Reading and analysing short story collections. An empirical study of readers’ interpretation process of Benni’s Il bar sotto il mare

2021 ◽  
pp. 096394702110478
Author(s):  
Edward De Vooght ◽  
Guylian Nemegeer
Keyword(s):  
Free Recall ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Primacy Effect ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
Personal Appreciation ◽  
The Way

This article confronts the theoretical tenets of reader-oriented short story collection theory and its implications for a literary analysis of Benni’s Il bar sotto il mare (1987) with the results of an empirical study of 12 readers. Through free recall tasks and open questions, we collected their recall of stories, specific passages, recurring topics and general interpretation to assess the processes of reticulation (i.e. searching for recurring elements in stories) and modification (i.e. modifying initial hypotheses based on the identification of new elements) advanced by Audet (2014). This confrontation revealed noticeably disagreeing results. Our findings suggest that flesh-and-blood readers adopt a more straightforward and intuitive approach when reading and interpreting collections as they are subject to a strong primacy effect, privilege personal appreciation of specific stories and passages, and rely on a disinclination to alter initial interpretative hypotheses. The findings pave the way for further investigation into the readers of SSCs.

scholarly journals Students’ Review on Interpreting Teaching in Libya: Challenges and Future Prospects

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Mohammed Juma Zagood
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Course Structure ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Consecutive Interpreting ◽  
The Way

This empirical study discusses the challenges faced by interpreting students at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Libyan Academy in Tripoli. It attempts to answer the following question: what is the students’ perspective on the teaching of interpreting at the Libyan Academy? To answer the aforementioned question, a questionnaire has been designed for the aim of identifying the challenges encountered by students of interpreting courses at the Libyan Academy. The questionnaire that consists of closed statements and open questions was given to twelve students who passed the interpreting courses. The questionnaire is designed to include questions about the course structure; materials; the division between theory, methodology and practice; and speeches and audios interpreted. The open questions allowed students to express their views regarding the challenges they faced and the possible future improvements. The findings showed that there are some challenges of interpreting teaching from the students’ perspectives. These challenges include the way the courses are divided between theory, methodology, and practice; speeches selected for consecutive interpreting practice, recordings selected for simultaneous interpreting practice, shortage of time slots given to students for practice, out-date lab equipment, and lack of real-life situations where students can practice liaison interpreting. At its conclusion, the significance of this study relies in the suggestion of some recommendations to overcome the challenges raised with the aim of improving interpreting teaching at the Libyan Academy in the future.

scholarly journals Afroperipheral indigeneity in Wayde Compton’s The Outer Harbour

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Vicent Cucarella-Ramón
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Contact Zone ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Black Canadian ◽  
Story Collection ◽  
The Way

Black Canadian writer Wayde Compton’s short story collection The Outer Harbour (2015) is located in the Afroperiphery of British Columbia which stands as a ‘contact zone’ that enables the alliances between Black and Indigenous peoples and also establishes a fecund ground of possibilities to emphasize the way in which cross-ethnic coalitions and representations reconsider imperial encounters previously ignored. The stories participate in the recent turn in Indigenous studies towards kinship and cross-ethnicity to map out the connected and shared itineraries of Black and Indigenous peoples and re-read Indigeneity in interaction. At the same time, the stories offer a fresh way to revisit Indigeneity in Canada through the collaborative lens and perspective of the Afroperipheral reality. In doing so, they contribute to calling attention to current cross-ethnic struggles for Indigenous rights and sovereignty in Canada that rely on kinship and ethnic alliances to keep on interrogating the shortcomings of the nation’s multiculturalism.

scholarly journals Students’ Review on Interpreting Teaching in Libya: Challenges and Future Prospects

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Juma Zagood
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Course Structure ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Consecutive Interpreting ◽  
The Way

This empirical study discusses the challenges faced by interpreting students at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Libyan Academy in Tripoli. It attempts to answer the following question: what is the students’ perspective on the teaching of interpreting at the Libyan Academy? To answer the aforementioned question, a questionnaire has been designed for the aim of identifying the challenges encountered by students of interpreting courses at the Libyan Academy. The questionnaire that consists of closed statements and open questions was given to twelve students who passed the interpreting courses. The questionnaire is designed to include questions about the course structure; materials; the division between theory, methodology and practice; and speeches and audios interpreted. The open questions allowed students to express their views regarding the challenges they faced and the possible future improvements. The findings showed that there are some challenges of interpreting teaching from the students’ perspectives. These challenges include the way the courses are divided between theory, methodology, and practice; speeches selected for consecutive interpreting practice, recordings selected for simultaneous interpreting practice, shortage of time slots given to students for practice, out-date lab equipment, and lack of real-life situations where students can practice liaison interpreting. At its conclusion, the significance of this study relies in the suggestion of some recommendations to overcome the challenges raised with the aim of improving interpreting teaching at the Libyan Academy in the future.

INTERVIEW WITH PETINA GAPPAH

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Faith Mkwesha
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
First Language ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
The Third ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The University ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
University Of Zimbabwe

This interview was conducted on 16 May 2009 at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa. Petina Gappah is the third generation of Zimbabwean writers writing from the diaspora. She was born in 1971 in Zambia, and grew up in Zimbabwe during the transitional moment from colonial Rhodesia to independence. She has law degrees from the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Graz. She writes in English and also draws on Shona, her first language. She has published a short story collection An Elegy for Easterly (2009), first novel The Book of Memory (2015), and another collection of short stories, Rotten Row (2016).  Gappah’s collection of short stories An Elegy for Easterly (2009) was awarded The Guardian First Book Award in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the richest prize for the short story form. Gappah was working on her novel The Book of Memory at the time of this interview.

scholarly journals INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN THE SHORT STORIES OF WILLEM ISKANDER’S SI BULUS-BULUS SI RUMBUK-RUMBUK

LINGUISTICA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 409
Author(s):  
ULFA YOZA SALSABILA ◽  
ELIA MASA GINTING ◽  
WILLEM SARAGIH
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

This study aimed to analyze the mood and modality used in the short stories of Willem Iskander’s Si Bulus-Bulus Si Rumbuk-Rumbuk, elaborating and explaining the interpersonal meaning realized in each short story. The source of data was taken from a book authored by Willem Iskander, entitled “Si Bulus- Bulus Si Rumbuk-Rumbuk”. This research showed that : (1) there were 157 clauses in the short stories with three mood types and two degrees of modality. (2) interpersonal meaning is realized based on the order of the subject and the finite. (3) the reason why the interpersonal meaning is realized in the way they are is that the author wants to share his thoughts and experiences of Mandailingnese by classifying each clause and finding the dominant use of declarative mood as the most direct and soft way of conveying the author’s thought

scholarly journals Petite idole énigmatique aux yeux allongés et pleins de rêve ». Les stéréotypes orientalistes dans Le Harem entr’ouvert d’A.-R. de Lens

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-210
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Sokołowicz
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Story Collection

The present paper describes some orientalist stereotypes concerning women and manifesting themselves in Le Harem entr’ouvert (1919), a short story collection by Aline Réveillaud de Lens (1881–1925), a French painter and writer, whose works are devoted mainly to North Africa. The paper focuses on three, most common, stereotypical representations of the Oriental woman according to which she is, firstly, a beautiful odalisque serving the man; secondly, extremely sensual and thus unfaithful and, finally, jealous and, sometimes, very cruel. The author attempts to explain the origins of those representations and to answer the question why A.-R. de Lens used them in her writings

scholarly journals The Intertextual Use of Greek Mythology in Agatha Christie’s Detective Fiction

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-331
Author(s):  
Tatiana Ternopol
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Greek Mythology ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
The Face ◽  
Greek Myths ◽  
Story Collection ◽  
Over Time

This study investigates the intertextual use of Greek mythology in Agatha Christie’s short stories Philomel Cottage, The Face of Helen, and The Oracle at Delphi, a short story collection The Labours of Hercules, and a novel, Nemesis. The results of this research based on the hermeneutical and comparative methods reveal that A. Christie’s intertextual formula developed over time. In her early works, allusions were based on characters' appearances and functions as well as on the use of motifs and themes from Greek myths. Later on, she turned to using allusory character names; this would mislead her readers who thought they already knew the formula of her stories. Although not a postmodern writer, A. Christie enjoyed playing games of allusion with her readers. She wanted them not only to solve a case but also to discover and interpret the intertextual references.

scholarly journals Significance of Short Story Cycle in Rachel Joyce’s A Snow Garden and Other Stories: An Analytical Study Using Complexity Theory

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Short Story Cycle ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Evolving Networks ◽  
Story Cycle ◽  
Narrative Techniques

Rachel Joyce’s short story collection A Snow Garden and Other Stories (2015) is composed of seven stories which occur during a fortnight of the holiday, Christmas season. The collection uses narrative techniques which make it a unique set of stories. The stories have an urban setting and examine the intricacies of human relationships. The sense of interconnection highlighted by Joyce in the stories elevates it to a short story cycle. A short story cycle consists of individual stories which can stand on their own as complete narratives while also maintaining fictional links running through all the stories. The paper is an attempt to establish A Snow Garden and Other Stories as a short story cycle. It also argues that by narrating the interconnected nature of human lives Joyce’s work is exploring life as a complex system. As a scientific philosophy complexity theory explores the behavior of complex systems including human societies. Complex systems are self-organizing, dynamic, evolving networks that operate without any centralized control, similar to human societies. This paper will apply the principles of complex systems to reveal patterns of human behavior represented in Joyce’s work.

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