Cultural Discourse Research Articles

Witnessing the Architecture of a Cancellation: The Silencing of Voices on Palestine in Austrian Academia

This article analyzes the cancellation of a public lecture by Palestinian scholar, Walaa Alqaisiya, during a curatorial program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in May 2022 due to false accusations of antisemitism in the context of anti-Palestinian racism in Austria. We speak of an ‘architecture’ because we analyze the questions of power, (in)visibility and erasure from the point of view of the public and institutional spaces, asking who can speak, about what and for whom, when? As a collective of former participants, we write from an implicated positionality that we call ‘participatory witnesses:’ the program ceased to be an abstract exploration of decolonial and queer/feminist perspectives, and transformed us affectively and politically, forcing us to critically respond to the censorship. We start by summarizing the unfolding of events and introducing the figure of the participatory witness and the concept of architecture. Then, we turn to Austrian academia’s climate of censorship of Palestinian perspectives. From this context, we analyze Alqaisiya’s cancellation through the prism of Euromodern Orientalist tropes, disciplinary strategies and civilizational discourses employed to continue the marginalization and exclusion of Palestinian perspectives. We pay particular attention to the significance of silencing queer Palestinian voices in the context of Israeli pinkwashing. Finally, we mnemonically map our attempts at navigating the architecture, negotiating between reclaiming public visibility for queer Palestinian perspectives and collective acts of refusal and delinking.

Exploring the Interplay between Writing Practices and Identity Formation in Academic Contexts

In academic settings, the relationship between writing practices and identity formation is a cornerstone of scholarly inquiry. As individuals engage in writing, they convey information and construct and negotiate their identities within disciplinary, cultural, and linguistic frameworks. This review paper provides a comprehensive synthesis of existing scholarship on the intricate relationship between writing practices and identity formation in academic contexts. Drawing upon a systematic analysis of 30 studies, the paper illuminates the complex interplay between language, culture, and academic discourse in shaping authorial identities. Key themes explored include conceptualizing writing as an act of identity construction, the challenges faced by distinct student populations in establishing authorial voices, disciplinary variations in identity formation, and pedagogical implications for academic writing instruction. The review integrates diverse theoretical frameworks, such as sociocultural perspectives, academic literacy approaches, and integrationist models, offering a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying identity construction through writing. Furthermore, this review also identifies gaps and potential avenues for future research, including the need for longitudinal studies, the exploration of individual agency in identity formation, and the examination of emerging technologies and interdisciplinary collaborations. Ultimately, this synthesis adds to ongoing conversations about how writing practices affect identity formation. It does this by informing teaching methods and institutional policies that support positive identity development among diverse academic communities.

Historiographic imaginary and hypotheses of heredity in the configuration of Romanian cultural identity

This paper analyses the ways in which Romanian culture struggles to forge, at the level of historical and cultural discourse, an identity, a “personality”, and a specificity. It observes, within the process of forging its identity through a series of avatars, the discursive strategies through which specificity is revealed as an essential form of national uniqueness as well as the compensatory trends of identity fabrication. The paper also attempts to highlight the forms of historical and literary mystification through which, over time, Romanian culture responded to complexes related to its age, identity, belatedness, heredity, legitimacy, etc. Thus, the analysis reveals that, in essence, all the efforts, complexes and myths through which an identity was negotiated at the level of the histories of literature and Romanian historiographical texts betray, in fact, the same spectrum of the Identity-Otherness dialectic. Romanian culture, like other emerging cultures, was forced, first to survive and, later, in order to have a potential for prosperity, to define itself as a distinct entity by relating to the surrounding cultural reality, its growth and evolution taking place either under the sign of antagonism (i.e. a refusal of allogeneic import), or under that of synchronism (as permeabilization with regard to foreign influence), but, necessarily, as a reference to the Other. Moreover, the paper highlights, at the discursive level, the two main poles that have obsessively polarized the questions of descent and heredity within Romanian culture: its Roman and Dacian ancestries. The nuanced intentions underpinning the cultural need for international recognition by means of belonging as well as differentiation are discussed in the process.

‘Who is the ideal woman?’: The subjectification of impoverished Javanese working mothers

AbstractThis study examines the subjectification of working mothers through the lens of intersectionality by listening to the under‐represented voices of those whose lives are shaped at the intersections of gender, poverty, Islam, and Javanese ethnicity. Drawing on poststructuralist feminist discourse analysis, the subtle subjectification process is observed through conversational interactions in which working mothers construct the ‘ideal woman’. The findings challenge the predominant postfeminist framing in the extant literature by illustrating how here working mothers draw on a specifically local discourse (i.e., moderate‐Islam and Javanese cultural discourses) to construct the ideal woman as embodying the dual wife‐mother identities. Based on these locally dependent discourses, working mothers accentuate their identity as wives while subduing identities as mothers and workers. The emphasis on the underexplored wife identity imbues work with a distinct significance for mothers within this context.

PEDAGOGICAL REGIONAL STUDIES AS INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

The article reveals the peculiarities and prospects for the development of pedagogical regional studies as interdisciplinary scientific knowledge and a multidimensional phenomenon of education, culture, and science. It was established that in the conditions of modern social changes, the need for the crystallization of national identity as the basis of Ukrainian statehood, the historical and cultural approach plays an important role in the training of future specialists – citizens of Ukraine. Among the modern trends in the development of Ukrainian education and pedagogy is the actualization of regional research, which is manifested in the appeal of scientists to various aspects of pedagogical local history, microhistory, etc. The regional approach is based on highlighting the patterns of development of national education and pedagogical thought on little-known, unique regional materials. One of the aspects of such a regional approach is the subject of research in pedagogical regional studies – interdisciplinary knowledge about the peculiarities of the development of education, science, pedagogical thought, the culture of the region, the study, preservation and creative use of regional pedagogical experience in the theory and practice of modern educational institutions, scientific institutions, institutions of the social sphere . The authors analyzed the experience of the Scientific and Research Center of Pedagogical Local Studies operating at the Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. In 2022, with the aim of updating regional scientific problems, studying little-known pages of pedagogical local history, scientists of the Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University launched a new research project – «Education, schooling and pedagogical thought of Cherkasy region». The purpose of the project is to present to the public the achievements of Ukrainian and foreign pedagogical science and of education, consolidating biographical and bibliographic information about teachers, educators, teachers in the form of an informational and bibliographic electronic resource «Pedagogical Cherkasy» and a popular science reference book. It has been established that the relevance of regional scientific issues is enhanced by the multidimensionality and interdisciplinary nature of pedagogical regional studies as a pedagogical, historical, and social phenomenon that requires a thorough study in order to present it representatively in the modern interdisciplinary historical and cultural discourse – educational, social-pedagogical, historical-pedagogical, etc.

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.