Dealing Taboo Topics Inside English Literary Classrooms: Pakistani Teachers’ Perspective
Keywords:
Taboo, Mixed-classroom, Young Adult literature, Bakhtin and positioning theoryAbstract
The current research aims to explore the teachers’ stance for dealing taboo topics (sexuality and gender) inside English literary mixed-classrooms of postgraduate and undergraduate level of Southern Punjab universities of Pakistan. Pattee (2006: 34) mentioned, “the ability of Young Adult literature is representing the valuable information about intimacy and sexuality”. A survey was conducted among one hundred and twenty university teachers and the data (focus group discussion and responses through close-ended questionnaire) was analyzed by statistical procedures to interpret the result qualitatively under Bakhtin (1981) and positioning (1992) theoretical framework. The findings disclosed that Pakistani teachers get embarrassed and reserved in mixed classroom for discussing taboos. Moreover, they do not use the alternative terms for taboo(s) but by positioning themselves in institutional context, they ventriloquate the speech in “allowable discourse”.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10514565
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