decades, the fantastic literature written by women has been the subject of various studies, which, from different standpoints, have tried to investigate the characteristics of the female fantastic. In this essay, after a critical review of the most prominent theories about the so-called feminine fantastic and female writing, I will focus on the narrative strategies of the female fantastic. Through the close reading of the anthologies Tra due specchi. 18 racconti di scrittrici latinoamericane, and Insólitas. Narradoras de lo fantástico en Latinoamérica y España, I’ll try to draw a cartography of the Hispanic …

The Female Fantastic Vs. The Feminist Fantastic: Gender And The Transgression Of The Real, David Roas

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Since Ann Richter coined the term “fantastique féminin” in 1977, many works in different languages have postulated a “female” way of writing fantastic texts, depending on the selection of themes, language, characters, supernatural elements, and the portrayal of the uncanny and the monstrous. This claim on the existence of a "female fantastic" reflects central issues in Feminist Literary Theory: on the one hand, the will to identify an aesthetic mode opposed to the dominant patriarchal discourse (female writing, the use of specific themes, etc.); on the other hand, the argument that there are marginal genres, forms and styles voluntarily removed …

Introduction: New Perspectives On The Female Fantastic, David Roas, Patricia Garcia

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

On The Teaching Of Poetry, Rica Remedios B. Santos

Magisterial Lectures

In this lecture, Dr. Rica discusses poetry, teaching poetry, and creative writing.

Speaker: Dr Rica Bolipata-Santos has been teaching since graduating from college and has been with the English Department since 1996. Rica is a teacher, a writer, an editor, and a mentor to those wishing to pursue a creative life. She humbly dedicates this lecture to teachers of poetry and literature who are seeking to find new ways of making literature alive, useful and enduring even after the teaching of it in the classroom.

The Language Surrounding Huckleberry Finn’S Jim, Tristan Quinn

Emerging Writers

This article explores how in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the identity of the character Jim contrasts with African American stereotypes through the language used by the character himself and through the language used by other characters to describe him.

Shakespeare's Henriadic Monarchy And Chaucerian/Elizabethan Religion, Paul Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Shakespeare, interpreting late medieval English history from the ages of Geoffrey and Thomas Chaucer, gives us a second tetralogy (1595-99) that less defends the "Tudor myth" than creates a lens for viewing the formation of a unitary religious/political culture. Writing near the end of Elizabeth's reign, after serious Catholic insurrection had quieted, he examines how Act of Supremacy sacerdotal monarchy eschews rebellion and decadence, creating eidola paralleling Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales ones. In the latter, Chaucer presented, to the court, narratives of Catholic clerical failure, Jovinian decadence and the possibility of reformed penance. However Shakespeare turns, for his salvific, from honest …

Exploring Portrayals Of Black American Culture In Coretta Scott King Picturebooks Awarded From 2013 To 2020, Rebecca Jesse

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Children's literature is crucial in shaping the way young children see and think about themselves in the eyes of society. Although diversity is increasing, a need remains for books that feature Black children as well as accurate portrayals of their lifestyles. According to the Cooperation Children's Book Center (2020), only 400 books out of 3,299 are about Black Americans, while a little over half of that number are actually written by Black authors. Why should children of color have to suffice with reading books that have no connection to their real-world life? Black children should have access to and enjoy …

Night Of Awakening: Strength And Empowerment In The Young Adult Fiction Genre, Shelby Ann Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Young Adult Fantasy genre is often written off as a useless, or immature form of writing. However, there are studies that prove that this specific genre is not only engaging, but it is also empowering for young readers. By writing toward adolescent readers, authors are able to promote various ways in which their characters adjust or interact with their surroundings, which also influences their readers’ self and social awareness. By representing feminist perspectives and depicting the effects of trauma, YA literature fosters progressive social change and conveys the importance of mental health. In writing my own novel, The Night …

Creating A Culturally Competent Children’S Library, Rachel Burger, Donia Timby, Jacquelyn D. Wiersma-Mosley, Laura Herold, Shelley Mcnally

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

There is an ever-growing need for cultural competence and a well-rounded education, especially for children. In order to promote cultural competence, this creative project focused on enhancing a library space at the University of Arkansas Bumpers College Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas with resources that address diversity and cultural competence. The goal was to transform the library into an enticing, relaxing, and judgment-free area where children feel comfortable to explore their culture and the cultures of others. New books added to the library were thoroughly reviewed and chosen for the purpose of promoting cultural competence and inclusion, …

The Syntax Of Sports, Class 3: The Rule Of Three, Patrick Barry

Books

It’s not an accident that hall of fame coaches, Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, and the marketing teams at the most innovative companies in the world often rely on a certain three-part structure when trying to communicate their ideas. This third volume of The Syntax of Sports series explores the mechanics of that structure and shows how it can add a compelling mix of clarity and sophistication to your writing.

Chapter 5. A Definition Of Everyday Writing: Methods For A Writer-Informed Approach To Lifespan Writing, Jeffrey Naftzinger

English Faculty Publications

This chapter suggests that everyday writing (EW), both the practice and the term, are valuable for studying writing through the lifespan for two major reasons. First, EW is the type of writing that is most often engaged in through the lifespan, but—in and out of the field—it is often overshadowed by academic and professional writing; turning our attention to EW can give us the opportunity to understand how most people use writing in the course of their daily lives. Second, the term EW helps non-academic and non-professional writers shift their perspectives of what writing is, what it does, and who …

Dominican Spanish In New York : Language Attitudes And Variation Of Final /ɾ/ And /L/, Gabriel Valentín Guadalupe

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the growing body of research on sociolinguistic variation of final liquids in Caribbean Spanish in a language and dialectal contact situation. To achieve that objective, this study analyzes the Spanish of Dominicans in the New York Metropolitan Area. The dissertation has two main goals. The first is to describe language attitudes among Dominicans in New York. Data extracted from questionnaires are analyzed to show how Dominicans evaluate their varieties of Spanish and those of others. Additionally, the dissertation looks at whether inter- and intra-group interactions affect language attitudes. The second goal …

Word Frequency Level And Lexical Coverage In The Reading Comprehension Texts Of The Malaysian University English Test, Melisa Charles Benedict, Ahmad Affendi Shabdin

PASAA

The central foundation of knowledge is through grasping what is being read. Therefore, it is significant to recognise the difficulty level of a reading text for better and comprehensive understanding. The present study is an attempt to identify the word frequency level and lexical coverage of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) reading texts which is deemed to be intricate for students. The anticipation of the Education Ministry of Malaysia is that students are capable and competent in comprehending academic texts which is required of them at the university. Nonetheless, the problem lies in students’ lack of vocabulary size and …

The Relationship Between Culture And The Learning And Teaching Of English: A North-Eastern Thailand Perspective Under A Socio-Cultural Lens, Steven Graham

PASAA

This qualitative study focuses on the adoption of learner-centeredness in the English language classroom, and whether it is mediated by culture. With the use of observations, and interviews, and using a socio-cultural framework, this investigation examines primary school teachers’ perceptions of learner-centered teaching, how they implement that teaching in the classroom and how this is negotiated by culture. Students’ perceptions of their learning are also reflected upon. The research findings reveal that most teachers were able to demonstrate aspects of learnercentered teaching; however, they were not proficient in explaining theory. They emphasised that their effectiveness was impacted by a lack …

Using Ted Talks For Extensive Listening, Euodia Inge Gavenila, Mega Wulandari, Willy A. Renandya

PASAA

Extensive listening (EL) is an approach to teaching listening which can help students develop their listening fluency in a more enjoyable way. However, unlike extensive reading which has now enjoyed widespread recognition, EL has received relatively little attention, partly because of the limited availability of suitable listening materials. Given the popularity of TED Talks which are freely available online, we were interested in exploring this online resource as a source of EL materials for our college EFL students. Two questions guided our research: (1) what factors are considered important by EFL students when choosing TED Talks as their extensive listening …

Efl Students’ And Teachers’ Perceptions Of Sources Of Students’ Demotivation: A Comparative Study, Moriam Quadir

PASAA

EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ demotivation has not yet received adequate research attention in the third world countries. This paper reports on a study that was carried out to explore students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the sources of learners’ demotivation to study English as a school subject at higher secondary (HS) level (grade 11 and 12) in Bangladesh. To collect qualitative data from HS students and teachers two interview guides were developed based on the identified EFL demotivation factors in a study (Quadir, 2017) conducted in the educational context of Bangladesh. 30 HS level students and 17 English …