British Culture Research Articles

Medieval Pasts and Eugenicist Futures: Grant Allen, Masculinity and Early English History

ABSTRACT Grant Allen was a Victorian scholar and novelist who published widely on science, literature and history. Embedded within these publications is a fascination with early England, particularly early English masculinity. Allen saw in England's origins a blueprint for the kind of white, hegemonic masculinity he wished to see reproduced not only in contemporary English society and culture but also in the eugenic makeup of the English people as well. By reaching to early English history to legitimise his own visions of imperial white masculinity, Allen weaves a fantasy of medieval male virility into the fabric of his Victorian present. This essay discusses Allen's interest in the social apparatus of gender, contemporary eugenicist discourse and the interpretive potential of an imagined medieval past and argues that Allen uses early English history to justify ongoing colonial projects and to frame white men as the rightful heirs to global power.

The Myth of Heterosexuality: Queer Australian Artists, Art Historians and Gallerists in London, 1930–1961

ABSTRACT The 1961 Recent Australian Painting exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London is an important and much-discussed moment in Australian art history. It is when the idea of Australian art as “isolated” and “exotic” first became popularised in both British and Australian cultures. The prominent Australian art historian Bernard Smith criticised the idea, but in many ways his book Australian Painting, published the year after, repeated the assumption. What is overlooked in accounts of the show is that many of its artists were not “isolated”, frequently having spent extended periods in Britain living and studying. But, more than this, what is rarely, if ever, discussed is how many of the artists in the show were queer, as was its curator, the director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Bryan Robertson. In many ways, the social and professional connections between Australian and British artists were forged through their shared homosexuality. It is this that puts Australian artists in connection with the British art scene and, on occasion, explains their influence upon it. Queerness has often connected Australian artists to those around the world—it is also the case for the Australian women artists in Paris before and after World War I.

The liminality of the garden: A comparative study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion

This article explores the liminality of the garden through a comparative study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and a coeval Chinese play, The Peony Pavilion ( mŭ dān tíng, 牡丹亭, 1598) by Tang Xianzu (汤显祖). It studies the garden as a liminal space between art and nature as well as between dream and reality: an exploration of plant symbolism and allegory in English and Chinese cultures indicates how the garden has been eroticised and politicised in the human imagination. It adopts a cross-cultural perspective, aiming to shed light on the undiscovered aspects in previous parallel studies of each play.

What Makes an International Student in the U.S. Have Less Psychological Distress?

This study aims to identify which factors predict psychological distress among international college students attending American universities. International students experience unique stressors, as well as bring with them their own enculturation: culture of origin identity, language, and competence when acculturating. To get a comprehensive picture, we collected survey data on demographics, acculturation, stress, anxiety, depression, and symptomatology from N = 146 college students ( n = 51 international students; n = 95 U.S. citizens) from three universities in the southeastern United States. For international students, increased acculturation to the U.S. (English proficiency and culture competence) is related to decreased symptomatology and anxiety. Additionally, international students’ competencies in culture of origin are significantly associated with competencies in U.S. acculturation. Regression analyses indicated that among international students, higher U.S. acculturation and lower stress, significantly predicted less anxiety; lower stress significantly predicted less symptomatology. Implications for higher education and future research are discussed.

التناوب اللغوي والهوية المشتتة في ترجمة عابد إسماعيل لرواية فادية فقير اسمي سلمى

ode-switching is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that refers to the shift between various languages in speaking or writing and it is employed by speakers or authors for different linguistic, social and political reasons. This study examines the significance of code-switching in the formulation of diasporic identity in the Syrian poet and translator Abed Ismael's translation of the Jordanian-British author Fadia Faqir's My Name Is Salma (2007). The researchers propose that authors in diaspora use code-switching so as to return home linguistically/textually. However, we argue that the use of code-switching poses problems in the translation of the source text. -The methodology in this study follows a descriptive approach to analyze data concerning code-switching that Faqir employs in the original novel and their translations by Ismael. The researchers classify and list the codes used by both writers and study the connections between them. Faqir’s usage of code switching is based on her construction of Arab culture as a culture of shame, which is foreign to the English culture. Via the employment of code switching, Ismael also shows that everything is foreign for Salma in England. Exoticism and fragmentation lead to a state of indecisiveness and in-betweenness that demands sacrificing identity, language, and even home.

British small talk as an ecolinguistic phenomenon

The article analyzes modern small talk as a way of establishing contacts, which is typical for British linguistic culture, as it manifests the speaker’s wish to achieve emotional and intellectual understanding and create a friendly atmosphere at the initial phase of the conversation, especially when it is necessary to avoid long and inconvenient silence. Speech clichés, etiquette formulas for establishing and maintaining communicative contact, as well as specific topics for discussions are determined by the socio-ethical norms of the British cultural community. Interlocutors are guided by the goals of regulating social contacts, serving the purpose of strengthening contacts. The limits of phaticity in the contact-establishing phase of social conversation and the transition to informativeness in the process of conversation depend on a type of discourse, a type of situation, and communicative goals of the speakers. Under the conditions of the situation threatening the speakers’ lives, or a change from an ecological unison model of communication to a non-ecological dissonant one, the speakers’ rejection from phaticism in the phase of establishing contact in favor of informativeness has been observed. British communicative culture ensures the balance of the ecosystem due to the use of a significant number of linguistic elements ensuring the implementation of harmonious communication: polite forms of encouragement instead of the use of the Imperative Mood which sounds too categorical for British culture, disjunctive questions that combine both the features of interrogative and affirmative statements, superlative forms of adjectives. Small talk components, such as the ability to listen, minimal transmission of negative emotions, limited or zero use of negatively colored vocabulary, the creation of a safe and convenient atmosphere of communication, observance of the personal boundaries of the interlocutor, the interest in what the interlocutors say, as well as sincerity correspond to the main principles of ecological communication.

Socio-cultural and Didactic Aspects of M. M. Speransky’s Personal Correspondence with his Daughter and British Relatives of his Wife

This article explores the connections that M. M. Speransky had with the relatives of his prematurely deceased wife, Elizabeth Jane Stephens. Her mother came from the Swiss family of Planta, who had moved to England in 1752. Methodologically, this research is based on the “new biographical history” or “new biography”, the methods of microhistory and the gender principle in biographical research. The author reconstructs the nature of Speransky’s interaction with the Planta family on the basis of correspondence preserved in his collection in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian National Library with Joseph Planta the Elder (1744–1827), Director of the British Museum, and with his son, Joseph Planta the Younger (1787–1847), who held a post in the Foreign Office. Joseph Planta the Elder was a prominent intellectual of his time, and his son was directly connected with the British Foreign Office during one of the most turbulent periods in European history, and such connections could not but leave their mark on Speransky’s own life. The author concludes that the maintenance of long-term links with his wife’s family, with whom Speransky was not personally acquainted, testifies to the importance of these family ties, both for Speransky himself and for his daughter. Speransky actively encouraged and supported his daughter’s correspondence with Barbara Planta, her grandmother’s sister, and sought to provide his daughter with a European education, with an emphasis on the study of foreign languages, including English. It is concluded that the correspondence with the Planta family allowed Speransky himself to feel involved in both British and European culture, and to raise his daughter in this paradigm, instilling in her a European identity.

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ КУЛЬТУРНОГО НАЦИОНАЛИЗМА И ЕЁ РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ В ИРЛАНДИИ В XIX – НАЧАЛЕ XX ВВ.

In the article, the authors attempt to analyze one of the most important components of the Irish national movement of the 19th – early 20th centuries, cultural nationalism. Irish nationalism throughout its history has tended to variously highlight issues of political liberation or self-government, agrarian and religious issues. Priorities largely depended both on the prevailing ideas of the leaders of the movement in a particular period, and on the corresponding political and social atmosphere. An important role was also played by the commitment of the leaders of nationalist organizations to the methodology for implementing their programs, be it “physical” or “moral strength”. However, the total dictatorship of Britain in imposing English culture, language, traditions, education with severe pressure on Irish culture, demanded from nationalists the formation of the identity of the Irish nation, the renovation of the rich national heritage. With the change in the social state of society at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, cultural nationalism gained a huge audience, while updating new directions in culture. The revolution of 1916-1923, while solving the problem of winning independence, also included the problem of national self-identification.

É Astrologia MA non É Astrologo: John Aubrey's Brief Lives and Astrology

This article explores John Aubrey's (1627–1697) extensive use of astrology in his biographical collection Brief Lives (1680–1681), which has been widely celebrated for its vivid portrayal of seventeenth-century English culture and society. Aubrey's life writing was not only informed by his antiquarian pursuits, the vibrant coffee house culture of his time and his lively scientific community, but also by the practice of astrology. Through Aubrey's horoscope collection, Collectio geniturarum (1674–1690), and his correspondence with a wide astrological network, this article traces his deep engagement with the practice. In squarely focusing on these two sources, I argue that Aubrey greatly relied on astrological methods to inform his life writing. In making his collection of horoscopes, Aubrey drew on a long tradition of astrological data gathering. Aubrey's careful collation and calculation of data to verify birth times, identify major life events and determine ‘ingenious’ traits also contributed to a wider effort to reform astrology considering the nascent experimental philosophy. By examining Aubrey's multifaceted astrological writings, this article clarifies one of Aubrey's key techniques used in his early sketches of Brief Lives . More broadly, it further complicates the historical narrative that astrology was largely marginalized in late seventeenth-century English intellectual and scientific communities.

THE NATIONAL-CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE CONCEPT “MEMORY” BY PHRASEOLOGICAL MEANS IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH LINGUOCULTURES

This article is a comparative analysis of the concept “Memory” in English and Russian linguistic culture. It studies the English and Russian phraseological means that verbalize the abovementioned concept. The purpose of the article is to consider phraseological units expressing the concept “Memory” in both languages. The relevance of the work is due to an increased interest in phraseological linguistic units, since they capture the archetypes of human consciousness. To achieve the object in view, the definitional analysis method and the descriptive method have been used. The phraseological units reflect the idea of the British and Russian nations about the concept of memory. The author emphasizes the fact that phraseological units have cultural differences in each language. It is assumed that this research will allow us to understand the culture and mentality of the English and Russian ethnic groups.

Culture in Indonesian English Language Teaching (ELT): A Critical Literature Review

This article aims to analyze the current situation of Indonesian ELT concerning the recommendation to integrate more cultural elements in ELT practices. To achieve the objective, some studies were critically reviewed to gain insights into Indonesian ELT researchers' latest trends and perspectives. The writer collected some articles related to the topic written in the last ten years and reviewed them using some steps of critical literature review. The results show that many efforts have been made to integrate Indonesian cultures into Indonesian ELT practices, especially in learning materials. However, there is a discrepancy between the growing concerns regarding the negative impacts of Western values through ELT classrooms and the preference among Indonesian students towards target and international cultures of English. More studies are needed to gain better perspectives.

Displacement and Acculturation in Ghada Karmi’s In Search of Fatima: The Case of Amina

This article draws on John Berry’s acculturation theory to explore the acculturation process of the Karmi family into English culture as presented in the 2002 memoir In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story. According to Berry, acculturation involves a dual process of cultural and psychological change, which occurs when individuals from different cultural backgrounds come into continuous contact. Based on the relation of individuals to their culture of origin and that of the host country, Berry classifies acculturation into four styles: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization. This article argues that due to various social, economic, and political factore, the forcibly displaced Karmis faced substantial challenges in adapting to the culture of England. Although the story of each of the five family members deserves attention, we primarily focus on the acculturation of the memoirist’s mother, Amina, because in many ways it is the most tragic, and because as the mother figure, her beliefs, actions, and degree of adaptation to the new culture greatly impact those of other family members.

Negotiating local linguistic and epistemic realities through critical language pedagogy (CLP) in Pakistan

ABSTRACT With critical pedagogy (CP), teachers and students are empowered to disrupt the dominant ideological structures that tend to dehumanise people and impose oppressive historical consciousness upon them as historical subjects. Inspired by CP, over the last three decades critical language pedagogies have been conceptualised to promote social justice and counter privileged ideologies. This study examined university teachers’ pedagogical engagement with students’ local multilingual resources and epistemologies in the Remedial English classes at Pakistani universities. The study made use of theoretical insights such as coloniality, raciolinguistic perspectives and critical scholarship on multilingualism. Findings suggest that some teachers maintained the linguistic and epistemic hierarchy that favoured English, American/British accent, Anglo-western literature and culture, while other created multilingual and epistemic spaces where students’ local languages, nativized English varieties, culture and values could find a place. Furthermore, the Remedial English course perpetuated a gap between word and world by ignoring students’ contemporary concerns, such as discursive (values, culture) as well as material (unemployment, corruption, human rights, environmental degradation, etc.) factors. Some teachers’ use of bottom-up agency to counter foreign literature and a monoglossic model of instruction suggests how some teachers with a critical pedagogical attitude can empower their students to reclaim their historical and social roots.

“Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi Wept”: Exploring Translations of Language, Practices and Story Forms in IsiZulu Journalism

ABSTRACT In multicultural and multilingual societies like South Africa, newswork, or the practices that underpin the news-making process, is made possible by linguistic and cultural translation. In other words, both linguistic and cultural translation play a significant role in contemporary journalism practices in South Africa. While the linguistic level is concerned about language, the cultural level focuses on para language, especially the practices around news gathering and reporting. This paper seeks to illustrate how translation works in terms of language, practices and forms of journalism in multicultural contexts like South Africa. The country is a multicultural and multilingual country meaning that the English media content in mainstream journalism almost always appears as a translation. When sourcing in a variety of languages and cultural contexts, journalists and other media producers have to translate at both linguistic and practice levels. The practice level is influenced mostly by the cultural contexts. Operating in an environment where journalism is conducted within a specific news culture whose borders are inscribed by the hegemonic English and western journalistic cultures, journalists working for indigenous languages newspapers like Ilanga newspaper, an isiZulu newspaper, undertake numerous “translation” processes in the conduct of their work. Central to the arguments in this paper is the idea that both journalism practice and translation are routine aspects of news-work in multicultural countries.

A Study on the Infiltration Methods of British and American Literature in High School English Reading Teaching

Reading is the key content of high school English teaching, which can improve students’ mastery of words, grammar, and other knowledge, and can expand their horizons. British and American literature is the essence of British and American culture, and its application in high school English reading teaching can help improve students’ English proficiency. This paper outlines the problems of high school English teaching, analyzes the role of British and American literature in high school English reading teaching, and explores the infiltration methods of British and American literature in high school English reading teaching, in order to provide references for teachers.

Picturing Barnaby Rudge : The Authorized and the Extra Illustrations

Abstract: This article explores the function and significance of "extra-illustrations" by discussing the steel-engraved plates of two episodes in Barnaby Rudge by Thomas Sibson (1817–44) in relation to Hablot Knight Browne's (1815–82) wood-engravings of the same scenes. While Browne's designs are carefully integrated into the text by meticulous placement, Sibson's plates were intended to stand alone in a frame or collector's portfolio. Browne take us deeper into the story by intensifying the drama of the moment, whereas Sibson often makes allusions that take the viewer beyond the narrative. The comparison between Sibson's and Browne's methods reveals a range of issues pertaining to British illustration culture and practices of the 1840s, showing particularly how the differences in form, mode, timing of issue, the presence or absence of captions, and the circumstances of display affected reception.

Historical and etymological aspect of the conceptual triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian

The object of the study is the linguocultural triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian. The subject of the study is nuclear lexemes that verbalize the linguistic and cultural concepts of mercy, indifference, cruelty in the compared languages. To reveal the essence of the concepts studied, etymological analysis of the lexemes-representatives, data from etymological dictionaries of English and Russian languages were used. The purpose of the study is to establish universal and idioethnic characteristics of the representatives of the conceptual triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian. The following methods were used in the work carried out: semantic method, etymological method, comparative method, external reconstruction method. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the study of the linguistic and cultural concepts of mercy, indifference, cruelty in etymological perspective, which have not previously been studied in triadic relations when comparing English and Russian languages. As a result of the conducted research, we received information for the first time that nuclear lexemes verbalizing the concept of mercy in English and Russian at the initial stage of their functioning in the compared languages have similar motivation due to the presence of the first root of the Proto-Indo-European language. We have found evidence of a semantic shift in the perception of linguistic units representing the concept of indifference in English and Russian linguistic cultures in diachronic terms. A characteristic idioethnic feature of the representation of the concept of cruelty in the minds of native speakers of the Russian language is its ambiguity and dependence on casual attribution.

Managing English culture in semi-military academy

The efficient administration of English culture in semi-military academies becomes a substantial area to cover as long as these institutions remain major players in molding future leaders. This research looks at the difficulties, approaches, and results of maintaining English culture in the special setting of a semi-military institution. Language hurdles, cultural misinterpretations, and difficulties between academic independence and military discipline are only a few of the difficulties that are shown by the findings. To promote cultural diversity and strengthen institutional cohesiveness, cutting-edge tactics, including inclusive curriculum design, bilingual programs, and cultural competency training, have been recognized as crucial. The survey also emphasizes the perceived benefits of successful English cultural management, which include better performance in school, better interpersonal abilities, and a stronger feeling of community among students and staff. This study provides theoretical insights into the dynamic interactions between culture, education, and institutional identity by drawing on theories of cultural management, education, and organizational behavior. Moreover, it offers useful suggestions for teachers, administrators, and legislators who want to encourage inclusivity and diversity of culture in semi-military academies and other similar educational environments.

Interwar London after Dark in British Popular Culture By Mara Arts

Interwar London after Dark in British Popular Culture By Mara Arts

Decolonising English Studies in India

The paper deals with the theory and praxis of decolonising English Studies in India. The paper suggests appropriate measures to pull out English Studies from the Macaulayan paradigm and to recast the priorities in English Studies in the light of changing role for emerging India in the unipolar world realities, rising aspirations of the middle classes, and democratic and egalitarian needs. The project of ‘decolonising’ education at the macro-level and English Studies at the micro-level has been discussed with reference to curriculum, teaching methods, materials, evaluation, research and publication and medium of instruction in all possible details in the paper. The paper attempts to deal with contemporary realities like various treaties and market economy and issues like making a distinction between real knowledge and colonial knowledge along with the historical context of English Studies. Several measures have been suggested to make English Studies in India relevant to contemporary times, to save them from being derivative and to reshape Euro-American knowledge about English culture, Literature and Language from an Indian perspective. Practical suggestions to decolonise curriculum have been made keeping in view the distinction between teaching literature and language in the first and the second language situations.