Narrative Function Research Articles

Structural and Functional Analysis of Bansag Narratives in Barangay Maslog, Legazpi City, Albay Philippines

This paper collected, transcribed, translated, and analyzed the folk narratives on bansag in Barangay Maslog, Legazpi City. It employed the Labovian method to examine the narratives’ structures and Bascom’s functionalism approach to determine the functions of the narratives. This paper concludes that the narrator’s storytelling technique greatly affects the structural pattern of the folk narratives. The completeness or incompleteness of the structure of the narratives will never diminish the essential nature and functions of folk narratives. Folk narratives over time will always be an important oral tradition. They still served their purpose in the community. However, folk narratives as a form of oral literature are under threat since many details of the narratives diminished or were lost through oral transmission from generation to generation. Since oral narratives are on the verge of extinction, this paper recommends incorporating these narratives into the curriculum to safeguard and preserve the oral narratives.

Mocny przedmiot pożądania. O istotnej roli rekwizytu we współczesnych filmach elevated genre

The aim of the article is to analyze the use of props in the contemporary elevated genre – in particular in post-horror films, but also other artistic interpretations of genre cinema, often realized under the auspices of A24 studio and “refined” with a strong, political theme (concerning, for example, racism, class differences, gender inequality, etc.). Props, which have always had important semantic functions in genre cinema, are now becoming even more crucial tools than in the 1960s or 1970s (in which context Italian giallo, spaghetti westerns and American progressive genres are alluded to). Significantly marked objects perform symbolic and narrative functions and become part of visual communication (they appear on posters and in advertising materials).

Is the flâneuse even possible? The feminine and the space of modernity in O fată se plimbă pe stradă [A girl walks in the street] by Sorana Gurian

Sorana Gurian’s writing records the impossibility of a discourse of one’s own and unmasks the misogyny inherent in modernity. The Romanian short story O fată se plimbă pe stradă [A girl walks in the street] (1939) offers the author an opportunity to discuss the figure of the flâneuse, who, in its relations to modernity, public space or gender, seems to diagnose the condition of women within a modernising culture. The presence of these women in the text remains closely linked to their corporeality, constantly questioned and constrained by a hostile society. This is all the more visible in the case of a young girl with mobility disabilities: a close reading highlights the narrative function of walking, a physical activity that gives a temporal and rhythmic framework to the text.

ARCHITECTURAL MEMORY AND TRIMALCHIO'S PORTICVS

AbstractThis paper seeks to respond to two questions posed by previous commentators concerning the arrangement of Trimalchio's porticus as described in Petronius’ Satyrica (Sat. 29): first, whether the freedman's house lacked an atrium; second, whether the cursores (runners) who are described as unconventionally exercising in the portico were pictorial representations or real-life athletes who would symbolize the social incompetence of the dominus. This paper argues that nothing in the text supports the interpretation of Trimalchio's house as having an unconventional architectural layout. Instead, as the narrative requires that Encolpius move quickly towards the triclinium, in his description the loca communia appear conflated, while he only sparsely notices a few relevant elements of the decor. The presentation of Trimalchio's porticus appears to have a functional rather than a simply descriptive purpose: it symbolizes both Roman contemporary practices (the loca communia as a distinctive unit within the domus) and the influence of Greek cultural habits (the characteristic association of colonnaded courtyards and athletics). The excerpt that describes the guests’ arrival at Trimalchio's house, therefore, serves an important narrative function, providing essential information about the character's origins, self-image and social life.

Structure and functions of the fabulous media narrative of the Instagram social network (using motivating content as an example)

The research task set by the authors is based on an attempt to analyze the phenomenon of the media narrative in a structural and functional aspect. The selected material includes publications of a social network banned in the Russian Federation for promoting Instagram photos. For the study, the authors selected three thematically representative accounts (the total number of subscribers is 600 thousand) and five materials containing information about the success stories of various celebrities. The subject side of the analysis includes narrative functions (motives) that can be found in these publications. The relevance of this work lies in the manipulative power of the above-mentioned materials and their ability to bring a person into an active motivated state. It is noted that such materials can carry a psychological and terrapeutic function for the viewer. The methodological basis is the narrative theory of V.Y. Propp, which assumes the decomposition of the material into invariant composite blocks necessary for the construction of a media story. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the need for the presence of such content in the media space. Since the authors of the study provide a universal set of mandatory narrative matrices, bloggers, firstly, get the opportunity to save time when creating publications, and secondly, they get the opportunity to bring the audience into an active motivated state through the success story of a famous personality. Among the most important conclusions, the authors note the exceptional popularity of the narrative motives of departure, struggle, transfiguration, victory and accession (wedding). They contain the main elements of the narrative. Similarly, the authors note that differences in the creation of materials (videos, texts, illustrative material) do not affect the interest of viewers and do not exclude the above-mentioned fairy-tale motives. Consequently, due to the fact that such materials are highly popular, the authors claim that they have an important social function.

Implementing Vladimir Propp's Theory of Narratology in Writing Skill using Bumi Manusia Movie

The main material object of this research is the movie Bumi Manusia. This research aims to reveal the narratives' function and learning aspect in the Bumi Manusia movie, which tells the story of patience and sacrifice in the face of European stereotypes of the natives. Then, this study also looks for the meaning of the struggle contained in each scene. This research analyzes the depiction of 31 narrative functions, the division of seven characterizations according to Propp, and the identification of various aspects of learning in the story. From the analysis, it is expected to find benefits to improving creative writing skills. The approach used in this research is qualitative and narrative structure, using Vladimir Propp's narrative theory. The results showed the structure of the Bumi Manusia movie as follows: there are 20 functions in the story. In analyzing the story above, it does not reach 31 narrative functions that are the same as Vladimir Propp's theory, and the order of the narrative functions is different from Propp's, and then there are repeated narrative functions. There are seven types of dramatic personae: villain, donor, helper, princess and her father, dispatcher, hero, and false hero. Despitefully, the various aspects of learning from the movie Bumi Manusia have deep messages in this story, including the religious, educational, and cultural aspects. Narrative structure is a fundamental aspect of writing that shapes the flow and impact of a story. Mastering narrative structure and integrating these elements into writing skills can create compelling and memorable stories that resonate with readers and leave a lasting impression

Vladimir Propp’s Taxonomic Model of Narrative Functions in Selected Jane Austen’s Novels

This research aims to identify the taxonomic model of narrative functions by Vladimir Propp and to find out how these functions are distributed among the dramatis personae (spheres of action) in selected Jane Austen’s novels, they are Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. This descriptive qualitative research aims to describe the phenomenon and its characteristics. The data were collected qualitatively by documenting, examining, and classifying thoroughly. The results indicate 20 functions in Pride and Prejudice, 14 functions in Emma, 15 functions in Sense and Sensibility, and 22 functions in Persuasion. From the results, this research shows that Jane Austen’s fairytale novels are compatible and match the taxonomic model of narrative functions by Vladimir Propp. The results also show four dramatis personae in each novel (Hero, Villain, Donor, Helper). As for Sense and Sensibility, it has a False Hero. Furthermore, the results share similarities in the 13 functions and the happy endings marriage (W). At the same time, the differences are located in the different number of functions and their distribution, which influence the overall narratives.

The (Vi)Kings’ Saga: Mixed Modality as the Key to the Construction of Meaning in Jómsvíkinga saga

Abstract The objective of this article is to analyse the narrative functions of mixed modality in Jómsvíkinga saga, a text that combines elements of different saga genres, primarily the kings’ sagas and the legendary sagas. It is argued here that the mixed modality is not a sign of the early saga’s imperfection, but it serves as a narrative device that contributes to the saga’s capacity to indirectly express commentary on social issues that were current at the time of the saga’s composition.

Sharing peer advice: A case study of Chinese patients’ narratives in an online support group for mental health

Recent health communication studies have begun to look at online illness narratives, showing how narratives are used to report patients’ experience or to offer medical advice in various online contexts. However, few studies have sought to explore the communicative features of these online narratives in the Chinese context. Given the insufficient and uneven distribution of mental health resources and the intense stigma attached, an increasing number of Chinese patients with mental disorders are turning to online support groups (OSGs) for advice. We have limited understanding of Chinese patients’ lived experience or the potential of online illness narratives to be interpersonal tools for sharing advice. Drawing on computer-mediated discourse analysis, this study scrutinises narrative passages from a Chinese OSG to illustrate how individuals with mental illness interact in an online advisory context. The detailed analysis of narrative functions unpacks the potential of OSGs to provide storytelling opportunities for Chinese patients with mental disorders, allowing them to voice their concerns and experiences within the peer-to-peer network of relational understanding and support. This study also identifies a distinct feature of narrative activities in this online advisory context – the illness blog – and illustrates how its occurrence is related to the Chinese sociocultural values. This study can help raise awareness of illness narratives as a communication tool and facilitate culturally sensitive reactions of healthcare professionals towards patients’ narratives.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ГУМАНИСТИЧЕСКИХ ИДЕЙ Л. БРУНИ НА ТВОРЧЕСТВО ВЕНЕЦИАНСКОГО ИСТОРИКА МАРКАНТОНИО САБЕЛЛИКО (КОНЕЦ XV В.)

The article examines the genesis of the methods and practices of constructing images of the past in the works of humanists in Florence and Venice in the 15th century on the basis of current research in the field of memory studies. The topic has considerable scientific potential today, as it makes it possible to trace the genesis of new concepts of historical knowledge, understand the regional features of memory culture formation in Italy, and study the ideological functions of historical narratives in the socio-political context of the city-states. The study of the reception of new perspectives on social changes and dynamics broadens the understanding of knowledge exchange in the Early Modern period as well as the perception of information by local intellectual elites. The author demonstrates the formation of new approaches to the analysis and representation of the past using the example of the "History of the Florentine People" by the famous humanist Leonardo Bruni (also known as Leonardo Aretino). The main focus of the study is Bruni's new philosophical, political, and social views, as well as his approaches to textual criticism and the use of sources. The author notes that the approaches and practises put forward by Bruni were adopted by the Venetian humanist Marcantonio Sabellico, who used them with reference to the Venetian chronicle-writing tradition.

“Accidents will happen”: Dickens’s Comical Mishaps

Abstract: This article critically unpacks the complex narrative potential that mishaps fulfil in Dickens’s fiction. It parses the way comedy works in his depiction of the various accidents of daily life and explores how their shifting narrative functions influentially shaped the representation of personal misfortune and social ethics at a time that saw competing interpretative frameworks of why accidents happen. Situating Dickens’s fictional mishaps amidst the changing concepts of the accidental in the nineteenth century, I trace how he creates comedy based on pantomimic transformations in The Pickwick Papers , and how this mode continues to operate in his writing. Martin Chuzzlewit then marks a turning-point in prefiguring sensational representations of seeming household accidents. In Dickens’s later novels, the comedy of accidents shifts towards a parodic engagement with specific – individual and institutional – interpretations. Thus, in Little Dorrit , accidents and their misinterpretations comically complicate competing ideas of probability, misfortune, and poetic justice.

“The Boy of Tocutt” and the Demonic Covenant in Seventeenth-Century New England Demonology

ABSTRACT The New England demonic possession narrative, “A Confession of a Boy at Tocutt,” remains conspicuously absent from the rich scholarship on diabolic affliction in seventeenth-century North America. Appearing in Cotton Mather’s 1689Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, this narrative details the torments of one settler, known only as “The Boy of Tocutt,” in Branford Connecticut (ca. 1645–1666). While incomplete, this account is marked by a unique emphasis on the demonic pact and offers a valuable insight into the development of this demonological concept in New England. Through a close reading of “A Confession of a Boy at Tocutt” in the context of Protestant demonic covenant theology, this article establishes the demonological and narrative function of the pact in New England diabolical literature. In doing so, it reconciles this possession narrative with succeeding cases and establishes the versality of the demonic pact in New England demonology.

Exploring Folklore and Fantasy: Eudora Welty’s Interpretation of The Robber Bridegroom

Eudora Welty, a celebrated American novelist renowned for her deft literary touch, prominently positioned herself within literary tradition with her famous novella, The Robber Bridegroom, which was published in 1942. This work, uniquely situated within the cultural tapestry of Mississippi, integrates elements drawn from American mythology and historical figures of the American South, weaving them into the fascinating tale of the gentleman robber Jamie Lockhart. The present research paper embarks on an exploratory journey into the complex tapestry of The Robber Bridegroom, offering a multifaceted analysis that bridges the gap between folklore, fantasy, and reality. It investigates the peculiar confluence of wisdom, seriousness, mysterious wilderness, amusement, and disenchantment—ingredients often found in traditional fairy tales. This synthesis resonates with the timeless quality of myth and resonates with a contemporary audience. Central to this exploration is an analysis of Welty’s intricate character portrayals and her deft use of irony and humor. These literary devices, alongside her nuanced evocation of the setting, serve to underscore a profound reflection on the transient nature of human connections. Moreover, this paper delves into Welty’s portrayal of the Western civilization’s impact on the indigenous Natchez tribe, a theme that lends the story historical depth and sociocultural relevance. In examining the dualities that permeate the narrative, such as enlightenment and ignorance, civilization and wilderness, the study highlights Welty’s ability to transcend simple dichotomies, presenting a fairy tale-like narrative that also fosters critical inquiry into the development of writing skills and artistic expression. Furthermore, the paper provides insights into how Welty’s narrative functions as a metaphorical bridge, connecting historical realities with a broader human experience, thus reinvigorating classical motifs with modern sensibilities. The present research article reveals a rich and multifarious literary landscape that bears witness to Welty’s masterful command of her craft. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of her work, and by extension, the intricate web of cultural, historical, and personal relationships that define our collective human experience.

Everybody swears on Only Murders in the Building: The interpersonal functions of scripted television swearing

Swearing fulfils a range of interpersonal pragmatic functions and also acts as a distinguishing feature of speakers and contexts. In broadcast media, swearing has traditionally been censored or at least limited in its deployment; although when used, it serves characterization, interactional, and narrative functions. In this article, we consider the Disney+ television series Only Murders in the Building (OMITB, 2021--), in which swearing is not subject to standard media constraints, due to its provision on a streaming service. Freed from such constraints, OMITB is distinctive in its unusually high frequency and dispersion of swearing across characters and contexts. Compared with both real-life and media-based analyses of language use, the swearing in OMITB reflects neither real-life nor standard broadcast patterns. In this paper, we investigate how swearing is used by the characters, and what it is ‘doing’ in the series. In particular, we highlight the role of swearing in affiliation and relationship-building, both between characters in the story world, and between the series and its viewers. Our analysis contributes to understanding the pragmatic functions of media swearing.

Research on the promotion of intangible cultural heritage on the example of cinema

A film can be described as follows: it is a bright and intuitive picture that can quickly convey information and have a wide impact on the audience. The film performs the functions of distribution, recording, narration, and popularization of intangible cultural heritage. Consequently, films are central to the protection and promotion of the intangible spiritual values of the state.

Between light and shadow: The impact of light augmentation on storytelling and audience engagement in urban, commercial and public spaces

The exploration of light as a transformative and narrative tool in urban spaces has been traced from its historical roots in the 1800s to its contemporary application in creating ‘spatial augmented realities’. This evolution has been examined through the lens of advanced light projection technologies, which have been used to craft compelling narratives and transform public and private spaces. The role of audience engagement in constructing these narratives has been investigated, highlighting the importance of participation and interaction in creating meaningful stories through light technologies. This exploration has led to developing a theoretical model for ‘accordant’ and ‘discordant’ audience responses, providing a framework to understand the spectrum of audience engagement and its impact on the success of light-based narratives. The concept of light projection mapping has been further elucidated, revealing its potential to expand and transform existing spaces through the superimposition of digital representations. This process has been defined, and its technical aspects have been discussed, providing a comprehensive understanding of its application in various settings. Light art has been categorized based on its narrative function and application, with examples drawn from events and festivals that utilize light projection to celebrate heritage or culture. These examples demonstrate light art’s versatility and multifaceted nature in creating memorable and meaningful experiences. The social implications of light projection mapping on monuments have been discussed, positioning it as a medium for audiences to reflect on historical events and their impact on the present. This exploration contributes to the understanding of how light can be used to enhance spaces, tell stories, and engage audiences in urban environments and provides a theoretical basis for future research and practice in the field of light art.

Aristotelian Stories

Abstract When it comes to science writing, narrative has attracted little attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a brief pilot survey on narrative in the Aristotelian Corpus. My main concern here is to understand the workings of narrative in the process of knowledge creation. Aristotle, apart from his paradigmatic role in the history of knowledge, offers a broad and varied corpus. The paper proceeds in three steps: After a few introductory remarks on the concept of ‘narrative’, I will give a brief overview of narrative in Aristotle. Then, there follow a few examples for the main epistemic functions of narrative in Aristotle. After that, five epistemic grand narratives, actually ‘stories’, told by Aristotle, demonstrate that he has a method of narrative construction, that is, of epistemic storytelling, which has been very successful. I attempt to cast this method in a poetics-style list of rules. The paper shows that Aristotle skillfully uses different forms of narrative in order to produce knowledge.

“[E]verything that is to be Made Whole Must First be Broken”: Religion, Metaphor and Narrative Alchemy in Hilary Mantel's Fludd (1989)

ABSTRACT Depicting the events initiated by a stranger’s arrival to a rural Catholic parish in 1950s England, Hilary Mantel’s (1989) novel Fludd is built upon fundamentally metaphoric foundations. Most noticeably, the novel’s articulation of alchemy captures the defining opposition of literal and fantastical meaning at the heart of alchemical symbols. It does so via a metaphorical construction that is first outlined in the opening paratextual “note” and which provides the novel’s narrative backbone. This article adopts a broadly cognitive approach to illustrate how metaphor fulfils multiple functions in the text, acting as a tool of characterisation, a means of narrative compression and a form of meta-textual referencing, all of which link to the novel’s central theme of transformation, particularly in the context of contemporary Catholicism. In so doing, it draws upon Biebuyck and Martens’ concept of the “paranarrative” to demonstrate metaphor’s potential to fulfil a range of fundamental narrative functions.

(Hetero)normative Chinese femininity in danmei: A case study of Moxiang Tongxiu’s Tianguan Cifu

Originating in Japan in the 1970s, Boys’ Love (BL) has since become a ‘transnational apparatus of love’ for women to explore their sexuality away from societal stigma and sociocultural gender inequality. The genre has garnered both commercial and academic attention, but a common point of contention within existing scholarship is its ability to either challenge or reinforce heteronormative power hierarchies. To that end, much of the previous research has examined the discourses among female fan communities or the portrayal and subversion of masculinity within the works. This article aims to address the oft-ignored representation of femininity and female characters within BL works by focusing on Moxiang Tongxiu’s Tianguan Cifu (Heaven Official’s Blessing), a popular Chinese BL or danmei novel. In examining the roles of five major named female characters in the novel, I argue that the characters fall under the common feminine stereotypes of Mother, Maiden and Monster. While the female characters’ narrative function is affected to some degree by the novel’s focus on a central gay romance, the author nevertheless appears to adhere to the traditional and modern Chinese gender ideologies regarding femininity, restricting any attempts to challenge gendered expectations to male bodies and characters.

Extraction of Literary Character Information in Portuguese

This chapter describes PALAVRAS-DIP, a system for the automatic identification of characters and their social profiles in Portuguese and Brazilian literature. The system has been designed as an add-on module for a morphosyntactic and semantic parser. We tag human named entities (NE) for profession and social position, and use Constraint Grammar (CG relational tags to keep track of co-reference (e.g. pronoun anaphora, zero-subject verbs) and family reations between the characters. The resulting base annotation allows the extraction of character networks. The extraction program recognizes and bundles character name variants and distinguishes between names with a narrative function and simple cultural references. System development was motivated by DIP, a shared-task evaluation on 100 historical novels, where a prototype version achieved reasonable F-scores for character identification (63.4%) and alias resolution (68.1%), but underperformed for family relations (15.5%).