Construction Of Characters Research Articles

A narrative of women and war: The Finnish silent era film ‘On the warpath’

This article discusses the film Sotapolulla (‘On the warpath’) (1922), a pioneering work in the early years of Finnish cinema. By highlighting the role that women played during the Finnish Civil War (1918), scriptwriter and director Teuvo Pakkala, a well-known conservative writer, created a model of femininity for the post-war period. The construction of the female characters accords with the standards of femininity in Hollywood silent film, which featured strong, assertive women committed to the social order. Thus Pakkala’s film in significant ways follows the classical model that Noël Burch identifies as an institutional mode of representation.

Chinos and palomillas: Comics, Childhood and Race in Colombia and Peru (1920-1940)

This article examines the comics Para los niños Mojicón and Pedrito, el indiecito estudiante, published between 1920 and 1940 in Bogota and Lima, respectively. I explore how these graphic narratives are part of a moral project within the prevailing white-mestizo social order. In this regard, I reflect on the concept of racial innocence, whiteness, and inferential racism in the construction of child characters and the playful spaces in which their actions unfold. Additionally, I analyse how the discourse of eugenics acts as a catalyst for anxieties and fears associated with race. I argue that the construction of these childhoods portrayed in the comics heavily relied on perpetuating such imagery, reinforcing the notion that healthy and innocent children were synonymous with whiteness. This text seeks to establish the connections between these urban experiences and the representations of childhood life in the Andean cities during the first half of the 20th century.

A conjecture about characters of finite pattern groups

Inspired by Kirillov's orbital method, we propose a conjecture (Conjecture 1.7), which suggests an explicit and exhaustive construction of characters for finite pattern groups via coadjoint orbits. First, we establish the construction for irreducible characters of degree q for finite pattern groups. Second, we verify the conjecture for the case of finite pattern groups contained in U4(Fq), where Un stands for the full unitriangular group of rank n. Finally, we classify irreducible characters for Gn(Fq), a generalization of Heisenberg group, where Gn is the pattern subgroup of Un, associated to the closed set{(1,m),(k,n),(i,n+1−i)|1<m,k<n,1⩽i⩽[n2]},3⩽n∈N. Hence Conjecture 1.7 and the analogous conjectures of Higman, Lehrer and Isaacs holds for Gn(Fq).

Wojna w Ukrainie w publicystyce Justyny Kopińskiej, czyli jak (nie)pisać o wojnie

The article analyses Justyna Kopińska’s collection of reportage and feature articles. The author focuses on the way the war in Ukraine was textualised during the first months of the conflict. She describes the logic of the world of war by referring to the poetics of agon and further analyses such elements as the structuring of the war-torn space, construction of characters, and values of the world in crisis. She also discusses the generic context of Kopinska’s prose and its relation to the poetics of the war reportage.

Research on animation performance based on virtual reality technology

Abstract In this study, we utilize the acquisition device from Open Pose to capture the joint points of human posture. Subsequent to data collection, each joint point undergoes a coordinate regularization process, using the neck coordinates as a reference, to derive human skeleton data. This processed data facilitates the extraction of angles and relative distances among all human body limbs, effectively capturing characteristic feature information. This information is subsequently imported into the Iclone software, where it is refined using a fitting tool to develop a bespoke character model. Following the character's construction, the study leverages NURBS curve modeling and Polygon polygon modeling technologies within the 3D software MAYA to achieve precise scene modeling. This approach culminates in the production of an animated performance that integrates virtual reality technology, with its effects thoroughly analyzed. During Action A, the animation method developed in this study yielded an average running frame rate of 96.54 frames per second, and the average texture size was 6.39 MB. These metrics significantly surpass those achieved by comparative methods. Moreover, the efficiency of animation scene production in this study (0.134339 seconds) substantially exceeds that of the control method (0.273984 seconds), thereby enhancing the level of animation design technology and presenting a more lifelike 3D virtual animation.

Spiritual Succor or Sacrilege? British Catholic Responses to and Interpretations of Wagner’s Parsifal

Abstract: Scholarly knowledge about the interplay of Wagnerian opera and British church history has advanced on an uneven front and has yet to reach lofty heights. Relatively little has been published about how Parsifal , Richard Wagner’s final and arguably most religious opera, was perceived in the United Kingdom. The present study begins to fill that gap by investigating how a spectrum of British Catholics diversely debated such crucial themes as the extent to which Parsifal was a Christian work, the possible mimesis of the Mass in the Holy Grail scenes, the construction of the title character as a symbolic Christ figure, and whether the staging of this work, whose spiritual content was widely acknowledged, could appropriately be performed in a secular setting like the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.

Preliminary Emotion-Based Model for Realistic 3D Animation

3D animators commonly employ facial expressions to convey emotions, yet this method has limitations in fostering audience immersion. Existing guidelines prioritize storytelling, offering limited insight into character construction for immersive experiences. Our investigation seeks to enhance the lifelike movement of animated characters, focusing on audience engagement at specific points. This paper presents empirical findings highlighting the importance of facial and body movements in authentically portraying animated characters’ emotions. Drawing on Shapiro’s 15 controllers for character animation, we conducted an empirical study, examining distinct elements associated with each emotion. Data collection via Likert-scale assessments determined the average agreement for each controller concerning specific emotions. Our results indicate that varied emotions demand unique controllers for optimal realism. Although facial and gaze controllers are integral to all emotions, their intensity differs across emotional states. In response, we propose a preliminary model rooted in basic emotions, offering guidance to animators crafting realistic 3D characters. This model addresses the nuanced requirements of diverse emotions, providing a valuable resource for those seeking to enhance the authenticity of animated character expressions.

Kindergarten Visual-Perceptual and Motor Skills and Behavioral Traits Predict First-Grade Chinese Handwriting Legibility and Speed.

Clarifying the relationship between kindergarteners' characteristics and their future handwriting performance is beneficial for the early detection of children at risk of handwriting difficulties. To determine which visual-perceptual and motor skills and behavioral traits significantly predict kindergartners' Chinese handwriting legibility and speed in the first grade. One-year longitudinal, observational design. Kindergarten and elementary schools. One hundred six kindergarten children (53 boys and 53 girls; ages 5 or 6 yr) were recruited. The participants completed two subtests of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition, Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-Third Edition, Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery™ VMI), and the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Test-Chinese Version in kindergarten. Their handwriting legibility (character accuracy and construction) and speed were assessed by investigator-developed Chinese handwriting tests in the first grade. Multivariate regression analyses indicated the independent predictive power of spatial relationships (p = .042) and inattention (p = .004) for character accuracy. Visual-motor integration (VMI; p = .008) and inattention (p = .002) were the key predictors of character construction. Manual dexterity (p = .001) was the only significant predictor of writing speed. Kindergarteners who perform poorly in spatial relationships, VMI, manual dexterity, and attention are likely to have less legible Chinese handwriting and slow writing speed in first grade. Plain-Language Summary: Children's visual-perceptual and motor skills and behavioral traits in kindergarten can predict their Chinese handwriting legibility and speed in first grade. This study found that kindergarteners who performed poorly in spatial relationships, VMI, manual dexterity, and attention were likely to have less legible Chinese handwriting and slow writing speed in the first grade.

THE MIGRANT OUTLOOK IN COLONIZED AFRICA THROUGH THE NARRATIVE OF ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

As a representation of the currents of change in the world, the migrant inhabits a dialogic space created on the clash of cultures. They are in constant movement as they assemble their own narratives outside well-established national identities. The present study aims to analyse the construction of such character in Paradise (1994) and Afterlives (2020), published by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a writer recognised by his portrayal of the refugee and the migrants in-between the African and European continents. Both novels were set during the period of the German colonization of Africa (end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century) and depict the relationship between the German colonial troops (the schutztruppe) and their native recruits. The relations of power and the contradictory nature of the schutztruppe reflect on the search for belonging in which Yusuf and Hamza, main characters of above mentioned novels, find themselves.

Black literature in the English language classroom: teaching English and building the individual as a critical and sensitive social being with the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

For some time in traditional foreign language teaching, literature occupied the place of teaching object used in the translation method. With the changes in teaching methodology, the literary text has lost its importance in English classrooms. However, literature is resurging and asking for space in this context in conformity with the official documents of education that attribute to the teaching of foreign languages the development of knowledge for the exercise of citizenship. This research aims to analyze the use of literary texts in the English language classroom that through this literacy process facilitates the construction of the student's formative character, collaborating in the reflection about his social practices and actions as a critical and sensitive individual. The short story "Girl" by the black writer Jamaica Kincaid is presented as an alternative object of study, bringing attention to relevant discussions of post-modernity, such as the colonization process, which is responsible for a great part of the identity formation of several peoples. Based on the assumptions of literature as a "humanizing" text (CANDIDO, 2012), transgressive (COSSON, 2016; HOOKS, 2017), and transformative (GONÇALVES; SPECHT, 2018) the research highlights linguistic, cultural, social, and spiritual learning factors of literary texts, contributing to the formation of a society based on equity, solidarity, and respect.

ARTISTIC TRINITY: LITERATURE – CINEMA – MUSIC (THE FILM “EARTH” BY O. DOVZHENKO)

The purpose of the article is to reveal the ideological, thematic, descriptive, intonation-rhythmic consonance of the musical accompaniment of the band “DakhaBrakha” with the film and film story by O. Dovzhenko. The article highlights the role of musical accompaniment in the restored 2012 version of the film “Earth” by the famous Ukrainian director of the twentieth century O. Dovzhenko. This is the first study in which, through the comprehension of the trinity of the samples of music, cinema, and literature, new meanings are revealed in musical compositions and the film, the relevance of the raised existential problems is expressed, the ethnic basis of the concept of characters and the works of art chosen for the analysis as a whole are indicated. The corpus of methods was applied in the research: the cultural-historical method contributed to the understanding of the place, role, and meaning of film, music, and literary texts in contemporary artistic realities; the intermedial approach helped in identifying and characterizing the common, different and peculiar in the pictorial, mood, ideological and thematic, content filling of scenes, micro-episodes, symbolic images and details in samples belonging to various types of arts; the hermeneutic method is applied to reveal and interpret the traditional and innovative in stylistic specificity of the ethno-chaos performance of the “DakhaBrakha” band. Based on the cultural and historical method, the hermeneutic method, and the intermedial approach in the research it was emphasized that the instruments (accordion, drum, cello, ratchet, etc.) involved by the DakhaBrakha musical group, their tonality, rhythm, as well as the Ukrainian folklore samples involved in the content plan contributed to the effective depiction of various states of the main and secondary characters (joy, grief, concentration, sadness, thoughtfulness, etc.), the moods of the peasants, interpersonal relationships, emphasizing the character traits of Ukrainian heroes, hereditary farmers, their natural desire to work on the land and thus self-actualize. The article remarked on the role of pauses in the reflection of emotionally capacious, conceptually important film episodes, micro-episodes, and scenes, enhanced by demonstrative cinematic techniques. The trinity of music, cinematic material, and literary work in the construction of characters and perfect plot layout is emphasized. The musical design of the film “Earth” by O. Dovzhenko, carried out by the ethnic-chaos DakhaBrakha group, accentuates the national selfhood of the Ukrainian character, even though the film tells about collectivization, the purposeful policy of the then Soviet government (the 30s of the twentieth century) to destroy the private property of Ukrainians, to negate the feeling of the owner composed over the centuries. Skillfully combined traditional and innovative stylistic specificity of performing skills of the ethnic-chaos group “DakhaBrakha” contribute to the identification of subtexts, codes for the interpretation of the content of works, actual existential problems, and national originality of the characters. The order, tempo of the musical performance as well as the visual content, that was thought out by the authors of the film, form the musical leading motif of the movie and deepen the understanding of the subtext, symbolic accents of the literary work, emphasize the features of the artistic presentation of the land problem with the help of expressive images of sunflowers, gardens, steppes, fields, oxen, etc. There are a music tempo-rhythmic and tonal-emotional support of frames in the film, that as well performs a peculiar function of sound illustration in the corresponding episodes of the literary text, thus giving the images of main characters and minor characters dynamics and expression. The musical drama of the film “Earth”, audio visualization of the main and secondary characters, repetition, the collision of frames with different plans, landscapes, and the specifics of their location in the frames emphasize the problematic of the literary work, contribute to the multifaceted images of heroes in the literary work and in the film, enhance the understanding of the conflicts (intra-frame, interpersonal, worldview, etc.), testify to the ideological-thematic, compositional, pictorial, emotional-semantic unity of musical, cinematographic and literary texts.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as a 21st-Century Gothic Tale

This paper considers Juan Antonio Bayona’s 2018 film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as a Gothic film which disrupts the archetypal conventions of monster films, especially in relation to the antispeciesist conception of monsters —in this case, the genetically-engineered dinosaurs which feature in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World sagas. Through an analysis of its cinematography, character construction, scenarios and plot development in the light of Gothic Studies, I will argue that this film is not just Gothic in appearance, but also in the sense that itbreaks with contemporary anthropocentric conventions of normalcy, unity and species boundaries, and that it confirms the trend in filmic narratives that takes into account the monsters’ perspectives in order to challenge human exceptionalism.

Analyse av kamp tendenser i kvinnefigurers konstruering i Cecilie Løveids dramatikk

The article explores camp tendencies in female characters in selected plays by Cecilie Løveid. In this study, I consider camp as a political phenomenon. Thanks to hyperbolisation or breaking the rules of the androcentric world, camp allows excluded individuals to regain their voice. Due to their exaggerated nature, camp strategies particularly emphasise the problem of objectification of marginalised groups. Camp depiction of fundamental problems enables Løveid to deconstruct traditional social norms. In her work, camp becomes visible in thematic areas related to the construction of female characters or transgressions of stereotypically understood gender. Therefore, it is essential to include Cecilie Løveid, known for her socially critical literature, in this discourse.

The Narrative Construction of Wang Xifeng's Character in the English Translation of “A Dream of Red Mansions”

The English translations of "A Dream of Red Mansions" by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, as well as by David Hawkes, almost completely replicate the original work, holding significant positions both domestically and internationally. Both versions vividly portray the characters, but there are deficiencies in the depiction of the classic character Wang Xifeng. Based on Mona Baker's narrative construction theory, this paper studies the portrayal of Wang Xifeng in these two translations, revealing that in some translations, the depiction of Wang Xifeng's beauty, brashness, dignified elegance, and cunning charm is somewhat diminished.

Lee Chang-dong Poetry: Feminism from the Male Perspective

With the development of the feminist movement and the concept of feminist cinema, feminist cinema has continued to develop. In recent years, feminist films have received widespread attention, but how to embody feminism from the male perspective in the male-dominated film industry has long been a hotly debated issue. This paper analyses the Korean realist director Lee Chang-dongs film Poetry, combines Foucaults theory of panoramic gaze, analyses the symbolic language in the film, and compares it with the works of other similar directors, aiming to discover the diversity of the presentation of feminist films through the analysis of the film and to explore how the male director can present feminism, to provide a reference meaning for the development of feminist films. It is found that the director presents feminism by symbolising the characters, reconstructing the gaze, and using religious symbols to sublimate the theme. In the film, poetry is also given various meanings to show womens awakening and social problems. The director integrates feminism into the social background through the construction of characters and social environment and shows social problems through womens sufferings.

Poet-Prophet: Stages of Identity Creation in "Cortège"by Guillaume Apollinaire

The theme of prophecy and the rapprochement between the poet and the prophet are present in a large number of texts by Guillaume Apollinaire. We analyze here the poem “Cortège”, immersion in a long fragmented walk which stages the physical and identity construction of the lyrical character through the others, while multiplying the references to the Christic journey. It is here the physical, material encounter with the other that serves to validate the poet's own existence and his creation by attributing demiurgic powers to him. These materialize in the creative act and the author becomes a prophet through his art, accomplishing the transposition, in the form of a poem, of the world he perceives through his five senses. To discover this perception of creation which passes through the construction of oneself and the discovery of the world, we wish to analyze in this article the stages of the creation of the identity of the "I" / "You" / "Guillaume" in the poem "Cortège" and demonstrate that this creation can be seen as the mimesis of the initiatory and prophetic journey.

Construction of Gender Characters under Social Gaze: The Conceptual Alienation of Freedom in Dress and Its Solution

On the Chinese internet, discussions about gender are often focused on by the public. The study aims to interpret how freedom in dress is alienated and discuss the gender characters and the mechanism of social gaze that constructs them. The research implements the method of process tracing in the case study to analyze the phenomenon related to a specific object. This paper includes an objective description and tracking of the event, an analysis of the mechanisms behind the phenomenon, and a generalization of the illustrated mechanism. The conclusion is that the concept of freedom in dress is alienated to be subjective and used as a commendatory phrase. The social gaze is replacing the traditional male gaze in the field and influencing individuals differently. The research emphasizes that academic words are possibly twisted and construct the connection between media, gender, and language. This research will help with understanding the gender discussions of the public and a possible renewed gender model.

The Representation of Love in Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost

Abstract This work analyses the way in which the representation of love in the novel Manon Lescaut by Prévost highlights some important aspects that mark the perception of love in the eighteenth century. Following the literary tradition of Classicism, according to which passionate love is a source of evil and even of the protagonists’ death, in Prévost’s novel, the Chevalier Des Grieux’s passionate love arises from the concern of the Age of Enlightenment to emphasize the importance of individual identity, which implies the freedom and courage to decide on one’s own life, the refusal of one’s positioning in an inherited hierarchy, at the top of which there lies the paternal or divine authority. To illustrate this conviction, Prévost builds a love story in which the male character occupies the privileged place, and femininity does not represent strangeness or otherness but an artificial entity, one created from within the male figure to capture his departure from the original, paradisiacal state of moral perfection. Under these circumstances, the construction of the female character becomes a tribute to the literary tradition of the representation of charm and beauty as sources of the extreme degradation of the male character.

Философская проблема языка в романах Уокера Перси

The aim of the research is to identify the role of language and speech behavior of characters in revealing the author’s philosophical intent in the novels by Walker Percy, namely “Lancelot”, “The Second Coming” and “The Thanatos Syndrome”. The paper is original in that it is the first to substantiate the connection between Percy’s theoretical inquiries in the philosophy of language and the principles of construction of plots and characters’ images in his later novels. Percy finds that the main function of language is not in naming facts of reality or establishing abstract connections between them, but in a person’s realization of the ontological meaning of what is happening through an awareness of the social and vital significance of what is being uttered. Mechanical manipulation of clichéd expressions and the dominance of form over content in speech become indicators of the characters’ internal emptiness and their loss of human essence. The return of individual meaning to spoken words is closely linked to the internal spiritual transformation of the characters. As a result, the research demonstrates that the characters’ speech in Percy’s novels serves an important function in characterizing their existential status: changes in speech signify essential changes in the characters’ nature, their proximity or distance from the understanding of the meaning of life.

Facing Apocalypse: Climate Mobilities and the Cinematic Child

AbstractThis article engages with the representations and meanings of child figures within US films about environmentally induced displacement. At the intersection between film studies, childhood studies, and the emerging scholarship on climate mobilities (Boas et al., 2022), it explores the ways in which three contemporary apocalyptic films—The Road (2009), Take Shelter (2011), and Greenland (2020)— mediate the relationship between mobility and environmental collapse through child characters. It argues that the functions attached to the child in these films—those of seer, victim, and carrier of hope and futurity—work to depoliticize climate mobilities, obscuring the varied aspirations, sociopolitical factors, and power structures that shape mobility choices in the context of environmental threat. As imaginary projections of an upcoming climate collapse, these films provide fertile ground for an exploration of the cultural ideals underpinning the construction of child characters, and the influence these have in the articulation of climate mobilities.