Hybridity and Colonial Desire: A Postcolonial Perspective on Translations by Brian Friel (Published)
In the postmodern world there is a need to address how European nations managed to subdue and reign over the cultures, also the consequences of colonialism on cultures and societies. So this paper will analyze Brian Friel’s Translations through a postcolonial outlook. The present study posits postcolonial perspective on Translations through characters and themes. The destructive nature of Western imperialism is highlighted through the characters of Lieutenant Yolland, Maire, Owen and Captain Lancey. The paper will exclusively look on the postcolonial concepts as employed in the play through the key terms of appropriation, hybridity, mimicry, hegemony, and exoticism as put forward by Homi K. Bhabha and Gramsci.
Keywords: Hegemony, Hybridity, Mimicry, Postcolonialism, appropriation, exoticism
The Trauma of Passage and Nostalgia of Return in Selected Arab- American Short Stories (Published)
The current paper investigates the experiences of passage and home nostalgia in four selected Arab-American short stories. These short stories are: O’Lebanon, by Evelyn Shakir, Death and Lebanon, by Barbara Bedway, The Calling, by Nahid Ratchlin, and The Top, by Kaldas Pauline, all which represent three different angles of indigenous cultures in Lebanon, Iran, and Egypt. The four stories celebrate the trauma of ‘transition’ in the light of Arnold Van Gennep’s and Victor Turner’s concepts of passage and transition. Nostalgia of return is approached under the concept of Svetlana Boym’s ‘reflective nostalgia’. The four stories involve home nostalgia as a common trait which colours their symbols of behavior and draw their maps of transition.
Keywords: Hybridity, Liminality, Neophytes, Nostalgia, Transition