Articles
Individual articles are published as they are approved and then compiled into a single edition at a later date. This means our contributors get their work published as soon as possible and you get to read interesting content without waiting for a complete edition.
Issue 6
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Articles
Relationships, Ideology, and Transitivity: Reading Paul Morel’s Mental Landscape
- Amélie Doche, Birmingham City University
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The merits of queer-inclusive education in EFL classrooms
- Lucía Muñoz Martín, University of Burgos
The misrepresentation of women in the EFL classroom perpetuates gender stereotypes which, in turn, result in gender-based violence. This is a worldwide problem which excludes a portion of students from being motivated when learning English. On the other hand, the mis- and under-representation of members of the LGBTQ+ community in this setting makes some individuals be fearful or aggressive towards them due to a lack of understanding. In this article a solution for this representation problem is provided, consisting in the use of an inclusive co-education pedagogy, that is, teaching English while transversally teaching about different real-world issues such as sexism, racism and homo/transphobia.
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Chandigarh’s Institutional and Emerging Counter Narratives
- Will McCrory, Unisadhuguna, Jakarta
This research explores the architectural history of Chandigarh, India, through the critical perspective of ‘collaborative modernism’. Conceptually, this research deviates from Madhu Sarin’s critique of Chandigarh as being European modernist architecture transposed onto the plains of Punjab, by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (378). However, this article seeks to explore the following questions: Do the institutions in India specifically devoted to the architectural history of Chandigarh incorporate the Indian architects that contributed to the city, or do they perpetuate their obscurity? If so, is it possible to perceive counter-narratives emerging that might displace Le Corbusier’s dominance? Accordingly, this work focuses on Chandigarh’s developing self-representation by considering narratives about the city found in India. It considers whether national institutions promote the narrative of a lone visionary or ‘genius’, in the form of le Corbusier, parachuting onto the Punjabi Plains to create an urban blueprint for the new capital with little or no help, and concomitantly whether these institutions downplay the considerable local and international support that the architect received.
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The Quest for Sociolinguistic Invisibility in Contemporary Japan: The Shift of Linguistic and Cultural Repertoires in the Context of Social and Geographical Mobility
- Gianmarco Fiorentini, Ca’Foscari University of Venice
Social and geographical mobility in Japan is tied to specific linguistic and cultural repertoires. Physical travels imply vertical movements across power-invested societal layers, each one valuing linguistic and cultural repertoires differently. Thus, exhibiting mastery of appropriate repertoires that match one’s own aspirations is necessary when mobility is involved. This interrelationship is made manifest in numerous aspects of contemporary Japanese society such as during the transition between levels of education, migration and the crescent ethnic diversity that characterises major cities. This paper analyses the correlation between the shift to repertoires as they are envisioned by real or perceived centers of authority and mobility. It hypothesises that to become the social actors that they aspire to be, people who are inserted into patterns of mobility become protagonists of processes of erasure of certain linguistic and cultural traits. It is argued that the resulting invisibility is both a cause and effect of mobility not only across the borders of traditional nation-states, but between real or imagined peripheries and centers. The discussion shows how adhering to certain criteria of appropriateness and be able to reproduce them, unlocks pathways of social and geographical mobility. At the same time, processes of erasure occur that lead to sociolinguistic invisibility. On this basis, the social processes of erasure that make of invisibility a sought-after characteristic should be investigated.
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Multilingual practices of East and South Slavonic German rappers and the political aspects of their lyrics
- Aleksej Tikhonov, Humboldt University Berlin/University of Freiburg
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‘Cautious excitement’: The Evaluative Prosody of Cancer Immunotherapy in Online Newspapers and Web Pages of Health Organisations
Taking into consideration the body of literature that acknowledges the influence of online information seeking on patients’ treatment decisions, this paper examines how the evaluation of immunotherapy is linguistically represented in two online sources intended for non-specialist readers. Two specialised corpora, one for online newspaper articles (120,215 words) and the other for web pages of health organisations (101,558 words), comprise texts written in English and published in different countries. This study aims to characterise the evaluative prosody around the term ‘immunotherapy/ies’ by examining the evaluative themes represented by its collocates and the evaluative parameters constructed by its cotexts.
- Hoa Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
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Book reviews
Cow-boy
- Dalila Villella, Birkbeck, University of London
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Multilingual Literature as World Literature
- Bettina Juszak, York University
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Narrative persuasion. A cognitive perspective on language evolution (L’istinto persuasivo. Come e perchè gli umani hanno iniziato a raccontare storie)
- Stefana Garello, University of Palermo
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Telecinematic Stylistics
- Paula Ghintuială, Aston University
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Style in Narrative: Aspects of an Affective-Cognitive Stylistics
- Steve Justice, TaeJae University, South Korea
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Translations and translation commentaries
Circulating Women’s Stories
- Silvia Ghirardelli, University of Sheffield
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The Role of Stylistics in Writing and Translating Poetry
- Kimberley Pager-McClymont, University of Aberdeen’s International Study Centre; Marcello Giovanelli, Aston University
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Issue 5 (Winter 2022)
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Articles
The Change in Prevalence of the London 2012 Olympic Legacy Discourse
- Stuart Haw, Nortumbria University
Stuart Haw investigates the prominence of the term “legacy” with reference to the 2012 London Olympics by reporting quantitative data from a media search of British newspapers dating between the 27th of July 2005 and the 12th of August 2017. By employing a grounded approach, Haw analyses how media discourse contributes to how Olympic legacies are received and understood.
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Language Standards in an Unstandardised Language: The Orthographies and Ideologies of Scots Users on Twitter
- Hamish Pottinger, Lancaster University
Viewing literacy as a social practice, Hamish Pottinger's study shows how a selection of Twitter users that write in Scots – a language with no written standard – make orthographic choices and their reasons for doing so. Pottinger synthesises online linguistic data and ‘offline’ attitudinal data to argue that a concern for the status of Scots within the Scots-English power dynamic is reflected in a tendency to seek out more prestigious or ‘ideal’ (Aitken) orthographic features. This tendency contrasts with more stigmatised urban varieties of Scots, associated with humour and a lack of education, and often considered a ‘slang’.
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Deconstructing linguistic binaries in Assia Djebar’s L’Amour, la fantasia: From ‘mother tongue’ to linguistic repertoire
- William Smith, University of Sheffield
In his study of Assia Djebar's L’Amour, la fantasia (1985), William Smith showcases a different approach for deconstructing linguistic binaries in postcolonial texts written in the language of the former coloniser. Smith demonstrates how Djebar's autobiographical narrative tackles and traverses colonial binaries thereby encouraging the reader to question the linearity of identity.
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Appreciating Emptiness and Reality as One: The Understated Philosophy of the Japanese Zen Garden in Kazuo Ishiguro’s "An Artist of the Floating World"
- Miyo Oyama, University of Nottingham
In analysing Kazuo Ishiguro’s "An Artist of the Floating World" Miyo Oyama introduces the image and principle of Zen gardens as a way of reading through the understated ideas of the novel. Whilst Buddhist nihilism has often been used to characterise the novel and has been employed as a means of understanding the character of Ono, Oyama offers an alternative explanation by highlighting a different perspective on this character’s journey and its endpoint.
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Twisted Mis-tress: A Stylistic Analysis of Fetishism in Maupassant’s "La Chevelure"
- Kimberley Pager-McClymont, University of Huddersfield
Kimberley provides a stylistic analysis of "La Chevelure" by exploring how the madman’s growing fetishist tendencies are featured in ways that avoided censorship at the time and in present French Curriculum, but also guides readers’ interpretation of the story’s potential endings.
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Orpheus as Interpretative Tool: Insular Orpheus Narratives Looking Back on the Mythic Tradition
- Jacob W. Runner, Kanazawa University
Jacob analyses the figure of Orpheus in Middle English and Classical traditions. He examines the critical significance of Orpheus’s backward glance at Eurydice as well as the figure’s divergent treatments and evolving receptions to assess Orpheus’s contextual shaping and cultural malleability. Indeed, Runner demonstrates how the Orpheus figure can become an interpretative tool to highlight distinct aspects of the literary environments in which it appears.
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Disagreement strategies and (Im)politeness in Saudis’ Twitter Communication
- Sarah Almutairi, University of Leeds
Sarah Almutairi examines the types of disagreements found in the corpus of tweets and the linguistic strategies used by Saudis to express disagreement. She also looks at how these strategies can be classified in terms of their (im)politeness.
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Book Reviews
Reterritorializing Linguistic Landscapes: Questioning Boundaries and Opening Spaces
- Katy C Humberstone, University of Exeter
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Technologies of the Novel: Quantitative Data and the Evolution of Literary Systems
- Marina Theodora Galanou, University of Nottingham
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Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Text and Discourse: From Poetics to Politics
- Fransina Stradling, University of Huddersfield
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The Culture of Samizdat: Literature and Underground Networks in the Late Soviet Union
- Caroline Ridler, University of Nottingham
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Queer and Feminist Theories of Narrative
- Amy Bouwer, University of Nottingham
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BritHop - The Politics of UK Rap in the New Century
- Paris Fawcett, University of Nottingham
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Britain and Europe in a Troubled World
- Tamsin Parnell, University of Nottingham
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Translations and translation commentaries
The Future of Ma Lei
- Antonia Yanxi Wu, University of Essex
Antonia Yanxi Wu translates "The Future of Ma Lei," a touching story about a Chinese boy who moves to the capital of the Maldives, Malé, in an attempt to break away from his family and there encounters both natural disasters and family disruptions. The story features a juxtaposition of foreign and Chinese family traditions; separation and reunion; childhood memory layered upon events in the present as well as misunderstanding and reconciliation.
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Hear, here! Conversations, Equations, Translation: On Jonathan Davidson’s A Commonplace (2020)
- Amélie Doche, Birmingham City University
In this hybrid work - consisting of a book review, a translation, a translation commentary, a reflection about translation, and a few words from the poet Jonathan Davidson - Amélie provides a felt reading of her experience with Davidson’s A Commonplace. Doche’s work examines Davidson’s poetry as a lived artform all the while discussing the translation process itself, analysing how deeper engagement with the text provides the translator with an enriching experience that transcends the mechanics of interpretation.
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Romance and Reverie: An Anthology of German Poetry
- Tia Caswell, University of Nottingham
Tia Caswell translates work from German poets Joseph von Eichendorff, Edouard Mörike, Heinrich Heine, Rosa Maria Assing and Louise Brachmann into English. Caswell's anthology focuses on the theme of love and the poets' differing approaches to this universal topic, particularly, how a translator can retain the original essence and emotion of a poem when translating.
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Issue 4 (Autumn 2020)
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Articles
Foreword
- Sarah Burton, Louis Cotgrove, Francesca Leveridge, Emma Putland
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Gender and economic inequalities: British and Catalan/Spanish perspectives on Vale, a short film advertising Estrella Damm
- Joanna Gore - University of Nottingham
Jo Gore applies a feminist, intersectional lens to a cross-cultural discourse analysis of different interviewees' discussions of a short advertising film, Vale.
In doing so, Gore exposes the role of power inequalities in interviewees' interpretations, undermining the simplistic divisions that nationality can impose in intercultural communication, and highlighting the importance of taking an intersectional perspective that includes a consideration of other social factors, such as gender.
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In the Path of the Wreckers: Maeve Brennan and the Afterlife of Urban Renewal
- Edward O’Rourke - University of Edinburgh
Edward O’Rourke uses literary analysis to explore the intersections between a changing cityscape and the lives of its inhabitants.
Through the work of Maeve Brennan, a young Irish staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, O’Rourke interrogates the large-scale urban regeneration which shaped New York over much of the twentieth century. This article examines the impact of the reconfigured cityscape on the lives of women, particularly single women, and the expressions of dissent with which they responded to these changes.
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Para Todes: A Case Study on Portuguese and Gender-Neutrality
- Morrigan Auxland - University of Nottingham
Morrigan Auxland interrogates grammatical gender in Portuguese, a Romance language that traditionally has two grammatical linguistic genders: masculine and feminine.
In this article, Auxland seeks to profile and examine some proposed changes to the Portuguese language to introduce a third, grammatically-neutral gender, considering the ways in which these changes would function, and the resulting public and academic responses to each.
To do this, Auxland draws on contemporary examples, citing a Reddit user's comment and exploring the implications of an Avon campaign that explicitly uses a grammatically neutral linguistic gender.
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Envision of the Land-after-death and Expectations for “This Life”: Translation and Reconfiguration of “Kingdom of Heaven” in Taiping Rebellion Movement
- Ai Shu - Wuhan University, China; University of Leeds, UK
Taking a concept history approach, Ai Shu explores in this article how the “Kingdom of Heaven,” one of the core concepts in the Bible to advocate good conduct, was turned into a political slogan that promoted the bloodiest rebellion in Chinese history when it was translated and remoulded during the Taiping Rebellion Movement.
The article examines the history and philosophy of the Christian concept of the Kingdom of Heaven and that of Tian Guo before charting how the interrelation of the two notions informed an explosive historical moment.
Establishing a deeper understanding of concepts and how they “travel,” Ai Shu demonstrates how concept history can shed further light on important historical events.
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A Quest for a Multiplicity of Gender Identities: Gender Representation in American Children’s Books 2017-2019
- Christina Matsuo Post - University of Nottingham
Christina Matsuo Post asks: to what extent do contemporary American children’s books transgress gender stereotypes and support the continued progress towards a multiplicity of identities for both males and females?
Focusing on the 2017-2019 Caldecott Medal and Honor books (mostly aimed at preschool and early years), Matsuo Post uses content analysis to explore their thematic, linguistic and visual gender representations, and considers the broader implications that gender representations have for raising children.
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Designing and Managing Motivational Group Projects
- Christine Muir - University of Nottingham; Jessica Florent - University of Brisbane, Australia; David Leach - University of Brisbane, Australia
The authors classroom-based study investigates the feasibility of designing and implementing a group directed motivational current (DMC). They establish a group project designed to facilitate a period of intensely motivated behaviour, in this case, for students' second language acquisition. Authors present their encouraging findings via reflections from the students and teachers involved, and provide recommendations for future work on group DMCs.
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Translations and translation commentaries
The Illness
- Deborah K. Symons Roldán - State University of New York
Deborah K. Symons Roldán is a teacher of Spanish language, a writer and translator. This is her English translation of her Spanish short story "La enfermedad".
The story developed in the author's imagination during a particularly tedious meeting, giving birth to the character of Armando, who wonders whether he belongs at all or whether there is something "wrong" with him.
It is very rare to have an author translate their own work and this presents a unique opportunity for students of translation to see how an author would translate their own story into a different language.
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Book Reviews
Observing Eurolects: Corpus analysis of linguistic variation in EU law
- Edward Clay - University of Birmingham
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Jane Austen: A Style in History
- Ruby Hawley-Sibbett - University of Nottingham
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Issue 3 (Spring 2019)
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Foreword
- Foreword - Chloe Ashbridge, Louis Cotgrove, and Hannah Spruce
Articles
Reviews
- Book Reviews - Abigail Rhodes, Francesca White, and Melanie Fitton-Hayward
Translations
Issue 2 (Spring 2018)
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Foreword
- Foreword - Melanie Fitton-Hayward, Katie Harrison, and Katrina M. Wilkins
Articles
Reviews
Translations
Issue 1 (Spring 2017)
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Foreword
- Foreword - Melanie Fitton-Hayward, Katrina Wilkins, Nicola Thomas, Samuel Cooper, Abdulmalik Ofemile
Articles
Reviews
Translations
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