New Horizons in English Studies established in 2016 publishes research in English-language literatures, linguistics, and cultural studies. It welcomes submissions from undergraduates, graduates, and doctoral students, as well as professionals in the relevant fields. Due to our commitment to the open access format, we put great value in the work of emerging scholars. The readership includes students at all levels of education, teachers, academics, and anyone interested in recent developments in research on the English language in a variety of contexts. The journal is indexed in ERIH+, MLA International Bibliography, DOAJ (Direcory of Open Access Journals), CEEOL (Central and Eastern European Online Library), CEJSH (The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, MIAR (Spain) BazHum (Polish Humanities Journals), ICI World of Journals (Index Copernicus) - ICV 2024 = 100.00. The journal is archived in the digital repository of the National Library of Poland. The journal publishes original analytical papers and reviews. There is one volume a year in December for which the articles can be submitted online by February 28 of the year of the publication unless specified otherwise in particular cases. For details on the submission process, please go here. The journal does not charge APCs or submission charges. The journal is supported by Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland. Editors are guided by the Committee's on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommendations. Detailed procedures are available here. Acceptance rate: 60% (2023) e-ISSN: 2543-8980
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
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Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Bendrat http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Westminster on the late Queen – metaphor as a discourse vehicle in condolence debates after Queen Elizabeth II’s death
This paper investigates the patterns of discourse present in the record of condolence debates in Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Specifically, two research questions were examined. The study aims to prove specific patterns related to the expression of feelings caused by the Queen’s death, as well as those related to metaphors illustrating her. The study is conducted on the corpus of 249,882 tokens of written records of over 20 hours of speeches delivered in the British Parliament, subdivided into subcorpora for either House. The analysis employs the methodology of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS), based mostly on Baker (2023) and includes the tools of word frequency lists, collocation search, and concordances. The resulting concordance lines were interpreted using conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson 2011). The analysis proved that the discussion strategies of the speeches could be organised into three distinct categories. Across the lines of political divisions, the Queen was depicted as a figure to preserves the stability of the nation, an illustrious guide for all her subjects, particularly those in power, and finally a renowned example of Britain around the world and for all Britons. By employing those themes, the late Queen was presented as both a relatable figure and an extraordinary leader, evoking positive associations and setting her as an example to be follow both by the politicians and the electorate.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kamil Sikora http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Constructing Identity Through Discourse of Trump and Tarrant
This paper investigates how identity is constructed in the discourse of far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant and right-wing populist figure Donald Trump. It examines the use of language to create in-groups and out-groups and to legitimize political action through narratives of victimhood and heroism. Although situated in different ideological and institutional contexts, both speakers mobilize emotionally charged, binary rhetoric to construct political identities and define threats. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis, using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, to analyze two representative texts: Tarrant’s manifesto The Great Replacement and Trump’s 2023 campaign speech in Waco, Texas. Two recurring motifs—self-victimization and heroism—are examined in terms of lexical, syntactic, and metaphorical features. The analysis reveals notable overlap in rhetorical strategies, including war metaphors, repetition, and pronoun use to reinforce group boundaries. While Tarrant’s discourse promotes direct violent action and Trump’s remains within democratic norms, both rely on moral urgency and shared grievance to construct authority. The findings suggest that such strategies may serve as a discursive link between populist and extremist ideologies. Although limited to two case studies, the paper offers insight into the rhetorical mechanisms that shape identity and invites further research into their circulation across political spaces.
Copyright (c) 2025 Helena Żegnałek http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Is Emotion a Moved or a Self-Moving Object? The Concepts of Motion and Emotion in English Metaphors from a Frame-Semantic and Lexico-Grammatical Perspective: A Case Study of the Verb Stir
The aim of the paper is to offer a corpus-based, frame-semantic and lexico-grammatical analysis of metaphorical linguistic expressions that employ the verb stir to conceptualize emotions. The studyreveals that stir, when used metaphorically in the conceptualization of a range of human emotions, participates in a causative-inchoative alternation. All thecorpus examples were annotated according to the frame elements expressed by particular constituents, their grammatical function and phrase type. We have also analysed the metaphorical expressions with respect to +/- caused parameter of the motion taxonomy, as proposed by Zlatev, Blomberg and Magnusson (2012).It has been demonstrated that the metaphorical linguistic expressions with the monovalent, anticausative stir instantiate the metaphor emotion is a self-moving object. The metaphorical use of the divalent, causative stir, on the other hand,can be interpreted according to theemotion is a moved object metaphor. It is believed that recognizing the interplay between these two perspectivesof the motion-emotion metaphors can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of how emotions are experienced and how they affect our behavior.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marietta Izdebska http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
‘Genialna bomba’ or ‘niesamowity hit’ as a ‘terrific whiz-banger’ of Wordplay, Slang and Idioms: On Domestication and Foreignization in Polish Translations of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The study aims at determining the strategies of translating wordplay, slang and idioms in children’s literature. The main focus of this article is a book by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2007/1964) and its two Polish translations, namely by Tomasz Wyżyński (1998) and by Magdalena Heydel (2015). Children’s literature, which for centuries was overlooked and underestimated, has recently become a major challenge for translators. Its features and specifics have to be carefully examined since young minds are particularly sensitive when it comes to the language. An emphasis is placed on culture-specific features, along with linguistic ones, as well as on strategies of translation proposed by Lawrence Venuti, domestication and foreignization. Since the Polish versions are separated by twenty years, the objective of the paper is to establish and present their diversity and its explanation, along with analysis of the cognitive scene.
Copyright (c) 2025 Angelika Żak http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Transferring Cultural Attitudes: Do Parents’ Views on Western Culture Shape EFL Learning of Arab Users of English in Qatar
This study investigated how Arab parents in Qatar view the cultural content in English and how their views influence adolescents’ EFL learning. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research surveyed 30 Arab parents and 30 of their adolescents (ages 14-17), followed by semi-structured interviews with five parent-adolescent pairs. Quantitative results showed that parents support English’s academic value, yet worry about Western content in media and curricula. Interviews were thematically analyzed, and the results showed that parents often act as cultural gatekeepers. They encourage their adolescents’ English language learning, yet selectively filter content to protect religious and cultural values. Adolescents’ responses varied; some adhered to parental guidance, while others took on a more autonomous use of English outside the home, essentially navigating a bilingual identity. The study highlights how language learning is instilled in family dynamics and social norms. It also demonstrates how ambition and cultural caution coexist in conservative settings. These findings suggest that EFL learning in Qatar is often a culturally negotiated process influenced by intergenerational dialogue and local norms. The study stresses the need for culturally responsive approaches to English education in non-Western conservative settings; one that acknowledges how families reconcile language and culture while supporting learners’ linguistic development.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yousif Al-Naddaf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Teaching English to Primary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case Study
Nowadays, the identification of learners with special needs is proliferating worldwide. One of these is the increasing prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among children. The study’s primary goal was to investigate the major challenges and obstacles that foreign language teachers face when teaching English to gifted language ASD students, as well as effective teaching practices that can be adapted to address the psychosocial and intellectual needs of autistic learners in English lessons. The research material was collected through a case study conducted on an English teacher and a gifted ASD English learner participating in an individual teaching program of English at a selected primary school in Poland. The findings of the study reveal that teaching itself is extremely multi-faceted, with numerous critical tasks and challenges that teachers must face. However, in the case of students with special needs, teachers’ roles become even more important and cannot be underestimated. The study outcome can serve as a key factor in providing remedies for teaching English, particularly to talented students with ASD.
Copyright (c) 2025 Izabela - Olszak http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Enchanted Prophet in the Disenchanted World: A Comparative Study of Max Weber and Kahili Gibran’s Conceptualization of Prophet
Since its first publication in 1923, Kahili Gibran’s The Prophet has been exceptionally well received as the highest-selling and most-translated books ever (Waterfield 1998, 257; Buck 2010, 113; Kalem 2018). The ironical popularity of this religious figure – a prophet who preaches in enchanted terms rather than scientific language – in modern times, which we generally consider disenchantment of the world, is worthy of inquiry. So, this essay attempts to investigate what it means to be a “prophet” in modern times and how conditions of disenchantment are thought through and dealt with through such a spiritual figure. It adopts Max Weber’s formulation of disenchantment because he indicates the persistence of prophetic beings when theorizing disenchantment in his two lectures, The Scholar’s Work (1917) and The Politician’s Work (1919). Through a close reading of Weber’s work lectures and Gibran’s spiritual poetry in a comparative manner, this paper demonstrates that, despite their apparent opposition, in Weber’s conceptualization of scholars and politicians, two modern works that take the place of religious prophets and Gibran’s conceptualization of the universalized prophet in modern time, they both emphasize the self-restraint of authority and the autonomy of individuals. They turn to the practice of work as an alternative way for individuals to obtain the meaning of life when religion could no longer provide such a thing. More precisely, by working with love in Gibran’s term, that is, with personal conviction and responsibility for Weber, people could come to their own meanings. The search for a new spring of meaning in modern times should be directed inwardly at human beings and individual selves rather than outwardly at divine powers or external authorities. As far as it concerns, we must remain vigilant about the prophetization of Weber and Gibran themselves.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lu Luo http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“The present is the only thing that has no end” – Liminality of Space-time in Robert Lanza’s and Nancy Kress’s Observer
The paper examines the representation of the liminality of space-time in Observer (2023), a novel by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress, through the lens of biocentrism, Lanza’s controversial theory asserting that consciousness shapes physical reality. The study situates its inquiry within the broader context of discussions on the intersections of science, philosophy, and literature, focusing on how the novel’s narrative conveys biocentrism’s implications for understanding space-time. Drawing on narrative techniques such as heterodiegetic narration and free indirect discourse, the analysis explores how the protagonist, neurobiologist Caro, progressively embraces a biocentric worldview. This transformation underscores the theory’s foundational claim that consciousness creates space-time and resonates with concepts in quantum physics, as articulated by figures like Erwin Schrödinger and Stephen Hawking. The article highlights the novel’s portrayal of time as an illusion and presence as a liminal state navigating between past and future. Through its characters and their experiences, Observer presents space-time as a fluid, transitional realm, with each moment imbued with transformative potential. The findings suggest that the narrative effectively embodies biocentrism’s principles, illustrating the dynamic interplay between consciousness and the perception of reality. Ultimately, the study concludes that the novel offers a compelling literary exploration of the liminal nature of space-time, positioning consciousness as the pivotal agent in shaping the fabric of existence.
Copyright (c) 2025 Piotr Czerwiński http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Mars and Malacandra: The Mythopoeic Cosmologies of Ray Bradbury and C. S. Lewis
For centuries, science fiction authors have tried to solve the logistics of a trip to Mars, and debated the wisdom of going there in the first place. This paper focuses on two fictional portrayals of Mars from the first half of the twentieth century. The first is by C. S. Lewis, who in Out of the Silent Planet (1938) imagines an ancient and thriving world with three different species that have all attained rationality. The setting of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950), by contrast, is a ghostly and dead planet, its former, telepathic inhabitants eradicated by a mysterious illness. Despite these narratological differences, the novels resemble each other in at least two significant ways. For one, both are distinguished by an essentially mythopoeic, or myth-making, approach to Mars, in which its history and relationship with human beings are fitted into a larger cosmology that reflects their respective authors’ religious or philosophical views. In addition, both novels are pessimistic about the sort of grandiose schemes for planetary dominance envisioned by their contemporaries and modern-day successors including Elon Musk. The reckless scientism and anthropocentrism such individuals espouse, Lewis and Bradbury warn, may prove far more devastating to the human race than any disaster against which colonies in outer space might be employed as a defense.
Copyright (c) 2025 Camilo Peralta http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Echoes of the Past: Nostalgia and the Utopian Spirit in Heather A. Swain’s Hungry (2014)
Despite ongoing technological advancements and improving socio-economic conditions, the contemporary projections of the future are increasingly marked with uncertainty and anxiety rather than hope and optimism. As dependence on capitalism, consumerism, and digitization has led to commodification of life, the fragmentation of stable communities, and spiritual impoverishment, modern humans increasingly turn to historical and mythical pasts to compensate for their disillusionment with an unsatisfying present. With the daunting prospects of the things to come, nostalgia is being increasingly recognized by critics and artists alike as a powerful meaning-granting mechanism¾one that unlocks future possibilities rather than serving merely as a purely regressive and unproductive sentiment idealizing the past. But can nostalgia truly serve as the locus of future-oriented utopianism? Drawing on the theories of nostalgia (Svetlana Boym), retrotopia (Zygmunt Bauman), and mythophilia (Jeff Malpas), this paper analyzes the role of personal myths and collective nostalgias in igniting a utopian spirit in Heather Swain’s novel Hungry (2014). Set in a technologically saturated world where the Earth’s natural resources have been exhausted and flora and fauna decimated, the novel depicts a seemingly utopian social order in which synthetic nutrition and hormone-controlling inoculations introduced by the One World Corporation have eradicated physical hunger, saving humanity from global starvation. By juxtaposing individual endeavours with collective attempts to reclaim a past in which food functioned as both physical and spiritual sustenance, the novel warns against uncritical efforts to resurrect utopian models. Instead, it situates the utopian impulse within more reflective and creative personal practices that “look at the past critically and yearn for a different past, now, and desire a different future” (Baccolini 2007, 175).
Copyright (c) 2025 Patrycja Magdalena Podgajna http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Voices of Nature: Narrative Diversity and Ecological Awareness in Contemporary Canadian Short Stories
This article argues that three voice strategies in contemporary Canadian eco-stories—collective we-narration (Gartner), figural animal focalization (Bone), and omniscience inflected by oral address (Maracle)—activate distinct pathways of narrative empathy (attention re-calibration, perspective-switching, metaphorical reframing). Bridging ecocriticism and narrative theory, I show how these forms redistribute agency to nonhuman actants while exposing the affordances and risks of anthropomorphism. Close readings demonstrate that Gartner’s satirical collective voice performs de-anthropocentrization, Bone’s alternating figuration stages cross-species identification within unequal power regimes, and Maracle’s you-address and cyclical temporality enact relational resurgence. I conclude by outlining how such voice-driven designs move readers from elegiac “environmental loss” toward pedagogies of care and repair.
Copyright (c) 2025 Seyma Yonar http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Beyond the Single Story: Black Futures and Feminist Critique in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Visit
This paper analyzes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Visit (2021) as an example of Afrofuturist and Africanfuturist fiction that uses speculative storytelling to critique gendered power. It examines how a Nigerian dystopian satire can challenge assumptions about patriarchy by imagining a society where women hold institutional power and men face the same moral policing, economic control, and social expectations usually imposed on women. The paper uses close reading informed by feminist theories, including Judith Butler’s performativity, bell hooks’s critique of domestic roles, Sara Ahmed’s idea of the “feminist killjoy,” and Virginia Woolf’s reflections on creativity as well as African feminist approaches from Nanjala Nyabola and Sylvia Tamale that emphasize local context and histories. The analysis finds that The Visit uses satire and inversion not to propose an easy solution or utopia, but to reveal how gendered domination depends on social norms, respectability politics, and internalized beliefs. It also emphasizes how the story’s Nigerian socio-political context reshapes feminist theories commonly applied to speculative fiction. Instead of offering a neat resolution, the story leaves readers with unsettling questions about their own complicity in systems of inequality. The paper concludes that Adichie’s work demonstrates the power of speculative fiction to expose social hierarchies, disrupt stereotypes about African societies, and encourage critical reflection necessary for imagining more equitable futures.
Copyright (c) 2025 Paula Wieczorek http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Symbiotic Relationship Between the Murderer and the City, a Silent Accomplice in Crime, in The Love Witch and American Psycho
The purpose of this article is to examine the interdependence between the killer and the urban space in The Love Witch and American Psycho, as well as to explore the subversion of gender roles in horror productions through satirization of toxic masculinity and fragile femininity. Furthermore, the paper examines the murderer’s persona, along with motifs and psychological factors motivate criminal behaviour, and also investigates the importance of the urban space as it conditions the perpetrators’ behaviour and reflects their personalities. An in-depth study of such a phenomenon is conducted by employing the comparative analysis of two similar yet different serial killers from the aforementioned films, as well as implementing spatial theories and delving into the connection between fictional characters and their surroundings. Ultimately, the partnership in crime linking the killer and the horror settings is proven to exist and benefit both parties.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aleksandra Noińska http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Liminality and Existentialism in Tennessee Williams’s Clothes for a Summer Hotel
Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1983) stands as a prominent example of Tennessee Williams’s existentialist outlook and his experimentations with dramatic form. Subtitled as a “ghost play,” Clothes for a Summer Hotel depicts a fictional meeting of American authors F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in the afterlife, through a temporally and spatially nonlinear narrative, where the characters revisit moments from their past in order to resolve the questions that have gradually doomed their relationship. Using the framework of Sartre’s theatre of situations and Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, this paper aims to add a novel perspective to the existing scholarship on this Williams play, but, most importantly, to suggest a reconciliation between its form and content, as opposed to the dissonance argued in the play’s early reviews. Starting with an overview of Williams’s existentialist approach and the prevalent criticism on the play, this paper focuses on its dramatic form through an examination of the depictions of time and space. This is followed by an analysis of its thematic content, in particular the existentialist notions of bad faith (mauvaise foi) and the Other, to finally conclude with an argument on the correlation of the play’s form and content.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hysni Kafazi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Motif of Animal – Human Transformation in Colleen Houck’s Tiger’s Curse Fantasy Series
The motif of human – animal transformation is present in many mythologies. Stories created in different cultures explore a variety of human – animal shifters: werewolves, tiger – men, swan – maidens, berserkers. The intent of this paper is to analyze in what way shifters from various mythologies are interwoven into the Tiger’s Curse fantasy series by Colleen Houck, a contemporary American author. The paper aims to provide a typology of these characters and examine the nature of their transformations. Shape-shifting in the world created by Houck is inspired by mythologies and stories from all over the world, with a focus on Asian lore. Transformations of human characters vary from the voluntary, when the person is able to change their form at will, to the involuntary, when the transformation is forced upon the body of the host, from inborn abilities, to curses or other magical occurrences. The shifters may be individuals who are aware of their abilities, or people who have no recollection of changing shapes. There seem to be multiple reasons for the use of this motif. Animal – human transformations allow writers to explore the dual nature of human nature, delve into the animal mentality, or introduce magic into fantasy narratives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zuzanna Kosmala http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Politics of Healthcare Marketization and Medical Fetishism in Parliament’s “I’m Gon Make U Sick O’Me”
This article examines Parliament’s music video “I’m Gon Make U Sick O’Me” (2018) as a satirical and Afrofuturist critique of the American healthcare system and the pharmaceutical industry. Released as part of the concept album Medicaid Fraud Dogg, the video engages with broader concerns about the commodification of medicine, the profit motives embedded in healthcare delivery, and the racial politics of medical access and trust. The study situates the video in the cultural and historical context of Afrofuturism, a framework that blends speculative aesthetics with critiques of anti-Blackness, capitalism, and systemic oppression. Using methods drawn from visual culture analysis and critical theory, the article explores how Parliament’s retro-futuristic funk aesthetic and surreal medical imagery work together to produce a layered commentary on contemporary healthcare systems. Central to this analysis is the portrayal of Big Pharma as a seductive and manipulative force, embodied by hyper-stylized characters such as a fetishized nurse, a dazed patient (played by George Clinton), and a flamboyant Dr. Feel Good (portrayed by Scarface). These figures symbolize the eroticization of medical authority and the normalization of pharmaceutical overuse, exposing how illness is constructed and consumed within a capitalist framework. The video’s psychedelic visuals, paired with funk’s destabilizing rhythms, challenge viewers to question not only the marketing of medicine but also the broader systems of racial and economic inequality that shape access to care. The article finds that the video critiques the entanglement of healthcare and desire, drawing attention to how Black communities have been historically marginalized, exploited, and overmedicated. Ultimately, it argues that Parliament’s Afrofuturist vision turns funk into both a mode of critique and a site of healing: one that confronts the violence of medical capitalism while imagining alternative futures grounded in resistance, sonic liberation, and cultural memory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lidia Kniaź-Hunek http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ghosted Desires: Lesbian Spectrality and Neoliberal Resistance in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women (2016)
Western cinema has long struggled with the representation of lesbian identity, often reinforcing tropes of erasure, invisibility, and marginalization. Certain Women (2016), directed by Kelly Reichardt, disrupts these conventions by employing slow cinema aesthetics and embracing the concept of the apparitional lesbian. This paper examines the film through Terry Castle’s theory of lesbian spectrality, Patricia White’s notion of lesbian minor cinema, and Heather Love’s concept of feeling backward. The film’s narrative, centered on the unspoken attraction between Jamie (Lily Gladstone) and Beth (Kristen Stewart), resists dominant queer cinematic tropes by immersing its characters in a world of quiet longing, solitude, and unresolved connection. Rather than conforming to neoliberal narratives of queer progress and visibility, Certain Women embraces stillness and subtlety as a form of political resistance. Through a close reading of the film, this paper argues that Certain Women aligns with the tradition of minor cinema by rejecting mainstream representational norms. In doing so, Reichardt’s film expands the possibilities for lesbian storytelling, offering a vision of queerness that exists in the liminal space between presence and absence. By reframing queer identity through a lens of spectrality and melancholy, Certain Women challenges the limitations of dominant lesbian representation and asserts the potential of cinema as a space for alternative modes of queer existence.
Copyright (c) 2025 Julia Wajdziak http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Companion and the Borders of Power Dynamics in AI-Human Relationships
The 2025 film Companion presents viewers with a sci-fi vision in which the intricacies of romanticized relationships between humans and artificially intelligent companion robots are embedded in wider power struggles informed by gender, space, race, and class. The human main characters deny the protagonist Iris – a feminized companion – any ethical consideration or agency, which leads to a chain of events in which conceptual borders relating to identity, agency, heteronormativity, corporeality, and capitalist ownership are renegotiated. This article dissects the contours of these borders and their functioning within the film’s engagement with the epistemic and ontological thresholds that need to be navigated when humans and AI enter into symbiotic relationships. Special focus is given to relationality as well as cognitive and emotional feedback loops in which identities are forged in mutually reinforcing dynamics. Meaning-making processes are shown to be central for all characters involved, underlining how a “narrative conception of the self” overrides certain ontological conception of what or who appears real. The toxic masculinity displayed by Iris’ boyfriend offers entry points for an examination of gendered power structures in AI-human relationships. Naturalized borders surrounding sexual orientation and ethno-linguistic belonging are shown to be technological productions which AI can easily adjust to. The role of the AI developers in the story illustrates a socio-economic framework in which human and AI characters are agents within a larger power concentration and data collection regime cloaked in a language of neoliberal choice. The film thereby offers entry points in which contemporary power struggles pertaining to sexuality, gender, techno-capitalism, as well as emotional and relational ethics are negotiated in ways that de-center anthropocentric and hegemonic perspectives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ilias Ben Mna http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
‘Your Kind Ain’t Welcome Here’: The Boundaries of Human, Post-human and Subhuman in the Fallout Video Game Franchise and Television Series
Science fiction has long grappled with the question of what it means to be human, evident in the is cross-media fascination with both establishing and deconstructing the line between what is human and what is not in worlds where technology has allowed the creation of ‘posthumans’. However, as much as this question extends forward to the world of androids, cyborgs and robots, so too does it reach back to the realm of the monstrous, the degenerated human, or the ‘subhuman’. The Fallout series (1997-present) attempts to tackle this question head on in both directions, itself now a cross-media franchise that spans both video games and television. Incorporating both the ‘post-human’ and the ‘subhuman’ in their ‘synths’ (technologically advanced androids) and ‘ghouls’ (irradiated humans that slowly turn into what are essentially zombies) respectively, Fallout attempts to show that the line between what is human and what is not is not so easily drawn. Drawing on critical posthumanist theory alongside US American cultural theory this article analyses the portrayal of (and discrimination against) sub- and post- human characters in the Fallout series and how this can have broader implication in contemporary media when deconstructing the concept of ‘human’.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sarah Wagstaffe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Framing the Arctic: Nanook of the North (1922) in the Digital Borderlands
This article traces the troubled legacy of Nanook of the North (1922) into the digital borderlands of the twenty-first century. Rather than revisiting long-standing scholarly debates, it follows the film’s migration into online spaces. On social media, Nanook circulates in fragmented, decontextualized ways that reignite questions about race, representation, authenticity, and colonial storytelling. Social media comment threads become an informal archive of how contemporary audiences confront, resist, or reproduce these themes. By examining this digital reception, the article shows how the film’s unresolved tensions not only persist but intensify online, revealing how colonial images continue to shape public understanding in an algorithm-driven media landscape.
Copyright (c) 2025 Christopher Ballengee http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The White Nation in Crisis: A Fanonian Reading of Sevdalinka Concerning Colonial Violence and Identity Crisis
Inspired by Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, this study focuses on the process of postcolonial imitative identity construction that results in fragmentation among colonized people in Sevdalinka, a novel by Ayşe Kulin. Fanon’s theory extensively analyzes the erasure of identity experienced by colonized people and the psychological crises that result in fragmented selves, emerging from futile efforts to attain recognition, and validation. The process of modeling contributes to the colonizers’ sense of superiority and, in turn, intensifies their tyranny. Fanon initially criticizes the oppressed for being unaware of their incoherent conditions as well as their estrangement from their authentic selves. The perspectives of Adler, Freud, Bhabha, Ngũgĩ, and Achebe will significantly contribute to this study, as they align with and deepen the theoretical framework of Fanon. Kulin’s Sevdalinka offers a profound exploration of Bosnians’ experiences of love, the desire for recognition, and the loss of authenticity within the context of Bosnia’s tumultuous history. In the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Bosnians are subjugated, particularly by Serbs, who seek independence while demanding Bosnians’ assimilation and alienating them. Bosnians are also marginalized and even targeted for possessing distinct religious identities, perceived as Croats by Catholics and as Serbs by Orthodox Christians, yet belonging to neither. The characters adopt their oppressors’ lifestyle, with minimal traces of Islamic tradition. The protagonist, Nimeta’s illicit relationship with a Croatian, emotional distance from her children, and disapproval of her mother’s conventional lifestyle demonstrate her estrangement from Bosnian Islamic identity. Through the protagonist and her family, the novel sheds light on how identities are shaped, fragmented, and ultimately diluted.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hatice YILMAZ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Using Children’s Voices to Represent Border Losses – The Construction of Childhood in Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive
Valeria Luiselli’s novel Lost Children Archive reveals the challenge of telling the stories of immigrant children who get lost in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands without appropriating their trauma or forcing the narrative into a coherent shape that is easily accessible to a supposedly empathetic reader. Published in 2019, following a period of intense media coverage caused by the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and in response to the 2014 childhood immigration crisis during the Obama presidency, the text forms an emotionally complex critique of the cultural construction of childhood in legal framings and media representations of unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. I argue that Luiselli’s exceptional way of incorporating children into her narrative and the way she creates a strong resemblance between the depicted children in the narrator’s family and immigrant children who get lost in the Sonoran Desert, forms a compelling critique of binary constructions of childhood in the social imaginary, especially through common media representations. Informed by the field of childhood study, I contend that Luiselli carefully constructs a delicate narrative of childhood between infantilization and adultification. By using the narrator’s own children and the negotiation of their roles and status within the family as a point of reference and resemblance to the lost children at the border, Luiselli acknowledges the tension between treating children as innocent, dependent and helpless and the danger of adultifying them, thereby forming distinct implications on immigrant children’s political and social status as well as a critical commentary on their depiction in mainstream media representations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sabrina Meyer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring Relational Dynamics of Grace Marks in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace Through Relational-Cultural Theory
Considered one of the most esteemed contemporary authors in Canada and the twentieth century, Margaret Atwood’s ninth novel Alias Grace is a historical fiction based on a real murder case that occurred in nineteenth-century Canada. This study explores the relational dynamics of the protagonist, Grace Marks, with her fellow servants Mary Whitney and Nancy Montgomery through the lens of Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT). Founded by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Jean Baker Miller, RCT posits that humans are inherently relational and grow only through mutual connections across the lifespan. RCT considers the Western ideal of an independent, self-sufficient individual harmful, as it fosters isolation and disrupts mutuality. Additionally, patriarchal and classist structures are criticized as they reinforce hierarchy, control, inequality, and power-over dynamics, hindering the potential growth-fostering relationships. Through close textual analysis, this article indicates that Grace’s connection with Mary embodies five outcomes of a growth-fostering relationship. In contrast, Grace’s connection with Nancy is marked by chronic disconnections, resulting in the reversal of five good things: decreased energy, an inability to take action, a low sense of worth, confusion, and isolation. By portraying Grace’s relational experiences, the study also elucidates how the male-dominated and hierarchical society of the nineteenth century obstructs the potential growth-fostering relationships for her because within this society, mutuality and empathy are often replaced by fear and control. Therefore, Grace adopts strategies of disconnection to protect herself, but they also deepen her isolation. Viewed through the lens of RCT, Alias Grace becomes more than a narrative of crime and mystery, given its focus on the transformative potential of growth-fostering relationships and the detrimental effects of disconnections on psychological growth, particularly for women living within restrictive social systems.
Copyright (c) 2025 Eda HACISAĞIR http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Identity Construction through Transnational Feminism in Minaret by Leila Aboulela
The construction of identity, an ongoing and complex process, is shaped by both internal and external factors that contribute to a sense of individuality and personal formation. However, this process might become complex when viewed globally, as factors such as globalization, colonial legacies, migration patterns, and economic structures significantly shape identity formation. A critical perspective known as transnational feminism acknowledges that global forces such as capitalism, colonialism, and migration, as well as individual and cultural factors, shape identities. In this context, identity construction emerges as a critical field of inquiry, illuminating how the interplay of power dynamics, historical legacies, and regional experiences shapes women’s identities. In doing so, it rejects Western feminism’s tendency to universalize by highlighting the interconnectedness of gendered experiences across national and cultural boundaries. This study aims to analyze the construction of identity, shaped by both individual and cultural frameworks, through the perspective of transnational feminism in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret. It will also include a textual analysis of key excerpts from Minaret to explore Najwa, the protagonist, and her internal struggles, especially her moments of challenging Western norms and strengthening her identity through her faith and cultural background. By analyzing Najwa’s personal journeys alongside those of other female characters, this study aims to demonstrate that, despite differences in experience, background, and geography, there is common ground for crossing borders and creating a transnational feminism that challenges fixed identity constructs and promotes solidarities rooted in shared differences and local struggles.
Copyright (c) 2025 Emine Sayer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Review of Enslaved Native Americans and the Making of Colonial South Carolina
The article reviews Enslaved Native Americans and the Making of Colonial South Carolina (2024) by D. Andrew Johnson from the perspective of cultural history and assesses the book's contribution to the study of slavery in America.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zbigniew Mazur http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Telling Stories and Deploying Diegetic Folklore: A Short Incursion into Folk Gothic in Literature and Cinema
This review examines Dawn Keetley’s Folk Gothic as a concise yet theoretically ambitious contribution to contemporary Gothic studies, foregrounding its argument for Folk Gothic as a distinct generic and analytical category. It highlights Keetley’s central claim that Folk Gothic displaces anthropocentric narration in favour of non-human agencies—landscapes, objects, ritual, and recursive temporality—as primary drivers of meaning and affect. Particular attention is paid to the book’s clear differentiation between folk horror and Folk Gothic, supported by close readings of literary texts and films that demonstrate how non-human agency reshapes narrative structure and spectatorship. The review concludes that Folk Gothic offers both a rigorous conceptual framework and an accessible critical model, making it valuable for specialists and non-specialists interested in Gothic literature, cinema, and ecocritical approaches.
Copyright (c) 2025 Monika Leferman http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0