Papers by Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya
Many writers had already elaborated upon matters of truth and honesty, when Albert Camus characte... more Many writers had already elaborated upon matters of truth and honesty, when Albert Camus characterized Meursault, the protagonist of his best selling novel The Outsider, as an honest man who 'refuses to lie…for the sake of truth'. At that time, Camus had an international fame in the world of literature, and he explained the novel and his absurd hero, Meursault, in a preface to an English language edition of L'Etranger. Yet, some commentators and critics found Camus's explanation strange and reacted against his commentaries. Chief among them is Conor Cruise O'Brien who believes that Meursault of the actual novel is not the same that Camus characterized in the explanation of the novel. O'Brien points out that Meursualt of the story lies, and he is indifferent to truth. This paper is a critical examination of O'Brien's and other critics' commentaries which stand for and against Camus's own commentaries on his absurd character, Meursault, to lead us to the heart of the matter of Camus's understanding of terms such as honesty and truth. In doing so, despite the fact that Camus is the creator of Meursault, his commentary on Meursault is analysed next to other critics' commentaries, and not as a dominant one.
Critical Theory refers to several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the ... more Critical Theory refers to several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. Many "critical theories" have emerged in relation to various social movements that show the wide scope of the domination of human beings in modern societies. What societies needs today is a free world of communication where individuals can speak their minds freely. In the light of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of "Dialogism", this study intends to describe the future role of critical theories in giving voice to diverse ideologies in the context of societies. The main concern of this paper is to answer the critical question of how critical theories should provide space for a future dialogized world? Truth is neither born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person; it is created between people collectively in the process of their dialogic interaction. This study highlights Bakhtin's contribution to literary studies and by examining the social aspect of his theoretical frameworks sketches the ways in which his theories can be beneficial for today's international relationships.
Through a textual scrutiny of Mary Sheil's Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, this paper aim... more Through a textual scrutiny of Mary Sheil's Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, this paper aims to examine the ways she represents the Persian women in her travel narrative. Nineteenth century, as the high noon of British imperialism, saw the emergence of a huge corpus of colonial travel literature on Persia purported to be eye-witness accounts of the journeys made by their writers. Likewise, Mary Sheil claims that her narrative is an innocent transcription of the life and manners in Persia. However, a close analysis of her text reveals that the representations of women are informed by circulating discourses of the time in keeping with British imperialist ideologies. Further, it exposes the power structure embedded in Sheil's scripting of Persian women. Far from being a monolithic picture, the text presents an ambivalent tableau of Persian women as objects of both derision and admiration. For its analytical framework, this study follows three successive readings focusing on the representation of the Persian women. The interpretation of the passages is guided by theories from Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha among others.
Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985) has enabled us to see how science can be used to interp... more Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985) has enabled us to see how science can be used to interpret, analyze and relate to the various aspects highlighted in it. Prompted by the seminal reading of this text by June Deery (1997), this article revisits the scientific approach relating to physics to explore different elements in the novel. The representation of time and its relation to space and matter is explored in a manner that casts new light on the understanding of: how time could actually affect characters' past, present and future; how the effects of the space-time relation could affect one's energy by relating it to the characters' disorientated state of mind; how science makes a connection between nature and male dominance, and the portrayal of women and men based on Newtonian mechanics and quantum physics. From this novel, much can be analyzed and explored using science as an instrument, thus offering many possibilities and a different perspective to readers consider and which revolve around the issue of how men and women are viewed.
Edgar Allen Poe, in his short stories, is well-known for his portrayal of strange behavior among ... more Edgar Allen Poe, in his short stories, is well-known for his portrayal of strange behavior among his protagonists who usually commit a series of heinous crimes and either get away with it or are punished severely when discovered. In this paper, the actions of and thoughts spoken by Poe's protagonist in his short story "The Cask of Amontillado" are interpreted in terms of the psychoanalytic concept of projection as articulated by Sigmund Freud. We believe projection is employed by Monstresor as an ego defense to exercise his aggressive drives of hatred and envy towards the victim, Fortunato, which culminates in premeditated murder. Fortunato is unaware of Monstresor's plan to eliminate him permanently, while the reader is not informed about the unforgivable actions which have resulted in so much grievance and hatred in Monstresor's mind, hence leaving the victim helpless and the reader baffled by Monstresor's unjustified crime. By using Freud's concept of projection, we conclude that the projective mechanism is a useful tool for understanding Monstresor's motif in killing one of the social elite, Fortunato, and his actions in committing this gruesome crime. Monstresor is unconsciously projecting his own feelings of jealousy and arrogance onto Fortunato and imagining and believing that Fortunato has those same feelings towards him. So, obsessed with feelings of revenge, Monstresor takes the life of his innocent friend.
Rani Manicka's Touching Earth demonstrates a narrative discursive style which is indeed an approp... more Rani Manicka's Touching Earth demonstrates a narrative discursive style which is indeed an appropriate ground for the study of multiple voices and worldviews. Manicka's representation of the world through an utmost plurality of consciousnesses, each playing its part on an equal dialogical basis to demonstrate the truth, parallels what Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) describes as a "Polyphonic Novel." The main aim of this study is to discover, in Rani Manicka's Touching Earth, the polyphonic elements that Bakhtin attributed to Dostoevsky's novels. This article further seeks to identify the dialogic relationship between the characters, the active participation of the reader, and the author's position with regard to these. The final goal of this study is to establish the quality of unfinalizability, the capacity to outgrow the determined fixed definitions, and the shared perception of truth in this novel. As there have been limited Bakhtinian studies on Asian texts and, in particular, none on Rani Manicka's novels, this study attempts to fill this gap in the literature and thus contribute to the body of research on the dialogical dimension of the novel.
Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883), her travel narrative on Malaya, through a Bakhtinian discu... more Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883), her travel narrative on Malaya, through a Bakhtinian discussion of the chronotope. The study examines the historical poetics of the text and compares the intra-textual relation between time and space, as described by Bird, with an extra-textual account of the historical cultural condition of Malaya in 1883. This paper further seeks to underline the issue of gender and its influence on the narrative. The Golden Chersonese can be seen as a portrayal of an imperial look at the land and people of Malaya; whilst the narrative thus points to the costumes and religion of the Malays, it cannot escape the influence of its narrator's gender. Bird's individuality as a female traveller against the background of her native land is discussed with regard to her gender. In addition, chronotopes of 1883-Malaya, with greater focus on social, cultural and religious issues, and 1883-England as an imperial power, besides the perception of gender, are also compared. Finally, by examining various chronotopic units in The Golden Chersonese, the paper concludes that Bird's narrative is a polychronotopic text. This research fills the gap in literature regarding a Bakhtinian perspective on travel narrative writing, with reference to time and space.
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In its four decades of rebirth, the world has debated (enough) the relevance of feminism, but the... more In its four decades of rebirth, the world has debated (enough) the relevance of feminism, but there is, surprisingly, refreshingly emergent dimensions at the turn of the twenty-first century: feminisms from feminism flowing from Africa. The theories or models of Womanism, Stiwanism, Motherism, and Nego-feminism, with their underlying assumptions and values,were all born at various end times of the twentieth century with a common objective of seeking gender justice. This paper examines the crucial question of how relevant these models are to the global practice of woman as human. What propels their separateness, and why didn't they combine to make a more solid stance on the plight of the African woman? In fact, why can't they simply identify with the general feminism? Put differently, are they dwelling in the same terrain or are they separable and easily recognisable discourses duelling in possibilities for the woman in Africa in particular and the woman of the globe in general? More specifically, how (ir)relevant are African feminisms?In trying to answer these questions, the paper presents a critical review of the afore-mentioned theories of African feminisms with the goal of providing readers an understanding of what is new in each model, and what is similar or different between the various strands of African feminisms. The paper concludes with the author's analysis of the model that holds the best promise or possibilities for African feminism to achieve its seemingly elusive goal of gender equality.
This is an interdisciplinary study to show human manipulation through Foucault"s concept of biopo... more This is an interdisciplinary study to show human manipulation through Foucault"s concept of biopower in Aldous Huxley"s Ape and Essence (1948). The anxieties of WII stimulated Aldous Huxley to express his fear about the dark future of humanity through composing Ape and Essence. In this dystopian fiction, Huxley illustrates a society in which the postwar government employs disciplinary systems to control and manipulate its citizens. In Ape and Essence, Huxley indicates that people and their lives are highly controlled and regulated by the totalitarian State. Not only are their minds controlled by the disciplines, but also physical bodies are disciplined into submission and literally taken away from their rightful owners, as people are considered the property of the State. Thus, their goals and ambitions revolve around satisfying the State"s needs. In this interdisciplinary study, we observe dystopia in Ape and Essence as a consequence of Foucauldian disciplinary system. Huxley shows after war, the totalitarian government employed disciplinary ways to control and manipulate people. This analysis investigates the effects of the nuclear bomb and disciplinary systems on humanity, and explores the ways through which humans have become dehumanized in Ape and Essence.
In White Noise (1985), Don DeLillo shows the web of systems predominating late twentieth century ... more In White Noise (1985), Don DeLillo shows the web of systems predominating late twentieth century society. DeLillo illustrates the organizations of supermarket, media, and even drug as new discourses of power in postmodern condition in which, according to Michele Foucault, power is diffuse, and power conflicts can happen at many different sites and levels. This study is an exegesis of Foucault's central concept for understanding representations, and the intersections of discourse, power, and the subject in Don DeLillo's White Noise in which power disseminates through different social and cultural discourses.
Cybernetics is particularly well-suited to cultural history since it resonated with an American c... more Cybernetics is particularly well-suited to cultural history since it resonated with an American cultural mood that included World War II anxieties and worries that communism indicated that human beings could degenerate into unthinking, perfectly intelligent machines. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) illustrates people who become enslaved to a controlling system of cybernetics that carries out its power through time and war. In this study, I examine Slaughterhouse-Five in which the cybernetic system creates a dystopian society and reduces human beings into obedient robots. Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five demonstrates that cybernetics as a metaphor for control of the mind leaves no space for individuals to decide for their own lives. This analysis investigates the ways through which cybernetics manipulates human beings in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.
This research aims to consider literature as a significant tool for teaching fundamental language... more This research aims to consider literature as a significant tool for teaching fundamental language skills including speaking, listening, reading and writing. Reasons for the use of literature in language classrooms and major factors for choosing appropriate kinds of literary texts in such classes should be highlighted in order to make readers aware of the primary reasons that why language instructors are suggested to use literary texts. Furthermore, teaching language skills through literature, advantages of various kinds of genres of literature to language teaching and some issues faced by language instructors in teaching language via literature are considered in the present study.
Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952) illustrates people who become enslaved to a controlling syste... more Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952) illustrates people who become enslaved to a controlling system of cybernetics that enhances its power through computer, consumer culture, and advertising industry in postwar America. In this study, I investigate Player Piano through the idea of cybernetics that reduces human beings into intelligent machines and mindless bodies. Player Piano constitutes an effort to make sense of powerful systems through the metaphors of the machine. It is a struggle to illustrate a deterministic attitude of the universe that leaves human with no choice.
This study examines the metamorphosis of the body in cyberspace. From the late twentieth century ... more This study examines the metamorphosis of the body in cyberspace. From the late twentieth century to the early twentieth-first century, we have witnessed a remarkable development of new technologies that have affected our concept of being. The body has been metamorphosed into pattern and has lost its possession in order to gain immortality. Its function or meaning no longer depends on an interior truth or identity, but on the particular assemblages it forms with new technologies. In this study, we draw on the work of Hayles, Haraway, Deleuze and Guattari among some other scholars to explore what happens to the body when it is rethought as pattern in Don DeLillo 's Cosmopolis (2003). In the present study, we argue on a departure from capital to cyber-capital with the idea of futurity. We also demonstrate the construction of a megalomaniac in the virtual realm and that how technology and cyber-capital have affected the human body.
In any work of imaginative literature, binary oppositions, the specifics of time and the characte... more In any work of imaginative literature, binary oppositions, the specifics of time and the characterization of the protagonist play some role, no matter how small and insignificant. Reading Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" in light of the conflicts of the old and the new, the tradition and the traditionless, the chronology of time and its effect on the reader, and the characterization of the female protagonist was indicative of the influence of cultural elements in analyzing the story. While Faulkner was doubtless a major artist in terms of depicting the life of Southerners of the time and changes in the norms and codes of their lifestyle, the reader and the cautious critic also will have a distinct, and often contradictory, interpretation of a given text from the point of view and theoretical perspective that he/she adopts.
The present essay focuses on the grotesque elements in Edgar Allan Poe's the "Black Cat" and Hora... more The present essay focuses on the grotesque elements in Edgar Allan Poe's the "Black Cat" and Horace Scudder's "The White Cat". Poe's story is highly embedded with a lot of grotesque elements from the beginning to the end. These elements were presented through strange characters, mysterious happenings, and degradation through death. Poe represents the struggle between the supernatural and the natural which he reinforces through the narrator who struggles to commit wrongdoings. Even in the mist of trying to restrict himself, the narrator still does not know what he did. In "The White Cat," Scudder employs grotesque elements as well but his application is subtly done unlike Poe whose application is more pronounced. The underlying meaning of this short story is on the spell of enchantment. However, Scudder, like Poe, displays the supernatural events through the characters of the "fairies" who has magical power to change the once a beautiful princess to a white cat. Grotesque includes absurd and bizarre elements and pierces the conventional version of reality. However, in its ability to shock or offend, grotesque helps to expose the vulnerability in human depicted via these absurd elements which will be explained in details in the present study.
The option offered by the modern polarity feminist is not with the intent of sounding like magic,... more The option offered by the modern polarity feminist is not with the intent of sounding like magic, but it largely guarantees the disheartened opposite sex to get pretty impressive results with minimal intervention, resulting in relationship satisfaction, intimacy, love, passion, commitment, and trust. In fact, it can boast of decline in marital dissatisfaction as entirely eliminated, although there could be exceptions. This nego-feminist framework is heard throughout the paper interrogating primordialism on womanhood in Nigerian novels into those with opposition motifs to modern streaks which guarantee lively-partnership. The evaluation shows that women generally can reap maximally from the nego-feminist frame.
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Papers by Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya