IJALEL vol 4 no 4 2015

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print) ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Pioneering in Language & Literature Discovery International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature All papers on which this is printed in this book meet the minimum requirements of "Australian International Academic Centre PTY LTD." All papers published in this book are accessible online Editors-in-Chief · John I Liontas, University of South Florida, United States · Jayakaran Mukundan, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia · Zosia Golebiowski, Deakin University, Australia Managing Editor · Seyed Ali Rezvani Kalajahi, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Journal Information ISSN Print: 2200-3592 ISSN Online: 2200-3452 ISBN: 978 -600-5361-84-1 Website: www.journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJALEL E-mail: editor.ijalel@aiac.org.au Publisher Australian International Academic Centre PTY LTD 11 Souter Crescent, Footscray VIC 3011, Australia Phone: +61 9028 6880 Website: http://www.aiac.org.au Hardcopy Providers LuLu Press Inc 3101 Hillsborough Street Raleigh, NC 27607 United States Website: www.lulu.com/spotlight/AIAC Digital Print Australia 135 Gilles Street, Adelaide South Australia 5000 Australia Website: www.digitalprintaustralia.com 2012 – 2015 © IJALEL No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photo print, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher ii Editor(s)-in-Chief John I Liontas, University of South Florida, United States Zosia Golebiowski, Deakin University, Australia Jayakaran Mukundan, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Managing Editor Seyed Ali Rezvani Kalajahi, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Senior Associate Editors Ahmad M Al-Hassan, Bremen University, Germany Ali Miremadi, California State University, United States Biook Behnam, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran Christina Alm-Arvius, Stockholm University, Sweden Eugenio Cianflone, University of Messina, Italy Haifa Al-Buainain, Qatar University, Qatar Hossein Farhady, University of Southern California, United States Huai-zhou Mao John W Schwieter, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada Juliane House, University of Hamburg, Germany Kazem Lotfipour-Saedi, Ottawa University Khalid Al Seghayer, Imam University, Saudi Arabia Khalil Motallebzadeh, IAU, Mashhad, Iran Kimberley Brown, Portland State University, United States Kourosh Lachini, University of Qatar, Qatar Leyli Jamali, IAU Tabriz, Iran María-Isabel González-Cruz, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Spain Mats Oscarson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Meixia Li, Beijing International Studies University, China Mojgan Rashtchi, IAU North Tehran Branch, Iran Moussa Ahmadian, Arak University, Arak, Iran Nurten Birlik, , Middle East Technical University, Turkey Parviz Maftoon, Islamic Azad University, Science & Research Branch, Tehran, Iran Roger Barnard, The University of Waikato, New Zealand Ruth Roux, El Colegio de Tamaulipas & Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Mexico Ruzy Suliza Hashim, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia Sebnem Toplu, EGE University, Turkey Seyyed Ali Ostovar-Namaghi, Shahrood University of Technology, Iran Shameem Rafik-Galea, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Simin Karimi, University of Arizona, United States Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Xitao Fu, Zhanjiang Normal University, China Yolanda Gamboa, Florida Atlantic University, United States Yuko Goto Butler, University of Pennsylvania, United States Zdenka Gadusova, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia Zia Tajeddin, Allameh Tabatabai University,Tehran, Iran Associate Editors Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek, Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia Anne Dragemark Oscarson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Bilge Öztürk, Kocaeli University, Turkey Christopher Conlan, Curtin University, Australia Efstathios (Stathis) Selimis, Technological Education Institute of Kalamata, Greece Ferit Kilickaya, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey Irene Theodoropoulou, Qatar University, Qatar Javanshir Shibliyev, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus Masoud Zoghi, IAU, Iran Md Motiur Rahman, Qassim University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nader Assadi Aidinlou, IAU, Iran Natasha Pourdana, Gyeongju University, South Korea Obaid Hamid, The University Of Queensland, Australia iii Rachel Adams Goertel, Pennsylvania State University, United States Reza Kafipour, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Saeed Yazdani, IAU Bushehr, Iran Shaofeng Li, University of Auckland, New Zealand Usaporn Sucaromana, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand Vahid Nimehchisalem, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Distinguished Advisors Brian Tomlinson, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Charles Goodwin, University of California, Los Angeles, United States Claire Kramsch, University of California, United States Dan Douglas, Dan Douglas , Iowa State University, United States Hossein Nassaji, University of Victoria, Canada Jalal Sokhanvar, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran Roger Nunn, The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE Susan Gass, Michigan State University, United States Advisors Atieh Rafati, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus Ian Bruce, The university of Waikato, New Zealand Kristina Smith, Pearson Education, Turkey Naemeh Nahavandi, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Oytun Sozudogru, University of York, UK Saeed Kalajahi, University of Göttingen, Germany Steve Neufeld, Middle East Technical University, Cyprus Editorial Panel Abdolvahed Zarifi, Yasouj University, Iran Ali Albashir Mohammed Al-Ha, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia Ali Asghar Yousefi Azarfam, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Asghar Salimi Amirghayeb, Maragheh University, Iran Bakhtiar Naghdipour, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus Bora DEMIR, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey Cecilia Chu, Hong Kong Institute of Education, China Dawn Rogier, Embassy of the United States of America, Philippines Ebrahim Samani, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Erdem AKBAS, University of York, UK Fan-Wei Kung, Queen’s University Belfast, UK Farah Ghaderi, Urmia University, Iran Farid Parvaneh, IAU, Iran Gerry Loftus, University of Buckingham, UK Hassan Soleimani, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Hossein Saadabadi, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Isa SPAHIU, International Balkan University, Macedonia John Wallen, University Of Nizwa, Oman Mahdi Alizadeh Ziaei, The university of Edinburgh, UK Marilyn Lewis, University of Auckland, New Zealand Neslihan Önder Ozdemir, Uludağ University, Turkey Noelia Malla García, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Orkun CANBAY, Qatar University, Qatar Reza Vaseghi, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Ruzbeh Babaee, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia Seyyed Ali Kazemi, Islamic Azad University, Iran Shannon Kelly Hillman, University of Hawaii, Hawaii Sima Modirkhamene, Urmia University, Iran Tin T Dang, Vietnam National University, Vietnam Yasemin Aksoyalp, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland iv Vol No 4; July 2015 Table of Contents Articles Wintering in the Beginning of Cold Season: Ecofeminist Deconstruction of Nature in West and East in Farrokhzad’s “Let us Believe in the Oncoming of Cold Season” Bahar Mehrabi, Nasser Najafi 1-7 Appraising Pre-service EFL Teachers' Assessment in Language Testing Course Using Revised Bloom's Taxonomy Elham Mohammadi, Gholam Reza Kiany, Reza Ghaffar Samar, Ramin Akbari 8-20 The Metaphors on International Intervention: A Discourse Analysis of the Sri Lankan English Newspaper Editorials Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan 21-35 An Investigation into the Use of Cohesive Devises in Iranian High School EFL Textbooks Mansour Shabani, Maryam Danaye Tous, Leila Berehlia 36-45 A large-Scale Study on Extensive Reading Program for Non-English Majors: Factors and Attitudes Ching-Yi Tien 46-54 A Critical Discourse Analysis of Family and Friends Textbooks: Representation of Genderism Saeed Esmaeili, Ali Arabmofrad 55-61 Semantic Framing of NATIONALISM in the National Anthems of Egypt and England Esra' Mustafa 62-76 Analyzing the Rhetorical, Typographical and Paralinguistic Features of Electronic Mails in the Workplace Mohammad Awad AlAfnan 77-85 Boosting Autonomous Foreign Language Learning: Scrutinizing the Role of Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Vocabulary Learning Strategies Mania Nosratinia, Alireza Zaker 86-97 Resuscitating the Earth: A Linguistic Analysis of Selected Poems in Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth Abosede Adebola Otemuyiwa, Adetokunbo O Akinyosoye 98-107 The Impact of Texting on Comprehension Jamal K M Ali, S Imtiaz Hasnain, M Salim Beg 108-117 Deixis in Arabic and English: A Contrastive Approach Fatima Ahmad Al Aubali 118-124 Fluid Identity of the Daughter in Jackie Kay's The Adoption Papers Gamal Elgezeery 125-136 Form-based Approaches vs Task-Based Approaches Zahra Talebi, Nader Assadi Aidinlou, Sima Farhadi 137-143 The Impacts of Task-based Teaching on Grammar Learning by Iranian First Grade High School Students Seyyed Morteza Tale, Ahmad Goodarzi 144-153 Diasporic Authenticity Assertions: Analysis of Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter Naeimeh Tabatabaei Lotfi 154-160 The Impact of Multimodal Texts on Reading Achievement: A Study of Iranian Secondary School Learners Bahareh Baharani, Narjes Ghafournia 161-170 v Don Delillo’s Point Omega; Ecstasy and Inertia in a Hyperreal World: A Baudrillardian Reading Faeze Yegane, Farid Parvaneh 171-174 The Impact of Parents’ Involvement in and Attitude toward Their Children’s Foreign Language Programs for Learning English Vida Hosseinpour, Maryam Sherkatolabbasi, Mojgann Yarahmadi 175-185 Verb-Noun Collocations in Written Discourse of Iranian EFL Learners Fatemeh Ebrahimi-Bazzaz, Arshad Abd Samad, Ismi Arif bin Ismail, Nooreen Noordin 186-191 Investigating the Relationship between the Morphological Processing of Regular and Irregular Words and L2 Vocabulary Acquisition Ahmed Masrai, James Milton 192-199 Gender Differences in the Use of Intensifiers in Persian Abbas Eslami Rasekh, Fateme Saeb 200-204 Moodle-based Distance Language Learning Strategies: An Evaluation of Technology in Language Classroom Majid Khabbaz, Rasool Najjar 205-210 Lacanian Trauma & Tuché in Paul Auster’s Man in the Dark Mahsa Khazaei, Farid Parvaneh 211-215 Establishing the Thematic Structure and Investigating the most Prominent Theta Roles Used in Sindhi Language Zahid Ali Veesar, Kais Amir Kadhim, Sridevi Siriniwass 216-230 The Concept of Love in Dostoyevsky's White Nights Mohammad Yousefvand, Hamid Tatari 231-237 On The Importance of A Socio-Culturally Designed Teaching Model in an EFL Writing Classroom Mahdiyeh Abdollahzadeh, Sorayya Behroozizad 238-247 A Socio-Linguistic Investigation into the Etymology of American State Names Abdel-Rahman H Abu-Melhim, Nedal A Bani-Hani, Mahmoud A Al-Sobh 248-255 Disjoint Reference in Modern Standard Arabic Islam M Al-Momani 256-267 History Rewritten in a Postmodern Novel: Opposed Views on History in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion Hatice Eşberk 268-272 vi International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol No 4; July 2015 Flourishing Creativity & Literacy Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Wintering in the Beginning of Cold Season: Ecofeminist Deconstruction of Nature in West and East in Farrokhzad’s “Let us Believe in the Oncoming of Cold Season” and Plath’s “Wintering” Bahar Mehrabi (Corresponding author) Department of English Literature, Shiraz University, Iran E-mail: baharmehrabi22@gmail.com Nasser Najafi Islamic Azad University, Firoz Abad Branch, Iran Received: 25-10- 2014 Accepted: 11-01- 2015 Advance Access Published: February 2015 Published: 01-07- 2015 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.4p.1 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.4p.1 Abstract Ecofeminists seek the reversal of the oppressing binary oppositions of nature/culture, woman/man as to reach a balanced ecosystem in which women are not considered inferior since they are associated with nature Therefore, ecofeminism could be regarded as a suitable framework for the discussion of the literary works and their treatment of woman/nature theme The present article would be an attempt to demonstrate the way Farrokhzad’s “Let us Believe in the Oncoming of Cold Season” and Plath’s “Wintering”, concern such association and deconstruct the binary oppositions in a way that similarly both women personas are ultimately able to take the role of female artist Both women transgress the winter and hope for the spring to come, while the winter they pass through differs since it originates from different social backgrounds As such, new historicism would be applied to discover this difference, since the study is a comparative one and yields to the investigation of different societies in which the poems were composed Farrokhzad lives in an era on the verge of modernism, that’s why she is still preoccupied with the traditions of the past, though she would finally depict the woman persona as having stepped beyond these limitations Plath’s concerns, on the other hand, rise from a mind entangled with the impacts of modernity and the hollow men Both are able to pass the winter, though, as female creators who await the reproductive spring blossoms to flourish Keywords: Ecofeminism, New Historicism, Forogh Farrokhzad, Sylvia Plath Introduction Ecofeminism, the term being coined in 1974 from the French feminist Francoise d'Eaubonne's work, "Le féminisme ou la mort”, has no single definition, however, there are some core principles agreed by almost all ecofeminists, such as the fact that the domination of women and that of nature are fundamentally connected and that environmental efforts are therefore integral with work to overcome the oppression of women It could be also stated that the ecofeminists, unlike liberal feminists, not seek equity with the men, but rather a liberation from the traditional roles naturally associated with women; duties such as childbirth and nurturing and the whole domestic arena, as argued here by King: A healthy, balanced ecosystem, including human and nonhuman inhabitants, must maintain diversity Ecologically, environmental simplification is as significant a problem as environmental pollution Biological simplification, i.e., the wiping out of whole species, corresponds to reducing human diversity into faceless workers, or to the homogenization of taste and culture through mass consumer markets Social life and natural life are literally simplified to the inorganic for the convenience of market society Therefore, we need a decentralized global movement that is founded on common interests yet celebrates diversity and opposes all forms of domination and violence Potentially, ecofeminism is such a movement (1989: 20)” In the patriarchal society, women are treated as inferior to men, ‘nature’ is treated as inferior to ‘culture’ and humans are understood as being separate from, and often superior to, the natural environment In ecofeminism, the connections between woman and nature are considered as to show how they devalue and oppress both ‘women’ and ‘nature’ Women have been almost always associated with nature, e.g the menstrual cycle linked to Lunar cycles, is often quoted as the evidence of women’s closeness to the body and natural rhythms It is stated that, through such closeness with nature, women are regarded as inferior, the fact which is claimed to be not only true about women, but also for oppressed races and social classes who are closely associated with nature Ecofeminism seeks to recognize the interconnectedness and battle these injustices; as Garrard (2004) suggests: IJALEL 4(4):1-7, 2015 More than a theory about feminism and environmentalism, or women and nature, as the name might imply, ecofeminism approaches the problems of environmental degradation and social injustice from the premise that how we treat nature and how we treat each other are inseparably linked (2) The patriarchal dualism, suggests an inherent superiority of one of the pairs in the binary oppositions, and some theorists have suggested that this degrading of the other is driven by the fear of nature and mortality, and due to their biological connection with birth women are a constant reminder of death Women have been associated with nature, the material, the emotional, and the particular, while men have been associated with culture, the nonmaterial, the rational, and the abstract In other words, ecofeministic thinkers desire the reversal of such dualisms Greg Garrard (2004) identifies two ecofeminisms: the radicals which propose the binary oppositions associated with women to be wiped out and the more modified social philosophical one which also includes marginalized members of the society class and gender to be considered as a way to reform the environmental injustices The work of Australian philosopher Val Plumwood offers ecofeminism a sound basis for a much-needed critique of the dynamics of domination as they operate in a range of cultural contexts…Ecofeminism, modified by dialogue with social ecological positions, can provide insight into the cultural operations of environmental injustice.(177) In “Feminism and the Mastery of Nature”, Val Plumwood identified a pattern of dualistic thinking that permeates some cultures and is implicated in their destructive attitudes toward nature Plumwood characterized dualistic thinking is "an alienated form of differentiation, in which power construes and constructs difference in terms of an inferior and alien realm" (42) Subsequently Plumwood blames dualistic thinking for creating "logics of colonization." Ecofeminist Karen Warren gives dualistic thinking a similarly central role in supporting "oppressive conceptual frameworks” As Campbell (2008) affirms: A critique of the use of dualisms is one way theorists such as Val Plumwood have analyzed western thought and views of culture and nature Nature is seen in opposition to culture, and represents female, nonhuman characteristics while culture consists of male, human representations A culture/nature dualism is closely related to the human/nonhuman dualism with women, animals and nature falling on the same side in each case (viii) In such dualistic thinking, self is different from the other One owns the self within which he is shut like a box and the world is the other out there As such, the natural world is simply a mechanical system that humans can exploit Because women are also viewed as ‘other’, they are also manipulated and controlled The ecofeminists encourage the equal significant role of humanity as part of the earth’s ecosystem, and also the non-hierarchial nature of a system in which all parts affect each other Ecofeminism is a practical movement for social change that discerns interconnections among all forms of oppression: the exploitation of nature, the oppression of women, class exploitation, racism, colonialism Against binary divisions such as self/other, culture/nature, man/woman, humans/animals, and white/non-white, ecofeminist theory asserts that human identity is shaped by more fluid relationships and by an acknowledgment of both connection and difference Such is what Karen J Warren has called “value hierarchies, (i.e perceptions of diversity organized by a spatial UpDown metaphor, which attributes higher value (status, prestige) to that which is higher (‘Up’)” (Warren;1997 4) According to Warren, these “value hierarchies,” together with “value dualisms,” represent one of the “conceptual links” that “construct women and nature in male-biased ways.” Literary works of any kind, could be analyzed as to see how the writer, or the text, exemplify the concerns with ecology, that is to pinpoint these ecological concerns in the work, and furthermore, to elaborate on the deep backgrounds, social cultural economic and so forth, of such portrayals Women are associated with nature and therefore, the woman poet is not qualified enough to transcend the nature as the male poet is able to so Pamela Di Pesa (1978) reminds us that “[w]omen poets, like women painters and composers, have long been considered anomalous” because engagement in artistic creativity has been equated with “doing something unnatural”for the female and with “a neurotic avoidance of her natural role” (65) As such, investigating the work of female authors to look for the ways in which they have attempted to transgress such imposed ‘naturality’ can be illuminating If this task is overtaken comparatively, then the social; backgrounds of the poets should also be taken into consideration as to see what have been the nature-culture dualities of the society which the woman poet has been able to move beyond New historicism turned to define history in a new way, which as Sarah Webster Goodwin (1994) states, “stands to open the borders for feminism in comparative literature” (251) She further claims that the so far ignored role of feminism in the field of comparative literature should be taken into consideration since it will provide a suitable frame work for digging into the cultural debates of feminism.”A feminist, historical criticism is both desirable and possible in comparative literature, despite practical difficulties; it could indeed reenergize a languishing field” (252) Therefore the present study would aim at investigating the ecofeministic views of two modern poets across two different continents, the English Sylvia Plath and the Iranian Forogh Farrokhzad, as female artists in relation to their time and place of living so as to depict the ways these two female poets associate with nature in order to demonstrate IJALEL 4(4):1-7, 2015 the oppressed women and nature as well as the way they both transgress the limitations in their societies in order to reach a unification with their very feminine nature, being finally able to become themselves, woman poets Comparatively studied, the symbolic ‘winter’ they pass through in their two poems, “Let us Believe in the Oncoming of the Cold Season” by Farrokhzad and ‘Wintering’ by Palth, proves to have originated from different social and political backgrounds The new historical study of the two mentioned poems would therefore be accompanied in a comparative way to picture the different winters the female poets have had in mind as the bridges to the oncoming spring Discussion The close connection between women and nature as being the oppressed in the binary opposition is one of the core principles of the ecofeminism, which is to be wiped out if the balanced ecosystem is to work out properly Forogh Farokhzad’s “Let us believe in the Oncoming of the Cold Season” plays on the integrity of the woman persona with outside nature from the very beginning of the poem “This is me, a lonely woman In the threshold of a cold season In the beginning of the sad perception of the polluted existence of earth And the simple tragic sadness of the sky And the disability of these concrete hands” At the very first stanza of the poem, the woman persona has been associated, with the environmental elements, which like her, are experiencing ‘sadness’ By juxtaposing the woman with nature, it seems Forogh is able to convey her own ecolofeministic thinking without being aware of it The woman is oppressed just like the nature, the nature which stands opposite to the culture, associated with ‘concrete’ The woman is the one who “understands the secret of seasons” and is thinking of the “intercourse of flowers” while the man is “passing the wet trees” with “his blue vessels going up his neck like the dead snakes” The horrifying picture of a soulless man is juxtaposed in opposite to the lively thinking woman who has close affinity with nature As the poem moves on, the woman becomes the center of the poem, the one who is finally able to overcome the oppressions The whole poem traces the way the woman persona is finally able to achieve the unification she desires with nature This unification is not simply the normally accepted rehearsal of dualistic roles, but to use Stacy Alaimo’s terms (2000), it is a “grounded immersion [in nature] rather than bodiless flight [from nature]” (2) Such would be the force or energy annihilated to the soul of the persona so much so that she could finally join the spirit of equality in nature In Sylvia Plath’s “Wintering”, such sad atmosphere is that of a room where she has never “ been in/The room I never breathe in ” with “ no light” However, the woman persona here is the one who has the honey and is now contemplating on her surroundings She comes to philosophize that “The bees are all women/Maid and the long royal lady/They have got rid of men” The association of the nature and women is seen in the next lines where “Winter is for women…The woman, still at her knitting/At the cradle of Spanish walnut/Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think” Like the woman in Forogh’s poem, she seems to have undertaken the journey towards self realization through nature In Margaret Dickie’s(1979) words the woman persona whom she associates with Plath herself :” … is able, in "Wintering," to accept also the activities of women who "have got rid of the men,/ The blunt, clumsy stumblers, the boors." Knitting, tending the cradle, harboring life in her body-bulb, she will survive”(25) The long poem by Farrokhzad starts in the first day of Dey Month, the first day of the first month of winter in Persian calendar It seems as if the journey starts off here The image is not only that of the woman, but rather of the man also, which could be viewed as the ecofeminist concern with the balanced present of all elements in the ecosystem The man is dead, as if “he has never been alive” and as it moves on, the whole image of rot and decay is seen in association with the death in nature “This is the beginning of dying”, as the poem moves on, the woman also is declared dead in the ninth stanza, where she is “feeling frozen” and her body is “being chewed by the fish” and she keeps asking “why you always hold me at the bottom of the sea” In the patriarchal way of dualistic thinking, women have been oppressed through their association with nature, if it is looked from an ecofeministic point of view Here the woman persona seems to be objecting to such association which equals death and ignorance for her, as if being captivated at the bottom of the sea The woman seeks liberation from the imposed roles on her by society, so much so that she could attain her own personal voice Farrokhzad presents this relationship between women and nature as a positive medium for personal healing, as well as for social and environmental change through a reconfiguration of the body and nature The woman persona in her this poem is taking a journey “I have moved this wandering island through oceans and mountain explosions” (Stanza 10) As the poem moves, along the journey, she reaches night putting the “indifferent world” behind She is seeking reunification with nature, through which she would be able to find her own voice Throughout her journey, she passes from her birth time, symbolically winter, to the youth when she is the ‘bride of the Acaci branches”, the bride of nature She ultimately is able to transgress the present woman she is, by telling her mother “I would die, it always happens sooner than we imagine, so we have to send a death announcement for the newspaper” She is dead now, like the man who passes the “wet trees” However, she is still expressing hope for the next spring to come “Next Year, when spring sleeps with the window, with the green stems flowering in its body, the light bosoms IJALEL 4(4):1-7, 2015 would flourish…”, The journey undertaken by the woman and the healing she experiences, offers an alternative worldview that challenges the dominant dualistic worldview, which separates and devalues women, bodies, and nature Forogh’s poem blurs the boundaries between self and nature, the material and the spiritual, dreams and reality, as well as gender boundaries She presents a new way of knowing and an alternative value system that through a rejection of binary oppositions recovers nature, women, and spirituality from the chasms of degradation and injustice As Zubizarret (1992) rightly affirms: "The intensity of expression in her poetry becomes the fierce cry of a woman seeking identity in the repressive world of twentieth-century Iran, a world heir to centuries of closed opportunities for women in all endeavors but particularly in art” The final question for the woman persona in Plath’s poem is also “Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas/Succeed in banking their fires/To enter another year?/What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?/The bees are flying They taste the spring.” As it could be read from the lines, there is the same hope being expressed here The image of woman is juxtaposed with the natural element of bees, like bees they are to work and reproduce However, they will see the spring, meaning through the unification with the natural elements, Plath, like an ecofeminstic thinker, sees the hope of healthy balanced ecosystem in which the dualistic binary oppositions are removed as to give way for more reciprocal understanding of the oppressed, e.g women and nature The woman is here being depicted in the room, in winter time, as in Forogh’s poem, struggling with her past in order to survive the present and build up hope for the future She is, as it was mentioned before, very much associated with nature, ‘bees’ imagery is repeated throughout the poem However, as Karen Ford (1997) states: ”these bees appear similar to those in "The Swarm." Both are compared to soldiers In "The Swarm" they are clearly doomed, "Walking the plank / Into a new mausoleum"; in "Wintering," however, they are survivors, "Filing like soldiers / To the syrup tin."” (76) It is no surprise to learn that "The bees are all women, / Maids and the long royal lady / They have got rid of the men, // The blunt, clumsy stumbles, the boors." This sense of alliance and cooperation with nature dose not reinforce the oppression, but is used as means to defy such view and use the very soil of nature for gaining her own voice as a woman artist, hence the poem being the last one of the so called ‘Bee Poems” series by Plath, the ones which concern her gaining role through the connection she is able to establish with the world around her Through such unification with nature the woman poet is able to overcome and transgress the winter line, survive and hope for the silver linings to come, like the blossoms Farokhzad would hope to see coming with the next spring The beekeeper that is linked to the image of a dictator who “uses the bees as instruments of imperialist selfaggrandizement ” ( Christin Britzolakis 2006,119)disappears here, leaving the speaker alone She is the one who holds the power of reproductively, just like the bees As the final piece to the sequence of Bee Poems, “Wintering” no longer depicts the image of the daughter who desires the power of the father, or care taker, but rather the woman persona is able to repudiate the monopoly of power through association with nature and overcome the boundaries, thus reproducing creativity as the female artist In other words this poem “…celebrates the female hive’s powers of survival…” ( Christin Britzolakis 2006,120) Such association with natural elements assists the women personas in both poems to overcome the limiting boundaries imposed upon women in a patriarchal society and gain their own voices As modern ecofeminists, though years earlier than the fostering of the theories, Farrokhzad and Plath demonstrate their concerns about the oppressed both nature and women and use the very derogative association of women with nature, which are used to oppress the women so much so that they would not be attempting anything ‘unnatural’ The poets are artistically able to juxtapose the images of natural elements and women in the setting of winter in such way that the personas take up a journey through which they are able to make use of the very natural elements and through association with the nature, they are able to finally end up the journey, resurrect from the hibernate in winter, and hope for the spring to come, the season for productivity, the creative artistic assembly of words in form of poetry In other words, the nature/culture, woman/ man binary opposition is deconstructed in both poems The limitations in these poems are depicted as winter, the one which both poet personas are able to overcome However, these symbolic winters are different due to the fact that the poems certainly have originated from different societies Like Sylvia Palth, Forogh Farrokhzad is also depicting the association of nature and women, as well as the journey which is undertaken to overcome these confinements In fact both, though coming from different social and cultural backgrounds, are women poets who are searching their own role in the ecosystem Her collection of poems called “The Captive” appeared as the pioneer of love poetry by the female poet among \, or perhaps it is better to say as an opposition to, the male depictions of love in Persian poetry Michael C Hillmann declares that in 1955 Farrokhzad "published the first volume of verse in the history of Persian literature exhibiting a poetic speaker recognizable throughout as a female" (90, 41) She is acting against the current stream of the male dominated culture in the way she depicts the sensual imageries of femininity In addition to the investigation of female body and sensuality, as we discussed, at least in the poems such as “Let us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season” she is able to transgress the limiting winter by believing in it at first, and then through the association with natural elements, the female poet is able to violate against the presupposed role of being a natural woman, gain her own voice The ‘cold season’ of Forogh is the ‘winter of Sylvia, while they differ since they obviously originate from different backgrounds Farrokhzad has expresses such rebellion against the traditions and conventions almost frankly in most of her poems The point of difference, however, among this poem and another poem in which she is blatantly expressing her sensual IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 258 terms of two notions: C-Command and Governing Category (see (13) and (12a and b) below) C-command is a notion of syntactic prominence that corresponds to the structural relation that holds between an operator and a variable in logic; whereas, governing category is a notion of locality which corresponds to the minimal domain containing a predicate and all its arguments, including the subject Principle A states that an anaphor must be coreferential with a ccommanding noun phrase in its governing category; while, principle B states that a pronominal must not be coreferential with any c-commanding noun phrase in its governing category Chomsky (1981) argues that nominal expressions are classified into four types based on the two valued features [anaphoric] and [pronominal] The theory of binding organizes the four categories as follows: Types of NPs [+ anaphoric, - pronominal] anaphors [- anaphoric, + pronominal] pronominals [- anaphoric, - pronominal] R-expressions [+ anaphoric, + pronominal] PRO These four types of NPs are exemplified as in the following sentences: a Anaphor: Bill saw himself in the mirror b Pronominal: Bill saw him c R-expression: Bill saw John d PRO: John wants [PRO to leave] (6a, b, and c) exemplify three types of overt nominals; whereas, (6d) exemplifies the binding of a hypothesized null anaphor PRO The distribution and analysis of the first three types of NPs are handled by the Binding theory, while the relation of PRO (the unexpressed subject of non-finite clauses) to its antecedent falls under the theory of Control Consider (7) and (8) where the former illustrates obligatory control and the latter optional control: The teacher asked his studenti [PROi to leave the classroom] Johni thinks that [PROi/j to win the game] is not easy In (7), the unexpressed subject of the non-finite clause is his student, while in (8), the null subject can correspond either to John or anybody else The range of anaphoric relations among nominal phrases in sentences is regulated by the principles of the theory of binding That is, for each type of overt nominal expressions, a binding requirement specifies the domain within which a nominal can or cannot have an antecedent In a somewhat simplified description of the standard formulation of this theory (Chomsky 1981, 1986; Chomsky and Lasnik 1993), it consists of the following principles: Binding theory (BT): Principle A: An anaphor must be bound in a local domain Principle B: A pronominal must be free in a local domain Principle C: An R-expression is free Anaphors and pronominals can be referentially dependent on another NP, namely, their antecedents An anaphor picks its reference from the subject NP “antecedent” within the same sentence In sentence (10), for instance, the subject NP John on which the reflexive pronoun himself is dependent for its interpretation is the antecedent We indicate that the anaphor and its antecedent have the same referent by means of coindexation 10 John i shot himself i The interpretation of pronouns, which is the main concern of this paper, differs from that of reflexives The pronoun him in sentence (11) must refer to an entity different from the subject NP John, while the reflexive pronoun in the same position in sentence (10) must refer to an entity denoted by John Whereas the reflexive must be bound, the pronoun must be free 11 *John i shot him i (The asterisk in sentence (11) refers to the ungrammaticality of the particular coindexation) IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 259 Since the theory of binding is developed within the theory of government, it makes use of the fundamental notions: “govern” and “governing category” in order to decide the local domain of pronominals and reflexives The tow notions are characterized by Chomsky as in (12a and b) 12 a a govern b iff: i a = X ii a c-commands b iii b is not protected by a maximal projection (Chomsky1981:163) b a is the governing category for b iff a is the minimal category containing b a governor of b, where a = NP or S (Chomsky 1981:188) In (12a), a (= X) represents a lexical category, i.e., N, V, A, or P Maximal projections are: CP, IP, VP, AP, NP, and PP The word “protected” in condition (iii) of (12a) is understood in the following way: b is protected by a maximal projection if the latter includes b but not a In the general case “government” is the relation between a lexical head and its complement So, the heads verbal, nominal, prepositional, and adjectival constructions govern the elements they are subcategorized for Moreover, INFL or (AGR in INFL) governs the subject of a tensed clause The subject of an embedded infinitival construction is governed by the complementizer “for” in the comp position, or by a matrix verb which has the property of inducing S(ubject) deletion in its complement, if either of these is present, if neither is present the subject of an embedded infinitive is ungoverned Moreover, the notion of C (constituent) Command hereafter: C- Command Condition established by Reinhart (1976, 81, 83) plays a crucial role in Chomsky’s theory of binding She states her definition as follows: 13 “Node A c-commands node B if neither A nor B dominates the other and the first branching node which dominates A dominates B.” (Reinhart (1976: 32)) So, X is considered to be bound by Y if X is c-commanded by Y and co-indexed with it But X is considered to be free if it’s not co-indexed with Y as shown in (10) and (11) above Additionally, an interpretive procedure is needed to interpret coindexed NPs as coreferential and noncoindexed NPs as non-coreferential (see Chomsky and Lasnik 1993; Chomsky 1995) To unify the indexing procedure and the interpretive procedure, Chomsky and Lasnik (1993) restate the binding principles as interpretive procedures, dispensing with the indexing procedure Their formulation is as in (14) 14 Interpretive binding theory: Condition A: If a is an anaphor, interpret it as coreferential with a c-commanding phrase in D Condition B: If a is a pronoun, interpret it as disjoint from every c-commanding phrase in D Condition C: If a is an R-expression, interpret it as disjoint from every c-commanding phrase This version is as version (9) requires the concept of local domain The difference between the interpretive version in (14) and the standard version in (9) is that under the latter, binding principles are conditions on representations; whereas, under the former, the binding principles are interpretive procedures that assign certain interpretive relations among phrases and are, by nature, derivational.( this paper adopts the definition in (9) Another assumption has to with the way the BT applies to chains formed by Movement and Copy (Chomsky 1995) This is a version of the Chain Uniformity Condition (CUC) (see Chomsky 1995, Brass 1986, and Freiden and Vergnaud 2001) A question that arises at this point: At what point of syntactic derivation the principles of BT apply? Under Principles and Parameters, the BT is satisfied at a single level of representation, i.e., the level of S-structure (Chomsky 1981, Brass 1986, among others) Under minimalist assumptions, the levels of D-structure and S-structure are eliminated, therefore, analyses relying on these levels are not viable Thus, under Chomsky’s minimalist program, BT is claimed to apply at LF exclusively (see Chomsky 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995) 4.2 Disjoint Reference in Arabic 4.2.1 Pronouns in Verbal Object Positions Like English, in Arabic, the overt pronoun system contains lexical anaphors and pronominals that can be distinguished from each other precisely in the way that they may select their antecedents Chomsky (1995) assumes that an anaphor (reflexive pronouns) must have a c-commanding antecedent within its governing category, which is handled by IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 260 principle A of the theory of binding, pronominals (non-reflexive pronouns), on the other hand, can be classified as referential pronouns which are handled by principle B of the same theory In a verbal object position, Arabic reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns exhibit complementary distribution Thus, in the following sentences, where the reflexive pronoun nafs (self) can be bound by an antecedent in its governing category, i.e., ‘IP’, the pronoun hu must be free in that governing category 15 a Zaid-uni ?intaqada nafsahui Zaid-nom criticized himself ‘Zaid criticized himself.’ b.*Zaid-uni ?intaqada-hui Zaid-nom criticized-him ‘Zaid criticized him.’ The data in (15) exhibit complementarity that refers to the fact that in direct object position in Arabic, the reflexive pronoun nahsahu, himself can only be interpreted as having the same semantic value as its clause-mate antecedent, Zaidun; whereas, the non-reflexive pronoun hu, him can only be interpreted as finding its reference outside the sentence; the antecedent of hu can never be the subject NP Zaidun Once a pronoun is separated from its antecedent by a clause boundary, the sentence becomes grammatical as in (16) 16 yactaqidu CP[?anna IP[Hind-an tuћibu-hui]]] IP[Zaid-uni IP[Zaid-nom thinks CP[that IP[Hind-acc loves-him]]] ‘Zaid thinks that Hind loves him.’ However, a reflexive pronoun in the same position of the pronoun in (16) will lead to the ungrammaticality of the sentence as in (17) 17 * IP[Zaid-uni yactaqidu CP[?anna IP[Hind-an tuћibu nafsahui]]] IP[Zaid-nom thinks CP[that IP[Hind-acc loves himself]]] ‘Zaid thinks that Hind loves himself.’ Based on the aforementioned examples, I claim that among the imaginable anaphoric relations in the direct object position in Arabic, some are necessary, some are possible, and still others are prohibited, depending on the nature of NPs involved and the syntactic configurations in which they occur Consider the following examples: 18 Zaid-uni ḍaraba nafsahui Zaid-nom hit himself ‘Zaid hit himself.’ 19 Zaid-uni qala ?anna Hind-an ḍarabat-hui Zaid-nom said that Hind-acc hit-him ‘Zaid said that Hind hit him.’ 20 *Zaid-uni ḍaraba-hui Zaid-nom hit-him ‘Zaid hit him In (18), the reflexive pronoun nafsahu (himself) allows only the reading in which ‘nafsahu’ must refer to Zaidun hu in (19) can be referentially dependent upon Zaidun In contrast, (20), has no reading in which the pronoun ‘hu’ refers to Zaidun Hence, the syntactic properties for reflexive binding in MSA are handled by the binding Principle A In contrast with anaphoric expressions, pronominals impose no positive binding requirement on their antecedent, but instead, a negative one, which requires that a pronominal does not have an antecedent that is too adjacent to it Note that in (15a) where coreference is a must between the reflexive pronoun nafsahu and the subject NP Zaidun within the governing category (IP), there is a clause boundary between the pronoun hu and its antecedent in (16) The complementary distribution between anaphors and pronominals is argued to be based on structural properties of the sentence and the position in which the pronoun whether reflexive or non-reflexive occurs These basic structural principles that guide the appearance of reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns are argued by Safir (2004:9) as in (21) IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 261 21 a Principle A: An anaphor (reflexive pronoun) must be bound in Domain D (some locally defined domain) b Principle B: A pronoun (non-reflexive pronoun) must be free in Domain D (some locally defined domain) Safir (2004:9) defines binding as follows: 22 Binding: X binds Y if X c-commands Y and X and Y are coindexed If X is not bound it is free The structural notion of c-command is defined also by Safir (2004:9) as follows: 23 C-command: X c-commands Y if the first branching node dominating X also dominates Y In order to illustrate these principles, consider the following tree diagram in (24) that represents the examples in (15): 24 TP NP Zaiduni I’ I VP V’ NP ti V NP ?intaqada nafsahui/huj /j* Chomsky (1995:102), while describing binding relations in examples as in (15), states “Under the hypothesis that subjects are base-generated internal to VP, the VP will be the GC (Governing Category, the ‘local domain’), with the trace of the subject (which has itself moved to the [Spec, IP]) serving as the binder” Accordingly, The VP in the representation above is the minimal domain because it is the first branching node that dominates the NP, t and also dominates the NP object node containing nafsahu or hu The [Spec, IP] which is the NP, containing the trace, t, ccommands the object NP position In this case, if the reflexive pronoun nafsahu is coindexed with the trace, t of Zaidun, the trace binds the reflexive pronoun; whereas, if the non-reflexive pronoun hu is coindexed with the trace of Zaidun, then the trace binds the non-reflexive pronoun This leads to the ungrammaticality of the sentence because it violates Principle B which states that non-reflexive pronouns must be free in the local domain (VP) The only grammatical use of the non-reflexive pronoun as in (15b) is to be coindexed with an antecedent outside the VP or in the discourse Therefore, Principle B of the binding theory in Chomsky (1995) argues that a pronominal is free in its governing category (local domain) This predicts the position in a sentence in which a pronoun must be disjoint in reference from a c-commanding NP in its governing category Now, let us consider the behavior of pronouns in “Ss” in MSA containing only a single clause and witness how principle B works in Arabic The following sentence illustrates cores of disjoint reference 25 * Zaid- uni ra?a-hui Zaid-nom saw-him Zaid saw him In (25), hu, (him) cannot be locally bound and thus cannot be coindexed with the subject of the sentence Zaidun in its governing category Thus, a restriction which characterizes the interpretation of pronominals in Arabic is captured by Principle B of the theory of binding This principle accounts for the impossibility of the pronoun hu in sentence (25), for instance, to be coindexed with a c-commanding NP in its governing category 4.2.2 Pronouns in NP Positions In the examples presented thus far, the VP has served as the relevant domain for binding, i.e Domain D Thus, Principle B of the theory of binding gives correct results at the level of IP, “S” It also gives correct results at the level of “NP” which is considered according to the theory of binding as another local domain Consider the examples in (26) where “him” is interpreted as proximate to John IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 262 26 a Johni saw [NP my picture of himi] b.*I saw [NP John’si picture of himi] c Johni thought I saw [NP a picture of himi] Principle B makes correct predictions about (a), (b), and (c) of (26) Sentences (26a and c) are grammatical because the pronoun him is free in its local domain, the NP Sentence (26b) is ungrammatical because the pronoun is bound and coindexed with John in the local domain violating principle B The same is true of their Arabic equivalents as in (27) 27 a Zaid-uni ra?a [NP ṣuwar-i la-hui] Zaid-nom saw [NP pictures-my of-him] ‘Zaid saw my pictures of him.’ b *Omar-un ra?a Hind-nom saw [NP ṣuwara Zaid-ini la-hui] [NP pictures Zaid-gen of-him] ‘Hind saw Zaid’s pictures of him.’ c Zaid-uni ?ictqadaa ?ann-ani ra?itu [NP ṣuwar-an la-hui] Zaid-nom thought that-I saw [NP pictures-acc of-him] ‘Zaid thought that I saw pictures of him Chomsky (1995) analyzes other examples in which the local domain for condition A and B is the NP as shown in (28) 28 John likes [NP Bill’si stories about himselfi/him*i] In (28), the local domain of the reflexive pronoun himself and the non-reflexive pronoun him is the NP Bill’s stories about himself/him The reflexive pronoun cannot refer to an antecedent outside the NP because Bill inside the NP is a potential; whereas, the non-reflexive pronoun is free within the NP and refers to an antecedent outside the NP In Arabic, the local domain for condition A and B can also be the NP as proposed in Chomsky’s analysis (1995) Consider the following example: 29 Zaidun yuћibu [NP qiṣaṣa Mohammad-ini Zaid-nom likes c an-hu*i /nafsihii] [NP stories Mohammad-gen about-him/himself] ‘Zaid likes Ali’s stories about him/himself.’ In (29), the local domain of the reflexive pronoun nafsihi and the non-reflexive pronoun hu is the NP qiṣaṣa Mohammadini can-hu*i /nafsihii The reflexive pronoun must be bound and coindexed by Mohammadin inside the local domain, NP; whereas, the non-reflexive pronoun cannot refer to an antecedent inside the NP because it must be free in that local domain It could refer either to Zaidun the subject NP of the sentence or to an antecedent in the discourse However, in some cases a reflexive pronoun resides within an NP of similar syntactic structure with no local binder as in (30) 30 Zaiduni yuћibu [NP smaaca qiṣaṣṣin can-hui/ nafsihii] Zaid-nom likes [NP hearing stories about-him/himself] ‘Zaid likes hearing stories about him/himself.’ In (30), the non-reflexive pronoun hu is free within its local domain, the NP, whereas, the reflexive pronoun nafsihi cannot find its antecedent in the NP as in (30), but must find it in the in the specifier of the VP as exactly the case in English as in (31) 31 Johni likes [NP stories about himselfi] The example in (31) shows that the definition of the binding domain must be flexible enough to allow for varying structures to serve as a relevant domain Chomsky (1995:102) reduces the notion ‘Governing Category’ (local domain) to that of ‘Complex Functional Complex’ (CFC) so as to incorporate this distinction and generalize the local domain from NP to VP by arguing that a CFC is “a projection containing all grammatical functions compatible with its head” The rule for finding the appropriate domain for binding according to him is as follows: IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 263 32 The Governing Category (the local domain) for a is the minimal CFC that contains a and a governor of a and in which a’s binding condition could, in principle, be satisfied (Chomsky 1995:102) Therefore, for instance, a CFC for a verb includes all of its arguments (including the subject); a CFC for a noun is the head noun and all its arguments Note that the absence of a potential binder plays an important role for Principle B of the theory of binding In other words, there must be no potential binder for a pronominal within CFC in order for the CFC to be the governing category (local domain) for a pronominal In (28), the CFC is the NP, Bill’s stories about himself/him in which the non-reflexive pronoun must be free satisfying Principle B Since the determiner position is filled with Bill, Bill serves as a binder for the reflexive pronoun himself In (31), the NP lacks the filled D position; the NP alone does not include a governor and thus, the CFC must be the VP, the domain in which John, the binder, binds the reflexive pronoun It has been argued by different linguists as mentioned earlier in this paper that Principles A and B predict complementary distribution of anaphors and pronominals as shown in (33) and (34) 33 a [CFC2 Johnj said [that[CFC1 Maryi loves herselfi/j*.]] b [CFC2 Johnj said [that[CFC1 Maryi loves himi*/j.]] 34 a [CFC2 Johni said[that[CFC1 himselfi*is intelligent.]] b [CFC2 Johni said[that[CFC1 hei is intelligent.]] However, counter examples of this generalization may appear as illustrated in (35) 35 a [CFC2 The meni like [CFC1 each other’si cars.] b [CFC2 The meni like [CFC1 theiri cars.] Apparently, the anaphor each other in (35a) and the pronominal their in (35b) are not in complementary distribution According to the theory of binding of Chomsky (1995), the governing category of the anaphor each other in (35a) is CFC2, which is the minimal CFC containing a potential binder ‘the men’ On the other hand, the governing category for the pronominal their in (35b) is CFC1, since CFC1 is the minimal CFC where the binding Principle could be satisfied Thus, the pronominal ‘their’ is free in CFC1 Now, we will consider the occurrence of possessive pronouns in the specific position of NPs In English, this position does not present a problem for Principle B of the binding theory Consider (36) 36 John is reading [NP his book] The CFC for the pronoun his is the NP and hence, Principle B correctly predicts that this pronoun is free within it However, the possessive pronoun can be co-indexed with the subject NP John outside its governing category Now, let us consider the behavior of possessive pronouns in Arabic sentences in accordance with Principle B by examining the following sentences: 37 Zaid- un qara?a Zaid-nom read [NP kitab- a-hu] [NP book-acc-his] ‘Zaid read his book.’ 38 Hind- un qara?a- t Hind-nom read [NP kitab-a-ha] FM [NP book-acc-her] ‘Hind read her book.’ 39 Zaid-un ?caTa hind-an [NP kitab-a-ha] Zaid-nom gave Hind-acc [NP book-acc-her] ‘Zaid gave Hind her book.’ Sentences (37) and (38) present a similarity to the English sentence (36) In (37) and (38), the pronouns hu and are co-indexed with the subject NPs Zaidun and Hindun Since Zaidun and Hindun ccommand hu and outside their governing category, (NP), and coindexation between them is possible However, in (39) though the pronoun cannot be co-indexed with the subject NP Zaidun as in (37) and (38), the pronoun can be co-indexed only with the indirect object NP Hindun Principle (B) gives correct results for (37), (38), and (39) The crucial difference between (37) and (38) in one hand and (39) on the other hand seems to be that in IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 264 the former, the antecedent of the pronouns is the subject, while in the latter, the antecedent of the pronoun is the indirect object Thus, pronouns in Arabic are not bound by a c-commanding antecedent within their local domain that contains a pronoun and a governor of that pronoun 4.2.3 Pronouns in Prepositional Phrases Now, let us consider the behavior of pronouns in prepositional phrases in Arabic and see how principle B of the theory of binding works in Arabic Consider the following sentence where Principle B correctly predicts that the pronoun hi is free in its local domain: 40 *?carraft-u c Zaid-ani introduced(I) Zaid-acc alai-hii to-him ‘I introduced Zaid to him.’ The pronoun hi, (him) in the oblique phrase cannot be bound by the direct object in its governing category since it violates Principle B The same principle also predicts the interpretation of resumptive pronouns in Arabic Consider the following example in which the pronoun hu cannot be referentially dependent upon Zaidun 41 r-rajul-ui ?allathi ?cata Zaid-un the-man who la-hui l-kitab-a haḍara gave Zaid-nom for-him the-book came ‘The man who Zaid gave the book to him came.’ In (41), the resumptive pronoun ?allathi, (who) cannot refer the subject NP, Zaidun because the pronoun hu would be bound within its governing category Thus, the resumptive pronoun is coindexed with the head NP r-rajulu which is outside the governing category of the pronoun hu However, the standard binding theory does not always give a correct prediction about the distribution of pronominals in prepositional phrases in Arabic Consider the following sentences: 42 *Zaid-uni ?acta l-kitaba la-hui Zaid-nom gave the-book to-him ‘Zaid gave the book to him.’ 43 a Zaiduni waḍaca l-kitaba bijanibi-hii Zaid-nom put the-book next to-him ‘Zaid put the book next to him.’ b Zaiduni ?iltafata ћawla-hui Zaid-un looked around-him ‘Zaid looked around him.’ c Zaiduni baћatha can l-mafatiћi xalfa-hui Zaid-nom looked for the-keys behind-him ‘Zaid looked for the keys behind him.’ d Zaiduni ?ajlasa Hind-an bi-janib-hii Zaid-nom made sit Hind-acc next to-him ‘Zaid made Hind sit next to him.’ e Zaidun dafaca l-binta bacidan can-hu Zaid-nom pushed the-girl away from-him ‘Zaid pushed the girl away from him.’ f - Zaid-un ?axada Hind-an ?ila bait-i-ha Zaid Nom took Hind-acc to home-gen-her ‘Zaid took Hind to her home.’ In sentences (42 and 43), we can assume that the subject NP Zaidun is base-generated in the VP Thus, the spec of the VP in each sentence is Zaidun Zaidun in sentence (42) does not binds the pronoun hu, and thus, free in its local domain, the IP with no violation of Principle B However, in the examples in (43), Zaidun binds the pronoun in PP If the VP is considered the local domain for binding According to Principle B, the pronoun must be free within its local domain, thus the examples in (43) should be ungrammatical with the reading that the pronoun and the subject NP are coreferent Thus, there is a violation of Principle B IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 265 The failure of the standard binding theory to handle such examples leads us to adopt Tenny’s analysis (2003:1) She assumes that the pronoun in prepositional phrases is a “short distance” pronoun Accordingly, the examples in (43) suggest that the local domain for binding when the short distance pronoun resides in a PP should not be the VP, but rather a more restricted local domain such as the PP itself In fact, this analysis is proposed in works done by Hestvik (1991), Reinhart and Reuland (1993), Safir (2004), and Büring (2005) According to them, if the PP forms its own domain, the short distance pronoun as in (43) would not be bound within the local domain and hence, all the examples in (43) would not be in violation of Principle B According to Hestvik’s analysis, the PP is considered as a Complete Functional Complex (CFC) that serves as a local domain The PP is considered as the minimal domain which includes the pronoun and its governor as seen in the examples in (43) However, the minimal domain which includes the pronoun, its governor and a subject is the IP Based on this analysis, the pronoun hi, (him) in sentence (43a), for instance, is coindexed with the subject NP of the IP, but it is not necessarily bound by it, i.e., they share the same referent, but their semantic value are filled independently Thus, the pronoun based on this characterization of the CFC, may be free even if it is coindexed with the subject of the sentence with no violation of Principle B Thus, the pronoun hi in (43a) is free of a local binder in the PP, but it is not free in the IP because the PP is adjoined within it and hence, the pronoun is licensed 4.2.4 Referential and Bound Pronouns This section sheds light upon two types of pronominals in Arabic, referential pronouns that can be coindexed with a name and bound pronouns that can be coindexed with quantifiers Of course both types of pronouns are coindexed with an antecedent outside their governing categories Consider sentences (44) and (45) illustrating referential and bound pronouns respectively 44 yactaqidu Zaid-uni ?anna l-mucallim-a thinks yuћibbu-hui kathiran Zaid-nom that the-teacher-acc loves-him much ‘Zaid thinks that the teacher loves him very much 45 Kulluwaћid-ini yactaqidu ?anna l-mucallim-a everyone-gen thinks yuћibbu-hui kathiran that the-teacher-acc loves-him much ‘Everyone thinks that the teacher loves him very much.’ Like referential pronouns, bound pronouns have to obey Principle B Thus, the following sentences are unacceptable with the pronoun ‘hu’ coindexed with the quantifiers kulluwaћidin, (everyone) in (46) and man, (who) in (47) within their governing categories, violating Principle B of the theory of binding 46 *kulluwaћid-ini yuћibbu-hui everyone-gen loves-him ‘Everyone loves him.’ 47 *mani yuћibbu-hui? who loves-him ‘Who loves him?’ The derivations that involve movement of a quantificational phrase (including wh-element) over a coindexed pronominal have long been an area of inquiry May (1977) argues that Quantificational Phrases (QPs) such as everyone, someone, and wh-elements, etc should move in LF (logical form) via Quantifier Raising (QR) to a position consistent with their scope Consider sentence (48) with its semantic representation in (49) 48 Bill loves everyone 49 For every X, X a person, Bill likes X After the application of (QR), sentence (50) below is produced as the LF representation associated with (48) and (49) 50 [IP Everyonei [IP Bill likes ti]] In (50), the quantifier ‘everyone’ adjoins to IP (=S), leaving a trace, t in its base position The scope of everyone, i.e., the original sentence can be defined as its ‘c-command domain.’ Accordingly, the trace, t is coindexed with everyone, and since movement took place, this coindexation can be considered as the relation between the quantifier and the variable that it binds Chomsky (1982) proposes that if a sentence, at the level of LF, contains a quantifier, this quantifier must have a scope and that scope must include a variable This would demand the raising of the quantifiers kulluwaћidin in (46) and man in (47) as shown by illustrating their LF representations in (51) and (52) respectively IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 266 51 *[ IP2 kulluwaћidini [IP1 ti yuћibbu-hui]] 52 *[ CP mani [IP ti yuћibbu-hui?]] Sentences (51) and (52) are ungrammatical because the pronoun hu is not only A-bound by the trace in the subject position but also A’-bound by the moved quantifiers The ungrammaticality of these sentences can be accounted for if we assume that Principle B holds at LF In (51) and (52), the pronoun hu is bound by a variable, namely, the trace in its governing category; therefore, coreferential interpretation is not permitted Referential pronouns and bound pronouns can occur in embedded clauses as shown in (53), (54), and (55) respectively 53 Zaid-uni qala ?anna-hui laa yuћibbu Hind-an Zaid-non said that-he NEG love Hind-acc ‘Zaid said that he does not love Hind.’ 54 kulluwaћid-ini qala ?anna-hui laa everyone-gen said that-he yuћibbu Hind-an NEG love Hind-acc ‘Everyone said that he does not love Hind.’ 55 mani qala ?anna-hui laa yuћibbu Hind-an who said that-he NEG love Hind-acc ‘Who said that he does not love Hind.’ The LF representations of (54), and (55) are as in (56), and (57): 56 [IP kulluwaћidini [IP2 ti qala [IP1 ?anna-hui laa yuћibbu Hindan]]] 57 [CP mani [IP2 ti qala [IP1 ?anna-hui laa yuћibbu Hindan]]] It has generally been assumed that every quantificational phrase must undergo either overt or covert movement to an operator position to bind its trace at the LF level (cf Postal 1971, Wasow 1972, May 1977, Koopman and Spotiche 1982, Chomsky 1986 and 1992, among others) In sentence (53), the local domain, i.e., the governing category for the pronoun hu is the embedded clause, which contains the pronoun and its governor Thus, (53) is grammatical because the pronoun is free in that domain The LF representations in (56), and (57) show that the pronoun hu in (54), and (55) is A’- bound by the quantifiers kulluwaћidin and man and A-bound by the variable, i.e., the trace in a higher clause, which is outside its local domain, i.e., the innermost clause This bound pronoun is free in its governing category and thus, (54), and (55) are grammatical sentences In (56), the quantifier is assumed to move covertly, yielding its LF representation, whereas in (57), the quantificational phrase man undergoes overt movement The aforementioned examples discussed so far show that referential as well as bound pronouns can occur in either the subject or object position of embedded clauses Our analysis of referential and bound pronouns crucially relies on the notion of c-command This analysis is called a structural analysis Consider the following configurations where the trace of a quantificational phrase precedes and ccommands the coindexed pronoun: 58 mani faqada mafatiћa-hui who lost keys-his ‘Who lost his keys.’ 59 kulluwaћid-ini yactaqidu ?anna-hui fa?izun everyone-gen thinks that-he winner ‘Everyone thinks that he is the winner.’ The LF representations of (58) and (59) are as in (60) and (61) 60 [CP whoi [IP t lost keys-hisi]] 61 [IP kulluwaћidini [IP t yactaqidu ?anna-hui fa?izun]] In both: (60) and (61), the trace of a quantificational phrase c-commands the coindexed pronominal Thus, as assumed by Chomsky (1986a), Lasnik and Stowell (1991) and many others that either overtly or covertly raised wh-phrases as in (57) and (60) appear in [Spec, CP], whereas, LF raised quantifiers taking clausal scope are adjoined to IP A pronoun in the subject position of a more deeply embedded clause can be referentially dependent upon a quantified antecedent in the matrix subject position Consider sentence (62) and its LF representation in (63) IJALEL 4(4):256-267, 2015 267 62 kulluwaћid-ini yactaqidu ?anna-ka everyone-gen thinks qulta ?anna-hui yajibu ?an yuġadir that-(you) said that- he must to leave ‘Everyone thinks that you said that he must leave.’ 63 [IP kulluwaћidini [IP1 ti yactaqidu [IP2 ?anna-ka qulta [IP3 ?anna-hui yajibu ?an yuġadir]]]] These facts suggest that both referential pronouns and bound pronouns are subject to Principle B of the theory of binding Conclusion The paper has discussed pronominals in MSA in accordance with Principle B of the theory of binding Pronominals in Arabic crucially rely on the structural notion of the ‘c-command’ and are all subject to Principle B, i.e., free in their local domain, but differ in their binding domain The standard binding theory gives correct prediction about the distribution of pronominals in IPs and NPs, but fails to always give a correct prediction about the distribution of pronominals in prepositional phrases in Arabic This failure leads us to adopt Tenny’s analysis (2003), where she assumes that the pronoun in prepositional phrases is a “short distance” pronoun Accordingly, the local domain for binding when the short distance pronoun resides in a PP should not be the VP, but rather a more restricted local domain such as the PP itself For a bound pronoun, the binding domain must contain a distinct subject (a quantifier) to be coindexed with; whereas, a referential pronoun could be coindexed with a name in its binding domain Reference Brass, A (1986) Chain and Anaphoric Dependency Ph.D dissertation, MIT Büring, D (2005) Binding Theory Cambridge:Cambridge University Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802669 Chomsky, N (1977) On Wh-Movement Formal Syntax, eds By P.W Culicover, T Wasow and A Akmajian New York: Academic Press, pp 71-132 Chomsky, N (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding Dordrecht: Foris Chomsky, N (1982) Some Concepts and Consequences of the Theory of Government and Binding Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press Chomsky, N (1986a) Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use New York: Praeger Chomsky, N (1986b) Barriers Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press Chomsky, N (1989) Some Notes on Economy and Derivation and Representation MIT Working papers in Linguistics 10, 43-74 Chomsky, N (1992) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics Chomsky, N (1993) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory In The View from Building 20, eds K Hale and S J Keyser, 1–49 Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Chomsky, N (1994) Bare Phrase Structure MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics, volume Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Chomsky, N (1995) The Minimalist Program Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Chomsky, N and Lasnik, H (1993) The Theory of Principles and Parameters Syntax: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research J Jacobs, A Von Stechow, W Sternefeld and T Vennemann Berlin, Walter de Gruyter Freiden, R and Vergnaud, J R (2001) Exquisite Connections: Some Remarks on the Evolution of Linguistic Theory Lingua, 111, 639-665 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(01)00045-6 Hestvik, A (1991) Subjectless Binding Domains Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (3): 455-496 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00135355 Hestvik, A (1992) LF Movement of Pronouns and Antisubject Orientation Linguistic Inquiry 23: 557-594 Koopman, H and Sportiche, D (1982) Variables and the Bijection Principle The Linguistic Review 2, 139-160 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tlir.1982.2.2.139 Lasnik, H (1989) On the Necessity of Binding Conditions In H Lasnik, ed., Essays on Anaphora, Kluwer, Dordrecht pp 149-167 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2542-7_9 Lasnik, H and Stowell, T (1991) Weakest Crossover Linguistic Inquiry 22, 687-720 May, R (1977) The Grammar of Quantification Ph.D dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts Pollard, C and Sag, I (1994).Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar University of Chicago Press, Chicago Postal, P.M (1971) Cross-Over Phenomena Holt, Reinhart and Winston, New York Reinhart, T (1976) The Syntactic Domain of Anaphora MIT, Ph.D dissertation Reinhart, T (1983) Anaphora and Semantic Interpretation Beckenham: Croom Helm Ltd Reinhart, T and Reuland, E (1993) Reflexivity Linguistic Inquiry 24, 657-720 Safir, K (2004) The Syntax of Anaphora New York: Oxford University Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195166132.001.0001 Tenny, C (2003) Short Distance Pronouns, Argument Structure, and the Grammar of Sentence Manuscript, Carnegie Mellon University Wasow, T (1972) Anaphoric Relations in English Ph.D dissertation, MIT International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol No 4; July 2015 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Flourishing Creativity & Literacy History Rewritten in a Postmodern Novel: Opposed Views on History in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion Hatice Eşberk Department of English Language and Literature, Erciyes University, 38039, Kayseri, Turkey E-mail: hemre@erciyes.edu.tr Received: 19-12- 2014 Published: 01-07- 2015 Accepted: 26-02- 2015 Advance Access Published: February 2015 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.4p.268 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.4p.268 Abstract The relationship and interaction between literature and history has long been analyzed and discussed throughout the history of literature In twentieth century literature this relationship has shown itself within the works of historiographic metafiction In this kind of writing, previously held notions about language, truth, history and literature are subverted With the rise of postmodern theories, such as poststructuralism, these concepts are thought of carrying no more definite, full and total meaning and reference Winterson’s The Passion is one of the best examples of historiographic metafictions that underline the polyphonic structure lying beneath systems of meaning In The Passion Winterson’s handling of the subject is surrounded by her use of multiple narratives, parody and fantasy Thus, this paper aims at presenting how these ingredients of historiographic metafiction display themselves in Winterson’s The Passion Keywords: historiographic metafiction, Winterson, postmodern idea of history Introduction Postmodern theory suggests a different view of history from that of the nineteenth century According to this kind of consideration of history, the relationship between history and fiction is a blurring one What lies beneath this change can be taken as the changed view of language By the poststructuralists’ arguments that result in the split between the signifier and the signified, language becomes no longer carrying a full and total meaning When it is applied to the field of history and when Lyotard’s idea of legitimization of truth is considered, it is seen that what is taken to be as ‘historical truth’ is subverted by this new turn Lyotard defines that his questioning of legitimatization lies under his quest in the question of the status of knowledge (qtd in Bennington and Massumi, 1984, p.6) Thus, availability of objective truth free from any subjective argument is questioned This new tendency has shown itself in postmodern literary works which results in the creation of historiographic metafiction The Passion by Jeanette Winterson is one of the best examples of historiographic metafictions which reflect the relationship between fiction and history in an original way In The Passion Winterson’s handling of the subject is surrounded by her use of multiple narratives, parody and fantasy Thus, this paper aims at presenting how these ingredients of historiographic metafiction display themselves in Winterson’s The Passion Historiographic Metafiction and Its Premises The rise of the postmodern historiographic metafiction has its roots in the changing view of both the concept of history and the concept of writing (fiction) As Hutcheon claims both history and fiction are discourses that constitute systems of “signification by which we make sense of the past In other words, the meaning and shape are not in the events, but in the systems which make those past ‘events’ into present historical ‘facts’” (1988, p 89) Thus, history and fiction are seen as systems of constructions which reflect subjective point of view What is also emphasized in Hutcheon’s analysis is that in postmodern era the meaning underlying ‘the historical’ and ‘the fictional’ has gained another dimension According to this perspective meaning, in general, is constructed within an already existent system Therefore, a sceptical view of these concepts arises and the idea that “ there can be no single, essentialized, transcendent concept of ‘genuine historicity’” is widely accepted (Hutcheon, 1988, p 89) This kind of understanding of history is the result of the belief that is quoted by Hutcheon from Kermode: “we can, indeed, no longer assume that we have the capacity to make value-free statements about history” (qtd in Hutcheon, 1988, p 90) Thus, in addition to the constructed nature of history, the subjectivity in its interpretation is emphasized The reason of this new perception of history is summarized by Huctheon’s quote as follows: The new history we are beginning to see these days has little in common with the old-and for an interesting historical reason: its practitioners were nurtured in the theoretical climate of the 1970s, a time during which the individual literary work came to lose its organic unity; when literature as an organized body of knowledge abandoned the boundaries that had hitherto enclosed it, to an extent even abandoned its claim to knowledge; and when history began to seem discontinuous, sometimes in fact no more than just another fiction It is no wonder that the scholarship we now pursue cannot take form or speak the language of the older literary history (1988, p.91) IJALEL 4(4):268-272, 2015 269 Therefore, the close relationship between history and fiction is emphasized and even it is claimed that history is nothing different from fiction The refusal of postmodern theory of the absolute knowledge and truth inevitably gives way to the disconnectedness and the fictitiousness of history By means of combining these ideas in its premise “[h]istoriographic metafiction refutes the natural or common-sense methods of distinguishing between historical fact and fiction It refuses the view that history has a truth claim” (Hutcheon, 1988, p 93) The critic adds that “both history and fiction are discourses; human constructs, signifying systems, and both derive their major claim to truth from that identity” (1988, p.93) As a result, the quality of historiographic metafiction finds its way in its rejection of absolute knowledge and truth about history and fiction With this belief, this kind of writing claims and puts emphasis on the subjective attitude of both terms The seperation of history and fiction is also rejected and the combination of them is seen as the right handling of these concepts They are both considered as discourses surrounded by a subjective systematic construction Hutcheon summarizes the starting point and progress of this kind of writing as follows: In the nineteenth century literature and history were considered branches of the same tree of learning, a tree which sought to interpret experience, for the purpose of guiding an elevating man Then came the seperation that resulted in the distinct disciplines of literary and studies today it is this very seperation of the literary and historical that is now being challenged in postmodern theory and art, and recent critical readings of both history and fiction have focused more on what the two modes of writing share than on how they differ They have both been seen to derive their force more from verisimilitude than from any objective truth; they are both identified as linguistic constructs, highly conventionalized in their narrative forms, and not at all transparent either in terms of language or structure deploying the texts of the past within their own complex textuality (1988, p 105) Therefore, historiographic metafiction has an understanding of history and fiction as a combination This combination has its own standpoints such as the complex linguistic construction of the historical and the fictional, the subjective nature of this construct and the relative approach to truth and knowledge Hence the history is re-constructed and rewritten in historiographic metafiction As Hutcheon states, “[p]ostmodern fiction suggests that to re-write or to represent the past in fiction and in history is, in both cases, to open it up to the present, to prevent it from being conclusive (1988, p 106) The Passion as Historiographic Metafiction In this novel, Winterson relies on a historical period for the infrastructure of her work, the Napoleonic period However, this reliance does not have an aim to provide a sequential listing of the historical events of that time Unlike of this, the writer aims to re-construct that historical period in order to display the questionable objectivity of the history “Her fiction frequently calls into question assumptions about narratorial identity, fictional artifice, and objective reality” (qtd in Grice&Woods, 1998, p 1) In order to present the history as a subjective construct she uses multiple narratives, Henri’s and Vilanelle’s, in the novel The Passion contains many realities In one sense…it is Winterson’s epic The novel uses the memories of its characters to bring the past to life, turning The Passion into a strict (and free) piece of historical fiction Winterson emphasizes therefore, the inconsistencies of these memories to show that rational, sequential, eventdriven history is at root just as illogical in its granting primacy to certain features of the past as are contemporary rereadings of history (Pressler, 1997, p 13) As it is emphasized here, to utilize the memories of characters in revealing historical events is an attempt to underline the subjectivity beneath history Moreover, the use of parody on religious and social constructs and the fantastic nature of the novel reinforce the writer’s aim in creating such a novel which reflects the implications of historiographic metafiction The beginning of the novel narrated by Henri, which is “[i]t was Napoleon who had such a passion for chicken that he kept chiefs working around the clock” (Winterson, 1997, p.1), foreshadows what kind of understanding of history is going to be presented in the novel It begins neither with a particular historical event nor with biographical information about Napoleon The passion of Napoleon is given first, thus, the emphasis on the subjectivity of history is at work at the beginning The first narrator, Henri, goes on to tell that period by means of underlying the feelings and emotions He tells how Napoleon likes the horses and how the soldiers feel excessive devotion to Napoleon Moreover, Henri’s definiton of that period shows the nature of his telling on history He says, Nowadays people talk about the things he did as to they made sense As to even his most disastrous mistakes were only the result of bad luck or hubris It was a mess Words like devastation, rape, slaughter, carnage, starvation are lock and key words to keep the pain at bay Words about war that are easy on the eye I’m telling you stories Trust me (Winterson, 1997, p.5) In this statement Henri underlines that the expected words about the war would be ‘devastation, rape, slaughter, carnage, starvation’ However, he makes emphasis on the questionability of such kind of reflection of history in his IJALEL 4(4):268-272, 2015 270 words by stating that he is telling us stories and he must be trusted Therefore, Winterson expresses the idea that the fictionality in history is the one and only way of considering it by Henri’s words Moreover, although Henri serves in Napoleon’s army he does not tell about the historical events in detail Instead of this, he describes Napoleon’s passion for chickens, how it is like to kill the chickens for him and how he is treated by the leader and the cook As Pressler declares, Even though Winterson’s character Henri serves in Napoleon’s army for eight years, he provides us with precious little in the way of typical historical detail Instead he discusses at great length Napoleon’s passion for chicken Henri describes twice in the novel how the cook keeps the parsley for garnishing the poultry in a dead man’s helmet These artifacts from the past are important to Henri and establish the importance therefore seemingly irrelevant detail in recreating the past in its entirety: its feel, its textures, its tastes, its smells (1997, p.16) These things about the past are much more important than the events themselves for Henri When he decides to write a diary, he emphasizes this idea by telling that “I don’t care about the facts Domino, I care about how I feel How I feel will change, I want to remember that” (Winterson, 1997, p.29) After he reads his diary he confesses that his devotion for Napoleon’s words is not a definite one He says, “I only later realized how bizarre most of [Napoleon’s aphorisms] were” (Winterson, 1997, p.30) Thus, his writing makes his idea change in time As Hutcheon states about that feature of the postmodern novel, “history and fiction are themselves historical terms and their definitions and interrelations are historically determined and vary with time” (1988, p.105) Therefore, Henri’s diary stands in contrast with the reflections of a traditional historian He states “I invented Bonaparte as much as he invented himself” (Winterson, 1997, p 158) In this statement the validity of historical view that fiction and history are seperable is problematized and the combination of these concepts is underscored In presenting such a view Winterson underlines that she subverts and re-constitutes history in the novel Moreover, she tries to make the reader to pay attention to the subjectivity of history It is Henri’s construction of the past; subjective which is full of emotions rather than the recounting of historical events As Hutcheon states “historiographic metafictions privilige multiple points of view This is not a transcending of history, but a problematized inscribing of subjectivity into history” (Winterson, 1997, p.117) As for Vilanelle, she is herself a subversion of the traditional belief system She works in a casino, she wears like a boy and she likes gambling She is like the city in which she lives in, Venice Like the fluidity of the city, Vilanelle’s life is on the slippery ground She lives for her passion Her passion for gambling is the result of her playful nature She says, “I dressed as a boy because that’s what the visitors like to see It was part of the game” (Winterson, 1997, p.54) Unlike Henri’s devotion to Bonaparte, Vilanelle constructs different history from him This difference is obvious in her statement that “It was August Bonaparte’s birthday and a hot night We were due for celebration ball in the Piazza San Marcoi though what we Venetians had to celebrate was not clear” (Winterson, 1997, p.54) Moreover, Vilanelle puts more emphasis on the present, unlike of Henri, she says, “all time is eternally present and so all time is ours” (Winterson, 1997, p.62) Thus, Winterson provides the quality of the historiographic metafiction in her novel by presenting two different points of view about the same historical period In addition to what is written in history books about the Napoleonic era, the two fictional characters’, Vilanelle’s and Henri’s, view on the same period are presented Henri reconstructs the historical events in his journal Vilanelle, by providing different perspective from that of Henri’s, reconstructs the already reconstructed history Henri views the past differently, Vilanelle sees it differently As Bengston suggests, “Vilanelle and Henri narrate very differently: Vilanelle is poetry (hence her name) and in a sense Henri’s muse; Henri the writer who grapples with the natures of passion and obsession as illustrated in his progress from an immature worship of Napoleon to an adult, selfless love for Vilanelle” (1999, p.24) They both construct their own pasts in their narratives Winterson reconstructs history in this way in the novel According to Arostegui, The Passion reveals a polyphonic narrative structure that merges two apparently opposed narrative modes, the historical and the fantastic Henri, a narrator and author of a war journal that he rewrites into his memoirs, illegitimizes history as a grand narrative and shows instead that history, like the past, is always subject to manipulation Henri’s historical discourse propounds the collapse of the holding values of patriarchy and provides the necessary space for the development of Vilanelle’s alternative discourse Vilanelle […] exposes the fairy tale as an ideologically laden literary genre based on sexual categories and patriarchal structures (2000, p.17) Henri’s and Vilanelle’s views of history and of the historical events signify their own qualities as characters Although Henri has a critical view of the events of the past, his narration has the impacts of what he has been taught before He thinks “soldiering is a fine life for a boy” (Winterson, 1997, p 8), he is grateful to his mother and the priest for their efforts, “[t]hanks to my mother’s efforts and the rusty scholarliness of our priest I learned to read in my own language, Latin and English and I learned arithmetic, the rudiments of first aid” (Winterson, 1997, p.12) However, as he goes on to write about the past events, he also reveals the paradoxes between what he has been taught before and what he feels He says, “[t]hey say the dead don't talk Silent as the grave they say It's not true The dead are talking all the time On IJALEL 4(4):268-272, 2015 271 this rock, when the wind is up, I can hear them I can hear Bonaparte; he didn't last long on his rock” (Winterson, 1997, p 133) On the other hand Vilanelle’s narration is much more critical and fantastic as much as it is critical She notes, Our ancestors Our belonging The future is foretold from the past and the future is only possible because of the past Without past and future, the present is partial All time is eternally present and so all time is ours There is no sense in forgetting and every sense in dreaming Thus the present is made rich Thus the present is made whole On the lagoon this morning, with the past at my elbow, rowing beside me, I see the future glittering on the water I catch sight of myself in the water and see in the distortions of my face what I might become If I find her, how will my future be? I will find her (Winterson, 1997, p 62) What she narrates about the effects of war reflects her dream-like interpretations of the past Watching my comrades die was not the worst thing about that war, it was watching them live I had heard stories abot the human body and the human mind, the conditions it can adapt to, the ways it chooses to survive…When there’s no food it [the body of human] turns cannibal and devours its fat, then its muscle then its bones I’ve seen soldiers, mad with hunger and cold, chop off their own arms and cook themhow long could you go on chopping? Both arms Both legs Ears Slices from the trunk You could chop yourself down to the very end and leave the heart to beat in its ransacked palace” (Winterson, 1997, p 82) In addition to this multiple narrations, Winterson uses fantastic images such as Vilanelle’s webbed feet, walking on the water, Vilanelle’s stolen heart and Patrick’s telescopic eye, in order to reconstruct the perception of history Thus, fantastic elements are used to emphasize the fictionality and self-referentiality of the text Since the story reflects a particular historical period, the uses of fantastic elements reinforce the questionability of the existence of the absolute truth and knowledge about the historical facts As Waugh reflects, “[t]he essence of the fantastic is that it ‘hesitates’ both understanding and definition of the ‘reality’ outside the fiction All metafictional texts question precisely this ‘existence of an irreducible opposition between real and unreal’” (1984, p.109) Thus, Winterson’s text, as one of the best examples of the metafictional texts, underlines the relationship between history and fiction by utilizing the premise of the ‘fantastic’ which points to the hesitation in the concept of reality As Burns states, for Winterson “fantasy is the source of belief and often the bread of survival” (1996, p.286) Moreover, the critic emphasizes “Winterson’s fantasy is not simple escapism it can help subalterns form a positive identity in the face of negative of constricitve social stereotypes” (1996, p.289) Therefore, the function of fantasy to ‘hesitate’, to subvert and deconstruct well fits with the nature of historiographic metafiction In The Passion the use of fantasy with such an aim leads the reader to re-consider the ‘reality and reliability’ of history The last quality which makes the novel labelled as historiographic metafiction can be taken as its use of parody As stated above, the nature of historiographic metafiction requires subversion, reconstruction and deconstruction Thus, the integration of the parody becomes inevitable in such a novel As Hutcheon states “historiographic metafictions use parody” (1988, p.129) First of all Vilanelle’s character can be taken as a parody of an understanding of socially accepted women role in society She is a free, boy-like and passionate woman and these qualities are far from commonly accepted women role Therefore, Vilanelle’s such portrayal can be taken as a parody of social norms concerning women Moreover, Henri’s taking Vilanelle’s heart can be taken as a parody of chivalric romances In chivalric romances it is expected that the hero (Henri) will have the passion of his lover as a reward However, this is not available for Henri, unlike of this, he becomes mad and is left rewardless Conclusion In The Passion, Winterson questions the conventional understanding of history and fiction As a postmodern novel The Passion challenges the assumptions of not only historiography but also the novel form, thus, the novel is the reflection of historiographic metafiction Rather than providing the historical events, unnecessary (as commonly thought) details are presented by means of the first narrator to emphasize the subjectivity Moreover, Henri’s diary is the metafictional aspect in the novel which helps him to change his views on past This is another feature of historiographic metafiction which is to combine fiction and history The function of the second narrator, Vilanelle, is much more to with the use of fantasy and parody in the novel She is supernatural, passionate and free Therefore, the novel is one of the best examples of historiographic metafiction combining different elements in it As Palmer states Winterson enjoys, “putting new wine in old bottles-especially if the pressure of the new wine makes the old bottles explode” (qtd in Dowson&Earnshaw 199) In the light of these, it would be true to claim that the novel reinforces the questioning and subverting the position of knowledge in general What is claimed to be true knowledge carried by both a creation of literature (novel) and a creation of history is made upside down This investigation of Winterson is a reflection of Lyotard’s claim that, “[p]ostmodern knowledge is not simply a tool of the authorities: it refines our sensitivity to differences and reinforces our ability to tolerate the incommensurable” (Lyotard, 1984, p.xxv) IJALEL 4(4):268-272, 2015 272 References Aróstegui, Maria Del Mar A (2000) History as Discourse in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion: The Politics of Alterity Journal of English Studies, 2, 7-18 Bengston, Helena et al (Eds) (1999) Sponsored by Demons: The Art of Jeanette Winterson Denmark: Scholars’ P Burns, Christy L (1996) Fantastic Language: Jeanette Winterson’s Recovery of the Postmodern World Contemporary Literature, 37(2), 287-306 Dowson, Jane and Steven Earnshaw (Eds) (1995) Postmodern Subjects/Postmodern Texts Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V Grice, Helena and Tim Woods (Eds.) (1998) I’m telling you stories’: Jeanette Winterson and the Politics of Reading Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V Hutcheon, Linda (1988) A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction London: Cambridge UP Lyotard, J F (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge Bennington, G and Brian Massumi (trans.) Manchester: Manchester UP Palmer, Paulina (1995) Postmodern Trends in Contemporary Fiction in Postmodern Subjects/Postmodern Texts eds Dowson and Earnshaw Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V Pressler, Christopher (1997) So Far So Linear: Responses to the Work of Jeanette Winterson Nottingham: Paupers’ P Waugh, Patricia (1984) Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction London: Methuen Winterson, J (1997) The Passion New York: Grove P