Original Story Research Articles

Intimate Contact in the Landscape of Mortality: Commentary on Papers by Rachel Kozlowski and Kirsten Lentz

ABSTRACT The following is a discussion of papers by Kozlowski and Lentz that explore the presence of mortality in the analytic relationship. The author reflects on challenges to the dyad, the vulnerability of the analyst, and how the individual and analytic pair may confront their existential reality separately or together. The author includes the idea of “death origin stories” to emphasize that mortality has a presence throughout the life of the individual; she suggests how psychoanalytic theory and technique may be enhanced by including an explanation of the earliest penetration of death into consciousness and whether this lens may enhance our sensitivity to mortality and our ability to manage loss and endings.

Marvel World

ABSTRACT: As a kid, my favorite superhero was Batman. For me, superheroes are all about their origin story—not necessarily how they got their superpowers (Batman, after all, doesn’t have any), but why they’re driven to super-heroism. And Batman’s origin story is great: billionaire Bruce Wayne uses the financial bequest of his murdered parents to become strong enough to save them; only he can’t do that, because they’re already dead. So he spends his time compulsively regenerating the traumatic situation of their passing, inviting villainy and menace into his life, where it endangers whomever he loves. Batman is stuck in a loop, ever recreating the conditions for his primal failure, so that he may fail again. Freudians call this a “repetition compulsion.” We might just call it misery; the only love he knows is failure.

Marvel World

ABSTRACT: As a kid, my favorite superhero was Batman. For me, superheroes are all about their origin story—not necessarily how they got their superpowers (Batman, after all, doesn't have any), but why they're driven to super-heroism. And Batman's origin story is great: billionaire Bruce Wayne uses the financial bequest of his murdered parents to become strong enough to save them; only he can't do that, because they're already dead. So he spends his time compulsively regenerating the traumatic situation of their passing, inviting villainy and menace into his life, where it endangers whomever he loves. Batman is stuck in a loop, ever recreating the conditions for his primal failure, so that he may fail again. Freudians call this a "repetition compulsion." We might just call it misery; the only love he knows is failure.

НЕИЗВЕСТНАЯ СКАЗКА К. И. ЧУКОВСКОГО: «ПРИКЛЮЧЕНИЯ БАБАРА» И «БАБАР И СЕЛЕСТА В МОСКВЕ»

The article analyzes materials found in the Korney Chukovsky’s archive in the Russian State Library. The texts presented in the article were depicted by Chukovsky as “based on the drawings and French text by Jean de Brunoff” that means — The Travels of Babar (1932) by the French writer and artist Jean de Brunoff. The Russian translation is entitled The Adventures of Babar. The supplement to the article presents different versions of the translation found in the archive, which reflect Chukovsky’s edits, as well as texts written by Chukovsky as the continuation of the original plot — The Adventures of Babar and Celeste. Part two. Babar and Celeste in Moscow. These texts have never been published before. Their textual analysis makes it possible to depict The Adventures of Babar as a retelling, and the sequel episode Babar and Celeste in Moscow could be considered as an original story that has no French analogue. An attempt has been made to find out the dates when Chukovsky worked on the texts and to describe the specifics of editorial changes. The first version of The Adventures of Babar, which consisted of two parts, judging by the documents found, dates back to 1946–1948 and was intended for publication as a calendar with illustrations by famous animator and artist Mstislav Pashchenko. The second version of The Adventures of Babar was made with the aim of possible publication in the illustrated children’s periodical Funny Pictures in 1957. Work on this text was presumably continued at the very beginning of the 1960s, the purpose of the third revision is unknown. Korney Chukovsky didn’t include The Adventure of Babar and Celeste in Moscow in the second and third versions. Analysis of various versions of The Adventures of Babar allows us to judge that Chukovsky has significantly revised and expanded de Brunoff’s original. This could partly be due to the fact that the Russian edition was not supposed to use original illustrations from the French book and in that case the visual narrative needed to be retold in the Russian text. We could also assume that Chukovsky set a goal to adapt the text for the young Russian readers through significant domestication: for example, introducing Russian names — Aibolit, Barmaley, as well as transferring part of the story to Moscow.

Mostri musulmani. La deumanizzazione dell’antagonista miscredente nella storia di Buovo d’Antona dalla tradizione anglonormanna al Bovo-Bukh di Elia Levita

The story of Beuve of Hampton circulated throughout the Late Middle Ages and was printed in a number of incunables issued in Venice and Bologna in the 1480s. One of those inspired Elia Levita to compose his own Old Yiddish version known as the Bovo-Bukh. Though written in Padua in 1507, Levita’s poem was printed in Württemberg in 1541. The Bovo-Bukh became so popular that it continued to be widely read and adapted in several Ashkenazi centres in Europe until the late 18th c entury. T he original story goes b ack to Anglo-Norman Boeuve de Haumtone, whose earliest manuscripts are dated to the end of the 13th century. Its plot features a creature called Escopart. It is a giant freak in the service of the Saracens. Yet, once baptised, it turns into a magical Auxiliary. In the early 15th century, Andrea da Barberino adapted the story in prose as Book IV of his largely fictional chronicle of The Royal House of France. In this text, the unbeliever appears as a werehound named Pulicane, but its narrative function is quite similar to Escopart’s. With its name changed into Pellucano, the character is depicted in the Venetian incunables too. In Levita’s version, it becomes Pelukan. The purpose of this paper is to present the ideological changes in the depiction of the monstrous unbeliever, both in historical terms (the timespan of more than two centuries) and with reference to different axiologies. The strong prejudice of the Anglo-Norman tradition, in which the low-born and the unbelievers were depicted as hell spawn never to be trusted, was replaced by a common-sense approach in the later versions of the story. Finally, in Levita’s poem, the confessional background becomes unimportant in determining personal allegiances.

A New Origin Story: The 1619 Project ed. by Nikole Hannah-Jones (review)

A New Origin Story: The 1619 Project ed. by Nikole Hannah-Jones (review)

Penguin Parables: Picturebooks, Interspecies Companionship, and Ecoliteracy

Abstract: The erasures and evasions that characterize picturebook retellings of the true story of Dindim and João Pereira de Souza are instructive of the ways in which some children’s literature understates, distorts, and displaces human impacts on the environment. By reframing anthropogenic disaster as animal rescue, the story of interspecies companionship effectively mutes and disarms the story of environmental catastrophe. In the process, it forestalls eco-critical awareness of and solutions to problems such as chronic pollution, habitat destruction, species extinction, and climate change. By decontextualizing complex origin stories, erasing uncomfortable facts, and romanticizing interspecies relationships, the picturebooks discussed reveal the challenges to environmental consciousness imposed by the imperative to moral or emotional uplift in children’s literature.

“It’s Like This One Man’s Baby”: Gender and Decision-Making Power in Sport for Development and Peace Organizations

Within this article, the author draws on Rao et al.’s theory of the deep structure of organizations to analyze the extent to which decision-making power across sport for development and peace organizations is gender inclusive. Findings from interviews with women and men leaders indicate that decision-making power across the organizations is inclusive to women, with women holding positional power and having a voice to influence. However, the author emphasizes that caution must be taken in claiming that such decision-making power is fully gender inclusive. This is because “women” in positions of power mostly represent privileged profiles, and men hold the most powerful positions. These findings are strongly linked to the origin stories of the organizations, with all having men (co)founders. The gendered implications of such men-dominated organizational histories were found to span both inward- and outward-facing organizational elements and were reported to be difficult to challenge.

허왕후는 만들어진 신화인가

This article has the character of refutation to Kim Tae-sik and Lee Kwang-soo's claim that Queen Heo's mythology was created in the 7th and 8th centuries. Kim Tae-sik and other Lee Kwang-soo consistently claim that Queen Heo's mythology was created in the 7th to 8th centuries, and that several elements were added to the myth when KumGwanJujisa wrote the “Gaehwangnyaku,” and later Ilyeon entered Garakgukgi while compiling “Samkukyusa” Their claims were groundless, only inferences.
 India's navigation techniques and records at that time, and coins engraved with two sword poles cast in the 2nd century show India's active maritime trade. In addition, the cabin partition wall excavated from Bonghwang-dong shows Gaya's navigation technology. In other words, records and relics suggest maritime trade between India and Gaya. Therefore, as recorded in “Samkukyusa” it shows that Queen Heo arrived at Gaya through the sea. On the other hand, the inscriptions on the Pasa Stone Pagoda and “Gimhae Wolmyeong Historic Site Monument” are concrete evidence that Queen Heo's arrival and Buddhism were introduced to Gaya. The Gimhae Wolmyeong Historic Site Monument clearly states that Wolmyeong Temple was founded in March 144 AD. In addition, the people say that Kim Su-ro and Heo empress are their ancestors through the origin story of Gimhae Kim and Gimhae Heo.
 Records, relics, and people's memories are all said to have come to Gaya in 48 AD. However, Kim Tae-sik, Lee Kwang-soo, and Baek Seung-chun deny the arrival of Queen Heo in 48 AD. The fundamental reason why they denied Queen Heo's existence was to claim that “Gaya = Imna.” In order to become “Gaya = Imna,” Gaya must not be founded in 42 and Queen Heo must not arrive in 1948. This is because when Queen Heo comes, the world of Gaya must be recognized and Gaya Buddhism must be recognized, so there is no place for Imna to stand.

ANTi-microhistory of social innovation: humanistic education at Robert Owen’s New Harmony experiment

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present ANTi-microhistory of social innovation in education within Robert Owen’s communal experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The authors zoom out in the historical context of social innovation before zooming into the New Harmony case. Design/methodology/approach The authors used ANTi-microhistory approach to unpack the controversy around social innovation using the five-step procedure recently proposed by Mills et al. (2022), a version of the five-step procedure originally proposed by Tureta et al. (2021). Findings The authors found that the educational leaders of the New Harmony community preceded proponents of innovation, such as Drucker (1957) and Fairweather (1967), who viewed education as a form of social innovation. Originality/value The authors contribute to the history of social innovation in education by exploring the New Harmony community’s education society to uncover the enactment of sustainable social innovation and the origin story of humanistic management education.

“We Hold that Roe and Casey Must Be Overruled.” #scotus: Digital Journalism on Abortion Rights

ABSTRACT Using discourse analysis to examine 3995 tweets by 1939 journalists following the leak of the Roe v. Wade decision on 3 May 2022, through the final opinion on 24 June 2022, this study analyzes how journalists used Twitter, now known as X, during a politically charged national debate on abortion rights. Since an online-only media outlet posted the original story, we examine the contingencies and constraints of digital journalism and the ensuing platformization. Findings demonstrate that journalists focused on “speed over depth” immediately following the leak, adhering to the norm of a 24-h news cycle. The conversation shifts show journalists focusing on the leak, transforming the news to be relevant at the local level and reflecting changed journalistic norms in the digital space. The journalists focused on four topics during the event: “breaking” news, politics, how the decision impacts people in real life, and what people can/are doing to make a difference.

The Pygmalion myth in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and William Schwenk Gilbert’s “Pygmalion and Galatea”

This article examines the ambivalent nature of the Pygmalion myth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and William Schwenk Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea (1870). The versions of the myth in Ovid and Gilbert are regarded as attempts at demythologization, which paradoxically introduce their own mythology. The author argues that the myth serves as both a reality and an illusion for the protagonists, blurring the lines sbetween critical knowledge and mythological worldview. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory, the author suggests that the Pygmalion myth can be regarded as an allegory within the cognitive paradigm of embodied realism, and the unconscious metaphor behind the myth presents the metamorphosis as rationally explainable yet resistant to critical thinking. The article delves into Pygmalion’s mythical consciousness, highlighting his self-deception and the dialectic between animation and petrification. In Ovid, Pygmalion’s mastery achieves a perfect delusion. He believes in the possibility of animating his statue because it is so life-like. The original story – as we know it from Ovid’s Metamorphoses – treads the line between a miracle and self-delusion. After Ovid, its nature has remained ambivalent over the centuries. Gilbert demythologizes the myth by allowing it to become authentic reality. Pygmalion’s dream is realized to reveal its paradoxical consequences, which change the phantasmagoria of animation into a waking nightmare. The dialectic of the myth is realized through legitimating the magical act of creation and challenging its ramifications. Animation is possible in its initial stage, but the education and socialization of Galatea seemingly fail. The only way out of this predicament appears to be the reverse act of petrification. Pygmalion’s illusion has to come full circle in order to restore the balance. The article concludes that the understanding of the Pygmalion myth requires balancing between mythologizing and demythologizing, knowing and not-knowing.

VOCABULARY FOR AN UNTHINKABLE GRAMMAR: SHARON DODUA OTOO'S SYNCHRONICITY

ABSTRACTThis article examines the eponymous notion of ‘synchronicity’ in Sharon Dodua Otoo's novella, Synchronicity: the original story. Drawing on Denise Ferreira da Silva's notion of Black Feminist ‘poethics’, I argue that ‘synchronicity’ might serve as a ‘guide’ for the imagination that also expands significant critiques of (post)‐Enlightenment notions of temporality (e.g. those by Michelle M. Wright, Rei Terada and Christina Sharpe). It does so, I argue, by exposing the significance of temporality and the related notion of causality for racial constructions of the subject. The blending of temporalities and senses in Synchronicity de‐centre the persistent Enlightenment construction of the subject as a causal agent, showing instead the dependence of existence on intricate cycles of loss and gain. To illustrate this, I offer a close reading of Synchronicity alongside analysis of its implicit critique of Enlightenment notions of being and thought. The novella, I argue, offers not only much‐needed vocabulary for the contemporary moment and the synchronous vestiges of ‘past’ violence within it but also challenges the ‘modern political grammar’ (Silva) through which racial subjects emerge.

Media influence and knowledge of traditional stories in the written productions of primary school students. Evaluative research

Writing and literature are linked to the fundamental objectives of primary education. In this study, students’ written narratives are evaluated on the basis of two pretexts under the form of pictures referring to two traditional stories from children’s literature. To this end, the objectives specify the link with the original story and the themes the students write about. The study is approached from the methodology of evaluative research, its typology being specified in a diagnostic evaluation by means of a qualitative analysis of 1,191 productions created in educational establishments in the Autonomous Community of Murcia (Spain) of Primary School. The results show that most of these students have the ability to create innovative stories, but only a small percentage are grouped at the highest levels. The themes extracted from the narratives provide an insight into the interests of the participants, which leads us to connect with the essential principle of meaningful learning.

Galactic Archaeology: Tracing the Milky Way’s Formation and Evolution through Stellar Populations

Galactic archaeology represents a multidisciplinary approach aimed at unraveling the intricate history of the Milky Way galaxy through the study of its stellar populations. This abstract delves into the significance of galactic archaeology as a vital tool for understanding the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. By examining the distribution, kinematics, chemical compositions, and ages of stars within the galaxy, researchers gain insights into the dynamic processes that have shaped its structure over billions of years. Stellar populations serve as invaluable relics of past epochs, preserving clues about the conditions prevalent during their formation. The utilization of spectroscopic and photometric data has enabled the classification and analysis of stars, allowing astronomers to discern distinct populations and unveil their origin stories. Through these studies, the emergence of the Milky Way's various components, such as the thin and thick disk, halo, and bulge, becomes discernible.

Deserted myths and nuclear realities: Revisiting the symbolism of nuclear weapons in contemporary popular culture through Oppenheimer (2023)

This article makes a necessary intervention in Critical Nuclear Studies which thus far lacks engagement with popular culture since the Cold War. There is a significant gap in our knowledge about contemporary representations of nuclear weapons and their significance for nuclear politics in the current moment. Using Oppenheimer (2023) as a catalyst, this article navigates a setting central to the origin story of nuclear weapons: the desert. The desert is shown to have a complex literal and symbolic history that is intertwined with nuclear politics and contributes to nuclear weapons’ continued mythological status in an age defined by an increasingly partisan trust and distrust in science. The desert setting in popular culture exemplifies the paradoxical and contradictory meanings of nuclear weapons and war. The desert is both the symbolic frontier to the land of opportunity and freedom, and a land of isolation and nothingness. In a retelling of the story of the Manhattan Project – the ‘origin story’ of nuclear weapons – Oppenheimer (2023) offers an opportunity to navigate these tropes in the current moment. Navigating competing representations of nuclear weapons and war reveals some of the hidden logics and relations of power that remain at the foundations of nuclear knowledge – from high politics to popular culture.

A Freer Couplet by Gui Fu: Memory, Style, and Virtue in Qing Calligraphy

Couplet in Clerical Script by Gui Fu at the National Museum of Asian Art’s Freer Gallery of Art, dated to 1793, involves important references to early textual artifacts. This article focuses on how such references engendered historical experience for scholars in the social circle of Gui. A gift to Huang Yi, the calligraphy first evokes the sensorial experience of an inscription at Huishan Temple in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. In addition, its uniform and vigorous brushstrokes point to the origin story of clerical script. Weng Fanggang, a colleague of Gui, further took up the eleventh-century concept of “substantial and thick” to code the style into an expression of sincerity. The calligraphic work details how Qing intellectuals appropriated ancient texts to commemorate social relationships, pursue stylistic innovation, and justify aesthetic preference.

Still Crabby after All These Years: A Crabby Librarian Origin Story

The Crabby Librarian has her roots in the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) product catalog my co-workers received in fall 2005 before I even started working at Madison (OH) Public Library in January 2006.The theme for summer 2006 was “Paws, Claws, Scales, and Tales.” At that time, if you wanted to guarantee delivery of items in the catalog several months before summer started, you needed to order in the fall. My colleagues (that I didn’t even know at the time) thought these crab hats in the catalog looked cute and “someone would use them for something,” so they purchased them.The hats arrived a few months after I started as the new head of the children’s department. My new co-workers were sure I could do something with the hats, since they decided they didn’t want to wear them.

“I’m Used to Bad Things Happening to Me”: The Victimisation of Low-Income Earning Foreign Nationals Living in South Africa

South Africa hosts millions of foreign nationals who are often blamed for the country’s high crime rate, despite their victimisation being under-reported. Foreign nationals often settle for low-income jobs regardless of their qualifications or work experience. Consequently, these minority groups are vulnerable to victimisation due to their environment and circumstances. Thus, this study reflects on the victimisation of low-income earning foreign nationals living in Gauteng, South Africa. Through qualitative interviews, fifteen foreign nationals shared their experiences concerning their victimisation. Data were analysed thematically and interpreted through a radical victimological lens. The findings suggest that the participants’ origin stories set the context for their willingness to endure victimisation in South Africa. Moreover, some participants experienced xenophobia and crime victimisation such as robbery, sexual assault, and witnessing a xenophobic-motivated murder.

Automated lexical analysis of story recall in healthy controls

AbstractBackgroundImpaired episodic memory is one of the earliest and most prominent symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Examining how patients produce words and phrases in story recall tasks is useful for tracking and understanding progression of their disease. Traditional approaches rely on manual assessments of recalled stories which can be limited, time‐consuming, and not applicable in large‐scale studies. Here, we implement an automated, computational approach to measure verbal episodic memory in a digitally recorded story recall task performed by young healthy speakers using natural language processing models.MethodWe analyzed digitized speech samples of pre‐recorded immediate and delayed Craft Story recall tasks performed by healthy speakers (n = 67, mean age = 20.31 years, SD = 2.17, 45 (67%) females). All transcripts were transcribed by trained annotators and automatically scored for number of verbatim and paraphrase recall, total recall score ( = verbatim+paraphrase), and semantic distance from the original story (degree of semantic similarity between the original craft story and the recalled story based on the Word2vec module in python). We also calculated total word count and number of unique words, and rated all recalled words for word familiarity, concreteness, and semantic ambiguity based on published norms. Number of pauses and total durations of speech and silent pauses were also measured.ResultWe found larger semantic distance between successive words in the delayed recall task compared with immediate recall within speaker (p<.001). Delayed recall also elicited lower total recall scores than immediate recall (p = .03). Comparing the effect sizes of semantic distance vs. total recall scores, our model comparison showed a smaller prediction error for semantic distance (AIC = 95.45) than total recall score (AIC = 736.18). In addition, speakers in the delayed recall task performed more paraphrase recall, had higher total word count, number of unique words, more ambiguous words, and produced more speech (all p‐values<.001).ConclusionOur findings suggest that automated speech analysis can provide informative and cost‐effective measures from a recorded story recall task. The study provides an automated and quantitative way to better measure memory abilities by including semantic distance. Future work will test procedures in patients with AD or other neurodegenerative diseases.