Fictional Sources Research Articles

Why Name Popularity is a Good Test of Historicity

Abstract Are name statistics in the Gospels and Acts a good test of historicity? Kamil Gregor and Brian Blais, in a recent article of the jshj, argue that the sample of name occurrences in the Gospels and Acts is too small to be determinative and that several statistical anomalies weigh against a positive verdict. Unfortunately, their conclusions result directly from improper testing and questionable data selection. Chi-squared goodness-of-fit testing establishes that name occurrences in the Gospels and Acts fit into their historical context at least as well as those in the works of Josephus. Additionally, they fit better than occurrences derived from ancient fictional sources and occurrences from modern, well-researched historical novels.

Exploring the Human Condition: A Methodological Literature Review of Fiction-Based Research

Fictional narratives are increasingly analyzed by scholars to improve our understanding of the ‘human condition’, because fiction gives access to the deeply personal experiences, perceptions, and struggles of individuals. This methodological literature review explores current fiction-based research practices in organization and management studies, identifies methodological shortcomings, and finds emerging methodological conventions. After searching for fiction-based research in 26 leading organization and management journals, I found 69 articles that used fictional narratives. My analysis demonstrates that fiction is increasingly used by scholars to make theoretical contributions to six research themes: organizational life, leadership and resistance, change, ethics, gender and race, and organizational analysis. Fictional narratives are treated both metaphorically and as representations of organizational reality. The article shows recurring shortcomings in the literature and formulates recommendations for future fiction-based research. Specifically, scholars are encouraged to justify their selection of fictional sources, use multiple fictional narratives, consider including other (qualitative) data, describe the data analysis procedure, and provide longer passages or direct access to present their (fictional) data. While this review focuses on organization and management studies, it aims to be of use to the broad range of scholars in the social sciences and humanities by showing recent developments in fiction-based research and by offering tools to experiment with this innovative method, so that fictional narratives might inspire their work and enrich their research.

Memory of Fictional Information: A Theoretical Framework.

Much of the information people encounter in everyday life is not factual; it originates from fictional sources, such as movies, novels, and video games, and from direct experience such as pretense, role-playing, and everyday conversation. Despite the recent increase in research on fiction, there is no theoretical account of how memory of fictional information is related to other types of memory or of which mechanisms allow people to separate fact and fiction in memory. We present a theoretical framework that places memory of fiction in relation to other cognitive phenomena as a distinct construct and argue that it is an essential component for any general theory of human memory. We show how fictionality can be integrated in an existing memory model by extending Rubin's dimensional conceptual memory model. By this means, our model can account for explicit and implicit memory of fictional information of events, places, characters, and objects. Further, we propose a set of mechanisms involving various degrees of complexity and levels of conscious processing that mostly keep fact and fiction separated but also allow information from fiction to influence real-world attitudes and beliefs: content-based reasoning, source monitoring, and an associative link from the memory to the concept of fiction.

Werewolf on campus: A case study in inoculation theory and gamified one-shot library instruction

This case study details the development and results of an information literacy game in which undergraduate students evaluated fictional sources to learn how to recognize a werewolf on campus. The game relied on inoculation theory and fiction to teach students to identify indicators of mis and disinformation outside of any real-world examples that might affect their learning experience. The game showed promise as students were far more engaged and demonstrated better retention later in the semester than students who received a more traditional lecture about disinformation and source evaluation. However, the game would likely be more effective if it were expanded beyond the one-shot model.

On Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence.

On Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence.

Народная адаптация сентиментального романса М. В. Зубовой «Я в пустыню удаляюсь»

The paper presents the collection and analysis of the folklore adaptations of Maria Zubova's sentimental romance “I am going away into the desert” in the 19th and 20th centuries. The transformation of the author's work in folk song and theatre culture demonstrates a complex interaction between folklore and book poetry. The biography of the author, a representative of the artistic milieu and one of the few female poets of the late 18th century, is reflected in some journal sources (“Materials for the History of Russian Female Authors” by M. N. Makarov) and fiction sources (“Russian Women of New Times” by D. L. Mordovtsev) which confirm possible authorship of the poetess. The study highlights stylistic features of love, spiritual and prison lyrics, as well as the work of folk theatre, which uses the text under study. Women's love songs, including choral songs, vary the motif of infidelity, transform the spiritual meaning of the image of the desert into a symbol of conjugal loneliness. In an Old Believer environment, the work was included in spiritual songs developing a motif of renunciation of the secular life in the wilderness. Researcher P. A. Bessonov discusses the devastating impact of “pseudo-folk” song on Russian spiritual culture. Echoes of the sentimental romance may also be found in the prison lyrics of the 20th century collected from the Siberian narrator I. K. Beketov. The final part of the study deals with the folk drama “King Maximilian”, where the cited text appears as a precedent for the Russian culture, which is proved later by its active use in numerous works of fiction.

KeesBoterbloemLife in Stalin's Soviet Union. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. 247 pp. £20.69 (pbk), £63 (hbk).

KeesBoterbloemLife in Stalin's Soviet Union. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. 247 pp. £20.69 (pbk), £63 (hbk).

“Cherchez la fiction”: Stories of Self-Realization in Anne Garréta’s Pas un jour and Leïla Slimani’s Sexe et mensonges

Faced with the hermetic interiority of post-structuralist narratives, twenty-first-century French literature tends to turn outwards and explore sociohistorical realities as a fertile source of fiction. In this article, I compare two contemporary writers rarely paired together—Anne Garréta and Leïla Slimani—to consider the enduring importance of discursive paradigms in realizing a sense of self. Although Garréta’s mechanised autobiographical aesthetic in Pas un Jour seems to jar with Slimani’s ethnographic journalism in Sexe et mensonges, I argue that both use heuristic narratives to conduct a survey of female desire whose reality is only legible in literature. Intersecting with narrative theories formulated by Barthes, Jameson and Cixous, this article argues that Slimani and Garréta perform their lived sexual experience through a carefully manufactured textual machine that grants them freedom. Only through the straitjacket of a fictional system can the reader glean the reality of female subjectivities so long obscured by myth.

O niilismo pós-guerra em H.P. Lovecraft: uma análise histórico-filosófica de Dagon (1919)

Esta reflexão pretende pontuar as características em dinâmica que norteiam o conto Dagon, de Howard Phillips Lovecraft, e seu pertencimento histórico. Conto curto, Dagon fornece inúmeros elementos pertinentes para entender modos de pensar a realidade histórica no começo do século XX e suas heranças existenciais do final do século XIX. Trata de uma abordagem sensível sobre os elementos psicológicos, filosóficos e alegóricos que constituem a narrativa ficcional gótica de 1919. Como base teórica, os conceitos de Representação e Niilismo, frutos dos diálogos com Roger Chartier e Friedrich Nietzsche, respectivamente, nos são instrumentos possíveis de análise da fonte ficcional na interpretação da realidade histórica. Através dessa análise histórico-filosófica, esmiúça-se o conto Dagon para entender os aspectos construtivos de seu cenário verossimilhante e reconhecível de tempos bélicos e tal entrega interpessoal desesperante.

Ṣūfī Motifs in Ibrāhīm <i>Al</i>-Kōnī’s <i>The Fetishist</i>

In his The Fetishists, Ibrāhīm al-Kōnī uses Ṣūfī themes, motifs, language and symbols to present the legendary epic thought of the nature of life in the desert where he lived in his childhood and youth. His goal is to ask questions about the meaning of existence, human adventure, destiny, power and civilization through using the world of the Tuareg as an imaginary source of fiction. Al-Kōnī depicts the elements of the desert world, as if it were a mystical redeemer, with which he unites to reach the ultimate universal truth. What energizes the Ṣūfī context in the novel is the vital presence of Ṣūfī characters—dervishes, wanderers, disciples, saints and the various conflicts inflamed amongst individuals, groups, communities, philosophies, and cultures and between man and nature represented by the desert, sands, winds and droughts. Furthermore, in the manner of the Ṣūfī thinking, al-Kōnī manages to grant a living spirit to every element present in the desert, human and non-human, and animate and non-animate. All share in the construction of the soul of the world to attain through joint prayers the great universal truth of God. That is a major ingredient that goes into the fabric of Ṣūfī philosophy.

Organization of Students’ Work with Sources on the History of Native Land During the Training of a History Teacher

The article is written on a relevant topic, about the training of students in the direction of “Pedagogical education (with two training profiles)” profile “History-Social Studies” for local history research at school. The research is based on the competence-based approach, taking into account the system-activity approach to the organization of training. Considerable attention is paid to the formation of source study knowledge by organizing work with such sources on the history of the native land as chronicles, sources of personal origin and fiction during the teaching of the discipline “Local history at school”. One of its parts, laying down basic knowledge and skills, is the section “Sources and historiography of the study of the region history”, consisting of a series of lectures and practical exercises. The authors presented the methods of organizing the educational activities of students with local history literature: compiling chronological tables, biographical and bibliographic dictionaries, annotated lists, note-taking skills of scientific publications, developing excursion routes, quizzes, project implementation, etc. Methodological techniques for the formation of the corresponding skills and abilities of students are demonstrated on the example of the topic “Civil War in Russia”. It is concluded that such a multifaceted theoretical and practical work with sources on the history of the native land contributes to the formation of professional competencies of the future history teacher, prepares him for local history work and the organization of local history research at school.

“Emma Zunz” in the Mirror and the Labyrinth

“Emma Zunz” exemplifies Borges’s particular use of literary devices, including extra-literary references and motifs that refer to the author’s earlier stories. Among those motifs the most central to “Emma Zunz” is the mirror. The use of the verb “multiplicar” reiterates the phrasing from two earlier stories: “Tlön, Uqbar y Orbis Tertius” and “El tintorero enmascarado, Hakim de Merv.” At the same moment the author only proposes that the character sees her reflections on her way to the port of Buenos Aires but promptly offers another scenario, meaning that the reader’s perception of omniscience is authorial sleight of hand. As in “Tlon,” fiction invades reality, and some of the sources of fiction are identifiable in “Emma Zunz” as the Book of Exodus, a lost silent film called “The Yellow Ticket” and the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The convergence of Hebrew and Minoan legends are also implied in the title of the collection, El Aleph through the hieroglyphic origins of the initial letter of the Hebrew abjad.

Парадокс восприятия «Чужого» в русской культуре первой четверти XIX века (на примере образа француза в войне 1812 года)

The author analyzes the image of the “Foreign” in the Russian culture of the first quarter of the XIX century on the example of the French. The factors which influence the transformation of the image of “Foreign” are noted: political situation, official ideology, historical memory. Researchers have described the situation of the XIX century as a cultural pendulum. The direction vectors of this pendulum changed from gallomania to gallophobia and in the opposite direction. They also combined political and everyday forms and were differentially perceived in noble and folk culture. These factors formed the complexity and inconsistency of Russian cultural space. The theses of B. Waldenfels about the paradoxical nature of “Foreign” about the research period and the perspective were used. The paradoxes of “Foreign” were revealed on the examples of the Russian noble culture, a comparative analysis with folk culture was carried out. The author took into account the methodology proposed by B. Waldenfels, using the sources of personal origin and fiction.

‘Look under the sheets!’ Fighting with the senses in relation to defecation and bodily care in hospitals and care institutions

This essay focuses on sensory aspects of care in situations surrounding defecation in hospitals and other care institutions. Sensory activity does not merely encompass pleasant experiences that enhance healing and...

Anti-alcohol campaigns effects depending on target drinking levels and source perception

Alcohol consumption represents a major problem for public health. As a consequence, there is a growing interest in understanding which communication strategies have the ability to increase the persuasive power of anti-alcohol campaigns. Many designers of health campaigns use both actors and real people interchangeably to deliver their messages. Nevertheless, little is known regarding which of these two types of message sources are more persuasive. Aim & Methodology. In this study, we used an experimental design to explore the effect of recipients’ perceptions of the message source (presented as either real people or actors) on their drinking intentions. Results. We observed a significant difference in the drinking intentions as an effect of our manipulation, depending on previous recipients’ drinking levels. Heavy consumers were more readily persuaded by the real source message. In contrast, light consumers showed less drinking intentions after receiving the message from the fictional source than from the real one. Conclusions. This indicates that in the context of anti-alcohol campaigns, the same strategy could have both positive and negative effects simultaneously on different target groups. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Edmund Spenser on the Elfin Race: Some Renaissance Sources of Contemporary Fantasy

Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queene (1590/1596) is generally mentioned among the sources of contemporary fantasy fiction. However, scholarly publications, including works in Russian, rarely spell out the particularities of that connection. This article seeks to demonstrate the thoroughness, with which Spenser, in The Faerie Queene, worked out some patterns and techniques of description of the Elfin ‘nation’, deliberating on its particular place on the chain of being. The poet delineated various social and cultural groups of fairies by considering their habits, strengths and shortcomings, their natural localities, their love of magic and poetry, and their extreme or muted (compared to humans) susceptibility to certain moral virtues. More than that, Spenser invented a history of Elfinkind and dwelled extensively on two contrasting chronicles – one featuring the great events of human (specifically British) history; the other, of the elfin history. Hence, the Renaissance allegorical poem contains a set of artistic components similar to those (other-than-human ethnography), which today are constituent for fantasy fiction. The article regards some alterations, which J.R.R. Tolkien introduced into elfin ethnography. The work also comments upon mannerist echoes in contemporary fantasy and upon mutual continuities between literary canon and popular fiction.

Повседневная реальность Англии в художественной литературе и исторических источниках XIV–XV веков

Повседневная реальность Англии в художественной литературе и исторических источниках XIV–XV веков

The democratic quality of political depictions in fictional TV entertainment. A comparative content analysis of the political drama Borgen and the journalistic magazine Berlin direkt

Abstract The quality of political reporting in the news media is a focal point of communication research. Politics, however, is not only conveyed via traditional sources of information, but via fictional sources. In particular, political dramas (e. g., The West Wing, Borgen) enjoy great popularity and are often acknowledged for their realistic depiction of politics. Still, little is known about the democratic quality of such fictional depictions. This paper aims to fill the gap by contrasting the depiction of politics in the fictional TV series Borgen with political reporting in a traditional TV magazine (Berlin direkt). The comparative content analysis is based on ten issues that are covered in both formats and focuses on the quality criteria of relevance, pluralism, and democratic discourse norms. Findings show no significant differences between Borgen and Berlin direkt for any of the three criteria, clearly indicating that fictional TV series can offer the same content quality as political reporting.

Representing Spaces, Performing Places: le strade di Londra nel romanzo Absolute Beginners (1958) di Colin MacInnes e nella sua versione cinematografica

This paper addresses life in London in the late 1950s portrayed by the musical film Absolute Beginners (1986) directed by Julien Temple and its fictional source, that is Colin MacInnes’ novel of the same name (1958). While the musical film has been criticized for its lack of character development and for its last-minute attack on racism, MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners was a successful novel. It tells the story about youth subcultures in postwar London and in this paper I will examine the way in which the City of London and its transformation is portrayed as a urban space/place where young people create and establish new places and spaces for themselves for their regular encounters. So, London as the setting becomes not just a background element but a driving force in the whole story. By seeking to understand London as a site of local encounter, global exchange, national significance, and social memory this paper aims at providing an analysis of the places and spaces both of the film musical and the novel which characters absorb the audience/reader and show the variety of human experience of the capital as seen through the eyes (and camera lens) of a nameless 18 year-old photographer.

Fantasy, gender and power in Jessica Jones

ABSTRACTThe ABC/Marvel Television fantasy series Jessica Jones, aired in 2015 and 2018, is the first television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe both to be made specifically for an adult audience and to feature a female superhero as a lead character. It is also notable for having a female showrunner, Melissa Rosenberg, women writers or co-writers, and, in its second season, all women directors. Wielding an innovative generic blend of noir crime thriller and superhero fantasy, the series adapts its graphic fiction sources to foreground Jones as the central character. Its tightly interwoven plot lines, witty dialogue and richly crafted visual narrative address themes of trauma, power and responsibility. Krysten Ritter features as the cynical superhuman who struggles to reconcile her strength and agility with vulnerability to psycho-sexual abuse after being abducted by the purple-clad mind control monster, Kilgrave (David Tennant). Referring to theories of coercive control and gender stereotyping in contemporary screen narrative, this article will discuss how Season One of Jessica Jones engages feminist approaches to television narrative by challenging conventional representations of the female superhero in the lead-up to the #MeToo era, and opening up possibilities for women in the realm of the fantastic as actors, writers and producers.