From the point of view of depth psychology, which focuses on the personal and collective aspects of the human psyche and is nourished by the theory of psychoanalysis, seeing dreams and fairy tales as the masked realization of unconsciously repressed desires, fairy tales are archaic legacies that emerge from the collective part of the unconscious to the surface of consciousness and are therefore the projection of collective experiences. Although the manifestations of these legacies on the surface of consciousness and in fairy tales vary, the hidden meaning they contain is constant. The intricate relationship between archetypes, dreams, and fairy tales is predicated on their capacity to convey the fundamental dilemmas surrounding human existence and development through a symbolic lexicon. Central to the collective unconscious are archetypes that embody the inner images of the psyche. Among these, the self represents the core of consciousness, encircled by the unconscious; the persona encapsulates the individual’s outward spiritual demeanor; the shadow signifies the repressed aspects of the self; the anima serves as the integral feminine component within the male unconscious; the animus reflects the masculine essence within the female; the trickster embodies the consciousness unbridled by instinctual drives; the wise old man symbolizes the spirit of nature; and the grandmother archetype oscillates between nurturing and destructive forces, representing both growth and fear. These archetypal motifs in fairy tales have garnered considerable attention across various disciplines, including psychology, linguistics, folklore, and literary studies. Notably, research in archetypal fairy tale analysis often remains confined to specific national philologies or lacks a focused examination of femininity. This study seeks to bridge this gap by comparing representations of femininity across Turkish, German, French, Italian, and Arabic literary traditions. Employing a Jungian framework through archetypal criticism, this research aims to elucidate the foundational types of feminine images present in the collective unconscious, analyzing how these representations manifest in the narratives of world fairy tales. Furthermore, it endeavors to delineate the psychological building blocks these feminine archetypes embody, exploring their correspondence with the fictional worlds depicted in the aforementioned literary traditions. By examining the intersections of these archetypal feminine images, this study aspires to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how cultural narratives shape and reflect the complexities of gender identity and the collective psyche across diverse societies. In doing so, it aims to enrich the discourse on femininity in fairy tales, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive and cross-cultural approach to the analysis of these enduring narratives.

This article explores how Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) portrays a woman with a non-normative body in his novel Hide and Seek (1854), from the perspective of critical disability studies. The concept of “non-normate,” which refers to the (non)standardized body, coined by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson in her work Extraordinary Bodies (1997), is used to examine Collins’s work. The novel challenges the conventional Victorian views on disability by emphasizing the independence and freedom of women with disabilities. The protagonist, Madonna, who is deaf and mute, attempts to compensate for her disability through her beauty, sexuality, and intellect. She uses diverse methods of perception, such as intuition, comprehension, and inference to overcome her disability and, thus, attempts to claim an ontological site for her existence. This paper argues that a non-normative woman’s body can embody alternative methods of perception to claim her existence, particularly when exposed to the cultural or corporeal inferiority of the hegemonic normative bodies. By challenging the dogmatic predictions that disability is synonymous with limitation and suffering, this paper offers a new perspective that views disability as a desirable state of mind and body and encourages us to appreciate the diversity and complexity of non-normative bodies.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones and The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous, both published in 2018, share thematic and structural similarities despite different cultural contexts. Both novels explore romantic relationships strained by external circumstances. In An American Marriage, Celestial and Roy’s marriage is tested by Roy’s wrongful imprisonment, highlighting racial injustice and flaws in the American criminal justice system. The Frightened Ones centers on the unnamed narrator and Nasim, whose relationship is shaped by the trauma of living in a war-torn society, reflecting the impact of the Syrian civil war. Both novels examine how societal issues affect personal lives and apply intersectional feminism to explore how gender, race, and socio-political contexts shape the characters’ identities.

William Shakespeare vividly portrays the relationship between Lear and his daughters in the tragedy King Lear. In the play, Lear incessantly pursues love, authority, and solace. His relationship with his three daughters, Cordelia, Goneril, and Regan, is dysfunctional. The research on the family relationship in King Lear generally relies on traditional feminist and psychological methodologies. However, this study takes a different approach by examining the father-daughter relationship between Lear and his daughters through the Bowen Family Systems Theory perspective. This article examines the father-daughter relationships in the tragedy by using the concept of differentiation of self in Bowen Theory. According to Bowen’s scale of differentiation of self, the levels of differentiation of self of Lear, Goneril, and Regan range from 0 to 25, whereas Cordelia’s level of differentiation of self falls between 25 and 50. The findings also suggest that Lear’s connection with his daughters is abnormal due to their low levels of differentiation of self. This interdisciplinary study offers a novel way of character analysis in literary works. Additionally, it introduces a fresh perspective to studying father-daughter relationships and various family relationships in drama and other literary genres.

In contrast to biographies, as long prose narratives, Darwish harnesses the fragments of the poem and his poetic, lyrical voice to contest the exilic space as a site where elements of place, time and language conflate. While the “high art” concept of the writer in exile—depicting the image of a masculinised, solitary figure that reflects an anachronistic politics and history—is now exhausted, we argue that Darwish’s poetics of exile amounts to a conceptual shift into an enacted articulation of self-writing heterotopia in exile. This article explores the interplay between exile and self-writing in Darwish’s “Tuesday, a Bright Day” and “Counterpoint”, which came out in a form of self-narrative accounts of the poet himself and of the Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said, respectively. This relationship is interwoven throughout the two poems, highlighting not only the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian experience of exile, but also those with comparable experiences. By extending the concept of exile beyond space and time, Darwish draws parallels between the elements of poetry and self-writing to challenge the prevailing ways of presenting selfhood as an intact individuality within the boundaries of nationhood. Hence, Darwish transcends the limitations of national boundaries through his poetic self-narrative accounts, rendering the exilic experience both universally comprehensible and humanistically experienceable.

The word ‘gender’ is girdled with identity which critically represents an individual’s identity as male, female and a combination of certain male and female traits. In other words, gender identity provides a universal acknowledgement for both physical and behavioral manifestations. Conventionally, the patriarchal society brings out the gender discrimination or gender divide to determine the credentials of both men and women in the public or private space of domesticity. Significantly, Anne Tyler’s A Slipping Down Life and Earthly Possessions persevere on to demonstrate the undesirable functions in the expression of patriarchal society. Further, the paper purports to analyze the term ‘gender divide’ in order to highlight Anne Tyler’s investigation on the unpremeditated intricacies related to gender division in the American family. Markedly, the paper relies on Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation in which woman/man fulfills her/his other needs which include physiological need, safety need, love or belongingness need and esteem need to attain the highest need such as self-actualization in the hierarchy of needs. Thus, the paper ensures that the women in these novels attain self-actualization to illustrate how gender plays a crucial role in everyone’s life.

This study applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of carnivalesque to the select novels of Khaled Hosseini, namely, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. The theoretical framework of carnivalesque is based on the chaotic festivities of carnivals, during which reversal is celebrated. The understanding of carnivalesque prepares grounds for a deeper investigation of subversive and rebellious tendencies in a literary work. This paper explores how carnivalesque moments manifest by creating space for alternative perspectives, challenging hierarchies, suspending societal norms, and celebrating grotesque bodies within these novels. This analysis provides instances of power reversal, dialogue among diverse voices, and defiance of societal expectations by unearthing the deeper layers of plot dynamics and the characters in the novels. The present study, ultimately, enhances the understanding of the intricate interaction of culture, power, and resistance in the select works of Khaled Hosseini through the lens of carnivalesque.

This study examines the journey of the main character in Mahfouz’s novel The Beggar, who experiences intense hopelessness and struggles in a cruel and unforgiving society. The objectives are to explore how the protagonist transforms from despair to psychological disorders and how these are connected to the social issues portrayed in the story. The study investigates the intricate relationship between the protagonist’s internal state and the external social environment, examining how his psychological struggles impact various aspects of his life, such as emotional relationships, self-identity, frustration, the meaning of existence, and alienation. Through psychological analysis, the study delves into the protagonist’s transformation from despair to psychological turmoil and examines the influence of external factors like depression, alienation, inequality, and social injustice on his mental state. It also discusses psychological concepts related to the character’s journey, including the impact of social environments on mental well-being and the consequences of societal exclusion. In conclusion, the study explores the psychological aspects relevant to Omar’s journey, emphasizes the importance of understanding how the social environment affects his mental well-being, and discusses the consequences of societal exclusion during challenging circumstances. Ultimately, The Beggar serves as a plea for empathy, compassion, and collective efforts to address social issues and create a just and inclusive society.

This essay studies romantic tendency in Medieval Korean literature and looks at the characteristics of its formation in comparison with those of European progressive romanticism. It studies romantic tendency in Medieval Korean literature and ascertains that it is a tendency with new ideological and aesthetic ideals which are different from the outdated in the past. The formation and development of romantic tendency in Medieval Korean literature turned out to be somewhat different from progressive romantic literature in Europe in the light of socio-historical environment and aesthetic principle. Both of them are common in showing complaints about the reactionary and unpopular reality of the exploiting society and suggesting progressive ideas. But unlike progressive romantic literature in Europe, romantic tendency in Medieval Korean literature is characteristic in the fact that their socio and historical basis is different from each other, and realistic and romantic description are organically combined in the method of interpretation, and the characters’ personalities and their lives reflect deep patriotism.

Immigration may change a person’s outlook on life and shape their cultural understanding. This kind of change can lead to either positive or negative outcomes, depending on the individual’s faith and scientific beliefs and how they respond to the variables around them. The study explores the intersection of faith and science through the story of Gifty, a Ghanaian girl living in the United States, and the consequences of living in a completely different country. Gifty is a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience studying the neural impact of addiction and depression on human mental health, which is influenced by her brother’s death due to addiction and her mother’s depression. She grapples with her mother’s devout Christian faith and her own faith in the power of science. Through a postcolonial approach, the study attempts to examine Gifty’s experiences in the United States and how these dynamics intersect to shape her cultural and religious identity. The study finds that immigration can awaken a person’s potential for better or worse. Gifty’s mother continues to adhere to her faith and spirituality, while her brother Nana cannot resist the desires of his body, which ultimately leads to his death. However, Gifty believes in the power of science to change the world for the better and recognizes its impact on the human brain. Later, she realizes that believing in the power of God, faith, and science can change a person’s life for the better.