Parallel Stories Research Articles

Crowd Scenes in Péter Nádas’ Parallel Stories

The article examines the representation of the crowd in Péter Nádas’s Parallel Stories. In the plot, there are multiple scenes including the masses that highlight different features of the phenomenon. I argue that the 1956 Hungarian Revolution appears in the novel as a fundamental experience of society, influencing the nature of people’s gatherings even after its defeat. Firstly, I show that the characteristics of the swarm appear in the cooperation of people foraging for food during the revolution. However, the bread queue represents the extreme behaviour and the aggression of the acquisitive masses, whose collective action is always directed at acquiring something. Thereafter, I examine the representations of crowd panic in the basement scene of the 1956 cannonade and of the 1957 railway station gathering. Finally, I scrutinise two scenes with the seemingly liberated and intoxicated crowd. The analysis focuses on the relationship between the crowd and the individual, on the narrative representation of the crowd, on its influence on the participants’ perceptions, and the associated attributes.

Resilience in the Time of a Pandemic: Developing Public Policies for Ollas Comunes in Peru

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has created economic, social, and food security crises in many countries throughout the world. Faced with growing hunger in Peru, and the government’s delayed and inadequate reaction, the most important response came from the citizens themselves, particularly the women, in the form of thousands of social care initiatives known as ollas comunes (literally ‘communal pots’, similar to soup kitchens, whereby local communities pool their resources to supply food for everyone in the neighbourhood). This article tells the parallel stories of the resurgence of these ollas comunes and the state-funded support initiatives, alongside the process followed by GRADE (Group for the Analysis of Development – Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo; a non-profit research centre founded in Peru) that enabled it to contribute to those institutions looking to improve access to food for the most vulnerable people. Both stories are underpinned by a common ability to adapt quickly, which is crucial for achieving objectives in uncertain and ever‑changing situations.

COMFORT WOMEN SURVIVING PANDEMICS: FROM ERASURE TO EMBODIED HOPE TOWARDS A FEMINIST-POSTCOLONIAL THEOLOGY OF RADICAL HOSPITALITY

The article accords epistemic privilege to comfort women as embodiment of the perversion of hospitality. It draws aparallelism between their surviving the pandemics of World War II as forcibly recruited sex slaves and COVID-19.Through their lived experience as survivors of pandemics, a feminist-postcolonial theology of radical hospitality firstcritiques biblical narratives of men’s hospitality to men. The parallel stories of Lot’s offer of his virgin daughters (Gen. 19)and the Levite’s offer of his concubine (Judges 19) expose, first, the hierarchisation of male guests over women, asproperty of men, and secondly, the inviolable creed of hospitality conferred on men by men, that is sustained by the cultural code that marks women’s bodies as violable. Secondly, the article argues that extending hospitality to comfort women (for example, war reparations) goes beyond the “law of ekstasis”, as touted in Fratelli Tutti, as comfort women themselves embody love, reciprocity, and inclusion.

Low-Dose Radiation Therapy (LDRT) against Cancer and Inflammatory or Degenerative Diseases: Three Parallel Stories with a Common Molecular Mechanism Involving the Nucleoshuttling of the ATM Protein?

Very early after their discovery, X-rays were used in multiple medical applications, such as treatments against cancer, inflammation and pain. Because of technological constraints, such applications involved X-ray doses lower than 1 Gy per session. Progressively, notably in oncology, the dose per session increased. However, the approach of delivering less than 1 Gy per session, now called low-dose radiation therapy (LDRT), was preserved and is still applied in very specific cases. More recently, LDRT has also been applied in some trials to protect against lung inflammation after COVID-19 infection or to treat degenerative syndromes such as Alzheimer's disease. LDRT illustrates well the discontinuity of the dose-response curve and the counterintuitive observation that a low dose may produce a biological effect higher than a certain higher dose. Even if further investigations are needed to document and optimize LDRT, the apparent paradox of some radiobiological effects specific to low dose may be explained by the same mechanistic model based on the radiation-induced nucleoshuttling of the ATM kinase, a protein involved in various stress response pathways.

Quando ela olhou a pandemia: uma fotografia, incontáveis filmes

Abstract The sensory and affective impact of a photograph in a news story may mitigate the message of the headline and even the content of the story as a whole, with the potential to lead the reader to countless parallel stories. These stories can be imbricated to the theme explored by the media, but can also expand to several other issues, memories, events, authors unveiling to the reader other situational layers that transcend the sphere of simple reading leading to reflexivity. This text has, therefore, the intention to reflect at length about the inequities in health, especially in relation to the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19 on the planet, from an image published by France Presse in a story about a day with record application of doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 in India.

Imagining the Blitz and Its Aftermath: The Narrative Performance of Trauma in Sarah Waters’s The Night Watch

Critics agree that Sarah Waters’ fourth novel, The Night Watch (2006), marks a turn in her fiction, away from the farcical tone of her first three neo-Victorian novels and towards an ever-more serious concern with the changes in class structures and gender roles brought about by the fact of war. The novel tells the parallel stories of three women and one man living in various areas of London in the 1940s. Though they have different social status, ideology, and sexual orientation, they share similarly traumatic experiences as, together with war trauma, they harbour individual feelings of loss and/or shame related to their deviance from patriarchal norms. The article seeks to demonstrate that the palimpsestic and backward structure of the novel performs formally the ‘belatedness of trauma’ (Caruth 1995, pp. 4–5), in an attempt to respond aesthetically and ethically to the ‘mnemonic void’ (Freud [1014] 1950) or ‘black hole’ (Pitman and Orr 1990; Bloom 2010; Van der Kolk and McFarlane [1998] 2004) left both in the characters’ traumatised psyches and in our cultural memory of the 1940s by the erased memories of the decade’s non-normative or dissident others.

La Linea del Colore

La Linea del Colore

Genocide: on the edge of an act called mass murder

The Problems of Genocide points to a displace site of globalism, namely globalised mass murders. The book suggests two parallel stories, namely the unfolding of the theme of mass murders in global politics in the twentieth century and the ways race has become integrated with the phenomenon of modern liberal nations. The question of mass murders as a problem for global governance became acute only when mass murder created a crisis or took place in the context of a crisis. The book presents a detailed historical account of the context in which genocide emerges as a crucial legal concept to account for the large scale killings of populations in our time. Yet, as the book shows, the concept has remained highly problematic owing to the deeply hierarchised notion of mass murders.

Dreamworlds, Storyworlds: Narrative Proliferation and the Case of Stjörnu-Odda draumr

Dreamworlds, Storyworlds: Narrative Proliferation and the Case of <i>Stjörnu-Odda draumr</i>

POLITICAL ISLAM/OPHOBIA IN THE KINDNESS OF ENEMIES

Although Islamophobia is an ancient phenomenon, it has come to the fore, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Islam has been put forward as the new enemy of the West. The fear of Islam, whose existence is generally scrutinized in Western society, is not created by Western societies alone. Political Islam doctrine placed the religion based on political ambitions and advanced in line with the understanding of radical Islam and fuelled the phenomenon of Islamophobia among Muslim communities. The basis where these effects can be examined most clearly is the Muslim immigrant communities living in the West. &#x0D; Leila Aboulela observes these damages of political Islam, reflects it in her works, and compares the 19th and 21st-century understandings of Islamophobia through two parallel stories narrated in her novel The Kindness of Enemies. She explains how political and radical Islam differentiates Islamophobia and unfolds how the Muslim immigrants were affected with vivid examples. In this context, this article aims to embody the relationship between Islamophobia and political Islam, to discuss the effects of Islamophobia in Western Muslim immigrant communities with quotations exemplifying the discussion in the novel.

“I Want to Go Home”: The Representation of Dual Homecoming in Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller

The aim of the article is to discuss Dorothy Allison’s novel Cavedweller (1998) in terms of the narrative strategies of doubling. The novel features Delia, a woman who returns to the South with her daughter, Cissy, to reconnect with the rest of her family. While Delia’s return to her hometown meets with social ostracism, her daughter manages to find a sense of identity and belonging in the underground caves in Georgia. The two parallel stories of homecoming are presented by Allison through the images of doubling, which help her to confront regional traumas and tensions of the South.

Playing with Words

Western art, literature, and music have told many parallel stories throughout the centuries. Living through similar politics, philosophies, and technological advancements, it is no surprise that such links between the arts exist. Now, more than ever, a time when anything can be considered art and anyone an artist, I feel a necessity to understand these connections of the past in order to proceed forward as a musician. Being more and more involved in creating my own music, I thought it an opportune occasion to combine these interest and explore how a research into artistic and literary movements can help me develop my musical language and creativity as an improviser. In this exposition, I have created a narrative that brings together the art, music, and poetry of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on my understanding and experience of these artistic and literary movements, I have created improvisations and semi-composed/semi-improvised pieces (some of which I collaboratively worked on with my trio Kalea), attempting to demonstrate how looking to the past can bring inspiration to our contemporary practice.

Religious Elements in Embrace of the Serpent (2015): Transforming the Dichotomies between an Amazonian payé and Western Expeditioners in the Wake of the Rubber Industry

Embrace of the Serpent (2015), directed by Ciro Guerra, narrates the parallel stories of Theo and Evan whose main purpose is to find the yakruna plant in the Amazon rainforest. Both men are guided by the payé Karamakate. The first story depicts Theo’s encounter with Karamakate and their travel through the Amazon for yakruna, which can cure Theo of his disease. Along the way, one comes to witness the parallel often disturbing events in the wake of colonialism, capitalism and the Catholic missionary movement. The second story narrates Evan’s encounter with Karamakate three decennia later, but this time, the viewer is informed about Theo’s preceding story and comes to see the devastating consequences. While Theo ultimately fails to utilize yakruna, Evan manages to find and utilize the plant, which leads him towards a radical self-transformation. In this way, Evan and Karamakate succeed where Theo and Karamakate failed. While Embrace of the Serpent has been hailed for its cinematography, its representation of the ecological decay, and the effects of Western colonialism, further reflection is needed with respect to the religious elements in the film. In doing so, this article proves that the film deals not only with the socio-political and ecological realities on the ground, but also with existential questions.

Illusions of Linguistics and Illusions of Modern Synthesis: Two Parallel Stories

Metaphors involve immense explanatory power and positive impact predominantly in the scientific education and popularization. Still the use of metaphors in science might be a double-edged sword. Introduction of the computer metaphor to many scientific fields in the last century resulted in reductionist approaches, oversimplifications and mechanistic explanations in science as well as in humanities. In this short commentary we developed further the computer metaphor by prof. Noble and the illusions this metaphor led to in genetics, linguistics and consequently DNA linguistics.

"The troublesome other and I": Parallel stories of separated parents in prolonged conflicts.

This qualitative study aims to explore how noncohabiting parenting couples in prolonged conflict construct the other parent and themselves. Ten parents from five parent couples were interviewed. A dyadic analytical design was used, where parent's stories of conflict were analyzed in parallel with their co-parent. Drawing on positioning theory, self-identity as parents emerged as implicit counter positions in storylines, which construct the co-parent as "the troublesome other." Two typologies of conflicted storylines were prominent in the findings: storylines of violations of trust, positioning the co-parents in relation to traumatic events in the past and, storylines of who is bad, positioning the co-parent as either a disloyal co-parent or a dysfunctional parent. The findings indicate that prolonged conflicts made it impossible to find available positions for cooperation. We argue that family therapists should aid each household toward promoting child and family resilience rather than continued efforts to solve chronic conflicts.

Aesthetic Multilingualism as Ontological Relativism. Milorad Pavić's Dictionary of the Khazars and Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

The text is brought to life through reading. This has not only been understood by literary scholars like Wolfgang Iser or Umberto Eco, but also by authors or poets. This can be recognized in some literary texts when, from the first page, the reader is forced by the author to actively shape the story to be read. The concept of fold, coined by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, seems to take into account many strategies of authors to stimulate the negotiation process between author and reader. By fostering non-linear and parallel stories, which lead to many worlds interpretation, the agency of the reader comes to its fore. We can observe very different strategies like this for example in novels of Mark Z. Danielewski and Milorad Pavic. Using the concepts of Deleuze and Guattari, I want to explore how multilingualism can be understood aesthetically and how it leads us to an ontological relativism in literature.

O DESDOBRAMENTO DA CIDADE/PAÍS NAS TRAMAS DO “ARBUSTO ESPINHOSO” DE LUÍS DILL

RESUMO: Luís Dill apresenta em seu novo romance, Timbirupá, a história de uma cidade decadente (e fictícia) rumo à devastação. A narrativa fragmenta-se em diversas histórias pessoais paralelas e não lineares que intercalam tempos e espaços geográficos distintos em uma intrincada configuração narrativa; elementos que convergem no reflexo de um país sempre em processo, mas que não chega a se consolidar em tempo algum.

Care, Control, and Color: A Conversation About Disparities in School Disciplinary Practices

Disciplinary practices teachers use in their classrooms frequently result in life-altering consequences for students who are historically marginalized and struggling to meet normalized standards of academic success. Research suggests teachers often lack the skill needed to connect with students, manage their classrooms, and administer corrective action that is equitable, reasonable, and effective without being excessive and detrimental to the student’s future. This disconnection and lack of judgment is frequently attributed to 1) the cultural mismatch that exists between the majority U.S. teacher who is a young, White female, and the growing diverse population of students; 2) teachers’ deficit view of students of color, their families and communities; and 3) deficient pre-service teacher training that does not equip future teachers with the culturally relevant pedagogical skills needed to meet the needs of today’s students. Employing the qualitative research methods of interactive interviewing and parallel stories, an African American, veteran teacher and a young, White pre-service teacher explore the topic of disciplinary practices at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and a classroom culture of care in the k-12 U.S. classroom.

Observing to Coproduce a Collective Narrative: Emplotment of Multiple Parallel Stories

Observation captures complex organizational phenomena in situ. The literature on this method explains the possible data collection methods but says less about the use and organization of the data collected. As a result, the question of the meaning of observation data remains open. This article explores that question with the focus on a specific form of observation, dynamic observation, which can grasp indeterminate situations whose meaning is elusive for both practitioners and the researcher. Drawing on the work of Ricœur, we propose a conceptual tool kit founded on mimesis. We show that organizing observation data into a plot and narrative, through an inquiry conducted by researchers and practitioners together, can shed light both on the observation data and the situation observed. We embody our method by applying this tool kit to a dynamic observation conducted in a high-risk industry. We discuss the methodological issues of this co-construction of shared meaning and its role in restoring centrality to observation in the management sciences, and resituating the situations and the actors as core concerns.

New language versions of MAIN: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives – Revised

The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) is a theoretically grounded toolkit that employs parallelpictorial stimuli to explore and assess narrative skills in children in many different languages. It is part of the LITMUS (Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings) battery of tests that were developed in connection with the COST Action IS0804 Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic Patterns and the Road to Assessment(2009−2013). MAIN hasbeen designed to assess both narrative production and comprehensionin children who acquire one or more languages from birth or from early age. Its design allows for the comparable assessment of narrative skills in several languages in the same child and in different elicitation modes: Telling, Retelling and Model Story. MAIN contains four parallel stories, each with a carefully designed six-picture sequence based on a theoretical model of multidimensional story organization. The stories are controlled for cognitive and linguistic complexity, parallelism in macrostructure and microstructure, as well as for cultural appropriateness and robustness. As a tool MAIN had been used to compare children’s narrative skills across languages, and also to help differentiate between childrenwith and without developmental language disorders, both monolinguals and bilinguals.&#x0D; This volume consists of two parts. The main content of Part I consists of33 papers describing the process of adapting and translating MAIN to a large number of languagesfrom different parts of the world. Part II contains materials for use for about 80 languages, including pictorial stimuli, which are accessible after registration.&#x0D; MAIN was first published in 2012/2013 (ZASPiL56). Several years of theory development and material construction preceded this launch. In 2019 (ZASPiL 63), the revised English version (revised on the basis of over 2,500 transcribed MAIN narratives as well as ca 24,000 responses to MAIN comprehension questions, collected from around 700 monolingual and bilingual children in Germany, Russia and Sweden between 2013-2019) was published together with revised versions in German, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish for the bilingual Turkish-Swedish population in Sweden. The present 2020 (ZASPiL 64) volume contains new and revised language versions of MAIN.