http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2783 Sat, 04 Apr 2026 02:45:35 GMT 2026-04-04T02:45:35Z http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2844 Investing in the Culture Industry to Enhance Economic Growth in West Africa Kah, Henry Kam This essay examines the role culture can play in effectively advancing economic growth in West Africa through the agency of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and the different national governments. Although a much contested terminology, culture remains an untapped area for economic growth partly due to the absence of commitment on the part of the leadership of West African countries and partly to their ignorance of the central role culture plays in innovation, technology, development and growth of regional and national economies. However if well harnessed, the rich cultural repertoire of this region of Africa can provide an impetus for economic expansion, employment and stability more than ever before in a region known more for its numerous conflicts in the past twenty years or so than for its economic growth. Sat, 01 Jan 0007 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2844 0007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2843 Residual Cultural Imperialism in Primary Textbooks in Bangladesh: a critique of the English for Today textbooks Jahan, Ms. Akhter It has been assumed that with the rising importance of English as a global language (Crystal, 1997) that 'the centre' (native English speaking countries) produced ELT materials have become tools, using which linguistic as well as cultural imperialism may take place in 'the periphery' (non-native English speaking countries) contexts marginalizing local needs and cultures (Phillipson 1992; Pennycook, 1994; Kumaravadivelu, 2003, 2006). Therefore, the authorial ownership of materials can be given to local experts who know about the culture, needs and realities of local communities (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Taking these issues into account, this paper aims to examine how far the locally produced textbooks, English for Today (Class 1-5), have been able to resist cultural imperialism at the primary level in Bangladesh. The analysis of the cultural contents of these textbooks reveals that though these locally produced materials have been able to resist cultural imperialism to some extent, they still have some limitations regarding the way exposure has been provided to the local as well as the target cultures. Sat, 01 Jan 0007 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2843 0007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2842 History as Aesthetics in the African Novel: a Reading of Kane's Ambiguous Adventure Afolayan, Sola African literature is as unique as the African people themselves. This is because, among other reasons, there is no way it can be interpreted outside the people and their past experiences. This is why it seems as if every African novel is a piece of history. Hyppolyte Taine, the father of historical determinism in literary criticism, has postulated that the best critical outfit which can evaluate the works of literature will first consider the history that is behind the author of the work, stressing that: It was perceived that a work of literature is not a mere play of imagination, a solitary caprice of a heated brain, but a transcript of contemporary manners, a type of a certain kind of mind. It was concluded that one might retrace from the moment of literature the style of man's feelings and thought for centuries back Sat, 01 Jan 0007 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2842 0007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2841 The Romance and Reconstruction of National Identity in The Shadow Lines Manzoor, Nazia What are some of the consequences of imagined nationalism in a post-colonial world, particularly at the sub-national level? In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson argues nationality is "imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson 6). Edward Said, too, writes about imagined geography in Orientalism where the Orient is a mere concoction, an imaginary space. While Anderson discusses nationalism, nationhood and nation-space (all the while blurring the line between the terms) in a broader sense, Said limits his discussion to the Orient. Inarguably, the people of a nation do share a bond, a closeness that they cannot deny. However, the question Anderson and Said prompt us to ask is how authentic is that imagined quality of an imagined geography/community? Sat, 01 Jan 0007 00:00:00 GMT http://dspace.ewubd.edu:8080/handle/2525/2841 0007-01-01T00:00:00Z