Language and Translation Studies (LTS)

Abstract This paper examines the psychological defense mechanisms employed by Frank Hardy in Brian Friel’s Faith Healer (1979) as he confronts anxiety provoking memories and unresolved interpersonal conflicts. Drawing on the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and other analysts as systematized in Otto Fenichel's The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis, the study applies a qualitative, text-based analysis to Frank’s monologues in Parts One and Four of the play. Focusing on defenses against instinctual drives, namely denial, repression, projection, and isolation, the analysis reveals that denial functions as Frank’s primary strategy for avoiding emotional pain, while repression shapes his fragmented recollections of family and loss. Projection and isolation appear less frequently. The study highlights the contrast between Frank’s apparent candor and his underlying psychological evasions, contributing to psychoanalytic readings of Friel’s drama.

Abstract While feminist literary criticism has extensively examined gendered perspectives in Shakespeare’s works, not much attention has been given to how disability studies might reframe such analyses through its critique of normalcy and stigma. This study places feminist criticism and disability studies in direct dialogue by examining four Shakespearean heroines—Katherina (The Taming of the Shrew), Desdemona (Othello), Hermione (The Winter’s Tale), and Portia (The Merchant of Venice). The article introduces the concept of metaphorical disability to demonstrate how gender can function as a disabling system within patriarchal structures. The heroines’ responses are examined as strategic negotiations between truth and disguise. Desdemona and Hermione choose truth and suffer exclusion, while Katherina and Portia adopt forms of performative conformity to survive. Integrating disability studies into Shakespearean analysis enables a more structurally grounded and intersectional understanding of stigma, Othering, and narrative consequence.

Abstract Black comedy in American dramatic literature is one of the prominent and significant genres, blending humor with dark themes to critique social, political, and cultural issues. Utilizing satire and bitter humor, it challenges human tragedies and serious concerns, serving as a powerful tool for expressing social critiques. John Guare, through his caustic, pointed satire, delves into human relationships, social contradictions, and cultural hypocrisy, generating not only humorous moments but also impactful, thought-provoking scenes that invite viewers to contemplate and critique the surrounding world. Six degrees of separation, in particular, reflects his profound critique of the American Dream. Through dark humor and internal conflicts in his characters, he prompts the audience to reflect on the boundaries between reality and illusion, demonstrating that achieving the American Dream may not always lead to happiness and can even result in identity crises and personal failures.

Abstract This paper examines the novel Brother of Soul by David Diop, through the analytical lens of Slavoj Žižek, and its focus is the structure of trauma and its impact on the protagonist, Alpha Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier in World War I. Using Žižek's key concepts, such as “the Real”, “the Symbolic”, and “Object petite a”, the text analyzes how the characters deal with the trauma of war and its impact on identity. It also demonstrates how the trauma of war, as a “Real Event” disrupts the “Symbolic Order”, and leads to alienation and psychological breakdown, highlighting the role of the “Other” in shaping the experience of trauma and the transformation of the main character's identity. Ultimately, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the impact of trauma on the individual and society within the context of war and colonialism, offering new perspectives on postcolonial literary studies and psychoanalysis.

Abstract This study seeks to analyze normalization and its implications in Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys through the lens of Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework. Thus, the researchers aim at employing Foucault’s theory of panopticon as the paradigm of the modern world to show how the American government, through dispersed educational, judicial, and disciplinary institutions across society, seeks to establish a homogeneous and conformist society in which individuals are thoroughly normalized. The findings of this research reveal that the American society depicted in the novel during the 1960s exemplifies the Foucauldian model of the modern world, where individuals are confined, controlled, and administered within various institutions, including reform schools, the judicial system, law, the police, and a matrix of other satellite institutions. Collectively, these institutions strive to produce docile, submissive, and obedient people who are devoid of individuality and whose identities rest on their being just like other people in society.  

Abstract One of the features in nonsense style is the related character which can be studied from different angles. One of the stylistic areas in which nonsense characters have received less attention is the aspect of how they interact with Grice’s rules for linguistic cooperation or cooperative principles. Then, one should examine how the character of that work interacts with Grice’s rules: does he always deal with these rules in a fixed way or in a variable way? The result can lead to a better understanding of the character(s) of the nonsense style, which in turn will bring us closer to the definition of what some thinkers consider undefinable for this style. The present research first shows how J. D. Salinger’s A Perfect Day for Bananafish belongs to the nonsense genre, and then proves that the relationship between nonsense characters and the Gricean maxims are variable and complex.

Abstract Althusser believed governments require toolkits to fulfill the desires of the ruling class. He proposed that the old-school scheme of the earlier Marxists, that governments functioned solely by repression, is inadequate and cannot explain how the society goes under service voluntarily. He divided the governing tools into ideological (ISA) and repressive (RSA) and proposed that the constant functions of the former keep the society balanced, and the latter backs it up by prioritizing violence and force. This research analyzes the instances of the failure of the ISA in the society of A Clockwork Orange (1962) (ACO). The protagonist is a teenager greatly prizing his individuality. Almost all the ISA-related institutions cannot affect him. Subtly, ACO (1962) makes every part of the ISA responsible for the protagonist's fate. The results indicate that while ISAs in ACO (1962) are at work, they are malfunctioning.

Abstract Through using different vehicles and implements, poets and authors in the School of Naturalism could reflect life’s events and its circumstances in detail. Among the most significant subjects and topics propounded in this school are war, poverty, prostitution, bloodshed, and murder. Naturalists are poets and authors who reveal life as it is and insist on the ugly faces and aspects of life to indicate how human beings are useless creatures who are surrendered to genetics and the environment. This study uses naturalistic qualities and common themes found in War Poetry to compare the poetry of two renowned poets, Qeysar Aminpour from Iran and Wilfred Owen from England. For this, “A Poem for the War” composed between 1979 and 1984 by Aminpour and “Dulce et Decorum Est” (1920) by Owen are selected among others. The major qualities examined in this article are as follows: the descriptive details of war and its circumstances; the use of simple and colloquial language; cacophony, and harsh and tough language; and the picture of war’s indecencies, ugliness, and terrors. Results reveal that war poetry in England is basically anti-war, although some epic-tone and passionate poems were written by poets such as Robert Brook and Siegfried Sassoon at the beginning of the First World War, however, war poetry in Persian rests on mysticism and it is epic-tone. Nevertheless, in both poetry, war is viewed as cruel, painful, and full of Naturalistic qualities.

Abstract ‌This study explores the use of nicknames among trilingual youth, investigating the influence of identity, culture, language, and attitudes on their propensity to assign nicknames to others. This research is cross-sectional and uses survey research. Results reveal that nicknames mirror the intricacy of social relations in a trilingual society. Young people’s attitudes towards others’ titles are predominantly negative, while their views on their own titles are more positive. Physical attributes form the basis for the most common nicknames. In this trilingual village, nicknames are primarily given to incapacitated individuals, those with differing religious beliefs, and those who do not share commonalities with the dominant language (Georgian, the native language of the dominant group) and ethnicity. The dominant language group is more inclined to assign titles. Most titles are based on descriptive phrases rather than verbal, prepositional, or adverbial phrases.

Abstract Albert Camus acknowledges absurdity and the only way to rebel against the fundamental emptiness of existence is to reach freedom and self-awareness. This transition would include two types: passive nihilist and active nihilist. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of the rebel in Camus’ philosophy and its representation in Samuel Beckett’s plays. To do so, two of Beckett’s plays, Waiting for Godot and Endgame are examined. The findings reveal a new reading of the ‘Camusian Rebel’. Contrary to Camus’ philosophy, the characters in these works have the courage to commit suicide and do not even try to create meaning out of their lives. They are castrated in speech and communication with the other, contradicting the Camusian definition of absurdity. They parody all Camus’ philosophical assumptions about the meaning of life and nihilism.

Abstract This article focuses on notions of ‘dirt’ and diaspora to discuss their relation with biopolitical discourse in Malamud’s The Jewbird and The Mourners from the perspective of left thinkers. Deploying Douglas’s and Bauman’s views, the writer discusses how biopolitics has used the notions of hygiene and dirt to secure its surveillance over the body of its racial other in the West. It is argued that the ‘anti-dirt’ movement, supported by the West to promote Western civilization, affected cultural geography. Therefore, it resulted in the formation of binary structures—such as clean vs. dirty, self vs. other—as well as the social categorization of people. The aforementioned condition leads to the emergence of “homo sacer” figures and the imposition of “bare life”. These figures enjoy no better position than “the inside outsiders” doomed to the status of ‘strangehood’. Consequently, they are subjected to strict exclusionary measures and even death, which is justified in light of their supposed danger to society.