Literary Druid
A Peer-Reviewed International Journal of English Language and Literature
Volume- 8, Issue- 3, July-2026
1. Constructing and Weaponising Gender: Masculinity, Femininity and Psychological Manipulation in American Psycho and Gone Girl
Mrs. K. P. Jeba Kapal, Research Scholar (Part-Time) Reg. No.: MKU23PFOL11138, PG & Research Centre in English, The Madura College (Autonomous), Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
Dr. A. Chandra Bose, Associate Professor, PG & Research Centre in English, The Madura College (Autonomous), Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
Abstract
Gender in contemporary American literature and cinema is seen as an identity class and an antisocial social performance through which energy, status, vulnerability, and management are negotiated. This paper examines how Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) and Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (2012) construct and weaponise masculinity and femininity in the novels. Although the texts differ in genre, setting and narrative method, both thriller novels reveal the psychological consequences of inflexible gender expectations. This demonstrates how gendered performances can become instruments of identity manipulation. Patrick Bateman embodies an excessive form of consumerist and competitive masculinity wherein wealth, body appearance, sexual entitlement, professional reputation and emotional detachment are transformed into signs of masculine authority. Amy Dunne, through comparison, develops and strategically deploys culturally recognisable sorts of femininity, mainly the idealised ‘cool girl’ persona, domestic perfection, emotional vulnerability, and victimhood. The analysis uses a qualitative comparative technique that combines feminist literary criticism, gender performativity, masculinity studies, psychoanalytic methods of identity, and theories of energy and illustration. The analysis argues that both works portray gender as constructed rather than fixed, while also showing that social expectations can be manipulated from within. The thriller “American Psycho” depicts a masculinist culture in which identification will become inseparable from consumption, opposition and domination. At the same time, “Gone Girl” interrogates the expectations imposed on women and the strategic possibilities those expectations create in life. The comparison portrays that psychological manipulation in the works is inseparable from the gender oriented overall performance. Bateman’s masculine character produces invisibility, while Amy’s feminine character generates social credibility and interpretive power. Nevertheless, the texts reveal the instability of gender stereotypes and the traumatic effectiveness of weaponised identity.
Keywords: Gender Creation, Psychological Manipulation, American Psycho, Gone Girl, Patriarchy, Identity Crisis, Power, Feminist Complaint.
2. The Effectiveness of Voiceprints in Criminal Investigations
and their Role in Achieving Justice
Dr. Kamal Amamra, Hassiba Benbouali University of Chlef, Chlef, Algeria.
Abstract
Forensic linguistics is a relatively young scientific field characterized by a proliferation of terminology and a broad range of concepts. It seeks to analyse spoken texts scientifically within the context of criminal justice, relying on rigorous, systematic analysis of texts and discourse to extract verifiable linguistic indicators that support the judiciary and law-enforcement agencies in cases where language plays a central role. This field also studies the linguistic fingerprint, drawing on methods inspired by text linguistics and discourse analysis. The voiceprint is a modern technique used in criminal and security investigations. It relies on analysing the unique characteristics of the human voice to establish identity. As technology advances, this technique has become an effective tool for detecting crimes and identifying perpetrators, thereby contributing to justice. This paper examines the effectiveness of the voiceprint and its role in criminal evidence, focusing on practical applications and the legal and scientific challenges, to uncover the linguistic evidence that helps establish or refute a defendant's guilt.
Keywords: Voiceprint, Forensic Linguistics, Judicial Linguistics, Criminal Investigations.
3. Religion, Kingship, and Political Power in Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq
Dr. Rekha Tiwari, Professor, Department of English, Techno NJR Institute of Technology,
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Abstract
Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq (1964) is a historical drama that uses the fourteenth-century reign of Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq to interrogate the complex relationship between religion, kingship, political authority and social justice. Even the protagonist initially appears as an enlightened and visionary ruler committed to equality, administrative reform, Hindu-Muslim harmony, rational governance, political expediency, violence and authoritarianism gradually compromise his idealism at the end. So, this paper examines the real tension between religious authority and royal power in the play of Karnad by focusing on prayer, political manipulation, the abolition of jizya, the relocation of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, the treatment of religious leaders and the Sultan’s eventual psychological and political disintegration in the end of the play. The study also considers the historical and postcolonial dimensions of Karnad’s dramatic reconstruction of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. By placing a medieval Muslim ruler within the political imagination of post-independence India, Karnad creates a dialogue between past and present, particularly around secularism, communal identity and the failure of idealistic political leadership. Nevertheless, the paper argues that Tughlaq ultimately exposes the dangers of letting religious legitimacy and political power become tools of mutual manipulation..
Keywords: Girish Karnad, Tughlaq, Political Power, Secularism, Hindu-Muslim Relations, Historical Drama, Idealism, Political Authority.
4. Existential Dimensions of Apocalypse: An Existentialist Analysis of Jack Hunt's Agora Virus Tetralogy
Dr. G. S. Vimal Gnanamani, Research Scholar, Department of English, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankovil, Tamil Nadu, India.
Dr. C. Jothi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankovil, Tamil Nadu, India.
Abstract
Literary criticism has been slow to take popular pandemic fiction seriously as a vehicle for existentialist thought. This article addresses that gap through a close reading of Jack Hunt's four-book Agora Virus series: Phobia (2017), Anxiety (2017), Strain (2017), and Unstable (2018). The study draws on Sartre's account of freedom and bad faith, Camus's notion of the absurd, and Heidegger's being-toward-death for the analysis to trace ex-Marine Frank Talbot's movement from a life narrowed by agoraphobia toward something closer to authentic engagement with the people around him. At the centre of the argument is a dark ironic reversal. Talbot's fear of germs, which has already cost him his marriage and strained his bond with his daughter Ella, proves justified when the H9N3 virus makes the world as dangerous as he always feared. Such vindication brings him no comfort and the survival instead forces him into precisely the relationships his condition was meant to keep him from. The three main interpretive ideals structure the argument of the paper. Talbot's move out of isolation follows Heidegger's claim that confronting one's finitude loosens the anonymous crowd's grip. The impossible decision forced on the survivors - whom to save, whether to kill, and how far an obligation can be stretched to stage Sartrean responsibility under the harshest conditions imaginable. The community that forms around Talbot enacts something close to Camus's revolt on the meaning without any guarantee it will be rewarded. Nevertheless, Hunt's tetralogy belongs within the wider post-COVID reassessment of pandemic writing as a serious philosophical resource and the case extends further still as a genre fiction of this kind can deliver existentialist thought to readers who would never pick up Sartre or Heidegger directly.
Keywords: Existentialism, Literary Criticism, Pandemic Fiction, Popular Fiction, Philosophy.
5. From Terminology to Terminocriticism: Conceptual and Methodological Perspectives on Arabic Linguistic Discourse
Professor Youcef MOKRANE, Laboratory of Cultural, Didactic, and Learning Practices in Algeria,
University of Tipaza, Algeria.
Professor Nacira ALLEK, Laboratory of Cultural, Didactic, and Learning Practices in Algeria, University of Tipaza, Algeria.
Abstract
This article examines the shift from traditional terminology to terminocriticism, an epistemological approach that investigates how language constructs scientific knowledge. It argues that terminology is not merely a neutral labelling system but a dynamic process that shapes and transforms concepts in specialised discourse. Focusing on Arabic linguistics, the study highlights how inherited traditions, translated theories, and terminological proliferation have contributed to conceptual instability. Drawing on socioterminology, discourse analysis, and computational linguistics, it emphasises variation, context, and the cultural dimensions of terminology. The article concludes that critically analysing terminological practices is essential to strengthening conceptual clarity, scientific rigour, and effective knowledge transfer.
Keywords: Terminocriticism, Terminology Studies, Arabic Linguistics, Metalanguage, Socioterminology.