Papers by University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2017
This present paper examines Ibsen’s A Doll’s House from the viewpoint of gender differences in th... more This present paper examines Ibsen’s A Doll’s House from the viewpoint of gender differences in the use of language by the characters in the play, and the way the lives of the characters are affected by the use of language. The study concludes that the prevalent ideologies in the society define the gender roles that stimulate women to maintain intimacy and connection and men to preserve their independence and status. However, females break this connection when they tend to preserve their identity and individuality instead of maintaining connection. The analysis of the selected text, from the play, is carried out through using Discourse analysis tools like Identity Building Tool, Turn Taking and Holding Floor, Story Telling, Empty Adjectives, Intensifiers. Tannen’s theory of Genderlect Styles and Althusser’s concept of Ideological State Apparatuses have been used to draw the conclusion. Key Words: Discourse Analysis, A Doll’s House, Genderlect Styles, Ideological State Apparatuses.
Univeristy of Chitral journal of linguistics and literature, Nov 30, 2020
This paper aims to make personality analysis in the characters of Sammar, Nahla, Mahasen, and Yas... more This paper aims to make personality analysis in the characters of Sammar, Nahla, Mahasen, and Yasmin from Leila Aboulela's novel The Translator under the lens of Islamic Feminism, which was first, named by Margot in 2002. In this research the rules and regulations and rights which are set for the betterment of the women by Allah Almighty Himself are being discussed in the light of Sunnah, Hadith and Qur'an which is also taken as the sacred text. Different words, phrases and expressions are interpreted on the basis of religion and culture. Under this term it is believed that Islam has provided women with all sorts of rights consisting even of those which one could not even imagine, it gives the message of equality and also commands its believers to protect them like a treasure but also gives a free will to them. Where the society wants to treat them differently and creates such roots in the mind of people that a man's conscious and unconscious simultaneously control his personality; his actions as well as his discourse for treating Muslim women as inferior to them thus since childhood all sorts of knowledge, discourse, myths, stories, beliefs, art, literature, fairy tales and culture etc. influence their unconscious mind. In The Translator Leila Aboulela in a unique way explains these archetypes through the life of her protagonist and that how religion in being intertwined by culture and that how much a lady specially have to fight for using her Shariya rights. To show that there is need to unveil certain mysteries in the universe, which hold connections and ties among different phenomenon.
Living in an area that has long been a battlefield where various world powers have often been at ... more Living in an area that has long been a battlefield where various world powers have often been at loggerheads, Pashtuns have frequently drawn the attention of several works of fiction. Yet literary scholars have largely ignored the importance of these works of fiction looking into the lives of Pashtuns. This paper proposes that from the times of the Cold War to those of the War on Terror, Pashtun identities have been clouded by the hegemonic discourses of the contesting global powers, leading to gaps and silences in their depiction in literature.This paper argues that the Pashtun images in contemporary Pakistani fiction in English exhibit strong influences of the dominating narratives; simultaneously, however, they seem to offer various patterns of subversion of the prevailing power narratives. Despite the fact that Pashtuns are generally regarded as the most subversive people of South Asia and that their lands have been regarded significant strategically as well as geographically, yet they are portrayed as the Others of the mainstream cultural discourses. This paper aims to highlight the contours of the socio-cultural and political valuation of Pashtuns in contemporary Pakistani fiction in English.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2019
This paper attempts to explore the presence of Freud's psychoanalytical tools-id, ego and sup... more This paper attempts to explore the presence of Freud's psychoanalytical tools-id, ego and superego and their role in determining the protagonists' optimistic/pessimistic cycle towards life. The researcher has applied Psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud to analyse the novel. The research has successfully revealed application of Freudian psychoanalytical tools. Moreover, the researcher has also unveiled the psychological drives which were evident during the optimistic/pessimistic cycle of protagonists' lives. The researcher has concluded her research on the ground which illustrates when protagonists were having positive approach towards life, the working of superego in their life was indicated and while having pessimistic approach in their life witnessed the presence of id.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between the male gaze and the woman self by analy... more This study aims to investigate the relationship between the male gaze and the woman self by analyzing the portrayal of female characters in Toni Morrison's God Help the Child. This paper addresses the problem of white beauty standards as an emblem of ideal beauty and the way the male gaze plays a vital role in determining a woman's self. The male gaze acts as a mirror for the woman; therefore, she molds her appearance by keeping the male gaze in her mind, which makes her an object of the male spectacle and results in losing her genuine self. When a woman cannot attain these imprudent codes of beauty thus, this makes them psychologically and physically depleted. The violence inflicted upon the female self through the male gaze will be addressed with reference to John Berger's theory of voyeurism. A woman's whole identity is structured on the sense of others' appreciation. They unconsciously inspect their figure by keeping the male gaze in their mind. This research evaluates American beauty standards as an emblem of ideal female beauty and the role of the male gaze in sculpting a woman's self.
The study analyses the African identity portrayed in Achebe's novels Things Fall Apart (1958) and... more The study analyses the African identity portrayed in Achebe's novels Things Fall Apart (1958) and An Arrow of God (1964) from the vantage point of the postcolonial theoretical perspective or Postcolonial African identity Discourse of Frantz Fanon. Twenty-first-century Africa is a diverse continent especially when looked from the perspective of post-colonialism where diverse groups of people exist. Because of past colonial residue and experience, the governments in the region are still divided and people live with fragmented identities. The continent has undergone drastic changes before and after its independence. In this regard, the study of post-colonial African literature seems to be incomplete without the study of the African colonial past and the ideologies emerging from this part of the world. In this regard, Chinua Achebe is one of the prominent writers of African literature who presents the glaring picture of African culture by celebrating its identity as self-sufficient. He introduces the reader to the important contextualising historical and cultural perspectives of African history and identity. The novels written by Achebe do not only depict the history and culture of Africa but also serve as a direct response to the whole canon of Eurocentric writings in which African race, history, culture, religion, and society have been misrepresented as inhuman and savage which are nothing but false constructs when viewed from postcolonial perspective. His novels, particularly Things Fall Apart and An Arrow of God paint a grim picture of the colonisation of Nigeria in particular and the African continent in general. He illustrates various ways of representing the self-sufficiency of African nations with a strong sense of African identity.
This paper explores the language policy of the British government in colonial Sindh. The study re... more This paper explores the language policy of the British government in colonial Sindh. The study relies on secondary data and follows the literature study framework to identify the explicit language policy and its implicit political goals. Also, it discusses the language policy of Sindh before the arrival of the British to build the context in which the British government started its rule and administration in Sindh. It is evident that after a series of battles and conflicts with the Talpurs of Sindh, British troops conquered Sindh in 1843 under Sir Charles Napier. Persian was the official language of Sindh before the arrival of the East India Company. However, the British chose to run the administration of Sindh in an indigenous language called Sindhi (also referred to as Scindee, Scinde, or Scindhee). For this purpose, they formulated a committee to devise a standard alphabet for the Sindhi language, and by 1853, a fifty-two-lettered 'Sindhized-Arabic' or 'Perso-Arabic-Sindhi' writing system of the Sindhi language was introduced. This newly codified version of the Sindhi language became the official language of Sindh under British rule. Civil servants in Sindh were required to learn Sindhi; books were printed in this language, and it was raised to the level of medium of instruction in the British educational system in Sindh.
This research paper examines the portrayal of violence in Morrison's novel A Mercy through textua... more This research paper examines the portrayal of violence in Morrison's novel A Mercy through textual analysis. This analysis is done through the lens of Žižek's theory of violence: subjective and objective. Subjective violence includes the concepts of physical violence and terror, while objective violence deals with invisible violence like structural inequality in the form of systemic violence. Morrison's novel goes beyond subjective physical violence. It is found that A Mercy reveals Žižek's subjective violence in two ways. First, women are dominated through subjective physical violence. Second, they suffer from subjective sexual violence, too. Likewise, objective violence is depicted through systemic and symbolic violence. Systemic refers to the structural inequalities inherent in the structure through the domination and discrimination of men over women and the inferior attitude of women towards other women. Symbolic violence is portrayed through men's use of the language of discrimination and domination to control women. Additionally, this paper addresses how women do violence against other women. Related to the impact of violence, the researchers found that the effects of violence on women's self-identity based on race and gender are shattered. They impose violence on their female community and question their own identities. Violence results in breaking the interpersonal relationships of characters, too. Objective violence (domination and discrimination) breaks the family unit and shakes the trust of family members against one another. However, not all characters passively accept the impact of violence; some female characters resist it too, and they reclaim their own identities.
The Global Pandemic introduced new challenges in pedagogy, methodology and curriculum. However, i... more The Global Pandemic introduced new challenges in pedagogy, methodology and curriculum. However, it offered some novel solutions for academia to rapidly shift from traditional teacher-centered classrooms to student-oriented interactive classrooms using online tools. Hence, this study aims to identify the technical, institutional, and academic problems English language teachers face during online classes for undergraduate students at a public sector University in Karachi-Pakistan. For this purpose, the study utilized a mixed method approach, and the target population included sixteen teachers teaching virtually. Data was collected in two stages using purposive sampling through an online teaching form from all the respondents and to know teachers' experiences while conducting the classes, interviews were conducted. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five participants. The findings suggest that teachers faced problems in ICT skills, digital resources, content development, assessment and using different online platforms for tasks and activities. The results indicate that teachers also met multiple economic, technological, interaction, attention, and motivation of learners and wellbeing issues during the online classes. Comparatively, some young teachers reflected the opposite trends and were motivated to explore this new education system. Therefore, the higher education institutes in Pakistan should immediately develop new curricula in alignment with the technological needs. Also, sufficient training for ELT practitioners and teaching language skills must be provided for the betterment of future generations.
University of Chitral journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
The combined studies of pragmatics and stylistics are less explored and often approached as pragm... more The combined studies of pragmatics and stylistics are less explored and often approached as pragma stylistics and pragmatics of style. The burgeoning field of interdisciplinary studies is well documented (Edwards, 1996, Klein 1990, 1996) and is the need of the day in this information age in order to get a clear understanding of the intricacies of language use in media texts. The fruitful link between pragmatics and stylistics can be exploited for an in-depth study of language use in media. However, the current study examines the representation of Pakistani English Newspaper headlines in terms of interpretation by adapting the Pragmatic Stylistic framework propounded by Black (2006). The sample for the study consists of 28 front-page headlines from The Daily Dawn, a top-rated and the oldest English newspaper in Pakistan. The data inquiry is undertaken with the analytical paradigm of descriptive qualitative interpretational analysis. The analysis provides evidence that pragmatic stylistics features govern the interpretation of the headlines from the writer/editor's perspective. The variational use of Pragmatic Stylistic features in headlines cater to the variation of news events. The study concludes that being a governing factor in interpretation, Pragmatic Stylistic features are crucial to be understood by the writers.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
The philosophy of existentialism has made many writers to pen down their thoughts about the exist... more The philosophy of existentialism has made many writers to pen down their thoughts about the existence of human beings and the meaning of life. Existentialist theory states that human beings can establish their own meaning of life just by using their consciousness. The power of free will and personal responsibility can enable the human being to define his meaning of life. However, Absurdism contradicts the idea of Existentialism by emphasizing that there is no meaning of life, and that meaninglessness leads to suicide. The purpose of this very paper is to explore the Existentialist and Absurdist themes in Matt Haig's novel The Midnight Library. The qualitative research methodology has been used for this research and the data is collected by purposive sampling. While Albert Camus' theory of Existentialism and Absurdism has been chosen as a theoretical framework for this paper. The analysis testifies that the elements of Absurdism and Existentialism have been impregnated by Matt Haig in his novel The Midnight Library. For future recommendations, the novel can be analyzed by the lens of Magical Realism and Psychoanalysis.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
This research aims to determine the argument/thematic structure of Sindhi verbs. In English and S... more This research aims to determine the argument/thematic structure of Sindhi verbs. In English and Sindhi, it examines the Locative, Source, Goal, and Instrumentive Thematic Relations. The argument/thematic structure of Locative, Source, Goal, and Instrumentive thematic relations in English and Sindhi has been compared in this study. The data are in oral Sindhi: daily life conversation. The information have been gathered via means of unstructured interviews. Thematic Structure has been applied to analyse Sindhi verb phrases in order to determine the Locative, Source, Goal, and Instrumentive thematic relations in the two languages. The theory of 'Theta Roles and Thematic Relations' (Carnie, 2006; Radford, 2009; Ouhalla, 2010) was employed to analyse the data both theoretically and analytically. It is discovered that Sindhi Locatives, Sources, Goals, and Instrumentives are all connected in some way. In terms of function and importance, they are similar to the English ones. Furthermore, the abovementioned thematic relations in Sindhi are the same as those in English in the written form of the language; they have a set placement/position in a sentence, e.g. initial, middle, or final. However, the semantic/thematic relations in Sindhi are different from those in English in terms of the position/placement in the oral form. Sindhi Sources, Goals, and Locatives are more flexible in terms of placement than English Sources, Goals, and Locatives. Goals and locatives in Sindhi sources are more flexible in terms of location and position than in English; they can be employed at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
This paper aims to investigate the portrayal of love and its expression in Lahiri and Sidhwa's sh... more This paper aims to investigate the portrayal of love and its expression in Lahiri and Sidhwa's short stories and attempts to determine the voice and agency of female expression of love. Love and its expression have been the privilege of male in the narratives emerging from South Asia, and female generally had been unexpressive and maintained silence. But the women of the modern times wish to give agency to their thought and so the fictional narratives from Indo-Pak subcontinent are currently giving voice to the women. This problematizes the sociopolitical and cultural norms and their working in South Asian societies which necessitates to explore the current narratives. The writers intend to read the selected chunks of short stories by Lahiri and Sidhwa under the lens of postcolonial feminist theory. The stories Interpreter of Melodies (1999), Their Language of Love (2013) by these two writers respectively convey a dominant view of women's agency of love with the significant impact on social and literary scene. The most probable outcome of research is that the women in 20 th century Indo-Pak subcontinent are finding their voice not only represented but are being listened through the narratives from South Asia.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
A preface is the author's endeavor to describe the text and indicates why the text has been writt... more A preface is the author's endeavor to describe the text and indicates why the text has been written. It also underlines some of the author's references and the text's relevant point of concern. Thus, the preface functions as the author's introduction to the book. It is the section of the book in which the authors guide the reader about the text and share their opinions and beliefs on the text's content. Due to the importance of prefaces in textbooks, the present study attempts to explore the linguistic specificity in the preface section of the Pakistani academic soft discipline textbooks at Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) and Bachelor's level. As specificity in writing is a crucial concept in using English for academic purposes. In a mix-method study, we have used the quantitative method (statistical percentage) in which the frequency along with percentage is recorded and further qualitatively interpreted with the help of concordance lines via AntConc software. The data of this study is compiled with the assistance of text fixer and file converter software. For the analysis of the corpus, Ken Hyland's (2009) model of lexical Specificity is adopted. The self-mention and hedges categories of the lexical specificity model have been analyzed for the preface section. The findings showed that there has been frequent use of the firstperson pronoun 'I and we' to build the authorial stance in the preface section. Further, the hedges like 'will and would' used in the preface section of the textbooks manifested the positive attitude of the authors by establishing solidarity for their readership and increasing the communicative tendency of the text. Thus, it is concluded that the preface of soft sciences textbooks would act as the mean with having dual communicative purposes, either to present the book and to publicize it to the potential readers.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
The purpose of this study was to examine if the annual English exam question papers of first year... more The purpose of this study was to examine if the annual English exam question papers of first year accurately reflected the synchronisation of the National Curriculum Benchmarks (2006) with the questions on the test administered by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Sukkur. Annual question papers from BISE Sukkur's XI courses were chosen to examine content validity across a five-year period (2014-18). A survey questionnaire was used to obtain data from ELT experts. When compared to the Benchmarks of the National Curriculum of English Language (2006), the data revealed that the items on the annual question papers had very low content validity. The study recommends some effective ways for developing effective question papers aligned with Benchmarks.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
This study examines the situation of Nigerian women in America depicted by Chimamanda Ngozi Adich... more This study examines the situation of Nigerian women in America depicted by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah in terms of how they are subjugated and marginalized in their day to day lives. It also investigates the problems and hurdles faced by Nigerian women in their own and American society due to migration and immigration. The study, furthermore, delineates the suppression of the desires and needs of Nigerian women and lays bare how it affects them. By deploying the theoretical paradigm of impression management with an exclusive focus on gender issues, this study highlights how the socio-domestic progress of Nigerian women is impeded in the name of culture and race. Finally, the study reflects on the ability of Nigerian women to convert their miseries into opportunities. It is, therefore, a picture of both their strengths and weaknesses that reveal the potential of these women which the world needs to appreciate. The paper tries to find the true picture of the miserable life of female immigrants with some of the applicable solutions.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
The distinguished position of Samuel Beckett is due to his assignation of religious ideas. A quic... more The distinguished position of Samuel Beckett is due to his assignation of religious ideas. A quick closer look however reveals that Beckett has been studied from a Western perspective which is either religious or critical. A few studies on Beckett are from an Eastern viewpoint but Muslims' perspective still is missing. Keeping this research gap in mind, the current paper aims to determine the significant impact of the Islamic perspective on Beckett's works and how his works are adapted in various Muslim contexts. For this purpose, the adaptations of Waiting for Godot are used for finding out the connection between Beckett and the Islamic world. The findings of the paper highlight not only the presence of Beckett in the Islamic world but also the work offers rich signs in need to be traced.
university of chitral journal of linguistics and literature, 2021
This article intends to compare the speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez with the help... more This article intends to compare the speeches of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez with the help of Critical Discourse Analysis. This article has applied Van Dijk's theoretical framework to dig out the issues of domination, imperialism, violence, resistance and injustice not only in a social context but also in a political arena inculcated in speeches. The research has analyzed one speech of each president qualitatively to investigate the concepts of resistance against the hegemonic domination of the US. The study finds that both the leaders have utilized positive selfrepresentation and negative other representation with the help of discursive devices. The study has also found the brutality, domination and injustice of the US. There may be found ideological similarities between the two presidents' positions over the imperialist designs. They are agreed that certain global powers' incursions and hegemonies need to be resisted due to their designs of imperialism and hegemony in places like the Middle East and Venezuela. The Study recommends that resistance rhetoric in politics can be significantly helpful in terms of international political diplomacies and policies for the nations of the world.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 2021
The aim of this research is to deal with the fluid identities of the Muslim migrants settled in A... more The aim of this research is to deal with the fluid identities of the Muslim migrants settled in America in general and in particular it explores how the conflicts between social and religious values push the protagonist Hayat Shah towards the loss of his personal and religious identity in Ayad Akhtar's novel 'American Dervish' (2012). It describes how the survival in a multicultural society particularly by the Muslim migrants becomes painful. Hayat Shah firstly holds on his remnant tenets of Islamic religion but later he is influenced by the charm of multicultural modern society of America and struggles in sustaining his Muslim identity and finding his new identity for his personal settlement with the surroundings. In this way his identity becomes fluid and keeps on changing. The research concludes that the Muslim migrant Hayat couldn't retain his Muslim identity because he finds his survival only in the adaptation of new, broader, and multicultural settings. This crisis occurs because he has been struck in the issues like religion, mystic philosophy, and cultural conflicts right in his adolescence. It is examined through textual analysis that the journey of Hayat Shah for becoming a Hafiz, and then a Sufi or Dervish comes to an end by availing a new identity of an American. The qualitative research is designed on descriptive analytic method by utilizing the approach of Identity Crisis presented by Eric Erickson.
University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature, Sep 30, 2021
To justify colonialism and perpetuate colonial rule the colonizers appropriated their political, ... more To justify colonialism and perpetuate colonial rule the colonizers appropriated their political, cultural, academic, literary, and linguistic supremacy which left a tinge of mimicry and hybridity among the natives. The colonizers, being in the centre, employed colonial discourse, Eurocentric historic construct, Western education system, English language, missionary and creative literature to portray the periphery, the colonized, as uncivilized, accultured, incompetent, uncouth and diabolical evils. To rebut this, the postcolonial writers rejected colonialist ideology and cultural supremacy by asserting native culture, identity, language, and societal values. They disassociated themselves from cultural imperialism and celebrated their indigenous culture. This study analyses the portrayal of celebration of the indigenous culture and identity in Bapsi Sidhwa's novel Ice Candy Man (1988-89) from the vantage point of postcolonial theory. It has been found that Sidhwa celebrates indigenous culture, identity, tradition, language, and localization in the novel. To this effect, she employs code-mixing to add indigenous semantics, delineates characters from the locality, asserts her Pakistaniness and objectifies Pakistani leadership and narrative in the novel and thus she continues to live as a postcolonial writer.
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Papers by University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature