Style in Narrative

Style has often been understood both too broadly and too narrowly. In consequence, it has not defined a psychologically coherent area of study. In the opening chapter, Hogan first defines style so as to make possible a systematic theoretical account through cognitive and affective science. This definition stresses that style varies by both scope and level—thus, the range of text or texts that may share a style (from a single passage to an historical period) and the components of a work that might involve a shared style (including story, narration, and verbalization). Hogan illustrates the main points of this chapter by reference to several works, prominently Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Subsequent chapters in the first part focus on under-researched aspects of literary style. The second chapter explores the level of story construction for the scope of an authorial canon, treating Shakespeare. The third turns to verbal narration in a single work, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Part two, on film style, begins with another theoretical chapter. It turns, in chapter five, to the perceptual interface in the genre of “painterly” films, examining works by Rodriguez, Mehta, Rohmer, and Husain. The sixth chapter treats the level of plot in the postwar films of Ozu. The remaining film chapter turns to visual narration in a single work, Lu’s Nanjing! Nanjing! The third part addresses theoretical and interpretive issues bearing on style in graphic fiction, with a focus on Spiegelman’s Maus. An Afterword touches briefly on implications of stylistic analysis for political critique.

Commentary on “Narrative therapy groups for people with intellectual disability: a critical review of the literature”

Purpose This paper is a commentary inspired by Laura McKenzie-Smith’s review paper. Design/methodology/approach This commentary provides a personal perspective on the intersections of narrative practice and the support of people with a learning disability. Findings This commentary highlights some further possibilities of narrative ideas beyond therapy. This paper explores examples of record keeping and research as sites for story construction about lives and identities. Research limitations/implications This is a personal perspective of a systemic psychotherapist and academic working with people with a learning disability. Practical implications This paper argues that the stories we tell ourselves and others about our work and the people we support are powerful in ways of which we may not always be aware. Social implications In common with person-centred planning, narrative ideas highlight the power of the stories circulating about a person and their network and the implications they may have for their lives and identities. Originality/value This commentary explores narrative practices beyond the context of therapy, highlighting organisational, administrative and research practices as story-constructing activities that co-create identities of persons with a learning disability, their networks of support and health and social care professionals.

Citizen views on wood as a construction material: results from seven European countries

Multi-story wooden buildings are hailed as a favorable means towards reducing the embodied energy of the construction sector, however, the construction sector’s path-dependent nature hinders acceptance towards using wood in multi-story construction. As a result, research predominantly focuses on examining the perceptions of construction professionals to identify means of breaking the path-dependency. We propose using citizens’ perceptions towards the use of wood to inform professional decision makers, thus, this research aims to answer two questions: What are citizens’ perceptions about using wood as a construction material, and are there country-based cultural differences between perceptions? To elicit this spectrum of citizen views, an online survey was deployed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze 6 633 open-ended responses from the survey. Respondents held multifaceted opinions about the physical properties, environmental, social, and economic aspects of using wood as a construction material. Citizens from Finland, Norway, and Sweden placed acceptability for using wood in discernably different aspects than citizens from Austrian, Denmark, Norway, and the UK. Overall, respondents from all countries held high approval for using wood in construction.

Desire, liturgy, andthe joint construction of narrativein a teacher preparation program

Treating narrative as a social practice has enabled examination of the identity work accomplished through interactive story construction within various communities, including teacher preparation programs. Largely unaddressed in this literature is the presence of desire – the sense of longing conveyed through expressed wants, wishes, and hopes – and how it works in and through narrative practice. Following James K. A. Smith (2009), I posit that some stories may be liturgical in their conscripting of tellers and listeners into narratives that shape their identities and direct their desires. To explore this empirically, I examined desire in the joint construction of a professional identity narrative – teacher as lifelong learner – within an urban teacher residency. My analysis suggests that program leaders’ expressed desires of and for the novice teachers established the leaders’ authority and worked to conscript novices into the narrative. However, novices were actively negotiating the narrative and the desirability of the professional identity.

New Forms of Collaborative Lawyering and Story Construction in the Field of International Protection: Cases of Victims of Human Trafficking

This contribution seeks to explore new forms of legal, human and social protection in which clients, lawyers and voluntary associations work together to identify vulnerable people and their needs and to defend them. It shows how forms of so-called collaborative lawyering can be articulated in practice by analysing cases of international protection in Italy. It puts the accent on the role played by non-lawyers (cultural mediators) in contributing to the victims of human trafficking processes of familiarisation and socialisation, thereby exploring whether and how these diverse collaborators may contribute to empowering the performance of vulnerable clients in the procedures that involve them. The contribution ends with a proposal to make conscious use of legal storytelling as a tool for supporting vulnerable clients, in a socio-clinical space shared between researchers, professionals (attorneys, judges, voluntary associations) and clinical students.

The Vertical Urban Factory Concept and Sustainable Transport – Prototypes for European Cities

The Vertical Urban Factory concept reclaims production in multi-story buildings as part of the cityscape. Today, factories are mostly located in monofunctional industrial areas outside of cities due to high land prices and restrictions on motorized individual transport. However, production must be taken into account as a necessary element of lively and mixed urban structures. New urban development concepts are therefore in demand for efficient and space-saving use of commercial and industrial space. We analyzed how multi-story production can be reintegrated into European cities and developed five prototypes considering urban structure and logistics concepts. The prototypes show that multi-story construction is indeed a realizable alternative for limited space resources. While integrating individual production facilities in densely built-up areas fulfils the current transport policy objectives best, the greatest potential of vertical production is located in mixed commercial areas. The vertical urban factory concept promotes sustainability goals on many levels and we therefore recommend it to cities. In this paper, we focus on the transportation aspects and present three of the five prototypes.

Collaborative learning through story envisioning in virtual reality

We developed a story creation platform that allows for collaborative content creation in a 3D environment by utilizing avatars, animations, objects, and backgrounds. Our story envisioning platform provides a shared virtual space that promotes collaborative interaction for story construction, involving a high degree of learner input and control. It allows the L2 learners to perform as actors and directors to create the story and supports offline or online collaboration (online chatting). Using state-of-the-art technologies, the system creates 3D stories from text to be presented in virtual reality. The learner can choose premade assets and input the story script for conversion into story elements and timelines. Experiments with 35 intermediate learners of English on the usability of the system and user engagement confirmed the system’s effectiveness to promote learner collaboration, peer support, negotiation, opinion exchange, and critical thinking. Learners found the system to be a powerful tool to visualize their thoughts, and revise/expand their stories, according to questionnaire results. This system brings an interesting and intense language practice that encourages learners to actively participate in the learning process through collaboration.

ONTOLOGY OF RESEARCH EFFICIENCY AND PROSPECTS OF LARGE-PANEL AND MONOLITHIC REINFORCED CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION OF RESIDENTIAL OBJECTS

The article is devoted to the issues of ontology, research of the effectiveness and prospects of large-panel and monolithic reinforced concrete construction of residential objects. Increasing demands on the effectiveness of multi-story housing construction determine the relevance of this study. Methodological foundations of substantiation and a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of monolithic and large-panel reinforced concrete multi-story construction are considered; prospects for the development of these housing technologies are justified. The article presents an analysis of the pros and cons of monolithic and large-panel reinforced concrete multi-storey construction of residential buildings, a comparative analysis of the processes of organization and technology of construction works. The problems of large-panel and monolithic construction are ranked according to the level of their materiality, measures to improve construction technologies are proposed. The comparative analysis of cost indicators of monolithic and panel construction on the basis of the data presented in collections of standards of the price of construction is presented. The need to introduce and update the normative documentation having legal force for regulation of the basic provisions of the modern improved large-panel construction is proved. Attention is paid to the design conditions for the manufacture and installation of the monolithic and large-panel multi-storey construction of residential buildings used in the methodological approach. Cases of expediency of comparison on criterion "duration of construction" are analyzed. The article proposes an original methodological approach for evaluating the effectiveness of monolithic and large-panel construction, taking into account the conditions and nature of the uncertainty of the initial data, which will justify the choice of the most effective options for the construction of multi-storey housing construction.

What Do Preschool Children in India Understand About Death?: An Exploratory Study

Most people avoid talking about death with children even when required, as they are unsure at what age children start understanding the concept of death. Although this question has been researched in the west, it has not been answered in the Indian context. Therefore, this study was conducted in India with 25 children (14 females, 11 males; 3–5 years), using play and joint story construction method, along with semistructured interviews. Results indicated that majority of the children understood that everyone has to die, including significant people like their own parents (i.e., universality) and also, many children understood that death is final (i.e., irreversibility). However, only few children understood that all cognitive/behavioral functions cease at death (i.e., nonfunctionality). In conclusion, only a small proportion of preschoolers seems to have had a mature concept of death.