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Questioning Idées Reçues: A Study of Interpellative Strategies and Environmental Ethics in Basharat Peer and Ghada Karmi’s Memoirs ABSTRACT Questioning Idées Reçues: A Study of Interpellative Strategies and Environmental Ethics in Basharat Peer and Ghada Karmi’s Memoirs Adding a new dimension to postcolonial mode of inquiry, my dissertation is an ecopostcolonial appraisal of selected texts with an attention to social justice in the debates of environmental ethics. I examine the memoirs of two writers from Kashmir and Palestine, Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir (2010) and Ghada Karmi’s Return: A Palestinian Memoir (2015) as my key texts. The strategic location of Kashmir and Palestine and their contested political statuses have inspired writers to address the issues therein in their creative writings. Therefore, taking into account an overview of other literary writings coming from these regions, the bearing and implications of the selected texts are studied by multiple lenses of selected theories. The multi-modelled theoretical framework helps situate the logic of neocolonialism as spelled out by hegemonic convictions informing these two narratives. Subsequently, the questions raised in these texts are studied for their validity and impact. In addition to the interpellative consequences, the implications and ramifications of these imperialistic and colonizing idées reçues and strategies are studied thematically with the means of factual presentiments as articulated by the two writers. Making no claims for any closure, the alternatives voiced by the two writers in their respective contexts, are also studied and analyzed. Studying appropriation in terms of land, culture, and resources as engines of colonialism, I explore if neocolonialism and settler-colonialism, as identified in the two texts, are fueling an environmentalism due to their amnesiac relationship to the wars of dispossession as Rob Nixon has discussed in the Nigerian context. Drawing on these works of Kashmiri and Palestinian writers, I argue how their narratives depict a compromised local agency of the indigenous space, and how they phrase the issues of marginalization and erasure. I also examine how the official accounts, the Idées reçues, built around Kashmir and Palestine are subverted by the texts of the two selected writers. By narrating the interpellative strategies of neo/settler colonialisms manifested in the social, cultural, and political spaces of their lands, the two writers state the disruption created for the ethnic others. And by stating the environmental ethics of their respective homelands, Peer and Karmi are extending the scope of contemporary knowledge produced in this field. (372 words)
NEO-IMPERIALIST CAPITALIST GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES TO THE SYSTEM IN PAKISTAN: A CRITIQUE OF TARIQ ALI’S WORKS ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Neo-imperialist Capitalist Globalization and Socialist Alternatives to the System in Pakistan: A Critique of Tariq Ali’s Works Tariq Ali’s fiction has been mainly explored in relation to the subjects of representation of Islamic histories, cultures and Muslim identity. In the wake of Marxist Postcolonial literary criticism, Ali’s fictional engagement with the politico-economic concerns of the postcolonial and global milieu assumes enormous significance for an investigation into the phenomena of global capitalism and its concomitant neocolonialism. A study of the selected fictional and non-fictional texts of Tariq Ali from the theoretical perspective of Marxist Postcolonial Studies would not only unravel the predominant thematic pattern of the texts but also establish a strong connection with the contemporarily pertinent subjects of the global operation of capitalism in tandem with American neo-imperialism, and class division as well as neocolonial modes of operation in postcolonial context. The subjects are inextricably linked with the organization and role of socialist movements within postcolonial states, such as the Twenty-first Century Socialism in the present times, in challenging the above-mentioned historical processes. Tariq Ali’s fictional works foreground, more than any other subject, the socio-economic and political conditions of postcolonial context in a global capitalist and neo-imperialist order. Keywords: Neo-imperialism, Global Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Class Division, Modes of Neocolonialism, 21st Century Socialism
LANGUAGE CHOICES AND THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: A SOCIAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC SIGNS The linguistic landscape (LL), which comprises of items displaying written language in the public place, is a product of linguistic choices that are made by a myriad of top-down and bottom-up sign-agents. The study explores the linguistic landscape of Pakistan, with a particular focus on the linguistic landscape of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), with the view to testing the generally-agreed assumption that the linguistic landscape of Pakistan is dominated by English. The present study attempts to explore different functions that are performed by language choices in different domains in the linguistic landscape of KP, the motives and reasons behind making particular language choices, and the on-lookers’ perceptions of the particular language choices in the linguistic landscape of KP. The study uses mixed-method approach. The data were collected using three methods: snapshots of linguistic signs displayed at selected public places of KP, semi-structured interviews of sign-owners, and photovoice technique. Kress’ (2010) Social Semiotic Theory and a model based on Cook’s (1989) and Finch’s (1997) theories of language functions were applied to the data. The findings revealed that Urdu, English, Pashto, and Arabic are the major languages used in the linguistic landscape of KP, among which Urdu is the most preferred language, and thus refutes the generally-accepted assumption that the linguistic landscape of Pakistan is dominated by English. The language choices perform directive, phatic, poetic, referential, recording, and identifying functions in the different domains in the linguistic landscape of KP. The sign-agents prefer to use Urdu when they have predefined and predetermined addressees, and English when they do not have predefined and predetermined addressees in their minds. The on-lookers positively perceive both Urdu and English languages in the signs in their surrounding linguistic landscape. The study concludes that the linguistic landscape of KP is not a true representative of its real linguistic situation, and is largely the reflection of sign-owners’ motives, perceptions of the on-lookers, and language policies of Pakistan. The study hopes to stimulate interest in linguistic landscape research so that this area, in general, and the linguistic landscape of Pakistan, in particular, can be revisited afresh and established views can be re-examined.
A Multimodal Analysis of Salience and Erasure of Environment in Superhero Films The study is situated at the confederation of Ecolinguistics and Geopolitics, generating an Eco-Geopolitics perspective. Allena Dell’Agnese’s Theory of Geopolitics for rhetorical devices; lexical usage, figures of speech, narrative techniques, and specific concepts are examined in the discourse of superhero films. Thematic Analysisof the dialogues was carried out using the steps suggested by Braun and Clarke. Semiotic resources are identified from the visual data through the method of Multimodal Discourse Analysis and analysed according to the metafunctions suggested by Kress and Van Leeuwen. The study intends to explore how filmmakers utilize the semiotic resources to create the desired ‘meaning potential’ in films. Egoism, violence, autocracy, valorization of aggression, use of force, and disregard for authority are the dominant themes ascertained in the selected discourse of superhero films (Marvel Studios), identifying destruction and violence and reflecting neglect of place and ecology. Acceptance of destruction and violence as heroic and the generation of disregard for preservation and conservation are discovered in the data. This evidence highlights the salience of values that lead to the erasure of eco-friendly concerns. Revision and contestation of the discourse of superhero films at the linguistic level for visual as well as lexical ‘modes’ of communication is recommended.
COVERAGE OF BREXIT IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS: A CORPUS-ASSISTED CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union in the historic referendum of 23rd June 2016 is a landmark event given coverage not only in media of the UK and the EU but also in the media from the rest of the world. The linguistic construction of this politicohistorical event in world media is going to be ideologically motivated as per the interest of their respective countries. In the orientation of Pakistani media, this study examines the Brexit event linguistically. However, to-date, a few studies, but not in the field of linguistics and mass media, have attempted a thorough investigation of Brexit in relation to Pakistan. This study in hand attempts to linguistically examine Pakistani media coverage of Brexit. This study combines two methodological perspectives, namely, Corpus Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to identify the construction of Brexit event in the corpora compiled from the three selected Pakistani English newspapers i.e. the Dawn, the News International and the Express Tribune within a defined timeframe (23rd June 2016 to 29th March 2019). Three corpus tools i.e. keyword list, collocates and concordance were mainly used through lexical software AntConc in order to achieve the objectives of the study. Keyword list was manipulated in order to know the ‘aboutness’ of the compiled individual corpus. Collocates was exploited to identify repeated collocate patterns around a word of interest, and concordance was effective and useful in close reading of a collocate pattern in context. In addition, collocate patterns in concordances were interpreted through S tubbs’ discourse prosody and Galtung and Ruge’s theory of news values to trace the vested policy of the individual newspapers. The selected newspapers were found to have uniformly constructed the Brexit matter as a negative event and reflected it as a transnational issue specifically in terms of its impact on Pakistan and the EU states. Nevertheless, the newspapers highlighted Brexit in very less positive way as a freedom for Britain in trade across the world. Pakistan was portrayed as the affectee of Brexit by the newspapers but at the same time in optimistic light in terms of better trade relations in the post-Brexit era.
Linguistic Framing in Real Estate Discourse: A Multimodal Analysis In this study, the researcher has explored the role of lexical choices and visuals in real estate advertising. The researcher has selected thirty-five real estate advertisements of Gulburg and Gulburg Greens for analysis. To make twofold analysis, the researcher has integrated two theoretical models i.e. Kress’ (1996) Visual Grammar and Blackmore and Holmes’ (2013) model of Frame Analysis. These two models helped in decoding and investigating the hidden ideologies and message which these advertising have. Firstly, the researcher made an analysis of linguistic frames which are created with the help of different syntactic and semantic techniques and with the help of trigger words to grasp the attention of the viewers for boosting economic growth. The researcher also found different values which are attributed with the frames. These values are categorized either as extrinsic or intrinsic. The extrinsic values are purely commercial and are meant to increase economic growth in real estate sector. The real estate advertising apparently creates intrinsic values which deal with the benevolence of society and environment, but the current research investigated how these values are used for commercial purposes. These values create a misleading impression on the viewers and the viewers are emotionally and psychologically tempted by the advertisements. The researcher also found different modes of communication which play a vital role in conveying the message of the advertisers. These modes also produce a misleading impression of advertisements on the readers. Finally, the researcher also explored the way through which the relation between the producers of the advertisements and the viewers is being developed.
APPROPRIATION OF OSCAR WILDE’S PLAYS IN CLASSICAL URDU TRANSLATION: A STUDY INTO INVISIBILITY The present study explores the process of appropriation of Oscar Wilde’s selected plays in classical Urdu translation in connection with invisibility. Appropriation, in its most characteristic form takes possession of original text and sets up an ascendency of target language and culture. The study reveals that the translators have followed such deforming tendencies as: expansion, rationalization, clarification, omission, ennoblement, quantitative impoverishment, destruction of the original at different levels, and adjustment. The researcher has also explored the effect of appropriation on translation that mostly appears to be in the form of invisibility at different levels i.e., invisibility of words, phrases, sentences, expression, message of the original text, and the translators themselves. The researcher has meta-textually analyzed the source and the target texts and evaluated the way appropriation entails invisibility. For the research design, the researcher has followed Antoine Berman’s model of deformation to bring out the elements of appropriation. For the explanation of each extracts at word and sentence level, the researcher has applied Eugene Nida’s principles of correspondence and his two basic orientations in translation: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. For broader conceptual understanding, the researcher has incorporated Lawrence Venuti’s notions of foreignization and domestication along with his concept of invisibility. The concept of invisibility provides a larger canvas for understanding the process of translation when the translators try to produce a fluent target text. The study shows that the combined weight of appropriation and invisibility has, at times, led to a domestication of the source text and a considerable dislocation of its linguistic and cultural implications. Lastly, to elaborate the notion of appropriation in the process of translation, the researcher has followed Gerard Genette’s concept of paratext to study initial and final pages of the source and the target texts that includes promotional adds, reviews, prefaces, copyright consents, and has drawn a comparison between the original and the translation.
Naturalizing Women, Feminizing Nature: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Anglophone Sri Lankan Fiction By invoking Greeta Gaard’s instructive concepts of Naturalization of women, Feminization of Nature, this dissertation discusses the subjugation of women and exploitation of nature in Nayomi Munaweera’s Island of Thousand Mirrors and Romesh Gunesekera’s Heaven’s Edge. Women are naturalized and nature is feminized by finding parallels between these two. In the selected fiction, women’s bodies are not only co-opted biosphere but also treated as landscapes in the form of rape and abduction in war. Similarly, nature is feminized because of its qualities like nurturing and caring. Moreover, it is presented as mother earth, barren land, and a sexual object. These shared attributes allow patriarchal ideologies to dominate nature and women through oppressive strategies. All oppressions are interlinked in one way or the other, especially when war figures prominently in both the novels and damages the landscapes therein. The female characters break the societal sanctions, and resurface in order to move vertically while deconstructing the binaries of male-female, Sinhala-Tamil, and human non-human. Moreover, the selected texts show that binaries are the root cause of most of the problems: women and men should work irrespective of class, race and gender for a healthy planet. We need to treat all living creature equally with kindness. I use Catherine Belsey’s method of textual analysis and Rachel Alsop’s ethnographic method in order to interpret the selected fiction. My research has broken the grounds for other researchers focusing on Anglophone Sri Lankan fiction from the perspective of ecofeminism. This research is likely to creatively contribute in the production of knowledge in the area of ecofeminism.
A CRITICAL ECO-LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ONLINE COSMETIC SURGERY DISCOURSE Eco-linguistics holds the belief that the endangerment of the world and its species is partly caused by language, so the fight against the dangers starts with the revolt against the language use. Thus, the current study subjected cosmetic surgery discourse to eco-linguistic scrutiny since individuals go to considerable lengths and consent to incur serious risks to alter their appearance. The research combined the methods from CDA and eco-linguistics to evaluate the discourse and its respective ideologies. For the said purpose, the study selected the cosmetic surgery discourse from the websites of 20 cosmetic surgery clinics and analyzed the lexical items and metaphors to identify the ideologies that are propagated. The study found that the cosmetic surgery discourse represents surgically unaltered bodies as deficient, inadequate, undesirable, embarrassing, and diseased. The variations or deviations from the set beauty standard are represented as problems for which cosmetic surgery is declared as the best practical solution. Surprisingly, cosmetic surgery clients are referred to as “patients” that means that the deviations are not just seen as problems, but they are akin to disease. This ideology necessitates medical intervention for cosmetic reasons. Furthermore, cosmetic surgery discourse also stigmatizes the changes in appearance brought by time and reinforces the idea of subjecting such bodies to cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is declared as safe and free of age restriction. Moreover, cosmetic surgery is claimed to be capable of transforming, creating, rejuvenating, improving, enhancing, fixing, and sculpting bodies. Furthermore, cosmetic surgery claims social, emotional, and psychological benefits. The study concluded that the discourse and ideologies of cosmetic surgery are destructive since other than health risks there are chances that surgical alterations may become a norm and need for social acceptance thus posing various social and psychological challenges to those who fail to modify their bodies according to cosmetic surgery ideals.
Hermeneutics of Void: A Study of Parallactical Modes of Being in Milan Kundera’s Fiction ABSTRACT Title: Hermeneutics of Void: A Study of Parallactical Modes of Being in Milan Kundera’s Fiction Milan Kundera’s fiction transcends his spatio-temporal situatedness. He is a contemporary writer with a nostalgic yearning for the ontology of the self. He explores certain paradoxical positions that take on different meanings and contours if observed from opposite angles. The change in perspective turns binaries like the individual and political, body and soul and universal and particular into two conflicting standpoints. It is a kind of illusion to use the same language for both of these conflicting positions as these are mutually untranslatable (Zizek 4). In Kundera’s fiction, we see that this tension is brought forth to explore the dimensions of the ‘self’ and how these dichotomies define and limit his characters’ existence. The mutual untranslatability of these warring positions engenders a gap, a void at the center of human experience, and Kundera’s fiction may possibly be exploited to investigate the nature of this gap. Slavoj Zizek understands this gap not as ‘nothing’ or ‘pure void’ but a positive entity – a site where the two contrary points split into two. This parallactical positioning makes these ontological modes appear as two but Zizek’s radical stance attempts to demonstrate their inherent ONENESS. Zizek uses Hegelian/Marxist theoretical framework to talk about the positivity of the void and his insights are employed to analyze Kundera’s fiction to explore the nature of ontological divides. This research project is a study of Kundera’s fiction using Zizekian concept of parallax view to explore whether it is possible to find a common ground for the mutually untranslatable phenomena like the individual and political, body and soul, and the universal and the particular. This would open new vistas for looking into these modes of being from a radical angle and offer a critique of increased polarization between them as observed in the recent decades.
CELEBRATING PETIT RECITS: A POSTMODERINST PERSPECTIVE ON THE REWRITING OF THE VEDIC FEMALE SELF IN CONTEMPORARY ANGLOPHONE INDIAN FICTION This thesis is a postmodernist reading of the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, and its three contemporary feminist rewritings based on the female character of Draupadi. It is delimited to Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi (1984), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions (2008), and Saraswati Nagpal’s Draupadi: The Fire-Born Princess(2012). The main argument of this study is that the selected novels as petit recits subvert the phallogocentric metanarrative of Ved Vyasa’s Mahabharata and reclaim the Vedic concept of female self that underscores the strong culture of assertive female identities, and the cult of the feminine in the form of Hindu goddesses as glaring manifestations of the nari-shakti. Keeping the Vedic concept of feminism in view, this thesis also argues that the selected corpora of women’s writings reflects on the female character of Draupadi as an abject self and articulates a feminine voice of dissent against the patriarchal metanarrative of Mahabharata by using the postmodernist strategy of rewriting. The concept of abjection and its traits have been utilized to map out the subversion and transgressive traits of Draupadi in the selected feminist rewritings. As far as the theoretical constructs of this study are concerned, this thesis takes Jean Francois Lyotard’s concept of petit recits, Helene Cixous’s framework of ecriture feminine, Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s notion of revisionist mythmaking and Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection and its three traits to foreground rewriting as a postmodern literary strategy. This research is exploratory in nature therefore, the research approach followed in this thesis is qualitative, and the research method employed is textual analysis. It concludes that the selected feminist rewritings as petit recits subvert the phallogocentric metanarrative of Mahabharata using abjection as a subversive retrieval strategy. Key Words: postmodernism, petit recits, Vedic, female self, abject, ecriture feminine, revisionist mythmaking, and rewriting.
AN ECO-TRANSLATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE URDU TRANSLATION OF 1984: AN ARTIVISTIC APPROACH The study illustrates the humans’ phenomena of the natural world, its depiction through language and the relationship between humans and their environment in a more-than-the human world. It also demonstrates how the different ecological issues and considerations are represented and subsequently transmitted through translation. The researcher has analyzed the Urdu translation of the novel, 1984 from the micro and macro perspectives. Keeping in view the objectives of this study, the selected text from the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) were analyzed qualitatively by applying Coupe’s theory of myth along with Iovino and Oppermann’s notion of stories come to matter and Cronin's theory of eco-translation as the theoretical framework. This study aims to provide insights into the scrutiny of ecotranslation as an artivistic approach and the query, in the realm of literature, how art can represent the practices of ecological considerations in translation. The selected TT is probed in the light of the prevailing myths and stories in the text which suffices in bringing a change in the viewpoint of humans from anthropocentric to eco-centric/geo-centric. The study mitigates man's greatest illusion of anthropocentrism, the belief that humans are at the centre of everything. Through this analysis, the researcher establishes that linguistic manifestation is necessary for the realization of human potential and the connection between humans and Nature in the manner of an entangled web. The findings claim that during the process of translation, owing to different reasons, mistranslations have often silenced the voice of Nature. Ecology and translation through artivistic means present a new approach to translation, which will contribute to foster debate on ecological issues, and eventually raise awareness and generate change where the voice of Nature may roar in the text.
PRAGMATIC TRANSFER OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT DISCOURSE STRATEGIES: A STUDY OF PASHTU AND SIRAIKI SPEAKING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS ABSTRACT Title: Pragmatic Transfer of Direct and Indirect Discourse Strategies: A Study of Pashtu and Saraiki Speaking English Language Learners Throughout the short life of interlanguage pragmatics as a sub discipline of second language research, it has always been perceived as an assumption that non-native speakers' reliance on the L1 pragmatic knowledge influences in the process of learning L2. This research study aims at discovering the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer among multilingual and multicultural background learners’ who rely on the linguistic and cultural resources of their mother tongue in using English. The transfer from L1 into L2 is executed through direct and indirect discourse strategies during the accomplishments of tasks in the target language. A mixed-methods research paradigm grounded in interlanguage pragmatics is used as a research method. The data has been obtained through three data collection tools, viz. written discourse completion tasks, oral role plays and semi-structured interviews. The participants’ responses were compared to the cultural norms of L1 for identifying the instances of pragmatic transfer from L1 to L2 during data analysis. Based on Kasper’s (1992) framework, this study investigates the performance of three speech acts: request, refusal and apology by Pashtu and Saraiki English language learners focusing on the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer. The study focuses underlie to contribute to a research area which is less explored in the context of English as L2 in Pakistan. The findings reveal many areas of cross-cultural variability in the accomplishment of the selected speech acts. Moreover, sociopragmatic transfer is evidenced in learners’ perception of situational variables and the evaluation of contexts which resemble, to a great extent, those of the mother culture. Furthermore, discourse strategies executed either direct or indirect in apologies, refusals and requests testify to the mother culture’s influence. Based on the findings, this study also proposed implications of the teaching of pragmatics in the English as a second language (ESL) context.
PRAGMATIC TRANSFER OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT DISCOURSE STRATEGIES: A STUDY OF PASHTU AND SIRAIKI SPEAKING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS ABSTRACT Title: Pragmatic Transfer of Direct and Indirect Discourse Strategies: A Study of Pashtu and Saraiki Speaking English Language Learners Throughout the short life of interlanguage pragmatics as a sub discipline of second language research, it has always been perceived as an assumption that non-native speakers' reliance on the L1 pragmatic knowledge influences in the process of learning L2. This research study aims at discovering the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer among multilingual and multicultural background learners’ who rely on the linguistic and cultural resources of their mother tongue in using English. The transfer from L1 into L2 is executed through direct and indirect discourse strategies during the accomplishments of tasks in the target language. A mixed-methods research paradigm grounded in interlanguage pragmatics is used as a research method. The data has been obtained through three data collection tools, viz. written discourse completion tasks, oral role plays and semi-structured interviews. The participants’ responses were compared to the cultural norms of L1 for identifying the instances of pragmatic transfer from L1 to L2 during data analysis. Based on Kasper’s (1992) framework, this study investigates the performance of three speech acts: request, refusal and apology by Pashtu and Saraiki English language learners focusing on the phenomenon of pragmatic transfer. The study focuses underlie to contribute to a research area which is less explored in the context of English as L2 in Pakistan. The findings reveal many areas of cross-cultural variability in the accomplishment of the selected speech acts. Moreover, sociopragmatic transfer is evidenced in learners’ perception of situational variables and the evaluation of contexts which resemble, to a great extent, those of the mother culture. Furthermore, discourse strategies executed either direct or indirect in apologies, refusals and requests testify to the mother culture’s influence. Based on the findings, this study also proposed implications of the teaching of pragmatics in the English as a second language (ESL) context.