Narrative Strategies

Yuliya Minets. Works of Palladius of Helenopolis in the context of creation of ideals of Christian life: Historical and social aspect. – Manuscript.
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Candidate of Science in History with major 07.00.02 – World History. – National university of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. – Kyiv, 2010. 
The main research question of my dissertation is the use of biblical texts to construct ideals of exemplary Christian lives in Late Antique writings; I pay particular attention to the different purposes and the target audiences of the texts analyzed. I investigate the narrative structures where the biblical quotations, references, and allusions to the Scripture were used as well as their understanding and interpretation by Late Antique Christian authors, that is, the meanings which were read into the sacred texts and used for developing ideas and ideal images of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries. The main sources for the study are two texts of Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis – the Lausiac History and the Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom.
Key words: Palladius of Helenopolis, Lausiac History, Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom, Late Antiquity, the Bible, Christian ideals, narrative strategies, interpretation, target audience.

Минец Ю. О. Творчество Палладия Еленопольского в контексте формирования идеалов христианской жизни: Историко-социальный аспект. – Рукопись.
Диссертация на соискание ученой степени кандидата исторических наук по специальности 07.00.02 – Всемирная история. – Национальный университет «Киево-Могилянская Академия». – Киев, 2010.
В диссертации исследовано творчество Палладия Еленопольского, его роль и значение в формировании идеалов христианской жизни, а именно - рассмотрены стратегии использования, модификации и интерпретации текстов Библии в его произведениях, с учетом разной направленности и целевой аудитории текстов, чем и обуславливается историко-социальный аспект работы. Проанализирована биография и интеллектуальная среда Палладия Еленопольского в контексте церковно-политических событий и теологических дебатов на рубеже IV-V ст.; исследована история текста и проведён источниковедческий анализ произведений Палладия. Прослежены особенности библейских текстов, привлечённых Палладием в свои произведения, проанализированы нарративные конструкции, в которых использованы библейские цитаты, ссылки и аллюзии, а также контекстуальные изменения, ими обусловленные.
Рассмотрено соотношение использования и модификации библейских текстов с целевой аудиторией произведений Палладия, целью и исторической ситуацией их написания. Такие понятия, как мудрость, внешность праведника, гордыня, эсхатологические вопросы, оценка смешанных женско-мужских аскетических сообществ получили различные характеристики от автора в двух произведениях, что может объясняться принадлежностью их к разным сферам христианского дискурса Поздней Античности. В Лавсаике Палладий склонен подавать идеи и ожидания близкие мировоззрению аскетических сообществ и, вероятно, значительной части светских людей, что отображает популярный уровень понимания библейских слов и идей. Напротив, идеи Диалога отвечают ожиданиям и взглядам церковной и светской элиты. Разной целевой аудиторией и, возможно, разным временем написания отдельных фрагментов Лавсаика, а также тенденцией к примирению автора с официальными кругами Константинополя могут объясняться расхождения в использовании библейского материала, изложении взглядов на подвижничество и различные образы святости, имеющиеся в Прологе и в основной части Лавсаика. В основной части Палладий нередко следует аскетическим идеям Евагрия Понтийского; в то время как в Прологе он придерживается более ортодоксальных взглядов, близких к идеям Василия Кесарийского. Основные библейские образы и сюжеты в Диалоге позволяют допустить, что потенциальной аудиторией, которая была заинтересована в такой трактовке, были сторонники Иоанна. Будучи священниками и епископами, которые после изгнания их патрона подверглись преследованиям, в 400-410-х гг. они нуждались в соответствующем нарративе для того, чтобы создать своего героя, засвидетельствовать собственный героизм в его поддержке и оправдать свои страдания за правое дело.
Соотнесены стратегии использования Библии в Лавсаике и Диалоге с теми, что встречаются у авторов, близких Палладию и интеллектуально повлиявших на него. Произведения Иоанна Хризостома были известны Палладию, но в то же время он является достаточно оригинальным автором как с точки зрения изложенных идей, так и относительно использования примеров Писания. В Лавсаике Палладий в целом наследует использование библейской топики и образности Vita Antonii Афанасия Александрийского, характерную для агиографического жанра. Характер привлечения библейских образов в Лавсаике и Apophthegmata Partum свидетельствует, что тексты передают характер понимания Библии, близкий группам подвижников египетской пустыни. Нельзя сказать, что Палладий систематически следует Евагрию в изложении идей подвижничества, но в интерпретации определённых библейских пассажей заметно влияние его аскетической теологии.
Ключевые слова: Палладий Еленопольский, Лавсаик, Диалог про жизнь Иоанна Хризостома, Поздняя Античность, Библия, христианские идеалы, нарративные стратегии, интерпретация, целевая аудитория.

This article examines characterisation and symbolism as narrative strategies that challenge anti-LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) cultures in four short stories – Stanley Kenani’s “Love on Trial” and “In the Best Interests of the Child”, Monica Arac de Nyeko’s “Jambula Tree” and Beatrice Lamwaka’s “Chief of the Home”. The main thrust of the article is that gender as represented in these works of fiction does not conform to the hegemonic social binaries prevalent in Malawi and Uganda, the national contexts for these stories. Instead, it is performative rather than fixed, and more fluid than hegemonic conceptions would have it. Using the Butlerian notion of gender performativity, this article demonstrates how the aforementioned narrative strategies are used to critique cultures (and other social establishments such as laws and religions) that are eventually liable for the prevalent homophobic attitudes towards LGBTI, particularly homosexuality and lesbianism. The article reads the selected stories in ways that help challenge widespread and entrenched bigotry regarding alternative sexualities.

В диссертации анализируются динамические процессы, происходившие в повествовательной структуре жанра путешествия конца ХVIII – первой трети ХIХ веков, выявляются основные нарративные модели жанра в русской и западноевропейской беллетристике данного историко-литературного периода, определяются эволюционные изменения повествовательной структуры жанра путешествия в смене литературных эпох; выявляется взаимосвязь между жанровой моделью мира и спецификой ее нарративного структурирования

Concentrating on the series of eight sculpted panels of the life of Mary on the Holy House in Loreto, this contribution investigates the similarities and differences of a story told through a sequence of images between historical and modern media. The low reliefs are first analysed appropriately using the basic structural elements of film narration and communication made with cinematographic tools is then presented to identify strategies for enhancement that pertain more closely to contemporary users.

Robert Altman's overlapping dialogue as used in M*A*S*H (1970) is examined as a means to bring authenticity to narrative, because it was used as a narrative strategy to convey specific psychological and emotional cues), and to help
the spectator construct the narrative, and to attain an authenticity on par with the image.

En “Barn Burning”, el cuento de William Faulkner, se narra el proceso de crecimiento y maduración de un niño  que debe enfrentar el conflicto de elegir entre diferentes formas de hacer justicia, tironeado por la necesidad de decidir entre ser leal a los vínculos de sangre o a los mandatos de su propia conciencia. El protagonista de este cuento, Sarty Snopes, es un niño de diez años que se ve obligado a crecer de golpe, empujado por su padre hacia una adultez temprana. En este trabajo analizaremos las estrategias narrativas empleadas por Faulkner para configurar el narrador sutil y complejo de este relato, cuya función principal es la de transmitir e interpretar la angustia del niño.

Adaptations of literary works into films can be examined from different aspects. This study takes the analysis of narrative as its basis and for that goal it makes use of David Bordwell’s distinction between fabula and syuzhet in his Narration in the Fiction Film. It narrows down its study of syuzhet to Bordwell’s categorization of narrative strategies into narrative self-consciousness, knowledge, and communicativeness. As McEwan’s two novels, Atonement and Enduring Love, are both self-conscious works, the thesis takes the comparison between the novels and their screen adaptations’ self-consciousness as its main focus, using Bordwell’s categorization as well as Linda Hutcheon’s theories on metafiction and metafictional paradox. It will also examine how the other two strategies (the knowledge and communicativeness strategy) contribute to the works’ self-consciousness. Using Linda Hutcheon’s theories on adaptation, the study aims to examine the motivations of the adapters to analyze the impacts that they can have on the self-conscious strategy of the narratives throughout the adaptation process and onto the final product. In this regard, Hutcheon’s study of the quality of the immersion of the reader/audience into the illusion of narrative works with different degrees of self-consciousness would be pertinent.

Keywords: Adaptation, Narrative, Self-consciousness, Illusion, Immersion, Ian McEwan, David Bordwell, Linda Hutcheon

Contents:
Anne Betten: Introduction to the Following Three Articles, 11-14;
Anne Betten: Telling Stories as Means of Argumentation. Narratives about Youth Experiences in Interviews with Second Generation "Yekkes", 15-32;
Patrick Farges: Pioneers, Losers, White Collars: Narratives of Masculinity Among German-Speaking Jews in Palestine/Israel, 33-50;
Simona Leonardi: Metaphors in the Life Story of a German-Jewish Immigrant to Palestine/Israel. How Metaphorical Constructions and Remembering Process Interweave, 51-68.

Choice of language is one of the most important aspects of oral performance that is closely related to the issues of social differentiation, power and control in the society. Language was an instrument that created the special relationship between the speaker, the audience, and the message in the multilingual culture of Late Antiquity. The goal of this study is to investigate the meaning and purpose of the remarks that a particular language was used by characters of the early Christian narratives, and the correspondence of these remarks to the context of the performance.
We examine a selection of the Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic texts from the 4th to the 6th century which belong to different genres: hagiography, homiletics, travelogues, epistles, and missionary narratives.
We are able to define several strategies beyond the references to a particular spoken language in these narratives. When the author emphasized the difference between the language of the text characters and that of its readers, or indicated the need for interpreters, he created the alienation effect that helped to construct a mental distance between the events narrated, the text as a medium, and the audience (Athanasius's Life of Antony 16.1; Palladius's Lausiac History 21.15, Theodoret, Religious History 13.7). On contrary, the instances when the obvious linguistic barriers were ignored in the text underplayed the presence of the ‘other’ and highlighted the integrity of the Christian universe (Egeria's Travelling, where she almost never mentioned the language she communicated with local people, with the only exception of ch.47). The command of foreign languages was represented as a sign of God's grace (The History of the Egyptian monks 6.3, 8.61-62); even unsuccessful attempts of a monastic leader to learn a foreign language could be considered praiseworthy since they had been undertaken to comfort a disciple, who was a speaker of another tongue (The Bohairic Life of Pachomius 89). Moreover, the deficient knowledge of a foreign language (Theodoret, Religious History 8.2), or the lack of such knowledge (John Chrysostom, On the Statues 19, Baptismal instructions 8) were effective characteristics in the descriptions of the genuine Christians, since the pious way of life was considered more important than eloquence and rhetorical skills. The gift of xenoglossia, or the miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages, helped to construct the image of a holy man (Ephrem the Syrian and Basil the Great in the Syriac Life of Ephrem); however, in the different context, unexpected ability to speak in a foreign language was reported as a sign of possession by the demonic powers (Jerome, Life of Hilarion 22). The linguistic barriers were important to protect one’s privacy, particularly, to keep in secret something discovered by God's revelation (The History of the Egyptian monks 10.25).
The analysis of the narratives which describe real or imaginary situations of interactions of people speaking in different languages contributes to the better understanding of the symbolic and contextual meaning of languages in Late Antiquity, and the performative strategies beyond these situations.

The castaway narrative, no matter the period when it was written, reflects and articulates the most significant phases in the development of the Western world. The social, the historical and the cultural levels are the areas where this connection can be best noticed through historical and political events such as the rise and the fall of colonialism. These fictions, rewriting the robinsonade in a postmodern key, are concerned with questioning, undermining and subverting absolutisms, authority, progress, history, reason and ideologies, and they often involve a reimagining of certain historical events or fictional texts. To sum up, many postmodern castaway tales, such as our three texts, incorporate features as irony, allegory, paranoia or pastiche that are operating upon the basic elements withdrawn from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and are transforming the figure of the castaway in a postmodern myth.

Doris Lessing experiments with interactional and relational patterns that act
similar to the analyst-analysand pattern in psychotherapy. Her persona as self-writer
manipulates intrapersonal interactions among her multiple selves. Similarly,
her characters involve in self-reflexive interpersonal dialogues and relationships
that leads to a therapeutic goal.

Consortiums of international educational partnerships have the potential to assist countries such as Afghanistan struggling to break a long cycle of poverty and violence. This paper draws upon doctoral research on transformative educational partnerships as well as personal experiences working as an academic advisor for strategic initiatives within Afghanistan. The paper argues that current trends in higher education indicate that now is the time to promote international educational partnerships which can transform educational practice and international relations on a global scale.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the creation of narrative structures outside of print-based media. The projects are not specific to any particular “use value,” i.e. film credits for a particular movie, or a mock television promo. To do so, would be to rely on a student’s preconception of what narrative structures are, which is to say, rely on what he or she has already seen on television or other media. Instead, the assignments asks a students to “tell stories” or react to an individual’s own experiences.

The plot of the novel ‘Madame’ by Antoni Libera takes place in Poland in the sixties, in the times of the real socialism. The author, through the statements and behavior of the characters, presents two different attitudes towards the Spanish Civil War: first, revealed by the official propaganda, and the second popular among the opponents of the regime. Therefore, the memory of the Civil War, modified and appropriated by the followers of two different ideologies, has become a tool used by the author to contrast two opposing discourses about history of the 20th century. In this way, the memory of the tragic events has come to the background, simply becoming part of the narrative strategy.

Довбищенко Ф.В. Наративні стратегії давньогрецької історіографії (на матеріалі творів Ксенофонта та Геродіана). – Кваліфікаційна наукова праця на правах рукопису.
Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня доктора філософії за спеціальністю 035 «Філологія» (03 – Гуманітарні науки). – Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка. – Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка, Київ, 2020.
Ключові слова дисертації: наративні стратегії, давньогрецька історіографія, наратологія, авторська комунікація, нараторська комунікація, рецептивна естетика, перипетія, золотий перетин, Ксенофонт, Геродіан.

Dovbyshchenko F.V. Narrative Strategies of Ancient Greek Historiography (Based on the Works of Xenophon and Herodian). - Qualifying scientific work on the rights of the manuscript.
The PhD thesis on competition of a scientific degree of the doctor of philosophy on a specialty 035 “Philology” (03 – Humanities). – Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. – Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, 2020.
Key words of the PhD thesis: narrative strategies, ancient Greek historiography, narratology, authorial communication, narratorial communication, reader-response criticism, peripeteia, golden ratio, Xenophon, Herodian.

This article builds on reading short proses written by Stanislav Rakus only published in magazines, e.g. literary magazines Slovenske pohlady, Mlada tvorba, Maticne citanie, between 1963 and 1976. His early works include nine almost unknown proses (and one poem) which give the background to studying poetological aspects of the text, e.g. narrative strategies, metamorphoses of the character-outsider, the relationship between the high and the low, the motif of death, the short story pattern etc. One of the primary levels of meanings in Rakus''s early short stories is oscillation between allegorical depiction of an enclosed system (totality) and absurd climax of a story. In this respect many structural similarities can be found between Rakus''s proses and debuting Dusan Mitana''s absurd short stories, mostly in terms of composition, character-outsider variety and narrative strategy. Two exceptions to Rakus''s absurd short proses are stories Matej Urias and Kosti (Bones) both set in fantastical-mythical enviroment, which make it hard for the reader to reconstruct the thematic background. The author uses allegorical techniques to expand and destroy the personality cult. He does not depict a particular period of history, but openly speaks of human conformity, cowardice as well as inability to face the evil, that is the qualities which are universal and timeless.

Stories by elderly people of their own lives often tell about experiences in a changing world but also the ways in which people cope with the continuous change occurring around them. In my PhD research in which I examined the life narrative of a female laborer, my grandmother Elsa Koskinen born in 1927, I argued that nostalgia functions as a narrative strategy to highlight the importance of values such as social responsibility and togetherness. In addition, nostalgic narratives can also be seen as reclamation of agency, an attempt to control change. In this article I will examine nostalgia as a complex narrative strategy paying attention to the situations in which nostalgia occurs in the interaction between me and Elsa and consider how nostalgia connects to the ways in which the past is represented for younger generations.

Choice of language is one of the most important aspects of oral performance that is closely related to the issues of social differentiation, power and control in the society. Language was an instrument that created the special relationship between the speaker, the audience, and the message in the multilingual culture of Late Antiquity. The goal of this study is to investigate the meaning and purpose of the remarks that a particular language was used by characters of the early Christian narratives, and the correspondence of these remarks to the context of the performance.
We examine a selection of the Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic texts from the 4th to the 6th century which belong to different genres: hagiography, homiletics, travelogues, epistles, and missionary narratives.
We are able to define several strategies beyond the references to a particular spoken language in these narratives. When the author emphasized the difference between the language of the text characters and that of its readers, or indicated the need for interpreters, he created the alienation effect that helped to construct a mental distance between the events narrated, the text as a medium, and the audience (Athanasius's Life of Antony 16.1; Palladius's Lausiac History 21.15, Theodoret, Religious History 13.7). On contrary, the instances when the obvious linguistic barriers were ignored in the text underplayed the presence of the ‘other’ and highlighted the integrity of the Christian universe (Egeria's Travelling, where she almost never mentioned the language she communicated with local people, with the only exception of ch.47). The command of foreign languages was represented as a sign of God's grace (The History of the Egyptian monks 6.3, 8.61-62); even unsuccessful attempts of a monastic leader to learn a foreign language could be considered praiseworthy since they had been undertaken to comfort a disciple, who was a speaker of another tongue (The Bohairic Life of Pachomius 89). Moreover, the deficient knowledge of a foreign language (Theodoret, Religious History 8.2), or the lack of such knowledge (John Chrysostom, On the Statues 19, Baptismal instructions 8) were effective characteristics in the descriptions of the genuine Christians, since the pious way of life was considered more important than eloquence and rhetorical skills. The gift of xenoglossia, or the miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages, helped to construct the image of a holy man (Ephrem the Syrian and Basil the Great in the Syriac Life of Ephrem); however, in the different context, unexpected ability to speak in a foreign language was reported as a sign of possession by the demonic powers (Jerome, Life of Hilarion 22). The linguistic barriers were important to protect one’s privacy, particularly, to keep in secret something discovered by God's revelation (The History of the Egyptian monks 10.25).
The analysis of the narratives which describe real or imaginary situations of interactions of people speaking in different languages contributes to the better understanding of the symbolic and contextual meaning of languages in Late Antiquity, and the performative strategies beyond these situations.

How to End Things in Arabic Literature Every text or, to be more precise, every reading of a text, has a beginning and an end. While one could call into question this linear perception in times of textual linkage and seemingly never-ending writing and reading processes, the end is a hermeneutic category that affects our processes of understanding. The beginning of books and texts, prefaces and introductions in particular, has been a research interest for some time. The end, on the other hand, is still a quite unknown territory in Arabic studies although authors apparently took great care in shaping the final passage of their works. At the same time, the end of any text is the starting point of a hermeneutic process with many open questions. It is the last chance to silence potential criticism, to guide the reader, to create a certain image of the author, to suggest possible readings.

Associé à une littérature ludique qui exploite les potentialités du langage et déconstruit les mécanismes du roman classique, Éric Chevillard s’inscrit à sa propre façon dans le cadre de la littérature militante. Par une narration atypique et une écriture singulière, il engage une lutte non contre des injustices sociales, politiques ou économiques, mais contre la littérature stéréotypée, plate et triviale dans ses formes. S’appuyant sur les théories relatives aux stratégies narratives des textes romanesques et militants, le présent article s’attachera à analyser Démolir Nisard, un de ses textes les plus violents, pour montrer les modalités et les enjeux du récit inspiré par le genre à visée typiquement politique : le pamphlet.

Éric Chevillard, associated mainly with ludic literature, which plays with the word and deconstructs novelistic conventions, in his own way inscribes himself in the tradition of engaged literature. By means of atypical narration and singular style he fights against not so much social, political or economic injustice as stereotypical literature in all its triviality and formulaicity. Relying on selected theories of narrative strategies characteristic of novels and militant texts, the present paper analyses Démolir Nisard, one of Chevillard’s most confrontational texts, and thus discusses modalities and assumptions of the work inspired by the overtly political genre – the pamphlet.