PARADIGM: Journal of Language and Literary Studies
Paradigm: Journal of Language and Literary Studies is a peer‑reviewed academic journal published by the Faculty of Humanities, UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang (E-ISSN: 2622-8653). The journal publishes research that advances integrative, theory‑driven approaches to language, literature, and culture with a particular emphasis on Islamic, Indonesian, and Global South perspectives. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary studies that explore intercultural hermeneutics, methodological innovation, and vernacular knowledge production. Paradigm: Journal of Language and Literary Studies prioritizes works that develop or critique theoretical frameworks in linguistics, literature, and cultural studies; engage Islamic humanities, cultural linguistics, and Muslim societies; apply innovative qualitative, digital, or mixed methods; examine contemporary issues in language, media, film, and multimodal texts; and highlight regional languages, local literary traditions, and under‑represented voices. For more about Focus and Scope, please visit here. Paradigm: Journal of Language and Literary Studies is accredited by National Journal Accreditation (ARJUNA) Managed by Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, Republic Indonesia with Fourth Grade (SINTA 4) since December 7, 2022. (View certificate)
Department of English Literature, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang
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OPPENHEIMER (2023) BIOPIC: PERFORMING ACTING OUT, SEEKING WORKING THROUGH
Mental health and trauma now dominate social discourse as well as contemporary cinema, reflecting a growing collective awareness of post-war historical wounds. This study examines the representation of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s traumatic experiences in the film Oppenheimer (2023) and assesses how that cinematic narrative aligns with selected biographical records. The analysis draws on Cathy Caruth’s concepts of belatedness and repetition compulsion and is complemented by Dominick LaCapra’s distinction between acting out and working through. Using a biographical approach, trauma-related moments identified in the film script are juxtaposed with historical documents in Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections. The findings identify 59 trauma-related instances: 32 cases (54%) reflect acting out, while 27 cases (46%) reflect working through. In the film, trauma is primarily conveyed through psychological disturbances and the intrusion of subconscious memories. In contrast, the biographical documents portray a more structured and sustained pattern of reconciliation, in which working through appears more dominant.
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NEGOTIATING POLITENESS IN ENGLISH-MEDIATED HERITAGE TOUR GUIDING AT MANGKUNEGARAN PALACE
Politeness plays a central role in English-mediated heritage tour guiding, particularly in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) setting where guides and tourists often come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In such intercultural encounters, guides must balance cultural explanation, visitor engagement, rapport management, and mutual understanding. This study investigates how politeness is negotiated in guiding interactions at Surakarta Mangkunegaran Palace from a socio-pragmatic perspective. Data were collected through on-site audio recordings, field observations, and follow-up interviews with three professional guides. The findings reveal that guides employ a dynamic combination of politeness strategies, including hedging, softening, indirectness, humour, quiz-based engagement, and culturally grounded forms of Javanese politeness. These strategies enable guides to perform multiple roles as educators, entertainers, cultural mediators, and tour-flow managers while accommodating the needs of international visitors. The analysis further shows that politeness is interactionally co-constructed rather than realized through fixed linguistic formulas. The study contributes to politeness and intercultural pragmatics research by demonstrating how local Javanese values are recontextualized within ELF communication, producing hybrid forms of hospitality discourse. Practically, the findings highlight the importance of pragmatics-informed training for heritage tour guides working in intercultural environments.
OBSERVANCE AND NON-OBSERVANCE OF GRICEAN MAXIMS IN FAMILY DIALOGUE IN EUGENE O’NEILL’S LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Family communication in literary works often reflects hidden emotional conflict, denial, and psychological tension expressed through indirect language and implied meaning. Within literary pragmatics, discussions of Grice’s cooperative principle have mostly focused on films, advertisements, and educational discourse, while emotionally conflicted family dialogue in drama remains less explored, particularly in relation to both observance and non-observance of conversational maxims. This article examines how the characters in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night employ conversational strategies to maintain relationships, avoid confrontation, and express emotional suffering. The study is based on qualitative data collected from 21 selected dialogues in the drama script and analyzed interpretively using Grice’s cooperative principle as the main theoretical foundation. Cutting’s framework was used to elaborate the observance of Gricean maxims, while Nemesi’s classification was used to examine the forms of Gricean maxim non-observance. The findings reveal that the characters simultaneously observe and fail to observe conversational maxims in emotionally tense interactions. Observance of maxims is mainly used to maintain conversational continuity and emotional connection, while non-observance, particularly violation and exploitation, functions as a strategy for denial, sarcasm, emotional defense, and concealment of painful realities. These findings demonstrate that pragmatic strategies in dramatic dialogue closely reflect fractured family relationships and unresolved psychological trauma.
THE REPRESENTATION OF UNCLAIMED EXPERIENCE IN MURATA'S EARTHLINGS
This article explores the representation of trauma in Sayaka Murata's novel Earthlings through its protagonist, Natsuki, who experiences sexual abuse and domestic violence from childhood. This research aims to analyze how hidden traumatic experiences are represented within Cathy Caruth's framework of Unclaimed Experience. This research uses literary criticism methods to explain the trauma in the novel. The results show that Natsuki's trauma manifests in five main forms: dissociation, emotional numbness, sensory disturbances, unspeakability, and cognitive confusion. These findings indicate that traumatic experiences never fully claimed by consciousness continue to resurface in fragmented and unconscious ways, shaping the protagonist's inner world throughout the narrative.
CODE MIXING IN WEBTOON COMIC SOEKIRMAN: RAMADHAN DI KAMPUNG HALAMAN AS A FORM OF JAVANESE LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE
The increasing dominance of national and global languages has raised concerns about the maintenance of regional languages in multilingual societies. In response to these challenges, digital media have emerged as alternative spaces for preserving local linguistic identities. One such medium is Webtoon, a digital comic platform that enables the representation of regional languages within contemporary online communication. This study investigates code mixing in the Webtoon comic Soekirman: Ramadhan di Kampung Halaman and examines its role in maintaining the Javanese language in a digital environment. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, the study analyzed utterances containing code-mixing phenomena involving Javanese, Indonesian, and English. The data were collected through observation and documentation techniques. The data were analyzed based on the sociolinguistic concept of code mixing (Bokamba, 1988; Muysken, 2000), while the classification of code-mixing forms followed Suwito's (1996) framework developed for the Indonesian linguistic context. The interpretation of the findings was subsequently informed by Fishman's (1991) theory of language maintenance. The findings revealed 37 instances of code mixing categorized into seven forms: basic words, affixed words, compound words, phrases, basters, reduplication, and clauses. Among these categories, basic-word code mixing was the most dominant form. The findings further demonstrate that code mixing functions not only as a communicative strategy but also as a mechanism for preserving Javanese linguistic visibility, cultural identity, and local expressions within contemporary digital discourse. The study concludes that Webtoon serves as a new domain for language maintenance by facilitating the continued use and transmission of Javanese linguistic elements to wider audiences. These findings contribute to sociolinguistic discussions on multilingual communication, digital media, and regional language preservation in the digital era.