Narrative Features Research Articles

An Analysis of the Fate of the Character Yang Yuhuan in the Film Legend of the Demon Cat Based on the “Other” Theory

Legend of the Demon Cat is a pinnacle of ancient oriental magic film by Chen Kaige, presenting audiences with a magnificent scene of Tang Dynasty and the legendary story of Yang Yuhuan. As a film full of fantasy, suspense and romanticism, it has been analyzed by most scholars from the aspects of narrative features, image aesthetics and historical and cultural elements. However, little has been researched from the perspective of the male other about the fate of Yang Yuhuan, a character based on a legendary concubine in Chinese Tang Dynasty. This paper will analyze the portrayal of Yang Yuhuan in the film guided by feminism, especially “The Other” theory. With the historical background of the decline of the Tang Dynasty, we can seek the reasons for the dramatical fate of Yang Yuhuan, and understand the injustice and oppression faced universally by ancient women in male-dominated society.

The Dual Role of Inner Speech in Narrative Self-Understanding and Narrative Self-Enactment

AbstractPsychologists and philosophers agree that personal narratives are a central component of one’s identity. The concept of narrative self has been proposed to capture this aspect of selfhood. In recent times, it has been a matter of debate how the narrative self relates to the embodied and experiential dimension of the self. In this debate, the role attributed to inner speech is that of constructing and maintaining personal narratives. Indeed, evidence suggests that inner speech episodes are involved in self-reflection and autobiographical reasoning. That is, previous works have focused mostly, if not solely, on the role of inner speech for narrative self-understanding. However, inner speech is also involved in enacting personal narratives. In such cases, the content of the inner speech episodes is not in the service of the construction of narratives, rather it implies the identification with the character of the personal narratives. I introduce two instances of the use of inner speech for narrative self-enactment: positive self-talk and stereotype threat. I conclude by considering the implications of the examples introduced for the debate regarding the relation between the narrative and the embodied dimensions of selfhood.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM USING PYTHON

An innovative book recommendation tool called BookWise was created to help readers get individualized book suggestions based on their unique preferences. Effective recommendation systems are now more necessary than ever to guide readers through the overwhelming amount of options given the exponential expansion of the digital book market. Advanced machine learning algorithms and methodsfor natural language processing are used by BookWise to analyze a variety of features of books, including genre, author, narrative, and style, as well as user information like reading habits, ratings, and history. These elements are combined by BookWise to produce precise recommendationsthat are pertinent to the preferences of each user. BookWise's ability to learn from and adjust to the evolving preferences of its users over time is at the heart of the program. The system uses collaborative filtering and content-based filtering approaches to continuously gather user feedback on suggested books and take user interactions into account. By doing this, it is able to make increasingly accurate and interesting recommendations to users. By implementing a user review and rating system, BookWise also encourages social involvement and a sense of community among its members. Users can communicate with people who share their interests in literature, discussreviews, and offertheirthoughts. This community-driven strategy improves the quality of suggestions while also enhancing the reading experience by encouraging interactions and relationships amongst book lovers. Furthermore, BookWise is created to be very user- friendly, giving cross-platform compatibility, including online and mobile applications, to make sure users can get their tailored recommendations wherever they are and wheneverthey want. The system also offers a simple and user-friendly design that makes it simple to navigate and explore books of all genres, new releases, and popular works. Through thorough user testing and review, BookWise's efficacy has been confirmed, proving its capacity to provide precise and pleasing recommendations that are in line with consssumers' interests. BookWise represents a significant advancement in the field of book recommendation systems by providing a potent tool to improve reader experiences, promote literary research in the digital age, and ease discovery. Keywords—Personalize book recommendation; recommendation system; clustering; machine learning

Does Narrative Quality Matter During Implementation of a School-Based Prevention Intervention? A Test of Narrative Engagement Theory

Narratives play a powerful role in sharing meaning and making sense of experiences. Specifically, health narratives convey storylines, characters, and messages about health-related behaviors and provide audiences with models for healthy behaviors, prompting audiences’ health-related reflections and decision-making. Narrative engagement theory (NET) explains how personal narratives can be integrated into interventions to promote health. This study utilizes NET to test direct and indirect effects of teachers’ narrative quality on adolescent outcomes during a school-based substance use prevention intervention that includes narrative pedagogy and an implementation strategy. Observational coding of teacher narratives in video-recorded lessons along with self-report student surveys (N = 1,683) were subjected to path analysis. Findings showed significant direct effects of narrative quality on student engagement, norms (i.e. personal, best-friend injunctive, and descriptive norms), and substance use behavior. The analysis also yielded support for indirect effects of narrative quality on adolescent substance use behavior via student engagement, personal norms, and descriptive norms. Findings highlight important issues related to teacher-student interaction during implementation and contributes implications for adolescent substance use prevention research.

The Girl in the Ape’s House: A folktale in a North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic variety of Urmiya, Russia

Abstract The article discusses dialectal and folkloristic features of an oral narrative in a North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) variety recently recorded in the Southern Russian village of Urmiya. The dialect of the tale belongs to the NENA varieties originating in the easternmost regions of Turkey, which is corroborated by the tale’s speaker, who named its places of origin as Lewən, Albaq, and Gawar. These dialects remain largely undescribed and are highly endangered. The plot of the story is not known from hitherto published Neo-Aramaic field texts. Even though it resembles some of the folktales recorded in Iran and India, the story contains a unique combination of narrative motifs.

Exploring the intersection of Lovecraftian monstrosity and techno-body horror in selected works of Neal Asher: an examination of (post-)humanity

This scholarly investigation aims to meticulously examine the various mechanisms employed by British science fiction writer Neal Asher in his works, including the Transformation trilogy (2015–17), Lockdown Tales (2020), and Lockdown Tales 2 (2023), to convey the erosion of humanity following profound physiological and cognitive changes. This research highlights how Asher skillfully combines elements of Lovecraftian grotesqueness with intricate portrayals of physical horror, thereby challenging conventional categorizations. These narratives feature a diverse ensemble of human and non-human protagonists, each subjected to transformative biotechnological, computational, and psychological enhancements. These processes raise questions about the feasibility of preserving even a semblance of humanity in an overwhelmingly advanced, distinctly post-human cosmological environment. While both biotechnological and Lovecraftian modes of horror explore humanity’s insignificance within a vast, indifferent, and often malevolent universe, Asher’s body of work consistently delves into the theme of how humans can retain their inherent humanity in the face of monstrous metamorphosis. Additionally, this investigation elucidates how such transformations give rise to the emergence of the “other” within oneself and the monstrous “Other” that takes center stage in the narrative. By exploring these themes, this study contributes to the scholarly discourse on the intersection of horror, transformation, and the preservation of humanity in science fiction literature.

Narratives reflecting Theory of Mind among bilingual Lyuli children of Uzbekistan

Abstract This is the first known study of the socio-cognitive development of Lyuli children, a Roma-type group living in Bukhara in Uzbekistan. The research was conducted in schools in Bukhara serving both Lyuli children and Uzbek children, both of whom are multi-lingual but whose sociolinguistic circumstances are somewhat different. There has been less cross-cultural work on later stages of Theory of Mind development, in which children have to make inferences about the mental states of characters in a complex narrative. The research here shows that the children from both groups do remarkably well on these tasks, and their multilingualism is hypothesized to be the source of their success relative to other children studied with similar narratives.

A History of Danish Cinema

A History of Danish Cinema

Проблема памяти в романе «Лунный тигр» Пенелопы Лайвли

The aim of the research is to identify the peculiarity of the structure in the novel “Moon Tiger” by the British writer Penelope Lively. The paper analyses the narrative features of the image of the protagonist. The heroine’s memories and reflection are a way of reconstructing memory, as well as a continuous process of self-recognition and realising her own individuality. The heroine possesses a strong and unique character, but at the same time, the author embodies the traits of a hero who absorbed the traumatic experience of the wars of the XX century in her image. The research makes a theoretical contribution to the study of modern English literature and the peculiarities of representation of the problem of memory. The scientific originality of the paper lies in examining narrative strategies in Penelope Lively’s novelistic works that are necessary for building a narrative in which a person’s thinking process is constructed in close relationship with memories. The paper analyses an atypical figure of a diegetic narrator characterised by internal focalisation. As a result of studying the narrative structure of the novel, it has been proved that the violation of the principles of the epic in the novel and the tendency to deconstruct the events of the past, but at the same time the rejection of the objectivity of the narrative and the desire for individualisation in the subjective text of the protagonist allow the novel to be attributed to postmodern literature, where the whole world is reflected in the history of one person.

게임 페르소나3의 영웅서사와 상징성 연구

Artistic elements included in games include graphics, artwork, background music, sound effects, and storytelling. However, in the study of the artistry of games, the research on the story of the game is less advanced than the research on graphics and sound. Based on the game's popularity, Persona 3, a game selected as a research subject, was actively mixed with media such as comic books, novels, animations, and musicals. As a result of the study, the main character of Persona 3 showed a track that corresponds to the hero's journey function suggested by Christoper Vogler, and the symbolism of the main character was also arranged through the main character's persona, which served as a tool to assist the main character's narrative. The games analyzed in this study were commercially successful, and games with active media mix were analyzed, but this result cannot be generalized by analyzing only one game, and the validity of this analysis is also affected by failed games to which this analysis is not applied. analysis will also have to be done together.

The effect of audience–character similarity on identification with narrative characters: A meta-analysis

The effect of audience–character similarity on identification with narrative characters: A meta-analysis

Antyeuropejski wymiar referendów szwajcarskich. Casus Szwajcarskiej Partii Ludowej

THE ANTI-EUROPEAN DIMENSION OF THE SWISS REFERENDA: THE CASE OF THE SWISS PEOPLE’S PARTY The aim of the article is to analyze the impact of referenda on the increase in the popularity of anti-European sentiments in Switzerland on the example of the activity, in particular during selected referendum campaigns, of the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP). Two research hypotheses will be examined in the article: leading – H1: The Swiss People’s Party uses anti-European slogans to build its position on the political scene; and auxiliary – H2: the Swiss anti-European narrative is primarily related to migration issues. In order to verify or falsify the hypotheses, the following research questions were posed: Q1: Which dimensions of Europeanization arouse the greatest controversy and political disputes in Switzerland?; Q2: What are the programmatic and organizational specifics of the Swiss People’s Party?; Q3: What means does the Swiss People’s Party use in referendum campaigns?; Q4: Are there, and if so, what, specific features of the Swiss anti-European narrative? The answers to the research questions will be contained in the following parts of the text. In the summary, research hypotheses will be resolved and conclusions will be presented.

The Possibility of Fidelity in Adaptations: The Case of Director Michael Haneke

This study seeks an answer to the question of whether the content of the novel or the interpretation of the novel content by a director is followed in film adaptations, how clear the boundaries of film narrative and literary narrative are, the reflections of the narrative techniques specific to these media in the two media, how effective the narrative features are at the level of the audience and the reader, and to what extent the audience is provided with the interpretation space allocated at the end of the films. The methodology used is determined by creating a common research area in both fields with the help of the concepts of cinema and literature, as emphasized in the theories of intermediality. This article, consisting of ideas specific to the fields of the two media, explains how searching for the literary text in adaptation films is an appropriate approach with the example of Michael Haneke's adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Castle.

REDISCOVERING CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES BY INTERACTIVE 3D EXPLORATION: A PRACTICAL REVIEW OF OPEN-SOURCE WEBGL TOOLS

Abstract. Georeferenced reconstructions can help understand the dynamic evolution of the urban context surrounding a historical site, supporting decision-making processes in the field of urban planning. The development of web applications that allow the interaction between 2D and 3D products, as well as their exploration, can facilitate virtual inspections and foster collaboration in digitization of interventions and site evolutions over time. The article discusses how virtual scene reconstructions and visits can provide alternatives to traditional in-situ tourism promotion, through digital storytelling solutions for the exploration of sites. The article also describes how 3D storytelling technologies are currently being used for dissemination cultural heritage sites. The case study of the Castello Farnese, an old XVI century heritage site in Piacenza (Italy), test the adoption of two distinct free and open-source JavaScript WebGL, Potree and Cesium, for the rendering of photogrammetric and laser scanning georeferenced scaled products and for the integration of narrative features such as annotations, camera animations, texts, and other multimedia contents. Potentials and limitations of both tools are discussed in detail, highlighting how they can be implemented for enhancing user experience in virtual tour and exploration of 3D products. In order to guarantee replicability for other case studies, source code of the implemented application is shared on GitHub along with its documentation for contributions.

The Narrative, Discourse and Terminology of the Western Balkans Online Media Reporting on the Russia-Ukraine War

Reporting by various media on armed conflicts produce news about the events from both the frontlines and the country a war takes place. Given that reporting from war zones has changed and that many media outlets do not even send their journalists to cover the fighting on the ground but opt for citing news agencies, the social media, or the local media, we bear out that reporting from the Russian-Ukraine war constitutes a mixed journalism between that of war and peace. The narrative, discourse, and terminology used by the Western Balkans online media in Albanian, Serbian, and Macedonian, differ depending on the language and the country that the certain media operate. The content provided in the body of articles is less striking than of what appears in the headlines of the same news items, meaning that online media tend to prioritize sensationalism and that the reporting strategy in essence reduces the quality of the media narrative and discourse. The results of our research highlight the importance of telling between different types of conflict frames omnipresent in the online media reporting contexts.

The protagonism of Rey in Star Wars: the force awakens, a feminist reading

Star Wars is a science fiction saga that for over thirty years has captivated fans and viewers all over the world. The saga reproduces the desires of the current society, decade by decade, and also produces new forms of representation regarding female characters. Although we know names like Princess Leia and Padmé, both had their narratives crossed by negative stereotypes about female representations. As it is a science fiction genre, we still notice a mostly male presence, despite new appearances of heroines. However, it was with the release of The force awakens (Foster, 2015), that the franchise reignited the engagement and interest of the public, besides attracting the eyes of a new generation. In this way, more female characters were cast for the new trilogy, such as the new protagonist being a woman. In the same year, a literary adaptation was launched in the publishing market, bringing the story to the field of letters and providing new dialogues between the characters. Accordingly, this paper aims to conduct an analytical study on the construction of the character Rey in the literary version of the story, under the light of feminist criticism. For our methodology, we conducted bibliographical research, using authors such as Murdock (2013), Kuhn (1994), and Mulvey (1983). As a result, we understand that it is important to perceive negative stereotypes reproduced in female characters in science fiction narratives, which are also related to women and their representations in literature.

Narrating political participation: How do lifetime activists remember their political experiences?

Narrative approaches have gained popularity as a way to understand the construction and development of political identities over a person’s life span. However, little is known about how lifetime activists remember and make sense of different types of political experiences. To overcome this gap, this study aims to explore thematic and structural features of the narratives of lifetime activists about political experiences (O1), as well as examining differences in these features according to the type of experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred (O2). Forty political activists aged 65 years or older were invited to explain a positive event, a negative event and a turning point in their political participation. The motivational themes, affective themes, themes of integrative meaning and structural elements of the narratives were analysed. Results show significant variations in these narrative features according to the type of political experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred. Our study adds to the previous literature on political identities showing that, far from being monolithic, lifelong activists’ narratives about political experiences show significant variations according to these two features. Overall, the structural variations that we found in lifetime activists’ narratives about political experiences largely mirrored previous literature on general autobiographical narratives. This means that, regardless of whether life stories are general or domain-specific, their structural characteristics and the variations they show by life stage and type of narrated events are largely similar.

Author as Character and Narrator: Deconstructing Personal Narratives from the r/AmITheAsshole Reddit Community

In the r/AmITheAsshole subreddit, people anonymously share first person narratives that contain some moral dilemma or conflict and ask the community to judge who is at fault (i.e., who is "the asshole"). These first person narratives are, in general, a unique storytelling domain where the author is not only the narrator (the person telling the story) but is also a character (the person living the story) and, thus, the author has two distinct voices presented in the story. In this study, we identify linguistic and narrative features associated with the author as the character or as a narrator. We use these features to answer the following questions: (1) what makes an asshole character and (2) what makes an asshole narrator? We extract both Author-as-Character features (e.g., demographics, narrative event chain, and emotional arc) and Author-as-Narrator features (i.e., the style and emotion of the story as a whole) in order to identify which aspects of the narrative are correlated with the final moral judgment. Our work shows that "assholes" as Characters frame themselves as lacking agency with a more positive personal arc, while "assholes" as Narrators will tell emotional and opinionated stories.

The Graphic "I" in Research Comics

ABSTRACT: As academic comics become more common in journals and more researchers are sharing methodologies for the production of academic comics, the appearance of the researcher's avatar in the illustrated article has become an accepted part of the practice. These comics show the researcher as an author, an illustrator, and even a narrative character in a graphic narrative. The practice of illustrating comics-based research has not yet codified how to transmediate academic writing norms into sequential art, or what best practice to apply in embodying the researcher on the page. Through a survey of recently published guides to creating academic comics and research comics, this study proposes several reasons for intentionally including the embodied researcher and suggests conditions when the embodied researcher might best be excluded.

THE IMAGE OF THE RIGHTEOUS WOMAN IN E. VODOLAZKIN’S NOVEL “JUSTIFICATION OF THE ISLAND”

The article is devoted to the study of the poetics of the image of Princess Xenia, the main heroine of E. Vodolazkin's novel "Justification of the Island," in the context of the hagiographic tradition. The image of Xenia is endowed with the features inherent in the righteous hero thanks to a whole complex of hagiographic topoi used by the author: fervent faith, otherworldliness, the ability to foresee the future, the choice of a "celibate marriage," etc. The same features can be traced in the description of the child's image of Xenia, and in the plot drawing associated with the heroine in different periods of life. The article draws typological parallels with the hagiographic saint Ulyana Osoryina. At the same time, the external level of the hagiographic topic, oriented towards the formal side of image construction, is reinforced by the corresponding axiological imperative. The latter is the idea of spiritual and physical salvation, which manifests itself in the plot of the novel. The key feature of the author's narrative is the combination of hagiographic and literary techniques in building the image of the righteous. The hagiographic features are complemented by artistic, purely novelistic features, which makes the poetics of the image more complicated: it is characterized by internal conflict, emotionality, elements of psychologism that are not characteristic of the hagiographic righteous. The image of Xenia remains integral, the hagiographic tradition does not undergo a transformation, but on the contrary, intensifies the image, explicating new meanings for the reader. The dominance of Xenia’s image, expressed in the idea of salvation, testifies to its belonging to the hagiographic tradition.