In Portugal, Creative Writing is still an academic field in formation, yet it is necessary to reflect on the creative use of language in the construction of literature within the university context. Thus, the aim is to position Creative Writing as an academic discipline that relates interdisciplinarily with Linguistics, History, and Literary Theory. On the one hand, the intention is to consider language in connection with a poetics of writing—that is, to understand it as a poiein, a process of interpreting reality and the possibilities offered by language; on the other hand, it is to discuss the concept of literary originality, associated with the ways texts relate to one another, recognizing the inevitability of intertextuality as well as the notion that language itself creates fiction.

This paper examines the intersection of myth and modernity through a feminist reading of Dr. Malinee’s Bideh Nandini (Agony of Sita: Translated by Pranab Jyoti Neog), a contemporary retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. Retellings of myth in modern literature function not merely as narrative revisions but as critical interventions that question patriarchal authority embedded in classical texts. Dr. Malinee’s work reclaims Sita’s silenced voice and repositions her as a conscious moral agent negotiating duty, dignity, and selfhood within oppressive social structures. By foregrounding Sita’s inner conflicts, emotional resilience, and ethical reasoning, Agony of Sita transforms the idealized, submissive figure of tradition into a modern woman asserting autonomy. This study explores how mythic memory is reworked to address contemporary feminist concerns such as gender justice, identity, and agency. Drawing upon feminist literary criticism, myth criticism, and theories of modernity, the paper argues that Dr. Malinee’s retelling challenges dominant patriarchal interpretations while retaining the cultural essence of the epic. The text emerges as a dialogic space where tradition and modern consciousness intersect, allowing marginalized female experiences to be articulated. Ultimately, the paper highlights how the novel, Bideh Nandini contributes to feminist discourse by redefining women’s agency within mythological narratives and affirming the relevance of myth in negotiating modern gender realities.

Analysing the Literary Representation of Women's Influence in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

This study analyzes Ghassan Kanafani’s Rijālun fisy-Syams as a literary representation of the collective suffering of the Palestinian people and interprets the function of resistance literature as a counter-hegemonic discourse that affirms sovereignty and fosters transnational solidarity. The novelty of this research lies in addressing a critical gap in previous studies, which have largely focused on political-legal dimensions and prominent figures, while the role of literature as counter-knowledge remains underexplored. The urgency of this research is underscored by the ongoing Palestinian–Israeli conflict, which not only shapes regional discourses but also influences global awareness of human rights. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative design through library research and textual analysis, with a focus on the symbolism of death, exile, and dispossession. Data were collected through documentation and critical reading of the novel, complemented by relevant academic literature, and analyzed using thematic classification within Michel Foucault’s framework of power-knowledge, particularly the concepts of biopower and counter-knowledge. The findings reveal that the novel constructs collective suffering as a counter-hegemonic narrative that not only archives historical trauma but also articulates the moral legitimacy of sovereignty while extending its resonance to universal dimensions. The primary contribution of this study is to enrich power-knowledge theory with the dimension of resistance literature, while offering practical implications for strengthening global solidarity through cultural diplomacy.

This article argues that much of the persistent ambiguity surrounding the discussion about the justification of punishment results from an unnoticed conflation of descriptive, normative, and conceptual questions within the so-called theories of punishment. Such conflation, it is suggested, produces a confusion of analytical levels, as illustrated by the position advanced by Zaffaroni, Alagia, and Slokar in their Manual de Derecho Penal. Building on this diagnosis, the article proposes a methodological alternative inspired by Ronald Dworkin’s theory of interpretation. It contends that the philosopher of criminal law should approach the practice of punishment in a manner analogous to the way Dworkin’s judge approaches the law. This interpretive approach offers a coherent framework for addressing some of the recurrent tensions identified in the penal theory literature.

Drawing on literary theory, translation studies, and social identity theory, the research investigates whether reading Louise Glück’s poem “Adult Grief” in English versus Slovenian elicits different affective reactions. Using a repeated-measures design and a specially developed empathy scale, the study differentiates between compassionate and distressed responses of narrative empathy and examines how they relate to the four dimensions of trait empathy as assessed by the interpersonal reactivity index. The findings indicate that empathic concern and fantasy are key predictors of empathic engagement, with fantasy enhancing perspective taking and personal distress. Notably, language significantly influences empathic responses, especially when interacting with personal distress, suggesting that reading in one's native language reduces the self-other differentiation and intensifies emotional experience. However, language exposure also moderates responses, indicating that habitual engagement in a language can enhance emotional resonance regardless of native status. These results underline the complex interplay between language, empathy, and literary affect.

The paper offers an overview of the frequency and functions of three basic interjections in Greek, the phonologically minimal α /a/ ‘ah, huh’, ε /e/ ‘eh’ and ω or ο /o/ ‘oh’, with the aim of identifying the full range of their uses that have not been dealt with in the literature, which mainly treats them as elements denoting emotions. The data comes from a variety of Modern Greek corpora, including the conversational and the literary sub-corpora of the Corpus of Greek Texts (CGT, 1990–2010), the Corpus of Greek Film Dialogue and, for reasons of diachronic comparison, the Diachronic Corpus of Greek of the 20th Century (CGT20, 1900–1989). The findings suggest that, although a and e are both found among the 50 most frequent items, e is three times more frequent that a, while o is almost non-existent in conversation, in contrast to literary data, especially from an earlier period. In addition, a, e and o have developed a range of functions beyond mere exclamation, which include indexing surprise or sudden realization, use in address or as attention signals, evaluation, intensification, the drawing of implicatures, as well as their use as filled pauses or invariant tags. On the basis of these extensive pragmatic uses, it is suggested that interjections like a, e and o function as pragmatic particles having a prominent role in both conversation and its literary and filmic representation. More generally, it seems that the category of “interjection” covers a wide range of actual uses that are more akin to pragmatic particles (Beeching 2002), inserts (Biber et al. 1999) or interactives (Heine 2023), that is elements with a rich contribution to interactive discourse, both in non-scripted and scripted conversation. Corpora can be instrumental in evaluating this pragmatic import and its diachronic development.

Film tourism represents a growing opportunity for destination marketers, yet limited research examines how specific filmic components within a film’s dramatic architecture influence destination image and travel intention. This study addresses this gap through a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design comprising three phases. First, a pre-test ( n = 360) using exploratory factor analysis identified and validated four film components: plot, culture and tradition, scenery, and humanism. Second, a between-subjects quasi-experimental study with Vietnamese viewers ( n = 792) employed partial least squares structural equation modeling to test how Korean versus Vietnamese films differentially influence domestic and international travel intentions. Third, semi-structured interviews ( n = 22) with thematic analysis provided contextual depth and theoretical extension. Results reveal that plot significantly influences both destination image and travel intention for both film types, while culture and tradition affects travel intention only indirectly through destination image. Scenery exhibits paradoxical effects, negatively impacting destination image for Vietnamese films but positively for Korean films, yet positively influencing travel intention for both. Humanism influenced destination image only for Vietnamese films. These findings extend dramatic theory and narrative transportation literature into tourism contexts, demonstrating that film components operate through distinct pathways. Destination marketing organizations should prioritize narrative integration over scenic product placement and develop differentiated strategies for domestic versus international audiences.

ABSTRACT Our study contributes to the representative bureaucracy theory literature by testing the significance of majority identity, masculinity, and partisanship on responsiveness to social unrest. This study analyzes the responsiveness of police chiefs within the first week of the U.S. Capitol attack in Washington, D.C., on January 6th, 2021. Data are retrieved from social media accounts of police chiefs within local jurisdictions with at least 200,000 residents. An event history analysis is used to understand why some officials responded faster than others or not at all. Findings reveal that White male police chiefs and those with a Republican mayor were less responsive, while White male police chiefs were more responsive in localities with larger White populations due to the presence of minoritized mayors. The study adds to the literature by expanding representative bureaucracy theory to include the role of whiteness and masculinity, as well as mayoral identity, in shaping bureaucratic responsiveness.

This essay traces the complex trajectory of socialist realism as both a creation principle and a critical framework in modern Chinese literary history. Beginning with the transmission of Soviet literary theory, particularly through the 1950s reception of Ivanov S. Pidakov’s An Introduction to Literary Theory, the paper examines how Chinese intellectuals struggled with the interpretive enigma of socialist realism, oscillating between its official programmatic definition and its contradictory literary practice. By revisiting the roles of Maxim Gorky, Andrei Zhdanov, and other Soviet writers and literary critics, the essay highlights the entanglement of realism, naturalism, and romanticism in shaping the aesthetic and ideological imperatives of Chinese literature. It argues that the genealogy of realism in China, stretching from naturalism and critical realism to socialist realism and beyond, cannot be understood without accounting for this transnational circulation of theory and its selective adaptation. Moreover, the study foregrounds the tensions between ideological prescription and artistic autonomy, demonstrating how socialist realism operated less as a stable method than as an “invisible code” structuring both creation and criticism. In doing so, it reconsiders the fate of naturalism in Chinese literary discourse and calls for a renewed dialectical approach to realism, romanticism, and their afterlives in the post-socialist era.

This book reflects on the study of Japanese literature by examining the historical nature of the literary theories and research systems it gave rise to, thereby deconstructing the concept of a national literature (kokubungaku). To this end, the author takes various types of text—including literary texts, popular literature, literary theory, and research works—as research objects within specific historical and cultural contexts, and explores the transformation over time of concepts and historiographical views of modern Japanese literature. Through this process, the book seeks to reconstruct the notions of modern literature and modern literary studies in both China and Japan, and to explore new possibilities for literature and literary research.

ABSTRACT In recent years, companies have been subjected to great pressures from different stakeholders, including the integration of environmental requirements and the need to disclose information related to these environmental changes. In addition, the conflict of interests existing has led some large companies to integrate the interests of certain stakeholders in a superficial or symbolic way, without carrying out the required integration process within the strategic decisions. From the theoretical approaches of agency and stakeholders, bridging the gap between governance theory and stakeholder engagement literature, this paper delves into the phenomenon known as stakeholders' engagement and the company's response to this integration, in a superficial or deep way, through the disclosure of environmental information. The results of an analysis of a sample of 540 large US companies over a 13‐year period reveal that independent directors play a dual role: promoting environmental communication with stakeholders' expectations and subsequently driving substantive environmental strategies that go beyond mere regulatory compliance. The article thus presents a progressive model in which effective environmental disclosure depends on the integration of stakeholder interests into corporate strategy. Our results also contribute to extend Porter's hypothesis by demonstrating that long‐term value creation associated with environmental performance depends on the substantive nature of the company's environmental strategy, which is actively facilitated by independent directors.

Purpose By integrating identity control theory and psychological entitlement literature, this study aims to explore the double-edged effect of chief executive officer (CEO) awards on firm environmental behaviors. It further examines how CEO incentives and board monitoring shape these effects. Design/methodology/approach Using a difference-in-differences research design, the authors treat the receipt of a prestigious CEO award as an exogenous shock and analyze panel data of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2022. Findings The findings indicate that award-winning CEOs are more likely to engage in green innovation and commit environmental misconduct in the post-award period than in the pre-award period. Award-winning CEOs promote green innovation to reinforce their public identity, while they may also increase engagement in environmental misconduct for enhanced psychological entitlement. Furthermore, the extent to which a firm engages in such behaviors varies with the level of incentives and monitoring. Specifically, when CEOs are overpaid or the board holds more meetings, the likelihood of environmental misconduct is reduced. Moreover, under conditions of overpayment, award-winning CEOs show increased engagement in green innovation. Originality/value This study advances CEO awards research by developing an integrated theoretical framework that explains the seemingly paradoxical coexistence of green innovation and environmental misconduct following CEO recognition. It also takes a deeper dive into how the governance context of the firm shapes the behavioral expression of award-winning CEOs.

The study addresses the reductive reading of M.M. Bakhtin's theory of polyphony, which reduces it to the “equality of voices” and ignores its existential and corporeal foundation. Contemporary interpretations, particularly T.V. Kovalevskaya's “apatetic” (mimicry) paradigm, reveals that polyphony is based not on harmony but on an apathetic process of discernment, where the body with its affects is the main actor. This necessitates the development of a new, non-substantial ontology of corporeality. This study aims to substantiate the ontological model of the “body-mediator” (Corps-Médiateur), capable of describing corporeality as a dynamic operator of reality unfolding between the poles of scandal and sobornost (catholicity). The research presents a detailed phenomenology of ten key bodily “untranslatables” (such as Pudeur, Ilunga, Dadirri), identified through comparative-phenomenological analysis. Based on these, the model of the body-mediator is synthesized, characterized by a polyphonic structure and existing in a dialectic of activity and passivity. The article concludes that the body is not a substance but a multi-voiced operator of reality, whose everyday existence is a mimetic testing. The findings are relevant for philosophers, cultural scholars, literary and media theorists, and anyone interested in the problems of corporeality, polyphony, and non‑reductive anthropology.

The accelerating dynamics of globalization, migration, and digital interaction have reshaped the cultural environments in which literature is produced and consumed. As a result, literary studies increasingly require analytical frameworks that move beyond traditional monocultural or nation-based interpretive models. This paper proposes an integrated theoretical approach that treats concepts—as cognitive, linguistic, and philosophical abstractions—and transculture—as the fluid movement and hybridization of cultural elements—as co-constitutive parameters for analyzing literary texts. Concepts serve as the intellectual scaffolding through which meaning is produced, stabilized, or contested in narrative worlds, while transculture illuminates the processes through which identities, symbols, and narrative structures circulate across boundaries. By bringing these parameters together, the study argues for a flexible method capable of capturing the complexity of contemporary and historical literary forms.Drawing on literature from conceptual theory, transcultural studies, postcolonial theory, cognitive narratology, and comparative literature, the paper outlines a methodological model for analyzing how texts register cultural translations, conceptual transfers, hybrid identities, and shifting epistemologies. The model is then applied to representative textual examples (discussed generically rather than tied to one corpus), demonstrating how conceptual clusters—such as belonging, identity, mobility, power, and memory—interact with transcultural currents that shape narrative meaning and reader interpretation.The results emphasize that literary texts operate as dynamic cultural interfaces that encode multi-directional flows of ideas, beliefs, and worldviews. A transcultural-conceptual lens reveals not only how texts negotiate cultural difference but also how they reconfigure universal or local concepts through hybrid narrative strategies. The discussion highlights implications for pedagogy, comparative research, and interdisciplinary humanities. Ultimately, the paper positions concepts and transculture as essential analytical parameters that enable richer, more nuanced readings of literature in a rapidly globalizing world.

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The current research paper discusses the role of female characters in the South Asian literature works based on the theory of scapegoatization of Rene Girard. The theory by Girard that states that the collective aggression and guilt of a society is often transferred onto a chosen scapegoat, is applied, to analyse how in South Asian literature, women are often selected as the bearers of the family and communal guilt. This paper discusses the influence of cultural and historical contexts on the construction of narratives of women as scapegoats and examines a range of South Asian Literature works. The paper discusses how these individuals are recognized, alienated, and ultimately murdered to achieve peace in the society. These literary manifestations are analyzed according to the feminist approach, which assists the research in finding the common themes represented and patterns which either reinforce or refute the patriarchal norms. To add to bigger discussions on gender, power and literary representation the study tries to provide a meaningful insight into the development of the Girardian theory of the scapegoat in the South Asian context. This work shows that gendered scapegoatization plays a very important role in fictional discourses as well as real-world gender relations in South Asia by focusing on the intersection of literary and social theory analysis.

This research provides an in-depth interpretation of how amateur Ironman triathlon finishers develop their skills and commitment to the sport. A qualitative approach was adopted to collect data from 25 amateur Ironman triathlon finishers through a two-step process—individual in-depth interviews followed by a focus group interview—and the resulting data were analysed to synthesise key themes. The analysis revealed that progression along the recreational specialisation continuum involves three areas encompassing eight themes. The first area, facilitators, underscores the influence of personal motivation and social support in sustaining participation. The second area, specialisation development, reflects growth in knowledge, behaviour, and affective engagement with the sport. The third area, changes after progression, highlights personal insights, evolving event preferences, and shifts in social or individual roles. Based on these findings, this research enhances the application of serious leisure theory and recreational specialisation literature, particularly in the context of Ironman triathlon participants. It also lays the groundwork for future large-scale model development and identifies two promising research directions: strategies for mental adjustment to overcome obstacles and approaches to maintaining a sense of balance in life. Overall, the findings offer a concise theoretical basis and practical guidance for fostering sustained participation in recreational triathlon.

In recent years, the rapid development of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and platform economies has profoundly changed global production structures and governance models. This article re-examines the concept of a developing country in the digital age and emphasises how digitalisation can reshape the political and economic pattern of state-led development. By integrating normative political theory and digital political economy literature, this article points out that the traditional development-oriented national model based on industrialisation, export orientation and bureaucratic coordination must evolve to cope with the governance problems of data, algorithms and digital infrastructure. The study identified three key changes: from industrial policy to ecosystem coordination, from physical infrastructure to data governance, and from bureaucracy to an adaptive regulatory framework. Cases from Estonia, South Korea and India illustrate different methods of digital governance and show how countries can safeguard democratic accountability while promoting innovation. The research results show that the reconceived developed countries should act as "digital ecosystem enablers" and take into account fairness, transparency and ethical governance while promoting growth. This normative restructuring helps the policy debate to explore how emerging economies can achieve inclusive digital modernisation, while avoiding repeating the mistake of technology authoritarianism.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement on firm-level innovation outcomes. It examines whether CSR enhances the quantity, quality, efficiency and novelty of innovation. The study further explores how internal governance moderates this relationship by using the corporate governance index (G-index) and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. By integrating insights related to stakeholder theory and innovation literature, the paper aims to clarify the strategic importance of CSR for firm-level innovation and long-term value creation. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses empirical models using firm-level panel data from Compustat, the MSCI ESG Stats database and the NBER Patent Citation database from 1992 to 2007. It combines propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimation to address endogeneity concerns. Key measures of innovation include patent counts, citation impact and innovation novelty. Corporate governance is measured using indicators such as the G-index and the SOX of 2002. The analysis controls for firm- and year-fixed effects and standard innovation determinants to examine the effect of CSR on firm-level innovation. Findings The paper provides empirical evidence that CSR engagement is positively associated with firm-level innovation outcomes. Firms with higher CSR scores produce more patents, have more non-self citations and exhibit greater innovation efficiency and novelty. The results suggest that CSR enhances more effective R&D allocation and broader technological impact. The positive effects of CSR on innovation are stronger in firms with better internal governance. Following the SOX of 2002, firms that increased CSR engagement exhibit significant improvements in innovation output, supporting the view that CSR enhances long-term innovation performance. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to examine the strategic role of CSR in firm-level innovation. It provides new empirical evidence on how CSR enhances innovation quantity, quality, efficiency and novelty. Using exogenous shock from the SOX and the internal governance measure (G-index), the study highlights the important roles of CSR and governance in long-term innovation outcomes.