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A ritualistic approach to Ntozake Shange’s characteristic style and themes of her choreopoem enables the reader/audience to understand Shange’s theatrical stance in Afro-American theatre history. Shange has redefined American theatre to include African rituals and conventions through adopting and shaping uniquely Afro-American dramatic stuff such as flexibility of dramatic form and participatory theatre. Her female characters as well as male ones in spell #7 undergo personal and sometimes political search for wholeness through ritual stages. Shange structures spell #7 around the initiation and survival rituals of African-American female actress as well as male actors who struggle mightily to make their lives whole in spite of the forces that seek to negate their personhood and professionality. The ritualization of her drama differentiates her drama from the Western dramas on the levels of both themes and styles. That’s why her writing might be approached politically as well as aesthetically. (Chonbuk National University)

This paper is to discuss the Esther’s search for identity and her recovery of true self in The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s autobiographical novel. Considering the much similarities between the heroine, Esther Greenwood, and the author, Sylvia Plath, Esther’s confusion, depression, and suicide attempt are truly those of Sylvia Plath. As the symbolic title The Bell Jar suggests, the bell jar itself is an glass object shaped like a bell which makes the heroine feel trapped and detached from the society. Throughout the novel, Esther is constantly reminded that her academic abilities and talents are restricted in a male-dominated society. For a woman living in the 1950s, it was very difficult to lead a life that did not involved the identity of the “sweetheart, girlfriend and wife and mother.” However, despite repetitive emotional and psychological trauma, Esther, unlike Sylvia Plath, has succeeded in searching for identity and fully recovered her true self by the end of the novel. (Paichai University)

Woo, Seungjeung. “Re-reading Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale from a Feminist Viewpoint.” Studies in English Language and Literature. 41.2 (2015): 39-60. This study focuses on Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale(1988), which deals with the violence against and silencing of women in the patriarchal society. Wertenbaker is famous for the rewriting of myths and the reinterpretation of history, and one of the most influential female playwrights in the contemporary British theatre. Most of her works are considered to deliver the feminist debate, although she has rejected to be categorized as a feminist dramatist. This work shows the rape, mutilation, and murder which have led women to be silent not daring to resist the patriarchal governing system symbolized by Thereus. It also exposes the past and present of male hypocrisy and brutality intended to exert sexual abuse. Through the re-reading a myth for our times, Wertenbaker reveals that not only male characters but female characters can be tragic heroines, and females also have the positive characteristics such as courage and wisdom, with which they overcome the males' domination. (Chosun University)

Yu, Jie-Ae. “John Donne’s Manifestations of The Confessions: “Holy Sonnets” 7, 9, 11, and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions IX.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 61-79. This article aims to explore how John Donne manifests the main conceptions of The Confessions of St. Augustine in his divine poetry and prose, especially “Holy Sonnets” 7, 9, 11, and Chapter 9 of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. In his sermons, Donne proclaims his sincere admiration for St. Augustine’s religious life and writings. Numerous textual evidences of “Holy Sonnets” and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions clearly reveal Donne’s considerable references to St. Augustine’s prominent ideas in The Confessions. Despite the similarities, Donne simultaneously endorses the speakers’ strife with converting to devout believers in the ordinance and mercy of God, while featuring their sense of guilt and precarious attitudes. (Changwon National University)

Lee, Young-Zun. “On the Absence of Father and Children’s Separation Anxiety in Anthony Browne’s Into the Forest.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 81-98. Separation anxiety is a kind of developmental process necessary for children. In Into the Forest, the hero's separation anxiety is caused by the absence of father; after a domestic dispute with his wife, the father goes away from home and his son cannot see him. Thus, the father's absence becomes the son's traumatic experience. Into the Forest is very a special and unique picturebook. Anthony Browne uses not only colours to express the inner emotions of the characters but also the intertextuality and parody to reveal children's separation anxiety by using narrative symbols of classic fairy tales. For the children, Into the Forest will facilitate their developmental process and maturity after understanding the separation anxiety. Furthermore, for parents, this picturebook will provide many insights into how to reduce and overcome the separation anxiety of their children. For the purpose, the parents may use cognitive and behavioral methods with role-play techniques. (Hannam University)

Lee, Jeonghee. “The Attempt to Positive Human Relationships in The Duck Variations.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 99-117. Most of Mamet’s plays present broken relations, the failure to form relations, the impossibility to form relations. Almost all the characters in his plays deceive, betray, manipulate, and control each other in one way or another. Those characters place personal relationships ahead of personal advantage. But Mamet tries to show a positive human relationship in The Duck Variations. This play is organized around fourteen ‘variations’ and deals with two old men in their sixties. They often come together during lunch time, and talk about life and death, watching the lake. The importance of their conversation lies not in occasional insights but in the fact that they are conversing. In this play, the old men link a series of cliched stories and commentaries about ducks that become allegories for nature, mankind and society. Although there is often disagreement between the two old men, ultimately they have achieved a stable relationship, one that is vital to their mental well-being. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of positive contact and communion. Throughout this play, Mamet shows that he is eager to bond with others in friendship. (Jeonju University)

Lee, Hyub. “Implications of Hallucination in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 119-137. This article is an attempt to analyze hallucination in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson who himself experienced hallucination in Las Vegas. In the narrator’s hallucination caused by drugs, repressed desires and fears are revealed, which reflects the American society in split. In his hallucination, human characters appear to be animals, which symbolizes the aggressive desires of moderns in jungle capitalism. The image of reptile for the press reflects the author’s fear of and antipathy to the main stream journalism. An over-sized Nazi in the sky cries, “Woodstock Über Alles,” which is a parody of “Deutchland Über Alles.” The representative catch-phrase of the Third Reich, the totalitarian political system, is replaced by the most counter-hegemonic music festival. This is a symbolic act of satirizing and subverting the dominant structure of America. Watching Nixon on TV, Duke hears the repeated sound of “sacrifice,” which serves to satirize the Nixon administration. In the hallucination, Duke sees himself as a grotesque and distorted body. It is the reflection of deviation from social norms compatible with normal body. The hallucination reveals the schizophrenic cleft between classes in America. The work denunciates the idealogical illusion of American dream in the late 60s and early 70s. (Chosun University)

Lee, Hyeyoung, “Persuasion: Elements of True Communication.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 139-156. In Persuasion, Austen’s last completed novel, the writer’s awareness of the importance and difficulty of communication is evident. The communication style of Anne’s family is characterized by a lack of understanding and listening ability. Austen’s beloved and elegant heroine, Anne, is ignored and isolated and lives without real communication in her own family. The characters in Uppercross community are not much different in their lack of consideration and self-centered style of communication. In contrast to the communication style of the above characters, in Anne’s case, we can identify a sympathetic listening attitude in her continuous efforts to help people wherever she goes. Also, through the characters of the naval community like Captain Harville and Mrs. Croft, Austen advocated truthfulness, sincerity and honesty as the indispensible elements of true and humane communication. Tracing the recovery of the relationship and communication of Anne and Wentworth, we can perceive both Anne’s desperate efforts to achieve full communication with her lover as well as the role of non-verbal communication. The marriage of Anne and Wentworth can be defined as a companionate marriage in that their relationship at the end of the novel is described as one of exquisite dialogue and communication. Finally, it can be said that the elements of, and positive attitude towards true communication emphasized throughout Persuasion are needed more in our age of total and unprecedented change than in Austen’s world 200 years ago. In this sense Austen’s novel presents to us a message very appropriate to the modern world. (Dongshin University)

Kim, Jong-mi. “Non-native Acquisition of Phonological Weight: A Learnability Problem for English Vowels Produced by Korean Learners.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 41.2 (2015): 157-180. We explored the vowel quality in learner speech to see if the phonological weight of a foreign language is learnable. To do this, we collected speech data from 83 learners’ speech data whose native language is Korean and the foreign target language was English. Learner difficulty of phonological weight was expected to be seen, because English is known to be a stress-timed language and Korean a syllable-timed language. Two experiments were conducted to see how the learners acquired the target vowels with different phonological weights, namely, tense and lax vowels. For the first experiment, the first and second vowel formants of 40 learners’ speech were measured in Hz, and compared to target formant values collected from 18 native English speakers as a control group. For the second experiment, the pronunciation accuracy of 43 learner’ speech was evaluated by 11 native speakers. Three interesting results were found. First, the dispersion from the F1 and F2 values of native vowel centroids was greater for lax vowels than for tense vowels. Second, the native speaker listeners gave higher points for pronunciation accuracy of a tense vowel than a lax vowel. Third, statistically significant improvement after instruction was demonstrated for tense vowels, but not in many lax vowels. These results indicate that phonological weight of a foreign language is hard to learn. In particular, a lax vowel is harder to learn than a tense vowel. (Kangwon National University)

So, Mi Hyoung. “Scrambling and Edge-Feature in Phase.” Studies in English Language & Literature 41.2 (2015). 181-208. The word order of Korean and Japanese, known as the head-final languages, can be changed unlike that of English. However, the driving force of optional scrambling is not clear. This paper has two goals. One is to identify the evidence for the connection of Korean scrambling and edge-feature in phase theory. The other is to use this evidence to investigate the extensional scrambling phenomena to other languages. The driving force of Korean scrambling is [+specificity] of D-effects by unmarked internal merge. In Korean scrambling, any constituents with case marker can be allowed to move within a sentence because the case marker has [+Strong Distinctive, +SD] and can be checked properly at the phase edge position by [+Presuppositionality Feature, +PF] at interface. After scrambling derivation, [+SD] makes semantic effects visible according to Chomsky(2008) and Yang(2012). The reason for grammatical mistakes in scrambled sentences and the scrambling phenomena of other languages can be reasonably explained by this analysis. (Chonbuk National University)