Collection Of Stories Research Articles

Arab-Latin American Literary Perspectives on the Palestinian Exile

Latin America has been deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with some countries taking a firm stance for one side or the other. While some countries have been vocal in their support, common threads run through the region’s perspective on the conflict: believing in the importance of a two-state solution and focusing on human rights. But beyond the political and economic support provided to the Palestinian cause, Latin American countries have also served as cultural exclaves and safe spaces for Palestinian communities across Latin America. In this essay, we aim to delve into the functions of these cultural exclaves for Palestinian exiles and safe spaces for Palestinian diasporic communities, as well as their impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as reflected in the following texts: Miguel Littin’s documentary film Crónicas palestinas: caminos de la ira (2002) and his drama film La última luna (2005), Alberto Nazal’s Beit Jala Forever (2006), and the collections of Arab and Jewish short stories in Spanish complied in the books Caminos para la paz (2007), edited by Ignacio López-Calvo and Cristián H. Ricci, and Delta de las areas (2013), edited by Rose Mary Salum. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2024 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]

THE OTHER: IDENTITY DIMENSIONS OF FEMININE ‘SELF’ IN DORIS LESSING’S SHORT STORIES COLLECTION “A MAN AND TWO WOMEN”

Short fiction by British women writers from the postwar era of the 20th century demonstrates an enduring focus on the essence of female identity. This paper examines short stories by Doris Lessing, a prominent figure in British literature, who has yet to receive proper attention in Ukrainian literary criticism. To address the issue of British female identity in the postwar period, the researcher employed new criticism methods, specifically close reading and feminist criticism, namely gynocritics (E. Showalter), as well as comparative analysis. The examination of selected short stories by D. Lessing revealed certain patterns in the author’s style. Her formal skill is marked by the principle of duplication, which includes: a) repetition of problems, such as marital crises and polygamy (e.g., “A Man and Two Women”, “Each Other”, “To Room Nineteen”); b) duplication of character names (“Each Other”); c) recurrence of plot situations, such as adultery (“A Man and Two Women”, “To Room Nineteen”), and characters’ unhealthy states, including personality disorders (“Dialogue”) and madness (“To Room Nineteen”); d) use of dual narrative perspectives (“To Room Nineteen”, “Dialogue”). The issues related to female identity in D. Lessing’s collection of short stories are presented within two broader contexts: marriage and extramarital relations. Accordingly, two main forms of female individuality emerge: a) the betrayed wife (“A Man and Two Women”, “To Room Nineteen”) and b) the mistress (“Between Men”, “Our Friend Judith”) and her modification, the free woman (“Dialogue”). Despite being mature, intelligent, and experienced, all these characters remain lonely and unhappy.

Feasibility and Exception--The Grand Narrative Theory in the Myths of Buddhist Sculpture Art

This paper explores the grand narrative, especially in the context of Buddhist sculpture art. It portrays grand narratives as broad, non-falsifiable systems stemming from a collective story, often focusing on universality and macro theories. The paper also highlights the link between grand narratives and myth. The author examines how grand narrative theory applies to Buddhist art, evident in visual forms like Buddha statues, which function as both religious symbols and narrative components. This article mainly consists of two lines of analysis. One line examines the representation of grandeur and narrative in Buddhist sculptures, while the other line examines the changes in the grand narrative of Buddhist sculptures. The former involves the relationship between images and texts, while the latter involves the feasibility of the end of grand narrative as proposed by Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of grand narrative.

Retelling: a New Genre or an Insufficiently Investigated “Old” Notion?

The article focuses on the phenomenon known as “retelling”. The mass reader, both domestic and foreign, perceives retelling as one of the neterature genres. The word “retelling” is borrowed from the English language. According to the English-language publications concerning retelling, in modern mass consciousness this concept corresponds, on the one hand, to the methods of borrowing and processing plots, known in European culture since antiquity, on the other, to a system of primary and secondary features, reproduced in mass literature texts. However, neither American nor British literary criticism knows such a genre. Foreign literary critics use the term “adaptation”, which implies one type of the text transformation: from a literary work to a theatrical production or film. Russian researchers apply the term “adaptation” to the alterations of classical literature for theatre, cinema, television and computer games. Although in the English language culture retelling is perceived as a new, recently emerged phenomenon, the first authorʼs adaptations of classical works appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. The collection of stories “Tales from Shakespeare”, written by Charles and Mary Lamb can be considered the first example of a “retelling” adaptation. The “Preface” to the stories contains the principles, formulated by the authors. According to the given principles they reworked Shakespeareʼs plays for childrenʼs reading. These principles fall under both the concept of “retelling” and the concept of “adaptation”. The research shows that though “retelling” is perceived as one of the characteristic features of modern culture, this phenomenon existed as a conscious way of creative working with text for at least two centuries. This phenomenon is not a genre, but a set of techniques for transforming a text, a still insufficiently studied universal of literary creativity.

An Analysis of the “Minimalist” Narration in Cathedral

This paper analyzes the minimalist narrative techniques in Raymond Carver’s short story collection, Cathedral, highlighting how his unique narrative style redefines the short story form. The study finds that Carver’s use of internal and external focalization enhances the realism of his narratives, allowing readers to experience events through a more subjective and fragmented lens. The incomplete narrative structures and open endings in his stories mirror the complexities and uncertainties of real life, encouraging readers to actively interpret and engage with the text. Carver's concise language—characterized by short sentences and everyday speech—effectively distills complex emotions and situations, offering a profound reflection of the human condition. These findings demonstrate Carver's significant contribution to minimalist literature and his ability to capture the nuances of ordinary existence.

‘Of o toun were they born, that highte Strother’: Dialect and Pasolini in I racconti di Canterbury

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s I racconti di Canterbury (The Canterbury Tales) (1972), a reinterpretation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, is undeniably the most controversial – and perplexing – film in his Trilogy of Life. Marked by a cacophonous filming process, one in which English and Italian actors attempted to retell a collection of stories written in a form of English that has been extinct for centuries, the triumphs of I racconti di Canterbury have seldom been recognized. Pasolini’s reinterpretation of Chaucerian dialect is especially understudied, despite how Chaucer was the first English writer to differentiate his characters through written language. My article first focuses on the dialect in Chaucer’s ‘The Reeve’s Tale’ (c.1400) and then, its reimagination in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film I racconti di Canterbury. My research highlights Pasolini’s commendable fidelity to his source material and his success in replicating Chaucer’s representations of class difference.

Symbols of a new nation: Ghanaian artists’ expression of cultural identity after independence

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the way Ghanaian visual artists Atta Kwami, Kane Kwei, and Saka Acquaye, used the art to express and narrate the cultural identity during the one decade of independence of Ghana (1957). Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country which got independence from British colonialism. Besides, the nation wanted to promote the pan-Africanist dream of a new African people. But, the country faced a colonial and traditional dilemma. The research uses the archival method and visual discourse analysis as the main methodological instrument to examine the way artists used traditional symbols from African art, like Adinkra, to modern art by mixing plural personalities. The artworks they created were empowered themselves and allowed a collective story to be told of Ghanaian culture’s recovery, self-sufficiency, and the togetherness of the country. The study shows how these artists applied art as a significant catalyst in the process of nation-building and the creation of a new culture by getting rid of the misconceptions about the negative effects of colonialism on the cultural situation. Their art forms became semiotic kits for the beginning of cultural self-organization through the coherent state of Ghana.

Narrative Medicine: theory, clinical practice and education - a scoping review

BackgroundThe origin of Narrative Medicine dates back to more than 20 years ago at an international level. Narrative Medicine is not an alternative to evidence-based medicine, however these two approaches are integrated. Narrative Medicine is a methodology based on specific communication skills where storytelling is a fundamental tool to acquire, understand and integrate several points of view related to persons involving in the disease and in the healthcare process. Narrative Medicine, henceforth NM, represents a union between disease and illness between the doctor’s clinical knowledge and the patient’s experience. According to Byron Good, “we cannot have direct access to the experience of others’ illness, not even through in-depth investigations: one of the ways in which we can learn more from the experience of others is to listen to the stories of what has happened to other people.” Several studies have been published on NM; however, to the best of our knowledge, no scoping review of the literature has been performed.ObjectiveThis paper aims to map and synthetize studies on NM according to theory, clinical practice and education/training.MethodThe scoping review was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. A search was conducted in PubMed, APA PsycNet and Jstor. Two authors independently assessed the eligibility and methodological quality of the studies and extracted the data. This review refers to the period from 1998 to 2022.ResultsA total of 843 abstracts were identified of which 274 papers were selected based on the title/abstract. A total of 152 papers in full text were evaluated and 76 were included in the review. Papers were classified according to three issues:✘ Nineteen studies focused on the definition and concept of NM (Theoretical).✘ Thirty-eight papers focused on the collection of stories, projects and case reports (Clinical practice).✘ Nineteen papers focused on the implementation of the Narrative Medicine approach in the education and training of medical doctors (Education and training).ConclusionsThis scoping review presents an overview of the state of the art of the Narrative Medicine. It collect studies performed mainly in Italy and in the United States as these are the countries developing the Narrative Medicine approach in three identified areas, theoretical, clinical practice and education and training. This scoping review will help to promote the power of Narrative Medicine in all three areas supporting the development of methods to evaluate and to measure the Narrative Medicine approach using key performance indicators.

Food, Migration, and Place Consciousness in Chika Unigwe’s Better Never than Late

ABSTRACT In this study, we examine the multidimensional facets of food, migration, and individuals’ sense of otherness and dis/connection to place as represented in selected fictional works from Nigeria. The article pays attention in particular to Chika Unigwe’s short story collection, Better Never than Late (2019), which explores the experiences of a group of Nigerian migrants and Europeans living in Belgium through connected stories. Drawing on the theoretical insights of postcolonialism, negofeminism, and affect theory, we explore the connectedness of African migrant personae and their sensitiveness to food and place in the fictive universe of this short story collection. We disentangle the manner in which food and the occasions of meals creatively catalyze different forms of migrant and diasporic consciousness and embodied experiences, including gender consciousness, personhood, and sociocultural angst. The article traces the representation of food in different but connected narratives of estrangement within the African diaspora. The representation of food in fictional works allows for reflection on the psychosocial and existential realities of Africans in a fluid late modern world.

As die Cape Flats Kon Praat: Locality and the Literature of Precarious Living

This paper discusses the importance of Brian Fredericks’s short story collection, As die Cape Flats Kon Praat (If the Cape Flats Could Speak), published in 2020. The nine stories in the collection present different narratives of male characters and their experiences on the living areas outside Cape Town collectively known as the Cape Flats. These areas are synonymous with poverty and violence, identifiers that simultaneously suggest urgent attention but also reductive stereotyping. Two of the stories in the collection are examined here for information they provide about the intersections between gang culture and family relations, as well as how both are shaped by senses of place. How geographical space (here, space that was engineered during apartheid) influences and is influenced by the movements and actions of people is a point of theoretical interest in this article. This is supported by a short study of the workings of Cape Flats gangs and the transactional role played by violence. Fredericks’s collection joins a growing and necessary library of redress that reflects the value of Cape Flats narratives as essential to South African literature. That this collection includes the language of Afrikaaps, which is undergoing a similar re-evaluation in recent knowledge production, underscores the relevance of newer output that sheds light on the social codes, cultural grammars, and moral economies of a hitherto underrepresented literary region.

Ultimate Fantasy. Subwersyjne strategie queerowania Sztucznej Inteligencji w projektach transliterackich

This article describes artistic examples of queering Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can be understood as a practice that challenges the (hetero)normative nature of neural networks by implementing a queer perspective. The evaluation of ways in which AI reflects societal norms is conducted by addressing biases that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. On this basis, the author highlights the need for inclusive practices that make it possible for queer experiences to be represented by technology while also discussing why AI cannot be neutral. The in-depth study of Ultimate Fantasy, a collection of literary texts generated by a Queer AI, reveals how artists use language models in novel, subversive, and possibly liberating ways. The author aims to frame this practice as an example of a queer utopian aesthetic project in accordance with José Muñoz’s understanding of queerness. The various motifs evident in the short story collection – such as queer modes of love or trauma – are analyzed as reflections of themes present in the corpus of queer texts used to train the language model.

Science Fiction in the Post-occupation Iraqi Short Story in English Translation

English translations of Arabic literary works have interacted with -and possibly influenced- the Western context of science fiction literature. This thesis investigates how the English translations of post-occupation Iraqi short stories possibly contributed to the evolution of the Western science fiction genre. The study seeks to explain the relationship between post-2003 Iraqi literary works -that are a diverse range of corpus- as well as the possible influence of their translations and their counterparts in Anglophone literary systems. The research particularly focuses on Iraq +100 and The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim. Blasim’s edited anthology, Iraq +100, is a prominent element in this study as it is analyzed to illustrate the interrelation between Arabic science fiction and Western traditions of this genre of fiction. As the roles of this edited anthology and short story collection are addressed and discussed in terms of the interaction between Anglophone and Arab literary systems, the study discusses the science fiction theories of Thomas Lombardo (2006) and Darko Suvin (2010). The primary objective of this study is to analyze the two selected books as they are introduced to the Western world and scrutinize how these books can be considered as a response to the evolution of the science fiction genre. Moreover, the translated works of post-occupation Iraqi short stories deal with the political and social impacts of the situation in Iraq after 2003. This thesis follows up by proposing that the anthologized English translations of these Arabic post-occupation Iraqi texts have contributed to the making of a dialogue between Arab and Western cultural and literary canons as well as traditions. The study also analyzes the short stories of the Iraqi writers, as illustrative of a specific expression of post-2003 Iraqi fiction that depicts the terror of violence in Iraq by delivering scenes of excessive violence in their texts. All in all, this study appears as an interdisciplinary work as it engages with translation studies, literary studies, history, and in a way, political science.

Down and out but undeterred: A narrative on utilizing the new mobilities paradigm for contraint-based methodological research as an international student during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic led to lockdowns in Australia that inhibited the mobility of residents across the nation. While keeping many from leaving the country under a Covid Zero policy, the lockdowns also kept numerous international students from entering the country to commence their studies. Such disruption led to major constraints for a plethora of doctoral students and their graduate research projects. The constraints brought on by pandemic disruptions especially impacted every stage of the graduate research experience for aspiring ethnographers. Such challenges ranged from the stressful navigation of Covid restricted international travel, working around the university bureaucratic runaround in an ever-changing pandemic scenario, to discovering and utilizing the new mobilities paradigm to construct a doable thesis project under strict timelines. The reflective narrative presented here is a small contribution to the greater collection of stories about international graduate researchers making the most with very little during a constraint filled period of academic history.

Purple Basil Lemonade

This piece is a collection of stories and reflections on community, loss, memory, access, rest, and dream(ing), developed through the process of making and sharing purple basil lemonade. This practice serves as a method of re-turning (to) the past, refusing the present, and dreaming alternative futures–a re-mixing of temporalities, always grounded in relation, always in an ongoing process of rebecoming. It is a ritual for storytelling, community, memory work, and dreamwork in the era of COVID-19, a time marked by the normalization of eugenic discourses and the erasure of disabled people from the public sphere.

THE REFERENCE TO THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN THE FATES OF THE HEROES FROM SASUN IN M. GALSHOYAN’S COLLECTION OF THE STORIES “THE CLOUDS OF MOUNTAIN MARUTA”. “UNCLE TOROS” AND “THATTON”

Mushegh Galshoyan as a distinguished figure of the newest period of the Armenian literature, depicts the fates of the Sasun dwellers who had to flee from Western Armenia to Eastern Armenia during the Armenian Genocide in his story collection "Clouds of Mountain Maruta". People were united by one common goal: they settled down and built houses, but they did not lose the hope of returning home, they missed their country. Each hero of a story, living in a new reality, uprooted from the motherland and settled in a new land, keeps memories of Yergir alive. In the deep layers of each character‘s minds, those memories become so real and vivid that they unconsciously want to go back to Yergir, with the greatest urge to complete their unfinished life in the realm of dreams and illusions.

ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGE OF KUPANG’S STRAAT ‘A’

"City image" refers to the perception of a city, shaped by visual experiences, social interactions, and cultural influences. It includes physical elements like architecture and landscapes, as well as intangible factors that define the city's identity and functionality.Aims: This research project aims to explore the relationship between the tangible and intangible aspects of the image of Kupang's Straat "A" neighborhood.Methodology and Results: The research first examines Kevin Lynch's city image principles. It documents the physical elements of Straat "A" using tissue analysis maps, followed by an analysis of both physical and non-physical elements through perceptual and experiential approaches. Finally, the dominant elements of Kupang's Straat "A" urban image are interpreted.Conclusion and Impact: The research identifies three of the five physical elements of city image—paths, districts, and nodes—along with dominant non-physical elements like collective stories, identity, social activities, and user experiences. These findings enhance city image theory and offer valuable insights for urban design, particularly for architects and stakeholders.

’’I’m a Woman. Man, Woman, M–Woman.’’ – Identity, Sexuality, and the Body in the Short Fiction of Malika Moustadraf

ABSTRACT This article reads Malika Moustadraf’s recently translated collection of short stories as an instance of a new generation of Moroccan female writing that subverts conventional expectations of female fiction and understanding of gender identities in Morocco. Following a narrative criticism approach, the article investigates how Moustadraf uses fiction to communicate an identity crisis when the experiences of the body toggle between desire and disgust, rot and purity, and ultimately, life and delusion. In Moroccan fiction, identity, the body, and sexuality have often been considered a male territory, mostly explored through male lenses. By tackling issues of gender fluidity, cybersex, and body relations in the Moroccan context as early as the beginning of the twenty-first century, Moustadraf’s short stories contribute to an avant-garde female literary tradition that would only gain ground about two decades later. While female writing has long been conditioned by social expectations for language and themes to be feminine, Moustadraf stands out by breaking through the boundaries of taboo identities and excessively polished writing. A close reading of Moustadraf’s long-lost works provides a fresh perspective on the development of Moroccan fiction and gender consciousness in contemporary Morocco.

A Study on the English Translation of “Taipei People” from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory

The collection of short stories, Taipei People, is one of the representative works of the famous writer Pai Hsien-yung. In this book, Pai portrays characters from different regions and fields vividly, displaying a contrast between the past and the present. The stories in this book are rich in Chinese culture and customs, which is concerned in this paper. This paper compares and analyzes the English translation of Taipei People from four aspects from the perspective of the adaptation theory, namely, contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability, salience of the adaptation processes. It is found that the translators consider the differences in language, culture and social environment between China and western countries, and make translation choices of different degrees of salience of adaptation. They adopt different translation strategies to dynamically adapt to the original book and target readers, make flexible choices according to different contexts, which show the salience and purpose of translators in the translation process. In view of the literary value of Taipei people, this paper hopes to provide some reference for more translators to translate and disseminate Chinese literature.

Graphic Paper: Empowering refugee families in transit: the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package.

Refugee parents who fled conflicts suffered violence and traumas and face huge challenges in supporting the health and welfare of their children while in transit. To describe the development of a culturally competent and compassionate training and support package (TSP) for nurses, social and healthcare workers and volunteers, with a focus on parenting needs among unsettled refugees fleeing conflict. The multi-method approach included: a scoping review covering parenting needs of refugees fleeing conflict zones; collection of stories from refugee parents, healthcare workers and volunteers via a mobile application; discussions between team members; a piloted and evaluated curriculum. High levels of family distress and deterioration of parental identity were identified. Informed by these results, the curriculum is articulated along 20 bite-sized learning units, covering four age stages of childhood as well as targeting adults' well-being. Pilot training was evaluated positively, confirming feasibility and usefulness of the TSP. Unsettled refugee parents fleeing conflicts face psycho-social and practical difficulties negatively affecting their parenting skills. The care workforce should be trained in order to provide culturally competent and compassionate support to help these families. Open access digital platforms are promising as autodidactic and self-help tools among hard-to-reach populations.

Peculiarities of the ‘Body – Soul’ Dichotomy in the Collection of Short Stories by Ludmila Ulitskaya The Body of the Soul.

The article analyses the works of Lyudmila Ulitskaya from the point of view of a dichotomous description of anthropological reality in her new collection of stories The Body of the Soul. The authors come to original conclusions connected with the author’s mythologism, especially with the two-variant narrative line developed by the author in the previous periods of her creative work. We were able to prove that in the case of one of the variants, in the collection The Body of the Soul, the author actually revealed the nature of her religious and theosophical views. At the same time, we have shown that Ulitskaya’s literary imagination is not confined to the existing schemes of the metaphysical world, but, on the contrary, it helps Ulitskaya to present this world more colourfully and vividly. Sometimes, for the sake of plot integrity, the writer deliberately changes the elements in the mosaic of the conceptosphere employed.