Exploring Code-Mixing and Hybridity in Literary Texts

In the digital realm of the 21st century, the production and distribution of literature has changed drastically; writing literary texts is no longer a privilege of professional authors and publishers but has transformed into a participatory practice, with non-professional writers sharing their own literary narratives via social media platforms. This digital practice has become particularly relevant among teenagers and young adults as they increasingly use the opportunity of producing and sharing their own literary texts as a means of negotiating their identities and the social environments around them. Literature, thus, enables teenagers to participate in society by voicing their own personal and social concerns. Given their value in the context of engaging in these meaning-making processes on the one hand, and the role and importance of English as one of the lingua francas in digital realms on the other, these digital literary practices also need to be reflected in contemporary English language education (ELE). However, this hardly seems to be the case so far. Although literary texts still play a very prominent role, particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in Germany, current approaches to learning with literature still appear to perceive learners as recipients of professional literary texts, while production-oriented perspectives on teenagers as authors of their everyday lives, which go beyond post-reading creative tasks, seem to hold a most marginal position. Thus, digital texts written by learners (i.e., literary learner texts) are hardly considered as source texts. This theoretical contribution argues that contemporary practices of learning with literature need to be complemented by also focusing on literary works created by learners on multiple levels of classroom action. Drawing on interdisciplinary concepts, it explores the relevance of this focus in detail and makes first suggestions for framing literature classrooms based on literary learner texts.

<i>Literary Bioethics: Animality, Disability, and the Human</i> by Maren Tova Linett

Reading skills in literary and non-literary texts play a crucial role in shaping students’ comprehensive literacy competence. This study aims to explore assessment practices implemented by Indonesian language teachers at the senior high school level, focusing on various aspects including assessment goals, implementation timing, assessed components, instruments, indicators, techniques, and challenges in evaluating students’ reading abilities for both literary and non-literary texts. A qualitative descriptive-exploratory method was employed, with data collected through questionnaires involving 60 teacher respondents. The findings reveal that teachers possess an adequate understanding of the functions of literary and non-literary texts in instruction and apply diverse assessment approaches—ranging from objective test items to interpretive tasks and presentations. Literary texts are predominantly assessed reflectively and interpretively, while non-literary texts are evaluated using analytical and logical methods. Nevertheless, teachers still encounter several challenges, such as limited time, a lack of valid and reliable instruments, the absence of operational technical guidelines, and difficulties in assessing higher-order thinking skills. These findings highlight the need for systematic support in reading assessment, such as ongoing professional training, genre-based instrument development, and teacher collaboration within learning communities. This study emphasizes the importance of a systematic and collaborative approach to improving reading assessment practices to align with curricular demands and the goals of literacy development

This special issue of the International Journal of Literary Linguistics offers seven state-of-the-art contributions on the current linguistic study of literary translation. Although the articles are based on similar data – literary source texts and their translations – they focus on diverse aspects of literary translation, study a range of linguistic phenomena and utilize different methodologies. In other words, it is an important goal of this special issue to illuminate the current diversity of possible approaches in the linguistic study of translated literary texts within the discipline of translation studies. At the same time, new theoretical and empirical insights are opened to the study of the linguistic phenomena chosen by the authors of the articles and their representation or use in literary texts and translations. The analyzed features range from neologisms to the category of passive and from spoken language features to the representation of speech and multilingualism in writing. Therefore, the articles in this issue are not only relevant for the study of literary translation or translation theory in general, but also for the disciplines of linguistics and literary studies – or most importantly, for the cross-disciplinary co-operation between these three fields of study.The common theme that all these articles share is how the translation process shapes, transfers and changes the linguistic properties of literary texts as compared to their sources texts, other translations or non-translated literary texts in the same language and how this question can be approached in research. All articles provide new information about the forces that direct and affect translators’ textual choices and the previously formulated hypotheses about the functioning of such forces. The articles illustrate how translators may perform differently from authors and how translators’ and authors’ norms may diverge at different times and in different cultures. The question of how translation affects the linguistic properties of literary translations is approached from the viewpoint of previously proposed claims or hypotheses about translation. In the following, we will introduce these viewpoints for readers who are not familiar with the recent developments in translation studies. At the same time, we will shortly present the articles in this issue.

Biotechnology and creative writing are both ”life science”: one handles life forms, and the other expresses life manners. Biological ideas and terms have entered literature: ”organic form,” for instance, is an ideal for creative writing. Everything is a text. A literary text is made up of sounds, shapes, and senses: it is a verbal structure resulting from the selection and combination of its elements. Biotechnology uses the same basic modes of selection and combination. In gene cloning, it selects genes and combines genes by inserting certain genes into a genetic sequence. Both biotechnology and creative writing need judgment to cut apart and imagination to put together, just as recombinant DNA technology needs one category of enzymes to act as scissors and another category to act as glue. In cutting and gluing, both creative writers and biotechnologists must consider the problem of ”homogeneity or heterogeneity.” Both a literary text and a genetic text involve a coding process. A literary text is a linear sequence of words, which are signs with sounds and shapes functioning as signifiers and with senses as the signified. A genetic text is also a linear sequence with genetic substance signifying genetic content. The flow of genetic information involves the transcription of RNA for DNA and the translation of RNA into protein, just like the transcription of sounds for senses and the translation of sounds into shapes. So, a biotechnologist ”writes” or ”rewrites” a sequence of amino acids while a creative writer writes or rewrites a sequence of words. This writing or rewriting process involves, in fact, very complicated systems of systems. A literary text has its sound system based on phonemes, shape system based on graphemes, and sense system based on sememes, stylemes, ideologemes, etc. A genetic text has its various genomes with various combinations of amino acids, which contain codons, which contain nucleotides. The act of creating literary or genetic texts has never ceased and will never end. Man is a ”Second Deity,” a ceaseless creator like God. But creation always has its danger. Writers may produce literary works detrimental to society; biotechnologists may create genetic products harmful to the world. So, both biotechnology and creative writing should have the common end of ensuring a good end for all life in the cosmos.

<i>Scott T. Smith</i> Land and Book: Literature and Land Tenure in Anglo-Saxon England<i>Land and Book: Literature and Land Tenure in Anglo-Saxon England</i>. Scott T. Smith. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Pp. xii+288.

Reviewed by: Letras hispánicas en la gran pantalla: De la literatura al cine by Andrés Lema-Hincapié and Conxita Domènech Jennifer Brady Andrés Lema-Hincapié and Conxita Domènech. Letras hispánicas en la gran pantalla: De la literatura al cine. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017. 189p. Letras hispánicas en la gran pantalla: De la literatura al cine is a one-of-a-kind textbook, written in Spanish, and aimed at a wide-ranging audience of advanced US undergraduate students, US high school students who are taking an IB or AP Spanish course, and university students in Latin America and Spain who study Hispanic literature and film. The goal is to make literature more accessible by dovetailing literary and filmic analysis. Instructors of Hispanic Studies know that literary texts offer a gateway to cultural, historic, and linguistic knowledge, which, consequently, often leads to understanding one’s self and world better. However, in our digital era, literary texts may sometimes present barriers to the acquisition of language and intercultural competency. Authors Andrés Lema-Hincapié and Conxita Domènech recognize this concern when they write about the importance of contextualizing works of literature with their filmic counterparts: “Cada vez es menos sencillo animar a la lectura en las universidades. Y mucho más todavía cuando lo que el estudiante leerá está escrito en una lengua extranjera, que convoca contextos sin ninguna conexión vital y directa con ese estudiante” (xi). Their solution is to guide students to be able to create meaning in the exploration of the written (the text) and the visual and the auditory (the film). Content is organized chronologically by literary text. Each section introduces the text and the film through creative and intentional ways that engage students in active tasks. For instance, Chapter 5, which includes the literary and filmic versions of Tristana (written by Benito Pérez Galdós [1892] and directed by Luis Buñuel [1970]), summarizes the historical context during which the novel was published (the Spanish Revolution of 1868), presents biographical information about the author, includes a brief explanation of Spanish Realism, and mentions the author’s relationship with Emilia Pardo Bazán. Also included are hands-on tasks, such as a prompt to investigate Krausism online, prereading questions, and textual comprehension questions. In the film section of Chapter 5, readers learn about surrealism in Spanish film and Buñuel’s life. They are also guided to consider the theme of fetishism and to answer comprehension questions about the film. The final part of each chapter encourages students to make connections between the [End Page 232] literary text and the film and offers a useful bibliography for written research assignments. Taking Chapter 5 as just one example of other exemplary chapters in this book, it is easy to see that the authors include a variety of themes while communicating the most important details of the literary and filmic texts. The balancing act could be tricky. Metaphorically, the editors successfully spin several plates at one time. The risk is huge—the plates could fall and break at any time—but the outcome is a book that ties together a variety of themes, activities, and mini-assessments, all while being focused on keeping the student engaged in active-learning tasks. The editors should be lauded for presenting a web of information that, often difficult for students to work through, is delivered in a clear and exciting way. The content of the textbook is dense, yet accessible. Its wide-ranging themes create an unrestricted textual space where the possibilities for instruction and learning invite all types of learners and teachers to participate. The approach of each section is also accessible, offering the opportunity to dive directly into the content. Each section includes preparatory readings, lists of key terms, and informal and formal assessments with discussion questions and essay prompts. All of the activities could be used in class or assigned as homework. Notably—and with the tendency in mind to include more online coursework at US universities—this textbook seems like it could be successfully used in an online or hybrid course as well as in the traditional in-person class format...

Narrowly specialized information is addressed to a limited circle of professionals though it provokes interest among people without specialized education. This gives rise to a need for the popularization of scientific information. This process is carried out through simplified texts as a kind of secondary texts that are directly aimed at the addressee. Age, language proficiency and background knowledge are the main features which are usually taken into consideration by the author of the secondary text who makes changes in the text composition, as well as in its pragmatics, semantics and syntax. This article analyses traditional approaches to text simplification, computer simplification and summarization. The authors compare human-authored simplification of literary texts with the newest trends in computer simplification to promote further development of machine simplification tools. It has been found that the samples of simplified scientific texts seem to be more natural than the samples of simplified literary texts since technical background knowledge can be processed with machine tools. The authors have come to the conclusion that literary and technical texts should imply different approaches for adaptation and simplification. In addition, personal readers’ experience plays a great part in finding the implications in literary texts. In this respect it might be reasonable to create separate engines for simplifying and adapting texts from diverse spheres of knowledge. Keywords Text Simplification; Natural Language Processing (NLP); Pragmatic Adaptation; Professional Communication; Literary Texts

The present study aimed to explore whether there is any difference between the performance of EFL learners who read literary texts and those who read non-literary texts on inference demanding tests. Through convenience method of sampling, 30 Iranian senior university students of English translation B.A., studying at Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Iran, who were of both male and female genders, ranging from 19 to 30 years of age took part in the current investigation. Once their language proficiency was measured by means of Oxford Placement Test, participants took part in an inference demanding test constructed by the researcher consisting of two cloze tests - one non-literary text and one literary text. The results from the t-test indicated that literary text had a more positive impact on the EFL learners’ inferring ability than non-literary text. This study is particularly important given the fact that most reading materials are far from being shallow and require deeper interpretation. The major implication of the study was that incorporation of literature in general and literary texts in particular, in EFL curriculum, would serve many benefits specifically in the realm of comprehension and inference.

This study aims at investigating the most frequently occurred surface translation errors made by Bahdini EFL university students in literary and scientific texts. This is conducted via applying the error analysis technique, which is considered a vital part of EFL research. By using a quantitative and qualitative method, the researchers limited their literature review and data analysis to only the translation errors that are related to the surface structure of sentences by Dulay et al. (1982), excluding other types of translation errors (i.e., linguistic, comparative, and communicative). The data have been extracted from literary and scientific texts that have been translated by 50 EFL juniors and seniors from the English Department, University of Zakho. The researchers implemented a process of coding for finding out translation errors, and tabulated their frequencies and percentages on Excel bar charts. The results show that out of the total of 307 surface translation errors, misformation in scientific texts recorded the highest percentage. In contrast, misordering had the lowest percentage in literary texts. Further, addition and omission manifested variability in percentages. This study will be valuable for teachers to design better syllabi for teaching translation, and for learners to develop their linguistic skills when learning a second language.

When the reader wants to classify what reads, several questions arise in the mind in terms of looking at the autobiography as a history or a literary text. And Whether it is a history or a literary text, or both, does it has to be committed to honesty, and its constraints in terms of ethics and religion? These questions create a hypothesis: is the biography has to include all the qualifications that eligible it to be a literary and historical text, and the reader might search in it for what could be searched in literary texts such as language use, imagination, and other rhetorical procedures. However; at the same time, the autobiography might contain ideologies and ideas that are completely different from what literary readers are looking for. Moreover, there is another valuable question created by the research hypothesis which is; how can the author declare everything he lived? especially the author is not ideal, and everything he lived was not as well. And, like all people, his life will not be at the same pace, in which there are contradictions like happiness and suffering, good and evil. The research problem and hypothesis will be investigated by answering the above questions. And the descriptive analytical approach will be used because it is more appropriate for this research

Making Authentic Literary Texts Relevant, Meaningful, and Fun in Advanced Beginner and Intermediate Spanish-language Classrooms Laura Graebner Shepin Introduction The incorporation of literary texts in advanced beginner and intermediate level language classrooms (high school Spanish, years 2–4; university Spanish, semesters 2–4) can seem intimidating. Teachers worry about students' ability to understand texts linguistically and to interpret them culturally. Additionally, the thoughtful exploration of literary texts takes time away from other content, specifically grammar and vocabulary, which often seem more straightforward to teach due to the plethora of instructional and assessment tools already available. Lastly, the accessibility of the literary texts found in some text books, and the lack of complete instructional materials for instructors to teach these texts, might discourage instructors from including literary texts in course curriculum. Despite these challenges, it is important to include literary texts at the advanced beginner and intermediate levels for three reasons. First, literary texts present grammar points and vocabulary in context, which actively supports language acquisition, for example, by highlighting the uses of the preterite and the imperfect. Second, literature is the verbal representation of the target culture; literary texts communicate emotions, perceptions, and human experiences in a way a verb chart cannot. A compelling case for the role of literature in the development of world citizens is made by the philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, who argues that literature simulates a reader's "narrative imagination," which in turn allows the reader to feel empathy for others. Third, successful engagement with literary texts in the advanced beginner and intermediate stages of language study sets students up for continued success in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and upper-division university language coursework. ACTFL's "Guiding Principles for Language Learning" explicitly promote the benefits of literature in the foreign language curriculum. Gillian Lazar argues that authentic literature exposes students to "complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of language" and is "more absorbing than the pseudo-narratives frequently found in course books" (15). Similarly, Jonathan P. A. Sell encourages L2 teachers to reject fiction authored specifically for the language learner in favor of authentic literary texts, citing its representation of language and culture to be more genuine, and ultimately, more beneficial and interesting to the learner. A well-chosen literary text "can be an effective tool for stimulating and achieving language learning and equipping learners with relevant linguistic and socio-cultural competence" (91–92). In addition to the linguistic authenticity of literature, its emotional authenticity is motivating to the reader and demands a "personal response" (Kousompou 75). In considering specifically how to approach teaching literary texts, Sanju Choudhary describes two approaches for L2 literary analysis. The first of these, reader-response, "demystifies" literature by encouraging readers to make personal connections. The second is a language-based [End Page 313] approach, which focuses language instruction and production related to the literature. Both strategies, he concludes, have value. Lazar's Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers provides many resources to guide teachers through the selection of texts and activities to support language acquisition, comprehension, and oral fluency in L2 learners, including those at the lower levels. Janet Swaffar and Katherine Arens's chapters 3 and 4 are also particularly useful resources for the selection and instruction of literature at the lower levels. Selecting and teaching a literary text successfully requires, like all good teaching, thoughtful and intentional lesson design. Teachers need to ask the following questions to understand the challenges the text presents to students and to identify the goals the teacher has for student learning: 1. Is the text thematically appropriate? The text must be relevant and accessible to the audience; relatable themes will lead to student success, whereas abstract, philosophical, or overly mature themes will tend to frustrate them. Sometimes the most canonical literary works are not the best fit for advanced beginner and intermediate students. 2. What vocabulary and grammar will students need to know to understand the text? What words and language structures do students already confidently know? What vocabulary and grammar can they be expected to decode on their own using reading strategies such as context clues and cognates? What vocabulary and grammar will need to be glossed...

The article deals with the problem of using a literary text in teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language, in particular, the need to take into account psychological factors when working with a literary text in a language class.The universal nature of fiction literature motivates and justifies the usage of such educational material. Fiction deals with universal and eternal problems: love, separation, hope, faith, struggle, death, betrayal, etc. Therefore, the literary text can excite people of different nationalities. The paper analyzes the psychological and psycholinguistic approaches to reading fiction and using it in teaching. A complete perception of a literary text is possible provided that the semantic fields of the text and semantic fields (primarily emotional) of the reader intersect. Stimulation of the emotional sphere contributes to the effective development of speech skills and facilitates the memorization of lexical units and grammatical and stylistic norms. Therefore, taking into account the interests of foreign students is a main factor for selecting literary texts and organizing effective work with them in the process of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. The author defines the specifics of communication “an author – a literary text in a foreign language – a reader”. It is carried out with the help of an intermediary. Such an intermediary is a teacher or an author of a book on literary reading. They select a literary text appealing to the audience, adapt it if necessary, offer comments and a task system, and draw the readers’ attention to important points that can inspire interest and cause discussion, help to establish a parallel between the literary text and the students’ life experience. Thus, the teacher acts as the moderator of the reading process helping to bring the artistic space of the literary text close to the foreign reader’s personality. The author gives examples from her own experience in teaching the Ukrainian language to foreigners using literary texts. Motivated reading and effective discussion of the texts are possible if the students are personally interested in the problems, the events, the heroes’ fate, and the author’s position.

Beyond the Current Impasse in Literary Studies

Prices, when compared to labour and food costs, are an essential element for evaluating textile items, not only from an economic, but also from a cultural, social, and ideological point of view. Diocletian’s Edictum de pretiis gives innumerable informations on the prices of textile materials and products, mainly flax made. The quantity of informations in the Edictum allows to compare the prices of the various products, between themselves and also with food and labour prices. However, in some cases at least, the relations between the figures seem to be distorted by the own interests of the state administration, and also by an insuficient attention to – or understanding of – the actual mechanics of economy. The fourth century, with its great devaluations, offers several price levels: on one hand, the Diocletianic prices stay unchanged during decades in the requisitioning of vestis militaris; on the other hand, market prices jump vertiginously. Such conditions make it very difficult to compare the prices of textile items with those of other commodities. For the period from fifth to height centuries it is possible to apply a unitarian treatment to informations gathered from various areas and periods. The evidence given by some literary texts – e.g. the story of John the Almonsgiver’s gonachion told by Leontios of Neapolis; that of Florentios’ casula told by Augustine; that of Pinianus’ garments narrated by Gerontios – can be compared with the data from other literary, juridical and papyrological texts related to subsistence prices and salaries. Beside the economic stability and homogeneity of data from various areas, we can thus ascertain on one hand the high value that is ascribed to textiles, such as to grade them, along with monetary assets, buildings and valuables, as means of accumulation of wealth; on the other hand, the gap between items of current consomption and luxury goods. Those various categories of products are addressed to completely different spheres, and they reflect the social imbalances of Late Antiquity.