American Research Journal of English and Literature

Mohd Nageen Rather

Dalit Literature represents a powerful, emerging movement in the Indian literary traditionand its reverberations are now being heard all around the world. One more addition to the Dalit literature is Baby Kamble’s autobiography The Prisons We Broke which portrays the socio-economical, cultural and political conditions of Dalit community in Indian society. It highlights the plight of Dalit women who receive inhuman treatment and suffer at every front. In Indian society women are always subjected to a subaltern state and are marginalized. Women face subjugation in various forms everywhere in India, traditional taboos legitimize their exploitation. For Dalit women, the situation is even worse, as they suffer from the triple oppression becauseof their gender, economical condition and their low caste. This paper is an attempt to deliberate on the harsh realities of struggle, subjugation and suffering of Dalit women as depicted in The Prisons We Broke. As we know Dalit women are positioned at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy they are subjected to inhumane living conditions, violence and discrimination which deprive them of opportunities, choices and freedoms in all sphere of their life.

Luisa Messina

The eighteenth century is considered as the golden age of epistolary art. If we analyse the historical and social value of letters, we notice that epistolary exchange soon becomes one of the principal ways of communication and of providing information. One of the most important qualities of the epistolary novel is its ability to effectively convey emotion. The epistolary novel removes the temporal distance between personal history and its written form. The most famous writers of the time (such as Montesquieu) and libertine writers (Laclos and Sade in particular) employed the epistolary novel in different ways. So eighteenth-century literature is characterised by the successful epistolary novel. Since the Modern Age letter has held great historical and social importance due to the power of letter to act as a vehicle for information. This emerges as one of the main reasons for the rise in popularity of the epistolary novel. 

Prof. Naila Arshad

 This research paper intends to explore how Cormac McCarthy presents, in his play The Sunset Limited, opposite ways and approaches, i-e, pessimism and optimism, adapted by different modern men living in the modern age. This paper efforts to search how on one hand pessimism and the feeling of meaninglessness in life leads to atheism and nihilism, while on the other hand, power of faith, if once gained, can change life and its purpose, no matter what race or class one belongs to. This paper attempts to find that though both, life and death are realities but it is veryimportant to find justification either to continue living in a world of suffering and meaninglessness or to end life. This paper also intends to prove that the divine voice which propels towards hope and goodness, if heard only once, never loses power and charm even if some intellectual force with its rhetorical argumentation tries to move a man of faith towards despair and death

Dr. B. Janaki

The aim of this paper is to explore the characteristic charisma of Jane Austen’s heroine, Emma Woodhouse who is a social snob and over-sure of her own judgment. With reference to Emma’s nature, Bradley (1851-1935) points out, “She has a generous nature. She is self-confident, and she likes to be first; but she is not vain. She is faultless in her relations with her father; and, though she will not take advice from Knightley, her readiness to take reproof and to make amends for her errors is more than magnanimous.” In Stovel (1941-2007)’s reading of the novel all oppositions finally dissolve as Emma’s education is completed and her ‘desire to be herself, her desire for Knightley, and her desire to be good all…coincide’ in such a way that a vision of ‘harmony, not sacrifice or division, reigns.’

1Acheoah John Emike Ph.D, 2Olaleye, Joel Iyiola, Ph.D, 3Acheoah, Ofeh Augustine

 This study investigates the potency of language in conflict resolution in Africa in particular, and the world at large. Insights from sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and stylistics enrich the study. Since the Millennium Development Goals in Africa does not exclude peace and development, the dynamics of language in the resolution of conflicts is a worthy academic endeavour. One of the reasons why the international community has not been able to resolve some conflicts in Africa is its failure to effectively explore the pragmatics of language in peace-talks. The data of this study are generated from conflict resolution dialogue (adjacency pairs) between two warring communities: Azuwa and Ezinma. This study hinges on two theoretical frameworks: Roman Jackobson’s Elements of Communication and Acheoah’s Pragma-crafting Theory. The study concludes that effective use of language in conflict management presupposes the use of diverse discourse strategies which include imagery, special clause structure, repetition, call to action, the use of third-party, feedback, speech acts, personal pronouns, mutual contextual knowledge, among others.  

Ignatius Nsaidzedze

This paper examines the concept of the “New-Woman” in Victorian literature in all genres written by men and women.The “New-Woman” was also referred to at this time as the “Woman Question”.In this paper the “New- Woman”, the “ Woman Question” and feminism are interchangeable. This write-up handles four issues: the problem faced by the Victorian woman, events, legislation and publications crucial to Victorian feminism, Queen Victorian and feminism and lastly the Victorian writer and the “Woman Question”.The Victorian writer wrote essays, novels, plays and poems.Using the feminist critical theory, the paper argues that the predominant theme in Victorian literature was the presentation of the “New- Woman”.The paper reveals that the “Woman Question” was so preoccupying that no writer could avoid it during the Victorian period and that feminism really or essentially started during the Victorian period when women were given or got remarkable improvements in their lives.

1*Acheoah, John Emike, 2Hamzah Abdurraheem

 This paper examines the mechanisms for exploring Nigeria languages in the teaching and learning of English. The writers do not only recommend the use of Nigerian languages as the medium of instruction in schools, but also dislodge the idea that knowledge of indigenous languages cannot be used to promote the teaching and learning of English in educational institutions. Hinging on Fishman’s criteria for language prominence, the paper concludes that so long as there is the concept of positive transfer in language acquisition, areas of convergence and divergence between English and any Nigerian language can be explored in the preparation of classroom materials for effective teaching and learning of English in Nigeria

Ignatius Nsaidzedze

 This paper analyses Robert Browning’s love poems bringing out feminist issues which are addressed in these love poems like equal fidelity, female oppression and the fight for liberation as well as female assertiveness and the question of inheritance. Love occupies a key position in human existence and even in religion as God is referred to as Love. This paper examines the role of men and women in the love equation in Robert Browning’s poetry. In Browning’s chemistry of love, what place does a woman occupy? Browning’s men, how do they see their women and how do their women see the men in love and life? Using the feminist and biographical literary theories, this paper argues that Robert Browning, consciously or unconsciously influenced by his wife, portrays a “New-Woman” in his poetry .The paper reveals that true love does not know death as some men and women even love their wives/husbands better after their death as Robert Browning did. Such lovers never remarry as Robert Browning did.

Dr. Abdel Rahman Abdalla Salih

The phenomenal spread and growth of English in recent years and its eventual dominance in the international arena has represented unprecedented challenges and opportunities to the practice of English Language Teaching (ELT) and learning, particularly in the ESL/EFL contexts. This paper examines the implications of the phenomenal spread of English around the world on the learning experience and preferences of English as foreign language (EFL) learners. A total number of (108) undergraduate students in an institution of higher learning in the Sultanate of Oman took part as data source by responding to a questionnaire survey administered to them. The study specifically explores the challenges ‘outer circle’ learners face in learning varieties of English and the effects of that on their views and learning a particular variety of English. The paper draws conclusion on the significance of understanding the nature of codes learners use and get exposed to.

Solomon Ali Dansieh

 The pervasiveness and compulsoriness of the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course in tertiary education environments in Ghana is such that irrespective of first-year students’ course offerings they must of necessity take it, even if for a short period. This makes it imperative that the quality assurance principles for enhancing its teaching and learning be examined. The object of this study has been to explore and compare the application of quality assurance principles to the teaching and learning of EAP in four higher education institutions in Ghana with the aim of identifying: (a) how context-specific QA systems work in the case study institutions; (b) what is being done differently there and (c) to offer suggestions for quality enhancement and replication elsewhere. The study asserts that since every tertiary-level course in Ghana is taught in English, assuring the quality of English language teaching and learning would naturally have a “multiplier effect” on the quality of the other courses. Findings of this research were derived largely from a student survey and, to a lesser extent, from interviews with senior members and subject lecturers at the case study institutions. Institutional context, quality culture, quality assurance mechanisms, pedagogy, and curriculum designs of the case study institutions were found to be very similar. Through its cross-case analysis of QA strategies in the public and private sectors of higher education in Ghana, the study contributes to the identification of the differences between the two sectors as regards the enhancement of the quality of EAP teaching and learning.