Leila Naderi

The chief focus of this article is to explore the magical realist aspect of Beloved by Toni Morrison. The very narrative and thematic strategies that Morrison employs in Beloved, take the advantage of both realism and magic. To reincarnate the erased part of the history of slavery, she juxtaposes contradictory worlds. Her paradoxical narrative world composes of the spirit and material world, distinguish of which is not an easy experience for both her characters and her reader. Morrison's Beloved is affiliated with magical realist works in the way it questions the notion of history and the linear narrative time through unrealistic elements that contradict scientific and traditional received realities. The presence of the ghost, which is central feature of the narrative, goes beyond fantasy, dream or hallucination. Magical realism allows the author to render hybrid reality and it widens the reader's perception of real life. In other words, this literary technique is employed to present an alternative version of the reality about the history of slavery in America to the dominant one imposed by the mainstream discourse.

An outstanding feature of African American literature has been proved to be a distinctively variety
of English language used prevalently among black communities in the United States of America. Toni Cade
Bambara is one of the African American Authors for whom language goes beyond a mere tool of
communication. The present article deals with the concept of black vernacular in her short story ‘The Lesson’.
The first part of the article considers the linguistic features which make the language of the text distinctively
black and the second part of the article is an attempt to read between the lines to find out the consequences of
the use of this literary technique through Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s Signifying Monkey which helps readers
discover many layers of African American texts.

Language has been an ideological and political tool in the hand of imperialists and colonists. An
outstanding feature of African American literature has been proved to be a distinctively variety of English language
used prevalently among black communities in the United States of America and specifically in Black Narratives
which is an answer to the monolithic feature of Standard English. Toni Morrison is an author for whom language
goes beyond a mere tool of communication and the present article is a study of her novel ‘Beloved’ and deals with
the concept of black vernacular English through Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s “Signifyin(g) Monkey” which reinforces
the plurality and flexibility of Black vernacular English in contrast to Standard English.

Although Farrokhzad (Iranian poet) and Sylvia Plath seem to have little in common, a French feminist study of their poems reveals that they share similar experiences in their dealings with personal and social critical issues reflected in their literary works. The present article is an effort to illustrate that the poetry of both these eminent poets carries with itself the unique female voice that Kristeva, Cixous and Irigaray described in their critical theories. Accordingly, it focuses on Plath’s and Farrokhzad’s selected poems through the “écriture feminine” to mention Cixous’s term as the language of femininity in a patriarchal literary world.