English Language and Literature Studies, Issue: Vol.16, No.2

Rural Myth of “Countryside as Arcadia” in Australian Silent Film

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:29:42 +0000

During the post-WWI period, with the gradual growth of white Australians’ emotional and spiritual links to the land, an increasing number of people began to feel a sense of belonging and an identification with Australian countryside. Meanwhile, because of the concern about the market, national image, and an ideological opposition to US film domination, the Australian government in the 1920s began to encourage the positive representation of the landscape. This led to the representation of the countryside as an Arcadia, which becomes the newly dominant myth in Australian silent film.

In this rural myth of city-country contrast, the countryside was represented not as an uninviting and dangerous environment, but more as a place of harmony between people and nature, and an idealized pastoral utopia safe from the destructive power of war, in which the ideology of rural prosperity rather than industrial development is promoted. It implied that the injuries to human beings brought by living in an industrialized society, could only be healed by restoration of close and harmonious contact of man with the natural world.

From Perishing/Demise to Aporia: The Death Allegory in Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 03:50:49 +0000

Using existential phenomenology and deconstructive theory, this essay examines Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut (2018) as a sustained allegory of death and authenticity. The novel stages the adolescent fugitive Jaxie Clackton’s journey across the Australian outback as an existential confrontation with mortality, contingency, and the fragile construction of selfhood. Reading the text through Heidegger’s concept of Being-toward-death and Derrida’s notion of death as aporia, this essay argues that The Shepherd’s Hut reconfigures death from biological demise into an ontological and philosophical horizon that shapes human possibility. Jaxie’s encounters with multiple forms of death—personal, witnessed, and symbolic—expose the tension between natural and cultural understandings of mortality and Heidegger’s account of death as Dasein’s ownmost possibility. At the same time, Fintan’s ascetic presence functions as an ethical counterpoint, redirecting Jaxie toward the possibility of authentic existence. By tracing a movement from perishing and social death to ontological disclosure and finally to aporetic undecidability, this essay contends that Winton’s novel offers a layered meditation on finitude that speaks to contemporary conditions of anxiety, alienation, and existential uncertainty.

Using Problems for Self-Directed Learning of Three-Level Achievers

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 03:52:06 +0000

A few students have limited experience in self-directed learning for problem-solving skills such as information search in an academic reading context. This study investigated the effects of problem-based self-directed learning (PBSDL) on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students with different levels of self-directed learning (SDL) in a Taiwanese university context. Forty undergraduate students enrolled in an elective English course participated in a seven-week PBSDL intervention integrating problem-solving tasks, collaborative discussions, and guided instruction. Participants were categorized into high-, middle-, and low-level SDL achievers based on a self-directed learning questionnaire. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, incorporating pre- and post-tests, questionnaires, and self-report sheets to examine problem-solving performance and perceived learning gains. Quantitative analyses revealed a significant improvement in problem-solving performance across all SDL levels following the intervention, with low-level SDL achievers demonstrating the greatest performance gains. One-way ANOVA results further indicated significant differences among three SDL levels, with the high-level achievers exhibiting the strongest overall SDL characteristics. Qualitative findings from the self-report data indicated that PBSDL enhanced learners’ motivation, language learning, and collaborative skills. It was also found that awareness of the roles of the computer, the field instructor, and the learners was vital to self-identify how to search for assistance in the process of being a self-directed learner through problem-solving. Overall, the findings revealed that PBSDL is an effective pedagogical approach for fostering self-directed learning and improving problem-solving abilities in EFL contexts, particularly for learners with lower levels of initial SDL-learners.

The Embodiment of Burkean Sublime in Cristina García’s The Agüero Sisters

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 03:53:21 +0000

This paper applies Edmund Burke’s sublime theory to a textual analysis of Cristina García’s The Agüero Sisters. It explores how the novel embodies the Burkean sublime through three core elements: supernatural forces, the terror and fear stemming from the mother’s mysterious death, and the physical and psychological trauma endured by the two Agüero sisters. The study reveals that these intertwined sublime elements not only align with Burke’s definition of the sublime rooted in terror, pain and fear, but also fill the existing research gap in interpreting this novel from the perspective of the sublime theory. In doing so, it provides a new aesthetic perspective on the novel’s portrayal of family trauma and the psychological states of Cuban-American immigrants.

A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of Translator Style: Speech-Act Report Verbs in Two Chinese Translations of The Great Gatsby

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 03:57:18 +0000

This study investigates the translator styles of Qiao Zhigao and Wu Ningkun through the use of speech-act report verbs (SARVs) in their Chinese translations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Moving beyond qualitative discussion of isolated examples, it adopts a combined corpus-driven and corpus-based approach to examine recurrent linguistic and strategic patterns in the translators’ work. Drawing on a self-compiled English–Chinese parallel corpus, keyword analysis is first employed to identify salient SARVs in each translation. These keywords are then traced in aligned concordance data, and their translational variants are grouped and compared to reveal divergences in lexical patterning. The study further applies Nida’s (1964) techniques of adjustment—addition, subtraction, and alteration—while introducing retention as a complementary analytical category to examine the patterned use of translation techniques underlying these differences. The findings reveal recurrent differences between the two translators at both lexical and strategic levels. Lexically, the two translators display different preferences in the selection and range of SARVs. Strategically, Wu more frequently retains source-text reporting patterns and favors more standardized renderings, whereas Qiao more often employs adaptive techniques that produce more varied and context-sensitive formulations. These findings suggest distinct translational tendencies in the handling of SARVs and indicate that this linguistic feature can serve as a useful, though necessarily limited, window on translator style.

Transitivity in Environmental White Papers: An Ecological Discourse Analysis of Marine Protection in China

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 03:59:43 +0000

Since the 20th century, the escalating global ecological crisis has prompted eco-linguistics to provide theoretical perspectives for interpreting ecological discourses, yet limited research has integrated Eco-Critical Discourse Analysis with the transitivity system to reveal their underlying ecological values. This study adopted explanatory sequential design combining quantitative and qualitative analysis. Using Universal Architecture for Multimodal (UAM) Corpus Tool, it statistically examines the distribution of transitivity processes in the white paper, Marine Ecological Environment Protection in China, released by the State Council Information Office in July 2024, followed by a qualitative interpretation of ecological values embedded in the transitivity system under Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. The study focuses on three core issues: (1) the distribution characteristics of the transitivity system in the description stage; (2) the interaction relationship between the transitivity system and the ecological environment; (3) the non-ecological characteristics and ecological values reflected by the transitivity system. Theoretically, this study extends Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and the transitivity system to marine ecological discourse, enriching research perspectives. Practically, it reveals ecological values in marine discourse, raises environmental awareness, and offers linguistic guidance for environmental communication.

Research on the Core Competency Concept System of “Humanistic Literacy + Vocational Competence” in Vocational Universities

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:01:01 +0000

In the higher education system, vocational undergraduate education is not only the higher level of vocational education but also a new form of undergraduate education, representing a new measure of reform and innovation in China’s higher education. This paper, based on the pilot program of undergraduate-level vocational education, systematically explores the theoretical framework for integrating core competencies of multiple disciplines in vocational universities. At the theoretical framework level, it proposes a new concept of vocational university education, namely “humanistic literacy + vocational competency”, and respectively constructs the conceptual systems of “humanistic literacy” and “vocational competency”. On one hand, about the “humanistic literacy”, we discuss it from “outstanding language proficiency”, “deep learning ability”, “excellent cross-cultural competency” and “higher critical thinking skill”; On the other hand, the “vocational competency” wants to discuss the core competency for vocational university students from the following four aspects of “effective workplace communication skill”, “diverse professional competency”, “innovative and creative ability” and “flexible social adaptability”.

A Comparative Study on English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation Strategies

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 04:02:16 +0000

As a part of language, idioms are a concentrated manifestation of the national civilization, whose meaning and formation are intimately linked. China and England are widely different in material conditions, spiritual civilization and historical background. These disparities are also revealed in idioms. Besides, Chinese and English idioms share many resemblances, which are mainly found with idioms that deliver the life experience or express personal emotions, or those rhythmic ones. Based on the growth of Chinese and English idioms, this paper attempts to provide several efficient translation means for idioms from the viewpoint of cultural differences, hoping that these translation means can cast light on idiom translation.

When Value Devours Being: Capitalist Logic and Existential Negation in Death of a Salesman and A Hunger Artist

Wed, 27 May 2026 03:06:08 +0000

The twentieth century literature carries the evidence of exploitation, rapid capitalism, industrialization, history, scenario of labor market and existential crisis in a majestic way. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949) interrogates the post–World War II American capitalist order and its redefinition of the American Dream, while Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist (1922) anticipates a similarly destabilized modern condition, exposing a society governed by fragile values and an increasing demand for productivity within the capitalist ethos. The point can be highlighted that both Willy and the hunger artist are trapped rigorously in the systems that demand constant labor, performance and validation. Here, the portrayal of the two works challenges the idea of aspiration against the demands of the capitalistic society. The aim of this study is to critically examine how capitalist value systems configure and constrain individual existence through the dialectical relationship of economic structures and existential agency.

Temporal Alienation and Existential Paralysis: Analyzing T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Through the Lens of Social Acceleration

Tue, 26 May 2026 03:57:42 +0000

This paper examines T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” through the lens of social acceleration and temporal alienation, offering a new interpretation of Prufrock’s psychological paralysis. Drawing on Hartmut Rosa’s theory of social acceleration, the paper argues that the fragmentation and indecision in Prufrock’s character mirror the effects of an increasingly accelerated modern world. It suggests that Prufrock’s hesitation and his obsession with time are not simply individual traits but reflections of a broader societal condition, where technological progress and the compression of time contribute to a loss of meaning and disconnection from self. By exploring Prufrock’s internal struggles that reflect temporal dislocation and alienation, the paper demonstrates the profound psychological impact of living in a world dominated by speed, technological progress, and the relentless measurement of time. Ultimately, it argues that Prufrock’s crisis is emblematic of the modern existential dilemma faced by individuals caught in a fast-moving, time-compressed society.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for English Language and Literature Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2

Sat, 30 May 2026 03:40:54 +0000

Reviewer Acknowledgements for English Language and Literature Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2026.