http://hdl.handle.net/10366/4415 2026-04-24T13:18:36Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/170034 La aportación de conceptos tan relevantes como el de competencia lingüística e intercultural suponen la esencia teórica para la exploración de los mecanismos y procesos implicados en la enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua en el contexto específico del Turismo. Abordamos pues la importancia de la lengua inglesa dentro del área del Turismo, con especial hincapié en la profesión reglada de Guía Turístico, donde el conocimiento idiomático y el elemento intercultural conviven de manera intrínseca. 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/170030 Este artículo propone la utilización de podcasts como herramienta de autoaprendizaje por parte de los estudiantes de primer curso de Filología Inglesa de la Universidad de Salamanca. El propósito es comprobar si el trabajo extra por parte de los alumnos permite una mejora de la comprensión oral. Para la evaluación se utiliza el programa Dialang porque es el sistema de evaluación lingüística más importante basado en el Common European Frame of Reference for the Languages: Learning, Education, Evaluation (Council of Europe, 2001) y un diseño Pretest/Posttest. Con esta investigación se puede intervenir, relevantemente, en las actividades que los estudiantes realizan fuera de las horas de clases presenciales demostrando que el uso de los podcasts contribuye de forma sustancial a mejorar la comprensión oral de los alumnos. 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/170025 La finalidad de este artículo es destacar las posibilidades que ofrece la lectura de textos en inglés para adquirir conocimientos que no sean estrictamente lingüísticos. Hay numerosos estudios que consideran que el uso de estrategias cognitivas y metacognitivas favorece el proceso de aprendizaje. Es, pues, nuestra intención explicar cómo los profesores podemos enseñar y practicar estas estrategias mediante el uso de preguntas orientadoras que ayuden al alumno a mejorar su capacidad lectora. Por último, incluiremos las consecuencias pedagógicas que se derivan del uso de esta metodología. 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/170021 [EN] The study of narrative empathy (i.e., readers’ sharing of characters’ perspectives and mental states) is getting increasing attention from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Recently, a number of empirical quantitative and qualitative studies have been conducted on empathy in literary reading. However, in qualitative studies where participants are not directly prompted to comment on empathy, the analysis of empathetic responses raises an important methodological problem; namely, determining whether and how there is evidence of empathy in readers’ verbal responses. This article proposes a way to operationalize, or make workable, what counts as evidence of narrative empathy by developing a taxonomy of linguistic evidence of empathetic responses that ranges from explicit to implicit evidence. The taxonomy is illustrated with data from a focus group study of readers’ responses to two short stories by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. This research makes a methodological contribution by outlining a framework for the qualitative analysis of empathetic responses. At the same time, the article considers some caveats in the analysis of readers’ responses which may be valuable for those conducting empirical reader research in general because these issues ultimately influence the analysis and interpretation of the data, and thus, the results obtained. I argue for a shift in current scholarly discussion toward the issues that concern the actual analysis of reader responses without shying away from acknowledging the problems that arise in the process of analysis. This discussion should be of interest to scholars working in empirical narratology, empirical stylistics, and empirical literary studies. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/170017 [EN] The concept of personhood in dementia has maintained its status as the definitive approach to dementia care. Personhood works at both practical and philosophical levels to maintain the humanity of people with dementia. The project described in this article used the concept of personhood to design community-engaged research which harnessed the power of literary language to access the internal life of a person with dementia. Here we outline the design and methods in detail, homing in on our main conclusion that literary language is a powerful tool in helping diverse stakeholder groups access the person in dementia. The research comprised three inter-linked strands. In Strand One we built a corpus of dementia fiction from which we identified twelve extracts from contemporary novels offering the internal perspective of a person with dementia. Strand Two involved six weekly meetings of separate reading groups with four distinct stakeholder groups – student social workers, members of the public, family carers, and people with dementia. The four groups engaged in separate, facilitated discussions of the extracts. This aspect of the project is unique as to the best of our knowledge no previous research has analysed readers’ responses to extracts of fictional characters’ narration of living with dementia. Strand Three was led by a well-known writer and comprised a series of public events and outputs which engaged readers and authors of dementia fiction with the genre. A dementia fiction festival and writer workshops resulted in publication of an anthology of short stories which included stories addressing a deficiency of racial and ethnically diverse characters noted in our corpus. The article concludes by discussing how working across disciplines and sectors to engage with dementia as a cultural as well as a clinical challenge has the potential to facilitate the understanding and emphasis of personhood in dementia studies. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/169416 This paper analyzes interviews with residents of the Spanish enclave of Melilla in the North of Africa to examine common assumptions about the border in their speech. Following Wendy Brown (2010), its main aim is to challenge the assumption that the border fence is a symbol of state sovereignty. To do so, it draws on Balibar’s (2002) tripartite conceptualization of the border: overdetermination, polysemy, and heterogeneity. The conclusion reached is that la valla (the fence) in Melilla, rather than reflecting state power, security, or sovereignty, actually signals the decline of sovereignty and the state’s inability to address the complexities of the globalized world. The border not only fails to protect but also causes isolation, economic and social suffocation, and disrupts everyday ties with those on the other side. This conclusion is supported by a review of the evolution of Melilla’s fence, the rhetoric of protection used by the nation-state, and an analysis of the metaphors and analogies employed by the interviewees. The paradox of a border that does not protect is reflected in memories of a time when crossing was less restricted. These stories question the supposed threat from the other side and the claimed safety of this one. Finally, the idea that Melilla’s future lies in a stronger relationship with Spain and Europe is rejected for the vicious cycle it produces. 2025-10-05T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/169414 This paper explores Kamin Mohammadi’s position regarding the discourses of national belonging through the scrutiny of her circular route from England to Iran. Reflecting the interrelation between identity, home and the modern nation-state, The Cypress Tree: A Love Letter to Iran (2011) recounts the story of Mohammadi’s journey back to Iran in search of a singular self. It recounts her story of growing up in Iran and England and the reason behind her displacement from both of these countries in 1979 and 1997. Indebted to Stuart Hall’s take on the diaspora, Gaston Bachelard’s reading of home and Homi Bhabha’s notion of hybridity, this paper rejects the synonymy between home and home country as well as exclusive belonging intrinsic to nationalism. The aim of this paper is to read Mohammadi’s ultimate choice to settle down in England as a challenge to the homogenizing forces of nationalism that inhibited her sense of belonging to Britain and drew her toward Iran. As she embraces a hybrid identity by telling her circular story, beginning and ending in London, her literary contribution is a way to dismantle the link between belonging and the nation-state, as well as a challenge to the alleged homogeneity of the nation- states to which she belongs. 2023-12-19T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/169412 This paper explores the conceptualization of freedom in the memoir of the Iranian-American journalist and media activist, Masih Alinejad. It examines The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran (2018) with respect to Alinejad's activism in the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in Iran. The paper utilizes a critical framework drawn from feminist critiques of neoliberal feminism and Derridean hospitality to focus on Alinejad' s repetition of the narratives of model minority and American exceptionalism. These neoliberal narratives have the potential to turn both Iran and the United States into inhospitable places for women. The paper concludes that an intersectional examination of Alinejad' s neoliberal approach to the experiences of women in both the United States and Iran will demonstrate that it does not coincide with the demands of"Woman, Life, Freedom". 2023-10-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/169256 Este artículo ofrece el primer análisis crítico en inglés de A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (2021) de Roya Hakakian, dirigido a un migrante genérico recién llegado a Estados Unidos. Escrito en el estilo narrativo en segunda persona típico de las guías de autoayuda, el libro de Hakakian sirve como una narrativa personal que guía al lector a través del viaje para convertirse en estadounidense. Haciéndose eco de la idea del excepcionalismo estadounidense, relata una historia de progreso histórico entretejida a través de anécdotas de violencia e injusticia contra comunidades marginadas a lo largo de la historia estadounidense; el narrador representa estos episodios como hitos esenciales hacia la libertad. El narrador le enseña a la narrataria que las luchas por la libertad a lo largo de la historia de Estados Unidos fueron esfuerzos por someterse al estado de derecho y a la Constitución. Luego se invita a la narrataria a esperar estoicamente y con resignación hasta su ceremonia de naturalización, cuando sus libertades estarán protegidas por la constitución. Al rastrear los vínculos intertextuales de la historia y explorar sus aspectos formales, este artículo sostiene que el surgimiento del sujeto libre al final de la historia refleja la ideología dominante de asimilación y conformidad con la sociedad estadounidense. 2025-11-14T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/169028 This article engages with noise studies to foreground its importance in the perception and the creation of the Other in Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind (2020). The essay draws from Michel Serres’s The Parasite (2007) and Marie Thompson’s Beyond Unwanted Sound (2017) to contend that the pairing sound/noise structures the characters’ response to difference and alterity. While initially pitting sound against noise and English against Spanish, the article goes on to show how those pairings are impossible to maintain as the novel moves from notions of the Other as noise to those of the self as noise. Although initially associated with the externality and vulnerability attributed to a Spanish-speaking woman stranded by the side of the road, noise then takes center stage, becoming a parasitic presence that restructures reality and creates a void in signification. The analysis provided here leads to the conclusion that the errantry of noise dismantles protocols of ordering and labeling and creates new configurations of power. There is no longer self vs Other, inside vs outside, belonging vs non-belonging, as noise has spread vulnerability and relationality. 2024-06-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168775 This article examines the novel Indian Horse (2012), written by Ojibwe Wabaseemoong Independent Nations member Richard Wagamese (1955-2017) at the height of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission era. Wagamese finds inspiration in the testimonies and experiences of hundreds of victims of Canada’s residential school system, including those of his own family members. The article contextualizes the novel in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission era and explores Saul’s narrative journey to recover his suppressed memories of personal and collective abuse at St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School through the lens of Indigenous resurgence and grounded normativity. Thus, the paper draws on Michi Saagiig scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s writings on Indigenous radical resurgence to explore the retrieval of Indigenous ways of existing in the world as the way towards decolonization and Indigenous sovereignty. The paper argues that Saul is able to overcome his trauma-induced amnesia, born from the necessity to endure and adapt, and to escape the spiral of shame, isolation, and self-destruction in which he engages only after he embraces discursive Indigenous ways of healing. Wagamese therefore constructs a narrative in which the protagonist’s development mirrors the ideal that the author sets for Canada, in which reconciliation with Indigenous truth will not take place unless the whole story is acknowledged. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168766 La pandemia del virus COVID-19 generó en 2020 una crisis sin precedentes. Los llamamientos a la resiliencia por parte de las autoridades se sucedieron a lo largo de 2020 y 2021, reclamando actitudes por el bien común en un mundo occidental regido por el individualismo neoliberal. La resiliencia y la enfermedad permean Ravensong, novela escrita por la autora indígena Salish y Métis Lee Maracle. Ambientada en Columbia Británica durante la epidemia de gripe de 1954, Ravensong retrata los efectos de la enfermedad en dos comunidades separadas por un puente: mientras que el pueblo europeo-canadiense recurre a sus conocimientos científicos para sobrevivir, el virus conducirá a la aldea Indígena a pérdidas insalvables. 2025-11-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168489 This article studies Indian writing in the English language published in English newspapers (Indian, Bangladeshi, British, US) during the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak in India (March 22–May 25, 2020). The selected authors include Arundhati Roy, Tishani Doshi, Anuradha Roy, and Prayaag Akbar, to illustrate the transnational consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak in different areas of India and analyse the narratology of resilience to articulate ethical knowledge against regional, national, and international stereotypes. I propose the concept transformative hope as an oppositional complaint (Bargués et al., 2024; Braithwaite, 2004; Giroux, 2004) against political and representational systems of domain articulated against the capitalist politics of who can afford to survive. This study shows a possible subversive resilience (Bracke, 2016; Darías-Beautell, 2020; Fraile-Marcos, 2020a; O’Brien, 2015) that, together with writing and reading, can implement alliance, rather than affiliation, and praises an ethical and transformative hope that dissents against the resilient appropriation of neoliberalism to benefit from tragedies like Covid-19. 2025-12-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168386 This paper explores how the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in its death throes, is turning metafictional in the worst possible sense, as a thoroughly narcissistic narrative that can neither acknowledge its decline nor let go of its power, although symptoms of a partial, guilty self-consciousness abound in its recent productions. 2025-03-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168385 Guest-editor's introduction to Femspec 23.1, a special issue "A Feminist Black Mirror?" 2023-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168384 This article proposes the notion of “new media quixotism” and illustrates it with Black Mirror’s episode “USS Callister,” which is interpreted as a metamedial rewriting of the literary myth of Don Quixote. Specifically, I examine how the myth’s core semantic components are rewritten within the context of an sf narrative that is thematically concerned with the effects of the capitalist system of 24/7 audio-visual consumption. My argument is that Black Mirror, together with other recent sf narratives, seems to suggest that so-called “new media” technologies can generate a form of technologically enabled quixotism in human individuals, developing character traits profoundly akin to Don Quixote’s. Thus, as illustration, I focus on how “USS Callister” updates the myth for a satire of the male gamer/geek/nerd stereotype, who is reimagined as a quixotic embodiment of neoliberal, patriarchal individualism in the digital realm. Nonetheless, my underlying assumption is that the sf notion of “new media quixotism” merits further development and study and that, despite its satirical bleakness and its seeming techno-determinism, it also opens subversive, transformative hopes. Overall, the underlying ambivalence of the critical dystopia productively parallels the ambivalence of Don Quixote, who is both an object of satire and a subject of utopianism. 2022-06-01T00:00:00Z