Autofiction and its fantastic modalities in César Aira’s Cómo me hice monja

This forum is occasioned by the publication of Vincent W. Lloyd’s Black Dignity, a provocative work of philosophy from a scholar whose intellectual efforts emerge from the intersections of race, religion, and politics. Lloyd develops the concept of Black dignity by placing the active struggle against domination at the center of his inquiry, specifically the struggle against anti-Blackness as a defining feature of life in the United States. This philosophical treatise will be of interest to scholars of rhetoric for the variety of reasons outlined in the reviews that follow.There is a dynamic of mutual exchange at work in these pages: scholars of rhetoric elucidate what our field can learn from a philosophical approach to the study of Black dignity and struggle, and they also show how these philosophical insights can be usefully extended. Karma R. Chávez attends to the material and sonic situation of her reading experience, addresses how Lloyd frames the question of domination and struggle, and invokes the work of the rhetoric scholar Josue David Cisneros. Coretta M. Pittman begins with a meditative approach that lingers on Lloyd’s conception of the ontic and the ontological. She then considers the ongoing work of struggle as the site of dignity, positing the convergence of Lloyd’s philosophical investigations and of rhetorical studies in the work of renewal—in finding fresh starts and inventing new paths. Tamika L. Carey closes this forum with advice about how to use fighting words, that is, how to use language in the cause of Black dignity: with precision, intentionality, wisdom, perspective, and a collaborative respect for different techniques of struggle. Positioning her line of thinking within a scholarly constellation shaped by Black feminist, womanist, and Black queer activist thought, she focuses on Lloyd’s conception of Black rage and its connections with rhetorical impatience.Together, these reviews take Lloyd’s work as a jumping-off point for thinking about the role rhetoric plays in the struggle that is Black dignity.T J Geiger IITexas Tech UniversityI settle into writing this while listening to blkbok’s Black Book. blkbok is a hip-hop artist and neoclassical pianist whose first album dropped in June 2021. While his name is a nod to Johann Sebastian Bach, his album is an homage to the Academy Award–winning film Green Book, about the Black pianist Don Shirley’s 1962 tour of the Deep South. The film’s title refers to The Negro Motorist Green-Book, a Jim Crow–era guide (first published in 1936) for Black road-trippers that let them know of friendly places to stop for gas, food, lodging, and the like. The Green Book was an attempt to ensure Black dignity; it was a small but meaningful tool in the struggle against anti-Blackness and domination. It was designed to enable Black folks’ unfettered mobility, whether for leisure or for work. blkbok’s music resonates with this effort. The fit and tattooed Black male artist’s music defies expectations, opens up new possibilities for Black living, and generates conversations. For example, the Black Book track “George Floyd and the Struggle for Equality” is as ragefully passionate as it is devastatingly haunting, and, while only one track among several, it is a reminder, as if one needed reminding, that the struggle is ongoing and that there are many ways to participate in it. Further, as Vincent Lloyd insists, through the many iterations of the struggle for Black lives, dignity is both named and found.Black Dignity is a remarkable work of philosophy. It is written from the vantage point of the radical Black tradition, but Lloyd intervenes in that tradition, often gently identifying its shortcomings and recentering it in Black feminisms. This turn is inherent and overt in his work as he theorizes from within the contours of contemporary Black political movements, the contemporary iteration of which is decidedly Black feminist and queer. Lloyd identifies Black dignity as “the broader philosophical project implicit” in those movements (6). He says simply: “[D]ignity means struggle against domination” (8). Here, he is careful to differentiate between dignity as some achievable status and dignity as “performance, activity” (9). Particularly, he is interested in collective activity. He also cautions his readers to be careful of the seduction of the ontic, the real and object oriented. Instead, he contends that “only ontological struggle, struggle aimed at domination, struggle against the master,” promises true freedom (10).Some contemporary theorizing about Black struggle deploys several catchwords designed to describe the predicament of Black people in the United States, and these words may include oppression, marginalization, suffering, and exploitation. Lloyd convincingly argues that these all miss the mark as they keep us from engaging in the primal relationship of domination, the relationship between master and slave. “Domination is defined by a capacity to act rather than by specific acts,” acts that may result in oppression, marginalization, suffering, or exploitation (10). In other words, when we begin with thinking about domination, we are able to reside in the realm of the ontological, the site of true freedom. Centering attention on the particular results of domination locates us in the ontic, and, from that standpoint, we can never understand the conditions that enable and sustain domination in their wholeness. It is worth noting—perhaps especially for some readers who might think primarily through and with vectors of power that are not Black—that Lloyd does not center Blackness because of some allergy to multiculturalism or from a refusal to accept that other kinds of domination matter. Blackness must be central because it is domination’s “chief paradigm” and, thereby, the best lens through which to understand domination and, more importantly, resist it (27).In laying out his case for the framework of Black dignity, Lloyd asks his readers to accept a difficult truth if we are to believe in what he is offering: “[T]he object of ontological struggle is, by definition, impossible to achieve.” Yet he is not on the side of pessimists, Afro- or otherwise. He goes on: “In the process of struggle, freedom can be dreamed, and such dreams call into question the absolute control of the master—motivating more struggle” (11).I rehearse Lloyd’s central thesis at length because I am persuaded by it, and I want readers of this journal—particularly those who, like me, have invested their lives in the study and practice of struggle—to be persuaded by it, too. His clarity about the conditions we face is born from decades of struggle against and study of domination. And, more than any book I have read recently, his offers us a lens through which to confront the conditions we face. He supplies for us a template for engaging in struggle, an invitation to participate in Black dignity, regardless of the identities we may, ourselves, possess.For scholars of rhetoric, Lloyd’s work resonates with that of Josue David Cisneros, who argues that the study of rhetoric “should be governed by a commitment to such an abolitionist telos” (2021, 95). Like Cisneros, Lloyd is indebted to abolitionist frameworks for his understanding of what the struggle against domination entails. While many reformers dismiss abolitionism as utopian, without a telos centered on the end of domination, reform will only strengthen the conditions of domination. Moreover, Lloyd notes an important role for those who study rhetoric in the project of Black dignity. He writes that philosophy and rhetoric take on a joint task “to narrate connections between primal scenes of domination and domination manifesting in the world”: “This requires telling stories in worldly terms, using words and images that will move readers to join the struggle. Domination tells its own stories that conceal and naturalize it. The task of the philosopher-rhetorician is to out-narrate domination” (163). Readers of this journal might cringe at the reduction of rhetoric to narrative, at the implication that philosophers do the work of thinking, and the fact that rhetoric is presented here as narrative practice. This might be especially hard to swallow given rhetoric’s vexed relationship with philosophy, often positioned as its mere handmaiden.However, if we read Lloyd alongside Cisneros, we can see that the role for scholars of rhetoric is more substantive. If a commitment to an abolitionist telos requires attending to the bordering practices at every stage of the work—from how we understand our object of study to who does and does not inform our thinking—then placing Black dignity at the center of our thinking provides the best possible lens for interpreting such practices. In other words, whatever the form of the intellectual labor, it is incumbent on us to make our scholarly practice part of the struggle against domination. It is necessary that we keep central the primal scene of domination, that we attend to the way in which the rhetorical practices that we perform and those that we critique are struggling against or participating in domination. From here, we begin to participate in the end of the world; we are part of the project of Black dignity.Karma R. ChávezUniversity of Texas at AustinVincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity sets out to examine the ways in which the Black Lives Matter movement’s founders, members, and youth activists reimagine Black dignity in the twenty-first century. Lloyd is quick to point out, however, that the struggle for Black dignity has long been a focal point for Black activists looking to help Black people gain control over their bodies and minds. From Frederick Douglass’s fight with Edward Covey to Martin Luther King Jr.’s active participation in the Montgomery bus boycott, the struggle for liberation and the fight against domination is, Lloyd suggests, Black dignity.Black dignity is an outgrowth of the struggle against domination, yet struggle must also yield other noteworthy ends. In short, Lloyd proposes that there are different kinds of struggles and different ends to be achieved from struggle. The ontic struggle yields a kind of quasi freedom, and the ontological struggle yields full freedom. Ontic struggle, according to Lloyd, means that one struggles against domination to acquire a specific object. The struggle to obtain the object could be the completion of a personal goal. To struggle ontically means that one’s struggle to obtain the specific object is determined by what those in power name as a valuable object. Simply put, Lloyd says: “Each object in our world, where our perception and action are shaped by interlocking systems of domination, is constituted by those regimes of domination” (10). In an ontic struggle, then, Black people’s struggle for liberation is directed by visible and invisible systems of domination, and that struggle may be successful but only insofar as one’s gains are momentary. In other words, Black people can struggle and sometimes win against a materialist domination that leaves them mired in quests for objects that result in personal gratification but not full freedom.Ontological struggle, on the other hand, is a struggle against “domination” itself (10). Lloyd describes the ontological struggle as one focused directly on challenging the oppressive conditions that keep one in bondage. He refers here to the master/slave relationship, which has contemporary corollaries. The slave struggles “against the master” not to acquire the master’s material goods but to demand full freedom (10). The freed person in an ontological struggle both in the past and contemporaneously recognizes that freedom is both an expressive and a physical condition and that the outcome of both is Black dignity.While Lloyd recognizes that the struggle for freedom as both an ontic exercise and an ontological exercise is Black dignity, he is quick to note that an ontological struggle against systems of domination is nearly “impossible to achieve” (11). Returning to the master/slave paradigm as the framework within which to understand how domination functions, he argues that, once the enslaved person dismantles one system of domination, another one replaces it. From enslaved person to emancipated person to quasi citizen to citizen, the systems of domination are arranged in such a way that the “symbols are impermanent” (12). This does not mean, however, that struggle against domination should not persist. The ontological struggle must be constant, particularly for the full liberation of Black people. Lloyd notes, however, that there are so many other forms of domination, including but not limited to “colonial, . . . patriarch[al], and capitali[st]” (14), but points out that anti-Black racism is by far the most acute form of domination and that it is also part of “interlocking systems of oppression” (14–15).How Black people access and acquire Black dignity in the face of domination is complicated by Lloyd’s belief that full freedom from domination is not completely obtainable, but there are theoretical and practical ways to work toward the aims of the ontological struggle. Black philosophy is one such way, and the Black Lives Matter movement’s founders and members provide the language to challenge ongoing systems of domination. Put succinctly: “They articulate a philosophy, a set of ideas about how the world is. This philosophy flows from the claim to Black dignity” (22). To be fair, there are, according to Lloyd, Black American predecessors who have been radical activists calling for the full liberation of Black people, such as Audre Lorde and bell hooks (there are also others unnamed in his book). Nonetheless, in a world where respectability politics is no longer the preeminent philosophy and strategy for contemporary young people and young adult movement leaders, particularly those in the Black Lives Matter movement, their movement strategies are, Lloyd suggests, constitutive rather than reductive. The opening up of the space for difference and an embrace of otherness missing in respectability politics leads Lloyd to argue that the Black philosophy that emerges from the Black Lives Matter platform is a way out of the master narrative and into multiplicity and Black dignity.If one imagines Lloyd’s Black Dignity as a twelve-inch ruler, the kind that secondary school teachers require for the purposes of math work and craft projects, then one might imagine his book as two halves of that twelve-inch ruler. The two halves proffer two kinds of reflection. The first half of the ruler, the theoretical half, explains how the struggle for true liberation in the face of domination is Black dignity. This, in turn, transforms into a philosophy of Black dignity. The second half of the ruler, that is, the second half of the book, outlines the specific structure of Black dignity as a philosophy that is outlined as follows: “Black rage, Black love, Black family, Black futures, Black magic” (21). There, the ontological struggle for full freedom is outlined in a series of chapters that explain how Black philosophy is theorized and practiced. For my purposes here, I focus on the first half of the ruler to propose why Lloyd’s book could prove helpful to rhetoric scholars interested in building on his work and/or supporting established claims that anti-Black racism continues to have real impacts in the lives of American citizens.Although Lloyd acknowledges that there are several kinds of domination at play globally (14), he argues passionately that anti-Blackness is the “preeminent mode of domination” and that “the preeminent struggle is the Black struggle” (32). The last three years—which have included a global pandemic, the high-profile murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor at the hands of White male vigilantes and White policemen, the summer of racial reckoning, and the ongoing anti-Blackness backlash as one result of the summer of racial reckoning—need continuing intellectual exploration from scholars invested in exposing rhetorics of hate, violence, and rage while also examining rhetorics of dignity, love, futures, and joy.If one is to believe that American democracy is currently teetering on the edge of oblivion, then Lloyd’s ideas about the philosophy of Black dignity remind all that domination is an ongoing enterprise and that the struggle against domination must also be ongoing. This means that scholarly efforts should consistently investigate language use suggesting that a danger point is not really dangerous but merely an inconvenience and show how such language use is indeed dangerous after all. Lloyd recognizes the danger of such obfuscating language use. At one point he suggests: “We come to recognize the ruses of domination, how it makes the bad appear good and the ugly appear beautiful” (31). This was one of Plato’s warnings about rhetoric in the Gorgias. The sophists would teach their students to manipulate language for personal gain, thereby helping them achieve an advantage over and above the good of the people. The counterpoint to Plato’s critique of rhetoric in modern times is the idea of renewal. Scholars of rhetoric have a chance actively to participate in acts of renewal, and Lloyd’s book offers both prescriptive and descriptive ways for scholarly work to build on his theoretical and practical road maps.Lloyd encourages everyone—but particularly Black public intellectuals—to reflect on what they do in their lives as writers and thinkers, on what renewal strategies they might use to get beyond the mundane in their scholarship, and to be true advocates and activists fighting against domination. Scholars have access to resources, particularly human resources—community activists, students, and each other. He suggests directly that scholarship needs to be conducted with the struggle for full freedom in mind and not so much focused on personal outcomes. He knows this is risky business but maintains: “With struggle comes a kind of flourishing that we can never achieve simply by inhabiting a culture well” (155). In the midst of that struggle is Black dignity and the chance for full freedom.Coretta M. PittmanBaylor UniversityThe lay terminologies I use to explain rhetoric to the folk I encounter in my everyday life probably seem rough by academic standards. In no way devoid of intellectual sophistication, these words and phrases simply rely on a form of Black cultural wisdom that is, at best, intuitive and perhaps even passed down among us through the generations. At the base of this pool of wisdom is our shared assumption that our words have weight. Our languages and voices matter. We can spin our words with sophistication, beauty, and joy. When need arises, we can contour our words to build community or to wield as weapons for battle. Our assumption reveals an adherence to the belief that both death and life reside in the “power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21). To have the quality of life we deserve, we will have to fight.What can operate to counter this intuitive cultural system is a demand for authenticity and clarity among female Black intellectuals and womanists at the level of language. The charge is to practice, decipher, and require ethical communication. It is a traceable legacy. In the late nineteenth century, Ida B. Wells’s writing ethic mandated that she and others call lynching “by its true name” (Royster 1995). The processes of “coming to voice” or “speaking truth to power” that Patricia Hill Collins (1998, 2012) and others have deemed necessary to resisting oppression carry an expectation of praxis. When the time comes, you must speak boldly and truthfully, particularly in the face of threat. These standards are not only for times of conflict. I can still hear my late grandmother’s admonishment, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” But today it sounds more like a lesson about the importance of integrity regardless of my circumstance. To fight with words requires precision.Vincent Lloyd’s Black Dignity rests precisely in the spaces between intuition and and and praxis. 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The and of these are To fight is to respect for a that can a yet whether Lloyd’s book will be in one of those on the of rhetorical studies such as the but I believe that it should Black Dignity does not to teach us how to in freedom or liberation work at the level of with its of contemporary it still to on of L. of

ABSTRACTAgeing Australian farmers face many uncertainties associated with wider social, economic and climate change. Significantly for many farmers, ageing means the end not only of a life-long occupation but the end of the farm that has often been in the family for many generations. In turn, the prospect of this discontinuity breaches long-held cultural images of Australian farming and farmers. For individual male farmers approaching retirement age, the lack of succession and discontinuation of the family's ownership of, and attachment to the land, poses threats for social and personal identity. This paper examines the narratives of three male, baby-boom Australian farmers to tease out the impact of ageing and the possible loss of the family farm on the ways that they construct their situations and their self-identity. It illustrates the narrative practices that these men employ as they work to validate their self-identities within particular narrative environments, and through a range of outmoded and contemporary material conditions that mediate their selves and lives. The approach exemplified in this paper focuses on the processes and phases of analysis to show how the farmers craft their narrative as well as the individuality, complexity and coherence of their accounts.

Narrative inquiry provides an opportunity to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning, and personal identity at the center of research, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, dialogic, and interpretive methodologies, and drawing attention to the need to focus not only on the actual but also on the possible and the good. In this chapter, we focus on the intellectual, existential, empirical, and pragmatic development of the turn toward narrative. We trace the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences. The chapter synthesizes the changing methodological orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry as well as their ethical commitments. In the second half of the chapter, our focus shifts to the divergent standpoints of small-story and big-story researchers; the differences between narrative analysis and narratives under analysis; and narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the life course. We anticipate that narrative inquiry will continue to situate itself within an intermediate zone between art and science, healing and research, self and others, subjectivity and objectivity, and theories and stories.

1. Self-narratives: true and false Ulric Neisser 2. Literary and psychological models of the self Daniel Albright 3. The remembered self Jerome Bruner 4. Composing protoselves through improvisation Craig R. Barclay 5. Mind, text and society: self-memory in social context Kenneth J. Gergen 6. Personal identity and autobiographical recall Greg J. Niemeyer and April E. Metzler 7. Constructing narrative, emotion, and self in parent-child conversations about the past Robyn Fivush 8. Narrative practices: their role in socialization and self-construction Peggy J. Miller 9. Emotionality and narrative in the emergence of the self-concept Rebecca A. Eder 10. Is memory self-serving? Wilem A. Wagenaar 11. Creative remembering Michael Ross and Roger Buehler 12. The remembered self and the enacted self Alan Baddeley 13. The authenticity and utility of memories Eugene Winograd 14. The remembered self in amnesics William Hirst 15. Perception is to self as memory is to selves Edward S. Reed.

The Signs of Safety approach to child protection has been gaining prominence around the world and this approach has developed through learning from good practice. Generally, examples of good practice are derived from adults who pose a risk to children, while this paper outlines an example of good practice that engages an adolescent in building a safety plan. It addresses the balance needed to be struck between the complex nature of addressing concerns and developing a rigorous safety plan while not shaming the young person and creating resistance or avoidance. This paper therefore sets out how the Signs of Safety approach can be synthesised with narrative practice to create an effective approach in working with young people. Using the externalising process along with re-membering conversations, positive alternative stories can be created about the young person's identity that support desistance and promote engagement with the authorities. A case example is used to demonstrate this synthesis where a young person has displayed harmful sexual behaviour towards a child. Consideration is given as to how this approach reduces shame-inducing practice often associated with statutory child protection processes. It concludes with the potential for such an approach to be applied more widely to working with young people.

Identity transformation from teacher to teacher educator is problematic as an ‘expert become novice’. The need for professional development for neophyte teacher educators is accepted. The focus of such professional learning has been on the development of an academic identity and engaging in research; the transition in identity is assumed to follow. This study used an adapted form of Professional Life History which is shown to support their ‘identification’ with the new role. Analysis showed a process of identification within the context of the focused story-telling. The study demonstrates that specific narrative practices can be utilised to support neophyte teacher educators in developing their personal and professional identity as a teacher educator.

Nell'ambito del progetto SUPER, l'Unità di Trieste, in linea con l'obiettivo generale di "strutturare un sistema di orientamento al lavoro e tutorato", ha sviluppato e realizzato un Personal Development Plan – Piano di Sviluppo Individuale (PDP), uno strumento-processo di accompagnamento rivolto agli studenti del corso di studio in Scienze dell'educazione (L-19) per la progettazione, il monitoraggio e la valutazione dei propri percorsi di sviluppo professionale attraverso l'utilizzo in contesto di pratiche narrativo-riflessive. Il PDP si configura quale misura di accompagnamento e orientamento narrativo per gli studenti in un momento di definizione della propria identità personale e professionale secondo il paradigma dell'Emerging Adulthood; risponde altresì alla necessità di promuovere il loro successo universitario e professionale e di sostenerli nel processo di prefigurazione e costruzione di una professionalità "riflessiva".Dal punto di vista tecnico, il PDP è sostenuto dal software Mahara per consentire la realizzazione di uno strumento-processo paperless, condivisibile (con tutor di tirocinio, tutor aziendali e altri studenti), capace di supportare diverse forme di prove autentiche (filmati, foto, progetti, …) relative alla traduzione in contesto dello sviluppo di abilità e competenze chiave che caratterizzano il profilo professionale dell'educatore socio-pedagogico e che funga – altresì – anche da repository delle proprie buone pratiche professionali.

Editorial:<scp>Narrative‐Based</scp>Approaches in Psychological Research and Practice

The article examines the processes of formation, transformation, and expression of ethnic identity among contemporary Kazakhstani youth under conditions of cultural globalization and identifies the key external and internal factors that support its preservation and development. The research is grounded in a narrative approach to ethnic identity, wherein any phenomenon is conceptualized as “a story of …,” an account (not necessarily phenomenological) of a sequence of events that presupposes a particular mode of interpretation. The study finds that youth in Kazakhstan’s regional areas tend to adhere to a traditionalist model of ethnic identity with a strong emphasis on language as a primary marker whereas urban youth regard ethnic identity merely as one facet of personal identity, freely self-constructed through narrative practices. The principal conclusion is that the specificity of Kazakhstani youth ethnic identity manifests as a complex and ambiguous configuration, characterized by an underlying tension between traditionalist and modernist orientations. The practical significance of this research lies in its potential to inform the integration of case studies and project-based assignments into social studies and humanities curricula, thereby facilitating critical engagement with ethnic identity and its transformation under the influence of global trends.

Diagnosis of Munchausen's Syndrome by an Electronic Health Record Search

This chapter focuses on the intellectual, philosophical, empirical, and pragmatic development of the turn toward narrative, tracing the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences. Narrative inquiry seeks to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning and personal identity at the center, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, and interpretive methodologies and drawing attention not only on the actual but also to the possible and the good. The chapter synthesizes the changing methodological and ethical orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry; explores the divergent standpoints of small- story and big- story researchers, draws attention to the differences between narrative analysis and narratives-under-analysis; and reveals narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the course of life.

This qualitative research explored the experience of eight Early Childhood Education (ECE) leaders invited to engage in telling their leader stories. Leader stories refers to the narrative descriptions that leaders provide about themselves, their leadership, and their leadership practices. This research engaged leaders in the consideration of several questions. These questions were: 1) How do ECE leaders describe their identities across domains of identity (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation)? 2) How do ECE leaders understand and articulate the role of their personal identities in their leadership? 3) How do ECE leaders seek to understand the needs of children in their care and the impact of practices and policies on diverse learners? and 4) What impact do the narrative practices of self-inquiry, critical reflection, and dialogue have on an ECE directors' understanding of themselves as leaders who can be more responsive to the needs of diverse learners, e.g., lead towards social justice? Interconnectedness of the findings demonstrates that ECE leaders' stories of who they are, why they lead, how they serve children, and how they engage in work with social justice are tied to one another. The lived experiences and identities of leaders both in and outside of their leadership roles directly impacts their leadership and those they lead and serve. Engagement with reflection and inquiry is also embedded in their stories, suggesting that these leaders bring an openness to not just leading but to understanding how their leadership impacts their vision(s) to serve children. The findings suggest that tools that help leaders to see their own leadership and the interconnectivity of their identities might be useful in their practices. Several concrete applications of these findings are worth noting. The bridge between Capper's (2019) identity development model for leaders of social justice, Bronfenbrenner's (2005) model for child development, and Furman's (2012) outline of social justice leadership praxis is worth exploring more deeply. Inviting leaders to discover these interconnectivities may provide them a meaningful opportunity to expand their practices, deepen their awareness of the power of what they already do, and help newer leaders more explicitly own some of the ways they might understand and capitalize on these connections.

Living and selling a dream: Lifestyle entrepreneurship in the intersection between family, market and political rhetoricThe article focuses on lifestyle entrepreneurship, characterised by a balancing work between personal lifestyle motives and economic motives. It builds on a qualitative study of business owners who have realized a life dream of starting a countryside business in the tourism and hospitality industry in Sweden. Through the notion of ”balancing work”, the analysis focuses on the tension between a personal life sphere and a market. In particular, the analysis highlights how the notion of ”the life dream” emerges as a narrative practice of self-realization, simultaneously as it is offered as an experience product. The analysis demonstrates how the entrepreneurs balance between personal stories of togetherness and marketing practices, between images of right and wrong commodification, and between constraining working conditions and a popular image of the successful entrepreneur, reinforced by a political discourse on rural entrepreneurship. It is concluded that balancing work between personal identities and economic practices is a practice of valuation, offering new insights into working conditions and markets situated in the intersection between markets and personal life spheres.

The purpose of the article is to determine specifics of historical, detective, and other retro-genres and their functioning in contemporary literature. The methodology of the work is built on interdisciplinary integration of leading methods of the contemporary Cultural studies, philosophy, and study of art. The culturological hermeneutics is a dominant polymethodological approach. The history-cultural method gives an opportunity to trace genetic links and tendencies of transformations of genres. The comparative analysis allows to distinguish typologically similar elements in different genres and to differentiate various forms that can be convergently alike. The scientific novelty of the work lies in clarification of the correlation of historical, detective, and fantastic genres, defining their specifics in artistic interpretation of history; the term "retro-genres " is introduced. Conclusions. The historical detective and other retro-genres enjoy considerable popularity, as they complement the attractions of the detective with its intrigue, with the possibility of escapist immersion in another epoch, and propose the satisfaction of curiosity as to the past of a city, country and world. There is a positive factor of the possibility of deeper and more emotional cognition of human inheritance, personal and national identity in the globalized world. The contemporary historical detective helps to get not just the general impression, but also solid facts about history, topography and "cultural soul" of city and country. For authors one of the most attractive periods is the second half of ХІХ – beginning of ХХ ct. One of the reasons is that the Neoromantics founded the canons of genres that stay popular to this day, and crated the mythologized image of city. Many of these tendencies are characteristic for the world cultural process, still, there are national trends linked both to the specific historical-cultural context and to the national mentality. For instance, in Ukrainian historical detective there is a noticeable tendency to the in-depth research of momentous historical processes in the times of bifurcation. Sometimes there are ironical rethinking of the past in a post-colonial spirit. Now this genre is flourishing, and its incessant transformations deserve further research. Key words: cultural studies, detective/mystery, historical detective, retro, artistic interpretation.

To report on the development of a framework of narrative practice, in residential care settings for older people. Residential care settings for older people provide care for people who are no longer able to live in their own home. To date, the impact and structure of nursing practice on care provision in these settings has proved difficult to conceptualise within a specific nursing theory framework. A hermeneutic approach incorporating narrative methods was used. Forty-six narrative interviews with older people in residential care were secondary-analysed for key themes through a three-stage process: by the first author, four focus groups of 12 clinical nurse managers and two independent experts. Themes were also derived from a focus group of eight residents who explored person-centredness and narrative. Finally, the combined findings were used to derive a single set of themes. The secondary data analysis process led to the development of a framework of narrative practice for the care of older people in residential settings. The framework is influenced by narrative enquiry, person-centred practice and practice development. It has four pillars, prerequisites, care processes, care environment and narrative aspects of care. To operationalise the framework of narrative practice, three narrative elements, narrative knowing, narrative being and narrative doing, need to be considered. Working with the foundational pillars and the narrative elements would enable staff to 'work in a storied way' and provide person-centred outcomes and a narrative informed philosophy of care for older adults in residential care. This framework provides nurses with a template that confirms the identity of the older person taking account of their biography. The framework outlines an approach that provides staff with a template on how to provide person-centred care in a narrative way.