Jordan Journal of Modern Languages & Literatures

The Semantics of Habitual Sentences in Jordanian Arabic

2026-05-11T09:21:42+03:00

This article investigates the semantic structure of habituals in Jordanian Arabic. The article
challenges the prevailing view that simple habituals are merely a homogeneous subtype of generics
(Carlson 2012). Instead, it advocates the existence of a distinct operator named ‘Hab,’ separate from
‘Gen’. This operator functions as a "modalized existential quantifier over sums of events." (Boneh and
Doron 2013, 177) Habituals in the dialect can be categorized into two types: quantificational and nonquantificational.
The former exhibits a restrictor in the form of an adverbial adjunct, often exemplified by
cyclicity adverbials such as da:jman esˤ-sˤubeħ, ‘always in the morning’. On the other hand, the latter
refers to bare habituals that do not include such a constraining adjunct. These habituals often occur in
conjunction with atelic predicates. Furthermore, the investigation underscores the feasibility of deriving
habituals from kind generics, where such constructions either incorporate stage-level predicates or present
a form of weak generalization.

Highlights

1- This article argues for a distinct 'Hab' operator that functions separately from 'Gen' in Jordanian Arabic.

2- Habituals within the dialect are categorized into quantificational and bare forms.

3- The study identifies scope ambiguity in the use of bare plurals within these habitual constructions.

4- Jordanian Arabic habituals occur with both individual-level and stage-level predicates.

5- The paper demonstrates that habitual readings can be derived from kind generics when utilizing stage-level predicates.

A Syntactico-Semantic Analysis of Ǧahd (=deny) Structure and its Equivalences in Quran’s Persian Translations

2026-05-11T09:38:06+03:00

The word Ǧahd and Ǧahd structures being complex and polyvalent in the Arabic language, it is challenging to find an appropriate equivalent for this structure in most languages. This article deals with the analysis of the structure of Ǧahd in 2 forms “Mā kāna al-fāilo liyaf’al” and “Mā kāna lilfāilo an yaf’al”, some of which have been criticized and evaluated after providing suitable equivalents for them in Persian. The most important results of this research indicate that in the analysis of the structure of Ǧahd, either the Astarābādi’s point of view according to which Kāna belongs to Munāsiban should be used, or Kāna defined as “sabata”[«ثَبَتَ»] should be taken into consideration. According to the first opinion, Ǧahd structure is translatable to: “It is not in the subject’s dignity to do so” and according to the second opinion, Ǧahd is articulated and interpreted as: “The subject is not such as to do so”.

Highlights:

1- By analyzing the structure of Ǧahd and the reasons presented in this research, it was found that none of the analyses of the Koufians and Basrians on the structure of Ǧahd are acceptable. Because the analysis of the Koufians means absolute negation, and the analysis of the Basrians means the negation of volition, but the structure of Ǧahd aims for the negation of dignity and proportionality.

2- As a result, we should either accept Astarābādi’s opinion and recognize lām Ǧahūd and the verb assigned to it as belonging to munāsiban and the likelihood, or consider the verb kāna as complete and recognize lām and the verb assigned to it as they belong to kāna.

3- The Ǧahd structure (Mā kānal fā’ilo an yaf’al) also expresses the meaning of Ǧahd, which was determined as the second structure of Ǧahd in this paper.

4- In the Persian translation of the first and second structures of Ǧahd, we have two options. The first option is to follow Astarābādi’s opinion and use an equivalent phrase such as “It is not worthy of the subject to do such” and similar expressions. The second option is to consider kāna as conveying ‟completeness and translate it as “The subject is not such as to do such a thing”. When negative verbs are expressed with lam and lammā, their translation should depend on the event they are being compared to, and they should be shifted to the tense prior to the event. It is also important to include the adverb in the translation of lammā, as the negation in lammā is not definite.

5- An analysis of the Persian translations provided by Pāyandeh, Foulādvand, and Makārem indicates that for the first structure of Ǧahd, which consists of 10 relevant Quranic verses, Pāyandeh achieved a success rate of 50%, Foulādvand 20%, and Makārem 60%. For the second structure of Ǧahd, which includes a total of 19 verses in the Qur’an, Pāyandeh’s success rate was 63%, whereas Makārem’s was notably higher at 85%.

L'usage du logos dans la communication sanitaire présidentielle d'Emmanuel Macron face à la COVID-19 dans son discours du 28 octobre 2020

2024-10-23T13:20:17+03:00

Cet article analyse l'utilisation du logos dans le discours d’Emmanuel Macron du 28 octobre 2020, prononcé en pleine crise sanitaire liée à la COVID-19. Il explore comment le président mobilise des arguments logiques et des données factuelles pour justifier les mesures gouvernementales, renforcer leur légitimité et obtenir l’adhésion du public. Face à une crise d’une ampleur inédite, la stratégie argumentative de Macron repose sur des raisonnements structurés (déductifs, inductifs et analogiques) et l’usage de preuves empiriques telles que des statistiques précises ou des projections scientifiques. L’étude met en lumière cinq grandes stratégies rhétoriques qui permettent d’articuler les objectifs de santé publique, la mobilisation citoyenne et la gestion économique. En insistant sur la gravité de la situation, la responsabilité individuelle et collective, ainsi que sur la rationalité des mesures, Macron construit un discours destiné à informer, rassurer et mobiliser. En s’appuyant sur une méthodologie rigoureuse et des cadres théoriques comme la rhétorique aristotélicienne, cet article montre que le recours au logos est central pour répondre aux critiques et maintenir la cohésion sociale en période de crise. Il conclut que cette communication, bien que rationnelle et efficace, reflète également les défis de convaincre dans un contexte marqué par l’incertitude et la méfiance.

Highlights:

The study demonstrates that Emmanuel Macron primarily relies on logos (logical argumentation) in his October 28, 2020 speech to legitimize restrictive sanitary measures during the second wave of COVID-19.
Five major rhetorical strategies are identified: appeal to rationality and statistics, clear definition of objectives, justification of measures through scientific expertise, use of comparisons and analogies, and call for individual and collective responsibility.
Macron effectively combines deductive, inductive, and analogical reasoning supported by precise statistical data and scientific projections to build credibility and reduce public resistance.
The analysis highlights how the President reconciles health and economic objectives while anticipating and preempting potential criticisms, thereby strengthening the legitimacy of government decisions.
The paper concludes that a well-structured logical discourse (logos) plays a central role in crisis communication by fostering public adherence and maintaining social cohesion in a context of uncertainty and mistrust.

The Ramifications of a Comprehensive Written Corrective Feedback Model on the Educational Achievement of Learners Pursuing English Language Proficiency

2025-01-26T20:45:05+03:00

This study examines English learners' writing results after written corrective feedback (WCF). WCF's type, amount, timing, task genre and complexity, learner ability, style, and attitude are examined. In a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test study, 60 Iraqi intermediate-level English learners were divided into an experimental group of 30 and a control group of 30. The control group received no direct or coded textual WCF with a metalinguistic explanation, whereas the experimental group received it. Pre- and post-test descriptive and argumentative essays were evaluated using established rubrics for grammatical and lexical accuracy, competence, and performance. WCF improved student writing, according to SPSS and AMOS studies. Based on their skill level, learning style, and attitude, students preferred explicit, structured training with language explanations. Integrated cognitive, affective, and social models of written communication fluency (WCF) explained 65% of outcomes. Further research is recommended based on the findings.

Highlights:

1- The study looks at how written feedback helps improve English students’ writing skills.

2- It used 60 Iraqi intermediate students divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group.

3- The results showed that clear feedback with explanations helped students improve grammar, vocabulary, and writing.

4- Students preferred simple, clear, and well-organized feedback that matched their learning level.

5- The study shows that the feedback model is effective and suggests more research in this area.

Navigating Political Discourse: A Cross-Sectional Study of Hedging in American Presidential Speeches

2024-12-22T14:38:11+03:00

This cross-sectional study examines the use of hedging devices in American presidential discourse, analyzing speeches from four U.S. presidents with differing political affiliations. It aims to identify and categorize hedging strategies employed during their presidency, using a corpus of 52 randomly selected speeches totaling over 265,000 words. A mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative analyses, was employed, utilizing AntConc and Sketch Engine software. The analysis is grounded in Salager-Meyer’s (1997) framework of hedging devices and Rabab’ah and Abu Rumman’s (2015) taxonomy of hedging functions. Findings indicate a predominant use of approximators and modal auxiliaries, which varied across presidents and played a crucial role in mitigating commitment and conveying uncertainty. This variation was linked to political ideology and the specific socio-political contexts of each presidency. Democratic presidents relied more on hedging for diplomatic flexibility, whereas Republican presidents exhibited a preference for direct assertion. The study highlights hedging as a strategic rhetorical tool in political communication, allowing leaders to balance persuasion, adaptability, and authority.

The Pragmatic Functions of the Discourse Marker He:k in Jordanian Spoken Arabic

2024-12-26T12:17:28+03:00

This study investigates the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker he:k in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. To achieve this, a list of 22 situations featuring he:k is developed, drawing on its familiarity and multiple contexts in Jordanian society. Each situation is analyzed to determine these functions, which are then reviewed and validated by a panel of jurors who suggest amendments to certain situations and functions. The acceptability of the amended version is tested against the intuition of 110 BA students at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Arts, UNRWA. Twenty-two pragmatic functions are revealed: expressing doubt, seeking confirmation, expressing excitement and joy, showing vagueness, avoiding repetition, showing indecisiveness, showing approval, expressing despair, exaggerating a situation, hinting, minimizing a situation, insulting, expressing uneasiness, expressing shock and displeasure, expressing admiration, ending a conversation, asking for tolerance, wishing, reassuring, mitigating an assertion, marking threats, and filling a gap.

Highlights:

1- This study provides a novel linguistic investigation by offering the first comprehensive analysis of the discourse marker he:k in Jordanian Spoken Arabic.

2- The research highlights the functional versatility of the marker by identifying and validating 22 distinct pragmatic functions, ranging from seeking confirmation to marking threats.

3- Through a multimodal analysis, the paper demonstrates how the meaning of he:k is heavily reliant on dynamic contexts, such as intonation, facial expressions, and gestures.

4- The study maintains methodological rigor by validating findings through a panel of linguistic experts and a survey of 110 native speakers to ensure alignment with linguistic intuitions.

5- The findings offer sociolinguistic insight into Levantine Arabic by documenting how the marker is used across diverse settings, including social media and daily conversations.

Language Choice in Interethnic Interaction: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Balinese Transmigrants in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

2025-01-26T21:36:19+03:00

This study aims to describe the language choices of Balinese transmigrants and the factors underlying their selection of a language in interethnic interactions in transmigration areas of Southeast Sulawesi Province. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher selected a sample of 66 respondents from four Balinese transmigrant villages, encompassing a range of ages, genders, and educational backgrounds. Data collection methods included surveys (using a sociolinguistic questionnaire), interviews, and participatory observations. The findings indicate that Balinese ethnic groups in transmigration areas predominantly use a localized variety of Indonesian in interethnic interactions. The variety of Indonesian used tends to align more closely with Tolaki and Bugis dialects. This suggests that Balinese transmigrants prefer a neutral language—Indonesian—to accommodate all ethnic groups they interact with. Their neutral stance is also reflected in their passive comprehension of other local ethnic languages. Indonesian serves as the primary lingua franca, predominantly used in cross-ethnic communication to enhance communicative effectiveness, build social relationships, and avoid conflict. Convergence toward Indonesian is strongest in occupational and economic domains, particularly in transactions and social interactions outside their own community. However, divergence occurs in certain situations, where Balinese continues to be used in intraethnic communication, particularly in intimate domains and the agricultural sector, as a means of maintaining cultural identity. The factors influencing language choice include the communicative context (formal vs. informal), social relationships, participant status, and pragmatic needs. Balinese transmigrants tend to accommodate the dominant language flexibly. These findings suggest that in multiethnic communities, a language with official status and broad reach is more likely to serve as a tool for convergence, while ethnic languages persist in limited domains as markers of social and cultural identity.

Highlights:

1. Demonstrates that Balinese transmigrants in Southeast Sulawesi predominantly choose a localized variety of Indonesian as the primary lingua franca in interethnic interactions.

2. Reveals patterns of language accommodation through convergence and divergence, in which Indonesian is used to facilitate interethnic communication, while Balinese is maintained in intraethnic domains and as a marker of cultural identity.

3. Explains the main factors influencing language choice, including communication effectiveness, the development of social and professional relationships, social closeness, and respect for ethnic diversity.

4. Shows that Balinese transmigrants possess passive comprehension of several local languages, enabling flexible interethnic communication despite limited active proficiency in those languages.

5. Provides an empirical contribution to sociolinguistic studies on language choice and linguistic adaptation in multicultural transmigration areas in Indonesia, particularly in Southeast Sulawesi, which remains relatively underexplored.

Distorted Translation Patterns in Resistance Literature: Analyzing the English Translation of Kanafani's Short Story "The Land of Sad Oranges" by Nejmeh Khalil-Habib

2026-05-11T12:51:58+03:00

While there is a notable presence of scholars dedicated to the domain of literary translation between Arabic and English, the specific field that focuses on resistance literature has been relatively neglected. This study aims to examine the deforming tendencies in the translation of resistance literature, focusing on the English translation of Ghassan Kanafani's short story "The Land of Sad Oranges" by Nejmeh Khalil-Habib. The study addresses the following questions: (i) What are the deforming tendencies in translating "The Land of Sad Oranges" from Arabic into English? And (ii) Which translation strategies are employed in the deforming tendencies in this translation? The study's methodology follows a systematic approach that mainly relies on Berman's (2000) translation model of deforming tendencies. The analysis sheds light on the challenges and the consequences of such deformations. The findings reveal that the translator employed deforming tendencies, including rationalization, quantitative reduction, destruction of linguistic patterns, expansion, and qualitative reduction. Among these tendencies, rationalization constitutes the largest proportion (24%), whereas signification represents the smallest percentage (3%). Additionally, the study shows that the strategies employed include addition, omission, paraphrase, and lexicalization. Considering the subject matter of resistance literature aimed at depicting human suffering, any omissions, additions, or alterations made in the target text for the purpose of enhancing the original language are deemed inappropriate. Further research is encouraged to explore applying Berman's model or other relevant models to different genres of resistance literature, such as poetry, novels, and plays.

Highlights:

1- The study applies Antoine Berman’s (1985/2000) model of deforming tendencies to the English translation of Ghassan Kanafani’s short story The Land of Sad Oranges, demonstrating the effectiveness of Berman’s framework in examining ideological and literary distortions in resistance literature.

2- The researchers identified nine deforming tendencies in the translation, totaling 318 instances of distortion. Rationalization emerged as the most frequent tendency, followed by quantitative impoverishment and the destruction of linguistic patterning.

3- The paper demonstrates that translation strategies such as omission, paraphrasing, addition, and lexicalization can reshape the ideological and emotional dimensions of resistance literature, at times weakening the political and cultural force of the source text.

4- The study stresses the importance of preserving idiomatic expressions, stylistic features, and linguistic structures, arguing that excessive clarification and paraphrasing may diminish cultural specificity and alter the author’s intended message.

5- The paper contributes to the relatively limited body of research on the translation of Arabic resistance literature and recommends extending similar analytical approaches to other literary genres, including novels, poetry, and drama.

Translating Irony: A Four-Dimensional Analysis of Arabic-English Translation in al-Māzīnī's 'Mīdū wa Shurakāh' and Hutchins' 'Mīdū and His Accomplices'

2024-11-23T22:32:36+03:00

This study examines the translation of irony from Arabic into English in Ibrāhīm al-Māzīnī’s novella Mīdū wa Shurakāh (1943) and its English translation, Mīdū and His Accomplices (2006), by William Hutchins. Using a four-dimensional framework, it integrates Chakhachiro’s discourse model, Halliday’s functional theory, Grice’s cooperative principle, and Austin’s speech act theory. It analyses how register shifts, maxim violations, and rhetorical devices affect irony translation. The study explores challenges in rendering ironic registers, titles, overstatements, and the narrator’s voice, emphasizing verbal and situational irony. A mixed-method analysis, combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches, reveals Hutchins’ reliance on adaptation strategies to bridge cultural gaps while maintaining fidelity and readability. The findings underscore the translator’s role in reducing temporal and cultural distances, enhancing accessibility for English-speaking readers. More broadly, this study contributes to translation studies by demonstrating how adaptation strategies shape cross-cultural literary reception while balancing fidelity and readability.

Highlights:

1- The study examines the translation of irony from Arabic into English in al-Māzīnī’s Mīdū wa Shurakāh and Hutchins’ Mīdū and His Accomplices.

2- It proposes a four-dimensional framework combining Chakhachiro’s discourse model, Halliday’s register analysis, Grice’s cooperative principle, and Austin’s speech act theory.

3- The paper analyzes how register shifts, colloquialism, titles, honorifics, overstatement, and narrator intervention contribute to ironic meaning.

4- The findings show that Hutchins frequently uses adaptation strategies to bridge cultural, linguistic, and temporal gaps for English-speaking readers.

5- The study contributes to Arabic–English literary translation studies by showing how irony can be rendered while balancing fidelity, readability, and cultural accessibility.

Translating Jordanian Dysphemizers into English

2024-10-13T15:22:54+03:00

This study examines the cultural and linguistic challenges in translating dysphemisms, used to offend someone, from Jordanian Arabic into English. The main objective is to investigate the cultural and linguistic challenges in translating these dysphemisms. To conduct the study, the researchers use nine examples of Jordanian dysphemisms in specific social contexts to show how they are practically employed to offend others. After the dysphemisms are linguistically, socially, and culturally probed, the study highlights the difficulties of conveying their negative connotations when translating them into English. The study concludes that Jordanian dysphemisms, rooted in religious, literary, and social context, are challenging to translate directly due to cultural specificity. And as such, it is not simple to find equivalents for them with the same negative connotations in a distant language and culture like English.

Highlights

Investigation of dysphemisms in Jordanian Arabic as socially and linguistically significant offensive expressions.
Identification of the linguistic and cultural complexities involved in translating dysphemisms into English.
Analysis of context-specific examples illustrating the practical use of dysphemistic expressions.
Demonstration of the cultural specificity of Jordanian dysphemisms rooted in religious, literary, and societal norms.
Conclusion regarding the difficulty of producing English equivalents that preserve the original negative connotations.

Assessing Translation Competence in Jordanian Universities

2025-07-14T12:10:30+03:00

Translation assessment plays a vital role in enhancing students' translation skills, including their abilities in source text analysis, target text creation, and revision strategies. However, in translation studies, particularly in pedagogy-focused research, assessment methods are still underexplored. This study examines how translation instructors at Jordanian universities evaluate student translations, focusing on the types of grading systems and assessment rubrics used at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Two questionnaires were used to identify the most important aspects of translation performance from the professors’ perspectives and to highlight the areas most frequently assessed. The findings stress the need for adopting comprehensive and consistent translation-specific assessment tools to improve the reliability and validity of translation quality evaluations in academic settings. The study also proposes a holistic rubric designed to assess translation performance, aiming to promote more reflective and standardized practices in translation education and evaluation.

Highlights:

This paper highlights current translation assessment methods and rubrics used to evaluate students’ translation and performance in translation courses at Jordanian universities.
The study shows that the assessment offers valuable feedback to meet the demands of the professional translation market.
This study scrutinizes the importance of areas of assessment in translation
This study reveals that assessing and evaluating students' translation skills is essential for determining their proficiency and ability to accurately convey meaning from the source language to the target language
This research advances the field by creating an integrated rubric for assessing students’ translation quality.

A Psychological Exploration on Unseen Phases of Cinderella Complex

2026-05-12T10:41:39+03:00

This study explores the phases of the “Cinderella Complex,” a psychosocial construct developed by Colette Dowling (1982), through the character of Tulsi in K.R. Meera’s The Poison of Love (2017). Tulsi represents the consequences of social conditioning on Indian women, where dependency masquerades as romantic love, complicating their understanding of marriage as part of their identity. The research investigates how conditioned mentality and neurobiological mechanisms foster Tulsi’s emotional dependence on her husband, Madhav. By integrating Dowling’s psychoanalysis of feminine dependency with Helen Fisher’s interdisciplinary approaches on romantic attachment and obsession, the study explores the causal effect of psychological and neurobiological factors that shape Tulsi’s emotional trajectory. This analysis reveals how entrenched ideals of love contribute to Tulsi’s marital turmoil and eventual filicidal tendencies. The findings highlight the need for a critical re-evaluation of romantic narratives to promote healthier relational patterns and advance discussions on female autonomy and emotional resilience.

Highlights:

1- This study examines how the "Cinderella Complex" drives psychological dependency in women, using the protagonist of K.R. Meera's The Poison of Love as a case study.
2- It integrates feminist psychoanalysis with neurobiological theories to explain the intense grip of romantic attachment and emotional entrapment.
3- The research demonstrates how social conditioning and brain chemistry intertwine to disguise toxic emotional dependency as romantic love.
4- It highlights how an extreme fear of abandonment, fueled by unmet romantic expectations, can lead to tragic consequences like maternal filicide.
5- The findings advocate for a critical re-evaluation of traditional fairy tale romance to promote healthier relational patterns, female autonomy, and emotional resilience.

The Female Body as a Site of Violence and Resistance: Reclaiming Female Agency in Mahasweta Devi’s Draupadi

2026-05-12T11:05:27+03:00

The female body has always been objectified either for amassing economic profit or for eulogizing the male power. The male gaze dramatizes the already existing inequality between men and women by privileging the male viewer while dehumanizing the female object of view. However, what happens when the female body refuses to give voyeuristic pleasure to the male gaze and instead threatens the foundation of masculinity? By analyzing Mahasweta Devi’s short story Draupadi, my paper will examine how the female body can be a powerful weapon to resist the male gaze. It aims to explore the significance of women using nakedness as a powerful form of embodied resistance against the oppressive violence of the state. What cultural contexts give rise to these radical protests? How effectively do they confront the gendered violence perpetrated by the state and challenge the patriarchal narratives that perpetuate such violence on a broader scale? These questions are crucial for understanding the impact of women's activism in transforming societal perceptions of gender and power

A Textual Analysis of the Musical Wicked Using Text Mining Techniques

2024-09-08T10:40:42+03:00

This study aims to investigate the potential of text mining use to analyze the musical piece Wicked. It delves into the complex concerns and relationships of the characters, uncovering hidden plot patterns. The study shows the main characters, their personalities, and the major themes by using text minig techniques. The findings provide insight into the primary themes, as illustrated by word frequency tools, which can be applied to various fields of education and applied linguistics. The use of text mining will contribute to developing meaningful tagging systems for second and foreign language education, designed to be user-friendly for learners and practitioners alike. Through various textual analytical tools, researchers and educators gain a richer understanding of major themes, advancing academic discourse. Such research will, moreover. Influence educational disciplines and help inform society about the potential of technology in analyzing and interpreting literature and art.

Highlights:

1. The study demonstrates how text mining techniques can be effectively applied to literary text analysis in literary scholarship and educational research.

2. The study quantitatively identifies major characters, themes, and character relationships within the narrative, offering a data-driven alternative to traditional literary interpretation.

3. The findings reveal the central protagonists of the literary work, and the frequent appearance of adjectives also highlights the core themes in the plot.

4. The study uncovers hidden thematic structures and interpersonal conflicts through word association and topic modeling.

5. The research contributes to educational and applied linguistic fields by suggesting that text mining tools can support second and foreign language education, curriculum development, and digital humanities research.

When Science Meets Literature: Reframing George Orwell’s Animal Farm with Four Quantum Concepts

2024-09-08T12:38:18+03:00

This paper pioneers the application of Quantum Narratives, a novel theoretical framework inspired by quantum mechanics, to George Orwell's Animal Farm. Drawing on such quantum concepts as uncertainty, entanglement, superposition, and wave-particle duality, the study reveals the underlying meanings within the text's coexisting narratives and paradoxical realities. Unlike traditional literary analyses, which often fail to capture the novella's multifaceted nature, the paper employs a meticulous close reading methodology to scrutinize the text with a precision akin to examining the subatomic world. The findings reveal that, like quantum particles, the narrative elements in Animal Farm exhibit indeterminacy, interconnectedness, and the coexistence of multiple realities. This approach not only deepens our understanding of the novella's timeless themes but also contributes to the growing debate on interdisciplinary methods in literary criticism. Therefore, by spanning the gap between quantum mechanics and literary analysis, the study opens new paths of investigation into complex works of literature.

Highlights:

It introduces Quantum Narratives as a new interdisciplinary framework for reading Orwell’s Animal Farm.
It applies four quantum concepts, namely uncertainty, entanglement, superposition, and wave-particle duality, to explain the novella’s shifting power relations and contradictions.
It shows that Animal Farm is not only a political allegory, but also a text marked by coexisting realities, unstable meanings, and paradoxical structures.
It rereads major narrative elements, especially Napoleon’s rule, Boxer’s loyalty, Squealer’s propaganda, Snowball’s expulsion, and the changing commandments, as examples of uncertainty, entanglement, superposition, and wave-particle duality.
It contributes to literary criticism by bridging science and the humanities, opening new possibilities for interdisciplinary readings of complex literary works

The Emersonian Living Spirit in Ayn Rand’s Anthem

2024-09-14T22:32:05+03:00

This study examines how Ayn Rand’s Anthem (1938), more so than her other works, reveals spiritual and transcendental themes. While acknowledging shared elements between Objectivism and Transcendentalism such as individualism and self-reliance, this novella emphasizes key Emersonian concepts—including interconnectedness with nature, altruism, intuition, and romantic love—which, though departing from Objectivist ideals, are central to the protagonist’s personal growth and freedom. The study frames Anthem as a reflection of transcendental philosophy, arguing that Emersonian principles hold greater resonance in this context, and underscore an enduring relevance in dystopian narratives, demonstrating how an individual can confront struggles in an environment designed to destroy the human spirit. The study employs qualitative, text-based analysis, symbolic interpretation, and philosophical contextualization to examine and deepen the exploration of Emersonian Transcendentalism. Ultimately, it aims to enrich literary and philosophical discussions by illustrating how Emersonian ideals engage with dystopian literature to confront and transcend internal and external struggles.

The Equivocation of the Real and the Contemplative in Taher Riad's Collection The Book of the Unseen (Kitab al-ghayb)

2025-01-19T00:39:35+03:00

This paper traces the representation of contemplative visions in existence and human being in the poetry collection The Book of the Unseen by Taher Riad. It does so by depicting the actual elements of life in a way that makes them embodiments of his mental perceptions of existence. The paper highlights how the poet’s contemplative visions transform realistic objects beyond their actual images, thus detaching these objects and their names from their real-life references and instead relating them to the poet’s mental experience. The paper also shows the connection of the poet’s contemplations through the daily and the realistic by re-examining a number of mythical and symbolic narratives: Christ, Narcissus, Prometheus, and Oedipus, to represent his reflections on human formation in relation to the fate predestined in the unseen, and in relation to human perception of the nature of their being. The paper reveals the vision and poetic style of the collection, which combines the details of ordinary life with the relationship of humans to the world and their shared being with it. Thus, the realistic and the imaginary merge through language to represent both the real and the mental, forming a unique experience in the poetics of Arabic modernist verse.

Highlights:

1. The paper illustrates modernist poet’s stance on language.

2. The paper explores tendency toward the details of everyday life in modernist poetry and examens their interpretation.

3. The paper highlights the dialectic of poetic vision in Taher Riad's The Book of the Unseen between everyday details and the contemplative interpretive tendency.

4. The paper analyzes the latent presence of the unseen within the visible world, and vice versa, as manifested in Taher Riad's The Book of the Unseen.

5. The paper illustrates the oscillation in poetic style between the realistic and the imaginative in Taher Riad's The Book of the Unseen.

Troubling Cultural Narratives: Discourse of Interculturality in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Arabian Jazz and Susan Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly

2024-10-10T15:18:54+03:00

In an era marked by growing cultural fluidity and global mobility, narrow nationalist narratives face heightened scrutiny, particularly for their role in perpetuating epistemic violence. Against this backdrop, this article investigates how Diana Abu-Jaber’s (2003) Arabian Jazz and Susan Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly (2007) (henceforth, The Inheritance of Exile) interrogate and disrupt dominant cultural paradigms, positioning interculturality as a transformative framework for understanding the nuances of cultural exchange in Arab American literature. By exploring the multiplicity of narrative voices in these works, the article critiques the exclusionary and insular discourses inherent in nationalist ideologies, advancing interculturality as a dynamic counter-narrative that reimagines cultural interaction. The analysis demonstrates how these literary texts reconceptualise notions of citizenship and belonging, portraying them as fluid, diverse, and ever-evolving. This critique challenges stringent binaries that seek to define contemporary American identity, offering instead a vision of identity that embraces complexity and interconnectedness. By situating its discussion within the realm of fiction, the article highlights the adaptive and generative potential of interculturality, advocating its value as a critical lens for fostering deeper understanding and meaningful engagement in a globalised world.

Highlights:

The article examines how Arab American fiction interrogates and disrupts dominant nationalist and exclusionary cultural narratives through the lens of interculturality.
It develops interculturality as a transformative analytical framework that reimagines cultural exchange, citizenship, and belonging as fluid and dynamic constructs.
Through a comparative analysis of Arabian Jazz and The Inheritance of Exile, the study reveals how literary narratives challenge rigid binaries such as compatibility vs. incompatibility and assimilation vs. exclusion.
The research highlights the role of gender and intergenerational dynamics in shaping intercultural identity, particularly the experiences of Arab American women navigating cultural negotiation.
The findings demonstrate that interculturality functions as a critical, dialogic process that enables hybrid identities and fosters more inclusive, non-essentialist understandings of cultural belonging in a globalised context.

From Trail of Tears in Pushing the Bear to Nakba in Minor Detail

2024-09-30T11:58:14+03:00

Writing is an excellent means of exorcism, especially for the marginalized. However, more importantly, it is a form of resistance by the word. Both Adania Shibli and Diane Glancy, Palestinian and Native American writers, feel the urge to narrate the story of their people. This research delves into dramatic themes of cultural tragedy and resilience as represented in literature. Diane Glancy's Pushing the Bear (1996), sheds insight into Native Americans' horrific experiences and removal from their homeland. Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail (2017/2020) provides a profound analysis of the repeated challenges that occur in the face of constant peril. The comparative analysis suggests connections between the catastrophes experienced by Palestinians and Native Americans. It reveals the shared experiences of displacement, dispossession, and cultural resilience through juxtaposition, emphasizing the universality of human suffering.

Highlights:

1- The paper’s comparative examination implies links among the calamities faced by Palestinians and Native Americans.

2- The paper highlights the common experiences of displacement, dispossession, and cultural resilience through contrast, underscoring the universal nature of human suffering.

3- The paper provides literary works inundated with the thematic parallels highlighting the challenges faced by Native American and Palestinian communities under colonial subjugation.

4- The paper highlights how the two novels frame their suffering as an ongoing structure of violence, erasure, and surveillance rather than a closed historical event.

5- The paper’s analysis highlights how Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail as a novel utilizes a "language of corporeality" and focuses on overlooked sensory details to challenge official military archives and document the visceral, lived experience of the Palestinian Nakba

The Saturation of the Hyperspace in the City of Dubai in J. O’Neill’s The Dog

2024-10-31T09:39:35+03:00

This article examines the dynamic saturation of the hyperspace in the development of cities worldwide. Hyperspace is defined as a seemingly utopian project that fuses spatial, material, and temporal complexities in cities. By analyzing The Dog (2013), the study explores how the saturation of city hyperspaces operates as a global capitalist project. O’Neill’s portrayal of Dubai reveals the city’s political, economic, spatial, and architectural transformations designed to integrate it into the global capitalist system. The novel illustrates how Dubai’s hyperspace is severed from its state sovereignty, a process reflected through the musings of O’Neill’s protagonist, X. Grounded in postmodernist theory and supported by textual analysis of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2003), this article uncovers the subtle mechanisms underlying Dubai’s evolution into a hyperspace. It concludes by highlighting the adverse effects of hyperspace saturation on cities and their inhabitants.

Highlights:

1- The saturation of city hyperspace operates as a global capitalist project.

2- A textual analysis of O’Neill’s The Dog reveals the political, economic, spatial, and architectural mechanisms through which cities transform into hyperspaces.
3- As portrayed in The Dog, Dubai’s transformation into a hyperspace is driven by global capitalism’s manipulation of the city’s political, economic, spatial, and architectural structures.
4- The transformation of Dubai into a hyperspace severs the city from its national sovereignty.
5- Hyperspace saturation produces homogeneous negative effects on both the urban environment and its inhabitants.

The Plastic Theater: Music and Lighting in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

2024-11-24T13:08:36+03:00

Literary critics have generally agreed that Tennessee Williams was the pioneer of a movement in drama that sought to bring innovative aspects to the stage at a time when theater had become rather predictable. Following Williams’ lead, Arthur Miller subsequently contributed to this revolution that occurred in the American theater during the mid-twentieth century. In The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Death of a Salesman (1949), respectively, the two playwrights introduced what can be termed ‘plastic elements’ as an intrinsic and interesting way of shaping the characters, emphasizing the themes, and enhancing the plot. These ‘plastic elements’ include, but are not limited to, music, light, noise, colors, and other props. Critics have, over the many years, frequently referred to their importance to the overall complexity of the two plays; however, no thorough study has emerged to show how these ‘plastic elements’, subtly incorporated into the two plays, serve to achieve dramatic objectives. This article offers a detailed study of the employment of music and lighting, demonstrating their significant contribution to characterization, themes, and action. Furthermore, it illustrates how the two playwrights each found his own technique to utilize music and lighting as he crafted his story and spectacle.

Highlights:

1- The predictability of the conventional theater has become a problematic issue for 20th century Western audiences

2- By giving theater props a significant role in shaping the meaning of a play,

the plastic theater came as an answer to this problem.

3- Things used in the past as decorations have become essential parts of the play elements.

4- The twentieth century technology allowed music and lighting to play a much greater role than other props in contributing to the overall meaning of the play.

5- The great success of the two plays supports Williams’ viewpoint concerning the solution to the problematic predictability of conventional drama.

Borderless Territories: The Worlding of Religious Totalitarianism in Boualem Sansal’s Dystopian Writing

2024-12-15T14:53:01+03:00

The article examines Boualem Sansal’s novel 2084: La fin du monde (2084: The End of the World) in relation to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the dystopian genre, and Sansal’s broader body of work. It argues that Sansal’s novel, as a synthetic allegory, expands Orwell’s concept of totalitarianism by exploring its potential fusion with monotheistic religions, creating a post-secular form of religious totalitarianism. Due to its involvement in religious thinking, Sansal’s novel will be read according to the traditional line of reinterpreting apocalyptic texts, producing an ever-shifting range of readings dictated by the events and anxieties of the readers’ time. The central topic analysed is the tendency of totalitarian regimes to equate their state with the entirety of the inhabitable world, erasing the possibility of alternative spaces. This is why the concept of border, excluded in the official propaganda, is crucial in the personal quest of the novel’s protagonist. In Sansal’s view, borders are a positive element: a warrant of pluralism and a promise of alternative ways of life.

Highlights

The study presents Boualem Sansal's novel in the framework of an apocalyptic modality of reading.
The paper fills the gap in the existing scholarship by analysing the overlooked connection between the fictional text and Islamic eschatology.
The analysis suggests that Sansal's novel overcomes the dominant modalities of postmodern fiction, requesting a return to an early-modern interpretative formula.
The paper comments on the phenomenon of critical reception of Sansal's novel in post-totalitarian countries.
The study reveals the connection between the text and the anxieties related to the collapse of secular modernity.

L'écho des mots : la répétition dans la poésie de Jacques Préver

2024-10-27T13:05:10+03:00

Dans cette étude, nous explorons en détail l'usage de la répétition dans la poésie de Jacques Prévert, mettant en évidence son rôle crucial dans la création d'une qualité musicale et profonde singulière dans ses textes. La recherche met en évidence l'utilisation de la répétition par Prévert non seulement pour produire des effets rythmiques et acoustique, mais aussi pour mettre l’accent sur des thèmes communs tels que l'amour, la liberté et la critique sociale. La répétition stratégique, par le biais des mots, des structures de phrases ou des motifs récurrents, rend la poésie de Prévert à la fois accessible et intellectuellement provocatrice. En mettant en évidence l'importance de cette technique littéraire, cette l'étude permet d'approfondir la compréhension des éléments stylistiques complexes qui y sont présents.

Modes of Acculturation in Arab American Drama: A Study of Four Plays by Yussef El Guindi

2024-11-24T14:51:13+03:00

Arab American literature and drama have been considered from different critical perspectives. The main issues discussed in various studies are the negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in popular American culture, racial profiling and surveillance, identity formation and the struggle of Arab Americans to forge their hyphenated identity and be recognized as American citizens on a par with other minorities such as Latinos, African Americans and other ethnic groups. However, though the topic of acculturation of Arabs in the United States is adequately documented and analyzed in several studies, there is a paucity of scholarly research that examined acculturation in Arab American literature in general and Arab American drama. For example, Gaby Semaan looked at the modes of acculturation of Arabs in the United States (2015, 174-191). Building on John W. Berry’s acculturation model, Semaan finds that Berry’s four strategies of acculturation, namely assimilation, integration, marginalization, and separation are adequately applicable to Arab American individuals and groups. Based on Semaan’s study, and with reference to Berry’s model of acculturation and other related literature, this paper will analyze the modes of acculturation in Yussef El Guindi’s drama. This Egyptian American playwright has devoted almost all his plays to deal with aspects of Arab immigrants such as identity formation and countering negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in American media and popular culture. However, the treatment of acculturation in El Guindi’s drama is yet to be considered. For the purpose of this study, this paper will examine modes of acculturation in four plays, namely, Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith, Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World and Threesome.

Highlights:

Dealing with Aab American playwright, Yussef El Guindi, and treatment of acculturation in his plays.
Examining Arab American Drama in context with American culture.
Examining factors affecting acculturation of Arab immigrants in American society.
Applying John Berry's models of acculturation , namely assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization.
Explaining how Arab Immigrants cope with stereotyping and profiling.