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Algorthmic Governance and cyberocracy: Speculating the New Social Machine in M.T Anderson's feed and Dave Eggars' The Circle Title: Algorithmic Governance and Cyberocracy Speculating the New Social Machine in Dave Eggers’ The Circle and MT Anderson’s Feed With an increasing integration of human beings with technology, human society has turned into a social machine where maximum human participation is ensured by entrapping them in feedback loops to extract maximum data from their online and real world through algorithmic governance. This data extraction is monetized by selling it to companies for prediction products and used further for their behavior modification. In this whole process, human privacy, freedom, sovereignty and human nature is at stake. The present study aims to read two dystopian science fiction novels that are The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers and Feed (2002) by Mathew Toby Anderson by using the theoretical underpinnings of surveillance capitalism, the term coined by Shoshana Zuboff and Gilles Deleuze’s concept of societies of control, supplemented with the concepts of algorithmic governance, cyberocracy and social machines. Surveillance capitalism is the new economic system where human experiences are collected as data and get parsed and analyzed via algorithmic governance and become an asset for surveillance capitalists who monetize it by organizing it as information. This new emerging Instrumentarian power gained through collection of information may be equated with Cyberocracy. The objective of the present study is to investigate the role of social machines in behavior modification; the threats posed to privacy and freedom; and deployment of information as power and the depiction of resistance to such power in the studied novels. The novels depict the controlling power of internet companies adversely impacting human nature and privacy. The characters in the novel are portrayed as helpless to resist the unprecedented rising Instrumentarian power. The study has concluded that technology enters our lives as a need but the puppet masters use it for controlling human society for it demands the rendition of bodies and souls to it by our full participation in the social machines. These social machines are helpful in behavior modification as each participant presents itself in a way to receive social approval. This ubiquitous participation in social media platforms makes our privacy vulnerable and this access to each and every type of information thus paves the way toward cyberocracy. Human beings must have to stop and think about their endangered future
Catechizing Gender, Nature, And Violence: An Anarcho-Ecofeminist Reading of Global South Fiction This dissertation is an anarcho-ecofeminist reading of Global South fiction. It aims to explore the anomalies of gender, exploitation of nature, and praxis of violence in Global South fiction. This study is focused on three novels, Uzma Aslam Khan's Thinner than Skin (2012), J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), and Ana Castillo's So Far from God (1993). These works represent three Souths of the Globe including South Asia, South Africa, and South America respectively. In these works, located in three different cultures, the principal issues (concerning this research) of gender-discrimination, oppression of nature, and violence are interbraided. This study employs Murray Bookchin’s concept of ‘anarchy’ and Greta Gaard’s idea of ‘ecofeminism’ as reading props for the analysis of the selected texts. This investigation mainly argues that Global South fiction writers use their narratives in order to highlight the iniquities of gender, exploitation of nature, and practice of violence on the human and the nonhuman. They have a close link with their respective soils, ecosystems, people, and their problems. Therefore, they protest by holding out the issues mentioned above. That is why, they are read in line with anarcho-ecofeminist perspective. In accordance with qualitative methodology, I have used Catherine Belsey’s idea of ‘textual analysis’ and Celena Kusch’s concept of ‘comparative analysis’ as my research methods. Since this study intervenes in terms of focusing on three Global South texts, it also highlights parallels and differences between the conditions of gender- discrimination, oppression of nature, and perpetration of violence in three culturally different societies. This project is an effort towards contributing to the production of knowledge in the domains of anarchoechofeminist studies.
CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSES AND ECOLINGUISTICS: A STUDY OF CHANGING LINGUISTIC SPECTRUM Title: Contemporary Environmental Discourses and Ecolinguistics: A Study of Changing Linguistic Spectrum The recent global ecological crisis has sparked environmental concerns in a variety of discourses. Environmental discourses are generally intended to raise ecological awareness and to educate people about the devastating effects of human policies and actions that harm life and the ecosystems that life depends upon. As a nation that has been largely on the receiving end of global environmental degradation, Pakistan has always raised alarm bells on all international forums raising voices about the environmental especially through its English newspapers. The current study intends to ecocritically analyse linguistic features in environmental texts as published in Pakistani English newspapers to expose the stories we-live-by. To identify and analyse stories underlying, two of the important linguistic features i.e. linguistic metaphor and novel compounds, the current study invokes Stibbe’s (2015) theory of ecolinguistics as a framework and uses a mix of corpus and manual techniques to extract data and analyse it. Further, semi-automatic methods are used to build a specialized corpus that suits the requirements of this study. The corpus contains texts from three leading Pakistani English newspapers from January 2011 to December 2020. For metaphors, Pragglejaz Group’s (2007) method of metaphor identification procedure (MIP) has been adopted for the identification of conceptual metaphors and Stibbe’s four-step methodology of critical analysis of conceptual metaphors is used for the ecocritical analysis of the identified conceptual metaphors. The prevailing stories in discourses affect human treatment of other more vulnerable humans, other life forms and the physical environment. The results show that most of the stories analysed are harmful to life, and wider ecosystems that life depends upon. Three of the most dominant stories are found to be malevolent. They are: consumerism is good, technology can fix environmental issues, and humans are the centre of the ecosystem. Hence, by exposing the stories for their camouflaged malevolent discourses, the researcher expects the writers as well as the public at large to develop a deeper understanding of human discourses about the environment, and decide whether a linguistic feature should be used, improved or rejected.
Thematic Investigation of sorrows of sarasvati: A Voyant Tools Text Mining Approach in Digital Humanites ABSTRACT Title: Thematic Investigation of Sorrows of Sarasvati: A Voyant Tools Text Mining Approach in Digital Humanities This research employed a text mining approach using five (5) computational Voyant Tools, namely the Cirrus tool, Summary Tool, Contexts tool, Trends tool, and Collocates tool, to explore different themes from the translated novel Sorrows of Sarasvati: The Lost River. The novel is a translation of a famous Pakistani writer Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s novel Bahao by Dr. Muhammad Safeer Awan and Dr. Saleem Khan, published in 2021. The research onion of Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2012) was employed as a research methodology to explore novel themes through distant reading. The quantitative results of the study are presented through text mining which consisted of data visualization (Cirrus), the most occurring terms with their statistical frequencies (Summary tool), collocations of the most frequent words (Collocates tool), and graphs of these terms and collocations in ten (10) distinct segments of the novel (Trends tool); whereas the qualitative data constituted of the themes obtained through the analysis of tools mentioned above along with the contexts of most frequent words (Contexts Tool). The findings of text mining of Corpus of Sorrows of Sarasvati: The Lost River revealed data visualization, the most frequent terms with their frequencies, trends and collocations, and nomenclature; while the thematic analysis extracted the themes of nature and wilderness, mystery and unknown, interplay between existence and natural environment, death, loss and sorrow, emotions sensations and nostalgia, transformations in nature and environmental changes, impermanence and transience, journey, human fragility, communication and knowledge, community and shared responsibility, and birds’ anatomy.
Phonological Adaption of English Loanwards in Khowar: An Optimality Analysis ABSTRACT Title: Phonological Adaptation of English Loanwords in Khowar: An Optimality Analysis Language contact results in the transfer of lexical items from one language to another. The transferred lexical items are named as loanwords. This study deals with the adjustment of English loanwords into Khowar. English and Khowar are two different languages that present dissimilarities at the phonemic, syllabic, and structural levels. Both languages share a long history of contact situations. Due to this interaction between these languages, there is a transfer of lexical items. English being the dominant language, lends many words that are adjusted into Khowar. This research first aims to identify the English loanwords that have entered Khowar. Secondly, it aims to investigate the processes involved in the adjustment of the English loanwords. Finally, it seeks to identify the phonotactic constraints of Khowar. The adjustment of these loanwords is analyzed through the lens of Optimality Theory. OT remains instrumental in explaining why the recipient language tends to favor certain adaptation processes during loanword adaptation. Optimality Theory (OT) explains how the input, such as the English loanword, is mapped onto an output using the ranking of constraints. The data for this research study is collected from different semantic domains using the technique of participant observation. An audio recorder and two dictionaries are used as research instruments. With an audio recorder, the researcher collects all the spoken data from the conversation of Khowar speakers. To validate whether the collected data is actually a loanword or not, Khowar dictionaries are utilized. The important findings of this study are first, Khowar borrows many words from English to fill the lexical gaps. Additionally, they provide extra lexical items for an already existing word. Secondly, three repairing techniques i.e., deletion, substitution, and epenthesis are found to be used to adjust the illicit structure of English loanwords. Among these techniques, substitution is the dominant one. Third, Khowar phonotactics does not often allow complex onset or coda. Similarly, the voiced coda in the loanwords is adjusted using the technique of coda-devoicing. Finally, it uncovers that complex vowels are prohibited within the phonotactic rules of Khowar.
Subscribing to or Subverting Gender Ideology: A Semotics Analysis of Social Media Memes Title: Subscribing to or Subverting Gender Ideology: A Semiotic Analysis of Social Media Memes Memes a byproduct of social media platforms have the power to (re)frame the perspectives of individuals through their linguistic and visual elements. It has the agency to pave the way for social change becoming one of the most potent and viable sources of disseminating information across the globe. The present study investigates the role of social media memes in subscribing to and subverting dominant gender ideology. It tends to highlight the semiotic modes implicitly employed in memes to reinforce traditional gender roles and societal expectations. The study's theoretical framework is based on Kress and Leeuwen's (2006) theory of semiotics. Semiotic analysis is a crucial tool for uncovering deeper meanings within images, shedding light on the gender ideologies portrayed across social media. Using a purposive sampling technique, the research study has examined 50 memes extracted from two prominent social media platforms; 25 memes were sourced from Twitter while the remaining 25 were sourced from Reddit. The study finds that some of the memes through their subtle use of linguistic and visual modes reinforce the traditional perspectives of patriarchy while other memes overtly call for subversion of the dominant gender ideologies. Moreover, the research study has also unveiled some thought-provoking facts, the discussion of subversion of gender roles revolves around the female gender while the male gender is expected to subscribe to the traditional norms, and the adjectives associated with both genders carry different connotations. In simple words, this research study explored how semiotic modes are employed in memes to engage with gender ideology serving as a potent tool of persuasion and influence, promoting adherence to or challenging traditional gender norms.
Negotiating Destructive Plasticity: A Study of Ontological Metamorphosis in Ishiguro’s Fiction This study explores destructive plasticity in the selected fiction of Kazuo Ishiguro. Destructive plasticity designates a becoming without telos e.g., a change without a definite goal in view; it sets in motion an ontological metamorphosis driven by a sense of arbitrariness which is also the hallmark of traumatic experiences. The destructive plasticity results in a person's partial or complete memory loss and may even create an indifference to all pleasures and shocks. The metamorphic potential of traumatic experiences not only affects a person psychologically but may even modify the physical make-up of their brain. Catherine Malabou’s theory of plasticity as described in her book The Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity has been taken as a framework to analyse the three texts of Kazuo Ishiguro namely The Unconsoled, The Buried Giant and A Pale View of Hills. This research analyses how the trauma-stricken characters in the selected texts of Ishiguro negotiate the destructive plasticity. The study brings behavioral neuroscience, trauma studies, and phenomenology together on the platform of literature (Ishiguro’s fiction) to elaborate that literature and physical science are not epistemological opposites. In cases of significant brain damage, such as severe traumatic brain injury or advanced neurodegenerative diseases, the ability to fully regain one's previous sense of self may be limited. In such instances, the solution to the impacts of loss of selfhood may require a combination of medical interventions, rehabilitation therapies, and external support systems. However, it is important to note that the human brain does possess a degree of plasticity, allowing it to reorganize and compensate for certain types of damage. This neuroplasticity can facilitate some level of recovery and adaptation, leading to improvements in cognitive functions, emotional well-being, and overall quality of life. The present study contends that Ishiguro’s fiction is alive to the native potential of the brain to emerge out of the trauma through destructive plasticity. The study investigates, character development, narrative flow and the thematic of memory loss to trace the patterns of destructive plasticity in Ishiguro’s fiction.
A Multimodal Analysis of Pakistani Pharmaceutical Companies Web Pages: An Ecolinguistic Perspective Title: A Multimodal Analysis of Pakistani Pharmaceutical Companies’ Web Pages: An Ecolinguistic Perspective The study aimed to investigate the top twenty Pakistani pharmaceutical companies' web pages through multimodal analysis. It attempted to sensitize various semiotic modes in designing websites that represented ecological discourses. Language and media play a crucial role in forming the ideology of the masses about the importance of ecological sustainability for human existence. The current study followed three different theoretical frameworks suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen's (2008) Multimodality Theory, van Leeuwen's (2008) Social Actor and Social Action Approach to Language Analysis, and Stibbe’s (2015) Ecological Ideology of Erasure and Salience in the shape of conceptualized analytical modal. The following conceptualized analytical model examined multiple semiotic modes from the perspective of ecolinguistics. For this purpose, a purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting websites, keeping the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan's 2019 ranking in view. A total of eight photos were selected from the website of each company. The research showed that Pakistani pharmaceutical companies used a variety of semiotic modes, including image, color contrast, huge, bold text size, and diverse pictures, to design their websites. The study's findings suggested that agencies largely used language erasure and salience methods to create positive and ambivalent narratives while concealing themselves to shift responsibility for ecological destruction. The web page made it simpler for consumers to consume the medicine without considering the environmental effects by removing the context and location of the medicine. Future studies should investigate the use of advanced analytical methods, statistical models, and ecolinguistic theories like (re)framing, conviction, and metaphor, among others, and examine marginalized groups that have received scant attention in the existing research. Research should be conducted from various angles to communicate environmental pollution and sustainability in Pakistan
Linguistic Analysis of Nonlinear Interactive Narratives One tool for narrative initiation, understanding, interpretation, analysis, and (re)shaping is language, a phenomenon always considered as exclusively human and a phenomenon that gives its human users a superiority over other beings. However, human linguistic superiority seems to be threatened in the hyper- real twenty- first century. The threat is posed by the open AI systems which while collaborating with their human users display the capability to autonomously generate free and unconstrained yet coherent and meaningful language texts. Nonlinear narratives being (re)shaped in collaboration with open AI systems are unique because of (i) their hyper-real quality where the distinction between AI generated language and human language inputs cannot be made, (ii) where inputs by human authors remain subjected to their spatio- temporal situatedness, socio- cultural contexts, and individual choices, text contributions generated by the open AI systems are products of neither any contextual understanding nor are they influenced by any sentience for the consequences that the language or the (re)shaped narratives might have on its receivers. Using different analytical steps, this dissertation has tried to establish the legitimacy of the AI generated texts in terms of their coherence, meaningfulness, syntactic patterns, semiotic suggestibility, and thematic emergence. The aim is to strengthen the observation that AI (re)shaped nonlinear narratives possess the attributes that are associated with human existence and have the potential at performing different functions, conveying subtle meanings, and suggesting underlying themes such as effectively exercising their gender performativity, exhibiting intricate human emotions and psychological complexities, and portraying multidimensional human relationships. Study of the AI (re)shaped nonlinear narratives is done to point out that autonomously operating open AI systems have become contributors to human existence despite the fact that they are nonhuman and lack all sentience. The dissertation also highlights the need to devise new theoretical perspectives and analytical tools to address the emerging phenomenon of a nonhuman AI agency capable of collaborating freely, meaningfully, and effectively with the human race.
Navigating (A)Symmetrical Intimacy: A Magical Feminist/Postcolonial Reading of Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel and Nafisa Rizvi's Fiction This research explores how magical feminist technique and postcolonial elements are intertwined in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, and Nafisa Rizvi’s The Blue Room. The research contends that the magical feminist and postcolonial texts contest hegemonic colonial/patriarchal discourses in (a)symmetrical modes. Their mutualism productively interrogates both heteronormative and Eurocentric assumptions to develop an epistemic position that is at once enabling and dismantling. Therefore, this research investigates how, through magical realist techniques in postcolonial feminist textual structures, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the unbelievable becomes believable. I invoke Patricia Hart’s definition of magical feminism as a theoretical lens for analyzing primary texts. Stephen Slemon’s notion of “Magic Realism as Post-Colonial Discourse” supports Hart’s position in analyzing the selected texts. Moreover, I employ Wendy B. Faris’ definitions of magical realism as theoretical support that helps explore the nature and cultural work located in the global South. Since this project is qualitative in nature, I have used Catherine Belsey’s concept of textual analysis, and Celena Kusch’s “Comparative Analysis” are used as research methods for reading the selected fiction. The findings of this research vindicate that there is (a)symmetrical intimacy between the magical feminist and postcolonial texts selected for this study. The three women writers employ magical realist techniques in their feminocentric texts and resist patriarchal strategies. Moreover, the study also finds concerns regarding the underrepresentation of colonized people in general and women in particular. This research is likely to contribute to the production of knowledge in the magical feminist/postcolonial domains.
Immigrant Experience and the Emerging Self: A Study of Unhomeliness in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Whereabouts Thesis Title: Immigrant Experience and the Emerging Self: A Study of Unhomeliness in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Whereabouts This study analyses Jhumpa Lahiri’s novels: The Namesake (2003) and Whereabouts (2021), utilizing the theoretical postulates of Homi K. Bhabha (1992), Bruce Robbins (1992) in combination with Robert Shoemaker (2006) to examine emergence and transformation of the fictional immigrant characters. A triangulation of the concept of unhomeliness from Bhabha, Bruce Robbins’s idea of cosmopolitanism, and Robert Shoemaker’s notion of identity is utilized to devise the theoretical framework for analysing the fictional immigrant characters. Syllogizing these concepts, the study has delved into the lives of the characters, where the characters are found to be in compliance with the theoretical perspective of unhomeliness. The relocation of home occurs for almost all of the immigrant characters throughout the selected texts. Cosmopolitanism too plays a vital role and the study has explored successfully that in both the novels some characters experience unhomeliness that leads to identity crisis, however few characters seek and attain the privileged status of cosmopolites. Besides, as Bhabha and Robbins claim these notions to be postcolonial and post-cultural spaces, transformation among the immigrant characters is evident although the first generation of the immigrants try to preserve their identities. The immigrant characters are found to be in a state of unhomeliness where their ambivalence is apparent. As a result of unhomely feelings where they are unable to feel at home, the characters go through identity-related issues, and thus to escape them, they turn towards cosmopolitanism as a refuge, resulting into a major transformation in their self- identities. These unhomely fictional characters then evolve into cosmopolitan figures with new identities and thus multiple places to associate with.
Defamatory Political Cartoons in Pakistani Print Media: A Multimodal Analysis Title: Defamatory Political Cartoons in Pakistani Print Media: A Multimodal Analysis Cartoons are a rich source of meaning. In the domain of political cartoons, cartoonists manipulate, falsify, and alter meaning-making processes to control social cognition. They exploit the various modes of communication in the cartoons to achieve their goals. The present study analyzes the cartoonist’s ideological mediation to explore the linguistic meaning-making processes in defamatory political cartoons. Kress and Van Leeuwen's Theory of Visual Grammar (1996) and Van Dijk’s Sociocognitive Approach (2006) have been used as the theoretical framework for the study. 25 political cartoons have been selected from Dawn and Minute Mirror newspapers. The cartoons were analyzed qualitatively to generate different themes. The five different themes that emerged from the data include the theme of severe or unjust criticism; the theme of manipulation; the theme of the country's reputation; the theme of humorous remarks; and the theme of spreading hate or threats. Multiple modes of visual grammar in political cartoons have been analyzed by using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) as a method of data analysis, which links the political discourse with the social beliefs of society. This study has found that cartoonists use multiple modes of communication, including visual grammar, macro and micro social levels, and semantic and context models, to influence social cognition. This study has found that not only the visual elements of political cartoons were causing a threat to reputation and self-esteem, but textual elements also supported the cartoonist’s ideologically polarized meaning-making processes
Ecological Rift and Transformative environmentalism: A Comparative analysis of Ghosh and Ribonson's Climate fiction Title: Ecological Rift and Transformative Environmentalism: A Comparative Analysis of Ghosh and Robinson’s Climate Fiction In this study, I have analysed “The Living Mountain”, Jungle Nama and The Ministry for the Future to explore the type of ecological rifts, ecological plurality and the ethical relationship between human and non-human entities in two different cultural contexts i.e., South Asian and Western climate fiction. This is a qualitative research that analyses the text using comparative analysis to meet the research objectives. In this study, I have employed two theoretical lenses from environmental discourse i.e., ecological rift given by Foster et al. and transformative environmentalism given by Otto. The findings of the research reveal that ecological rifts depicted in both South Asian and Western cli-fi are created due to the paradox of wealth that views public resources as free gifts, but the representation of these rifts, in the selected cli-fi texts, has profound differences due to socio-cultural differences between the two regions. In terms of interconnectedness between human and non-human entities for transformative environmentalism, Ghosh emphasizes the traditional episteme of the indigenous population and the spiritual side of nature while dismantling colonial motives. On the other hand, Robinson emphasizes a technological and economic paradigm shift for transformative environmentalism. Overall, this comparative study explores the particularities of South Asian and Western climate fiction for ecological plurality
From Glorification to Justification of 'Just War': An Analysis of Post 9/11 American Visual Narratives on Afghan War Title: From Glorification to Justification of “Just War”: An Analysis of Post 9/11 American Visual Narratives on Afghan War This study focuses on four post 9/11 American war films on the war in Afghanistan including Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Lone Survivor (2013), The Kill Team (2019), and The Outpost (2020) to explore the way they present American political narrative of Just War and how the portrayal evolves over time with changing sociopolitical environment. I argue that the visual narratives move from glorification of the war in the first half of the war to providing justifications for it towards the end of the war. This is a qualitative research that undertakes a textual analysis of the films under analysis using theoretical underpinnings of Michael Walzer’s Just War Theory, Robert Entman’s Framing Theory, and Sara Ahmed’s concept of Affective Economies. A comprehensive analysis of the films in light of tenets of Walzer’s theory reveals that they popularize the American political narrative of ‘Just War’ by framing the War on Terror as a ‘Just War’. The narratives of glorification approach the subject matter with self-righteous, confident, and glamorous narratives of victory that do not take into account any criticism or controversies. The narratives of justification on the other hand approach the subject with more humility showing the darker side of war, with its complications and human cost. These visual narratives influence the subjectivities of the audience while also affecting the American culture.