This paper explores Bangladeshi English, a relative newcomer to the family of world Englishes. First, we chart the evolution of English in Bangladesh across several phases of development. These show that a number of political and ideological factors make the evolution of English in Bangladesh unique in that it wavers between the status of an exonormative foreign language (English in Bangladesh) and the development of a local variety (Bangladeshi English). From a linguistic perspective, recent studies agree that the current level of proficiency is very low, with a dearth of teachers and an absence of quality education. Second, we examine the degree of nativization of Present-day Bangladeshi English on the basis of (i) its postcolonial evolution and the more recent effects of globalization, following the most popular models of analysis (the Dynamic Model and the Extra- and Intra-Territorial Forces Model), and (ii) linguistic evidence obtained through the analysis of a selection of linguistic features associated with this variety, as represented in the GloWbE corpus.

Storytelling and intertextuality feature frequently in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s literary works. This paper investigates the role intertextuality and storytelling play in his novel Paradise, published in 1994, and shows how they ultimately undermine the very concept of paradise itself. The first section of the paper analyses two intertextual references to Milton which cast doubt on the idea of East Africa as a paradise through their contradictory nature. The second part focuses on the theme of storytelling in the novel at large and more specifically in the main character’s life, demonstrating that both clashes and correspondences between life and storytelling eventually undercut the main character’s idea of paradise.

This article attempts to explore the political possibilities of anger as a potential source of Black female identity construction and solidarity in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time (2016). I will argue that Audre Lorde’s insights into anger in Sister Outsider (1984) are particularly suited to understanding how anger functions in Smith’s fictional work, where this emotion is presented as a powerful “energy” (Lorde 2019: 120) that has the potential to move the subject towards a more empowered selfhood. Nevertheless, I also explore, through the discourses of Lorde (2019) and bell hooks (1995, 2012), the social boundaries and potentially damaging effects attached to this emotion. More specifically, I consider how anger, by itself, is not enough to ensure a stable sense of self because it does not directly motivate the development of female solidarity. Instead, Smith demonstrates how anger may be effectively complemented through the paradigm of care, which does encourage the protagonists to move towards each other, and towards the liberating potential of a more outward view of the world.

This article deals with the psychological affects of guilt and shame in John Boyne’s novel The Heart’s Invisible Furies and with how these influence the way in which the narrator, Cyril Avery, chooses to present his life narrative. Being both the narrator and the main character/focalizer of the events told, the question of his (un)reliability proves extremely relevant for the analysis. The guilt and shame Cyril feels in the first part of the novel —which is also the first part of his life— on account of his being a gay man is forced upon him by the Irish society of the time. Hence, it is only when he leaves his homeland that he can start to find the peace he so much longs for and which, eventually, allows him to tell his story.

Patti Smith and her 2010 National Book Award-winning Just Kids offers an autobiographical account of the artist’s life with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith also shows her involvement in New York City’s bohemian downtown scene in the 1960s and 70s. In 2015, Smith published a second memoir, M Train, and a third one, Year of the Monkey, followed in 2019. These two books are more experimental works where linear chronology is altered. The narrator mixes dream and reality in her recollection of her life after the death of her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, and pays homage to those beloved persons (writers, artists, family members, friends) who have made an emotional and artistic impact on her. As a significant number of critical articles and book chapters have been devoted to analysing gender issues and narrative strategies of life-writing in Smith’s memoirs, my aim in this essay eschews those topics and explores the search for the artistic self as well as Smith’s ideas of art and performance in Just Kids, M Train and Year of the Monkey.

This article explores the possible influence between certain works by Robert Browning and Edgar Allan Poe, composed and published very close in time, which deal with similar themes and share literary strategies and techniques. Although the possibility that they might have been reading each other’s work is supported by their respective correspondences with Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the similarities between their works could also be attributed to literary experimentation as a means of standing out in a fiercely competitive literary market that had to pander to both popular and critical taste. This article compares the similarities in choice of tone and sensational event, as well as the use of voice in a short list of titles that coincide in both time of publication and topic, to raise the issue of influence in a controversial historical context when plagiarism and radical innovation were equally problematic.

This article seeks to argue that The Turn of the Screw is a sinister parody of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and of the female quixotic Bildungsroman. To sustain this claim, I will show that both Catherine and the governess are two burlesque and quixotic heroines who are deeply influenced by their extravagant fancies and their readings of romance. I will also explore their self-assumed role as heroic characters in search of cognitive certainty. And finally, I will argue that evil is intimately related to social and class conflicts in both narratives. Nevertheless, contrary to what happens in Northanger Abbey, in James’s parodic reworking of Austen’s novel, Gothic intrusions do not serve as a means of discipline for the governess’s overworked imagination and her potential story of marriage and social ascent is consequently foiled. The narrative’s refusal to educate the governess and its deviation from the female quixotic tradition links James’s novella to modernity.

Facilitating oral skills through authentic materials such as music has been essential in foreign language teaching (FLT). However, a model whose core element is to develop adolescent EFL learners’ narrative skills through songs with highly emotional lyrics is still non-existent. Furthermore, engaging students in vivid debates about everyday topics with which they can relate is considered a key element to develop their narrative skills. Both, themes and structure of contemporary country music songs have been analysed by means of a corpus. Additionally, a questionnaire has been administered to know adolescent English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ attitude towards the implementation of social issues and music in class. The results show that there exists a narrative structure in contemporary country music songs and a wide range of topics with which students can easily identify. These results suggest that these song lyrics may serve to facilitate EFL students' narrative skills.

Vocabulary learning is pivotal for language learning as it is a cross-sectional aspect related to both receptive and productive skills. L2 vocabulary learning has given way to a substantial body of research in which the role of implicit and explicit instruction has been central. Bearing in mind the importance of communicative tasks as sources for vocabulary learning, this study will explore how vocabulary presented with context and without context is retained. 39 undergraduate students were assigned to each of these conditions, and after performing a communicative task which included a warm-up activity with a set of 15 target words, they completed a word meaning test (post-test) and repeated the same test after two weeks. The data gathered was analyzed using a quantitative approach. Findings indicate that the type of vocabulary test with context-embedded words is more effective for vocabulary retention in the short term. Nevertheless, multi-word items were better identified with the no-context vocabulary test, a finding supported by previous research. The present study raises the possibility that different vocabulary strategies are used by EFL learners, and that warm-up activities may contribute to L2 vocabulary learning.

Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies es una publicación del Departamento de Filología inglesa y Alemana de la Universidad de Zaragoza. Cada artículo es evaluado de forma anónima por dos informantes. Miscelánea difunde artículos sobre lingüística inglesa, literaturas escritas en inglés, pensamiento, cine y estudios culturales del ámbito anglosajón.