This article presents an allegorical interpretation of Damon Galgut’s first novel, A Sinless Season (1982). It argues that the novel can be viewed as a political allegory, depicting a repressive and patriarchal society in South Africa. The allegorical aspect of Galgut’s novel is examined in the context of Derek Attridge’s literary criticism, particularly his view that allegory, when used with care and subtlety, can enhance our understanding of the literary text. Following Attridge’s approach, this article offers a socio-political reading of Galgut’s novel and, at the same time, accounts for the complexity of the human relationships it portrays. The central focus is on the intimate and emotionally charged relationships between the protagonists, demonstrating how victimised characters transform their suffering into violence against others. The dynamic, unpredictable and frequently violent emotions of Galgut’s protagonists are explored from the perspective of Sara Ahmed’s approach to affect studies. While the article centres on A Sinless Season, it also includes a discussion of Galgut’s story “Rick,” published in Small Circle of Beings (1988).

This article examines linguistic disabilities in Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby (1838‒1839), focusing on the character Smike and his unrelenting struggle to overcome emotional and social crises through communication. In Dickens’s text, Smike is an 18-year-old boy portrayed as weak, ill and slow-witted, suffering from speech dysfluency or stuttering, though not pervasive. While stuttering is associated with Smike’s existential struggles and breathless grappling with life, this article suggests that his speech dysfluency evolves into a mode of resistance against the oppressive material culture of mid-Victorian society. Smike’s stuttering transforms into a rich linguistic mechanism that exposes the double standards of the Victorian public and the persistent gap between reality and fiction. When performing the Apothecary in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Smike speaks fluently, thus embodying the liberating power and the subjective experience of the theatrical space. Shakespeare’s play provides Smike with a powerful return to eloquent self-expression, a space where his language flows effortlessly. This article, accordingly, explores the impact of Shakespeare’s theatre on Smike’s linguistic performance and development, showing the grotesque nature of a mid-Victorian culture that continually linked human subjects to their physical utility.

The structures of capitalist production, grounded in the narrative of the Anthropocene, aim to sever the intricate relationships among various species, including the connections between humans and nonhumans. In this context, a profound re-evaluation of humans’ relationship with nonhuman entities is necessary. Literary narratives based on human‒ nonhuman interconnectedness can facilitate a renewed understanding of nonhuman agencies and entanglements with them, offering avenues for changing the manner in which humans coexist with other organisms. This article illustrates this by analysing Ben Okri’s Every Leaf a Hallelujah within the broader context of multispecies care, justice and conversation, studying the narrative of Mangoshi, a seven-year-old girl, her pursuit of a magical flower, her interactions with forest trees, and her activism in protecting trees from external threats. The article contends that multispecies approaches to care, justice and activism might facilitate radical initiatives for world-making and transformative possibilities as we support others and co-create interconnected relationships with them.

This study examined the role of communicative activities in motivating English- second-language tertiary students to learn English at three selected universities in Lesotho. Current research indicates that exposure to the target language through communicative activities has increased students’ motivation to learn English. The study therefore sought to investigate the role that activities play in motivating students to learn English. A qualitative approach, with a case study design, was adopted. Within this design, data were collected using focus group discussions with students (n=100) from three selected institutions and lecturers (n = 11) from these three institutions. The findings from the focus group discussions with students revealed students’ positive views on how activities allow interactions among themselves and language use in real-life situations. The findings from face-to-face interviews with lecturers indicate that students with long-term exposure to the target language have become motivated to learn the language through activities, while those from rural areas and public schools tend to be anxious about having to speak in class. These findings suggest that students from all backgrounds should be taught the target language through communicative activities so as to build confidence, develop communication skills and encourage collaboration and teamwork. The article concludes with suggestions for future research, highlighting the potential of communicative activities for improving students’ motivation to learn English up to a tertiary level, regardless of rural or any other background.

A South African case study performed at a primary school explored the effectiveness of Forum Theatre as a pedagogical approach to teaching Grade 6 learners life skills. Forum Theatre and the Boalian devising process effectively sensitised the learners to their nonverbal communication ability and created a conflict scene from learner-chosen content. The lesson plans met the instructional requirements of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement for Life Orientation in Grade 6. The results indicate that children aged 11 to 12 years could comprehend and suggest solutions to behaviour-based social conflict and power-based scenarios. The learners enjoyed learning experientially and were engaged and active during their Creative Arts lessons. Each class performed their conflict scene to another class and, in turn, watched and suggested solutions to the performance of another class. A few learners tried spect-acting but needed support and guidance from their teacher to diffuse situations independently during the Forum Theatre exploration of a conflict scene. The teacher of such a programme for life skills acquisition requires support with experiential performative teaching strategies in the devising stage when collectively creating a problem scene. Further, teachers need training and practical exposure to performing the Joker role during Forum Theatre.

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen female writers revisit ancient stories and characters with increasing frequency. Linda Hutcheon (2013) has argued for the value of adaptation, and these writers certainly engage with classical texts in ways that revise and expand upon the gendered mythological landscape that seems indelibly woven into the fabric of the narratives which have shaped and shadowed Western culture. Ostriker has suggested that “the need for myth of some sort may be ineradicable” (1982, 71), that myth has markedly shaped modern Western culture, and that perhaps transforming these organising and defining myths can transform culture, too. One such adaptation aimed at transforming an existing myth is Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad (2005), which initially seems to engage in classic feminist revisionist mythology by resituating the conventionally othered woman, Penelope, as the main character and narrator of her own story. Yet Penelope’s confessional narration is intermingled with genre-bending interjections by the 12 maids of her household, whose deaths Odysseus eventually orders and who are intent on telling a story of their own. This chorus line of murdered maids undermines Penelope’s polished autobiographical tale and reminds us that, for every story that is voiced, there are countless stories that remain untold, and thus that every narrative is haunted by the shadow narratives that it does not address. In this way, Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad engages in complex revisionist mythmaking, which not only gives a voice to previously neglected female characters, but also foregrounds the fraught negotiations inherent in the reshaping of this mythological landscape.