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“Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
44-49
Received:
21 June 2021
Accepted:
9 July 2021
Published:
16 July 2021
Abstract: As one of the greatest short-story novelists in the world, O. Henry is a critical realistic author, also one of the world’s three major short masters, together with Chekov and Maupassant. His writing style is appreciated by numerous readers, especially for the twist plot and the surprising ending with the feature of “smile with tears”. In language, O. Henry uses many rhetoric tactics to achieve the effect of making the stories more vivid and humorous, such as exaggeration, metaphor, and simile and so on. His writing materials are from his own life experiences, that each story is a reflection of the society then, and he always sympathizes with the poor, criticizes and satirizes the capitalists even the common insignificants who have the valuable humanity. Through the analysis of O. Henry’s representative novels, it has expounded the humanistic spirit and optimistic expectation of human kindness contained in his works, which also shows love and kindness are the ultimate belief and the eternal chapter praised by all human beings. Therefore, it has become a major stylistic feature of O. Henry’s novels to show the characters’ psychology by depicting the emotional motivation, which is also the main line and key to our analysis of his works. Moreover, his unique writing styles influence following authors in the field of literature, therefore, his story is known as the “encyclopedia of American life”.
Abstract: As one of the greatest short-story novelists in the world, O. Henry is a critical realistic author, also one of the world’s three major short masters, together with Chekov and Maupassant. His writing style is appreciated by numerous readers, especially for the twist plot and the surprising ending with the feature of “smile with tears”. In language,...
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The Role of Place in Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night
Jamal Assadi,
Marwa Abbass
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
50-59
Received:
2 July 2021
Accepted:
10 July 2021
Published:
16 July 2021
Abstract: Place is thought to have a variety of functions. The most well-known function is that of serving as a background for the event in order to provide the reader with more details and engage him more in the context. The place obtains more importance when it discloses the characters’ features, growth and complexity. This function gives the reader the chance to more deeply comprehend the plot of the story, the characters' relationships or conflict. And more central, the place can exceed the previous functions and play a more crucial role, when it performs roles usually given to the antagonist or the protagonist. This study explores Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night and discusses the significance of the place clarifying how it influences the plot and the characters. Needless to assert, the choice of place to be examined in this research rises from the recurrent concurrences of places in the novel and their parallel to those in Fitzgerald's reality. Another essential end for selecting the places on which the novel centers is that very few critics have investigated the aforesaid correlation between event and place. This gap makes it imperative to start mining deep in the origin of this association. In addition, this paper compares between the various places depicted in the novel and the key events in each of them. It also looks into the similarity between them and the places in Fitzgerald's real life. In giving place a domineering factor in the novel, Fitzgerald perhaps tries to maintain that place is a subjugating authority analogous to fate. Therefore, Fitzgerald takes the art of fiction and readership to newfangled unfamiliar ground. Here perhaps lies Fitzgerald’s chief impact.
Abstract: Place is thought to have a variety of functions. The most well-known function is that of serving as a background for the event in order to provide the reader with more details and engage him more in the context. The place obtains more importance when it discloses the characters’ features, growth and complexity. This function gives the reader the ch...
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Teachers’ Questioning Behaviour in EFL Classes in Higher Education Institutions at Wolkite University, Ethiopia
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
60-73
Received:
14 June 2021
Accepted:
15 July 2021
Published:
23 July 2021
Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate teachers’ questioning behaviour in EFL classes in Higher Education Institutions at Wolkite University in Ethiopia. The study was a descriptive case study with a mixed-methods approach, but mainly qualitative. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and questionnaires. The participants of the study were English language teachers and first-year students of Wolkite University. A simple random sampling technique was used to select and observe seven teachers. Each class was observed twice. A purposive sampling technique was also employed to select the seven sample teachers for interviews. Besides, 31 EFL teachers, who were selected purposefully, filled in the questionnaire. Furthermore, 230 students were taken from the target classes through a stratified sampling technique. Of these, fourteen students (i.e., two students from each observed class) who were randomly chosen were interviewed face-to-face. The findings were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative data were analysed using open Code 4.02 and corpus analysis toolkit (AntConc) software programs, and for the quantitative data, percentages were used. The result of the study showed that EFL teachers largely utilised close-ended/display types of questions in the classes. The findings also showed that learners’ outputs were related to the types of questions that teachers utilised. The finding further indicated that when learners were asked open-ended and/or referential questions, their utterances were longer and more complex for they strived to clarify their outputs and negotiate the meanings with their interlocutors. Moreover, it was found that when teachers opted for closed-ended/display questions, learners’ oral contributions were so simple, short, and restricted, and often comprising one or two words. The findings also suggest that the formulation of questions should be given emphasis in the English language methodology courses. Finally, it would be useful if such research undertakings are conducted at different levels of the educational system of the country. More importantly, teacher-training institutes would benefit if some research on teachers questioning behaviour is carried out.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate teachers’ questioning behaviour in EFL classes in Higher Education Institutions at Wolkite University in Ethiopia. The study was a descriptive case study with a mixed-methods approach, but mainly qualitative. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and questionnaires. The partici...
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Traditional Pottery as Expression of Art Therapy in Western Bamileke Cameroon
Djoukwo Tsanetse Majolie Carine,
Aihong Wang
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
74-81
Received:
17 June 2021
Accepted:
6 July 2021
Published:
23 July 2021
Abstract: Amongst the Bamileke people of the West Region of Cameroon, is associated with the phenomenon and practice of traditional rituals. Essentially, these rituals contribute to practitioners' good mental health, which is consistent with the Community action clauses that appeared in Quebec during the 1960s concerning art therapy. The goal is to improve the living standards and health conditions of the individual and the social group. In the various Bamileke groups, the activity of pottery faced some prejudices likely to discourage anyone wishing to make a career in this profession. Prejudices that, among others, the activity would be reserved for sterile and menopausal women, etc. The present study, led by the desire to bring a denial of these preliminary misunderstandings, presents the traditional pottery of the Bamilekes in its environment as the expression of art therapy. Indeed, pottery objects as well as the other forms of art of the said tribe accompany the individual or the group in the accomplishment of his deep aspirations. In each situation, the object and ritual that accompanies it provide a relatively effective solution. Our argument first consists of briefly presenting the concept of art therapy and some theoretical approaches supporting it, then present the pottery as therapy in a general way, and the pottery as the therapy in Bamileke. The argument continues with the unfolded prejudices related to the job of the potter in the Bamileke territory. Here we bring a denial by stating that if the traditional pottery materializes the concept of art therapy, it would like to say that it promotes fertility and not sterility. Finally, we ponder about the future of pottery as a therapy in the context of the Bamilekes. The different points approached allows us to investigate and understand the use of pottery objects in many rituals of the Bamileke people, considered as a form of practicing the art of therapy. The different rituals to which objects are associated have a single purpose: to seek the psychosomatic welfare of the individual and the community.
Abstract: Amongst the Bamileke people of the West Region of Cameroon, is associated with the phenomenon and practice of traditional rituals. Essentially, these rituals contribute to practitioners' good mental health, which is consistent with the Community action clauses that appeared in Quebec during the 1960s concerning art therapy. The goal is to improve t...
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Mythologizing the Narrative: An Analytical Study of Turnage/Berkoff’s Greek (1989) and the Nature of Operatic Narrative
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
82-90
Received:
27 June 2021
Accepted:
19 July 2021
Published:
29 July 2021
Abstract: This paper focuses on literary adaptation of the genre of music theatre, i.e. opera and its strong association with mythic narrative. It will begin with a brief discussion on the hybrid nature of music theatre and its inner struggle between the Apollonian/verbal and the Dionysian/musical principles. In order to fully apprehend operatic narrative, it is necessary to explore the connection between opera and its predecessor, the ancient Greek theatre and the genre’s association with myth and ritual. The paper will analyse a twentieth century English operatic adaptation and its social and cultural implications by using Greek (1989) as an example. In crafting a modern version of an ancient myth, some plausible equivalence of the original narrative motivation must be incorporated if the functional and explanatory elements are not to be lost. Opera can be considered to be the direct descendent of its ancient Greek predecessor. Furthermore, from a social and cultural prospective, opera has transformed the ancient rite of religious sacrifice into a secular social and communal offering. The nature of operatic libretto also reflects the essential characteristics of a double sacrifice in the genre of music theatre. Singers offer their talents in representing the scapegoat in a pseudo religious ritual in the modern society; librettists offer words for the ultimate amalgamation with music in the genre of music theatre. The paper concludes with the idea that the genre of music theatre is designed to epitomise a condensation of human emotions and as an offering which corresponding to the modern society’s need for ritualistic sacrifice and spiritual purification.
Abstract: This paper focuses on literary adaptation of the genre of music theatre, i.e. opera and its strong association with mythic narrative. It will begin with a brief discussion on the hybrid nature of music theatre and its inner struggle between the Apollonian/verbal and the Dionysian/musical principles. In order to fully apprehend operatic narrative, i...
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Narratological and Stylistic Analysis of Point of View in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2021
Pages:
91-96
Received:
16 August 2021
Accepted:
25 August 2021
Published:
31 August 2021
Abstract: Up till now, there have been numerous articles and papers concerning the issue of Point of View in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, most of which are focused on the analysis of narrator’s function in the construction of narrative structure or the presentation of thematic meanings. Despite some articles’ application of linguistic/stylistic research methods to the study of the story, few of them involves the analysis of point of view. Therefore, by clarifying and combining theories relevant to point of view proposed by both narratologists and stylists, the paper focuses on the analysis of point of view in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” from both narratological and stylistic perspective through the exploration of three aspects: uniqueness of first-person point of view, transition and transgression of point of view, and omission of point of view, with the findings that the use of first-person plural narrator “we” serves the narrative function and involves community issues and racial problems deep in the south after the civil war, that the transition of teller-character to reflector-character influences narrative structure as well narrative distance of the story, which are closely related to the narrator’s authority and reliability, that the oscillation between third-person limited perspective and focal characters’ perspective helps to achieve the effect of omniscience within limitation, that the transgression of the narrator’s limited point of view into the realm of omniscient point of view creates double-layer effects of foreshadowing and self-exposure, and that the omitted point of view of Emily, Homer, and the negro servant are in close relation with the social, historical, and cultural background at the south in the first half of 20th century. Generally speaking, the paper verifies that the integrated theories of narratology and stylistics concerning point of view are of significance and innovativeness to the understanding of aesthetic effects and thematic meanings of fiction.
Abstract: Up till now, there have been numerous articles and papers concerning the issue of Point of View in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, most of which are focused on the analysis of narrator’s function in the construction of narrative structure or the presentation of thematic meanings. Despite some articles’ application of linguistic/stylistic research me...
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