Sample records for science fiction writers
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Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton: Black Women Writers and Science Fiction.
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…
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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 Although most science fiction depictions of global environmental change are outdated and oversimplified, the genre can encourage discussion of ecological and social impacts.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.
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21st Century South African Science Fiction
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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.
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Holy sci-fi! where science fiction and religion intersect
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.
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SCIENCE FICTION IN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL LITERARY DISCOURSE
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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.
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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...
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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...
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Science fiction by scientists an anthology of short stories
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.
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L Ron Hubbard's science fiction quest against psychiatry.
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/.
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Dickens and Science Fiction: A Study of Artificial Intelligence in Great Expectations
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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.
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Forging Futures with Teens and Science Fiction: A Conversation with Greg Bear and David Brin.
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…
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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)
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Science Fiction and Science Education.
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)
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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”.
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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)
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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…
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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)
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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…
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Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin.
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
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Teaching Science Fiction by Women.
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)
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Science Fiction & Scientific Literacy
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…
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Performance in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop
Angus, Tiffani
2017-01-01
This paper looks at the dynamic of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writing workshop critique groups. Because of the nature of SFF as a fandom group, critiques and feedback in writing workshops—in this case, affinity groups with the same goal—can cross the line from participation to performance; group members tend to perform depending on their levels of cultural literacy and impostor syndrome, both of which influence fans working to become published writers. The performance can have positive...
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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…
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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...
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The Schrödinger Sessions: Science for Science Fiction
Orzel, Chad; Edwards, Emily; Rolston, Steven
In July 2015, we held a workshop for 17 science fiction writers working in a variety of media at the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park. ''The Schrödinger Sessions,'' funded by an outreach grant from APS, provided a three-day ''crash course'' on quantum physics and technology, including lectures from JQI scientists and tours of JQI labs. The goal was to better inform and inspire stories making use of quantum physics, as a means of outreach to inspire a broad audience of future scientists. We will report on the contents of the workshop, reactions from the attendees and presenters, and future plans. Funded by an Outreach Mini-Grant from the APS.
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The history of science fiction
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.
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Special science-fiction (Science Fiction Special).
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)
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Science fiction and the medical humanities.
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/.
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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....
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Anthropological reading of science fiction
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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.
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Science Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays.
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),…
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The Double Helix: Why Science Needs Science Fiction.
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)
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Science Fiction: Serious Reading, Critical Reading
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…
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The cognitive science of fiction.
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.
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Andrews, Gillian
2015-01-01
Possibilities for a different form of education have provided rich sources of inspiration for science fiction writers. Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Neal Stephenson, Octavia Butler, and Vernor Vinge, among others, have all projected their own visions of what education could be. These visions sometimes engage with technologies that are currently…
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Building Collections: Science Fiction
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…
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Science Fiction in the Political Science Classroom: A Comment
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)
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Hal in the Classroom: Science Fiction Films.
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…
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Pseudoscience and science fiction
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...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Velikanova E. A.
2011-11-01
Full Text Available The article analyses evangelical motives and images in a cycle of science fiction stories In the heart of the Great Crystal by Vladislav Krapivin. The reference to the evangelical text and connection to folklore and literary elements create the modern moral maintenance of books of the writer addressed to the teenage reader.
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Booktalking Science Fiction to Young Adults.
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)
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Exploring science through science fiction
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...
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Teaching Tomorrow: A Handbook of Science Fiction for Teachers.
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…
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Science Fiction: Better than Delphi Studies.
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)
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Prophecy, Pulp, or Punt: Science Fiction, Scenarios, and Values.
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…
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Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror 2000.
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)
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Haruspicating With Science Fiction Or Through the Looking Glass -- Dimly.
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…
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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
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The evolution and extinction of science fiction.
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.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Andrey Vladimirovich Olyanich
2015-11-01
Full Text Available The article deals with the cognitive category of "semio-linguistic creativity", that serves as a tool for implification of the concept "Information about the future" in the science fiction discourse. The correlation between the categories of future and information is studied in semio-linguistic aspect; the conceptual core, internal and external zones of the concept "Information about the future" are explored in connection with the concepts "Future", "Myths" and "Expectations" that are viewed as belonging to the science fiction discourse. The following issues are considered: coordination between axiological and imaginative spheres of the concept "Information about the future"; the mechanism of transforming information from present and past into the future by means of literary imagination, which is aimed at constructing the imaginary hyper-reality with the use of concepts that belong to contemporary reality; it is stated that such activity lays the basis for multiple forecasts. After the analysis of the novels by Vasily Golovachev, a famous Russian science fiction writer, the authors present their interpretation of the process of science-fiction discourse unfolding that involves groups of signs from the following semio-linguistic clusters (The Man as a species; Food; Space, Earth, their semantic content is directly related to the needs of the future. The proposed algorithm of analysis may be applied to studying other semio-linguistic clusters: "Habitat," "Communications", "Social Environment", "Transport", "Technology", that may explicate the concept "Information about the future".
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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.
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More than "Cool Science": Science Fiction and Fact in the Classroom
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.
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Modifiable futures: science fiction at the bench.
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.
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The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science
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.
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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...
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The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics
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.
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Mars: A Freshmen Year Seminar of Science and Science-fiction
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.
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First Contact: Science Fiction in the Library, 1920-1949.
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…
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The Science in Science Fiction: Using Popular Entertainment as a Gateway
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.
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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...
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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)
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Not Just Pulp Fiction: Science Fiction Integral to U.S. Culture and LC Collections.
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…
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Should psychiatrists write fiction?
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.
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Vers une esthétique de la science-fiction
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’...
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Imagining the future: The Power of Climate Change Fiction
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.
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Science Fiction in the Classroom.
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)
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Teaching Evolution with the Aid of Science Fiction
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.
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Taming the Alien Genre: Bringing Science Fiction into the Classroom.
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…
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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.
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The Impact of Science Fiction Film on Student Understanding of Science
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…
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Are We Really the Prey? Nanotechnology as Science and Science Fiction
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,"…
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Teaching Science Fact with Science Fiction
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…
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T. rex and Godzilla: Finding Science in Science Fiction
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
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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.
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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...
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"Frankenstein" as Science Fiction and Fact
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…
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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…
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Science Fiction Exhibits as STEM Gateways
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".
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Fiction as an Introduction to Computer Science Research
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…
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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.
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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...
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Science fiction/science fact: medical genetics in news stories.
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.
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Intermediate Genre Study. Historical Fiction.
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…
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Teaching and Learning Psychology through an Analysis of Social Science Fiction
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…
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Science Fiction and the Big Questions
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.
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Discovery Mondays: 'Separating science from fiction'
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/ ...
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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)
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Cervantes, the Journey, and What it Tells Us About Becoming a Writer
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Knight Lania
2017-12-01
Full Text Available The article traces the notion of empathy in fiction writing and how Cervantes’s treatment of characters in Don Quixote initiated a tradition which is ongoing in literature even today. The path of the writer is examined as a means for understanding how a writer must develop empathy for others, beginning with quotes from writers Helene Cixous and Henry James. Next, within the current political context of global upheaval and shift following on from the election of Donald Trump as president of the U.S.A. as well as the vote for Brexit in the U.K., the article argues for the relevance of Cervantes’s novel, not as a dated work of fiction, but as a text relevant both in form and in content for the modern political climate. Finally, the connection is made between fiction writers’ ability to feel empathy for others and create characters which readers will feel empathy for. The article follows on to proclaim the revolutionary and timely role of the fiction writer to help save us from ourselves in a tumultuous political landscape made unpredictable by social media-generated confirmation bias and insularity.
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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.
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The Material Co-Construction of Hard Science Fiction and Physics
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…
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Aesthetics of destruction in contemporary science fiction cinema
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...
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Teaching the Future: On the Use of Science Fiction in English Language Learning.
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)
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Reflections on Science Fiction in Light of Today's Global Concerns.
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,"…
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The Sylvia Plath Effect: Mental Illness in Eminent Creative Writers.
Kaufman, James C.
2001-01-01
Two studies involving a total of 2149 writers and other eminent individuals found that female poets were significantly more likely to suffer from mental illness than female fiction writers, than male writers of any type, or than eminent individuals in other fields. This finding has been dubbed the "Sylvia Plath" effect. (Contains…
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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.
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[The democratic side of science-fiction].
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.
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Synthetic Literature : Writing Science Fiction in a Co-Creative Process
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
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Science Fiction and Life after Death
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 ...
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Brandt, Christina
2009-01-01
Since the late 1950s, "two cultures" has become a catch phrase for describing a deep divide between science and literature. When Charles P. Snow, who initiated this discussion, introduced the notion of "two cultures" in a lecture at the University in Cambridge in 1959, he referred to an incompatibility of scientific and literary worldviews in Western Societies. His thesis of two contradicting cultures immediately received a huge variety of different responses from philosophers, scientists, novelists and literary scholars. However, this article argues that this widespread debate was part of a broader post-war discourse on the impact of modern science on society, in which especially the idea of "scientific progress" was at stake. Central to this debate was the question of how scientific and technological progress could affect the notion of the "human" itself. The paper analyses the emerging discourse on cloning against this background. The constitutive role of fiction and imagination in both fields, science and literature, is explored by tracing the scientific, utopian and literary cultures in which figures of human clones have taken different shapes since the 1960s. At that time, scientists developed utopian views in which the "clone" became a metaphor for future possibilities of transcending and reshaping the human nature. Science fiction writers reacted to this by portraying the human clone as an individual and by depicting human clone figures in a psychological way
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Critique and Fiction: Doing Science Right in Rural Education Research
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,…
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Beyond Flash Gordon and "Star Wars": Science Fiction and History Instruction
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)
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Reaching Nonscience Students through Science Fiction
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…
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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.
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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.
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Future Tense: Science Fiction Confronts the New Science.
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)
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The Impact of Science Fiction Films on Student Interest in Science
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…
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Using Science Fiction Movie Scenes to Support Critical Analysis of Science
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…
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Hollyweird science from quantum quirks to the multiverse
Grazier, Kevin R
2015-01-01
Lighthearted, quirky, and upbeat, this book explores the portrayal of science and technology on both the big and little screen -- and how Hollywood is actually doing a better job of getting it right than ever before. Grounded in the real-word, and often cutting-edge, science and technology that inspires fictional science, the authors survey Hollywood depictions of topics such as quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and alien worlds. Including material from interviews with over two dozen writers, producers, and directors of acclaimed science-themed productions -- as well as scientists, science fiction authors, and science advisor -- Hollyweird Science examines screen science fiction from the sometimes-conflicting vantage points of storytellers, researchers, and viewers. Together with a foreword by Eureka co-creator and executive producer Jaime Paglia, and an afterword by astronomer and science fiction author Michael Brotherton, Ph.D., this book is accessible to all readers from the layperson to the armchair ...
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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
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2101, Sciences & Fiction: a way of developing teenagers' interest for science
Vauglin, I.; Chiuzzi, P.
2017-12-01
Since nearly 30 years, many european studies have demonstrated a worrying decline of young people's interest in science and technical studies. Despite the number of efforts and programs made to reverse the trend, there are still few signs of improvement. We must step up our efforts otherwise this will impact the long-term innovation capacities of our country. We have tried to participate to these efforts with the creation of a digital and interactive comics "2101, Science & Fiction", created by Chromatiques, that explores the connections between reality of science and science fiction. It takes advantage of the new opportunities opened by digital technology and is another way of developing interest in learning sciences. Free access on: http://2101.fr The goal is to create an new opportunity to popularize science and attract the young generation in different fields of technology and science. L'e-poster présentant cette BD numérique interactive en français est disponible à cette adresse: ttp://sf2a.eu/semaine-sf2a/2017/posterpdfs/294_224_66.pdf
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Exploring Mars and Beyond: Science Fiction a Resource for Environmental Education.
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…
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Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror 2001.
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)
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Dark Matter: British Weird Fiction and the Substance of Horror, 1880-1927
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...
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Probing the limits of reality: the metaphysics in science fiction
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.
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Welsh Women's Industrial Fiction 1880-1910.
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.
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Sara Wasson and Emily Alder, Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010
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...
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How to Tell the Schlock from the Good Stuff in Science Fiction.
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)
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Yannicke Chupin
2009-06-01
Full Text Available This article focuses on the figure of displaced writers in Vladimir Nabokov’s fiction, and more specifically in Lolita and Pnin. Living the life of exiles affected by permanent instability, the two heroes, Humbert and Pnin, find personal outlets in the writing process. The eccentric language used by both characters displays a form of inventiveness which derives from linguistic disjunction. This article aims at showing in which ways displacement is what sustains the linguistic creativity of these two intellectual exiles.
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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.
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More than "Cool Science": Science Fiction and Fact in the Classroom
Singh, Vandana
2014-01-01
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…
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Stranger that fiction parallel universes beguile science
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.
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Stranger than fiction: parallel universes beguile science
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.
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"Some curious drawings". Mars through Giovanni Schiaparelli's eyes: between science and fiction.
Canadelli, Elena
2009-01-01
From the second half of the 19th century up to the first part of the 20th century the drawings of Mars by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli became the centre of an international controversy concerning the existence of canals and the hypothetical habitability of the red planet. These images also generated a full impact on the popular culture of the time. This essays follows the scientific representations of Mars by Schiaparelli (drawings of discs and maps) from their birth in the hands of the astronomy community up to their growing old in the hands of scientific popularizers such as Camille Flammarion and science fiction writers such as Herbert George Wells. With its seas and canyons Mars turned into the ideal background for scientific and exotic romanticism, offering a suitable setting for novels and tales. The core question crossed paths with the contemporary early 20th century debate raging on about the evolutionary theory. The study of Mars moved from astronomy to extraterrestrial physiology, biology, meteorology and geography: astronomical images then became imaginary portraits of Martians and artificial Martian landscapes.
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Forensic fictions: science, television production, and modern storytelling.
Kirby, David A
2013-03-01
This essay uses interviews with television creators, writers, and producers to examine how media practitioners utilise, negotiate and transform forensic science in the production of televisual stories including the creation of unique visuals, character exploration, narrative progression, plot complication, thematic development, and adding a sense of authenticity. Television as a medium has its own structures and conventions, including adherence to a show's franchise, which put constraints on how stories are told. I demonstrate how television writers find forensic science to be an ideal tool in navigating television's narrative constraints by using forensics to create conflicts, new obstacles, potential solutions, and final solutions in their stories. I show how television writers utilise forensic science to provide the scientific certainty their characters require to catch the criminal, but also how uncertainty is introduced in a story through the interpretation of the forensics by the show's characters. I also argue that televisual storytellers maintain a flexible notion of scientific realism based on the notion of possibility that puts them at odds with scientists who take a more demanding conception of scientific accuracy based on the concept of probability. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Science Fiction Movies as a Tool for Revealing Students' Knowledge and Alternative Conceptions
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…
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The medical science fiction of James White: Inside and Outside Sector General.
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/.
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What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Revised and Expanded Edition.
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…
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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
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Stepping into Science Fiction: Understanding the Genre
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…
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Science Fiction in Education: Case Studies from Classroom Implementations
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…
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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.
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Scottish science fiction: writing Scottish literature back into history
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...
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Toward Improved Collections in Medical Humanities: Fiction in Academic Health Sciences Libraries
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…
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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…
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Stranger than fiction parallel universes beguile science
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.
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Does Science-Fiction predict [or change] the future?
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.
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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.
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Freeze, Wait, Reanimate: Cryonic Suspension and Science Fiction
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…
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Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership
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...
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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).
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Imagine That!: Science Fiction as a Learning Motivation
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…
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Manipulating Our Futures: The Role of Science Fiction in Education.
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)
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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.
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Ethnicity and Social Critique in Tony Hilleman’s Crime Fiction
Bubíková Šárka
2016-01-01
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 (c...
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Writers' & artists' yearbook 2014 the essential guide to the media and publishing industries
2013-01-01
The annual edition of the best-selling guide to all aspects of the media and how to write and get published, the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook is now in its 107th edition. Acknowledged by the publishing industry, authors and would-be writers as the indispensable companion to navigating the world of publishing, it appears for the first time as an e-book and in print. The 80 articles are reviewed and updated each year to provide inspirational and how-to guidance on writing for newspapers, magazines, scripts for film, radio and TV; advice on writing and submitting plays, poetry, non-fiction and fiction of all genres - from fantasy to thrillers to romance; how to contact publishers and agents; managing finances as a writer; negotiating legal issues, such as copyright; understanding the editing process; self-publishing and conventional routes; digital and print. Every single one of over 4,500 listings of who to contact, where and for which disciplines across the whole media, are reviewed and most updated, wit...
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So you want to be a science writer.
Fleischman, John; Szalinski, Christina
2014-07-01
The Internet destroyed the ecology of traditional science journalism, drying up ad revenues and pushing "old school" mass media toward extinction. But the new technology opened a wider landscape for digital science writers, online "content curators," and scientists to chronicle the wonders and worries of modern science. For those thinking of a career in science writing, here is a flash history, a quick overview, some advice, and a few cautions. © 2014 Fleischman and Szalinski. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).
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A dialogue regarding "The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics"
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.
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Science Fiction in Social Education: Exploring Consequences of Technology
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…
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Science fiction and human enhancement: radical life-extension in the movie 'In Time' (2011).
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.
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Science and Fiction. On Don Quijote’s Epistemological Skepticism
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Félix Schmelzer
2016-11-01
Full Text Available The present work seeks to analyze the representation of scientific knowledge in Cervantes’ Quixote, focusing on various passages that underline the scientific expertise of don Quixote himself. It is shown that the novel contains a subtle critique of science, based on an epistemological skepticism with regard to the arbitrariness of our world concepts. The characterization of don Quixote as a man of science even permits deducting that he suffers from a ‘double mental damage’, caused by the lecture of both books of cavalry and science. Cervantes thus would consider science to be fiction, a very modern point of view.
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'Limbitless Solutions': the Prosthetic Arm, Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Technoscience.
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/.
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Contemporary fiction and the ethics of modern culture
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.
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Mike Ashley. Out of This World: Science Fiction, But Not As You Know It
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...
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"Vraisemblance" and the Western Setting in Contemporary Science Fiction Film.
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…
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Ethnicity and Social Critique in Tony Hillerman´s Crime Fiction
Bubíková Šárka
2016-01-01
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. The 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 (...
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The matrix reformed : science fiction, technology, and Christian philosophy
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
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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...
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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/.
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The Chicana Subject in Ana Castillo's Fiction and the Discursive Zone of Chicana/o Theory
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…
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Children's Acquisition of Literary Genre: Science Fiction versus Fantasy.
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…
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Ethnicity and Social Critique in Tony Hilleman’s Crime Fiction
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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.
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The Web planet: How the changing Internet divided Doctor Who fan fiction writers
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Leora Hadas
2009-11-01
Full Text Available This paper analyzes the debate that arose in online Doctor Who fandom surrounding the switch to moderated submissions for "A Teaspoon and an Open Mind," the fandom's main fan fiction archive. As has been the case with many classic texts of science fiction and fantasy, from The Lord of the Rings on, the new adaptation of the cult series Doctor Who was the cause of much tension and conflict within the fandom. It has opened up the franchise to a vast new audience unschooled in the fandom's ways or the ways of fandom at large, and the change in archive policy served as an arena where many of these tensions came to a head. An in-depth analysis of this debate leads to the argument that the cultural logics of fandom and of participatory culture might be more separate than they initially appear. Some fans wholly embrace the ideals of Web 2.0 and argue for the archive as a nonhierarchical, communal space where all content is equal regardless of what standards it might not meet. Yet while their rhetoric resembles the ideas of academia about the potential of fandom as an educational space, other, more veteran fans reject academia, instead using the discourse of private enterprise and property rights, more commonly associated with the producers of texts than with their fans and poachers, to argue for the rights of site moderators to regulate content.
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"Normal" feelings in "abnormal" worlds : on the political uses of emotion in science fiction manga
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
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Does art imitate death? Depictions of suicide in fiction.
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.
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A Question of Ethics: Themes in the Science Fiction Genre.
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…
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Teaching Science Fiction Film Genre: Theory, Form, and Theme.
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…
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Linking Science Fiction and Physics Courses
McBride, Krista K.
2016-05-01
Generally, cohorts or learning communities enrich higher learning in students. Learning communities consist of conventionally separate groups of students that meet together with common academic purposes and goals. Types of learning communities include paired courses with concurrent student enrollment, living-learning communities, and faculty learning communities. This article discusses a learning community of 21 students that I created with a colleague in the English department. The community encompasses two general education courses: an algebra-based physics course entitled "Intro to Physics" and a literature course entitled "Science Fiction, Science Fact." Students must enroll in both of these courses during the same semester. Additionally, I highlight advantages to linking these courses through surveying the assignments and course materials that we used in our learning community. Figure 1 shows the topics that are covered in both physics and literature courses.
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Star Trek Physics: Where Does the Science End and the Fiction Begin?
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)
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Kusek, K. M.; Freitag, K.; Devey, C.
2005-12-01
The Science Writer-at-Sea program is one small step in a marathon need for improved coverage of science and environmental issues. It targets two significant links in the Earth science communication pipeline: marine scientists and journalists; and attempts to reconnect people with the Earth by boosting their understanding of Earth science and its relevance to society. How it works: Journalism graduate students are invited to participate in oceanographic expeditions affiliated with InterRidge, an international organization dedicated to promoting ocean ridge research. InterRidge's outreach coordinator and science writer prepares each student for the expedition experience using materials she developed based on years of at-sea reporting. The students work side-by-side with the science writer and the scientists to research and write innovative journalistic stories for a general audience that are featured on a uniquely designed multimedia website that includes videos and images. The science, journalism and public communities benefit from this cost-effective program: science research is effectively showcased, scientists benefit from interactions with journalists, science outreach objectives are accomplished; student journalists enjoy a unique hands-on, `boot camp' experience; and the website enhances public understanding of `real' Earth science reported `on scene at sea.' InterRidge completed its first pilot test of the program in August 2005 aboard a Norwegian research cruise. A student writer entering the science journalism program at Columbia University participated. The results exceeded expectations. The team discovered the world's northernmost vent fields on the cruise, which expanded the original scope of the website to include a section specifically designed for the international press. The student was inspired by the cruise, amazed at how much she learned, and said she entered graduate school with much more confidence than she had prior to the program. The site
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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.
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Transplantation: fantasy, fiction and fact.
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.
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Reflecting on Scientists' Activity Based on Science Fiction Stories Written by Secondary Students
Reis, Pedro; Galvao, Cecilia
2007-01-01
In this article the authors resort to a qualitative analysis of the plot of science fiction stories about a group of scientists, written by two 11th-grade Earth and Life Science students (aged 17), and to semi-structured interviews, with the double purpose of diagnosing their conceptions of the nature of science (namely, as regards scientists'…
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Hollyweird science the next generation : from spaceships to microchips
Grazier, Kevin R
2017-01-01
Informative, entertaining and upbeat, this book continues Grazier and Cass's exploration of how technology, science, and scientists are portrayed in Hollywood productions. Both big and small-screen productions are featured and their science content illuminated—first by the authors and subsequently by a range of experts from science and the film world. Starring roles in this volume are played by, among other things, computers (human and mechanical), artificial intelligences, robots, and spacecraft. Interviews with writers, producers, and directors of acclaimed science-themed films stand side by side with the perspectives of scientists, science fiction authors, and science advisors. The result is a stimulating and informative reading experience for the layperson and professional scientist or engineer alike. The book begins with a foreword by Zack Stentz, who co-wrote X-Men: First Class and Thor, and is currently a writer/producer on CW’s The Flash.
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Pattern recognition: A dialogue on racism in fan communities [symposium
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
TWC Editor
2009-11-01
Full Text Available In early 2009, science fiction fandom's online landscape erupted with discussions of race. A post regarding cultural appropriation on author Elizabeth Bear's blog sparked a wide-ranging conversation that soon became acrimonious, with professional science fiction and fantasy writers and fans of science fiction literature and media weighing in. More recently, criticisms of Patricia C. Wrede's decision to set her young adult novel, The Thirteenth Child (2009, in an America empty of indigenous people have spearheaded new waves of discussion. Often the more widely read summaries of these debates have focused on what they mean for writers and aspiring writers who plan to represent minority cultures in their works. But what has their significance been for members of fan communities?
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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.
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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
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Arsyad, Safnil; Wardhana, Dian Eka Chandra
2014-01-01
The introductory part of a research article (RA) is very important because in this section writers must argue about the importance of their research topic and project so that they can attract their readers' attention to read the whole article. This study analyzes RA introductions written by Indonesian writers in social sciences and humanities…
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Daughters of the Fifth Sun: A Collection of Latina Fiction and Poetry.
Milligan, Bryce, Ed.; And Others
This anthology of contemporary fiction and poetry by Hispanic American women writers contains material ranging from national award winners to emerging talents. Noting that until recently 20th-century academic literary criticism described ethnic American literature as parochial and politically driven, the anthology's introduction discusses how the…
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"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.
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Gough, Noel
2017-12-01
In this essay I suggest some ways in which science teacher educators in Western neoliberal economies might facilitate learners' development of a critical literacy concerning the social and cultural changes signified by the concept of biopolitics. I consider how such a biopolitically inflected critical literacy might find expression in a science teacher education curriculum and suggest a number of ways of materializing such a curriculum in specific literatures, media, procedures, and assessment tasks, with particular reference to the contributions of science fiction in popular media.
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Access, Astronomy and Science Fiction. A Case Study in Curriculum Design
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…
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A Historical Note on the Use of Fiction to Teach Principles of Economics.
O'Donnell, Margaret G.
1989-01-01
Compares contemporary economic fiction with the nineteenth-century tales of Harriet Martineau. Modern economic writers and Martineau all use the mystery story to attract beginning students and explain complex economic principles. Martineau, however, focused on classical economics, while modern authors emphasize microeconomic theories. (LS)
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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.
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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 ...
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Colonizing Bodies: Corporate Power and Biotechnology in Young Adult Science Fiction
Guerra, Stephanie
2009-01-01
The American cultural and political landscape has seen changes on the level of seismic shifts in the past four decades, thanks in part to the two very diverse fields of big business and biotechnology. Linking the two arenas together in the literary landscape is a growing body of young adult science fiction that envisions a future shaped profoundly…
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Yore, Larry D.; Hand, Brian M.; Prain, Vaughan
2002-09-01
This study attempted to establish an image of a science writer based on a synthesis of writing theory, models, and research literature on academic writing in science and other disciplines and to contrast this image with an actual prototypical image of scientists as writers of science. The synthesis was used to develop a questionnaire to assess scientists' writing habits, beliefs, strategies, and perceptions about print-based language. The questionnaire was administered to 17 scientists from science and applied science departments of a large Midwestern land grant university. Each respondent was interviewed following the completion of the questionnaire with a custom-designed semistructured protocol to elaborate, probe, and extend their written responses. These data were analyzed in a stepwise fashion using the questionnaire responses to establish tentative assertions about the three major foci (type of writing done, criteria of good science writing, writing strategies used) and the interview responses to verify these assertions. Two illustrative cases (a very experienced, male physical scientist and a less experienced, female applied biological scientist) were used to highlight diversity in the sample. Generally, these 17 scientists are driven by the academy's priority of publishing their research results in refereed, peer-reviewed journals. They write their research reports in isolation or as a member of a large research team, target their writing to a few journals that they also read regularly, use writing in their teaching and scholarship to inform and persuade science students and other scientists, but do little border crossing into other discourse communities. The prototypical science writer found in this study did not match the image based on a synthesis of the writing literature in that these scientists perceived writing as knowledge telling not knowledge building, their metacognition of written discourse was tacit, and they used a narrow array of genre
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Hassan, Robert
2010-06-01
This essay is a response to Judy Wajcman's essay 'Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time' (2008: 59-77). In that article Wajcman argued that recent developments in the sociology of temporal change had been marked by a tendency in social theory towards a form of 'science fiction'--a sociological theorizing, she maintains, that bears no real relation to actual, empirically provable developments in the field and should therefore be viewed as not contributing to 'a richer analysis of the relationship between technology and time' (2008: 61). This reply argues that as Wajcman suggests in her essay, there is indeed an 'urgent need for increased dialogue to connect social theory with detailed empirical studies' (2008: 59) but that the most fruitful way to proceed would not be through a constraining of 'science fiction' social theorizing but, rather, through its expansion--and more, that 'science fiction' should take the lead in the process. This essay suggests that the connection between social theory and empirical studies would be strengthened by a wider understanding of the function of knowledge and research in the context of what is termed 'true originality' and 'routine originality'. The former is the domain of social theory and the latter resides within traditional sociological disciplines. It is argued that both need each other to advance our understanding of society, especially in the context of the fast-changing processes of technological development. The example of 'technological determinism' is discussed as illustrative of how 'routine originality' can harden into dogma without the application of 'true originality' to continually question (sometimes through ideas that may appear to border on 'science fiction') comfortable assumptions that may have become 'routine' and shorn of their initial 'originality'.
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Use of traditional motives in Serbian science-fiction literature
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Đorđević Ivan
2006-01-01
Full Text Available Subject of this paper is consideration of use of traditional motives in Serbian science-fiction literature in relation with socio-cultural milieu of Serbia from late 80s until now. The author tries to point out ways of usage and construction of some traditional and mythological patterns in certain literature works. This genre of literary production is perceived as a popular culture phenomenon - with this premise, the paper intents to analyze communication process between text and audiences.
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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
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Indian Academy of Sciences (India)
Marathi Vidnyan Parishad, Mumbai is organising a National Seminar for Science. Writers on December 21 and 22, 1996 in. Mumbai. The Seminar will have sessions on various subjects like Science Fiction, Art of. Translation, Historical Review of Science. Writings and also conversation with science writers. For further ...
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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)
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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)
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Beyond Detective Fiction: A Brief Study of Natsuo Kirino’s Gyokuran (Magnolia
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Lianying Shan
2011-04-01
Full Text Available Natsuno Kirino (b. 1951 is a female detective fiction writer from Japan. She has published more than 20 novels and several of them, including 'Out '(2004, 'Grotesque '(2007, 'Real World '(2008, and 'What Remains '(2008, have been translated into English. Due to her close attention to female psychology in a patriarchal society, Kirino is often considered as a feminist writer. J. Madison Davis comments on Kirino’s rich imagination in 'Out 'in an article published in a recent issue of 'World Literature Today', in which he points out that her fiction creates not only fascinating plots but also a rare sense of reality, especially reality that women face in contemporary Japan. 'Out 'centers on a murder-mystery case, which involves a housewife killing her abusive husband with the help of three female coworkers from a 'bento'-box factory. Behind the murder mystery there is a shocking depiction of reality—although Japan is among the most industrialized nations in the world, women still suffer social and economic inequality and violence within the family.
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REVIEW OF SCHREIBMAN'S THE SCIENCE AND FICTION OF AUTISM
LeBlanc, Linda A; Losowski-Sullivan, Sheryl; Riley, Andrew R
2010-01-01
Although the awareness of autism in the general public has increased significantly over the past 20 years, much of the widely disseminated information is not fully grounded in scientific fact. In The Science and Fiction of Autism (2005), Laura Schreibman addresses a series of debates and controversies in areas ranging from diagnostic practices and etiological theories to effective clinical practices. This book provides an overview of the field of autism that is suitable for well-educated parents and new professionals in the field.
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[Pathology and pathologists in fiction revisited].
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.
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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...
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From Hallucination to Fiction: The Invention of Meaning in Psychosis.
Lippi, Silvia; Lehaire, Célia; Petit, Laetitia
2016-12-01
Taking their inspiration from a case history, the authors explore the effects of a writing workshop led by a professional writer for patients in a psychiatric hospital. This workshop allowed different modes of transference to unfold: transference to the analyst-therapist, transference to the writer who led the workshop, and transference to the other members of the group. The writing activity created conditions in which there could be a movement from hallucination to delusion-a delusion expressed in fiction through the act of writing. Psychotic patients "invent" a writing that remains unfinished and that relates to the experiences of persecution. Writing thus makes it possible for them to tolerate language, through its transformation into writing.
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Jean Painlevé : de la science à la fiction scientifique.
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Florence Riou
2009-12-01
Full Text Available Si l'image documentaire, et à fortiori l'image scientifique est encore souvent perçue comme la réalité elle-même, elle n'est cependant qu’interprétation. Nous nous proposons ici, par une approche issue de l'histoire des techniques, d'interroger la construction des images liées à la pratique de biologiste. La mise en formes de ces images est tout à la fois le reflet de l'expérimentateur, de l'instrument, et celui de la connaissance de l'époque. Mais dans un désir de partage de la science au plus grand nombre, elles soulèvent aussi la question du lien existant entre science et fiction. Jean Painlevé (1902-1989, réalisateur et scientifique usant du cinématographe, met l'accent sur ce point dès les années trente. Conscient de notre tendance naturelle à l'anthropomorphisme, il souligne la nécessité d'une éducation du regard pour plus d'indépendance et d'esprit critique vis à vis des images. Et, en tirant du contenu scientifique lui même la substance et la dramaturgie de ses histoires, il propose une mise en fiction de la science qui renouvelle le genre documentaire.
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"Hypothetical machines": the science fiction dreams of Cold War social science.
Lemov, Rebecca
2010-06-01
The introspectometer was a "hypothetical machine" Robert K. Merton introduced in the course of a 1956 how-to manual describing an actual research technique, the focused interview. This technique, in turn, formed the basis of wartime morale research and consumer behavior studies as well as perhaps the most ubiquitous social science tool, the focus group. This essay explores a new perspective on Cold War social science made possible by comparing two kinds of apparatuses: one real, the other imaginary. Even as Merton explored the nightmare potential of such machines, he suggested that the clear aim of social science was to build them or their functional equivalent: recording machines to access a person's experiential stream of reality, with the ability to turn this stream into real-time data. In this way, the introspectometer marks and symbolizes a broader entry during the Cold War of science-fiction-style aspirations into methodological prescriptions and procedural manuals. This essay considers the growth of the genre of methodological visions and revisions, painstakingly argued and absorbed, but punctuated by sci-fi aims to transform "the human" and build newly penetrating machines. It also considers the place of the nearly real-, and the artificial "near-substitute" as part of an experimental urge that animated these sciences.
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Rocketry, film and fiction: the road to Sputnik
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.
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Astronomers Who Write Science Fiction: Using SF as a Form of Astronomy Outreach
Fraknoi, Andrew
2017-01-01
In a recent survey, I have identified 21 living professional astronomers who write science fiction, plus a yet uncounted number of physicists. Many of the science fiction stories by this group involve, as you might imagine, reasonable extrapolation from current scientific ideas and discoveries. These stories, some of which are available free on the Web or are collected in inexpensive anthologies, represented a method of astronomy outreach to which relatively little attention has been paid. I will list the authors identified in the survey and provide a representative list of their stories or novels, organized by astronomical topic. I will also discuss how written SF (and SF films based on ideas by scientists, such as Kip Thorne's "Interstellar") can be used in general education classes and public programs. Scientists do not need to cede the field to wizards, dragons, and zombies! (Note: The author is included in the list of 21, having published two short stories in two different anthologies recently.)
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Gender as a body memory in science-fiction films
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Carmen Irene Correia Oliveira
2013-07-01
Full Text Available This concept of working memory genre (Bakhtin, from remakes science-fiction. Takes gender as a dynamic force that works towards permanence and change, articulating the elements that determine intertextuality. In current a long tradition, a work brings the outstanding characteristics of a genre that works as a “body memory” in a relatively autonomous way. States that, in the context of the films analyzed, the elements that propagate within the genre underwent some changes in reshoots, depending on the socio-historical context, while the stay is marked by recurring themes.
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The Affordances of Fiction for Teaching Chemistry
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…
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Fictional names and fictional discourse
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...
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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.
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Australian Queer Science Fiction Fans.
Kerry, Stephen Craig
2017-10-23
Science fiction (sf) does more than provide a fleeting moment of entertainment; it has many personal and social functions. In addition to offering audiences "romantic escapism" (Gerrold, 1996, pp. 5-6), sf also enables the "postulation of an alternative reality from which to contemplate this one" (Gerrold, 1996, pp. 5-6); as such, it is especially important "for groups which have had limited stakes in the status quo" (Jenkins, 1995, p. 242). To date, no research has been undertaken on the relationship between Australian queers and sf fandom. This article reports the findings of an online survey and explores the psycho-social features of Australian queer sf fans and why they like the genre. While the characteristics of this sample mirror those of Australian queers generally, they also have slightly higher rates of mental illness and are far more likely to state they have "no religion." Furthermore, while enjoying the "sciency" (P10, bisexual woman) aspects of sf, Australian queers also like the "poignant metaphors for our own civilization" (P45, asexual man).
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A Dialogue Regarding "The Material Co-Construction of Hard Science Fiction and Physics"
Geelan, David; Prain, Vaughan; Hasse, Cathrine
2015-01-01
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…
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Writer`s guide for technical procedures
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
NONE
1998-12-01
A primary objective of operations conducted in the US Department of Energy (DOE) complex is safety. Procedures are a critical element of maintaining a safety envelope to ensure safe facility operation. This DOE Writer`s Guide for Technical Procedures addresses the content, format, and style of technical procedures that prescribe production, operation of equipment and facilities, and maintenance activities. The DOE Writer`s Guide for Management Control Procedures and DOE Writer`s Guide for Emergency and Alarm Response Procedures are being developed to assist writers in developing nontechnical procedures. DOE is providing this guide to assist writers across the DOE complex in producing accurate, complete, and usable procedures that promote safe and efficient operations that comply with DOE orders, including DOE Order 5480.19, Conduct of Operations for DOE Facilities, and 5480.6, Safety of Department of Energy-Owned Nuclear Reactors.
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Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal : pharmacological immortality in science fiction
Grech, Victor E.; Vassallo, Clare; Callus, Ivan
2012-01-01
Immortality is a common feature in science-fiction (SF). This paper lists the ways in which the pharmacological induction of immortality has been depicted in SF, and the resultant outcomes. Immortality or extreme longevity are often melded with infertility in order to eliminate the overpopulation issues that would inevitably arise. This is only one way in which theoretical utopias which afford life extension become dystopias, cautionary tales that admonish against hubris. In this fashion, SF ...
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Time machine tales the science fiction adventures and philosophical puzzles of time travel
Nahin, Paul J
2017-01-01
This book contains a broad overview of time travel in science fiction, along with a detailed examination of the philosophical implications of time travel. The emphasis of this book is now on the philosophical and on science fiction, rather than on physics, as in the author's earlier books on the subject. In that spirit there are, for example, no Tech Notes filled with algebra, integrals, and differential equations, as there are in the first and second editions of TIME MACHINES. Writing about time travel is, today, a respectable business. It hasn’t always been so. After all, time travel, prima facie, appears to violate a fundamental law of nature; every effect has a cause, with the cause occurring before the effect. Time travel to the past, however, seems to allow, indeed to demand, backwards causation, with an effect (the time traveler emerging into the past as he exits from his time machine) occurring before its cause (the time traveler pushing the start button on his machine’s control panel to start his...
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The Discovery of the Future: The Ways Science Fiction Developed. Miscellaneous Publication 13.
Gunn, James
This booklet discusses the development of science fiction, tracing its origins to the time of the industrial revolution. Many of the people of this time realized that life was changing and would continue to change, that there were new forces at work in the world, and that humankind should exercise some forethought about the direction in which…
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Cripe, Dennis
1998-01-01
Considers two very different fictional high school newspaper editorships to see how the "maestro" process works. Notes that the process is a management technique similar to brainstorming but in which one person keeps the planning meeting focused. Suggests that the effective maestro asks writers, photographers, and designers to trade places with…
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L’Imaginaire du temps dans le fantastique et la science-fiction (2011)
Julie Schutz
2013-01-01
Ce numéro des cahiers du LAPRIL contient vingt-deux contributions sur la question du temps en science-fiction et dans le fantastique, dans sa dimension thématique, mais aussi pour faire ressortir l'influence de cette question sur l'évolution même de ces genres. Une partie des réflexions concerne aussi les représentations d'un temps « mythique ».
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Étudier la science-fiction en France aujourd’hui
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Irène Langlet
2012-10-01
Full Text Available La science-fiction est une pratique intermédiatique reconnue dans la culture contemporaine mais discrète dans le monde universitaire. Ce contraste s’explique par l’histoire du genre et sa constitution progressive, dans notre pays, en « paralittérature », voire en « subculture ». Mais la situation évolue, grâce à des pratiques académiques en pleine recomposition disciplinaire, ainsi renouvellement des générations accentuant la porosité des barrières culturelles. Les perspectives qui peuvent en être tirées se déduisent de ce paysage complexe.
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The Subordinates in the Fictions of Appropriation of Minors
Souto, Luz Celestina
2013-01-01
the rol of the subordinates in the appropriation of children during the Argentinian Dictatorship has been questioned in several disciplines. However, are the works of the writer Martín Kohan which have managed to tell the untold history in a very effective way by condensing it in the creation of a credible fictional world and, because of that, grinding. In Dos veces junio, as well as in Cuentas pendientes, the consequences of the banality of evil are obvious, since it represents the consensu...
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The Missing Thread - How Fiction Cheats Mental Health Nursing.
Bladon, Henry J
2017-09-01
Mental health nursing occupies an important place in mental health care, and nurses perform valuable work, yet fiction writers tend to rely on outdated imagery to portray the profession. This imagery reinforces negative stereotypes of mental health nursing. This article examines the problem and explores the implications for the profession, particularly in relation to stigma and public confidence. It outlines a significant gap in narrative literature, specifically in relation to the therapeutic relationship, and asks what can be done to encourage more realistic portrayals of the role.
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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
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L’Imaginaire du temps dans le fantastique et la science-fiction (2011
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Julie Schutz
2013-04-01
Full Text Available Ce numéro des cahiers du LAPRIL contient vingt-deux contributions sur la question du temps en science-fiction et dans le fantastique, dans sa dimension thématique, mais aussi pour faire ressortir l'influence de cette question sur l'évolution même de ces genres. Une partie des réflexions concerne aussi les représentations d'un temps « mythique ».
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Classical monsters in new Doctor Who fan fiction
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Amanda Potter
2016-03-01
Full Text Available Although a number of classic Doctor Who episodes featured story lines and characters drawn from Greek myth, no new Who episodes based on Greek myth appeared until seasons 5 and 6, in 2010 and 2011. These episodes featured Pandora's box, the Minotaur, and a Siren. They all use the mythical monster or artifact outside of its ancient Greek context, and I argue that the mythical monsters were additions to earlier story ideas. I compare this with the treatment of the myths of the Minotaur and the Sirens in five stories posted to FanFiction.net between 2008 and 2013. These stories all engage with classical myths, and the longest, "Lure of the Sirens," even engages with different versions of the myth of the Sirens. In this article I discuss how the writers use the classical myths within their stories, and how the myths fit in with the primary aims of the writers, for example in developing romantic relationships between characters.
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Research insights and insides:"Science-in-Fiction" as a contribution to the Third Culture Concepts.
Erren, Thomas C; Falaturi, Puran
2009-05-01
Here we suggest to encourage more "Science-In-Fiction" [SIF], a genre which has been explored by Carl Djerassi since the late 1980s with the intent to convey science in writing beyond traditional publication categories and "to smuggle scientific facts into the consciousness of a scientifically illiterate public". In our view, SIF can serve 3 purposes: (a) inform the public at large about scientific findings, ethics and procedures; (b) infuse lay readers with interest in scientific endeavours; (c) enable the general population to better evaluate and judge scientific conduct, results and implications. While it would be desirable to have more scientists write about their own (like Watson and Maguejo) and others' discoveries (like Voltaire and Perutz), this expectation is not realistic. Indeed, some scientists may not want to share and write about their experiences and others simply should not. As one recipe for informing the lay public and instigating interest in research insights and insides, science-in-fiction such as Dr. Djerassi's novels could be written and read. This may contribute to the The Third Culture Concepts envisaged by Snow in the 1960s and elaborated by Brockman in 1995.
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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.
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Journey to DOR: A Retro Science-Fiction Story on Researching ePrescribing
Lichtner , Valentina; Venters , Will
2011-01-01
Part 5: Section 4: The Future of Information Technology and Work-Related Practices in Health Care; International audience; The core of this paper is a science fiction short story. We are on planet DOR. A group of scientists are working on an experiment, changing underlying mechanisms of transmissions of a colossus machine(a complex system of gears and levers, wires and pipes. Some of its mechanisms are also known as D for doctors, F for pharmacists, P for patients. Observers travel from Earth...
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What Is Steampunk, and Do I Want It in My Library?
Rozmus, Emily
2011-01-01
What is steampunk? Most call it Victorian science fiction. Steampunk can claim such authors as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne as its earliest writers. These two Victorian/Edwardian era writers created steampunk settings in books such as "The Time Machine" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". In the 1990s, writers such as William Gibson, Bruce…
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Writing social psychology: fictional things and unpopulated texts.
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.
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“The Writer Is Essentially Indiscrete.” On the Literary Gossip of a Dutch Literary Celebrity
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Bax Sander
2017-11-01
Full Text Available In contemporary media culture, literary writers arouse the fascination of media fans by awakening in them the desire for the authentic by publishing autobiographical novels or other forms of life narrative. In doing so, they run the risk of becoming part of media’s large gossip mechanism that plays such a central role nowadays. The public conversation about the books of writers such as the Dutch author Connie Palmen - whose Logboek van een onbarmhartig jaar will be the main case study of this article - becomes focused on the elements of truth and authenticity and ignores the literary or fictional construction of the work. This article discusses the question whether this leaves any room for contemporary star authors to distinguish themselves from media gossipers.
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Science Fiction and Ontologies of Leadership
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jana Vizmuller-Zocco
2014-12-01
Full Text Available 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-driven society point to a much greater need for leadership studies to pay attention to technological advances (and the philosophical underpinnings of, specifically, transhumanism. The impact of nano-bio-technology affecting the role of leaders, followers, goals, alignment, commitment has ontological repercussions on the manner in which (augmented and unaugmented humans deal with each other. If early augmented humans/cyborgs and any other sentient beings are in fact comparable to Giambattista Vico’s brutes, and if his corsi e ricorsi (ebbs and flows of human history can apply to non-human, sentient beings’ history, then the work is cut out for all disciplines, but especially for those which deal with ontologies of leadership.
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Stranger than fiction: literary and clinical amnesia.
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.
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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....
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Reading women’s fiction. Liala’s novels between uniqueness and standardization
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Sarah Bonciarelli
2012-06-01
Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to analyse the case of the Italian writer Liala in the light of one specific aspect: the symbolic and crucial role of her work in the changes in Italian women’s fiction from the 1950s. Liala’s work represents a shift from the traditional narrative, where the role of the author is still crucial, to a writing process directly linked to the social, technological and distribution changes resulting from standardization and serialization in literature.
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Facts about real antimatter collide with fiction
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
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Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis: Christian Postmodernism beyond Boundaries
Yuasa, Kyoko
2012-01-01
Modern critics do not consider science fiction and mystery novels to be "serious reading", but Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis questioned the boundaries between "popular" and "serious" literature. Both Christian writers critically discuss the spiritual crisis of the modern world in each fiction genre. This paper…
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SWEDISH CRIME FICTION AS SOCIALLY INVOLVED LITERATURE
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Monika Samsel-Chojnacka
2011-01-01
Full Text Available Swedish crime novel has been transforming for many years to become more socially involved. The ambition of many writers is not only to entertain the readers but also to participating in the social debate, criticizing the political and economical system, focusing on important issues such as violence against women, exploitation of working class by the privileged ruling class, the problems of a modern family and the situation of immigrants. Since the moment when in the mid 60’s two journalists Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö decided to use popular literature to spread social matters many other Swedish writers have decided to follow their way. Some of them are journalists – like Liza Marklund, Börge Hellström and Anders Roslund or Stieg Larsson. Their novels as well as the ones written by Henning Mannkel on Kurt Wallander have become crucial evidence of changes of Swedish society in the past twenty years. Modern Swedish crime fiction illustrates the population in the model fashion that is the reason why it can become one of the interests of the sociology of literature.
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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.
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Slaughter, Aimee
2014-01-01
The 1920s and 1930s were a period which saw great popular interest in radiation and radioactivity in America, and the establishment of a new genre of pulp literature, science fiction. Radiation was prevalent in American popular culture at the time, and sf stories were dependent upon radiation for much of their color and excitement. In this case…
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‘Every age gets the art it deserves’ ‐ science fiction : history, background and definitions
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 ...
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P.P.L. Berkers (Pauwke)
2009-01-01
textabstractThis article compares the classification of ethnic minority fiction writers in American, Dutch and German literary anthologies and literary history books for the period of 1978-2006. Using content analyses, ethnic boundaries are much stronger in Dutch and German textbooks than in their
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A Study on Emotional Healing Efficacy of Fiction for Undergraduate
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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.
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Wilde Rewound: Time-Travelling with Oscar in Recent Author Fictions
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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.
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Memories and development imaginaries of the children in recent chilean fiction
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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.
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Dissolvable tattoo sensors: from science fiction to a viable technology
Cheng, Huanyu; Yi, Ning
2017-01-01
Early surrealistic painting and science fiction movies have envisioned dissolvable tattoo electronic devices. In this paper, we will review the recent advances that transform that vision into a viable technology, with extended capabilities even beyond the early vision. Specifically, we focus on the discussion of a stretchable design for tattoo sensors and degradable materials for dissolvable sensors, in the form of inorganic devices with a performance comparable to modern electronics. Integration of these two technologies as well as the future developments of bio-integrated devices is also discussed. Many of the appealing ideas behind developments of these devices are drawn from nature and especially biological systems. Thus, bio-inspiration is believed to continue playing a key role in future devices for bio-integration and beyond.
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Dissolvable tattoo sensors: from science fiction to a viable technology
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Cheng, Huanyu; Yi, Ning
2017-01-01
Early surrealistic painting and science fiction movies have envisioned dissolvable tattoo electronic devices. In this paper, we will review the recent advances that transform that vision into a viable technology, with extended capabilities even beyond the early vision. Specifically, we focus on the discussion of a stretchable design for tattoo sensors and degradable materials for dissolvable sensors, in the form of inorganic devices with a performance comparable to modern electronics. Integration of these two technologies as well as the future developments of bio-integrated devices is also discussed. Many of the appealing ideas behind developments of these devices are drawn from nature and especially biological systems. Thus, bio-inspiration is believed to continue playing a key role in future devices for bio-integration and beyond. (invited comment)
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Transgressive intimacy in the fiction of Costamagna, Fernández, Jeftanovic, Maturana and Meruane
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Nan Zheng
2017-11-01
Full Text Available The present work, framed primarily in the discourse of intimacy, Jacques Rancière’s theory of the aesthetic regime of art and Wendy Brow's revision of Foucault's reflecctions on Neoliberalism, examines the chilean fictions of the last two decades by Alejandra Costamagna, Nona Fernández, Andrea Jeftanovic, Andrea Maturana and Lina Meruane. The literary production of these female writers disagrees with patriarchal norms and those established by the neoliberal rationality dominated by the homo oeconomicus. This article analyzes the possibility of classifying these writers as a new literary generation of the post-dictatorship, which could be more inconvenient than benefical, since it would represent a gesture which could be establishing divisions between feminine and masculine; private and public; the sublime in art and the banality of everyday life.
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Beneath sci-fi sound: primer, science fiction sound design, and American independent cinema
Johnston, Nessa
2012-01-01
Primer is a very low budget science-fiction film that deals with the subject of time travel; however, it looks and sounds quite distinctively different from other films associated with the genre. While Hollywood blockbuster sci-fi relies on “sound spectacle” as a key attraction, in contrast Primer sounds “lo-fi” and screen-centred, mixed to two channel stereo rather than the now industry-standard 5.1 surround sound. Although this is partly a consequence of the economics of its production, the...
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Psychopathy and the cinema: fact or fiction?
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.
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Desperate Housewives – fiction de toutes les fictions
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...
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Visionary medicine: speculative fiction, racial justice and Octavia Butler's 'Bloodchild'.
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/.
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Guilt, guns, girls and ghettos: Adjacent futures in selected ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Since 1994, a growing number of South African writers of young adult and crossover fiction have experimented with science fiction and fantasy as tools for anticipating potential futures. In this article, three of these works are considered: The Slayer of Shadows by Elana Bregin, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes and The Mall Rats ...
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Andrew Milner, ed., Tenses of Imagination: Raymond Williams on Science Fiction, Utopia and Dystopia.
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Antonis Balasopoulos
2011-03-01
Full Text Available Tenses of Imagination, an anthology of Raymond Williams’s writings on science fiction, utopia and dystopia is the seventh volume in the growing Ralahine Utopian Studies Series. It is also, in my view, something of a treasure. For it not only offers an illuminating compendium of Williams’s most important engagements, critical and creative, with SF, utopia and dystopia, but also furnishes us with a heretofore unavailable account of the long-term significance of these frequently spurned genres a...
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The 1965 Indonesian Killing Discourse by Generation 2000 Writers
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Diah Ariani Arimbi
2011-06-01
Full Text Available The fall of Soeharto’s authority in 1998 has indeed impacted numerous sides of Indonesian life: political, social and cultural. The shifting of authoritative government to the state of “reformation” and “democratization” has forced the nation to redefine its authority to its members. This paper aims to look at these public responses which are narrated in contemporary Indonesian fiction. Although fiction may be seen as imaginative production, discursive ideologies can be examined clearly. By examining thematic significant of the narratives about G30S/PKI and the killings aftermath in the literary writings published in post 1998 by contemporary Indonesia writers, who are known as the Generation 2000 writers (who were mostly born in 1970s at least five years after the 1965 incident: also known as the millennials, this paper will attempt to answer whether or not this generation presents shift and creates its own notions of the incident. Abstrak: Jatuhnya kekuasaan Soeharto pada tahun 1998 berdampak pada berbagai sisi kehidupan di Indonesia: politik, sosial, dan budaya. Pergeseran dari pemerintahan yang dulunya otoritatif menjadi pemerintahan yang sarat dengan "reformasi" dan "demokratisasi" telah memaksa negara untuk mendefinisikan kembali wewenangnya kepada para anggotanya. Makalah ini bertujuan untuk melihat respons publik yang diceritakan dalam fiksi Indonesia kontemporer. Walaupun fiksi dapat dipandang sebagai produk imajinatif, ideologi diskursif dapat dilihat dengan je-las. Dengan memeriksa tema-tema yang secara signifikan dimunculkan dari narasi tentang G30S/PKI dan tragedi pembunuhan sesudahnya dalam tulisan-tulisan sastra yang diterbitkan pasca tahun 1998 oleh penulis Indonesia kontemporer, yang dikenal sebagai penulis Generasi 2000 (penulis yang kebanyakan lahir di tahun 1970-an setidaknya 5 tahun setelah 1965 kejadian: juga dikenal sebagai millenials, makalah ini berusaha menjawab apakah generasi baru mengalami pergeseran dalam
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Les origines de la critique de science-fiction : de Kepler à Wells
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Arthur B. Evans
2012-10-01
Full Text Available Des notes de 1634 de Johannes Kepler sur son Songe aux essais d’H. G. Wells au début du xxe siècle, il y a eu de nombreuses explorations critiques de la littérature que nous appelons à présent science-fiction. Les commentaires de ces premiers critiques (souvent oubliés importent principalement parce qu’ils exprimaient nombre des inquiétudes (sinon toutes qui deviendraient plus tard centrales à la critique de la SF du xxe siècle : l’impact de la science et de la technologie sur les valeurs humaines, la logistique du voyage spatial, les frontières fluctuantes entre le réel et l’imaginaire, la description de l’« altérité » radicale, et les futurs possibles de notre monde. Bien plus, elles soulevaient invariablement des questions essentielles concernant les traits définitoires du genre lui-même dans sa forme en constante évolution : ses thèmes de prédilection, ses visées sociales, son didactisme scientifique et moral, son degré de vraisemblance constitutif, et sa place dans le canon littéraire occidental. Enfin, à l’aube du nouveau millénaire, il semble pertinent de regarder notre passé lointain pour redécouvrir ce que ces premiers commentateurs avaient à dire des nombreux ouvrages de science-fiction de leur époque : ceci sert à approfondir notre connaissance de la continuité historique du débat actuel sur la SF et à nous faire prendre conscience de la façon dont les choses ont à la fois beaucoup et peu changé à travers les siècles.
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How to become a competent medical writer?
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Suhasini Sharma
2010-01-01
Full Text Available Medical writing involves writing scientific documents of different types which include regulatory and research-related documents, disease or drug-related educational and promotional literature, publication articles like journal manuscripts and abstracts, content for healthcare websites, health-related magazines or news articles. The scientific information in these documents needs to be presented to suit the level of understanding of the target audience, namely, patients or general public, physicians or the regulators. Medical writers require an understanding of the medical concepts and terminology, knowledge of relevant guidelines as regards the structure and contents of specific documents, and good writing skills. They also need to be familiar with searching medical literature, understanding and presenting research data, the document review process, and editing and publishing requirements. Many resources are now available for medical writers to get the required training in the science and art of medical writing, and upgrade their knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis. The demand for medical writing is growing steadily in pharmaceutical and healthcare communication market. Medical writers can work independently or be employed as full time professionals. Life sciences graduates can consider medical writing as a valuable career option.
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Using Anthropomorphism and Fictional Story Development to Enhance Student Learning
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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.
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Towards explainable writer verification and identification using vantage writers
Brink, Axel; Schomaker, Lambert; Bulacu, Marius; Werner, B
2007-01-01
In this paper a new method for off-line writer verification and identification is proposed which encodes writer features as a mix of typical handwriting styles, written by so-called vantage writers. Since their handwriting can be shown to the user the method provides a degree of transparency that is
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The Use of "Literary Fiction" to Promote Mentalizing Ability.
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.
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Firooznia, Fardad
2006-01-01
This writing-intensive, lab-based, nonmajor biology course explores scientific inquiry and biological concepts through specific topics illustrated or inaccurately depicted in works of science fiction. The laboratory emphasizes the scientific method and introduces several techniques used in biological research related to the works we study.…
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Plaiche, Anza Karel
2012-01-01
This research project examines the representation of the experience of extreme violence in the contemporary fictional space of Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa. The numerous works of prose fiction written in the wake of the armed conflicts of the 1990s and the Rwandan genocide raise questions related to the representation of pain, cruelty and death as well as to the ethics of art. How do literary texts put into narrative traumatic events? How do writers think and problematize extreme crises of ...
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The terminator syndrome: Science fiction, cinema and contemporary culture
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J. Sey
1992-05-01
Full Text Available This paper examines the impact of contemporary technology on representations of the human body in American popular culture, focusing on James Cameron’s science fiction films The Terminator (1984 and The Terminator II - Judgment Day (1991 in both of which the key figures are cybernetic organisms (cyborgs or a robot which can exactly imitate the human form . The paper argues that the ability of modern film technology’ to represent the human form in robotic guise undercuts the distinction between nature and culture which maintains the position of the human being in society. The ability of the robot or cyborg to be ‘polygendered’ in particular, undermines the position of a properly oedipalized human body in society, one which balances the instinctual life against the rule of cultural law. As a result the second Terminator film attempts a recuperation of the category of the human by an oedipalization of the terminator cyborg.
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Egalitarian Fiction and Collective Fraud.
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)
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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...
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Pelak, Cynthia Fabrizio; Duncan, Stacey
2017-01-01
This article explores the use of a social science-fictional play to teach macro-structural concepts related to global capitalism and surplus labor in a small and large Introduction to Sociology course. Relying on a cross-disciplinary and critical pedagogical approach that combines theory and practice to empower students to develop a critical…
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Traumaculture and Telepathetic Cyber Fiction
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.
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The Radium Terrors. Science Fiction and Radioactivity before the Bomb.
Candela, Andrea
2015-01-01
At the beginning of the 20th century the collective imagination was fascinated and terrified by the discovery of radium. A scientific imagery sprang up around radioactivity and was disseminated by public lectures and newspaper articles discussing the ambiguous power of this strange substance. It was claimed that radium could be used to treat cholera, typhus and tuberculosis, but at the same time there were warnings that it could be used for military purposes. The media and the scientists themselves employed a rich vocabulary influenced by religion, alchemy and magic. The ambivalent power of radioactive elements exerted a great influence on science fiction novelists. This paper will examine some significant works published in Europe, America and Russia during the first decades of the 20th century and their role in the creation of the complex imagery of radioactivity that seized the public imagination long before the invention of the atomic bomb.
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Scientists' Stopping Behavior As Indicator of Writer's Skill
Broberg, Katie
1973-01-01
Indicates that accurate science writers have undergraduate degrees in English, journalism, or biology, have taken post graduate biology or journalism courses, and have some newspaper and freelance writing experience, plus experience in public relations. (RB)
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Comparative study of children’s science fiction narratives in Galician and Portuguese litterature
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Mociño González, I.
2011-11-01
Full Text Available This paper is about some reflections on the comparative study of Galician and Portuguese science fiction narrative addressed to a children and young adult’s audience. It is focused on the main characteristics this output reflects as well as its reception, which is determined by the publishing market, the collections in which those works are integrated and the importance of literary awards for their canonization. The commented period includes the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty first century, when some of the clues that define the configuration and development of a scarcely studied output from these two compared literary systems are revealed.
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Arur, Aditi Ashok
This dissertation is an ethnographic case study of a community-based teaching program (CBTP) in public health at a medical college in South India that explored how the CBTP produced particular ways of seeing and understanding rural and urban poor communities. Drawing from critical, feminist, and postcolonial scholars, I suggest that the knowledge produced in the CBTP can be understood as "science/fictions", that is, as cultural texts shaped by transnational development discourses as well as medical teachers' and students' sociospatial imaginations of the rural and urban poor. I explored how these science/fictions mediated medical students' performative actions and interactions with a rural and an urban poor community in the context of the CBTP. At the same time, I also examined how knowledge produced in students' encounters with these communities disrupted their naturalized understandings about these communities, and how it was taken up to renarrativize science/fictions anew. Data collection and analyses procedures were informed by critical ethnographic and critical discourse analysis approaches. Data sources includes field notes constructed from observations of the CBTP, interviews with medical teachers and students, and curricular texts including the standardized national textbook of public health. The findings of this study illustrate how the CBTP staged the government and technology as central actors in the production of healthy bodies, communities, and environments, and implicitly positioned medical teachers and students as productive citizens of a modern nation while rural and urban poor communities were characterized sometimes as empowered, and at other times as not-yet-modern and in need of reform. However, the community also constituted an alternate pedagogical site of engagement in that students' encounters with community members disrupted students' assumptions about these communities to an extent. Nevertheless, institutionalized practices of assessment
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Screening Jane. When History, Biography and Fiction create a Cinematic Life.
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Roberta Grandi
2015-07-01
Full Text Available This paper analyzes the interesting technique of adaptation of the film Becoming Jane, a biopic on the life of Jane Austen, released in 2007. Loosely based on Jon Spence's biography Becoming Jane Austen, the film faces the problem of the scarcity of information on Jane Austen's life through a technique that, if not original nor always satisfying, is nevertheless worth being studied. By recurring to the character descriptions and the anecdotes narrated in the novels, the film (and Spence's book too "fills in the blanks" in Austen's life by adding touches of romance with questionable historical accuracy and fictionalizes the writer's biography in order to adapt it to the stereotype of modern romantic film heroines.
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‘Thrilled with Chilly Horror’: A Formulaic Pattern in Gothic Fiction
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Aguirre Manuel
2015-01-01
Full Text Available This article is part of a body of research into the conventions which govern the composition of Gothic texts. Gothic fiction resorts to formulas or formula-like constructions, but whereas in writers such as Ann Radcliffe this practice is apt to be masked by stylistic devices, it enjoys a more naked display in the–in our modern eyes–less ‘canonical’ Gothics, and it is in these that we may profitably begin an analysis. The novel selected was Peter Teuthold’s The Necromancer (1794–a very free translation of K. F. Kahlert’s Der Geisterbanner (1792 and one of the seven Gothic novels mentioned in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
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Reading and esl writers Reading and esl writers
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John R. Edlund
2008-04-01
Full Text Available Whether the student population consists of basic writers, non-native speakers, or well-prepared freshmen and whether the primary goal of the class is improvement in writing ability, language and vocabulary acquisition, or critical thinking skills, there is considerable evidence that substantial amounts of reading arc an essential component of the course (See Krashen Writing: Research, Theory and Applications for a summary. This is especially true in the ESL composition class, where language acquisition is still a major factor in the student's success as a writer. Whether the student population consists of basic writers, non-native speakers, or well-prepared freshmen and whether the primary goal of the class is improvement in writing ability, language and vocabulary acquisition, or critical thinking skills, there is considerable evidence that substantial amounts of reading arc an essential component of the course (See Krashen Writing: Research, Theory and Applications for a summary. This is especially true in the ESL composition class, where language acquisition is still a major factor in the student's success as a writer.
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The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organizational Studies
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
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Marcilene Cristina Gomes-Maluf
2008-01-01
Full Text Available Este artigo apresenta uma reflexão sobre a inserção da ficção científica no ensino de Ciências, no qual buscamos identificar como a ficção científica incorpora elementos na estrutura conceitual dos educandos partindo do pressuposto de que teria um papel de desencadeadora e/ou organizadora da aprendizagem. O filme "Jurassic Park" foi estudado como constitutivo do conhecimento, transmutando o ficcional no real/racional, possibilitando a organização hierárquica dos conceitos, acrescendo novos elementos na estrutura conceitual dos educandos e atuando, também, na mediação do conhecimento - ora organizando, ora desencadeando.In this paper, we discuss the development of the science fiction approach in Science education. We are concerned to identify conceptual elements incorporated by students when faced with the science fiction approach in their development of scientific concepts. We use the movie "Jurassic Park" in this approach and found that the movie can be effective in the mediation of the fictional to the real.
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2007-01-01
"You could be forgiven for thinking that what follows is an extract from a science fiction novel. Modern physics now has a a weel-established traditin of befogging the intuition of the tidiest minds, so readers are urged to leave behing their workaday common sense at the end of this paragraph." (6 pages)
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Freudenrich, Craig C.
2000-01-01
Recommends using science fiction television episodes, novels, and films for teaching science and motivating students. Studies Newton's Law of Motion, principles of relativity, journey to Mars, interplanetary trajectories, artificial gravity, and Martian geology. Discusses science fiction's ability to capture student interest and the advantages of…
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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
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More Sci- than Fi, Physicists Create Antimatter
Overbye, Dennis
2002-01-01
Physicists working in Europe announced yesterday that they had passed through nature's looking glass and had created atoms made of antimatter, or antiatoms, opening up the possibility of experiments in a realm once reserved for science fiction writers (5 pages)
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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 ...
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LaViola, Joseph J; Zeleznik, Robert C
2007-11-01
We present a practical technique for using a writer-independent recognition engine to improve the accuracy and speed while reducing the training requirements of a writer-dependent symbol recognizer. Our writer-dependent recognizer uses a set of binary classifiers based on the AdaBoost learning algorithm, one for each possible pairwise symbol comparison. Each classifier consists of a set of weak learners, one of which is based on a writer-independent handwriting recognizer. During online recognition, we also use the n-best list of the writer-independent recognizer to prune the set of possible symbols and thus reduce the number of required binary classifications. In this paper, we describe the geometric and statistical features used in our recognizer and our all-pairs classification algorithm. We also present the results of experiments that quantify the effect incorporating a writer-independent recognition engine into a writer-dependent recognizer has on accuracy, speed, and user training time.
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Purpose and Professional Writers.
Blyler, Nancy Roundy
1989-01-01
Describes a protocol study of 10 professional writers which examined the meaning and influence of purpose on writers in the workplace. Explores the interactions of various purpose considerations derived from situation, reader, and text. Suggests that professional writers have a range of meanings in mind when they think about purpose. (MM)
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Martin-Hernandez, F.; Negredo, A. M.; Salguero, J. M.
2015-12-01
Many storylines presenting a geoscientific background are portrayed in science fiction movies. However, this background is often discussed only in qualitative terms in outreach books and forums. Here we report a mentoring experience of an end of degree project carried out in the fourth year of the degree in Physics in the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). The supervisors intended to take advantage of the students' passion for science fiction movies to foster learning by assessing a robust, quantitative and critical analysis of the main geoscientific phenomena appearing in Avatar movie by James Cameron (2009). The student was supposed to consult abundant scientific literature. Much interest was paid to analyze the conditions for the levitation of Hallelujah floating mountains in Pandora, the imaginary satellite where the movie action takes place. Pandora was assumed to be an Earth-like astronomical object where the same physical laws as in the Earth could be applied. Hallelujah Mountains are made of unobtanium, an electrical superconductor at room-temperature and therefore diamagnetic material and they are assumed to be located over a magnetic field pole. The numerical values of the magnetic susceptibility and the required field to make the material levitate at the Pandora's gravity conditions were estimated. For this purpose, the magnetic susceptibility of the superconductor with the highest critical temperature existing today on Earth, the cuprate YBa2Cu3O7 was estimated. Results were compared with the magnetic susceptibility of two diamagnetic and abundant materials in the Earth's crust, namely quartz and calcite, and with the water susceptibility. The magnetic field required to levitate cuprates was almost 9 T, about six orders of magnitude higher than the Earth's magnetic field. On the basis of the quantitative analysis of magnetic and gravity field in Pandora, the student provided a list of suggestions to improve the scientific basis for futures
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A. E. van Vogt: In Search of Meaning.
Drake, H. L.
A general semantics perspective of science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt is presented in this paper. The first major section of the paper contains a biographical sketch of van Vogt and traces the influence of A. Korzybski's work on general semantics, "Science and Sanity," on his writing, while the second major section provides an…
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Zamorano Llena, Carmen
2018-04-21
Associations of young-old age with successful aging have contributed to relegating negatively perceived aspects of aging to very old age. This has prompted the formation of the social imaginary of the fourth age. Re-examinations of the fourth age foreground the diversity of aging experiences among the oldest old. In this sense, literature is in a privileged position to contribute individual narratives of aging to this field. The main aim of this article is to analyze Irish writer Jennifer Johnston's later fiction and how particularly two of her later fictional works contribute a nuanced re-examination of the fourth age through the narrativization of individual aging experiences of the oldest old in the contemporary Irish context. The work of sociologists and social theorists on re-examinations of the fourth age functions as the framework to analyze the selected fictional texts. The analysis of the oldest old characters in Truth or Fiction and Naming the Stars shows the contribution of literary texts to rethinking the fourth age as a time characterized by the inextricable combination of gains and losses, with emphasis on the diversity of the aging experiences of the oldest old and on the importance of sociocultural influence on individual aging. Combining longitudinal analyses with case studies, such as the ones suggested by these fictional texts, can provide a more accurate knowledge of the experience of advanced old age and the fourth age.
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Pheasant-Kelly, Frances
2016-12-01
This article considers differences between the representation of mutation in science fiction films from the 1950s and the present, and identifies distinctive changes over this time period, both in relation to the narrative causes of genetic disruption and in the aesthetics of its visual display. Discerning an increasingly abject quality to science fiction mutations from the 1970s onwards-as a progressive tendency to view the physically opened body, one that has a seemingly fluid interior-exterior reversal, or one that is almost beyond recognition as humanoid-the article connects a propensity for disgust to the corresponding socio-cultural and political zeitgeist. Specifically, it suggests that such imagery is tied to a more expansive 'structure of feeling', proposed by Raymond Williams and emergent since the 1970s, but gathering momentum in later decades, that reflects an 'opening up' of society in all its visual, socio-cultural and political configurations. Expressly, it parallels a change from a repressive, patriarchal society that constructed medicine as infallible and male doctors as omnipotent to one that is generally more liberated, transparent and equitable. Engaging theoretically with the concept of a 'structure of feeling', and critically with scientific, cinematic and cultural discourses, two post-1970s' 'mutation' films, The Fly (1986) and District 9 (2009), are considered in relation to their pre-1970s' predecessors, and their aesthetics related to the perceptions and articulations of the medical profession at their respective historic moments, locating such instances within a broader medico-political canvas. 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/.
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Fiction and Organization Studies
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
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Off with your heads: isolated organs in early Soviet science and fiction
Krementsov, Nikolai
2009-01-01
In the summer of 1925, a debutant writer, Aleksandr Beliaev, published a ‘scientific-fantastic story’, which depicted the travails of a severed human head living in a laboratory, supported by special machinery. Just a few months later, a young medical researcher, Sergei Briukhonenko, succeeded in reviving the severed head of a dog, using a special apparatus he had devised to keep the head alive. This paper examines the relationship between the literary and the scientific experiments with severed heads in post-revolutionary Russia, which reflected the anxieties about death, revival, and survival in the aftermath of the 1914–1923 ‘reign of death’ in that country. It contrasts the anguished ethical questions raised by the story with the public fascination for ‘science that conquers death’. PMID:19442924
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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
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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.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Alec Charles
2010-11-01
Full Text Available Como la Guerra Fría influenció cuarenta años de ciencia ficción televisiva, así la sombra del 11/S formaliza la ciencia ficción popular en los primeros años del siglo XXI. La destrucción de Nueva York ha ocurrido en muchas películas como El día después de mañana, Cloverfield, La Guerra de los Mundos y La Leyenda. Como La Invasión, la última trilogía que reinventa la fábula de la Guerra Fría –La invasión de los ladrones de cuerpos, la Guerra de los Mundos y El hombre Omega- para la era neoconservadora, como 28 días después, 28 semanas después, Jericho y el remade Superviventes con un resurgimiento en un escenario post-apocalíptico que adolece de la serie Day of the Triffids. Como Star Trek: Enterprise vuelve su tradicional liberalismo como un ejercicio de patriotera paranoia, Batalla estelar (otro restaurada reliquia de la Guerra Fría ha presentado una visión más ambigua y problemática de la batalla de la democracia con el fundamentalismo. El re-hecho Doctor Who y Héroes han avanzado similares argumentos de nuevo en el totalizado seudo-utopismo de los cruzados o de los jihadistas a favor del stablishment de un consenso plural.Palabras clave: 11/S, ciencia ficción televisiva, Doctor Who, escenario post-apocalíptico, paranoia patriotera ___________________________ABSTRACT:As the Cold War influenced forty years of screen science fiction, so the shadow of 9/11 informs popular science fiction in the early twenty-first century. The destruction of New York has recurred in such films as The Day After Tomorrow, Cloverfield, War of the Worlds and I Am Legend. Like The Invasion, the latter pair reinvent Cold War fables – Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds and The Omega Man – for the neoconservative age, while 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Jericho and the remade Survivors witness a resurgence in post-apocalyptic concerns redolent of Day of the Triffids. While Star Trek: Enterprise turned its franchise
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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...
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Ethical Concerns About Human Genetic Enhancement in the Malay Science Fiction Novels.
Isa, Noor Munirah; Hj Safian Shuri, Muhammad Fakhruddin
2018-02-01
Advancements in science and technology have not only brought hope to humankind to produce disease-free offspring, but also offer possibilities to genetically enhance the next generation's traits and capacities. Human genetic enhancement, however, raises complex ethical questions, such as to what extent should it be allowed? It has been a great challenge for humankind to develop robust ethical guidelines for human genetic enhancement that address both public concerns and needs. We believe that research about public concerns is necessary prior to developing such guidelines, yet the issues have not been thoroughly investigated in many countries, including Malaysia. Since the novel often functions as a medium for the public to express their concerns, this paper explores ethical concerns about human genetic enhancement expressed in four Malay science fiction novels namely Klon, Leksikon Ledang, Transgenesis Bisikan Rimba and Transgenik Sifar. Religion has a strong influence on the worldview of the Malays therefore some concerns such as playing God are obviously religious. Association of the negative image of scientists as well as the private research companies with the research on human genetic enhancement reflects the authors' concerns about the main motivations for conducting such research and the extent to which such research will benefit society.
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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...
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Micromégas: Altered Body-Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction.
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.
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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.
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Mehring, F.
2017-01-01
Im Genre des Science-Fiction-Films zeichnet sich wieder einmal ein thematischer Wandel ab. Immer häufiger stellt sich die Frage: Wie werden in Zukunft die Begegnungen zwischen Menschen und intelligenten Maschinen aussehen, und wie werden sie inszeniert? Dabei scheint die geografische Nähe zwischen
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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....
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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.”
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The paradox of fiction: Emotional response toward fiction and the modulatory role of self-relevance.
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.
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Belaboring the Maritime Novel: The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, Sea Fiction, and Constituent Power
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Brandon Jernigan
2017-09-01
Full Text Available In this article, I argue that Joseph Conrad’s revision of popular maritime fiction in 'The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’' (1897 stages the anachronistic nature of romantic adventure in modernity in order to recuperate its own recognition of the revolutionary capacity of the body and collective labor. Throughout his work, Conrad participates in a range of popular genres, often engaging with, and drawing on, multiple genres in the space of a single novel. His formal flexibility at least partially accounts for his complex critical legacy as a writer who exposes the imperialist ideology in which he participates. 'The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’', however, demands that we partially amend our notion of Conrad’s deconstructive aesthetic. This approach helps to clarify how the novella engages in critical self-reflection as it reveals the fragile constructedness of both genre and history. In adapting the genre of sea fiction, Conrad places pressure on extant tensions within the genre, especially around labor, and nearly renders the romantic adventure untenable. However, this pressure ultimately becomes an adaptive strategy to confront growing anxiety around imperial interdependency, including the rejection of commodified labor. At a moment in imperial history when the recognition of global interdependence and antagonism threatens the ideological, economic, and political underpinnings of imperialism, Conrad adapts the flexibility of sea fiction to confront this mounting pressure on the imperial consciousness and thus to reconstruct a more flexible representation of imperial relations.
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Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading and Comprehension in Preferred Books
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…
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Farland, Donna Lynn
Researchers do not know what, if any, specific influence such stereotypical images have on the shaping of children's perceptions in science (Schibeci & Sorenson, 1983), but the indications are that stereotypical images translate into negative perceptions of science. Commonly held stereotypic images are in direct opposition to what students should understand about science as identified by the National Science Education Standards (1996) in which learning about 'Science as a Human Endeavor' begins as early as grades K--4. Nationally, many schools are moving toward kit-based science instruction, which generally consists of a series of guided discovery activities that lead children toward description and understanding of scientific phenomena. It is proposed that by supplementing these kits with historical, non-fiction, trade books, children will gain a broader understanding of the diversity of scientists, their work, and the variety of places science is done. No studies, to date, have been conducted to examine students' understanding of the concepts included in 'Science as a Human Endeavor' as they receive kit-based science instruction. This research has been designed to answer the following question: Does the inclusion of historical, non-fiction, trade books, presenting scientists as people working with or developing an idea, as part of kit-based science instruction influence third grade students' representations of the contemporary scientist and his/her work? It was found that students who were read historical, non-fiction, trade books in conjunction with kit-based instruction demonstrated significant differences in their drawings of scientists from those produced by students who were not exposed to the trade books with respect to two criteria; appearance of scientists, and the activity performed by scientists. This study also revealed that students were able to maintain the improvement in their representations of scientists four weeks after the intervention had ended
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Engineering in Children's Fiction--Not a Good Story?
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…
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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...
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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
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Literature on the Margins: Russian Fiction in the Nineties
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mark Lipovetsky
2000-01-01
Full Text Available Despite shrinkage in print runs and readership, canonical Literature during the 1990s developed along three major lines that connected writers of various generations in both aesthetics and philosophy: realism, exemplified in Georgii Vladimov's prize-winning novel, The General and His Army (1994; postmodernism, richly represented in the fiction of Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Pelevin, and Vladimir Sharov; and neosentimentalism, as derived from the naturalism of early perestroika, most consistently embraced by Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Liudmila Ulitskaia, and, in his paternal profession de foi , one of Russia's chief theorists of postmodernism, Mikhail Epshtein. All three tendencies aspired to the status of mainstream, which they failed to attain, owing to a fundamental instability that chaos theory has labeled a "bifurcation cascade." Inasmuch as that stage, according to specialists in chaos theory, leads to irreversible changes that effect a high level of stability, the outlook for Russian literature at century's end might be less bleak than prophesied by doomsayers.
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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 ...
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Detecting Two-Spirit erotics: The fiction of Carole laFavor.
Tatonetti, Lisa
2016-01-01
This article examines the life and novels of Carole laFavor, arguing for her importance to and influence in Two-Spirit studies. Along with being a writer, laFavor was a powerful voice for social justice and Indigenous health sovereignty in Minnesota and the nation. Her two novels, Along the Journey River and Evil Dead Center, which both focus on Anishinaabe lesbian detective protagonist Renee LaRoche, are the first lesbian detective fiction published by a Native author. Renee's embrace of a specifically Two-Spirit erotics anchors her to family and brings her tribal community a powerful healing when she employs her skills to protect her people from instances of racism, abuse, and injustice. This article, then, reads these novels as the first of an emerging genre of texts that claim an overtly Two-Spirit erotic as well as vital precursors to the present embrace of sovereign erotics in Indigenous studies.
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Micromégas: Altered Body–Environment Scaling in Literary Fiction
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
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Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis.
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).
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Giovanna Tallone
2017-10-01
Full Text Available Besides being one of Ireland’s best-known and eminent writers, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is also a professional and recognised folklorist and researcher, whose work covers a diversity of topics and subjects, mostly in the area of the tradition of oral storytelling and urban folklore. Her background in folklore has a relevant impact on her fiction, which is marked by reinvention of folklore patterns and juxtaposition of ancient stories and their contemporary counterpart. The purpose of his essay is to shed light on the impact of folklore and folklore projects on the fiction of Éilís Ní Dhuibhne in terms of in allusions, contents, discourse organization and narrative strategies. The tight link between folklore and storytelling in her writing is analysed taking into account her short stories vis-à-vis her academic work in folklore, focussing on Ní Dhuibhne’s awareness of the continuity of traditional narrative in time.
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2009-03-01
WE RECOMMEND The Age of Wonder This book tells the stories of inspiring 19th-century scientists Antimatter A fast read that gives an intriguing tour of the antimatter world Science Fiction-Science Fact A video from a set of resources about the facts in science fiction WORTH A LOOK Portoscope Lightweight ×30 microscope that is easy on the purse Four Laws that Drive the Universe In just 124 pages Peter Atkins explains thermodynamics Coffee Saver Starter Kit A tool that can demonstrate the effect of reduced air pressure Graphite Levitation Kit Compact set that demonstrates diamagnetic behaviour Critical Reading A study guide on how to read scientific papers HANDLE WITH CARE Around the World in 80 Images Navigate through images from Envistat, country by country WEB WATCH This month's issue features real-time simulation program Krucible 2.0, which enables learners to run virtual experiments
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The cost of the muse: poets die young.
Kaufman, James C
2003-11-01
Although several investigations have found that poets tend to die younger than other types of writers, these studies often do not take into account variables of gender and culture. This study examines 1,987 deceased writers from four different cultures: American, Chinese, Turkish, and Eastern European. Both male and female poets had the shortest life spans of all four types of writers (fiction writers, poets, playwrights, and non-fiction writers), and poets had the shortest life spans in three of the four cultures (and the second shortest life span among Eastern European writers). Possible reasons for the poet's shorter life span are then discussed.
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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....
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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....
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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.....
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MFA Writers' Relationships with Writing
Olthouse, Jill M.
2013-01-01
Through a qualitative research design, I explored how eight talented masters in fine arts (MFA) writers related to their craft. The phenomenon "relationship with writing" includes writers' goals, values, identity, and emotions as these relate to writing. I found that that these MFA writers experience compatibilities and conflicts…
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The only woman in the room why science is still a boys' club
Pollack, Eileen
2015-01-01
In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women, even today, achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. A successful fiction writer, Pollack had grown up in the 1960s and ’70s dreaming of a career as a theoretical astrophysicist. Denied the chance to take advanced courses in science and math, she nonetheless made her way to Yale. There, despite finding herself far behind the men in her classes, she went on to graduate summa cum laude, with honors, as one of the university’s first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, starved for encouragement, she abandoned her ambition to become a physicist. Years later, spurred by the suggestion that innate differences in scientific and mathematical aptitude might account for the dearth of tenured female faculty at Summer’s institution, Pollack thought back on her own experiences and wondered what, if anything, had changed i...
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The Voice of the Technical Writer.
Euler, James S.
The author's voice is implicit in all writing, even technical writing. It is the expression of the writer's attitude toward audience, subject matter, and self. Effective use of voice is made possible by recognizing the three roles of the technical writer: transmitter, translator, and author. As a transmitter, the writer must consciously apply an…
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Using emotional rather than rational reactions: Can fiction help?
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Michel, Alain
1998-01-01
This paper presents a summary of a Case study. Ask someone in the street about nuclear events, Chernobyl will come first. The accident that is the center of the action in the 'Chinese syndrome', a fiction produced for the cinema, is better known than the one that occurred nearly at the same time in Three Mile Island reactor. This film can be seen nearly every year on T V in Europe and always creates some emotion. If the film 'Karen Silkwood' is programmed, on illegal actions in a plutonium fuel fabrication plant, dramatizing on the basis a some real facts, nuclear activities are again questioned. There are many books with nuclear questions as the central subject: most of them are based on nuclear black-mail or the life after the bomb. But there also are a number of them which concern nuclear plants. There are many more of those. In most of them, the nuclear people are the villains. In comic strips like 'L'Ankou' (Spirou) or T V serials like 'The Simpsons', the nuclear power plant employees are stupid and aggressive. Some other writers like P.D. James, or Michel Corentin and Gil Lacq have nuclear plant managers among the heroes of their plot, and they give a realistic view of the nuclear world, although not really positive. The days have changed from the time Jules Verne described the technical progress with such enthusiasm that many young people decided to make a career in science and technology. Presently the point is not anymore to show the nuclear engineers or scientists as perfect heroes, or pretend that all is well in perfect nuclear installations. The interesting aspect of a good fiction would be more to make these premises and people positively familiar. A good example of such a book, is 'Overload' (Arthur Hailey): the subject is the delayed licensing of a large coal power plant and its consequences, a dramatic blackout. A pity that it was never made into a film for T V or cinema. This autumn, I have published a book titled 'The Syndrome M': it is a thriller
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Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Third Millennium Edition
Hofstede, G.; Hofstede, G.J.
2005-01-01
The world is a more dangerously divided place today than it was at the end of the Cold War. This despite the spread of free trade and the advent of digital technologies that afford a degree of global connectivity undreamed of by science fiction writers fifty years ago. What is it that continues to
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Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds.
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.
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What Can Vampires Teach Us about Immunology?
Schneider, David S
2016-04-01
Speculative fiction examines the leading edge of science and can be used to introduce ideas into the classroom. For example, most students are already familiar with the fictional infectious diseases responsible for vampire and zombie outbreaks. The disease dynamics of these imaginary ailments follow the same rules we see for real diseases and can be used to remind students that they already understand the basic rules of disease ecology and immunology. By engaging writers of this sort of fiction in an effort to solve problems in immunology we may be able to perform a directed evolution experiment where we follow the evolution of plots rather than genetic traits. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Penelope Delta, recently discovered writer
MALAPANI A.
2015-01-01
The aim of this article is to present a Greek writer, Penelope Delta. This writer has recently come up in the field of the studies of the Greek literature and, although thereare neither many translations of her works in foreign languages nor many theses or dissertations, she was chosen for the great interest for her works. Her books have been read by many generations, so she is considered a classical writer of Modern Greek Literature. The way she uses the Greek language, the unique characters...
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Wiederholt, Bradley J.; Browning, Elica J.; Norton, Jeffrey E.; Johnson, William B.
1991-01-01
MITT Writer is a software system for developing computer based training for complex technical domains. A training system produced by MITT Writer allows a student to learn and practice troubleshooting and diagnostic skills. The MITT (Microcomputer Intelligence for Technical Training) architecture is a reasonable approach to simulation based diagnostic training. MITT delivers training on available computing equipment, delivers challenging training and simulation scenarios, and has economical development and maintenance costs. A 15 month effort was undertaken in which the MITT Writer system was developed. A workshop was also conducted to train instructors in how to use MITT Writer. Earlier versions were used to develop an Intelligent Tutoring System for troubleshooting the Minuteman Missile Message Processing System.
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Drug delivery interfaces in the 21st century: from science fiction ideas to viable technologies.
Chertok, Beata; Webber, Matthew J; Succi, Marc D; Langer, Robert
2013-10-07
Early science fiction envisioned the future of drug delivery as targeted micrometer-scale submarines and "cyborg" body parts. Here we describe the progression of the field toward technologies that are now beginning to capture aspects of this early vision. Specifically, we focus on the two most prominent types of systems in drug delivery: the intravascular micro/nano drug carriers for delivery to the site of pathology and drug-loaded implantable devices that facilitate release with the predefined kinetics or in response to a specific cue. We discuss the unmet clinical needs that inspire these designs, the physiological factors that pose difficult challenges for their realization, and viable technologies that promise robust solutions. We also offer a perspective on where drug delivery may be in the next 50 years based on expected advances in material engineering and in the context of future diagnostics.
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Use of fictional medical television in health sciences education: a systematic review.
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.
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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...
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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.
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Advanced Space Nuclear Reactors from Fiction to Reality
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.
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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...
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The Importance of Reading in Earnest: Non-Fiction for Young Children
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…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Юлія Володимирівна Логвиненко
2015-09-01
Full Text Available In the article it is revealed the immensity of ideas that included by the author in the science fiction novel: threats and the possible consequences of the use of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons and criticism of the totalitarian state system. It is proved the relevance of the novel, which points to a possible way forward for Ukraine and the international community in the era of globalization
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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.
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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.
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Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database
Hříbek, Tomáš
2009-01-01
Roč. 5, 11-12 (2009), s. 19-52 ISSN 1214-7915 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z90090514 Keywords : Darwinism * British fiction * genetic determinism * sexual selection * altruism Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion
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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...
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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.
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"Palabras de la Ciencia": Pedro Castera and Scientific Writing in Mexico's "Fin de Siècle"
del Pilar Blanco, María
2014-01-01
This essay explores the career of the understudied writer Pedro Castera (1846-1906), who is regarded as one of the first practitioners of science fiction in Mexico. A man of many talents, Castera is one of the most eccentric and eclectic figures in the intellectual life of fin-de-siècle Mexico City. His career took many turns: While during…
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Transgressing the Non-fiction Transmedia Narrative
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...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Demet Işık
2018-03-01
Full Text Available Sumerologist, writer M.İ. Çığ’s work called Ludingirra the Sumerian: Science Fiction for the Past” has been adapted from the information in the tablets which belongs to thousands of years ago. The main character of the book Ludingirra, a writer, teacher, and poet wanted to reach future generations with his writings. The importance is given to writing, information, organizing, preservation and storing of information by Sumerians who lived thousands of years ago is worthy of esteem. I hope that our colleagues and others are going to be interested in this book.
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Collecting, curating, and researching writers' libraries a handbook
Oram, Richard W
2014-01-01
Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook is the first book to examine the history, acquisition, cataloging, and scholarly use of writers' personal libraries. This book also includes interviews with several well-known writers, who discuss their relationship with their books.
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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...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Carlos Alberto Machado
2008-01-01
Full Text Available Muito se fala sobre o meio ambiente nos meios de comunicação e nas escolas, mas pouco se sabe sobre toda sua gama e envergadura. Confundem-se princípios ecológicos com o ensino generalizado do meio ambiente que cobre uma gama muito maior de conceitos e uma complexidade de relações urgentes e esquece-se que o estudo do meio ambiente deve tratar do todo envolvido pelo homem, do todo ao redor. Visões utópicas e distópicas a respeito desse tema estão presentes em alguns filmes de ficção científica feitos para cinema e televisão. Este texto analisa relações entre esses filmes e conceitos científicos relativos ao meio ambiente e aponta possibilidades de uso dos mesmos no ensino de ciência.The environment is one of the most important scientific subjects in the XXI century. Schools and the media talk about it all the time but they do not have enough knowledge. They forget that environmental studies must embrace the human beings and the whole world around them. Utopian and non-utopian conceptions about this subject are often presented in science fictions movies made for the cinema or for the television. This text discusses the relation between science fiction movies and scientific environmental concepts. In addition, it suggests a way to use the science in these kinds of films at school to develop science teaching.
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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.
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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.
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The Return of Historical Fiction
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…
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Reading Educational Philosophies in "Freedom Writers"
Choi, Jung-Ah
2009-01-01
The 2007 film "Freedom Writers" portrays the real-life experiences of Erin Gruwell, a teacher at an inner-city high school in Long Beach, California. This article discusses the educational theories underpinning Gruwell's pedagogical practice, as seen in "Freedom Writers", and identifies four themes--rewriting curriculum,…
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Iniesta, I
2010-10-01
Literature complements medical literature in the academic and clinical development of neurologists. The present article explores the contributions of writers of fiction on neurology. Literary works of fiction with particular reference to neurology. A symbiosis between writers of fiction and doctors has been well recognised. From Shakespeare to Cervantes by way of Dickens and Cela to writer - physicians such as Anton Chekhov or António Lobo Antunes have contributed through their medically informed literature to the better understanding of neurology. Some writers like Dostoevsky, Machado de Assis and Margiad Evans have written about their own experiences with disease thus bringing new insights to medicine. Furthermore, some neurological disorders have been largely based on literary descriptions. For instance, Dostoevsky's epilepsy has been retrospectively analysed by famous neurologists including Freud, Alajouanine or Gastaut, whilst his writings and biography have prompted others like Waxman and Geschwind to describe typical behavioural changes in temporal lobe epilepsy, finding their source of inspiration in Dostoevsky. Likewise, Cirignotta et al have named an unusual type of seizure after the Russian novelist. Inspired by Lewis Carroll, Todd introduced the term Alice in Wonderland Syndrome to refer to visual distortions generally associated with migraine. Writers of fiction offer a humanised perception of disease by contributing new insights into the clinical history, informing about the subjective experience of the illness and helping to eradicate the stigma associated to neurological disorders.
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Erata, Ferhat; Gardent, Claire; Gyawali, Bikash; Shimorina, Anastasia; Lussaud, Yvan; Tekinerdogan, Bedir; Kardas, Geylani; Monceaux, Anne
2017-01-01
The ModelWriter platform provides a generic framework for automated traceability analysis. In this paper, we demonstrate how this framework can be used to trace the consistency and completeness of technical documents that consist of a set of System Installation Design Principles used by Airbus to
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Vic Grout
2018-04-01
Full Text Available It seems to be accepted that intelligence—artificial or otherwise—and ‘the singularity’ are inseparable concepts: ‘The singularity’ will apparently arise from AI reaching a, supposedly particular, but actually poorly-defined, level of sophistication; and an empowered combination of hardware and software will take it from there (and take over from us. However, such wisdom and debate are simplistic in a number of ways: firstly, this is a poor definition of the singularity; secondly, it muddles various notions of intelligence; thirdly, competing arguments are rarely based on shared axioms, so are frequently pointless; fourthly, our models for trying to discuss these concepts at all are often inconsistent; and finally, our attempts at describing any ‘post-singularity’ world are almost always limited by anthropomorphism. In all of these respects, professional ‘futurists’ often appear as confused as storytellers who, through freer licence, may conceivably have the clearer view: perhaps then, that becomes a reasonable place to start. There is no attempt in this paper to propose, or evaluate, any research hypothesis; rather simply to challenge conventions. Using examples from science fiction to illustrate various assumptions behind the AI/singularity debate, this essay seeks to encourage discussion on a number of possible futures based on different underlying metaphysical philosophies. Although properly grounded in science, it eventually looks beyond the technology for answers and, ultimately, beyond the Earth itself.
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Reading fiction during sick leave, a multidimensional occupation.
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.
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What Basic Writers Think about Writing.
Eves-Bowden, Anmarie
2001-01-01
Explores basic writing students' current writing processes, their thoughts on their writing, and their introduction to a structured writing process model. Suggests that educators can assist basic writers in becoming successful college writers by introducing them to a structured writing process model while also helping them to become reflective…
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2004-01-01
Less interested in the scientific fundamentals of rocketry, many writers of popular literature and science fiction discovered one of the most vital elements in the formula for space travel, a fertile imagination. Under the impression that the sun 'draws up' dewdrops, Cyrano de Bergerac suggested fancifully that one might fly by trapping dew in bottles, strapping the bottles to oneself, and standing in sunlight.
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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....
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Children Reading Fiction Books Because They Want To
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
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Russell, Nicholas
2009-10-01
Introduction: what this book is about and why you might want to read it; Prologue: three orphans share a common paternity: professional science communication, popular journalism, and literary fiction are not as separate as they seem; Part I. Professional Science Communication: 1. Spreading the word: the endless struggle to publish professional science; 2. Walk like an Egyptian: the alien feeling of professional science writing; 3. The future's bright? Professional science communication in the age of the internet; 4. Counting the horse's teeth: professional standards in science's barter economy; 5. Separating the wheat from the chaff: peer review on trial; Part II. Science for the Public: What Science Do People Need and How Might They Get It?: 6. The Public Understanding of Science (PUS) movement and its problems; 7. Public engagement with science and technology (PEST): fine principle, difficult practice; 8. Citizen scientists? Democratic input into science policy; 9. Teaching and learning science in schools: implications for popular science communication; Part III. Popular Science Communication: The Press and Broadcasting: 10. What every scientist should know about mass media; 11. What every scientist should know about journalists; 12. The influence of new media; 13. How the media represents science; 14. How should science journalists behave?; Part IV. The Origins of Science in Cultural Context: Five Historic Dramas: 15. A terrible storm in Wittenberg: natural knowledge through sorcery and evil; 16. A terrible storm in the Mediterranean: controlling nature with white magic and religion; 17. Thieving magpies: the subtle art of false projecting; 18. Foolish virtuosi: natural philosophy emerges as a distinct discipline but many cannot take it seriously; 19. Is scientific knowledge 'true' or should it just be 'truthfully' deployed?; Part V. Science in Literature: 20. Science and the Gothic: the three big nineteenth-century monster stories; 21. Science fiction: serious
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Susan swan and the female grotesque Susan swan and the female grotesque
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Suzana Bornéo Funck
2008-04-01
Full Text Available Introduced to readers as “the tallest woman freelance writer in Canada”, Susan Swan belongs to a generation of writers whose experimental, innovative fiction has proved vital in the contemporary project of de/re/constructing narrative practice. Her 1983 novel The Biggest Modern Woman of the World constitutes an excellent example of what critic Linda Hutcheon has termed “historiographic metafiction”—”fiction that is intensely, self-reflexively art, but is also grounded in historical, social, and political realities” (Canadian 13. As a conscious engagement with social and historical contexts, such fiction aims at destabilizing and subverting accepted patterns of belief by reconceptualizing and narrating possible subjectivities. By means of intertextuality, especially parody, it engages in an ideological critique in terms of both sexual and national politics. Introduced to readers as “the tallest woman freelance writer in Canada”, Susan Swan belongs to a generation of writers whose experimental, innovative fiction has proved vital in the contemporary project of de/re/constructing narrative practice. Her 1983 novel The Biggest Modern Woman of the World constitutes an excellent example of what critic Linda Hutcheon has termed “historiographic metafiction”—”fiction that is intensely, self-reflexively art, but is also grounded in historical, social, and political realities” (Canadian 13. As a conscious engagement with social and historical contexts, such fiction aims at destabilizing and subverting accepted patterns of belief by reconceptualizing and narrating possible subjectivities. By means of intertextuality, especially parody, it engages in an ideological critique in terms of both sexual and national politics.
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Nature is far more imaginative than human beings!
2009-01-01
Is today’s science fiction really tomorrow’s science fact (*)? If you remember the Star Trek TV series, you will have noticed that extra-dimensions are becoming more plausible than you could have imagined when Captain Kirk was leading the Enterprise. Lawrence Krauss, author of "The Physics of Star Trek", visited CERN on 28 August and told us how the LHC inspires him both as a scientist and as a writer.Wearing his cosmologist’s hat, Lawrence Krauss met the CERN audience in the Main Auditorium and gave a colloquium entitled "Cosmology as Science? From Inflation to Eternity". Wearing his other hat of bestselling writer, he told us that he finds the LHC a very inspiring human adventure. "The LHC and its experiments", he says, "represent how science can span and bridge human cultures and interests, focusing for an incredibly intense period on questions which may seem esoteric but in some way will give us insights into our place in the Universe". CERN science has inspired ...
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The Museum of Science and Industry Basic List of Children's Science Books 1973-1984.
Richter, Bernice; Wenzel, Duane
Children's science books are listed under these headings: animals; astronomy; aviation and space; biography; careers; earth sciences; encyclopedias and reference books; environment and conservation; fiction; general science; life sciences; marine life; mathematics and computer science; medical and health sciences; physics and chemistry; plant…
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Process Synchronization with Readers and Writers Revisited
Kawash, Jalal
2005-01-01
The readers-writers problem is one of the very well known problems in concurrency theory. It was first introduced by Courtois et.al. in 1971 [1] and requires the synchronization of processes trying to read and write a shared resource. Several readers are allowed to access the resource simultaneously, but a writer must be given exclusive access to that resource. Courtois et.al. gave semaphore-based solutions to what they called the first and second readers-writers problems. Both of their solut...
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Zoreda, Margaret Lee
An outline of a "co-emergent" pedagogical perspective describes the conceptual framework for an advanced university-level English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) course. The course framework, which involves choosing and studying a brief science fiction story, allows for transcultural encounters via a transactional literary approach in which…
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The thousand and one tries: Storytelling as an art of failure in Rabih Alameddine’s Fiction
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Tabačková Zuzana
2015-09-01
Full Text Available The paper discusses experimental fiction of Rabih Alameddine, an American writer of Lebanese origin, whose literary pursuits subvert Orientalist discourse based on the East/West dichotomy by focusing on the commonalities of the two. The recurring motif of searching for one’s identity (while being trapped in-between two mutually distant and at the same time similar worlds is reflected in the subversion of the traditional understanding of the narrative which is destined to a constant failure. Alameddine’s storytelling is, in reality, a “story-trying.“ By employing multiple narrators, intertwining plots, genres and languages, the author is striving hard to tell “hisstory” about American homophobia, Lebanese sectarianism as well as the physical and psychological outcomes of war - a story which turns up to be a narration of the thousand and one failed beginnings.
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Transnational Crime Fictions and Argentina's Criminal State
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....
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Transgressing the Non-fiction Transmedia Narrative
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
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Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.
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.
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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
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mercedes del Campo del Pozo
2014-03-01
Full Text Available Looking into prison short fiction, this article discusses how a number of Northern Irish women writers have challenged male-centred narratives of the Troubles. Mary Beckett, Frances Molloy and Brenda Murphy have created alternative discourses of political violence which differ from the dominant narratives of incarceration. They confront established discourses of masculinity and femininity by subverting social constructs of gender, particularly the models of the rebel-hero and Mother Ireland ingrained in the nationalist/republican traditions. Their prison short stories are excellent examples of how state politics is superseded by gender politics in women’s writing and they are also proof of an emerging gender consciousness that challenged dominant readings of the Troubles in the last decades of the twentieth century.
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Fiction, History and Pedagogy: A Double-Edged Sword
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…
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Urban Image in Iranian Fiction Films
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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.
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Levels of subject communication in fiction literature
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Alexander S. Komarov
2014-01-01
Full Text Available The article is devoted to personality intercourse between writer and reader in Belles-Lettres. The intercourse between the self of the writer and the self of the reader realizes itself in the processes of writing and reading belles-lettres texts that serve as specific mediators between the two selfs. The article shows the free and personal nature of the intercourse. In the article, the author singles out and gives descriptions of stages/levels of involvement into belles-lettres personality intercourse. The author distinguishes five conventional stages: superficial or shallow stage, contradiction or conflict stage, identity or emotional stage, transcendental stage and supersensitive stage. Degree of openness of selfs to each other and degree of willingness on the part of the participants to express their own selfs serve as criteria of separating one stage from another. Degree of openness of selfs to each other is represented as a degree of the reader's openness to the writer's influence. While degree of willingness to express one's own self is perceived as a degree of the writer's or reader's readiness to reveal their self. The author argues that at each stage of intercourse its participants demonstrate a different degree of their involvement into it, which leads to misinterpretations of texts on the part of the reader and on the whole to misunderstanding between the reader and writer. The reader's transition from one stage to another can have a gradual character. However, the reader's transition to the writer's stage of intercourse can also be instantaneous, which depends on the reader's individual ability of perception as well as the writer's skill. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that understanding or misunderstanding between writer and reader as well as different interpretations of the writer's belles-lettres work by the reader lie at different stages in a degree of the reader's involvement into the intercourse suggested to
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Hollywood Science: Good for Hollywood, Bad for Science?
Perkowitz, Sidney
2009-03-01
Like it or not, most science depicted in feature films is in the form of science fiction. This isn't likely to change any time soon, if only because science fiction films are huge moneymakers for Hollywood. But beyond that, these films are a powerful cultural force. They reach millions as they depict scientific ideas from DNA and cloning to space science, whether correctly or incorrectly; reflect contemporary issues of science and society like climate change, nuclear power and biowarfare; inspire young people to become scientists; and provide defining images -- or stereotypes -- of scientists for the majority of people who've never met a real one. Certainly, most scientists feel that screen depictions of science and scientists are badly distorted. Many are, but not always. In this talk, based on my book Hollywood Science [1], I'll show examples of good and bad screen treatments of science, scientists, and their impact on society. I'll also discuss efforts to improve how science is treated in film and ways to use even bad movie science to convey real science. [4pt] [1] Sidney Perkowitz, Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World (Columbia University Press, New York, 2007). ISBN: 978-0231142809
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Juan Antonio Cabezas Garrido
2010-11-01
Full Text Available RESUMEN El viaje es y ha sido un tema recurrente en la ciencia ficción desde sus comienzos. El viaje como proyecto, como trayecto y como límite conforman escenarios en los que la arquitectura se hace presente definiendo el carácter, la forma y el entorno del futuro. La representación de ese entorno y la vocación prospectiva que contiene la ciencia ficción, producen innumerables ejemplos distintos que imaginan diversidad de escenarios posibles en futuros lejanos y próximos. La mezcla de elementos habitables que produce el viaje, donde la ciudad, el edificio y el transporte en ocasiones son la misma cosa, se añade al reflejo de la realidad que el cineasta superpone a su propia y personal visión del porvenir. El tren llegando a la ciudad, símbolo del primer espectáculo cinematográfico, y la visión de las estrellas del pasajero de un transbordador espacial son metáforas de la fascinación del hombre por su propio descubrimiento y del deseo constante de avanzar hacia la materialización de su imaginación. SUMMARY Travel is and has been a recurrent theme in science fiction since its inception. The planning, the route and the destination of the journey shape scenarios in which architecture is present, defining the character, the form and the surroundings of the future. The representation of those surroundings, and the foresight contained in science fiction, produces innumerable different examples that imagine the diversity of possible scenarios in futures far and near. The mixture of inhabitable elements along the journey, where city, buildings and transport are sometimes indistinguishable, is added to the film director's superimposed reflection of reality and personal vision of the future. The train arriving at the city, a symbol of the first film screening, and the vision of stars seen by the space shuttle passenger, are metaphors for the fascination of humankind for their own discovery, and of the constant desire to advance towards
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Observing writing processes of struggling adult writers with collaborative writing
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Afra Sturm
2016-10-01
Full Text Available This study investigated how struggling adult writers solve a writing task and what they know about writing and themselves as writers. The writing process of the adult writers was examined by combining three elements: the observation of collaborative writing tasks, analyses of their written texts, and structured individual interviews that included both retrospective and prospective parts. This methodical approach provides productive tools to assess writing processes and writing knowledge of struggling adult writers. The triangulation of data from the different sources is visualized in a case study. Findings from the case study suggest both similarities and differences between struggling adult and younger writers. Concerning the writing process of both groups, planning and revision play a limited role. However, alongside these similar limitations in their writing process, struggling adult writers distinguish themselves from their young counterparts through their relatively extensive knowledge about themselves as writers.
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Distinguishing fiction from non-fiction with complex networks
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.
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Nebulous networks: Virginia Woolf and popular astronomy
Henry, Holly Grace
This study investigates Virginia Woolf's fascination with advances in astronomy and telescopic technologies of the 1920s and 30s. Grounded in the cultural studies of science, and the work of theorists such as Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, the dissertation reconstructs the complex interconnections between Woolf's fiction and prose writing and an explosive popular interest in astronomy and cosmology. Woolf's aesthetic and political practices were shaped by emerging visualization technologies ranging from astronomical telescopes to the hand-held camera. While her writing provides a focus for this investigation, the dissertation offers close readings of fiction and essays by multiple British authors and science writers in the context of these converging phenomena. As a result of glimpsing tiny worlds through her own telescope, Virginia Woolf formulated a global aesthetic and a global politics. Gazing at the moon and stars reminded her that earth is a planet in space, and that earth's inhabitants must rely on this small, fragile globe for their future survival. The opening chapter establishes the cultural context for the study. In 1923, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble determined that the Andromeda galaxy was located far beyond the limits of the Milky Way, then believed to comprise the entire universe. Hubble's radical reconfiguration of the universe contributed to a pervasive sense, in the modern period, of a decentering and re-scaling of humans in the universe. In the chapters that follow, the dissertation offers readings of Woolf's novels and short fiction in relation to her fascination with astronomy and explores how the wildly popular British cosmologist and science writer, Sir James jeans, had a shaping effect on popular culture and on Woolf's narrative practices and pacifist politics. Despite his oblique connections to what became Bloomsbury, jeans and his popular science texts were to play a considerable role in Woolf's formulation of a global aesthetic.
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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.
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Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre
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
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Research Paper Writing Strategies of Professional Japanese EFL Writers.
Matsumoto, Kazuko
1995-01-01
Four Japanese university professors were interviewed on their strategies for writing a research paper in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Results indicate that these writers use strategies similar to those used by skilled native English writers and proficient writers of English as a Second Language. (35 references) (Author/CK)
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Luís Paulo Piassi
2013-01-01
Full Text Available Este trabalho, partindo da apresentação de propostas de ensino de ciências com o uso da ficção científica e fundamentando-se em referenciais dos estudos literários críticos sobre o gênero, objetiva argumentar que sua maior contribuição para a educação científica não se situa nem na precisão científica, nem na qualidade didática e nem mesmo no potencial lúdico que esse tipo de narrativa desperta. Sem desconsiderar a importância desses aspectos, mostramos que o sentido de levar a ficção científica para as aulas de ciências está nos mecanismos de produção ficcional que, por características que lhe são próprias, envolve um modo especial de raciocinar sobre o mundo natural. Tais mecanismos baseiam-se em conjecturas que promovem o chamado estranhamento cognitivo capaz de promover, nos estudantes, a problematização que pode ser o ponto de partida para uma abordagem crítica, não apenas de conceitos e leis, mas, também, de suas implicações e motivações epistemológicas e socioculturais.This paper is based on the proposal for teaching science through the use of science fiction and relies on references to literary critics of the genre, arguing that the greatest contribution to science education is not situated either in scientific precision, nor in didactic intentions nor even in the potential play this kind of narrative brings. Without disregarding the importance of these aspects, we argue that the main reason for bringing science fiction to science classes derives from the mechanisms of producing fiction that involves a special way of thinking about the natural world. Such mechanisms are based on assumptions that promote a so-called cognitive estrangement, which is able to promote in students reasoning as the starting point for a critical approach for teaching not only concepts and laws, but also epistemological and sociocultural implications and motivations.
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The mediation of fandom in Karin Giphart's Maak me blij
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Nicolle Lamerichs
2012-09-01
Full Text Available The plot of the Dutch novel Maak me blij (Make me happy (2005 by Karin Giphart draws from the culture of online fan communities. It describes the life of a lesbian in her late 20s, Ziggy, who has a terminally ill mother. Ziggy is an active fan who writes and reads femmeslash fan fiction—that is, lesbian interpretations of characters from mainstream series such as Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001. By providing through Ziggy a personal view of fan communities and the genres that flourish there, Maak me blij connects the romantic motives of original lesbian fiction with its underground sister, fan fiction. The novel draws from various source texts and illustrates how fans interpret texts within a wider literary landscape. I use the concept of intermediality to analyze how Maak me blij mediates different types of original fiction (lesbian romances, science fiction and fan fiction (femmeslash, Star Trek fan fiction to establish new views on fandom and its construction of gender and intimacy. These motives are not only apparent within the text itself but also within the character of Ziggy as a fan writer with her own original alien characters.
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Media Defamation and the Free-Lance Writer.
Stevens, George E.
1987-01-01
Discusses the responsibilities of publishers and freelance writers concerning the liability involved in defamatory statements. Reviews several court cases pertaining to publisher liability and claims that, if a writer is not under the immediate control or supervision of the publisher, the publisher may avoid liability. (MM)
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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
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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.
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Rapport sur l’affaire Darrieussecq // Report on the Darrieussecq affair
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Judit Lipták-Pikó
2015-12-01
Full Text Available Marie Darrieussecq, a contemporary French writer, had been accused of plagiarism several times during her career. Besides defending her reputation, these accusations forced her to think about her conceptions on fiction and writing. Finally, in Rapport de police, she succeeded in showing a mirror to the society of contemporary French writers, in which a tendency towards denying the legitimacy of fiction in certain cases can be observed. This phenomenon is diagnosed by Tiphaine Samoyault as the extension of the domain of plagiarism on simple particles of life. Behind this tendency resurges the old controversy of Plato and Aristotle on mimesis and fiction. Along with Jean-Marie Schaeffer’s analysis on the function of fiction from a cognitive point of view unfolds an apology for lecture and for a fictional writing that is capable of saying the inexpressible and speak for those who don’t have access to language.
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Teaching science through literature
Barth, Daniel
2007-12-01
The hypothesis of this study was that a multidisciplinary, activity rich science curriculum based around science fiction literature, rather than a conventional text book would increase student engagement with the curriculum and improve student performance on standards-based test instruments. Science fiction literature was chosen upon the basis of previous educational research which indicated that science fiction literature was able to stimulate and maintain interest in science. The study was conducted on a middle school campus during the regular summer school session. Students were self-selected from the school's 6 th, 7th, and 8th grade populations. The students used the science fiction novel Maurice on the Moon as their only text. Lessons and activities closely followed the adventures of the characters in the book. The student's initial level of knowledge in Earth and space science was assessed by a pre test. After the four week program was concluded, the students took a post test made up of an identical set of questions. The test included 40 standards-based questions that were based upon concepts covered in the text of the novel and in the classroom lessons and activities. The test also included 10 general knowledge questions that were based upon Earth and space science standards that were not covered in the novel or the classroom lessons or activities. Student performance on the standards-based question set increased an average of 35% for all students in the study group. Every subgroup disaggregated by gender and ethnicity improved from 28-47%. There was no statistically significant change in the performance on the general knowledge question set for any subgroup. Student engagement with the material was assessed by three independent methods, including student self-reports, percentage of classroom work completed, and academic evaluation of student work by the instructor. These assessments of student engagement were correlated with changes in student performance
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Actualism and Fictional Characters
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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.
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Journeys beyond pages: The use of fiction in tourism
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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.
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Faith Fictions: "The Word between This World and God"
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,…
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Henri Becquerel: serendipitous brilliance
Margaritondo, Giorgio
2008-06-01
Serendipity has always been an attendant to great science. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic background radiation after first mistaking it for the effect of pigeon droppings on their microwave antenna. US spy satellites detected gamma-ray bursts when surveying the sky for evidence of secret Soviet nuclear tests during the Cold War. Satyendra Bose arrived at Bose-Einstein statistics only after discovering that a mathematical error explained the experimental data concerning the photoelectric effect. In the words of science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, "The most exciting phrase in science is not 'Eureka!', but rather, 'That's funny...'.
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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"…
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Michela Caiazzo
2014-01-01
Full Text Available In this work we intend to study, through the analysis of the autobiographical works of the anarchist thinker Federica Montseny (1905-1994, the educational context in which the writer was born and her attempt to transform the society through her own example and writings. The anti-authoritarian and freethinker background, the extended family of overtones inspired by Fourier’s ideal, the rational and secular teachings of her mother Teresa Mañé, the full immersion into the world of politics and workers struggles of the early twentieth century shapes the awareness of a child who will devote her life spreading the anarchist model. Deeply aware of the ethical and social potential of art, she puts into practice her ability to become a writer, a speaker and an educator of the people. Fiction and reality blend aiming to create a heroine. Received: 27/05/2013 / Accepted: 20/06/2013 How to reference this article Caiazzo, M. (2014. Realidad y ficción de una educadora del pueblo. Estudio de la misión pedagógica de Federica Montseny a través de sus autobiografías. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 1(1, pp. 77-96. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/ete.2014.001.001.004
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林坤誼 Kuen-Yi Lin
2012-09-01
Full Text Available 本研究的主要目的著重在探究透過科幻小說與科幻影片以激發八年級學生產品設計創意的效益，而為了達到此一目的，本研究主要採用準實驗研究的不等組前後測設計，並針對四個班級共137 位八年級學生進行教學實驗。依據本研究資料分析的結果，主要獲致以下研究結論：一、善用科幻影片較科幻小說能有助於提升國中生的產品設計創意；二、依據國中生的圖像型認知風格以規劃適性的科幻影片實作活動，有助於提升其在產品設計創意的表現；三、不同認知風格的國中生在產品設計實作活動中，未必皆能妥善運用其表徵方式以解決問題，故教師在實作教學過程中仍需要給予適切的引導與協助。 For this study, we compared the stimulating effects of science fiction books and films on the design creativity of eighth grade middle school students. Four classes totaling 137 students participated in the study. We compared the design creativity of 2 learning groups: one group read science fiction books, whereas the other watched science fiction films. This study adopted a quasi-experimental design, using a creativity assessment packet as a pretest and a product-design creativity scale as a posttest. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA showed that (1 the effective use of science fiction films stimulated students’ design creativity more than did science fiction reading; (2 planning suitable activities based on students’ visual cognitive styles was effective in improving students’ design creativity; and (3 because of differences in cognitive style, not all students could apply their ideas when solving problems. Therefore, teachers needed to offer guidance and help students during hands-on learning activities.
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Horror from the Soul--Gothic Style in Allan Poe's Horror Fictions
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…
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Jourdain, Philip E B
2007-01-01
Anyone with an interest in mathematics will welcome the republication of this little volume by a remarkable mathematician who was also a logician, a philosopher, and an occasional writer of fiction and poetry. Originally published in 1913, and later included in the acclaimed anthology The World of Mathematics, Jourdain's survey shows how and why the methods of mathematics were developed, traces the development of mathematical science from the earliest to modern times, and chronicles the application of mathematics to natural science.Starting with the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, the author p
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A Comparison between the Use of Nominalization in Medical Papers by English and Iranian Writers
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Ali Mahbudi
2014-11-01
Full Text Available A prominent feature of formal writing, particularly in the field of science and technology, is the use of nominalization. Scientific writings, including medical writings, are expected to observe formality, precision, lack of ambiguity and concentration of highly technical terms. In such genres, the use of nominalization, affecting the lexical density of the text, plays a key role. In this connection, the purpose of this study was to compare the use of nominalization and the level of lexical density in medical academic articles written by native English writers and their Iranian counterparts based on the theory of grammatical metaphor proposed by Halliday (1985. To this end, the abstract section of 20 authentic English medical articles written by native English writers and 20 abstracts written by Iranian authors, drawn from highly influential medical journals, were selected. These abstracts were analyzed and compared based on the frequency of nominalization used and the level of lexical density in them. The findings revealed that Iranian writers used less nominalization in their writings.
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Apps: a new medium for non-fiction innovation
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.
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Emotional responses to interactive fictions
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...
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Karolides, Nicholas J., Comp.
This bibliography of books for children and adolescents was developed primarily from "The New York Times Book Review" and the "Christian Science Monitor" over the past several years. Fiction and biography are listed separately. Publisher, reading level, source of the listing, and a brief annotation are given for each title. (AA)
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Orizio, G; Gelatti, U
2010-06-01
At a first glance, it may seem that science fiction (SF) and public health have not much in common. To enlighten that this could be untrue, this paper starts up from their shared 'community perspective' and focuses on several implications of technological development, which can have a great impact on health and have been in some ways anticipated by SF stories. For example, SF has-more or less directly-discussed about the complex relationship between society, medicine and happiness, and it has anticipated several reflections in the field of advances in genetic technology. Beside tackling specific issues, SF has made a deep reflection about technology itself, the way it frightens and the way it could potentially change people and society. While facing these issues, SF raises questions that can be useful to public health as well, in order to rediscover its role in a world rapidly changing.
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Superhero science: from fiction to fact
Follows, Michael
2017-11-01
At the 2016 Manchester Science Festival, a team of like-minded scientists came together to try to suss out the real-world science behind everything from Wonder Woman's lasso to the Hulk's gigantic transformation. The result is The Secret Science of Superheroes- an eclectic collection of essays.
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Writing orthotic device for the management of writer's cramp
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Narayanasarma V. Singam
2013-01-01
Full Text Available Background: Oral therapies and chemodenervation procedures are often unrewarding in the treatment of focal, task-specific hand disorders such as writer's cramp or primary writing tremor. Methods: A portable writing orthotic device was evaluated on fifteen consecutively recruited writer's cramp and primary writing tremor subjects. We measured overall impairment at baseline and after two weeks of at-home use with the Writer’s Cramp Rating Scale (range = 0-8, higher is worse and writing quality and comfort with a visual analog scale (range = 0-10. Results: Compared to regular pen, the writing orthotic device improved the Writer's Cramp Rating Scale scores at first-test (p=0.001 and re-test (p=0.005 as well as writing quality and device comfort in writer's cramp subjects. Benefits were sustained at two weeks. Primary writing tremor subjects demonstrated no improvements.Conclusions: Writing orthotic devices exploiting a muscle-substitution strategy may yield immediate benefits in patients with writer's cramp.
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Apps: a new medium for non-fiction innovation
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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.
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Network Fictions and the Global Unhomely
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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
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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...
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Preschoolers can infer general rules governing fantastical events in fiction.
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).
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Curing "moral disability": brain trauma and self-control in Victorian science and fiction.
Schillace, Brandy L
2013-12-01
While, historically, the disabled body has appeared in literature as "monstrous," burgeoning psychological theories of the Victorian period predicated an unusual shift. In a culture of sexual anxiety and fears of devolution and moral decay, the physically disabled and "weak" are portrayed as strangely free from moral corruption. Unlike the cultural link between deviance and disability witnessed in the medical literature and eugenic approach to generation, authors of narrative fiction-particularly Charles Dickens, but Wilkie Collins, Charlotte Yonge, and others as well-portray disabled characters as "purified," and trauma itself as potentially sanitizing. This present paper argues that such constructions were made possible by developments in the treatment of insanity. "Curing 'Moral Disability': Brain Trauma and Self-Control in Victorian Fiction," examines the concept of trauma-as-cure. Throughout the Victorian period, case studies on brain trauma appeared in widely circulated journals like the Lancet, concurrently with burgeoning theories about psychological disturbance and "moral insanity." While not widely practiced until the early twentieth century, attempts at surgical "cures" aroused curiosity and speculation-the traumatic event that could free sufferers from deviance. This work provides a unique perspective on representations of disability as cure in the nineteenth century as a means of giving voice to the marginalized, disabled, and disempowered.
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Medical thrillers: doctored fiction for future doctors?
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.
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The Development of an Emotions Scale for Writers.
Powell, Jack L.; Brand, Alice G.
1987-01-01
The Brand Emotions Scale for Writers (BESW) is a 20-item scale designed to measure writers' emotions immediately before, during, and immediately after writing. This article describes the development of the BESW and the factor structure of the three different scale forms. (BS)
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Commentary: Sexism, Sex Stereotyping, and the Technical Writer.
Veiga, Nancy E.
1989-01-01
Discusses the impact of possible sex-based differences in communication styles on the technical writer's job. Argues that technical writers can choose to use both male and female communication styles to acknowledge multiple audiences and to improve the quality of their documents. (KEH)
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Teaching English and History through Historical Fiction.
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…
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Strategies for Improving Non-Fiction Reading Comprehension.
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…
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[Asperger syndrome in contemporary fictions].
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
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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...
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Living and Labouring as a Music Writer
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Lawson Fletcher
2013-02-01
Full Text Available Like many other creative endeavours, music writing is a proto-professional practice built on the back of amateur enthusiasm, unpaid labour and informal networks of referrals and recruiting. Drawing on interviews with Australian music critics and journalists at different stages of their careers, this article examines the highly specific configurations of cultural, social and economic capital at work within this field. The authors begin by exploring the diverse career pathways of writers, before considering how writers locate themselves within industrial and creative networks. As amateur intermediaries engaged in the mediation of the cultural productions of others, music writers maintain particular notions of value that do not always align easily with creative labour models premised on artistic fulfilment or economic exploitation.
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Online Fan Fiction and Critical Media Literacy
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…
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Graham Greene: The Films of His Fiction.
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…
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Fiction series in TVE between 1956 and 1989
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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.
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Ciupa, M.
Science fiction (Scifi) plays out the concerns of our possible scientistic futures; it is a source for exploring the deep rooted psychological concerns of mankind with science and the humanities. In this paper it is proposed Scifi is a valid source of hypotheses to examine, not as "evidence", but as candidate often cautionary notions, i.e., scenarios to be studied. Scifi represents a kind of Jungian mythological based story-telling, putting forward tales that express our conscious/unconscious concerns. Thus, when looking into ethical questions like, "where will techno-progressive futures take us?", we import into them these archetypes, hopes and fears, as a result they frequently reappear as familiar tropes. In this respect it is appropriate not to ignore them, but to openly challenge/appreciate them: to see what scenarios are indeed likely and how they may impact us reciprocally. This paper examines some of these aspects, and provides examples of how they are represented in the Scifi genre, in particular with consideration of the ethical implications of cultural intervention by space-faring civilizations. Given the specific analysis/examples provided, it concludes with an ethical scenario analysis (a dialectic argument), within the limiting conditions of the Drake Equation, Fermi Paradox and Cultural History. It comments on the potential existential risk of the Active SETI programmes recently initiated, indeed the need for an ethical exosociological review of all proposed Interstellar projects that express an "Intervention-Propensity".
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TOWARDS A SEMANTICS FOR THE ARTIFACTUAL THEORY OF FICTION AND BEYOND
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...
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Using Fan Fiction to Teach Critical Reading and Writing Skills
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…
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Commodification of culture in fiction-induced tourism
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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.
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Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind.
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.
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Tompkins, Gail E.; Camp, Donna J.
1988-01-01
Describes four prewriting techniques that elementary and middle grade students can use to gather and organize ideas for writing, and by so doing, cure writer's block. Techniques discussed are: (1) brainstorming; (2) clustering; (3) freewriting; and (4) cubing.
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Writer identification system for Ethiopic handwriting | Demoze | Zede ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Writer identification is a popular and ongoing research area having a wide variety of applications in banking, criminal justice system, access control, determining the authenticity of handwritten mails, etc. In this paper, an off-line text independent Ethiopic writer identification system has been proposed. The system uses 50 ...
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Admitted or Denied: Multilingual Writers Negotiate Admissions Essays
Wight, Shauna
2017-01-01
This article presents data from a collection of yearlong case studies on resident multilingual writers' college admissions essays. The focal student in this piece revealed the challenges that such writers face in presenting themselves to college admissions officers. Exploring these cultural and linguistic conflicts, this analysis uses Goffman's…
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Amateur mythographies: Fan fiction and the myth of myth
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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.
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To Work or Play? Junior Age Non-Fiction as Objects of Design.
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…
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Science in Cinema. Teaching Science Fact through Science Fiction Films.
Dubeck, Leroy W.; And Others
Many feel that secondary school graduates are not prepared to compete in a world of rapidly expanding technology. High school and college students in the United States often prefer fantasy to science. This book offers a strategy for overcoming student apathy toward the physical sciences by harnessing the power of the cinema. In it, ten popular…
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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...
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Our cosmic future : humanity's fate in the universe
Prantzos, Nikos
2000-04-01
What is humankind's ultimate fate and destiny in the Universe? Can human life and intelligence go on forever? This captivating and unparalleled book explores the future of the human race in the Universe, for centuries, millennia, and eons to come. Nikos Prantzos, distinguished astrophysicist and popular science writer, focuses not on what will be done, but on what could be done in light of our current knowledge and the speculations of eminent scientists. While he employs many concepts from physics, Prantzos also provides historical accounts of such ideas as terraforming, asteroid mining, interstellar travel, astroengineering, and eschatology, discussing their philosophical and social implications. Moreover, he uses the work of well known science and science-fiction writers--including Verne, Wells, Clarke, Tsiolkovsky, and Dyson--to illustrate many possibilities and concepts. Our Cosmic Future offers compelling answers to such intriguing questions as: Should we return to the Moon and eventually colonize Mars and other planets in our solar system? Why haven't we encountered an extraterrestrial civilization up to this time in our history? How can we avoid various cosmic threats, such as asteroid collisions and supernova explosions? Could we escape the remote, yet certain, death of the Sun? What will eventually happen to stars, our Galaxy, distant galaxies, and the Universe itself? With its artful blend of historical, scientific accounts and themes from classic works of science fiction, Our Cosmic Future is a spellbinding work that will enchant all readers interested in space travel and colonization, cosmology, and humankind's future prospects in the Cosmos.
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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...
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African Journals Online (AJOL)
User
Santacroce, Daniele Luttazzi, Silvia Ballestra, Niccolò Ammaniti, Luisa. Brancaccio, Carlo Lucarelli, Francesca Mazzucato and Matteo. Galiazzo. Generally influenced by North American pulp fiction writers and cinema - Pulp Fiction and American Psycho have been cited - the. Giovani Cannibali rather than emphasising their ...
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ABOUT LOVE, MURDER AND EMERALDS. IOAN PETRU CULIANU'S ”SERIOUSLY” GAME WITH FICTION
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Ciprian Iulian TOROCZKAI
2015-11-01
Full Text Available This study looks into how Ioan Petru Culianu illustrated some of his ideas, as a historian of religions and as a philosopher of culture, in one of his literary works, The Emeralds Game. This novel is more than mere detective fiction, it is also a magic and esoteric novel, and to understand it we need to refer to magic, astrologic or geomantic practices. This means the considerations the author expressed in his other essential scientific works are “logically” extended, continued in this literary writing. The contemporaneity of the work is suggested by the significant fictional world it proposes, a world where the political blends with the religious, where reality blends with the psychological, science with adventure; all these aspects bring this novel to the same level with other similar novels, like Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose or Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
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Literature and Science Create an Engaging Combination.
Brabham, Edna Greene
1997-01-01
Discusses programs and research that support the integration of literature and science. Reviews literature selections across a range of genres that complement topics included in middle school science, including science fiction and poetry. Considers resources educators can use to find additional science-related material. (JPB)
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Author Neomythonyms and Mythappellatives
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Vlada V. Belousova
2017-03-01
Full Text Available It has been carried out an analysis of the author neomythonyms ans mythappelatives. It is given examples of Russian and foreign onyms and appellatives and also enumerated some mythonyms in literature of the 20th century. The material for this work are fiction genres, namely: novel by D.A. Emets “Methodius Buslaev. Magician of the midnight”, novel by S. Antonov “Dark tunnels”, novel by A.D. Glukhovsky “Metro 2033” and a collection of Max Frei “Russian foreign fairy tale – 1”. Language units were selected by continuous sampling. The paper also considers such notions as neologisms, potebtial words and occasionalisms. Differences between neomythonyms and author neomythonyms, as well as between appellatives and mythappelatives are distinguished. The language of national fantasy and science fiction of 2021 centuries is marked by the criteria for determining author neomythonyms and mythappelatives: by the method of formation and functioning. According to the analysis of new lexical units it has been found an active expand of the vocabulary of the Russian language due to the appearance of new and onyms and appellatives that went beyond the occasional units and are widely used among fans of fantasy and science fiction. The emergence of such a large number of author units is due to the great creative potential of contemporary writers, and the active development of Russian science fiction and fantasy of 20-21 centuries.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Edilson Silva Liévano
2009-06-01
Full Text Available Este artículo corto derivado de investigación presenta un análisis sobre la novela Angosta (2003, del escritor colombiano Héctor Abad Faciolince. El autor recurre a los aportes de la teoría social y a la metodología de la sociocrítica para hacer emerger la configuración del espacio de ficción en la novela. En sí, el trabajo establece relaciones entre el cronotopo real histórico, para este caso la ciudad contemporánea y la configuración axiológica del espacio de ficción presente en la novela. Asimismo, el análisis y la argumentación exploran de forma social e histórica el papel desempeñado por la ciudad en la llamada modernidad y el juicio crítico de la literatura frente a la condición humana y la vida que se desenvuelve en ella.As the result of a brief study, this paper, contains an analysis of the novel Angosta (2003, by Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince. In order to make the fictional space configuration possible in the novel, the author refers to social theory and sociocritical methodology. This paper establishes the relation between the historic chronotopos -in this case the contemporary city- and the axiological configuration of the fictional space used in the novel. Likewise, the analysis and the argumentation explore, sociologically and historically, the role played by the city in the so called modernity, and the critical judgment of literature regarding the human condition and the life it embraces.
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The Chicago guide to communicating science
Montgomery, Scott L
2017-01-01
For more than a decade, The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science has been the go-to reference for anyone who needs to write or speak about their research. Whether a student writing a thesis, a faculty member composing a grant proposal, or a public information officer crafting a press release, Scott Montgomery’s advice is perfectly adaptable to any scientific writer’s needs. This new edition has been thoroughly revised to address crucial issues in the changing landscape of scientific communication, with an increased focus on those writers working in corporate settings, government, and nonprofit organizations as well as academia. Half a dozen new chapters tackle the evolving needs and paths of scientific writers. These sections address plagiarism and fraud, writing graduate theses, translating scientific material, communicating science to the public, and the increasing globalization of research. The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science recognizes that writers come to the table with different needs and...
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Shakespeare’s Eternal Voice: Fictional autobiographies of the Bard
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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.
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Cooling improves the writing performance of patients with writer's cramp.
Pohl, Christoph; Happe, Jörg; Klockgether, Thomas
2002-11-01
Cooling of hand and forearm muscles by immersion in 15 degrees C cold water for 5 minutes improved the writing performance of patients with writer's cramp. Since abnormal processing of muscle spindle afferent discharges contributes to the pathology of writer's cramp, this effect might result from a reduction in muscle spindle activity by lowering muscle temperature. Cooling is a simple, cheap, and safe procedure, providing temporary relief for patients with writer's cramp. Copyright 2002 Movement Disorder Society
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Thomas Hardy's Victorian Gothic: Reassessing Hardy's Fiction and His Gothic Sensibility.
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…
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The negotiation of writer identity in engineering faculty - writing consultant collaborations
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Sarah Read
2011-12-01
Full Text Available Negotiating faculty-writing consultant collaborations in engineering contexts can be challenging when the writing consultant originates in the humanities. The author found that one of the sites of negotiation in the formation of working relationships is that of writer identity, and disciplinary writer identity in particular. In order to confirm her experiential knowledge, the author interviewed her faculty collaborators to further investigate their attitudes and experiences about writing. Analysis of two excerpts of these interviews makes visible "clashes" between the faculty engineers' and the writing consultant's autobiographical and disciplinary writer identities. Implications of the role of writer identity in faculty-writing consultant collaborations include considering the value of extending this negotiation explicitly to students and the question of how writing curriculum can explicitly engage students in the formation of positive disciplinary writer identities
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Gentner, Stephan
Manufacturing IT and Industry 4.0 is the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a potential of 12 bn Euros in Germany's chemicals industry. But Switzerland is currently the best prepared of all countries in Europe. Many of the ideas are still very vague. This article discusses how to identify what is already reality, which ideas might become reality in the future and which ideas will stay science fiction. As projects in Manufacturing IT and Industry 4.0 are different from classical technical projects other strategies, for example agile project management, are necessary to secure success.
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Powieść SF uwalniająca się od politycznych serwitutów
Ryszard Handke
2015-01-01
Science-Fiction Novel Liberates Itself from Political Dues The present issue of "Colloquia Humanistica" contains Professor Ryszard Handke's two last essays, until now unpublished. They belong together and deal with the works of Stanisław Lem, namely with the creation of a sui generis dictionary of this outstanding sci-fi writer. Handke highlights the coming of a new age in the evolution of the genre, already foreshadowed in Lem's early novels. This new sci-fi abandons uncritical beliefs i...
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PROCESS WRITING: SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL WRITERS; DISCOVERING WRITING BEHAVIOURS
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Ismail Baroudy
2008-12-01
Full Text Available Successful and unsuccessful strategies practically complied with in the act of writing have been so far experimentally tapped and scholastically rehearsed by several authors. In this study, a complementary task using a questionnaire worked out to comprehensively specify and cover almost all types of writing behaviours has been inquisitively manipulated. By analysing and inspecting the findings elicited from student-writers’ response sheets, successful and unsuccessful writing strategies are then contrastively identified, categorised and demonstrated. Based on the awareness accomplished, writing teachers’ consciousness will be raised and boosted, thus, helping their poor student-writers justifiably quit their debilitative habits and adopt instead, facilitative ones, those competent writers implement while writing. In the questionnaire, the student-writers would reflect upon their creeping experience and pass informative judgements about their own strategies. Student-writers will respond to fact-finding statements regarding five writing components delineated as rehearsing, drafting, revising, student-writers’ role and the role of instructional materials
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2009-06-11
children see 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid. 54 or hear on TV (61%), in music lyrics (61%), video games (60%) and movies (56%).ඡ These revealing...writers of fiction, non-fiction, essays , playwrights, poets, journalists, and screenwriters from different countries to work on specific projects
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[The Six Million Dollar Man: from fiction to reality].
Langeveld, C H Kees
2013-01-01
The term 'bionic' has been in existence since 1958, but only gained general recognition from the television series 'The Six Million Dollar Man'. Following a crash, the central figure in this series - test pilot Steve Austin - has an eye, an arm and both legs replaced by prostheses which make him stronger and faster than a normal person. This story is based on the science fiction book 'Cyborg' by Martin Caidin. In the world of comic books and films there are a number of examples of people who are given superhuman powers by having technological gadgets built in. Although the latter is not yet possible, the bionic human has now become reality.
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Identity Practices of Multilingual Writers in Social Networking Spaces
Chen, Hsin-I
2013-01-01
This study examines the literacy practices of two multilingual writers in social networking communities. The findings show that the multilingual writers explored and reappropriated symbolic resources afforded by the social networking site as they aligned themselves with particular collective and personal identities at local and global levels.…
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WRITER'S STRATEGIES IN THE INTERCOURSE WITH THE READER IN BELLES-LETTRES
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Alexander S. Komarov
2014-01-01
Full Text Available The article is devoted to some strategies aimed at involving the reader into the writer's book by means of making the reader's attitude to its content personal or subjective. In the article it is stated that there are two components which are intrinsic to virtual intercourse between writer and reader. One of the components is the content of the writer's publication while the other is the reader's attitude towards the content suggested. The article shows that the reader's attitude encompasses two processes: the process of self-estrangement from the writer's content and the process of self-involvement into it. In the article, the author analyses these two processes in relation to the content of the book. In the article, the author singles out and gives descriptions of such dimensions of the book's content as its topical and emotional dimension, its depth, human nature dimension and interpersonal relations dimension as well as of strategies used by the writer in order to involve the reader into his writings. The author argues that a successful strategy is based on managing to touch the reader to the quick, i.e. his or her subjectivity, and the result of successfulness can be measured by the reader's readiness and willingness to sink into one of the dimensions suggested. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that signs of the successful strategy can be traced in the reader's return to the intercourse with the writer when he or she rereads the writer's books, repeats or makes references to words, situations or ideas suggested or described by the writer who has grasped the reader's attention in one or several content dimensions.
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Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource.
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/.
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Analytical Approach to Fictional Elements of Sandbadnameh
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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.
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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.
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Children Working with Text in Science: disparities with 'Literacy Hour' practice
Peacock, Alan; Weedon, Helen
2002-02-01
The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) provides a coherent plan of what and how children should be taught about non-fiction text. Nevertheless, the difficulties that children actually experience when using science texts are not fully addressed: in particular, the use and interpretation of the visual elements of science text is given limited attention in the prescriptions for teaching the 'Literacy Hour'. Such disparities identified by prior research and by a content analysis of the NLS Framework Document are considered alongside evidence of the difficulties encountered by a class of Year 5 pupils working with a range of non-fiction texts during science lessons. Pupils' text use is studied through observations and interviews with children, through interviews with their teachers and through a questionnaire about text use strategies. The findings suggest that (1) the pupils experienced considerable difficulty in making sense of the science content of non-fiction text, particularly in terms of interpretation of visual elements and their links to written text and (2) use of retrieval strategies taught during the Literacy Hour was not transferred to learning from text during science lessons. The study proposes closer planning of text use in science and literacy lessons.
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Sub-word based Arabic handwriting analysis for writer identification
Maliki, Makki; Al-Jawad, Naseer; Jassim, Sabah
2013-05-01
Analysing a text or part of it is key to handwriting identification. Generally, handwriting is learnt over time and people develop habits in the style of writing. These habits are embedded in special parts of handwritten text. In Arabic each word consists of one or more sub-word(s). The end of each sub-word is considered to be a connect stroke. The main hypothesis in this paper is that sub-words are essential reflection of Arabic writer's habits that could be exploited for writer identification. Testing this hypothesis will be based on experiments that evaluate writer's identification, mainly using K nearest neighbor from group of sub-words extracted from longer text. The experimental results show that using a group of sub-words could be used to identify the writer with a successful rate between 52.94 % to 82.35% when top1 is used, and it can go up to 100% when top5 is used based on K nearest neighbor. The results show that majority of writers are identified using 7 sub-words with a reliability confident of about 90% (i.e. 90% of the rejected templates have significantly larger distances to the tested example than the distance from the correctly identified template). However previous work, using a complete word, shows successful rate of at most 90% in top 10.
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Writer Identity Construction in Mexican Students of Applied Linguistics
Mora, Alberto
2017-01-01
The paper examines the connection between discursive and non-discursive features and the construction of writer identity. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts the writer identity development of two groups of undergraduate students of applied linguistics in the Mexican context, one made up of locally educated ones and the other composed…
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Authentication Projects for Historical Fiction: Do You Believe It?
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…
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THE VECTOR OF METODOLOGY IN FICTION STUDIES
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...
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Fiction and Religion: How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief
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 ...
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Fan fiction, early Greece, and the historicity of canon
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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.
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DETECTIVE REALITY AND INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION
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Kholikov Bakhodir Alikulovich
2016-05-01
Full Text Available The article presents scientific analytical conclusions on the established opinions about literary-theoretical views related to the literary life, psychology of creativity, writer’s skillfulness, spiritual-educational world of a person in fiction as a result of special studies of the close and analogical literary phenomena in fiction writing. On the material of the novel “Godfather” by a prominent American writer of the XXth century Mario Puzo and “Shaytanat” (“Band of Devils” by Uzbek writer Tokhir Malik, the society’s stability and negative factors influencing social-spiritual life of the society are analyzed.
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Tools students need to be skillful writers building better sentences
Hostmeyer, Phyllis
2012-01-01
Build stronger writers one sentence at a time.Imagine a classroom full of enthusiastic student writers, capable of reviewing their own work with a critical eye, then crafting a polished, convincing piece. This is possible, if you take writing instruction down to its basic building block-a solid sentence-and advance from there. Phyllis Hostmeyer can show you how with Tools Students Need to Be Skillful Writers, your blueprint for effective writing instruction and unit development. Packed with lessons across grades 3-12, this indispensable
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Passionate Virtue: Conceptions of Medical Professionalism in Popular Romance Fiction.
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.
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Zdenek, M
1988-09-01
Comparing the scientific reports of brain researchers such as Sperry, Bogen, Diamond, Geschwind, and Hoppe with the subjective reports of high achievers in various fields of the arts, sciences, and industry reveals that there is a correlation between creative thinking and right hemisphere specialization. Learning how to stimulate right hemisphere activity can be of great benefit to high achievers in fields that require one to be internally focused, to be sensitive to the intonations of voice and body-language, to comprehend symbols and metaphors, to think visually and holistically, to work constructively with affect, or to enhance imaginative thinking. This report is a subjective study of how five writers and six psychotherapists experienced one three-hour session of Inner Vision techniques, which I developed to stimulate creative thinking and inner focusing by enhancing right hemisphere activity. During the session, all of the psychotherapists and all but one of the writers reported that these mental imagery exercises produced a significant increase in the flow of creative ideas and enabled them to gain insights into important personal issues. One writer experienced resistance; two psychotherapists reported feelings of solace; two writers and two psychotherapists indicated that they have gained new perspectives on professional issues--one writer solved a major problem regarding the central character in his book; six psychotherapists and three writers gained new perceptions on important personal issues; five psychotherapists and four writers reported feelings of intense joy, even liberation, during the session. All eleven participants indicated that they had experienced vivid and imaginative imagery. The constructive use of imagination is essential for creative work and mental health. Writers who have the skill to program their imaginations to gain creative insights at times of their own choosing obviously will be more productive than writers who sit around waiting
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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
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Simplifying the writing process for the novice writer.
Redmond, Mary Connie
2002-10-01
Nurses take responsibility for reading information to update their professional knowledge and to meet relicensure requirements. However, nurses are less enthusiastic about writing for professional publication. This article explores the reluctance of nurses to write, the reasons why writing for publication is important to the nursing profession, the importance of mentoring to potential writers, and basic information about simplifying the writing process for novice writers. Copyright 2002 by American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses.
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Dimensional expansions and shiftings: fan fiction and transmedia storytelling the the Fringeverse
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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.
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Albert Schweitzer: a patient with writer's cramp.
Tacik, P; Schrader, C; Weber, E; Dressler, D
2012-06-01
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) the world-famous philosopher, theologian, concert organist, musicologist, philanthropist and winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize suffered throughout most of his life from severe and painful muscle cramps in his right upper extremity which were triggered exclusively by handwriting. They led to tonic finger flexion and wrist extension and produced slow and clumsy handwriting of a reduced character size. Other motor functions including Schweitzer's highly skilful and famous organ playing were not affected. Inheritance from his mother is likely. Schweitzer applied several coping strategies including a specific holding pattern for pens, usage of special pens, avoidance of handwriting and slowing of handwriting. With all these features Schweitzer presents as a classical case of action-specific dystonia in the form of a simple tonic writer's cramp. Interestingly, Schweitzer never received a medical diagnosis, although writer's cramp had already been identified and described as a medical condition. Impairment of his handwriting but not his organ playing may give insight into the multifactorial aetiology of writer's cramp. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Indexing Serialized Fiction: May the Force Be with You.
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…
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Gesturing beyond the Frame: Transnational Trauma and US War Fiction
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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.
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Reincarnating Shakespeare’s sister: Virginia Woolf and the “uncircumscribed spirit” of fiction
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Naomi TOTH
2011-03-01
Full Text Available Pour élucider le rapport entre la fiction, le spirituel, et le féminin dans la pensée de Virginia Woolf, notre lecture met en parallèle deux de ses essais-manifestes importants, “Modern Fiction”(1919/1925 et Une chambre à soi (1928. Dans “Modern Fiction”,Woolf décrit la tâche de l’écrivain comme étant de saisir “un esprit inconnu, sans contours”, qu’elle définit encore comme “la réalité”, “la vérité” ou “la vie elle-même”. Cet esprit – ce réel vivant – est constitué par la recherche du sujet écrivant, dans un mouvement qui implique la dissolution des frontières entre sujet et objet. Cet esprit est pourtant également représenté comme une réalité indépendante du sujet et immanente au monde matériel, capable d’investir le sujet dans un “instant de vision” épiphanique. Le sujet écrivant et l’“esprit” ou la “réalité” qu’il faut capter sont ainsi pris dans une tension perpétuelle, et c’est depuis cette tension qu’il convient de considérer le rapport entre le féminin et la fiction esquissé dans Une chambre à soi. Car le mouvement du sujet écrivant vers l’esprit vivant propre au “réel” s’avère être un moment crucial pour la réincarnation de la sœur de Shakespeare, c’est-à-dire, pour la création d’une littérature véritablement “féminine”.In order to explore the relationship between the fictional, the spiritual, and the feminine in Virginia Woolf’s thought, two of her important essay-manifestos, “Modern Fiction” (1919/1925 and A Room of One’s Own (1928, are read here in parallel. In “Modern Fiction”, Woolf describes the task of writers as that of capturing an “unknown, uncircumscribed spirit”, otherwise defined as “reality”, “truth” or “life itself”. This “spirit” or vital “reality”, however, is constituted in the movement of the writing subject towards it, a movement that dissolves the boundaries between
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MARGARET ATWOOD'S NON-FICTION ABOUT FICTION: PAYBACK
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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.
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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.
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Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay
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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.
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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
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Essential grammar for today's writers, students, and teachers
Sullivan, Nancy
2014-01-01
This innovative grammar text is an ideal resource for writers, language students, and current and future classroom teachers who need an accessible "refresher" in a step-by-step guide to essential grammar. Rather than becoming mired in overly detailed linguistic definitions, Nancy Sullivan helps writers and students understand and apply grammatical concepts and develop the skills they need to enhance their own writing. Along with engaging discussions of both contemporary and traditional terminology, Sullivan's text provides clear explanations of the basics of English grammar and a highly practical, hands-on approach to mastering the use of language. Complementing the focus on constructing excellent sentences, every example and exercise set is contextually grounded in language themes. Teachers, students, and writers will appreciate the streamlined, easy-to-understand coverage of essential grammar, as well as the affordable price. This is an ideal textbook for future teachers enrolled in an upper-level grammar c...
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Newton, Marcia Anne
2016-01-01
This paper is part of a larger project on Catholic writer Antonia White’s series of autobiographical novels, Frost in May, The Lost Traveller, and The Sugar House, in which readers are presented with a Freudian Oedipal drama that reaches a dramatic climax in the last autobiographical novel in the series, Beyond the Glass, where the main protagonist spirals into psychosis. A central question addressed is whether or not White’s autobiographical fiction is an unconscious projection of sexual trauma from her own history. Psychoanalytically speaking, the answer depends upon whether one subscribes to Freudian or Ferenczian perspectives. The paper also addresses the question of whether White’s accounts of psychosis in her autobiographical fiction are real and meaningful descriptions of lived traumatic experiences. Jacques Lacan asserts that it is impossible to authenticate narratives of psychosis and for readers to draw any meaningful value from them because they lack a coherent transfer of metaphorical language from the unconscious to the conscious in the pursuit of truth of a lived experience. He uses Judge Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous Illness to support his case, a text in which Schreber confesses to only being able to communicate his experiences in similes and metaphors; therefore, he claims his experiences cannot be understood. I argue that Lacan does not give due credit to Schreber’s attempts to grapple with spiritual and sexual preservation in the throes of delusion through the agency of his alter egos. These alter egos are the other “self,” a deluded self that offers, paradoxically, truth to emotional experience of a man’s ego in crisis. Schreber shares these pursuits with White’s alter egos in her autobiographical fiction, “The House of Clouds” and Beyond the Glass. In an analysis of White’s texts as recollections of her personal history, I highlight how White’s experiences shape her testimony in its raw portrayal of an
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Variability in Written Japanese: Towards a Sociolinguistics of Script Choice.
Smith, Janet S.; Schmidt, David L.
1996-01-01
Tests widely-held associations among script types, genres, writers, and target readers via statistical analysis in popular Japanese fiction. Subjects texts to lexical analysis to see whether choice of vocabulary can account for variability in script selection. Finds that Japanese writers fashion their script type choices to specific contexts, as…
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Textbook vs. Historical Fiction: Impact on Social Studies Students
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…
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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...
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The Martian Goes To College: Open Inquiry with Science Fiction in the Classroom.
Beatty, L.; Patterson, J. D.
2015-12-01
Storytelling is an ancient art; one that can get lost in the reams of data available in a typical geology or astronomy classroom. But storytelling draws us to a magical place. Our students, with prior experience in either a geology or astronomy course, were invited to explore Mars in a special topics course at Johnson County Community College through reading The Martian by Andy Weir. As they traveled with astronaut Mark Watney, the students used Google Mars, Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing (JMARS), and learning modules from the Mars for Earthlings web site to investigate the terrain and the processes at work in the past and present on Mars. Our goal was to apply their understanding of processes on Earth in order to explain and predict what they observed on Mars courtesy of the remote sensing opportunities available from Viking, Pathfinder, the Mars Exploration Rovers, and Maven missions; sort of an inter-planetary uniformitarianism. Astronaut Mark Watney's fictional journey from Acidalia Planitia to Schiaparelli Crater was analyzed using learning modules in Mars for Earthlings and exercises that we developed based on Google Mars, JMARS, Rotating Sky Explorer, and Science Friday podcasts. Each student also completed an individual project that either focused on a particular region that Astronaut Mark Watney traveled through or a problem that he faced. Through this open-inquiry learning style, they determined some processes that shaped Mars such as crater impacts, volcanism, fluid flow, mass movement, and groundwater sapping and also investigated the efficacy of solar energy as a power source based on location and the likelihood of regolith potential as a mineral matter source for soil.
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Compensatory function of crime fiction texts in mass culture
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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.
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The Voyage between Truth and Fiction: Stories of the "Titanic."
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)
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The Value of Fictional Worlds (or Why 'The Lord of the Rings' is Worth Reading
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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.
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Fact vs fiction--how paratextual information shapes our reading processes.
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.
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Cahill, Maria J.
Astronomer and science writer Dr. Helen Sawyer Hogg (University of Toronto) reached a variety of audiences through different rhetorical forms. She communicated to her colleagues through her scholarly writings; she reached out to students and the public through her Toronto Star newspaper column entitled "With the Stars," which she authored for thirty years; she wrote The Stars Belong to Everyone , a book that speaks to a lay audience; she hosted a successful television series entitled Ideas ; and she delivered numerous speeches at scientific conferences, professional women's associations, school programs, libraries, and other venues. Adapting technical information for different audiences is at the heart of technical communication, and Sawyer Hogg's work exemplifies adaptation as she moves from writing for the scientific community (as in her articles on globular cluster research) to science writing for lay audiences (as in her newspaper column, book, and script for her television series). Initially she developed her sense of audience through a male perspective informed largely by her scholarly work with two men (Harlow Shapley and her husband, Frank Hogg) as well as the pervasive masculine culture of academic science. This dissertation situates Sawyer Hogg in what is slowly becoming a canon of technical communication scholarship on female scientists. Toward this end, I discuss how she rhetorically engaged two different audiences, one scholarly and one popular, how Sawyer Hogg translated male dominated scientific rhetoric to writing for the public, and how science writing helped her achieve her professional goals. Complementing the archival research in addressing the questions of this study, I employ social construction analysis (also known as the social perspective) for my research methodology. She was ahead of her time and embodied the social perspective years before its definition as a rhetorical concept. In short, my study illuminates one scientific woman's voice
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Rockets and ray guns the sci-fi science of the Cold War
May, Andrew
2018-01-01
The Cold War saw scientists in East and West racing to create amazing new technologies, the like of which the world had never seen. Yet not everyone was taken by surprise. From super-powerful atomic weapons to rockets and space travel, readers of science fiction (SF) had seen it all before. Sometimes reality lived up to the SF vision, at other times it didn’t. The hydrogen bomb was as terrifyingly destructive as anything in fiction, while real-world lasers didn't come close to the promise of the classic SF ray gun. Nevertheless, when the scientific Cold War culminated in the Strategic Defence Initiative of the 1980s, it was so science-fictional in its aspirations that the media dubbed it “Star Wars”. This entertaining account, offering a plethora of little known facts and insights from previously classified military projects, shows how the real-world science of the Cold War followed in the footsteps of SF – and how the two together changed our perception of both science and scientists, and paved the w...
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Citation Practices among Non-Native Expert and Novice Scientific Writers
Mansourizadeh, Kobra; Ahmad, Ummul K.
2011-01-01
Citation is one of the most prominent features of academic writing through which academic writers both exhibit the breadth of their scholarship in a specific research area and subtly demonstrate their memberships of the disciplinary community. Citations are important rhetorical devices that allow seasoned writers to promote their current research…
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Ethnicity, Alienation, Identity: Themes in Hispanic Minority Fiction.
Lewis, Marvin A.
This paper presents a thematic examination of three novels by Hispanic minority writers. In their assessment of the human condition, Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Cuban exile writers share many concerns. Among them are the problems of ethnicity, alienation, and identity. These preoccupations are manifested primarily through character portrayal in…
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Still ‘Watching’ TV? The Consumption of TV Fiction by Engaged Audiences
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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.
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中国现当代小说中的故乡构建初探 (Literary Nativism, the Native Place and Modern Chinese Fiction
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Yiyan Wang
2007-01-01
answer include: How is the native place viewed and configured in modern Chinese fiction? What kinds of local stories are generated as national tales and what is the role of the native place in such narratives? Why do writers ‘write local but think national’? Why do national myths in Chinese regional literatures compete to identify with the central nation-state?
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Art and fiction are signals with indeterminate truth values.
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.
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Upper Elementary Students' Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction
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…
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Science Writing and Rhetorical Training: A New Model for Developing Graduate Science Writers
Karraker, N. E.; Lofgren, I.; Druschke, C. G.; McWilliams, S. R.; Morton-Aiken, J.; Reynolds, N.
2016-12-01
Graduate programs in the sciences generally offer minimal support for writing and communication, yet there is an increasing need for scientists to engage with the public and policymakers on technological, environmental, and health issues. The traditional focus on gaining particular discipline-related technical skills, coupled with the relegation of writing largely to the end of a student's academic tenure, falls short in equipping them to tackle these challenges. To address this problem, we launched a cross-disciplinary, National Science Foundation-funded training program in rhetoric and writing for science graduate students and faculty at the University of Rhode Island. This innovative program bases curricular and pedagogical support on three central practices, habitual writing, multiple genres, and frequent review, to offer a flexible model of writing training for science graduate students and pedagogical training for faculty that could be adopted in other institutional contexts. Key to the program, called SciWrite@URI, is a unique emphasis on rhetoric, which, we argue, is an essential—but currently lacking—component of science communication education. This new model has the potential to transform graduate education in the sciences by producing graduates who are as adept at the fundamentals of their science as they are at communicating that science to diverse audiences.
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Black Writers' Views of America.
Hairston, Loyle
1979-01-01
This article argues that the stagnation, pessimism, and self-pity evident in recent Black writing results in part from the alienation of Black writers from the mainstream of Black life, and in part from the illusions that they share with other Blacks who have embraced the American value system. (Author/EB)
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Hawk, L.S.; Turner, J.H.
1992-07-28
A manual-type braille writer is described that provides for both writing and reading in a normal left-to-right manner. In the preferred form, this braille writer has a clip board type base, and in the preferred embodiment a guide plate assembly can be moved to, and releasable fixed at, selected vertical locations along this base. The guide plate assembly is provided with a plurality of character cells uniformly spaced along rows across the guide plate assembly as well as in uniformly spaced rows. This guide plate assembly has a lower portion to be placed under a sheet of paper positioned on the clip board base and an upper portion to be positioned on top of the sheet. This upper portion is hinged with respect to the lower portion. Each character cell is typically made up of six appropriately spaced pins extending up from the lower portion that are aligned with a rosette-shaped cutout in the upper portion. A stylus member is provided that has a distal end to be fitted into the cutout of the character cell so that a recess in the end thereof presses the writing paper over the pin associated with that recess to produce a braille dot at that location. When desired, the upper portion can be lifted up so that the text already written can be read or to determine the place for initiating writing when writing has been interrupted. 10 figs.
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Hawk, Lawrence S.; Turner, Joe H.
1992-01-01
A manual-type braille writer that provides for both writing and reading in a normal left-to-right manner. In the preferred form, this braille writer has a clip board type base, and in the preferred embodiment a guide plate assembly can be moved to, and releasable fixed at, selected vertical locations along this base. The guide plate assembly is provided with a plurality of character cells uniformly spaced along rows across the guide plate assembly as well as in uniformly spaced rows. This guide plate assembly has a lower portion to be placed under a sheet of paper positioned on the clip board base and an upper portion to be positioned on top of the sheet. This upper portion is hinged with respect to the lower portion. Each character cell is typically made up of six appropriately spaced pins extending up from the lower portion that are aligned with a rosette-shaped cutout in the upper portion. A stylus member is provided that has a distal end to be fitted into the cutout of the character cell so that a recess in the end thereof presses the writing paper over the pin associated with that recess to produce a braille dot at that location. When desired, the upper portion can be lifted up so that the text already written can be read or to determine the place for initiating writing when writing has been interrupted.
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Fact or Fiction? Libraries Can Thrive in the Digital Age
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…
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Simulating fiction: individual differences in literature comprehension revealed with FMRI.
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.
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Fiction and Religion : How Narratives About the Supernatural Inspire Religious Belief
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 –
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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
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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.
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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.
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LIFE AS FICTION, OR SOME NOTES ON ANTERO DE QUENTAL
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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.
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Creating Deep Time Diaries: An English/Earth Science Unit for Middle School Students
Jordan, Vicky; Barnes, Mark
2006-01-01
Students love a good story. That is why incorporating literary fiction that parallels teaching goals and standards can be effective. In the interdisciplinary, thematic six-week unit described in this article, the authors use the fictional book "The Deep Time Diaries," by Gary Raham, to explore topics in paleontology, Earth science, and creative…