hoda shabrang

This article seeks to examine the illustrated editions of Shakespeare's plays, whose images were printed by the use of metal engraving, in order to find the most determining factors that affect the way of understanding the female characters in the play, and to answer the question, "What is the Victorian portrayal of women’s main features in Shakespeare's editions?" Since advanced types of engraving such as steel engraving, outline engraving, stipple, daguerreotype and photogravure were among the main techniques for reproducing images in the Victorian period, representing Shakespeare's women as aesthetic paratexts of 19th century printed editions was an artistic selection which added a layer of non-textual appeal to the plays and enhanced the reading quality and hermeneutic understanding of the characters. In other words, artists and editors sought to emphasise their beauty, strength, and complexity by depicting Shakespeare's heroines in visually appealing ways. Therefore, the illustrations in these editions provided the readers with a richer interpretation of the characters and potentially influenced their understanding of the characters in the play. Moreover, in this era, the images went from emphasising the conceptual and semantic connection of the images of women with the text, which was common in the eighteenth century, to simply representing the beauty of women. It is worth mentioning that to fully describe this process, William John Thomas Mitchell's ideas about the importance of visual presentation of literary texts will be relied upon.

The precedence of poetry can be traced to ancient times when man first realized that he could combine speech with rhythmicity and musicality to convey his inner-most thoughts and passions expressively. The strengths and advantages attributed to poetry are galore ; however, few think of employing it as a source for retrieving cultural facts. In the present study, the endeavor of the researcher is to display how poetry can be utilized to extract cultural concepts which are embedded in the mass cultural consciousness of a people by scrutinizing their poetry. The complexity of notions, expressed through poetry, can be revealed once verses are deconstructed and the poem is perused scholarly to single out hypograms which are the units carrying the essence of meaning. The inevitable result would be the revelation of different layers of meaning which are convoluted into leitmotifs and only a thorough analysis and meticulous reading can exhibit the relationship between the signs, signifier and the signified. As both poetry and cultural studies share the characteristic of being implicit, it is necessary to employ methods which aid clarity and lucidity. A sophisticated analysis requires the use of thick description, the method which cleaves the kernels of thought to display intended meaning and acts as a viable catalyst expediting the process of comprehension through interpretation.

Although there are propitious merits to poetry galore, few would suggest it as a means for the exemplification of critical theories. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of human sciences, there exists a reciprocal connection between findings in literature which will aid critiques to illustrate the veracity of their theories. Black poetry stands out as a favorable example of how the dialectics of power domination circulates within a society, not perpetually residing with the supremacy. The following paper elaborates on Foucault’s well-known power/knowledge critical theory by focusing on co-textual influences and presents a discussion exemplified in Mari Evans’ anthologized poem, “When in Rome”.Background of the Study: Regardless of Mari Evans’ authenticity, inadequate attention has been paid to her work in the form of critical analysis. Considering all its merits, her poetry deserves to be noticed all the more since as a committed poet, Evans is true to the principles of Black Art which demands of its followers to support issues concerning the Black minority. In this regard, Evans’ poetry outstands the works of her peers. Controversial instances, which have often been challenged in the crucible of critical thought, may need to be exemplified for the sake of elucidation. Hayden White’s insistence that events be narrated according to the survey of causes and effects and Foucault’s theory of power/knowledge circulation serve as the critical backbone of the present study. This paper aims to illustrate how Mari Evans’ selected poem, as a complement to Foucault’s theory and White’s approach to the study of history, tends to display that the circulation of power within a given society is not transferred hierarchically but rather promulgates dialectically, as defined by historiography, from one agent to another based on an imbalance in knowledge possession. Historically, it has always been assumed that the white supremacy has domination over the black minority, given that it has full grasp of knowledge, and this is exactly the presumption that is challenged in Foucault’s theory. “When in Rome” provides adequate ground in support of the theory and exhibits how common thought about domination of power and the elements which contribute to the existing functional contradictions within social relationships can be challenged. Furthermore, the poem provides sound context to question the historically presumption of alleged superiority for the White.

Foucault emphasizes on several points when he presented his power/knowledge theory. First, he stipulates that power and knowledge are integral parts of man’s existence and accentuates their interrelationship. Second, he defines certain characteristics for power, namely that it is not transmitted in a structure of levelized arrangement but circulates uninhibitedly among agents and last, that power cannot exist without resistance. White emphasizes the requirement of seeking causes and effects behind the occurrence of events, particularly to explain existing conflicts. The poem and the theories complement each other by presenting a clear and comprehensible illustration of critical-literary notions.

The application of Foucault’s theory to Evans’ poem, “When in Rome”, and investigating the causes and effects which initiate the circulation, demonstrate the qualities attributed to power, knowledge and their interrelated connection. As observed in the poem, a member of the working class is caught in the dialectical circulation of power by her employer who represents supremacy. Through knowledge and by exerting resistance, the dominated individual orients power in her own direction and avoids imposition. The poem is a revealing piece of literary work exemplifying the highlights of historical-literary reciprocity to perfection.

In the immigration studies, the diasporic female experiences are not indicatively considered as the prevailing experiences of immigrant men who are claimed to stand for all immigrants. Thus, it is challenging to examine female migration experiences and the consequences that are ignored. This article explores the ignored parts of female migration experiences as subalterns and focuses on the process of assimilation in the host country following theories of Gayatri Spivak’s post-colonialism. In the age of migration the female characters of the former colonies are being culturally hybridized when they get in touch with the Western factors. That hybridity and their ambivalent attitude between the cultures, they are becoming the mimic women that has not only affected them and led them to identity crisis but also contributed to the dangling of them between cultures lost and confused. This article will carefully examine the consequences of assimilation of the female character, Mumtaz, in Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke in the hybridized atmosphere. Moth Smoke is the debut novel by British Pakistani novelist, Mohsin Hamid, which provides the context for the clash of cultures in its portrait of a country violently divided against itself. Sometimes, assimilation with host cultures are to the extent that the female immigrant becomes baffled and confounded. With shattered identity, she is neither a modern Westernized woman nor an Eastern glorified mother and wife.

Nowadays, speaking about immigration and its consequences is a controversial topic of many academic groups. The rise of postcolonialism and immigration has led to indescribable changes in world public affairs. In the field of immigration studies, the individual experiences of women in the diaspora are not significantly considered as the dominant experiences of immigrant men who are still claimed to represent all immigrants. Thus, it can become challenging to examine female migration experiences and it consequences which are ignored and overlooked. For this reason the eminent novel of Mohsin Hamid, Exit West, is chosen. This article carefully examines the consequences of assimilation of female characters in the hybridized Space.

Background of the Study:

Although assimilation to the host cultures in hybridized spaces situates migrant women in impossible situation or inbetween, the transformation of the migrant women’s identities can also become a tool to deconstruct stereotypes of third world women and patriarchal hegemonic discourse. In Exit West the main character, Nadia, is presented as the migrant woman with hybridized identity. The migrant woman is not obliged to choose between two identities, particularly between the cultural identity of the country where she comes from and that where she finds herself. In other words, both identities can co-exist in the same person, dialoguing and promoting cultural understanding. In this way immigrant woman in hybridized space is empowered to move freely between cultures and establish a sense of home and belonging even in her new places. These ideas of identity transformation and identity creation are very evident in Nadia at Exit West, portrayed as a key example of an immigrant woman whose identity is influenced by the places and cultures she encounters around the world. She feels like “vermin” at first in the host culture yet she turns to a beautiful butterfly at the end of the story.

The present article explores the ignored parts of female experiences as subalterns in migration and it focuses on the process of their assimilation in the host countries in accordance with the Gayatri Spivak’s theories. Her intention to illustrate that the level where the subaltern could be heard or read cannot be reached because what is said is either ignored, forgotten or it simply disappears from the official, male-centered historical. As the migrant woman’s identity transforms from “somebody” to “nobody”, she further more hopelessly agonizes as she also turns from a former member of a society to someone who is just “the Other”. This predicament of otherness is a universal reality among migrant women as they do not only experience it from people whose nationalities are different from them but also from men with whom they share similar race or background.

The idea that female migrants consider their identities as multiple or fluid is a key theme in literary representations of the female migrant experiences in the novel, Exit West. The key point to consider is that such representations of the experience of the migrant woman underlines how this shift in identity does not only come in the form of a physical alteration of her body and geographical crossing of borders but, more so, in her symbolical and psychological being. Despite the number of challenging experiences for migrant women in Exit West, it does overall emphasizes on the positive impact of such migration experiences. In fact, migration is also depicted as an opportunity that opens doors for the migrant woman to be exposed to a multicultural life and to improve her quality of life.

This article aims to analyze Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy (1993) in light of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism. The present study explores the significance of dialogism in the given novel which tells the story of a marginalized young boy living in neo-colonized Ireland in the 1960s. Bakhtin believes that the development of signification between the “self” and the “other” is called dialogue through which human beings define their existence as individuals in polyphonic societies. The protagonist of The Butcher Boy is a non-conformist, unwilling to follow social rules. He creates his very own way of dialogism with his surroundings and ends up in a mental hospital and finally a prison, showing the author’s approval of Bakhtin’s viewpoint towards the importance of dialogue in shaping human beings’ consciousness and existence in the world. Moreover, this article attempts to clarify the resistance of the main character before his society’s hierarchical structure that makes him a perfect example of a marginalized hero disobeying rules and regulations imposed by the authorities to gain an independent resolution.

IntroductionThe key terms “hegemony” and “counter-hegemony” were first suggested by Antonio Gramsci to describe the soft power in the hands of the ruling system. In Gramsci’s definition, hegemony is related to those discourses in which the ruling system’s values are included and attempted to gain the consent of people in a soft way. In contrast, counter-hegemony means those opposing discourses that stand against the hegemonic discourses and expresses the ideals of the people outside power. While Naipaul’s A Bend in the River reflects the dominant hegemony in colonial and postcolonial era, it is at the same time concerned with exposing the ruling values and producing counter-hegemony. Background of the StudyAlthusser was in search of the ideologies that help Capitalism live through human souls, and be dominant and omniscient in the citizens of his hometown. With the benefit of the constructive system of thought of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan psychoanalysis and their combination with the traditional Marxism, Althusser was demanding an analysis of different ideologies that elegantly has framed the thoughts and ideologies of a society has satisfied them, and at the same time they are reproducing themselves in the same system. Althusser always had two main questions in his mind, which has framed his Marxist thoughts: first, how a society with reproducing its connections and relationships reproduces itself, and becomes stable through the passing of time; second, what makes the society ready for a social revolution.Methodology Althusser mentions two major mechanisms for insuring that people within a state behave according to the rules of that state: Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and Repressive State Apparatuses (RSA). ISAs are institutions which generate ideologies that individuals (and groups) then internalize, and act in accordance with. These ISAs include schools, religions, the family, legal systems, politics, arts, sports – organizations that generate systems of ideas and values, which we as individuals believe. Another is what Althusser calls the RSAs that can enforce behavior directly, such as the police and the criminal justice system. Although the ISAs appear to be quite disparate, they are unified by subscribing to a common ideology in the service of the ruling class; indeed, the ruling class must maintain a degree of control over the ISAs in order to ensure the stability of the RSAs.ConclusionThe main focus of the selected novel is confined to the reign of the "Big Man" and most of his methods for institutionalizing his ideological system by the help of ISAs. He is well aware that using force and violence alone cannot be done, so he resorted to indirect ideological methods to gain legitimacy and gain public satisfaction. These include projects such as "nationalism" and "extremism" whereby the property of citizens of the descendants of the Congo is confiscated. The government also launches a special kind of school and university, a quasi-modern educational system based on all-European models to train obedient and westernized young intellectuals who lack the creativity and power of analysis. In all of this, the President does not resort to force and RSA feeds such as prisons, police, army and European mercenary troops, wherever necessary, but secretly uses them as far as necessary. So as not to tarnish his image in the minds of his people. But the mistake that this coup dictator is making is that he cannot reproduce his ideology and address its weaknesses according to the needs of society, a principle which Althusser emphasizes. As a result, this method loses its effectiveness over time, and the revolutionary forces of the Liberation Army with their anti-modern ideology destroy all the gains of the former regime.

In his political novel, Autumn, Ali Smith has implicitly integrated family life with political matrices of British-European relations. In this study, Autumn was investigated in light of Kenneth Burke's notions of identification, substance, symbolism, and imagination known as rhetoric of motives. Identification refers to identifying with characters having some components or substances in common. Rhetoric of motives refers to the application of terms with persuasive function that move people into action. The themes of Ali Smith's Autumn are in congruity with Kenneth Burke’s theoretical ideas represented as theme of love to explain illogical coupling of a young woman and an old man that recalls England and Europe/EU interconnection and mismatching relations. This study explored how the rhetoric and dialect of Smith that have symbolic meanings and functions is motivating through identification with characters. Burke believes that through rhetoric of motives and grammar of motives it is possible to create protagonists that people can easily identify with to persuade them into action based on their intended political views. Through rhetoric of motives by the seasonal novel via identification, symbolism, and imagination, Smith indirectly portrays the political event of Brexit (British Exit) and its consequences in British society.

The present study in an analysis of violence and racism in the three novels of Tony Morison in light of Slavoj Žižek (1949-) theory of violence. Subjective violence refers to visible crime and terror in the social and individual level. Objective violence is both visible and invisible, manifested in forms of systemic violence in racism, hate-speech, discrimination, and systemic violence as the catastrophic effects of economic and political systems. In A Mercy, slave trade, rape, and mercy represented ontological violence, subjective violence, and systemic violence, respectively. In Paradise, that is a reaction to racism and consequence of segregation laws, not only subjective violence is still committed, but also it is changed into invisible or objective forms such as interracial violence and intergenerational conflict. In God Help the Child, while all forms of violence are still performed, interracial conflict (between members of a colored family) reveals that new layers of violence and exploitation are reproduced which challenged the post-racial claims and endorses colorblind racism and emergence of racial identity crisis. Therefore, Morison considers racial norms as social and ideological constructions of colonialism that are regularly transformative and generative.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road, with its ashen, post-apocalyptic landscape, seems a conspicuous exodus from the realism of his earlier novels. Its horrendous atmosphere frustrates the readers and forces them to ask: what really has happened to the world? And is there any kind of salvation for modern man after the horrific post-apocalyptic era? In this novel McCarthy portrays some events which he thinks they are the impossible fate of human beings. He narrates a journey of a father and a son who try to survive after the civilization has been wiped off the face of the earth. The present study has analytic-comparative approach and its main objective is to prove that there is a close relationship between the postmodern novel of The Road and ancient myths of The Holy Grail and The Fisher King. In this research the emphasis is not on the characteristics of The Road as a postmodern novel, but on the myths which are older and more significant. In the post-apocalyptic world which everything is ruined, the only remedy of human being is seeking transcendentalism through myths. The world created upon individual benefit and expediency is doomed. The result of this research reveals that the only salvation for man is to build new moral principles regardless of individual benefit. In fact, the antidote which can cure this melancholic world is nothing but to have mercy upon others; in other words, for survival we need to have compassion and love for others without any condition or calculation.

Ana Lily Amirpour was born in 1980 from Iranian Parents in England, and moved to Miami, Florida with her family when she was young. She attended San Francisco State University as an art major for her undergraduate degree, and then graduated from UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. Although she has experienced a few short movies, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) is her first long movie. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night happens in an imaginative city named Bad City. A lawless city which its location is not specified, but surrounded with industrial ugly oil companies. The time and place of this movie are not recognizable and although it has both Iranian and American signs you cannot certainly say whether it is Iran or America. In this movie, Amirpour integrates the cultural signs of both countries (America as a host and Iran as an immigrant). According to Nojoumian, identity is always under construction and reconstruction, he defines it from semiotics perspective "as a signifier between an individual and his community". On the one hand, in order to relate himself to his community, an individual should construct an identity; on the other hand, each community should have a specific identity to accept individuals as its members. Nojoumian believes that understanding the sign system is related to the identity and that like any other sign system is based on "differences". The second identity theory believes in "identity theme" rather than one single identity. Each individual by the help of his identity theme represents different aspects of his identity in different situations. The third identity theory is "the identity process". Nojoumian states that identities are always in a neverending process of change and evolution. Identities also have a kind of signifier/ signified relationship in each sign system; however, the signs are constantly shaped and reshaped. Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a double paradoxical command. The host asks the immigrant to assimilate into its culture, yet simultaneously it orders him to keep a distance which results in the "paradox of assimilation and difference". Therefore, the immigrant will be in an impossible situation: on the one hand he has to actively participate in the assimilation process; on the other hand, he should keep his distance from the host culture. The immigrant artist is not allowed to create a kind of art which is completely related to his culture because it is not readable and understandable in the host country, neither is he allowed to create some kind of art which is completely related to the host culture since that place is reserved for the artists of the host country. The aim of this article is to show how her shattered identity as an immigrant artist is represented in her art. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night portrays the impossible situation of an immigrant artist since she is always under a double command of the host culture (American). This double command asks Amripoure to assimilate with American culture yet warns her at the same time to keep her distance from the host culture. On the one hand, as an immigrant artist, she is not allowed to create a movie which is completely according to Western- Vampire genre. On the other hand, she is not also allowed to produce something which is in complete accordance with her native Iranian culture since in that case, it is not understandable and attractive for American audiences. Although this impossible situation seems very painful at first glance, it is beneficial for the immigrant artist. In this hybridized space, she creates a kind of art which is innovative and unique, because she is not completely preoccupied with the Hollywoodian clichés imposed by the host culture.