Post-structural View Research Articles

Iconicity and Deconstruction: the Prose by Vladimir Nabokov and the 20<sup>th </sup> Century Post-Modernist Philosophy

Introduction. This research aims at analyzing the novel by Vladimir Nabokov Transparent Things (1972) from the perspective of post-modernist philosophy. By post-modernist philosophy I mean the post-structural view of the sign theory, that focuses on iconicity, symbolic and iconic nature of the sign, the сoncept of deconstruction, the concept of rhizome, the concept of silence, the concept of différance (as stated by Derrida), the concept of difference and repetition introduced by G. Deleuze. This philosophy is linked to a more general view expressed, for instance, by Derrida (in his work the Gift of Death (Donner la mort)). The main innovative element of this research, therefore, is to study the prose by Nabokov as an example of post-modernist writing simultaneously applying the views and concepts introduced by cognitive linguistics, literary critics and post-modern writers like J. Derrida, U. Eco, R. Barthes.Methodology and sources. The research method used is semantic and structural analysis of the novel by Nabokov Transparent Things. Its main tool is the use of ideas introduced by French poststructuralists regarding the theory of sign, the symbolic nature of language, study of multiple meanings generated by a word in the process of its use and decoding.Results and discussion. The results of this research allow to outline main tendencies in the development of the 20th century narrative. It adheres to the general law of multi-level structure of the novel, play of words and sounds, which corresponds to the general view of difference (as coined by Derrida), deconstruction, rhizome, iconicity of sign. The rhizomorphic structure of the novel at the same time is mirror-like, which allows to apply the difference-repetition dichotomy put forward by G. Deleuze. If the micro-structure of Nabokov’s texts allows to make generalization about the author’s use of language, its macro-structure reveals deeper philosophical notions, implying that the death of the character in the novel leads to the study of the transcendental, or ”the Other” in psychoanalytical terms, thus putting the plot on a different scale of values. The view of language and its structure in its relation to the notion of transparency, allows to see the sign in a Heideggerian way, as bearing the replica of the world, having more in itself about the world, than anything else.Conclusion. The novel Transparent Things by Nabokov falls into the category of similar novels in which the author develops symbolic language and explores its potential, following the general pattern and establishing the rules of narrative construction in postmodern tradition.

Neformaliojo ugdymo ribos: poststruktūralizmo perspektyva

[straipsnis lietuvių kalba; santrauka ir reikšminiai žodžiai anglų kalba]
 Šiuo straipsniu siekiama spręsti nepakankamą teorinį neformaliojo ugdymo ir jo kaitos procesų pagrindimą ir pasiūlyti į neformaliojo ugdymo reiškinį pažvelgti iš poststruktūralizmo perspektyvos. Atliekant literatūros analizę ir pasitelkiant prancūzų poststruktūralistų Michel’io Foucault, Gilles’o Deleuze’o ir Felix’o Guattari pasiūlytus konceptus, aprašomi ir analizuojami neformaliojo ugdymo lauke vykstantys procesai, apimantys politinius sprendimus, esamas praktikas, ugdytojų veiklą, ugdytinių elgesį.

Narrating career, positioning identity and constructing gender in an Italian adolescent's personal narratives

This article explores identity career narratives as a gendered and gendering discourse. The ‘gender differences’ approach to career development conceives of gender as a dichotomous and fixed variable influencing various aspects of career. In contrast to this mainstream approach, the paper adopts a post-structural view and reads identity and gender in terms of performativity, that is to say, constituted through the productive power of discourses. Through a detailed analysis of a text written by Giada, an adolescent involved in a career counseling project in Italy, we analyze how her career narratives implicate and constitute gender in their telling. In particular, we present the discourses that frame Giada's career narrative and we highlight how these discourses position Giada as a woman and as female. These discourses can be read as regulatory discourses: shaping and reflecting particular understandings of gender. However, we also highlight Giada's agency in questioning the regulatory practice of such discourses through linguistic acts. In the conclusions, we further explore the potential implications of these research findings for a rethinking of career counseling research and practice.

The Theoretical and Research Basis of Co-Constructing Meaning in Dialogue

de Shazer (1991) introduced a post-structural view of language in therapy in which the participants' sociai interaction determines the meaning of the words they are using. Broader theories of social construction are similar but lack details about the role of language. This article focuses on the observable details of co-constructing meaning in dialogue. Research in psycholinguistics has provided experimental ev­idence for how speakers and their addressees collaboratively co-construct their dialogues. We review several of the experiments that have demonstrated the in­fluence and importance of the addressee in shaping what the speaker is saying. Building on this research, we present a moment-by-moment three-step grounding sequence in which the speaker presents information, the addressee displays un­derstanding, and the speaker confirms this understanding. We propose that this micro-pattern and its variations are the observable process by which the partici­pants in a dialogue negotiate and co-construct shared meanings.

The advance of poststructuralism and its influence on family therapy.

Postmodernism began to influence family therapy very early in the 1980s with articles referencing postmodern ideas, focusing on meaning and multiplicity. With the appearance of narrative therapy on the scene in the 1990s there was a shift toward poststructural thinking, which refined the movement and politicized the clinical work. Even with a bit of a backlash, whether because this was a new idea or it somehow threatened a positivistic culture, a poststructural view has continued to have effects on family therapy. This article explores the variety of influences: the expansion of narrative ideas, the innovation of Madsen's collaborative helping, and also more nuanced effects. I argue that a poststructural view has effectively changed how many family therapists think and may also be subtly influencing how they might work.

Evoking emotions and unpacking layered histories through young children’s illustrations of racial bus segregation

Drawing on theories of multi-modality and critical visual literacy, this article focuses on images that five-and six year-olds painted in a class-made book, Voice on the Bus, about racial segregation. The article discusses how children used illustrations to convey their understandings of Rosa Parks’ bus arrest in Alabama. A post-structural view focusing on images that five- and six year-olds painted in a class-made book, Voices on the Bus, about racial segregation, the article discusses how children used illustrations to convey their understanding of Rosa Parks’ bus arrest in Alabama. A post-structural (Kind, 2010) idea of art as an encounter, not as a fixed representation, shaped how the images were experienced for analysis. Using the notion of synaesthesia (the joining of senses), paintings were analysed for evoked emotions and blended sensations ( Berman, 1999 ; Boston, 2001 ). Additional analysis focused on sedimented meanings (Rowsell and Pahl, 2007), looking for traces from curricular conversations and local/global D/discourses about segregation, schooling experiences and religious undertones (Gee, 1996). The following analytical questions are discussed: In what ways does this illustration evoke a synaesthetic response? How is this image agentic? What are the sedimented meanings from the images? Insights gained are that children can create synaesthetic images to evoke emotions; educators can find traces of sedimented histories in student-made artefacts; and perhaps social action is embodied and expressed through art. Researchers are encouraged to continue using a hybrid of literacy theories and tools for multi-modal analysis.

Navigating the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project: A Postmodern Ethnographic Approach to Collaborative Intercultural Theatre

This paper considers critical approaches to collaborative intercultural theatre using the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project (PTMTP) as an instrumental case study. It begins by contrasting orderly and coherent accounts of intercultural theatre with the more messy and confusing experiences of it. Taking a poststructural view of culture, this paper suggests that postmodern ethnography is well suited to access the experiential dimension of theatre work,making it a valuable addition to existing semiotic strategies and models. Looking at the kinds of insight offered by semiotic and ethnographic approaches, the author discusses a particular scene fromthe PTMTP, first suggesting how itmay have appeared to its audience in public performance and then analyzing how it was experienced and interpreted in development and performance by both himself and several of its creators. Though postmodern ethnography has its practical limitations, it is hoped that its application in this context sheds light on the meanings made available to particular critical approaches.

Notes on writing subjects of action research

In this article, the author playfully represents his role as reader and interpreter of an article sent to him for review by editors of the journal Educational Action Research. By representing the specificity of his reader responses, the author shows how literacy practices function to create the identities of readers and writers. It is argued that a post-structural view of reading and interpretation helps those engaged in action research projects to understand that knowledge and identities are co–specified. Reports of action research, then, are not merely reports of what is learned through shared inquiry; they also reveal traces of how the subjects involved in action research are affected by their work.

Journal Writing and Learning: Reading between the structural, holistic, and post-structural lines

This paper explores the use of journal writing for providing adults with the opportunity of reflecting on their learning. The article examines the author's own experiences teaching students on an undergraduate part-time degree evening course where journal writing was an important component. Three understandings of journal writing are compared using examples from students' journal entries. They are characterised as structural, holistic, and post-structural positions, respectively. Structural approaches to journal writing claim benefits in enabling the learner to manage her/his own subjectivity with a view to finding an “objective truth”. An holistic approach, while “useful”, attempts to synthesise multiple ways of knowing and presents a false sense of completion and inclusion. The post-structural view positions the learner intertextually in a processual learning context where the text the student writes is driven by other discourses. Here, the student/journal writer is constituted by discourse but not necessarily determined by it because the strategies of reflexivity and deconstruction are available. This last position draws on the sociology of interpretative biography and narrative theory. The implications for assessment and the ethical dimensions of privacy and disclosure of student journals are examined also.