The Real and Imaginary Politics of Minor-Character Elaboration, 1983–2014

Author(s):  
Jeremy Rosen

Argues that the conventional form of minor-character elaboration, which becomes visible as the genre flourishes between the 1980s and the present, articulates a set of consensus values of liberal pluralism. Reading a wide range of texts produced in this period, the chapter shows how the registering of the narrative voice and psychology of a formerly minor character becomes the genre’s primary convention. While scholars have often lauded such texts for liberating the voices, of minor characters, I argue that rather than accomplishing an emancipation or posing a subversive challenge, the genre reaffirms the unique subjective experience of every individual, and the necessity of a pluralist dialogue between conflicting agendas.

Author(s):  
Jeremy Rosen

How do genres develop? In what ways do they reflect changing political and cultural trends? What do they tell us about the motivations of publishers and readers? Combining close readings and formal analysis with a sociology of literary institutions and markets, Minor Characters Have Their Day offers a compelling new approach to genre study and contemporary fiction. Focusing on the booming genre of books that transform minor characters from canonical literary texts into the protagonists of new works, Jeremy Rosen makes broader claims about the state of contemporary fiction, the strategies of the publishing industry over recent decades, and the function of literary characters. Rosen traces the recent surge in “minor-character elaboration” to the late 1960s and works such as Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. These early examples often recover the voices of marginalized individuals and groups. As the genre has exploded between the 1980s and the present, with novels about Ahab’s wife, Huck Finn’s father, and Mr. Dalloway, it has begun to embody the neoliberal commitments of subjective experience, individual expression, and agency. Eventually, large-scale publishers capitalized on the genre as a way to appeal to educated audiences aware of the prestige of the classics and to draw in identity-based niche markets. Rosen’s conclusion ties the understudied evolution of minor-character elaboration to the theory of literary character.


Author(s):  
D.A. Neganov ◽  
◽  
A.E. Zorin ◽  
O.I. Kolesnikov ◽  
G.V. Nesterov ◽  
...  

The methodology of laboratory modeling of the loading of utor welded joint of the tank is presented. The methodology is based on testing of the special design sample. It allows under uniaxial tension on the typical servo-hydraulic machines to reproduce in the zone of a utor welded joint the combined action of bending and shear forces, similar to that which occurs during the operation of a vertical cylindrical tank. To assess the distribution of the stress-strain state in the proposed design of the sample under its loading, the finite element modeling was performed in the ANSYS software package. It showed the fundamental correspondence of the stress distribution in the zone of the utor node in the sample and in the real tank. The experimental studies consisted in carrying out tests for the durability of a series of 16 samples loaded with the maximum force in the cycle, causing the calculated stresses in the zone of the welded utor node in the range of 100–200 % from the maximum permissible ones. The obtained results showed that the maximum loaded zone, where the destruction of the samples occurred, is the near-seam zone of the utor welded joint on the inside of the tank. This corresponds to the statistics of the real tank failures. It is established that the developed methodology ensures the possibility of carrying out correct resource tests of the tank utor welded joints. It is also possible to vary the stress-strain state scheme within a wide range in the area of the utor welded joint by changing the design parameters of the test sample. In compliance with the regulated welding technologies and the absence of unacceptable defects in the welded joint, the utor node has a high resource, which significantly exceeding 50 years of the tank operation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alshehri ◽  

Presently, a precise localization and tracking process becomes significant to enable smartphone-assisted navigation to maximize accuracy in the real-time environment. Fingerprint-based localization is the commonly available model for accomplishing effective outcomes. With this motivation, this study focuses on designing efficient smartphone-assisted indoor localization and tracking models using the glowworm swarm optimization (ILT-GSO) algorithm. The ILT-GSO algorithm involves creating a GSO algorithm based on the light-emissive characteristics of glowworms to determine the location. In addition, the Kalman filter is applied to mitigate the estimation process and update the initial position of the glowworms. A wide range of experiments was carried out, and the results are investigated in terms of distinct evaluation metrics. The simulation outcome demonstrated considerable enhancement in the real-time environment and reduced the computational complexity. The ILT-GSO algorithm has resulted in an increased localization performance with minimal error over the recent techniques.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-307
Author(s):  
Radojle Radetic ◽  
Marijana Pavlov-Kagadejev ◽  
Darko Brodic ◽  
Nikola Milivojevic

The paper presents the real instrument functional characteristics and describes the way of practical solutions of its performance improvement. It presents the design process of the instrument made for resistance measuring. In order to achieve desired objectives, a great number of experiments have been carried out during the development. Basically, the comparison method has been applied. At first, it was intended for the small resistor measuring as a single range unit. Later, the device has been improved and upgraded for a wide range resistance measuring. Finally, some of the difficulties have been detected and explained as well. The paper contains solutions developed and applied for their overcoming.


Author(s):  
Steven D. Levitt

Abstract The fight against terrorism requires identifying potential terrorists before they have the opportunity to act. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which retail banking data – which as far as we know are not currently used by anti-terror intelligence agencies in any systematic manner – are a useful tool in identifying terrorists. Using detailed administrative records of a large British bank, we demonstrate that a number of variables in the data are strongly correlated with terrorism-related activities. Having both an Islamic given name and surname, not surprisingly, are among the strongest of these predictors, but a wide range of other demographic characteristics and behaviors observed in the data are also correlated strongly with terrorist involvement. The real key to our method, however, rests on the identification of one particular pattern of banking behavior (what we call “Variable Z”) which dramatically improves our ability to identify terrorists. Our model is demonstrated to have substantial power to identify terrorists both within sample and out of sample.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Hahn ◽  
Ernest Van Eck

In any research of the biblical themes in Scriptures, the exegete must exercise discipline in strictly adhering to an exegetical process wherein the text is permitted to speak for itself in the context of the passage. This article therefore explored the literary traits and analysed characterisations in the story of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda as portrayed in John 5 through a ‘narratological and exegetical’ approach, considering literary, social, cultural and historical criticism with significant attention given to the text of the author or narrator. It is very important to know the author’s theological viewpoint as seen in the characterisation of an anonymous character in the related gospel narrative, because it may be easily be overlooked due to the lack of attention for a minor character. The author’s theological point of view is revealed in the characterisation of the lame man, the Jewish religious leaders, and of Jesus. Although the lame man himself is generally regarded as one of the ‘minor characters’ who appears in the gospel, the narrative of the lame man’s healing is an important part of John’s Christology and doxology, establishing Jesus as the Son whom God the Father sent to do God’s work not for his own glory, but for the glory of God the Father. An analysis is undertaken of the literary traits and various characterisations evident in the seven scenes of John 5’s account of the healing of the lame man, comparing him with other minor characters in John 4 and 9 who were healed.Contribution: In this article a narratological and exegetical approach is employed to identify the Christological and doxological significances in John 5 by exploring the literary traits of the narrative point of view and character presentation through the theological perspective of the narrator.


Author(s):  
Landon R. Y. Storrs

This chapter looks at private letters and other unpublished sources about defendants other than the Keyserlings to recapture the subjective experience of being investigated, not as an exercise in voyeurism but to explain why the effects were so profound. The experience of being under loyalty investigation produced a wide range of responses from individuals and had many long-lasting effects—on their economic security, mental and physical health, personal relationships, and civic participation. Many loyalty defendants preferred to remain silent about these humiliating experiences, but examining them is necessary to establish the context in which these people made difficult strategic and ethical decisions about how best to protect themselves.


any real doubt about the ending. Heliodoros redirected curiosity from outcome to explanation. The second problem is lack of direc­ tion and unity: romance was prone to fall apart into a series of exciting but only loosely connected adventures, at the end of which the protagonists recovered their lost happiness and simply lived out the rest of their lives as if nothing had happened. By leaving central questions unanswered Heliodoros is able to hold large spans of text together, and the most important answers, when they do arrive, involve decisive change for the protagonists. Both these strategies imply an interpretatively active reader. The opening of the novel is deservedly famous.11 A gang of bandits come across a beached ship, surrounded by twitching corpses and the wreckage of a banquet. Through their eyes, and with their ignorance of what has taken place, the reader is made to assimilate the scene in obsessive but unexplained visual detail. In the midst of the carnage sits a fabulously beautiful young woman, nursing a fabulously handsome young man. It does not take long to identify them as the hero and heroine of the novel, and learn that their names are Theagenes and Charikleia, but Heliodoros tantalizes us over further details. Thus at the very beginning of the novel two riddles are established: what has hap­ pened on the beach? and who exactly are the hero and heroine? Heliodoros prolongs the reader’s ignorance by his characteristic use of partial viewpoint. Sometimes, as with the bandits, there is a fictional audience whose specific perceptions act as a channel of partial information to the reader, but elsewhere Heliodoros as narrator simply relates what an uninformed witness of the events would have seen or heard. For example, we are only allowed to find out about the hero and heroine as they speak to others r are spoken about: Heliodoros as author knows all about them but keeps quiet in favour of his recording but not explaining narrative voice. The opening scene is eventually disambiguated by Kalasiris, an Egyptian priest. He regales Knemon, a surrogate reader within the text who shares the real reader’s curiosity about the protagonists, with a long story, beginning in Book 2, of how he met Charikleia at Delphi, witnessed the birth of her love for Theagenes and helped the lovers to elope. He chronicles their subsequent experiences, until at the end of Book 5, half-way through the novel, the story circles back to its own beginning and at last resolves the mystery of the scene on the beach.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. e038530
Author(s):  
Francesca L Cavallaro ◽  
Ruth Gilbert ◽  
Linda Wijlaars ◽  
Eilis Kennedy ◽  
Ailsa Swarbrick ◽  
...  

IntroductionAlmost 20 000 babies are born to teenage mothers each year in England, with poorer outcomes for mothers and babies than among older mothers. A nurse home visitation programme in the USA was found to improve a wide range of outcomes for young mothers and their children. However, a randomised controlled trial in England found no effect on short-term primary outcomes, although cognitive development up to age 2 showed improvement. Our study will use linked routinely collected health, education and social care data to evaluate the real-world effects of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) on child outcomes up to age 7, with a focus on identifying whether the FNP works better for particular groups of families, thereby informing programme targeting and resource allocation.Methods and analysisWe will construct a retrospective cohort of all women aged 13–24 years giving birth in English NHS hospitals between 2010 and 2017, linking information on mothers and children from FNP programme data, Hospital Episodes Statistics and the National Pupil Database. To assess the effectiveness of FNP, we will compare outcomes for eligible mothers ever and never enrolled in FNP, and their children, using two analysis strategies to adjust for measured confounding: propensity score matching and analyses adjusting for maternal characteristics up to enrolment/28 weeks gestation. Outcomes of interest include early childhood development, childhood unplanned hospital admissions for injury or maltreatment-related diagnoses and children in care. Subgroup analyses will determine whether the effect of FNP varied according to maternal characteristics (eg, age and education).Ethics and disseminationThe Nottingham Research Ethics Committee approved this study. Mothers participating in FNP were supportive of our planned research. Results will inform policy-makers for targeting home visiting programmes. Methodological findings on the accuracy and reliability of cross-sectoral data linkage will be of interest to researchers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 2631-2640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohua Zhang ◽  
Xinhui Bi ◽  
Ning Qiu ◽  
Bingxue Han ◽  
Qinhao Lin ◽  
...  

Abstract. Knowledge on the microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols is essential to better evaluate their radiative forcing. This paper presents an estimate of the real part of the refractive indices (n) and effective densities (ρeff) of chemically segregated atmospheric aerosols in Guangzhou, China. Vacuum aerodynamic diameter, chemical compositions, and light-scattering intensities of individual particles were simultaneously measured by a single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) during the fall of 2012. On the basis of Mie theory, n at a wavelength of 532 nm and ρeff were estimated for 17 particle types in four categories: organics (OC), elemental carbon (EC), internally mixed EC and OC (ECOC), and Metal-rich. The results indicate the presence of spherical or nearly spherical shapes for the majority of particle types, whose partial scattering cross-section versus sizes were well fitted to Mie theoretical modeling results. While sharing n in a narrow range (1.47–1.53), majority of particle types exhibited a wide range of ρeff (0.87–1.51 g cm−3). The OC group is associated with the lowest ρeff (0.87–1.07 g cm−3), and the Metal-rich group with the highest ones (1.29–1.51 g cm−3). It is noteworthy that a specific EC type exhibits a complex scattering curve versus size due to the presence of both compact and irregularly shaped particles. Overall, the results on the detailed relationship between physical and chemical properties benefits future research on the impact of aerosols on visibility and climate.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document