Reading Of Literary Texts Research Articles

Challenging A Contentious Discourse and Dismantling the False Divide through Multicultural Literature

Objectives: This study examines ways through which the discourse of the European centrality can be challenged to combat inequality and discrimination against “the other.” The study also aims to demonstrate the positive impact that literature and cinema, with their diverse cultures, can have in teaching students how to question European central thought by understanding the lifestyle and worldview of “the Other,” highlighting their counter-narrative, and fostering empathy and tolerance toward “the other.” Methods: To achieve this purpose, Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy was employed to equip English language students with critical thinking skills to critique facts. Works of multicultural literature and corresponding activities were chosen to enhance the ability to disrupt the discourse of European centrality. Students' responses were recorded and analyzed to track changes in empathy levels. Additionally, through critical and analytical readings of literary texts, the study sheds light on social disparities and criticizes oppressive structures that reinforce discrimination. Results: The study revealed ways to challenge the discourse of European centrality and resist discrimination against “the Other.” It also showed the positive role played by multicultural literary texts and cinema in training students to question European central discourse by exposing them to counter-narratives and the lifestyle of "the Other." The study further confirmed that increased awareness of injustice led to improved levels of empathy and tolerance towards others, inspiring a desire to contribute to social change. Conclusions: The study contributes to expanding knowledge about using multicultural literature and cinema in educating students about discrimination and combating Islamophobia and “the Other.” This is achieved by involving students in the process of liberating their minds through questioning European central discourse and the prevailing narrative of oppression, thereby enhancing their sense of empowerment, empathy, and tolerance.

Dynamic versus static assessment: effects on Iraqi EFL learners’ resilience, burnout, positive orientation, and academic success

Assessment plays a vital role in English language learning as it helps students recognize their weak and strong points. Two main types of assessment are dynamic assessment (DA) and static assessment (SA) that their effects have not been examined on Iraqi EFL students’ resilience, burnout, positive orientation (PO), and language academic achievement yet. Therefore, this research aims to close this gap. To do so, sixty intermediate EFL students were selected and divided into DA and SA groups to do so. The two groups were then given pretests on the four dependent variables. Subsequently, one group was taught ten reading literary texts with 100 new words using DA, whereas the other group was taught identical materials using SA. After the 8-week course, both groups took the post-tests on resilience, burnout, PO, and academic performance. The study’s findings showed that the DA group did better than the SA group on the four post-tests. It can be concluded that using DA with the support of literary texts can produce positive effects in EFL classes. The current study has consequences for researchers, students, English instructors, and other stakeholders.

Indigenous eco-consciousness in recent Nigerian poetry: The example of Joe Ushie

Although the environment features prominently in the poetry of Joe Ushie, studies of his works have focused more on sociopolitical themes than on his eco-conscious engagement. Using Bette-Bendi indigenous epistemology as its conceptual framework, this article analyses how Ushie’s poetry addresses environmental issues by portraying the mutually dependent relation between humans and non-human agents. Since the environment is one of the central components of Ushie’s poetic vision, this article draws on the poet’s Bette-Bendi indigenous ecological imagination to explore the ways in which humans and their environments are interconnected. The article traces Ushie’s depiction of the way Bette-Bendi people see human and environmental values as inseparable. His poetry thus explores systems that can guide people’s relationship with the natural world in a postcolonial context; this article provides an alternative perspective to ecocritical reading of literary texts.

The Textual vs the Contextual: A Heideggerian Reading of Walid Saif’s Poem ‘Love Again’

This article reads Love Again (1992), the last poem written by contemporary Palestinian poet Walid Saif based on Heidegger’s concept of the Dasein as detailed in Being and Time and his concept of art as detailed in “The Origin of the Work of Art” as well as in other of his works. In Love Again “togetherness,” which is the essence of the Dasein, dissolves completely into the kind of being of “the Others”. Heidegger’s definition of “the truth of being” has the tendency of combining two contesting groups of theories: the first is a modernist group that advocates an intrinsic/textual approach to read literary texts in light of new criticism and other formalist schools. The second is a group that advocates a contextual/extrinsic/political approach to read literary texts like new historicism, postcolonialism and others. A Heideggerian reading of Saif’s poem debunks the modernist claim that a detachable aesthetic experience can safeguard the poem’s “historical permanence” and transcend its political context. Unlike formalists of his time, Heidegger was not concerned with the tension that emerged between the above two groups since he took both the extrinsic and intrinsic elements of a literary work as indispensable elements towards exploring the literary work. Furthermore, the above tension does not seem to be part of Heidegger’s consciousness.

Teaching and Learning English Literature Through Multimedia

Reading and understanding English literature can be quite challenging for students if English is not their native language. Thus, somehow students do not feel motivated in reading literature because of the high language proficiency the texts require and the length of the teaching materials. The conventional “Chalk and Talk” teaching method is not enough to convey the complexity of English literature effectively. The use of multimedia might be a precious medium in the teaching of literature and to increase students’ motivation to read literary texts. Research indicates that multimedia helps students to understand literature, to focus on the target language but also on its culture, new terminologies, new phraseology and their proper usage. The use of multimedia has many advantages as it is a great facilitator in transmitting knowledge. However, there are many questions about the use of digital tools, some think that they interfere with the teaching process and the student’s concentration, whereas others think that digital media can be effectively integrated into the teaching and learning process. In this paper, we will focus on how the multimedia content helps to vary and enhance the learning process and to lead to a better understanding and memorising. Multimedia elements help learners to be more engaged and active at learning. It makes studying literature more exciting because some students are visual learners and use visual senses in the process of learning. I used tests, observation and questionaries to analyse my research questions. Received: 10 February 2024 / Accepted: 11 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

느린 학습자의 자존감 향상을 위한 인문치료 사례연구

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of humanistic therapy to improve the self-esteem of slow learners. The subjects of this study were slow learner adolescents in the first year of a specialized high school, who were experiencing problems such as academic sluggishness, psychological atrophy, peer relationship inadequacy, and school life inadequacy. The study explored the process of change through the application of a humanistic therapy program over 30 sessions. The results of this study were as follows First, she showed positive changes in expressing their feelings and thoughts through emotional writing and therapeutic writing. Second, she showed academic changes, such as improving their presentation skills in class through activities such as reading literary short texts such as poems and essays and non-literary texts from textbooks slowly and repeatedly out loud. Third, she was attitudinal changes in life, such as recognizing the extent of school progress and saying no to friends. Humanistic therapy had a positive effect on the student's emotional changes, self-disclosure, and relationship improvement, and served as a medium to help improve the main complaints of the subject.

From Belgium to the world and back? The case of Rieder

ABSTRACT In the 1920s and the 1930s, a large number of Belgian authors were published by a Parisian publishing house, Rieder & Cie. Most of them wrote directly in French, the others in Dutch and were translated. Thanks to Rieder's international drive, all these works were considered part of a system that prefigured World Literature, where local and global belonging were not in contradiction. The ‘Belges de Rieder' were known in Belgium, France and abroad; they were translated into several languages, and they were in contact with other writers from all over the world - for example in the columns of Europe, the international review that Rieder launched and published. The current situation for these same authors is completely different. Some of them are still being reprinted, but their ‘local' side clearly prevails. A study of the publishing circles involved, now and then, shows that is not (only) a corpus, it is mainly a way of circulating and reading literary texts. Some works can aspire to a ‘world' dimension but they struggle to assert themselves for lack of an adequate system of publication, distribution or even critical reading.

Affect Theory and Literary Criticism

The “affective turn” is by now long established, part of a wider surge of interest in emotion playing out in a range of disciplines. In literary studies, the conversation about how affect theory might help us to interpret literature is still emerging. The goal of the present discussion is to provide a critical overview of work by scholars who draw on the insights of recent theory to read literary texts written in English. At the same time that the discussion offers an appraisal of the current state of scholarship, it also seeks to identify emerging new directions in research.

"A Rare Vocabulary Dictionary based on school curriculum literature": theoretical issues of creation and methodological prospects for use

The article describes the principles of compiling the Rare Vocabulary Dictionary based on school curriculum literature (hereinafter referred to as the Dictionary) and its methodological potential for being used as an electronic educational resource in teaching schoolchildren. Moreover, the study examines the specific features of the Dictionary in comparison with similar existing lexicographic publications. The Dictionary creation is relevant as there is a need to make Russian classical literature texts more understandable for the modern reader. As a result, the resource can promote the culture of reading literary texts and the formation of students’ linguistic personality, as well as enhance learning efficiency. The Dictionary materials were comprised of Russian authors’ works included in the school literature curriculum for years 5 to 11. The paper pays particular attention to the innovative solutions concerning the principles of glossary compilation and dictionary entry creation. The research relied on corpus linguistics methodology and its tools for working with text, which enabled us to select vocabulary based on objective criteria (low frequency in modern Russian) and describe the meaning of a particular word relying on the entire set of contexts of its use in the literature under study. The focus of lexicographic interpretation was an extensive layer of rare vocabulary of various semantic groups (including proper names and occasionalisms) and different parts of speech. Semantic description demonstrates the history of word meanings in the language in conjunction with contextual interpretation of a lexical unit. The entries contain encyclopedic information and a detailed cultural and/or philological commentary. Maximal attention is given to authorial neologisms. Some entries are accompanied by images of the item being described. The Dictionary is implemented as a module of the new Russian Classics cross platform mobile application. The article also describes the operating principles and capabilities of the application.

The Iraqi EFL Learners' Awareness of the Role of Reading Literature in their Creative Writing

This study examines the extent of awareness among Iraqi English foreign language learners about the potential impact of reading literature on developing their creative writing abilities. Furthermore, this study investigates the relationship between those who partake in literature reading and their academic skills. It examines the participation of 120 Iraqi EFL learners currently enrolled in the faculties of Arts, Education, and Education in Qurna, affiliated with the University of Basrah. It employs a mixed methods approach, including a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between reading literary texts and developing creative writing skills. Several literary elements enhance creative writing, including a comprehensive understanding of figures of speech, cultivating critical thinking skills, engaging in literature courses, practicing paraphrasing poetry, and exposure to various literary genres. The findings also demonstrate that EFL learners profoundly understand the impact of engaging with literary texts on their academic abilities.

The culture of reading for acquisition and learning of content knowledge for English language and literature in English in higher education

This study aims to explore the culture of reading literary texts in higher education and the strategies that can enhance the acquisition and learning of the content knowledge for both English Language and Literature in English. The study adopted an interpretivist paradigm and qualitative research design. The study is qualitative in nature. Language in/for/with content and schema theories form the basis for the study. The former holds that language cannot be acquired outside content whilst schemata are stored mental structures that determine the acquisition of new knowledge; thus, literary content knowledge may not be acquired/learned outside linguistic and communicative competencies and vice versa. Data were collected from the relevant literature from the past six years. It was interpreted and analysed thematically. The results showed that students' habit of reading is poor which affects their academic performance. In addition, new technological devices make learning easier and more accessible, but it negatively affects students' ability to read authentic texts for information and entertainment. The study therefore concludes that university students do not read literary texts because of the bad use of information and communication technology. However, the use of digital libraries could improve the situation. The findings suggest that institutions of higher learning should have strategies to engage linguists and literary scholars in the habit of reading literary texts. University libraries should be equipped with relevant and updated digital reading materials.

O pożytkach badań posthumanistycznych dla dydaktyki polonistycznej

The aim of the article is to present a new tendency of humanities (transhumanism, posthumanism, new materialism) in the educational context. In the first part, the relationships between Polish language teaching in primary and secondary schools and literary studies are characterized in historical order. The school and university cooperation allows to conserve suitable impact on the pupils’ knowledge, skills, and their moral attitude to contemporary reality. Scientific support of school curricula is today very urgent because we are living in a chaotic reality that Zygmunt Bauman called liquid modernity. The classical patterns of knowledge and authority have been disappearing for dozens of decades. Moreover, we live in “a realm” of big data, rapid processes of digitalization, and a plethora of information. The second part of the article relates to different subjects of anthropology of literature, first of all transhumanism, posthumanism, and new materialism, which allow us to demonstrate the human condition in a new light. A teacher, using the tools of the new humanities, while reading literary texts, can indicate the natural relationships between man and the natural environment: plants, animals, terrain, climate.

Incorporating literature in EFL classroom: attitudes and experiences

This study presents findings about first-year undergraduate students' attitudes to and experiences with reading literary texts in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context. It also explores the degree of literature integration in EFL lessons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We conducted the research with ninety-eight students at the International University of Sarajevo (IUS); we examined their attitudes towards different literary genres, difficulties they face while reading literary texts, the type of assistance they prefer while reading, and their general interests concerning literature. The findings indicate that students prefer short stories to other genres and learn best through exploring themes meaningful to them. The results also show that literary texts in EFL classrooms are frequently used for vocabulary purposes. Literature is mainly integrated into EFL classrooms, except for technical high schools and madrasahs./ Keywords: EFL, literature, literary texts, attitudes, experiences, literature integration

The Use of Mind Map in Collaborative Learning Activities of a Literary Reading Class

The use of mind map as collaborative learning activities in literary reading class will be examined. The students will choose any kind of technology tools to make a mind map in reading class. The aims of this study are to identify the implementation of using mind map in collaborative learning activities of a literary reading class and students’ perceptions on it. This is a mixed method research. The data are taken from observation and questionnaires. The observation results are used to analyze the implementation of using mind map in collaborative learning activities of a literary reading class. The questionnaires are used to identify students’ perception on it. This study results that the students had positive perception toward the use of mind map and believed that it helps them learn the materials faster, save more time in doing collaborative work, understand the relationship between ideas, and more motivated to read literary texts.

Assessing Iraqi Learners’ Perceptions and Attitudes through Reading Literary Texts

The purpose of this paper is to assess how reading literature has affected the cultural experiences of Iraqi students. This study was conducted among third-year students at the department of English and literature to evaluate their cultural background in reading literature. The responses of the students to reading literature were compiled using a survey to gather data. The study involved asking a minimum of 42 Iraqi students, with 86% of the respondents being female and 14% male. The researcher employed closed-ended questions from a questionnaire in order to gather information about the students' literary reading experiences. A variety of statistical tools were used to analyze the data. The study's outcomes (Mean=3.63) show that Iraqi students' experiences and attitudes were accepted to a full degree as a result of reading literary texts. According to the results of a survey on the cultural experiences and personal information through reading literature, the majority of Iraqi students have favorable attitudes and positive perceptions toward reading literature. The majority of students choose literary texts over non-literary ones when reflecting on their own experiences, attitudes, or observations, as well as on past experiences, present needs, and connections to the text's ideas.

Criminal Bodies in Popular Victorian and Modernist Detective Fiction

This paper will examine the representation of the criminal body in detective fiction from the popular Victorian story magazine The Strand in its relationship to modernist experimental fiction which draws on the detective genre. Offering a broad survey of the Sherlock Holmes and other detective stories published in the first fourteen years of The Strand (1891-1904), the paper will argue that the period’s theories of criminal anthropology and hereditary criminality are consistently called into question in the popular magazine, suggesting that late-Victorian detective fiction was ambivalent toward theories of biologically determined criminality and was alive to problems of racial and class prejudice, corruption, and misidentification in criminal detection. Moving from the popular press to the canon, the paper will then make a claim for reading literary texts like G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale alongside the classic detective fiction of the popular press. To understand these novels in their engagements with classic detective fiction is to reconceptualize the notion of a neat divide between the period’s genres of fiction and to reach for a broader frame of literary responses to early criminology.

Fluctuation in cognitive engagement during listening and reading of erotica and horror stories

ABSTRACT The present study examined whether emotional text content influences cognitive engagement and transportation during listening (Experiment 1) and reading (Experiment 2) of neutral, horror and erotic stories. In Experiment 1, fluctuation in arousal and cognitive engagement were measured by continuous arousal judgments and head movement recordings during story listening. Participants rated experienced transportation and emotional valence after each story. The results showed that emotional texts were more arousing and induced more transportation than neutral stories. There was less head motion overall and a steeper decrease in head motion across time for erotic than neutral or horror stories. In Experiment 2, participants’ head movements and reading times were recorded during reading, and participants rated experienced transportation, arousal, and valence after each text. The results showed that emotional texts were more arousing and induced higher transportation than neutral stories. There was less head motion during reading of erotic than neutral or horror texts. Horror texts were read slower and recalled better than neutral or erotic texts. The present results show that emotional text content impacts cognitive engagement during listening and reading of literary texts and demonstrates the importance of methodological triangulation when examining cognitive engagement.

Students’ Attitude To Reading Of Literary Texts: A Case Study Of Akinyele Local Government Area Of Oyo State, Nigeria

This study investigates the attitudes of secondary school students towards reading literary texts in the Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State. The survey research design was used, and four public secondary schools were randomly selected. A total of 200 SSII students who were studying literature in English were randomly selected from these schools. The research instrument used was the Students' Attitude to Reading of Literary Texts Questionnaire (r=.79). Descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage scores, mean, and standard deviation, and inferential statistics such as t-test at the 0.05 level of significance were used to analyze the data. The study found that the students had a weighted mean of 2.74, which was greater than the threshold. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between male and female students in their attitudes towards text possession (t (197) = .180; p=.857>.05; Mean Difference = .19701) or their attitudes towards reading (t (196) = -.014; p=.989>.05; Mean Difference = -.01164). Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that teachers of literature-in-English should encourage students to develop a positive attitude towards reading literary texts. Teachers should adopt methods that will enhance students' positive attitudes towards reading literary texts, and students should be encouraged to read all recommended literary texts. Additionally, parents should purchase all recommended literary texts for their children and encourage them to develop a positive attitude towards reading these texts.

Powered modernity, contested space: literary modernism and the London tram

ABSTRACT A literary history of London’s tramways spans the period between late-Victorian and High Modernism, encompassing naturalist fiction, reportage, creative non-fiction, modernist poetry, and the psychological novel. The same timespan saw the horse tram give way to the electric tram, which itself faced replacement by motor buses and trolleybuses during the 1930s. This essay intersects these two narratives, of literary history and of transport history, as a contribution to mobility humanities focused on the city. Trams and tramways had a peculiarly in-between identity as vehicles and environments emerging from powered modernity but associated with the proletariat, as well as the urban districts where they lived. Reading literary texts by Arthur Morrison, Ford Madox Ford, and Virginia Woolf, spotlighted here as part of a broader corpus extending from the 1880s to the 1980s, brings the tramways’ interstitiality to life. Trams, the literary readings demonstrate, were a contact zone that threatened to overturn separations of class and gender, as well as presaging an expanded future in which the city would be built around the industrial working class. The curtailment of tram operations in 1930s London meant that such a future never came to pass, but literary texts are windows onto its possibility.

A Mighty Cooperative

A Mighty Cooperative