Female Subjectivity: A Re-reading of Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter (Published)
Polygamy in Africa has being in existence before the advent of religion, western education and colonization. Once upon a time, polygamy had numerous advantages, so much so that the benefits superseded the disadvantages. But this is not the case today. Over the years, scholars from different fields of knowledge have contributed to the discourse of polygamy, while trying to investigate its necessity in the lives of the each individual in the family. While most were against it, few were in support of it. Bâ explores the problems of polygamy, patriarchy and female oppression in the context of African and Western cultures. She critiques polygamy by exploring its cons in the lives of women. This essay looks at the contribution imaginative literature has to offer to this discourse. Hence, this essay examines the portrayal of polygamy as it relates to female subjectivity in Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter; especially how religion and society contributes to the oppression of women and children in a polygamous relationship.
Citation: Kehinde, Kemi Rebecca (2022) Female Subjectivity: A Re-reading of Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.10, No.5, pp. 50-55
Keywords: Culture, Polygamy, Religion., Society, family
Cultural Hegemony and the Teaching of Global English Language: Indian Perspective (Published)
Globalization has manifold implications and importance. From Political to financial from trade and commerce to culture and social behaviour. The post globalized world has seen the cultural invasion of America and Europe in various ways. One of the prominent ways of this cultural invasion is the supreme importance of the English language. They have made the English language their medium of cultural dissemination resulting into the supremacy of the occidental culture in oriental countries. Through language culture is spread and through culture their literature, music, food, lifestyle everything is spread and makes room for billion-dollar business. This paper aims at finding the roots of Cultural Hegemony of the west through the teaching of American English in the guise of Global English.
Citatuon: Lilack Biswas (2022) Cultural Hegemony and the Teaching of Global English Language: Indian Perspective, European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol.10, No.5, pp.1-9
Keywords: Culture, English language teaching, Globalization, cultural hegemony, global English, transnational English
Universal Pro-Human Message Expressed in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent (Published)
This paper attempts to tackle the most important humanistic themes dealt with in Diana Abu-Jaber`s novel Crescent (2003). The novel explores universal human themes connected with exile and the quest for identity. The story of Crescent is the story of the whole Arab immigrants living in exile. The novel revolves around a multi-cultural love story between an Iraqi man expelled out of his country and an Iraqi immigrant chef named Sirine. Diana highlights in the novel the painful feelings of people who leave their countries and live in exile. In many places, she refers to the sufferings of immigrants and what may occur to them in the countries they settle in. She further laments the real loss of depressed and frustrated people who are forced to leave their homelands. The writer`s prime focus on the humanistic, innovative, and compassionate aspects of Arab and Muslim culture is a proactive denouncement against the stereotyping viewpoints by which the majority of American people perceive refugees from middle-eastern countries. This biased view permitted the US government to rule the country over several years of military conflicts, binding force, and unattained human rights in Iraq with hardly any popular resistance. The researcher employs a critical and analytical approach in discussing the themes of the novel. This paper reveals the aesthetic dimensions in the story as realistic, romantic, and symbolic trends and how the writer combines them successfully to enhance the theme of human interaction within different ethnic groups.
Keywords: Culture, Identity, Immigrants, Middle East, crescent, exile.
Symbolism and Race in Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman (Published)
Theatre is one of the means by which different cultures both proclaim and question themselves.It is constantly connected with the broad forces of insurrection and rituals in different societies. Starting from the beginning of the previous century theatre has developed as a practice with which to rethink gender, violence, ethnicity, identity and arts. Racial thinking and modern stage interact to reset an understanding of race and turn individual experiences into art. Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman (1964) is the study of a culture of white supremacy that has historically marginalized all other races, presenting some possible consequences. In an attempt to combat the deep rooted problem of racial discrimination in the American society, Baraka tries to examine and analyze the psyche behind it.
Keywords: Culture, Discrimination, Violence, race
The effectiveness of culture on EFL learners during COVID-19 (Published)
This article aims to investigate the relationships between culture and Language. The motivation for this article is driven from the need to understand how culture plays an effective role in learning EFL through suitable specific instructional strategies. One of the educators ‘ attempts is to take the advantage of the technology to invest the culture to get effective learning of the English Language through E-tools. And this serves and support education in the age of COVID-19.Language is the backbone of communication. It is more than vocabularies and grammar, it comprises cultural, social, and communicative settings that were considered the fruitful environment to learn the language. Teaching cultural content via E-tools is a unique method of teaching the English Language in the crisis to bridge the educational gaps in the students’ learning in the E- space of learning. There are cultural issues that are deserved to be learned and adopting them in the educational system for widening the pupils ‘minds toward learning English as a second language. Those issues could be implemented by suitable teaching strategies to let students learn professionally as well as to overcome the cultural challenges in light of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, Culture, Language, Second Language
Influence of Learning English on Identity Switch among Senior Secondary School Students in Owerri Zone, Imo State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the influence of learning English on identity switch among senior secondary school students in Owerri zone, Imo State Nigeria. Data for the study were collected by means of a structured and pre-tested questionnaire based on Likert 5-point ratings. The data were analyzed by using Mann-Whitney method of estimating mean scores. Results showed that students are more elated using English in their communications than Igbo, their first language (L1). Findings showed that the influence of English on the cultural identity of the respondents is such that many feel uncomfortable in the midst of their compatriots who do not speak English. Finally, the study demonstrated that Students learning English in Owerri zone switch their identities to suit the target language. The study recommended that productive bilingualism can serve as an educational objective, where teachers may simultaneously cultivate learners’ intrinsic interest, and positive attitudes and beliefs associated with the target language and culture on one hand, and the native language (Igbo) and culture on the other hand.
Keywords: Culture, Ethnicity, Identity, Learning, Second Language
Influence of Learning English on Identity Switch among Senior Secondary School Students in owerri Zone, Imo State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated the influence of learning English on identity switch among senior secondary school students in Owerri zone, Imo State Nigeria. Data for the study were collected by means of a structured and pre-tested questionnaire based on Likert 5-point ratings. The data were analyzed by using Mann-Whitney method of estimating mean scores. Results showed that students are more elated using English in their communications than Igbo, their first language (L1). Findings showed that the influence of English on the cultural identity of the respondents is such that many feel uncomfortable in the midst of their compatriots who do not speak English. Finally, the study demonstrated that Students learning English in Owerri zone switch their identities to suit the target language. The study recommended that productive bilingualism can serve as an educational objective, where teachers may simultaneously cultivate learners’ intrinsic interest, and positive attitudes and beliefs associated with the target language and culture on one hand, and the native language (Igbo) and culture on the other hand.
Keywords: Culture, Ethnicity, Identity, Learning, Second Language
Gender in English as a Foreign Language Classroom: A Case Study (Published)
The impact of Gender in EFL classroom has always been an issue of discussion. With the difference of social and cultural background, the role of gender differs from nation to nation. In Bangladesh, gender role is defined based on social, cultural, and traditional beliefs. This study is an attempt to find out whether genders of learners as well as genders of teachers create barriers in EFL learning in Bangladesh. In the study a number of 198 students responded to the questionnaires prepared for a survey to find out the impact of gender of students and teachers in EFL classroom. Adding to this, 20 students and 9 teachers from a university further illustrated this issue by participating in semi-structured open ended interviews. The findings of this mixed method study reveal that the socio-culturally defined gender role of male and female in the society impacts inside English as a foreign language class in Bangladesh. Self-efficacy of teachers and learners may help address the issue. In this regard, emphasis may be put on teacher self-efficacy to raise awareness among the teachers and learner self-efficacy to help learners to consciously avoid gender discrimination in classroom at the tertiary level.
Keywords: Culture, EFL learning, Gender, Self-Efficacy, Teacher, learner
The Significance of a Personal and National Bildung and Its Nonlinear Nature: Charles Dickens’s Hard Times and Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy (Published)
Derived from the German philosophy of Bildung, literary works that can be categorized as bildungsroman have mainly focused on the individuals’ maturation and education. This study aims to expand on this notion of Bildung and observe how an individual’s maturation and education ultimately leads to the expansion of such action of becoming on a nationwide scale. By analyzing the relationship between the two different cases of bildung in action in Charles Dickens’s Hard Times and Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, this study aims to analyze in depth the correlation between the individuals’ maturation and the national bildung. The study examines the concepts of individual and national bildungs present in Dickens’s Hard Times, both within the characters at play as well as the Victorian English society immediately following the Industrial Revolution period. Outside the literary and fictional realms, the study finds the notion of the two kinds of bildungs in Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy. By comparing the two observations, the study ultimately suggests that the two bildungs do not necessarily share a chronologically linear relationship between each other.
Keywords: Bildung, Character Development, Culture, Education, Maturation, Victorian Era
HIP-LIFE AS A GENRE IN GHANA: A LINGUSTIC ANALYSIS OF SOME SELECTED GHANAIAN HIP-LIFE SONGS (Published)
Ghanaian hip-life songs are considered as one of the other folk songs, wise sayings, proverbs, and myths which must be studied in the broader context of African culture. The connotative and denotative meanings that are derived from the songs depict the points of view of the youth who skilfully craft, perform, listen and participate in the songs to a very large extent. Hip-life musicians always try to portray their culture by using codified and pedantic language such as alliteration, imagery, metaphor, hyperbole, simile, rhythm etc. by reaching out to the youth and this should be looked at critically. In this study, some selected Hip-life songs have been translated into English language and their devices employed by Hip-life artistes analysed. The songs selected include: Lord Kenya’s songs titled “Mmoborowa”(The Downtrodden) and “Yeresom Sika” (We are Worshipping Money); Joe Fraizer’s song ‘Yaa Maame’ (Yaa’s mother); Obrafour’s songs ‘‘Odo’’(Love) and “Okukuseku” and Obour’s song ‘Bo Atentenben’ (Blow Trumpets). The conclusion revealed the role of Hip-life songs in literary studies.
Keywords: Culture, Hip-life, linguistic analysis, music and literature