Fiction Set Research Articles

Spatial Dynamics in African Literature: Analyzing Rural and Urban Representations in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts

This paper explores the interplay between colonial and postcolonial spatial dynamics in African literature, focusing on both urban and rural landscapes. It investigates how Anglophone and Francophone African writers portray the intersection of historical and fictional settings, highlighting the influence of colonialism on African topography. By analyzing literary depictions of traditional versus dominant cultures, the study assesses the enduring colonial impact on African landscapes and its reflection in modern and contemporary sub-Saharan fiction.

Awe Inducing Elements in Virtual Reality Applications: A Prospective Study of Hospitalized Children and Caregivers.

Background: Hospitalized pediatric patients and their caregivers often experience anxiety and fear, resulting in withdrawal and aggression. Despite virtual reality (VR) being a safe and effective anxiolytic, it is unknown what software design aspects contribute to its effectiveness. This prospective observational study evaluated which VR application elements increased awe, which is correlated with improved behavior and satisfaction. Methods: Patients aged 6 to 25 years and their caregivers at an academic pediatric hospital interacted with a custom VR application that compared design aspects, including environment, graphics fidelity, and presence of a motivational character. Outcomes investigated self-reported awe, vastness, accommodation, and engagement. Data were analyzed using repeated measure ANOVA tests and correlation analyses. Results: A total of 202 participants were enrolled, and 179 (88 pediatric patients, 91 adult caregivers) were included in the final analysis. A fictional environment was more effective at increasing awe in pediatric patients (P = 0.030) compared with a realistic environment. However, increased graphics fidelity was more effective at increasing awe in caregiver adults (P = 0.023) compared with low resolution graphics. Presence of a motivational character did not influence awe in either patients or caregivers (P = 0.432, P = 0.904, respectively). All measures of awe were positively correlated with application engagement (P < 0.005). Conclusion: In conclusion, when software developers design VR software for pediatric patients and their caregivers, fictional settings and increased graphic fidelity should be considered for pediatric patients and adults, respectively. Future studies will explore other VR elements in gameplay settings.

The Impact of Comparative Moral Superiority on Protagonist Appeal

Four studies examine the appeal of protagonists who are sometimes immoral in real-world (Studies 1 &amp; 2) and fictional (Studies 3 &amp; 4) settings. In both, character appeal is influenced by the combination of moral/immoral behaviors a protagonist performs and their moral/immoral behavior relative to another person’s (i.e., their moral superiority/inferiority). Additionally, Study 2 examines the effect of character behavior (moral/immoral vs. highly self-beneficial) on appeal, finding that if two protagonists are equally immoral, one who elsewise behaves morally at times is more appealing than one who is elsewise self-beneficial. Studies 3 and 4 replicate these findings using a fictional drama and fantasy premise instead of a real-world setting. Findings suggest the effect of characters’ immoral behavior on appeal varies based on the moral behavior of comparison characters regardless of the setting’s fictionality. Discussion considers whether moral superiority alters the likelihood that audiences will emulate an imperfect hero’s immoral actions.

Screenings from the archive: Nelisita (1982), an African vernacular‐language fiction set in rural southern Angola and its illuminating cinematic chain

AbstractNelisita (Carvalho, 1982, Nelisita: narrativas nianeka), a pioneering African vernacular‐language fiction film from the early phase of Angolan cinema, inspired me to conduct a series of interconnected exercises in visual anthropology. I produced an experimental archive‐based remake (Ponte, 2016, 127 stills or 34 scenes from Nelisita) and screened it in both transnational urban contexts and an Angolan rural context reminiscent of the film's setting. This article discusses the multi‐sited chain of production and reception of this short archival remake and various localized contemporary responses to it. The article examines an evolving concern with the materiality of the archive and how both foreign urban and familiar rural audiences received the film's narrative and change of genre.

An Arab Predecessor to Western (Trans-)Secular Thought: The European Enlightenment’s Encounters with Ibn Ṭufayl and the Islamic Enlightenment

ABSTRACT This paper challenges the supposed geopolitics of Enlightenment secularism in a case study on the European Enlightenment’s reception of Ibn Ṭufayl’s classical work, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (Alive, Son of Awake). It demonstrates how, by appropriating the tropes, literary techniques, and fictional setting of the Islamic “original,” Christian (Protestant) culture began unknowingly inventing its own patterns of secular thought. It argues then that to the pantheistic Enlightenment’s transsecular approach this tale, allegorically depicting Islamic philosophy’s (falsafa) independence from religious orthodoxy and its perfection in mystical wisdom (tasawwuf), offered both a conception of truth and of the Orient that might have felt very familiar.

Cameron’s Advocacy for Bio-Centric World-View in Avatar

This article attempts to examine James Cameron’s movie, Avatar (2009) from the lens of eco-criticism. In particular, the article attempts to examine how Cameron advocates for the necessity of maintaining environmental ethics for nature conservation along with his critique of anthropocentrism throughout the movie. The movie presents a bleak future (mid-22ndCentury) condition of the earth having all the natural resources as already consumed up. With the help of technology, people, however, make their access to the Pandora, a fictional setting which is presented as the home of the Na’vi, and start exploiting natural resources mercilessly destroying their home-tree. To examine Cameron’s advocacy of environmental ethics in the movie, the research incorporates the philosophical ideas from eco-critical theory, especially incorporating theoretical insights from Edward O. Wilson’s “The Environmental Ethic” along with the ideas of other thinkers in the same line of argument. This study is significant as it shows how a literary work like a movie can make advocacy for environmental ethics and critiques anthropocentric hubris that jeopardizes the earth ultimately that Cameron makes through the portrayal of a nature-loving protagonist, Jake Sully. This article, ultimately justifies Avataras an epic movie alerting the humanity of the possibility of the bleak future in the world as a result of Anthropocene, and appeals for the urgency of maintaining environmental ethics to avoid the danger.

Silent Sites of Memory in Paule Marshall’s "The Chosen Place, The Timeless People"

As the title of the book suggests, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969) is place-focused; it is indeed a narrative of place and its people. The main fictional setting is a fictive Caribbean island, which acts as an essential locale in the protagonists’ act of (re)memory and (com)memoration. An emotionally charged place, this apparently insignificant island acquires a majestic stature in the book; it is space and place, home and exile, paradise and purgatory, past and present, remembrance and forgetfulness. This paper focuses on specific sites which are emblematic of the island community, given the complex role they play in the restoration of memory and identity. Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire will be used here with an understanding that, in a Caribbean setting, places record the monumentality of loss caused by colonialism and its aftermath. The cane field and Sugar’s bar are places where the past lives, bearing constant proof of terrifying colonial abuse. Other locales, however, mainly dwellings and gardens, will be identified and examined as a solution to the protagonists’ exile. The paper aims to demonstrate that all these locales are the essence of the island or, to paraphrase Derek Walcott, they are the genuine fresco, map-less, history-less yet quintessential for the ‘persistence of memory.’

Kane and Abel

Should you take an attacker’s life to save an innocent person? What if the innocent person doesn’t want you to? In this work of philosophical short story fiction set in the Old West, a law man is put on a train as backup to protect a safe full of money heading west. While on the train, he meets a preacher and his wife headed to the same town. Mid-trip the local gang springs into action, starts shooting up the train, and going after the safe. One of the younger of the gang panics and grabs the preacher’s wife and puts a gun to her head as a hostage. The lawman knows he has a clean shot and can drop the man, but the preacher pleads against taking the life of another, even in defense of his wife. The young man panics, kills the wife, and spreads her blood all over the preacher’s face, before being apprehend. The lawman is disappointed, but the preacher goes to speak (unsuccessfully) at the criminal’s sentencing and asks the court to spare his life.

Budapester Topografien in den Romanen von Richard Wagner, Cătălin Dorian Florescu und Peter Rosenthal

Abstract This article traces patterns of engaging with Budapest‘s topographies in the auto-fictional works by Richard Wagner, Cătălin Dorian Florescu und Peter Rosenthal. Through a dialogical reading of their novels, the article highlights the links and overlaps between the genre of autofiction and space. The article argues that through mapping fictional settings and routes on a real map of Budapest, one may explore the intersection of literature and geography and the ways in which space influences the movement and behavior of the characters.

Malaise: a journey through the Gothic fictions of Daniela Edburg

This article examines how Mexican artist Daniela Edburg has been using Gothic idioms to raise awareness of both personal and environmental ailments. For over two decades, Edburg has combined digital photography and textiles to create fictional settings in which women are depicted in domestic spaces or natural landscapes in bizarre situations. Some of her characters are attacked by monsters, while others appear in a state of escapism, and many have encounters with death or disease. In this paper, I examine the connections between Edburg’s art and Gothic tropes including the uncanny, the return of the dead, madness and disease, intrusions into domestic space, the clash of old and new, and the yearning for reconnection with nature. The text begins with an analysis of her most recent project, Malaise, which alludes to Frankenstein and crystallizes core concerns that have persisted throughout her career. Later, I examine prior series by the artist to demonstrate how gothic traits have always been present in Edburg’s work. Using a gothic style, the artist has constantly reflected on how humans relate to the natural world through the artificial, as well as the consequences of this attitude toward life, which has led us to a dystopian future.

Representasi pustakawan dalam The Librarian Season 1

Introduction. The success and acceptance of the community towards The Librarian Season 1, comic indirectly show an interest in the librarian profession. Although the library and librarian described in the Librarian Season 1 are fictional settings, the values in the world of librarianship cannot be ignored. This study aims to examine the representation of librarians in The Librarian Season 1 comic.&#x0D; Research Methods. The method used was qualitative. Collecting data was conducted by document study by exploring the website? &#x0D; Data Analysis. This paper used Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis focusing on the denotative, connotative, and myth levels.&#x0D; Results and Discussion. In the comic The Librarian Season 1, there are 13 episodes out of a total of 15 episodes that have librarian representation scenes based on ideal characters in the Basic Framework for Indonesian Librarianship (KDKI). &#x0D; Conclusion and Suggestions. Miche is a representation of the ideal character of a librarian based on KDKI. Therefore, the paper suggests that comic artists are considered to reproduce story ideas about librarians in comics, content, or other pop culture products. Librarian representation in the comic The Librarian Season 1 can be an alternative educational media for both prospective librarians and public.

Compound and ambiguous meanings in Danish cross-dressing comedies

Focusing on two Danish cross-dressing comedies, Min Kone er Husar! (‘My wife is a hussar!’) (1935) and Solstik (‘Sunstroke’) (1953), the article investigates various strategies for playing with and challenging sexual identity and gender to create compound and ambiguous meanings. In view of the comedy genre’s self-conscious openness to performance and intertextuality, the meaning of the main character’s cross-dressing on a plot level may be modified or contradicted by the actor’s star persona. That supporting characters may be transgressive in their own right points to the pervasiveness of sexuality and gender play in cross-dressing comedies. Fictional settings underscore this perception; they are not mere backdrops, but seem to actively invite identity play and rule bending.

'It's scary starting a new school': Children and young people's perspectives on wellbeing support during educational transitions.

Children and young people experience various transitions throughout their education. Theory and evidence highlight that these can be complex, and poor experiences of transitions can be associated with worsened outcomes, necessitating a need to develop and implement wellbeing support. However, children and young people's views are lacking in the literature, and studies tend to focus on specific transitions rather than on what matters for wellbeing during transitions generally. We explore children and young people's own perceptions of what would support wellbeing during educational transitions. We engaged with 49 children and young people aged 6-17 years, using purposeful maximum variation sampling to facilitate engagement of a diverse sample across a variety of education setting types. We undertook focus groups, using creative methods centred around a storybook, asking participants to make decisions as headteachers about wellbeing provision in a fictional setting. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We constructed four themes: (1) helping children and young people understand what to expect; (2) developing and sustaining relationships and support; (3) being responsive to individual needs and vulnerabilities; and (4) managing loss and providing a sense of closure. Our analysis highlights a desire among children and young people for a considered, supportive approach that recognizes their individual needs and their connection to educational communities. The study makes a methodological and conceptual contribution, demonstrating the value of adopting a multifocussed lens to researching and supporting transitions.

‘I’ve never seen so many men wasted so badly’: On Francoist Mass Graves and a Film Set Cemetery

This article compares the reception of Sad Hill Cemetery, a fictional setting from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by Sergio Leone, and the reality of the mass graves from the Spanish Civil War. The Western was mainly filmed in Spain during General Franco's dictatorship. It is set during the American Civil War (1861–1865). This article looks at the different forms of memory politics in both cases in Spain today. Drawing on Roland Barthes’ concept of myth, the discussion also refers to current conflicts in modern Spanish society.

Nature as a symbiotic edge of humanity: eco-critical reading of Armah’s The Healers

In his historical novel, The Healers, Ayi Kwei Armah correlates elements of the fictional settings of Esuano and the Eastern Forest, with different phases of social communication. The binary settings and their elements mirror the symbiotic character of the relationship that ought to exist between humans and nature. Armah employs symbolic, temporal and cultural codes reflective of African tradition and indigenous values through natural representation in the text as communicative properties. Eco-critical theory guides this study to explore the relationship that exists between humans and the natural world. Principles from eco-criticism are explored with a focus on Armah’s creation of groups in the Eastern Forest and rivers as emblems of the divine with particular powers, in contrast to what Esuano represents to these groups. In this novel, Esuano is associated with manipulation, while the Eastern Forest is the site for inspiration and healing.

Class as Collective Representation: Lessons from Wagner and Bayreuth on the Discrete Harms of the Bourgeoisie

The cultural turn has yet to fully reconfigure ‘class’ as a set of fictions, tropes, discourses and enduring culture-structures. Existing Durkheimian approaches have stalled at his middle period morphological reductionism. This paper constructs a more radical understanding in the late-Durkheimian idiom. It shows how class operates as a signifier in a language game of purity and pollution, virtue and vice. Taking a lead from studies of the ‘unruly’ working class, the paper opens up the more subtle pollution that attends to the mythical ‘bourgeoisie’ and its associated and imagined ‘bourgeois’ culture. As a sign system this class location is deemed inauthentic, sybaritic, and as strangely deadening to cultural vitality. Although commonly found in contexts of gentrification and commodification that involve class conflict, this critical discourse is also applied within the bourgeois milieu. Such needless auto-critique suggests a relative autonomy from determination by class struggle. The possibilities for this approach are illustrated at length with reference to a paradigm case: the highly bourgeois milieu of the composer Richard Wagner and his Bayreuth Festival.

Writing popular music fiction

A recent short story I completed in a style area described as popular music fiction, using fiction to critically explore issues within popular music and communicate these to a wider audience, will be the main focus of this article. The ideas behind the short story and the incorporation of research and subject areas to create a fictional setting, especially intersections with otherness, diversity, resistance, technology, creative practice, business and the future, will be discussed. Key central themes were those relating to race, including lack of presence and attribution and concerns about AI, especially concerning how data is acquired to model music made by current music practitioners. The main character of the story is an AI and is used to foreground these concerns, the nature of musical work, its creation, transmission and consumption.

Fantasies of home: “Heimat” in E. T. A. Hoffmann'sHaimatochare

AbstractE. T. A. Hoffmann'sHaimatochare, an epistolary fiction set in Hawaii, defamiliarizes the narrative of an erotic colonial fantasy by coaxing the reader into the assumption that its alluring central figure is an Indigenous woman and then revealing her to be an insect. This article studies the dynamics of misapprehension within the text, beginning with Walter Benjamin's misreading of its title as “Heimatochare,” a mistake that has proved strangely persistent in the critical literature. By readingHaimatocharealongsideDer Sandmann, the article shows howHaimatochareintroduces a web of “Heimat”‐related terms that both solicit the misreading and indicate the insect's identity such that the central revelation is already partially intuited and thus takes on an uncanny aspect. Furthermore, in making “Heimat” present across the narrative and then destabilizing it, the text unfolds an experience of “Heimweh,” where home is both fantasy and sickness at once.

A Novel Research Tool for Studying Human Associative Learning: Role‐Playing Game Tasks1,2

AbstractA role‐playing game (RPG) is a video game genre in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. This study examined the possibility of applying an RPG task to human associative learning. Specifically, it examined latent inhibition and context‐specific latent inhibition using the RPG task. In the RPG task, the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli were a monster and a treasure obtained battling the monster, respectively. Conditioning was conducted by presenting a treasure after a battle. The experimental context was the location where the battle occurred. Participants were asked to make judgments about the extent to which each monster they encountered would likely have a treasure. Prior to conditioning, a treatment of not obtaining a treasure after a battle would make it unlikely to expect the monster to have a treasure, even if it was received after a subsequent battle (i.e., latent inhibition). Furthermore, when the battle location was changed, the latent inhibition disappeared (i.e., context‐specific latent inhibition). These observed phenomena suggested that the RPG task may be employed as a tool to extend research regarding human associative learning.

Externalities

What are positive externalities, and what role does someone have to provide a person, not with what they want, but what they need? In this work of philosophical short fiction set in the Middle Ages, a traveling wise man and his apprentice come to town. The local townspeople pay what they can in exchange for the knowledge the learned man can provide. Why won’t my crops grow? Why are my teeth falling out? Why is my steel too brittle? Finally, a merchant comes to the man and offers him huge sum of money and a veiling threat so that he will provide “advice” to his daughter not to marry a lowly guardsman. The traveling advisor refuses to give this advice, while explain to his assistant that the best advice is sometimes it is best to give your customer what they need, not what they want.Note: this story is a part of our legacy-of-excellence program. It was first published in the November 2020 issue of After Dinner Conversation.