Fictional Texts Research Articles

Anthropocene Consciousness, Time Loops, and Anticipatory Collective Trauma in Narratives of Anthropogenic Environmental Disaster

Abstract The article analyses science fiction texts featuring time loops from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. Within its historical-environmental framework it proposes the term Anthropocene consciousness to refer to the historical process of accumulating knowledge, in both human science and cultural artifacts, concerning the threat posed to life on the planet by human impacts. One notable form of time-loop pattern, which is particularly strong in the 1980s, uses plots of enhanced fictional agency in which time-traveling characters, often retroactively, prevent anthropogenic catastrophes from occurring. This form, used in Benford's Timescape, the Terminator films, and Star Trek IV, can be seen as hypothetically countering the collective anticipatory environmental trauma that has arisen since the mid-twentieth century, whereas in reality humanity can be said to experience deep helplessness due to its inability to collectively act to stop the environmental threats emanating from its own scientific progress. Across these texts, nuclear warfare, often combined with AI technological singularity, is the most potent form of anthropogenic threat. Two key twenty-first-century texts show notable transformations to the time-loop pattern. Significantly, the most recent text, Interstellar, completely decouples the time-loop scenario from human environmental agency.

Dramatic Narration in Hotel Europe Novel

Novel is one of the narrative literary genres that are most open to other literary and artistic ones. So, we see that there is a strong interaction between the novel and the play, because they are two narrative literary genres that are united by common elements such as (dialogue, event, movement, and conflict). Nevertheless, the novel has maintained its limits. It did not, with all its characteristics, turn into a theatrical text intended for performance. That is, it kept for itself distinct characteristics that express its identity, which separates it from the full dramatic text. Henry James was under the strong influence of the theatre, so he called the writers of the novel to dramatize their novels by ridding them of the dominance of the knowledgeable narrator, and heading towards the hidden narrator. They express themselves far from his presence. According to this vision, our understanding and reading of the novel (Hotel Europe) by the Kurdish novelist, Farhad Pirbal, as well as according to the mechanisms of the dramatic novel, we find this novel to be a dramatic novel, with all its elements and its narration structure having all the elements of that novel, and that its writer has consciously treated it to be a fictional text. Dramatically, not only in its artistic elements (the narrator, the character, and the event) that we made as material for our research, the novelist has also transformed, consciously, the mentality of some of its characters, especially: the character of the focal point into a theater for the events of the past and the present through flashback and monologue techniques.

Bitransitivt bruk av verbet göra

The study investigates change in the use of the verb göra ‘make, do’ in the double object construction (DOC) and prepositional object constructions (POCs) with till and åt in Sweden Swed-ish and Finland Swedish prose fiction texts between 1800 and 1999. In both the Sweden Swedish and the Finland Swedish data, the use of göra in the DOC decreases in text frequency and in lexical richness (i.e. the number of nouns available as direct object). In the Sweden Swedish data, the use of POCs increases in the second half of the twentieth century. No such increase was found in the Finland Swedish data. In the nineteenth century, göra occurs mainly in the DOC as a light verb with abstract direct objects in both Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish, and only occasionally appears as a verb of creation with concrete direct objects. The decrease of göra in the DOC is concomitant with a general decrease in the use of göra as a light verb. In Sweden Swedish, göra in the åt-POC and till-POC is increasingly associated with concrete direct objects. The increase of the POCs in Sweden Swedish indicates that göra is more frequently used as a default verb of creation. The preposition åt is generally considered a “Finland-ism”, being more frequent in Finland Swedish than in Sweden Swedish. The results of the study indicate no such tendency. It is possible that the scarcity of POCs in the late twentieth century Finland Swedish texts is due to the fact that Finland Swedish authors try to avoid Finlandisms.

A Graceful Business: A Catalog of Lessons Learned About Qualitative Inquiry From a Lifetime of Reading Beyond the Canon

In this article, I catalog the lessons I have learned from reading beyond the qualitative inquiry canon. The catalog offers lessons based on seven infinitive verbs and/or verb phrases—to be patient, to tend, to linger, to love, to not say anything and/or say something, to be humble, and to listen. These inquiry lessons are drawn from a lifetime of reading poetry, numerous genres of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and other texts. These verbs and lessons materialize an iteration of qualitative inquiry that is characterized as a graceful business that centers ethical practices.

Factors Affecting Language and Narrative Styles in Prose Fiction: A Stylistic Perspective

Prose fiction texts embody a portrayal of feelings, thoughts, and dispositions translated into language worthy of exploration and appreciation. Through exploration and appreciation, the reader is exposed to an intellectual journey of knowledge, skill, and experience. Bearing this in mind, the current paper explores the main factors that may negatively impact the language and narrative styles of a prose fiction text. Two research questions are addressed accordingly: what major factors may negatively impact the language style of a prose fiction text, and what major factors may negatively impact the narrative style of a prose fiction text? Seeking logical answers to the two research inquiries, the author of this paper employed two study devices: a questionnaire comprising nine items and an interview with two questions. The study sample included two categories: avid readers who are members of the book club the author is a member of in Dubai, and university instructors teaching English in the United Arab Emirates. The subjects’ responses to the questionnaire’s items and interview’s questions highlighted several points in terms of the research questions the paper raises. Based on the subjects’ responses and statisticians suggestions, the paper concludes with several recommendations for scholars and researchers to consider regarding how to ensure effective writing of prose fiction texts. Additionally, the paper proposes a framework targeting language and narrative styles of prose fiction for quality outcome purposes.

The Host and the Guest: Navigating Liminal Spaces and Internal Cultural Conflict Through the Lens of Dialogical Self Dynamics

This study of “Host and the Guest” employed an innovative research strategy. It treated a fictional text, a poem considered iconic in Georgia, as both a sociocultural artifact and a transcript of a dialogical conversation. This approach enabled the examination of indigenous cultural value dynamics and revealed subtleties in the dynamics of the dialogical self’s higher mental functions. This paper presents a semiotic and dialogical analysis of I-positioning within a liminal sociocultural context where clashes between different dominant values and roles create highly ambiguous situations. It demonstrates that dialogical societal dynamics involve (inter)individual resistance to existing cultural norms, often leading to occasional tensions within the heterogeneous cultural system and creating conditions for personal and sociocultural innovation. The conditionality and fluidity of sociocultural roles are revealed in the example of the drama unfolding in mountainous Georgia. Here, an enemy becomes an untouchable upon assuming the role of guest while crossing the sacred, symbolic border of the host’s home. This manuscript vividly illustrates fundamental higher mental regularities such as normativity, resistance, and liminality, which contribute to interindividual and intergroup variability through irreversible human and societal development. It opens avenues for a better understanding of self-development and sociocultural innovation.

Dinero y futuro en tiempos de cambio climático. Un abordaje sociológico e histórico de El ministerio del futuro, de Kim Stanley Robinson

Seeking to contribute to current research on the future imagination, the article explores a scientific fiction text, The Ministry of the Future (2020), by Kim Stanley Robinson. This novel has two singularities: it begins in July 2024, so it narrates an imminent future, prolonging concrete possibilities of our present, and it proposes, based on existing academic articles, a currency —carboncoin— for the ecological transition. This makes the novel a speculative science fiction of strategy, a notion explored in the article to understand this way of imagining the future. After presenting a series of sociological concepts for the study of money (with emphasis on Nigel Dodd’s concept of “social fiction”) and outlining a history of imagining the future of money, and arguing that, since 2008, we live in a conjuncture of currency transformation, the futurization of money present in the novel is analyzed. The characteristics and implications of the carboncoin, which rewards carbon capture, are explored, analyzing moments of its design and evolution in relation to banking institutions, the dollar, technologies and the dilemmas of its adoption. By putting the plot of the novel into dialogue with historical phenomena, theoretical positions, political discourses, social and technological processes, we try to support the hypothesis that the way of imagining the future in a current science fiction novel, which speculates on the future of money in times of climate change, can offer new possibilities for the social sciences to think about the future.

French color denotations of shades of yellow and their correspondences in the Russian language

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of color denotations of shades of yellow in French and Russian, taking into account their semantics, usage and cultural specifics. The relevance of the research topic is conditioned by the fact that media texts reflect the changes in tastes and form the aesthetic perception with the mediatization of modern society. The object of the research: the system of color denotations. The subject of the research: ways of expressing shades of color in French. The aim of the study is to identify lexical features and ways of nominating shades of yellow color in media texts in French, as well as to find their equivalents in Russian. The author studied monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, specialized design websites, media texts and advertising materials of the 2020s, fiction texts. The semantic and stylistic analysis of the selected sixty shades of yellow was carried out, the influence of cultural and historical factors on their occurrence and use was studied, and a continuous sampling of lexemes from media texts devoted to interior design was carried out. Frequency analysis revealed the most used shades of this theme, such as saffron, lemon, amber and mustard. Structural differences revealed: in French, shades are more often formed using the main color, while in Russian the shade stands in the first place. The results of the study are relevant for the study of intercultural communication, translation of media texts and lexicographic description of color denotations. The novelty of the work lies in the identification of unique French color denotations that have no exact analogues in Russian and the analysis of their use in modern media texts. Conclusions are drawn about the linguistic and cultural specifics of nomination of shades of yellow in both language cultures and their influence on the perception of aesthetics in general.

Introductory words in the Russian language: typology and their classification

This article examines lexical and grammatical units - introductory and modal words and provides their classification. The study presents a linguistic picture that reflects the degree of study of the use of introductory words and constructions. Based on the works of leading grammarians such as Vinogradov, Shakhmatov, Peshkovsky, Paducheva, and others, the definition of introductory and modal words is formulated and their main categories are presented. The functions of introductory words in a fiction text are also studied.

THEORIZING FORTITUDE, FRIENDSHIP, AND OLD AGE IN LORE SEGAL’S SHORT STORY CYCLE “LADIES LUNCH”

Abstract This contribution addresses the question of ‘fortitude’ from a literary studies perspective. In my narrative analysis of Lore Segal’s short story cycle “Ladies Lunch” (2023) I look at the representation of fortitude in the context of friendship in old age. Fictional narratives about female friendships in old age, Chivers argues, can be part of “constructive narratives of aging” in an “imaginary world that can reflect and especially affect circulating social thought” (2003). Friendship in old age, in Segal’s fictional text, constitutes a form of care among the women who partake in their regular lunch meetings in which they contest the readers’ views on stereotypes of old age, but at the same time, also express personal vulnerabilities in opposition to a “decline narrative” (Gulette 2001). On the contrary, the kind of reciprocal care they experience comes from a vulnerability that manifests as a “radical openness towards surprising possibilities” (Hirsch 2016). In theorizing fortitude, this narrative analysis addresses the ways fortitude manifests in ways that do not necessarily address danger or pain in the literal sense of the word. Rather, it provides a perspective that juxtaposes fortitude and age in order to address courage in accepting situations and the creative adaptation to those within the story.

Science Fiction as a Narratological Model

ABSTRACT The article conceptualizes science fiction (SF) as a practice of dialogizing forms of thought: science, philosophy, art, historical consciousness, ideology, nature. It elaborates Samuel R. Delany’s trivalent discourse of SF, and is influenced by the work of Deleuze, Guattari and Bakhtin. In this theory, SF is a collection of narrative operations that can be applied to world-constructs. The fantastic world makes it possible for the literary text to escape the tyranny of the “realist” representation of the world. Utopia is, therefore, implied in the model, as the trivalent flow of signifiers is nothing but the attempt to conjure other possible worlds. The article illustrates the interplay of the voices of SF via texts by Ursula Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson and Ted Chiang. Finally, it hypothesizes that any fictional text is trivalent to a degree, depending on the strategies employed to make the utopian drive less or more explicit in it.

FORMULATICITY OF THE INCOMPLETE SYNTACTIC FORM OF AN IMPERATIVE STATEMENT IN DISCOURSE

Background. Language units functioning in specific discourse conditions undergo desemantization and gramaticalization, which results in new discourse units forming. These units perform relevant discourse functions and carry communicative meanings. These units also possess formulaicity due to pragmatic factors. Corpus analysis provides proper techniques to identify and describe these units, classify factors conditioning the appearance of such units in discourse. Purpose. The aim of the research is to identify incomplete syntactic structures of imperatives in discourse, analyze them and categorize their features. Materials and methods. The research employs corpus analysis methods to build the sample of imperatives with incomplete syntactic structures in discourse. Research corpora include 22 fiction texts containing more than 2 million words. The paper presents quantitative evaluation of representation in discourse of incomplete syntactic structures of imperatives. Analyzing the formulaic character of these structures is performed on the background of methodology described in Russian and foreign literature on formulaic structures in discourse in the last 10 years. Results. The research shows that the sample comprises groups of incomplete syntactic structures of imperative utterances characterized by varying degrees of formulaicity. Identified groups of incomplete structures of imperative utterances include collocations with Noun, Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun as the primary init in the collocation. These groups also include Prepositional Phrases, Interjections. The degree of formulaicity demonstrates itself in the varying stability of the above-mentioned collocations. Formulaicity of these collocations arrives on the grounds of desemantization and grammaticalization which occur due to frequent usage in discourse, performance of specific discourse functions and possession of communicative meanings. It leads to incomplete syntactic structures of imperatives comporting themselves as autonomous discourse units, formed through described processes in accordance with linguistic laws.

Linguistic-stylistic interpretation of the text: socio-cultural aspect

The article is devoted to the study of the essence and content of the linguistic-stylistic interpretation of the fictional text, taking into account the socio-cultural factors reflected in the speech of the author and characters. The indicated approach to interpretation is demonstrated on the material of English, German, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese texts of fables and parables, which are fragmentarily presented based on the materials of individual creative projects of students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (2023/24 academic year) during the special course «Socio-cultural dynamics of fictional text». The texts of fables and parables are convenient for multifaceted interpretation, since fables and parables as a genre respond quickly to contemporary events, consider themes that reflect social problems of society and historical factors. Our correction of the materials of these projects complements the characteristics of the sociocultural factors of the interpretation given by the students. In the article, an analysis of linguistic and cultural and historical factors is added to the traditional scheme of linguistic and stylistic interpretation of the text, which are mainly manifested in the texts in the form of cultural codes, systematically interconnected and aimed at creating the main code of culture – spiritual. It has also been studied how the cultural codes express the intentions of the authors of the texts, the linear or non-linear perspective of the depiction in the texts of various events and their consequences. An example of a double, linear and non-linear perspective of the story in a fable is given, which contributes to the deepening of its main meaning, the reflection of the fundamental essence of a person. An example of a parable is also considered, in which the intentions of the author of the previous century (H. Kunert) are understandable in our time, but generate in us during reading a reaction that is not at all what the author could expect at the time. Summarizing in a single article the analysis of fables, parables of different peoples clearly demonstrates the stability and universality of the set of cultural codes in the texts and the diversity of their expression in the plots. The perspective of the work is the further development and improvement of the scheme of interpretation of the fictional text in the linguistic and cultural aspect, the creation of a clear algorithm of interpretation, which can be displayed in a frame or a network graph.

Names of Diptera insects in Altai linguistic culture (based on folklore)

The object of the study is the entomological vocabulary used to nominate dipterous insects in the Altai language and its dialects. The relevance of the study lies in the lack of study of the lexemes denoting dipterous insects in Altai linguistics. In the article, for the first time, phonetic and lexical-semantic features of Altai insectonyms are considered on the basis of fiction and folklore texts, field materials of the authors. The purpose of this article is to determine the composition of insectonyms denoting dipterous insects in the Altai language, their phonetic, lexical-semantic and linguocultural features. Various methods of linguistic analysis were used in the work: the method of comparative analysis of lexemes, component analysis of the word in identifying structural types and models of formation of insect names, as well as motivational analysis revealing the principle of nomination inherent in the word, linguatextual analysis in identifying the context of the use of lexemes in the culture of the Altai people. The analysis of the structural composition of the names of dipterous insects in the Altai language and its dialects showed the presence of synthetic (one-component) and analytical (two-component) names. Most lexemes are formed as a result of secondary nomination. Secondary nomination of dipterous insects is realized in the form of word-formation and semantic nomination. Secondary nomination of animals in the language and culture of the Altai people is carried out by the following methods of nomination: 1) rethinking or semantic derivation (metaphor, metonymy, euphemisms), 2) reorganization (composition of new units from ready-made elements according to certain models, according to the motivating features “color (coloring)”, “time and habitat”), 3) borrowing of lexical units (from the literary language to dialects and from dialects to the literary language). A complex of motivational features underlying the nominations of dipterous insects is identified: color, size, behavioral features, habitat. For the first time in Turkology, hypotheses of the origin of some Altai insectonyms are presented based on the analysis of the internal forms of their names. The linguacultural contexts representing dipterans are considered: phraseological units, proverbs, riddles, and legends. The study showed that the images of some dipteran insects have the ability to express figurative meanings and interact with the cultural context. In secondary nominations, both external and behavioral characteristics of dipterans are used: their small size, harmfulness towards other living beings, the ability to make certain sounds and fly in the air.

Contemporary Adaptive Language Models and the Challenges of Literary Translation (in F. Dostoyevsky’s Novel “The Brothers Karamazov”)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 2006, has highlighted the need to find ways of ensuring access to information and full communication for people who have difficulty reading and understanding “standard” literary texts. The authors of the convention highlight the use of specific languages and the development of new methods of presenting text and its formatting. Particular emphasis is placed on the availability of cultural information in appropriate formats. Indeed, this paves the way for a novel approach to language communication. The Convention has provided a catalyst for a new direction in linguistics, namely the comprehension and practical description of the communicative variant of a national language intended for certain groups of its speakers. Practical work has a long history and has undergone significant developments, whereas academic research is still in its infancy. Another parallel process is the general trend towards the need for simplified forms of language, caused by digitalization and the accelerated pace of life, which does not allow for extensive reading and in-depth understanding of texts. As a matter of fact, a revision of the criteria for linguistic norms in "standard" texts is currently being considered. However, it should be noted that the process does not only affect standard texts; the practice of translating complex cultural texts into more comprehensible forms is also on the rise. This encompasses both intralanguage transformations and interlingual translations. The objective of this paper is to elucidate the concepts of "plain" and "easy-to-read" languages, to examine the distinctive characteristics of their operational nuances, and to address the challenges associated with the translation of fictional texts into "easy-to-read language," with a particular focus on F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov", translated into Japanese.

Approach To Teaching Russian as A Foreign Language With The Use Of Fiction Text (Russian as A Foreign Language)

The article is devoted to the methodological peculiarities of using fiction texts in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL).The paper deals with the stages of work with a fiction text: pre-textual, textual and post-textual phases. Special attention is paid to the methods that promote the formation of language reflection, understanding of new words through the context, as well as the development of figurative perception of the text.

Discursive space of Jorge Amado’s novels “The Disappearance of the Saint” and “Gabriela, Carne and Cinnamon”

The article examines the discursive space of the novels “The War of the Saints” and “Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon” by Jorge Amado. We consider speech activity to be a discourse as both the text generation process and the result of this speech activity are the text itself. The ambivalent understanding of discourse in modern linguistics reflects the complexity of studying this phenomenon, since there are a number of scientific trends interpreting its essence in different ways. The article studies the discursive space of literary texts as a complex system of discourse pieces, which is determined by the discursive personality of the author. The discursive personality of the author of these novels expresses his own system of attitudes through the creation of fictional texts, while simultaneously representing the system of axiological values of the multinational population of Brazil. The discursive personality determines the representation of the diversity of worldview contradictions and creates a fictional text, counting on creative cooperation with the reader. The discursive space of J. Amado’s novels is structured by a special chronotope, directly related to the literary trend of magical realism, within which descriptions of real social contradictions, life situations and unreal mystical events are bizarrely combined. The extralinguistic factors are of particular importance, being associated with the description of the Candomble religious cult, which is a symbol of ethnic identity.

MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR UNSUR INTRINSIK CERITA FIKSI MENGGUNAKAN PENDEKATAN COOPERATIVE SCRIPT PESERTA DIDIK KELAS V SEKOLAH DASAR

This study aims to enhance the learning outcomes of V grade students at SDN Dukuh Kupang I/488 Surabaya by implementing a cooperative script approach combined with pop card media. The research method used is Classroom Action Research (CAR), with data collected through tests, interviews, and observations. The average learning outcome recorded in the pre-cycle was 57.57%, which increased to 64.10% in Cycle I. Additionally, Cycle II showed a significant improvement in analyzing intrinsic elements of fictional texts, achieving an average of 80.60%. Thus, it can be concluded that the students' learning outcomes demonstrated a noticeable improvement and met the success criteria.

Publications of Fiction Texts in Prussian Lithuanian Periodicals in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Statistics and Insights

In 1823, the first Lithuanian periodical appeared in Tilžė (Ger. Tilsit). It was a magazine-type publication called Nusidavimai Dievo karalystėje. It was followed by more Lithuanian newspapers and their supplements in Prussian Lithuania. Print shops produced the newspapers in German and Lithuanian, in Gothic typeface. Most of them appeared in the print shops of Tilžė and Klaipėda (Ger. Memel). The newspapers published a wide range of material: articles on various subjects (philosophy, religion, the natural sciences, art, geography, etc.), reviews, and also texts of fiction, in the dissemination of which the periodicals of Prussian Lithuania played an important role. The article examines the amount of fiction texts (original and anonymous prose and poetry) published in Prussian Lithuanian periodicals, identifies the periodicals that published the most of them and their changes over the decades. It also reveals the cultural context of the printing of fiction in the periodical press: the network of people involved in the creation, publication, and distribution of texts. The names of fiction authors and periodical editors are identified, and their relationship to the world of culture is discussed. It was established that during the period under study (1849–1913), more than 3250 publications of works of fiction appeared in 27 periodicals and their supplements intended for Prussian Lithuania (Kaimynas, Lietuviška ceitunga, Tilžės keleivis, and others). The texts of fiction published in these periodicals came in a variety of genres: poetry, prose, drama, satire, and humour. The choice of the authors and types of texts depended on the editors of the publications. The editors of the periodicals that published the largest numbers of the texts of fiction were individuals active in the field of Prussian Lithuanian writing in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. The fiction published in the periodical press also spread in the form of albums of copies. The manuscript collections of fiction by Prussian Lithuanian literary figures kept at the Manuscripts Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences point to the popularity of fiction in the nineteenth century.

Language as a means of identifying a national cultural code (based on the works of G.P. Wodehouse)

This article investigates the issue of interpreting cultural codes from a linguistic perspective, as well as the strategies for decoding these codes with a particular focus on the works of P.G. Wodehouse. The discussion centers on the interrelationship between language and the national cultural code, analyzing the latter’s role as a linguistic marker that influences the formation and preservation of linguistic identity. It is a reflection of the British worldview, which makes it possible to use the works of the humorist as a basis for decoding ethnocultural information encrypted in the fictional text. The work is based on cultural, comparative-historical and historical-biographical analysis of the literary text to determine the ethnocultural specificity of the meanings embedded in the language of the author and his characters. The language of P.G. Wodehouse is a striking example of how literary text can serve as a means of transmitting and preserving a national cultural code. The study demonstrates that the cultural codes, embedded within linguistic units and their interactions, are crucial for understanding the specificities of national thought, information perception and its expression in speech. The practical significance of the work is the possibility of using the results of the research both in translation practice and in the study of the ethnocultural features of the foreign language information transmission by means of a cultural code.