Narrative Categories Research Articles

В поисках чудесного: категория чудо в теориях мифологии XX в.

The paper deals with the intellectual history of comprehension of the miracle as the most important category of mythological narrative. We take A. F. Losev’s «Dialectics of Myth» as a starting point, where the appeal to the category of «miracle» was meant to emphasize the personal dimension of myth. Similar ideas are revealed in the works of 20th century European scholars. In the focus of attention first of all the theories of mythology of the authors, which in different degree were under the influence of C.-G. Jung’s concept of collective unconscious. In the report «About the synchronicity» he also made an attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of the miraculous through its belonging to personal experience, namely the individual or collective unconscious. C.-H. Jung has predetermined the direction of research of many scientists, both sharing his ideas, and polemicizing with him. The desire to comprehend mythological patterns in their connection with human intellectual activity united researchers who belonged to very different directions: they were anthropologists, structuralists, researchers of architectonics of the imaginary and philosophers, traditionalists.

Historia lokalna w dobie antropocenu. Geopaleontologiczna narracja Domu ojców Andrzeja Muszyńskiego

The article discusses Andrzej Muszyński’s autobiographical book Dom ojców [House of Fathers] in the context of geological turn. In the first part, the author maps the centro-peripheral conditions of the Olkusz land. In the second part, using methods of environmental history, the author shows how, in the era of the Anthropocene and global challenges related to polycrisis, to establish a relationship with the local community. The article discusses how, by transcending the historical conditions of plebeianism, the writer finds a non-antagonistic identity and a positive relationship with his rural heritage. Muszyński reaches into deep time, into the vertical scale, to find the foundation of identity in prehistory. He finds support in a sense of connection with species of humans living on the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland since the Pleistocene, as well as with other organic and mineral actors of the Upland. The author introduces the category of the Anthropocene narrative of the Jurassic. She also utilizes the concept of geontology.

Pathways to community leadership: Transitions, turning points, and generational continuity

Community engagement has a range of positive individual and societal implications. Gaps remain, however, in understanding the events, relationships, and contexts that set some on a path toward community leadership while many others remain less engaged. This article distills insights from qualitative analysis of 52 in-depth interviews with community leaders from around the United States. We examine the experiences that community leaders perceive to be most influential to their development, identifying three distinct developmental pathways among community leaders: early socialization experiences, gradual life transitions, and catalytic turning points. Analysis of these three categories of narratives suggests strategies to support community leadership development among individuals with different types of initiating experiences.

We-Narratives: Collective Storytelling in Contemporary Fiction

We-Narratives: Collective Storytelling in Contemporary Fiction

Функционирование гипертекстовых переходов в сетевом новостном политекстовом нарративе (на материале веб-версий англоязычных газет)

The study aims to determine the role of hypertext transition in the formation of the narrative structure of the online news polytext narrative and the implementation of such narrative categories as chronotope and narrative dynamics. The paper considers the specificity of the unfolding of the narrative structure, as well as new possibilities for the implementation of the above-mentioned narrative-forming categories in the English-language news polytext narrative of the online format attributable to hypertextuality. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that despite a significant amount of research in the field of media narratology, as well as a large number of works devoted to the functional features of hyperlinks in the news text, their functioning as a means of constructing a news hypernarrative and implementing specific narrative categories remains a little-studied issue. In addition, the author proposes a narrower view of the news polytext narrative. As a result of the study, the mechanism of the unfolding of the narrative structure and the implementation of the chronotope and dynamics categories through the activation of hypertext transitions has been described.

Exploring the sense of place of traditional shopping streets through Instagram’s visual images and narratives

Purpose This study aims to capture a sense of place by analysing the physical attributes of the traditional shopping streets located in Indonesia and Malaysia through Instagram posts.Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a direct content analysis using visual images of 400 posts of Indonesian and Malaysian respondents. The Instagram Application Programming Interface (API) was used to extract data from Instagram posts. It is then followed by the quantitative analysis to determine the frequencies of visual and narrative representations of physical attributes defining the sense of place.Findings Five visual and narrative categories, namely architectural style, store design, special focal points, and the varieties of products and services that represent the physical attributes of shopping streets, were investigated. The findings would benefit the urban preservation initiatives so that the sense of place as authentic tourism destinations can be secured.Social implications The awareness of the traditional shopping street as a place of character, especially from social media users, is able to create local values that lead to place imageability and promote national tourism.Originality/value This study captured the sense of traditional places based on the people’s identifications that were shared on social media platforms. The posts’ preferences confirmed the significance of traditional shopping streets as a place of attraction and identity. The findings addressed the functions of physical attributes in sustaining the historical and authentic values of traditional shopping streets.

Insecurely-attached Supervisees’ Perspectives of Attachment in Supervision

Professional counselors are called upon by the American Counseling Association (2018) This narrative research study examines the experiences of counselors in training and how they engage with their supervisors through an attachment lens throughout their first practicum course. Three participants were identified as having an insecure attachment style. Each participant shared their experiences in supervision through semi-structured interviews and a photo elicitation journal writing project. Seven narrative categories emerged from the data which detailed how participants’ personal history and attachment style influenced their relationship with their supervisor. Implications for supervision include utilizing the emergent narrative categories to guide interventions to meet the attachment needs and influence the development of their supervisees.

Stranger Teens: Eleven Transforms the Monstrous Symbolism of Adolescence through a Contemporary Narrative Arc

At first glance, the Netflix series Stranger Things places itself within the category of monstrous feminine narratives by introducing preteen Eleven as the series’ human monster. The show pits her against literal monsters which, like adolescents, exist in a physically transformative and liminal space. However, while the series initially appears to reinforce the stereotype of young females as borderland monsters who defy categorization, the show ultimately undermines this same convention. Instead, it presents Eleven as a complete person who exhibits intelligence, individuality, and power in a manner more complex and modern than earlier filmic embodiments of monstrous adolescence and femininity. Eleven represents a new generation; while the monsters can still be viewed as illustrative of adolescence, Eleven rises above the characterizations of previous horror texts, successfully defying the containment often placed on girls. Viewers are shown that rather than letting society dictate their actions, girls can perform with agency and ability. Instead of serving only as objects of desire (or angst) for boys, girls can be the ones to save the day.

Psychometric Properties of Tools Used for Children and Adolescents With Visual Impairments: A systematic Review Study

Objectives: The use of standard tools can show the exact effects of interventions in children and adolescents with visual impairment (CYP-VI). However, to date, no comprehensive review study has evaluated the general characteristics and psychometrics of the instruments used in CYP-VI. Therefore, the present study investigated the psychometric properties of the tools used for CYP-VI. Methods: Databases of Cochrane, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Iran Medex, Magiran, National Library of Iran (INL) and Google Scholar were searched using Persian and English keywords until 2021. The studies and tools used in CYP-VI were reviewed by two people in terms of inclusion criteria. Relevant information and quality assessment of the tools were checked with the adapted Casmin checklist (COSMIN) and Critical Review Form – Quantitative Studies. Psychometric properties of the studied instruments in the narrative categories were analyzed with face, content, criterion-dependent and reliability with internal and external reliability subgroups. Results: Out of 1738 articles found, 39 studies were analyzed. Out of 39 articles, 26 were of high quality and others were of medium level. Study design included tool development / cultural adaptation, experimental, longitudinal or cross-sectional studies. Assessments were categorized into developmental (general skills, cognitive and social skills), Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Quality of Life (QoL) and Functional Vision (FV). Among the developmental tools; Only Decker intelligence test, vision related quality of life, Cardiff visual acuity questionnaire for children, first and second versions of LV Prasad functional vision questionnaire and functional vision questionnaire for children and young people with desirable psychometric properties have been reported. In relation to adaptive instruments, the changes made included the use of auditory, tactile, olfactory and motor aids, vocabulary changes, instrumental methods and the use of assistive devices, only a few of which reported psychometric properties. Conclusion: This review study shows that limited tools have been designed for CYP-VI whose validity and reliability have not been fully evaluated and reported. However, to improve the quality of studies and control systematic errors, we need standard tools.

Russian Formalism in Practice: A Narratological Reading of Joseph Conrad's Youth

Conrad's shorter works of fiction are mostly ignored in the formalistic analysis of his critics. Therefore, in order to fill the gap in the literature associated with the narrative structure of Conrad's shorter works, the authors of this article consider in detail the ideas of Genette's narratology for Conrad's story "Youth, Narration". Narratology, the method used in this article, is a science of literature that originated in the works of Russian formalists and is engaged in the systematic study of narratives. The purpose of this science is to identify the basic structures and relationships involved in the creation of history and its meaning. To achieve this goal, the theorists of narratology have introduced and defined a number of language rules that separate all narratives written in all languages. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that in practice the narratological reading of the material is shown, and also shows how the authors apply these structural rules to their texts. Genette, a French narratologist, introduced five narrative categories in his book Narrative Discourse; these categories include Order, Duration, Frequency, Mood, and Voice. This article discusses Genette's narrative categories applied to Joseph Conrad's short story "Youth, Narrative" and identifies the structural nuances of this story in order to help readers in general and those who study literature, in particular, to touch upon a careful reading of Conrad's writing style.

A comparison of Dignity Therapy narratives among people with severe mental illness and people with cancer.

To examine Dignity Therapy (DT) narratives in patients with severe mental illness (SMI) and a control group of cancer patients. 12 patients with SMI (schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, sever personality disorders) and 12 patients with non-advanced cancer individually participated to DT interviews. DT was tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and shaped into a narrative through a preliminary editing process. A session was dedicated to the final editing process along with the participant, with a final written legacy (generativity document) provided to the participant. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to qualitatively analyze the generativity documents. Patients with SMI and patients with cancer presented similar main narrative categories relative to dignity, such as "Meaning making", "Resources", "Legacy", "Dignity"; in addition, inpatients with SMI "Stigma" and inpatients with cancer "Injustice" emerged as separate categories. Patients in both groups strongly appreciated DT as an opportunity to reflect on their life story and legacy. The study showed that DT is a valuable intervention for people with SMI, grounded in a practical, person-centered approach. All patients found DT as an opportunity to describe their past and present, highlighting changes in the way they relate to themselves and others. These results can guide implementation of DT in mental health settings for people with SMI, as it is for people with cancer.

Verbal communication abilities checklist as an instrument to assess Brazilian children’s pragmatic profile

Objective: The aim of this research was to develop a checklist to assess the pragmatic profile of Brazilian children aged 3–8 years. Methods: The Verbal Communication Abilities (VCA) checklist was adapted from the Protocol for Verbal Communicative Abilities (Lopes, 2000). In order to evaluate the checklist’s reliability and effectiveness, the pilot version of the VCA checklist was used by three speech-language pathologists (SLPs) for the analysis of two identical 30-minute videos of parent–child interactions: one of a child with typical language development and the other of a child with language-impairment. The SLPs suggested adjustments to the checklist, which were then integrated and led to a final version. Next, the final checklist’s effectiveness and sensitivity to pragmatic deficiencies were assessed using a sample size of 30 children. Data were gathered by two SLPs, who employed the checklist when analyzing 30 videos of parent–child interactions. Participants were divided into two groups: G1, composed of 15 children previously diagnosed with language disorders, and G2, composed of 15 children with typical language development; both groups were matched for age and gender. Results: Significant differences were found between the two groups in the dialogue and narrative discursive categories. Conclusion: The checklist is an efficient and reliable tool for identifying pragmatic deficiencies faster and more easily than existing pragmatic tests and protocols.

Loyal and stubborn heroes: the main character’s personality in Classic Hollywood cinema

This research aims to analyze the main characters’ construction in classic Hollywood cinema by focusing on their personalities. This work follows Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson’s notions of classic cinema. The sample includes films from 1930 to 1960. Character is understood as personality and as a psychological unit. Characterization is defined by each trait that refers to the totality of their character. We start with the hypothesis that there are central tendencies for creating heroes and heroines in classic cinema. However, these tendencies also correspond with the film narrative model, which is shaped by the functionality of the narrative categories in the story. Personality is among those factors that shape the construction of the character. We applied a methodology of film narrative analysis to a sample of 64 films from six extensive genres in classic Hollywood cinema. The results confirm that the main character in classic cinema is conditioned and shaped by their adaptation to the film’s genre. The hero is usually positive according to what is considered socially acceptable values; the dramatic needs of the plot predetermine their definition. The Hollywood main character’s personality is based on their functionality as they serve the narrative needs of the story.

МУЛЬТИМЕДИЙНЫЙ НАРРАТИВ В РУССКОМ И АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНОМ МЕДИАДИСКУРСАХ

The article considers actively developing multimedia media in Russian and English. The relevance of this work is due to the insufficient coverage of the specifics of multimedia narrative in Russian studies, therefore, the question of the similarities and differences between Russian and English-language multimedia narratives remains open. The aim of the work is to identify integral and differential narrative categories in the Russian and English media spaces. The research was carried out at the junction of related sciences: linguistics, communication theory, media journalism. The material was the Russian-language and English-language versions of the popular magazine Marie Claire,freely available on the Internet. In total, about 200 articles on various topics were analyzed. The criteria of the comparative analysis were seven consolidated narrative categories: the author's position in relation to the narrated, the theme of the narrative, the way of characterization of the characters, the type of plot, the type of conflict, the time of the narrative, as well as the organization of space. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the published multimedia materials allowed us to conclude that the similarity of the Russian and English-language narratives in the subject, the way of organizing the plot, the time of narration. The differences are more evident in the use of a different number of multimedia elements working to attract attention to social conflicts and media personalities in the English edition. Russian narrative is marked by the text-centricity and dominance of mat erials that actualize the frame space of the language, appealing to background knowledge and reflection, which brings the Russian media narrative closer to the artistic one.

NARRATIVE SPECIFICITY OF THE SHORT STORY "HEY YOU, LITTLE BARRELL..." BY V. VYNNYCHENKO

The paper discusses the methodological potential of narratology that extends beyond the boundaries of traditional poetics taking the text of Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s short story "Hey you, little barrell..." as a case study. G. Genette’s definitions of the basic categories of narratology, such as story, discourse, anachronies, narrator’s types and functions, narrative distance and focalization are discussed. First and foremost, categories and paradigms introduced by G. Genette increase the possibilities of literary analysis. For example, there is no concept of a subject of vision (a focalizer) in traditional poetics. The paradigm of narrative perspective (focalization) developed by G. Genette is very important for studies of the narratives, besides, the narrative technique of modernism without this category is incomprehensible at all. Traditional poetics does not pay enough attention to anachrony, considering it together with other "off-plot elements", although analepsis and prolepsis are neither discursive nor descriptive. G. Genette presents detailed classification of analepsises and prolepsises, that determines the functionality of the analysis in context. Secondly, the paper clarifies, that the method of G. Genette’s narratology is not limited to tracing narrative categories as elements – it is also about their constant interrelation, i.e. the narrative model of the stories.
 Vynnychenko’s short story is analyzed in terms of correlations between telling, showing and talking, as well as displays of character’s discourse and attributive discourse. The artistic viability of anachronies (analepses and prolepses) is examined in the compositional and semantic aspects. The paper focuses on some specific features of Vynnychenko’s narrative style, such as dominance of mimesis over diegesis, as well as narrative distance and the author’s self-elimination by means of focalization (both the internal and external one) that are typical for modernist writing.

On Understanding Our Needy World through Science Fiction and Utopia/nism

How do dominant epistemological frames create political understanding and violence in the public sphere and through cultural texts? This article explores a theoretical answer to this question by identifying narrative categories, or frames, that create shared realities and collective political understanding and action in contemporary antiutopian US culture. Much current public information is marred by the juxtaposition of fact and fiction, logic and emotion, creating forms of knowledge and thus political action not necessarily based, then, on actuality or a communal ethic of care. Through analysis of worlds made possible in science fiction, the author builds on his previous theoretical work to develop what he calls “a method for radical utopian cognition”—one that sees cultural cognition based in logic, emotions, and a utopian frame in which destiny or resolution is not dictated by class or preordained authorial expectation but is instead open for constructive possibilities and new realities through the presentation of alternative possible worlds.

The Decision-Making Process and the Construction of Online Sociality through the Digital Storytelling Methodology

Digital storytelling (DST) is a teaching methodology (and tool) that is very widespread in different types of training: formal and informal, professional, and for adults. Presently, education is evolving and moving towards digital storytelling, starting from the models of Lambert and Olher. Today, although DST is usually used in the training that students receive for narrative learning, experimentation on the psychological and social consequences of this online teaching practice is still scarce. The literature acknowledges the widespread use of DST online, from psychology to communication and from marketing to training, providing Lambert’s and Olher’s models as references. Thus, the purpose of experimentation in this subject has been to try to mix these two models by selecting the phases of the model that focus most on creativity and narrative writing. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the experimentation conducted in the initial training of teachers to monitor the processes of negotiating content, making decisions and building a group atmosphere through the use of a narrative technique in an educational context. The sample was offered comprehension activities on narrative categories, creativity and autobiographical writing. The process in the group choice phase (negotiation) of the story was monitored through a questionnaire that includes three scales (the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, Organisational Attitude, and Negotiations Self-Assessment Inventory). The study concluded that the standardised planning of activities that, to a greater degree of depth, promote participation and emotional involvement allows the creation of strong group thinking and affects the decision-making and negotiation processes of the activities being carried out by the participants.

Negotiation for a free belonging: Home and human rights in Bhattarai’s Registän Diary

Home and human rights appear as interwined categories in narratives related to migration. However, these two categories have not been amply explored as proximate matters in any migration related texts such as Registän Diary. Home is not only a place for dwelling with varying frameworks but also many other things like a space, a feeling and a will to belong. Having a home, a place to dwell and belong, is one of the basic rights of human, specifically in line with the view that human rights are rights held by individuals simply because they are part of the human species regardless of their sex, race, nationality, and economic background. In this paper, the researcher, remaining within the paradigm of qualitative research, draws ideas from the scholars alike Pico Iyer, Salman Rushdie, Shalley Mallet, Lynn Hunt, Joseph R. Slaughter, examines the life narratives of the labour migrants to the Gulf from Nepal, argues and concludes that be it through the multifaceted depiction of home or cases of human rights abuse, Registän Diary negotiates a free belonging for all the citizens in a secure world.

Boom and bust of euphoric narratives: Peruvian football and the neoliberal mentality

ABSTRACT In this article we propose the category of euphoric narratives both to explain the construction of the sculpture ‘Monumento a los hombres del mundial’ (Monument to the Men of the World Cup) in Lima, Peru, but more importantly, to analyse a dynamic which transcends that situation and accounts for a set of cultural changes that have arisen in strongly restructured societies for the purposes of neoliberal policies. The Peruvian national football team’s qualification for the World Cup in Russia in 2018 generated a collective sense of optimism in the national community rarely seen in recent history. The article traces the interrelation between football, a rich site for the deployment of popular narrative strategies in relation to the construction of identities, the neoliberal rationality, which feeds on and manipulates (collective) euphoria for commercial and/or political gain and the specific socio-political Peruvian context in the run-up to the World Cup in Russia.

Folk Healing Narratives: A Grounded Theory

This study collected, transcribed, translated, and categorized the folk healing narratives from Magarao, Camarines Sur to reveal the shared meanings and derived a theory about them. The researcher used descriptive method to describe the existing folk healing narratives and contact method was used in gathering the data then followed the process of Grounded Theory Method. The collected narratives from the nine (9) folk healers were classified into four (4) categories namely; pagbulong sa paagi kan gabay (healing through the help of supernatural being), pagbulong sa paagi kan ritwal (healing through rituals), pagbulong sa paagi kan pagsanib (healing through possession), and pagbulong sa paagi kan namanang kaaraman (healing through acquired knowledge). From the categories of folk healing narratives, the researcher extracted the shared meanings that resulted to the four (4) stages of folk healing: pag-apod (calling), pag-isi (knowing), pag-umay (healing), and pag-arang (offering). This study concluded that for folk healers to perform folk healing, they combine their skills and gift of healing that was endowed to them by the Supreme Being. The extracted shared meanings reflect how people who adhere to folk healing view the world; this is because of their similarities in experiences. Shared meanings which are present in these modern times can be traced back from the practices and beliefs of the ancient Bikolanos reflected in the Bikol literature. This study recommends the future researchers to conduct similar studies specifically in the shared meanings and practices in the other aspects of the society