Narrative Devices Research Articles

The Politics of Ear Mutilation: Cropping an Enslaved Person in the Gospel Passion Narratives

This article challenges a slaveholder perspective of the treatment of the high priest’s enslaved agent in the canonical gospels. It seeks to demonstrate how ancient traditions and practices of ear cropping and facial mutilation, especially of enslaved folks, give insight into the significance of the enslaved agent’s treatment in the gospels. Far from being a mere plot device, the enslaved person who is maimed is a site of political knowledge that has simultaneous implications for our understanding of the enslaved agent themselves, the mutilating disciple, and Jesus. While the vast majority of interpreters of the passage view the maiming of Malchus’s ear as unimportant, a close analysis of contexts where ears are mutilated, maimed, and cropped provides a useful framework for rereading the episode in each of the gospels. After analyzing the contexts of ear cropping, from ancient Southwest Asia to second-century literature, I re-read each version of the episode from a narrative-critical point of view. In light of ancient accounts of cropping and mutilation, I find that the mutilating disciple’s behavior in the gospels was not heroic, that the enslaved person retains no agency, and that Jesus is complicit in the disciple’s actions against the high-priest’s agent.

Against a Dark Background: The Prevention of Femicide Act 2023 and the Problem of Legislating for Control

The plot device at the heart of Jayne Cowie’s 2022 novel After Dark is the Prevention of Femicide Act 2023, a (fictitious) piece of legislation enacted by Parliament in response to high-profile cases of gender-based violence, and implemented to prevent future occurrences of such crimes. The events of the novel demonstrate that this legislation proves to be flawed in several respects, not least in its failure to prevent the very crime that it was enacted to stop. In this article, I will look at the flaws evident in the legislation as depicted in the novel, and in doing so demonstrate the difficulties inherent in drafting legislation that aims to uphold the rights of one group while at the same time depriving a different group of their rights. I will highlight the formidable obstacles faced by real-world lawmakers in drafting legislation aimed at bringing about radical social change in the face of public hostility to that very change, and will ask whether it is the proper place of the legislature to attempt to effect such changes, or whether society itself ought rightly to be the vehicle for the radical change of mindset necessary to prevent crimes perpetrated by one group in society against another.

Emerging Evils in Post-Colonies

The colonial and postcolonial are two different ideological eras in the colonized peoples’ history, which are taken up by post-colonial literature. Without rehashing the ex-colonized beings’ painful past from a rebellious and revanchist perspective, postcolonial writers’ literary projects aimed at revitalizing the ex-colonized beings’ experience in the form of collective memory. In such a creative art, the narrative devices in force decry retrograde and dehumanizing practices. In terms of vision, the call for improving the relationship between ex-colonizers and ex-colonized subjects is highly prescribed. All neocolonial policies and related influences are systematically proscribed, thus favouring the creation of a global village free from inequalities, exclusions, and other injustices. In essence, the poetization of “Bournehills” in The Chosen Place, The Timeless People and “Kosawa” in How Beautiful We Were is part of those narrative techniques. Today, in a disguised form, Westerners, with their seducing offers or projects, corrupt tiny groups of undeveloped people won over to their cause and keep the masses in misery. In this context of political paradigm shift and sociocultural mutation, the study of the forms of life in the post-colonies remains a challenge. This helps to disclose on the one hand how the former colonial maintains their ex-colonies in perpetual dependence and on the other hand, highlight how the ex-colonized beings or heirs react and overcome neo-colonial policies. To account for the features of neo-colonialism, the use of Perussetian semiotic approach will be helpful. This will contribute to looking into the prevailing forms of life in both fictional imaginaries. Two points of interest will be scrutinized: “post-colonial order features” and “ex-colonized beings’ resilience”

Humor as Hope?

This article examines the use of humor in contemporary environmental short films, centering on the alleviating power of humor and its capacity to challenge conventional modes of perception. It argues that humor constitutes an important narrative device in the stories of critical hope that scholars claim are necessary in moving beyond the debilitating registers of apocalyptic rhetoric and crisis discourse. By comparing two short films—the Indian satire Finding Beauty in Garbage, and the American mockumentary The Majestic Plastic Bag—the article examines the affordance of irony, parody, and satire to model alternative and hopeful ways of interacting with contemporary toxic landscapes. The article demonstrates that while genres and devices such as satire, irony, and parody all trouble anthropocentric paradigms of human mastery, they do so in different ways and with different implications. Whereas satire offers an effective vehicle for lamenting the proliferation of waste, the critical mood that defines the genre also restricts its capacity for generating meanings and sensibilities outside conventional environmental discourse. By contrast, parody and irony appear more suited to mobilize such changes, as their playful estrangements model innovative and self-reflexive ways of perceiving waste as a source of beauty, a site of agency, and an object of guilt.

EGALITARIAN NARRATIVES: WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN MUNIN BARUA’S FILMOGRAPHY

Commercial films in India wield significant influence as a medium of communication. Other than providing entertainment, these films reflect the views of the society. While representation of women in Indian film is dubbed as scarce and superficial, this paper attempts to understand the cinematic representation of violence against women in the select films of Assamese filmmaker Munin Barua. The study employs Altaf Mazid’s egalitarianism as the theoretical framework to examine the women characters in Munin Barua’s films. The select films were analysed using Braun and Clarke's provided steps, leading to the identification of themes that revolved around women. The findings of the study reveal that women in Barua's films are frequently presented as mere plot devices, conforming to traditional gender roles. The select films of Barua also exhibit an underlying inclination towards portraying women in an egalitarian manner.

The First World War and Ford Madox Ford’s Short Stories, 1914–1920

This article analyses together, for the first time, Ford Madox Ford’s short stories about the First World War. A surprisingly unfamiliar form for Ford, who valued allusion, subtlety, and omission as narrative devices, we see in these stories his first attempts to parse his experience of wartime and, subsequently, military service. It is also an aspect of Ford’s writing which has received little previous critical comment. The wartime and post-war short stories are approached chronologically: ‘The Scaremonger: A Tale of the War Times’ (1914), ‘Fun!—It’s Heaven’ (1915), ‘Pink Flannel’ (1919), ‘The Colonel’s Shoes’ (1920), ‘Enigma’ ([1920–1922] 1999), and ‘The Miracle’ (1928). The contemporary debates in which Ford intervened are highlighted by returning to their original periodical publications, and extensive reference to a range of his non-fictional periodical contributions establishes new connections among his wartime writing. Here I bring together for the first time these short stories, arguing that Ford’s refracting of the war through the lens of his impressionism is distinctive as an early response to war, trauma, and neurosis and is vital to the genesis of his later successes in prose, notably the Parade’s End novel tetralogy (1924–1928).

The Becoming-Greek Tragedy of Julian Barnes's Love, etc

Abstract Deleuze and Guattari's becoming is a dynamic alliance with beings. It is not a monad but creative involution. The incorporeal becoming deterritorialises the beings and roams nomadically between them. It has no subject or object, nor does it have centre or periphery; it is a becoming-in-itself. This article analyses the differences between Nietzsche's becoming and that of Deleuze and Guattari. It also summarises the three attributes of a becoming, which is solipsistic, revolutionary and always in-between. Julian Barnes's novel Love, etc exclusively utilises monologues as the narrative device which, along with its minimal personae, penetrating conflict and unsettling ending, prompts a becoming-Greek tragedy similar to Antigone. The becoming-Greek tragedy is not a simple average of the two beings; rather, it is a heterogeneous, molecular interbeing.

The Danger of a Single Story of Women: Challenging Perpetrator-Dominated Discourse through Internal Focalization and Polyvocality in Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun

ABSTRACT: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2006 novel, Half of a Yellow Sun , utilizes a nonchronological, polyvocal narrative structure to depict a group of people's lives before and during the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-70. Throughout its structure, the novel centers questions of authorial rights and suitability, as it through its internal metatext, "The World Was Silent When We Died," problematizes who authors stories of Biafra. Through a narratological investigation of the novel's implementation of polyvocality and internal focalization, I argue Half of a Yellow Sun refuses to provide an easily accepted authorial choice that atones Ugwu of his participation in rape. Instead, the narrative devices expose his projection toward sexual assault and reveal his misogyny toward women. The novel simultaneously condemns and accentuates the harming effects of male-dominated discourse where perpetrators control the narrative and exclude and/or skew the experiences of women victims of sexual assault as it calls for a diversity of voices.

Rousseau’s lawgiver as teacher of peoples: Investigating the educational preconditions of the social contract

This paper argues that Rousseau’s lawgiver is best thought of as a fictional teacher of peoples. It is fictional as it reflects an idea that is entertained despite its contradictory nature, and it is contradictory in the sense that it describes ‘an undertaking beyond human strength and, to execute it, an authority that amounts to nothing’ (II.7; 192). Rousseau conceives of the social contract as a necessary device for enabling the transferal of individual power to the body politic, for subsuming individual wills under the general will, and for aligning the good of the individual with the common good. For the social contract to be valid, however, it needs to be preceded by a desire to belong to a moral community that can induce people to join willingly, and that will grant legitimacy to the laws established. If the social contract is the machinery that makes the body politic function, the lawgiver is ‘the mechanic who invents the machine’ (II.7; 191). In this paper we will look closer at the pedagogical functions of Rousseau’s mythical lawgiver by first examining the relationship between the social contract, the general will and the lawgiver. Then, we aim to flesh out a pedagogical understanding of the figure of the lawgiver by way of the two educational dimensions of accommodation and transformation. Finally, we will argue for the importance of understanding Rousseau’s lawgiver as a fictional device allowing for the fundamental and enduring educational task of balancing between the preservation and renewal of society.

Exploring Narrative Techniques in Chetan Bhagat’s The Three Mistakes of My Life: A Critical Analysis

Chetan Bhagat's novel, The Three Mistakes of My Life, has garnered significant attention for its narrative intricacies and thematic depth. This paper delves into an in-depth examination of the narrative techniques employed by Bhagat in crafting this compelling story. Through a critical analysis, this study explores the use of various narrative devices such as point of view, plot structure, character development, and thematic elements. By scrutinizing these techniques, this paper uncovers the underlying narrative strategies that contribute to the novel's overall impact and resonance with readers. Furthermore, this analysis offers insights into the broader literary significance of Bhagat's work within the contemporary Indian literary landscape. Additionally, this paper seeks to investigate into the thematic depth of the novel, exploring its portrayal of societal issues, cultural dynamics, and individual struggles. This study promises to provide readers with a thorough understanding of Bhagat’s narrative craftmanship and the enduring relevance of his storytelling within both literary and societal contexts. Through this analysis, readers will gain insights into the novel’s thematic complexities and its reflection of contemporary Indian realities.

Consumer wearables and personal devices for tracking the fertile window

The market for technology that tracks ovulation to promote conception is rapidly expanding in the United States, targeting the growing audience of technologically proficient, reproductive-age female consumers. In this narrative review, twenty-three different, non-prescription wearables and devices designed to help women track their fertile window were identified as currently, commercially available in the United States. The majority of these utilize measurements of basal body temperature or combinations of various urinary hormones. This clinical opinion characterizes the scant available research validating the accuracy of these technologies. It further examines research oversight, discusses the utility of these wearables and devices to consumers, and considers these technologies through an equity lens. The discussion concludes with a call for innovation, describing promising new technologies that not only harness unique physiologic parameters to predict ovulation, but also focus on cost-effectiveness with the hope of increasing access to these currently costly devices and wearables.

Hiding Away The Ghost of AMITY: The Narrator’s Fake Endings as Screen Memories in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song (2010)

Although studies on trauma have grown exponentially since 1990s with Trauma Studies, in different shapes and identities, trauma has been a part of personal and cultural space for much longer. After the formal recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder as an ailment that affects both the body and the mind, Trauma Studies has expanded to other fields of study including literature. Trauma studies in Literature is a movement that focuses on how trauma is handled in literature both thematically and functionally. Literature can play a performative role in its representation of trauma through literary and narrative devices. This essay aims to explore how Andre Levy imitates the effect of screen memories, which are a symptom of trauma, with her experimentation with metanarration in The Long Song (2010). Screen memories are essentially substitute memories which replace the traumatic events in memory. They are attempts of self-preservation of the mind. Levy’s narrator July tries to replace some traumatic parts of her life in her autobiographical story in order save herself the pain of reliving them through narration. This results in abrupt and unexpected endings to her story at two different parts of the novel, where she tries to break off the narration with a seemingly happy ending. However, her disputes with her son, Thomas, prove that there is more to the story as she picks the story back up only to reveal an increasingly painful and traumatic proceeding. Therefore, this makes her attempts to end the story prematurely screen memories that hide the traumatic truth, not from the reader, but from July herself through a self-imposed alienation from her previous life as a slave in a Jamaica sugar plantation.

Listening to / in Public Space

As an artist working often with audio walks I often have the nagging thought: does using headphones to present sound in public space immerse the listener in a bubble, separating them from their surroundings? This research looks at the form of the audio walk and the possibilities of using binaural recording, narrative devices and locative media to prioritise engagement with the environment. In addition it documents the re-activation of an older work of mine in a app using geo-location and it collects documentation of a number of walk-pieces including scripts, audio files, maps and other background information. Lectorate Music, Education and Society, Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag. 2023-24

Diminishing the Authorial Footprint: Objects and Texts of Reuse and Refuse in Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds

Starting from Myles’ playful advertisement of book-handling services, the paper explores O’Brien’s/Myles’ systematic recycling, rewriting and inscribing of modernist texts and narrative devices, imbricated with the featuring of second-hand and repurposed objects. I argue for a provocative self-positioning of Flann’s/Myles’ texts and their recasting of modernist authorship and the authority of the author in the context of the increasing relevance, and ever faster obsolescence, of commodity culture in the first half of the twentieth century. The collage/assemblage of texts belonging to different genres, ages, languages and aesthetics is situated at the interface between Handlung with its corollary, the ethos of productivity, and handling, reuse and repurposing, at an ironic angle to the modernist slogan, “make it new”.

Provincializing Island Poetics: The Personal as the Spatial in N S Madhavan’s Litanies of Dutch Battery

Affect towards islands is a unique approach to engage with in discussions of the phenomenology of fictional islands. This affect complements the already identified tropes within island poetics: those of sensorial exploration, spatial practices, and textural detailing of islands. This article turns to a work of fiction about a fictional island based on the island city of Kochi in south India to unpack an alternative aesthetic of spatiality, the kind that changes the personal/political relationship to personal/spatial one. We argue that the novel, Litanies of Dutch Battery (the novel in question) by N.S. Madhavan, expands inquiries into phenomenology of fictional islands by making space for corporeal memory and collective memory in storytelling. These memory-oriented narrative devices, we suggest, “provincialize” island poetics to add a hermeneutic of postcolonial angst to the repertoire of formal features of literary islandness.

Historic British Royal Memes

Historic British Royal Memes

Unearthing the art of storytelling: A closer look at Sir Arther Canon Doyle’s B24

Narratives play a crucial role in our understanding of the world, identity formation, empathy building and imparting moral lessons. The purpose of the study is to evaluate how Doyle uses Labov's model focusing on the narrative's elements. The intricacy of the story is revealed by the qualitative methodology which highlights Doyle's skill for writing captivating stories with vivid settings and multifaceted characters such as lady Mannering and even minor characters like the innkeeper. This study analyzes the structural and linguistic elements in Doyle’s “B24” using Labov’s sociolinguistic model. The central conflict revolves around the burglar's struggles and lady Mannering’s quest for freedom but the resolution remains uncertain, reflecting the complexities of truth and deception. Doyle uses narrative devices, literary techniques, grammatical elements and precise language to convey a moral lesson about trusting strangers and the importance of caution. These elements contribute to constructing a compelling narrative that captivates readers and heightens suspense. Future research could include a comparative analysis of Doyle’s works from the same era exploring the impact of structural and linguistic differences on reader interpretation, investigating the function of narratives and comparing narrative elements across different adventure stories. Labov’s model could also be applied to analyzing narrative poems and short films. This study is pertinent for people in the field of literature, teachers and authors who aim to improve their understanding of narrative techniques.

The Unconscious as Cinematographic Form: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Inception

Freud’s “unconscious,” a lauded seminal psychological contribution, has transitioned into an efficacious narrative device in cinema, evolving into a paradigmatic relationship. This article scrutinizes Inception (2010), a quintessential psychoanalytical film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It explicates the director’s linkage to psychoanalysis and reveals how he demystifies the unconscious through its utilization both as a cinematic form and thematic device, manifested in discernible dream layers. It is ascertained that these layers perform a bifunctional role as cinematic and narrative elements. Intriguingly, this multifaceted structure extends to character development as well, exploiting the complexities of the characters’ pathologies. Since the filmic structure leverages the pathologies exhibited by the characters, they constitute secondary data for the analysis. The pathologies are aligned with the mental disorder classifications the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TRTM) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Pertinent character data are analysed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings, subsequently subjected to psychoanalytic film analysis, enrich a deeper understanding and fuller appreciation of the representation of the unconscious in the cinematic domain.

Analysis of Lighting Arrangement in the Film "Buried" (2010) by Director Rodrigo Cortez

This study examines the use of innovative lighting in Rodrigo Cortez's film "Buried," focusing on its impact on narrative storytelling within a single-location setting. The limited lighting arrangement is key to the film's uniqueness, effectively portraying narrative tension and the protagonist's psychological journey in a creative and technical manner. Using a qualitative approach, the research analyzes each shot to identify key lighting transitions and thematic motifs. It dissects the film's visual strategies, particularly how Cortez manipulates light to convey the protagonist's psychological state and the passage of time in a confined space. The study aims to understand the effects of lighting arrangement on the film's visual mood and its implications for contemporary cinematography, as well as the psychological effects of lighting in film on viewers' perception and emotions. It also seeks to enhance the experience of claustrophobia using lighting as a narrative device to complement the tense atmosphere in the film's scenes. The results contribute to a broader discourse on cinematography's role in shaping film narrative structures, especially in creating deep visual narratives without relying on extensive settings or special effects. This analysis provides insights into the effectiveness of minimalist lighting in low-budget film making with high constraints.

Making Saints, Making Selves: Narrative, Rhetoric, and Agency in the Diocesan Inquest into Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1414–1415)

AbstractDrawing on the witness statements compiled as part of the fifteenth-century diocesan inquest petitioning for the canonization of Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1331–1414), a French holy woman and mystic, this paper argues that the inquisitorial process of saint-making offered an opportunity for deponents to make use of authoritative legal spaces for their own social and religious ends, and that through their use of rhetorical and narrative devices, deponents could use this contact with institutional mechanisms to perform acts of self-construction and self-authorization, over and above the formal requirements of the process. Through an examination the statements of two witnesses – one a canon of the Basilica of St Martin, and the other a bourgeoise laywoman – this paper illustrates that deponents could make use of a wide range of narrative strategies, from deploying the evidence of gossip to negotiate their own social position, to rhetorically crafting their own experiences in order to comment on and establish their own piety and devotion. The use of these strategies highlights the complexity of the interaction between individuals and institutions, and the multiple possibilities that were enabled by engagement with the machinery of the cult of saints.