American Research Journal of English and Literature

Milorad [sin Nade Tesla] Ivanković Non-affiliated researcher Vršac (Verschez)

 Ever since the Anglo-Welsh philologist William Jones introduced Sanskrit to the West two centuries ago, various western scholars have been trying relentlessly to decipher the ancient Vedic texts but with poor results. The inadequacy in their achievements is evident in the scholarly disputes that continuously take place between the fundamentally opposed schools engaged in the interpretation of Vedic texts. There are shortcomings in their methodology because the approach they rely on does not take into account the requirement of preserving authenticity in exploring the semantic relations among the Sanskrit words and phrases in the original Vedic texts. Against this background, this paper attempts to present a semantic approach to decoding Vedic texts, where prominence is accorded to faithful interpretation of the original Sanskrit words and phrases with an emphasis on preserving the accuracy of their contextual meanings. Further, the paper demonstrates how the innermost enigmas in Vedic texts are decrypted.

*Acheoah John Emike (PhD),Hamzah Abdurraheem (PhD),Shittu FataiBeatrice Osaro Oreoluwa

This paper explores a pragmatic approach in the analysis of the English present and past tenses. The paper contends that the English present and past are best interpreted by examining not only the propositions expressed within these tenses, but also the in-built meanings expressed by the pragmatics of the context, world knowledge and word-class combinations that underpin them. Hinging on the Relevance Theory of Communication (cf. Sperber and Wilson cited in Xinyue Yao [1], this paper concludes that the value of a proposition is essentially speaker-hearer driven. From the end of the speaker, processing communication entails knowing the topic-relevance of a speaker’s utterance (message). On the whole, the complexity of the English present and past as well as incompetence in their normative properties culminate into non-pragmatic use of them in discourse.

Milorad sin Nade Tesla Ivanković Vršac [Verschez], Serbia

Bob Dylan is the first and only Noble Prize winner for literature among the rock ’n’ roll folks and its proponents. But a controversy over his adopted artistic name seems to be lasting forever. Dylan himself enwrapped it somehow recently into veils of mystique and mystery. However, it is absolutely essential for everyone to attain the proper insight into the matter. Why is this so vitally important? Because without the attainment of the proper insight into the hidden background behind his name, one can never hope to understand properly his poetry and his engagement as the consciousness of his generation.

Milorad [sin Nade Tesla] Ivanković Vršac (Verschez), Serbia Non-affiliated researcher

 It seems that today everybody writes haiku. Haiku has become a global phenomenon. It seems to be the most democratic means of artistic expression accessible to people worldwide as it has no restriction of race, faith, ideology, etc. Haiku poetry is comparable to Naïve art viz. by ignoring the so-called rules is essential for the art to be considered naive, and being more accessible to everyone with no necessity for institutional learning due to its short form and its relationship with the world of nature which most of the men, women and even children are intimately related to. However, the form of haiku prevailing today rarely represents the authentic zen form of haiku, but is rather composed in a wide variety of forms, as one-liner, three-liner, four liner and even minimalistic style of verse.

Prof. Dr. Luisa Maria Arvide Cambra

Abulcasis Al-Zahrāwī (c.936-c.1013) is a very important physician of Al-Andalus, besides an eminent surgeon, the first one of Medieval Islam. His main work, titled Kitāb al-Taṣrīf (Book of medical arrangement), contains in its 19th treatise, which deals with cosmetics and drugs for health and embellishment of body, interesting recipes of a great value to the diverse scientific fields, such as the pharmacology, dentistry dermatology, cosmetics and aesthetic medicine. This article is an approach to the study of the treatise above mentioned, and includes the translation from Arabic to English of some recipes about toothpastes, according to the 5774th Arab manuscript of the National Library at Paris.

Partha Sarathi Mandal

 The assessment of colonialism which Jane Eyre promises to make through its correspondence between forms of oppression finally collapses into a mere restlessness about the effects of empire on domestic social relations in England. That disquietude is the only leftover of Bronte’s potentially deep-seated revision of the analogy between white women and colonized races, and it is the only unfinished constituent in the ideological closure of the novel. The unsavoury mist which suggests British colonial contact with the racial “other,” diffused throughout the ending of the novel, betrays Bronte’s persistent anxiety about British colonialism and about her own literary handling of the racial “other,” about the technique in which, through repressive metaphorical strategy, she has tried to formulate the world of Jane Eyre clean.

Sharmila K

Introduction: Harper Lee’s ‘To kill a mocking bird’ is an exceedingly influential novel highlighting the repulsion of racial discrimination and racial issues concerning a staunch, typically a white town in the deep south of the United States of America. Racial injustice is the backbone of the novel. The entire plot spins around the case of a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus Finch is the man who tries to defend Tom. The differences between white and black has been explored throughout the novel. Tom is found guilty because of the color of his skin. The race stands against him as strong evidence and everything has proceeded from the perception of prejudice, racism has become a critical thematic string. The novel throws light on several social injustice issues which affect number black people and the chief victim is Tom Robinson.

Fatima Aref Msheik

This paper is an analysis of a poem by Felicia Hemans, a 19th century Romantic woman writer. Focusing on “The Bride of the Greek isle”, the study argues that Hemans death poems explore death as a means of freedom from the patriarchal society. It is not as some critics said that Hemans had morbid passion with death, or that her domesticity in her poems is unbearable. The paper, therefore, explores the journey of the bride, in the poem, as a journey towards freedom not death, using Freud’s psychoanalytical division of human’s mind into Id, Ego and Superego. Meanwhile, the study analyzes the images that Hemans used, and their significance to the study of women’s freedom through death. This paper shows that the three divisions of the narrative poem parallel in the structure the division of Freud’s human mind into Id, Ego, and Superego.

E. A. Gamini Fonseka, PhD

While Shakespeare’s King Lear is known for abdication in English literature, the Bodhisattva King Makhadeva is known for the same in the Canonical Buddhist literature. In terms of abdication, Lear gives up his responsibilities as King of Britain, while the Bodhisattva King Makhadeva renounces not only his responsibilities but also his throne and kingdom as a whole. Out of senile insouciance, Lear looks forward to an elegant retirement, never short of the royal regale he has been used to, while Makhadeva, still a man of physical vigour who has just seen the very first grey hair on his head, warned by the forebodings of senile decay, takes heed to achieve spiritual advancement before death. After abdication Lear proves the most unfortunate and pathetic tragic hero in all of Shakespeare’s plays while Makhadeva remains a role model for the Buddhists all over the world to follow in the face of old age. Thus, as much as the prospects they hold in the event of abdication, do contrast the returns they experience. Focused on the post-abdication escapades of the two kings, this paper attempts to make a comparison of their characters in light of the moral, social, and didactic implications of their decisions in the context of the values and ethics they are both exposed to in their respective cultures that influence their response to the vicissitudes of life.