Meaning In World Research Articles

Under consent: participation of people with HIV in an Ebola vaccine trial in Canada

BackgroundLittle is known about volunteers from Northern research settings who participate in vaccine trials of highly infectious diseases with no approved treatments. This article explores the motivations of HIV immunocompromised study participants in Canada who volunteered in a Phase II clinical trial that evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of an Ebola vaccine candidate.MethodsObservation at the clinical study site and semi-structured interviews employing situational and discursive analysis were conducted with clinical trial participants and staff over one year. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using critical qualitative interpretivist thematic analytical techniques. Patterns were identified, clustered and sorted to generate distinct and comprehensive themes. We then reassembled events and contexts from the study participants’ stories to develop two ideal portraits based on "composite characters" based on study participants features. These provide ethnographically rich details of participants’ meaningful social worlds while protecting individual identities.ResultsTen of the 14 clinical trial participants, and 3 study staff were interviewed. Participant demographics and socio-economic profiles expressed limited contextual diversity. Half were men who have sex with men, half were former injection drug users experiencing homelessness, one was female, none were racialized minorities and there were no people from HIV endemic countries. Fully 90% had previous involvement in other clinical studies. Their stories point to particular socio-economic situations that motivated their participation as clinical labor through trial participation.ConclusionsOur findings support Fisher’s argument of “structural coercion” in clinical trial recruitment of vulnerable individuals experiencing precarious living conditions. Clinical trials should provide more detail of the structural socio-economic conditions and healthcare needs which lie “under consent” of study participants. Going well beyond an overly convenient narrative of altruism, ethical deliberation frameworks need to sufficiently address the structural conditions of clinical trials. We offer concrete possibilities for this and acknowledge that further research and clinical data should be made available underlying study participant contexts with regards to recruitment and participation in resource poor settings, in both the South and the North.

Žižek's Pandemic

Abstract In the first part of this article on Žižek's recent book Pandemic! I show how he develops a political theology of the spirit through a discussion of social distancing. In this argument Žižek connects the idea of physical distance to the biblical story of the resurrection, in which Jesus says to Mary Magdalene “noli me tangere” (“touch me not”), in order to imagine the emergence of a community of spirit from the social, political, and economic ruin caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Contrasting this community of spirit to the Chinese Communist Party's Foucauldian response to the outbreak of the virus, Žižek suggests a turn away from Prometheanism and the logic of domination toward a new posthuman humanitarianism based on a recognition of human weakness, vulnerability, and fragility. In Žižek's view, this turn toward a new form of humility would emerge from the final disenchantment of the spirit of capitalism and a recognition of the difference between human work, which contributes to a meaningful world, and bestial labor that dehumanizes and means nothing. Thus, the article shows how Žižek thinks about the pandemic in terms of a crisis of late capitalism and the possibility of a new spirit of communism. While the presexual nonlife of the virus is comparable to the drive of capitalism in respect of its unthinking will to replication and reproduction, Žižek founds the basis of humanity in our (human) mortality and being toward death that open out onto a new horizon of releasement (Gelassenheit) beyond biotechnoeconomic nihilism. The conclusion of the article, therefore, shows how Žižek imagines that the pandemic presents humanity with an existential choice about the way we organize social life. This choice is between the biopolitical domination of Chinese authoritarianism that seeks to control every aspect of life, American disaster capitalism that accepts the brutality of the state of nature, and finally Žižek's utopian spirit of communism based on a recognition of human and planetary finitude.

Towards a Reformulated Theory Underlying Schema Therapy: Position Paper of an International Workgroup

BackgroundA central construct in Schema Therapy (ST) is that of a schema mode, describing the current emotional-cognitive-behavioral state. Initially, 10 modes were described. Over time, with the world-wide increasing and broader application of ST to various disorders, additional schema modes were identified, mainly based on clinical impressions. Thus, the need for a new, theoretically based, cross-cultural taxonomy of modes emerged.MethodsAn international workgroup started from scratch to identify an extensive taxonomy of modes, based on (a) extending the theory underlying ST with new insights on needs, and (b) recent research on ST theory supporting that modes represent combinations of activated schemas and coping.ResultsWe propose to add two emotional needs to the original five core needs that theoretically underpin the development of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs), i.e., the need for Self-Coherence, and the need for Fairness, leading to three new EMSs, i.e. Lack of a Coherent Identity, Lack of a Meaningful World, and Unfairness. When rethinking the purpose behind the different ways of coping with EMS-activation, we came up with new labels for two of those: Resignation instead of Surrender, and Inversion instead of Overcompensation. By systematically combining EMSs and ways of coping we derived a set of schema modes that can be empirically tested.ConclusionsWith this project, we hope to contribute to the further development of ST and its application across the world.

The Declaration of Interdependence! Feminism, Grounding and Enactivism.

This paper explores the issue whether feminism needs a metaphysical grounding, and if so, what form that might take to effectively take account of and support the socio-political demands of feminism; addressing these demands I further propose will also contribute to the resolution of other social concerns. Social constructionism is regularly invoked by feminists and other political activists who argue that social injustices are justified and sustained through hidden structures which oppress some while privileging others. Some feminists (Haslanger and Sveinsdóttir, Feminist metaphysics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Stanford: Stanford University, 2011) argue that the constructs appealed to in social constructivism are real but not metaphysically fundamental because they are contingent. And this is exactly the crux of the problem—is it possible to sustain an engaged feminist socio-political critique for which contingency is central (i.e., that things could be otherwise) and at the same time retain some kind of metaphysical grounding. Without metaphysical grounding it has been argued, the feminist project may be rendered nonsubstantive (Sider, Substantivity in feminist metaphysics. Philosophical Studies, 174(2017), 2467–2478, 2017). There has been much debate around this issue and Sider (as an exemplar of the points under contention) nuances the claims expressed in his earlier writings (Sider, Writing the book of the world. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2011) and later presents a more qualified account (Sider, Substantivity in feminist metaphysics. Philosophical Studies, 174(2017), 2467–2478, 2017). Nonetheless, I propose the critiques and defences offered by the various parties continue to depend on certain erroneous assumptions and frameworks that are challengeable. I argue that fundamentality as presented in many of these current accounts, which are underpinned by the explicit or implicit ontologies of monism and dualism and argued for in purely rationalist terms which conceive of subjects as primarily reason-responding agents, reveal basic irresolvable problems. I propose that addressing these concerns will be possible through an enactivist account which, following phenomenology, advances an ontology of interdependence and reconceives the subject as first and foremost an organism immersed in a meaningful world as opposed to a primarily reason-responding agent. Enactivism is thus, I will argue, able to legitimize feminist socio-political critiques by offering a non-reductive grounding in which not only are contingency and fundamentality reconciled, but in which fundamentality is in fact defined by radical contingency. My paper proceeds in dialogue with feminists generally addressing this ‘metaphysical turn’ in feminism and specifically with Sally Haslanger and Mari Mikkola.

Felaket Dönemlerinde Deneyim Mimarisi, Anlam-Krizi ve Istırapları Dinî Referanslarla Anlamlandırma

Toplum, bir insanî inşadır; inşa edilen dünyada bir anlam sistemi kurulduğu gibi ona referansla bir düzen de kurulur. İnsanın toplumsallığı aynı zamanda nomos inşasına yönelik arzu ve eğiliminin de bir ifadesidir. Onun toplumla olan ilişkisi, uzun bir hikayedeki bir perde olması bağlamında etkileşimseldir. Varlık bulduğu dünyada içselleştirdiği anlam kodları ve bilgi stoklarıyla dünyanın varlık bulmasında etkin olur. Onun bu dünya kurma ve idame etme girişiminin en temel öğesi dindir. Din, özellikle marjinal dönemlerde bir anlam referansı olarak işlev görmektedir, tıpkı olağan dönemlerde olduğu gibi. Günümüzde bir salgın COVID-19 pandemisi ile deneyimlenen marjinal durum, insanın eğiliminin bir uzantısı olarak açıklanmak ve yorumlanmak isteğine muhataptır; çünkü insan, acı ve ıstırap kaynağı olayların izahına yönelik bir arayış içindedir. İlk defa Max Weber’in sosyal zeminde tartıştığı teodise özünde felsefî bir tartışma olsa da kurucu sosyologlardan beri sosyolojinin de konusudur. Bu incelemede Peter Berger ve Thomas Luckmann’ın fenomenolojik yaklaşımlarında teodise meselesi ve marjinal durumların insanın anlam arayışındaki yeri ve işlevi sorgulanmıştır. Bu bağlamda dokümantasyon yöntemiyle elde edilen bulgular incelemenin temel iddiası düzleminde değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç itibarıyla birey ve grupların yalnızca mutluluk verici olaylara dayanarak bir dünya kurmadıkları, ölüm, salgın, acı ve ıstırap gibi marjinal deneyimlerin de anlam kaynağı olarak yüksek düzeyde bir işlev gördüğü tespit edilmiştir. Peter L. Berger ve Thomas Luckmann, din sosyolojisi ile bilgi sosyolojisinin etkileşime girdiği kavşak olan anlam meselesine kuramlarının merkezinde özellikle yer vermektedirler. Hem günümüz salgın deneyiminin anlaşılmasına yönelik çabalar hem de bu çabaların sosyolojide anlaşılmasında söz konusu kuramcıların yaklaşımlarının izah önerisi bu çalışmanın problematiğini şekillendirmektedir. Böylece bu çalışmada kriz dönemlerinde anlam meselesi, "insan hayatı salt mutluluk kaynağı olan olaylara dayanılarak anlam üretmez, marjinal deneyimler de anlam kaynağıdır" iddiasını sınamak için sorunsallaştırılmıştır. Berger ve Luckmann'a göre dinin temel fonksiyonu, gündelik hayatın deneyimlerini anlamlandırmasıdır. Düzen nosyonunun yanı sıra ona yönelik tehditlere de odaklanan bu anlam verme çabası bireysel değil kolektiftir; ortaya koyduğu ürün, “cılız ve kırılgandır” ve bu nedenle “sürekli olarak yeniden inşa edilmelidir. Berger, ıstırapları meşrulaştırılması bağlamında dinin işlevine odaklanır ve ona göre “din, bir dünya görüşünün yaptığını yapar; sarsıcı deneyimlerin haklı gösterilmesi. Luckmann ise dünya görüşü kavramıyla insanın verili toplumun anlam dünyasını içselleştirmesi ve onunla deneyimlerini izah etmesine odaklanır. Modern toplumlarda dinî kurumsal tekel söz konusu olmadığı için çoğulculuk içinde bireyin kendi anlamlandırma tercihini yapması gereği söz konusudur. Günümüz salgın deneyimi başta olmak üzere majör olaylarda özellikle gündeme gelen anlam krizi, dinî alan için belirgin bir form taşır. İnsanın marjinal deneyimlerini anlamlandırması, bir anlam topluluğuna referansla şekillenir. Salt bireysel bir anlam dünyasının varlığı ise sorgulanmaktadır. Anlam krizi ve teodise arasındaki bağ, gündelik yaşamın ıstıraplarına dayanma gücünün kaynağı olacak bir açıklama arayışı ve onun muktedir kılan niteliğine yönelik talepkârlık dikkat çekicidir. Günümüz toplumunu risk üzerinden tanımlayan yorumlar aynı zamanda risk argümanı üzerinden teodise meselesinin anlaşılmasında da bir zemin tanımlamıştır. Anlamlandırılmış bir dünya Berger için bir ev anlamına gelir; anlamlı, düzenli ve güvenli. “İnsanlık tarihi, bir ıstırap tarihidir” diyen Berger, günümüzde yaşandığı gibi salgın dâhil doğadan kaynaklanan acıların öyküyü biçimlendirme gücüne işaret eder. Son tahlilde, Berger ve Luckmann'ın kuramlarında görüldüğü gibi, günümüz COVID-19 salgını da insanın bir açıklama aradığı ve anlamlandırmak istediği bir deneyimi temsil etmektedir; bu bitimsiz çaba, insanın kendini evinde hissetmesi bağlamında vazgeçilmez görünmektedir.

Needs of homeless children in the Czech Republic

AbstractThe needs of homeless children living in shelters and hostels in the Czech Republic have been not sufficiently explored yet. The paper therefore aims to analyse and describe the needs of homeless children living in shelters and hostels in the Czech Republic, thus creating a basis for social work with homeless children and their families. As part of a qualitative research strategy carried out through interviews with parents, children and their social workers, five categories of homeless children's needs (based on Matějček's theory) were identified and described in detail based on a data analysis using Charmaz's Grounded Theory; these categories were the need for stimulation, the need for a meaningful world, the need for love and emotional safety, the need for identity and finding one's own place in society and the need for a life perspective and open future. Based on the identified needs, implications for social work with families were identified, strengthening a sensitive approach of helping professions to the needs of homeless children.

Matters of Place and Space in School-Based Performances of World Music

Christopher Small (1998) famously explored the role of the performance venue in framing the music experiences of audience members. While Small observed how audiences consume music in the classical symphony hall, we might also consider how performance venues frame global music experiences as well. In this article, I suggest that considering the space where music takes place can offer insights into the deeper social and cultural contexts of any given music practice. Specifically, music teachers can foster meaningful world music experiences by embracing the participatory or presentational nature of the music and seeking to reproduce these performance contexts as closely as possible. I explore ways that these ideas might play out among teachers who wish to maximize both the authenticity and integrity of their music performances, and I discuss strategies for music teachers to incorporate these suggestions into their own teaching.

Worlds Apart? Reassessing von Uexküll’s Umwelt in Embodied Cognition with Canguilhem, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze

Jakob von Uexküll’s (1864-1944) account of Umwelt has been proposed as a mediating concept to bridge the gap between ecological psychology’s realism about environmental information and enactivism’s emphasis on the organism’s active role in constructing the meaningful world it inhabits. If successful, this move would constitute a significant step towards establishing a single ecological-enactive framework for cognitive science. However, Uexküll’s thought itself contains different perspectives that are in tension with each other, and the concept of Umwelt is developed in representationalist terms that conflict with the commitments of both enactivism and ecological psychology. One central issue shared by all these approaches is the problem of how a living being experiences its environment. In this paper, we will look at Uexküll’s reception in French philosophy and highlight the different ways in which the concept of Umwelt functions in the work of Georges Canguilhem, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Gilles Deleuze. This analysis helps clarify different aspects of Uexküll’s thought and the deeper philosophical implications of importing his concepts into embodied cognitive science. This paper is part of a recent trend in which enactivism engages with continental philosophy in a way that both deepens and transcends the traditional links to phenomenology, including most recently the thought of Georg W. F. Hegel and Gilbert Simondon. However, no more than a brief outline and introduction to the potentials and challenges of this complex conceptual intersection can be given here. Our hope is that it serves to make more explicit the philosophical issues that are at stake for cognitive science in the question of experienced environments, while charting a useful course for future research.

“I Thought I Knew You”

“I Thought I Knew You”

Spaces of a Technological Power: The Idea of Order (from the History of Ideas)

The paper is devoted to one of the fundamental problems of social science, namely: the problem of order. When a social order is taken for granted, it merges its meanings with the meanings rooted in cosmos.Nomos and cosmos begin to coexist. The order is endowed with a stabilizing force drawn from a more powerful source, i.e. cosmization implies the identification of this meaningful world with the world as such.The power and the law in their actions are aimed at creating and maintaining order as a system. The system itself develops the structure of technology formation aimed at both maintaining the existing order and changing it. Technology, as an anonymous power, dominates the society, but the society itself makes itself dependent on technology by deciding to apply technology. Thus, a special space of technological power emerges where actual influences determining its structure are expressed. The power and law acquire qualitatively new features in this context.The technology of power can be understood as a kind of “democracy.” It can be normalized in accordance with its constitutional prerequisites and it can restore its long-lost moral justification.

Excess lifetime cancer risk due to natural radioactivity in Gümüşhane Province, NE Turkey

In this study, 162 in situ measurements of 238U, 232Th, and 40K radionuclide concentrations dataset taken by the gamma-ray spectrometer in Gumushane, Turkey are presented. The gamma ray measurements were performed by a 512-channel, three-window gamma-ray spectrometry equipment made by GF Instruments. We first observed the radionuclides of the 238U, 232Th, and 40K values in Gumushane. We then calculated the hazard indices of gamma radiation such as annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE), internal and external hazard index (Hin, Hex), and excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) based on the radionuclide abundances of 238U, 232Th, and 40K for the first time. In Gumushane, the average activity concentrations of radionuclides 238U, 232Th, and 40K were measured as 58.7 ± 34.3 Bq kg-1, 62.7 ± 37.2 Bq kg-1, and 1026.8 ± 486.0 Bq kg-1, respectively. The average outdoor annual effective dose equivalent and ELCR values were 132.2 ± 63.2 mSv yr-1 and 0.40 ± 0.19 × 10-3, respectively. Numerical results indicate that the radiological parameters (AEDE and ELCR) obtained for Gumushane Province were greater than the world's mean values.

"The universal values of religions are the fundamental foundation of a human, just and spiritually meaningful world" - a leading thought of the International Scientific Forum

The article informs about the international scientific conference "Universal values of religions of the world: history and modernity", which took place on October 24-25, 2019 in Kyiv.

CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATION TO BUILD DEMENTIA-FRIENDLY BUSINESSES: ENGAGING STUDENTS IN PUBLIC ISSUES IN AGING

Despite a nationwide campaign to build dementia friendly communities, increasing awareness and engagement with programs like Dementia Friendly Businesses remains a challenge for local champions. To create welcoming environments for people living with dementia (PLWD), communities may benefit from cross-sector collaboration. Fundamental to collaborative efforts is the conviction that individuals, families, businesses, organizations, and institutions each play a role in reducing the stigma associated with dementia and facilitating welcoming environments. This exploratory study considers the outcomes of a cross-sector collaboration between a university, a hospital, individual community members, and students to build awareness of the need for new norms that reduce stigma for people living with dementia. We measured change at each ecological level. Through this collaboration, 61 local businesses and organizations are now DFB certified, 350 individuals have participated in training, and 150 students have joined 12 community trainers to advocate for dementia friendly spaces. Students’ survey responses show that 75% agree or strongly agree that the project engaged them in a meaningful real world experience and advocating for the need for dementia friendly spaces. PLWD provide qualitative data on feeling welcomed in the community. The university and hospital co-created an online open access dementia friendly training taken by 89 people in 6 months. 150 community members came together for a day-long workshop to build capacity and innovate solutions. Implications of the project suggest that changing cultural norms about dementia requires creative solutions that meaningfully engage individuals, organizations, institutions, and communities to collaborate across multiple sectors

≪ L’ebranlement du monde bien connu ≫

The aim of this article is to analyze the idea of the event conceived as crisis and conflict in Patočka and Maldiney’s philosophies. The event is what tears the horizon of the meaningful world apart and opens a new world: it represents the opening of a crisis in the human existence and at the same time the condition of any future crisis to come. By reading Maldiney’s texts on the “pathique” and psychosis along with Patočka’s descriptions of historical existence, we shall then discover that human existence is exposed (and responds) to this chaotic and conflictual dimension. In fact, what defines existence—the individual existence (Maldiney) as well as the historical, shared existence (Patočka)—is the exposure to such a conflict and to the critical event, i.e. to the possibility of its own shaking. Furthermore, the event appears as the root of both the krisis and the “koine”, whether in the form of the encounter (Maldiney) or the community cohesion (Patočka).

Enacting Phenomenological Gestalts in Ultra-Trail Running: An Inductive Analysis of Trail Runners' Courses of Experience.

Using an enactive approach to trail runners’ activity, this study sought to identify and characterize runners’ phenomenological gestalts, which are forms of experience that synthesize the heterogeneous sensorimotor, cognitive and emotional information that emerges in race situations. By an in-depth examination of their meaningful experiences, we were able to highlight the different typologies of interactions between bodily processes (e.g., sensations and pains), behaviors (e.g., actions and strategies), and environment (e.g., meteorological conditions and route profile). Ten non-professional runners who ran an ultra-trail running race (330 km, 24,000 m of elevation gain) volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected in two steps: (1) collection of past activity traces (i.e., race maps, field notes, and self-assessment scales) and (2) enactive interviews using the past activity traces in which the runners were invited to relive their experience and describe their activity. The enactive interviews were coded using the course-of-experience methodology to identify the phenomenological gestalts that emerged from activity and scaffolded the runners’ courses of experience. The results revealed that runners typically enact three phenomenological gestalts: controlling global ease, enduring general fatigue and experiencing difficult situations, and feeling freedom in the running pace. These phenomenological gestalts were made up of specific behaviors, involvements, and meaningful situated elements that portrayed various ways of achieving an ultra-endurance performance in the race situation. They also highlighted how runners enact a meaningful world by acting in relation to the fluctuations in physical sensations and environmental conditions during an ultra-trail race. Practical applications for preparation, race management and sports psychology interventions are proposed to enrich the existing recommendations. In conclusion, this approach provides new research perspectives by offering a more holistic grasp of activity in trail running through an in-depth analysis of athletes’ experience. In doing so, we may expect that runners can connect these typical gestalts to their own personal experiences and stories as trail runners in order to sustain a viable approach to their sport.

Spatial distribution of soil organic carbon in the ecologically fragile Horqin Grassland of northeastern China

The spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) and its storage in the topmost 100 cm of the soil were investigated in the Horqin Grassland of northeastern China. Soil samples were collected at 1465 sites, covering 12.03 × 104 km2. The region had a mean SOC density of 6.84 kg C m−3, which is lower than China's mean (9.60 kg C m−3) and the world's mean (10.40 kg C m−3). The mean SOC density was much higher in the northern part of the study area (8.85 kg C m−3) than in the southern part (4.84 kg C m−3). The total SOC storage in the Horqin Grassland was 862.74 Tg. SOC storage decreased with increasing soil sampling depth. The SOC stored in the top 10, 20, 40, and 60 cm accounted for 17.7, 31.7, 53.8, and 71.3%, respectively, of the total amount in the top 100 cm. The region's extensive desertification appears to be one of the most important factors that led to the relatively low SOC content and the difference between the northern and southern parts of the Horqin Grassland. Our results provide an important baseline for evaluating past losses of SOC due to desertification, and for projecting the potential increase in SOC from the restoration of desertified land and how SOC will respond to climate change.

From the Editor's Desk: The Meaningful World of Matter

From the Editor's Desk: The Meaningful World of Matter

Habits and the Social Phenomenon of Leadership

Leadership research has grown into two opposing approaches, the scientific approach and the critical approach. The first is focused on leadership, the second on the leaders. For reasons of practicality, they will be described as the leadership-centric and the leader-centric approach, respectively. Each of the two approaches is characterised by two different perspectives: leadership-centric research highlights science and process; leader-centric research deals with the leader using cognitive faculties and drawing on cultural practices. This opposition has created an unproductive gap in leadership scholarship. The present article focuses on how to reduce that gap by bridging some of the differences that currently undermine scholarship. The concept of habits is used to support an argument in favour of leadership as a social phenomenon. The main idea is that a social phenomenon involves both social interactions happening in everyday shared knowledge and intentionality that influences agents’ experiences. By borrowing from the pragmatist John Dewey, leadership is conceptualised as habits embedded in social life. Habits comprise the social sharing of experience and knowledge in a meaningful world. But it seems difficult, it is further argued, to elaborate on people’s intentionality through habits. To overcome this difficulty, Edmund Husserl’s notion of doxic-theoretical experience is used. Habits, it is concluded, help make leadership-centric research less anonymous, and doxic agency the leader’s intentionality more transparent.

Releasing the Sparks: Extending a Kabbalistic Metaphor to Contemporary Business Practice

An increasingly uncertain global business environment demands a new approach to strategizing. This paper argues for a contemporary re- imagining of the spiritual narrative of “releasing the sparks”. In the Jewish mystical tradition, when the world was created sparks of Divine light were scattered, something like taking a book and throwing all its words and letters into the air. The job of humanity is to rescue and liberate these sparks to create a meaningful world. Extending the metaphor to contemporary business practice, firms seeking to attain a long-term sustainable competitive advantage will need to develop the capability to continuously reach out and release the sparks by attracting and converting potential stakeholders into actual stakeholders. What we propose directly connects firm value creation to an explicit sense of spiritual purpose accompanied by social welfare enhancements via a two-pronged strategic focus on developing trustworthiness and increasing proximity. A purposeful focus on “releasing the sparks” will support a firm’s ability to innovate in this new competitive context by strengthening its relationship to the broader eco-system in which it is embedded.

The art of storytelling in Old Javanese prose as illustrated by the story of Ekalawya

Scholarly attention for Old Javanese literature so far has mainly focused on poetry. The apparently simple nature of narrative prose texts, while making them excellent sources for linguistic and lexicographic research, at the same time denies them any literary value. In this article an impression is given of the art of storytelling in one Old Javanese prose story, taken from the Adiparwa of around A.D. 1000. Quite unexpectedly, a sophisticated tradition unfolds in which a rich variety of devices enables the storyteller to create a meaningful world of words.