ABSTRACT Genre fiction dominates the contemporary literary landscape and shapes how people read. Defined by recurring formal conventions—familiar plots, archetypal characters, and established worldbuilding tropes—and sustained by powerful publishing and marketing systems, genre fiction offers distinctive narrative dynamics with rich potential for English Language Arts (ELA) instruction. Drawing on contemporary literary theory and the sociology of the novel, this conceptual article identifies four such dynamics: (1) iterability, the patterned repetition of narrative elements; (2) narrative interest, the strategic use of suspense, curiosity, and surprise; (3) serialization, the unfolding of stories across multiple installments; and (4) spectacle, the amplification of dramatic or maximalist moments. We argue that attending to these dynamics can help educators make the interpretive processes of literary reading more visible to students, fostering deeper engagement, inclusivity, and interpretive flexibility. We also outline how these dynamics can be operationalized in empirical research to investigate interpretive work in real time, examine how readerly practices developed through genre fiction transfer to other literary forms, and analyze how cultural and commercial forces mediate these processes. By integrating genre fiction into both curricular design and literacy research, educators and scholars can better understand and leverage the narrative strategies that define much of contemporary reading culture. In doing so, they can connect literacy pedagogy to the realities of students' reading lives, expand the scope of disciplinary inquiry, and contribute to ongoing conversations about literary interpretation, engagement, and the role of disciplinary practices in a changing textual landscape.

Effective medical practice relies on solid theoretical and technical training, interpersonal competence, and emotional intelligence, competencies that begin to develop during undergraduate education. Medical students, however, are exposed to intense academic and social demands marked by constant expectations of productivity and excellence, consistent with Byung-Chul Han’s concept of the “fatigue society.” In this context, reduced sleep and psychological strain have become increasingly common, driven by the pursuit of high academic performance and curricular distinction. Concurrently, interest in cognitive enhancement—defined as the use of psychoactive substances by healthy individuals to improve concentration and productivity—has expanded as a coping strategy for academic overload. This integrative literature review examines the relationship between performance pressure, sleep quality, and psychotropic substance use among medical students. The analyzed studies indicate that sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality are consistently associated with mood disturbances, cognitive impairment, memory deficits, and reduced overall well-being. Additionally, non-prescribed use of stimulants, anxiolytics, and antidepressants is frequently reported, despite evidence linking these practices to dependence, adverse effects, masking of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and potential declines in academic performance. The literature suggests that contemporary hyperproductivity culture reinforces a harmful cycle of self-demand, sleep restriction, and pharmacological compensation. These findings highlight the importance of institutional support, early identification of psychological distress, and the promotion of non-pharmacological strategies to protect mental health and sleep quality. Addressing these factors is essential to foster balanced medical training and safeguard the well-being of future physicians.

ABSTRACT Drawing upon semi-structured online interviews conducted with Chinese women online fiction fans, this paper explores their affective reading practices of women-oriented online fiction. Fans often project their own uncertainties, desires, and struggles onto fictional characters, moving beyond the fixed subject position of their real-life experience. Through identification with fictional characters, fans experience possible moments of counter-identification, disidentification, self-identification, and cross-gender identification. I argue that affect is central to these engagements, as experiences of discomfort, resonance, and desire allow fans to critique gender norms and imagine alternative subjectivities. Online fiction thus emerges as a key site of feminist and queer world-making in contemporary Chinese digital culture.

This article examines the prominence of infographics within the contemporary visual culture of global maternal health advocacy, exploring their aesthetic, narrative and semiotic power. Infographics are a ubiquitous sensory and aesthetic feature of the global health space, filling the pages of annual reports and websites of United Nations (UN), Non-Governmental organization (NGO) and government agencies and on display in the exhibition halls and power point presentations at international conferences. I focus on the social and political work that infographics do, observing the ways in which they go beyond their remit of conveying information and rendering complex numerical data in a neutral and accessible way. I begin by describing two key historical precedents in data visualization, highlighting the pioneering work of Florence Nightingale and W.E.B. Du Bois who used data visualizations as tools in their advocacy projects of social and institutional change. Infographics in the global maternal health advocacy space, I argue, are likewise calculated appeals, combining numbers with color and compelling imagery to move the viewer to awareness and action. Further, they tend to follow a contemporary neoliberal script that frames maternal survival in terms of investment, empowerment, and economic potential. In this way they shape how we understand the problem of maternal mortality and they legitimize solutions that can be taken up by policy makers and funders. This analysis contributes to broader anthropological conversations about visuality, biopolitics, and the humanitarian logic and procedural aesthetics of the contemporary global health enterprise.

This essay examines the tension between cultural redundancy and the myth of originality, tracing a line from Benjamin’s notion of mechanical reproduction to the landscape of contemporary algorithmic culture. It connects Rancière’s concept of the distribution of the sensible with the statistical normalization of perception in the digital era, where aesthetics converge into homogeneous, “good-enough” forms shaped by automation and data metrics. The emotional register, informed by Ngai’s theory of weak affects, reflects this flattening, generating a muted fascination optimized for ongoing engagement. Drawing on Steyerl, Hui, and other critical voices, the essay critiques the erosion of judgment and the avant-garde, proposing that aesthetic agency now resides in navigating the ambient, algorithmically curated flow of modern media. It positions Filterworld’s homogenized aesthetics within broader histories of mass standardization and cultural flattening. Today, judgment endures as attention—statistical, affective, and ambient—demonstrating that even the most diluted forms maintain an underlying structure.

The Truman Show Delusion (TSD) is a modern delusional theme in which an individual believes their life is a fabricated reality show. This report details the case of a 30-year-old female social media influencer who developed TSD, illustrating the unique vulnerability posed by digital lifestyles. Following a decline in online engagement and a personal conflict, she developed beliefs that her life was being live-streamed via hidden cameras, with strangers and family members acting as co-conspirators. She presented with paranoia, anxiety, and referential delusions. Treatment involved antipsychotic medication (risperidone), supportive therapy, and structured digital hygiene. Her symptoms improved significantly over three weeks. This case underscores how the phenomenology of psychosis is shaped by contemporary culture, particularly for individuals whose identity and self-worth are intertwined with online validation. It highlights the diagnostic challenge of distinguishing pathological delusions from normative influencer behaviors and stresses the need for mental health professionals to be adept at recognizing technology-themed psychotic symptoms.

ABSTRACT This study examines how young netizens in post-pandemic China use novel diagnostic metaphors to articulate embodied distress and everyday critique. Focusing on the meme “officially diagnosed as X” on Xiaohongshu (RED), it draws on Critical Metaphor Analysis within a qualitatively driven mixed-methods framework. The analysis shows how mundane or absurd entities (e.g. fictional personas or food items) are reworked into self-diagnostic labels that make bodily and affective vulnerability publicly intelligible. Beyond stylistic play, these metaphorical diagnoses foreground the “sick body” as a moral and cultural site for negotiating dominant norms of health, productivity, and normalcy, while enabling shared feelings of exhaustion, precarity, and ironic detachment, and supporting everyday adjustment in contexts where crisis is experienced as ordinary. The practice is internally ambivalent: while exposing normative pressures, it may also reproduce diagnostic classifications and shift structural critique into symbolic expression. The study contributes to debates on diagnostic metaphorical novelty, affective politics, and vernacular meaning-making in contemporary Chinese youth digital culture.

The age of disruption—driven by digital transformation, rapid cultural shifts, and emerging ethical challenges—demands a renewed theological framework for Christian ethics and education. This study aims to develop a missional contextual theology that provides an integrated foundation for scholars, practitioners, and faith-based educators in responding to disruptive social and technological realities. The research seeks to articulate how Christian ethical formation and educational praxis can faithfully participate in the missio Dei while remaining contextually engaged with contemporary digital culture. Using a qualitative theological methodology, this study integrates biblical-theological reflection, contextual hermeneutics, and interdisciplinary analysis of missiology, ethics, and Christian education. Drawing on Bosch’s concept of mission as participation in God’s redemptive movement and Bevans’s dialogical–incarnational model of contextual theology, the article proposes that Christian ethics must be understood as active alignment with God’s justice, love, and holiness. Meanwhile, Christian education is reframed as a transformative pedagogical practice that equips communities of faith to embody the Gospel meaningfully within digital, cultural, and ecclesial spaces. The study concludes that a missional-contextual theological approach offers a constructive and holistic framework for cultivating moral integrity, spiritual discernment, and transformative agency amid disruptive global conditions. Its primary contribution is the development of an interdisciplinary model that strengthens the theoretical and practical foundations of Christian ethics and education, providing valuable guidance for theologians, ministry practitioners, and Christian educators in navigating the complexities of the digital age.

This study investigates the evolving dynamics of parasocial interaction within local BTS fan communities in Indonesia. Their engagement extended beyond merely drawing motivation from idols, reflecting instead their participation in broader social collectives. Employing a digital ethnographic approach, the research explores how parasocial interaction—traditionally conceptualized as a one-sided, imaginary relationship between fans and celebrities—transforms into a complex social mechanism that fosters community solidarity. The findings highlight three key insights: (1) Parasocial interaction not only serves as a basis for emotional attachment between fans and idols but also functions as a catalyst for reciprocal social relationships within the fandom; (2) Rather than being purely individual, parasocial engagement becomes communal, with solidarity constructed through collaborative practices, symbolic exchange, and ongoing negotiation of meaning; and (3) The communities formed through these dynamics exhibit a distinctive cohesiveness, wherein parasocial bonds with idols strengthen offline social networks among fans. This study thus contributes to sociological discourse on media and digital communities, while reaffirming the significance of fandom studies in understanding the cultural transformations of contemporary popular culture.

The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of the influence of TikTok trends on the process of popularising pop vocal art in the 21st century. The methodology is based on a comprehensive approach that combines several research methods. In particular, it uses cultural analysis, which is necessary to consider the TikTok platform as a phenomenon of contemporary mass culture; a comparative method, which allows us to compare traditional forms of popularising pop vocals with 21st-century digital practices; and content analysis, which is used to study popular videos with pop vocal elements on TikTok in detail, particularly in the Ukrainian and European segments of this platform. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the systematic analysis of the influence of TikTok trends on the development and popularisation of pop vocal art in the context of contemporary European and Ukrainian musical culture. Conclusions. The study found that TikTok, as a phenomenon of 21st-century digital culture, has a significant impact on the process of popularising pop vocal art, changing both the ways in which music is perceived and the mechanisms of creative self-realisation of performers. The platform is a powerful tool for democratising the musical space, as it provides direct contact between the artist and the audience without the mediation of traditional media. TikTok trends are shaping new stylistic and aesthetic benchmarks in vocal art-shortening musical fragments, emphasising emotional expression, and focusing on the visual component of performance. For Ukrainian pop music, this network has become an important platform for cultural communication, thanks to which contemporary performers are integrating into the European musical context while preserving their national identity.

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a critical framework that merges Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP) with Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle to explicate the discourses surrounding digital technologies. Although CDP offers an analytic lens for examining how language constructs subjectivities, identities and ideological frameworks, it has yet to fully address the logics of commodification that characterise digital capitalism, where technologies are discursively framed, commodified and consumed as images of empowerment, productivity and well‐being. Drawing on Debord's critique of mediated social relations, this paper proposes a Debord‐influenced CDP that situates discursive practices within broader economies of visibility and performance. Through this synthesis, I argue that discourses of self‐care, digital innovation, agency and autonomy function both to legitimise neoliberal ideals and to obscure structural inequalities underpinning technological development. The paper highlights how this combined framework can be employed to analyse and reveal the ideological dilemmas, subject positions and interpretative repertoires that reinforce the spectacle of digital technologies and, in doing so, it can challenge psychology's complicity in reproducing these logics. Through the integration of discursive micro‐analysis with Debord's macro‐critical lens, this approach advances a politically attuned methodology for examining the intersection of language, technology and power in contemporary digital culture.

This research examines the lyrics of Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR album through Michael Riffaterre’s semiotic framework and Anna Freud’s defense mechanisms, complemented by Vaillant’s hierarchy. The research aims to identify both literal and connotative meanings by applying heuristic and hermeneutic readings, while also uncovering the unconscious emotions represented through figurative devices such as metaphor, irony, imagery, symbolism, and rhetorical expressions. Furthermore, the study explores the defense mechanisms reflected in the lyrics as psychological responses to emotional experiences such as heartbreak, jealousy, denial, and loss of self-worth. The findings indicate that the lyrics in SOUR employ intricate figurative language that functions as an expressive medium for emotional complexity and demonstrate the presence of defense mechanisms across immature, neurotic, and mature levels. These results show that popular music lyrics can serve as a rich academic object for linguistic and psychological inquiry, contributing to the advancement of literary studies, semiotics, and psychological criticism within the landscape of contemporary popular culture.

This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) mediated visual narratives in aespa’s music videos construct and circulate South Korean cultural identity within the global digital sphere. Grounded in Stuart Hall’s theory of representation, the research adopts an interpretive qualitative approach using an intrinsic case study design. Two official music videos, Next Level (2021) and Savage (2021), are analyzed as cultural texts rather than entertainment products. Through systematic visual analysis, the study investigates how AI-driven aesthetics such as digital avatars, metaverse environments, glitch effects, and posthuman imagery interact with traditional Korean cultural symbols, including hanbok-inspired costumes, mythological references, architectural motifs, choreography, and linguistic hybridity (Konglish). The findings reveal that AI functions not as a neutral production tool but as a representational system that actively articulates meaning. By strategically combining tradition and futurism, aespa’s visual narratives produce a hybrid form of “Koreanness” that is simultaneously locally rooted and globally legible. This hybrid identity is encoded by the entertainment industry through AI-mediated visuals and decoded by global audiences within digital platforms, enabling the effective circulation of South Korean cultural identity without erasing cultural specificity. The study contributes to digital cultural studies by demonstrating that AI operates as a cultural agent within popular media, shaping how national identity is negotiated, commodified, and reimagined in contemporary global culture.

ABSTRACT This research contributes to debates on self-branding, affective labour, and gender performance by demonstrating how digital femininity is not only visualized but also strategically commercialized in contemporary social media cultures. We aim to examine how female influencers who adopt the tradwife identity on Instagram commodify femininity, domesticity, and conservative gender roles within the framework of platform capitalism. Drawing on a visual thematic analysis of 100 posts from 10 tradwife influencers, we coded nine major and fifty minor themes to explore patterns of domestic representation, aesthetic labour, and ideological messaging. Grounded in feminist media theory and postfeminist critique, the study reveals that femininity is reframed not as subservience but as a marketable lifestyle marked by serenity, care, and curated authenticity. The results demonstrate that themes like Appearance & Style, Family & Relationships, and Domestic Labor & Food dominate visual content, particularly among influencers who run their own businesses. The complementary quantitative analyses also show significant relationship between visual strategies and monetization patterns. Our findings suggest that tradwife branding operates as both a commercial and ideological enterprise: promoting submission as elegance, motherhood as entrepreneurship, and tradition as emotional aesthetics.

Anti-Japanese war comedies have become a visible strand of contemporary Chinese screen culture, blending patriotic memory with comedic ridicule of Japanese invaders. Yet it remains unclear how audiences interpret this mixture of entertainment and nationalist messaging. This study examines how Chinese viewers interpret the anti-Japanese war comedy Hands Up! (2003), focusing on their intercultural competence, humor appreciation, and nationalist orientation. Drawing on intercultural communication and humor theory, the research explores how these audience traits affect responses to the film’s satirical portrayal of Japanese soldiers. The methodology combines a survey (N=250) using structural equation modeling with in-depth qualitative interviews (N=15). Results indicate that viewers with higher intercultural competence report greater appreciation of the film’s humor and more nuanced interpretations, whereas strong nationalist orientation predicts stronger alignment with the film’s patriotic message. Humor appreciation partially mediates the relationship between intercultural competence and interpretation. Qualitative interviews reveal that audiences both laughed at and reflected on the film’s exaggerations, showing an interplay of entertainment and ideological resonance. These findings highlight the complex role of humor in politically charged media: while the comedic dehumanization of the “enemy” reinforces nationalist narratives, viewers’ cultural competence can temper simple ingroup/outgroup reading. The study contributes to theory by linking individual difference variables with audience reception of visual political discourse. It also provides practical insight into how war comedies function as cultural texts in contemporary China. The research underscores the importance of considering intercultural skill and ideology in understanding media effects in nationalist contexts.

This article presents a corpus of the language of the inhabitants of Polish Spisz as a source for research on contemporary rural culture. The first part provides basic information about this electronic collection of audio recordings and their transcriptions. The second part characterises the shepherding rituals of the Spisz highlanders (including, for example, herding sheep, shepherds’ occupations) on the basis of material extracted from the database. Although the topic was chosen arbitrarily, it aptly illustrates the content of the Spisz Dialect Corpus. The examples under discussion demonstrate that the “speech archive” in question, which is available to the public, serves as a significant repository of information about folk traditions, identity patterns and values, and provides novel insights into the customs of the Spisz people. The analysis further reveals the nature of the data contained in the dialectal interviews, the manner in which the Corpus can be used, and the difficulties that a person browsing this resource may encounter.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the interaction between historical power dynamics and contemporary visual culture. The study obtained the quantitative data through a questionnaire from 473 participants, whereas interviews were used to collect the qualitative data with 56 participants by following the purposive sampling technique. NVivo was used to evaluate qualitative data, and SPSS (version 26) was used to examine quantitative data. Regression results indicated that historical power dynamics significantly predict thematic content (β = 0.585, p < 0.05), marginalised artists’ critique (β = 0.698, p < 0.01) and equitable evolution (β = 0.756, p < 0.01). Structural model analysis further confirmed these relationships (β = 0.503–0.653, p < 0.05). ANOVA results revealed significant variations in perceptions across age and occupation groups. Qualitative findings complemented these outcomes, showing that contemporary artists reinterpret historical events, challenge power hierarchies and amplify marginalised voices through their art. The study’s novelty lies in the evolution of how historical power dynamics shaped the thematic content of contemporary art and contemporary artist participation to break the barriers in the past. This study reveals how historical power dynamics continue to shape contemporary visual culture, influencing artistic expression, audience interpretation and the struggle for inclusivity and representation.

ABSTRACT We propose that Orlando Gibbons’s consort anthem ‘See, See the Word is Incarnate’ is linked to a wider phenomenon in visual culture surrounding the imagery of the instruments of Christ’s Passion, the arma Christi. Taking a bold interdisciplinary approach, we use close reading to show how this visual tradition manifested in intermedial ways. This case study is indicative of a type of exchange between art forms that was fundamental to English artistic practice and devotional experience. Our analysis connects this music to the Passion’s long history with sight, exploring broader contexts for Gibbons’s invocation to ‘see’. We view this song as an experiment in musical intermediality, exemplifying the fluidity between the visual, textual, and musical practices of early modern England. It expands current understanding of the piece’s connections to contemporary visual culture, while examining music’s potential as a potent act of extraordinary meditation within England’s complex post-Reformation confessional landscape.

This article examines the traditional beliefs of Turkic peoples and their significant influence on the national culture of Uzbekistan. The study explores the historical, social, and cultural aspects of the spiritual heritage of Turkic peoples, focusing on Tengriism, ancestor worship, animistic, and shamanistic practices. The processes of transformation of these beliefs under Islamization and their preservation in folk customs, folklore, rituals, and symbolism are analyzed in detail. The article emphasizes the significance of syncretism, through which ancient beliefs integrate into religious and cultural systems, forming stable cultural traditions. It highlights the impact of traditional beliefs on ethical norms, artistic imagery, folk festivals, crafts, and social life. The study demonstrates that ancient Turkic spiritual practices continue to significantly influence the contemporary national culture of Uzbekistan and serve as an important factor in preserving cultural identity in the context of globalization. The findings of this research can be applied in ethnographic, cultural, historical, and religious studies, as well as in educational and cultural programs.

This article explores the transnational trajectories that inform and present themselves through category romances written by diasporic Indian authors and published by Harlequin Mills &amp; Boon (HM&amp;B), focusing on how cultural diversity is shaped and marketed within the persistently unequal book culture. Diasporic authors like Sophia Singh Sasson, Tara Pammi, Ruby Basu and Mona Shroff contribute towards the recently emerging list of multicultural works in the romance genre, as well as its most historically prominent publishing enterprise — HM&amp;B. In what Mark McGurl calls “the age of Amazon,” these multicultural works circulate transnationally, frequently through digital marketplaces. This article re-interprets the walkthrough method, examining pages of Amazon.com , Amazon.com.au, and Amazon.in for a comparative study of availability, categorization, and prices of works by the above-mentioned authors, across countries positioned differently on the centre-periphery spectrum in book culture as well as the North-South divide under global capitalism. Loosely borrowing the concept of a “one and unequal” literary system from scholarship on world literature and applying it to Kim Wilkins, Beth Driscoll, and Lisa Fletcher’s concept of popular “genre worlds”, this article argues that the anglophone romance genre world is one and unequal, and that this characteristic directly informs how the genre shapes diversity and representation in contemporary book culture.