Narrative Context Research Articles

Essays in Narrative and Fictionality: Reassessing Nine Central Concepts

Essays in Narrative and Fictionality: Reassessing Nine Central Concepts

Quantifying Narrative Data in Qualitative Analysis: An Abductive Approach and Interactive Process

The analysis of narrative data frequently raises methodological concerns oscillating between, on the one hand, the necessity to structure and highly heterogeneous and descriptive data for operationalizing analysis and, on the other hand, the interest to preserve the subtlety and context of narration for enhancing analysis. Based on existing research that evidences the inherent coherence of qualitative analysis for narrative data and the operational advantage of quantifying narrative data via textual analysis, this paper presents a methodological exploration combining textual analysis and qualitative content analysis to analyze narrative data. Positioning this methodological process within an abductive approach, this research assesses an analysis conducted on 75 narrative texts written by employees and managers about their work and shows that 1) the textual analysis, with its quantifying techniques, helps peruse and structure narrative data, particularly heterogeneous and massive data; 2) the interaction between quantifying techniques supported by textual analysis and qualitative content analysis based on interpretation favors the interaction between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning during the analytical process and therefore reinforces the interpretative robustness of qualitative content analysis; 3) if qualitative content analysis cannot intrinsically dissociate from the subjective interpretation, textual analysis might provide relative objectifying adjustments to the subjectivity of interpretation. The paper ends by presenting propositions and recommendations with regard to the utilization of quantifying techniques in the qualitative analysis of narrative data.

Introductory Formulas in the Catalogue of Men of Odyssey 11

Abstract In this paper, I examine the formulaic system of the catalogue of men in Odyssey 11. The discursive means at work whenever a catalogue entry is introduced, rest on vision and kinetics. These are two cardinal notions that establish themselves in narrative contexts of male catalogue poetry in the Iliad. Scrutinising the formula-based linguistic register pertaining to visual perception and movement/stasis shows that entry introductory formulas serve as mechanisms of meticulous inner structuring and co-ordination of the narrative material and of outer framing with regard to the preceding free-floating entries and the catalogue of women.

Doctus Amyclas. I presagi della tempesta in Luc. 5.539‒560 tra epica, poesia didascalica e retorica

Abstract In response to Caesar, who intends to reach Antonius in Italy, the boatman Amyclas sets out the celestial and terrestrial signs that foretell a storm and advises against putting out to sea (Luc. 5.539‒560). In this speech Lucan draws on the treatment of such phenomena in the didactic poems of Aratus and Vergil, but the allusions are remodelled in epic language and adapted to the narrative context of the episode. Further, in the story of Amyclas Lucan develops dramatic ideas mentioned in the specific passages in which Aratus and Vergil reflect on the utility of their teachings. Thus the boatman’s meteorological doctrina is highlighted, though he is unable to gain any advantage from it. In fact, in contrast to Palinurus with Aeneas in Aen. 5 and to the rector ratis with Pompey in Luc. 8, Amyclas does not try to dissuade Caesar from the voyage and agrees to accompany him. His speech shows affinities with declamations on the theme of sailing and the presence of adverse omens; however, the speech of Amyclas sounds like a suasoria that has been interrupted. This aspect focuses the impossibility of communication between the two characters: Amyclas, powerlessly external to the civil wars, can only appeal to the force of nature, which Caesar impiously defies.

Religion and Myth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Religion and Myth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Customizable crying and connection: personalization and its effect on player emotion and empathy

Player choice sets video games apart from other visual media, and narrative designers work with game developers to implement tools that allow players to make choices and feel involved. Prior research focuses on games that include emotional themes and character customization, which are seen as effective ways to create empathy between player and protagonist. However, most research compares different games with various levels of customization, opening doors to several confounding variables. To address this gap, it is essential to explore how character customization and narrative context influence player emotion, character connection, morality, and engagement in a single game. This study involved participants playing a custom-built interactive fiction game demo (MOSAIC). Overall, players’ attitudes toward the demo were consistent across all three experimental groups and the control group, although character connection was higher in groups where participants were given additional story information and/or opportunities to customize the protagonist. This is a valuable step towards understanding video games and player emotion, especially considering gaming’s global presence and constant expansion.

Contextual Narratives Associated With Immunization Services During COVID-19 Disease Outbreak in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Background: Essential health services including immunization were significantly impacted due to COVID-19 with devastating outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The disruption in immunization services due to global pandemic and measures undertaken at regional levels to overcome need to be studied as pandemic preparedness strategy.
 Objective: To document the contextual narratives related to immunization services during the Covid-19 disease outbreak by interviewing qualified pediatricians in the field practice area of private tertiary care teaching medical college
 Methodology: In-depth phone-based interviews were conducted with pediatricians in diverse settings during November 2020 to March 2021. Reflexive thematic analysis was performed, major themes identified, and case studies documented.
 Results: Pediatricians shared rich experiences related to immunization services impacted due to COVID-19 especially during the earlier months due to imposition of lockdowns leading to discontinuation, disruption of services, decrease in volume of immunizations, modest transition to telehealth service delivery, facility-level changes brought in to ensure immunization services, capacity building measures for upskilling.
 Conclusions: Contextual narratives revealed in this study provide rich narrative about the disruption of immunization services due to COVID-19. These findings need to be understood and leveraged to be future ready and prevent further disruptions by identifying and scaling up key solutions piloted in this study.

The influence of ICH-narrator/self-congruity on tourist's purchase intention of intangible cultural heritage products in a narrative context

The retailers of intangible cultural heritage products (ICHPs) in tourism destinations tend to open their production space to tourists and select outstanding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) inheritors as narrators of ICH. They aim to create an immersive narrative experience for tourists to promote their purchase intentions. Tourists will achieve self-congruity with ICH narrators in a narrative experience and intend to purchase ICHPs. Moreover, this study takes personal and social brand identities as the mediating variables in the research model to investigate the impact of ICH narrator/self-congruity on the purchase intention of ICHPs in a narrative context. Results indicate that the ICH narrator/self-congruity will have a positive and significant effect on the purchase intention in the narrative experience. In addition, this study reveals that personal and social brand identities play partial mediating roles in the path of ‘ICH narrator/self-congruity→purchase intention of ICHPs’. Finally, the theoretical contribution and practical significance of this study are discussed.

Don Quixote as gamer?

This article proposes the notion of “new media quixotism” and illustrates it with Black Mirror’s episode “USS Callister,” which is interpreted as a metamedial rewriting of the literary myth of Don Quixote. Specifically, I examine how the myth’s core semantic components are rewritten within the context of an sf narrative that is thematically concerned with the effects of the capitalist system of 24/7 audio-visual consumption. My argument is that Black Mirror, together with other recent sf narratives, seems to suggest that so-called “new media” technologies can generate a form of technologically enabled quixotism in human individuals, developing character traits profoundly akin to Don Quixote’s. Thus, as illustration, I focus on how “USS Callister” updates the myth for a satire of the male gamer/geek/nerd stereotype, who is reimagined as a quixotic embodiment of neoliberal, patriarchal individualism in the digital realm. Nonetheless, my underlying assumption is that the sf notion of “new media quixotism” merits further development and study and that, despite its satirical bleakness and its seeming techno-determinism, it also opens subversive, transformative hopes. Overall, the underlying ambivalence of the critical dystopia productively parallels the ambivalence of Don Quixote, who is both an object of satire and a subject of utopianism.

Sport, Nationalism, and the Narration of Cultural Scripts: The Death of Colin Meads and the New Zealand Imagination

This paper explores the narrativization of sports icons within the context of nationalist discourse. The authors explore New Zealand media coverage surrounding the death of Colin Meads in August 2017. Meads, a former all Black rugby captain, coach and administrator, media pundit, and corporate spokesman, was a high-profile public icon. His death was met with saturation national media coverage. The authors’ cultural studies informed analysis of Meads’ narrativization is twofold. First, the authors contextualize the cultural scripts surrounding him prior to his death. Second, they critically read media narrativization following his death within the context ofnarratives of nation. They explore this mediation in the context of intersecting themes of rurality, Whiteness, masculinity, and rugby. Print media coverage widely articulated Meads to the nation as the archetypical “kiwi,” liturgized his contribution to rugby during and after his playing career, and his “no-nonsense” character. In doing so, it reinforced a selective national narrative, premised on a combination ofbothremembering and forgetting. This narrative reaffirms White-settler, male heroism, and rugby as central to New Zealand nationhood and assuages contemporary national anxieties and the cultural hierarchies they entangle.

The need for artificial intelligence curriculum in medical education: A Canadian cross-sectional study of future oncology trainees.

e13583 Background: Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have diverse applications in medicine, with early evidence suggesting that AI tools can accurately perform key tasks in oncology. As AI tools advance towards clinical implementation, skills in how to use and interpret AI in a healthcare setting could become integral for physicians. This study seeks to assess exposure to AI in medical education among trainees interested in pursuing a career in oncology, and the need for AI education in medicine. Methods: A 32 question survey for Canadian undergraduate medical students was distributed to students at all 17 Canadian medical schools. The survey assessed the currently available and perceived need for learning opportunities about AI and barriers to educating about AI in medicine. Interviews were conducted with participants to provide narrative context to survey responses. Likert scale (LS) survey questions were scored from 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree), and analyzed using a two-sided one sample t-test vs a neutral value. Interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Results are described as mean LS score ± standard deviation. Results: We received 486 responses from 17 of 17 medical schools. Of these respondents, 98 (20.2%) are willing to pursue a residency in an oncology-related field (pathology, radiology, general surgery, internal medicine, radiation oncology). Respondents agreed that AI applications in medicine would become common in the future (3.80±0.38) and would improve medicine (3.71±0.54). Further, respondents agreed that they would need to use and understand AI during their medical careers (3.76±0.572; 3.43±0.773), and that AI should be formally taught in medical education (3.43±0.756). In contrast, a significant number of participants indicated that they did not have any formal educational opportunities about AI (1.76±0.785) and that AI-related learning opportunities were inadequate (2.12±0.802). Interviews with 18 students were conducted. Emerging themes from the interviews were a lack of formal education opportunities and logistical challenges in adding AI to curriculum. Conclusions: A lack of educational opportunities about AI in medicine were identified across Canadian medical students. Given that medical students overwhelmingly believe that AI is important to the future of medicine, and AI tools are currently progressing towards clinical implementation, AI should be considered for inclusion in formal medical curriculum.

Assessing inference production in 5 to 7-year-olds: Benefits of using a pictorial task

IntroductionThis study focuses on the methodology used to assess children's inferential skills in a narrative comprehension context with children aged between 5 to 7 years. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to test the validity of a pictorial task based on children's literature to probe children's ability to make inferences at different times during the listening of fictional stories. MethodThe task involves selecting one of three vignettes which best illustrates what is currently happening in the story (i.e., inferential vs. literal vs. off-topic). The choices expressed here are compared to those made during a preference task performed by the same students, which consists of selecting the vignette they like the most among each series presented in the comprehension task. ResultsFirst, based on the analysis of the data collected in the comprehension task, children most often select inferential vignettes. Second, the choices expressed in the comprehension task differ from those expressed in the preference task. ConclusionThese results confirm the relevance of using children's literature associated with a pictorial task to test children's inferential skills, even with preschoolers.

A Narrative of Spirituality and Ageing: Reflections on the Ageing Journey and the Spiritual Dimension

Religion, in the context of healing and health, has a long history reaching back through the millennia influencing, and being influenced by cultures and societies. More recently, spirituality has become more widely recognised as a real component of healthcare. This article presents a brief reflection of the development of knowledge and practices in spirituality and ageing from an historical perspective, before considering more recent developments in these fields. Connections between understandings of religion and spirituality are considered, and especially in Western societal contexts, touching on the growing secularization of Western societies in general, and on the rise of spirituality within societies. The focus of the article, then moves to discussion of how different disciplines within health, ageing, and theology see spirituality and religion finally moves to a consideration of ways forward in research to inform theory and practice in the fields of spirituality and ageing. Understanding the context of narrative, personal and communal, and its place in making sense of being human and being in community, is woven throughout the article.

“Those who are well”: Lessons from COVID for non-crisis times via Matthew 9:9-13

As the world shifts to the next phase of the pandemic, bioethicists need to consider anew what moral responsibility looks like during non-crisis times. This article turns to the calling of Matthew (Matt 9:9-13) to provide biblical insights Christians can use to contribute to this bioethical conversation. Drawing on the narrative context, which buries this pericope within a section of the gospel focusing on Jesus’s healing ministry, this article explains how the calling of Matthew underscores the holistic vision of health and well-being animating Jesus’s work as a healer and adds to Jesus’s primary emphasis on restoration for the marginalized. Examining Jesus’s claim that “those who are well have no need of a physician,” this article argues that Christians can best embrace this broad vision of healing by prioritizing public health so that the community will be better prepared to weather the next health crisis, should it emerge.

Investigation of the Relationship between Semantic Information and Verbal Working Memory in Children with Typical Developing, Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between semantic knowledge and verbal working memory (VWM) in children with typical development (TD), Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Descriptive research and relational research methods were used in the design of the research.Children in the study group were matched with the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test according to their non-verbal intelligence score.The study group of the study consisted of 17 TD children aged 4-5 years and 14 DS and 15 ASD children whose nonverbal intelligence ages are between 4-5 years.Semantic knowledge was evaluated in the dimensions of vocabulary breath and vocabulary depth.The language sample collected in narrative context was used to evaluate of vocabulary breath. Vocabulary Depth Test (VDT) was used to assess vocabulary depth.VWM was assessed with the Nonsense Word Repetition Test (NWR).The results of the research revealed that all groups showed significant differences in vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth and VWM performances.It was found that there was a significant and positive relationship between vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth and VWM in all groups.VMW predicted vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth in children with TD and DS.Vocabulary breadth was found to predict vocabulary depth in children with TD and ASD.However, VMW did not predict vocabulary breadth and depth in ASD.The results obtained from the study show that the results differ in the two different diagnostic groups.While the results were discussed regarding the contribution of verbal working memory in the acquisition of semantic knowledge in DS, the importance of word width in the acquisition of word depth in ASD was discussed. In addition, it has been suggested to examine different variables that may be effective in the development of semantic knowledge in both diagnostic groups.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF MARINE GENETIC RESOURCES: FILLING THE GAPS OF THE UNITED NATION CONVENTION ON THE LAW OF THE SEAS

Objective: We seek to understand the definition of marine genetic resources and marine biological resources, placing it in the historical context of narratives of international law of the sea. We seek to look into the content of common heritage of mankind towards MGRs. We seek to analyze the international legal framework of extraction and use of MGRs while securing easy access to them in accordance with the concept of common heritage of mankind. We seek to investigate the international legal regulation of biopiracy in legal research. The authors consider the importance of necessity to fulfil the lack of the universal definition of biopiracy in relation to MGRs in International Law of the Sea.Methodology: The research uses general scientific and special cognitive techniques wherein legal analysis and synthesis, systemic, formal-legal, comparative-legal, historical-legal and dialectical methods are applied.Results: We found out that for the first time ever, the legal protection of the intangible MGR heritage belonging to indigenous peoples and local communities is going to be universally fixed by maritime law. The law will also establish a special mechanism to control the concerned parties’ access to this knowledge. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples falls within the definition of intangible cultural heritage. This fact raises a question about an overlap between the future Agreement and the Convention for the Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Though the sphere that is going to be regulated by the future Agreement is very specific, many of its provisions build upon the previously adopted international legal instruments like the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the IOC Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology. Moreover, the scope of the Agreement might overlap with the scope of other international instruments, which have nothing to do with marine law, marine ecology, and marine biodiversity, e.g. the Convention for the Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage. All the aforementioned aspects should trigger further studies of the legal framework of marine genetic and biological resources. The authors came to the conclusion to extend the concept of the common heritage of mankind to marine genetic resources and we found out the fact that the lack of international legal regulation of the extraction and use of marine genetic resources while securing facilitated access to them in accordance with the concept of the common heritage of mankind, which may lead to an increase in the commission of acts of biopiracy.Contributions: Following a review of the content, we raised possible problems, strategies, suggestions and guidelines for the marine genetic resources and biopiracy.The authors conclude that the implication of the principle of the common heritage of mankind to MGRs may further generate conflicts of law because it is impossible to imply this principle to the high seas. On top of it, the simplified access to MGRs together with the lack of protection of intellectual rights to MGRs and genetic information may result in the overexploitation of marine and oceanic resources as well as the spread of biopiracy. We also point out that it is necessary to find a balance between the freedoms of the high seas, the safeguard of MGRs, and the protection of intellectual property rights to genetic information or marine biotechnologies. The researches considered the distinction between the concepts of marine biological and marine genetic resources and revealed the problems of international legal regulation of the use of marine genetic resources. The authors conclude that generalization of the international legal framework for regulating the use of marine genetic resources needs legal improvement. The authors encourage the complement to the international legal regulation of the universal definition of marine genetic resources and biopiracy.

Mothers and friends as listeners for adolescent anger narration: Distinct developmental affordances.

Narrating emotional experiences to important others contributes to socioemotional and self-development from early childhood through adulthood. However, to date, almost no work has explored the distinctive ways that different listeners might shape narration, and the socioemotional outcomes of narrating experience. The present study examines how early adolescents (n = 106, age range 12-14, 54 girls, 21% low-income, 7% Latinx, 3% non-White) narrate anger experiences to mothers and close same-sex friends. Our findings suggest that these two listeners provide distinct affordances for narration, with implications for emotions and learning. Mothers provide a more elaborative, emotion-focused narrative context, whereas friends provide a playful, creative narrative context. Friends elicit larger reductions in distress than mothers, although listener-associated differences in learning were more complex. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for narrative development specifically as well as more generally for relatively underexamined aspects of narrative across adolescence and adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

God’s Promise to Hagar in Genesis 16: Rethinking a Problematic Text

God made an incredible promise to Hagar in Gen 16.12; however, the beauty of the promise gets lost in translation. Our English Bibles typically render this promise in a pejorative manner, which has led to centuries of stigmatizing Arabs, primarily Muslim Arabs. The polyvalence of the Hebrew in the verse opens the door for significantly different renderings of God’s promise. Thus, the assumptions translators bring to the text can easily shape their understandings. This paper works through the Hebrew and proposes a suitable alternative to traditional renderings, one that is sensitive to the immediate narrative context and to the broader biblical record. Fresh reflection on this verse can lead to corrected translations and the intentional elimination of any sacred justification for this stigmatization.

Stephen Foster and the Slavery Question

Stephen Foster and the Slavery Question

Dickens in Chol

AbstractThis study examines differences in gesture production in narrative contexts between American and Chol Mayan speakers at the narrative, metanarrative, and paranarrative levels of discourse, as well as differences in the production of linear temporal gestures. First, a comparison is made between the gestures produced by speakers of American English and Chol, a Western Maya language, as they tell the story of A Christmas Carol to an interviewer. The study shows a dire contrast between the American and Chol interpretation of this classic novel, and notable differences in the speech-accompanying gestures used by Americans and Chol Mayans respectively. American speakers’ temporal utterances are often accompanied by the well-documented lateral timeline gestures, where earlier events are located to the left of the gestural space, and later events are located to the right of the gestural space. By contrast, in Chol utterances no lateral, sagittal, or vertical timeline gestures accompany any form of temporal reference; the vast majority of gestures co-occur with metanarrative and paranarrative statements and have no explicit temporal content. The second part of the study analyzes the gestures made by a Chol speaker while telling a traditional story. A qualitative analysis of this traditional narrative shows that, when telling a story of the Chol tradition that is well known to the speaker, pragmatically-motivated gestures that occur at the metanarrative and paranarrative levels are much fewer than gestures occurring at the narrative level. In this traditional narrative, the gestures co-occurring with sequential, deictic temporal expressions and temporal metaphors did not reflect any kind of timeline that resembled those made by the American speakers in the Dickens in Chol task.