Power Relations: Mario Vargas LIosa’s The Feast of the Goat

The notion of ‘power’ is one of the most debatable notions in sociological studies, and this is because of its inevitable presence in social relations and interactions. In all his relations within the society, man can feel the influence of power, either as the one in power or as the powerless one. Power does not exist in vacuum and it should be considered in relation with other social concepts such as class, race, gender, space, etc. Along with these concepts, different embodiments of power in the society can be revealed and different models of exercising of power will be formed. One of the most directly related notions to power is the notion of ‘politics’. What allows politicians to use different policies is power and what gives them power to fulfill their will and impose their own desire and interests on the other is politics. The other concept which serves these two notions is ‘discourse’. It is obvious that without ‘discourse’ and ‘language’ the existence of ‘power’ and ‘politics’ is only a probability, because ‘discourse’ is the means of exercising the power and applying the politics. Thus, here is a triangle of ‘power’, ‘politics’, and ‘discourse’. In this regard, a very brief historical overview of power is given. The base of discussion and analysis in this article is the different forms of power according to S. Westwood’s Power and the Social. This article explores the relation between the three angles of the mentioned triangle in Liosa’s The Feast of The Goat, a dictator–historical novel set in Dominican Republic. This study investigates various shapes of power exercised by Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo through politics and discourse.Key words: Power; Race; Class; Gender; Space; Vision; S. Westwood; Mario Vargas LIosa; The Feast of the Goa

The Relationship between EFL Learners’ Extensive Reading and English Language Proficiency

The present study aims at investigating the effects of extensive reading (ER) on language proficiency of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. A Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered to 106 male and female university students. The participants were selected as intermediate learners and were divided into three groups (one control and two experimental groups). During the ten sessions of the treatment, ten short stories (authentic and simplified) were provided to the two homogenous groups (two experimental groups). The first experimental group received authentic reading texts and the second experimental group received simplified reading texts, while the participants of the control group followed the ordinary reading course at the university. All three groups received post-tests administered after the treatment. The results of the t-tests revealed that there is no significant difference in reading scores across the posttest between two experimental groups. The results of ANOVA also revealed that there is a significant difference between the scores of the control group and experimental groups’ participants. Based on the interview result after the post-test, all of the participants (100%) agreed that they had positive attitude toward extensive reading after participating in the treatment sessions. The study suggests, however, students’ curriculum courses should include extensive reading texts in order to develop EFL language proficiency

Fiction on Nature

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Youth’ is significant and considerable in that it is a novella which is built on the author’s personal experiences along with drawing on the interaction between Man and Nature. Conrad’s tenth story ‘Youth’ revolves round Marlow who is both a narrator and a central character. He undertakes a sea journey in which the adolescent Marlow becomes a man. ‘Youth’ is a story of discovery and development, of revelation and revolution vis-à-vis man and nature and their sociality. Conrad delineates this sociality through the English people and the sea. The direct engagement of natural elements, water and wind, as adversaries to man is revealed by the author. This engagement makes man not just an object of more or less accidental fate, but a protagonist, a fighter in the battles of his existence. What kind of a community gets surfaced in ‘Youth’ vis-à-vis Sea? Marlow starts his narrative by addressing five people at the beginning of the story. He says “between the five of us there was the strong bond of the sea, and also the fellowship of the craft” (69). Such beginning speeches direct us to get involved in a fiction which is a mirror of man and nature community.Keywords: Fiction; Joseph Conrad; ‘Youth’; Man; Nature; Sociality.Résumé: La «Jeunesse» de Joseph Conrad est importante et considérable en ce qu’elle est une nouvelle qui se construit sur des expériences personnelles de l’auteur ainsi que par le dessin sur l’interaction entre l’homme et la nature. «Jeunesse» dixième étage de Conrad tourne autour de Marlow qui est à la fois un narrateur et un personnage central. Il entreprend un voyage en mer dans lequel l’adolescent Marlow devient un homme. «Jeunesse» est une histoire de la découverte et le développement, de la révélation et la révolution vis-à-vis de l’homme et la nature et leur socialité. Conrad délimite cette socialité par l’intermédiaire du peuple anglais et de la mer. la participation directe des éléments naturels, l’eau et le vent, comme des adversaires à l’homme est mis en évidence par l’auteur. Cet engagement fait de l’homme n’est pas seulement un objet de sort plus ou moins accidentelle, mais un protagoniste, un combattant dans le batailles de son existence. Quel genre d’une communauté se fait surface dans vis-à-vis de «Jeunesse» de la mer? Marlow commence son récit en abordant cinq personnes au début de l’histoire. Il dit: «entre les cinq d’entre nous il y avait la forte discours des obligations de la mer, et aussi la communion de l’artisanat «(69). De commencer ces diriger nous de s’impliquer dans une fiction qui est un miroir de l’homme et de la communauté de la nature.Mots-clés: Fiction; Joseph Conrad; «Jeunesse»; L’homme; La Nature; La Socialité

Discipline and Punish in Bayhaqi History: An Analysis of »Hasanak the Vizier« under Michel Foucault’s Theories

This study aims at discussing Bayhaqi’s History and the execution presented in the book under Michel Foucault’s patterns in Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison (1977). Therefore, the major aim of this paper is to pursue torture, torment, power, and punishment in Bayhaqi’s History based on what Foucault expounded in his analytical book. In his writing of »The Execution of Hasanak the Vizier, Peace be upon him«, Abu’l-Fadl Bayhaqi attempts to present a dramatic history and to reveal an execution rite in Ghaznavid Period of Iranian history. Text analyses under the modern theories which are the products of the new world and its complicated societies never carry contemporary reader to the old time, but bestows new and fresh outlooks to the text and increases the pleasures of reading. Bayhaqi’s History, written by Abu’l-Fadl Muhammad ibn Husayn Bayhaqi (died in 1077), is a living and documentary book which enjoys literary and historical merits, and consequently demands social and sociological reviews and evaluations

A Comparative Study of Apocalyptic Concepts in Ahmad Shamloo’s »Journey« and William Butler Yeats’s »The Second Coming«

Apocalyptic literature appeared to disclose human’s anxieties in a complicated world. The present study aims at indicating roots of such a literature and displaying the so called Apocalyptic poetry at the Modern age. Hence, this study, while emphasizing American school of Comparative Literature, focuses on two patterns: one is genres and forms, and the other is motifs and types. It is attempted to reveal how Ahmad Shamloo (1925-2000) and William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) came across such a genre in their poetry, and what were their major attitudes toward it.  Apocalyptic issues and concepts are various, but this study wished to concentrate on the most distinguished ones in Ahmad Shamloo’s  »Journey« and William Butler Yeats’s »The Second Coming«; they are: revelation and poetic contemplation; prevision and exhortation; millennium  and end of history; rough language. The results indicates that both poets were familiar with this genre, and far from being influenced or putting influences on each other, the motifs of Apocalyptic literature were strongly present in their selected poems

The Sociolinguistics of Persian SMS: Ways to Identify Age Limits

A kind of social system which eases communication is language. Any form of language is very important for different types of communication: interpersonal and inter-group. A form of this social system is short messaging system (SMS) or texting which has been used increasingly since 1990’s. Text messaging, as a language style, is used in everyday life to maintain social networks, to regulate events and to help entertain oneself in the open moments of one’s day. This paper thus examines the SMS style of language communication between two groups of young and middle-aged people. Thirty messages are taken randomly from 10 cell phones (five from each group). Then we analyze the effects of the writers’ characteristic (age) on message length (number of words), dialogue structure (with or without an opening and a closing), and message function (informative vs. relational) to investigate variations among these two age groups. The paper concludes that a significant difference is found between young and middle-aged texters’ linguistic properties

Pedagogical and Colonial Power Discourses in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

This paper aims at exploring the relationship between pedagogy and colonial power as discourse instances in Shakespeare’s The Tempest which dates back to the early seventeenth century. A brief historical study is given focusing on the variety of forms and purposes in pedagogical life of England during 1540 to 1560 and emergence of the Reformation period. It is revealed, for example, that The Tempest is recognized as a model of colonial relationship and as a metaphor of educational history. The concept of power discussed in The Tempest, is not shaped just by supreme authority of the kingdom, but is infl uenced by its relationship with knowledge as an instrument of power in Foucaultian eye. The paper seeks to investigate how Prospero, the master of the colonial prison of his island, makes use of his magical books, the symbols of knowledge, so as to teach all the characters dramatized in the story as all classes of the society, from aristocrats to commoners. In particular, it focuses on Prospero’s reliance on his colonized power presented by verbal and physical punishment toward Caliban, the colonized misshapen creature on the one hand, and homeschooling of Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, on the other hand. The article ends by resembling Prospero’s magical power and his god-like control into a Foucaultian reading of history as he argues that power will inevitably result in some form of resistance. The Tempest suggests an expanding threat of disruption, treason and rebellion as the reaction to the power.Key words: Colonial power; Pedagogy; Discourse; Foucault; William Shakespeare; The TempestRésumé Cet article vise à explorer la relation entre la pédagogie et de la puissance coloniale comme des instances de discours dans La Tempête de Shakespeare, qui remonte à début du XVIIe siècle. Une brève étude historique est donné en se concentrant sur la variété des formes et des buts dans la vie pédagogique de l’Angleterre au cours de 1540 à 1560 et l’émergence de la période de la Réforme. Il est révélé, par exemple, que la tempête est reconnu comme un modèle de la relation coloniale et comme une métaphore de l’histoire éducative. Le concept de pouvoir discuté dans La Tempête, n’est pas en forme juste par l’autorité suprême du royaume, mais est influencée par sa relation avec la connaissance comme un instrument de pouvoir dans l’oeil foucaldien. Le document vise à étudier comment Prospero, le maître de la prison coloniale de son île, fait usage de ses livres magiques, les symboles de la connaissance, de sorte que d’enseigner à tous les personnages en scène dans l’histoire comme toutes les classes de la société, des aristocrates aux roturiers. En particulier, il met l’accent sur le recours Prospero sur son pouvoir colonisé présenté par la punition verbale et physique envers Caliban, créature difforme du colonisé d’une part, et l’enseignement à domicile de Miranda, la fille de Prospero, d’autre part. L’article se termine par ressembler à un pouvoir magique de Prospero et son dieu-comme le contrôle dans une lecture foucaldienne de l’histoire comme il fait valoir que le pouvoir va inévitablement entraîner une certaine forme de résistance. La Tempête suggère une menace croissante de la perturbation, la trahison et la rébellion comme une réaction à la puissance.Mots clés: Puissance Coloniale; La pédagogie; Du discours; Foucault; William Shakespeare; La Tempêt