The Biannual Scholarly Journal of Threshold, Volume 14, Number 2
Concessionaire English Literature Society, SBU Managing Director Shahriyar Mansouri (PhD, English Literature) Editor-in-Chief Vafa Keshavarzi (PhD student, English Literature) Editorial Board Literature Saba Sabouri (BA, English Literature) Ensieh Moeinipour (BA, English Literature) Anahit Afjool (BA student, English Literature) Chenour Awlazadeh (MA, English Literature) TEFL Musa Nushi (PhD, TEFL)
Cover & Page Layout Vafa Keshavarzi (Cover Photo: Hooriye Khajooee Dehshib) Website Design Maryam Marandi Special Thanks to Dr. Farideh Pourgiv
Contributors
Maryam Bahrami Nejad Maryam Daghigh Kia Maryam Siahmansouri Hooriye Khajooee Dehshib Shakiba Roya Naderi Marzieh Davari Nezhad Es’haghiShakila Azim ZarinKoob Sina Farajzadeh Somayeh Aali Shiva Rohi Keyhani Fatemeh Zarvasi Zahra Abedzadeh Maryam Ezami Payam Latifi & Hastie Vosough Dannial Saleh Nourani Mohammad Reza Fahimeh Baghery, Mona Sarkheil Ghaemi
Advisory Board Jalal Sokhanvar, Prof., Shahid Beheshti University Seyyed Abolghassem Fatemi Jahromi, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Kian Soheil, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Shideh Ahmadzadeh Heravi, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Amir Ali Nojoumian, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Mohammad Reza Anani Sarab, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Sara C. Ilkhani, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Shahriyar Mansouri, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Musa Nushi, PhD, Shahid Beheshti University Hossein Mollanazar, PhD, Allameh Tabatabaei University
Publisher Shahid Beheshti University Publishing House Website http://www.sbu.ac.ir Indexed by noormags.com Address Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Evin, Tehran, Iran Tel.: +982129902486 Email: [email protected] Price 3000 T Submission Guidelines
• Threshold welcomes contributions of original (not previously published) works of interest in the disciplines of English Literature, English Language Teaching, Translation Studies and Comparative Studies along with related reports, news, profiles of eminent scholars, book and movie reviews, and creative writings. • The contributors are expected to submit their works for the coming issue no later than 1st of Ordibehesht, 1398. • Prospective authors are invited to submit their materials to the journal E-mail address: [email protected] • The manuscripts are evaluated by editors of each section and at least two referees from the advisory board. • The editors require the following format styles: Informative title Abstract (150-200 words) Keywords (3-5 words) Introduction (500-800 words) Background or review of related literature (1500-2000 words) Methodology (500-700 words) Results and discussion (500-700 words) Notes and references • The name of the author(s) should appear on the first page, with the present affiliation, full address, phone number, and current email address. • Microsoft word 2016 is preferred, using Times New Roman font and the size of 11 with
Table of Contents
-Editorial 1
Literary Studies
- Chenour Awla-Zadeh /The Diversity of Binaries in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets 3
- Rising Out of the Ashes: A Tale of Existential Awakening in Fahrenheit 451/ Maryam Ezami 28
Cinema and Literature
- See/ Somayeh Aali 29
- Vafa Keshavarzi: Reading Andrei Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia 32
Interview
-An Interview with Mr. Azim Zarin Koob 37
TEFL
- Fahimeh Baghery, Mona Sarkheil/ Lyrics Training App Review 46
- Payam Latifi & Hastie Vosough/ Surveying Neo-liberalism in ELT Textbooks:
The Case of Solution Series 60
Army of Letters
-Poem: Going/Sina Farajzadeh 83
-Poem: The Trembling Seven/Maryam Bahrami Nejad 84 -Poem: Make It Rhyme/Shakiba Es’haghi 85
-Poem: The Interior of a Heart/Shakila Keyhani 88
-Poem: Joyeux’s Diary Entry Maryam Daghigh Kia 89
-Poem: A Malady Curfew/Danial Saleh Nourani 91
-Poem: The Kingdom of Colours/Zahra Abedzadeh 93
-poem: A Brief, Unrequited Love/ Seyyed Ali Mousavi 96
-poem: My Goddess/ Aref Vahidimanesh 97
-poem: Alle Alleine/ Niloofar Rezaee 98
-Short Story: Make It Ryhme/ Shakiba Es’haghi 100
-Short Story: The Confession/Marzieh Davari Nezhad 112
Creative Writing Challenge
-I Miss the Dirty Streets/Maryam Siahmansouri 120
-My Intentions Are Simple/Maryam Ezami 121
- IT_/Roya Naderi 122
-A Letter to “My Dear Father”/Mohammad Reza Ghaemi 123
-A Letter to “Mr. Hopemopi” Hooriye Khajooee dehshib 126
Threshelf
- Marxism and Literary Criticism By TERRY EAGLETONT/ Nazanin Gharaeenejad 142
Translation Challenge -Next Issue’s Translation Challenge 145
Threshold
Editorial I am proud to announce that once again the biannual Scholarly Journal, Threshold, won the first prize in article writing among the other scholarly journals. Thanks to God and hail to our editorial board and contributors. In the present issue, we are honored to have an interview with the esteemed Mr. Azimn Zarin Koob, a well-known poet and Dr. Abdolhosein Zarin koob’s brother who mostly talks about his brother and gives us some precious unique information about him and their childhood memories. The topic for our creative writing challenge in this issue was Hope and Survival which warmly received valuable submissions from different universities. As always, precious literary works of our contributors have made the journal more valuable.
Vafa Keshavarzi Editor-in- Chief
1
Threshold 14, Number 1
Literary Studies
Threshold
The Diversity of Binaries in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets
Chenour Awla-Zadeh English Literature, M.A., Shahid Beheshti University
Introduction
Human could understand a strange phenomenon automatically by applying binary opposition system in his mind. Levi-Strauss argues that because of the structural characteristics of human's mind, binary opposition is a natural process. Accordingly, linguist Stuart Campsall informs that according to structuralism anything that acts to signify meaning can only do so by a process which is similar to symbolism; for example, the meaning will be culturally derived. He explains that Levi-Strauss and
Barthes continued to realize that meaning is the result of a complex association of ideas about the thing itself and
3 Threshold 14, Number 1 other ideas that are the thing's cultural opposite, what they called its cultural or binary opposites. In addition, readers have a natural system that is derived by the indigenous culture in producing binary opposites. Furthermore, in his book Teaching as Storytelling, Kieran Egan states that a common way in which we elaborate "our conceptual grasp over empirical phenomena is by first forming such binary opposites and then by mediating between them" (18).
Jacques Derrida has expanded the level of discussion and explains that these binary pairs are not equal. According to Derrida, within any particular culture, one side of each binary pair is valued or judged in a more privileged light.
He continues by stating that one half of each binary pair is culturally marked by a kind of presence which makes it more valued while its binary opposite is marked by a kind of absence that gives it the less valued part of the binary Threshold
pair and exemplifies this by masculinity/femininity binary. Freudian psychoanalytical theory introduces the idea that man has historically been marked by a positive presence whereas the woman has been marked by a negative absence. The mentioned theories provide the reader with a subtle way to analyze and discuss important aspects related to the way texts of all kinds are interpreted and gain meaning.
John Donne (1572-1631), who is one of the most remarkable poets of Britain in the 17th century, is considered as the representative and pioneer of metaphysical poets. His works include a variety of genres such as love poems, religious poems, elegies, satires, sermons, and epigrams, among which the poems make noticeable literary achievements. His poetry is different from many of the contemporary poets due to his
5 Threshold 14, Number 1 innovations. His poems break through the traditional constraints and reveal profound philosophy through colloquial language. In addition, Donne is influenced by the binary opposition of his own age and either consciously or unconsciously deconstructs such a thinking mode. This essay aims at revealing binary oppositions in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets.
Analysis
Binary opposition is deeply embedded within literature as language and paired opposites depend on a relation with adjoining words inside a paradigmatic chain.
If one among the paired opposites were removed, the other's precise meaning would be changed. The following binaries are the most common in Donne's Songs and
Sonnets: Threshold
1. Self and Other
Thomas Docherty in his book John Donne, Undone states that there is a binary of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in Donne's poetry, and that Donne configures his self in relation to the other (52). Therefore, the metaphors he uses to represent his beloved can reflect the ways he defines himself. As Docherty claims, the other is the
“circumambient environment” containing time and space which is “historically and geographically inhabited” over which Donne struggles to have authority. This “Other of his imagination” is “most frequently characterized as woman”. Docherty states that many critics believe that, for Donne, the other is like an “empty space” into which he pours himself to shape it after his own image. This is manifested in " Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", where the speaker expands his Self (by expanding the
7 Threshold 14, Number 1 circle) to cover greater spaces. This is “a process of inhabiting, or the appropriative colonization of that space,” and is a strategy to neutralize the threat of the other by “assimilating it entirely under the Self”. Donne, in fact, “identifies” the “alien space” as himself (76).
Donne describes woman as the other for himself.
In "The Ecstasy", Donne describes the soul as the intelligence and the body as the sphere, and continues to say that the intelligences cannot express themselves without their spheres. His use of one metaphor (the sphere and intelligence) both for the two lovers and the soul-body relationship expresses a special meaning. In Donne's example, the source domain ‘intelligence’ is mapped onto the target domains ‘lover’ and ‘soul’ respectively. This suggests a sense of equivalence between lover and soul.
Hence, ‘beloved’ and ‘body’ are equivalent since the Threshold
source domain ‘sphere’ is mapped onto both of them.
Donne sees both the relationship of the lovers as a mutual necessity just like the relationship of body and soul, and love as affecting both body and soul, and actually in need of them in order to be experienced.
2. Passion and Reason
In his analysis of Donne's "The Sun Rising", James
S. Baumlin concludes that it must not be interpreted literally. Donne's exile of the outside world, in favor of the lovers' inside "microcosm," is a rhetorical technique which is used to contend for the strength and energy of mutual love. Baumlin writes the reader knows that the world does not literally go away, that the sun's orbit does not contract to the boredom of the lovers; but as one reads, one observes how the beliefs, emotions, and values of the lovers themselves undergo a change. Overstatement may
9 Threshold 14, Number 1 lack the power to change the external physical world; however, it still changes the private world of the lovers, a world of emotion and experience that is resistant to logic.
The rhetoric of Donne's persona appears to find the lovers at the center of the universe successfully while it subordinates all surrounding objects. Furthermore, the poet's use of hyperbole is persuading enough if readers immediately assume that Donne expected to contradict logic and to characterize the universe's purpose through the transcendent qualities of language.
The persona establishes several binary oppositions and appears to favor a specific hierarchy in the rhetorical structures he makes. As the poem advances; however, he starts to misspeak, seemingly forgetting the earlier language of his discourse. Finally, the persona's reorganization of language, his attempt to push rhetoric Threshold
beyond the limits of logic fails. The poem dismantles itself through the inherent contradictions of the persona's rhetoric, leaving the reader unconvinced that language permits love to transcend the outside world.
3. Momentariness and Eternity
In "The Sun Rising", Donne's lovers seem to excel the limits of the physical world by neglecting external influences and persuading all things to circle around them instead. In Thomas Docherty's words, "[the lovers] become the world and occupy the same position of centrality as the sun. They become, in short, the still point around which all else is supposed to revolve, and around whom all time passes [. . .]" (31). They create a miniature world that is more important than the larger universe within the realm of their bedroom, and their bodies are the gravitational center.
11 Threshold 14, Number 1
In the first stanza of "The Sun Rising," Donne's persona creates several binary oppositions that represent the poem's eventual but unsuccessful argument: love exists independently from and superior to the physical world. The persona is questioning the sun contentiously:
Busy old fool, unruly Sun Why dost thou thus Through windows, and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?
The notable oppositions present in these lines are confinement/openness and eternity/momentariness. As for the first, the persona objects to the sun's intrusion
"Through windows" and "through curtains". Windows and curtains separate him and his lover from the outside world, from the knowledge that their love exists within a boring and physical realm. And if the "Busy [and] unruly" Threshold
sun penetrates these modes of exclusion, it will undermine his desired confinement, weakening his love as it intrudes
upon his room.
His reasoning leads into the other significant opposition of the poem's introduction: eternity / momentariness. The "lovers' seasons" are placed against the sun's seasons, and the persona's disputatious tone suggests his efforts to subordinate every day, natural motions to ceaseless love. He continues, "Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, / Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time".
Although in the first stanza the persona mentions the physical world's inferiority to love, he suggests the social sphere's necessary absence from his microcosm. He rhetorically pushes the sun away, telling it to "go chide /
Late schoolboys, and sour prentices, / Go tell court-
13 Threshold 14, Number 1 huntsmen, that the king will ride" (5-7). Indeed, the sun is asked to seek these individuals because its search will render the persona free from its "motions". Yet he also demands the sun to follow these people because he knows its "chid[ing]" and "tell[ing]" will keep them away from his room. The first stanza also presents a figurative opposition to everything in the outside world—from the sun and the "ants" to children and the king in order to convince the audience that the language of love is capable of consummating this act.
In the second stanza, it seems that the persona forgets the love ideals that he is seeking. In particular, his celebration of love's eternity versus his condemnation of the outside world's momentariness loses its capability because he is unable to escape time limitations even through the use of language. Remarking on the simplicity Threshold
of escaping the sun's intrusive beams, the persona states,
"I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink, / But that I would not lose her sight so long" (13-14). By closing his eyes, he excludes the external world from his internal world of love. Readers can understand that the eye acts like the window of the first stanza, separating an internal sphere from an outside sphere; and the curtain prevents the sun from intruding. However, readers cannot be convinced that the persona continues to favor the ideal of love's eternity. The assertion "so long" at the end of line fourteen indicates that he is unable to create a language that is independent from the physical world. As he defined it earlier, his internal world of love knows no "hours, days, months, which are the rags of time," but in expressing his fear that closing his eyes would cause him to lose sight of his love for "so long", he accepts that his microcosm must
15 Threshold 14, Number 1 obey external rules. His inside sphere and the outside world have a "tomorrow late" and a "yesterday," and through admitting this the persona shows the inability of rhetoric to transcend the physical, momentary world and to exist apart from external influence.
The last two lines of the second stanza and the first two lines of the third stanza continue to indicate the persona's language. Besides the eternity / momentariness opposition that breaks down because of the persona's inability to dismiss time constraints from his world of love, lines nineteen and twenty also demonstrate his failure to exclude the social world from his microcosm, an important opposition that he develops in the first stanza.
After telling the sun a second time to depart and engage with the social sphere, he comments, "Ask for those kings Threshold
whom thou saw'st yesterday, / And thou shalt hear, all here in one bed lay".
Before the third stanza begins, two of the binary oppositions that the persona establishes in the first stanza have broken down. While he attempts to engage in a convincing discourse on the potency of love, the persona's rhetorical attachments to eternity and to social exclusion work within governing structures that he is unable to avoid; therefore, his argument for these ideals is not firmly grounded. He endeavors to use language in order to assert love's superiority to the external world, but by acknowledging time limitations and the social sphere he ultimately supports the structures that he hopes to undermine. The last stanza of "The Sun Rising" completes the destruction of his attempt. As previously mentioned, the persona establishes a confinement / openness
17 Threshold 14, Number 1 opposition, favoring to be enclosed within a microcosmic world of love. However, this idea is dismantled when the persona orders everything in the external world to his room:
In that the world's contracted thus; Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be. To warm the world, that's done in warming us Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere.
Throughout "The Sun Rising," Donne's persona has made claims that undoubtedly break down as he continues to speak. In the final instance, the confinement that he favors in his internal world of love, as opposed to the openness of the macrocosm, is undermined because he insists that the external world exists within his microcosm. Finally, the persona's attempt to use a language that will Threshold
communicate love's transcendent qualities is a failure because the structures that he hopes to escape are inherently incorporated in that language. He tries to embrace the ideals of eternity, social solitariness, and confinement; however, in this verbal enterprise, he incorporates the ideas that he is reacting against into his
rhetoric.
4. Masculine and Feminine
A notable contrast in "The Flea" is the binary opposition between the man and woman. The man and woman are both communicated in the poem, but in different ways. The Man speaks the entire way throughout the poem, whereas the woman is only depicted as an object, she communicates only through action. The opposition in the characters helps to enforce the meaning that women are subordinate to men and to aid his
19 Threshold 14, Number 1 persuasive argument. It could also be implied that she has no right to speak. The women is only represented in negative ways, she crushes the flea, "Cruel and, hast thou since purpled they name, in blood of innocence?" This negativity implements dominance in males.
5. Lover's Own Private World and the Outer
World
In "The Relic," a "bracelet of bright hair" (6) is
described as a "device" (9) to guarantee the fidelity of
the two lovers who will "Meet" (11) at Judgment Day:
When my grave is broke up again Some second guest to entertain, (For graves have learn'd that woman-head To be to more than one a Bed) And he that digs it, spies A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, Will he not let us alone, Threshold
And think that there a loving couple lies, Who thought that this device might be some way To make their souls, at the last busy day, Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?
In "The Funeral," similarly, the bracelet-charm is described as a "mystery" and "sign" (4) or sacrament whose preservative powers will keep the poet's "limbs ... from dissolution" (8). Though the bracelet in this poem is rather of "corals" than of "hair," its occult power, as
Francis Manley observes (388), remains the same: to serve as a love-charm and guarantee of fidelity. However, the irony lies in the poet's rejection of its guarantee.
In "The Token", the poet's refusal of a ring raises further complexities. In a verse letter to the Countess of
Bedford, Donne states that "round circles" are no less than emblems or "types of God" in their symmetry and perfection; here, the "round" and plain ring signifies
21 Threshold 14, Number 1 truthfulness and morality as well and its circular form denies all "crookedness". In "Jet Ring Sent", Donne meditates on "the loss of meaning that a ring suffers when returned, in breach of faith, to the despondent lover".
There, "no longer a visible sign or 'figure' (7) that proclaims (and in a sense, seeks to guarantee) the lady's fidelity, the ring is reduced to mere 'fashion' (8), a bauble to fling away." The Token" argues for this same disjunction by refusing to allow rings, bracelets, and other material objects to stand as sufficient emblems of mutual love.
In "The Canonization", you can probably see that the poem's world is divided into two: the private sphere of the lovers' experience and the public realm of the outer world.
Therefore, the main binary opposition operating in this Threshold
poem is the private / public or the lover-centered world / materialistic Renaissance world.
Thus, while arguing for the perpetuation of the lover- centered world, the poet in the first stanza rejects the public sphere as of no consequence to him and his beloved. In the second stanza, the private world of the lovers is shown to function independently, not deriving any sustenance from, or interrupting the public world in any way. The third stanza defines the unique and distinct elements, which sets the private world apart and perhaps elevates it in contrast to the public materialistic world of the Renaissance.
The poet not only rejects the outer world and depicts lovers' independence but also grows more confidence about the superiority of the private world. In the fourth stanza, the outer and private world confront and the poet
23 Threshold 14, Number 1 devalues the public world by accepting the private and small alternative. Both in the fourth and the fifth stanza, he is more confident about the value of the private world and the poet thinks that the outer world invokes the private world to get some of its mysterious qualities.
In the whole poem, the poet seems to be progressing from an explicit personal rejection of the outer world to declaring the independence of the private world from this outer world, to a putative superiority of the private world.
Conclusion
Arnold Stein in his book John Donne's Lyrics asserts that with the exception of "The Undertaking," which was introduced early for its value as a standard of comparison, all the other poems of Donne may be considered as having either a unitary or a simple binary form: Threshold
"The poems based upon a unitary form develop a single statement which, in spite of some pre calculated surprise, or indirection, or final reversal, does not depend on any inner conflict; everything finally drops into its appointed place and the effect turns out to be single. In the simpler binary forms we find some tension or disproportion, or even a second argument or form emerging from the first, but as a kind of connate shadow or subdued reservation. The poems which carry their themes as far as possible in one limited direction always have an implied point of opposition; the normal human views which have been brilliantly controverted are pushed back, as it were, by a powerful beam of artificial light, but they gather and exert their pressure on the borders of the poem. Indeed, if the pressure were not there and felt, the poems would lack their occasion and would be deprived of a necessary dimension of meaning." (120)
25 Threshold 14, Number 1
Stein adds that his distinction between the rudimentary and the more fully developed binary forms is for the most part quantitative. It follows that, whenever the opposition is more than a stationary pressure which suggests movement only by its implied reaction to the monologue of the poem, whenever the opposition can move by itself and can therefore develop, this movement must occur within the poem. Donne can invest implied movement with surprising significance, and one cannot impose this distinction without some care. However, the degree of conflicting movement and development within a poem provides the best way of recognizing the characteristics of
binary form.
Threshold
References:
Baumlin, James, S. John Donne and the Rhetorics of Renaissance Discourse. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991.
Docherty, T. John Donne, Undone. London and New York: Methuen, 1986.
Egan, Kieran. Teaching as Storytelling. Routledge: 1988.
Fetzer, Margret. John Donne's Performance: Sermons, Poems, Letters, and Devotions. Manchester University Press, 2010.
Guibbory, Achsah. "John Donne". The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry: Donne to Marvell. Ed. Thomas N. Corns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993: 123-147.
Redpath, Theodore. The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. Britain: Cambridge, 1976.
Stein, Arnold. John Donne's Lyrics: The Eloquence of Action. Minneapolis: Minnesota University. 1962.
27 Threshold 14, Number 1
Cinema and Literature
Threshold
See
By Somayeh Aali, MA Student, Khatam University
‘See’ is a series starring Jason Momoa. If you want to know more about it, read this article. The rank in IMDb is 7.7 which means it is among the best. The screenwriter is Steven Knight, and it is directed by Francis Lawrence. The genre is post-apocalyptic in which after the end of the world, there were a few people, and now, after some generations, we face this group of people who are living all together. In this world, because of the events of apocalypse, everybody is blind, and their offspring are blind too. So, the ability of ‘vision’ is considered as a taboo, and those people who see a danger are labeled as witches, and there is no other way but to murder them to save the others. Among them, there is a woman who has given birth to twins, and they have the ability of vision, and their biological father has this ability too. The best conflict in the series is a clash between this biological father and baba Voss, who brings them up. The biological father named Jerlamarel was mostly absent, but once, he came and asked the mother to give the children books to
29 Threshold 14, Number 1 learn literacy when they turn 15. It is interesting that the books they read are masterpieces of literature like Nineteen Eighty-Four. Then you see that these children with the ability of vision try to act like the blind ones in the tribe in order not to be recognized by others, even though they learn with their eyes, and they are not that much powerful without them. But those who are blind of vision are capable of doing anything in life while their only wish is to see, the useless ability.
Jerlamarel in a letter asks the twins to join him in an unknown place where little by little gets clear. So, at the age of 17, they go to this unknown trip. When they reach the place, they see they are not the only ones who can see. Jerlamarel has some other children who are all sighted. But he doesn’t care about his spouses or the other people in the tribe who have protected his children. The turning point is here, when you know that whatever you thought was not true, and the truth is something else. From another angle, so much attention is paid to the role of the father. And the value of the real family gets clear, those who are always worried about you and sacrifice their Threshold
youth and everything for you. In my point of view, this is the best series in which Jason Momoa has appeared. The setting is in the jungle and it reminds you of all kinds of series played in this setting like Lost and The Hundred. The need for living is the same, searching for shelter and something edible and far from the civilization. I say to all of my friends, ‘See’ is a must-see.
I don’t want to spoil the movie, but don’t lose the chance of watching this masterpiece. And as you probably know due to the coronavirus pandemic, just one season is shot and released.
Reference:
See. Directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Steven Knight, Performances by Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Yadira Guevara-Prip, Nesta Cooper, and Sylvia Hoeks. Original release on November 1, 2019.
31 Threshold 14, Number 1
Vafa Keshavarzi: Reading Andrei Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia
Turning the Foreign land into Homeland, Nostalghia: A Requiem for the Dusking Patriarchy
I read the film as a desire for homecoming, a home that is the realm of the mother, a nostalgia for the motherland. Andrei Tarkovsky dedicates the film to the spirit of his mother, an old sacrificial mother whose sole aim of creation is to "give birth to children and bring them up with tolerance and self-sacrifice" (Tarkovsky). The same adjectives are used to refer to Saint Mary in the film mother of Jesus Christ. They are very revealing since they display the nature of the desired conception of woman as a mother "you: the great mother, the kind one, the tormented mother, the wishful mother, the blessed, the loving, the wounded, the holy, the pure mother, the mother who knows all the pains of mothering and all the joys of mothering ('T'arkovsky).
The film starts with the scene when three women with a child and their dog descend from a hill in the mist, a Threshold
metaphor for the theme of the whole movie, the descent of woman from its traditional ideal place of self-sacrifice into liberation which is considered to be a separation, a separation, a disintegration from the One. “The One that when added to another One remains One, a bigger One, but still One” ('T'arkovsky), a madman who is directly united with the god and subordinates the will of every individual member of his family into his own will, the will of a dictator disguised as a savior. Andrei Gorchakov's fragmented character which is oscillating between a yearning for Russia, his homeland and a force to stay in Italy, a foreign land, dissolves into the character of mad Domenico. Andrei must follow his path and keep Domenico's candle lighted. Both men seek to yoke an internal fragmentation by means of forcing an outside unification. The madman imprisons his wife and children to save them against the apocalyptic visions that are the product of his tormented mind while the priest sets his aim to save Eugine's soul by making her kneel in front of the statue of Saint Mary, a female icon much abused to serve the ideology of male domination.
33 Threshold 14, Number 1
In the film, the picture of the homeland and that of the holy mother and the begetter of children are synchronically united to the picture of the woman as mother, away from the picture of the new woman whose representative is the liberated Eugine, a woman who does not condescend to the old conception of womanhood and thus does not kneel to the old icon. By the end of the movie one question is left unanswered. "Why is it only women who cry and pray? Because women are stronger believers than men" as the movie implies? If so, should Andrei go back to his homeland, to the land that everybody behaves like a devoted mother and there is no Eugine or should he stay in exile and carry the cross and shoulder the burden of belief on behalf of all men who have lost their old belief in the traditional conception of woman and he alone lead the crusade of the madman, Domenico and keep his candle lighted in a foreign land and make Italy his homeland?
Reference:
Nostalehia. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, screenplay co-written with Tonino Guerra, Performances by Oleg Threshold
Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano, and Erland Josephson, 1983.
35 Threshold 14, Number 1
Interview
Threshold
Interview with Mr. Azim Zarrin Koob
Interviewer: Anahit Afjool Threshold: Dear Mr. Zarrinkoob thank you for accepting this interview with Threshold journal from Shahid Beheshti University. We are all aware of the great position of your brother, Dr. Abdol Hossein Zarrin Koob, in the literature world, but how a little boy from Lorestan province became the great Dr. Zarrin Koob, is a lot less spoken about. Would you please elaborate on this a little?
37 Threshold 14, Number 1
Mr. Zarrin Koob:
Hello and good evening to you. Our ancestors were originally from Khansar and Isfahan but they migrated to Boroujerd in Lorestan province. Dr. Zarrin Koob was born in Boroujerd, in March 1923, and until his death, he always kept the love for his birth town. After finishing elementary school, he had to migrate to Tehran; because there was no high school in Boroujerd. In high school, he chose to study literature as his major and when he was 18, he got his diploma in literature and came back to Boroujerd. At the age of 18, he was able to speak English and French fluently and when he came back, he started to teach in Boroujerd and Khorram Abad's high schools. He almost taught every able course at that time, including literature, history, geography, etc.
In 1945, he got the first place in the university entrance exam and he started his studies in Threshold
literature at the faculty of literature at the University of Teheran. He got his license in 1948 and he entered the Ph.D. course of literature a year after, with the highest scores. He defended his doctoral dissertation on literary criticism under Dr. Badiozaman Frouzanfar's supervision. In 1956, Dr. Frouzanfar invited him to take a teaching position at the University of Tehran as an associate professor. He taught the history of Iran, the history of Islam, and the history of Sufism. Until 1968, he continued teaching at various places. The University of Tehran, Faculty of dramatic Arts, and the University of Higher Education were among them. In the same year, he got invited to teach at the University of California and Princeton University. For two years, he taught the history of Iran and the history of Sufism there. In 1970, he came back to Iran and shortly after, he got invited to teach literature and history, so he began teaching at the University of Tehran
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until 1978. At that time he retired himself because of severe heart disease. In his years of retirement, he welcomed his university students to his house and they could go for asking questions and guidance. From 1973 to 1975 he went to France and he wrote the 2-volume book Ser-e-Nei about Rumi's Masnavi. After 2 years of being in France, he came back to Iran and began teaching at the University of Tehran. Dr. Zarrin Koob spent most of his life in Iran and he never thought of immigrating to another country. He only traveled for giving speeches and teaching in universities. As he always said, all his efforts were devoted to Iranians and Iranian culture and history. Until his last years, he tried his best to show our brilliant history and literature to the world by contributing to various congresses and speeches all around the world. In 1998 he had to travel to America for treatment of the heart disease that he was suffering from. Unfortunately, he couldn't survive the disease and he passed away on September 15th, 1999. In Threshold
his lifetime, he wrote more than 70 books and 500 articles in different languages about poetry, literature, and history; but sadly, many of his artworks are missed and lost nowadays. Threshold: Was Dr. Zarrinkoob interested in history and literature since childhood, or did it arise as a result of the passage of time and acquaintance with different people and literary environments? Mr. Zarrinkoob: Dr. Zarrinkoob got acquainted with Khayyam, Saadi, Hafez, and Ferdowsi at the age of 12-13. It was for Shahnameh that he become interested in history and got involved in it. Our father had meetings with his friends in which all were supposed to read a book, such as Shahnameh, Rumi, Hafez, and then they would discuss it, and Dr. Zarrin Koob was interested in participating in these discussions from his childhood and participated regularly. Threshold:
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We are all aware of Dr.'s literary talent in the field of Persian literature and the history of Iran and Islam. In addition to the above, was he interested in Western literature and English history and literature? If so, what was his view of English and Persian literature? Mr. Zarrinkoob: Yes. He was familiar with 7 languages and English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish were some of these languages and he taught in different countries and used them in his research. On the culture and richness of our language, he always said that it gave light to the world, and Western literature in many cases is driven by our literature. All his efforts were to help and keep this culture alive for the world.
Threshold: What would you say to describe his morality in one sentence? As his brother, did you ever notice a change in Dr. Zarrinkoob's behavior and character after achieving success? Threshold
Mr. Zarrinkoob: Dr. Zarrinkoob was a moralistic human being even before he was a scientist and he said that a human being must have humanity before any knowledge. He loved his students and helped them as much as he could, and they were as his children and first and foremost he was a moral teacher to them. He always talked to commons as one talk to a professor (a highly educated person), and he said "I have studied for humans and human history and culture with passion not to boast. Threshold: Is there anything else you would like to share with us? Mr. Zarrinkoob: Never forget about wisdom, ethics, and education. Nothing is higher than humanity, morality, and respect for others, especially towards your parents. When you become a real human and achieve humanity, nothing can ever change you.
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Threshold: As the final words, what was the doctor's recommendation to the literature admirers and literature students? Mr. Zarrinkoob: Their advice has always been to be an honorable person and to study and pursue science in life and do not wait for something to be taught to you. Be a seeker yourself and you should not be content with the degrees you get. Studying is the only way to achieve this goal. The class and the university do not give much to the student, and one himself must seek science in various libraries and courses and try to learn from the surroundings all the time. Threshold: Thank you very much for taking the time to interview with us. Threshold wishes you health and good times.
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Lyrics Training App Review Fahimeh Baghery, Mona Sarkheil MA students, Shahid Beheshti University [email protected] [email protected]
Abstract Music is a rich source of authentic aural input frequently underused in the world language classroom. More than engaging background noise, the artistic usage of language found in the lyrics can provide a powerful teaching tool. This research supports the claim that music is “a means of lowering anxiety and diminishing tension, and including the state of relaxed alertness considered optional of second language acquisition.” (Krashen 145). The power of music truly lies in its integration into instructional tasks. Songs provide a unique text and context for language and culture learning. They are short, repetitive, rhythmic, catchy, authentic and engaging. Generally, they tend to tell a short story which limits them to some degree to a specific grammatical tense. These characteristics are suited for integration into instructional tasks. Threshold
Lyricstraining.com is a free website that pairs music videos with their lyrics to engage students through karaoke-style presentations of the captioned music videos, fill in the blank or multiple choice comprehension activities of varying difficulties. Research and theory have linked engaging students with song-based instructional tasks to the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures; improved listening comprehension ability; enhanced cultural awareness; and increased interest and motivation of learning a second language (Brown, 2006; Lems,2001; Medina, 2002; Saglam,2010; Ward, 1991). Lyricstraining.com is an excellent tool for enhancing the use of music in the world language classroom through technology. Media/Application Details Publisher: Elasthink Language(s): 13 languages including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish Level: 4 different levels including: beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert Media format: repository, website Hardware requirements: computers or laptops, smartphones Price: Free Introduction
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Listening comprehension is one of the most neglected skills in English language teaching (Nation & Newton, 2009). Listening activities are hard due to some factors which Nunan mentioned such as characteristics of the speaker (accent, pronunciation, tone, voice, etc.), the role of the listener, the content of the activity and the aids provided for the activity. Listening is not only hearing attentively. Hearing, according to Linse and Nunan (2005), involves only the perception and processing of sounds, not comprehension. Ur (1986) mentions that understanding intonation and stress, coping with redundancy and noise, predicting, understanding colloquial vocabulary and understanding different accents improve the chances of obtaining correct information from a message. In order to speak a language, we need to listen to that language. We learn to listen in our mother tongue language unconsciously; however, in second language, learners must learn some useful strategies to do that. As outlined by Krashen’s i+1 hypothesis, teachers should give learners many opportunities for comprehensible input materials which must be engaging, interesting and accessible to all learners. In language teaching, we have extensive listening (EL) and intensive listening (IL). EL can be defined as learners do a great deal of comprehensible, easy, accessible and enjoyable listening (Chang and Millett, 2014). IL on the other hand, as its name suggests is more focused and brings the students’ attention to differences in sound, structure and lexical Threshold
choices (Rost, 2011). Harmer (2012) stated that, extensive listening should be enjoyable and at a level that the students can understand 95% of what they are hearing. Some years ago, it was not usual to use technology in language classroom, but these days the role of using technology is unavoidable due to the growth of computer applications, communications technologies and open- access information available on the Internet. Using technology helps learners to become autonomous. A computer with Internet connection is everything a student needs to practice the listening skill. One of the advantages is the freedom that each learner has to choose what to practice, when and where. As Harmer mentioned, the freedom to choose can be a strong motivation for learners. Also due to the access to mobile playback devices, like MP3 and MP4 players at low costs, learners have more access to these materials. Using videos in the teaching and learning process makes the learning environment more motivating, encouraging, and interesting. Also in this situation teachers can be facilitator, organizer, mentor, assistant, observer, or lecturer. One of the most recognizable and widely used resources on the web is YouTube. Lyrics Training (htt://www.lyricstraining.com) seems to be the first language learning website which realizes the popularity of songs and uses them in an educational context. According to Harmer, “the most difficult part of
49 Threshold 14, Number 1 selecting songs for educational purposes is to know what songs are both meaningful and pleasant for students” (320).
Description Lyrics Training (www.LyricsTraining.com) is a website (Web 2.0) which makes use of material available to language learners (Mills, 2010). Users can simply make use of it through the website or they can download it in Google Play or App Store. It contains music videos as well as their transcripts in order to help users practice listening through songs and games by completing the lyrics of each song. The game is in gap filling order and when the users answer them correctly, they will gain some points which will be saved for them. Using songs in class may help students to learn new vocabularies, remember grammar structures, and practice pronunciations. Lyrics Training is a website that allows language learners to access authentic, current, and interesting materials (Mills, 2010). Lyrics Training is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills through the music videos and lyrics of your favorite songs (lyrics Training website, 2012). The songs are presented in 13 different languages such as English, Spanish, French, Italian and etc., but the vast majority of them are in English. Also, it has four different levels of proficiency (beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert), based on the speed Threshold
of the song, vocabulary level and how clearly it can be heard. Users can search the songs by their singers, genres, or song name. As you can see below, when users select their songs, there are two different games mode. They can choose Karaoke, in which the song will be played with its complete lyrics. And the other option is multiple choice. In this part they have to choose their level. For beginner level, around 20% of the text is blank, intermediate around 40% blank text, advanced around 70% blank text and expert mode with 100% blank text. When they start playing, they need to complete gap filling and video will stop if they cannot fill a gap. Also if they are too slow, they have to restart the activity. After they complete the task, Lyrics Training automatically gives them a score based on the time and the number of the correct answers. In order to keep your progress, you can create free account. Gap-filling exercises in this website are an ideal way to improve listening sub-skills because these types of exercises require students to collaborate, pay attention, and analyze information to fill in missing information. Gap filling exercises used in this website consist of two modes, writing mode, and choice mode. Each mode will help students practice listening sub- skills such as listening for gist, listening for specific information and listening in detail. Listening for gist is when we listen to something to get a general idea of
51 Threshold 14, Number 1 what it is about, of what is being said. We do not want or need to understand every word. Listening for specific information is when we listen to something because we want to discover a particular piece of information. We know in advance what we are hoping to find out. We can ignore other information which does not interest us. Listening in detail is when we listen very closely, pay attention to all the words, and try to understand as much information as possible.
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Karaoke version Threshold
Multiple choice version Evaluation Advantages
As we know, listening comprehension activities help students to improve their pronunciation. In this app, because of accessing the lyrics of a song which is being played along with the music, learners can hear what a word sounds like and improve their pronunciation by listening to native people’s pronunciation. The materials are authentic, current, and interesting. Users can adjust content to their ability level due to categorized gap filling exercises in various difficulty levels. Videos can help users to become more motivated and also it increases their comprehension of the listening task. Feedback is provided immediately with an easy to understand scoring system. This information can
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also motivate users since they can see their progress. Users can choose their favorite videos among wide variety of songs, artists, and genres. The site is free to use and doesn’t require registration.
Disadvantages
Drawing leaners' attention to form is one of the important matters in using different materials. As in songs we have some reduction such as wanna and gonna, it may be confusing for beginners. However, this can be solved by providing a reference section or glossary that highlights these forms. It provides language learners with a wonderful resource but only uses them for gap-filling exercises. It will be a good idea to give additional ways to use the materials. Threshold
There is no section for the learners to discuss a song’s meaning or chat about their favorite artist. Only members can play songs as many times as they wish, but nonmember users can play each song 3 times in a row. As it gets songs from YouTube, Iranian users must use VPN in order to listen to them.
Conclusion Many people enjoy playing games and singing songs. Different studies prove that singing in a foreign language has benefits in language acquisition, vocabulary, pronunciation, memory recall and cultural appreciation. In some studies which the focus was on word learning, the results confirmed that word learning performance rate was the highest for the group of users who were exposed to continuous singing with a constant mapping between syllable-pitch; thereby, it proves the claim that linguistic and music mapping enhances the performance and learning outcomes. Lyrics Training can be particularly useful to teachers looking for a fun and entertaining way to teach new words and help students improve their listening comprehension. Lyrics Training can solve the problems commonly regarding listening. If teachers become registered members, they can make their own exercise whether using their own videos or some available on the site.
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Based on the discussion before, it can be concluded that the use of Lyrics Training website can help teacher and student in improving listening comprehension. Through song it can help the student to understand the pronunciation and learn how to pronounce it. Movie and cut-scene will assist students to know stress word in a sentence that can help students to identify words when listening. Listening and repeating the videos will contribute to having a better understanding upon the speaker’s intonation. It is important in listening because it will help to guide students through the speaker's intended meaning. Listening to hip-hop song with a lyric will make a perfect practice for students who want to know about reduced forms. Knowing how to translate reduced phrases to grammatically correct word combinations can be the key to listening comprehension. Vast amount of materials available make a good guide to the world of accent that the native speakers use. Accent is important because in listening comprehension test speaker’s accent might be in the way for clueless student. Gap-filling exercises in this website are an ideal way to improve listening sub-skills as they practice each mode by helping students practice listening subskills such as listening for gist, listening for specific information and listening for detail.
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References Azhari, O. & Adnan, A. (2018). “The Use of Lyrics Training Website to Improve Student’s Listening Comprehension in Senior High School”. Journal of English Language Teaching, 7 (3).
Borromeo García, C.A. (2012). The Use of Lyrics Training Website to Improve Listening Comprehension Diss. Universidad Veracruz Ana, Mexico. Borromeo García, C.A. (2015). “The Use of Lyrics Training Website to Improve Listening Comprehension”. MEXTESOL Journal, 39 (3). Floris, F.D. (2014). ‘’Does Technology Promote Second Language Learning?” Seminar Nasional Pengajaran Bahasa Dalam Perspektif Lintas Budaya, Jakarta, 2014. Ivanovska, L. (2018). “Digital Listening Tools in ESL Classroom”. TREND, 21. Murad, D., Wang, R., Turnbull, D. & Wang, Y. (2018). “A Karaoke Application to Enhance Foreign Language Learning”. 26th ACM international conference on Multimedia, Seoul, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1145/3240508.3240691 Mills, D.J. (2010). “Lyrics Training”. TESL-EJ, 14 (2). Morrish, J. (2018). “Increasing Students’ Vocabulary through Comprehensible Input using Extensive Listening Sources”. English Teachers' Seminar, 1, 1-17.
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Surveying Neo-liberalism in ELT Textbooks: The Case of Solution Series
Payam Latifi & Hastie Vosough (MA students in TEFL)1 Department of Foreign Languages, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran
Abstract Recently, ideology in materials development has received renewed attention. Notably, as a matter of debate in the world of today, neo-liberalism has recently been turning into an attention-drawer phenomenon. Considering the fact that the concept is slippery, it is originally characterized as “a political project for the reconstruction of society in accord with the demands of and unrestrained global capitalism” (Fairclough 1). Neoliberalism can be distinguished in different frames, highlighting various ideological tenets, including consumerism and branding, competition, individualism, money-related ideas, constant concern for profit-making and productivity, and calculation of loss and gain. The empirical examination of this newcomer has recently been documented (see Babaii
1 The authors contributed equally to this work. The order of authorship was determined by the alphabetical order of the first letter of their last names. Threshold
& Sheikhi, 2017). Adhering to critical discourse analysis, the research results indicate that neoliberal tenets are notably represented in the corpus. The most highly represented neoliberalism tenets are related in ELT materials, especially Solutions Series (published by Oxford University Press). This research indicates that tenets related to marketing, consumerism and branding, and money-related decision making and advice comprise the highest rate. Keywords: Ideology, neoliberalism, Material Development, ELT Textbook, Solutions Series, mixed methods
Introduction In today’s world, the term “neoliberalism” has become a broad matter of debate. Although it is difficult to define the term precisely, Fairclough (2000) defines neoliberalism as a political project with the purpose of reconstructing the society in parallel with conducting the ideologies of global capitalism. A vast part of neoliberalism is related to marketing and money matters. Harvey highlights neoliberalism as “a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade” (2). Having a
61 Threshold 14, Number 1 close look, consumerism and branding, competition, individualism, money matters, constant concern for profit-making and productivity, monetary calculation of loss and gain, multiculturalism, and intertextuality, are all considered as tenets of neoliberalism (see Babaii & Sheikhi, 2017). Due to the huge role played by educational contexts in framing mindsets in society, an eye-catching and suitable environment comes into existence for those in favor of neoliberalism. With the presence of numerous factors of use (e.g. immigration, international business and trades, global communication, etc.), English has become the primary international language and creates a huge demand for English courses and students and consequently educational materials. One of the key material types considered as the main source during the learning period is the textbook. There are numerous ELT publications worldwide, which can be divided into two main categories: international publications, and local publications. Currently, in the market, textbooks published by the first category are more commonly taught. Since culture and language are married concepts, textbooks instinctively become operative tools to plant ideologies (in)directly. It is vital to pay more attention to the materials provided for teenagers due to the mental states of this group, whereas they are possibly more vulnerable than other age groups. The aim of this study is to reveal neoliberalism traces in Solutions series (published by Oxford University Threshold
Press) which is commonly taught to teenagers in English private centers and institutes in Iran. The corpus of this study is the first 5 units of the solutions intermediate coursebook which consists of units I.,1,2,3, and 4 (up to page 51). For serving the purpose of uncovering the cultural and social argumentations, and the ideological aspects of neoliberalism, texts and images are explored instrumenting CDA and MDA approaches. Methodology For scrutinizing the traces of neoliberalism in the Solutions textbook designed for intermediate learners, we adopted Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) approaches. We hired Fairclough’s framework to meet the objectives of the critical discourse analysis stage. According to Fairclough (1998), Critical Discourse Analysis is an approach to language which looks at it as ''a form of social practice''. He believes that there are three main constraints, possible to be executed by people in power over powerless individuals, namely contents, relations, and subjects. Additionally, Hodge & Kress (1993) state that CDA is ''to read the traces and effects of power in language and discourse in text and syntax''. Simply put, in critical discourse analysis, we tend to target ‘why questions’ rather than narrowly interpreting the words at the surface level; since CDA looks at sentences in a deeper layer and tries to unleash the meaning behind the words.
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In Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), the attention is drawn towards the visual aspects of a text, picture, video, etc. Similar to CDA, MDA cracks and uncovers the ideology behind the surface of visual data. Multimodality refers to the interplay between different representational modes (e.g. between images and written/spoken words). “Multimodal representations mediate the sociocultural ways in which these modes are combined in the communication process” (Kress & Van Leeuwen 20). This study is operated in two phases: quantitative and qualitative. In the quantitative phase, the frequency of classifications of topics and relations are calculated to represent a bird-eye view of the corpus followed by the qualitative phase in which the items found in the aforesaid book are analyzed scrupulously. Results Quantitative Analysis The subsequent tables represent the diversity of topics, contents, and subject positions in the mentioned corpus. As can be seen, in Table 1, accommodation comprises the highest rate of appearance which refers to the marketing tenet of neoliberalism.
Subject Frequency Percentage Accommodation 5 14.70 Science 4 11.76 Threshold
Family 3 8.82 Ages and Stages 2 5.88 Hobbies 2 5.88 Human Body 2 5.88 Leisure Time 2 5.88 Activities Movies 2 5.88 School 2 5.88 Sports 2 5.88 Art 1 2.94 Foods 1 2.94 Friends 1 2.94 Generation Gap 1 2.94 Holiday 1 2.94 Homelessness 1 2.94 Human Emotions 1 2.94 Studying Abroad 1 2.94 TOTAL 34
Table 1. Classification of topics
Based on the empirical found data illustrated in Table 2, friend-friend relation type has the highest occurrence rate. Consequently, tenets of neoliberalism can be notably distinguished.
Relation Frequency Percentage Friend-Friend 9 45
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Citizens 2 10 Classmates 2 10 Customer Service 2 10 Provider Family Members 2 10 Interviewer- 2 10 Interviewee Audience 1 5 Total 20
Table 2. classification of relations
Gleaned from the quantification of the neoliberal tenets in the corpus, consumerism and branding, and money matters obtain the highest rate of presence (Table 3).
Neoliberalism Tenet Frequency Percentage Consumerism and 6 24.96 Branding Money matters 6 24.96 Calculation of Loss 4 16.64 and Gain Intertextuality 4 16.64 Concern for Profit- 2 8.32 Making Individualism 2 8.32 Multiculturalism 0 0 TOTAL 24
Table 3. Neoliberalism tenets Threshold
Our quantitative analysis revealed the presence of neoliberal tenets in the corpus. In order to have an in- depth examination of neoliberalism, we qualitatively analyzed the excerpts and images bearing ideological purposes in the corpus.
Qualitative Analysis Having reached solid evidence confirming the presence of neoliberalism in the corpus (by conducting the quantitative phase), we moved to the qualitative step to analyze the findings so as to gain a deeper ideological concept.
Image 1 (Unit 2, Page 22) Image 2 (Unit 2, Page 22)
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EXCERPT 1
Mike Fountaine has the world’s largest collection of McDonald’s memorabilia. The sixty-year-old McDonald’s employee has spent almost fifty years collecting everything to do with the fast-food restaurant. He has already filled nine rooms of his house with 75,000 objects, including toys, badges, cups and uniforms!
Mike has been at McDonald’s since 1968. His first job was cooking Big Macs. A year later he began collecting badges, and he hasn’t stopped since! A few years ago, Mike opened his own McDonald’s restaurant. He has decorated it with memorabilia. ‘People say it’s the most beautiful McDonald’s restaurant they’ve ever seen.’ Says Mike proudly. (Unit 2, Page 22) EXCERPT 2
Jian Yang is in his thirties and collects dolls. So far, he ____ (spent) twenty years and over £250,000 on his collection, which includes 6,000 barbie dolls. The young man from Singapore ____ (start) collecting Barbie dolls when he ____ (be) just thirteen. The first doll he ____ (buy) was the ‘Great Shape’ model in a gym outfit and leg warmers. Jian buys dolls when he travels for work and ____ (purchase) 65 dolls on his last trip to New York. A while ago, a girlfriend ____(walk out) on him because of his hobby. Apparently, Threshold
she ____ (feel) threatened by his collection. Jian ____ (find) that worrying, but now he accepts it. Another problem is space: he ____ already almost ____ (fill) his house. So he ____ ever ____ (think) about stopping? No. If he runs out of space, he says, he’ll buy the house next door! (Unit 2, Page 22) From the authors’ point of view, excerpts/images 1 and 2 could be samples of consumerism and branding, since, in the mentioned paragraphs, collecting McDonald’s memorabilia and Barbie dolls is pictured more significant than a person’s real life or his family and friends.
EXCERPT 3
Agent Good morning. What can I ____ for you?
Woman Can I ask you about that amazing house that’s built on a cliff?
Agent Yes, of course. You can ____ a look at some more pictures on my computer.
Woman Amazing! Are there any pictures of the inside?
Agent Yes – and they’re just as impressive. ____ this one, for example. Look at the view from that sofa!
Woman I love it. Can I ____ an appointment to look around?
Agent I’m afraid you can’t ____ that. The house doesn’t exist yet! You need to choose a location first. But the house would only ____ twelve weeks to build, according to Modscape, the company that supplies them.
Woman I see. I need to find somewhere soon, so I’ll have to ____ up my mind quickly.
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Agent Can I ask what you ____?
Woman I’m a yoga teacher.
Agent Where do you teach?
Woman At the local sports centre. But if I moved to a bigger house, I’d want to ____ one room into a studio.
Agent Well, this house would be a great place to ____ yoga! Just ____ your yoga mat outside onto the cliff. Imagine the sunrise over the waves, the solitude …
Woman I suppose you would be alone there … except for all the people who stop to ____ photos of your house! (Unit 4, Page 47) Additionally, consumerism and branding can be seen in excerpt 3 due to picturing a luxurious architecture company called Modscape, referring to the supplied buildings using words and phrases such as amazing, impressive, great, and a place for people to take photos of.
EXCERPT 4 My brother, who is ___ accountant with one of ___ largest companies in London, earns £100 ___ hour. (Unit I, Page 7) In excerpt 4, an exaggerated amount of money an accountant earns in London is mentioned which can draw the reader’s attention to money matters.
EXCERPT 5
Do you think money can make people happy? Why? / why not? (Unit 3, Page 35) Threshold
In addition, excerpt 5 which is a speaking topic, leads the students to talk about how money can affect one’s happiness.
EXCERPT 6 Unfortunately, my parents don’t earn much / many money, so we can’t afford to move. (Unit 4, Page 43) In excerpt 6, the money matter tenet of neoliberalism can be distinguished, since the child directly points at the amount of money his parents earn as the main reason for not being able to live in a better condition.
EXCERPT 7 In the following excerpt (7), it is suggested that in case of not having enough money, it is acceptable to break the law if self-benefit is the concern. This can be a solid instance of the profit-making tenet of neoliberalism.
Mom I ____ opposite the palace cinema when I was 10.
Alice ____ you ____ there often?
Mom Yes. But we ____. It wasn’t our fault! – we ____ any money for tickets.
Alice So how did you get in?
Mum We ____ outside the fire exit and run in when somebody opened it!
Alice I can’t believe you ____ that! You’re always telling me how important it is to be honest!
Mum Well, yes. I ____ very naughty. But I grew out of it. (Unit 1, Page 12)
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EXCERPT 8
Leah what are you up to at ____ weekend, Toby?
Toby I’m going to go for ____ bike ride on Saturday. Do you fancy coming too?
Leah I can’t, I’m afraid. I’m going to help my dad with some gardening. We are going to do some work for a neighbour.
Toby That doesn’t sound like ____ best way to spend your weekend. Gardening ____ hard work! And according to the forecast, ____ weather isn’t going to be good.
Leah I know. But ____ neighbour is going to pay us for it. And my dad’s ____ gardener, so he’s got all the right tools.
Toby Really? I’ll come and help you. I mean, if that’s okay with you and your dad …
Leah Sure. We’ll share ____ money with you: £10 ____ hour. But what about ____ bike ride?
Toby I’ll go on Sunday instead. The weather will probably be better then. Do you want to come?
Leah Yes, please. I love ____ bike rides. But let’s go in ____ afternoon. I’ll be exhausted when I wake up! (Unit I, Page 7) Along with the calculation of loss and gain, seeking for self-profit, in excerpt 7, money is given a prior role to make decisions.
EXCERPT 9 In the next excerpt, money and luxurious accommodation are framed as the desirable dream one could follow, which authors categorize as consumerism and money matters. Threshold
Also, individualism could be revealed from the sentences “If it were my house, I wouldn't allow people to visit.”, and “You’d get bored on your own.”
Alfie This is an amazing place. I wish I lived here.
Macy Me too. If only I were a member of the Howard family!
Alfie But if it were my house, I wouldn't allow people to visit.
Macy That's mean! You'd get bored on your own.
Alfie Oh, I'd let my friends visit, of course. But not the public.
Macy If you had a party, you could invite hundreds of people!
Alfie I know. The parties would be better if I made a few changes, though.
Macy What kind of changes?
Alfie Well, if those trees weren't there, there'd be room for a swimming pool!
Macy You could make some changes inside as well. I mean, look at this corridor.
Alfie The Antique Passage, you mean?
Macy Yes. If you took away all the statues, you could build a great bowling alley there! (Unit 4, Page 46) EXCERPT 10
A I wish my dad ____ (come) home.
B Why?
A Because he ____ (give) us a lift into town if he ____ (be) here.
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A If only you ____ (live) near the town centre.
B Why?
A Because if your house ____ (be) near the centre, we ____ (get) the same bus to school.
A I wish my parents’ friends ____ (leave).
B why?
A Because if they ____ (not be) in the house, we ____ (can) turn the music up to full volume! (Unit 4, Page 46) Above, profit-making and individualism are put into work through a second conditional grammar exercise. Intertextuality in neoliberalism appears when there is an interconnection between two or more separate texts or activities which leads the reader’s mind to a specific ideology which in this case is to what extent teenagers have disagreements and problems with the parents. Excerpts 11 to 15 and image 3 form the most noticeable sample group in our corpus about this notion. EXCERPT 11
Do you sometimes argue with your parents? What do you argue about, and why? Use the ideas below to help you. bedtime clothes going out with friends homework housework staying up late using computers or tablets (Unit 1, Page 14) EXCERPT 12 Threshold
Parents may find it difficult to understand their adolescent children, but it is a parent's duty to communicate properly with them and avoid arguments. (Unit 1, Page 14)
Image 3 (Unit 1, Page 14)
EXCERPT 13
FREEDOM You may not want to spend as much time with your parents as you used to. You want more freedom to choose who you see and when. You may feel that your friends are as important to you as your family. PRIVACY You used to be most happy in the company of your parents. 2 ___ You need your own space and some privacy. INTERESTS You have new interests and they might include activities that your parents do not understand or think are a waste of time, such as playing computer games or chatting on the internet. DECISIONS In the past, your parents made most decisions for you and told you what to do. 3___ You may resent them telling you to go to bed, tidy your bedroom, or come home by ten o'clock. OPINIONS When you were younger, you didn't have many strong opinions. 4___ Adolescents are often idealistic and feel impatient
75 Threshold 14, Number 1 and at odds with the adult world. You may feel that you have all the answers, while many adults don't have any! […] (Unit 1, Page 14) EXCERPT 14
A They may not say so, but they are probably feeling a sense of loss and may even feel rejected by you. B Your parents will expect you to behave responsibly. C But now you want to decide things for yourself and don't want to be told what to do all the time. D As your body changes, you also begin to think and feel differently. E Despite this, you should always listen carefully. F Now you are beginning to see the world differently, developing your own views and your own sense of right and wrong. G Now you probably want to spend more time on your own. (Unit 1, Page 15) EXCERPT 15
The older generation seem to have chosen to forget so much about their past. It is obvious to a teenager that their parents must have made some mistakes in their youth, disagreed with their parents, listened to the 'wrong' music, or made the 'wrong' friends. But it is rare to find a parent who admits to it. A Parents expect too much perfection from teens. B Teens are unable to see a parent's point of view. C Parents frustrate teens by denying their past. D Teens should admit their mistakes to their parents. (Unit 1, Page 18) Conclusion After conducting the quantitative and qualitative phases of the study, we concluded that consumerism and branding, individualism, concern for profit-making, Threshold
monetary calculation of loss and gain, money matters, and intertextuality, seemed to be present in the corpus. Findings indicated that neoliberal tenets appeared to be intentionally represented in the corpus, although being well-buried. Gray (2012) argues to what extent the UK ELT industry can play the role of a culture industry, publishing standardized textbooks with the purpose of global marketing (Bakshi, 2016). As mentioned earlier, neoliberal tenets could affect the learners’ mindfulness while the content in the textbooks is not completely neutral in ideologies. Scrupulously analyzing, the findings revealed that consumerism and branding, and money matters, take the highest range of occurrence among all neoliberal tenets. According to Macrine (2016), for producing subjectivities, desires, and modes of identification in order to legitimize and functionalize a neoliberal society, educating people worldwide has become a major tool. With the vast demand for learning other languages, publishers may be in favor of influencing English language learners’ mindsets in developing countries for profitable reasons. Since English is the most common and
77 Threshold 14, Number 1 popular for language learners due to the possibility for them to become more competitive and marketable (Berststein et al., 2015), English textbooks are highly capable of conforming to neoliberal ideologies, and as for ELT publishers “perform the ideological task of reinforcing the link between English and professional success” (Gray 94). Having that in mind, it is a must-do for EFL/ESL teachers to advance in critical thinking and developing and designing neutralizing materials. References Babaii, E., & Sheikhi, M. (2017). Traces of Neoliberalism in English Teaching Materials: a critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2017.1398671 Bakshi, P. (2016). Neoliberalism and Applied Linguistics, by Block, D., Gray, J., & Holborow, M.. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 15:5, 321- 324. DOI: 10.1080/15348458.2016.1214588 Bernstein, K. A., Hellmich, E. A., Katznelson, N., Shin, J., & Vinall, K. (2015). Introduction to Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Neoliberalism in Second / Foreign Language Education. L2 Journal, 7(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/L27327672 Threshold
Block, D., Gray, J., & Holborow, M. (2012). Neoliberalism and applied linguistics. London, UK: Routledge. Fairclough, N. (1998). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. New York, NY: Longman. Fairclough, N. (2000). Language and Neo-Liberalism. Discourse & Society, 11(2), 147–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926500011002001 Falla, T., & Davies, P. A. (2017). Solutions: Intermediate. London, UK: Oxford University Press. Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. London, UK: Oxford University Press. Hodge, R., Kress, G. (1993). Language and Ideology. London, UK: Routledge. Macrine, S. (2016). The pedagogies of neoliberalism. In S. Springer, K. Birch, & J. MacLeavy (Eds.), The Handbook of Neoliberalism. New York, NY: Routledge. Kress G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London, UK: Arnold.
79 Threshold 14, Number 1
Army of Letters
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A Dead Poetic Flesh
Some people are like poetry, a fleeting moment of joy.
Some only leave, not knowing that it was the last time to rejoice.
And I,
A chamber in whose recesses a melodic line sojourns to flow.
Some forget, some recall the exact ups and downs,
The cadence of a dead mouth pouring promising vows.
Some, hand in hand with a poem, come back to what is gone;
To look at the same day of years ago within the years to come.
And I,
I am the silence of centuries later,
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When a skeleton shudders at the thought of a lonely hour.
Shiva Rouhi
BA English Language and Literature
Shahid Beheshti University
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Going
Life is sick and I am sad again; trapped in a bus,
I am a lone traveller whose heart is broken for a loss.
I see the dance of dust in the sun’s ray in the cramped cabin,
And a glittering plastic bag on the side of the seat used as a bin.
Restless bored minds are daydreaming or sleeping all around,
Idleness hours pass slowly in the buses with lots of sound.
I am going again, and again with a weary broken heart,
With a blind hope and desire for a very new start.
Sina Farajzadeh
MA English Literature
University of Tabriz
83 Threshold 14, Number 1
The Trembling Seven A square room, With Lots of peeping stars, Blurry though, Still can Lighten my lines through the hole; Lines are singing through the rusted bars. Smile is dancing barefoot, In my cramped infinity, With a violet smell, The gay gray stream is burbling, Down to the deep vase, Flirting with the leaves. Deep breath is waving at me, Through the window; It’s still free. My soul smells green, Gives fruit in spring even, This time a coy violet blossom, Is flickering on a trembling seven. I’m still living... Threshold
On the seventh floor.
Maryam Bahrami Nejad
MA English Literature
Shahid Beheshti University
85 Threshold 14, Number 1
The Interior of a Heart
Memories mingle in an infinite chain of moments, I wish they’d die.
Pull at one, then comes up another.
They pour like regrets from the eye.
They pour and pour as in a senseless dream,
Flooding my every breath of relief.
A warning to every face I meet:
I am not what you believe.
I am no more than a sad story sealed forever on my lips;
One I would not give away for the world,
Not even for the sweetest kiss. Threshold
I’ve buried the past too many times,
Watched it come back as undead,
All the sunshine hangs by a thread,
Then it haunts me to an early grave.
Shakila Keyhani
BA English Translation
University of Isfahan
87 Threshold 14, Number 1
Joyeux’s Diary Entry
There’s another world, not far away, where my days would never decay. The dim light sets when passions flare, wherein I reach higher than your glare. The land lies in the woods, set ablaze, whence you can’t run into opaque maze. There’s one last hope to clear this rage, whereby I will set loose from the cage.
Maryam Daghigh Kia MA English Literature University of Tabriz
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A Malady Curfew
Let us, then, you and I, Partake in the sad burial Of humanity’s eroded smile Repressed by a plastic Vault of ghostly gowns. Numbed touch, dim-lit iris, foul breath, a sordid complex ion; And what the sickened eye studies across the dividing, But often meditative glass, Are plots of leaden foliage reflecting a cold steel glow an d Suddenly, heart’s moth-eaten Lotus yearns A lyrical sweetness. A shimmering dust of paranoia invades our green blades Of grass, our streets, our rooms, our s.e.l.v.e.s, Leaving nothing, save an echo of fictive absurdities; Yet, it is wonderous the way such maladies smite,
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Whose judgments are senselessly deferred, As our dream of free dooms is. Day and night watch in timid looks, For gray is our only color, and the sky bathes in An aura of twi-light; ‘god how they press a ponderous Weight on us’. Peoples are sleeping and waking alone, th ough In their homes. Surely they are well-versed in A poetics of solitude. My dear, dear friend, ’tis 2-0-2-0, The city lies anesthetized.
Danial Saleh Nourani MA English Literature University of Tabriz
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The Kingdom of Colours
I don't know what it's like to be forty-one. But I know well It's hard to be colourful, When you are twenty-one In a world whose walls are covered with the colour of death; In a world whose prisons are full of journalists and poets; Where it's hard to breathe; Where the hospitals with their pale blue walls are crowded; And there are working children at the crossroads, -While surrounded By hunger- Anything can't make them happy, But seeing the colour of drivers' money. It's like moving the mountains to love life,
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And to stir the passion in my corpse For the coming days which may impose Afflictions on me. It’s hard to see the beauties of the world from the standpoint Of the one who has surrendered. My arms are not strong enough To spray colour over the whole world. Sometimes my heart sinks trying to rescue the sunken people, To smile; And to not suffer. I don't know whether I’m stronger in my forties or not. I can only stay colourful, Giving affection, Until the day when the kingdom of colours wins in the election. Zahra Abedzadeh BA French Language and Literature University of Tehran Threshold
A Brief, Unrequited Love
I saw her in the pavement
While she was passing by
I looked at her, a slender waist
The blue hue, enchanting eyes
I looked at her several times
She didn’t but glimpse, why?
Inwardly I said, “Please look at me”
Little, timid, flawless, my
Seyyed Ali Mousavi BA English Language and Literature University of Zanjan
93 Threshold 14, Number 1
My Goddess
Thy lips art like the bud of May, soft and red; Waterfall of thy hair art like darkness of night, black and disheveled; I do not know how to describe thee, Thou art more lovely and beautiful than the moon; Thou shine pretty in the middle of afternoon, Thou art more beautiful than snow; I ne'er saw attractive luve-mate till now, I wonder how to describe thee that thou art more alluring than everything...
Aref Vahidimanesh BA English Language and Literature Azad University of Hamedan
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Alle Alleine
What a simple question
And the answer lies within your palms
But cannot be simply uttered
It exists, the question
And the answer, too
But those are what lips run away from
You cannot let them be uncovered
For if they be uncovered
What would be the point
Of all the fingered pages
Those you stirred, smelled and moved along.
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You were in pursuit of a word
But, where did it go?
Or where was it?
One cannot be sure; no more.
Was it love or temptation
Or are both the same
Or one more imposing?
Life is this
A pile of easy questions,
And doubt creeping onto one's soul
From time to time.
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But, after all, they are easy questions
I knew a man who knew life
"Alle alleine,"
He would say if hadn't gone
What a man,
Tall, hoarse,
Beaming eyes.
And life?
He never said what it was
He just knew
His trees terrace, timbers, logs,
Birds, worms, soil,
Flowers, worms again
And then his ashes
97 Threshold 14, Number 1
He said that was life, "Das ist leben,"
But never did he say how
The Gun ended up in his mouth.
He must have loved its sound
Just as easy as that is
The edge of a knife
Or the bubbling waters
Just as comforting
But none is art.
If I were with him the night before,
Or the second
I would have said,
"Let's go to the theatre Threshold
Le Roi Danse is on
And you can jump
How about these logs?
Let's take some along"
"And don't forget the matches,"
Alle alleine
Alone, then, I shall bound.
Niloofar Rezaee
MA English Literature
Shahid Beheshti University
99 Threshold 14, Number 1
Make It Rhyme
You are the Miracle in my heart, and the Sparkle in my eyes.
You are the be in best friend, but you are a memory now, a past tense in my mind; so I dedicate it to you, to the friend that was.
Tickled pink to black and blue, and then a monochrome shade of gray —that is actually a paradox because gray is a combination of other colors. No? Alright; let me try again: Every moment we shared together/And don't you see now/Left with no answer/I'm playing alone on this seesaw/… . I am not a writer. I am a painter, a better poet —hopefully— and I use self-invented expressions when I talk, but I am not a writer nor do I write stories. Only, Threshold
when you have a story, you tell the story —or it would be history— and when that story is a misery, you write it down and you share it with the world because that seems like a great way to turn your pain into something more than just a sad memory; when you have a best friend and that friend happens to be the best of best, you are the happiest on the planet. But when that friend disappears with no trace, you keep asking yourself all sorts of questions —mostly WH: what... why… how could she…? And when you are a hopeless romantic —I am a hopeless romantic— you cannot easily get over things. That is why I am writing this down so even though we did not have a chance to be BFF —best friends forever— we might get a chance at becoming fairytale characters.
nce upon a time, there were magical creatures O named Friend. Friends were capable of performing all sorts of magical spells like happiness and love and sweet memories, they were good listeners, they could drive Loneliness away, and if you were lucky enough to get the right type, they would stay by your side for the rest of your life. These Friends were not sold in stores, so you
101 Threshold 14, Number 1 could not buy them. Actually, they were for free; but to get one, you first needed to become one. Then some time —I am not sure how much later, but I am pretty sure that Friends existed before any of these— later, travelling was invented and then were the transportation means, so a beast was born named DISTANCE. More than any other, Friends hated DISTANCE and they tried anything and everything to defeat the monster; when Dandelions failed to do the task, they hired Letters. Letters did not only help Friends to stay in touch, but also helped distant people become Friends and that is how PenFriends came to existence. Later when PenFriends tried the new trend, they called themselves E-Friends and retired Letters. Now they had every member of the SocialMedia family to help them but DISTANCE forever remained the villain and never stopped causing trouble. Just like any other PenFriend, the two PenFriends of our story had the help of a maid named Charlotte —a trusted servant of SocialMedias whom they preferred to call Chat— in order to communicate. These two never ran out of words; they talked to each other 24/7 —a SocialMedian term meaning "all the time"— and even Threshold
TIMEZONE could not really do anything about it. They grew so close over time that they talked about everything, except a few unimportant things which they never told each other like their names or where they were from or for example what their parents do for a living, and they — honestly— did not need to know about these things either; they both had learned the global language and they had given each other nicknames —Sparkle and Miracle— and nothing else was ever necessary when they had a good time writing poetry together, helping one another through problems, or even planning for their future lives. The taller their Friendship grew —Friendship is a magical tree which Friends plant and water with their magic; it does not need actual sunlight or sand to grow— the more they became dependent on the other; they were each other's escape from reality and whenever things got difficult, they would distract themselves by long talks and fun games. For them, it felt like they could not continue living without each other; they would give anything just to meet once. Miracle would joke, "What if defeating DISTANCE took forever? Do you love me enough to stay till then?!", and
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Sparkle would reply, "Don't dare me to be patient; that's my name!" But that was before Sparkle disappeared; there were no replies, not even when Miracle called her. She searched everywhere, asked other Friends, sent messages, and kept calling her number but she was nowhere to be found. Miracle had a really hard time dealing with this loss; she was deeply sad, then mad, and then again sad. She spent too many hours every day asking herself questions that she could not possibly find their answers. She even tried listening to their favorite songs and drawing their memories, but that did not help either. Miracle also tried writing poems —actually, too many poems— for Sparkle until she wrote the last one: "Every moment we shared together/And don't you see now/Left with no answer/I'm playing alone on this seesaw/What happens to our memories if you forget them?", and that is as far as it went because she just did not know the rest. However, it all was months ago and now Miracle had stopped acting like she was the most miserable person on the planet, and learned to treat it like a painful but precious life lesson. She never understood why Sparkle left, but she eventually came to Threshold
the conclusion that it was better for her since she had grown too attached to Sparkle, and was addicted to their fantasy world which she always used as an escape from her problems. To say one last goodbye, Miracle decided to write a story about their Friendship and dedicate it to Sparkle, even though she might never read it. She ended her story with the last words that Sparkle had sent her through a SocialMedian Letter:
» I'ma write you long. how majestic a message is when it captures and sends the tone, the emotions, the words, as if the presence of one at the moment, yet long gone. read it over again if you will, for I'm alive with these words until we reach the end.
105 Threshold 14, Number 1
I believe this is the right thing to do; I think that's why I'm strong enough to leave. sorry. truth is, I've always loved talking with you. with you it was always the conversation; the kind you'd await the reply — not to mention all those times I got online only to check if you've replied, more than I should've tbh— and it was long since the last time I felt like keeping a convo going. thanks. so badly I wish I could take care of you myself for the rest of the journey, but your friendship is a luxury I can't afford anymore. and this, this is the most valuable gift I'm capable of offering; in fact, the most valuable gift I've ever given anyone: I want it the most, but I let go; so we can grow up, and learn. and I think this is where I get off. Threshold
the more I think about it, the harder it actually gets to put an end on this. I'll always miss our conversations, our friendship, and you. don't you think for one second that it is easy for me, that I woke up today and decided to leave... and I do hope one day you understand why I'm doing this; for you, for us. quite a while ago I decided to write this letter and I guess it's more than three months now that I'm delaying things… not so good at this, am I?!
I'm so grateful that in this big big universe my existence had the privilege to encounter yours. meet me somewhere in your future, or past; but let's not talk about it, I'm already in tears... God, how badly I need to actually keep talking to you now... and take my advice for this, don't listen to sad songs when you're writing goodbye letters! Ok?
107 Threshold 14, Number 1
and they say I'm good at writing but it seems like I'm bad at ending this so let me pls keep going till my words give up. did you know the clouds at sunset are not always painted in orange? they can look yellow too. I'm sure your artist self would've loved watching it, and it's my first time spotting it —like right now 7:26pm, April 12. hey, any new plans for your future? CRUEL! how do I ever know the answer?? but nvm me just pls keep giving good answers to this question. idk if those who stay with us longer are better friends or not, and this is my only regret; but I wanna give you something that'll accompany you better than I could ever do, better than any friend ever will. and I need to go so you'll know that any time you felt like talking to me —if you felt like talking to me— this is what I want you to hear. this is all I've got. this is the most I can give if I truly love you... Threshold
and I hope if you're the judge, I'm considered a good friend.
once upon a time the time that the sky could rhyme with the clouds and the stars I fell out of rhythm did you ever tried to look with your eyes blind pink soft black dark the world keeps spinning and we're not in charge there's the clue yet we're so lost do not get find as if it's a must you're in tune without even asking
109 Threshold 14, Number 1 for someone else is playing this song love is the rhythm and you make it rhyme once upon a time fast forward to the ending back to the start don't you get lost again you're the missing part ... oh I need to write some more I just don't know what...
—and btw my name is "Shakiba it
Shakiba Es’haghi BA English Translation University of Isfahan Threshold
The confession
“There is no end to the pain. It is such a lethal drug we take every day, whether you like it or not.” Adele continued talking. She was one of those old women who had been wounded by life.
She invited me to her house to talk as always. After entering her house, I was enthralled with the amazing paintings hung on the wall. Adele directed me to a room surrounded by big windows and ornamented with jasmines. I was immediately bewitched as their freshening scent hit me.
Looking at her pictures, I realized Adele used to be such an adorable beauty. She was tall, slightly thin and unbelievably kind. Her eyes were dark blue and shiny. Through all these years, I had met her many times, but this meeting was different to me.
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Her voice quivered when she talked of her beloved. She related the events of the days when she was at her best. She used to be a young girl with great talents and brilliant eyes that appealed to every man. She missed those wonderful days. She experienced such a lasting devotion with her husband.
“I met him at a shop for the first time. He looked at me with suspicion. His eyes were sparkling.” She said, with a sweet smile on her face. “It was like he wanted to know more about me.” She continued; “I could see some questions passing through his mind for which he had no answer. He was too shy to come and talk to me. Therefore, I made the move and though difficult, started the conversation. His cheeks turned red whenever he talked.”
At this point, I could see her speaking with high and powerful emotion. But often, there was a lasting pain in her voice while she talked about losing her husband; I could feel that wave of emotion as the words came out of her mouth. Threshold
Listening to the emotional parts was interesting to me. She was hesitating; “It is difficult to talk about the past, but it relieves the pain. You feel your heart filling with such bitter grief and all the parts of your body start shaking.”
She fell into long pauses; “How ignoble some desires are. They come to you when you are young, simple and naïve. Then, you become a slave to them. Kind of like cancer eating your heart away. You cannot find any reason for it. When your heart wants it, you should follow. It makes no difference whether it is self-love or puerile passion.”
She described her past life, beauty and glory. She said, “I can remember the past properly. It is like a scene before my eyes. I can’t take my eyes off of it.”
The door opened. Mary, her daughter, came to her and kissed her on the cheeks. When she saw her mom crying, she tried to calm her down. Her eyes recounted the story they had gone through. She gazed at the windows and the rain falling down. She had brought us some cake and tea. Her mother asked her to leave the room.
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Adele looked at me and went on: “You know, Nancy, life is unpredictable.” Then, she got up and stood in front of the mirror. She was still pretty. She started with one phrase, “back in the day...” then cut it with a dark silence.
Walking around, she kept murmuring words. They were not clear. Watching her walking made me dizzy.
It seemed like she was reluctant to talk. I didn’t know whether she was suffering or trying to keep her secret. Suddenly she stood up, left the room and disappeared. I was confused until her daughter told me that she had gone upstairs.
I waited for her to come. I saw her walking down slowly, holding a picture album. She opened and showed it to me. The pictures were well-organized.
"Here are my photos. Here is the youth, gone with the wind. From past till now on, there’s always remained a bitter agony accompanying me." She sighed and went to one of the windows.
She was looking out the window, gazing at the leaves falling from a big tree. Most of its leaves were broken and Threshold
withered. The roots were dried up by cold wind. She started stuttering and eventually spoke up.
“I’d better confess something to you.” she surprised me with this word, “confess”. “My husband, Ernest, couldn’t stand my levity.” She said his name for the first time. I was shocked. She went on, “It’s all my fault. My life was heavily dependent on holding parties, wearing grandiose clothes, pretending to be rich and showing them off to people. Ernest believed I went too far.”
That night before he left me, he sat on the cold bed looking out the windows. We could hear the sound of light rain falling on the ground. He looked tired, sad and extremely lost.
I realized she got tired of talking continuously. I left the house with a polite farewell. Staying at home for many days, I decided to think about the things I experienced at Adele’s home. Adele and I had been neighbors for so long. When I came to this city, I was very young. She helped me overcome my troubles then. Now, it was my turn to help her.
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I went through the whole day again and again. Some of the things she mentioned were rarely distinguishable. The heavy rain brought a fresh breath through the open window. Looking at her photos, I remembered my old days. The photos smelled like old dusty papers, which took me to the days when I was a little girl and lost my father at an early age. I sympathized with her daughter, Mary, as she lost her father for her mother’s fault. However, at least, she had a chance to see her family together.
The photos captured the best moments of Adele’s youth. Her eyes were glamourous like pearls. She wore a luxurious outfit, looking like a queen. I remembered Mary again. I could sympathize with her because she was most victimized
Days later, I was unexpectedly summoned to see Adele since she was not feeling good. Unfortunately, I was late. But she left me a note in an envelope with some photos and memoirs. Threshold
She wrote, “One day, I stood in front of the ocean; when the wind blew in my hair, I was thinking about one thing, just the one thing: Is there another chance for me?” I felt lost, reading it.
Holding the letter, I felt pity for Adele. It had been a while since I heard about her death. I was offered a teaching job in a small school near Shropshire and I accepted it. The train was about to leave Canterbury at 6 o’clock. While I was boarding the train, all the memories passed in front of my eyes, all those memories from the beginning to the end. When I was such a naïve and got acquainted with Adele. She helped me a lot as soon as she found a new neighbor. She was kind to me when there was no one there to help.
Marzieh Davari Nezhad BA English Language and Literature Payam Noor University, Varamin branch
117 Threshold 14, Number 1
Creative Writing
Challenge
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I Miss the Dirty Streets
I miss the dirty streets to wander bare-mask around
The sordid cafe stools to bite meat sandwich on
The ice cream cone to lick in grimy glove-free hands
And the evening crammed train to be shoved by angry young women.
How farfetched dreams these four seem
In the quarantine days hosted by COVID-19.
Maryam Siahmansouri
MA English Literature
Alzahra University
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From: Mohammad Reza Ghaemi
To: Father
My dear father,
If you had not hoped for me from the beginning, now the world would be a more beautiful place for me.
Your son
Mohammad Reza
July 20th 2046
Mohammad Reza Ghaemi
MA English Literature
Islamic Azad University, Tehran Central branch
Threshold
IT_ IT soared sky-high through me Hissed my lunacy to peace IT paid the crash toll for me Kissed my withered sun to bliss
IT bowed down to my plagued heart Salving my sour singed sore IT barked out the burglar of my art Concocting candid serenity from war
IT may be nothing, a mere it It could be everything, life herself Yet, From time to time I may call it “What makes me to BE every morning,” It is. It looks like. It makes me be. It brings light to my. Roya Naderi
121 Threshold 14, Number 1
My Intentions Are Simple
I take this moment to walk around the room, and make a brief stop by the window, to watch the clouds that come and go, together, alone, impermanent.
I take this moment to look at the words
I have written, and wonder for a beat why I never dare to mention the stars.
I take this moment to be here with you, Threshold
and fear the day
I might forget the lines of your face.
I take this moment to be joyful, and close my eyes in the hopes that it will last longer.
I take this next moment to bite into an apple, or feel the fading warmth of a half drunk coffee cup, to breathe in and out, or to mourn the absence of the moon.
I take these moments as they come and try my best to keep my intentions simple.
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Maryam Ezami
MA English Literature
Kharazmi University
Threshold
Dear Mr. Hopemopi,
I, Ms. Dispirited, am writing this letter to ask for help and what I would like to know is where my hope went and how I have lost it.
I am a girl who is living in a poky little room in which there is no window of hope. Apollo has left me since Mr. Disappointed inhabited in my ramshackle old building. He treats me as if I were dead. He told me not to breathe a word of this to you. He kept me imprisoned for five years and my mind walled in by fear. Darkness is chasing me whenever I want to step towards you.
While I would like to be with you, I have to be here. I was left alone in a strange land and I abandoned my attempts to escape. Each moment passed with a rainfall of tears and yet you did not knock at my door. My desire for you was banished and the word has gone around that you do not exist.
I wish I could drink a cup of tea with you, and then I could wrap my arms around my feelings. My tears will be wiped away if you stare into my pale eyes. How generous you
125 Threshold 14, Number 1 are when you find a shelter for my homeless heart; then, there is no fake smile. Apollo will come back and my dream will come true. Please hear the words which were calling out and begging for help; I want you to be my lifesaver.
Hope to see you soon.
Best, Ms. Dispirited.
Hooriye Khajooee Dehshib BA English literature Payam Noor University, Varamin branch
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Threshelf
127 Threshold 14, Number 1
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Marxism and Literary Criticism By TERRY EAGLETON
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY and LOS ANGELES
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76- 6707 1976 Terry Eagleton Printed in the United States of America
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Terry Eagleton (1943)
Terry Eagleton, the universally well-known literary scholar, and cultural theorist is a British literary critic and public intellectual. He is a Threshold
distinguished Professor of English Literature within the Department of English and Creative Writing. Eagleton obtained his Ph.D. at Cambridge where he was a student of the famous literary critic Raymond Williams. Eagleton has published over forty books. He argues that cultural theory has wrongly devalued objectivity and ethics. He influenced by Louis Althusser‘s theories of ideology, the writings of Pierre Macherey, Walter Benjamin, and Bertolt Brecht. Eagleton began his literary studies with the 19th and 20th centuries; later conformed to the stringent academic Marxism of the 1970s. His thinking is influenced by Marxism. He argues that a literary text is not merely an expression of ideology, but the production of ideology. By “ideology”, he does not necessarily mean political or Marxist ideology, but the whole systems and theories of representation that would
131 Threshold 14, Number 1 make up the picture of a person’s experiences. Also, he examines various ideologies outside the text and the particular ideology of a text. Eagleton surveys the history of theoretical approaches to literature, from its beginnings with Matthew Arnold, through formalism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, to post-structuralism. Moreover, his more theoretical work as a Marxist critic, in such books as Criticism and Ideology (1976), which established him as a leading figure within literary studies. Eagleton's survey of these critical attitudes throws useful light on the connection between the Marxist approach and structuralism. However, that Marxist criticism cannot be seen simply in academic terms. In Marxism and Literary Criticism’s preface, Eagleton rejects the illusion of 'neutrality' in such a field, and writes: Marxist criticism is part of a larger body of theoretical analysis which aims to understand Threshold
ideologies, the ideas, values, and feelings by which men experience their societies at various times. And certain of those ideas, values, and feelings are available to us only in literature. To understand ideologies is to understand both the past and the present more deeply, and such understanding contributes to our liberation.
Marxism and Literary Criticism: this book was first published in 1976, also it is a short and available introduction to the principle theories of Marxist thought with respect to literary criticism; emphasizing individual thinkers from Marx and Engels to Lenin, Trotsky, Walter Benjamin, and Bertolt Brecht. Terry Eagleton surveyed the rise of Marxist literary critics and their ideas and philosophies. Marxism is a highly complex subject and that sector of it
133 Threshold 14, Number 1 known as Marxist literary criticism. Eagleton shows that we must analyses texts through their historical forces, therefore Marxist criticism analyses literature in terms of the historical condition which produces it; and it needs, to be aware of its own historical conditions. This book is a great introduction to the different understandings of literature, also is becoming gradually significant in Europe as a whole. Book began with a definition of basic concepts of Marxist theory. Eagleton discusses the issue in four broad areas: the connection between literature and history, the issue of the form and content, the problem of political commitment for a Marxist approach to literature, and finally a Marxist analysis of the author as producer and literature as a process of production. The final chapter is the core of the book, where Eagleton introduces and critically examines the works and Threshold
ideas of Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht. Eagleton is only mentioning briefly the "technological determinism" problem in Benjamin's approach to literature. Indeed, Eagleton did write a book on Benjamin's literary criticism. The book does focus more upon Marx and Engels's views and those of other Marxists are the main focus, not their critics, rivals, or alternative schools of thought. Eagleton shows the part that Marxist criticism has to play in defining the crucial link between literature and historical conditions, and in so doing has produced a book that is both constructive and committed.
Parts of the book:
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Art and literature were part of the very air Marx breathed, as a formidably cultured German intellectual in the great classical tradition of his society (page: 1).
The sociology of literature concerns itself chiefly with what might be called the means of literary production, distribution, and exchange in a particular society, it also examines literary texts for their sociological relevance, raiding literary works to abstract from them themes of interest to the social historian (page: 2).
Marxist criticism is not merely sociology of literature, concerned with how novels get published and whether they mention the working class. It aims to explain the Threshold literary work more fully; and this means a sensitive attention to its forms, styles, and meanings (page: 3).
Forms are historically determined by the kind of content they have to embody; they are changed, transformed, broken down, and revolutionized as that content itself changes. Content is in this sense before form, just as for Marxism it is changing in a society's material content, its mode of production, which determines the forms of its superstructure (page: 21).
In a capitalist society, it is converted into a commodity and warped by ideology; yet it
137 Threshold 14, Number 1 can still partially reach beyond those limits.it can still yield us a kind of truth no to be sure, a scientific or theoretical truth, but the truth of how men experience their conditions of life, and of how they protest against them (page: 68).
Reference:
Eagleton, Terry (1976). UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16947.Marxism _and_Literary_Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton
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https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/english-literature- and-creative-writing/people/terry-eagleton https://www.amazon.com/Marxism-Literary- Criticism-Terry-Eagleton/dp/0520032438 https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520032439/ marxism-and-literary-criticism
Nazanin Gharaei nejad
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Translation
Challenge
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قرقره2
روزی که پروردگار انسان را خلق می نمود،
در حالی که جامی از برکت در نزدش بود،
فرمود: بیایید بر او بریزیم از این جام؛ از این گنج که با ماست.
بگذار تمام نعمت هایم را که گسترانیدم در جهان
جمع گردانیم در یک جا
پس اول "قدرت" راهش را یافت
سپس "زیبایی" جاری گشت، دگر "خرد" آمد و پس "عزت" و بعد از آن "لذت".
آن زمان که جام تقریبا رو به خالی می نمود، پروردگار لحظه ای درنگ نمود.
فهمید که ته آن جام پر برکت،
جا مانده است "آسایش".
گفت: پس اگر باید
2 عنوان شعر استعاره ای بعید است که توسط شاعر استفاده شده تا توضیح دهدکه چرا انسان در این دنیا برای داشتن نعمت های خداوند باید همواره همچو شخصی باشد که باری را مداوما با کمک قرقره ای باال می کشد و دچار بی آسایشی است. 141
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اعطا کنم بر وی، این آخرین دُر را،
جای من، او فقط خواهد ستود موهبت هایم را.
آنگاه ستایش برای طبیعت خواهد بود نه برای خالقِ او.
پس هر دو بازنده خواهیم بود؛ هم آدمی هم خالق او.
بگذار آدمی باقی گنج را داشته باشد
اما آن را با بی آسایشی و ناآسودگی
بگذار او غنی باشد ولی با خستگی،
چون اگر خیر او را هدایت ننمود،
خستگی باشد تا بکشد او را در این آغوش
مترجم: فاطمه زرواسی. Threshold
Next Issue’s Translation Challenge
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با هر چه عشق نام تو را می توان نوشت با هر چه رود نام تو را می توان سرود
بیم از حصار نیست که هر قفل کهنه را با دست های روشن تو می توان گشود
”محمدرضا عبدالملکیان“
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A Bunch of Lilac and a Storm of Hail by Lesbia Harford
A bunch of lilac and a storm of hail
On the same afternoon! Indeed I know
Here in the South it always happens so,
That lilac is companioned by the gale.
I took some hailstones from the window sill
And swallowed them in a communion feast.
Their transitory joy is mine at least,
The lilac's loveliness escapes me still.
Mine are the storms of spring, but not the sweets.
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دو فصلنامه علمی تخصصی آستانه سال دوازدهم، شمارهی دوم
صاحب امتیاز انجمن علمی گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی دانشگاه شهید بهشتی مدیر مسئول دکتر شهریار منصوری سردبیر وفا کشاورزی )دانشجوی دکتری زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی( هیات تحریریه ادبیات انگلیسی چنور اولی زاده )دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی( آناهیتا افژول)دانشجوی کارشناسی زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی( صبا صبوری )دانشجوی کارشناسی زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی(
آموزش زبان انگلیسی دکتر موسی نوشی، فاطمه جمالی
طرح جلد و صفحه وفا کشاورزی)عکس روی جلد: حوریه خاجویی( آرایی طراحی سایت مریم مرندی
با سپاس ویژه از آقای عظیم زرین کوب
دکتر فریده پورگیو داوود نادری شکیبا اشاقی حوریه خاجویی دهشیب سینا فرخی فرخانی الال موسسیان مرضیه داوری نژاد مریم بهرامی نژاد سینا فرج زاده زهرا شکراللهی سهیال اسالمی نگین سادات قادریان مریم عظامی فرشته قاسمی پوریا طایفه محمدرضا قائمی Threshold
فرشاد مفاخری شکیال کیهانی نازنین قرائی نژاد مریم سیاهمنصوری فرشاد جالل سادات هیات مشاور دکتر جالل سخنور، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر سید ابولقاسم فاطمی جهرمی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر کیان سهیل، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر شیده احمدزاده، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر محمدرضا عنانی سراب، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر سارا کاترین ایلخانی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر شهریار منصوری، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر موسی نوشی، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی دکتر حسین مالنظر، دانشگاه عالمه طباطبایی چاپ انتشارات دانشگاه شهید بهشتی انجمن علمی گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی- تحت حمایت معاونت فرهنگی )با نظارت کمیته ناظر بر نشریات دانشجویی( نمایه شده در پایگاه مجالت تخصصی نورمگز قیمت 3000 تومان نشانی مجله: تهران. اوین، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی.
تلفن:021-299902486
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