Imaginative Mind Research Articles

Symbolic Analysis of the Bhagvad Gita: A Potential Methodology in the Indian Knowledge System Classroom Teaching

With the recent initiative to incorporate Indian Knowledge System into the university curricula at the undergraduate level across India, the Bhagvad Gita is being taught as part of this broader educational reform. Though the integration of the sacred text in the university curricula offers a unique opportunity to promote the revival of India’s rich cultural heritage, it cannot be denied that the text's density and complexity, with its intricate philosophical and metaphysical concepts, presents significant teaching challenges. The research paper offers symbolic analysis as a pedagogical approach to make the text simpler, more accessible and engaging in the classroom, helping students appreciate its depth and relevance. The paper suggests that Northrop Frye’s theory of symbols can be used as a pedagogical tool to discuss the layered meanings in the text. The paper explores the application of theory of symbols in classroom teaching, emphasizing a centripetal approach to reading texts that goes beyond surface interpretations to uncover deeper meanings. The methodology entails identification and analysis of symbols interwoven throughout the text in the classroom learning. It further discusses the process of locating the "centre" of the text, known as the monad, where all symbols converge. This central symbol transcends 'nature' and 'history' and serves as a focal point for understanding the text’s intricate and complex philosophical themes. By identifying this monad, educators can facilitate richer discussions and a more profound comprehension of literary works, thereby enriching students' analytical skills and appreciation of literature. The paper concludes that the pedagogical tool of Frye’s symbolic analysis in the class helps students recognize the text’s role as an ethical instrument for liberating the imaginative mind.

The Face of the Future: An Affective Mental Time Traveler in Saul Bellow’s “A Father-to-Be”

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a future-oriented Janus face portrayed in Saul Bellow’s short story “A Father-to-Be,” arguing that it builds an exceptional prospective fictional mind in Bellow’s writing with a great emphasis on emotion. Drawing on the “Janus hypothesis,” the article examines how the protagonist’s emotional and imaginative mind interprets the past and processes the present based on a gloomy anticipation of the future, while some previous literary studies on the memory-imagination cognition emphasize the imaginativeness of memory. Affective narratology is largely involved as the supportive explanatory framework in the analysis of the narrative style. The authors approach the structure of the entire story by regarding it as an emotion story and attempt to reveal the aesthetic value of its core narrative by taking emotion both as the force of character forming and as rhetoric.

The Maypole of Merry Vagabonds: Hawthorne’s “The Seven Vagabonds” and the Birth of Conservative Utopia

Abstract Hawthorne’s often-neglected tale, “The Seven Vagabonds” (1833), portrays one of the most significant instances of a vagabond’s way of life eventually materialized in literary pursuit. This paper examines the short story in light of Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of ‘carnival’, explicating how each vagabond arriving at the wagon offers some tantalizing glimpses of what a Bakhtinian carnival looks like. These carnivalesque features include the immediate familiarity between the characters, the suspension of moral and social rules, embodiment, and unfinalizabilty. Acting as the prelude to Stamford, the vagabonds’ merry gathering is ultimately canceled out. It is finally argued that the failure of the vagabonds’ utopia marks the narrator’s momentum of transformation, leading him to internalize the carnival spirit of vagabonds within his own imaginative mind and to change the role of carnival from an actual event to a literary pursuit, embodied in the creative and subjective art of storytelling. This transformation of carnivalization tallies well with Hawthorne’s modified political vision of utopianism in the aftermath of the Brook Farm experiment and Bakhtin’s configuration of carnival after its decline as a public event in the Renaissance.

A cognitive analysis of animal imagery in digital discourse: a case study of Bengali tweets

Abstract As explored in relevant literature, both ecolinguistics and cognitive linguistics emphasize metaphors as conceptual devices to frame the reality around us. Animal metaphor forms an interesting domain to comprehend human-animal relationship at the interface of ecolinguistics and cognitive linguistics. Deriving from this, the research questions the suitability of the animalized language through Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT). Data from Twitter has been analyzed to understand how the animals on social media impacts the human mind in establishing speciesism among Bengali speakers. Hence, to supplement the research with an ecological perspective, a mixed-method approach has been employed using three studies: (1) to understand the general public opinion on using animal metaphor; (2) to present the cognitive operations of the imaginative mind in using animal metaphor; and (3) to check the reflection of human attitude in real-time practices. The research findings highlight the harmful frames that social media can trigger in the mental spaces of the users – excluding animals qua animals. Additionally, the research also empirically verifies that animalized language use is one of the significant factors behind the speciesist attitudes among Bengali speakers. The research also seeks to sensitize humans towards the hateful nature of the animalized tweets.

THE REFLECTION OF ATTITUDE CHANGE IN ANTON CHEKOV’S STORY “FAT AND THIN”

This study aim to reveal the attitude change that are reflected through the story character written by Anton Chekov entitled “Fat and Thin”. Anton Chekov with his high-level imaginative mind can use narration in criticizing human behavior, especially the vertical nature of Russian society which likes to serve itself in positions and titles which are also known as "bootlickers". Changes in attitudes like this have even become a dilemma almost shared by many people around the world. This literary criticism is then explored more deeply by using the attitude change approach in psychology from Carl Hovland supported by the balance Heider theory. The method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method with data collection and analysis techniques in librarian study. The results of this research indicated that the reflection of attitude change through the behavior of the two friends who are called fat and thin in the story. The two of them are childhood friends who have not seen each other for a long time. The change in attitude was evident from Thin's attitude, who knew that Fat was his military superior with the rank of lieutenant general. Such a situation makes Thin's behavior change a form of balancing as a defense mechanism of conditions. Chekhov, through his clear naration and dialogues, displayed this behavior very strongly. There are several factors that cause this change in attitude including psychological internal factors in the form of mental discomfort and personal dissonance, as well as external factors that influence in the form of interactions, situations and targets. This story describes an inner relationship because an idealistic friendship changes in attitude due to the vertical relationship factor that places a person as a bootlicker.

La experiencia de soledad del analista

In her classic, posthumously published article on loneliness, Fromm-Reichmann (1959) cites A. Courtauld's observations of isolation in a Greenland weather station. Courtauld (1932) recommends that “only persons with active, imaginative minds, who do not suffer from a nervous disposition and are not given to brooding, and who can occupy themselves by such means as reading, should go on polar expeditions.” It is the thesis of this article that the habits of mind required to bear the loneliness of analytic exploration are remarkably similar. It is in the realm of the imagination, relatively protected from brooding and anxiety, nurtured and stimulated by selected reading, that the context for withstanding the loneliness of analytic inquiry can be created.

Coleridge’s Excursion into His Past in “Frost at Midnight”: Writing as Consolation for Memory

Samuel Coleridge Coleridge wrote several principal conversation poems such as “The Eolian Harp,” “This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison,” “Frost at Midnight,” and “The Nightingale.” “Frost at Midnight” is the linguistic product of his creative mind using memory to interact with the surrounding world. In the poem, his imaginative mind is never static but moves through memories to shape his identity and pursue his ideal self. The poem begins with the speaker in a state of meditation, having constant interaction with nature. To write a poem becomes an act of consolation, a communicative tool through which the poet manages to express his feelings toward the internal and external landscape. This essay aims to show how Coleridge’s writing—this conversation poem—plays an important role in consoling his childhood memory and creating his idealized self through self-reflection.

Restructuring Perceptions of Geographical Knowledge and Experience Among Learners Under a Concept Mapping Domain

Alexandra k Transfer quoted, “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see”. While teaching merely rests on art but it connotes into science wherein imaginative minds are ignited for knowledge. Pedagogy and enriched content are dependable solutions for effective teaching and learning. Real meaningful learning is the focus of modern teaching which follows a constructivist approach. Bygone are the days when the traditional lecture method was sufficient to teach the pupils. Advanced technologies have been the replacement of the monotonous lecture method in Geographic studies. The pupil now constructs their knowledge by engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation methods. Different pedagogical practices are involved, like the enquiry approach, reflective strategy, collaborative learning, etc., among which concept mapping is one of the important strategies applied in Geography teaching. It is a graphical organiser which connects links between the two or more concepts in some logical, sequential flows. Concept Mapping effectively assists in achieving the learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are the assessment standard that indicates the expected level of learning that learners should achieve for that particular class. Many concepts of Geography dealing with exhaustive knowledge about nature and processes in nature are prudently taught with the concept mapping approach. These maps make a vivid picture of illustrated concepts in learners minds assuring thus, a rigorous and long-lasting rationalisation of content knowledge. The paper highlights one of the robust, innovative strategy of modern pedagogy in Geographic studies where the chain linkages in concept mapping provide an enriching experience of learning nature and natural phenomena.

Mapping the Imaginative Mind: Charting New Paths Forward

The fields of psychology and neuroscience are in the midst of an explosion of research aimed at illuminating the human imagination—the ability to form thoughts and mental images that stretch beyond what is currently available to the senses. Imaginative thought is proving to be remarkably diverse, capturing the capacity to recall past experiences, consider what lies ahead, and understand other people’s minds, in addition to other forms of creative and spontaneous thinking. In the first part of this article, we introduce an integrative framework that attempts to explain how components of a core brain network facilitate interacting features of imagination that we refer to as the mind’s eye and mind’s mind. We then highlight three emerging research directions that could inform our understanding of how imagination arises and unfolds in everyday life.

Treatment of Trauma: Imaginative Minds of Dissociative Identify Disorder

If childhood trauma leads to dissociation, then this coping mechanism is powered by the imagination, creativity, consciousness, and similar areas of cognitive function. The goal of this article is to promote the treatment of trauma with particular emphasis on humanistic psychotherapy and behavioral therapy, such as “Play Therapy” for pediatric populations. It will thoroughly describe the multiple personality states within dissociative identity disorder, including the individualized sense of “self.” The diagnostic criteria of this mental disorder will be covered, along with assessment techniques that evoke a deeper understanding of dissociative disorders. It will also discuss comorbidities that present with dissociative disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder. This scholarly article suggests that dissociative disorders may result from experiencing tragic events and therefore need treatment for trauma to relieve negative symptoms of dissociation. The multidimensional aspects of dissociation are emphasized in their relation to the treatment of trauma.

The Effect of Constructive Imaginative Mind Maps, Vee Maps, and Concept Maps on Students’ Attitude and Ability to Write Short Stories at Senior High School (SMAN) 13 Palembang

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Filling the Hole in Sense: Between Art and Philosophy

ABSTRACT John Dewey argued in his Art as Experience that the significance of art as experience was of incomparable importance for the adventure of philosophical thought. He claimed that while both move in the medium of imaginative mind, art provides a “unique control” for the “imaginative ventures of philosophy.” In this article I examine, relying on a range of sources, some pivotal implications of this claim and especially how various forms of art and aesthetic experience can exemplify and further ways of formulating, presenting, and critically engaging focal issues, both methodological and substantive, of the tasks of philosophy. The originary context of philosophy is agonistic, wresting meaning from the noise of meaninglessness or discerning order in a seeming world of chaos, not merely that of winning an argument. Both philosophy and art have attempted to fill a “hole in sense” by various practices, discursive in the case of philosophy and nondiscursive or “presentational” in the case of art. But art forms offer us models for a plurality of philosophical approaches to the task of enabling us to maintain and restore our existential and experiential balance within what Dewey called the “moving unbalanced balance of things.”

A personagem na obra de Ian McEwan: entre a culpa e o desejo de reparação

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a trajetória da protagonista Briony Tallis e como se dá sua ação no romance Reparação (2002), de Ian McEwan. Na obra, a personagem principal influenciada por sua mente fantasiosa e uma leitura mal interpretada, vive um drama e tenta reparar um erro cometido no passado. Para tal, o viés teórico adotado conta com os pressupostos de Krause (2010) sobre a metaficção; Rosenfeld (1969, 1976), Candido (1976), Forster (2005), Reis (2001), Miguel (2016) acerca da personagem de ficção, Reis & Lopes (1988) e Friedman (2002) sobre o foco narrativo e a voz do narrador. O trabalho evidenciou que Ian McEwan mostra, através da protagonista, a arte da literatura ao possibilitar uma possível identificação dos seres humanos com as personagens ficcionais.

Brain networks of the imaginative mind: Dynamic functional connectivity of default and cognitive control networks relates to openness to experience.

Imagination and creative cognition are often associated with the brain's default network (DN). Recent evidence has also linked cognitive control systems to performance on tasks involving imagination and creativity, with a growing number of studies reporting functional interactions between cognitive control and DN regions. We sought to extend the emerging literature on brain dynamics supporting imagination by examining individual differences in large-scale network connectivity in relation to Openness to Experience, a personality trait typified by imagination and creativity. To this end, we obtained personality and resting-state fMRI data from two large samples of participants recruited from the United States and China, and we examined contributions of Openness to temporal shifts in default and cognitive control network interactions using multivariate structural equation modeling and dynamic functional network connectivity analysis. In Study 1, we found that Openness was related to the proportion of scan time (i.e., "dwell time") that participants spent in a brain state characterized by positive correlations among the default, executive, salience, and dorsal attention networks. Study 2 replicated and extended the effect of Openness on dwell time in a correlated brain state comparable to the state found in Study 1, and further demonstrated the robustness of this effect in latent variable models including fluid intelligence and other major personality factors. The findings suggest that Openness to Experience is associated with increased functional connectivity between default and cognitive control systems, a connectivity profile that may account for the enhanced imaginative and creative abilities of people high in Openness to Experience.

The Value of Assessing Pupils’ Academic Self-Concept

ABSTRACTThe Myself-As-a-Learner scale (MALS) has been constructed to assess academic self-concept (Burden, R. L. [2000]. The Myself As a Learner Scale. Birmingham: Imaginative Minds; Burden, R. L. [2012]. The Myself As a Learner Scale [2nd ed.]. Cognitive Education Development Centre, Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter.). The scale consists of 20 self-referring statements to which individuals are invited to respond in a positive, negative, or neutral manner. A Norwegian translation proved to be an internally consistent tool for schools. The internal consistency was explored in a sample of 84 monolingual children in which all children were assessed twice with a time difference of about 8 months. Compared to a control group (N = 31) we found no significant effect of participation in a vocabulary training study on the children’s academic self-concept. Instead we found that high achievers evaluated themselves more positively over time, while low achievers evaluated themselves more negatively in the same period.

The Historical Soundscape of Monophonic Hi-Fidelity

An article in High Fidelity magazine, entitled Listening is Believing? and dated July/August 1953, sets forth the contemporary limits of sound reproduction in the inimitable style of advertisement copy: Technical electronics only so far. The rest of the job must be done by the mind of the That's not a platitude; it's a specification (Campbell 1953, 28). (1) The connection drawn between imagination and sound reproduction, that the imagination be an aspect of technical electronics, is meant to salve the imaginative mind of the listener. In doing so, however, it betrays an anxiety: the relationship has gotten out of balance, with human imagination falling short in the face of advances in technical electronics. The author, John Campbell, puts a firm boundary around the latter: it can only so far (Campbell 1953, 28). But in this arrangement, human imagination is a supplement, an accessory to technology, not vice versa. (2) Campbell situates this fusion of electronics and imagination in what he calls a approach to music reproduction: For true high-fidelity enjoyment, the total psychological aspect of the listener is an integral part of a psycho-physiological approach to music This psycho-physiological angle seems to involve primarily a belief in one's equipment, in its veracity as the best equipment: man with Equipment System A, who feels that he has the best practible system possible to him will enjoy his music greatly. Given the same equipment exactly, but the conviction that he was a fool not to have bought System B instead--he won't enjoy the music as much. Wherefore, for him, System B is in fact better. (Campbell 1953, 28) In essence, confidence in one's equipment and a full aesthetic experience are assured only in the absence of suspicion. The emphasis Campbell places on his equipment--technical electronics--marks a formal shift in our knowledge of musical sound. I shall call this epistemic in a moment. This shift produces an effect, an aesthetic effect. I quote Campbell again: A man with a speaker system he knows within himself is good, an amplifier he convincedly believes to be top-notch--for him, the music is deeper, richer and more rewarding (Campbell 1953, 28). (3) Campbell's psycho-physiological approach encompasses belief in the merit of electronics as a determinant of musical enjoyment. All of this is encapsulated in the following, in which life and sound are breathlessly homogenized: 'Know thyself!' must be the ultimate ideal, and the basic instruction for enjoying life fully. But if that's too tough a job--'Know thy sound system' (Campbell 1953, 28). The confusion between life and reproduced sound is worth addressing, and not merely dismissed as bad advertisement copy. Such a confusion between truth and life is characteristic of what I call here the of hi-fidelity, a made explicit in the discourse of sound reproduction in the early 1950s. I label this historical and refer to it as monophonic because of its delicate position: poised between an early realm of sound reproduction prior to the hi-fidelity era and a later realm dominated by stereophonic sound reproduction. Its status as a soundscape is assured by the reputed integrity of the sound: the concern for hi-fidelity presumes a sonorous whole based upon veracity, as if the sound reproduced were a whole, or at least wholistic, chunk of life. Such concern for matters such as fidelity and veracity is pathological; no referential object, no standard, other than the solipsistic listener is invoked. I shall label as pathological the mind set that engages both sides of this soundscape. (4) On Campbell's account, in the reproduction of musical sound, the imagination is a supplement to technical electronics, which, to repeat, go only so far, before imagination must take over. …

Watched Life: The Surveillance State as Seen on CCTV

Considering the influence of digital technologies generally, and filmic representations of dystopias specifically, this essay attempts to patrol the border between cinematic depictions of the surveillance societies dreamed up by Philip K. Dick, on the one hand, and the realities of our current law enforcement, social organizations and political institutions on the other hand. As filmmaker Richard Linklater suggests in his 2006 filmic adaptation of Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly, set in Los Angeles “seven years from now,” (which basic arithmetic tells us is the present year of 2013!), we have arrived at an era in which the surveillance architecture at present is teetering dangerously close to (or has arguably surpassed) those of the dystopian science fiction fantasy worlds dreamed up by some of the most imaginative literary minds of the twentieth century. Situated in between the realms of science-fiction fantasy and our present day reality, this essay considers the ways in which popular films like A Scanner Darkly (2006), Minority Report (2002), Gattaca (1997), Blade Runner (1982), The Truman Show (1998), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Enemy of the State (1998), as well as popular TV shows like Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Wire, and Homeland inform our nation’s surveillance apparatus and how the surveillance apparatus is being represented and reimagined through cinematic techniques and technologies.

“Recover the world that is buried under the debris of false description”: The Influence of Romantic Poetry on Saul Bellow’s Dean’s December

The defense of the human being’s individuality is a major issue that Saul Bellow (1915-2005) addresses throughout his literary career. Worried by the pernicious effects that modern civilization exerts over the individual’s inner self, in Humboldt’s Gift (1975) and in The Dean’s December (1982) Bellow shows that the reconstruction of the inner self can only be accomplished through the imaginative mind or, in a romantic phrase, through the human being’s poetic genius.” This essay explorea the significance of this issue in The Dean’s December in light of William Blake’s “Then She Bore Pale Desire,” “London,” and “The Chimney Sweeper”; W. B. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Long-Legged Fly”; and P. B. Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” and “England in 1819.” In a romantic manner, Bellow’s Albert Corde escapes from the city — a symbol of Blake’s “fallen world,” Yeats’s “dying generations” and “underclass,” and tyranny as expressed in Shelley’s sonnet — and, much like Bellow’s Augie March, Eugene Henderson, and Moses Herzog, ends up going to nature, epitomized by the Mt. Palomar observatory, in order to find his long-awaited peace of mind.

Postcards

Postcards compiled and edited by Barbara Lehman Set in the hustle and bustle of New York City’s Manhattan, Bob Staake’s Bluebird is a wordless narrative that brings together a shy young boy and a charismatic little bird in its exploration of both camaraderie and bereavement. After quietly observing the boy’s rough day at school under the jeers of some schoolyard bullies, the bluebird takes it upon himself to swoop in and befriend him. Staake’s effective use of multi-paneled spreads traces the nuances of the boy and the bluebird’s blossoming relationship as they play a game of hide and seek, share a cookie, and sail a toy boat at the pond where the bluebird connects the boy to the other friendly children playing around them. The increasing darkness of Staake’s grey, white, and blue palette brings with it a reappearance of the scowling bullies; and as the bluebird dives between the boy and the stick one of the bullies throws, the unexpected death of the bluebird is tackled head on by Staake through a small solid black panel followed by a zoomed in focus on the boy’s emotional changes from shock to grief and, finally, acceptance. The bullies fearfully run away, but in their place the boy is greeted by a flock of rainbow-coloured birds, which lift him and the bluebird high above the city skyline. Meant to be an open-ended conclusion to the book, the reader is encouraged to bring his or her own interpretation to the story – a powerfully visual and wordless way to escape didacticism and empower discussion about an intense subject matter. Melissa Li Sheung Ying Bluebird Bob Staake New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2013; 40 pp. ISBN 9780375870378 (Picture Book; Ages 4+) Kata Kata Kata The Building is a story about a treadle sewing machine, a little girl, and her grandmother. The machine amazes the little girl because it makes many beautiful things and answers her wishes. One day while her grandmother is halfway done making her drama costume, the machine stops working; therefore, the grandmother finishes sewing the costume by hand. Standing proudly on stage in the costume made by her grandmother, the girl realizes it is grandma who makes her wishes come true. To give her grandma a surprise, the girl and her father transform the out-of-order sewing machine into a table for the grandma to enjoy tea. Told from the girl’s point of view, Kata Kata Kata is a book full of sensory details. Through the words and pictures, readers see how the sewing machine works, hear its kata kata kata sound, smell the osmanthus, and feel the line of stitches on the cover. The endpapers show the motif of wallpapers in the girl’s home, which set the mood for the story. The unrestricted lines and strokes match the girl’s mischievous behaviors and imaginative mind. This book received the 2015 Feng Zikai Best Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award. Yi-Ching Su (Kata Kata Kata) Bei Lynn Illus. Bei Lynn Taipei: Art & Collection Group, 2014. 36 pp. ISBN: 978-986-6049-66-8 (Picture book; ages 5+) Canadian musician Stan Rogers composed the song “Northwest Passage” in 1981 to describe his own “passage overland, In the footsteps” of explorers and to remember John Franklin’s disastrous 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage. In this stunning book, recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Illustration, Matt James combines paintings that accompany the song with illustrations about Franklin’s quest to discover the Northwest Passage, a sea route to connect the Arctic region with the Pacific Ocean. The resulting visual feast features colorful, expressive illustrations rendered in India ink and acrylic paint that depict the words of the song, the journey of Stan Rogers, and interesting facts about exploring the Northwest Passage. The song’s chorus refers to John Franklin, who lost two ships, 134 men and his own life, in his failed attempt to discover the Passage. An annotated timeline begins in 6000 BCE with the arrival of the first Arctic peoples and ends in 2012 with the lowest recorded ice levels in...

Nursery Rhymes and the History Behind Them

We all have grown up reading nursery rhymes and have all learnt those typical British ones handed down to us from our colonial rulers. Generations have grown up by reading Ba Ba Black Sheep or London Bridge is Falling Down without even knowing their context or the reason for the strange happenings in those rhymes. We have never questioned why was the London Bridge Falling Down? Who was that strange and funny fellow who had been painted like an egg for ages called Humpty Dumpty and why was the poor man thrown down from the stairs who refused to say his prayers? The paper tries to bring to you the history behind some of these famous nursery rhymes that we as the Indians have grown up by learning it, but we naturally as children could never fathom the meaning camouflaged within the lines and never knew as adults. The paper is an attempt to revive our childhood memories with a deeper understanding of the events that might have triggered our imaginative minds to weave them into seemingly nonsense ditties. The paper is also an attempt to sensitise the readers to the fact that the nursery rhymes that are still present in our educational system, which need to be revised, and we need to invent our own rhymes.