CP – Number 18 (2013)

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

This article is an attempt to reveal how the physical place of the fireplace turns into a cultural space, by analyzing the Victorian cultural practices associated with it. We shall try to show how the concepts of place and social action are connected, and how this connection may construct the identity of a fireplace as cultural space and the identity of its users. For this, we shall refer to some Victorian novels, such as: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1846-1848) and David Copperfield (1850), and Thomas Hardy ‘s The Return of the Native (1878). Although fireplaces also existed in public places, for example inns, we shall restrict our cultural and semiotic analysis to the fireplace areas found in the private spaces of homes. The paper will provide a brief history of fireplaces, the symbolism of the hearth, the implications of the presence or absence of fire, as well as the Victorians’ use of fireplaces, as represented in the nineteenth-century English novels.

Keywords:

fireplace, cultural space, identity, power, hierarchy, cultural practices.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0001 [0003896]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

The interplay between different types of contexts and their role in making sense of one’s learning experience, while shaping and reshaping one’s linguistic identity, represents a major and generous field of research, no matter what theoretical approach is used when studying language autobiographies.

The paper focuses on the social, cultural and relational contexts that moulded an individual’s linguistic identity during his/her “journey” to multilingualism. The case study is oriented towards language autobiographies which are approached from an Interpretative Phenomenological perspective that constitutes the framework for qualitative research data analyses.

Keywords:

personal narratives, autobiographical account, context, identity, interpretative phenomenological approach.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0002 [0003897]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

Much of the nowadays’ debate on cultural identity revolves around issues, such as: should we refer to cultural identity in the singular or in the plural?; the construction and the representation of cultural identity; the relationship between ‘subject’, time, space and history. Fully aware of the impossibility to encompass the multiplicity and complexity of the theoretical and practical dimensions of all the relations involved in and by such a cultural phenomenon, the author will apply an aspectual perspective on the topic. Thus, having as a theoretical background studies on concepts such as (cultural) identity, representation and place-space-time, the paper is an attempt to offer a glimpse into the act of representing cultural identities:

– having as main axis the locating and positioning of identities in a semiotic web of relationships and relatedness;

– and, then, structuring the body of such a construction with the help of other spatial metaphors (chronotope, thirdspace), going through modes of representation and concluding with the texturality of literary spaces within the semiosis of the ‘discourse-as-journey’ metaphor (as postmodernist representation of cultural identities involving the dynamic, changeable, complex ‘subject’ sign).

Keywords:

(modes of) representation, (cultural) identities, difference, ‘thirdspace/trialectics’, signifying systems, conceptual metaphor.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0003 [0003898]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

The main idea to be developed throughout our study is that the social world can be represented through a multitude of discourses of space and in place. To this purpose, we start from Hall’s theory (1966) of “culturally defined personal space” and continue by tracing the roots and evolution of sociopetal spaces (eating & drinking places, meeting places, rest areas, indoor recreation/entertainment spaces) by comparison with sociofugal spaces (waiting rooms, smoker’s rooms, VIP rooms etc.) that encourage, respectively, discourage social interaction in Romania.

Based on “the situatedness of signs” (Scollon and Scollon, 2003:viii) in enclosed spaces and the adoption of globalizing naming fashions, we intend to find a plausible explanation for the gradual replacement of culture-specific elements in Romanian urban environments and the emergence of new forms (cafés, pubs, clubhouses and malls), felt as emblematic for their changing realities.

Keywords:

naming practice, multiple discourse, sociopetal space, Bacău town.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0004 [0003899]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

Drawing on the theory of identity development through language learning, this paper aims to apply a narrative approach to an autobiography of a language learner in order to highlight the manner in which memories related to language acquisition (be it rooted in family experiences, school context or cultural encounters) trigger an identity transformation. In other words, the narrative analysis developed in this paper tries to explore the link between how foreign languages are learned and the kind of person the learner is becoming through the act of learning. We are particularly interested in the linguistic means that indicate the identity development while learning foreign languages. The paper entails a double perspective on the term narrative: as method of analysis (looking at how the story is constructed) and as genre (the linguistic autobiography being, in fact, a narrative self-reflection). Thus, the paper suggests a research with narrative means on a narrative piece of writing.

Keywords:

linguistic autobiography, narrative, kernel, satellite, identity development, language learning.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0005 [0003900]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

The paper analyses the influence of a cultural model exercised upon and through the Romanian educational practices. We have chosen the French language for objective reasons: on the one hand, for the major role of the French culture influence in the period we analyze; on the other hand, we consider it may stand as a starting point for a comparative analysis with the English language and its tremendous influence on the Romanian cultural life in the latter half of the 20th and the first decades of the 21st centuries.

The French culture and civilization, an important catalyst for the Romanian culture until mid-20th century, have been conveyed for over two centuries mainly through the educational system and the intellectuals who have facilitated contact with the West, which was seen as a new model of civilization and which contributed to the modernization of the Romanian society. The study on the historical evolution of this complex cultural phenomenon has been done through a qualitative analysis of some instruments (such as, textbooks, dictionaries and school books) regarded as major factors influencing the moulding of cultural values.

Keywords:

cultural phenomenon, educational system, language, qualitative analysis.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0006 [0003901]

Issue:

CP, Number 18

Section:

No. 18 (2013)  Editorial

Abstract:

An individual’s identity is the outcome of many factors from the person’s own view of his/herself to social, cultural, religious, and political influences. The postmodern social and cultural variables have drastically challenged and called into question a human being’s identity. This article aims at delineating postmodern man’s view of his identity from the socio-cultural viewpoint in Harold Pinter’s major plays with special references to The Caretaker and to The Birthday Party hinging on Pinter’s Comedy of Menace Theatre. It tries to show how Pinter has crystallized the shattered identity of man at the mercy of social and cultural threats characteristic of postmodern era.

Keywords:

Pinter, socio-cultural identity, theatre, postmodernism.

Code [ID]:

CP201318V00S01A0007 [0003902]