American Research Journal of English and Literature

 *Mr. Omar Ezzaoua 

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is characterized by the narrative mechanisms and techniques it employs. Building on its structure, the novel is obviously rich in its underlying elements that are worth examining. One of these elements is the choice of multiple narrators and the complex organization of narrative time. This theoretical framework deals mainly with narration and narrative techniques as approached by structuralist narratology. As an approach that examines narration and its major hybrids, narratology delves into a structural study of Wuthering Heights allowing for a deep examination of the underlying narrative elements in the novel. Having said that, it is believed that the study of narratology is pertaining in the sense that it sheds light on how the narrative structure of the novel puts into question the status of the narrators as reliable sources. This structure also mystifies the story giving the reader a chance to decipher the intent of the characters involved as both narrators and characters. Without taking such structure into account, the readers are missing some key elements in understanding and interpreting the stories told by the narrators. 

Acheoah John Emike,Beatrice Osaro Oreoluwa,Margaret Nonyerem Agu,

This study attempts an appraisal of Pellets – manuscript of an unpublished anthology of poems1. Selected poems from the anthology are appraised to establish the aesthetic relevance and potency of diction in poetry in particular, and in other literary genres in general. Two theories anchor this study: The Critical Theory and the Lexicalist Theory. In terms of approach and style, poetry differs from other literary genres. It is peculiar for using inflated language, deployed in verse and stanza. Diction is vocabulary stock used by a writer to convey theme(s). Despite the normative properties of language, it has social signification which the literary writer explores, using individualistic linguistic choices that capture the operational forces being addressed. This study concludes that in Pellets – and other creative writings by extension – diction is instrumental in effective, imaginative and creative presentation of themes.

*Neenu. C and **Dr. D. Jaisankar 

THE RESEARCH FEATURED BY A BRIEF STUDY OF THE AUTHOR AND HIS NOVEL A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS TO UNDERSTAND THE NOVEL. IT IS OUR HOPE THAT THE RESEARCH HERE WILL ELEVATE THE READER TO ENRICH THEIR QUEST FOR CRITICAL APPRECIATION. THE PERSISTENT CONDITIONS OF CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE IN AFGHANISTAN, CONTINUING FOR ALMOST FIFTY YEARS NOW, HAS CAUSED HUGE DESTRUCTION IN TERMS OF HUMAN AND MATERIAL LOSSES. IT HAS ALSO LED TO A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION IN ITS SOCIO-CULTURAL FABRIC ALMOST IRREVERSIBLY. BECAUSE OF THEIR VULNERABLE POSITION IN ITS SOCIETY, THE AFGHAN WOMEN HAVE ENDURED A TOUGH EXISTENCE AS THEY CAME TO GRIPS WITH A DOUBLE SUBJUGATION IN THE FORM OF PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY AND THE OPPRESSION EMANATING FROM THE PERSISTENT CONDITIONS OF THE CONFLICT. HOWEVER, THERE IS OFTEN A TENDENCY TO CAST AFGHANISTAN AND ITS PEOPLE IN ESSENTIALIST TERMS BOTH IN ACADEMIC AND NON-ACADEMIC ENDEAVOURS. BY CONTEXTUALISING THE AFGHAN WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE IN A SPECIFIC SET OF HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS, THIS WOULD HOPEFULLY OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE CONDITION OF AFGHAN WOMEN RATHER THAN THE USUAL STEREOTYPED DESCRIPTIONS. I CONCLUDE THAT THE RESEARCH MAY BE IMPERFECT AS IT IS NOT ABLE TO SATISFY EVERY READERS AND THEIR TASTE.

EA Gamini Fonseka, BA (Kelaniya), MA (Edinburgh), PhD (Vaasa)

Snake is a reptile, very much respected in many cultures throughout the world, depending on what species it is. Ornate snake sculptures in Sri Lanka, India, England, China, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Africa, America, Australia, etc. (Steel, 2021) are evidence of the respect the reptile earned in most of the ancient civilisations by becoming a seminal influence in the mythologies, folklores, beliefs, values, morals, rituals, and arts that have evolved in them. Coming from a Western Christian elite socio-cultural background, D.H. Lawrence gets fascinated by the asp rattler that he meets in Sicily in 1920, and in a while tries to kill it under the influence of his zoological knowledge and the warnings he has had on the deadliness of its venom. Later he feels relieved that his attack did not hurt the snake and yet regrets his being indecent to the creature. Lawrence’s delayed realisation of the snake’s right to existence tallies the example of unreserved compassion towards life, irrespective of what species it is, the Buddha sets during his two famous encounters with lethal snakes. Unlike Lawrence’s silent snake, one of the two snakes the Buddha encounters protects him from the rain, and the other vertically challenges him, spraying his deadly venom at him. Nevertheless, the Buddha’s only reaction to them both is to unveil his compassion indiscriminately. Unlike Lawrence, he concludes both encounters without regret. Taking the respective behaviours of Lawrence and the Buddha in the presence of snakes, this paper proposes that, in preventing regret, while managing interactions with other forms of life, compassion inspired by spirituality transcends all other emotions engendered by fascination and apprehension that are part and parcel of Lawrence’s religion, “flesh and blood”.

Acheoah John Emike1, Garba Azika Jega2 and Okoh Gloria Onyemariechi2

This study is a socio-pragmatic analysis of selected utterances of interlocutors whose discourse subject is “Covid-19”. In using language, it is not enough to be grammatical; language use should be underpinned by contextual nuances because this is a good way of using language as actions that produce results or effects. Therefore, the analysis of the selected linguistic structures in this study is an investigation of linguistic competence demonstrated through lexical choices and speech act sequencing. The approach explored in the study is discursive and integrative; for example, instead of strictly listing the speech acts performed in each utterance, they are mentioned in terms of how they impinge on the on-going interaction. The study underscores who says “what?”, “how?” and “why?”. Although this study is mainly hinged on the Pragma-crafting Theory, Bach and Harnish’s [1] speech act taxonomy is explored in the classification of the speech acts performed in the utterances. On the whole, the study concludes that the socio-pragmatic use of language is underpinned by the psychological and situational context(s), and produces expected results due to speaker-hearer shared knowledge.

Ms. Anwesa Chattopadhyay

The Orientalist psychology has been persistently shaped by an ideological demarcation between Westerners and Arab-Orientals; “the former are (in no particular order) rational, peaceful, liberal, logical, capable of holding real values without natural suspicion; the latter are none of these things” (Said, p. 49). The Orientalist perspective has remained ingrained in the Western mind across the decades, persistently shaping the colonialist ideology in an era of mass migration. The latter decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a rapid upsurge in the migration of Arabs, a major part of whom settled in the United States. The continuous upsurge in the Arab migration and settlement was concurrent with the growing spur of racism, which forms the basis of the victimization of the Arab-American populace. In this regard,Steven Salaita (an eminent critic of Islamophobia and a spokesperson for the “Anti-Arab Racism” in the USA) observes, “The origin of American racism is a combination of European colonial values and interaction with Blacks and Indians” (p. 5). In the light of the above statement, this paper aims to study Laila Halaby’s novel Once in a Promised Land (2007) from an orientalist perspective, and locate the traces of Islamophobia that had victimized the Muslim immigrants in America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

1* Acheoah John Emike (PhD), 1Williams Ocheme, 2Alonge John Owamerinme

The emergence of pragmatics makes communicative competence a crucial subject in the literature of pragmatics, even though linguistic competence is also instrumental in the effective use of language to communicate messages. To explain the pragmatic underpinnings of an utterance in terms of relevance and meaning within any given context, this study examines the utterance “I have headache in my stomach” alongside other samples of expressions gathered from the Nigerian speech community. When an utterance is uttered, the physical (environmental), psychological, pragmatic or social nuances that generate are inevitable components of the inferential process. A speaker expects the “world spoken-of” – as Allan [1] puts it – to be inferred correctly. This paper is hinged on a bipartite theoretical underpinning: the Pragma-crafting Theory; and the Relevance Theory of Communication. The study concludes that: the communicative value of an utterance is immersed in the ease and possibility of processing it for meaning (its topic relevance).

Md. Harun-Ur-Rashid 1 , Md. Naymul Islam 2 , Mst. Ummay Tohfa 3 , Md. Nazmul Haque 4

This paper’s central concern revolves around the sublime thoughts delivered artistically in the works of William Shakespeare, the tremendously influential playwright and poet of all time. A piece of art particularly speaking literature includes some traits or qualities for which it remains afresh the test of time. Among the qualities, sublimity is one through which a writer may make a space in the reader’s mind. William Shakespeare has been enchanting and entertaining the readers of different languages with his artistic delivery of thoughts of varied fields expressing universal thoughts. These thoughts become the finest pieces of expression when they are shrouded with sublimity. Shakespeare has portrayed his characters with sublime thoughts galore. These sublimes help the readers find the significance of human hearts, the necessity of reading literature, pleasure in discovering inner truth, weighing the greatness of human souls and the supremacy of humans indicating the notion - the aristocratic thought of an aristocratic being- after all, man is the sublime creature having sublime thoughts.

*1Acheoah John Emike (PhD), 1Williams Ocheme, 1Nura Garba Dauran2Olaleye Joel Iyiola (PhD) 

In this paper, we examine the utterance “Black Lives Matter” from a linguistic purview. A linguistic analysis of the utterance can be explained not only in terms of literal and non-literal propositions, but also in terms of how the arrangement of language expresses meaning(s). This paper explores Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory of Communication, cited in Xinyue Yao [1], and contends that: the figurative potential of the utterance “Black Lives Matter” is a product of how the words are patterned (combined); unintended negative connotations are conveyed about Black because the topic relevance that the decoder works out in processing “Black Lives Matter”, is neither predictable nor limited; the utterance “Lives of Black Matter” is a good substitute for “Black Lives Matter”.

Prof. EA Gamini Fonseka, PhD

The Nightingale in Oscar Wild’s very romantic short story overhears the lamentation of the Student, who is in turmoil without knowing how he, in that wintry weather, provides a red rose for his dream sweetheart, his Professor’s Daughter, who has demanded him to get one for her to match the colour of her ball dress, promising to dance with him if the latter manages. Having assessed the decisiveness of a red rose for the attainment of the Student’s dream, the Nightingale embarks on a project to produce one for him, at the expense of her own life. Finally, she succeeds, but dies on the spot, as the rose blooms, absorbing her heart’s flesh. The red rose equips the Student to go ahead with his plan but the Professor’s Daughter, overjoyed by the jewels she has received from the Chamberlain’s nephew, changes not only her ball dress but also her dance partner. She rejects the red rose along with the Student. Thrown on to the road by the frustrated Student, the red rose gets crushed under a cart wheel, manifesting the indifference of the humans. Wilde exposes through the behaviours of both the Student and the Professor’s Daughter the moral decay of the Victorian society, where material objects gather prominence, undermining the ethical and moral foundations of human relationships.