Fictional Narratives Research Articles

Redefining from the Rural: Rape, Revenge and Masculine Identity in Bajocero (2021)

Catalan director Lluís Quílez’s 2021 Netflix film, Bajocero ostensibly tells the story of men against nature. This article views the film as a rape-revenge thriller that narrativizes a ‘traditional’ masculine identity in crisis and attempts to rehabilitate via an ideal Spanish masculine based in the rural. Released in the aftermath of La manada rape trial, the film burdens the male body with both the believing of women and enacting justice. As one of the first fictional narratives to take on rape in post-manada Spain, the film provides an opportunity to address masculinity in relation to violence against women.

Confronting decisions related to the termination or continuation of doctoral supervision: a supervisor perspective

Purpose This paper explores theoretical perspectives on supervisors' pedagogical dilemmas when deciding whether to terminate or continue problematic supervision relationships. This paper aims to unravel the complexities and challenges inherent in such decision-making processes while also discussing potential support mechanisms for supervisors. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a reflective narrative approach, this paper presents a fictional narrative to illustrate the intricacies of doctoral supervision. The narrative is divided into three parts, each followed by an analysis rooted in theoretical perspectives. Findings This article offers guidelines across individual, departmental and organisational levels to address critical moments in doctoral supervision. By incorporating various strategies and perspectives, it helps to understand the dilemmas that supervisors may encounter. A decision-making support guide is also provided to suggest ways of handling these challenging situations. Practical implications Drawing from theoretical perspectives, this paper offers practical solutions. A supervision support guide is developed to help establish support mechanisms at different levels, assisting supervisors in managing critical moments in doctoral supervision. Originality/value Addressing a rarely discussed issue, this paper highlights the complexity of supervisors' decisions regarding the termination of PhD students. It not only sheds light on these difficult choices but also offers practical guidelines for supervisors navigating such scenarios.

Sharing Stories Versus Explaining Facts: Comparing African American Children's Microstructure Performance Across Fictional Narrative, Informational, and Procedural Discourse.

Both fictional oral narrative and expository oral discourse skills are critical language competencies that support children's academic success. Few studies, however, have examined African American children's microstructure performance across these genres. To address this gap in the literature, the study compared African American children's microstructure productivity and complexity across three discourse contexts: fictional narratives, informational discourse, and procedural discourse. The study also examined whether there were age-related differences in microstructure performance by discourse type. Participants were 130 typically developing African American children, aged 59-95 months old, enrolled in kindergarten through second grades in a Midwestern U.S. public school district. Wordless children's books were used to elicit fictional narratives, informational, and procedural discourse. Indicators of microstructure performance included measures of productivity (i.e., number of total words and number of different words) and complexity (i.e., mean length of communication unit and complex syntax rate). The effects of genre and age on microstructure performance were assessed using linear mixed-effects regression models. Children produced longer discourse and used a greater diversity of words for their fictional stories compared to their informational or procedural discourse. Grammatical complexity was greater for fictional narratives and procedural discourse than informational discourse. Results showed greater productivity and complexity among older children compared to younger children, particularly for fictional and informational discourse. African American children exhibit variation in their microstructure performance by discourse context and age. Understanding this variation is key to providing African American children with support to maximize their oral language competencies.

Backroads into buried pasts: Irish border mobilities and narrative film

ABSTRACT Because of the Irish border’s troubled history and heightened symbolism, filmmakers have since long relied on the border as a setting to thematise issues of national identity, belonging, and trauma. Departing from the concept of border poetics this article takes films featuring the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as its topic of inquiry. Beyond compiling a border film archive in which all cinematic representation of the Irish border is collected, a close reading is conducted of border mobilities in a sample of 43 narrative fiction films (1937–2021). The article’s textual analysis makes the distinction between three border mobilities (1) border crossing, (2) border inhabiting, and (3) border (re)visiting, to investigate how filmmakers utilise the Irish border for various narrative, formal, and ideological ends. As such, the border’s cinematic legacy can be better understood.

Behind the Scenes: How Logistics Shape Space Fantasy Science Fiction Narratives

This research note explores how logistics, though often overlooked, is a central element in space fantasy science fiction narratives. In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the spice—essential for interstellar travel—demonstrates how logistics influences space geopolitics. Star Wars highlights the logistical challenges involved in managing an intergalactic empire, from constructing the Death Stars to coordinating rebel fleets. In Star Trek, space exploration depends on intricate logistics to sustain ships, space stations, and diplomatic relations. Finally, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation illustrates how the collapse of logistics can lead to the downfall of an intergalactic empire. These films and novels reveal that logistics extends beyond mere materials and operations management; it becomes a key question of survival, power, and stability within these fictional universes. Science fiction narratives not only offer insights into future logistics but also prompts reflection on contemporary challenges in supply chain and infrastructure management.

Predicting subjective ratings of affect and comprehensibility with text features: a reader response study of narrative poetry.

Literary reading is an interactive process between a reader and a text that depends on a balance between cognitive effort and emotional rewards. By studying both the crucial features of the text and of the subjective reader reception, a better understanding of this interactive process can be reached. In the present study, subjects (N=31) read and rated a work of narrative fiction that was written in a poetic style, thereby offering the readers two pathways to cognitive rewards: Aesthetic appreciation and narrative immersion. Using purely text-based quantitative descriptors, we were able to independently and accurately predict the subjective ratings in the dimensions comprehensibility, valence, arousal, and liking across roughly 140 pages of naturalistic text. The specific text features that were most important in predicting each rating dimension are discussed in detail. In addition, the implications of the findings are discussed more generally in the context of existing models of literary processing and future research avenues for empirical literary studies.

Science, Fiction, and Contemporary Media: Blurred Borders in Knowledge Dissemination in Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain

This study examines the technical methods used by Michael Crichton to blur the lines between factual information and fictional elements in his novel The Andromeda Strain. The creative use of scientific terminology and artistic documentation that supports a sense of reality plays a role in creating a certain blurring that works to enhance the blurring of the boundaries between reality and imagination. The study aims to explore the novel within the framework of postmodern literary theory, questioning the concept of absolute truth, and emphasizing the role of language and literary discourse in constructing reality. Through a critical analysis of the novel, this study seeks to clarify the methods followed by Crichton to employ language and discourse to create an atmosphere of authenticity that contributes greatly to blurring the line between reality and imagination. In addition, the study comprehensively analyses modern media platform technologies that are used to erode the boundaries between objective reality and fictional narratives, and their consequent effects on the dissemination of information. The study concluded that Crichton's novel The Andromeda Strain embodies the successful integration of scientific concepts with fantasy elements, which resulted in a captivating and intellectually stimulating narrative.

The Destruction of Architecture

The Allied bombing campaigns over the German cities during World War II produced a vast landscape of destruction, which has been the object of reports, accounts and fictional narratives. Cities and buildings, a fundamental architectural heritage binding individuals and communities to their existential spaces, were annihilated in the most extensive act of deliberate destruction in human history. In this article, I look into the work of three authors – Heinrich Böll, Stig Dagerman and Hans Erich Nossack – to outline the effects of the bombings on the survivors, and on their relationship to both urban space and architectural heritage.

Transmission and Agreement: Reading and the Contemporary Northern Irish Novel

Transmission and Agreement: Reading and the Contemporary Northern Irish Novel. This paper evaluates the capacity of the contemporary Northern Irish novel to act as an agent of transmission for a ‘post-Troubles’ readership, one distanced by a generation from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that symbolised the partial end of sectarian violence. The critic Liam Harte suggests that “no part of modern Europe (if not the world) has greater claim than Northern Ireland to the mantle of most-narrativized region”, but the transmissive function of fictional works in this context remain under-critiqued. Here, I assess the aspirations of novelistic narrative to cater for what Premesh Lalu has described, in the context of post-apartheid South African art forms, as ‘psychic repair’ (Undoing Apartheid, 2023). The essay engages the 2018 novel Milkman, by Northern Irish author Anna Burns, to ask how fictional narrative transmits the detail of the past across a generation first, in parallel to other literary and artistic genres, and second, in relation to an expanding archive of ongoing legal tribunals and government incentives directed towards the production of an ‘official history’ for Northern Ireland. Through attention to the self-conscious foregrounding of forensic reading practice by Burns and fellow writers, I show the necessary place of fictional recovery in the field of political and cultural memory. Keywords: Troubles, Northern Irish fiction, transmission, memory, generation

“The Past is a Foreign Country”: Time Shelter and exploring dementia and memory impairment representation in literature and the arts

Abstract Background Due to ageing populations, the WHO estimates that by 2050 the number of people living with dementia worldwide will more than triple to 152 million. For those working in geriatric medicine and memory services, we regularly interact with and advocate for patients coming to terms with memory impairments. One common theme often encountered during the patient dementia and cognitive impairment diagnosis journey is fear of loss of the sense of “self”, which can be informed by the negative and often inaccurate cultural narrative around dementia. Methods Recent promising breakthroughs in the development of disease modifying medications for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as greater emphasis on lifelong brain health and earlier diagnosis, represents a potential source of hope. This presentation will aim to explore the cultural narrative around the “lived experience” of dementia, which is often extremely negative and emphasises hopelessness. We look to some of the most commonly referenced narrative works, which can often form the foundation of many patient's prior knowledge of cognitive impairment and dementia before coming to the memory clinic. Results This presentation aims to examine the narrative works familiar to many patients (such as “The Father” and “Still Alice”) as well as some more recent efforts, including this year’s International Booker Prize-winning novel “Time Shelter” by Georgi Gospodinov. This darkly humorous book describes the arrival of a strange new ‘clinic for the past’ offering promising treatment for people with dementia. Conclusion Many works of narrative fiction explore dementia and memory impairment. While some are well-informed and researched, many lack empathy or even clinical accuracy. Narrative works can have an enormous impact on the widespread perception and understanding of diseases such as dementia. By exploring the potential for sensitive and accurate representation of dementia in popular culture, we aim to promote equity in this vulnerable and growing population.

The Distance Between the Story Character and the Reader: Evidencing the Impact of Familiarity in Children’s Storybooks

Familiarity is a crucial element in narrative fiction reading for children, playing a significant role in social learning from storybooks. Nevertheless, distinct studies greatly vary in their interpretation of what renders a storybook familiar to a child, researchers’ methods for measuring familiarity, and how researchers link familiarity to reading outcomes. This integrative review synthesized the principal ways in which researchers define and measure familiarity when investigating the impacts of storybooks on children’s social learning outcomes. In particular, we derived four key definition categories of familiarity from the current empirical literature: personal relevance, anthropomorphism, social relevance and realism. We specified which outcomes are most impacted by which type of familiarity, in terms of broader outcomes (e.g. transfer of factual information from storybooks examined for anthropomorphism and realism) or specific learning effects (e.g. story comprehension with storybooks modified for personal relevance). Overall, our findings suggest that it is not familiarity per se, but rather its extent (how much the content of a storybook is familiar to the child prior to reading), that holds importance for social learning outcomes. The theoretical assumption of the distance hypothesis provides a compelling explanation for this finding.

Future Narratives in Contemporary Fiction and Film: Challenging the Multiplicity of Alternative Possible Worlds

Future Narratives in Contemporary Fiction and Film: Challenging the Multiplicity of Alternative Possible Worlds

A narrative approach exploring the phenomenon of Pretendians in the contemporary university

This essay uses a fictional narrative to explore the phenomenon of Pretendians in the contemporary university. Summer, who is one of the protagonists in the fictional dialogue, self-identifies as Indigenous, and is hired as an academic based on this identity, and according to affirmative action policies. Whilst working as an Indigenous academic for several years, suspicions are raised and accusations of pretending to be Indigenous are levelled at her. In each instance, she doubles-down and rejects the accusations until evidence is produced to prove that she was falsely and knowingly passing herself off as Indigenous. We critically discuss and analyse the fictional dialogue as part of our inquiry into Pretendianism, and argue that if an individual pretends to possess one or more protected attributes, and the individual knows that they do not possess said attributes, it is to perpetrate a grave injustice that goes beyond mere identity fraud. We conclude that Pretendian cases bring to our attention how contemporary university policies have the potential to be subverted in ways that are counter-productive to those individual and groups they sought to benefit, particularly if action is not taken to close policy loopholes.

The Promise and Peril of Emerging Technology for Brain Enhancement

Today’s emerging technologies provide possibilities for radical therapy for human diseases and disabilities, as well as radical enhancement and alteration of human abilities. This article discusses both the positive and negative possibilities of three current emerging technologies for therapy and bioenhancement—brain-computer interfaces, prosthetic memory, and transcranial direct current stimulation—as well as fictional narratives that prefigure these innovations. The author argues that the particular dangers of current radical emerging technologies that could enhance brain processing speed, alter or enhance memory, and affect mental states are prefigured by fictional stories that anticipate these real innovations.

Between the Novel and Other Forms of Literature: Unpacking the Language of Narrative Art through Albert Cook's Lens

This research paper explores the language of narrative art to show the differences between the novel and other forms of literature through the lens of Albert Cook. Using the interdisciplinary approach that combines close reading, textual analysis, and critical discourse analysis, this study unpacks the ways in which Cook's work illuminates the complex relationships between language, form, and meaning in narrative fiction. By tracing the ways in which Cook's ideas have influenced contemporary debates in narrative theory and literary scholarship, this study argues that his work provides a valuable framework for thinking about the role of language in shaping our experience of narrative fiction. Using critical discourse analysis, this research examines the broader implications of Cook's work for our understanding of the relationship between language, form, and meaning in narrative art. Through its interdisciplinary approach, this study makes a significant contribution to the fields of literary theory, narrative theory, and linguistics, and it provides a valuable resource for scholars and researchers interested in the role of language in shaping our understanding of the world around us. The study concludes that while the poem directly arouses our feelings in its lyrical form, a limit that has a consistent and precise connection between hearing, the tone of the voice, and the spoken expression, the novel seeks to arouse and maintain that general and organized waiting in us, which is the waiting for realistic events through the narrative language.

Narrative Time and Moral Injury in Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunate Mistress

ABSTRACT This paper explores the deliberate use of temporal ambiguities and discrepancies in Defoe’s The Fortunate Mistress to convey the disturbed retrospections of a guilt/shame-ridden narrator and the relationship between moral injury and temporal narrative techniques, highlighting the gendered nature of the fictional narrator’s moral injury. Drawing on Pederson’s model of moral injury in literature, which deals with perpetrator trauma, it argues that the narrator’s moral injury and its temporal reflexes in the narrative serve to reinforce the thematic and narratorial (re)iterations of female trauma and subsequent moral injury. Ultimately, this analysis provides compelling evidence of Defoe’s astute understanding of the psychology of shame, guilt, and narration, as well as his preference for psychological realism over traditional sequential narration, as he crafts stories that explore the human and psychological consequences of traumatic experiences.

Unravelling the stylistic nuances: a comparative multidimensional analysis of amateur and professional translations of Legends of the Condor Heroes

Style research has always been an important field in corpus-based translation studies. However, the stylistic differences between amateur and professional translations of epic Chinese martial arts fiction have received limited attention in the existing literature. This study addresses this gap by examining the stylistic differences in amateur and professional translations of the novel Legends of the Condor Heroes, a representative work of this genre gaining popularity through fan-translation websites. Employing Biber’s multidimensional analysis, this study investigates fictional speech and narration in both amateur and professional translations. The findings reveal that amateur translations exhibit less variation between speech and narration, characterized by lower levels of involvement in dialog and reduced informational density in narrative passages. Moreover, amateur translations tend to employ more abstract language across both speech and narration compared to their professional counterparts. These stylistic disparities may influence readers’ comprehension and engagement with the text, potentially affecting their access to critical narrative elements. The study posits that the lack of professional training and experience, as well as the collaborative and open-source nature of amateur translation communities, may contribute to these observed differences in amateur translations. This research contributes to translation studies by examining stylistic differences between amateur and professional translations of Chinese martial arts fiction, potentially informing future studies on reader engagement and the reception of translated Chinese literature. The findings also highlight the importance of considering the impact of amateur translation practices on the dissemination and reception of popular genres in cross-cultural contexts.

Rise of the most excellent scholar, demise of the field: a fictional story, yet probable destiny

ABSTRACT This article presents a fictional narrative about Professor Sackker, the solitary researcher in the field of Sackker Studies, once known as Management and Organizational Studies. Despite its absurdity, the story portrays Sackker’s dominance, marked by his inevitable rise with record-breaking publications and citations, stifling competition, and leaving him as the ultimate winner and ruler. Through personal reflections, his story explores his career strategies, provides insights into his success, and explains how he shaped, transformed, and eventually (but unwittingly) destroyed the field. This narrative, though fictional, mirrors real concerns in today’s reality: growing inequalities, the dominance of elite scholars, and erosion of meaning in academic careers as a function of hyper-competition. We examine the prevalence of systemic issues plaguing academia. Despite challenges, the article also aims to inspire hope. By illuminating these problems and integrating them into scholarly discussions, there lies an opportunity for change, empowering the next generation of academics.

Frame structure of fictional narrative: A linguo-pragmatic aspect (based on V. V. Orlov’s novel “The Apothecary”)

Frame structure of fictional narrative: A linguo-pragmatic aspect (based on V. V. Orlov’s novel “The Apothecary”)

Critique du récit pur: gleam of time in Maurice Blanchot’s narratives

ABSTRACT Maurice Blanchot’s itinerary as a critic and writer is marked by a transformation occurring around the beginning of WW2, when Blanchot abandoned right-wing political journalism to focus on literature. His criticism and narrative fictions from the 1940s elaborate the notion of a ‘pure novel’, inspired partly by Mallarmé, in response to historical conditions of the Occupation, in an assertion of literary sovereignty after bitter political defeat. Blanchot casts this pure form of writing through figures of light and luminosity that would transcend, even destroy, empirical experience – moving toward the disaster he will later invoke – thus affording a certain evasion from historical realities, while also betraying an intimate relation to their specific concrete historical conjuncture. The argument is not that Blanchot sublimates / allegorises political disappointment through literary narrative (see Jeffrey Mehlman in the 1980s), but that his literary texts enact a relation to factual political and historical responsibility that ‘pure’ literature fails to liquidate, but rather continually evokes. Tracing out constitutive evasions in Thomas the Obscure, Aminadab, The Madness of the Day, and The Instant of my Death, reveals how Blanchot’s fiction betrays a necessary accounting of the author’s factual history, a historical responsibility called up in the strange vacuous light of literature itself.