3. Applied Literature
Hossein Davari; Samira Sasani
Abstract
Exposing the concealed truth beneath the ideological appearance lies at the heart of the anti-capitalist plays written in the 20th century. Hare (1978) aspired to fulfil this social function by writing one of his masterpieces, Plenty. In this play, Hare creates a milieu of the clash between the main ...
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Exposing the concealed truth beneath the ideological appearance lies at the heart of the anti-capitalist plays written in the 20th century. Hare (1978) aspired to fulfil this social function by writing one of his masterpieces, Plenty. In this play, Hare creates a milieu of the clash between the main rebellious female characters and the overwhelming stains of a patriarchal context. He shows the interaction of the characters and the repressive context which changes the characters’ consciousness and identity. The present article offers a dialectical analysis to delineate the changes that occur both in the characters and the context in three successive decades (1943-1962). It is argued that such developments are viewed both as positive and negative because the rebellious characters of this play exhibit progression and degradation simultaneously. This paper aims to demonstrate how, as a social critique and committed writer, Hare reveals the true state of post-war England. The writer’s goal is to change the audience’s consciousness. He dispels the illusion of post-war peace and abundance which was believed by conservative, idealistic, and reactionary men. To do so, Hare contrasts male figures with rebellious and progressive women who act as history makers and represent the future of England.
3. Applied Literature
Alireza Soleimani; Maghsoud Esmaili Kordlar; Bahloul Salmani
Abstract
Guin’s (1972) The Word for the World Is Forest was written when the social awareness against all forms of dystopian values such as rational dualistic values, patriarchal hierarchy, anthropocentric instrumentality, and all forms of oppression and exploitation was promoted by modern ecological ...
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Guin’s (1972) The Word for the World Is Forest was written when the social awareness against all forms of dystopian values such as rational dualistic values, patriarchal hierarchy, anthropocentric instrumentality, and all forms of oppression and exploitation was promoted by modern ecological movements and the new wave of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. Guin’s speculative novella challenges the above-mentioned dystopian values and suggests an ecological ethics which include principles such as respect, care, love, mutuality, friendship, interdependency, equality, freedom, solidarity , responsibility, and the interrelationship between man and nature; it recognizes the differences and diversity of all the living and nonliving members of nature. To reach these ethical principles human beings need undergo a fundamental change and transformation in their way of thinking and their belief system all in all, which will result in a healthy society and ecosystem and a better place for life for the members of nature. This paper is a study of such a strategy in Guin’s (1972) The Word for the World Is Forest by benefiting from the theories set forth by ecofeminist philosophers Warren (2000), Plumwood (1993), and Merchant (1990) to show how the writer manifests the patterns of domination and oppression of nature and what kind of ecological ethics are emphasized in order to help man save life on Earth.
3. Applied Literature
Mohammad Ghaffary; Sara Karimi
Abstract
In the wake of WWII, how far science and technology may advance and the ethical responsibilities they bring became prominent problematics in philosophy and literature, including Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, particularly Cat’s Cradle (1963), a work of post-apocalyptic science fiction that intriguingly ...
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In the wake of WWII, how far science and technology may advance and the ethical responsibilities they bring became prominent problematics in philosophy and literature, including Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, particularly Cat’s Cradle (1963), a work of post-apocalyptic science fiction that intriguingly displays the dual nature of science as both creative and destructive. Since the novel deals with the catastrophic potentials of scientific inventions, it provides fertile ground for an ethical analysis based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s Poststructuralist thought, which has not previously been employed to analyze the concept of science in this novel. Considering this and using a descriptive-critical method, this qualitative, library-based study explores how in Cat’s Cradle science actualizes virtual possibilities, comparing it with artistic creation. Based on Deleuzeoguattarian theory, the analysis delves into the ethical implications of scientific knowledge as truth and the (im)morality of science. The results suggest that in Vonnegut’s narrative science is essentially neither moral nor immoral, but rather virtually amoral, since Dr. Hoenikker is depicted as a scientist who, unaffected by morality, recognizes the virtual power of creation in science and represents what Deleuze terms active science. The findings of the study, thus, elucidate the virtual potentials underlying science in the novel, the way it affects the characters’ deterritorialization, its relation to ethics, and its capacity not only to extract functions but also create presubjective concepts and affects. The findings of the study carry significant implications for investigating the nature of science in (post-)apocalyptic science fiction, not least Vonnegut’s other novels.
3. Applied Literature
Amirhossein Nemati Ziarati; Mahdi Javidshad
Abstract
Politicization, in general, and biopoliticization, in particular, of human beings’ lives, especially those the state deems expendable, is what informs the heart of the present study. Exploring the subtle ways in which the state renders its subjects docile and at the same time divested of any subjectivity, ...
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Politicization, in general, and biopoliticization, in particular, of human beings’ lives, especially those the state deems expendable, is what informs the heart of the present study. Exploring the subtle ways in which the state renders its subjects docile and at the same time divested of any subjectivity, agency, identity and human rights remarkably helps in better understanding the covert mechanisms of the biopolitical regimes operating within the ideologically-informed, discursive nexus of the sociopolitical fabric of the society. Studying Giorgio Agamben’s (1995) seminal text Homo Sacer (1995), and his theoretical reworking of Michel Foucault’s concept of “biopower” alongside Carl Schmitt’s notion of “the state of exception” casts an illuminating light on how such biopolitical regimes and exclusionary states of exception operate within the narrative of V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas (1961). Attempts at biopoliticizing and governmentalizing Mohun Biswas, the fiction’s central character, play out in different contexts and manifest themselves within the fabric of both the microcosmic family and macrocosmic society wherein Biswas inhabits, not as a decent member, but as a subjugated inhabitant of a biopolitical camp. Having been biopolitically interpellated and reduced to an Agambenian homo sacer, Biswas is deemed outside of and beneath the law, life and citizenship, and therefore, within a sacrificial order, his life means nothing to the biopolitical state. However, some counter-discursive, counter-biopolitical spaces that Biswas uses to rally against the prevailing sovereignty of the biopolitical regimes of the state should be explored to further buttress or undermine the discursive and ontological potentiality of resistance against biopolitical oppressions of any sort.
3. Applied Literature
Elham Mohammadi Achachelooei
Abstract
This article analyzes Orhan Pamuk’s The Red-Haired Woman (2017) (hereafter RHW) from Alicia Helda Puleo’s ecofeminist perspective. It discusses Gülcihan’s character in RHW as a cultural figure who, standing beyond the essentialist division of culture / nature, develops a constructive ...
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This article analyzes Orhan Pamuk’s The Red-Haired Woman (2017) (hereafter RHW) from Alicia Helda Puleo’s ecofeminist perspective. It discusses Gülcihan’s character in RHW as a cultural figure who, standing beyond the essentialist division of culture / nature, develops a constructive interaction with the masculine world of the novel, prefiguring the reestablishment of life. The novel reviews the process of modernization in Türkiye through detailing the confrontation of the old and new via references to the mythological stories of Oedipus Rex, and Rostam and Sohrab. The references highlight the notions of patricide and filicide, pointing to rising tension between Eastern and Western aspects of Turkish cultural identity. This investigation challenges the dominant reviews of the references as pessimistic illustrations of the disappearance of historical Türkiye along with her environment and argues that RHW offers an alternative vision of modernization via Gülcihan’s narration as an optimistic stand toward industrial formation through enhancing self-awareness and intercultural understanding.
3. Applied Literature
Ali Montazerzadeh
Abstract
In this essay, I analyze the complex role capitalism plays in the formation and transformation of bodies within its system, using the novel Under the Skin by Michel Faber as a case study. As multidisciplinary research, this essay will use disability studies as a theoretical foundation with which the ...
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In this essay, I analyze the complex role capitalism plays in the formation and transformation of bodies within its system, using the novel Under the Skin by Michel Faber as a case study. As multidisciplinary research, this essay will use disability studies as a theoretical foundation with which the main arguments will be underscored. In order to do so, I focus on four dimensions: first, the distinction between normality and deviance as manifested in the bodies of the alien protagonist and the Vess corporation heir Amlis; second, the impact of different hierarchies in the novel; elites, workers, and human prey (vodsel); on the bodies of the group according to their position in each level of the pyramid; third, the role of disability and how it affects individuals under capitalism; fourth, how (de)prostheticization changes the way readers perceive and interpret the novel by shifting the perspective from the normative one to an alternative one that challenges the dominant assumptions of normalcy. This essay will argue that: capitalism use, misuse, and abuse society’s view of normalcy to take full advantage for its own hegemonic purposes.
3. Applied Literature
Maryam Hosseini; Hossein Pirnajmuddin
Abstract
Bessie Head's A Question of Power intricately weaves existential philosophy into the tapestry of its narrative, so that the novel becomes a suitable venue to apply Emmanuel Lévinas’ philosophy of Self-Other relationship. The novel unfolds against the tumultuous backdrop of apartheid-era ...
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Bessie Head's A Question of Power intricately weaves existential philosophy into the tapestry of its narrative, so that the novel becomes a suitable venue to apply Emmanuel Lévinas’ philosophy of Self-Other relationship. The novel unfolds against the tumultuous backdrop of apartheid-era South Africa, with Elizabeth's journey serving as a poignant exploration of Lévinasian concepts. Lévinas, a philosopher of profound influence, posited that true ethical growth arises from direct encounters with the Other. This exploration dissects crucial aspects of Lévinasian philosophy mirrored in Elizabeth's trajectory across interconnected parts. One part contrasts Lévinasian ethics with Kantian and Hegelian philosophies, emphasizing the transformative power of encounters with the Other, evoking a "traumatism of astonishment" and calling for the embrace of otherness. The other section delves into Elizabeth's ethical journey, scrutinizing her struggles and moments of growth through the lens of Lévinas' concept of transcendence. Finally, the last part explores Elizabeth's transformative journey to Botswana, examining her encounters with the face of the Other and the symbolic dismantling of oppressive binaries within the Lévinasian framework. This analysis unravels how Head's narrative can mirror Lévinasian philosophy, unveiling the philosophical intricacies interwoven with the novel's literary fabric. As we embark on this journey through philosophy and literature, we peel back the layers of Elizabeth's narrative to reveal how it is possible to apply Lévinasian ethics on identity, connection, and the pursuit of transcendent wisdom to her painful interpersonal maturity in a world marked by division and inequality.
3. Applied Literature
Hossein Sabouri; Ali Zare Zadeh; Abolfazl Ramazani; Roghayeh Lotfi Matanaq
Abstract
The aim of this paper, in Morrison’s fictional novel, God Help the Child (2015), is to examine the detrimental impact of the hostile and violent mistreatment of a light-skinned mother who restrains from nurturing her Black daughter. Nancy Chodorow’s (1978) Object Relations Theory helps us ...
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The aim of this paper, in Morrison’s fictional novel, God Help the Child (2015), is to examine the detrimental impact of the hostile and violent mistreatment of a light-skinned mother who restrains from nurturing her Black daughter. Nancy Chodorow’s (1978) Object Relations Theory helps us determine how patterns of gendered-parenting and early-childhood development contribute to the reproduction of traditional sex roles. Her theory includes three basic “affects”, namely attachment, frustration, and rejection, in which the female identity is chiefly based on the inextricable attachment to the mother, and the status of women in culture is defined by the tie between the mother and daughter. These “affects” are universal emotions that are vital for infantile identity formation. Drawing upon her Psychoanalytic theory, the overarching argument of this paper is that the mother is the initial object for the infant to gratify its desires; however, from Freud’s (1926) standpoint, her breast, as the source of nurturance, is the first object. For our purposes, traditional theory of Freudian Oedipus Complex is not the primary concern of this paper and Chodorow’s (1978) contemporary Object Relations Theory is applied, for Psychoanalytic Feminism contributes to examining the ambivalent nature of motherhood. Our findings indicate that Chodorow elucidates the essence of motherhood in terms of the social constructions in lieu of biological ones. Given both Chodorow’s and Freud’s (1926) viewpoints, the inextricable maternal bond between Sweetness and Bride, the mother and daughter of the novel, is traumatically distorted once the mother deprives her infant of the maternal milk.
3. Applied Literature
Sanam Shahedali; Lale Massiha
Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to incorporate the three Lacanian orders in Søren Brier’s cybersemiotic theory in the context Lewis Carroll’s Alice texts. As an interdisciplinary framework that emphasizes the role of the observer and its symbolically-generated hieroglyph-like universe ...
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The main objective of this paper is to incorporate the three Lacanian orders in Søren Brier’s cybersemiotic theory in the context Lewis Carroll’s Alice texts. As an interdisciplinary framework that emphasizes the role of the observer and its symbolically-generated hieroglyph-like universe of “signification sphere” in which any attempt at accessing the objective world of information seems nonsensical, cybersemiotic is an invaluable tool for re-visiting the three orders by which, according to Lacan, we develop our sense of self and the world. Certain elements such as dream-like states, impossible word plays, paradoxes, and nonsense in the Alice books, which follow the titular character into the fantastic realms of Wonderland and the Looking Glass World, can allow for registering the Real by disclosing the self-referential nature of language and debunking the seemingly integrated façade of an imaginary and metaphoric reality founded upon the Symbolic and the Imaginary. For an in-depth analysis of how a creatively self-reflexive handling of language can evoke a space where the three Lacanian orders emerge simultaneously as one collapses onto the other, a cybersemiotic formulation of nonsense in the Alice books is introduced as the linguistic moment in which signifier-in-isolation (the Real) and signifier-in-relation paradoxically appear on the same cognitive horizon, revealing the underlying dynamics of the signification process which involves an arbitrary development of differentiated signs rendered meaningful due to a tacit consensus agreed upon over the temporal axis.
3. Applied Literature
Nazila Herischian; Seyed Majid Alavi Shooshtari; Naser Motallebzadeh
Abstract
The transitional period of the 1970s Britain being fictionalized in Margaret Drabble’s novel, The Ice Age (1977), provides the ground for theoretical discussion of the present paper that is based on the insights of Giorgio Agamben. It will inspect the way Drabble interprets socio-political issues ...
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The transitional period of the 1970s Britain being fictionalized in Margaret Drabble’s novel, The Ice Age (1977), provides the ground for theoretical discussion of the present paper that is based on the insights of Giorgio Agamben. It will inspect the way Drabble interprets socio-political issues dominant in the 1970s and the way these issues affect her outlook. In this paper, considering the figure of an excluded existence in The Ice Age, Agamben’s biopolitical insights are examined to see how they may contribute to understanding of the dark side of sovereignty and the potentiality to transform democracies into totalitarian states. Taking the precariousness of the emotional, political and, ontological faculties of “love”, “homo sacer”, and “bare life” allocated to human being by sovereignty, it offers a different view of Drabble’s subjects on love and socio-political problems, maintaining that Agamben’s account of these issues supplies an underlying structure of the form-of-life. The paper also, through the striking features of Agamben’s discourse, approaches the concept of bare life and knits it to the concepts of instrumentalism, labor, slavery, and life, and fundamentally presents the awareness of self in political view. The characters examine some potentialities that may help them to break away from the prevailing deadlocks of the era. It is eventually shown that these practices, which according to Agamben may lead to a form-of-life that is called a happy life, conclude in the exclusion and spiritual void of the individuals.
3. Applied Literature
Leila Hajjari; Ali Taghizadeh
Abstract
Shakespeare’s eponymous character’s movement in Richard III towards the peak of power passes through his art of simulation which is induced by seduction and annihilation. Richard’s playacting skills in feigning innocence and brotherhood while hiding villainy along with his persuasive ...
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Shakespeare’s eponymous character’s movement in Richard III towards the peak of power passes through his art of simulation which is induced by seduction and annihilation. Richard’s playacting skills in feigning innocence and brotherhood while hiding villainy along with his persuasive oratory in dismantling others’ suspicions, ultimately leading to numerous murders on his behalf, entangle him in a labyrinth of a hyperreal state of being, in a Baudrillardian sense, from which no escape is possible. Richard III is seduced into a vertiginous power struggle which is but an essential form of reversibility that leads him to his own ruin. In this regard, this paper tries to study Richard III, as a character, in light of the concept of “simulacrum” in Baudrillard’s philosophy to show how he becomes the victim of a self-made loop which leads to his downfall. This study encourages similar investigations to discover hidden layers of meaning in Shakespeare's tragedies, the ones including villains as their protagonists.
3. Applied Literature
Seyedeh Fatemeh Esmaeili; Farah Ghaderi
Abstract
In the 1990s, the first wave of trauma theories was raised to extend the boundaries of psychological trauma studies into other fields, including literary theories and literature. Jeannette Walls (1960-), an American author and journalist, writes about her characters’ resistance to life’s ...
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In the 1990s, the first wave of trauma theories was raised to extend the boundaries of psychological trauma studies into other fields, including literary theories and literature. Jeannette Walls (1960-), an American author and journalist, writes about her characters’ resistance to life’s adversities in her novels. Despite the existing studies on her most well-known novel The Glass Castle (2006), her other novel, The Silver Star (2013), has been marginalized since its publication. Thus, this study addresses The Silver Star and examines the “trauma and recovery” of the two main characters, Charlotte and Liz. It deploys Judith Herman’s trauma theory which focuses on the symptoms, effects, and recovery process of “post-traumatic stress disorder”. Following the experienced traumatic moments, Charlotte and Liz bear three main symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, including “hyperarousal”, “intrusion”, and “constriction”. As a primary effect of PTSD, they also disconnect themselves from their family and society while desperately seeking help to be recovered. The study argues that Walls represents social support as the most influential element in the “recovery” process of PTSD. The findings show that the recovery process varies according to the support that each character receives; Charlotte is not able to progress in the recovery process without receiving sufficient support from others while Liz recovers by getting enough support to construct a sense of safety.
3. Applied Literature
Mohammad Ghaffary; Melika Ramzi
Abstract
The issue of “freedom” has been one of the core concepts in the history of literature and philosophy since classical times. This concept considerably contributes to the ongoing discussions of Iris Murdoch’s The Unicorn (first published in 1963). Unlike most of the previous studies of ...
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The issue of “freedom” has been one of the core concepts in the history of literature and philosophy since classical times. This concept considerably contributes to the ongoing discussions of Iris Murdoch’s The Unicorn (first published in 1963). Unlike most of the previous studies of the novel, whose central focus is on the transcendent, moral, or biographical readings of the text, the present study draws on Gilles Deleuze’s Poststructuralist philosophy to address the immanent aspect of freedom, as the main thematic concept in the novel, as well as such related notions as power, love, desire, and becoming to determine the degrees of freedom achieved by the major characters, Hannah Crean-Smith and Effingham Cooper. The main objective of the study, therefore, is to see whether or not the two main characters can ultimately find proper lines of flight. The findings suggest that although Hannah is encoded and territorialized in the Gaze castle, she ultimately turns into a body without organs (BwO). However, Effingham fails to become an active body in his interaction with Hannah. While Hannah undergoes an absolute positive deterritorialization through her death, Effingham obtains only a relative negative deterritorialization because returning to the “real” life constantly threatens a body’s force and renders an absolute form of freedom impossible.
3. Applied Literature
Maryam Azadanipour; Naser Maleki; Mohammad-Javad Hajjari
Abstract
The 21st-century literature has experienced a shift of ideas reflected in metamodernism, introduced by Vermeulen and Akker in 2010. Although metamodernism is a critical approach in its naissance, it is observable in a large body of the 21st-century literature through certain narrative and thematic features ...
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The 21st-century literature has experienced a shift of ideas reflected in metamodernism, introduced by Vermeulen and Akker in 2010. Although metamodernism is a critical approach in its naissance, it is observable in a large body of the 21st-century literature through certain narrative and thematic features which have proven to move in line with contemporary socio-cultural issues. Although metamodernism plays with and modifies specific elements of modernism and postmodernism, it is exclusive to the artworks of the last two decades in which certain terminologies such as the “infinite Real,” an aversion of the “Real” in former philosophical and psychological disciplines, suggest that truth and reality are infinite and that the past and the future are connected through a plastic connection. A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan makes a good example of the metamodernist novel regarding the author’s network of characters in their approaches toward the reality of their lives as it is constantly redefined in association with their past. In this light, the novel is to thematically embed the concept of the “infinite Real” in the first decade of the third millennium.
3. Applied Literature
Ehsan Khoshdel; Fatemeh AzizMohamadi; Mojgan Yarahmadi
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to provide a political reading of Dasein that might result into tragedy of Dasein in A Song of Ice and Fire. Politics can be regarded as an element to reach existence and Dasein. The phenomenological methodology that Heidegger introduces rejects all the history of western philosophical ...
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The aim of this essay is to provide a political reading of Dasein that might result into tragedy of Dasein in A Song of Ice and Fire. Politics can be regarded as an element to reach existence and Dasein. The phenomenological methodology that Heidegger introduces rejects all the history of western philosophical tradition. Heidegger believes that the metaphysical thinking that has dominated western philosophy since Plato to Nietzsche is insufficient for the study of being. The western history is depicted in the story of A Song of Fire and Ice. Applying these assumptions to the context of Westeros, it becomes clear that ruling and domination over is the only way to appoint the matter of existence. In a realm where every lord and lady nurtures his or her own dream of sitting on the Iron Throne, the nation’s notion of unity and democracy degenerates into a sort of oligarchic dogma that treats the lives of ordinary people as dispensable means to the ultimate end: total power. In such a state, an idealistic politician would find little to no room for advocating purely positive values like equality or justice. Indeed, as he often finds out soon enough, the profits of the elite often rely directly on the losses of the public.
3. Applied Literature
Mohammadreza Touzideh; Farshid Nowrouzi Roshnavand
Abstract
The ethical relation with the Other becomes of great significance in the postmodern ethos which considers the decentralization of subjectivity as one of its main philosophical and literary objectives. Emmanuel Levinas was one of the first philosophers who redefined the notion of ethics as a critical ...
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The ethical relation with the Other becomes of great significance in the postmodern ethos which considers the decentralization of subjectivity as one of its main philosophical and literary objectives. Emmanuel Levinas was one of the first philosophers who redefined the notion of ethics as a critical moment in which the subject’s encounter with the Other solely occurs through the use of ethical language, a mode of communication that essentially escapes any form of totalization in favor of the subject’s consciousness. Such an ethical meeting with the Other can be traced in Conrad Aiken’s short story “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” which narrates the twelve-year-old protagonist’s encounter with the mysterious voice of snow. The results of the study show that the protagonist, once exposed to the speaking face of the Other, initiates an ethical conversation with it and, in so doing, loses his subjectivity to the ethical manifestation that the Other issues upon him.
3. Applied Literature
Masoud Farahmandfar; Ghiasuddin Alizadeh
Abstract
Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” has suffered a critical overlook compared with the immense bulk of studies dedicated to his poetical and philosophical works. The reason behind the poem’s resistance to understanding is that it stands in stark contrast to Shelley’s ...
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Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” has suffered a critical overlook compared with the immense bulk of studies dedicated to his poetical and philosophical works. The reason behind the poem’s resistance to understanding is that it stands in stark contrast to Shelley’s theological and philosophical opinions which he held throughout his life. Shelley's poem is torn between the need for a transcendental signified which would bestow meaning on human existence and the tragic realization that no such an ultimate guarantee can ever exist, that the lack in the Other is ontological and, as such, can never be compensated for. Availing itself of the theories of Slavoj Žižek, the present article argues that Shelley’s illusion is twofold: besides his opinion that a full access to Beauty will eradicate uncertainty and inconstancy from the human life, he locates the roots of the present universal discontent and suffering in the absence of the Spirit, rather than seeking the causes of failure in the very essential defectiveness of the symbolic reality.
3. Applied Literature
Ali Emamipour; Farideh Pourgiv
Abstract
It has been quite a while since research in different disciplines has become widely cross-fertilized. The cultural matrix of our era has made it possible for ideas and metaphors to move across disciplines. John Barth has been one of the most-celebrated cross-disciplinary fiction writers, who has been ...
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It has been quite a while since research in different disciplines has become widely cross-fertilized. The cultural matrix of our era has made it possible for ideas and metaphors to move across disciplines. John Barth has been one of the most-celebrated cross-disciplinary fiction writers, who has been perceptive of and receptive to breakthroughs in other disciplines to reinvigorate fiction. Despite the fact that Barth’s literary career, particularly from Lost in the Funhouse (Funhouse), coincides with the coronation of Quantum Mechanics as the regime capable of addressing reality in a more precise way, the recognition of the influence of Quantum Mechanics on Funhouse has been conspicuously absent from the critical enterprise, and the bulk of research has viewed it in the light of Poststructuralism, whose application to contemporary fiction has been exhaustible by now. Establishing the framework of the Article based on some concepts for which the Copenhagen Interpretation and the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics are famous, the present study offers a new perspective to approach the idiosyncrasies of Ambrose in the series, thereby employing an unprecedented methodology to replenish a work which has been subjected to a barrage of metafictional readings.
3. Applied Literature
Mehri Nour Mohamad Nezhad Baghayi; Abolfazl Ramazani; Sara Saei Dibavar
Abstract
“I CAN’T HELP READING!” is the common comment uttered by Detective Fiction readers who lose control over themselves as they begin reading a crime novel. The genre is a crystal clear formulaic structure which abounds with repetition: following a crime, an investigation is initiated by ...
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“I CAN’T HELP READING!” is the common comment uttered by Detective Fiction readers who lose control over themselves as they begin reading a crime novel. The genre is a crystal clear formulaic structure which abounds with repetition: following a crime, an investigation is initiated by a detective to capture the criminal. Still, its clichéd nature does not lessen the universality of Detective Fiction. How could a story replete with puzzles and vague incidents be enticing? More importantly, why would the reader avoid discarding a book which sketches horrible deeds and inhuman interests of the criminal? What is the powerful element of Detective Fiction which places it among popular literature? This paper intends to answer these crucial questions by focusing on “conjecture,” a term introduced by Umberto Eco as the key feature of Detective Fiction’s appeal. To this end, an article by William F. Brewer and Edward H. Lichtenstein entitled, “Stories Are to Entertain: A Structural-Affect Theory of Stories” (1982) is targeted to shed light on the claim of conjecture as a way to knowledge by elaborating on three analytical components—surprise, suspense, and curiosity—of a story which make it strikingly attractive.
3. Applied Literature
Masoumeh Baei; Behzad Pourgharib; Abdolbaghi Rezaei Talarposhti
Abstract
The endeavor to establish reconciliation between the opposing demands of two cultural communities lies at the heart of some literary works associated with postcolonial literature. This theme, which is also central to the novels of Bharati Mukherjee, especially The Tree Bride, forms the plot of the novel ...
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The endeavor to establish reconciliation between the opposing demands of two cultural communities lies at the heart of some literary works associated with postcolonial literature. This theme, which is also central to the novels of Bharati Mukherjee, especially The Tree Bride, forms the plot of the novel and serves as an axis around which the characters are developed. The present article adopts the theories of Homi. K. Bhabha to expound upon the gap that distances the oriental and the occidental cultures from one another and renders fragmented the identity of the postcolonial individual. Bhabha’s notions of the uncanny and the hybrid identity are two central concepts that can serve as keys to explaining the postcolonial encounter. They can significantly contribute to the discussion of the novel as they can prepare the ground for the investigation of how anti-colonial resistance becomes possible through the third space that is created through hybridity and the uncanny. In The Tree Bride, the protagonist finds herself between two cultures that attempt to draw her into their own orbits. The protagonist’s mimicry of the target culture is an ironic one, since it consists of acceptance and rejection at the same time. In other words, while Tara Chatterjee mimics the norms and criteria of the target culture toward which she strives, she is influenced by her ancestral culture. The paper argues that such uncanny condition can be detrimental to the individual and plunge her into a deep identity crisis.
3. Applied Literature
Fereshteh Hadisi; Firouzeh Ameri
Abstract
The history of feminism and gender studies is fraught with constant struggles to find applicable definitions for sex, gender, and sexuality, and understand their relationships and differences. This paper attempts to go through various theories in this regard, tracing their variations and evolutions through ...
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The history of feminism and gender studies is fraught with constant struggles to find applicable definitions for sex, gender, and sexuality, and understand their relationships and differences. This paper attempts to go through various theories in this regard, tracing their variations and evolutions through time, with a particular focus on gender elimination and discrimination. Some important issues explored in this research include experimentation with language, scientific investigations, and sociological research in the hope of defining and combating gender. Moreover, some manifestation of gender-neutrality patterns in literary works throughout ages and among nations have been represented in various degrees. The survey at hand, drawing on Foucault and Butler’s theories on power and gender performativity, asserts the relative independence of sex, sexuality, and gender from each other as well as the nonessential role of them in the game of discrimination, relegating this role instead to power relations and personal perceptions. Literature, with its vast imaginative capacities and persuasive force, has been introduced as the site where all these intellectual endeavors of various fields about gender have converged, creating metaphors for a possible discrimination-free world, and effecting inevitable changes in the perceptions of their readers.
3. Applied Literature
Elmira Bazregarzadeh; Nasser Dasht Peyma; Maghsoud Esmaili Kordlar
Abstract
There have always been many controversies with regards to the existing gaps between human beings and Nature, most of which have come into notice in particular at the current age of fragmentation and uncertainty. While we postmodern individuals take pride in our access to better means of living through ...
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There have always been many controversies with regards to the existing gaps between human beings and Nature, most of which have come into notice in particular at the current age of fragmentation and uncertainty. While we postmodern individuals take pride in our access to better means of living through technological advances, there have been times we have not been able to live a concordant life on this vast planet. However, postmodernism’s backing up the issue of decentralization has come in handy in literary studies on the one hand and has been influential in Nature-oriented studies on the other. That said, the present paper aims to examine the selected poems chosen out of Mary Oliver’s Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays in order to show the significant role of the poetic language in bringing about some sort of ecological symbiosis, made possible through enriching the internal bond between the speaking human agents and non-speaking, non-human individuals.
3. Applied Literature
Mehdi Azari Samani
Abstract
This paper analyses Thomas Pynchon’s V. (1961) in light of two contradictory scientific perspectives and argues that Pynchon uses complex science-based formulations on different semantic levels to give shape to a seemingly shapeless world of uncertainty. V. is considered by many critics a historiographic ...
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This paper analyses Thomas Pynchon’s V. (1961) in light of two contradictory scientific perspectives and argues that Pynchon uses complex science-based formulations on different semantic levels to give shape to a seemingly shapeless world of uncertainty. V. is considered by many critics a historiographic metafiction which evolves through certain new readings of the early 20th century Europe’s colonialism and is given a sense of uncertainty to historical consciousness via Pynchon’s postmodernist style. This paper suggests that though Pynchon uses the techniques (on the syntactical level) which define postmodernism and create a pandemonium of complexity and meaninglessness, he leaves hidden blueprints which give shape and order to the syntactical and semantic chaos created in his works. To achieve this goal, the main methodological focus of the paper would be on Claude. E. Shannon’s (1948) “information theory.”
3. Applied Literature
Sanaz Saei Dibavar; Sara Saei Dibavar
Abstract
This article examines the dual role of the café in instigation, development, and termination of the public display of transgressive desire in Margaret Duras’s (1958) Moderato Cantabile. To approach Duras’s narrative this way, we draw on Michel Foucault’s (1977) theories concerning ...
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This article examines the dual role of the café in instigation, development, and termination of the public display of transgressive desire in Margaret Duras’s (1958) Moderato Cantabile. To approach Duras’s narrative this way, we draw on Michel Foucault’s (1977) theories concerning Panopticon to bring into light the sociallyimposed codes and the method of their implementation. Duras’s mode of expression, we intend to discuss, brings to the reader’s attention the dominance of the silent social gaze in each transgressive scene between the two characters. Despite its laconism, therefore, Moderato Cantabile reveals the omnipresent and active bourgeois codes that are interwoven to the very fabric of the bourgeoisie. The effective operation of these codes, set through discourses of truth and power, is guaranteed through the Panopticon present in public spaces like the café, whose dual nature enables it to allow for manifestation of desire on the one hand, and effective inspection and containment of the situation (by imposing norms) on the other.
3. Applied Literature
Saeid Rahimipour; Mohammad Reza Khodadust
Abstract
Literary works have been interpreted differently depending on the interpreter’s mindset and outlook. This study has launched an attempt to interpret the representation of the “Mocking Bird” in To Kill a Mocking Bird. Initially, a total number of 30 English majors studying at Farhangian ...
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Literary works have been interpreted differently depending on the interpreter’s mindset and outlook. This study has launched an attempt to interpret the representation of the “Mocking Bird” in To Kill a Mocking Bird. Initially, a total number of 30 English majors studying at Farhangian University of Ilam were selected through convenience sampling. They were, then, provided with the PDF version of the novel, and after a few weeks’ interval of reading time, the participants were exposed to the filmed version of the story. Thereafter, using Reader Response Theory, they were asked to write their comments, impressions, and views of whom, which, or what the “mocking bird” of the novel may be. The qualitative/quantitative content analysis of their writings revealed some fascinating interpretations regarding the representation of the “Mocking Bird’s” paragons in the novel. The final part of the paper discusses the findings and their implications which revealed fascinating information in this regard.
