We are pleased to announce the publication of the tenth issue of Patchwork Student Journal. It is a conference edition, based on some of the ideas presented at Anglophonia, the International Student Conference in English Studies, in May of 2023. First, Mirko Šešlak’s paper observes Philip K. Dick’s Ubik through the lens of possible worlds theory, focusing on the concept of half-life, in order to see the work of science-fiction as an implicit commentary on the society it was produced in. Next, Matjaž Zgonc explores the phenomenon of past-tense spreading, in which the preterit form of verbs is used instead of the past participle. Although it is typically associated with sociolinguistic parameters such as class and region, the paper argues that the immediate linguistic context of each sentence is the deciding factor. Ayman Almomani’s work deals with the difficulties in translating Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, with a special emphasis on ideologically charged Newspeak terms and the linguistic and cultural differences that impacted both the work’s translations and its reception in Arabic speaking countries. Finally, in Marie Krebs’ paper, the third season of American Horror Story is read as a contemporary example of the Southern Gothic, including its moralistic function, which is visible in the racialization of voodoo in the series.
We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it.
The Editors