Narrative Imagination Research Articles

The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination

The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination

When imaginary cartoon worlds get the "documentary look"

Due to their clearly imaginary narratives and to the presence of animation itself, animated mockumentaries make the viewer aware of their fictionality from the start. Therefore, these animated works constitute the clearest example of mockumentary being not a genre, but rather a narrative style capable of transcending the boundaries of genres, media, and individual poetics. Through the analysis of Ash Brannon and Chris Buck’s feature film, Surf’s Up (2007), and of The Simpsons’ episodes “Behind the Laughter” (Mark Kirkland, 2000) and “Springfield Up” (Chuck Sheetz, 2007), in this article I argue that the mockumentary style does not consist solely in the adoption of documentary aesthetics and structures, but also in the deployment of elements (such as booms left “accidentally” in view, glances in the direction of the camera and so on) that I will call fictionality clues. I will demonstrate that, whereas in hoaxes or credible live-action mockumentaries the presence of these hints might be dismissed as due to the need of alerting the viewer to the film’s effective ontological status, in the case of animated mockumentaries they would be redundant, if used just for this purpose. Thus their occurrence in these works suggests that they are central to the mockumentary as a form.

A Didactic Model for Teaching Bioethics: Didactic Constructivism and Narrative Imagination. The Co-construction of Critical Judgments, Narration, and Representation of Emotions and Feelings

The paper proposes a didactic model aimed at supporting the teaching of bioethics in high schools. It is characterized by a constructivist-learning framework, which theoretically refers to the systemic paradigm of knowledge. The disciplinary domain is philosophy in an interdisciplinary perspective, as contents relate to different issues, such as genetic testing, stem cells, euthanasia, and GMOs. Starting from reflection and leading to the co-construction of critical and ethical judgment, the model develops the cognitive dimension of the pupil throughout five stages, derived from philosophical references: Wonder and the Lack; Torpedoes sea-fish, Wanderer; co-construction of the cognitive and affective map, and participatory dissemination.

Cinéma et imaginaire social en venant de Ricœur

Le cinéma peut être considéré comme un exemple particulièrement pertinent et instructif d’un discours et d’une pratique rapportables à chacun des trois grands domaines de l’imagination selon Ricœur – discours, articulation entre un niveau théorique et un niveau pratique, et imaginaire social. Tout en ayant pour objectif de se concentrer sur ce dernier niveau, une approche plus complète des notions de récit filmique et d’imaginaire social en venant de Ricœur requiert de traverser de nouveau les deux autres niveaux. Il est notamment nécessaire de retrouver les termes d’une philosophie ricœurienne de l’imagination dans l’articulation entre mise en intrigue et représentation qui s’opère depuis Temps et récit et une approche ultérieure de la notion de récit filmique. Un rapport critique à l’imaginaire social et politique peut finalement être retrouvé à travers le cinéma. Il s’agit toutefois de comprendre le passage d’un positionnement critique hérité de la tradition philosophique à un mouvement critique interne aux pratiques cinématographiques: tout en prenant en compte la notion de récit, ce mouvement critique peut mettre en avant, de manière nouvelle, la notion d’image, contribuant à sa revalorisation au sein d’une philosophie de l’imagination. La dernière partie de cet article s’intéresse notamment au rapport privilégié entre cinéma et historicité.

Disaster Narrative and Cinematic Imagination - Focused on the Film <Russian Ark>

Disaster Narrative and Cinematic Imagination - Focused on the Film <Russian Ark>

Empiricism and Henry Fielding’s Theory of Fiction

In this article, I argue that the theory of fiction Henry Fielding developed in Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones is meant to address an understudied tension between empiricism and the pedagogic ambitions of the eighteenth-century novel. Empiricist philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume dismissed imaginative narratives as possible sources of socio-ethical knowledge, which they insisted should be drawn instead from direct experience or reliable factual reports. I argue that Fielding’s moral epistemology was more fundamentally empirical than scholars usually recognize, and that an important function of his theoretical chapters in Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones is to show that prose fiction can be sufficiently grounded in the data of experience to meet the epistemic standards of empiricism. Fielding pursues this goal by developing two theses: first, that his characters and events are embodiments of principles derived inductively from observation and experience, and, second, that the conformity between the copies and the originals can be empirically measured by the reader’s subjective sense of probability.

Jacobin History: Charlotte Smith's Old Manor House and the French Revolution Debate

Given the fundamental importance of history to the disputes which raged in the 1790s about questions of tradition, authority and social change, and the meaning of the British national past, it is perhaps unsurprising that both radical and anti-Jacobin novelists employed forms of fictional historical narrative to intervene in the French Revolution debate. During the ‘war of ideas’, writers clearly conceived of an active political purpose for the historical novel, and these texts appear as a vital element within the wider response of the British novel to the crisis engendered by the French Revolution. While conservative authors such as Clara Reeve, George Walker and Jane West relied on the genre to counter the threat of revolution, echoing Edmund Burke’s appeal to history to defend the eighteenth-century British political and institutional structure against the encroaches of radical reformers unversed in the lessons of history and experience, a turn to historical fiction simultaneously permitted radical novelists such as William Godwin and Charlotte Smith to extend the pervasive social and cultural analysis of the Jacobin novel into the theatre of history, and promote a spirit of political enquiry and reflection through the medium of the historical. Published during the early years of the pamphlet war, Smith’s The Old Manor House (1793) appears as a key instance of the intersection of the genre of historical fiction with the political and historical dialogue generated by the French Revolution controversy. As Godwin would do at the close of the revolutionary decade in St Leon (1799), Smith employed imaginative historical narrative to issue a direct challenge to the historical view of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), presenting readers with a complex narrative meditation on the American and French Revolutions, and the ongoing debate surrounding the political settlement that followed the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The use of history to comment on contemporary politics was a well-established practice by the eighteenth century, and, in The Old Manor House, Smith undoubtedly drew on the 1770s as a means of offering a displaced mode of political critique in the reactionary climate of the 1790s. The composite historical agenda of the text indicates, however, that Smith’s narrative intentions extended beyond veiled political expression. Composed in a moment marked by the intensifying violence of the French Revolution, the return of The Old Manor House to the period of the American Revolution facilitated a celebration of their shared ideals, allowing Smith ‘to remind her readers of a fact that had slipped from the

Luke’s Artistic Parables: Narratives of Subversion, Imagination, and Transformation

Luke’s parables are narratives of disorientation that subvert conventional wisdom about many issues such as the use of wealth and possessions. The parables use specific rhetorical strategies (character identification and premature closure) in order to transform the lives of Luke’s readers/hearers.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Antarctica in Fiction: Imaginative Narratives of the Far South by ElizabethLeaneCambridge University Press | 2012 | 250pp | isbn 978‐1‐107‐02082‐5

Critical QuarterlyVolume 56, Issue 2 p. 120-123 REVIEWS Antarctica in Fiction: Imaginative Narratives of the Far South by Leane, Elizabeth Cambridge University Press | 2012 | 250pp | isbn 978-1-107-02082-5 Philip Sidney, Philip SidneySearch for more papers by this author Philip Sidney, Philip SidneySearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 July 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/criq.12128Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume56, Issue2Special Issue: Weather Reports: essays on the work of Steven Connor July 2014Pages 120-123 RelatedInformation

To be held and to hold one's own: narratives of embodied transformation in the treatment of long lasting musculoskeletal problems.

This study elaborates on narrative resources emerging in the treatment of longlasting musculoskeletal and psychosomatic disorders in Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy (NPMP). Patients' experiences produced in focus group interviews were analyzed from a narrative perspective, combining common themes across groups with in depth analysis of selected particular stories. NPMP theory expanded by Løgstrup's and Ricoeur's philosophy, and Mattingly's and Frank's narrative approach provided the theoretical perspective. Patients had discovered meaning imbued in muscular tension. Control shifted from inhibiting discipline and cognitive strategies, towards more contingence with gravity and sensation, and increased freedom to be what and who they were. Trust, time, open speech, and being respectfully listened to were described as therapeutic pre-conditions. The body was experienced as the source of their voice as their own. As tension patterns transformed, novel experience in sensation appeared to feed narrative imagination, reshaping past plots, embodied identity and future prospects. NPMP was disclosed as a treatment integrating detection, battle and repair as narrative subplots, but the core narrative was the journey of transformation. Novel embodied narrative resources nourished the quest for a life and identity in tune with the body as one's own.

La dimension imaginaire de l'innovation : l'influence de la science-fiction sur la construction du cyberespace

Cet article montre de quelle manière l’imaginaire participe à l’innovation. Depuis quelques années, une enquête a été menée dans les secteurs des télécommunications dans le but de comprendre de quelle manière la science-fiction participait aux processus d’innovation technoscientifique. La création du cyberespace est un grand projet qui suscite de nombreux récits imaginaires. Le courant cyberpunk alimenta pendant les années 1980-90 une technophilie accompagnant les recherches des ingénieurs et scientifiques dans le secteur des télécommunications. Les investisseurs furent même sujets d’une fascination excessive pour cet imaginaire, qui a contribué à la création d’une bulle spéculative dans ce secteur dans les années 1990. L’étude de cette situation permet de dégager quelques conclusions sur l’utilité de l’imaginaire pour les organisations. L’imaginaire cyberpunk se révèle être performatif à condition d’être encadré pour éviter qu’il devienne délirant. L’imaginaire utopique apparaît ainsi comme un élément moteur du capitalisme.

Points on the Maps. A Conversation with Franco Farinelli, about cartographic rhetorics

We reproduce here an interview with the Italian geographer Franco Farinelli, by Giulio Iacoli, focused on the intersections between the map and the world, narrative imagination and the powers of cartographic rhetorics.

Sharing our stories. Using an online encyclopaedia as the basis for a general education module on local history, creative writing and social justice

Conventional wisdom suggests that the best way of equipping first-year university students with the skills to cope with the rigorous demands of discipline-specific discourse is through an literacies approach. In other words, by developing their abilities to discern different disciplinary contexts and settings, students may more confidently adopt appropriate linguistic practices in their studies (Archer 2010: 497). I would suggest that where the approach frequently falls short, is in the narrow range of discipline-specific materials provided for student consumption. To achieve the desired levels of linguistic agility for university study, students need a mental gymnasium with a truly challenging set of apparatus. It is not only students of literature who need exposure to creative writing. Reading of creative fiction can ignite the narrative imagination of the first-year university student, provoking an exploration of cultural diversity, social justice and identity. Novels, plays, poetry and short can engage the reader more deeply than factual studies, and engender a thoughtful, responsive and responsible attitude towards society. A sense of social justice is fundamental to the development of good citizenship, and it has been argued that the study of creative writing, especially that which is embedded in local and regional history, provides a sound scaffolding for student learning experiences through related writing activities and debate. Online literary and historical encyclopaedias can provide an ideal information landscape for the development of learning modules that focus on local literature. A structured e-learning module may build on such online sources by assisting the student to navigate the abundant references and discover materials that may be probed more deeply through reading assignments, writing tasks and discussion. This paper presents a case study of the design and development of a general education learning module - Sharing our stories - intended to provide students with enriching encounters with local literature while advancing their academic reading and writing skills. The module draws on the content of the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH) which plays an integral part as a springboard to the exploration of local writing. While students encounter a variety of short stories, extracts from novels and biographical writing, a blog feature ensures that the students' own contributions are lodged within the bigger story - what Ngugi wa Thiong'o calls the collective history - of our region (Wa Thiong'o 1986: xi).

Narrated Political Theory: Theorizing Pop Culture in Dietmar Dath’s Novel Für immer in Honig

In recent decades, debates on the relationship between pop culture and the political have transgressed academia and have even been prominent in pop (media) discourses and texts, including pop literature. Amongst the contributions at the intersection of art, theory and entertainment are the novels and essays by the German author Dietmar Dath. Taking the example of his novel Für immer in Honig (Berlin 2005/2008), it will be discussed how the book reloads and theorizes pop culture, and how a common cultural-theoretical narrative of de-politicized pop is challenged by the imaginative narratives of the novel.
 It will be argued that Dath’s references to affective ‘mattering maps’ of pop culture, that on the one hand tend to fall into the pitfalls of exclusive ‘pop sophistication’, nevertheless play a key role for his aesthetical/theoretical project of political emancipation, and that these references can be viewed as examples of why popular passions matter for the formation of political identities/subjectivities as well as for the production and reading of political theory.

‘What remains? An empty doll-case’: Deconstruction and Imagination in Victorian Narratives of Doll Production

Increasing interest in the Victorians' relationships with the material world has led many critics to turn to periodical publications and, in particular, to process articles and other forms of industrial writing as sources for new insight. This article contributes to this growing body of scholarship by examining narratives of doll production. Because dolls are objects that Victorians celebrated for their imaginative potential and that were often not intended to be treated as ordinary commodities, such narratives can shed light on the intricate relationships between materiality and the imagination. In revealing the process of production, these narratives deconstruct dolls, reducing them to a collection of material parts. By some accounts, these parts are brought to life through a specialized process of manufacture that dehumanizes the workers who make them and robs them of their imaginative agency. While this deconstructive exploration can be seen as an extension of the ‘melancholy and gloom’ that Baudelair...

Theological Identity and Narrative Imagination: Narrative Theology in Newman's Apologia and Loss and Gain

Theological Identity and Narrative Imagination: Narrative Theology in Newman's <i>Apologia</i> and <i>Loss and Gain</i>

Towards a Critique of Narrative Reason

This paper aims to rehabilitate the role of narrative, against the dominant strategy of thinking, which disqualifies it. We have grown up with stories, which makes this plea easy: they are all around, nurturing us and arousing general sympathy amongst the doxa. But at the same time, the prevailing doctrine tends to discredit narrative, presenting it as private and frivolous in order to constrain its powers. I would like to demonstrate the constitutive nature of narrative both as the collective story, memory and history of peoples, and as the individual or 'personal novel' each one of us tells himself in order to create his own identity. I analyse the repression and disqualifications of narrative, before revealing the ways in which both theoretical and practical reason arise from within our narrative imagination. This conception of the human as homo fabulans (or story-telling animal) could lead us to outline a 'Critique of Narrative Reason'.

THE CULT OF CLIO: A RHETORICIAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARTS AND ANTICS OF HISTORIANS

This article looks at the art of the historian from a rhetorical perspective. After distinguishing between two senses history, it looks at the commonplace in the debate on history and at four basic attitudes towards history. It goes on to suggest (using examples from the work of Carl Becker and RG Collingwood) that, in spite of major disagreements among historians, there has been, for about a century, a reasonably stable common ground in the debate. It is, for instance, generally accepted that historical accounts do not deal with stable facts, but are incomplete, imaginative narratives. Nevertheless, it remains useful to distinguish between story and history. The intertwining of fact and fiction is illustrated at the hand of an example from the work of Nathalie Zemon Davis. Finally, the question of bias in historiography is addressed and it is suggested that subjective factors need not stand in the way of a type of objectivity if the latter is considered as a virtue related to a practice.

The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. By Marc Michael Epstein.

The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. By Marc Michael Epstein.