Finding Elizabeth: Construing memory in Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey

Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey was published in 2014 and won the Costa Award for best first novel. Both humorous and sad, it has been categorised as literary fiction, detective fiction and a psychological thriller, and is thus a “hybrid” genre novel that is difficult to categorise neatly. The novel’s chief protagonist and narrator is Maud, who has dementia. As a narrator Maud is extremely unreliable and often forgets facts and events even as they are unfolding around her. Maud’s memories, however, have a much higher degree of specificity than her present day narratives: they are richer, more detailed, and therefore much more reliable, than the narrative of her current life. Consequently, the novel is characterised by a stylistic contrast between the vague and the specific, the remembered and the forgotten. In order to investigate this contrast, this paper argues that a stylistic account of Cognitive Grammar can shed further light on how Maud’s cognitive habits are represented in the novel, and are represented in the novel, and how these in turn impact upon text-world representation. The analysis draws upon Cognitive Grammar’s construal processes, in particular, to explore the fictive illustration of mind style – and of memory – in this literary context. Finally, this paper considers how one of the particular experiences of reading the narrative is dependent on the “layered construal” prevalent in the text, whereby a reader’s experience of the fictional world is continually contrasted with that of the narrator

'The truth is we're watching each other': Voiceover narration as 'split-self' presentation in The Handmaid's Tale TV series

Cognitive stylistics offers a renewed focus on readerly or audience interpretation, but while cognitive stylistic tools have been applied in the investigation of literary texts, their application to TV, film and screen has been more limited. This article examines the cognitive stylistic features of the voiceover narration in the first TV series adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale to explore the representation of June/Offred’s ‘split selves’ and how these are mediated through a prominent ‘filmic composition device’. Through analysis of voiceovers and corresponding production choices in series 1, this study explores, first, how the different modes of communication – both choices of visual production (such as shallow-focus shots) and linguistic features (such as ‘you’ address and container metaphors) – combine to show Offred’s split perspective; and second, how these stylistic elements work to foreground the key themes of the series, such as imprisonment, objectification and surveillance

Home Sweet Home? Neighborhood Cohesion Offers a Coping Mechanism for Gender Discrimination Linked With Psychological Distress

Despite recent progress in the past few years gender discrimination is still an ongoing problem. Eric Grollman’s work states that experiencing gender discrimination can have a negative impact on one’s mental health causing stress and mental distress for the individual. It is important to examine how people cope with the added stress of facing gender discrimination. Leonard Pearlin’s work argues that coping works to alter or handle the meaning of the situation from which stressors occur or to not allow stress to go out of a manageable reach. Neighborhood cohesion may act as a coping mechanism to alleviate the stress that comes with experiencing gender discrimination. Moreover, according to Elizabeth Brondolo, African Americans cope with racial discrimination through social networks, i.e. racial/ethnic identities have been shown to help an individual cope with racial discrimination. Social networks already function as a coping mechanism for racial discrimination, so then the question arises of if it could work as a coping mechanism for gender discrimination. I argue that social networks can impact the relationship between experiencing gender discrimination and the mental distress that is caused by the stress of experiencing discrimination

Cognitive Grammar in Contemporary Fiction

This book proposes an extension of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) towards a cognitive discourse grammar, through the unique environment that literary stylistic application offers. Drawing upon contemporary research in cognitive stylistics (Text World Theory, deixis and mind-modelling, amongst others), the volume scales up central Cognitive Grammar concepts (such as construal, grounding, the reference point model and action chains) in order to explore the attenuation of experience – and how it is simulated – in literary reading. In particular, it considers a range of contemporary texts by Neil Gaiman, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ian McEwan and Paul Auster. This application builds upon previous work that adopts Cognitive Grammar for literary analysis and provides the first extended account of Cognitive Grammar in contemporary fiction

Expanding reach of Public Health: Lessons from a pilot project to develop remote dementia diagnostic processes.

Georgia Department of Public Health Injury Prevention Program works to create a healthy Georgia by leveraging resources, addressing systems change, and fortifying a robust person-centered public health response to dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. The response utilizes Georgia’s established infrastructure, clear priorities, and the dynamic network of partnerships guided by a regularly updated state plan to increase capacity and access to quality care. Systemic change through collaboration and communication can empower people living with dementia, their care partners, professionals, and communities. The pilot remote dementia diagnostic process and procedure engages long-term plans for increasing annual wellness visits, dementia risk reduction, early diagnosis, prevention and management of comorbidities and avoidable hospitalizations. The project aims to provide rural Georgians easier access to providers specializing in dementia diagnosis by offering remote telemedicine appointments at local DPH clinic sites via a tablet. It emphasizes Public Health workers collaboration with existing partners to provide tailored interventions and technology linkages, for means to access quality care and personalized care plans. Implementation begins with stakeholder perspective through conversation, then incorporates evidence-based data driven program building and workflow creation with adaptation at each local level. Consideration for external validity in decision making and flexibility for those local level approaches and adaptations includes acting with cost deliberations and transparent information. Replication of the project includes applicability and appropriateness to location, population, staff capacity, and healthcare providers, quilted into the fabric of social continuums of care. County Public Health Offices will collaborate with their local healthcare providers and networks, through remote dementia screenings, to support early detection and diagnosis, annual wellness visits, and risk reduction. This is a BOLD opportunity to support your community’s ability to better the lives of those with dementia, including Alzheimer’s, in their journey to improve overall health and wellness

BEd foundation phase fourth year student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics and the self-reported factors that influence these self-efficacy beliefs

The underperformance of mathematics teaching and learning is a pressing concern in South Africa. Many foundation phase in-service teachers show inadequate mathematics content knowledge which creates barriers to their learners acquiring adequate mathematics skills. Teacher training programmes offer a key opportunity to improve the instructional practices of teachers at foundation phase level. In order to improve the teaching skills of in-service teachers, one focus must be on teacher training programmes. Unfortunately, there are many foundation phase student teachers who are leaving the profession within the first few years of teaching reportedly due to low levels of motivation. This research investigates the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service student teachers. It also focuses on foundation phase student teachers as they experience significant challenges to their self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics and mathematics teaching. Self-efficacy is the key theory of the study. It stems from Bandura’s social cognitive theory and is an individual’s judgments about their capabilities, skills and perceived performance. This qualitative research adopts an interpretivist approach which seeks to identify Bed foundation phase fourth year student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics and the self-reported factors influencing such beliefs. This research found that BEd foundation phase fourth year student teachers have low self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics. The purpose of this research is to raise awareness of the BEd student teachers’ low self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching mathematics. The results from this research will provide a platform for future intervention research, as well as potentially influencing student teacher training programmes

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review Harris Davis, Dept. of Psychology, Angel Whitfield, Sydney Judge, Bailee Beverly, Jenna Minter, Harrison Davis, and Eryn DeLaney and Chloe Walker, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Students, with Dr. Chelsea Williams, Dept. of Psychology A narrative research review was conducted to examine studies that have tested the relation between vicarious trauma (i.e., witnessing abuse of others; Trautmann, S., Reineboth, M., Trikojat, K., Richter, J., Hagenaars, M. A., Kanske, P., & Schäfer, J. (2018). and mental health in adolescents and young adults. Using psycinfo to find research conducted to date, this review indicated that there are various types of trauma that adolescents might be exposed to (e.g., domestic abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse) and various forms of mental health issues (e.g., post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety) that might result from such trauma. (Erolin, K. S., Wieling, E., & Parra, R. E. A. (2014)., , Stowkowy, J., Goldstein, B. I., MacQueen, G., Wang, J., Kennedy, S. H., Bray, S., Lebel, C., & Addington, J. (2020). Findings from this review also suggest that there is a relation between varying types of traumatic exposure and several types of depressive symptoms (Monfort, E., Afzali M. H. (2015), Merza, K., Papp, G., & Szabó, I. K. (2015) and that there are more studies on adults than on adolescents. These effects will be discussed. Gaps in the literature will be referenced and potential future research directions will be acknowledged. In conclusion, this narrative research review emphasizes the importance of knowing the effects of vicarious trauma on adolescents and adults for preventative purposes.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1336/thumbnail.jp

Attentional windowing in David Foster Wallace’s ‘The Soul Is Not a Smithy’

is is the first book to present an account of literary meaning and effects drawing on our best understanding of mind and language in the form of a Cognitive Grammar. e contributors provide exemplary analyses of a range of literature from science fiction, dystopia, absurdism and graphic novels to the poetry of Wordsworth, Hopkins, Sassoon, Balassi, and Dylan omas, as well as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Barrett Browning, Whitman, Owen and others. e application of Cognitive Grammar allows the discussion of meaning, translation, ambience, action, reflection, multimodality, empathy, experience and literariness itself to be conducted in newly valid ways. With a Foreword by the creator of Cognitive Grammar, Ronald Langacker, and an Aerword by the cognitive scientist Todd Oakley, the book represents the latest advance in literary linguistics, cognitive poetics and literary critical practic

The new regionalisation of UK higher education

The new regionalisation of UK higher educatio