School of Human Sciences and Education

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Browsing School of Human Sciences and Education by Author "Brewis, Alexander"

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    An exploration study into the fictionalisation of educational theory and practice in Victorian novels.
    (NUST, Department of Communication., 2008) Brewis, Alexander
    This article is an exploration into how Victorian writers portray education in their novels. The content of syllabi as well as details of how children were taught in different schools, using different educational ideologies is not the focus of this article. This article will illustrate how Charles Dickens and Thomas Hughes represent education differently although they were writing during the same period. Dickens’ Hard Times, henceforth referred to as HT, was first published in 1854 and Hughes’ Tom Brown’s school Days, henceforth TB, was first published in 1857.The article refers to a range of Victorian writers but Charles Dickens’ Hard Times and Thomas Hughes’ Tom Brown’s School Days are the main focus.
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    Iago: "Motiveless malignity" or diabolic intellectual
    (2010) Brewis, Alexander
    “Evil has nowhere else been portrayed with such mastery as in the character of Iago” (Bradley, 1951, p. 206). Even a casual reading, or viewing, of Shakespeare’s plays will show that Iago is indeed Shakespeare’s most evil character. How realistic is such a portrayal? Can such a being exist in the “real” world?
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    Mission impossible - The pentangle breaks.
    (NUST, Department of English Communication., 2009) Brewis, Alexander
    The poet’s complex and ambiguous treatment of Gawain’s adventure leaves the nature of the heroic role continually in doubt, and the ending of the poem is designed to make us wonder whether Gawain has fulfilled such a role or not. This article attempts to advocate a sympathetic reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, hereafter referred to as SGGK. I propose to show that Gawain, despite failing in his mission, is indeed a hero and that the circumstances he finds himself in, make it impossible for him to succeed.
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    The novel in the Victorian age.
    (2011) Brewis, Alexander
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    Pragmatic analysis of students' performance at the NUST.
    (NUST, Department of English Communication., 2009) Krishnamurthy, Sarala; Ithindi, Elina; Brewis, Alexander; Eiseb, Juliet
    Pragmatics has been described as the analysis of language taking into account the socio-cultural context in which it is used. In other words, it is the study of language of a particular region which reveals the influence of mother tongue and other cultural aspects. While pragmatic analysis can be done in many ways, this paper focuses on discussions that take place in the class room. Our subjects are students of the NUST who are expected to participate in classroom discussions as part of their formative assessment. This paper explores the relative success of classroom discussions according to the proficiency level of the students with a view to identifying and improving their interactions both in the classroom and in a societal setting.
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    Structuralist analysis of D. H. Lawrence's "The White Stocking".
    (2007) Brewis, Alexander
    The French structuralist, Roland Barthes‟ structuralist analysis of Honore de Balzac‟s short story Sarrasine, S/Z, published in 1970, has had a major impact on literary criticism. In this analysis Barthes shows where and how different codes of meaning function, and he uses specific „codes‟ to show how a text „works‟. Barthes‟ five codes (to be discussed later) form a network of meaning in a text which provides a framework for analysing any text.
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    Vietnam: At the frontier.
    (2010) Brewis, Alexander
    Realistic novels and memoirs of the Vietnam War tell a common tale in which the youthful protagonist leaves behind the society of his immediate father to connect with the cultural father by entering the frontier of Vietnam. There he suffers the traumatic shock of finding that he has entered a crazily inverted landscape of American myth frustrating all his expectations. The youthful protagonist leaving his family to enter the frontier in Vietnam is depicted clearly in many Vietnam novels and films. One of the clearest examples here is Ron Kovic’s novel Born on the Fourth of July. In the film young Ron watches an Independence Day rally in his hometown in awe. All the veterans of previous wars America has been involved in, including the last war in Korea, march down the street. Ron grows up learning to be competitive and an “upright” American. His mother cheers for him to do well in wrestling and she scolds him severely for looking at pornography. We are given the picture of a sound, yet strict upbringing. His father tries to dissuade him from going to war in Vietnam. In the end he goes, full of patriotism; a true son of America. Once in Vietnam he is exposed to the brutality and chaos of war, but his greatest fight is when he returns home wounded. He struggles to adapt to a society which is against the war and is rejecting its war heroes. He suffers the trauma of rejection and adaptation in a “hostile” environment. In the end he joins the anti-war lobbyists. This aspect of being rejected by one's own society is seen in the poem Private Jack Smith, U.S.M.C.[1]