Narrative Function Research Articles

Voices from the Other Side: Exploring Nonhuman Agents and Their Narrative Function in the Zhuangzi

In the history of Chinese literature, the Zhuangzi authors were the first to grant a voice to diverse forms of life, among them a snake, a tree, a dead man, a divine turtle, and even the wind. What exactly is the interest of incorporating nonhuman protagonists in brief literary fictions? Was there something at stake when trying out this pioneering narrative technique, or was it just for the sake of literary innovation and entertainment? Through a detailed analysis of a set of concise narratives, this study uncovers a consistent critique of the religious institutions (chiefly divination and sacrifice), as well as the economic practices prevalent during the Warring States period. It aims to demonstrate that the Zhuangzi's comprehensive critique of the Zhou cultural order achieves its “hearability” through a recurrent use of striking dualities, including day and night, dream and wakefulness, and humans and nonhumans. A heretofore silent and passive community of living beings raises its voice and is able to challenge the well-established discourse proclaiming human sovereignty over the natural world. These voices and the themes they raise serve, among other things, as a literary strategy intended to illuminate the universality of violence and the criminal essence of human culture (wen 文).

Autobiographical memory functions as a stable property of narrative identity

The functionalist approach claims that autobiographical memory functions could be part of narrative identity. If so, the use of memory functions in personal narratives should be as stable as other properties of narrative identity. Testing this claim, the present study elicited repeated narratives and functional self-ratings for turning point and low point memories from 145 undergraduates (68.90 % female) in a two-wave eight-month longitudinal study. Stability of memory functions in specific memories was conceptualized in terms of mean-level and rank-order stability. Results showed little mean-level stability, yet substantial rank-order stability for memory functions regardless of assessment. The later use of the same memory functions in repeated narratives was predicted by baseline of functions at T1, age of event, valence, and frequency of rehearsal. Combining these results with theories on autobiographical memory and narrative identity suggests that memory functions might be a stable property of narrative identity hitherto overlooked.

Propp's Narrative Functions: Deciphering Hamlet's Character Transformation

Narrative analysis serves as a potent tool to unravel the subtleties of character progression and thematic resonance within storytelling. This study investigates the character transformation of Hamlet, the iconic protagonist of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet," employing Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale as an analytical framework. Through the lens of Proppian functions, the study explores Hamlet's journey from grief-stricken prince to tormented tragic hero, shedding light on the interplay between structural narrative components and emotional development. The research employs Propp's functions ranging from Absentation and Interdiction to Violation and Struggle to dissect pivotal moments in the play. These functions elucidate Hamlet's responses to absence, his internal conflicts, and his quest for justice. By mapping Hamlet's trajectory onto Propp's archetypal functions, this study unveils the intricate relationship between narrative structure and character metamorphosis. The analysis not only deepens our understanding of "Hamlet" as a timeless masterpiece but also exemplifies the synergy between traditional character analysis and structural narrative theory.

The Future of Periodization. Dissecting the Legacy of Culture History

This paper discusses the future role of periodization in the wake of recent critiques of culture-historical chronologies concurrent with the rise of high-definition radiocarbon dating. It is argued that periodization has two distinct facets, a narrative function and a dating function, which should be separated. Archaeology may eventually be able to abandon the latter, but not the former. However, the two aspects are closely intertwined and the goal of this paper is to disentangle them and, through a case study of archaeological periodization in Iceland, demonstrate the need to re-engage with culture-historical taxonomies by reverse engineering their construction. Only in this way will the utility or poverty of such culture-historical periods be exposed to proper scrutiny and the ground cleared for building new, narrative periodizations.

Through the Translingual Lens: Persian Calligraphy in Mana Neyestani’s L’Araignée de Mashhad

This article examines L’Araignée de Mashhad (Neyestani 2017), a graphic narrative by Iranian-born Mana Neyestani, now residing as a political refugee in France. Though he continues to write in Persian, his work is published in French translation, which becomes the source for translations into other languages. This article applies the framework of literary translingualism to shed new light on Neyestani’s L’Araignée de Mashhad. Literary translingualism, which encompasses “literature written in a language not native to the author, in two languages, or in a mix of languages” (Kellman and Lvovich 2015, 152), brings into sharper focus the narrative’s languaging practices, both beyond traditional approaches to graphic narratives and in relation to the global literary market. The translingual nature of L’Araignée de Mashhad emerges from its publication process, where the “original” is already a translation. This article argues that the untranslated Persian calligraphy within is neither an expression of cultural exoticism nor a form of multilingualism that a reader could overlook through glossing. Instead, it disrupts the ideology of monolingualism, redefines the meaning of “multi-” in multilingualism, and situates language within a broader spectrum of semiotic practices. It also demonstrates how those unfamiliar with Persian script may still access its aesthetic and narrative functions by drawing on the visual in the graphic narrative.

Stuktur naratif Vladimir Propp dalam cerita rakyat Si Pitung Jagoan Betawi

This research aims to analyze the folk tale "Si Pitung Jagoan Betawi" based on Vladimir Propp's theory of narrative functions. Known as a renowned narrative among the Betawi community, it is considered a true story of a legendary hero. A qualitative approach is employed to understand the narrative's meaning and describe the functions within Propp's framework. Data is collected from the written text of the folk tale titled "Si Pitung Jagoan Betawi." Data analysis utilizes Vladimir Propp's theory of narrative functions. The findings reveal that the story consists of 3 (three) action spheres with 14 (fourteen) narrative functions. The narrative concludes in the third sphere with the tragic death of the hero, Si Pitung, in his battle against Kumpeni, omitting the involvement of the fourth sphere. Additionally, the story encompasses 3 (three) types of characters: the villain, the donor provider, and the hero. Despite the narrative's tragic ending and Si Pitung's demise, he remains regarded as a hero who fought against colonial oppression. Keyword: folktale, narrative function, Si Pitung, Vladimir Propp

Unearthing the art of storytelling: A closer look at Sir Arther Canon Doyle’s B24

Narratives play a crucial role in our understanding of the world, identity formation, empathy building and imparting moral lessons. The purpose of the study is to evaluate how Doyle uses Labov's model focusing on the narrative's elements. The intricacy of the story is revealed by the qualitative methodology which highlights Doyle's skill for writing captivating stories with vivid settings and multifaceted characters such as lady Mannering and even minor characters like the innkeeper. This study analyzes the structural and linguistic elements in Doyle’s “B24” using Labov’s sociolinguistic model. The central conflict revolves around the burglar's struggles and lady Mannering’s quest for freedom but the resolution remains uncertain, reflecting the complexities of truth and deception. Doyle uses narrative devices, literary techniques, grammatical elements and precise language to convey a moral lesson about trusting strangers and the importance of caution. These elements contribute to constructing a compelling narrative that captivates readers and heightens suspense. Future research could include a comparative analysis of Doyle’s works from the same era exploring the impact of structural and linguistic differences on reader interpretation, investigating the function of narratives and comparing narrative elements across different adventure stories. Labov’s model could also be applied to analyzing narrative poems and short films. This study is pertinent for people in the field of literature, teachers and authors who aim to improve their understanding of narrative techniques.

Deconstructing Ex Machina (2014): a feminist-psychoanalytic exploration of female artificial intelligences

This article examines the portrayal of female artificial intelligences (AIs) in Hollywood's science fiction (SF) films, with a primary focus on Ex Machina. Employing feminist and psychoanalytic perspectives, the study critically reassesses how socio-cultural expectations and patriarchal desires shape the cinematic representation of female AIs. It seeks to address a nuanced gap by revealing the unconscious psychological forces that mold gendered imprints within technology and analyzing how (female) AIs, positioned as posthuman beings, not only mirror but engage in the construction of femininity for the fulfillment of male fantasies and the subversion of male dominance, accomplished through the strategic manipulation of “artificial skin” and gynoid bonding. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on gender dynamics surrounding female AIs and their power relations with humanity in the cinematic SF. It explores the narrative functions of intelligent fembots, which may disrupt patriarchal narratives both in reel life and, perhaps, real life.

Синтаксические средства экспрессивности (на материале заголовков удмуртских публицистических текстов)

The study aims to describe the features of the structural-semantic organization of the titles of journalistic texts in Udmurt within the framework of expressive syntax. The scientific novelty lies in identifying the expressive-evaluative potential of the title as a structural element of mass media texts; in determining syntactic redundancy and syntactic insufficiency in the lexico-grammatical structures of the Udmurt language. The results suggest that syntactic heterogeneity is peculiar to the titles of journalistic texts in Udmurt. Based on the analysis of the title structure of the “Udmurt dunne” newspaper for 2020-2023, it was found that the authors of the articles prefer such stylistic devices as inversion, elliptical sentences, rhetorical exclamations, which are primarily used to express the emotive, attractive and appellative functions. Various kinds of repetitions, gradation, parcelling and polysyndeton are characterized by low frequency, accounted for by the internal specifics of the newspaper title, which tends to brevity of expression. The use of various means and devices in the titles of journalistic texts makes it possible to perform the influencing, expressive, attractive, appellative, narrative functions of a newspaper text.

A Novel Visual Narrative Framework for Tourist Map Design Based on Local Chronicles: A Case Study of the Songshan Scenic Area

Tourist maps provide tourists with destination information that reflects their unique characteristics and cultural connotations and play an important role in attracting tourists and serving marketing purposes. However, existing designs of tourist maps often ignore the importance of cultural resource selection and the relationship between maps and structural linguistics, thereby affecting the narrative function and representativeness of tourist maps. This study utilizes the local chronicle as a data source and proposes a novel visual narrative framework (VNF) for tourist maps. The VNF combines Todorov’s narrative hierarchy and Roth’s visual storytelling tropes to establish a mapping between map elements and narrative elements. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the VNF, the Songshan Scenic Area was selected as a case study. By applying the VNF, highly characteristic and meaningful colors, figurative hand-painted symbols, and scene symbols are selected and integrated into the map design to enhance the artistic value and narrative of the map. This framework reveals the potential cultural value of local chronicles and can serve as a reference for other historical tourist cities, contributing to the preservation of local cultural heritage.

The unbearable oldness of generative artificial intelligence: Or the re-making of digital narratives in times of ChatGPT

The emerging discourse catalyzed by the opening up of generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) applications for everyday usage often presents Gen-AI as radically and disruptively new. I revisit two moments in early conversations in computational history to offer a historicization of Chat GPT: the making of digital narratives through computational methods of storing, sorting and sequencing semantic units and the production of digital narratives through computational architecture of computability and stacks. I offer a framework of critical turns that unpack Gen-AI as a new form of digital narrative practice that challenges the future of meaning and function of narratives in everyday lives.

Accidents at Home in the Victorian Novel: Auguries, Probability, and Charlotte Yonge's Household Advice

This article explores the narrative functions of domestic accidents in Victorian fiction. Taking Charlotte Yonge's The Pillars of the House (1873) as a case study, it critically parses how popular fiction engaged with competing explanations of how or why accidents occur. As a new understanding of chance, risk, and statistical likelihood in the nineteenth century began to reshape the representation of accidents, narratives navigated shifting concepts of personal misfortune, of providence and poetic justice, as well as of probability. In Yonge's novel, domestic accidents demonstrate risk-management at home, promoting a concept that complicates narrative expectations both of divine punishment and of conventional conversion patterns.

Teresa Ciabatti’s Poetics of the Inanimate: Talking Dolls, Living Dolls, and Puppets

ABSTRACT The article examines the presence of dolls in the work of writer Teresa Ciabatti and isolates four narrative functions carried out by dolls. First, the protagonists' identification with broken dolls encourages the acceptance of one's imperfection and promotes the definition of identity as constitutively incomplete (Il mio paradiso è deserto, 2013). Second, Ciabatti entrusts dolls with the task of protecting the characters' most profound and fragile selves (La più amata, 2017). Third, by enabling the re-staging of motherhood and trauma in a safe space, dolls challenge a certain monolithic conception of maternity, youth, and beauty (Sembrava bellezza, 2021). Finally, dolls stand as markers for autofiction, for they both share a disturbing proximity to reality that confuses the boundaries between good and evil, real and fiction. In conclusion, the article argues that Ciabatti's use of dolls produces a theoretical move towards the formation of a multifaceted, open, and mobile definition of womanhood.

Mostri musulmani. La deumanizzazione dell’antagonista miscredente nella storia di Buovo d’Antona dalla tradizione anglonormanna al Bovo-Bukh di Elia Levita

The story of Beuve of Hampton circulated throughout the Late Middle Ages and was printed in a number of incunables issued in Venice and Bologna in the 1480s. One of those inspired Elia Levita to compose his own Old Yiddish version known as the Bovo-Bukh. Though written in Padua in 1507, Levita’s poem was printed in Württemberg in 1541. The Bovo-Bukh became so popular that it continued to be widely read and adapted in several Ashkenazi centres in Europe until the late 18th c entury. T he original story goes b ack to Anglo-Norman Boeuve de Haumtone, whose earliest manuscripts are dated to the end of the 13th century. Its plot features a creature called Escopart. It is a giant freak in the service of the Saracens. Yet, once baptised, it turns into a magical Auxiliary. In the early 15th century, Andrea da Barberino adapted the story in prose as Book IV of his largely fictional chronicle of The Royal House of France. In this text, the unbeliever appears as a werehound named Pulicane, but its narrative function is quite similar to Escopart’s. With its name changed into Pellucano, the character is depicted in the Venetian incunables too. In Levita’s version, it becomes Pelukan. The purpose of this paper is to present the ideological changes in the depiction of the monstrous unbeliever, both in historical terms (the timespan of more than two centuries) and with reference to different axiologies. The strong prejudice of the Anglo-Norman tradition, in which the low-born and the unbelievers were depicted as hell spawn never to be trusted, was replaced by a common-sense approach in the later versions of the story. Finally, in Levita’s poem, the confessional background becomes unimportant in determining personal allegiances.

The Functioning of Communicative Units in the In-game Text of Video Games

This article describes the results of a pragmatic analysis of communicative units that were selected from different types of in-game text (spoken and written game plot-related text and interface text) taken from six video games of various game genres (action-shooter, action-adventure, role-playing game, simulator etc.) and narrative genres (fantasy, science fiction, horror, military, medieval, western). It further offers a model for classification of the abovementioned units based on the pragmatic aim of the utterance, i.e. to assist the player during gameplay or to express the artistic aspects of the game. The two main pragmatic types of utterances have respectively been labelled as ludic and narrative. It has also been noted that ludic utterances are widespread in any video game, while narrative ones can only appear in games with an in-depth virtual world, and their perception by the player does not usually affect the completion of the game. The article further suggests to use the following terms to describe the different kinds of ludic utterances: 1) identificatory (helping to recognise and distinguish between the different subjects and objects of the in-game world); 2) informative (giving practical information about those objects); 3) explicitly appellative (directly encouraging the player to act); 4) implicitly appellative (encouraging the player to act, but in an indirect manner); 5) feedback (responding to the player’s actions). Among the narrative functions, the following terms have been offered: 1) storytelling (depicting the in-game events); 2) descriptive (artistically describing the in-game world and its characters); 3) compositional (outlining the structure of the game and assisting the player to navigate through it). The study also suggests that an utterance can combine multiple communicative functions, and the abovementioned functions be expressed not just verbally, but also via the visual, auditory, haptic and other modes since videogame discourse is a multimodal type of discourse. The results of this study can help in training of localization specialists as this research should facilitate their understanding of the pragmatic purpose behind the translated fragments of text.

Identifying Peking Opera Roles Through Vocal Timbre: An Acoustical and Conceptual Comparison Between Dan and Laosheng

Chinese jingju (Peking opera) typically distinguishes several stock character types differentiated by narrative function, appearance, and vocal timbre. Though aspects of jingju music and dramaturgy have been thoroughly mapped by scholars, the contribution of timbre to the differentiation and characterization of dramatic roles has not been theorized. Here we sampled 20,000 excerpts of a cappella recordings of dan (woman) and laosheng (old man) singers from a large corpus. We analyzed the acoustic characteristics of the two roles both qualitatively and computationally, extracting and comparing relevant acoustic descriptors including spectral centroid, roughness, inharmonicity, and spectral fluctuation. We found statistically significant differences between the roles in spectral centroid (controlling for differences in fundamental frequency), roughness, and spectral flux (16­00­–3200 Hz). Lower normalized spectral centroid and reduced roughness in dan timbre is semiotically congruent with this virtuous and gentle female role; higher normalized spectral centroid, roughness, and spectral flux in laosheng timbre are congruent with an elderly, powerful, and educated man, indicating the contribution of vocal timbre in communicating identification and narrative information to audiences. These timbral attributes also reflect traditional Confucian ideals for music, gender, and age. These patriarchal and filial hierarchies are reiterated through Peking opera vocal timbre, displaying the effectiveness of music, and timbre specifically, in reflecting and reinforcing cultural and societal scripts.

Female bodies and dynastic legitimacy in the Nereid Monument at Xanthos

AbstractThis article reassesses the so-called Nereid Monument (ca 380 BCE) at Xanthos in Lycia by focusing on the narrative and symbolic role of female figures within its sculptural programme. Constructed as the tomb for the Lycian dynast Erbbina, the monument has been noted for its over-human-size sculpture of Nereids, its historicising city-siege reliefs, as well as its spectacular fusion of visual and architectural styles, motifs and themes from various contexts throughout the Aegean and Anatolia. Building on this scholarship, I turn specifically to the monument’s innovative representations of non-mythological women in prominent areas of its visual programme: Erbbina’s dynastic consort and a distressed woman who is caught in the throes of military violence. By focusing on the role of female bodies in Erbbina’s funerary qua triumphal monument, I argue for the important narrative function of female bodies in articulating dynastic legitimacy and continuity. Finally, this article comments on the importance of femininity in addition to masculinity in dynastic expressions in the fourth century, thus anticipating major art-historical changes in the art of power at the beginning of the Hellenistic period.

PSYCHOTRAUMA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ARMENIAN TRAGEDY

Psychotrauma is undoubtedly one of the most equivocal, ambiguous and enigmatic concepts in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. This is due to the ambiguity of its confluence at the meeting point of inner and outer, the dynamics of excess, rupture and loss, its function of anxiety and defense, and its capacity for penetration. The objective of this text is to recall the main points put forward in relation to the question of psychotrauma as a disease of memories and emotions, a disease of the relation to the self, and a disease of narrative function. The author seeks to emphasize the impact that such traumatic events can have, both in terms of organization and disorganization, on the psychological functioning of any subject.

《三水小牍》的空间叙事研究

This paper starts from the perspective of ‘space’ and studies the spatial narrative of San Shui Xiao Du by Huang Fu mei in late Tang Dynasty form modern narratology. Space, as one of the most important elements of the novel, its spatial structure presented in the novel is the result of the author's intention. These spaces existing in the work not only construct the framework of the novel, but also place the central idea of the literary work. Therefore, exploring the narrative function of space in the text is conducive to better understanding the meaning of each place in the novel. This paper mainly takes the artistic space in the work as the research object, which refers to the four real spaces of Ancestral Temples, Family Mansion, Temples Taoist, and Military war. By intensive reading and comparative analysis of the text, it reveals the narrative function of the four real space in the novel from three aspects：promoting the development of the storyline, shaping the characters’ images and satirizing the social situation. It can be seen that the space in literary works not only be regarded as the background of the story, but also play an irreplaceable role in the narrative of novels.

Translation of English Modals in the Novel Entitled Deck The Halls

This study analyzes the translation of English modals into Indonesian within the context of the novel "Deck the Halls" by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. Modals, such as "can," "could," "may," "might," "should," "would," and "must," are crucial in expressing nuances of possibility, necessity, permission, and ability. Their accurate translation is vital for preserving the narrative's tone, intent, and subtlety. This study examines how these English modals are rendered in Indonesian, highlighting translation strategies employed to convey the original meaning effectively. The analysis reveals that modals are often translated through literal and contextual approaches. For instance, "must" is translated as "harus" to convey strong necessity, while "might" is rendered as "mungkin" to express uncertainty. The study also explores challenges such as nuance loss and context sensitivity, which arise due to structural and cultural differences between English and Indonesian. The effectiveness of the translation is evaluated based on how well it retains the original modals' meanings and narrative functions. Overall, this analysis demonstrates that while translating English modals involves navigating complex linguistic and cultural factors, the strategies employed in "Deck the Halls" generally succeed in preserving the narrative's intended tone and meaning.