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Ubuntu and Female Agency: Complicating Boundaries in Bessie Head's “The Deep River: A Story of Tribal Migration” Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2024-02-10 Lungelwa Phakathi
In this article I advance that, through a consideration of ubuntu in female agency, one can read a way in which patriarchal boundaries can be complicated through mutually beneficial relationships b...
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Voice of a Santali Woman: In Conversation with Bengali Tribal Writer Lakshmi Mandi Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2024-02-10 Tarik Anowar
Lakshmi Mandi is among the notable emerging Tribal female writers from West Bengal. She was born on 24 January 1972, in a Santali community in Salboni district. As a social activist and poet, she r...
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English Literature in the Grade R Classroom: Exploring the Implementation of Children’s Literature Curricula in Selected Early Childhood Development Centres Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-12-08 Dzidzai Masunga, Dean van der Merwe
The reading challenges children face in the lower grades of primary school in South Africa are well publicised. Children’s literature is critical in early childhood education, supporting growth in ...
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The Impact of Power Relations on Captain Frederick Marryat’s Novels Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-12-08 Seyyedali Khanihoolari, Shamsoddin Royanian
Captain Frederick Marryat is among the most noted writers of the nineteenth century. This article explains why he became a distinguished figure. Throughout his life, he was a Conservative tradition...
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“How Many Cooks in This Kitchen?”: Reflecting on Autoethnography Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-12-08 Aneesa Bodiat, Michael Titlestad
In this article we combine an autoethnographic narrative by the first author and analytical reflections by the second, exploring the complexities of autoethnographic reflection on fields of cultura...
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Precarious Family Spaces in Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Luck Makuyana
Human beings are social creatures, and the family space is their principal institution for socialisation and reproduction. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah (London: Faber & Faber, 2015) reveals ...
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Writing About the Shapes of Conflict: War and Technocracy in the Twenty-First Century Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-06-23 Kyle Allan
Abstract What are the shape(s) of warfare and conflict in the allegedly post-historical, post-human, technocratic age? In a world altered by the technocratic paradigm, has our realist optic, founded on a witnessing that focuses on the surface appearance of things and a rhetoric framed by neo-liberal epistemology and desires, blinded us to the current changeable nature(s) and layerings of war and conflict
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The Re-membering of Literary Bodies in the Zimbabwean Classroom Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-05-29 Flora Dewa, Gerhard Genis
Abstract This article explores ways in which literary and physical bodies are interlinked in a high-school English literature classroom in Zimbabwe. In this study, twenty-four Grade 12 learners, who are conceptualised as living human bodies closely connected through intergenerational memory, responded to an indigenous literary body, the set novel The Uncertainty of Hope (Harare: Weaver Press, 2006)
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I Have Lodged a Lawsuit against Myself Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-05-24 Mohammad Shafiqul Islam
Published in Scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa (Vol. 27, No. 1, 2022)
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Spoken for Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-05-23 Garth Mason
Published in Scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa (Vol. 27, No. 1, 2022)
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An Analysis of Intertextual Entanglements in Shimmer Chinodya’s Chairman of Fools Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2023-04-04 Anias Mutekwa
Abstract This article examines intertextuality in Shimmer Chinodya’s Chairman of Fools (Harare: Weaver Press, 2005), focusing on the novel’s entanglement with earlier texts and its extra-literary context. It argues that the text exhibits generic, stylistic, and thematic entanglements with its precursor texts, particularly Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988)
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Magical Realism: The Spoken Word as a Superperson in Niyi Osundare’s The Word Is an Egg Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-12-13 Chukwunwike Anolue
Abstract The Yorùbá are one of the major ethnic groups in West Africa, with Nigeria being the homeland for the majority. The Yorùbá poet Niyi Osundare’s work is influenced by the Yorùbá animist worldview, which venerates the spoken word. Such influence is evident in his depiction of the spoken word as an extraordinary sort of person, a superperson. One central artistic feature of his poetry is the
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David Levey: Friend, Colleague, Supervisor Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-12-13 Julie Pridmore
Published in Scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa (Vol. 26, No. 2-3, 2021)
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“A Writer Should Have the Freedom to Be Honest”: A Conversation with Leila Aboulela Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-10-28 Sanjida Parveen
Abstract In this interview, Leila Aboulela candidly discusses her role as a writer and the responsibilities it entails. She touches upon several issues pertaining to immigrant life and its associated crises. Having lived for over a decade in the West, she delves deep into the identity crisis of Muslims, especially those living as immigrants in the West post 9/11 who are dealing with burgeoning Islamophobia
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In Conversation with Tahir Shah Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-10-28 Nida Ambreen
Abstract In this interview, the Anglo-Afghan travel writer Tahir Shah talks to Nida Ambreen about his travels to the hidden underbellies of the world and his experiences on his very first travels and more recent trips. Tahir also discusses his love for the different cultures and societies that he has experienced while travelling as a writer, a love which is quite visible in all his works, whether fiction
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South African War Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Poetic Bodies Flexing “Muscular Demonstrations” Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-10-17 Gerhard Genis
Abstract War poetry by South Africans represents the embodiment of angry poetic bodies. These bodies are conduits for Fanonian “muscular demonstrations”. They embody reaction and resistance to world conflicts and colonial oppression of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and carry textual traces of intergenerational memory construction and trauma. The construct of poetic bodies serves as a
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The Warring Worlds of the Nepali Love Story: Understanding Love and Gender through a Select Reading of Texts from the Nepali Civil War Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-08-12 Kritika Chettri
Abstract This article analyses how the idea of love is variously deployed by male and female authors narrating the conflict in Nepal between the Maoists and the Royal Government (1996–2006). Male authors, like Narayan Wagle in his work Palpasa Café, Yug Pathak in Urgen ko Ghoda, and D. B. Gurung in Breaking Twilight, deploy the form of the heterosexual love story in order to provide certain explanations
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The Albinic Body and the Architecture of Resilience in Ben Hanson’s Takadini and Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-08-01 Aaron Chando
Abstract Skin pigmentation has a bearing on identity construction and the politics of belonging in Zimbabwean literature. Persons with albinism are often subjected to social exclusion, rape, and ritual killing due to misconceptions about the aetiology of their condition. The albinic body—regarded by ableist society as either unpigmented or wrongly pigmented—inhabits a precarious liminal space between
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The Albinic Body and the Architecture of Resilience in Ben Hanson’s Takadini and Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-08-01 Aaron Chando
Abstract Skin pigmentation has a bearing on identity construction and the politics of belonging in Zimbabwean literature. Persons with albinism are often subjected to social exclusion, rape, and ritual killing due to misconceptions about the aetiology of their condition. The albinic body—regarded by ableist society as either unpigmented or wrongly pigmented—inhabits a precarious liminal space between
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Dissecting the Doubtful Darwin: Kurt Vonnegut’s Humanist Posthumanism in Galápagos Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-03-30 Ankit Raj, Nagendra Kumar
Abstract Kurt Vonnegut’s Galápagos is his most studied novel after Slaughterhouse-Five. A considerable number of the studies produced on the novel investigate it using a posthumanist theoretical framework, for its unprecedented narrative spans a million years, employs a ghost for its omniscient narrator, and depicts human extinction and the evolution of a post-Homo sapiens species. This article questions
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Andy Duncan’s “Senator Bilbo”: Reflections on J. R. R. Tolkien and Matters of Race Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-03-06 Julie Pridmore
Abstract This article examines the short story “Senator Bilbo” by fantasy writer Andy Duncan, in which the author provides a futuristic view of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, specifically the hobbits’ world of the Shire, in a setting which has become xenophobic and racist, excluding all those who are “other” than hobbits. The chief protagonist of the story, Senator Bilbo, is modelled on the American
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Gender Performativity in Zandile Nkunzi Nkabinde's Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma: A Way to Rewrite and Re-member Black Lesbian Lives in South Africa Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-02-23 Nadine Lake
Abstract The LGBTQI+ category, with its Western roots, has become a contentious descriptor for sexual minorities in Africa. In South Africa, the rising number of violent and homophobic attacks against sexual minorities and lesbian women, often in the form of “corrective rape”, highlights the tension between marginalised communities becoming more visible and vocal about their rights and a conservative
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The Hunter and the Dreamer: Roy Campbell’s Literary Personality in Anthony Akerman’s Dark Outsider Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-01-21 Alannah Birch
Abstract This article considers readings of the life and literary personality of the South African poet Roy Campbell. Drawing on Anthony Akerman’s play about Campbell, Dark Outsider, to support the argument, it argues that readings that limit themselves to the biographical, which tend to foreground his hypermasculine, colonial persona, or the psychological, which read this persona as a mask for a sensitive
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The Hunter and the Dreamer: Roy Campbell’s Literary Personality in Anthony Akerman’s Dark Outsider Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-01-21 Alannah Birch
Abstract This article considers readings of the life and literary personality of the South African poet Roy Campbell. Drawing on Anthony Akerman’s play about Campbell, Dark Outsider, to support the argument, it argues that readings that limit themselves to the biographical, which tend to foreground his hypermasculine, colonial persona, or the psychological, which read this persona as a mask for a sensitive
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“People Who Do Not Understand Irony Cannot Understand Fiction”: An Interview with Tabish Khair Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-01-12 Muddasir Ramzan
Abstract In this detailed interview with Muddasir Ramzan, Tabish Khair discusses his role as a writer, with a special focus on his novel Just Another Jihadi Jane (Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2016). He expresses his views on Muslim identity, his life as a writer and academic in Denmark, Islamophobia and Muslims in the West, re-orientalism and the politics of representation, comprador intellectuals
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“People Who Do Not Understand Irony Cannot Understand Fiction”: An Interview with Tabish Khair Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2022-01-12 Muddasir Ramzan
Abstract In this detailed interview with Muddasir Ramzan, Tabish Khair discusses his role as a writer, with a special focus on his novel Just Another Jihadi Jane (Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2016). He expresses his views on Muslim identity, his life as a writer and academic in Denmark, Islamophobia and Muslims in the West, re-orientalism and the politics of representation, comprador intellectuals
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Ben Okri’s Generational Protest Poem, “The Incandescence of the Wind” Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Rosemary Gray
Abstract The central premise in this article is that Ben Okri's generational protest poem, “The Incandescence of the Wind”, first published in An African Elegy (London: Jonathan Cape, 1992) and republished in Rise like Lions (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2018), seeks to make sense of a profoundly disturbing encounter with contemporary reality through a revisioning of nationhood and poetic responsibility
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HIV/AIDS in Nigerian Fiction: Felix Ogoanah's The Return of Ameze and Ifeoma Theodore Jnr, E.'s Trapped in Oblivion Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-05-04 Femi Eromosele
Abstract This article examines the representation of HIV/AIDS in Nigerian fiction. Despite the scourge of the disease in Nigeria, the most prominent fictional titles have tended to be silent on the subject. Depictions of the disease appear in fiction published and circulated chiefly within the confines of the country. This article focuses on Felix N. Ogoanah's The Return of Ameze (2007, Ibadan: Evans
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HIV/AIDS in Nigerian Fiction: Felix Ogoanah's The Return of Ameze and Ifeoma Theodore Jnr, E.'s Trapped in Oblivion Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-05-04 Femi Eromosele
Abstract This article examines the representation of HIV/AIDS in Nigerian fiction. Despite the scourge of the disease in Nigeria, the most prominent fictional titles have tended to be silent on the subject. Depictions of the disease appear in fiction published and circulated chiefly within the confines of the country. This article focuses on Felix N. Ogoanah's The Return of Ameze (2007, Ibadan: Evans
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Living Archives and the Project of Poetry Recurriculation in South Africa Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-04-21 Raphael d’Abdon, Deirdre C. Byrne, Denise Newfield
Abstract This article, dedicated to the memory of the late Poet Laureate of South Africa and patron of the South African Poetry Project (ZAPP), Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile, situates itself within Kgositsile's struggle for cultural liberation through the arts and education. It is also located within the current South African project of decolonising the curriculum. The call to decolonise existing
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Engaged Queerness in African Speculative Fiction Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-02-10 Bibi Burger
(2020). Engaged Queerness in African Speculative Fiction. Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, Engaged Queerness in African Speculative Fiction, pp. 1-12.
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“2070”, by Qintu Collab Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-02-10 Sonia Audi, Nas Hoosen, Alex Müller, Talia Meer
(2020). “2070”, by Qintu Collab. Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, Engaged Queerness in African Speculative Fiction, pp. 13-22.
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A Wilting Whisper of Antjie Somers: A Meditation on the Witchery and Gender-Nonconformance of Afrikaans Folklore Figure Antjie Somers Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-02-10 Chantelle Croeser
Abstract In this article, I go on a journey with Antjie Somers, a gender-nonconforming, Queer, stigmatised, witch-like figure well known among Afrikaans people. Bringing permutations of their story into conversation with writing about outcasts like witches and Queer people, I consider the parallels that might be drawn between the experiences and knowledge of such ostracised, unconventional figures
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Queering the Lost Child and the Politics of Failure in Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-12-10 Joy Hayward-Jansen
Abstract Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City (Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2010) is a central edifice in the ever-growing genre of South African crime fiction. A decidedly post-apartheid literary trend (though not exclusive to it), crime fiction contributes to commentary on South African futurity, which is often portrayed as violent and almost always disappointing. Understanding the ways in which South African
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The Relationship between Futurity and the Rurality and Urbanity of Spaces in the Queer African Science Fiction of Triangulum by Masande Ntshanga Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Bibi Burger
Abstract The science fiction novel Triangulum (Cape Town: Umuzi, 2019) by Masande Ntshanga challenges both the association of the queer with the urban and the use of the city as symbol for the future in science fiction. The verisimilitude of the life of a queer teenager in the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa—a type of rural queer existence not often depicted in literature—is represented in the novel
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Lauren Beukes discusses Afterland (2020) Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2021-02-10 Nedine Moonsamy
(2020). Lauren Beukes discusses Afterland (2020) Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, Engaged Queerness in African Speculative Fiction, pp. 144-149.
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Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift: Sexual Security in the Era of HIV/AIDS Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-11-26 Renée Schatteman
Abstract This article examines Sindiwe Magona’s 2008 novel, Beauty’s Gift (Cape Town: Kwela), noting its significance as the first full-length work by a South African woman on the topic of HIV/AIDS. The article contends that the novel borrows elements from popular modes of African fiction, primarily through its valorisation of female friendship, to speak to the urgency of the country’s health crisis
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Mapping Identities in Lauren Beukes’s (Re)Imagined Cities Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-11-13 Luiza-Maria Caraivan
Abstract This article connects theories of otherness with urban studies in order to map out interpretive routes in Lauren Beukes's fiction. The article discusses notions of identity and space, underlining how they relate to Beukes's writings. By focusing on definitions of otherness, it examines who the Other is in Beukes's novels. Moreover, by concentrating on urban dynamics, the article analyses city
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Seeking Soul in Solitary States Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-10-18 Claudia Caia Julia Fratini (Freccia)
(2020). Seeking Soul in Solitary States. Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 49-50.
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Queering the Post-Apocalypse in Three Selected Short Stories by Dilman Dila Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-09-30 Edgar Fred Nabutanyi
The Ugandan literary canon is comparable to other regional postcolonial fiction in its obsession with verisimilitude in the representation of nationalist themes, as prominently reflected in the wor...
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“Human Beings Have a Hard Time Relating to That Which Does Not Resemble Them”: Queering Normativity in Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-09-29 Gibson Ncube
In this article, I analyse the ways in which Nnedi Okorafor's Afrofuturist novel Lagoon (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2014) challenges stable and so-called normative identities and ways of being. La...
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On Contemporary Speculative Short Fiction in Southern Africa Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-09-14 Joanna Woods
Speculative fiction is one of the most diverse and complex genres of African literature today. While the genre is not new to the continent, it has recently acquired new energy. This is perhaps most...
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Living Archives and the Project of Poetry Recurriculation in South Africa Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Raphael d’Abdon,Deirdre C. Byrne,Denise Newfield
Abstract This article, dedicated to the memory of the late Poet Laureate of South Africa and patron of the South African Poetry Project (ZAPP), Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile, situates itself within Kgositsile's struggle for cultural liberation through the arts and education. It is also located within the current South African project of decolonising the curriculum. The call to decolonise existing
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Translation and Untranslatability in the Poetry of Dennis Brutus and Keorapetse Kgositsile Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-07-06 Karin Berkman
This article traces aspects of the history of translation, familiar both in critical works that address South African literature and in South African literary texts, in relation to two poems by the...
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Challenging Androcentric Conceptions of Nationalism: Reimagining Female Agency in Maaza Mengiste's Beneath the Lion's Gaze Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-06-24 Nick Mdika Tembo
Maaza Mengiste's Beneath the Lion's Gaze (London: Vintage, 2010) is a fictional reconstruction of the collapse of two ruthless regimes in Ethiopia: the monarchy of Emperor Haile Selassie and the su...
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A Wilting Whisper of Antjie Somers: A Meditation on the Witchery and Gender-Nonconformance of Afrikaans Folklore Figure Antjie Somers Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Chantelle Croeser
Abstract In this article, I go on a journey with Antjie Somers, a gender-nonconforming, Queer, stigmatised, witch-like figure well known among Afrikaans people. Bringing permutations of their story into conversation with writing about outcasts like witches and Queer people, I consider the parallels that might be drawn between the experiences and knowledge of such ostracised, unconventional figures
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Queer Cyborgs in South African Speculative Fiction: Moxyland by Lauren Beukes and The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Grant Andrews
This article explores the image of the queer cyborg in two works of speculative fiction about South Africa, Lauren Beukes's Moxyland (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2008) and Nicky Drayden's The Prey of God...
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Tales of Female Sexuality and Scandal: Lauren Beukes’s “Princess” and Archived Asylum Texts Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Rory du Plessis
In the short story “Princess” (Slipping: Stories, Essays and Other Writing. San Francisco: Tachyon, 2016), Lauren Beukes presents a tale of a princess who discovers her clitoris. Subsequent to this...
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Translanguaging in the Global South Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Cristine Severo, Ashraf Abdelhay, Sinfree Makoni
(2020). Translanguaging in the Global South. Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in Higher Education Institutions, pp. 104-109.
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The Intersection between Multilingualism, Translanguaging, and Decoloniality in the Global South Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Sibusiso Clifford Ndlangamandla, Chaka Chaka
(2020). The Intersection between Multilingualism, Translanguaging, and Decoloniality in the Global South. Scrutiny2: Vol. 25, Multilingualism and Translanguaging in Higher Education Institutions, pp. 1-5.
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Translanguaging, Decoloniality, and the Global South: An Integrative Review Study Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Chaka Chaka
Abstract Studies continue to be conducted on translanguaging as a concept, a phenomenon, a practice, or a strategy at both theoretical and pedagogical levels. However, there is not much research that has studied translanguaging through the dual prism of decoloniality and the Global South. Nor are there integrative review studies that have explored the triple concepts of translanguaging, decoloniality
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Language Alternation in Online Forums: English Monolingual Normativity and Multilingual Practices Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Sibusiso Clifford Ndlangamandla
Abstract Online discussion forums (ODFs), a type of computer-mediated communication (CMC), are sites of language use and multilingual practices where students communicate in web forum communities. There is limited research on the multilingual practices of students learning English for academic purposes (EAP) through ODFs. Drawing on discourse-centred online ethnography (DCOE) and discourse analysis
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The Multiliteracies Learning Environment as Decolonial Nexus: Designing for Decolonial Teaching in a Literacies Course at a South African University Scrutiny2 Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Grant Andrews, Maria Prozesky, Ilse Fouché
Abstract In higher education institutions in South Africa, educators working in the fields of language and academic literacy need to be sensitive and responsive to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the student body, and traditional pedagogical approaches are often inappropriate to meet the needs of students and of the wider call to decolonise higher education. As a group of lecturers working