An Analysis of Informational Content in a Descriptive Narrative Task Completed by People with Aphasia

Speech and language are important tools used for communication. Communication techniques such as narrative story telling skills can be used to build relationships. People with aphasia may lack these effective communication skills. This study provides a close-up interpretation of people with aphasia telling the story of Cinderella. Two different approaches were used to analyze the elements of the participant’s stories. By using these approaches during speech therapy, Speech-Language Pathologists can help people with aphasia to build a more concise and thorough story

Jeely Beely: Rolling into the Russian Fairy Tale

When I was a child, I used to think that fairy tales always ended happily, and that winning a prince\u27s affection was life\u27s grand goal. I thought so because I was exposed to Disney versions: tales of a handsome prince rescuing an isolated stepchild from boring housework as in Cinderella (1950) and tales of a kiss literally saving at least two girls\u27 lives as in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and in Sleeping Beauty (1959). While I recollect my father reading to my brother and me from an encyclopedia-sized collection of Aesop \u27s Fables, I do not recall him reading Brothers Grimms\u27 and Charles Perrault\u27s fairy tales to us, unfortunately (or fortunately, since their tales employ violence that would have deprived six-year-old me of sleep). Instead, my primary experience with fairy tales was that of most children\u27s who grew up in the nineties: I watched the animated fairy tales of Walt Disney (1901-66). I can confidently inform you that the first Disney film in my possession was The Fox and the Hound (1981), and I watched it on our home\u27s static-prone, fickle operating videocassette recorder with a friend, by myself, or with my cabbage patch dolls, each time in wonder and awe. Admittedly, Disney\u27s films had a tyrannous hold on my adolescent imagination. They became, and still are, a part of our formative American culture.... It makes sense, then, that fairy tales might also influence the formative culture of international societies, even those outside of the western hemisphere. Particularly, how might a Russian child be influenced by her country\u27s familiar fairy tales? This question charged my research. I was convinced that delving into a comparative literary study on three different variants of a fairy tale would improve my understanding of Russian culture

The television message as social object: a comparative study of the structure and content of television programmes in Britain

THE TELEVISION MESSAGE AS SOCIAL OBJECT: A comparative study of the structure and content of television programmes in Britain (excluding public affairs, children's television and shorts). The thesis will be both a theoretical and empirical examination of the applicability of the varieties of analysis of symbolic orders which have been advanced by such writers as Levi-Strauss and Foucault. The thesis is an exploration, through the study of the narrative structure of a series of television drama programmes, of the relationship between television, myths and folktales. Following upon work done principally by Claude Levi-Strauss and Vladimir Propp, but also others writing in the field of semiological and structural analysis, a detailed examination of the video-recorded texts of a thirteen part drama series is presented. It is argued in the context of an examination of, respectively, television and language, television and the mythic, and of the nature of narrative, that the television drama preserves the forms which otherwise might be thought of as particular to oral culture and communication. Television, in its preservation of these forms, and in its generally mythic character, gains its effectiveness thereby and must be understood sociologically in such terns. The effect of such an understanding, it is argued, will be to challenge any comprehension of the medium simply as the particular product of a particular historical period and/or an imposition in culture of one world view on an other. The television message is both a collective product and a transhistorical one. It is argued that on both counts it needs to be understood as a genuine expression of a social need, though in its expression of that need it does not necessarily simply act to preserve existing social and cultural conditions

Investigation of folktale dramatis personae on a selected Malaysian folktale to test and visualize its applicability and pattern in the Malaysian

Dramatis personae of a folktale is a part of the morphology of folktale which advocates the analysis of folktales based on structure instead of theme and motif.Among others, it works as markers in assisting the identification of embedded structures in a folktale.Nevertheless, the theory from which the dramatis personae originates is foreign to Malaysian context.It raises questions whether the dramatis personae is entirely applicable to Malaysian folktales and what is the pattern once it is applied to a folktale of a different culture. Thus, the objectives of the study are to test the applicability of the dramatis personae on a select Malaysian folktale and once tested, to visualise the pattern of the dramatis personae applied. Qualitative text analysis (QTA) method is employed as a vehicle that propels the investigation assisted by Atlas.ti, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) to enhance validity and reliability of the test conducted. Central to this article, the applicability, and the visualisation of the dramatis personae pattern in Malaysian context are hoped to shed lights on the operation of the theory beyond the circumference of the inaugurate culture

A cognitive model of fiction writing.

Models of the writing process are used to design software tools for writers who work with computers. This thesis is concerned with the construction of a model of fiction writing. The first stage in this construction is to review existing models of writing. Models of writing used in software design and writing research include behavioural, cognitive and linguistic varieties. The arguments of this thesis are, firstly, that current models do not provide an adequate basis for designing software tools for fiction writers. Secondly, research into writing is often based on questionable assumptions concerning language and linguistics, the interpretation of empirical research, and the development of cognitive models. It is argued that Saussure's linguistics provides an alternative basis for developing a model of fiction writing, and that Barthes' method of textual analysis provides insight into the ways in which readers and writers create meanings. The result of reviewing current models of writing is a basic model of writing, consisting of a cycle of three activities - thinking, writing, and reading. The next stage is to develop this basic model into a model of fiction writing by using narratology, textual analysis, and cognitive psychology to identify the kinds of thinking processes that create fictional texts. Remembering and imagining events and scenes are identified as basic processes in fiction writing; in cognitive terms, events are verbal representations, while scenes are visual representations. Syntax is identified as another distinct object of thought, to which the processes of remembering and imagining also apply. Genette's notion of focus in his analysis of text types is used to describe the role of characters in the writer's imagination: focusing the imagination is a process in which a writer imagines she is someone else, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, and syntax. It is argued that a writer's story memory, influences his remembering and imagining; Todorov's work on symbolism is used to argue that interpretation plays the role in fiction writing of binding together these two processes. The role of naming in reading and its relation to problem solving is compared with its role in writing, and names or signifiers are added to the objects of thought in fiction writing. It is argued that problem solving in fiction writing is sometimes concerned with creating problems or mysteries for the reader, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, signifiers and syntax. All these findings are presented in the form of a cognitive model of fiction writing. The question of testing is discussed, and the use of the model in designing software tools is illustrated by the description of a hypertextual aid for fiction writers

From Shanhai Jing to Liaozhai Zhiyi: towards a morphology of classical Chinese supernatural fiction

The present research is an attempt at a morphological analysis of classical Chinese supernatural fiction known as zhiguai under the theoretical framework designed by Vladimir Propp and later developed by Alan Dundes. As to the study of Chinese zhiguai tales, mountains of work bas been done, but research is usually confined either to exploration into the geographical-historical sources of these tales or to the recognition and reconstruction of society in ancient China. It is therefore believed that a systematic study of zhiguai literature from a linguistics-oriented structuralfunctional perspective will shed light on the rules governing the textual organisation of classical Chinese fiction of the supernatural and strange.This thesis will be divided into two parts with the first one atmmg at a diachronic survey of zhiguai literature. In this section, the origins of this genre and its development through dynasties in traditional China will be explored with attention focused on an evidential and thematic study of zhiguai works most influential and representative of the time and of the author as well.Part Two, which will start with a review of Propp's morphological method and model, is devoted to a synclironic study of Chinese zhiguai fi ction from a Proppian perspective. For each tale text selected for morphological analysis, functions will be identified, and a linear functional scheme presented, and described in terms of the sequence of functions and the distribution of functions among dramatis personae. All the structural and functional traits will be tabulated, discussed and, where possible and necessary, compared. Finally, based on a data analysis, a conclusion will be made on morphological features and structural patterns of classical Chinese fiction of the supernatural and strange.Fifty zhiguai tales will be selected for analysis from ancient zhushu (commentaries), leishu (categorised books), congshu (collectanea), or authoritative modem editions of works of supernatural fiction in classical Chinese. In the course of selection, priority has been given to those about other/supernatural beings or mortals with supernatural power as classified by Aame as "Tales of magic" m conformity with Propp's corpus of Russian fairy tales in Morphology of the Folktale

Stories and Storytelling in the Libro De Buen Amor : Juan Ruiz\u27s Use of Folktales to Admonish, Persuade and Deceive (Spain).

The Libro de buen amor, a fourteenth century Spanish text by Juan Ruiz, is an extensive and complex poem rich in partially hidden messages. Thirty-five popular medieval tales form an integral part of the body of the work, and convey important information to the reader through the text of the tales and through the storytelling context created by the author. Scholars have studied the tales most often from an historical perspective, and analyzed them separately from the central narrative; or have studied the textual materials with little emphasis on the function of the tales. Although such studies provide valuable information, they do not deal with the interpretation of the folktales in relation to the work as a whole. Significant information that is embedded in the context of the storytelling event created within the literary work may be overlooked by approaches which examine only textual materials. This analysis of the tales uses criteria suggested by folklorists\u27 studies of observable folklore as a means of discovering the complex relationship of the tales to the literary work and their contribution to the Libro de buen amor. The messages communicated through the text and context of folktales are often ambiguous or even contradictory, but examination of the tales using folklore techniques reveals that they are closely related to each other and to the archpriest\u27s story. One fundamental concern expressed in the Libro de buen amor is the many forms of deceit which prevail in situations dealing with love. On one hand, Juan Ruiz uses the wisdom in folktales to suggest prudent measures that one should take to avoid being a victim of deceit. On the other, he illustrates in his description of the storytelling contexts how the same tales can be used by clever storytellers to deceive. The inherent ambiguity of folktales is the characteristic which enables the storyteller to manipulate audience response to achieve the desired end

Russian Formalism

Russian Formalism, one of the twentieth century's most important movements in literary criticism, has received far less attention than most of its rivals. Examining Formalism in light of more recent developments in literary theory, Peter Steiner here offers the most comprehensive critique of Formalism to date. Steiner studies the work of the Formalists in terms of the major tropes that characterized their thought. He first considers those theorists who viewed a literary work as a mechanism, an organism, or a system. He then turns to those who sought to reduce literature to its most basic element.<p

Story blocks:Reimagining narrative through the blockchain

Digital technology is changing, and has changed the ways we create and consume narratives, from moving images and immersive storyworlds to digital long-form and multi-branched story experiences. At the same time, blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, is revolutionizing the way that transactions and exchanges occur. As a globally stored and collaboratively written list of all transactions that have ever taken place within a given system, the blockchain decentralizes money and offers a platform for its creative use. There are already examples of blockchain technologies extending beyond the realm of currency, including the decentralization of domain name servers that are not subject to government takedown and identity management and governance. By framing key blockchain concepts with past and present storytelling practices, this article raises questions as to how the principles and implementation of such distributed ledger technologies might be used within contemporary writing practices - that is, can we imagine stories as a currency or value system? We present three experiments that draw on some of the fundamental principles of blockchain and Bitcoin, as an instantiation of a blockchain implemented application, namely, (1) the ledger, (2) the blocks and (3) the mining process. Each low-fi experiment was intentionally designed to be very accessible to take part in and understand and all were conducted as discrete workshops with different sets of participants. Participants included a cohort of design students, technology industry and design professionals and writing and interaction design academics. Each experiment raised a different set of reflections and subsequent questions on the nature of digital, the linearity (or not) of narratives and collaborative processes