scholarly journals The Tropical-Urban Imagination: Ancestral Presences in Caribbean Literature

Author(s):  
Hannah Lutchmansingh

This paper examines certain choices that Caribbean-born women make in forming and or rejecting connections to various foreign communities. Migration is examined as a stimulus to creative vision. By analyzing the literary evocations of Caribbean women’s struggle with issues of displacement, refusal and their desire to find a place of their own, this paper explores the psycho-social impacts of empire and exile on black female bodies. In the selected narratives, there is the possibility for liberation that is afforded through a spatialization of memory, which bears the potential to confront and exorcise buried hurts and anxieties. As such, specific focus is given to the correlation between material and spirit dimensions in Erna Brodber’s novel, Myal (1988) and Patricia Powell’s short-story, “Travelling” (2015). The inquiry demonstrates how a return to timeless and all-pervasive ancestral presences may lead to an awakening from spiritual paralysis of essentialist and material ideologies. Moreover, the project scrutinizes how a comingling of carnal and divine realms influences woman’s quality to forgive. This pursuit is achieved through a methodological approach of qualitative content analysis. Fittingly, it draws on mythic notions of time and collective memory, as espoused by Wilson Harris in The Womb of Space.

Author(s):  
Susan Annese ◽  
Marta Traetta

The current diffusion of blended communities, characterized by the integration of online and offline interactions, has made necessary a methodological reflection about the suitable approaches to explore psychosocial dynamics in virtual and real communities. In this chapter we propose a mixed approach that ‘blends’ qualitative and quantitative methods: by combining qualitative content analysis with Social Network Analysis we investigate participation dynamics and by employing this methodological combination in an original way we create an innovative method, called Positioning Network Analysis, to examine identity dynamics. We will describe the characteristics of this methodological device, providing some examples in order to show the manifold use of these original tools.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-298
Author(s):  
Mikelli Marzzini L. A. Ribeiro ◽  
Marcelo de Almeida Medeiros ◽  
Alexandre Cesar Cunha Leite

Recently, the behaviour of emerging powers in relation to R2P has been understood as that of norm-shapers: states that seek to adjust the norm so that it conforms to their particular understandings. In this behaviour, respect for sovereignty is seen as a central concern. In the English School of International Relations, identification with the institution of sovereignty reflects an approach called pluralism. China’s behaviour is consistent with a pluralist approach to international relations. This paper aims to examine the Chinese positions regarding R2P, in order to identify pluralist traits in them. The procedure was to raise, inductively, prescriptions made by China, associating them with theoretical categories. From an analysis of the Chinese positions, it can be demonstrated that China’s behaviour reveals a paradigmatic case of a pluralist norm-shaper. Qualitative Content Analysis techniques were used as a methodological approach, while MAXQDAplus software was applied as a tool to aid in the coding of declarations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Kay Tepait Juanillo

This study analyzes the language used in the construction of the personal identity of Dr. Heidegger through the labels attached to him, both given by self and by others, and his stancetaking. The researcher applies Discourse Analysis to analyze the main character’s utterances. In addition, the researcher also uses Indexicality Principle by Bucholtz and Hall (2005) as a mechanism to analyze identity. Qualitative content analysis is used to analyze thoroughly and interpret text data to draw inference towards the utterances on the short story.  The result of the study show that Dr. Heidegger is labeled mostly with negative words by others, however, he responded to combat these labels by using re-appropriation or by revaluing the existing labels. Moreover, the stances taken by Dr. Heidegger are found to position himself among others. Together with the labels given by self and others, and his interlocutor(s) in his talk-in-interactions the findings reveal that the he is a strange old man, who is very curious and knowledgeable. Lastly, the conclusion can also be drawn that language and discourse are central to the construction of identities that are not always determined by a person himself, but also bound up with how others perceive him. 


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Senokozlieva ◽  
Oliver Fischer ◽  
Gary Bente ◽  
Nicole Krämer

Abstract. TV news are essentially cultural phenomena. Previous research suggests that the often-overlooked formal and implicit characteristics of newscasts may be systematically related to culture-specific characteristics. Investigating these characteristics by means of a frame-by-frame content analysis is identified as a particularly promising methodological approach. To examine the relationship between culture and selected formal characteristics of newscasts, we present an explorative study that compares material from the USA, the Arab world, and Germany. Results indicate that there are many significant differences, some of which are in line with expectations derived from cultural specifics. Specifically, we argue that the number of persons presented as well as the context in which they are presented can be interpreted as indicators of Individualism/Collectivism. The conclusions underline the validity of the chosen methodological approach, but also demonstrate the need for more comprehensive and theory-driven category schemes.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie E. Brewster ◽  
Esther N. Tebbe ◽  
Brandon L. Velez

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