scholarly journals Adapting the Medium: Dynamics of Intermedial Adaptation in Contemporary Japanese Popular Visual Culture

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Beáta Pusztai

Abstract With respect to adaptation studies, contemporary Japanese popular culture signifies a unique case, as different types of media (be those textual, auditive, visual or audio-visual) are tightly intertwined through the “recycling” of successful characters and stories. As a result, a neatly woven net of intermedial adaptations has been formed - the core of this complex system being the manga-anime-live-action film “adaptational triangle.” On the one hand, the paper addresses the interplay of the various factors by which the very existence of this network is made possible, such as the distinctive cultural attitude to “originality,” the structure of the comics, animation and film industries, and finally, the role of fictitious genealogies of both traditional and contemporary media in the negotiation of national identity. On the other hand, the essay also considers some of the most significant thematic, narrative, and stylistic effects this close interconnectedness has on the individual medium. Special attention is being paid to the nascent trend of merging the adaptive medium with that of the original story (viewing adaptation as integration), apparent in contemporary manga-based live- action comedies, as the extreme case of intermedial adaptation. That is, when the aim of the adaptational process is no longer the transposition of the story but the adaptation (i.e. the incorporation) of the medium itself- elevating certain medium-specific devices into transmedial phenomena.

1983 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Harald Haarmann

SUMMARY Criteria for Ethnic Identity Despite numerous publications on theoretical and methodological issues regarding ethnic identity (ethnicity), many methodological problems relative to this topic remain insufficiently clarified. This article deals particularly with the problems involved in establishing and evaluating criteria of ethnic identity. The author assigns the complex of problems regarding ethnic identity significant status within a theory of the ecology of language. Specific points covered in methodological issues involving the formation of concepts and application of terminology involve: 1. problems of the weighting of distinctive features; 2. problems in the mutual boundary-marking between ethnic groups (i.e., problems of ethnic borders); 3. problems in the changeability of ethnic identity; 4. problems in the correlation of language and ethnicity; 5. problems of the polarity of subjective and objective features of ethnicity; 6. problems of multiple identities and the role of ethnic identity; 7. problems in the historical dimension of ethnic identity; 8. problems in the linking of groups within language communities of the same national identity. In international sociological and sociolinguistic research, unanimity of opinion exists only on the fact that ethnic identity cannot be characterized by a single feature but rather by a series of individual features (the accumulation of features). The priorities to be attached to the individual features are in large measure disputed. The author proceeds from the assumption that ethnic identities in real life are formed through a stronger or weaker dominance of individual features; they should be characterized accordingly. An unacceptable a priori evaluation or weighting of features is thus avoided. In the specific context of a long-term research program on the smaller language communities and ethnic languages of Europe, the author particularly examines the role of language in ethnicity. Contrary to most previous contributions to discussions of this problem area, the author distinguishes between the general linguistic affiliation as a characteristic of ethnic identity on the one hand (cf. the relationship in point 4) and the criterion of language-oriented group formations (cf. relationship in point 8). The problem area of the principle of language community is illustrated using the example of the Transcarpathian Gypsies in the Ukraine. RESUMO Kriterioj de la etna idento Malgraŭ multaj ĝisnunaj eldonajoj pri la etna idento (etneco), multaj metodaj pro-blemoj rilataj al tiu temaro restas nesufice klarigitaj. La jena artikolo aparte traktas la problemaron de la starigo kaj elvalorigo de kriterioj de la etna idento. La autoro al-jugas al la problemaro pri la etna idento gravan rangon interne de teorio pri la lingva ekologio. Apartaj punktoj, traktitaj en metodaraj demandoj, rilataj al la formado de konceptoj kaj la apliko de terminaro, estas: 1. problemaro pri la elvalorigo de karakteraj trajtoj; 2. problemaro de la reciproka limigo inter etnaj grupoj (t.e. problemoj pri etnaj limoj); 3. problemaro pri la šanĝebleco de la etna idento; 4. problemaro pri la rilato inter lingvo kaj etneco; 5. problemaro pri la polusigo de subjektivaj kaj objektivaj trajtoj de etneco; 6. problemaro de pluroblaj identoj kaj la rolo de etna idento; 7. problemaro ce la historia dimensio de la etna idento; 8. problemaro de la formiĝo de grupoj interne de lingvaj komunumoj de la sama nacia idento. En la internacia sociologia kaj socilingvistika esplorado, unuanimeco de opinio ekzistas nur pri la fakto, ke ne eblas karakterizi la etnan identon nur per unusola trajto, sed, male, per aro da opaj trajtoj (la kuniĝo de trajtoj). Oni grandparte disputas pri la prioritato, kiun oni aljuĝu al la opaj trajtoj. La autoro progresas ek de la asumo, ke la etnaj identoj en la vera vivo estas formitaj per, jen pli forta, jen pli malforta, rego de opaj trajtoj; oni karakterizu ilin lau tio. Tiel, oni evitas neakceptindan aprioran elvalorigon au elpezigon de trajtoj. En la aparta kunteksto de longdaura esplorprogramo pri la pli malgrandaj lingvaj komunumoj kaj etnaj lingvoj de Europo, la autoro aparte pristudas la rolon de la lingvo ce la etneco. Kontraue al la plejmultaj ĝisnunaj kontribuoj al diskutoj pri tiu problemaro, la autoro distingas inter la ĝenerala lingva aparteno kiel trajto de la etna idento unuflanke (komparu la rilton ce punkto 4) kaj la kriterion de la formigo de grupoj surbaze de lingvo (komparu la rilaton ce punkto 8). La problemaro de la prin-cipo de la lingva komunumo estas ilustrita per la ekzemplo de la transkarpataj ciganoj en Ukrajnio.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-225
Author(s):  
Arif A JAMAL

AbstractIn considering the articles in this Special Issue, I am struck by the importance of a set of factors that, in my view, both run through the articles like a leitmotif, as well as shape the major ‘take away’ lesson(s) from the articles. In this short commentary, I elaborate on these factors and the lesson(s) to take from them through five ‘Cs’: context; complexity; contestation; the framework of constitutions; and the role of comparative law. The first three ‘Cs’ are lessons from the case studies of the articles themselves, while the second two ‘Cs’ are offered as lessons to help take the dialogue forward. Fundamentally, these five ‘Cs’ highlight the importance of the articles in this Special Issue and the conference from which they emerged on the one hand, while on the other hand, also making us aware of what are the limits of what we should conclude from the individual articles. In other words, taken together, the five ‘Cs’ are, one might say, lessons about lessons.


Gesture ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Beattie ◽  
Heather Shovelton

Respondents, who had either seen or not seen a sample of the iconic gestures that encoders produce when narrating a story, answered questions about the original story and it was found that the overall accuracy score for respondents who saw the iconic gestures in addition to hearing the speech was 56.8% compared to 48.6% for speech only. This was a highly reliable effect and suggests that iconic gestures are indeed communicative. Character viewpoint gestures were also significantly more communicative than observer viewpoint gestures particularly about the semantic feature relative position, but the observer viewpoint gestures were effective at communicating information, particularly about the semantic features speed and shape. There were no significant correlations between the amount of information that gestures added to speech and the amount they conveyed in its absence, which suggests that the relationship between speech and gesture is not fixed but variable. The implications of this research for our fundamental conception of iconic gestures are considered.


Africa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzette Heald

AbstractThe literature has tended to deal with diviners only where they have been seen to play a notable role in the transformation of social relationships. This leads us to overlook their relative social invisibility in many African societies. Yet we may gain insight into the rise of prophets and charismatic healers by looking at the other side of this story in the multitude of very humble practitioners plying their trade. This is the context in which this article explores the role of diviners among the Gisu of Uganda.The privacy of consultation, the search for distant diviners, the way they are approached only at times of crisis and as agents of private counteraction or vengeance, go some way towards explaining why it is difficult for diviners to gain recognition. Added to which are the difficulties of another order which relate to what might here be regarded as divinatory success. For divination may be seen to fail at a number of different levels: in the lack of credibility of a given practitioner, i n a lack of unanimity among those consulted and in the multiplicity of causal agents evoked.An argument put forward here is that scepticism is endemic to the system and, possibly, distinctive to it. We should ask not, as Evans-Pritchard did, how belief i s sustained despite the presence of scepticism but what it is about these beliefs which encourages scepticism. It is not useful to explore this issue in terms of the rationality question or the ‘truth’ of belief systems. If we are to draw a comparison with modern attitudes, of greater significance are the organisation and differentiation of knowledge and its relationship to power. It is suggested that diagnostic systems used by societies such as the Gisu encourage an agnostic attitude in a way i n which those of the modern West do not.In the final part of the article the social role of divination is reconsidered and some of the positive functions proposed for it are questioned. Gisu divination can be seen to have evolved into a very narrow niche whose parameters are bound, on the one hand, by the limits of belief and, on the other, by a system of interpersonal vengeance. We may say that the socially marginal attributes of diviners, exclusively concerned with the negative aspects of social relationships, represent a real social marginality. At best they are agents by which the individual may be reconciled with harshnesses imposed by his own destiny, of ancestral affliction; at worst they are agents of individual vengeance and retribution. This may be taken as more or less disqualifying them from articulating a positive, future-oriented vision on behalf of the community. Clearly it is not impossible but it is a huge jump from these humble practitioners, interpreting the present in terms of the past and trading evil with evil at an individual level, to prophets capable of formulating a positive social vision, a means forward, on behalf of a wider moral or social community.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-87
Author(s):  
Anabela Pereira

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how body-representations offer an opportunity for its visual interpretation from a biographical point of view, enhancing, on the one hand, the image’s own narrative dynamics, and, on the other, the role of the body as a place of incorporation of experiences, as well as, a vehicle mediating the individual interaction with the world. Perspective founded in the works of the artists Helena Almeida and Jorge Molder, who use self-representation as an expression of these incorporated (lived) experiences, constitutes an important discursive construction and structuring of their narrative identity through visual creation, the artists enable the other with moments of sharing knowledge, creativity and subjectivity, contributing also to the construction of the contemporary, cultural and social imagery.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Miguel Lorente-Ayala ◽  
Natalia Vila-Lopez ◽  
Ines Kuster-Boluda

Purpose The rise of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during the last decades has made the volunteer a key element. Motivation and satisfaction have been indicated as predictive indices of their retention. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it seeks to better understand the motivations of the volunteers, addressing the effects of such motivations. On the other hand, it analyses whether the intensity of such antecedents and effects differs depending on the type of NGO with which they work: generalist vs specialist. Design/methodology/approach A study with 847 volunteers from different types of NGOs was done using structural modelling methodology and multi-sample analysis. Findings The type of NGO moderates the relationship between the satisfaction of the volunteer and the intention to recommend. Practical implications Given that in specialist NGOs the impact of satisfaction on the intention to recommend is significantly stronger than in generalist NGOs, making sure that volunteers are satisfied becomes a priority in this type of NGO. In this regard, satisfaction studies among volunteers could be conducted periodically to detect crisis situations and implement improvement actions to recover satisfaction in the occupied position. Originality/value First, to date, the motivations of the volunteer have been investigated from different disciplines, the self-determination theory (SDT) being an important motivational theory widely used in areas such as social, education and sports psychology. However, there is little research from a marketing approach to understand the background of the motivations of volunteers under this conceptual framework provided by the SDT. Second, there is also a scarcity of literature linking the motivations of a volunteer with the emotions they may feel, ultimately achieving consolidated lasting links with the NGO in which they are integrated. Third, most research on volunteering to date has focused on differentiating volunteers from non-volunteers and understanding the reasons for volunteering. However, the presence of studies on the differences in the motivation of the same according to the type of NGO with which they collaborate has been scarce.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542096978
Author(s):  
Félix Krawatzek ◽  
George Soroka

Across Eastern Europe how the past is remembered has become a crucial factor for understanding present-day political developments within and between states. In this introduction, we first present the articles that form part of this special section through a discussion of the various methods used by the authors to demonstrate the potential ways into studying collective memory. We then define the regional characteristics of Eastern Europe’s mnemonic politics and the reasons for their oftentimes conflictual character. Thereafter we consider three thematic arenas that situate the individual contributions to this special section within the wider scholarly debate. First, we examine the institutional and structural conditions that shape the circulation of memory and lead to conflictive constellations of remembering; second, we discuss how different regime types and cultural rules influence the framing of historical episodes, paying attention to supranational integration and the role of technological change; third, we consider the different types of actors that shape the present recall of the past, including political elites, social movements, and society at large. We conclude by identifying several promising avenues for further research.


Target ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid Azadibougar

Nearly all scholarly works about the encounter of Iran with European modernity emphasize the role of translation not only in introducing new literary forms into the Persian literary system, but also in becoming the main engine of change and modernization of the culture. This paper concerns itself with this constructivist narrative of the available historiographical discourse and the translational environment between 1851 and 1921 in Iran. After describing the field of translation in the period in question, I challenge the uncritical conception of translation as a positive force by, on the one hand, investigating hypothetical cultural and linguistic implications, and on the other hand, questioning the power of translation per se, as ascribed to it in the above mentioned historiographical discourse, in socio-cultural modernization. This will prioritize the individual and cultural translational effects over the supposed institutional ones.


Author(s):  
J.J. Venter

It is argued here that market fundamentalistic theories ignore the issue of human agency in work, and the different types of work, because – focussing on the market mechanism, supply, demand, and price - they have lost track of that which economic activities (work) are intended for, namely self-sustenance. They have also minimised human agency in the economic theory, and therefore the understanding of being-human is lost from both economic theory and practice. Thus they cannot explicate the role of work for the individual and the community – namely care for self and others – the significance quality work as part of human dignity is forgotten. I am arguing for a restoring of meaningful self-sustenance as the norm for work, and the recognition of the dignifying role of such self-sustenance – both for the community and the individual.


The purpose of the article is to study ethical problematics in the philosophical works of Alasdair MacIntyre and Hannah Arendt. On the one hand we have the analysis of virtues ethics and of its place in modern society (through the prism of emotivism ethics inherent to this society), and on the other hand, we have the analysis of action and judgment as scopes of person’s self-representation, which are valuable by themselves. MacIntyre developed his hypothesis about an individual biography pointing out that modern emotivism ethics does not leave a room for conscious ethical worldview, reduces the scope of ethical choice to the very statement of individual preference. By that, a sequence of ethical decisions and preferences in a person’s life acquires irrational and wayward nature, due to which conscious transition from one narrative to another becomes impossible. In its turn, the possibility of individual biography as a holistic story that everyone can tell about themselves provides such an informative nature of ethical views, which have features of a narrative that can be rationally told and rationally perceived by others. Hannah Arendt analyzed the issue of modern ethical crisis from the other side – she studied the ethical dimension of judging ability and the role of action in social interaction. An action (as Arendt believed) becomes the strictly human scope of human activity, in which personality can “open up” (unlike the areas of work and creation). Judging ability appears in this context as a foundation, thanks to which a person becomes able to act: ethical worldview exists in terms of evaluation of something that exists in relation to something due. An action in this context is an active embodiment of a certain worldview position that “unfolds” itself precisely in the area of ethics while being involved in interpersonal interaction. Arendt claimed that an action, due to its nature, is unpredictable and that every human being, who dares to take it, risks getting, in the end, a result that is far from their intentions. Exactly because of it, an action exists in the actor’s biography and the fabrics of interpersonal connections simultaneously – it is the latter, which gives the space for interpretation of an actor’s actions significance. Thus, the individual biography becomes the thing that makes sense only through the prism of interpersonal interaction and mutual interpretations of individual stories.


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