Volume 13, issue 2

Introduction

This volume of in esse: English Studies in Albania collects papers from the larger areas of literature and linguistics, which are subdivided into four sections in this issue: Travel writing, American Literature, British Literature and Discourse Analysis.

The first section contains one contribution by Armela Panajoti from the University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali.” Panajoti focuses on travel writing about Albania, covering the period after the fall of communism. She analyses blog narratives written in English by Nate Robert, founder of Yomadic, a travel blog, in which these stories are published. By employing the idea of “eye of the beholder,” Panajoti reads these stories through the lens of discourse analysis in order to reveal how images of Albania are (re)constructed and histories are (re)claimed through their representations in language.

The second section includes one contribution by Mamoun F. I. Alzoubi from Al-Balqa Applied University-Salt College for Humanities and Mohammed Ahmed Al-Abdulrazaq from Al-Balqa Applied University-Irbid University College. The authors analyse Ana Castillo’s So Far from God as a postmodern literary text, focusing more precisely on the novel’s characters—their mestizo consciousness—to challenge the dominant value system by drawing on the concept of identity as fluid. As a result of the “pressure” Castillo’s characters put on the dominant culture by prioritizing their own needs and cultural values, they introduce new ideas and come to question the universal validity of the identity politics of the dominant culture in favour of a flexible politics that encourages people and communities to decide which aspects are valid or useful for them and which are not.                                                                                                                          

  The third section included one article by Hossein Pirnajmuddin from the University of Isfahan, Fatemeh Shahpoori Arani from Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, which, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, habitus, and distinction, takes under scrutiny two poems—Thom Gunn’s “In Santa Maria del Popolo” and Philip Larkin’s “Church Going.” The authors propose a sociological reading of both poems as a departure point for their argument that religious art questions religious faith. The authors point out the differences in outlook between both poems—despite the recognition of the religious decline, that is, of the sensibility towards it, Larkin, unlike Gunn, offers a far more promising view of the continuation of religious art as mattering in our modern times.

The fourth section has two contributions: one article by Linda Mëniku, Albana Lilaj from the University of Tirana, and the other by Viacheslav Shevchenko, Ekaterina Shevchenko from Samara National Research University.

In their article, Linda Mëniku and Albana Lilaj tackle the issue of the immigration of Albanians to the UK as reported and represented in two well-known British media—the daily newspaper The Guardian and the tabloid The Sun. Data, namely headlines, collected from the websites of both media during 2022, were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis to demonstrate how Albanians are represented in the British media as well as to highlight the role of the media in projecting a positive or negative image of immigrants.

Viacheslav Shevchenko and Ekaterina Shevchenko from Samara National Research University, in their article, focus on media discourse, more precisely, seek to read the interaction of various discourses to be found within the larger category of media discourse from a semiotic perspective. Data, text from articles, were collected from the website of The Guardian, and analysed from the perspectives of discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, observational techniques, and descriptive techniques. The results prove that signs from other discourses in media discourse cause discourses to interact, resulting in interdiscursivity and polydiscursivity, which should suggest that different aspects of human life interact and affect one another in how this process is represented in media discourse.

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

Blogging Albania: Reconstructing images in the eye of the beholder

Armela Panajoti, University of Vlora “Ismail Qemali”

email: armelap@assenglish.org

Abstract

In this article, I discuss blog narratives written in English by visitors to Albania during the second decade of the twenty-first century, a time when information and communication technologies had shaped communication and connection in the online mode, and Albania was already in its third decade after the fall of communism. I will discuss the stories published on Yomadic, a blog started by a passionate traveller, Nate Robert, about little-explored places. I will read them as travel narratives with the intention of pointing out how Albania, often clichély deemed an underexplored country, is reconstructed through the eyes of what I call “the beholder.” In referring to the visitor as the beholder, I try to avoid particular references made to the traveller-writer in the literature about travel writing and focus instead on the spirit of observation that permeates these narratives. I will read them through the lens of discourse analysis, which I believe is more appropriate for analysing the retelling of personal experiences of visits to Albania. 

Keywords: beholder, blog narratives, discourse analysis, travel writing 

Challenging metanarratives: A postmodern reading of Ana Castillo’s So Far from God 

Mamoun F. I. ALZOUBI[1], Al-Balqa Applied University-Salt College for Humanities

Mohammed Ahmed AL-ABDULRAZAQ, Al-Balqa Applied University-Irbid University College

Abstract

The current study argues that even though Castillo’s So Far from God bears different features of a postmodern literary text, the novel challenges turning the characters into postmodern subjectivity or mestizo consciousness. The defiance of singular metanarrative logic in Castillo’s novel reflects the characters’ alienation from dominant forms of reasoning. Her novel advocates a practical, flexible politics as an antidote to totalizing, rigid value systems, which Castillo identifies much more strongly with dominant culture than with regional and ethnic identity. Her characters prioritize their own communities’ needs and goals through their willingness to incorporate new ideas. This fluid use of identity contradicts the common critiques of identity politics as essentialist, reductive, or prescriptive. This use of identity as a flexible strategy of resistance inverts the common idea that identity politics are rigid and limiting while general, dominant politics are universal and therefore unlimited. It also questions all handed-down wisdom—does not necessarily reject it, but questions it— encouraging people and communities to draw their own conclusions about which aspects are valid or useful for them and which are not. This perception, therefore, forms a type of double consciousness in which the characters base their view of their home town on the assumptions of the dominant culture rather than on their own experiences and values.

Keywords: metanarratives, Ana Castillo, feminism, identity, mestiza heritage

[1] First (corresponding author), malzoubi@bau.edu.jo.

Symbolic Capital in “Church Going” and “In Santa Maria del Popolo”

Hossein PIRNAJMUDDIN[1], University of Isfahan

Fatemeh SHAHPOORI ARANI[2], Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch

Abstract

Writing in the context of an increasingly godless age, Philip Larkin and Thom Gunn poignantly reflect on the experience of going to church in modern times. Focusing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, habitus, and distinction, this article offers a sociological reading of “In Santa Maria del Popolo” by Thom Gunn and “Church Going” by Philip Larkin. Larkin concludes that despite its terminal decline, the church still socio-culturally matters and will continue to matter, whereas the speaker in Gunn’s poem offers a cynical take on the very viability and relevance of faith in modern times. At issue in both poems is the symbolic and cultural cachet of the church in relation to art. The poems address the religious affordances and the socio-cultural relevance of art differently. While Gunn’s poem puts on display the decline of religious sensibility in modern times through the decline of the symbolic capital of religious art, Larkin’s poem intimates that the church continues to matter, if only symbolically.

Keywords: the church, capital, the field of religion, symbolic capital, Pierre Bourdieu

[1] Email: pirnajmuddin@fgn.ui.ac.ir

[2] Email: f.shahpoori@khuisf.ac.ir

British media discourse on Albanian immigrants

    Linda MËNIKU, Albana LILAJ, University of Tirana

email: lindameniku@yahoo.com

Abstract

Immigration defines the world today. According to the IOM World Migration Report 2020, as of June 2019, the number of international migrants was estimated to be almost 272 million globally, 51 million more than in 2010[1].  With the new wave of migration around the world, migrants and issues around immigration have been the focus of media and research studies from different perspectives: economic, political, social, linguistic, etc.  A common topic of research around the world has been the representation of migrants in the media.

As one of the countries with the highest numbers of immigrants, Albania has also been at the center of foreign media attention in recent years. The number of immigrants to the United Kingdom increased, especially in 2022, and while the situation is widely reported in the British media, a comprehensive study of the situation has not been conducted yet.

In this study, we explore the representation of Albanians in the British media based on qualitative analysis using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and quantitative analysis based on Corpus Linguistics (CL). Data was collected from the websites of the daily newspaper The Guardian and the British tabloid The Sun for a one-year period (2022). This period was chosen due to the heightened attention that Albanian immigrants received during this year in the British media. This paper discusses some of the issues with the ways Albanians are represented in the British media, and the results show that the media plays an important role in constructing the positive or negative image of immigrants.

Keywords: immigration, Albanian, critical discourse analysis, representation, headlines, media

[1] United Nations. “Migration.” Accessed May 25, 2022. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/migration.

Semiotics of discourses in interaction

Viacheslav Shevchenko, Ekaterina Shevchenko, Samara National Research University

email: slash99@mail.ru

Abstract

A multifaceted representation of an event is accomplished in media discourse as a result of interaction between other discourses, which is promoted by signs and is crucial for persuading the audience. This paper aims to investigate the semiotic underpinnings of how different discourses interact within media discourse. For this research, text from articles that were posted on the The Guardian newspaper’s website was chosen and gathered. Discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, observational techniques and descriptive techniques were all used. It was discovered as a result that the use of signs from other discourses in media discourse to depict a particular event causes discourses to interact, which takes the forms of interdiscursivity and polydiscursivity. The situation depicted in the media text is presented and analysed in a variety of ways as a result of the media discourse’s polydiscursivity; this is because the media discourse represents a combined situation by combining signs from various discourses. The interaction of discourses in media discourse shows how different spheres of human life interact and affect one another in how this process is represented in media discourse.

Keywords: media discourse, indexes, polydiscursivity, interdiscursivity, interaction of discourses, combined situation, combined discourse