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كانت الدلالة موضوعاً خصباً وحقلاً مثيراً للاهتمام في دراسات اللغويين والفلاسفة، وصارت هدفاً لكل تلك الدراسات لارتباطها بنظريات الإدراك والمعرفة. لقد ارتبطت الدلالة في الدراسات اللسانية الحديثة بنظريات عديدة، وسوف يركز بحثي على النظرية السياقية كما وضع جذورها قديماً، اللغويون والبلاغيون العرب كعبد القاهر الجرجاني، وكما أرسى مبادئها في العصر الحديث العالم البريطاني فيرث بنظرية أطلق عليها: النظرية السياقية، والتي أخرجت الدلالة من مجالها النحوي التركيبي إلى مجالات أكثر سعة من ذلك التركيب على الرغم من أهميته التي لن نتغافل عنها بالتأكيد. سأتناول في هذا البحث السياق بأنواعه المختلفة التي حددها اللغويون مثل: أحمد مختار عمر وتمّام حسّان وأحمد محمد قدور: السياق اللغوي، والسياق العاطفي، والسياق الثقافي، وسياق الموقف، والوظيفة التي تؤديها هذه السياقات لتشكيل دلالة الكلام، وسوف أقوم بفحص تلك المستويات السياقية من خلال تمثلاتها في البناء اللساني لقصيدة: النائمة في الشارع، لنازك الملائكة.

今日，日本国内をはじめ海外の教育機関においても「日本文化」を含む日本事情のコースが外国語としての日本語教育の一環として多く存在するが，ステレオタイプや本質主義を助長しかねないような教材や内容の物も数多く見受けられる。「文化」の定義は分野やコンテキストによって実に多様であるが，多くの学生，そして教員が無意識に「文化」＝ 国民文化として捉えているのが一般的なのではないだろうか。また文化間の差異を強調することによりステレオタイプを形成する結果になってしまっていることも多いと感じられる。

 日本に興味を持つ学生の多くは，表層文化，つまりアニメや漫画，ビデオゲームや音楽といったポップカルチャーや食べ物，文学，言語などに関心を持っている。そういった学生の中では，「日本文化」に関するコースを履修する以前に，既に接触のあるそれらの媒体を基に日本に対する特定のステレオタイプやイメージが出来上がっていることも少なくない。

 本発表では「文化」についての様々な捉え方を提示した上で，自身が欧州の大学で担当する日本事情のコースを例に，学生と共に「日本文化」について考察する際の課題と取り組みについて共有する。外国語教育の一環としての「文化」教育に関する先行研究を踏まえて，自らの実践と学生のコース評価を基に，(1) 教材選択 （多様な視点の提供・批判的視点の推進），(2)トピックの導入順序（深層から表層文化へ），(3) 学習者のアイデンティティの３つの観点から本質主義を助長しない「文化」教育の在り方について検証すると共に，「文化」とは何かを定義しようとする代わりに，「文化」は人々によってどのように利用/使用されているのかについて問いかけ，「日本文化」のみならず，学生一人一人の日常をとりまく多種多様な文化についての理解も深める機会をどのように提供できるのかを提案する。

Contemporary workplaces are often characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions (e.g., Angouri, 2014). In such settings, participants draw on their rich cultural assumptions and values to co-construct meaning (e.g., Takamiya & Aida Niendorf, 2019), as language use and communication patterns have been found to be inextricably linked to different group belongings. While diversity enriches workplace interaction linguistically and culturally, it also presents “communicative challenges to many employers and co-workers” (Holmes, 2018, p. 335). These communicative challenges include increased likelihood of miscommunication, social exclusion (Lønsmann, 2014), and limited interpersonal communication (Tange & Lauring, 2009). While considerable research has been devoted to understanding intercultural workplaces communication, little research exists on the linguistically and culturally diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insights into how diversity may enrich workplace interaction and the communicative challenges employees may experience, this pilot study explores employees’ attitudes to and beliefs about intercultural communication in the Swedish workplace. The pilot study is part of a larger project on digital professional communication in multilingual workplaces in Sweden. Five employees in managerial positions in Swedish higher education and corporations were interviewed. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that: (a) language competence in English is seen as indexing general competence; (b) categorisations of cultures are prevalent: Participants often view culture as synonymous with nation and point at differences between groups as a challenge to achieve effective communication; (c) identity and face are foregrounded: Some participants feel like a different person when using a different language, while others see a specific language as a way to adopt a different persona or professional role; and (d) culture and language are used to explain group dynamics (e.g., feeling as an outsider or as part of the group), and as tools to actively integrate or exclude others. The material has raised our awareness about not seeing the workplace as a monolith, but workplaces may be marked by internal variation when it comes to intercultural communication. 

References   Angouri, J. (2014). Multilingualism in the workplace: Language practices in multicultural contexts. Multilingua 33, 1-9.     

Holmes, J. (2018). Intercultural communication in the workplace. In B. Vine (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language in the workplace (pp. 335-347). Routledge.    

Lønsmann, D. (2014). Linguistic diversity in the international workplace: Language ideologies and processes of exclusion. Multilingua 33, 89–116.    

Takamiya, Y. & Aida Niendorf, M. (2019). Identity (re)construction and improvement in intercultural competence through synchronous and asynchronous telecollaboration: Connecting Japanese language learners in the United States and Sweden. In Zimmerman, E. & McMeekin, A. (Eds.), Technology-supported learning in and out of the Japanese language classroom: Theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical developments (pp. 111-145). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.    

Tange, H., & Lauring, J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace. Journal of Communication Management 13(3), 218–232.     

he Declaration of a Nordic Language Policy stipulates that all Nordic residents have the right to preserve and develop their mother tongue and their national minority languages. Hence, this article investigates the question of mother tongue education for linguistic minority students. Through four ‘telling cases’, the article explores how four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, orient towards mother tongues, Indigenous and national minority languages in their educational policies. Drawing on Ruíz’ (1984) framework of orientations in language planning, we investigate the following question: In what ways are mother tongues framed as rights, resources, or problems in four telling cases of educational policy in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden? The analysis of the telling cases shows that although all four countries provide various forms of mother tongue education, thus apparently aligning with the intentions in the Declaration of a Nordic Language Policy, there are important differences between the provisions. Nevertheless, across the four countries, the official national languages are placed at the top of a language ideological hierarchy. The official national languages are followed by national minority languages as mother tongues. These languages are awarded rights but are not considered resources for the whole population (e.g., Ruíz, 1984). The Danish telling case inserts a supranational layer in the hierarchy, namely mother tongues with status as official languages in the European Union. The hierarchy of mother tongues thus reflects how some types of mother tongues are more readily granted rights and considered to be resources than others.

تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى قراءة مجموعة منتخبة من قصص

الأطفال المصورة وتحليله وفق منهج النقد البيئي، تتضمن

المجموعة عشرة نصوص قصصية بعنوان: سلسلة الحفاظ على

البيئة، حيوانات في دوّامة الخطر، للكاتب غسان شبارو. اعتمد

البحث تطبيق الأسس النظرية التي افترضها الكاتب لورنس بيلل في

كتابه الخيال البيئي على النصوص القصصية المنتخبة

توصلت الدراسة إلى أن هذه السلسلة القصصية المختارة قد ركزت على موضوعات تتعلق بالمخاطر البيئة التي يتعرّض لها كوكب الأرض هذا اليوم،

كمشاكل التلوث البيئي والاحتباس

الحراري والصيد العشوائي والتمدد العمراني ورش المبيدات الحشرية

وتلوث الجو بمخلفات السيارات وغازاتها وتلوث البحار والمحيطات سواء بسبب رمي النفايات أو بتسرّب النفط، وطرحتها

في شكل سردٍ مبسّط ضمن هيكل القصة المصورة للأطفال. وخلص

البحث إلى إمكانية تطبيق مبادئ النقد البيئي على هذه النصوص

وإنّ لأدب الطف يُمكن أن يُسهم في بناء الجانب الثقافي للطفل

بشكلٍ كبير وفي توعيته بمخاطر بيئته.

Begreppet bromance (från engelskans brother och romance) har under de senaste tio åren använts flitigt inom filmvetenskap och mediestudier (se exempelvis Alberti, 2013; Boyle & Berridge, 2014; Brook, 2015; Becker & Weiner, 2016; Tait, 2016; Oh, 2018), för att undersöka dataspel och internetfenomen (mem) (Green, 2019; Erlichman & Pluretti, 2021) och inom psykologiskt och sociologiskt inriktade maskulinitetsstudier (Hammarén & Johansson, 2014; Robinson et al., 2018 ; Poost, 2018; Robinson et al., 2019). Begreppet har dock sällan använts för att studera sångtexter – och såvitt jag vet aldrig tidigare applicerats på fransk sånglyrik – trots att manlig vänskap inte är något ovanligt tema inom denna textgenre. Föreliggande undersökning fokuserar på tre franskspråkiga sånger från olika epoker: Jacques Brels ”Jef” (1964), Renauds ”Manu” (1981) och ”Mon chum Rémi” (2002) av den franskkanadensiska folkrockgruppen Les Cowboys fringants. Sångtexterna utgör variationer på ett gemensamt grundtema där en manlig berättarröst försöker trösta en djupt förtvivlad manlig vän. 

Enligt ovannämnda forskning kännetecknas bromance-förhållanden av en stark vänskap mellan heterosexuella män. Känslomässig intimitet är av stor vikt för relationen och fysisk intimitet kan också förekomma – men den utgör inte något obligatoriskt inslag i förhållandet. Flera film- och medieforskare poängterar att framställningar av bromance-relationer inom populärkulturen erbjuder möjligheter att problematisera frågor som rör maskulinitet och manlig identitet, men att de ofta resulterar i motsatsen: heteronormativiteten och den hegemoniska maskuliniteten tenderar snarare att förstärkas än ifrågasättas i dessa verk. Man har också påtalat att bromance-relationer ofta växer fram i homosociala miljöer där misogyna och patriarkala attityder riskerar att cementeras (Hill Nettleton, 2016; Lam & Raphael, 2018). I mitt paper undersöker jag i vilken mån dessa karaktäristika återfinns i de tre franska sångtexterna.

Studien behandlar Georges Brassens och Jacques Brels vislyrik i svensk översättning. Undersökningsmaterialet består av tio översättningar av Brassens sånglyrik och tio översättningar av Brels sånger, med tillhörande källtexter. Artikeln vill besvara följande forskningsfrågor: Vilka översättningsmetoder har använts när Brels och Brassens vislyrik har överförts till svenska? Går det att identifiera någon förändring över tid? Om en sådan förändring går att identifiera, vad kan den i så fall bero på? Som klassifikationssystem används Johan Franzons modell för typologisering av sångöversättningar. Resultatet visar att en knapp majoritet av måltexterna tillhör den mest källtexttrogna översättningsmetoden, som Franzon kallar ”Nära-nog-översättning”. Därutöver hittades även exempel på varianterna ”Perspektivbytesöversättning”, ”Poängtransponering” och ”Helt ny textskrivning”. Inga texter av kategorierna ”Enstaka-ord-bygge” och ”Fonetisk kalkering” kunde hittas i materialet. Utvecklingen har gått från relativt fria måltexter till mer källtexttrogna översättningar och en tydlig brytpunkt kan identifieras i början av 1980-talet. Den ökade källtexttrogenhet som då inträdde förklaras dels av ändrade förutsättningar på den svenska marknaden för översättning av sånglyrik, dels av den konsekrationsprocess som de båda franskspråkiga vispoeterna då var föremål för i målspråkslandet.

Cats are and have always been a constant presence in the Arabic culture: from Ancient Egypt to the pre-Islamic era, in the Islamic tradition and even in proverbs, cats have always played a conspicuous role. The traditional Arabic significance of cats is also clearly reflected in contemporary Arabic children’s literature, and a large number of tales for children are featuring cats in a variety of roles. However, how are cats portrayed and what do they stand for in these stories? Scope of this paper is the representation of cats and their symbolism in contemporary Arabic children’s literature. A brief introduction covers the role of cats in the Arabic culture in very general terms, followed by an overview of the genre of contemporary Arabic children’s literature that accounts for its mostly educational, didactic character and its latest trends. The central part of this paper presents and analyses a number of Arabic picture books, authored by Arabic writers and illustrated by Arabic artists, where cats are protagonists, either as embodiments of human traits or as companions of human beings. The stories are discussed in terms of their symbolism and their themes.

Climate change has been attracting increasing attention as one of the most significant consequences of the anthropogenic global warming and fictional narratives have increasingly been involved in engaging human imagination on the topic of climate change. Climate fiction, or cli-fi, is the umbrella term that designates fiction with climate change as its main theme. Climate fiction has been primarily published in English so far and narratives specifically problematising anthropogenic climate change are still quite rare in the Arabic literary landscape. In this regard, the novel 2022 by the Lebanese author Ghassān Shibārū constitutes an interesting case, given that it is authored in Arabic but displays several of the characteristics typical of the cli-fi genre. This paper aims at providing an analysis of Shibārū’s novel 2022 as representative of Arabic climate fiction. The main features of the climate fiction genre and its relationship to the scholarship of ecocriticism are first outlined. An overview of the environment as a theme in Arabic literature and Arabic literary studies then follows. The paper subsequently presents the concept of ecological literacy, which constitutes the theoretical framework for the analysis of the characters in the novel. After a synopsis of the plot, the characters are analysed and discussed and the novel itself is examined as instance of climate fiction as intended by the Anglophone definition of the genre. The authors argue that the purpose of the novel is didactic, since, rather than narrating a fictional story, the novel exploits a fictional story in order to spread awareness of global warming and climate change.

Nominalizations, or nouns derived from verbs or adjectives through suffixes, are a pervasive characteristic feature of written academic discourse. To better understand the nature of nominalization in L2 student writing and its relation to assessment in first-year writing (FYW) contexts, we report findings of a comparative corpus-based analysis of nominalization use in university student papers. Data consist of high-rated (A graded) and low-rated (C graded) L2 undergraduate research papers from multiple sections of an FYW course for international and multilingual students. Nominalizations were examined in terms of frequencies, unique types, abstract/concrete and human/non-human categories, nominal stance types, and modification types. Results reveal no statistically significant differences in the examined classifications. However, the small effect sizes for certain categories point to subtle differences between the two groups, which together might have affected the instructors’ evaluations of text quality. We conclude with suggestions for incorporating nominalization instruction in English for Academic Purposes writing courses.

Syftet med detta kapitel är att bidra till en dialog gällande forskningsetik utifrånsåväl juridiska som humanistiska aspekter. Exempel hämtas från dilemman somuppstått i etnografiskt inriktade studier där deltagarna är andraspråksanvändareav svenska och där många har begränsad erfarenhet av formell utbildning ochanvändning av skrift. Det kan vara svårt att ge forskningsinformation på ett sättsom elever med olika bakgrund förstår, särskilt vad gäller konsekvenserna avinformationen, av att delta i forskningen och vad det betyder att vara anonym.En utgångspunkt för kapitlet tas i begrepp som rör etisk omtanke samt i begreppsom rör samtycke och som utvecklats inom forskning om och med barn: inlärtsamtycke och samtycke som pågående process. Samtliga begrepp behandlar på ett ellerannat sätt den makt forskaren har i relation till deltagarna. Vidare diskuteras hurdeltagares eventuella utsatthet eller sårbarhet behöver ses i relation till denaktuella kontexten snarare än utifrån på förhand definierade kategorier.Avslutningsvis belyses forskares ansvar för att hela tiden göra etiskaöverväganden i sin profession och att dessa innebär en ständig och systematiskreflektion och en mängd val. Vi ser ett samhällsintresse i att etnografisk forskninggenomförs i andraspråkssammanhang där deltagarna i olika avseenden kanbetraktas som i en utsatt position. Detta ställer krav på utveckling av nu användaformer för samtyckesförfarande.

An overview of ESP Journal and the desk review (Section 1) 

One of the most important steps in any submission to a journal is understanding and demonstrating how the article fits with the aims and scope of the journal. This section of the panel provides an overview of English for Specific Purposes and outlines the purpose (and challenges) of the desk review as the first element of peer review.

The review process and responding to reviews (Section 2) 

The review process has multiple steps and much of this work is largely undertaken in the ‘back room’ of the journal. In this section, we outline the various steps beyond the desk review and discuss the possible decisions on manuscripts which authors might receive, from accept through to reject. We also suggest ways to deal with responding to reviewers’ comments.

Developing skills as reviewers through SEB membership (Section 3)

This section begins with questions that an early career reviewer might have about carrying outa peer review. Our SEB members will discuss how they developed their various reviewing strategies, and how interacting with members of the ESP board during peer reviewing has helped with developing skills as reviewer and writer.

Ways to become a reviewer (Section 4)

This final section focuses on opportunities for becoming a reviewer as a postgraduate student or early career researcher. It also provides suggestions on possible traps to avoid in reviewing. The session ends with time for questions with the whole panel.

This paper reports a cross linguistic study thatcompares the coarticulation patterns betweenconsonant and vowel (CV) in Mandarin Chinese andSouthern Swedish. Kinematic data were collectedusing the Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) forboth languages and were subjected to three types ofCV time lag measurement, based on more or lessequivalent landmarks on lips and tongue, andpartially adopted in previous studies [1, 2, 3]. Wefound rather consistent CV coordination patterns inthese two typologically different languages with boththe velocity-based and the acceleration-basedmeasurements on the lips and the tongue body. Themost striking result to emerge from the data is thesame effect of gender on the variation of CVcoarticulation in both languages, which has not beenreported previously. In addition, only when genderwas added as a factor, did we find the languagedifferences on the CV time lags.

There has been increasing research effort and specialization in the topic of translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2011; Li, 2018). The term translanguaging has been researched over a wide range of disciplines in humanities and social sciences. In the field of bilingual education, this term is considered as an ideology, a theory, and a pedagogical stance (Mazak and Carroll, 2016).  Nevertheless, very little work is done on examining the role of translanguaging and the practices in a digitally mediated learning environment. This study aims to obtain ethnographic data from remote intermediate-level Chinese foreign language lessons in a multilingual classroom in a Swedish university. Initial observations from analysis of classroom data collected from two groups show that translanguaging is a prevalent phenomenon in virtual classroom, and the teacher initiated translanguaging more often than students. The teachers’ translanguaging practices can be categorized into at least five categories, such as providing managerial information, providing explanations, repeating important content, providing assistance to individual student, and facilitating students’ performance, but the students’ practices are limited to fewer. Additionally, the study finds that the teacher’s practices are mainly motivated by two pedagogic considerations to increase classroom efficiency and enhance students’ motivation in the virtual classroom. These findings are particularly relevant for language classroom translanguaging research in an era of increased mobility and would contribute to improve pedagogy in Chinese as a foreign language classroom.

In this talk, we present a research project that we plan to launch in late 2023. The aim of the project is to investigate professional communication in video meetings, which is justified given their growing importance in the modern and post-pandemic workplace. The setting is workplaces in Sweden where English is used as a lingua franca, due to the increasing societal impact of multilingual workplaces. In the specific context of study, communication is embedded in several layers of complexity: It takes place in an institutional setting; it is digital and takes place in video mode; it is done across cultures and marked by diversity; and it is done partly in English as a lingua franca. The project focuses on internal communication within the workplace and does not consider external communication, for example involving customers. The overarching research question is: What factors contribute to (un)successful digital intercultural interactions in multilingual workplaces, specifically in video meetings? To map the characteristics of video meetings, we compare them to in-person meetings. We thus ask: (a) What (perceived and actual) differences and similarities are there between digital and in-person workplace meetings? To map the video meeting as a genre, we ask: (b) What are the key structural, linguistic, and interactional patterns of the video meeting? Given the central role of English as a lingua franca in these workplaces, we ask: (c) To what extent and how does English language proficiency—including participants’ beliefs about and attitudes to English language proficiency—affect workplace communication in digital intercultural interactions? Finally, we adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing ‘culture’ as a dynamic concept (e.g., Hua et al., 2022), which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. We ask: (d) To what extent and how is culture seen as relevant in multilingual workplaces? Participants will be interviewed about communication practices in the workplace both individually and in focus groups. We will also record and analyze samples of (i) video and (ii) in-person meetings, to enable triangulation of different types of data. We conclude by discussing how the project's findings can be used as a basis for best practices and for developing workplace communication training materials.

Contemporary workplaces are characterized by diversity, involving participants from multiple linguistic and cultural traditions. In such settings, translanguaging is considered a common practice in which multilinguals “create an apparently seamless flow between languages and language varieties and to transcend the boundaries between named languages and/or language varieties as well as the boundaries between language and other semiotic systems” (Hua et al., 2022, p. 315). Little research, however, exists on such practices in multilingual workplaces (Du & Zhou, 2022), and even less on the linguistically diverse Swedish workplace. To gain greater insight into the seamlessness, transcendence, and boundaries such language users create and perceive, we explore the communication practices of employees in different Swedish workplaces. As an initial departure point, five employees in managerial positions were interviewed in the pilot study. We adopt a critical intercultural communication approach, seeing “culture” as a dynamic concept, which employees may attribute to self and others, and (dis-)align with in different ways. Findings show that categorisations of languages are prevalent, with participants applying a scale of linguistic sophistication or complexity and ranking formality conventions on a strong-to-weak scale. When categorising people and groups, participants foreground identity and face, and group dynamics is a recurring theme, with distinctions made between groups and orientations. This presentation focuses on participants’ descriptions of L1 and L2 identities and their perceived effects on workplace communication. Findings suggest that translanguaging has yet to be commonplace in the workplaces we investigated and shed light on lay perspectives on (trans)languaging in the workplace.

References

Du, J., & Zhou, X. (2022). Translanguaging practices in Chinese/English bilingual engineers’ communications in the workplace. Applied Linguistics Review, 13(3), 389-402.

Hua, Z., Jones, R.H. & Jaworska, S. (2022). Acts of distinction at times of crisis: An epistemological challenge to intercultural communication research. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), 312-323.

Over the last few decades, Swedish Higher Education institutions have been working on widened participation (Högskolelagen, 1992, p.1434) as part of a wider effort towards sustainable development and increased accessibility to university studies (Agenda 2030). As a consequence, student populations today bring with them a wider range of academic skills. This, in turn, means that teaching staff across disciplines face a myriad of challenges. In our presentation, we discuss an ongoing empirical study on teaching practices for the development of university students’ academic literacies in the social sciences, with a particular focus on the role of modelling as a teaching strategy. Using Academic Literacies (Lea & Street, 1998; Lillis, 2003; Lea, 2004; Eklund Heinonen et al., 2018) as the theoretical framework, the study aims at (a) identifying challenges as experienced by teaching staff in the Social Sciences, and (b) carrying out a pedagogical intervention. The project, which is a collaboration between two lecturers from the Social Sciences and two researchers from the Language Support Unit, comprises four stages, namely: (1) a needs analysis to map the faculty’s existing teaching practices and to identify their challenges in relation to their students’ academic skills; (2) planning of a pedagogical intervention through a series of workshops; (3) implementation of the intervention; and (4) assessment of the project. So far, the findings reveal that modelling is a crucial teaching strategy in making tacit knowledge and task instructions explicit. The project is also expected to contribute to our understanding of (a) the challenges teaching staff experience in Swedish Higher Education today and (b) how to best support university students’ development of academic literacies. Furthermore, the project’s findings will be used to develop a course for professional development targeting teaching staff at our university.

John Hewitt’s claim to ‘no female bards’ as part of the revival of what he called the rhyming weaver poets tradition narrowed the scope of scholarly interest. A variety of publications have provided a range of in-depth studies on the impact of Robert Burns in Ireland, and have done much to challenge the latter claim. However, the presence and output of Ulster-Scots women writers within this wider area of scholarship remains little known. By analysing poetry from three writers – Olivia Elder, Sarah Leech and Margaret Dixon McDougall – this article aims to advance several lesser-known eighteenth and nineteenth-century female Irish poets, add depth to the study of Ulster-Scots women’s writing, and provide a novel perspective on the relationship between Robert Burns and Ireland. Elder, who was active as a writer in the 1770s, adapts works from the eighteenth-century song tradition to satirize ‘Old Light’ Presbyterian beliefs in Ireland, arguably anticipating Burns attacks on Presbyterian church orthodoxy. Leech was a spinner living and writing in north-west Ulster in the early part of the nineteenth century, while Dixon came from a wealthy family in Co. Antrim, and emigrated to Canada in the 1840s, where she went on to become a pioneering writer and journalist. Both employ Standard Habbie in verses that ostensibly emulate Burns poems – ‘To a Mouse’ and ‘Address to the Deil’ – but which on closer inspection provide a vehicle to ruminate on moral, religious, and philosophical matters that were relevant to the unique circumstances of each author.

Malory’s text contain numerous women who either rule a castle and lands in their own right, or who appear to do so as we never see a man controlling their rulership. It is, nevertheless, not the normal position for a woman: overall, these women are expected to desire a knight who can take over rulership, or at least become co-ruler. This desire is considered appropriate: by and large, only women of very doubtful reputations (Morgan being a case in point) retain full control over their lands for an extended period of time. Categorically rejecting an obviously suitable knight is also inappropriate for a female ruler: it is not so much that she should accept a knight she does not desire, as that she should desire any knight of prowess and chivalric behaviour who loves her. The lack of desire is, in itself, a flaw in a female ruler.

A prominent example of inappropriate reaction to knightly desire is Ettarde, ruler of her own castle and believing she is entitled to make her own choice in matters of love. in the text she is held up as the bad example, portraying Nyneve – a woman who, if not ruler of a castle, is certainly a person with power – as the good example. In this paper, I will discuss this and other examples of female rulers and their (in)appropriate desires.

In 1757, an Englishman called Charles Bertram, living in Copenhagen, published a forged manuscript. This contained a text supposedly written by a medieval monk but based on a Roman original. Charles Bertram thus created three authors in one fell swoop.

Bertram himself is consistently present in the text, despite positioning himself as an editor only. The medieval monk is an explicit presence, portrayed as having put his own words – indeed in his own hand – on the pages. Behind him is the shadowy character of a Roman general, the author of the presumed original. In their various situations, the authors partake of different degrees of authority and reliability, which are also shifted from one author to another.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more than 4 million Italians migrated to the United States of America (U.S.), which they regarded as a utopia at the time. The film The Legend of 1900, which was inspired by Alessandro Baricco’s monologue Nocecento and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, tells the story about the genius pianist 1900, an orphan, who is fostered by Danny, a black coalman in the boiler room of an ocean liner, and whose parents are presumably Italian immigrants. 

Due to immigration law, 1900, a man with neither identity, visa, nor legal papers, cannot legally set foot on American soil. As a genius pianist, his existence is nothing more than that of musician – an entertainer to passengers on the gigantic trans-Atlantic liner, Virginian, the only place he is permitted to live.  According to Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, a ship is “a piece of floating space, a placeless place” as a vessel transporting people to the land of their dreams. However, 1900, who has no legal status, will never arrive in utopia aboard Virginian. He can only construct a heterotopia - a mirror of utopia – so that it to him a utopia. 

In the eyes of the law, 1900 is a legally inexistent person on Virginian a placeless place. However, it is this law enforced heterotopia and isolation, that creates a genius. In this paper, I illustrate how Virginian metaphorically gives birth to a pianist, 1900, and why he at the end chooses not to leave the ship, while also discussing the meaning behind the film and the relationship between law and space.

In the novel Severance, the protagonist is Candace, who was born in China and who emigrated with her Chinese parents to the U.S. At the start of the novel, she is living in New York City, where she works in the Bible section of a publishing house. She is about to work her way up to the fashion department when there is an outbreak of Shen Fever, which causes those infected to turn into mindless zombie-like creatures – the “fevered”. To survive, she joins a group and takes refuge with them in a shopping mall. It would seem that the outbreak prevents Candace from achieving her dream. I, however, would prefer to argue that it actually offers her – a Chinese immigrant woman trying to succeed under the constraints of societal law and order – a chance to break free.  

In this paper, I analyze this novel from the point of view of the law to see how Candace, in her pursuit of freedom, breaks the laws of the old world. The white male antagonist, Bob, is the embodiment of the law, leading the group into refuge and using the law to control Candace. The zombie-apocalypse represents the second chance for Candace to find utopia in dystopia.

Human, This Ever-changing Creature: Oshiko’s Default Standard by Yukiko Motoya

As seen in the classical SF anime film Galaxy Express 999 (1979), relations between human and AIenhanced transhuman, and an AI-controlled dystopian society have always been popular in Japanese imagination. These relations can be confrontational, or alternatively, affectionate as sometimes depicted in shōjo manga. In the novel Oshiko’s Default Standard (Oshiko no deforuto in Japanese original) (2021) by Yukiko Motoya (1979-), however, there is no human-transhuman relations as such, as the story depicts the process of human rapidly transforming into AI-enhanced transhuman – in a seemingly dystopian society. Set in the post-crisis Japan, the novel focuses on an everyday-life sphere - child-rearing and nursery school - in a society in which co-prosperity with the AI had become the main national policy. The lessons at the nursery school aim to raise children with outstanding ”abilities to become homogenous”, as individual differences are now considered vulnerability rather than strength. Many professions have been taken over by white cube-shaped robots produced by a single company, and although there is no description of these robots actively controlling the society, people – especially children and youths - start idealizing them and imitating their functions through implanting devices in all body parts. Oshiko, the protagonist, is a mother of two and has adapted well to this society, in which everyone is connected to internet for 24hours/day and endlessly consume digitized content. The nature, including natural human feelings, has been tamed and trivialized to become mere ”undigitized” or ”raw” content for her. Through the close reading, the present paper analyses some of the issues this controversial novel raises, focusing on the possible changes AI-dominated society make on humans, including borders between normal and abnormal, connection with others and loss of individuality, shifting bodily senses, as well as the human essence which can only exist in the constant state of changes.

The present study analyses how the Western-Other in Moto Hagio’s original Japanese version of the graphic novel (manga) The Heart of Thomas (1975) is translated into English.

Translation of Japanese manga into English and other European languages became popular in the 1990s; however, modern shōjo (girls) manga began publication in Japan 40 years earlier in the 1950s. As critics point out, shōjo manga is a medium that traditionally reflected the dreams and problems of Japanese girls, which in turn influenced their understanding of the world. In the 1960s and early 1970s, when Japan was poor yet economic growth rapid, many shōjo stories took place in a Western setting because at that time, the West symbolised wealth. With no Japanese characters and often with much anachronism, these stories demonstrate the idealised Western-Other or Occidentalism. 

The Heart of Thomas is a story about adolescent boys in a boarding school in a small German town, and it served as the precursor to the establishment of the androgynous ”beautiful boy” prototype in shōjo culture. The work featured the Occidentalism that was prevalent in shōjo manga at the time, demonstrating a version of Europe translated into Japanese. 

40 years after its original publication, the work was translated into various European languages (French, English and Italian in 2012, 2013 and 2019 respectively).  The present study focuses on how this Western-Other constructed for Japanese girls in the 1970s was transferred for the modern Western readership. The source text elements which construct the exotic Europe – German terms transcribed in Japanese, anachronic European customs and institutions for example – are identified through close reading of the text.  Then the strategies used to translate these elements into English are analysed along with reader reception of target texts. Was the Western-Other constructed for Japanese girls more than 40 years ago translated into European languages as ”Us”, as one might expect? Or was it kept as exotic and alternate Europe, as someone else’s Other? How is Occidentalism in a classic Japanese shōjo manga received by Western readers? These are some of the questions discussed in the study. 

Mitsuhashi Takajo (1899-1972) is regarded as one of the most original of the haiku poets active in pre- and postwar Japan. She started studying haiku for Hara Sekitei, a poet of traditionalist lineage, but she soon turned away from the simple realism and focus on natural scenery, typical for early 20th century haiku, and started to explore more subjective and challenging subjects. The aggressiveness of some of her poems have become well known, interpreted as expressing a feminist perspective and the frustration over being a woman in a patriarchal society. As in most modern haiku, her work is strongly autobiographical, and many of the turbulent shifts, both in her private life and in Japanese society, before, during, and after the war, is reflected in her poems. In the postwar period, Takajo started to collaborate with avant-garde poets in Tomizawa Kakio’s circle, and her work became even more experimental.

In this paper, I will discuss Takajo’s development as a poet and show how her oeuvre offers examples of several of the stylistic movements that make up the history of 20th century haiku. Her poems usually include a seasonal reference and adhere to the 5-7-5 rhythm of traditional haiku. However, she uses these conventions in ways different from the objective visuality of the traditionalists. Already in early works, an interest in human society and psychology links her to the Shinkô (New style) poets and the Ningen tankyûha (The explorers of the human condition). Like many other female poets in her generation, she sometimes uses homely themes, but seldom in the simplistic style of the so-called Daidokorohaiku (Kitchen haiku); rather she uses these for enigmatic juxtapositions typical for the avant-garde style, pushing the boundaries of language expression. She also shows a flexibility in register, sometimes using classical poetic language, but sometimes writing in colloquial Japanese, at times even using childish expressions, thus becoming a forerunner for later poets such as Tsubouchi Nenten and Ikeda Sumiko. 

This paper is part of a larger research project, which investigates modern Japanese haiku by female poets.