JLS Volume 6 Issue I June 2022 Online Version

Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES (JLS)

(BI-ANNUAL DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEWED REFEREED JOURNAL)
Volume 6 Issue I June 2022
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

BUDDHIST AND PALI UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA
a
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES
(JLS)
(BI-ANNUAL DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEWED/
REFEREED JOURNAL)
Volume 6 Issue I June 2022

Disclaimer
The responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles of this

publication rests solely with their authors, and this publication does
not constitute an endorsement by the Faculty of Language Studies,
Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka of opinions so expressed
in them.
ISSN 2579-2156
PAGE SETUP & FORMATTING

K. S. G. Kothalawala
Published by:
Faculty of Language Studies

No. 37, Moragahahena Road,
Pitipana, Homagama.
(BI-ANNUAL PEER REVIEWED/ REFEREED JOURNAL)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Senior Lecturer Dr. S. Nimali Priyangika
EDITOR
Senior Lecturer Dr. E. G. I. P. Wickramasinghe
(BI-ANNUAL PEER REVIEWED/ REFEREED JOURNAL)
PANEL OF REVIEWERS
Prof. Saman Chandra Ranasinghe

Department of Languages, Cultural Studies and Performing Arts
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Prof. M.G. Lalith Ananda

Department of English and Linguistics
Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
Prof. K.B. Jayawardhane

Department of Sanskrit & Eastern Studies
Faculty of Humanities
University of Kelaniya
Prof. Indira Mawelle

Department of English and Linguistics
Dr. S. M. A. K. Samarakoon
Department of Social Studies
The Open University of Sri Lanka
Senior Lecturer Mr. W. M. Saman Wanasinghe
Department of English Language Teaching
Faculty of Arts
University of Colombo
Senior Lecturer Mr. W. M. P. Y. B. Rathnayake
Department of Languages
Faculty of Engineering
University of Moratuwa
LIST OF AUTHORS
Ven. Prof. Lenagala Siriniwasa

PhD., M.A., B.A. (Hons), Royal Pandit
Department of Sanskrit
Dr. Nipunika Dilani

PhD., M.A., B.A. (Hons)
Department of English
Buddhist & Pali University of Sri Lanka
Dr. Upul Priyantha Gamage

PhD-BPU, PhD-China, M.A., B.A. (Hons)
Department of Sinhala
Mrs. K.G. Kumarage

M.A., B.A. (Hons)
Department of English Language Teaching
Ms. Naduni Dinesha Thebuwana

Mphil (Reading), B.A. (Hons)
Department of English
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Study on Sāmaveda 1 - 15
Ven. Professor Lenagala Siriniwasa
Cathartic Egression of Emotions in Shakespearean 16 - 36

Plays and Buddhist Jātaka Stories
Dr. Nipunika Dilani
Multiple Motivation as a Key Factor in English 37 - 59

Language Teaching – a Case Study in Hambantota,
Sri Lanka
Perceptions of the Lecturers on the Use of 60 - 74

Translanguaging in Teaching English for the
University Students
Mrs. K. G. Kumarage
‘Politics of Fear’: An Analysis of the Effects of Divisive 75 - 104

Political Propaganda in Nazi Germany and Cold
War America as Reflected in Nabokov’s “Signs and
Symbols” (1958) and Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” (1985)
Ms. Naduni Dinesha Thebuwana
A Study on Sāmaveda
Ven. Professor Lenagala Sirinivasa Thero
Abstract
The Sāmaveda teaches us the way of Vedic chanting in the sacrifices

and other events. There are 2.637 verses in this Veda which have
been kept as the third Veda in order of the four vedas. There are two
major parts of Sāmaveda as gāna and ārcikā. Again the gāna section
is divided into two as grāmageya and araṇyageya while the ārcika is
also divided into two as pūrvārcikā and uttarārcikā. In this paper, the
content of the Sāmaveda is scrutinized considering the subdivisions
of the text. It is clear that the modern western and eastern music are
based on this Sāmavedic melodies and tones. The Vedic accent and the
correct pronunciation connected with meters are taught in this Veda.
Here, the focus is on that explanation considering the value of the
original Vedic chanting.
Keywords: Sāmaveda, gāna, ārcikā, grāmageya, araṇyageya
Introduction
Hindus consider the Vedas as a science of immortal divine origin.

Some Hindus believe that sages created Vedic mantras through the
power of asceticism. Those sages are known as Mantrakāra sages. But
others are of the opinion that they should be called “Mantradṛṣṭā”. They
believe that with the blessing of God, they saw the mantras which are
the life breath of God. It is for this reason that it is said “Sṛtiṃ Paśyanti
Munayaḥ”. It is expressed in Bṛhadāranyaka Upanishad as follows.
1
Journal of Language Studies_JLS
“asya mahato bhūtasya nisvasitaṃ etat yat - ṛgvedo yajurvedaḥ

sāma Vedo’tharvāngiras itihāsa purāṇaṃ vidyā upaniṣadaḥ
ślokāḥ” (Bṛhadāranyaka, chapter 6)
Sage Vyasa states that the Vedas are of four divisions.

“chaturhotraṃ karmasuddhaṃ
prajānaṃ vīkṣya vaidikaṃ
vyadadhāt Yajñasantatyai
vedamekaṃ chaturvidhaṃ” (Srīmatbhāgavataṃ verse 1.4.19)
It has also been introduced as Chaturhotra as well.

“ṛgyajuḥ sāmātharvākhyā
vedāscatvāra uddhṛutāḥ
itihāsa purāṇaṃ ca
pañcamo veda ucyate” (Srīmatbhāgavataṃ, verse 1.4.20)
Ithihāsa and purāṇa are considered as pañcama Veda as shown here.

It further indicates that ṛgveda was carried out by the sage Paippala,
Sāmaveda by Jaimini, Yajurveda by Vaiśampāyana and Atharvaveda
by Sumantu, son of Dāruṇa with the help of their generation of
students. History and Purāṇa Veda were maintained by Romaharṣana,
the father of Sage Vyāsa.
“ta eta ṛṣayao vedaṃ svaṃ svaṃ vyasyannanekadā śiṣyaiḥ

praśiṣyaistacchiṣyair vedāste sākhino’bhavat”
(Srīmad Bhāgavataṃ, verse 1.4.23)
Research Problem
Sāmaveda possesses different sects and divisions according to many

scholars. Scholars will be confused to separate the genres of this Veda
during their further studies.
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Research Methodology
This is a qualitative research based on the textual study. Primary and

secondary sources have been referred.
Branches of Sāmaveda
It is mentioned in ‘purāṇa granthas’ that Sāmaveda has thousands of

branches.
“ekaśatamadhvaryuśākhāḥ sahasravatmā sāmavedaḥ
ekavinshatidha bāhvṛcyaṃ
navadhā’tharvaṇo vedaḥ” (Mahābhāṣya - Paspaśāhnike)
Mahābhāṣyakāra ‘Patañjalī’ in his Mahābhāṣya Paspaśāhnikādhikarana

has stated that Sāmaveda has thousand branches, Yajurveda has one
hundred branches, Ṛigveda has 21 branches and Atharvaveda has 09
branches.
Śrī Mahidāsa who wrote the Vedādhyayana which is named as

Charaṇavyūha, has also confirmed this fact in the third chapter of that
work.
“sāmavedasya kila sahasrabhedā bhavanti. eṣvanadhyāyeṣvadhīyānāste

śatrakratu vajreṇābhihatāḥ. śeṣān vyākhyāsyāmaḥ”
It is mentioned that in an age when the study of Vedas was prohibited,

Indra’s Vajrāyudha destroyed thousand branches of Sāmaveda and
only the remaining parts are described.
Those residual branches he indicates are,

1. Rāṇāyanīyaṃ
2. Chatyayanīyaṃ
3. Jatyamugraṃ
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4. Kalvalaṃ
5. Mahā Kalvalaṃ
6. Lāngalaṃ
7. Kauthamīyaṃ
8. Kauthumīyaṃ
9. Jaiminīyaṃ
Among these branches, only three branches namely Kauthumīyaṃ,

Rāṇāyanīyaṃ and Jaiminīyaṃ (Talavkāra) exist in India today. Only
the Kauthuma branch is prevalent in the state of Tamil Nadu. The
following names are mentioned in Charaṇavyūha Pariśiṣṭhaṃ as sages
who maintained this branch.
1. Rāṇāyanī
2 Satyamugri
3 Durvāsa
4 Bāguri
5 Gaurundi
6 Gaulgulavi
7 Aupamanyawa
8 Tarāla
9 Gārgisāvarṇi
10 Vārṣagaṇya
11 Kuthumi
12 Śālihotra
13 Jaimini are those names.
4
Evaluations for Sāmaveda
In the Ṛgveda
“pradakṣinīdabhi gṛṇanti karavo
vayo vadanta ṛtutā śakuntayaḥ
ubhevāchau vadatisāmagā iva
gāyatraṃ ca traisṭubhaṃ cānurājati” Ṛgveda, 2. 43. 1
“udgātewa śakune sāma gāyasi

brahmaputra iva savaneshu śansasi” Ṛgveda, 2. 43. 2
“ime mayūkhā upa seduru - sadaḥ sāmāni cakrustasarāṇyotave”

Ṛgveda, 10. 130. 2
“taṃ sāmānuprāvartata samito navyāhitaṃ” Ṛgveda, 10. 135. 4
In Kriṣnayajurveda
“yāni devarājānaṃ sāmāni
tairamuṣmillāke ṛdhnoti
Ayajño vā eṣḥ yo’sāmā
caturunnayati chaturakṣarathantaraṃ”
In Taittirīya Saṃhitā
“sāmnā prastotā’nvavaiti sāmavairakṣo hā”
Tai.Saṃhitā, 6.6.9
“udgātṛbhyo haranti sāmadevatyo vai Soumyaḥ”
“devaloko vai sāma”
“sāmavedo brāhmaṇānāṃ prasūtiḥ”
Tai.Saṃhitā, 3.50
5
In Atharvaveda
“bruhataḥ pari sāmāni” Atharva,8.9.4.
“sāmāni yasya lomāni - yajurhṛudayaṃ uchyate”
Atharva,9.6.2.
“brahmanā parigṛhītā sāmnā paryūḍhā”
Atharva,11.03.15.
“ṛcaḥ sāmāni chandāṃsi purānaṃ yajushāṃ cha saha
uchchiṣtājjañire sarve dividevā diviśritaḥ”
Atharva,11.07.24.
“ṛucāṃ ca vai sa sāmnāṃ ca yajuṣāṃ ca
brahmaṇaśca priyaṃ dhāma bhavati ya evaṃ veda”
Atharva,15.06.09.
In Shukla Yajurveda Kānva Saṃhitā

“ ṛucāṃ vāchaṃprapadye mano yajuḥ prapadye
sāma pranamprapadye cakṣuḥ śrotraṃ prapadye”
Atharva,36.1.1.
In Vālmīki Rāmāyana
“nānṛgveda vinītasya - nāyajurvedadhārinaḥ
nāsāmaveda Viduṣaḥ – shakyamevaṃ prabhāshituṃ”
Atharva,3.29.
In the Mahābhārata
“sāmavedaśca vedānāṃ” (14.3.17.)
Bhagavad Gītā
“vedānāṃ sāmavedo’smi” (10.22.)
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In Raghuvaṃsa
“chaturbhujāṃsaprabhavaḥ sa teṣāṃ dānapravṛtteranupāratānāṃ
suradvipānāmiva sāmayonirbhinno’ṣṭadhā viprasasāra vaṭśaḥ”
Raghuvaṃśa, 16 sarga 3 verse
In this way, the mention of Sāmaveda is seen from the era of Ṛgveda.
It explains the popularity of Sāmaveda from thousands of years.
Nature of Sāmaveda
The meaning of creating peace and happiness in the mind lies in the
word sāma. Sāmaveda brings happiness and peace to God. Deity is
appeased by Āhuti (sacrifice) and Udgāthā (singing). The singing was
done in Sāmaveda and for the singing of peace there was a group of
singers named ‘Sāmagaṇa’. The melodic pattern was known as ‘svara’
in music originated in the Sāmaveda.
The Sāmaveda is composed of the combination of the Ṛgveda which

is called ‘ṛc’ and the ‘svara’ which is called ‘sāma’.
“ṛcyadhūḍhaṃ sāma, tasmāt ṛcyadhyūḍhaṃ sāma gīyate”

(Chāndogya, 2.1.6.1)
Śankarācārya expressed the same idea as follows:

“ṛcīva sāma,. tasmāt ata eva kāraṇāt
ṛcyadhyūḍhameva sāma gīyate idanīmapi sāmagaiḥ”
(Chāndogya Bhāṣya)
As explained in Chāndogya Upaniṣad sāma means ‘svara’

“kā sāmno gatiḥ iti? svara itihovāca” (Chāndogya 1.8.4.)
One can get ideas about the nature of Sāmaveda with these examples.
7
It is very clear that the singing part of the Ṛgveda is completed by the
Sāma Veda.
Vowels
The vitality of the Vedas rests on the tones. Variations in meaning also
occur depending on the variety of vowel usage.
The importance of svaras is emphasized in Nāradīyaśikṣā.
“sāma yajurañgāni ye yajñesu prayujyate - avijānādi śāstrāṇaṃ teṣāṃ

bhavati visvaraḥ” (Nāradīyaśikṣā 1.1.4.)
As stated in the Mahābhāṣya, mantras which are not considered svaras

or not properly used as svaras are ineffective.
“mantro hīnaḥ svarato varṇato vā mithyā prayukto na tamarthamāha”
It means that the Vedic mantras with correctly applied tones are fruitful.
Singing is twofold: vedic and classical.
Vedic singing (Sāma) is called mārgī and classical singing is called

“deśī”.
Sārangadeva stated in his book Sangīta Ratnākara that classical

singing was originated from Vedic singing.
“sāmavedoditaṃ gītaṃ - sañjagrāha pitāmahaḥ” (Sangīta Ratnākara

1.1.25)
Both these vedic and classical singings have seven (07) tones.
“saptasvarāstrayo grāmāḥ - mūrchnāstvekaviṃśathiḥ”

tānā ekonapañcāśadityetat svara maṇdalaṃ” (Nāradīyaśikṣā 1.2.4.)
However, there is a difference in vowel order in these two sections.
Vedic - Ma, Ga, Ri, Sa, Da, Ni, Pa

Classical- Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni
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It is explained in Sūta Saṃhiā that classical singing brings the pleasure

of Lord Śiva and Vedic singing brings pleasure related to everything.
“laukikesvapi gāneṣu - prasādaṃ kurute śivaḥ

kiṃ punaḥ vaidike gāne - tato gānaṃ samāśrayet”
The great sage Yajñavalkya has also made a similar statement.
“gītino yadi yogene - na gacchet paramaṃ padaṃ

rudrasyānucharo bhūtva tenaiva saha modate”
If he does not attain Parama Pada (Moksha) through singing, he

becomes a follower of Lord Śiva and is happy with Him.
Prakṛti and Uttara Ṛk Chantings
Ṛk texts studied and sung in villages are called ‘Grame Geyaṃ’ and
Ṛk texts studied and sung in forests are called ‘Araṇye Gayaṃ’.
1492 basic sāma chants called Pūrvārchika riks are considered as
Prakriti sāmas. 1145 sāma chants called Uttarārchika sāma are called
Uttarārchika sāma.
Prakṛti Sāma chant is divided into 7 parts.

1. Gāyatram
2. Āgneyaṃ
3. Aindraṃ
4. Pāvamānaṃ
5. Arkadvandva Vrataṃ
6. Śukriaṃ
7. Mahānāmnī.
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“gāyatram prathamaṃ gānamāgneyaṃ tu dvitīyakaṃ

tṛtīyamaindraṃ gānaṃ syāt pāvamānaṃ chaturthakaṃ
arkadvandva vrataṃ cheti pañcamaṃ gānamucyate
ṣaṣṭhañca śukriaṃ gānaṃ mahānāmnī ca saptamaṃ
ethāni saptagānāni prakṛti kathitāni ca”
(Online article, Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00056 Aug 2006

(Retrieved 14.10.2020)
The amounts of Prakṛti Sāma chants are as follows.

1. Gāyatram 01
2. Āgneyaṃ 180
3. Aindraṃ 633
(Bahusāmi 132
Ekasāmi 64
Bruhatī 150
Tṛṣtup 49
Anushṭup 76
Indrapucchaṃ 162
4. Pavamānaṃ 384
5. Arka-parva - 89
(Dvandvaparva - 77
Vrataparva - 84)
6. Śukriaṃ - 40
7. Mahānāmnī - 04
Total 1492
The amounts of Uttara Ṛk chants are as follows. This consists of two

types as Ūha and Rahasyaṃ (Ūhyaṃ). Also, there are 07 varieties
applicable to both these sections. They are as follows:
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1. Dāśaratraṃ
2. Sāmvatsaraṃ
3. Ekāhaṃ
4. Ahinaṃ
5. Śatraṃ
6. Prāyaścittaṃ
7. Kṣutraṃ
Catagory Ūha chants (grāma) Ūhyaṃ (rahasyaṃ/araṇyaṃ)

Dāśaratraṃ 222 29
Sāmvatsaraṃ 152 41
Ekāhaṃ 158 23
Ahinaṃ 146 31
Śatraṃ 121 14
Prāyaścittaṃ 50 19
Kṣutraṃ 87 52
Total 936 209
Total is 1145.
It is seen that there are changes in the chants according to the respective
yāga (sacrifice) occasions.
There are mainly 03 branches of Sāmaveda.
There are also Brāhminical texts inherent to the three main branches of
the Sāmaveda: Kauthuma, Jaiminiya and Rānāyaṇīya. They consider
themselves as Sāmaveda Brāhmanās.
08 Brāhmanas Belonging to Kauthuma Branch
1. Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇaṃ – consists of 25 chapters. It is also known

as Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa. The facts on Soma Yāga have been
11
presented here. 178 types of sacrifices related to it (from Agnistoma

Yāga to Viśvasṛjāmayanaṃ Yāga) are represented here with the
mantras that are chanted daily.
2. Ṣaḍvinśa Brāhmaṇaṃ – Originally known as Mahā Brāhmaṇa,

this also has 26 chapters. The chants which are widely used in
sacrifices can be seen here. Those chants are called Subrahmaṇya
Āhvanam.
3. Sāmavidhāna Brāhmaṇaṃ – 03 chapters. 25 categories. Sūktās like

Śri Rudraṃ, Puruṣasūktaṃ, Subramaniya Sūkta are found here and
there are also Sāma chants like Ariṣṭavargaṃ and Pavitravargaṃ.
It is emphasized here that sāma gāyanā are sung for the benefit of
everyone.
4. Ārṣeya Brāhmaṇaṃ - Consists of 03 chapters and 82 groups, this

book teaches the importance of chanting the sāma gāyanā that
carry blessings of sages, chandas and deities.
5. Devatādhyāya Brāhmaṇaṃ – Consists of 04 categories, it describes

the deities related to the respective sāma gāyanā. The facts on the
origin of Chandas like Gāyatrī, Uṣṇik, Kakubh.Anuṣṭup, Bṛhatī,
Paṃktī, Triṣṭup, Jagatī are also given here.
6. Chāndogya Brāhmaṇaṃ - 10 chapters. First two Chapters are

named as mantra Brāhmaṇa. In this Brāhmaṇa, Mantras for
Vivāha, Puṃsavana, Sīmanthana, Jāta, Nāmakaraṇa, Choulaṃ,
Upanayanaṃ, samāvartanaṃ etc. can be seen.
7. Saṃhitopaniṣat Brāhmaṇaṃ - This name is given because gupta

or secret matters are presented here. It consists of 05 categories,
12
the characteristics of student, guru pūjā, the importance of offering

land, cows have also been shown.
8. Vaṃsa Brāhmaṇaṃ - Describes the line of Gurus from Sarvadatta

to Gārgya. The origin of dynasty extends to the Brahma. The
Sāmaveda generation has been evaluated here, which shows the
importance of the generation of teachers.
Jaiminīya Branch or Talavakāra Branch
This branch of Sāmaveda is named as Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, Talavakāra

Brāhmaṇa. The last part of this which is named as Kenopaniṣadhas
introduced as Talavakāra Brāhmaṇa. It is mentioned here that
Parabrahma comes in the guise of Ambal. He teaches Brahmavidyā
to Indra.
There are four main priests in Śrota Yāgas as hotṛ (who invites the
sacrifice by chanting Ṛg hymns) udgātṛ (who prepares the soma
drink and other offerings and places the sacrifice by chanting sāma)
adhvaryu (who directs the sacrifice by reciting Yajus texts) brahman
(who protects the sacrifice from dangers).
Thus, it is clear that the hymns of Sāmaveda were sung by the priest
named udgātṛ. The hymns which belong to the Kauthuma branch are
known as Ārcika because they are taken from the Ṛg (Ṛc/Ṛk) veda.
The original part is known as Ārcika and the remaining part (which
was added later) as Uttarārcika.
Jayadeva Thilakasiri, who wrote the book Vedic literature (in Sinhala),
says that sāma hymns were not only used for sacrifices but also in
festival occasions.
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“The very old Sāma hymns were sung in collective gatherings such as
national festivals and enjoying parties (priyasaṃbhāṣaṇa)” (Page 38,
1958, Vidyālayankāra Press)
Conclusion
The Sāmaveda contains rules on Indian sacrificial methods as well

as singing songs and it seems to mark the beginning of Indian music.
Scholars like Oldenburg stated that studying Sāmaveda requires
knowledge not only of linguistics but also of musicology.
References
Primary Sources
Mahidasa. (2014). Caraṇa Vyūha, The eternal scriptures of Sanatana

Dharma (1st ed.). SGS International Vedic Association.
Patañjali. (1957). Mahābhāṣya, Paspasahnika (1st ed.). Culcutta, Uha

Memorial Series.
Parab, K. P. (1925). Raghuvaṁśa (1st ed.). Bombay Book Series.
Svami Madhavananda. (1950). Bruhadaranyaka Upanishad (1st ed.).

Advaita Ashram, Almora Himalayas.
The Bhakti Vedanta book trust. (1972). Śrimad Bhāgavatam. Tokyo,

Dai Nippon Printing.
Wilson, H. (2001). Rigveda Samhitā (1st ed.). Delhi, Parimal

Publication.
14
Secondory Sources
Jayadeva T. (1958). Vedic Literature. Peliyagoda, Vidyalankara Press.
Kannan P. (2020). An Introduction to Sāmaveda. https://

sanskritdocuments.org/sites/.
prkannan/Sama%20Veda-%20An%20Introduction.pdf, retrieved
14/09/2020.
Biographical Note
Ven.Lenagala Siriniwasa Thero currently holds the position of

Professor at Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. Ven. Siriniwasa
obtained B.A. (Hons) degree in 2000 with a First Class distinction from
the University of Kelaniya. He obtained the Master of Arts degree
from the University of Delhi in 2005 with a first class distinction. He
completed his PhD in 2009 at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in
Varanasi, India.
Further, he obtained the Postgraduate Diploma in Education from

National Institute of Education (NIE) and Royal Pandith degree
from Oriental Studies Society. Ven Siriniwasa’s research interest is
in Buddhist Sanskrit and Vedic Sanskrit. He was the former Dean of
the Faculty of language studies and presently, he is the Head of the
department of Sanskrit, Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.
15
Cathartic Egression of Emotions in
Shakespearean Plays and Buddhist Jātaka
Stories
Dr. Nipunika Dilani
Abstract
Catharsis is a psychological stratagem used by people to purge emotions,

especially negative emotions like fear, anger, and aggression. Catharsis
is a natural mechanism adopted by people in their real-life situations
to expel their emotions. The same mechanism has been adopted and
integrated into literature, making literature more realistic and closer
to human experiences. Introduced by Aristotle and later developed
by different scholars, now catharsis has become a major aspect of
character development particularly in tragedy. Different approaches to
the purgation of emotions have been shown in the literature depending
on cultural, social, religious and individual differences. Thus, this study
aims to analyse the production of catharsis in William Shakespeare’s
Othello and Buddhist Jātaka tales. The two pieces of literature represent
two different cultural, social and religious backgrounds and thus, the
production of catharsis in them is also different.
Keywords: Catharsis, tragedy, pity, fear, play, Jātaka
16
Introduction
“Catharsis” is derived from the Greek word catharsis which literally

means cleansing or “purgation and purification” (Anandawansa,
2012, 141). According to catharsis theory “acting aggressively or
even viewing aggression” is a psychological stratagem adopted by
a person to “purge angry and aggressive feelings” (Bushman, 2002).
Scheff (1979) introduces catharsis as a “thrill-seeking” attempt. Thus,
catharsis is a psychological stratagem that humans exercise to stay
psychologically undamaged at difficult moments. Aristotle’s theory of
catharsis has been extensively applied in literature especially in tragedy
in exploring how the ‘fear and pity’ of the audience are cleansed through
the characters on stage. (Anandawansa, 2012, 141). Accordingly,
catharsis in tragedy is a form of “moral purification” (ibid) which tries
to emotionally discipline the audience in their reaction to pity and fear.
On the other hand, the production of catharsis is a strategic endeavour
of the writers in developing the plot to a turning point of the tragedy
giving an opportunity for tragic characters as well as the audience to
change, develop and mature in terms of moral purification.
Catharsis has been prevalent in various genres of literature throughout

history even before Aristotle introduced it in his treatise, Peri poietikés
usually called poetics (Landa, 2004). The writers have traced the true
human emotions in threatening, challenging, distressful instances and
the therapeutic mechanisms followed by them in such instances into
literature. One such right example is Buddhist Jātaka stories where the
writer has used cathartic egressive instances in abundance.
Accordingly, this paper attempts to explore how the theory of catharsis

has been employed in a selection of Shakespearean plays and Buddhist
17
Jātaka stories in terms of the portrayal of characters, major themes

and narrative styles of the two genres.
A study of this nature which portrays cathartic egression of emotions

in literature produced in two different religious and social-cultural
backgrounds attempts to fill a long-existing gap in the field. Even
though research on catharsis in literature has been conducted, a study
that combines two different traditions in terms of catharsis is not found.
Accordingly, the current study intends to explore how catharsis

is produced in these two different types of traditions of literature.
In the analysis of the texts selected, the similarities and differences
in conveying themes, characterization and techniques used in the
production of catharsis will be discussed.
Methodology
The current study was conducted as qualitative research analyzing

the content of a selection of Shakespearean tragedies of Othello, The
Winter’s Tale and the tragicomedy of Much Ado About Nothing and
four tragic Jātaka tales Chaddanta Jātaka (No. 514) Culla-paduma
(No.193) and Mahā-Padhuma (No.472) and Mahā-Padhuma Jātaka
(No.472) as the sample. The sample was purposively selected based
on one uniformity in conveying the theme of sexual jealousy. The basis
of this selection of drama and Jātakas is sexual jealousy which appears
as a common theme in each. All the dramas and the Jātakas have been
written around the theme of sexual jealousy as a major focus and the
selection of the sample was done based on this criterion. The rationale
behind the number of texts from the two genres is the length of the
18
texts. As the dramas are lengthier than the Jātaka tales, from them,
five have been selected.
Thus, the study utilizes content analysis which is introduced as “a

research method for making replicable and valid inferences from data
to their context, with the purpose of providing knowledge, new insights,
a representation of facts and a practical guide to action (Krippendorff
1980 cited in Elo & Kynga, 2008; 108). In addition to exploring how
catharsis is produced in the said texts, comparative methods also have
been used in data analysis.
Discussion
Any tragic story evokes pleasure based on fear and pity; the pleasure
of mimesis and the pleasure of catharsis finally ends with an
individualistic spiritual exercise:
Of all Shakespeare’s tragedies, not even excepting King Lear,

Othello is the most painfully exciting and the most terrible. From
the moment when the temptation of the hero begins, the reader’s
heart and mind are held in a vice, experiencing the extremes
of pity and fear, sympathy and repulsion, sickening hope and
dreadful expectation (Bradley 2007, 129).
Thus, among all Shakespearean tragedies, Othello as a masterpiece

is excellent in producing fear and pity mixed with other emotions
that help to keep the audience in suspense which ultimately produces
pleasure followed by catharsis in the audience.
Fu (2010; 31) analyses Othello based on four types of pleasures;

confirmation of ideas, the unified pattern of difficulties that the
19
protagonist, the passions created out of Iago’s plots, and the cathartic
note on which Othello ends. Further, explaining the above four types
of pleasures in Othello, Fu mentions that the first type of pleasure is
derived from the systematic and coherent organization of thoughts in
order to covey themes of a successful plot whereas the second type
of pleasure is derived from lucid organization of characters, setting,
events and incidents of the play which help to the smooth flow of the
tragedy. The other type of pleasure that he applies to Dubos’s theory,
is the delight derived from Othello’s ability to incite passion. And the
final type according to him is the pleasure derived from the way the
play ends with the death of Othello resolving all types of stratagems in
the play. However, the pleasure derived from catharsis is the strongest
that is genuinely equally felt by the hero as well as the audience.
About the pleasure of mimesis, the drama addresses common human

experiences such as sexism, racism, love, and sexual jealousy which
can be triggered at any moment of life, and they have been portrayed
in a realistic manner in the drama. In both The Winter’s Tale and
Much Ado About Nothing too the pleasure of mimesis is produced
by conveying common themes like love, revenge, sexual jealousy,
deception, etc., that appeal to the common interest of the audience. The
familiarity and universality of the experience of love and jealousy are
the primary themes of the plays, and the audience feels them intensely
and becomes passionately engrossed. Not only that, Shakespeare uses
real incidents of war between Venice and Turkey in contemporary
society at the outset of Othello but restricted to the outset making it a
drama of common life. So, the drama can be enjoyed with the feeling
that it is a common experience for the audience. Shakespeare has used
common locales and real incidents of contemporary society that do
20
not appear in his sources and this Shakespearean technique magnify

the pleasure of mimesis while enhancing a sense of authenticity in the
audience.
The characters in the plays behave in a realistic manner in conveying

this common theme of sexual jealousy that is experienced in different
modes during different periods of life irrespective of gender, race,
age, or any other differences based on imaginary or real causes. The
audience feels happy about the realistic nature of the characters.
Shakespeare uses the characters of the clowns and “Time” in The
Winter’s Tale to distract the audience from the trances of reality, but it
is a failure because the clown fails to do that function properly. Even
“Time” interrupts the emotional contiguity of the audience while
bridging the time gap of the play making it more realistic. In the plays
under concern, there are no witches and other supernatural beings that
make the play unrealistic. So, he introduces only the real characters
with their natural behavior in natural life situations:
Tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and

also, as having magnitude complete in itself; in language with
pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the
parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with
incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its
catharsis of such emotions (Aristotle cited in Elicker 2008).
Accordingly, almost all the characters of the plays are imitations of real
characters in society. In The Winter’s Tate, Leontes, a very powerful
king controls others. Shakespeare uses English seasons realistically
and effectively making them closer to the audience.
21
Othello and Claudio play the roles of war heroes but both lack practical
knowledge of life. Both destroy their personal lives caught by the
machinations of villains in society. Othello is easily transformed by
the well-informed, skilled, envious, jealous, and cunning Iago. Iago’s
process of forming suspicion in Othello includes conversation as
below:
Othello : What dost thou say, Iago?
Iago : Did Michael Cassio, when you woo’d my lady, Know
of your love?
Othello : He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask?
Iago : But for a satisfaction of my thought; No further harm.
Othello : Why of thy thought, Iago?
Iago : I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
Othello : O, yes; and went between us very oft.
Iago : Indeed!
Othello : Indeed! ay, indeed: discern’st thou aught in that?
Is he not honest?
Iago : Honest, (Act III, Scene iii)
This extract represents a real-life conversation between a General and

a subordinate. Iago does not use witchcraft in forming jealousy but his
own witticism as the above and fabricated stories. In this manner, in a
general conversation being very careful enough not to create any doubt
about his own riddling words, Iago incorporates this type of dialogue
to inject suspicion into Othello about Desdemona’s infidelity. When
Iago first implants sexual jealousy in Othello, furnishing him with
false information, Othello’s behavior towards Desdemona just after
22
marriage betrays signs of suspicion. His psychological strife is clear in

his dilemma. ‘Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless/Sees
and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.’ (Act III, Scene iii) A
similar process but with less subtlety takes place in duping Claudio
by Don John. Thus, having suspicion formed gradually in Othello and
Claudio, Shakespeare shows how their minds work to the extent of
murdering Desdemona at the climax of Othello’s mental insurgence
and unexpectedly hate Hero, the one Claudio loved whole heartedly.
Further, both Desdemona and Hermione born to rich and respectable
families show elite characteristics in their behaviours. They are loyal,
innocent, and honest which men exploit to achieve their target. In
contrast to Brabantio’s claim that Othello has used witchcraft to attract
Desdemona because it is quite unnatural to her manners to fall in love
with a man like Othello, Othello points out very natural reasons for
the origin of their love. The way Desdemona has fallen in love with
Othello, especially pitying him for his hard life and Othello loving
her sympathy that he had never received are quite natural for a young
couple of this type. Further, the genuineness of the causes and the
incident are proved by Duke’s claim. ‘I think this tale would win my
daughter too’ (Act I, scene iii). Thus, the most critical incidents of the
play are truly naturalistic and highly dramatic. Moreover, the incidents
like Cassio’s brawl, Iago’s fabrications to Othello, Othello’s confused
behavior, the brothel scene, the murder scene, etc. seem natural enough
to create the pleasure of mimesis in the audience.
As a tragedy of excellence, the characters of the play show real human

qualities in different characters in society which derive the pleasure
of mimesis. This affects catharsis, the pleasure derived through the
end catastrophe. Almost all the characters contribute to the pleasure of
23
the tragedy based on ‘pity and fear’. The female protagonists who are
unaware of all types of plots are subjected to the deepest sympathy of
the audience. Desdemona is highly and unjustly controlled by Othello
when she is isolated in a strange place out of her country without
any relation of her own. While these circumstances aggregate the
audience’s pity towards her, the audience is struck with fear mixed
with compassion when Othello plans to murder her in her ignorance.
She pleads with Othello:
Desdemona : Kill me to-morrow: let me live to-night!
Othello : Nay, if you strive—
Desdemona : But half an hour!
Othello : Being done, there is no pause.
Desdemona : But while I say one prayer!
Othello : It is too late. (Act V, Scene ii)
It is really a brutal kind of murder that Desdemona undergoes. Against

her high expectations of a happy married life, she is killed on the
honeymoon bed by her own husband whom she keeps total faith even
against her father. Othello is completely blinded by sexual jealousy and
doesn’t listen to her last plea. The audience feels seriously distraught
with the way she, the most innocent character of the drama, is being
murdered:
Desdemona : O, falsely, falsely murder’d!
Emilia : Alas, what cry is that?
Othello : That! what?
Emilia : Out, and alas! that was my lady’s voice.
Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again!
24
Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak!

Desdemona : A guiltless death I die.
Emilia : O, who hath done this deed?
Desdemona : Nobody; I myself. Farewell!
Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!
Dies (Act V, Scene ii).
This conversation between Desdemona and Emilia adds to the sympathy

of Desdemona who tries to defend Othello from the charge of murder
and displeasure of his degradation. ‘A guiltless death I die…’ These
words increase the annoyance of the audience with Iago and Othello.
The above statement establishes her innocence and loyalty which
intensifies the pity of the audience. Despite the ill feeling the audience
forms towards Emilia for giving Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief,
parallel to Desdemona’s death, Emilia also is pitied at the end. The
audience is satisfied with the great sacrifice she commits as an honest
and obedient servant. The audience feels sorry for other characters
like Roderigo and Cassio for they have been badly used by Iago. Even
though Othello is condemned for his foolish and aggressive behavior
at the end of the drama he earns pity from the audience as he repents
for his sins. Then the cathartic relief advances with the purgation of the
strong feelings of Othello with his attempt of murdering Iago and with
his own death. Othello releases his strong feelings of remorse. ‘Are
there no stones in heaven/But what serve for the thunder?—Precious
villain!’ (Act V, scene ii) Iago escapes slightly injured and Othello
repents of his folly:
25
I am not valiant neither,

But every puny whipster gets my sword:
But why should honor outlive honesty?
Let it go all (Act V, scene ii).
With this realization of the truth, Othello purges out his feelings by
stabbing himself which is interpreted in terms of catharsis. He suffers
the repercussion of the sins he has committed by ending his own life.
This catastrophe mixed with pity and fear produces pleasure on one
hand because the audience feels that he deserves punishment for his
utter foolishness and on the other hand as he has finally understood his
faults, he himself regards death as better than suffering throughout. It
is a kind of remedy he adopts for his suffering. From his point of view
that is a kind of spirituality, that he follows to end up his suffering as
he has no other solution to end up the suffering. ‘No way but this/
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss’ (Act V, scene ii). In this manner,
Othello’s purgative death redeems him from his suffering according to
Christian values and offsets a sense of the tragic world of the audience
which disconnects them from the emotional heaviness of the play. The
ending of the play eases emotional heaviness, resolves calamity, draws
play together and strikes the balance between gravity and peace so
that this ending can be regarded as a form of cathartic egression of
emotions both for the characters and the audience.
Catharsis in The Winter’s Tale is brought out in a similar manner to that

of Othello. The pleasure of catharsis takes place with the purgation of
fear and pity. The audience reaches the climax of their feeling of pity
towards the death of Hermione, Mamillius, and loss of Perdita. The
audience suffers from an emotional heaviness from the outset of the
26
play towards the way Hermione is treated. Without any fault in her,
she is subjected to serious suffering. Other than insults what is most
touching is removing her children including the newborn wasting
her breast milk. Not only that, but she is also put to trial even before
she recovers from the pains and anxiety born from her labour. Thus,
she is brutally treated by her own husband, by his madness. With the
sudden fainting of the queen and after that with no news about her,
the audience is kept in absolute suspense. The emotional heaviness is
expected to be loosened with the emergence of comedy and pastoral
romanticism. But the audience truly purges out with the reappearance
of Hermione though they are made to forget the pathetic incidents
during the comedic scene. Even though Leontes realizes the truth with
the death of the son, the audience does not feel much compassion
towards him like for Othello, as it seems not true penitence. Mamillius
is not much pitied as his illness and suffering are not fully revealed to
the audience. But the audience feels sympathy for his sudden death.
Out of all the characters Hermione is the mostly pitied character as her
suffering is fully illustrated in the play.
Like a tragedy a comedy also produces catharsis purifying and purging

out emotions. According to Giraldi “…so comedy by means of laughter
calls men to an honest private life.” For Frye catharsis in comedy is
the corresponding comic emotions of sympathy and ridicule and thus
comic catharsis purifies the soul and body. (Cited in Nikulin; 2014, 7).
Moreover “the ritual pattern of catharsis of comedy is the resurrection
that follows the death, the epiphany or manifestation of the risen hero”
(Grassen and Quinn (ed), 2002; 1025).
27
The above illustration of catharsis in comedies shows that Hermione’s

in Much Ado About Nothing resurrection supports in production of
comedic catharsis. Not only that, the pastoral and highly romantic
disposition in the later episode of the play seizes the audience in
a spiritual enchantment filled with pleasure. That is the ultimate
aesthetic and psychological combination that Aristotle wants the
audience to experience in a comedy. Similarly, Hero’s resurrection
from the fake death purges out the heavy emotions of the audience as
well as other characters purifying their souls. The laughter mixed with
ridicule purifies the audience, taking them to a psychological state of
calmness and happiness. Beatrice and Benedick engaged in witty and
merry arguments console the audience. Even at the moments when the
characters encounter hard conflicts of tragic occurrences, the comic
characters relieve the audience from tragic emotions as Benedick
lightens the audience with his ridicule intervention saying “How
now…interjections? Why then some be of laughing as ah,ha,he!”(Act
IV, scene i) at the most crucial moment of the play.
According to the above definitions and explanations, a successful

plot in a piece of literature is one that is complex and subtle, and
to Aristotle ‘pity and fear’ that is the form of pleasure in a tragedy
are easily produced when the audience identifies the characters with
themselves.
Buddhist Jātaka stories that include narrative, dramatic as well as

prosaic characteristics demonstrate both comic and tragic qualities in
them. The Jātaka story writer also as an interesting mechanism of the
stories has produced catharsis, especially through the development of
the plot and the life-like characters in a manner that sometimes looks
28
similar and sometimes different to Shakespearean plays. Among many

examples of Jātakas Culla-paduma (No.193) and Mahā-Padhuma
(No.472) Jātakas produce catharsis in a parallel way. In the tales,
the audience feels fear towards the way that the heroes are treated
unexpectedly and unethically by the women regardless of the nature
of their relationship with the hero. In the first story, the audience
is struck with a horrific fear of the easy manner the woman forgets
all sacrifices of the prince, her sudden attraction to a man without
limbs, her betrayal of a handsome and pious prince for the sake of
such an ugly human trunk, and above all, the way she plans with
her him the murder of the prince. Perceiving that the Bodhisatta, a
person of sublime stature, does not deserve such wicked treatment,
the audience pities the prince and is relieved by the way he is saved
unexpectedly. This produces catharsis in the audience. The intellectual
audience reflects on the commonness of similar incidents of women’s
disloyalty to their children and husbands in modern societies as well as
in ancient societies. This reflection produces the pleasure of learning
and the pleasure of mimesis. At the end of the story when the woman
is punished by nature making her go begging the king and in contrast
the prince’s reception of kingship results in producing another type of
pleasure in the audience about the fact that they have received what
they deserve according to the kamma that they committed. Unlike
Othello, the prince really learns a lesson from that experience, and he
doesn’t degrade himself to the state of punishing the woman:
But although the Bodhisatta could not swallow his anger, and
ordained this punishment for them, he did not do accordingly;
but he smothered his wrath, and had the basket fixed upon her
head so fast that she could not take it off; the villain he had
29
placed in the same, and they were driven out of his kingdom (ed.
Cowell 1901, 84-85).
Comparing the prince’s behaviour with Othello’s, it is obvious that he

did not mature himself from that horrific experience because even by
realizing the stratagem of Iago, at the last moment, he tries to kill Iago
also as an immature man. Thus, the Jātaka tale produces pleasure after
catharsis in an intellectual manner compared to the plays.
In Mahā-Padhuma Jātaka (No.472) the prince is also badly punished

by his father who believes the lies of the Queen. The way the Queen,
the stepmother of the prince, insinuates the prince to have coitus with
her is horrific. On the understanding of its unacceptability and incest,
the prince explains it to the stepmother but without considering that
she plots to get him killed by the king. On the realization of the nature
of emotion, he finds spiritual development by becoming an ascetic
once he was saved by the serpent. When his father visits him in the
forest, he enlightens his father on the truth behind the entire scenario:
Lust is the hook: fine elephants and horse by blood I show; These by
renouncing I have drawn; this, chieftain, you must know (ibid.,121).
Thus, O great king, to be king is nothing to me;
but do you see to it, that you break not the Ten Royal Virtues,
but forsake evil doing, and rule in righteousness (ibid.).
On hearing that the king, after punishing the woman, rules the country
virtuously as per Bodhisatta’s advice.
Chaddanta Jātaka (No. 514) also produces the pleasure of mimes

by showing the natural behavior of human beings using animal
30
characters in the story. Sexual jealousy does not have boundaries.

It penetrates all social positions, intellectual levels, ages, races, and
economic strata. As human beings form jealousy through an imaginary
suspicion Cullasubhaddā also forms jealousy towards Chaddanta and
Mahaasubhadhdhaa thinking that the former has a special interest in
the latter. This nature of sexual jealousy in romantic relationships is
exactly shown in the story through the character of Cullasubhaddā
because she suddenly conceives a grudge against the great elephant
based on very minor matters and at the moment of its climax, she
makes a vow to a pacceka Buddha to be born as Queen Subhaddā in
the next birth in order to avenge from Chaddanta. Further, the writer
shows the destructive nature of the feeling that goes from birth to
birth till the target of revenge is fulfilled. In this instance, the writer
produces the pleasure of mimesis. In the next birth, the queen’s desire
to cut off the tusks of the elephant is fulfilled while achieving pity and
fear in the audience:
The Great Being suffered excruciating pain and his mouth was
charged with blood. The hunter, shifting about from place to
place, was still unable to cut the tusks with his saw. So the Great
Being letting the blood drop from his mouth, resigning himself
to the agony, asked, saying, “Sir, cannot you cut them?” And on
his saying “No,” he recovered his presence of mind and said,
“Well then, since I myself have not strength enough to raise my
trunk, do you lift it up for me and let it seize the end of the saw.”
The hunter did so: and the Great Being seized the saw with his
trunk and moved it backwards and forwards, and the tusks were
cut off as it were sprouts (ed. Cowell 1905, 29).
31
The details are given in an awe-inspiring manner in order to show the

power of Pāramitā that the Bodhisatta is in the process of fulfilling. At
the same time, the writer creates fear in the audience by describing the
effort of the hunter to cut off the tusks. Further, the elephant is highly
pitied for his enormous suffering. When he dies, he is filled with the
happiness of fulfilling Dāna Pāramitā:
I don’t give you these, friend hunter, because I do not value them,
nor as one desiring the position of Sakka, Māra or Brahma, but
the tusks of omniscience are a hundred thousand times dearer
to me than these are, and may this meritorious act be to me the
cause of attaining Omniscience (ibid.).
Thus, the audience is delighted as he completes Pāramitā even

at this painful moment which helps him in the process of spiritual
development. Seeing the tusks, the queen is also reminded of her
past birth as the wife of the elephant and touched with sympathy, she
falls dead. As the seeds of vengeance were stored in the deptrh of her
psyche, she wanted to have vengeance that she was forced from inside
as a vow of the saṅsāra. The audience pities her at the end feeling
sorry for the death because at that moment she is reminded of her
husband in her previous birth as a she-elephant. Thus, the death of both
the elephant and the Queen Subhaddā produces catharsis because the
deaths relieve the audience of their emotional heaviness. On the other
hand, the elephant completes a Pāramitā and as a result, he reaches a
kind of spirituality, and it is not a type of spirituality for the queen but
an accumulation of kamma in the saṅsāra.
A similar incident is brought out in Culladhammapāla Jātaka

(No.358) which is full of tragic events that keep the audience in
32
suspense throughout the story. The assassination of the prince moves

the audience with suspense till the end of the life of the prince. The
audience is filled with pity and fear with the death of the prince, but
his tolerance creates pleasure in them with the realization that he is the
Bodhisatta. Moreover, the punishment that the father receives for his
cruelty of murdering his own son relieves the audience on one hand as
they feel that he should be punished for such a serious sin.
Conclusion
Both Shakespearean plays and Buddhist Jātaka stories display aesthetic

and literal excellence as representations of classical literature. They
are equally important in terms of literary value, having a rich display
of egression of catharsis which supports the success of the plots. While
the audience is exposed to an entire mastery of literary experience
in the works of the two genres, finally removes the audience from
their emotional heaviness. Thus, they are made to enjoy the pieces
light-heartedly. The two genres show a disparity in the manner the
characters purge their emotions, as well as the writers, make the
audience do the same. In characters in the plays tend to take revenge
on each other whereas the characters in Jātakas mostly tend to forgive
their enemies. This illustrates the maturing process of the characters in
Jātakas. On the other hand, they are highly didactic, and the audience
is exposed to a lot of Buddhist values. Thus, cathartic egression differs
in the two genres that are produced in two cultural, social and religious
backgrounds.
33
Endnotes
1 A wide range of discussion on theatrical matters could be found in Rѐflexions

Critiques sur la poѐsei et sur la peinture by Jean Dubos (1670-1742).Dubos
following Descartes claim that tragedy is a superior form of literature compared
to comedy as it functions a stimuli to deep emotions like pity and fear that
are superior to amusement and scorn in a comedy. According to Dubos the
spectator must be identified with the hero who must never be an evil man but
rather someone estimable who is excessively punished for his errors in order to
feel these emotions. Theories of the Theatre-Historical and critical survey from
the Greeks to the present by Carlson Marvin
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35
Biographycal Note
Dr. Nipunika Dilani , a senior lecturer in the Department of English

at the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka has completed her
B.A. degree from the University of Peradeniya, M.A. degree from the
University of Kelaniya and PhD from the Buddhist and Pali University
of Sri Lanka. She is currently following an M.A. degree in TESL
programme at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Her research
interests include Linguistics, Teaching and learning English as a
second language and comparative studies. She has been working at the
Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka since 2010. Before joining
BPU she worked as an English instructor at the English Language
Teaching Unit at the University of Ruhuna.
36
Multiple Motivation as a Key Factor in
English Language Teaching: a Case Study in
Hambantota,
Sri Lanka
Abstract
This paper attempts to examine the role of the ‘motivation factor’ in

Language teaching in the context of teaching English language to
rural students in Sri Lanka. Since English can be used as a Lingua
Franca for communication among different ethnolinguistic groups,
it is extremely important to look at the English language teaching
methodologies adopted in different countries. In teaching English
as a second language to students in Sri Lanka, initiatives have been
taken by both private sector and government sector institutes. For this
research, a case study has been selected from an English language
training programme conducted with private and public partnership
in a rural area; at Tissamaharama electorate in Hambantota district,
Sri Lanka. The method of this research was participatory observation.
The research was launched to examine current practices of English
language teaching and identify successful methods of language
teaching by paying special attention to motivation. The study is mainly
concerned with problematizing as to why the rural student population
was weaker in English language skills, and how can this be mitigated.
Among several other variables that can have a greater impact on
English language acquisition, the ‘motivation factor’ was recognized
at the beginning and the research was designed in a manner to measure
37
its impact on language learning and successful teaching. The study

established that the influences of several significant motivation factors
such as environmental changes, humour, changing classroom settings,
gender fact, diversifying activities, continuously appraising students
and using voice skills can enhance language learning to a greater
extent when they are applied as continuous and multiple processes.
Keywords: continuous-multiple-motivation, language learning, voice

skills, second language, lingua franca.
Background
English language teaching was started in Sri Lanka by the British

colonisers in the first quarter of the 19th century in a formal manner.
After Sri Lanka was annexed to the British Empire, the entire education
system underwent changes; particularly the medium of instruction
became English in the missionary schools. Therefore, there was no
particular requirement to make conscious efforts to teach English to
the students by applying highly advanced methods. Also, the usage
of English was only confined to the highest social class in those
days. On the other hand, the patriotic movement worked against the
British Empire, and they used native language, culture, religion etc., as
national symbols. Because of these generally observed socio-political
environments, language teaching and learning were not associated
with technically developed methods, which nowadays have been a
very influential fact.
Today, English is an essential requirement for all who interact in

national and international environments since almost everything is
communicated through English in important contexts. Particularly,
38
post-war Sri Lanka requires a Lingua Franca to build up social harmony

among ethnicities. The process of building up social harmony in the
country was a continuous failure due to the influences and decisions
made by the majority. It has been started with several acts enacted in
history with reference to the language policy. One of the important
turning points was setting up the Official Language Commission in
1951 and its recommendations suggested using one language as the
official language instead of English in 1953. This came to the utmost
stage during the general election campaign in 1956 and S. W. R. D.
Bandaranaike (The prime minister of Sri Lanka) promised to make
the Sinhala language the only official language during the election
campaign. It was realized by him on June 1956 by creating a critical
dilemma in the official language discourse of the country (Gamage,
2022). With this historical background and current post-war conditions
which seek ways to build up social harmony, we have been pushed to
seek a Lingua Franca. In order to minimize the issues that might occur
among ethnicities in communication, the identified Lingua Franca
is English which should properly be taught to all Sri Lankans. To
teach this Lingua Franca, the country has to have successful second
language teaching methodologies.
Eminent linguist, David Crystal (2005) recognises ten domains

in which English has become pre-eminent in this century, namely,
politics, economics, the press, advertising, broadcasting, motion
pictures, popular music, international travel and safety, education,
communications (Crystal, 2005:11). Most of the international political
establishments deal in English. The League of Nations was the first
among many modern international alliances to allocate a special place
to English in its proceedings. Now, this can be observed everywhere
39
including in the biggest setting in the world; the United Nations

Organization.
The linguistic realisation of economic imperialism was English.

As David Crystal points out ‘money talks’ was the chief metaphor: the
language in which it was talking was chiefly English. In the current
world, approximately, 2000 million people speak English in different
capacities as their mother tongue, second language or foreign language
(2005). In certain countries, this has become a Lingua Franca. The
English language has become very influential due to all the above-
mentioned reasons. The incompetence of the rural student population
of the country manifests the failure of English language teaching in Sri
Lanka (Shepherd and Ainsworth, 2018:49). Thus, we were inspired to
research successful teaching methodologies of this language in the Sri
Lankan context with special reference to motivation.
Research Questions
01. What is the role of motivation in second language teaching

applicable in rural language education in Sri Lanka?
02. What is the effectiveness of motivation in second language teaching

in rural Sri Lankan settings?
Literature Review
The study of language learning and motivation has a long history,

dating back to the early pioneering work of Gardner and Lambert
(1959) in Canada, and has generated a large body of literature. “On
the whole, this literature has been driven by the pursuit of explanatory
theoretical models of motivation and their empirical exploration in a
variety of formal and informal learning contexts. This is reflected in
40
the current push towards new analyses of L2 motivation in terms of

concepts of self and identity and of complexity theory” (as quoted in
Ushioda, 2013:1).
Motivation is a noun from the bare verb “motivate” which is defined

in the Concise Oxford American Dictionary (2006:578) as the fact of
providing someone with a motive for doing something, stimulating
someone’s interest in or enthusiasm for doing something. The term
motivation according to Richards & Schimidt (2010:376) is (in general)
the driving force in any situation that leads to action. According to
Stockwell “motivation” is one of the most elusive concepts in applied
linguistics and indeed in educational psychology in general (2013:156).
“Motivation is widely recognized as a significant factor influencing

success in second or foreign language (L2) learning and is perhaps
one of the key variables that distinguish first language acquisition
from second language acquisition. After all, while motivation is not
really an issue in the case of infants acquiring their mother tongues,
being motivated (or not) can make all the difference to how willingly
and successfully people learn other languages later in life (as quoted
in Ushioda, 2013:1). Learning a second language has often been
considered a complicated process because of various factors that may
affect both the linguistic and nonlinguistic outcomes of learners” (as
quoted in Liu, 2015:1165).
In the field of language learning, a distinction is sometimes made

between an orientation, a class of reasons for learning a language,
and motivation itself, which refers to a combination of the learner’s
attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort in order to learn the
second language (Richards & Schimidt, 2010:376).
41
Othman & Shuqair (2013:127) consider “Motivation” as one of the

most essential aspects determining success in learning the English
language. On the contrary, attitudes towards a specific language could
be either favourable or unfavourable. It is also important to recognize
aspects that foster internal motivation in English language learning;
however, it is also important to take into consideration extrinsic
motivation, even though this form of motivation is unstable. Othman
& Shuqair (2013, p. 123) further think that English can be difficult
when taught in a foreign language (FL) setting, where authentic
language input may not be readily available outside the classroom.
Often, with a character-based language, language learners’ motivation
must be high since persistence and determination are needed to deal
with the stress of a difficult language. Due to the adverse conditions,
a learner has to have extraordinary motivation in order to succeed at
learning English (Anjomshoa & Sadighi, 2015:126).
Liu (2015:1171) in his study, aimed to investigate the learner autonomy

of EFL students in Taiwan and the role of motivation. The main
findings indicate that first, the students appeared to have a satisfactory
sense of responsibility for their own learning; however, they were
insufficiently motivated to accomplish autonomous learning activities
inside or outside the classroom. The situation tended to improve
when students had higher language proficiency. Second, there were
significant differences in all three dimensions of autonomy at different
motivation levels. With greater motivation, students were able to
achieve a higher level of autonomy. Furthermore, motivation and
autonomy were highly, positively correlated. Motivation contributed
to half of the variance in autonomy, serving as a strong predictor for and
an indispensable factor influencing the degrees of learner autonomy.
42
Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal combined with the energy

to work towards that goal. Many researchers consider motivation
as one of the main elements that determine success in developing a
second or foreign language; it determines the extent of active, personal
involvement in L2 learning (as quoted in Youssef, 2012:367).
According to Carreira (2006:27), students who have practical

reasons and intellectual satisfaction tend to have lower levels of
foreign language anxiety. Although his study has not revealed strong
correlations between motivation and foreign language anxiety, it
would be unwise to conclude that motivation and foreign language
anxiety do not interact with each other.
Carreira (2006:26) affirms that since his study was designed to probe
the relationship between the type of motivation and strength of anxiety
for only one population of students, it is necessary to consider the
generalizability of the present findings to other types of language
students. Especially, several motivational studies focused on gender
differences in EFL have been done, most of which have shown that
girls were more motivated to learn languages than boys.
1
A multiple regression analysis was used to determine the unique

contribution of motivation to foreign language anxiety. Multiple
regression is a statistical method in which scores on one or more
variables (independent variable) are used to predict scores on another
variable (dependent variable). In Carreira’s study, the English learning
motivation factors were used as independent variables, and foreign
language anxiety (total score) was used as the dependent variable
(Carreira, 2006:22). Other theories of motivation accentuate the balance
43
between the value attached to some activity and one’s expectation of

success in doing it; goal setting, the learner’s attributions of success
and failure, the role of self-determination and learner autonomy, and
the characteristics of effective motivational thinking. Motivation is
generally considered to be one of the primary causes of success and
failure in second language learning (Richards & Schimidt, 2010:376).
Richards & Schimidt (2010:39) emphasise the attribution theory

which gives more explanation on the cause of motivation, which is
the theory that causes people to attribute to perceived successes and
failures in their lives play a significant role in their subsequent level
of motivation and behaviour. For example, learners may attribute their
relative success or failure in language learning to such factors as ability,
the classroom environment, good or poor teaching, interest, strategy
use, support from others, etc. Attributions can be classified based on
locus of control (internal factors such as effort vs. external factors
such as the textbook or teaching method), stability (stable factors such
as personality vs. unstable factors such as mood), and controllability
(controllable factors such as effort vs. uncontrollable factors such as
language aptitude). Although there may be a self-serving bias that
leads to ascribing success to internal factors and failures to external
ones, it is generally believed that learners who attribute both success
and failure to internal factors such as efforts are most likely to maintain
their motivation at a high level.
The self-determination theory of motivation conceptualised

motivation on a continuum from the lowest to the highest levels of self-
determination, with motivation and intrinsic motivation at opposite
ends. Furthermore, from the lower end to the higher end, four more
44
extrinsic motivation levels can be distinguished, namely, external

regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, and integrated
regulation (as quoted in Liu, 2015:1166), while “Expectancy-value
theory” refers to a variety of theories of motivation that assume that
people are motivated to do things that they perceive to have value and
at which they expect to succeed (Richards & Schimidt, 2010:209).
However, the “Socio-educational model” is a model of second and
foreign language learning in school settings developed by Gardner.
This theory emphasises the role of integrative motivation (Richards &
Schimidt, 2010:536).
There are so many scholarly works on this subject area in the universal
context as discussed above, but when it comes to Sri Lanka, we do
not have that much of studies on this particular topic. Particularly,
this study draws attention to the fact that whether the motivational
factors are successful or not in this sample with special reference to
motivation. “How Languages are learned” (2013) by M. Lighbown
and N. Spada is a considerable study in teaching and learning
languages with special reference to motivation. The authors of this
study explain clearly how motivation interferes with English language
teaching and four important other factors have also been discussed.
Even certain micro factors have been discussed: for instance, they have
discussed the alcoholic influences on the English speaking tendency in
people. In addition to the motivation factor, they also have taken into
serious consideration of four more factors viz; aptitude, personality,
intelligence and learner preferences which are very important in
language teaching and learning.
45
C. J. Dodson’s (1974) “Language Teaching and the bilingual method”

contributes a lot to our study but the issue is, that his study had been
done in 1974 which is very old compared to the current research works.
Nevertheless, the findings of this research still contain considerable
value. The most important finding of this study is applying a new
teaching method which is based on all the positive points of the known
methods. His study does not put the teaching methods into a particular
corner. It suggests applying an eclectic method rather than using only
one unique method.
Motivation has been taken into serious consideration by many other

researchers in the process of English language teaching to a greater
extent. “Motivation: What Teachers Need to Know” (1990) by A.
Carole Ames, “Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning”
by J. Condry and J. Chambers, (1978) “Motivational Considerations
in the Study of Instruction” by R. Mark (1988), “Enhancing Student
Motivation” by L. Martin and Midgley Carol (1991) are among the
major contributors in this field. Out of all the other factors effective
on the English language teaching and learning process, motivation has
been given a prominent place by most of the researchers.
“Methods of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts”

is a piece of research work which was compiled by James Flood,
Diane Lapp, James R. Squire, Julie Jensen (2005) and contains the
most modern methodologies. This is an undergraduate and graduate
level guidance to research works in English language teaching, but
this research work cannot be bounded by a particular language even
though it concerns English language teaching. This is the study which
contributes a lot to the theoretical concerns of the present research in
46
search of successful applications of English language teaching with a

special focus on the fact of motivation.
Research Methodology
This empirical research was conducted at the Tissamaharama electorate

in Hambantota (Sri Lanka) with the participation of 60 students; 30
males and 30 females in a month-long English boot camp. They had
joined the English language programme at the completion of either
the O/L or A/L examination. This particular language programme was
initiated with the public and private partnership as a pilot project to
test the feasibility of training students in an artificial English-speaking
environment with a month-long program. The researcher participated
as a participant-observer of the programme and interacted with them
on several occasions. Also, special attention was given to the teaching
methodology which had given much space to motivate them to use the
language freely. The age of the participants of this program was between
17-25 years and the number constituted both males and females. The
researcher was totally engaged during the period with necessary
observations, and information was recorded by research assistants.
Data collection was done through daily observations through formal
and informal methods. At the first meeting, participants were given
an oral proficiency test in order to understand their oral proficiency
upon the programme entry and then during 32 days, they were tested
in four continuous assessments to understand the gradual progress.
As the whole sample was in a particular setting, this was considered a
case study.
47
Discussion
Among several factors, motivation was the key to successful language

acquisition and speech according to the findings of this research. As a
percentage, 90% of the sample was able to freely communicate after
completion of this boot camp and it was found that they made grammar
errors when they speak but the level of self-confidence and using the
language even with mistakes were notable.
As the data speak, for the success of the methodology with much
emphasis on motivation, let us explore the nature of motivation and its
key result areas that had been applied in the training here onwards as
our major findings.
Motivation has been taken into serious consideration by researchers

in the process of English language teaching to a greater extent. In
Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning” by J. Condry and J.
Chambers, “Motivational Considerations in the Study of Instruction”
by R. Mark, “Enhancing Student Motivation” by L. Martin and
Midgley Carol explore the theoretical foundations and the empirical
success of the motivation factor in language teaching comprehensively.
This research found that there were several motives which made a
huge impact on the teaching and learning process in this specific
context. The prominent pattern of the motivation of this research was
exogenous, but it does not convey that endogenous motivation was
not important and worked on the project. The following major areas
of students’ motivation were deployed and had become successful as
identified in the research.
48
1. Environmental changes: This is not a new application of language

teaching since this has been employed by teachers who practised
a communicative approach for years, but it is difficult to see this
practice in the Sri Lankan English teaching convention as a genuine
practice. This research-based English Camp was executed in a free,
unruffled and solitary environment in the dry zone in Sri Lanka. The
environment had been changed totally in order to create an artificial
English environment where students can interact throughout the day
with English. For instance, the whole learning premises had been
covered with English statements, sentences, songs, and other language-
relevant stuff. As participants had positively commented and reacted
to the environment this has become a major motive for them to cope
with the language. Some of the pictorial evidence are as follows :
2. Humour: “Humour” has been defined in many ways in different

subject areas but we prefer to introduce and use the definition
metaphorically as “Humour is surprise without threat or promise.”
This is a very critical way of motivating students which should be
49
applied consciously. In our study, it had been proved that, since the
participants were very young and energetic, humour was a must to
keep them enthusiastically with undivided attention throughout the
programme and it had absolutely accomplished set goals as a factor
of motivation.
Also, humour had been applied as a gradual and continuous practice

in this boot camp, among these humour practices, English stories
(particularly English humour stories such as Udurawana’s jokes)
played a major role in learning while enjoying. Gamage & Kodowe
(2019) have concluded the utility value of humour in second language
teaching. As they asserted, “language teachers can employ humour
as a language teaching tool which can help captivate the learners,
motivate them and get them glued to the lesson” (Gamage & Kodowe,
2019:767). This has been proved again in this experimental project.
3. Avoidance of boredom and monotony: The other important factor

which had made the learning process a success was diversifying the
lessons by avoiding boredom and monotony. Culturally, everything
had been adapted into the context of Sri Lanka as a motive which
was found as a factor of success, and success stories of learners of the
English language at different levels stimulated as a gradual practice.
It was identified through initial ground observations of Hambantota;
the fear of language is immense, thus simplifications of the language
in this project had been a very successful application. Some sort of
locally adopted activities such as translations from English to Sinhala
and vice versa in activities had helped a lot to avoid boredom and
monotony. In addition, there had been several other ways to avoid
boredom and monotony in learning English in this project as given
below.
50
4. Student appraisal: Among the other findings, understanding

students’ personal characteristics, strengths and weaknesses by the
lecturers, striving strength towards success and addressing weaknesses
with positive notes had become important motivational factors for
students. Appraising students’ each and every individual and team
effort by empathising with them using the most common techniques
for praising them with a phrase such as good, very good, well-done,
excellent, superb, etc. had created a huge impact. Identifying team
leaders and motivating them to share their strengths with others and
identifying backward students and popularizing them among the other
students are unique practices. Understanding cultural aspects and
dealing with them while treating them equally without marginalising
any student was the next significant concern which has been identified
through observation. This is also some kind of appraisal.
5. Teaching in a mixed group (boys and girls): Using gender differences

as a driven motivational fact to learn languages had never been used
in the history of English language teaching in Sri Lanka in this sense
as far as our knowledge is concerned. However, it had become a more
prominent motive in this research project. Students had placed in the
class in mixed rows respectively girl and boy and also their positions
had been changed every three days as they requested and looking at
the knowledge level and cognitive skills which had become a very
successful practice. This can also be designated as gender motivation
in second language teaching.
6. Changing the classroom settings: Changing the classroom settings

including students’ seat arrangements taking into consideration
cognitive abilities and personality traits, and motivating students
towards punctuality by examples are strategic moves. Understanding
51
boredom and changing the techniques of teaching with continuous

undivided attention without sticking to one particular teaching
technique and promoting learners’ initiative and involvement are
successful psychological approaches which had played a major role
in the process of motivation while changing the classroom setting
regularly.
7. Use of voice skills: Use of voice skills (pitch, pace, articulation,

clarity, stress, and intonation - here the most influential fact is intonation
which is considered the music of language – Diane, 2020) to retain
the attention of students and enthusiasm are linguistic motivational
approaches which had been consciously applied by the teachers in this
training programme. On the other way, this conscious effort helped to
avoid monotony as well by further motivating participants.
8. Ad-hoc planning for some activities: time management and student

management have been highly important to retain students’ trust
towards the ultimate goal and they also obtain a considerable portion
in the total process of motivation. These two efforts are challenging
in an environment where ad-hoc planning is applied. Participants of
this English boot camp never knew what comes next and what the
activities are for the next day. Thus, every day was curious and a new
experience with some ad-hoc activities. This curiosity itself has played
a gigantic role to keep them continuously motivated.
9. Applying second-order application theories: to develop the
curriculum with a logical and methodical relationship of lessons has
helped immensely to understand and develop students’ language
developmental sequences and to feed them as an additional motivational
technique. This is not a visible motivational technique for participants.
52
10. Outbound activities: Eventually, among other several minor

factors which contributed as helpful motives; understanding traditional
classroom drudgery and taking students to outdoor gears had been a
very successful way to keep students with their contentment and also it
had become a matter of diversification of the steadiness of traditional
classroom settings.
Theorisation
After critically analysing gathered empirical data and cross-checking

them further, I have formulated a new theory as an extended
application of motivation theory. This is designated as CMM in second
language learning and teaching which stands for Continuous Multiple
Motivation. In this model, inward arrows indicate different motivational
strategies explained above and bi-directional arrows show the multiple
continuous connectivity and nature of those motivations.
1
This model is explored in detail in a separate paper that dedicated to this model itself.
53
Conclusion and Recommendations
This research recognises continuous multiple motivation as a key

factor of second language teaching for students in non-native language
speaking communities such as rural areas and recommends for future
teachers to employee motivation in a considerable manner with the
motivational strategies to achieve their teaching objectives of oral
proficiency in students English as a foreign or second language.
We further recommend specifically applying motivational strategies

which were recognised through this research work such as
environmental changes, humour, avoidance of boredom and monotony,
student appraisal, teaching in a mixed group, changing the classroom
settings, use of voice skills, ad - hoc planning for required activities,
applying second-order application theories to develop the curriculum
with a logical and methodical relationship, understanding traditional
classroom drudgery and taking students to outdoor gears to have a
successful second language teaching experience. Thus, this can be
introduced and designated as continuous multiple motivation theory.
54
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Biographical Note
Upul Priyantha Gamage is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics & Literature

at the Faculty of Language Studies, at the Buddhist and Pali University
of Sri Lanka. He graduated from the University of Colombo and
earned his M.A. degree in General Linguistics from the University of
Kelaniya, Sri Lanka in 2010. His first PhD was in Sociolinguistics with
special reference to the language contact phenomenon, and his second
PhD was in the same discipline with special reference to Language
Policy Planning at Central China Normal University, Peoples Republic
of China. He has published ten books and several research papers in
Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Literature.
59
Perceptions of the Lecturers on the Use of
Translanguaging in Teaching English for the
University Students
Kosala Kumarage
Abstract
The ideology that the First Language (L1) of an individual improves

the competence in a foreign or a Second Language (L2) gave rise to
various bilingual pedagogies. Translanguaging (TRL) is the latest
concept that was coined to the field as a result. The concept, TRL
involves of switching between languages and it always revolves
around a systematic use of two or more languages in language teaching
pedagogy. Perceptions of lecturers engaged in teaching English
language to the first year students of the Buddhist and Pali University
were examined with reference to the purpose of application of TRL
in English Language teaching. The investigation aimed to figure out
the purpose behind the use of TRL. The participants of the study were
seven lecturers who work in the capacity of permanent and visiting
lecturers attached to the Department of English Language Teaching in
Buddhist and Pali University in Sri Lanka. The results showed that the
lecturers’ perceptions of the use of TRL were positive in most of the
occasions where they use L1 as a TRL technique but they seem to be
reluctant to allow the students to use L1 in the form of TRL technique.
Keywords: translanguaging, first language, second language
60
Introduction
Use of L1 in ELT has been a topic of intensive debate in the field

of teaching English as a second Language. The experts deal with all
aspects influencing effective language teaching and learning. One
of these aspects is using the appropriate language during lessons.
Since the 19th century the approaches to using the L1 or the L2 have
changed dramatically (Canagarajah, 2011; Garcia, 2009). Similarly,
the methods used for teaching languages also have changed. The topic
of the proper language choice is still often discussed. It seems that
nowadays we have already overcome the period of various radical
approaches, methods and opinions of using the L1 which used to be
either highly promoted or cursed. TRL which uses L1 as a strategy in
L2 teaching is comparatively a new teaching practice that was coined
to the field.
In the process of teaching a L2, the use of learners’ L1 can influence

their acquisition of the target language (TL). Some explicitly rejected
the use of L1 in L2 instruction. Linguists like Krashen and Seliger
argued if the use of L2 would be reduced in the L2 teaching classroom
it will be disadvantageous as the input in L2 would be less. (Krashen,
1981; Seliger, 1979) But some scholars advocate an intra-lingual
strategy. Linguists like Cook believe that a second language could be
learnt in the same manner as a first language is learnt. (Cook, 1999)
The key with the Lecturers’ use of L1 with the tertiary level students
is that it be used for clarification purposes, after an attempt has been
made to communicate ideas in L2 and students still appear to be
confused. Some are in the view that L1 plays a supportive role in this
61
regard. Thus, throughout the history of ELT and L2 Learning, the role
of L1 has been an important issue.
The word TRL emerged in the 1980 s in Bangor, North Wales. The
word has come from the word, ‘trawsieithu’ which basically means
using two languages in the bilingual learning process. This was a result
of investigating different strategies to use two languages in one lesson.
The word was initially originated by Cen Williams, an educationalist
and he used the word ‘trawsieithu’ to describe a language practice
that brought out the systematic use of two languages within the same
lesson. The term was later translated as ‘translinuifying’ which was
changed to translanuaging by Baker in 2000.This simply means
the use of multiple languages consciously in order to make it easier
for the students grasping the TL. Later on, it was developed into a
linguistic process by adding different opinions by various Linguists
and educationalists. (Baker, 2011, Garcia and L. Wei., 2014)
In Sri Lanka English is taught as a L2 in schools. The role that English

plays in various spheres in Sri Lanka has always been very significant.
According to what the researcher has witnessed after twenty years of
experience in the field, in spite of the fact that Sri Lankan students
learn English as a L2 for several years in the school from primary
to advanced level their proficiency in the language remains very
low. Some of them are unable to write a simple sentence correctly or
they find it difficult to express themselves in simple, correct English.
Reasons for this failure or the minimal success of the process have
always been discussed and researched (Walatara, 1965, Kumarage,
2015). Even after entering the university the students are being taught
English, still their proficiency remains low. According to what the
62
researcher has witnessed after teaching ten years in the Buddhist and
Pali University is that the situation is not different in Budddhist and Pali
University. Thus, this research attempts to investigate the perceptions
of the lecturers of Budddhist and Pali University with regard to the
use of TRL as a technique in teaching the first year students of the
university.
Statement of Problem
Though there seem to be an interest towards learning English in

the students of Buddhist and Pali University in the recent years,
competency level of the majority remains low. Despite the various
efforts of English language lecturers, the problem remains the same.
Various issues have been discussed regarding the problem and using
L1 in teaching English as a L2 is one of those phenomena, discussed
vastly.
The real problem lies whether the L1 should be used in teaching a

L2 and where the line of limitation lies. So, it should be investigated
the validity of the use of TRL as a pedagogical tool in support for
the success of the English Language learners and to see whether it
would become a motivating factor in the teaching process. Thus,
the effectiveness of the use of learners’ L1 through TRL practices in
teaching ESL should be explored in related to the perceptions of the
lecturers.
Thus, investigating the perceptions of the lecturers who are engaged

in the process of teaching English would give an insight to the matter.
63
Literature Review
For over 120 years, the prevailing attitude in language teaching has
been anti-L1 and discouraging the use of students’ L1 in language
teaching (Cook, 2001). The main principle of language teaching was
monolingual or intra-lingual, rather than cross-lingual (Cook, 2001).
The prevailing method of instruction was the Direct Method, which
did not encourage the use of comparative analysis between the L1
and the Target Language. Researchers have concluded that translation
provides an easy avenue to enhance linguistic awareness (Cook, 2001).
The term TRL consists of two components, ‘trans’ and ‘languaging’.

García and Wei (2014) have defined ‘languaging’ as “the simultaneous
process of continuous becoming of ourselves and of our language
practice, as we interact and make meaning in the world” (p. 8). The
prefix trans- means ‘between’ or ‘across.’ From this perspective, TRL
can be identified as the use of language resources (across previously
established boundaries) by the bilingual or multilingual individuals
for their own identity and for interaction with others. As it is described
by the prefix, ‘Trans’ when the terminology trans-cultural and trans-
language are used it is clearly understood that the phenomena of culture
and language are not fixed or static. Garcia (2014, p. 45) explains
trans-language is used for “multiple discursive practices in which
bilinguals engage in order to make sense of their bilingual worlds”
to construct and co-construct meanings. The individual uses more
than one language for his/her communication from a single linguistic
repertoire. Canagarajah (2011) referred this as an integrated system.
The concept of TRL promotes the use of L1 in L2 teaching. According

to MacSwan, TRL emerged as a new concept within bilingual
64
education which changed ideologies. (MacSwan, 2017). In early ESL

classrooms students’ L1 and the TL were treated separately and the
L1 was considered less valuable. TRL promotes the use of different
languages including learner’s L1 and treats both the languages
equally. Thus, through this relatively novel concept, a single linguistic
repertoire is built with the use of students’ L1 and L2.
Vogel and Garcia (2017) express that TRL brings out a distinct
theoretical insight into bilingualism and multilingualism. According
to Cummins (2008) languages were treated as “two solitudes” in ESL
or multilingual teaching where the learner’s L1 was regarded less
valuable. Contradictorily TRL promotes the use of different languages
including learner’s L1. Garcia (2009) expresses that TRL refers to
multiple discursive practices which are used by the bilinguals in order
to make sense of their bilingual world. Researchers have investigated
the use of one’s full linguistic repertoire in order to ease the process
of learning a new language. Garcia and Wei see language practices
of bilinguals not as “two autonomous language systems” but as “one
linguistic repertoire” (Garcia and Wei, 2014, p.2).
Though there have been number of researches conducted on the

perceptions of the teachers based on other institutions around the world
(García, & Wei, .2014; Portoles, & Marti, 2017), no such research had
been conducted in related to the Buddhist and Pali University.
Methodology
The current study aimed to gauge ESL lecturers’ perceptions and

practices towards the use of the students’ L1 which is Sinhala in their
lectures. Seven ESL lecturers, attached to the department of English
65
Language Teaching in the Buddhist and Pali University were utilized

as the sample. These lecturers were chosen by the researcher after
questioning nine lecturers who work attached to the university on the
question whether they use TRL techniques in teaching. Out of nine
lecturers only seven lecturers expressed that they are using the TRL
techniques in teaching the first year students. Thus, only the lecturers
who accepted that they were using TRL techniques were used in this
research. All the participants have working experience between 1-10
years. Two of them were female and five were male.
A questionnaire was used to explore lecturers’ attitudes and practices

towards TRL. It included items to collect general information about
lecturers’ age, gender and years of experience. Only three main
questions were probed. First question was used in order to examine
the TRL practices used by the lecturers themselves in the aim of
improving the students’ competency and the second question aimed at
examining how the students are allowed to use L1 as a TRL technique.
Two questions were based on the Likert-Type scale items to examine
how the use of students’ L1 which is Sinhala by the lecturers. With the
questions the researcher tended to figure out in what situations the use
of Sinhala in the class is beneficial or detrimental and to expand on
their answers regarding their perceptions of TRL in their classes. Then
one open ended question was probed in order to get further insight into
the perceptions of the lecturers on TRL techniques used in the lesson.
The main aim of this question was to see whether the lecturers actually
use L1 as TRL techniques during the lessons.
66
Results and Discussion
The answers for the research questions addressing the perceptions and
practices of the lecturers towards TRL practices were analyzed.
Question- 01
According to your idea how often do you use Sinhala in the

following situations in teaching English for the first year students?
often sometimes never

To help low proficiency students 5 2 0
To clarify during activities 6 1 0
To build bonds with students 4 2 1
To describe vocabulary items 6 0 1
To explain 4 3 0
Figure 1
The first research question addressing the perceptions and practices of

ESL teachers towards TRL was analyzed by calculating the numbers
in descriptive statistics. The first Likert-type question was about how
67
often they use Sinhala in the classroom at different specific occasions.

As shown in Figure 1, 5 participant lecturers use Sinhala to help lower
proficiency students whereas 2 lecturers use Sinhala in order to help
low proficiency students which makes clear that all the participants
use the L1 of the students to help low proficiency students. And all
the lecturers seem to use L1 in order to clarify certain matters while
teaching (6 lecturers often use L1 in that case while 1 lecturer sometimes
uses). 4 lecturers often use L1 for building the bonds with the students
while 2 lectures sometimes use L1 in that purpose. 1 participant never
uses L1 for building bonds with the students.6 participants often use
Sinhala in order to clarify vocabulary but 1 participant never uses
for that purpose. All the lecturers seem to use students’ L1 as an ice
breaker (while 4 participants often use 3 participants sometimes use).
When the percentages are considered 100% participants get the use
of Sinhala which is the L1 of the students often or sometimes in order
to help the low proficiency students. Similarly, 100% lecturers use
the L1 in order to clarify certain matters in the lesson. Only 14% of
the participants that is only 1 person does not use the L1 for building
bonds with the students, 84% seem to use the L1 for building bonds.
Majority get the use of L1 in order to clarify vocabulary for the students
while 14% does not use the L1 for that purpose.100% lecturers use the
students’ L1 as an ice breaker often or sometimes. Thus, it was obvious
that the lecturers attempt to use students’ L1 as TRL techniques for the
above purposes.
68
Question-02
How often do you encourage the students to use Sinhala in the

classroom for the following purposes?
often sometimes never

To describe content or activities 0 0 7
To promote assistance to peers 0 1 6
To brainstorm during class activities 0 2 5
To explain problems not related to
0 2 5
content
To respond to teacher’s questions 0 2 5
Figure 2
The second question probed in order to investigate how students are

allowed or made to use TRL techniques in the class. The question was
about how often the students are made to use Sinhala in the classroom
at different specific occasions. As shown in Figure 2, no participant
lecturer allows students use L1 to describe or discuss the content
69
related matters. No lecturers allow the students to use L1 in order

to promote assistance to the friends except for one lecturer. Only 2
lecturers seem to use L1 in order to brainstorm the students. 5 lecturers
do not allow the students to explain problems and only 2 lecturers let
the students explain using L1. Similarly, 5 lecturers do not allow the
students to use their L1 to answer the questions while 2 lecturers allow
to answer using L1.
When the percentages are considered 100% participants do not allow

the students use L1 for describing purposes. 85.7% lecturers do not let
the students use their L1 in order to promote assistance for their friends
only 14% allow to assist the friends.71.4% lecturers never use L1 to
brainstorm the students, to let the students explain their problems or to
allow the students to respond the questions asked by the lecturer while
28.5% lecturers allow the students to use their L1 which is Sinhala to
explain problems, to brainstorm and to respond the problems asked
by the lecturers. Thus, it is visible that the lecturers do not want the
students to use their L1 in the class except for very few occasions.
Question- 03
Do you plan in which occasions TRL techniques should be used during

the lesson when you prepare the lesson plan? Please explain how you
decide when to use TRL techniques during the lesson.
For this question only three participants answered positively expressing

that they decide when to use TRL techniques before the lesson while
the others expressed that they decide the use of L1 during the lesson
as the need arises.
70
Conclusion
Translanguaging, the systematic use of L1 in the teaching of a foreign

language, has been increasingly embraced by researchers in the field
of foreign language teaching because out of 9 lecturers, 7 lecturers use
TRL techniques in their teaching pedagogy. The purpose of the current
study was to explore the ESL lecturers’ perceptions and practices of
TRL in their teaching. In considering the figure 1, the most obvious
finding to emerge from this study is that ESL lecturers were positive
with the practices of TRL techniques. The majority of the participants
seem to feel that the use of Sinhala by the lecturers was important
in teaching the first year students and they attempted to use the
students’ L1 in their classes. However, when examining the figure 2,
it is clear that the lecturers do not encourage the students use L1 as
a TRL technique in their activities in the lecture hall. In considering
the answers given for the open ended question it can be understood
that the participants did not seem to have a systematic way of TRL
to increase students’ performance in English. Garcia and Wei (2014)
suggest that TRL that improves metacognition and deeper thinking
skills of students requires the systematic use of students’ existing
linguistic repertoire. A program for the professional development of
the lecturers to enhance ESL lecturers’ knowledge and practices of
TRL might be a fruitful area for future work. It may be an attempt to
deconstruct traditionally accepted monolingual approach of foreign or
second language learning. A further study could assess the long-term
effects of TRL activities on students’ academic success.
71
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The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom.
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Biographycal Note
Kosala Kumarage obtained her B.A. degree specializing in English

from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She completed her M.A.
degree in Linguistics from the University of Kelaniya. Currently she
is reading for her PhD in the University of Kelaniya and employed
as a Senior Lecturer attached to the Department of English Language
Teaching in Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.
74
‘Politics of Fear’: An Analysis of the Effects
of Divisive Political Propaganda in Nazi
Germany and Cold-War America as Reflected
in Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (1958) and
Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” (1985)
Naduni Dinesha Thebuwana
Abstract
Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (1958) is a short story that baffled

its readers when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948 and
continues to be an enigma to contemporary readers. The compact
style and lack of plot and backstories are partially responsible for this
enigma, which makes it a writerly text open to multiple interpretations.
While the text has been interpreted from multiple perspectives for the
past seventy years, its engagement with the ‘politics of fear’ in Nazi
Germany and Cold-War America has been overlooked. ‘Politics of fear’
is a term coined by Wodak (2015) to investigate right-wing political
discourses and strategies. This paper uses it as a critical perspective
to analyse how the protagonist’s mental disorder, ‘referential mania,’
reflects nationalist and divisive right-wing political strategies used
by populists in Germany and United States during World War II and
the Cold War. It also compares this portrayal with the reflection of
‘politics of fear’ in “99 Red Balloons” (1985), a protest song produced
by Nena in Cold-War Germany.
Keywords: 99 red balloons, cold-war, nazi Germany, Nena, politics of

fear, signs and symbols
75
Introduction
Vladimir Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (1958), first published

in The New Yorker as “Symbols and Signs” in Cold-War America
in 1948, continues to baffle readers (Parker, 1995; Dolinin, 2012;
Drescher, 2012; White, 2012; Richter, 2012; Azizi; 2019) by defying
conclusiveness. The sparsity of detail and lack of closure, characteristic
of Nabokov’s writing, resist the determination of the textual signs
and symbols that are trapped in a cycle of perpetual signification.
Nabokov’s (2012) comment on the short story: “a second (main) story
is woven into, or placed behind, the superficial semitransparent [sic]
one” (p. 124) indicates his deliberate violation of unitariness and
closure, which establishes the text as an experimental modern short
story. Despite Nabokov’s editor, Katherine White’s (1947) attempts to
control the signification of the signs as evident in her comment: “two
differing interpretations show that you [Nabokov] have not quite put
the story over, either as one thing or the other” (as cited in Leving,
2012, p. 50), the text’s “writerliness” (Barthes, 1990), or openness to
multiple interpretations, remains.
However, for a writerly text, its critical readership is constricted in

perspective. While there is an abundance of semiotic and psychoanalytic
readings, there is a dearth of political interpretations. The first approach
is inspired by the “semiotic title” (Toker, 2012, p. 214) of the text and
its temporal location at the apex of structuralism. The second approach
is inspired by “referential mania” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 87), the mental
disorder of the protagonist, which Nabokov subjects to mock-clinical
scrutiny. Consequently, despite a limited number of studies exploring
the references to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Drescher, 2012;
76
Martin, 2012; Leving, 2012; Toker, 2012), in the text, its reflection of
the specific political strategy of “politics of fear” (Wodak, 2015) has
not been investigated.
Similarly, the reflection of the Cold-War ‘politics of fear’ in “99 Red

Balloons,” a German Rock song produced during the Iron Curtain in
West Berlin in 1983 (Edwards, 2016) has also escaped critical scrutiny.
While both its German and English versions have been interpreted as
an anti-nuclear protest song (Tierney, 2007; Hill, 2018; Drake, 2019),
the reflection of ‘politics of fear’ as divisive and nationalist political
propaganda has not been studied. Therefore, this paper analyses the
reflection of ‘politics of fear’ in “Signs and Symbols,” particularly
referential mania, and the decision of the rulers to launch war in “99
Red Balloons” and argues that referential mania is not a congenital
disorder, but a social construct. The protagonist is the ‘Other’ in
Germany as a Jew, and in America, as a Russian. Thus, his racial and
national identity that populists construct as the ‘Other,’ exploiting
‘politics of fear,’ constructs his insanity. This is supported by “99
Red Balloons” that also reflects the workings of ‘politics of fear’ in
Germany during the Cold War. Hence, the comparison of “Signs and
Symbols” and “99 Red Balloons” Both these texts depict ‘politics of
fear’ as a divisive political strategy used in Nazi Germany and Cold-
War America. As two texts published thirty-five years apart, they also
capture the lasting effects of this political strategy.
Ruth Wodak, a linguist and a discourse analyst, coined the term ‘politics
of fear’ to refer to nationalist and divisive political strategies that
exploit the fear of the ‘Other’ as reflected in the Cold War and current
right-wing political discourses. She argues that right-wing populists
77
or “mainstream [political] parties and movements” (Wodak, 2015, p.

13) that depict characteristics such as “a normalisation of nationalistic,
xenophobic, racist and antisemitic rhetoric,” work with fear. Wodak
analyses this fear as a manifestation of the ‘us/them’ binary that
characterises the nation-state, and argues that it is exploited to enforce
divisive policies such as those enforced during the Cold War. For
example, McCarthyism, a manifestation of an extreme form of ‘The
Red Scare’ or fear of socialism, was initially portrayed as a nationalist
effort to detect treason (Achter, 2022). It is often dubbed “national
hysteria” (Murray, 1955; Dunst, 2017; American Experience, n.d;
Ovesny, 2021) as it oppressed both communists and non-communists.
Wodak (2015) emphasises that ‘politics of fear’ is still used by right-

wing populists to instil a sense of fear of another country/group being
a “threat” (p. 6) to the nation state:
all right-wing populist parties instrumentalize some kind of

ethnic/religious/linguistic/political minority as a scapegoat
for most if not all current woes and subsequently construe the
respective group as dangerous and a threat ‘to us’, to ‘our’ nation;
this phenomenon manifests itself as a ‘politics of fear’ (p. 23).
Thus, ‘politics of fear’ is analogous to a socially and politically induced

fear of the ‘Other,’ which can be a minority group within the nation-
state or an ethnic or religious group outside of it. The confluence of the
nation-state and ‘politics of fear’ is nowhere more apparent than in the
two world wars where the participant countries strived to defeat the
‘Other’ or the enemy state and establish its superiority, which is also
reflected in the Cold War that utilised subtler forms such as espionage
for the same intention.
78
The ‘Other’ is a Lacanian psychoanalytic concept that has been adopted

and adapted by feminists and cultural theorists to conceptualise
identity. For example, conceptualising the woman as the ‘Other’ (de
Beauvoir, 2012), feminine language as the ‘Other’ of the Symbolic
Order (Kristeva, 1984), and more recently, black identity as the ‘Other’
(Hall, 2018). Lacan (1997) conceptualises the Real or the unconscious
as the ‘Other’ of the self (pp. 37-38). However, in cultural theory,
the ‘Other’ is often perceived as the ‘other’ of the norm in the norm/
other binary. For example, ghettoising black immigrants in the United
Kingdom depicts how the racial identity of the black minority was
constructed as the ‘Other’ to the white majority (Hall, 2018, p. 107).
The protagonist is the ‘Other’ in Germany as a Jew and in America as
a Russian, which indicates how ‘politics of fear,’ which is reproduced
in the institution of psychiatry, categorises him as mentally-ill and
segregates him from the allegedly ‘normal’ members of society.
‘Politics of fear’ is not limited to Cold-War policies as it is reflected

in contemporary policies such as the USA Patriot Acts of 2001 and
2006 (Thorne & Kouzmin, 2010). While the study of Thorne and
Kouzmin predates Wodak’s (2015) theory, their arguments regarding
‘politics of fear’ reinforces those of Wodak. They emphasise that
‘politics of fear’ enables the simulation of a “democratic crisis”
(Thorne & Kouzmin, 2010, p. 899) and the enforcement of policies
that conceal America’s hidden agenda of maintaining its dominance
as a global superpower. This affirms Wodak’s (2015) claims regarding
the portrayal of a minority as the enemy of the nation-state. Kundnani
(2004)’s analysis of Cold War politics also concurs that it reflects “fear
of the unknown” (p. 118), which is explicit in the former US Defense
Secretary, Rumsfeld’s (2002) definition of the enemy: “the unknown,
79
the uncertain, the unseen, and the unexpected” (as cited in Kundnani,
2004, p. 118).
‘Politics of fear’ is also conspicuous in the post-9/11 national address

by George W. Bush (2001): “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of
life, our very freedom came under attack [...]. These acts of mass
murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But
they have failed; our country is strong” [my emphasis]. It exploits the
us/them binary and proleptically justifies “Operation Infinite Justice”
(Becker, 2001) (later renamed “Operation Enduring Freedom” due to
Islamic connotations) or America’s wars against the rest of the world,
particularly the Middle East. In the above quote, the word ‘our’ is
repeated five times, highlighting the workings of us/them and fear
of the ‘Other’ in ‘politics of fear.’ In addition, Bush, as a right-wing
populist, appeals to ethno-nationalist sentiments through “our nation”
and “our country,” thereby differentiating Americans from the rest
of the world. Had he used a more multicultural approach, his speech
would have been less dichotomous and more inclusive. Wodak (2015)
emphasises that multiculturalism is perceived as a threat by right-
wing populists as it is at variance with the divisive, exclusionary, and
xenophobic (pp. 23-25) leanings of ‘politics of fear.’
Using Wodak’s (2015) theory as a critical lens to analyse “Signs and

Symbols” and “99 Red Balloons” provides a broader perspective on the
workings of Nazi and Cold War politics, current populist propaganda,
and the resultant crises such as warfare, xenophobia, and racism,
which affect many countries in the world. I will examine ‘politics of
fear’ and its effects on the individual, society, and nature as reflected
in “Signs and Symbols” and “99 Red Balloons” and how they resonate
with the current political crisis in Ukraine.
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Literature Review
This chapter reviews the existing scholarship on “Signs and Symbols”

and “99 Red Balloons.” The critical scholarship on Nabokov’s text can
be classified into two main categories: semiotic and psychoanalytic
interpretations. The semiotic approach mainly focuses on textual
signs, particularly the mystic telephone call (Nabokov, 1958, p. 94),
with which the story ends. One of the common strands of semiotic
interpretation is the assumption that Nabokov has deliberately placed
signs/references for the reader to decipher what happens at the end
(Parker, 1995; Dolinin, 2012; Drescher, 2012; White, 2012; Richter,
2012; Azizi, 2019). The main focus of psychoanalytic readings is
the mental disorder Nabokov calls “referential mania” (Nabokov,
1958, p. 87), from which the protagonist allegedly suffers. It has been
interpreted as a form of paranoia (Goodman, n.d. as cited in Leving,
2012; Wood, 2012) and a jab at Freud (White, 2012; Jöttkandtt, 2020).
However, both semiotic and psychoanalytic perspectives are solipsistic
and metafictional, as they turn inward into the text without reaching its
socio-political context. Consequently, its reflection of Nazi and Cold
War political propaganda has been overlooked.
However, Toker (2012), Drescher (2012), and Stadlen (n.d., as cited

in Drescher, 2012) locate the text in its socio-historical context and
explore the possible Jewish ethnic identity of the main characters.
Out of these studies, Drescher’s study is the only one that locates the
“Revolution” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 90) on a specific date. This date is
significant as it helps locate the origins of the protagonist’s mental
disorder in a specific socio-political context and identify its causes.
Drescher argues that the revolution is the 1917 revolution (p. 86).
81
However, the location of the revolution in 1917 is problematic as it

makes the protagonist at least forty years old, which hardly fits his
description as “a young man” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 85) and a “boy” (p.
86). Therefore, this paper argues that the revolution Nabokov refers
to is the 1933 National Soviet Revolution of the Third Reich that saw
Hitler becoming the chancellor (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022) of
Germany. This locates the protagonist’s age between twenty and thirty,
which is more fitting to his description. It also connects the narrative to
the Jewish pogrom and implies that the protagonist and his family left
Europe (Nabokov, 1958, p. 90) to evade execution.
As solipsistic analyses, most of the semiotic interpretations focus on

textual signs and symbols such as “photographs” (Nabokov, 1958, p.
90), “cards” (p. 89), “the telephone” (p. 92), and the labels of jelly
jars. These are interpreted as hidden signs that signify the last call
as a message from the sanitorium regarding the protagonist’s suicide
(Parker, 1995; Dolinin, 2012; Dole, 2012). Semiotic interpretations
analyse the text’s elusive nature as an outcome of the signs and symbols.
For example, the text is interpreted as a bait that catches the reader and
plunges them into a form of referential mania (Parker, 1995; Dolinin,
2012; Drescher, 2012; White, 2012). The reader becomes the victim of
referential mania if they over-analyze the textual signs and symbols. In
White’s (2012) words, Nabokov would be entertained by the thought
of “a bunch of educated individuals” (p. 35) overreading his diagnosis
of “referential mania” and succumbing to a similar mania.
However, Toker’s (2012) semiotic analysis deviates from the two

popular trajectories and explores the possible Jewish identity of the
three main characters. Toker is the “first” (Leving, 2012, p. 165)
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critic to approach the text as a narrative about the Jewish plight. She
contends that “Isaac” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 86), the Jewish name of the
protagonist’s uncle, and Aunt Rosa’s assassination by “the Germans”
(p. 90) are indicators of the Jewish ancestry of the central characters.
She also interprets referential mania as a reflection of the “Jewish
experience in Europe at the time of the Holocaust” (Toker, 2012, p.
196). Thus, she identifies the text’s socio-historical location as Nazi
Germany and the significance of 1947, an important finding reinforced
by Stadlen (n.d., as cited in Drescher, 2012) and Drescher (2012).
Stadlen (n.d.) analyses the section divisions of the short story (original
version) and argues that the number of paragraphs in each section
corresponds to “19-4-7” (as cited in Drescher, 2012, p. 84) or 1947.
Drescher (2012) cites Nabokov’s act of restoring the text to its original
section divisions, which were altered by White, as a reflection of
the significance of this date. He further adduces this claim by citing
Nabokov’s insertion of this date in “Pnin’s Day” (p. 85). He interprets
it as Nabokov’s effort at prodding readers to locate the text in 1947.
In contrast to earlier semiotic analyses, Drescher (2012) analyses the
labels of the jelly jars as indicators of the narrative location in Nazi
Germany. Thus, he associates them with German place names. For
example, “plum” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 94) is associated with “Pflaume”
(Drescher, 2012, p. 92) and “Pflaumenbaum,” which respectively
mean the “flame” and “burning tree.” He associates “beech” in “beech
plum,” a deliberately misspelt word, with “Buchen, beech trees,”
or “Buchenwald,” a German city where a concentration camp was
situated. Thus, Toker and Drescher locate the text in Nazi Germany,
but they fail to identify the political propaganda it reflects through
referential mania.
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Stadlen (n.d., as cited in Leving, 2012) also explores the Jewish ethnic
identity of the main characters. However, his focus is on interpreting
the ambiguous ending of the story: the last telephone call. He argues
that the caller has to dial the number six three times to reach the
tenement flat of the protagonist’s parents. He interprets “666” (as
cited in Leving, 2012, p. 166) as a Jewish symbol: “6 + 6 + 6 = 18
= Chaim,” which means life in Hebrew. Thus, he counters former
semiotic analyses that interpret the last call as a message regarding
the protagonist’s death. However, Stadlen also fails to identify the
textual references to ‘politics of fear’ in Nazi Germany and Cold-War
America.
The other dominant critical perspective used to interpret “Signs

and Symbols” is psychoanalysis. This could have been inspired by
the author’s claim that referential mania is the name he is giving an
existing “special form of persecution mania” (Nabokov, 1947, as cited
in Leving, 2012, p. 28). This implies that either Nabokov attempted to
reflect a real mental disorder or that he was ironic in his communication
with Katherine White. The latter makes his claim unreliable.
The psychoanalysis by Jöttkandtt (2020, as cited in Rabaté, 2020)

also assumes that Nabokov was being ironic. Thus, he interprets the
text as a jab at Freud. Jöttkandtt argues that Nabokov’s literary work,
particularly Lolita (1955), is deliberately anti-Freud. For example,
textual signs, such as jelly jars and the telephone, parody Freud’s
“dream symbols” (Jöttkandtt, 2020, p. 181): the fruits refer to breasts,
which does not constitute any palimpsestic/underlying meanings.
In contrast, Goodman (n.d. as cited in Leving, 2012) analyses referential

mania as a mental disorder analogous to schizophrenia. He focuses on
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the textual references to symptoms of paranoia and suicidal tendencies

(p. 27) and argues that the disorder overlaps with schizophrenia.
Another analyst who assumes the possible psychological accuracy of
Nabokov’s diagnosis is Wood (2012). He analyses referential mania
as a form of paranoia (p. 77). His analysis also considers the world
external to referential mania and contends that the protagonist and his
parents are trapped in the “ordered but unsympathetic” (p. 80) world,
which implies their ‘Otherness.’
Wood (2012) interprets the three telephone calls as ‘Otherness’

“speaking” (p. 78) and the juncture where the referential mania joins
the real. He goes on to challenge the sanity/insanity binary and argues
that referential mania could be “hereditary” (p. 79) in the generation
reflected in the text as it explains the “so-called accidents” (p. 79) that
kill the “tenderness” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 91) in the world. Thus, Wood
treats referential mania as an epistemology that explains seemingly
irrational and unjust phenomena in the world.
Goodman’s (n.d.) study also explores referential mania’s link to the

real world. He associates the term, ‘referential mania’ with two terms
in current use: “ideas of reference” and “delusions of reference” (as
cited in Leving, 2012, p. 28). Ideas of reference are misconstruing
harmless comments as criticism. Delusions of reference allude
to “flagrantly false and persistent conspiracy theories.” The latter
resonates with ‘politics of fear’ as right-wing populists who exploit it
construct/manipulate conspiracy theories to instil a fear of the ‘Other’
and an alleged urgency to protect the nation-state. However, neither
of the analyses by Wood and Goodman links referential mania to the
political propaganda of Nazi Germany and Cold War America.
85
Another critic to connect referential mania to the real world is

Grishakova (2006). She compares it with Uexküll’s “umwelten”
(p. 138) theory, which emphasises that the mind and the world are
inseparable. This affirms Wood’s argument that referential mania is the
juncture where insanity meets the real. Grishakova emphasises that the
protagonist’s feelings are laid “transparent” and that his “subjective-
self-world” is expanded to the “limits of the physical world.” This
affirms Toker’s (2012) claim that referential mania is a reflection of
the times in which the protagonist lives.
While the selected semiotic and psychoanalytic readings have

discovered the larger socio-political context of the text and analysed
referential mania as a mental disorder that reflects/connects with the
real world, they have failed to discover the ‘politics of fear’ reflected
in it. In addition, the semiotic analyses delimit the text to a solipsistic
word puzzle. Thus, a more overtly political approach is required to
investigate how the text reflects ‘politics of fear’ as a strategy used in
Nazi Germany and Cold-War America.
In contrast to Signs and Symbols, the critical scholarship on “99 Red

Balloons” is more limited and constricted in perspective. The dearth
of studies is probably due to its rock genre, which did not warrant
scholarly inquiry until the latter part of the 1960s (Astor, 2010, p. 143).
Consequently, it has only been analysed as an anti-nuclear protest
song (Tierney, 2007; Edwards, 2016; Hill, 2018; Drake, 2019). Thus,
its reflection of ‘politics of fear’ as a cold-war political strategy has
been overlooked.
The interpretation of “99 Red Balloons” as an anti-nuclear song

reflects the influence of the apprehension of nuclear war that marked
86
the Cold War era when it was published. Hence, it is “the ultimate 80s
Cold War jam” (Partridge, 2016). Its reflection of Cold-War society is
evident in the English translation and the original German lyrics that
engage with the fear of the ‘Other,’ which causes the nuclear war that
destroys the world (Nena, 1985/n.d., lines 36–37). Despite this overt
connection, the influence of Cold-War politics on the lyrics, other than
the fear of a potential nuclear war, has not been explored.
Nena (2016 as cited in Partridge, 2016), the lead singer and leader of
the band ‘Nena,’ argues that the song concerns general situations that
lead to misunderstandings that culminate in destruction. However, the
lyrics signify more political and militarist connotations. For example,
both the German and English versions refer to weapons used in war:
“super high-tech jet fighters” (Nena, 1985/n.d., line 26); “Streichholz
und Benzinkanister” (Nena, 1983/n.d., line 26), which highlights the
destruction reflected in the song as the result of war and not the result
of mundane misunderstandings.
Hill’s (2018) argument that the song addresses the “specific

issue of nuclear war” (p. 23) also underscores the political nature of the
conflict between the two countries (Nena, 1985/n.d., line 12) reflected
in the song. Hill (2018) emphasises that the song makes a “political
statement” which enabled it to become a “ ‘protest-light,’ pre-dating the
‘Like’ of Facebook” (p. 148). Hill’s comment underscores the song’s
global status as an anti-nuclear political statement. Further, Tierney
(2007) underscores its strengths as a song on “nuclear deterrence” (p.
1).
Drake (2019) also interprets “99 Red Balloons” as an anti-

nuclear/war song, but emphasises that the fear of war is “imagined.”
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He cites the references to balloons imagining themselves to be

Captain Kirk and “99 Düsenflieger” (Nena, 1983/n.d., line 17) or
ninety-nine fictitious jet fighters as indicators of an imagined fear.
Despite undermining the power of the song by highlighting the
imaginary nature of fear, this analysis focuses on rhetorical devices
that underscore “the absurdity” of war, such as the juxtaposition of the
benign balloons with the “violence” caused by misconstruing them. He
also interprets the song’s portrayal of politicians who “advocate” war
as “small-minded” and “irrational” as a deconstruction of the ethos
of war. Further, the song deconstructs the logos and pathos of war by
highlighting it as harmful. This study also underscores its portrayal of
miscommunication and hastiness as “cause[s] of war,” which can be
prevented with empathy and patience. However, interpreting the song
as an anti-nuclear protest song is a limiting approach because it fails
to address other political motifs, such as the ‘politics of fear’ reflected
in it.
Thus, the critical readership of both texts fails to investigate the ‘politics
of fear’ that populists exploited to evoke fear of the ‘Other,’ such as
anti-semitism and the Red Scare. Therefore, this paper investigates
their engagement with ‘politics of fear’ in Nazi Germany, Cold-War
Germany, and Cold-War America.
Analysis and Discussion
Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” and Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” reflect
‘politics of fear’ as a form of paranoia characterised by the fear of the
‘Other.’ The ‘Other’ in Nabokov’s text is the protagonist and his family
since they belong to the Russian émigré community in America. The
Russian national identity of the protagonist is evident in the references
88
to his parents’ first language (Nabokov, 1958, p. 89) and his father’s
favourite “collar” (p. 91). In the song, the ‘Other’ is West Germany
from the perspective of East Germany and vice versa. East Germany
was segregated from West Germany during the Iron Curtain when the
song was produced. It was a satellite state of the Soviet Union, while
West Germany was divided among the Allied States: England, France,
and the United States. The suspicious treatment (Nena, 1985/n.d., line
12) of the balloons: “There’s something here from somewhere else!”
and the launching of war to fight them indicates the fear of the ‘Other’
characteristic of this political segregation.
The origin of the song also reflects the fear of the ‘Other’ (West
Germany) in the Soviet Union that ruled East Germany. Karges, the
songwriter and the guitarist of Nena, who was performing in a concert
with Rolling Stones in West Berlin in 1982, witnessed “thousands
of helium balloons, the wind blew [...] toward East Berlin, and [...]
speculated about what could happen as a result (Edwards, 2016). The
song emphasises that even nuclear war is possible due to the fear of
the balloons that is a symbol for the ‘Other.’ Thus, ‘politics of fear’ is
a strategy both the Allies and Axis camps exploited to justify divisive
policies by portraying them as measures taken to protect the nation-
state.
The referential mania from which the protagonist allegedly suffers

reflects how ‘politics of fear’ was used in Nazi Germany and Cold-
War America. The text implies that the protagonist spent his childhood
in Nazi Germany as a Jew. For example, having a “German maid” (p.
90) and the names of the German cities: “[...] Minsk, the Revolution,
Leipzig, Berlin, Leipzig again [...]” indicate that he spent his childhood
89
in Germany. Since these cities were the loci of political unrest, the
“Revolution” could be the 1933 National Socialist Revolution or the
Third Reich, which enabled Hitler to become the chancellor of Germany
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022). The reference to the assassination of
Aunt Rosa by “the Germans” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 90) emphasises the
Jewish ancestry of the protagonist. Nabokov’s (n.d.) reference to his
parents as “the old Jewish couple” (as cited in Wood, 2012, p. 76) in
his personal correspondence also depicts that he intended the central
characters of the short story to be Jews. Irrespective of his race, it is
inevitable that the protagonist’s childhood is affected by the ‘politics of
fear’ practised by the Germans. Thus, the reference to the Third Reich
interconnects his life history and the history of his mental disorder
with Hitler’s ethno-nationalism.
Hitler’s ethno-nationalism exploited ‘politics of fear’ to justify the

pogrom of Jews (Hitler, 1925/n.d.). This is reflected in his policies
that discriminated against Jews by constructing them as the ‘Other’ or
the enemy of Aryan Germans, which validated their genocide. Thus,
migration to America, which enables the central characters to evade
execution, is propelled by the anti-semitic and divisive political climate
of Germany. Therefore, the mental disorder, which manifests during
the protagonist’s formative years spent in Germany and America,
where he experiences ‘Otherness’ as well as how ‘Otherness’ is
persecuted, can be interpreted as a socio-political construct. In Toker’s
(2012) words: “[t]he specific mental malady [of the protagonist] is a
morbidly condensed expression of the Jewish experience in Europe
at the time of the Holocaust” (p. 211). Toker’s observation highlights
that referential mania is not a congenital disease but a socio-political
construct.
90
The protagonist’s growing strangeness and irrational fear becomes

apparent by the time his family leaves Europe:
He again, aged about eight, already difficult to understand,

afraid of the wallpaper in the passage, afraid of a certain picture
in a book which merely showed an idyllic landscape with rocks
on a hillside and an old cart wheel hanging from the branch of
a leafless tree. Aged ten: the year they left Europe. (Nabokov,
1958, p. 90)
The above excerpt captures how the profound sense of ‘Otherness’ the
protagonist experiences as a Jew in Germany causes referential mania.
Nabokov’s predecessor, Kierkegaard (n.d; as cited in Toker, 2012),
also treated insanity as “a transparent medium for seeing the confusion
of [a given] age” (p. 211). Thus, the protagonist’s traumatic childhood
in Germany and being the ‘Other’ in America as a Russian émigré
indicate the constructed-ness of referential mania.
Immigration to America scarcely improves the protagonist’s

psychological condition due to “[...] the shame, the pity, the humiliating
difficulties of the journey [...]” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 90) that further
traumatise him. Therefore, his irrational fear can be interpreted as
an exaggerated version of the fear of potential harm to his life and
the emotional strain caused by his ‘Otherness’ in Nazi Germany and
Cold-War America. Hence, divisive policies such as Nazism and
McCarthyism, which instilled an irrational fear of the ‘Other,’ are
responsible for his mental illness. As Parker (1995) argues, “Signs and
Symbols” is “a story bemoaning the waste of [tenderness]” (p. 111).
Nabokov symbolises the waste of tenderness in the avian imagery
of the “half-dead unfledged bird” (Nobokov, 1958, p. 87), which
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reflects the helplessness of the protagonist, who tries to “fly” (p. 93)
but is stopped. ‘Otherness,’ which threatens him with persecution in
Germany, thus results in segregation in America.
Furthermore, the protagonist’s fear of the natural world and spies

signifies ‘politics of fear’ that characterised World War II, Germany,
and Cold-War America. For example, “Clouds in the staring sky
transmit to one another, by means of slow signs, incredibly detailed
information regarding him” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 88) can be interpreted
as a metaphor for Russian and American espionage (Sulick, 2013).
In addition, his apprehension of “gadget[s]” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 85)
and other objects can be construed as an amplified version of the
fear caused by scientific innovations such as nuclear weapons and
gas chambers that were used in World War II. Thus, as the title of
the short story implies, referential mania symbolises and is a sign of
real-world fears, which highlights its socio-political constructed-ness.
“99 Red Balloons” also captures the debilitating effects of military
technologies such as “high-tech jet fighters” (Nena, 1985/n.d., line
26) and “software” (line 5), which misidentifies the balloons as a
threat. This is visually represented in the music video through the
explosions that momentarily interrupt the band’s performance (Nena,
2021, 02:39). Thus, referential mania is the protagonist’s exaggerated
pathological reaction to espionage, military technologies, and other
political strategies exploited against the ‘Other.’
While “99 Red Balloons” lacks overt portrayals of insanity, its

characterisation of the “General” (Nena, 1983/n.d., line 12) and
“ministers” (Nena, 1985/n.d., line 18) symbolises irrational fear,
which is analogous to paranoia, a disorder that has parallels with
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referential mania (Goodman, n.d. as cited in Leving, 2012). Paranoia

is “the irrational and persistent feeling that people are ‘out to get you’
or that you are the subject of persistent, intrusive attention by others”
(Better Health, n.d.). The lines: “Ninety-nine ministers meet / To
worry, worry, super-scurry” (Nena, 1985/n.d., lines 18–19) capture the
ministers’ paranoid reaction to the balloons. It propels a nuclear war
that annihilates the world (line 36). Thus, both texts capture the effects
of political decisions/policies influenced by ‘politics of fear.’
In addition, “Signs and Symbols” and “99 Red Balloons” explore

how populists exploit discourses for political purposes. Nabokov
engages with how the institution of psychiatry serves the “political
use” (Foucault, 1984, p. 51) of “social regulation” by validating the
segregation of the ‘Other’ from mainstream society. For example, “the
[scientific] paper” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 87), which defines referential
mania as a “rare” (p. 88) disease, justifies the segregation of the
protagonist, who “[e]ven at his worst [...] present[s] no danger to other
people” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 93), from mainstream anti-Communist
America. According to White (2012), this segregation is analogous
to “incarceration” (White, 2012, p. 31). I argue that the protagonist
is incarcerated both within and without the sanatorium because of
his ‘Otherness.’ His mental disorder makes him the ‘Other’ of people
considered normal; his marginal position as a Russian émigré when
the Red Scare was at its peak makes him the ‘Other’ of mainstream
society. Thus, the definition and treatment of referential mania
ignore its socio-political causes and the fact that the protagonist “is
painfully separate from us, but also painfully like us; inaccessible but
not beyond our imagination; other but not an alien” (Wood, 2012, p.
78). Furthermore, the ineffectiveness of the treatment is evident in the
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protagonist’s father emphasising the importance of “get[ting] him out

of [the sanatorium] quick[ly]” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 92) to prevent his
death. Thus, the short story reflects how the discourse of psychiatry is
politicised and unempathetic towards the sufferings of the patient and
his family.
“99 Red Balloons” also depicts scientific and military discourses as

tools of populists that exploit ‘politics of fear.’ For example, the military
software “[...] identify / [...] clarify and classify” (Nena, 1985/n.d.,
lines 29–30) the balloons but fail to comprehend their benignness (line
2) and the “dreams” (line 34) they symbolise. Nena also depicts how
the war separates the speaker from their loved one (line 41). Thus, the
selected texts address the destructive effects of discursively-practised
‘politics of fear.’
Nabokov and Nena also explore how ‘politics of fear’ jeopardise

interpersonal relationships by promoting divisiveness. Both texts
use physical distance as a metaphor for the mutual suspicion, fear,
and mistrust caused by divisive political strategies. For example,
the physical distance between the protagonist and the objects of fear
causes him greater agony: “With distance the torrents of wild scandal
increase in volume and volubility” (Nabokov, 1958, p. 88). “99 Red
Balloons” emphasises the distant origins of the balloons as the primary
cause of the fear and suspicion of the ministers (Nena, 1985/n.d.).
These spatial metaphors signify the politically-created social distance
between groups/nations. For example, the lack of communal support
from the host culture isolates the protagonist and his parents in “Signs
and Symbols.” This is implicit in their only source of support being his
estranged uncle (Nabokov, 1958). In addition, the lack of a dialogue
94
between Americans and Russians indicates their cultural and linguistic

divide. For example, the two telephone calls the protagonist’s parents
anxiously answer after visiting the sanatorium are for “Charlie”
(Nabokov, 1958, p. 100), presumably an American, and not for them.
This illustrates the lack of a dialogue and mutual support between the
host culture and the Russian minority. In “99 Red Balloons,” divisive
politics that divided Germany into two countries and two political
camps during the Iron Curtain are the source of the misunderstanding
behind the war. Thus, distance metaphorically indicates the negative
repercussions of the social distance created by separatist policies and
political decisions that exploit ‘politics of fear.’
The selected texts also portray the negative results of ‘politics of fear’
on society and nature. For example, the perturbation of the senile
parents of the protagonist, who spend a sleepless night after visiting
the sanitorium (Nabokov, 1958), which resonates with the isolation
and emptiness of the speaker in “99 Red Balloons”: “It’s all over and
I’m standin’ pretty / In this dust that was a city” (Nena, 1985/n.d., lines
36-37), highlights the damage caused by divisive political strategies.
The desolate landscape of the music video (Nena, 2021, 00:37) also
highlights the damage the war has caused to civilization and nature.
The decision to launch this war mirrors Truman’s conviction to attack
Japan with nuclear bombs during World War II (Harry S. Truman
Library, n.d.), which caused lasting destruction to the Japanese people
and nature. In addition, the text captures the megalomaniac tendencies
of the nation-state that instigates a war to parade its military power
(Nena, 1985/n.d., line 27). This reflects the Cold-War tactic of
building and testing nuclear weapons (CTBTO, n.d.) undertaken by
Russia and America to surpass each other in military power. Thus,
95
the selected texts, published thirty-five years apart, capture the lasting
consequences of ‘politics of fear.’
Conclusion
“Signs and Symbols” and Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” capture Cold-
War ‘politics of fear’ as reflected in referential mania and the political
decisions of the rulers, respectively. The analysis demonstrated
‘politics of fear’ as fear of the ‘Other’ promoted by populists to justify
divisive and destructive political decisions and acts. The ‘Otherness’
projected onto the protagonist in Germany and America exposes how
right-wing populists exploited this strategy to justify anti-semitism
and McCarthyism, citing them as measures taken to protect the nation-
state. It also emphasises that the protagonist’s mental disorder is a
social construct. In addition, the selected texts explore the effects of
‘politics of fear’ on the individual, interpersonal relationships, society,
and nature. The metaphor of distance used in both texts captures how
the social, physical, and emotional distance imposed on politically
divided groups/nations by divisive political propaganda aggravates
mutual fear and mistrust. Thus, the representations of ‘politics of fear’
in the selected texts highlight the importance of healthy international
relations, an empathic attitude, and a dialogue between the rulers and
people of divided countries/groups.
Furthermore, the reflection of ‘politics of fear’ in the selected texts

provide a fresh perspective on the workings of nationalist and populist
politics in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. For example, Russia citing
the potential impact of NATO (if Ukraine joins it) on its domestic affairs
(Guardian News, 2022) signifies the exploitation of fear of the ‘Other’
96
to validate the war. This indicates that ‘politics of fear’ continues to

be exploited as a populist and nationalist strategy. The fear of Russian
spies and saboteurs (Sky News, 2022) among Ukrainian forces,
which is analogous to a milder form of referential mania, depicts the
consequences of fear of the ‘Other’ caused by the political division
of the two countries. The damage caused by the Russian-Ukrainian
conflict underscores ‘politics of fear’ as destructive propaganda. For
example, the mortality rate (The World Bank, 2020) and the number
of casualties (United Nations, 2022) highlight its drastic impact on
human life. Russia’s exploitation of ‘politics of fear’ also indicates
that it is no longer right-wing propaganda but a strategy also used by
leftists. However, ‘politics of fear’ as exploited by left-wing politicians
is a sign/symbol yet to be decoded in the Nabokovian oeuvre.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Lyrics of “99 Red Balloons”

by Nena
1. You and I in a little toy shop
2. Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got
3. Set them free at the break of dawn
4. ‘Til one by one, they were gone
5. Back at base, bugs in the software
6. Flash the message, “Something’s out there!”
7. Floating in the summer sky
8. Ninety-nine red balloons go by
9. Ninety-nine red balloons
10. Floating in the summer sky
11. Panic bells, it’s red alert!
12. There’s something here from somewhere else!
13. The war machine springs to life
14. Opens up one eager eye
15. Focusing it on the sky
16. When ninety-nine red balloons go by
17. 99 Decision Street
18. Ninety-nine ministers meet
19. To worry, worry, super-scurry
20. Call the troops out in a hurry
21. This is what we’ve waited for
22. This is it, boys, this is war
23. The president is on the line
24. As ninety-nine red balloons go by
25. Ninety-nine knights of the air
26. Ride super high-tech jet fighters
105
27. Everyone’s a superhero

28. Everyone’s a “Captain Kirk”
29. With orders to identify
30. To clarify and classify
31. Scramble in the summer sky
32. Ninety-nine red balloons go by
33. As ninety-nine red balloons go by
34. Ninety-nine dreams I have had
35. In every one, a red balloon
36. It’s all over and I’m standin’ pretty
37. In this dust that was a city
38. If I could find a souvenir
39. Just to prove the world was here
40. And here is a red balloon
41. I think of you, and let it go...
Link to the webpage: https://genius.com/Nena-99-red-balloons-lyrics
Appendix B: The official music video of “99 red balloons”
This song is written by J. Fahrenkrog-Petersen, C. Karges, and K.

McAlea, members of the band, Nena. It is the title song of their 1983
album, 99 Red Balloons, released under the record label of Epic.
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=hiwgOWo7mDc
106
Appendix C: Original German lyrics of “99 Red Balloons”

released in 1983 in West Berlin
1. Hast du etwas Zeit für mich?
2. Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
3. Von 99 Luftballons
4. Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
5. Denkst du vielleicht grad an mich?
6. Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
7. Von 99 Luftballons
8. Und, dass sowas von sowas kommt
9. 99 Luftballons
10. Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
11. Hielt man für Ufos aus dem All
12. Darum schickte ein General
13. ‘ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher
14. Alarm zu geben, wenn’s so wär
15. Dabei war’n dort am Horizont
16. Nur 99 Luftballons
17. 99 Düsenflieger
18. Jeder war ein großer Krieger
19. Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
20. Es gab ein großes Feuerwerk
21. Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
22. Und fühlten sich gleich angemacht
23. Dabei schoss man am Horizont
24. Auf 99 Luftballons
25. 99 Kriegsminister
26. Streichholz und Benzinkanister
27. Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
28. Witterten schon fette Beute
107
29. “Riefen, Krieg!”, und wollten Macht

30. Mann, wer hätte das gedacht?
31. Dass es einmal so weit kommt
32. Wegen 99 Luftballons
33. Wegen 99 Luftballons
34. 99 Luftballons
35. 99 Jahre Krieg
36. Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger
37. Kriegsminister gibt’s nicht mehr
38. Und auch keine Düsenflieger
39. Heute zieh’ ich meine Runden
40. Seh’ die Welt in Trümmern liegen
41. Hab’ ‘n Luftballon gefunden
42. Denk’ an dich und lass’ ihn fliegen
Link to the webpage: https://genius.com/Nena-99-luftballons-lyrics
Biographical Note
Naduni Dinesha Thebuwana is a visiting lecturer in English Language

and Literature at the Buddhist and Pali University. She graduated with
a B.A. (Hon) Degree in English from the University of Kelaniya in
2018. She is currently reading for an MPhil in transferable skills. Her
research interests include comparative linguistics, literary theory, and
the production of literary texts.
108

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Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka

JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES (JLS)

Volume 6 Issue I June 2022

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

Volume 6 Issue I June 2022

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

The responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles of this

PAGE SETUP & FORMATTING

Faculty of Language Studies

Prof. Saman Chandra Ranasinghe

Prof. M.G. Lalith Ananda

Prof. K.B. Jayawardhane

Prof. Indira Mawelle

Ven. Prof. Lenagala Siriniwasa

Dr. Nipunika Dilani

Dr. Upul Priyantha Gamage

Mrs. K.G. Kumarage

Ms. Naduni Dinesha Thebuwana

Cathartic Egression of Emotions in Shakespearean 16 - 36

Multiple Motivation as a Key Factor in English 37 - 59

Perceptions of the Lecturers on the Use of 60 - 74

‘Politics of Fear’: An Analysis of the Effects of Divisive 75 - 104

The Sāmaveda teaches us the way of Vedic chanting in the sacrifices

Keywords: Sāmaveda, gāna, ārcikā, grāmageya, araṇyageya

Hindus consider the Vedas as a science of immortal divine origin.

“asya mahato bhūtasya nisvasitaṃ etat yat - ṛgvedo yajurvedaḥ

Sage Vyasa states that the Vedas are of four divisions.

It has also been introduced as Chaturhotra as well.

Ithihāsa and purāṇa are considered as pañcama Veda as shown here.

“ta eta ṛṣayao vedaṃ svaṃ svaṃ vyasyannanekadā śiṣyaiḥ

(Srīmad Bhāgavataṃ, verse 1.4.23)

Sāmaveda possesses different sects and divisions according to many

This is a qualitative research based on the textual study. Primary and

It is mentioned in ‘purāṇa granthas’ that Sāmaveda has thousands of

Mahābhāṣyakāra ‘Patañjalī’ in his Mahābhāṣya Paspaśāhnikādhikarana

Śrī Mahidāsa who wrote the Vedādhyayana which is named as

“sāmavedasya kila sahasrabhedā bhavanti. eṣvanadhyāyeṣvadhīyānāste

It is mentioned that in an age when the study of Vedas was prohibited,

Those residual branches he indicates are,

Among these branches, only three branches namely Kauthumīyaṃ,

Evaluations for Sāmaveda

“udgātewa śakune sāma gāyasi

“ime mayūkhā upa seduru - sadaḥ sāmāni cakrustasarāṇyotave”

“taṃ sāmānuprāvartata samito navyāhitaṃ” Ṛgveda, 10. 135. 4

In Shukla Yajurveda Kānva Saṃhitā

Raghuvaṃśa, 16 sarga 3 verse

The Sāmaveda is composed of the combination of the Ṛgveda which

“ṛcyadhūḍhaṃ sāma, tasmāt ṛcyadhyūḍhaṃ sāma gīyate”

Śankarācārya expressed the same idea as follows:

As explained in Chāndogya Upaniṣad sāma means ‘svara’

The importance of svaras is emphasized in Nāradīyaśikṣā.

“sāma yajurañgāni ye yajñesu prayujyate - avijānādi śāstrāṇaṃ teṣāṃ

As stated in the Mahābhāṣya, mantras which are not considered svaras

“mantro hīnaḥ svarato varṇato vā mithyā prayukto na tamarthamāha”

Singing is twofold: vedic and classical.

Vedic singing (Sāma) is called mārgī and classical singing is called

Sārangadeva stated in his book Sangīta Ratnākara that classical