Conceptual Literature Research Articles

Wen, Literature, and Belles Lettres: Reconfiguring Chinese Literature in Nineteenth-Century English Sinology

ABSTRACT This article examines the fluid nature of literature as exemplified both semantically and conceptually in the English-language studies of Chinese literature conducted by Western Sinologists in the nineteenth century. If Chinese literary modernization of the early twentieth century is seen as shaped by the contact with foreign literary theories, Sinologists in the nineteenth century had already engaged actively with English literary concepts to reconfigure Chinese literature in their English-language writings. This article contends that, regardless of their impact on Chinese literary modernity, the Sinologists’ conceptions underlined the aesthetic and generic concerns that are fundamental to the modern understanding of literature and thereby fostered a renewed imagination of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. Examining a wide range of primary materials, including dictionaries and Sinological writings, this article aims to unfold their transcultural naming and legitimizing process that gave rise to the knowledge category of Chinese literature through contingent English and Chinese literary terminology, narrative frameworks, and categorization schemes. This article traces the unnoticed history in comparative literary history to offer a genealogical understanding of the Western conception of Chinese literature. It also provides a new dimension for reviewing and analyzing the dialogue and interplay between Western and Chinese literary ideas within the Sinologists’ writings prior to the overwhelming influence of Western literary ideas during the period of Chinese literary modernity.

The Impact of One Thousand And One Nights on Western Romance Stories. The Story of Tristan and Isolt Is an Example

Objectives: This research is concerned with demonstrating the impact of the ancient Arabic narrative structure on Western love stories. To demonstrate the areas of convergence and divergence in the fundamental and eternal idea of love, as writers expressed it in their arts in varying ways, and they met in expressing it in some axes, which leads to exploring Western civilization’s dialogue with the stories of One Thousand and One Nights in Western love stories. Methods: The research considered that the optimal threshold for comparison is to determine the impact of Arabic literature on Western literature, and to explain the term “romance.” Then, taking the stories of One Thousand and One Nights as a reference text, we show, through comparison between it and one of the love stories known to Westerners - which is the story of Tristan and Aizult - the points of similarity and difference between them, adopting the approach of intertextuality to clarify the features of the cultural impact of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. In Western stories. Results: The West’s contact with the East had an impact on the new concept of love in European literature. The book One Thousand and One Nights is considered one of the most influential books in Western romances, including the story of Tristan and Iseult. The research showed the possible Arabic origins of this story through textual comparison, as well as between the most prominent features. The cultural impact of One Thousand and One Nights. Conclusion: The book One Thousand and One Nights had an impact on changing some Western literary concepts, including the concept of romance, and this influence was clear in Western romances. Recommendations: The research recommends paying attention to comparative studies and rooting literary concepts and their roots to demonstrate the points of convergence between cultures and the role of Arabs in civilizational interaction.

A Literature Review on Digital Creativity in Higher Education—Toward a Conceptual Model

The present study relies on the assumption that in today’s knowledge society and the use of online knowledge, learning, and communication mechanisms, pre-university and university teachers, students of all ages, those preparing for teaching careers or other careers, parents, managers, and administrators have become increasingly interested in acquiring proficiency, capitalization, and stimulation of digital creativity. As such, research must provide, primarily for teachers and those preparing for this career, systematic results on digital creativity. This study aims to identify the current state-of-the-art in scientific knowledge on the comprehensive topic of digital creativity: conceptual frameworks and theoretical highlights, elaborating a model of digital creativity, and identifying and formulating future research opportunities. The investigation relies on the key concept of digital creativity and aims to cover two aspects: 1. basic meanings of the concept of digital creativity, specifying its applicability in the educational process at pre-university and university levels, and 2. identifying a set of concepts that are complementary to digital creativity. The research is a conceptual literature review, implying the use of literature review and bibliographic analysis methods. The study relies on a comprehensive literature review of papers selected from the three international databases WEB of SCIENCE, Science Direct, and Scopus from 2020 to 2024. The literature search enabled us to identify an initial sample of 1848 studies in the three databases and finally select 31 relevant articles. The analysis of the relevant papers allowed us to formulate conclusions related to the two investigated aspects: 1. The concept of digital creativity has two types of definitions—explicit and implicit; 2. The concept of digital creativity is correlated with other complementary concepts: digital competence, mobile networking creativity, multi-team digital creativity, the use of artificial intelligence, and digital innovation. Our findings support us in proposing ways to effectively use and stimulate digital creativity in the educational process and build 21st-century skills and competences for students of all ages and at all levels of education.

A Study On Effects Of Work-Life Balance And Women Employees Job Productivity In It Organizations

This study examined just at work-life balance and women productivity in only few IT sectors in Chennai. The study was stimulated by the IT sectoring industry's high rate of work-life unequal distribution. The study specifically examined the impact of workload pressure, role conflict, family stress, and work flexibility on female productivity. The relevant conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literatures were investigated. This work examined the work life balance and ladies productivity in selected IT sectors in Chennai city. The study was necessitated by high rate of work-life unbalance in the IT sectoring industry. Specifically the study determined the effect of workload pressure, role conflict, family stress and Work flexibility on ladies productivity. Relevant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures were examined. A total of fifteen IT sectors were studied, and the population of study was 2021, with the sample size of total sample size evaluated using the statistical formula SPSS. The research also revealed that family stress has a significant impact on female productivity. The study concluded that work load pressure, role conflict, and family-related stress all have a negative impact on female productivity. According to the study, people should relax in ways that do not interfere with their work; it can be an efficient way to recover from identified work-life balance issues. Management must take note of the volume of work assigned to women in order to deal with work-life balance issues in the workplace. Management must act immediately to rectify the issue; work should be delegated accordingly to ensure that no one is overloaded. Ladies should be given appropriate breaks and vacation time.

A Study On Effects Of Work-Life Balance And Women Employees Job Productivity In It Organizations

This study examined just at work-life balance and women productivity in only few IT sectors in Chennai. The study was stimulated by the IT sectoring industry's high rate of work-life unequal distribution. The study specifically examined the impact of workload pressure, role conflict, family stress, and work flexibility on female productivity. The relevant conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literatures were investigated. This work examined the work life balance and ladies productivity in selected IT sectors in Chennai city. The study was necessitated by high rate of work-life unbalance in the IT sectoring industry. Specifically the study determined the effect of workload pressure, role conflict, family stress and Work flexibility on ladies productivity. Relevant conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures were examined. A total of fifteen IT sectors were studied, and the population of study was 2021, with the sample size of total sample size evaluated using the statistical formula SPSS. The research also revealed that family stress has a significant impact on female productivity. The study concluded that work load pressure, role conflict, and family-related stress all have a negative impact on female productivity. According to the study, people should relax in ways that do not interfere with their work; it can be an efficient way to recover from identified work-life balance issues. Management must take note of the volume of work assigned to women in order to deal with work-life balance issues in the workplace. Management must act immediately to rectify the issue; work should be delegated accordingly to ensure that no one is overloaded. Ladies should be given appropriate breaks and vacation time.

Conceptualizing Mano Dura in Latin America

Abstract Latin American governments are increasingly adopting mano dura initiatives to combat gangs, organized crime, and insecurity. While mano dura has been a concept of increasing empirical interest, there seems to be limited conceptual clarity about the wide spectrum of strategies developed to combat crime and associated fear. This article proposes a definition of mano dura that has three different dimensions, each of them containing specific elements. The form of mano dura depends on formal, informal, and rhetorical practices. Drawing on 46 scholarly works in the social sciences, we develop our definition anchored in the knowledge of Latin American policing strategies, contributions on responses to crime in the region, and the conceptual development literature. With the purpose of supplementing our effort to standardize the usage of the term with the need to retain a degree of conceptual differentiation, we also offer a stylized model to better classify policing strategies in Latin America. In our stylized model, the numerous ways policies and narratives as well as their implementation (or not) interact can be grouped into four broad categories: full mano dura, institutional mano dura, performative mano dura, and covert mano dura.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Study from a Feminist Perspective

The 20th century saw the emergence of feminist theory and gender studies as literary concepts. African literature from the 1890s examines gender issues and women's identities from various perspectives. "Things Fall Apart" prompts a gender dynamics study. It examines a range of feminist concerns that represent power dynamics, femininity, and masculinity. Achebe, influenced by colonialist literature, presents an image of pre-colonial Igbo culture to refute Eurocentric myths. The research focuses on patriarchy, its substantial effects on gender, and how it limits and influences women's lives. The analysis, which takes feminist perspectives, looks at the nuances of patriarchy and the ways that female characters Ezinma, Nneka, and Ekwefi resist in anticipation of social norms. Along with scientific publications and research papers, the book serves as the main source. This study dissects patriarchy's role in dismantling gender equilibrium. .

Später: Objectless Eschatology and Radical Hope in the Poetry of Paul Celan

abstract: In this article, I examine Paul Celan's career-long preoccupation with the notion of a new beginning and the eschatological possibility of bringing about a hoped-for better future through the artistic act. Drawing on three major reference points in Celan's conceptualization of this struggle—Heideggerian eschatological thought, Jewish messianism, and the utopian tendencies of the early 20th century European avant-garde—I suggest another theoretical framework through which to understand Celan's divergence from these approaches: Jonathan Lear's theory of "radical hope." Although not a literary concept, I argue that Lear's "radical hope" offers a unique vantage point from which to consider what I call Celan's "objectless hope," shedding new light on its peculiarities and on the poetic techniques with which it is made manifest.

Reverse the Curse: Genesis, Defamiliarization, and the Song of Songs

This paper assesses the relationship between the so-called “curses” on the Woman in Gen 3:16 in terms of themes (garden, tree, creation, marriage, procreation, and so on) and concludes that the late poetic text of the Song aims at a deliberate corrective to the negative view of gender relations in Genesis. The use of mashal, “to rule over” in Gen 3 is reassessed from the perspective of its use of the native genre designation of mashal in Wisdom Literature. There, it refers to similarities between two compared items. The direct reversal of God’s speech to the humans in Gen 3, where the woman will be ruled over by her man but still desire him, appears in the Song in the speeches of the Beloved: there she states categorically that the man is her beloved and belongs to her, while she belongs to him. The tactic of defamiliarization (a Russian literary concept) is used to juxtapose radically different views and destabilizes the notion of only one meaning for the words under consideration. In effect, reading two opposing themes together forges a new, more inclusive understanding of both. This paper concludes with a dramatic new rendering of the Song, “The Song I Sing Complete” with speech and motifs reassigned to the woman’s voice, foregrounding her remarks within the genre of love poetry, drawing on tropes found in lyrical poetry and the myth of Israel’s neighbors in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

A causal model of health-related quality of life in colorectal cancer patients post-surgery

Purposethis study aims to develop and test a model examining the causal relationship between self-efficacy, social support, fatigue, pain, functional status, and health-related quality of life (HRQL). MethodsA cross-sectional correlation study was conducted using a multi-stage sampling technique to recruit 256 individuals aged 20 to 59 with colorectal cancer (CRC) post-surgery from three hospitals in Northern Vietnam. The hypothesized model, based on Ferrans’ HRQL conceptual model and literature review, was validated using structural equation modeling (SEM) and Mplus. Resultsthe model fit the data well, explaining 52% of the variance of HRQL. Self-efficacy emerged as the most influential factor directly impacting HRQL (β = .494, p < .05) and also had negative indirect effects on HRQL through fatigue and pain (β = −.271, p < .05). Social support had a positive direct (β = .406, p < .001) and negative indirect effects on HRQL via fatigue and pain (β = −.143, p < .05). Fatigue and pain had negative indirect effects on HRQL through functional status (β = −.336, p < .05 and β = −.219, p < .05, respectively). Functional status had a positive direct effect on HRQL (β = .418, p < .001). ConclusionsThe study's findings highlight the importance of improving self-efficacy, social support, and functional status, while reducing fatigue and pain to enhance HRQL among individuals with CRCpost-surgery. These insights can inform the development of targeted interventions to improve the well-being of this population.

“I need to be strong”: Refugee women embody resilience within personal, host, and faith communities

This basic qualitative study sought to understand resilience from the perspective of women refugees. In June 2023, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 women refugees from Ukraine living in Teplice, Czech Republic. Findings demonstrated that participants embodied resilience within the context of their personal, host, and faith communities. First, family members were motivation to make the journey out of Ukraine and friends were helpful resources of information and meeting practical needs. Host communities included volunteers at international borders, churches on the journey, the Czech government, and various strangers as factors in their resilience. Finally, within faith communities, participants described their own personal Christian faith, “miracles,” and churches that were place to belong. This study is situated in the broad academic literature about resilience and refugees studies. Yet, the research findings add empirical data to corroborate conceptual and theoretical literature. Additionally, this research relies on data from refugee women themselves.

Simultaneous optimization of design and takeoff trajectory for an eVTOL aircraft

When designing a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, it is crucial to consider various operating conditions, including hover, wing-borne cruise, and transition. Takeoff transition and climb phases are critical for vehicle conceptual design because they drive the motor and battery sizing. However, these flight phases are often ignored or simplified in the conceptual design literature due to the complexity of transition dynamics. To address this limitation, we propose simultaneous optimization of VTOL aircraft conceptual design and takeoff trajectory. Simultaneous optimization incorporates the takeoff transition and climb flight dynamics into VTOL design optimization in a fully coupled manner. This paper presents the design-trajectory optimization of lift-plus-cruise and tailsitter UAVs for delivery missions. As a result, simultaneous optimization reduces total energy consumption by 7.4% compared to uncoupled optimization and by 4.8% from iterative sequential optimization in the lift-plus-cruise configuration. It also achieves a 29% energy reduction from uncoupled optimization in the tailsitter configuration. Incorporating takeoff trajectory optimization in UAV sizing enables accurate estimation of takeoff and climb energy, which avoids undersizing or oversizing the battery. Furthermore, simultaneous optimization trades the vehicle weight penalty for a more energy-efficient climb with early transition. These system-level trade-offs can only be captured by simultaneous optimization; they cannot be captured by uncoupled or iterative sequential optimization.

“Because I don’t speak human” – literary concepts of verbal and nonverbal human-animal communication up to the Middle Byzantine period

“Because I don’t speak human” – literary concepts of verbal and nonverbal human-animal communication up to the Middle Byzantine period

Exploring the Purpose of Protecting Folk Literary and Artistic Expressions: A Multidimensional Protection Framework for China

There are many difficulties in protecting the expression of folk literature and art, and it is difficult to reach a consensus in the world. Through a comprehensive analysis of international conventions, domestic laws, and academic literature, this study establishes a multidimensional theoretical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of existing laws in China in protecting folk literature and art, illustrates the shortcomings of existing legal frameworks, and proposes innovative protection strategies. This article first defines the concept of folk literary and artistic expressions and analyzes their relationship with intangible cultural heritage. It highlights the international political context for the protection of folk literary and artistic expressions, as well as the challenges faced by China. The study argues that the traditional copyright protection model is not suitable for folk literary and artistic expressions. Instead, a comprehensive legal framework is needed, integrating laws on intangible cultural heritage, innovating protection models, strengthening international cooperation, utilizing technological means, raising public awareness, and developing the use of folk literary and artistic expressions.

The impact of international internships on Japanese undergraduates’ English achievement: perspectives on cultural capital theory

PurposeDrawing on the perspectives of cultural capital theory, this study investigated the impact of international internships on the performance of Japanese undergraduates on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) using a between-group pretest-posttest experimental design.Design/methodology/approachStudents participating in international internships were compared to their counterparts in a noninternational internship control group. Using TOEIC data collected in June 2019 and September 2019, we performed t-tests and estimated a difference-in-differences model with propensity score matching to measure the impacts of participation in international internships, students’ demographic information, family socioeconomic status, and independent learning characteristics.FindingsThe study showed that students’ participation in international internships and independent learning activities had significant effects on TOEIC performance. The findings of this study also indicate that in addition to the effects of international internship experience and independent learning on students’ English performance, learner learning behavior may be important for improving students’ performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis empirical research provides meaningful insights for parents, educators, and researchers not only in Japan but also in a broader context in which international internships and independent learning activities have a crucial impact on student performance. It also sheds light on our understanding of the role of activities conceptualized through the lens of cultural capital in educational stratification.Originality/valueThis study elucidates the association among cultural capital theory, international internships, and students’ linguistic achievement and makes an important contribution to the broader conceptual literature.

Historical and cultural basis for the formation of the literary concept KRIEG

Historical and cultural basis for the formation of the literary concept KRIEG

Analysis of Children's Conceptions of Concepts at the End of Pre-Primary Education

The study presents the results of the authors' original research. The subject of the research were authentic utterances of 5-6-year-old children at the exit from compulsory pre-primary education. They represented individual conceptions of the following concepts: interview, question, poem, fairytale, book, magazine, library, letter, reading, writing, writer. The concepts were selected from the state curriculum (2016). The aim of the study was to present selected findings from research on children's conceptions of language and literary concepts. In the study, we provided answers to the research question. Which claims from psycholinguistic theories about narrower and broader conceptions of concepts are most valid in children's authentic utterances? The research strategy was quantitative. Children's authentic utterances were obtained through individual interviews. Each child answered four basic questions: what is it? What is it for? What would it be if it wasn't? How do you know that? The children's statements were content-analyzed and interpreted. The children in the research sample were dominated by narrower conceptions of linguistic and literary concepts (61%). The narrower conceptions of the concepts contained a pre-scientific concept of knowing their meaning. The content of their utterances predominantly distorted the objective meanings of the concepts. Children were less likely to interpret social interactions and least likely to use explanations of another, familiar concept. When they did explain concepts in broader terms (34%), they mainly relied on sensory experiences. Some children did not know or did not answer the questions (5%). The conducted research is a part of the VEGA 1/0505/24 project - Children's preconceptions about the phenomena of reading literacy.

“The changing same” of whiteness in the US LIS academy: a cathartic testimonial from BIPOC faculty scholars

PurposeThere is little to no empirical research on the phenomenon of ways in which the racism of whiteness transpires within the faculties and classrooms of US-based ALA-accredited library and information science (LIS) education programs. We do have scholars publishing meaningful work exploring diversity-equity-inclusion topics and initiatives to evolve the LIS discourse on these issues (Honma, 2005; Chancellor, 2019; De LaRosa et al., 2021; Gibson, 2019; Mehra et al., 2023; Colón-Aguirre et al., 2022; Hands, 2022). This research substantiates the conceptual research that exists by empirically exposing the ways in which the racism of whiteness functions at the interpersonal level of work culture in LIS programs (i.e. the academy) in the US.Design/methodology/approachAdapting Baima and Sude’s (2020) modified Delphi Method, a focus group of 13 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) library and information science faculty members in the United States were recruited to participate in a one-time 60-min virtual Zoom session. Participants were engaged in three iterative rounds of reflective inquiry to reach a consensus of experience. The study design was embedded with critical race theory-based (CRT) ethnographic methods such as testimony (counterstorytelling), collective affirmation (shared narratives), and silence.FindingsBIPOC LIS faculty (tenure-track and tenured) have similar ideas about whiteness and how it is operationalized as micro- and macro-aggressions in the LIS academic workplace, most significantly inside the classroom. The experience of whiteness was prevalent among all study participants in two areas: workplace meetings with faculty colleagues and classroom sessions (face-to-face and online) with students.Originality/valueThe findings offer empirical evidence to support the prolific conceptual literature in LIS discourse concerning ways in which critical race theory (CRT) interrogates LIS’s socio-professional injustices and inequities (e.g. Gibson et al., 2018; Stauffer, 2020; Leung and Lopez-McKnight, 2021; Jennings and Kinzer, 2022; Snow and Dunbar, 2022). There remains a dearth of empirical research that reports how whiteness is reproduced in the practices, knowledge, and resources that make up the ethos of the LIS faculty meeting and classroom. Documenting the testimonies of BIPOC LIS faculty solidifies the existence of whiteness as a toxic reality in the LIS academy.

A conceptual framework for Emergent Language Learner Autonomy – a complexity perspective for action research

ABSTRACT Purpose This paper addresses inconsistencies in how language learner autonomy has been understood. A novel conceptual framework of Emergent Language Learner Autonomy (ELLA) is proposed, reconceiving it within Complex Dynamic Systems Theory. ELLA aims at a comprehensive conceptual understanding of language learner autonomy, an explanatory foundation for enhancing empowerment of educational stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach The paper offers a review of the conceptual literature on language learner autonomy and explores intersections with operationalisation and measurement with Action Research. Findings The paper identifies areas in which reductionist theoretical models are unsuited to describing language learner autonomy. Complex Dynamic Systems Theory is found to be a better fit. The proposed conceptual framework is modelled on Hopfield networks: series of dynamic, transitional relations between temporary and final states through which multilateral changes propagate. Language learner autonomy arises under conducive conditions at inflection points as an epiphenomenon, underscoring the need for holistic epistemological reorientation in research and practice. Originality This paper puts forward an innovative conceptual framework for understanding language learner autonomy as an emergent phenomenon. It contributes to the wider literature by addressing the need to resolve conceptual inconsistencies that undermine much research and practice. The novel framework informs compelling arguments for Action Research by practitioners from a complexity perspective – embracing adaptive, dynamic, non-linear research designs. The framework also emphasises the need for practitioners to adopt exploratory approaches to fostering language learner autonomy in their context.

(Un)leashed potentials: an activist-centered perspective on the political mobilization of motorcycle taxi drivers in eastern DRC

ABSTRACT The re-emergence of competitive elections in Africa has sparked new interest in political mobilization on the continent. Much of this literature focusses on political actors and the strategies they use to mobilize. If the campaign activists are reviewed at all, they are often categorized by their ethnic or religious affiliation. Thereby, abilities and potentials for political participation, which are important within conceptual literature on political mobilization, are side-lined. This article uses an activist-centered perspective to review the political mobilization of motorcycle taxi drivers, eastern Congo. Based on empirical research in 2020 and 2021, it evaluates the mobilization potentials of the so-called motards and their deployment during political action. The article finds that motards possess unique potentials for participating in political campaigns due to their mobility and large social networks but only partially deploy them. While their mobility potential is widely utilized, the mobilization of their social networks is hampered by a lack of allegiances and infrequent contacts with politicians. Based on the research findings, the article advocates expanding the perception of political mobilization in Africa by reflecting on the preconditions of mobilizability such as enabling potentials, interactions with activists and aligned political strategies.