Romanian Journal of English Studies
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ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES Editura Universităţii de Vest Timişoara 2009 This journal is sponsored by: Universitatea de Vest, Timişoara Office of Public Affairs, US Embassy, Bucharest © Romanian Journal of English Studies, no.6, 2009 ISSN 1584-3734 EDITOR Luminiţa Frenţiu Assistant editors Eliza Filimon Aba – Carina Pârlog ADVISORY BOARD HORTENSIA PÂRLOG, University of Timişoara PIA BRÎNZEU, University of Timişoara CARMELLO CUNCHILLOS JAIME, University de La Rioja MIHAELA IRIMIA ANGHELESCU, University of Bucureşti MIRCEA MIHAIEŞ, University of Timişoara ISABELLE SCHWARTZ – GASTINE, University of Caen DAVID SNELLING, University of Trieste CHRISTO STAMENOV, University of Sofia MIHAI ZDRENGHEA, University of Cluj-Napoca CONTENTS I CULTURAL STUDIES pg. NATALIA ALHAZOV Slave Ship Voyages Reflected in Narratives, Poetry,Music and Art M. L. BAKALINSKY Investigating the status of LA COSA NOSTRA in the context of U.S. culture: Linguistic anthropology aspects LILIANA COPOSESCU Humour in Workplace Meetings GABRIELA CUSEN Analysing Questions In Institutional Talk: Power In Questions ELIZA FILIMON Cinematic Landscapes – Angela Carter’s Movie Adaptations ERIC GILDER, MERVYN HAGGER Puppets on Strings: How American Mass Media Manipulated British Commercial radio Broadcasting DIANA MĂDROANE Representational Meaning In The British Tabloid Coverage of Romanian Economic Migrants: A Case Study MAGDALENA ROIBU Crime As Routine Stuff: A Criminological Perspective II TRANSLATION STUDIES OCTAVIAN COSTE Difficulties in translating un-x-able adjectives into Romanian MIHAELA COZMA A Translational Approach To Sentence Length And Structure In The EU Documents ELENA CROITORU Creating 'Absence' in Translation DANIEL DEJICA Identifying and Analysing Theme-Rheme Relations for Discourse Production and Translation VESNA LAZOVIC Phrasan Verbs in English and their translation Equivalents in Serbian DARIA PROTOPOPESCU, NADINA Translating the American slang of the 60’s in VIŞAN James Ellroy’s White Jazz RODICA SUPERCEANU, LUCIA BEICĂ Romanian Translators' Problems and Difficulties with Official Documents: the Exploratory Pilot Work ALBERT VERMES Techniques in the translation of culture-specific expressions III AMERICAN LITERATURE CRISTINA CHEVEREŞAN Redefîning Homelands in Jhumpa Lahiri 's America. CLAUDIA DOROHOLSCHI Viewing trip: point of view and meaning in the novels of Jeffrey Eugenides ENIKO MAIOR The First Jewish-American Novel SMARANDA STEFANOVICI Acculturation And Enculturation In Bharati Mukherjee’s The Middleman And Other Stories INGRIDA ZINZUVIENE The Concept of the American Dream in Philip Roth 's Novei American Pastoral. IV BRITISH LITERATURE FLORENTINA ANGHEL Space and Time in Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman CRISTINA BĂNICERU A Battle for Territory or Erasure of AU Boundaries. MAGDA DANCIU Scotland in the Looking-Glass: Alexander McCall Smith 's Little (Seif) Ironies ARIJANA LUBURIC Echoes of Terrorism in Contemporary British Fiction. ARMELA PANJOTI The Deconstruction of Colors in Conrad's Nostromo[-e] FIONA TOMPKINSON Self, World and Metaphor in Jane Griffiths' Icarus on Earth GABRIELA TUCAN The Writing from Memory V LANGUAGE STUDIES CAMELIA BEJAN Some Remarks on Sluicing in Romanian CONSTANTIN CHEVEREŞAN, TA Prospects on Communication and LUMINIŢA CHEVEREŞAN Communication in "Prospects" SORIN CIUTACU Global English into Local Dutch GORDANA DIMKOVIĆ - TELEBAKOVIĆ Ambiguity LOREDANA FRĂŢILĂ, ROMANIŢA American Dialects JUMANCA ANNAMARIA KILYENI Modes of Address in Print Ads targeted at Women MIHAELA LAZOVIĆ Influence of Verb Particles on Aspect and Aktionsart PREDRAG NOVAKOV Aspect and Boundedness ANCA STOIAN Face Metaphors in English and Romanian VI ELT STUDIES ANTOANELA DUMITRAŞCU On Teaching and Learning English Collocation LUMINIŢA FRENŢIU, CODRUŢA GOŞA Investigating Attitudes to Cambridge ESOL Examinations LIANA GHERDAN, CODRUŢA GOŞA Notes on the Cambridge ESOL’s Teaching Knowledge Test In Western Romania MONICA OPRESCU Teaching Language through Literature FLORENTINA TAYLOR Some Grim Effects of a Nationally Imposed English Curriculum in Romania SECTION ONE: CULTURAL STUDIES FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: SLAVE SHIP VOYAGES REFLECTED IN NARRATIVES, POETRY, MOVIES AND ART NATALIA ALHAZOV Moldova State University Abstract: Syncretic approach to the subject of slave ships implies literary and historical analysis of “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” paralleled by interpretation of Robert Hayden’s anti-epic “Middle Passage” and followed by looking at an extract from. Spielberg’s “Amistad” and some pictures of the unprecedented black victory. Key words: African-American, slave ships, the Atlantic voyage, Middle Passage, slave narrative. African-American experience began with slave ship voyages. By 1540 an estimated 10,000 slaves were being brought from Africa to West Indies annually, while between 1540 and 1850 such ships transported to America 15 to 20 million Africans. There were several causes for bringing slave labor force, which modeled the slave import dynamics: 1. In the 14th century Europeans started taking people from Africa against their will as servants for the rich, but then they justified it arguing that they provided a happy opportunity for Africans to convert to Christianity. By the 17th century the extraction of slaves from Africa was proclaimed a “holy cause” and had blessing and support of the Christian Church. 2. The arrival of Europeans in the Americas resulted in a sharp decline of the local population on the Caribbean Sea islands. Large numbers had been killed, others died of starvation, diseases or from the consequences of being forced to work long hours in the gold mines. It is estimated that, when the Europeans reached Cuba, its population was over a million people, but 25 years later only 2,000 left. It created a problem as the Europeans needed labor power to exploit the natural resources of the islands and eventually the colonists came up with the solution of importing slaves from Africa. 3. In the 17th century, starting in Virginia and spreading to New England, the plantation system came into existence in America. The plantations of tobacco, rice, sugar cane and cotton required intensive labor. Europeans had immigrated to the New World to become colonists, possess their own land and not work for others. As labor force, convicts were sent over from Britain, but not many enough to satisfy the fast growing demand. American planters began purchasing slaves that first came from the West Indies. Slaves could be purchased in Africa for about $25 and sold in the Americas for about $150. After the slave-trade was declared illegal, prices went much higher. Even with a death-rate of 50 per cent, merchants could expect to make tremendous profits from the trade. Maximizing the profits slave merchants carried as many slaves as possible on a ship. For example, the Brookes slave ship was built to carry a maximum of 451 people, but was used for carrying over 600 slaves from Africa to the Americas. Only half of the slaves taken from Africa became effective workers in the Americas. Many died on the journey from undernourishment and diseases such as smallpox and dysentery; others committed suicide by refusing to eat or jumped over the board; many became crippled for life as a consequence of the way they were chained up. The famous diagram shows how slaves were tightly packed into the slave ships. As part of the Atlantic slave trade, the forced transportation of black people from Africa to the New World had a triangular route. Ships left Europe for African markets, where their goods were sold or traded for prisoners and kidnapped victims on the African coast. Traders then sailed to the Americas and Caribbean, where the Africans were sold or traded for goods for European markets, which were then returned to Europe. The third part of it was referred to as the Middle Passage. British merchants got involved in the slave trade and gradually began to dominate the market. They built coastal forts in Africa to keep the captured Africans until the slave ships arrived. The merchants had bargains with African chiefs trading the slaves for goods from Europe. Initially these slaves were mostly the enemy soldiers captured in tribal wars. However, with a soaring demand for slaves raiding parties were organized to obtain young Africans that were transported to America by slave ships. The author of the first-ever slave narrative is Olaudah Equiano, an individual born in Africa and transported to America by a slave ship, of which he offers a vivid first-hand account. The book was a dramatic success both in England and America and became a phenomenal best-seller rivaling in popularity Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Equiano narrates his life from boyhood onwards: born in a gold-coast African village, he was sold into slavery to another village, moved to yet another village as a slave, and finally captured and sold to European slavers. Chapter Two of his autobiography describes his ordeals as a slave in Africa and concludes with his sea-passage to America, a particularly inhumane practice that killed perhaps 50 per cent of the Africans captured by or sold to European slavers. The selection details the circumstances of his voyage to America on a slave-ship. More than two centuries later, this work is recognized not only as one of the first works written in English by a former slave, but perhaps more important as the paradigm of the slave narrative - a new literary genre. The complimentary source, Middle Passage, is composed