Metanarratives

CALVINO’S INVISIBLE CITIES IS ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL ESSAYS DESCRIBING MODERN CITIES AND THE WAY THEY ARE PERCEIVED: A DELIGHTFUL ALLEGORY OF THE THOUSANDS OF INTERACTIONS, TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE, BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACES.

BY ADOPTING CALVINO’S LENS IN READING CITIES, I STARTED TO DEFINE THE CORE OF MY PROJECT WITH THE CLEAR INTENT TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE CITY AFFECTS CITIZENS AND VICE VERSA.

CITIES CAN BE CONSIDERED AS LAYERED ENTITIES IN A PERPETUAL EVOLUTION, LIVING SCENARIOS WHERE HISTORY AND STORIES CONSTANTLY OVERLAP CREATING NEW SETTINGS, NEW SCHEMES AND NEW SITUATIONS WITH THOUSANDS OF ACTORS PLAYING COUNTLESS ROLES. HOWEVER, IT IS MORE DIFFICULT TO GRASP THE ROLE THAT CITIZENS PLAY TODAY, WHETHER THEY ARE SPECTATORS, CHARACTERS OR PROTAGONISTS.

CITIZENS ARE TOO OFTEN OVERCOME BY THE TOP-DOWN CONFIGURATION OF CITIES.

IN ORDER TO REVERSE THIS, I HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING MY ROLE AS DESIGNER, WHICH IS TO HELP FOSTER NEW ACTS OF BOTTOM-UP PARTICIPATION IN ORDER TO PERCEIVE, CONCEIVE AND INITIATE CHANGES IN THE WAY WE LIVE IN CITIES.

THUS A QUESTION ARISES: HOW CAN WE DESIGN CONDITIONS THAT ALLOW PEOPLE TO BECOME AUTHORS OF THE URBAN METAMORPHOSIS?

THE PROJECT ATTEMPTS TO BE ONE POSSIBLE PROCESS THAT ACTIVELY ENGAGES AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY, SHIFTING THE ROLE FROM PASSIVE USERS TO PROTAGONISTS OF A CHANGE.

1+1=3 IS LOCATED IN A SMALL TOWN IN ITALY CALLED CASSINA DE’ PECCHI, ONE OVER MANY THAT ENCOMPASS MILAN’S GREEN BELT. THE ENTIRE AREA COVERS OVER 40.000HE AND IT IS THE LARGEST AGRICULTURAL PARK IN EUROPE; HOWEVER THE 61 TOWNS HAVE ESSENTIALLY LOST THEIR RURAL VOCATION. ON THE CONTRARY, THEY ARE PERIURBAN TOWNS, PLACES DEFINED FOR THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION IN PROXIMITY OF A CITY, RATHER THAN FOR THEIR IDENTITY.

IN FACT, A SENSE OF STASIS AND PARALYSIS OCCURS IN CASSINA DE’ PECCHI SINCE THE 80’S: THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT IS NOWADAYS DISREGARDED AND THE URBAN TRANSFORMATION IS A LONG WAY OFF, HENCEFORTH INHABITANTS ARE RATHER DETACHED FROM THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT. MOREOVER AN UNSTABLE POLITICAL SITUATION LED CASSINA TO A COMPLETE LACK OF AGENCY.

1+1=3 ATTEMPTS TO PROVOKE A CHANGE. IT SEEKS TO BE PIONEER OF A NEW PRACTICE THAT ALTER THE WAY THE ENVIRONMENT IS UNDERSTOOD AND PLANNED BY SUGGESTING BOTTOM-UP ACTS OF RE-APPROPRIATION.

A FARM-MAKING PROCESS HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO ENABLE CITIZENS TO ENGAGE WITH THE FORGOTTEN RURAL ENVIRONMENT AND SPECULATE ON ITS POSSIBLE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. AN ABANDONED PUBLIC FARM ACTS AS CATALYST TO ATTRACT CITIZENS AND TRIGGERNEW RURAL [R]EVOLUTIONS IN ORDER TO INCITE HOPE FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE.

THE INITIAL CONCEPT WAS UTTERLY FOCUSED ON THE CHOSEN FARM, CASCINA BINDELLERA. THE PROCESS WAS MORE BASED ON THE SUBJECT RATHER THAN ON THE COMMUNITY, NEVERTHELESS 1+1=3 SOON SHIFTED ITS FOCUS FROM A MERE COLLECTION OF IDEAS TO THE CO-CREATION OF A MORE PRAGMATIC VISION FOR CASSINA, WHERE THE FARM STANDS AS THE STARTING POINT.

THE MAIN AIM WAS TO DESIGN A PROCESS SO THAT NEW COLLECTIVE CITY-NARRATIVES CAN UNFOLD, IN ORDER TO OPEN UP GLIMMERS OF GENUINE PARTICIPATION. THE IMPACT OF CITIZENS’ DIRECT PARTICIPATION HAS THE AMBITION TO GENERATE THE EQUATION 1+1=3, WHERE BOTTOM-UP PRACTICES ACT AS CRUCIAL INGREDIENTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW PROACTIVE AND COHESIVE COMMUNITY, IN ORDER TO RE-DESIGN A CITY IN WHICH EVERYONE HAS A PLACE.

Cuenta la leyenda que en el siglo III a. C. el emperador chino Shih Huang Ti mandó quemar todas las bibliotecas para que se desconociese el pasado, y él fuese para el futuro —artificiosamente, forzosamente— el principio de la historia.

Con este y otros métodos, y con idénticas intenciones de persuadirse únicos, primeros y últimos; determinadas cosmovisiones alrededor del mundo fueron cristalizadas en compendios o biblios y proclamados con el tiempo sagrados e inmutables (cada cual llamado El Libro); en donde añadir una coma haría estragos en el andamiaje del universo.

Cada uno de estos textos pretende abarcarlo todo, desde las fibras íntimas del ser hasta las fronteras del cosmos: cómo todo empezó desde el barro originario, desde el Caos, y cómo esta obra producto de una voluntad y de una inteligencia, perecerá. Todos y cada uno de ellos, por lo tanto, se empujan, se expelen mutuamente, se refutan y se ofenden; profetizando así, aún antes de declararse, las guerras y enconos.

Por este camino anduvieron los metarrelatos y cosmogonías posteriores hasta nuestros días –religiosos, escolásticos, sincréticos, seculares; inspiraciones divinas, híbridas o humanas– que invitan de igual modo a abandonar la búsqueda de la verdad más allá de sus páginas, a contentarnos con el paraíso perdido o el materialismo histórico, o la ineludible influencia de los astros.

In this paper, I reflect on the intertwined, shifting relationship among modernity, postmodernity, and liquid modernity by drawing from texts on philosophy, sociology, and theology. I present and argue three statements: 1) postmodernity is at once a rupture and continuity of modernity, 2) postmodernity is an epoch bridging the shift of society's conditions from solid to liquid form, and 3) liquid modernity characteristics overlap with hypermodernity rather than postmodernity. Within the consideration devoted to these statements, I posit that modernity is a concept that has an outstanding potential to perpetuate by relentlessly resurrecting itself under different forms.

Dr. Natalia Igl | Abstract zum Beitrag "Die Sichtbarkeit der Narration" Erscheint in: Susanne Knaeble / Katharina Mertens-Fleury (Hg.): Bildhaftigkeit [2016] Natalia Igl: Die Sichtbarkeit der Narration. Semiotische Strategien bildhaften Erzählens in Wolf Haas' Meta-Roman Verteidigung der Missionarsstellung "The reading of a graphic novel is an act of both aesthetic perception and intellectual pursuit." (Eisner 2008: 2) Wolf Haas' Roman Verteidigung der Missionarsstellung (2012) ist keine ‚graphic novel' im Sinne der spezifischen Gattungsbezeichnung -dennoch fordert seine Lektüre ähnliche Kompetenzen vom Leser wie die Lektüre eines Comics: Der Roman erzählt bi-bzw. multimodal (vgl. Stöckl 2004, Bucher 2011), nicht nur in Worten, sondern auch in (Schrift-)Bildern. Das heißt: Die Materialität der Schrift wird in Haas' Roman nicht nur betont, sondern zur Basis einer narrativen Strategie, die zwei semiotische Systeme -Bild und Schriftfunktional verknüpft. Was hier als semiotische Strategien ‚bildhaften Erzählens' bezeichnet wird, meint also entsprechend solche Phänomene, bei denen ein narrativer Text mit Aspekten der Schriftbildlichkeit und Materialität von Text und Zeichen arbeitet -und zwar in der Weise, dass die materiell-visuellen Elemente nicht kumulativ zur Narration hinzukommen, sondern funktional in die narrative Struktur eingebettet sind. So lässt sich in Wolf Haas' Roman beispielsweise die bewusste narrative Funktionalisierung der graphemischen ‚Abbildung' von Sprache durchgängig beobachten. Diese Perspektive bedeutet dabei, dass ‚Bildhaftigkeit' im Folgenden also nicht als ein rhetorischtropologisches Phänomen betrachtet wird, sondern als literarisch-narratives Phänomen, bei dem die Materialität und visuelle Qualität von Schrift-/Sprachzeichen in den Vordergrund rückt und eine ‚Multimodalisierung'eines Textes bzw. einer Gattung beobachtbar wird (vgl. Bucher 2010, Gibbons 2012). Mit Blick auf das dynamische Zusammenspiel von Textelementen und kognitiven Leistungen vor kulturhistorischem Hintergrund zeigt der Beitrag, dass semiotisch-visuelle Formen bildhaften Erzählens als metanarrative Strategien fungieren. Diese Strategien, so eine zentrale These, lenken den Blick auf die Erzählinstanz selbst: Diese wird in ihrer perspektivierenden und evaluierenden Funktion vordergrundiert. Die Basis der hier eingenommenen Untersuchungsperspektive ist die Konzeptualisierung von ‚Narrativität' als spezifischem Diskursmodus (vgl. Igl/Zeman 2016). Charakterisiert ist dieser zum einen durch die grundlegende diskursive Doppelstruktur, die sich in der Unterscheidung von Erzähler-und Figurenebene manifestiert (vgl. Zeman 2016, Igl 2016b sowie grundlegend Phelan 2001, Margolin 1991); zum anderen durch die auf dieser Doppelstruktur basierende Ausfaltung einer evaluativen Ebene, von der aus das Erzählte bzw. genauer: die Relation zwischen dem Erzähler und dem Erzählten bewertet wird. Dabei ist auch die Ebene der Rezipient*innen miteinzubeziehen. Insgesamt wird Haas' Roman nicht zuletzt durch die Hinzufügung einer bildhaften Ebene der Narration zum Meta-Roman, dessen Fokus auf dem Erzählen selbst liegt. Den Leserinnen und Lesern wird dabei mittels der semiotischen Strategien des Textes nicht nur eine Adressaten-sondern auch eine Beobachter-Rolle zugewiesen (vgl. Tobin 2014; Igl 2016a: bes. 351-357), wodurch die Bildhaftigkeit der Erzählung als ganzer im Sinne ihrer visuell-piktorialen Inszenierung noch weiter in den Vordergrund tritt. Dr. Natalia Igl | Abstract zum Beitrag "Die Sichtbarkeit der Narration" Erscheint in: Susanne Knaeble / Katharina Mertens-Fleury (Hg.): Bildhaftigkeit [2016]

Through an analysis of its official propaganda, this paper undertakes an analysis of Jamā’at Nuṣrat al-Islām wa-l-Muslimīn (JNIM), a new alliance made up of groups loyal to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel region. With this movement, AQIM not only seeks to extend the reach of its influence in the Sahel and West Africa, but also to establish a secure refuge far from Algeria. Among the four thematic categories into which, for the moment, the audiovisual production of this group can be divided, the battle theme is dominant, leaving the ideological terrain to AQIM. Furthermore, the creation of JNIM allows the regional structure of AQIM to project –propagandistically– levels of violence that would otherwise be impossible currently. The presence of foreign actors in the region, including Spain, has increased significantly in recent years and both the rhetoric used by the organisation in its communiques and the terrorist actions carried out during its first year of existence make clear that this contingent of foreigners is a priority objective.

เหตุการณ์ 9/11 สะท้อนให้เห็นถึงการดารงอยู่ของเรื่องเล่าขนาดใหญ่ (metanarratives) ซึ่งยังมิได้ถูกปฏิเสธหรือล้มล้างลงแต่อย่างใด ยิ่งไปกว่านั้นเรื่องเล่าขนาดใหญ่ที่ถูกผลิตและผลิตซ้าโดยสหรัฐอเมริกากลับกลายเป็นเรื่องเล่าอันทรงพลังซึ่งส่งผลต่อความคิดและความเชื่อของชาวอเมริกันและพลเมืองโลก กล่าวคือเรื่องเล่าขนาดใหญ่ของสหรัฐฯสามารถแย่งชิงพื้นที่ในการเล่าเรื่องและเบียดบังเรื่องเล่าระดับรอง (micronarratives) ไม่ให้สามารถมีสิทธิมีเสียงในการเมืองระหว่างประเทศ ตลอดจนยึดกุมความรู้และสถาปนาเรื่องเล่าขนาดใหญ่อันปราศซึ่งข้อโต้แย้ง นอกจากนี้เรื่องเล่าขนาดใหญ่ยังถูกใช้เพื่อสร้างความชอบธรรมในการทาสงครามต่อต้านการก่อการร้ายและความพยายามในการจัดระเบียบโลกใหม่ของสหรัฐฯ

The aftermath of 9/11 reflects the existence of metarratives that has not been denied or lost their credibility; furthermore, the metanarratives produced and reproduced by the United States effectively control not only the mindset of Americans but also global citizens. Besides, the American metanarratives seize the space of micronarratives whose spatial positions were vanished from world politics. The American metanarratives also control the sphere of knowledge and establish the unquestionable metanarratives. In addition, the American metanarratives has been used to legitimize the War on Terrorism as well as American attempts creating the new world order.

Romila’s book on Somanatha, indeed so much of her writings, were salutary in problematising many superficial readings that sustain the meta-narratives in which South Asian History is bound. Her work on Somnath was a particularly interesting methodological intervention: it teased out the successive and contradictory narratives, largely ignored or only selectively read to consolidate apriori assumptions of fanatical Muslim iconoclasm. My paper focuses not so much on multiple narratives but on the more subliminal contribution of Somanatha – on microhistory and its complicated relationships with large meta-narratives. My subject of study is Delhi, largely  known only as the capital of the Sultanate, where its rulers constructed many cities and redoubts. I study Delhi through the prism of Kilukhri, at one time the residence of Delhi Sultans, but I also take into consideration areas in its immediate vicinity: Ghiyaspur and Inderpat and the two rivers. I track the relationship of these spaces from the 13th through the 16th century to bring out a layered and complicated history of Kilukhri that resides uncomfortably with our association of Delhi with its many Sultans.

Partindo do conceito de de "disnarrativo" ("dysnarration"), tal como formulado por Alain Robbe-Grillet em 1976 e publicado no "Le Monde" de 26 de Fevereiro desse ano, pretendo abordar uma das práticas narrativas mais mistificadoras do cinema moderno e pós-moderno, na qual a história, ao mesmo tempo que se vai contando, se nega a si mesma. O efeito é obtido por recurso a três linhas narrativas ("séries"), as quais se entrecruzam durante o tempo do filme, gerando personagens, locais e situações verdadeiramente "incompossíveis" (ou seja, como defende Deleuze, possíveis em si mesmas mas não quando combinadas umas com as outras). Esta estrutura narrativa ("telestrutura") relança constantemente a história, dotando-a de uma natureza alegórica superior à descritiva (tanto mais que os filmes são enriquecidos por meio de citações artísticas intermediais). O efeito é paradoxal - a de uma história impossível que se vai criando sob os nossos olhos - e o resultado é um autêntico labirinto fílmico. Cabe ao espectador tentar descodificar a obra, tarefa obviamente votada ao malogro por efeito da própria construção. A prática disnarrativa de Alain Robbe-Grillet será exemplificada no filme de 1983, sempre actual devido ao enigma abstracto que o permeia. Refiro-me a  "La Belle captive" (FRA).

«In un'oscura e rovinosa carcere della Mancha, nasce il Don Quijote. Ma era già nato prima il vero Don Quijote: era nato in Alcalá de Henares nel 1547. Non s'era ancora riconosciuto, non s'era veduto ancor bene: aveva creduto di combattere contro i giganti e di avere in capo l'elmo di Mambrino. Lì, nell'oscura carcere della Mancha, egli si riconosce, egli si vede finalmente; si accorge che i giganti eran molini a vento e l'elmo di Mambrino un vil piatto da barbiere. Si vede, e ride di sé stesso». Così Luigi Pirandello ricostruisce ne L'umorismo la genesi del Don Quijote di Miguel de Cervantes, il quale assurge a modello fondante della poetica dello scrittore siciliano, meritevole di aver portato, per la prima volta nella letteratura, il «sentimento del contrario», l'umorismo. La lettura pirandelliana risente della ricezione romantica e idealista del capolavoro cervantino, tuttavia le meravigliose parole con le quali Pirandello mette sotto la sua lente d'ingrandimento Cervantes producono due effetti distinti ma complementari. Da un lato ci autorizzano a leggere l'intera produzione dell'autore siciliano sotto la luce di quella di Cervantes e, dall'altro lato e con le dovute cautele, ci permettono di rileggere Cervantes attraverso nuove prospettive, secondo la massima di Jorge Luis Borges per cui ogni autore crea i propri precursori. Il denominatore comune risiede nel fenomeno della metanarratività, che caratterizza e rende peculiari le strutture narrative e il sistema dei personaggi dei due autori. C'è tanto donchisciottismo nei personaggi pirandelliani quanto pirandellismo nelle costruzioni narrative cervantine.

It is not uncommon to hear within education circles today that we should, in the words of Lyotard, hold incredulity toward metanarratives. This paper shows that Lyotard’s call for incredulity toward metanarratives is incoherent because Lyotard’s claims presuppose a subterranean metanarrative of his own. In The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984), Lyotard smuggles in implicit categories of ontology, epistemology, ethics, anthropology and a telos of war against metanarratives. Because of the incoherence of this position, philosophers of education, teacher educators, doctoral students, etc. should not repeat his claim in a way that suggests we are done with metanarratives or that they are all false and, therefore, should not be given credulity. Further, it seems that at the very least we should remain agnostic to the possibilities of metanarratives being able to give structure and meaning to our beliefs and experiences. And we might even offer up a vision of education which encourages students to seek out truth and a coherent and just metanarrative.

В статье рассматривается репрезентация пространства города Вильнюса в поэтических, прозаических, автодокументальных и других текстах И. Эренбурга, В. Луговского, Е. Долматовского, А. Исбаха (Бахрах), В. Устинова, Ю. Кобрина, Г. Кановича, А. Кленова (Купершток), Н. Старшинова, В. Огнева, В. Аксенова, К. Паустовского, Д. Самойлова (Кауфман), В. Рождественского, И. Бродского, созданных в период от конца 1940-х до начала 1980-х гг. Цель исследования состоит в выяснении стратегий присвоения Вильнюса. Анализ материала показал, что в образе столицы одной из трех прибалтийских советских республик комбинируются черты «другого» пространства, окрашенного умеренной экзотикой принадлежности к литовской национальной и западноевропейской культуре, и пространства «своего», к элементам которого относятся фигуры и эпизоды революционной и национально-освободительной борьбы, русской национальной истории и истории культуры. Эти элементы включают Вильнюс в русский исторический и культурный текст, вписывая город в советский исторический метанарратив, к чему и сводится его присвоение.

Recent cultural criticism tools such as the concept of metanarrative or of deconstruction seem to find their forerunner in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick. Specific references in the text imply that the idea of completeness seemed both an impossible and an undesirable task. Thus, the American author appears to be an adept of a philosophy of shipwreck, both in terms of criticizing Protestant theology and in terms of dismantling linear narrative. Instead of monotheism, he seems to favour cultural relativism and develops a loose narrative structure. Midway through the novel, a hermeneutic reading of the whiteness of the whale is provided; as a consequence of this fact, epistemology and ethics break down. Anthropology is yet another lens through which the novel can be read, as the narrator Ishmael seems to promote the values of religious tolerance and respect for cultural difference, themes Melville had been exploring since his first published novel, Typee.

Монография посвящена исторической поэтике жанра метаромана, установлению его единой смысловой основы и границ варьирования его структуры в разные эпохи его бытования. История метаромана как жанра выстраивается начиная с его генезиса в античном романе с авторскими вторжениями и формирования собственно метаромана на исходе эйдетической эпохи поэтики (в «Дон Кихоте» Сервантеса) до расцвета жанра в эпоху художественной модальности, особенно в XX в. Выявляются этапы формирования и развития жанра, метароман отграничивается от близких явлений – романа с авторскими вторжениями и кюнстлерромана, а также прослеживается, каким образом они взаимодействовали на протяжении веков. Обозначаются границы варьирования жанра в разные эпохи его бытования, прослеживается тяготение разных национальных литератур к определенным разновидностям жанра, демонстрируется сущность наиболее характерных черт метаромана в эволюционном аспекте.

Seeking to free us from the clutches of our self-made rigid conventions, postmodernism criticizes the metanarratives of modern times, while metafiction seems a better spokesman of it. New York Trilogy, Paul Auster’s debut composition and a meta-detective novel, has secured its fame in the postmodern fiction. It uses and abuses the conventions of detective novel, and lays bare the conventions of objective historiography. In doing this, Auster has given a self-reflective and equally historical dimension to his oeuvre through the technique of “historiographic metafiction”. Linda Hutcheon sees “historiographic metafiction” as a way to rewrite history in postmodern fiction. Postmodernism seeks to embrace a plurality of truths, and history is no longer monolithic and objective. Hutcheon contends that the postmodernist fiction is characterized by intense self-reflexivity and overtly parodic intertextuality. Utilizing historical accounts as intertextual effects, the writers of postmodernist fiction distrust in history. The present article will attempt to analyze New York Trilogy as a “historiographic metafiction”. Firstly, and insofar as it is within the scope of the article, it will attempt to offer a critical analysis of “postmodernism”, “metafiction”, and “metaphysical detective fiction”. Then, it will examine Auster’s novel as a “historiographic metafiction” in the light of Hutcheon’s theories.

This thesis inquires into possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship as provoked through a practice of social justice storytelling with one Preparatory class of children aged five to six years. The inquiry was practitioner-research, through a living educational theory approach cultivating an interrelational view of existing with others in evolving processes of creation. Ideas of young children‘s active citizenship were provoked and explored through storytelling, by a storytelling teacher-researcher, a Prep class of children and their teacher. The three major foci of the study were practice, narrative and action. A series of storytelling workshops with a Prep class was the practice that was investigated. Each workshop began with a story that made issues of social justice visible, followed by critical discussion of the story, and small group activities to further explore the story. The focus on narrative was based on the idea of story as a way knowing. Stories were used to explore social justice issues with young children. Metanarratives of children and citizenship were seen to influence possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship. Stories were purposefully shared to provoke and promote young children‘s active citizenship through social actions. It was these actions that were the third focus of the study. Through action research, a social justice storytelling practice and the children‘s responses to the stories were reflected on both in action and after. These reflections informed and shaped storytelling practice. Learning in a practice of social justice storytelling is explained through living theories of social justice storytelling as pedagogy. Data of the children‘s participation in the study were analysed to identify influences and possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship creating a living theory of possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship.

This essay is an exploratory discussion of postmodern philosophy in practice. In it, I argue that postmodernism can indeed be defined by its incredulity toward metanarratives, and that Don DeLillo's White Noise as well as Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho espouse this definition.

Samuel Beckett"s works occupy a particular point in literary history, spanning across the temporal division of modernism and postmodernism. Beckett, as a result, has plagued literary scholars who attempt to categorise his works as either distinctly modern or postmodern. Such difficulty is evident in Waiting for Godot, Vladimir and Estragon"s verbal sport represents a postmodern method of language use, that of language gaming. However this categorization is problematized by the twosome"s persistent return to Godot, who serves as a version of Lyotard"s "grand narrative", that is characteristically modern (xxiii). Lucky"s language game, on the other hand, represents a postmodern break with modernist structural discourse. Then again, this break is violently cut short, an attribute of modernist objective rationality. Language gaming in Happy Days, is rather more one-sided, which operates to emphasize the essential quality of observation in the act of communication, while also serving to act as a metatheatrical self-awareness that is emblematic of postmodern theatre.

La presente investigación exegética de la conversación entre la serpiente y la mujer, en Génesis 3:1-5, brinda vislumbres que trascienden la esfera terrenal y nos proyectan a un conflicto cósmico entre el bien y el mal, en el cual, el tema principal, en el trasfondo del asunto, es el carácter de Dios y su deterioro al trasmutar la Palabra de Dios. De esta forma, el autor, siguiendo las directrices de la metodología histórica-gramatical, indaga en el contexto histórico, en las palabras (análisis morfosintáctico y de la estructura), la intertextualidad (la relación de texto en el contexto general de la Biblia) y en la teología que se desprende del pasaje con la finalidad de comprender mejor los asuntos en juego en el drama que se presenta en el conflicto cósmico entre Dios y la serpiente antigua que se llama, diablo y Satanás (Ap 12:7-9). El objetivo de la investigación es descifrar los temas subyacentes que se presentan en el diálogo entre la mujer y la serpiente.

A reading of the Niobe paradigm in Iliad 24

Niobe: A Mythic Example of a Human / Non Human Mother in Mourning and Its Metanarrative Implications


14th International Symposium on the Odyssey - 5th Webinar
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The '90s sitcom Seinfeld recirculates American mythology and popular tropes in a way using the distinctly American forms of stand-up and the televised sitcom. It asserts definitions of what these genres mean and can accomplish in explicitly commercial spaces, and whether anything, as opposed to nothing, can be asserted. A (somewhat facetious) comparison to James Joyce's Ulysses use and modernization of European myth for a new context.

Built during the Cold War, the contemporary global village has its own metanarratives that support its perceived reality. The author positions himself between the 1960s and 1980s of the 20th century, exposing the political and social context of that era, which continues to have an impact today through theatrical and performative means. The author explores an archive of metanarratives that have influenced the construction of the proto-historical narrative for the northern region of Portugal, using different interdisciplinary concepts to aid in his cyberarchaeological excavation and simulation. The author also considers the role of computer piracy in disrupting the so-called "tyrannies of the image" and their metanarratives, which standardize ideas and sites. The author questions the institutionalization of archaeological heritage as a means of maintaining historical-cultural paradigms that are themselves archaeological records in the 21st century, particularly in the face of an economic network of tourism that has been fictionalized by the West.

Esta pesquisa trata do tema da narratologia da televisão e parte do constatação de que a produção ficcional televisual tem se complexificado nas últimas décadas. Considerando que o fenômeno da complexidade comparece em ficções de naturezas distintas (orais, cênicas, escriturais, fílmicas, televisuais ou hipermidiáticas), quais seriam as características que permitem que certas obras sejam classificadas como narrativas complexas? Haveria uma lógica subjacente que as orienta, interligando-as? Esta tese sustenta a existência de uma lógica fundamental da narrativa complexa que perpassa todas as suas manifestações concretas: a autorreferencialidade, isto é, o movimento de voltar-se sobre si, gerando, em consequência, a recepção metarreflexiva por parte do público. Por esse caminho investigamos, como objetivos específicos, a relação entre a narrativa complexa e o fenômeno da autorreferencialidade, bem assim, seus mecanismos e efeitos no campo da televisão. O objetivo principal desta tese é alcançar um conceito preciso de complexificação narrativa na ficção televisual que contribua para a solidificação de uma narratologia da televisão. Este estudo tem como objeto teórico a noção de narrativa complexa e como objeto empírico as manifestações de complexidade narrativa na ficção literária, fílmica e, principalmente, na ficção televisual. Elegemos como corpus a série estadunidense Twin Peaks. Com o intuito de esclarecer conceitos específicos, outras obras televisuais são brevemente examinadas. Nossa ferramenta metodológica apoia-se no modelo do círculo mimético de Paul Ricoeur e na narratologia de Gérard Genette, essa última adaptada por André Gaudreault e François Jost para aplicação ao campo audiovisual. Nossa argumentação teórica sobre a relação entre narrativa complexa e autorreferência se inspira nos estudos de Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna e de diversos outros autores que também tematizam a autorreferência nos campos da literatura, do cinema e da televisão. O princípio da autorreferencialidade, seus tipos, modos e níveis de atuação são por nós explorados com base nas abordagens de Werner Wolf e de Winfried Nöth. Os resultados alcançados nesta pesquisa permitem-nos concluir que a narrativa complexa é um fenômeno decorrente de estratégias autorreferenciais presentes nas instâncias do conteúdo, da estrutura e do ato narrativo.

In Mesopotamian culture, the general cosmological consensus was a belief in an ordered universe created by deities possessing various powers and agendas, many of which involved dealings with human beings. The gods and goddesses gave signs that provided guidance for people to be able to properly navigate through their structured world. These numerous and varied divine signs were usually interpreted by specially trained persons through methods of divination. Although cosmologically ordered, the Mesopotamian world was not static nor was it usually fatalistically determined. Divination provided a means by which an individual may know a deity’s determination on a wide variety of subjects and perhaps even avoid a negative fate by responding positively via avoidance or other divinely prescribed remedies. The origins of all things from the universe and the natural world to agricultural methods and garment making, as well as divination itself, were all viewed as parts of a divinely ordered cosmology.  This essay will discuss texts concerning origins, divinatory methods, and explore cosmological roles in relationship to the popular practice of divination in Mesopotamia.

This article explores the significance of the theme of “change” in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, going beyond its rhetorical use by the candidates or as a way of defining a historic electoral shift (making an “election of change”) to examine how change played a critical role in the political landscape itself. One can locate voters’ desire for change in many existing conditions leading up to the race, but also ideologically and as a force in its own right. Framing of the election as a story reveals that the various actors were increasingly aware of their shifting identities, representations, and agency; thus, change was not just a plot of the story, frequently expressed in terms of populism and popular culture, but a fundamental dynamic behind competing metanarratives and contestations of how the story should be told.

Texto publicado nos Anais Eletrônicos do II EPHIS - Encontro de Pesquisa em História da UFMG. Belo Horizonte, MG: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciência Humanas, 4 a 7 de junho de 2013.

A proposta deste trabalho é analisar as obras A condição pós-moderna (1979) e Moralidades pós-modernas (1993), do filósofo Jean-François Lyotard, bem como o ensaio intitulado “The End of History?” (1989) e o livro O Fim da História e o Último Homem (1992), ambos do cientista
político Francis Fukuyama, buscando relacionar suas duas distintas concepções como uma espécie de manifestação da atual percepção temporal marcada por aquilo que seria o “regime de historicidade” de nossos dias, depreendido por vias daquilo a que o historiador François Hartog, em Regimes de historicidade, denominou “presentismo”. Tal noção, que acreditamos estar expressa naquelas duas obras, afastar-se ia em tudo do “regime de historicidade” moderno, o qual, bem como afirmara o historiador Reinhart Koselleck, possuía o regime de uma história voltada para o futuro, para a síntese representada pelo chamado “horizonte de expectativa”, em contraposição àquele “regime de historicidade” que se fundamentava na tradição e nas lições fornecidas pelo passado captado pela Historia Magistra Vitae. Com esta análise, buscaremos discorrer sobre a forma como nossa atual sociedade ocidental apreende o tempo e relaciona as categorias koselleckianas de “espaço da experiência” e “horizonte de expectativa”, bem como lançar a reflexão sobre o lugar epistemológico da disciplina histórica em um “regime de historicidade” que parece marcado, cada vez mais, pelo que Hartog classificou como “onipresença do presente”.

Since the 1990's, a fashionable term has been very constant when it comes to teaching art and design: creativity. However, what do we mean when we use the word 'creative' combined with other terms like industries, economy, enterprise, sector? This paper is about mapping the encounter between the economical point of view around creativity and education in design and art fields in higher education. At this moment, the research process is being designed by a bibliographical research that has been the bottom line of the investigation process. The analysis in course has already leaded to this question: what is the impact of the 'creative industries' concept in undergraduate schools in Art and Design fields? Amongst many different positions, for now, it is possible to identify two general tendencies: a great enthusiasm and a nagging suspicion. The outcome of this paper is the dialogue between different comprehensions about the attempts made to combine the discourses over the term creativity, its uses and contexts, the roles of education and the struggle brought by the contemporary economic interests.

The University of North Carolina Press
Volume 45, October 2021
pp. 229-255

In this article, I contrast humanist and cognitivist discourses, and argue that when humanists distance themselves from metanarratives, cognitivists will effectively commandeer the terrain and claim that one cannot contest cognitivist discourse at all. Since cognitivist science has eclipsed and undermined the humanities in terms of cultural capital and funding, it is important to examine how humanists—in this case, an emblematic critical theorist, Slavoj Žižek, and a novelist, Richard Powers—have responded to its implications. The recurring question is whether philosophy or science has become dominant not just epistemologically, but ontologically; one of Žižek's primary tenets is that "the human being reduced to an object of technological manipulation is no longer properly human" (Žižek, Event 29). But Žižek also a priori concludes material factors cannot wholly account for human behavior, communication or identity. Žižek attempts to bolster the relevance and import of the humanities by asserting its priority and, sometimes oddly, its conservative credentials: "philosophy is in a way more critical, more cautious even, than science. Philosophy asks even more elementary questions" (Žižek, Conversations 25). Even as he decries the effects that scientific manipulation, alteration and deterministic discourses have on human identity, however, Žižek insists that we already are fragmented, "artificial," and determined, but by inherent ontological limitations rather than by pure materialism. Žižek exhorts "philosophers, when we hear that modern science and technology pose a threat to our human identity … [to ask] which notion of "human"[?] … [As Heidegger suggests], humanist protests against the reign of technology are ultimately futile" (Žižek, Disparities 28). In other words, for Žižek, humanist objections to the way cognitivism and technology dehumanize us, and turn us into determinate and inhuman subjects, erroneously presume that we begin as fully self-integrated humans, and try to preserve some totality we lack as a constitutive feature of our being.

In the second part of the essay, I assess the confluence between Žižek's Lacanian and Richard Powers' humanist narratives regarding science. Both writers view cognitivist sciences as transcendental—for Žižek via the transcendentalism of German idealism and for Powers via the transcendentalism of the American Renaissance—and [End Page 229] yet inadequate because, in effect, they are too successful. Žižek and Powers pit the humanist metanarrative against the cognitivist one, and both start with the premise that cognitivism abrogates narrative itself.

One of Žižek's concerns regarding cognitivism is that the Event that has been the domain of narrative has been co-opted by the domain of science. Summarizing the divide between humanism and scientific determinism and cognitivism, Lyotard concluded that it is "impossible to judge the existence or validity of narrative knowledge on the basis of scientific knowledge and vice versa: the relevant criteria are different. … Lamenting the 'loss of meaning' in postmodernity boils down to mourning the fact that knowledge is no longer principally narrative" (26).1 Similarly, according to Žižek, a positivist form of scientism threatens the categories of knowledge and communication that comprise the basis of human subjectivity: "the transcendental approach reached its apogee with [Heidegger] … while the ontological one seems today kidnapped by natural sciences; we expect the answer to the question of the origins of our universe to come from quantum cosmology, the brain sciences and evolutionism" (Žižek, Event 6). This straightforward claim also hints at the religious anxiety that would attend the receipt of absolute knowledge, which would obviate faith, or the arrival of a messiah, god, or judgment day—i.e., any aspect of eschatology. Addressing the other temporal end of the ontological spectrum, the beginning, Žižek contends that science now offers the metanarratives that preclude human narrative: the "New emerges through narrative, the apparently purely reproductive retelling of what happened—it is this retelling that opens up the space (the possibility) of acting in a new way" (133). In Žižek's estimation, we can tell stories and communicate as humans only because of "a minimal temporal gap between the existence of things in their immediate brute reality, and the registration...

For a long time the allegorical activity was considered dogmatic and equated with artistic fossilization, archaic religious propensity and lack of creativity. However, Walter Benjamin (1928) and Paul De Man (1969), among other illustrious thinkers, came to its defense, exalting, instead, its cryptic, hybrid and abstract nature, which, incidentally, are the main characteristics of modern art. 
“Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me” (David Lynch, 1992) is a wonderful object of analysis, despite being one of the most misunderstood films in the history of cinema. The fact that its narrative is a prequel to the cult television series “Twin Peaks” and incorporates many of the characters of that show, explicitly denigrating the moral image of the protagonist, Laura Palmer, brought about an intense rejection by the fans of the series, as well as the indifference of the cinephilic community in general. However, one must go deeper, in order to understand Lynch’s brave accomplishment and its artfulness. Indeed, the opus is a powerful cinematic allegory because it contains a double layer of metaphorical meaning, one of them being explicitly metacinematic. Thus, besides assuming itself as a filmic daimonic allegory, occurring in a spiritual universe of Good versus Evil, the film is also an authorial discourse on cinema itself. More specifically, it is an allegory of spectatorship, according to Robert Stam’s definition, where the existence and crossing over to “another side” duplicates the architecture of movie theatres and the psychic processes involved in film viewing.

The objective of this study is to examine the development of socio-technical accountability mechanisms in order to: a) preserve and increase the autonomy of individuals subjected to surveillance and b) replenish the asymmetry of power between those who watch and those who are watched. To do so, we address two surveillance realms: intelligence services and personal data networks. The cases studied are Spain and Brazil, from the beginning of the political transitions in the 1970s (in the realm of intelligence), the expansion of Internet digital networks covering the 2020s (in the realm of personal data), to resistance principles in the long-term future. The examination of accountability, thus, comprises a holistic evolution of institutions, regulations, market strategies, as well as resistance tactics. The conclusion summarizes the accountability mechanisms and proposes universal principles to improve the legitimacy of authority in surveillance and politics in a broad sense.

Table of Contents

PREFACE, INTRODUCTION;
PART 1. Zero.
Chapter 1. Theoretical Framework;
1.1. On the forms of power
1.1.a. Restraining power: About the importance of controlling the uncontrollable.
1.1.b. Executing power: The aporia between exceptionality and normalization
1.1.c. Justifying power: A brief epistemological history
1.1.d. Constructing power: In the name of security
1.2. On surveillance: Real metaphors and perspectives
1.3. On privacy: Basic remarks
1.4. On accountability: The art of squaring the circle
Chapter 2. Methodology and Operationalization
2.1. Hypothesis
2.2. Operationalization

PART 2. 1975.
Chapter 3. Accountability in the realm of intelligence
3.1. Intelligence
3.2. Authoritarian legacies
3.2.a. The Spanish authoritarian legacy
3.2.b. The Brazilian authoritarian legacy
3.3. Intelligence institutional paths
3.3.a. The Spanish path: SECED, CESID, CNI
3.3.b. The Brazilian path: SNI, SAE, ABIN-SISBIN
3.4. Internal control
3.5. Legislative control
3.6. Judicial control
3.7. Accountability of third dimension
3.8. The media role and civil society
Chapter 4. Surveillance and intelligence: connecting the points
4.1. Surveillance metaphors and intelligence
4.2. Intelligence and the management of subjects
4.3. Intelligence accountability and legitimate resistance

PART 3. 2020.
Chapter 5. Accountability in the realm of personal data
5.0. Personal data
5.1. State regulations
5.1.a. Personal data protection in Spain
5.1.b. Personal data protection in Brazil
5.2. Market strategies
5.2.a. Internet and data business
5.2.b. Accountability of big market players
5.2.c. Further approaches: algorithms, privacy by design, and oligopolies
5.3. Civic agency
5.3.a. Ironic stream
5.3.b. Deliberative stream
5.3.c. Agonistic stream
5.3.d. Despair stream
Chapter 6. Surveillance and personal data: connecting the points
6.1. Surveillance metaphors and personal data
6.2. Personal data and the management of subjects
6.3. Personal data accountability and further resistance

PART 4. 2084.
“Postscript” on the societies of surveillance;
Metanarratives for resistance
I. Icarus model
II. Sisyphus model
III. Orphic model
The desert is advancing: Accountability revisited
CONCLUSION
References
Appendices

Some films are multi-plot narratives operating as a network of related events played out by a large number of core characters. Since these characters are all protagonists in their own right, this results in a complex form of storytelling that can be used for dramatic purposes as well as for comedy. In both cases, however, there is a sort of play at stake here because the screenwriter is forced to mingle them all in a single film, thus stressing the storytelling over the story told. Enter the director, centre stage. The story on paper, i.e. the script, has to gain another life as characters are portrayed by actors and the game of shooting begins. Here the director, by using certain filmic techniques that reinforce his/her own role as puppet master, adds another layer of narration to the film, thus further stressing the storytelling and its playful, although not necessarily joyful, nature. 
In the film Happy Endings - written and directed by Don Roos, 2005, USA  - the scrambling and re-scrambling of character’s lives in one single multiple and complex plot, via the art of the filmmakers and the craft of the actors invested in their roles, reveals itself to be not only playful but joyful as well. The film is a comedy where the events are doubly enunciated: as actions portrayed by people, and as text written large over the image as the actions evolve. Thus, the director writes himself onscreen as an artist just as is he is literally writing his characters bios and convolutions. What a playful and thoroughly self-conscious storytelling this is, reminiscent of some of Woody Allen’s masterpieces.

Abstract: (Proposal for the Inclusion of Ugo Fleres in the 20th Century Literary Canon) Our research aims to bring to the attention of scholars Ugo Fleres (1858- 1939), a writer rarely examined by critics, in spite of being a leading intellectual in the coeval Roman cultural environment , as well as a friend and a collegue of the much better known Luigi Pirandello and Luigi Capuana. His writings focuse on the troublesome relationship beetwen Art and society, creativeness and commercialisation. The works of Fleres propose this crucial question overcoming the limits of Dannunzian aestheticism, in order to highlight the problematical survival of artistic expression in front of the constraints, the Pirandellian forms, that every human community imposes. Particularly relevant are Miraggio (1897), in which the protagonists behave in accordance with a book they are reading, thus they end up misleading reality and fiction; L’ Anello (1898), a novel that stages the story of a so-called composer, Ottavio Gandolfi, who attributes to himself the authorship of an opera created by a friend who died. The protagonist, trying to act as the genius he pretends to be, attempts innovative inventive modalities, based also on plagiarism and re-use.Nowadays Ugo Fleres, an author who is able to represent the crisis of Art and culture, as Pirandello did, is neglected by critics, except for some article by Stefano Calabrese and Cinzia Gallo; therefore, he is not included in the contemporary Italian literature canon. The reason could be his wide range of interests, as he is a novelist, poet, art critic, stamp designer, librettist, an omniscient intellectual, out of fashion in the 20th century, accordingly considered superficial and forgettable. Keywords: Ugo Fleres, creativity, Pirandello, aestheticism, metafiction Riassunto: Il mio lavoro intende sottoporre all’attenzione degli studiosi un autore che opera fra Ottocento e Novecento raramente indagato dalla critica, per quanto amico e sodale dei ben più noti Luigi Pirandello e Luigi Capuana; si tratta del siciliano Ugo Fleres (1858- 1939), intellettuale di punta della Roma sommarugana. Autore di svariati romanzi e novelle Fleres anima un cenacolo intellettuale di cui fanno parte gli scrittori sopracitati, con i quali porta avanti l’idea di una letteratura autentica e densa di contenuti: un progetto che si concretizza nell’importante rivista “Ariel”, dall’impianto decisamente innovativo. Il rapporto problematico fra Arte e società, il conflitto sempre più aspro tra creatività e mercificazione sono al centro degli scritti fleresiani, che pongono la questione superando i limiti del compiaciuto estetismo dannunziano per sottolineare piuttosto la difficile sopravvivenza dell’espressione artistica di fronte ai compromessi, alle forme in senso pirandelliano, che la società impone. Particolarmente significativo Miraggio (1897), edito a puntate in “Nuova Antologia”: la lettura di un romanzo rispecchia la vita dei personaggi e sembra quasi prevederne le azioni future, al punto da condizionarne in modo irreparabile comportamenti ed emozioni. L’anno dopo con L’Anello (1898) Fleres inscena la vicenda di Ottavio Gandolfi, sedicente artista – si è attribuito il melodramma di un amico ormai defunto –, condotto alla follia per l’impossibilità di raggiungere la genialità a cui aspira; l’opera mostra quanto siano ormai inattuali i sogni romantici e fa intravedere la possibilità di forme artistiche innovative, delle quali plagio e autorialità condivisa costituiscano parte integrante. Perché allora uno scrittore in grado di rappresentare la crisi dell’arte e della cultura con modalità vicine all’universo pirandelliano è trascurato dai critici – a parte i lavori di Stefano Calabrese e Cinzia Gallo –, non rientrando quindi nel canone della letteratura italiana contemporanea? Al di là delle scelte editoriali – Fleres pubblica troppo e in forme a volte transeunti e di scarsa efficacia, disseminate nelle riviste dell’epoca -, il nostro autore è un tuttologo: non solo scrittore di prosa, ma poeta, critico d’arte, bozzettista, librettista. È proprio quest’immagine di intellettuale totale, di matrice rinascimentale, ad essere inadeguata per i tempi in cui scrive, ma anche per la successiva indagine critica, che ha concordemente giudicato Fleres un artista di talento, ma superficiale. Come i suoi personaggi, con i quali condivide un analogo destino di parziale oblio. Parole chiave: Ugo Fleres, creatività, Pirandello, Estetismo, Metanarrazione

Metanarrative techniques in Ian McEwan’s latest novel, Sweet Tooth, challenge our conception of literature by creating and destroying illusions of reality. The metanarrative subtly challenges Roland Barthes’ notion of “the death of the author” by offering an alternative—the death or dissolution of the subject—which permits the survival and persistence of the author as a distinct voice within the narrative. An idealized but ultimately untenable examination of the nature and purpose of fiction is presented. The novel radically reexamines the role of author, subject, and reader, culminating in an evolved and emergent vision of the author.

Este doutoramento em Estudos de Arte centra-se no artista plástico, em Portugal, hoje. De acordo com o seu carácter projectual, estrutura-se em dois vectores distintos, ainda que relacionados entre si e devedores um do outro:
-Um corpo prático, assente na prática artística de atelier e dando continuidade ao percurso artístico autoral próprio (conducente à série de imagens fotográficas “Prática Artística Enquanto Ferramenta de Higiene Pessoal”);
-Um eixo reflexivo, construído a partir da análise qualitativa do conteúdo de um conjunto de entrevistas presenciais realizadas a artistas plásticos portugueses (conducente ao manifesto artístico “O Artista pelo Artista”).
Neste sentido, este estudo vai ao encontro de vinte e seis artistas plásticos contemporâneos portugueses reunidos numa amostra seleccionada pelo crítico de arte Miguel von Hafe Pérez. A saber: Alberto Carneiro, André Cepeda, André Gonçalves, Ângela Ferreira, António Olaio, Carla Cruz, Carla Filipe, Cristina Mateus, Daniel Blaufuks, Eduardo Batarda, Fernando José Pereira, Francisco Queirós, Gerardo Burmester, Joana Vasconcelos, João Pedro Vale, João Tabarra, José de Guimarães, Mafalda Santos, Marta de Menezes, Miguel Leal, Miguel Palma, Paulo Mendes, Pedro Calapez, Pedro Proença, Rui Chafes e Zulmiro de Carvalho.
O documento que reúne o conjunto das entrevistas realizadas, anexo a esta investigação, distancia-se do discurso utilizado nas retóricas das narrativas históricas, teóricas ou críticas. Aqui, procuram-se as palavras dos criadores, sem mais.

Decorrente do percurso metodológico que orientou a análise qualitativa do conteúdo, este estudo propõe o manifesto artístico "O Artista pelo Artista" enquanto resultado do exercício de investigação.

Ainda, este trabalho apresenta a série de imagens fotográficas “Prática Artística Enquanto Ferramenta de Higiene Pessoal” como projecto-tese centrado no movimento que guiou todo o processo investigativo: da reflexão sobre o outro (e sobre as suas palavras) para a reflexão sobre o próprio (e sobre a sua intimidade).

Através das vinte e seis entrevistas, do manifesto “O Artista pelo Artista” e da série de imagens “Prática Artística Enquanto Ferramenta de Higiene Pessoal”, esta investigação devolve a palavra aos próprios artistas, a todos os outros operadores da esfera artística e ao público interessado em conhecer o criador apresentado por si próprio, sem mediadores, num acto sincero, franco e generoso.

A classmate recently noted some of the limitations and flattening in narrative that exists from realist modes of storytelling. They mentioned that sex is mostly absent from best selling novels and other popular forms of narrative, despite sex being a natural process in everyday life. The lens which reality is presented is always going to be skewed based on who is telling the story and what details they wish to disclose or omit, always in a sense, limiting other perspectives. Is there a way to navigate bias in narrative? Perhaps a narrator who has calculated every possible perspective before typing a single word? This is unlikely. Something that may be more effective would be to examine the way in which narration limits the process of its own storytelling by thoroughly examining the narrative. This is known as the metanarrative of a text. In the case of this paper, we will examine the metanarrative to look at the short stories of John Barth and Jorge Luis Borges respectively to see how they explore the limitations of language and traditional storytelling in their metafictional stories, Lost in the Funhouse and The Garden of Forking Paths. These stories explore their own processes that make them works of fiction, thus works of metafiction. Metafiction allows us to look at the metanarrative of a story through its form.

Scholars and preachers have been approaching Islam and Christianity for centuries as two religions. But what if we set that approach aside and try something new? What if we look at the stories that Islam and Christianity tell? In this book we do exactly that: we go back to the beginning of the stories - Creation - and work our way forward to humanity, Israel, the founders (Jesus and Muhammad), why they founded their communities (the Church and the Umma), what those communities are doing in the world today, and then look down the road to the end of the two stories of everything with their different accounts of the final judgment. Approaching Islam and Christianity as two stories of everything, or metanarratives, produces fresh new insights relevant to any person - whether Christian, Muslim, or of no religion - concerned with the question of how Islam, Christianity, and modernity interact and sometimes clash with each other.

The complete text is available in print and for Kindle at Amazon.

Keeping the methodological challenges of comparative literature in
mind, the present analysis of Cao Xueqin’s Hong Lou Meng and Goethe’s Wilhelm
Meisters Lehrjahre explores the structural parallels of the texts. The interplay
between the realist outline of the main stories and the metanarratives is evaluated
in the light of the theory of myth. Instead of attempting to answer the dilemmas of
human existence by naïvely deferring them to a mythological sphere, both texts
remain remarkably ironic about the myths they employ. However, while in the
Lehrjahre this literary self-consciousness helps to underline the value of the every-
day world, Hong Lou Meng remains in wonder of an incomprehensible world.

Power-relations are the basic datum-bits at the base of any socio-economic-formation, including that of bourgeois-state-capitalism. According to Michel Foucault, “one is always inside [power-relations], there is no escaping [them], there is no absolute outside”[1]. We are always immersed in power-relations, one way or another. Moreover, power-relations permit the production, reproduction, and reinforcement of a ruling set of ideational-comprehensive-frameworks, which themselves, in reciprocal fashion, produce, reproduce, and reinforce a specific type of power-relation, namely, a specific type of power-relation, which is supportive towards a particular ruling set of ideational-comprehensive-frameworks. Finally, both the ruling type of power-relation and the ruling set of ideational-comprehensive-frameworks, simultaneously, as if by instinct alone, produce, reproduce, and reinforce, in an unremitting manner, a specific type of socio-economic-formation. Such is the ruling socio-economic-formation of bourgeois-state-capitalism and the meta-narrative of bourgeois-capitalism, the meta-narrative of bourgeois-capitalism, being the ruling, ideational-comprehensive-framework that has attained the level of grand-narration within the socio-economic-formation of bourgeois-state-capitalism.

V této kapitole monografie se pokouším konceptualizovat a tematizovat jednu z přehlížených rovin konstrukce sociální identity českých vystěhovalců. Na příkladu komunity reformovaných evangelíků původem z jižní Moravy usazených v srbském Banátu představím jeden z referenčních bodů historického vědomí krajanů – interpretaci příchodu předků do nového prostředí (multietnické obce Veliko Središte). Narativ migrace do prostředí Banátu totiž sehrává úlohu velkého vyprávění (metanarace). Ústřední tezí textu je, že tento konkrétní narativ zachycený v písemné i orální podobě, můžeme považovat za důležitý zdroj identifikace krajanů, protože reprezentuje kulturní paměť společenství. Analyzovaný narativ kolonizace Banátu je pomyslným úvodem do dějin přítomnosti krajanů mimo zemi jejich původu. Doplníme tak dosavadní krajansko-migrační diskurz o další komponentu, jež napomůže porozumět podobě kolektivní identity v komplexnějším záběru.

The Human Future? – Artificial Humans and Evolution in Anglophone Science Fiction of the 20th Century [excerpts]

This study investigates the artificial human as a central motif in Anglophone science fiction of the 20th century. It explores how robots, cyborgs, androids, clones and digital subjects are represented as constitutive parts of the human future within the modern metanarrative of evolution, ranging from utopian hopes for greater human agency to dystopian fears of unprecedented determinism. This book discusses the artificial human as a focal point for multiple, intersecting discourses on human identity in relation to fundamental twentieth-century developments. The analysis of a representative selection of novels, short stories and plays sets out to unravel the complex visions of future humanity at the intersection of literature and science. The study demonstrates how an evolutionary perspective serves to dramatize the human condition, from early stories of bioengineering and machine ethics to narratives of postmodern cyborgisation and a posthuman digital humanity.

Here you can read two sample excerpts, i.e. from chapter 4 (The Price of Utopia) and chapter 7 (The Cybernetic Revolution), which focus on Aldous Huxley’s 'Brave New World' and William Gibson’s 'Neuromancer', respectively. The first excerpt (from the middle of chapter 4) focusses on ‘The Bio-Social Caste System’ in 'Brave New World' as a landmark of utopian/dystopian fiction. The second excerpt (from the beginning of chapter 7) focuses on 'Neuromancer' as postmodern cyberpunk, as an introduction to the discussion of cyborgs, cyberspace and artificial intelligence in this chapter.

Please see the publisher’s website [https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-4706-2/Lampadius_The_Human_Future_/] for the contents, reviews and other details (the book is available as hardcover and e-book).