Narrative Principles Research Articles

Роль нарратора как ключевой инстанции в развитии драматических событий в художественном тексте

The aim of the study is to form the boundaries of the notion “narrator” in relation to a dramatic text and a dramatic event based on a theoretical review of the notion “narrator” in foreign and domestic works on narratology. The scientific novelty is associated with the definition of a narrator’s typological status in the narrative paradigm of a text and in a dramatic situation. The main varieties of a narrator are characterized by functional parameters; the relationship between the categories of author - narrator - narratator is traced in literary texts of various types - epic and drama. The obtained results demonstrate that with the help of a narrator, dramatic events develop, for which the author of a literary text uses various narrative strategies, such as communicative, eventful, temporal, fictional, aesthetic, metanarrative ones. Also, a dramatic narrative synthesizes a lot of narrative principles that are characteristic of an epic text and manifested in the linearity of a narrator and the special position of a remark subject distanced from an end-to end dramatic event. This is especially typical of the Russian drama tradition, which is strongly influenced by the epic beginning in its classical versions from A. S. Pushkin’s Boris Godunov to the stage directions of A. P. Chekhov’s plays performing metanarrative functions.

THE EKPHRASTIC CODE OF “THE PYRAMID”, A NOVEL BY LEONID LEONOV

The purpose of this article is to study the transformation of plots and motifs of visual art in “The Pyramid” (1994), the last novel by L. Leonov. The authors take a closer look at various types of ekphrasis: mimetic, unattributed and zero type. The theoretical framework for the analysis of the novel’s narrative space in ekphrastic terms includes the works of L.G. Geller, N.V. Braginskaya, J. Heffernan and other Russian and foreign philologists. Based on the idea of the dialogical nature of the concept of “ekphrasis,” the authors of the article consider the ekphrasis of the “The Pyramid” in a broad sense, as a means of concentrating the artistic, visual and philosophical context, inherent in the very nature of interaction between different types of art. The hermeneutic method is used achieve the set objectives, allowing to reconstruct the meanings of the ekphrastic fragments of the novel in the context of the phenomena of the global and Russian culture. Along with the alternation of dialogues and monologues of the implicit author and characters, direct and modified pictorial allusions are Leonov’s leading methods of text generation. Inheriting the traditions of Russian classical literature that tends to inexpressible, the writer integrates images of spatial arts, architecture, and painting into the text of the literary work. The narrative principles of “The Pyramid” are largely determined by the correlation of the author’s reflexive thought with precedent phenomena, the symbolic content of paintings by P. Brueghel, I. Repin, V. Perov, A. Durer’s engravings, temple frescoes, Russian icon painting. This allusive series is contingent on Leonov’s aesthetic preferences. It is on this basis that the ekphrastic code of the work is formed. It expresses the semantic and poetic harmony of the visual and verbal principles of the author’s thinking.

Preparing Doctors in Training for Health Activist Roles: A Cross-Institutional Community Organizing Workshop for Incoming Medical Residents.

IntroductionPhysicians are increasingly being called on to address inequities created by social and structural determinants of health, yet few receive training in specific leadership skills that allow them to do so effectively.MethodsWe developed a workshop to introduce incoming medical interns from all specialties at Boston-area residency programs to community organizing as a framework for effective physician advocacy. We utilized didactic sessions, video examples, and small-group practice led by trained coaches to familiarize participants with one community organizing leadership skill—public narrative—as a means of creating the relationships that underlie collective action. We offered this 3-hour, cross-institutional workshop just prior to intern orientation and evaluated it through a postworkshop survey.ResultsIn June 2019, 51 residents from 13 programs at seven academic medical centers attended this workshop. In the postworkshop survey, participants agreed with positive evaluative statements about the workshop's value and impact on their knowledge, with a mean score on all items of over 4 (5-point Likert scale, 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree; response rate: 34 of 51). Free-text comments emphasized the workshop's effectiveness in evoking positive feelings of solidarity, community, and professional identity.DiscussionThe workshop effectively introduced participants to community organizing and public narrative, allowed them to apply the principles of public narrative by developing their own stories of self, and demonstrated how these practices can be utilized in physician advocacy. The workshop also connected participants to their motivations for pursuing medicine and stimulated interest in more community organizing training.

”Not a Monotonous Artist”: Graphic Works by L. A. Epple Based on D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s Works

This article analyses the graphic cycle of L. A. Epple created based on D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s works in 1946–1952. Among the artist’s works, there are both illustrations for the collection For Children (1947) and easel compositions commissioned by the writer’s memorial museum in Sverdlovsk. A professional graphic artist, Epple worked thoughtfully and consistently with the works of the writer for many years, achieving expressiveness of images and artistic accuracy. The artist’s special position (a labour soldier in Sevurallag in 1941–1945, then a special settler in Sosva and Irbit in 1946–1952) led to the fact that his creative activity during these years was unknown to specialists. The artist’s name was not mentioned in the data of the collection of Mamin-Sibiryak’s works, and his easel paintings (kept in the collection of the United Museum of Writers of the Urals) were not published. In the late nineteenth — first half of the twentieth centuries, Mamin-Sibiryak’s works were illustrated and decorated by many Ural artists (S. I. Yakovlev, A. V. Kikin, Yu. A. Ivanov, A. A. Zhukov, N. P. Golubchikov, A. A. Kudrin, E. V. Gileva, etc.), but unlike L. A. Epple, the appeal to the literary heritage of the writer was for them only a brief episode of creative activity. Epple’s art project developed within the framework of an official order, hence the stylistics convenient for the mass reader, and a set of visual images was thought out. The principle of narrative fits into the aesthetics of book illustration of the 1940s–1950s, but in Epple’s graphic compositions, there is a feeling of intimacy, softness, some idealisation, and smoothness of images. Following the traditions of his teacher D. N. Kardovsky, Epple strives for the exact choice of the scene, the expressiveness of the entire composition and each character, the elaboration of details, and tries to reveal the psychology of the main characters. Choosing a realistic manner of performance, the artist proceeds from the nature of Mamin-Sibiryak’s oeuvre, with his thoroughness and journalistic narrative, respectful attitude to historical, ethnographic, and everyday realities.

Page Layout and Braiding in Hergé’s Seven Crystal Balls

In the last years of the 20th century, the Belgian scholar Thierry Groensteen developed a new way of analyzing comics in his book Système de la bande dessinée. The starting point is the notion of “iconic solidarity”, by which separate but interrelated images form a significant unity. The relations that rule this iconic solidarity are called the “arthrology”, governed by three fundamental operations: (a) Page layout as a result of gridding, or the distribution of the physical space; (b) Breakdown, or the division of the narrative content in panels; and (c) Braiding, or the interrelation of panels from a distance and not by narrative principles. All these operations create a delicate network in comics and any manipulation can alter it with negative results. A clear example can be found in Hergé’s The Seven Crystal Balls. It had a very eventful publication process: first as daily strips, then as album pages, and last as double pages à l’italienne, occupying the whole width of the two pages. The pages prepared for the album suffered notable alterations in the braiding of the panels with the change of page layout from single page to double page. In this paper we will analyze the paradigmatic and syntagmatic consequences of changes in the conception of the page.

Abstract 11896: Building Capacity for a Patient-Centered Research Agenda on Racial and Sex-Specific Cardiovascular Disease Disparities in COVID-19

Introduction: African Americans (AA) and women are under-represented in clinical research. Barriers to including AA’s and women as research partners include fear, distrust, and a poor understanding of the research process. COVID-19 could be an opportunity to engage under-represented minorities and women in the research process. Objectives: The goal of this project was to build stakeholder capacity for patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) and incorporate the perspectives of AA and female patients in developing a research agenda and questions suitable for use in the AHA COVID-19 CVD Quality Improvement Registry (AHA-R). The final research agenda will address the racial/sex-specific CVD disparities in COVID-19. Methods: Using community participatory principles, we established a network of stakeholders (AA patients, women, and researchers). Stakeholders were recruited to participate in focus group (FG) interviews and Town Hall (TH) meetings. All activities were held virtually and recorded. Videos and transcripts were independently reviewed. A Research advisory council (RAC, n=8) was recruited from a subset of stakeholders. RAC members received monthly research training using the PCOR Institute’s resources. RAC members attended a training workshop on narrative medicine principles and were encouraged to share their own experiences. The program sponsored 2 Facebook live events and conducted a survey to acquire and share compelling real-life COVID health stories. The questions generated from the FG, TH and RAC were prioritized by the RAC to create a research agenda and questions suitable for inquiry using AHA-R. Results: The program educated participants on CVD complications related to COVID (TH =51, 84% AA, 78% women), (FG =28, 93% AA, 82% women). There were 53 questions and 7 compelling narratives generated covering 7 topics. Topics included: COVID with and w/o heart disease, research, COVID and pregnancy, stress, racism, and general heart disease. In both groups, feedback on research results was cited as an important factor for participation in research activities. Conclusions: The project developed a research ready stakeholder network, and a prioritized research agenda about CVD disparities in COVID-19 suitable for inquiry using AHA-R.

Esthetical heteronomy as creation principle of a fictional narrative: on the esthetical function of intertextuality

The relations between the “main” narrative parts of a belletristic text and its (cross)references to other works of literature and/or music, painting etc. play an important part in the structure and functioning of a literary work. The phenomenon of intertextuality belongs at present to the favourite subjects of the research of texts, among others, of fictional texts. However, some relevant functions of implementation of external esthetical works, both literary texts and other art forms, into a fictional narration have not been investigated yet. This paper presents an analyses of two works of narrative fiction written by Tolstoy and T. Mann, with a special attention to the esthetical function of intertextuality by implementation of cross-references to the works of the composer Beethoven (in the case of Th. Mann also of the poet Goethe). The claim is that intertextuality in the esthetical sphere induces a double esthetical function and determines the phenomenon which I will call “esthetical heteronomy”. Its main feature is a very specific influence of external esthetical sources on the internal esthetical values of the primary text.

Films of the Printed Page: Transmedial Books for Early Soviet Children

This essay examines the representation of film production and reception in Soviet children's books from the 1920s and early 1930s. These publications function both as instructional manuals for teaching children about cinema and as attempts to depict film elements in a different medium. In relation to the institutional development of the Soviet film industry, the publication of children's books about cinema coincides with the mobilization of films for propaganda and educational purposes. At this time there were also increasing warnings about the effect of cinema on children as well as calls for ideologically appropriate film programming for young viewers. The visual language of these publications indicates how writers and artists of Soviet children's books engaged with cinema and adapted cinematic techniques to the printed page. The authors represented cinema's illusion of immediacy, spectator engagement, and principles of narration through the succession of images. Moreover, Soviet children's books about cinema appropriate film techniques and cinematic forms as part of their claim to the realism and authenticity ascribed to cinematic representation. Such translation of elements across media turned Soviet children's books into transmedial objects that allowed readers to enter and engage the media system developing around them.

The landmark nature of visual art in of Weimar Germany and the principle of visual narrative

The subject of this research is the art practices of Weimar Germany, first and foremost displayed in photomontage works of the Dadaist artists, as well as paintings and photographic compositions of the representatives of “New Objectivity” since the early 1920s until coming to power of the Nazi in 1933. The relevance of this topic is substantiated by the heightened interest of modern researchers in the cultural processes of the early XX century, which had a significant impact upon the establishment of modern visual imagery system. Within the framework of study, the author also touched upon the problem of assimilation of modern art practices associated to the integration of art into all spheres of social life. The interpretation of this trend is one of the most relevant vectors of modern art history. The novelty of this work lies in the use of complex methodology that implies the unity of socio-analytical and philosophical-anthropological approaches, as well as the method of structural-semiotic analysis that leans on both classical theories and works of the contemporary art historians and culturologists of post-structuralism (P. McBride, R. Krauss, B. Buchloh, P. Stettler, and others.). The result of the conducted research lies in determination of interinfluence of photomontage practices of the Dadaists and the art of “New Objectivity”, which clearly demonstrate the “landmark” nature of the works created during the indicated historical period. The acquired conclusions may be valuable for further research of the German art of “New Realism”, reflected in the works of the artists of “New Objectivity” and “Magic Realism”, and as well as the upcoming trends in art of the XX century.

The bibliographical review as a research methodology

The bibliographic review article is a methodology of observational research, retrospective, systematica ,oriented to the selection, analysis, interpretation and discussion of theoretical positions, results and conclusions embodied in scientific articles disclosed in recent years on a topic of choice in order to obtain relevant information that contributes to the solution of problems. The purpose of the study was to explain the principles, importance, functions and phases or stages of the literature review article that provides university students and professionals with a methodological alternative in conducting research work. The methodology has revised scientific information dating from 1987 onwards, the cues were subjected to validity and reliability as provided by the information, the information derived from databases was considered: Scopus, Web of Science, among others. The principle of bibliographic narrative, conceptualization, quality indicators, review article steps such as the topic or title of the article of review, bibliographic search, organization of information and the writing of the article was explained. It is concluded that the bibliographic review article is a scientific article structure that is developed on the basis of an analysis of research related to a particular problem or information gap.

Interaction of Narrative and Lyrical Principles in Texts of Contemporary Musical Performers

A comprehensive linguistic study of the functional features of the linguistic and communicative-pragmatic organization of narrative in text materials posted on the Internet platform is presented. Particular attention is paid to how the interpenetration of the narrative and lyrical principles occurs within one work. The material for the research was the text of the hip-hop opera “Orpheus & Eurydice” posted on the re-source “Yandex.Music”. A complex technique of interpretation of narrative strategies based on the methods of functional-stylistic, communicative-pragmatic and lexical-semantic analysis was used. The question is raised about the peculiarities of the functioning of the lyric text within the narrative and about their relationship. The role played by the mythologization of the narrative text is shown in the article. The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the author describes the relationship be-tween narrative and lyricism in the work. The question of establishing the determinants of hip-hop narrative is raised. The structure of a narrative text with elements of lyricism is considered. The results of the analysis of the peculiarities of the linguistic embodiment of the narrators and actants are presented. The author dwells on the communicative-functional structure of the studied text, describing the specific functions of the narrative with fragments of lyricism. A model for determining the leading type of cognitive modeling (narrative or lyrics) through the functional and linguopragmatic study of the hip-hop text is proposed.

ПРИЗРАЧНАЯ КАРЕТА: ОТ ФОЛЬКЛОРА К ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ

The image of a phantom coach is very common in British folklore and, like its predecessors – Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the Wild Hunt, it is closely associated with death and bad omens. Quite understandably, it was widely used in ghost stories written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are stories close to the folk tradition of storytelling, but much more often the authors create their own versions where the legends about phantom coaches are contaminated with other sources (such as ballads about demonic lovers) and lose certain elements which are essential for archaic mentality but can be easily neglected in modern fiction, e. g. death as punishment for doing or seeing something forbidden, church service as something that can drive away ghosts and demons. According to the rules of the genre, a coach turns into a kind of liminal zone, a subspace where the laws of the rational world do not work, a time capsule where the logic of a folktale prevails. There are versions where a coach is a means of communication between the world of the living and the world of the dead or demonic creatures. In later texts a coach gives way to a car, with all the functions preserved; this change is not connected with fears caused by the relatively new means of transport, the old image is merely transformed according to certain changes in everyday reality. The ancient themes of revenge, punishment, meeting the dead are recreated here, but sometimes the symbolism changes, it becomes more closely connected to the idea of time and memory. The analysis of how the image of a phantom coach works in ghost stories can help to understand certain tendencies in the development of the genre (what happens to folkloric sources, narrative principles, the ideas of time and death etc.).

ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННО-ВРЕМЕННЫХ ПАРАМЕТРОВ АУДИОВИЗУАЛЬНЫХ ОБРАЗОВ В ПРОЦЕССЕ СОЗДАНИЯ ЭКРАННЫХ ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЙ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ФОТОГРАФИИ, КИНО, ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЯ, ВИДЕО

On-screen creativity is a single cultural-aesthetic system, operating with the language of visual and audiovisual images, the basic source of which is inseparably linked with such categories of reality as space and time. Their special position is determined by the fact that they are attributes of the existence of life forms and without their reflection any on-screen creativity becomes impossible. At certain stages of its historical evolution, screen creativity grew by new typical formations. The photography appeared first, then the cinema, and later on television, in the depths of which, after a while, the video was parted. Each new type at the level of space-time relations with the reality preceeding the camera formed its own special principles of screen narration. At the same time, they depended on the features of the new technological system, and on the dominant modes of visuality on an individual and collective levels. In this process, the cultural-aesthetic progress in on-screen creativity was reflected. The general logic of the relationship of the author of the screen work and the displayed reality in terms of its on-screen chronotope organization has evolved from a single, instantaneous discretization of it, to a total space-time continuity. From the author’s point of view, the more speculative picture of this process looked as follows: the photographic chronotope is characterized by a single spatial appearance of the displayed object and its temporary immobility (static); the cinematic chronotope is characterized by an editorial multiplicity of forms of the displayed object, which recreates conditional space and conditional time on the screen; the television chronotope is characterized by a simultaneous multiplicity of forms of the displayed object, which recreates the conditional space and real time on the screen; the video chronotype is characterized by a continual multiplicity of shapes of the displayed object, which recreates real space and real time on the screen. It is obvious that the evolution of screen creativity stimulated the development of new creative possibilities in terms of the spatial and temporal organization of audiovisual images, which in turn contributed to the establishment and enrichment of specific cultural aesthetic formations. Their common aspiration was focused on achieving natural integrity and authenticity in presenting life forms on the screen.

The Memory Policy in the Caucasus after 1989: a Theoretical Basis for the War Narrative in Chechnya

The article examines the strategic war narrative as a tool used by the state after 1989 to justify the start of a war or justify its end. Based on the understanding of this term, introduced into the popular science turnover by M. Vlahos, the author of the article expands the conceptual framework by referring to the narrative principle of collective memory by J. Verch. It is concluded that the war narrative is partly similar to the concept of mnemonic security (as well as other hegemonic forms of memory), which is tested on the A. Pető's concept. A review of key domestic and foreign research works on the topic is carried out. The key elements of the war narrative (symbols, sacrifice, etc.) within political dimension are identified, as well as the victory narrative, which was in demand in the first months of V. V. Putin (coinciding with the outbreak of hostilities in Chechnya in the period since 1999 and the continuation until 2009 in the form of counter-terrorism measures on the territory of the republic and the border regions of the North Caucasus).

Adolescent Identity at School: Student Self-Positioning in Narratives concerning Their Everyday School Experiences

Identity, as a common way of thinking about ourselves and experiencing ourselves, begins to be explored and stabilized during adolescence. According to the narrative psychology, identity development occurs through self-positioning and the simultaneous positioning by others, within the discursive positions available in the present context, one of which is the school environment. The aim of our study was to explore student self-positioning in the narrated accounts of their everyday school experiences. The participants were primary school students that provided us with written accounts that represented their view of the school and of themselves. Data were analyzed in line with the principles of narrative and positioning analysis, which resulted in emergence of four types of events/experiences student accounted for: academic achievement and discipline, peer relationships, relationships with teachers and general school experience. Within these themes we further identified subthemes, the prevailing emotional tone and student self-positioning. Our findings suggest that positioning as a valuable and accepted friend was the prevailing one. We identified peer conflicts as the potential space for the further exploration of identities, and the position of the rejected student as a particularly restricting one. Interventions proposed include altering the structure of the positioning network by widening the space of accessible positions and altering its dynamic properties, so that mutual exclusiveness of some positions is removed.

»A Dream of a Dream«

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] In Franz Hohlers Tschipo (1978), dem ersten Teil einer Trilogie, erlebt ein Schweizer Junge Abenteuer auf seltsamen Inseln. Und in Maggie Stiefvaters Serien The Raven Cycle (2012 – 2016) und The Dreamer Trilogy (2019 – ) bekämpft ein amerikanischer junger Erwachsener mit Namen Ronan Lynch magische Gefahren. Was haben Tschipo und Ronan gemeinsam? Eine seltsame Gabe: Von ihren Träumen bleibt am Morgen etwas zurück. »A Dream of a Dream«Dreaming as a Metafictional Device in Children’s and Young Adult Literature This article analyses the relationship between dreaming, art and identity in Franz Hohler’s Tschipo (1978) and Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle (2012 – 2016) and The Dreamer Trilogy (2019 – ). At the centres of their fictional universes lies the fantastic ability of specific characters to take things out of their dreams; an ability which is both a plot element and a narrative principle. In Tschipo, dreaming is used in analogy to storytelling, with the storyteller inventing worlds that are so vibrant that the audience is unable to discern what is ›real‹ and what is ›just‹ invented or dreamed. In Stiefvater’s books, the character of the dreamer is revealed to be a kind of artist who thrives on the thrill of creation and transgression. In all the texts, the concept of taking things out of dreams is transgressive on two levels: Formally, it is used to subvert traditional storytelling and to question the role of the narrator. In terms of plot, it is employed in order to articulate nonnormative identities, lifestyles and desires. By using dreaming as a central narrative device, Tschipo, The Raven Cycle and The Dreamer Trilogy are therefore highly metafictional, revealing that literature addressed to younger audiences participates in a cultural conversation about fact and fiction, and draws on narrative strategies similar to those employed in literature addressed to adults.

Incorporating ACEs in relationship-based social work practice: The Family Life Stories workbook

This article describes the development of the ‘Family Life Stories’ practice workbook. The initiative emerged from a pilot social work strategy in Northern Ireland to utilise the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research in frontline practice. ACEs research is currently having a significant impact on health and social care policy and practice across the UK. This article proposes that ACEs-awareness has potential benefits for child welfare social work, encouraging consideration of parent/caregivers’ and children's lives beyond presenting referral concerns, with many parents involved with child welfare services known to have experienced multiple adversities themselves. However, when applied in a reductionist manner, ACEs-informed practice risks amplifying parental powerlessness, exacerbating feelings of shame and blame, and rendering structural inequalities invisible to assessment. Based on systemic and narrative therapeutic principles, the Family Life Stories workbook and guidance seeks to address concerns by using participative mapping activities. These assist practitioners to have purposeful conversations with parents in ways that promote engagement. The workbook aims to provide opportunities to consider with parents how previous experiences have influenced their life stories, the impact on their current situation, and their wishes for their children – maximising the benefit for parental wellbeing and engagement, while maintaining a focus on child safety. Although lacking a rigorous independent evaluation, feedback from social workers involved in the pilot demonstrates provisional acceptability to practitioners and parents. This novel practice approach provides one example of how to use the ACEs research to promote sensitive relationship-based practice within a social justice framework.

У пошуках сенсу наративної метафори Умберто Еко: “впіймати Голубку жовтогарячого кольору”

The narrative specifics of Umberto Eco’s novel “The Island of the Day Before is regarded through a basic idea of the narrative metaphor “The Orange Dove”. The methodological basis of the study is a summary concept of the relationship between narrative and metaphor. These are O. Freidenberg’s hypothesis of metaphor as a future narrative form of plots and genres; F. Ankersmit’s narrative logic of metaphor’s transformation into a plot through a “point of view”; P. Recoeur’s “common innovative nucleus” in narrative and metaphor designed for productive imagination; G. Genette’s “narrative modality” and regulation of narrative information through metalepsis; R. Barthes’ dichotomy of “functions and indices” as an analogy of metonymic and metaphorical relations. In the article under discussion, we consider metaphor as a narrative principle that ensures its own presentation, generates its rhythm, creates personosphere, and involves a reader in an intellectual game. Such a way of metaphor formation marks U. Eco’s literary style. In his novel “The Island of the day Before”, the following distinctive range of metaphors play a very constructive role: metaphor of sleep, metaphor of love as a source of creative activities, metaphor of duality, metaphor of hatred. Above all, it is worth pointing out author’s epistemological metaphor, which is closely related to the search of truth: in the latter sense, the “Orange Dove” is associated with a post-modernist analogue of the “Blue Rose”, borrowed from the epoch of Romanticism. Due to the technique of metalepsis (“the figure of speech denoting author’s intrusion”), offered by G. Genette, the narrator demonstrates his metaphoric intentions through the discourse of a character-narrator. In conclusion, narrative metaphor of the novel directs the narrative strategy to a variety of its numerous versions, which may be implemented owing to reader’s competence.

Poets of Promotion: Corporate Personality and Crowd Psychology in Guy Thorne and Leo Custance’s Sharks (1904)

Abstract This article deals with the relationship between fin-de-siècle crowd psychology and joint-stock companies in late Victorian and early Edwardian financial novels, most notably Guy Thorne and Leo Custance’s Sharks (1904). This satirical novel is not only an anatomy of the turn-of-the-century joint-stock economy, but also a critical examination of the legal principle of corporate personality and the ontology of the financial corporation. Tracing the launch and life of a ridiculously speculative joint-stock company, and employing a central metaphor of emergent corporative agency drawn from contemporary crowd psychologists such as Gustave Le Bon, the novel applies the formal logic of incorporation as a narrative principle and constructs a dystopic, farcical vision of the possibilities inherent in joint-stock companies for organizing, ordering, and connecting individuals. The article argues that, by positing the corporate person as a beheaded Leviathan, the novel portrays joint-stock business, and particularly the promotion of new companies, as an eminently imaginative kind of work, involving not simply the dissemination of financial information, but also an affective preconditioning of the investing public by means of an excessive production of texts across the period’s booming print industries.

Narrative category point of view in the novel «Stone maples» by L. Eltang

This article examines the narrative category point of view: it introduces theoretical remarks that reveal and clarify this concept in the framework of the modern theory of narrative, as well as an analysis of this category in Lena Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples”. In narratology, the point of view is one of the leading categories; it is synonymous with the concepts of “focalization”, “perspective” and “narrative modality” and is directly related to the narrator of the work. This article discusses various approaches to the interpretation of the concept of point of view, discusses the similarities and differences, different theoretical approaches to the terms “perspective”, “focalization”, “narrative modality.” An analysis of the theoretical works devoted to this problem also makes it possible to conclude that one of the leading roles in the construction of a narrative is given to the narrator. In L. Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples”, many different points of view (respectively, several narrators) are encountered: several subjects of speech and several different narrative lines are presented in the text. The main narrative and style principles, as well as the features of the narrative organization of the novel “Stone Maples” were examined. Integrated research methods allowed us to determine that in L. Eltang’s novel “Stone Maples” there are many different points of view: several subjects of speech and several different narrative lines are presented in the text; the communicative basis of the narrative work, the “mosaic” narrative, multilevel author puzzles and the detective story base of the novel activate the role of the reader of “Stone Maples”, who is given the function of one of the narrators of the work. The article emphasizes that a biased, false narrative is formed in the novel, destroying the principles of classical narration.