Metanarrative Autofiction: Critical Engagement with Cultural Narrative Models

This chapter examines a new form of autofiction that has emerged in the twenty-first century, which the chapter proposes to call metanarrative autofiction. Such writing displays awareness of how our ways of narrating our lives are socially, culturally, and historically conditioned. The chapter conceptualizes metanarrativity in this context as a form of self-reflexive storytelling that makes narrative its theme, reflecting not only on the process of its own narration but also on the roles of cultural narrative models in making sense of our lives. The chapter discusses affordances of metanarrative autofiction in Annie Ernaux’s Les Années (The Years) (2008), Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Min kamp (My Struggle) (2009–2011), and the Finnish singer-songwriter Astrid Swan’s Viimeinen kirjani (2019, My Last Book).

Gendering Madness and Doubling Disability in Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre has a well-designed structure of a bildungsroman that focuses on the pursuit of Jane’s desire and ignores the same for Bertha. The conceptual structure conveys a linear discourse to determine a prefixed understanding of Bertha, Jane, and Rochester. In Bertha’s context, the bildungsroman operates to deliver issues of race, gender, and disability in an existential quest to ascertain and establish her madness. There is a well-designed structural correspondence of bildungsroman, interplay of dark and light binary, the desire of Jane against the asexual Bertha, and the metaphor of fire in mapping the doubling. The literary devices serve as a dominant metaphorical barrier to normalcy in Thornfield. The paper considers this authorial viewpoint on Bertha’s sickness as a construct of a parallel gendered and a more potent conceptualisation of madness. In problematising madness, the paper argues a cultural narrative of representation that is affected by the impaired mind of Bertha. It will interrogate how the narrative systematically forges a doubling within which she is objectified, influenced, muted, bounded and characteristically disabled.

A New Heart for East Porirua, Waitangirua

<p>Waitangirua is a vital piece of the puzzle when completing the Porirua Regeneration Scheme and The Transmission Gully Motorway. Waitangirua is a small suburb of 4020 residents located in the East of Porirua City. The current regeneration of East Porirua is seeing 2000 state homes being renovated or demolished and 2000 additional dwellings on site. With that in mind, a transmission gully link road drives straight to the heart of the community’s village centre: this road alone will see an additional 3000-4000 cars travelling down it daily. Waitangirua currently hosts a diverse and young population, but it lacks the architectural features to encourage diversity and social interaction. With Transmission Gully’s completion in 2020 and the regeneration at the beginning of its 25-year plan, it is timely to think about the future of Waitangirua, not only for the social growth of the suburb but also the liveability for the community. The current village centre does not match its neighbourhood, let alone have the capability to host all these new people. Leading to the research question, ‘How can an under-utilised centre be re-imagined for the social growth and liveability of its residents?’ This thesis examines the importance of connections for social growth and liveability; while considering the priority of community engagements in the success of the design. It also investigates the significance of architecture and urban planning in integrating the identity of the community and their culture into the design schemes. A New Heart for East Porirua proposes this can be achieved by renewing the flow and connection of the people; to each other, their village centre and wider Porirua. At the same time as engaging with the community and cultural narrative to enhance the site; and finally, by re-imagining the under-utilised centre and community hub in a holistic approach for the on-going journey of the community of Waitangirua.</p>

A New Heart for East Porirua, Waitangirua

<p>Waitangirua is a vital piece of the puzzle when completing the Porirua Regeneration Scheme and The Transmission Gully Motorway. Waitangirua is a small suburb of 4020 residents located in the East of Porirua City. The current regeneration of East Porirua is seeing 2000 state homes being renovated or demolished and 2000 additional dwellings on site. With that in mind, a transmission gully link road drives straight to the heart of the community’s village centre: this road alone will see an additional 3000-4000 cars travelling down it daily. Waitangirua currently hosts a diverse and young population, but it lacks the architectural features to encourage diversity and social interaction. With Transmission Gully’s completion in 2020 and the regeneration at the beginning of its 25-year plan, it is timely to think about the future of Waitangirua, not only for the social growth of the suburb but also the liveability for the community. The current village centre does not match its neighbourhood, let alone have the capability to host all these new people. Leading to the research question, ‘How can an under-utilised centre be re-imagined for the social growth and liveability of its residents?’ This thesis examines the importance of connections for social growth and liveability; while considering the priority of community engagements in the success of the design. It also investigates the significance of architecture and urban planning in integrating the identity of the community and their culture into the design schemes. A New Heart for East Porirua proposes this can be achieved by renewing the flow and connection of the people; to each other, their village centre and wider Porirua. At the same time as engaging with the community and cultural narrative to enhance the site; and finally, by re-imagining the under-utilised centre and community hub in a holistic approach for the on-going journey of the community of Waitangirua.</p>

Yvonne Delhey, Rolf Parr and Kerstin Wilhelms (eds.), Autofiktion als Utopie // Autofiction as Utopia

This volume, emerging from a conference, brings into conversation research on the two title-words autofiction and utopia. It focuses on what the introduction defines as the point of convergence of these genres or writing modes: the desire to shape reality according to one’s individual vision, which, the editors note, can serve as critical commentary on society (1). In exploring this intersection, the volume takes up an important strand in the discussion on autofiction, namely the one about its potential functions both for individual authors and for society more broadly. Autofiction has been argued to not only allow individuals to express and transform themselves, but also to, for example, empower author and readers with narrative agency by challenging dominant cultural narrative models (Meretoja 2021) and work towards post-conflict reconciliation (Dix 2021).

"Cultural Narrative" about European Identity in the Context of Personal Stories (Reflections on the Book by Orlando Figes)

Статья содержит рефлексии по поводу книги известного английского историка-рос-сиеведа О. Файджеса «Европейцы. Три жизни и рождение космополитической культуры», его подхода к репрезентации биографической истории И.С. Тургенева, П. Ви-ардо и Л. Виардо в контексте складывания общеевропейской культуры во второй по-ловине XIX века. Особое внимание уделено методологической значимости присутствующих в рецензируемой книге и формирующихся в современной историографии таких трендов как «новый нарратив», «история репрезентаций» и «новая биографическая история», а также дискуссии о смыслах концепта «европейскости» как характеристики над-этнической идентичности и о ее проявлениях на микро- и макро-уровнях в меняющемся и модернизирующемся историко-культурном пространстве Российской империи и Европы в XIX в. The article contains reflections on the book by a famous English historian – Russian scholar O. Figes "Europeans. Three lives and the birth of cosmopolitan culture", his approaches to the representation of the biographical history of I. S. Turgenev, P. Viardot and L. Viardot in the context of the formation of pan-European culture in the second half of the XIX century. Special attention is paid to the methodological significance of such trends as "new narrative", "history of representations" and "new biographical history" present in the reviewed book and emerging in modern historiography, as well as discussions about the meanings of the concept of "Europeanness" as a characteristic of supra-ethnic identity and about its manifestations at micro and macro levels in the changing and modernizing historical and cultural space of the Russian Empire and Europe in the XIX century.

Tirohanga Whanui Footbridge, Auckland, NZ

<p>Māori, the tangata whenua (people of the land) in Aoteroa (New Zealand), have very rich, deep-seated cultural connections with wahi (place) and nature. Clients, designers and constructors alike, have begun to understand that ‘story telling’ and ‘place making’ are mutually inclusive strengths. This has seen a steadily growing trend in the New Zealand bridge landscape, where kōrero (cultural narrative) is incorporated in design and delivery of projects large and small.</p><p>The Tirohanga Whānui (panoramic views) Footbridge in Auckland is a project where kōrero is integrated into the design. The bridge is an example of architectural design through kōrero, parametric design and structural features. The 104m long three span truss hybrid has organic voids with apertures that vary in response to the stresses in the structure. With the people-focused cultural lens in mind, the bridge detailing will be discussed.</p><p>This paper will also highlight the unique features of a few bridge projects from Aotearoa (New Zealand), showing the smart and sometimes subtle connections these bridges have with nature and iwi (local community or tribe).</p><p>Fig 1. Tirohanga Whānui Footbridge visualization, used extensively in 2D and VR formats through the engagement process with Iwi and other stakeholders</p>

The Revisionist Western and the Mythic Past

The role of myth in the Western has frequently been understood as that of cultural mystification, naturalizing the systemic violence that accompanied America’s westward expansion. Within this understanding, the sub-genre of the revisionist Western is understood to intervene with “counter-mythic” discourse. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and McCabe and Mrs. Miller, however, myth emerges not merely as revisionist cultural narrative, but as a spatiotemporal aesthetic of experience, a sensibility conveying an imagined time-outside-of-time. In distinct ways, both films encourage us to imagine a mythic experience of the past through the soundtrack. Burt Bacharach’s pop score for Butch Cassidy and the use of Leonard Cohen’s songs in McCabe and Mrs. Miller distinctly position each film within a mythic space of timelessness in which the immediate present of a contemporary experience and the distancing effects of historicity might be imagined as blurring and freely flowing into one another.

We’re Not That Choosy: Emerging Evidence of a Progression Bias in Romantic Relationships

Dating is widely thought of as a test phase for romantic relationships, during which new romantic partners carefully evaluate each other for long-term fit. However, this cultural narrative assumes that people are well equipped to reject poorly suited partners. In this article, we argue that humans are biased toward pro-relationship decisions—decisions that favor the initiation, advancement, and maintenance of romantic relationships. We first review evidence for a progression bias in the context of relationship initiation, investment, and breakup decisions. We next consider possible theoretical underpinnings—both evolutionary and cultural—that may explain why getting into a relationship is often easier than getting out of one, and why being in a less desirable relationship is often preferred over being in no relationship at all. We discuss potential boundary conditions that the phenomenon may have, as well as its implications for existing theoretical models of mate selection and relationship development.