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Sample records for fiction chapter iii

  1. The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    G.M. Whiteman (Gail); N. Phillips (Nelson)

    2006-01-01

    textabstractIn this chapter, we discuss the use of narrative fiction and semi-fiction in organizational research and explore the strengths and weaknesses of these alternative approaches. We begin with an introduction reviewing the existing literature and clarifying what we mean by fiction and

  2. The history of science fiction

    CERN Document Server

    Roberts, Adam

    2016-01-01

    This book is the definitive critical history of science fiction. The 2006 first edition of this work traced the development of the genre from Ancient Greece and the European Reformation through to the end of the 20th century. This new 2nd edition has been revised thoroughly and very significantly expanded. An all-new final chapter discusses 21st-century science fiction, and there is new material in every chapter: a wealth of new readings and original research. The author’s groundbreaking thesis that science fiction is born out of the 17th-century Reformation is here bolstered with a wide range of new supporting material and many hundreds of 17th- and 18th-century science fiction texts, some of which have never been discussed before. The account of 19th-century science fiction has been expanded, and the various chapters tracing the twentieth-century bring in more writing by women, and science fiction in other media including cinema, TV, comics, fan-culture and other modes.

  3. Calculation of DND-signals in case of fuel pin failures in KNK II with the computer code FICTION III

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schmuck, I.

    1990-11-01

    In KNK II two delayed neutron detectors are installed for quick detection of fuel subassembly cladding failures. They record the release of the precursors of the emitters of delayed neutrons into the sodium. The computer code FICTION III calculates the expected delayed neutron signals for certain fuel pin failures, where the user has to set the boundary conditions interactively. In view of FICTION II the advancement of FICTION III consists of the following items: application of the data sets of 105 isotopes, distinction of thermal and fast neutron induced fission, partitioning of the sodium flow into two circuits, consideration of the specific fission rates in 10 fuel pin sections, elaboration of the user's interaction possibilities for input/ output. The capability of FICTION III is shown by means of two applications (UNi-test pin on position 100 and the third KNK fuel subassembly cladding failure). Object of further evaluations will be among other things the analysis of increased delayed neutron signals in regard to the fault location and dimension

  4. Stranger than fiction: literary and clinical amnesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieguez, Sebastian; Annoni, Jean-Marie

    2013-01-01

    This chapter broadly covers literary uses of amnesia and memory disorders. Amnesia in fiction offers authors an efficient and dramatic device to tackle themes such as identity, personal liberty, or guilt. We argue against the common complaint that fictional amnesia is scientifically inaccurate, pointing out that the goals of literature are different from those of science, that amnesia is still poorly understood, and that real-life cases can sometimes be stranger than fiction. The chapter provides examples from the neuropsychological literature, media reports, mythology, historical cases, detective stories, war stories, theatrical plays, and other genres. Special attention is given to retrograde and dissociative amnesia, as these are the most frequent types of amnesia portrayed in fiction, while other types of memory disorders are more shortly treated. We argue that the predominance of disorders affecting autobiographical memory in fiction is in itself a revealing fact about the mechanisms of human memory, illustrating how fictional treatments of pathology can inform back neurological and psychological research. Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  5. Thomas Hardy's Victorian Gothic: Reassessing Hardy's Fiction and His Gothic Sensibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldstein, Norma Walrath

    Proposing that Thomas Hardy's fiction exhibits strong Gothic sensibilities which offer insight into his artistic vision and add to the power of his fiction, creating a new form of the Gothic, a Victorian Gothic, this dissertation reassesses the Gothic strains in Hardy's fiction. The dissertation is in eight chapters: (1) Introduction to Hardy's…

  6. MARGARET ATWOOD'S NON-FICTION ABOUT FICTION: PAYBACK

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igor Maver

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Margaret Atwood's provocative recent book of non-fiction contains many literary references, which help to effectively highlight her points about such a topical matter as debt, debt as a philosophical, politico-economic, religious, and historical issue over the centuries. In the central chapters of the book she looks at the Protestant Reformation and the introduction of interest on loans and in this light analyzes the novels by Dickens, Irving, Thackeray and G. Eliot. Her final statement in the book is, however, about the ecological debt we all have to pay to Earth in order to ensure our existence.

  7. 77 FR 19408 - Reinstate Index to Chapter III in 20 CFR

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-30

    ... visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov . Correction In the... SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION [Docket No. SSA-2012-0018] Reinstate Index to Chapter III in 20 CFR AGENCY: Social Security Administration. ACTION: Notice; correction. SUMMARY: The Social Security...

  8. Fictional names and fictional discourse

    OpenAIRE

    Panizza, Chiara

    2017-01-01

    [eng] In this dissertation I present a critical study of fiction, focusing on the semantics of fictional names and fictional discourse. I am concerned with the issue of whether fictional names need to refer, and also with the related issue of whether fictional characters need to exist, in order to best account for our linguistic practices involving fictional names. Fictional names like ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘Anna Karenina’, ‘Emma Woodhouse’ and ‘Don Quixote of La Mancha’ ordinarily occur in diff...

  9. 77 FR 18290 - Reinstate Index to Chapter III in 20 CFR

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-03-27

    ...-800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov... SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION [Docket No. SSA-2012-0018] Reinstate Index to Chapter III in 20 CFR AGENCY: Social Security Administration. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: At the request of the Office of the...

  10. Desperate Housewives – fiction de toutes les fictions

    OpenAIRE

    Cros, Renan

    2016-01-01

    Fiction de toutes les fictions, Desperate Housewives, entre ironie et empathie, accumule et désarticule les codes du soap opera pour mettre sur l’écran l’imaginaire d’une nation. À partir d’un récit balisé, la série fait de la répétition un mode de lecture. Répétition des situations mais aussi répétition de fictions préexistantes, Desperate Housewives fait du feuilleton l’art de la répétition en célébrant la culture populaire américaine. Fiction of all fictions, Desperate Housewives, betwe...

  11. Fictional Names, Fictional Characters and Persons Referred to in Narrative Fiction

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Koťátko, Petr

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 24, č. 3 (2017), s. 308-338 ISSN 1335-0668 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : fictional name * literary character * fictional world * pretense Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion OBOR OECD: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

  12. Italian Science Fiction, Nuclear Technologies: Narrative Strategies Between the “Two Cultures” (1950s-1970s)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iannuzzi, Giulia

    2017-01-01

    This chapter critically investigates how science fiction interacted with, and contributed to the development of a collective imagery related to nuclear energy in Italy between the 1950s and the 1970s, within a context characterized by a difficult relationship between the “two cultures”. To do this, it takes into account the theme of nuclear technologies in science fiction genre narratives, and its treatment on the part of non-genre Italian writers. An initial enthusiasm toward nuclear energy is interpreted as part of new hopes connected to an unprecedented modernization in the peninsula and a new centrality of techno-science – of which science fiction was an apt expression. The hostility toward both nuclear technologies and science fiction on the part of the Italian cultural elite during subsequent decades is read as two different sides of the same “malaise of modernity”.

  13. Ethical Design Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Thessa; Vistisen, Peter

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we examine how ethical challenges can be approached in and through design fiction. To do so, we develop a new framework for analysis as well as creation of design fictions. Our main focus will be on design fiction within a strategical setting, connecting the notion of design fiction...

  14. An exploratory study of the impact of hypermedia-based approach and science-in-fiction approach for instruction on the polymerase chain reaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Britton, Lynda A.

    1998-12-01

    Exploration of meaningful learning of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed instruction by a researcher-developed hypermedia computer program that incorporated human constructivist principles and a "science-in-fiction" chapter of a novel that described PCR. Human constructivism is the Ausubel-Novak-Gowin (1997) meaningful learning theory that supports science learning through graphic representations and multiple examples. Science-in-fiction is a new genre of fiction introduced by the prominent scientist, Carl Djerassi, to engender an appreciation for science, and its ethical dilemmas. Chapter 19 of Djerassi's 1994 novel, The Bourbaki Gambit, was placed into hypermedia format to standardize the presentation. As part of a clinical microbiology course in the medical technology curriculum at a major medical center in the Deep South, 10 undergraduates participated in this study. Each first read The Bourbaki Gambit, and then half of the participants experienced the human constructivist approach first (the PCR group) while the others first encountered the science-in-fiction approach (the Chapter 19 group). For the rest, the order of presentation was reversed, so that all experienced both programs. Students' explanations while using the computer were videotaped. Students were tested and interviewed before experiencing either program, after their first instructional session, and again after the second instructional session. These students were also assessed on their knowledge of the nature of science by taking the Nature of Science Questionnaire, before and after instruction (Roach, 1993) and interviewed as a cross-check on its reliability. Students' preferred learning approaches were determined using Schmeck's Inventory of Learning Processes (Schmeck, Ribich, & Ramanaiah, 1977). Data were collected and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively using appropriate verbal analysis techniques (Chi, 1997). All but three students reached a structural level of PCR

  15. Science Fiction on Film.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burmester, David

    1985-01-01

    Reviews science fiction films used in a science fiction class. Discusses feature films, short science fiction films, short story adaptations, original science fiction pieces and factual science films that enrich literature. (EL)

  16. The World of Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwartz, Sheila

    1971-01-01

    Science fiction is discussed from the following standpoints: What Is Science Fiction?; The History of Science Fiction; and The Themes of Science Fiction. A list of films, books, and records about science fiction is given. (DB)

  17. Should psychiatrists write fiction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bladon, Henry

    2018-04-01

    This paper looks at the relationship between fiction and psychiatry. Specifically, the idea of psychiatrists as fiction writers is explored, and reference is made to various fictional texts to illustrate the problems of stigma and negative imagery. These two main areas of focus are highlighted as ones that the practice of writing fiction might address, and some potential pitfalls are discussed. The paper suggests how psychiatrists might ameliorate the present problems by incorporating their unique clinical skills and knowledge into fictional narratives. Declaration of interest None.

  18. Mimesis, fiction, paradoxes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Françoise Lavocat

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Les théories contemporaines de la fiction, comme les poétiques de la Renaissance, privilégient une conception de la mimesis fondée sur la vraisemblance : la démonstration du profit cognitif et moral de la fiction passe toujours par une définition de l’imitation (de quelque façon qu’on la définisse fondée sur la rationalité. L’auteur de cet article examine tout d’abord le statut des contradictions et de l’impossible chez quelques théoriciens actuels (principalement J.-M. Schaeffer, M.-L. Ryan, L. Doležel et poéticiens du 16e siècle (L. Castelvetro et F. Patrizi. Sont ensuite étudiées la forme et la fonction que prend l’impossible dans trois fictions narratives de la Renaissance. L’hypothèse majeure qui est défendue est que ces paradoxes permettent de penser le non-existant, dans la continuité de la scolastique médiévale et en relation avec une problématique religieuse, sérieuse ou parodique. Par là même, et en raison de leur auto-référentialité constitutive, les paradoxes inscrivent dans la fiction une réflexion sur elle-même qui n’a rien d’une apologie. La pensée de la fiction s’articule en définitive de façon bien différente dans les théories et dans les fictions elles-mêmes.Like Renaissance poetics, contemporary theories of fiction do favour a conception of mimesis based on likelihood. In order to underscore the benefits of fiction, in terms of cognition or ethics, both ancient and present-day authors usually identify imitation (however this is understood as a kind of rationality. The aim of this article is to question the status of contradictions and impossibilities, first in current theories of fiction (J-M Schaeffer, M.-L. Ryan, L. Doležel, then in two sixteenth century comments of Aristotle (by L. Castelvetro and F. Patrizi. In the following steps, forms and functions of the impossible are studied in three narratives of the Renaissance. The main hypothesis here is the following: in

  19. Teaching Science Fiction by Women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donawerth, Jane

    1990-01-01

    Reviews the 200-year-old tradition of women science fiction authors. Discusses the benefits of teaching science fiction written by women. Describes 5 science fiction short stories and 5 science fiction novels suitable for high school students. (RS)

  20. Jordan Krall's speculative fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Doubinsky, Sebastien

    2017-01-01

    Jordan Krall is one of the most interesting writers in American speculative fiction. This article studies the way Krall redefines the tropes and frames of classical dystopian fiction and references, turning them into an idiosyncratic construction.......Jordan Krall is one of the most interesting writers in American speculative fiction. This article studies the way Krall redefines the tropes and frames of classical dystopian fiction and references, turning them into an idiosyncratic construction....

  1. Japanese contributions to IAEA INTOR workshop, phase two A, part 2, chapter III: impurity control (engineering)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seki, Masahiro; Miki, Nobuharu; Shibutani, Yoji; Fujimura, Kaoru; Adachi, Jun-ichi; Sato, Kosuke; Fujii, Masaharu; Yamazaki, Seiichiro; Itoh, Shin-ichi.

    1985-07-01

    This report corresponds to the second half of Chapter III of Japanese contribution report to IAEA INTOR Workshop, Phase Two A, Part 2. Data base assessment are made on candidate materials for the divertor, limiter, and the first wall. Engineering trade-off studies are made for the high-recycling and low temperature conditions. The studies include material considerations, configuration, thermohydraulic and stress analysis, disruption, lifetime analysis, and tritium permeation. (author)

  2. Fiction and Organization Studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Savage, P. (Paul); J.P. Cornelissen (Joep); Franck, H. (Henrika)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractThe topic of fiction is in itself not new to the domain of organization studies. However, prior research has often separated fiction from the reality of organizations and used fiction metaphorically or as a figurative source to describe and interpret organizations. In this article, we go

  3. Multicolor-FICTION

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martín-Subero, José Ignacio; Chudoba, Ilse; Harder, Lana; Gesk, Stefan; Grote, Werner; Novo, Francisco Javier; Calasanz, María José; Siebert, Reiner

    2002-01-01

    Phenotypic and genotypic analyses of cells are increasingly essential for understanding pathogenetic mechanisms as well as for diagnosing and classifying malignancies and other diseases. We report a novel multicolor approach based on the FICTION (fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics as a tool for the investigation of neoplasms) technique, which enables the simultaneous detection of morphological, immunophenotypic, and genetic characteristics of single cells. As prerequisite, multicolor interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization assays for B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma have been developed. These assays allow the simultaneous detection of the most frequent primary chromosomal aberrations in these neoplasms, such as t(8;14), t(11;14), t(14;18), and t(3;14), and the various rearrangements of the ALK gene, respectively. To establish the multicolor FICTION technique, these assays were combined with the immunophenotypic detection of lineage- or tumor-specific antigens, namely CD20 and ALK, respectively. For evaluation of multicolor FICTION experiments, image acquisition was performed by automatic sequential capturing of multiple focal planes. Thus, three-dimensional information was obtained. The multicolor FICTION assays were applied to well-characterized lymphoma samples, proving the performance, validity, and diagnostic power of the technique. Future multicolor FICTION applications include the detection of preneoplastic lesions, early stage and minimal residual diseases, or micrometastases. PMID:12163366

  4. Science Fiction & Scientific Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czerneda, Julie E.

    2006-01-01

    The term "science fiction" has become synonymous, in the media at least, for any discovery in science too incredible or unexpected for the nonscientist to imagine. One of the most common classroom uses of science fiction is for students to pick out flaws in science fiction movies or television shows. Unfortunately, this approach can result in…

  5. High on Crime Fiction and Detection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grodal, Torben Kragh

    2010-01-01

    how crime fiction activates strong salience (in some respects similar to the effect of dopamine-drugs like cocaine, Ritalin, and amphetamine) and discusses the role of social intelligence in crime fiction. It further contrasts the unempathic classical detector fictions with two subtypes of crime...... fiction that blend seeking with other emotions: the hardboiled crime fiction that blends detection with action and hot emotions like anger and bonding, and the moral crime fiction that strongly evokes moral disgust and contempt, often in conjunction with detectors that perform hard to fake signals...

  6. Augmenting the City with Fiction: Fictional Requirements for Mobile Guides

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjeldskov, Jesper; Paay, Jeni

    2007-01-01

    In this position paper, we discuss the user experience of a new genre of mobile guide services, which augments the users’ physical surroundings with fiction rather than with facts. First, we outline sources of inspiration from fiction, storytelling in place and on the move, and related research...

  7. Psychologizing the Semantics of Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Woods

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Psychologiser la sémantique de la fictionLes théoriciens sémantistes de la fiction cherchent typiquement à expliquer nos relations sémantiques au fictionnel dans le contexte plus général des théories de la référence, privilégiant une explication de la sémantique sur le psychologique. Dans cet article, nous défendons une dépendance inverse. Par l’éclaircissement de nos relations psychologiques au fictionnel, nous trouverons un guide pour savoir comment développer une sémantique de la fiction. S’ensuivra une esquisse de la sémantique.Semantic theorists of fiction typically look for an account of our semantic relations to the fictional within general-purpose theories of reference, privileging an explanation of the semantic over the psychological. In this paper, we counsel a reverse dependency. In sorting out our psychological relations to the fictional, there is useful guidance about how to proceed with the semantics of fiction. A sketch of the semantics follows.

  8. Approaches to Scandinavian Crime Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agger, Gunhild

    2010-01-01

    as the approach of genre typology and the concept of evil – seemingly disparate concepts and approaches, but all related to the complex processes in the borderlands between crime fiction and society. Using examples from Scandinavian crime fiction, I discuss whether the growing proximity to international genres......The working paper discusses some of the major approaches to Scandinavian crime fiction in the light of the dominant features of crime culture, e.g. the broad exposure of crime fiction via different platforms and media. In this connection, the concept of mediatization is considered as well......, ways of production and standards increasingly removes Scandinavian crime fiction from its original attractions or not....

  9. Speculation and Fiction: Introduction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sourit Bhattacharya

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available As students of literature, one of the most frequent questions we encounter is: how does one write anything? What are the factors responsible for writing fiction? Does fiction have its autonomous qualities? Put in a slightly different way: what is thought or how is thought put into fiction? Broadly speaking, the study into the domain of thought is speculation. The Oxford English dictionary defines “speculation” this way: “the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence.”1 Speculation then is a field of thinking thought, conjecture, or hypothesis which seeks for evidence to become “fact” or “practice.” In such argument, the foundational aspect of all philosophy appears to be speculation. This won’t be an overstatement if we endeavour to trace the genealogy and use of the term in ancient Indian philosophy to the Greco-Roman world, or in the mediaeval scholastic philosophy in Europe.2 From the term’s rooted traditional philosophical basis to a particular meaning-making in genre fiction, there have been many developments but one aspect has been relatively unchanged: the question of conjecture. Speculative fiction does not have a rigid definition and is putatively understood to be an amalgam of many genres, forms, thoughts, or techniques. It is also about a world which is not necessarily the existent but in most cases the “material-possible”: the conjectural. Fiction in that analysis appears to be the medium through which the conjectural element of speculation is given a concrete material body. But fiction is not an end product only, the printed book or the text in this case, but also a world of ideas, thoughts, and imagination. In that sense, there is fiction already always within the “genre” of speculation. These are some of the interrelated but not always easily articulable aspects that we wanted to engage with in this volume, “Speculation and Fiction.”

  10. The paradox of fiction: Emotional response toward fiction and the modulatory role of self-relevance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sperduti, Marco; Arcangeli, Margherita; Makowski, Dominique; Wantzen, Prany; Zalla, Tiziana; Lemaire, Stéphane; Dokic, Jérôme; Pelletier, Jérôme; Piolino, Pascale

    2016-03-01

    For over forty years, philosophers have struggled with the "paradox of fiction", which is the issue of how we can get emotionally involved with fictional characters and events. The few neuroscientific studies investigating the distinction between the processing of real and fictional entities have evidenced that midline cortical structures and lateral fronto-parietal regions are more engaged for real and fictional entities, respectively. Interestingly, the former network is engaged in autobiographical memory retrieval and self-reference, processes that are known to boost emotional reactivity, while the latter underpins emotion regulation. Thus, a possible modulation of the emotional response according to the nature (real or fictional) of the stimulus is conceivable. To test this hypothesis, we presented short emotional (negative and positive) and neutral video as fictional or real. For negative material, we found that subjective emotional experience, but not physiological arousal measured by electrodermal activity, was reduced in the fictional condition. Moreover, the amount of personal memories linked to the scenes counteracted this effect boosting the subjective emotional response. On the contrary, personal memories elicited by the scenes, but not fiction, modulate the emotional response for positive material. These results suggest that when a stimulus triggers a personal memory, the emotional response is less prone to be modulated by contextual factors, and suggest that personal engagement could be responsible for emotional reaction toward fiction. We discuss these results in the emotion regulation framework and underline their implications in informing theoretical accounts of emotion in the neuroscientific domain and the philosophical debate on the paradox of emotional response to fiction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  11. Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading and Comprehension in Preferred Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topping, Keith J.

    2015-01-01

    Are the books preferred and most enjoyed by children harder than other books they read? Are non-fiction books read and understood at the same level of difficulty as fiction books? The Accelerated Reader software offers computerized comprehension quizzes of real books individually chosen by children, giving children (and teachers, librarians, and…

  12. Science Fiction and Science Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cavanaugh, Terence

    2002-01-01

    Uses science fiction films such as "Jurassic Park" or "Anaconda" to teach science concepts while fostering student interest. Advocates science fiction as a teaching tool to improve learning and motivation. Describes how to use science fiction in the classroom with the sample activity Twister. (YDS)

  13. Fictional Separation Logic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Jonas Buhrkal; Birkedal, Lars

    2012-01-01

    , separation means physical separation. In this paper, we introduce \\emph{fictional separation logic}, which includes more general forms of fictional separating conjunctions P * Q, where "*" does not require physical separation, but may also be used in situations where the memory resources described by P and Q...

  14. Paranoia and Christianity in Maurice Dantec’s Crime Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-Louis Hippolyte

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Maurice Dantec is “a prophet, a mystic, a Christian soldier, Zionist and pro-American, anti-secular and militantly counter-revolutionary. In short, the last scandal of French literature,” according to his editor David Kersan. Dantec’s brand of punk neo-Christian literary activism may feel somehow out of place in a literary milieu still beholden to the existentialism of Sartre and the revolutionary ethos of the 1960s. But Dantec’s “disgust” (of Old Europe, the creeping menace of Islam and the rampant march of secularization bears witness to a larger malaise. Along with Michel Houellebecq and Peter Sloterdijk, he testifies to the opening of a new chapter in the culture wars, to the rise of a new group of “écrivains maudits” who have decided to vehemently question postmodern nihilism and economic globalization. Finally, Dantec’s fiction makes a case for the need for faith in a Godless world. This essay is concerned with Dantec’s paranoid politics as they appear in his fiction, and most notably in his latest Christian futuristic trilogy. It is also concerned with the relevance of conservative Christian dogma in his work, both formally and rhetorically.

  15. Science in Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allday, Jonathan

    2003-01-01

    Offers some suggestions as to how science fiction, especially television science fiction programs such as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars", can be drawn into physics lessons to illuminate some interesting issues. (Author/KHR)

  16. Literacy competence based on fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Broström, Stig

    tool towards children's general Bildung and more specific development of literacy competence in the first years of school, in 2007 we carried out an investigation about fiction as a part of mother-tongue teaching and the process of children's learning to read. Via the investigation and general studies...... we want to get more knowledge ablout following questions:   How to define fiction which holds a personal and language "Bildung"? How to define the importance of fiction related to children's literacy competence? What kind of fiction do teachers use? How do teachers mediate fiction, how and in what...... extend do teachers make use of drawing and play activities? How to find a balance between to maintain the aesthetical and narrative methods and expressions AND gaining a literacy competence?   This paper has focus on the fourth question....

  17. A New Chapter. The Fresh Voices of Hispanic Fiction Writers Are Being Heard by a Growing Mainstream Audience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frase-Blunt, Martha

    1992-01-01

    Highlights numerous Hispanic fiction writers who are beginning to experience popularity. Describes Hispanic genre such as "magic realism" in which real action is tinged with dreamlike surrealism. Discusses Hispanic writers' experiences with small independent presses as well as major publishers. Expresses such concerns as patronization and the lack…

  18. Hybrid Fictionality and Vicarious Narrative Experience

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hatavara, Mari Annukka; Mildorf, Jarmila

    2017-01-01

    This article discusses the recent trends in Fictionality Studies and argues for a point of view focusing more on the narrative dimension of fictionality than on the fictive story content. With the analysis of two case studies, where a non-fictional third person narrator represents the experience...... with other minds travel between fictional and nonfictional narratives, and between stories artistically designed and those occurring in conversational or documentary environments....

  19. Science fiction and the medical humanities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Gavin; McFarlane, Anna

    2016-12-01

    Research on science fiction within the medical humanities should articulate interpretative frameworks that do justice to medical themes within the genre. This means challenging modes of reading that encourage unduly narrow accounts of science fiction. Admittedly, science studies has moved away from reading science fiction as a variety of scientific popularisation and instead understands science fiction as an intervention in the technoscientific imaginary that calls for investment in particular scientific enterprises, including various biomedical technologies. However, this mode of reading neglects science fiction's critical relationship to the construction of 'the future' in the present: the ways in which science fiction proposes concrete alternatives to hegemonic narratives of medical progress and fosters critical self-awareness of the contingent activity which gives 'the future' substance in the here-and-now. Moreover, the future orientation of science fiction should not distract from the function of medical science fiction as 'cognitive estrangement': the technological innovations that dominate science-fiction narratives are less concrete predictions and more generic devices that explain in historical time the origins of a marvellous world bearing provocative correspondences to our own, everyday reality. The editorial concludes with a series of introductions to the articles comprising the special issue, covering the print edition and a special online-only section. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  20. Anthropological reading of science fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ljiljana Gavrilović

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper gives an overview of the prevalence of the analysis of science fiction literature and science fiction in other segments of popular culture in Serbian anthropology. This overview is preceded by a consideration of science fiction as a genre while keeping in mind the fluidity of the genre and the interweaving of subgenres as well as the transformations which science fiction is undergoing in certain media (books, films, TV shows and video games. In Serbian anthropology research on science fiction is more prevalent than the study of other phenomena, as the number of anthropologists whose work is represented in the paper is fairly large compared to the size of the anthropological community as a whole. The causes for this can primarily be found in a collective focus on questions such as: who are we and who the others are, what the basis of creating and building identity is or what the role of context in recognition of species is. Anthropology gives answers to these questions through the interpretation, explanation and understanding of the world around us, while science fiction does it through the literary considerations of these same questions.

  1. Science Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rose, Mark, Ed.

    The articles collected in this volume focus on the literary genre science fiction. Part one, "Backgrounds," includes "Starting Points" (Kingsley Amis), "Science Fiction and Literature" (Robert Conquest), and "The Roots of Science Fiction" (Robert Scholes). Part two, "Theory," contains "On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre" (Darko Suvin),…

  2. Special science-fiction (Science Fiction Special).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francais dans le Monde, 1985

    1985-01-01

    An issue devoted to the use of science fiction in the French language classroom discusses such topics as the development of the genre, literary techniques, themes, imagery, sociolinguistic elements, and potential classroom activities. (MSE)

  3. Corporate Fictions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Staunæs, Dorthe; Søndergaard, D. M.

    2006-01-01

    The article describes a particular strategy of communication called a social science fiction. The strategy was taken up following an empirical research project on gender and management, in order to communicate results to the company's managers and Human Resource Staff. The research results showed...... fiction was the kind of narrative therapy, which aims to reconfigure the problem in focus by a process of externalisation that allows a reconstruction and retelling of the issue. The article describes how three cultural mechanisms in the company were condensed into three imaginary figures: Mr. Corporate...

  4. Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oatley, Keith

    2016-08-01

    Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life. Fiction can be thought of as a form of consciousness of selves and others that can be passed from an author to a reader or spectator, and can be internalized to augment everyday cognition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. SCIENCE FICTION IN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LITERARY DISCOURSE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simona Siderevičiūtė

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This work intends to complement literary studies in science fiction. It discusses the history of global science fiction, overviews the most cha­racteristic features of its historical periods, and provides an introduction to Lithuanian science fiction, indicating its main features and topics. In the context of culture, science fiction is often defined as a literary genre with the emphasis on its nature as fiction. Only rarely are the history of the origin of science fiction, its variations, and the pioneers of science fiction whose works are still highly valued taken into account. Science fiction is often criticized through the filter of preconceived ideas that consider this type of literature to be “friv­olous.” This article discusses the possible reasons for such an approach. In Lithuania, this genre is still associated only with pop literature, and its expression cannot yet equal the works of foreign authors. The basic classical motifs of global science fiction found in Lithuanian science fiction include: representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations and human contact with them, scientists and inventors, agents of military institutions, and space travel. Lithuanian science fiction writers follow the tra­ditions of global science fiction when using these classical motifs; however, a general lack of original and individual themes, motifs, and manifestations may be observed.

  6. Science Fiction: Serious Reading, Critical Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zigo, Diane; Moore, Michael T.

    2004-01-01

    Science fiction deserves a greater respect, serious and critical reading and a better place in high school literature classes. Some of the science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury and Octavia L. Butler and various activities for incorporating science fiction into the English language arts instruction classroom are…

  7. Testimony, Documentary, Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Hans Lauge

    2017-01-01

    to the memory of the Civil War and Francoist repression: the detective plot, the divided plotline between present and past, and metafictional reflections. But what role did it actually play in the development of the case of the stolen children? This paper studies the relation between different social discourses...... (testimony, fiction, investigative journalism, historiography) and different media (printed books, TV, cinema and theatre) in the development of the case, and explores the specific relation between documentary and fiction in this context. The article follows a line of dialogic interaction between social......This paper examines the remedialisation of the abduction of the children of “rojas” by the Francoist regime. In 2006 the Spanish author Benjamin Prado published Mala gente que camina, a novel that shares most of the characteristics of the fiction published after the turn of the millennium dedicated...

  8. Science and Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oravetz, David

    2005-01-01

    This article is for teachers looking for new ways to motivate students, increase science comprehension, and understanding without using the old standard expository science textbook. This author suggests reading a science fiction novel in the science classroom as a way to engage students in learning. Using science fiction literature and language…

  9. The Fictions of Surrealism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Walter A. Strauss

    1996-06-01

    Full Text Available Surrealism is an attitude toward life, even more than a literary and artistic movement. It aspired to no less than the remaking of man and the world by reintroducing "everyday" magic and a new idealization of the Female. In many respects, its goal was spiritual renewal. This enterprise was most prominently successful in the domain of poetry and painting. The major spokesman for the movement, Andre Breton, disliked the novel. Nevertheless, the members of the movement and their associates made numerous ventures into prose fiction, with notable results. Four types of fiction are delineated: the neo-Gothic romance; the adventure diary of "magic" experience—this one being probably the most typical of all the kinds of narrative invented; the erotic (or pornographic récit , and the linguistic extravaganza, in which language becomes the major instrument of sorcery. In many ways, the Surrealist "experiment" could be characterized as an attempt at the liberation of languages. This observation raises a number of questions about the impact of Surrealism on subsequent developments in French fiction (and the theatre, as well as upon its impact on Western fiction in general. The conclusion drawn is that Surrealist fiction has been a major contribution, a pioneering effort, in the shaking up of narrative concepts and techniques in the second half of the twentieth century.

  10. Chinese court case fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kim Toft

    2011-01-01

    established as early as the 6th Century AD, whereas the first substantial evidence of the tradition is from 13th Century and the first Chinese crime fiction novels were written during the 17th Century. This article is, then, a corrective for the international history of crime fiction based on numerous...

  11. The creation of football slash fan fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abby Waysdorf

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Although sports fandom and fan fiction are often thought of as different worlds, in the contemporary media environment, this is not the case. Sport is a popular source text for fan fiction, and high-level European football, one of the world's most watched sports, has long had an online fan fiction presence. In a study of the LiveJournal community Footballslash over the 2011–12 European football season, I investigate what makes football a suitable source text for fan fiction, especially slash fan fiction; what fan fiction authors are doing with football; and what this suggests about how football and fan fiction are used in the present day. I present a new understanding of football as a media text to be transformed as well as provide an in-depth look into how this type of real person slash is developed and thought of by its practitioners. In doing so, I show what happens when fandoms and fan practices converge in the 21st century.

  12. Not Just Pulp Fiction: Science Fiction Integral to U.S. Culture and LC Collections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Eric A.; Stumbaugh, Colleen R. C.

    1996-01-01

    Traces the evolution of the science fiction genre and its representation at the Library of Congress, including original paperbacks, hardcovers, television, film, and sound recordings. Highlights include science fiction "classics", the Library of Congress collection development policy, library programs, and preservation activities…

  13. Building Collections: Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krapp, JoAnn Vergona

    2005-01-01

    Fantasy and science fiction are two genres that are products of imagination. Both present alternate worlds governed by their own laws and values, but it is the plausibility of events in each world that sets the two apart. In fantasy, events happen by magic or inexplicable means. In science fiction, events could happen based on advanced…

  14. The Future as Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jennings, Lane

    Because good future studies and good fiction have a great deal in common, futurists need to recognize and apply the skills of word artists from all genres, particularly novelists and short-story writers. One form of science fiction that futurists could use is the scenario, which is an exploration of an alternative future. A good scenario should be…

  15. Finding Time for Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Justin M

    2015-12-01

    With growing advances in psychiatric care come growing amounts of knowledge to be read by psychiatry trainees. This essay presents one resident's experience putting aside some of the official psychiatric literature during residency in favor of more fiction, and his self-perceived growth because of that. Fiction, in the author's perspective, can make us all better psychiatrists.

  16. The cognitive science of fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oatley, Keith

    2012-07-01

    Fiction might be dismissed as observations that lack reliability and validity, but this would be a misunderstanding. Works of fiction are simulations that run on minds. They were the first kinds of simulation. All art has a metaphorical quality: a painting can be both pigments on canvas and a person. In literary art, this quality extends to readers who can be both themselves and, by empathetic processes within a simulation, also literary characters. On the basis of this hypothesis, it was found that the more fiction people read the better were their skills of empathy and theory-of-mind; the inference from several studies is that reading fiction improves social skills. In functional magnetic resonance imaging meta-analyses, brain areas concerned with understanding narrative stories were found to overlap with those concerned with theory-of-mind. In an orthogonal effect, reading artistic literature was found to enable people to change their personality by small increments, not by a writer's persuasion, but in their own way. This effect was due to artistic merit of a text, irrespective of whether it was fiction or non-fiction. An empirically based conception of literary art might be carefully constructed verbal material that enables self-directed personal change. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:425-430. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1185 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  17. Fictional and Factual Discourses in Narratives - and the Grey Zone Between

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Søndergaard, Leif

    2012-01-01

    fictionalizing, non fiction fictionalizing and meta fictionalizing. Exemples from international literature during centuries. Part 2: Blending of discourses in contemporary Danish Literature with special focus on Knud Romer and Das Beckwerk (Claus Beck-Nielsen). Judicial and ethical problems in the use of proper......Part 1: Blurring of the border between public and private areas and increasing use of the reality effect in order to create authenticity. Various levels of fictionalizing: minimal fictionalizing, medium fictionalizing, extra fictionalizing, total fictionalizing, super fictionalizing, non...

  18. From the wizard to the doubter: prototypes of scientists and engineers in fiction and non-fiction media aimed at Dutch children and teenagers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Gorp, Baldwin; Rommes, Els; Emons, Pascale

    2014-08-01

    The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the prototypical scientists as they appear in fiction and non-fiction media consumed by children and teenagers in The Netherlands. A qualitative-interpretive content analysis is used to identify seven prototypes and the associated characteristics in a systematic way. The results show that the element of risk is given more attention in fiction than in non-fiction. Also, eccentric scientists appear more often in fiction. In non-fiction, the dimension useful/useless is more important. Furthermore, fictional scientists are loners, although in practice scientists more often work in a team. In both fiction and non-fiction, the final product of the scientific process gets more attention than the process itself. The prototype of the doubter is introduced as an alternative to the dominant representations because it represents scientists and engineers in a more nuanced way.

  19. Hal in the Classroom: Science Fiction Films.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amelio, Ralph J.

    The articles in this book provide political, social, sociological, psychological, sexual, mythical, literary, and filmic approaches to the study of science fiction film. "Journey into Science Fiction" by W. Johnson and "The Imagination of Disaster" by S. Sontag treat broadly the essentials of science fiction films. "For the Future: The Science…

  20. Transgressing the Non-fiction Transmedia Narrative

    OpenAIRE

    Gifreu-Castells, Arnau; Misek, Richard; Verbruggen, Erwin

    2016-01-01

    abstractOver the last years, interactive digital media have greatly affected the logics of production, exhibition and reception of non-fiction audiovisual works, leading to the emergence of a new area called ‘interactive and transmedia non-fiction’. Whilethe audiovisual non-fiction field has been partially studied, a few years ago emerged a new field focusing on interactive and transmedia non-fiction narratives, an unexplored territory that needs new theories and taxonomies to differentiate f...

  1. Chapter 5: Summary of model application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    This chapter provides a brief summary of the model applications described in Volume III of the Final Report. This chapter dealt with the selected water management regimes; ground water flow regimes; agriculture; ground water quality; hydrodynamics, sediment transport and water quality in the Danube; hydrodynamics, sediment transport and water quality in the river branch system; hydrodynamics, sediment transport and water quality in the Hrusov reservoir and with ecology in this Danube area

  2. The Poetics of Design Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Markussen, Thomas; Knutz, Eva

    2013-01-01

    Design fiction is an emergent field within HCI and interaction design, the understanding of which ultimately relies, so we argue, of an integrative account of poetics and design praxis. In this paper we give such an account. Initially, a precise definition of design fiction is given by drawing...

  3. Fascinating! Popular Science Communication and Literary Science Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meyer, Gitte

    2017-01-01

    Some see literary Science Fiction as a possible vehicle for critical discussions about the future development and the ethical implications of science-based technologies. According to that understanding, literary Science Fiction constitutes a variety of science communication. Along related lines, ......, popular science communication with science fiction features might be expected to serve a similar purpose. Only, it is far from obvious that it actually works that way.......Some see literary Science Fiction as a possible vehicle for critical discussions about the future development and the ethical implications of science-based technologies. According to that understanding, literary Science Fiction constitutes a variety of science communication. Along related lines...

  4. Intermediate Genre Study. Historical Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novelli, Joan; Lasky, Kathryn

    1996-01-01

    Students can learn to appreciate history as readers and writers of historical fiction. This section presents an introduction to historical fiction, a display idea, a mystery history game, discussion of character-building, charts for students to fill in with information on historical characters, suggestions for customizing writing centers and for…

  5. Fictions et interactions : les fictions artistiques et la question de l’espace

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bernard Guelton

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Dans cette courte présentation, je vais esquisser quelques questions sur les rapports possibles entre l’espace et la fiction puis je vais faire un aperçu sur l’évolution de la ligne de recherche Fictions et interactions. Dans la première partie, je vais aborder trois questions : 1 le rapport entre la fiction et l’espace des images, 2 les espaces immersifs et 3 trois exemples d’oeuvres artistiques et performatives qui mettent en jeu les espaces en réalités alternées. RESUMO Nessa curta apresentação, vou esboçar algumas questões sobre as relações possíveis entre o espaço e a ficção, depois farei um panorama da evolução da linha de pesquisa Fictions & Interactions (Ficções & Interações. Na primeira parte abordarei três questões: 1 a relação entre a ficção e a espacialidade das imagens; 2 os espaços imersivos; e 3 três exemplos de obras artísticas e performativas que põem em jogo a noção de espaço em realidades alternadas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE Ficção, espaço, imersão.

  6. Haruspicating With Science Fiction Or Through the Looking Glass -- Dimly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chatham, George N.

    This paper examines the use of science fiction to predict the future. First, science fiction is compared to other fiction literature forms; then the changes in science fiction over the last 20 years are discussed. The influence of recent scientific advances on science fiction is also presented. The generation of alternative scenarios of the future…

  7. Fictional Reports A Study on the Semantics of Fictional Names

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fiora Salis

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 21 false false false ES X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Against standard descriptivist and referentialist semantics for fictional reports, I will defend a view according to which fictional names do not refer yet they can be distinguished from one another by virtue of their different name-using practices. The logical structures of sentences containing fictional names inherit these distinctions. Different interpretations follow.

  8. The Return of Historical Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rycik, Mary Taylor; Rosler, Brenda

    2009-01-01

    Recently, historical fiction has begun to dominate major children's book awards. This article describes the values of using high-quality historical fiction in the classroom and presents different ways to respond to this genre including using modern technology. Two tables, one of picture books and one of novels, with paired nonfiction texts, are…

  9. Teaching Tomorrow: A Handbook of Science Fiction for Teachers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calkins, Elizabeth; McGhan, Barry

    Science Fiction appeals to young people and is suited for use in a wide range of classrooms. This handbook of Science Fiction for Teachers suggests ways of using Science Fiction to teach literature and English skills. Study guides based on two Science Fiction stories are presented, with activities such as individual papers and small group…

  10. Prophecy, Pulp, or Punt: Science Fiction, Scenarios, and Values.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spinks, C. W.

    A brief history of science fiction and an analysis of its functions precedes a description of a university level course taught at Trinity University on science fiction, technology, and values. Science fiction writing is briefly traced from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" through the golden age of science fiction in the 1940s and 1950s to its…

  11. Reading fiction during sick leave, a multidimensional occupation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mårtensson, Lena; Andersson, Christina

    2015-01-01

    In bibliotherapy, the therapeutic gains of reading fiction are ascribed to the literature. Viewing reading fiction as an occupation may give other explanations of its therapeutic function. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of reading fiction among women during a period of sick leave. A qualitative approach was applied. Eight women who had been reading fiction during sick leave were interviewed. An overarching theme: Supporting one's active self, comprised five categories of experiences: a prospect of ordinary life, a place of refuge, a life together with others, a source of power, and as supporting an active life. Based on the categories, reading fiction is seen to comprise intentional, functional, mental, relational, and personal dimensions. A tentative model of supporting one's active self is proposed, which may be helpful in clarifying the mechanisms of the process of change. The health-related dimensions of reading fiction suggest that reading fiction should be regarded as a significant occupation comparable with other, more highlighted ones. Understood in this way, it is argued that the results add to the knowledge base in occupational therapy focusing on how meaningful occupations connect to occupational life trajectories.

  12. A Study on Emotional Healing Efficacy of Fiction for Undergraduate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Su-May Sheih

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In modern society, undergraduates may encounter multiple pressures and thus feel the sense of alienation, anxiety, disturbance and depression. For undergraduates, reading can be independently conducted without the intervention of an instructor; therefore, undergraduates who feel reluctant to expose private emotions to counselors can help themselves through the reading of emotional healing books. This is the application of bibliotherapy. Among various resources, fiction can serve as an appropriate emotional reading material. The researcher deployed semi-structured in-depth interview, and interviewed 21 undergraduates in Taipei City and Taipei County. This study is aimed to understand the kinds of fictions undergraduates read when they are upset and to analyze the emotional healing process of identification, catharsis, and insight so that the emotional healing efficacy can be evaluated. The findings showed that romance, realistic fiction, fantasy, martial arts novel, inspirational fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction can provide full process of emotional healing efficacy. However, detective fiction, online novel, psychological fiction, and horror fiction can only provide parts of the healing process. Besides, the healing efficacy of a specific fiction is different from reader to reader.

  13. Science Fiction: Better than Delphi Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Milton T.

    1994-01-01

    Considers science fiction as a literary genre and as a predictor of technological advances, particularly in the information industry. An annotated bibliography is included of 11 science fiction titles and 1 nonfiction book that suggest possible information futures. (LRW)

  14. Making fictions sound real

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Langkjær, Birger

    2010-01-01

    This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related...... to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy...... of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences....

  15. Children Reading Fiction Books Because They Want To

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Ours, J.C.

    2006-01-01

    This paper investigates the reading of fiction books by 15-year-olds in 18 OECD countries.It appears that girls fiction books more often than boys, whereas boys read comic books more often than girls.The intensity by which children read fiction books is influenced by parental education, family

  16. Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror 2000.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voice of Youth Advocates, 2001

    2001-01-01

    Presents the annual annotated list of the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles for teens that have been reviewed in this journal. Also includes a sidebar with four annotated titles of nonfiction resources related to science fiction, fantasy, and horror. (LRW)

  17. Transnational Crime Fictions and Argentina's Criminal State

    OpenAIRE

    Caballero, Juan

    2013-01-01

    My dissertation, titled "Transnational Crime Fictions and Argentina's Criminal State," proposes a new understanding of the dictatorship novels of Ricardo Piglia, Juan José Saer, and Manuel Puig grounded in their shared appropriation from popular crime fiction. Across the 1940's, 50's, and 60's, a wide range of popular crime fiction was translated, written, theorized, printed and reprinted in Argentina, and these popular genres grew steadily in readership, visibility, and cultural legitimacy....

  18. Telemetry Standards, IRIG Standard 106-17, Chapter 22, Network Based Protocol Suite

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-01

    requirements. 22.2 Network Access Layer 22.2.1 Physical Layer Connectors and cable media should meet the electrical or optical properties required by the...Telemetry Standards, IRIG Standard 106-17 Chapter 22, July 2017 i CHAPTER 22 Network -Based Protocol Suite Acronyms...iii Chapter 22. Network -Based Protocol Suite

  19. Booktalking Science Fiction to Young Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klause, Annette Curtis

    1990-01-01

    Identifies the elements of science fiction that might appeal to adolescent readers and offers suggestions for developing innovative book talks on science fiction books. A bibliography of 133 books, categorized by subgenres such as hard science, space travel, and mysteries, is provided. (eight references) (CLB)

  20. Transgressing the Non-fiction Transmedia Narrative

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gifreu-Castells, Arnau; Misek, Richard; Verbruggen, Erwin

    2016-01-01

    abstractOver the last years, interactive digital media have greatly affected the logics of production, exhibition and reception of non-fiction audiovisual works, leading to the emergence of a new area called ‘interactive and transmedia non-fiction’. Whilethe audiovisual non-fiction field has been

  1. Pseudoscience and science fiction

    CERN Document Server

    May, Andrew

    2017-01-01

    Aliens, flying saucers, ESP, the Bermuda Triangle, antigravity … are we talking about science fiction or pseudoscience? Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference. Both pseudoscience and science fiction (SF) are creative endeavours that have little in common with academic science, beyond the superficial trappings of jargon and subject matter. The most obvious difference between the two is that pseudoscience is presented as fact, not fiction. Yet like SF, and unlike real science, pseudoscience is driven by a desire to please an audience – in this case, people who “want to believe”. This has led to significant cross-fertilization between the two disciplines. SF authors often draw on “real” pseudoscientific theories to add verisimilitude to their stories, while on other occasions pseudoscience takes its cue from SF – the symbiotic relationship between ufology and Hollywood being a prime example of this. This engagingly written, well researched and richly illustrated text explores a wide range...

  2. Gedanken fictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Kate

    2017-07-01

    The 14 pairs of short story and essay in Thought X: Fictions and Hypotheticals have at their root the concept that thought experiments in science and philosophy tell stories as they build a scenario to prove a point.

  3. Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

    2015-01-01

    Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman's model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear.

  4. Fictional Discourse. Replies to Organon F Papers (Part II)

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Koťátko, Petr

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 23, č. 1 (2016), s. 102-124 ISSN 1335-0668 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : fictional worlds * fictional characters * fictional names * pretense * text-work relation Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0258865

  5. Fiction, History and Pedagogy: A Double-Edged Sword

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Penney; Sears, Alan

    2017-01-01

    There are many areas of overlap between history and fiction. Teachers of history have long recognized this connection and used a range of fictional accounts in their teaching. In this article, we argue that fiction is a double-edged sword that must be handled carefully. On the one hand, it presents compelling characters and accounts that provide…

  6. Urban Image in Iranian Fiction Films

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azam Ravadrad

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Tehran as a symbol of Iranian modernity has been considered in many Iranian fiction films. Representation of Tehran in cinema can be the representation of Iranian modernity revolution. This study focuses on the representation of urban image in Iranian fiction films through critical theories such as Simmel or Benjamin opinions. In this article we discus about the mediator role of cinema for representing the Urban life Image and confliction of modernity in Iran.Meanwhile some megalopolis such as Paris, Berlin, Moscow, New York and sanpitersboorg est.…have had great opportunity for understanding confliction of modernity in their situation, Tehran has never have that chance. Regarding to this vacuum we want to explain the role of Iranian fiction films for understanding the entrance of modernity consequences in different eras. We believed that fiction films can represent confliction of city and village, represent of modern dualities, non cohesive rationality and many other gaps in Iranian modernity that we have to know.

  7. Distinguishing fiction from non-fiction with complex networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larue, David M.; Carr, Lincoln D.; Jones, Linnea K.; Stevanak, Joe T.

    2014-03-01

    Complex Network Measures are applied to networks constructed from texts in English to demonstrate an initial viability in textual analysis. Texts from novels and short stories obtained from Project Gutenberg and news stories obtained from NPR are selected. Unique word stems in a text are used as nodes in an associated unweighted undirected network, with edges connecting words occurring within a certain number of words somewhere in the text. Various combinations of complex network measures are computed for each text's network. Fisher's Linear Discriminant analysis is used to build a parameter optimizing the ability to separate the texts according to their genre. Success rates in the 70% range for correctly distinguishing fiction from non-fiction were obtained using edges defined as within four words, using 400 word samples from 400 texts from each of the two genres with some combinations of measures such as the power-law exponents of degree distributions and clustering coefficients.

  8. Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Spyridon Samothrakis

    Full Text Available Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman's model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear.

  9. Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

    2015-01-01

    Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman’s model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear. PMID:26524352

  10. Twitter Fiction: A New Creative Literary Landscape

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laila Al Sharaqi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Twitter, synonymous with social networking, has become a successful social platform for the exchange of ideas, news, and information. It has also emerged as an experimental platform through which users explore creative realms of poetic and narrative content, albeit in 140 characters. The real-time tweets are fundamentally unique and increasingly sophisticated. The attention deficit generation of the fast-paced contemporary world has little time on its hands for extended discourse. Brief stories have been told throughout human history, however, the popularity of short stories skyrocketed with the advent of digital story telling. Twitter has now become a frontier medium that allows a unique mode of digital storytelling that facilitates creative literary experimentation. Twitter offers a unique freedom to writers insofar as a tweet can be an entire bite-sized story or even a snapshot of a story that requires readers’ active imagination to complete. Twitter fiction signifies stylistic word economy, compactness, symbolic structure, and implied narrative. Fragmentariness of the story is a marker of Twitter fiction. The proponents of Twitter fiction enjoy the originality, freedom, and diversity of perspectives offered by the Twitter fiction. Critics, however, argue that the mandated 140 character limitation stunts story development and strangulates creativity. This paper examines Twitter fiction and proposes that limited characters stories are the evolutionary answer to the reduced attention span of the tech-savvy generation. Keywords: twitterature, fiction, brevity, literary art

  11. When Fiction Is Just as Real as Fact: No Differences in Reading Behavior between Stories Believed to be Based on True or Fictional Events

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartung, Franziska; Withers, Peter; Hagoort, Peter; Willems, Roel M.

    2017-01-01

    Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a “newspaper” vs. “literature” comparison. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reader's expectation to whether information is true or fictional with a subtler manipulation by labeling short stories as either based on true or fictional events. In addition, we tested whether narrative perspective or individual preference in perspective taking affects reading true or fictional stories differently. In an online experiment, participants (final N = 1,742) read one story which was introduced as based on true events or as fictional (factor fictionality). The story could be narrated in either 1st or 3rd person perspective (factor perspective). We measured immersion in and appreciation of the story, perspective taking, as well as memory for events. We found no evidence that knowing a story is fictional or based on true events influences reading behavior or experiential aspects of reading. We suggest that it is not whether a story is true or fictional, but rather expectations toward certain reading situations (e.g., reading newspaper or literature) which affect behavior by activating appropriate reading goals. Results further confirm that narrative perspective partially influences perspective taking and experiential aspects of reading. PMID:28983269

  12. When Fiction Is Just as Real as Fact: No Differences in Reading Behavior between Stories Believed to be Based on True or Fictional Events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Franziska Hartung

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a “newspaper” vs. “literature” comparison. In the present study, we investigated the effect of reader's expectation to whether information is true or fictional with a subtler manipulation by labeling short stories as either based on true or fictional events. In addition, we tested whether narrative perspective or individual preference in perspective taking affects reading true or fictional stories differently. In an online experiment, participants (final N = 1,742 read one story which was introduced as based on true events or as fictional (factor fictionality. The story could be narrated in either 1st or 3rd person perspective (factor perspective. We measured immersion in and appreciation of the story, perspective taking, as well as memory for events. We found no evidence that knowing a story is fictional or based on true events influences reading behavior or experiential aspects of reading. We suggest that it is not whether a story is true or fictional, but rather expectations toward certain reading situations (e.g., reading newspaper or literature which affect behavior by activating appropriate reading goals. Results further confirm that narrative perspective partially influences perspective taking and experiential aspects of reading.

  13. "Frankenstein" as Science Fiction and Fact

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Laan, J. M.

    2010-01-01

    Often called the first of its kind, "Frankenstein" paved the way for science fiction writing. Its depiction of a then impossible scientific feat has in our time become possible and is essentially recognizable in what we now refer to as bioengineering, biomedicine, or biotechnology. The fiction of "Frankenstein" has as it were given way to…

  14. 21st Century South African Science Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CARAIVAN LUIZA

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyses some aspects of South African science fiction, starting with its beginnings in the 1920s and focusing on some 21st century writings. Thus Lauren Beukes’ novels Moxyland (2008 and Zoo City (2010 are taken into consideration in order to present new trends in South African literature and the way science fiction has been marked by Apartheid. The second South African science fiction writer whose writings are examined is Henrietta Rose-Innes (with her novel Nineveh, published in 2011 as this consolidates women's presence in the SF world.

  15. The evolution and extinction of science fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hrotic, Steven

    2014-11-01

    Science fiction literature reflects our constantly evolving attitudes towards science and technological innovations, and the kinds of societal impacts believed possible. The newly popular subgenre 'steampunk' shows that these attitudes have significantly shifted. Examined from a cognitive anthropological perspective, science fiction reveals the cultural evolution of the genre as intelligently designed, and implies a cognitive mechanism of group membership reliant on implicit memory. However, such an analysis also suggests that genre science fiction as it was in the 20th century may no longer exist. © The Author(s) 2013.

  16. Actualism and Fictional Characters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    André Leclerc

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2016v20n1p61 In what follows, I present only part of a program that consists in developing a version of actualism as an adequate framework for the metaphysics of intentionality. I will try to accommodate in that framework suggestions found in Kripke’s works and some positions developed by Amie Thomasson. What should we change if we accept “fictional entities” in the domain of the actual world? Actualism is the thesis that everything that exists belongs to the domain of the actual world and that there are no possibilia. I shall defend that there are abstract artefacts, like fictional characters, and institutions. My argument could be seen as a version of Moore’s paradox: it is paradoxical to say: “I made (created it, but I do not believe it exists”. Moreover, there are true sentences about them. I will examine what it means to include abstract artefacts in the domain of the actual world. I favour a use of “exist” that includes beings with no concrete occupation of tri-dimensional space; to exist, it is enough to have been introduced at some moment in history. Abstract artefacts, like fictional characters, exist in that sense. I argue that it is important to distinguish two perspectives (internal and external in order to clarify the kind of knowledge we have of fictional characters. However, their existence presupposes a relation of dependence to a material basis and the mental activities of many people.

  17. Vers une esthétique de la science-fiction

    OpenAIRE

    Russ, Joanna

    2013-01-01

    Les outils critiques élaborés en ayant à l’esprit une littérature entièrement différente ne fonctionnent pas quand ils sont appliqués à la science-fiction. Dans cet article, j’avance la proposition suivante : que la science-fiction est didactique. Malgré des similitudes superficielles avec la fiction moderne naturaliste (ou autre), les personnages de science-fiction sont toujours des personnes collectives, jamais individuelles. Je suggère que la critique littéraire contemporaine n’est pas l’...

  18. Journeys beyond pages: The use of fiction in tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lipovšek Emilija

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper aims at looking into the examples of most popular literary induced tours on the European continent in order to establish interconnectivity between works of fiction as created cultural forms and their impact on tourism industry and consumer society. Accordingly, not only does the human urge to travel refer to the phenomenon of escapism and escapism into fictional, but it is also intrinsically linked to the fact of recreating oneself, i.e. finding one's own destiny/destination. Therefore, the focus is on the acknowledgement that fictional is employed in the non-fictional setting so as to produce man-made tourist attractions. Thus, the illusion of the fictional is perpetuated into the actual places used as attractions for avid readers and cinephiles. For instance, 221b Baker Street in London known as the Sherlock Holmes's home is recreated in reality and made into a museum for those intrigued by the mystery of Conan Doyle's fiction. The tourist is thus perceived both as a consumer and homo ludens in the postmodern contemporary context. The same way as a reader immerses into the text, the tourist embarks on a journey. Thus, various literary tours represent a twofold experience of the fictional world.

  19. Faith Fictions: "The Word between This World and God"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le Tran, Mai-Anh

    2009-01-01

    The search for religious truth and depth in "fiction" invites a conceptualization of life and fictional narratives as "faith fictions"--narrative accounts of human experiences and the human condition that bridge this world and God. This article juxtaposes "Mother Crocodile", "Hunger", and "Lost in Translation" to highlight the ways in which they,…

  20. Psychopathy and the cinema: fact or fiction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leistedt, Samuel J; Linkowski, Paul

    2014-01-01

    The authors investigated the relationship between cinema and psychopathy to describe and analyze the portrayal of fictional psychopathic characters in popular films and over cinematic history. From 400 films (1915-2010), 126 fictional psychopathic characters (21 female and 105 male) were selected based on the realism and clinical accuracy of their profiles. Movies were then analyzed by senior forensic psychiatrists and cinema critics. Secondary (71%) and manipulative (48%) subtypes were the most common in the female group, while secondary (51%) and prototypical (34%) were the most common in the male group. Corresponding to the increased understanding of clinical psychopathy by professional mental health providers over time, the clinical description of and epidemiological data on fictional psychopaths in popular films have become more realistic. Realistic fictional psychopaths remain in the minority but are very important for didactic purposes in Academic facilities, as "teaching Movies." © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  1. Horror from the Soul--Gothic Style in Allan Poe's Horror Fictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Chunyan

    2015-01-01

    Edgar Allan Poe made tremendous contribution to horror fiction. Poe's inheritance of gothic fiction and American literature tradition combined with his living experience forms the background of his horror fictions. He inherited the tradition of the gothic fictions and made innovations on it, so as to penetrate to subconsciousness. Poe's horror…

  2. First Contact: Science Fiction in the Library, 1920-1949.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Kathryn

    This report examining the status of science fiction in libraries during the 30-year period of the genre's infancy discusses past attitudes toward science fiction and policies concerning its selection and acquisition. In order to determine how strong an influence reviews would have been on the purchase of science fiction, the book announcements and…

  3. Chapter 2: Irradiators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2018-04-01

    The chapter 2 presents the subjects: 1) gamma irradiators which includes: Category-I gamma irradiators (self-contained); Category-II gamma irradiators (panoramic and dry storage); Category-III gamma irradiators (self-contained in water); Category-IV gamma irradiators (panoramic and wet storage); source rack for Category-IV gamma irradiators; product transport system for Category-IV gamma irradiators; radiation shield for gamma irradiators; 2) accelerators which includes: Category-I Accelerators (shielded irradiator); Category-II Accelerators (irradiator inside a shielded room); Irradiation application examples.

  4. De l’avantage (ou non) de définir la science-fiction : théorie des genres, science-fiction et Histoire

    OpenAIRE

    Rieder, John

    2013-01-01

    Cet essai a pour but d’aider à la clarification et au renforcement de l’impact d’une théorie historique des genres dans les études sur la science-fiction. Il explique et défend cinq propositions sur ce genre, chacune pouvant servir de thèse en elle-même : la science-fiction est historique et mouvante ; la science-fiction n’a pas d’essence, pas de caractéristique unifiante, et pas de point originel ; la science-fiction n’est pas un ensemble de textes, mais plutôt un usage des textes et une man...

  5. Apps: a new medium for non-fiction innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Allen, Catherine

    2015-01-01

    Apps are now a dominant content medium: in the US people spend more time on apps than they do watching TV. Non-fiction content is being avidly consumed on mobile devices, but in a completely different way to the book model. This article explores three strands of potential that the app medium holds for non-fiction content, putting forward the case that apps have the power to further weave non-fiction into the fabric of society and life.

  6. Emotional responses to interactive fictions

    OpenAIRE

    Hagger, Andrzej

    2012-01-01

    We commonly feel a variety of emotional responses to works of fiction. In this thesis I propose to examine what we understand by the terms fictional and narrative, and to describe what sorts of narrator might be required within a narrative work. Of particular interest are interactive works of art, both narrative and non-narrative, and I provide a definition of what features a work should possess if it should properly be considered interactive. I discuss the notions of interactive narrative...

  7. Radioactivity and Nuclear Issues in Science Fiction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franic, Z.

    2008-01-01

    In this work are presented and reviewed science fiction narratives, films and comics that exploit radioactivity and nuclear issues. These topics to some science fiction authors serve as metaphor of evil and holocaust as well as nice instrument for elaborating various manipulations and conspiracy theories. In that context are of special interest science fiction works depicting apocalyptic post-nuclear worlds and societies, such works being closely connected with cyberpunk genre. However, other more technologically optimistic authors nuclear energy and research regarding nuclear technology and radioactivity consider as eligible and inevitable solution for world peace and prosperity Nowadays, public interest and global fears are shifted from radioactivity and nuclear issues to other catastrophic scenarios threatening future of the mankind, these for example being climate changes and global warming, asteroid impact, collapse of information infrastructure, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence etc. Consequently, these issues are as well increasingly reflected in contemporary science fiction stories.(author)

  8. The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-12-01

    This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of doing science. There are many kinds of fiction within the science fiction genre. In the presented empirical exploration physics students seem particularly fond of what is called `hard science fiction': a particular type of science fiction dealing with technological developments (Hartwell and Cramer in The hard SF renaissance, Orb/TOR, New York, 2002). Especially hard science fiction as a motivating fantasy may, however, also come with a gender bias. The locally materialized techno-fantasies spurring dreams of the terraforming of planets like Mars and travels in time and space may not be shared by all physics students. Especially female students express a need for other concerns in science. The entanglement of physics with hard science fiction may thus help develop some students' interest in learning school physics and help create an interest for studying physics at university level. But research indicates that especially female students are not captured by the hard techno-fantasies to the same extent as some of their male colleagues. Other visions (e.g. inspired by soft science fiction) are not materialized as a resource in the local educational culture. It calls for an argument of how teaching science is also teaching cultural values, ethics and concerns, which may be gendered. Teaching materials, like the use of hard science fiction in education, may not just be (yet another) gender bias in science education but also carrier of particular visions for scientific endeavours.

  9. Apps: a new medium for non-fiction innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Allen

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Apps are now a dominant content medium: in the US people spend more time on apps than they do watching TV. Non-fiction content is being avidly consumed on mobile devices, but in a completely different way to the book model. This article explores three strands of potential that the app medium holds for non-fiction content, putting forward the case that apps have the power to further weave non-fiction into the fabric of society and life.

  10. Network Fictions and the Global Unhomely

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aris Mousoutzanis

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The paper suggests that the increasing proliferation of network fictions in literature, film, television and the internet may be interpreted through a theoretical framework that reconceptuallises the originally strictly psychoanalytic concept of the 'Unheimlich' (Freud’s idea of the ‘unhomely’ or ‘uncanny’ within the context of political, economic and cultural disources fo globalisation. ‘Network fictions’ are those texts consisting of multiple interlocking narratives set in various times and places that explore the interconnections of characters and events across different storylines: novels such as William Gibson’s 'Pattern Recognition' (2003, Hari Kunzro’s 'Transmission' (2005 and 'Gods Without Men' (2011, David Mitchell’s 'Cloud Atlas' (2004, or Rana Dasgupta’s 'Tokyo Cancelled' (2005 are some examples. My argument is that central to these fictions is a sense of a ‘global unhomely’. The sense of displacement, unhomeliness and global mobility that is conveyed in these fictions is fundamental to the experience of the 'Unheimlich'. In addition, the ability of the concept to convey a combined sense of the familiar and the strange is useful in exploring the ways in which these fictions engage with theoretical debates on globalisation that perceive the interaction between global flows and local cultures either in terms of homogenisation and uniformity or of heterogenisation and hybridity. Moreover, the repetitive temporality of the 'Unheimlich' is another distinctive aspect that allows a reading of the disjunctive, non-linear temporal structure of these fictions from this perspective. The ‘repetition compulsion’, however, that Freud considered to be an example of uncanniness was also theorised by him as a post-traumatic symptom, and this implicit association of uncanniness with post-traumatic experience also allows to interpret the persistent preoccupation of these fictions with suffering and disaster, as well as

  11. Vers une esthétique de la science-fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna Russ

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Les outils critiques élaborés en ayant à l’esprit une littérature entièrement différente ne fonctionnent pas quand ils sont appliqués à la science-fiction. Dans cet article, j’avance la proposition suivante : que la science-fiction est didactique. Malgré des similitudes superficielles avec la fiction moderne naturaliste (ou autre, les personnages de science-fiction sont toujours des personnes collectives, jamais individuelles. Je suggère que la critique littéraire contemporaine n’est pas l’outil idéal pour traiter de fiction didactique, ou pour évaluer une littérature nouvelle et différente. Appliquer les critères et les méthodes auxquels nous sommes habitués ne peut mener qu’à trois résultats : le rejet de toute science-fiction comme n’étant pas de la littérature, une préférence pour certains genres restreints de science-fiction (parce qu’on peut les comprendre au moins partiellement selon la manière habituelle, ou une conception et une perception erronées des textes que l’on essaie précisément de comprendre. La troisième catégorie est restée rare jusqu’ici, parce que l’intérêt universitaire pour la science-fiction était rare, mais elle pourrait devenir bien trop courante si la popularité croissante des cours d’université sur ce sujet ne s’accompagne pas d’une critique adaptée à son sujet.

  12. Social Robots, fiction, and sentimentality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rodogno, Raffaele

    2016-01-01

    in the philosophy of art and in cognitive science that attempts to solve the so called paradox of fictional emotions, i.e., the seemingly paradoxical way in which we respond emotionally to fictional or imaginary characters and events. If sentimentality were not at issue, neither would its immorality. For the sake...... argue that there are other reasons to be worried about the wide-spread use of ersatz companionship technology that have to do with the potential loss of valuable, self-defining forms of life....

  13. The Role of Fiction in Experiments within Design, Art & Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knutz, Eva; Markussen, Thomas; Christensen, Poul Rind

    2013-01-01

    This paper offers a typology for understanding design fiction as a new approach in design research. The typology allows design researchers to explain design fictions according to 5 criteria: (1) “What if scenarios” as the basic construal principle of design fiction; (2) the manifestation of criti...

  14. Preschoolers can infer general rules governing fantastical events in fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van de Vondervoort, Julia W; Friedman, Ori

    2014-05-01

    Young children are frequently exposed to fantastic fiction. How do they make sense of the unrealistic and impossible events that occur in such fiction? Although children could view such events as isolated episodes, the present experiments suggest that children use such events to infer general fantasy rules. In 2 experiments, 2- to 4-year-olds were shown scenarios in which 2 animals behaved unrealistically (N = 78 in Experiment 1, N = 94 in Experiment 2). When asked to predict how other animals in the fiction would behave, children predicted novel behaviors consistent with the nature of the fiction. These findings suggest that preschoolers can infer the general rules that govern the events and entities in fantastic fiction and can use these rules to predict what events will happen in the fiction. The findings also provide evidence that children may infer fantasy rules at a more superordinate level than the basic level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Medical thrillers: doctored fiction for future doctors?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charpy, Jean-Pierre

    2014-12-01

    Medical thrillers have been a mainstay of popular fiction since the late 1970s and still attract a wide readership today. This article examines this specialized genre and its core conventions within the context of professionally-based fiction, i.e. the class of thrillers written by professionals or former professionals. The author maps this largely unchartered territory and analyzes the fictional representations of doctors and medicine provided in such novels. He argues that medical thrillers, which are not originally aimed at specialized readers and sometimes project a flawed image of medicine, may be used as a pedagogical tool with non-native learners of medical English.

  16. Teaching English and History through Historical Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hicks, Alun; Martin, Dave

    1997-01-01

    Explores the appeal of historical fiction for young readers and describes its place within any school curriculum. Describes a project in Dorset Middle Schools which used historical fiction to teach medieval history and English. Notes that students' historical thinking was improved, their knowledge of medieval world advanced, and their writing was…

  17. Strategies for Improving Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Karen; Caspari, Amy

    This report describes a program for introducing students to strategies for improving their comprehension of non-fiction materials. The targeted population consisted of students of one third grade class in a small, middle class suburb, northwest of a large, midwestern city. Difficulty reading and comprehending non-fiction material was documented…

  18. [Asperger syndrome in contemporary fictions].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pourre, F; Aubert, E; Andanson, J; Raynaud, J-P

    2012-12-01

    During recent years, fictions featuring a character with Asperger syndrome have been increasingly produced in literature, cinema and TV. Thus, the public has gradually discovered the existence of this specific category of autism spectrum, which is far removed from old popular representations of autistic disorders, often associated with mental retardation. To describe the reactions generated by these characters in order to identify their major functions and also to try to explain their recent increase in fictions. First, we explored international publications concerning this topic. A group of experienced clinicians systematically examined works of fiction produced between 2000 and 2010 that included a character with Asperger syndrome. More than 30 productions have been identified and analyzed using a method adapted from focus group. Over 30 productions have been recorded and analyzed. The reactions generated by these characters are described. They range from fascination to empathy; if these heroes sometimes induce laughter (because of comedy situations), they also lead us to question our vision of the world and ask ourselves about notions such as difference, normality and tolerance. We illustrate this phenomenon with examples from literature, cinema or television. Four hypotheses are proposed trying to explain the recent multiplication of these fictional characters with Asperger syndrome. The first puts forward authors' informative and educational motivations, these authors being aware of this issue. The second is supported by the "hero" concept, which has evolved gradually into the figures of the scientific world and the so-called "Geek" community. The third hypothesis, a metaphorical one, considers these heroes as symbols of a future society: a hyper systematized society, devoid of empathy, as if to warn of a risk of evolution of humanity toward a generalized mental blindness. The fourth and last hypothesis explores the personal resonance, supported by

  19. The Role of Fiction in Experiments within Design, Art & Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knutz, Eva; Markussen, Thomas; Christensen, Poul Rind

    2014-01-01

    This paper offers a typology for understanding design fiction as a new approach in design research. The typology allows design researchers to explain design fictions according to 5 criteria.The typology is premised on the idea that fiction may integrate with reality in many different ways in design...

  20. Online Fan Fiction and Critical Media Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, Rebecca W.

    2010-01-01

    This article explores English-language-learning (ELL) youths' engagement with popular media through composing and publicly posting stories in an online fan fiction writing space. Fan fiction is a genre that lends itself to critical engagement with media texts as fans repurpose popular media to design their own narratives. Analyses describe how…

  1. Graham Greene: The Films of His Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Gene D.

    This book makes a comparative study of the prose fiction of Graham Greene and the films made from that fiction. Special attention is focused upon the "cinematic" style of Greene's prose, the effect of Greene's screenwriting on his novels, and the characteristics of Greene's filmscripts. The book is divided into considerations of Greene…

  2. Fiction series in TVE between 1956 and 1989

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elvira Canós Cerdá

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The change in the Spanish television landscape resulting from the loss of the monopoly of RTVE and the landing of private regional television and national channels, created a new context marked by competition between different private channels. In this scenario, there was a confluence of several factors that led to the launch of the national fiction production in our own country from the hands of a renewal of the genre with new creative and production systems (García de Castro, 2008:150. All this contrasts with the existence of certain gaps in research on the Spanish television fiction in years for the TVE television monopoly, as pioneer of today's fiction. Therefore, the presence of in-depth studies to clarify the trajectory of a fiction that will lay the foundation for self-produced fiction in Spain is necessary. This paper has as general objective an approach to the birth and evolution of serial fiction formats in TVE until the advent of private television, and the study of its distinctive features. This research can be understood under the phenomenological paradigm and is located within the television studies that focus specifically on the textual historicism (Ellis, 2007, in which the text is studied in relation to its historical context taking into account the influence of the period which the program was carried out when studying its meaning. It will be approached with a methodological pluralism that combines the qualitative method and historical method. The main technique used is the documentary observation of primary sources; mainly TV programs from the studied period. From the study of a significant sample of fiction programs produced and broadcast by Spanish public TV we can identify the traits that characterize them. Some of them still remain in the current TV series and another traits have been evolving in time.

  3. TOWARDS A SEMANTICS FOR THE ARTIFACTUAL THEORY OF FICTION AND BEYOND

    OpenAIRE

    Fontaine , M; Rahman , Shahid

    2014-01-01

    International audience; In her book Fiction and Metaphysics [1999] Amie Thomasson, influenced by the work of Roman Ingarden, develops a phenomenological approach to fictional entities in order to explain how non-fictional entities can be referred to intrafictionally and transfictionally, for example in the context of literary interpretation. As our starting point we take Thomasson's realist theory of literary fictional objects, according to which such objects actually exist, albeit as abstrac...

  4. Using Fan Fiction to Teach Critical Reading and Writing Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kell, Tracey

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the author talks about fan fiction, which is defined by Jenkins (2008) as "original stories and novels which are set in the fictional universe of favorite television series, films, comics, games or other media properties." Fan fiction generally involves writing stories with a combination of established characters and established…

  5. Commodification of culture in fiction-induced tourism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lipovšek Emilija

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In the fiction-induced tourism, the illusion of the fictional world is maintained for the sake of the tourist in the real locations and thus it can be used to attract readership and cinephiles alike. Their desire to travel is based on the chronotope (Bakhtin, 1981 that is used as the background in their favourite books and films. Upon reading a book or seeing a film, the audience is inspired to visit the locations in a city where the plot took place. Thus the chronotope of the city featured in fiction develops palimpsestic features. If the flâneur experiences the city, its streets and inhabitants as he/she wanders aimlessly and translates afterwards all this into words in the urban narrative (Benjamin, 1968, then the tourist acts as a 'flâneur ranversé', while they walk the city and observe it in search of the places described in their favourite works of fiction. Moreover, the paper will consider some of the examples of the commodification of cultural products, including Harry Potter bookshop, guided walks and themed studio tours.

  6. Modifiable futures: science fiction at the bench.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milburn, Colin

    2010-09-01

    Science fiction remains an alien dimension of the history of science. Historical and literary studies of science have become increasingly attentive to various "literary technologies" in scientific practice, the metaphorical features of scientific discourse, and the impact of popular science writing on the social development of scientific knowledge. But the function of science fiction and even literature as such in the history of scientific and technological innovation has often been obscured, misconstrued, or repudiated owing to conventional notions of authorship, influence, and the organic unity of texts. The better to address those close encounters where scientific practice makes use of speculative fiction, this essay proposes that we instead analyze such exchanges as processes of appropriation, remixing, and modification.

  7. Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kidd, David Comer; Castano, Emanuele

    2013-10-18

    Understanding others' mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults. We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments 1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments 2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art.

  8. Semiconducting III-V compounds

    CERN Document Server

    Hilsum, C; Henisch, Heinz R

    1961-01-01

    Semiconducting III-V Compounds deals with the properties of III-V compounds as a family of semiconducting crystals and relates these compounds to the monatomic semiconductors silicon and germanium. Emphasis is placed on physical processes that are peculiar to III-V compounds, particularly those that combine boron, aluminum, gallium, and indium with phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony (for example, indium antimonide, indium arsenide, gallium antimonide, and gallium arsenide).Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins with an assessment of the crystal structure and binding of III-V compounds, f

  9. Taming the Alien Genre: Bringing Science Fiction into the Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bucher, Kathrine T.; Manning, M. Lee

    2001-01-01

    Notes the popularity of the science fiction/fantasy genre, and offers a definition of these genres. Discusses teachers' reluctance to read or teach science fiction, but emphasizes its appeal and its usefulness. Discusses how teachers can select and use good science fiction books. Offers a checklist for evaluating such books, and suggests 18…

  10. The Affordances of Fiction for Teaching Chemistry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yerrick, Randy K.; Simons, Tiffany

    2017-01-01

    As science fiction has a way of capturing the human imagination that few other genres can rival, this study sought to investigate the effects of using science fiction on the performance and interest of high school chemistry students. An action research approach was used to guide the first author's practice as she studied two college preparatory…

  11. Amateur mythographies: Fan fiction and the myth of myth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ika Willis

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper draws on classical scholarship on myth in order to critically examine three ways in which scholars and fans have articulated a relationship between fan fiction and myth. These are (1 the notion of fan fiction as a form of folk culture, reclaiming popular story from corporate ownership; (2 the notion of myth as counterhegemonic, often feminist, discourse; (3 the notion of myth as a commons of story and a universal story world. I argue that the first notion depends on an implicit primitivizing of fan fiction and myth, which draws ultimately on the work of Gottfried von Herder in the 18th century and limits our ability to produce historically and politically nuanced understandings of fan fiction. The second notion, which is visible in the work of Henry Jenkins and Constance Penley, is more helpful because of its attention to the politics of narration. However, it is the third model of myth, as a universal story world, where we find the richest crossover between fan fiction's creative power and contemporary classical scholarship on myth, especially in relation to Sarah Iles Johnston's analysis of hyperserial narrative. I demonstrate this through some close readings of fan fiction from the Greek and Roman Mythology fandom on Archive of Our Own. I conclude the paper by extending Johnston's arguments to show that fan-fictional hyperseriality, specifically, can be seen as mythic because it intervenes not only in the narrative worlds of its source materials but also in the social world of its telling.

  12. Teaching Evolution with the Aid of Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bixler, Andrea

    2007-01-01

    Students obtain much misinformation from TV and movies. Teachers can use the analysis of science fiction to correct misconceptions about biology and spur students' interests in the subject. Suggestions for discussions and assignments based on literary-quality science fiction works are included.

  13. Stranger than fiction

    CERN Document Server

    2007-01-01

    Is the universe - correction: 'our' universe - no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds? A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

  14. Science Fiction at the Far Side of Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Mikkel Willum

    2017-01-01

    This book explores what science fiction can tell us about the human condition in a technological world (with the dilemma's and consequences that this entails) and also engages with the genre at points where we apparently find it on the far side of science, technology or human existence. As such....... It is our hope that this interdisciplinary approach will set an example for those who, like us, have been busy assessing the ways in which fictional attempts to fathom the possibilities of science and technology speak to central concerns about what it means to be human in a contemporary world of technology....... Although a scholarly work, this book is also designed to be accessible to a general audience that has an interest in science fiction as well as a broader academic audience. Aspiring (or experienced) science fiction writers may be interested in reading critical assessments of the science and technology...

  15. Science Fiction at the Far Side of Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Mikkel Willum

    2017-01-01

    This book explores what science fiction can tell us about the human condition in a technological world (with the dilemma's and consequences that this entails) and also engages with the genre at points where we apparently find it on the far side of science, technology or human existence. As such......, it is the result of the joint efforts of scholars and scientists from various disciplines. While some of the contributors to this volume have been working professionally with science fiction for some time, others are newcomers who bring perspectives from their own field of specialization to the study of this genre....... Although a scholarly work, this book is also designed to be accessible to a general audience that has an interest in science fiction as well as a broader academic audience. Aspiring (or experienced) science fiction writers may be interested in reading critical assessments of the science and technology...

  16. To Work or Play? Junior Age Non-Fiction as Objects of Design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moss, Gemma

    2001-01-01

    Examines change and variation in the design of non-fiction texts which have a junior-age readership. Argues that different forms of presentation of non-fiction offer different ways of reading non-fiction texts, which as yet are neither fully described nor recognized. Suggests that non-fiction texts can be more or less firmly orientated towards…

  17. Auto-fictional narratives about death in the family

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Frølunde, Lisbeth

    2017-01-01

    What are the interrelations of fiction-based and non-fiction based research? In this presentation I explore these interrelations through researching, retracing, and writing about my father’s suicide. In tandem, I consider the methodological issues of using narratives – that they enable a reader...

  18. Rocketry, film and fiction: the road to Sputnik

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brake, Mark; Hook, Neil

    2007-07-01

    The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was fuelled by science fiction as well as science fact. The field of early rocketry included the work of Russians Nikolai Rynin and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, American Robert Goddard, and German engineers Herman Oberth and Wernher Von Braun. All were directly inspired and influenced by early science fiction that heralded a space age decades ahead of time. The work of these pioneers led directly to the development of the technology needed to boost Sputnik skyward. After the launch of Sputnik, the context of the nuclear arms race opened the floodgates for a new wave of apocalyptic fiction.

  19. Fictional Inquiry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dindler, Christian; Iversen, Ole Sejer

    At designe i en fortællemæssig ramme giver brugere og designere mulighed for i fællesskab at udforske fremtidens it-anvendelser. Metoden hedder Fictional Inquiry, og den motiverer brugerne til at tænke ud over dagligdagens begrænsninger og sætte ord på ting i hverdagen, som ellers er svære...

  20. The Double Helix: Why Science Needs Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andreadis, Athena

    2003-01-01

    Discusses why science needs science fiction, commenting on the author's book about science that draws heavily on the "Star Trek" series. The best science, in spite of popular thinking, comes from leaps of intuition, and science fiction provides a creative spark that encourages participation in science. (SLD)

  1. Topos of the cosmic space in science fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Poutilo Oleg Olegovich

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The article examines the forms of cosmic space in science fiction, its characteristics and main trends of evolution. Cosmic space is seen as a dichotomy of “our” and “their”, though their interaction is complicated and full interiorization is impossible. The specificity of the described cosmic space is the absence of the traditional system of coordinates associated with the sides of the world. Authors have to resort to the use of “map-route”, describing the journey sequentially, from the point of view of a moving person. In this regard, in recent years there has been a tendency to reduce the role of images of cosmic space in science fiction novels. Their appearance in the works becomes a kind of stamp, a concession to the classical traditions of the genre. Once popular genres of strict science fiction or space opera inferior position to the other, recreating a far more convincing picture of the probable future of humanity - cyberpunk dystopia and post-apocalyptic fiction.

  2. Discovery Mondays: 'Separating science from fiction'

    CERN Multimedia

    2006-01-01

    Photo credit: ESA/NASA, the AVO project and Paolo PadovaniDoes the imaginary word of fiction always end up becoming scientific reality? What futuristic visions can we extrapolate from today's technologies? Here is a short quiz to test your knowledge. Can YOU tell truth from fiction? True False The laser swords featuring in the Star Wars films really exist. Time travel is possible using black holes. You could eat a cake of antimatter. Levitation vehicles really exist. Dan Brown is a space alien. How can you distinguish truth from fiction, dreams from reality, real science and technology from the sci-fi fantasies so realistically described in novels, television and cinema? You are invited to come and discuss these questions at a Discovery Monday at the very frontiers of science..... Join us at Microcosm (Reception, Building 33, Meyrin site), on Monday, 4 September from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Entrance Free The event will be conducted in French. http://www.cern.ch/LundisDecouverte/ ...

  3. Science Fiction in the Political Science Classroom: A Comment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landers, Clifford E.

    1977-01-01

    Science fiction can be used for introducing and analyzing political concepts at the undergraduate level for either a specialized theory-oriented course such as Political Science Fiction or an Introduction to Political Science course. (Author/RM)

  4. Science Fiction at the Far Side of Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Mikkel Willum

    2017-01-01

    . Further, those with a concern for the future may find inspiration in what a study of the politics and ethics of science fiction can tell us about the moral and political dilemmas of our own time. Although this book is more likely to be picked up by someone who already has an interest in science fiction....... It is our hope that this interdisciplinary approach will set an example for those who, like us, have been busy assessing the ways in which fictional attempts to fathom the possibilities of science and technology speak to central concerns about what it means to be human in a contemporary world of technology...

  5. Le style modal de la science-fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emmanuel Boisset

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available La faiblesse de style dont souffrirait la science-fiction est en fait le signe que la science y est davantage discours du possible que description du réel. Un « style modal » va suspendre la valeur de vérité, et le style de la possibilité va décontextualiser les métaphores disponibles. En science-fiction, le processus métaphorique génère et structure la diégèse. Un exemple chez Iain M. Banks montre un dialogue quasi incompréhensible mettre à l’épreuve la signification comme possibilité. Les métaphores figées sont revitalisées par la décontextualisation de la fiction, dont le texte peut exploiter l’impertinence.

  6. 25 CFR 502.4 - Class III gaming.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Class III gaming. 502.4 Section 502.4 Indians NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL PROVISIONS DEFINITIONS OF THIS CHAPTER § 502.4 Class III gaming. Class III gaming means all forms of gaming that are not class I gaming or class...

  7. Science Fiction and Life after Death

    OpenAIRE

    Burt, Stephen Louis

    2014-01-01

    Science fiction (SF) is, and has been since its inception as a self-conscious genre, centrally and persistently interested in presenting some version of or figure for an afterlife, some way to survive the death of the body, some place where our consciousness might live on after we die. We can find representations of an afterlife within every period of SF properly so-called, from late-nineteenth-century “scientific romance” to Campbellian magazine fiction, to the New Wave of the 1960s, to the ...

  8. Shakespeare’s Eternal Voice: Fictional autobiographies of the Bard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Kowalski

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper focuses on two fictional works that strive to revive Shakespeare's voice, that is Christopher Rush's "Will" (2007, and J. P. Wearing's ÒThe Shakespeare's Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography" (2007, which although significantly different in terms of form find common ground in employing the first-person narrative in order to depict Shakespeare's life. The author analyses the image of the Bard that emerges from the novel and the diary, and the way in which both works transform the facts known from certain documents or based on extensive research into a fictional narrative. He argues that although both works try to satisfy the curiosity of the readers, they belong to two different types of representations found in fictional biographies of the Bard, and therefore the images they create address different kinds of collective desires and fantasies of the mass audience.

  9. Science Fiction Exhibits as STEM Gateways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robie, Samantha

    Women continue to hold less than a quarter of all STEM jobs in the United States, prompting many museums to develop programs and exhibits with the express goal of interesting young girls in scientific fields. At the same time, a number of recent museum exhibits have harnessed the popularity of pop culture and science fiction in order to interest general audiences in STEM subject matter, as well as using the exhibits as springboards to expand or shift mission goals and focus. Because science fiction appears to be successful at raising interest in STEM fields, it may be an effective way to garner the interest of young girls in STEM in particular. This research seeks to describe the ways in which museums are currently using science fiction exhibits to interest young girls in STEM fields and careers. Research focused on four institutions across the country hosting three separate exhibits, and included staff interviews and content analysis of exhibit descriptions, promotional materials, a summative evaluation and supplementary exhibit productions. In some ways, science fiction exhibits do serve young girls, primarily through the inclusion of female role models, staff awareness, and prototype testing to ensure interactives are attractive to girls as well as to boys. However, STEM appears to be underutilized, which may be partly due to a concern within the field that the outcome of targeting a specific gender could be construed as "stereotyping".

  10. Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, Judy; Mattei, Nicholas

    2014-01-01

    The undergraduate computer science curriculum is generally focused on skills and tools; most students are not exposed to much research in the field, and do not learn how to navigate the research literature. We describe how fiction reviews (and specifically science fiction) are used as a gateway to research reviews. Students learn a little about…

  11. Modern Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dailey, Jennie Ora Marriott

    The major prerequisite to studying science fiction as literature is determining the criteria by which it is to be evaluated. A middle ground which recognizes both literary merit and the genre's uniqueness (scientific orientation, dominancy of idea, and interest of speculation) proves to be the most workable approach and stresses the versatility…

  12. Does art imitate death? Depictions of suicide in fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pridmore, Saxby; Walter, Garry

    2013-02-01

    To determine whether fiction (narrative products) deals with the issue of suicide and, if so, what it tells us about suicide "drivers". Accounts of suicide in narrative products were sought through web-based lists, book club members, other active readers and a prize-winning film writer and producer. Seventy-one depictions of fictional suicidal events were identified. In 12 suicides, the author appeared to indicate that the death was directly or indirectly due to mental disorder. In 15 suicides, the motivation could not be determined by the reader, and in 44 cases the motivation was social/situational factors. Suicidal events are depicted in fiction, and the features are broadly similar to the features of suicide in the real world. Should it be determined that cultural influences, including fiction, are important in suicide, any preventive activities aimed at modifying cultural influences will need to consider all forms of narrative product.

  13. Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brewster, Liz

    2017-03-01

    Crime is a popular genre of fiction, widely read but sometimes seen as 'throwaway'. Disregarding this type of fiction because it is seen as low quality does not take into account its value to readers. Reading has been established as a means of improving mental health and well-being-often known as bibliotherapy. This often focuses on fiction considered to have literary merit rather than genre fiction like crime. However, in framing therapeutic reading in this way, the impact of texts considered to have low cultural value such as crime has been concealed. Examining readers' responses as a starting point identifies some reasons why crime fiction fulfils a need. Readers in an empirical study spoke about the strong narrative as a distraction, the predictability as a comfort and the safe distance from events as a reassurance that left them feeling that reading crime fiction was a refuge from the world. In exploring readers' responses in relation to the academic literature, the paper argues that there is a need to think differently about how readers engage with texts and how they experience reading as therapeutic, with a role for fiction like crime. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  14. Analytical Approach to Fictional Elements of Sandbadnameh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    a عارفی

    2014-05-01

    Using stock and allegorical characters, fixed tone and style in dialogue tales, lack of variegated plot and logical and stable relationship between events make this work far from contemporary criteria of fiction writing in spite of its great volume, and introduce it as a symbolic and allegorical tale. On the other hand, bombastic and embellished prose as well as being loyal to ancient fiction writing have added to literary significance of this literary work.

  15. Depictions of global environmental change in science fiction : an overview of educational applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kadonaga, L. [Victoria Univ., BC (Canada). Dept. of Geography

    2000-06-01

    This paper examined how the use of science fiction books and movies can be used as a tool to educate the public. Narratives encourage interest in global environmental changes and can help demystify how science works. Although most science fiction depictions of global environmental change are outdated and oversimplified, the genre can encourage discussion of ecological and social impacts. Writers of science fiction consider both natural systems and human societies, anticipating the work of impacts researchers. It was argued that while both science fiction writers and global change researchers require knowledge and creativity to construct realistic extrapolations, a well-written science fiction book is likely to reach a larger audience. Science fiction books emphasize that climate projections are intended as warnings. If properly handled, they can improve public awareness of issues such as global warming and climatic change. It was suggested that collaboration between researchers and science fiction writers could produce some interesting work. 48 refs.

  16. ‘Every age gets the art it deserves’ ‐ science fiction : history, background and definitions

    OpenAIRE

    Grech, Victor E.; Vassallo, Clare; Callus, Ivan

    2012-01-01

    It would be logical to commence this essay by attempting to identify the approximate locus of SF within the general corpus of literature as perceived by the academy. Fiction might here be seen as having four main categories: canonical fiction (the classics), serious fiction that strives to become canonical, plain fiction (best sellers or general works) and junk fiction: popular and gauche fiction that includes mysteries, thrillers, westerns, romances, fantasy, and SF. It has been argued that ...

  17. The Use of "Literary Fiction" to Promote Mentalizing Ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica

    2016-01-01

    Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people's emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner' s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia.

  18. Teaching and Learning Psychology through an Analysis of Social Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herman, William E.

    2009-01-01

    This paper is designed to accompany an appearance by the author as a panelist during a session on science fiction and teaching methods at the I-CON 28 Science Fiction Convention held April 3-5, 2009, on Long Island (near New York City). The author describes how he employs social science fiction in an honors course at the university level to…

  19. Screen Present and Fictional Present

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robin Le Poidevin

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT I intend in this paper to explore the possible consequences for our understanding of fiction of a particular view of the nature of time, namely the hypothesis of the open future. The kind of fiction we will particularly concerned with is film, which provides a convenient way of focusing the general issue I want to raise here. The issue could also be raised in relation to theatre and certain types of novel, but there are nevertheless some disanalogies between film and these other art forms, and I shall indicate these below. The essay is intended as an exercise in bringing metaphysics and aesthetics together, to the benefit (I hope and trust of both.

  20. Fictionalized History: Signifying Changes to the Malaysian Nation and Identity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sim Chee Cheang

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available As one of the cornerstones of fiction, writers often use and confront history in their claim to “reality” and “identity” in their writing. Linda Hutcheon’s claim for “a postmodern concern for the multiplicity and dispersion of truth(s; truth(s relative to the specificity of place and culture” (1988, p. 108 is relevant to the use of history in recent Malaysian literature. The multiple and varied claims of truth(s as reflected through the fictionalizing of Malaysian history is the focus of the analysis in this article, which aims to expose the social, economic, and political implications of the Malaysian identity. The analysis of three current works of fictionalized Malaysian history from the different fictional genres of comic series, children’s history, and occidental history, represents a cross section of genres that challenge the supremacy of history’s ontological claim over identity. The deliberate contestation of received Malaysian history in fictional modes acknowledges the peripheral identity structures of race, religion, and economics that are sensitive in a multiracial country such as Malaysia.

  1. Visionary medicine: speculative fiction, racial justice and Octavia Butler's 'Bloodchild'.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasco, John Carlo; Anderson, Camille; DasGupta, Sayantani

    2016-12-01

    Medical students across the USA have increasingly made the medical institution a place for speculating racially just futures. From die-ins in Fall 2014 to silent protests in response to racially motivated police brutality, medical schools have responded to the public health crisis that is racial injustice in the USA. Reading science fiction may benefit healthcare practitioners who are already invested in imagining a more just, healthier futurity. Fiction that rewrites the future in ways that undermine contemporary power regimes has been termed 'visionary fiction'. In this paper, the authors introduce 'visionary medicine' as a tool for teaching medical students to imagine and produce futures that preserve health and racial justice for all. This essay establishes the connections between racial justice, medicine and speculative fiction by examining medicine's racially unjust past practices, and the intersections of racial justice and traditional science and speculative fiction. It then examines speculative fiction author Octavia Butler's short story 'Bloodchild' as a text that can introduce students of the medical humanities to a liberatory imagining of health and embodiment, one that does not reify and reinscribe boundaries of difference, but reimagines the nature of Self and Other, power and collaboration, agency and justice. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  2. Authentication Projects for Historical Fiction: Do You Believe It?

    Science.gov (United States)

    McTigue, Erin; Thornton, Elaine; Wiese, Patricia

    2013-01-01

    Authentication projects, particularly for historical fiction, provide a means for students to explore literature and history while practicing critical literacy skills. The authors 1) present benefits and cautions for historical fiction use in elementary classrooms, 2) introduce authentication projects as a means to mitigate risks and enhance…

  3. THE VECTOR OF METODOLOGY IN FICTION STUDIES

    OpenAIRE

    GOLBAN, PETRU

    2015-01-01

    This study considers fiction, its certain characteristic features, principles and devices (thematic and narrative), and a number of structural elements correlated within interpretative models. The purpose of this study represents the attempt to establish a vector of methodology, i. e. an interpretative modality aimed at stipulating the direction of approach to the fictional text, and which consists of a set of methods, an ordered system of principles of research used for study in the field of...

  4. Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief

    OpenAIRE

    Davidsen, M.A.

    2016-01-01

    Thematic issue on 'Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief', volume 46(4) of Religion. The thematic issue inclues the following articles: Davidsen, Markus Altena, "Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief – Introducing the Thematic Issue". Petersen, Anders Klostergaard, "The Difference Between Religious Narratives and Fictional Literature: A Matter of Degree Only". Davidsen, Markus Altena, "The Religious ...

  5. Fan fiction, early Greece, and the historicity of canon

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahuvia Kahane

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The historicity of canon is considered with an emphasis on contemporary fan fiction and early Greek oral epic traditions. The essay explores the idea of canon by highlighting historical variance, exposing wider conceptual isomorphisms, and formulating a revised notion of canonicity. Based on an analysis of canon in early Greece, the discussion moves away from the idea of canon as a set of valued works and toward canon as a practice of containment in response to inherent states of surplus. This view of canon is applied to the practice of fan fiction, reestablishing the idea of canonicity in fluid production environments within a revised, historically specific understanding in early oral traditions on the one hand and in digital cultures and fan fiction on the other. Several examples of early epigraphic Greek texts embedded in oral environments are analyzed and assessed in terms of their implications for an understanding of fan fiction and its modern contexts.

  6. Passionate Virtue: Conceptions of Medical Professionalism in Popular Romance Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Jessica

    2015-01-01

    Medical romance fiction is a subgenre of popular romance fiction that features medical professionals in their work environment. This essay explores the way professionalism is portrayed in popular medical romance fiction written during the early twenty-first century, a period of significant disruption in both the public image and self-understanding of organized medicine. I analyze a selection of contemporary medical romance novels, published between 2008 and 2012, demonstrating that medical romance fiction is a form of public intervention in apparently insular debates over medical professionalism. I conclude that they promote "nostalgic professionalism," a vision of physicians as a select group of highly educated, self-regulated experts who provide, with a caring and altruistic attitude, a vitally important service to society, while at the same time generating implicit critiques of it.

  7. The logic of crime fiction genre in modern person’s consciousness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. O. Krapivnyk

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The author provides philosophical anthropological analysis of the logic of the crime fiction genre in the modern person’s consciousness. It was shown that detective texts convey hyper-orderliness, which compensates for the lack of systematization in real life, directly influences the recipient, setting the limits of personal freedom, and indirectly structures social order. The research assumes that classical crime fiction is related to the positivist philosophy, rationalism and scientific thinking, whereas the formula of the late Modern crime fiction stories is gradually getting more sophisticated, which reflects the evolution of the philosophical thinking on the whole. The special feature of the crime fiction genre logic is in the fact that available in crime fiction texts typical formal logical elements of a hypothesis, versions, evidence and contradiction are combined by the addressers with creative inspiration, intuition, true life, which are not the characteristics of pure science. The logic in the texts of the crime fiction genre helps a modern person to virtually build a system of universal philosophical and cultural values, applied by the society as its basis for social norms, rules and laws of any modern state. In addition, the specific logic of investigation encourages person’s everyday activities, since cultural reading enables a person not only to perceive but also to transfer and use the laws of logic, inherent in the crime fiction genre, in their professional activities, including research work.

  8. Homophobia, heteronormativity, and slash fan fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    April S. Callis

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available I analyze the relationship between homophobia/heteronormativity and slash fan fiction. Through reading and coding almost 6,000 pages of Kirk/Spock fan fiction written from 1978 to 2014, I illuminate shifts in how normative gender and sexuality are portrayed by K/S authors. Writers of K/S, while ostensibly writing about the 23rd century, consciously or unconsciously include cultural norms from the 20th and 21st centuries. Thus, slash becomes a lens through which readers can view a decrease in both homophobia and heteronormativity in US culture over the past several decades.

  9. From the wizard to the doubter: Prototypes of scientists and engineers in fiction and non-fiction media aimed at Dutch children and teenagers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gorp, B. van; Rommes, E.W.M.; Emons, P.A.A.

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the prototypical scientists as they appear in fiction and non-fiction media consumed by children and teenagers in the Netherlands. A qualitative-interpretive content analysis is used to identify seven prototypes and the associated characteristics in a

  10. The role of science fiction within the fluidity of slipstream literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janez Steble

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper explores the complex and contradictory role of science fiction in slipstream, the type of postmodern non-realistic literature situated between the fantastic genres and the mainstream literary fiction. Because of its unstable status of occupying an interstitial position between multiple literary conventions, the article first deals with an expansive terminology affiliated with slipstream and elucidates upon using a unified term for it. Avantpop, transrealism, and interstitial fiction all help us in understanding the vast postmodern horizon of slipstream. Furthermore, the slipstream's philosophy of cognitive dissonance in comparison to science fiction's is analysed to see the similarities and differences between them. The section is mainly concerned on expanding Darko Suvin's concept of cognition and viewing it as partially compatible with slipstream's estrangement techniques. The final part is focused on the exemplary slipstream novel Vurt by Jeff Noon, a perfect example of science fiction providing material, including latest post-Newtonian paradigms of science, for slipstream to mould it in its own fashion.

  11. Dimensional expansions and shiftings: fan fiction and transmedia storytelling the the Fringeverse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mar Guerrero-Pico

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This article explores the characteristics of user-generated texts in fictional transmedia storytelling based on the fan fiction originating from FOX’s television series Fringe (2008-2013. A fan fiction (also known as fanfic or fic is a piece of writing in which the author recreates the setting, events and characters of a source text or canon. After reviewing fan theories and practices, the article focuses on three examples examples of Fringe fan fiction analysing them with a double-edged methodology that combines narrative semiotics and narratology. Based on the results we update a set of transmedia narrative strategies by adding dimensional expansion and shifting, and also redefine the different areas of the storyworld where fan fiction is set with special emphasis on alternate universe (AU scenarios.

  12. Teaching the Future: On the Use of Science Fiction in English Language Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stockwell, Peter

    2001-01-01

    Outlines the features of "pulpstyle" and its continuing influence on later science fiction. Considers some science fiction texts that explicitly address language issues. These ideas are related to practical techniques of using science fiction in the language classroom. (Author/VWL)

  13. Indexing Serialized Fiction: May the Force Be with You.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barr, Melissa M.

    The adult novel offers indexers an unusual opportunity to create a serialized fiction index. This research paper involved designing and creating a Character Index, Thesaurus, Glossary, and Abstract (with descriptors) for 21 novels based on the "Star Wars" movies. The novels are an unusual example of serialized fiction featuring main…

  14. Gesturing beyond the Frame: Transnational Trauma and US War Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruth A. H. Lahti

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The convergent boundary between the fields of trauma theory and US war fiction has resulted in a narrow focus on the subjectivity of the American soldier in war fiction, which partly conditions American war fiction's privileging of the soldier-author. However, this focus on American soldiers does not adequately account for the essentially interactive nature of war trauma, and it elides the experiences of nurses and noncombatants on all sides of the battle while also obscuring women's distinctive war experiences, even when the fiction itself sometimes includes these dimensions. In this essay, Lahti argues that a transnational method can counter these imbalances in trauma theory and in studies of US war fiction. She engages Tim O'Brien's highly influential The Things They Carried from a transnational perspective by interrogating the text's figuring of the survivor author and focusing on critically neglected scenes of interaction between the American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. In order to discern the way these scenes reveal the text's own struggle with its national US frame, she elaborates a methodology of close reading characters' bodily gestures to foreground the way that fiction offers a glimpse into war as a relational event, always involving two or more participants. In the case of The Things They Carried, this approach brings into view a heretofore unnoticed pattern of mimicry between the American characters and Vietnamese characters that reshapes our scholarly understanding of the text's representation of war trauma.

  15. Globalisation of Cultural Circuits. The Case of International Awards for Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bacanu Horea

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In the international circuit of fictional texts from the last fifty years (perhaps even one hundred years, in some cases, several independent international organizations, academic and editorial platforms of critique and debate have been established. They have been organizing international contests, fine authorities of critical appreciation, evaluation and awarding of most prolific authors and most successful fictional texts: novels, short stories, stories or utopian and dystopian fictions. The allotment on cultural corridors, the geographical identification of both author and title dynamics which have been nominated at the most prestigious international awards for fiction demonstrates an increased emergence of several zones where wide international circulation texts were seldom, fifty years ago. In this paper, we suggest a reinterpretation and a comprehension of the political context from the contemporary fiction, by regrouping in one category, the three classical genres (historic novel, social novel, political novel and also the universal fiction which implies characters and relations of power. Thus, we create a category which is known as „political fiction”. The increased individualization of this literary macro-genre called „political fiction” is also a creative answer to the high speed of circulation and at the general international amplitude with which contemporary socio-political novels are distributed.

  16. Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolle Lamerichs

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Academic accounts of fan cultures usually focus on creative practices such as fan fiction, fan videos, and fan art. Through these practices, fans, as an active audience, closely interpret existing texts and rework them with texts of their own. A practice scarcely examined is cosplay ("costume play", in which fans produce their own costumes inspired by fictional characters. Cosplay is a form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story in close connection to the fan community and the fan's own identity. I provide analytical insights into this fan practice, focusing on how it influences the subject. Cosplay is understood as a performative activity and analyzed through Judith Butler's concept of performativity. I specifically focus on boundaries between the body and dress, and on those between reality and fiction. I aim to show that cosplay emphasizes the personal enactment of a narrative, thereby offering new perspectives on fan identity.

  17. L Ron Hubbard's science fiction quest against psychiatry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirshbein, Laura

    2016-12-01

    Layfayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986) was a colourful and prolific American writer of science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. During the time between his two decades of productivity and his return to science fiction in 1980, Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology. In addition to its controversial status as a religion and its troubling pattern of intimidation and litigation directed towards its foes, Scientology is well known as an organised opponent to psychiatry. This paper looks at Hubbard's science fiction work to help understand the evolution of Scientology's antipsychiatry stance, as well as the alternative to psychiatry offered by Hubbard. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  18. Science fiction as a culture of global innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas MICHAUD

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Science fiction participates to the creation of a global culture of innovation. It is diffused in most of the developed countries to promote technical innovation and has motivated a lot of actors of capitalism to imitate the utopian technologies represented in these very popular movies and novels. The stake of this article is to define the strategic habitus in a cultural environment constituted of multiple centers of Research and Development (R&D organized in network. The management of science fiction is necessary to optimize innovation at a global level. After the step of the ideological filtering of science fiction, the construction of discursive philters permits to manage productive systems with common and normalized cultural considerations. The approaches of sensemaking, storytelling and “strategy as discourse” are used at the theoretical level.

  19. When fiction is just as real as fact: No differences in reading behavior between stories believed to be based on true or fictional events

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hartung, F.C.; Withers, P.J.; Hagoort, P.; Willems, R.M.

    2017-01-01

    Experiments have shown that compared to fictional texts, readers read factual texts faster and have better memory for described situations. Reading fictional texts on the other hand seems to improve memory for exact wordings and expressions. Most of these studies used a 'newspaper' versus

  20. Dickens and Science Fiction: A Study of Artificial Intelligence in Great Expectations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pete Robert Orford

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Dickens didn't write science fiction - or did he? More to the point, why on earth wouldn't Dickens write science fiction? In an era when writers were experimenting more and more with the fusion of science and the unknown in their writing, the apparent absence of such a work by Dickens appears conspicuous. This article addresses this issue by exploring the confused beginnings of science fiction and goes on to present a detailed study of robotics in 'Great Expectations. 'It seeks out the resonances between Dickens's novel and early robot fiction of the nineteenth century, examining Estella's inhumanity and the way in which both she and Pip are 'made' by Miss Havisham and Magwitch. Ultimately, the paper aims to show that Dickens's writing does indeed have a place in the study of science fiction.

  1. Aesthetics of destruction in contemporary science fiction cinema

    OpenAIRE

    Warton, John Phillips

    2015-01-01

    Mass destruction imagery within the science fiction film genre is not a new cinematic development. However, a swell of destruction-centred films has emerged since the proliferation of digital technologies and computer-generated imagery that reflect concerns that extend beyond notions of spectacle. Through illusionistic realism techniques, the aesthetics of mass destruction imagery within science fiction cinema can be seen as appropriating the implied veracity of other film trad...

  2. Textbook vs. Historical Fiction: Impact on Social Studies Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rider, Amanda

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adding historical fiction novels as a supplement to the textbook in an eighth grade social studies course. This qualitative study focused on student interest and feedback as their social studies class was altered through the addition of historical fiction novels. The research questions were…

  3. Fictions of Ambivalence

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kim Toft

    unconscious of suppressed guilt and anxiety, or it can be dealt with as a general way of delivering social critique through fiction. Nevertheless, the order of society and the democratic scenery is, in the narrative, muddled by religious problems with Christian roots. Correspondingly, this paper reflects upon...

  4. Compensatory function of crime fiction texts in mass culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. O. Krapivnyk

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Philosophical and anthropological analysis allowed to confirm that the compensatory function is one of the basic functions of formulaic crime fiction texts in mass culture. It closely interacts and has no clear borderlines with other anthropological functions of the crime fiction genre. Structuring and systematizing human consciousness, entertaining and educating the recipient, the compensatory function positively influences the addresser, the addressee and the modern society. In the mass culture the function under consideration has a number of aspects, in particular, therapeutic, entertaining, educating etc. It transforms into a mechanism of regulating mental state when life processes are becoming more complicated and human psyche needs regular training and relaxation (including the creation of virtual situations in the crime fiction world, associated with crime, violence, aggression and their effects for all the related parties. However, the compensatory function of crime fiction texts also follows classical traditions, oriented on rationalism and enlightenment, as well as encourages regulation of moral and legal state system in the times of Modernity and Postmodernity, that is promotes moral and legal culture in the society.

  5. The Voyage between Truth and Fiction: Stories of the "Titanic."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanchez, Rebecca R.

    1994-01-01

    Describes the activities in a high school English class aimed at instructing students concerning the concept of "historical fiction." Outlines class activities in which students are asked to write fictional narratives based on the historical facts concerning the sinking of the "Titanic." (HB)

  6. The Value of Fictional Worlds (or Why 'The Lord of the Rings' is Worth Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Harold

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Some works of fiction are widely held by critics to have little value, yet these works are not only popular but also widely admired in ways that are not always appreciated. In this paper I make use of Kendall Walton’s account of fictional worlds to argue that fictional worlds can and often do have value, including aesthetic value, that is independent of the works that create them. In the process, I critique Walton’s notion of fictional worlds and offer a defense of the study and appreciation of fictional worlds, as distinguished from the works of fiction with which they are associated.

  7. Fact vs fiction--how paratextual information shapes our reading processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altmann, Ulrike; Bohrn, Isabel C; Lubrich, Oliver; Menninghaus, Winfried; Jacobs, Arthur M

    2014-01-01

    Our life is full of stories: some of them depict real-life events and were reported, e.g. in the daily news or in autobiographies, whereas other stories, as often presented to us in movies and novels, are fictional. However, we have only little insights in the neurocognitive processes underlying the reading of factual as compared to fictional contents. We investigated the neurocognitive effects of reading short narratives, labeled to be either factual or fictional. Reading in a factual mode engaged an activation pattern suggesting an action-based reconstruction of the events depicted in a story. This process seems to be past-oriented and leads to shorter reaction times at the behavioral level. In contrast, the brain activation patterns corresponding to reading fiction seem to reflect a constructive simulation of what might have happened. This is in line with studies on imagination of possible past or future events.

  8. Trashing the millenium: Subjectivity and technology in cyberpunk science fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. A. Sey

    1992-05-01

    Full Text Available 'Cyberpunk’ science fiction is a self-proclaimed movement within the genre which began in the 1980s. As the name suggests, it is an extrapolative form of science fiction which combines an almost obsessional interest in machines (particularly information machines with an anarchic, amoral, streetwise sensibility This paper sketches the development of the movement and seeks to make qualified claims for the radical. potential of its fiction. Of crucial importance are the ways in which human subjectivity (viewed in psychoanalytic terms interacts with 'technological subjectivity' in cyberpunk, particularly with regard to implications of these interactions for oedipalization.

  9. "Paradox fikce" a emoce ve sportovních filmech

    OpenAIRE

    Sýkora, Matěj

    2013-01-01

    This bachelor thesis deals with the paradox of fiction and emotion of recipients of sports films. The work is divided into four main chapters. The first two aim to define the key terms fiction (the fictional world) and emotion. The third chapter briefly summarizes the most important theories dealing with the paradox of fiction (Radford and Weston, Walton, etc.) and offers an outline of a possible solution to the problem following neurobiological explorations of Antonio Damasio and selected co...

  10. 75 FR 76636 - Anthropomorphic Test Devices; Hybrid III 6-Year-Old Child Test Dummy, Hybrid III 6-Year-Old...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-12-09

    ... provision: ``When a motor vehicle safety standard is in effect under this chapter, a State or a political... [Docket No. NHTSA-2010-0147] RIN 2127-AK34 Anthropomorphic Test Devices; Hybrid III 6-Year-Old Child Test Dummy, Hybrid III 6-Year-Old Weighted Child Test Dummy AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety...

  11. III-V semiconductor materials and devices

    CERN Document Server

    Malik, R J

    1989-01-01

    The main emphasis of this volume is on III-V semiconductor epitaxial and bulk crystal growth techniques. Chapters are also included on material characterization and ion implantation. In order to put these growth techniques into perspective a thorough review of the physics and technology of III-V devices is presented. This is the first book of its kind to discuss the theory of the various crystal growth techniques in relation to their advantages and limitations for use in III-V semiconductor devices.

  12. Still ‘Watching’ TV? The Consumption of TV Fiction by Engaged Audiences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Dhoest

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available There is no denying that television, as a medium and an institution, has drastically changed in the age of digitization and convergence. For audiences, this has not only opened up multiple opportunities to watch television content at other times and on other devices, but also to interact with its cross-media extensions. However, while much has been written about the new opportunities for audience engagement, we do not know much about the actual adoption of new technologies nor the motivations underlying such uses. Therefore, this paper draws on empirical audience research to address the key question: how do viewers engage with contemporary TV fiction? Through empirical audience research, using various qualitative research methods, three different aspects of the reception of cross-media TV fiction will be discussed: (1 how do viewers watch the TV episodes of contemporary TV fiction?, (2 how do viewers engage with the cross-media extensions of TV fiction?, and (3 how do viewers experience the social dimensions of contemporary TV fiction? We focus on a particular group, that of 'engaged' viewers, who are actively involved by personalizing their viewing practices, by communicating about it, by consuming cross-media elements of TV fiction, or producing TV fiction-related content. Our findings suggest that even this group does not make full use of all the available technological opportunities to personalize TV viewing, and that the classical TV text, linear viewing, and the social aspect of viewing remain of key importance.

  13. [The image of animal magnetism in fictional literature: the cases of Poe, Doyle and Du Maurier].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonet Safont, Juan Marcos

    2014-01-01

    In this article, we focus on the social image of the phenomenon known as mesmerism, or animal magnetism, through analysis of the works: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe, The Great Keinplatz Experiment (1885) by Conan Doyle and Trilby (1894) by George Du Maurier. We describe the stereotype of the mesmerist and the uses of mesmerism observed. We pay attention to the spaces and actors of the mesmeric transcript presented in the stories. We consider the reception of these stories by the public and the relationship of the authors with mesmeric and hypnotic knowledge. Nowadays, academic researchers in the discipline of psychology publish articles and books on popular myths about hypnosis in attempts to depict the distorted images related to this phenomenon. This distorted image of the hypnotic process and the hypnotist derives from "circus" hypnotism shows (stage hypnosis), the cinema, television and fictional literature. Works of fiction represent a unique and invaluable source of information, ideas, speculations, concerns and opportunities around animal magnetism and hypnosis, and the exploration and analysis of this literature is an essential chapter in any historical study of this topic. We see how the literary use of mesmerism by Poe, Doyle and Du Maurier is not chance or peripheral, with all three being intellectually interested in and stimulated by these ideas.

  14. Art and fiction are signals with indeterminate truth values.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rabb, Nathaniel

    2017-01-01

    Menninghaus et al. distinguish art from fiction, but no current arguments or data suggest that the concept of art can be meaningfully circumscribed. This is a problem for aesthetic psychology. I sketch a solution by rejecting the distinction: Unlike most animal communication, in which signals are either true or false, art and fiction consist of signals without determinate truth values.

  15. Personalized Drug Therapy in Cystic Fibrosis: From Fiction to Reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Lima Marson, Fernando Augusto; Bertuzzo, Carmen Silvia; Ribeiro, Jose Dirceu

    2015-01-01

    Personalized drug therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF) is a long-term dream for CF patients, caregivers, physicians and researchers. After years of study, the fiction of personalized treatment has turned to hope. Basic information about CFTR mutations classes and new treatments is needed if we are to deal properly with the new CF era. The problems involved in this issue, however, should be evaluated with greater care and attention. VX-770 is a new drug available to treat CF patients with some class III CFTR mutations and other drugs are being studied regarding other classes. The scientific literature has constantly given information about each therapy, both in vitro and in vivo. The hope is increasing. Nevertheless the "scientific world" still lacks information about patients' reality and daily health related practical needs. Clinical trials have showed good evaluation of some drugs so far, but clinical response is a wide spectrum yet to be analyzed: CFTR mutations spectrum, costs related to the treatment with new drugs (for VX-770 therapy), variability of CF clinical expression, limitations to test in vitro drugs, absence of good clinical markers to evaluate drug response, absence of long-term studies and with patients below six years old, multidrug treatment used to improve the expression response, and finally, the most important problem, who will benefit from the new drugs therapy, are issues that constitute a barrier that should be overcome. Personalized drug therapy may not be a fiction anymore, but it is not yet a reality for all CF patients.

  16. A training purpose for the Bachelor: physics and Fiction Science

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bacas Leal, P.; Martin, M.J.; Perera Cendal, F.; Pizarro Galan, A.M.

    1997-01-01

    Science fiction can be used in the classroom as a fantastic narrative which exploits the imaginative outlooks of modern science. In this paper some of the teaching prospects which science fiction offers are analysed, and for instance, those offered by A.C. Clarke's Maelstrom II are developed. (Author)

  17. Upper Elementary Students' Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parsons, Allison Ward; Parsons, Seth A.; Malloy, Jacquelynn A.; Gambrell, Linda B.; Marinak, Barbara A.; Reutzel, D. Ray; Applegate, Mary D.; Applegate, Anthony J.; Fawson, Parker C.

    2018-01-01

    This research explores upper elementary students' motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Using expectancy-value theory, the researchers developed separate surveys to measure motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Researchers administered surveys to 1,104 upper elementary students (grades 3-6) in multiple locations across the United States…

  18. Science Fiction at the Far Side of Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Mikkel Willum

    2017-01-01

    behind some of the major works of their genre; assessments that may in turn provide the inspiration for new stories based on an enhanced understanding of the dynamics of science and technology. Film critics and literary critics with a good working knowledge of science fiction may find fresh insight......This book explores what science fiction can tell us about the human condition in a technological world (with the dilemma's and consequences that this entails) and also engages with the genre at points where we apparently find it on the far side of science, technology or human existence. As such....... It is our hope that this interdisciplinary approach will set an example for those who, like us, have been busy assessing the ways in which fictional attempts to fathom the possibilities of science and technology speak to central concerns about what it means to be human in a contemporary world of technology...

  19. Fact or Fiction? Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    Today's school library uses an increasing number of digital resources to supplement a print collection that is moving more toward fiction and literary non-fiction. Supplemental resources, including streaming video, online resources, subscription databases, audiobooks, e-books, and even games, round out the new collections. Despite the best…

  20. Synthetic Literature : Writing Science Fiction in a Co-Creative Process

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Manjavacas, Enrique; Karsdorp, F.B.; Burtenshaw, Ben; Kestemont, Mike

    This paper describes a co-creative text generation system applied within a science fiction setting to be used by an established novelist. The project was initiated as part of The Dutch Book Week, and the generated text will be published within a volume of science fiction stories. We explore the

  1. The Material Co-Construction of Hard Science Fiction and Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of…

  2. Adult education and publishing Canadian fiction in a global context: a Foucauldian analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan M Holloway

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper draws upon findings from a research study on the relationship between fiction, citizenship, and lifelong learning. It includes interviews with authors from several genres, publishing houses, and arts councils. This paper explores many of the ambivalent outcomes of the shifting power elements in publishing that can simultaneously benefit and disadvantage the publication of a national body of fiction. Although focused on the Canadian context, fiction writers and publishers around the globe face similar challenges. Using a Foucauldian analysis, it considers the importance of fiction and adult learning in shaping discourses of citizenship and critical social learning.

  3. DEVELOPMENT OF METRICS FOR TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: QUALIS BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ribas-Filho, Jurandir Marcondes; Malafaia, Osvaldo; Czeczko, Nicolau Gregori; Ribas, Carmen A P Marcondes; Nassif, Paulo Afonso Nunes

    2015-01-01

    To propose metrics to qualify the publication in books and chapters, and from there, establish guidance for the evaluation of the Medicine III programs. Analysis of some of the 2013 area documents focusing this issue. Were analyzed the following areas: Computer Science; Biotechnology; Biological Sciences I; Public Health; Medicine I. Except for the Medicine I, which has not adopted the metric for books and chapters, all other programs established metrics within the intellectual production, although with unequal percentages. It´s desirable to include metrics for books and book chapters in the intellectual production of post-graduate programs in Area Document with percentage-value of 5% in publications of Medicine III programs. Propor a métrica para qualificar a produção veiculada através de livros e capítulos e, a partir daí, estabelecer orientação para a avaliação dos programas de pós-graduação da Medicina III. Análise dos documentos de área de 2013 dos programas de pós-graduação senso estrito das áreas: Ciência da Computação; Biotecnologia; Ciências Biológicas I; Saúde Coletiva; Medicina I. Excetuando-se o programa da Medicina I, que não adotou a métrica para classificação de livros e capítulos, todos os demais estabeleceram-na dentro da sua produção intelectual, embora com percentuais desiguais. É desejável inserir a métrica de livros e capitulos de livros na produção intelectual do Documento de Área dos programas, ortorgando a ela percentual de 5% das publicações qualificadas dos programas da Medicina III.

  4. Simulating fiction: individual differences in literature comprehension revealed with FMRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nijhof, Annabel D; Willems, Roel M

    2015-01-01

    When we read literary fiction, we are transported to fictional places, and we feel and think along with the characters. Despite the importance of narrative in adult life and during development, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying fiction comprehension are unclear. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how individuals differently employ neural networks important for understanding others' beliefs and intentions (mentalizing), and for sensori-motor simulation while listening to excerpts from literary novels. Localizer tasks were used to localize both the cortical motor network and the mentalizing network in participants after they listened to excerpts from literary novels. Results show that participants who had high activation in anterior medial prefrontal cortex (aMPFC; part of the mentalizing network) when listening to mentalizing content of literary fiction, had lower motor cortex activity when they listened to action-related content of the story, and vice versa. This qualifies how people differ in their engagement with fiction: some people are mostly drawn into a story by mentalizing about the thoughts and beliefs of others, whereas others engage in literature by simulating more concrete events such as actions. This study provides on-line neural evidence for the existence of qualitatively different styles of moving into literary worlds, and adds to a growing body of literature showing the potential to study narrative comprehension with neuroimaging methods.

  5. Fiction and Religion : How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Davidsen, M.A.

    2016-01-01

    Thematic issue on 'Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief', volume 46(4) of Religion. The thematic issue inclues the following articles: Davidsen, Markus Altena, "Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief –

  6. How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bal, P. Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story. PMID:23383160

  7. How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bal, P Matthijs; Veltkamp, Martijn

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.

  8. How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P Matthijs Bal

    Full Text Available The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced over a period of one week for people who read a fictional story, but only when they were emotionally transported into the story. No transportation led to lower empathy in both studies, while study 1 showed that high transportation led to higher empathy among fiction readers. These effects were not found for people in the control condition where people read non-fiction. The study showed that fiction influences empathy of the reader, but only under the condition of low or high emotional transportation into the story.

  9. LIFE AS FICTION, OR SOME NOTES ON ANTERO DE QUENTAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica Figueiredo

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Recovery of essayistic route of Antero de Quental . Analysis of the main ideas of Quental's thought and its relation with the biographical path of the poet. The (re creation of fictional "A genius who was a saint", according Eça de Queiroz . The biography as a form of fictional writing.

  10. Reflections on Science Fiction in Light of Today's Global Concerns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aiex, Patrick K.

    Science fiction is a literary genre that can be used in humanities courses to discuss ideas, attitudes, ethics, morality, and the effects of science and technology on the world's population. One of the best examples of a "classic" science fiction novel which can provoke class discussion is Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World,"…

  11. Holy sci-fi! where science fiction and religion intersect

    CERN Document Server

    Nahin, Paul J

    2014-01-01

    Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists, and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more. In Holy Sci-Fi!, popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy, and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to Foucault, and from Asimov to Aristotle. An intriguing journey through popular and well-loved books and stories, Holy Sci-Fi! shows how sci-fi has informed humanity's attitudes towards our faiths, our future, and ourselves.

  12. Critique and Fiction: Doing Science Right in Rural Education Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howley, Craig

    2009-01-01

    This essay explains the relevance of fiction to the practice of rural education research, in so doing engaging questions about the nature and purposes of research and, therefore, of science itself. Although many may assume science and fiction (in this account, novels) harbor contrary purposes and devices, this essay argues that, to the contrary,…

  13. Updike's Bech: a book, and the heaven of fiction

    OpenAIRE

    Manzanas Calvo, Ana María

    1993-01-01

    This paper examines Bech's trajectory as a fictional character and as an artificer of words. Bech, the word master, is "reduced" throughout the novel in the several oeuvres which try to capture his essence until finally he enters the "heaven of fiction," the ultimate reduction which fixes him as an immortal, immutable character. Bech, however, longs for the mortality of life outside the pantheon, for the unlimited possibilities of reality.

  14. Moral fictions and medical ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Franklin G; Truog, Robert D; Brock, Dan W

    2010-11-01

    Conventional medical ethics and the law draw a bright line distinguishing the permitted practice of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from the forbidden practice of active euthanasia by means of a lethal injection. When clinicians justifiably withdraw life-sustaining treatment, they allow patients to die but do not cause, intend, or have moral responsibility for, the patient's death. In contrast, physicians unjustifiably kill patients whenever they intentionally administer a lethal dose of medication. We argue that the differential moral assessment of these two practices is based on a series of moral fictions - motivated false beliefs that erroneously characterize withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in order to bring accepted end-of-life practices in line with the prevailing moral norm that doctors must never kill patients. When these moral fictions are exposed, it becomes apparent that conventional medical ethics relating to end-of-life decisions is radically mistaken. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  15. Quelques commentaires sur les personnages de fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umberto Eco

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available L’auteur met en place des observations et développe des analyses sur le statut des personnages de fiction, mettant à contribution les ressources de l’histoire, de la littérature, de la sémiotique, de la logique et de la narratologie. De quelle vie particulière vivent les personnages de roman, qui fait que nous sommes capables de les tenir pour plus réels que des personnages réels, et que nous sommes enclins à éprouver les sentiments qu’ils éprouvent, même si nous savons qu’ils n’existent pas ? Comment ces personnages de fiction existent-ils, selon quelle « partition » leur existence se développe-t-elle au point d’interférer avec la nôtre ? L’interrogation porte sur la nature de ce flux émotionnel qui s’écoule du lecteur vers les personnages de fiction et les investit de valeur, sur ce qui se projette de la vie vers le roman, entraînant avec lui le lecteur qui se trouve de la sorte impliqué malgré lui dans l’histoire, et se trouve pris dans le mécanisme de l’identification et de la vie fictive.Some commentaries about fiction charactersPutting into form a number of observations and developing an analysis on the status of fiction characters, the author draws on resources coming from history, literature, semiotic, logic et narration. What is that particular life lived by fiction characters that enable us to consider them as being more real than real characters, and to experience the feelings that they experience, even though we know that they do not exist? How do these characters exist? In other words, according to what “script” does their existence develop to the point of interfering with ours? The questioning centres on the nature of the emotional flux which flows from the reader towards the fictional characters thus giving them value, and on what it is which is projected from real life towards the novel and which is capable of sweeping up the reader who, without having particularly intended to do

  16. Introduction to Part III: Application of LCA in Practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rosenbaum, Ralph K.

    2018-01-01

    While Part II of this book presents the theoretical foundation and methodology of LCA, Part III is dedicated to a comprehensive discussion of how this methodology has been adapted and applied in practice. The chapters of Part III provide an easily readable and accessible introduction to different...

  17. Modern Middle Eastern Fiction: An Approach to Studying the Area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Frank A., Comp.

    The annotated listing cites Middle Eastern fiction which has been translated into English and can be used in humanities or social studies classes at the secondary level. The eight works of fiction listed contain materials that can be used to investigate the following topics: 1) contrasts between urban and village styles of life in the Middle East;…

  18. Beyond Flash Gordon and "Star Wars": Science Fiction and History Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooper, B. Lee

    1978-01-01

    Historical concepts can be taught through analysis of science fiction. Offers a class outline with science fiction resources to examine the boundaries of historical inquiry; six themes for student investigation based on specific resources; and a bibliography of 44 additional anthologies and books. (AV)

  19. More than "Cool Science": Science Fiction and Fact in the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Vandana

    2014-02-01

    The unfortunate negative attitude toward physics among many students, including science majors, warrants creative approaches to teaching required physics courses. One such approach is to integrate science fiction into the curriculum, either in the form of movies or the written word. Historically this has been done since at least the 1970s, and by now many universities and colleges have courses that incorporate science fiction stories or film. The intent appears to be to a) increase student interest in physics, b) increase the imaginative grasp of the student, and c) enable a clearer understanding of physics concepts. Reports on these experiments, from Freedman and Little's classic 1980 paper to more recent work like that of Dubeck et al.,2 Dark,3 and Smith,4 indicate that such innovative approaches do work. I was curious as to whether a combination of science fiction and science fact (in the form of a science news article) might enhance the benefits of including science fiction. Below I describe how I used a science fiction story along with a science article on a related theme to pique the interest of students in a new and exciting area of research that was nevertheless connected to the course material.

  20. Science Fiction in the Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brake, Mark; Thornton, Rosi

    2003-01-01

    Considers science fiction as an imaginative forum to focus on the relationships between science, culture, and society. Outlines some of the ways in which using the genre can help achieve a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of the nature and evolution of science. (Author/KHR)

  1. Science fiction by scientists an anthology of short stories

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    This anthology contains fourteen intriguing short stories by active research scientists and other writers trained in science. Science is at the heart of real science fiction, which is more than just westerns with ray guns or fantasy with spaceships. The people who do science and love science best are scientists. Scientists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Fred Hoyle wrote some of the legendary tales of golden age science fiction. Today there is a new generation of scientists writing science fiction informed with the expertise of their fields, from astrophysics to computer science, biochemistry to rocket science, quantum physics to genetics, speculating about what is possible in our universe. Here lies the sense of wonder only science can deliver. All the stories in this volume are supplemented by afterwords commenting on the science underlying each story.

  2. The neuroaesthetics of prose fiction: pitfalls, parameters and prospects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Michael

    2015-01-01

    There is a paucity of neuroaesthetic studies on prose fiction. This is in contrast to the very many impressive studies that have been conducted in recent times on the neuroaesthetics of sister arts such as painting, music and dance. Why might this be the case, what are its causes and, of greatest importance, how can it best be resolved? In this article, the pitfalls, parameters and prospects of a neuroaesthetics of prose fiction will be explored. The article itself is part critical review, part methodological proposal and part opinion paper. Its aim is simple: to stimulate, excite and energize thinking in the discipline as to how prose fiction might be fully integrated in the canon of neuroaesthetics and to point to opportunities where neuroimaging studies on literary discourse processing might be conducted in collaborative work bringing humanists and scientists together.

  3. Imagining the future: The Power of Climate Change Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buhr Sullivan, S. M.; Kellagher, E.; Poppleton, K. L.

    2013-12-01

    Fiction has galvanized the public imagination around societal concerns throughout US history, on issues including slavery, worker abuse and animal cruelty. A growing body of fiction concerned with climate change, 'cli-fi', provides the opportunity for students to engage with climate science in more visceral and affective ways. The Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) project ran a climate and energy book club from Spring 2012 through Winter 2013, in which educators, scientists and writers participated. The fictional works were intended for audiences ranging from youth through adult, with themes of dystopia, renewal, hope, oppression, and innovation. This presentation will describe the benefits, opportunities and caveats of using these works within science teaching contexts, highlight some of the works which stood out from the rest and provide an annotated bibliography of books which were included or considered.

  4. The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

    2006-04-01

    Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture influences their students' perception and understanding of science. Using naturalistic research methods in a diverse middle school we found that students who watched a popular science fiction film, The Core, had a number of misunderstandings of earth science concepts when compared to students who did not watch the movie. We found that a single viewing of a science fiction film can negatively impact student ideas regarding scientific phenomena. Specifically, we found that the film leveraged the scientific authority of the main character, coupled with scientifically correct explanations of some basic earth science, to create a series of plausible, albeit unscientific, ideas that made sense to students.

  5. Crime fiction and mediatized religion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kim Toft

    Scandinavian media where religion has become mediatized. Consumers of popular culture no longer endorse confidence in institutionalized religion, but that does not mean that people are losing faith: Faith only seems to adjust itself and tiptoe into popular media and popular fiction. Hence, this paper seeks...

  6. Religion in Scandinavian Crime Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kim Toft

    Scandinavian media where religion has become mediatized. Consumers of popular culture no longer endorse confidence in institutionalized religion, but that does not mean that people are losing faith: Faith only seem to adjust itself and tiptoe into popular media and popular fiction. Hence, this paper seeks...

  7. Jane Austen's (1775-1817) references to headache: fact and fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larner, A J

    2010-11-01

    References to headache in Jane Austen's works, both fictional and non-fictional, and in biographical works undertaken by Austen family members have been collated. These multiple references suggest that Jane Austen used headache as a narrative device to reflect not only physiological bodily processes but also psychological states, possibly based on her own experience of headache and that of female relations and acquaintances.

  8. Exploring science through science fiction

    CERN Document Server

    Luokkala, Barry B

    2014-01-01

    How does Einstein’s description of space and time compare with Dr. Who? Can James Bond really escape from an armor-plated railroad car by cutting through the floor with a laser concealed in a wristwatch? What would it take to create a fully-intelligent android, such as Star Trek’s Commander Data? How might we discover intelligent civilizations on other planets in the galaxy? Is human teleportation possible? Will our technological society ever reach the point at which it becomes lawful to discriminate on the basis of genetic information, as in the movie GATTACA? Exploring Science Through Science Fiction addresses these and other interesting questions, using science fiction as a springboard for discussing fundamental science concepts and cutting-edge science research. The book is designed as a primary text for a college-level course which should appeal to students in the fine arts and humanities as well as to science and engineering students. It includes references to original research papers, landmark scie...

  9. Sexualité, échange de pouvoir et science-fiction : Une étude SMiotique de quelques textes de science-fiction québécoise

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sylvie Bérard

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Cet article s’attarde à trois textes de science-fiction québécoise contemporaine mettant en scène une interaction sadomasochiste: « La carte du tendre » d’Élisabeth Vonarburg, Lame d’Esther Rochon et La mue de l'hermaphrodite de Karoline Georges. Combinant entre autres l’analyse du discours narratif, les théories psychanalytiques, et l’étude de la performance, il s’intéresse non seulement à ce que la science-fiction nous dit de la sexualité et du sadomasochisme, mais il tente de cerner ce que le sadomasochisme, en tant que cadre d’analyse, peut nous apprendre à propos de l’écriture de science-fiction et, pourquoi pas, à propos de l’écriture en général.

  10. Metaphysical perspectives on YHWH as a fictional entity in the Hebrew Bible

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacobus W. Gericke

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Within a literary ontology, YHWH in the Hebrew Bible is technically also a fictional entity or object. In Hebrew Bible scholarship, a variety of philosophical issues surrounding fiction have received sustained and in-depth attention. However, the mainstream research on these matters tends to focus on the philosophical foundations of or backgrounds to a particular literary theory, rather than on metaphysical puzzles as encountered in the philosophy of fiction proper. To fill this gap, the present article seeks to provide a meta-theoretical overview of the main contemporary philosophical perspectives on the metaphysics of fictional objects. Three views (and their sub-currents are discussed, namely possibilism, (neo-Meinongianism and (literary creationism. Each view’s theory is introduced and critically appropriated with reference to what is implied to be an answer to the question of what exactly the biblical character YHWH can meaningfully be said to be in the context of the metaphysics of fictional objects. In this way, the present study also goes beyond the traditional concern with the nature of God in Old Testament theology.

  11. The Science in Science Fiction: Using Popular Entertainment as a Gateway

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basri, Gibor S.

    2011-05-01

    Science fiction on television and in movies reaches a wide audience of young people. Some of them are avid fans of particular stories, and more are enthralled by some of the special effects and other science fiction themes that have become ever more compelling as media technology improves. It actually doesn't matter whether the physics behind the science fiction is solid, the latest in speculative theory, or absolute nonsense - all provide a backdrop against which to present solid science. I'll talk about the opportunities provided by a few recent series and movies and how they can be woven into discussions of physics, astrophysics, or how science really works.

  12. Pulp fictions of medieval England: Essays in popular romance

    OpenAIRE

    McDonald, Nicola

    2004-01-01

    Middle English popular romance is the most audacious and compendious testimony to the imaginary world of the English Middle Ages. Yet, with few exceptions, it remains under read and under studied. Pulp fictions of medieval England demonstrates that popular romance merits and rewards serious critical attention and that it is crucial to our understanding of the complex and conflicted world of medieval England. Pulp fictions of medieval England comprises ten essays on individual romances that, w...

  13. The Female Rescuer in Newbery Fiction: Exploring the Archetype of Mother.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth

    2002-01-01

    Examines the identity of female characters who rescue male protagonists in three works of Newbery-winning fiction, and realizes their archetypal roles of Mother. Provides readers with a vehicle for revisiting the interaction among characters in young adult fiction. Presents a rationale for using literary criticism to help students explore how…

  14. The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Michael; Wagner, Heather; Gatling, Anne; Anderson, Janice; Houle, Meredith; Kafka, Alan

    2006-01-01

    Researchers who have investigated the public understanding of science have argued that fictional cinema and television has proven to be particularly effective at blurring the distinction between fact and fiction. The rationale for this study lies in the notion that to teach science effectively, educators need to understand how popular culture…

  15. Egalitarian Fiction and Collective Fraud.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gottfredson, Linda S.

    1994-01-01

    Social science today condones and perpetuates the egalitarian fiction that racial and ethnic groups never differ in average developed intelligence (general mental ability). Enforcement of this lie and avoidance of real research into these issues is aiding bigots more than the truth would and is degrading intellectual integrity. (SLD)

  16. Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton: Black Women Writers and Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hampton, Gregory Jerome; Brooks, Wanda M.

    2003-01-01

    Notes that African American literature has always had science fiction elements in its focus on narratives of the alienated and marginalized "other." Contends that Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton are two African American writers of science fiction who examine the connections between the stories of a culture and the genre of science…

  17. Blue Indians: Teaching the Political Geography of Imperialism with Fictional Film

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madsen, Kenneth D.

    2014-01-01

    Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie "Avatar", it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes…

  18. Miku's mask: Fictional encounters in children's costume play.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helgesen, Espen

    2015-11-01

    Children's engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between "real" humans and "fake" non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children's playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings.

  19. Da Platone a Hollywood: due problemi della fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Mori

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The argument of fiction with respect to spectators’ illusion is very vast. This paper outlines the interconnection between two particular issues of this immense area of study, which pertain to two paradoxical effects of fiction: (1 the spectator’s cognitive and emotional illusion induced either by theatrical or by cinematographic representation and (2 the more unclear and long-run effects of such representations on everyday life. Plato’s myth of the cave, and some of Husserl’s ideas about “artistic illusion” awakened through the stage performance, will help in delineating some philosophical aspects of the problem

  20. Are We Really the Prey? Nanotechnology as Science and Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowman, Diana M.; Hodge, Graeme A.; Binks, Peter

    2007-01-01

    Popular culture can play a significant role in shaping the acceptance of evolving technologies, with nanotechnology likely to be a case in point. The most popular fiction work to date in this arena has been Michael Crichton's techno-thriller "Prey," which fuses together nanotechnology science with science fiction. Within the context of "Prey,"…

  1. Exploring Mars and Beyond: Science Fiction a Resource for Environmental Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Ryder W.

    The purpose of this article is to show how traditional science fiction, an empowering literature of social criticism, can be used by environmental educators to reach the traditional goals of environmental education. The sub-genres of science fiction are discussed along with ways in which they can be used to reach certain goals of environmental…

  2. Eliciting physics students mental models via science fiction stories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Acar, H.

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an experiment which investigated the effects of the using science fiction stories in physics lessons. A questionnaire form containing 2 open-ended questions related to Jules Vernes story From the Earth to the Moon was used with 353, 9th and 10th grade students to determine their pre-conceptions about gravity and weightlessness. Mental models explaining students scientific and alternative views were constructed, according to students replies. After these studies, 6 students were interviewed. In this interview, researches were done about whether science fiction stories had an effect on bringing students pre-conceptions related to physics subjects out, on students inquiring their own concepts and on increasing students interest and motivation towards physics subjects. Studies in this research show that science fiction stories have an effect on arousing students interest and curiosity, have a role encouraging students to inquire their own concepts and are effective in making students alternative views come out

  3. Presenting a Model for Setting in Narrative Fiction Illustration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hajar Salimi Namin

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The present research aims at presenting a model for evaluating and enhancing training the setting in illustration for narrative fictions for undergraduate students of graphic design who are weak in setting. The research utilized expert’s opinions through a survey. The designed model was submitted to eight experts, and their opinions were used to have the model adjusted and improved. Used as research instruments were notes, materials in text books, papers, and related websites, as well as questionnaires. Results indicated that, for evaluating and enhancing the level of training the setting in illustration for narrative fiction to students, one needs to extract sub-indexes of setting. Moreover, definition and recognition of the model of setting helps undergraduate students of graphic design enhance the level of setting in their works skill by recognizing details of setting. Accordingly, it is recommended to design training packages to enhance these sub-indexes and hence improve the setting for narrative fiction illustration.

  4. What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Revised and Expanded Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernays, Anne; Painter, Pamela

    This book is designed to be a how-to-write-fiction guide that is long on specifics and short on theoretical material. Each section of the book deals with a separate element of fiction--characterization, dialogue, point of view, plot, etc. Every exercise in the book is introduced in an opening paragraph, followed by instructions for completing the…

  5. Contemporary Ghost Stories: Cyberspace in Fiction for Children and Young Adults

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Marla

    2005-01-01

    This essay identifies a genre of popular fiction for children and young adults, prevalent in the 1990s and continuing into the early twenty-first century, that incorporates computers and the internet, e-mails and chat rooms, into its plots. However, along with a focus on technology, this fiction frequently features the supernatural. So, too,…

  6. Report from Middle-Earth: Fan Fiction Tasks in the EFL Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauro, Shannon; Sundmark, Björn

    2016-01-01

    This study builds upon work in task-based language teaching and literary studies to explore the use of fan fiction as a pedagogical tool in a technology-enhanced university foreign language class. A task-based fan fiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, modelled on blog-based role-play storytelling found in online media fandoms, was carried out in a…

  7. Computer modelling for ecosystem service assessment: Chapter 4.4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunford, Robert; Harrison, Paula; Bagstad, Kenneth J.

    2017-01-01

    Computer models are simplified representations of the environment that allow biophysical, ecological, and/or socio-economic characteristics to be quantified and explored. Modelling approaches differ from mapping approaches (Chapter 5) as (i) they are not forcibly spatial (although many models do produce spatial outputs); (ii) they focus on understanding and quantifying the interactions between different components of social and/or environmental systems and (iii)

  8. ASFMRA Chapter Strategic Planning: Iowa Chapter Case Study

    OpenAIRE

    Trede, Larry

    2006-01-01

    This paper summarizes the strategic planning process used by the Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers to develop a new vision, mission statement, and chapter objectives. Procedures included the use of a focus group and a quantitative survey. The results indicated a strong need for chapter member continuing education, a chapter member services program, and a strong outreach/public relations program. As a result of the strategic planning process, a new chap...

  9. Alan Paton’s unpublished fiction (1922- 1934: an initial appraisal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Levey

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available This article considers selected issues in the early fiction of Alan Paton, which is in manuscript form: three novels or parts of novels namely, “Ship of Truth” (1922-1923, “Brother Death” (1930, “John Henry Dane” (1934b, the novel/novella “Secret for seven” (1934d, and the short stories “Little Barbee”, (1928? and “Calvin Doone” (1930a. Attention is given to the first novel. A summary of the findings follows: even though Paton’s longer unpublished fiction is religiously earnest and at times rhetorically effective, it is simplistic and tends to perpetuate the white, English-speaking patriarchal hegemony of Natal, rather than offer any sustained critique of it. These works are set against the background of the Natal Midlands in the 1920s and 1930s. The shorter fiction is slightly different in nature.

  10. Woman's Quest in Contemporary Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semeiks, Jonna Gormely

    Depending primarily on Joseph Campbell's treatment of the quest or hero myth, this paper provides analyses of recent women's fiction in terms of contemporary women's quests for personal identity and freedom. Following discussions of a proposed definition of myth, its connotations, and its use as a literary device and as a tool for critical…

  11. The Fictional Black Blues Figure: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention

    OpenAIRE

    Mack, Kimberly

    2015-01-01

    The Fictional Black Blues Figure: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention, Kimberly MackMy dissertation examines representations of black American blues musicians in contemporary American fiction, drama, and popular music, and it argues that blues music can be examined as a narrative art rooted in the tradition of fictionalized autobiographical self-fashioning. I contend that the contemporary, multi-racial, literary and musical characters in my project who participate in so-called...

  12. Fiction Criticizing Reality: Abbas Kiarostami and the Cracked Windshield of Cinema

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Blake Ewing

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This article argues that Abbas Kiarostami uses documentaries and fiction films to examine the distinction between reality and fiction. Through the use of an arthouse style of filmmaking, the insertion of a surrogate director into the narrative and a recurring breakdown in technology, Kiarostami demonstrates that film’s ability to capture reality is a flawed, sometimes broken, endeavor.

  13. ‘Fabricated Lives’: Shakespearean Collaboration in Fictional Forms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Sawyer

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The essay examines fictionalized accounts of the collaboration between Shakespeare and his contemporaries, focusing on those that portray Christopher Marlowe as occasionally Shakespeare’s co-author. Beginning with two novels by Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like the Sun: A Story of Shakespeare’s Love-life (1964 and A Dead Man in Deptford (1994, I then look at Peter Whelan’s play, The School of Night (1992, before concluding with the film Shakespeare in Love (1998. By looking at these popularized renditions of collaboration and biography, I conclude that the more collaborative that the fictionalized work is in origin, the more positively it portrays such relationships in Shakespeare’s time.

  14. Chapter Twenty Seven

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    User

    to arrest customers comprised unfair and discriminatory practices”. ... Even in French feminist theatre of 1870 -1914, Doestoevsky's fiction and Malaysian and ..... called “sex workers”) are compelled to pay tax to the government on their income. .... When a politician sells out his principles, or simply throws them to the wind to.

  15. Scottish science fiction: writing Scottish literature back into history

    OpenAIRE

    Miller, Gavin

    2010-01-01

    The increasing vigour of Scottish literature since the 1980s has led not only to a revival in literary fiction, but also to a growing diversification into other narrative genres. The detective story – in the form of so-called “tartan noir” – has been the most obvious popular genre to undergo revival, but science fiction has also blossomed in the work of authors such as Alasdair Gray, Iain (M.) Banks, and Ken MacLeod. In this article, I trace something of the problematic history of Scottish sc...

  16. The construction of fictional space in participatory design practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dindler, Christian

    2010-01-01

    games of make-believe mediated by props. The motivation for discussing fictional space is traced through ongoing work on designing new exhibition spaces for museums. Through a case study from a participatory design session, it is explored how games of make-believe progress and the role of props...... the process through which participants in participatory design create a design space in which established conventions of everyday practice are altered or suspended. With inspiration from literary theory, it is argued that the production of fictional space may be understood in terms of participants practicing...

  17. Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror 2001.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voice of Youth Advocates, 2002

    2002-01-01

    Presents an annotated bibliography of 81 science fiction, fantasy, and horror genre titles that were judged best-reads by reviewers in "Voice of Youth Advocates" from June 2001 through April 2002. (LRW)

  18. The medical science fiction of James White: Inside and Outside Sector General.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Richard

    2016-12-01

    James White was a Northern Irish science fiction author working in the subgenre of medical science fiction from the mid-1950s to the end of the twentieth century. The aim of this article is to introduce White to scholars working in the medical humanities, pointing to features of interest and critiquing the more excessive utopian impulses of the author. The article covers White's Sector General series, set on a vast intergalactic hospital, as well as the author's standalone fictions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  19. Independent Reading: The Relationship of Challenge, Non-Fiction and Gender to Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topping, K. J.; Samuels, J.; Paul, T.

    2008-01-01

    To explore whether different balances of fiction/non-fiction reading and challenge might help explain differences in reading achievement between genders, data on 45,670 pupils who independently read over 3 million books were analysed. Moderate (rather than high or low) levels of challenge were positively associated with achievement gain, but…

  20. Toward Improved Collections in Medical Humanities: Fiction in Academic Health Sciences Libraries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dali, Keren; Dilevko, Juris

    2006-01-01

    Although fiction plays a prominent role in the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities (MH), it is physically and intellectually isolated from non-fiction in academic health sciences libraries. Using the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database (LAMD) as a tool for selection and subject analysis, we suggest a method of integrating fiction…

  1. The Relationship Between Empathy and Reading Fiction: Separate Roles for Cognitive and Affective Components

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Stansfield

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Research suggests that both life-time experience of reading fiction and the extent to which a reader feels ‘transported’ by the narrative are associated with empathy. This study examined these relationships further by delineating empathy into cognitive and affective components. Thirty-three participants were tested on prior exposure to fiction, transportation, and different measures of cognitive empathy, affective empathy and helping tendency. The results revealed that exposure to fiction was associated with trait cognitive, but not affective, empathy, while the experience of being transported was associated with story-induced affective empathy. Story-induced affective empathy was also associated with helping tendency. The results are discussed by considering implications for relationships between reactions to fictional worlds and reactions to real-world behaviours.

  2. A sustainable design fiction : green practices

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wakkary, R.L.; Desjardins, A.; Hauser, S.; Maestri, L.

    2013-01-01

    In this article, we argue that an approach informed by practice theory coupled with design fiction provides useful insights into the role of interaction design with respect to environmental sustainability. We argue that a practice-oriented approach can help interaction designers step away from

  3. The Fiction of Sustainability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mubanda Rasmussen, Louise

    research with organisations providing help to "Orphans and Vulnerable Children" in Malawi, this paper discusses how donors, international and local NGOs, and CBOs all participate in keeping alive 'the fiction of sustainability', each for their different reasons. Rather than overt resistance to the power...... of international donors, the processes I discuss reflect how actors from their different positions become skilled in using established policy models and available resources for their own ends....

  4. Probing the limits of reality: the metaphysics in science fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, John L.

    2003-01-01

    Science fiction provides a genre in which metaphysical questions concerning the ultimate structure of reality regularly arise. In addressing these questions, contemporary scientists tend to assume that the questions are of a scientific nature and should be handled solely by reference to our best theories. In this paper, it is argued that we cannot afford to neglect the role of conceptual analysis - a distinctively philosophical task - in thinking critically about the possibilities that science fiction claims to describe.

  5. Wilde Rewound: Time-Travelling with Oscar in Recent Author Fictions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirby Joris

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available In the early 1980s historical figures in general – and writers from the past in particular – entered a kind of Golden Age thanks to fiction. Through various forms of semi-biographical novels and other narratives, they have, from that time forward, been enjoying a pampered life in a new genre called “the author-as-character” (Franssen and Hoenselaars 1999 or “author fictions” (Savu 2009 that reanimate them or conjure them up in a present that constantly seeks to reassert its link with the past. This is particularly true of Oscar Wilde’s life, for his disparate and colourful personality has been time and again re-appropriated in recent fiction. This article focuses on three of these contemporary fictional depictions: an epistolary novel, an epistolary website and a fictional interview, all three dealing with a fictionalised Oscar Wilde conversing with a contemporary author who is also an interviewer in his or her own way and right. Because they are very close to each other in terms of narration (i.e. impersonation and pastiche and subject, putting words in Wilde’s mouth as though they were his own, The Unauthorized Letters of Oscar Wilde, the website Dialogus, and Coffee with Oscar Wilde, represent three fascinating means of exploring how Oscar’s rebirth as a man and author actually takes place. Among the numerous fictional portraits of Oscar Wilde, I have thus chosen to pay particular attention to the depictions that are well anchored in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and which do not, therefore, display a narrative that would merely take place during the fin de siècle, with only period-style people in period costume. By contrast, the three portraits are literal time-travelling narratives that endeavour to bridge the gap between past, present and future.

  6. Mars: A Freshmen Year Seminar of Science and Science-fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svec, Michael; Moffett, D. A.; Winiski, M.

    2013-06-01

    "Mars: On the shoulder of giants" is a freshmen year seminar developed collaboratively between the physics, education, and center for teaching and learning. This course focuses on how scientific knowledge is developed through the lens of our changing view of Mars throughout history. Analyses of current studies of Mars are juxtaposed against historical understanding and perceptions of the planet found in scientific and popular literature of the day, as well as the movies. Kim Stanley Robinson’s "Red Mars" provides a unifying story throughout the course complimented by Fredrick Taylor’s "The Scientific Exploration of Mars" and Hartmann’s "A Traveler’s Guide to Mars." Based on the three-years of experience, the authors advocate the use of the speculative science-fiction novel and argue for its use in high school and undergraduate courses including those for science majors. Many of the students who selected this seminar went on to major in science and in subsequent interviews discussed the influence of science fiction on their decision to major in science. Science fiction provided story, science, and speculation that became a rich medium for critical-thinking skills and critical literacy. Student reflections indicated that science fiction served as a reminder of why they study science, a source for imagination, and exploration of science as a human endeavor. Based on this experience, we propose five elements for selecting science-fiction for inclusion in science classes: 1) Provides a deep description of the science content or technologies, 2) Describes science and technologies are plausible or accurate to the time period, 3) Contains a novum or plausible innovation that plays a key element in the speculation, 4) Exploration of the impact on society or humanity, and, 5) Shows science and technology as human endeavors.

  7. Anarchic alchemists : dissident androgyny in Anglo-American gothic fiction from Godwin to Melville

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leeuwen, Evert Jan van

    2006-01-01

    The dissertation Anarchic Alchemists: Dissident Androgyny in Anglo-American Gothic Fiction from Godwin to Melville investigates the close generic links between British and American Gothic fictions from the late eighteenth-century up to the middle of the nineteenth century, including studies on

  8. Science fiction/science fact: medical genetics in news stories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersen, Alan; Anderson, Alison; Allan, Stuart

    2005-12-01

    News media coverage of biotechnology issues offers a rich source of fictional portrayals, with stories drawing strongly on popular imagery and metaphors in descriptions of the powers and dangers of biotechnology. This article examines how science fiction metaphors, imagery and motifs surface in British newspaper (broadsheet and tabloid) coverage of medical genetic issues, focusing on press reporting of two recent highly publicised news media events; namely, the Hashmi and Whitaker families' plights to use stem cells from a 'perfectly matched sibling' for the treatment of their diseased children. It is concerned in particular with the extent to which journalists' use of certain literary devices encourages preferred formulations of medical genetics, and thereby potentially shapes public deliberation about scientific developments and their consequences for society. Understanding how science fiction sustains science fact, and vice versa, and how the former is portrayed in news media, it is argued, would thus seem to be crucial in the effort to understand why people respond so strongly to biotechnologies, and what they imagine their consequences to be.

  9. Facts about real antimatter collide with fiction

    CERN Multimedia

    Siegfried, Tom

    2004-01-01

    When science collides with fiction, sometimes a best seller emerges from the debris. Take Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, for instance, a murder mystery based on science at CERN, the European nuclear research laboratory outside Geneva

  10. How to Tell the Schlock from the Good Stuff in Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, June

    1992-01-01

    Asserts that not all science fiction is great. Discusses ways to tell the difference between the good and the bad. Encourages even those teachers who are most leery of a genre with which they are unfamiliar to jump in and try science fiction as a way of opening up student minds and imaginations. (PRA)

  11. [Pathology and pathologists in fiction revisited].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nizze, H

    2008-11-01

    Pathology and pathologists are rarely the subjects of works of fiction. In the existing sources, the kind of representation naturally depends on the occupations and attitudes of the respective authors. The surgeon and gynecologist Carl Ludwig Schleich recollected Rudolf Virchow's free and easy handling of an autopsy assistant and his simultaneous understanding for a mourning husband. The dermatologist Gottfried Benn processed his disturbing impressions of pathology as an expressionistic dialogue between professor and students, with a violent ending. The writer and dramatic adviser Günther Weisenborn recalled unpleasant details about the autopsy course in his earlier medical studies, which he linked with individual views about the life of a deceased young woman. Praise, so to speak, to the dissecting pathologist have been sensitively written by the lawyer Maxence van der Meersch and by the surgeon Peter Bamm. Finally, the bestselling novelist Arthur Hailey gives an excellent fictional portrayal of the microscopic pathologist in The Final Diagnosis.

  12. A María Teresa León’s Fictional Biography: Cervantes, el soldado que nos enseñó a hablar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martina Vinatea

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Our purpose is to study the limits between reality and fiction in the central chapters of the story of the foundation of the Convento de la Encarnación of Lima by Father Antonio de la Calancha. The convent was founded in 1556 by Leonor de Portocarrero and her daughter Doña Mencía de Sosa, widow of the crown’s traitor Francisco Hernández Girón. Despite the chronicles are consider a «hybrid genre» between literature and history by contemporary critics, Father Calancha’s story is basically historic as it follows the model of humanist histography of the XVI century. We argue that in this model aesthetic values are functional to the interpretation.

  13. Sara Wasson and Emily Alder, Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010

    OpenAIRE

    Beaulé, Sophie

    2014-01-01

    With their collection of essays Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010, Sara Wasson and Emily Alder illustrate the richness of gothic tropes in contemporary forms, from novels and movies to card games. More than cliché, melodrama, or gore, the “gothick” (to borrow Adam Roberts’s term, xi) allows for the hybridity in contemporary production, especially in science fiction, that the collected articles examine. The book is divided into three parts, “Redefining Genres”, “Biopower and Capital”, and “Gend...

  14. Hybridization of crime fiction genre forms as a representation of contemporary cultural process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. O. Krapivnyk

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The research is devoted to the consideration of hybridization of crime fiction forms in the contemporary cultural process. The work showed that, from the point of view of the culture development, sophistication of the classical crime fiction formula, hybridization of detective fiction with other fiction genres is a natural process of the strive to vary і diversify, combine genres, styles and means of text presentation (from a hard copy or audio book to video and computer games, which is related to the crisis of the Modernity project epoch, where fiction genres were quite self­sufficient, and the transition to the postmodern (or updated Modern, where the human consciousness is dominated by the processes of simultaneous specialization and combination of various industries, in other words, divergence and convergence. It may be claimed that a detective text as one of the most popular genres in the contemporary information culture, in particular, because it reveals secrets, clarifies vague things and assists in discovering the truth, transforms so that there is a process of detectivization of different text products of the cultural industry. At the same time the very detective formula as a component of various genres becomes a tool for playing and influencing the consciousness of a contemporary person.

  15. Reading fiction and reading minds: the role of simulation in the default network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamir, Diana I; Bricker, Andrew B; Dodell-Feder, David; Mitchell, Jason P

    2016-02-01

    Research in psychology has suggested that reading fiction can improve individuals' social-cognitive abilities. Findings from neuroscience show that reading and social cognition both recruit the default network, a network which is known to support our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states. The current research tests the hypothesis that fiction reading enhances social cognition because it serves to exercise the default subnetwork involved in theory of mind. While undergoing functional neuroimaging, participants read literary passages that differed along two dimensions: (i) vivid vs abstract and (ii) social vs non-social. Analyses revealed distinct subnetworks of the default network respond to the two dimensions of interest: the medial temporal lobe subnetwork responded preferentially to vivid passages, with or without social content; the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) subnetwork responded preferentially to passages with social and abstract content. Analyses also demonstrated that participants who read fiction most often also showed the strongest social cognition performance. Finally, mediation analysis showed that activity in the dmPFC subnetwork in response to the social content mediated this relation, suggesting that the simulation of social content in fiction plays a role in fiction's ability to enhance readers' social cognition. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  16. Sisters Hope - Protected by the Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lawaetz, Anna; Hallberg, Gry Worre

    2011-01-01

    In this article we will introduce the fictional and art-pedagogical universe of Sisters Hope and describe how it in different ways transcends into contexts beyond the art world and thus functions as a tool to democratize the aesthetic dimension and mode of being within high schools, academia...

  17. H.G. Wells's Science Fiction: The Cyborg Visual Dromological Discourse

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ehsaneh Eshaghi

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available H. G. Wells, as the forefather of science fiction, has used the relative notion of time in his stories such as Time Machine (1895. Speed is the initiator of a discourse in which humans are floating and moving ahead and has become one of the main “discourses” of the human being. Paul Virilio's theory of “dromology”, "vision machine" and “virtual reality”, along with "the aesthetics of disappearance" are applied in criticizing the novel scientific discourse by Wells who engenders a machinic, in the Deleuzian sense, and a cyborg discourse, through which he connotes the imperial narratives and the dromocratic powers. The usage of the Cyborg discourse by Wells in his science fiction stories has been to emphasize how the dromological and vision discourses are the prerequisite to the panoptical discourse through the microscopic and telescopic visions. It is concluded that the splintering frame is the created visual frame in the Wellsian science fiction.

  18. Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dodell-Feder, David; Tamir, Diana I

    2018-02-26

    Scholars from both the social sciences and the humanities have credited fiction reading with a range of positive real-world social effects. Research in psychology has suggested that readers may make good citizens because fiction reading is associated with better social cognition. But does fiction reading causally improve social cognition? Here, we meta-analyze extant published and unpublished experimental data to address this question. Multilevel random-effects meta-analysis of 53 effect sizes from 14 studies demonstrated that it does: compared to nonfiction reading and no reading, fiction reading leads to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance (g = .15-.16). This effect is robust across sensitivity analyses and does not appear to be the result of publication bias. We recommend that in future work, researchers use more robust reading manipulations, assess whether the effects transfer to improved real-world social functioning, and investigate mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. The use of "non-fiction novels" in a sensation and perception course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunther, Karen L

    2011-01-01

    Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of "non-fiction novels" (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class's four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems.

  20. Memory of the Present: Empathy and Identity in Young Adult Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Nikolajeva

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Recent studies in cognitive literary criticism have provided scholars of literature with new, stimulating approaches to literary texts and neuroscientists with new insights about human emotions, empathy, and memory through evidence from fiction. What have so far been largely neglected are the implications of cognitive criticism for the study of literature targeting a young audience, whose theory of mind and empathic skills are not yet fully developed. A cognitive approach to children's and young adult literature has to meet several challenges less relevant in general fiction. Firstly, how is a young fictional character's consciousness represented by an author whose cognitive and affective skills are ostensibly superior? Secondly, how do texts instruct their young readers to employ theory of mind in order to assess both the young protagonist's emotions and their understanding of other characters' emotions (higher-order mind-reading? Thirdly, how can fiction support young people's development of their theory of mind? The paper will discuss these issues with a particular focus on memory and identity, expressed textually through tense and narrative perspective. Drawing on work by Lisa Zunshine (2006 and Blackey Vermeule (2010, the predominantly theoretical argument will be illustrated by a contemporary young adult novel, Slated (2012, by Teri Terry.

  1. Analysis of novel silicon and III-V solar cells by simulation and experiment; Analyse neuartiger Silizium- und III-V-Solarzellen mittels Simulation und Experiment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hermle, Martin

    2008-11-27

    This work presents various simulation studies of silicon and III-V solar cells. For standard silicon solar cells, one of the critical parameters to obtain good performance, is the rear side recombination velocity. The optical and electrical differences of the different cell structures were determined. The optical differences and the effective recombination velocity Sback of the different rear side structures for 1 Ohmcm material were extracted. Beside standard silicon solar cells, back junction silicon solar cells were investigated. Especially the influence of the front surface field and the electrical shading due to the rear side, was investigated. In the last two chapters, III-V solar cells were analysed. For the simulation of III-V multi-junction solar cells, the simulation of the tunneldiode is the basic prerequisite. In this work, the numerical calibration of an GaAs tunneldiode was achieved by using an non-local tunnel model. Using this model, it was possible to successfully simulate a III-V tandem solar cell. The last chapter deals with an optimization of the III-V 3-junction cell for space applications. Especially the influence of the GaAs middle cell was investigated. Due to structural changes, the end-of-life efficiency was drastically increased.

  2. Parallel Stories, Differentiated Histories. Exploring Fiction and Memory in Spanish and Portuguese Television

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Carlos Rueda Laffond

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Integrated into an international project on the characteristics of historical fiction on TV in Spain and Portugal during 2001–2012, the study traces the main aspects of these productions as entertainment products and memory strategies. Historical fiction on Iberian television channels express qualitative problems of interpretation. Its development must be related to issues such practices, meanings and forms of recognition, and connected with specific memory systems. The article explores a set of key–points: uses and topics of historical fiction; its visions through similarly proposals; polarization in several historical times, and its convergent perspectives about Franco and Oliveira Salazar as Iberian contemporary dictators.

  3. Writing Oneself into Someone Else s Story Experiments With Identity And Speculative Life Writing in Twilight Fan Fiction

    OpenAIRE

    Lehtonen, Sanna

    2015-01-01

    Fan fiction offers rich data to explore readers’ understanding of gendered discourses informing the narrative construction of fictional and real-life identities. This paper focuses on gender identity construction in self-insertion fan fiction texts – stories that involve avatars of fan writers – based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels. Self-insertion fan fiction stories can be considered a form of life writing where authors play with their identity in a virtual context in te...

  4. Family Resemblances: Human Reproductive Cloning as an Example for Reconsidering the Mutual Relationships between Bioethics and Science Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hansen, Solveig L

    2018-03-08

    In the traditions of narrative ethics and casuistry, stories have a well-established role. Specifically, illness narratives provide insight into patients' perspectives and histories. However, because they tend to see fiction as an aesthetic endeavour, practitioners in these traditions often do not realize that fictional stories are valuable moral sources of their own. In this paper I employ two arguments to show the mutual relationship between bioethics and fiction, specifically, science fiction. First, both discourses use imagination to set a scene and determine a perspective. Second, bioethics and science fiction share the family resemblance of expressing moral beliefs. I then consider how understanding bioethics and science fiction as interrelated discourses can be the basis of a methodology for inquiry into relational autonomy in the context of biotechnologies and medicine. As an example of this methodology, I analyse Fay Weldon's novel The Cloning of Joanna May (1989).

  5. Science Fiction Movies as a Tool for Revealing Students' Knowledge and Alternative Conceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ongel-Erdal, Sevinc; Sonmez, Duygu; Day, Rob

    2004-01-01

    According to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, "science fiction is useful both for stimulating the imagination and for diffusing fear of the future." Indeed, several studies suggest that using science fiction movies as a teaching aid can improve both motivation and achievement. However, if a movie's plot crosses the line between good…

  6. T. rex and Godzilla: Finding Science in Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engelmann, G. F.; Chure, D. J.

    2017-12-01

    Works of fiction act as a powerful vehicle for inculcating an intuitive understanding (or misunderstanding) of scientific concepts in the audience. They can communicate information about scientific phenomena or how science is done. These entertainments can contribute to scientific literacy of the public and provide valuable outreach opportunities, but scientific accuracy is rarely even a minor consideration in developing fictional stories. Science educators can still make use of popular fiction to promote science education and outreach. Varied approaches have focused on the physical science in classic space operas, but historical sciences can make use of public interest in fictional tales involving prehistoric creatures and settings. Dinosaurs like T. rex inspire awe and widespread popular appeal that can nurture an interest in fossils but also serves as a gateway to all the other sciences on which paleontology depends, and to the scientific endeavor itself. But the portrayal of dinosaurs has met with negative criticism of details that is not likely to be productive of further discussion and learning. Perhaps it is not so important that authors and film makers didn't get it right; that "correctness" of terms and reconstructions is less important than the opportunity to improve public understanding of how science works; to cultivate a habit of critical thinking and an analytical approach to interpreting the world. Dinosaurs and other long extinct creatures can provide examples of how we know what we know; what kind of evidence is available and how it can be interpreted; how creative framing of hypotheses allows imaginative conjectures to be constrained by observations. They can open informative discussions of how scientists work in gathering data and developing and testing hypotheses. For example, how do paleontologists find fossils? Monsters, unrealistic fantasy creatures like Godzilla, have great charismatic appeal, and can prompt discussions of the obstacles

  7. EQUIVOCATION IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF LEIBNIZ’S INFINITESIMAL FICTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tzuchien THO

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available In this article, I address two different kinds of equivocations in reading Leibniz’s fictional infinite and infinitesimal. These equivocations form the background of a reductive reading of infinite and infinitesimal fictions either as ultimately finite or as something whose status can be taken together with any other mathematical object as such. The first equivocation is the association of a foundation of infinitesimals with their ontological status. I analyze this equivocation by criticizing the logicist influence on 20th century Anglophone reception of the syncategorematical infinite and infinitesimal. The second equivocation is the association of the rigor of mathematical demonstration with the problem of the admissibility of infinite or infinitesimal terms. I analyze this by looking at Leibniz’s constructive method and apagogic argument style in his quadrature method. In treating these equivocations, I critique some assumptions that underlie the reductive reading of Leibniz’s fictionalism concerning infinite and infinitesimals. In turn, I suggest that these infinitesimal “fictions” pointed to a problematic within Leibniz’s work that was conceived and reconsidered in Leibniz’s work from a range of different contexts and methods.Keywords: Leibniz, differential calculu

  8. Can Radiologists Learn From Airport Baggage Screening?: A Survey About Using Fictional Patients for Quality Assurance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phelps, Andrew; Callen, Andrew L; Marcovici, Peter; Naeger, David M; Mongan, John; Webb, Emily M

    2018-02-01

    For both airport baggage screeners and radiologists, low target prevalence is associated with low detection rate, a phenomenon known as "prevalence effect." In airport baggage screening, the target prevalence is artificially increased with fictional weapons that are digitally superimposed on real baggage. This strategy improves the detection rate of real weapons and also allows airport supervisors to monitor screener performance. A similar strategy using fictional patients could be applied in radiology. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to review the psychophysics literature regarding low target prevalence and (2) to survey radiologists' attitudes toward using fictional patients as a quality assurance tool. We reviewed the psychophysics literature on low target prevalence and airport x-ray baggage screeners. An online survey was e-mailed to all members of the Association of University Radiologists to determine their attitudes toward using fictional patients in radiology. Of the 1503 Association of University Radiologists member recipients, there were 153 respondents (10% response rate). When asked whether the use of fictional patients was a good idea, the responses were as follows: disagree (44%), neutral (25%), and agree (31%). The most frequent concern was the time taken away from doing clinical work (89% of the respondents). The psychophysics literature supports the use of fictional targets to mitigate the prevalence effect. However, the use of fictional patients is not a popular idea among academic radiologists. Copyright © 2018 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. In the Spotlight of Misperception: Japanese Science Fiction Vis-à-vis Western Science Fiction Set in Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baryon Tensor Posadas

    2000-06-01

    Full Text Available In 1984, William Gibson published a novel that began new traditions in science fiction writing —Neuromancer. the novel won a hat-trick of all three of the major science fiction awards: The Hugo, Nebula, and the Philip K. Dick. The opening chapter was set in Chiba prefecture, a large coastal region east of the capital Tokyo with the line "The sky above the port was the color of television turned to a dead channel" (Gibson 1. It was the centerpiece of the cyberpunk movement characterized by a mix of high technology in the fields of computer networking and biomechanical interface and urban street life (Sterling xi.Yet despite its opening scenes being set in Tokyo, Gibson at that time had never set foot in Japan. Furthermore, practically all of Gibson's novels—Neuromancer (1984, Count Zero (1986, Mona Liza Overdrive (1988, Virtual Light (1991, and Idoru (1995 along with several of his short stories, have dealt with Japan in varying degrees, wether as a setting or by involving Japanese social system sush as the yakuza and the zaibatsu system of corporate management as atmospheric elements.Another impetus came from Delia Aguilar's study on Filipino housewives and the politics of gender. This study reveals that " . . . in the private space of the family as the major mechanism for the reproduction of social relations, women are at once validated and oppressed, a process that is powerfully mediated by the maternal ideology of which women are the foremost proponents." This maternal ideology shapes Filipino women's idea of motherhood that sees devotion to children, self-sacrifice, and care giving as the essence of motherhood, allowing them to embrace oppression and subordination. In this context, the interrogation of maternal ideology in Philippine literature is important to the overall feminist movement. Women writers who have freed themselves from the mystifying notions of motherhood may have been inspired to represent women in their works

  10. Career development through local chapter involvement: perspectives from chapter members.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Melissa; Inniss-Richter, Zipporah; Mata, Holly; Cottrell, Randall R

    2013-07-01

    The importance of career development in professional organizations has been noted in the literature. Personal and professional benefits of membership regardless of discipline can be found across the career spectrum from student to executive. The benefits of professional membership with respect to career development in local chapter organizations have seldom been studied. Local chapter participation may offer significant career development opportunities for the practitioner, faculty member, and student. The purpose of this study was to explore the importance of local chapter involvement to the career development of health education practitioners. An 18-item questionnaire was disseminated to the membership of three local SOPHE (Society for Public Health Education) chapters that explored the level of local chapter involvement and the impact of how specific professional development activities impacted career development. The results of the survey highlighted the importance of continuing education programs, networking, and leadership experience in developing one's career that are offered by local SOPHE chapter involvement. Making a positive impact in the community and earning the respect of one's peers were most often reported as indicators of career success. These factors can directly impact local chapter participation. Career development can certainly be enhanced by active participation in the local chapter of a professional association.

  11. The Rebirth of the Musical Author in Recent Fiction Written in English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Lara-Rallo

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available In his 2005 monograph on The Author, Andrew Bennett reflects on how “authorship is central to the way in which critical practice is currently conceptualized and theorized”. The rebirth of the author in contemporary criticism is being accompanied by a renewed fascination with the figure of the author as the subject of recent fiction. This can be seen reflected in current portrayals of real and fictional writers such as Henry James, in David Lodge’s Author, Author (2004, or Olive Wellwood, in A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book (2009. Moreover, the recovery of the author can be traced as well in the context of the emergence of music as a fertile referent for interartistic narratives. In terms of the dialogue between contemporary fiction and music, there seems to be a common interest in the image of the author, both in the act of creation, as a composer, and of re-creation, as a performer. Works such as Bernard MacLaverty’s Grace Notes (1997, Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music (1999, Conrad Williams’ The Concert Pianist (2006, or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes. Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009 favour the author-musician’s perspective as they interact with music in different ways. In light of this, the aim of this article is to explore the process of rebirth of the musical author in recent fiction written in English, analysing this trend as part of a more general tendency to recover the author’s presence and voice in both fiction and criticism.

  12. Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano (2013).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samur, Dalya; Tops, Mattie; Koole, Sander L

    2018-02-01

    Prior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments (combined N = 1006) testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single session of reading fiction leads to immediate improvements in mentalising.

  13. Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birger Langkjær

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

  14. Making fictions sound real - On film sound, perceptual realism and genre

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birger Langkjær

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the role that sound plays in making fictions perceptually real to film audiences, whether these fictions are realist or non-realist in content and narrative form. I will argue that some aspects of film sound practices and the kind of experiences they trigger are related to basic rules of human perception, whereas others are more properly explained in relation to how aesthetic devices, including sound, are used to characterise the fiction and thereby make it perceptually real to its audience. Finally, I will argue that not all genres can be defined by a simple taxonomy of sounds. Apart from an account of the kinds of sounds that typically appear in a specific genre, a genre analysis of sound may also benefit from a functionalist approach that focuses on how sounds can make both realist and non-realist aspects of genres sound real to audiences.

  15. Ordinary tales from endoscopic odysseys: fiction, ethics, and the gastroenterological journey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meulenberg, Frans; de Beaufort, Inez D

    2014-04-01

    Fiction (i.e. novels, short stories, and movies) provides an opportunity for imaginative moral reflection and can serve as a basis for moral argument. Narratives play a role in moral reasoning because they are exemplars as well as tests. Those who care for sick people, should be interested in patient's and literary stories. Exploring the representation of gastroenterological ailments in fiction gives insight in the experience of undergoing colonoscopy, farting, pain, the borders of intimacy, hygiene and the lack of it, taboos and the doctor-patient-relationship. Included authors are, among others: Michel Faber, Alan Bennett, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Roche and James Joyce. Several movies are discussed as well. Though in general gastroenterological problems don't seem often at foreground in fiction, in some cases they are represented in a more symbolic way, and touch upon some fundamental aspects of the human condition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Stranger that fiction parallel universes beguile science

    CERN Document Server

    2007-01-01

    Is the universe -- correction: 'our' universe -- no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds? A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

  17. Stranger than fiction: parallel universes beguile science

    CERN Document Server

    Hautefeuille, Annie

    2007-01-01

    Is the universe-correction: 'our' universe-no more than a speck of cosmic dust amid an infinite number of parallel worlds? A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too.

  18. The Stuff of (Urban) Legends, and How It Can Help Students Appreciate Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cioe, Paul

    2000-01-01

    Suggests that educators rethink the ways in which they introduce elements of fiction. Considers how giving students the opportunity to show what they already know about the elements of fiction can lead them to a richer appreciation of the rewards of reading short stories. Notes that folktales and urban legends can provide familiar parallels to…

  19. Science or Science Fiction?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lefsrud, Lianne M.; Meyer, Renate

    2012-01-01

    This paper examines the framings and identity work associated with professionals’ discursive construction of climate change science, their legitimation of themselves as experts on ‘the truth’, and their attitudes towards regulatory measures. Drawing from survey responses of 1077 professional......, legitimation strategies, and use of emotionality and metaphor. By linking notions of the science or science fiction of climate change to the assessment of the adequacy of global and local policies and of potential organizational responses, we contribute to the understanding of ‘defensive institutional work...

  20. Writing social psychology: fictional things and unpopulated texts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Billig, Michael

    2011-03-01

    This paper presents the author's position on the question how to write social psychology. It reflects the author's long-term interest in rhetoric and his more recent concerns about the writing of social scientists. The author argues that social psychologists tend to produce unpopulated texts, writing about 'fictional things' rather than people. Social psychologists assume that their technical terms are more precise than ordinary language terms. The author contests this assumption. He suggests that when it comes to describing human actions, ordinary language on the whole tends to be more precise. The paper analyses why this should be the case, drawing on ideas from linguistics and Vaihinger's notion of fictions. The author presents examples to show how psychological writers, by using passives and nominals, can omit information about the agents of action and the nature of the actions that they are performing. Although their texts may appear impressively technical, they can, in fact, be highly imprecise. Moreover, social psychologists, by using this nominal style of writing, tend to write about processes as if they were things and then attribute actions to these things. In so doing, they create 'fictional things', which they treat as if they were real things. The author offers six recommendations for writing in simpler, clearer ways. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  1. Fictional privacy among Facebook users.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemieux, Robert

    2012-08-01

    The current study involved the creation of a fictional Facebook account with limited information and was designed to assess whether participants would accept the friendship of an ambiguous, unknown person. Results indicated that 325 Facebook members (72% of the sample) willingly accepted the friendship of the unknown individual. Results are discussed in relation to privacy concerns, norms of reciprocity, and allowing access to potentially embarrassing information and/or pictures.

  2. Science Fiction and the Big Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Keefe, M.

    Advocates of space science promote investment in science education and the development of new technologies necessary for space travel. Success in these areas requires an increase of interest and support among the general public. What role can entertainment media play in inspiring the public ­ especially young people ­ to support the development of space science? Such inspiration is badly needed. Science education and funding in the United States are in a state of crisis. This bleak situation exists during a boom in the popularity of science-oriented television shows and science fiction movies. This paper draws on interviews with professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as students interested in those fields. The interviewees were asked about their lifelong media-viewing habits. Analysis of these interviews, along with examples from popular culture, suggests that science fiction can be a valuable tool for space advocates. Specifically, the aspects of character, story, and special effects can provide viewers with inspiration and a sense of wonder regarding space science and the prospect of long-term human space exploration.

  3. "Angels & Demons" - Distinguishing truth from fiction

    CERN Multimedia

    2005-01-01

    Dan Brown's best-selling novel "Angels & Demons" was published in French on 2 March. A web page on CERN's public site is dedicated to separating truth from fiction in this novel. After the extraordinary success of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", one of his earlier novels "Angels & Demons", published in 2000, has now become a best seller and has generated a flood of questions about CERN. This detective story is about a secret society, the Illuminati, who wish to destroy the Vatican with an antimatter bomb stolen from - wait for it - CERN! Inevitably, CERN has been bombarded with calls about the technologies described in the novel that are supposed to be under development in the Laboratory. The Press Office has always explained that, even if the novel appears to be very informative, it is in fact a mixture of fact and fiction. For instance, according to the novel CERN is supposed to own a plane that can cover the distance between Massachusetts in the United States and Switzerland in just over an hour! ...

  4. Literary Fiction Influences Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wojciech Małecki

    Full Text Available Literary fiction has been credited with considerable power to improve attitudes toward outgroups. It was even argued that it has been an important factor behind the global decline of violence against various minorities in the last centuries. Could it also help to reduce the human-inflicted suffering of animals? To test this, we studied the attitude toward animal welfare of n = 921 (experimental group people of both sexes who read a short fragment of an unpublished novel with a motif of the physical abuse of an animal. The control group (n = 912 read a fragment of a similar length but not related to animals. After reading the text all subjects filled out an on-line questionnaire with seven items (camouflaged among many others items measuring attitudes toward animal welfare. The questionnaire included also demographical questions, such as whether the subject keeps pets. We found that in comparison with the control group, the experimental group was significantly more concerned about animal welfare. This result indicates that literary fiction can influence attitudes toward other species. It is also worth noting that our study is characterized by a high level of ecological validity, i.e. a relatively high extent to which its results can be generalized (or extended to real-world settings. Due to its specific design, which involved the cooperation of a bestselling author and his publisher, the study approximated the typical conditions in which people read fiction in a remarkably accurate way. Finally, our research has potential practical implications for promoting animal welfare.

  5. Literary Fiction Influences Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Małecki, Wojciech; Pawłowski, Bogusław; Sorokowski, Piotr

    2016-01-01

    Literary fiction has been credited with considerable power to improve attitudes toward outgroups. It was even argued that it has been an important factor behind the global decline of violence against various minorities in the last centuries. Could it also help to reduce the human-inflicted suffering of animals? To test this, we studied the attitude toward animal welfare of n = 921 (experimental group) people of both sexes who read a short fragment of an unpublished novel with a motif of the physical abuse of an animal. The control group (n = 912) read a fragment of a similar length but not related to animals. After reading the text all subjects filled out an on-line questionnaire with seven items (camouflaged among many others items) measuring attitudes toward animal welfare. The questionnaire included also demographical questions, such as whether the subject keeps pets. We found that in comparison with the control group, the experimental group was significantly more concerned about animal welfare. This result indicates that literary fiction can influence attitudes toward other species. It is also worth noting that our study is characterized by a high level of ecological validity, i.e. a relatively high extent to which its results can be generalized (or extended) to real-world settings. Due to its specific design, which involved the cooperation of a bestselling author and his publisher, the study approximated the typical conditions in which people read fiction in a remarkably accurate way. Finally, our research has potential practical implications for promoting animal welfare.

  6. Reaching Nonscience Students through Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Donald A.

    2009-01-01

    In 2006 I had the chance to design a physics course for students not majoring in scientific fields. I chose to shape the course around science fiction, not as a source for quantitative problems but as a means for conveying important physics concepts. I hoped that, by encountering these concepts in narratives, students with little or no science or…

  7. A Pedagogical Approach to Detective Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reyes-Torres, Agustín

    2011-01-01

    One of the main concerns when teaching a foreign language is how to encourage students to read and become interested in its literature. This article presents detective fiction as a pedagogical tool that provides the key elements to make it appealing for young readers. In this way, the mystery, the action and the suspense in the story; the figure…

  8. Fiction and Conviction | Blackburn | Philosophical Papers

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    I claim that there is nothing so unusual in the interleaving of myth or fiction and history that Williams finds in Herodotus. I also reflect on the difficulty of separating acceptance of truth from acceptance of myth, metaphor, and model, not only in history but also in science. Philosophical Papers Vol.32(3) 2003: 243-260 ...

  9. Gel state of the fictional body in Mario Bellatin’s 'Rosa Canina' and "Flores"

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isabel Jasinski

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Mario Bellatin creates a peculiar "space of sense" in fiction, related to the visual and per­formatic expressions of language. So, his literary project presents writing as body language, a terri­tory of significance constantly deterritorialized by sensations connected to the narrative game, with images and symbols in the literary actions. A sense of creative destruction constitutes the paradox expressed by fiction as body and by the body as fiction, in what we call Bellatin’s "nomadic writing", by means of the abnormality of the characters, their sexuality and religiosity, as one can note in Flo­res (2000, especially in "Rosa canina", published online by Cosac Naify in 2009. The position adopted by the protagonist in this work seems to indicate a specific "regime of signification”, as Josefina Ludmer puts it, according to which art and reality, fiction and biography blur their borders in a “gel state exchange”.

  10. The Use of “Non-Fiction Novels” in a Sensation and Perception Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunther, Karen L.

    2011-01-01

    Scientific material can be difficult to relate to everyday knowledge. Textbook facts can be abstract. This Study of Teaching and Learning project examined the use of “non-fiction novels” (biographies and other books that read like novels but are true) in an undergraduate Sensation and Perception course in order to increase the concreteness of the reading material and to give the students a story on which to hang the facts learned in lecture. In Phase I (Fall 2009) non-fiction novels were used for half of the units and a standard textbook for the other half. In Phase II (Fall 2010) only non-fiction novels were used. The Fall 2009 class was very positive about the use of non-fiction novels, but exam scores did not mirror this enthusiasm, either on semester exam scores or on a four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam. In contrast, the Fall 2010 class missed having a textbook, but exam performance significantly improved over prior semesters, and performance on the four-month re-take of the cumulative final exam showed performance equivalent to the Fall 2009 class’s four-month performance on questions from textbook units. In both semesters, the effectiveness of the instructor in stimulating student interest was significantly higher than in prior years where only the textbook was used. In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made them want to learn more about our sensory systems. PMID:23626489

  11. The Turn to Precarity in Twenty-First Century Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morrison Jago

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Recent years have seen several attempts by writers and critics to understand the changed sensibility in post-9/11 fiction through a variety of new -isms. This essay explores this cultural shift in a different way, finding a ‘turn to precarity’ in twenty-first century fiction characterised by a renewal of interest in the flow and foreclosure of affect, the resurgence of questions about vulnerability and our relationships to the other, and a heightened awareness of the social dynamics of seeing. The essay draws these tendencies together via the work of Judith Butler in Frames of War, in an analysis of Trezza Azzopardi’s quasi-biographical study of precarious life, Remember Me.

  12. Learning from Fiction: Applications in Emerging Technologies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Ruthanna

    2009-01-01

    Understanding the development of public opinion about emerging technologies, when the scope of that emergence is still speculative, poses particular challenges. Opinions and beliefs may be drawn from conflicting experts in multiple fields, media portrayals with varying biases, and fictional narratives that portray diverse possible futures. This…

  13. Mechanism design for the control rods conduction of TRIGA Mark III reactor in the NINR; Diseno del mecanismo para la conduccion de las barras de control del reactor Triga Mark III del ININ.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Franco C, A

    1997-12-01

    This work presents in the first chapter a general studio about the reactor and the importance of control rods in the reactor , the mechaniucal design attending to requisitions that are imposed for conditions of operation of the reactor are present in the second chapter, the narrow relation that exists with the new control console and the mechanism is developed in the thired chapter, this relation from a point of view of an assembly of components is presents in fourth chapter, finally reaches and perspectives of mechanism forming part of project of the automation of reactor TRIGA MARK III, are present in the fifth chapter. (Author).

  14. How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bal, P.M.; Veltkamp, M.

    2013-01-01

    The current study investigated whether fiction experiences change empathy of the reader. Based on transportation theory, it was predicted that when people read fiction, and they are emotionally transported into the story, they become more empathic. Two experiments showed that empathy was influenced

  15. Teaching Science Fact with Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raham, R. Gary

    2004-01-01

    The literature of science fiction packs up the facts and discoveries of science and runs off to futures filled with both wonders and warnings. Kids love to take the journeys it offers for the thrill of the ride, but they can learn as they travel, too. This book will provide the reader with: (1) an overview of the past 500 years of scientific…

  16. Realistic teenage fiction with a sexrelated theme: Readers’ responses to Slinger-slinger by Francois Bloemhof

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.N. Wiggill

    2004-07-01

    Full Text Available Francois Bloemhof submitted his novel for teenagers, “Slinger-slinger” for the Sanlam competition for youth fiction in 1996. Eventually this prizewinner in the beginners’ category was published in 1997. The main theme of “Slinger-slinger” is the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. A study was undertaken to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of “Slinger-slinger” as a whole, as well as to gauge the success of integrating sexual aspects in this novel. The study also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers with regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sex-related theme. The findings of the study underlying this article indicated that the participating teenage readers regarded “Slinger-slinger” as successful and interesting, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as “Slinger-slinger”.

  17. Perceiving and experiencing fictional characters: an integrative account

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.

    2003-01-01

    Fictional characters (PCs) and mediated persons in literature, theater, film, art, TV, and digital media fulfill basic psychological functions, although the processes involved remain unspecified. Departing from identification and empathy hypotheses, a new context-sensitive model draws upon

  18. “The Poet, He Nothing Affirms, and Therefore Never Lieth”? An Analysis of the Editorial Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eva-Maria Konrad

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Is the editorial fiction a possible challenge to Sir Philip Sidney’s famous defence of the poets? Predicated on an assertion-based definition of lying, this paper discusses two historically consecutive versions of this phenomenon: A closer analysis of Gérard Genette’s category of the disavowing authentic authorial preface reveals that Genette’s arguments cannot defend editorial fictions written by ‘author-editors’ against accusations of lying. Rather, this first version of editorial fictions occasionally embodies lies for which the authors are to be held accountable. Editorial fictions written by ‘character-editors’, in contrast, do not meet the conditions of the assertion-based account of lying with the result that, in this case, neither the author nor the ‘character-editor’ can be accused of lying.

  19. Narratives of psychiatric malingering in works of fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuperman, V

    2006-12-01

    This paper argues that the representation of psychiatric malingering in literary and cinematographic narratives informs societal stereotypes, and thus influences the clinical phenomenology of malingering. The study aims to identify sociocultural models of malingering in contemporary Western society based on the narrative analysis of about 60 fictional and non-fiction texts. Two behavioural patterns derived from the Foucauldian categories folly and madness are recognisable in naïve conceptualisations of fake insanity. Fabricated significations of deviation originate in grand societal narratives rather than in medical discourse, and construct characters such as animal like underdeveloped simpletons or detached, irrational, violent madmen. Each pattern stems from its own archaic conceptual basis and dictates a distinct framework for strategies of malingering. The semiotic structure of artistic narratives of malingering is discussed in comparison with the symptomatology of existing psychiatric models.

  20. Melt inclusions: Chapter 6

    Science.gov (United States)

    ,; Lowenstern, J. B.

    2014-01-01

    Melt inclusions are small droplets of silicate melt that are trapped in minerals during their growth in a magma. Once formed, they commonly retain much of their initial composition (with some exceptions) unless they are re-opened at some later stage. Melt inclusions thus offer several key advantages over whole rock samples: (i) they record pristine concentrations of volatiles and metals that are usually lost during magma solidification and degassing, (ii) they are snapshots in time whereas whole rocks are the time-integrated end products, thus allowing a more detailed, time-resolved view into magmatic processes (iii) they are largely unaffected by subsolidus alteration. Due to these characteristics, melt inclusions are an ideal tool to study the evolution of mineralized magma systems. This chapter first discusses general aspects of melt inclusions formation and methods for their investigation, before reviewing studies performed on mineralized magma systems.

  1. Bottom of the Iceberg: The Archontic Text - Review of Fanged Fan Fiction (McFarland, 2013)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schubart, Rikke

    2014-01-01

    Anmeldelse af Lindgren, Maria og Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries (McFarland, 2013)......Anmeldelse af Lindgren, Maria og Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries (McFarland, 2013)...

  2. Traumaculture and Telepathetic Cyber Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drinkall, Jacquelene

    This paper explores the interactive CD-ROM No Other Symptoms: Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky, usingtelepathetic socio-psychological, psychoanalytic and narrative theories. The CD-ROMexists as a contemporary artwork and published interactive hardcover book authored by painter and new-media visual artist Suzanne Treister. The artwork incorporates Treister's paintings, writing, photoshop, animation, video and audio work with narrative structures taken from world history, the history of psychoanalysis, futurist science and science fiction, family history and biography.

  3. THE MOTIF OF THE SECOND COMING IN RUSSIAN FANTASTIC FICTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatyana I. Khoruzhenko

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The motif of the Second Coming of Christ takes a special place in Russian fantastic fiction at the turn of the millennium. In the recent decades allusions to the Gospel topic appears in increasing frequency in the genre of fantasy. The aim of the given article was to analyze the peculiarities of the depiction of the subject of Advent in Russian fantastic fiction. As the basis for the research the novels of Y. Voznesenskaya, N. Perumov, V. Khlumov, S. Lukyanenko and T. Ustimenko are of particular interest. The Advent motif appears in the story line of each of the novels in question. Though, the attitude of the authors to the image of the Savior and his second coming to the world fluctuates: from a respectful expectation (Y. Voznesenskaya, T. Ustimenko, S. Lukyanenko to the depiction of the Savior as a monster (N. Perumov. The possibility of an ambivalent interpretation of the Savior is the eloquent evidence of desacralization of this image. The profaning of the sacred is one of the tendencies of the modern popular culture. The genre of fantastic fiction, as a product of mass culture, has caught this trend quite precisely.

  4. The Art of Sympathy : Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion in Fiction

    OpenAIRE

    Sklar, Howard

    2008-01-01

    "The Art of Sympathy: Forms of Moral and Emotional Persuasion" in Fiction is an interdisciplinary study that looks closely at the ways that stories evoke sympathy, and the significance of this emotion for the development of moral attitudes and awareness. By linking readers' emotional responses to fiction with the potential impact of such responses on "the moral imagination," the study builds on empirical research conducted by literary scholars and psychologists into the emotional effects of r...

  5. Dark Matter: British Weird Fiction and the Substance of Horror, 1880-1927

    OpenAIRE

    Camara, Anthony Christopher

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation examines the origins of British weird horror fiction, an understudied literary genre that had an extraordinary impact on later writers whose works appeared in popular magazines such as The Argosy (1882-1978) and Weird Tales (1923-1954). By far the most popular writer associated with the latter publication is H.P. Lovecraft, an American practitioner of cosmic weird horror whose astounding fictions have become emblematic of the genre in the mainstream imagination. This disse...

  6. Short Historical Fiction To Get Children Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Kathleen

    1997-01-01

    Provides an annotated bibliography of short historical fiction and picture books for readers in grades K-8. Includes a list of selected Caldecott and Newbery winners with historical themes or backgrounds and a list of activity books featuring Spanish exploration in Mexico, Roman art and fashion, medieval Europe, and cowboys. (PEN)

  7. Stepping into Science Fiction: Understanding the Genre

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barone, Diane; Barone, Rebecca

    2014-01-01

    This manuscript focuses on fifth graders' understanding of science fiction. It is argued that it is necessary for students to understand both reading strategies and the key elements of a genre for comprehension. Students read "The Giver" within literature circles and conversation and written responses about the book were used for…

  8. Hippocrates: facts and fiction | Retief | Acta Theologica

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, is reviewed as a historical person and in terms of his contribution to medicine in order to distinguish fact from fiction. Contemporary and later sources reveal that many (possibly untrue) legends accumulated around this enigmatic figure. The textual tradition and the composition of the ...

  9. A COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE.

    Science.gov (United States)

    KROEBER, KARL

    FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE WERE STUDIED THROUGH SYSTEMATIC AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSES OF NOVELISTIC SYNTAX AND VOCABULARY. SAMPLE PASSAGES FROM THE MAJOR NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN, THE BRONTE SISTERS, AND GEORGE ELIOT AS WELL AS NOVELS BY 13 OTHER AUTHORS WERE ANALYZED. INFORMATION ON PASSAGE SENTENCES, CLAUSES, AND WORDS WAS…

  10. Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, Rebecca W.

    2009-01-01

    Based on longitudinal data from a three year ethnographic study, this article uses discourse analytic methods to explore the literacy and social practices of three adolescent English language learners writing in an online fan fiction community. Theoretical constructs within globalization and literacy studies are used to describe the influences of…

  11. Poetry in Fiction: an approximation to the structure of «El curioso impertinente»

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara Isabel Santa Aguilar

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The present work analyzes how poetry breaks into the structure of El curioso impertinente. Firstly, it should be highlighted that El curioso impertinente is a novel considered as fiction within the don Quixote’s frame of reference (fictional plane, and in which characters are constantly acting fake situations, that ends up becoming true, which leads them to a renewed need to feign or to lie. From this perspective, the work focuses on the paradox that, given this plane fixed so far from the reality of the reader, the three poems recited by the characters come from a world outside fiction since they have actual authors in Cervantes’s time. Furthermore, the two sonnets ‘written’ by Lotario belong to the more serious Cervantine poetry, and thus belong to Spanish Golden Age lyrical tradition. Another paradox is also present: the five poems, which are rated as literature by the characters of the novel, foreshadow the events that will take place in the novel’s reality; unveiling a structure in which reality is constantly imitating fiction.

  12. [The democratic side of science-fiction].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lecellier, Charles-Henri

    2011-04-01

    Suspicion towards technological advances has progressively grown during the xx(th) century. However, in the XXI(st) century, reading the NBIC (nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science) report of the National Science Foundation, we can note that science has caught up with science fiction. These changes in public mentality on one side and in scientific capacities on the other argue for an evolution of the debate on sciences. The recent example of the national debate on nanotechnology in France has clearly shown that the public is no longer waiting for additional sources of scientific knowledge but rather waiting for the recognition of its authority to participate in the definition of the national R&D priority and associated scientific strategies. This is all the more legitimate that these strategies will have profound impact on the future of our societies and therefore cannot be decided only by scientists. Hence, it is crucial to identify innovative tools promoting debate on sciences and their technological spin-off. Here, we contend that science fiction has major assets that could face this challenge and facilitate the dialogue between sciences and society.

  13. Graham Greene's novel: The peculiar experiment in modern fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lončar-Vujnović Mirjana N.

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Graham Greene's The Quiet American could be understood as the specific and unique example in experimental modern and post modern fiction during the twentieth century. This novel could be accepted as the peculiar application of the experiment what makes it almost the exceptional case in modern fiction. Greene used some innovative and usual modern elements expressing them through the prism of completely unusual experimental aspect of form. In the novel, Greene made the combination of already known innovative and usual modern elements and traditional elements of form. Actually, he covered the experimental innovations with the common thematic structure, narrative form and partly with the specific psychoanalytical presentation of character's minds, observing and expressing them all at the same time.

  14. Claiming lesbian history: the romance between fact and fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garber, Linda

    2015-01-01

    The contested field of lesbian history exists along a continuum, with undisputed evidence on one end and informed speculation on the other. Lesbian historical fiction extends the spectrum, envisioning the lives of lesbian pirates, war heroes, pioneers, bandits, and stock romantic characters, as well as the handful of protagonists examined here whose quests specifically highlight the difficulty and importance of researching the lesbian past. The genre blossomed in the 1980s, just as the Foucauldian insistence that homosexual identity did not exist before the late nineteenth century gained sway in the academy. The proliferation of lesbian historical fictions signals the growing desire for more thorough (if not completely factual) historical underpinnings of the burgeoning lesbian identities, communities, and politics set in motion in the 1970s.

  15. Miku’s mask: Fictional encounters in children’s costume play

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helgesen, Espen

    2015-01-01

    Children’s engagement with Japanese toys and fictional characters has taken on new significance in the age of YouTube. Drawing on ethnographic research on technology-mediated play among 8- and 9-year-olds in Norway, this article shows how boundaries between “real” humans and “fake” non-humans are blurred and undermined when children take on the perspective of a fictional pop star known as Miku. I argue that YouTube provides a platform for children’s playful experimentation with posthuman subjectivities, where they orient themselves toward the future not in terms of becoming adult but in terms of multiple becomings. PMID:26635445

  16. Literature as Window: Developing Interracial Understanding through Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merriam, Allen H.

    1988-01-01

    Using Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" as a case study, demonstrates the evocative power of fiction to promote interracial understanding. Creative art, by appealing to the imagination, can evoke feelings and insights that make human relationships vivid and personal. (BJV)

  17. Subject cataloguing of the works of fiction at the National and University Library

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatjana Kovač

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available The article reviews the principles of construction and policies of application of subject headings to works of fiction at the National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The records are created in COMARC format, and the literary type, genre and the language of a document are each assigned a code, whereas literature is also indexed by using UDC class numbers. The principles for constructing and assigning subject headings for fiction are in accordance with the IFLA Principles Underlying Subject Heading Languages, and the rules of the Slovenian General List of Subject Headings (2002. The author presents the general and more specific rules and procedures for the construction of subject headings. Most frequently used subject headings for the works of fiction are name, topical or geographic headings.

  18. III-N Wide Bandgap Deep-Ultraviolet Lasers and Photodetectors

    KAUST Repository

    Detchprohm, T.; Li, Xiaohang; Shen, S.-C.; Yoder, P.D.; Dupuis, R.D.

    2016-01-01

    -emitting diodes, optically pumped lasers, and photodetectors. In this chapter, we review some aspects of the development and current state of the art of these DUV materials and devices. We describe the growth of III-N materials in the UV region by metalorganic

  19. "Normal" feelings in "abnormal" worlds : on the political uses of emotion in science fiction manga

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Li, Carl Ka-hei

    2015-01-01

    Scholars such as Darko Suvin have successfully argued for science fiction (SF) as fiction that portrays political alternatives through a focus on cognitive processes. This conception of SF minimizes the importance of character emotions, which has opened it to criticism from those who argue in favor

  20. Far Out: Some Approaches to Teaching the Speculative Literature of Science Fiction and the Supernatural.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Los Angeles City Schools, CA. Div. of Instructional Planning and Services.

    This curriculum guide contains course descriptions (for minicourses and semester-long courses), outlines, and class projects for teaching science fiction and the supernatural in junior and senior high schools. The eight course descriptions include objectives, methods, activities, and resources and materials. Lists of science fiction books and…

  1. Mechanism design for the control rods conduction of TRIGA Mark III reactor in the NINR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franco C, A.

    1997-01-01

    This work presents in the first chapter a general studio about the reactor and the importance of control rods in the reactor , the mechaniucal design attending to requisitions that are imposed for conditions of operation of the reactor are present in the second chapter, the narrow relation that exists with the new control console and the mechanism is developed in the thired chapter, this relation from a point of view of an assembly of components is presents in fourth chapter, finally reaches and perspectives of mechanism forming part of project of the automation of reactor TRIGA MARK III, are present in the fifth chapter. (Author)

  2. By Dynamite, Sabotage, Revolution, and the Pen: Violence in Caribbean Anarchist Fiction, 1890s-1920s

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirwin R. Shaffer

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available From the 1890s to the 1920s, anarchist groups and movements emerged in Puerto Rico and Cuba. They promoted the traditional anarchist agenda against governments, militarism, capitalism, and organized religion. While research on anarchists has often focused on their activities in strikes, uprisings, educational experiments, and other counter-cultural activities, this article illustrates how Caribbean-based anarchists used their fiction to promote the anarchist agenda. A central theme in much of the fiction (plays, poetry, novels, and short stories revolved around violence leveled against society especially by governments. Just as interesting is how this fiction described—even praised—anarchist violence against authority. Thus, even while Caribbean anarchists only rarely resorted to physical violence, anarchist fiction often condemned authoritarian violence while celebrating the violence of revolution, the strike, bombings, and assassination to promote the anarchist cause of universal freedom.

  3. Fiction e identità narrativa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto Talamo

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Nell’articolo si compie una ricognizione dei principali indirizzi di teoria del romanzo che leggono questo genere narrativo come forma della vita interiore svelata. Confrontando queste teorie con il concetto di “identità narrativa” sviluppato da Ricœur, si propone un’idea originale di analisi delle vite interiori narrate nella fiction, a partire dalla definizione auerbachiana di “realismo moderno” come tentativo di avvicinarsi alla realtà oggettiva tramite “molte impressioni soggettive avute da molte persone”.

  4. Transplantation: fantasy, fiction and fact.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magee, Reginald

    2004-03-01

    Today organ transplantation is considered a routine surgical procedure. The idea of transferring tissues from one person to another has been inspiring to the minds of artists depicting the Saints Cosmos and Damian and also writers such as Mary Shelley. Early attempts at tissue transplantation were unsuccessful but in the last 50 years medical research has brought it into reality. The present paper looks at the subject from the realms of fantasy through the works of fiction and finally into everyday fact.

  5. Fiction into Film: Learning Literature with a Movie Camera.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costanzo, William V.

    1985-01-01

    Describes a "fiction into film" class course, in which students are brought to many significant insights about the workings of literature by collaborating on a short film based on a literary work. (FL)

  6. Advanced Space Nuclear Reactors from Fiction to Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popa-Simil, L.

    The advanced nuclear power sources are used in a large variety of science fiction movies and novels, but their practical development is, still, in its early conceptual stages, some of the ideas being confirmed by collateral experiments. The novel reactor concept uses the direct conversion of nuclear energy into electricity, has electronic control of reactivity, being surrounded by a transmutation blanket and very thin shielding being small and light that at its very limit may be suitable to power an autonomously flying car. It also provides an improved fuel cycle producing minimal negative impact to environment. The key elements started to lose the fiction attributes, becoming viable actual concepts and goals for the developments to come, and on the possibility to achieve these objectives started to become more real because the theory shows that using the novel nano-technologies this novel reactor might be achievable in less than a century.

  7. Dementia and detectives: Alzheimer's disease in crime fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orr, David Mr

    2018-01-01

    Fictional representations of dementia have burgeoned in recent years, and scholars have amply explored their double-edged capacity to promote tragic perspectives or normalising images of 'living well' with the condition. Yet to date, there has been only sparse consideration of the treatment afforded dementia within the genre of crime fiction. Focusing on two novels, Emma Healey's Elizabeth is Missing and Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, this article considers what it means in relation to the ethics of representation that these authors choose to cast as their amateur detective narrators women who have dementia. Analysing how their narrative portrayals frame the experience of living with dementia, it becomes apparent that features of the crime genre inflect the meanings conveyed. While aspects of the novels may reinforce problem-based discourses around dementia, in other respects they may spur meaningful reflection about it among the large readership of this genre.

  8. Languages of the heart: the biomedical and the metaphorical in American fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oldfield, Benjamin J; Jones, David S

    2014-01-01

    The role of heart disease in American fiction has received less attention from scholars of literature, history, and medicine than have portrayals of tuberculosis, cancer, or HIV/AIDS, despite the fact that heart disease topped mortality charts for most of the 20th century. This article surveys manifestations of coronary artery disease in popular works of 20th-century American fiction to trace how authors and their protagonists grappled with the disease while knowledge of pathophysiology and therapeutics evolved. Countering Susan Sontag's mechanistic vision of patient encounters-where disease is absent of metaphor-we pair popular fiction with concurrent historical analysis to show that the proliferation of technological narratives of cardiac therapeutics could not displace the deeply symbolic nature of characters' encounters with heart disease. Because of the limited ability of the biomedical narrative to convey the meanings of disease and treatments, doctors and patients need to communicate through the rich possibilities of metaphor.

  9. Saints, Cops and Camorristi. Editorial Policies and Production Models of Italian TV Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Barra

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Contemporary Italian TV fiction production is the result of both a long historical tradition and a complex broadcasting scenario. In recent years, three different models clearly emerged, following the divergent goals and needs of public service broadcaster Rai, commercial television Mediaset and pay-TV operator Sky Italia: respectively, with a pedagogical approach resulting in hagiographic miniseries, socially committed fiction and relevant comedies; with procedural and legal dramas following the US commercial models and romance-filled prime time soaps; and with a cable-oriented tension towards anti-heroes, high-budget productions and “quality television”. The paper reconstructs the main traits of each model, focusing on their main titles and most emblematic genres, as well as on the national production companies that helped the broadcasters in defining and establishing peculiar “fiction styles” and editorial policies.

  10. Using Anthropomorphism and Fictional Story Development to Enhance Student Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kari A. Brossard Stoos

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Understanding mechanisms of human disease can be very challenging for students with a basic background in anatomy and biology, and it can be nearly impossible for students without any prior exposure to these basic sciences.  We have designed an approach for understanding human disease for learners of various science backgrounds.  By using fictional character associations with disease processes, we have anthropomorphized disease components to make the mechanisms accessible to students with little to no science background, while still appealing and exciting to students with significant science backgrounds.  By assisting students in the creation of fictional characters to represent disease processes, we have increased student understanding, engagement, enjoyment, and retention of course content.

  11. Multimodal Diversity of Postmodernist Fiction Text

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U. I. Tykha

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of structural and functional manifestations of multimodal diversity in postmodernist fiction texts. Multimodality is defined as the coexistence of more than one semiotic mode within a certain context. Multimodal texts feature a diversity of semiotic modes in the communication and development of their narrative. Such experimental texts subvert conventional patterns by introducing various semiotic resources – verbal or non-verbal.

  12. Cost Overrun Optimism: Fact or Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-02-29

    Base, OH. Homgren, C. T. (1990). In G. Foster (Ed.), Cost accounting : A managerial emphasis (7th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Morrison... Accounting Office. Gansler, J. S. (1989). Affording defense. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Heise, S. R. (1991). A review of cost performance index...Image designed by Diane Fleischer Cost Overrun Optimism: FACT or FICTION? Maj David D. Christensen, USAF Program managers are advocates by

  13. Forging Futures with Teens and Science Fiction: A Conversation with Greg Bear and David Brin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moltz, Sandy

    2003-01-01

    Presents an interview with Greg Bear and David Brin, two science fiction writers who started Reading for the Future, an international project geared toward secondary school students that shows teachers and librarians how science fiction inspires young readers. Discusses programs that have come out of this group; standards for books geared toward…

  14. Adaptation illustrations: Chapter 4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maria Janowiak; Patricia Butler; Chris Swanston; Matt St. Pierre; Linda. Parker

    2012-01-01

    In this chapter, we demonstrate how the Adaptation Workbook (Chapter 3) can be used with the Adaptation Strategies and Approaches (Chapter 2) to develop adaptation tactics for two real-world management issues. The two illustrations in this chapter are intended to provide helpful tips to managers completing the Adaptation Workbook, as well as to show how the anticipated...

  15. Children's direct fright and worry reactions to violence in fiction and news television programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Molen, Juliette H Walma; Bushman, Brad J

    2008-09-01

    To examine whether violence in fictional and news television content frightens and worries children. Mixed factorial. Type of reaction (fright, worry) and television programming (violent news, violent fiction) were within-subjects factors, whereas age, sex, and television viewing frequency were between-subjects factors. Participants included 572 children (47% boys), aged 8 to 12 years, from 9 urban and rural primary schools in the Netherlands. The main exposure was to descriptions of 8 threats frequently depicted in fictional and news programs (eg, murder, war, house fires). Children reported whether they were frightened or worried by these threats. Violent threats increased both fright and worry. These 2 reactions could be distinguished from one another in a factor analysis. When violent content was described as news, it produced more fear reactions than when it was described as fiction. Fright and worry were greater in girls than in boys, in younger children than in older children, and in light television viewers than in heavy television viewers. Pediatricians should inform parents, educators, policy makers, and broadcasters about the potentially harmful effect of violent programming on children's emotions, especially in the case of news programming.

  16. Stranger than fiction parallel universes beguile science

    CERN Multimedia

    2007-01-01

    A staple of mind-bending science fiction, the possibility of multiple universes has long intrigued hard-nosed physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists too. We may not be able -- at least not yet -- to prove they exist, many serious scientists say, but there are plenty of reasons to think that parallel dimensions are more than figments of eggheaded imagination.

  17. Epistemological-motivational bases of literary non-fiction genre as factors determining the linguistic structure of text

    OpenAIRE

    GALSTYAN ASHOT

    2016-01-01

    This article dwells on epistemological-motivational aspects of the literary non-fiction genre. The general features of memoir literature are examined form the point of view of their epistemological and cognitive aspects. The cognitive and informational specificities of non-fictional narratives are also considered.

  18. What Pauline Doesn't Know: Using Guided Fiction Writing to Educate Health Professionals about Cultural Competence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saffran, Lise

    2017-01-07

    Research linking reading literary fiction to empathy supports health humanities programs in which reflective writing accompanies close readings of texts, both to explore principles of storytelling (narrative arc and concrete language) and to promote an examination of biases in care. Little attention has been paid to the possible contribution of guided fiction-writing in health humanities curricula toward enhancing cultural competence among health professionals, both clinical and community-based. Through an analysis of the short story "Pie Dance" by Molly Giles, juxtaposed with descriptions of specific writing exercises, this paper explains how the demands of writing fiction promote cultural competency.

  19. Beyond Historical Fiction: Speare's "The Witch of Blackbird Pond."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thuente, Mary Helen

    1985-01-01

    Reviews "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by E. Speare to show how the full narrative power of the novel derives from the author's successful integration of two separate narrative genres: historical fiction and the folktale. (EL)

  20. THE ADDRESSEE AGE AS A FACTOR DETERMINING THE DISCURSIVE STRUCTURE OF A WORK OF FICTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beloglazova Elena Vladimirovna

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In the present paper the author attempts to establish the connection between the discursive structure of a work of fiction and the addressee age factor. At that the point of departure for the argument is (a the thesis on discursive heterogeneity being a feature of fiction in general, which is a direct consequence of literature of literature being aimed at reflecting the world in its entirety and complexity, and (b the assumption that the above-said is applicable to children's fiction, though discursive heterogeneity undergoes a certain transformation due to the specific nature and role of literature for children. The category of addressee in the cornerstone of children's fiction predetermining: on the surface level – the selection of organization of language means in the text; on the contents level – the selection of story and characters; on the ideology level – the configuration of the polydiscourse of the children's fiction, as well as the selection of discourses' representatives. The peculiarity of children's fiction is primarily due to the ideology underlying it - what the society demands from the right book for kids, which is viewed as a socializing tool. And in order to be efficient, the tool needs to be tailored for its object, its exact parameters, age being one of them. Thus the complexity of the discursive structure of literary works for children appears to be directly related to the age of their ideal reader, which is shown in the article by comparative analysis of works addressed to floor and ceiling audiences of the childhood span. The analysis reveals the fact that older readership leads not only to a greater complexity of a literary work's discursive structure, but also to a wider variety in the ways of introducing interdiscursemes into text.

  1. Does Science-Fiction predict [or change] the future?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Christian Graswohl; Jan Westren-Doll; Douglas Fenech

    2010-01-01

    This research paper looks at a selection of science-fiction films and its connection with the progression of the use of television, telephone and print media. It also analyzes statistical data obtained from a questionnaire conducted by the research group regarding the use of communication media.

  2. Future Tense: Science Fiction Confronts the New Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antczak, Janice

    1990-01-01

    Describes 10 science fiction stories for young readers whose contents address recent developments on the frontiers of scientific research, including genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The use of these materials to inform young readers about the issues and dangers involved in scientific developments is discussed. (CLB)

  3. Available means: manifestations of Aristotle's three modes of rhetorical appeal in antinuclear fiction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mannix, P.J.

    1986-01-01

    The abundance of sympathetic scientists, military men and clergymen in antinuclear fiction reflects a public perception that authorities speak most knowledgeably about an issue. Other antinuclear works employ characters with less traditional ethical appeals: nurturing women, vital youths, and even infallible computers. Antinuclear fiction uses enthymeme and example to reflect the history of the nuclear weapons debate. Some works attach the immorality of the weapons by examining the moral dilemmas of nuclear scientists. Others admit the permanence of the nuclear threat. By arousing emotions, fiction is capable of mobilizing its audience's active support for the ideas it presents. The principal emotions that various antinuclear works arouse highlight the close relationship between literature and rhetoric. The most dominant emotions, pity and fear, are the two Aristotle links to tragedy. Scorn, the principal emotion that Dr. Strangelove arouses - is the crucial emotion on which all satire depends. However, the other principal emotion in anti-nuclear fiction - hope - has principally a rhetorical function ensuring that the feelings the works provoke will be channeled constructively.

  4. The Pro-Cyclical Impact of Basel III Regulatory Capital on Bank Capital Risk

    OpenAIRE

    Song, Guoxiang

    2014-01-01

    To raise the quality of regulatory capital, Basel III capital rules recognize unrealized gains and losses on all available-for-sale (AFS) securities in Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1). However, by examining the correlations between U.S. GDP growth rate, interest rates and regulatory capital ratios computed using Basel III regulatory capital definition for six U.S. global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) since 2007, this chapter finds that Basel III regulatory capital will enhance the...

  5. Interactive effects of climate and wildland fires on forests and other ecosystems—section III synthesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nancy E. Grulke

    2009-01-01

    The chapters in Section III of this book provide an overview of how components of climate change, including air pollution, are likely to interact with fire in modifying key ecosystem processes, whether those processes were demographic, successional, or elemental cycling. These chapters primarily  discuss increased temperature, reduced available soil moisture, and...

  6. Welsh Women's Industrial Fiction 1880-1910.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohata, Kirsti; Jones, Alexandra

    2017-10-02

    From the beginning of the genre, women writers have made a major contribution to the development of industrial writing. Although prevented from gaining first-hand experience of the coalface, Welsh women writers were amongst the first to try to fictionalize those heavy industries-coal and metal in the south, and slate in the north-which dominated the lives of the majority of the late nineteenth-century Welsh population. Treatment of industrial matter is generally fragmentary in this early women's writing; industrial imagery and metaphor may be used in novels that are not primarily "about" industry at all. Yet from c. 1880-1910, Welsh women writers made a significant-and hitherto critically neglected-attempt to make sense in literature of contemporary industrial Wales in powerful and innovative ways. This essay maps their contribution and considers anglophone Welsh women writers' adaptations and innovations of form (particularly romance) as they try to find a way of representing industrial landscapes, communities and the daily realities of industrial labour. It identifies the genesis in women's writing of tropes that would become central to later industrial fiction, including depictions of industrial accident, injury, death and disability. And it explores the representation of social relations (class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality) and conflict on this tumultuous, dangerous new stage.

  7. Super Bitches and Action Babes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schubart, Rikke

    An analysis of the female hero in popular film genres such as actionfilms, war films, wip-films, rape-revenge dramas, science fiction from 1970-2006. Mostly American films but with chapters on Michelle Yeoh and Meiko Kaji.......An analysis of the female hero in popular film genres such as actionfilms, war films, wip-films, rape-revenge dramas, science fiction from 1970-2006. Mostly American films but with chapters on Michelle Yeoh and Meiko Kaji....

  8. The Chicana Subject in Ana Castillo's Fiction and the Discursive Zone of Chicana/o Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carson, Benjamin D.

    2007-01-01

    In the world of Chicana fiction, Ana Castillo has achieved the kind of status Maxine Hong Kingston has attained within Asian American discourse. Castillo's work is popular not only with the general reading public but in many academic circles as well. What sets Castillo apart from so many other Chicana fiction writers is that she is also a…

  9. Freeze, Wait, Reanimate: Cryonic Suspension and Science Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shoffstall, Grant

    2010-01-01

    This essay takes as its chief point of departure Jacques Ellul's contention that imaginative treatments of malevolent technology in antitechnological science fiction, by way of inviting rejection, refusal, dismissal, or condemnation, conspire in facilitating human acceptance of and adjustment to technology as it otherwise presently is. The author…

  10. Implant removal after fracture healing : facts and fiction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vos, D.I.

    2013-01-01

    A frequently asked question to trauma and orthopaedic surgeons is whether and if yes, when an implant will be removed? Although implant removal after fracture healing is daily practice, a scientific basis doesn’t exist. All studies in this thesis were performed to unravel the facts and fiction of

  11. The Religious Affordance of Fiction : A Semiotic Approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Davidsen, M.A.

    2016-01-01

    A curious aspect of late modern religion is the emergence of fiction-based religions, such as Jediism, based on George Lucas’ Star Wars saga, and Tolkien spirituality, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary mythology about Middle-earth. This article draws on narrative semiotics to explain why some

  12. Goffman Goes Rock Climbing: Using Creative Fiction to Explore the Presentation of Self in Outdoor Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beames, Simon K.; Pike, Elizabeth C. J.

    2008-01-01

    Outdoor education literature has a recent history of examining its practice through a variety of sociological, philosophical, psychological, and anthropological lenses. Following this trend, this paper explores the face-to-face social interaction of a fictional introductory rock-climbing course. The analysis of this creative fiction draws on…

  13. Food irradiation: Facts or fiction?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loaharanu, P.

    1990-01-01

    Food irradiation is at a political crossroad. In one direction, it is moving forward supported by overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and benefits to economy and health. In the opposite direction, it threatens to be derailed by misleading claims about its safety and usefulness. Whether people will ultimately benefit from the use of irradiation to help fight serious food problems, or whether they will allow the technology to go to waste, will be determined by how successful people are in separating the facts from the fiction of food irradiation

  14. 'Limbitless Solutions': the Prosthetic Arm, Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Technoscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Susan

    2016-12-01

    Early last year, a non-profit organisation called 'Limbitless Solutions' modelled a 3D printed prosthetic arm on a fighting suit that features in the popular superhero film series, Iron Man (2008-2013). In addition, 'Limbitless Solutions' resourcefully deployed the fictional character and inventor of the Iron Man suit, weapons specialist and philanthropist, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr, in a celebrity/superhero endorsed promotional short film, showing 'Tony', the 'real Iron Man', gifting the futuristic military styled 'gauntlet' to Alex, a 7-year-old boy with a partially developed right arm. Engaging with scholarly work on the science fiction of technoscience, prostheses and the posthuman, and disability and DIY assistive technology, I analyse 'Limbitless Solutions' use of science fiction in a high-profile media event that problematically portrays an impaired child 'in need' of 'repair' and subsequently 'fixed' by technology. Overall, the aim is to integrate science fiction tropes, such as the wounded hero, the fighting suit and prosthetic arm, with disability studies, to highlight the sustained challenges that emerging theories of disability and technology face as contemporary economic, political and ideological forces endorse and promote militarised images of cyborg assimilation over human variation and physical difference. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  15. Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panero, Maria Eugenia; Weisberg, Deena Skolnick; Black, Jessica; Goldstein, Thalia R; Barnes, Jennifer L; Brownell, Hiram; Winner, Ellen

    2016-11-01

    [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 111(5) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2016-50315-003). In the article, due to an error in stimulus construction, four items (three authors, one foil) were omitted from the ART presented to all participants tested by Research Group 1. These omissions do not undermine the results in the primary analyses, which all included ART and ART Condition (as covariates). Any variation across research groups, including this difference in reading exposure measurement, is accounted for in the multilevel analyses. Therefore, the Table 2 title should appear as Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Scores by Condition and Overall Unadjusted Means for the Current Study and Kidd and Castano (2013), as Well as the Zero-Order Pearson's Correlations Between RMET and ART Scores Overall and by Condition. The ART data columns should be deleted, and the table note should begin as follows: RMET scores were transformed to correct for skew prior to correlational analyses. The section title above the Discussion section should appear as Comparison of Our RMET Scores to Kidd and Castano Data, with the first two sentences appearing as follows: To determine whether the responses in our sample were similar to what Kidd and Castano (2013) found, we compared our mean performance on the RMET to theirs. Our grand mean (26.28) was significantly higher than theirs (25.18), t (1=, 374) = 3.71, p Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim. Their article reported that reading segments of literary fiction (but not popular fiction or nonfiction) immediately and significantly improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), an

  16. Framing Mass Shootings: Fictional Depictions of Real-life Gun Massacres in American Cinema

    OpenAIRE

    Tryggeseid, Ane Johannessen

    2017-01-01

    This thesis examines the concept of real-life mass shootings and its depiction in American fictional cinema. The issue of mass shootings is a highly controversial subject of discussion, both within the public and political sphere, as it necessarily touches upon rigid perceptions of civil liberties – specifically those of the Second Amendment – which further permeates the field of fictional cinema. As opposed to assessing the issue of mass shootings as a product of a prevailing culture of guns...

  17. Contemporary fiction and the ethics of modern culture

    CERN Document Server

    Karnicky, Jeffrey

    2007-01-01

    This book argues for the ethical relevancy of contemporary fiction at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Through reading novels by such writers as David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, and Irvine Welsh, this book looks at how these works seek to transform the ways that readers live in the world.

  18. Imagine That!: Science Fiction as a Learning Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ontell, Val

    2003-01-01

    This article, based on a presentation made by the author at the 2003 California Library Association conference, provides examples of how librarians and teachers can use Science Fiction to provide catalysts for discussion in a variety of subjects; teach students how to question intelligently; and stimulate their imaginations, thus motivating them…

  19. Turning Fiction Into Non-fiction for Signal-to-Noise Ratio Estimation -- The Time-Multiplexed and Adaptive Split-Symbol Moments Estimator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, M.; Dolinar, S.

    2005-08-01

    A means is proposed for realizing the generalized split-symbol moments estimator (SSME) of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), i.e., one whose implementation on the average allows for a number of subdivisions (observables), 2L, per symbol beyond the conventional value of two, with other than an integer value of L. In theory, the generalized SSME was previously shown to yield optimum performance for a given true SNR, R, when L=R/sqrt(2) and thus, in general, the resulting estimator was referred to as the fictitious SSME. Here we present a time-multiplexed version of the SSME that allows it to achieve its optimum value of L as above (to the extent that it can be computed as the average of a sum of integers) at each value of SNR and as such turns fiction into non-fiction. Also proposed is an adaptive algorithm that allows the SSME to rapidly converge to its optimum value of L when in fact one has no a priori information about the true value of SNR.

  20. Teacher candidates' perceptions regarding the integration of fictional literature into elementary science instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Everman, Daphne Jane

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs held by teacher candidates (TCs) regarding the integration of fictional literature into elementary science instruction. Data were collected in the forms of a Q sort completed by two sections of TCs as an in-class activity, demographics and background information filled out by each participant, and two focus groups. The data were analyzed through a blend of Q methodology and Yin's five phase analysis approach (2011), and a constructivist framework was used to analyze the potential impact TCs' background had on their perceptions of the use of fictional literature in elementary science. Key findings indicated that while many TCs have limited backgrounds in the use of fictional literature during science and would like more information about how to use it, overall, there was strong support for its use as a science teaching tool because it makes science more approachable, builds excitement, and encourages students to become more engaged.

  1. Manipulating Our Futures: The Role of Science Fiction in Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michalsky, Walt

    1979-01-01

    A rationale is presented for using science fiction in the English classroom, emphasizing that students like the genre and that it teaches them to analyze and interpret social and technological change. (SJL)

  2. "May the journey continue": Earth 2 fan fiction, or Filling in gaps to revive a canceled series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesca Musiani

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available This essay explores writing practices in a fan community having to give life to a story deprived of an "official" version: the television series Earth 2. I argue that fan fiction writing for this prematurely canceled series exhibits peculiar features in comparison to fan writing for established series: for example, temporality, choice of protagonists, character pairings, and challenges to the original conception(s of the series. Writing fan fiction for a canceled series is not about creating alternatives to an existing story, but about filling in gaps; it brings to light the ways in which fan fiction deals with closure. I take as a case study Earth 2, a series aired by NBC in the United States in 1994–95, whose first and only season ended in a cliffhanger episode hinting that a mysterious ailment had struck the main and most popular character. Shortly afterward, a significant number of Earth 2 Web sites, online conventions, and especially fan stories started developing; they explored what could have happened next and bore nostalgic but combative mottoes and titles such as "May the Journey Continue." I explore the specific features of Earth 2 fan fiction production and sharing by analyzing the main Earth 2 fan fiction archives on the Web and the responses to my email interviews of fan writers. Exemplars of the Earth 2 case are compared to those of other science fiction TV series, both prematurely canceled (Firefly, Space: Above and Beyond and long-lived (Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

  3. Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership

    OpenAIRE

    Jana Vizmuller-Zocco

    2014-01-01

    The role of leadership in science fiction receives a particular analysis which is based on what can be termed transhumanist novels published in Italy between 2008 and 2013. The main purpose of this study is to answer the following question: What happens to (the nature of) leadership in a technologically-driven society? Four novels form the backbone of the description of futuristic leadership. The four conclusions drawn from this analysis regarding the nature of leadership in a technologically...

  4. Peculiarities of destructive influence of mass media and fiction on formation of aggressive behaviour of senior pupils

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roksoliana Zozuliak-Sluchyk

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The article analyzes the media as a factor in the formation of aggressive behavior and propensity to violence seniors. The features of fiction influence the aggressiveness and hostility among high school students. Keywords: aggressive behavior, media, works of fiction, high school, hostility.

  5. Myth Structure and Media Fiction Plot: An Exploration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harless, James D.

    Based on the general research of Joseph Campbell in adventure plots from mythology, the author explores the simplified monomyth plots currently in frequent use in mass media programing. The close relationship of media fiction to mythic stories is established through the analysis of more than 25 stories resulting from media broadcasting. The media…

  6. Lyssna : a design fiction to reframe food waste

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oogjes, D.J.; Bruns, M.; Wakkary, R.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper we propose the design fiction, Lyssna, a diegetic prototype in the form of a hearing aid for your refrigerator that aims at reintegrating lost aspects of food. Lyssna is based on home studies of food practices informed by Mediation Theory and Theories of Practice. Our aim is to explore

  7. What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metz-Lutz, Marie-Noëlle; Bressan, Yannick; Heider, Nathalie; Otzenberger, Hélène

    2010-01-01

    Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators' offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects' adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects' state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

  8. What physiological changes and cerebral traces tell us about adhesion to fiction during theater-watching?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marie-Noëlle Metz-Lutz

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasised by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e. their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and pSTS, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction.

  9. "The epic love story of Sam and Dean": "Supernatural," queer readings, and the romance of incestuous fan fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Tosenberger

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available This article examines incestuous slash fan fiction produced for the CW television series Supernatural. I argue that "Wincest" fan fiction is best understood not as perverse, oppositional resistance to a heterosexual, nonincestuous show, but an expression of readings that are suggested and supported by the text itself. I examine the literary, cultural, and folkloric discourses of incest and queerness invoked by the series, paying special attention to Romanticism, the Gothic, and horror as underliers to those discourses, and how those genres inform both the series and the fan fiction. I discuss a number of Wincest stories in detail, focusing upon how these stories build upon thematic elements within the series. In conclusion, I argue that the most resistive aspect of Wincest fan fiction is that it gives the main characters a lasting happiness that the series eternally defers.

  10. Tourette Association Chapters

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... com Arizona Email: info@tsa-az.org Website: http://tsa-az.org/ Arkansas Support Group of Northwest ... California/Hawaii Chapter Email: cbrackett2004@yahoo.com Website: http://www.tsanorcal-hawaii.org Southern California Chapter Phone: ...

  11. ‘Space’ Interpretation in Contemporary English Fictional Discourse: Female Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna I. Dzyubenko

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The article reveals the set of transformations that the space being a vital element of the fictional discourse structure undergoes being introduced into the narration by the modern female authors (S. Townsend, C. Alliott, K. Swan, E. Gilbert. The article also represents the basic characteristics attributed to ‘space’ as a key component reinforcing the whole narrative structure of the female discourse. The author states that the space in such discourse proves to be much influenced and strongly correlated with the emotional background the protagonists have creating suspense and climax or, on the contrary, anticlimax in the narration. It is suggested that the fictional space is most often graded in size, in its morphological characteristics and qualities. Moreover, the space is prone to be moving and developing than being stagnant.

  12. The Body Not in the Room: Reading Gossip as Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine Bush

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available It can be useful to return to some fundamentals when thinking about what gives gossip its power, whether words spoken aloud or words that spread and leave their indelible traces throughout the digital realm. As a novelist and storyteller, I’d like to employ some lines of thought about what we do when we read fiction in order to consider gossip as an act of creative reading. Gossip, like a gift, depends on being received by someone, is defined by the intention to be received. Current fMRI studies have shown the empathetic capacities generated in individuals after reading works of fiction. I want to consider what happens when we imagine something about someone else, and how the engaged creativity of the recipient is essential to the act of gossiping.

  13. Engineering in Children's Fiction--Not a Good Story?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holbrook, Allyson; Panozza, Lisa; Prieto, Elena

    2009-01-01

    Responding to concerns that engineering is a poorly understood occupation and that young people are exposed to stereotyped images of scientists and engineers at an early age, this investigation sought to identify how science and engineering is portrayed in contemporary junior fiction (ages 8-12) and to what extent. An examination of 4,800 junior…

  14. The Non-Fiction Reading Habits of Young Successful Boy Readers: Forming Connections between Masculinity and Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Susannah

    2004-01-01

    The reading experiences of six young successful boy readers were studied over a two-year period. In this article, their non-fiction reading is analysed and ways in which the boys make positive connections between masculinity and reading are identified. The boys' non-fiction reading centres on typical boy interest areas and hobbies (for example,…

  15. Picturing the African Diaspora in recent fiction | Jacobs | Current ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Coetzee's engagement with the theme of diasporic migration in Disgrace signals an important direction in contemporary South African fiction. Coetzee himself has foregrounded immigrant cultural identities in Slow Man (2005), whereas the historical African diaspora and its continuation into the present-day dispersal of ...

  16. American socio-politics in fictional context: transformers and the representation of the United States

    OpenAIRE

    Underwood, David William.

    2013-01-01

    The fictional narratives that have been developed for the support of the Transformers brand, with their underlying emphasis on the sale of action figures, have been dismissed as a somewhat juvenile and uninteresting text. Little to no serious academic analysis of any of the various iterations of the franchise has been undertaken. With this thesis, I endeavour to begin that analysis and thus broaden and problematize the currently limited understanding of Transformers fictions. Due to the fr...

  17. Abyssal fiction: common shares, colonial cleavages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre Montaury

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper aims to develop a reflection on the interaction between the legacies of colonialism and traditional symbolic and cultural practices in African Portuguese-speaking spaces. From a preliminary analysis of fictional texts of wide circulation in Brazil, aims to examine the cleavages, or “abyssal lines” that constitute experiences printed in the daily life of the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, Mozambique and Angola.---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21881/abriluff.2016n17a378

  18. Rheumatology in the Italian literary fiction: “La Longobarda” by Giorgio Conconi (1999

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Marson

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available In the literary fiction “La Longobarda” by Giorgio Conconi (1999 the protagonist Linda narrates her life, when about fifty she falls ill because of arthritis, thus looking prematurely older and suffering from severe disturbances of body image. This fiction represents an uncommon case of contemporary literature dealing with rheumatological topics. In the present note, it has shown how literature can contribute in several ways to achievement in the human dimension of medicine, by teaching physician concrete and powerful lessons about the lives of sick people.

  19. Reality = relevance? Insights from spontaneous modulations of the brain's default network when telling apart reality from fiction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Abraham

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Although human beings regularly experience fictional worlds through activities such as reading novels and watching movies, little is known about what mechanisms underlie our implicit knowledge of the distinction between reality and fiction. The first neuroimaging study to address this issue revealed that the mere exposure to contexts involving real entities compared to fictional characters led to engagement of regions in the anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices (amPFC, PCC. As these core regions of the brain's default network are involved during self-referential processing and autobiographical memory retrieval, it was hypothesized that real entities may be conceptually coded as being more personally relevant to us than fictional characters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI study, we directly test the hypothesis that entity-associated personal relevance is the critical factor underlying the differential engagement of these brain regions by comparing the brain's response when processing contexts involving family or friends (high relevance, famous people (medium relevance, or fictional characters (low relevance. In line with predictions, a gradient pattern of activation was observed such that higher entity-associated personal relevance was associated with stronger activation in the amPFC and the PCC. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results of the study have several important implications. Firstly, they provide informed grounds for characterizing the dynamics of reality-fiction distinction. Secondly, they provide further insights into the functions of the amPFC and the PCC. Thirdly, in view of the current debate related to the functional relevance and specificity of brain's default network, they reveal a novel approach by which the functions of this network can be further explored.

  20. DECOVALEX - Mathematical models of coupled T-H-M processes for nuclear waste repositories. Report of phase III

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jing, L.; Rutqvist, J.; Stephansson, O.

    1995-12-01

    This report presents the methodologies and results of the field/laboratory experiments and mathematical modeling defined for the phase III of the project. Results from test cases 2-6 are given in separate chapters of the report (which have been indexed separately), and the last chapter discusses the lessons learned from the three phases of the DECOVALEX project

  1. Science fiction and human enhancement: radical life-extension in the movie 'In Time' (2011).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roduit, Johann A R; Eichinger, Tobias; Glannon, Walter

    2018-03-20

    The ethics of human enhancement has been a hotly debated topic in the last 15 years. In this debate, some advocate examining science fiction stories to elucidate the ethical issues regarding the current phenomenon of human enhancement. Stories from science fiction seem well suited to analyze biomedical advances, providing some possible case studies. Of particular interest is the work of screenwriter Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, S1m0ne, In Time, and Good Kill), which often focuses on ethical questions raised by the use of new technologies. Examining the movie In Time (2011), the aim of this paper is to show how science fiction can contribute to the ethical debate of human enhancement. In Time provides an interesting case study to explore what could be some of the consequences of radical life-extension technologies. In this paper, we will show how arguments regarding radical life-extension portrayed in this particular movie differ from what is found in the scientific literature. We will see how In Time gives flesh to arguments defending or rejecting radical life-extension. It articulates feelings of unease, alienation and boredom associated with this possibility. Finally, this article will conclude that science fiction movies in general, and In Time in particular, are a valuable resource for a broad and comprehensive debate about our coming future.

  2. Making Materiality Matter : A sociological analysis of price formation on the Dutch fiction book market, 1980-2009

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Franssen, T.; Velthuis, O.

    2016-01-01

    This article analyzes determinants of prices in the Dutch fiction book market between 1980 and 2009. It does so on the basis of interviews with editors of large publishing houses and regression analysis of a dataset that contains prices and their determinants of over 80 000 fiction books. We show

  3. Chapter 10: Management recommendations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deborah M. Finch; Janie Agyagos; Tracy McCarthey; Robert M. Marshall; Scott H. Stoleson; Mary J. Whitfield

    2000-01-01

    This chapter was developed over a series of meetings using a group-consensus process. Our recommendations are based on published results, on information compiled in the previous chapters, on expert opinion, and on unpublished data of conservation team members. This chapter is available as temporary guidance until the Recovery Plan for the southwestern willow flycatcher...

  4. Understanding Management, Trade, and Society Through Fiction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holt, Robin; Zundel, Mike

    2014-01-01

    The article analyzes the television series "The Wire," focusing on elements of the series of interest in relation to management science. The authors discuss strengths of the show as fiction, including the density of its portrayal of urban life and its avoidance of closure. Other topics include...... the management styles portrayed by the show's characters in a range of settings including police work and the illegal drug trade.....

  5. Science Fiction in Social Education: Exploring Consequences of Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Lance E.

    2013-01-01

    An NCSS Technology Position Statement and Guidelines, published in 2006 (an updated version is published in this issue of "Social Education"), affirms that social studies students should critically examine relations between technology and society. This article describes how teachers can use science fiction to introduce critical questions…

  6. Encyclopedia of two-phase heat transfer and flow III macro and micro flow boiling and numerical modeling fundamentals

    CERN Document Server

    2018-01-01

    Set III of this encyclopedia is a new addition to the previous Sets I and II. It contains 26 invited chapters from international specialists on the topics of numerical modeling of two-phase flows and evaporation, fundamentals of evaporation and condensation in microchannels and macrochannels, development and testing of micro two-phase cooling systems for electronics, and various special topics (surface wetting effects, microfin tubes, two-phase flow vibration across tube bundles). The chapters are written both by renowned university researchers and by well-known engineers from leading corporate research laboratories. Numerous "must read" chapters cover the fundamentals of research and engineering practice on boiling, condensation and two-phase flows, two-phase heat transfer equipment, electronics cooling systems, case studies and so forth. Set III constitutes a "must have" reference together with Sets I and II for thermal engineering researchers and practitioners.

  7. Mike Ashley. Out of This World: Science Fiction, But Not As You Know It

    OpenAIRE

    Ransom, Amy J.

    2013-01-01

    The British Library held an exhibition on science fiction from 25 May to 25 September, 2011. Mike Ashley’s beautiful companion volume, Out of This World, offers a brilliant, illustrated history of science fiction. Destined for newcomers to the genre, the oversize tome provides a useful handbook and even some tidbits of lesser-known factoids for the specialist. I highly recommend this work for all libraries and coffee tables. Ashley has proven himself to be one of the genre’s foremost historia...

  8. Micromégas: Altered Body-Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieguez, Sebastian

    2016-01-01

    Architectonic embodiment postulates a bidirectional link between bodily awareness and the architectural environment. The standard size and features of the human body, for instance, are thought to influence the structure of interiors and buildings, as well as their perception and appreciation. Whereas architectural practice and theory, the visual arts and more recently the cognitive sciences have explored this relationship of humans with their crafted environments, many fictional literary works have long experimented with alterations of body-environment scaling. This so-called Gulliver theme - popular in the science-fiction genre but also in children's literature and philosophical satire - reveals, as a recurrent thought-experiment, our preoccupation with proportions and our fascination for the infinitely small and large. Here I provide an overview of the altered scaling theme in literature, including classics such as Voltaire's Micromégas, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Caroll's Alice, and Matheson's The Shrinking man, closely examining issues relevant to architectonic embodiment such as: bodily, perceptual, cognitive, affective, and social changes related to alterations in body size relative to people, objects and architectural environments. I next provide a taxonomy of the Gulliver theme and highlight its main psychological features, and then proceed to review relevant work from cognitive science. Although fictional alterations of body-environment scaling far outreach current possibilities in experimental research, I argue that the peripetiae and morals outlined in the literary realm, as products of the human imagination, provide a unique window into the folk-psychology of body and space.

  9. In A Queer Place in Time: Fictions of Belonging in Italy 1890-2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atwood, Christopher Burke

    In a Queer Place in Time: Fictions of Belonging in Italy 1890-2010 maps the "elsewheres"---spatial, temporal and intertextual--- that authorize same-sex desire in modern Italy. Tracing a genealogy that spans from nineteenth century travel writing about Italy to contemporary Italian novels, I argue that texts exported from the Northern Europe and the U.S. function as vital site of affiliation and vexing points of discrepancy for Italy's queers. Pier Vittorio Tondelli's Camere separate (1989), for instance, cites the British novelist Christopher Isherwood as proof that -- somewhere else -- silence did not yoke homosexuality. Rather than defining sexuality as a constant set of desires, I demonstrate it to be a retroactive fiction. It is the fleeting affinity that the reading of inherited texts can evoke. In examining the reception of transnational gay narratives in the national context of Italy, this dissertation argues that the concept of "Western" homosexuality is internally riven. Ultimately, In a Queer Place in Time illuminates how local histories -- including affective differences like shame, estrangement and backwardness -- continue to haunt gay culture's global fictions. !

  10. Literary Criticism Fiction: the Wacław Borowy–Manfred Kridl polemic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maciej Gorczyński

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper The Fictions of Literary Criticism refers to a polemic between Manfred Kridl and Waclaw Borowy which was conducted in several articles published in the years 1936–1957. The polemic played a significant role in the development of modern Polish literary criticism. The matter of dispute was a new method of literary criticism announced by Kridl in his renowned Introduction to the Research of Literary Work (1936. The main topics of the discussion were the problems of the literary process, the evaluation of a literary work and the uses of scientific methods in humanities. The paper’s author pays attention especially to the rhetorical and literary means of argumentation which were used in the creation of this unusual form of non-fiction.

  11. Fiction and Philosophy in Novel Without a Name and the Disappeared

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roya Jabarouti

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available While Duong Thu Hung’s Novel Without a Name (1995 describes the bloodshed in the jungles of central Vietnam towards the end of Vietnam War (1959-1975, Kim Echlin embarks her narrations in The Disappeared (2009, about a decade after the collapse of Pol Pot’s genocide (1975-1979  in Cambodia. Philosophy however, is waved into fiction in order to add layers of depth and meaning to their narrations. Role of ideology and its effect on human life are among the major themes discussed by the authors. This study employs a close study of the above texts to discover the philosophical phrases used by the authors. It also illustrates how philosophy enhances meaning in fiction and contributes to its authenticity.

  12. Margie Orford’s Hybrid Narratives: Crime Fiction Subgenres and the Theme of Misogyny in Daddy’s Girl and Like Clockwork

    OpenAIRE

    Horne, Karina Sofi

    2015-01-01

    This thesis sets out to identity the different types of subgenres that constitute Margie Orford’s crime fiction novels Like Clockwork and Daddy’s Girl, and to explore their connections to the extensive and variegated descriptions of misogyny that pervades both novels. The research consists of two parts: The first part provides a general description of the different subgenres that Orford’s works make use of: Classical detective fiction, hardboiled detective fiction, the police procedural/novel...

  13. Religions in Fiction for Junior and Senior High Students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knafle, June D.

    2001-01-01

    Examines current adolescent fiction of award-winning and widely read authors according to religious themes concerning Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Native American religions, African spirit religions, and the occult, supernatural, and New Age. Finds that the portrayal of religions and its adherents is very mixed, depending upon the religion.…

  14. Are fan fiction and mythology really the same? [symposium

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tony Keen

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This short piece addresses some of the assumptions about the connections between Greek and Roman mythology and fan fiction that underlie this special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, arguing that the connections are not always as simple as they are sometimes made out to be.

  15. "I listened with my eyes": writing speech and reading deafness in the fiction of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esmail, Jennifer

    2011-01-01

    While characters with disabilities appear frequently in Victorian fiction, deaf characters, specifically, are almost entirely absent. In fact, the only deaf characters who use sign language in Victorian fiction are Madonna Blyth in Wilkie Collins’s Hide and Seek and Sophy Marigold in Charles Dickens’s “Doctor Marigold.” Grounding its analysis in these two texts, this article contends that it is, in particular, a deaf character’s relationship to language that disqualifies him or her from conventional representation in Victorian fiction. Through reading Hide and Seek and “Doctor Marigold” in the context of Victorian deaf history, Collins and Dickens’s realist aims, and Victorian generic conventions rooted in transcribing orality, this essay argues that the absence of deaf characters reveals the investment of mid-Victorian fiction in a particular and normativized relationship between bodies, spoken language, and textuality.

  16. The psychologist, the psychoanalyst and the 'extraordinary child' in postwar British science fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tisdall, Laura

    2016-12-01

    A sudden influx of portrayals of 'extraordinary children' emerged in British science fiction after the Second World War. Such children both violated and confirmed the new set of expectations about ordinary childhood that emerged from the findings of developmental psychologists around the same time. Previous work on extraordinary children in both science fiction and horror has tended to confine the phenomenon to an 'evil child boom' within the American filmmaking industry in the 1970s. This article suggests that a much earlier trend is visible in British postwar science fiction texts, analysing a cluster of novels that emerged in the 1950s: Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954) and John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). It will be argued that the groups of extraordinary children in these novels both tap into newer child-centred assertions about the threats posed by abnormal childhood, underwritten by psychology and psychoanalysis, and represent a reaction to an older progressive tradition in which children were envisaged as the single hope for a utopian future. This article will ultimately assert that the sudden appearance of extraordinary children in science fiction reflects a profound shift in assessment criteria for healthy childhood in Britain from the 1950s onwards, an issue that had become vitally important in a fledgling social democracy. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  17. Minerals Yearbook, volume III, Area Reports—International

    Science.gov (United States)

    ,

    2018-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Minerals Yearbook discusses the performance of the worldwide minerals and materials industries and provides background information to assist in interpreting that performance. Content of the individual Minerals Yearbook volumes follows:Volume I, Metals and Minerals, contains chapters about virtually all metallic and industrial mineral commodities important to the U.S. economy. Chapters on survey methods, summary statistics for domestic nonfuel minerals, and trends in mining and quarrying in the metals and industrial mineral industries in the United States are also included.Volume II, Area Reports: Domestic, contains a chapter on the mineral industry of each of the 50 States and Puerto Rico and the Administered Islands. This volume also has chapters on survey methods and summary statistics of domestic nonfuel minerals.Volume III, Area Reports: International, is published as four separate reports. These regional reports contain the latest available minerals data on more than 180 foreign countries and discuss the importance of minerals to the economies of these nations and the United States. Each report begins with an overview of the region’s mineral industries during the year. It continues with individual country chapters that examine the mining, refining, processing, and use of minerals in each country of the region and how each country’s mineral industry relates to U.S. industry. Most chapters include production tables and industry structure tables, information about Government policies and programs that affect the country’s mineral industry, and an outlook section.The USGS continually strives to improve the value of its publications to users. Constructive comments and suggestions by readers of the Minerals Yearbook are welcomed.

  18. "Vraisemblance" and the Western Setting in Contemporary Science Fiction Film.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, Lane

    Analyzing the setting of six recent "blockbuster" films, this study outlines numerous instances of the Western's influence on several contemporary science fiction films, "Star Wars,""Battlestar Galactica,""Star Trek: The Motion Picture,""The Black Hole,""The Empire Strikes Back," and…

  19. The fact and fiction of the nuclear question

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chartier, Isabelle.

    1982-01-01

    The nuclear theme is one that gives rise to much speculation and hearsay. To study the nuclear question is to delve into a social and tangible reality which as a product of flights of fancy, calls for a special approach and appropriate methods of investigation. The author sets out to try and draw a line between fact and fiction [fr

  20. Science Fiction in Education: Case Studies from Classroom Implementations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vrasidas, Charalambos; Avraamidou, Lucy; Theodoridou, Katerina; Themistokleous, Sotiris; Panaou, Petros

    2015-01-01

    This manuscript reports on findings from the implementation of the EU project "Science Fiction in Education" (Sci-Fi-Ed). The project provides teachers with tools, training, and guidance that will assist them in enhancing their teaching, making science more attractive to students, connecting it with real-life issues such as the…

  1. The matrix reformed : science fiction, technology, and Christian philosophy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cusveller, B.; Verkerk, M.J.; Vries, de M.J.

    2011-01-01

    The Matrix Reformed provides an analysis of both science fiction and the contemporary adoration of technology from a Christian point-of-view, weaving a discussion of issues in religion, philosophy, and ethics in major sci-fi works (e.g., The Matrix, Star Wars, and Star Trek) with the insights and

  2. Reality = Relevance? Insights from Spontaneous Modulations of the Brain's Default Network when Telling Apart Reality from Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abraham, Anna; von Cramon, D. Yves

    2009-01-01

    Background Although human beings regularly experience fictional worlds through activities such as reading novels and watching movies, little is known about what mechanisms underlie our implicit knowledge of the distinction between reality and fiction. The first neuroimaging study to address this issue revealed that the mere exposure to contexts involving real entities compared to fictional characters led to engagement of regions in the anterior medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices (amPFC, PCC). As these core regions of the brain's default network are involved during self-referential processing and autobiographical memory retrieval, it was hypothesized that real entities may be conceptually coded as being more personally relevant to us than fictional characters. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we directly test the hypothesis that entity-associated personal relevance is the critical factor underlying the differential engagement of these brain regions by comparing the brain's response when processing contexts involving family or friends (high relevance), famous people (medium relevance), or fictional characters (low relevance). In line with predictions, a gradient pattern of activation was observed such that higher entity-associated personal relevance was associated with stronger activation in the amPFC and the PCC. Conclusions/Significance The results of the study have several important implications. Firstly, they provide informed grounds for characterizing the dynamics of reality-fiction distinction. Secondly, they provide further insights into the functions of the amPFC and the PCC. Thirdly, in view of the current debate related to the functional relevance and specificity of brain's default network, they reveal a novel approach by which the functions of this network can be further explored. PMID:19277108

  3. 38 CFR 17.90 - Medical care for veterans receiving vocational training under 38 U.S.C. chapter 15.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ....S.C. chapter 15. Hospital care, nursing home care and medical services may be provided to any... and medical services means class V dental care, priority III medical services, nursing home care and... 38 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Medical care for veterans...

  4. Oral Insulin – Fact or Fiction? - Possibilities of Achieving Oral ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 8; Issue 5. Oral Insulin – Fact or Fiction? - Possibilities of Achieving Oral Delivery of Insulin. K Gowthamarajan Giriraj T Kulkarni. General Article Volume 8 Issue 5 May 2003 pp 38-46 ...

  5. Ethnicity and Social Critique in Tony Hilleman’s Crime Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bubíková Šárka

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available American mystery writer Tony Hillerman (1925-2008 achieved wide readership both within the United States and abroad, and, significantly, within the US both among white Americans and Native Americans. This article discusses Hillerman’s detective fiction firstly within the tradition of the genre and then focuses on particular themes and literary means the writer employs in order to disseminate knowledge about the Southwestern nations (tribes among his readers using the framework of mystery (crime fiction. Hillerman’s two literary detectives Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sergeant Jim Chee, both of the Navajo Tribal Police, are analyzed and contrasted with female characters. Finally, the article analyzes the ways in which Hillerman makes the detectives’ intimate knowledge of the traditions, beliefs and rituals of the southwestern tribes and of the rough beauty of the landscape central to the novels’ plots, and how he presents cultural information.

  6. Children's Acquisition of Literary Genre: Science Fiction versus Fantasy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shechter, Myriam; Schecter, Sandra R.

    Using ethnographic observations of 30 children in a multicultural inner-city fifth grade class over a period of one year, a study examined the children's classroom interactions with the literary genres of science fiction and fantasy, investigating their sequential acquisition of the constitutive elements of the two genres as well as their…

  7. Comfortable Fictions and the Struggle for Turf: An Essay Review of "The Invented Indian: Cultural Fictions and Government Policies," Edited by James A. Clifton.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deloria, Vine, Jr.

    1992-01-01

    Clifton's collection of essays attacks recent pro-Indian "fictions" (including Native spirituality and the relationship between the Iroquois League and the U.S. Constitution) as politically motivated romanticism and nonsense. The authors are struggling to maintain white intellectual authority over definitions of Indian identity and interpretations…

  8. Nuclear and science-fiction: voyage through the social imaginary (1914-1980)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Timbal-Duclaux, L.

    1981-01-01

    Is science fiction a pure literature of escape or fantasy. Or, under the mask of fiction, on the contrary, isn't it something which reveals the ideology and fantasies of an epoch. This is the contention put forward by the author who endeavours to relate this literature to the reactions of public opinion to the major scientific, economic and social problems of the times. Irony of fate: like the Princesses of olden times, nuclear energy is never so attractive as when it hasn't yet appeared. The postwar nuclear dream was succeeded by today's solar myth: although man needs to feel fear, he also needs to dream. But, in sort, these dreams and nightmares teach us less about nuclear energy than about the way in which man sees himself [fr

  9. The Camouflage of the Sacred in the Short Fiction of Hemingway

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaid Ali

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This essay examines the short fiction of Ernest Hemingway in the light of Mircea Eliade’s notion of the camouflage of the sacred and the larval survival of original spiritual meaning. A subterranean love pulsates beneath the terse dialogue of Hemingway’s characters whose inner life we glimpse only obliquely. In the short play (“Today Is Friday” and four short stories (“The Killers,” “A Clean Well-Lighted Place,” “Old Man at the Bridge,” and “The Light of the World,” discussed here, light imagery, biblical allusions, and the figure of Christ, reveal a hidden imaginary universe. This sacral dimension has been largely overlooked by critics who dwell on the ostensible spiritual absence that characterizes Hemingway’s fiction.

  10. III-N Wide Bandgap Deep-Ultraviolet Lasers and Photodetectors

    KAUST Repository

    Detchprohm, T.

    2016-11-05

    The III-N wide-bandgap alloys in the AlInGaN system have many important and unique electrical and optical properties which have been exploited to develop deep-ultraviolet (DUV) optical devices operating at wavelengths < 300 nm, including light-emitting diodes, optically pumped lasers, and photodetectors. In this chapter, we review some aspects of the development and current state of the art of these DUV materials and devices. We describe the growth of III-N materials in the UV region by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition as well as the properties of epitaxial layers and heterostructure devices. In addition, we discuss the simulation and design of DUV laser diodes, the processing of III-N optical devices, and the description of the current state of the art of DUV lasers and photodetectors.

  11. Micromégas: Altered Body–Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dieguez, Sebastian

    2016-01-01

    Architectonic embodiment postulates a bidirectional link between bodily awareness and the architectural environment. The standard size and features of the human body, for instance, are thought to influence the structure of interiors and buildings, as well as their perception and appreciation. Whereas architectural practice and theory, the visual arts and more recently the cognitive sciences have explored this relationship of humans with their crafted environments, many fictional literary works have long experimented with alterations of body–environment scaling. This so-called Gulliver theme – popular in the science-fiction genre but also in children’s literature and philosophical satire – reveals, as a recurrent thought-experiment, our preoccupation with proportions and our fascination for the infinitely small and large. Here I provide an overview of the altered scaling theme in literature, including classics such as Voltaire’s Micromégas, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Caroll’s Alice, and Matheson’s The Shrinking man, closely examining issues relevant to architectonic embodiment such as: bodily, perceptual, cognitive, affective, and social changes related to alterations in body size relative to people, objects and architectural environments. I next provide a taxonomy of the Gulliver theme and highlight its main psychological features, and then proceed to review relevant work from cognitive science. Although fictional alterations of body-environment scaling far outreach current possibilities in experimental research, I argue that the peripetiae and morals outlined in the literary realm, as products of the human imagination, provide a unique window into the folk-psychology of body and space. PMID:27148156

  12. THE ROLES OF TRANSLATED YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUNG ADULT DEVELOPMENT IN PITIMOSS FUN LIBRARY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fuji Muliasari

    2017-02-01

    perkembangan dan usia kronologis pemustaka. Kata Kunci: fiksi remaja terjemahan, pengembangan koleksi fiksi, perkembangan remaja, Pitimoss Fun Library Abstract. Library has to provide fiction as one of its collection. There are two kind of fictions; national fiction and translated fiction. Its selection is not only based on amusement function, but also its role to help readers developing themselves. This research aims to describe the roles of translated young adult fiction in achievement of three aspects of young adult development. Those aspects are cognitive, social, and affective. Theoritically, this research gives advantages for library and information science, especially for developing selection theory and bibliotheraphy. Practically, the advantages those are given by this research are tended to caretakers of Pitimoss Fun Library and other researchers. This reasearch is done by using qualitative approach.Meanwhile, descriptive method is chosen with case study interpretative as its model. The answers of research questions are based on explanation of six informants and key informant. Six informants are chosen by purposive sampling technique. Meanwhile, key informant is a bibliotheraphist. Observation, interview, document study, and  online searching are techniques those are used for collecting data. Research data are analyzed by narrative analysis technique. The result shows the two-way relation between translated young adult fiction and developmental achievement. Translated young adult fictions those are provided by Pitimoss Library have roles in achievement of three aspects of young adult development. Even so, developmental achievement also determines the effectiveness of translated fiction roles for young adults. It also helps them to react to controversial issues. The roles of translated young adult fiction can be maximized if Pitimoss Fun Library doing some efforts, such us involving developmental needs as one of selection criteria, also giving guidance and books

  13. Expanding Knowledge Gaps: The Function of Fictions in Teaching Materials after the 2011 Swedish High School Reform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graeske, Caroline

    2016-01-01

    The aim in the study is to analyze how work with fiction is organized in six textbooks for senior high school in Sweden after the school reform 2011. Research into Swedish teaching materials has been neglected in recent years and there is a knowledge gap about how the work with fictions is affected by the reform in 2011. In the study quantitative…

  14. A Question of Ethics: Themes in the Science Fiction Genre.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNurlin, Kathleen Woitel

    1995-01-01

    Continues an article that began in the summer 1995 "Interdisciplinary Humanities." Examines ethical concerns about nuclear power, societal control, and prejudice articulated in science fiction literature. Authors studied include Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and Damon Knight. The earlier article covered literature concerned with ecology…

  15. Modelos de gestión de conflictos en serie de ficción televisiva (Conflict management models in television fiction series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yolanda Navarro-Abal

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Television fiction series sometimes generate an unreal vision of life, especially among young people, becoming a mirror in which they can see themselves reflected. The series become models of values, attitudes, skills and behaviours that tend to be imitated by some viewers. The aim of this study was to analyze the conflict management behavioural styles presented by the main characters of television fiction series. Thus, we evaluated the association between these styles and the age and sex of the main characters, as well as the nationality and genre of the fiction series. 16 fiction series were assessed by selecting two characters of both sexes from each series. We adapted the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II for observing and recording the data. The results show that there is no direct association between the conflict management behavioural styles presented in the drama series and the sex of the main characters. However, associations were found between these styles and the age of the characters and the genre of the fiction series.

  16. Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endersby, Jim

    2016-06-01

    Between 1916 and 1927, botanists in several countries independently resolved three problems that had mystified earlier naturalists - including Charles Darwin: how did the many species of orchid that did not produce nectar persuade insects to pollinate them? Why did some orchid flowers seem to mimic insects? And why should a native British orchid suffer 'attacks' from a bee? Half a century after Darwin's death, these three mysteries were shown to be aspects of a phenomenon now known as pseudocopulation, whereby male insects are deceived into attempting to mate with the orchid's flowers, which mimic female insects; the males then carry the flower's pollen with them when they move on to try the next deceptive orchid. Early twentieth-century botanists were able to see what their predecessors had not because orchids (along with other plants) had undergone an imaginative re-creation: Darwin's science was appropriated by popular interpreters of science, including the novelist Grant Allen; then H.G. Wells imagined orchids as killers (inspiring a number of imitators), to produce a genre of orchid stories that reflected significant cultural shifts, not least in the presentation of female sexuality. It was only after these changes that scientists were able to see plants as equipped with agency, actively able to pursue their own, cunning reproductive strategies - and to outwit animals in the process. This paper traces the movement of a set of ideas that were created in a context that was recognizably scientific; they then became popular non-fiction, then popular fiction, and then inspired a new science, which in turn inspired a new generation of fiction writers. Long after clear barriers between elite and popular science had supposedly been established in the early twentieth century, they remained porous because a variety of imaginative writers kept destabilizing them. The fluidity of the boundaries between makers, interpreters and publics of scientific knowledge was a highly

  17. Patterns of Puffery: An Analysis of Non-Fiction Blurbs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, Blaise; La Barre, Kathryn

    2005-01-01

    The blurb is a paratextual element which has not previously been subjected to systematic analysis. We describe the nature and purpose of this publishing epiphenomenon, highlight some of the related marketing issues and ethical concerns and provide a statistical analysis of almost 2000 blurbs identified in a sample of 450 non-fiction books.…

  18. Project on Social Architecture in Education. Final Report. Part III: Case Studies. Chapter 9: Arts Co-op: An Experimental High School Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Ellen Wahl

    This document contains chapter 9 of the final report of the Project on Social Architecture in Education. Chapter 9 is about a regional experimental high school program for the arts. Several features distinguished Arts Co-op from the other schools in the study. For one, it was a special purpose school, focused on the arts, and not offering a…

  19. The Effect of Reading a Short Passage of Literary Fiction on Theory of Mind: A Replication of Kidd and Castano (2013

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iris van Kuijk

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The results reported by Kidd and Castano (2013 indicated that reading a short passage of literary fiction improves theory of mind (ToM relative to reading popular fiction. However, when we entered Kidd and Castano’s results in a 'p'-curve analysis, it turned out that the evidential value of their findings is low. It is good practice to back up a p-curve analysis of a single paper with an adequately powered direct replication of at least one of the studies in the 'p'-curve analysis. Therefore, we conducted a direct replication of the literary fiction condition and the popular fiction condition from Kidd and Castano’s Experiment 5 to scrutinize the effect of reading literary fiction on ToM. The results of this replication were largely consistent with Kidd and Castano’s original findings. Furthermore, we conducted a small-scale meta-analysis on the findings of the present study, those of Kidd and Castano and those reported in other published direct replications. The meta-analytic effect of reading literary fiction on ToM was small and non-significant but there was considerable heterogeneity between the included studies. The results of the present study and of the small-scale meta-analysis are discussed in the light of reading-times exclusion criteria as well as reliability and validity of ToM measures.

  20. Science or Fiction - Is there a Future for Nuclear

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wenisch, A.; Kromp, R.; Reinberger, D.

    2007-01-01

    This booklet served as preparation for both participants and speakers at the conference »Science or Fiction – Is there a Future for Nuclear?«. This international conference on fusion energy and new nuclear reactor models was organized by Global 2000/Friends of the Earth Austria and took place 8 November 2007 in Vienna. This booklet contains our contribution to the ongoing discussion about future energy security and what paths we should take. We focus on the possible future scenarios for nuclear power. The nuclear industry is trying to secure its own future by reintroducing old concepts like nuclear fusion and updating old fission reactors in so-called Generation IV systems. While there is enough information available on both fission and fusion energy from project financiers, research institutions and the European Commission, who gave the lion share of energy research funds into fusion research, we attempt here to provide a broader perspective and examine how much is Fiction and what these concepts could mean in some future Reality, which is upon us to decide on Now. (author)

  1. Science or Fiction - Is there a Future for Nuclear

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wenisch, A.; Kromp, R.; Reinberger, D.

    2007-07-01

    This booklet served as preparation for both participants and speakers at the conference »Science or Fiction – Is there a Future for Nuclear?«. This international conference on fusion energy and new nuclear reactor models was organized by Global 2000/Friends of the Earth Austria and took place 8 November 2007 in Vienna. This booklet contains our contribution to the ongoing discussion about future energy security and what paths we should take. We focus on the possible future scenarios for nuclear power. The nuclear industry is trying to secure its own future by reintroducing old concepts like nuclear fusion and updating old fission reactors in so-called Generation IV systems. While there is enough information available on both fission and fusion energy from project financiers, research institutions and the European Commission, who gave the lion share of energy research funds into fusion research, we attempt here to provide a broader perspective and examine how much is Fiction and what these concepts could mean in some future Reality, which is upon us to decide on Now. (author)

  2. A dialogue regarding "The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geelan, David; Prain, Vaughan; Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-12-01

    Science fiction and the `technofantasies' of the future that it provides may attract some students to study physics. The details and assumptions informing these `imaginaries' may, on the other hand, be unattractive to other students, or imply that there is not a place for them. This forum discussion complements Cathrine Hasse's paper discussing the ways in which gender and other interests interact in the `entanglement' of physics and science fiction. The conversation interrogates some of the issues in Cathrine's paper, and brings in complementary literatures and perspectives. It discusses the possibility of a `successor science' and new, more inclusive ways of imagining and constructing our possible futures.

  3. How is a categorical imperative possible? : Kant’s deduction of the categorical imperative (GMS, III,4)

    OpenAIRE

    Schönecker, Dieter

    2016-01-01

    Kant’s deduction of the categorical imperative is the answer to the following question: “How is a categorical imperative possible?” The answer is given in subsection 4 (Sec. 4) of chapter three of the Groundwork. It is impossible to understand this answer, and hence impossible to understand Kant’s deduction of the moral law, without taking into account the overall context of Groundwork III (GMS III). However, here I can only sketch the overall structure of GMS III, and there...

  4. Teaching Science Fiction Film Genre: Theory, Form, and Theme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, Lane

    Intended to provide a paradigm for teachers planning a course in science fiction film, the instructional approach outlined in this paper examines films in relation to each other and to culture. The paper provides a course outline, a discussion of lecture topics, a suggested reading list, and a film list. The instructional approach suggested by the…

  5. A contrastive-stylistic study into the tense distribution in English and Slovene fictional texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvana Orel Kos

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The article addresses contrastive and narratological issues of the unity vs. diversity of temporal spheres in fictional texts. It focuses on the presentation of mimetic discourse within the past time-sphere narrative, trying to establish the narrative or stylistic functions of the present and past time-sphere verb actions with respect to the role of the narrator or that of the character. the diegetic and mimetic functions of verb actions in certain temporal spheres, ie. tense usage in (free indirect discourse (free direct discourse, will be contrastively studied in original fictional texts and their translations, in both directions between english and Slovene. the character’s mimetic discourse may be presented through different narrative forms, spanning the report-control cline from the forms “in total control” of the character, ie. free direct discourse, to that “apparently in total control” of the narrator, ie. speech act and thought act report (cf. Leech and Short 1981: 324. in addition to the character’s verbal and mental responses, the study includes mediated instances of the character’s sensory responses, the basic formula thus being: He said that/thought that/saw that. Our contrastive analysis considers only fictional texts whose diegesis is rendered   in the narrative past tenses, as the english language system observes the sequence of tenses, while the Slovene language does not. the diegesis of a fictional text may be completely located in the present time-sphere, yet such texts do not present any major issues in terms of contrastive relevance for the studied language pair.

  6. Wordplay, mindplay: Fan fiction and postclassical narratology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veerle Van Steenhuyse

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Recent narrative theories on story worlds, or the worlds evoked by narratives, call attention to the process of fan reading and the role which the canon plays in that process. This paper posits that such theories can help us understand literary techniques that make a difference on the level of the reading experience that is implied by fan fiction texts. This is illustrated with a close reading of Naguabo's "The Mother of All Marriage Proposals," a Jane Austen fic.

  7. Star Trek Physics: Where Does the Science End and the Fiction Begin?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radhe, Sue Ellen; Cole, Lynn

    2002-01-01

    Uses the science fiction television show "Star Trek" as an instructional medium to teach physics concepts. Includes suggestions on how to motivate students through "Star Trek" episodes and the Internet. (YDS)

  8. Subject description of non-fiction literature for adults: expert-theoretical basis for the realisation of the »Hidden Treasure« research project

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrej Pogorelec

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Library users searching through non-fiction library material by subject in online OPACs, expect to be able to search fiction by subject as well. The research project Skriti zaklad (Hidden Treasure was launched in 2002 and was aimed at improving the current subject description of non-juvenile literary works in Slovenian libraries. An overview of the current practice of fiction subject description in Slovenian libraries revealed that Universal Decimal Classification class numbers are usually assigned, while subject headings or abstracts are scarce. The article presents a model designed for subject description of fiction, with special emphasis on subject headings, for the Bežigrad High School Library and the Bežigrad Public Library (both in Ljubljana.

  9. Reading Relationships: Parents, Adolescents, and Popular Fiction by Stephen King.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chandler, Kelly

    1999-01-01

    Describes a collective case study of 12 high school juniors who identified themselves as avid readers of popular fiction. Finds strong reading relationships between parents and high school students. Describes the different roles that parents played in their adolescent children's reading lives. Looks at implications for secondary English classrooms…

  10. Chapter 13. Radionuclides in medicine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toelgyessy, J.; Harangozo, M.

    2000-01-01

    This is a chapter of textbook of radioecology for university students. In this chapter authors deal with problems connected with using of radionuclides in medicine. Methods of treatment with using of radionuclides are reviewed. Chapter consists of next parts: (1) Remotion of thyroid gland; (2) Treatment of cerebrally tumour in nuclear reactor; (3) Artificial heart

  11. Métalepse et image de soi de l’auteur dans le récit de fiction Metalepsis and the author’s self-image in fictional narrative

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michèle Bokobza Kahan

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available La perméabilité des frontières entre l’intérieur et l’extérieur du texte de fiction nécessite la conciliation des concepts narratologiques d’« auteur implicite » et de « narrateur non fiable » qui privilégient la fonction interne du texte avec la notion d’« ethos discursif » qui ouvre le texte en amont, versant auteur. Le concept clé de l’article - la « métalepse » - comprise ici comme l’intrusion d’un niveau narratif dans un autre, souligne dans le récit la spécificité de la relation causale qui unit l’auteur à son œuvre. La combinaison de ces outils méthodologiques vise à proposer une piste de travail permettant de dégager l’ethos  auctorial toujours fuyant dans un discours fictionnel.The permeability of the borders between the inside and the outside of fiction invites us to combine narratological concepts, as “implied author” and “unreliable narrator” concentrated on the internal mechanisms of the text, and the concept of “discursive ethos” opening the text toward its external source, the author. The key concept of this article - the “metalepsis” - defined here as the intrusion of one narrative level into another - emphasizes the special relationship between the author and his work in the narrative. The combination of these methodological tools offers an analytical approach facilitating the apprehension of the unstable auctorial ethos in the fictional text.

  12. The Pleasures of Reading Mystery Fiction and Mystery Readers’ Book Selection Behavior

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chiu-Yen Wu

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The mystery fiction is a popular pleasure reading genre in Taiwan. This article describes a grounded theory study that explored the reading pleasures and selection behavior of mystery fans. Based on the in-depth interview with 21 engaged mystery readers, this study identified seven types of reading pleasures, i.e., a sense of achievement from puzzle solving, feelings of amazement from the revelation of truths, satisfaction of curiosity for the unknown, a sense of compensation from seeing justice, senses of empathy and sympathy from identifying with the story characters, and the reflection of the social issues and values raised in the stories. The charms of mystery fiction may be systematically described by following four of Hudson’s (1910 conceptualization of fiction elements: i.e. the plot, characters, time and place, and the author’s view of life prevailed in the stories. In regards to readers’ selection behavior, this study identified four selection approaches commonly used by the experienced readers to discover works that possibly meet their expectations, i.e., the subgenre-oriented, author-oriented, series-oriented, and story-oriented approaches. In addition, six factors may influence readers’ selection of works, i.e., availability of expert comments, trust and confidence in the publishers, book award information, adaptation into movies or television, quality of translation, and first impression of the physical books.

  13. Futuristic stories older than might appear: origin of ideas of science fiction screenplays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Alberto Machado

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The paper discusses the origin of the ideas of most movie scripts modern science fiction, and literaty concepts such as soft and hard, also present in the film. Pointed out the origin of these scripts mostly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, they considered fertile periods in foreign science fiction literature. Also discusses about the casual predictions of the authors of this genre that end up bringing their ideas to contemporary unreasonably, but exciting, leading the media to call them visionary means. Some authors like Carrière, Xavier, Bez, Koff and Comparato assist in corroborating these ideas. Thus, the reader is led to reflect on the historical origin of these ideas.

  14. Illuminating Common Ground: Script Writing, Fiction and the 7Ws.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rike, Elizabeth K.

    1996-01-01

    Describes the ongoing work of a teacher whose Summer Institute for Drama/Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee provides training for both theater and classroom teachers. Focuses on her teaching method--improvisational drama--which simultaneously addresses elements common to fiction and script writing, and now contained in the language…

  15. Imagining Harvard: Changing Visions of Harvard in Fiction, 1890-1940

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Christian K.; Clark, Daniel A.

    2012-01-01

    Harvard is easily the most recognizable American institution of higher education, freighted with rich associations to the nation's leaders. This article provides an opportunity to examine the history of higher education through a lens often overlooked--fiction. By doing so, the authors provide a richer understanding of a particular institution and…

  16. Fiction and truth in the parallel lives of Plutarch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Analía V. Sapere

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we will investigate the occurrences of πλάσμα in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. We will analyse the meanings and nuances of the word in different passages of the work (understood as ‘fiction, counterfeit, figment’, etc. in order to connect our conclusions with plutarchean theorizations about the problem of truth in historical narrative.

  17. Communicating stereotype-relevant information: is factual information subject to the same communication biases as fictional information?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodman, Ruth L; Webb, Thomas L; Stewart, Andrew J

    2009-07-01

    Factual information is more frequently read and discussed than fictional information. However, research on the role of communication in shaping stereotypes has focused almost exclusively on fictional narratives. In Experiments 1 and 2 a newspaper article containing information about heroin users was communicated along chains of 4 people. No stereotype-consistency bias was observed. Instead, a greater proportion of stereotype-inconsistent information was communicated than was stereotype-consistent or -neutral information. Three further experiments investigated explanations for the difference between the communication of fictional and factual information. Experiment 3 ruled out the possibility that participants' beliefs about the validity of the information could influence the way that it is communicated. Experiments 4 and 5 divided information into concrete (a specific event or fact) or abstract (opinion). A stereotype-consistency bias emerged only for abstract information. In summary, linguistic abstraction moderates whether stereotype-consistency biases emerge in the communication of stereotype-relevant factual information.

  18. Radical Homemaking in Contemporary American Environmental Fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristin J. Jacobson

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Ursula K. Heise in ‘Ecocriticism and the Transnational Turn in American Studies’ critiques ‘the portrayal of multicultural and sometimes transnational nuclear families as the narrative solution to environmental and political problems’ (Heise, 2008: 383. This essay places Heise’s critique of the ‘ecological family romance’ in conversation with three other ecological domestic fictions: T. C. Boyle’s 'A Friend of the Earth' (2000, Jonathan Franzen’s 'Freedom' (2010, and Barbara Kingsolver’s 'Flight Behavior' (2012. Heise’s critique and Shannon Hayes’ 'Radical Homemakers' (2010 frame my close readings of the novels’ interconnected themes of radical homemaking, transnationalism, and environmentalism. My reading of the novels highlights their shared use of marginalized, racially-other characters to develop their entwined romantic and environmental plots (Lalitha in 'Freedom', several minor characters in 'A Friend of the Earth', and Ovid in 'Flight Behavior' and their use of sentimental deaths, especially of key female characters (Lalitha in Freedom, Sierra in A Friend of the Earth, and Dellarobia’s uncertain fate in Flight Behavior. By adopting the sentimental, domestic romance plot for ecological aims, the three novels highlight how environmental aims get stymied when cultural and ecological diversity are relegated to the margins. They also suggest that more is gained than lost through their use of ecological allegory. While the fictions do not offer solutions, they do push their readers to confront the Anthropocene’s ecological realities and their radical domestic-environmental politics.

  19. Categorizing moving objects into film genres: the effect of animacy attribution, emotional response, and the deviation from non-fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Visch, Valentijn T; Tan, Ed S

    2009-02-01

    The reported study follows the footsteps of Heider, and Simmel (1944) [Heider, F., & Simmel, M. (1944). An experimental study of apparent behavior. American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-249] and Michotte (1946/1963) [Michotte, A. (1963). The perception of causality (T.R. Miles & E. Miles, Trans.). London: Methuen (Original work published 1946)] who demonstrated the role of object movement in attributions of life-likeness to figures. It goes one step further in studying the categorization of film scenes as to genre as a function of object movements. In an animated film scene portraying a chase, movements of the chasing object were systematically varied as to parameters: velocity, efficiency, fluency, detail, and deformation. The object movements were categorized by viewers into genres: non-fiction, comedy, drama, and action. Besides this categorization, viewers rated their animacy attribution and emotional response. Results showed that non-expert viewers were consistent in categorizing the genres according to object movement parameters. The size of its deviation from the unmanipulated movement scene determined the assignment of any target scene to one of the fiction genres: small and moderate deviations resulted in categorization as drama and action, and large deviations as comedy. The results suggest that genre classification is achieved by, at least, three distinct cognitive processes: (a) animacy attribution, which influences the fiction versus non-fiction classification; (b) emotional responses, which influences the classification of a specific fiction genre; and (c) the amount of deviation from reality, at least with regard to movements.

  20. Cruel Seas: World War 2 Merchant Marine-Related Nautical Fiction from the 1930s to Present

    OpenAIRE

    Krummes, Daniel C

    2015-01-01

    Cruel Seas is an annotated bibliography of fiction in English that involves civilian steamships of the merchant marine in works set during World War Two (or slightly before).  While the subtitle states "1930s to Present," the last entry was added in 2008, and the work will not be updated.  The entries include novels, novellas, and short stories, but exclude poetry, theater plays, and fiction written for juveniles (unless the work can appeal to adults as well). Many of the works invol...

  1. Disparaître dans la fiction. La traversée du miroir du Docteur Pasavento

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charline Pluvinet

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Cet article s’attache à explorer dans Docteur Pasavento les modalités et les enjeux d’une réinvention fictionnelle de soi qui se déploie selon un dispositif complexe : le personnage éponyme, qui orchestre sa propre disparition pour se donner de nouvelles identités fictives, est lui-même une projection de l’écrivain. Se réalise dans le roman une alliance entre l’aspiration à disparaître et le désir de rendre indistinctes fiction et réalité, que nous proposons d’éclairer par la métaphore carrollienne de la traversée du miroir où ces mouvements se conjuguent. Il s’agira de rendre perceptible la dynamique fictionnelle qui anime l’écriture romanesque d’Enrique Vila-Matas. This article endeavours to explore the stakes and modalities of the fictional re-invention of the self that takes place in Docteur Pasavento.In the novel, this reinvention arranges itself in accordance to a complex scheme : by orchestrating his own disappearance in order to confer upon himself new fictitious identities, the eponymous character of the novel becomes a projection of the author himself. In the novel, the aspiration to disappear is thus unified with a desire to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. I intend to shed light on this union by invoking the Carrollian metaphor of passing “through the looking-glass”. The intention of this article is to render evident the fictional dynamism that underpins the novelistic writings of Enrique Vila-Matas.

  2. Spectroscopic characterization of III-V semiconductor nanomaterials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crankshaw, Shanna Marie

    III-V semiconductor materials form a broad basis for optoelectronic applications, including the broad basis of the telecom industry as well as smaller markets for high-mobility transistors. In a somewhat analogous manner as the traditional silicon logic industry has so heavily depended upon process manufacturing development, optoelectronics often relies instead on materials innovations. This thesis focuses particularly on III-V semiconductor nanomaterials, detailed characterization of which is invaluable for translating the exhibited behavior into useful applications. Specifically, the original research described in these thesis chapters is an investigation of semiconductors at a fundamental materials level, because the nanostructures in which they appear crystallize in quite atypical forms for the given semiconductors. Rather than restricting the experimental approaches to any one particular technique, many different types of optical spectroscopies are developed and applied where relevant to elucidate the connection between the crystalline structure and exhibited properties. In the first chapters, for example, a wurtzite crystalline form of the prototypical zincblende III-V binary semiconductor, GaAs, is explored through polarization-dependent Raman spectroscopy and temperature-dependent photoluminescence, as well as second-harmonic generation (SHG). The altered symmetry properties of the wurtzite crystalline structure are particularly evident in the Raman and SHG polarization dependences, all within a bulk material realm. A rather different but deeply elegant aspect of crystalline symmetry in GaAs is explored in a separate study on zincblende GaAs samples quantum-confined in one direction, i.e. quantum well structures, whose quantization direction corresponds to the (110) direction. The (110) orientation modifies the low-temperature electron spin relaxation mechanisms available compared to the usual (001) samples, leading to altered spin coherence times explored

  3. History in Fiction:The Case of “Rip Van Winkle”%History in Fiction: The Case of “Rip Van Winkle”

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Liu Jun

    2009-01-01

    Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" has been so ritualistically cited and discussed by historians,political scientists and literary scholars that it is no longer just a simple tale but a prominent text in American culture.The tale,as one critic proclaims,"presides over the birth of the American imagination" (Fiedler xx).This essay revisits "Rip Van Winkle" for the sole purpose of considering how this literary text can also stimulate critical thinking on the connection between fiction (or poetry) and history.

  4. Towards a pragmatics of non-fictional narrative truth: Gricean and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper focuses on a particular kind of truth that falls within this category, namely non-fictional narrative truth. “Narrative truth” is defined as a judgement of verisimilitude accorded to the meaning of a narrative as a whole. This narrative meaning is neither rationally nor empirically verifiable, but rather arrived at by a ...

  5. Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Chapter 15

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leach, M. O. [The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital, London (United Kingdom)

    2014-09-15

    In Chapter 14, the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance were presented, along with an introduction to image forming processes. In this chapter, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) will be reviewed, beginning with the hardware needed and its impact on image quality. The acquisition processes and image reconstruction will be discussed, as well as the artefacts that are possible, with discussion of the important area of safety and bioeffects completing the chapter.

  6. Shamans, shepherds, scientists, and others in Jamaican fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joyce Johnson

    1993-07-01

    Full Text Available Study of the evolution of the character of the Obeah practioner in a selection of novels set in Jamaica and written in the late 19th and 20th c. Author relates the changing image of the Obeah practioner to changes in social outlook and demonstrates one way in which literature responds to changing social relationships. Portraits of the Obeah practioner became increasingly complex as fiction was placed in an historical revisionist framework.

  7. Group C. Initiator paper. Periodontal regeneration--fact or fiction?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bartold, P M

    2015-01-01

    Numerous techniques have been tried and tested to regenerate tissues lost to periodontal disease. While there has been some success to date, more work is required to move this to a reliable and clinically predictable procedure. Much of the future success for such treatments will rely largely on our understanding of the biology of both developmental and regenerative processes. Nonetheless, despite the noble goal of periodontal regeneration, the relevance of re-creation of a connective tissue attachment has been questioned. Since formation of a long junctional epithelial attachment to the tooth following a variety of periodontal treatment procedures has been shown to be no more susceptible to further breakdown than a non-diseased site, the question arises as to what purpose do we seek the ultimate outcome of periodontal regeneration? The answer lies in the "fact and fiction" of periodontal regeneration. There is no doubt that the regenerative procedures that have been developed can be shown to be biologically successful at the histological level. Furthermore, the results of periodontal regeneration (particularly guided tissue regeneration) have been stable over the long term (at least up to 10 years). However, the techniques currently under use which show the greatest promise (guided tissue regeneration and growth factors) are still clinically unpredictable because of their highly technique-sensitive nature. In addition, whether the slight clinical improvements offered by these procedures over routine open flap debridement procedures are of cost or patient benefit with regards to improved periodontal health and retention of teeth remains to be established. The next phase in regenerative technologies will undoubtedly involve a deeper understanding of the molecular signaling (both intra- and extra-cellular) and cellular differentiation processes involved in the regenerative processes. So in answer to the question of whether periodontal regeneration is fact or fiction

  8. Based on Brevity: Fiction in 140 Characters or Less

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ritika Singh

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines how short-short stories published on social media platforms such asFacebook and Twitter experiment with brevity. It examines the use of devices such as planned spaces between words, colors, and enjambments, a genre called twitter fiction, to deliver the literary after-taste of ‘byte-sized’ fiction. What are the ramifications, requirements, and results of this form of brevity? Since the works are written and published on/for the digital media, what other aids supplement the reading process, if any? What forms of innovation does this conciseness allow? Two platforms of reading and writing short-short stories (of 140 characters or less will be used to examine these questions: Terribly Tiny Tales on Facebook and Very Short Story (@veryshortstoryon Twitter. Keywords: digital humanities, twitter fiction, brevity, short story, technology, social mediaThe six-word story by Ernest Hemingway, written in the 1920s, can be seen as an exemplary precursor to the recent burgeoning of short-short stories on Twitter and Facebook. To clearly define the term in the context of length is a complicated process as not only do short-short stories have different names, there is no fixity in terms of how short they must be or which style or form they deal with – ranging from myths and fables to serialized novels. However, works that are strictly 140 characters or less come under the subset of short-short stories and are popularly known as ‘140 stories,’ ‘short-shorts,’ and ‘very short stories.’ These are mostly published on social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and personal blogs to allow immediacy in writing, self-publishing, and reaching out to an audience. Restricting the work to this minimum character limit allows the writer to publish the work across different social platforms.Therefore, the underlining requirement of this form of literature is that it must be brief. This becomes the first and the most important

  9. Environmental Radioactivity. Chapter 4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muhamat Omar; Ismail Sulaiman; Zalina Laili

    2015-01-01

    This chapter explains several things which consist radioactivity measurements, regular and high background radioactivity, radioactive contaminated soil and radioactivity in fertilizers, rocks, building materials, food, water, environments, sediments, flora and fauna. Besides, the natural radioactive gas concentration of radon and toron in the environment also been discussed specifically in this chapter.

  10. Memories and development imaginaries of the children in recent chilean fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Angélica Franken Osorio

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The following paper explores the recent Chilean narrative which recalls childhood during the dictatorship, the so-called “literatura de los hijos” (literature of sons and daughters, establishing an aesthetic and discoursive link between shared memory and the development imaginaries of those who were children during the dictatorial past and that are writers in the post-dictatorial present. The affective continuity of a conflict, between a present state of memory and a past of childhood learning, still incomplete or with potential for understanding, explains the perspective chosen of sons and daughters of the narrators in some of the fictional works by Nona Fernández (1971, Álvaro Bisama (1975, and Alejandro Zambra (1975. In the three imaginary constructions explored in the following pages, the aim of these authors is described, in terms of their intention to articulate, within fiction, childhood imaginaries that establish and explain their current social, intellectual, and affective positions.

  11. Chemistry in Victorian Detective Fiction: "A Race with the Sun"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Last, Arthur M.

    2012-01-01

    The late-Victorian era provided aficionados of detective fiction with an abundance of short stories belonging to this literary genre. Many of these works contained some aspect of chemistry, either in the execution of a crime or in the identification of the perpetrator. In the example discussed in this article, the gas-phase reaction of hydrogen…

  12. Transduction as an alternative to intertextuality in the realm of fictional worlds

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Fořt, Bohumil

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 73, č. 4 (2012), s. 366-373 ISSN 0037-7031 Institutional support: RVO:68378068 Keywords : intertextuality * fictional worlds * Doležel, Lubomír Subject RIV: AJ - Letters, Mass-media, Audiovision Impact factor: 0.233, year: 2012

  13. Games of mirrors and ambiguous fictions. The unheimliche in Italian Realismo magico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pierluca Nardoni

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper focuses on some problems of Italian Realismo magico analyzed by means of Sigmund Freud’s Das Unheimliche, particularly through the topics of mirrors, déjà-vu and ambiguity between fiction and reality.

  14. Voyage au cœur d’un futur inconnu : analyse du genre dans le cinéma de science-fiction chinois du nouveau millénaire

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Wei

    2017-01-01

    Cet article étudie le cinéma de science-fiction comme nouveau genre du cinéma chinois. Tout en empruntant largement à son équivalent hollywoodien – costumes, décor, intrigue, caractérisation, effets visuels, et ainsi de suite – le cinéma de science-fiction chinois met rarement en scène les conceptions ou explorations scientifiques qui ont marqué un grand nombre de films de science-fiction ambitieux en Occident. En partie à cause du monopole hollywoodien du genre, les films de science-fiction ...

  15. Från flygkamrater till “rymdrevolutionärer.” Om Sven Wernströms tidigaste science fiction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jerry Määttä

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available “From Flight Comrades to Space Revolutionaries: On the Earliest Science Fiction of Sven Wernström”. The Swedish author Sven Wernström (b. 1925, mostly known for his political children's and young adult fiction, is also one of the most prolific and widely read Swedish writers of science fiction (sf. His first attempts in the genre consisted of stray sf elements in some of his aviation novels on “Flygkamraterna” (“The Flight Comrades”, 1947–1957, and the fullblown sf novel Flygkamraterna korsar rymden (“The Flight Comrades Cross Space”, 1949, which depicts a trip to Mars and an encounter with an alien civilisation literally divided into different strata in their underground society. This study examines the transition from Wernström's first aviation novels to his first sf novel, and studies the extent to which Wernström's early science fiction makes use of the specific conventions of the genre. After a very brief survey of the history of sf in Sweden up until the 1950s, this study deals with the two novels Flygkamraterna (“The Flight Comrades”, 1947 and Flygkamraterna korsar rymden when it comes to their view on science and technology, their uses of technological speculation and futurological extrapolation, estrangement, and evocation of the sublime. It is commonly believed that Wernström's writing didn't really become political until the 1960s. One of the main conclusions of this study, however, is that already in his earliest science fiction from the late 1940s, Wernström makes ample use of the genre's potential to conduct indirect social commentary.

  16. The Impact of Science Fiction Films on Student Interest in Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laprise, Shari; Winrich, Chuck

    2010-01-01

    Science fiction films were used in required and elective nonmajor science courses as a pedagogical tool to motivate student interest in science and to reinforce critical thinking about scientific concepts. Students watched various films and critiqued them for scientific accuracy in written assignments. Students' perception of this activity was…

  17. The Importance of Reading in Earnest: Non-Fiction for Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Job, Jennifer; Coleman, Mary Ruth

    2016-01-01

    Until recently, reading instruction for early grades has focused on fiction. However, the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards both emphasize the reading of nonfiction texts to gain specific skill sets for analyzing information. Research has shown that gifted students and children with culturally/linguistically…

  18. Representing the Inuit in Contemporary British and Canadian Juvenile Non-Fiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    David, Robert G.

    2001-01-01

    Examines text and pictorial representations of the Inuit in juvenile reference books and in geographical and historical juvenile non-fiction works. Finds continuing prevalence of a wide range of stereotypes. Identifies strengths and weaknesses of a variety of such representations, aided by a discussion group of Inuit people. (SR)

  19. The Use of ?Literary Fiction? to Promote Mentalizing Ability

    OpenAIRE

    Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica

    2016-01-01

    Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction i...

  20. American television fiction transforming Danish teenagers' religious imaginations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Line Nybro

    2010-01-01

    This paper argues that American television fiction with supernatural themes offers Danish teenage audiences a playground for exploring different religious imaginations in a continuous process of internal negotiations; thereby transforming their imaginations. This process of the mediatization...... narratives. This essay presents the findings of an empirical qualitative study of seventy-two Danish teenagers and considers two primary parameters for the case-based reception study: the teenagers' levels of fandom and their connection with institutionalized religion. In other words, how are religious...

  1. Promoting the APS Chapter Program by sharing its history, best practices, and how-to guide for establishing new chapters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hopper, Mari K

    2017-03-01

    Early establishment of physiological societies in Oklahoma and Ohio demonstrated the benefits of networking physiologists and paved the way for establishing the APS Chapter Program. Designed to promote the general objectives of the APS, the Chapter Program was officially launched in 1995, with Ohio being the first recognized chapter. There are 13 active chapters regularly engaged in numerous activities designed to advance physiology education and research. In the hopes that others will recognize the important offerings of state chapters and consider organizing one, the aims for this paper are to 1) share a brief history, 2) provide rationale for chapter initiation, and 3) describe the process involved in establishing a chapter. In light of current changes in American Medical Association and Liaison Committee on Medical Education guidelines, the present time may be critical in promoting chapters, as they play a vital role in sustaining recognition and support for the discipline. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

  2. Silicon photonics III systems and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Lockwood, David

    2016-01-01

    This book is volume III of a series of books on silicon photonics. It reports on the development of fully integrated systems where many different photonics component are integrated together to build complex circuits. This is the demonstration of the fully potentiality of silicon photonics. It contains a number of chapters written by engineers and scientists of the main companies, research centers and universities active in the field. It can be of use for all those persons interested to know the potentialities and the recent applications of silicon photonics both in microelectronics, telecommunication and consumer electronics market.

  3. "Does reading a single passage of literary fiction really improve theory of mind? An attempt at replication": Correction to Panero et al. (2016).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-11-01

    Reports an error in "Does Reading a Single Passage of Literary Fiction Really Improve Theory of Mind? An Attempt at Replication" by Maria Eugenia Panero, Deena Skolnick Weisberg, Jessica Black, Thalia R. Goldstein, Jennifer L. Barnes, Hiram Brownell and Ellen Winner ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Advanced Online Publication, Sep 19, 2016, np). In the article, due to an error in stimulus construction, four items (three authors, one foil) were omitted from the ART presented to all participants tested by Research Group 1. These omissions do not undermine the results in the primary analyses, which all included ART and ART Condition (as covariates). Any variation across research groups, including this difference in reading exposure measurement, is accounted for in the multilevel analyses. Therefore, the Table 2 title should appear as Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) Scores by Condition and Overall Unadjusted Means for the Current Study and Kidd and Castano (2013), as Well as the Zero-Order Pearson's Correlations Between RMET and ART Scores Overall and by Condition. The ART data columns should be deleted, and the table note should begin as follows: RMET scores were transformed to correct for skew prior to correlational analyses. The section title above the Discussion section should appear as Comparison of Our RMET Scores to Kidd and Castano Data, with the first two sentences appearing as follows: To determine whether the responses in our sample were similar to what Kidd and Castano (2013) found, we compared our mean performance on the RMET to theirs. Our grand mean (26.28) was significantly higher than theirs (25.18), t (1=, 374) = 3.71, p Fiction simulates the social world and invites us into the minds of characters. This has led various researchers to suggest that reading fiction improves our understanding of others' cognitive and emotional states. Kidd and Castano (2013) received a great deal of attention by providing support for this claim

  4. An Analysis of the Linguistic Deviation in Chapter X of Oliver Twist

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    刘聪

    2013-01-01

    Charles Dickens is one of the greatest critical realist writers of the Victorian Age. In language, he is often compared with William Shakespeare for his adeptness with the vernacular and large vocabulary. Charles Dickens achieved a recognizable place among English writers through the use of the stylistic features in his fictional language. Oliver Twist is the best representative of Charles Dickens’style, which makes it the most appropriate choice for the present stylistic study on Charles Dickens. No one who has ever read the dehumanizing workhouse scenes of Oliver Twist and the dark, criminal underworld life can forget them. This thesis attempts to investigate Oliver Twist through the approach of modern stylistics, particularly the theory of linguistic devia-tion. This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. The introduction offers a brief summary of the com-ments on Charles Dickens and Chapter X of Oliver Twist, introduces the newly rising linguistic deviation theories, and brings about the theories on which this thesis settles. The main body explores the deviation effects produced from four aspects: lexical deviation, grammatical deviation, graphological deviation, and semantic deviation. It endeavors to show Dickens ’manipulating language and the effects achieved through this manipulation. The conclusion mainly sums up the previous analysis, and reveals the theme of the novel, positive effect of linguistic deviation and significance of deviation application.

  5. Telling It Like It Is--And Like It Is Not: Fiction in the Service of Science in Jay Hosler's "The Sandwalk Adventures"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porat, Michal

    2015-01-01

    Biologist and graphic novelist Jay Hosler has long been introducing young readers to biological subjects through entertaining narratives combining strongly fictional elements with nonfictional ones. Extensive application of fiction to nonfictional subject matter is uncommon, even in graphic novels, but Hosler's "The Sandwalk Adventures"…

  6. Structural and Dialectal Characteristics of the Fictional and Personal Narratives of School-age African American Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mills, Monique T.; Watkins, Ruth V.; Washington, Julie A.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method Forty-three children, grades two through five, generated a fictional and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a story-prompt task, respectively. Narratives produced in these two contexts were characterized for macrostructure, microstructure, and dialect density. Differences across narrative type and grade level were examined. Results Statistically significant differences between the two types of narratives were found for both macrostructure and microstructure but not for dialect density. There were no grade-related differences in macrostructure, microstructure, or dialect density. Conclusion The results demonstrate the complementary role of fictional and personal narratives for describing young children's narrative skills. Use of both types of narrative tasks and descriptions of both macrostructure and macrostructure may be particularly useful for characterizing the narrative abilities of young school-age African American children, for whom culture-fair methods are scarce. Further study of additional dialect groups is warranted. PMID:23633645

  7. Fiction-reading for good or ill: eating disorders, interpretation and the case for creative bibliotherapy research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Troscianko, Emily T

    2018-04-21

    Compared with self-help bibliotherapy, little is known about the efficacy of creative bibliotherapy or the mechanisms of its possible efficacy for eating disorders or any other mental health condition. It is clear, however, that fiction is widely used informally as a therapeutic or antitherapeutic tool and that it has considerable potential in both directions, with a possibly significant distinction between the effects of reading fiction about eating disorders (which may-contrary to theoretical predictions-be broadly negative in effect) or one's preferred genre of other fiction (which may be broadly positive). Research on creative bibliotherapy, especially systematic experimental research, is lacking and requires a medical humanities approach, drawing on knowledge and methods from psychology and cognitive literary studies as well as clinical disciplines to expand our understanding of how the dynamic processes of interpretation mediate between textual structures and characteristics of mental health and illness. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  8. Eccentric Voices and the Representation of Vocal Virtuosity in Fiction: James McCourt’s Mawrdew Czgowchwz

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcin Stawiarski

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the representation of vocal virtuosity in fiction. It focuses on the concept of voice as it is represented in a work of fiction through musical eccentricity. The paper centres on James McCourt’s Mawrdew Czgowchwz (1975. James McCourt’s novel tells the story of an opera singer, Mawrdew Czgowchwz. In the novel, the voice is related to extravagance and fanaticism, so that it relates to violence and conflict. In McCourt’s novel, the stylistic features of the text show a hyperbolic use of language resorting to Rabelaisian lists, foreign vocabulary, neologisms, or nonce-words, which create tongue-twister cornucopia effects of linguistic musicality. The paper aims to demonstrate that (a the mode of eccentricity is a fundamental mode of representing music in literature; (b eccentricity rubs off on the very structure of the text, so that it leads to singular forms of operatic musicalization of fiction and musicalized writing; (c the voice ends up turning into a fetish object.

  9. Using Science Fiction Movie Scenes to Support Critical Analysis of Science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Michael; Kafka, Alan

    2007-01-01

    This paper discusses pedagogical advantages and challenges of using science-fiction movies and television shows in an introductory science class for elementary teachers. The authors describe two instructional episodes in which scenes from the movies "Red Planet" and "The Core" were used to engage students in critiquing science as presented in…

  10. Loving and Loathing: Portrayals of School Mathematics in Young Adult Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darragh, Lisa

    2018-01-01

    Images of mathematics and mathematicians are often negative and stereotyped. These portrayals may work to construct our impressions of mathematics and influence students' identity with and future participation in the subject. This study examined young adult fiction as a context in which school mathematics is portrayed and constructed. I used…

  11. Ghetto Fabulous: Reading Black Adolescent Femininity in Contemporary Urban Street Fiction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marshall, Elizabeth; Staples, Jeanine; Gibson, Simone

    2009-01-01

    In this article the authors provide a general overview of the controversies associated with urban street fiction, a brief introduction to the genre and an introduction to the complex representations of Black adolescent femininity within two contemporary titles, "Black and Ugly" (Styles, 2006) and "Bitch" (King, 2006). The authors provide a…

  12. truth, fact, fiction, lies: italo svevo's search for the subject1

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    User

    taking personal responsibility for history, we would .... explore and investigate human motivation and the workings of the ... narrative framework of the autobiographical fiction which is La .... And why does Zeno's relationship with ... importance of the war for Svevo, but only to a lesser extent the structuring role of war in his.

  13. Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    This chapter provides a brief summary of conclusions with respect to project implementation issues. Furthermore, the chapter contains recommendations on future applications of the modelling system and on water resources management in the project area

  14. Secondary School Mathematics, Chapter 13, Perpendiculars and Parallels (I), Chapter 14, Similarity. Student's Text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanford Univ., CA. School Mathematics Study Group.

    The first chapter of the seventh unit in this SMSG series discusses perpendiculars and parallels; topics covered include the relationship between parallelism and perpendicularity, rectangles, transversals, parallelograms, general triangles, and measurement of the circumference of the earth. The second chapter, on similarity, discusses scale…

  15. Use of fictional medical television in health sciences education: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoffman, Beth L; Hoffman, Robert; Wessel, Charles B; Shensa, Ariel; Woods, Michelle S; Primack, Brian A

    2018-03-01

    While medical television programs are popular among health profession trainees, it is not clear to what extent these programs affect their knowledge, perceptions, and/or behaviors. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of research evaluating associations between program exposure and outcomes. We conducted systematic literature searches in Pubmed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Selected studies were required to be scholarly research, involve exposure to fictionalized medical television programming by health professional students, and assess associations between exposure and outcomes. Studies were classified according to quality and factors related to population, exposure, and outcomes. Of 3541 studies identified, 13 met selection criteria. Six studies involved undergraduate medical students, one involved nursing students, two involved both medical and nursing students, two involved medical residents, one involved medical students, residents and attending physicians, and one involved graduate epidemiology students. Mean study quality according to the MERSQI was 8.27. The most commonly assessed television programs were ER and Grey's Anatomy (six each). Five studies assessed regular viewing habits, and found that fictional medical programs are popular among students and that students recall health topics from episodes. The eight studies that assessed the association with outcomes when using clips as educational tools reported high satisfaction and increased knowledge of the presented health topics. While relatively few published studies have explored influences of fictional medical television on health professional students, those conducted suggest that students often view these television programs independently and that integration of this programming into medical education is feasible and acceptable.

  16. The Emotional Healing Efficacy of Romance Fiction for Undergraduates with Love-related Emotional Disturbance Problems: An Exploratory Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Su-may Sheih

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies have revealed that emotional healing reading materials can sooth readers’ negative emotions. Among the various reading materials, the romance fiction is a genre of high healing efficacy for undergraduate students who encounter love-related emotional disturbance. To explore the problems they experience in love relationships and the emotional healing efficacy of romance fictions for such situations, this study first employed content analysis to identify a list of fictions that are considered of emotional healing efficacy. It continued to conduct an online survey to examine the emotional healing process in undergraduate students’ reading experiences. The results showed that undergraduate students often experienced one-sided love, ambiguous relationship, lack of intimacy, rivalry, conflict, and breakup. It also identified 18 Chinese romance titles that may assist the readers to go through the emotional healing stages of identification, catharsis, and insight. [Article content in Chinese

  17. Summary and conclusions [Chapter 11

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel G. Neary; John N. Rinne; Alvin L.. Medina

    2012-01-01

    Summaries and conclusions of each chapter are compiled here to provide a “Quick Reference” guide of major results and recommendations for the UVR. More detail can be obtained from individual chapters.

  18. Access, Astronomy and Science Fiction. A Case Study in Curriculum Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saunders, Danny; Brake, Mark; Griffiths, Martin; Thornton, Rosi

    2004-01-01

    It is argued that a positive response to lifelong learning policies involves the use of imaginative curriculum design in order to attract learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who are otherwise alienated from higher education. In this article a case study is presented based on the popularity of science fiction within popular culture, beginning…

  19. Pirates in Historical Fiction and Nonfiction: A Twin-Text Unit of Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frye, Elizabeth M.; Trathen, Woodrow; Wilson, Kelley

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the authors outline an interdisciplinary unit of study using quality children's literatures, and they describe several instructional strategies and activities for reading and responding to historical fiction and informational texts. This "piratical study" integrates social studies and the language arts. Several social…

  20. Censorship in Young Adult Fiction: What's Out There and What Should Be.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, Suzann

    2002-01-01

    Discussion of censorship of young adult books focuses on works of fiction that deal with censorship. Includes 14 annotated bibliographies; discusses stereotyped views of censors; and considers types of materials that have not been discussed in novels regarding censorship, including music and Internet filters. (LRW)