Shanlax International Journal of English

Visual Representation of Gender in English Language Textbooks

U Thulasivanthana — 2025-09-01

Education plays an important role in shaping students’ lives, because students tend to uphold and practice what they learn in the classroom. Therefore, promoting gender equality in English language education is essential, as it not only influences students’ attitudes, but also advances the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality). In Sri Lanka, textbooks are the primary material used by teachers for teaching. Hence, textbooks have the potential to foster a positive self-image among students regarding gender. Visual representations, especially in school textbooks, play a vital role in shaping the perceptions and attitudes of students, and have an immediate impact on students rather than textual content. Gender stereotypes in the visual content presented in English language textbooks could perpetuate traditional gender roles and limit students’ understanding of gender roles in society. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the representation of gender in these textbooks. This study aimed to explore how gender is visually represented in English language textbooks used at the secondary level (Grades 6 to 11) in Sri Lankan schools. This mixed-methods research employs content analysis to explore gender representation in the visual content found in English language textbooks published by the Educational Publication Department. This study specifically examines four specific aspects: the numerical representation of boys, men, and girls or women in visuals; the types of activities depicted visually for each gender; the portrayal of occupational identities illustrated through visuals; and the inclusion of great personalities in visual content. The findings revealed a clear imbalance in the visual representation of gender in the selected English language textbooks. Furthermore, this study highlighted the need for more gender-inclusive visuals in English language textbooks to promote gender equality in classroom learning.

Witnessing Partition: Trauma, Memory, and History in Khushwant Singh’s Fiction

Narinder K Sharma — 2025-09-01

Khushwant Singh’s major novels, particularly Train to Pakistan, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, and Delhi, are acclaimed for their subtle portrayal of the traumatic legacy of the 1947 Partition and its aftermath, and this article, through its qualitative literary analysis, reinterprets his fiction through the lens of trauma studies by way of drawing on theories by Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra, and Kali Tal to foreground how these works portray psychological, collective, and generational trauma. The paper also foregrounds the way(s) the writer writes with detached, quasi-historical objectivity and uses recurring animalistic metaphors to lay bare the dehumanising impact of communal violence. As exemplified by the ghost train of massacred bodies in Train to Pakistan, the dying words of Sabhrai in Shall Not Hear the Nightingale and the enigmatic figure of Bhagmati in Delhi convey unspeakable horrors obliquely, signifying the layered dimensions of trauma. This paper attempts to analyse how Singh’s dual role as a novelist and historian enables a uniquely candid yet compassionate chronicle of partition trauma and thus offers fresh insight into partition literature and the processes of cultural memory and healing.

Double Marginalisation: An Uncharted Struggle for Identity

M Abitha Shree — 2025-09-01

Refugees encounter significant obstacles due to forced displacement which includes losing their homes, jobs, and social networks. They often face difficulties integrating into their host countries, grappling with cultural differences and employment challenges, and frequently experience systemic exclusion. Among these refugees, families with members with disability endure even more severe difficulties such as limited mobility, insufficient healthcare, and societal stigma. These additional challenges not only hinder their autonomy but also alter family dynamics, placing considerable pressure on caregivers and exacerbating their marginalisation. This study used Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Transactional Analysis to investigate the psychological and social challenges faced by refugees with disability. The novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo (2019) is a key text in this examination, portraying the compounded difficulties of refugee families through the character of Afra, who is blind.However, the research does not use empirical field studies or cross-cultural data across multiple refugee populations, and its scope is restricted to fictional representation within a single novel. This study highlights the critical need for inclusive refugee policies that acknowledge the specific vulnerabilities of disabled individuals. By addressing these inequalities, humanitarian initiatives can promote accessibility, independence, and dignity, leading to a more just and compassionate approach to refugee crisis.

Unraveling Traditional Gender Boundaries: A New Paradigm of Identity in Ladies Coupe

G Kirubahari — 2025-09-01

Anita Nair is a well-known postmodern Indian English novelist. Her novel, Ladies Coupé, explores several women’s lives through personal journeys. In today’s society, the rigid boundaries of conventional gender roles are being increasingly questioned. Ladies Coupé is a compelling exploration of these issues, offering a nuanced perspective on gender identity, societal expectations, and blurring of traditional roles. By focusing on female characters’ experiences within the confines of a ladies’ compartment, the novel provides a microcosmic view of the broader societal constraints and expectations that shape women’s lives. This article uses feminist and psychoanalytic literary criticism as its primary methodological framework to examine how Ladies Coupé challenges the traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity, highlighting the complexities of gender identity in modern India. This paper analyzes the characters of the novel to show how it subverts conventional gender stereotypes and offers a more nuanced portrayal of gender expression. By examining characters’ interactions and relationships, this article explores how social expectations can both limit and empower women. The women’s compartment symbolises both the restrictions and possibilities that women face in a patriarchal society. Through their experiences, the characters demonstrate women’s resilience and autonomy in challenging the established gender norms. This research suggests that the novel not only critiques patriarchal structures but also envisions a transformative redefinition of gender roles and identities in Indian culture, offering new insights into how women’s voices can influence cultural and social change. The research eventually finds that Ladies Coupé not only criticises patriarchal standards but also redefines gender roles by depicting female characters who regain their identity, autonomy, and voice, providing a transformational picture of femininity in modern Indian culture.

Home is Where the Feet Are: A Diasporic Study of Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies

J Muthulekha — 2025-09-01

Diasporic writing has garnered interest among literary audiences because it amplifies the voices of colonial individuals on a global stage. It advocates indigenous people’s identity within their ancestral territory. The key themes included displacement and exile, regret for the past, identity crisis, alienation, belonging, culture shock, assimilation, and acculturation. V.S. Naipaul, Uma Parameswaran, Meena Alexander, and Yasmine Gooneratne were the most notable diasporic writers. In this paper, Yasmine Gooneratne’s A Change of Skies has been taken up for study and it attempts to analyse the novel through the prism of diasporic studies. This paper begins with a succinct introduction to diaspora and diasporic literature, followed by an author introduction, a literature review, the research methodology employed, a synopsis of the novel, and a comprehensive discussion of the study. It concludes with an optimistic perspective on cultural adaptation and assimilation in the adopted land while also emphasising the potential for future research on this topic. Novel.
In this paper, three recurrent phases experienced by diasporic people, cultural shock, assimilation, and acculturation, have been used as research tools to elucidate the distinctions between traditionalists and assimilationists and conclude on an optimistic note regarding cultural hybridity, emphasising the significance of adaptation and assimilation in a new environment, as well as the role of multiculturalism in enabling diasporic individuals to lead fulfilling lives abroad, while also underscoring their emotional ties to their homeland.
This novel is a luminous debut that chronicles the adventures of the Sri Lankan couple, Bharat Mangala Devasinha, and his wife Navaranjini, as they settle in Australia. Bharat and Navaranjini had to accommodate the new culture at the initial stage of their arrival, but later started to embrace their new culture and lead a harmonious life in their adopted land. Acceptance serves as the superior remedy for expatriates seeking to alleviate their feelings of alienation, as illustrated by the author through her characters Barry and Jean. Thus, this study underscores the significance of assimilation and cultural hybridity while preserving their original identity. Future research may further investigate the diasporic literature through comparative analyses of South Asian diasporic experiences in various host nations, explore the identity formation of second-generation immigrants, and assess the transformative role of digital media in influencing diasporic consciousness and cultural preservation.

Internalized Constraints: Bourdieu’s Habitus in Normal People

srinidhi s — 2025-09-01

In sociology, habitus is the way that people perceive and respond to the social world they inhabit through their personal habits, skills, and character disposition. Bourdieu’s theory is a sociological perspective of classes and its influence on culture across different aspects, such as predispositions, perceptions, tendencies, tastes, and lifestyles. Lifestyle is a product of the habitus which classifies different symbols in a specific hierarchy. Normal People by Sally Rooney is one book that illustrates the effects of habitus and the dynamic role it plays in interpersonal relationships and social interactions. Using Bourdieu’s theory as a lens to study this novel brings out the subtle play of social dynamics in human relationships. The novel explores the romantic relationship between Marianne and Connell as it develops from their high school days. Their relationships are hindered by their differences, although they find each other very likeable. Their social standing becomes a reason to drive a wedge between them, even though neither cares for it. Connell seems to be constantly dragged back by his social background despite expanding his horizons and discovering new things. His standing among his university peers differs significantly from that of his school, making him feel exposed and insecure. He also faces trouble in his relationship with Marianne as he tries to traverse through their inequalities. His affectation through his social standing offers insight into the significance of habitus in one’s life. Every defining aspect of his lifestyle, such as his personal style and social skills, to name a couple, is defined by his economic status which characterizes his habit. This study intends to analyse how Connell is affected by his social background, and as a result, finds himself at unease positioning himself amidst his peers, who are of a different social standing, with reference to Bourdieu’s theory.

Edible Hierarchies: Culinary Taboos and Domestic Power in Global Women’s Fiction

Deepika Vairam — 2025-09-01

This article examines how cuisine functions as a tool of gendered conflict, cultural identity, and social control through a qualitative comparative literary analysis of four contemporary novels by women writers: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Malladi, Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown, and The Abundance by Amit Majmudar. The research employs close textual analysis, drawing on symbolic anthropology and feminist food studies, to investigate how surrounding food acts, such as cooking, serving, refusing, and sharing recipes, embody power relations in both domestic and diasporic contexts. Methodologically, analysis (1) identifies and classifies recurring culinary motifs; (2) examines characters’ behaviours related to food; and (3) traces the symbolic functions of these acts across cultural environments. The findings indicate that food operates both as a means of patriarchal enforcement and as a vehicle for resistance: characters reclaim agency through subversive culinary practices, challenge gendered expectations, and transmit intergenerational knowledge. Thus, the kitchen emerges as a contested site where gender, memory, and identity are actively negotiated.

Motion Verbs in Arabic and English Narratives: A Contrastive Semantic Analysis

Bahaa A. Muslim Al-Zobaidy — 2025-09-01

In this work, not only are different types of motion verbs, such as manner verbs and path verbs, but the embedding relations between motion verbs and text structures are systematically and comprehensively studied, based on Arabic-English parallel narrative texts, within the scope of a contrastive semantic and typological framework. The study is grounded in Talmy’s (2000) prominent motion event typology and Slobin’s (2004) influential “Thinking for Speaking” hypothesis. It systematically considers how these two languages encode and represent the four core semantic components of motion: path, manner, figure, and ground. In English, a satellite-framed language, manner is expressed within the main verb and the path is expressed in prepositional satellites (e.g. ran into). In contrast, as a verb-framed language, Arabic encodes path in the verb and manner elsewhere (or idiomatically) in the clause, as in the expression “دخل راكضاً” “dakhala rākiḍan”.
Based on a qualitative analysis of parallel narrative examples from a variety of Arabic and English literary specimens, this study reveals significant typological, cognitive, and stylistic differences. These differences have profound implications for translating practices, second language acquisition methods, and theories of cognitive semantics. These investigations would improve awareness of the ‘varieties of motion in languages, especially among languages. The findings of this study contribute to an enhanced understanding of the distinct motion modes of thought and typologies of linguistic expressions across different cultural and linguistic systems, which is significant for both the area of typology in linguistics and language pedagogy/educators. The statistics presented here are shown in different ways, with examples that are intended to be utilised for direct learning. The content originated from credible sources, such as Google Scholar, Google Books, and other online platforms.

Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri’s Swallowing the Sun: Stories Spun Indigenous Tongue

Annett Edward — 2025-09-01

Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri’s debut novel Swallowing the Sun (2023) is an entwining of historical fiction, memoir, and feminist resistance. In the homage to ancestors, the story has been strung together from personal letters, oral history, and fictional invention. Surviving an indigenous language and affirming female empowerment resound in the story of life in pre-and post-independence India. Nonetheless, this is a story of women’s agency, survival, transformation, and resistance to colonial and patriarchal power.
Swallowing the Sun has garnered much acclaim in journalistic reviews, but there is a marked absence of rigorous engagement with either the narrative style, multilingual poetics, or the endeavour to decolonise the reader’s imagination. This gap is significant, particularly in the realm of contemporary postcolonial feminist literature, where the use of multilingualism, cultural memory, and myth as narrative strategies is understudied.
This paper seeks to redress this gap through a lens of postcolonial theory and feminist literary criticism examining Puri’s use of linguistic hybridity, cultural memory, and myth as modes of resistance. Using qualitative content analysis and close textual reading, it demonstrates how Puri’s idiom—at once personal, political, domestic, and historical—positions the novel within a corpus of decolonial works that celebrate local voices in redefining Indian modernity and womanhood.
The study previews key findings from research that demonstrates how Puri’s multilingual narrative destabilises colonial hierarchies of language, and how Puri’s female characters – Malati, Kamala, and Surekha – embody everyday resistance to patriarchal and caste-class power. Through these characters, this study argues that the novel complicates universalised notions of womanhood by foregrounding the intersections of gender, class, and caste in the construction of women’s lived experiences.

Toxic Entanglements and Posthuman Ethics: A Baradian Reading of Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People

Ajmal Musharaf — 2025-09-01

Sinha’s Animal’s People (2007) is a fictional account of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster and retells the tale of a devastating industrial catastrophe. The novel is set in Khaufpur, an Indian town stricken by a chemical leak from a foreign-owned factory, which led to physical deformation, poisoning, and politically marginalizing generations of its inhabitants. In this way, the narrative deals with ethics, justice, and identity and also foregrounds that the boundaries between human and nonhuman and self and environment are intensely blurred. The disfigured narrator named Animal serves as a potent medium for inquiring into complicity, accountability, and the meaning of life amidst ecological catastrophe. In this paper, we attempt to analyse Animal’s People through the lens of Karen Barad’s agential realism, using some of the key insights, viz., intra-actions, or mutual entanglements of material and discursive forces. In this sense, this paper explores the way narrative critiques anthropocentrism and unsettles Cartesian subject-object binaries to acknowledge human and more-than-human agents.

English Teacher not as Authority but as a Skill and Culture Facilitator – A Study

Shankara Murthy — 2025-09-01

Purpose: This paper considers the changing role of English teachers in India, who are no longer seen as the source of authority but as people who help to develop skills and cultural exchange. It examines how English language teaching (ELT) can be reformatory through a learner-centred approach, communicative competence, and cultural representation to support a wide range of learners. Methodology: This study adopts a conceptual and theoretical approach that synthesises the available literature, classroom practices, and principles of educational psychology. The analysis draws on behaviourist and cognitive theories, functional and communicative language teaching models, and recent developments in technology-assisted learning (TAL).
Findings: The review shows that the Indian ELT traditionally utilises teacher-centred approaches, but the increasing importance of learner autonomy and cultural inclusivity requires a change in the learning method. Facilitators can support critical thinking, intercultural competence, and digital literacy, and no longer focus on a limited set of LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) skills. Conclusion: ELT roles change through three ongoing processes: teacher development, incorporation of local culture into the curriculum, and responses to new technology. Empirical studies on the effects of facilitative teaching on the outcomes of learners in multilingual and multicultural classrooms should be examined in the future. Future Research Directions: Future research can be conducted on the impact of task-based and technology-based pedagogy on communicative competence and the impact of cultural representation on the motivation of learners in different contexts of Indian education.

Trauma and Transcendence Trauma and Transcendence: A Study of Sita’s Emotional Resistance to Modern Life in Anita Desai’s Where Shall we go this Summer?

Sneha C — 2025-09-01

This essay critically examines the emotional trauma and psychological resistance of Sita, the protagonist of Anita Desai’s Where Shall We Go This Summer?, through psychoanalytic and feminist literary perspectives. The novel, set in post-independence India, traces Sita’s profound sense of alienation within a patriarchal society, an emotionally unfulfilling marriage, and the burden of motherhood. Through qualitative textual analysis, this paper explores how Sita’s inner conflicts are shaped by modern urban life and how her fifth pregnancy symbolizing an existential crisis and emotional rebellion. Her retreat to the remote Manori Island is interpreted not simply as an escape but as a metaphorical return to the self—a space of introspection, confrontation, and healing. The study argues that Desai does not depict trauma as a moment of collapse but as an enduring psychological struggle rooted in neglect, disillusionment, and loss of identity. The research indicates that Sita’s transcendence is achieved through the acceptance of life’s contradictions, uncertainties, and emotional depth. The novel suggests that healing comes not from societal validation, but through silent resistance, emotional honesty, and embracing pain as part of the self. This analysis contributes to feminist discourse by emphasizing the quiet strength of internal transformation.

Power Politics in Internment: A Benthamite Perspective

Tamilselvi P — 2025-09-01

Bentham an English scholar and philosopher having had a vibrant influence over philosophers of his time. Bentham’s Panopticon is an architectural design. It is a circular building with many rooms. Each room contains an inmate who cannot communicate with each other as they are separated by walls. There is a watching tower in the middle of the building, thereby allowing a watcher from the central tower to view all the activities of the inmates. This continuous surveillance prevents any type of untoward activity by inmates. The building is constructed in such a way as to prevent the inmates from looking at the observer. This mechanism can function without an observer. Hence, it is identified as a disindividualizing mechanism which can function independently.
The development of the Panopticon was based on the need to enhance democracy, as Bentham strongly believed that it would benefit society. Although he derived this idea from his brother Samuel Bentham, he wanted to apply it in society so that democracy would be vibrant with the presence of surveillance. In turn, this would result in honesty and smooth functioning of democracy. As the Panopticon served as the eye of a society, it would eliminate all untoward activities in the society because it kept on watching all the activities round the clock. This constant watch on society keeps modifying the behaviour of every citizen. The reason behind this regulating activity is that power is operative underlying this panoptic mechanism. Hence, it psychologically affects citizens in such a way that they are under close observation. As a result, they tend to modify their behaviour in accordance with existing norms. Bentham also developed a strong notion that the panoptic mechanism would allow citizens in the lower strata of society to access and regulate the Panopticon to prevent the misuse of power. Hence, Bentham strongly believed that the Panopticon was the right mechanism to enhance democracy. In Internment, the presidential candidate after winning the election exploits the repressive state apparatuses to surveil activities to control American society. Thereby, the president manipulated the constitutional machinery in his favour to hold on to power. Hence, this research paper attempts to portray how power functions behind Bentham’s Panopticon in Samira Ahmed’s novel, Internment.