CRITICAL LANGUAGE & LITERARY STUDIES
Year:2020 | Volume:17 | Issue:24|Papers Count:13

Introduction Ecocriticism in literature concentrates on literature and the environment or the Nature; it means it focuses on literature and the physical environment. Such study calls for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and other disciplines. Poets and authors have always been under the influences of the world around and the environment so that nature changed to be a source of inspiration to them. Background Studies Ecocriticism and Environmental literary studies were first introduced to the world of literature in 1970 in world’ s most important assembly “ The Western Literature Association” (WLA). After the Industrial revolution, human being transformed his connection with nature and started to experience a new season in his life. The earlier connection was based on a mutual relationship, but the new one was entirely shifted to something far from a mutual link. In other words, after the Industrial revolution, human being occupied an upper position and nature suffered from a banal one. Incidentally, the ecocritics enjoy various methods of analysis in their studies; some believe that nature is not more than a humanized structure which some poets like William Wordsworth started to form in their works. Many of these critics put nature as a counterpart of culture, or identify nature as instinct. Instinct is the main inner motive which transfers its effects to other creatures. It is identified with nature or the animal’ s desire to do profitable deeds. Materials and Methods The present study attempts to reveal ecocritical works and thoughts of two most significant Persian and American poets/authors, Nimā Yushij (1897-1960) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). To do this, the poetry and the letters of Nimā together with Emerson’ s book titled Nature (1836) have been selected. It is indicated how Nimā and Emerson’ s idealism is closely related to nature, and how it is based on Human-God-Nature-Justice circle. It is shown that nature is the major source of this circle. Hence, the present study, by the use of American School of Comparative studies, while applying a library-analytical approach, tries to compare and contrast the major thoughts of Nimā Yushij and Ralph Waldo Emerson due to their literary environmental writings. Furthermore, it is emphasized that these two poets belong to different languages and literatures; however, as far as the American School is based on Eclecticism in comparative studies, it is hoped that the major nature-oriented themes and ideas of these poets might be revealed in this essay. It should be also considered that the American School of comparative studies does not concentrate only on the effects or influences in literary studies; to such school, literary movements, genres and literary types, and the topics and themes of world literature are the fundamental spots of studies. Results and Discussions The study discloses how Emerson’ s outlook to nature is more philosophical than Nimā ’ s. When he talks about nature his idealistic motives start to appear. Both poets insist on the unity of human being and nature by unifying human history and natural history. The beauty of nature is another major theme of their poetry; both look at nature as the source of beauty and its pleasures. Emerson believes that the ultimate end of the cosmos is a desire to the beauty. Why human being is so much interested in the beauty is beyond the thoughts and logics of man. Furthermore, Nimā ’ s ecocritical tendencies are closely related to coexistence of man and nature, and the poet’ s thoughts are not separated from the beauties of nature and its inspiration. Nature, environment, and the world around are at the core of both Nimā and Emerson’ s thoughts and writings. To live naturally and to get involved with nature are their ideal way of life. To them, solitude and primitivism are man’ s solution to release him/her from the chains of society. Both of them complain about human being’ s distance from nature; they believe that solitude is mankind’ s opportunity to conform his/her soul to nature.

John Barth, among postmodern American novelists, is apt to be called the reviver of Pyrrhonist tradition in the Twentieth century. In his creation of Pyrrhonist characters, he criticizes the American value system and the empty life of contemporary man in a broad sense. The End of the Road, Barth’ s second novel is a successful example in which the marry traits of a protagonist give their place to the mean qualities of an antagonist. In the novel, the anti-hero characters suffering from a mental paralysis under the title “ Cosmopsis” resort to “ Mythotherapy” which means nothing but a distortion of identity. Among the consequences of this treatment are, of course, “ Decidophobia” and “ hyperbolic Cartesian doubt. ” Interestingly, Barth’ s description for the irrationality of such a man corresponds to the definition of rationality in Pyrrhonism. On this basis, the main question of the research arises from the fact that Barth’ s views are an embodiment of those historical thoughts regarded as Pyrrhonist skepticism, which have been developed through ages by different forms. Apart from the historical impressions on the formation of modern skeptical philosophy which was flourished first by Cartesian doubt and developed by Hume’ s empiricism the research also examines Barth’ s postmodern-skeptical cosmology which derives from his obsession with identity and meaning. The overall point inferred by the researchers is that how Barth in The End of the Road indicates human decisions rely most on “ emotions” rather than “ reason” and that the rationality of man take him nowhere but in itself.

Introduction Althusser's superiority in twentieth-century philosophy is due to his refined definition of ideology. He provides another foundation for Marxist philosophy and he considers it as a science leading to historical materialism; thus, Althusser's definition of ideology leads to the argument that capitalist societies of discourse have two distinct forms of discourse. Background Studies Post-colonial literature in general is one of the most prominent theoretical topics and approaches in literary research within the country. However, Ishmael Reed is a lesser-known figure than his global fortune. The only article to read one of Reed's works is "Identity Transmigration Through History: The Post-Structuralist Reading of Mambo Jumbo's Novel by Ishmael Reed" by Bakhtiar Sajjadi and Somayeh Ghorbani, published in the Journal of Foreign Language and Literature Criticism. Mambo reads Jumbo according to Hayden White's views and his post-structuralist definition of history. Argument and Method Reckless Eyeballing (2000) was published fourteen years after Mambo's Jumbo novel. Both novels are mainly about exposing the hidden layers of American society's ideology. Reed was heavily criticized for criticizing feminism in major parts of the work, calling it anti-feminist. Reed says of the multilayers of these texts: "[Feminists] complain about Thermnischa Smartes for why he leaves New York for California in the final part of the story to become a kid and write, write and write. " Of course, this is not in line with the goals of the new generation of feminists because they believe that they can own everything, including family and work. ” When Reed lets the term "radical have everything" as a radical feminist, he actually acquits himself on charges of being anti-feminist. This acquittal, while at the same time a clear attempt to criticize feminism, is a clear indication that a single interpretation of the novel is impossible. Conclusion Reed reacts frankly to the dominant discourse of his time. In Reckless Eyeballing novel, he aims the cultral ideology to show how literature has become a tool for the ruling class instead of expressing aesthetic values. Reed mentions the names of writers such as Eugene O'Neill, Ralph Eliessen, and Zora Neil Hurston, in order to express the intentions of using allegorical or metaphorical tools, therefore it becomes the undisputed spokesman for the American cultural community. He clearly informs the reader that the author must adapt to the ruling class and the Jews in order to gain a place in American literary society. Throughout the story we see that among black men only Schubert who submits to Jewish supporters can succeed in his career. Meanwhile, Smartes has allied himself with another powerful supporter, white feminism. Reed, in fact, clearly believes that literary success is the result of timely satisfaction with political and social circles. This is also the case with Ian Ball, whose incessant search for a female supporter actually reflects his quest for fame and success. The candid and honest exposition of the ideological mechanism of culture, referring to the real and real people of its time, makes the eye more of an "exemplary literature" than a "cultural ideological mechanism". The novel becomes a tool for change because of the revelation of the ideological discourse of its time, and it distances itself from becoming a tool for promoting the values of the ruling class.

The present study was designed following a scaffolding principle of sociocultural theory (Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976) with an attempt to investigate the role of the four scaffolding techniques, namely Hard, Soft (Saye & Brush, 2002), Reciprocal (Holton & Clarke, 2006), and Virtual (Yelland & Masters, 2007) in developing reading strategy of Iranian EFL learners. To accomplish the project, 80 homogeneous intermediate level male and female EFL learners with the age range of 19 to 25 in one of the language institutes in Bandar Abbas were chosen from 100 intermediate students according to their performance in a sample Preliminary English Test (PET) which was first piloted with 30 students with similar characteristics to check the reliability of the test. The selected participants were randomly divided into 4 groups, namely Soft Scaffolding Group (SSG), Hard Scaffolding Group (HSG), Reciprocal Scaffolding Group (RSG), and Virtual Scaffolding Group (VSG). The learners in all groups received a survey of reading strategies (Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2002), their respective intervention, and the survey of reading strategies as a posttest. Likewise, in the qualitative section of the study, the learners’ self-reports as well as the teacher’ s observations were used to collect the data. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS software version 25, employing one-way ANOVA and multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) to compare the mean scores of the four experimental groups on the posttest reading strategies. The qualitative data pertained to the learners’ reports and teacher’ s classroom observations were analyzed using open and axial coding methods. In terms of reading strategies, the results revealed that not only traditional and virtual scaffolding treatments had different effects on the development of global, problem solving, and supporting reading strategies among Iranian EFL learners, the hard scaffolding group (as a traditional scaffolding group) had the highest use of reading strategies followed by the virtual scaffolding group. Nevertheless, reciprocal and soft scaffolding groups (following other traditional forms of scaffolding) similarly had less use of reading strategies. Findings of this study extended earlier understandings of scaffolding in an EFL environment and could contribute to the advancement of future courses in terms of their scaffolding pedagogical aspects.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’ s idea of metamorphosis and metempsychosis, as traceable in his essays “ History” and “ Poet, ” has recently attracted the attention of Emersonians such as Michael Corrigan and Michael Cowan. According to these scholars Emerson has expanded the Indian and Greek definition of these notions and has come to give a metamorphic quality to almost every aspect of life and his idea of the ideal poet. Cowan has also traced two metamorphic processes in Emerson’ s famous poem “ Bacchus, ” which according to scholars such as John D. Yohannan is an imitation of Hafiz’ s “ Saghinameh. ” This point allows this article to go back to “ Saghinameh” and show that the metamorphic quality attributed to “ Bacchus” is rooted in Emerson’ s translation of “ Saghinameh. ” This article also argues that a few other poems of Emerson that have metamorphosis as their main theme are in one way or another related to his translations from the Divan of Hafiz. In this way, on the one hand, this paper is contributing to the discussions about metamorphosis in Emersonian thought; and on the other hand, it is contributing to the studies that address the function of Emerson’ s engagement with Persian poetry and its relation to his career as a thinker and a poet. Research Background Emerson’ s respect for Persian thought and poetry is a well known subject to most Emersonians and those interested in transnational studies. The different ways in which Perisan poetry has influenced Emerson’ s poetry have been addressed by many esteemed scholars such as F. I. Carpenter, Arthur Christy, and John D. Yohannan. More recently scholars such as Lawrence Buell have come to give a more central place to Emerson’ s engagement with Persian poetry and his related translations. For scholars such as Jan Stievermann this aspect of Emerson’ s career is best demonstrative of his cosmopolitanism and his openness to World Literature. Finally and more recently, the Doctoral dissertation of Roshanak Akrami: “ ‘ The Sense of a Half-Translated Ode of Hafis’ : Emerson’ s Translations of Persian Poetry” (2015), which examines Emerson’ s poetry notebooks and the drafts of translations he has left, focuses on Emerson’ s theory of translation and the different ways in which Persian poetry affects Emerson’ s career and is affected by it. Nevertheless, the relationship between Emerson’ s idea of metamorphosis and his translations of Persian poetry has not been addressed in any other research. Method This article examines three original poems of Emerson and looks at his translation of Hafiz’ s “ Saghinameh. ” It traces Emerson’ s idea of metamorphosis highlighted by Michael Cowan in Emerson’ s “ Bacchus” back to Saghinameh and Hafiz’ s notion of “ wine of awakening. ” By examining Emerson’ s original poems, his translations, drafts of these translations, and the German and Persian versions of these poems, this study is using a genetic reading method that allows seeing the process of production of these poems and the concepts that have emerged in this process. Conclusion The metamorphic quality that wine has in Emerson’ s “ Baachus” is directly taken from Hafiz’ s “ Saghinameh. ” In both poems wine awakens and gives vision and access to the unseen and past and future. In “ Proteus” and “ Poet of Poets” Emerson employs the Divan’ s concept of love in two different ways. That is to say, while in both poems love is used as a metaphor for metamorphosis; in “ Proteus” Emerson adopts the Divan’ s notion of suffering and loss that follows mystical love and uses it to attribute pain to his idea of metamorphosis. In “ Poet of Poets, ” on the other hand, wine gives the power of metamorphosis to the poet and makes him a seer and an insider. In this way it can be said the mystical power of love and wine has found a new life in Emerson’ s writings.

Introduction Given the close relationship between language and culture, language can be seen as a manifes tation of culture. With the advent of globalization and the formation of multicultural and multilingual societies, there is a need to introduce the culture of other countries to es tablish intercultural communication. According to the current s tatus of English as an international language (EIL), English language learners do not need to internalize the cultural principles of native speakers since this language does not belong to a particular nation exclusively (Smith, 1983). Therefore, the main role of EIL is to create the possibility of intercultural exchange between second language users around the world (McKay, 2004). Similarly, teaching and learning of English should be done in such a way that language is considered only as a means to communicate and exchange ideas on various issues (Kachru, 1992). Hence, the cultural content of language textbooks should not be limited to the presentation of the cultural values of English-speaking countries at the expense of the cultural values of other nations (Alptekin, 2002). Background of the s tudy: In recent years, the s tudy of English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks from a cultural perspective has been of particular importance in various countries (for example, Birjandi & Meshkat, 2003; Ansary & Babaii, 2003; Amini & Birjandi, 2012; Tahririan & Sadri, 2013; Aliakbari, 2004; Khajavi & Abbasian, 2011). A common finding of these s tudies is that the cultural components of non-English speaking countries are not presented in ELT materials. In other words, these s tudies have been unanimous in concluding that ELT materials have not been successful in educating and familiarizing second language learners with the cultural values of other countries and the image presented by them is limited to the culture of Wes tern countries. Methodology The present s tudy aimed to analyze the ESL grammar textbook Communicate What You Mean: A Concise Advanced Grammar (CWYM) from a cultural perspective. The main criteria for selecting this book was that it has been widely used as the course book for teaching Grammar & Writing courses in English language programs at the undergraduate level in mos t of the universities across the country. In order to carry out the content analysis, Yuen’ s (2010) model was employed which consis ted of four components of Products, Practices, Perspectives and Persons. Initially, the researchers carefully perused all the chapters of the book along with various grammar exercises that were included in them. Then, they extracted and categorized the examples of each cultural component in four groups of Products, Practices, Perspectives and Persons and reported the frequency and percentage of each one of them. Discussion and Conclusion The present paper analyzed the cultural content of CWYM grammar book, which is widely used in teaching English grammar to non-native speakers. The findings revealed that despite the current s tatus of English as an international language, the main emphasis of the book is on the cultural values of English-speaking countries and the culture of non-native users of English has been ignored to a great extent. These results are consis tent with the findings of other s tudies, including Shimoku (2000), McKay (2004), Adaskou et al. (1990), and Zarei et al. (2017). What all these s tudies have in common is that ELT materials promote the attitude and lifes tyle of English-speaking countries that are clearly rooted in the cultural values of Wes tern countries. Despite efforts to localize English language textbooks, imported books which are currently available in the market are s till in favor of of Wes tern cultural values and impose the cultural norms of English-speaking countries on second language learners around the world which is obviously at odds with the current s tatus of English as an international language. One of the proposed solutions in this regard is to moderately localize ELT materials through providing a combination of educational resources based on the cultural values of learners as well as international cultural values. Moreover, language teachers should critically evaluate the cultural components of ELT materials before presenting them, thereby assis ting learners to achieve intercultural competence and have a good performance in both local and multicultural environments. It is only in this way that language learners can gain more knowledge and confidence about their own culture and reach a point where they can play an active role in introducing their national cultural values to other nations.

Curriculum is a pre-regulated document that includes the general learning goals, the goals for any of the provided subjects, teaching activities and evaluating methods. Nowadays, by the increase in the number of foreign language students, teaching language has gained a considerable importance and a great number of these students study language through their university education. Hence, an integrative curriculum could meet the needs of the students and the education system. The curriculum of teaching German language major in master’ s program in Islamic Azad University has been prepared around 20 years ago in order to train qualified people for teaching this language in the universities and higher education institutes to meet the needs of the society by providing the professional human resources in the field of research in teaching language. This curriculum could not meet all the needs of the current students of German language teaching major in master’ s program and it is not able to train the students with adequate skills for teaching German language. This research tries to study the current curriculum and provides solutions to improve it. For this purpose, the information was generally collected from library studies including articles, thesis and books related to teaching. Also, in the field study, the statistical research was carried out by studying 20 students of German language teaching in the master’ s program of IAU Science and Research Branch, Tehran. Initially, the prerequisites and main subjects provided in this curriculum were studied and the objectives, weaknesses and strengths of this curriculum are considered. Subsequently, the students’ opinions were analyzed and ultimately, a set of recommendations are provided to improve the curriculum through considering the carried-out studies on the curriculum of German language teaching in the master’ s program of IAU Science and Research Branch, Tehran, and the carried-out survey summary. It could be generally claimed that the teaching units provided in German language teaching major is theoretical and the lack of practical experiences is considerably felt among the graduates of this major. Additionally, due to the curriculum being outdated, a need for updating and revising the curriculum, considering the latest research in the field of teaching, seems necessary. Considering the fact that further education for the students of all majors related to German language in Ph. D., in state universities and IAU, is only possible in German language teaching major, the new curriculum should be designed so that it could provide the basis for the further education, while meeting the specific needs in this course.

Introduction Geopoetics is a new theory in art and literature critic that studies the importance of places in literary and artistic creations. Geopoetics is an open and interdisciplinary approach. It is a link between literature and geography. Also, it is related to the philosophy and intellectual nomadism. Although this approach is new, it shows the knowledge of its founders on the science of East and West. Geopoetics aims at placing the link between man and Earth at the center of reflection. It is a geo-centered approach-geo in Greek means earth-which gives a primordial place to literature. It consists of two terms: the geo prefix and the poetic suffix. The “ geo” , that is, the earth and our place in the cosmos. In this article, we will first study what geopoetics means and then we will check how geopoetics relates to the Other. And for that, we will analyze Fleurs de Ruine by Patrick Modiano. The works of Patrick Modiano are good examples. It has the same precision as that of a cartographer. He is the novelist of the Parisian space. The wandering of its narrator, of its characters, allows the evocation of places. We can say that he does not live in Paris but he circulates there. Walking and wandering is the central theme in Ruined Flowers. We see from the beginning of the novel the places traveled by the narrator-walker. We can see using Google Maps the landscape seen by the narrator and we can be on the place where this character was. Background Studies Michel Chaillou who, in his book Le Sentiment Gé ographique (1976), checks the geographic space and who declares that in this kind of text, “ reading is not walking, at first sight “ but the reality is that during reading” the sentence becomes a path. So we can say that Modiano’ s sentences are paths to travel that highlight mobility. What is essential for a geopoetic reading. Geopoetic reading is also a journey, a displacement especially through thought. The reader-critic tries to follow the steps of the narrator and the character. He thinks simultaneously of his relationship with the land and places. He also wonders what relationship he could establish with this place described by the author. The critic is thus present in his analyzes and he has an active role in the geopoetic approach. Argument During this study, the meeting with the other is inevitable. The city is the meeting place with the other, as Barthes says, and wandering prepares for the sometimes unexpected meetings with the other. The narrator is a walker. While walking, he meets the other characters who are often pedestrians too when they walk in the streets or when they frequent other places like coffee, bar, cinema, etc. This is how spatiality is strongly linked to the question of otherness. For the narrator-walker, the Other and the sometimes hazardous encounter with him remind us of the places frequented and the places can also, in turn, evoke the memory of Others. The landscapes and spaces remind him of other people. For us, it’ s quite significant that a place reminds him of a character, an Other. This shows that geopoetic study is inseparable from the study of the Other. The main question is to understand what the role of places in the novel is and how places can help humans to know themselves. Conclusion to answer our initial question: how does geopoetics help us read the text? It must be said that during a geopoetic reading, the reader inhabits the text. He follows the steps of the writer. He travels the world as tirelessly as he does and gives space a central place. What we did in reading Flowers of Ruin by Modiano. Thus, reading becomes a path. In this round trip between the world of the text and his world, by a mental movement, he inevitably meets otherness, especially cultural otherness. It’ s the unchanging constancy of geopoetics to listen to the Other while crossing places. The Other is not defined only in human relationships but in the meeting of a culture and a crossed space. We have already mentioned that in the geopoetic approach, openness to the world and meeting with the Other is very important. We see that Modiano’ s narrator meets the Other during his walks. This meeting with the Other is very decisive in his quest for identity.

Literature and cinema are two artistic branches that have always had interactions and close relationships with each other. The influence of these two has created befitting works either in literature or in cinema. The "Wight nights" movie in the early eighties of the solar decade was written by Saeed Aghighi, under the influence of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's work with the same name. The woman and her passionate feelings are the main focus of these two works. In this study, considering the time, place, and cultural differences between the two works and the relationships, commonalities, and differences between the two countries, i. e., Iran and Russia, the similarities and differences between elements of feminism and law And the personality of the woman in the relevant society will be examined from the American School of Comparative Literature. Analysis and interpretations, sexual intercourse, distrust of the opposite sex, personality dependence and lack of participation in social activities are the common features of the social and psychological conditions of the Russian and Iranian women, and in some cases shown differences in bewitching, pride and artistic and literary awarenesses. The mentioned similarities and differences in the aforementioned film are due to the acceptance and adaptation of the themes to the temporal and spatial conditions of the society under study, and the writer has compared the aspects of the Iranian contemporary female personality with the 19th-century Russian woman.

Introduction This article attempts to analyze the concepts of transculturation, ideology and double consciousness in Amiri Baraka’ s ideological plays; The Great Goodness of Life: A Coon Show (1969) and The Slave Ship (1967). In order to get this objective, Frantz Fanon’ s concepts of transculturation and the identity in regards to the symptom of double consciousness, as well as the ideas of Slavoj Zizek in analyzing the psycho-ideological impacts have been utilized. The blacks were defined as the ‘ Others’ , and the dreams of ‘ Becoming’ have never been easily applicable for them. They become separated from their homeland, and labored in the new world of Western multinational capitalism among the forms of colonization. The plays of Amiri Baraka focus on the revolutionary work of art. This study concentrates on Baraka's attempts toward his black plays as the notion of critical response to the dominated ideology which stands against the black community. Background of the Studies: This study is an attempt to consider ethno-psycho-ideological key concepts while reading Baraka’ s plays. Amiri Baraka formerly known as LeRoi Jones (1934 – 2014) is a black American poet, activist, scholar and playwright. Throughout most of his career, he supported and assisted in re-establishing of the influential Black Arts movement which sought to move black writers away from western aesthetic sensibilities toward a more complete embrace of the black world. Baraka is known for his aggressive style and his controversial writing. He has penned more than 50 books, including fiction, music criticism, essays, short stories, poetry and plays in order to explore and examine Black life, love, and social order. Materials and Discussions This research will be an interdisciplinary discourse, fascinated with the spectacle of the racism, as the images of the colonial and black ‘ Others’ which become a trope of desire for the hybrid identities. The discussions will take place in the realm of transculturalism and hybridity, as well as the identities which evoke the challengeable racial and ideological experiences in Fanon’ s thought. Being the ‘ Other’ and having double consciousness are under the invitation of the black subject to mimic white culture in order to obtain political and social comformity. Zizek’ s opening discussion in his The Sublime Object of Ideology is to claim that today ideology has delved in the political landscape. He insists, Althusser’ s understanding of ideological identification suggests that an individual is wholly interpellated into a place within a political system by the system’ s dominant ideology and ideological state apparatuses. His ideas are formed by drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, around the ideological dis-identification and jouissance as political factors. Result and Discussion The third play of Four Black Revolutionary Plays is Great Goodness of Life: A Coon Show (1969) which employed the combinatory techniques and styles of expression, and subtitled as A Coon Show to demonstrate that the play parodies the nineteenth-century American black minstrel show which was created by whites to satirize, exaggerate, and to ridicule black life-styles through the use of myth. The black protagonist, Court Royal is accused by an electronic voice, of shielding a wanted criminal. It is black man’ s gullibility that Baraka seems to resent the most. Slave Ship (1967) is a historical pageant consists of projected images, different styles of black dance and chant, plus pause and silence. The setting of the play is a slave ship, the cries of enslaved women and men, and white sailors laughing while calculating the number of slaves. Inscribed in the play is the nationalist revolution Baraka envisions, in order to transform realities of bondage, cultural defamation, and racial prejudice. Conclusion Both plays of Amiri Baraka, in this study, are the revolutionary work of art. His plays indicate the centrality of a black massive movement toward the achievement of complete self-rule and self-realization. His experimental works in the 1960s are considered as the most significant African-American ones. Baraka’ s powerful revolutionary art and political actions were directed entirely to the black and white audiences.

This article focuses on the re-emergence of “ camp” and rebirth of “ homo sacers” in Monica Ali’ s In the Kitchen (2009) through the perspective of new-left thinkers. Deploying Giorgio Agamben’ s views, the writer has tried to discuss how the biopolitical stands of the neo-liberal humanism in the West has abused the notion of “ state of exception” to trigger a new type of “ master-slave discourse” in the postcolonial era. To this end, notions of “ bio-politics, ” “ indistinct zones/non-places, ” and “ bare life” have been studied. It is argued that with the politicization of life, the deprivation of migrants from “ bios” and “ zoe, ” the imposition of “ bare life” on them, and their limitaion to the borders of “ citizenship/ noncitizenship, ” “ life/ death, ” “ belonging-nonbelonging, ” and “ the self/ the other, ” the West has once more repeated the old binary opposition of the “ us/ them” in the recent decades. Such treatment on the part of the West has given birth to “ homo sacer” figures as well as establishment of “ camps” in the center of imperialism and, thus, justified the violation of migrants’ rights under the stigmatization of them as “ national enemies. ”

In Shakespeare’ s portrayal of madness, mind and body are not considered as binary opposites; on the contrary, they appear to be closely intertwined. A number of the most memorable characters in Shakespeare’ s dramatic works suffer from mental disorders. A study of these characters’ mental problems on the basis of new psychological perspectives reveals that many of their mental obsessions and anxieties result from considerations pertaining to body. The interrelation between psyche and soma is most clearly discernible in the process of subjectivity in the course of which speaking subjects have to demarcate the territory of their independent and autonomous self primarily through separation from the maternal body and by constructing an independent, clean and proper body of their own. Such a body has a clear territory and exact borderlines. Besides, it has a distinct sexual identity. The subject’ s effort to construct such an image of his/her body is not merely a personal and private matter. It is influenced by social, cultural, and biological standards since the subject tries to harmonize this image with these norms. Therefore, body in this sense is not just a material or biological entity; it turns out to be a social and cultural issue. The present study is an attempt to analyze the interrelationship between psychological tensions and corporeal considerations in the male subject’ s psyche through studying the mental obsessions of Hamlet, as one of the most outstanding of Shakespeare’ s mentally disturbed characters. To fulfill this purpose, some of his inner conflicts are analyzed in the light of Julia Kristeva’ s theories regarding abjection, confrontation with the abject and the role of these procedures in the formation of subjectivity in order to gain a better understanding of the latent causes of Hamlet’ s psychic trauma’ s and mental disturbances. Viewed from this perspective, it is revealed that anxieties and concerns about the body of the masculine subject and cultural measures for the sexual identity of the male sex are at work behind the symptoms of Hamlet’ s madness. The psychological crisis which Hamlet has to deal with after his father’ s death has got several dimensions some of which will be analyzed in this research in reference to Kristeva’ s notion of abjection. In this regard, Hamlet’ s desperate battle to reassert his male identity, his quest to restore purity and purge himself and the whole world from corruption, as well as his hatred and fear of female body and sexual desire as a source of contamination and a serious threat to his manhood are most significant. In addition to the effeminizing effect of the female heterosexual love and the contaminating contact with the female body, the female kind’ s power of regeneration terrifies Hamlet as well. All these features contribute to Hamlet’ s identifying the female body as abject and lead to his repudiation of any attachment to it. Thus, it is possible to explain why Hamlet dedicates himself wholly to the sacred mission of revenge and solidifies homosocial bonds with his male companions since through these strategies, he believes he can confirm his autonomy and independence as a masculine subject and secure the territories of his clean and proper body.