Cultural Discourse Research Articles

Investigating the Educational Challenges Related to Cultural Competence Faced by Iraqi Nursing College Students

English for specific purpose is becoming increasingly considerable in various sectors, including medical sectors. Although numerous studies have investigated the effectiveness of such programs o n cultural competence behaviors and client outcomes, limited research has explored professionals' perceptions of cross-cultural educational representations (such as cultural consciousness and cultural competence) and the magnitude to which they and their administrations implement these values in preparation. In light of this gap, this study is directed to investigate the perceptions of healthcare professionals regarding customarily competent care, their involvements with multicultural patients, their own levels of cultural competence, and the degree to which they believe their cultural competencies discourse multicultural encounters. Data for this study are collected from a sample of 56 healthcare professionals affiliated with a Baghdad university in Iraq, representing various healthcare systems. A 19-item questionnaire, consisting of open-ended inquiries and multiple-choice items, is used to gather participants' perspectives and experiences. The majority of participants seem to perceive cross-cultural education primarily from a "cultural awareness" perspective. They emphasize on the importance of possessing practical cultural knowledge, such as understanding norms and customs, and facilitating communication through the use of interpreters. The study participants pay little attention to the principles of systemic cross-cultural approaches, such as cultural competence, cultural safety, and addressing issues like racism, power imbalances, and biases ingrained in the majority culture. Additionally, the need for self-reflection and awareness of personal prejudices was rarely acknowledged.

Safe water as empowerment, structural dilemma, and savior: conflicting discourses about arsenic groundwater contamination in West Bengal

ABSTRACT This essay explores the conflicting discourses circulated ‘on the ground’ in rural West Bengal regarding blame, water, and health. We take a culture-centered approach that builds on environmental health communication literature through qualitative research with health workers and rural community members living with arsenicosis. Local discourses about structural dilemmas and water as savior/medicine reveal important practical and cultural considerations to water contamination solutions in West Bengal. This study makes three key contributions. First, we illuminate how empowerment discourses reinforce neoliberal and lifestyle theories of health while concealing important realities connected to water contamination and water access. Second, we demonstrate how cultural discourses of water as a savior disrupt Eurocentric health narratives and argue for free, decommodified water. Third, we argue that the narratives based on people’s lived illness experiences could be used to foster solidarity with healthcare workers and should be the basis of practical solutions to create water access.

A Classification Essay on Islamic Poetry in New Turkish Literature

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to define Islamic poetry, explore its analytical methodology, and provide examples that illustrate its thematic concepts within modern Turkish poetry. Methods: To achieve these objectives, the study employs the document analysis method, which is a qualitative research approach. The analysis focuses on modern Turkish poetry, examining examples across eight distinct categories of Islamic poetry. Results: The analysis of Islamic poetry within modern Turkish literature reveals its diverse manifestations across various thematic categories. These include Islamist Poetry, Turkish-Islamic Poetry, Sufi Poetry, Islamic Mystical Poetry, Islamic Metaphysical Poetry, Islamic Cultural Poetry, Religious Poetry, and Islamic Romantic Love Poetry. Each category is exemplified with a poem, showcasing the rich tapestry of Islamic sensibility, motivation, and thematic concepts present in modern Turkish poetry. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study highlights the enduring influence of Islam on Turkish poetry, both historically and in contemporary times. Through the exploration of Islamic poetry across different thematic categories, the study illustrates the depth and breadth of Islamic sensibility within modern Turkish literature. The researchers' conclusions drawn from the analysis further contribute to our understanding of the role of Islamic poetry in shaping cultural and literary discourse in Turkey.

Trolling as a Disruptive Tool for Human Rights Violations: An Exploration of the Challenges Faced by Performance Artists

The proliferation of online platforms and digital tools has introduced both opportunities and challenges for individuals, particularly within the realm of social media. While platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc. have served as avenues for cultural, social, economic, educational, state-run, and political discourse, they have also facilitated the emergence of paranoiac phenomena, such as trolling. This paper delves into the portrayal of trolling as a disruptive technological tool and cultural phenomenon in Bangladesh, specifically targeting TV actors, theatre performers, and local rural artists. The study highlights the pervasive use of trolling as a means to harass, criticize, and intimidate artists online. It reveals how trolling not only violates the human rights of these artists but also undermines their creativity, credibility, and sense of belonging within society. For methodological justification, it has employed a mixed-method research approach incorporating questionnaire surveys administered to 38 participants, interviews with two aspiring artists, three theatre artists, and three students studying theatre and performance studies, and analysis of social media comments. The paper unravelled that trolling is used exclusively as an online harassment tool to embarrass performance artists in Bangladesh. It underscores the detrimental impact of trolling, leading to psychological distress, depression, and alienation among targeted artists. In response to these challenges, the paper offers recommendations aimed at empowering artists to confront and combat online harassment, thereby safeguarding their well-being and fostering a more supportive digital environment conducive to artistic expression and innovation.

Research on the Actual Sentence Partition and Translation of Chinese Cultural Landscape Discourses Based on Natural Language Processing Technology

In recent years, ChatGPT has been extensively applied across various fields, with translation being one of them. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology on the translation process. The research method involved utilizing the concept of Actual Sentence Partition (ASP) within the framework of Function Sentence Perspective (FSP). ASP, introduced by V. Mathesius, the founder of the Prague School, divides sentences into the point of departure and the nucleus of an utterance, providing insights into their communicative and semantic characteristics. Conversely, Formal Sentence Division (FSD) solely focuses on marking grammatical elements without identifying the correct ASP, resulting in ambiguity and inaccuracy. In Chinese discourse, incomplete sentences are commonly observed, including the omission of known information and the use of multiple clauses. Consequently, when translating from Chinese to English, it is crucial to appropriately visualize the hidden information in Chinese and analyze Chinese discourse using ASP to reconstruct its equivalent in English. The findings of this study emphasize the significance of ASP in translation. By understanding the ASP, translators can better comprehend the intention and meaning behind Chinese discourse, ensuring a more accurate and faithful representation in English. Therefore, the application of ASP in translation serves as a valuable tool for bridging the linguistic and cultural gaps between languages. In conclusion, ASP, as a pivotal concept in FSP, offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and translating complex sentence structures in Chinese discourse. By utilizing ASP, translators can capture the communicative and semantic nuances of Chinese sentences, leading to more accurate and effective translation outcomes..

Making The Future School: An Analysis of Teens' Collaborative Digital Fabrication Project

Maker culture emphasizes informal, networked, self- and peer-led learning, motivated by fun and self-fulfillment, and learning through mistakes. However, studies often describe activities involving a lot of guidance. As guidance may lead to both the process and outcomes influenced by those guiding the activity, it is also important to examine how projects evolve without the supporters' push. We take a nexus analytical approach to explore 1) how teens' background, interactions with others, and available materials and spaces are at play when they shape their ideas and outputs in a collaborative maker project with minimal support, and 2) how these factors can be considered to better support learning in such projects. The work carried out by five teens in a local FabLab was based on peer collaboration within changing apprentice mentor pairs. When they ideated and prototyped for a future school, researchers provided minimal support, mainly online. Without their push, teens quickly modified tasks which both guided and narrowed down their thinking. Their experiences from school environment and the FabLab space served as an inspiration as they designed solutions to overcome current problems in the current school setting or digital fabrication process. When making, they gravitated towards processes they had previous experience of or which they enjoyed, perhaps partly affected by the competing discourses of maker culture and expertise we observed to be present in the FabLab space. While building on existing skillsets, this may leave the potential of novel trajectories and expanding one's skills and competences unexplored. Teens' self-esteem improved as they turned from apprentices to mentors for their peers. This allowed them to process their learning from a different perspective. In general, our results paint a detailed picture of the roles of different participants in a maker project and provide an example of how familiar discourses of education persist in teens' designs. Looking at the project through the lens of Nexus analysis contributes to an increased understanding of the space for action and participants' histories, and interactions on the process, valuable for researchers studying DF and making, and practitioners working in makerspaces and FabLabs with different user groups. On a more practical level, our work contributes to a deeper understanding on how to include teens into non-guided and community-driven maker practices. We provide practical implications on how to support learning in collaborative making projects in informal learning situations, and regarding the role of the different actors and the environment in such situations. We also identify avenues for future research in this area.

Angela Carter and Recreating Femininity in The Bloody Chamber: A Semiotic Analysis

Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" stands as a transformative work in feminist literature, challenging entrenched gender norms and reshaping the landscape of contemporary storytelling. This paper delves into Carter's narrative prowess, exploring how her reimagining of traditional myths serves as a potent critique of patriarchal structures. Employing a qualitative research approach, this study utilizes a comprehensive literature review to analyse Carter's contributions to feminist discourse and the critical reception of her seminal work. Drawing on postmodern literary theories, particularly Roland Barthes's theory of myths, the paper examines Carter's deconstructive approach to storytelling and its implications for feminist literary criticism. Through meticulous analysis of Carter's narrative techniques, thematic preoccupations, and engagement with feminist discourse, this study offers fresh insights into the enduring relevance of "The Bloody Chamber" in contemporary literary studies. Ultimately, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of Carter's literary interventions and their broader implications for gender representation and cultural discourse.

Symbiosexual Attraction: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Study

A recent review of cultural and academic discourse presented evidence that some people experience attraction to two (or more) people in a preexisting relationship. This phenomenon, symbiosexuality, is understudied in the field of sexuality. Lack of recognition and validation for this attraction, including in the polyamorous community, may be negatively impacting those who experience symbiosexual attraction. I conducted an integrated mixed-methods analysis of secondary data from the 2023 The Pleasure Study to learn more about symbiosexual attraction. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that people experience symbiosexual attraction, which they describe as an attraction to the energy, multidimensionality, and power shared between people in relationships. Further, findings from this study indicate that a diverse group of people experience symbiosexual attraction and, while unanticipated, symbiosexual attraction can be a strong, frequent, and/or pervasive experience. These findings push the boundaries of the concepts of desire and sexual orientation in sexuality studies and challenge the ongoing invisibility and invalidation of and stigma and discrimination against such attractions, within both the polyamorous community and our broader mononormative culture.

Disabled influencers on Instagram: exploring digital celebrity and marginalised identities

ABSTRACT This article illuminates the nexus of social media, celebrity, and marginalised identities by examining the phenomenon of disabled influencers. Since the late 2010s, disability representations in media, culture, and public discourse have increasingly moved away from stigmatising stereotypes. Disabled influencers have emerged as new voices in this landscape but, so far, exploration of their work has been limited. To address this gap, this study explores how 15 diverse fashion influencers with visible impairments address disability in their personal brands, whether they frame themselves as advocates for disability rights, and investigates their relationships with both followers and commercial brands. Through a content analysis of one year worth of Instagram posts (N = 1,429) and profile information, we outline the strategies these influencers use to make disability central to their online personas, explore their multi-layered relationship with brands, identify their distinct but somewhat limited voice in disability advocacy, and highlight their engagement strategies with digital publics. Drawing on disability and celebrity scholarship, this work provides insights on how the use of participatory platforms like Instagram intersects with the changing demands and expectations of celebrity, generating both opportunities and constraints for traditionally marginalised groups.

Pisanie w stanie wyjątkowym i lektura jako czynność naprawcza. Genezy i pożytki z literatury kruchości

This article presents a theoretical framework and a network of concepts that could be useful in analyzing illness narratives. As a relatively new field of the humanities, the cultural discourse of health and illness is still in need of an appropriate methodology and a set of handy concepts, i.e. a foundational cultural theory fit to deal with texts con-cerned with the specific experience of health and illness. Here the key concepts are fragility, reparability, vulnerability and harm. While drawing on the idea of ‘writing in a state of emergency’, based on Giorgio Agamben’s discussion in The State of Exception, the article also offers the author’s own conceptions of a ‘fragile alliance’ and of reading illness narratives as a therapeutic (restorative) activity.

Reinterpreting Pride and Prejudice: Cultural Representation and Aesthetic Innovation in Film, TV, and Literary Adaptations

This paper explores the diverse landscape of adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, examining how these reinterpretations engage with and expand upon the original work’s themes, characters, and societal critique. Through a comprehensive analysis of adaptations across various mediums—including film, television, and literature—the study highlights the novel’s enduring relevance and its ability to resonate across different cultural and temporal contexts. By analyzing adaptations that range from faithful recreations to creative retellings, this research underscores the dynamic interplay between Austen’s text and its subsequent reinterpretations, revealing how each adaptation contributes to a broader cultural discourse on issues of class, gender, and race. The paper argues that these adaptations do not merely serve as tributes to Austen’s work but act as active participants in a larger conversation, challenging and reinvigorating the understanding of the original novel. Through this synthesis, the study demonstrates the novel’s universality and its capacity to inspire reflection on contemporary societal issues, affirming the significance of Pride and Prejudice as a living text that continues to engage and provoke audiences worldwide.

Pemikiran Mangunegara VII (1916-1944) dan Relevansi Terhadap Pembelajaran Sejarah Lokal

Mangkunegara VII had a modernist thought which was then realized by collaborating culture from the eastern region with culture from the western region, which would later become a form of new cultural transformation. The author uses historical research methods which include four things namely heuristics, criticism or verification, interpretation, and historiography. This research produces several findings, including Mangkunegara VII's role in the development of Javanese culture in 1916-1944, the revival of Mangkunegara VII's Javanese culture, the function of Javanese cultural revivalism discourse, and the relevance of Mangkunegara VII's thoughts as local history material. Mangkunegara VII's personal experience while studying at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy Rijks Universiteit, Leiden greatly influenced his role in developing Javanese culture from 1916 to 1944. The experience opened Mangkunegara VII's horizons to the outside world and made him realize the gap in quality of life between home and the Netherlands. With his modern lifestyle and open-mindedness, Mangkunegara VII led several modern developments in Javanese culture.

Making Sense of Gynecologic Cancer: A Relational Dialectics Approach

ABSTRACT This study used the relational dialectics theory (RDT) as a theoretical lens to examine how the interplay of competing discourses shaped meaning making about gynecologic cancer. A reflexive thematic analysis of the narratives of 12 survivors of cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer in Arkansas showed two discursive struggles at play, including continuity of care versus change, and voicing versus repressing of feelings. The findings showed that long history of care with physicians contributed to how participants privileged the discourse of continuity of care when faced with a decision to travel for care or receive care locally. We also found that cultural discourses about concealing women’s cancer-afflicted bodies, lack of supportive spaces for women to discuss side effects of cancer treatments, and appropriate communication behavior between patients and physicians shaped the interplay of the discursive struggle of voicing versus repressing. The findings extend the RDT by showing that geographic location, disease characteristics, history of care between patients and physicians, and prevailing cultural discourses can contribute to the interplay of discursive struggles in the gynecologic cancer context. Further, the findings suggest to healthcare professionals to address harmful discourses about gynecologic cancer to help create support avenues for survivors.

IN BETWEEN SUPERPOWERS: LIMINALITY AND WESTERNIZATION IN WEI HUI’S SHANGHAI BABY (1999)

Shanghai Baby (1999), a novel by Wei Hui, tells the story of a Shanghai woman named Coco who is caught between two superpowers, China and the West, personified by the characters Tian Tian, a native Chinese man with no passion for life, and Mark, a white German man who is dominant in every way. This study aims to identify the tension experienced by both Coco and the novel Shanghai Baby in such a liminal position through narrative content and reactions in the surrounding political economy and cultural discourse. Through a close reading of the text within the theoretical framework of Bhabha's (1994) concept of in-betweenness and third space, we argue that the liminality displayed within the text and based on the novel's highly Westernized narrative structure creates a liminal state for the novel. As such, while the narrative is set in China and was originally written in Chinese, the novel represents Western ideological imagination, underscored by its economic success in its translated form in English.

TRANSLATIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF ISLAND IDENTITY IN AMERICAN NRMS’ TEXTS: POSTSTRUCTURALIST STUDY OF MALTA NARRATIVE IN AMERICAN ENGLISH AND KIRUNDI NWTS

The study investigated the construction of Island Identity through translation in American New Religious Movements’ texts (NRMs). The research used the descriptive qualitative method that is based on the American studies interdisciplinary method and Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and notions of identity, abjection, and revolt. Moreover, Kovecses’ theory of Conceptual Metaphor (CM) in American Studies and Schmidt’s CM translation typology were used. Primary data were collected from the Kirundi New World Translation (NWT), American English NWT, and New American Standard Bible (NASB). Secondary data were obtained from books and articles about American NRMs, island, and CM translation. It was found out that in the conceptualization of alterity about island identity the source text (ST) is in abjection to the mainstream NASB. Moreover, the findings proved that, despite the subversion tints of the ascetic virtues from the center of the church, the target text (TT) is a nihilation of all island identity forms. Furthermore, it was discovered that the Burundi JW Bible imitates the ST to revolt against colonial and nationalist conceptualization and ipso facto to construct an island identity that supports the church’s propensity for the postnational and global discourse of American society and culture.

Intersections in the digital society: cancel culture, fake news, and contemporary public discourse.

This article critically examines the intricate relationship between cancel culture and fake news, shedding light on their collective impact on current societies. The changing social landscape, marked by the transition from the "network society" to the "platform society," has given rise to unprecedented phenomena such as cancel culture. Rooted in social media complaints, cancel culture intersects with the dissemination of intentionally created false information, forming a complex web of dynamics. The study explores the multifaceted nature of cancel culture, its unintended consequences and the nuanced definitions surrounding it. The synthesis of erasure culture and fake news prompts critical reflections on the democratization of information, the protection of fundamental rights, and the potential risks to democracies of an unbridled online narrative. As digital networks continue to play a central role in everyday life, understanding and addressing these challenges is essential to maintaining a balanced discourse that upholds democratic values.

Pitfalls to countering disinformation: Analyzing local newspaper response to the ‘Syrian refugee rape case’ in Twin Falls, Idaho

ABSTRACT The paper examines the local newspaper’s response to the “Syrian refugee rape case” disinformation campaign in Twin Falls, Idaho, 2016. Drawing upon the pervasive climate of fear surrounding Syrian refugees that followed the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the disinformation campaign targeted refugee resettlement efforts in the city. The study employs a critical thematic analysis of prominent journalistic techniques deployed by the paper and the themes used to depict refugees in the news texts. The analysis identifies dominant patterns in the news articles and reveals how these strands drew upon deep-rooted cultural discourses and news coverage routines. The study suggests steps that can be incorporated by local journalists while responding to disinformation. Findings from the study can be applied to other media formats and will play an important role in countering disinformation about refugees.

Shevyryov, S. (2022). Complete works of literary criticism (7 vols). Vol. 5: 1846–1854. Part 1: 1846–1849. Part 2: 1850–1854. Ed. by A. Nikolyukin. St. Petersburg: Rostok. (In Russ.)

Shevyryov’s complete collected non-fiction works in 7 volumes is an ambitious project with the aim to reintroduce a preeminent Slavophile ideologist to contemporary cultural discourse. Soviet scholars dismissed Shevyryov as ideologically erring, and it was not until the 1990s that his works were rediscovered by publishers and booksellers. In the last decades, Shevyryov’s legacy was revisited, sparking interest in his travelogues, among other things. The recently published fifth volume contains the new edition of Journey to White Lake St. Cyril’s Monastery [Poezdka v Kirillo-Belozerskiy monastyr], written to encourage its readers to take an interest in Russian history and its preservation.

The interaction of history and modern thought in the creation of Iran's architecture by investigating the approaches of past-oriented architecture

The relationship between tradition and modernity significantly influences society, culture, and architectural discourse. This philosophy offers a framework for exploring the impact of traditional architecture on contemporary Iranian architecture from different perspectives and approaches. Various viewpoints exist on whether historical architecture can be a defining characteristic of contemporary architectural discourse. Through an in-depth review of analysis-centred architectural literature, a unique method was chosen for analysing contemporary architecture and gaining insight into its creation. The main goal of this study is to establish a productive relationship between past-oriented architecture, innovative architectural concepts, and contemporary thought. This article examines three critical viewpoints, tradition as imitation, transmission, and transformation, alongside analysing their influential components on architectural form to gain insight into productively connecting with historical achievements and show that the role of history is to add new values to architecture-conscious needs that have changed during history. Ultimately, the challenge lies in finding a suitable path among diverse perspectives and reinterpretations and establishing a productive relationship with history and contemporary thought.

Revisiting Edward Said: Culture vs Materiality (A study of his positionality Conflicts in Al-Ahram's articles)

Keeping in view the distinct status of Edward Said in postcolonial discourse, the contexts of his intellectual endeavors reflect an unconscious or innocent indifference to material issues the post-colonial societies were immediately facing after the end of formal colonization. This research article seeks to understand the politics of discourse that Edward Said’s formative works and his Al-Ahram articles exhibit by deconstructing the texts to revisit his celebrated intellectual cum political status among the postcolonial cultural and academic intelligentsia during the previous century. Edward Said seems a significant cultural force behind the curtain who helped the socio-cultural identities of marginalized communities to attain their socio-political exterior in a discourse that was essentially a sovereign attempt to voice the marginalized people enjoying the territorial place only. He substantiated his intellectual position in Culture and Imperialism (1993) and cemented it with historiographic evidence from the text and tradition that constructed the cultural space only, for that matter; but when he started authoring articles for Al-Ahram (An Egyptian Newspaper), he foregrounded his positional interior that was conflicting with his own previously established positions. He shifted the material debate to cultural lifeways, societal experiences, and nativity, and in doing so he innocently facilitated capitalism in establishing the fruitless discourse of cultural politics. but when Edward Said started writing for Al-Ahram, he concentrated more on material issues than cultural debate, especially when he started emphasizing his concerns regarding the Palestine issue. This is what I understand as positionality conflicts. This article attempts to investigate Edward Said’s articles to unearth his determined ideological/political narratives constructing cultural discourse and later confrontation with space, place, culture, and identity, which turned out to be more material than mere ideological. In a way, Edward Said realized over time that his earlier works were not grounded which signified the cultural exterior only.