Tattoos Tell Stories: Children’s Literature Tattoos as a Form of Life Narrative

Tattoos and children’s literature seem to have little in common, but they come together in the form of children’s literature tattoos, which I argue in this article to be a new form of life narrative. A lot of literary tattoos are inspired by children’s literature such as the Harry Potter-series and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Despite being inspired by a literary work, the tattoos function as personal memoirs of childhood as well as a reflection of the tattooees’ hopes for the future and who they want to become. I empirically study these children’s literature tattoos as life narratives by combining three data sets: blogs with personal stories related to literary tattoos, an online questionnaire about the meaning of children’s literature tattoos for tattooees themselves, and semi-structured interviews. Based on my research, I argue that children’s literature tattoos tell personal stories about the tattooees and their lives and can thus be considered a form of life narrative. Children’s literature tattoos narrate what someone has been through, what someone likes, but most of all the things that shape the person and that they hope will continue to shape them in the future.

Opening Possibilities for a Meaningful Life Narrative Identity in Service of Existential Health and Spiritual Care

Paul Ricoeur's understanding of philosophical hermeneutics offers a valuable tool to think about the meaning of life. By approaching philosophy as a way of living through the need for meaning, Ricoeur places his hermeneutics between two common directions in twentieth-century philosophy as a way of living, Sartrean humanism and Foucauldian antihumanism. As such, Ricoeur's narrative conception of the self can contribute to rethinking a conception of existential health and spiritual care.

An Exploration of Karna’s Last Days through the Prism of Aristotle's Hamartia

Purpose: The Mahabharata by Vyasa and the Iliad by Homer both have a surfeit of Heroes. The two great heroes are Karna from the Mahabharata and Achilles from the Iliad. They have a few things in common as their lives are heavily influenced by fate. As fate is inescapable, they confronted their death head-on. The figures of Karna and Achilles stand out dramatically in both Indian and Greek mythology respectively casting everyone else in the gloom, thus making both the masterpieces incomplete without these heroes. Though these spartan heroes were invincible due to their origin, they lay their lives in Kurukshetra and Trojan wars respectively. They decided to be glorious despite knowing the fact that they would die in the battle. Few characters in the ancient literature have been drawn with such perfect skill and insight into human nature as Maharathi Karna, a character who has never been truly understood, has been continually misinterpreted despite the completeness, candor, and clarity of the amazing Epic in providing us with specifics of his existence. The most important aspect of his life narrative which is often overlooked or glossed over by modern writers which has far-reaching implications is that Karna was born out of wedlock and so cast away at birth. His adroitness and the values he lived and loved for standing him in good stead for a hero. Design / Methodology/Approach: The paper is prepared by accumulating secondary data from educational websites and written articles. The study shall be carried out with the use of Research Journals, Scholarly Books, Doctoral Theses, and websites. This qualitative research is carried out by studying and interpreting the existing knowledge on the subject using the keywords “Karna”, “Epic”, “Tragic flaw”, “Battle”, “Loyalty” which are accessible in online articles, peer-reviewed journals, publications and a variety of related portals. Findings/Result: Karna's entire life was spent trying to figure out who he was and to find an answer to the same. Karna's life also shows us how life is full of unrelenting choices; the options being limited. Friendship with someone who has aided at times of need and to whom one has sworn lifelong loyalty and friendship is admirable, but there must be a fine line drawn between this duty and other, more important responsibilities. Karna is, without a doubt, a figure who, in Aristotelian terminology, possesses the classical features of a tragic hero, as well as a figure with a great deal of literary potential. Originality/Value: This paper attempts to make a sincere study of Karna as a tragic hero under classical examples of Aristotle's ‘Hamartia’ where a hero wants to ‘Triumph’ but while doing so he commits an intentional error and ends up achieving exactly the opposite with disastrous results. The story of the life of Karna is pre-eminently great nevertheless fate and destiny played an unwarranted and calamitous game facilitating the reader of the Epic to identify himself or herself with the Tragic Hero. Paper Type: Exploratory research paper.

Introduction: Where is Medieval Pragmatics?

This book recovers pragmatics within the history of medieval linguistics. The introduction outlines the study of pragmatics from a critical history of linguistics perspective, situating language study in a complex social field and comparing medieval pragmatic ideas and metapragmatics with assumptions in contemporary pragmatic theory. Pragmatics embraces communication, expression, and understanding; it prioritizes meaning, context, affect, and speaking position over formal grammar. Relevant texts for late medieval pragmatics include grammatical and logical texts, especially those by Roger Bacon, Robert Kilwardby, and anonymous grammarians, and Peter (of) John Olivi. Other sources for medieval pragmatics include life narrative (Margery Kempe), poetry (Chaucer), and heresy records. Theoretical and everyday texts reveal provocative intersections of Latin and vernacular intellectual and religious cultures and different assumptions and ideologies concerning meaning, speech, and speakers. Across these heterogenous, sometimes antagonistic discursive fields, medieval intellectual history crosses paths with social history.