International Journal of Literature Studies
type: channel
description: The International Journal of Literature Studies (ISSN: 2754-2610) is a monthly publication that aims to provide a scholarly platform for the dissemination of high-quality research in all areas of literary studies. Its scope encompasses a wide range of topics, including but not limited to comparative literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural and interdisciplinary approaches, modern and classical literature, and emerging trends in narrative studies. The journal seeks to promote critical dialogue among scholars, foster innovative perspectives, and support the global exchange of ideas that advance the understanding and appreciation of literature across diverse cultural and linguistic contexts.
publisher: Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development
language: en
publication name: International Journal of Literature Studies
issn: 2754-2610
items: The Versatile Language of Absurd World in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party
items: Hybrid Identity and the Deconstruction of Colonial Myth In Toer’s Novels Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa
items: On the Violence of Silence: The Intergenerational Transmission Mechanism of Implicit Family Trauma in 'night, Mother
items: Cultural Depiction of Prostitution and Poverty in The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon and In Darkest London
items: Patriarchy and Racism: The Female Lament in Eat a Bowl of Tea
items: On the Evolution of Class Struggle Thought in Sean O’Casey’s Plays
items: How Diversely a Narrator use Digital Rhetoric and Personal Rhetoric Depending on the Scenario?
items: Book Review: Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching by Tan Bee Tin (2022)
items: A Wound Made Local: Seamus Heaney's 'Irishification' of Myth in The Cure at Troy
items: Wandering and Freedom: A Lacanian Reading of Subjectivity in The Adventures of Augie March
items: Amin Maalouf’s Leo The African : Between Self-Orientalism and Reconstructing Identity
items: Pagellu as Cultural Praxis: Embodied Social Values in Torajan Traditional Dance
items: Gender Roles and Class Relations: Neurasthenic Representations in Edith Whartons’ The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth
items: Initiation and the construction of the masculine ethos in the negro-African novel: a comparative, psycho-sociological and anthropological study
items: Archetypes and the Process of Innovation in Modern Vietnamese Women’s Poetry
items: Distance: the Flâneuse’s Path From Alienation to Wholeness in Mrs. Dalloway
items: Interconnectedness: A Study of Forrest Gander’s Be With through the Lens of Ecocriticism
items: Constructing Desire: Beauty, Love of Blackness and Black Constellations in The Bluest Eye
items: “What if I lose my ability to language?” A psycho-social interrogation of the Language disorder narratives in bioscope and Literature; a Phenomenological analysis
items: Transnationality, Mobile Identity, and Cultural Dislocation in Rabih Alameddine’s I, the Divine (2002)
items: The Craft of Poetry: A Stylistic Study of Jamal Assadi's Verse
items: Gothic and Historical Elements in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
items: Finding Meaning in Meaninglessness: Comparative Reflections on Rumi and Kafka’s Literary Thoughts
items: Narrative Poetry Writing Skills Through Fantasy Imagination Strategies: Efforts To Improve Students' Creative Ideas
items: The Inuit Searching for “Place” in The Ice Whale
items: Willing Suspension of Disbelief in August Wilson’s ‘‘The Piano Lesson’’
items: Culture and Intra-gender Women Subjugation as reflected in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon and Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen
items: The Presence of Biopower in Keiko Furukura from Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman”
items: The Postmodern Individual in J.M. Coetzee’s Novels: Exploring Issues of Identity, Representation, Intertextuality, and the Self
items: Longing for a Home and the Role of Women in Louis L’Amour’s Narratives

The Versatile Language of Absurd World in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party
type: item
description: Pinter writes The Birthday Party in an absurd dead language, but he does not exclude the compassions, love, kindness, menace and good manners. It is known that absurdity is a philosophical concept that refers to individual’s attempt to find reason in this life, which is thwarted by human limited constraints where the existence has no meaning. Pinter through his versatile language, does not exclude compassionate sense in an absurd drama. He does not exclude how to sympathize with Stanly by audience as an oppressed person. Meg shows well-mannered towards Stanly in spite of hardships of absurd language and behaviors. Pinter consolidates human actions in one drama through artistic language in an absurd drama. Language plays the role of hero to imitates the chaos of human beings. Absurdity is dominant in everything and everyone, even language and life itself nowadays.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Absurd World; Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party; compassions; love, kindness, menace; good manners
  topic: keywords
creator: Ahmad Ali Al-Daire
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-11-07
publication date: 2025-11-07
starting page: 10
ending page: 14
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.5.2

Hybrid Identity and the Deconstruction of Colonial Myth In Toer’s Novels Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa
type: item
description: This study analyses how Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Bumi Manusia and Anak Semua Bangsa expose and deconstruct colonial assumptions about race, gender, and power dynamics in the Dutch East Indies, while portraying hybrid identities as a means of cultural resistance. This research integrates postcolonial and decolonial frameworks, utilizing a qualitative-descriptive methodology to conduct a comprehensive examination of the story, characters, and ideological symbols within the text. The study's findings indicate that characters like Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh employ language, education, and morality as instruments for decolonizing consciousness, whereas Annelies, Robert Mellema, and Jan Dapperste exhibit a range of hybridity from conflict and rejection to interracial solidarity. Colonial myths regarding Western superiority and Eastern inferiority are articulated and subsequently deconstructed through narratives that validate universal humanity. Pramoedya's oeuvre delineates colonial tensions while also establishing a novel epistemological framework grounded in ethics, labour, and human dignity. This article asserts that literature serves as a reflecting and liberating tool for decolonial consciousness in Indonesia.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: hybridity, colonial, decolonial, colonial myth, Pramoedya Ananta Toer
  topic: keywords
creator: Maria Endah Yulindreswari
creator: Tatang Iskarna
creator: G. Fajar Sasmita Aji
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-11-01
publication date: 2025-11-01
starting page: 01
ending page: 09
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.5.1

On the Violence of Silence: The Intergenerational Transmission Mechanism of Implicit Family Trauma in 'night, Mother
type: item
description: Marsha Norman’s one-act play 'night, Mother (1979) centers on a 90-minute conversation after the daughter informs her mother of her suicide plan. With its almost brutal theme of "suicide," the play condenses the life crisis under the silent violence of the family—an achievement that earned Norman the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and established the work as a classic Broadway production. Through the tragic fate of the daughter Jessie, the trauma-internalization mechanism of the family’s silent system can be clearly observed in shaping her individual life. The father’s emotional neglect, the mother’s discursive evasion, and Jessie’s "self-silence" (a result of trauma internalization) together form an invisible power structure. As a form of structural violence, silence leads to the disintegration of individual existence through the logic of "discourse suppression → trauma normalization → behavioral compensation." Essentially, Jessie’s suicide is a desperate resistance against the "unspeakable pain" embedded in the family’s power structure. 'night, Mother not only provides a literary model for understanding the implicit trauma caused by silence but also offers an effective perspective for examining social and family issues in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: 'night, Mother
  topic: keywords
subject: silence
  topic: keywords
subject: implicit trauma
  topic: keywords
subject: intergenerational transmission
  topic: keywords
creator: Xiaole Liu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-11-01
publication date: 2025-11-01
starting page: 07
ending page: 14
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.4.2

Cultural Depiction of Prostitution and Poverty in The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon and In Darkest London
type: item
description: This discussion looks at two of the landmark texts on the themes of prostitution and urban poverty in late Victorian Britain: The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (1885) by W. T. Stead and In Darkest London (1889) by Margaret Harkness. The paper will also look at how the two writers deal with the epidemic childhood sexualization, rampant poverty and institutional insensitivity by the established authority especially in the infamous slums of the East End in London. In this example by Stead, the story would serve as a weapon of investigative journalism that aims to induce outrage and arouse the moral anger of the people in order to create the necessary pressure that would succeed in changing the law. Employing sensationalism of journalism and evocative language, Stead deliberately propagates a moral panic to reveal how female innocence is commodified and those with seemingly big power are accomplices to it. By contrast, the difference between the literary style of Harkness and her realist prose with its explicit description of poverty-stricken life of people living in the urban area and the strength of these people contrasting the inefficiency of the existing institutions is quite startling. The influence of the most visible themes in the two works is the gender aspects of social suppression, the commercial and feminine exploitation of female weakness, the hypocrisy of the moral meaning displayed by governing classes, and the failure of state and humanitarian monitoring. By making use of thorough investigations into primary sources and interactions with secondary sources, the analysis determines that both Stead and Harkness apply journalistic sensationalism and social realism interchangeably, not only using these literary forms as the means of narration but as tools of social awareness and critical social thinkers. Although the stylistic and ideological distinctions that distinguish between two authors are big, both of them are successful at turning their literary wor…
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Prostitution - Slums - Gender Oppression - Social Criticism - Victorian London
  topic: keywords
creator: Rawafid Al Najajeer
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
date: 2025-10-17
publication date: 2025-10-17
starting page: 01
ending page: 06
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.4.1

Patriarchy and Racism: The Female Lament in Eat a Bowl of Tea
type: item
description: Eat a Bowl of Tea, the only novel by Chinese American author Louis Chu, first published in 1961, is regarded as a significant contribution to the field of Chinese American literature. Set within the context of Chinatown’s bachelor society, the novel realistically portrays the lived experiences of early Chinese immigrants in the United States through the marital narrative of Ben Loy and Mei Oi. Existing scholarship has focused mainly on the representation of male characters in the novel, while critical attention to female figures remains relatively limited. In response to this gap, this study centres on three distinctly characterized female figures, Lau Shee, Mei Oi, and the Jook Sing girls in the novel, and examines their lived realities and struggles under the dual pressures of patriarchal traditions within the Chinese immigrant community and systemic racism in American society, thereby revealing the structural oppression produced by the intersection of gender and ethnicity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Eat a Bowl of Tea, Female Images, Patriarchy, Racism
  topic: keywords
creator: Wenyan Zong
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-09-21
publication date: 2025-09-21
starting page: 07
ending page: 13
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.3.2

On the Evolution of Class Struggle Thought in Sean O’Casey’s Plays
type: item
description: Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) is one of the proletarian playwrights in 20th-century Irish literature. Through a careful examination of O’Casey’s plays with close reading, a discernible trajectory in the evolution of class struggle thought can be found. In his early work, The Harvest Festival (1918 or 1919), the protagonist Jack began to develop the thought of class struggle. In The Plough and the Stars (1926), the third play of his “Dublin Trilogy”, O’Casey reflected on the class struggle within the context of Irish nationalism with the portrayal of a marginal character, Covey. By the 1940s, he returned to the theme of class struggle in The Star Turns Red (1940) and Red Roses for Me (1942), demonstrating a deepening exploration. The evolutionary process of class struggle thought exhibited in the plays is essentially a mirror of the playwright’s ideological evolution. The formation of O’Casey’s class struggle thought stems not only from his personal life experiences but also from the international context. Examining O’Casey’s class struggle thought reveals that he is not merely an anti-war playwright as traditionally interpreted, but rather a playwright who attaches great importance to the class struggle as a means to fight for freedom and liberation, thereby providing a more comprehensive interpretation of his political stance.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Sean O’Casey, class struggle, the proletariat, ideological evolution, Irish plays
  topic: keywords
creator: Yaxin Guo
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-09-08
publication date: 2025-09-08
starting page: 01
ending page: 06
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.3.1

How Diversely a Narrator use Digital Rhetoric and Personal Rhetoric Depending on the Scenario?
type: item
description: In communication, the use of rhetorical devices is integral to persuading, engaging one another, and communicating messages effectively. Multimodal tools like images, memes, and interactivity add layers of meaning to rhetoric in digital spaces; however, personal communication is dependent on spontaneity and non-verbal cues. The study analyses how rhetorical strategies differ when applied to digital versus personal interactions and how they adapt to different communicative contexts. Based on thematic analysis of existing academic literature — peer-reviewed journals and conference papers — we identified key rhetorical patterns that were indicative of digital and personal communication. Digital rhetoric highlights ethos and pathos as a means of communal amplification, which can also be used in interactivity. In contrast, personal rhetoric is much more logos-oriented, with its firm grounding in rational reasoning and relational ethos. In addition, personal rhetoric is more convincing since it has more credibility by establishing authority, while digital rhetoric is more interactive. The importance of rhetorical adaptation is significant to marketing, education, and digital engagement. Future studies should examine the AI-enhanced rhetoric and the growing influence of this technology on human interaction.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Rhetorical devices, digital communication, social media, personal narratives, thematic analysis
  topic: keywords
creator: Sadia Rahman Busra
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-08-17
publication date: 2025-08-17
starting page: 60
ending page: 66
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.2.7

Book Review: Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching by Tan Bee Tin (2022)
type: item
description: Tan Bee Tin’s Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching (2022) presents a thorough and critical examination of creativity’s role in language education, blending theoretical analysis with practical classroom applications. The book challenges conventional views of creativity as an optional or peripheral element in teaching, arguing instead for its central importance in fostering meaningful and dynamic language learning experiences. Through twelve well-structured chapters, Tin explores diverse dimensions of creativity, including its definitions, theoretical models (such as the 4Ps—Person, Process, Product, Press—and the 5As—Actor, Action, Artifact, Audience, Affordances), and its intersections with heuristics, constraints, and even algorithmic thinking. The book stands out for its interdisciplinary approach, drawing from applied linguistics, cognitive psychology, and pedagogy to present creativity as a multifaceted, context-dependent process that involves novelty, intentionality, and value. A key strength of the book lies in its balance between theory and practice. Tin not only deconstructs abstract concepts but also provides over 60 practical tasks designed to help teachers integrate creativity into their lessons. These activities reflect decades of research and classroom experience, offering concrete strategies to nurture creative language use among learners. The discussion on constraints is particularly insightful, demonstrating how limitations can paradoxically enhance creativity rather than stifle it. However, the review notes that the depth of theoretical discussion, while valuable, may be overwhelming for some readers, and additional real-world classroom examples could further strengthen the book’s applicability. Despite this, Unpacking Creativity for Language Teaching succeeds as both a scholarly resource and a practical guide, urging educators to move beyond superficial creative exercises and instead embed creativity as a foundational element of language peda…
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Creativity
  topic: keywords
subject: language teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: heuristics
  topic: keywords
subject: constraints
  topic: keywords
subject: 4Ps model
  topic: keywords
subject: pedagogical innovation
  topic: keywords
creator: Rawan Ahmed Alsoweed
creator: Abeer Shujaa Alharbi
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-09-21
publication date: 2025-09-21
starting page: 14
ending page: 19
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.3.3

A Wound Made Local: Seamus Heaney's 'Irishification' of Myth in The Cure at Troy
type: item
description: This paper delves into The Cure at Troy, a dramatic work by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, which is a modern adaptation of Philoctetes by the ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles. From the perspective of adaptation, this study meticulously analyzes how Heaney, through his adaptive practice, reconstructed the original work's fundamental structure, character portrayals, and themes. The article aims to reveal Heaney's motivations for adaptation, the techniques and strategies employed, and to evaluate its impact on contemporary literature. Heaney's adaptation is not merely a literary innovation but also embodies profound political significance. Firstly, his adaptation carries clear political intent; secondly, he employed diverse adaptive methods, boldly reshaping and innovating the plot and dramatic structure; finally, Heaney's adaptation strategies offer significant reference and inspiration for subsequent Irish writers dealing with Greek tragedy.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Seamus Heaney; Philoctetes; The Cure at Troy; Adaptation Strategies
  topic: keywords
creator: Tianqi Wang
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-08-07
publication date: 2025-08-07
starting page: 47
ending page: 55
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.2.5

Wandering and Freedom: A Lacanian Reading of Subjectivity in The Adventures of Augie March
type: item
description: The Adventures of Augie March, a seminal work by Saul Bellow, descripts the protagonist Augie's wandering and self-exploration in mid-20th century American society. Augie is not a traditional hero; instead, he constructs a dynamic and fragmented subjectivity through a series of choices, failures, and existential reflections. This paper applies Jacques Lacan's theory of subjectivity as its analytical framework, tracing four stages in Augie’s development: childhood (mirror stage), adolescence (symbolic order), adulthood (split subject), and ongoing future (lack and becoming). It explores how Augie negotiates the question "Who am I?" in the tension between external social discipline and inner desire. The novel, with its open ending and resistance to narrative closure, critiques the traditional American Dream and offers a profound literary reflection on modern identity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Augie March;
  topic: keywords
subject: Lacanian theory;
  topic: keywords
subject: subjectivity construction;
  topic: keywords
subject: wandering;
  topic: keywords
subject: freedom
  topic: keywords
creator: Wei Tao
creator: Shihan Zhang
creator: Pengcheng Zhan
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-08-07
publication date: 2025-08-07
starting page: 56
ending page: 59
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.2.6

Amin Maalouf’s Leo The African : Between Self-Orientalism and Reconstructing Identity
type: item
description: This paper explores the fictional world of Amin Maalouf both as a manifestation of World Literature in French, and as an exceptionnal diasporic voice, while problematizing Maalouf’s positionality as an exophonic writer grappling with issues of language, exile, and identity. It further questions Maalouf’s engagement with the essentialist Logic characteristic of self-Orientalist/exoticist rhetoric, and thus speculates on his involvement -by accident or by design-with the machinery of the global capitalist marketplace and the publishing industry. The paper incidentally invites the reader to envisage Maalouf’s literary opus Leo The African (1986) as a market commodity making its way through the international circuits of book trade dissemination, and to further examine the discursive strategies mobilized by both author and publisher to promote the circulation of Maalouf’s text on a planetary scale.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Amin Maalouf; exophonic; World Literature; Self-Orientalism; Leo The African; Global market
  topic: keywords
creator: Hind Essafir
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-06-28
publication date: 2025-06-28
starting page: 22
ending page: 34
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.2.3

Pagellu as Cultural Praxis: Embodied Social Values in Torajan Traditional Dance
type: item
description: Traditional dance serves as a vital manifestation of cultural identity and the transmission of values in numerous indigenous cultures. In Toraja, South Sulawesi, Pagellu plays a pivotal role in ceremonial life, representing spiritual devotion, communal cohesion, and ancestor veneration. Although previous studies have recorded its aesthetic and ritual components, there is limited understanding of how Pagellu operates as a cultural practice that actively incorporates and conveys social ideals. This study, conducted through ethnographic research, demonstrates that Pagellu functions as a dynamic pedagogy, incorporating embodied symbolism, intergenerational learning, and adaptive performance. The findings highlight the way the dance conveys religious, educational, economic, communicative, and patriotic ideals through its gestures, contexts, and modes of transmission. Despite its extension into contemporary environments, such as academic institutions and tourism, Pagellu preserves its cultural authenticity and educational profundity. These findings underscore the importance of traditional dance in preserving indigenous identity and highlight its ongoing relevance for cultural resilience in the face of modernization.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Pagellu Dance
  topic: keywords
subject: Cultural Praxis
  topic: keywords
subject: Embodied Social Values
  topic: keywords
subject: Indigenous Pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: Torajan Identity
  topic: keywords
creator: Nurlina Sjahrir
creator: Bau Salawati
creator: Alimuddin
creator: Andi Asrifan
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-07-08
publication date: 2025-07-08
starting page: 35
ending page: 46
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.2.4

Gender Roles and Class Relations: Neurasthenic Representations in Edith Whartons’ The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth
type: item
description: This paper examines the neurasthenic condition of Edith Wharton’s characters, Ellen, Lily and Aracher, in The age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. Those characters show rebellious attitudes to the social values and conventions of the nineteenth century American society. Our characters showed strong desires and ambitions to change the social values, gender roles and class relations. They did not accept the modern social system; while trying to live differently, they drained their nervous energy and became neurasthenic and ended up secluded and rejected as an act of retaliation. Lily and Ellen decided that they could not fit in and refused to submit to the culture’s belief that a woman should remain within the boundaries of her house. Therefore, they ended their lives. Lily killed herself and Ellen decided to live alone, in her apartment in Paris, and leave the New York society. On the other hand, unwillingly, Archer conformed to the social conventions of the time and suppressed his feelings for the sake of cultural acceptance. In fact, he remained living in his past where he fantasized a life with Ellen in a world outside New York society.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Neurasthenia, Edith Wharton, New Woman, American Nervousness, The Gilded Age, Industrial Revolution, Agrarian Society
  topic: keywords
creator: Nabeel M Yaseen
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-05-19
publication date: 2025-05-19
starting page: 01
ending page: 07
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.5.2.1

Initiation and the construction of the masculine ethos in the negro-African novel: a comparative, psycho-sociological and anthropological study
type: item
description: So marked is it by its roots in orality and ancestral traditions, Negro-African literature highlights acts of initiation, understanding them as vectors for the transmission of a socio-cultural heritage confronted with colonial and post-colonial realities and upheavals. Using a transdisciplinary approach combining the sociology of the text, anthropology, sociocriticism and postcolonial studies, this work examines how these rites - whether social (circumcision), religious (Koranic teaching) or educational (modern school) - shape a collective ethos while reflecting the existential and cultural tensions between traditionalism and modernity. By analysing two works from this literature: Camara Laye's L'Enfant noir and Cheikh Hamidou Kane's L'Aventure ambiguë, we show how initiation, far from being a simple rite of passage, embodies an identity, existential and political issue. In Laye's case, the practices (circumcision, palavers) celebrate a cultural continuity that is transmissible and harmonious, nourished by both folk lyricism and residual orality. Kane, on the other hand, highlights the fractures of an initiation divided between mystical African spirituality and philosophical Western rationality. This initiation, embodied in the colonial school and the traditional school, a space for uprooting and identity metamorphosis, is intended as cultural resistance to post-colonial demands.The mechanisms governing this initiation reveal a dialectic between preservation and rupture: while Laye's circumcision maintains the masculinity so deeply rooted in the Malinké community, Kane's Samba Diallo dilemma demonstrates the alienation engendered by the oppositional hybridity between foreign educational models. Space emerges as a key initiatory actor, structuring power relations, post-colonial existential issues and gendered representations.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Initiation, education, identity, ethos, gender, space
  topic: keywords
creator: El Houcine El Bazi
creator: Jaouad Boumaajoune
creator: Assia Dlimi
creator: Monssef Sedki Alaoui
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-04-23
publication date: 2025-04-23
starting page: 58
ending page: 66
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.7

Archetypes and the Process of Innovation in Modern Vietnamese Women’s Poetry
type: item
description: Archetypes, understood as universal psychic structures embedded in the collective unconscious of humanity, have undergone significant transformations when entering the realm of modern literature—particularly in the landscape of contemporary Vietnamese poetry. This paper explores the interrelation between archetypal motifs and feminine sensibility in the works of Vietnamese female poets from the late twentieth to early twenty-first century. Grounded in Carl Jung’s archetypal theory, Hans Robert Jauss’s reception aesthetics, and critical methodologies including archetypal criticism, myth criticism, and the psychology of artistic creation, this study aims to elucidate the evolving significance of archetypes in modern poetic discourse. Focusing on a selection of recurring motifs—namely Water, Darkness, Dream, Mirror, and Mask—found in the poetry of several prominent female voices, this article argues that archetypes are not static structures but dynamic sources of transformative energy. In the hands of female poets, archetypes become instruments for reconfiguring traditional poetics, subverting gender stereotypes, and constructing nonlinear, polysemous narratives. These functions contribute to the shaping of feminist discourse and the redefinition of feminine identity in modern society through the poetic interplay of language, cultural perception, and symbolic imagination.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: archetype
  topic: keywords
subject: poetic innovation
  topic: keywords
subject: female poets
  topic: keywords
subject: contemporary Vietnamese poetry
  topic: keywords
subject: feminist discourse
  topic: keywords
creator: Thi Thanh Tam Le
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-05-20
publication date: 2025-05-20
starting page: 08
ending page: 21
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.5.2.2

Distance: the Flâneuse’s Path From Alienation to Wholeness in Mrs. Dalloway
type: item
description: This research focuses on the image of the flâneuse in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. It aims to explore how women seek identity and draw strength from ordinary life by adjusting the distance between the self and the external world. By applying George Simmel's concept of distance, the research reveals that modernity offers women the freedom to step away from their confining daily roles and become the flâneuses to see and to experience the 'others'. By maintaining a delicate balance between detachment and involvement, flâneuses experience flexible physical and psychological distance which endows them with a unique aesthetic perspective. The aesthetic dimension helps them extract inspiration and strength from the everyday life. Different from the masculine flâneurs, who tend to objectify others, women construct a community of their own through the action of looking and building up. Their empathetic capability makes it easier for them to cross the distance between people and objects, thus transcending the distance from alienation to wholeness. The flâneuse’s experience in Mrs. Dalloway significantly contributes to the presentation of women’s experience in urban life. It reveals the complexity of social life and women's inner world, enriching the perspective for literary research on women’s agency in modernity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: distance
  topic: keywords
subject: flâneuse
  topic: keywords
subject: modernity
  topic: keywords
subject: Virginia Woolf
  topic: keywords
creator: Ting Yang
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-04-19
publication date: 2025-04-19
starting page: 41
ending page: 50
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.5

Interconnectedness: A Study of Forrest Gander’s Be With through the Lens of Ecocriticism
type: item
description: Forrest Gander is the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry for his volume Be With. Although such work is normally regarded as a collection of elegies, Gander’s distinctive poetry writing techniques and ecological insights are profoundly manifest in this collection, with intricate words exploring the relationship between nature and culture, language and perception. Through associating the American eco-critic Scott Slovic’s thoughts about ecocriticism, including the strategy of broadening the analyzing texts of ecocriticism, the reasons for ecological crises, and methods to deal with current environmental problems, this paper aims to examine Gander’s central ecological idea of interconnectedness in Be With.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Forrest Gander, Scott Slovic, Be With, Interconnectedness, Ecocriticism
  topic: keywords
creator: Li-jia Yu
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-04-19
publication date: 2025-04-19
starting page: 51
ending page: 57
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.6

Constructing Desire: Beauty, Love of Blackness and Black Constellations in The Bluest Eye
type: item
description: This paper examines The Bluest Eye as a critique of the ideological mechanisms that enforce white beauty standards and lead to the self-denial of Black identity. Through the experiences of Pecola Breedlove, Claudia MacTeer, and Pauline Breedlove, Morrison illustrates how dominant cultural narratives, particularly through mass media and literature, shape self-perception and enforce racialized hierarchies. The paper explores how Morrison historicizes the Black experience, analyzing the impact of Jim Crow laws, migration, and systemic exclusion on the construction of beauty and self-worth. Drawing on psychoanalytic and ideological critiques, this study argues that Morrison exposes the destructive effects of internalized racism and presents The Bluest Eye as an urgent call for Black solidarity and love of blackness. By engaging with theoretical perspectives on subject formation, ideology, and trauma, the paper discusses Morrison’s work within broader literary and cultural discourses on racial representation and self-identity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: black pride, disinterested violence, self-denial, constellations of support, standards of beauty, historicizing the black experience
  topic: keywords
creator: Milad Houshmand
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-03-21
publication date: 2025-03-21
starting page: 39
ending page: 34
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.3

“What if I lose my ability to language?” A psycho-social interrogation of the Language disorder narratives in bioscope and Literature; a Phenomenological analysis
type: item
description: The prevalence of inadequacy in the levels of comprehension, when it comes to an individual undergoing health imbalance is still a repressed concern. With comparatively minimal exposure on Language disorders3 in the Indian context, the construction and provision of an appropriate milieu that suffices the psycho-social4 needs of the individuals is a pressing priority. “Inclusivity” as a terminology has been gaining momentum in a multitude of spaces and yet the convalescing journeys of the individuals whose disruption of their ability to language1, prevails as an under-represented and undocumented arena of research and representation. This study is an attempt towards mainstreaming the media and literary documentation of pathographic narratives (especially language and communication disorders, i.e. Aphasia2) that aim at transforming the obscure knowledge of language disorders among the population into an agreeable scholarship creating a platform for a better psycho-social environment. This study is a representation of the muted outcry of those experiencing language disorders and in addition an attempt in channelizing the need for a global digital space that merges literature and media representations of the same. This study highlights the convergence of literature (The Man Who Lost his Language), media (My Beautiful Broken Brain) and sociology in thriving towards a socio-centered environment in India.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Aphasia, Dysphasia, Inclusivity
  topic: keywords
creator: PREETHI MAALA ANGAMUTHU
creator: Dr. M Ashitha Varghese
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-04-05
publication date: 2025-04-05
starting page: 35
ending page: 40
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.4

Transnationality, Mobile Identity, and Cultural Dislocation in Rabih Alameddine’s I, the Divine (2002)
type: item
description: Inspired by diasporic philosophy, conception, and avidity, Anglophone diasporic authors—such as Rabih Alameddine, a prolific Arab American author recognized for his bold yet creative narratives—have foregrounded heterogeneity, post-nationality, and cross-pollination, as approaches to contest essentialist national identifications and reductionist ethnic ideologies. Equally, diaspora literary criticism emphasizes the importance of border crossings and transnational movements, exemplified in diasporic narratives, prompting a re-evaluation of understandings and mindsets. Drawing on this theoretical premise, this article explores themes of traveling identity and transnational belonging, by meticulously analyzing instances from Rabih Alameddine’s I, the Divine (2002). It also unearths personal and cultural dislocation embodied in the protagonist’s disjointed life narrative, the lack of a central plot, and the uncertainty of claiming an irrevocable belief in belonging to a fixed abode. It concludes that the approach of belonging, the novel advocates, aligns with the postmodernist diasporic view, based on revisiting outdated assumptions of cultural identity and welcoming, instead, hybridity and post-ethnicity, which complicates the fixity of home and the pre-givenness of identity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: transnational belonging; Cultural dislocation; traveling identity
  topic: keywords
creator: Azeddine Lahmidi
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2025-03-13
publication date: 2025-03-13
starting page: 17
ending page: 28
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2025.5.1.2

The Craft of Poetry: A Stylistic Study of Jamal Assadi's Verse
type: item
description: This article provides a detailed analysis of the stylistic features in thirteen selected poems by Professor Jamal Assadi . Through an examination of both phonetic and syntactic structures, the study identifies key elements such as external and internal rhythm, rhyme patterns, repetition, alliteration, and antithesis, which contribute to the musicality and flow of Assadi’s poetry. The article explores various grammatical elements, such as vocative expressions, imperatives, hyperbole, and techniques for emphasis, which amplify the emotional and expressive impact of the poems. Additionally, it emphasizes Assadi’s skillful incorporation of metaphor, simile, and symbolism, illustrating how these literary devices enrich his poetry with layers of meaning and nuance. The study also examines the interplay between classical Arabic poetic structures and contemporary themes, highlighting the harmony he achieves between tradition and modernity, this article offers valuable insights into what distinguishes Assadi’s poetic voice and contributes to the broader understanding of contemporary Arabic poetry.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Stylistic features, phonetic and syntactic structures, , rhythm and rhyme, metaphor and simile, vocative expressions and hyperbole, and traditional Arabic poetic forms
  topic: keywords
creator: Nassim Assadi
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2025-01-17
publication date: 2025-01-17
starting page: 01
ending page: 16
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.5.1.1

Gothic and Historical Elements in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
type: item
description: Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” still haunts us today 200 years after it was written. Irving incorporated Gothic elements such as ancient and isolated settings, nature, superstitions, and supernatural ambiguity into his short story. Irving also included historical figures such as the British Major John André and the headless Hessian soldier. The author wove elements of the Gothic with historical facts from the American Revolution to create a memorable, uniquely American story.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Gothic, historical, American Revolution, setting, superstition, supernatural, headless horseman
  topic: keywords
creator: Kay L. Oaks
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2024-12-26
publication date: 2024-12-26
starting page: 84
ending page: 88
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.12

Finding Meaning in Meaninglessness: Comparative Reflections on Rumi and Kafka’s Literary Thoughts
type: item
description: This paper examines the metaphysical concept of ‘finding meaning in meaninglessness’ as reflected in the selected works of Jalal Ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a thirteenth-century Persian poet, and Franz Kafka, a modernist Jewish author of the 20th century from Prague. The analysis compares their insights on hope and despair, showing how two literary figures from different eras and religio-cultural traditions address the challenge of finding significance in a meaningless reality. During moments of existential uncertainty, Rumi focuses on the importance of moving beyond the ego to achieve unity with the divine to find true purpose in life; whereas Kafka’s absurdist narratives reveal the profound alienation and anxiety of living, emphasizing the challenge of searching meaning in a complex and indifferent situation. Rumi's approach is grounded in Islamic mysticism and spiritual enlightenment, while Kafka's perspective is marked by Judaic esotericism, existential dread, and the absurdity of existence. Although Rumi’s spiritual optimism and Kafka’s bleak view of existence highlight their differences, both are essential for understanding the broader human condition or experiences of seeking meaning in life, particularly in the context of spiritual and existential crises arising from modernity.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Jalal Ad-Din Rumi, Franz Kafka, meaning, absurdity, human condition
  topic: keywords
creator: Zubaida Nusrat
creator: Adibah Binti Abdul Rahim
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2024-12-18
publication date: 2024-12-18
starting page: 74
ending page: 83
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.11

Narrative Poetry Writing Skills Through Fantasy Imagination Strategies: Efforts To Improve Students' Creative Ideas
type: item
description: This study aims to describe the ability of elementary school students to develop ideas and imagination in writing narrative poetry. The background of this research is the low ability of students to develop ideas and imagination in writing poetry. Therefore, this study applies a fantasy imagination strategy to stimulate and improve students' ability to develop their ideas and imagination to produce more creative and expressive narrative poetry. The research method used is the case study method. Case data was obtained by conducting open interviews with several Indonesian teachers, and classroom observations. In addition, additional data studied is students' creative poetry in the form of narrative poetry resulting from implementing the fantasy imagination strategy model. The participants in this study are fifth-grade elementary school students in Indonesia. The implementation of this fantasy imagination strategy model is carried out by utilizing images and concrete objects. Students are invited to see, hear, touch, and feel directly with the object. The process of fantasy imagination is carried out by students when students interact with concrete objects they observe. Students explore their fantasy ideas and imaginations as a creative thought process. The results of this study show that every activity of writing narrative poetry through fantasy imagination strategies is effective in improving students' abilities. The activities carried out showed significant development in the aspects of developing ideas, vocabulary, and students' creativity in writing narrative poetry.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Writing Ability, Narrative Poetry, Fantasy Imagination Strategy, Creative Ideas
  topic: keywords
creator: Mas'amah
creator: Selvie Nandya Koriatin
creator: Dede Endang Mascita
creator: Yusida Gloriani
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2024-11-23
publication date: 2024-11-23
starting page: 61
ending page: 73
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.10

The Inuit Searching for “Place” in The Ice Whale
type: item
description: Place theory is an emerging theory in the field of ecological criticism, emphasizing the psychological attachment, emotional connection, and self-identification of people to specific natural areas. The Inuit in Jean Craighead George’s The Ice Whale are deeply connected to the Arctic Ocean, and the Inuit region becomes a “place” about where the “self” is. Technological violence that some humans have inflicted on nature and the excessive pursuit of the economy has destroyed the marine ecology and plunged the Inuit into a state of “non-place.” The author reconstructs the ”place” by imagination, aiming to arouse children’s love for the ecological environment through the beautiful conception and call for the construction of a community of shared future for mankind.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Children’s literature, Ecocriticism, Place theory, Jean Craighead George, The Ice Whale
  topic: keywords
creator: Xinhe Wang
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2024-10-27
publication date: 2024-10-27
starting page: 51
ending page: 54
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.8

Willing Suspension of Disbelief in August Wilson’s ‘‘The Piano Lesson’’
type: item
description: Using supernatural elements in literature is a common phenomenon. The most discussed Black playwright, August Wilson (1945-2005), introduces supernatural elements in his works to deepen the exploration of African-American experiences and cultural heritage. Incorporating supernatural elements adds a rich layer of meaning and symbolism to Wilson’s work. They symbolize the characters' internal and external conflicts, enhancing their emotional and psychological complexity. They often reveal the characters' desires, fears, and past traumas that drive their actions and decisions. Wilson’s play “The Piano Lesson” (1987) subtly and symbolically uses supernatural elements. The present study sheds light on: Why and how did Wilson use the technique of "Willing suspension of disbelief” in his play “The Piano Lesson”? Because of the “Willing suspension of disbelief” technique, readers and audience do not question the credibility of the incidents and events in ‘‘The Piano Lesson.’’ The use of ghosts and supernatural elements contributes significantly to this play's dramatic power and intrigue. As much as they successfully keep the audience and the readers engaged, they create such an atmosphere on stage that the audience is made to believe what they see on stage.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: African-American
  topic: keywords
subject: culture
  topic: keywords
subject: drama
  topic: keywords
subject: playwright
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural elements
  topic: keywords
creator: Shanjida Halim
creator: Hasan Mohammed Saleh Jaashan
creator: Tanzina Halim
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2024-11-09
publication date: 2024-11-09
starting page: 55
ending page: 60
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.9

Culture and Intra-gender Women Subjugation as reflected in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon and Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen
type: item
description: Very often, male beings are known to be the subjugators of women in different fields; they are pointed to be those who subordinate and manipulate women by hampering their visibility. This paper, however, finds paradoxically that women are at the basis of their own problems. It shows that they are those encouraging the male being’s domination over themselves through their intra-gender subjugation. Therefore, the paper has made use of Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon and Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen to expose, through the interaction of characters, the cultural and the females’ intra-gender subjugation.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Women, subjugation, culture, intra-gender, visibility
  topic: keywords
creator: Monfaye KOFFI
creator: Akezou Essozolim Néhémie
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date: 2024-10-17
publication date: 2024-10-17
starting page: 33
ending page: 40
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.6

The Presence of Biopower in Keiko Furukura from Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman”
type: item
description: The collected written and oral works of a society portraying values and beliefs as well as their challenges are referred to as literature. In terms of age and volume, Japanese literature is comparable to Western literature. Sayaka Murata, a prominent Japanese author, critiques conventions, exemplified by her 2016 novella "Convenience Store Woman," shaping the identity of a 21st-century woman. Keiko, Murata’s heroine, works in a convenience store and lives through the question of absolute autonomy. This study investigates the presence of Biopower in Keiko Furukura from Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman.” Specifically, it looks into character, settings, and themes. This study uses a qualitative method, specifically Discourse Analysis. The theories that support this study are Michel Foucault’s Theory of Biopower and Sociological Literary Criticism by Kenneth Burke. The results of this study reveal that Anatomopolitics and Biopolitics are the forms of Biopower present in the character. In the settings, both Anatamopolitics and Biopolitics are also exhibited. Similarly, Anatomopolitics and Biopolitics are the forms of Biopower found in the themes. Based on the findings, this study concludes that Biopower is present in Keiko Furukura from Sayaka Murata’s “Convenience Store Woman.” From the study’s conclusion, the following are recommended: The Death of Individualism: A Character Analysis of William Stoner from John William’s “Stoner,” Construction of Identity: A Sociological Critique of Natsuko Imamura’s “The Woman in the Purple Skirt,” Challenging Gender Norms: An Examination of Gender Norms in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” Challenging the Contemporary Feminism of Kojima in “Heaven” by Meiko Kawakami.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
creator: Sherwin Magsayo
creator: Ann Marie Alga
creator: Mary Sharmaine Sasil
creator: Lito Diones
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2024-10-24
publication date: 2024-10-24
starting page: 41
ending page: 50
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.7

The Postmodern Individual in J.M. Coetzee’s Novels: Exploring Issues of Identity, Representation, Intertextuality, and the Self
type: item
description: This paper explores the postmodern elements in J.M. Coetzee’s novels, focusing on his treatment of themes such as representation, intertextuality, fragmentation, and ambiguity. Through a close examination of works like Foe, Waiting for the Barbarians, and In the Heart of the Country, the study demonstrates how Coetzee disrupts conventional narrative structures and challenges traditional ideas of truth and reality. The analysis delves into how Coetzee’s novels reflect the postmodern rejection of a singular truth, emphasizing the plurality of perspectives and interpretations. The paper also highlights Coetzee’s use of fragmented narratives to depict the instability of identity and meaning in a chaotic world. Furthermore, it explores Coetzee’s conscious deployment of intertextuality, where his works engage with and reinterpret previous literary texts, reinforcing the postmodern view that no text is entirely original. The paper ultimately argues that Coetzee’s fiction exemplifies postmodern techniques, inviting readers to actively engage in constructing meaning and questioning established narratives.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: J.M Coetzee
  topic: keywords
subject: postmodernism
  topic: keywords
subject: representation
  topic: keywords
subject: intertextuality
  topic: keywords
subject: identity
  topic: keywords
subject: fragmentation
  topic: keywords
creator: Fatima Nader
creator: Mohamed El Bakal
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2024-10-13
publication date: 2024-10-13
starting page: 25
ending page: 32
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.5

Longing for a Home and the Role of Women in Louis L’Amour’s Narratives
type: item
description: This research explores relationships between Louis L'Amour's literary works and the Frontier Thesis, which defined the impact of the American frontier on national character and identity. The central theme of L’Amour’s literature is rugged individualism. This is described in some detail, analyzing how it is portrayed in his selected works. Primary focus is given to the longing for a home—a recurring but overlooked theme in L'Amour's narratives. By extension, the role of women in L'Amour's writings is highlighted. Women are depicted as crucial in the establishment of homes and communities on the frontier. Strong female characters in L'Amour's works embody the essence of homemaking and resilience on the frontier. Analysis of representative works by L'Amour show how the themes of rugged individualism, the longing for a home, and the role of women are woven together. A conclusion summarizes the key findings and discusses implications for understanding the American frontier experience through literature.
subject: Research Article
  topic: section
subject: Frontier Thesis, Louis L'Amour, women in literature, language and culture.
  topic: keywords
creator: Guy Redmer
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Literature Studies
date: 2024-10-04
publication date: 2024-10-04
starting page: 15
ending page: 20
doi: 10.32996/ijts.2024.4.3.3