• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.45
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• pp.345-366
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• 2016

In Charlotte's Web, each character motivates the other and strives for the new generation based upon motherhood. The intersection between life and death is directly and symbolically addressed as a component of the natural life cycle. Borrowing Kristeva's theory of the semiotic, the symbolic and the chora, this study investigates the dialectical oscillation between the semiotic and the symbolic and the social circumstances of subjects in signification as well as highlights the features of character growth. From a feminist perspective, herein, motherhood is translated not only as a robust foundation for relations among characters but also as an impetus for developing into a good and influential individual who embraces all organisms with care and consideration. Charlotte's Web clearly shows how the semiotic and symbolic elements of each being, united by motherhood, interact and lead to positive change. Though the world appears to consist of incompatible ingredients, they are combined. Charlotte's Web awakens the fact that their harmony makes a commitment to building a more wonderful place. It can be suggested that Charlotte's Web, where animal characters contain two tendencies of the human mind, exhibits human development proceedings.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.79-101
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• 2010

In "The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)," Derrida notices that he is being watched by his cat. He becomes ashamed of being naked in front of his cat. The sense of shame is a response to being reduced to the level of an animal. He is ashamed of being as naked as an animal. His next move is, therefore, to cover his nakedness from the gaze of his cat. By contrast, he realizes, the animal is not self-conscious of being naked and so does not shield its nudity. In a truer sense, then, the cat is not naked. Humans do not see animals for what they really are but what they project on them. Whereas the gap between man and animal is clearly identified by Derrida's philosophical discourse, the possibility of going beyond the gap can be suggested by fantasy stories in children's literature. Children's literature in Britain arose in the eighteenth century with the revival of traditional fairy tales and growth of literary fairy tales. Romanticism in the early nineteenth century contributed to opening up a new horizon for the concept of the child, in which the child is no longer defined as the object to be tamed and childhood imagination is glorified as a powerful means to reach the higher state, the spiritual origin prior to separation of Man from the 'thing-in-itself.' In The Wind in the Willows, animals talk and behave like humans. The anthropomorphic figuration of animals can be understood as a result of the one-sided projection of anthropocentric perspectives on animals rather than an interaction between humans and animals. Significant contradictions also emerge in this story, however, as traits particular to animals are vividly delineated even as the main didactic theme of good triumphing over evil reflects an anthropocentric projection on animals. An attempt to capture the true characteristics of animals and locate them in the text constitutes a remarkable achievement in The Wind in the Willows. This can be evaluated as an important step toward a more ecopocentric perspective on animals which appears in later children's fantasies like Charlotte's Web.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.107-128
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• 2009

Literature had been at center-stage in the traditional grammar-translation-focused English classrooms up to the mid-twentieth century. As the Audiolingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching have gained popularity in the English classrooms, however, literature has receded into the background of English education. The main reasons for using literary texts in the English classrooms for communication-focused English instruction need to be examined. First of all, students can come in touch with the subtle and varied uses of language through literature-based teaching. They also feel close to certain characters in the literary work and share the emotional reponses with them. They get personally involved in the plot of the story. Universal human experience and cultural enrichment are two other merits which can be conferred on students by literary texts. Such linguistic and literary experiences can be significantly integrated into the literature-based instruction. More significantly, the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) can be combined with one another and integrated into a literature-focused curriculum for English education. The value of literary texts in the English classrooms can be clearly demonstrated by effective ways of using such texts as Charlotte's Web for integrated instruction. The full array of benefits that literature can bring to English instruction, however, has yet to be fully realized. These potentials need to be materialized into classroom practice.