English

This paper analyzes the representation of Caliban in the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare with(in) the patriarchal power structure questioning the root of his suppression from the societal constructed notion of gender(ed) identity. Shakespeare's Caliban renders a critical space to understand the power politics behind the patriarchal ideology of masculinity uncovering how power generates, constructs, manufactures, and represents gender boundaries making individual an(other) where the real self of Caliban remains unheard, unrepresented and unrecognizable. This paper argues that Caliban's inability to fulfill the societal code of masculinity in the face of Prospero's ultra-masculine power proves him to be the everlasting marginalized. After being aware of his victimhood, though Caliban attempts to (re)establish his identity as a man conducting 'constructive violence' yet it left him more 'monstrous', 'ugly' and 'bestial'. While analyzing Caliban's complexities over the societal constructed gender stereotypes, this paper owes a lot to masculinity study, gender study, psychoanalysis as well as cultural study.

The Nobel Prize winning poet Tomas Tranströmer was born and bred in Sweden, a remarkably Scandinavian country. Topographically, Scandinavian countries 1 are locations of extreme cold and snowing. This distinguishing climatic condition has had a dominant influence and impact on almost all Scandinavian art and literature, including Tomas Tranströmer's poetry. The chief aim of this paper is to elaborately explore the impact of Nordic winter and its conditions on the body of Tranströmer's poetry. My paper argues that this impact is of multiple facets, affecting both form and content of his poetry. It also argues that physical as well as psychological landscape is shaped by the penetrating Nordic winter conditions. To achieve the aim, two selections of his poetry (English translation from original Swedish) have been frequently consulted and interpreted, along with a wide range of secondary sources.

The paper aims at studying the patterns of the male fantasy in Robert Coover’s erotically charged short story, “The Babysitter”. The story centres on the image of a Babysitter stepping into a bathtub for having a shower while the phone in the living room rings, driving her out of the tub to answer it by the time the towel wrapping her pulls off giving a view of her naked body. In a rapid succession of one hundred and seven fragmented paragraphs, this image vividly recurs in and rolls up through the fantasies to fantasies of its male characters, blurring and overlapping these, creating fresh new versions of the story from the Babysitter being raped to the Babysitter saved from being raped. The study examines a clear line of development in the fantasies of each of these characters. Considering age, sexual orientation, experiments, adjustment and satisfaction, personality, and other socio-cultural variables, it (re)conceptualizes their fantasies as falling into certain patterns like ob...

The imagery of 'eyeing',' gazing' and 're-visioning' recurrently occur in the works of the writers who belong to the marginalized (in terms of race, sex, and class) communities. They examine their images in American literature and society as well and feel to reconstruct identy that has so far been constructed in the 'gaze' of the mainstream. Their essential selves have been castrated and essentialized within some stereotypes by the racist and phallocentric culture. So, after a long period of subjugation, they look back afresh with a view to gain sovereignty over their own sense of identity. This paper seeks to study those marginalized writers' view over the gazing proceess of the dominant groups. To persue the study I have concentrated upon some works by the writers who belong to the marginalized communities in America. These are the novels, The Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright and The Bluest Eye (1970) by Tony Morrison, and some poems of Adrienne Rich. In their writings, each writer has explored the functioning of the mechanism of 'gaze' leading to the internalization of the hegemonic ideology and inferiority. Thus, they dismantle the dominant 'gaze' and reconstruct identity in a fictional world which result in envisioning a new world to come.

This paper involves a study on Aphra Ben's Oroonoko (1688) which is considered by many as the first black narrative of English literature, an abolitionist text, while observed by some others as extremely colonialist. The objective of this study is to examine why the novella accommodates such contradictory readings. It assumes that it is the "scriptiblity" of the text that enables it encompassing heterogeneous meanings which should not be reduced to any privileged interpretation. It holds that Oroonoko is interwoven with multiple codes which serve as different socio-cultural agents proliferating variety of meanings often disseminating one another. In order to explore those intervening meanings, this study applies Barthesian codes for reading narratives. Then, drawing upon deconstructionist approach, it surmises neither the text nor its protagonist, Oroonoko, should be categorized into any absolute category. On the contrary, it asserts Oroonoko informs the postmodernist/plural concept of 'being', embracing a variety of identities from the "royal slave" to the 'master of dignity'.

The post-world war II American social and cultural setting was ambiguously featured with enforced conformity in the name of prosperity and Americanization of the nation. Despite of this fact, American writers, especially, dramatists conveyed their message against this fixation through variety and intellectuality. Edward Albee's The Zoo Story is one of those literary assets which dedicatedly cut through the illusions of contemporary American social and cultural ethos. Here, his characters are seen struggling constantly with their insecurities and existential angst in the society. He presents America, the so-called 'Land of Free and Home of Braves' (note 1), in such a portrayal that unveils the traps of cages and confinement underneath. The target of this paper is to trace Edward Albee's heightened awareness about the postwar American socio-cultural reality evident in The Zoo Story. It also looks for the voice in which the text echoes out the anti-communist, materialistic, gender-coded boundaries, coupled with paradoxical media representations, religious bordering and how Albee challenges these issues with an anti-establishment tone.

The post-world war II American social and cultural setting was ambiguously featured with enforced conformity in the name of prosperity and Americanization of the nation. Despite of this fact, American writers, especially, dramatists conveyed their message against this fixation through variety and intellectuality. Edward Albee's The Zoo Story is one of those literary assets which dedicatedly cut through the illusions of contemporary American social and cultural ethos. Here, his characters are seen struggling constantly with their insecurities and existential angst in the society. He presents America, the so-called 'Land of Free and Home of Braves' (note 1), in such a portrayal that unveils the traps of cages and confinement underneath. The target of this paper is to trace Edward Albee's heightened awareness about the postwar American socio-cultural reality evident in The Zoo Story. It also looks for the voice in which the text echoes out the anti-communist, materialistic, gender-coded boundaries, coupled with paradoxical media representations, religious bordering and how Albee challenges these issues with an anti-establishment tone.

This study aims to assess the English language outcome of Content-Based Instruction (CBI) among EFL learners of English at the tertiary level of Bangladesh and the problems involved in this process, where a group of students and teachers (existing) of the English department were the focus of the study. To conduct this study, a mixed-method approach was applied where research instruments such as questionnaires and classroom observation were used. In total, 279 (students=260, teachers=19) respondents participated in the survey questionnaires and classroom observations. The findings of this study suggested that though teachers and students prefer the CBI approach, some drawbacks were found in this learning process.

Pornography is extensively produced, distributed, and used as a medium of entertainment around the world but has been little studied in Bangladesh. The present study examined the attitudes and risk factors of Bangladeshi university students' pornography consumption. A survey was carried among 313 undergraduate students at Jahangirnagar University (Dhaka, Bangladesh). The study found that 72% of students consumed pornography at least once within their entire life, and approximately half of them were occasional consumers. Approximately two-thirds (67%) encountered pornography during high school, although females typically encountered pornography much later. Logistic regression analysis showed that pornography consumption was predicted by being male, living in a rural area, being in a relationship, engaging in online activities (such as using Facebook), and watching movies. Further research is needed to further determine the behavioral patterns and associated factors that influence pornography consumption among Bangladeshi students.