Volume 13, issue 1

Introduction

This volume of in esse: English Studies in Albania collects papers from three different subject areas, which also form three of the sections of this issue: American Literature, English Literature, Language Studies. A Book Review section follows at the end.

The first section contains one contribution by Jiří Flajšar from Palacký University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic. The author focuses on Richard Hugo’s beach poems, which explore the transformative effect of the sea in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Flajšar argues that Hugo’s poems project his thoughts onto the environment with the ambition to internalize the landscape and make sense of his feelings about the place, space, and himself. His beach poems are a unique response to a tradition of American sea poetry that includes Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Theodore Roethke.

The second section includes two contributions, one by Mehrdad Bidgoli, Hossein Pirnajmuddin, Pyeaam Abbasi, and one by Sukanta Sanyal, Tanutrushna Panigrahi, Lipika Das, both dealing with two English writers from two different literary periods and traditions, William Shakespeare and Martin Amis.                                                                                                                                                                     

In their paper, Mehrdad Bidgoli, Hossein Pirnajmuddin, Pyeaam Abbasi, from the University of Isfahan, Iran, analyse William Shakespeare’s works with a focus on night as a metaphysical aspect from a phenomenological perspective. The contribution traces the growth of Shakespeare’s thought on the metaphysical aspects of night from his sonnets and poems to his more mature theatrical works.

Sukanta Sanyal, Tanutrushna Panigrahi, Lipika Das from the International Institute of Information Technology Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, in their paper, discuss Martin Amis’ non-fiction work Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions (1993) and his short story collection Einstein’s Monsters (1987) to highlight his concerns about the possibility of another nuclear war and the possible consequences of confusing man’s mental landscape. The authors point out that Amis argues that the self-serving superpowers leverage the nuclear concept only as a deterrent and not for actual war, and that the sinister powers that operate from behind a veil of obscurity to precipitate such catastrophes are now even greater. This paper highlights each of the writer’s viewpoints and shows how relevant his contentions continue to be even today in a world torn apart by such polarising thoughts and ideologies.

The third section has one article by Chiara Briguglio, an independent scholar from Italy. In her research study, the author investigates the discrepancy between African societies’ multilingualism and an official monolingualism based on allogeneic languages. The study suggests that language policy actors in Africa are taking new paths to manage extreme multilingualism, which can be traced back to the African Union’s integrative policies.

In the Book Review section, Miloš D. Đurić from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, discusses Nenad Tomović’s book Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, published in Belgrade by FOCUS – Forum za interkulturnu komunikaciju (Forum for Intercultural Communication) in 2019. According to Đurić, Nenad Tomović, a professor at the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, undertakes an inspirational and thought-provoking reevaluation of English Language Teaching (ELT) in the context and field of Applied Linguistics (AL). Setting the stage are the author’s observations on AL in the book’s opening pages. The author also discusses his experience creating a novel interface between EFL and AL, which has been a difficult issue to face. 

In the end, we would like to thank all our contributors for presenting their views and ideas in this issue of in esse. Special and well-deserved thanks go to our reviewers for their tireless work in selecting and reviewing the papers for this collection.

                     Armela Panajoti, general editor 

“The Sea Belongs to You”: The Pacific Northwest Beach Poems by Richard Hugo 

Jiří FLAJŠAR, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic

email: jiri.flajsar@upol.cz 

Abstract

The poetry of Richard Hugo (1923-1982) often explores the transformative effect of the sea in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Navigating the descriptive extremes of inhumanist naturalism and confessional candor, his poems update the Wordsworthian exploration of the Romantic self in a natural setting as well as the representations of the private voice of the landscape poet, whose identity as an obsessive home-seeker in deserted spaces is constructed as well as questioned by his response to the dynamism and changeability of the coastal setting. Hugo’s poems, from early to late, project his thoughts onto the environment with the ambition to internalize the landscape and make sense of his feelings about the place, space, and himself. Drawing on criticism of Hugo’s work and recent studies of American travel and landscape poetry, the article argues that Hugo’s beach poems are a unique response to a tradition of American sea poetry that includes Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, and Theodore Roethke. As Harold P. Simonson (1980, 150) explains, the landscape poet reaches the shores of the Pacific Northwest, “finding something of himself amid the barnacled rocks and oozing moss” while realizing, as Theodore Roethke (1962, 202) notes, that “his place, where sea and fresh water meet, / is important.” The Hugo beach poems work as the loci of the lyric transformation of the self toward self-acceptance while celebrating the rugged elemental beauty of the Northwestern coast.

Keywords: American poetry, landscape, ocean, beach, Pacific Northwest, Richard Hugo, Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot, Theodore Roethke 

Shakespeare, Phenomenology and the “Witching Time of Night”

Mehrdad BIDGOLI, Hossein PIRNAJMUDDIN, Pyeaam ABBASI, University of Isfahan, Iran

email: mehrdadbidgoli94@gmail.com

Abstract

This article studies a number of William Shakespeare’s works with a focus on night as a metaphysical aspect from a phenomenological perspective. After presenting an introduction on the literary and philosophical significance of night as a (non)phenomenon (while also referring to the scarcity of research in this field) and of alterity on a metaphysical scale, we will try to discuss the ways in which Shakespeare, from the beginning of his poetic and theatrical career, seems to have been interested in night and the various effects he wished to achieve through invoking this (non)phenomenon. We will trace the growth of Shakespeare’s thought on the metaphysical aspects of night from his sonnets and poems (Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece) to some of his more mature theatrical works (chiefly A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Macbeth). Our aim is to show, with the help of a phenomenological treatment of Shakespeare’s language and theatre, how he moulds what can be termed a metaphysics of alterity as a literary and philosophical aspect of his work.

Keywords: Shakespeare, Levinas, night, phenomenology, alterity, metaphysical, metaphysics

Revisiting the Nuclear Question in Martin Amis’ Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions and Einstein’s Monsters

Sukanta SANYAL[1], Tanutrushna PANIGRAHI, Lipika DAS, International Institute of Information Technology Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

email: sukantasanyal12@gmail.com 

Abstract

This paper proposes to study the English writer Martin Amis’ non-fiction work Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions (1993) and his short story collection Einstein’s Monsters (1987) to highlight his concerns about the possibilities of another nuclear war and his contention that the feuding powers achieve nothing but to confuse man’s mental landscape and make his future particularly problematic. While the horrors of the first atomic explosion are still palpable and tangible, the recent froideur between the USA and Russia, the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and its threat of nuclear weapons, along with the ‘Thucydides Trap’ set up by China for America, have set the stage for renewed global conflict. Amis argues that the warring ideologies of the self-serving combative nations have turned common men into mere marionettes at their disposal, resulting in the loss of their very reason for existence. He states that the self-serving superpowers, despite rousing up the masses, actually leverage the nuclear concept only as a deterrent and not for actual war, even though that does not discount its threat to humanity. Amis also talks about the sinister powers that operate from behind a veil of obscurity to precipitate such catastrophes—the forces of capitalism and their obsession with the profit motive, even at the cost of mass destruction and annihilation. He warns that these dangers are now even greater as they are no longer restricted to us alone but also to posterity. This paper will highlight each of the writer’s viewpoints and show how relevant his contentions continue to be even today in a world that is torn asunder by such polarising thoughts and ideologies.

Keywords: nuclear, weapons, power, deterrence, capitalism, humanity, posterity

[1] First and Corresponding Author.

New Trends in Language Policy: The African Regionalism

Chiara BRIGUGLIO, Independent scholar

email: chr.briguglio@gmail.com

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the discrepancy between the multilingualism of African societies and an official monolingualism based on allogeneic languages, which is not very representative of a linguistic reality in which indigenous languages continue to dominate. In years when the defence of ‘linguistic biodiversity’ is proclaimed at international summits denouncing an ever-increasing number of languages at risk of extinction, it is an interesting task to explore the continent where almost a third of the known languages are spoken and which has the greatest concentration of linguistic diversity in relation to the number of speakers. How to manage extreme multilingualism in a continent of fragile and ‘low-resource’ states? The answer in this paper is to be found in a network of language policy actors in Africa who are taking new and original paths, partly different from the prevailing inclinations at the international level, which can be traced back to the integrative policies that the African Union has chosen to adopt since its establishment at the dawn of the new millennium.

Keywords: multilingualism, Africa, language policy, African Union

Nenad Tomović. Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching. Belgrade: FOCUS – Forum za interkulturnu komunikaciju [Forum for Intercultural Communication], 2019, 123 pp. ISBN: 978-86-88761-11-6.

Miloš D. ĐURIĆ, University of Belgrade

email: MilosDDjuric@hotmail.com

 General description

Professor Nenad Tomović (the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade) undertakes an inspiring and provocative reassessment of English Language Teaching (ELT) in the context and domain of Applied Linguistics (AL). The book opens with the author’s reflections on AL (p. 5–6), which sets the scene. In addition to this, the author reflects on his experience facing the challenging task of establishing a novel interface between EFL and AL. 

              Summary

The author sketches out the key concepts, thereby reminding the reader that AL is not a unitary field but rather consists of many schools of thought (p. 7). We are also made aware of a set of working definitions. The book is organised into seven chapters: I. What is Applied Linguistics? (p. 5-6), II. Key Concepts (p. 7–23), III. Features of L2 (p. 24-26), IV. Age (p. 27–45), V. Skills (p. 46–85), VI. Micro-Skills (p. 86–106), and 7. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Grading (p. 107–116). The book includes a bibliography with sixty-four references (p. 117–121) and innovative web sources (p. 121). Let us now look at concrete book chapters.