2024-03-29T18:47:35Z
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/?_action=export&rf=summon&issue=17469
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
An Evaluation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God in Light of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s Essay “The Quest for Relevance”
Sheikh
Zobaer *
Kenyan novelist and postcolonial theorist Ngũgĩ wa Thiongchr('39')o’s famous work Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature is a collection of four essays. “The Quest for Relevance” is the fourth essay in this book that deals with where African languages and cultures have their places in academic education, and the necessity of using African language to uphold the African experience. Thiong’o urges that African experience should be at the centre of the study of literature in the educational institutions, and to do so, using languages originated in Africa in the academic study of literature is absolutely necessary. Now, the approach made by Thiong’o to portray and uphold African experience in literature is clearly different from the approach made by one of the most influential African authors of all time, Chinua Achebe. In his first three novels, Achebe depicts and upholds African experience, but his approach is clearly different from the approach made by Thiong’o. Achebe successfully uses the colonizers’ language English to reveal the colonial atrocities and to glorify the image of Africa. In this paper, I will evaluate Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God and Things Fall Apart in light of Ngugi’s essay “The Quest for Relevance” to demonstrate how Achebe uses English to uphold the true image of Africa in his novels.
Achebe Thiong’o English African language postcolonialism
2020
07
01
1
8
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127022_c6d08d2ba0fc8a281371070d651412cb.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
Society of Men or the Danger of Female Forces in the Victorian Fiction of Imperialism
Irina
Strout *
Cultural misogyny has always been a high point and the 19 th century England is not an exception. Women become dangerous, destructive and even deadly forces in the fantasies of many artists, painters and writers of the Victorian culture. Fin-de-siècle fiction portrays unhappy marriages, trapped or wounded men and men who never marry.The purpose of this research is to examine how women become a subversion of masculinity and manhood as well as of the social, political and economic structures of England and its colonies in the three adventure novels of H. Rider Haggard, R. Kipling and J. Conrad. These works portray male relationships and male bonding in exotic settings and difficult conditions, while women are either absent, labeled as dangerous femme fatales, or kept to marginal presence at best. However, as they return to England, many of these heroes are estranged from a collective identity and suffer in solitude in an attempt to achieve a meaningful masculine identity, having to come to terms with the notion of what men are and what they should be.
gender roles masculinity femininity sexuality adventure novels Victorian imperialism ‘Other’ quest
2020
07
01
9
14
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127028_6796ebb04e22f3f473a60cbb8597f5f7.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
Listening Comprehensions Problems and Strategies Used by Intermediate EFL Learners
Ehsan
Namaziandost *
Sheida
Ahmadi
Mohammad Hossein
Keshmirshekan
This quantitative study checked listening comprehension problems and strategies use among Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Moreover, it investigated the relationship between the participants’ listening problems and strategy use. More importantly, the listening problems included input, context, listener, process, affect and task problems while the listening strategies comprised of cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-affective strategies. A questionnaire was used to get data from 60 randomly chosen Iranian intermediate EFL learners in private language institute of Hamedan. The results indicated that the learners suffered from input and affect listening comprehension problems. Meta-cognitive strategy was the main listening strategy utilized. The relationship between listening problems and strategy used among the learners was significantly negative and meager, r= -.196, p < .05. The outcomes totally insinuate that it is paramount for teachers of a second language to be aware of the various listening problems that are among listeners so as to enable them to use the proper strategies.
Cognitive strategies Listening comprehension problems Listening strategies Meta
cognitive strategies Socio
affective strategies
2020
07
01
15
25
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127025_296aacff4a9b30d2617f37fdd69f13a4.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
The Detection of Morality Crisis in Eugene o’neil’s the Rope
Saeid
Rahimipour *
Eugene O’Neil, the great American playwright, has contributed to the revelation of problems of different types of humanity at the time of World War First and the Second. This paper deploying content analysis research method deals with the playwright’s revelation of morality crisis even within the very deep parts of the family and the society at that time. The paper more specifically manifests the father-son contradiction in the family as the visible illustration of morality crisis at that time in his wok The Rope. It shows the playwright’s tact in his maneuver over the theatre and its elements in the creation of a modern tragedy on the line of revealing such themes as his artistic objective. His techniques reveal that the seemingly controversial father-son relationship has an ambiguous and disastrous outcome.
Morality Crisis the Rope Eugene O’Neil
2020
07
01
26
30
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127027_d15e8dd9063c28372d3ce81707894769.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
The Aging Poet and Death Anxiety Art as Existential Therapy in John Pepper Clark’s of Sleep and Old Age
Issa
Garuba *
Death anxiety refers to the human experience of death awareness and the accompanying inescapable disquiet it provokes. It is a phenomenon in human existence which has attracted substantial studies from existential and psychological perspectives. Noting that every individual experiences this anxiety at some point in life, largely as a result of the awareness of the inevitability of death, the manner and extent to which it is experienced vary from individuals. Meanwhile, existential reflections have described ‘death acceptance’ as the healthy route to lessening this angst. It therefore presupposes that acceptance of death (i.e. knowing that one is a being-towards-death and therefore embracing and acknowledging it) is existentially therapeutic. On this note, in studying J. P. Clark’s Of Sleep and Old Age, artistic creativity is being constructed in the study as an existential therapy against death anxiety for the poetic persona. It is premised, on the one hand, on the poet’s eloquent vision of the boredom of existence and the horror of death which characterize the atmosphere of the text. On the other, the poet’s age has been considered as a factor-agent which has bestowed on him the capacity to be conscious of an imminent death, thereby accepting it via keen reflections in his art. The study adopts two theoretical models in existential studies: (1) Monika Ardelt’s ‘Wisdom’, ‘Religiosity’ and ‘Purpose in Life’ and (2) John Sommers-Flanagan and Rita Sommers-Flanagan’s model of ‘Existential Therapy’ to assess the sway and/or centrality of death anxiety to understanding the text.
Aging Death Anxiety Existential Therapy John Pepper Clark Existentialism
2020
07
01
31
36
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127030_7ed4423d4c4221ef3e957c22c02ada46.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
Beyond Aesthetics: Indigenous Festivals in the Age of Internet
Segun
Omosule *
The wave of digital spread in relation to festivals especially masquerades across the world may be the genesis of an emerging culture. It is not outlandish for viewers to be fascinated with such performances. Dwelling on the strength of the claim by Asha, et al (41) especially the claim on “myth as producer of culture”, it is not out of place that new myth may be fashioned particularly one that gives strength to the emergence of masquerades in the new world where the digital invasion is rife. This is because there is no point in time that new myths cannot be generated. It is equally true that the proponents of myths may not be conscious of the fact that they are engendering new myths at the outset but time and conscious devotion to the tenets of the new culture may enliven such myths to the point that they confer potency on the new practices. With the aid of aesthetics as a theoretical standpoint, the paper concludes that what was earlier restricted in terms of locale and audience may have become globalised with the aid of the digital breakthrough.
Aesthetics Indigenous Masquerades Internet bound Performance
2020
07
01
37
45
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127031_fcdbf7094089ca20bac7e3fdc6b39632.pdf
Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies
JELCS
2020
1
3
Nigerian Home Videos as Panacea for National Development
Stephen
Ogheneruro Okpadah *
Taiwo
Okunola Afolabi
This study examines Nigerian home videos as panacea for national development. It investigates the capacity of video films in nation building. Using historical and content analysis methods, the study reveals that the video-filmic medium has the capacity to contribute meaningfully to the development of Nigeria; archive and document history and culture; preserve morality and engineer economic growth among others. But the government and the people of most developing countries especially in Africa haven’t benefitted to full capacity from this medium due to many reasons. The study therefore recommends among others, the need for government to pay more attention to video films and professional empowerment initiatives for practitioners in this art in order to bring about acceleration of socio-economic and political growth of the county. This chapter also recommends the creation of more film festivals in order to encourage both amateurs and professionals in this field in order to showcase their productions; connect and network for partnership should be established. Funding initiatives to encourage both emerging and emerged veterans in this field is recommended so that more revenue can be generated for the nation and the productions from Nollywood can stand shoulder high with her counterparts from the rest of the world.
Nigeria Film Home videos National Development Panacea
2020
07
01
46
51
https://www.jelcsjournal.com/article_127024_c8960cd1fa75c8aa28dcf6ec76f746c4.pdf