University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 19 The Coexistence of Contrasting Forces: An Analysis of Selected Poetry of William Carlos Williams through Chaos Theory 1 18 64313 10.22034/cls.2026.64313 EN Mohammad Reza Esfandiari Mehr Department of English Language and Linguistics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Ali Taghizadeh Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Linguistics, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Journal Article 2025 05 22 Chaos theory, as a branch of critical theory, has increasingly shaped discussions in the sciences and the humanities by emphasizing nonlinear, unpredictable, yet patterned systems. The present research applies this framework to the poetry of William Carlos Williams, whose deceptively simple verse resists conventional interpretation. It argues that Williams’ poetry, often seen as fragmentary or chaotic, embodies underlying structures of order and interconnection, revealing a coexistence of heterogeneous ordinary details that disclose systematic patterns when viewed through this lens. Drawing on N. Katherine Hayles’ reading of chaos theory, the study closely reads three poems— “This Is Just to Say,” “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and “Classic Scene”— to show themes of creation and destruction, cyclical dependence, and complex dynamics beneath trivial scenes. By integrating chaos theory into literary analysis, the study shows that Williams’ work converts surface-level disorder into deeper coherence. In doing so, it offers a critical model for reading modernist poetry without reducing it to either pure fragmentation or rigid order. The conclusion reached is that Williams’ art affirms a modern aesthetic in which instability is not a threat to meaning but a generative condition for new forms of significance.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64313_594f3ae154ea128637a9b68e387954e0.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Trauma and Power: A Caruthian–Foucauldian Reading of Jelinek’s Wonderful, Wonderful Times 19 37 64329 10.22034/cls.2026.64329 EN Maryam Soltan Beyad Associate Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Mahshid Mirmasoomi PhD Candidate, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article 2025 09 27 Elfriede Jelinek’s Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1980) reconceptualizes trauma as a socio-historical condition which is produced and perpetuated by power–knowledge structures rather than experienced solely as personal or psychological suffering. Drawing on Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory and Michel Foucault’s concept of power–knowledge, this article argues that the novel vividly represents trauma as historically entrenched systems of ideological domination that shape individual and collective identities, cultural narratives and memory. The article offers a profound critique of postwar Austrian society by exposing how the intricate and dynamic interplay of power-knowledge generates the complicated discourse of trauma and foreclose any meaningful narrative recovery. Through a close and comprehensive textual and discourse-oriented analysis, the article demonstrates how the novel's fragmented structure serves as a significant literary critique which mirrors the unrepresentable nature of trauma and its resistance to forming a coherent narrative, while simultaneously exposing the dominant ideological power-knowledge mechanisms through which unresolved traumatic histories are normalized, reproduced and ultimately perpetuated. The novel’s depiction of trauma as a socio-cultural product rather than a private experience clearly demonstrates that individual agency is constrained by power structures.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64329_7d5f352da11be4d0e6750a61d1f889bf.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 09 Existential Death and (In)authenticity in Beckett’s Molloy: A Yalomian Reading 39 57 64177 10.22034/cls.2026.64177 EN Samaneh Zandi MA in English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Zahra Jannessari Ladani Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Journal Article 2024 10 05 This study explores Samuel Beckett's Molloy through the lens of existential psychotherapy, particularly the theories of Irvin D. Yalom. It examines the interplay between death, existential angst, and psychological defenses in Beckett's characters. By analyzing Yalom's existential psychoanalytical ideas, the study aims to understand how characters confront or transcend their existential anxieties to achieve existential awareness. This theoretical framework extends beyond traditional Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis, focusing on the practical manifestations of human neurosis related to the ultimate concern of death. The findings highlight Beckett's portrayal of authentic existence and his characters' engagement with concepts such as the knight of resignation, ultimate man, and inauthentic Dasein. Additionally, the study delves into the psychological mechanisms employed by Beckett's characters to cope with their existential dread, exploring whether these defenses are ultimately successful or if they lead to a deeper understanding of their own mortality. Through this analysis, the research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how Beckett's work reflects and addresses profound existential questions, offering insights into the human condition and the ways in which individuals navigate the inevitability of death. The study also considers the broader implications of these findings for existential psychotherapy and literary analysis surrounding death and authenticity.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64177_dc9b9878881408327d181458addfaaea.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Abject's Time: Temporal Antagonism in Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth 59 74 64178 10.22034/cls.2026.64178 EN Seyyed Mohammad Marandi Professor of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Zohreh Ramin Associate Professor of English Literature and Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Maryam Moradi Ph.D. Candidate of English Literature and Language, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article 2025 01 03 This article examines Tennessee Williams's reformulation of Gothic's central convention in Sweet Bird of Youth. Following the convention of American Gothic, this play dramatizes the return of the nation's repressed Other as a nuisance. However, Williams positions this abject figure as temporally disjunctive, that is, out of sync with the political figure who functions as the allegorical rendition of national time and History. Drawing on an expanded form of Julia Kristeva’s concept of “women’s time”, this article argues that the abject's circular and monumental temporalities place him outside the linear as well as teleological temporality of the nation. In addition to that, the abject's temporal conflict with the state runs parallel to his analogous conflict with the process of aging. These intersecting tensions expose how national time acts as a castrating agent akin to the devastating power of physiological time. By dint of temporal asynchronism and the final castration of the abject, Williams exposes the histories and identities that are otherwise doomed to dissolve in the homogenizing force of the national History.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64178_ea5a29aa2dadb8bb822a5194898e3fa9.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 03 Resisting and Empowering as a Result of Hybridized Identity Formation in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were 75 90 64424 10.22034/cls.2026.64424 EN Hoda Shabrang Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, Department of English Language, Faculty of Humanities, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran. Zhaleh Laeli MA in English Language and Literature, Department of English Language, Faculty of Humanities, Khatam University, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article 2025 09 18 This article employs Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial theories in order to analyze resistance and hybridized identity formation in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were (2021). It examines the characters’ rejection of colonial mimicry and forced assimilation within the third space, exploring how Bhabha’s concepts of ambivalence and unhomeliness manifest as consequences of colonization. The article highlights how the pursuit of cultural hybridity can paradoxically lead to displacement, while Mbue’s novel critiques environmental injustices and the cultural marginalization of the colonized, underscoring the appropriation of ancestral landscapes vital to African identity. Through theoretical and textual analysis, this article identifies diverse forms of cultural and identity-based resistance. The female protagonist, developing a hybridized identity through migration, leads a movement against colonial exploitation. Indigenous characters also resist, reclaiming their homeland. The novel powerfully depicts characters shaped by colonial dynamics, offering insights into postcolonial identity and resistance. This paper contributes to a better understanding of how individuals navigate and resist oppressive colonial structures, fostering new forms of cultural expression and belonging within their ancestral lands. The article also emphasizes the critical role of reclaiming cultural heritage and identity in challenging external domination and asserting self-determination in the face of historical exploitation.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64424_4c050cc02966ac9bd0db4282562d0759.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 19 Moral-Educational Teachings and the Issue of Cognitive and Emotional Standards in Children's Poetry: The Case Study of Latif Halmat’s Children Poems 91 113 64430 10.22034/cls.2026.64430 EN Fardin Hosseinpanahi Assistant Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. Arash Mehraban MA in Persian Language and Literature, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. Journal Article 2025 11 26 Children’s poetry, as a foundational component of children's literature, plays a significant role in conveying moral and educational teachings. However, the effectiveness of these teachings depends on their alignment with the cognitive and emotional capacities of the child audience. Neglecting such standards not only disrupts the communication process between the poem and the child reader but also undermines the primary aim of conveying ethical and educational teachings. Latif Halmat, a prominent poet of children’s poetry in Kurdish literature, pays particular attention to expressing and conveying moral and educational teachings in his poems. In the present research, we critically examine the children’s poetry of Latif Halmat, relying on the emotional and cognitive criteria and components within children’s literature and the extent to which the cognitive, emotional, and narrative components of his poems align with the cognitive and emotional developmental criteria of child audiences is critically examined. The findings indicate that while Halmat is notably attentive to developing educational themes—addressing issues such as environmental ethics, individual and social values, and literacy— his poems often fall short in several areas: incorporating children’s lived experiences, aligning with their cognitive and emotional development, maintaining an appropriate narrative structure, and avoiding a sermon-like tone.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64430_dda3b2b467e9d56ae92c27d6259d3133.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Decoding Alienation: Semiotics and Consumerist Modernity in Paul Auster’s City of Glass 115 131 64413 10.22034/cls.2026.64413 EN Marzieh Zibaei PhD Candidate, Department of English Language and Literature, Bo.C., Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran Abdolreza Goudarzi Department of English Language and Literature, Bo.C., Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran Shahram Afrougheh Department of English Language and Literature, Bo.C., Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran. Journal Article 2025 06 30 Consumer culture, with its relentless emphasis on individualism and material possession, systematically erodes communal bonds, replacing authentic selfhood with identities constructed through consumption. This dynamic fosters a profound sense of alienation, a defining condition of modernity, particularly within urban landscapes where consumerist rituals dominate daily life. Paul Auster’s City of Glass first deciphers the alienating semiotics of food and drink, a critique that is then internalized and radicalized across The New York Trilogy, through the consumption of narrative in Ghosts and of another’s identity in The Locked Room, ultimately demonstrating that in late capitalism, the consuming self becomes the final, unfilled commodity. Employing Roland Barthes's semiotics to decipher the latent myths of consumer behavior, this study radicalizes its analysis through Jean Baudrillard's theory of the hyperreal, arguing that in a progressive consumer society, such mythologized signs detach from all referents to create a simulated reality where the simulacrum of satisfaction substitutes for authentic need. New York, a labyrinth of empty signs, emerges as a microcosm where consumerist promises dissolve into fragmentation. By interrogating semiotics, urban space, and late capitalism, this research implies how Auster's narrative exposes the hollowness of consumer culture, offering a critique of alienation that echoes beyond text.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64413_51ef013835775d30a97511720ccdd5e6.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 The Dialectics of Enlightenment and Its Discontents 133 148 64200 10.22034/cls.2026.64200 EN Nawzad Jamal Hamafaraj Professor, Department of Social Science and Law, Center of Strategic Studies, Kurdistan Institution for Strategic Studies; Suleimanieh, Iraqi Kurdistan Journal Article 2025 06 21 On a broad scale, The Dialectic of Enlightenment re-conceptualizes the concept of enlightenment and its close association to mythical thinking. Through the meaning of Myth, Horkheimer and Adorno sought to challenge the mainstream meaning of enlightenment. However, why did The Enlightenment fall into the trap of mythical thinking again? Why does mythical thinking persist despite the ongoing progress of The Enlightenment ? The myth semantically includes a twofold connotation: the genre, and the dark side of rationality. The Enlightenment has a mythological foundation that manifests itself in control, exploitation, and destruction tendencies. The power-knowledge relations are foregrounded as long as the overcoming of fear is resolved. Additionally, rationality is reduced to a control instrument and a monopoly of power. This paper thus focuses on the significance of the authors' criticism of the hidden agenda of the Enlightenment. It also addresses the paradox and dialectical aspect of myth and enlightenment within the historical and sociopsychological framework. The study demonstrates the discrepancy between the edefinition of myth referred to in the arguement and F. W. J. Schilling's framework of thought, which is not explicitlymentioned in the text. The key findings are the contradiction between rationality and its outcome as a counterproductive force. The progress in human civilisation results in the self-reversion toward the myths. The Enlightenment was not thus the antithesis of myth, but a sub-category of myth.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64200_630a57f57160bb02ce19913bbcb269c1.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Mapping Unstable Selves: Existential Ontology and Narrative Multiplicity in As I Lay Dying 149 165 64425 10.22034/cls.2026.64425 EN Sajed Hosseini M.A. in English Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. Sheereen Ahmadpour Department of English Language and Literature, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran. Journal Article 2025 09 01 This article examines William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying through an integrated theoretical lens that reconceives focalization, stream of consciousness, and existential ontology as structurally interdependent mechanisms of narrative disintegration. Rejecting conventional thematic treatments, the study reframes these narrative techniques as philosophical agents that enact, rather than merely depict, the fragmentation of selfhood. Drawing on theories of narratology, the interiority models, and existential philosophy, the article argues that Faulkner’s use of narrative multiplicity produces unstable and recursive subjectivities. Through close readings of the Bundrens’ internal monologues, the article demonstrates how focalization destabilizes narrative authority, stream of consciousness dismantles cognitive coherence, and the novel’s form itself generates an existential crisis. The findings suggest that As I Lay Dying is not only a modernist text concerned with identity, but a philosophical artifact in which form functions as an ontological event. This approach contributes to Faulkner studies, narratological theory, and literary existentialism by offering a new model for reading narrative as an epistemological site of being and its disassembly. The conclusion suggests that fiction not only reflects but generates new ontological and epistemic modes of thinking.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64425_bb2725898f8d44a3188705a094994649.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Hybrid Lives, Wounded Minds: An Exploration of Trauma of Dislocation in Fadia Faqir’s Diaspora Novel, The Cry of the Dove 167 180 64426 10.22034/cls.2026.64426 EN Zahra Ghasemi Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mi.C. Islamic Azad University, Miyaneh, Iran. 0000-0002-0975-4840 Journal Article 2025 08 04 This paper examines the psychological trauma caused by dislocation in Fadia Faqir's The Cry of the Dove. The analysis contributes to the field by focusing on the interrelation of trauma, gender identity, and culture in shaping a fragmented sense of self in a character who is faced with forced dislocation. It thus draws its insights from both postcolonial and feminist trauma theories. The narrative centers on Salma, a Muslim woman forced to flee her homeland after becoming a target of an honor killing. By exploring themes of exile, psychic wounds, and cultural hybridity, the study highlights how Salma's diasporic experience complicates her identity formation. Positioned at the crossroads of honor-based violence, gender oppression, and diasporic dislocation, Salma embodies the struggle of a marginalized Muslim woman navigating alien cultural terrains. Her narrative, marked by exile, memory, and identity crises, invites a deeper understanding of trauma's enduring effects on displaced subjects. The study demonstrates that the traumatic events of Salma’s life affect an incision on her psyche, and the forced dislocation which confronts her with an entirely new culture, language, and religion aggravates her double sense.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64426_23d6202df8444da3a78d69213bdb1ba6.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Translation of Slanguage Items: The Case Study of The Catcher in the Rye 181 197 64311 10.22034/cls.2026.64311 EN Maryam Ghodrati Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Foreign Languages Department, Faculty of Management and Humanities, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran. Shoja Neynava M.A. in TEFL, Foreign Languages and Linguistics Department, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj, Sanandaj, Iran. Anahita Amirshojai Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Foreign Languages Department, Tourism Faculty, Higher Education Complex of Bam, Kerman, Iran. Journal Article 2025 02 16 This paper investigates the translation of slanguage items, with a particular emphasis on taboo terms, which are widely recognized as posing significant and complex challenges for translators working across different cultural contexts. Focusing specifically on two English-to-Persian translations of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The present study adopts Venuti’s (1995) influential concepts of domestication and foreignization as its primary theoretical and analytical framework. The translations were carefully and systematically analyzed using a combination of contrastive textual examination through SDL Trados Studio and quantitative assessment via Microsoft Excel to determine the frequency, distribution, and patterns of different translation strategies. The results indicate a clear prevalence of strategies such as deletion, euphemism, taboo-to-taboo translation, and taboo-to-non-taboo translation, listed in decreasing order of frequency. While the translators generally followed a target-oriented approach, aiming to carefully observe and respect cultural expectations in the target language, a detailed quantitative analysis of the applied strategies, particularly the unexpectedly high frequency of domestication due to cultural differences between the source and target languages, reveals a more nuanced, complex, and layered reality than might be initially assumed.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64311_549dfc52187d1b53fde9ec935f4c0951.pdf

University of Kurdistan Critical Literary Studies 2676-699X 8 2 2026 04 01 Translation Agents and Networks: A Case Study of the Persian Translations of Bakhtiar Ali’s Novels in Iran 199 232 64365 10.22034/cls.2026.64365 EN Milad Miraki Ph.D Candidate in Translation Studies, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Ahmad Moinzadeh Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran Saeed Ketabi Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Journal Article 2025 09 28 The current study examines the agency of translators and publishers in the Persian translations of Ali’s Kurdish novels within the Iranian literary field, highlighting how decisions, motivations, and contextual constraints interact. The study adopts a qualitative case study approach, focusing exclusively on Bakhtiar Ali’s novels translated directly from Kurdish into Persian between 1997 and 2025. It draws on in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven translators and six publishers, conducted until theoretical saturation was reached, alongside archival research, publication histories, and textual and paratextual analysis to trace patterns of decision-making and collaboration. The analysis is informed by Haddadian-Moghaddam’s tri-tier model of agency comprising decision, motivation, and context in tandem with Actor–Network Theory (ANT) and Bourdieu’s concept of capital. The findings reveal that agency is unevenly distributed: early translations were driven primarily by translators’ intellectual and cultural motivations, whereas later translations reflect publishers’ increasing control, shaped by symbolic capital, market considerations, and the growing recognition of Kurdish literature. Translators’ agency is further constrained by political and institutional factors, including censorship, time, and language hierarchies, yet facilitated by enabling mechanisms such as literary awards, paratextual visibility, and the emergence of celebrity translators.

https://cls.uok.ac.ir/article_64365_ed1337baa9af5e6597d397a38650444b.pdf