Papers in Arts and Humanities (PArtsHum) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal for research in arts, literature, philosophy, theology and social sciences published by the Partium Christian University. The published papers are thematically gathered, in order to provide a multidisciplinary approach, seeking to generate discussion and trigger fresh insights.
Patriarchy vs Feminism: The Dialectics of Social Norms, Gender, and Character Delineation in Selected Anglophone African Fiction
African societies are predominantly patriarchal. It is also a fact that the earliest writers of Anglophone African fiction were men. Since the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart—credited as the first African novel—in 1958 (Killam, 1969), a discernible pattern has emerged in which most male writers, by centralizing male characters, tend to tilt towards patriarchal ideals. In response to this narrative, new female voices have arisen to write women into relevance. This paper interrogates these trends and their implications for literary scholarship. The four novels selected for study are representational, and they are: Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God (1964), Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat (1967), Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s House of Symbols (2005), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count (2025). The research methodology is qualitative, examining the first two novels for patriarchal bias in character delineation, while the other two are analyzed by highlighting efforts at writing back by female writers. Social realism theory (1862) and Judith Butler’s performative feminism theory (1990) serve as the analytical tools for the research. The paper demonstrates that most male writers project male characters and marginalize female ones, while female writers, in an effort to change the trajectory, produce ‘protest’ fiction that relegates men to the background. Ultimately, the paper argues that both patriarchal depictions and the consequent feminist “writing back” phenomenon expose biased perspectives that appear to present most African fiction by writers of English expression as lopsided.
Copyright (c) 2025 Benedicta Ehanire https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review: “Mini-Gems of Scholarship” – Toma Sava’s edition of Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines
A book review of an editiion of a 17th century utopia, with references to other 17th century texts (either utopias or dystopias) and editions. The emphasis (and praise) is placed on the work and art of the editor.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dan Horatiu Popescu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Fake News on Both Sides of the Border: Media Literacy Among Young Hungarians Living in the Partium Region (Romania) and Along the Hungarian Border
Digitalization and online social media platforms have radically transformed the flow of information. Anyone can disseminate almost any information on these platforms, including fake news and other fraudulent messages. The latter includes phishing scams and fake weepstakes. In this environment, media literacy is critical, as it enables individuals to critically evaluate media content from multiple perspectives and identify fraudulent content. Most research focusing on media literacy among young people has been based on selfreporting, examining a specific type of information, and only in the context of a single country. There is a lack of research exploring differences in media literacy among members of an ethnic group living in multiple countries. Our research simultaneously assesses, in practice, the ability to identify fake news, phishing scams, and fake sweepstakes among young Hungarians living in two neighboring countries on opposite sides of the Romanian–Hungarian border. The questionnaire consisted of 20 screenshots of real social media posts, emails, Messenger messages, and SMS messages. Each contained either verified false or real information, and participants had to decide the message’s authenticity based on clues in the screenshot. Based on the results, it can be said that young Hungarians in Partium scored significantly lower across all three deception categories than young Hungarians living across the border. This may be due to fundamental deficiencies in their media awareness, the different socio-cultural, infrastructural, and educational conditions in the two countries, and their status as an ethnic minority, but sampling and questionnaire bias may also play a role.
Copyright (c) 2025 Attila Zoltán Kenyeres, Judit T. Nagy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“Innovation” or “Kidnapping”: Elaine Sturtevant in Seville
As of Summer 2025, a major exhibition of the American-born, Paris-based artist Elaine Sturtevant (1924–2014) is currently on view at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) in Seville, Spain. Known for her decades-long practice of repeating the works of other contemporary artists while simultaneously declaring her own work as original, Sturtevant remains a paradoxical figure in art history. Art critic Ángela Molina has argued that the exhibition risks 'kidnapping' her artistic intention by reconstructing her practice primarily through works drawn from institutional and private collections (Molina, 2025). This article examines the exhibition from Molina’s perspective as well as within the context of its heritage site, the fourteenth-century monastery that houses CAAC, in order to assess how the show engages with its title, The Echo of Innovation. It further situates Sturtevant’s sixty-year practice of repetition within the ongoing history of social violence and its mutations, tracing her shift from physical “copies” to digital interpretations and juxtapositions after the 1990s.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ruohong Wu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Active Learning Through Aesthetic Board Games: A Reflective Workshop Session on Mentoring
In a time of growing complexity, higher education is undergoing profound change. Increasing social inequalities, shifting student needs, and the call for more inclusive and engaging teaching methods pose serious challenges for educators. Active learning is a key element of higher education, as it enhances student engagement, supports deeper understanding,and promotes the development of transferable skills. Among active learning methods, game-based learning offers a unique opportunity to develop competencies by combining emotional engagement, critical thinking, and social awareness. This study presents a workshop that uses storytelling and socially engaged board games to strengthen core competencies among future peer mentors, such as empathy, collaboration, reflexivity, and sensitivity to inequality. The training began with a symbolic reflection using Dixit cards, it continued with a Roma folktale and a thematically linked memory game, followed by the board game Mentortársas 2.0, in which mentor–mentee pairs navigate the challenges of the Hungarian education system. Through role-play and chance-driven obstacles, participants gain insight into how structural inequalities shape educational opportunities. By integrating emotionally and aesthetically rich narratives with game mechanics, the workshop created space for active involvement and reflective learning. Participants highlighted that the games offered a meaningful and motivating context for practicing mentoring-related skills and for exploring social issues. Several students noted feeling inspired to integrate similar tools into their future mentoring practice. Overall, the workshop demonstrates how game-based learning can effectively support the pedagogical and emotional preparation of future mentors working with disadvantaged students.
Copyright (c) 2025 Zsófia Kocsis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Changes in Gender Approaches—The Phenomenon of Neo-Prudery
In everyday perception, there is a growing sense that feminism and the #MeToo movement are “going too far,” while sexual “deviations” appear overly prominent. Women’s rights have undeniably expanded, moving from the confines of academic discourse into the wider public arena. At the same time, however, the acceptance of non-heteronormative identities—though framed as a progressive development—is increasingly contested, in some cases even facing legislative backlash. Judith Butler’s latest book, Who’s Afraid of Gender? (2024) also addresses this phenomenon. Our relationship with the naked body has, in recent years, taken on paradoxical dimensions. Bodily and personal boundaries are no longer limited to physical functions and touch but have come to encompass visual representation itself. Since the 1990s, significant regression is evident: while pornography attracts an ever-expanding audience, the public display or artistic representation of the body faces increasing restriction. Society seems to have swung to the opposite extreme, adopting a markedly rigid stance on nudity. This development is encapsulated in the rise of neoprudery.” Social media policies banning nudity exemplify this trend, with repercussions not only for contemporary art but also for the canon of art history—and at times, even for museum programming. This study analyzes neo-prudery through the works of Valie Export and Marina Abramović, as well as cases of banned artworks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Bordács https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Changes in Children’s Spaces: The History of Playgrounds and Fairytale Connections in Hungary during the Socialist Period
My study outlines the history of the development of the typical settings of socialist architecture—the housing estates, panel blocks, and socialist modernist playgrounds—in parallel with the evolution of the status of the fairytale in socialism. The run-down spaces and abandoned milieus of the socialist period, born as spaces shaped by an ideal system and as visions of the new city and society, seem even sadder today. Through metaphorical architectural spaces, the utopia that once shone like a bright star is contrasted with what is sometimes nostalgia and sometimes a new beginning, a tabula rasa. My writing traces the history of the development and perception of socialist housing estates and the associated playgrounds/communal spaces, and explores how children’s needs, fairytales, and fantasies increasingly shape these spaces as the regime changes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Váraljai https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Capitalism Delusion in Ex-colonies: A Postcolonial Analysis of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
Like other economic models, capitalism is a solid one that has demonstrated its resilience by overpowering political vagaries. From its inception in the 19th century to the present day, it has proven its worth as a development factor in various European societies and to competition. Over time, it has emerged as a foremost political weapon serving the cause of Western imperialism beyond its geographical borders. Development aid to Southern societies, as illustrated in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were (2021), is a perfect example. Ex-colonized areas such as Kosawa have fragile and poor economies; the West is committed to supporting them by establishing Pexton, a mining company whose purpose is to boost the domestic economy. Enthused by promises, local inhabitants show hospitality towards their benefactors. However, later, to their surprise, their hope gave way to despair, as Pexton’s activities caused enormous trouble and diminished the quality of life for the residents. Any nationalist denunciation that demands compensation risks retaliation. As the story unfolds, the environment is polluted, changing the inhabitants’ daily lives. Pexton’s inaction in the face of this ecological crisis raises suspicions about the reliability and viability of development projects piloted by American backers. The study of those discrepancies is crucial, and it is here that the postcolonial critique proves its undeniable relevance, as it contributes to unmasking Western assistance as a form of disguised imperialism, providing the conceptual framework to decipher the ideological continuities between past colonial practices and present-day neo-colonial realities. By focusing on the experiences and voices of marginalized individuals, this method remains a powerful tool for disclosing how the so-called development factor paradoxically impoverishes formerly colonized people. However, its nuanced application is essential, as its tendency to focus on external forces can sometimes obscure the complexities of internal community dynamics and risk presenting the subaltern experience as a monolithic narrative. In terms of structure, the current inquiry is composed of two lines of research: “Seduction of capitalist promises” and “Capitalist exploitation and post-exploitative paradigm.”
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Tia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Role of Maternal Attachment Styles in Children’s Sleeping Habits, Feeding, and Adjustment to Nursery
Research over the last fifty years has shown that the security and emotional stability experienced by an infant in the first year of life have an impact on the individual’s entire life, on how they respond to stressful situations, on how they raise their own children, on the dynamics of their relationships, and on their general psychological and physical state. That is why it is so important that today’s generation of adults be able to consciously develop the parenting style that will lead to more securely attached children growing up. Such a change would be a huge step forward in healthy psychological functioning; however, it would also require the individual to confront his or her own maladaptive functioning and attachment difficulties. According to my hypothesis, mothers with a secure attachment style are more likely to be responsive in parenting, and they are more supportive of their children during the separation period than those with anxious and dismissive attachment styles. The online questionnaire survey involved 113 respondents. One part of the questionnaire concerned the parenting practices used by the respondents in the first year of their children’s lives; another part concerned their experiences of settling in. In addition, the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) questionnaire was used to measure mothers’ attachment styles. The results show that mothers’ attachment styles affect both their responsiveness and their emotional and behavioral mechanisms during the separation of their children.
Copyright (c) 2025 Krisztina Bartha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Familial Change and Crisis in Elizabeth Strout’s Pandemic Novel Lucy by the Sea
Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea (2022) captures the unsettling experience of forced change during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring both personal and societal transformation through the lens of its introspective protagonist, Lucy Barton. This paper examines how the novel portrays intergenerational shifts and psychological adaptation in response to crisis, situating it within broader discussions of pandemic literature. The novel foregrounds the ways in which different generations experience and process global upheaval. Lucy and William, as aging individuals, are confronted with their own vulnerabilities and shifting priorities, while their daughters navigate the uncertainty of young adulthood. At the same time, Lucy by the Sea reflects on crisis as a catalyst for change, showing how external instability forces a reconsideration of relationships, emotional resilience, and the self. Through Lucy’s deeply personal yet universally resonant narrative, Strout engages with themes of isolation, loss, and adaptation, raising questions about how individuals and families reconfigure their identities in the wake of collective trauma. By analyzing Strout’s exploration of intergenerational change and psychological resilience, this paper considers how Lucy by the Sea contributes to contemporary literary responses to crisis and the evolving cultural memory of the pandemic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nóra Máthé https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Empowering Human Capacity for Change: The Animal from Object to Subject
The perception of animals in society remains highly biased: their place differs according to their “usefulness” or their aesthetic appearance. Above all, in Western society, the animal has been regarded as an object for centuries. With the recent development of science, including biology and ethology, social justice movements, the concept of antispeciesism, and theories based on extensionist ethics, such as animal rights theory and multi-species justice, animals are beginning to emerge from the shadows of the anthropocentric world, especially through the medium of the arts. This article will consider two works of contemporary art that focus on human–animal relations, namely Ever Dundas’s novel Goblin (2017) and the photojournalism project by the non-governmental organization We Animals (founded in 2019). These works depict the animal playing its role as an animal, not as an object or symbol, while at the same time questioning our relationship with non-human animals and highlighting the shift in our perception of the animal. The aim of the article is to analyze how art can bring animals out of invisibility and contribute to changing the place of the animal from object to subject.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alexandra Hamrouni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Digital Theseus: The Ship, the Self, and Cybernetic Transformations in Neuromancer
It is inconceivable to fantasize about a world where everything is stationary. This paper will utilize Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of becoming as a foundational framework to analyze the themes of identity and transformation in William Gibson’s Neuromancer. The novel, written in 1984, explores the philosophical contradictions surrounding change and can be linked to the paradox of Theseus’ Ship. It explores how technological advancements challenge and redefine personal identity through specific examples such as cybernetic augmentation, mind uploading into the virtual, and body enhancements. These themes reflect Rosi Braidotti’s Posthumanist discourse and align with the perpetual change in human ontology. The novel highlights the disruptive forces that push the conventional borders between organic and artificial to their limits. Neuromancer interrogates the idea of continuous change in the context of technological enhancements. It replaces and redefines physical and cognitive capabilities by focusing on the fluidity and fragmentation of the self. Gibson challenges Cartesian dualism by portraying characters whose identities are merged with technology, thereby testing the capabilities of the human-machine individual. His work foreshadows contemporary debates on artificial intelligence and regulations governing body enhancement. Gibson extends the paradox of the Ship of Theseus beyond materiality, questioning identity as an ever-changing construct within the age of advanced cybernetics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Decebal-Narcis Apostu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Theatrical Model of Artaud’s Self-in-Flow
The study examines Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty, focusing on whether cruelty can be conceived as a process of self-knowledge observed from a third-person perspective. The dynamics of Artaud’s inner actualities, in constant motion, and the momentary modes of his selves are interpreted through a model of theatre that, in accordance with the Plessnerian conditio humana, enables the subject to create distance from itself. The analysis differentiates between the world stage, understood as the process unfolding between the self and the external world, and a private theatre, constituted by the inner performances enacted within the self—a theatre defined by the encounter of the self with itself. The articulable modes of Artaud’s consciousness—expressed through various characters, shifting masks, and identifiable components of the self—are situated within his mental theatre, which engages the horizontal plane of Artaud’s consciousness. To map even the inarticulable, elusive events within the Artaudian subject, the occurrences of his private theatre are analyzed across three planes of existence, analogous to the vertically arranged logic of early modern emblematic theatre. Throughout the analysis, particular attention is given to Artaud’s propensity for self-dissection and anatomization, a dominant force manifested consistently in both his writings and visual works. The following presents and develops this analysis.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Erdély Perovics https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Reactions to Change in Graham Swift’s Works
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how, for Swift’s characters, personal crises serve as turning points, prompting them to reexamine their identities by revisiting and reinterpreting their life narratives. The story consists of their self-analysis. There is always a change in the characters’ lives that leads to a crisis, which in turn prompts the characters to explore themselves further. Psychological theories about crises and personal change will help us examine the situations of Swift’s characters and the ways they transform. Erik Erikson’s stages of psychological development outline the development of identity across life stages, which are characterized by crises that must be resolved. Resolving relationship issues leads to a stronger sense of self. J. William Worden’s crisis theory suggests that individuals go through a process of adaptation and reevaluate their personal worldviews. Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of change model includes precontemplation, contemplation, action, and maintenance. In contrast, William Bridges’ transitional model claims that personal change happens in three phases: acceptance of issues (ending, losing, letting go), uncertainty (the neutral zone), personal reinvention, and a new beginning. These theories can bring more profound insight into understanding Swift’s traumatized narrators. The novels Shuttlecock, Ever After, Out of This World, and The Light of Day will be analyzed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Irina-Ana Drobot https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Fukuyama posits that the greatest risk associated with contemporary biotechnology lies in its potential to fundamentally alter human nature, ushering in a “post-human” era that will raise new questions concerning human identity. The biotechnological revolution is currently advancing in three primary directions, with a central focus on genetic manipulation that enables the selection and modification of embryos to enhance physical performance and disease resistance. Popular films such as Patient Zero and V-Wars depict the emergence of new, mutated species and the downfall of the old world order. These new entities, while physically superior and more intelligent, are often detached from human values and treat humans as subordinate beings, reflecting and avenging humanity’s own tendencies toward racism and speciesism. In other works, such as the Helix series and The Titan, mutations are portrayed as responses to climate change, where genetic modifications are employed to help humanity adapt to an evolving environment, leading not only to biological transformations but also to significant social and ecological shifts. In Annihilation, mutation triggers an accelerated form of evolution, in which the creation of new species seems to herald the emergence of a new order within ‘natureculture,’ resonating with Haraway’s notion of the ‘Chthulucene.’ Through these biological transformations, the films explore questions of responsibility, (bio)ethics and politics, highlighting the shifting power dynamics in a world where humans are no longer the dominant species.
Copyright (c) 2025 Annamária Hódosy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Spaces of Exploitation and Resistance: A Postcolonial Ecofeminist and Phenomenological Reading of Prayaag Akbar’s Leila
Exploring literary representations of our ongoing ecological crisis from an ecofeminist perspective can unravel the role of “human-caused environmental change in the twin oppressions of women and of nature, driven by patriarchal power and ideologies” (Vakoch, 2021). A postcolonial ecofeminist focus recognizes that this twin oppression is “intimately bound up with notions of class, caste, race, colonialism and neo-colonialism” (Kaur, 2012, p. 384). This perspective may offer further invaluable insight. This paper applies a postcolonial ecofeminist and phenomenological approach. It focuses on the interconnectedness of the climate crisis and the exploitation and oppression of nature and women by a patriarchal, totalitarian regime in Prayaag Akbar’s Leila (2017). The dystopian novel follows the protagonist-narrator, Shalini, on her physical and mental journey from a life of privilege to a punitive facility for women called Purity Camp. The story takes her through exploited and heavily polluted slums to the Purity Pyramid and Skydome, which epitomize totalitarian power. Through close reading of Shalini’s phenomenological facticity and actions in these dominated and dominating spaces, this paper will analyze the portrayal of ecological and societal changes, subjugation, and resistance as manifested in the heroine’s embodied and lived experience. It will argue that, while challenging the notion of exploiting nature and women in the name of ‘purity,’ Shalini constructs a self-identity as a feminist ecological citizen in a world that treats her as a slave.
Copyright (c) 2025 Éva Pataki https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Changing Approaches in the Education of Visually Impaired High School Students
This paper will focus on the teaching of visually impaired students and their preparation for intermediate- and advanced-level examinations. The teaching attitude needed to achieve this outcome, which contributes to young people finding their place in the world and discovering their intrinsic value. The theoretical introduction includes definitions of visual impairment and its degrees. Physical impairments are complemented by social integration issues, such as adjusting to a new environment. The main part presents 4 years of teaching experience from a teacher’s perspective in a natural environment, in an integrated high school classroom with sighted students. The teacher needs to be familiar with the initial period of acclimatization at the beginning of Year IX, as well as the myriad challenges of a stimulating environment, which span the whole period from getting to school to arriving on time for classes in different classrooms, through to the full duration of the education. The question is whether the teacher, upon entering the classroom for the first time, is aware of these circumstances. Should they be aware of this, or is it just a matter of delivering the lesson and holding them to account? What kind of teacher attitude is required for successful cooperation? The practical implementation of the topic should include the people and tools involved in the teaching, i.e., the teacher, the student, and the parent, and the advantages of using different literacy tools (NVDA, Jaws, Braille keyboard, etc.). This is necessary to make the lessons, especially the Hungarian lessons, successful. As teachers, we need to identify the qualities of visually impaired people that are not typical of sighted people, and how receptive they can be in an optimal educational environment. For example, they can read lyrical works through a reading program with an emphatic, expressive interpretation and recite the text aloud while hearing the following line read.
Copyright (c) 2025 Magdaléna Kiss https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Insights from the Kajántó Mária Home for Children and Youth in the View of the Romanian Child Protection System
This article highlights the support and care provided to disadvantaged children by the Reformed Church in Romania and by other religious institutions abroad, including the Dutch Church. Simultaneously, it highlights the Romanian child protection system and its transformation after 1989, drawing a perspective on the Kajántó Mária Home for Children and Youth, a childcare home in Aleșd, Romania. Most studies and research focus predominantly on the Romanian child protection system and legislation. These studies provide an account of the change in attitude, opportunities for improvement, good and bad practices, highlighting the outline for children’s care that has developed over the past 30 years. However, child protection homes and the voices of the institutions have received significantly less attention to show what a disadvantaged child truly needs. The article illustrates the challenges of adapting to changing legislation and highlights community resilience through the example of Kajántó Mária Home, which provides comprehensive care programs for vulnerable children. It provides a critical examination of how social and cultural circumstances have shaped the development of the Romanian state’s child protection framework. By aligning the case study, this paper underscores the importance of collective action and constitutional measures in shaping societal structures and protecting vulnerable populations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ingrid Sfet https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review. The Broadcasted Future of Sport Management. Branden Buehler’s Front Office Fantasies. The Rise of Managerial Sports Media
Branden Buehler's book deals with sports management and media and the relation between these notions. Its bibliography is large, as a result of extensive research that started, according to the author, while he was in graduate school. The research was developed into the current volume due to the help and influence of a series of people. Highly enjoyable to read, this book adopts a unique focus on certain issues related to the social character of the phenomenon mentioned above.
Copyright (c) 2025 Artur Lóránd Lakatos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book Review. “Aesthetically Sovereign”—Barker Debra K. S. and Conie A. Jacobs, Eds. Postindian Aesthetics: Affirming Indigenous Literary Sovereignty
Copyright (c) 2025 Hend Ayari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Spice Melange as a Catalyst to the Discovery of the Mind
Melange, or spice as it is also known, is an ingredient in Frank Herbert's novel Dune. It symbolizes the infinite possibilities of the human mind, as it is a source of knowledge and power. Both addictive and mind-altering, for the people of Arrakis, its source place, the spice is the basis of their lives and the cornerstone of their daily rituals. Due to its effect, the traditional lifespan is extended three times, but at the same time, its consumption causes a strong addiction. It is the basis of the rites of passage. The spice is a consciousness-expanding narcotic produced during the natural life cycle of sandworms, which has been the core of technological development and commerce since its discovery. Moreover, the formation of the cultural memory of the Fremen is made possible by the Water of Life, a substance transformed from poison and heavily saturated with spice. In tribal society, constant contact with the spice also manifests in physical changes, as the natural layer of their eyes turns otherworldly blue due to consumption. In my study, I address the following questions: can spice as a drug fully enhance the capabilities of the human mind? What is its role in the rites, and how does it enable the cultural memory of the tribe? What do various interest groups in the galaxy use it for? The core of my topic is the relationship between the spice and the individual through different social strata, ritual ceremonies, and the question of foresight.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Rozsályi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Tricksters, Travelers, and Other Places in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day and Paule Marshall’s The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
This article explores the narrative representations of traveling, crossing, and identity formation in Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day and Paule Marshall’s The Chosen Place, The Timeless People. Informed by Henry Louis Gates’ analysis of the trickster archetype, the article casts a closer look at the role played by this symbolic figure in the two novels. Significant rites of passage require significant places, such as the “other place” in Mama Day or the “chosen place” in The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, which are the realm of the trickster. Deeply anchored in their island communities, these characters easily move between the supernatural and the mundane and facilitate access to cultural memory and personal identity. By juxtaposing these two works, the article argues that rites of passage, performed by bridge-like characters in culturally significant places, are essential for validating the characters’ inner and spatial journeys, ultimately assisting them in finding a sense of collective belonging and personal identity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Florentina Rosca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Correctional Educators’ Metaphorical Perceptions of Their Professional Selves
Metaphor is a widely studied phenomenon, valued not only for its aesthetic appeal and variety but also for its significant role in shaping thinking and cognition. In qualitative educational research, metaphors serve as valuable instruments for depicting existing educational states, revealing new insights into educational practice and theory, as well as for gaining a deeper understanding of educators’ world. Metaphors allow for linking information about one familiar concept to another, creating a new understanding through the comparison process that generates new meaning. Educators working in juvenile correctional institutions or reformatories form a rather under-researched community. As they carry out their educational activities in a closed world, there is limited information available about them. This study adopted a qualitative research design. Within the frame-work of semi-structured individual interviews conducted with fifteen correctional educators, I used the method of metaphor collection based on analogy, using the target concept of juvenile correctional educator. The resulting twenty-seven metaphors were organised into source concepts and subjected to content analysis. While the majority of the metaphors pertain to care and nurturing, others point to the closed nature of the institution, suggesting that the focus here is more on the role of the caregiver rather than that of the knowledge transmitter. With this method, my aim was to explore juvenile correctional educators’ most complex image of their own professional selves.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hajnalka Izsák https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Romanian Pandemic-Themed Memes on Facebook and Their Contribution to the Climate of Fear
This paper examines the role of pandemic-themed memes (PTMs) on Facebook in shaping public perception and contributing to a climate of fear during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania. Focusing on a selection of popular Romanian meme pages (MPs), such as Junimea, Omu Paiangăn, Ion Creangă, and 2Meme, this research employs a systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content shared between early March and mid-May 2020 (covering the local onset and peak of pandemic-related restrictions). The findings reveal that PTMs accounted for up to 65.79% of the total content on these pages, which highlights the dual role of memes as both coping mechanisms and amplifiers of fear during crises and provides insights into how digital humor influences public discourse and how social media platforms contribute to shaping collective experiences during global events.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Ungureanu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Inspirers of a Modernist Artist Identity: Le Corbusier’s Relationship with Naive and African Art
This study takes as its starting point a painting by André Bauchant, a naïve painter who inspired the modernists, most notably architect Le Corbusier. Bauchant’s Bouquet Le Corbusier (1927), which features a large vase and the figures of Le Corbusier and his wife shrunk to the size of ants, was given to Le Corbusier as a gift. Bauchant was a gardener who served on the front lines during the First World War, and he did not start painting until reaching old age. In addition to André Bauchant Le Corbusier’s other favorite painter was the indigenous, self-taught African artist Kalifala Sidibé. Le Corbusier bought many of his paintings and even wrote a book about him. We know from contemporary photographs that Le Corbusier was attracted not only to naïve paintings but also to artists who lived natural lifestyles. Indeed, Le Corbusier regularly painted and drew nude in his home. Le Corbusier was searching for a way to return to a more natural and ecological orientation that diverged from the path that European civilization seemed to be taking. In this quest, he drew inspiration from many sources, and his home was very much like a Kunst- und Wunderkammer room that gathered together the works of naïve and indigenous painters, as well as seashells, snail shells, and prehistoric sculptures. In this paper, I examine one of the sources of Le Corbusier’s inspiration: his relationship with naïve artists. I explore the modern European artist and star architect’s relationship to autodidactic and African art, as well as his socio– and mental–historical background.
Rhetorical Error: Combating Post-Truth and AI Nihilism Through Active Discourse Production
Using the classical pedagogical strategies of Isocrates as a framework, this paper investigates how a renewed focus on civic rhetoric in the classroom will allow for increased dialogue and active discourse production between those inside and outside the Academy. Although Isocrates did not use the word “rhetoric” himself, reading his translated texts through a current lens allows the application of rhetoric through renewed frameworks. As we find ourselves mainly existing in a post-truth world, there is a proclivity among many to replace facts with pathos. As Lee McIntyre (2018) explores in his work Post Truth, heightened reliance on emotion, social media, and fake news represents a dangerous form of nihilism. Connected to this is the abandonment of traditional media, the dismissal of evidence, and a blatant disregard for the truth—all of which can be considered “rhetorical error.” As individuals become more and more distanced from others through a reliance on the digital, they retreat into what McIntyre calls “information silos” (2018). Active discourse production, building on Isocrates’ notion of classical pedagogy, can directly challenge these information silos. Hart (2006) argues for returning to classical pedagogy in the writing classroom. This paper builds on this work, suggesting that pedagogy grounded in ideals put forth by Isocrates can directly challenge both post-truth nihilism and rhetorical error.
Copyright (c) 2025 Whitney Jordan Adams https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Relationship Between Reader and Writer in Contemporary Haiku Poems
The purpose of this paper is to look at the relationship of communication and readers’ participation in contemporary haiku poems. The poems selected for exemplification in this paper will be from Haiku Canada Members’ Anthology 2024. No Two Alike. The way in which readers work their way through meaning will be underlined, through free associations and use of universal symbols, and also based on common life experiences. A reader response approach will be adopted, since it has in view the way readers react to any text. Textual analysis will be combined with the readers’ emotional reactions and interpretations based on personal life experiences and cultural background. We can speak of communities of readers, in this case made up by the Western culture writers of an originally Japanese poem, the haiku. It is adapted and also compatible with other cultural mindsets. The way readers are engaged in the haiku poetry experience further leads to haiku being used in therapy, to encourage patients to express themselves, and become aware of their emotions, without thinking about the rules of this type of poem.
Copyright (c) 2024 Dan Horațiu Popescu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Populism: Focusing on the People's Interest
Ever since the times of ancient philosophy, the focus of politics has been the well-being of the people, which has been ensured, throughout history, through various approaches. The search for a leader that is honest and also able to do justice can be seen as one of the constant wishes of the people. The way politicians build their public image struggles to achieve this sentiment of trust. Currently, Populism has risen in popularity since it claims to promote the interests of the masses, of the “pure” people, and not those of the corrupted political elite. Populism gives citizens the feeling that they are in control and free to make the right choice of leader to ensure their well-being. The present paper will rely on the fact that the increasing individualism across the world is being exploited here with respect to the citizens, who want to feel that they have the freedom of choice. The question is to what extent they truly have this freedom and to what extent they change one ideology with another. Is this alternative ideology, being tolerated next to the so-called mainstream one, an illusion or not? The paper will include the case study of a Post-Communist country, Romania.
Copyright (c) 2024 Irina-Ana Drobot https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Between Sanity and Damnation: Unraveling Player Choices and Ethical Dilemmas in Lovecraftian-Inspired Role-Playing Games
This study examines player agency and ethical decision-making in Lovecraftian-inspired role-playing games (RPGs) as a means of engaging with H.P. Lovecraft’s themes and introducing players to occultism. While Lovecraft’s works often center on cosmic horror and existential dread rather than explicit ethical dilemmas, these games expand on his ideas by incorporating moral complexities into their narratives. By granting players agency, these games enable users to make challenging decisions and form personal bonds with characters, enriching their appreciation of the mystical and psychological themes drawn from Lovecraft’s mythos. Games like Bloodborne and Sunless Sea not only provide established fans with interactive ways to explore Lovecraftian concepts but also introduce new audiences to these themes, fostering a richer appreciation of the genre. This study examines how Lovecraftian RPGs build upon and reinterpret his ideas, offering players a dynamic medium to engage with cosmic horror, moral ambiguity, and occult motifs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Taha AlSarhan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0