The Shawshank Experience

Abstract

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“My Shawshank Redemption”: A Self-Narrative Inquiry of an EFL Academic’s Emotions and Identities on Research Journey

“…As EFL academics adapt to the contemporary higher education system, they may transform institutionally defined academic work into their daily professional practices, resulting in institutionalized emotion in research practice (Huang & Guo, 2019). Because institutionalization is a recurring theme in the movie The Shawshank Redemption (Grady & Magistrale, 2016;Hooke, 2020;Peng, 2020), an analogy of the movie may provide a fresh perspective on the development of EFL academics' institutionalized emotion in research practice. Given that teacher emotions are complex within a sociocultural context (Gkonou & Miller, 2021), and that self-narrative research can provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of teachers' practices (Mirhosseini, 2018), this study takes a self-narrative approach with the goal of shedding light on academics' professional development in Chinese higher education by closely examining an EFL academic's emotional trajectories with professional identity shifts in a changing context.…”

The Avengers and the PLA Wolf Warrior: Popular Narratives and Major Power Competition

“…The issue of redemption—as a form of closure—is also a crucial aspect of the United States’ political worldview, not least because of the need to win votes by means of generating a sense of well-being and happiness among the American polity. Indeed, the notion of personal redemption is—in the author’s view—one of the most salient themes in all of America’s film culture, as evidenced by the popularity of the film The Shawshank Redemption , a movie which traces the story of two imprisoned men whose lives and friendship with one another allow both to obtain redemption amidst the harsh conditions of prison [ 13 ]. As observed by Shulman, race and redemption represent constant themes in American political thought, in which ancient biblical prophecy is used to interpret and frame issues of contemporary American politics, including the idea of American exceptionalism: For the idea of a chosen people and “redeemer nation”, called to redeem all humanity from despotism and immorality, resonates even avowedly secular citizens.…”