Once feared as terrifying symbols of the supernatural, vampires have evolved into complex figures of existential conflict in both Western and Japanese media. In North American fiction, they are often portrayed as morally conflicted beings who grapple with blood rejection, desire and restraint. This article argues that such motifs have significantly influenced Japanese manga and anime, where vampire-like figures and hybrid creatures – such as ghouls – reflect similar ethical and alimentary tensions. Drawing on a literature-based, hermeneutic approach, the article explores the transnational and intertextual exchange that shapes these portrayals, focusing particularly on how core themes from Western vampire fiction inform the construction of morally ambivalent, hybrid identities in Japanese narratives. The paper is structured in three parts: first, it surveys the evolution of the vampire myth and classical works, to then further explore key North American works—Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (1976) and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga (2005–2008)—with an emphasis on feeding restraint. The third part analyzes Japanese reinterpretations, taking Tokyo Ghoul (2014–2018) as a central case study. Through the figure of Kaneki Ken, the series dramatizes the struggle between monstrous appetite and moral agency. Additional examples from other anime extend the intertextual scope of the analysis. The perspective followed is mostly intertextual, not empirical or fully comparative, a limitation that is acknowledged while inviting directions for future research.

This study examines how the Instagram account @LensaMu represents the concept of Islam Berkemajuan through visual-based digital da’wah. As religious communication increasingly operates within visual and social media environments, it becomes important to understand how Islamic values are constructed and conveyed through images and captions. This research employs a qualitative approach using Roland Barthes’ semiotic framework, focusing on the levels of denotation, connotation, and myth. The data consist of selected Instagram posts published by @LensaMu during the period January 2025 to December 2025, chosen through purposive sampling based on their relevance to themes of Islamic values, social ethics, and Muhammadiyah’s organizational identity. The analysis reveals four dominant representational patterns: (1) modern religiosity expressed through minimalist visual design and contemporary aesthetics; (2) civic ethics emphasizing social responsibility, humanitarian action, and public compassion; (3) organizational identity narratives that reinforce Muhammadiyah’s reformist and rational Islamic orientation; and (4) digital da’wah as a medium of informal religious learning through visually accessible content. These findings indicate that Instagram functions not only as a communication platform but also as a space where Islamic meanings are symbolically constructed and circulated. This study contributes to discussions on Islamic digital media by demonstrating how semiotic strategies shape the visual representation of Islam Berkemajuan in contemporary online da’wah practices.

This study explores the concept of the Living Qur’an as a social practice that emphasizes the urgency of contextualizing revelation within contemporary life. The central problem addressed is how divine revelation—transcendental and normative in nature—can be interpreted and actualized meaningfully amidst the pluralistic, complex, and ever-evolving dynamics of modern society. In the face of modern challenges such as the secularization of values, moral decline, social inequality, and ecological crises, the Qur’an is often perceived as a static text, despite its inherently dynamic and universal values. Thus, this research responds to the need for a hermeneutical approach to the Qur’an that is not only textual but also contextual and praxis-oriented. The study examines previous works on the Living Qur’an, most of which frame the Qur’an as a source of cultural inspiration or local tradition—such as Muhammad Ridha’s (2021) study on Qur’anic traditions in Aceh and Rosyid Munawar’s (2024) analysis of sima’an practices within tarbiyah communities. However, these approaches have yet to delve deeply into the hermeneutical and transformational praxis dimensions of the Qur’an within social structures. Therefore, this study offers a new perspective by employing the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, particularly his concepts of mimesis (prefiguration, configuration, refiguration) and narrative identity. This framework enables an understanding of revelation not merely as normative instruction, but as a living narrative shaped by, and shaping, human social experience. This is a qualitative study using a phenomenological-hermeneutical approach. Data were collected through participant observation, case studies in urban Muslim communities in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, and in-depth interviews with Islamic preachers engaged in social action. The data were analyzed using Ricoeur’s narrative hermeneutic stages: identifying social context (mimesis I), analyzing narrative structure and textual meaning (mimesis II), and assessing the impact of Qur’anic praxis on social identity transformation (mimesis III). The findings indicate that the Living Qur’an is not only manifested in formal religious activities such as Qur’anic recitation or study circles but is more profoundly reflected in tangible actions such as environmental advocacy, social justice movements, solidarity with marginalized groups, and justice-based economic practices. The Qur’an comes to life as an ethical narrative practiced by individuals and communities who consciously interpret its verses in light of their socio-historical context. This reinforces the argument that social context is integral to both understanding and actualizing revelation. The study concludes that the Living Qur’an as a social practice underscores the necessity of reading the Qur’an beyond the semantic level, advancing toward an ethical and transformational dimension. Through the lens of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, revelation is not only to be understood but to be lived—becoming a formative force for identity and a catalyst for meaningful social change in the contemporary world

This case study investigates how Chinese lesbians negotiate identity within the family context, foregrounding visual practices as crucial sites of negotiation often overlooked in textual or verbal studies. Utilizing participant-driven Photo Elicitation Interviews (PEI) with eight women across different provinces, and working through the Visual Narrative of Identity (VNI) framework that reinterprets Butler’s performativity and Lacan’s mirror stage through Chinese kinship and cultural obligations, the study analyzes photographs alongside in-depth interviews. The findings reveal the dual role of families as both transmitters of heteronormative norms and sources of emotional support, producing tensions between conformity and selfhood. Economic independence emerges as critical for identity autonomy, while visual narratives expose how participants recite, resist, and reconfigure family scripts. By situating these insights in dialogue with Chinese and transnational queer scholarship, the article contributes to feminist and visual studies by demonstrating how image-based methods illuminate identity negotiations that remain obscured in discursive accounts.

Introduction This paper examines the complex processes involved in responding to identity imposition, the misinterpretation of one's identity, by others, thereby leading to difficulty reconciling self-identity. We employ an intersectional analysis focused on British professional women of African, Asian, and Caribbean (AAC) ethnic backgrounds to address the gap in understanding, concerning responses to identity imposition at the nexus of racio-ethnicity and gender. Drawing on an intersectionality perspective, the study goal is twofold: (1) to contribute to theoretical research on identity and identity formation and (2), to broaden understanding of how intersectionality shapes women's experiences and responses to externally imposed identity narratives in professional work settings. Methods The study engages an interpretivist approach to inquiry, through a qualitative methodological approach utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 30 British professional women with AAC ethnicity. Results Our results reveal that AAC women encounter distinct forms of identity imposition rooted in prevailing discriminatory identity narratives at the intersection of gender and racio-ethnicity. We identify three dominant behavioral responses: modification of self-aspects, resistance against incongruent imposed meanings, and vacillation between modification and resistance, pushing them into a state of liminality. Discussion The study illuminates the various responses that AAC women recruit as they navigate identity imposition within their professional working environment, underpinning the importance for UK organizations to prioritize training and development initiatives that empower managers and employees to move beyond behaviors that adversely affect minoritized employees.

ABSTRACT Secondary English instruction often reduces literary analysis to fixed interpretations that overlook the dialogic nature of narrative and adolescent identity development. This article argues that Dialogical Self Theory (DST) provides a powerful framework for restoring literature’s polyphonic richness and fostering inquiry-driven classroom practice. Drawing on Bakhtin’s multivoiced novel and Hermans’s conception of the self as a dynamic configuration of I-positions, DST enables students to examine how characters negotiate competing voices, social discourses, and situated experiences of authenticity. Through pedagogical demonstrations using Julius Caesar and American Born Chinese, I show how students collaboratively map internal and external positions, analyse power dynamics, and adopt meta-positions that deepen interpretive flexibility and support identity work. DST also benefits teachers by offering language to navigate the multiple, often competing professional roles they inhabit. Integrating DST into English instruction positions literary analysis as a relational, socially situated process that strengthens both student inquiry and teacher resilience.

Agency (i.e., the ability to act intentionally within the constraints of a given social context) is an important aspect of constructing a narrative identity. For young people in secure care, their freedom is highly restricted, which may hinder their abilities to act and feel agentic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine how agency was expressed in stories written by young people in secure care in Sweden. A thematic narrative analysis of 53 narratives resulted in three main themes— change in perspective , engagement with the outer world and resistance —indicating that agency can be expressed despite a constrained environment and may include both adaptive and harmful behaviours. Based on the findings, it is suggested that key elements of adaptive agency in young people are social relationships and trust, as well as support of their achievement and competence.

This study constructs a three-dimensional analytical framework integrating memory narratives, gender politics, and critiques of modernity through examining Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills and Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, aiming to investigate how individuals construct identity amidst historical ruptures and cultural transformations. The paper argues that protagonists Etsuko and Tony represent two typical modern dilemmas-“excessive history” and “deficient history” respectively-while gender power operates as a hidden thread profoundly shaping their narrative strategies and identity formation. Etsuko’s memory ambiguities and self-silencing reveal women’s dual repression under postwar Japan’s patriarchal order and modernization impacts, whereas Tony’s memory deceptions reflect both the decline of male authority and the moral subject’s weightlessness in postmodern context. Through cross-cultural comparison, this research demonstrates that memory serves not merely as narrative object but as gendered existence practice and power contestation field, with identity construction occurring not only within time’s flow but being consistently constrained by specific power structures. Both works ultimately converge on a core proposition: narrative becomes the individual’s final homeland amidst modernity’s ruins, while its forms and possibilities remain inevitably marked by gender and history’s profound imprints.

Suicidality is frequently examined through psychiatric or epidemiological lenses, with culture treated as a secondary factor or explanatory variable. This essay advances an alternative view, positioning culture as the lived horizon through which suffering is interpreted, narrated, and acted upon. To examine how culturally grounded systems of meaning shape suicidal experience and to translate these insights into practical guidance for nursing suicide risk assessment and care. Drawing on cross-cultural suicidology, narrative identity theory, and ethically constructed clinical illustrations, the essay explores suicidal meaning making across Indigenous, Japanese, and Muslim minority contexts. Suicide risk is framed as a narrative crisis in which a person's life story constricts towards a single perceived ending while avoiding cultural essentialism. Across contexts, cultural worlds shape how distress is voiced, which forms of disclosure feel permissible, and what protective anchors remain accessible. Clinically salient meanings include duty, shame, exile, faith, and belonging. Protective resources often emerge through land, language, ritual, creativity, spirituality, and community relationships. Rather than offering causal explanations, the essay provides practice-oriented guidance for nurses. This includes culturally attuned listening, documentation of cultural resources alongside standard risk elements, collaboration with Elders or faith leaders when appropriate and with consent, and the use of relational and family-centred pathways of support. Centring culture as the medium of meaning allows suicide assessment and care to become more accurate, humane, and responsive to patients' lived worlds, supporting narrative reopening rather than symptom management alone.

This study examines the 2005 reunion of the Presbyterian Church of Korea’s Hapdong and Gaehyuk denominations as a case of ecclesial reconciliation within modern Korean Protestantism. While scholarship has often emphasised narratives of schism, this work reconstructs the historical, theological, and socio-political dynamics that produced repeated divisions and the pathways that enabled reunification. An integrated theoretical framework combines historical reconstruction, phenomenological hermeneutics, narrative identity, and contextualist intellectual history with theological analysis of the church, ecclesial communion, and reconciliation. Central attention is given to the leadership and repentant agency of Pastor Kyu-Oh Chung, long regarded as a principal figure behind nearly every major schism within Korean Presbyterianism. The very leader once associated with division became the agent of repentance and, by taking a prominent role at the forefront of the unity negotiations, decisively enabled the success of the 2005 “Union Principles Agreement.” Documentary sources identify the importance of union committees, mutual recognition among presbyteries and seminaries, and public reaffirmation of union at the 90th General Assembly.The study illustrates that reunion was theologically based on biblical themes of reconciliation and unity. It was institutionally based on negotiated recognition among seminaries, presbyteries, and the media, and politically in a public reaffirmation that confronted contemporary issues. The work contends that diversity in confession is compatible with unity. Open government and reciprocal recognition can sustain doctrinal integrity and cure the wounds inflicted on broken relationships. It offers an empirically nuanced and theoretically astute examination of Christian unity in Korea and argues that repentance, leadership, and institutional form function as essential mediators between theological principle and ecclesial practice. Building on these findings, it sets forth a mobile approach for post-conflict settlement churches, contending that humility, theological norms held in common, and incremental organizational integration can transform difference into durable unity with enduring significance for the global church.

This empirical study examines the hijab as a linguacultural phenomenon through a comparative critical discourse analysis of its representation across three distinct contexts: Pakistani English language media, Western international news outlets, and digital self-representation on Instagram. Addressing the gap between theoretical discussions of the hijab and analysis of its actual mediated discourse, the research employs Geertzian thick description as an interpretive lens to uncover the layered cultural meanings embedded in language. A curated corpus of 120 text based items (news articles, opinion pieces, and Instagram captions) from 2020 2023 was analyzed using a qualitative, interpretive framework. Findings reveal three dominant but divergent framing paradigms: 1) Western media discourse predominantly utilizes politicized and securitized frames that associate the hijab with conflict; 2) Pakistani media navigates a complex narrative of religious identity, modernity, and cultural preservation; 3) Digital spaces manifest a paradigm of personal agency, aesthetic expression, and community building. The study concludes that these conflicting framings constitute significant barriers to transcultural communication, as interlocutors operate from incommensurate meaning systems. It argues that thick description, applied to mediated discourse, provides a crucial methodological tool for deconstructing simplistic binaries and fostering intercultural understanding. The research contributes to intercultural communication theory by demonstrating how symbolic meaning is contested and negotiated in an increasingly mediated global sphere.

This research applies a framing analysis to deconstruct how media discourses construct cultural and political meanings around the development of a thorium-based power plant on Gelasa Island, Central Bangka Regency, Indonesia. Drawing on Pan and Kosicki’s framing model, the research interprets the syntactic, script, thematic, and rhetorical structures in three news articles published by detikcom and KOMPAS.com between 1 August 2022 and 31 August 2023, selected for their prominence, explicit case relevance, and citation of institutional actors. Guided by Framing Theory and the Theory of Public Opinion Formation, the research adopts a qualitative, constructivist approach to interrogate how narratives of foreign interest, technological advancement, and national sovereignty are shaped in media representations. Specifically, it seeks to answer the question of why detikcom and KOMPAS.com framed the existence of foreign interests in the thorium power plant project. The findings reveal three dominant frames: developmental modernity and techno-optimism, sovereignty and foreign dependency, and state-led modernization. These frames are embedded in broader cultural narratives of techno-nationalism, environmental concern, and postcolonial identity in Indonesia’s development discourse. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of how energy debates are mediated through symbolic language and national imaginaries, with implications for science communication, media literacy, and renewable energy policy.

This paper examines the identity narratives presented in Geetanjali Shree's novel, "The Roof Beneath Their Feet," and Krishna Sobti's "The Music of Solitude.” It compares how the authors have portrayed the intricate nature of personal identity, gender, social dynamics, and spatial relationships. For Shree, it is the story of two women navigating the tension between societal expectations and individual liberty within the same physical space. The novel by Sobti becomes a material, introspective journey of a woman seeking solitude and self-discovery. The study, which contrasts the two works, aims to highlight the prevalent themes in both and the unique narrative styles employed by Shree and Sobti to convey various shades of identity formation and expression. This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of how literature reflects upon and challenges social roles constructed around identity through close textual analysis, while also supplementing theoretical frameworks from studies on identity and narrative theory.

This study examines Bruce Wayne’s psychological dynamics in The Batman (2022) using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, with a focus on the ego’s role in mediating trauma and moral conflict. This study analyzes how Wayne’s unresolved childhood trauma and dual identity as a vigilante reflect the interplay between the id, ego, and superego. Employing a qualitative descriptive method, this study analyzes purposively selected scenes and dialogues from The Batman using close textual analysis. Audience reception data further support the interpretation of Wayne’s character as a psychologically complex figure. The findings reveal that Wayne’s ego adapts to internal and external pressures through ethical compromises, illustrating Freud’s theory of ego functioning. This study contributes to contemporary literary and film criticism by offering a psychoanalytic perspective on trauma and identity in modern superhero narratives.

Far from being a mere socio-economic issue, migration in Romania is becoming a vehicle for political mobilization, often associated with nationalist, security or identity narratives. This article explores how migration is addressed in Romanian political discourse, focusing on recent election periods, particularly presidential elections. Through a qualitative analysis of the online media interventions (on social networks) of the main parties and candidates, the study highlights the rhetorical strategies used to exploit the migration issue for electoral purposes. This research, which takes an interdisciplinary approach combining discourse analysis, political science, political communication and migration studies, aims to examine, from a comparative perspective, the extent to which this issue is addressed in public electoral discourse. The case of Romania, marked by both high emigration and a strategic geopolitical position in terms of migration transit, offers a particularly relevant field of analysis.

Heritage tourism is increasingly positioned as a strategy for revitalising rural communities, particularly in areas where structural transformations have changed traditional ways of life. However, its outcomes reveal a paradox. The same processes that preserve cultural landscapes often commodify them, converting living traditions into marketable symbols. This paper investigates this heritage paradox through a complex study of Viscri, a UNESCO-listed village in Transylvania, Romania. Combining demographic and occupational data (2002–2022) with 51 questionnaires, 7 semi-structured interviews, field observations, and local records, the study examines how tourism-driven heritage valorisation reshapes socio-economic structures and identity narratives. The results show a profound restructuring of livelihoods, with a marked decline in subsistence agriculture and the emergence of micro-entrepreneurial activities related to accommodation, crafts, and gastronomy. These changes, while improving local incomes and infrastructures, have also increased external ownership and redefined authenticity as a performative resource negotiated among residents, entrepreneurs, and visitors. Local voices oscillate between pride and fatigue, between preservation and loss. By conceptualising the heritage paradox as a dynamic interplay between conservation and commodification, this study contributes to global debates on authenticity, sustainable rural transformation, and community resilience, offering an empirically grounded model of heritage tourism’s ambivalent consequences through an original analytical lens for post-socialist rural contexts.

ABSTRACT This paper explores how Balkan migrants, operating small gastronomy businesses in Vienna, construct their identity as migrant entrepreneurs. Drawing on the concept of narrative identity and using qualitative interviews, the analysis investigates how narrative resources – such as a transformation plot, the development of agency as self-empowerment, and positioning within dominant societal discourses – are employed to construct identity. The empirical findings reveal a specific narrative pattern that characterizes the identity construction of migrant entrepreneurs. This pattern blends entrepreneurial themes of hard work and autonomy with migrant experiences of vulnerability and engagement with migration discourses in the host society. By focusing on narratives of self-empowerment, the study shows how narrators strategically utilize discursive resources to render their stories intelligible and legitimate within broader societal frameworks. Entrepreneurship emerges as a means of reclaiming agency and achieving recognition, which in turn suggests that institutional practices should value initiative and autonomy rather than emphasizing needs.

ABSTRACT Young women in India are now seen choosing engineering education in the institutes of national importance, marking the beginning of inclusivity. With the aim of sustaining this positive momentum, this study explores the experiences of young women which led them into engineering education. Polkinghorne’s Two kinds of analysis – ‘Analysis of narratives’ and ‘Narrative analysis’ are adopted to understand the narratives. The study revealed a nuanced understanding of their motives and triggers. The stories of nine students are shared under two narrative types – ‘Engineer by choice’ and ‘Engineer by chance’. ‘Engineer by choice’ captures the narratives of those women who employed their agentic self in realizing their dream, while ‘engineer by chance’ captures the stories of those women who used engineering education as a fallback option when their dreams did not materialize. McAdam’s Narrative identity theory and Gotfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise are used in analysis to understand the nature of contextual support needed in the growing years. Interventions at the school level by career counselling cells are proposed. Exposure to potential careers, awareness of favourable policies in organizations, and conduct of workshops with opportunities to solve real-life challenges, are proposed to create favourable disposition towards engineering among girls.

The relationship between the unconscious and narrative identity remains unresolved within Russian philosophy. This study seeks to rectify this situation. The work’s scientific novelty is also determined by its interdisciplinary approach, which integrates the traditions of phenomenology (E. Husserl), psychoanalysis (S. Freud), and philosophical hermeneutics (P. Ricoeur). This article conceptualizes the unconscious as a noumenal source of subjectivity, inaccessible to direct signification but manifesting itself through symptoms and affects. As a noumenon, the unconscious is inaccessible to direct reference, precedes symbolization, and serves as a space for the accumulation of “pre-reflective” experience. A hypothesis is advanced and substantiated regarding the dual function of the unconscious in the structure of narrative identity: on the one hand, it serves as a “reservoir” for the formation of counternarratives that challenge established self-narratives, while on the other, it constitutes the foundation of pre-reflective experience, ensuring the continuity of the pre-reflective and the affective content of implicit memory. It is demonstrated that the process of constructing narrative identity is linked not only to the symbolic horizon but also to affective experience rooted in pre-reflective experience, opening new perspectives for understanding the dynamics of personal identity construction.

This article examines Sami Said’s book Monomani (2013) with a focus on the intersection between narrative and cultural identity. Monomani is a seemingly autobiographical account of Sami’s struggle to write Said’s debut novel Väldigt sällan fin (2013). It takes the form of a letter to his friend Sara where he apologizes for withdrawing from her while finishing writing his book. The analysis takes its departure from a dilemma that Said has described in interviews and radio programs: he writes to express his true self, liberated from a limiting and falsifying identity imposed on him by others based on his ethnicity and religion; but when he writes about himself, he thereby also causes an inner division and a falsification of his own self. This dilemma is placed within a theoretical framework of narrative and cultural identity, focusing on the issues of authenticity and autobiographical narration. The theoretical discussion highlights, on the one hand, how authenticity in a both narrative and cultural context can be conceptualized in terms of what Mark Freeman and Jens Brockmeier have called narrative integrity, and, on the other hand, the critique of monological autobiographical identity both by autobiography scholar like Georges Gusdorf and Paul John Eakin and by theorists of selfhood like Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero. Based on these premises, the analysis of Monomani shows how Sami, the narrator of Monomani, achieves narrative integrity by disposing of cultural identity and attaining the identity of author but that he can do so only through a monological narration which refers back to his fictionalization of himself in Väldigt sällan fin and which severs the connection between life and narrative. In the second part of the analysis, it is then shown how Monomani undermines the validity of this monological account by thematizing the scenes of address that, according to Butler, structure self-narration. The analysis concludes by arguing that, through emulation of Gertrude Stein’s autobiographical writing, Said creates in his two books an integrated autofictional work where the positions of narrator and reader are doubled and fictionalized, whereby the dilemma of an alienating cultural identity is returned to its dialogical foundation and turned into an appeal for recognition of identity beyond social categorization.