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Research Article
Deconstructing Power: Ideologies, Webs of Hyper-reality and Metanarratives in Hamid’s The Spinner’s Tale
Qasim Ali Kharal*
,
Shanza Dilawar
Issue:
Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2025
Pages:
128-136
Received:
28 May 2025
Accepted:
5 October 2025
Published:
30 October 2025
Abstract: This research explores the ideologies that help individuals gain power and control over people through the analysis of Omer Shahid Hamid’s The Spinner’s Tale. Main characters in the novel, like Ausi and Omer, have used religious ideology to empower and attain their personal objectives. Political, religious, and social ideologies are narratives simulated through media and feigns to extend political power. This qualitative study tries to bridge the social and religious ideologies through a theoretical framework of hyper-reality and concept of metanarrative. The intertwined postmodern theorists included Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, and Fredric Jameson to help reveal the construction of dominant/totalizing metanarratives. This study tries to fill the gap through exploring post-9/11 socio-political anxieties bridging contemporary Pakistani literary criticism. The idea mirrors local narratives, broadening global discourses of terrorism intervened through hyper-real constructs of media and state power. The article develops strong argument to mark digital saturation, surveillance, and ideological fragmentation in present era disclosing Pakistan struggling with identity, belonging, and resistance through narrative of The Spinner’s Tale. The findings indicate towards an intentional vagueness of the novel's inference to highlight the necessity to inquire the narratives that are popular in postcolonial societies through the lens of a postmodern theoretical framework.
Abstract: This research explores the ideologies that help individuals gain power and control over people through the analysis of Omer Shahid Hamid’s The Spinner’s Tale. Main characters in the novel, like Ausi and Omer, have used religious ideology to empower and attain their personal objectives. Political, religious, and social ideologies are narratives simu...
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Research Article
A Case Study of Preferential Changes in the Revision of English-to-Chinese Translation
Xiean Huang*,
Caixi Liu
Issue:
Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2025
Pages:
137-145
Received:
28 September 2025
Accepted:
13 October 2025
Published:
30 October 2025
Abstract: Preferential changes in revision are a phenomenon commonly observed in other-revision contexts (one translator revises another translator’s work). Revisers tend to over-revise the translations rendered by others even though the translations are accurate and adequate enough. Despite the ongoing debate within translation studies on preferential changes for years, detailed case studies of that phenomenon in the scenario of English-to-Chinese translation remain scarce. The current study selects an English text excerpted from a think tank handbook originally published in the United States and collects its unrevised Chinese translation alongside 12 versions of revision conducted independently by 8 undergraduates with different academic backgrounds, 2 postgraduate translation students, 1 doctoral translation student, and their advisor. All the 12 revisers are native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. This study counts the number of changes made by revisers, analyzes and assesses which changes are necessary and which are preferential (unnecessary), and categorizes and quantifies those preferential changes following the classification proposed by Jean Nitzke and Anne-Kathrin Gros in their research on English-to-German translation. Though adopting this classification, this study adapts it slightly so that it can better suit the scenario of English-to-Chinese translation. The research result reveals that the rate of preferential changes declines notably with the revisers’ advancement in academic levels and improvement in specialized training of translation and revision. This study then explores the reasons behind the phenomenon of preferential changes based on the case study. Besides the linguistic reasons and the revisers’ translation competence, sociological reasons are also considered. Some revisers may prefer to actively look for mistakes in the target text in order to demonstrate that they’ve taken the task seriously and performed their duty well, even though the target text does not need so many changes. Regarding future research, a case study of preferential changes in the post-editing of machine translation, or MTPE, will be conducted as a follow-up. With the rapid development and wide application of artificial intelligence-empowered large language models, it is more and more common to post-edit a machine translation rather than translate a script manually from scratch. Post-editing, like revision, is still conducted by humans, at least in the present and for the several years to come.
Abstract: Preferential changes in revision are a phenomenon commonly observed in other-revision contexts (one translator revises another translator’s work). Revisers tend to over-revise the translations rendered by others even though the translations are accurate and adequate enough. Despite the ongoing debate within translation studies on preferential chang...
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Research Article
From Silence to Representation: The Subaltern Image in 1930s Chicago in Richard Wright’s Native Son
Hasan Mahmood*
Issue:
Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2025
Pages:
146-153
Received:
11 October 2025
Accepted:
22 October 2025
Published:
9 December 2025
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20251004.13
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Abstract: This study focuses at Richard Wright’s Native Son through the lens of subaltern theory, exploring how the novel shows the lives of marginalized African Americans in 1930s Chicago. Focusing on the “Subaltern Image,” it examines how Wright turns socially silenced figures—especially Bigger Thomas and Black women like Bessie—into complex literary characters. The analysis highlights how racial segregation, poverty, gender inequality, and media distortion work together to keep these characters silenced. The study also focuses at urban space, showing how areas like the South Side Black Belt act as restrictive environments that control, surveil, and make marginalized people invisible. Through a novel methodological approach combining close reading with intersectional and spatial perspectives, the study offers a fresh way to understand subaltern representation. Using symbolism, imagery, and narrative perspective, Wright gives partial voice and agency to his characters, while also showing the limits of their self-expression. The paper critiques white liberal characters, like the Daltons, whose well-meaning actions fail to challenge structural inequalities. It also draws on recent research in subaltern studies and African American literature, including work on systemic vulnerability and climate-related issues, placing Wright’s novel in a contemporary theoretical context. Ultimately, Native Son is both a literary and social intervention, giving visibility to silenced lives. By examining race, class, gender, and urban space, the study shows why Wright’s work remains important for understanding oppression and the challenges of representing marginalized voices.
Abstract: This study focuses at Richard Wright’s Native Son through the lens of subaltern theory, exploring how the novel shows the lives of marginalized African Americans in 1930s Chicago. Focusing on the “Subaltern Image,” it examines how Wright turns socially silenced figures—especially Bigger Thomas and Black women like Bessie—into complex literary chara...
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Research Article
A Comparative Study on English Language Achievement of Female Students Between Only-Girl School and Mixed-Sex School in EFL Classroom
Abiyot Mosissa Leta*,
Sherif Ali Ahmed,
Desalegn Tolesa Bonda
Issue:
Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2025
Pages:
154-159
Received:
17 October 2025
Accepted:
29 October 2025
Published:
9 December 2025
DOI:
10.11648/j.ellc.20251004.14
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: This study’s main goal was to compare the English language achievement of female students in an all-girl school and a mixed-sex school within the Ethiopian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context. The findings, motivated in part by the observation that female students tend to have higher levels of "language-related anxiety," which affect their performance in the environment surrounding them at school. The research involved 92 grade 9 female students from both Pharo (Homosha) Boarding School, an all-girl school, and Bambassi Secondary School, mixed sex school. The study was conducted using a causal-comparative design. Semi-structured interviews were added to the data obtained by analyzing documents from students' English achievement records during their second semester. The Mann-Whitney U test was employed to measure differences in achievement across the two groups. The mixed-sex school students had a slightly higher average grade in English achievement than those from the only-girl school, but the difference was not statistically significant (p =.068) according to the result. Even though school type has some influence on English achievement, the findings also indicate that other factors such as teaching style and school resources are equally important, as psychological factors like speaking anxiety can also have an impact.
Abstract: This study’s main goal was to compare the English language achievement of female students in an all-girl school and a mixed-sex school within the Ethiopian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) context. The findings, motivated in part by the observation that female students tend to have higher levels of "language-related anxiety," which affect their ...
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